Fuse-issue 16

Eurogamer Expo 2009 / Hilary Mantel / Bunny and the Bull

Fuse.

Features.Short Fuse.

Editorial Is the new Fuse a success Personally, as Fuse Editor, I am extremely pleased at how the new-look to Fuse is working and in this week’s edition there is a brilliant demonstration as to why that is.

In last year’s Fuse and in the many years in its previous guise as Stainless in Steel Press we were only ever able to devote one page to games. This is of course not enough, particularly when you consider the level at which the gaming industry now operates with UK retail games sales now grossing over £2billion.

Much more creative in the design of the pages

Album loses its style in spectacular fashion

In Hindsight MGMT Oracular Spectacular There are 10 tracks on Oracular Spectacular, but how many people out there favour the last five tracks over the first five?

Don’t worry, it’s not a trick

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Friday November 6 2009

By changing the pagination of Fuse, breaking it up into features and reviews, we can now allocate a double-page spread to the Eurogamer Expo 2009, a dual city consumer games show held in London and Leeds, something that would never have been possible in our previous format of sectioning the pullout into music, screen, arts and games.

One of the other major benefits of this reinvention is that it allows us to be much more creative in the designs of our feature pages as there is no real template to work from. In last fortnight’s Fuse, the centre spread impressively drew together the design and content of the page by using a triptych.

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I invite you all to email me with your HowTo... feedback In the first issue of the academic year the centre spread was a wonderfully imaginative map of the city which I hope some of you have put onto your bedroom wall. My favourite page this week is page five, the Bunny and the Bull piece where yet again page design is a simile for article content.

But ultimately my opinion of how Fuse looks is not important but what you the reader thinks is. I therefore invite you all to email me with your feedback to fuse@forgetoday.com not only on this week’s edition of Fuse but all the issues this semester so that we can ensure we continue to provide you with an entertainment and culture pull-out you can continue to enjoy.

Alistair White

Form a band Fuse’s advice It’d be safe to wager that most people dream of musical stardom at one point in their life; the stench of desperation emanating from the telly during an X Factor broadcast would attest to that in a heartbeat.

Whether you want pop glory, or desire the ‘cult’ label (i.e. ignored until you disband and everyone realises just how bloody brilliant and cool you were, resulting in elevation to the level of minor deity), you’re going to need some partners in crime to help you on the way. Autocratic solo artists can ignore the first point.

1. Find your band.

Go to gigs in the area, get to know people who you share common musical

question; if you don’t, it doesn’t mean you’re a lesser person with terrible taste in music. The majority of critics seem to prefer the first half; ‘Time to Pretend’, ‘Weekend Wars’, ‘Electric Feel’ and ‘Kids’, four of the first five songs on the album, were all frequently praised in the reviews I read when researching this piece. ‘Piece of What’ and ‘Of Moons, Birds and Monsters’ got one mention apiece and the last two songs, ‘The Handshake’ and ‘Future Reflections’, were never even spoken of.

This all highlights one of the main problems with Oracular Spectacular: the second half dips tremendously. From the highs of cosmic pop the album falls into an abyss of vapidness and in the 18 months or so since the release of this peak-and-trough album, chunks have been taken out of the almighty pop mountain that is the first odd 20 minutes and it hasn’t gone on filling in the valley that represents the next 20.

The singles from the album were a l m o s t adored a bit too much and ended up featuring ever ywhere.

‘Kids’, one of the best

pop singles in the last five years, was used in a trailer for the utterly dismal BBC school drama Waterloo Road and was even used in online videos for the UMP, Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party.

ground with and place adverts wisely. The Union’s online uForum is a good place to start, as are the likes of DrownedInSound.com.

Ask nicely in independent shops and venues and they might let you stick an advert or flyer in their premises. Be specific about your tastes: if you want banjos and your drummer wants prog-rock, then inter-band harmony might go distinctly flat.

2. Write some songs.

Obvious, no? Exercise a good bit of band democracy when it comes to the writing process – don’t decide that you simply must sound like Joy Division, but let ‘the music’ naturally emerge from relaxed rehearsal sessions.

A kind titbit of advice, though: by all means register your MySpace band profile and bag that

The very charming into the truly charmless In the same way highstreet shops seem intent on draining all the fun and excitement out of Christmas before December 25 by going completely OTT, this level of bombardment and overexposure of Oracular Spectacular has made the very charming into the truly charmless.

So was it all just hype?

Oracular Spectacular sold over 300,000 copies in the UK and reached a peak position of number eight in the album chart and those sorts of statistics aren’t achieved through fluke: there is plenty to commend about MGMT. Considering it’s only two guys using guitars and synths, credit must be given for the size of the sound Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser manage to pull off. It’s electro-sunshine pop that evokes American West Coast hippyness – a far cry from the metropolitan environment of its origin (MGMT actually hail from New York). And therein lies another inherent problem with it – where is its heart

or its soul?

The multifariousness of the album that seemed to make it so appealing at first has actually left it with no real grounding. At times it’s futuristic and otherworldly before travelling backwards in time to replicate the ’70s. Then there’s the sophistication of the production which is juxtaposed with lyrics of irony and childish yearning.

‘Psychedelic’ was a word often used to describe MGMT’s music and yes it certainly is in more ways than previously thought.

Not only does this word identify much of what is positive about this album it also characterises a level of confusion that is also present.

intoxicating experience Oracular Spectacular once was has slowly turned into a bit of a hangover.

To put it another way Oracular Spectacular is a kaleidoscope: it’s fascinating and beautiful to begin with but after a while it begins to give you a headache. You’ll go back to it every now and then but it will no longer be your favourite toy.

Alistair White

A star-gazing sojourn through time and space A sojourn through time and space on a star-gazing g a l a x y a d ve n t u r e sounds like an incredible thing for an album to be and initially it is. But the

band name, but don’t start shouting about yourselves until you’ve got enough to play a support set, at the very least.

You either have nothing for people to listen to, or your primary attempts end up being slightly embarrassing a couple of months down the line when you’re an altogether more sophisticated beast.

Rehearse well and you’re

Want to be the next U2? Then, for the sake of the rest of us, change your career plan.

set to start gigging…

3. Get a gig.

This is where your diligent gig attendance comes in. Your face might not be familiar to the gig promoters, but you’ll know who puts on bands that you’d sit comfortably with as a support. Hand your demo CD over, and be remembered for your personal effort rather than lazily emailing a MySpace link that might never get clicked.

Gig booked? Voila! Relish the buzz of seeing your name on the gig poster, and have a supply of CDs to distribute on the night.

Once you’re feeling bolder send your demo to new band editors of webzines, student and regional press, the nationals…and for goodness’ sake use your head. If you’re C86-aping then it might not go down well at Kerrang!, yeah?

Helen Lawson

Features.Short Fuse.

The lost art of love Testimonial Erich Fromm & Oliver James The Art of Loving & Affluenza What is love? There can be few topics so audacious to tackle, but Erich Fromm made deciphering the human condition his life’s work. Writing in the 1950s, he saw a great problem at the centre of Western culture and its view of love and romance which he predicted would become more acute over time.

If you were to glance briefly at The Art of Loving you might suspect it to be one of a million of the selfhelp and pop psychology books that crowd book store shelves, but it is emphatically not of this breed. Instead, it is part psychological study, part philosophy, criticising the whole notion of ‘falling in love’ and being ‘helplessly in love’ as a mysterious and inescapable law of human relationships, and argues that consumerism has commercialised our society to the extent that we have become like consumers in

our attitude to love: looking for the ‘right one’ to fall in love with.

Fromm is sceptical of this – he calls it “egoisme a deux”, a relationship in which each person is entirely focussed on the other, to the detriment of other people

around them. In a healthy relationship, faithfulness applies to sex, but not to his concept of love, which means a generally caring, responsible, respectful and honest attitude towards all other people.

Nearly 50 years later,

and Oliver James publishes Affluenza, which extends Fromm’s ideas to the current state of mental health.

Examining the relationship between depression and anxiety and people’s life goals and motives, he concludes that our tendency to view ourselves primarily in relation to our assets – beauty, intelligence, money, possessions, and status at work – is having a corrosive effect on our self-esteem.

Because we are constantly anxious to prove that we’ve ‘got the goods’, we have lost the sense of love as something that we owe to each other as fellow human beings, and a basic need too essential to invest in one all-consuming relationship.

Whether you buy Fromm’s theory is hardly the point.

The value of reading any good philosophy is not that it should convince you of any particular theory for solving life’s problems, but that it challenges your assumptions and encourages you to look at things from a different angle. Only then can you decide if there’s something in it you can personally stand to benefit from.

Richard Scott

Wee bit keen on dubstep

Fuse Musings

on Wednesday, November 4 whilst the rest of us sat about feeling very envious.

The FuseTeam’s Thoughts Fuse saw... Eddie Izzard’s intimate show at the Drama Studio on Tuesday, October 27 with an audience of only 200 people, including John Prescott. It was great to see him in such a venue and the highlight of the evening was his excellent giraffe impression which has to be seen to be believed.

Fuse likes... Fantastic Mr Fox. It’s clearly not a film aimed at children and why they would find any of it funny is difficult to understand. But it’s an amazing treat for adults.

The humour is smart and deadpan, the stop motion animation looks fantastic and George Clooney is now, officially, a fox.

Fuse is... frankly shitting itself about the news that Liam Gallagher plans on forming a new band.

We think this is a scarier prospect than anything that happened over Hallowe’en and encourage everyone to campaign against this prospect by writing to Mr Gallagher personally, saying that their ears might just leave their face if they are subjected to his uninspired attempts at creativity that we all know will sound just like Oasis (probably worse) and that was bad enough.

Clubbers’Guide

Fuse is... still looking forward to New Moon but to prove that we are not just obsessed with Robert Pattinson’s torso, we have a picture of the other guy, Taylor Lautner. We had to learn what his name was but that’s not the point.

Wee Bit Mean DQ and Bungalows & Bears Name of the night Wee Bit Mean.

Who runs it James Woodcock, Moe Ahmed, and Jack Hoyle.

When is it on and how often is it Bi-monthly at DQ but they now have a new residency at Bungalows & Bears as well which could happen up to eight times a year.

Where is it DQ and Bungalows Bears.

&

Ticket Price £4 in advance, £5 on the door before midnight, and then a little bit more after that. At the Bungalows & Bears nights, though, it will be free entry but get down there early; the last one had a queue outside until 2am.

Who’s it for Cutting edge music lovers without the attitude. The name of the night refers to the cliché rough crowd that

Despite the mascot, it’s unlikely the DJ will play any Dinosaur Jnr. have in the past defined vibe of a night can often No names just yet but the how people perceive the be more important than promoters are open to general bass music scene the line-up; it’s all about public requests, so if there’s and the guys behind Wee making the environment someone you want to see at Bit Mean are attempting to conducive with a positive Wee Bit Mean just let them marginalise that image by time. Wee Bit Mean looks know. parodying hostility from the to bring in and debut the start. It’s all about taking newest and freshest artists Recommendations for the Mickey and having a from the world of dubstep to similar nights good time.

Sheffield.

Club Pony, Bigger than Barry, Liquid Steel Sessions, Room Ethos/Motto Who’s played in the past 303, Bassfire and Endless.

“Bring your mates, make a Pinch, Marcus Intalex, racket.”

Starkey, Headhunter, Luke Next event Envoy, Pangaea, Forsaken, Owing to essay deadlines, General Info Synkro, Indigo, Rogue State, Wee Bit Mean is on The promoters look to push Jack Opus, Martyn and something of a hiatus at the sort of music they believe Mikey J. the moment, but if you join is pushing boundaries, not their Facebook group you’ll what’s conventionally filling Who’s lined up for the be kept up to date with all venues. They also think the future future events.

Fuse saw... Muse at Sheffield Arena on Wednesday, November 4, or to be more precise one very lucky music editor from Fuse got to go see Muse at Sheffield Arena

Fuse.

What music do you play Dubstep, techno, garage and grime. Well, dubstep first, then all those other things as an influence on dubstep.

Fuse were... able to get press tickets for The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival. We were able to get along to lots of screenings, including Bunny and the Bull. For more details of our highlights of the festival, check out the screen pages of www.forgetoday.com.

Friday November 6 2009

Fuse is... wetting itself with excitement as the airdate for the next Doctor Who special has been revealed.

Whatever you do keep 7pm on Sunday, November 15 free for ‘The Waters of Mars’ as David Tennant tenure as The Doctor begins to head towards its tense conclusion.

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Interview.Editors.

The editing process It’s hard to pigeonhole a band like Editors; they fit into no definitive genre and attract no particular social group. In short, everything about them is some sort of an enigma. Although one thing is clear: the people they do attract love them.

“It’s not the youngest, trendiest of audiences,” explains drummer Ed Lay, before their show at Sheffield’s O2 Academy, “but they appreciate it. They honestly come along to get a bit involved and not just to shout, scream and chuck lager at people.”

Truer words were never spoken. The intensity of their live performances is hard to miss, but it’s made all the more powerful by glancing at the passionate, air-punching, lyric-quoting men and women that pay to see them year in, year out.

The anomaly in all of this is current single ‘Papillon’, which despite being “quite straightforward and in the mode of ‘Munich’” manages to destroy the emotional tension within the first bar.

“It’s been incredible, people are leaping about like nutters,” beams Ed. “Obviously that’s the highlight of the set for a lot of people, so it’s been interesting to see the reaction.”

It’s bizarre to think that a band who can stay so far out of the limelight can stir up such emotion as soon as they’re faced with a

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Friday November 6 2009

In the week that Editors’ third release In This Light And On This Evening goes to number one, Natasha Parker catches up with drummer Ed Lay to discuss pyrotechnics, Google and the all-important future

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few thousand enthusiastic punters, and Lay is more than aware of this wellbalanced lifestyle: “We’re not really a band of any celebrity and that’s really nice. I can go and walk around our own shows and one or two people possibly recognise me. Nobody’s bothered. That’s the way I like it really. It’s not about me. It’s an atmosphere and the darker for me the better.”

We’ve found our confidence Darkness is definitely a theme for Editors. During their set that night, lights were sparse apart from an impressive board of colours behind the band, meaning that for some of the time the band were marked out as silhouettes.

Clearly things have moved on from the homely lamps that graced the stage during the touring days of their debut The Back Room.

“Chris is our lighting engineer, and he’s threatening to put fire somewhere, but I’d kinda like that. It’s so crap it’s good.”

Having a pyro-overload to panic about is one thing, but surely a bunch of music technology graduates have nothing to worry about when

it comes to the sound?

“When we were rehearsing for the tour we had a couple of moments when we were like ‘why are we doing this to ourselves?’

Lots of sounds we created ourselves so we’ve got a couple of samplers onstage, loads of keyboards and metres and metres of wire to be tripped up and pulled out.” Ed shakes his head, “It’s just things to break”.

“We’re just terrible at fixing things. If our crew were rubbish we’d be in serious trouble; luckily they know how”.

Anyone that has heard In This Light And On This Evening will understand this concern. The album itself is much moodier than its predecessors, and this is brought to the fore by a staggering amount of unique synthetic sounds.

Once Tom Smith adds his haunting vocals, it sounds like something straight from The Twilight Zone.

“With the second album we thought ‘we want loads of everything, loads of guitars and for the drums to sound massive’. We approached it as a modern rock record, but with this one we’ve kind of introverted ourselves a little bit. We’ve gone more electronic”.

This isn’t to say that Editors have neglected their past. Every good band knows that in order to please their fans, the set must comprise of a variety

of songs, both old and new.

Editors are one such band.

The first three songs of their Sheffield set spanned all three albums.

Opener ‘In This Light And On This Evening’ was as well received as The Back Room’s ‘Bullets’, swiftly followed by their sophomore effort’s title track ‘An End Has A Start’.

Over the course of the near 90-minute show, the band covered their back catalogue so evenly that neither the first, second or third album was favoured.

Fan bases are always important; they can push a band into stardom or out the door and back into the world of minimum wage. So, in an effort to offer something different, Editors chose to use Google’s Street View as a promotion vehicle for the new album.

Once found, Google presents nine London locations. Then, through a swift bit of navigation, photos including band members, fans, as well as some more bizarre characters - “There’s some weird shit going on, there are horses drinking vodka” - appear with one of the new tracks playing in the background. Fancy and modern this may be, but why?

“A marketing guy who used to work at Kitchenware (Editors’ record label) but now works at Sony wanted to do something special for

us. He just came up with this great concept y’know.

“It’s difficult to do something that’s not been done before. I’m very impressed that they actually got it to function”.

Although it’s got people talking, the idea of using it as a form of online marketing fell through as it wasn’t actually ready to use until the week the album was released.

There are horses drinking vodka “It would’ve been nice for it to have been a bit more of a teaser on the way up to the album. It’s a shame it wasn’t released before the album came out”.

This is just one of the many events that has got the band going over recent months, with band members Chris Urbanowicz and Russell Leech settling in New York, and Tom becoming a father, Ed claims that they’re “all in a very creative mood”.

“I think we’ll be trying to turn out a new record sooner rather than later. After we recorded An End Has A Start we all felt very drained but with this record, the change in attitude and change in direction has opened a lot more opportunities. We’ve

discovered new sounds and new ways of putting together songs. That’s really revitalised us”.

This fresh attitude is even expressed in their shows.

They may shield themselves from the limelight and may not be the most showy of acts, but when the charming simplicity of The Back Room, the power of An End Has A Start and the electronically ambitious In This Light And On This Evening are merged together, this new spark cannot be mistaken. The band are growing up, and they’re happy.

“We’ve found our confidence a little bit more, we know not just to rely on other people’s opinions, we can make our own decisions. It’s our band”.

With a new tour lined up for March next year and New Year planned in Australasia, Editors know that they can’t build on their current success unless they’re willing to keep working for it. But they’re willing to take on the challenge.

“We’re really enjoying it, we’re in a good space and the tour’s going really well.

But like I’ve said, I hope we get some space between tours to go to the studio and do some more work”.

It would seem that with increasing critical acclaim and an assertive attitude they can do no wrong.

Maybe there’s more to this mysterious non-genre than first thought.

Interview.Bunny and the Bull.

The mighty bull Melissa Gillespie talks to director, Paul King, about his wildly inventive Bunny and the Bull

T

he highly anticipated first feature by Mighty Boosh director Paul King left fans rejoicing at the familiar archaic comedy. No other film screened at this year’s London Film Festival excited such a response from the audience as Bunny and the Bull did. Roars of laughter coupled with moments of stunned silence illustrated the simultaneous wit and heart of this charming film.

All set in the space of one flat, Stephen (Edward Hogg) has not left his home for months and has sculpted it into his very own mausoleum.

The walls are lined with boxes storing random things such as outdated bus tickets and even his own piss, which he measures the pH of every day. A catalogue of adventures begin to unfurl though as he takes an imaginary road trip in his flat, based on memories of a European trek he took with his best friend Bunny (Simon Farnaby) years before .

Set against stunning, semi-animated backdrops, and with an inspired script that is sharp and littered with quotable lines, Paul King’s creative vision proves he is the new British director to be reckoned with.

I had used some of the techniques already on The Boosh, so we did more things with stock frame and models and things we didn’t get to e x p l o r e in that. But

I think it is and you can clearly see it in the flat as well, from that very ordered start through to the disorderly ending.

Yeah, it gets a lot messier. I wanted the flat to be like a breathing organism, or rather quite still, so all the cameras in the flat all fitted objects to begin with. Stephen’s only companion is the flat, so the camera is in the shower head, in the washing machine, in the crossword. I tried to make the camera work to tell the story, but it’s difficult because it can just look like a pretty picture.

How long did it take to make the whole set and did you have a team of people doing that?

We shot in Nottingham and the Arts school there had amazing, young enthusiastic people who would come and build newspaper models.

A newspaper model was about 15 people’s work for about 15 hours a day for about 6 weeks, and they did it all for nothing. It’s very moving to know all the love that went into the film even at tiny levels. The thing I will never lose is the love of the effort that went into the look. I think the design is extraordinary.

The film is incredibly cinematic, and that is a step for you from what you were doing before.

In the film the characters visit a lot of museums; did you visit any of them?

Yeh, all of them. In two weekends we went all across Europe and didn’t sleep, it was awful. But they were all sorts of beautiful those museums. Amazingly there is The Museum of German Health and Safety and there are three different asparagus museums in Europe and one of them is dedicated to white asparagus which is so specific.

How long did it take you to write the script and shoot the film?

The film was shot in five weeks and the script was on and off, but somewhere between six to nine months as I took a break to direct the new series of The Boosh. That’s quite quick for a film but it was very hard.

Why was it so hard?

For me, [writing] it really was like blood from a stone. It’s so much easier writing with other people when they bring the ideas and you can bounce off them, but unaided it really is the loneliest, most depressing thing.

A lot of the material with Stephen in his flat came out of really slaving away and being surrounded by postit notes and record cards and trying to get my head round how he would feel. I’ve probably got a bit better at it now but it was the first thing I had written and it was definitely really difficult.

Was there a certain mind set you needed to be in then?

I write in my pants of a morning. I just get up and do it.

Collage: Kate Mitchell

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I’m obviously really proud of The Boosh and we never wanted that to look like TV, like a sitcom, and hopefully it looks like a series of mini movies instead.

But it’s nice to be able to have a big wide screen and the aspect ratio. You don’t have to have separate shots like

‘look at that, look at that, and look at that’, instead you have one space where the story is going on and you can look around. That for me is the difference with cinema, whereas with telly your eyes stay in one place.

Friday November 6 2009

I really loved the way the film looked and I wondered if that was something that grew out of the story, or whether it was something you wanted to experiment with anyway?

I was trying to avoid being one of those films where you go ‘oh it looks great but why did it look like that?’ Sometimes I think there could be a danger that you get these amazing stylists that make you go ‘oh it’s beautiful’, but it’s sort of like watching an art installation.

I was always interested in those Scorsese Raging Bull films where he made the ring a different size in every fight to reflect Jake la Motta’s state of mind, and I thought no one really does that with landscapes in a film. Which is why at the beginning where [Stephen] is fabricating these stories in his head, it is really simple and childish and it looks like late ’70s Paddington; it’s very naive. But as the film goes on and the story gets a bit darker, the sets become more fragmented. I really hope that some of that is there in the landscape.

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Friday November 6 2009

Feature.Hilary Mantel.

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Lucie Boase meets the Booker Prize winner and University of ShefďŹ eld graduate to discuss her career, success and the perils of historical ďŹ ction

same time as the Booker Prize, that very week, so I had a whole lot of American media to do as well.

“It made for a very hectic life, which continues.”

The most recent pit-stop in Mantel’s busy schedule has been a sell-out event at the Showroom, part of Sheffield’s Off the Shelf literature festival.

Wolf Hall is a modern novel set in the 16th century The North isn’t unfamiliar ground for Mantel; she was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, and graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Sheffield back in 1973.

She transferred here for love; with her geologist boyfriend tied to a mapping area - the Peak District – it made sense to stop to-ing and fro-ing from LSE where she did her first year at university.

“A Law student is more portable than the Peak District.”

The city met with her approval: “I liked Sheffield as a place to live - it was a town which was very friendly, which I think is still true now.

“People didn’t make a huge distinction between students and the rest of the community.

“They didn’t treat you as something alien and they kind of accepted you.

“Coming to Sheffield was a very different experience to the LSE. I can’t honestly say I preferred the course.

“I’d been doing different things in London so I found myself a little bit at sea.

“Of course, though, I’m grateful to Sheffield for taking me, for allowing us to be together.”

By the end of her second

book who’s familiar with the background.

“As often happens, you begin a work-related correspondence and it turns into a friendship.”

Wolf Hall is the book that Mantel has always wanted to write and Cromwell her reason to write it.

Because poor Thomas hasn’t been given history’s fairest light - he’s been caricatured, slated even: most recently described (by Henry VIII biographer David Starkey) as “Alistair Campbell with an axe.”

Mantel has tried to recast him, plunging the reader into a gripping retelling of Cromwell’s often underdocumented personal life.

“There’s an awful lot missing, because his early life, until about his late twenties, was very obscure.

“He came from a poor background and disappeared out of England at about the age of 15.

“Then there are various sightings of him popping up in different European cities.

The stories, rumours and gossip can’t all be true.

“I pick him up again at the age of 27, just as he comes back onto the historical record.

“After that his public life is really well documented

through a trail of official papers and letters. But his private life, again – a great deal of it is off the record.

So there is a gap in which a novelist can go to work.”

Mantel is a keen advocate of what she calls “walking forward” in historical fiction.

“Your characters couldn’t draw a moral from their own lives - they didn’t know what the conclusion was going to be.

“By the time you get most novels to the printers it’s all historical, unless you deliberately set them in the future.

“When you do that though, you’re still writing from your present day experiences, which are informed by your experience of the past.

“The events seen by a historical novelist look quite different from the same events viewed backwards by a historian.

“A historian is always looking back and they’ve always got the benefit of superior wisdom.

“I think what a novelist has to do is remind people that at the time, it wasn’t like that - nobody had the benefit of experience.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if Mantel sometimes wishes for a time machine.

“You could always do with more facts; they never do you any harm. Although, with the way some novelists treat facts, you would think that they did them harm.

“But I think that it’s up to you to organise your novel around the facts as we know them to be, rather than twist the facts to make a better drama.”

Writing, for Mantel, is as fundamental to life as eating and sleeping.

“I’m never not writing.

While I’m writing one book, I’ll be thinking over the next.”

I was surprised when she

rejected the notion that she is a disciplined writer.

“There are so many other things to do in the course of a day.

‘Some authors just use the past as a backdrop to fantasy’ “Obviously, in the closing stages of a book, you try if you can to jettison your other commitments and then put in very long hours – as long as it takes, really.

“There’s a point where you see the end of a book - you see straight through it and you just want to go there.

Other things recede.”

She doesn’t aspire to daily word targets; for Mantel, the key is “writing first thing in the morning, as soon as I wake up, before I have a conversation with anybody or do anything at all.

“That’s just the foundation for me - morning writing.”

Not one to rest on her laurels, Mantel is busy on the sequel to Wolf Hall, The Mirror and the Light, which concludes Cromwell’s story.

“I would like to deliver it for publication in 2011, but I don’t know whether I’ll be able to make that.

Hopefully, next year will see the paperback of Wolf Hall, and then the year after, the new book.”

I’ve no doubt she’ll do it.

It’d be unfair to liken her to Cromwell, but with that certain steely glint in her eye, I fancy there’s some of the same ambition.

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year, Hilary and Gerald were married.

But despite her hopes, a career in law wasn’t to be: “I couldn’t afford any further training.”

Instead, Mantel’s life took a series of twists, turns and geographical leaps – Botswana, Saudi Arabia and back again - which unavoidably informed her future writing.

Never one to be pinned down to a particular genre, Mantel’s work has included everything from short stories, personal memoir and contemporary fiction.

Wolf Hall is a rare gem of historical fiction, and she is vocal in her displeasure of those who tarnish the genre’s name.

“It’s heartening that a novel like Wolf Hall can succeed,” she says, “because I think there is a certain amount of prejudice to overcome against historical fiction.

“It does have this tie-up with the historical romance genre and you just have to hope that people are sufficiently open-minded to give it a go, to get over that.

“You get a lot of authors who simply use the past as a backdrop to fantasy.”

For writing historical fiction of the Wolf Hall variety is a very serious business.

Accuracy and attention to detail are vital for Mantel, engendered as they were in Wolf Hall with the help of Mary Robertson, to whom the book is dedicated (“To my singular friend Mary Robertson this be given.”).

Robertson, chief archivist of the Huntingdon Library in California, has a lifelong interest in Cromwell, and the two fell into e-correspondence while Mantel was writing Wolf Hall.

“It’s really good to have someone in the course of a

Friday November 6 2009

Rosy-cheeked and breathless from a cycle ride down West Street, I’m told when I arrive that Hilary Mantel is in the ‘library’.

Two flights of stairs and a couple of the Leopold Hotel’s labyrinthine passages later, I find Mantel, Booker Prize winner and best-selling novelist waiting patiently at a table, ready to begin.

The strange underground room we’re in, not apparently named for an abundance of books, was chosen by Mantel because “there’s pipe music playing upstairs; I thought it’d be quieter down here.”

And it’s lucky really, because of Mantel’s meekness; the quiet confidence which comes with acknowledgement of one’s own considerable achievement.

For her latest novel, Wolf Hall, is just that – a considerable achievement.

The six hundred and fifty page tome, set in Henry VIII’s court and centring on the personal life of a certain Thomas Cromwell, has just won the Man Booker Prize, and the hearts of the judges with it.

Wolf Hall has garnered praise from every quarter.

Chairman of the judges James Naughtie (of Radio 4 fame) called Wolf Hall “an extraordinary piece of storytelling... a modern novel, which happens to be set in the 16th Century.”

Somewhat predictably, Mantel has had to turn into an interview machine to cope with the incessant questions of interviewers like myself.

It’s a wearisome task. “I must admit, I’m getting very tired.”

Her planned trajectory into a life of “sex, drugs and rock and roll”, fuelled by the not inconsiderable prize money, has had to be put on hold.

“I haven’t been able to schedule it in yet.

“If I am meditating any extravagances, I haven’t had time to think about them yet because since the Booker Prize, I’ve been shunted from one thing to another.

“It happened that I was publishing in America at the

7

Feature.Eurogamer Expo.

Dragons Age: Origins While a brief playtest cannot account for estimated total playtime, replay value or indeed whether the story in its entirety is worth sticking around for, there are still a lot of nice things to say about Dragon Age. The early parts of the game

are vastly different for each character background, but throughout all of them there is solid voice acting to go along with the well written dialogue.

The City Elf campaign is particularly interesting as it boasts more depth than the usual fantasy fare. With racial tensions bubbling over, what should be the happiest of days, a wedding,

turns sour.

For those less interested in the story, the combat system is excellent. Fights are tough enough to be challenging but victory is dependent on tactics and forward-thinking rather than needless grinding.

Handy if you’re fighting giant fire breathing lizards who don’t feel like chatting.

Eurogamer

More videogames than you can wa gets sore thumbs so you don’t have

With the Christmas period approaching, the most profitable time of year for the games industry, it’s suprising that many companies are already looking ahead to their 2010 and even 2011 releases.

The Eurogamer Expo, this year in Leeds and London, represents a major venue for developers and publishers to

God of War III

The sense of grand scale and cinematic flair of the series returns with the stakes being upped once more. The Titan of destruction Perses assists your deity murdering rampage in the demo, dwarfing the entire map with his size.

Fans have plenty to look forward to and those who haven’t played the first two in the series best shape themselves and catch up.

by adding new features like inventions from a young Leonardo da Vinci, shops, a wide variety of weapons and the removal of the annoying minigames from the previous game to get new missions.

The backdrop this time, Venice, is lovingly recreated and filled with vibrant elements which feel authentic to the time period.

The ability as seen above to dive in the Venician canals to escape capture is a nice touch.

The combat system has also been expanded to make fights more interesting.

Assassin’s Creed 2 seems to have broken free of many of the problems facing its predecessor.

Fuse.

Friday November 6 2009

With only a short demo on show, one wonders how SCE have managed to cram this much gore in. The above screenshot is taken moments before our hero rips the head off Helios.

Since the God can project beams of light from his eyes, Kratos uses the head as a makeshift torch. Violence isn’t the defining feature

of the series though, its not only got to look pretty decapitating gods, its got to feel good.

Gameplay is strong, attacks chain smoothly into one another and controls are intuitive. It only took attendees a few seconds to go from picking up the controller to slaying beasts of myth. The new weapons introduced are also welcome.

8

Assassin’s Creed 2 The new Assassin’s Creed was probably the second most popular demo at the expo.

The first game was criticised for its repetitive nature.

Ubisoft has attempted to remedy this

show off their future products.

The intended audience is European press core and the more hardcore elements of the gaming public who were ready to spend four days in two cities playing highly anticipated titles.

The latter often being a far more critical group than the former. Every major platform was represented with many

of the triple A titles expected next year sharing floor space with smaller releases like Split/Second, a new racing game from a developer in Brighton.

Nvidia showcased their new active glasses 3D system.

There was also presentations from industry giants Valve and EA alongside the indie developer Introversion

rExpo2009

aggle your wiimote at; Brendan Allitt to

Heavy Rain With two scenarios to try attendees played out a homicide detective happening upon a store robbery and an FBI agent investigating a lead at a scrap yard.

The problems posed in these snippets from Heavy Rain could be tackled in a

showcasing their new Xbox Live release Darwinia+ and explaining the trials and tribulations they went through in its creation.

Independent developers were an important part of the event, the Indie Gaming Arcade had its own section within the expo.

The creators for many of the games available were on

hand to chat with the press and public alike. Giving tips and tricks to those playing their titles as well as helping many understand what they went through making the games and telling them how they could go about making their own.

There was also a careers fair with large companies and universities on hand

variety of ways. For example, the gunman could be snuck up on and knocked out, reasoned with, wrestled to the ground for his weapon or even ignored. How well each course of action is followed through is also as important which you pick.

The multitude of endings to each situation will have an effect on the over arching story.

While the game play is a essentially a dressed up form of quick time events for the most part, it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.

The high quality of the voice acting, graphics, writing and above all the direction make Heavy Rain incredibly engaging. However it may be tricky to justify buying a game which seems to mostly play itself.

in the first game.

The world of Lost Planet 2 has a warmer climate compared to the frozen landscapes of the first game.

This means players no longer need to worry about raising their slowly dropping energy levels to stay alive.

Energy is now only consumed by using a VS or sprinting too much. The loss of the original energy system from the first game

is unfortunate as it had managed to mark Lost Planet apart from the multitude of online shooters available at the time.

One thing that hasn’t changed unfortunately is the clunky control system.

Currently with the most interesting feature being the online co-op versus giant beasts this is looking more of a sequel to Monster Hunter than Lost Planet.

lacked any real variety.

The actual gameplay involved a generic linear map punctuated with pretty dumb enemies. There seems to have been little improvement in the series in that respect.

After defeating them you’re left with yet another rather wooden cut scene which since it was out of context had little relevance to the

player.

Luckily there were some good points. The weapon and inventory systems which were criticised in the first game have been improved and rocket launchers have been added to your already powerful arsenal. Hopefully Bioware will release something to restore our faith in the series soon.

to chat to attendees about getting a job in the industry, though it seemed to be more of an exercise in putting misinformed hopefuls on the right path.

The real stars of the event though were the attendees.

Gamers were polite and shared stories from their brief sessions on each title while generally having a good time.

Left 4 Dead 2 Lost Planet 2 Only the versus mode was available to play and it seemed to be the weaker play mode when compared to the co-operative multiplayer demo released earlier this year.

Matches involved a Battlefield style flag capture system. However these flags are the T-ENG energy sources which kept you alive

Friday November 6 2009

Mass Effect 2 The return of Shepard is eagerly anticipated by many gamers. Unfortunately the code available to play at the Eurogamer Expo was an utter letdown.

The opening cut scenes were static and without character. Dialogue options

Fuse.

The most popular game available to play was Left 4 Dead 2 by a wide margin.

There was a queue for all eight booths the game was running on from when the doors opened and up until they closed.

As sequel to one of the most popular titles of last year it boasts a new range of weapons including the addition of melee and improvised implements with which to beat down the not quite dead. New special infected including the Jockey, the Charger and Spitter have been introduced along with regular infected wearing Hazmat suits and riot gear.

These new features and the alterations in other gameplay elements have drastically altered how Left 4 Dead plays. The shift in setting to New Orleans mirrors this change. The addition of daytime levels and greater focus on plot has also managed to introduce a greater amount of variation when playing the campaign.

The Eurogamer Expo provided a good preview of all these features and it appears Valve has managed to not only match the quality of the first Left 4 Dead but exceeded it with this sequel. It’s certainly more than an expansion.

9

Reviews.Music.

Openly sad and intimate Album William Fitzsimmons The Sparrow AndThe Crow

The first feeling you get from listening to The Sparrow And The Crow is desolation.

It’s probably what William Fitzsimmons aims for in this third album, based mostly about his divorce.

It’s too honest for its own good, and although the sound is polished, the emotion is raw.

Even if the album is a sequel to his previous

album, Midnight, you don’t need to have previous experience with him to get where’s he’s coming from.

With the first song (‘After Afterall’) linked by name and musical composition to the previous album closer, Fitzsimmons goes over the theme of sadness in an almost dirge-like way.

“Whose side should I take when both of us were wrong / When we both share the blame”, he confesses during ‘Even Now’, a song about deciding when to call it quits.

Like a tennis match, that same “blame” is thrown back and forth between “Sparrow” and “Crow” (the personas of Fitzsimmons and his ex-wife, but it could be translated to any relationship) never accusing

Fledgling types Fighting Fiction impress. good thing).

Though the four tracks are mostly unrelenting, the spoken section of Fighting Fiction ‘Sanctuary’ provides the lads with more room to A Lesser ofTwo Evils show their talent at varying EP their sounds; something they should probably do a bit more of in future. It’s not that the EP isn’t good Though only four tracks – by the second listen even long, Fighting Fiction’s the vocals have become debut EP certainly packs a an acquired taste – but a punch. The reggae-tinged whole album’s worth of this sounds come across clear could certainly grate. on the title track, but the Coral Williamson catchy intro soon fades away into slightly generic guitar hooks beneath even more generic angsty lyrics: “The time has come for change / We are counting Weezer Raditude down the days.”

However, it gets better.

Both ‘Cameraphones and Choruses’ and ‘You Mean The World To Me’ have moments of Frank Turnerlike brilliance, with the There will always be a former reflecting on the diviision between Weezer music scene as well as the fans: those who’d wish photo-happy society we live they stopped after original in (because who hasn’t bassist Matt Sharp left and gone out and spent more those who have cautious time taking photos than optimism about their output dancing?) and the latter after aforementioned split.

If you are in the former possessing an amazing camp, this album won’t intro.

In fact, ‘You Mean The change your mind, but World To Me’ is easily the if you are in the second, standout track, showing just well, there’s a few nice how much potential Fighting surprises.

The catchy, head-bobbingFiction have, with an insane and-tired-but-true riffs are amount of sincere feeling and exuberance (and a here (‘The Girl Got Hot’, ‘Let little less reggae; always a It All Hang Out’) and so is

Fuse.

Friday November 6 2009

Album

10

Album

a single person about the failing, but spreading the reasons for how things fell apart.

It could be argued that writing confessional lyrics is a cliché in the folk world, but in this case, the feelings seep through the sparse, almost minimalistic recording.

‘I Don’t Feel It Anymore (Song Of The Sparrow)’, is probably the pinnacle of this feeling and the best song from the whole album.

Even if there’s a few moments when the album repeats itself (cheer up, man, plenty of other fish in the sea?), it still is an intimate effort from the Illinois artist.

Samuel Valdes Lopez Weezer’s quirky sense of humour, here in the ending of ‘I’m Your Daddy’.

The most distinctive characteristic that sets Raditude apart from their previous records is the use of electronic sequences.

There’s a bit of MGMTlike stuff in the record, maybe not overly evident, but there in ‘I’m Your Daddy’ and ‘Can’t Stop Partying’, a morose reworking of lead singer Rivers Cuomo’s solo effort which has a certain Lil’ Wayne interrupting, Kanye-style.

Some heavy criticism came at Weezer in the past for the absence of musical solos in the songs.

Although they are scarce, they are back, with the one in ‘Tripping Down The Freeway’ being pure Weezer of old.

In fact, the second half of the record feels more organic, than the electronic-influenced first half. Even if they are slightly treading over familiar territory with the chord progressions, there’s some experimentation.

There’s a bit of sitar in ‘Love Is The Answer’, and yes, more enjoyable solos, distortion and a very strange interlude (‘In The Mall’) that adds flavour to the mix.

In no way it is a return to old form, and maybe that’s for the best. It’s better to have a band changing than having them stagnate at a certain stage in their career.

Samuel Valdes Lopez

Album Polly Scattergood Bunny Club EP

A five-track EP of various reworked songs from the Colchester singersongwriter’s debut album, this could be an interesting angle to take for a release, but one that ultimately

Divorce feeds William Fitzsimmons’ lyrical fodder on his third LP.

There’s always one who ruins the attempt to emulate JLS’ sartorial efforts. disappoints.

Her eponymous original album is a mixed bag; at times dark and intense, Scattergood’s vocal style and lyrics in particular recalling Regina Spektor and Bat For Lashes, but alongside this sits some stodgy, saccharine nonsense.

Unfortunately, the emphasis is on the latter in this EP. The opening track, a remix of ‘Bunny Club’, turns a mediocre, stripped down slice of electro into an even more forgettable, oversynthesised mess.

‘Please Don’t Touch’ and ‘Nitrogen Pink’ are represented in the form of ‘acoustic demos’ - on the former the sugar coated production of the original is cast aside, leaving some gratingly high-pitched vocals. Some things should stay on the cutting room floor.

A radio edit of ‘Unforgiving Arms’ also makes for a strange inclusion. Despite a cloying chorus, it’s inoffensive enough, but undoubtedly stuffed in as filler here.

The only highlight of the whole thing is Tara Busch’s ‘Analog Suicide

Mix’ of ‘Nitrogen Pink’, a genuinely interesting remix that comes out of nowhere.

Stretching to six minutes, it turns the poppy original into an ethereally haunting soundscape, with S c a t te r g o o d ’ s breathy vocals highly

reminiscent of Björk.

Like the cutesy portrait adorning the cover, it all looks very nice on the surface, but this EP lacks substance, structure, and can’t help but smack of a record label-induced stopgap.

Ffion Thomas

Reviews.Music.

Upstaged by Hoodlums

Live The Holloways Plug 28/10/2009 An impressive supporting set by Essex boys Hoodlums sets the tone for tonight’s gig.

Their originality stands out; a double bass, speaker climbing and stripping is all involved.

Clear-cut beats and melodic harmonies get feet moving, especially during their striking cover of M.I.A’s ‘Paper Planes’, when certain members of the crowd storm onstage.

The atmosphere is buzzing, and we can’t help but wonder if the night’s main act will live up to this exciting support band that we’re sure to hear much

Photo: Lucy Makepeace

Live Miike Snow 02 Academy 30/10/2009

Photo: Rob Lawrence

Live Bowling for Soup 02 Academy 23/10/2009

here though, as the band whacks out loud tunes and start to live up to their cheeky-chappy reputation.

After songs from both albums including, ‘Jukebox Sunshine,’ ‘Dancefloor’ and ‘Generator’, they leave the stage.

After a short encore, Alfie Jackson returns for an acoustic set, and a mellow atmosphere ensues.

This proves to be shortlived when the rest of the band return with the uptempo ‘Reinvent Myself’ and security have to prevent a stage invasion.

They finish tonight’s set with another track off No Smoke No Mirrors, bringing the show to a close with considerable panache.

Nonetheless, it is still those classic tracks that please the audience, as vibrant and catchy as ever.

Lucy Makepeace

Gig Gallery

Live Portugal.The Man The Shakespeare 30/10/2009 Psychedelic punks Von Haze ditch Brooklyn for Bungalows and Bears.

Photo: Sam Bennett his hat on and hood up so that his face is obscured.

It’s clear that he’d rather his band’s music did the talking.

And the talking they want to do is evidently of the ambling storytelling variety, in a set that is full of improvised jams, extended passages and even takes in short, almost incidental covers.

Ordinarily, this deviation from the sound of a band’s recorded output would be encouraged, but the pomp on display just doesn’t seem to suit the humble confines of The Shakespeare’s upstairs function room, and much of the crowd seem subdued. The problem lies

in our expectations.

Having heard the band master the three minute pop song on latest album The Satanic Satanist it seems a shame when they choose to play anything but live.

This really isn’t to say that they put in a bad performance by any means; they are incredibly polished, and they certainly impress in their understanding of one another that allows them to deliver such creative flourishes.

But despite the intimacy of the setting, the show never feels truly intimate due to their lack of connection with the realm beyond the stage.

Fuse.

When a band stick a full stop in the middle of their name you can perhaps expect a little pretence.

Which is why Portugal.

The Man are such a compelling act, given their understated sound that takes in elements of funk, soul and blues and manages to feel nostalgic, yet fresh and altogether rather likeable.

However, it seems that in a live setting, the same part of their collective soul that chose the moniker takes over.

With the microphone facing stage right, front man John Gourley doesn’t make eye contact with the assembled crowd once throughout the entire show, and for the most part keeps

Friday November 6 2009

A hefty dose of power punk pop is in store for the sold out O2 Academy crowd in the form of Bowling for Soup’s Party in Your Pants tour, and guess what?

We’re all invited.

Although support acts The Leftovers, MC Lars and Zebrahead all put in strong and varied performances, there’s no doubt that tonight Bowling for Soup steal the show, and rightly so.

The punks’ blend of incredibly tight, well practised and synchronized playing and overly carefree attitude make them such a contradiction that they become a real spectacle to watch. With 15 years of touring and seven albums under their collective belts it’s easy to understand why the band are so good at what they do. Unfortunately things don’t get off to the best of starts as a “medical emergency” somewhat

dilutes the impact of their entrance. However, from the moment they finally take to the stage it’s near impossible to tear your eyes away.

Between every song they stop to talk to the audience or quickly improvise a new song and at one point even stop halfway through a song for a photo opportunity.

These brief breaks help to show off BFS’s ability to seamlessly blast back into playing, as if they had never stopped.

What you can’t help but realise tonight is the sheer amount of recognisable songs the group have produced over the years.

‘Girl All the Bad Guys Want’ and ‘High School Never Ends’ receive mass crowd reaction and a falsetto version of ‘1985’’s chorus helps to draw the night to a memorable close.

Although their more recent material may not have had the success of previous albums, it’s clear to see that BFS have in no way lost their power of performance and are undoubtedly one of the most entertaining, long running live bands you can still catch.

Ross Haymes

If Miike Snow found it bizarre to play to a mixed-bag crowd of evidently hardcore fans and interested onlookers in various stages of Halloween fancy dress when they performed their short but superbly electrifying set, they certainly didn’t show it. Indeed, they entered into the spirit of things by donning identical white masks for their opening number, ‘Burial’, adding to the already ethereal atmosphere they had created through their haunting melodies and excessive blue lighting.

Formed in Sweden in 2007, onstage the band comprises of some six members; however the masterminds behind the down tempo synth-pop are front man and songwriter Andrew Wyatt, along with Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, better known as the producing team Bloodshy and Avant.

Their mix of complex electronic gadgetry and more traditional guitar and piano melodies gives Miike Snow a truly unique sound, both recorded and live.

Their set flowed so beautifully it could almost have been seen as one 50 minute song with frequent changes of tempo and key, as opposed to several individual tracks.

Verbal interaction with the audience was minimal, as the band clearly preferred to immerse themselves in their music, and by their second number, ‘Black & Blue’, they had discarded their masks and truly come into their own with a stage presence that can only be described as captivating.

Wyatt hopped from lead

guitar to piano and back again on almost every song, whilst the rest of the band played their instruments with equal vigour and passion.

The best performance of the set was without doubt the band’s most well-known song, ‘Animal’, a more simple and synth-dominated track, to which the modest crowd reacted with nothing short of joy.

The set perhaps tailed off slightly towards the finish, as the band chose to end with a long instrumental finale, after which their departure seemed somewhat abrupt.

More than one person looked slightly confused that everything had ended so suddenly. This aside, Miike Snow gave a stunning performance and are most certainly one of the most promising bands of the moment.

Georgina Beardmore

more of.

After their departure, an expectant crowd (if slightly depleted in numbers) stand waiting and after a short while, The Holloways swagger on stage to the Jaws theme tune.

They launch into ‘Fuck Ups’ whilst checking out the crowd in the intimate venue.

They get underway with two songs from new album No Smoke No Mirrors, and with some difficulty just about keep the attention of the audience.

It soon becomes obvious though that the real pleasers are those from the critically acclaimed So This Is Great Britain.

The crowd really get moving to ‘Two Left Feet’, and it’s obvious a good time is being had by all, but is the band enjoying it? We can’t help but notice slight boredom on stage. The night only gets better from

Kyle Rice

11

Feature.Media.

Forge TV is finding its way and web addresses.

The last segment, although long, is quite entertaining, featuring an interview with Alan Fletcher, who plays Dr Karl Kennedy in the much loved soap opera Neighbours. Fletcher talks charmingly to host Georgia about how he would like to be written out (when that moment comes) and candidly talking about his current musical venture, Waiting Room, and their touring partner, the X-rays.

The friendly banter even touches the topic of free music, to which Fletcher seems to be an advocate of.

Hosts Georgia and Glenn seem to have a fair amount of chemistry. Harsh criticism would be uncalled for, as this is only the second programme. They seem to be getting their footing OK, with some jokes not hitting the spot, but others being very well timed, especially a quip regarding Diagnosis Murder.

With a better pace than episode one and some interesting changes of camera angles, the station is slowly but surely finding its true shape.

Review ForgeTV #2 Episode two of Forge TV kicks off with a short remembrance of freshers’ week, which, for some, will be the only clear memory they’ll have of it.

A short introductory piece about the Film -making Society is nicely made and informative, giving them space to talk about their activities and future projects. The society president, Tara, is clear and concise about their future plans (including ‘No Limits’, a student film festival) and we are treated to a trailer for a short film she’s made.

It’s good to see some publicity for societies and especially for the people at the Source, who always seem busy but happy.

The segment with Soft Toy Emergency, a band from Liverpool that played at festivals such as Isle of Wight and Glastonbury, was short but sweet, dwelling mostly on the nature of their name and going quickly (perhaps too quickly) over their current projects.

A thoroughly entertaining segment delves into the tricks of Sheffield’s own Peter Antoniou, the so-

ForgeTV presenters Georgia and Glenn break it down. called “thought thief” who manages to combine standup comedy with sleight of hand tricks. By showing one of his routines, held at Firth

Court, we get a satisfying sample of his showmanship with an entire trick laid on before an unsuspecting audience.

Two charities also get a chance in the limelight, as RAG talks briefly about the upcoming Spiderwalk, and Baby Bummit get to talk

about their trip to Scotland.

If anything could be added to these spaces for societies, it would be a quick caption with contact information

12

Samuel Valdes Lopez

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 Evil Home Stereo

10.30am - 12pm Something for the Weekend

12 - 1.30pm Cultural Implosion

3.30 - 5pm Dubstep Forwards, 2-step Backwards

10.30am - 12pm The Happy Monday Show

12 - 1.30pm 100 RPM

12 - 1.30pm Matt and Lena SupaShow

1.30 - 3pm Unplugged

1.30 - 3pm The Pid and Imo Show

1.30 - 3pm The Alternative Show

3 - 4.30pm PG Tips

3 - 4.30pm The Mandy Show

3 - 4.30pm Walk Talk

4.30 - 5pm Blue Like an Orange

4.30 - 5pm Thursday News

3 - 4.30pm Ready for the Weekend

4.30 - 5pm Monday News

4.30 - 5pm Cricklewood

5 - 6.30pm Chart Show

5 - 6.30pm FUSE

5 - 6.30pm Colin and Ben

5 - 6.30pm Jed and Jen

6.30 - 8pm Brewing Up Trouble

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

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

Fuse.

Friday November 6 2009

Forge Radio schedule

Episode two can be seen at www.forgetoday.com.

11pm - 1am The Jazz Show

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

11pm - 1am Forge in Trance4nation

8 - 9.30pm KC

8 - 9.30pm Come Grime with Me

9.30 - 11pm 1337

9.30 - 11pm Clara Chinnery and Eric Shapiro

11pm - 1am Ready Steady Crunk

11pm - 1am Gutter Music

12 - 1.30pm Ed and Guy

4.30 - 5pm Your Sport 5 - 6.30pm Schubert Lemon 6.30 - 8pm The Melting Pot 8 - 9.30pm Tokyo Sexwale Show 9.30 - 11pm The Soundclash 11pm - 1am Bedrock Late Night with Ashley

1.30 - 3pm The Saturday Meltdown 3 - 4.30pm Owen in Rock 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.

Nightmares guaranteed Film Paranormal Activity Coming Soon

The Celluloid Screams Film Festival at the Showroom Cinema covered a wide range of horror films from the darkly funny to the utterly vomit-inducing. Fuse attended a secret showing of the supernatural spinetingler Paranormal Activity, which is set for UK release later this year.

Although you may not have heard of it, Paranormal Activity has caused a sensation in The States.

Filmed entirely in one week and on a miniscule budget of $15,000 (yes, that’s thousands not millions), it has so far taken more than $60million at the box office, and sits happily at the top of the US charts, well above its main Hallowe’en rival Saw VI. The film follows the engaged couple Micah and Katie as they struggle with supernatural events in their own home. Katie has been haunted since she was eight years-old and it has recently started to happen

Documentary P-Star Rising Out Now

This is especially the case when her father puts all his energy into making P-Star successful but fails to realise the fact that his oldest daughter, Solsky, who was born with a learning disability due to her mother’s addictions, needs his support the most.

Priscilla fails all her classes because her father can’t help her with her homework and because her mind is on her mother who she hasn’t seen since she was a young child.

Solsky does not ask for a lot, but when Priscilla gets a $3,000 chain and a $500 dog, there is definitely some injustice when she is given only $20.

In one of her raps, P-Star refers to herself as a ‘feminist phenomenon’, yet it is hard to believe that she even knows what feminism means.

It wouldn’t be too presumptuous to assume that most nine to 13 year-

old girls don’t.

Nevertheless, her supposed feminist principles don’t stop her and her equally young backing dancers booty shaking on stage and rapping about dating and boyfriends.

Maybe these words are put in her mouth, maybe she just means ‘feminine’, but it is inevitable that when she turns 16, or even perhaps before, her image will be completely sexualised á la Britney Spears.

This rags to riches, back to rags and then back to riches tale is touching, well-made and thought provoking.

It does however beg the question as to whether we should allow parents to push their children into the spotlight and rob them of their childhood, forcing them into a world where people take advantage of disadvantages.

Grace Parker-White

The phenomenal financial and critical success of Paranormal Activity will hopefully spur on the big distributors to take onboard more low-budget indie films. With a bit of luck it may herald a change in audience’s tastes, away from big budget gore-fests and towards more subtle, and ultimately more chilling horror.

Alex Sherwood

Film Chloe Coming Soon

Statistics prove that the nuclear family is disintegrating, with ever increasing numbers of single parents, cohabitation, and affairs leading to divorces.

If you believed your idyllic family life was in jeopardy because you suspected your husband of having an affair, what would you do?

Seek revenge?

Get a divorce? Or simply confront them about it?

Gynaecologist Catherine (Julianne Moore) makes the strange choice to hire a prostitute called Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to lure her flirtatious husband to infidelity, and to report back on all the grimy details.

Despite the odd premise, director Atom Egoyan manages to create a compelling film out of a implausible plot that was close to being dumped in the bargain bin.

The saving moment of the film is when the agreement spirals out of control adding a salacious element.

Chloe gains firm control over Catherine with each increasingly saucy encounter with the husband, unable as she is to stop the infidelities, Catherine becomes trapped with her teenage son in the complex equation.

Chloe lends the majority of its success to Seyfried playing the title role, proving she has come a long way since playing a dumb plastic in Mean Girls.

Doe-eyed and charismatic, Chloe has the innocence to seduce all around her, while subtle gestures and looks suggest her darker intentions.

Seyfried and Moore have an intense on screen chemistry, which is lucky as the sexually charged lesbian moment between them would otherwise have been undeniably awkward and far from believable.

There is an inevitable ‘lesbian moment’ in the film, showing that even though the main actresses master some credible performances, the scriptwriters seem to have lost their finesse and resort to the standard trashy twists and revelations to engage the audience.

Considering the circumstances you would expect more emotion from

a film dealing with issues of love, fidelity and trust; a few more tears, a bit more anger.

Instead we are left with a cold clinical atmosphere due to its secretary-style script. It’s as if the writers just plain forgot to write about the passion.

Despite this, Seyfried is so alluring in her role as Chloe that your eyes just can’t leave the screen.

Even in the final scenes, with the writers clutching at the last straws, you are still desperate to know what will happen to this unlikely nemesis.

Though the plot is dripping in cliché, the peculiar twists that do evolve somehow manage to give added intensity to this melodramatic thriller.

Egoyan’s end result is a sleek film that is addictive viewing first time round, but chances are you would never watch it again.

Melissa Gillespie

Fuse.

The eponymous P-Star

Micah and Katie have a sleepless night disturbed by anonymous footsteps and screams. they fall asleep. Just little remote cabin. director. Where the Saw things at first: footsteps on Instead of exploiting our films go over the top with the stairs, the door moving. irrational fear of monsters gore, Paranormal Activity As the days go on these the film plays off our more creates an agonising occurrences grow, becoming deeply ingrained fears of atmosphere by holding all the more intense. vulnerability while we sleep, back. This constant tension Without giving anything and our inability to protect is definitely the most away, it is far more our loved ones from danger. fantastic and frightening terrifying hearing Katie’s Much more effective at thing about the film. bloodcurdling screams making the hairs on your Sadly, the ending, from the next room than neck stand up. (suggested by Stephen watching another axe The tension that builds is Spielberg) lacks the same murderer/vampire/zombie immense and comes from self-restraint, but without terrorise young people in a the restraint shown by the ruining the whole film.

Friday November 6 2009

Gabriel Noble’s third documentary feature follows nine year-old Priscilla Diaz over four years, documenting her quest for fame as a superstar rapper.

Throughout we see her growth in attitude as she becomes more successful and spoilt, with everyone around her tending to her every need.

It is refreshing to see such a young girl acutely aware of her surroundings.

Coming from an underprivileged family in Harlem, she knows her mother is a drug addict, and realises that she is a way for her father to live out his previous unfulfilled dreams and pay the bills.

So when she raps “Did I mention that my age don’t matter?” it becomes clear that it doesn’t; after all she has more life experience than most people 10 years older than her.

Nonetheless, whilst this is admirable, it is somewhat unnerving at how cocky and self-assured she is.

In some respects her assertive and businesslike nature can be seen as cute, yet equally it can be seen as bossy and obnoxious. It becomes hard to sympathise with her.

again. Micah buys a camera in the hope of capturing the supernatural occurrences and find a way to stop them.

With Micah behind the camera the story of Paranormal Activity unfolds in the same documentary style as The Blair Witch Project or last year’s Cloverfield. It’s an effective device which gives the footage a realistic edge and reflects the modern ‘look’ of a YouTube generation which always has a camera or videophone at the ready.

The better part of the first half of the film gives a simple insight into the day to day lives of Micah and Katie. They laugh, argue and tease each other just like any normal couple.

Their performances are so natural that you would be forgiven for thinking that they really are together.

This believability is down to the extensive use of improvised dialogue.

Without the security of a written script the actors had to rely on vague outlines for each scene, and told to follow events as they happened. The result is dialogue which avoids sounding forced, adding an extra layer of authenticity to the film.

The scares begin when

13

Reviews.Games.

Shoot first, write plot later

Multiplatform Borderlands PC, PS3 and 360

Guns glorious guns, Gearbox’s Borderlands throws us into the dusty Mad Max-esque world of Pandora with only a few million guns with which to defend ourselves from the bandit hordes and a lot of dog monster things.

The hook for Borderlands is the loot system. Most of the weapons you find in the game will be randomly generated. Colour, accuracy, power, fire rate, number of projectiles, shape, elemental attribute, zoom and other special attributes are all variable. Guns like a revolver that fires shotguns rounds, an SMG which melts people, a pistol which never needs to reload and sniper rifle that shoots lightning are just a few examples of the odder results. In theory

Multiplatform

Just as we thought they couldn’t possibly release another cutesy family sports simulator, Mario and Sonic are back for another Olympic outing, and it’s slightly colder than last time.

We all know the drill by now; gather some mates, pick your favourite characters and duke it out.

Fun for the whole family, sort of.

Sega, like Nintendo, always had a knack for the simpler but more addictive gaming experience. Sadly, they’ve changed their

anorexic class selection is remedied by the individual customisation with each level.

Unfortunately the story isn’t as robust. Many of the characters may be likeable, especially the practically schizophrenic claptrap robots who just love to dance, but they’re only cursory to the plot.

An annoying, intrusive and particularly blurry image of a woman called Angel reminds you every once in a while what you’re ultimate goal is but this half-hearted story-telling will make most not want to care why they’re going from A to B, shooting everything in between.

Luckily for Gearbox they made it rather fun to shoot things. But even if the plot can largely be ignored, the flat and rather generic ending leads to a profound feeling of disappointment in the lack of any real payoff for all your hard work.

Despite this booting up a second play through is recommended. All your stats and equipment will be intact, but the

direction drastically. The first major weakness of this game is its unnecessary and relentless inclusion of the stylus pen, the antichrist of modern gaming.

Ice Hockey should have been a highlight; instead the ridiculous, touch screen movement system leads to pure frustration and chaos, and not the fun kind we associate with hockey.

Some events simply crash to Earth (insert winter-sport pun here). Figure skating is astonishingly uninteresting, the ski jump involves painfully predictable screen tapping and 2D, lane based cross-country skiing is even more tedious than it sounds.

Don’t fear though, hardcore Mario/Sonic fans, when the game sticks to simplicity it truly excels.

The classic button mashing events (e.g. speed skating,) are as addictive as ever, the luge and bobsleigh events

are a genuine adrenaline rush and even the curling is worth revisiting (don’t pinch yourself, it’s really not bad).

However, one trump card event makes the whole game almost worthwhile anyway.

In an ingenious move, the designers have combined Mario Kart and snowboarding with spectacular results. The attack system is taken from Mario Kart, whereas the player performance echoes a watered down SSX. It ought to be a game in its own right. Sadly this is the only one of its kind, as the game modes get a little worse…

Sorry, but yes there is a painfully bad “adventure” mode, and they’ve really excelled themselves this time. The low-down: Bowser and Dr Eggman kidnap the fabled snow spirits, leading Mario and Sonic to Frost Town where, conveniently

14

When playing Lilith you may need to shoot your teammates if they won’t stop ogling. enemies and loot are now help the team as a whole, player the option to beat the tougher to match your picking each other up when stuffing out of each other in increased strength. And you’re down and bickering a structured manner. it’s surprisingly compelling over loot add a whole new Even though the run up to shoot progressively level of fun to an already to Christmas is packed with bigger dog monsters even enjoyable game.

The many other titles worthy on your third and fourth engine will also improve the of your time, Borderlands playthrough. weapon drops when there is shouldn’t be overlooked.

Pretty much every more players and scale up It’s plenty of fun and you’ll problem with the game the enemies. The in game get a lot of playtime out however is fixed by playing PvP leaves something to of it especially if you have with friends in online co- be desired but it’s good the someone to play it with. op. Using your abilities to developer at least gave the Brendan Allitt enough, the only way of saving the day is by competing through various Olympic style quests… Even the youngest players will be embarrassed.

Perhaps the main problem here is that Nintendo and Sega simply can’t help but release a constant barrage of spinoffs and unnecessary sequels for a commercially successful franchise. What next? Mario & Sonic Watersports? Mario & Sonic at the Highland Games?

Expect these titles shortly after the release of Mario Party 12.

Overall it’s a fairly lazy effort by Sega; where’s the innovation? Where’s the flair? This could have been fantastic.

Snowboarding with friends will keep you coming back, but that’s sadly about it. A shame really.

Tom Fletcher

Multiplatform Drawn to Life:The Next Chapter Wii and DS

Fuse.

Friday November 6 2009

Mario and Sonic at the OlympicWinter Games Wii and DS

this means that every gun found will be different.

Unfortunately in practice the majority of weapons found will be garbage. You’ll probably find a set of staple weapons which you like and use nothing else for ages.

Gameplay is solid, the controls are responsive and battles are challenging and entertaining. This is just as well because the majority of missions the game gives you are reminiscent of Korean MMORPGs, kill 10 of a particular enemy and then go round the map collecting items for the quest giver.

The genre blend goes even further still with your character gaining levels and choosing different options from a skill tree which will augment their abilities.

The four classes play very differently from each other.

Lilith has the ability to briefly phase walk allowing her to avoid all damage and move at high speeds, the Roland has a deployable turret, the Brick can go into a berserk rage and Mordecai has a pet hawk which swoops in to attack enemies. The rather

Tails was subjected to gender testing after the game.

Usually you need some kind of hacking ability to fill a game with rampant dictatorial iconography and proficient renditions of the male genitalia, but any game that legitimately grants you the opportunity to pepper the world with the contents of your own ill imagination has got to be quite brave, to say the least.

The game is essentially a standard platformer, albeit a little on the easy side. But,

A chance to put all that doodling in lectures to use. as the title suggests, there’s a bridge has been drawn a fair amount of doodling there. Yet, when the design involved. The ability to comes to be incorporated design the player character into the gameplay, you’ll is touted as a main feature, quickly notice that the game for one. automatically assumes Unfortunately, the sheer that you filled all the space awkwardness of the drawing that was possible to fill. system, a watered-down MS Not having 10 minutes to Paint crossed with a steady spend drawing a beautiful hand game , means that bridge that would take using the Wiimote to trace four seconds to cross, I even a marginally faithful experimented by placing a adaptation of the idea in solitary dot in the bottomyour head proves to be left corner – and was able far, far more difficult than to pass over the entire area a game of such limited with no trouble. complexity in all other areas Perhaps I didn’t ‘get into should really demand. No the spirit of the game’, but matter your artistic talent, the system was just too in all probability your hero punishing to devote proper will end up advertising effort to, and the penalties euthanasia with some for not doing so were gravity. virtually non-existent.

Once the initial drawingThe only real reason to pad ordeals are over, you consider it over any other soon set about guiding your 2D platformer would be erstwhile Jackson Pollock the drawing system, and creation through a series that alone definitely isn’t of leaps, fights and artistic worth it. If you desperately challenges. You often need need an artistry-based to trace some flooring, in platformer, perhaps it’d be order to reach new heights better to invest in the DS or cross gaps. version.

These sections break up It’s obvious that the the action somewhat, but idea would be so much they’re usually relatively infinitely better suited to pain-free. However, every so its touch-screen controls, often you will be prompted and it wouldn’t carry nearly to use the familiar drawing as much of a ‘messy canvas to sketch a particular port’ feeling as the Wii object from scratch. For incarnation. example, a space early on can only be crossed once Mike Bentley

Reviews.Arts.

Statement for a generation Theatre

Poetry

Cracks SutCo

Opus andWordlife Cafe Euro

It’s a very hazy 1973 in a Los Angeles mansion, where a massive party is being hosted by rock star Rick (Steven Aspinall), who is murdered in his room while preparing to meet his guests. Ranging from a sleazy porn director to disenfranchised mother, are the stars of Cracks, a social commentary posing as a murder mystery.

Written in 1975 by Martin Sherman, Cracks is not focused on the real identity of the mysterious killer, but more on the quirks and the egocentric personalities of the main characters, a by-product of the now deceased hippie-era from which the cast’s archetypes are drawn.

All characters in the play were well portrayed by the cast, and comprised a veritable check-list of schizophrenics, junkies, jaded musicians and disillusioned dreamers who don’t want to remember the hangover of the sixties.

The so-called ‘high-water mark’ is a certain Dr Hunter

Opus and Wordlife make poetry cool. Poetry is not dead language to them. The evening opened suitably enough with a poem from Joe Kriss, one of the original founders of Wordlife, about Yorkshire and Sheffield.

He delicately trod the line of clichés and precise observation to create an evocative piece of poetry.

Following him was A F Harold whose work stems from the absurdist tradition. The majority of poems were short with tight rhythmical patterns that leant themselves to his hurried performance.

Poems were recited then discarded.

There was an exciting moment of audience interaction with a new poem being made by shuffling existing stanzas printed on pieces of card.

Byron Vincent’s poetry contained an immense amount of vocabulary while his performance style was violent oratory. His take on the fast-food culture was particularly fresh: all burgers should now be

Eddie Izzard Sheffield Arena

this skill which makes his random, slightly insane comedy so effective.

Holly Willis

Book AWeek in December Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks seems to have decided to put a halt to his recent literary attempts in decrypting psychological mysteries. After Human Traces and Engleby, both dedicated to psychology, his latest novel A Week in December switches to a Dickensian graphical scan of contemporary Britain, placing the lives of seven major characters under the magnifying glass in modern day London.

Spanning the week before Christmas 2007, the novel follows a hedgefund manager in his scheme to crash a leading high-street bank; a young lawyer preparing to defend a London Underground driver in an upcoming case; a teenager obsessed with skunk and reality TV shows; a young Islamic student learning about religious theory and bomb-making; a rising footballer recently transferred to a club in London from Poland and a book-reviewer plotting to destroy the career of his rival.

Samual Valdes Lopez It is difficult to predict when and where the lives of the characters may overlap and the consequence of minor incidents always leads to an unexpected turn, which keeps the reading experience thrilling and refreshing.

The narrative of the novel alternates between the points of view of the characters, showing Faulks’ admirable skills in incarnating each character with credible personality yet making the paragraphs informative on their own.

By unravelling all the crossings of urban life, a society filled with greed, delusion and self-deception is thrown directly into the readers’ face, forcing you to re-evaluate the nature of everyday life.

Faulks shows a great ambition in reconstructing a contemporary Britain in the novel by emphasising the dehumanising nature of virtual worlds, be they financial or cyber. However, the over-specialised descriptions can be confusing and together with the alternating points of view, the readers can find it easy to be led astray from the main plot.

A Week in December is an ambitious attempt to capture every aspect of modern British life, and Faulks has succeeded in making faithful records of this varied society with his unique style from previous epics.

Suyi Zhang

Theatre Beauty and the Beast Lyceum

I first saw Beauty and the Beast when I was a child and I remember loving it – it was also the first musical I ever saw. This trip to the theatre proved to be incredibly nostalgic (as Disney musicals always are).

The first thing I noticed was the technology that was being used; the Beauty and the Beast logo was projected on a massive screen and the brightest lights reached every corner of the stage.

The only downside of this

Kaja Franck was that all this equipment clashed quite violently with the classical style of the theatre.

Ashley Oliver, playing Belle, made a great first appearance and she sounded much like the actual Belle in the Disney film: high-pitched and definitely cartoonish. The first song (‘Belle’) was well performed and the cast worked the stage very well.

Gaston, played by Ben Harlow, gave the character a new personality but still kept the Disney essence.

Often reminding me of Ace Ventura and Johnny Bravo, he made the audience laugh with his silly vanity and excessive self-love – and his broad relationship with Lefou, played by Eddie Dredge. His song, where the dancers clunked their pint mugs together to make the beat, was fun. The Beast revealed a strong, powerful voice, surprisingly soft and controlled during ‘If I Can’t Love Her.’ New songs were added for the stage version of the musical and though they were well sung they did not have the nostalgic power of the originals. The second act was the most entertaining: the Beast amusingly tries to learn social skills to make Belle fall in love with him. Most of the scenes in this act were emotional.

‘When I’m Human Again’, even though it’s not in the original Disney film, was a beautiful moment.

Fuse.

Ex-Sheffield University student and marathon man, Eddie Izzard, returned to the touring world after six years with his most recent stand-up show, Stripped.

As the name suggests, Izzard discarded his famous transvestite image and appeared on stage dressed down in jeans and tuxedo jacket, with not even a high heel in sight.

Promising to discuss “everything that’s ever happened”, he charged into the wonder of Wikipedia, questioning how anyone could possibly cope without

it. He then miraculously managed to link this concept with the Stone Age: the next topic under analysis.

A personal highlight in this was a sketch about how the inhabitants of the era hunted before they had tools. Seeing Izzard energetically act out these bizarre notions added to their humour, indicating the need for an active comic as opposed to one who just reels off joke after joke.

Looking around the Arena there wasn’t one group of people in majority to the rest; it ranged from students to the elderly, all enjoying this fascinating comedian. Although he came under the attack of various kamikaze flies throughout the set (allowing the opportunity for hilarious improvisation), Izzard’s varying audience showed their undying support with rapturous applause following most jokes.

Izzard, being the master of random tangents, brought out a range of characters including charade-playing giraffes, an American squirrel, and the popular ‘jazz chicken.’ Although to the outside eye this appears completely bizarre (on reflection, it does to the inside eye too...), it works.

Trust me, it does. At the point where many comedians would have suffered a tumbleweed moment, Eddie Izzard managed to keep the audience laughing and always succeeded in returning to the point he was trying to make. It is

(peace, love, music, etc) were set in the wrong order of priority (i.e. compared to being picked off one by one by a murderer). It’s a criticism applicable to many a modern ‘do-gooder’ who are not what they pretend.

A pity this little known play has hardly managed to get the same attention as Mr Sherman’s seminal work Bent, so more kudos for SutCo’s choice of play and cast.

Friday November 6 2009

Comedy

The cast of Cracks: archetypes of the hippie era.

S Thompson, representing sending us astray with a few the death of the hippie red herrings. culture.

The initial impression you As director Rob O’Connor get from each character, via mentions on the play’s a monologue filmed with a booklet, the moniker of portable camera, changes ‘whodunit’ could be the first completely when each of (and clichéd) adjective to them soliloquises before come to mind whilst trying departing this world. to summarise the play. It The solution to the mystery is a murder mystery with a might be unsatisfying, rather strange conclusion. perhaps even anticlimactic, With a style for misdirection, but that’s the genius of the Sherman instead starts play, as it is more about a deconstructing the statement about the people characters, picking them of a generation and how apart with tweezers whilst their worries and fears

called ‘awful offal falafels’.

At times though he seemed better suited to stand-up comedy rather than poetry, as his biggest laughs came during the introductions.

The final poetry set came from Mark Gwynnes Jones whose performance included an impressive amount of gurning. His physical presence through the pieces leant itself to the story-telling aspect of his poetry, including a brilliant poem about the perils of sat-nav set in the Star Wars universe. It was however a brave choice to do a series of poems mocking stereotypes of performance poets at a night of performance poetry.

It became clear after only one song how much Louis Romegoux loved, and was influenced by, poetry.

His vocals were deeply affecting and his songs had a ballad-like quality. The guitar playing was elegant and understated allowing his beautiful voice to soar over the silent audience.

The evening was just a little too long. This style of poetry is more effective in explosive instances reminding us that language remains original and relevant when played with by innovative performers such as the ones on Saturday.

A tale as old as time.

Nicole Froio

15

Fuse.listings Friday November 6 - Thursday November 19 2009

email: listings@forgetoday.com

Fri 6

Sat 7

Sun 8

Mon 9

Tue 10

Wed 11

Thur 12

Puressence @ O2 Academy; 6.30pm; £13.50 Puressence promise more of that weatherbeaten optimism that has made them such cast-iron rock’n’roll survivors. Because truly, their day will come.

The Love of the Nightingale @ Drama Studio; 7:30pm; £5 An adaptation of the Ancient Greek legend of the rape of Philomela by her brother-in-law Tereus, and the gruesome revenge undertaken by Philomela and her sister Procne.

Gliss @ The Harley; 8:00pm; £4.00

Shinedown @ Leadmill; 7:30pm; £12 Shinedown exploded onto the US rock scene in 2003 with their RIAA platinum-certified breakthrough debut, Leave A Whisper.

WWE Wrestling Entertainment @ Sheffield Arena; 7:30pm; £20-£60

Breed 77 @ Corporation; 7:00pm; £9 Gibraltar foursome Breed 77, (that’s “sevenseven”), have been mashing up latin, rock and metal influences since forming in 1996.

Put Down That Science Pole @ Bungalows & Bears; 8:00pm; Free Unpretentious pop, indie and electronic niceties for your Thursday night consideration (and dancing) courtesy of Liam Breakfast and his merry band of muso party people.

Addicted in Afghan @ The Showroom; 12:10pm; £3.70 NUS Documentary film about fifteen year old Jabar and Zahir, best friends and heroin addicts. Deftly illustrates addiction and the devastation it wreaks on Afghan families.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen @ SU Auditorium; 7.30pm; £2

House of Lords @ Corporation; 7:00pm; £17

After returning to Cybertron, the homeland of the Transformers, the evil Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons and plans his return to earth.

Uber-hip, three-piece act based out of Los Angeles that sounds like its heart is set on being the unlikely cool kids of twenty-first century rock.

Can Art Save Us? @ Millenium Gallery; 11:00am-5:00pm; Free Science and politics may be at the vanguard of our quest out of environmental meltdown, but where does art fit in? Have we underestimated art’s capacity to change the way we think and act?

Can art actually save us?

Frankmusik @ Plug; 7:30pm; £10adv Pop’s new leading man is a musical polymath, playing, producing and writing his records.

Intensely neurotic, glamorous, electroavid, self edited, self-selected, self-focussed, and arriving with a wham bam thank you mam.

Singin’ in the Rain @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £ Without doubt the greatest musical to have ever come out of Hollywood. One cannot forget the dexterous feet, the mellifluous voices and the sheer bravura.

These are the moments that cinema is made for.

Fri 13

Sat 14

[:SITD:] @ Corporation; 7:00pm; £10 Bone-crunching beats, apocalyptical electro hymns and very energetic live appearances ... hailing from Germanys real industrial heartland.

Arctic Monkeys @ Sheffield Arena; 7.30pm; £29.50 This is the band’s first UK tour since December 2007, and will see the band playing tracks from their 3rd album, Humbug as well as their two previous LP’s.

House of Lords is a hard rock band from Los Angeles and is the final incarnation of Giuffria, managed by Gene Simmons.

Frank Sidebottom @ The Boardwalk; 7:30pm; £9.98 The comedy papermache head worn by Chris Sievey. Frank reached cult status in the late 80s with his bizarre, yet family friendly routines which often included tombolas and lectures

Scott Matthews + James Summerfield @ Plug; 7:30pm; £12.50adv

Scott’s new single Fractured has received national airplay and he has been described as the most promising home-grown singer songwriter in years.

Is Anybody There? @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2 Michael Caine leads a stellar British cast in this charming and amusing film about getting older.

The movie shares an offbeat wit with films such as Son of Rambow and Little Miss Sunshine and is definitely worth viewing.

Sham 69 @ The Boardwalk; 7:30pm; £10adv The band originally from Hersham, Surrey, who were a huge musical and lyrical influence on the streetpunk genres of the 1970’s. Recent reviews suggest they are sounding fresher than ever.

Derrin Nauendorf @ The Boardwalk; all; 7:30pm; £7adv Derrin Nauendorf is quickly gaining the reputation as one of Australia’s most exciting new artists. An earthy soulful voice, blistering guitar skills and a bagful of inspired material makes him a truly great package.

Absent Elk @ 02 Academy; 7:00pm; £?

Public Enemy No.1 @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2

The Enemy @ O2 Academy; 7:00pm; £18 World Wrestling Entertainment is returning to the Arena for two nights of thrills, spills and high octane wrestling action on Mon 9 and the following night on Tues 10.

Babybird @ Leadmill; 7:00pm; £8 Formed in 1995, Babybird burst onto our radios the following year with “You’re Gorgeous”.

The band are finally returning to The Leadmill after years away.

The thrilling true story of Jacques Mesrine, who enters into a life of crime and violence robbing banks. The film is atmospherically filmed, perfectly recreating 60s’ and 70s’ France.

Goodbye Solo @ The Showroom; Various times; £4.30 NUS A garrulous Senegalese cab driver in WinstonSalem, North Carolina, is hired by world-weary good old boy William to drop him off a couple of weeks hence at what can only be a suicidal assignation. A character piece of beauty and humility.

Coventry’s answer to Oasis, the three-piece indie rock band have risen to mass acclaim and are headlining their own high profile show.

Emmure + Caliban @ Corporation; 7pm; £12adv Emmure and Caliban are Deathcore and Metalcore bands from America and Germany.

Mosh-drenched anthems provide a soundtrack for the most intense, unforgettable shows ever witnessed.

Absent Elk endured a baptism of fire by supporting mainstream acts on big sell-out tours, and they had to prove themselves fast. Their album Sun And Water has been an instant hit in huge venues across the country.

Bap Kennedy @ The Boardwalk; 7:30pm; £8adv Former frontman of legendary live band, and Mean Fiddler favourites, Energy Orchard. Come and see and meet this mega singer/ songwriter upclose and personal in the intimate surroundings of the Boardwalk.

Sun 15

Mon 16

Tue 17

Wed 18

Thur 19

Gun @ Corporation; 7:00pm; £15

Lilly Allen @ O2 Academy; 7:00pm; £42.90-£104

Alabama 3 @ Plug; 7:00pm; £14

Moonlights - A Diwali Celebration @ The Octagon; 7:00pm; £14

The Jester Society @ Central Library Theatre; 7:30pm; £10 The Jester Society presents comedians Lucy Porter, Stuart Goldsmith and Tom Deacon.

Lily Allen performs tracks from her number 1 album, It’s Not Me, It’s You. London’s princess of pop’s cheeky songs about everything from sexual frustration to celebrity tiffs.

Described simply as ‘Scotland’s finest rock band’, Gun were formed in 1987 by Giuliano Gizzi (guitar), Cami Morlotti (bass), Mark Rankin (vocals), Al Thornton (drums) and David Aitken (guitar).

The Edukators @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2 Set in Berlin, The Edukators are known as mysterious perpetrators who creatively break into houses of more prosperous citizens and re-arrange their furniture to leave a potent message about the future of their wealth.

Stonehenge & Bath Day Trip; Give it a Go; 6:3023:00; £23 Bath is renowned for its healing springs and spas. Other places to visit include the Royal Crescent, Bath Abbey, Roman Baths Museum and Sally Lunn’s house.

2012 @ Cineworld; Various times; £5.30 NUS New film by Roland Emmerich, who brought us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. The king of disaster movies shows us what the end of the world will look like - and he’s even put a date on it.

Taekwondo; Give it a Go; 5.40-8:00pm; £3 Ever wanted to learn a martial art? Taekwondo is the national sport of Korea, and the world’s most commonlypractised martial art.

A celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali open to to all in the University of Sheffield and anyone from any other university.

Brixton based Alabama3 are one of the Countries coolest bands. Noted for both their albums and their live shows, they have built up a sold following with both Irvine Welsh & Howard Marks fans.

Spiers and Boden @ Central Library Theatre; 8:00pm; £10adv Twice winners of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Live Duo, John and Jon have made the genre of punky English folk very much their own. All profits go to ASSIST. Hello Dolly! @ The Lyceum; 7:30pm; £8.50 - £17.00 Dolly Levi’s efforts to marry Horace Vandergelder, the wellknown half-a-millionaire, provide the backdrop for an irresistible, glittering story, centred on one of the most fabulous characters in musical theatre.

John Willy and the Bee People @ The Drama Studio; 7:30pm; £6 NUS Join John Willy from Oswaldtwistle as he helps Humble to rescue Princess Sweebee from the wicked Wossup and his evil henchmen.

With tap dancing bees, singing charbees and sinister spiders.

Disney on Ice - Princess Wishes @ Sheffield Arena; 7pm; £11.50£33.50

Our favourite Disney princesses, Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Mulan, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White all feature in this oneof-a kind ice spectacular.

Eugene Bridges @ The Boardwalk; 7:30pm; £12adv

Before forming his own band Eugene was lead guitarist/vocalist with Big Joe Turner’s ( BB Kings bassist ) Memphis Blues Caravan. In a world of guitar pyrotechnics a la Stevie Ray Vaughan he’s not only a guitarist with exemplary taste but also one of the best blues/ soul singers around.

His first return to the Boardwalk for many years - not to be missed.

Chuck Berry @ The Octagon; 7:30pm; £45 The Legendary Chuck Berry and his full USA Band are supported by the Paul Jones Blues Band and The Jim Jones Revue.