FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2017
Issue 103
INSIDE THIS ISSUE... Comment Cannabis SHOULD be illegal p. 13
Features
Lifestyle
Women’s Invisible Work p. 16
The End of Riccardo’s Reign p. 21
Sport Sheffield take Snowsports lead
p. 48
Union and University at war over NSS Boycott Anna Gillies Editor The University of Sheffield and its Students’ Union are at odds over the National Students Survey (“NSS”). The SU has launched a campaign urging students not to fill in the NSS in a bid to combat the wider issue of rising tuition fees, a product of the University being a part of the Teaching Excellence Framework (“TEF”). The NSS is one of the measures that the Government will use to allow universities to increase fees. As the University has signed up to TEF, any fee increase will apply to Sheffield students. The SU are campaigning to boycott the survey in opposition to raising tuition fees and in protest against TEF. This follows a recent campaign where over 2,500 students signed an open letter to the VC, asking the University not to be involved in the new measure. This has caused a clash between
“Two hours of queueing for absolutely nothing” Josh Peachey News Editor
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the University’s apparent interests and those of the SU. Vice-President for Education at the University of Sheffield, Wyn Morgan, sent an email to all final year students urging them to fill in the survey. He sent this on 30 January a week before the official launch of the NSS in Sheffield, on 6 February. Education Officer, Ali Day told Forge Press: “I wasn’t surprised that Wyn Morgan sent emails to staff and students promoting the survey, however I didn’t expect him to communicate so early on. The fact that the University are pushing the NSS so early on shows they are obviously panicked about the boycott and the implications it may have.” The NSS is a survey filled in by final year students that is used as a data collection service which the University then claims to use to improve its services. Students have the opportunity to give their feedback on...
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Forge Press Editorial Team Editor
editor@forgetoday.com
Anna Gillies
Deputy Editors editor@forgetoday.com Dan West Hallam Roffey Managing Editor
f.gillard@sheffield.ac.uk
Freyja Gillard
Head of Online
editor@forgetoday.com
Caro Kyllmann
Head of News Lisa Latham News
press.news@forgetoday.com
Josh Peachey Hope Cunningham Rachael Bunyan Comment
press.comment@forgetoday.com
Will Morgan Michael Chilton Features
press.features@forgetoday.com
Jess Davis Ellena Rowlin Laura Mullan
Coffee Break
press.coffeebreak@forgetoday.com
James Pendlington Lifestyle
press.lifestyle@forgetoday.com
Anna Whittaker Florence Mooney Sport
press.sport@forgetoday.com
Sheena Sidhu Ed McCosh Hugh Dickinson Music
press.music@forgetoday.com
Harry Chambers Emma Williams Games
press.games@forgetoday.com
Ashfaq Emritte Nick Burke Arts
press.arts@forgetoday.com
Matt Wickens Laura Mulvey Screen
press.screen@forgetoday.com
Luke Baldwin Beth Andralojc
Copy Editors Harriet Hales Harry Gold Kimberley John Shaun Thomas Katharine Swindells Tom West Holly Overton Molly Kerkham Jessica Green
A
las, Christmas is over and regular term time has resumed once again. I have to say as someone who loves routine, I have enjoyed getting back to my normal daily schedule, although assembling an issue of Forge Press whilst getting back in the swing of my university work has made for a hectic week. I hope the exam period wasn’t too stressful for you and you’ve not begun the second semester too dishevelled. I’m sure some of you were the lucky few who managed to get tickets to Pop Tarts last week. Given how quickly they sold out they seemed to be as hard to get hold of as the illuistrious golden tickets in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I enjoy the start of a new semester. It’s nice to start afresh with new
modules, new opportunities, and maybe even a new jumper that was a Christmas gift. Here at Forge we’ve also enjoyed the opportunity to have a fresh look at things. With only four issues left under my leadership, it seems only yesterday that I took the helm. I’m really determined to work really hard to make this semester’s papers better than ever before, and I’m confident the team have excelled themselves with this issue. What’s even better is our News and Comment teams were finished hours before our deadline, and ashamedly I was the one holding things up. Note to self, write less news and do more editorial jobs! In this issue we have our usual great content. Comment have enjoyed debating whether the controversial start to 2017 is
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actually the end of the world, or whether we all need to get over ourselves and accept that it’s just the way things are. Features are explaining the new trend of Hygge (I didn’t know what it was either - check out page 18 for more details!) Lifestyle has offered some alternative Valentine’s ideas for those wanting to spend time with special ones, and singletons who just want to enjoy their evening. Entertainment have reviewed the best and the brightest, and we even have a cameo from our new Arts Editor, Matt. Music have interviewed Amber Run for their feature, while Screen have given you the lowdown on drugs on screen, inspired by the release of Trainspotting 2. Coffee Break has been taken
over by our fabulous new editor James. This guy loves his quizzes, so hopefully you will too. Sport have done a great sales pitch for semester two sport, be sure to check it out so you don’t miss anything. Keep your eyes peeled for our SU Election Special and Varsity issue, which will be out this semester. We work really hard on them to give you all the info you need - you don’t want to miss it! For now though, enjoy the issue, and enjpy the term, there’s plenty to get excited about.
Hallam’s
Happenings What not to miss over the following fortnight, curated by our very own Deputy Editor, Hallam Roffey Fred Sirieix New figures show that statistically there’s about a 100% chance that you have a crush on Fred from First Dates. Well here’s your chance to meet the man himself, gain an insight into his career and life, and maybe even find love. 20 February. 16:30 - 17:30. Foundry, SU. Free Tickets.
Rat race to Manchester With train ticket prices spiralling out of control, getting into random stangers� cars has never been a better way to travel. RAG and Bummit are putting on a one day hitchhike to Manchester including a night out and a coach back. Best of all, it’s for charity! 25 February. £12. Tickets on sale 14 Febuary.
Housing Fair Looking for houses and student accomdation can be a confusing and stressful business. Come along to the Housing Fair where you can meet reputable landlords and agents, get advice and information and pick up your own free housing guide. 21 February. Foundry, SU.
Forge Talks Do you want to hear what local MP Paul Blomfield has to say about Trump, hate speech and other important issues? Well, you should come along anyway. Forge Talks have already put on fantastic interviews with Natalie Bennett and Nick Clegg. This is sure to be another great one with proceeds going to Sheffield Mind. 16 February, SU.
Speed Dating If you don’t think you’ll find love with Fred and food, join Pop Tarts Goes Speed Dating! You might find love or you might win Pop Tarts tickets - you can decide which is more important. 11 February. Raynor Lounge, SU.
SU Officer Nominations Open It’s that time of the year again. Prepare to be constantly berated on the Concourse and lectured about protecting the environment whilst simultaneously being handed stacks of flyers. Full coverage of the elections available at www.forgetoday.com/elections Nominations close 17 February.
Film Unit Pick Casablanca. A classic. 23 February.
Give It A Go Pick How to Run a Cinema. 24 February.
Want to get involved or got a story to share? We always welcome writers, photographers and artists to join us here at Forge Press. Come and pay us a visit in the Media Hub situated in the Students’ Union or email our editor at editor@forgetoday. com
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Block-booking capped following post-exam Poptarts panic Lisa Latham Head of News
•• Poptarts tickets for February 5 sold out in under 10 minutes due to BUCS block-booking. •• Block-booking has now been capped at 250 tickets to prevent further disappointment. Students were outraged last week when popular club night Pop Tarts sold each of their 1,799 tickets within just 10 minutes of going on sale. The SU event, held on Saturday 5 February, was the first to take place after the exam period and as such was set to be the night of post-stress celebration for many students. Andrew Zarahodny, third year English Literature student, said: “I’d been revising so much and for so long, I just had to get out and
dance. “I set an alarm to get tickets for Pop Tarts early on Sunday morning, but they had already sold out when I accessed the site at around 12:00pm. I was devastated. “It was a really bad way to start 2017. How am I going to boogie down to ‘Come on Eileen’ and the Frozen soundtrack now?” It was later revealed that the Ents Department had allocated around 800 of the tickets to the Athletics team, as part of the BUCS event. This meant many students were unable to procure tickets and were left disappointed and frustrated with both the Entertainments Department and Athletics team. Emily Roche, SU Sports Officer, said teams had not been made aware of restrictions on ticket bookings, leading to the mass -buying of events tickets for society use. However measures have been taken to ensure that students do not miss out again when it comes to
SU events. Developments Officer Michael Kind told Forge Press: “The Ents Department have reviewed the TIA ticket system and will no longer allocate more than 250 tickets to any student group for a single Pop
Tarts event and will always leave a minimum of 800 tickets for general sale. “We’re sorry that this has caused upset and hope that the measures we have put in place to address this for the future are satisfactory.”
SU Box Office warns students of phishing scam
Lisa Latham News Editor
The Sheffield SU box office posted on Twitter on Tuesday 7 February to warn students of a phishing scam spotted on the box office tickets page. The scam resembles a transaction page and asks students for their login details and password to access the box office site. Tickets for Varsity sports events will be on sale from February 9 and are expected to be in high demand. Students are therefore being warned to be careful when purchasing tickets online. The page is titled ‘Parallels H-Sphere’, and students are being strongly urged not to enter any details should they encounter this screen.
In Brief... New IKEA will create ‘dream’ jobs in Sheffield Furniture giant IKEA announced that it will employ another 100 people at its new Sheffield store. Construction is still underway at the former Tinsley Wire site near Meadowhall after several years of planning. Sheffield Store Manager Garry Deakon says he expects the majority of jobs to go to people from Sheffield, and that the £8.45 per hour minimum pay would be a “dream come true” for workers. He added: “We are trying to raise the bar and for the people of Sheffield, later this year is going to be a very exciting time.” The extra employment will increase the store’s annual investments in the city’s job market to over £5 million.
Tree controversy continues
Air pollution monitors erected Members of Sheffield Friends of the Earth have placed six air pollution monitors around the city to check air quality. Spokesperson John Wilson said: “Because you often can’t see it, or smell it, people don’t realise air pollution is there. We know that in areas with a lot of traffic and high levels of air pollution, children are more likely to have asthma.” The environmental campaigners hope to expose areas with high levels of pollution, which is linked to cancer, stroke and heart disease, diabetes and obesity. It causes 40,000 early deaths in the UK every year and costs the national economy over £20 billion a year.
Seven people who were arrested during a protest against the felling of trees on Monday 6 February have now been formally charged. Protesters stood around the base of a tree and refused to move to allow contractors to cut it down. The tree on Chippinghouse Road was one of several targeted under the Streets Ahead scheme, which aims to remove damaged, diseased and dangerous trees from pavements. Protesters argue that some are being unnecessarily cut down. Green Party Councillor Alison Teal was among the seven arrested and charged under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.
New Sheffield bishop opposes ordination of women A clergyman who opposes the ordination of women has been appointed as bishop of Sheffield by the Church of England (C of E). Philip North is from the traditionalist Anglo-Catholic wing of the C of E and has faced criticism in the past for his opposition to female priests. Emma Percy, the chairperson of Watch (Women and the Church), acknowledged North’s strengths in urban ministry and with youth, but said: “We are aware of the sadness felt by many in Sheffield that they will now have a diocesan bishop who will not ordain women. We hope that the new bishop will promote a culture in which ordained women will feel validated and encouraged to flourish”.
SU cuts ties with Viva La Fiesta parties Josh Peachey News Editor After complaints about a night aimed at international students put on by Viva La Fiesta parties, the SU has ended any relations with the events company. Viva plan nights out specifically for international students all over the country, but the Sheffield Mexican night and the marketting of the event was deemed racist by the SU Council. According to a Facebook post by Ana Popa, International Students’ Officer, there were complaints from a number of students, Mexican and non-Mexican, about the event. Ana Popa said: “I can proudly say that the SU has ceased its relationship with Viva. We will be looking at starting our own SU night out for international students so keep an eye out!”
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Biggest week of student climate watch protest returns to Sheffield
politics
MPs pledge to boycott Trump’s state visit Senior female Labour MPs have pledged to boycott President Trump’s speech, if he is invited to address both houses of Parliament during his planned state visit to the UK. The party’s former deputy leader, Harriet Harmon, has led calls for fellow female MPs to “empty chair” Trump due to his views on women. “I could not be there clapping a man who is a self-confessed groper,” Harriet Harmon told the Observer. Other females are in support of a boycott of Trump’s speech, with former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper stating: “The idea that we are we are all going to sit in parliament and listen to a man who is turning the clock back on democracy, pushing misogyny and hatred of Muslims is a joke.” MPs will debate whether to cancel Trump’s official visit to the UK on 20 February, after nearly two million people signed a petition to prevent him from making a state visit to the UK. Trump not interested in making a speech on UK state visit According to government officials involved in the planning of President Trump’s state visit told the Guardian that Trump is not interested in addressing MPs and peers in Westminster, wanting to focus instead on the pomp and ceremony afforded to foreign leaders. After the petition to prevent Trump from making an official state visit, a source told the Guardian that Trump would not want to risk embarrassment, saying that the pictures he wanted to broadcast to the US were of meetings with royalty rather than of protests and boycotts. Trump can’t see the light President Trump’s team cannot find the light switches to the cabinet room in which they conduct their meetings. As a result, the team have to speak in the dark and feel their way out of the room, according to the New York Times. “Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit”, the New York Times have reported.
Josh Peachey News Editor The UK’s largest week of student climate action is returning to the University of Sheffield and organisers are calling for students to get stuck in. Go Green Week is a national event organised by protest group ‘People & Planet’ which starts on February 13 and over 50 universities will take part this year. Peter Nolan, an Environmental Science student who is helping to organise Sheffield’s Go Green week, said: “People & Planet is about protest but it’s also about sustainable change and finding solutions to the problem. “The real change in terms of the climate, is not going to come from the banks, the fossil fuel companies or the Government, because if it was, they would have done that 30 years ago when it first became clear that climate change is an imminent problem and really dangerous. The change needs to come from the people, which is why students should be involved.” The week begins with a screening of Demain, a French grassroots documentary all about a couple who travel the world in search of solutions to climate change. The free screening will take place in
The Auditorium on Monday 13 February. Nolan said: “The documentary is really inspiring. The message is that there’s not one sort of person who can make a difference with climate change, anyone can be a part of it. Hopefully, that will set the tone for the rest of the week and inspire people to come along to the other activities throughout the week.” On the Tuesday, there will be an opportunity for interested students to find out more about the People & Planet group at Sheffield, as well as learning about their fossil fuel divestment and research campaigns. The latter is an attempt to stop the University from
receiving research funding from fossil fuel companies. Thursday’s Go Green activity will be a sustainable meal in collaboration with a number of food projects across Sheffield. It will feature a combination of vegan foods and also waste foods from supermarkets, aiming to highlight areas for sustainable improvement. On the Friday of last year’s event, the participants of Go Green week in Sheffield took part in a protest against Barclays Bank in the city centre, who own a 97% controlling stake in Third Energy, a fracking company. A similar protest which is yet to be decided will occur on the Friday of this year’s Go Green
Week. Last year, the University divested its £39 million endowment from all fossil fuel companies due to “the overwhelming evidence of the impact of fossil fuels on climate change.” 24 UK universities have now made fossil free commitments including Oxford University, Glasgow University and Warwick University. Nolan added: “Last year’s Go Green Week was really successful, we grew our group a lot and it definitely raised our profile on campus. I’m really hopeful that this one will be just as good if not better, and really get people involved in our fossil fuel research campaign.”
Sheffield named ‘low pay capital’ of UK Rachael Bunyan News Editor Sheffield is the “low pay capital” of the UK, with hourly pay being 13 per cent lower in the Sheffield City Region than the national average. A report by the Resolution Foundation found that the Sheffield City Region has some of the lowest pay levels of any city region with average gross hourly pay for residents at £11.03, which is £1.15 less than that received by the average worker in the UK making it the lowest of any city region. Furthermore, total pay for workers in the region is the second lowest of any city region, with only Nottingham city region paying their workers less. The low pay for the Sheffield City Region has undermined living standards such as quality of housing, with the average weekly household income, after housing
costs, which is £68 lower than in the UK generally. Whilst pay for both residents and workers is low in the region, there is a clear divide between the pay of workers and residents in Sheffield and those in the rest of the region, such as Barnsley and Rotherham. The Resolution Foundation has found that workers in the city of Sheffield are paid £1.32 more per hour than workers in the rest of the region and residents of Sheffield are paid £0.97 more per hour. There is also a divide between different geographical locations of Sheffield, with the local authority of Sheffield having the highest concentration of low income households, which are mainly concentrated in the North and East of the city. By contrast, households in the West and South West of are more likely to be at the top of the
income distribution. Pay is low in the Sheffield City Region partly because many of the region’s firms simply pay less according to the report. The report also highlights that the low pay is due to low productivity. Productivity, as measured by output per hour worked, is 17 per cent lower in the region compared to the UK average, and is the lowest of all city regions. The manufacturing, office administration, and retail and wholesale sectors are large employers in the region and are significantly contributing to this productivity deficit. The Resolution Foundation has suggested a solution for the Sheffield City Region in attracting more productive and high paying firms and sectors to the region. The opportunity for local leaders
to have more powers to address the low pay and productivity deficits of the Sheffield City Region have been hampered by the delay to devolution, with political disputes set to delay the Sheffield mayoral election. Stephan Clarke, policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Sheffield City Region is at a crossroads. There is a real risk that no devolution deal plays out and its status as Britain’s low pay capital continues. “Unless the current legal and political issues can be resolved, the area risks losing out on extra powers over crucial policies like housing and transport, not to mention much-needed strong economic leadership to strengthen the region’s economy.”
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Union and University at war over NSS Boycott Anna Gillies Editor
Continued from Front Page ...this could have been stopped by final years not filling in a survey I would have definitely encouraged it.” The University has used financial incentives to encourage departmental societies to ensure their turnout is high, sometimes offering as much as £500 for participation of over 75 per cent. The Journalism Department sent an email to its students this year advertising the NSS. Staff pointed out that although it is students’ choice as to whether they fill out the survey, if participation reached 65 per cent within 28 days, the Student-Staff committee would receive £500 from the Faculty of Social Sciences. This was paired with the news that last year the committee used the money for the journalism ball. Several Journalism students reported that the message of
money being available if enough students took part in the NSS was reiterated in lectures by teaching staff, although lecturers claimed to remain neutral on the issue. As well as using financial incentives to encourage students to fill out the survey, the Journalism email also asked students to “think carefully about the questions and please make sure you do think objectively and with a wider vision”. This was followed with “if you are not happy with the feedback you have been given for one particular module, this shouldn’t impact your answer on the amount of on-going feedback and support you’ve been given through the three years of your degree.” When asked about the SU’s campaign and the NSS boycott, Wyn Morgan said: “We’ve always sought and valued feedback from our students with the aim of improving our teaching and learning and are obliged by HEFCE to engage in the NSS.” “We understand the view of
some students is to support an NSS boycott. However it remains the University’s aim to hear from as many of our students as we can in order for us to learn from their feedback and continually provide the best student experience possible.” Day is confident that the campaign will gain support amongst
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students. Her ‘Shef better than TEF’ campaign gained over 2,500 signatures, with approximately half from students in their final year of study. She hopes that students will support the boycott of the NSS as a way to oppose the University’s decision to join TEF and to fight rising fees.
Sheffield celebrates 44th International Cultural Evening
Lisa Latham Head of News The University of Sheffield’s International Students Committee is hosting its 44th International Cultural Evening. The event incorporates several performances from international students, and invites everyone to openly celebrate and showcase their cultures from across the world. SU International Students Officer, Ana Popa, said: “In the light of recent events, the not-solong-ago Brexit and the very recent Trump Muslim Ban, we need to stand together in solidarity to say that We Are International. And what better way to express this than celebrating our global diversity and embracing it through dance and music.” The ICE will be held at Sheffield City Hall on Friday 4 March.
Public petition for security floodlights in Sheffield parks Lisa Latham Head of News Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling for street lights to be installed in Sheffield’s parks following the sexual assault of a woman in Weston Park on Monday 23 January. This most recent attack has accelerated growing concerns over security in Sheffield sparking a spate of public campaigns and prompting the University to issue safety advice to all students. The SU Women’s Officer Serena Cavasin and the Students Communication Team compiled an information page on the official University website following the assault, offering advice and support to students. They said: “The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Students’ Union take student safety very seriously. “If you’re studying late on campus, you can use the SU’s ‘Safe Taxi Scheme’ to get home safely. If you’re a female student, you can also use the women’s mini bus.
“If you do have to walk home, make sure you walk in a group and stick to well-lit areas as much as possible. You can also pick up a personal safety alarm from the Student Advice Centre.” An online petition was launched by a member of the public calling for Sheffield Council to create a safer environment for women walking alone at night and to install floodlights in parks as a starting point. The campaign titled ‘The parks will be safer if more well lit’ received over 700 signatures and will be submitted to the council once it receives 1000. A spokeswoman for Sheffield Council said: “We are currently reviewing the safety aspects of Weston Park. It is too early to give any more details, but all options are currently being discussed. Nothing has been ruled out.” Cavasin recently met with the Pro-Vice Chancellor regarding student safety, and guarantees that both the University and the SU are taking student safety very seriously.
McLaren build new facility at Uni of Sheffield Dan West Deputy Editor
Speaking with Forge Press, she explained: “There are plans in place to install lighting to more areas that students consider unsafe, such as Northumberland Road, as part of the project for the new Social Sciences building.” Conversations Cavasin instigated with student libraries have also resulted in greater publicity for the women’s minibus service, which has now extended its route to include a pick-up point outside of Western Bank. The attack that saw the launch of the campaign involved a 21-year-
old. She reported waking up in the Weston Park grounds having no recollection of what happened or memory of her attacker. It is believed she was assaulted between 22:35 and 23:00 GMT. The park was cordoned off while detectives searched the area and a thorough investigation to identify the attacker is underway. South Yorkshire Police have conducted extra patrols around the University campus and are collaborating with University Security Services to ensure students are protected.
200 jobs are being created by McLaren as they build a new chassis facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, due to be fully operational in 2020. It’s is Mclaren’s first UK centre outside of the Woking Headquarters. The carbon fibre chassis are currently made in Austria, but it’s hoped that by moving to Sheffield £10 million per year can be saved. The site will cost £50 million to construct, £14 million of which is from the Local Enterprise Partnership, a fund from the Local Authority.
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University’s commitment to workplace equality praised Hope Cunningham News Editor
•• The University will continue to improve trans visibility and inclusivity •• The Workplace Equality Index has been active for 13 years The University of Sheffield was recognised as one of the best employers in the UK for workplace equality for the fourth year in a row. The leading LGBT charity Stonewall has acknowledged the University’s commitment to gender equality, diversity and inclusion in the Workplace Equality Index 2017. The Index received 90,000 responses from 439 organisations who submitted applications, making it one of the largest national employment surveys in Britain. Chief Executive of Stonewall Ruth Hunt said to recipients: “you are at the forefront of driving LGBT inclusion in the workplace and
we are incredibly proud to work with you. With your continued partnership, we can ensure that all lesbian, gay, bi and trans employees across Britain are accepted without exception.” Sheffield’s latest ranking acknowledges the University’s efforts to challenge discrimination and create an inclusive workplace for lesbian, gay, bi and trans employees. The University has also been awarded the Athena Swan Silver Award for its advancement in gender equality in 2014 and launched the Women Academic Returners Programme, designed to help female academics when returning to work after maternity or carer’s leave, and won the Education Sector prize at the Opportunity Now 2007 Awards. Josh Willacy from Stonewall said: “The University of Sheffield’s work and commitment to creating an inclusive environment for LGBT staff and students has been exceptional this year. From meaningful and thoughtful events held, to the inclusive
communications, rainbow lanyards and ever growing LGBT allies group Open@TUOS, the University continues to raise standards and share best practice. Here’s to an excellent achievement and an
#ThisGirlCan Campaign a ‘massive success!’ Anna Gillies Editor The University of Sheffield’s Sports Committee #ThisGirlCan week has been a huge success. The week involved a range of events with the aim of encouraging more women to engage in sport and overcome the obstacles that may prevent women from participating. The events that ran during the week included special Give it a Go sessions, a #ThisGirlCan takeover of the Concourse and a sponsored Roar night at the SU. All events were free with there were opportunities to donate to the charity CoppaFeel! which aims to encourage women to regularly check their breasts for signs of breast cancer and prevent late or misdiagnosis. The week has been part of the wider national campaign which seeks to acknowledge the barriers in place for women in sport and to overcome these to provide a sense of enjoyment, beyond
simply taking part in the activity. This could be meeting people with similar confidence issues, learning something new, having fun, and feeling a sense of pride or achievement.
Commenting on the success of the week, Sports Officer Em Roche said, “Sports Committee’s #ThisGirlCan week has been a massive success! All of the events have been sell outs, and we’ve seen so many girls coming to the sessions to try something that might never have done otherwise, which is what
the campaign is all about!” “I really hope that what’s come out of the campaign is that university sport is for absolutely anyone. Our clubs are full of students that never imagined playing for their Uni, and now they can’t imagine what they’d have done otherwise.” The #ThisGirlCan campaign was introduced to tackle disparities between levels of activity in men and women and to encourage women to pursue sport and exercise by removing the barriers which may prevent them from engaging. British Universities and College Sport (BUCS) published statistics that show that 53 per cent of female students are doing some activity each week compared with 63 per cent of male students and that 520,600 female students are doing no activity at all compared with 316,000 male students. If you want to know more in general about the #ThisGirlCan campaign, visit their website: thisgirlcan.co.uk.
exciting year ahead!” Almost 1,000 members of staff from across the University has joined Open@TUOS, an initiative to empower all staff to help create an open, inclusive environment for
LGBT colleagues and students. From 2018, The Stonewall Index will include trans-related questions for the first time.
Balancing the books to cost Sheffield Council £40 million Jack Williams News Contributor Since the Coalition Government’s introduction of their austerity programme in 2010, Sheffield City Council has been forced to make budgetary reductions of almost £350 million as a result of hugely reduced Government funding. Council statements have revealed that this figure is set to increase further with an additional £40 million in savings needed to cope with recent Government budget cuts. While a draft budget from the Council will be published in the coming weeks, there have been numerous public events in the past months which have offered an insight into potential avenues that the finance reductions may take. Initial Council plans debuted at these various publics meetings have emphasised a desire to concentrate on finding savings with big, multiyear changes, but from fewer areas of the community.
One such plan, officially confirmed by heads of the Local Authority, will see a council tax rise of 4.99%, just below the 5% figure that would trigger a referendum. 3% of which has been ring fenced to help fund a depleted adult social care budget. Equally, there have been suggestions of widescale job losses, the Council themselves initially warning of numbers around 400, though that figure has now fallen to 225. And there appears to be little to suggest that these budget cuts are on the decline. According to the Council there will be a need for an estimated £116 million in savings by 2021/22. While austerity may no longer be the word on everybody’s lips, it seems that hand-in-hand with Government commitments to gift local councils more control of services goes the responsibility to fund it for themselves.
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Magnificent Seven Cycle Race returns to the hilly city Josh Peachey News Editor If you thought walking up Conduit Road was a challenge, then think again. The Magnificent Seven cycling event returns for a second time in March where cyclists will be racing up seven notorious Sheffield hill climbs. The race, a cross between a sportive and a hill climb, will take place as one of the headline events of The Outdoor City Weekender, running from Friday March 17 to Sunday March 19 in and around Sheffield: The Outdoor City. The Magnificent Seven route, which is just over 27 miles long, presents each rider with more than 3,800ft of climbing, with inclines ranging from 9 to 23 per cent. Councillor Leigh Bramall, Deputy Leader of Sheffield City Council, said: “As a keen cyclist myself, I’m really looking forward to the second running of The Magnificent
Seven – though I’m not sure I’m fit enough to take part! “It’s not every day that top sportspeople battle it out on residential streets, and I’m sure the event will surely be fantastic fun for riders and spectators alike. The 2017 route will include the infamous Côte de Oughtibridge, which was part of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart. The other challenging climbs include Hangram Lane, Blake Street, West Lane, Hagg Hill, Foxhall Lane and Fern Road/Thrush Street in Walkley, the latter of those being this year’s infamous “cobbled” section of the route. Cyclists will ride with motorbike escorts and lead cars between each of the seven hills, and then gather at the bottom of each of the hills – which will be closed for the event – before racing for points to the summit. The first 15 to the top then receive
points which count towards the grand prize of being crowned King or Queen of the Mountains, for which the winners receive a trophy. Event organiser Marc Etches said: “The highlight of this year’s route is the inclusion of the Cote de Oughtibridge – a really special offering as this was used in the 2014 Tour de France Grande Depart. “The route really showcases Sheffield as The Outdoor City and all the riders will be treated to some spectacular views at the top of every climb – once they’ve caught back their breath back!” Those taking part are set to include last year’s winners, Kieran Wynne-Cattanach and Natalie Creswick along with former professional road cyclist Dean Downing, from Rotherham, who represented Great Britain at the World Track Championships in 2004.
“Two hours of queueing for absolutely nothing” Josh Peachey News Editor
...continued from page 7 Students were left “angry and annoyed” after queuing for hours hoping for tickets to the largest sports event of the year, Varsity Ice Hockey. Whilst a large number of students managed to get their hands on tickets for the Varsity final event, many students found that after hours queuing of hours, tickets had sold out. Sam Koster, third year Journalism student, told Forge Press mid-way through the queuing process: “This is the worst day of my life. I hate myself more than I’ve ever hated myself. I’ve been waiting an hour and a half. The Ice Hockey is the pinnacle of Varsity and I need to be there.” Determined Journalism student Lewis Catchpole said: “We’ve queued for this long, I’m fucking sticking it out.” Sam and Lewis woke up two hours earlier than usual and started
queueing at 9:45am yesterday for the coveted tickets but when they eventually got to the ticket booth, they were told the only chance left for tickets was via an email competition. Students were seen playing the popular boredom-killing phone app Heads Up in the queue to pass the time. The queue started outside the SU on the Concourse and snaked its way through the East Entrance all the way through the corridors and staircases up past the Santander bank and round to the Box Office.
On the fast ticket sell-out, Michael Kind, SU Development Officer, said: “We’re happy that once more Varsity Ice Hockey has proved so popular. We review the ticket process every year, and are conscious that there are issues with the queue system, but currently prefer it to say an online sale, where students would have less of a time window to collect a ticket, and therefore more chance of missing out.” Even with Ice Hockey tickets being sold out there are still tickets available for other Varsity events.
NEWS
SCIENCE & TECH Bird Lovers help scientists study beak evolution Hope Cunninham New Editor Researchers at the University of Sheffield have asked the public to help measure beak shapes from more than 2,000 bird species. Using the crowdsourced data and 3D scans from taken from specimens at the Natural History Museum and the Manchester Museum, the team were able to show the diversity of bird beaks in their evolutionary history. Gavin Thomas, the project lead from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, said: “The shape
of a bird’s beak is an important indicator of the food it eats and the way it forages - its ecological niche. “This project has given us key insight into how evolutionary processes play out over millions of years - with major bursts of evolution as new groups emerge, and more fine scale changes thereafter.” Members of the public can log onto the website, www.markmybird.org (created by the Digital Humanities Institute, Sheffield) which allows anyone to access 3D models of the beaks and help create this new resource of bill shapes.
Student Space Balloon project to reach new heights Hope Cunningham News Editor Sheffield students have won an international competition by designing a low-cost telescope. The REXUS/BEXUS challenge (Rocket Experiments for University Students/Balloon Experiments for University Students), a programme by the European Space Agency programme, was won by a crossfaculty team of students from Civil & Structural Engineering and ACSE. The University of Sheffield’s
project team designed and fabricated a lightweight telescope that will gather data from the Sun’s atmosphere. The telescope will be hoisted up into the Earth’s lower atmosphere, called the troposphere, to observe the Sun by a high altitude helium balloon. The team, dubbed SunbYte (Sheffield University Nova Balloon Lifted Solar Telescope), will use manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing to bring their design come to life and to produce an alternative to large and expensive telescopes.
8 FORGE PRESS
FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2017
NEWS PRIORITISE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH Welfare Officer Anna Mullaney talks to Forge Press about her new campaign to prioritise student mental health...
Everyone should be prioritising our mental health. That means the University, the Students’ Union, the city, the country, the world, the solar system, the universe, etc., as well as you yourselves. You deserve to prioritise your own mental health, even when it doesn’t feel like it. At the moment, I don’t feel that mental health is adequately prioritised by any of the aforementioned groups, whether it is intended to be or otherwise. We live in an incredible city, we study at an amazing institution, and we’re members of an exceptional Union. And yet, we live and breathe in the context of a complex and constant mental health crisis. As your elected Students’ Union Welfare Officer, I feel there’s no welfare issue more utterly ever-present and interwoven into student world than that of our mental health.
“... we live and breathe in the context of a complex and constant mental health crisis.” I do not accept the idea that our generation is just less able to cope with the context around us, as we have seen in some recent media. The ideologies that produce such narratives are easily penetrable and simply disproven. The movement for student mental health should not just be about ensuring the correct support or reactionary approach, but must also begin to consider the causes of the crisis. How have we got here? How have we reached a stage where support services feel bursting at the seams
and the effects of the crisis seems to be crawling into every aspect of university life? It is important to ensure that we help those affected, but we can help them even more by preventing their distress from occurring in the first instance. Many ideas have been thrown into the discussion of how we’ve got here. The context of a cost of living crisis, fees, the marketisation of Higher Education, student poverty, the increasing pressures of employability, graduate prospects, social media and more have all been cited as potential causes. As part of this campaign, we hope to prioritise mental health by conducting a survey, as part of a wider piece of research, to scope the situation of student mental health in Sheffield, and to become more streamlined in our approach. Make sure you keep an eye out for the launch of our survey for your opportunity to feed into this. You’ll see images around the Students’ Union and around the University encouraging you to sleep, eat, exercise and get in touch with friends. These may sound like simple ideas, but we understand how hard it can be to focus on them at certain points in your university life. For example, it may feel like a ridiculous idea to go for a run instead of spending an extra hour on that essay, but I promise you it’s worth it. So, when I say ‘Prioritise Our Mental Health’ I mean it in the broadest sense, because it absolutely is broad. As such, the campaign I’m proud to be launching today has several different facets, but revolves around two key themes: 1. I hope to support you to prioritise your mental health. 2. I hope to persuade everyone else to prioritise our mental health.
Revolutionary poem removes pollution from air Lisa Latham Head of News
•• ‘In Praise of Air’ poem removed two tonnes of nitrogren oxide. •• University researchers are developing more enviornmental projects to remove pollution. The installation of a revolutionary pollution-removing poem by the University of Sheffield has removed over two tonnes of nitrogen oxide from the air. The poem, ‘In Praise of Air’, was written by award-winning writer and Professor of Poetry at the University’s School of English, Simon Armitage. The poem, printed on a material developed by scientists at the University which is coated in titanium dioxide, uses catalytic oxidation to convert pollutants in the atmosphere into harmless molecules when exposed to sunlight. The 20 metre poem exhibition ran from May 2014 to January 2017. Professor Joanna Gavins, who leads the project from the University of Sheffield’s School of English, said: “Pollution is a major problem for the world’s urban areas but so far we as a society haven’t fully adopted any long-term solutions to tackle the problem.
“Scientists, such as my colleagues in Sheffield, are developing technologies to help us clean the environment but it’s the arts and humanities that can help raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire people to adopt altruistic pro-environmental behaviours. “Since the poem was installed in 2014 we’ve been inundated with positive and supportive comments from the community and passers-by. It also generated interest from people all over the world and received worldwide media coverage. We’ve had lots of comments from people who feel it has not only made an impact on the environment but added another cultural landmark to the city.” The team hopes that similar technologies may be replicated on
billboards and artwork worldwide to help tackle pollution, and are currently developing other public poems on environmental issues. They have also been working with Northern Flags, one of the UK’s leading companies in flag design, and Pureti who manufacture photocatalytic products, to begin research into developing aircleansing signs that could be used in fuel station forecourts and roadside advertising. Professor Tony Ryan, who developed the pollution-busting technology at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Chemistry, said: “The project has been really well received both in Sheffield and all over the world. If we could replicate this in every urban area in the UK then we could have much better air quality.”
NHS health apps need further evaluation, says University Hope Cunningham News Editor The NHS could be wasting money on online e-therapies, a new study by the University of Sheffield has found. The study, published in the BMJ, suggested that these e-therapies may not been properly evaluated due to the health provision landscape not being well defined across England. Matthew Bennion, from the Department of Psychology, said: “Right now, NHS England has a huge opportunity to expand mental health care using apps, but to do this successfully it must ensure that common standards apply across its services.” There is an urgent need for
online therapies that aim to tackle depression, anxiety and stress as they have the capacity to help the NHS reduce waiting lists, be more cost effective and reduce pressures on mental health professionals. According to the study, however, because these e-therapies are not used consistently or recommended across England, a ‘postcode lottery’ of service provision has resulted. Furthermore, many apps recommended are also only free in certain areas of England, requiring patients to pay in others. Researchers also found that only one out of the 48 apps examined was aimed specifically at young people. The research highlights that changes must be made to establish
clear guidelines for digital mental health service provisions and to build an evidence base with the purpose of evaluating their effectiveness. The evaluation comes at a crucial time after the Prime Minister announced an expenditure of £67.7 million on digital mental health earlier this year.
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NEWS
Smoke free zones receives strong support from Sheffield Council Josh Peachey News Editor
•• Sheffield Council are making moves towards their long term ‘smokefree city’ initiative After last year’s ban on smoking in Sheffield’s 152 playgrounds, the Council are looking for new ways to reduce the number of people smoking in the city’s public areas. Councillor Mary Lea, Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and Leisure, told Forge Press: “We would like to see the reluctance to smoking come from the grassroots up. We won’t be imposing anything apart from the playgrounds, we will be providing help to create smokefree zones upon request from residents. “If we can get a smoke free city, we could enable people to live much longer healthier lives, the cost to the health service would go down, the social care costs would go down. It’s a long-time project.”
Cllr Lea said that the consultation before the ban on smoking in playgrounds strongly supported the move. She highlighted that it’s more likely that the children will start smoking at some point if smoking is seen as the norm within a community or a family. She said: “We need to prevent people from smoking in the first place. Why on earth would we want our children to have lifetime addictions to anything? Let alone something that is going to kill them, or at least damage their healthy life expectancy.” The Council will be highly supportive of making public events, that happen in parks around the self-titled Outdoor City, smoke-free events. Cllr Lea stressed that she wanted residents to be driving the demand for smoke-free areas. This move will be in addition to all the other anti-smoking initiatives that are already implemented in Sheffield, which include aid for people addicted to smoking and provision of nicotine patches.
•• Sheffield student accomomodation has 600 break-ins in under a year •• 48 per cent of students do not lock main door at night Sheffield’s student accommodation has had 600 break-ins in less than a year, locksmithservice.co.uk has revealed. New crime statistics show that Sheffield is the third most-targeted student city, with 706 recorded burglaries within a one-mile radius of the University of Sheffield’s main campus buildings. Leeds was found to be the second most burgled university area, with 799 incidents, just behind Manchester which leads with 822 student break-ins. The research was revealed by private company locksmithservice. co.uk, who researched crime in 25 university areas, excluding London,
across the UK. 64 per cent of 2000 students surveyed admitted to leaving valuable possessions, electronic items and wallets, in view of windows and doors. 48 per cent of respondents also claimed they didn’t lock their main door before they went to bed. Students have been advised by the Locksmith service to always lock their windows, rooms and doors when leaving their flat. Victor Baron, Managing Director of locksmithservice.co.uk, said: “We therefore urge students among the fun and enjoyment of living with housemates, to safeguard their property and own personal wellbeing by consistently remaining cautious.” Law and French student at the University of Sheffield Zoe Norton, 18, said: “I feel like I should have locked my door when I left for University today. But I always feel safe at University and we live in a nice area.” Last year, the University of Sheffield’s Student Communications team launched
Bison After being hunted out of existence from Canada’s oldest national park, a herd of plains bison were successfully reintroduced to the area last week. According to officials, indigenous groups have welcomed the move of the 16 bison to Banff National park, where their role in the park’s ecosystem will be restored.
Aldi
Figures show there are around 79,200 people who smoke in Sheffield – and tobacco kills about 16 people a week. The council’s budget for tobacco control is £1.1 million and the authority is proposing to move £220,000 from stop smoking services into prevention work, which would focus on warning school children about the dangers
of smoking. Cllr Lea told Forge Press: “We know that if we can prevent people from smoking up until the age of 19, then they are much less likely to start smoking after that age. If we put more resources into prevention, hopefully that will reap some rewards and benefits for us. We must remember that smoking is the biggest killer in this city.”
Sheffield revealed as third most burgled university city Elizabeth Day News Contributor
GOOD WEEK FOR
The German-owned supermarket has overtaken the Co-operative as the fifth largest British supermarket, according to industry data. Research firm Kantar Worldpanel reported that Aldi’s sales rose 12.4 per cent year-onyear in the 12 weeks running up to 29 January, taking its market share to 6.2 per cent and ahead of the Co-op’s 6 per cent. The Germans clearly had a better Christmas break.
Forge Follows the Fornight... Scot-UK Relations After being told they can’t ditch the UK because they’ll leave the EU, and then being dragged out of the EU by the rest of the UK, things are heating up north of the border. The SNP tried to block the UK Government’s Brexit bill last week and it’s clear the Scots aren’t going to go down without a fight. Scottish MSPs are adamant to stay part of the EU single market, an idea that Scottish Secretary David Mundell said “was not impossible.”
3D TV
their student safety and security campaign, Thieves Inc. The campaign consisted of a series of short films on the subject of property theft, safe nights out and scams. MA Zoology Student at the University Aisling Bennett, 22, said: “We’re easy targets aren’t we? Student houses here are really old; they’re easy to break into.” Darnall was revealed to be Sheffield’s most broken into suburb
by The Daily Star’s 2012 Your Right to Know campaign, with 335 burglaries. Councillor Harry Harpham, who represents Darnall, said: “It is very disappointing to get burglaries wherever they are. But I know the police have a very difficult job to do considering we are losing officers due to unfair Government cuts. “
The once thought-to-be telly of the future is now a thing of the past. Two years ago, 3D TVs were everywhere at the CES Trade show but this year, nowhere to be seen. LG and Sony have now joined Samsung in ditching production of the fad, meaning that no major TV manufacturers are selling them.
BAD WEEK FOR
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COMMENT
press.comment@forgetoday.com
Marine le Pen-is back
M
Matt Wickens Arts Editor
arine Le Pen formally kicked off her campaign for the French presidency last Sunday.
Polls are currently predicting she’s going to do well in her race for victory in the Élysée Palace, with some suggesting she may win 25% of the vote in the first round of voting on 23 April. Front National, the party she has led over the past six years, has not looked closer to victory since 2002 when Marie’s father Jean Marie Le Pen won in the first round of ballots, only to be defeated in the second. Following the terrible terror attacks that have rocked France in recent years and the success of both Brexit in this country and Trump in America, it really seems that the time for Front National is now.
To save a descent into political punditry about France, it’s important to highlight the substance of what Le Pen actually says. She claims that France currently faces the threats of two totalitarianisms: the threat of globalization and the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. “The divide”, she said “is not between the left and right anymore but between patriots and globalists.”
“Le Pen’s campaign heavily plagiarises both the UKIP Leave campaign and Trump’s romp to the White House.” “Financial globalization and Islamist globalization are helping each other out… Those two ideologies want to bring France
to its knees.” Le Pen’s campaign is heavily plagiarising both the UKIP Leave campaign and Trump’s romp to the White House, plodding over the same familiar themes to similar audiences. Now that far right parties have found a recipe for success, they seem to be content to rinse and repeat it as often as possible. And here Le Pen is no exception. Le Pen is a cardboard ultraconservative, cutting her figure out of the blobs left behind by Trump and Farage in the clumsy hope that repeating the same ideas in front of similar people will bear similar good rewards. The far-right is running out of imagination, and, even if Le Pen should win in France this May, that will precipitate them running out policy success in Government. It will not be long before electorates start to realise that these empty empresses and
Hundreds dead in tragic shooting by out of control Alt-Right gunman The menace of the Alt-Right needs to be stopped, and thanks to this convenient massacre we can do just that Michael Chilton Comment Editor
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bviously there can only be one story that has to be covered in this edition of Forge by Comment. The tragic terrorist attack that killed 174 innocent Americans in Louisiana at a busy shopping mall was an assault on our very way of life. This is evidence that the Alt-Right has gotten to a point where we cannot stand idly by and allow this travesty to happen. It is time to take drastic, knee jerk action against this entire subsection of society before it’s too late. With Steve Bannon, the suspected man behind the brutal attack, still at large it is especially pertinent that we round up every alt-right affiliate we can identify through our extensive surveillance state. Of course the above is farce. A poor attempt at irony by a selfsatisfied Comment Editor to introduce the post-fact, alt-news
hell-scape we now live in. Once you have tried it yourself you can understand why so many do it for their profession. It doesn’t even require much imagination to partake. In the case above, for example, I just changed some numbers and location and hey presto! I have my very own
politically charged outraged tragedy to market to the masses to justify whatever I want. To continue the worrying trend of quoting despots and tyrants I have begun, I believe it was Abraham Lincoln* who said, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually
they will believe it”. This adage seems to aptly describe many of the more infamous political campaigns of the past year.
“These stories don’t require nuance, elaborate context or background knowledge. We can digest them in isolation of anything else” After all, how can anything, particularly the truth, compare? These stories don’t require nuance, elaborate context or background knowledge. We can digest them in isolation of anything else. I won’t lie it is certainly enticing, a guilty indulgence we can all fall prey to if we allow it. To atone for my quoting of all round bastards maybe some redemption can be found for me, and society at large with the
words of, I believe, George Bush Junior*: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”. While there may be those that valiantly pitch us fake news, the fact we can see it as such should be a victory not worth forgetting. The true crisis will be when we can no longer distinguish truth from fiction. At least for now however that has not happened. Or has it? Depending on who you attribute certain quotes to that is up to you...
*These attributions are alt-atts and may not be entirely accurately quoted.
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COMMENT
COMMENT DEBATES
The Pulp-Pit the soap-box of the common people
Having now been at university for at least 6 months, what would you have done differently? Our Comment Editor Michael questions how fucked he is as he travels to visit the Wizard of Oz with his new-found friends.
How Fucked Are We? Will and Michael have a fundamental disagreement over just how royally screwed we are in this age of uncertainty
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ARGUING FOR Michael Chilton Comment Editor
ith the horrendous spit roast of Trump and Brexit, among all the other catastrophes occurring around us, it shouldn’t be that hard to argue that we are indeed screwed/fucked/doomed or whatever other word in the English language that you think will do it justice. There is no way we can make light of our current predicament, the situation is dire. As a fellow
“The whole point
is everything is in the air, nothing is certain, and no one is in complete control.” 2016 PTSD sufferer I am cautious to embrace any hopeful news in 2017. And (as I have highlighted in past issues) this isn’t a freak event but a downward trend that has only just begun.
Fear not though, this isn’t a fate that means the end of all. Let the immortal words of our beloved Mao ring out, “everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent”. Mao knew this, even when China was in disarray, torn apart by civil war and being invaded by Japan, he saw the opportunity. Unfortunately, that opportunity resulted in unimaginable suffering for the people of China, but it was on his terms. In this same vein we should not fear this impending chaos but embrace it, seize it and own it. From this chaos can emerge the best (and, yes, the worst) outcomes. The whole point is everything is in the air, nothing is certain, and no one is in complete control. With this in mind let us resurrect the defiant rhetoric of yesteryear and man the old barricades. That spirit is the most powerful thing we have now and we can use it to ensure that all the seemingly endless crap that’s happened, and is likely yet to happen, is not in vain. Comrades, a spectre is haunting the world, a spectre of an imminant fucking. Let us make the most of it.
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ARGUING AGAINST Will Morgan Comment Editor
he fires of the dread legion rises before us, fanned by evil and hatred. An evil flyaway haired man stands atop an ivory tower and speaks an unintelligible language to an equally unintelligent crowd.
Wait, never mind, I thought this was a piece on Lord of the Rings. If you were caught up by my bamboozlings, you’re probably of the same ilk that sees every success of the ‘alt-right’ as the beginning of some History channel documentary about Hitler’s rise to power. However, 2017 is not the not the new 1939. Whilst the populist success of xenophobic political strongmen in a period of economic instability might appear to be similar, it is in fact just a universal symptom of widespread inequality and unrest within a broken system. A minority of humanity has chosen fear and conservatism over hope and progress at every time of major turbulence from the revolutions of Caesar to the coup of Augusto Pinochet. It is a
natural human reaction to want to retreat behind a wall when your leaders identify the other/foreign as the cause of your increasingly unstable position. However, we live in an age of unprecedented instant global communication. Mass protest and revolution can be organised in moments through social media, the lies of the powerful can be fact-checked from your phone, and a million critical memes can be created and shared instantaneously. We have the power to set the narrative in a completely new way. We can identify the classist structures of society, and those who exacerbate and take advantage of this structure, as other/foreign to the individual. We can ensure that injustice and prejudice dominates the news cycle, rather than fearmongering ideologues. We can make sure that the tyrannous and fearful conviction of the minority remains just that, a minority opinion. We are not fucked. We have been given the tools with which to fuck.
“I would have stuck to my own degree, rather than taking ill-advised optional modules (French)” - Laura Mulvey, 3rd year
“I wish I had discovered Corp sooner...” - Michael Chilton, 3rd year
“I wouldn’t have bought all of my course texts, turns out they’re all either free or in the library” - Beth Andralojc, 3rd year
“All accents are equal and get involved with as many societies as possible” - Will Morgan, 3rd year
“Get out and see as much of Sheffield as you can. Places like Kellam Island have so much to offer” -Suzie Cameron, 3rd year
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COMMENT
press.comment@forgetoday.com
We’re not okay, Emo is the defining genre of the early 2000s In the early years of the new millenium, a genre of music appeared that was ridiculed by mainstream society for its melodrama and seeming hyperbole. Will Morgan Comment Editor
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hen the Twin Towers fell on September 11 2001, the Western world’s sense of invulnerability and collective identity was changed forever. At the time, bands like Linkin Park and Nickelback topped the charts with their safely a-political message of vague and vapid anger, but they no longer occupied the territory of the rebellious youth as punk rock bands like The Offspring did before them. It is in the shadow of 9/11 that post-hardcore/post-punk/emo bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Jimmy Eat World came to dominate the youth counterculture of the early 00s. As the US scrambled to figure out what had brought their American Dream shattering around their ears, writer Hunter S. Thompson astutely realised the consequence of such an ideological attack on US soil in
saying: “Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.” 9/11 marked a change in perception, from the 90s obsession with self-identity and self-expression to the contemporary obsession with the identity of other people. An
do you escape the all classifying eye of social judgement? The answer must have seemed obvious to Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance frontman), as he watched the towers fall. You identify self through the aesthetic of emotion, a sense of inexplicable all-pervading sadness. This sadness can be as exaggerated and melodramatic as
it likes, because events like 9/11 (and the illegal invasion of Iraq) are events of such catastrophic human tragedy and sadness that normal emotion becomes an inefficient expression of grief. This is how the emo genre made it onto the album charts, despite its seeming opposition to pop music of the period. This extreme of emotion was not individual but
collective, emo offered an outlet through which people could express the pain of just existing in such a world.
“It is in the shadow of 9/11 that bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Jimmy Eat World came to dominate the youth counterculture” example of this would be the US PATRIOT Act, so titled as to implicate anyone that did not support it as unpatriotic. But what if you couldn’t identify with any of the socially sanctioned identity roles, or the system that purports them? How
Students of the world unite and: Josh Berlyne Political Theory MA student
F
inal year students up and down the country are taking action against the Government’s latest round of higher education reforms. 25 students’ unions have voted to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS) including both Sheffield universities, Oxford and Cambridge.
The action is being organised by the NUS and is supported by the lecturers’ union, the UCU. The NSS plays a central role in the Government reforms. By refusing to fill in the survey, students will disrupt the
reforms, giving the leverage needed to enter negotiations with the Government and force concessions. The demands of the boycott are simple: the Government must withdraw the reforms laid out in the Higher Education and Research Bill, and it must sever the link between the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and tuition fees. Next year, fees for new undergraduate students at Sheffield will rise to £9,250.
By 2020, this figure could be £10,000 — possibly even higher. How far the University can raise fees in the future will depend on its NSS scores, its dropout rates, and its graduate employment figures. These are the measurements the Government is using in the TEF to assess teaching quality. Yet none of them directly measure teaching quality. Moreover, the TEF is implicated in the Government’s assault on migrants. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said she will crack down
on ‘lower quality’ universities recruiting international students. The TEF is the likely tool for this job. Early indicators suggest Sheffield won’t perform too well on the TEF. While that might mean fees not rising quite so quickly for prospective students, for graduates it means your degree won’t be worth quite so much. And for the University, it means squeezed budgets. It means bigger class sizes, overfilled libraries, and overworked teachers. But this issue is bigger than just Sheffield. The future of public university education as a whole is uncertain. The announcement on Monday that
the student loan book will be sold off puts graduates in an uncertain position. And with TEF, Brexit and the rising tide of xenophobia, international students’ futures are uncertain too. Some public universities may even be forced to close under these reforms. The Government has been clear that it will not step in if this happens. It wants private universities — which value profit, rather than scholarship — to take their place. Universities and students have been put in an impossible situation by the Government’s reforms. That’s why we need to boycott the NSS.
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Blah Blah Bland
“There is something about the power of the human voice that means it has to be witnessed in the flesh”
A
Hugh Dickinson Sports Editor
h… La La Land. A film so conveniently timed for the Oscars that you’re surprised it doesn’t star Leonardo DiCaprio.
January’s all-singing alldancing forget-about-Trump spectacular sees obnoxious but good looking bell-end Seb fall for unrepentant cheat Mia, in what can only be described as a sickening Hollywood love story ruined by the protagonists’ early onset mid-life crises.
“The musical numbers were superb, the plot delicately bittersweet, and even the characters’ flaws became endearing” But don’t let my inherent cynicism mislead you. I loved it! The musical n u m b e r s were superb, the plot delicately bittersweet, and even the characters’ flaws became endearing. Hollywood is full of less-thanperfect heroes – who wants to see Bruce Wayne drop his selfobsessed vigilante alter-ego so that he can spend his billions on a social programme to reduce Gotham’s crippling inequality? Seb and Mia are just more people we’d hate in real life but love on screen. And that’s why I can’t wait to see La La Land on stage. It’s where musicals belong. This obsession with putting musicals on the silver screen is one that forgets what the genre is all about. Film and TV lend themselves to subtle acting, the sort that needs close ups of body language and facial expression, the
sort that can’t be seen from the back row of the upper circle. The stage needs energy! The big, the
“why would we want to watch a musical in the cinema? ” brash and the spectacular. In short, all the characteristics that musicals have in abundance. There is something about the power of the human voice that means it has to be witnessed in the flesh. We all accept that watching Glastonbury via the red button is not the same as being there, so why would we want to watch a musical in the cinema? Even if the latter does lack the added deterrent of Reggie Yates. And let’s not forget, musicals on screen are normally lip synched, reducing even further the connection between performer and audience that gives the theatre that special je ne sais quoi. The lip synching issue becomes even more prevalent when you pick superstar actors in place of specialist musical
performers. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling made a good fist of the singing in La La Land, but they had to pre-record for fear of ending up like Russell Crowe in Les Misérables, wandering through the streets of Paris whilst squawking like a seagull with a vuvuzela stuck in its larynx. The big dance numbers too are far less impressive on screen than stage. Yes, Ryan Gosling did learn to tap dance to a passable level, but you watch the scene with the knowledge that he probably had 20 takes and would melt under the pressure of performing it flawlessly first time in front of a live audience. The opening scene too would have left the audience awestruck had it been done in one fell swoop in a theatre, rather than cut footage that likely took a couple of afternoons to shoot. Musicals were developed for the theatre and they should stay in the theatre. As brilliant as La La Land was, it will never be a classic until it hits Broadway.
COMMENT
Stoner scum
Cannabis SHOULD be illegal
Get your pitchforks ready Andrew Zahorodny English Literature student
H
ave you noticed that the people who most vocally support cannabis legalisation are just pretty dull? Let’s face it, the most fervent advocacy for legalising dank is located in a demographic of young people that don’t even use alarm clocks.
In the immortal words of the Frank Ocean interlude, “When people become weed-heads they become sluggish, lazy, stupid and unconcerned”. Weed culture promotes an attitude of nonchalance and general happiness which inevitably morphs into depression, paralysis and an inability to really do anything productive. If weed doesn’t sap motivation then why hasn’t the campaign to legalise it succeeded yet? Maybe because its members are too busy living in communes, declaring all private property theft (particularly plants).
“the “420 blaze it dank chronic everyday son” lifestyle is simply unsustainable” Weed can be fun. In general, drugs can be fun. That’s why they continue to exist. However the “420 blaze it dank chronic everyday son” lifestyle is simply unsustainable. Waking up to a joint sends you back to sleep, getting out of bed is dictated by
where the Doritos are and you find yourself halfway through third year without even a clear idea of exactly what your course is about. It is impossible to live this way unless you are some kind of Argentinean drug lord, which would be evident in the text. What would actually happen if weed were legal? It would probably become more expensive, something already seen in states like Colorado where many people prefer to continue buying marijuana illicitly rather than at overpriced dispensaries. Consider the effect of legalisation on the culture of weed consumption, the very culture which is invoked as support for the legalisation campaign. The culture of dealers competing with each other for the dankest bud “10/10 amnesia phat bags” would be replaced with streamlined millennial advertising. I for one would rather buy my drugs from a scrawny man in an Adidas sweatshirt blaring grime out of a Ford Fiesta, than from an online store called iW33d or something equally shit. In practice, legalisation would be tantamount to converting stoner culture into vape culture which, I think we can all agree, is something to be deeply ashamed of. This model of legal drug sale would solve many of the criminal issues associated with drug trade. However legalization is also the completion of a process whereby weed culture is assimilated fully into the capitalist superstructure which, as your average Legalizeit! hashtag user will tell you, is the real crime….man.
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FEATURES
press.features@forgetoday.com
Dropping the guard of
Guilt
Restorative Justice. It’s a phrase we’re starting to hear more and more. But what is it and can it actually work?
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Emma Jones Contributor
he year 2016 was a big one for Sheffield based charity Remedi; They celebrated their 20th anniversary, had actor Michal Palin become a new patron, and won the prestigious Howard League for Penal Reform’s ‘Organisation of the Year’ Award. Impressive feats for a charity whose first head office was a converted toilet in Lowedges. They’re a charity that provides restorative justice initiatives, helping victims to move on from the damage a crime has done to their lives, and offenders to understand the impact of their actions. According to a recent report, using
they leave. A criminal case that received much attention was James Hodgkinson, 28, who was killed by just a single punch while out clubbing with his friends in Nottingham six years ago. The offender, Jacob Dunne, was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to 30 months in prison. However, when he was released he wrote an article for the Huffington post where he said he was “definitely not rehabilitated by his time inside.” He went on to talk about his experience with restorative justice, something he had never heard of before, and said it was the catalyst for his change in behaviour and the way in which he saw the world. The victim’s parents, Joan Scourfield and David Hodgkinson, approached the charity Remedi with a view towards having some contact with Jacob: “They needed answers about the incident and I was the only person who could provide those answers,” Jacob wrote in the same article. Two years of indirect communication eventually led to a meeting between Jacob and James’ parents, facilitated by Remedi, and proved not only an opportunity for explanation and apology, but a life-changing turning point on both sides. Before the meeting, Jacob admits that he saw himself as a victim in the situation, his imprisonment as the result of what he saw as an unplanned mistake, making him bitter and angry. It was only upon meeting the parents of James that he was able to appreciate the true impact of his actions, and how detrimental it was for him to view himself as the victim. This led to frequent contact between the three, Joan and David even encouraging Jacob to recommence his education, and taking an interest in what he was doing with his life, much to his surprise. As a result of his work with Remedi, Jacob is now studying for a degree in criminology, and working with Joan and David on a campaign to raise awareness of how easy it is to kill a person unintentionally (these are called one-punch killings) in order to prevent similar events. Remedi, and many other restorative justice charities are very clear that participation in a restorative justice process must be voluntary for everyone involved. Both parties, victim and offender, are contacted by the organisation and have to opt in to the service, and can proceed in any way they see fit, either having direct or indirect contact with the other party. Public concern about the practice comes in the
“It just feels like I got my life back. I’ve been scared to go out ever since it happened and that’s gone.” Clare, victim of assault, Remedi user. restorative justice leads to a 25 per cent increase in non-reoffending among criminals. Restorative Justice is now a vital part of today’s legal system but yet only a small number of us know that the practice actually exists. To put it simply- restorative justice is ‘a system of criminal justice which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large,’ and examples of such have been emerging in mainstream media, with documentary programs like Panorama’s ‘Meet the Burglars’ highlighting even the more extreme cases in which the families of murder victims are able to meet and attempt some form of reconciliation with the murderer. However, most cases are typically not quite as intense, at least on the surface. For instance: a young offender who has burgled a house can be given the opportunity to write a letter (with the victims’ consent) to explain why they did what they did and apologise. This sounds like only a small action, but can be enough to ease the mind of the victims who in some cases believe there was a specific reason they were personally burgled and begin to feel unsafe in their own homes. The concept of having the opportunity to explain and apologise may seem basic, something most learn as children, and so it seems crazy that it is not part of the basic justice system, to give victims and offenders this opportunity. For many, punishment alone is not enough to change someone’s behaviour, and the connections a person makes in prison can often lead them to commit even worse crimes when
worry that one party will have ulterior motives: either revenge from the victim or a chance to gloat on the part of the offender. However, the risk assessments and checks put in place make this incredibly rare. In fact, 99 per cent of victims report satisfaction with their experience, and 89 per cent of offenders say it has motivated them not to reoffend (source: Remedi statistical data 2016). That is the important thing to remember: based purely on the statistics, restorative justice works. Often the victim has been able to recover more quickly than they would have, and even to forgive the person who has wronged them. It can be cast in a dim light, which is why the positive effects on the victims rather than the positive effects on the offender are often given most attention. Language like “getting away with it” and “softening of the legal system” is used by detractors, and this really fails to address the point of this kind of initiative. When the current system leads to a growing prison population, high-rates of reoffending and a lack of funds available to deal with these problems, then why immediately condemn solutions to these problems before they have been given a chance to prove their effectiveness?
“I have been in and out of prison for the last 25 years. This RJ thing was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The thought of it terrified me. Prison was never a problem to me, but for the first time in my life, this is made me really think.”
John, multiple convictions for burglary and theft, Remedi user.
It is also well worth noting that according to the Ministry of Justice, for every £1 spent on restorative justice, £8 of public money is saved. It is also however important to add that the process may not always be about offering forgiveness to the offender. Victims are motivated to take part for a whole host of reasons- from simply wishing to express the impact the offence has had on them, to seeking answers to questions they have about what happened, and why. Likewise offenders have varying motivations for taking part: to make recompense, to offer an apology from a genuine place of remorse and as Arian, a convicted burglar and Remedi user explained: “It was the least I could do.”
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press.features@forgetoday.com
Women’s Invisible Work
In countries across the world, the ways in which men and women spend their time is unbalanced. Men spend more time working for money whereas women do the bulk of unpaid work - cooking, cleaning and child care. But does society pay when women’s work is unpaid? Katharine Swindells explores.
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I
n his Golden Globes acceptance speech last month, Ryan Gosling thanked his partner Eva Mendes for raising their daughter and helping her terminally ill brother whilst he had been filming, explaining “if she hadn’t have taken all that on... it would surely be someone else up here other than me today.” This piece of his speech has been lauded as both horribly sexist and a feminist breakthrough by everyone who wants a piece of the pie. Either way, his words reflect something key in today’s society. Many people attribute a huge amount of credit to successful men, while very rarely recognise that most could not have got where they are without a woman doing upaid, and at times uncredited, work behind the scenes. Feminism has long realised that women deserve equal pay for equal work. It hasn’t yet been achieved, but it’s long acknowledged. But what about the work that’s not paid? What about the five million women in the United States alone, who work over 95 hours a week for nothing? Or even working mothers who, it has been calculated,
work almost 60 hours a week, on top of their waged-job. This unpaid work includes everyday, yet crucial, tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and child care. Studies show that girls in the US, on average, do two hours a week of chores more than boys, but boys were 15 percent more likely to be paid for their chores. As Marxist feminist scholar and key member of the 1970s Wages for Housework movement Silvia Federici wrote in her book Wages Against Housework, the way housework is presented as a natural attribute of women devalues their work because it makes their demands personal, rather than professional. Because housework is unwaged, women demanding respect and rights “are seen as nagging bitches, not workers in struggle.” The women for whom the unequal burden of unpaid labour has arguably the most dire consequences, are not Eva Mendes, or middle-class housewives, but girls in parts of the developing world who take on caring responsibilities from a young age. In this case, it’s less about the economic cost of their labour, than the opportunities that they lose. For the hours a day a girl in India spends helping her mother cook and clean, she has to sacrifice something else, and that something else. And that something else is almost always education. Education is the greatest tool to lift women and girls, and by extension, whole communities, out of poverty. Yet 95 per cent of the poorest girls in Somalia have never been to school - because they are required to prioritise their role in the home.
FEATURES There is concrete action that can be taken. Investment in girl’s education worldwide, as well as fixing the issues that make caring so much more difficult, such as limited access to water and healthcare, would allow women and girls in developing countries to gain control of their own time. On a worldwide scale, the size of the role the state takes in assisting parents makes a huge difference in the way the work is distributed in families, shifting much of the load from the mother. There is increasing numbers of families that go against this pattern: stay-at-home fathers, separated parents who take it in turns to take the children, or families with same-gender parents. Of course, it isn’t true that fathers never contribute at home, nor that taking care of children and the household is necessarily ‘harder’ than the job of the breadwinner. But very often, the women may bear the brunt of the dirty work. In the Western World, there’s a huge argument for changing legislation on maternity and paternity leave the United States has the lowest parental leave of any developed nation and no government mandate for paid leave. Although the UK is more progressive, parental leave is still seen as a mother’s duty. In fact, there are campaigns urging the United Kingdom to follow Sweden’s example by paying parental leave for longer, paying a higher amount and allowing for more equal distribution of parental leave. When a father is only allowed minimal paternity leave, like the two weeks he is allowed in the UK, it can set an immediate precedent that the mother is the primary caregiver, and reinforces the idea that childcare is a natural skill for women. Parental leave is also intrinsically tied to wage inequality between women and men. Even if the law does allow unpaid parental leave to be shared between the parents, it’s highly likely that the man is the higher earner, and therefore, the family will give up more money if he takes time off work. Also, when parental leave is almost entirely placed on the mother, she is likely to encounter setbacks in her career, as a result of the time she takes off. Legislation that allows for the fair distribution of parental leave could make a significant impact on equal pay and women’s advancement in the workforce. The idea of a universal basic income, that would give every citizen a regular amount of money
Women’s unpaid work: The statistics • Recent estimates show unwaged work contributes as much as £739 billion to the British economy (Office of National Statistics) • Two-thirds of women working 45% of women work over 40 hours a week doing waged jobs. 10% work over 50 hours. (Guardian) • Women in waged work with young children do 46 hours a week of housework (childcare, cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, gardening/DIY) compared to 25 hours by men. (Omnibus Survey) • Women’s average full-time weekly earnings are 72% of men’s. (New Earnings Surveys)
regardless of their job status or earnings, could make a change to the degradation of women’s work. It would recognise their unpaid labour, and give them a salary of sorts for it. And perhaps this opens up a wider question, as to why we link worth to monetary value. Why are male chefs lauded (and highly paid) for their work, but cooking in the home, which is primarily done by women, devalued? There are steps that the state can take to support mothers, but beyond that, we need cultural change. We need to challenge the norms and redefine how we value work. Women’s time is equally valuable to men not only in the workplace where they deserve equal pay, but also when it comes to unpaid labour.
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press.features@forgetoday.com
ygge (pronounced hoo-gah) is a Danish word for making ordinary, everyday moments meaningful or special, basically it’s a fancy word for enjoying the simple things in life. Whether it’s turning the mundane routine of making a coffee into enjoying a cup during a cozy evening with friends or lighting candles in your room to give it a warm glow, it’s just about being aware of a good moment, even if it’s just a simple thing. Some refer to hygge as an “art of creating intimacy”; this can be with yourself, friends or your home. While there’s no one English word to describe hygge, several can be used interchangeably to describe the idea of hygge such as coziness, happiness, security, familiarity, comfort, reassurance and simplicity. The Danish created hygge because they were trying to survive their long, cold, dark winters and the indefinable feeling of hygge was a way for them to find moments to celebrate and to therefore break up the day, months or years. With so many cold dark days, a simple home-cooked meal shared with friends can make a huge difference to one’s spirit. By creating simple rituals without effort, the Danes treat domestic and personal life as an art form. They incorporate hygge into their daily life so it becomes a natural extension, rather than a forced and stressful event. Now, the simpler lifestyle is in demand by thousands as social media, magazines and celebrities are talking about it. According to the 2016 World Happiness Report, Denmark
ranked as the world’s happiest country and this can be attributed to hygge. Meik Wiking, the author of The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living, believes this: “The Danes are exceptionally good at decoupling wealth and well-being.” “We focus on the small things that really matter, including spending more quality time with friends and family and enjoying the good things in life.” Wiking, who is also CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, explains
you can cancel that spin class and treat yourself to a new pair of fluffy socks and have a cozy Friday night in with a glass of wine and candles. If, like me, you promised yourself 2017 would be your healthy year but you’re still feeling those extra pigs in blankets from Christmas, then start your ‘new year new me’ mantra with practicing hygge with this manifesto.
Atmosphere
New New
Already broken your new year healthy resolutions? Features editor Jessica Davis investigates the latest popular Danish lifestyle trend.
that hygge has been called everything from “the art of creating intimacy,” to “coziness of the soul.” In his book, Wiking explains that you know hygge when you feel it, but that some of the key ingredients are togetherness, relaxation, indulgence, presence and comfort. “The true essence of hygge is the pursuit of everyday happiness and it’s basically like a hug, just without the physical touch,” he says. The whole idea of hygge is a new type of healthy lifestyle we haven’t seen before, as it doesn’t involve any guilt of not going to the gym every morning or having an extra cheesy pizza instead of a salad. Instead,
Hygge is incomplete without a collection of flickering light, as 85 per cent of Danes
answered candles when asked what they associate most with hygge. They light their homes with golden flames in each rooms, as well as business boardrooms and school classrooms. For some, this would fill our heads with ‘fire hazard’ alarm bells, but this is part of the everyday for Danes, as they burn about 13 pounds of candle wax every year.
Presence Hygge is all about appreciating the here and now, so turning off your laptop, phone or tablet is essential to appreciate the full effect of hygge. According to a study last year, we spend almost an entire day a week just on Facebook. Experts say this is due to FOMO, on what friends are getting up to and users tend to
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FEATURES check the app most before they go to bed. Hygge focuses on your own surroundings, meaning you compare yourself less to others and focus on your own personal happiness and environment.
Pleasure Whether you love chocolate cake or chicken nuggets, hygge says indulging in our favourite foods is good for us. So say yes to that glass of red and sit back and enjoy. It’s suggested that the high level of meat, cakes, and coffee consumption in Denmark is directly linked to hygge. From a culinary perspective, hygge is about giving you a break from the demands of healthy living, but taking time to bake, savour, and enjoy
Be considerate of others who don’t have it as good and you will learn to appreciate your own surroundings.
Harmony It is easy to get lost in other peoples achievements and put yourself down as a consequence. Instead remind yourself everything is not a competition and likewise don’t brag about yourself and your own achievements; your family and friends
Togetherness
Year, Hygge.
Hygge encourages you to build on existing relationships and building narratives with the people you love and care about the most. Reminiscing old times with your close friends is good for the soul and fills you with happy nostalgic memories.
Shelter
Your space is filled with security and peace. Wiking suggests a hyggekrog, which roughly translates to “a nook.” So, create your safe place to snuggle up with a warm blanket, a good book and sip tea.
the process of it. A hearty stew or a bowl of popcorn is recommended, shared from the same bowl, and other sharing foods that feel like a true indulgence—like a food hug, if there were such a thing.
Equality This involves changing your perception towards more ‘we’ over ‘me’. Hygge says that we can get happiness from sharing tasks with others and equaling the workload. Helping can go a long way and is even better when someone else returns the favour.
Gratitude Be thankful for everything you have, whether it’s the luxury of hot food or the health of your friends and family.
already like you so there is no need to massage your own ego.
Comfort Get comfy; take a break because it is all about relaxation. Hygge calls for a comfy blanket [you don’t have to ask me twice - Ed.] and curling up with a good book. Fluffy socks, leggings, a jumper, even having your hair out of your face is suggested to feel the most hygge. Lazy Sundays with no guilt will never feel so good.
Truce Practicing hygge means a drama free zone. Free yourself from everyday gossip and drama and focus on the important things.
When life feels a little bit stressful, hygge is a way to practice self-care that feels sincere. It’s not preachy, nor does it tell me to rid yourself of chocolate, Netflix or fill your time with painful gym workouts. And the best part is that it doesn’t cost a fortune to follow the life style—you can simply pull on a pair of comfy pajamas and know that they’ve kindled the ultimate happiness. Hygge is a whole culture of wellbeing that promises change from the stress of everyday life into a more calm, accepting and chilled out way of life.
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LIFESTYLE Done with Romance? Sheffield’s Valentine’s Day Alterntaives
press.lifestyle@forgetoday.com
LIFESTYLE DISCOVERS
FEATURE
Lifestyle Editor Florence Mooney explores alternative nights out for Valentine’s Day
F
or singletons, Valentine’s Day is a day to spend alone, being tragically reminded of how single they are. For those in relationships, Valentine’s day is an over-priced panic of trying to find a gift and plan an evening good enough to show their significant other they care, whilst not breaking the student budget. No-one wins. So remove the romance, and just celebrate with one of Sheffield’s alternative Valentine’s Day events.
The Tuesday Club Valentine’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year, so the obvious choice of a night out would obviously be The Tuesday Club at the SU. On Valentine’s Day it is the turn of The Heatwave to bring their dancehall beats to Sheffield. TTC is always a good night, and with tickets still going trade your Prosecco for predrinks and you’re guaranteed a good alternative Valentine’s night.
Soul Jam Swapping their normal Thursday night slot for a Tuesday in light of Valentine’s Day, The Harley is
hosting the ever popular Soul Jam. Always pulling in large crowds in every city it hits touring around the country, with massive disco, soul and funk tunes playing out until 4am, what is there not to love about Soul Jam? The Harley is always a brilliant venue due to its small and intimate size, and with massive hits all night long, it is hard not to enjoy. The night is frequently sold out at The Harley but this special show still has a few tickets going, so it’s worth seeing if you can grab one.
Leadmill On Tuesday, Leadmill’s successful Cinematic is back. Previously showing classics such as Pulp Fiction, Home Alone and Clueless, for Valentine’s Day they’re bringing everybody’s favourite Shakespearean adaptation 10 Things I Hate About You. If you haven’t already seen this late 90s classic, it is a modernised adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, starring Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It is witty and charming and will warm the heart of even the bitter enemy of Valentine’s Day. Following the screening, the Leadmill are hosting a silent disco, which is always a good shout as you can pick what you actually want to dance to rather than just go with the sole option of the speakers.
Sheffield Wednesday vs Blackburn If a big night out isn’t your cup
of tea on Valentine’s Day, why not head down to Hillsborough Stadium to watch Sheffield Wednesday take on Blackburn? Whilst the Owls are near the top of the Championship, Blackburn are currently sitting in the relegation zone. With a win likely, the atmosphere will be good on the Sheffield side and there is unlikely to be any Valentine’s Day reminders prominent around the stadium.
The Secret Lives of Dogs For those who would rather just stay at home and avoid Valentine’s Day all together, The Secret Lives of Dogs is on ITV. This is a show following dogs, how they become such good working companions for humans and why they really are man’s best friend. Anyway, who needs love when they have a dog?
TATTOO CORNER HELENA VENEBLES
Lifestyle’s regular section exploring the University of Sheffield’s Best Student Ink.
I
really enjoy body art and this is one of my favourite tattoos I have. It’s inspired by the cover of Belladonna by Stevie Nicks. On the album cover, Stevie Nicks is dressed in white holding a bird and by her feet there is three flowers behind a tambourine which is the basis of the idea of my tattoo. I love stick and poke tattoo designs and this one fits that criteria. I also love music, which is what this tattoo represents to me. I don’t think tattoos need to have a deep background meaning to them, but should instead just be something you enjoy and you think is beautiful, For me, I mainly just thought this was arty and pretty and enjoyed the way it looked.
Do you want to be featured? Fire us an email! press.lifestyle@ forgetoday.com
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FRIDAY 10 February 2017
Czeching out Prague
LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE LOVES
TRAVEL
By Florence Mooney
Lifestyle Editor Florence Mooney shares her favourite bits about the Czech capital.
Coats, coats, coats. It’s not news that the north is wet and rainy, so a thick winter cost is a must. Puffer jackets are everywhere this winter, but definitely worth investing in and both practicality and style.
E
urope offers so many beautiful capital cities, c’mon, with pints as cheap as 80p, Prague has to be the most student budget friendly. The first place worth czeching out is the beautiful Old Town Square. The striking Astronomical Clock was built back in 14th Century and looks like it’s been pulled straight out of Harry Potter. With numerous hands and dials, it’s almost impossible to read the time. The rest of the square is surrounded by a similar array of 15th Century buildings which could have been picked out of a fairytale. Move out of the old town towards Vltava River and you will be greeted by Charles Bridge, Prague’s most iconic landmark. The bridge is normally swamped with tourists, so the best time to visit is at sunrise. Compared to the hundreds of people pushing through in the mid-afternoon, you’ll be sharing the bridge with only a handful of other people. And the picturesque skyline is definitely worth watching the sunrise over. If you don’t fancy waking up early, just wait up after a to end a big night and see this beautiful landmark before heading
FASHION
Photo: Urban outfitters to bed. Carrying on across the bridge, the next landmark worth visiting is the John Lennon Wall It’s one of the newer landmarks in Prague and really inspirational. Everyone is encouraged to write messages of hope, inspiration and love across the wall, and the end effect is striking explosion of colour which will definitely be on the Instagram of anyone who visits Prague. Prague is definitely worth visiting for its array of culture: there’s the fascinating castle complex that has stood over the city for hun-
dreds of years; the National Gallery which has an impressive collection of Picasso and Monet; and even the tiny Museum of Communism behind Wenceslas Square. But Prague should also be admired for it’s amazing array of bars and nightlife. The city is covered with bars and pubs, with a pint of the native Pilsner often costing less than a pound and available on every street corner. The best place to enjoy a traditional Prague pint is Letna Beer Garden which has an amazing view across the city to enjoy a beer in the late afternoon.
Once you’ve enjoyed a couple of pints, the nightlife has much to offer. Special mention must go to Karlovy Láznĕ, which has five floors, each covering a different genre of music, and Radost FX, where in 2007 Rihanna filmed the music video to ‘Don’t Stop the Music’. Iconic. Few cities have both the small town charm and big city bustle of Prague, which makes it definitely one of Europe’s most worth-visiting capitals.
FOOD On the cold winter evenings, the only option for dinner is pies at the Nottingham House in Broomhill. Steak and Ale is the classic, but you can’t go wrong with Chicken and Mushroom. They often sell out, so don’t get there too late!
The End of Riccardo’s Reign FASHION
Lifestyle contributor Penelope Baxter discusses Riccardo Tisci’s time as Creative Director of Givenchy.
T
hings are shaking up in the fashion world! Givenchy’s Creative Director, Riccardo Tisci is stepping down from his position at the French fashion house. A revolutionary in his field, Tisci rebranded Givenchy and brought it a new lease of life. Established by Hubert de Givenchy in 1952, Givenchy was originally known for designs of classic elegance, dressing the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy. During the fashion house’s history, Givenchy has been guided by fashion heavy
weights such as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, but when Tisci became creative director in 2005, Givenchy was at the cusp of bankruptcy. Tisci revitalised the French fashion house, inviting in a whole new audience with his darker, gothic designs. He claimed to be inspired by ‘dark and sensual romanticism’, often using graphic prints and striking colours. In more recent years, Givenchy has become associated with street wear and the world of hip-hop, being especially popular with Kanye West who is often seen wearing Givenchy. Tisci bond with hip-hop and West was exemplified in the artwork he produced for the Jay-Z and Kanye West 2011 collaboration album, Watch the Throne. Outside of hip-hop, Tisci’s designs have been popular other musicians such as Rihanna and Madonna, both of
whom he has designed costumes for world tours. Tisci has not only revolutionised Givenchy, but the whole fashion industry. In 2010, Tisci used Brazilian transgender model Lea T to front Givenchy’s Fall/ Winter collection. Fashion is notoriously an industry which holds close to traditional values of beauty, so a high-powered and respected figure such as Tisci to use a transgender model in his campaign is still very unusual. However, it is bold moves
such as these which encourage understanding and acceptance of transgender people and massively benefit the community. It is unclear what is next for Givenchy and Tisci. Givenchy are going to have a hard job finding a replacement for such an individual and forward-thinking designer. Rumour has it Tisci will take up a role at Versace, after Donatella Versace featured in his 2015 Givenchy campaign, but we will have to wait and see.
TRAVEL Manchester’s Northern Quarter has recently been voted the coolest place in the country, and as a return train to Manchester can cost less than £10, it is worth visiting. Burritos at Luck Lust Liquor and Burn are a must-try.
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LIFESTYLE Shit Valentine’s Day Advice
FEATURE
With the rapid approach of Valentines Day comes a flurry of articles about how (and how not) to celebrate everybody’s favourite Marmite Holiday (for the record, we don’t really love or hate Marmite, it’s just kinda there isn’t it?) Anyway, here’s a load of shite advice that we found across the World Wide Web that’s just pretty awful and you probably shouldn’t follow. Do your own thing you know, man. You do you.
Pokémon Go
Buy a Drone
Maybe in an attempt to capitalise on the flurry of heartwarming stories of socially reclusive people finding love over summer catching a Charmander in the park together, Pokémon Go is having a special Valentine’s event wherein your chance of catching a load of pink coloured Pokémon is higher than usual. ‘To help you paint your town pink this
I feel like this should go without saying, but don’t buy your significant other a drone??? Chinese market leader DJI’s website states: ‘When it comes to a creative person’s Valentine’s Day, a drone can be a pretty sweet way to show that you care about what matters to them -and you love them enough to give them a new tool to pursue their passion.’ / ‘ Make every moment a cinematic moment.’ And for
Valentine’s Day, Lure Modules will last for six hours for the entire duration of the event.’ SIX HOURS!? NO WAY!!! The cruel reality of this notion is that we are not currently living in the sun soaked summer days where everybody and their gran was running around with their phones in hand. It’s fucking cold. It gets dark early. There’s nothing romantic about wondering around the park at night by yourself mashing your phone screen because there’s no feeling left in your fingertips on the most romantic day of the year. If anything, if might make you feel a little bit lonely.
Oysters ‘Too shellfish to splash out on your partner this year? The supermarket has the budget aphrodisiac for you!’ This year, Morrison’s are selling oysters for 25p. Whilst this in reality might seem like a nice idea, it is an idea not to be taken lightly. Are you spending 25p on an oyster, or are you spending 25p on food poisoning and indigestion? Coupled with the fact that to prepare oysters you need a dangerously sharp sucking knife, and they’re a bit weird and still alive when you eat them (!?) it might only be worth trying this idea if you’re 100% sure of what you’re doing. Plus by the time you’ve bought a lemon and some tabasco it’ll easi;ly cost you like, £3. Alternative facts Morrisons.
What if I want my engagement ring to taste of Cheesecake?
2.) No flash mobs That doesn’t actually happen in real life. Does it?
3.) Don’t be selfish ‘If you’re considering proposing at a match of your favourite football team or dinner at your favourite pub, make sure it’s special for her.’ Why does this advice need to exist. Why is this not just a given fact. Why would you propose at the pub?
4.) Don’t over plan/over think it Don’t overthink it. But read this list and take all the advice. Jesus don’t put it in the food! Think about she wants! Stop planning that flash mob! Stop overplanning! You’re overthinking! Don’t even care about it, just bring it up whilst you’re doing your taxes or something.
the very affordable price of around £500, this dream can be all yours. Take your sex tapes to the next level with arial shots and the dystopian vision of whirring rotary blades and superintelligent ominous robotics.
Read the Mirror Featuring such great date suggestions as The Tower of London (capital detainment and punishment is pretty romantic, to be fair) and simply ‘Manchester’ with no further information, it’s probably wise to disregard anything else they suggest.
Follow the Advice of the Evening Standard (which I’m about to slag off) Here is the Evening Standard’s list of how not to propose on Valentine’s Day... with some added Lifestyle commentary.
1.) Don’t put the ring in the food
5.) Don’t put her off too much In fact, don’t do anything. E v e r . ‘Will you marry me?’ You’ve put me off now. Stop being so offputting.
6.) No red roses ‘I always find that a bouquet of her favourite flowers and colours has much more of an emotional impact than the go to red roses. Plus, the whole process of thinking and talking about her as you work with the florist building the bouquet will make it that much more special for you too.’ Unless Red Roses are her (/his) favourite flower. Or you don’t like talking to florists.
Make a Sexy Playlist Here is the title of a fine article by Gentleman’s Quarterly: ‘ The Secret to Making an UnderpantsIncinerating Sexytime Playlist For Valentine’s Day.’ It features such great advice as ‘Don’t make it TOO sexy’ and ‘Include a hidden message’.
How would one include a hidden message I hear you ask? Record yourself talking over all the songs and play it back. Don’t make it TOO sexy though. Talk about the weather and other impersonal small talk. And Stop Overthinking!
don’t.
Send a funny #random #lol meme card of Donald Trump
And finally, these suggestions from The Metro about gifts men want
‘Organize a scavenger hunt.’ Or don’t. ‘Take a boat ride.’ Have you seen Titanic?
Moving on...
Follow the fantastic advice of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ‘Visit a garden — even if it’s cold out.’ It will be ‘cold out’. Do not visit a garden. ‘Hike to a place with a view. You can’t put a price tag on the exhilaration a different perspective delivers.’ Cold. Out of breath. Sweaty. These are the outcomes of hiking to a place with a view. Walking anywhere in Sheffield is basically a hike anyway. ‘Go to a fitness class together.’ Or
‘Flowers’, ‘A blowjob’ or ‘A good, short book’. These ‘gifts’ are in no way alike. How can you take a list seriously that has all of these suggestions on it. Dear old Saint Valentine didn’t die of martyrdom for this shit. It could make anybody lose their head. *ba dum tsk*
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LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE REVIEWS
Proove Yourself FOOD
Lifestyle Editor Joseph Mackay ventures into the deep dark depths of Broomhill to continue his nationwide search for the perfect Italian style pizza.
L
ike any great pizza, this article is not so much a review, but an experience. An exploration into the very depths of the human spirit. Longing, desire, sheer hedonism, long lost romance… It’s got it all. As such, my review will begin with a somewhat hazy and vague anecdote. At the blissfully ignorant age of 10 years old, when your average child will declare pizza to be their favourite food without any hesitation, I found myself on a trip to London’s West End to see Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat. In a typically touristy fashion, we had originally planned on venturing into Planet Hollywood, however, this proved futile as we could not secure a table in time to still watch the exploits of the eponymous Joseph and his amazing coloured coat. In a desperate panic and amidst the pleas of two small children for pizza for tea, we settled on a nearby Italian restaurant.
Now, being a child under the age of 13 I cannot really comment on the surroundings (Planet Hollywood or bust) or the quality of the service, because you do not generally care about such trivialities as long as you’ve got a Gameboy to play whilst you wait for your food, and the food is good. I can, however, comment on the quality of the pizza. It was the best pizza I have ever experienced in my short time on this floating rock we call Planet Earth. In a cruel twist of fate, I never was able to remember the name of this restaurant, and being a decision made on a whim, my parents (and my brother who precedes myself by five years) don’t remember either. My dad doesn’t even like pizza. Since that day there has been an emptiness inside me. A black hole taking a hold on my insides and pulling inwards; a gap that cannot be filled. It has become my life’s mission to find pizza of such a high standard. Maybe it’s the haunting pull of nostalgia building the whole thing up to be better than it actually was in my mind (it isn’t), but I have yet to find such a pizza since. That said, Proove comes pretty close. Set on Fulwood Road, a more than familiar location to any former resident of Endcliffe or Ranmoor, Proove serves traditional Napoli style pizza cooked in traditional
wood fired stone ovens amidst a comfortable and kinda trendy modern-industrial style setting. A particularly interesting Tripadvisor review from ‘Struan’ begins as follows: “The overall setting in Broomhill for the restaurant is not particularly warm or welcoming, especially by night, since the useless Sheffield City Council have installed 5000K LED floodlighting which emits blue rich white light on all of the streets”.” Whilst some might say this review is nit-picking and not really at all relevant to the review, Mr. Struan does have
a point in that it is an incredibly pleasant place to sit and enjoy a meal, away from the “5000K LED floodlighting”. The pizza is everything a good Italian pizza should be. Mozzarella as a topping rather than slathered all over the place, sweet San Marzano tomatoes, the right level of crunch/dough, and a variety of options to suit all tastes (providing you like pizza). Nice touches such as the aesthetic/practical pots of fresh basil on every table and a relatively non-clichéd setting (i.e. there’s no massive badly drawn
illustration of Luigi or black and white photographs of Italian mobsters on the wall) add to the experience, and the prices are surprisingly affordable (ranging from around £5-10 compared to Domino’s deadly £20 large pizza, for example). In summary, if you will forgive the heavily over-indulgent anecdote that constitutes most of this review, Proove is a nice place to sit with friendly and attentive table service, pots of basil on the tables, and firstrate authentic pizza.
Do you live a life? Do you have a lifestyle? Whether it’s food, travel, fashion, dodgy tattoos, or literally anything else that could even vaugely be constituted as lifestyle... Hit us up at press.lifestyle@forgetoday.com if you’d like to write for us.
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GAMES
press.games@forgetoday.com
generation
or console FILLER
KILLER?
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GAMES
A
fter the awaited Nintendo Switch Presentation drew to a close in the early of hours of the morning, despite some niggling thoughts in the back of my mind I still left feeling satisfied. We got many of the details we wanted on the hardware itself and a strong selection of games to look forward to. Yet there is still a sense of uncertainty which, as the day drew on and more details spilled, failed to go away. As a home console which can be turned into a portable tablet with a single motion, the core concept of the Switch remains as enticing as before. The thought of playing Zelda or Skyrim anywhere you want really is that appealing, especially since the included JoyCon controllers have so many different configurations from the get go. Nintendo also stressed the desire for 60 frames per second performance in both home and portable modes, though of course we wait to see whether this statement holds true. The latter configuration’s battery life of 2.5 to 6.5 hours is a bit on the low (and ambiguous) side, yet at least Nintendo has finally included a USB connection for using portable chargers Speaking of which, the Joy-Con were given a lot of attention this time. They can be used together or as singular controllers in their own right, though in the latter state they appear a little on the small side. Besides their core function in making the ‘switch’ concept work, two features were pushed forward. One was an ‘HD Rumble’ feature which in all honesty won’t mean much until it’s in our hands. But even more time was given to the motion sensors which effectively turn each Joy-Con into a weird mixture of a Wii remote and a baby Kinect, Microsoft’s now-defunct depth-sensing motion controller. Of the two games being used to showcase these controllers, the colourful stretchy-armed boxing game Arms represents the most enticing source of simple fun,
Armed with new knowledge of the Nintendo Switch, Alex Pinfold looks ahead to the system’s March launch date. with just enough depth to keep you hooked. Better still, perhaps learning from the mistakes of Star Fox Zero, Nintendo have included the option for traditional button inputs as well as the motion controls. Launch title 1-2-Switch, whilst very simplistic, also works great as a showcase, not just of the Joy-Con, but also how the Switch, in a time obsessed with online play, breathes new life into the local multiplayer fun which Nintendo has excelled at for so long. However, it hasn’t shown enough to really be more than a distraction and I am at a loss to explain why this £35(!) game is not being included with the system when Wii Sports was such a success with that strategy. Value for money has been one of the nagging worries about the Switch. The £280 price tag for the console itself is aruable reasonable given the power being packed into a portable device, though again 1-2-Switch really should be included. The accessories on the other hand are far too pricey, with the Pro Controller coming in at £65 compared to the £40 cost of a PS4 equivalent. Game prices have also increased, with big hitter Zelda: Breath of the Wild coming in at £60 as one of only five currently confirmed launch titles. I generally advise not to buy games and consoles at launch, and with Zelda also simultaneously coming to Wii U, the Switch hasn’t moved me from that position as of yet. Towards summer and autumn, the Switch looks to become a much better value proposition thanks to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey. Mario’s latest 3D platformer was the biggest surprise hit of the presentation, showcasing a beautiful rendition of Earth to explore with new platforming mechanics. Elsewhere the focus on games was largely on JRPGs. My standout pick being Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a true sequel to one of the best games in the genre. However, there remains a big question mark over 3rd party support, as whilst Bethesda and EA did make appearances with
Skyrim and FIFA respectively, it is unclear whether they will provide the same level of support they do to other consoles. This is, of course, an area in which the Wii U suffered considerably. But the biggest worry I have is not with the capabilities and value of the hardware itself. It’s with the Nintendo’s new online service which will be free until autumn before switching to a paid subscription platform, following the likes of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Firstly, I am largely against these kinds of setups to begin with. It’s not especially surprising that Nintendo followed these examples, but being able to play and interact online for free was a big selling point for the Wii U. The fact is, Nintendo has to offer a number of extra bonuses to justify this change, but as of right now that simply doesn’t appear to be the case. For reference, paying £40 a year for PlayStation Plus will get you online multiplayer, two free (and regularly high quality) games every month to own forever, as well as exclusive sales and 10GB cloud storage. As of right now all Nintendo’s service appears to offer is online play, a smartphone app and exclusive deals. Though a free game will be included, it is only an NES or SNES game (PS Plus has offered the likes of Dirt 3 and Dragon Age: Origins) and will only be playable for one month, basically making it a rental of a small file over 20 years old. So, the Switch has pretty much answered our questions on the hardware front. But even with Zelda and Mario in line for 2017, there remains an uncomfortable element of uncertainty for the initial launch window.
...
Hopefully we’ll get some clarity sooner, rather than later.
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FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2017
GAMES The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
T
he third season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead sticks to the series’ welltrodden formula. Between pondering over which horrible choice will keep the most people alive, the episodic game consists of quite basic point-and-click puzzles and varied dialogue trees, with the threat of long-term consequences for choices ever-looming. It doesn’t do anything ground-breaking to stand out from the previous games, but fans have never played these games for innovative and immersive gameplay anyway. They play them for the story. The story thrusts you into the role of Javier Garcia, a man trying to keep himself and his family alive four years into the apocalypse. His story is interesting, though unlike the protagonists you played in previous seasons it’s hard to determine what type of person Javier is meant to be. In Season One, you play a convicted murderer and there are times when you need to hide that fact. Javier’s character isn’t nearly as interesting as this. He’s an athlete that, for unknown reasons, was seen as a disgrace by most of his family since before the outbreak. Fans of the series may be expecting to play as Clementine, a recurring character and the protagonist of Season Two. Although she is significant in Javier’s story, the only time you assume her role is in flashback chapters that briefly summarise what has happened to her between games. It is disappointing to barely play such a charming and iconic heroine, but from where the story is heading so far, it seems that Telltale Games are going to make working with, rather than being, Clementine worthwhile. That the game starts in this way may be unsettling for fans unable to play as Clementine, but it is curious to see where these changes lead. With the most recent episode ending with a plot twist, it’s easy to be hooked, dreading how events will unfold in episodes to come. The story has flavour and subtle nods that only fans could appreciate, but the fact that Clementine isn’t the central character makes it easier for new players to jump in here, rather than at the beginning of the series. With a story that is original and unique, the next episode cannot come quickly enough.
W
hen reviewing a game of Final Fantasy XV’s calibre, it is difficult to know where to begin. This latest addition to the legendary Japanese role playing game (JRPG) franchise comes with huge ambitions and even greater expectations. A prolonged stay in development hell accompanied by a plethora of disappointing predecessors would raise doubts in anyone familiar with the industry. But rest assured those doubts don’t last long. The player controls Crown Prince Noctis as he travels across the world of Eos, accompanied by lifelong friends Ignis, Gladius and Prompto. The story and setting are a bit too convoluted to go into here, and early exchanges between the protagonists play out like a bad anime. Despite this, the final result is a truly epic and satisfying journey. A massive part of this is the incredible character development within the main quartet. It would be easy to label these characters as archetypes of the notoriously silly and melodramatic JRPG genre early on, but by the time the credits roll these are by far some of the most loved companions found in gaming. The mechanics have been totally overhauled from the series’ previous offerings. Combat is a strange combination of traditional role playing action, not dissimilar to Knights of the Old Republic, and hack-and-slash button mashing. It sounds like it shouldn’t work but it just does, with fights being both fun and tactical, as well as awesome to watch and perform. The environment is equally awe-inspiring, as long drives which should be tedious are actually great excuses to soak up the breathtaking visuals. Likewise, side activities such as cooking, fishing and camping are oddly compelling. What may seem like boring trivialities are just a small part of the incredibly deep and detailed levelling system, one which absolutely lives up to those found in prior Final Fantasy games. The idea of compromise permeates everything about Final Fantasy XV, in the best possible way. The game consistently finds the right combination of its Japanese roots alongside the more modern Western game design. A huge part of its marketing is that it is a game for ‘fans and newcomers alike’, a phrase which flashes across the screen every time the game is booted up. For many hardcore veterans of the franchise this may be an unwelcome sacrifice, made only to target a larger audience and make more money. But the finished product is not only more accessible, it is arguably the best RPG of recent years. Only The Witcher 3 holds a candle to it in terms of scale, depth and balance. At last, a modern Final Fantasy.
Luke Baldwin Screen Editor
Thomas Buckland Games Contributor
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ARTS
press.arts@forgetoday.com
Meet Matt, our new Arts Editor Matt Wickens was elected last week to the position of Arts Editor at Forge Press joining current editor, Laura. A final year Politics and Philosophy student, Matt grew up in Zambia and Kenya and whilst there saw the power that the arts has in opening up political conversation. “Not only do the Arts offer a way to make us laugh, weep and everything in between,” Matt says “but they also offer a forum to discuss governments, leaders and power. I hope to be able point people towards the theatre, dance, art and photography that is right for them .”
Russell Howard, the famous comic behind the TV Show Russell Howard’s Good News, is coming to Sheffield and Forge Press has two free tickets to give away in our February competition. The evening will kick off at 8pm on Friday 7 April, and the seats we’re offering together cost over £50! So if you like big smiles and even bigger laughs, then enter our competition. All you have to do is email us at press.arts@forgetoday.com before Tuesday 7 March giving us one piece of good news about Sheffield that you’ve heard about recently. It can be something that’s going on at the Botanical Gardens, your new favourite shop in the city centre or fun events happening at the University.
The winner will be announced in our SU Election special issue on Friday 10 March. Best of luck!
COMPETITION TIME!
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ARTS CIRCUS
Cirque du Soleil: Varekai
R
Joe Knight Arts Contributor
emarkably unfunny clowns, coupled with a confusing narrative, mar this otherwise spectacular production of the long-running Varekai.
“Expect a selection of the finest performers in the world.” Varekai, directed by Dominic Champagne, is based on the myth of Icarus and picks up where the mythical narrative leaves off with Icarus plummeting to the stage from the sky. Although that’s not
quite where this production starts – first the audience must endure 15 very long minutes of unamusing interaction led by two clowns who ridicule and throw popcorn over certain members of the audience.
“The audience hold their breath at the wondrous feats.”
Luckily the show can only get better. And it does. Once the rest of the cast are allowed to take to the stage things improve, with beautifully choreographed dance scenes, and exotically alluring costumes. Cirque du Soleil is famed all over the globe for its astonishing performers and death defying stunts. Varekai is no different; expect to see awesome trapeze
work, stunning tumblers and unbelievable contortionists. This is what makes Varekai enjoyable; a selection of some of the finest performers in the world demonstrating their skill right in front of your eyes. The music is performed live by a group of seven musicians and two singers, all of whom are fabulous. Melodies race along at a presto and build to a mighty crescendo as an acrobat takes his final gravity defying leap, or a trapeze artist swirls away into the darkness above the stage. The tension within the arena is palpable at such moments, as the entire audience hold their breath at the wondrous feats unfolding before them. The set, designed by Stéphane Roy, is marvellous too; hundreds of metal rods imitate a forest, from which the performers emerge mysteriously. Towering above the
audience is a lookout which monkey-like characters scale and leap along, while down below, moveable segments add to the show’s artistry and capture the audience’s attention. It is the crude clowns that spoil the show, their acts so unoriginal, and in some cases so mean it leaves a bad taste. But what it really comes down to, and the reason many pay to see Cirque, is the breathtaking display of human talent. At these, Varekai excels.
AUDITION WATCH With the new semester underway, there has never been a better time to branch out and try something new. Why not get involved with one of the exciting student theatre productions taking place in the coming weeks? You never know where it might lead...
The Producers - SUPAS
Friday 10 February, 5pm or Saturday 11 February, 12pm Diamond Workroom 1 Our resident musical theatre company are taking on this comedy classic about the trials and tribulations of showbusiness.
Mary Stuart & Breathing Corpses - SUTCo
Sunday 12 February, 12pm, Diamond Workroom 2 & 3 Whether punchy historical drama or innovative physical theatre takes your fancy, why not try out for SUTCo’s upcoming productions?
Fancy the Edinburgh Fringe?
Buried: A New Musical - Colla Voce Theatre
Thursday 16 February, 6pm, Room TBC You might have visited the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but have you ever dreamed of attending as an actor? Colla Voce are taking their brand new musical to perform at the Fringe this summer, and you could be going with them!
Iconoclasts - Dear Hunter Theatre
Tuesday 21 February, Bartolome House DB07, or Wednesday 22 February, Richard Roberts A84, time slots available online. Rising company Dear Hunter Theatre are looking for a new talent to play the resilient Patricia Iconoclast for their tour to the Fringe this year. For more information about any of these auditions, check out the company Facebook pages. Break a leg!
I went back further and found essays written in the 19th Century on this very topic. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in defence of poetry, arguing that poetry exists not only in moral, political, and historical wisdom, but also in science and economics. I think he might be With the Arts under over-stating it a little, but then constant scrutiny, we again, he was a bit of a Romantic. take a look at why these Looking back over the history of disciplines still matter. humanity, we’re a fairly predictable Tierney Green species in a lot of ways. Since we Arts Contributor invented tools, we’ve been making art. Once we developed language, we told each other stories. We have n researching this article, I found countless iterations of always used these things to connect it in various publications, all with each other, to say, “this is who with roughly the same arguments. I am and how I understand the They argue that art does not exist world.” in a vacuum, and therefore if people still want books and films “Star Trek alone has and any other creative endeavour inspired inventions then we must continue to fund the arts. They argue that art expands such as the mobile your horizons, and that a deeper phone.” appreciation for the arts can help us to enjoy them. For them, art teaches The many versions of this article us about ourselves, allowing us to explore what it means to be human. (which you have likely come across
OPINION
In Defence of Arts and Humanities
I
before) usually fail to mention where art influences science. They don’t bring up that Star Trek alone has inspired NASA scientists, inventions such as the mobile phone, and a universal translator. Martin Luther King told Nichelle Nichols she couldn’t leave the series because she was a role model for millions of African-American girls and women. One of those women was Mae Jemison, who was the first African-American woman to travel in space. These articles fail to mention that a study showed that children who grew up reading Harry Potter have “an improved attitude” towards marginalised groups, and another that reading in general makes people more empathetic.
“We have always used arts to connect with each other.”
What these articles are failing to mention is that different factions of academia should not be in competition, this setup is only used as an excuse to defund the humanities. Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan told teenagers they should study STEM subjects, not because of any intrinsic value in the subjects themselves, but because arts and humanities are no longer useful for “all kinds of jobs”. Pitting these areas of academia against each other benefits neither research nor society, and devaluing the arts will ultimately make us all poorer.
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ARTS VISUAL ART
Chris Graham Gallery Occupation Maddy Blatherwick-Plumb Arts Contributor
C PHOTOGRAPHY
Arrivals: Making Sheffield Home
A
Florrie Andrew Arts Contributor
refugee who escaped political persecution in Chile and later became a Red Cross nurse attending the Hillsborough disaster is just one of the people that Jeremy Abrahams’ exhibition introduces to visitors at Weston Park Museum. Arrivals: Making Sheffield Home documents the incredible tales behind some of Sheffield’s immigrants and accompanies them with stunning portrait photography. For the collection, Abrahams interviewed Sheffield ‘arrivals’ from 1945 to 2016. The result is an exhibition featuring a wealth of different backgrounds and cultures, reflecting on periods from the last 70 years. It is extraordinary to see what journeys some people have made to reach the Steel City. Excitingly, some University of Sheffield alumni feature in the exhibition. Malaka Mohammed Shwaikh (MA Global Politics and Law) elected to be photographed in front of the University of Sheffield Students’ Union. Prior to moving to Sheffield for her studies, Shwaikh lived in Gaza, Palestine and faced a challenging journey to get to where she is now.
“It is extraordinary to see what journeys some people have made to reach the Steel City.”
One aspect of the exhibition that was particularly effective was Abrahams’ decision to let each person decide for themselves where their photograph would be taken. All the backdrops are of places in Sheffield, including the Winter
Garden, Bramall Lane and the interior of City Hall. Annie Anthony Mays emigrated to Sheffield from Singapore in 1983 and she was photographed in her studio in Walkley, where she now runs crafts and conversation workshops for refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants to help them settle into life in Sheffield.
“The exhibition could not be more relevant for proving the strength and perseverance of immigrants.” Whilst the exhibition is primarily photography-based, there is a 27-minute film elaborating on six individuals’ experiences of arriving in Sheffield from overseas. All of them commented on the infectious charm of Sheffield’s residents, though the honest accounts also detail some harrowing experiences of being an immigrant. Lynn Bent was the victim of shocking racial abuse when working as a nurse, following her move from Jamaica to Sheffield in 1966. The idea behind the remarkable exhibition came to Abrahams when he met Sue Pearson, who had left Prague for Sheffield on the Kindertransport in 1939. As Abrahams was a teacher at the time, Pearson spoke of her experiences to his classes and, recognising the evocative impact of her stories on his pupils, Abrahams set out to create ‘Arrivals’. In light of current events regarding immigrants, Arrivals: Making Sheffield Home could not be more relevant for proving that the strength and perseverance of these people is exceptional. Their thought-provoking stories and Jeremy Abrahams’ impressive photography make for a captivating exhibition that is certainly worth a visit before it closes on Sunday 12 February.
ontemporary Fine Art student at Sheffield Hallam University, Chris Graham takes over Bank Street Arts Atrium with a hard hitting and poignant exhibition. Entering the room from above, the viewer gets an overview of the installation and immediately there is a sense that you are entering into a different world, a different version of reality. Using cardboard cut-outs of pop culture style iconography, Chris juxtaposes images of warfare and deformed babies against images of fetishization and pornography. Crumpled black plastic sheets stuck down with strips of bright red tape cover the majority of the floor space. On top of this sit countless white pyramids, scattered all over the floor – a 3D topographic map of Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, representing countries which have suffered because of capitalist greed. A large sheet of perforated black plastic hangs limply from the left wall. A stack of cubes dominates the room, with close-up and pixelated
images of victims on, leaving the viewer to decipher the meaning hidden in the images. On a jet black canvas that sits in the corner of the room, the letters from the word ‘capitalism’ are painted in white dripping paint, and are used to form numerous other nonsense words and phrases including ‘am I plastic’ and ‘I am plastic’. This plays with the concept that Western capitalist society is false, superficial and inauthentic: a clear political message from the artist.
“The occupation is in constant flux: ongoing, fluid, and constantly evolving.”
designed to unsettle and challenge the viewer. Chris Graham uses his art to make the real world more apparent to people’s eyes. He invites the viewer to see reality from a different perspective, forcing you to step out of your comfort zone. The installation is a critique of institutional power and white privilege, intended to highlight the fault and corruption of the capitalist society that we exist in. Chris Graham’s occupation is in constant flux, an ongoing, fluid, and continually evolving exploration. He constructs and re-constructs his artwork, re-working the exhibition space in myriad different ways to explore and communicate slightly different nuances of the same theme. A confusing, disorientating, yet refreshingly strong and passionate exhibition.
The exhibition is not intended to be an easy experience, it is
TESTIMONIAL
The Picture of Dorian Gray
“B
Tom Briggs Arts Contributor
e careful what you wish for” could not be a more appropriate mantra than for this classic novel. Set in the Victorian era, Dorian Gray has the only things that really matter: “beauty and youth”, but realises that his beauty and youth are only temporary. Dorian briefly despises his beautiful portrait, and in a fit of jealousy wishes the fate of ageing and ugliness to befall his unchanging picture instead. Mr Gray lives a Dionysian existence, finding beauty in tragedy and depravity, spurred by his first love Sibyl Vane killing herself for him after letting him down. Giving in to all temptation and sin would naturally leave the body frail - not when a picture absorbs frailty and sin. Dorian enjoys hedonistic pleasure until the paranoia of sin eventually destroys him. This book will interest anyone that enjoys compelling philosophical arguments about existentialism and moral values.
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MUSIC “You feel more like a politician than you do a musician half the time”
Amber Run.
FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2016
press.music@forgetoday.com
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Interview.
MUSIC
Molly Finch interviews Joe Keogh of Amber Run, ahead of their gig at Plug on the 18th February discussing their second album, their fans and life on tour. How did you guys all first meet and form the band? Tom, Will and I went to school together and Henry was Tom’s next door neighbour at Uni. I was doing solo stuff that sucked and so we got together and started this band.
hugely in a way that the first album could never have been influenced as it was written over such a long time. I personally think its the best body of work that Amber Run have ever released. I’m sure people will agree once they’ve heard it.
How would you categorise your music? Emotive. Powerful music.
Do you feel that the process of creating an album was very different to when you curated your first? Definitely. We went about recording this album in a much more DIY way. We had a lot more input into how it would be produced, mixed and marketed. We gave up a lot of that control on our first album as I think we felt that other people knew more than we did. We learnt during that period that no one knows your music and how you want to be perceived as well as you do and so we reserved a lot more control for ourselves this time round.
Your first album was a great success, especially your single ‘I Found’ which just passed 20 million views on YouTube. It was great. I found success felt particularly good because we had to push for it to even get released. Our label didn’t think it would work as a single but we fought and fought and look at where it is now. It felt really vindicating. We proved to ourselves that we knew what we were doing. How would you say your music has changed between your first and second album? Our second album is a lot grittier and darker than our first. It’s got a stronger live element to it and it isn’t afraid to say and do what we wanted. A few of us were struggling with a lot of personal issues in the writing period and that influenced the music
Your single ‘Fickle Game’ says a lot about being in a band and the music industry. How did your experiences differ from what you expected when you previously envisioned the band’s future? You feel more like a politician than you do a musician half the time. Opportunities felt like they were
derived from favours and friends of friends rather than hard work and skill. Maybe that’s how it’s always been but that doesn’t mean we have to enjoy it. It was a really liberating song to write because you never want to come across as a whiner but these kind of political relationships were really taking its toll but by the end of our first record it felt amazing to be able to air frustration into the world. A lot of your songs such as ‘Haze’ feel very personal and honest, do you find that’s important when you’re writing? Lyrically the only songs that ever really speak to me are autobiographical. Because you can only truly understand a topic if its happened to you and so you can only write lyrics confidently if you understand what you’re on about. Songs like ‘Haze’ wouldn’t be half as poignant to me, or you, if I was making it up. What are you most excited for people to hear on the new album? ‘Island’. I think it’s got some of the best writing we’ve ever done in it. You have great communication with your fans, it seems like it’s
something that’s really important you guys. It’s so important. We wouldn’t be able to keep playing in a band without their support. What is five minutes to have a conversation or sign a poster? I’ve been brushed off by people I respect before and it sucks. I don’t want any person that likes our band to feel that way. So you’re about to start the tour for your second album and you’ve had a pretty big break from touring, what are you most looking forward to about being on the road again? The buzz of playing on stage is like nothing else. I’m a junkie for that feeling. So that. And least looking forward to? Late night service station food shopping.
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MUSIC Declan McKenna @ Leadmill «««««
Laura Yoshimoto Turpin Music Contributor
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hen you first lay eyes on Declan McKenna it doesn’t seem like he’s going to impress you much. He enters the stage quietly, followed by the other band members, thanks everyone for being there and announces ‘Isombard’ as the first song. As soon as the beat starts the crowd is already in a frenzy. It’s bodies jumping up and down. Hands in the air underneath soft pink lighting. He doesn’t smile much but he doesn’t need to. At only 18, McKenna has already five singles out. From afar his music seems the typical indie-like sound but a closer look to his lyrics reveal a much deeper meaning. Most of his songs refer to current issues. He has said he writes about politics and also “general things I feel strongly about, things happening in my life”. His most popular single ‘Brazil’
I See You The xx ««««
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Florence Mooney Music Contributor
t’s been 5 years since The XX last released an album as a band, but with the result of I See You, they have clearly made the most of this time. I See You is another beautiful example of the minimalist production, soft melody, and perfectly intertwining vocals of Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft, which The XX have become known for. However, whilst The XX’s second outing Coexist keeps close to the blueprint of their self-titled debut, with I See You, the band has moved forward, breaking new ground. From the opening track ‘Dangerous’, The XX appear to have developed from their earlier albums. The track is opened by the blasting of horns, calling in a larger sound than have be heard on their previous efforts. The album shows the band moving towards the DJing work of Jamie XX in his most recent solo album, In Colour. The lead single ‘On Hold’ shows the development of their sound from
criticises FIFA for awarding the country the title of host for the 2014 World Cup without addressing the enormous poverty that runs deep in the South-American land. After the first song he admits he’s been feeling under the weather and asks the crowd to be as energetic as possible in order to balance the atmosphere. The fans excitedly obey and throughout his set a small, but powerful, mosh pit forms itself in the middle of the crowd. It’s people bumping frantically into each other
during the gig did he seem anything less than 100% confident. Without a doubt he is a professional. Towards the end of the set, several balloons are thrown to the crowd. Topped with the Leadmill’s
fairy lights the stage almost feels like a movie scene. The gig ends with McKenna stage diving into the arms of his fans. The moment he jumps you can see his security team at the back, their
faces saying “Don’t do it, don’t do it! Oh no” He did it.
“As soon as the beat starts the crowd is already in a frenzy”
to the sound of his latest single ‘The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home’. He doesn’t talk much and keeps alternating between the acoustic guitar and its electrical version. ‘Paracetamol’ is declared as the next song when he says “I took a couple before coming to stage”. At one point he humors the audience saying “I’m secretly from the North”. What surprises you the most is the way he carries himself. For a boy who’s not even two decades old, not for one single moment
their debut album, with this track brilliantly enhanced by a sample from Hall & Oates ‘I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)’. ‘On Hold’ even toes the line of pop, maybe even been dance, something that would have seemed ridiculous when the band first came onto the scene in 2009. However, The XX are staying closer to their routes in track such as the stripped-down balled ‘Performance’, which relies more on the heart-retching lyrics and Madly-Crofts vocals, rather than the extensive production of Jamie XX. In ‘Replica’, the classically understated vocals of Sim beautifully merge with MadleyCroft’s eerie guitar line, and are then enhanced by the soft synths
Photo by savenije
which would have seemed out of place on The XX’s first album, but fits perfectly here. I See You feels fun. The album has an infectious energy, despite the melancholy lyrics of questioning such as “With everything I pretend not to here// Am I too high?// Am I too proud?” on ‘A Violent Noise’. Listening to I See You it is easy to remember why the world fell in love with this trio when they first emerged in 2009. Since then, the musical landscape has changed dramatically and it would be easy to wonder whether The XX would still hold the same excitement. In the album closer, Madley-Croft sings “Test me// See if I stay”, and with I See You, it is certain that The XX are not going away anytime soon.
Thoughts on the first wave of Tramlines acts? Tweet us @ForgePress
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MUSIC Ones to watch
Forge’s Music Editors pick out the best albums, artists and Sheffield gigs to look out for this year Harry Chambers and Emma WIlliams Music Editors
ALBUMS
GIGS
Mac Demarco This Old Dog
Drake Sheffield Arena
Announed in a typically casual fasion by the Canadian slacker maverick earlier this year, his third effort promises to be a more laid back (if that’s even possible) and acoustic-based affair.
Sankeys’ Closure
Lauren Nutall comments on the closure of the iconic Manchester club, and what it means for the UK’s nightlife. Lauren Nuttall Music Contributor
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n 12 January 2017, to the dismay of many clubgoers, favourite Manchester nightclub Sankeys announced it was closing its doors. When it was revealed that the Beehive Mill in which Sankeys operated was being turned into apartments, it sparked outrage amongst many who choose Manchester as their source of vibrant nightlife. Many said that the forced closure was an outright attack on youth culture, with Sankeys East (London), posting on twitter: “We will not stand by whilst they take this countries dancefloors one by one”. A bit dramatic, maybe, but the Manchester club’s London venue has a point. Last year saw the closure of iconic London club Fabric, due to issues surrounding licences and the drug related deaths of two teenagers at the well-known London spot. The news spread rapidly, and before long #SaveFabric, and a Save Fabric campaign launched, and after a tense five months of pressure from the public, the club reopened its doors. The Save Fabric campaign got people talking. It got them realising that the closure of our country’s most beloved nightclubs was not due to the fact that many clubgoers chose to put different substances into their bodies. It was a scapegoat.
Our nightlife was under attack, with drugs being used as an excuse for the rapid closure of clubs across the country. This time seems different, however. Sankeys in this case is not under scrutiny due to drug related issues. This is simply a forced closure that feels both disappointing and bitter. Sankeys closure is not similar to Fabric’s, which sparked lively debate and opened people’s eyes to how to deal with drugs in nightclubs. No, this feels a lot less radical. Although the owners have promised to keep the brand ‘Sankeys’ alive and thriving, with venues across the country and in Ibiza, it still seems like a sell-out that mirrors that of the Hacienda closure. Knowing that when previous Sankey clubbers pass the old mill venue and see it as a block of dreary, unaffordable apartments is disheartening. What is even worse is, this is not uncommon. The ALMR (The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers) which represents nightclub venues, says that according to official statistics in 2005 there were 3,144 nightclubs, with this number dwindling down to 1,733. The company warns this increase in closures will leave us deprived culturally, socially and economically. This rings true now more than
ever in the closure of Sankeys, with musical and historical significance being side-lined in favour of property development. If this pattern continues, it could see the closure of more city favourites, such as nightclubs Hidden or Antwerp Mansion, which have sparked club-goers’ interests over the past few years. The problem is, many people do not see this as an actual problem, blaming it on drug use or youth violence, or whatever. But like it or not, nightclubs are a part of our culture, they are the reason why people travel miles just for one good night in the city and the closure of them is an attack on this culture. The closure of Sankeys is a significant detail in what will be a debate continued for many years to come. Change is inevitable, but this will not be taken lightly. The people of Manchester are a resilient bunch, and someone is likely creating a new Hacienda, a new Sankeys, as I speak.
Lorde TBA
It seems like an age has passed between now and the release of 2013’s Pure Heroine. Announcing the news on her 20th birthday, it’s likely the New Zealand singer has done a lot of growing up since her debut, and fans are eager to see how the songwriting reflects that.
ARTISTS
Declan McKenna
Check out this issue’s review of his Leadmill show. At only 17 years old, he demonstrates songwriting talent well beyond his years. Not content with typical teenage song topics such as love and partying, he sings with a poltiical and social voice, having written about transgender issues, corruption in FIFA and police brutality.
Sampha
Having been on the scene for a few years now, as a sought-after collaborator, writer and producer, Sampha has now released his debut album to rave reviews. His unique brand of heartfelt and experimental R&B is likely to send waves throughout 2017.
Another Canadian, but of a very different pedigree to Mac Demarco. The R&B singer takes his Views tour right to South Yorkshire. 17 Febuary.
White Lies o2 Academy
One of Britian’s most enduring post-punk bands, White Lies bring their gloomy and baritone, yet catchy sounds to audiences around the UK in support of their fourth album, Friends.
23 Febuary.
Outlines Festival Various
Back for the second time, Tramlines’ smaller cousin is now spread across two days, and features a stellar line up from both Sheffield and afar. Be sure to catch psychadelic headliners Jagwar Ma, as well as locally based bands such as Blood Sport, Slow Club and the Crookes. 3 - 4 March.
Goldfrapp Leadmill
Goldrapp’s now legendary debut album, Felt Mountain, came out almost two decades ago. Now set to release their seventh one in March, this will be a unique chance to see the electronic duo in a famous and intimate setting. 23 Febuary.
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SCREEN
press.screen@forgetoday.com
With the release of the much anticipated TF2, Screen Contributor Hannah Dodd explores some of her favourite examples of drugs on screen
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press.screen@forgetoday.com
Stacey Dooley Investigates: The War on Drugs
This Is England ‘90
In 2015 Shane Meadows delivered up the highly anticipated final instalment of the This Is England saga, and it’s fair to say that the show went out on a dangerous high. Set amid a backdrop of 90s acid house and mad-chester tunes the series follows the lives of former skinheads, this time focussing on the younger members of the group as they get to grips with the darker side of rave culture- namely drugs and sexual exploitation. As well as Shaun, Gadget and Harvey popping Wolf of Wall Street E’s like Skittles, prepare for a Leonardo DiCaprio suffered several sinus infections from having to snort history lesson in the rise of copious amounts of cocaine-imitating vitamin C powder while filming his heroin culture and shooting role as disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort. From cocaine to crack, and galleries in ‘90s England. weed to Quaaludes, it appears Belfort did it all and hats off to DiCaprio who The show also takes a acted every manic high and low. The most hilarious and bizarre being a look at the popularity debilitating drug-induced crawl known as the ‘cerebral palsy phase’ after of psychedelics and taking highly potent ‘lemon ludes’. The film is a fitting tribute to 80s Miami the rise of folk vice culture and the egotistical rages induced by Wall Street’s cocaine gatherings in the culture. UK. This haunting series left most Jon Snow does skunk: Cannabis on trial fans with a sense In this clip of internet gold, everyone’s favourite bad ass news anchor of withdrawal blasted a dooby in the interest of science and he threw a whitey, bless him. when it It went viral because, if nothing else, the British public liked watching one finished. of its faves tripping balls. It demonstrated both the potency of skunk and [Currently the feelings of paranoia, nausea and sickness it induces. It was a frank and streaming open look at weed that gave the nation a stark reminder that it’s strong o n stuff. Addictive watching. [Available on Youtube] Netflix]
There’s something about sending Stacey Dooley, a friendly ginger lass from Essex, into a Columbian drug den that honestly works. The BBC 3 series follows Dooley around the world as she investigates the war on drugs, looking into the rise of Krokadil, Molly and other party drugs from production to meeting the addicts themselves. Interviews with addicts and those affected are unedited, raw and very real. Whilst the BBC had experimented with drugs documentaries with Theroux, Dooley really went out on location, going into the worst hit areas and drugs dens and delving into all aspects of the fight against drugs. This series will leave you wanting another fix of Dooley’s investigative journalism.
Trainspotting
Narcos
No ‘drugs on Now admittedly there was a little creative licence involved in this series but screen’ list would it’s still the most accurate look at the rise and fall of drug lord Pablo Escobar be complete without on screen. The show flits between the Spanish speaking Narcos (dealers) the heroin-induced and the American agents trying to stop them, making the whole experience glorious mess that is feel a little more authentic and just that little bit terrifying. Wagner de Trainspotting. Danny Moura captures just how controlling Escobar was but he also captures Boyle’s wonderfully human side to the terrifying Columbian. The series traces the cocaine from trippy look into the the hills of Columbia to the vice ridden streets of Miami and the history Scotland’s shooting gallery of the infamous Medellín cartel. It captures the sex, violence, excess and skag culture has some of the greed enjoyed by Escobar, even from inside ‘prison’ but it also shows the most recognisable scenes and consequences of his dealing. The new series is set to follow his rivals the Cali speeches in British cinema but Cartel and is looking even more addictive. [Currently streaming on Netflix] he certainly didn’t skip out on the filth and squalor of heroin Breaking Bad addiction. The toilet scene will Meth is one of those lesser represented drugs on screen, or it was until have you wrenching and if that’s Breaking Bad. Now every kid is going as Walter White for Halloween with a not gross enough the rotating head bag of blue popping candy to match. The series begins somewhat honestly of head of an infant might be enough with Walter, a science teacher, being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer to make you check into rehab. The film and just wanting to leave his wife and disabled son with some money to get also tackles the criminality of the addict by. Just don’t be fooled by that quaint summary, because pretty soon he lifestyle and the horror of withdrawal. starts cooking up trouble. The release of the film definitely lined up well with the culture, capturing a tableau of 90s heroin use and the HIV epidemic that cinema simply couldn’t hope to re-create.
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anny Boyle’s 1996 cult classic Trainspotting is a film that defined a generation. 20 years later and Scotland sees the return home of Renton (Ewan McGregor) who has been living a drug free life in Amsterdam – ironically. His best mate Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) is given a high dosage of sleaze as he snorts his way through lines of cocaine, owning a rundown pub in the middle of decrepit Scottish nowhere, with a weed farm in the basement. The terrifyingly psychopathic Begbie (Robert Carlyle) is free from prison as
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Hacksaw Ridge «««« Dan West Deputy Editor
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brutal and terrifying war movie sandwiched within a well-acted but unfortunately clichéd drama, Hacksaw Ridge is a truly shocking movie. Desmond Doss (played here by Andrew Garfield) was a real life conscientious objector who volunteered to fight against the Japanese in World War II, but refused to pick up a gun. The film starts with brief snippets from the battle of Okinawa before snapping back in time to Desmond growing up in religious rural Virginia. From then the film depicts his growing up in a rather predictable fashion and leans towards the painfully cheesy at times. However, Hugo Weaving just about saves these flashbacks as Desmond’s father, a World War I veteran who is clearly still traumatised by war. His performance is filled with guilt and anger which
really draws you into the complex family dynamic. The emphasis on Doss’s father’s aversion to violence is done well, underlining the horror behind the heroic surface of war. The film has some scenes of black comedy in the army training camp, mainly provided by a well-cast Vince Vaughn as the bullying officer who doesn’t take kindly to pacifism.. The comparative lightness of the army training makes the bleakness to come far worse. Director Mel Gibson shows us where his talents truly lie: depicting battle sce ne s . These are filmed with a ferocity t h a t rare ly
press.screen@forgetoday.com revenge fuels his every chaotic move. Gormless Spud (Ewen Bremner) is the only character who is almost exactly the same as before with heroin still being the epicentre of his life but now he comes with an endearingly emotional punch.
“Boyle’s return is superbly stylish, several screenshots are bedroomworthy posters. ” Each character has their own genius tweak but they collectively ooze mid-life overtones of stale disappointment. Renton’s return uncovers unsettled business and shoots a new lease of life into the crew. Boyle’s return is superbly stylish, several shots are bedroom-worthy posters. There are brilliantly quirky camera shots and stunning colour palettes, which make this film a
appears in films. Shots are clean and steady as the action is left to unfold in front of you. It is an almost harrowing cinematic experience, showing how horrific battle and war can be. This is where Garfield transforms a fairly bog standard dramatic role into a heroic character who exhibits moral integrity amidst brutal carnage. The score is rather irrelevant as the sounds of war cries and gunshots during the battle are what underpin the power and emotion of the film. The auditory effect of the battle alone immerses the audience in the brutality of war. The sheer volume and relentlessness of the noise combined with the visuals is enough to haunt the viewer long after the movie ends. Unavoidably let down by the real-life drama and relative mundanity of period life, the film is an unpleasant depiction of war, which follows a truly extraordinary character.
visual triumph. But this pristine glossiness is not what made the original movie so iconic. T2 isn’t true to the original grime of Trainspotting, doing little to recreate its classic moments, such as Renton’s unforgettable plunge through a toilet into the ocean. Indeed, the sequel screams for more dirt. Since the announcement of the movie’s release, fans have eagerly awaited Boyle’s playlist. And boy is it good. Classics associated with Trainspotting are suitably revamped, with the Prodigy’s remix of Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’ and Underworld’s ‘Slow Slippy’. Similar flair from pre-noughties music like Blondie, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Queen, also grace the film perfectly and there are new additions from the contemporary music scene, such as Wolf Alice. But this felt like a missed opportunity for Boyle to stamp a fresh anthem to the prestigious Trainspotting name. The change of era is dealt with in an acutely subtle manner. The film starts with Renton on a treadmill in the gym and later his famous ‘Choose
SHOWROOM SPOTLIGHT
Jackie ««««« Katie Rose Smart Screen Contributor
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film of mythic proportions, Jackie tackles the representation of icons, whilst being offset ingeniously by Mica Levi’s epic score. The film opens on a black screen and two heart wrenching notes. From the beginning, the hair on your neck stands to attention and you know that this is no ordinary biopic. Director Pablo Larraín does a marvellous job of transforming a tragic story of unparalleled fame in the US and beyond. Natalie Portman as Jackie Bouvier Kennedy compels the viewer. In the moments that you wish to flinch away from the horror and the intimacy of Jackie’s grief following John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination, you dare not. Jackie Kennedy tasks herself with upholding the
life’ monologue is re-tuned to a more modern melody. Although Boyle could have emphasised the epochal change more, nostalgia is what makes this film. Footage from the original is included and each piece brings a sentimental feeling.
“ Trainspotting was iconic; its sequel is not.”
Despite the jumbled narrative, the triumph of the past supersedes. Trainspotting was iconic; its sequel is not. But it is hilariously entertaining and it pays as a perfect accompaniment to the original.
BIG SCREEN
T2 «««« Ben Kempton Screen Contributor
myth of Camelot, constructed by the Kennedys, to be a ‘mother’ to the American people. We see Kennedy dictate to a journalist her version of the story refusing any moments of weakness (her tears, her smoking) to appear in print. This shrewd interview is caught between flashbacks of her arranging a grand Lincoln-esque funeral for her husband, dancing and concerts in the White House, a rolling stretch of road in downtown Dallas, gunshots, and blood-red clashing with Chanel-pink. The viewer is mesmerised by Jackie’s determination. Portman is a sheer force of will carrying the burden of poise and dignity, of being a First Lady, across to her role as JFK’s widow. She makes the audience uncomfortable, as if suffocated by the heavy wool of that double-breasted Chanel suit. Elegant and haunting mirror shots reflect the presumed vanity, the carefully constructed performativity of the First Family and the fame of being a Kennedy. This biopic not only constructs the icon of Jackie and of the Chanel suit - it undresses her, and then makes her up again.
If you’re interested in reading about the relevance of Jackie in the post-truth political landscape of today, hop on to our website and read Katie Smart’s piece at forgetoday.com
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SCREEN SMALL SCREEN
Navya Hebbar Screen Contributor
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f you like your dramas as grim as 19th century London, then this one’s for you. Delaney has recently returned from Africa where he committed unspeakable sins that left him a changed man. The show follows him as he builds his own shipping empire in the early 1800s. Directed by Kristoffer Nyholm, the series boasts the likes of Ridley Scott and Steven Knight working behind-thescenes. Perhaps explaining the recurring Mad Max imagery. There’s barely any action and even less camera movement, apart from a select few moments of nauseating high action set pieces. The set production is well staged. However, disappointingly, the dialogue is clichéd. The script writers seem to want to emphasise over and over again that Mr Delaney can find you and wlll kill you.
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A Series of Unfortunate Events «««« James McCann Screen Contributor
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f there is anything that can be expected of Neil Patrick Harris, it’s theatricality and showmanship. So, with apologies to Jim Carrey (your T-Rex impression is still on point) A Series of Unfortunate Event’s Count Olaf, a character with the mishmash mannerisms of every stage villain ever and a wardrobe full of devious disguises, seems the perfect Harris role. . Unfortunately, though, the series relies somewhat on this enigmatic silver bullet to keep you watching. The general plot of each episode is formulaic fun, and when paired with this perfectly cast villain the experience is entertaining, but the series doesn’t go much further. The
Delaney’s servant Brace (David Hayman) has the warm hug you are looking for after watching his boss’s shenanigans, which ranges from biting off the flesh of an assassin, to possessing his sister’s body from an astral plane. There is something unsettling here about the lack of female influence over the plot. Most women seem to be in a brothel or a wild orgy. The only two prominent female characters are Delaney’s’ sister Zilpha (Oona Chaplin) and theatre actress Lorna Bow (Jessie Buckley). Much like everyone else, they are puppets on strings to be pulled by Delaney. The show is evidently an exercise in outlining a fanciful acting portrait of Tom Hardy. And if he weren’t that good, you’d be tempted to laugh it off.
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overarching mystery of the series fails to fully draw you in and fails to form a fully cohesive series. Although the repetitive misfortunes of the children are constantly finding new ways to manifest, the melancholy starts to border on the tedious. Despite this, the young trio playing the Baudelaire orphans do a charming job with roles and scripts that hold the strong potential of becoming irritating and obnoxious. The biting baby Baudelaire Sunny (Presley Smith) provides some much needed light relief from the understandably gloomy duo of Violet (Malina Weissman) and Klaus (Louis Hynes). Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton) succeeds too, as he delivers his deadpan narration brilliantly and manages to make exposition entertaining But there still seems to be something missing. Most likely it is that the 13 book source material has been stretched a little too thin, with only four books being covered over the eight episode series and so the narrative naturally leaves the audience with more questions than
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Split ««« Gala Woolley Screen Contributor
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Night Shyamalan makes a dramatic comeback with his latest thriller. The movie delves into the fractured mind of a man with a diverse range of different personalities, who kidnaps three teenagers. The film’s strongest point is unquestionably McAvoy’s acting. If there is one role to demonstrate the extent of his dramatic versatility, the one with 23 personalities is definitely it. His diverse range of facial expressions, accents and body language allows him to believably embody dissociative identity disorder sufferer Kevin. Frequent interjections of flashback punctuate the action throughout, allowing the viewer to piece together the life of the characters, with often disturbing reflections. We are shown
answers. All in all it feels a bit like a student-led school play. It’s camp and raucous and perhaps a little too over the top - but it’s a laugh. The self-aware style adopted mixed with the caricatured characters make for a few fun episodes. The problem is that there is too heavy an emphasis on this being a part of a larger series, and so it leaves the audience a bit unfulfilled. Each part is played brilliantly, but a lot of the series focusses too much on this being the beginning of a long story, and there’s only so much misfortune an audience can take. It will be interesting to see if viewers will return for its almost certain sequel series.
snippets from therapy sessions, which provide a backstory to the complex psychology of Kevin and his different minds. Temporal shifts also enlighten the viewer as to Kevin’s history, as well as that of female lead Casey (Anya TaylorJoy) as their shocking and unsettling pasts are gradually revealed. Amongst the tension, which remains virtually consistent throughout, occasional moments of humour provide light relief from the threatening tone. Similar to the chameleon-like character, the plot is unpredictable and at times the genre itself is hard to identify. Whilst skimpily dressed teenage girls being held captive is reminiscent of a cheap teen slasher movie, the allusions to physical and emotional abuse, convey a far darker and more serious tone. Overall Split, with its controversial portrayal of Diassociative Identity Disorder, is likely to divide audiences. If you are hoping to gain insight into the nature of dissociative identity disorders, Split is far from scientifically educational. However, the two dozen personalities that constitute McAvoy’s character do provide almost two hours of solid entertainment.
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COFFEE BREAK
press.coffeebreak@forgetoday.com
PUB QUIZ 1. What is the longest river in Europe? 2. Harold Holt went missing whilst swimming in 1967 and his body was never found. What country was he Prime Minister of untill his disappearance? 3. Which country hosted, and won, the first World Cup in 1930? 4. With a reign of 72 years, who is the longest reigning European monarch to date? 5. Who is largely credited with making ‘Riverdance’ world famous with his performance of the show at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest Final? 6. The dalmation dog breed perhaps unsurprisingly originates from the land of Dalmatia. Which modern day European country is Dalmatia situated in?
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THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY 1. Donald Trump recently announced a migrant ban applying to seven countries, which of these countries were not included in the ban? a) Libya b) Yemen c) Oman d) Somalia 2. Philip Hammond acquired a part of food company Hydramach in October 2015 has he invested in a 15% steak (I’m sorry) in the company. Curiously, a few months later it received a substantial grant from a Business Department agency. How much was the grant? a) £260,000 b) £360,000 c) £460,000 d) £560,000 3. The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was recently found to have the lowest paid cleaners of any governemt department. How much are they making an hour? a) £6.20 b) £7.20 c) £8.20 d) £9.20
Meet James Pendlington. He’s our new Coffee Break editor. Despite only have one day to put a double spread together, and despite having no experience using our design software, he’s done a great job in his first issue. He’s got a tonne of great ideas to jazz up the section for future issues, including quizes, puzzles, games, and interesting (nonalternative) facts. The Darling Buds of May 1). c 2). d 3). b Pub quiz 1). Volga 2). Australia 3). Uruguay 4). Louis XIV 5). Michael Flatley 6). Croatia
Connection Grid Connections: Female animals, Can be preceded by ‘night’, Words from ‘Doe, A Deer’ in the ‘Sound of Music’, Letters of the alphabet phonetically pronounced
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COFFEE BREAK ON THIS DAY
ECONOMY AT A GLANCE
10 Febuary
DID YOU
Unemployment rate: 4.8%(no change on previous period
1840 - Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert
CPI Inflation: 1.6% (0.4% increase on previous period) 1894 - Harold MacMillan is born 1962 - Gary Powers, the U2 incident pilot, is traded for USSR spy Rudolf Abel (the 2015 film Bridge of Spies is based on this) 1967 - Vince Gilligan is born
UK Government Bond 10 yr yield: 1.2 (a slight decrease in the past few days from 1.4, but UK government bond yields have increased dramatically from the lows they reached following the EU referendum; as a comparison, Greece’s bond yields have similarly been skyrocketing in recent years due to their economic troubles)
In Australi a a co known as a ffee break is ‘smoko’
(Sadly I kn ow no Aust ralians to ve you are an rify this, so Australian if and you kn telling a fib ow that I’m then view this as an ‘a lternative fact’)
2005 - Arthur Miller died
EASY
MEDIUM
KNOW?
SUDOKU HARD
CROSSWORD Across
Down
1. Speed up (10)
1. Spring month (5)
7. Cherished (8)
2. Violent windstorm (7)
8. Jokes (4)
3. Facial expression (4)
9. King of beasts (4)
4. Unhesitating (8)
10. Greedy eater (7)
5. Blotto (5)
12. Concur (3, 3, 2, 3)
6. Cold-shoulder (6)
14. Respire (7)
11. Incidentally (2, 3, 3)
16. Put away for storage (4)
12. Story in stalments (6)
19. Stinging insect (4)
13. Defunct (7)
20. Lack of strength (8)
15. First Greek letter (5)
21. One who looks after children (10)
17. More judicious (5) 18. Indian dress (4)
FORGE PRESS 45
FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2016
press.sport@forgetoday.com
SportsThoughts.
SPORT
This week’s Sports Thoughts deals with the crisis facing several Football League clubs, as Tim Adams takes aim at negligent owners. Hugh Dickinson considers the impact of the Toronto Wolfpack’s debut season in English Rugby League competitions.
Football League clubs under threat from above
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Tim Adams Sport contributor
he revolving door syndrome has permeated lower league football in England. Coventry City, Leeds United, Leyton Orient, Charlton Athletic, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest are among the clubs whose owners have been subject to protest. And rightly so. In my opinion, a spate of owners who think their quick firing managerial solution
is the answer to solving every problem is becoming an epidemic. The result of this is teams lacking in identity and suffering on the pitch. In football, where you place the blame is just as important as how you play the game. Karl Oyston and Francesco Becchetti have blamed the fans for their sides’ struggles. Roland Duchatelet dictated team selection to the former Charlton manager Chris Powell but then sacked him after a poor run of results. And the less said about Massimo Cellino the better.
Lower league clubs’ fanbases go back generations, and it’s difficult not to feel sorry for them. When problems occur within a club, the expectation is that the chief executive or director talks with all parties. So the board, managerial team, players and fans must all work together to solve the issue. After all, without the fans, football simply has no meaning. Chaotic ownership in the short term is manageable if there are signs that majority shareholders of clubs can learn and move the
club forward. But the league table is the ultimate sign of the severe mismanagement plaguing clubs. Blackpool is an example of one club which has lost its identity. Under Ian Holloway in 2011, they were relegated after losing 3-2 at Old Trafford to then Premier League champions Manchester United. Since then turmoil has followed the seaside club all the way to League Two. Their 201415 campaign in the Championship ended with visiting Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka describing the pitch as an insult to supporters. Players had to wash their own kit because the kit man was only allowed to work on match days, and a pensioner was sued £20,000 by Karl Oyston for a negative Facebook post. At one stage the club registered just eight professionals. 27 players from both the first and youth teams departed. And when the statue of club legend Stan Mortensen was removed, before pressure led to its return, the fans’ dismay was complete. Further down south Orient is another. In 2014 Barry Hearn sold his major stake in the club to Francesco Becchetti, an Italian businessman. What followed
became one of the most toxic relationships in modern day sport between owner and fans. After spending nearly £12m in Mayfair property, Becchetti escalated the wage bill at Orient to near unsustainable standards with some players earning £9,000 a week. His decision to launch a TV show on prime time Italian TV was questioned when the club sat bottom of League One. Between 1996 and 2009 the O’s had five managers. In the last three years, they’ve had six. And the befuddling statement released by the club, so difficult to understand that it made morse code look like child’s play, just poured fuel onto an already burning inferno. Chief Executive Alessandro Angelieri said: “The absence of Mr Becchetti during the last three months has had a more negative impact on the squad.” Eh? The stats say Orient’s form has improved since Becchetti left the country. In the past, it would have been incomprehensible that clubs like Orient could go into administration and crash out of the Football League. But the crisis caused by poor ownership has put many clubs’ futures in serious doubt.
Wolfpack become pioneers for transcontinental sport
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Hugh Dickinson Sport Editor
hen the Toronto Wolfpack take to the field against an as yet unknown English amateur side in the third round of Rugby League’s Challenge Cup later this month, it could be the first shot fired in a global sporting revolution. The villages of Egremont, Fryston and Thatto Heath are not usually the centres of sporting attention, yet any could be the place where it changes forever. Let me explain. This season the Wolfpack are set to become the first transatlantic professional sports team, and eyes will surely be watching from those with far deeper pockets (and the aspiration to line them) than the head honchos at the RFL. A transatlantic team has been on the cards now for several years.
When the NFL’s International Series first came to Wembley in 2007 there were whispers of a London franchise. Now, it seems, the UK capital has taken a ticket and is waiting for its number to be called. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that a North American team was chosen to compete in a European league, rather than vice versa. The franchise model adopted across the Atlantic, with fans who are resigned to teams changing venue, seemed far better suited to exploring new markets than the conservative and nationalistic European model so heavily inspired by the traditions of football. Should the Wolfpack have success, be it on the field or commercially, it will not be long before those waiting for a pioneer will follow suit. As so often is the case, the NFL is the loudest and most auspicious suitor of a transatlantic market, but there are already talks
of two North American teams joining Rugby Union’s Pro-12 and even suggestion of a London NHL franchise – a ludicrous proposal given that the city can’t currently support a side in Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League. It is football, so ingrained in European culture, that will likely be the most resistant to change. The big four European leagues and UEFA’s Champions League will in all likelihood not bend until transatlantic sport becomes an inevitable reality, such is the resistance to change within its members and fans. This resistance is somewhat ironic given that it is the sport most well acquainted with regular scheduled travelling. The 3,335 miles from Toronto to Whitehaven in Cumbria is an almost identical distance to that travelled by fans of Ireland’s St Pat’s Athletic when they faced Kazakhstan’s Shakhter Karagandy in their 2011 Europa
League qualifying glamour tie. Football might resist for a time, but an already bulging global market for European football will surely be straining at the leash to marry UCL to Copa Libertadores or the MLS in something far more grandiose than the currently irrelevant World Club Challenge. It might yet fail. The issues of constant jet lag, changes in climate, reduced preparation time and sheer strain of travelling might
have the effect that doomsayers are predicting. But if it doesn’t, Toronto Wolfpack’s game at the likes of Myton Warriors on the 26 February will be remembered for years to come for the precedent it established. And either way, the Canadian side are going to be a great pub quiz answer in 30 years’ time. Both images: Wikimedia Commons
46 FORGE PRESS
FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER 2016
SPORT
press.sport@forgetoday.com
Steelers banish demons with Dundee win Hockey 1s
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Hugh Dickinson Sport Editor
heffield Steelers bounced back from a calamitous weekend against Belfast Giants by recording a 5-4 victory against Dundee Stars. In his programme notes before the two games against the Giants, Steelers coach Paul Thompson described Ice Sheffield as having “no atmosphere, no home qualities”, but Steelers’ second home was quickly rocking as Steelers took the lead in 38 seconds. Jayce Coyle had the first shot in anger from the blue line and Mathieu Roy deflected the puck goalwards. Driven on by the Belfast result Steelers’ looked imperious, and had a second after eight minutes. Robert Dowd found himself behind the net and played the puck across the crease to see it deflected in by the leg of Stars goalie Joe Fallon. But during the first intermission, the paper over the cracks ruptured. Just 28 seconds into the second period, the Stars, still on the powerplay, found themselves back in the game. Justin Faryna’s shot was blocked by the kicker of Steelers netminder Evins Mustukovs, and Kevin Bruijsten couldn’t miss. This set the tone for a manic period of ice hockey that saw six goals, six penalties and a penalty shot.
While the Stars’ were shorthanded, Cale Tanaka broke away, stole past the defence and was tripped by Mustukovs in the crease, but the man known as ‘Moose’ stuck out a hoof to keep out Tanaka’s resulting penalty shot. The visitors had the wind in their sails. Their powerplay unit was out again when Andreas Valdix was guilty of interference, and Stars’ man of the match Vinny Scarsella scored the goal of the game, lugging it from the neutral zone, past a defender and a helpless Mustukovs. The ghosts of the previous weekend were haunting the crowd, and things got worse. Roy almost scored a shorthanded goal while Levi Nelson was in the box for holding the stick, but as soon as it was even strength again, Scarsella made it 3-2. A flying puck hit Steelers’ Anders Franzon in the neck, taking him out of the game, and leaving the ice wide open for Bruijsten to square to Scarsella. The frenzied play continued. Mike Ratchuk hit the pipes for Steelers, before Nelson had it in the net, beating replacement netminder Craig Holland on his glove side in a shot that took the arena by surprise. Those who thought a return to parity would calm the game were wrong. Cameron McGiffin received two minutes for tripping, but when
Dowd hit the inside of the post it seemed like the opportunity had gone. Technically it had. But as McGiffin’s skate touched ice, Roy scored Steelers’ fourth, having two bites at the cherry after Ben O’Connor’s initial shot was saved. The sixth goal in fourteen minutes came courtesy of more excellent Scarsella play. He broke down the right, played the puck into the crease, and Joey De Concilys poked it under Mustukovs for a shorthanded effort to tie the game. A sedate final period drifted towards overtime, but the deadlock was broken by Steelers’ man of the
match Nelson. On their seventh powerplay of the game, Steelers finally got the unit to click. The puck fell kindly to the Canadian in the middle of the Stars’ zone and he smashed the puck high for the game winning goal. It might have been six, as Craig Moore produced a brilliant piece of defending to stop Dowd from tapping in a rebound, and Colton Fretter shot over the empty net on the buzzer. It was a bizarre game and a far from perfect performance from Steelers, but the result keeps their slim title chances intact.
Image: Adam Bailey
steal win
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Adam May Sport Contributor
heffield Men’s 1s left it late as they came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 against Liverpool 1s at Goodwin, but made hard work of it against a well-drilled and organised visiting outfit. It was Liverpool who had the first chance of the match when a deft flick had to be kept out, although Sheffield soon fashioned a chance themselves only for the final effort to whistle wide of the upright following a slick interchange. Liverpool took the lead on 18 minutes, though, following a corner kick that wasn’t convincingly dealt with, and it allowed the Merseysiders to drive low into the far corner to make it 1-0. Frustrations soon grew with the home team as they struggled to get too many shots on goal, and they were fortunate not to watch the game slip from their grasp and out of sight when a penalty corner was flicked wide. Sheffield began their comeback with 15 minutes to go when Steve Palmer sent a powerful shot past the helpless goalkeeper, before Nick Hale made it 2-1 with six minutes left on the clock, converting from a penalty corner, which gave the hosts their fifth win of the season.
Blades end winless run against Wimbledon
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Adam Bailey Sport contributor
heffield United returned to the top of League One after a convincing 4-0 victory over AFC Wimbledon. James Hanson scored on his debut after Billy Sharp had put the Blades in front after just two minutes. Second-half goals from John Fleck and substitute Caolan Lavery completed the emphatic victory, which ended United’s
Image: Ed McCosh
winless streak. Chris Wilder made two changes to the team that lost 2-0 at home to Fleetwood Town as the Blades boss looked to rediscover the winning formula after three games without a win. Jake Wright replaced Chris Basham in defence, while striker James Hanson made his Blades debut after signing from Bradford City in the January transfer window. Wimbledon feared the worst when they conceded the opening
goal after just two minutes. James Shea was unable to gather Fleck’s free-kick and Billy Sharp was waiting to pounce as the ball rebounded off the Wimbledon goalkeeper. The Blades captain was in the right place at the right time to bundle the ball home from closerange to score his 19th goal of the season. After their early goal, Blades controlled the game for long periods, but Wimbledon remained a threat. Jake Reeves tried his luck from distance, but his dipping
shot was comfortable for Blades goalkeeper Simon Moore. At the other end, Mark Duffy did well to create space inside the box, but as he looked to find the far corner, he instead found the hands of Shea.
“Fleck produced a delightful piece of skill to leave Robinson rooted to the spot” James Hanson impressed on his debut. His presence alone caused Wimbledon problems and he linked up well with Sharp. His first sight of goal came in the 35th minute, but his header looped over the crossbar. Two minutes later, Hanson found the back of the net to open his goal account for the Blades just 37 minutes into his debut. Kieron Freeman had the opportunity to shoot, but he saw Hanson in a better position unmarked eight-yards out and unselfishly played the ball to the striker. Hanson powered the ball towards goal and, despite the efforts of Barry Fuller on the goal line, the Wimbledon captain was unable to stop Hanson extending Sheffield’s
lead. Billy Sharp will have been disappointed not to have added to his goal tally in the second-half as he had a flurry of chances. Sharp dragged a shot wide of the post when under pressure from two defenders, before he was unable to direct the ball towards the goal as he stretched to reach Lafferty’s ball into the box. The Blades captain found himself in another good position after Duffy’s ball put the Sheffield captain through, but his lob was straight at Shea. Further chances followed for the Blades as Lafferty saw his flicked header go wide of the post, before Mark Duffy’s drilled effort went narrowly wide of the foot of the post. Fortunately for the Blades, the missed opportunities didn’t have an influence on the overall result. With 10 minutes remaining, Fleck produced a delightful piece of skill to leave Robinson rooted to the spot, before finishing past Shea. Substitute Caolan Lavery completed the rout in stoppage time with a composed finish to move the Blades two points clear of Scunthorpe at the top of League One.
FORGE PRESS 47
FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER 2016
SPORT
Delight for tennis 1s but frustration for 2s Tennis
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University of Sheffield Men’s 1s
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Leeds Beckett University Men’s 2s
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Tim Adams Sport contributor
obin Williams once said tennis is like chess but at 90mph. Anything travelling that fast is difficult to stop. The University of Sheffield Men’s 1s proved unstoppable against Leeds Beckett 2s, taking an early lead before easing to a 12-0 win. Likewise, Beckett 4s trounced Sheffield’s 2s by the same scoreline. After last week’s massive 10-2 loss in York, it was crucial for the first team to set the tone from the start. They did. By midday, captain Tom Dyakowski and Alex Wood flew
through their doubles 6-1 6-0 and not too soon after Vilis Vitolis and Jack Heard eased to a 6-3 6-3 win. Fortunately for Dyakowski his opponent pulled out through injury, granting the number one Sheffield seed a bye. In just two hours the home side had picked up three victories but wanted to prove a point, subsequently rubbing salt into the wound. Wood’s performance (a 6-2 6-3 triumph) personified calmness and precision, striking the balls between the lines as they nestled into the draping curtains at the back of the court. Hird’s singles victory (a 6-1 6-0 demolition) ticked the score over to 10-0 while Vitolis, after a gruelling
first set, rounded off a successful day with a 6-4 6-0 win. Vice-Captain Vitolis said: “I thought the firsts were expected to bounce back from our defeat against York last week so I was happy that all of the guys delivered today.” “We won well, and I hope that will carry on to the last round of league matches, our cup quarter final and later in Varsity.” Like the 1s, the 2s’ doubles matches were over by lunchtime, but Beckett took the driving seat and never took the foot off the accelerator. Beckett, 16 points clear off the Sheffield second team, were always going to be a tough test. In six matches, two doubles and four singles, they dropped just 10 games. Jack Kearton and Bradley Timmis were beaten 6-1 6-0, while Dan Earp and Josh Mitchell couldn’t find any foothold in their match and lost 6-1 6-2. The high level of consistency in the away side’s performance throughout the afternoon singles never allowed the second team to
breathe, let alone get back into the game. Kearton put up the best fight but was outplayed and lost 6-2 6-1, while Earp’s inconsistency cost him on the big points, a score-line of 6-1 6-1 not an accurate reflection of the overall performance. Timmis’ racket took the force of a tennis ball entering the atmosphere in his 6-1 6-1 defeat. From the other end of the court, all he could he could see from his opponent were mannerisms that would have made Russell Crowe proud in Gladiator. When Mitchell suffered a double
bagel defeat, hit 6-0 6-0, it rounded off a testing day in their second match back after the Christmas break. Vitolis said: “It was a tough draw for the seconds, especially as there were new doubles pairings for us, but I’m happy to see improvements since their last matches against Beckett.” The second side’s next match is against York Men’s 1s on February 22, while the first team will go up against UCLAN’s 1s for a place in the Northern Cup Conference semi-final seven days earlier.
Image: Tim Adams
York thrashed by dominant Sheffield 1s Lacrosse
University of Sheffield Women’s 1s University of York Women’s 2s Adam Bailey Sport contributor
T
he University of Sheffield Women’s Lacrosse 1s continued their bid for promotion with a 25-4 win over University of York Women’s 2s this Wednesday. Sheffield ended 2016 just three points behind Northern 2B leaders Leeds Beckett University after four successive league wins followed defeats in their opening two games. The girls restarted their season after the Christmas break and their emphatic victory over York keeps the pressure on Leeds at the top of the table. The fluorescent bibs worn by Sheffield meant York had no problem seeing their opponents, but the hosts were soon out of sight after storming into a six-goal lead in the first quarter. Roisin Doyle put the hosts ahead
25 4
in just the second minute with the first of her 11 goals, before more goals from Holly Knowles and Anne-Marie Du Preez and a brace from Aoife Gilchrist saw Sheffield lead 5-0 inside the opening nine minutes. Doyle scored her second goal of the game in the final minute of the first quarter to give the hosts a comfortable six-goal lead. Sheffield continued to dominate
“It was a great way to start the New Year” - Naomi Shaw in the second quarter and their lead was quickly extended when Doyle and Du Preez both scored from close-range. Doyle scored her fourth goal in the 21st minute driving into the area, before shooting past the
York goalkeeper. Aoife Gilchrist completed her hat-trick after a swift Sheffield transition from defence to attack, before Du Preez scored immediately from the restart to extend Sheffield’s advantage to 11 and complete her hat-trick. In a game that saw the hosts find the back of the net 25 times, there were many standout goals, but the next goal was the pick of the bunch. After completing her hattrick just minute earlier, Du Preez was celebrating once more after a superb solo goal. As she advanced towards the goal, two defenders blocked her path to the net, but she spun around them both, leaving them rooted to the spot, before firing past the goalkeeper. Roisin Doyle scored another great individual goal in the final minute of the second quarter to give the hosts a 13-0 lead at the halfway stage. Doyle picked up exactly where she left off as she scored two goals in the opening three minutes of the third quarter. Sheffield then added another three goals immediately from the restarts to extend their lead to 18-0 inside the opening five minutes of the third quarter. Deciding who is promoted to the Northern 2A league at the end of the season could come down to goal difference and Sheffield continued to press for more goals as they looked to close in on Leeds
Beckett’s superior goal difference. However, as they searched for more goals, they left themselves open in defence and York took advantage scoring two goals in quick succession. Sheffield captain Naomi Shaw called a time-out and, less than a minute after the restart, normal service was resumed when Doyle scored her eighth goal of the game, before adding another goal in the final minute of the quarter to give Sheffield a 20-2 lead heading into the final 15 minutes. York scored their third goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter, before Catherine White restored the hosts’ 18 goal advantage. Roisin Doyle scored her 10th goal of the match after picking-
up the ball in defence, weaving in and out of the York defence, before shooting past the goalkeeper. Another two goals followed for Sheffield, before York scored their final goal with just a few minutes left to play. But it was only right that Doyle would have the last say after her impressive number of goals and she rounded off the 25-4 win with her 11th goal. Naomi Shaw, the women’s 1s captain, told Forge Sport: “It was a great way to start the New Year, especially after quite a long break. Hopefully in the next few games we will be able to secure second place and then if we play well against Leeds Beckett we stand a good chance of beating them and finishing first.”
Image: Sam Kite
48 FORGE PRESS
FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2017 DAY XX MONTH 2016
SPORT
This semester on Forge Sport
Hugh Dickinson Sports Editor
C
hristmas has been and gone, and so too have the first trappings of Varsity 2017. It seems far less than nine months ago that we were revelling in winning a fourth successive Varsity. It gets harder every year standards improve on both sides, and whilst we can get complacent, Hallam’s desire for revenge gets ever stronger. That said, complacency wasn’t an issue for our skiers and snowboarders who got us off to a great start with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the Alps during December’s Snowsports Varsity. (See right) The final winter points will be decided in Castleford for the second successive year, and Forge Sport will be there, as well as every other Varsity event this year. Forge Radio and Forge TV will be strutting their stuff again at Boxing, Hallam Sports Park Day, Ice Hockey 2s, American Football, EIS Day, Abbeydale Hockey Day (radio only) and of course Varsity Finals Day, with reports coming thick and fast from elsewhere. Forge Press will have every event covered in our 16 page pullout released, win or lose, on 30 March. You will be able to find all this in one place at forgetoday.com/varsity which went live this morning. And let’s not forget Dartsity! The best Varsity afterparty will be on Saturday 1 April, live on Forge TV. It’s not even all about Varsity! We’ve got all our usual BUCS coverage (see page 47), and we’ll be keeping a keen eye on the teams that could be league or cup winners. The WSL2 also returns to Forge Sport with reports and live commentary of Sheffield FC Ladies’ home games in the WSL Spring Series and FA Women’s Cup. The league starts this Sunday with Sheffield FC v Doncaster Rovers Belles live on Forge Radio Extra - access at www.forgetoday. com/sport from 1.50pm. Finally, back to Varsity! I now speak directly to the sports teams: What Forge Sport produces is one million times better if you win! So go out there, make it five in a row and paint this city black and gold!
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Sheffield take Snowsports lead
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n 16 December 2016, eight coaches full of excited students left Glossop Road to take on The Alps. With hundreds of students from both Sheffield and Hallam, it was time to make an early start to this year’s Varsity, returning home just in time for Christmas Eve. There’s a lot at stake with both the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University seeking to win the Ashes to Alps Trophy, and those ever-valuable first four Varsity points to set the tone for the entire competition. Unfortunately, due to adverse weather conditions, there was a fear upon arrival that neither the Freestyle nor the Racing
would be able to take place on the trip. The weather improved enough for the Freestyle to take place, but the Racing has been rescheduled, meaning Varsity will visit Castleford for the second year running, where the remaining two snowsports points will be decided. However, the weather did not dampen the spirits of the spectators on the day. There was a great turnout of support ready to cheer on team Black and Gold. There was excitement amongst the crowd, and the atmosphere was everything that you would expect from the opening event of Varsity 2017. The competition itself allowed both universities to display some incredible talent. The four categories included Men’s and
Women’s Ski, as well as Men’s and Women’s Snowboarding. There were then four qualifying students from each category between the two universities. The University of Sheffield were able to secure half a point for Women’s Snowboarding, with Hallam unable to provide a qualifying female. With the half point already in the bag, we saw great performances from Rebecca Williams, Flo Brookes, Sarah Bunting and Emma Scott. It was great to see nine girls from Sheffield entering the competition to win us our first half point, a definite victory for #ThisGirlCan.
“The atmosphere was
everything that you would expect from the opening event of Varsity 2017.”
Next up there was Men’s Ski. With Alex Glasse, Liam Keyes and Liam Kirkby from Sheffield to compete. The highest score of the four competing went to Liam
Keyes, who back-flipped his way to victory, earning another half point for the University of Sheffield. Hallam Women’s Ski then reclaimed a half point for the former polytechnic despite Georgie Beer and Lucy Bradbury putting pressure on the Hallam girls, and doing a brilliant job of rallying the crowd. The overall score was brought to one and a half points to a half, to Sheffield, with some impressive front and back flips from the Men’s Snowboarding. Daniel Saakyan secured the point, with Alex Tapply, Max Kroker and Oscar Lewis also displaying some great skill. A massive thank you needs to be made to the Sheffski and SUSC committees who put on a brilliant week-long event. It was a huge success on and off the slopes, and brought home the first Varsity victory of the year! Last of all, congratulations to everyone in Black and Gold who competed and supported in the snow! A great start to Varsity 2017 and a lot more to look forward to. (See left)
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