Quench - Issue 90

2010 preview special

Marina

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diamonds PLUS

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Issue 90 // Feb 1st-14th

THE STUDENT MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR AT 8!

200 RDS AWA DIA GUARDIAN STUDENT ME

VOYEUR ROBBIE BLIND DATE FEATURES GAY FOOD

FILM p. 53

TRAVEL INTERVIEWS FASHION BOOKS PHOTOS GOING OUT ARTS MUSIC FILM

MUSIC p. 43

LISTINGS

04 06 07 08 10 12 14 18 22 24 29 34 37 43 53 63

Cover Design: Jake Yorath ditor Simon Lucey Executive Editor Emma Jones Assistant to the Editors Elaine Morgan Arts Amelia Forsbrook, Natalie Stone, Blind Date Sarah Kilby, Caroline Baldwin Books Emma Pocklington Fashion Emily Cater, Kate Eaton Features Ellie Woodward, Sarah George Film Lloyd Griffiths, Jody Tozer, Steve Wright Food Harriet Davies, Hayley Pyper Gay Lucas Owen Going Out Jack Doran Interviews Steve Beynon, Tom Rouse Listings Steve Beynon, Tom Rouse Music Sam Smith, Phil Guy, Si Roach Photos Jake Yorath, Liz Foggitt Travel Dom Kehat, Paul Stollery Podcast Director, Lloyd Griffiths Proof Readers, Sarah Coburn, Jenny Pearce, Kate Boddington, Gabi Ford, Hannah McKenzie, Simone Micne, Lucy Trevallion, Rebecca Oakley, Ameilia Forsbrook, Hayley Pyper

printed on recycled paper. PLEASE RECYCLE.

voyeur

IN

OUT Plagiarism: like so 2009.

I

t's middle of winter and whilst the big freeze may have petered out more pathetically than Susan Boyle!s pop career, Britain is now in the grip of another evil force. Whilst the Daily Mail blames gays, asylum seekers, and the Royal Family for everything that is wrong with the world I can now highlight the real reason for “Broken Britain�. Sniffers.

Yes, the winter flu is prevalent and the green gooey liquid streaming from our nose that should only be on children!s TV being dumped on some C-list celebrity, probably Dick and/or Dom, is causing the nation misery.

Libraries nationwide are particularly susceptible to this plague of snotfaces who!s constant struggle to breathe spreads anger, causing global warming. We all know global warming is caused by angry people who go red in the face, thus warming up the atmosphere.

But don!t worry yourself, because as well as providing a quality insight into Cardiff Student Culture this week, Quench is providing you with three handy ways to avoid becoming a sniffer and adding to this world pandemic. Don!t say we don!t treat you guys.

1. Find a partner/friend/significant other and wipe your hooter on them. Easily disguised as a sign of loving affection, you will not only prevent sniffing but also re-ignite your relationship by showing a bit of loving.

2. Sneeze. Allegedly sneezing is equivalent of one tenth of an orgasm, and is also fucking hilarious to watch.

So spread some happiness and blow your load more often.

3. Pick it. I know it looks scabby, but in desperate times we have to take desperate measures. So yeah, stick it under your desk, behind your ear, on top of a small child - whatever.

Just don't bloody sniff it!

Rant over. x SL

04 / voyeur@gairrhydd.com

Rabbit Slaves: Undetectable

ba dom tish jolly humorous stuff

A young girl says to her boyfriend: 'You're the first man I've ever been with. Am I your first?'

'Possibly,' the boyfriend says. 'Were you in Weston-Super-Mare in 1993?'

dictionary corner on the buzzer with student filth

Time Vampire: Something or someone who literally sucks your time like a vampire sucks blood.

My computer broke again, I spent all night working on that fucking time vampire.

oyeur

voyeur

You ask Ross Kemp the questions world Ross, we live in a conflict ridden rted repo which you have very confidently l series. on throughout your inspirationa on interert exp an h suc are you as Seeing any hope for national relations, do you see a resolution.

Dr. John Crotch, Canton

Hi Dr Crotch, to your Thanks for getting in touch. In reply one only is e ther see can I as far as question, ther Whe ict, confl d's worl the solution to all of those it is Iraq, Aghanistan, Israel or one decrepid African countries. need Basically, as I've said for years, they sort and go to hers brot hell a couple of Mitc n we left it out. Just look what happened whe meted, plum Eastenders, The viewing figures and gun teenage pregnancy rates shot up, crime rose. will sort So yeah, basically me and Grant it out when we get a chance.

Over and out.

Ross x

ted on Ross, has anybody ever commen d, which in hea r you of t ligh of n ctio refra the light into a certain situations can distort the rainbow effect?

Your biggest fan, Emily Jones, Roath Hey Darling, have ever No, you may be the first person to you are If , mine of re featu that on ted commen how see and over e com d interested you coul my body? the light refracts of other areas of Capiche?

Rossy x

Ross, if a man came at you from had a behind with a knife, and you only with, f rsel you nd defe to k small haddoc what would you do?

Robert Wells, Cathays Robert, Robert?

Bloody hell you are naive aren't you what you tell I tion, ques id stup What a bloody knife, arm me why don't you come at me with a what hapwith a small haddock and we'll see ert, Rob balls e som Grow No? pens?

Grant, I mean Ross,

Disclaimer: None of the above views in anyway represent those of

voyeur@gairrhydd.com / 05

robbie

it's pastiche, capiche? ...sucka!

We've just moved in to a new decade, so why is it that we're so devoid of originality? Have we run out of ideas? Robbie Wells has...

L

ast time I had the opportunity to vent my views in Quench, I was waxing lyrical about the brilliance of art during the Noughties. ! ! " "! "! ! ! " ! f my tits on some kind of end-of-a-decade high, because no sooner had I written it, did I go out to a local dance hall and encounter a song that#s entire lyrical content revolved around the words “riverside” and “motherfucker”. Reading between the lines, the central protagonist has either encountered some down-by-thewater incest or is Mr. T posing as a Middlesbrough fan. Hell, if Mr. T was in Middlesbrough, maybe it was both. Either way, it#s more annoying and pathetic than a wannabe journalist making insinuations about a town he#s never been to (which is pretty damn pathetic by the way).

Then, a week later, actor $winner# Joe McElderry released an insipid version of an insipid song originally recorded by some other insipid cretin. My thesaurus may be broken, but that#s still the best review of The Climb that I#ve read, if I don#t say so myself.

To prevent it getting it to number one, some smart thinkers on Facebook, everyone#s favourite site for pointing out social observations (your friend has joined the group

! 6 /robbie@gairrhydd.com

“Don#t you just love breathing?”), decided to campaign against the evil of the X Factor. In order to rage against the machine that gets people to blindly buy in to culture they decided to start a Facebook group that told people to blindly buy in to a culture which carries a bit more social kudos, and a song that declares “Fuck you I won’t do what you told me”. And boy did they show that machine. Unless of course that machine is Sony, who own the rights to both songs, in which case they pretty much just lined their pockets twice as much as they had anticipated. Yeah, take that you bastards!

"No one seems to really care for invention, instead craving kitsch pastiche" And as we move into 2010, one of the biggest selling artists of the year thus far, through appearances in numerous TV shows and films, is Journey. Journey!? A band that

weren#t even popular when they were popular. Make no mistake, Don’t Stop Believin’ is an epic rock ballad, but where are we if modern music is boiled down to B.A. Baracus shouting, shit covers and 70s big-hair rock?

When did we go in a time warp by the way? In the eighties, if you#d have asked what cinema is going to be like by 2010, there#d be futuristic notions of holography, and being immersed within the action; feeling and experiencing things just like the character. Instead we have 3D glasses. Didn#t we already have those? And who#d have thought the film to break all cinema records would be Pocahontas? And why is Doctor Who suddenly deemed not only acceptable but compulsory Saturday night viewing? Has anybody got any new ideas?

Obviously, the answer is yes, but no one seems to really care for invention, instead craving kitsch pastiche. Maybe this fond retrospective look at bygone eras is a result of this one being so depressing. Maybe we need some political change to get us out of this stupor. In case you hadn#t notice, this really is the exact opposite to the argument that I made in the last issue.

Looks like 2010 is going to be shit after all.

blinddate

Blind Date

Was this date as spicy as a meat feast or as bland as a margherita?

"the waiter announced to most of the restaurant, 'he's here for the blind date'"

! " " #$ 1. So what were your first impressions?

She seemed really nice, though quite young and a bit quiet.

2. Best & worst bits?

There were a few awkward silences which are always a nightmare, best bits were probably the times there weren't! Avoided one silence by describing the ins and outs of a carbonara sauce...never a good line!

3. Any embarrassing moments?

There was a bit of a mess up with the tables, the waiter then announced to most of the restaurant, 'he's here for the blind date', which was hilarious for all the staff at least!

4. Were you nervous? What did you do to get ready?

A little. A cheeky pre-date beverage settled the nerves!

5. So will you be meeting up again?

Was good to meet up, but to be honest we didn't have much in common, so don't think we will.

6. And the infamous chuck, fuck or marry?

Going to have to be a chuck I'm afraid.

Tangwen ! "#$ % #& ' ( )#& * + * #, % - + #. + / )#01 2 + * / / 0% 3 / 4 He looked well-dressed so I thought he was pretty stylish.

2. Best & worst bits?

Best bit was talking about travelling, I don t think there was a really bad bit but I guess the worst bit was the moments of silence when we were trying to think of what to say...

3. Describe them in three words?

Good-looking, friendly, sporty.

4. Were you nervous? What did you do to get ready?

I was a bit nervous — judging from my friend!s experience I could easily have ended up with someone far worse than I did!

5. What animal did they remind you of and why?

I guess the dark hair and smile was kind of monkeylike!

6. And the infamous chuck, fuck or marry?

I!d have to say chuck.

! hris and Tangwen enjoyed their date curteosy of Pizza Hut, Queen Street.

Why not pop in and try their new lunch buffet (MonFri) for ÂŁ6.49.

For more information or bookings call: 029 2038 2291

blinddate@gairrhydd.com / 07

features

SKI'S

UP 08 / features@gairrhydd.com

features

Can't get enough of the white stuff? The snow that is! Claire Davy professes her love for all that is winter and how skiing has become her new-found hobby.

A

s the days shorten and the dark nights grow colder, most people are dreading the oncoming winter. There is one group of people, however, who cannot wait for the chilly months to arrive; they are, of course, the skiers. Winter sports fans of all shapes and sizes are beginning to count down the days until they are next on the fluffy white stuff.

And I just happen to be one of them. ! " #$ $%& " ' & ($%& $&" ) $" *$+ , % # $ goes a little deeper. I am an ex-seasonnaire. For those of you that don-t know, that means a person who has lived and worked in a ski resort for a whole winter. For me, it was the 2006-2007 season. I was a keen, and slightly naive eighteen year old. ! " # $ % " & ' ( ) " * + , ( # - % " . / " A-Levels and had gone through the nerve wracking processes of applications and interviews for major travel companies back in dreary London. I used the website . . to find available jobs and get information and I!d definitely recommend it; it!s the go-to site for anything ski season related that you-ll ever need to know.

You can apply for winter season jobs anytime from about June onwards for the upcoming season. I was desperate for one of the companies to employ me so I could fulfil my childhood dream of becoming a chalet girl. And luckily, one of them did.

My actual role became Hotel Host and a few months later I was sent off to France, driving for twenty hours through the night with a coach-load of strangers. Scared doesn-t even begin to cover it.

I had great plans for my season in those early days. I-d buy some skis, and a snowboard probably, and become an amazing rider and freestyler on both. I-d be on the slopes every day without fail. I-d become incredibly fit and skinny what with all the exercise I!d be getting. And I!d meet some amazingly cool people and make friends for life. As it turned

out, only some of these things happened.

We arrived at an already snowcovered resort. As we were based in a large hotel, the sixty-strong staff lived in, four or more to a room. I think it-s fair to say it was pretty manic. Training week came and went, friends were made, and ridiculous amounts of Mutzig [local beer] were consumed. The work was hard, early starts, long hours and far too much time spent away from the slopes.

Shifts consisted of either breakfast and dinner or housekeeping and dinner, both of which allowed plenty of skiing time. The horrible shifts were the lunchtime terrace service, which meant you missed a whole day-s skiing, and day-in: washing and ironing all day. Oh, and then there was transfer day with its 4.30am starts and hundreds of beds to change and toilets to clean. Saturdays were no longer the start to the weekend, they were dreaded. The only upside of day shifts was that you were finished at 6pm and could go out and get pissed. Which happened a lot.

I think it-s fair to say I was drunk most of the time. Many a night was spent drinking cheap (1 euro!) bottles of white wine, playing .I have never-, and ending in a drunken snowball fight. Oh, and having sex.

There was an awful lot of that. The in-hotel relationships were endless.

By the end of the season it was almost incestuous. And everybody knew who-d done everybody else.

Well, when there are two or more sets of bunks in each room, keeping things private became pretty difficult.

And that!s not for want of trying by some. Empty guest rooms. The laundry. The sauna. The restaurant.

When there are sixty under 30s living in such close confines, things can get pretty saucy.

Being hungover became my norm but I soon discovered that the thing to cure a sore head was to go skiing. When I was on the snow all the horrors of school-party gastritis, lack

of sleep and the fact that you only had four hours on the slopes before you had to be back at work became meaningless. Living in the mountains is indescribable; it!s heaven.

Hitting those slopes three or four times a week, every week, either with mates or just on your own, is the best feeling in the world. A fresh powder day was what I lived for.

Sadly, in the 06-07 season, those beauties were rare. That year had the worst recorded snowfall in forty years. At one point they actually closed the mountain. Disappointing, but there were still plenty of good days.

As the season went on things changed. I got a bit homesick.

Friends left for snowier climes (America) and better paid nannying jobs in higher resorts. Many gave up and went home. Most stayed though, and they became true friends. I still ski with a group from my hotel every year and meet up with them often.

I got fat; too much booze and too many crepes took its toll. My family visited and I swapped most of my shifts in order to get maximum time to spend with them. I did buy a snowboard but decided to just ruin the hire skis I was provided with rather than buy my own. The wages I didn-t spend on booze were spent on extortionately priced .boarderclothes which I haven-t worn since.

But I loved it. It was the time of my life.

Eventually, April came and it was time to go home. The snow melted and we packed up the hotel.

We got our seasonnaires hoodies.

Somehow I managed to get nearly everything back in my suitcase but the ruined Ugg boots had to be left behind. Being back home was horrible. I missed my friends and the mountains, and somehow forgot about all the bad days. I would seriously recommend doing a season to anyone. It is, dare I say it, better than Uni. Bring on next winter and season number two; I can!t wait!

features@gairrhydd.com / 09

! NISEX H

ave you ever been to the Union for a night out and drank so much you needed the loo? Even if not on a night out, maybe you were buying a sandwich and needed to go; perhaps it was pre- (or post-) exam nerves? Yes? If you say no I won t believe you.

Everyone needs to pee, so just own up. This is especially so on a night out: we!re students - we are expected to drink more than our own bodyweight in cheap cider, break the seal early in the night, and then spend the rest of the night going to the loo more often than a newly toilet-trained toddler...

It! s normal, even expected, to frequently go to the toilet on a night out. Most people are comfortable with going to pee, waiting if there! s a queue and hoping there will be paper (unlikely in the Union toilets).

That's not to mention the social element of going to the toilet with all your friends at once.

Few of us, however, have ever considered that some people might not be so comfortable going to the loo. We[re not talking about those who are shy about peeing in public, I mean those who are alienated by the way toilets are labelled by gender. In the Union toilets, as with most toilets, they are labelled either those little stick-figures or signs saying "Male# or "Female#.

In theory this clearly denotes that men, boys and lads go in one; women, girls and ladies go in the other. But what about transgender students? What about those who don! t fit into the binary format of either male or female? What about those whose clothing disagrees with the stereotypical stick-men?

The Union bogs don#t currently cater for them. This is why a motion was brought to the Student Council over the issue of gender-neutral toilets for Cardiff Uni#s Students# Union.

10/gay@gairrhydd.com

In truth, you probably didn't know this. Maybe most students don#t peruse the small print in the air Rhydd; maybe toilets aren#t that big an issue in the general student population; or maybe transgender issues just aren#t on the forefront of everyone#s minds.

Gender-neutral toilets are an issue for a small number of students who could feel excluded or threatened by the toilets in the Students# Union. You may wonder how anybody could feel threatened when under the influence of the Union's plentiful alcohol supplies, yes, some people are rude or thoughtless enough to question whether other students are in the right toilet.

"If you ever have your gender questioned, the toilets aren't the ideal place for it to happen" That may not seem like a big deal to you, but if you ever have your gender questioned, the toilets aren#t the ideal place for it to happen. Imagine it: you#ve had one pint too many so you#re desperate to pee. The fittie you've been eyeing up since Freshers' week is finally making signs that they might want to sleep with you, and that's forgetting the other people you need to get back to. You#re desperately working out whether or not (and hoping that) you#ll be too hungover to attend your 10am lecture, and suddenly someone drunkenly accuses you of stumbling into the wrong toilets. It's really not going to make your night, is it?

Admittedly, the average student#s discretion isn#t amazing, but when people are drunk they can be really quite offensive. Judging by what people generally go out wearing, you tend to know if you're in the wrong loos by looking around.

We#re students, we#re supposed to be liberal: does it really matter where we pee? However, the motion put forward to the Student Council could stop any confusion around the issue by simply removing the cause: altering the signs on the toilets in the Union.

This wouldn#t be a radical change as the only thing that would likely happen would be altering the signs from saying "Gents# or having the little stick-man in trousers, to saying "Toilets with Urinals# or something similar, allowing people to choose whichever toilets suit them and not altering toilet use for anyone.

Critics have argued that unisex loos open the floodgates for illicit sexual shenanigans in the gent's at the Taf (a night of passion in the SU? Classy!) and inordinate queues for blokes wanting to wash their hands as hoards of ladies re-apply any make-up that has fallen off, but this is easily countered with the argument that most blokes don't wash their hands anyway. Spare a thought for the poor girls dealing with overspray on seats. Stand closer please boys — it's shorter than you think!

gay

DEBATE

For most of us it's not even a consideration, but Kate Boddington explains that for some students, the decision about which door to pick is an uncomfortable one. Are you sitting comfortably? gay@gairrhydd.com / 11

! " " !

Forgive me, for I have sinned... !

Forget detox, forget health kick. We all know it’s never going to happen. Food editor Hayley Pyper, directs re us ddown w the road oc too temptation i a with tsna a guide id tooti te food sins we should be committing this New Year. e!re on the cusp of a brand new decade, and nally, essays and exams are coming to an end. It!s usually at this time of year that we get told to clean up our act, cut down on booze and eat a little bit healthier.

Well, nine out of ten New Year's resolutions get broken within the first month, so we here at Quench think: why even bother? Let's start the year as we mean to go on. University is a time for enjoying life, and indulging

yourself is a major part of that.

There!s plenty of time after graduation for lettuce and lentils so why should we waste our time with that now? As students we want something tasty and we want it now so take away your oh-soappetising green leaf salad, and screw your whole-grain goodness: 2010 is here to be enjoyed in a most calorific and disgustingly delicious way. ! collection of transgressions that concern man!s tendency to sin, and therefore a perfect point from which to begin a year of pleasure and temptation. Each sin can be aligned with particularly enticing dishes of indulgence in its edible form. So forgive us, for we have sinned, and join us for a seductive and sinful dinner date...

Pride The dea f c a cooking i ome hing e have become accustomed to as students, so why not go the extra mile by cooking something really spectacular looking. A good rack of ribs look incredible on the plate and will leave you salivating.

Comparatively, the ability to cook a roast dinner to precision is a de nite accomplishment and pride-inducing feat.

Wrath Undoubtedly this has to be something spicy to re ect the anger of this vice. A change from your usual jalfrezis, vindaloos and other curried varieties change to this would be to insert jalapeno peppers into a bog-standard omelette or indeed adding it to lunch-time wraps.

Similarly, Thai Red Curry can be made with an intense avour which is de nitely more exciting than its milder green counterpart.

Sloth The laziness (sometimes!) of student life means that we need food that is quick and easy to make for instant gratification. Microwavable meals and frozen pizza are staples to this vice. Failing that, try New York Pizza on Crwys Road: ÂŁ4 for a fairly large pizza, side and drink.

I stand by the fact that you CAN’T get any better than this! (Tel: 029 2066 5180). And for pudding, Heinz jam roly poly from a tin.

Open and warm up. It tastes a lot better than it looks.

Lust Valentine's Day is almost upon us again and the loved up among us

food ! " #$ % & " '( ' '( ! edible aphrodisiacs to stir up the hormones and improve the sex drive.

Oysters are the obvious example and are, apparently, exquisite with Tabasco sauce. For the less adventurous out there, there is still plenty of fun to be had from the "drink of love": Champagne. It is said that in moderation this lowers inhibitions and causes a warm glow in the body (although this can also be said for the altogether less romantic Apple VK). Similarly, chocolate contains both a sedative which relaxes and lowers inhibitions and a stimulant to increase activity and the desire for physical contact. No wonder this is the male gift of choice. To make things a little more pleasurable, try making a chocolate fondue and dipping ripe fruits (bananas, cherry, strawberry, etc.) in warm dark chocolate.

Greed You want more than you need or deserve and you just can! t stop yourself. Nachos are a prime culprit for

Banoffee Pie Ingredients : 1 (405g) tin of condensed milk For the base: 350g of digestives 150g of butter, melted 1 (284ml) pot of double cream 3 bananas, sliced instant coffee (optional) 1. To make toffee sauce, remove label of the condensed milk and immerse in boiling water. Boil tin for 2 - 3 hours. The longer you boil it, the darker and thicker toffee will be.

Make sure the tin is FULLY immersed in water, otherwise it will explode.

2. For the base, crush digestives and mix with melted butter. Using a pestle or fork, press digestives onto the pan. Chill. Meanwhile, whip cream until stiff.

3(a) Mix toffee and banana then pour onto base. Sprinkle instant coffee then spread cream on top OR: (b) Layer 1 — spread cream onto base, sprinkle a little instant coffee then arrange sliced banana, spread toffee. Repeat.

this, but anything small and "piecey# can do the same. If you haven#t got a deep-fat fryer (and who under twenty stone has?!) you can make Cajun wedges at home by simply slicing a potato into strips, lightly coating them with oil, apply spices and pop in the oven for 20 mins to make a dish that you just can#t leave‌ until it#s all gone. Similarly, the same effect can be achieved through minipizzas made using pitta breads, a perfect snack, but you won#t just stop at one!

Envy Learn how to cook something ! " # $ ! $ $ ! ! $ $ $ gain friends. Now this is completely to your personal tastes (or those around you), but a safe place to start is somewhere quite stodgy.

Shepard#s Pie or a good-looking pasta dish. A spaghetti and beef minced frittata is the more decadent cousin to a simple pasta meal and combines the best elements of Spaghetti Bolognese and an omelette,

Red Thai Chicken Curry Ingredients: 400g tin coconut milk Chicken or beef, pork, fish, peeled prawns 2 small red onions, cut into thin wedges 250g (9oz) fine green beans, trimmed, or other veg such as aubergines, baby sweetcorns.

Chopped fresh coriander (if you like) For the Curry Paste: 3 shallots, roughly chopped 3 garlic cloves 3 long red chillies, deseeded a walnut sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped 1 lime, zested and juiced 1 tbsp. fish sauce 1 tbsp. ground cumin 2 tbsp. ground coriander 1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper

baked with cheese on top and cut like pizza! Certain to get your housemate#s taste buds watering.

Gluttony This over-indulgent vice can definitely be associated with desserts.

It absolutely has to be chocolate gateaux. A large slice can leave you horizontally attached to the sofa for an entire afternoon. The variety served in "Gassy Jacks# is particularly guilty of this sin. Puddings should become our vice of 2010. None of this 'I!ll share' malarkey, finish the meal as you started – with eyes bigger than your stomach. Some good recipes to try at home are the traditional Pavlova, which is a deliciously sinful combination of meringue and strawberries. Or perhaps, Banoffee Pie is more tempting?

frying pan, fry the paste for a few minutes until it becomes fragrant (can be substituted by Red Thai curry paste bought from any supermarket).

2. Add the meat and then vegetables of your choice and simmer until tender.

3. Add the coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.

If you prefer a thicker sauce, add a tablespoon of cornflour.

4. During this time, boil a saucepan of water and add rice. Heat until cooked.

5. If you used the fresh coriander, stir this in before serving.

1. To make the paste, put all the ingredients into a food processor until you have a smooth paste.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large wok or

@gairrhydd.com / 13

travel

! his week, in a bid to save both time and money, Quench sent Jody Tozer

W

hen you think of Milan, you think of high end fashion, sophisticated, sexy Italians and of course spending a lot of money. Not your typical student destination, so together with an intrepid travel companion I decided to put Milan to the test and see if this heart of fashion could be done on a budget. Just how much Milanese culture we could engulf ourselves in in 24 hours using as little of the life line that is the Student Loan as possible?

Saturday 11:30am: Using the Milan underground is fairly inexpensive at !3 for a 24 hour ticket; this is definitely the way for a student to travel. We even

14 /travel@gairrhydd.com

caught a glimpse of a glamorous photo shoot as we descended the escalator to the metro.

12pm: Walking away from the city centre we found a small Italian restaurant where prices are cheaper.

The place is swarming with what seem to be Italian locals and we get ourselves a huge pizza to share with fries, salad, bread and drinks for just !10 each. With the drinks being a third of the bill, one way to get an even cheaper lunch is to adopt the old cheapskate trick of ordering tap water.

1pm: The Duomo Cathedral lies in the centre of Milan. Looking around this beautiful cathedral comes highly recommended.

Entrance to the Duomo is free; how-

ever it does cost us !5 to go up to the roof where we marvelled at the views of the main square.

2pm: It just so happened that Italy were playing New Zealand at rugby that day. A large screen had been set up in the main square and large crowds gathered. We stopped to experience the atmosphere but with no real interest in rugby we made our way to the tourist information office which turned out to be an attraction in itself. With beautiful decor, strangely shaped seats and a glass floor with a fake stream and wishing well, it was a good indicator of the arty eccentricity that this city had to offer.

3pm: Attraction leaflets in hand, we were determined to find some

4

! " # $ % &

to find out if it is possible to see all of Milan in 24 hours culture. In the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele ll there is a strange tradition to partake in which is to spin your heel on the testicles of a bull mosaic on the floor. Of course, this was a must. Whilst spinning on the bull!s testicles, we notice a crowd gathering around a busker. One thing we came to realize very quickly is that there is a higher standard of busker in Milan, with many a creative and talented act. Among other acts we saw a string quartet and an imaginary instrument orchestra, pretending to play instruments to backing music. There was also an art exhibition in the city with many pieces scattered around including animals made of recycled Italian waste and many striking art pieces

in memory of the holocaust.

4pm: We went for a stroll around a rather eerie looking park adorned with gothic statues where the locals walked their fashionable mini dogs.

Next to the park, the Contemporary Art Museum houses many artefacts of Italian history and art with free entry thrown in.

5pm: How could I possibly go to Milan and not buy something?

We browsed the shops consisting of Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss and Gucci. Luckily for me, among these big names lies the international phenomenon that is H+M in which I manage to grab a bargain dress at !10. Yes, I know it"s H+M... but hell, it"s still from Milan, that"s all that counts!

6pm: Not many cities have embraced the Happy Hour as has Milan. Many bars have a special offer where you pay for a single drink and get a free buffet. The drink, however, can cost you !8 but it seems you can get one almighty strong cocktail for that money. We decided to eat in a place by the canal called the #Karma Sutra". Strangely, nobody was in there, we couldn"t imagine why...

7.30pm: We strolled along the lit up canal with a plethora of bars along its banks; many offering similar Happy Hour deals. This is where Milan starts getting expensive.

Drinks are generally !5 or more. We stop in a place called The Big Pig which had some rather bizarre decor

travel@gairrhydd.com / 15

travel

9pm: We head to an area of Milan which is rife with nightclubs and bars to see how the prices fared there. To our dismay, they just got more expensive, reaching the steep cost of !7 for a glass of wine. Now this goes against every grain in our student bodies and we just couldn"t do it, not when you can get two ! " # # $ % & ' " ( ' Tesco!s finest for the same price back home. The nightclubs are even more soul destroying at !15 upwards just for entry.

10pm: After strolling around this hub of night life, staring in at all those smug, rich Italians drinking their 7 euro drinks, we decided to face defeat and head to a hostel... which we hadn"t actually booked yet. Some would call us risk takers, some would call us disorganized but we manage to blag ourselves a 20 euro discount as we were checking in so late.

Sunday 9am: In true budget fashion, McDonald's is a fine choice for breakfast. In a half-hearted attempt to keep the local flavour of our trip, I get an Italian flatbread which is

16 /travel@gairrhydd.com

essentially grilled bread with plastic cheese and ham for !1. To our delight, we find a vintage market nearby, selling stylish second hand goods situated just outside the central station.

10am: We head to the canal again to see how it fares in daylight.

We stumble upon the Artist"s Quarter where cute little art shops hide in a flowery courtyard. We then have a coffee in a very stylish cafe nearby, where even the furniture is a piece of art. We sit on a giant green chair that reaches the ceiling and sip our Italian coffees.

10.30am: Milan also boasts a large castle where you can pay to browse its many exhibitions or roam around the grounds for free. Whilst we were there, a birds of prey display and a Lego exhibition were to hand, both joyfully free. Giant Lego characters adorned one of the courtyards, with blocks to play with and giant chess sets. There was also the chance to watch professional chess players in action in a tournament.

11am: With only a short time before we had to leave, we managed to check out one of Milan"s trademark monuments, the Ago, Filo, and Nodo (or Needle, Thread,

and Knot to you and me) by Piazzale Cadorna. It does what it says on the tin.

I have found that it is possible to do Milan on a budget, especially in the day time. Many of the daytime activities were free, including the museums and art exhibitions, the impressive buskers and (window) shopping.

However, as soon as it got dark, the activities were few and far between without spending a lot of money. Twenty four hours was enough to experience Milan, although rushed.

I came away tired but with a great insight into this unique city, without damaging my funds too heavily. ! " " # $ % " % & ' " ( $ ) * + , ' & $ - 4" . $ / " % don to Milan and fly from ÂŁ49 one way including all services. www.lufthansa.com

travel

. . .Manchester London of the North, and overall crazy place for a night out. William Wilson talks us through the debauchery and fry-ups Manchester has to offer.

A

s I pull into Piccadily Station early Friday evening, Manchester is already buzzing, the rush hour drones swarm around me !s December and so the German Christmas Market is here. It!s a village of stalls and it!s bustling with people, many who have come straight from work. As I quench my thirst with a tasty pint of wheat beer, I ponder on whether to buy a massive bag of salami for £10. In the end I realise that I don!t like salami that much. I then head back to my friends house to line the stomach and begin the post-drinking pre-drinking.

A few hours later and the evening ! " # $ % " & '( '! ) * +','- . / '% 0 & " )1' entering The Chapel at 4am in the morning where Utah Saints are DJing. The place close at 7am. I am told that this is an old church that was broken into and illegal parties (Manchester has a lot of these) were held, now the owner rents it out to the culprits for a cheap price and they put on "proper! nights.

The next day I awake at, a much too early, 11.30am on my friends! sofa. As I stand up I realise my body had been decieving me. I did not feel ok.

Next on the agenda is breakfast, I am taken to a place called the Trof , a trendy little bar/cafe in Fallowfield (student haven); they have their own Trof lager and cider plus they cook some pretty delicious sausages for breakfast – although not at those cheap student prices we all love (think the Milgi!s of Manchester).

! " eturn home with 'fail' written on your forehead" If shopping is what you are looking for then Manchester is more than adequate. Amongst the standard high street shops you! ll find a considerable amount of more "alternative! shops. Afflecks palace is an “emporium of eclecticism” and is Manchester"s indoor, many floored answer to London!s Camden market.

Manchester nightlife caters for everyone. If you like your rock then Satans! or Gillys! will delight; 5th Avenue is the indie kids haunt; Sankey!s provides the dirty drum and

bass and the usual places such as Tiger Tiger are ever present. There are endless amounts of bars and if you!re a gig goer then pretty much every band touring the UK will play a date in Manchester.

Saturday night was the real reason I came down. The Warehouse Project opens for the first 3 months of each Uni year bringing some of the biggest acts into one huge warehouse. Tonight they play host to Shy FX, Benga, Lethal Bizzle, Sub Focus, Scratch Perverts and Freestylers (plus more) and recent weeks has seen Fatboy Slim, La Roux, High Contrast, Andy C, Friendly Fires, Simian Mobile Disco etc. This night was no disappointment and by the end of the it!s so hot that sweat condensation drips from the ceiling leaving you disgustingly refreshed.

When I wake up in Cardiff on Monday morning I feel terrible, my body is shaking, my ears ringing and I have an almighty cough but it was undoubtedly worth it. I count myself lucky that I do not go to Uni in Manchester as I imagine I would return home with "fail! written on my forehead.

travel@gairrhydd.com / 17

goinginterviews out

18/interviews@gairrhydd.com

presenting...

going out interviews

Marina & the Diamonds

Quench sends James Hinks to meet the BBC Sound of 2010 runner up and discovers that diamonds and not time lords are a girl's best friend...

H

ere are a couple of tips for you. Firstly, listen to Marina and the Diamonds.

The Welsh lass is on the verge of stardom and will soon be tipped over the edge when her scintillating debut album Family Jewels is released in February. Secondly, and most importantly, if you ever get ten minutes of lead singer Marina Diamandis! undivided attention do not under any circumstance start prattling on about the defence mechanism of a South American mountain toad, trust me she will think you!re weird.

Returning to the first bit of advice, Marina and the Diamonds' music grabs your attention with a superb combination of powerful electro bal! lads and keyboard based pop/rock style songs. Although musically eclectic, her incredible voice, evident in her recent single Hollywood, is a constant throughout. The single is currently all over the radio and it exemplifies Marina!s ability to produce intense and catchy tunes.

Arguably Marina follows in the shadows of recent female successes in British music. Although she should not be compared to the likes of lemon-loving Kate Nash, Marina has exuberance and class which is soon about to brighten up the British music scene leaving Nash and the like in the dark.

Now, I!ll expand and contextualise my second and very random tip. I interviewed Marina when she headlined this years Cardiff Swn festival. I had only popped out for some biscuits when suddenly I was

forced into a coin toss by CUTV to determine who will interview one of Britain!s most exciting new acts.

I subsequently lost the toss which meant that I had to do the interview unprepared. Don!t get me wrong I was obviously privileged to have the opportunity to speak with Marina but without a bloody clue about her or her music I went into this interview with immense anxiety. To put the lack of knowledge into context, two minutes before the interview I thought her band was called "Marina and the Time Lords!.

"Marina is, quite simply, absolutely stunning" Despite my naivety about the Welsh born, London raised, West End performer, I felt the interview went OK. The only slip up was when I implied that I wanted to ask her on a date, which is hardly my fault, Marina is absolutely stunning. However, to my dismay the interview was extended due to the producer demanding more !quirky" questions.

To the delight of the camera man, the guy that had earlier played on my love of Dr. Who and tried to convince me that the name of the band had Time Lords in it, I then continued to ask the most unnerving and ridiculous questions and

sunk deeper and deeper into a pit of shame and misery.

A highlight of these disastrous few minutes was when I revealed that I wear my dad"s clothes.

However, the pinnacle of humiliation was when I talked to her about TV, which brought me onto the BBC documentary Life that led me talk about the defence mechanisms of a South American toad — cue the end of the interview and my interviewing career.

The subsequent gig by Marina was an intense show where her presence alone fixated everyone"s attention. Although it was short, the rousing performance was more than sufficient for a headline spot at the Swn festival. After the whole experience of the interview and gig I was truly hooked on Marina. I felt stupid about my ignorance in the interview and wished that I could turn back time and do things differently‌ For a start, I would actually ask her on a date and not imply that I wanted one.

Marina"s debut album Family Jewels is set to catapult her into the blinding spotlight of fame when it is released mid February. Although, her album is yet to be released, BBC Radio 1 have chosen her single Hollywood as their track of the week, meaning her status in the music industry is increasing.

She is currently embarking on her first headline tour from January 26, covering 11 dates around the UK, including one in Bristol on the 11th of February. My final bit of advice is to get a ticket.

interviews@gairrhydd.com /19

interviews

Tom Rouse catches up with the

Birmingham trio and talks

alcohol, girls, festivals and

mythical creatures.

Oh yeah, and a bit of music... !

"#

$ % & " ews@gairrhydd.com

!

he most important thing to realise when you come to the end of this article is to understand that in many ways it serves as a how-to guide in how not to conduct an interview.

If you're going to see one of your favourite bands with the intention of trying to score an interview afterwards, then please don't repeat my mistakes, otherwise you'll look like an idiot. ! " # $%# & # # .$#' # # %# ( $' # $) %## $# " $ Dictaphone, no prepared questions and not even a pen to my name is probably not the way to do things.

Thankfully, Johnny Foreigner are far more resourceful and posters and a pen were procured and we settled down to reminisce about Birmingham and discuss music. For those unfamiliar with Birmingham's indiest children, Johnny Foreigner are a three piece comprising of Alexei, the singer and guitarist, Kelly the bassist, poster procurer and drummer Junior who together make their living by writing songs about Birmingham and then getting as far

interviews

johnny foreigner away from the place as possible.

For a band that travels as much as Johnny Foreigner do it would be astonishing for them to remember details about any one city, especially when you consider that for them the most important component of their rider is gin. Therefore, to hear them speak of Cardiff with fondness and in particular the contrast between the generally relaxed atmosphere and the frenetic enthusiasm of crowds whenever they play is surprising.

Although their love of the Barfly may be a mystery to those who view it in a less than complementary light. In fairness to both the venue and the band, the point of comparison was the Birmingham Barfly, which makes Metro's look like the worlds' classiest club.

The band's recently released second album is in their own words a “document of their last 12 months� and so where the first album dealt with Birmingham girls, the second album concerned itself with world girls and in general a life on the road where sleeping in the same bed two

nights in a row was a long forgotten luxury.

"The first album dealt with Birmingham girls, the second with world girls" Unsurprisingly, alcohol also played a large part in both the interview and the album. The band had coerced their tour manager into acquiring bottles of the aforementioned gin, having found that there was none to be found in Clwb Ifor Bach. In Cardiff as part of the Swn Festival for the second year running, the band were at pains to stress how important they felt the festival was, not only for Cardiff but for the British music industry as a whole, describing Huw

Stephens as a legend, and getting drunk with him while being interviewed as their favourite moment of last year.

The interview was of course rounded off in Interviews' favourite fashion, with a discussion of what mythical creature each of the band members would be, with the majority of the responses both illegal and unprintable. Eventually however something resembling a consensus was reached. With a sea unicorn being Alexei's choice and Kelly plumping for a flying horse, four legs and being able to move at fast speeds was clearly the order of the day, while Junior eventually settled on being a human who was able to grow money instead of hair, though money was definitely not his preferred alternative to hair. Unfortunately his preferred substance was deemed a bit of a nightmare in light of the bands plans to tour America, being barred due to your haircut would definitely see the band sinking to a new and undeserved low.

interviews@gairrhydd.com/21

fashion

The

New Faces of

Fashion

Fashion take a look at emerging Welsh talents for 2010.

W

ith designers showcasing their latest AW'10 collections, Cardiff can't be far behind in terms of big names and talent. With Whitchurch based designer Elliot Frieze heading to showcase his work at London Fashion week and fashion and beauty photographer Grant Thomas papping the geneti-

22 /fashion@gairrhydd.com

cally blessed, we welcome the works of Glamorgan graduates Katie Redman, Sophie Shardelow and Luisa Davey.

Katie Redman's circus inspired collection 'Big Red' uses a mixture of chinese and habatai silks, chiffons, lycras and cottons. She poses the question: 'Is our clothing just costume?'

fashion

Above: Sophie Shardelow experiments with texture and fabrics in her sleek beach inspired collection.

Below: Luisa Davey made her own fabrics in order to create her 'tribute collection' honouring Welsh heritage .

fashion@gairrhydd.com / 23

books

If You Like This...

Nineteen Eighty-Four ig Brother, thought police, doublethink… when such phrases and neologisms enter the vernacular as the result of one novel you know we! re amidst the presence of a modern classic.

Orwell, the champion of clarity, a leading luminary who wades through the murky depths of stupefying political language brings us what could arguably be deemed !" " #$ " % & '!'( " #$ ) * !+ , '- & #& + ( " ./#/ 0 1 lished in 1949 and set in the year of the title, Nineteen Eighty-Four tackles the daunting prospect of a world in the grasp of totalitarianism, a world that stumbles helplessly through the numbing twilight of truth and ignorance, censorship and propaganda. Constructed in such a convincing, engaging way as to stir even the stillest of politically concerned minds, Orwell! s magnum opus will render you horrified but not docile, dejected but not defeated. Rather roused with the indefatigable determination to prevent such a world from ever occurring.

B

Then You'll Love...

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World – !Along with Orwell"s novel it shares the title of definitive dystopian classic."

George Orwell, Animal Farm – "Orwell#s brilliant satire and allegory to dystopian worlds and specifically the Russian Revolution, considered

24 /books@gairrhydd.com

his other greatest work."

Yevgeny Zamyatin, We – "Set in state constructed entirely of glass, this is the dystopian novel that served as a precursor to Orwell"s classic."

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? –

"Dick#s classic generates some thought provoking questions on existentialism and the state of individuals in his conceived future.

The novel that became Blade Runner, this book is an outstanding achievement in the genre."

Alex Mathias

books

! lip It Pub: Pearson

I

!m not really the type of person to pick up a self-help book. But with the onset of a brand new decade and graduation approaching faster than Ussain Bolt, I thought I!d forget my preconceptions and try something new, which, incidentally, is what Flip It is all about.

Flip It is a comprehensive selfhelp manual which encourages the reader to challenge the way in which he/she thinks about love, money, health and numerous other life areas. Flip It contains many motiva-

Quaintness and Other Offences Pub: Cinnamon Press

S

hakespeare penned sonnets for his patron, Roald Dahl wrote his Revolting Rhymes for children, and Benjamin Zephaniah exercised his enjambment for anyone interested in what he dubbed !street politics". Ann Drysdale, it seems, writes poems for poets.

Titles such as Definite Article Reduction and Faking it: For Matthew Arnold, in Dover alongside references to having outgrown the iamb! and going to a "marvellous book-launch! isolate the ordinary reader on first glance. A work entitled Water comes across as more in-joke than publishable piece, expressly dedicated to some chap called Kenneth, who apparently "wanted a sonnet!.

tional anecdotes about people who have applied Flip It-esque principles

"I feel the need to flip this mediocre book straight into the bin" to achieve success. The guide also contains "Flip Bits!; nuggets of memorable advice such as "You have a choice. Be grumpy or be happy.!

Most of the advice in Flip It is sound and practical: it can be applied almost immediately. However, at times motivation guru Heppell patronises and he often states the

Yet although at first grating, the constant flux between dialectical utterances and French quotations truly displays the art behind this work.

With such juxtaposition, it would be easily to imagine "Quaintness…! as pretentious and undefined but Drysdale pulls it off with remarkable ease and manages to transcend her appeal to those not so familiar with the intricacies of poetic meter.

"Drysdale, it seems, writes poems for poets" This remarkable ability is perhaps best seen in a poem entitled "Sleeping Together!. Here, Drysdale explores two meanings of this term, balancing the term as a "euphemism/ For fucking, humping, shagging! with the view that it is, "A heaven-given

blooming obvious. What!s more, Mr. Heppell seems to see himself as a kind of middle-aged babe-magnet, as he lectures his male readers on the Do!s and Don!ts of love. (Don!t worry ladies – Mrs. Heppell offers up plenty of cringe-worthy advice for the girls too.)

Perhaps the most irritating piece of advice surfaces as Heppell encourages the reader to evaluate his/her friends. Analysing, according to Flip It!s guidance, what can be gained from my friendships and assessing how much time I should spend with each friend felt hugely immoral and almost like I had betrayed everyone I had categorised.

Having read Flip It, the only thing I feel an urge to flip is this mediocre book with its irritating motto… straight into the wastepaper bin.

Rosie Burrows

opportunity/ Of cherishing another human body!. Strangely, such a leap in tone doesn!t seem at all odd, nor do the less euphemistic terms seem unnecessarily crude.

"This little inoffensive gem is certainly worth your time" The book is rich with echoes of famous lines and deep literary allusions, and there!s no denying that to truly appreciate Quaintness and Other Offences you have to be pretty clued up on your poetry. However, if you know your Christina Rossetti from your Alfred Lord Tennyson then this inoffensive little gem is certainly worth your time.

Amelia Forsbrook

! ooks@gairrhydd.com/25

books

The Book of

26/books@gairrhydd.com

books

the Future Books are out, technology is in. Emma Pocklington slings out the paperbacks and picks up the laptop in an effort to find out where the Ebook could take the world of reading.

G

iven that it is possible to carry a spirit level around in your pocket thanks to the mighty iphone, it!s not really surprising that now you can jam your entire Penguin Classics collection in there as well. Ebooks are the new exciting way to read, as if reading wasn!t exciting enough already, and it!s actually surprisingly simple.

!

! " dobe really offer anything that a simple sticky page marker doesn't?"

I expected to be battling with my computer for hours when I first sat down to do my research. But instead of getting through six cups of tea and flinging my laptop across the room I found myself, twenty minutes later, looking at my shiny new Ebook copy of Pride and Prejudice. And it had only cost me two pounds.

Essentially Ebooks on Adobe Digital Editions is really easy to use. I would particularly recommend it if you happen to be studying a novel, as you can leave yourself annotated book marks all over the place that are particularly useful during that 3am panic on deadline day. What you have to decide for yourself is whether Adobe really offers anything that a simple sticky page marker doesn!t?

If your reading merely for entertainment purposes then I think that the Ebook is probably somewhat lacking. Not only does it begin to hurt your eyes but the feel of reading from a screen personally reminds me of a dull electronic journal I!ve been forced to read for seminar purposes. There isn!t anything specifically wrong with reading books on your laptop screen, but somehow it!s just not the same sitting in bed with a hot chocolate and your laptop.

Also you can guarantee, once you!ve got the technology in front of you, you won!t be able to resist checking facebook twice a minute.

It!s best, in my opinion, just to leave the whole thing switched off and out of reach when you!re trying to do some reading.

Of course if you!ve got a spare ÂŁ200 kicking about you can afford to fork out on a posh Sony Reader, which you can actually carry around with you, unlike Adobe. If you overlook the price, which is predicted to plummet as popularity increases and Apple bring out their competeing technology, then they are quite nifty. The page has been specially designed to look like real paper (why not just actually read from real paper?) and there is no flickering back lighting to reduce the risk of eye-strain. Apparently the battery life should be enough for you to read War and Peace five times, should you feel so inclined, and you can download ebooks from sites offering them for free as well as reputable books stores. You could take it away on holiday with you and chose what to read when you get there, you could have the complete works of Shakespeare in front of you in every lecture without carrying around a book the size of a house brick. You

can even get a bendy reader which you can read your newspaper on before folding it away. The possibilities are endless.

"There's nothing quite like a new shiny piece of technology to make something fashionable again" Ultimately, I think the Ebook could spawn a revival in leisurely reading. There!s nothing like a new shiny piece of technology to make something fashionable again, but will anyone ever actually finish anything? With such power at your finger tips, the hundreds of books and the stylus if you chose to make notes, won!t the time put aside on the train for reading simply degenerate to one long browsing session?

By the time you!ve decided what to read and zoomed in and out to get the text size perfect you!ll probably have settled for listening to some music and starring out the window. And throughout all this there remains a question in the back of mind, what happens when, if you are a clumsy individual like me, you loose your Sony Reader and you haven!t backed your files up on your old, battered, soon-to-die laptop?

Goodbye extensive literary collection that!s what happens. And I shudder to think of it.

books@gairrhydd.com/27

por

photos

ps

this week. photos take a look at the ways everyday objects can make your photos better. words and photos by liz foggitt

quenchphotos@gairrhydd.com / 29

photos

30 /quenchphotos@gairrhydd.com

photos

T

here!s not a whole lot you can say about props, they say it for themselves- and that!s the point. They are a good tool to spark inspiration while taking photos. Props can serve a number of purposes which enhance a picture.

There is huge potential to get really creative and use your imagination.

You can construct a really surreal setting, or simply transform what might otherwise be a boring image into something special. In addition by incorporating different objects into the frame you can do so much like create atmosphere, balance a photo as well as setting the mood or scene. Props can be a subtle way to enhance the image, or hide something. They can compliment or clash with a colour scheme. They

can add texture, create a shadow or reflect light. They all help to draw the eye into a photo, giving a focal point.

They add depth to an image.

Here are a few pointers to think about when using props for photography. One important factor to consider is make your object fit into the photo - that it adds to the composition and does not take away from it. Don!t just add meaningless props. Or, make horrendously cheesey portraits that have become standard practice in a lot of studios now. It should add to the photo not take something away and it!s also important to make your model comfortable with the object you give them. You don!t want stiff pictures that look unnatural‌ Go out and try it, you never know what you might discover.

"You never know what you'll discover."

quenchphotos@gairrhydd.com / 31

photos

Photographer of the Year 2010

This issue's best photographer is Nat Hills, who produced this fantastic light experiment. We reckon it captures the party spirirt effortlessly.

32 /quenchphotos@gairrhydd.com

This month we're looking for photos with props livening the atmosphere.

Send your entries to the email below by February 5. Good Luck!

photos

quenchphotos@gairrhydd.com / 33

goinggoing out out

Young, Gifted and Welsh With the Welsh dance music scene being taken ever more seriously, Jack Doran gives the nod on who to look out for in 2010...

The Vinyl Vendettas

T

he Vinyl Vendettas are a rare thing in the world of dance music. Successful female DJs are sadly few and far between so a group of five such femme fatales is surely unique.

Arguably the most notable, and founding member of the group is Radio One!s Bethan Elfyn. Best know for her "BBC Introducing in Wales! broadcast, she also compares on a weekly basis at Cardiff!s Buffalo Bar. The five-piece is an eclectic mix including a promoter, tour manager and musician. The different musical preferences of the girls combines in a heady mix of tastes and styles.

Having played the festival circuit for years, including four times at Reading, they can now be found every Saturday at Clwb Ifor Bach.

34/goingout@gairrhydd.com

going out

Chesus and Rodski

A

t only eighteen and nineteen years old, Tom Morgan and James Thomas are starting to cause quite a stir.

The West Walean boys have been producing together for a little less than two years. Despite this, their unique brand of French House has brought the attention of such big names as Kissy Sell Out and Bethan Elfyn. Recently named as a hot tip for 2010 by BBC Wales, the year is bound to bring big things for the boys.

The pair are fulfilling an ambition of theirs as they head line Clwb Ifor Bach!s student night CYNT on February 18th. Not to be missed!

H

ailing from Cardiff and Barry, this pair of house DJs are in for a big year.

Having held a residency at CYNT since the early days, they!ve now found a second home at Birmingham!s Bigger Than Barry. In the process they!ve played support for some of the biggest names in the scene including Annie Mac, Sinden, Fake Blood, Toddla T and Rusko.

Favouring garage, house and funky, they recently released an EP with the On The Brink record label.

The duo can be found at Undertone basement for TRAFFIC!s next party on February 2nd.

Vanguard

Monkey and Stagga

K

ings of Cardiff!s dubstep scene, Monkey and Stagga received early recognition as hip-hop crew Optimas Prime. It wasn't long before they had establishied themselves as dubstep producers not to be ignored.

Having gigged around the city for years, their skills are now called upon further afield, playing to crowds in cities across Britain.

Stagga!s tunes can be found on Rag and Bone records, whilst Monkey has set up his own label Sonic Lodge Recordings. Their productions have proved popular, being spun by the biggest names in the field such as N-Type and Caspa.

goingout@gairrhydd.com /35

goinggoing out out

Recommended

Squire of Gothos

Faithless

A-Skillz

Tuesday 2nd February

Thursday 11th February

Tuesday 9th February

Undertone

Miillenium Music Hall

Buffalo

ardiff Uni’s TRAFFIC society have stepped up a gear as they present their first booking of the year.

Hailing from Sheffield and undoubtedly slightly nuts, Squire of Gothos are masters of the filthy beats. Combining the nastiest of electro, house, garage and grime, their tunes are certainly not for the light hearted. Anyone who caught them at Shout Out Loud's Dance of the Dead will know exactly what I mean.

The usual antics can be expected of the TRAFFIC crew as they continue their plight to rethink what a club night should be. Expect free presents, face painting, interactive fun, crazy décor, fancy dress and more.

ere’s a name that needs no introduction. Having been producing tunes since the mid nineties, anthems such as ‘God is a DJ’, ‘Mass Destruction’ and ‘Insomnia’ catapulted Maxi Jazz and friends to international fame.

As the crowds yell at the top of their voices, the vibe is bound to be euphoric, truly an experience not to be missed.

Having previously sold out the CIA, the Millenium Music Hall is bound to be rammed to capacity with queues stretching as far as Swansea.

With an earlier finish than usual, those keen to keep the night alive can head to the official after-party at Clwb Ifor Bach.

C

H

36/goingout@gairrhydd.com

I

f you like the sound of genre defying, mashed up sets, then this is a night not to be missed.

The phenomenally talented ASkillz will be wowing crowds with his mixing and scratching abilities as he swerves through hip-hop, drum and bass, breaks, dubstep and more. His only pre-requisite is a funky flavour that will remain the only constant from start to finish.

With international recognition and a huge reputation, A-Skillz never disappoints. Usually playing super clubs and festivals,this is a unique opportunity to catch the DJ in the intimate environment of Buffalo Bar.

arts

A

ny fans of Skins will remember Osama!

The Musical. Not so many people know about the satirical other side to this story, a play entitled Jihad! The Musical.

Unfortunately, we're not joking. This piece, featuring the songs 'I Want to be Like Osama' and 'Building a Bomb Today', has escaped the quirky confines of the Edinburgh Fringe (where it premiered just weeks after the Glasgow bombings) and is now touring. For real. If anyone out there is insensitive enough to go and see this please tell us if it is stereotype destroying genius or just another one of those stories where an American journalist tries to turn an innocent Muslim flower seller into a 'killer story'.

T

he American photographer Berenice Abbott once claimed that 'photography helps people to see'. Never has been this been more literally evident than in a new exhibition by blind and visually impaired artists entitled 'Sights Unseen'. The exhibition, organised by charity Photovoice, aims to widen the genre of photojournalism, giving groups previously excluded a chance to represent their own experiences through the lens. It is this that makes project manager, Matt Daw, keen to stress that 'blind and visually impaired people can take great photos.

K

now a lonely art fan who's tired of looking at the same old nudes in the gallery, or a single pantomime actor who, at the end of the season, has just realised their partner is little more than an ass? Get them to sign up to Single Artist Dating. Amongst the unusual sites tailored to those gagging for a marital affair, there is indeed a service for those who struggle to pick up anything other than a paintbrush in the non-virtual world. All you need to do here to get attention is to have the ability to talk about your soul, or be willing to describe yourself as the 'striving artistic type'.

Arts update arts@gairrhydd.com/37

arts

arts seen Having a laugh...?

Robin Morgan lets us know who will be having the first laugh of 2010

S

tand-up comedy has often been seen as a lesser art form, if one at all – one genre away from a clown of jester, perhaps. But let’s get one thing straight. It’s not. And I can prove it.

Live at the Apollo is one of the biggest viewing figures whore that the BBC currently has within its brothel. Same-format-familiar-faceexport Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow continued this trend.

But go back as late as 2005 — how many programmes with stand up as their emphasis were on prime time slots? Mock the Week debuted in June, but the emphasis was arguably more rooted in topical panel show comedy rather than strictly stand up.

This new popularity of stand up has not gone unnoticed within the

comedy circle, either. One comic recently attributed it to “King Michael McIntyre”. And he’s not too far from the truth.

The face of stand up comedy in Britain, McIntyre has done well for himself. He has not been without his fair share of criticism, however.

From different wings of comedy he has been fired shots at for seemingly ‘easy’ humour that doesn’t push the boundaries of this particular art form.

Television exposure was the key for his popularity. Appearances on Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo provide a plethora of non-livecomedy-viewers to see someone who isn’t Lee Evans.

There are countless deserving comedians who have gone through the years, playing gig after gig on the circuit, and have never found themselves with an appearance on

TV. This is all down to content.

Some comics clearly won’t be able to perform on national television because their set is too offensive.

And in an era where broadcasters, the BBC in particular, won’t take any risks, these comics will never see mass exposure.

Arguably some of them wouldn’t want to, however. But more and more comics are selling out thousand-seater arenas all across Britain and, indeed, the US. It can only show that stand up is becoming a more accessible and in demand art form. Even more, however, will not.

There are comics around that are by no means new, but deserve more public recognition. The only way to find these is to watch live comedy yourself. Go on. Daisy dares ya.

Tom Wrigglesworth – nominated for Best Comedy Show at Edinburgh last year. This show is on tour throughout the year, including Cardiff on February 3rd, which describes his battle against a Nazi-esque train guard. If that doesn’t float your boat (and it should, it’s hilarious), he also has jokes about porn.

Russell Kane – the pigeonchested cockney, who has appeared on Live at the Apollo, is seemingly a more alternative Russell Howard, with his flamboyant confidence and superb storytelling – sometimes, also, about porn.

Look out for: Kevin Bridges – 2010 will be big for this hilarious, stupidly young comedian. The twentythree-year-old Glaswegian impressed during his stints on both BBC formats, and was nominated Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards last year – the show he’s taking on tour in a month or two.

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arts

Russell Howard Live Stand-up

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h, to be a fly on the wall in the weird but wonderful world of Russell Howard’s life. Although to be honest, seeing him perform live gives you a good idea of what that would be like: never a dull moment.

After the success of his last tour, Dingledodies, it’s no surprise that Big Rooms and Belly Laughs

Mick Ferry – longstanding circuit dweller, was on McIntyre’s Roadshow sporting a lovely new tasche. But it is during his live sets that he absolutely storms – I’ve seen an entire stag party in tears at one of his gags. If that’s not talent, I don’t know what is.

sold out long before it kicked off in December. He was certainly on fine form, and as with all stand-up comedians, all the funnier for being free from the constraints TV censorship.

Highlights include many of the countless and bizarre stories he told: characters like his old school friend “three-fingered Mickey;” his worryingly nymphomaniacal ginger kitten; and the Christmas tradition of giving his brother a porn movie - in front of the family - which is, of course, never actually from Russell. (“Oh Nan!”) But it’s not his panoply of dirty gags that makes his stand-up so funny. Russell sees life through

Jarred Christmas – you may recognise him from the Donner Kebab Pot Noodle adverts.

You’d hope he’s more than that, and he is. The Kiwi exudes happiness; it’s simply impossible not to fall in love with him during a set of his. The only unfortunate aspect of him is that he’ll make anyone following him seem slightly dull and unimaginative.

such happy, light-hearted eyes which means, along with a hyperactive imagination, he can animate even the most mundane situation.

Take that gym card in your wallet that only gets used in January, he reckons it must be so “jealous” of your bank card’s daily outing to the cash machine. Random, but you get the idea.

The post-show banter he had with audience cements his genuine talent for stand-up and reassures us we can expect another tour plus a lot more from him in the way of TV and radio in 2010. Nope, never a dull moment in the company of Russell Howard.

Julia Lawrence

Jon Richardson – BBC Radio 6 Show host, and hilarious West Country friend o’ Russell Howard, Richardson has appeared on Buzzcocks, and, like Wrigglesworth, was nominated for Best Comedy Show last year.

Robin Morgan

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arts

This week Quench sent Amelia Forsbrook to meet Undeb, the new theatre group who are at the forefront of Cardiff's cultural evolution.

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Undeb Theatre Y

es, I know this outfit have 'theatre' in their title, but if you think this is going to be pensioners queuing up for their OAP discounted Romeo and Juliet tickets please think again. Tom Cullen and Alex Vlahos, the brains behind Cardiff's trendiest new theatre group, are out to spill a bucket of cultural hair colourant in the 'sea of grey' that has come to represent theatre audiences.

Inspired by the writer of Channel 4's Shameless, London's most cutting-edge young creative thinkers, and the philosophy behind diverse festivals such as Latitude and Glastonbury, Undeb are ready to add their unique hybrid take on the arts to Cardiff's exciting cultural scene. Through appropriate tie-ins with hotspots such as 10 Feet Tall and Cardiff Arts Institute, Undeb have come to exemplify the type of theatre that we all should make time to go see.

Undeb began when Cullen and Vlahos graduated from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama last year. Frustrated with what Cardiff had to offer and keen to make theatre that their mates would actually want to go and see, the two Artistic Directors decided to use their college contacts to make performances to change the face of Welsh theatre.

Indeed, to say that this group are a cultural fairground would not be metaphorical. In December, their challenging performances took the form of 'A Christmas Collaboration' where audience members chose a coloured ticket without knowing what it admitted them to. Like a raffle ticket guaranteed to win, the coloured slips of paper led to a mysterious piece based on a certain aspect of Winter Wonderland and paved the way for a surprise Christmas present: a ticket to the activity or ride that comple-

mented the play or short film.

It's all very exciting to us, but what do the lads cite as their creative stimulus? During their time at RWCMD, the two were introduced to Paul Abbott, the writer of a number of TV programmes, most notably Shameless. Inspired by the stories Abbott tells about growing up in a working class family and motivated by how the writer translated this tough experience into a BAFTA winning drama, Undeb want to give voices to underrepresented Butetown residents this year together with National Theatre Wales. A million miles away from the elitist stereotype of the arts, here is a new branch of theatre that speaks from, and to, real people.

Building on this philosophy, in a

"Here is a new branch of theatre that speaks from, and to, real people" recent production, the theatre used monologues to illustrate and explore the experience of defendants in reallife cases. A woman facing an ASBO because of her lusty sex life, a man banned from Tesco because of his Jedi hood and a father arrested for dropping a baby on its head all confronted a very unorthodox jury, when actors gave a fresh take on recent newspaper headilines to explore the alleged crime. Tired of Renaissance drama and Agatha Christie adaptations clogging the theatres, Undeb gave us a work that attacks current

modes of thinking with interactive and edgy pieces providing relevant echoes of contemporary concerns.

Yet this was not just a reinvention of the arts. By morphing the twelve lay-men of the traditional jury, this experimental work enables a creative measurement of how effective the public deem the legal system to be, providing an articulate commentary on issues truly rooted within the present.

This degree of innovative playfulness is also evident in the works in progress. At present, Undeb are working on an alternative Valentine's special where a series of short monologues by acclaimed scriptwriters will be delivered on a one-to-one basis. After this speed dating (with guaranteed drama!) there will be an opportunity to vote for the most eligible date. For those not swept away by a particularly fetching actor, there will also be variety of entertainment downstairs including theatrical performers, poets and comedians.

Certainly, now is the time to get to know Undeb. Here are big ideas from the most down-to-earth guys.

At present, Undeb is a not for profit company meaning all the money goes into new events. Added to this, these guys sure do have contacts; look out for some of the hottest graduates from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and from more established names in the performing arts. So start saving for a mojito now and get down to Cardiff Arts Institute on Valentine's day. This company promise a future of the most exciting of events which, although similar in their experimental nature, maintain the degree of continuous adaptation that has already come to typify Undeb.

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Tom Wrigglesworth Robin Morgan chats to the "face of Postman Pat" about his crusade to rescue one very lost granny from the injustice of the National Rail.

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omedians, in a way, are protectors of morality. The Edinburgh Award nominated tour show Tom Wrigglesworth’s Open Return Letter to Richard Branson, unsurprisingly written by Tom Wrigglesworth, focuses on the true story that happened last year on a train from Manchester to London, where an old woman was being ordered to pay £115 for getting on the wrong train.

Tom stood up for this little old lady, and tried to organise a whip-round from other passengers to get her money back, only to subsequently find himself arrested for begging.

“I then managed to get Virgin Trains to change their laws – the tour show’s really about what happened and what I’m doing to try and get the other train companies to follow suit.”

It’s a very British concept, and the mix of morality and comedy has seen the tour on a national run, coming to Cardiff on February 3.

This man can seamlessly link talking about his dad to leaving comments on Redtube – he’s pretty much a genius.

How did you get into comedy?

People used to say that I should try it, I used to go to the open mic nights and go ‘Yeah, I can’t be any worse than these’, so I tried it and I was just as bad as them.

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Is the mix of morality and comedy why the show has been so successful?

Yeah, it’s a classic David and Goliath story. And people love the trains, they get really upset about the state of the railway, how it’s all private property, and this traffic warden-like approach of running it – it’s really pissed people off. And it’s got a teary granny in it.

Is live comedy in danger, due to uproars of Sachsgate etc?

Once upon a time, these things would probably have been laughed at – it certainly would have gone under the radar. Now, with Twitter, everyone can record and therefore critique with hindsight, without the need for context – and that’s where the problem starts. I don’t think anyone’s safe anymore. It’s such nonsense, people just get offended on someone else’s behalf. It's people going ‘you know that could be offensive, I’m going to be offended’, even when they’re not offended. And that’s it – they’re the problem, and they cause the offence, they raise the alarm. It’s awful. It’s so wrong, the people that get offended. They’re 180 degrees wrong.

Is the exposure of stand up comedy on TV, such as Live at the Apollo, a good thing for actual ‘live’ comedy, or detrimental?

If more people get to see comedy,

it’s got to be good I suppose. I can see the argument where people go ‘if you’re not one of them, you’re nothing’ - there are a lot of stupid people in the world that would think that. But you’d never want them to come to your gigs anyway. There’s enough of a comedy audience out there who’s intelligent enough to know that a televised stand up show isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, and it might be the comedic version of the pop charts. It is simply popular, but there is some great stuff outside of that.

What would be if you weren’t a comedian?

A virgin. That’s not my joke, that’s Peter Crouch’s. Must be the funniest thing he’s ever said in his life. I was doing Electronic Engineering before so I’d probably be doing something crushingly dull, yet quite interesting when you get into it.

I was 27 when I started stand up, I had a proper job and everything. I just got fed up of people saying ‘you should try it, you should try it’. But to be honest, when I was 22 I didn’t have anything to say to the world.

With comedy you can grow up with an audience and as you age you get more experienced, so does your audience. Which is a very good thing about it – that can never be taken away of course.

music

music interview:hotchip feature:2010preview

local:review Zimmermans, buffalo, 18th jan

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immermans is a local youngster with all the flair one needs to make it in the world of music. Having gone through more band members than the Sugarbabes, Tom Winfield now performs live as a solo artist, and breezes through a five song set as support act for the hotly tipped Chew Lips.

Playing four instruments at once is no easy task, but Zimmermans pulls it off with nonchalance. At just 18 years of age he has a tremendous stage presence, drawing the crowd closer to his bouncing feet.

It’s great to see a fresh young artist not afraid to make the music he likes, rather than follow in the footsteps of once great Welsh bands.

This brand of industrial electronic pop is a perfect addition to a sometimes stalling local scene.

Unfortunately, for those yet to see this man in action, you have missed your chance to see his solo state. Although he promised Zimmermans is not over for good, Wolves is now his new concern.

Along similar stylings of Zimmermans, they're already making waves in the industry, with London A+R vultures already watching their every move. Catch them at Bethan Elfyn’s show on the 25th Feb or supporting La Roux in May. Ed Bov

albums:vampweek

newsinbrief editorial

save the globe

Welcome to a brand new decade, where a host of new musical prospects await us in our favourite city. Promotors worked furiously in the latter years of the last decade to develop Cardiff's music scene into a thriving hub of creavity, epitomised by the opening of new independant venues such as the Cardiff Arts Institute and the reopened Coal Exchange.

Although there have been casualties (see the column to the right) we break into 2010 with a healthy community intact, and plenty to look forward to. The New Year will see the return of the Quench Live team after the success of their stage at last year's Swn Festival (in association with the Live Music Society), so keep an eye out for news and dates to come.

Radio 1's Bethan Elfyn will host a new weekly night at Buffalo Bar in support of budding local artists - look our for an interview with her next issue - that have included Right Hand Left Hand, Gallops and Lucky Delucci. Look for Bethan Elfyn and Friends on Thursdays, and there's more details on that next week.

Keep a check on the Listings section for forthcoming events in your area, and enjoy 2010!

ome of you may remember an issue a few months back where we discussed The Globe's state of affairs. They were closing, then they weren't, then the noise complaints hit, and so on.

So here's an update and a summary of the events. The complaints that The Globe were faced with and the ensuing demands of the Cardiff Council - the same that put The Point into financial ruin and eventual closure last year - have been dealt. Though we are told the required sound-proofing and work is being done, the issue of funding has come into play. No venue as small as The Globe can face demands such as those given by the Cardiff Council and not suffer financially. So, while The Globe's licence for live music has been revoked, valiant efforts are being made to raise money in the Save The Globe campaign.

For those of you who've never been to The Globe on Albany Road, it's undoubtably one of our city's finest and most charming venues that's played host to the likes of La Roux, Black Lips and Sunset Rubdown. Cardiff's live music is under threat, and can't afford to lose another venue this year — support their benefit shows this February.

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music-feature

2010:

A Year In Preview

Phil Guy and Sam Smith look at the major releases coming later this year...

Gorillaz

MGMT

LCD Soundsystem

Five years since Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s animated outfit last surfaced with recordings, Gorillaz look set for a big return in 2010. Having already been announced as headliners for California’s Coachella Festival, chances are that a tour will follow later in the year to coincide with the release of third album Plastic Beach on March 8th.

Guests include Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, De La Soul, Lou Reed and Mark E. Smith to name a few, so it's set to be a pretty spectacular affair.

Word is that Mos Def claims it's the ‘greatest things he’s ever done’, and he’s hardly been off the boil recently. The hip-hop leanings of Demon Days are looking like they'll be reprised, so how the older rock veterans will fit in will be interesting.

Stylo appeared this week, followed by a Murdoc press release: "A leak! A leak! Plastic Beach has sprung a leak! One of those Russian pirates has put a bullet hole on my island!" Five years has never seemed so long.

If you've had your ears open at all in the past two years, you will have heard either MGMT's Kids or Time To Pretend. This is a 99.9% guaranteed fact. 2010 sees the release of the psychedelic-pop pair's second album, Congratulations.

Although scheduled for release in April, there are rumours that there will be no singles released from the album. Based on how successful their past efforts were, though, this should be taken with a pinch of salt.

James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem moniker will have a hard time topping Sound Of Silver, which sat proud in the uppermost ranks of many 2007 end-of-year lists. Now locked up alone in a Californian mansion, Murphy is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the follow-up, as well as making some pretty dumb home-videos. Here’s hoping that the third – and reportedly last – LCD outing will be a worthy swan song.

Interpol

Deftones

After the misstep that was Our Love To Admire — at least by their own high standards — Interpol have vowed to return to the sound of their 2003 debut Turn On The Bright Lights. If that's anything to go by, the likes of Editors and White Lies should prepare to step aside as the sharpest dressers in pop take back their titles as the premier post-punk revivalists. Expect a reinvigorated Paul Banks after his solo work as Julian Plenti, and a return to form.

In 2008, Deftones' bassist Chi Cheng was severely injured and left in a coma, halting progress on their upcoming album Eros. In the meantime, the Californian alt-metal fivesome have begun recording with Sergio Vega replacing Cheng on the low end. No Deftones album has sounded exactly like another, and the band's diverse sound will surely continue to evolve with this new as-yet untitled record, scheduled for an April release date.

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feature-music

Arcade Fire

Massive Attack

Daft Punk

Now bonafide superstars following two gigantic albums, the Montreal group have confirmed an album release for 2010, but details are typically shrouded. Enigmatic as ever, the marital pairing of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne lead the collective again, with Owen Pallett – formerly Final Fantasy – handling arrangements. Although there’s not much to go on just yet, chances are that when details emerge, you won’t be able to miss them.

Trip-hop giants Massive Attack throw their hat into 2010's ring withHeligoland, their fifth studio album.

It's been a grand total of seven years since 100th Window, and if the few snippets of the leak are anything to go by, it's going to be well worth the wait.

Rumours of artists apparently collaborating on the record have been many and rife, but the confirmed line-up accompanying regular guest vocalist Horace Andy include Adrian Utley (Portishead), Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), Tunde Adebimpe (TV On The Radio), Hope Sandoval and Martina Topley-Bird. A varied list that will no doubt compliment the band's passion for musical innovation.

Also of note is the fact that dubstep legend Burial has already been given all the tracks off Heligoland to remix have. The combination of the two acts is a thought that's almost too delicious to bear.

Currently in the middle of a world tour, the album is slated for release on Feb 9th.

Now, which is more exciting: the fact that Disney are remaking Tron with a gigantic budget, or that Daft Punk are providing the soundtrack?

It's a tricky one, but either way we're all winners this year. The French duo — and arguably the biggest dance act in the world — are set to contribute two dozen cuts for the soundtrack and chances are that it'll all see release come December. A Tron-themed Daft Punk tour? We'd sell our future children.

OutKast There are some huge rumours being passed around on Outkast's plans for 2010. Andre 3000 and Big Boi have both promised solo albums before the year is out, with the latter's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty hitting shelves within the next few months.

Not only that, but material written by both parties was scheduled to emerge in 2007, then 2008, and finally in 2009 but with nothing coming of it. Maybe this year then...

Look Out For...

Lil Wayne - Rebirth Batlles - tba Yeasayer - Odd Blood David Bryne & Fatboy Slim The National - tba Goldfrapp - Head First The Roots - How I Got Over It Fleet Foxes - tba The Knife - Tomorrow, In A Year Blink 182 - tba The Hold Steady - tba Röyksopp - Senior Dillinger Escape Plan - tba

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music-feature

Hot Chip One Life Stand 2010

A new decade, and a new Hot Chip : Phil Guy talks with Joe Goddard...

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ot Chip have grown up on dance-floors. Since 2006’s Mercury-nominated album The Warning and the gargantuan success of breakout single Over And Over, Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard’s outfit have maintained their status as forerunners in electronic pop and remained an inarguable staple of the alternative disco.

Despite their inclination for experimentation and reworking of genre, Hot Chip records have always promised infectious dance-floor fillers - enhanced by a healthy live reputation - but in 2010 we stand on the verge of fourth studio album One Life Stand’s release, and things look set to change. Joe Goddard discusses the band’s forthcoming record, a nearing UK tour, and the prospect of an ever-maturing Hot Chip.

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It must be a busy new year for Hot Chip.

We’ve been back for a few days now getting the rehearsing started.

We’ve got 3 weeks before the UK tour, so we’re just trying to get everything ready to start playing live again. We’re working hard on that.

This will be the band’s first set of shows since your World Tour last year, how do you feel about returning to the stage?

Yeah, we were in Australia this time last year, and it feels weird being away from playing live for so long. We finished at the end of January in 2009, and we haven’t played live since then. That’s the longest break we’ve had in about 5 or 6 years between live shows and

it feels weird. We’re just starting to rehearse again and I’m getting back into it and getting excited about it, but I’m going to feel a lot more nervous than I’m used to. We got into such a rhythm of playing live; it started to feel really normal and every day. I’m going to have a lot more nerves when we start the UK tour. Also, we’re coming back with a whole load of new songs, so we’ll have to hope that people get into it.

One Life Stand is Hot Chip’s fourth album – that’s a pretty long haul nowadays – how do you think this record fits into the band’s progression?

It’s come very naturally, and it kind of makes sense to us. It does feel like a progression. It feels like a culmination of the things we’ve been

feature-music and so we’ve paid more attention to that in terms of the sounds and the kinds of instruments we’ve used. We never set out with a big plan for what we make, but those kinds of things were in our heads. We didn’t know the kind of music we were going to make, but we knew that we’d try and make it cohesive.

As ever, there are all kinds of genres on show throughout the record, but specifically there seems to be some really strong house and soul influences going on.

doing over the past few years. It feels like we’ve been learning; learning about how to produce music and how to write music. I feel good about this and I feel like it’s the best things we’ve done.

On listening to the album, it sounds like a lot of work has gone into its cohesion.

Definitely. We tried to think about that aspect of it more than we ever have in the past. We always spend time sequencing our records and trying to make them work but we made that a priority this time, really.

We were trying to make a good record as a whole, where we include different ends of the spectrum in terms of the songs we’ve written but where that variation really works.

It had to feel like a unit of music,

Absolutely. There are not many bands that have a sit down and a board meeting about the kind of music they want to make, it just depends on what you like at any one time. Alexis [Taylor, vocals] and I, we’ve been listening to a lot of soul music recently. Alexis particularly likes older soul music, older rhythm and blues, loads of soul artists from different parts of the states, and my part has been getting more and more into old soul and disco records - things that modern day techno producers reference. Theo Parish, for example, references old soul music like Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, and Philadelphia stuff: The Four Tops, The Levitations, really driving soul music from Detroit and things like that. I think that was a big influence. I’ve been enjoying playing that kind of thing when I’ve been DJing and that’s all fed into the way the record sounds. And then yes, as you say, other tracks come from old Chicago house. Take It In was meant to be a gospel-house kind of tune. The record’s really been a big tradition of soul and gospel music from America.

People think of Hot Chip as a dance act – or, at least, a pop act with a dance-floor orientation. Do you think this restricts you at all when you want to explore other genres – that you have to reel yourselves back to the dancefloor, because that’s what people have come to expect of you?

That comes into it when we’re playing live. On our records I feel like, if we wanted to, we could have lots of things with other tempos – slower forms of songs, like we’ve

done on past records. But really, when it comes to choosing the material on an album, most of the time I really like making dance tempos – things around the 120 BPM mark. I gravitate towards that stuff I guess.

That’s the stuff I often listen to when I’m choosing music to listen to and when I’m DJing. I really like that stuff, but sometimes we do feel pressure when we’re playing live to keep that tempo going, to not have too many moments when we play our ballads and slower songs. We feel like the crowd want to dance, and jump up and down, and to be honest I can understand that. If I was going out on a Friday night that’s what I’d want to do as well. But yeah, in our live sets we try to work in some of the gentler, slower songs because we really enjoy playing them. And I think I lot of people in the audience enjoy them as well, but we do feel like we can never let the tempo drop for too long.

"The record is a big tradition of soul and gospel" Is this a form of separation between your studio material and live shows, do you think? Will your live shows see Hot Chip as a dance act, while your recordings demonstrate your gentler sides?

When we come to play live, the songs from this record are definitely going to be a little more pounding, yes. They’ll be a little funkier, and hopefully people will still want to dance to them. That’s the one thing I’m really nervous about at the moment, though. I really hope people respond well to these new songs.

I think they will. We feel that songs like Hand Me Down Your Love will be strong live songs where people can get really excited, and we’ll try and develop live versions that build up a lot of tension and provide some exciting moments for people. So yeah, the live shows are still going to be pretty banging! But for me personally, I turned 30 towards the end of 2009. To be honest, I’m not so into really noisy dance music.

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music-features

I think you’ve said before that you’re opposed to the aggressive, more digitalised forms of dance music.

Yeah, it’s true. It’s not my thing anymore. I used to love noisy drum and bass when I was a teenager, and when we've played live in the past, we’ve gone through lots of noisy stuff. There’s going to be bits of the show that are loud and aggressive still but I prefer the dance music that doesn’t go for that. So that’ll probably be reflected in the music that we make in the future, and it’s probably reflected on this record a bit as well.

Dance music with a bit more spirit, then.

Yeah - a bit more soul and just a bit more gentleness. I’m not into that sound where everything’s processed and crazy-loud and in your face all the time – I like a bit more subtlety.

Is this Hot Chip settling down?

We are settling down to a certain extent! We’re still trying to write exciting songs, but we’re also trying to

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act our age! We don’t jump around as much as we used to when we were younger.

We’re at the start of a new decade.

If you continue as you are, an album every two years since 2004, you’ll have nine records! How do you see the decade panning out for the band?

I find it really hard to tell what’s going to happen. Firstly, I don’t know what’s going to happen to major labels – they might collapse in the next ten years. Secondly, I don’t know if everyone in the band wants to be Hot Chip for the next 10 years!

Everyone might just get really bored of it! No, I hope the band just keeps going – I want it to evolve and I want to make different kinds of music. I don’t want to always make dance floor things and I think we’re showing that now. I want to try my hand at other things. We’ll always make pop music, but it will just take different forms and we’ll try different things.

As the people who listen to our music get a bit older, hopefully they’ll keep enjoying what we do. I want it to keep going though. I love being in Hot Chip.

"We're trying to write exciting songs, but also act our age" You’ve had a solo album out recently, Harvest Festival. Is that something we’re going to see more of in the future, some more Joe Goddard solo projects?

Definitely! I really enjoyed the whole thing. It was really nice to be able to do something that didn’t have the kind of pressure that a Hot Chip record does. I could make the music sound exactly how I wanted it to sound and there’s not too much work around it. You just go ahead and make music, then put it out. It was a great experience - hopefully I’ll be lucky enough to do that again.

One Night Stand is out 1st February.

Hot Chip tour the UK in February.

live-music

Delphic Bristol Thekla

17th January 2010

D

elphic are the latest pop band to emerge from the misty seas of hype. It seems far too common for the media to get over excited about artists who really offer little out of the ordinary, and leave expectant fans of the music world disappointed. Having seen the PR-push in all the mainstay music magazines, I had reason to be wary of Delphic - this had all the signs of a unwarranted media-frenzy - but stepping into a sold out Bristol Thekla, my mind was quickly changed.

For a prominently electronic pop band, Delphic performed with impressive vivacity, backed by one of the most impressive lighting displays I’ve seen for an ‘up and coming’ - courtesy of personal lighting designer 'Squib'. Arriving to a hysteria of applause, the Manchunian four-piece launched into Clarlon Call: the strip lighting combining with two of the biggest strobes this side of Fabric, which bleached Thekla to a blitz of bleeps and shimmering guitars.

Both singles launched the Bristolian scenester-crowd into a frenzy, Acolyte and the recently released Doubt being stunning examples of pop records.It’s surprising that they aren’t receiving more attention on the airwaves.

The entire night blurred into a world of colour and wonky pop as Delphic stormed through an impressive set, the only respite for the soles of my shoes coming in the form of the blissful Ephemera.

Although a song more akin to a Bat For Lashes B-Side, it somehow worked moulded around Counterpoint and Halcyon. Delphic provided one of the best shows I've seen in a long while, and everything needed to go bigger than big. While there is no need to add more pressure to what Delphic have received in the last six months, these guys certainly warrant attention. Impressive stuff, and expect Delphic to slot smoothly into the ranks of British electro-pop artisits, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Bloc Party, Friendly Fires and Klaxons. Ed Bov

Thee Vicars Barfly

16th January 2010

T

here’s a popular theory that nothing new ever happens in music - that it’s stuck in a continued loop of recycling, where pieces of various genres are located from some musical graveyard somewhere and dragged into the present, where they normally pass as something original.

Those who doubt this theory need only to look at Thee Vicars to see it go completely fulfilled. Here are four bowl-haired teenagers from Bury St. Edmonds thrashing around the Barfly stage for an hour pretending to be The Kinks – completely harmless and even amiable in part, but as an explanation for the hype that’s generating around them at the minute, it’s pretty frustrating.

Thee Vicars make no secret of their 60s influences – or garage, I think they’ve decided – and that’s fine, but these aren’t so much influences as they are models for creation.

The songs they play for an hour offer nothing that bands forty or fifty years ago didn’t showcase, and on top of being expectedly worse, they’re being played by some teenagers in the year 2010 - there’s just

no authenticity to them. I can’t help but have this idea in my head of four Bury St. Edmond’s kids sitting through The Boat That Rocked, one turning to the rest and saying, ‘Hey guys, the 60s were cool weren't they? I’ve got an idea.’

"Sixties plagiarists rather than revivalists" The point in recycling old genres is that you rekindle them with other fuels — other sounds and influences, whether it’s from your own time or using your own eclecticism — but there’s no sign of that tonight. So there you go: 60s plagiarists rather than revivalists, but nonetheless they gain a healthy reception. Affable they might be — at least for a short period – but they’re desperately short on ideas, and that shows at around the 20-minute mark.

There’s only so many times I can hear the same song in the space of an hour - especially when it’s basically a cover - and no scenesters with quirky haircuts are going to convince me otherwise.

Phil Guy

music@gairrhydd.com / 49

Lostprophets

music-albums

Hot Chip One Life Stand

EMI

I

t seems appropriate that the new decade’s first substantial British release falls to Hot Chip and their fourth studio album, One Life Stand. Emerging and firmly establishing themselves in a relatively small number of years last decade, founders Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard captained an outfit that boasted a consistency and a command over the many fields of pop music that few other acts could rival. One Life Stand maintains the schedule of output – an album release every two years since 2004 – but is, in many respects, a different breed from its predecessors.

Never afraid to experiment with genre, 2008’s Made In The Dark showcased glimpses of a tender, gentler Hot Chip than in their characteristically infectious dance-floor fillers, and One Life Stand acts as an extension of that work. It’s the full immersion when Made In The Dark was the testing of the water, and the result is a record heavily indulging in soul and balladry.

Some listeners will be wary - others disappointed, perhaps – but it’s a progression that feels organic, and the focus is on cohesion above all else.

It would be a fair criticism of Hot Chip up to this point to recognise that their albums have not always been in union during playback. One Life Stand addresses this issue, and does relatively well to counter it, the tracks melding together to form a collection of pop songs designed to warm hearts in these barren winter months. Lyrically focused on ideas of fidelity and commitment – the settling down after the honeymoon period – One Life Stand sees Hot Chip tackling song-writing with a heightened maturity; no sign of wrestlers or monkeys with miniature cymbals here. When stood together with the new slow-burning nature of the tracks and a stronger emphasis on Taylor’s vocal melodies, Hot Chip’s coming of age is believable and undoubtedly successful.

Brothers and Take It In show

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the new leanings towards soul synchronise seamlessly with the band’s history of filling dance-floors to produce an altogether more affectionate formula, though no less feverish than the most upbeat of previous releases. One Life Stand and Thieves In The Night are classic Hot Chip, and a reminder that their twitchy energy is far from depleted, while Goddard’s irresistibly tentative vocal duty on Alley Cats – barely sung over a melodic, spritely bass-line – melts into a chorus of gorgeous harmonies that may well become one of Hot Chip’s finest moments.

For all One Life Stand’s success though, it’s bound to be divisive.

Those who are securely tied to The Warning-era Hot Chip may find their favourite quirky electro-boppers sliding down their list of heroes – piano ballad Slush is likely to repel as many fans as it is to attract, and many will spurn the dubious use of auto-tune on I Feel Better. Band’s have to move on, though, and perhaps what is most endearing about One Life Stand is how eager Hot Chip are to do so.They've never been a dance act. They are - and have always been - a pop band, and One Life Stand is Hot Chip dealing in areas of popular music that they’ve not yet explored, and it just so happens that a soulful, more affectionate approach is well within their repertoire.

Phil Guy

8.

Lostprophets The Betrayed

Visible Noise

I

must confess that listening to Lostprophets has always been a personal experience for me - I can chart my interest in the heavier side of music right back to the moment I first heard and fell in love with the opening riff to Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja. But as their catalogue has grown, I feel like their music has become less captivating with each release. It is with some trepidation then that I settled down to give the fourth album from the Valley boys a listen.

Much of the press surrounding the album highlights its scattered past incarnations dating back to 2007 and the band’s belief that the album’s sound is darker and grittier than past efforts. Truth be told however, it just sounds very bland and doesn’t really bring anything new to the Lostprophets table. Whilst Start Something showed a band ready to develop their sound and capitalize on the energy heard on The Fake Sound Of Progress, The Betrayed just seems to copy and paste the efforts on Liberation Transmission to storm the charts and dominate the hearts and minds of the Kerrang! generation. Lead singles It’s Not

albums-music Vampire Weekend The End Of The World... and Where We Belong are stuffed with catchy hooks that will stick in your head and will no doubt top the playlists of 15-year old scene girls across the nation, but ultimately they’re just a bit boring and repetitive.

Vampire Weekend

"They're capable of writing outside their safety zone"

hile most bands can only dream of a debut album with as much praise and recognition as that of Vampire Weekend’s, unenvied is the sense of hostile expectation that then surrounds any follow-up.

While Contra displays glimpses of its predecessor’s brilliance, the worldly influence which made it such a refreshing prospect have been suffocated by an abundance of poppy sweetness which creates an album which is entertaining, but nothing more.

Perhaps such words are harsh, there are some good songs on here and it’s mostly an enjoyable listen, but in the presence of bands like Dirty Projectors and Yeasayer who employ their interest in worldmusic to much better use, Contra just seems bland and lacking in creativity. Vampire Weekend's 2008 debut was applauded for its blend of simple indie-pop, afro-beat and calypso, generally favouring highpitched vocals and African-style drumming, and while these are still present throughout its sequel, the effect has been softened by conventional pop arrangements and a distinct lack of progression. The

Album closer The Light That Burns Twice As Bright remains my personal favourite track. Layers of distortion and piano create a sound that hints at the fact that Lostprophets are definitely capable of writing material outside their Top 40 safety zone. In what is essentially a ‘Sway pt.2’, the bonus track at the end speaks to the ambient and postrock fan in me, coming as a breath of fresh air to what I feel is an unfortunately stale album.

This review no doubt sounds like the ramblings of a die-hard Prophets elitist, but I make no apologies.

I desperately want Watkins and co. to write another Shinobi, or better yet a set of songs that don’t sound almost exactly like the previous album.

Sam Smith

5.

Contra

XL Recordings

W

eccentric entrance they made onto the music scene has been let down by such a stifled second act.

It may be Vampire Weekend’s own ambition which has lead to such disappointment, however.

Horchata opens the album with sporadic vocals encircled by electronic thumps and drones – elements that are often an integral part of many of their contemporary's music. But this is the problem; it ends up merely sounding like something Animal Collective might just throw together on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The music’s aesthetic is similar enough to these other bands for it to be put in the same bracket, but not inventive or original enough to earn the same respect. The experimentation is lazy and only renders countless comparisons to other artists who have done the same but better.

Entertaining, but nothing more" Contra will undoubtedly do well – Vampire Weekend have produced an album with a multitude of singles at their disposal that teenage girls and the UK Top 40 will welcome with open arms. For the rest of us, however, lies an album that promises much, but never quite delivers.Simon Roach

music@gairrhydd.com / 51

6.

The Knife

music-singles

singles round-up

Portishead

Chase The Tear Self-Released

8.

There’s nothing better than a charity single that’s actually bearable to listen to (Amarillo, kill me now), but the prospect of a charity single that’s actually good is virtually unheard of. Portishead have done well then to raise money for Amnesty International and also produce a song which deservedly breaks this cycle. Probing beats speckled with sparse vocals. Great song. SR

Gorillaz Stlyo Virgin

8.

We've got a Russian pirate to thank for the early rush-release of Stylo, the first single lifted from the forthcoming album Plastic Beach. Featuring soul legend Bobby Womack and Mos Def — who's undoubtably on the form of his life — Stylo is a fuzzy, bass-heavy electronic groove that, while not as exuberant as previous releases, is a worthy taster for the coming album. Expect the usual pop melting-pot come March. PG

52/ music@gairrhydd.com

MPHO See Me Now Domino

7.

A foot stomping beat and a notexactly-groundbreaking synth aren’t really new, but with a catchy singalong chorus MPHO (pronounced um-poh) might be onto something with her sound- like a cross between Santogold and the Noisettes. It is, however, better than the overplayed sound of the latter, and feels a bit more fresh for 2010.

One to watch. JY

Kano More Than One Way Bigger PIcture Music

7.

Champion of the grime scene Kano lends a hand to the Government in a bid to help the kids stay on track. Despite the main theme being overcoming adversity, the lyrics are heartfelt and avoid being contrived.

The beats are simple and unimposing but ultimately enjoyable. It made me nod my head and want to succeed in life, at any rate. SS

The Knife

Colouring of Pigeons Armoured Records

9.

Following the huge critical success of an album such as 2006's Silent Shout can be no easy task, but Swedish electro duo The Knife have chosen to do it in particularly unorthodox fashion. Colouring of Pigeons is the first single from their upcoming opera, Tomorrow, In a Year, and spans 9 minutes, allowing for a progressive unveiling which is rarely seen in a single. A brave undertaking that comes off well. SR

Hell ft. Bryan Ferry U Can Dance Gigolo

2.

It seems to be the case that more and more modern music sounds exactly like that which came out in the 80s. While this track is no different, Ferry's presence does wield a certain level of authenticity in this field. That said, the downright mundane synth lines and lack of variation means that this track can essentially be summarised in the three following words: "tedious old shit". SS

nyo’, the latest studio Ghibli animation has been trailered in the last few weeks.

While the actually film will undoubtedly

film

film be a heart-warming and beautifully animated Classic Upcoming Releases (That’s just a general Ghibli rule!)

Disney seem intent on 5th February - Astro Boythe film as a carmarketing - Invictus toon Day After Tomor- OilThe City Confidential - The Princess and the Frogfilms row.

While Miyasaki’s are12th empathetic and warm, the February trailer promises - Battle For Terra ‘the world - Food, Inc.be the same’ as will never - Percy Jackson and the Lightning Sōsuke Thief and Ponyo seemingly - Ponyo battle the elements through - A Single Man their friendship.

- Valentine's Day More an- The Wolfman noyingly, the voiceover man pronounces Ghibli Jib-li, like a moronic British tourist ask-

You can imagine the conversation: ‘So, we’ve got Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley on board, not bad not bad…still need a new Mr T though, you sure we can’t just… buried under a pile of Snickers wrappers? Oh, what a pity, that fool…sod it, let’s just get some tattooed, muscle-headed ultimate fighter, tell him to speak with a lisp, deck him out with bling…I mean it’s only acting, if Dwayne Johnson can pull it off…’

Generally I am against judging a book by it’s cover, but it’s a fairly safe prediction that this will be an utter car crash. The record for film re-makes (exceptions being Star Trek and King Kong) is already patchy to say the least, and judging by this it appears unlikely this trend will be bucked.

ing for Fajeetaas.

We Like...

- Ricky Gervais confusing all the Yanks at the Golden Globes, and angering Mel Gibson...hopefully.

We'd Rather Not...

- Think about the planned new Spider-Man films, set in high school. Smallville with Spidey? No thank you.

- Watching Avatar. And so do you, judging by the fact that it's now topped Titanic as the highest grossing film ever. Take that movie snobs...

- Be anyone involved with Battle For Terra, which looks, for all intents and purposes, like Avatar on a shoestring. Unlucky.

- An Education getting loads of BAFTA nominations. Truly well deserved.

- Think anymore about the new Karate Kid trailer, I'll just get angry all over again.

- Up in the Air. We didn't have the space to review it, but it's a good'un. George Clooney's characteristically understated performance is well worth watching.

- Watch another 3D movie, I'm sick of looking like Elton John every time I go to watch a movie. Besides, my eyes are hurting.

Trailer Trash

film@gairrhydd.com/53

film

Film in 2010 A Look at Quench Film takes you through the most exciting releases of the next twelve months . . .

Kick-Ass Superheroes in spandex? Check. Nicolas Cage slicing throats and generally acting like a nutter?

Check. Gangster-slaying, profanity-spewing, Daily Mail aneurysminducing twelve year old girl? Check.

McLovin? Check, check and forsooth check. With newcomer Aaron Johnson fresh from letting it be in Nowhere Boy, and rent-abaddie Mark Strong snarling for all he’s worth, the early indications are that this could be very good.

Yes, it’s yet another comic book adaptation, but nothing like you’ve seen before. And God knows we need something to wash away the painful memory of the turgid X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Micmacs The latest film from the legendary Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is also responsible for Amelie, Delicatessen and, erm, Alien Resurrection. Sporting an assortment of quirkybut-pleasant oddballs akin to those that have garnered his previous works a substantial cult following, Micmacs sees Jeunet take an unexpected step towards satire, openly displaying antimilitarism themes as said oddballs take it upon themselves to destroy two large weapons manufactures. A more serious subject matter perhaps, but at least on the basis of the trailer, Jeunet's latest will be another slice of the sublime and ridiculous irrevocably rooted in everyday life.

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The Scouting Book For Boys No, this isn’t the Robert BadenPowell biopic you all want so badly, sorry guys. Instead, this coming-ofage tale concerns two young adolescents, Emily and David (played

by This is England’s Thomas Turgoose) living in a coastal caravan park in Norfolk, with the latter helping the former run away after discovering that her parents intend to move out of town, when things go badly wrong. Director Jack Thorne scooped the ‘Best British Newcomer’ award at the London Film Festival, and with a cast including Rafe Spall (Desperate Romantics) and Ewen MacIntosh (Keith from The Office), the signs are that this could be something special.

film

the year ahead

Ponyo

The Princess and The Frog Disney’s first hand animated film in six years, The Princess and the Frog, is released on the February 5th, and will hopefully restore Disney’s hand drawn animators' reputation as the masters of their trade.

Seeing as the disappointing Brother Bear was their last film, you’d think this will be an improvement, and the fact it is set in Jazz era New Orleans is enough to give it an auteuristi style which is both more enchanting and convincing than recent efforts such as Cars. Dr Facilier looks like a fab villain, and apparently the music is awesome. I’m fairly sure it’s been a long time that many of us will see a Disney cartoon at the cinema, so it's time to get your Jazz on.

Just look at the picture! If you don’t feel the same sense of unadultered 'YAY' as me, then you are demonstrably evil.

Otherwise, you have to see Ponyo. It is almost guaranteed to be heart-warming, tear-jerking and captivating, and not in a Marley & Me kind of way.

It’s by the acclaimed Studio Ghibli, and director Hayao Miyazaki’s films are all drawn with artistry that is as simple and adorable as it is lush. Added to that, the fact that it’s a Japanese reinterpretation of The Little Mermaid tale with some global catastrophe nuances all points to another hit with anime obsessives and newcomers alike.

Toy Story 3 One of the most successful and acclaimed animated franchises in history, Disney Pixar's latest installment in the Toy Story franchise will be hitting screens in 2010. Old favourites Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) will no doubt to be up to their usual comedy hijinks, whatever that really means. Expect the usual light hearted goodness from the masters of animation, plenty of gratuitious self-parody, and a smattering of blatant references to cinema classics.

Series editor and co-director Lee Unkirch has been bumped up to the sole director role, with all the old favourites set to return in what is sure to be one of the year's biggest hits.

film@gairrhydd.com / 55

film

Sex and The City 2 Reunited for the ultimate sitcom-to-big screen-chick-flick-adaptation, we have the hotly anticipated (well, amongst the fairer sex at least) Sex and the City 2. All the original cast members are back, so we should be pretty much expecting the same bout of fun that is the SATC girls tearing up the Big Apple. This will no doubt will be a film full of stunning outfits, much gossip, and glam locations to keep us visually entertained. Alternatively, will it prove itself to be just another cash cow using different locations to spice up the mix? Either way, you know it’s going to be one of those films that the ladies out there will drag all their girly mates (ideally) or their boyfriend (bear in mind, you will owe him for this one) and come away feeling like the world is a shiny, happy, Versacecoated, great place to be.

Iron Man 2 The legend that is Robert Downey Jr. returns to play billionaire/playboy/genius/ all-round-legend Tony Stark, who claims to have 'successfully privatised world peace' by adopting the role of Iron Man. Opposition comes in the form of rival weapons manufacturer Justim Hammer (Sam Rockwell), whilst Mickey Rourke will presumably be struggling to string a legible sentence together when not battling Stark in the guise of Russian uber-villain Whiplash.

Jon Favreau returns to the director's seat, and with a $200m budget comes a big name cast. Expect to see Scarlett Johansson trying looking hot as super-spy the Black Widow; Gwyneth Paltrow trying not to as Stark's sultry and impeccably named secretary Pepper Potts, movie-whore Samuel L. Jackson spouting witticisms aplenty, and Don Cheadle's Jim Rhodes explaining why he is suddenly a different person.

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film

The Social Network Anticipation for The Social Network seems directly carved between OMG LOL FCBK MVIE and What. The. Fuck. (Yes, you can say it in words as well). David Fincher, Kevin Spacey and Richard Kelly (director of Donnie Darko) have either had a mass lobotomy or are about to surprise a lot of people. I kind of want it to be the latter but I also want this to flop. Why, you ask? It’s about Facebook! Do you want to be a fan of the Facebook movie? Do you ‘like’ it? Sorry, but now that the overlord of our social ubiquity is intruding outside the made up space of the Internet, it worries me. Plus, it’s about the people who made Facebook. It doesn’t even have the common decency to plot in the electronic expanse it dominates.

Apparently the script is good. Well I don’t fucking care. It’s about Facebook. If it was the story of three guys and how they made Casebook, we wouldn’t care.

What makes it worse is that it probably will be good, Facebook will seem more authentic and I won’t even be able to say I told you so. This might be an anti-Facebook rant, but I am so right.

A Single Man With a performance roundly praised by critics and film-goers alike, Colin Firth plays George, a gay English college professor in 1960s San Francisco. Mourning the recent loss of his long-term partner Jim (Matthew Goode) and envisioning nothing but an empty and bleak future, George decides to end it all. Depressed yet? Me too. In a story told over the course of twenty-four hours, A Single Man shows George's actions throughout what may be his last day, detailing his interactions with best friend Charley (Julianne Moore) and student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult). Firth garnered a Golden Globe nomination for his role, and fashion designer turned first time director Tom Ford has received rave reviews in this tale of love, grief and reflection in what is possibly a work to be admired rather than enjoyed.

film@gairrhydd.com / 57

film

A life lived On Film M

ark Kermode is nothing if not honest. When you are told fairly flatly by your favourite critic that Shia LeBeouf romancing with Quench Film’s favourite Parisian fitty Carey Mulligan was hardly a the top of his priorities, as he “Doesn’t pay attention to that rubbish”, delivered with dead-pan tone, it doesn’t feel too good.

However, the fact his life has been almost entirely spent in dark preview screens means he is probably immune to the sort of gossip we Quenchies are still slave to, as he avoids the cyclical hype that circulate around much of the cinematic press. And as people who listen to his 5Live radio show will know, it’s difficult to feel offended when his straight-up opinions are what make him such an engaging and interesting listen.

To those of you who haven’t heard of him, Kermode is the resident ‘Film Doctor’ of 5 Live and BBC’s The Culture Show. He has also made countless film documentaries and most endearingly of all, plays double bass in a skiffle band. His doctor title is not merely decorative however as he has a PhD, written on Horror Fiction which remains his main genre of passion. Rarely a film show goes by without the words ‘The Exorcist’ or 'William Friedkin’ escaping his lips but his passion is not fanboy hyperbole. It is clear that horror is tied up in Kermode’s mind with his religious beliefs, and perhaps why he remains so brilliantly passionate

58 /film@gairrhydd.com

about horror's imaginative possibility.

Testifying to this, two of his recent ‘films of the year’ have been Pans Labyrinth and Swedish vampire flick Let The Right One In. With Guillermo Del Toro moving into the fantasy realm with The Hobbit, you can see how Kermode’s horror passion is far more about creativity and magic than simple scares. He told me his strong feelings about the Swedish coming of age film

"It’s a film thats so profoundly uplifting; I’ve been so excited about it I can barely talk" "I love Let The Right One In, I love that movie and think it’s a wonderful piece of cinema. It’s one of those films I found profoundly uplifting and I’ve been so excited about I can barely talk. " What you explicitly get a hold on chatting to Kermode is his assurance in the power of cinema, the passion and indeed lifestyle he has had since childhood.

“So much of my life is informed by watching movies I’ve watched. I remember my childhood as a succession of movies I watched rather than

memories of being in the playground all the key significant factors are from films” Kermode’s unwavering love for film is clearly deeply felt and as his book tells, his ingrained belief in cinema sometimes sets him apart from popular opinion. Among his not-so-shared views include disdain for the Star Wars franchise and out spoken criticism of Tarantino as “a money-grabbing sellout who can't write, can't direct and has run out of ideas”.

Loath as he was to admit it, his funniest moments come from this righteous knowing anger at such cinematic atrocities such as Pirates of the Caribbean, a film of which he described the 3rd installment 'At World's End' by saying "Never has film been so appropriatley named and if you watch it you are bringing down the collapse of Western Civilisation".

I asked Mark whether he thought his reputation as a verbose angry orator as precedes him and indeed whether it was well earned?

"Well it is true I said Gore Verbinski should be given a short custodial sentence for making the three Pirates films and I said that only partly facetiously. But I don’t want temper or tailor what I say to suit what people want to hear and anyway I don’t think people will go or not go to a film based on what I think of a film."

He is insistent that his style comes more from his belief that cinema is meant to be a felt and utterly

film

Mark kermode is radio 5live's foremost film critic and cult HERO for his impassioned rants against pirates of carIbbean

LLOYD GRIFFITHS SPOKE TO HIM and FOUND OUT about HIS LOVE FOR MARY POPPINS, HORROR AND WHY HE NEVER READS REVIEWS subjective experience rather than cynicism and this is evident in some of his favourite films.

"Maybe rather than people seeing me hating Pirates, they should see me explaining why Mary Poppins is of the ten greatest movies or It's a Wonderful Life. I love cinema, I absolutely love cinema and therefore I don’t think my responses are that measured I don’t intend them to be"

"Gore Verbinski should be given a short custodial sentence " Recently Mark Lawson suggested Kermode's sentimentality "maybe his weakness as an interpreter of cinema", and equally on the other hand some people find his style abrasive but perhaps his greatest achievement is he channels a passionate film fever while remaining brilliantly versed in cinema history.

While he said he "Doesn't really pay attention to what people think while reviewing" he stands above most critics in following his filmic motto that;"The worst thing you can be with cinema is bored."

Kermode’s Hidden Gems A Matter of Life and Death (1946) The Devils (1971) Silent Running (1972) film@gairrhydd.com /59

film

The Road Dir: John Hillcoat Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall

F

or those looking to skirt the January blues this winter, be advised that The Road will provide no sanctuary. Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel of the same name, and accompanied by a hauntingly minimalistic score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

The Road is as bleak in content as its premise alludes: a desperate, mournful survival story set against the backdrop of a desolate and scorched American landscape following an unnamed apocalyptic event.

Cinema has always hailed The≠ Apocalypse as an event of thrilling grandiosity, even of adventure. The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, 2012, the list continues to grow with every passing year,

60 /film@gairrhydd.com

quenching audiences’ demand for spectacle and served efficiently by ever-developing CGI and digital effects. The Road, however, sits in stark contrast to these blockbusters - there is little glamour to be found in this apocalypse. Instead, we are presented with a lawless wasteland and a grim, uncompromising story of an anonymous 'Man' and his 'Boy', and their struggle to preserve their humanity in a world that has long since abandoned its own.

"A haunting portrait of humanity's perseverance" With Viggo Mortensen as the nameless 'Man' and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee as his 'Boy', the pair deliver near flawless performances as the unbreakable bond between father and son is put to the test on their journey to the warmer South. The Road emphasises the responsibilities of parenthood, and the strength of paternal love even

in the face of absolute despair.

Mortensen’s character battles with the fragmented memories of his wife – the flashbacks piecing together to reveal the truth – not to mention the roaming cannibal gangs and his own doubts on their desperate plight, the obstacles building until the film’s shattering conclusion.

Although The Road may not set out to be a horror film, horror certainly comes as a side-effect. Some may struggle with its more grisly scenes, particularly those involving survivors submitting to cannibalism, but these are necessary measures in realising McCarthy’s chilling vision of post-apocalyptic America.

With some beautifully shot environments that are both frightening and spectacular, The Road is not a film that leaves the viewer unmoved.

It is a haunting portrait of humanity’s perseverance and a celebration of our will to always search for that flicker of light, no matter how distant. But one thing’s for certain: you’ll breathe a sigh of relieve when it’s over.

Phil Guy

8.

film

A Prophet Dir: Jacques Audiard Cast: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif

S

entenced to six years in prison for an unspecified crime, A Prophet chronicles the process by which young Arab Malik (Rahim) is subsequently ostracised and brutalised by the those institutionalised within the corrupt prison system. Seemingly, he has only one choice: to become part of the system, which is controlled by fellow prisoner, the sadistic César (Arestrup), or to become a victim of it. But Malik has other plans…

What begins as a French Shawshank Redemption quickly transforms into a brutally realistic homage to the likes of Goodfellas, whilst at the same time retaining the element

of humanity, however tainted, that has all too often been lacking in the traditional gangster movie. Malik’s evolution from frightened kid to hardened and streetwise inmate never feels shoehorned; indeed, as the camera never leaves his side, we are made to live this transformation, with its believability proving testament to what is a masterful debut from newcomer Rahim.

"One of the best crime films in recent memory" His no-holds-barred performance mirrors the rest of the film, which hinges on its ability to shock and its stubborn refusal to do so by mere implication alone. The violence is graphic but never gratuitous, and provides a stark reminder of the world that

Malik has found himself in, and what he must do to escape it.

More than anything else, this is a striking and poignant portrayal of isolation. Shy and illiterate, Malik cannot effectively communicate with the outside world, and racial divides also come into play. As a French Arab, Malik is abused by some for being Arabic, and shunned by his fellow Muslims for being white. As well as providing a stirring social commentary, it serves to further highlight the severity of Malik's situation.

Undoubtedly one of the best crime films in recent memory, A Prophet is a spectacle while it lasts, and unforgettable when it’s finished.

By turns visually enticing and emotionally harrowing, this is a gangster flick with a human side, and all the better for it.

Steve Wright

9.

FREE: THE ROAD ISSUE In case you are unfamiliar, Little White Lies magazine represents what we believe is the cutting edge in film journalism, and the model of what we aspire to be. Each issue is primarily centered around one film (past cover films have included An Education, This Is England, Volver and Star Trek), with all the accompanying features being centred around various themes and issues raised by that film, in addition to the standard reviews, previews etc. What really sets it apart from other magazines though is the design and layout which is consistently innovative and original.

To you, our lucky readers, we will be giving away copies of the most recent issue, based on The Road. To collect your free copy, email film@ gairrhydd.com with the subject heading 'LWL' and your name, and we will reply back letting you know whether you have been successful. But be quick; these are of limited availability, so will be given out on a first come, first served basis.

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film

BEST FILM FOR...

Guest Starring Dr. Mark Kermode

... Inspiring a Cathays based

…reinforcing an arche-

Vigilante Group

type

Harry Brown (2009) You were only supposed to shoot the bloody Hoodies Up! You know the feeling: your wife is dead, best friend run through with a Japanese Katana, and worst of all, you live in a dirty scumhole. Well, people of Cathays, those of you planning on enacting revenge on drunken, valley-dwelling louts, listen up.

Departing from his oft-used Cockney persona and straight into Eastwood mode, Michael Caine faces life alone, first losing his wife, and then his friend Leonard, who is murdered by a marauding gang of nihilistic youths who terrorise his estate. Caine manages to straddle the line between righteous killer and angry former MI5-er perfectly, leaving you uncomfortable with the brutality on display, moreso when recalling Caine’s typical role as chipper cockney. We also get plenty of knife-defence tips (twist arm, stab back, preferably by a dirty canal) and how to burn bodies (kill them in a drug baron house). Most important of all kids, don’t trust pub landlords. They’ll probably try to shoot you up. My bet's the Crwys.

Looks like it might have a gun on the bar, like Shaun of the Dead.

Lloyd Griffiths

62 /film@gairrhydd.com

Frantic (1988) Harrison Ford wants his family back. Whenever there’s a son in trouble, a daughter held to ransom, a dead wife to be avenged, you can always be sure that Harrison will be there, beating up bad guys, blowing up buildings, in fact doing anything humanly possible to make sure his next of kin are safe, and that whoever responsible is punished.

Severely. Either that or he'll be running away very quickly from boulders or Nazis...

Of the many films that could be included in this category, perhaps the best example is Roman Polanski’s Frantic, in which Harrison, having come out of the shower to discover that his wife is missing, neglects to consider the possibility that she may have simply gone out for some fresh air, and subsequently dashes 'frantically' around the hotel interrogating bemused Parisian staff as to the whereabouts of his beloved, instead uncovering… would you believe it…A TERRORIST CONSPIRACY! Forget Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blade Runner et al, THIS is the definitive Harrison Ford.

Steve Wright

... Seeing the t wo dimensional limits of 3D Avatar (2009) This was the film of 2009, apparently when 3D came of age. The film which was meant to show how the future of 3D is Avatar, showing how 3D can draw you into the drama and immerse you in it. I did initially think Avatar was going to be like Ferngulley, but the visuals were stunning and the E-motion capture very convincing. It’s true that Cameron creates an immersive ‘world’, and you’d have to be pretty cynical to deny this. There ARE things which make you feel you’re in another world, but none of them are anything to do with the 3D. Occasionally people point spears out of the screen, and with the waterfalls you get a sense of 'Oh, the 3D is working'. But beyond falling and pointing, the 3D immersiveness doesn’t do much. Halfway through the film I took off the glasses, and it looked just as good even out of focus. All the things in the film which worked were to do with the drama, the CG visuals, and the picture itself Is it the Best 3D Movie Ever? Yes. Does it demonstrate that 3D is the future? No. Mark Kermode

listings

Monday 1st Twenty Twenty: Clwb Ifor Bach CUTV Quiz Extravaganza: CF10 Tuesday 2nd Traffic: Undertone Judy Collins: The Globe The Magic Flute: The Gate Wednesday 3rd Tom Wrigglesworth: The Glee Club The Lash: Students' Union Jesca Hoop: Barfly Thursday 4th Stop Messing About - A Kenneth Williams Extravaganza: New Theatre Oceansize: Barfly Friday 5th Strange News from Another Star: Clwb Ifor Bach Maple Mountain: Buffalo Boombox: Students' Union Saturday 6th Johnny Foreigner: Clwb Ifor Bach Come Play: Students Union Sunday 7th zilch, stay at home, have a lie in.

Monday 8th Fightstar: Millenium Music Hall Fun Factory: Students' Union Tuesday 9th The Hobbit: New Theatre A-Skillz: Buffalo

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Wednesday 10th The Lash: Students' Union Willy Vlautin: Cardiff Arts Institute Thursday 11th Students's Union AGM: Students' Union Faithless: Millenium Music Hall Alessi's Ark: Buffalo Friday 12th Iglu & Hartley: Barfly Boombox: Students' Union Vito: Clwb Ifor Bach Twin Atlantic: Clwb Ifor Bach Saturday 13th NME Awards Tour: Students' Union NME Aftershow Party: Buffalo Come Play: Students' Union Sunday 14th Superstition Launch Night: 10 Feet Tall Valentine All Dayer: Buffalo Doll & the Kicks: Barfly Listings Pick of the Fortnight: Tricky one this issue as there's not a whole lot happening in Cardiff, maybe this is the two week period you should dedicate to trying to pass your degree? Then again you do only live once so Faithless or the NME awards tour are probably good ways to spend your freshly earned student loan. If you'd rather do something altruistic then head to CF10 on the 1st and support CUTV's very own quiz show.

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