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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2011 HALL THE BEST!
MUSIC & REVIEWS
CURRENT AFFAIRS
GIGS & EVENTS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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- featuring -
The Rubberbandits Limerick’s finest on yokes, gills & Danny Dyer Sticks And Stones? Why Ricky Gervais has overstepped the mark Magazine An extraordinary interview with post-punk legend Howard Devoto
The Art Of Virtual Warfare
A to Z: Soap Operas Daily drama, from Albert Square to Summer Bay
As MW3 and Battlefield 3 go head-to-head, we put the spotlight on war games
Bouts | Celeriac | My Bloody Valentine | Krystal Klear | Martin McCann | Tim Wheeler | Florence + The Machine | Graham Coxon
my inspiration Gary Lightbody Snow Patrol
The cold smell of potato mold the squelch and slap of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge through living roots awaken in my head. But I’ve no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it. Seamus Heaney
Digging - Death of A Naturalist (1966)
CD out 14 November
photography courtesy of Polydor
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Title subject to availability while stocks last at participating stores/online.
MAGAZINE ISSUE 78 | CONTENTS EDITORIAL
UPFRONT News and views from the world of AU
You’d have to be a really hardened cynic to not appreciate the positive effects that the MTV EMAs and Belfast Music Week had on Northern Ireland. Even if the whole celebrity circus is not your thing, the fact of the matter is that everyone is talking about Belfast and Northern Ireland in different terms now. People are speaking of ‘moving on’ and ‘how things have changed’. And it’s true. There has been a different spirit about the place. Aside from the economic benefits that having such a huge number of extra people in town brings, there is a level of esteem that comes from hosting an event of this size. It feels like we’re worth it, that we’re alright. Seeing Belfast broadcast to the world in a glowing light, rather against a backdrop of bullets and bombs, is a reflection of how the country is now. We knew we had changed, and now the rest of the world knows it too. Jonny
REVIEWS The AU Verdict
ROLL CALL Publisher / Editor-in-Chief – Jonny Tiernan Editor – Chris Jones Business Manager – Andrew Scott Contributing Editors – Francis Jones, Ross Thompson Album Reviews Sub-editor – Patrick Conboy Website assistant – James Wallace Design
Tim Farrell (www.timothyfarrell.co.uk)
Illustration Rebecca Hendin, Mark Reihill Photography Ramsey Cardy, Carrie Davenport, Chris Flack, Alan Maguire, Gary McCall, Aoife McElwain, Damien McGlynn, Ronan O’Donnell, Loreana Rushe, Gavin Sloan. Contributors Keith Anderson, Niall Byrne, Brian Coney, Barry Cullen, Jordan Cullen, Dave Donnelly, Neill Dougan, John Freeman, Lee Gorman, Daniel Harrison, James Hendicott, Andrew Johnston, Adam Lacey, Andrew Lemon, Stevie Lennox, Darragh Kirstie May, McCausland, Lauren Murphy, Joe Nawaz, Steven Rainey, Eamonn Seoige, Dean Van Nguyen. Cover image ASIWYFA at NIMA by Gary McCall
STUPID THINGS SAID THIS MONTH I was like ‘I’ve seen all these buildings on telly’. I dunno, I ate a pizza that was pretty big. After a while I didn’t feel cultured, I just felt angry. A meg a second is fucking rapid. Children are massive though! I choked on a bit of cabbage the other day. If I’d have died no one would have known. That’s the hard thing about being me, I can’t enjoy seeing myself walk on stage from the crowd. I can’t resist value. Oh my god, I’ve sexed her normal.
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Going Out or Staying In
Page 8 – Hot Topic – Sticks and Stones? Page 10 – Belfast Music Week Page 12 – Martin McCann Page 13 – Teethgrinder Page 15 – Season’s Eatings Page 16 – Occupy Belfast / The Good Man Page 18 – Krystal Klear Page 19 – Bouts / Band Maths Page 20 – The Wonder Villains Page 21 – Unknown Pleasures / Games Page 22 – Graham Coxon / The Minutes Page 24 – Back Of The Net Page 26 – Incoming: Youth Lagoon / Two Inch Punch / &U&I / Friends
48 Album Reviews Page 53 – Young Blood Page 54 – Live Reviews Page 55 – Movie and Game Reviews
REWIND AU rolls back the years Page 56 – Flashback: The End Of The Cold War Page 57 – Classic Album: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
FEATURES AU goes in-depth
I’ll get you girls laid yet. I wonder how he’s getting on with that mocha. That milk’s pretty impressive.
If you’d like to stock AU in your business, or you live in an area where AU isn’t currently stocked, but you’d like to see it available, then drop info@iheartau.com a line. We’ll sort you out. To advertise in AU Magazine contact the sales team Tel: 028 9032 4888 or via email: andrew@iheartau.com The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. Copyright remains with the author / photographer / designer. Send demos / mail / material to: AU Magazine, 2nd Floor, 21 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HD For more info contact: info@iheartau.com For all general and editorial enquiries call: 028 9032 4455
28 Northern Ireland Music Awards
58 History Lessons: Magazine
Page 36 – The Rubberbandits Page 40 – A to Z: Soap Operas Page 44 – The Art Of Virtual Gaming
Page 60 – In Pics: Spookaville / The Beatyard Weekender Page 62 – The Last Word: Tim Wheeler from Ash
AU Magazine graciously acknowledges funding support from the Arts Council Of Northern Ireland
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The Killing
The TV Show
Chunky knitwear, slate-grey skies, harrowing murder and more red herrings than you’ll find in the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, Forbrydelsen (The Killing) fans, it’s time for season two of the much-celebrated Danish crime thriller. From start to finish, the first series of Forbrydelsen held viewers in a vice-like grip; it was consummately plotted, populated by fantastically believable characters and, through Sofie Gråbøl’s portrayal of Sarah Lund, gave us one of the most memorable TV detectives of all time. Taking place some two years after the events of season one, The Killing II finds our sleuthing heroine demoted to the role of humble passport clerk. That is until murder most horrid occurs and she’s recalled from exile by her old boss, the shadowy Lennart Brix. With strands of the story reaching into the worlds of politics and the military, The Killing II promises to be as absorbing and complex a puzzlebox as the first series. The only real question is not ‘whodunit?’, but how can you afford not to watch? FJ
STAYING IN
THE KILLING SERIES TWO STARTS ON BBC4 ON NOVEMBER 19
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography THE BIOGRAPHY
Regardless of what you think of the late Steve Jobs, whether he was a reserved genius or a power-hungry bully, there is no denying that his life story makes for fascinating reading. The hugely successful businessman experienced more highs and lows than most, and they are each recounted in meticulous detail in Walter Isaacson’s biography. For good or for bad, Jobs’ contribution to technology changed the way we listen to and buy music and the reasons for doing so. For that reason alone, this tome is a worthwhile read. RT Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography is out now.
Scribblenauts Remix THE APP
Originally released for the Nintendo DS, this clever game has a unique twist: when confronted with one of the many puzzles, you type in a word and it is created in graphical form. It’s a neat set-up which works much better than you might expect, and the scope of available items is impressive. However, what really appeals is the humour and sense of whimsy which inform each scenario. There aren’t many titles where you see sharks, Viking ships, dinosaurs and a winged goat on the same screen. RT
Scribblenauts Remix is out now for iPhone, iPod and Ipad.
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THE PODCAST
THE DVD
European Football Show
Skyrim
It’s never been a better time to be a football nerd. No longer do we have to put up with just the skinny sports pages of the broadsheets – there’s a whole world of intelligent commentary online, and an array of quality podcasts with which to soothe your commute. The Guardian’s Football Weekly is a given, but for a continental perspective try the new European Football Show. Hosted by Dave Farrar (remember Eurogoals…?) and featuring contributions from the great and good of football journalism, it’s an hour of erudite and often very witty discussion on the European game. CJ
Where some videogames take up your free time, others consume your entire life like a jealous lover. The latest RPG in the Elder Scrolls series and a spiritual sequel to time sponge Oblivion will definitely fall into the latter camp. With a vast world full of dungeons, warring kingdoms, multiple races and, yes, dragons, it will take you weeks to discover every nook, cranny, fort and secret cave. Thanks to the limitless morality choices, skill trees and nonlinear structure it is unlikely that any two players will have the same experience. RT
THE GAME
Episode three is about to launch on www.europeanfootballshow.eu
Skyrim is released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 11.
Community
Talking Heads – Chronology
Like comedy gold Arrested Development, this smart, funny show takes an ensemble cast of likeable characters, puts them in a mundane situation, in this instance a community college, and then shakes things up by throwing them into increasingly ridiculous scenarios. Much of the appeal of Community comes from spotting the myriad nerdy pop culture references and movie homages but there are other joys to be found here: witty scripts, cracking sight gags and Chevy Chase. Yes, that Chevy Chase, making amends for his career freefall with his turn as tycoon Pierce Hawthorne. RT
The awesome legacy and indelible effect of polyrhythmic post-punk legends Talking Heads has resulted in some great archive material, not least Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, a 1984 concert movie capturing the New York band at their peak. Now, almost 30 years later, Chronology not only collates live performances and commentaries from all four band members, it also fits in the likes of a 1978 interview with frontman David Byrne himself. A perfect starting point for Heads newcomers; an absolute godsend for aficionados. BC
THE MUSIC DVD
Community Season One is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 14.
Chronology is out now.
Monsters In The Movies Nothing gives an audience the willies like a good monster, and director John Landis clearly knows his monsters. This expansive coffee table tome charts the evolution of screen bogeymen and beasties and features glossy shots of King Kong, the Black Lagoon Creature and The Pale Man alongside illuminative opinions from the likes of Sam Raimi, Joe Dante and Guillermo Del Toro. Horror fans, or film fans in general, will find much to savour in this lovingly assembled pictorial, which not only as a history of the genre but also an insight into the wild things that scare us silly. RT
THE BOOK
Monsters In The Movies by John Landis is out now.
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Festive Funnies Tittering off on December 8 with the traditional visit by the Whose Line Is It Anyway? team – again led by Phill Jupitus, who should have his own dressing room in the Opera House by now – this year’s bumper crop of banter and brouhaha at th Grand Opera House includes a round-up of the year’s hottest stand-up hosted by Colin Murphy on December 9, Offaly’s finest Neil Delamere presenting his brand new show Restructuring on December 10 and Dublin firebrand Andrew Maxwell – 2011 Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and star of the Edinburgh Fringe – on December 16.
GOING OUT
FESTIVAL
The run reaches its chucklesome climax on December 17 with Mock The Week’s big-haired, permanently dazed-looking, Hawaiian shirtsporting one-liner king Milton Jones (pictured). Throughout the fortnight, there are also turns by local lalt merchants including Tim McGarry (The Blame Game), Diarmuid Corr (Sketchy) and Micky Bartlett (he hasn’t got his own TV series yet, but don’t hold that against him). These are late gigs, so expect close-to-the-bone comedy from performers who aren’t afraid of the odd sexual swear word. And if it gets too much, just remember – you can walk out at any time. This isn’t Austria. AJ GRAND OPERA HOUSE, BELFAST FROM DECEMBER 8-17.
GIG
CLUB
COMEDY
Napalm Death
Dave Clarke
Bill Bailey’s Dandelion Mind
“It’s just noise,” the music cognoscenti sniffed when Napalm Death first mashed together metal and anarcho-punk in the early Eighties. Three decades, 14 albums and wholesale line-up changes later, that noise is still ringing in ears. TV stars (everything from Arena to Skins), record holders (the world’s shortest song – 1.316 seconds) and with a wing to themselves in Birmingham’s heavy metal museum, Napalm Death share a very loud, very fast last laugh with their Belfast and Dublin fans in December. AJ
The Baron returns! While most techno producers have moved away from the brash, banging sound that dominated the genre until the middle of the last decade, Dave Clarke has never relented in pushing the boundaries of straight-up, face-melting techno and electro, and it’s much in evidence on his new Fabric mix. Not so long ago, Mr Clarke used to frequent these shores every two or three months, but unfortunately his visits have become less frequent in recent years. Which is even more reason to check him out this time. AS
We’ve long been fans of Bailey’s, from his stint as Manny in the excellent Black Books, through previous stand-up shows such as Part Troll, to temporarily reviving Never Mind The Buzzcocks during his spell as a team captain. His clever humour finds a ready audience with those fed up with the endless production line of hugely popular comedians who seem to rely on a funny accent. He also knows his way around a musical instrument or 12, and although musical comedy is a dangerous game, Bailey is intelligent enough and funny enough to carry it off. A great bit of comedic escapism. AS
STIFF KITTEN, BELFAST ON DECEMBER 4 AND THE PINT, DUBLIN ON DECEMBER 5.
STIFF KITTEN, BELFAST ON NOV 26; THE FORUM, WATERFORD ON NOVEMBER 25; SAVOY THEATRE, CORK ON DECEMBER 9.
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ODYSSEY ARENA, BELFAST ON DECEMBER 2.
GIG
GIG
CLUB
Bombay Bicycle Club
Thurston Moore
Pressure: Boxcutter
Crap name, good band. Despite their short lifespan, Bombay Bicycle Club have already managed to outlive a lot of their contemporaries, and judging by the response to their impressive new album, A Different Kind OF Fix, they are on a sharply upward curve. The buzz around the band has been helped by high-profile radio play for singles ‘Shuffle’ and ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’, and is evidenced by the size of venues they are now playing. Should be a memorable night. AS
Poor old Thurston has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. Alt.rock’s coolest couple, the Sonic Youth frontman and wife Kim Gordon recently announced they were splitting up after 27 years of marriage. Suddenly, the future of the band is in doubt. Well if it were all to go south, Moore has an enviable solo career to fall back on. His latest solo album from earlier in the year, Demolished Thoughts, is a beautifully mellow mix of the serene and melancholy. AS
Pressure continue their turbulent yet successful year by relocating, yet again, to Belfast’s newest bar/ venue, Voodoo. It’s great to see new music venues like Voodoo and the Hudson Bar opening up around Belfast at a time when it has never been riskier to take on such a venture. And they’ve pulled out all the stops for their first night in their new home, by inviting Boxcutter down for a relatively rare DJ set. Mr Lynn’s latest offering, The Dissolve, was arguably his most exciting and wide-ranging album to date. There are few electronic artists anywhere that are as inventive as Boxcutter. AS
MANDELA HALL, BELFAST ON DECEMBER 4; VICAR ST, DUBLIN ON DECEMBER 5 AND 6; SAVOY THEATRE, CORK ON DEC 7.
BUTTON FACTORY, DUBLIN ON NOVEMBER 26.
VOODOO, BELFAST ON DECEMBER 3.
GIG
GIG
GIG
Mariachi El Bronx
Yuck
Wild Beasts
When we spoke to Joby Ford about the first Mariachi El Bronx album, he was absolutely insistent that it was not, repeat not, a joke. But you had to admit, the idea of hardcore punks The Bronx deciding to get dressed up in Mexican garb and play romantic pop songs in an authentically mariachi stylee was pretty bizarre. Whatever, it was a huge success, they are back with a second album, and while it seems a waste to have the members of The Bronx here and not be able to wallow in their feral noise, their gentler alter egos will be a sweet substitute. CJ
One of AU’s favourite bands of the year finally make the trip to Belfast. They may not have the most endearing name, but their self-titled debut album is one we keep going back to, over and over again. They have been criticised at times for sounding too much like Dinosaur Jr. and various other Nineties American alt.rock bands, and while there is certainly nothing new in their sound, it’s immaterial when the tunes are as good as these. A perfect gig for a Sunday night; we can feel the warm glow already. AS
Controversially overlooked for this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist, you can nevertheless bank on Wild Beasts’ third album Smother to be riding high near the top of the end-of-year charts. Born in Cumbria and based in Leeds, the twentysomething quartet are a discombobulating blend of gruff northern blokes and sexually ambiguous aesthetes – much like The Smiths before them. With three albums of literate and lascivious art-rock to draw from and an ever-improving live show, this late-2011 jaunt should cement the band’s status as one of the year’s best. CJ
WORKMAN’S CLUB, DUBLIN ON NOVEMBER 18 AND STIFF KITTEN, BELFAST ON NOVEMBER 19.
BUTTON FACTORY, DUBLIN ON NOVEMBER 26 AND SPEAKEASY, BELFAST ON NOVEMBER 27.
STIFF KITTEN, BELFAST ON DECEMBER 2 AND THE VILLAGE, DUBLIN ON DECEMBER 3.
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Sticks & Stones? Edgy comedy can be a minefield, but when an influential comedian makes a wrong move, we have every right to object. “Tragedy is when I cut my finger,” once said the renowned director Mel Brooks. “Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.” A little harsh, perhaps, but then again many jokes are built on the principle of Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. When someone slips on a banana peel or gets thwacked by a water bomb the gut reaction is to laugh. An odd mixture of embarrassment and superiority takes over, the stomach buckles and a guffaw bursts forth. It’s unavoidable. On a primal level there’s just something funny about people in pain. Words by Ross Thompson Illustration by Rebecca Hendin However, while humour is often cruel there’s a fine line between laughing at an actor pratfalling and laughing at the genuinely afflicted. Someone might have to be the butt of the joke but that person should welcome being butted – or at least deserve it. Learning this the hard way is Ricky Gervais, who recently ignited a firestorm of negative publicity after tweeting a series of remarkably crass messages peppered with slurs on disability. As if there was any doubt these epithets were illustrated by pictures posted on Gervais’s feed in which he pulled ‘funny faces’. He claimed in an online interview that the point of this gurning was to “look as hideous as possible without the use of props”. Those with any familiarity with disability might take issue with that explanation. Such stunts would be called ill-advised if one believed that the comic performer accepted advice. Unsurprisingly, the media backlash was fierce. Gervais’s face, both his day-to-day one and the ones he adopted for tweets, was plastered across news channels both here and in the States where he has accrued infamy and success in equal measure, insulting po-faced celebrities at the Golden Globes. Richard Herring, a fellow comedian with first-hand knowledge of just how incendiary the English language can be, blogged a response which was more confounded than critical, and was greeted with a bilious riposte from the defendant’s fanbase. Janet-Street Porter leapt to protect Gervais’ honour in The Independent, responding somewhat confusingly, that he “had made a rare misjudgement” yet in her same sentence praised his stand-up routine about disability. Nicola Clark, a mother of two disabled girls and a campaigner on this very subject, wrote a wonderfully measured reply for The Guardian in which she took him to task for either his insensitivity or his ignorance. Those who did not react with kneejerk outrage plumped for the latter: further Twitter messages from Gervais questioned the interpretation of a word like “mong”, that it had somehow become detached from its root “mongoloid”, an outdated label for Down’s syndrome. This explanation did not wash: if you chop down a tree, the stump remains fixed in the ground. If Gervais had introduced an iota of the scholarly tact contained within his own friend Robin Ince’s posts on the fracas, this might have transformed into an interesting debate on semantics and the chameleon nature of language. For centuries, academics, broadcasters, censors and children in the playground have argued over the exact meaning, weight and value of specific words: which ones are acceptable and which are verboten; which are funny and which are downright offensive. In 1972 the comic George Carlin merrily smashed taboos with his routine ‘Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television’, which suggested that simple gags could be at once funny and thought-provoking. The previous decade, another comedian, Lenny Bruce, mixed beatnik rhythms and profanity to make a political point and was subsequently force-fed an obscenity trial.
Bruce and Carlin’s work is tonally similar to Chris Rock’s landmark skit ‘Niggas vs. Black People’. It might seem tangential to observe that the rap fraternity have been bickering over ‘reclaiming’ the former term for years – the bone of contention being whether the word can be used as a sign of affection rather than a pejorative denoting slavery. However, it’s analogous to the hornets’ nest which Gervais unintentionally stirred up when he began punning on the aforementioned m-word. His excuse was that he thought that it merely meant ‘idiot’, a word which, ironically, was originally associated with learning difficulty – along with ‘cretin’, ‘imbecile’ and ‘dunce’. Gervais, in his defence, is certainly not the first person to have mocked, intentionally or otherwise, those with disabilities. Jacobean drama, for instance, was particularly harsh in its treatment of the infirmed. Ben Jonson’s Volpone (1606), for example, prefigures the ‘freak show’ motif with its inclusion of a dwarf, eunuch and hermaphrodite. The eponymous villain regularly calls upon his inverted family to entertain him with poems, dances and songs. In 19th century London, socialites could visit Bethlehem Hospital, or ‘Bedlam’, to watch the mentally ill patients and, yes, laugh at their antics. If only times had changed. The centrepiece of Ben Stiller’s illfated Tropic Thunder (2008) is an ersatz trailer for Simple Jack, in turn a parody of Forrest Gump (1994). This supposed dig at Hollywood’s knack for rewarding actors who “go full retard” (the film’s phrase, not my own) is indefensible. To posit that the audience is laughing at the ironic subtext of Stiller slobbering and poorly enunciating his words is akin to saying that the Black Eyed Peas’ track ‘Let’s Get Retarded’ is a work of satirical genius. On that note, Jonathan Swift once wrote that satire is “the sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.” There is an important distinction to be made here. In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David challenges preconceptions of race, gender, religion and, yes, disability but the joke is always on his screen persona and his inane stupidity. He welcomes the butt of the joke on a weekly basis and he deserves it. In sharp contrast, Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights, with its woefully misjudged attack on Harvey Price, came across as the ranting of a spiteful bully. This was not the transgression of boundaries nor was it the reclaiming of language. Nor was it schadenfreude. It was a grown man slinging arrows at a severely disabled child. Admittedly, Gervais does not belong in the same bracket as Boyle. He has since apologised for his “naivety”, something the Scot plainly refused to do. If any good has come out of this sorry debacle it is that it has raised awareness of what the word ‘disability’ truly means, particularly for those who live with it.
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Flavour Of the week All through Belfast Music Week, the city was buzzing. Here’s a taster of what went on.
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MARTY ON A MISSION AU meets a West Belfast man rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood glitterati
Martin McCann as Bono in Killing Bono
We love to big up ‘our own’. It takes but to win a couple of games of golf, to be once good at football or be downed by an iceberg at the first pop and we can’t name enough airports or Quarters or UTV Live headlines after you. Every so often though, there really is reason to shout about what ‘aar wee province’ throws up. A notable field of excellence, one for which the term ‘punching above our weight’ frequently applies should be acting. Liam Neeson, Ciaran Hinds, Kenneth Branagh – to name but three – are hugely impressive exports, forged in the Northern Irish firmament. Martin McCann is the latest in that line of distinguished players who’ve slipped the regional shackles to break big and bad in La La Land. The 28-year-old Belfast man is now hitched to a rapid career trajectory which began as a talented teenager with the Rainbow Factory youth theatre group. Acting credits include Clash Of The Titans,
Closing The Ring, The Pacific and of course the title role in Killing Bono. He has also recently grabbed the best actor gong at the Irish Film and Television Academy Awards for his performance as Occi Byrne in Swansong. It’s with a budget-bulging CV (and probably the numbers of Dickie Attenborough and Spielberg on speed dial) that McCann is back in town and set to deliver an acting workshop for aspirant youngsters at the QFT’s Takeover Film Weekend, on Saturday 19 November. “I hate the word masterclass’,” an embarrassed McCann tells AU (who really meant to say ‘workshop’). “It sounds like a wizard is going to descend and suddenly make good actors. I don’t believe that can be taught, but I think you can share your perspective and say ‘this is how I do my stuff’. Every actor’s version will be completely different.” His own version of events would provide inspiration to the most leaden-footed local thespian, as the boy from Divis now finds himself in the enviable position of having directors asking for him by name. “They say it takes 10 years to be an overnight success in this business. When I moved to London when I was 22, I didn’t know anybody, I was broke and it was audition after audition. You just see the big films now, but actors are kind of like ducks, paddling like mad under the surface of the water.” With success, of course, comes the pressure to sustain it, not to mention the sense of polite actorly competition (or ‘raging cutthroat bitch-fest’ as it’s known in Hollywood). “Oh yeah, there’s 10 of me waiting to replace me,” McCann candidly admits. “When you’re working on a multi-million pound production, there’s a real weight of expectation. When you’re down to the last five or six people in an audition, you know that there are ones who’d chop off a finger for the role!”
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McCann, back in Belfast for a family Halloween knees-up when we meet him, is currently filming in Dublin for Titanic: Blood and Steel. This all-star 12-part epic might actually be one of the least shoddy projects to spring forth from the centenary year of the doomed Belfast-built boat. “It’s got a cast which includes people like Chris Noth, Liam Cunningham, Neve Campbell, Derek Jacobi – it’s going to be an epic in all senses of the word and filming has been great.” Does he ever stop to ponder the surrealism of standing on a set next to someone like Derek Jacobi? “I wish I had more of those moments actually,” reflects McCann. “Usually you’re so immersed in what you’re doing. But I really should stop now and again and realise I’m doing what I love and getting paid for it. It’s important to take stock of that when you can.” And finally, the biggest question of all: what about playing one Bono Vox in the film titled after many a sane man’s psycho-fantasy. Did he tap deep into his inner arse for that one? “I find the man… misunderstood,” McCann says after generous pause. “You have to realise that when U2 began, Bono was a very self-conscious young man. So he adopted a persona, and that maybe took over. That’s his only crime, as far as I can see. Playing him was really interesting too, you can’t go all-out and do a Rory Bremner. You need something more subtle. Bono’s ok – sometimes when you’re very young, you need an old head on those young shoulders.” Like McCann himself then? He laughs: “I have good days and bad days like anybody else.”Joe Nawaz The Takeover Film Weekend takes place at the Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast on November 18-20 www.queensfilmtheatre.com
TEETHGRINDER TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Dave Donnelly sets the world to rights. This month: why free gigs are always a bad idea.
The debate about the merits of giving music away for free has been done to death, and I don’t really want to wade into it here – at least not the downloading aspect of it. Recently, Belfast rockers Comply or Die – an awesome band with serious echoes of Motörhead and the greatest band ever to come from Northern Ireland and from which the title of this column derives, Therapy? – played a free gig in their home town. Slight problem… only a handful of people showed up, and the band rightly took their frustration to Twitter. With the recession sucking as big a back of dicks as ever, it makes sense that bands and venues would use the ‘free’ tactic in the hope that people will splash out on merch and get leathered at the bar. Understandable, but a bad idea. Always. Giving away songs and albums for free works (occasionally) because it costs the band next to nowt, free music lends itself well to sharing and, for the consumer, the choice between buying a record and stealing it is often too easy to make. For gigs, none of these factors comes in to play. It sends the wrong signal from the start, suggesting to potential attendees that the gig isn’t worth
paying into, and it takes people who would normally be willing to buy a ticket out of the picture completely. More importantly, free gigs are a bitch to promote. The venue has little incentive to promote as it’s just another Tuesday night to them, and any promotion the band do is wasted as they’re only addressing their fans. If the goal is to expose your music to fresh ears or attract reluctant giggoers, it fails on both counts. Free gigs sponsored by drinks companies tend to work because they have massive PR and advertising budgets and they tend to go flat-out for events like this. For your regular local rock band, though, a free gig is lose-lose. You have a core of fans who would pay in but aren’t being asked to, and anyone whose head is turned by the ‘free’ tag is unlikely to spend anything anyway. That’s why anybody deciding to put on a cheap gig should run a mile from the word ‘free’. Better to charge some nominal amount – the price of a pint sounds about right – and ensure the people coming through the door are at least prepared to open their wallets.
VINTAGE TROUBLE
liz green
+ BEFORE MACHINES “Hauntingly beautiful” - The Sun
"A Masterclass in Vintage Blues Rock " - Gig Junkie "L A dudes playing hip-shaking, pelvis-thrusting dirty blues rock with seriously soulful, Mowtown vocals” - Total Guitar Magazine
AUNTIE ANNIES
SPRING & AIRBRAKE
Tickets: KATY DALY’S bar - www.cdcleisure.com - www.ticketmaster.ie - Phone 0844 277 4455
Tickets: KATY DALY’S bar - www.cdcleisure.com - www.ticketmaster.ie - Phone 0844 277 4455
20th NOVEMBER
BAND OF
THE LIMELIGHT 4th DECEMBER 2011
Tickets: KATY DALYS bar - Phone 0844 277 4455 - www.cdcleisure.com - www.ticketmaster.ie
SKULLS
28th NOVEMBER 2011
- Sunday Times
AUNTIE ANNIE'S 29th NOVEMBER 2011 Tickets: KATY DALYS bar - Phone 0844 277 4455 www.cdcleisure.com - www.ticketmaster.ie
jayhawks Mockingbird Time OUT NOW All Music **** Spin ******** Rolling Stone ****
LIMELIGHT
SPRING & AIRBRAKE Tickets: KATY DALY’S bar - www.cdcleisure.com - www.ticketmaster.ie - Phone 0844 277 4455
THE LIMELIGHT COMPLEX - SPRING & AIRBRAKE / THE LIMELIGHT / AUNTIE ANNIE’S / KATY DALY’S - www.cdcleisure.com
- Mojo
the
Tickets: KATY DALYS bar - Phone 0844 277 4455 www.cdcleisure.com - www.ticketmaster.ie
SATURDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2012
“Britian’s new cracked blues sister”
"Lifting Folk, spiked with venom & stalked by sadness"
14th MARCH 2012
SPRING & AIRBRAKE 21st MARCH 2012
Tickets available at Katy Daly’s bar - cdcleisure.com - ticketmaster.ie - Ph 0844 277 4455
LAVERYS GROUP DINING & PRIVATE PARTIES We cater for a wide range of group dining needs with 4 bars spread across 3 floors. Areas in our ground floor Public or Back Bar can be reserved for dining from Monday to Sunday until 9pm. There is entertainment nightly with full listings at www.laverysbelfast.com. Our top floor houses Northern Ireland’s best pool facilities. We can tailor a space specifically for your needs and can provide a private bar or self service bars, seated meals or an informal buffet for a variety of sizes of groups and budgets.
www.laverysbelfast.com ✉ xmas@laverysbelfast.com ☎ 02890 871106
9-11 Fountain Street, Belfast, BT1 5EA
BELFAST’S NEWEST PUB & VENUE
&+5)4#%'.#0& THURSDAY
X
CLUB NIGHTS COMMENCING DECEMBER 2011 w w w. v o o d o o b e l f a s t . c o m
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
TAKING CARE OF NONSENSE IN A FLASH
A BANQUET OF BEATS FOR DANCING FEATS
RINSIN’ AND MINCIN’ ON THE PRESSURE RIG
ECLECTIC MIX
ROCK / SOUL / INDIE / FUNK / REGGAE
ELECTRO / TECHNO / HOUSE / D&B / DUBSTEP
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SEASON’S EATINGS Ugly it may be, but the celeriac is worth celebrating, especially when you can make this delicious autumnal soup with it. It’s a good job celeriac tastes great because, let’s face it, it’s not going to win any vegetable beauty contests. In fact, with a gnarled visage blighted with no end of strange rooty bits and swellings, it is so badly abused by the ugly stick as to be downright frightening. Imagine a hooded figure approaching you in a gloomy alley, then dropping its hood only to reveal a celeriac where the head is supposed to be. Terrifying, right? Yet, like John Merrick the elephant man, celeriac will give you a lot to love once you get past its looks. With its wonderful starchy texture and intriguing earthy taste (resembling that of the stalk vegetable it is named after yet is entirely unrelated to),
celeriac makes a robust partner to strong flavoured meats. But it has enough personality to be the star of its own show, in soups, vegetable bakes, and salads. The following recipe is for an easy peasy soup that partners celeriac with pear, a very complementary and quite popular combination. It has also been given a touch of spice to give it an added depth. This is an autumnal recipe that demands to be drunk from a bowl cupped between two hands just removed from mittens. If you have been indoors all day before making this soup, stick on some wellies, go outside, splash around in a puddle and play conkers for a while. That’s the spirit. Now you’re ready for your soup.
Lightly curried celeriac & pear soup Serves 4 people
Words by Darragh McCausland Photo by Aoife McElwain
3 shallots, chopped roughly 2 cloves of garlic diced small 1 celeriac (about 750g), peeled and cubed roughly 3 ripe pears cored, peeled and chopped roughly 1 litre vegetable or chicken stock 1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and
chopped small A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley 1 tablespoon of ground cumin 1 tablespoon of ground coriander 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper 100ml of cream Salt and pepper to taste
Start by heating some olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the shallots, garlic and ginger to cook until they are nice and soft but not brown. Then add the celeriac, pear, and spices. Turn these through the heat for about a minute and pour the vegetable stock over them. Now bring the mixture to the boil before reducing to a simmer.
chopped parsely on top. Et voila, an autumn warmer worth getting cold for. I would serve this soup with big torn pieces of sourdough bread drizzled with olive oil or, if I had time, with a crouton.
THERE’S THIS LITTLE PLACE...
The Larder 8 Parliament Street, Dublin 2
T: +353 (0) 1633 3581 W: www.thelarderbistro.com
The Larder on Parliament Street in Dublin 2 is one of the most reliable bets in town for an honestto-goodness early bird dinner in relatively casual surroundings (not so casual however, that you couldn’t impress a date by bringing them there). They have a consistently fine early bird menu that changes with the season and runs all night until Thursday, ending at 7pm during the weekend. Their chips are something special, huge golden cuboid things that are double-cooked (yes, double) in butter, creating that platonic ideal of a chip – golden and crisp on the outside, fluffy and steaming on the inside. The Larder is worth a visit for those chips alone, but it’s the friendly staff and variety on the menu (check out their blackboard for specials) that will keep you coming back.
Let the mixture simmer uncovered for between 25 and 30 minutes or until the celeriac cubes can be easily mashed with a fork. Using either a food processor or a hand blender, liquidise the soup until it has a completely smooth consistency little bits of celeriac are not that pleasant to find in your soup. If you want to make sure it is extra smooth you can pass it through a sieve. Your soup is now almost ready. Season it to taste with the salt and pepper. Serve it into bowls, with a little of the cream swirled through each and some
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Now that you’ve tamed the most unique root vegetable, don’t hold back by only using it for soup. Celeriac is ideal for experimenting with, as it adds an interesting dimension to any dish it is added to. Try half and half mash with celeriac and potato to go with either beef or duck. Bake it bubbling lusciously in cream, or try cutting it into thin fries to make lovely vegetable chips or even crisps. If you want to go completely wild (and who doesn’t?) toss raw celeriac matchsticks and mandarin segments through a salad. Whatever you do, don’t call it ugly, because root vegetables have feelings too.
Welcome To The Occupation The Occupy movement has reached Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. AU meets the protestors.
Photography by Chris Flack
Writer’s Square in Belfast is many things to many people. A yearly muster point for the city’s Gay Pride parade, an urban obstacle course for the skating community, not to mention a tribute to countless dead Northern Irish literary figures, including Louis MacNeice and CS Lewis. Now, though, to a growing number, the square opposite St Anne’s Cathedral has been home to Occupy Belfast, the local interpretation of a global movement which is rallying against everything from fat-cat banker greed to globalisation and the goings-on in the Middle East. “The first few nights we were here were terrible.” Ryan Barnes, a protester at Occupy Belfast, has suffered several hairy nights under canvas since the start of the occupation in midOctober. “The rain was hammering down, we even had a severe weather warning one night – but we still stayed. People have families and jobs to go home to, but the good majority of people stay in the camp.” The Occupy movement has slowly been gaining traction across the globe, with camps cropping up most noticeably on New York’s Wall Street, and outside the London Stock Exchange at St Paul’s Cathedral. Gerry Carroll, one of the occupation’s ‘figureheads’, details the inventory: “We see our numbers growing.
We started with no gazebos, but now we have five. We started off with three or four tents, now we’ve got 11 or 12.” Few things are measured in ‘gazebos and tents’, though this is the yardstick by which Occupy Belfast gauges their camp’s growth. Much was made in the national media of pictures depicting empty tents at Occupy London’s site at St Paul’s. Though later proven to be misleading, Gerry is quick to defend the Belfast operation. “I can assure you, in Belfast we’re braving the cold and staying the night. People can see its growing and everyone is here for the same reason.” Yet one of the main criticisms of the worldwide Occupy protests is their message. The target of their ire can sometimes seem confused; a point Gerry takes issue with. “If you look at the 99% vs the 1%, we’re saying tax the 1%. These are the extremely wealthy out there; we’re talking about the millionaires.” And one of the first acts of the group was to picket Invest Northern Ireland’s offices on Bedford Street. Coca Cola were granted £7.6 million in investment from the government body in 2009 and Carroll believe this cuts to the heart of Occupy Belfast’s argument. “We have a situation where Stormont is slashing at least 20,000 jobs from the public sector on one hand, and giving millions of pounds to a private foreign corporation on the other. They say they’re creating jobs, but why not invest in keeping the jobs we already have? This is where we are directing our anger. This is why we have Stormont on our placards.”
Peter Harbinson of Invest Northern Ireland argues that it’s the bigger investments which gains media attention, but their focus has always been on the small business owner. “The reality is that most of our activity is with small and medium-sized businesses, the majority of which are locally owned. £61m of support was offered to locally owned businesses, compared to £47m to externally owned. This has created 3,860 local jobs, in comparison to 2,859 from externally owned companies.” And as for the location, Occupy Belfast have stood largely unopposed by the police and local council, apart from one occasion where a visit from the PSNI turned out to be a polite reminder about noise levels and alcohol consumption in public. In contrast, St Paul’s Cathedral was forced to close to the public. What followed was a series of high profile legal bids to remove the protesters, and even several resignations from senior clergy. Ryan Barnes, though, is confident that the Belfast movement, although small in number, will continue to grow despite its location. “The response we’ve received from the community has been fantastic. We’ve even had a noodle bar down every night with food for us. We got some new tents donated after a few of them flooded.” And as for the mixed message? “Our message really, in layman’s terms is ‘Tax the rich, feed the poor’. It’s simple.” Keith Anderson
Good Man Yerself! As we went to press, Belfast writer and director Phil Harrison was 75% of the way to raising the funds necessary to fulfilling his dream of making his self-penned feature film. Set in Ireland and South Africa, The
Good Man already has locations, crew and a cast led by Aidan Gillen (The Wire’s Mayor Carcetti, pictured) in place – all that is needed is that last bit of investment, with shares available at £150 each. In return, you
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get a financial stake in the film, a signed DVD, an invitation to a local premiere and more. The film sounds fantastic – find out more at www.thegoodmanfilm.com and get your wallet out.
Calling culture lovers...
This modern arts complex simmers with film, music, ballet, dance and drama. A creative hub for all ages, out-of-towners and locals alike. Pay a visit and see a famous face. Stay a night or two and explore the city’s sights, history and heritage. You’ll soon see why it was crowned the first ever UK City of Culture 2013... (Whoop, whoop!)
Big culture breaks for little prices. Visit:
discovernorthernireland.com/exploremore
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Millennium Forum, Co. Londonderry
There are endless intriguing sights in Derry~Londonderry. Take this one for example – a chromatic work of art adorning the foyer of the Walled City’s Millennium Forum.
GLASS OF HIS OWN Meet Krystal Klear, The Irish producer making waves from Manchester to Madrid
It may be the end of October, but in Madrid it feels like an Irish summer, so how fitting that the Red Bull Music Academy’s Halloween blow-out has adopted a tropical theme. In the huge, marble-bedecked Circulo de Bellas Artes in the city centre, Brazilian tropicalia legend Tom Ze and Spanish hero El Guincho are playing in the live room, while upstairs the up-and-coming talents of this year’s Academy are making their presence felt. Dublin native Dec Lennon, aka Krystal Klear, kicks things off in Room 2 with some Nineties house, but later in an increasingly packed Room 3 things really get interesting, as a typically eclectic set featuring everything from classic house to Hudson Mohawke and Rustie to Kanye gets the punters sweaty and the place bouncing. His stay at the Red Bull Music Academy – an event for young DJs, producers and musicians that takes place in a different major city each year – is the latest staging post of a burgeoning career for the 23-year-old Irishman. Based in Manchester where he is a resident at the acclaimed Hoya:Hoya club, his productions mine the unlikely genres of New Jack Swing (smooth early Nineties R&B from the likes of R Kelly and Ginuwine)
and boogie house, where he is seen as a pretender to Dam-Funk’s crown – he has even played at the American’s own club night. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t get star struck, though. “It’s only week one and I’ve met Erykah Badu and Frankie Knuckles,” he marvels when we meet at the Matadero – the Academy’s base in Madrid. “It’s just ridiculous.” The Academy brings together 60 bright young things each year, split into two two-week terms and encouraged to learn and collaborate under the watchful eye of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable team (which this year includes noted producers James Pants and Mark Pritchard) as well as guest speakers and mentors like Badu, Knuckles and, on the day we visit, Chilean house experimentalist Matías Aguayo and Depeche Mode producer Gareth Jones. “It’s honestly been one of the best experiences of my life,” says Lennon. “Everything that you could possibly dream of is catered for.” And the memorable moments keep coming. “The Erykah Badu afterparty was pretty wild,” he recalls. “I went back-to-back with Hudson Mohawke – Erykah hung out with us all night and stood on stage with us. Also, Young Guru – Jay-Z’s right-handman, engineer, producer – was here for like a week. He’d come in and help us with mic set-ups and stuff. Talking to him about when he used to work with Biggie… Stuff like that doesn’t happen…” Like a lot of kids, Lennon got into music via heavy metal, before starting to experiment with making hip-hop as a teenager, and then becoming a bona fide record nerd, where the search for samples led him down some interesting avenues. “I guess the sound I work on most now is the sound I’ve been
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listening to the most.” And that’s New Jack Swing and funk? “Yeah, pretty much. Also a lot of disco, a lot of house, a lot of music that’s basically from the late Seventies through to the early Nineties. My first record was a boogie record, so immediately I got pigeonholed in that kind of thing, which is cool, but I make a lot of stuff. My next release is a Nineties house record, and I want to do a French house record and a New Jack record. I want to amalgamate all of my influences if possible; it’s proving tricky but I’m doing my best.” That restlessness is helped along by the diverse company he keeps in Manchester, Lennon’s adopted home since student days. “Going to Manchester was definitely one of the best things that has happened to me,” he says. “I worked on a lot more music, I wasn’t as distracted by stuff I might have been back at home, and I got involved with a lot of other producers.” But why not stay in Dublin, we wonder? “I’ve always thought it’s a pretty difficult city to break out of as an artist,” says Lennon. “I think, if anyone really wants to progress around Europe and stuff, it’s always wise to move somewhere like Manchester or London, or New York or LA, and give yourself a shot at it.” That sentiment might raise eyebrows in Dublin, but from where we’re standing it seems to be working for Krystal Klear. Chris Jones www.soundcloud.com/krystalklear www.redbullmusicacademy.com
Bout Ye’? Barry from Bouts talks Bandcamp, gigging like crazy and just a smattering of Dinosaur Jr.
With the Irish music scene positively heaving with talent in every imaginable genre, there couldn’t be room for more Bandcamping rockers with impeccable influences, could there? Well yes, there could, and Bouts have a bag of chunky riffs and harmonising vocals they’re dying to show off. “When we started this it was myself, Daniel [Flynn] and a guy called Nigel, who has now gone to Canada,” explains Kildare native Barry Bracken. “We started maybe late 2009, recorded an album, put it up online for free, played one gig at Hard Working Class Heroes 2010 and then we played our first proper gig there in Whelan’s [at the end of October] so we’ve only just started gigging and now we’re gonna gig like crazy!” That album, New Ways Of Saying No, was recorded with Shane Cullen at K9 studios in Deansgrange in
March last year and shared on Bandcamp. The same combination came together for the latest release. “We spent a bit of time on the EP with Shane again, he’s great! We did it in September, got it mixed by Shane and mastered in the States. In and out, no fuss. We don’t like to spend too much time dwelling on recording.” And with many opting for the free album route, it seems to be the way to go. “We haven’t charged anyone for anything yet,” Barry explains. “There’s a sort of pointlessness to putting it online for two or three quid. We just want to get the music out there without any impediment, because a band somebody’s never heard of… Let’s face it, people are downloading music for nothing, or bands are giving it away for free, and you do have a good percentage of people who are paying for downloads and who still buy records. And that’s great, but just for a start we want to get it out to as many people as possible.
would be to pay a couple of quid. These days, until you reach a certain critical mass, selling your music online doesn’t make huge sense. When enough people know the band then we’d definitely put a price on a release. It’s important that some value remains attached to recorded music. It’s just that the value is now adjusted somewhat from the crazy ‘Nineties money’, as we call it.” And with Bouts delivering memorably chunky riffs, their influences are not surprising. “Pavement, I suppose,” muses Barry. “The Pixies. A bit of Weezer. A little bit of Dinosaur Jr - I wouldn’t say any of us are huge Dinosaur Jr fans but we’d all be big Yuck fans. Back further than that, Bends-era Radiohead. We’re guitar-heavy, melodic, not too dissonant. Controlled melodic chaos. That pretentious enough?!” It sounds perfect to us, Baz. Adam Lacey The Bouts EP is available now from gimmebouts.com
“The Cast of Cheers did it and it worked out very well for them. There’s very little margin for making money from putting anything online. I think people would be more likely to download an unknown band’s first couple of releases for free than they
Bouts support We Were Promised Jetpacks at Whelan’s, Dublin on December 8.
Band Maths No. 11: MTV European Music Awards
37% - Justena 22% - A genuinely buzzing Belfast 16% - Teenagers on heat 14% - A human satellite dish 11% - A hipster mayor
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The Wonder Villains on tour! The Derry upstarts report back from their first ever trip round the UK
Now that they’ve finished their A-levels, things are getting exciting for Derry’s giddiest, The Wonder Villains. When General Fiasco decided to take them on their UK tour last month, we asked singer and bassist Eimear Coyle to keep a diary for AU. Here’s what she came back with – all exclamation marks her own… It’s 11am on October 22, 2011 and we are about to leave on our first ever tour. Great tunes all the way to Dublin and we are ready to rock! Some of the crowd remembered us from last time we played and sang along, which was amazing! No time to hang about after – we caught the 2am ferry to Holyhead and drove straight to Bristol. On the way we passed a sign for the Forest of Dean which is in Harry Potter and we all got pretty excited, great start! Bristol was a really cool show. It was on a boat. During Fiasco’s set, the crowd were jumping and the boat started swaying from side to side! Our first ever show in England and our first ever show on a boat. Historic! It was in Bristol that we started our Subway contest to see where in the UK has the nicest Subway. Birmingham won. Next day we drove to ESPN studios in London to play live on TV! We had rehearsals all day for the sound and camera crews and then we got to chill
upstairs, eat pizza and play FIFA. Life is good! We were the house band for the show so we played a tune at the open and close and I was interviewed in the middle. My favourite question was when I was asked which famous villain I would most like to join the band. I chose the lighthouse-keeper from Scooby Doo. That night we had to drive 400 miles to Glasgow and finally arrived at 5.10am. I wore my Bowling For Soup T-shirt on stage in Glasgow and when we finished one of the guys told us that BFS were about to start just around the corner and we could get on the guestlist! We packed the van the quickest ever and ran three streets to the show. During Soup’s set I got an email telling us that we were nominated for the Contenders Award at the Northern Ireland Music Awards. It was a class day! That night all the tour gang headed out to Nice ‘n’ Sleazy for a few drinks. :D The next day, after singing ‘Super Trouper’ a few times, we left for Birmingham. We were playing in The Rainbow which I really enjoyed because there was a tree inside. Technically this was our first ever show ON England cause the first one was on a boat and the second was on TV. Another historic moment! After the show I had possibly my favourite moment of the tour. Our gear was lying all over the footpath outside and a man walking past was giving off about it. But then he spotted me and said, “I saw you on the telly the other day, you have that song ‘Zola’.” It was amazing. FAMOUS! We walked around Birmingham the next morning and bought about 3000 apples and bananas in a
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market for the road to London. When we arrived, we found out that we were playing upstairs from Charlie Simpson who was in Busted, which was hilarious. The place was packed and the crowd were great. Even Kate from The Apprentice was there. After the show, we caught the last tube to our friend’s house for a London party. Dancing around to ‘Zola’. Only joking… We got up at 7am the next day to sightsee. We got awesome trainers and I bought a Snoop Dogg tee in Camden Market. Then we bounced into the van in our new shoes and headed off for Manchester. Manchester was our last night before heading back to Belfast so we made the most of it! Really fun last night in England. We had to leave really quickly again for the 5am boat from Stranraer and only made it because the clocks went back that night! On the ferry there was a foosball table and girl Villains totally beat boy Villains in an epic game. To be fair, the table was at an angle because we were on a boat. We arrived back home to the Wonder Villa in Belfast at 9am and got some sleep before the show. The crowd at the Mandela Hall were amazing and it was a brilliant end to the tour. I even took a picture of the crowd from on stage, everyone had their hands up and people were up on shoulders. It turned out blurry though! We had the best time on tour with General Fiasco and Yes Cadets and I can’t wait to get back out on another one!!
wondervillains.bandcamp.com
UNKNOWN PLEASURES
GAMES: UNCHARTED WATERS
Niall Byrne digs deep to uncover the freshest new music
Blog Buzz – Samaris A recent find from the coverage of Iceland Airwaves, Samaris imbue a Portishead-like ambience and tension to their decidedly ice-cold music. Other reference points could include the experimental electronic side of fellow countrywoman Björk (it’s in the vocal phrasing) and the dark and ethereal tones of Fever Ray. Their unpronounceable Hljóma Þú EP is up on Soundcloud for listening. - soundcloud.com/samaris 12” - Awesome Tapes From Africa label Brian Shimkowitz started the Awesome Tapes From Africa music blog to share obscure and forgotten cassette tapes he picked up while living there. Five years later, Shimkowitz is aiming to give something back to the original musicians with proper CD, LP and MP3 releases, starting with Malian singer Nâ Hawa Doumbia’s 1982 recording La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3. In it you can hear the sound of another era in Malian music from the nomadic Tuareg region that spawned Tinariwen to the combination of gentle guitar, piano, percussion and the kamale ngoni – a “young man’s harp” instrument. Above it all, Doumbia’s beautifully rich voice leads the happy procession. - awesometapes.com Mix - Memory Tapes - Slaughtered The most recent Memory Tapes album Player Piano was something of a disappointment but Dayve Hawk never stopped creating and this
Will videogames kill the movie stars?
blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 23-minute mix of original material for Modular Records deserves some recording for posterity as it’s the best thing he’s ever released. This Slaughtered mix is filled with hard-edged, chillwavey, mostly-instrumental electronic music and is all the better for it. - bit.ly/memtapesmix 7” – TOPS Such is the cannibalisation of modern pop and rock music these days, that there is rarely one underlying trend dominating the recycling stakes. Take TOPS for example – the Montreal “melodic soft rock” band signed to Arbutus Records love a bit of ‘70s histrionics, though their sound is much more muted than bombastic which only adds a lo-fi, simple charm to the whole affair. Props for the retro cover art for the ‘Diamond Look’ single too. - bit.ly/topsmusic Blog Buzz – :papercutz With Primavera Sound adding a Portuguese leg in the city of Porto for 2012, perhaps we’ll see the likes of :papercutz grace the lineup in May. The duo made up of Bruno Miguel and Melissa Veras have been forging their avant-garde electronic sound since 2008 with an album entitled Lylac and an collection of ambient reworks called Do Outro Lado Do Espelho. Since then, they’ve been knocking out remixes for the likes of Sun Glitters, Courtship and Nite Jewel as well as a host of original tracks. - soundcloud.com/papercutz
WWW.NIALLER9.COM
With mainstream cinema in a sorry state of creative stagnation, videogames are sneaking in to fill the gap, as in many cases they offer more enjoyment and reward than your average snorea-thon. Take, for example, the just released Uncharted 3, a fantastic slice of boy’s own, swashbuckling action. This PS3 exclusive pushes current gen consoles as far as the tech will allow and demonstrates how immersive the medium can be when skilfully handled by a gifted design team. Uncharted 3 contains set-pieces in which the lantern-jawed wiseass Nathan Drake gets lost in a sweeping, David Lean desert, brawls on every vehicle imaginable and fires off enough rounds to feed an arms baron’s family for months, yet what makes it so engaging is the attuned sense of characterisation and honed dialogue which stitch each exhilarating action sequence together. This, of course, is an ingredient many summer blockbusters are missing: why would anyone care if some afterthought characters get smushed by a giant robot if you are not asked to care about them? When fictional individuals are so disposable, their deaths or romantic entanglements are of little consequence. The best modern games, in comparison, are built around moral quandaries; decisions which not only determine how those particular games will pan out but also will linger in the memory long afterwards. Essentially, the ability to choose good or evil in titles like Fallout, Mass Effect and Deus Ex invites the player to
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become the director: how this ‘movie’ plays is up to you. Of course, many will baulk at the suggestion that videogames are anything more than intellectual mind-rot or moral poison. Those straitjacketed to that position might want to check out Assassin’s Creed, whose final chapter Revelations (Ubisoft, Multi) is released later this month, a startling example of just how intelligently filmic the medium can be. This tapestry of myth, historical account and conspiracy theory not only conjures up Renaissance Italy and Ottoman Istanbul but also allows you to free run about them, marvelling at the period details and perfectly rendered architecture. However, there is more to this than visual flair. Your character, the eponymous assassin Ezio, straining beneath the dozens of murders weighing upon his soul, is written with more empathy than would be afforded the ciphers of many Hollywood tent-pole pictures. Let’s not be too drastic: cinema is not in danger of being replaced. Yet we have to acknowledge that the videogame must be taken more seriously as an art form. Recently, Uncharted 3, whose protagonist bears a striking similarity to a certain Doctor Henry Jones, was marketed with a sweet video of Harrison Ford playing the game. His reactions of joy and wonderment are priceless, but in his eyes there twitches a realisation that there are shifting sands underfoot. Ross Thompson
In The Studio Graham Coxon guitar was out of tune – these things happen and I think to great effect. Ben Hillier was an obvious choice being a mischievous appreciator of sonic perversion, so the actual recording was amazingly good fun and unprecious. The Spinning Top was a self-confessed homage to some of your folk guitar heroes – John Martyn, Davy Graham etc. Does A+E tip the hat to anyone, consciously or otherwise?
Photo by Tim Cochrane What: Eighth album Title: A+E (TBC) Producer: Ben Hillier Release Date: TBC Label: TBC
After 20 years in the business, Graham Coxon remains one of the most inventive, talented and esteemed musicians of his generation. From his legendary work with Blur to a solo career comprising seven genre-spanning albums, his reputation today is as strong as it was 15 years ago. Now, with his eighth solo album very much in the pipeline, what has the English guitarist got up his sleeve this time around?
You’re currently in the process of making a new record, tentatively titled A+E. What sets it apart from your last album, 2009′s The Spinning Top? With this album, I wanted to have a total change as regards studio, producer and equipment. A lot of the songs were ‘jams’ with myself, if that’s possible, having demoed a lot of ideas that were more about sound rather than songwriting. I had used some drum machines on the demos and wanted those songs to end up with the same drum sounds – quite cheap and nasty. At first, the drum sounds seemed incongruent with the songs, but I got used to them. Being obsessive with snare drum sounds and rarely satisfied with them on finished albums, this cut that obsession out, though when a traditional kit set up was needed I went more with a jazz drum set up – ringy toms and very roomy.
I think there is some hat tipping but probably to a little more unexplored pool of influence and newly found inspiration: Wire’s use of electronics, darker pop music and experimental rock, such as Chrome, Flying Lizards, The Spits, White Noise, etc. There’s still that stubborn influence from the prog lot too: Van Der Graaf Generator, Gong and Soft Machine … I can’t seem to shake those ones! I was listening to tonnes of soul too, a lot of Irma Thomas and Betty Harris, mainly for rhythm, drum sounds and overall sound. Those records sound like all the meters are in the red – warm and distorted. I like that. I was recalling dangerous nights out, a little like the dangerous nights out in Scott Walker songs but not as romantic. I wanted to strip romance from the record really. I wanted it to be hard. Did you set out with a theme or concept in mind, specifically? The theme, if any, is violence: drugs, booze, sex, self destruction and anxiety. It’s a pretty distorted outlook on the record, and definitely comes from my own neurosis –my fear of ‘out there’, beyond the walls of safety, losing control, being at the mercy of strangers and black wet streets. It’s much more about sound and feel, and not at all about technical exercises on guitar or extraordinarily poetic lyrics. It is base: danceable, exciting, dynamic, perverse and funny at times. Like The Spinning Top, though, it has a kind of concept, but more a concept of reckless nights out, sex and violence, and suffering the consequences … hence the title! Brian Coney
You are working with Ben Hillier [producer of Blur’s minus-Graham era Think Tank]. Why did you opt for his services? I wanted no-one to tell me a sound wasn’t right or that a sound was too heavy or ugly or that the
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Dublin rock and rollers The Minutes are going from strength to strength. The in-your-face trio are on tour with Flogging Molly, and they have also announced an 11-date headline tour of Germany in December, following in the footsteps of The Beatles and, er,
David Hasselhoff. February 11 sees their largest headline date so far, at Dublin Academy, and you can watch a new short film by the band, called From Roof Top To Sweat Box, at bit.ly/ theminutes.
Sons Of A Preacher Band
Words by Neill Dougan
Heres Looking At (You)Tube This month, venerable Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers release their complete singles collection. Love ‘em, loathe ‘em or be vaguely indifferent towards ‘em, it’s undeniable that over the years the Manics have provided the media with some great copy. From their early mascara-clad appearances, to Richey’s infamous ‘4REAL’ incident, to the blokey bonhomie of latter years, they’ve always been sterling interviewees. Here’s a few of their more unusual moments. WELSH RARE BIT
MAINE MEN
GIMME GIMME GIMME
First up, a bizarre segment from mid-Nineties MTV. Host Toby Amies fields a telephone call from Nicky Wire, and quickly passes him over to Super Furry Animals vocalist Gruff Rhys. The two Welshmen proceed to have a faintly surreal conversation, for all the world as if they aren’t actually surrounded by video cameras. The highlight is Nicky’s exclamation of “Oooh! Top!” at 1:20 which, frankly, is very camp indeed.
Bit poignant, this one, as an understandably subdued Manics, circa Everything Must Go, are quizzed before their support slot at Oasis’s 1996 Maine Road gig about the disappearance of Richey Edwards, which is clearly still raw. Nicky Wire is philosophical, James Dean Bradfield irritated and Sean Moore clearly doesn’t want to discuss it at all. “Things are never going to be the same, basically,” opines Nicky. He was right.
Well that last clip was a bit depressing so here’s something altogether zanier – Richey and Nicky on long-forgotten kids’ show Gimme 5, discussing Miss Selfridge, badmouthing their home country (“Do you ever go home to Wales?”; “Yeah, to visit the sheep”) and bigging up Tom Jones (“A good hip-wiggler”, apparently). As a bonus, one of the interviewers is Jenny Powell. Remember Jenny Powell? She was great.
- TINYURL.COM/NICKYGRUFF
- TINYURL.COM/MANICSMAINERD
- TINYURL.COM/MANICSGIMME5
WEIRD WIDE WEB
Words by Dave Donnelly
Life! Death! Top Tips!
A Man, A Plan…
Feelin’ Poxy
Glossy mags are full of useless advice, but some go a step further and solicit useless advice from readers to spread the burden of stupidity. Here’s a collection of the best/worst. Top tips include: “Avoid a hangover by putting a glass of water on top of a chair on the bed” and “Extend the life of your batteries by putting them in your armpits.” Of course.
Demetri Martin is best known as a comedian and occasional actor. Less known is his incredible talent for word play. In college, he designed a crossword that read the same forwards and backwards, up and down. And he wrote this 224-word poem that’s just one giant palindrome. Fittingly, he titled it ‘Dammit I’m Mad.’ Can’t really argue with you there, Demetri.
“Weirder than South Park” isn’t a phrase you’ll hear very often, but a group of, erm, ‘concerned’ parents in the US have definitely managed to upstage the TV show. A thriving Facebook group in the States (now closed) offered alternatives to chicken pox vaccination – “pox parties” where children consume lollipops that had been licked by a child afflicted by the highly-infectious disease. Delicious.
- LIFEDEATHTOPTIPS.TUMBLR.COM
- BIT.LY/224WORDPALINDROME - BIT.LY/FEELINPOXY
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STORY OF THE VIDEO
"aaagh! my eyes!"
before machines
The column that all the other columns point and laugh at... The bastards. Words by Neill Dougan
Graham reflected that the Irish winters were definitely getting worse. And that he should at least have worn a woolly hat.
Title: ‘Stalagmites’ Director: Studio Stereo
The first video from Belfast quartet Before Machines is an absolute stunner, directed and filmed by the guys at Studio Stereo. It’s as stylish a performance video as you could imagine, its dark corners and moody lighting suiting the dramatic post-hardcore of the song very well indeed. Connie Hunter of Studio Stereo answers our questions. How did you end up working with Before Machines? We worked on a short film for a charity Andy Melville is involved with in May 2010. We just hit it off with him really quickly, and a few months later when he asked us about the possibility of shooting a Before Machines video, we didn’t hesitate at all. We loved the track, so it was a nobrainer for us... we have a terrible, terrible soft spot for music videos.
What was the concept at the outset, and why was it chosen? Practically speaking, we wanted something that would showcase the performance and be really beautifully shot, rather than something with a very obvious narrative. The song ‘felt’ a particular way to us – something we wanted to try to convey with the lighting, edit and post-production over and above anything else. How did the shoot go? Really, really well. I thought we’d be really pushed for time, but it all came together pretty quickly. I think we started shooting at around 5 or 6pm and finished at 1am. I noticed at one point some really killer dust drifting about in front of the light, and suddenly I was hell-bent on getting it into as many shots as possible. It was pretty hilarious, we were all choking from the dust inhalation, but it was so, so worth it. Dusty delights.
Stan was beginning to suspect that his decision to replace Mr. Tibbs’s Felix catfood with the Tesco Value brand equivalent had been a mistake.
Did it turn out as you imagined it would? We were really happy with the outcome. For something that was done on zero budget, we think we achieved something everyone’s happy with. We just wanted to make something that looked beautiful and enhanced the experience of listening to the song, so we hope we’ve managed to do that. Watch the video online at bit.ly/stalagmites www.beforemachines.com www.studiostereo.co.uk
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“Oh, yes,” Jim’s friends had assured him a week earlier, “A safari break in Africa is a great idea – it’ll be so relaxing”. Well, he’d have a few choice words for them when he got home. If he got home.
Youth Lagoon
Two Inch Punch
&U&I
Real Name: Trevor Powers Based In: Boise, Indiana For Fans Of: Death Cab For Cutie, Animal Collective, Atlas Sound. Check Out: Debut album, The Year of Hibernation, out now on Lefse. Website: www.youthlagoon.com
Real Name: Unknown (he goes by ‘Benzil Washington’) Based: London, England. For Fans Of: How To Dress Well, Hudson Mohawke, James Blake. Check Out: Love You Up EP, out now on PMR Records Website: soundcloud.com/twoinchpunch
Members: Thom Peckett (guitar, vocals), Robert ‘Wiz’ Wisely (drums), Richard Lee (bass). Formation: Birmingham, 2010. For Fans Of: Future Of The Left, Gallows, Fugazi. Check Out: Debut album Light Bearer, available now on Ondryland. Website: www.andyouandinet
“I figure, if what an artist creates means something to the artist, it will most likely mean something to the observers.” Trevor Powers, aka Youth Lagoon, has crafted a debut album that, for all the personal nature of its lyrics, covers themes familiar to many other 22-year-olds: existentialism, isolation and an uncertain future. But far from maudlin, The Year of Hibernation sounds full of wonder, bathed in enveloping swathes of cascading organ, piano and mellifluous, pummelling drum machines, with Powers’ muted lyrics covered by several layers of reverb. “A dreamy atmosphere, if done right, can really create something powerful,” he says. “There can be something calming in the vibe it creates and can be used beautifully.” A seasoned performer despite his young age, Powers cut his musical teeth whilst still at high school in various pop-punk bands, before developing Youth Lagoon’s dream-like soundscapes. “I don’t know how I changed over time, but I think as I got older, I just started really finding myself musically,” he says, and The Year of Hibernation certainly sounds like an artist approaching greater maturity in the scope of its instrumentation, contrasting with the youthful introspection of the lyrics. “I think I will always be discovering more things,” says Powers, “but at least I’ve found the path.” Jordan Cullen
Turns out it isn’t just over-zealous bloggers clamouring to throw around contrived (if not completely meaningless) terms like ‘lovestep’ – mysterious London producer Two Inch Punch slaps it all over his own Soundcloud page. Mysterious because an email interview went unreturned, the press blurb is short on information and there is very little else online, all we have to go on is the assumed name of Benzil Washington and a short paragraph on the Soundcloud in which he namechecks a host of classic artists with an ear for a soulful melody – The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Donny Hathaway, Otis Redding, Keith Sweat. As that ‘lovestep’ term implies, though, all of this musical romance is channelled into club tracks that bear the hallmarks of the bass scene – we hear the bounce of Hudson Mohawke and the choppedand-sliced vocal samples of Sepalcure – and the current mania for earnest Nineties R&B. What’s more, the new EP Love You Up is no mere DJ fodder, but rather a lovely little package of individual songs, all tied with a bow. Opener ‘Up In Your Mix’ is uncharacteristically upfront; it’s the euphoric chorus of the title track, the infectious, hook-laden ‘Her Heart Moves’ and the lovelorn ‘Forgive Me (For Messin’ Up) – complete with weepin’ guitar solo – that really impress. Chris Jones
THE EMERGING ACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
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Pop quiz, hot shot: your band is midway through a breakthrough European tour with Scottish rock lords Biffy Clyro when your singer/guitarist quits. What do you do? Well, if you are the three remaining members of critically acclaimed noisemongers Blakfish, you immediately decide to regroup as &U&I, head home and begin cranking out some of the best UK post-hardcore in years. Debut full-length Light Bearer, recorded with Chris Commons of These Arms Are Snakes, chops Blakfish’s mathcore crunch into more digestible chunks. “The whole of Light Bearer was written purely between the three of us in our studio,” reveals drummer Wiz. “Nothing was preconceived. We wanted to steer the writing in the direction which most benefited the flow of not just the song, but the album. Our live set is now more of a show; songs have been linked and some changed to play live. Thom has really mastered looping his vocals for harmonies, which makes the show quite unique.” Still intricate but laced with melody and dynamics, it’s a tour de force from a group seemingly strengthened by their previous misfortune. Lee Gorman
Friends Members: Formation: For Fans Of: Check Out: Website:
Samantha Urbani (vocals), Oliver Duncan (drums), Lesley Hann, Nikki Shapiro, Matthew Molnar (all multi-instrumentalists). Bushwick, New York, 2010. Neneh Cherry, New Look, ESG. The single ‘I’m His Girl’ is out now via Lucky Number. www.afriendszone.com
With their homes infested with bed bugs, four friends escaped to New Yorker Samantha Urbani’s Bushwick apartment. The novice musicians used their time there well. On September 1, 2010 they jammed for the very first time together. Six days later they played their first show. Fast-forward a year and those Friends have just released a drop-dead gorgeous slab of sassy of urban disco-pop – ‘I’m His Girl’ is about to become your favourite new song. “We were all having a really hard time at that point with regards to our living situation,” Samantha tells AU, as she recalls that fateful jam session. “Just before that, my apartment had been totally robbed. It was broken into and my computer and camera and everything I had been using to work with was stolen while I was asleep. We all felt displaced and like we were missing something from our lives, so the first time we all played together was a really comforting feeling like we had found something we were all excited about and that took the place of things we had just lost. It sounded really great; we all grooved together really naturally.” All of Friends are self-taught musicians, and Urbani brought a fistful of songs ready to roll. “I already had [debut single] ‘Friend Crush’ written at the point [of the first session]. We wanted to stick with the minimalistic rhythm and melody-based pop song structure.” But it is the release of the ohrwurm single ‘I’m His Girl’, that marks Friends out as a very special band. Over a hipwiggling bassline and cowbells, Urbani marks out her manifesto for the “perfect relationship”. “I thought it sounded like Curtis Mayfield,” she says, before going on to explain the sexual politics of the song. “It’s about a relationship I was in which felt like a friendship. We didn’t want to be monogamous with each other and wanted to give each other space and freedom. We wanted to be together because we wanted to be, not because we felt codependent.” With the flipside to ‘I’m His Girl’ a sensational cover of Ghost Town DJs’ ‘My Boo’ (“I’ve loved that song since I was a kid”) and a debut album close to completion, Friends’ rise seems unstoppable. As for that album, Samantha is media-savvy enough to go a little coy when AU quizzes her. “Well, there is a minimalism in the arrangements that will be throughout the record but we definitely enjoy a multi-genre soundscape and we have a good variety of songs for the album. “It feels like an adventure,” Samantha admits when we ask her about the last year of her life. “But I really believe in serendipity, and trusting your intuition and not over-thinking things. If people are going to listen to the words I am writing or come to our shows, then I hope what I can do can be a positive influence on them.” Indeed, these five New York kids could well be your new best Friends. John Freeman
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After many years of talking about it, and several months of working our collective arses off at it, we eventually did it. Put together by AU and the Oh Yeah Centre, sponsored by Invest NI and supported by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Belfast City Council, the Northern Ireland Music Awards took place at the Ulster Hall in Belfast during Belfast Music Week and showcased the best live music Northern Ireland has to offer – as well as handing out a few awards. We had live sets from Oh Yeah Legends Award recipients Stiff Little Fingers, And So I Watch You From Afar (playing their last ever gig with the departed Tony Wright), The Japanese Popstars, Cashier No.9 and General Fiasco. Over the next seven pages we look back at the highlights, chat to the winners and piece it all back together again with the best photography from the night. Until next year‌
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THE WINNERS
Best Album
(sponsored by HMV) Cashier No.9 – To The Death Of Fun Best Video: Cashier No.9 – Lost At Sea
Best Band
(sponsored by Beck’s Vier) Two Door Cinema Club What does it mean to Two Door Cinema Club to be named Best Band at the inaugural Northern Ireland Music Awards? Kevin Baird: That was the 3rd award we’ve won in the past 12 months and honestly it was the one that meant the most to us. It may not have been the most prestigious or the most world-renowned but to be recognised by the people who have seen us grow into the band we are today is an incredible feeling. Who was your NI band of the year? KB: I would say And So I Watch You From Afar would definitely the most prolific band and the
obvious choice. Kowalski are the band that impress me the most in terms of musical output. Why do you think it’s important to have a Northern Ireland Music Awards? KB: There have been a lot of clichés flying around the past few weeks such as ‘putting NI music on the map’ but it’s something much more simple to me. I feel like sometimes people are waiting for some higher musical power to recognise Belfast for the great music town it is. The NIMAs are important to me because it’s an awards ceremony rewarding NI musicians as chosen by Northern Irish people. Who says we need anyone else?! MTV or NIMA? KB: MTV stands for Music Television, but last time I checked following a celebrity around their house in Cribs or The Hills was nothing to do with music. MTV is about ratings. NIMA is about music.
Best Song (sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland): General Fiasco – The Age That You Start Losing Friends
What does it mean to you to win at the inaugural Northern Ireland Music Awards? Owen Strathern: We were really happy. I hadn’t really thought too much about winning beforehand but whenever it did happen there was definitely a good buzz. It’s nice to think one person thought it was
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What does it mean to you to win at the inaugural NIMAs? Phil Duffy: We are all really really chuffed. Best video was lovely, but the best album was a real compliment. It feels like hard work being recognised, especially with so many great albums. ASIWYFA had a great album which we all love. What was your most memorable moment of the evening? PD: How about the backing track breaking down?! In front of a packed Ulster Hall – best time for it to happen… It was a new bit of kit and it was a case of ‘computer says no’. By the time we were fixing it, the awards had moved on. But that’s showbusiness! Did you do ‘aftershow’ at NIMA? PD: Some of us had work to do the next day. But we grabbed a few drinks and pulled a few shady dance moves at CoCo… Performance of the evening? PD: Again, ASIWYFA – their last five minutes was incendiary and a perfect send-off for Tony.
the best song but to have the majority of voters go for it was brilliant. It is a nice reassurance that we should be making music. What was your most memorable moment of the evening? OS: All the performances were brilliant but The Japanese Popstars’ set was probably the most memorable. My ears are still ringing! Did you do ‘aftershow’ at NIMA? OS: Yeah but I was behaving myself, didn’t go mad on the drink, had to get up and have a driving lesson in the morning. Rock and roll and all that! There were loads of people there that I hadn’t seen in ages which was nice. Stiff Little Fingers - cuddly uncles or vital punk revolutionaries? OS: Punks, definitely.
THE WINNERS
Best Solo Artist (sponsored by Belfast City Council) Robyn G Shiels
What does it mean to you to win at the inaugural NIMAs? It means after 20-odd years at this aul caper I must be rockin’ the right roll as of late. It’s nice to be appreciated though, I thought Duke Special or Foy Vance were the favourites but ye never know these things I s’pose. It’s humblin’ te be honest. What was your most memorable moment of the evening? It were all a bit of a blur to be honest. I think I may have been the rabbit caught in them there proverbial headlights after my name was called out... alcohol may have played a part in that as well, i.e. I was at the bar mostly the rest of the night after I won still goin’ ‘Wha!!’ a fair bit. I popped in to see ASIWYFA rock the fuck outta the place and seen the Cashier whans rock their roll as well… Good to see yer mates doin’ well, it has to be said.” Did you do ‘aftershow’ at NIMA? I did indeed “do” the NIMA aftershow… and made sure it were well done too! Think I heard someone say party so I said die… not literally of course!
Best Festival (sponsored by NI Tourist Board) Glasgowbury What does it mean to you to win at the inaugural NIMAs? Niall Kerr: It’s always an honour to pick up an award for what we love to do, and winning one at the first ever NIMAs was an added bonus. We were up against some really strong competition, some festivals which do really great work, but as we said on the night, this is for the 50+ bands and artists and the 5,000 people who turned up on the side of a hill to enjoy some fresh new music. What was your most memorable moment of the evening? NK: Tony’s final hurrah was a special occasion and a
fitting end to his ASIWYFA career but The Wonder Villains and their ‘excited’ acceptance speech was just a joy to witness! Did you do ‘aftershow’ at NIMA? NK: Sadly not, we had to get back up the road to get in to work the next day, busy times. Stiff Little Fingers – cuddly uncles or punk revolutionaries? NK: First time getting to see SLF play live and they delivered on every level, with the crowd dutifully obliging.
Best Electronic ACt
You dedicated your award to your “mammy and daddy”. Were they at the awards? Nope, they weren’t, as I told them not to bother. Shows you how much I know! Mibbee if Jim Reeves and Don Williams would have been in attendance they might have been easier persuaded – our country is western. Owed me folks a long overdue thanks for havin’ to put up with me to be fair, always have supported what I do/done.
Space Dimension Controller
He’s a man of few words, bless him, but everyone’s favourite space cadet raised a titter with his speech on receiving the Best Electronic Act award. “Although I’m from Mikrosector-50,” he said, “I always felt that Belfast was a home to me.” Heart-warming.
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Best Live Act (sponsored by British Council): And So I Watch You From Afar
Oh Yeah Contenders Award The Wonder Villains
What was your most memorable moment of the evening? EC: It had to be winning the award! The big spotlight shone on us, ‘Zola’ started blasting and we ran to the stage high-fiving everyone. Great moment.
What does it mean to you to win at the inaugural NIMAs? Rory Friers: It’s cool, I mean prizes or competition isn’t an impetus for us being creative – you don’t start a band like ours with that as a motive and to be honest it’s not something we’ve ever aspired to. But to have people where you’re from, where you’ve based your music, give you a bit of a thumbs up is a really nice feeling. What a night to bring your mum to!
Who was your NI band of the year? EC: Definitely General Fiasco. They’re awesome. We got to tour with them and it was great hanging out and seeing them play every night. I absolutely love their new stuff! Did you do aftershow at NIMA? EC: Hell yeah! Tore up the dancefloor. It was lethal. MTV or NIMA? Derry or Belfast? EC: NIMA! We weren’t nominated for an MTV award, haha. Derry for Hallowe’en, Belfast for rock shows!
Last gig with Tony – fitting send-off? RF: I think so, we didn’t get to do ‘The Voiceless’ the year we headlined at the Ulster Hall, so it was nice to get that opportunity to do it all together at last one last time. Plus Tony got a bit of a crowd-surf. You played one of the sets of the evening - any other good musical moments for you? RF: SLF was a special one, and me and the lads got to watch it with our mums and dads, it was really lovely just to have that moment with them. The Japanese Popstars were the loudest thing we’ve ever seen. We’ve loved those dudes for ages and it was nice to pop my cherry and ear drums simultaneously. Did you do ‘aftershow’ at NIMA? RF: Nah, I’m a twice a year partier and it’s not really my thing, plus we flew back to Budapest at like 7am so I just went home, counted our merch and watched Watchmen again with a pizza til it was go time. Stiff Little Fingers – cuddly uncles or punk revolutionaries? RF: Punkles.
What does it mean to you to win at the inaugural NIMAs? Eimear Coyle: It’s brilliant! We’re having the time of our lives and I can’t believe we get an award for it! It’s really nice to know that people believe in us.
Stiff Little Fingers - cuddly uncles or punk revolutionaries? EC: Punk Revolutionaries. They rock hard.
Oh Yeah Legends Award Stiff Little Fingers The Belfast punks were our version of The Clash, raging against the madness of The Troubles even as it threatened to destroy our society for good. “Even though everyone likes to have their work recognised, we normally avoid awards and awards ceremonies like the plague,” admitted Jake Burns. “So far the only ones we’ve accepted have been those voted for by the audience. However, Belfast is our home town and, therefore, very special. When we heard we were being honoured in this way, we only had one question: ‘Where do you want us?’ Hanx a million!”
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Oh Yeah Legends Award 2011 | Stiff Little Fingers
15 MEMORABLE MOMENTS
THE JAPANESE POPSTARS
RIGSY & EMMA FITZPATRICK
GENERAL FIASCO
Tony Wright goes walkies As soon as ASIWYFA confirmed that they would be joined by the recently departed Tony Wright for one last time, we knew it would be memorable. True, the dynamic was different somehow, and as Tony played ‘The Voiceless’ while being carried above the crowd, it felt like a lap of honour. The Japanese Popstars wreck the joint They may not have won the Best Electronic prize, but The Japanese Popstars made their point in skull crushing style, knocking over drinks (really) and nearly tearing the plaster from the walls with a fearsomely intense and LOUD set. Jake Burns introduces Alternative Ulster “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for our national anthem.” It was our song – Alternative Ulster was the perfect way to round off the night. Robyn G Shiels gets soppy Ever the underdog, Robyn G Shiels managed to triumph over much bigger names in the Best Solo Artist category, and there wasn’t a more popular winner all night. “This is for my mammy and my daddy” was about the extent of his speech, and it was a measure of the man’s humility. The Wonder Villains: excitable Everywhere they go – and they will be travelling far and wide over the next couple of years – these four youngsters from Derry melt the hardest of hearts. The most enthusiastic winners of the night, they bowled onto the stage high-fiving, shrieking with delight and generally being endearing.
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Moshpit mayhem There aren’t many awards ceremonies where you see a moshpit break out, but that’s exactly what happened – first for ASIWYFA and later for Stiff Little Fingers. We also spotted Tony from ASIWYFA indulging in a little more crowd-surfing during SLF’s set! Jim SLF’s souvenir Even old punks get excited – at the afterparty Stiff Little Fingers' Jim Reilly was thrusting a pen in the hand of anyone and everyone and getting them to sign the back of his Legends award. Good man. General Fiasco make a triumphant return General Fiasco have undergone something of a reinvention of late, with a new guitarist, a new look (nice bowtie, Mr Bell!) and a more mature sound. And after opening proceedings in accomplished style they were vindicated by carrying off the Best Song award for comeback single 'The Age That You Start Losing Friends'. Mike Edgar brings da ruckus One of the elder statesmen of NI music, Mike Edgar presented Rigsy’s show Across The Line for years before moving upstairs at BBC NI. So who better to introduce Stiff Little Fingers for their Legends award, and what an introduction. A barnstorming, inspiring speech and no mistake. Two Door get back to their roots The fact that Two Door Cinema Club flew over from Scotland specifically for the awards (without knowing they’d won) was pretty special, and their Best Band acceptance speech was perfectly pitched too. “We’re just glad people at home haven’t forgotten about us,” said Kevin Baird. Aww.
The perfect venue It may have been decked out with flags, banners and enormous, illuminated NIMA lettering across the back of the stage, but that was all set decoration for the Ulster Hall itself. We’re lucky to have such a beautiful, iconic venue in our home city.
A hairy moment Ah, there’s always one… Cashier No.9’s attempt to close their set with a Them cover went awry thanks to some uncooperative technology, leading to a few seconds of panic and a frustrated walk-off. All good though – they won two awards and promised to make up for it next year. Watch this space…
Party times As R Kelly once said, after the party it’s the afterparty. And maybe, if anyone got lucky, after that it was indeed the hotel lobby. The highlight was surely our own Jonny Tiernan (on a rare night out in which he wasn’t DJing) crowd surfing and subsequently being given a lapdance by local madman Davey Rooney. All in his sharp suit. Bizarre.
Paying tribute to the old guard ASIWYFA’s Tony Wright spoke for many when he led the recognition of the old guard of Northern Irish music, with Them and Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher – who graced the Ulster Hall every Christmas at the height of the Troubles – singled out for special praise. We doff our hats too. That’s our song! The best ‘overheard’ moment of the night was in the gents. “Did you hear that?!” Team Fresh rapper Andrew Dunbar asked his mate. “They used Rhythm Tradition!” Yep, that was indeed a blast of your track blasting out of the speakers as the Glasgowbury guys made their way on stage. Sounding huge too.
declan o’rourke
glamarama
CHRISTMAS Spectacular
TONY WRIGHT OF ASIWYFA
MIKE EDGAR
The Rubberbandits Words by James Hendicott
With debut album Serious About Men just around the corner, The Rubberbandits have plenty on their mind, not least the many different uses for plastic bags. Before our interview at Reading Festival, the Limerick duo teach a tent full of English kids about the IRA. During their set, they ramble incoherently about ‘yokes’ (i.e. pills) and claim to be a gilled human-fish hybrid. After the ‘Horse Outside’ furore, the conservative corners of Ireland are not going to like this… The Rubberbandits have a reputation for being somewhat difficult in interviews. In fact, AU is grateful to have the chance to speak to the duo backstage at August’s Reading Festival, a location where they are virtual unknowns. At least it makes it a little more difficult for the pair to force us against a wall, or to throw us into a blacked-out jeep for an uncomfortable ‘tour’, as they have done to previous interviewers. Instead, Blindboy Boatclub – the lanky half of the duo who performs topless and can’t resist a cockswinging, on-stage rave – tries to smuggle large quantities of beer from the backstage cooler, while the marginally more refined and emotionally volatile Mr Chrome seems to be having a temporary love-in with the English, and the ‘banter’ surrounding their show. References to the IRA feature significantly more than normal, and we can’t help noticing that the comedy tent has roped in a couple of extra security men just before kick-off. For The Rubberbandits, things really have moved on. If you’d stumbled across The Rubberbandits seven or eight years ago, you would have found a pair of internet heroes indulging in a few highly entertaining prank phone calls, not least one demanding that a bank pay compensation for a melted chocolate bar destroying their pants, or a long conversation with a shop clerk over the in-store disappearance of their rare imported bee. The comedy aspect might be as well-established as ever, but things are more about the music now. Blindboy explains: “We’re too famous now. We wanted to be anonymous, but if we try and prank today someone will go ‘is that Blindboy’? And I’m like, ‘Yeah’, and then we’re there talking about how my mum’s doing.” Instead, The Rubberbandits have fostered their sex-crazed, drug-addled plastic bag-covered rap personas. The accents and obsession with party drugs are all part of the working class Limerick satire, but the plastic bags have a more practical purpose: “What do women love?” asks Mr. Chrome. “Shopping. What do we look like? Shopping. They love it. You should try it. You can’t go mixing your bags, mind. You need your mask bag, your pill bag, your glue bag and for your ladies your handbag, you know what I mean? They are 22 cents a time so we knit them out of nylon. We do want to wear them, for the ladies, but we actually have to. What people don’t realise, right, is that we’re really fish.
There’s a layer of water on the inside of the bags that we need to breathe through our gills. The ladies love a bit of fish.” The move to Dublin – their success largely due to a slot on RTE’s Republic Of Telly – proved a ‘Bandits turning point. As Blindboy tells it, “We love Limerick, but needed a bit of a holiday, so we got an eight-man tent on the roof of RTE. There were all these lads on the roof of RTE, so they just put us on TV for the laugh. We were living off pigeons, and they gave us canteen vouchers.” Next thing they knew, the ‘Bandits were producing guides to cities, and singing about (their version of) the Limerick lifestyle to the masses. These days, in between an increasingly impressive array of live shows, The Rubberbandits sporadically lend their unique brand of comedy to MTV. They’ve also gone ‘Leprechaun Hunting’, and released a YouTube video addressed to the ‘Queen of England’ just before her heavily-debated visit to Dublin last year. In the latter, the duo prances around a field with hurleys and show flickering images of Italia ’90, all to a backdrop of old-school diddly-aye. The focus, though, is without doubt their love in with what can be loosely described as rap. Around the time their breakthrough single ‘Horse Outside’ came out, The Rubberbandits were ‘unmasked’ by a photographer from The Irish Sun, who followed them back to their hotel after an early show. The ‘Bandits clearly dislike the man, but Mr Chrome claims innocence. “What did he want to go and do that for? He got it wrong, though. He said he did it by checking our shoes. Does he think we’re dumb, like? We gave our shoes to a couple of Russians. We already told you, we’re fish. We can’t live without our Raps bags [they’re not Spar bags, they’re just on backwards], so it can’t be us.” A few of the tracks that will appear on Serious About Men have been doing the rounds for a year or more as part of the live set. Blindboy Boatclub sums up the prevailing themes as “friendship, hawks and friendship with hawks. Friendship with everyone really. Even the English. But not Danny Dyer. We hate Danny Dyer. He’s a knob. Tell him if you see him that we’re gonna wound him.” The wounding will involve a headlock and a bout of mocking his masculinity, if the latest round of lyrics are
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anything to go by. Rap comedy doesn’t require a lot of musical comparison, but The Rubberbandits’ descriptions are predictably silly. “If you’re going to compare it to something, compare it to your grandma’s shopping.” That doesn’t give us a whole lot to go on, but there are always hints. Our interview came before recent single ‘Spastic Hawk’ had emerged outside of The Rubberbandits’ studio, but the newfound emotional edge is still implied. The words “We’ve got a hawkery” even make an oblique appearance in our chat. There is a philosophy, though. ‘Horse Outside’ might feature on the album, but the change of direction represented by the mellower, satirical-melancholy comedy of ‘Spastic Hawk’ isn’t entirely coincidental. “We might have invented rap,” Mr Chrome argues, preposterously, “but we need to keep making things fresh, things that we like, you know what I mean? The album’s not going to have anything about cows outside, or goats outside, or hawks outside. We don’t really care if people like it, as long as Danny Dyer hears it. You know what I mean?” In keeping with the political edge that infuses the silliness, a recent tweet put the call out for “a photo of Dana [Scallon]’s coconuts with ‘I love the Rubberbandits’ on it for the inside sleeve of our album.” You wouldn’t put it past them to come up with one.
“What do women love? Shopping. What do we look like? Shopping. They love it. You should try it.” Factbox:
Ha Ha Hits
AU’s guide to the great musical comedy acts of all time
Gaga, Michael Bolton, Nicki Minaj and a whole load more contemporary artists with the promise of lyrics like “Watch it girl, cos I ain’t your ‘Mr Nice Guy’ / More like the meet you, take you home and fuck you twice guy.”
The Vandals They might argue in a reasonably straight-faced manner that they’re a punk band – and they are, stylistically, at least – The Vandals’ 30 years’ worth of music suggest that comedy is their priority. See ‘14’, a disturbing anthem on counting down until an underage girl’s sixteen birthday, and ‘Anarchy Burger’, a track that sarcastically aligns buying a burger with political outrage. At least we hope they’re joking…
The Bloodhound Gang Having started out as a rap group not dissimilar to The Rubberbandits, The Bloodhound Gang morphed into a rock act taking on themes like animal sex, drug trafficking and partying, and the female anatomy. That’s before we even get started on their onstage antics, which include a fixation with golden showers and plenty of perverted thoughts on Asian women. Just don’t stand in the front row…
Monty Python The likes of ‘Every Sperm Is Sacred’ and ‘Eric The Half A Bee’ must have featured in more 3am singalongs than ironic renditions of Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’. The TV show spawned more than a dozen spin-off albums, and introduced a trend for insane surrealism best summed up by that rendition of ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’, performed by Eric Idle whilst nailed to a cross in The Life Of Brian.
Weird Al Yankovic A comedy stalwart of 35 years’s standing, Weird Al has sold millions of albums and performed over 1,000 live shows (though, until last December, never in Europe). Factor in hits like ‘Amish Paradise’, ‘Smells Like Nirvana’ – Al’s brilliant parody of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’s indecipherable lyrics – and his habit of saying he’ll leave the serious stuff to the likes of Paris Hilton and you have a man as witty as he is weird, and anyone you’ve ever heard of as a prime target.
The Lonely Island Saturday Night Live stars with a phallic obsession, The Lonely Island are beloved across the pond for getting Justin Timberlake to sing about a ‘Dick In A Box’. They went on to rope in Lady
Given how uniquely Irish The Rubberbandits’ lyrical content is, though, you could be forgiven for thinking they might struggle outside Ireland. We could hardly expect the duo to concern themselves: “People already love us in England. We’re all about peace, you know? What’s not to love about songs about the ‘RA? We just have to make sure when we make it back to LA, Ice Cube’s fecked off on tour somewhere. He’s in the ‘RA too. But he’s too affectionate. I love him, but the man’s just too much with all his come-ons. I hope people give us lots of money. Money’s the most important part.” Getting a sensible word out of the Rubberbandits is an act that only Joe Duffy – who hosted a very eloquent defence of ‘Horse Outside’ from Blindboy Boatclub on his RTE Liveline show – seems capable of. Duffy’s debate became so surreally serious that ex-politician Willie O’Dea – the inspiration behind on-stage backing man Willie O’DJ – stepped in to support the group in a fiery debate that had many younger listeners bemused. In typical style, The Rubberbandits thanked Willie for his support, but soon threw out a barbed comment: “He’s a politician, he’d support Mussolini if it suited him.” To be fair, despite being heavily sent up since The Rubberbandits started out, Willie O’Dea certainly doesn’t take the group seriously, which lands him a satirical step above the conservative corners of Ireland, who have their knickers twisted double over the publicity. Novelty act or not (chuckle), there’s little doubt that the duo represent the best vaguely rap-themed act ever to come out of the island of Ireland. They’re also so quick-witted that an interview is a constant battle not to lose the plot and giggle manically while they assault you with comments about what lives in the Liffey. Does the album represent the ‘threat to society’ that a few humourless souls have warned of? Of course not, but these subversive jokers should not be underestimated. Serious About Men is out on November 26. www.therubberbandits.com
TAKEOVER FILM
WEEKEND
18–20 NOV
QFT, BELFAST Designed, programmed and run by a team of young people, from 18-20 Nov QFT will play host to the Takeover Film Weekend. For further information and booking at
WWW.TAKEOVERFILM.COM
Red Roof Presents
YUCK plus special guests
Sunday 27th Nov, Speakeasy, Belfast Tickets available from Ticketmaster outlets and Queen’s Student Union
A to Z
Soap Operas In the calendar of seasonal social events, Halloween is a bit of a strange one. Marked by ritual and symbols, descended from pagan festivals of murky origin, the whole bizarre farrago is a hangover from more credulous, superstitious times, and arguably has no place in the modern world. On the other hand, of course, it’s great fun if you like to dress up like a tit, stuff your face full of candied treats, terrify yourself and your friends, and generally act like a bit of an eejit. And let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy that? No-one, that’s who. Words by Neill Dougan Illustration by Mark Reihill
A
is for Albert Square
Fictional London setting for misery-fest Eastenders, where everyone’s dirty laundry is washed noisily in public (usually in local boozer the Queen Vic) and life is unremittingly grim for all involved. AU’s personal favourite Eastenders quote comes from Grant Mitchell, who once told wife Tiffany: “Every cloud doesn’t have a silver lining, there’s no such thing as Father Christmas, and I don’t love you.” Ahh, sweet.
B
is for Brookside
Gritty scouse serial that debuted in 1982 on Channel 4 and was notable for tackling such thorny issues as rape, murder, heroin addiction, alcoholism, incest and, er, bodies buried under the patio. Not forgetting pre-watershed lesbian kissing. Yes, lesbian kissing. Featuring Anna Friel, no less. Yowza.
C
is for Coronation Street
Venerable series set in the fictional Manchester suburb of Weatherfield, First broadcast in December 1960, by September 2010 it had become the longest-running TV soap still in production. By heck, that’s a helluva lot of pints of bitter down t’Rovers and no mistake.
D
is for Dallas
Classic Eighties US soap about the Machiavellian machinations of Texan oil barons the Ewings. At the height of its popularity, the entire civilised world was gripped by the ‘Who shot JR?’ cliffhanger, with viewers having to wait several months between seasons to discover the identity of the assailant. Dallas was also memorable for its characters’ big hair and bigger shoulder pads (and that was just the men, ho ho ho).
E
is for Emmerdale Originally called Emmerdale Farm, this family-andagriculture daytime drama was for several years the poor relation of UK soaps, until the ‘Farm’ suffix was dropped from the title in the late Eighties (the topic of farming generally considered to be unsexy
at the time) and a dramatic plane crash storyline introduced in 1993 which saw the show’s audience share rocket – and then, like that crashing plane, slowly decline once more.
F
is for Fair City
Dublin-based drama and the top-rating, longestrunning Irish soap. Kind of like Eastenders, but with the cockney greeting ‘Awlroight?’ replaced with multiple utterances of the phrase ‘Howyeh’.
G
is FOR Glenroe
The rural yin to Fair City’s urban yang, Glenroe was based largely on the romance and marriage between amorous couple Biddy McDermott and Miley Byrne. The titular village was riven by extra-marital affairs, suspicion and petty rivalries. So quite true to actual country life, in other words.
H
is for Home & Away
Youth-oriented Australian programme based in the surfer’s paradise of Summer Bay. Despite its sunny location, the soap has dealt with some weighty issues – most of which cause a series of photogenic teens to gasp dramatically, and veteran cafe owner Alf Stewart to scratch his head in befuddlement and say “Strewth!”.
I
is for Ignominy
When they’re bad, soaps are painfully bad. Case in point – the BBC’s disastrous Eldorado, a ludicrous, cheap-looking, badly-acted shambles set in the Costa del Sol. Lasting barely a year in the early Nineties, Eldorado was quickly cancelled and even more quickly forgotten. Lessons learnt, the Beeb never made another bad programme ever again. Sort of...
J
is for Justice
Soap justice may be swift and ruthless on occasion (as when Dirty Den caught a bullet and got dumped in the canal in ‘enders after knocking up a teenage girl) but more often than not there’ll be some horrible miscarriage of justice that will see an innocent put
behind bars. AU’s dreams are still haunted by the tears of Corrie’s Deirdre Rachid (formerly Barlow) as she was wrongly banged up for fraud. Free the Weatherfield One!
K
is for Kids
The lot of a soap opera child is not a happy one. For one thing, you run the risk of being replaced as you age by an actor who bears no physical resemblance to you whatsoever (Lucy Robinson of Neighbours has been portrayed by three extremely non-identical actresses). Then there’s so-called ‘Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome’, which sees characters age at an unseemly rate of knots in order to expose them to a wider range of storylines. Basically, soap kids age in dog years, the poor buggers.
L
is for Long Running
Coronation Street may be a fairly mature 50 years old, but it’s a mere whippersnapper beside BBC’s pastoral radio soap The Archers, which has been on air uninterrupted since May 1950 and is the world’s longest-running soap. Accusations that The Archers is somewhat tame and staid surely stem from a simple confusion over the name, for in fact the show features little-to-no actual archery.
M
is for Mainstays
The modern soap opera landscape would look very different without characters such as Harold and Madge Bishop, Jack and Vera Duckworth, Deirdre and Ken Barlow, Dot Cotton, Alf Ramsey (“Ya bleedin’ mongrel!”), Toadfish Rebecchi, Helen Daniels, Mavis Wilton, ‘Dirty’ Den Watts, Sally Fletcher and the Mitchell Brothers (“You ‘eard!”). These characters are modern-day heroes and deserve some kind of huge monument erected in their honour. God bless them. God bless them all.
N
is for Neighbours
For a quiet Melbourne suburb, Erinsborough – fictional setting for the famous Aussie soap – hasn’t half had its fair share of drama. Notable incidents have included incest, insanity, amnesia, infidelity, kidnap and a plane crash that wiped out half the
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H population of Ramsay Street. But the highlight so far was surely when Bouncer (the golden retriever) had a dream about getting married to the sheepdog next door. Absolutely amazing.
O
is for origins
Why are they called ‘soap’ operas, anyway? Well, the name comes from the very earliest radio dramas, which were sponsored by soap manufacturers such as Proctor & Gamble. And that, dear readers, is the very definition of a useless fact.
P
is for Plot Twists
In a genre notorious for its absurd plot twists, the Bobby Ewing ‘death’ incident in Dallas stands out. When the popular character was killed off, the outcry from fans was such that he was brought back a year later. But how to achieve this? Easy – turns out Bobby’s wife Pam had dreamed the entirety of the events of the previous season, including his death. Now that is some genius television writing.
Q
is for Quitting
Occasionally soap stars lose the run of themselves and quit for pastures new. More often than not they return, chastened, a year or two later after their fancy new career doesn’t quite work out. Honourable exceptions: Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce (all ex-Neighbours). But the pop careers of Craig McLachlan, Stefan Dennis and even Holly ‘Kiss Kiss’ Valance should serve as a cautionary tale for any soap actor getting too big for their boots. Ok, we’ll give you Natalie Imbruglia too. Just for ‘Torn’, which was ace.
R
V write in and give us the lowdown? (Note: Please don’t write in and give us the lowdown).
Irish-language soap broadcast twice weekly by TG4. We’d love to be able to tell you what it’s like but, as a non-Irish speaker, we don’t have a bloody clue what’s going on. Why don’t one of you Gaeilgeoirí
is for Spoofs
The soap lends itself rather well to being lampooned. Notable examples include The Bureau, the Steve Coogan-starring spoof from The Day Today (“Oi! I’m trying to run a high-class bureau de change, not some two-bit nipple peepshow in Rio de Janeiro!”) and the Futurama robo-soap All My Circuits, which – with its plotlines featuring evil twins, mass amnesia and numerous comas – is actually no more ridiculous than many real-life efforts.
T
U
V
is for Villains
Every soap needs a memorable pantomime villain like JR Ewing (Dallas), Alexis Colby (Dynasty), Den Watts (Eastenders) or ‘Nasty’ Nick Cotton (Eastenders again). Without the bad guys and their nefarious schemes, the shows would largely
is for Weddings
X
is for The X Factor
It may not be scripted, but ghastly musical talent show The X Factor has all the trappings of a soap – the pantomime villains, the twisted love triangles, the simmering catfights. That, and the fact that once a popular figure leaves the show, there’s a good chance they’ll never be heard of again.
is for US Soaps
British soaps – which tend to aim for a grim portrayal of life in Grey Britain – differ markedly from their American cousins. Shows such as Dynasty, Beverley Hills 90210 and Melrose Place put the focus on the glamorous lives of attractive young adults. They also lean more heavily towards the ludicrous storyline and the nailbiting cliffhanger. And thus are much more fun.
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Besides the always-popular horrific disaster, the one sure-fire way to boost a soap’s ratings is to marry off two of the characters. Most famously, Scott and Charlene’s wedding in Neighbours got higher viewing figures than the actual, real-life marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. To be fair, the royal wedding coverage didn’t have Angry Anderson singing power ballad ‘Suddenly’ over it, and was accordingly at a significant disadvantage.
is for Theme Tunes
Say what you like about soaps, but they often have bizarrely good theme tunes, from the driving horns of Dallas to the evocative, sweeping strings of Dynasty and Emmerdale and AU’s personal favourite, the mournful swing of the Coronation Street theme. Then there’s the famous drum intro to the song from Eastenders. All together now: Dum! Dum! Dum! Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum!
is for Ros na Run
S
feature people selflessly helping their neighbours and getting along swimmingly. And that would obviously be no fun at all.
Y
is for Youth soaps
At the risk of sounding like a miserable old git, soap operas aimed specifically at teenagers and young adults are invariably dreadful. We’re looking at you, Hollyoaks, Heartbreak High and Beverly Hills 90210. We’re looking at you very hard and wishing you would die.
Z
is for zany
Every soap opera has its share of ‘wacky’ characters. Examples include Curly Watts from Corrie, the entire Dingle family in Emmerdale and the early appearances of Toadfish Rebecchi in Neighbours (before he became all boring and got a job at the council). As in real life, these zany ‘jokers’ are actually very annoying indeed and are rightfully shunned.
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START TOGETHER STUDIO UNIT 5A, WEAVERS COURT BUSINESS PARK, BELFAST, BT12 5GH
The Art Of Virtual Warfare Military Gaming: What’s The Appeal? Every hour of every day, wars are raging all over the globe. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers are falling to the dirt, sliced down by gunfire, rent asunder by missiles or unseamed by bayonets. Their corpses disappear immediately and their souls are reborn in another body, ready and armed to fight again. And again and again. After each battle ends, another begins. The two opposing forces are magically transported to a different warzone: a fetid jungle, a snow-capped mountain range or a desert littered with rusting, marooned ships. The scoreboards are reset, the bombed-out buildings are rebuilt and the dead are reanimated. If only real warfare was like this virtual one, where everybody dies, yet nobody really dies. Welcome to the casually brutal world of war-based videogames. Words by Ross Thompson Illustration by Mark Reihill “War,” intones the battle-weary voiceover for the introductory cinematic to Fallout 3 (Bethesda, Multiformat), “war never changes.” As the screen fades into snapshot after sepia snapshot of broken cities and irradiated white picket fence towns, the voice – the grizzled bass of Sons Of Anarchy actor Ron Perlman – continues: “Since the dawn of humankind, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple psychotic rage.” Lifted out of context and shorn of the unsettling imagery which accompanies it, this monologue appears overblown and pious. Yet, it is absolutely correct – in the gaming world, at least. As long as videogames have existed, so too has the ability to kill things. The central tenet of Space Invaders (Midway, 1978) was to shoot all alien gremlins that get in your way. In Missile Command (Atari, 1980) the player had to prevent planetary cities from being obliterated by nuclear bombs. While we will always have our cutesy moogles and inky, blinky ghosts, the vast majority of games are rooted in death and destruction.
oft-maligned, seems nevertheless bulletproof. The secret lies in the crossbreeding with another genre entirely: the role-playing game. All games offer the chance to fulfil a role, but the military shooter is a special brand. Here, the player gets to participate in history itself, subverting or upholding fact with equal pleasure. And the key to any role play is authenticity: environment, atmosphere, setting, context. Contemporary gaming at last offers a canvas on which battles can be waged with accurate room for strategy and realistic depictions of the devastating results.” The all-conquering Call Of Duty franchise (Activision, Multi), which Charlie Brooker pithily called “The Citizen Kane of repeatedly shooting people in the face”, epitomises how authenticity is crucial to the impact of war-based games, and that doesn’t solely refer to the recreation of historical operations in World At War or the allusions to foreign policy in the Modern Warfare timeline. Rather, it’s the sense of breathless panic you experience
“Moral dilemmas will continue to surround the war-based genre as long as it exists” In his book Trigger Happy (2000) Steven Poole describes “a new world to explore, a strange place to pit your wits against the dazzling inventions of others. The pixels dance to your tune. You’re not watching. You’re doing.” This rule most certainly applies to first-person shooters, in which the action is viewed from your character’s perspective. The gun barrel extending in front of you recoils with every shot and judders from side to side as you run. When a shell detonates nearby you see your character’s hands stretch out as you sail to the ground, the speakers ringing with tinnitus, the controller pulsing to mimic your heartbeat. First person titles such as Homefront (THQ, Multi) and Killzone 3 (Sony, PS3) present ‘no guts, no glory’ combat in such hi-def, surround sound detail. While the former captures the intensity of an arena recognisable from rolling news and the latter one from a far-flung universe, both pitch the gamer into the thick of battle and let them play an updated version of toy soldiers. Games designer James Law argues, “The military shooter has risen in prominence to now reign supreme amongst gaming. Its popularity,
when cold-cocked with all manner of military atrocities: severed limbs arcing across the screen, wounded comrades wailing like babies and burning aircraft slamming into the scenery. A similar sonic and visual bombast is at work in the Battlefield series (EA, Multi), wherein the player is surrounded by rocket vapour trails, lens flare from rifles and, if you are unfortunate enough to be knifed by an opponent, your own blood-bubbled gurgles as your dog tags are stolen. Then there are the destructible environments, thanks to developer Dice’s powerful Frostbite 2 engine. There’s nothing quite like hearing a decimated apartment block groaning like the kraken as its floors sandwich into one another. The noise, especially when combined with choirs of alarms, barked orders and gunfire, is unbelievable. Admittedly, not everyone is comfortable taking this tour of duty. Californian writer Jon Barr posits, “First-person shooters make me nauseous so I’ve only played one of these titles: Call of Duty 3. After basic training, I found myself thrust into the battlefields
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of France during World War II, shrapnel and debris raining down around me. True to form, I was soon sick to my stomach. Head spinning. Heart racing. But the first-person POV wasn’t solely responsible. I was reacting to the extreme realism of the game’s environment. It felt like I was there. And that terrified me.” Arguably, the most notorious example of this nausea came with the release of Modern Warfare 2 two years ago. In the level entitled No Russian, you play an undercover CIA agent investigating a sleeper cell of ultranationalist terrorists who have been given a directive to attack a civilian airport and kill everyone inside. It was a sequence of astounding crassness, not only because its representation of genocide forced the viewer into an ethical corner where being affronted was the only logical response but also because it deliberately evoked the Mumbai attacks from the previous year. Players were offered the option to skip this offensive content but let’s be realistic: if a menu screen suggests that there is some really nasty stuff up for grabs, how many people will say no? The issue was made thornier by the ability to join in with the massacring. As the Russian people cowered in fear and crawled along the floor
of the departure lounge you were free, should you desired, to gun them down. If developers Infinity Ward wanted to blag some cheap publicity then they achieved their goal. MP Keith Vaz and his permanently piqued acolytes decried Modern Warfare 2 as insidious trash, but it sold over 20 million copies worldwide nonetheless. These moral dilemmas will continue to surround the war-based genre as long as it exists. Some will argue that it’s pure fiction while others will point out the similarities between videogame villains Khaled Al-Asad and Vladimir Makarov, and real world tyrants like the late Colonel Gaddafi. The parallel is confirmed by the lynching and execution of separatist leaders which pepper the Call Of Duty games. The aforementioned Homefront, written by Hollywood stalwart John Milius, goes as far as to imagine an alternate future in which after the death of Kim Jong-Il – which must have come as quite the surprise to the still-breathing Supreme Leader – North and South Korea unite and America’s position as a superpower declines. The plotline, which somehow manages to find room for bird flu and WMDs, is gonzo stuff yet elements of this ‘speculative
BATTLEFIELD 3
fiction’ echo actual international tensions, just as the portrayal of Afghanistan in Medal Of Honor (EA, Multi) is a touch too familiar for comfort. Further, the ill-fated Six Days In Fallujah (Atomic Games, Multi), another account of marines versus Iraqi insurgents, remains locked in purgatory after several publishers have refused to market it. It’s likely that it will never see the light of day given its close proximity to battles on which it is based and the ongoing suggestion that this particular war was mishandled. There is, of course, the argument that videogames in general should not shy away from problematic subject matter, just as cinema is entitled to exploring any theme the director wishes. All art, and videogames should be classified as such, functions as a mirror for societal ills. The Silent Hill series (Konami, Muli), for example, revolves around a disquieting storyline of child abuse, occultism and infanticide. Bioshock (2K, Multi), meanwhile, is informed by Ayn Rand’s objectivist approach to human existence. The difference is that games, unlike cinema, let you control the action to a limited but still powerful extent. With a digital gun in your hand, you can pick off snipers, blow up petrol tanks and, it seems, slaughter innocent civilians. It might not seem that different
CALL OF DUTY: MW3
Shoot ‘Em Up Key moments in war-themed gaming The Great Escape (Ocean, 1986) Low-tech yet wonderful recreation of POW life loosely based on the film of the same name. Hugely impressive for its time. Operation Wolf (Taito, 1987) The Ramboreferencing arcade classic came with a swivelling, vibrating light gun mounted to the dashboard. Inexplicably, bonus points were scored for shooting chickens and pigs.
Wolfenstein 3D (Id Software, 1992) Although as authentic a portrayal of military tensions as ‘Allo ‘Allo!, the seminal home computer release effectively birthed the first person shooter genre. One end-of-level boss was Hitler in a robotic suit. Achtung, baby!
Metal Slug (SNK, 1996) This ridiculously violent, wilfully politically incorrect sidescrolling series combined the ‘bullet hell’ concept favoured by Japanese gamers and placed it in increasingly bizarre locations.
Command &Conquer (EA, 1995) Taking a more thoughtful approach, this realtime strategy series allows you to play god with troops, bases and weapons. Power corrupts...
Halo: Combat Evolved (Bungie, 2001) Although located in a fictional universe, the million-dollar franchise retains many of the tropes common to war literature and has dramatically shaped online multiplayer gaming.
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Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision, 2007) The point at which the shooter became truly big business. Cue millions in revenue, the foundation of manifold clans and innumerable fragged noobs. Battlefield: 1943 (EA, 2009) More fun and less punishing than Call Of Duty, the Battlefield games have a loyal following. For this World War II spin-off players would receive an extra level if they accumulated 43 million kills. They did so in record time.
HOMEFRONT
from wee boys running through the woods holding sticks and making rudda-dudda-dudda noises but whether developers choose to acknowledge it or not, there is a potentially dangerous political edge largely absent from Star Fox or Sonic The Hedgehog. Other avid gamers have expressed concern over the treatment of such sensitive material. “All of my positive video game experiences stem from a love of fantastic storytelling. There is nothing quite like playing the hero, saving a princess and vanquishing evil,” writes Seattle blogger Jessica Dobervich. “From Mario to Zelda to Chrono Trigger, the depth of narrative creates a world full of emotion, rewarding the player with the highs and lows that follow such a commitment. And all of it based on fantasy, taking the player to a place they could never take themselves. But the more recent popularity of war games worries me because it creates a bridge where I don’t believe one should exist, making videogames not only more akin to realistic worlds, but ones in which those with less benevolent motivations could use to subtly engage and manipulate the players into believing certain truths when they are nothing but crafty representations using realistic elements.” Again, the sticking point here is the realism, the emulation of blind terror real soldiers presumably experience, the act of immersing oneself in the horror of war without the post-traumatic stress. There are, however, more grievous fears surrounding war-themed games. “Lately, I have noticed an increase in armed forces recruitment booths at video game conventions,” continues Dobervich, “offering up mediocre shooters set in a generic desert location and calling them ‘videogames’ while giving away promotional material, including t-shirts and stickers labelled US ARMY. The line between fantasy and reality used to be obvious, but the current trending war games sitting on the bestseller lists are starting to blur that line, and I worry that the underlying message being conveyed to impressionable minds night after night in Call Of Duty is not necessarily a positive or enriching one but rather a continual drive to achieve a higher kill-to-death ratio.”
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it is both intriguing and perturbing that the chalk lines between the medium and the real world are blurring. “I find their realistic depiction of combat preferable to the sterilised war propaganda that used to exist in this world,” argues Barr. “Should these games serve as an enlistment tool, at least the recruits have a better sense of what they’re getting into. Minus the ability to respawn.” One question keeps arising: what is the appeal of titles like Brothers In Arms (Ubisoft, Multi)? Is it an act of escapism similar to the moments in David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999), where players become one with the gaming experience by plugging an umbilical lead into a living, breathing console? Games designer James Law contends that the draw is “online, where the player becomes part of a unit and maintains a persistent career mapped across tangible statistics and unlocked upgrades. Today’s shooter rewards time invested, turning it from wasted pastime to a genuine skill that is, again, tangibly rewarded and visibly proven. These games are now more than just shooters; they are war rooms spacious enough and brave enough to offer tactical victories, the chance for teamwork and the stage for heroism.” On Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, gamers from all corners of the world clock up hundreds of hours on rounds of rounds of multiplayer deathmatch. Marshall McLuhan’s assertion that we are living in a global village is true, but we are razing that village to the ground. This month the videogame world will witness a war of a different kind, namely the scramble for chart supremacy, as Battlefield 3 goes boot to boot with Modern Warfare 3. Both releases have already shifted millions of copies and both have collectively accrued thousands of hours of play time. Those wishing to be heroes, and in some cases villains, will be in their element. Battles will continue to rage. Thousands more soldiers will fall. War... war never changes. Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 are both available now on multiple formats.
The debate over the pernicious influence of too much gaming has seethed since Doom was accused of inspiring the Columbine Massacre in 1999 yet
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“There’s nothing quite like hearing a decimated apartment block groaning like the kraken as its floors sandwich into one another”
• pg 48 Record Reviews | pg 53 Young Blood | PG 54 LIVE REVIEWS | pg 55 MOVIE & GAME REVIEWS •
Illustration by Mark Reihill
Florence And The Machine Ceremonials ISLAND
Florence Welch is a proper pop star. We should rejoice at her existence. The instantly recognisable voice, her glowing personality and unique sense of style is a flame-haired beacon of hope in the face of corporate muzak constructed by faceless droids in marketing departments. Florence also seems like a decent sort – and one who could drink most mortals under the table – and she writes songs with harps in them. What is there not to love? Her detractors are simply fuelled by spite and jealousy. The FloMac debut Lungs was a cracker – a Brit-winning, million-seller that it was okay to love. ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and ‘Kiss With A Fist’ were mighty tunes. It is not Florence’s fault that her record company buggered the life out of her version of ‘You Got The Love’, rendering it listenable only to groups of drunken wedding guests. And, it may be churlish to mention that her singing voice is so loud she can be heard, unamplified, on the very
back row at Croke Park. Even while playing a gig in Belfast. Florence and her amorphous Machine have earned the right for the arrival of their second album to be considered an event. Listening to Ceremonials is an epic event. Once again employing the production skills of Paul Epworth (who also takes writing credits on half the tracks), Ceremonials is lauded as Florence’s ‘becoming an adult’ record. Sheesh. Apparently, attaining adulthood requires every second of your album to be gigantically orchestral and lavish. If a song needs some backing vocals, it gets a choir. The requirement for the merest hint of violin automatically defaults to the employment of an orchestra the size of a census. Unsurprisingly, Ceremonials contains passages of brilliance; ‘Lover To Lover’ is a gigantic Northern Soul-gospel winner with Her Flojesty whooping it up like an evangelical siren, the James Ford cowritten ‘Breaking Down’ is a disarming retro-rush of Lennon-esque psychedelia, while ‘What The Water Gave Me’ manages to be both weird and beautiful. However, as the hour-long album gathers pace, a dull pain begins to take hold. Florence describes Ceremonials as a product of her “incorrigible
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maximalism”, and as each track takes its leave, the pressure becomes overwhelming – there is too much Florence. She becomes a constant white noise of bellowing and preaching; ‘Seven Devils’ is the sonic interpretation of a strangulated hernia. There is barely any space on Ceremonials. Remember the start of ‘Dog Days Are Over’ with just Welch and a harp? Or the lovely, restrained opening of ‘I’m Not Calling You A Liar’? All that simplicity is gone – replaced with the vice-like tension headache of Florence in full flow, goaded by Epworth and his cast of thousands. As a result, each over-egged ballad-cum-triumphant pop song blends into another. And as for the Machine, they appear to have been swallowed up by Epworth’s ‘dial-one-for-epic’ production. What happened to the hippy-dippy girl with a harp obsession and a set of songs that would make us smile? Yeah, people grow and careers develop, but we’d just like to know she’s okay. Please. John Freeman
KEY TRACKS: ‘LOVER BY LOVER’, ‘SPECTRUM’, ‘BREAKING DOWN’. FOR FANS OF: TORI AMOS, KATE BUSH, JIM STEINMAN.
Los Campesinos! Hello Sadness WICHITA
Prolific septet Los Campesinos! return with Hello Sadness and this time they’re all grown up. While previous releases consisted largely of giddy, teen-orientated, twee-pop, album number four showcases a new found maturity. Their once innocent tales of lost love and broken hearts have morphed from adolescent crush to angst-ridden lust. Chief songwriter/lyricist Gareth Campesinos has certainly risen to the task; unfolding stories of failed romance and wanton desire, delivered with his signature brush of deadpan humour. Musically, it’s also a major step forward. There’s greater coherence to the band’s sound, without compromising its overall dramatic effect: gone is the scattergun approach to instrumentation, especially in the more effective use of string arrangements. Their finest hour. Eamonn Seoige
KEY TRACKS: ‘HELLO SADNESS’, ‘BY YOUR HAND’, ‘BABY I GOT THE DEATH RATTLE’. FOR FANS OF: BELLE AND SEBASTIEN, JOHNNY FOREIGNER, TILLY AND THE WALL.
Eatenbybears Teeth SELF-RELEASED
Sorry, genre-hogging spinsters, ‘experimental math rock’ is – and always has been – a ridiculously superfluous term that holds as much weight as a tissue in a downpour. Luckily for Belfast ‘experimental math rock outfit’ Eatenbybears, though, their debut mini-album Teeth manages to come out of it all miraculously unscathed. Defiantly melding the introverted scourge of fiddle-wielding Aussies Dirty Three with the vigour of early The Fall of Troy, the Belfast band are nigh-on commanding on the weightless ‘Vanderhoof’, highlight/closer ‘Spite Houses’ and the sunny spell of the Wavveseque ‘Malkovich’. For a band who sound a thousand times more convincing when they’re not trying to be clever, they would still be stupid to even remotely consider changing this approach. Brian Coney
KEY TRACKS: ‘SPITE HOUSES’, ‘MALKOVICH’, ‘VANDERHOOF’. FOR FANS OF: WAVVES, DIRTY THREE, ATLAS SOUND.
Goodtime The Colours Of Darkness TEMPORARY SECRETARY
After a four-year hiatus, the artist formerly known as Goodtime John is back. He was once at the heart of a Dublin scene that included David Kitt, Si Schroeder et al, but John Cowhie’s third album sees the Dubliner firmly step away from any notion of cliques. True, Jape’s Richie Egan does play bass throughout
Tom Waits Bad As Me ANTI-
Latter-day Tom Waits albums are known to contain the following: boisterous, percussive, blues; heartbreaking ballads; atonal, squawking noise experiments. What’s harder to predict is the ratio in which each of these elements will appear. If Bad As Me is relatively accessible, with Waits’s more out-there urges largely reined in (the clattering, discordant anti-war tirade ‘Hell Broke Luce’ being an obvious exception), it’s no less compelling for that. Ably supported by long-time associates like Marc Ribot, Stone-on-loan Keith Richards and son Casey, the singer is in glorious voice: wailing and howling on the loping ‘Raised Right Men’, hollering like some kind of zombie The Colours Of Darkness, and in a sense, this album could be the big brother of Ocean Of Frequency, with its focus on groove and folky electronic undertones. Elsewhere, the cloudy retro sheen of songs like ‘Mystery Of Days’ and ‘Diamonds’ sound influenced by Eighties bands like Talk Talk. A finely nuanced record that won’t blow you away, but will subtly win you over. Lauren Murphy
KEY TRACKS: ‘DIAMONDS’, ‘MYSTERY OF DAYS’, ‘BEHIND THIS SUN’. FOR FANS OF: MARK HOLLIS, JAPE.
Marcel Dettmann Conducted MUSIC MAN
Marcel Dettmann’s influential Berghain 02 mix was regarded as a landmark in contemporary
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Elvis on the galloping rockabilly of ‘Let’s Get Lost’, and essaying an affecting falsetto croon on ‘Everybody’s Talking’. Elsewhere there are deranged cacophonies (‘Same Kind Of Bad As Me’, ‘Satisfied’) and sad laments that are up there with his best (the ‘Auld Lang Syne’-cribbing ‘New Year’s Eve’, the battered-but-defiant ‘Last Leaf’). 17 studio albums in, that Waits continues to make music that’s even vaguely interesting is an achievement. That he’s made his best since 1999’s Mule Variations is remarkable. Not half bad, Tom. Neill Dougan
KEY TRACKS: ‘RAISED RIGHT MEN’, ‘HELL BROKE LUCE’, ‘LET’S GET LOST’, ‘LAST LEAF’, ‘EVERYBODY’S TALKING’, ‘NEW YEAR’S EVE’. FOR FANS OF: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, HOWLIN’ WOLF. techno. In the meantime Dettmann has released a well-received debut album, but Conducted sees him return to mixing and, as with its predecessor, this is a compelling blend of new and old. Words like ‘purist’ and ‘uncompromising’ are often used to describe Dettmann’s aesthetic, but Conducted is by no means impenetrable. Along with minimal, darkly pounding numbers like Roman Lindau’s ‘Sub Suggestion’, Conducted takes in the irresistible swell and build of Redshape’s ‘The Lesson’, Shed’s exquisitely spacious ‘Hello Bleep!’, and Silent Servant’s disorientating ‘El Mar’. The outro is provided by Shed’s ‘44A (Hard Wax Forever!)’: a sublime, starry-eyed love letter to the titular Berlin record store. Daniel Harrison
KEY TRACKS: ‘SHED – ‘HELLO BLEEP!, REDSHAPE – ‘THE LESSON’, ANSWER CODE REQUEST – ‘ESCAPE MYSELF’. FOR FANS OF: BEN KLOCK, NORMAN NODGE.
Charlotte Gainsbourg Stage Whisper BECAUSE MUSIC
A double-disc release comprising one live album and one collection of studio tracks – the latter recorded during the sessions for 2010’s feted IRM – Stage Whisper cements Charlotte Gainsbourg’s reputation as a pop-rock kook of the highest order. Melodies contort like Houdini looking to shake the binds of the straitjacket, the atmosphere crackles and the songwriting – including hookups with Beck and Villagers’ Conor O’Brien – is first class. She may look slight, a little bird in the Piaf mould, but the live recording proves she can rock like a good ‘un – just listen to the rattlesnake thump and shake of ‘Trick Pony’. In fact the only real dud here is the cover of Bob’s ‘Just like A Woman’, in which the deliberately frail vocal just doesn’t feel right. Of the seven studio cuts, ‘Paradisco’ with its ultra funky bass and electro shimmy is a standout. Kudos too to the O’Brien collaboration, ‘Memoir’, a deceptively simple folk-rock number that meanders gorgeously. Francis Jones
KEY TRACKS: ‘PARADISCO’, ‘ALL THE RAIN’, ‘WHITE TELEPHONE’, ‘MEMOIR’. FOR FANS OF: THE BETA BAND, NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB, STEREOLAB.
Joker The Vision 4AD
Manic Street Preachers National Treasures – The Complete Singles COLUMBIA/SONY
Manic Street Preachers have arranged this singles compilation chronologically. Interesting move: we’re reminded how outstanding their early work was but, at the same time, it’s apparent that much of this early brilliance has since deserted them. Good stuff first: the Generation Terrorists singles – ‘You Love Us’, ‘Slash ‘N’ Burn’, the timeless ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ – are vitriolic, brilliant slices of glam-punk. Flawed classicrock follow-up Gold Against The Soul produces two great singles in ‘From Despair To Where’ and ‘La Tristesse Durera’. Which brings us to the queasy, dark genius of The Holy Bible. ‘Revol’ and ‘Faster’ are unique – bleak, angular and lyrically impenetrable. Post-Richey comeback Everything Must Go offers the glorious, towering ‘A Design For Life’. So far, so flawless.
Then the rot sets in. Songs from This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (‘If You Tolerate This...’, ‘Tsunami’ et al) are stately but hardly exhilarating. The Know Your Enemy singles are disappointing, particularly the poor ‘Let Robeson Sing’. 2002’s dirge-like ‘There By The Grace Of God’ is terrible, while 2004’s weak Lifeblood provides their worst singles (the flat ‘Empty Souls’ and ‘The Love Of Richard Nixon’). But there’s an unexpected fightback to finish – 2007’s ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ is a distinct return to form, which continues with the triumphant title track from 2010’s Postcards From A Young Man. Don’t write them off just yet. Neill Dougan
On his first full-length release, Bristolian dubstep producer Joker reveals his own vision for the genre, attempting to freshen things up by incorporating various unexpected elements into his sound including croaky rappers, megadrive blips, soul crooners and even children’s choirs. The record flutters between rough basement fillers (like the grimy ‘Tron’) and catchy pop tracks (‘On My Mind’ gloriously resembles decade-old UK garage). There’s even a cheeky nod to New Jack Swing on ‘Level 6 (Interlude)’. But with its mechanical beats and flat hooks, The Vision has an emotionless streak running through its core. Technically proficient, sure, but a rather dreary listen nonetheless. Dean Van Nguyen
KEY TRACKS: ‘MILKY WAY’, ‘LEVEL 6 (INTERLUDE)’, ‘ON MY MIND’. FOR FANS OF: ZOMBY, SILKIE, GUIDO.
We Cut Corners Today I Realized I Could Go Home Backwards DELPHI
KEY TRACKS: ‘MOTORCYCLE EMPTINESS’, ‘YOU LOVE US’, ‘FROM DESPAIR TO WHERE’, ‘REVOL’, ‘A DESIGN FOR LIFE’, ‘POSTCARDS FROM A YOUNG MAN’. FOR FANS OF: THE CLASH, GUNS N’ROSES, PHIL SPECTOR.
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In a mere 27 minutes, Dublin duo We Cut Corners’ debut takes you aboard a pirate boat to reminisce on spoilt relationships (‘A Pirate’s Life’), to the animal kingdom for over-matched sex stories (‘The Leopard’) and through a melancholy, aging search for
a life partner (‘Toll Free’). Best of all, it’s identifiable. The twin styles of abrupt, thrashing rock-out tracks and vocally-exceptional, Simon & Garfunkelinspired sing-alongs keeps Today I Realized I Could Go Home Backwards contagious from first to last. It’s their ability to manipulate the meaning of words, though – leading to accessible pop songs that unveil multiple layers over time – that really sets the pair apart. We’d love to plug a visualiser into the band’s skulls and watch their surreal view of life float by but, for now, someone get these boys a bigger stage. James Hendicott
KEY TRACKS: ‘GO EASY’, ‘DUMB BLONDE’, ‘TOLL FREE’. FOR FANS OF: LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, VILLAGERS, BRAKES.
Gacys Threads The Ignorance of Purity EP SAVOUR YOUR SCARS
Grammatically-incorrect Belfast foursome Gacys Threads have been flying the flag for Irish metalcore for three years now, with The Ignorance Of Purity being the latest in a string of EP releases. The haunting title track is a touch misleading, giving off clear Metallica vibes with a clean minor-key guitar melody before vocalist Aaron Vance encroaches on the scene with some tasty deep growls. The rest of the CD is a more brutal affair, leaning more towards the hardcore end of the metal spectrum with some nice Converge-like tempo changes and harsh, dissonant chords to counteract the furious riffing. At just 16 minutes, the EP flies by, but even so they pack a lot of variety into a short timespan. Dave Donnelly
KEY TRACKS: ‘TO THE DEATH,’ ‘BLACKHEART’. FOR FANS OF: CONVERGE, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, NORMA JEAN.
Eleanor Friedberger Last Summer MERGE
A sense of romance and grasp of melody go a long way in the pop world. Last Summer, the solo debut of Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger, displays both these qualities in abundance. Also evident is a lovable oddness, that willingness to take a tune off the well-trodden path and into the long grass. Witness ‘Inn Of The Seventh Ray’, on which the opening strum of guitar and gentle percussive thud is layered with wonky electronics and echoing sound effects, the lyrics take on an accusatory air and Friedberger treats us to such declarations as “watch Footloose with the biggest bottle of vodka in the world”. This is still pop, just not as Louis Walsh knows it. Francis Jones
KEY TRACKS: ‘INN OF THE SEVENTH RAY’, ‘ROOSEVELT ISLAND’, ‘I WON’T FALL APART ON YOU TONIGHT’. FOR FANS OF: STEELY DAN, PREFAB SPROUT, LYKKE LI.
Rams’ Pocket Radio Dogs Run In Packs EP
vocal, but the songs reveal that the fact remains - the Idlewild touch has something approaching Midas’ own. Kirstie May
SELF-RELEASED
Lisburn’s Peter McCauley is clearly a songwriter with ambition. A support slot for Snow Patrol and air time on Radio 1; these are the hallmarks of a young artist going places. Yet strip away the glowing endorsements and influences that even your parents can enjoy, and Rams’ latest EP is one that pays far too much homage to his musical heroes and forgets to establish a sound of its own. Whilst ‘The Stuff That Went Before’ warrants respect for McCauley’s vision, the tame ‘You And Me, Babe’, as well as the title track, portray an artist still transfixed with his betters. It’ll do well, no doubt, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that we’ve heard it all before. Andrew Lemon
KEY TRACKS: ‘THE STUFF THAT WENT BEFORE’, ‘DOGS RUN IN PACKS’. FOR FANS OF: DUKE SPECIAL, KEANE, COLDPLAY.
Russian Circles Empros SARGENT HOUSE
Empros is the fourth LP from the Chicago-based post-metallers, and sees the band at their heaviest yet. With rhythm section dynamics that wouldn’t sound out of place on an industrial album and chugging, black metal-esque guitar lines, Russian Circles sound more abrasive than ever, exemplified by opener, ‘309’. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as the introspective ‘Schiphol’ recalls early ASIWYFA at their most mellow. Surprising versatility is on display throughout Empros despite the gargantuan guitar sound and often overwhelming density of riffs, making it hard at times to believe this is only a threepiece. Russian Circles have released their best album yet, and quite possibly one of the best instrumental albums in recent memory. Stevie Lennox
KEY TRACKS: ‘PRAISE BE TO MAN’, ‘SCHIPHOL’. FOR FANS OF: PELICAN, NEUROSIS, RED SPAROWES.
The Birthday Suit The Eleventh Hour SING IT ALONE
As one fifth of one of the most thrilling bands of the last 16 years, Rod Jones has made his name through Scottish indie stalwarts Idlewild’s success. And, like ‘Wild frontman Roddy Woomble’s folky side projects, Jones has come up with his own solo hoopla. If The Birthday Suit is Jones laid bare, Idlewild wasn’t even half the story. Tuneful and sharp with a guitar sensibility to swoon for, the record leaps from tantalising noisy pop standard ‘Do You Ever?’ through the anthemic title track. What the record gains in nicely penned melodies is slightly negated by Jones’ mildly irritating Americanised
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KEY TRACKS: ‘ON MY OWN’, ‘ARE YOU OK?’, ‘THEY SAY I LOVE YOU’. FOR FANS OF: IDLEWILD, ASH.
David Lynch Crazy Clown Time SUNDAY BEST
David Lynch is making an album? That David Lynch? And he’s calling it Crazy Clown Time? Of course he is. Would you expect anything less from one of the most offbeat film directors of our time? Of course, Lynch is no stranger to musical endeavours, having written and collaborated on the soundtracks to many of his films over the years, but he has waited until retirement age to release his first solo album proper. Most of Crazy Clown Time’s songs apparently began as jams, which is patently obvious given that most of them remain in an underdeveloped and unfinished state; although it sounds like Lynch is having fun, the resultant tunes are self-indulgent messes. When he focuses his synthesised vocals – as heard on the groovy disconcertion of ‘Noah’s Ark’ or the Karen O-guesting ‘Pinky’s Dream’ – he’s more successful. Even still, an hour and eight minutes of predictably weird stream-ofconsciousness lyrics, bad Neil Young impressions and embryonic melodies is just too much. Lynch doesn’t get a free pass because of his visionary filmwork – this is mostly a horribly tedious affair. Lauren Murphy
KEY TRACKS: ‘NOAH’S ARK’, ‘PINKY’S DREAM’. FOR FANS OF: THE WORST BITS OF LYNCH’S FILMS.
T-Polar Apollo EP SAIGON
Taking influence from house and techno, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Belfast’s Gary Spence was just another name to be added to an already bloated genre. Not so. Spence adds his own touch of class to a promising set of garage-flecked beats and shows why he’s gaining support from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs and 2562. The three original tracks here demonstrate Spence’s knack for penning intense club tracks; ‘Ghosts Of Eckerville’ (a reference to Spence’s old club night in the city) and the haunting ‘Kriblurk’ are both moody stompers. But it’s the title track that proves the real gem, a soulful 2-step number that establishes T-Polar as more than just another pretender. Andrew Lemon
KEY TRACKS: ‘APOLLO’, ‘KRIBLURK’. FOR FANS OF: 2562, JAMES BLAKE, JAMIE XX.
Author Author TECTONIC
Author is a duo combining the talents of Jack Sparrow and Ruckspin. This, their first release, is a slick production, exploring lesser-travelled paths in the territory of dub-influenced electronic music. All tracks feature clean brass, tidy beat programming and enough echo and reverb to make heads swim. ‘Fix’ fuses a perky percussion loop with a tight synth bass creating a link back to the two-step garage scene, but the echoes push it into the arena of future dub. ‘Drain’ is a slower, more spacious track: fragments of horns reach out of the reverb; melodic parps added to the skeletal rhythm and marimba invoking the spirit of original roots rockers. This long-player provides proof that there is still plenty of room for adventure inside the dubstep scene without having to rely on aggressive bass riffs. Barry Cullen
KEY TRACKS: ‘GREEN & BLUE’, ‘FIX’. FOR FANS OF: JACK SPARROW, RUCKSPIN, BENGA.
&U&I Light Bearer
Coldplay Mylo Xyloto PARLOPHONE
ONDRYLAND
Streamlining the awkwardness of last year’s excellent Kill The Man… EP, &U&I’s debut album is a stunning statement of intent. The trio’s fantastically aggressive grooves strike deep into classic Dischord territory, peppered with agile melodic twists, sudden drop-outs and tense build-and-release dynamics. Thom Beckett’s impressively clear vocals strike a fine balance between force and tunefulness, equal parts anger and soul, especially on the genuinely haunting ‘Super Five’. Numerous spins have failed to reveal any weak points, suggesting Nazca Lines finally have a credible rival for post-hardcore release of the year. Lee Gorman
KEY TRACKS: ‘TO THE WATER NOW IS THE HOUR’, ‘SUPER FIVE’, ‘BASKERVILLE THE ATHEIST’. FOR FANS OF: NAZCA LINES, GALLOWS, FUGAZI.
Sigur Ros Inni
It’s too easy to hate Coldplay. It’s as if their bombastic smugness has relegated the emotional connection of their early albums to a bygone era. So when the press release for their fifth long-player notes that Mylo Xyloto includes ‘Enoxification and additional composition’ by Brian Eno, a little bit of sick is projected into AU’s mouth. Happily, reflux aside, Mylo Xyloto is Coldplay’s best album in nigh-on a decade. Even if hordes of producers dutifully embellish Chris Martin’s elegant melodies, many songs feel more intimate – as if they were recorded for a roomful and not a packed stadium. Pick of the bunch are ‘Hurts Like Heaven’, which romps along until the chorus fills the track with a flood of guitar, the Syngur Vitleysingur’ provides some welcome contrast to the predominantly intense vibes, but the exclusion of refreshing Animal Collective-esque leftturn ‘Gobbledigook’ is unfortunate. As ever with these affairs, it’s not exactly essential, but hardcore fans and completists should be happy. Daniel Harrison
XL/YOUNG TURKS
A companion piece to the film of the same name, Inni is a two-disc set of songs recorded at London’s Alexandra Palace in late 2008. It documents a stripped-back line-up shorn of string or brass sections, but the widescreen splendour of Sigur Ros’ music remains: ‘Hoppípolla’s scaled-back arrangement doesn’t diminish its emotive sweep, while ‘Festival’ and the evergreen ‘Svefn-g-englar’ sound dynamic and nuanced. Although the sound quality is impressive, the track-listing gets a bit wearying – the playful exuberance of ‘Inní Mér
KEY TRACKS: ‘SVEFN-G-ENGLAR’, ‘HOPPÍPOLLA’, ‘NY BATTERI’. FOR FANS OF: MÚM, MOGWAI, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY..
Youth Lagoon The Year Of Hibernation LEFSE
Youthful anxiety is a well-ploughed furrow in rock music, but thankfully 22-year-old Trevor Powers’
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soaring sing-along of ‘Paradise’ and the genuinely affecting ballad, ‘Us Against The World’. Of course, there are flaws to Xylo Myloto. Chris Martin has recently admitted that Coldplay lyrics are often a bit shit and anyone with the faintest sense of poetry will skip the abomination of lead single ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’. While ‘Princess Of China’ is corking emo-pop, in featuring everyone’s favourite sex addict Rihanna, it is hard not to assume that market demographics played a part in her inclusion – even if she does sound wonderful. Disappointingly, the album ends with two flabby, over-produced, identikit anthems – which almost ruin a rather splendid album. John Freeman
KEY TRACKS: ‘PARADISE’, ‘PRINCESS OF CHINA’, ‘US AGAINST THE WORLD’. FOR FANS OF: BRIAN ENO, SNOW PATROL, MILAGRES. debut is a musically assured and confident showcase for a seasoned performer. Bathed in swathes of dreamy organ, piano and cascading drum machine, Powers draws on the concerns of existentialism and displacement hinted at in the album’s title, but amidst building, pounding rhythms that sound is ultimately joyous (particularly the stunning centrepiece ‘July’). Although the lyrics can get washed-over amidst several layers of vocal reverb, the dream-like soundscapes Powers crafts make for a warm, enveloping mystique that is nevertheless tinged with an ethereal nostalgia. An unusually personal album that is also full of those moments of youthful uncertainty many will be able to relate to. Jordan Cullen
KEY TRACKS: ‘AFTERNOON’, ‘JULY’, ‘MONTANA’. FOR FANS OF: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, ATLAS SOUND, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE.
Young Blood Your indispensable guide to new releases from up-and-coming acts Gascan Ruckus Vitamins Punk rock quartet Gascan Ruckus are an act driven by frontman Michael Woods’ guttural scream, a twin attack of roaring guitars and the kind of energy only a band this young can provide. Their latest single shows a decidedly darker side, hinting at hardcore in parts with a touch of early Nirvana as a reference point. ‘Vitamins’ sees the band really finding their feet and refining their sound, following on from their debut The Governor EP and previous single, ‘Trucker Filth’. Refreshingly without a hint of pretence, Gascan Ruckus are definitely a band to keep an eye on. Stevie Lennox
The Assailants The Assailants A relatively new ska punk four-piece hailing from Belfast town, the “politically charged, socially conscious” sound of The Assailants could not have arrived at a better time. Taking in the likes of the breakneck ‘72 Hour Party People’ and the more dub-inflected ease of ‘Small Town Li(v)es’, their debut EP is at once a forceful, proto-thrash gem brilliantly reminiscent of early Bad Brains and The Specials’ Neville Staple’s more vigilant endeavours. Best of all, they are a band far from constrained by the often restrictive approach of many ska-punk musicians. This, if anything, should hold them in good stead. Brian Coney
D.d Iceland The second EP by Derry-based electronic musician David Doherty (aka D.d), Iceland is a short but refreshingly subtle collection of drifting electronica. Sounding somewhere between the work of Japanese glitch wizard World’s End Girlfriend, Nobuo Uematsu’s legendary sounds on Final Fantasy VII and the balmy ambience of early post-rock fiddlers Disco Inferno, it possesses real transporting power. In fact, owing a slight debt to Boards of Canada’s delicate playfulness/youngster nattering from Music Has The Right To Children, ‘Iceland’ and standout track ‘Something Special’ are skilfully understated hymns accompanying the 8-bit idealism of ‘Press Play On Tape’. Lovely stuff. Brian Coney
INPROFILE: ACT: FROM: FOR FANS OF: WEBSITE:
Gascan Ruckus Middletown, Co. Armagh The Bronx, The Flatliners, Bad Religion gascanruckus.bandcamp.com
Words by Stevie Lennox
Wearing their hearts (and county) on their sleeves are punk rock four-piece Gascan Ruckus. With little regard for eardrums or subtlety – as proven on the video for new single ‘Vitamins’ – they’re an uncompromising live act. AU has a chat with the whole band on the back of their UK tour. Could you give us a bit of background? We’ve been playing together since we were about 14, but we started to get serious about it and started writing in 2009. We released an EP in May 2010 and since then we’ve been trying to better ourselves and keep building on what we’ve done. [Veteran Radio Ulster DJ] Gerry Anderson gave us our first radio plays, which seems a bit strange but it helped us get the attention of Paddy Glasgow which led to playing Glasgowbury in 2010 and 2011. This year we’ve released two
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singles and we’re just back from our second UK tour. It’s been hard work and we’ve invested a lot of time and money but it’s paid off so far. Are any bands particularly influential on your music and approach? The likes of LaFaro, Axis Of and The Rupture Dogs, who work hard and make great music. We’re good friends with all those guys and they’ve given us a lot of great advice. Alongside ASIWYFA and Fighting With Wire, they’ve paved the way and blazed a trail for bands like us to follow. We’ve found that Northern Irish bands have a great reputation in the UK and they’ve made so many friends in promoters that have been more than willing to help us out on that basis. What’s the story behind the newly released video for your single ‘Vitamins’? We wracked our brains trying to come with a good concept for the video and we eventually ended up saying, ‘Fuck it, let’s wreck the bar at [our local] Hughes’.” The barman was really cool about it, he laid on pints and food for us, then he let us trash the place. We cleaned up after ourselves, of course, because we’re dead on like that. What are your plans for releases and touring after the current single? We’ve got some Irish tour dates and after that we’re going take time to write some new songs. The plan is to put out another EP and then tour as much as possible. We’ve got our eyes on mainland Europe too, some time.
LIVE REVIEWS
Patrick Wolf Speakeasy, Belfast If there’s any cause to be disappointed this evening, it’s simply the fact that there aren’t more people here. Being generous, I’d say that there are close to 100 punters huddled close to the Speakeasy stage, including members of Wolf’s partner and soon-to-be husband’s family – from Ballymoney, no less. The numbers matter not to Patrick Wolf, who delivers every single note, every lonesome word as if he was performing to a packed Carnegie Hall. Resplendent in smart red blazer and black shirt – collar up in a haughty Cantona flick – Wolf strides out purposefully. The insistent rhythms of ‘Hard Times’ segue into the peacock strut of ‘Time Of My Life’, Wolf swishing his bottle-crimson mane left and right. His band is exquisite, fearsome drums finding their counter in elegant strings, chirping keys and buoyant guitar. There will even be occasion to break out the saxophone. Patrick himself is no less a virtuoso, swapping seamlessly from Appalachian dulcimer, to harp, to keys. It’s hard not to admire how stubbornly he tries to raise every instant to the levels of high spectacle, the songs elevated by the depth of feeling he instils in them and the stage given a magic realist twist by the glowing dolls’ houses that flank each of its sides. The music itself propels us across the emotional spectrum – ‘The Days’ travelling with melancholy grace, a slow-rolling tear of a song, before the sweet surge of ‘Bermondsey Street’ brings us up, up, up again. The leaves of nostalgia are raked with the stutter and thump of ‘To The Lighthouse’, whilst ‘The Magic Position’ prompts an audience sing-along. And, though recently Wolfie has been telling everyone that he’s all mature and will therefore be toning down the flamboyance, he still indulges in two costume changes – firstly into a dazzling gold number, before finally he sports a rather plain white shirt, albeit one adorned with a huge feathered wing on the left shoulder. “Thank you for coming out on this miserable Sunday night,” says a genuinely grateful Patrick Wolf. “I know you could have stayed at home watching The X Factor, or Downton Abbey.” Indeed we could, but for true drama, intensity and moments of unbridled elation, neither of those shows holds a candle to Wolf’s performance. Francis Jones
PHOTO BY DAMIEN MCGLYNN
Why? Button Factory, Dublin
the stage, you’re in for an odd night. But with the sound so distinctive and the arrangements so crisp, it’s impossible to take your eyes or ears off Why?
Never ones to shy away from expanding horizons or pushing boundaries with their particular take on hiphop, Why?’s ‘acoustic piano tour’, on paper, seems like the kind of gimmick that could either backfire spectacularly or set the room ablaze. And when David Cohn, aka Serengeti, opens up to a seated, hushed crowd in Dublin’s Button Factory, he does seem a little nervy with the unusual set-up. But as he launches into a brief support set, mostly gleaned from his Yoni Wolf/Owen Ashworth-produced Family & Friends album, the room audibly relaxes.
There are nods to their ‘hits’ with a quick rattle-off of ‘The Vowels Pt. 2’ and ‘These Few Presidents’ drawing huge cheers, but the new material seems to continue with Wolf’s preoccupations with sex and self-laceration. ‘White English’ (AU thinks it’s called) is a stand-out, as a bespectacled Wolf almost feels out every syllable in the air in front of him. And with his hair slicked back and an outfit that can only be described as ‘hipster librarian’, Yoni is edging more and more towards being the David Berman of hip-hop every day.
As well as a recurring joke about a recorder he has recently acquired, the piano ’n’ beats sound works well alongside his speedy storytelling and gives the vague impression of a poetry slam but without the monstrous cringe factor. Belting versions of ‘California’ and a thumping ‘The Whip’ charge the venue with some electricity before he makes way for tonight’s headliners.
The piano is accompanied by snare drums, bass and beats, and the Wolf brothers’ sister Becky as the newest member, so any pre-gig concerns about sparsity and a lack of oomph are quickly put to bed. There’s the by-now obligatory reference by hip-hop artists to the lack of “black people” around, with Wolf at one point commenting that the only black person he’d seen in Ireland was his friend Serengeti. Sigh.
The casual, jokey manner of Cohn stands in contrast to the usually more po-faced Yoni Wolf and his Why? crew but it seems, with the vocals easily the loudest part of their set-up, that Wolf is up for the Saturday night banter. Often if a band makes the ‘it’ll be mostly new material’ announcement from
But all in all, the anticon. gang deliver an engaging show, not hampered in the slightest by a lack of recognisable material, and Why? clearly enjoy playing Ireland as much as Ireland enjoys watching them. New album is out next spring, apparently. Should be a cracker. Adam Lacey
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Captain America: The First Avenger
DVD:
Director: Joe Johnston Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson In recent months the Hollywood production pipe has been clogged up with innumerable superhero pictures, many of which were less than super affairs with lacklustre effects, one-dimensional characters and overcooked storylines. How refreshing then, to stumble upon a comic book movie with no pretensions to grandeur and no aim other than to entertain the audience. And Captain America does just that. Unlike Thor and Iron Man 2, mere trailers for next year’s Avengers movie, Captain America has an actual story arc. There’s more than a hint of Spielberg in its retro, Saturday morning serial plot about stoic colonels, pesky Nazis and super-soldiers, and the bearded one’s influence is also notable in the gorgeous ‘magic light’ sheen which graces the screen. Much fun is to be had with Hugo Weaving chewing the scenery as arch nemesis Red Skull and Chris Evans’ transformation from seven stone weakling Steve Rogers to the titular patriot – the Benjamin Button-style effects are astounding. Overall, Captain America might be an unremarkable film but its charm, exciting action sequences and good nature make it a highly enjoyable one. That’s more than you can say about most major releases. Ross Thompson Captain America: The First Avenger is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 5
CONSOLE YOURSELF! The AU round-up of gaming releases It has been another bumper month for games fiends with an embarrassment of excellent titles hitting the shelves. First off, Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros., Multiformat) is even better than everyone hoped it would be. Any fears about how the streamlined gameplay of its predecessor would gel with an open world arena are put to bed within the first five minutes of arriving in Gotham. Walled off and left to the whims of supervillains Penguin, Two-Face and the Joker, it’s a fearsome creation, a crumbling metropolis packed to the rafters with riddles to solve and hoodlums to duff up. Amidst the hugely satisfying combat and umpteen sidequests, Bat-fans will relish the countless cameos and references to Dark Knight lore. Id Software, the boffins behind Doom and Quake, roar back onto the scene with Rage (Bethesda, Muli), a love letter to gaming classics from the past decade. Derivative plot aside, this unashamedly violent title blends role-playing, driving and shooting elements to cracking effect. Its wasteland setting shimmers and bursts with colour, a welcome change to the rust brown slopped all over similar releases, and the facial animation and voice acting (hello John Goodman) set new standards. Terrific stuff. It might be harder than a rock with nails stuck in it but
RAGE twisted RPG Dark Souls (Namco Bandai, Multi), the follow-up to the equally punishing Demon’s Souls, rewards the player in ways beyond high scores and achievement points. Yes, From Software have created a world that is by turns beautiful and foreboding, but it’s the way they have jiggered around with gaming conventions that truly impresses. Stripping away many of the securities – regular save points, replenishing health et al – upon which gamers have become so reliant, Dark Souls more often beats you with a stick than feeds you a carrot, but the sense of accomplishment when overpowering one of the many vile enemies or defeating a boss is extraordinary. Death might wait around each corner but victory waits just a little further. Those after something a little more sedate will probably prefer The Sims 3: Pets (EA, Multi), an
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expansion pack which lets you explore the secret lives of said animals, or Sonic Generations (Sega, Multi), released to mark the 20th anniversary of the restless hedgehog in style. Old and new school Sonics collide as tracks from past games are given a modern va-va-voom, thereby creating a platformer which should appeal to contemporary gamers and retro hounds alike. Finally, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Sony, PS3) exceeds all expectations with a rollicking escapade which seamlessly melds cut-scenes and breathless action sequences to startling effect. A game that is as fun to watch as it is to play, Nathan Drake’s latest adventure is about as enjoyable as videogames get, and the package is rounded out with a hearty online multiplayer and three-player co-op modes. Unmissable. Ross Thompson
FLASHBACK The Big Thaw: the end of the Cold War, December 1991
20 YEARS AGO
In the post-war years, people talked about the Iron Curtain falling upon the east. As relations between the allied powers soured, so began 40 years of paranoia and dread, the world hanging on the brink of Armageddon. After all this fear and danger, the month of December 1991 proved to be one of the most momentous in the 20th century, with the Soviet infrastructure finally crumbling to reveal a nation in ruins. 20 years after the end of the USSR, AU looks back at a time when the end of the world seemed like a very realistic possibility.
Their engagements in Korea and Vietnam had cost America dearly, both in terms of finance and spirit, and the 1980s had found the country in an increasingly paranoid position regarding its old allies, the Russians. Fear over the stockpiling of nuclear weapons had led to a climate where any conflict between the two nations seemed almost certain to end in mutually assured destruction – the end of life on this planet as we know it. With both powers perpetually trying to strengthen their military position, the outcome of nuclear war seemed an inevitable reality that people had to deal with in their everyday lives.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, President Harry S. Truman put forward the Domino Theory, proposing that if one country fell to communism, the surrounding countries would suffer the same fate, creating a knockon effect that could threaten the stability of the entire world. Whether this was the case or not is highly debatable, but it set in course a plan for American foreign policy which would dominate the following decades.
On the other side of the fence, former actor Ronald Reagan had been elected president in 1981. Initially, it seemed that Reagan’s policy would not be in tune with Gorbachev, with the USA pursuing a harder line against communism, and covertly funding anticommunist organisations (a plan which would come back to haunt them later), whilst Gorbachev and his colleagues pursued a plan of “de-Stalinisation”, attempting to lay foundations for better relations and trade with the west.
The appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union was the turning point in relations between the two superpowers. His rise coincided with what was seemingly the end of the old guard, with many of the members of the Politburo passing away as the Eighties began. There was a sense that the shadow cast by Josef Stalin was beginning to fade, and that Gorbachev might be the man capable of ushering the Soviet Union into a new era.
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Behind the Iron Curtain, the Soviet economy was under tremendous strain, and the country was struggling to compete with America. Russia was on the verge of collapse, and culturally in tatters, years of Stalinist purges and political upheaval still a festering sore upon their collective consciousness. As America began to strengthen its military, the USSR could no longer compete. With Gorbachev came the desire for peace – the rise of Reagan made it a necessity. After years of abortive peace talks, reform and revolution had begun to spread through Eastern Europe like wildfire, with people like Vaclav Havel, who became the president of Czechoslovakia, and Lech Walesa in Poland, becoming figureheads for freedom. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 symbolised the end of the Iron Curtain. The Chernobyl disaster only strengthened the USSR’s need for peace, and by the start of the Nineties, the scene was set for revolution. December 1991 finally saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, all Soviet institutions being dissolved on the 31st. Gorbachev had resigned, and Boris Yeltsin was left in his place, the leader of a country in search of an identity. The coming years would prove to have many challenges, and there is still a sense that the Russian bear has never fully regained its true strength. The United States, on the other hand, had scant cause for victory. The spectre of communism might have been vanquished, but the paranoia and mistrust of the Cold War had led to a global culture of fear and violence. The stage was set for the ‘war on terror’, and America’s troubles were only beginning. Steven Rainey
CLASSIC ALBUM My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)
It’s almost hard to believe, but there was once a time when every other album release wasn’t considered an instant classic. Released in November 1991, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless not only epitomised an entire genre, it transformed the landscape of guitar-based music beyond recognition. The obsessive brainchild of frontman Kevin Shields, it is nowadays recalled as much for its painstaking recording process as for the music. But, without question, its legacy is matched by its genuine significance. Recorded in 19 different recording studios over a strenuous two- year period – placing a near catastrophic burden on Alan McGee’s Creation Records – Loveless is a crushingly beautiful, 48minute soundtrack to infatuation and deprivation beginning with the thunderous ‘Only Shallow’. With a verse sounding like the dreams of J Mascis in reverse and Bilinda Butcher’s soothing vocals, it’s an indisputable statement of intent and the first
of My Bloody Valentine’s 11 droning odes to halfawake living.
heart. It is at once a subconsciously familiar yet brilliantly disjointed masterstroke.
Taking in reverb-soaked walls of noise, evoking images of fuzzy underwater dreams, ‘Loomer’ weaves a web around Butcher’s subversive pleas – “Tiptoe down to the lonely places / Where you going now / Don’t turn around” – and is wistfully sustained on drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig stunning ‘mating whales’ track, ‘Touched’ (a melancholic mini-anthem in its own right) and the droning majesty of both ‘To Here Knows When’ and ‘When You Sleep’, the latter song flawlessly defining Shields’ ambitious ideal.
Just as the band’s 1988 debut Isn’t Anything was very much indebted to and concerned with Shields’ sleep deprivation, Loveless is equally about hallucinatory, disassociated impressions. Take ‘Sometimes’, the album’s only real acoustic reprieve. It almost seems to be the sound of being dropped back at square one; the echo of twilight reverie, a transporting ode that penetrates a veil up until that point ignored. It may only be 48 minutes in length, but a first listen will almost always feel like a lifetime.
Of course, this isn’t to suggest Loveless is bent on virtuosity: with a central basis of 4/4 and threechord pop, its genius resides in its organic origins, hence the meticulous perfectionism of Shields’ sonic vision. Full of layered ingenuity and technical imagination — i.e. Shields’ tremolo bar technique — structurally it makes, say, the Ramones seem like King Crimson. Even better, its status is aided by the fact Shields did not use chorus or flange pedals unlike many of the shoegazing bands of the era.
Certainly, despite the fact Butcher contributed roughly a third of the album’s lyrics — and Ó Cíosóig’s drum patterns that were sampled throughout — Loveless was written and performed entirely by Shields. It was and remains his obsession; a masterful distillation of dreamlike imagery and now instantly-recognisable waves of fragmented noise. Add to this beautifully lullaby-like vocals and a strange sense of being submerged elsewhere, and you get a real feeling of what it means to so many.
Although skilfully lucid a whole, Loveless is sustained by exceptional variation throughout: from the trancelike density of ‘I Only Said’ and the heavier spell of ‘Come In Alone’ to triumphant closer ‘Soon’ with its seductive vocals and looped circus theme melody, never before had a band so successfully combined woozy noise and heartbreakingly nostalgic melodies to hit the listener smack-bang between the head and
Perhaps best of all, though, Loveless makes you feel sleepy when you’re wide awake, lovesick when you’re happily single, nostalgic when you feel fully at home. Its comforting discordance and illusion of unsteadiness also remains practically unrivalled. So, in spite of Shields’ subsequent creative stagnation, homelessness and near-bankruptcy, it is justifiably considered a masterpiece warranting every session, studio and penny spent. Brian Coney
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HISTORY LESSONS
In the summer of 1976, having brought the Sex Pistols to play a legendary gig in Manchester, two mates from Bolton formed the Buzzcocks. Six months later, one of them – Howard Devoto – left the fledgling Buzzcocks to create another band and invent postpunk before punk had ended. That band was Magazine. As they release their first album in 30 years, AU spoke to Devoto about the advent of Magazine, a growling Thom Yorke and facing the end... Words by John Freeman In the lexicon of truly great songs from the lateSeventies, it is right up there. Alongside ‘Teenage Kicks’, ‘Echo Beach’, Transmission’ and ‘Ever Fallen In Love’, Magazine’s ‘Shot By Both Sides’ is a gold-plated classic. The song’s glorious rising guitar arpeggios would eventually be ransacked by Radiohead, but in 1978 it would signal a shift from the DIY chaos of punk. “At some point [exBuzzcocks bandmate] Pete [Shelley] played me the lead line,” says Howard, taking a sip on the smoothie we’ve just bought him. “I was blown away by the guitar theme and Pete said ‘Oh, I’ll give it to you then’. In some ways, Magazine came together to record ‘Shot By Both Sides’.” Now 59, Devoto has the air of a kindly – if slightly world-weary – uncle, as opposed to a trail-blazing musician. We meet in a theatre café in his home town of Leeds and he is genial company, even if we sense he’d much rather talk about Magazine’s new album No Thyself than anything to do with his past. However, his past is epoch-changing. After leaving the Buzzcocks in early 1977, Devoto sought to extend his musical palette. “I didn’t want to be as musically restrictive as punk,” he says when we ask why he left a band on the verge of mainstream success. “Whatever it was, I put up on that sign in
in a band and the responsibility of it. I had taken on a lot of the financial stuff in the last two years of Magazine which hyped up the responsibility levels for me, and, because of my father, I was just not in great shape at all. So, that’s why I pulled my plug on it.” Things stayed that way until 2009, when Magazine reformed for a tour. Original guitarist John McGeoch, who died in 2004, was replaced by Devoto’s Luxuria collaborator, Noko. The shows were rapturously received and provided the catalyst for the recently released No Thyself, the first Magazine album in three decades. From the firecracking opener ‘Do The Meaning’ to the spokenword ‘Of Course Howard (1979)’, No Thyself instantly sounds like any Magazine record should: brave, sinister and deliciously off-kilter. “I tend to say these days that I’m too old to have influences,” Howard says when we ask how the Magazine sound of 2011 came about. “I do what I do with what I am given. With new songs coming from Dave [Formula] and Noko – who was a Magazine fan as a kid and is always talking about the ‘Magazine aesthetic’ – it was always gonna have a certain sound to it. I think we’ve gone a few places sound-wise that we haven’t before. On ‘Do The Meaning’ there is a pizzicato
some unspecified point in the future.” By now, we are absolutely engrossed in Howard’s words and the bead of sweat has gone cold. “So, that’s the background. If we wind on 15 years, I then realised I wasn’t thinking that way – so that’s why I wrote the song. I was addressing Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain in a very direct way and saying, ‘Actually, I’m gonna go the way of Elvis – I’ll have a heart attack on the toilet’. But, I’ve now actually come back to the point that, all things considered, when the end comes – and I hope it comes a long time off, but not too far because I don’t want to get old – I actually would like to die by my own hand. I am a patron of [the organisation] Dignity In Dying and I dedicate the song to [fellow patron] Terry Pratchett.” It’s an incredibly honest revelation and, intriguingly, Devoto seems less willing to talk about Magazine’s legacy. Although Thom Yorke and Morrissey have both touted Magazine as a huge influence, Howard brushes aside the suggestion that any current bands might sound like his band. “I do like some of what Radiohead do. I like some of what Morrissey does,” is all he says when we ask him whether he can hear Magazine’s sound in modern music.
“Suicide has always been an important idea for me” the Virgin record shop in Piccadilly in Manchester – I think it said ‘Musicians wanted for fast and slow music’ and it mentioned other instrumentation apart from guitar, bass and drums – it even mentioned tuba players, as it wasn’t necessarily a keyboard player I was looking for.” But the addition of a synthesizer to a guitarbased post-punk band would become the defining moment for Magazine. Their second keyboard player, Dave Formula – who shared a flat with legendary curmudgeon/producer Martin Hannett – provided a scope of electronic instrumentation which would lead the band to make their finest album, 1980’s Hannett-produced The Correct Use Of Soap. However, while Magazine gained wide critical acclaim, they never matched that with commercial success. “We didn’t aspire to be a cult band, but we made what we wanted to make,” is Howard’s take. “We really didn’t try to do what would sell most.” After a muddled fourth album (1981’s Magic, Murder And The Weather) and with Devoto struggling to cope with his father’s death two years previously, Magazine were brought to an abrupt end. “My willpower started going,” Howard explains. “I’d had enough of the whole thing of being
plucked string sound and when I first heard that I was intrigued.” One of the stand-out tracks is ‘Hello Mr Curtis (With Apologies)’, which contains Devoto’s trademark dark and jarringly honest lyricism. We ask about the genesis of the song, which name checks Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley. AU is seriously unprepared for Howard’s response. “The bones of that song go back 10-odd years. Now, where do I begin? Stop me if this gets too lengthy or dark. The idea of suicide has always been important to me. I once had an unfortunate love affair which went wrong and I was in a bad way. I had a moment of revelation where I realised, ‘Hey, I could top myself’ and then I felt better. But, ever since then, suicide has always been an important idea for me.” A bead of sweat has formed on AU’s forehead. “I’ve only ever once in my life actually made plans and steps to bring about that end. I never got as far as swallowing anything or bringing a blade close to myself but I was starting to make plans in a very serious way. I even owned a gun at one point. This is all an exclusive, John. And the main reason I had a gun was because I might need it for myself at
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Thankfully, Howard is happy to reminisce about his one meeting with Thom Yorke, “I ran into him in the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford. My girlfriend spotted him and I went over and said, ‘Is it Thom?’ and he kind of growled at me, so I quickly said, ‘It is Howard Devoto, Thom’ and then he was very different. We looked at one or two items in the exhibition and then he said, ‘I can’t take this’ and walked out of the door.” We chuckle at the image of Thom Yorke going from a growl to a whimper in the space of a few minutes. Devoto exudes an air of contentment with the Magazine story. “I have no regrets. I certainly couldn’t imagine sitting here with you surveying 30 years of Magazine and we’d have got 22 albums in the bag,” he says as we shake hands and he walks off into the cool Yorkshire evening air, with AU still struggling to match the post-punk legend to a warm and generous late-middle-aged man. No Thyself is out now via Wire-Sound www.magazineband.com
Spookaville Belfast Belfast club night Palookaville cranks up the scary factor for a Halloween special. Photos by Ronan O’Donnell
Paul
Danielle, Michael & Lisa
Fiona & Lucy
Joe & Kenny
Frankie & Chiff
Kirsty, Gerard & Aine
Edel & Jonny
Gary & Sarah
Melanie, Maria & Judith
Julie, Paul & Patricia
Paul, Sarah & Catherine
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The Beatyard Weekender Twisted Pepper, Dublin A vertiable banquet of music, multimedia and cultural stuff went down over the course of a big weekend. Photos by Loreana Rushe
Sean
Fiona
Steve & Leanne
E.J.
Julie & Dave
Rebecca
Karl
Aaron & Robert
Ian
Nic & Patric
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Taja
THE LAST WORD with Tim Wheeler of Ash and Chris and Keith concocted a tall story that involved there being a weasel problem at my apartment to freak him out. It was so funny the way they spun it out. What was your last argument about? It was a stupid argument with a London minicab driver about whether my guitars would fit on the back seat of his car. He kept inventing illogical reasons to charge me more and we argued for the whole journey. When was the last time you time you had a fistfight? Way back in primary school. When was the last time you were embarrassed? I watched the video for ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ tonight. It’s such a daft video for one of my favourite Ash songs. When was the last time you were scared? I watched the film Life In A Day on the plane yesterday. It has a real scene of a cow being slaughtered. I guess it was more upsetting than scary but I could tell what was going to happen and watched it through my fingers. It made me extra glad I don’t eat meat. What was the last injury you sustained? A back injury a few years ago, herniated disc, not fun.
PHOTO BY CARRIE DAVENPORT
When was the last time you bought a band t-shirt at a gig? Iron Maiden in London this summer What was the last good record you bought? Roland S Howard – Pop Crimes. Really amazing When was the last time you offended someone? At a recent festival the security were standing in the middle of the crowd making people stop dancing. I told them to get out of the crowd, which they did. They didn’t like their authority being undermined, but it was killing the vibe of the gig.
When was the last time one of your heroes disappointed you? Frank Carson was a bit of a grumpy git when I asked for his autograph when I was a kid. I’m obviously still upset about it. When was the last time you cried? I almost cried at our Ulster Hall Alzheimer’s benefit gig talking about my Dad who died in January, but I knew I had to keep myself together to get through the gig. On the other emotional side, I cried with laughter hanging out with We Are Scientists recently. Andy, their drummer, was going to stay at my apartment
FAMOUS LAST WORDS “I’m convicted unfairly, and I die innocent.” Norwegian Nazi collaborationist Vidkun Quisling (July 18, 1887 – October 24, 1945), before being executed by firing squad. “I’m going away tonight…” The Godfather of Soul, James Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006).
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When was the last time you broke the law? Jaywalking today, hopefully it won’t get me kicked out of the country [Tim lives in New York]. If the world was about to end, what would your last words be? Something in the style of Batman like “Holy smokes!!!!” Tim Wheeler is a supporter of the Alzheimer’s Society – www.alzheimers.org.uk www.ash-official.com
THIS ISSUE WAS POWERED BY The pain that no one will ever know, Mexican mix, fucking off to Madrid, crowd-surfing, the Greatest Hits Of ‘91, charity golf, a frankly insane workload, a great team, the eternal search for lanyards, human ingenuity, Europeans, Internet bullshit, big mouths striking again, pride.
QUEEN’S
STUDENTS’ UNION
ENTERTAINMENT
radar presents
with JAPE
Friday 16th December Mandela Hall Doors 8pm Tickets £20
WED 9TH NOV
KEITH FARNAN STEPHEN CARLIN
WED 23RD NOV QUEENS COMEDY CLUB 19TH BIRTHDAY! BERNARD O’SHEA COLM O’REGAN
WED 7TH DEC
JOE LYCETT MANDELA HALL
COMPERE: COLIN MURPHY NON-STUDENTS WELCOME WWW.QUEENSCOMEDYCLUB.COM
£5
Doors 7pm. Tickets £17.50
FRIDAY 27TH JANUARY
MANDELA HALL DOORS 8PM TICKETS £15
Fri 18th November, Mandela Hall
YUCK
Sun 27th November, Speakeasy
Friday 23rd March Mandela Hall
SKRILLEX
Sat 3rd December, Mandela Hall
Doors 8pm Tickets £17.50 www.spiritualized.com
Bombay Bicycle Club Sun 4th December, Mandela Hall
WWW.QUBSU-ENTS.COM Tickets available from Queen’s Students’ Union, booking fees apply elsewhere. Also available at ticketmaster.ie and all Ticketmaster outlets. 63 AU78 Queen’s Students’ Union, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NF. Tel: (028) 9097 3726. Fax: (028) 9097 1375.
64 AU78