LeftLion Magazine - February 2009 - Issue 27 by LeftLion

contents

editorial

LeftLion Magazine Issue 27 February - March 2009

WELCOME to the first LeftLion Magazine of 2009. As our regulars will know, there has been plenty of new stuff on our website over the past few weeks to keep you happy, but this is the first brand new mag we’ve put out this year. Woo!

May Contain Notts Nottingham’s Mr Sex brings you the latest rundown of news in Notts and probably a bit of Mansfield-bashing too.

Hoods: The Gangs of Nottingham An interview with author Carl Fellstrom about his latest work Hoods, which uncovers information about gang crime in Nottingham.

LeftEyeOn Some snaps from the last two months of Nottingham Culture.

The Credit Crunch Special You’re as bored as us of that term by now, but you’ll probably be interested to know more about how the UK recession is hitting Notts businesses.

Highs and Lowe Stephen Lowe (the guy who wrote that play about Brian Clough) is back and this time he’s talking about soft porn and stuff.

A Canadian In New Basford Rob rocks out at a local karaoke night.

Book Sayle That bloke from The Young Ones and Alexei Sayle’s Stuff is a fully grown author these days you know?

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Jam Hot Radio One’s Mista Jam, aka Pete Dalton, is in the house to talk about Nottingham hiphop and more. Super Sharp Shooter You might not have seen these photos before, but some of them will seem strangely familiar. Artist Profiles This time around we look at some members of local art collectives.

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Geoff Diego Litherland He has a geekish obsession with paint and is inspired by music. You can see his exhibition in Notts soon.

Nottingham Events Listings Your non-stop guide to the next two months, including interviews with Papa La Bas and Red Shoe Diaries.

Write Lion Creative writing from the LeftLion Forum.

Reviews This month includes new music from Cappo and Alberto Veto and books from Simon Armitage and Staple Publishing. The End Page Psychic madness with Roger Mean, LeftLion Abroad, The Arthole from Rob White and Notts Trumps.

credits Editor Jared Wilson (jared@leftlion.co.uk)

Marketing and Sales Manager Ben Hacking (ben@leftlion.co.uk) Art Editor Frances Ashton (frances@leftlion.co.uk)

Illustrators Rob White

Literature Editor James Walker (books@leftlion.co.uk)

Photographers David Baird Rebekah Downes Al Greer Lorna Griffiths Bobby G Dom Henry My Linh Le Stephen Wright Sound Bloke Mike Cheque

Deputy Editors Nathan Miller (njm@leftlion.co.uk) Charlotte Kingsbury (charlotte@leftlion.co.uk) Technical Director Alan Gilby (alan@leftlion.co.uk)

Music Editors Natasha Chowdhury (natasha@leftlion.co.uk) Paul Klotschkow (paulk@leftlion.co.uk) Photography Editor Dominic Henry (dom@leftlion.co.uk) Theatre Editor Adrian Bhagat (adrian@leftlion.co.uk)

Also for this magazine I met up with Carl Fellstrom, who has written Hoods, a controversial book uncovering some of the secrets of Nottingham crime. As a fellow journalist I have massive respect for him for uncovering a fascinating, but also sinister and nasty web of murder, drugs, crime and corruption. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it… Mista Jam is an old friend of LeftLion (indeed he and Joe Buhdha wrote a feature for us a few years ago) and he appears to be going from strength to strength right now. Not only is he hosting an ace radio show on the BBC, but he’s also appearing in a (admittedly quite patchy) sitcom on BBC3. So we caught up with him for a natter. Likewise we got in touch with Stephen Lowe, who we last spoke to when he was writing a play about our beloved Cloughie. This time his mind was more focused on blue movies and the Kray twins. We’d never heard of Stephen Wright until recently, but his photos seem eerily familiar. That’s because he roams the streets of Nottingham looking for interesting moments to capture. Much of his work will probably be recognisable to you too and that’s why we devoted the centrespread to him. You’ll also find all the usual regular features you know and love inside these pages. Don’t forget to check our website for more than we can cram into here and remember to check out our podcasts on leftlion.co.uk/audio if you’re up for listening to us as well. Finally we have a fair few events coming up over the next few months, including a couple of gigs at Brownes and our first exhibition of art from this magazine - more details inside. Come and check them out!

Contributors Michael Abbott Rob Cutforth Alison Emm Beccy Godridge Lizzie Goodman Rebecca Gove-Humphries Duncan Heath Camillo Hortez Aaron Juneau Roger Mean Al Needham Dan Skurok Aly Stoneman

Art Director David Blenkey (reason@leftlion.co.uk)

‘Credit crunch’ has become something of a household phrase across Britain over the last year or so. Everyone from Gordon Brown to Ian Brown (both of whom I share a birthday with incidentally) have been talking publicly about it. Normally we wouldn’t be so bothered about covering national issues in this magazine, but this one affects us locally too. Plenty of independent businesses we know and love are feeling the squeeze and we look at some of those in this magazine. Admittedly there’s only so much money to go around, but at times like this we’d implore you to support the places you love and screw the copycat chains - even though they might be a bit cheaper! In the world of commerce your money is your vote.

“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”

jared@leftlion.co.uk

Dorothy Parker If you would like to reach our readers by advertising your company in these pages please contact Ben on 07984 275453 or email ben@leftlion.co.uk LeftLion has an estimated readership of 40,000 in the city of Nottingham. LeftLion.co.uk received over 4 million page views in the last 12 months. LeftLion is distributed to over 300 venues across Nottingham. If your venue isn’t one of them, please contact Ben on 07984 275453 or email ben@leftlion.co.uk This magazine is printed on paper sourced from sustainable forests. Our printers are ISO 14001 certified by the British Accreditation Bureau for their environmental management system.

MEET THE TEAM Paul Klotschkow Music Editor After inventing Tetris in the early 80s, Paul went on the run from the KGB who were determined to steal his idea and turn it in to a money spinning hand held game. They succeeded. Since being in Nottingham he has written time travelling Nicholas Lyndhurst vehicle ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ for the BBC and tried and failed to bring back Pogs.

Dom Henry Photo Editor Dom’s been wielding cameras for the ‘Lion since 2003. As well as sorting our photos, Dom also writes for us, being well into his theatre and music, especially jazz. A marketing man by trade, Dom also works as a freelance music and events photographer. He makes a mean Gin and Tonic.

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Teenager Liam Munn is stabbed to death outside Halo nightclub People just don’t seem to care about their actions. That’s not just a boy’s life taken away - that’s someone’s son, brother, boyfriend. A handful of lives ruined for one stupid argument about something that’s probably not even important. Miss Caulton Well done everyone physically involved, you complete and utter morons. The human race doesn’t need you. myhouse_yourhouse Would I be right in assuming that Halo used to be Mode, which used to be McClusky’s, which used to be Madisons? That building is the Doctor Who of shit clubs, constantly regenerating into something a bit different, but just as shit. Lord of the Nish You totally missed out Essance. That was pure awesomeness. theonelikethe Walked past the site of this just now on me lunch break. Loads of flowers there tied round a lamppost. Quite a few mourners too. Really sad news. Jared Shit like this makes me never want to come back to England. Despite living in a developing country close to civil unrest/ revolution, I still feel safer in Bangkok. I’ve not seen a single fight in eight months and I go out twice a week at least. Baron von Carlton It’s a messed up culture of not fully understanding what knives do to people, and macho bravado that is sorely misplaced. As a kid we were lucky the most we had was a scrap in the playground. kidchameleon Knives have always been around; the groups I hung out with often carried knives and that was back in the early eighties. If you go back in history, I think you’ll definitely find there’s a youth culture of carrying some sort of weapon. Sara Halo is not opening tonight as a mark of respect. Laird of Kincavel Hopefully they shall keep that mark of respect going forever. Ben_Cipher I didn’t know it was someone from the Dollars shop. They are nice guys in there. It’s very sad, so pointless. Geoim

Coffee Intake I’m currently drinking a lot of coffee, on a regular basis. As a large proportion of a cup of coffee is water and you’re recommended to drink at least two litres a day, will I get caffeine poisoning before reaching that hydration target? MrGeesBigCircus Caffeine is a mild diuretic so, unfortunately, coffee drinking to achieve hydration could well be a catch 22 situation. ShiftlessShuffle I read a report that indicated a link between reduced risk of diabetes and higher coffee, but also that higher intake leads to ‘hallucinogenic processes’, which is not something you want in the office. So who knows? Stillman Keep going! I want to know how much you need before the hallucinations kick in. Metal Monkey I stopped drinking it in September. The first two days are weird, but after that you just feel fine. My main reason for quitting was that I wanted to be calmer and less easily distracted, which has worked. Cheque If you’re not seeing and hearing things that aren’t really there, you aren’t really a ‘coffee drinker’, more of an ingenue dabbling in the murky brown waters. NJM

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MAY CONTAIN NOTTS December 2008 with Nottingham’s -January 2009 ‘Mr. Sex’, Al Needham

December 1 Forest announce that their new manager will be Billy Davies, causing uproar amongst certain supporters. A former Derby boss as the new gaffer? When has that ever worked, eh? December 3 A story about a junior school in Sneinton cancelling its Christmas play because the kids couldn’t learn their lines on time is mysteriously reported by the Evening Post as Christmas being cancelled for Eid, by Nu (which is spelled like that because it makes them sound more sinister and New-World-Orderish) Labour in PoliticalCorrectness-Gone-Mad Broken Britanistan. Naturally, this results in the BNP complaining to the school (!) and an avalanche of whining from the sort of locals who regularly perform oral sex upon panes of glass on the 89 to Rise Park. ‘well i think its bad i dont no what the world is coming to . the english children go with out . and to all the children that belive in santa will think hes cancelled. well i tell you something if my kids went to that school they would not go on that day i would keep they off. and i would tell them about our jesus was born. i am so sicken about this . it just gose to show what can off BRITTON WE LIVE IN TODAY? if i get the chance i will live this place and move to spain or some were.this place we call britton as gone down hill’ said a moron from Aspley. December 4 ‘This is a disgrace, and looks like a form of racism. The school seems to favour muslims rather than others. We should not be celebrating a religion that beleives in sacrifices, it smacks of black magic, after all they did sacrifices. Things like this do not help racial harmony, it will just cause more racism.’ Said another resident of Planet MouthyBreathe about Santagate, as he refused to aid the dying carcass of racial harmony and caused more racism. December 5 And again. ‘Jesus was English not packi or indian. If you dont like our religion go back to where you come from’ Seriously, I could fill this entire page with shit-thick racist wank from people who, if there actually was a God, would be humanely slaughtered and made into potted meat for Nanas in care homes. All because some bleeding kids couldn’t learn the words to Frosty The Fucking Snowman in time. December 6 Some stuck-up bell-end from The Spectator has a walk down Goosegate on a bollock-freezingly cold night, doesn’t pull, so writes another depressingly piss-poor article about Nottingham. How wrong is it? He actually praises Clumber Street. Remember the following, kids: If there was one shooting in Nottingham for every time a London newspaper or magazine who didn’t know what the fuck it was going on about brought up our reputation for gun crime, there’d be almost as many shootings here as there are in London. December 7 Carl Froch becomes WBC champion of the world. Come on, Calzaghe, stop being a pissy-knickered YITNEH. December 11 Bestwood retains its crown of setting fire to more cars than anywhere else in Notts. Seriously, are they waiting for Eddie Kidd to come out of retirement or summat? December 12 Said bell-end from The Spectator goes on Radio Nottingham and apologises for being a shit excuse for a journo, like the bitch he is. December 19 An unknown genius sticks up fake signs from the Council across town that allow you to piss up the walls after half past seven. To quote the immortal Chris Needham; ‘I didn’t do it myself, but whoever did it…I’d be proud to know them, I think’. January 3 Forest only go and batter the richest club in the world 3-0 in the FA Cup, don’t they? January 4 The Conservative Party announce that the place with the biggest rise in the teenage pregnancy rate in the UK is - drum roll - Rushcliffe. How disgusting. They’re only doing it so they can get on the waiting list for a four-bedroomed semi-detached with a gazebo, you know. January 6 Nigel Clough becomes manager of Derby. How pleased I am that he’s been given a chance to manager a bigger club. And how even more pleased I am that it’s not Forest. January 7 Punchinello’s, the oldest restaurant in Nottingham, closes down - possibly because of poor trade and the recession, or possibly because the health inspectors saw the owner leave a baby on top of the microwave so he could repeatedly hit a crocodile in the face with some sausages. My money’s on the latter.

January 9 Cast, the bar/restaurant (named after a rubbish indie band) that was once properly known as the Playhouse Bar, closes down. It used to be the perfect place to have your snap on a hot summer’s day in Nottingham. Let’s hope it re-opens in time for the next one, currently estimated by NASA as July 27, 2018. January 11 According to another of those shit-stirring surveys, Nottingham - or should I say, Nonceingham - has the second highest concentration of sex offenders in the country, with one in every 748 of us bumming livestock in the Market Square on Saturday afternoons and God knows what else. January 12 Oh Jesus Christ no, both of the Scruffys in Notts have shut down an’all, and we’ll never have that recipe for the Dime Bar cheesecake again. When people who live in the Lace Market and The Park start cooking their own teas, then you know this country is in deep financial shit. January 14 Tales of Robin Hood, the tourist attraction that should have been called Come And See Some Knackered-Up Robots That Stink Of Piss, Stupid Fat-Arsed Americans, finally shuts down, sparking a debate about how we don’t do enough for tourists. And thank God we don’t, say I. Seriously, if Nottingham was twenty miles away from London, we’d all be forced by the Council to wear green tights and skip about like twats outside Ye Olde Pounde Shoppe for the benefit of Bubba Buttfuck and his foul ilk. Fuck that. January 15 Like a phoenix arising from the ashes, but in a Deicide t-shirt, Junktion 7 returns as Seven. Don’t go looking for that door handle shaped like a guitar when it opens, though - somebody teefed it. January 16 John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole and a true defender of Nottingham Culture, dies. Not only was he alleged to have been part of the defence team for the Lady Chatterley trial in 1960, but he also defended the Sex Pistols and the local Virgin Megastore in 1977 for having the word ‘Bollocks’ plastered in the shop window. January 18 A 19-year-old lad is killed outside Halo. Utterly, utterly pointless. January 21 A maintenance engineer from Pork Farms goes on trial for emptying his nuts around the factory after they wouldn’t let him have a nudey calendar up at work, and then being removed from the premises, shouting that he ‘wanted locking up before he murdered someone’. Damn, that man’s - shit, what’s that word for someone who acts really batchy? January 23 The Ninety Minutes Hate. Smashed-up train carriage. Sheep heads thrown through pub windows (thank God we weren’t playing Wolves). The police and Forest so terrified by the replay that the former refuse to move the game to Wednesday for TV and the latter refuse to allow a massive Derby banner. Oh, and the game? It was fucking horrible. January 29 A councillor from Eastwood gets into trouble for having a calendar of women’s tits on his office wall, as a stand against Political Correctness. I too would like to join him in his cause against PC nannystate namby-pambyism by pointing out that he’s a sad old get.

LeftEyeOn LeftEyeOn

What’s What’s been beengoin’ goin on raand raand Notts Nottsrecentleh, recentleh,through throughthe thelenses lensesofofour ourcamera camerafolk... folk...

Left to right from the top

From top left to bottom right Secret performances were taking place in the caves underneath Nottingham on January 13, part of ‘undercover’ a night of performance-y art from Hatch Secret performances were- hatchnottingham.co.uk taking place in the caves (Rebekah Downes) underneath Nottingham on January 13, part of Undercover, a night of performances from Hatch. Best tache in town? problems eating soup? Probably. Send us in hatchnottingham.co.uk your impressive facial hair photos and we’ll see who’s best. (Stephen Wright) (Rebekah Downes) You get some right piss artists in Nottingham... One of the eating soup? Best ‘tache in town? Problems ‘Public Urination signs which appeared round Probably. SendPermitted’ us in your impressive facial hair Nottingham before Christmas and made the national press. photos and we’ll see who’s best. (questionmarc.co.uk) (Stephen Wright) Territory wars? Agressive behaviour? Fighting? it’s all going on

You get some right piss artists Nottingham... in the bushes at Attenborough Nature in reserve. One ofGriffiths the ‘Public Urination Permitted’ signs which (Lorna / Flickr: Angelicus73) appeared ‘round Nottingham before Christmas and Philadelphia Hip Hop band The Roots played Rock City on made the national press. December 1, featuring MC Black Thought heading up their Jazz (questionmarc.co.uk) influenced alternative sound. (Al Greer) wars? Aggressive behaviour? Fighting? Territory It’s all going on in the bushes at Attenborough Nature reserve. (Lorna Griffiths / Flickr: Angelicus73)

Philadelphia hiphop band The Roots played Rock City on December 1, with MC Black Thought heading up their jazz-influenced alternative sound. (Al Greer) www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

Capital None Eek! The Recession is here, the trough of credit has finally run dry, and Nottingham hasn’t got a Pottingham to Pissingham. But are things really that grim? Time for yet another in-depth feature on the Credit Crunch, but this time featuring people you know, not talking rammell. Read two pages, get one free!

The May Contain Notts Guide To The Credit Crunch

words: Al Needham

A brief history on how we all ended up as potless as Derby County’s trophy cabinet. Step One

Step Seven

Margaret Thatcher is a hateful, boot-faced cow who thinks it would be a great idea for the country to stop mekking things, sell off all the nationalised industries we already owned, and start sitting in offices trading imaginary bits of paper with each other instead. The horrible, rotten, ignorant bitch.

Nottingham thinks it would be well jolleh to knock up loads of executive flats in the Lace Market, and then realises that the handful of executives that actually do live in Notts would rather stay in The Park, thanks. So they go to nobheads who want to pretend to be in Sex and the City who can’t really afford them and students instead.

Step Two The West says, ‘Hey, massive Communist countries, we’ll teach you how to do Capitalism, so you can have a McDonalds in Red Square and we can bang on about how we won the Cold War’. Massive Communist countries say, ‘Yeah, go on then - we can get our lot to do the shit jobs your lot can’t be arsed with any more.’ The West says, ‘Oh, just one thing - you’ve got to promise not to be shitbags any more.’ ‘Er, no mate,’ say Massive Communist countries, ‘we’re going to carry on thinking we’re rock, and in ten years time you’ll be hanging off our arseholes like goldfish shit.’ ‘Ah, sod it,’ says the West. ‘Just keep sending them DVDs and cheap clothes over and we’ll say no more about it.’

Step Three Loads of greedy twats in America have an insatiable need to find houses big enough to get their fat arses and oversized Stetsons into, and ponce money off lenders with stupid names like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that they could never afford to pay back even if they lived three lives.

Step Four America thinks it would be a bit of a laugh to vote for George W. Bush, in an experiment to see what would happen if the country was run by a perpetually masturbating orangutan who has been licking lead paint off a stick all day.

Step Five Meanwhile, in the UK, Tony Blair is well into his mission to impose middle-class values on people who can’t afford them, with the assistance of eminently punchable smug twats on the telly who present non-stop House Porn on Channel fucking Four, a ludicrous rise in house prices, and lots of lovely, lovely credit.

Step Six Some mad bastards crash a couple of planes into the World Trade Center. President Bell-end vows to give the perpetrators a right panning and spends over $600,000,000,000 in order to make Osama bin Laden move cave a couple of times, the world even more scarier, and buses to be evacuated because some twat left an empty box of chicken on the top deck. Whoo! Mission accomplished!

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Step Eight It slowly dawns upon people that while countries like China are making things and selling things, us batchy boggers are only buying things from them and selling ‘em to each other, because what used to be your nearest factory is now a rapidly emptying nest of ponce-boxes. Nice one, Maggie, please die soon.

Step Nine It also slowly dawns upon people that bankers are being paid a shitload of money for very little, and even more money when they make a dog’s arse of things by way of a golden handshake. Imagine if you were at work, and your boss gave you £50 every time you shit yourself and smeared it all over your face at your desk. That’s just what it’s like to be a banker.

Step Ten It rapidly dawns upon the banks that vast amounts of the money they loaned out to people has been spunked on overpriced houses, £700 gold chains that are worn by bin-men in town in order to impress ‘the Fanneh’, assorted worthless rammell, duddoos, etc. And a lot of them can’t afford to pay it back. Ooer.

Step Eleven The banks shit theirsen.

Step Twelve Governments shit theirsen.

Step Thirteen We all shit oursen.

Step Twelve You get laid off from your job, and rock and whine softly to yourself in a house you can no longer afford, whilst some cock on the news tells you that we all have to spend our way out of recession.

You Don’t Know You’re Born, Part 1.

The Dirty Thirties: ee, it wor grim words: Michael Abbott (with help from Gramma Rose and Grandad Bill) ALTHOUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION of the twenties and thirties didn’t hit Nottingham half as badly as it did the North, it was still a massive blow. The lace empire had shrunk considerably from its Victorian heyday, but other industries, Raleigh in particular, managed to stick it out and come out the other side stronger than before. It was still relentlessly grim, though. There was an almost Chaplinesque quality to the locals; clothes riddled with holes, shoes with soles that flapped and kids’ shoes being encrusted with big metal segs that shot out sparks when they broke into a run. Even though huge swathes of the population were out of work, there was a huge stigma about being unemployed at first - the general opinion was that it was something to do with laziness rather than an uncontrollable financial collapse. Although there was a dole of sorts, it was a pittance compared to the post-Welfare State unemployment benefit and after you were on it for a while, it was reduced and supplemented with food vouchers, as the government was terrified that a rapidly-depressed chunk of the population would piss it away on booze. People who worked at the Labour Exchange were generally despised; people were convinced that they would hold back jobs for their mates and were taking back-handers left and right. However, things weren’t as bad in the surrounding countryside, as agriculture was still a dominant (and especially during those times, absolutely crucial) force in the UK. During the summer, farmers would draw on hired help from the city and the value of livestock rocketed; one slaughtered pig would basically pay the rent for the entire year. Summing it all up, Nottingham just about managed to dodge a bullet, thanks to its long-awaited expansion. Not only were thousands of council houses built in new estates that sprang up on the North side from the late twenties onwards, but the Council House was opened in 1929 (even though it needed to put a few shops on the ground floor to cover costs). By the end of the thirties, the good news was that there was work available for every able man. The bad news was that said work mainly involved being in a massive war…

‘When one venue goes down, an entire section of local bands lose their base’ Julio Taylor was the booker for Junktion 7, which closed on New Year’s Eve, and will be performing the same role at the all-new Seven. MUSIC VENUES have been feeling the pinch for some time now, for various reasons; people go out less and when they do they drink less. Music venues stand or fall on their bar take; if you’re putting on a low-key gig, you’re not going to make much on the door. If you’ve booked a higher-profile band, they’ll want at least 80% of the ticket sales. A busy bar is crucial to any venue’s success - that’s why we’re all keen on club nights, because you don’t have to pay for a band or an engineer and people will come out to get pissed. The summer of 2007 was the turning point. The students came back, but not in the numbers that they used to, and not with the spending power they used to have. You didn’t get the feeling that you were in Studentville any more. There was also a change in the laws about three years ago which allowed any licensed bar to put on live music - so any old pub with a PA could put bands on, which led to a total flooding of the market and the number of good local bands available to play went down. More music venues doesn’t make for a better music scene, because there’s only so many people who’ll go to live gigs. You can only slice the salami so many times, and the scene gets diluted. We always championed local bands, we have no regrets about that, and we know that we were an extremely important part of the Notts music scene, but local shows always suffer in a downturn. It’s going to be a difficult period for local music venues, which is a great shame because they all work so well together. Each of them has found its own little niche, they know that niche back to front, and it’s incredible that there are so many in such a small area. Problem is that when one venue goes down, an entire section of local bands lose their base. As a musician myself in Illuminatus, I loved the venue. Our first gig was at a Battle of the

Bands there, we picked up and developed our audience thanks to our association with the place, and we loved it. The owners made us feel welcome and the audience were very receptive. Six years later, I could see new bands walking in and feeling really proud to be there. This isn’t a criticism to any other venue in Notts, but all local music venues are cliquey by their very nature - including my old venue - and a lot of the bands who played there would have found it extremely difficult to get a slot elsewhere had the place just disappeared. It would have been a massive loss to the local scene. Luckily, the venue has been bought out and we’re starting

again as Seven. The attitude, staff and ethos will be the same - the ownership and brand name has changed. This time we’re going to spend a lot more time in the community and on the internet, and make sure the punters take full ownership of the venue. We’re very open to new ideas at the moment, the policy is putting on what works and what’s good. Seven opens on Friday 13 February, with an official launch featuring Zodiac Mindwarp on Saturday 14 February www.sevenlive.co.uk

‘We’re at the end of an era, and it’s one that we’ll never see again’ Chris Stamp has been manager of Muse for over three years. BUSINESS HAS BEEN VERY GOOD, ACTUALLY. The bar and restaurant trade here had a very good Christmas. We’ve had some surprisingly busy weeknights here since then, weekends have been great…it’s not been the doom and gloom we expected. Having said that, it’s obvious that people are cutting down on their nights out, and they’re budgeting when they do. People in Nottingham are never going to stop going out - they’ll just be more selective of what, where, and how much they’ll drink. They’re definitely turning towards other night-time activities; Broadway’s box office have just had their most profitable weekend ever. This recession has been a long time coming, and it’s the bar trade who suffered first. The government has been constantly jacking up the duty on alcohol for bars, while allowing the supermarkets to use alcohol as a loss leader, and we can’t compete. People are stocking up on cheap booze, drinking at home, and coming out later. That and the smoking ban meant that we took a hit earlier than other retail outlets. We’re all aware that there’s going to be some fallout in the pub trade over the year. But that’s inevitable in Nottingham, as there are so many licensed premises anyway. It’ll be survival of the fittest, but also a necessary period of consolidation. If you look after your customer base, continue what you do well and keep your costs down, you’ll be able to come out the other side as a better business. I think we’re very well placed to cope over the next few years. Being opposite Broadway helps, and the return of Brownes has

been a huge shot in the arm for Hockley; people are more inclined to come to an area if there’s more than one similar type of bar there, rather like they do on Mansfield Road. The pubs who are going to suffer will be the ones with an older clientele, without decent smoking facilities, who are dictated to by breweries and can’t choose who to buy their beer from. Certain pubs are taking desperate measures at the moment without thinking it through, which is very risky; it devalues your brand. Some are also starting to pander to students, which is a false economy; you’re competing with so many other people with years of experience and having to lay out for bands and DJs. We offer students free rental of the upstairs bar for private parties and we have after-work deals, but nothing that compromises what we’ve spent years building up. Like almost every other bar in town, we’re with PubWatch, who have put a £1.50 cap on the lowest price of a drink. But a certain chain - the supermarket equivalent of the bar world, if you will - are doing pound-a-pint deals, which is a very bad idea; it’s narked the police, it’s narked the other bars and it’s not at all responsible. Whatever happens to the economy, it’s obvious that we’re at the end of an era for the Notts pub trade, and it’s one that we’ll never see again. The flash, gold credit-card, poncebox-renting thing was a house of cards just waiting to be blown over and thank God it’s gone. It wasn’t a particularly Nottingham thing in the first place - just an empty, fake lifestyle, and good riddance to it. www.musebar.co.uk

‘It’s an inevitability that some shops will go to the wall’ Robin Donaldson and Mo Ghofrani are the Menswear Menswear Manager and Menswear Co-ordinator of Projects Design, which has been running for three years. WE SAW THIS COMING last summer, when there was a huge drop. Menswear is keeping us healthy at the moment - women shop continually, but men shop in random bursts, and we’re in a peak time for men. They went mental the week before Christmas.

day, no need to re-fold any jumpers’. When that happens here, you worry. People’s shopping habits have definitely changed. Some of them have become savvier and more selective. The really galling thing is the fact that the most successful outlet at the moment is Primark the most unethical company on the face of the earth! Why do your morals have to fly out of the window just because you’re earning a bit less, for a £15 top that you’re going to love for a week and then never wear again?

There’s been a dip, but not as much as we expected. We went on sale very early and tried not to panic. Being a totally independent shop helps; we’re just a phone call away from the owner, meaning we can react on the fly to events. Your Top Shops have a chain of command, more stock, and can only under or overreact long after the event. That’s our one advantage. There are still independents opening up, but they’re a dying breed in Notts. The Council are really inflexible with the indies; they’ve only just started to be decent with us because they’re struggling too. Other cities encourage the growth of small businesses, but the minute you can’t pay your rent here, you’re out. We pride ourself on being a shopping Mecca - and it’s undeniable that there are some amazing one-off shops here - but it’s not as good here compared to, say, Leeds. Everything’s scattered from Canning Circus to Mansfield Road, and the centre is dominated by chains.

It’s an inevitability that some shops will go to the wall. When you hear about major retailers going down, it’s terrifying. It’s a personal thing - there’s someone we know with a house and commitments who is going to suffer if we close. If you work at French Connection and there’s no trade, you think; ‘Great - easy

When will the recession end? When people stop using the Rword. It’ll be at least two years before we get back to normal. Hopefully, there’ll be a renaissance in local independent shops and a rejection of chain stores. We turn out so many fashion designers and entrepreneurs here, but unless this town does something to accommodate them, we’ll keep losing them to other cities and other countries. Projects Design, 32 Pelham Street, NG1 2EG www.projectsclothing.com

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You don’t know you’re born, Part 2.

The Hatey Eighties: at least the football was good words: Michael Abbott (with help from his mam) UNLESS YOU LIVED in the south-east, the entire country got kicked in the knackers in the early eighties. Nottingham took its fair share of groin-ache; virtually every big industry in the city was laying off left and right, and the concept of leaving school on a Friday and starting in the factory the next Monday disappeared forever.

This particular recession - which was so all-consuming that it didn’t even need a special name - affected everything. Apart from a very convenient Falklands War that kept the most unpopular government in history in power, the news reports relentlessly kicked off for years with the latest unemployment figures. Unless you were ‘lucky’ enough to get on a YTS (Youth Training Scheme - twenty five whole pounds a week!), there was practically no stigma about being young and on the dole; it was almost mandatory. There was still free university education if you fancied it and there was dossing about and having an extended childhood if you didn’t. Although the eighties is seen as the age of the Yuppie, they weren’t exactly in abundance in Notts. The only people in the area who cashed in at the time were private landlords who took advantage of houses that were being repossessed all over the shop. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom; Nottingham took quite the step up in the early eighties, especially in the field of entertainment; Rock City and the Royal Concert Hall both opened and the Central East Midlands studios were built in Lenton. As with the present government, regeneration was seen as the way out; after Hyson

Green had a copycat riot in the wake of Brixton, the flats were pulled down and work was created for the sake of it. More importantly, the Thatcher regime’s ace in the hole for their second election - facilitating the opportunity for private tenants to buy their own properties - kicked off the first housing boom of the modern era. Nice if you got in at the right time; not so nice if you weren’t even born then and you’re currently working your tits off to get on the ladder. However, the defining moment of Nottingham in the eighties was the miner’s strike, when the Notts branch of the NUM refused to strike without a ballot and a huge chunk of them broke away and continued to work, leading to the county becoming the focal point of a virtual civil war. Defiant heroes against authority in the mould of Robin Hood, Arthur Seaton and Brian Clough, or sell-outs who turned the entire north against us and got used and spat out by the foul Thatch? Let’s not go into that. And this is the decade we have theme pubs and club nights devoted to?

‘We’re not fazed by it at all’ Rosa Brough is a second-year Broadcast Journalist student at Trent who works part-time at the Golden Fleece, and presents Stupod, LeftLion’s student podcast. Everyone assumes that students are going to be unaffected by the recession, and I’d agree - to a certain extent. The majority of people I know at Uni aren’t fazed by it at all - we’re not worried about our mortgages or jobs, we have our loans, they cover our tuition, rent and food, and we always find going-out money when we need to. Having said that, I am getting worried about the state of the job market. We do this to land the career we always wanted to do - and you definitely need a degree for that these days, as well as the placements and the networking - but most of us take any first job available to keep us going, and those jobs are looking thin on the ground. I’m not scared about the debt side of things at all. I see this as an investment in my future life and I’ll worry about the cost later. The interest rates are always going to be low, regardless of the financial climate. I think the biggest worry for students right now is the slowdown in the night-time economy, because a lot of

us work in bars and restaurants and the money from that is the difference between scraping along and being able to properly enjoy yourself. I get the feeling that universities aren’t really stressed about the recession. There’s always going to be a large amount of people who want to do a degree, because it’s a way of getting out of the real world and sponging off people for three more years. And if it wasn’t for the two universities in Notts, the city would be in bigger trouble. Building projects are slowing down all over the country, but we’ve just had a new newsroom built on campus and buildings are being converted all over the city for students. The universities are keeping a lot of firms afloat now, and I don’t think town would be half as buzzing as it is without us. Most pubs would be shut in the week. Stupod is available every month from www.leftlion.co.uk/audio

POUND TOWN

Discount shops: a guilty pleasure then, pretty damn essential now. Here’s the top five in the city centre… EVERYTHING 99p

POUNDLAND

Broadmarsh Centre, opposite Wimpy

Lister Gate, right next to Broadmarsh Centre. Are you detecting a pattern here?

Once upon a time, this was the £2 Shop, and some of us look back at those times as if they were an era of unfettered decadence. Nowadays, this place does exactly what it says on the tin (of Goblin hamburgers - perfect for your next LARPing camping weekend). If you want to know what shopping in East Germany circa 1978 was like, this is where you go - brand names that time forgot (Playtex? Wright’s Coal Tar Soap? Toffifee?), shabby knock-offs of licenced toys, and utter randomness (leopardskin mop handles, anyone?). Cock your nose up at this place at your peril, though - the food bargains are skill, with proper brands for next to nuppence.

This place is obviously reaching for the high-end Poundocity of Everything £1, but it doesn’t quite manage it. Absolutely no reason to spurn it, though - it specialises in student food (Vesta packet curries, noodles, etc), bathroom and cleaning products, and - at the time of writing - slut pants, stocking, whips, and bondage sets. Ooh la la! If you’re lucky, you’ll find: Edible knickers. Sex up your snap tin for a quid! One for the ponces: Loads of girly bath-mank. Candles, fizzy balls, whiffy gels, etc.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find: Church candles going for £8 elsewhere for 99p. One for the ponces: Enough slabs of Green & Black’s - the Bournville that thinks it’s summat - to retile your bathroom with for a tenner. Er, no mate: Loads of vaguely erotic ceramic ornaments that used to terrify you (whilst making your groin go all tingly) when you were nine.

EVERYTHING £1

Broadmarsh Centre, next to Argos This place is the future of pound shops (except they’ll be called €1.23 shops then). Loads of brands you know and trust (Lemsips for £2.50 cheaper than in Boots!) jostle for attention with the mad shit we’ve come to know and love. No chatty carpets or bingo curtains here, it’s all shiny wooden floors, proper lighting and - as a concession to the average Broado punter - aisles wide enough to accommodate the widest Bulwell Mam-arse. The food selection is exemplary, and they sell two pregnancy testing kits for a quid. Which, for my money, is worth the steam off anyone’s piss. If you’re lucky, you’ll find: Vicks Vapo-Rub, a dust mask and foot-long glow-sticks. All your old-school raving requirements at 1992 prices! One for the ponces: Those Feng Shui statuettes you paid 79 quid more for a few years ago, you sucky bell-end.

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Something useful we bought for a pound. Er, no mate: Anthony’s 70s Disco Workout DVD, presented by the minciest Big Brother contestant ever, which is saying a lot.

Er, no mate: A dozen plastic red roses for a quid. Instant dumpage.

WILKOS

All over Notts. Including Broadmarsh Centre If you don’t know what Wilkos is or does, put this paper down now, scum.

POUND SAVER

Broadmarsh Centre, opposite Wilkos Not a pound shop as such, but a veritable Aladdin’s Cave - if Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves had just pulled off a massively successful sting on the Prize Bingo at Skegness, that is. This place is a veritable discount gangsta’s paradise: you can pick up no end of Playboy tat, a passport cover marked ‘PLAYER’, a Scarface clock that looks like if was ripped off a 12 year-old’s MySpace page for £7, and - best of all - an imitation AK-47 for the kiddies for a fiver and an Airsoft sawn-off shotgun for Dad retailing at a mere £12. Awr, bless, etc. If you’re lucky, you’ll find: something of use. One for the ponces: Er, nothing to see here, really.

IN MEMORIUM Fords (The shop in Viccy Centre that had its own overpass attached to it so you could go there with your Mam without being seen by your mates and getting shamed down). The Reject Shop. The Scoop basement in the big Co-Op. Car boot sales (before eBay). Shops with bins full of cornflakes and pistachios.

Er, no mate: Official Chelsea FC chocolate, with twelve very poor likenesses of Frank Lampard.

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Rob Cutforth is surprised to discover that, beneath the surface, Nottingham is a bona fide Metal Muthaland…

1990 WAS A BIG YEAR FOR ME. I was fifteen, in my first year of high school, my voice (and my balls) had finally dropped and I was introduced properly to hard rock. To say I was a bit of a late bloomer would be like saying Dawn French kinda likes cheese. I think most people go through an awkward stage in their lives, but for me it went a bit further than most. Before my fifteenth birthday, my life was all about three things: videogames, Dungeons and Dragons and Duran Duran. That’s right, ladies.

There certainly wasn’t enough for a column; I guessed I would have to find another Nottingham institution to diss instead (by the way, neither Jo and Twiggy’s break-up nor the closing of the Tales of Robin Hood are my fault, I swear). It was getting late, I was tired and I was half in the bag so I figured we’d call it a night. John wasn’t having any of it - he said he was saving the best for last; Heavy Metal Karaoke at the Ye Olde Salutation Inn. There are few things I hate more than karaoke. It’s not so much the bad songs, the cheesy DJ or even the terrible singing that gets me down. What I hate most about karaoke is karaoke people. People who take it seriously. People who (thanks to Pop Idol and X Factor) are convinced that the only reason they’re not famous is because they haven’t been discovered yet. People who are too deaf and stupid to realise that when they try to hit the high notes, it’s like a cat is being castrated and set alight. I personally think that the producers of X-Factor should be publicly stoned to death for allowing that Alexandra chick to release a karaoke version of quite possibly the most beautiful song ever written. It literally makes my ears bleed.

All that changed when my best friend lent me his copy of Metallica’s ...And Justice for All that spring. I had never heard or seen anything like it before; the black guitars, the fuck-you attitude, the ridiculous hair and the even more ridiculous guitar solos. I loved it. In the years that followed, I grew my hair long, traded the neon shirts and turn-ups for denim cutoffs and a leather jacket (I’m not sure which was worse), and replaced my collection of Duran Duran and Pet Shop Boys tapes with Pantera, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Nirvana and, of course, Metallica. I had well and truly sold my soul to the God of Rock forever. Eighteen years later, when my buddy John suggested we do a hard rock pub crawl of Nottingham for my next column, I shrugged it off. Nottingham didn’t really strike me as a rock town; it’s full of cheesy clubs. Besides, what could John possibly know about it? He certainly doesn’t look like a rocker. He’s bald (not by choice), he’s got a beard and a proper job in Marketing. He doesn’t wear leather or spandex, he showers regularly and I bet he’s never even seen an apple bong. When he showed up, he wasn’t wearing the usual shirt and tie I normally see him in; in fact, to my surprise, he was wearing a Metallica top. However, it was a preppy little Metallica jumper that looked like it had been designed by Tommy Hilfiger, bought for him by his girlfriend. I didn’t really expect much proper rocking out that evening, but he was persistent and fun to drink with, so I agreed. The tour started with the usual suspects. I had never drunk at the Pit and Pendulum, the Angel or Foremans before and to be honest, they all produced (mostly) predictable results. Being surprised at finding goths in the Pit would be like being surprised at finding a story blaming Princess Di’s death on immigrants in the Daily Mail. I suppose the same could be said about finding a skinhead in a punk bar like Foremans, but it still shocked me when I saw one. I’ve seen This is England and have had someone try to explain to me the concept that you can be a skinhead in this country without being a racist, but I still don’t get it. The skins I’ve seen back home are more the curb-stomping American History X types, and they scare the ever-loving piss out of me. Trying not to make eye contact with

When we first arrived at the Sal, it was like I’d stepped into my bedroom in 1990 again. It was dirty, there were tatty Maiden shirts hanging about and old Metal posters on the wall. One thing that was never in my bedroom back then, however, were the two (surprisingly attractive) girls singing Mr Brownstone. There was only ever one girl that ventured into my room back then, and her name was a three letter palindrome. This was much better.

him, my gaze wandered over the other things Foremans has to offer. Like the Wall of the Dead or the do-it-yourself graffiti wall in the bog. It’s a weird little yellow place, but that’s what is good about it. If there is one thing it isn’t short of, it’s character; which is something that is missing from most of the soulless hipsterwannabe chain bars across the street. Plus, the music was very good.

All. I punched Blackened in and when it came on, I almost jumped out of my chair. My head was bobbing and I was about to throw the first goat I’d thrown in fifteen years when, suddenly, the bartender skipped it - laughing about it to his mates. OK, I understand Metallica is about as mainstream as you can get when it comes to metal, but what are you taking the piss out of me for? It’s your bloody jukebox, fella.

In the Angel, I found the scruffy old-school rocker types I was looking for, and I was starting to feel like it was 1990 again. John and I headed for the jukebox and to my surprise, the first album I saw staring straight back at me was the one that started it all, ...And Justice for

We left the Angel and I had resigned myself to the fact that although we’d had a decent time, I still didn’t really feel like Nottingham was a particularly hard rock town. Even Rock City were doing an eighties dance night.

Most people that went on stage looked the part. A skull tattoo here, a leather wristband there - I even saw a pink boa. Even John, airguitaring and singing Seek and Destroy in his Metallicardie, looked very Rock and Roll. But it wasn’t until Motley Crue Guy went on stage that I realised just how serious people in this town take the rock. He had massive, jet-black hair, bandanna, ripped Dr Feelgood t-shirt, leather jacket, guy-liner and white jeans ripped at the crotch exposing tiger-print tights. He went on stage, screamed his face off and in an instant, I was pulled straight back to my metal youth. I had found Nottingham’s heart, and it was black. It’s easy to mistake Nottingham for a clubber’s town with its disco ball-laden nightclubs, Friday nights of chavvy dudes in shirts and shoes openly snogging drunken, sparkly hussies and Saturday morning puke piles, but if you yank up Nottingham’s mini-skirt, you’ll find that it hides ripped fishnets and a big spiky codpiece. Thank God for that. Read more from Rob at www.canuckistani.com

BOOK

SAYLE words: Aly Stoneman photo: John Falzon

‘It’s a bit weird standing under a triple image of yourself! I look like some Greek peasant who’s been arrested - Naxos, the sheep interferer!’ quips Alexei Sayle, referring to the three publicity mug-shots for his latest book tour gurning mischievously on Broadway’s cinema screen behind him. His eyebrow-raising career change from bolshy stand-up comedian to serious writer of literary fiction continues with his fourth novel, Mister Roberts. Set in a remote Spanish village, the plot combines robot suits, aliens and ex-pats and is both an original coming-of-age story and an unusual take on the corrupting influence of power. Has fame helped your writing success? It helps you to get more attention in the first instance… you get more critical attention of the ‘My God, it can write!’ variety. But I feel like if I was someone else, my books would have been shortlisted for one of them prizes they give out by now, so it’s a mixed blessing. Maybe that’s just deluded self-pity! Stephen Fry writes in much the same way as he performs, but you’ve made a big switch from your stand-up comic persona… Stand-up is very black and white: ‘don’t you hate this, hate that.’ I wanted to be more complex about the world. When I was a comic, I was one of the best comics in the world. Nottingham, incidentally, always sold out first on the comedy tour. I want to emulate that as an author. You can’t achieve that by writing a mimsy spin-off. The game is much harder than that, takes a lot more thought. I’m incredibly competitive. I want to be up there with Philip Roth or Raymond Carver. What makes you happiest? As soon as you reflect on it, it goes, but when you write something you think is really good, it’s an incomparable experience. (Laughs) You can go for a long time without writing, but there’s something still happening somewhere. Not writing is part of writing, it’s part of the same process. When did you start writing? I’d written three movies, TV scripts, hundreds of columns, so I’d already written a lot, but I’d never been able to write prose fiction. I’d never had what they call an authorial voice. Barcelona Plates was initially a movie idea, then I thought, ‘No, I’ll try it as a short story’, and suddenly the voice was there. That was the first short story I ever wrote. Would you say that Mister Roberts is less bleak than your previous novels? Earlier drafts were very bleak, much nastier - I started wondering was I doing this ‘cos it’s my trick or did it suit the story? I don’t want to be bleak; I actually feel the need in my writing to be more optimistic. My last desperate attempt to be popular! (Laughs) Uncle Alexei - after all those years of shouting at people! Do you see yourself as a provincial writer, coming from Liverpool? (Laughs) Not provincial, probably, but I try not to be metropolitan either. I read two books recently short listed for the Orange prize - and they both mentioned Swains Lane in Highgate, in London. It’s a road in an area where writers live! I thought, find another fucking road, you know? Like both these women couldn’t think of another road except for Swains Lane, which is obviously where they go (puts on posh voice) for their patisserie every day and you just think, they can’t even be arsed moving out of north-west wherever it is! I wouldn’t like to just write about metropolitan concerns because the country is much bigger than that. Is that why you set Mister Roberts in Spain? I had thought of setting it on a housing estate in Britain, but the remoteness was an essential part of the story and I’m not a great one for research. I have a house in Spain as well….

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I’m incredibly competitive. I want to be up there with Philip Roth or Raymond Carver.

”

When did you realise you were funny? It wasn’t so much being funny, but knowing how it worked. From an early age I could watch a comic dying on the telly but think, ‘no, you’re funny’ and I could see someone else who was getting big laughs, and say, ‘no, you’re no good’. It’s not about being funny but instinctively knowing what comedy is, on a professional level. Ultimately, my books aren’t comedies, they are social satires. Does humour run in the family? My dad was a jolly sort of character but my mother’s got an extraordinarily unsophisticated sense of humour. She doesn’t think I’m funny at all. Funnily enough, I’ve been commissioned to write an autobiography next about growing up in a mad hole of believers and what that’s like. Your infamous communist upbringing… Communism means a system that fails. Somebody once asked me who my favorite fictional character was, and I said the cat in Animal Farm, because the cat never really believes it. The cat’s never for a minute fooled and I just think that’s how I’d like to think of myself really, because it made me ashamed of what me and my family had supported. Is class still important to you? Certainly my stand up was all about class. People often recollect me using foul language and I never did on television. It wasn’t the language but the attitude which was unsettling them. It was threatening because class is really an unmentionable topic. I clearly don’t subscribe to the accepted modes of behaviour for show business. I never did all that charity shit like Children

In Need. I was never nice! That’s why people think I used bad language - which I didn’t - because my attitudes were clearly subversive. So politics is still important to you? It fascinates me. The psychology of the people involved - the psychology of the mass. You could see capitalism as not just an economic system but as a psychological system, because capitalism only works if we all believe in it. If people stopped believing in the system you’d have a serious crisis, so there’s a psychology. Bloody economists and their pseudo-science; they try to say economics is a force of nature like mathematics, but it’s not, it’s a human construct and therefore the only thing that really governs it is psychology. Phew! Deep me! (Laughs) Do you think you might have a future in politics? Not in party politics, no, but I’d like to be a theoretician. I have these grandiose ideas about the way politics works. Occasionally you go on some TV show and you articulate them. I think about being a bit more active, putting out a different kind of voice. But there are a lot of dangers, going on Question Time or Newsnight, you can just reduce yourself to a kind of gimmicky person. Barack Obama’s inauguration seems to offer hope… I don’t really know how much freedom he’ll have. I’m certainly glad the other one went, he was a nightmare. But Obama is an intellectual, he seems thoughtful and charismatic. Whether these are advantages in a politician, I don’t know. I feel sorry for him that he is sailing into such troubled waters. Plans for the future? Take each day as it comes. And then he took out his mobile - and phoned his mother.

You can find out more at www.alexeisayle.me

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The Gangs of Nottingham words and photos: Jared Wilson

Hoods uncovers a story which has fascinated many people over the last decade: organised crime in Nottingham. It starts out in the fifties at the beginning of the modern-day drugs trade and then moves on to the tabloid fodder of the well-renowned Gunn brothers and ‘Assassination City’, with our chief of police telling the rest of the county, ‘We can’t cope.’ We met up with the author Carl Fellstrom in a safe place and asked him a few questions… Are you originally from Nottingham? I’m not. I moved here in 1995. I’d worked at various papers in Northamptonshire, Bedford and Yorkshire before. Around 2003 I was doing a lot of crime stories for national newspapers. I was frustrated because I could always write a lot more than they would print. They were very London-centric and a story from the provinces really had to be extraordinary to get in there. The book came from that material. Have you received any threats after writing this? There have been a few. There’s nothing I would say I’m really worried about, but I’m aware that there are a small minority of people who I have to watch out for. In fact there’s even been a Facebook site set up dedicated to getting people not to buy the book. I think the one thing some people in the book don’t like is their criminal reputations being tarnished. The fact that they have been named as informants, for example. But generally the reaction that I’ve had is quite positive. I know that it must be hard for some of the families of the victims, bringing all the memories back. But there are so many unsolved cases too and

it’s worth trying to raise their profile again. Take Tommy Lau for instance, he’s a lovely chap, but he can’t walk again because he got mistaken for someone else and shot. He still doesn’t know why it happened and it’s hard for him to live with that. Do you think Colin or David Gunn will have read it? I received a letter from David and he has read it. He was upset, didn’t like the fact that I wrote about Jamie Gunn and he was fairly abusive. But I think he was mostly upset that I didn’t go to him while I was writing it. There was a plan at one stage to do that, but I felt that the closer I got to them, the more they might expect me to give them some kind of a cloak of morality. For the same reason I didn’t try to interview Colin Gunn. They seem to want to play up the Robin Hood myth, but these guys have done brutal things and there isn’t much room to give them some kind of makeover. I don’t think they should be allowed to rehabilitate themselves so quickly after what they have done. I’m all for rehabilitation in the long term, but I think out of respect for the families of the people who have been murdered they should wait a while. They’re the real

Brief history of Gunn Crime A brief overview of the criminal careers of Bestwood Cartel leaders and ‘Godfathers’ of Nottingham gang crime, Colin and David Gunn 1960s Colin and David (born in ‘67 and ‘65) are children growing up on the Bestwood estate. 1970s The duo quickly become feared by other pupils at Henry Whipple Junior School and known as bruisers in the playground. 1980s Both are pupils at the now defunct Padstow Comprehensive School. As teenagers they appear in a local church magazine article, which praises their crime-busting heroics after they apprehend a street robber and hand a woman her purse back. But behind the scenes they are using friends and friends of friends to build up a crime network that will later become known as the Bestwood Cartel.

Early 1990s In their mid-twenties at the start of the decade and steadily clocking up minor convictions for burglary, theft, handling stolen goods and violence. 1997 The Bestwood Cartel are now running a largescale operation which spans money lending, burglaries, extortion, robbery, drugs, car ringing and fraud. Colin is known to enforce his leadership with extreme violence. There are stories of him nailing people’s hands to tables and taking to knuckles with a hammer or baseball bat. At the same time their PR in Bestwood is exceptional and to this day residents still talk about a firework show they organised one year or the £100 they left in an old lady’s birthday card. October 1998 Colin Gunn and a few friends are arrested

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victims of this story, not Colin or David Gunn for any character assassination. Having read the book, I don’t think it really sensationalises anything - it’s more focused on the evidence of the police files. Although perhaps the cover and the title could be considered slightly hyperbolic… In terms of the cover image, I had no say in that and was as surprised as anyone that they chose the image of Colin Gunn. The original cover was going to be the one of men in balaclavas that can be found on my internet sites. But the title is one I chose. I felt it summed up what I needed to say as a lot of it centres around the Robin Hood myth and Nottingham, with people trying to moralise about their own villainy. But the story itself is sensational enough already. Only the other day I heard that David Gunn is at Lowdham Grange prison with Robert Briggs-Price, Jamie Neill and Donny Quinn (three other well-known Nottingham criminals). Why on earth would you put all those people in prison together? It’s ridiculous. The authorities make it so easy for them to carry on doing what they’ve always done and so hard for them to rehabilitate.

for brutally beating a guy senseless outside the Astoria (now Ocean) near the back of the Broadmarsh Centre. However, the CCTV surveillance tapes mysteriously go missing. The victim pursues GBH charges, but without evidence Colin only gets a few hundred hours’ community service and, cheekily, gets an imposter to complete it for him. 27 November 1998 David Gunn is imprisoned for grievous bodily harm and threatening to kill Keith Copeland after a fight in a pub. He is sent to prison for four years and nine months. 2001 Colin Gunn is a reliable informant to Nottingham police. His reputation as a provider of good information is such that he is trailed by a police officer with a National Crime Squad background and begged to sign up on the official register. But his links with police are self-serving as it helps to bring down rivals and extend his patch. He is also using lots of cocaine and steroids and the two drugs together are like a timebomb.

30 August 2003 Marvyn Bradshaw is shot dead outside the Sporting Chance pub in Bulwell. It is believed the intended target of the attack was his best friend Jamie Gunn (nephew of Colin and David), who was in the back seat. Jamie is inconsolable.

You must have sifted through loads of information to write this. Are there any particularly juicy bits that didn’t make the final cut? I had to take out a lot of names and there was the odd thing that didn’t make it in for legal reasons. There was one story about a former Nottinghamshire police officer who was implicated in a massive customs drug bust and yet walked free. I think there was a bigger story to that, but I couldn’t print the details. Another one must have been the figure you call The Taxman. He’s only touched upon briefly in the book, but seems to be the biggest criminal of the lot… He was like Colin Gunn was maybe fifteen or twenty years ago. He could be very brutal, but is now one of the most successful businessmen in Nottinghamshire, if not in the whole country. He has a lot of power and a huge amount of influence and recruits former police officers to work for him so he has a great information intelligence network. For legal reasons I had to take things out that would have identified him a bit more easily. Though I think a lot of people in Nottingham already have a good idea who he is. Another interesting character involved in the book early on is Dave Francis. Tell us about him… He was a very enigmatic character from the Meadows gang in the eighties and early nineties. They were responsible for lots of armed robberies and later got into the drugs trade too. Dave began to run his own drugs cartel and yet was still a leader for the black community in a lot of ways. But what he did, which was a stroke of criminal genius, was to get a job as manager of the local drugs charity. That gave him access to a database of

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In some ways the Gunns embody the sense of community spirit in Britain that has perhaps been lost since the Thatcher days. However perverted that became there were good things about it. They cared about their community and genuinely wanted to do well by them, but the brutality of what they did to get where they were is quite shocking.

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people using crack and heroin, enabling him to set up a miniempire, whilst garnering a lot of influence through politicians like Alan Simpson MP and Sir Geoffery Errington, the chairman of the drugs charity. Francis became a political hot potato and a difficult fish to catch. The police even left him alone for a while as it became so hard for them to get to him. He was always playing the race card, but in the end he got too arrogant. He’d built up a pyramid of people working for him and they just took it out layer upon layer until he became so isolated that he had to come out of the woodwork and do bits himself and was caught as a huge load of heroin made its way to Nottingham. He went to prison for some time, but is out again now. He spends a lot of time in Jamaica these days supposedly doing charity work, but I believe he does come back to Nottingham quite often as he has a lot of family here. There are so many stories about Nottingham gangsters flying about. Was it hard to separate the truth from the bullshit? Absolutely. I’m not sure I got as far as I wanted to with it either. There will be mistakes in there, but I hope I’ve got as much right as I could have. I tried to source everything three times over to be sure. But Nottingham is a gossipy city and everyone is only really one degree removed from everyone else. Lots of things have become myths that aren’t true and some are. I’m sure that some of the stories I was told have a whiff of colouration in them, but others I’m absolutely certain were correct. For example I’m sure people were involved in the murders I’ve mentioned them in connection with.

30 September 2003 Marian Bates is shot dead in her jewellery store in front of her husband and daughter. James Brodie and Peter Williams had burst in wearing motorcycle helmets and attempted to rob the place, but it didn’t go as planned. Williams is later jailed for 22 years and Brodie has not been seen since. According to accounts from informers, he was shot and his head and hands were chopped off. Rumour has it his body was fed to pigs on a farm in north Nottinghamshire.

Researching this book must have been depressing as hell. Were there any lighter moments, or times when you had to laugh? I guess there were, but I can’t remember them. I got so caught up in it that it was occupying my every thought. I was seeing people who had been at the sharp end of it. There’s a lot of pressure on you trying to keep those people secret and safe from others finding out they’re talking to you. All these things take a great toll over a length of time. It’s taken a long time for me to get out of that headspace. How well do you think this book will sell outside of Nottingham? I’m not sure geographically, but it’s doing okay. The first print run of 7000 sold out before Christmas. The second print run was another 4000 and they’ve all gone. So we’re now looking at our third print run and we’re looking at doing a paperback in February. I think that’s great as paying £17 for a book is a luxury and I’d like it to be available at a cheaper price. Back in March 2005, when you did that ‘We Can’t Cope’ interview for The Telegraph with Nottinghamshire Police Chief Steve Green, did you realise the stir it might cause? His comments in the interview totally took us by surprise. I think what happened was that we were so well-briefed that we got him in a corner. He then thought in a wrong way that we were going to blow him out of the water. So he gave us a really candid interview to take the heat off the situation. We didn’t realise it would be on the front page of The Telegraph, but it caught the editor’s eye at the time. It was also election time and crime was a hot potato. What was disappointing was that the next day Green accused us of blackmailing him into the interview. Which was extraordinary… Then years later he came to rely on the interview to dig himself out of a hole, using it to save his job by saying he’d pointed out the problems they were facing at the time. Life has its ups and downs and I wouldn’t have wanted to be in his situation at all. But he wasn’t the right man for the job and at that point he had screwed up! Abandoning the drugs squad was his decision and had a massive effect as they were supplying primary intelligence to those investigating gun crime. It was a massive blow to their investigations. The two went hand in hand and it was naïve to think otherwise. Other things like taking bobbies off the beat and sending them round in cars also had a bad effect, sending out signals that the police were too scared to be on the streets. There were things that he did that had a huge influence on the ability of Nottingham police to deal with their workload at the time. Was Colin Gunn a criminal genius, or did the police really fuck up? He might not have been a genius in an intentional way, but he was very good at what he did and there were definitely elements of professionalism in that. But certainly I believe that the police had a larger part to play in him becoming so successful. Their collective mistakes really helped him on his way. Why do you think he stayed living in Bestwood and Rise Park, when he earned so much money he could move anywhere? Couldn’t he have just moved abroad? Colin’s wife Victoria tried to get him to move to Spain on numerous occasions and they certainly talked about that. But Bestwood was in his blood. He hated coming into town after a while, after taking a couple of beatings and losing control of the things happening outside of his estate. He was a big fish in a small pond and when he came into the city it was different as people no longer looked at him like he was the King. A lot of it was about power. He could certainly have afforded to give up his life of crime, but he probably liked and was used to the feeling of reigning over the people of Bestwood. Did your opinion of the Gunns change after you finished the book? I think that it helped to understand them as human beings. It’s easy to think of people as cartoon-style gangsters, but it wasn’t just criminals who looked up to them. I talked to many people who are law-abiding citizens of Nottingham that only had good things to say about them. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about Nottingham as a city too. Not least that the connections between people are so close. It’s like one big family.

12 July 2004 Michael O’Brien is jailed for life for the murder of Marvyn Bradshaw. As the judge read out the sentence, O’Brien threw water and spat insults at Mr Bradshaw’s family and taunted Colin Gunn, who was sat in the gallery during the trial, shouting ‘There’s one coming your way.’ 2 August 2004 Jamie Gunn dies of pneumonia, after eleven months of depression and drug use following the death of Bradshaw. His funeral is attended by thousands of mourners, including most of Bestwood. Colin is inconsolable over the death of his nephew. 8 August 2004 Joan and John Stirland are shot dead in their bungalow on the Lincolnshire coast. Joan Stirland was the mother of Michael O’Brien and many believe it is a revenge attack by the Gunns. January 2005 Police intelligence on the secret operations of

Is there anything the Gunn brothers did that you have an admiration for, sneaking or otherwise? In some ways they embody the sense of community spirit in Britain that has perhaps been lost since the Thatcher days. However perverted that became there were good things about it, with people looking out for each other and particularly those who needed help like the elderly. They cared about their community and I think they genuinely wanted to do well by them, but the brutality of what they did to get where they were is quite shocking. How valid do you think comparisons to the Krays are? I think they’re entirely valid, though I didn’t touch on it much in the book. There’s no doubt the metaphor works. Everything I know about the Kray twins as a phenomenon is similar. On the one hand they were compassionate towards their own, on the other side they are business-like and brutal to anyone who posed a threat to them. As brothers there is a bit there as well in the sense that one was perhaps slightly unhinged and more violent, with the other one being the slightly stronger character in terms of getting things organised. Has there been any interest in the book from film or TV companies yet? Just before the book came out there was some, but there hasn’t been much since. Certainly I’ve talked about it with people and I’d be interested in being involved with something based on a similar way to how Shane Meadows gets people from the local community involved. But so many things would have to be right, the story itself and the people involved that it’s a massive job. But it is something I’ve thought about, yeah…

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The one thing some people in the book don’t like is their criminal reputations being tarnished. The fact that they have been named as informants, for example.

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Colin Gunn’s own biography is bound to come out soon. If he asked you to write it with him, would you do it? Hmmm. I’d definitely think about it, but I’m not sure they would ask me. I think there is a lot of bubbling talk from the Gunn side about publishing something for themselves. David is coming out soon and I think he’d like to restore his reputation and go back to Bestwood with his head held high. So there is definitely an interest in their story, but whether I’d be involved in it or not is another matter. What are you going to write next? I’m working on a book in tandem with another writer, which is the story of an undercover police officer. Believe it or not he went undercover to infiltrate the miners during the strike. A lot of people wouldn’t realise that the authorities in Nottingham would use their own police officers to resolve what was a civil law situation, but that’s Thatcher for you. What would you say to people who are afraid to go out at night in Nottingham? Don’t be scared. The only way things can change and you can reclaim it from the gangsters is by getting out there and making it your own city. Try to impose your own character on the place and cheer it up. Hoods, published by Milo books, is reviewed on page 28 and available to buy online and in bookshops now.

the Bestwood Cartel goes missing from a car and finds its way to Colin. 17 March 2005 Colin Gunn and several other men are arrested by Nottinghamshire police on suspicion of murder. 30 Jun 2006 Colin Gunn, Michael ‘Tricky’ McNee and John Russell are all jailed for life (35 years) for conspiracy to murder Mr and Mrs Stirland. 1 July 2006 Gunn’s supporters riot in Bestwood, with around thirty people setting fire to cars and causing £10,000 worth of damage. 13 October 2006 David Gunn goes to prison on Amphetamine possession and supply charges, after a trial at Derby Crown Court.

www.milobooks.co.uk

it is said that he was recruited and placed into the force as a ‘clean skin’. Alongside him fellow former policeman Philip Parr is jailed for twelve months for conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office. 4 November 2006 Several people are jailed for their part in the Bestwood riots earlier in the year. January 2007 O’Brien’s friend, Gary Salmon, is jailed for life for his part in the Marvyn Bradshaw murder. August 2007 Colin Gunn is convicted of encouraging police corruption in the case of Charles Fletcher. He is given another nine years which will run concurrently with his life sentence. April 2009 David Gunn is due for release from prison.

26 October 2006 Former trainee police detective Charles Fletcher is jailed for seven years for corruption. In court www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

words: Adrian Bhagat photo: Dom Henry

Stephen Lowe is a Sneinton-born playwright, actor, director and screenwriter, perhaps best known for Old Big ‘Ead in The Spirit of the Man, his very successful play about Brian Clough. We spoke to him about a new work, Glamour, which focuses on a sexually frustrated young filmmaker and an encounter with the Kray brothers. What is the story behind Glamour? The story is largely autobiographical. I’d say that the weirder the play gets the more likely it is to be true. It was 1966 and I was a working class lad in grammar school. I was making a film of my own which was supposed to be a Lawrentian breakthrough movie about sexual relationships. I borrowed a wind-up camera from my uncle and I bought the cheapest 8mm film you could get which I developed myself in the bath. It was called Blue Movie because the middle section was all about whether their sexual relationship would work out or not. The first part was black-andwhite, grainy, like Nottingham in the sixties. The second part was blue and the third part I wanted to make in Technicolor. I was working at a fleapit cinema called Moulin Rouge. The owner let me programme all these foreign films as long as they had little bits of sex in them to keep the dirty raincoat brigade happy. They were very cheap to get because no-one had ever heard of people like Ingmar Bergman or Fellini. The owner was an Eastender who said he could introduce me to film producers and it turned out they were also friends with the Kray Brothers who were trying to take over the protection racket in Nottingham. They’d taken over Leicester a few days before, which was part of their move out of London at that time. So, the Krays arrived in town, kitted out with guns. I didn’t come face-to-face with them but I was around them partly because I was moving between the two or three places that they were involved in. There’s nothing I have found in their autobiographies about Nottingham except one line that claims that they came here and they didn’t like it. How did you come to write a play about it? About ten years ago the film I’d made turned up in a cardboard box and my wife Tanya [Myers] who’s in the play took it to a shop to be transferred to video. When I went to collect it, the staff kept me talking saying there was a problem with my credit card until the police arrived. They thought I was some sort of master pornographer and I had to explain that the young man in the film was myself at a much younger age and I wasn’t really naked - I was wearing white underpants stained in tea to look flesh coloured! In the end, I didn’t get arrested. I kept telling the story and people said it would make a great play about innocence. What was it like watching the film again? I had to shut my eyes! It is a devastatingly awful piece, but it was extraordinary to return to that film and see how curiously

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innocent as well as pretentious it was. Looking at yourself at eighteen is a bit of a shock anyway - I’d forgotten the acne. I wondered whether this was the first work of a sixties Shane Meadows? I showed it to Giles Croft (Artistic Director at the Playhouse) and he said (affects a posh voice) ‘You probably made the right career move!’.

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They thought I was some sort of master pornographer and I had to explain that the young man in the ﬁlm was me at a much younger age wearing white underpants stained in tea to look ﬂesh-coloured! In the end, I didn’t get arrested.

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What is the play about? All my plays are about times the world changed. In 1966 Nottingham was ‘black-and-white’ but there was a feeling that something was shifting, that there were waves of colour arriving. This lad finds himself in different kinds of reality, wandering through worlds of adult sexuality and passions and betrayals in all innocence, trying to work out how to finish off this movie. It’s a comedy of absolute chaos about the confusion and difficulties of love. The play combines film and scenes backstage in the cinema. They’ve remade my Blue Movie with the two really brilliant young actors. The films have massive significance to the characters. It’s an odd subject for a comedy but it’s really about dreaming in difficult circumstances, about how to keep hope going when everything’s closed down. You have another play opening straight after this one... Yes, Empty Bed Blues is about DH Lawrence in the last year of his life. He was trying to get some money out of Lady Chatterley’s Lover but it had been banned in England and stolen in America. He was dying but went to Paris to see a young socialite couple, Harry and Caresse Crosby. Harry was a mad poet, into every kind of available drug, who wanted to

publish Lawrence. His wife was also extraordinary and beautiful. They expected Lawrence to be wild like them but found him morose and angry, trying to face the possibility of death and what that meant to his writing, whilst also worried about his wife’s relationship with the Italian gardener. So you actually discover what was going on in his mind as he was writing Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Again it’s a comedy but it’s also a real clash of cultures and ideas. Sometimes as you get into comedies you realise there’s a lot more going on than you think. Is there anything else in the pipeline? I wrote a second Brian Clough play for Derby Playhouse called The Devil’s League. It’s yet another comedy with Robert Maxwell, the Seven Dwarves, Ursula Andress, the Virgin Mary. It gets a bit crazy. We were within a week of opening before the theatre went bankrupt - which wasn’t my fault! There probably won’t be a theatre in Derby for a long time so someone else will have to do it. Are you a football fan? I am a Forest fan and I used to go to most of the away games with Alan Dossor who directed Old Big ‘Ead. I went to the unveiling of Brian Clough’s statue. Marcus Alton has done really well getting that together. I think a statue of Brian is better than some general who conquered India. It’s celebrating a working class hero. Is there anything else you want to tell our readers? Nottingham’s an incredibly cultural city. It has one of the great nineteenth century poets in Byron, some of the great writers of the twentieth century in Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe, painter Dame Laura Knight and all the filmmakers now. Let’s celebrate the richness of the town. Let’s put a statue of Torvill and Dean on the other side of the square. We’ve stopped being the gun capital and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like living in Nottingham. Glamour plays at the Nottingham Playhouse from 6-21 February. Empty Bed Blues is at the Lakeside Arts Centre from 6-21 March. www.stephenlowe.co.uk www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk www.lakesidearts.org.uk

words: Paul Klotschkow From humble beginnings buying his first record in Arnold, to a decade at The Television Workshop, promoting one of UK hiphop’s premier events and now being all over the BBC. It’s a cliché, but MistaJam must be one of the hardest working men in showbusiness. If you name it he’s probably done it. Starred in a TV soap? Check. DJed on Radio One? Check. Had a TV sitcom on the BBC? Check. Been interviewed by LeftLion? Check. What’s your relationship with Nottingham? It’s my hometown and the place where I laid the foundations for my career, as well as the place I retreated to when my acting career went belly up! Capital One Sales RIP! What do you get up to when you are back in the city? I come back to Nottingham to either see my friends and family or do a DJ gig which are both great reasons to come home. It’s been a long time since I had a night out in Notts and everything seems to have changed, even in the eighteen months since I moved away. Any memorable nights out in Nottingham? My most memorable nights were the events I was involved with over the years. Whether it be UK Takeover, KRS One at Rock City or DJ Premier at Stealth; they all have a special place in my heart. That and the evening I managed to get thrown out of World Service restaurant. Nottingham has had some bad rep in the national press over the past few years, what’s your view on this? I think there isn’t enough happening there to work on the root causes of the problems. Youth centres, youth projects and alternative education projects are being starved of cash and are not being allowed to do the jobs that they have already proven that they can do. The huge Market Square refurbishment a couple of years ago looks lovely, but a quarter of the money that was spent on that could have funded many projects that would have made a real difference to people’s lives.

Did you attend the workshop with anyone famous? A good few people, because I was in the workshop from the age of seven until I was pretty much kicked out when I got too old. My paths crossed with Samantha Morton, James Hooton, the infamous Shauna and Andrew Shim, and Toby Kebbell is a good friend, or at least he was when I last spoke to him a couple of years ago! You played Minty the chef in the second series of Crossroads. Do you have any juicy gossip you can share about the cast members? It was eight years ago now, so I can’t remember any of the juiciest gossip! There were a good few nights out in Nottingham and usually most of the cast would end up in Bar Schnapps way past closing time making complete tits of themselves. However I’ve never been a big drinker so I was the one in the corner laughing at them all. There were a couple of inter-cast pregnancy scares, but that’s all I’m saying. You’ve done a bit of acting recently too… I was in the BBC Three and now BBC Switch sitcom Trexx and Flipside that was filmed early last year, but I’ve pretty much given up acting for the foreseeable future. I really want to focus on my broadcasting career but that doesn’t mean I’d never act again, as I still want to do a film. I’ve pretty much done every other discipline: TV drama, sitcom, soap, radio drama, serious theatre, a West End musical... But I’m also probably the only member of my generation of the workshop that hasn’t been in a Shane Meadows film! What was it like DJing at The Bomb back in the day? It was a really good experience. I’ve played in clubs around the world but nowhere quite matches the atmosphere of The Bomb as it was. From the temperature that could go from freezing to boiling in thirty seconds, depending on how many people were

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How did the Television Workshop prepare you for your many future careers? The thing that Ian Smith, the workshop leader, really instilled in us was the importance of keeping your feet on the ground and that’s something that I carry round with me today. In the entertainment industry, you’re always encountering over-inflated egos and people who went to stage school when they were young seem to have the biggest! You can always tell an exworkshopper because no matter what kind of success they have, they’re always the most grounded people.

I’ve played in clubs around the world but nowhere quite matches the atmosphere of The Bomb as it was. From the temperature that could go from freezing to boiling in thirty seconds, depending on how many people were in there, to the smell of the broken toilets and sewage from downstairs… I wish I had enough money to bring the place back.

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in there, to the smell of the broken toilets and sewage from downstairs, right down to the amazing sound system. I wish I had enough money to bring the place back! How did you get to be a BBC Radio host? I guess it was a mixture of hard work, perseverance, talent and a huge amount of luck. Which of the BBC DJs has the best moves on the dancefloor? Annie Mac can handle herself. I’ve seen her dancing at a few Radio 1 and 1Xtra Christmas parties. How did the UK Takeover events start? My good friend Joe Buhdha and I travelled to hiphop nights across the UK and saw that the crowd was so divided. You’d go to one place and it would be nothing but white kids, go to another, nothing but black kids. But the music would be the same. We wanted to do something that would bring the old school ‘everyone’s welcome’ spirit back and also bring the biggest names in the UK together under one roof. Can we expect another UK Takeover? We’re all really busy with other things now, so I don’t know. Until they’ve done it, people have no idea how much hard work and time it takes to put together an event like that. You always seem to be working, how do you like to relax? I like to do really boring things in my house like cleaning, reading or watching crap on the internet or going to B&Q or Homebase. I’m crap at DIY though. I once put up a shelf that proceeded to fall and hit my fiancée on the head. I just like looking.

READ MORE INTERVIEWS AT LEFTLION.CO.UK/MUSIC

Do you have any music tips for 2009? My big music tips for 2009 are Kid Cudi and Master Shortie, who I think are coming with some really interesting and genredefying stuff. I also think this is the year for dubstep to dent the national charts. From Nottingham, Ronika should hopefully do well. I’m hearing what she’s cooking up in the studio with my very good friend Joe Buhdha will surprise a lot of people. Also, if Scorzayzee is reading this, the hiphop game needs you to come correct in 2009! What was the first record you bought? I Can’t Wait by Nu Shooz in 1986 - when I was three! I remember my mum taking me to WHSmith in Arnold to buy it. I’ve always been into music. What was the last record you bought? Luther Vandross’ Better Love. Everyone needs a little Luther in their life. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? I’d love to be able to speak every language. I’d be able to travel the world and speak to people in their native tongue and even speak to animals such as my puppy and tell him to stop pissing on the floor. That would be great. Anything else to say to LeftLion readers? If you’re an artist or a band, send me music! I hardly get anything from my Nottingham people and I know first hand how much talent is there so reach out to me! Contact details are on my website. www.mistajam.com

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Street Surreal (main image) This guy was sat in Starbucks on his own, with what looked like the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had a distant look in his eyes and on his face, and seemed oblivious to the hustle and bustle of the Market Square before him. You had to be on the outside looking in to see the real world.

Hoody I like this shot for its social meaning. Hoodies are often thought of as the trademark of a social underclass, and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is seen as a dealer’s dog. Both seem to be trophies among the ne’er-dowells of society. This hoodied Staffy seems the epitome of all those things.

One For The Road Since the rebirth of the Old Market Square, there has been a zero tolerance approach to street drinking. I almost admired this woman’s blatant swagging of a bottle of sherry. And love the fact that she’s sat next to a rather respectable lady. Talk about ‘different strokes’. It also brings a smile to my face that she couldn’t have been that drunk, because she caught me taking her picture! She closed one eye and daggered me, but never stopped drinking.

Peek-A-Boo I was strolling through Hockley when I spotted this out of the corner of my eye. I went down on one knee to grab the shot, and the guy clocked me, smiled and put his thumb up! I also think it holds some true ‘street’ value for the fact that it’s a one-off; these repair men were working on the cellar of the now closed Dim T premises. I’ve walked past since, and the air vent has gone. A moment caught. The photo won me a prize from the Urban Britain Photography competition, which I was chuffed with.

Super Sharp Shooter

words: Dom Henry photos: Stephen Wright

Welcome to Nottingham. At any one time in our densely packed city there are more amazing sights in just a couple of hundred square yards than any human mind could comprehend. All those little sights and details, moments and dramas, each brimming with different meaning and emotion as you look on and take it all in. MEET STEPHEN WRIGHT, a man who has turned capturing moments of Nottingham folk going about their daily lives into an art form. Out all hours and in all weathers Stephen is on the streets documenting life as it happens. We caught up with him to learn about his work and motivation. Why Nottingham? I’m a local lad, Nottingham born and bred. Came into the world in the old Children’s Hospital and lived in Nottingham ever since. I love Nottingham and Nottingham people. How long have you been doing street photography? Since the early eighties really. I’ve always been taking pictures but things really kicked off with the advent of digital cameras. No more expensive film! You can take loads of photos out on the streets.

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You must have quite a collection then. Over 40,000 photos and counting! Covering over thirty years of life in Nottingham. What’s the attraction? I love doing it. I want to record it all, record Nottingham and the people as they are. Years from now if just one of my photos is seen and people look back on how it was then I’ll be happy. Of course you do get a kind of a buzz out of it I guess. An addiction of sorts! It’s a great feeling when you know you’ve taken a good shot, it can make your day. Do you have a favourite patch? I don’t have a particular route, I’ll walk round town randomly for hours at a time. I just get out there and see what happens. There are some spots which are good, like good points in a stream for a fisherman. The Clumber Street traffic lights by the Viccy Centre crossing is a good one - I can stay there for hours catching people as they flow past.

Where do you draw your inspiration? A deep love for photography, Nottingham and the work of great street photographers such as Bruce Gilden, Matt Stewart and Garry Winogrand. The thought of capturing something special is what drives me to get out there and keep at it, despite mucky weather and the long hours. How do you find your shots? I tend to spot subjects of interest at a distance - a piece of detail, a little something, something which inspires - then get ready as I approach. It’s all about having an eye for a scene you like and acting on it, and quickly, as it’ll be gone in an instant. You must have to get very close to people? It’s very ‘in yer face’! Get right in there with an 18mm lens. Of course I do use a zoom as well from time to time but most of the stuff I take is with a wide lens right up close.

Artist Proﬁles

words: Aaron Juneau Amelia Beavis-Harrison Exit Here What does the notion of ‘group’ mean to you? Sharing an ambition, and bringing together individual strengths to achieve an end goal.

What advantages do you get from being part of a group or collective? I find being able to bounce ideas around, and talk through problems is one of the most valuable things working with another person can offer you. It also allows individuals to share different perspectives and interpretations on an idea or problem, which can only strengthen your awareness of the original concept. Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own? Exit Here are influenced by a variety of groups, projects and artists, but is often observations of the worlds happenings that inspire Exit Here. Events such as the launch of the LHC at CERN in Geneva last year, or the re-discovery of an archaic folk law in rural Derbyshire have inspired areas of our project work. What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to remain? Unlike many of the Nottingham groups Exit Here did not study in the city, but came to Nottingham out of curiosity to experience a city with more contemporary art groups and venues than the one we left. Exit Here are not exclusively Nottingham based, as our practice does not root itself locally, despite being situated in the city. What do you hope to achieve in 2009? The development of Exit Here projects has often shadowed that of our own practices, this year I want to reopen the dialogue with my own artistic practice more directly, without this being of detriment to the collaboration. Meanwhile Exit Here are moving studios to the North of the city, where we aim to establish a more dynamic working environment, whilst developing other projects.

Curated on the theme of the artists’ ‘group’ or ‘collective’ - an historical tradition based on the bringing together of artists sharing similar aesthetic, conceptual and ideological concerns. Four artists from four different Nottingham-based artists’ groups discuss the relevance of individualism, collectivism and solidarity to their practices.

Ash Gallant Backlit What does the notion of ‘group’ mean to you? A collective of individuals who are held together by a common aim or obsession, which overrides individual concerns. What advantages do you get from being part of a group or collective? It gives you the support you need to carry on when it’s tough and legitimises your actions in the eyes of others. You build up a reputation which precedes that of all individual members’ when creating new work. Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own? City Racing for just doing their thing and making something of it, and of course Stand Assembly and Moot for being like art big brothers to us. What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to remain? The strength and interdisciplinary nature of my university course made me come, the opportunity to set up the studio and gallery in such a supportive environment made me stay; it’s rare for so many from one year to stay behind and carry on practicing but it is becoming a yearly thing here. I have itchy feet so I’m not sure if I will stay forever but I didn’t mean to stay after uni and I’m still here so Notts has a certain hold. Has not moving to London been detrimental, beneficial or of no consequence to your progress within the context of a group and in your career as an artist? I feel at this stage it has had no effect on my career - rather the opposite, the living costs in Nottingham have allowed me to carry on creating work and set up the gallery and studios with my peers while we all work low paying but freedom allowing jobs, moving to London would prohibit me from doing any of these things. We also feel running a studio in Notts you are one of six or seven rather than one of hundreds in London, so it’s easier to make connections in a smaller town and therefore gain attention locally and nationally. www.backlit.org.uk

www.exithere.co.uk

Hugh Dichmont Tether What does the notion of ‘group’ mean to you? A support structure that helps members benefit from working with like-minded individuals. What advantages do you get from being part of a group or collective? The ability to achieve ambitious goals which as a lone artist would be almost impossible to pursue without a huge budget and paid staff. Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own? We always referred to Stand Assembly when we were in our formative stages. Indeed, at the beginning we sought all kinds of advice from them and still do, to an extent. What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to remain? I have lived in Nottingham since I was two. I stayed to study a BA in Fine Art, partly because I messed up my interview with Chelsea College of Art and Design, and was already accepted at NTU. But I wouldn’t swap my university experience for anything. The tutors were really supportive and the freedom the course offered was ideal for me. I am still here because the friends I made on the course showed a desire to stay and we were already working well with each other on projects. Has not moving to London been detrimental, beneficial or of no consequence to your progress within the context of a group and in your career as an artist? I can say for sure that being away from London has benefited both me as an individual and Tether as a group, partly due to the support we have received from other local artists, in particular Terry Shave of NTU. Nottingham is not big, and as a consequence everyone in the scene knows each other and goes to each other’s events. In London there isn’t such an accessible and holistic support structure, where undergraduates, recent graduates, experienced and successful artists can all mingle on an equal footing. Many artist friends of mine who have visited our events have said how jealous they are of our situation. In London you are just another drop in the ocean, but elsewhere there is a real chance to make your name and gain valuable experience. What do you hope to achieve in 2009? I want to give more time to developing my own practice, which has taken a bit of a back seat in the past year. Tether have a number of projects taking place in 2009, so I guess I hope these are all as well received as we’d like them to be.

Tom Godfrey Moot Gallery What does the notion of ‘group’ mean to you? A successful group is one that creates an environment for its members where the strength of the output exceeds any one individual’s input. What advantages do you get from being part of a group or collective? I think advocacy for your ideas is important and also working with people who possess skills that you don’t have, which makes it possible to accomplish more things than if you were on your own. Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own? There’s City Racing which was a London-based artist-led gallery between 1988 and 1998; also the Hoxton Distillery which opened just after, and individuals like Matthew Higgs who balance making art with directing gallery spaces, curating independent shows, writing and publishing. What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to remain? I graduated from Trent about four years ago and it was initially the lack of reasons to stay that prompted myself and a few others to create a stronger and more supportive environment. With groups such as Tether, Exit Here and Backlit opening recently, Nottingham now has an art scene that is run and directed by artists and independent curators and with the opening of Nottingham Contemporary this year it will receive the ambitious critical grounding that it needs. Has not moving to London been detrimental, beneficial or of no consequence to your progress within the context of a group and in your career as an artist? I don’t think it’s important to live in London to be an artist because you can make art or put on shows anywhere; financially it’s a lot cheaper to live outside of London too. However I do think its good to visit frequently and follow what’s happening there as it’s important sometimes to question your artistic relevance within wider contexts, be it as an individual artist, a group, or as a city-wide art community. What do you hope to achieve in 2009? Both Stand Assembly and Moot have a new building on Thoresby Street next to Biocity which, for Moot, is vastly different from its previous space so it’s going to be exciting programming that. Personally I am busy making new work and curating a couple of projects including a commissioning programme in the foyer of our new building. www.mootgallery.org

www.tether.org.uk

If you are a Nottingham-based artist and would like to be proﬁled in this section, please email frances@leftlion.co.uk MORE ART REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS AT LEFTLION.CO.UK/ART 18

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

LEFTLION LISTINGS

featured listing

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2009.

The February and March weather might make you feel like just staying indoors, but as the old saying goes all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. Avoid cabin fever by getting yoursen out into town and watching a band or some comedy, or some theatre or an exhibition. Trust us… it’s good for your soul!

PG 21 ∙ GIGS Traditionally this is a slow time for touring bands - they usually wait until April or May for their pre-festival tours. However Notts can still boast performances from Metallica, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Il Divo, Glasvegas, Friendly Fires, Shy FX, Soulfly, Neville Staple, Andy C, Hot Chip, The Apples, The Robinson Band and the Punksoc Festival 2009. If you fancy something a bit more up and coming then why not check out some of LeftLion’s local favourites like The Smears, Alright The Captain, Mint Ive, JC Decaux, Roy De Wired, King Kahlua and Wholesome Fish - all playing and living somewhere near you. Also worth a mention is the Detonate Weekender at Pontins in Prestatyn, North Wales. Okay, so it might be several hundred miles away, but it’s the tenth birthday of arguably Nottingham’s most successful club night with Goldie, Roni Size, Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Yoda and loads more ready for the party. For more info see the back cover. Happy birthday guys!

PG 22-23 LEFTLION LIVE As always, we’ve tapped up some of our favourite local talent in HoodTown and will be putting it on at our monthly night at Brownes. It costs nothing to get in and we know know how to throw a proper party! In February we have Ulysses Storm (new project from the frontman of Hellset Orchestra) and Red Shoe Diaries (see their interview on p22). In March we have triphoppers Papa La Bas (p23) and Will Jeffery.

PG 25 ∙ THEATRE & COMEDY If you fancy something a bit funny then the comedy schedule in Notts is packed as ever with the likes of Al Murray, Russell Brand, Ross Noble, Roger Monkhouse, Simon Day (The Fast Show), Rhod Gilbert, John Shuttleworth, Josie Long, Andy Parsons, Ivan Brackenbury and more in the city over the next two months. The original Notts comedy night Just The Tonic is still going strong at The Approach, but there has also been a rise in local comedy clubs as Spiky Mike takes his Funhouse night around local pubs like The Robin Hood (Sherwood), The Grove (Lenton) and The Maze (Mansfield Road).

For even more listings, check our regularly updated online section at leftlion.co.uk/listings. And if your event is still not in there, spread the word by aiming your browser at leftlion.co.uk/add. 20

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

words: Frances Ashton

GEOFF DIEGO LITHERLAND, FLYING SPAGHETTI GOD I am trying to do is to create from a single image a multiplicity of ideologies, “ What viewpoints, beliefs, aesthetics and philosophies. It’s not about there being a right or wrong. It’s about embracing the preposterousness of everything. ” Can you tell me about your work, what drives you artistically and what your influences are? First there’s a geeky fascination with paint. I have always loved paint, particularly oil paint. I love the idea of the unexpected, the unknown and being in a state of limbo where you are trying to control the material and something quite unexpected happens. I suppose the only thing I could relate this experience to would be the old notion of alchemy where someone spends a lot of time just messing about without any clear scientific purpose other than to explore the material. It’s something that my work has been developing over the past four or five years. Multiverses, my new body of work, has aspects of that but also has a lightness, a bit more humour and rather than references to modernist painting, you could call them ‘pop’ references. There’s a lot of imagery and symbols of contemporary society in there and a return to trying to conjure up a sense of narrative in my work. In terms of painters and artists who influence me, I could talk about people like Tapies and Rothko as modernist painters which is where I still see my background. And then contemporary painters such as Jonathon Lasko and Fabio Marcaccio who play with that dialogue and history of the medium and how the medium has been constructed in terms of its materiality - you’ve got the canvas, you’ve got the paint and how those concerns are twisted around and abstracted. And you’ve got the narrative element. I am reading all the time so I’m always interested in how literature or stories can begin to intertwine with the paintings. This whole series of work is probably loosely based on my favourite author’s life’s work – Jorge Luis Borges. He wrote lots and lots of short stories which are completely and utterly bonkers. If anyone hasn’t read Borges then I can thoroughly recommend him. Each story is between five and ten pages long and presents a perfectly illogical yet succinct universe where something completely out of the ordinary happens. And if you read them as a whole it creates this incredible picture of the world in all its bizarreness, sadness, and happiness. What I am trying to do with this body of work is to create from a single image a multiplicity of ideologies, view points, beliefs, aesthetics and philosophies. It’s not about there being a right or wrong. It’s about embracing the preposterousness of everything. You and your work are quite heavily influenced by music. The show you curated last year at Southwell Artspace was called Gold Soundz after a piece of modern music. Can you talk a bit about this musical influence? One of the things that I like about Jonathon Lasko is the essay he wrote where he decided to strip down the elements of his paintings to three or four main layers or parts. He describes it as a band: so you’d have the drums, a rhythmic section which could be the grid that he starts off with, then you have the bass line which could be the stripes and then the lead guitar which is often the main abstract shapes in the painting. This has been something I’ve always been interested in trying to explore and I think that the new paintings I am doing are as close to achieving that as I have been. I have always listened to modern minimalist music, which I sometime find a bit too scientific and cold. One of my favourite bands is Television, who are a late seventies/early eighties punk band. Their simplicity and lyricism is impeccable and their riffs are quite repetitive. So the thing that has inspired me musically

for my recent body of work is that economy of musicianship and the whole ‘less is more thing’ but without being cold and mechanical with it. The way that your work has developed over the last year, reflecting the issues of nationality with your painting my flag is better than yours and the use of the bright colours that come from those flags, seems to be pulling on a much wider resource of cultural influences. When I moved to my new studios at Egerton, I was carrying on the work I had been doing before but again it was very calculated, I was quite removed from the process. I was just there as a tool and not putting my own personality and experience into the work. I can’t really explain how it’s happened, but I’m bringing in a lot of the experiences I’ve had from the places I have lived, the place I was born, the people I’ve met and the ideas that I hold. These are coming into my work and creating clashes. You could be quite obvious with it and say that the dull background colours are my northern European heritage and the bright colours are this kitsch Mexican side of me coming through. What does it mean to you to be a Nottingham artist? How has it shaped you and your practice? I had always wanted not to go to London. I spent a couple of years in Barcelona and got on quietly with work. I had a studio there but was not involved with the wider community or arts scene. I think that one of the most vital developments for me was working as a technician in the Bonington Gallery. I met a lot of artists, curators, writers, lecturers and students from Nottingham Trent University. So I was very well positioned as an observer and now through being involved in the Nottingham art scene. I have been supported by a lot of people and I am now in the position to help other people. It’s been great and I’ve been here now for five years. Can you tell us a bit about what to expect from Multiverses? There are going to be between eight and ten large paintings, all one metre squared, all around the room. The Wallner space at Lakeside is not huge but it’s a nice white cube. It’s basically all the work I’ve done over the last year - one of which was exhibited as part of the John Moores Painting Prize, others of which I have exhibited at last year’s Castle Open. Ah yes, congratulations for being the winner of the 2008 Nottingham Open Exhibition. What can we expect from your forthcoming exhibition there? That will be an opportunity to try something different; to try to combine the sound work I have been doing with some of the video animation work which I produced last year at the Goldfactory space at Egerton Studios. I’d like to try out something a bit more all-encompassing. An utter complete bombardment of the senses when you actually walk into the space. It all comes down I suppose to the layers, the sound and images which are used to compose a song or painting or video. You talk to most artists and they would say that the layering is key to creating whether it’s translucency or a sense of depth. But also you can use layers to juxtapose different ideas to create the disconcerting and jarring images that I am trying to make at the moment. Multiverses is at Lakeside Arts Centre from February 26 to April 12 www.geofflitherland.info

nottingham event listings... Sunday 01/02

Sunday 08/02

Performance Southbank Bar Free, 8pm

Sebastien Grainger The Bodega Social Club £6.50, 8pm Plus The Mountains.

The Acme Jazz Band Deux Free, 7pm - 9pm

Thursday 05/02 Holly Jazz Lowe The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm Plus Luxury Stranger Kid Blue Dogma Free, 9pm Plus Pete Jordan. The Matt and Joe Talent Show Deux Free, 9pm With Anyhigh and Alex Townsend.

Friday 06/02 Chris Hull and The Instant Band Deux £3, 8.30pm James McMurtry The Maze £13 adv, 7.30pm Futurestar Boudoir Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £5, 10pm - late With Touch, Retox and Back To The Future. MNSTR Stealth £8 / £10, 10pm - 4am DJ Yoda, Shy FX , Surkin, Transit Mafia, Pablo , D’Lex, MeMeMe, Newmano, Moses Thoughtless Hussies, Chow, MC Freestyle and Ruthless Working Nights The Loggerheads Free, 8pm – 1:30am DJs Matt, Alex, Neetin & friends. Plus Nigel Beck and more tbc Liars Club: Future Islands The Chameleon Cafe Bar £5, 8pm - 12am

Saturday 07/02 The Coast The Bodega Social Club £7, 7pm Hidden Sessions Moog Free, 9pm Stefen Housebuilder, Ben Summers and guests. Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross Free, 8pm - 1am With DJ Fluff. Pure Filth - Last one ever BluePrint £6, 9pm - 5am Jerome Hill, Spandex (live), Esther Ofei and Resident Filth. Punksoc Festival 2009 The Maze £5 / £7, 4pm - 10pm Basement Boogaloo The Maze £5, 11pm - 3am Paul Hill Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £8 / £10, 10pm - 4am

Mongrel Brownes £tbc, 7pm - 1am

Monday 09/02 The Days The Bodega Social Club £5, 7pm Soulfly Rock City £14, 7.30pm Sharleen Spiteri Royal Centre £27.50, 7.30pm

Tuesday 10/02

for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Eton Trifles The Jam Café is open for business

Recently opened in the Hockley area of the city, Jam Cafe injects a dose of retro into Nottingham’s cafe scene. Sited on the former premises of Brother 2 Brother, the boutique clothes shop that sounded like a homoerotic early 90s hip-hop duo, it’s now a haven of high ceilings, orange leather sofas and massive prints. In the daytime, Jam Café is all about the C&C; proper coffee and a vast range of homemade cakes, including a deliciously gooey carrot cake. Come night-time (currently open Weds/Thurs and every other Friday night), a fully licensed bar offering bottled beers, spirits and wines is unleashed, alongside a new evening food specials menu. It’s right cultural here; - art, music and film happenings abound on a regular basis. Wednesday is open mic night, allowing local musicians, artists and poets the chance to do their thing, while DJ sets blasting out broken beat, funk, soul and breakbeat dominate Thursdays – along with the Oxjam regional support team who are currently meeting up to thrash out the upcoming festival in March. Live jazz, blues and acoustic takes control on Fridays, and if you’re simply feeling the visuals, you can sit back and enjoy cult movies on the flatscreen most days.

Unsigned Titan 09 The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm

In a year that has already seen too many foodie shutdowns, it’s nice to see something of quality stepping up. And no, they don’t do trifles. Soz. Jam Cafe,12 Heathcote street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AA.

Acoustic Tuesdays The Malt Cross Free, 9pm - 11am

Friday 13/02

Sunday 15/02

Thursday 19/02

Los The Maze £tbc, 8pm Plus The Cusp and Talking Shapes.

Things Just Got Darker The Rescue Rooms £3, 8pm Featuring: The Smears, JcDecaux, We Rock Like Girls Don’t.

The Joy Formidable The Bodega Social Club £6, 8pm

Unsigned Titan 09 The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm

Roy De Wired Southbank Bar Free, 8pm

Utah Jazz Dogma Free, 9pm Plus Transit Mafia.

Wednesday 11/02 Battle of The Bands Heat 1 The Maze £tbc, 8pm NME Awards Tour Rock City £15, 7pm With Glasvegas, Friendly Fires, White Lies and Florence and the Machine.

Thursday 12/02 Unsigned Titan 09 The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm SIBA Champions Beer Festival Canalhouse bar Free, 8.30pm - close Runs until: 15/02 Nimming Ned, Steve Whittles Band and Kellys Heroes. Trevor Loveys Dogma Free, 9pm Sunset Duo Southbank Bar Free, 8pm

0115 9483566, www.jamcafe.info

James Zabiela Stealth £8, 10pm Plus Matt Tolfrey. Party Time The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am Eclipse Igloo £5 / £6, 9pm - late Heist and MC Juiceman, Starby and Lukie, Terraform, Waterfall, Somethin Tec, MC’s Tecka, Sleepy C, Sneaka, Phatlad and Blax.

Saturday 14/02 Valentines Day Massacre The Running Horse £4, 7pm - 3am With Brutality Will Prevail, Hang The Bastard and More Than Life. Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross £3, 8pm With Reverend Ribble and The Ginger Nuts. Sticky Morales Southbank Bar Free, 8pm

Notts in a Nutshell The Maze £3, 8.30pm Soul Cracker, The Reverb and Wolftickets. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Concert Royal Centre £16.50 / £18.50, 7.30pm

Monday 16/02 Ra Ra Riot The Bodega Social Club £6.50, 8pm Alright The Captain The Maze £4, 8pm Plus Beyond This Point Are Monsters, And So I Watch You From Afar and La Faro.

Tuesday 17/02 Spectrum (band) The Bodega Social Club £8, 8pm Featuring Sonic Boom. Unsigned Titan 09 The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm

The Matt and Joe Talent Show Deux Free, 9pm With Blackfuzz.

Psycle BluePrint £tbc, 10pm - late

Faslane Peace Camp Fundraiser The Maze £3, 8pm

Ghoul Garden! The Maze £3 / £3.50, 9pm

Mimi Soya The Running Horse £4, 7pm - 3am Plus Go Vega and The Sketch

Friday 13/02

Hed Kandi Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £8 / £10 / £12, 10pm - 4am

Acoustic Tuesdays The Malt Cross Free, 9pm - 11am

Alkaline Trio Rock City £16, 6.30pm

Children of Bodom Rock City £16.50, 7pm Plus Cannibal Corpse.

Light Night Market Square Free, 6pm - late Poppycock Moog Free, 8pm - late

Chew Lips Stealth £5, 10.15pm

Rigbee Deep Alley Cafe Free, 8.30pm - 1am Minister Hill, Nowhere Common and Jah Bunndy.

The Log Jam and Curry Night The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am With The Bonsai Projects, Mark Block, Adam S Kirkup and more.

Superstar Boudoir Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £5 adv, 10pm - 3am Sabastian Ingrosso, Axwell, Angello and Prydz.

Secret Machines The Rescue Rooms £10, 7pm Plus Filthy Dukes. Go Go v Mufti Valantine’s Special The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am Wildside: Zodiac Mindwarp Seven £tbc, 9pm

Wednesday 18/02 The Blow Monkeys The Bodega Social Club £12, 7pm Battle of The Bands Heat 2 The Maze £tbc, 8pm

Portico Quartet The Malt Cross £6 adv / £8 door, 7.30pm Plus Red and The Natalie Duncan Band. Kris Ward Southbank Bar Free, 8pm Ready, Steady, 60’s The Maze £3, 8.30pm

Friday 20/02 LeftLion Brownes Free, 8pm - 1am Ulysses Storm and Red Show Diaries (see interview on page 22). Muzika! The Maze £5, 9pm - 2am Superstar Boudoir Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £6 / £8 , 10pm - late Chris Lake, Pete Jordan and Jimmy Kennedy. Wigflex Stealth £6 adv, 10pm - 6am With Nathan Fake Live, Geiom, Spam Chop, Russian Linesman, Metaphi, Taylor, Hizatron, Harmonic 313 aka Marc Pritchard, Lazer Sword, Dj Dials, Lone, Windows 78, Keaver and Brause.

Saturday 21/02 Das Pop The Bodega Social Club £8, 7pm Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross £3, 8pm With Más Y Más. Martin Stephenson Deux £6 adv / £7.50, 8.30pm Arboretum Records Launch The Maze £tbc, All day. 25 acts play all day. leftlion.co.uk/issue27

event listings... Saturday 21/02

Thursday 26/02

Paul Wilkins Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £8 / £10 / £12, 10pm - 4am

Chris Murray The Maze £5 / £6, 8pm Plus Jimmy the Squirrel, Green For Go, Squab and Toon Union.

Roadblock The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am

Sunday 22/02 Notts in a Nutshell The Maze £3, 8pm Dark Horse, Hackenbush and Scars on the Country. Testament The Rescue Rooms £15, 7.30pm Kaiser Chiefs Nottingham Arena £25.45, 7.30pm

Wednesday 25/02 Data.Select.Party The Bodega Social Club £6, 7pm Plus The Colour. Battle of The Bands Heat 3 The Maze £tbc, 8pm Iglu and Hartly The Rescue Rooms £9, 7pm Moonlighters Big Band Lakeside Arts Centre Free, 5.30pm Metallica Nottingham Arena £40, 7pm

Thursday 26/02 NY Alcoholic Anxiety Attack The Loft Free, 8pm Plus The Amber Herd and more. Jamie Fanatic Dogma Free, 9pm Plus Pete Jordan. Richie Muir Southbank Bar Free, 8pm The Matt and Joe Talent Show Deux Free, 9pm

Beneath The Crimson Skyline Seven £tbc, 8pm plus Blind Ignorance, A World Defined and Go Team Go.

Friday 27/02 General Fiasco The Bodega Social Club £5, 7pm Poppycock Moog Free, 8pm - late Owen Harvey and Friends Deux £3, 8.30pm Junk Yard The Market Bar £5, 10pm - 4am With OK Corral, Junk Yard Rezzors, Luke Black, Mark Cohen and Paul Sekhri Neville Staple The Maze £11 / £13, 9pm Plus Indiana Fozz and Jimmy The Squirrel. Detonate Stealth £10 / £12, 10pm - 5am Andy C (2hrs), Break (2hrs), Transit Mafia (2hrs). MCs Dynamite, Freestyle and Ruthless, Skream and Casual P. Yipil The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am illuminatus Seven Free , 8pm Plus Pillowtalk and Special Guests.

Saturday 28/02 Genotype Bunkers Hill Inn £5, 9pm - 2am Ronnnie Londons Groove Lounge Grosvenor 8pm - 1am, 8-1am

for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Subism Live It’s like Take Hart, with beats If you think the words ‘underground urban art’ are a catch-all term for Banksy-wank or chatty youths tagging up ‘NG6 IS GHEETO’ on a subway, think again: there’s some serious talent knocking about, and a sizable chunk of it has been gathering under the Subism banner – and they’re coming to Muse this March for a very special event. Having been in operation since last May, Subism showcases artists from a ludicrously wide range of backgrounds covering a venue in blank canvas and then filling the place in raw, unadulterated art. The collective of artists in attendance include American illustrator Julie West, Parisian stencil artists C215, Two-Pence, Mr Penfold and Phill Blake, to name a few. Obviously, because it’s Saturday night and it’s set in one of the most kicky-arseyest bars in Notts (if you’ve not been to Muse’s Cult and P Brothers nights, you’re not really doing Nottingham properly), they’re not doing this in silence, oh no. Their own set of DJs – including Atjazz from Mantis Recordings – will be spattering sonic washes of hip-hop, broken beats, electronica, funk and disco, with the assistance of his chums Clyde, Christo and Vuyani. Best of all, however, is the fact that they’ll be laying on a selection of boards, sketchbooks and pens for anyone who feels the urge to get creative, so make sure you roll up in your Dad’s old shirt turned back-to-front, or you’ll just have to do it in your pants. Subism Live. Saturday 7th March @ Muse . 9pm - 1am. Entry £3. www.subism.co.uk

Saturday 28/02

Wednesday 04/03

Noodle Moog Free, 8pm Chris Finke, m0dularmatt, Jerofou, Sugamouth, Dougie Jones, Shaving Rolands Car, Puikegast, Tappeto Grande, Matthew T Hinton and Ally Reilly.

The Apples The Maze £7 adv, 9pm Plus Fat Digester.

Peter Bruntnell Trio The Maze £10 adv, 7.30pm Plus Hi and Lo.

The Lancashire Hotpots The Rescue Rooms £10, 7pm

Emiliana Torrini The Rescue Rooms £10, 7.30pm

Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross £3, 8pm With The Shakes and resident DJ.

Filthy Dukes Stealth £5, 10.15pm

Il Divo Nottingham Arena £30 - £60, 7.30pm

Flux The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am

Thursday 05/03

Jason Heart Band Southbank Bar Free, 8pm The Robinson Band Deux £3, 8.30pm Rigor Mortis BluePrint £10, 9pm - 6am With Hellseeker, Little Terror Man, Hatewire, Narkotik, D-Story, Crazy2nr, Pinhead, Smash, Noizy az Fuck, Angry Badgers, Junkie Kut, Kinsheeva and Hardman Sinden.

Red Shoe Diaries, Ulysses Storm and the Stiff Kittens play LeftLion at Brownes on Friday 20 February. Entrance is free.

Red Soe Diaries

generally depicting its heroines as active, independent women who satisfy idiosyncratic desires often without recourse to the constraints of monogomy. Introduce the band to us… We’ve been making music in different forms since 2002, but we (Tom and Ash) have known each other since we were infants. We met Mike at college. Officially Nottingham’s hardest working drummer and probably the most talented musician Nottingham has ever produced. I used to work with Nathan; when he left his last band we snapped him up straight away! Leanne was the final piece of the puzzle, she has a beautiful voice.

Red Shoe Diaries have been making quite an impact since they started playing together last year. As well as performing at plenty of venues around town, they’ve also had a MySpace UK single of the week and one of their tunes was named in MySpace’s Top 20 for 2008. They’ve also had a bit of label interest, but we’re sure they won’t let it go to their heads. We put some questions to frontmen Tom and What kind of people do you think Ash before their gig for LeftLion at will be into your music? Our songs are generally pretty poppy, Brownes... so we’re not going to endear ourselves You’re named after a late night soft- to the purists. But anyone who likes a chorus, the odd angular guitar solo porn telly show, right? I prefer the term ‘erotic drama series’, and thinks lyrics are important we but yes. I’ve always really liked bands hope would enjoy our songs. who reference pop-culture. Its also just a pleasant sounding phrase. Besides, What have you been up to recently? it’s erotica at its most ‘post-feminist’; Not long ago we recorded an EP

leftlion.co.uk/issue27

which is a lovely collection of songs, and we’re releasing it ourselves. So the best way to get your hands on one is to come see us play. Tell us about one of your songs and what inspired you to write it… We have a new song which is a fictional imagining of that stage when a couple feel they should move-in together. It’s quite a pessimistic, romanceless song, in which two lots of unhappiness just become one big lump of ugly, bitter reality. What’s your ideal night out in Nottingham? The best nights out we’ve had in a long time are Jumpers For Goalposts at the Alley Cafe, or indeed anything featuring Hello Thor and the Yeah I’ll Play It Later DJ’s, those guys always throw the best parties. Anything else to tell LeftLion readers? Go and see Fists. Tell them we sent you. www.myspace.com/ redshoediariesmusic

The Pleasures Seven

Sunday 01/03 The Fab 4 Southbank Bar Free, 8pm John Tams The Maze £10 adv, 8pm Plus Barry Coope.

Unsigned Titan 09 The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm C3C Beat Torrent Dogma Free, 9pm Tee Dymond Southbank Bar Free, 8pm The Matt and Joe Talent Show Deux Free, 9pm

Imelda May The Rescue Rooms £10, 7.30pm

John Boden Band The Maze £14 adv, 7.30pm

Monday 02/03

The Devils Haircut Seven £tbc, 8pm

Two Door Cinema Club The Bodega Social Club £5, 8pm

Tuesday 03/03 The Gaslight Anthem Rock City £10, 7.30pm With Frank Turner and Polar Bear Club. The Bronx The Rescue Rooms £12, 7pm Plus Fucked Up and Rolo Tomassi. The Producers Playhouse £12.50 / £16.50, 7.15pm Runs until: 7/3 The Killers Nottingham Arena £31.81, 7.30pm

Friday 06/03 Ruth and Friends Deux £3, 8.30pm Smerins Anti-Social Club The Maze £tbc, 9pm The Shapeshifters Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £8 / £10 adv, 10pm - late Detonate 10th B’Day Weekender Pontins, Prestatyn Sands £125, 8pm Friday to 2am Sunday Runs until: 08/03 An absolutely massive line up, check out the back page for a run down of who’s playing. If you like, Dnb, hiphop or dubstep then go to this.

nottingham event listings...

for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Saturday 07/03

Friday 13/03

Friday 20/03

Mint Ive The Bodega Social Club £5, 7pm

Superstar Boudoir Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £8 / £10 adv, 10pm - late With Dean Ramirez.

Sould Deux £3, 8.30pm

Green For Go The Running Horse £tbc, 8pm - 2am Plus The Rebel Soul Collective. Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross £3, 8pm With Djangology. The Wickets The Maze £tbc, 7.30pm Basement Boogaloo The Maze £5, 10pm Protest the Hero Rock City £9, 7pm Plus The Chariot and The Human Abstract. Wonky Pop Tour The Rescue Rooms £7, 7pm With Dan Black and Boy Crisis. My Toys Like Me Stealth £5, 10.15pm Log Jam The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am

Sunday 08/03 Fight Like Apes The Bodega Social Club £6, 8pm

Pop Bubble, Rock! Launch Night Seven £tbc, 8pm

Saturday 14/03 Cult DnB Muse £4 / £6, 10pm - 3am Brookes Brothers. Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross £3, 8pm With Wholesome Fish. Richie Muir Southbank Bar Free, 8pm Ghoul Garden! The Maze £3 / £3.50, 10pm Mr Hudson Stealth £8.50, 7pm Go Go v Mufti Costumes The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am With King Kahlua and friends.

Sunday 15/03 Nottingham Folkus The Maze £4, 7.30pm

Wednesday 18/03

Firefly Marcus Garvey Ballroom £10 / £15 / MOTD, 10pm - 6am Hot Chip, Loose Cannons, Kanio, Thrash Jelly and Beat Repeaters. Shivver The Maze £tbc, 8pm Spectrum is 8 Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £8 / £10 adv, 10pm - late Plump DJs, Laidback Luke, Pete Jordan and Hexadecimal. Depraved Igloo £5 / £7, 10pm - late

Saturday Night Knees Up! The Malt Cross £3, 8pm Reverend Ribble and The Ginger Nuts Human Rights Day Deux £tbc, 8pm Smokescreen The Maze £5, 10pm Wednesday13 Rock City £13, 6.30pm Roadblock The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am DJ Daddio and friends.

Battle of The Bands Heat 5 The Maze £tbc, 7.30pm

Nearly Dan The Rescue Rooms £10, 7.30pm

Peter Doherty Rock City £19, 7.30pm

Stiff Little Fingers Rock City £15, 7.30pm

Thursday 12/03

Thursday 19/03

Autohype The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm Plus Tax The Fat.

Automatic Zen The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm

Animal Collective The Rescue Rooms £13, 7.30pm

Jennifer Batten The Rescue Rooms £13, 7.30pm Red Priest: Pirates of The Baroque Lakeside Arts Centre £12 / £15, 7.30pm Snow Patrol Nottingham Arena £29.36, 7.30pm

Friday 13/03 Pure Reason Revolution The Bodega Social Club £6, 7pm Poppycock Moog Free, 8pm - late Rigbee Deep Alley Cafe Free, 8:30pm - 1am Plus Minister Hill, Nowhere Common and Jah Bunndy. John Marriott and Cookie Deux £3, 8.30pm St Paddy’s Day Celebration The Maze £tbc, 8pm Kelly’s Heroes and Whackin Shillelaghs.

Norman Jay Dogma Free, 9pm Birobox Workshops The Malt Cross £4 on door, 8pm With Origamibiro and The Joy of Box. Steve McGill Southbank Bar Free, 8pm The Matt and Joe Talent Show Deux Free, 9pm Hidden Talents The Maze £5, 8pm Womens only Cabaret. Jeffree Star The Rescue Rooms £13, 7pm The Amber Herd Seven £4, 8pm - 12am

Friday 20/03 The Boy Least Likely To The Bodega Social Club £6.50, 7pm LeftLion Brownes Free, 8pm - 1am Papa La Bas and Will Jeffery.

Pete Jordan plays at Brownes ‘Brownes has something for everybody, a venue for eighteen to eighty year olds, be it for the superb menu during the day, or the welcoming friendly party atmosphere at night. Truthfully though, it’s really about great music; our resident DJs (including Chow, Santero and Freeman) and special live events including Leftlion Presents offer a fun entertainment offering that appeals to the more discerning music lover, whilst being delivered in such a way that it’s all about the party’. Brownes, 15-19 Goose Gate, Hockley www.brownesnottingham.com, www.spectrum48k.com

Saturday 21/03

Performance Southbank Bar Free, 8pm

We Are The Union The Maze £5 / £6, 8pm Plus Grown At Home, Girlfixer and VFA.

Nottingham’s favourite musicians talk about their favourite venues

Monday 23/03

Thursday 26/03 Quantic Dogma Free, 9pm

Thursday 26/03

Saturday 28/03

The Matt and Joe Talent Show Deux Free, 9pm Oxjam gig.

Ronnie Londons Groove Lounge Grosvenor £3 b4 11am, 8pm - 1am

Peepshow / Union X / Drugdealer Cheerleader Seven £tbc, 8pm

The Electric Catfish Deux Free, 9pm Oxjam gig.

Friday 27/03

Rubber Room The Maze £3, 10pm

Poppycock Moog Free, 8pm - late

Fromage Funk The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am

Junk Yard The Market Bar £5, 10pm - 4am With Popof, Luke Black,Paul Sekhri and Mark Cohen.

Rigbee Deep The Hubb Free, 8.30pm - 2am Minister Hill, Nowhere Common and Jah Bunndy.

Diana Jones The Maze £10 adv, 8pm Plus support.

The Hellfire Club Seven £tbc, 8pm Bands and Burlesque.

Detonate Stealth £10 / £12, 10pm - 5am High Contrast, Logistics, Klute, Transit Mafia, Youngsta, MCs Stamina, Freestyle and Ruthless. Yipil The Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am

Monday 30/03 The Rifles The Rescue Rooms £12.50, 7pm Plus New Education Lionel Richie Nottingham Arena £35 - £75, 8pm

Papa La Bas, Will Jeffrey and The Stiff Kittens play LeftLion at Brownes on Friday 20 March, entrance is free.

Papa La Bas Papa La Bas started as a project between producer and beatmaker Dwyz and singer songwriter Suzi Ruthless. However, their live act now encompasses session members from bands like Old Basford and Non Thespian, as well as a few other folk. Their style is a mish mash of triphop, but with strings and beautiful vocals laid over it. We think it’ll go down rather well as part of our residency at Brownes in March… Introduce the band to us… Papa La Bas are a two piece studio act with me, Dwyz, on production and beat duties and Suzi Ruthless on songwriting and singing duties. We were signed quite quickly and put together a seven-piece live band to recreate the studio sound with Andy Ming on guitar, Chis on bass, Lee on drums, Beth on occasional violin and Duke01 on poetry and rap. Where did you get the name from? Suzi mentioned him in a mad diatribe she often delves into, it was a true light-bulb moment. I interpret him as a voodoo god of Mischief, like Loki, but way cooler.

What was the worst? I guess supporting the Brand New Heavies a few months ago. I’m sure the gig was fine, but I ended up in hospital four hours before soundcheck. What was the last CD you bought? Morcheeba’s Who Can You Trust. Those guys completely passed me by at the time as I was too obsessed by hiphop to notice.

What kind of people do you think will be into your music? Cats and dogs wanting something a little more cerebral.

Pick a superpower... The ability to summon 1000 bees.

What have you been up to recently? Well, we have our debut LP Anechoic dropping in March so we’ve concentrated on the build up to that.

What’s your ideal night out in Nottingham? Avant garde cinema, followed by sushi and a long walk home.

Describe your style... Voodoo Disco.

What’s coming up next? A music video I reckon, but we’re still trying to think up a decent concept.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever done? Definitely at the Broadway for Hockley Hustle for me, just felt an honour to play there, it was such a nice atmosphere. We’re loving the Fleece and Maze too.

Anything else to tell LeftLion readers? Nottingham has love for its local scene, we’re very appreciative of people’s time and energy. Big up Notts! www.myspace.com/papalabasuk leftlion.co.uk/issue27

event listings... WEEKLIES Mondays Open Mic Night Golden Fleece Free, 8pm Neon Rocks Stealth £3, 9pm - late NTU student night. Motherfunker The Cookie Club £1 before 11pm, 10.30pm - 3am Bosh! Approach Free, 7pm Free comedy from Just The Tonic. Monday Mayhem Maze £1 / £2, 8pm Propaganda Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £3.50 / £4, 10pm - 3am Indie and alternative club night with huge events in five cities across the UK.

Tuesdays MNSTR! Brownes Free, 9pm - 1.30am Detonate, Spectrum and ClubFoot residents. Acoustic Tuesdays Malt Cross Free, 8pm A selection of local acts. Live Jazz Hand and Heart Free, 8pm - late

leftlion.co.uk/issue27

for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Wednesdays Open Mic Night Jam Cafe Free, 7pm LeftLion Pub Quiz Golden Fleece £2 per team, 8pm Like booze? Like quizzes? Sorted. Pub Quiz Deux £various, 8pm Joe Strange Band Approach Free, 8pm Plus guests.

Thursdays Showcase Loggerheads Free, 8pm Live Thursdays Golden Fleece Free, 8.30pm Club NME Stealth £2 / £4, 10pm - 2am Word Of Mouth Muse £various, 9pm Jam Cafe Free, 8pm DJs on rotation playing funk, soul and broken beats.

Thursdays

Fridays

Saturdays

Chic Gatecrasher £4 / £5, 10.30pm - 3am Four floors of music.

Atomic / Sabotage The Cookie Club £2 b4 11pm, £4 after (NUS discount), 10.30pm - 3am

BedBug Eleven Free, 8pm - 3am Firefly and Product and bring a selection of quality DJs every Thursday.

Strictly Igloo Various, 10pm - 4am

Saturday Night Knees Up! Malt Cross £3, 8pm - late Resident bands and special guests every week.

Chic Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £4adv / £5, 10.30pm - 3am Open Decks and Open Caves Loggerheads Free, 5pm - 12am Bring some records or bring an instrument and come and set the scene for the start of the weekend. Your Disco Bodega Social Club Free, 8pm - late Regulars and friends get a chance to become the DJ. Chow Brownes Free, 9pm - 1.30am

Modern World The Cookie Club £1 / £3, 10.30pm - 2am

Fridays

Tuned Rock City £1 - £5, 10pm - 3am All the latest alternative music alongside a healthy dose of pop.

Superstar Boudoir Gatecrasher £10 / £12, 10pm - 4am A slice of action from the world’s leading dance music brands.

The Pop Confessional Bodega Social Club £1 / £3 / £5, 11pm - 3am Classic POP tunes from all eras, and lots of fun and games. Love Shack Rock City £4 - £5, 9.30pm - 2am Joe Strange Band Southbank Bar Free, 8pm Roy De’Wired Approach Free, 7pm - 2am Plus support and DJs. F*** Me It’s Friday Halo Free with Flyer, 10pm - 4am Santero Brownes Free, 9pm - 1.30am Fridays Golden Fleece Free, 8pm Reggae, DnB, funk, hip hop and disco.

Play Gatecrasher £7 / £9, 10pm - 4am Freeman Brownes Free, 9pm - 1.30am Distortion Rock City various, 10pm - 3am Trollied Halo £5 / £6 / more, 10pm - 4am

Sundays Sunday Jam Sessions Loggerheads Free, 8pm Reggae Roast Golden Fleece Free entry, all day. To get your events listed here get them on our website, fill out the form at www.leftlion.co.uk/add. We try to ensure all events are correct at time of print, but please check with the venue or promoter to avoid disappointment.

nottingham event listings... COMEDY Sunday 01/02 Comedy Night Robin Hood Free, 7.30pm Marcus Ryan, Ben Davids, Steve Dunne, Pete Teckman, Robin Cousins, Ben Briggs and Matt Turner. Just The Tonic Approach £5 / £7.50, 7pm With Roger Monkhouse, Lewes Schaffer, Danny McLoughlin and Darrell Martin.

Tuesday 03/02 Funhouse Comedy Grove £4 / £5, 8pm Stu Goldsmith, Andrew Bird, Crack Town, Simon Gunnell, Alex Bennett and Compere Spiky Mike.

Thursday 05/02 Simon Day Lakeside Arts Centre £12 / £15, 8pm

Saturday 07/02 John Shuttleworth Lakeside Arts Centre £12 / £15, 8pm

Sunday 08/02 Just The Tonic Approach £5 / £7.50, 7pm Josie Long on Tour.

Sunday 15/02 Andy Parsons Playhouse £12 / £14, 7.30pm Just The Tonic Approach £8 / £10, 7pm Chris Addison, Carl Hutchinson and Chris Ramsey.

Tuesday 17/02 Should I stay or should I go? Maze £4 / £5, 8pm Just The Tonic Approach £5 / £7, 7pm Shazia Mirza

Friday 20/02 Comedy Underground Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am Russell Brand Nottingham Arena £24.50, 8pm

Saturday 21/02 Russel Kane and Simon Brodkin Lakeside Arts Centre £12 / £15, 8pm

Sunday 22/02 Just The Tonic Approach £15, 7pm Ross Noble

Monday 23/02 Al Murray Royal Centre £25, 8pm

Friday 27/02 Mark Watson Playhouse £15, 8pm

Sunday 01/03 Just The Tonic Approach £8 / £10, 7pm Reg Hunter and Darrell Martin.

Tuesday 03/03 Funhouse Comedy Grove £4 / £5, 8pm John Gordillo, Wes Zaharuk, Ruth Cockburn, Gordon Smith and compere Spiky Mike.

Sunday 15/03 Just The Tonic Approach £5 / £7.50, 7pm Ivan Brackenbury, Andy White and Darrell Martin.

Tuesday 17/03 Should I stay or should I go? Maze £4 / £5

Friday 20/03 Comedy Underground Loggerheads Free, 8pm - 1.30am

Sunday 22/03 Just The Tonic Approach £5 / £7.50, 7pm Jo Caulfield, Dan Nightingale and Charlie Baker.

Tuesday 24/03 Rhod Gilbert Lakeside Arts Centre £12 / £15, 8pm

Sunday 29/03 Just The Tonic Approach £5 / £7.50, 7pm Jack Whitehall, Dan Atkinson, Daniel Rigby and Darrell Martin.

Tuesday 31/03 Funhouse Comedy Grove £4 / £5, 8pm Gareth Richards, Kevin Dewsbury, Norman Cho, Pete Goddard, Steve Dunne and compere Spiky Mike.

EXHIBITIONS Sunday 01/02 Windows on War Soviet Posters 1943-1945 Lakeside Arts Centre Free, All day Runs until: 22/03 Lucinda Chua Lakeside Arts Centre Free, All day Runs until: 22/02 Mark Langley: Drawn to Pencil Yard Gallery (The) Free, 11am - 4pm Runs until: 08/03 Short Fall Hand and Heart Free, 12pm - 6pm Runs until: 13/02 Curated by Jeffery Baker featuring work by James Bowen,Corinne Felgate, Rebecca Gove-Humphries, Mark Selby, Edward Wakefield and David Miller. Coasting Nottingham Castle Normal Admission, All day Runs until: 15/02

for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Our Style Is Legendary: the art of LeftLion In your hands you are holding issue 27 of LeftLion magazine, over the last four and a half years we have been lucky enough to work with some of Nottingham’s most talented photographers, designers, illustrators and visual artists. We decided it was time to put together a collection of some of our favorite pieces that we’ve published, give contributors the chance to show new work and give other artists an opportunity to submit their ideas to the exhibition.

A call for artists was sent out on the theme of meeting people in Nottingham and the interactions and experiences people have within the city. The very first live music events we put on took place at the Malt Cross and it seemed fitting to return there for our first ever art exhibition. We’ll be having a big opening night party on the 5th March, the exhibition itself continues at the Malt Cross until the 14th of March. At that point we’ll be taking a selection of work from there to another of our favorite venues, The Golden Fleece, where it will stay for further month. LeftLion’s aim has always been to make culture and art of all forms more accessible to the people of Nottingham and those visiting us from elsewhere, we hope this show will do just that. www.leftlion.co.uk Opening night: 5 March, The Malt Cross, 7pm - 11pm

Sunday 01/02 Gemma Pardo and Roma Tearne Nottingham Castle Normal Admission, All day Runs until: 15/02

Saturday 07/02 Particles Surface Gallery Free, All day Runs until: 21/02

Thursday 26/02 Debra Swann - Trouble in Paradise The Wasp Room Free, All day Runs until: 15/03

Friday 27/02 Geoff Diego Litherland Lakeside Arts Centre Free, All day Runs until: 12/04

Saturday 28/02 The American Scene Lakeside Arts Centre Free, All day Runs until: 19/04

Thursday 05/03 LeftLion Exhibition Malt Cross Free, All day. Runs until: 14/03 (then is moved to the Golden Fleece) Art from the last five years of Leftlion magazine alongside newly commisioned work specifically for this exhibition on the theme of ‘meeting people’. See feature above for further information.

Saturday 07/03 Subism Muse Runs until: 08/03 Contemporary artists from around the world, selling limited-edition artwork, from street art and graffiti to digital art and illustration.

THEATRE Wednesday 04/02 The Graduate Royal Centre £8 - £19, 7.30pm Runs until: 07/02 Vagina Monologues Royal Centre £12 - £23, 8pm Runs until: 07/02

Friday 06/02 Glamour Playhouse £8 - £24.50, various Runs until: 21/02

Monday 09/02 Lady Windermere’s Fan Lace Market Theatre £6 - £9, 7.30pm Runs until: 14/02 Calendar Girls Royal Centre £13 - £27.50, 7.30pm Runs until: 14/02

Thursday 12/02 60th Anniversary Gala Playhouse £60, various

Friday 13/02 Pit of Curiosities Pit and Pendulum £1, 8pm - late

Tuesday 17/02 Turandot, Aida and Carmen Royal Centre £16 - £33, 7.30pm Runs until: 21/02

Tuesday 24/02 King Lear Sandfield Theatre £7 / £9, 7.15pm, 2pm Runs until: 28/02

Thursday 26/02 Twelfth Floor Playhouse £8 - £16, 8pm

Wednesday 04/03 Albert / Bride or Groom / After Magritte Lace Market Theatre £6 / £7, 7.30pm Runs until: 07/03

Friday 06/03 Empty Bed Blues Lakeside Arts Centre £9 / £12, 8pm Runs until: 21/03

Wednesday 11/03 The Price Playhouse £8 - £24.50, 7.45pm Runs until: 28/03

Monday 16/03 A Pack of Lies Royal Centre £13 - £26, 7.30pm Runs until: 21/03

Thursday 26/03 The Afridan Company Presents Richard III Lakeside Arts Centre £9 / £12, 8pm Runs until: 28/03

Friday 27/03 Hot Flush Royal Centre £23, 7.30pm

Tuesday 31/03 The Hounding of David Oluwale Playhouse £8 - £24.50, 7.45pm Runs until: 04/04 West End Story Royal Centre £13 - £39.50, 7.30pm Runs until: 11/04 leftlion.co.uk/issue27

Write Lion

It’s a new year and with that comes new inspiration. This issue we have contributions about pet dogs, the next door neighbour’s sex life, missed parents, people’s quirks and a stream-ofconsciousness piece that we think could work equally well alongside a jazz or hiphop beat. If you want others to read your work (and you want it to be considered for publication in here) then log on to the Write Lion forum at leftlion.co.uk/forum. Elemental Protection

Take me right back to the rock Woke up this morning, time to eat so I sat at the foot of my feet, to turn out a treat, who did I meet but my mind in deceit, I was all over the place, chaos etched in my face, looked like the sound of a pet shop, well I peeked at my plate, what a confused state, I’d buttered my tea, scrambled my bacon and sugared the damn eggs, well they say variety is the spice of life, but I wasn’t so sure of that, better to swap hats with a stranger or do things that inject that fight/flight danger, so where is we, where was we, Bing Crosby?, no that be later, or before, I don’t know, different bag different door, you know the score, one all to the team in red, first out of bed wins toothpaste for a year and gets to keep the teeth in their head, yeah that’s what I said, you heard me, clear as Swansea bay, never been?, never seen?,

go there, you’ll come straight back, but at what cost?, I found a book, so took a look, thumbed its ravaged round pages, it shed paper, but that didn’t matter too much, in fact it added to the mystery of the story, bound for glory, that’s a book I might read, wonder what seeds it will plant for me to feed on, you can’t unsee what you’ve seen, you can’t ungo where you’ve been, you drift from pillar to post, get posted somewhere, drop back out of the air, to a new land that sucks you in like quick sand, most of the sand is slow sand, bland sand, tanned sand, I want to find a grain and uncover its journey, show me its lineage, I’ve got oceans of time and a patient ear, take me right back to the rock. Owl

People People are a funny bunch. Well, some are funny Some are cunts. Some I despise Others, I love Some are beneath me Others, above. People are selfish, Born and bred.

But people can change, Till they’re dead. People play at life to win Fools lose all the same For when a wanker loses life They’d already lost the game

Warm, happy Who let me be free.

A rock.. Is what you were to me Solid and strong In my times of misery.

All these things to me, Were you, They live in my memory Strong and true.

The Earth Is what you were to me Nurturing, grounded Judgment never clouded.

The sun Is what you were to me

Sara

You can tell he’s having sex You can tell he’s having sex when the radio comes on. Either he or the speakers mumble something over a restaurant violin about how they can hear the love when their hearts beat side by side but what this really means is his naked chest on her lovely breasts.

Jack Twatt

There is a brief intercession as the dj enters the bedroom then the violins kick in again I think if I fucked to this music I’d be sick on her though some women might like that maybe this explains the songs’ airtime and long overdue, shelf-life. I hear a gasp and the radio gets louder keeping any voyeuristic bats listening deep in

the night sky. My bed trembles to this earthquake musical he’s fucking in tune to Manilow “Coh pohCoh poh cabah nah” Just as my neighbour’s heat, starts to warm my room there’s a crash, a groan and he shouts: “DAMN, RADIO’S FALLEN, IT’S BROKE!” In the dark I grin wider than the moon Jaack

WEDNESDAY 12 HEAT

HCOTE STREE NOTTIN T, HOCKLEY, GHAM, N G1 3AA

FROM T DOWN EY) S U J IS CKL AFE (JAM C ICE NINE IN HO

ITE NEW WEBS R U O K C E CH AFE.INFO WWW.JAMC

BOOK PART IES TEL. 0115 9483566

OPEN MIC NIGHT - ANYTHING GOES EVERY WEDNESDAY AT JAM CAFE

THURSDAY IN ASSOCIATION WITH OXJAM

OPEN DECKS, SO BRING YOUR OWN TUNES EVERY THURSDAY AT JAM CAFE

Time, once again, to clear through that pile of CDs, books, mags, and all the other stuff we get sent. If you have anything you want us to give the once-over, please send it to natasha@leftlion.co.uk

MUSIC Alberto Veto Afraid of Thieves EP (Cabaret Beatings)

Cappo and Styly Cee The H-Bomb EP (Son Records)

Those Dancing Days In Our Space Hero Suits (Wichita Recordings)

Having formed in the summer of 2007, Alberto Veto are mere babies on the Nottingham music scene but are already on their third EP release. A trio of musicians bringing a mature indie rock to the people of the Midlands and more recently, further afield in London Town and Manchester. Afraid of Thieves is a mellow yet bright EP, with an almost Spanish feel to its guitars. Avalanche draws you in as it canters to a climax for the chorus while Through Her Teeth and Tongue’s drum beats will have you tapping your feet along. If this EP and their live performances are anything to go by, their forthcoming album will be well worth a listen. Alison Emm

The new EP from a now established collaboration in Notts hiphop puts the production of Styly Cee (aka the infamous rapping miner Pitman) back in the limelight taking him from behind the decks as Cappo’s DJ and placing him back in front of the mixing desk. Cappo’s return to the label that first gave him his break features big drums throughout giving an assertive energy to all three tracks. Tell Them nicely combines a rolling break with a cheeky guitar sample, whilst Time Will Tell uses a subtle Hendrix vocal to full effect. The smasher of the EP has to be Unwritten Rule with robotic vocals and haunting chords resulting in the most atmospheric number of them all. As Cappo exhorts us to ‘remember what you are aiming for’ we are reminded of his consistently conscious and dominating flow. An impressive outing. Read interviews with this dynamic duo at leftlion.co.uk/music. Camillo Hortez

American soul music has in the last few years enjoyed a resurgence through mainstream acts such as Duffy and Amy Winehouse, so a whole new generation of kids are discovering the sounds of that era. The pop debut from this Stockholm all-girl group leans very much in the direction of the likes of Dusty Springfield. However, rather than produce a cookie-cutter copy, they add their own spin to the proceedings. Whilst they point back to the age of Motown, the regimental race of the drums and speedy jangle of the guitar work seems to hark more to the indie pop of the nineties, making for an interesting and upbeat mix. Tracks like Falling In Fall and Run Run gallop along yet never seem to outstay their invariably three-minute welcome. This differs from the track Hitten, which plays more towards new wave sensibilities and radio-friendly eighties-like airplay. In all, this makes for great feelgood listening. Plus, Duet Under Waters features handclaps. Life always seems better with handclaps. Duncan Heath

Buy this if you like: Elbow and fast-tempo acoustic rock. www.albertoveto.co.uk Available Now

Hungover Stuntmen Blame The BBC (One Bounce) These Geordie rockers have been on the scene since 2003 and during their path to stardom have supported bands such as The Kooks and The Futureheads. With endorsements from the likes of Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Craddock and Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor, Hungover Stuntmen certainly have a lot to live up to. Fortunately, listening to their debut album shows that any concerns over their quality and potential are unfounded. Blame The BBC is an emphatic first attempt, with well-crafted beats and catchy guitar hooks. There is a lot to enjoy in this forty minute offering. Andy Taylor’s influence is clear with the album enjoying a polished finish which is particularly noticeable on Love Is Suicide, a track destined to be an indie disco hit. Other stand outs are Inside Out, a song with great toe-tapping appeal and a fantastic intro/outro, and She Knows which has a slight Kooks twang to it. The band are certainly not scared to try something different from the more usual indie stuff. Overall, there is a lot to like about this modish indie outfit, they clearly live up to the hype and if they continue on in this vein they will be destined for great things. Dan Skurok Buy this if you like: The Tunics, The Hot Air Balloons www.hungoverstuntmen.co.uk Available Now

BOOKS STAPLE 69/70 The Publishing Issue The latest issue of Sneinton-based Staple Magazine is guest-edited by Rebecca Swift (The Literary Consultancy) and looks at the writing industry. Its content ranges from Ross Bradshaw reflecting on the tribulations of running the legendary Mushroom Bookshop in Hockley during the eighties and nineties (including Nazi attacks!) to photographs by 2008 Nottingham Creative Business Awards nominee Julian Hughes. Terry Darlington takes a narrow boat through the waterways of North Carolina, Jenny Downham explores teenage relationships and Tim Clare offers a revealing look at his own (and other writers’) incompetence. At the centre of this 300 page edition are tributes to Caribbean writer Archie Markham by Margaret Drabble and others, including a moving sequence of poems, Afterward, by Mimi Khalvati. All in all, a solid exposure of the business of getting books into print. Subscription are £15 for 3 issues. Aly Stoneman Buy this if you like: The Meanest Flower by Mimi Khalvati, Before I Die by Jenny Downham. staplemagazine.wordpress.com

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

Buy this if you like: P Brothers, Pitman, Braintax and UK hiphop. www.sonrecords.com Available Now

Wired Desire Barely Legal EP Five new rockers from Glasgow are behind this provocatively named EP, and Wired Desire provide a new, fresh higher level of energy to the recently slightly stagnant rock scene. With the hard edge of AC/DC and the charisma of Guns N’ Roses, Wired Desire are sure to cause some commotion amongst their fellow rockers. The sound of accomplished retro rock serves to make Wired Desire seem much older and wiser than their time. The second track The Hard Stuff, showcases Daly’s gruff, emotive voice perfectly, alongside classic guitar solos which are essential for any decent rock group. The third track Damn Hard is a power ballad, and suggests that the group would be an interesting act to watch live. The dark, mysterious music is the kind that would be perfect for an eighties horror film, maybe something along the lines of The Lost Boys. I reckon Wired Desire are sure to take the rock/metal music scene by storm over the next few years. Lizzie Goodman Buy this if you like: 1980s hair metal. www.myspace.com/wireddesireband Available Now

Hoods (Milo Books) Carl Fellstrom A book that covers the spate of gun crime and gangs in Nottingham with the face of Bestwood Cartel frontman Colin Gunn on the cover? Not more sensationalism to taint the reputation of our beloved city I hear you cry… Well, while passing glances at this book in shops may perhaps add to the fear factor surrounding Nottingham (which hasn’t actually registered a death through gun crime in over two years) if you pick it up and give it a go it’s bloody good read! Packed full of information from police files and looking at the routes of gang crime from the fifties onwards, it’s fascinating and very well researched. Answering many questions that locals like you and I might have about how people like Marian Bates and the Stirlands ended up dead and on the cover of local and national press, it also makes you realise how things managed to get so out of control during the nineties and early 2000s under Police Chief Steve Green. You can tell this book has been a gruelling project for Fellstrom, a news journalist who has been covering the East Midlands for several years. In a perverse sort of way it’s also clearly a labour of love for him. Well worth a read if you want to know more about the stories behind the news. Jared Wilson Buy this if you like: The Krays, crime novels, knowing more about why you live in ‘Assassination City’. www.milobooks.co.uk

Buy this if you like: The idea of Duffy meeting The Smiths www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays Available Now

Euros Childs Cheer Gone (Wichita Recordings) Euros’ voice has amazing depth to it on this album; this is folk music with real soul. Hauntingly hypnotic, Farm-Hand Murder is particularly chilling following the previous track about unrequited love, Always Thinking of Her. However, with the next track Saving Up To Get Married the romantic in me forgot about the dark side and possibly fell a little bit in love with Euros and his lilting Welsh accent. This is a philosopher at work; themes of passing time, mortality and of course love, of all kinds, run deep and there’s all the pretty poetic melancholy you would expect from such stuff. But the cheer is not gone; Euros is telling us what we hopefully already knew and with the point hammered home with Sing Song Song that music is food for the soul. He believes it and you know what? He’s quite convincing. Beccy Godridge Buy this if you like: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Rufus Wainwright or Super Furry Animals. www.myspace.com/euroschilds Available Now

Cracking the Short Story Market (Writers’ Bureau) Iain Patterson This 300 page book is the perfect guide for the determined writer who wants to see their work in print rather than in a folder entitled ‘stories’ on their laptop. Offering a comprehensive insight into the craft of writing, the book also explains how the various markets work, how to impress judges and the dos and don’ts of character. In this recently updated edition the author includes information on ezines and new contacts as well as an extended chapter on writing for radio. If you don’t get published after reading this then there was never any lead in your pencil in the beginning. See the LeftLion creative writing forum at leftlion.co.uk/forum for more creative writing tips. James Walker Buy this if you like: The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight www.writersbureau.com

proud Nottingham City Council

to present

Nottingham

Friday 13 February Light Night Full Programme Nottingham City Centre From 6pm â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;til late Thursday 12 February Light Night Tasters From 6pm â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;til late

Call 08444 775 678 for event listings and offers or visit www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/lightnight

Pisces (February 20 - March 20) Statistically speaking this is the most depressing time of the year, so it’s worth planning your coping strategies in advance. When life seems grim and all hope seems but a distant memory, why not try weeping uncontrollably in the shower? After all, it worked for your parents.

Aries (March 21 - April 20) Somewhere someone is thinking of you. Someone is making you into a vision so beautiful that it can only live in the mind. Someone is thinking of the way your breath escapes your lips when you are touched. This person is using celestial colours to paint your image. Mainly brown.

Taurus (April 21 - May 21) You can recycle most types of paper and card fairly easily these days through your local waste collectors. But remember it’s still better to try to re-use these materials than recycle them. Old telephone directories can make ideal personal address books. Simply cross out the names and addresses of the people you don’t know.

LEFTLION ABROAD

Gemini (May 22 - June 22)

Kurt Cobain’s home, Seattle, USA

I ain’t got no fire, to light my cigarette. I’m just an ‘ol dog, looking for my midnight pet. She lays out a matchstick and offers me the light. I take a drag and blow smoke right in her eyes. Your leash is a short one, roll over and play dead. You’re my pretty doggie, I pat you on your head.

171 Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle, USA. A big house that made big news on 8 April 1994 when its owner Kurt Cobain, lead singer of nineties grunge phenomenon Nirvana, put his lips around a shotgun and pulled the trigger. His body was discovered by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system. Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain’s ear, the electrician reported seeing no visible signs of trauma and initially believed that Cobain was asleep until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A suicide note was found that said, ‘I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing... for too many years now’.

Cancer (June 23 - July 23) Getting too old to go on an 18-30 holiday? Do not despair - there is an alternative! Simply get pissed, lie in a pit in your garden and shag everyone who looks at you over the fence. For added evening entertainment set off a car alarm and gyrate your body around it until the police arrive.

Leo (July 24 - August 23)

If you can get a photo of a LeftLion sticker or copy of the mag somewhere dead exotic, send it to info@leftlion.co.uk.

Calling extra terrestrial fanatics: been hit by the credit crunch too? Do not fear! You can create the effects of being abducted by aliens cheaply and easily by taking painkillers and drinking two bottles of whisky. You’ll either go mysteriously missing ever after or you’ll wake up in a strange place the next day, having had your memory eerily erased.

Virgo (August 24 - September 23) My wife invited her vegetarian sister and her husband round to dinner. When we’ve been round theirs they always go on about how tofu, Quorn and other meat substitutes taste ‘exactly like the real thing’. So I figured they’d never know if I just cooked them up a nice bit of steak. They went mental about it! Possibly due to the lack of protein in their diet?

Libra (September 24 - October 23) Feeling the squeeze of the current financial crisis as banks tighten up on your loan repayments? Don’t let it affect your quality of life! You can get a two for one offer on all items at Tesco and Asda this month, simply by putting one into your shopping trolley and the other into your coat pocket.

Scorpio (October 24 - November 22) There are worse things in the world than what is going to happen to you tomorrow and it will become increasingly important for you to get some perspective. Someday you’ll be able to look back on it all and laugh. Until then, however it’s going to take months of reconstructive surgery to get you looking ‘normal’ again.

Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22) A new year can bring a turn of tide, and a salty old sea dog like you can expect plenty of changes over the next fortnight. A long-term, but usually covert, relationship with a married woman will come to an end when she finally plucks up the courage to ask you for a divorce.

Capricorn (December 23 - January 19) People say it’s a dog eat dog world out there, but I was still surprised at what happened when I took Binky the Bandog Mastiff out to the park last Sunday. The owner of the West Highland Terrier was rather upset. I eventually gave him most of the dog back, but he was crying uncontrollably by that point.

Aquarius (January 20 - February 19) Calling all bearded men! You too can obtain the appearance of an upper class North Pole explorer by simply applying Tippex to your beard, painting your nose blue and, if you’re up for it, cutting off a couple of toes. It never fails to impress the girls! Then lavish them with Kendal mint cake and go on about how it’s all you’ve eaten for five months.

Nottingham twin cities run by mentalists

TEHRAN

HARARE

The next Issue of LeftLion Magazine will be out at the end of March, in plenty of time for all April fools. 30

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

Country: Iran madinejad

Leader: Mahmoud Ah Mad as:

s A biscuit tin full of frog

bullying, ill-tempered Thinks Britain is: “A er” and expansionist pow enjoys: Waving When visiting Notts, apon in Trent End inflatable nuclear we

Country: Zimbabwe Leader: Robert Mugab

Mad as: Fuck

Thinks Britain is: “A country of thieving colonialists”

When visiting Notts, enjoys: Getting Paul Smi th to run up more shir ts with his face on them

10th Birthday Weekender

Friday 6th March - Sunday 8th March 2009 Pontins, Prestatyn Sands, North Wales Expect 3 days of non stop music across 3 arenas, with the biggest artists in their respective genres touching down to contribute to what will be the biggest birthday celebration on the planet!

WILEY [LIVE] ⁄ RONI SIZE ⁄ DJ YODA ⁄ ANDY C SCRATCH PERVERTS ⁄ HIGH CONTRAST ⁄ DJ MARKY SKREAM ⁄ FRICTION ⁄ LONDON ELEKTRICITY ⁄ BEARDYMAN BENGA ⁄ GOLDIE ⁄ FOREIGN BEGGARS [LIVE] ⁄ FABIO DIGITAL MYSTIKZ ⁄ DJ ZINC [HISTORY OF DETONATE SET] PEANUT BUTTER WOLF [AV SET] ⁄ NOISIA ⁄ PLASTICIAN SHY FX ⁄ C2C BEAT TORRENT [AV SET] ⁄ JAMES PANTS [LIVE] THE APPLES [LIVE] ⁄ ED RUSH ⁄ LOGISTICS ⁄ TAYO TROJAN SOUNDSYSTEM ⁄ APPLEBLIM ⁄ D BRIDGE ⁄ BREAK ICICLE ⁄ ZINC [HOUSE SET] ⁄ DAM-FUNK ⁄ COMMIX JIMMY SCREECH [LIVE] ⁄ HIGHNESS SOUNDSYSTEM BREAKAGE ⁄ KLUTE ⁄ 2562 ⁄ DJ DIE ⁄ CYANTIFIC DJ DEREK ⁄ ALIX PEREZ ⁄ MAYER HAWTHORNE [LIVE P.A] RANDOM MOVEMENT ⁄ TOMB CREW ⁄ LONE TRANSIT MAFIA ⁄ PETE JORDAN ⁄ SPAM CHOP ⁄ METAPHI MCs DYNAMITE ⁄ GQ ⁄ EKSMAN ⁄ STAMINA ⁄ LOWQUI I.D ⁄ SP ⁄ WREC ⁄ RAGE ⁄ FREESTYLE ⁄ RUTHLESS Arenas hosted by..

Book tickets now! Ticket price: £125 (+ £1.87 booking fee if paying via credit card)

This includes self catered chalet accommodation on the weekender site for 3 nights. It includes access to all of the weekender music arenas, and all the holiday parks facilities.

How to book tickets:

1. Decide who you want to share a chalet with – Chalets sleep groups of 4, 5, 6, or 7. You can upgrade your chalet to fit extra people in as long as the larger chalets are still available. If there are less of you than 4, please e-mail info@detonate1.co.uk 2. Call the bookings hotline on Call 0844 576 5949 and quote the code DET1, or go to www.pontins.com/detonate. Please note: groups of 4 or 5 need 1 bed apartments, 6 or 7 need 2 bed apartments as 2 of the bed spaces are on the sofa beds. 3. Make payment: You will be charged for the whole apartment (4 person = £500, 5 person = £625 and so on). You can make the payment across several cards. 4. You will then receive a booking and registration form in the post. The balance paid voucher is sent out 7-10 days before the event. Coaches: Detonate coaches can take you from Nottingham to the weekender and back for £20. Tickets on sale now at: Selectadisc, Golden Fleece, Brownes, Ticket reps. For more info see www.detonate1.co.uk or e-mail info@detonate1.co.uk Facebook: search groups for... Detonate Weekender, Detonate, Hospital Records WWWeb: www.detonate1.co.uk