LeftLion Magazine - July 2022 - Issue 149

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Credits

Supporters

Alan Gilby They Think It’s Al Over alan.gilby@leftlion.co.uk

Ashley Carter Editor ashley.carter@leftlion.co.uk

George White Assistant Editor george.white@leftlion.co.uk

Natalie Owen Head Designer natalie.owen@leftlion.co.uk

Adam Pickering Partnerships Manager adam.pickering@leftlion.co.uk

Addie Kenogbon Fashion Editor addie.kenogbon@leftlion.co.uk

Jared Wilson Editor-in-Chief jared.wilson@leftlion.co.uk

Curtis Powell Head of Video and Photography curtis.powell@leftlion.co.uk

Thi Cordell Marketing Assistant thi.cordell@leftlion.co.uk

Elliot Farnsworth Music Co-Editor elliot.farnsworth@leftlion.co.uk

Rebecca Buck Stage Co-Editor rebecca.buck@leftlion.co.uk

Daniela Loffreda Food Editor food@leftlion.co.uk

Cover Ritchie Sumpter Photography Sub-Editor Lauren Carter-Cooke Intern Gemma Cockrell (gemma.cockrell@leftlion.co.uk) Editorial Illustrations Emily Catherine

Lizzy O’Riordan Editorial Assistant lizzy.oriordan@leftlion.co.uk

Writers Dani Bacon Bassey LoveCeCe Sam Nahirny Andy Reid Derry Shillitto Gareth Watts Nadia Whittome Illustrators Raphael Achache Dani BaconFiona Carr Tracey Meek Kate Sharp

Tom Errington Web Developer tom.errington@leftlion.co.uk

Katie Lyle Music Co-Editor katie.lyle@leftlion.co.uk

These people #SupportLeftLion Al Draper, Alan Phelan, Alison Gove-Humphries, Alison Harviek, Alison Hedley, Alison Knox, Alison Wale, Anamenti, Andrew Cooper, Anne Jennings, Ankunda, Annie Rodgers, Ant Haywood, Anthony Blane, Ashley Cooper, Bad Squiddo Games, Barbara Morgan, Barrie the Lurcher, Ben & Jack, Ben Lester, Ben Lucas, Betty Rose Bakes, Bridgette Shilton, Caroline Le Sueur, Chloe Langley, Chris Rogers, Claire Henson, Claire Warren, Clare Foyle, D Lawson, Dan Lyons, David Dowling, David Knight, Diane Lane, Dick Watson, Donna Rowe-Merriman, Eddie, Eden PR, Ellen O'Hara, Emily Poxon, Erika Diaz Petersen, Felicity Whittle, Frances & Garry Bryan, Friday Club Presents, Hayley Howard, Heather Hodkinson, Heather Oliver, Helena Tyce, Ian Storey, Ian Yanson, In memory of Anna Novak (Bradford and Scoraig), In memory of Jenny Smith, Ivy House Environmental, James Medd, James Place, James Wright, Jane Dodge, Jayne Holmes, Jayne Paul William & Pirate Jack, Jed Southgate, Jenni Harding, John Haslam, John Hess, Jon Blyth, Joshua Heathcote, Julian Bower, Kate Newton, Kath Pyer, Kathleen Dunham, Kay Gilby, Kaye Brennan, Kiki Dee the Cat, Livi & Jacob Nieri, Liz Knott, Lizzy and Margot, Luke and Flo, Marc Weaver, Mark, Mark Barratt, Mark Gasson, Martin, Matthew Riches, Matt Turpin, Matthew Riches, Max Sherwin, Mighty Lightweights, MinorOak Coworking, Monica White, Nick G (real living wage rocks), Nicola Baumber, Nigel Cooke, Nigel King, Nikki Williams, NottingJam Orchestra, Oliver Ward, Paul Boast, Paul Woodall, Rachel Ayrton, Rachel Hancorn, Rachel Hanemann, Rachel Morton, Raphael Achache, Richard Barclay, Richard Goodwin, roastinghouse.co.uk, Rob Arthur, Ron Mure, Ros Evans, Roy Manterfield, Ruth Parry, Sam Hudson, Sam Nahirny, Sarah Manton, Simon Evans, Siobhán Cannon-Brownlie, Spicer, Stephanie Larman, Steve Lyon, Steve Riordan, Steve Stickley Storyteller, Steve Wallace, Stuart Jones, Sue Barsby, Sue Reader, The Sultan, Tim Foster, Tom Markkanen, Tracey Newton, Tracey Underwood , Tracy Lowe, Wolfgang Buttress

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Jamie Morris Screen Editor jamie.morris@leftlion.co.uk

Dom Henry Stage Co-Editor dom.henry@leftlion.co.uk

Photographers Alice Ashley Perm Ghattaura Nigel King Nathan Langman Woody Morris Nathan O’Brien Andrew Truglia Frazer Varney Sarah Woolf

Featured Contributor Elliot Farnsworth Elliot grew up on the outskirts of the city of Nottingham, comfortably falling short of his childhood dreams to captain the national football team.

In panic, he fled to the north-east, hibernating in shame in laboratories and at sea with only the music in his headphones for comfort. Realising a new passion, he and a friend began work on Select Sounds: a Nottingham-based, music-centred medium, which represents creative collaboration through events and an online platform. Back in his hometown, contributing to LeftLion for a year or two, he now finds himself editing our music section.

You can read Elliot’s column, Pause on Shuffle, on page 38

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Contents 19

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She’s Got Game Most people love sports. Our Editorial Assistant not so much. So naturally we convinced her to try six of the hardest ones out there

Just Can’t Get Enough A momentous achievement for fans and Nottingham alike - Gareth Watts walks us through Forest’s season of glory

Born to Run Paralympic athlete and motivational speaker Richard Whitehead MBE chats titles, trophies and accessibility in sport

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Nadia on… Palestine In her regular column, Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome recounts her recent visit to Palestine and its story of injustice

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Into the Woods Forever experimental, Artdocs’ Benjamin Wigley guides us through his multimodal art and film project Hart of the Wood

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Built to Win The hair of Tom Huddlestone. The shoulders of Rebecca Adlington.

We got busy making the ultimate Notts sporting legend

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Branching Out We catch up with Oliver Blair about his debut short film, The Tree, and how he explores death through comedy

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Lions’ Pride The Nottingham Lions, Nottingham’s LGBT+ friendly football team, discuss kicking homophobia out of football

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Repping the Industry An extension of the village’s literary festival, Repton Filmfest '22 is now the place to be for cinema lovers

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King of the Ring Joseph Conners has achieved what few in the wrestling world of have - joining the WWE ranks at their UK Tournaments

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Singing the Blus Known around Nottingham for her soulful vocals, Harleighblu is back with her phenomenal latest album, Hideout

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The Way of the Warrior Respect, decency and self-improvement - we learn more about the values behind kendo, the ancient martial art being taught in Notts

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On the Ball Art of Football Director Luke Cuthbert chats immortalising memories and the link between football and art

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The Surreal Deal Exploring childhood through a surrealist lens, writer, performer and poet Georgina Wilding chats her debut collection - Hag Stone

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Out of Time: Rorke’s Drift Made famous by 1964’s Zulu, the Battle of Rorke’s Drift has its place firmly in Notts history

Editorial Sport is one of those things that makes less sense the more you think about it. Ostensibly it’s pointless – a predetermined number of people competing to see who can jump the highest, hit a ball the furthest or not get punched the most. It’s almost juvenile – two toddlers arguing about who can run faster on their way home from nursery.

But sport also has the ability to stir up the most potent emotions in people. Whether it’s the shame of being picked last for rounders in PE (not me, obviously. I’m a machine), the sting of losing what was meant to be a friendly game of badminton or the pure elation of seeing your football team finally achieve something they’ve been striving toward for years.

We already had this sports-themed July issue planned before Forest achieved promotion to the promised land, but it certainly made our job a lot easier. Even as a bitter, broken Derby fan I can appreciate how much it means to the fans and the city – Nottingham is a place that needs to be on the big stage in all aspects, and Premier League football was long overdue.

To borrow a phrase from Joseph Conners, the absolute unit we interview on page 22, “When it’s done well, it’s one of the purest forms of entertainment. It’s gladiatorial and Shakespearean. A play on a stage.” He’s talking about wrestling, the sport he excels at, but what he’s saying can easily be applied to any sport. For as pointless as it seems on paper, when sport is great, there’s nothing quite like it in the world.

Ashley Carter, Editor ashley.carter@leftlion.co.uk

LeftLion Magazine is fully recyclable and compostable. Our paper is recycled or made with FSC® certified (C015932) sources, and printed using renewable energy.

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Going Underground Our mole on the ground isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty to bring you the Notts stories you might have missed... illustrations: Kate Sharp Elephant in the Womb Spare a thought for Clifton new mum Jade Smith, who gave birth to a baby weighing in at a whopping 13lbs 2oz at Nottingham City Hospital. For context, that’s the same weight as three chihuahuas, a standard-sized bowling ball or a 40inch LED TV. Fortunately, Jade was able to have a C-section, otherwise I suspect she’d still be walking like John Wayne this time next year.

Have I Got Moose for You For what it’s worth, when it comes to irrelevant countries, Canada is right up there with Switzerland and Belgium. From their minstrel show-loving Prime Minister to the irritating way they say ‘eh’ after every sentence, it’s little wonder they look on mighty Notts and feel envious. That can be the only explanation for Toronto-based rag Que Pasa naming us one of the ten worst European cities to live in recently, even going so far as to describe life in Nottingham as “miserable”. This is the city of Byron, Lawrence and Sillitoe, you bunch of maple syrup-drinking, ice hockey-playing, moose-fondling, poutinechomping cretins.

rk think my at wo y “I like to vletic.” tired la o , t o t e ha il t c style is n I go isabled to floor d “Whe e e h h t t n to o I’d go f toilet roll down.” o eloads e a little li av h d n a “Th a my t’s the n tits oise m take my ake wh bra e off.” n I “I hate fe eling all yo bones w iggling u ur nder your skin .”

“Well, ex cuse me fo having a f meat skeleton r all full o .”

“I’m just w.” right no

e so ttes ar “Bague hy are they, W weird. long?” o s , e lik

Death from Above We’ve all been there. A loved-one dies and your first thought is: ‘Just how are we going to get aerial footage of their funeral?’

Well one of life's (and death’s) biggest conundrums has finally been solved by Notts funeral service A.W. Lymn, who now offers a drone service to capture the exact moment Nana gets lowered into her final resting place. Nothing says quiet dignity like a nosey flying robot whizzing around as you grieve.

Spotted in Carlton I was wondering if anyone had any free dog clippers they no longer needed please as I started too groom my fur baby and they have broken on me so I now have a halfed shaved shihtzu Burton Joyce Village Why is one Police officer pointing the speed camera and ten watching?

Spotted Ilkeston Town Random question: what does everyone do with their Gu cheesecake jars?

Spotted in Netherfield Seems like there's only one bellend Sherwood in Nottingham Community Group Got loads of 2.5 kg potatoes FREE FREE FREE

“What's a dopamine hit?“ “Just any thing to keep the existentia l dread aw ay.“

Spotted: Nottingham Does anyone know how too reverse baldness

Spotted in Carlton What age do u have to be to go prism night club please is it 16

Sherwood in Nottingham Community Group Anyone want some new shoulders, oh and a new neck?

Spotted: Long Eaton My son was on his paper round this morning and saw a cat with a fish in its mouth

Spotted in Netherfield My dog stepped on a bee

Spotted in Netherfield Can anyone hear a plane going around in circles? Or am I loosing the plot.

Spotted: Stapleford Who’s smoking something more than tobacco on lower orchard st ?

West Bridgford Community (and Surrounding Areas) I'm here for local melodrama, thank you for your contribution.

Nottingham UK Community Group Sound like he wants to make a prono

Spotted Ilkeston Town Lights at bowling alley stopped working all together now its a free for all. Its actually flowing faster.. no one report it Spotted: Long Eaton Loads of places in NG10 to get injected

“My his n old bos su ame was sed to say Fred Wes t.”

o, so an, to meric and the A s a “She w n’t underst .” id she d t of shame p conce

Spotted in Netherfield All you people saying how people are stupid for thinking burning plastic is stupid and dumb, have you actually inhaled plastic fumes from burning? Absolutely awful and toxic Spotted Gedling Ladies. Sports bra recommendations? I’ve started running and have quite rack so need some support Spotted Gedling What’s going on when you miss a mobile number calling your phone and you call it back and you get this number is not recognised and texts don’t deliver?

Strange Spotted Sneinton Lizzy wrestling like a badman

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A goalkeeper’s goal is to stop others from achieving their goals

Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...

Nottingham Forest We haven’t seen them play much recently. In fact, the only time we’ve been to watch them live was when we were ten-years-old.

But we hear they did very well and we are delighted to see them back in the first division. We know it’s called the Premier League now, but we don’t really understand that. There are four divisions and this is the first one. Say whatever, but that’s not changing.

Ice Hockey Yes, we’ve been to the Ice Stadium to watch the Panthers. They have three halves, which definitely makes no sense. Also, what is with that damned organ music going on all the time? We don’t really approve of all the fighting the players do, they should just calm down a bit. Our nephew is very good at skating and plays for the junior Panthers team. He had a skating birthday party in Sutton-in-Ashfield and tried to get us on the ice, but it was a case of “No, thank you.”

Sporting Achievements We both did rowing when we were younger and won our first tankard at Peterborough in 1988. More recently, we joined the Nottingham Croquet Club. There were seven lessons as part of the introductory course and we managed four of them. We enjoyed it, but it was also bedding plant season and started interfering with work, so we had to call a halt to it. Our father once cycled from here to Rotherham on a three-speed bike to see his aunt. That’s a fair old way, huh?

words: Dani Bacon

Pick Six

This month, we’ve tasked former Nottingham Forest and Republic of Ireland winger and current Forest under-23s manager Andy Reid with choosing a few of his favourite things... @officialreid11

Book Dubliners - James Joyce

Meal Chicken and Pasta

With me being from Dublin, this was a book I really got into when I was about nineteen or twenty.

The writing of Joyce is so different and out there. He was definitely way ahead of his time.

Being a footballer we used to get given this all of the time as our pre-match meal, and I think it’s just stuck with me! I love adding a little bit of chilli in there too to add a touch of spice.

Film Good Will Hunting

Notts Spot Wollaton Park

I really like the idea that someone could be a genius despite being from humble origins. The acting is brilliant too - Robin Williams is one of my favourite actors and he’s fantastic here.

We lived next to the Park for a few years, including during COVID, so having it there was brilliant. I loved the building too, it’s so beautifully built. It’s a great place to walk around on a nice day.

Song Simple Twist of Fate

Holiday Destination The Bahamas

This is really hard choice!

But I’ve gone with Simple Twist of Fate from Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album. Along with Van Morrison’s Astal Weeks, it’s my favourite album. It’s a superb song.

We went again recently after the kids saw photos of me and my wife there a good few years ago before they were born and asked why they hadn’t been! I love the people too - it’s such a beautiful place. leftlion.co.uk/issue149

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The Yoga Place

Haydn Road, Sherwood NG5 1DX Award winning yoga studio established in 1999 Classes for all levels, from complete beginners onwards Expert tuition in a friendly, supportive environment Classes daily from Sunday to Thursday

www.theyogaplace.co.uk

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Nadia on...

Palestine words: Nadia Whittome photo: Fabrice Gagos

As a politician, I’m confronted constantly with the injustices of daily life. Society is so full of oppression, and our economy so rigged, that many people spend their lives being treated like dirt by institutions that are supposed to serve them. MPs’ offices are the dams where the injustice silts up: hungry mums facing benefit sanctions, victims of abuse, disbelieved refugees in fear of their life. Returning every Monday to parliament, I then watch hundreds of posh mediocre men in suits drone on about how it isn’t really happening.

The West Bank isn’t a postcard out of history: it is, in its current state, a living nightmare - and one which should call us to meaningful action Visiting Palestine in late May, I witnessed a country whose national story is defined by injustice. That injustice goes back much further than the creation of the state of Israel: the Palestinians suffered at the hands of both Ottoman and British colonial administrations before the events of 1948, when Israel was created and millions of Palestinians made into refugees. Since then, Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel have have faced a campaign of ethnic cleansing, military domination, land theft and racist discrimination. Earlier this year, Amnesty International threw its weight behind the use of a word that many activists have been using for a long time to describe the situation: apartheid.

Just two weeks before I arrived, Shireen Abu Aqleh, an Al Jazeera journalist, was murdered by the Israeli military. She had been reporting on an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the West Bank, and was wearing a jacket and helmet

that clearly identified her as press - but that did not prevent her being shot in the head. Abu Aqleh was in the prime of her career, and was a household name across much of the Middle East. Her death prompted anger and grief.

In the western media, the incident prompted a display of the bias that runs right through the way that the Israel-Palestine conflict is covered. The New York Times went with the headline: “Shireen Abu Aqleh, Trailblazing Palestinian Journalist, Dies at 51.” And when Abu Aqleh’s entirely peaceful funeral procession was attacked by Israeli border guards on the streets of Jerusalem, the BBC reported that there had been “clashes”. I like to think that’s not how the NYT or the BBC would have responded if one of their own had been shot, and all of their colleagues at the scene had corroborated the fact that the bullet had been shot by an IDF sniper.

determination. In Jerusalem, I sat in the gallery to watch the bail hearing of a 14-year-old child being held in military detention, his father waving and reassuring him (his release was a rarity, we were told).

But the last thing I want to do is paint a twee picture of an oppressed people and their struggle for freedom, as if this was a holiday from which I’ve now returned, or as if all we’ve got to do now is mouth slogans about apartheid. Shireen Abu Aqleh’s murder wasn’t just an individual tragedy, it was a collective reality. The West Bank isn’t a postcard out of history: it is, in its current state, a living nightmare - and one which should call us to meaningful action.

Visiting Palestine in late May, I witnessed a country whose national story is defined by injustice

Shortly after her murder, I visited Abu Aqleh’s home and met some of her family, alongside a handful of other Labour MPs. The room was covered in flowers.

Her brother, niece and nephew were grieving, but were also determined to use her death as a means to fight for structural change. Our meeting ended with us being handed a letter, calling on us to support the International Criminal Court’s investigation of Israeli war crimes; call for an independent investigation into Shireen’s killing; and for there to be accountability, not just for the shooter but for the wider military apparatus. It should embarrass us that foreign politicians even need to be asked to support such basic demands.

Meaningful action means, for me, that we need to root our opposition to what’s happening in Palestine in ties with people who are struggling on the ground.

As a socialist, I am determined to build links with Palestinian socialists, feminists and LGBT+ activists, who so often face a battle on two fronts. And while Israeli politics is full of racism and militarism, I was also inspired by the co-resistance of Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups like Standing Together.

Israeli socialists, feminists and anti-racists are also key to a lasting, just peace.

That was one of the most striking and moving things I took from my time in Palestine: that while injustice and repression tainted every aspect of life, this was also a place of resistance and humanity. In Hebron, I met a women’s collective fighting for their rights against both the Israeli state and the patriarchy of their own society. In Ramallah, I spent time chatting to youth activists who were full of energy and

It also means applying pressure. I’m going to start by endorsing a campaign of divestment against companies which profit from the oppression of the Palestinians, most prominently the arms trade and the British companies like JCB whose bulldozers regularly flatten Palestinian homes; and sanctions against the Israeli government. nadiawhittome.org

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Notts Shots

8,414 days Nathan Langman - @_meadowman2

Want to have your work featured? Send your high-res photos from around the city, including your full name and best web link, to photography@leftlion.co.uk

Live stream Woody Morris - woodymorris.org 12

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Big Red Perm Ghattaura - @pics_by_perm

Benched Sarah Woolf - @sarahwoolfphoto

Vape escape Frazer Varney - @imjustfraze

Mull of Kin-tache Nathan Langman - @_meadowman2

I want to ride it where I like Perm Ghattaura - @pics_by_perm leftlion.co.uk/issue149

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She’s Got Game Some people find sports invigorating. Others, awe-inspiring. But for me, the most accurate word would be intimidating, my total historical lack of skill putting me off most athletic endeavours.

Mix that in with a healthy dose of school PE-induced shame and you’ve got someone who was not looking forward to the sports edition of LeftLion. Naturally, therefore, the office picked me to be the roving reporter this month, taking on the challenge of trying six new sports for the very first time…

Aerial Hoop I begin this journey with aerial hoop, which involves exercising with a heavy metal hoop suspended from the ceiling - the kind of thing you might most commonly associate with circus performers, who skillfully weave in and out through a series of dynamic routines. But it’s also an activity that us laymen can try too, and which we have multiple studios dedicated to in Nottingham.

Located in an old lace factory, I opt for a trip to Polekat and arrive for a lesson with Kat herself on a Tuesday afternoon. Filled with bright streaming light and bare brick walls, the space (alongside Kat’s leotard) makes me feel like an extra in Flashdance and I’m excited to live out my eighties dreams.

“How high is your pain tolerance?” Kat asks me, and like a soldier (who is eager to impress) I say that I can handle anything. She’s already told me that aerial tends to leave a few bruises, but if nothing else, I’m proud, and won’t let that deter me. Upside-down like a bat, legs hanging over the top of the hoop, blood streaming to the top of my head, I start to wonder if I’ve made the right decision.

But, though sometimes difficult and requiring a few moments of bravery, I am a convert. Held in the hoop by my own body weight, I feel graceful and strong, and as the session comes to a close, I’m checking with Kat how to come back for more. For me, a solid 10/10 for my first sport. polekatfitness.com

Climbing By the time climbing rolls around less than 24 hours later, I’m feeling pretty strong. I’ve already deluded myself into thinking I can see a six-pack after forty minutes of aerial and I’m ready for a lunch-time session at the depot.

Starting with the easiest level, I channel a monkey scaling a tree and all of a sudden I’m wondering if I’m wrong about myself. Have I been an athlete all along?

Am I the strongest person on the planet?

And then we move up to the slightly harder level and I’m instantly humbled. The walls are at a more difficult angle, the plastic rocks less easy to grip, and now that I've gotten to the top, I have no idea how to return to the safety of the floor. My forehead starts sweating and I quickly realise I might have a secret fear of heights.

“How would you suggest I come back down?” I ask Archie, my very friendly instructor, and he guides me (not totally gracefully) to safety. Not an activity I would describe myself as good at, but something that I can definitely appreciate the appeal of, climbing pushes you both physically and mentally. Plus, there seems to be a thriving sense of community among climbers which I find really charming. A 7/10 for me, I’d definitely recommend climbing to others, but can’t necessarily see myself doing it again. depotclimbing.co.uk

Roller Derby A week has passed since my previous sporting extravaganzas, I’m starting to get a cold, and I feel generally grumpy. Nonetheless, I’m excited to try out roller derby, despite my only reference point being the film Whip It.

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Roller derby has a reputation for being brutal, but when I arrive the atmosphere seems the furthest thing from frightening.

Joining a group of fellow newbies, I’m led by Puck, who teaches me how to skate, how to stop and, most importantly, how to fall - a lesson I learn by violently throwing myself to the floor.

After the basics are over, I join the main group of girls and we work on moving quickly between lanes, a skill that’s very important in this high speed sport. But my favourite part of the experience comes from learning to make a ‘wall’ - a move in which a group of players create a barrier with their bodies to stop the ‘jammer’ getting past you.

My first group sport of this experience, I love the feeling of support and camaraderie among the other players as we shout out movements and directions aloud. And while I have nothing against mixed gender sports, there is something very empowering about a group made up largely of women, all of whom are strong and fun and there to support each other.

Another 10/10 for me, roller derby was a real boost to my sporting confidence and a great first dip into team sports. nottsrollerderby.co.uk

Archery We simply couldn’t have a sports edition without at least one mention of archery - the sport of our very own Robin Hood, which I got to experience with a modern twist through a game of virtual archery.

Taking place (unsurprisingly) at the Robin Hood Adventures as part of Nottingham Castle, the game mixes the real and the technological by having you shoot a projected screen, all the while feeding you historical facts about Robin Hood and the history of archery as an activity.

Short and sweet, I finish the experience in less than five minutes, so I’d only really recommend it as one part of the Castle tour, rather than a day's activity in itself. Nonetheless, it was an interesting and interactive way to learn a little bit of history and to have a taste of times gone by.

The game did seem to have some kind of vanity setting, which allowed me to score easily every time something I sincerely doubt would have happened in a real-life archery situation. I’m not complaining, but I do think it takes away some of my integrity in being able to call it a sport.

Rating-wise, I’ve got to go for a 6/10. Great atmosphere, a really cool way to learn more about Nottingham’s heritage, but really stretching the definition of archery. nottinghamcastle.org.uk

Dodgeball To be totally honest, I have done dodgeball before, the sport acting as a back-up lesson on rainy PE days.

And as a further confession, I never enjoyed it. I am, however, a lover of a redemption plot, and with that in mind I head down to Nottingham Dodgeball Club on a sunny June evening, trying to push down the preemptive panic that’s brewing.

Taking off my glasses in fear of them breaking, I head into the first game essentially blind and actively afraid.

The team has shown me how to throw and catch, but now we’re mid-game with all sorts of dodgeball lingo being thrown around. With each match lasting a quick three minutes, it’s a fast-paced experience and I’m still scared of being hit by the ball.

Apparently, they are made of non-sting material but the noise they make hitting the wall suggests otherwise.

I’m told that, with time, I’ll learn to “train my flinch to catch”, and while I’m sure that’s true, I’m currently far away from that place. With all that said, though, I am impressed by the team. Unlike school dodgeball, which revolved around the merciless throwing of basketballs, there is a lot of skill and teamwork involved, plus a strong sense of mutual respect.

I found this one strangely mentally straining, my sport-induced shame rearing its ugly head regularly.

Much like climbing, I’m giving this one a 7/10. Good stuff, not for me. facebook.com/nottinghamdodgeballclub

Wrestling And finally, wrestling. It’s good to end every article with a bang - and what embodies that more than the actual possibility of being knocked out? So I apparently thought when I agreed to a Thursday morning session at Nottingham’s House of Pain, anyway.

As a younger sister, I do have some previous fighting experience (once I kicked my brother so hard it made a foot-shaped bruise), but it would be fair to say I was incredibly nervous. Though I’m quickly reassured by my instructor Stixx who, though intimidating to look at, is actually an incredibly kind and good teacher.

I learn how to run the ropes, shoulder roll and (once again) fall safely. Stixx asks me how I feel about learning to jump over someone, and I say I’m very fond of the idea. He calls pro wrestler Riley Nova over to the ring. I promptly panic mid-move and kick Riley in the head.

Somewhere between a sport and a work of theatre, I’m surprised to realise how much learning to wrestle is like learning to dance, with a focus on choreographing moves and hamming up your facial expressions, and I’m impressed by the level of showmanship.

From someone who had never watched a single match, enjoying wrestling is the biggest surprise of all this month, and I leave the academy feeling giddy. A completely unexpected 9/10, I encourage you likewise to try something out of your comfort zone. houseofpainwrestling.wordpress.com A rewarding journey, my month of sports was trialling in more ways than one. As things turn out, my cool apathy to sports was actually (who would have guessed?) a fairly large fear of failing at them, but thanks to my instructors I feel significantly less embarrassed, and actually eager to try more.

Will I be keeping up with six new sports? Absolutely not. But do I feel more confident to try something new? That’s a definite yes.

words: Lizzy O’Riordan photos: Natalie Owen, Andrew Truglia, Fabrice Gagos leftlion.co.uk/issue149

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words: Gareth Watts photo: Nathan Langman

A kebab shop with a firework-fuelled marketing masterstroke. Depeche Mode blaring from passing cars. Our right-back’s mother carried shoulder high in her Calippo-fluorescent replica shirt rhyming ‘shite’ with ‘dynamite’. Red smoke. Handwritten plans taped to a water bottle wrapped in a towel. Que sera, sera…

Nottingham Forest’s story this season is a narrative arc as steep as the letter ‘U’ and it’s important to remember that the reason us fans are still, several weeks on, floating like we’ve been propelled into ecstatic orbit is that we slid so low to begin with.

As August turned to September, the City Ground groaned as hapless manager Chris Hughton toiled to guide the team to their worst start for 108 years. Things got so bad that sarcastic ‘olés’ rang out each time our back four (and yes, it is significant that it was a back four) sheepishly passed the ball sideways.

Hughton was so cautious that the joke he ‘would do whatever he could to defend a 1-0 defeat’ wasn’t funny anymore. You’re getting sacked in the morning was supposed to be something you sang to opposition managers.

Sliding down that U bend, we learned that Brennan, son of beloved goal-machine David Johnson, was very quick and loved scoring against Derby. Philip Zinckernagel looked to be a shrewd signing reflecting a promising new recruitment strategy, led by data analysis rather than name recognition. Further signings included Middlesbrough misfit Djed Spence: young, mercurial and desperate to prove a point. Our new CEO, Dane Murphy, was clearly a man with a plan. He spoke eloquently to connect with the fans, promising to guide us ‘True North’.

In more ways than one, True North turned out to be Huddersfield. Managerless and attired in a bright orange and yellow third kit, assistant boss Steven Reid switched the defence to a back three and gave the team freedom against the Terriers. We scored two goals. We won a football match. That Lovin’ Feeling wasn’t gone, gone, gone after all.

And then he arrived. Modest and modern, Steve Cooper was the man who’d help bring Trent Alexander-Arnold through at Liverpool; who’d led the England under 17s to World Cup glory; who’d taken a Swansea side diminished

by Premier League player-poaching to two consecutive play-offs. And Forest had just recruited young players: coachable, adaptable and hungry for first team action. The whole thing smacked of coherence.

We drew the first match under Cooper.

We won the second, third, fourth and fifth.

Consecutive wins. We fought and won points in the very last minute of games. Coherence?

Tick. Resilience? Tick.

At the start of December we won three further games in a row. In January, Forest knocked Arsenal out of the FA Cup with a beautifully worked Lewis Grabban goal; reminding a terrestrial TV audience about our stately old ground, but also the new confidence Cooper had instilled in us all.

A week later we clinched a win away at Millwall in the 91st minute. We then beat Derby at home – the highlight of any other season, this was a mere appetiser. Perhaps the outrageous expectation levels around the club at this point are best summed up thus: Cooper was unhappy after our next home game, because a 3-0 victory against Barnsley wasn’t as emphatic a performance as he demanded.

In early February the team reached further levels of excellence: destroying FA Cup holders Leicester 4-1, with a performance that Cooper identified as his benchmark for the rest of the season. Another Sunday teatime TV audience reminded us that this quaint collector’s item called ‘Nottingham Forest’ might no longer be just an antiques roadshow. Promotion contenders Blackburn were beaten 2-0 away, we even nicked a draw at home to Stoke with an outfield player in goal. We could add ‘belief’ to the list.

We are Premier League. We are a team in the present tense again The FA Cup run pitted us against our friends from Huddersfield next and, despite a dodgy refereeing decision, in the end we were comfortable 2-1 winners. Next up in the cup?

Liverpool at home in the Quarter Finals. This.

Doesn’t. Happen. To. Us. Oozing confidence, we beat Reading 4-0 without breaking a sweat; promotion-rivals QPR were overcome 3-1 after a sublime goal from Spence. Liverpool arrived and again the nation’s eyes were on Nottingham. Their squad of international swashbucklers were held at arm’s length for 78 minutes until Diogo Jota poked one in to take them to the semi-final.

Jurgen Klopp compared the atmosphere at the City Ground to a European night at Anfield.

We had come together, united in pride at our amazing young team and Steve Cooper’s alchemy. We looked at home sharing a pitch with those great players, but the Wembley dream was gone, right?

Not if Brennan Johnson had anything to do with it. Away at fellow play-off chasers Blackpool, he was electrifying – his speed matched with swagger, and Johnson bagged two as Forest won 4-1. Home victories and clean sheets against Coventry and Birmingham seemed rudimentary. A brutal affair on the narrow pitch at Kenilworth Road saw a perfectly good Djed Spence goal disallowed and Luton bully us to a 1-0 defeat.

Maybe the bubble had burst – how would we respond? With Jack Colback’s Marco van Basten-esque goal of the century and a 4-0

win against West Brom, of course! At the business end of the season, we won away at Peterborough and, amazingly, took all three points from our trip to champions-elect Fulham. Automatic promotion was within the realms of possibility. We just couldn’t get enough.

Cooper’s former club, Swansea, were hammered 5-1 at the City Ground and fan delirium reached fever pitch. Thousands of them (who am I kidding? Thousands of us) lined the streets to cheer the players’ coach as it made its way to Bournemouth. Another dodgy refereeing decision and another frustrating 1-0 away defeat meant that the automatic spot had gone. Hello play-offs, my old friend…

Forest were sublime in the semi-final first leg away against Sheffield United - dominant to the point whereby a 2-1 win didn’t seem to do us justice. The home leg was one of the most extraordinary nights of my life. A typical Brennan Johnson bullet made the aggregate score 3-1. And then it all went: the energy, the confidence, the poise… for thirty second-half minutes, the ghost of Hughton’s Forest came back to haunt us. Agony. Their legs were gone.

It was 3-3. Despair doesn’t begin to describe it.

And then, inexplicably, the Forest fans – who in my thirty-plus years of support have always been quick to complain about a losing team – rose to their feet and sang their hearts out.

Loose corrugated walling was hammered for percussion. Forest are magic on and off the pitch. The players remembered who they had become and what they could achieve. They fought valiantly and survived through to the penalty shootout.

Our enigmatic ‘keeper Brice Samba kept them waiting, he checked his surreptitious list of where the research suggested each penalty would go. The list was taped to a water bottle, rolled inside a towel. Cooper’s Forest are always prepared. The list was right. He saved three penalties. We were going to Wembley.

True North London. Against Huddersfield again. An ugly squeak of a football match. A whipped ball from James Garner and an own goal from Luke Colwill just before half time. 1-0 to Forest.

Decades of angst, pessimism and gallowshumour undone on one glorious afternoon.

We are Premier League. We are a team in the present tense again. We are still smiling.

@tokyobeatbox

Nottingham Forest kick off their Premier League season against Newcastle United on Saturday 6 August

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interview: Gemma Cockrell

Born to Run Nottingham-based athlete and motivational speaker Richard Whitehead MBE has won an array of medals at the Paralympics, but his influential work goes beyond the track. We caught up with him about his greatest achievements and the importance of giving back to the community…

Firstly, I wondered how you got into sport, and since you grew up in Nottingham, I was curious about how the city influenced and shaped your early career?

Growing up in the late seventies, early eighties, sports provision for people with disabilities was very limited. My parents saw the power of sport as an opportunity to break down social barriers.

I started with swimming and gymnastics – I was taught to swim at Bingham Leisure Centre and I went to a gymnastics club called Dako. The obstacles I faced at school moulded my opinions on the importance of sport for both mental and physical health.

You were unable to compete in the marathon at London 2012 since there was no category for leg amputees. How did it feel to be excluded like this and did it feel like a major setback at the time?

The Paralympic movement is seen as an inclusive platform for people with disabilities, but it’s not at all. They’re exclusively for people who fit into the classes they have within the sport sector. It took me a couple of years to transition from long distance into sprints, and trying to be competitive doing that. It’s important that when you have these struggles or these obstacles, that you have people around you to support you and engage you with what’s important.

What did the process of retraining for the sprints involve, and was it difficult to adapt when you were used to competing in marathons?

I was doing a lot of heavy weights in the gym. I was 59kg when I was running marathons, and when I won the 200m in London, I was 76kg. I had to put on a lot of muscle bulk to generate power on the track. I was doing more intense sessions, but I was still running on the road, because even though 200m is a sprint, you need to have endurance as well. I was working with coaches like Liz Yelling, then I transitioned to Keith Antoine. It’s about having a strong team around you, while keeping close to your roots, as I was still training in Loughborough and Nottingham.

You were given an MBE in 2013. What do you remember of the day it was presented to you and what does it mean to you?

I’m not a massive fan of titles, to be honest. It was a proud moment for my family, more than myself. We went to Buckingham Palace and were presented with my MBE from Prince Charles. Going to Buckingham Palace is something I don’t massively enjoy, because it’s not really me. I’d rather get it from a council house in Nottingham! But it’s nice to be recognised for the hard work I’ve done, and I feel like I deserve that reward because I’ve also done a lot of stuff away from the track.

I’m not a big fan of self-gratification, but it’s nice that the people of Nottingham feel that they’ve got an association with what I do, and I want to have a lasting impact and legacy As well as being recognised by the royals, your name has also been added to a Nottingham City Transport bus service. How does it feel to be honoured in this way by the city?

The bus drivers always wave to me! It’s nice to have that support. I’m not a big fan of that self-gratification, but it’s nice that the people of Nottingham feel that they’ve got an association with what I do, and I want to have a lasting impact and legacy. I’ve not got a tram named after me yet, though!

In the same year that you received your MBE, you launched ‘Richard Whitehead Runs Britain’. What inspired you to do this?

Winning at London 2012 was all about being able to do that, because without that platform it’s hard

to get the traction. Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete, tried to run from the east to the west of Canada, a marathon a day. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it to the finish, because he died of secondary sarcoma, and one of my friends, Simon Mellows, also died of sarcoma in 2005.

I then became the patron of Sarcoma UK, one of the charities that was a beneficiary of the run, along with Scope, who provide support for people with disabilities. I wanted relevance around the disability community, while also supporting the charity that Simon had a lot of support from.

You are also a motivational speaker at schools, sports clubs, and corporate and charity events. Is this something you are focused on at this point in your career and what does it feel like to be able to be a role model?

I think it’s a by-product of what you do. Role model is a word that people throw around. For me, if people can relate to what I say, then that’s great. If I’m talking to an audience, I try to relate to individuals. I also do a lot of humanitarian work, which I’m really passionate about, working across all intersectionality groups in the minority sector.

Finally, I was wondering what advice you would give your younger self or someone else who wants to compete in the Paralympics one day?

We can’t change the world by ourselves, so collaboration is key.

It’s important to surround yourself with good people who have determination. One of my messages to disabled people is that it’s about patience and perseverance. Accept the role that you have within society as a resource, not as a barrier or an obstacle. Nottingham still has a way to go to service the disability community, and not everyone in the community will want to be Paralympians, but hopefully when they see what I’m doing, they will see how together, we can be better. richardwhiteheadmbe.com

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Olympic medal winners. World champions. The One Show presenters. Nottingham’s sporting pros have undoubtedly made their mark on the national and global stage. But what does the ultimate Notts sporting hero look like? Well, we had a go at finding out…

Hair - Tom Huddlestone After once refusing to visit a barber until he scored a goal, Tom Huddlestone went thirty months without trimming his barnet - and his hair became a true work of art before it was cut in 2014.

Head - Stuart Broad Cricket ain’t a game for dumb dumbs, especially when you’re a bowler - and Broad’s intelligence and quick thinking has taken him to the very top of the sport.

Left Arm - Emily Campbell Good luck winning an arm wrestle against Emily Campbell.

An Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth medalist in weight-lifting, she’s as strong as they come.

Left Hand - Mary Earps Shot-stopper for Manchester United and England - they don’t get much better than Mary Earps. Keep an eye out for her performances between the sticks at this month’s Euros.

Eyes - Lee Westwood You don’t win two PGA tours without having the vision of a sharpshooter, and Lee Westwood’s ability to pick a killer shot has made him one of the finest golfers of all time.

Right Arm - Nathan Robertson Nathan Robertson’s right arm brought a whole new meaning to the word ‘precision’. The badminton extraordinaire picked up medals at every level, making him one of our most successful athletes.

Right Hand - Carl Froch Catch this right-hook and you’ll know about it. A deliverer of shiners, an expert in trash talk and a four-time world champion, Carl Froch is one of Nottingham’s finest.

Right Leg - Sam Gospel Good luck getting past ice hockey pro Sam Gospel. The Nottingham-born goaltender has made the position his own at Leeds Knights, saving over 90% of the shots he faced last season. God tier plays.

Shoulders - Rebecca Adlington Hold on, cringey pun incoming…

Rebecca Adlington shouldered the expectations of her hometown of Mansfield when she qualified for the Beijing Olympics - and used those same powerful shoulders to bring home two gold medals.

Body - Joseph Conners Taking body-slams through tables and backbreakers off the top rope, there’s only one torso tough enough for any job - that of professional wrestler Joseph Conners.

Heart - Viv Anderson Nottingham is known for its trailblazers, and Viv Anderson is one of our greatest. The Cliftonian’s love for football helped him to become England’s first full international black player in 1978.

Right Foot - Jermaine Jenas In his playing days, the TV-conquering Jermaine Jenas had a wand of a right foot, and even created the winning goal the last time Tottenham Hotspur won a trophy way, way back in 2008.

Left Leg - Stuart Pearce Need we say more? This tree trunk of a limb wiped out plenty of wingers and smashed in plenty of screamers over the years.

words: George White

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Left Foot - Jayne Torvill If you’re after a gold medal in figure skating, you’ve got to have steady feet and proper good balance - and Jayne Torvill showed she had exactly that in 1984.

Lions’ Pride Founded over sixteen years ago, the Nottingham Lions have been trailblazers in our city’s sporting scene ever since - with the LGBT+ friendly football club bringing together people of all abilities and walks of life to enjoy the beautiful game. We sit down with Robbie Jacques, the club’s Social Media and Commercial Officer, to hear all about their story so far, and explore how the world of football can become a more inclusive, tolerant place…

Tell us a bit about the Nottingham Lions. Why were they founded and who can get involved?

It all started sixteen years ago with a group of friends who just wanted to have fun playing football, without having to deal with crunching challenges and getting injured for work. So they ended up forming their own club, originally called the Nottingham Ball Bois, and joined a nationwide gay league which has taken us to all corners of the UK. We now compete in European tournaments, too, which take place across multiple countries. The last one we attended was in Rome, and we're hoping to visit Berlin next year, which should be fun now we're actually able to travel properly again.

What have been some of the club’s greatest achievements both on and off the pitch?

In terms of football, it has to be the Rome trip, for me. That was absolutely amazing. We also had a preseason friendly in Dublin in my second season, and that was incredible too. Off the pitch, the thing that I really love about this club is that we're always there to do charity work.

We recently did a fundraiser for Notts LGBT+ Network, for example, because the Government cut their funding by 24%, and we’ve actually won a Rainbow Heritage Award for our work in the community. What all of the players do to help vulnerable people is ultimately what makes the club a place I want to be part of for a long, long time.

It seems like you have a real range of ages and abilities in the club - is this openness to everyone a core focus of the Lions?

Absolutely. That’s our main ethos, and it’s actually in our constitution as well - that football is for everybody. So it doesn't matter if you’ve been playing since you were a kid or if you're literally only just starting out - as long as you're completely openminded, you have no homophobic beliefs or anything like that, then you're more than welcome to join the club. I keep saying club, but it's more of a family.

It's such a tight-knit group of people where everybody gets along, so there is definitely a family feel to things.

The footballing world is sometimes spoiled by people who aren’t open-minded, with intolerance towards homosexuality continuing to plague the sport. How can things improve?

I think the best thing we can do to iron that out is actually starting to happen now. Thankfully, there are a lot of schools that are doing education around homosexuality, which is really nice to see because I didn't have that growing up. If I did have, I might not have felt like there were issues with coming out - I could just be me. A lot of it comes back to educating children to let them know there's nothing wrong with homosexuality. You are who you are. And if you have a friend who's homosexual, they are who they are, they're not going to change just because they've come out. It's nice to see that message being delivered more often.

I'm hoping that Jake taking that step will encourage more players to come out, but I do think that some are going to see what happens early next season.

Because Jake came out when the season was over, I believe players are going to see how the reaction is from fans in stadiums. As we said earlier, there are going to be people who give abuse for no reason whatsoever, but I am hopeful that it will all be fine.

And I’m also hoping that one day it’s not going to be front page news when somebody comes out people can just be open about who they are, and everyone’s fine with it. If that does happen, then Jake will always be remembered as the trailblazer who was true to himself and paved the way for people to be themselves no matter what job they're doing, whether it’s playing professional football or working in an office.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been playing football since you were a kid or if you’re literally only just starting out - as long as you’re openminded then you’re more than welcome to join the club

How has the reaction been to the Lions and their work over the years?

I’ve been at the club for over half a decade now.

Since then, I haven't noticed any homophobic abuse being hurled at us, apart from on our Facebook page. Anybody can comment on that, so we've had people - mostly those who live in countries where homosexuality isn’t accepted as much - saying things like, ‘Your whole club is wrong. It's all against God. You should not be able to do this kind of thing.’

But we just brush it off and tell them to educate themselves, then come back so we can have an adult conversation.

Blackpool player Jake Daniels recently became the country’s first actively gay footballer. How did you find the reaction to that news, and do you think it will lead to an improvement in tolerance levels?

It was such an important moment when Jack came out, especially at such a young age. I think the reaction to it was really good. There were lots of professional footballers that showed their support on Twitter, including Harry Kane, the England captain, and my personal footballing hero, David De Gea. For these really high-profile footballers to back this seventeen-year-old from Blackpool, who's made one appearance in the first team, is great.

We haven’t really experienced any homophobia around Nottingham, at least in my time here. There may have been some when the club first formed, but at the same time it clearly didn’t get to us because, sixteen years later, we're still going strong.

We've got a brilliant membership, with sixty members at the club, which I believe is the most we’ve ever had.

And we're always trying to encourage more people to come along if they want a safe space to just have fun playing football. facebook.com/nottinghamlionsfc

interview: George White photo: Nathan O’Brien

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interview: Ashley Carter photo: Fabrice Gagos 22

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King of the Ring

Having come up through the House of Pain Wrestling Academy, Nottingham lad Joseph Conners has achieved what very few in the world of wrestling have. From performing for audiences around the world, wrestling for Next Generation Wrestling and, most impressively, WWE at their 2017 and 2018 UK Championship Tournaments, he’s come a long way since first stepping into the ring. We caught up with the wrestling legend to find out what’s next…

What are your memories of coming up through the House of Pain Wrestling Academy?

Back then it was called Norton British Wrestling - House of Pain has gone through a few different iterations. I grew up just outside of Nottingham, and was a wrestling fan since my early teens. I remember getting my driving licence and was looking to take the car out - there were a few local wrestling shows in Leicestershire, which is where I met Stixx (Paul Grint - Head Trainer at HoP) and found out about his school in Nottingham. I went along and never looked back.

When I first started watching wrestling it was purely for the entertainment value rather than watching techniques, but as I started to get more into it Bret Hart became my favourite wrestler of all time. I know that’s a lot of people’s choice, but it’s hard to say anyone else.

Do you remember the first time you stepped into a ring?

I didn’t start in the ring when I first began training. I trained in a Dojo on a deflated crashmat. I think I had only been in a ring two or three times before my first match! The rings we trained in were twelve-foot which, compared to the twenty-foot WWE ring, is obviously quite small. I remember it just feeling very surreal. You have to remember that when I first started my aim was to just have a match, which already felt like wanting to climb Mount Everest. I didn’t even know if that was going to be possible. It’s hard taking myself back into that mindset, but I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to get into a wrestling ring for the first time and take a bump,’ which was pretty cool. It’s like being a Formula One driver and sitting in an F1 car for the first time.

When it’s done well, it’s one of the purest forms of entertainment. It’s gladiatorial and Shakespearean. A play on a stage

Was there a definitive moment when you realised it could be a feasible career path?

When I first started a lot of the people around me had the attitude of ‘Well, you’re not going to get to the WWE - there’s no way that will happen.’ That wasn’t just directed at me, but a lot of people on the scene. It just seemed like such a long way away. But I never put a glass ceiling on it - I just put all my eggs in that one basket. I was still working other jobs and stuff, but I was enjoying wrestling so much. Then one night I got attacked in a nightclub and it was pretty rough. I had to have surgery and couldn’t wrestle for a while. It felt like I was at a crossroads in my life, where I could either let it beat me or motivate me.

Luckily I chose the second option. I started taking the business more seriously, getting my body in better shape and just learning as much as I could. I used to train with Dave Taylor, the former WWE wrestler, who always told me that the WWE wouldn’t look at you if you were over thirty, and at that point I was 29, so I knew I had to look at trying to get in. I started sending more emails, putting DVD packages together and meeting more and more people. I’d met Robbie Brookside, the former wrestler who at that point was working as a talent liaison, at a seminar and decided to send him an email. The next day, I had an email saying “Do you want to come and do some extra work at Raw and Smackdown at the O2 Arena in London?” From there I met William Regal, and it all spiralled from there. I’d been in the business for ten or eleven years at that point, and had been okay at a certain level, but I always thought that I could get somewhere with wrestling. I always maintained that belief.

Who were your wrestling inspirations growing up?

I was enamoured by Kane and Mankind when I was young. I saw a photo of them and it was like something out of a Halloween movie. It was exciting, like they were real-life monsters. I was like, 'What the hell is this?' And then, like a lot of people my age, Mick Foley struck a chord with me. Reading his autobiography [Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks] made me feel a real connection because you could see the real person.

I'm also a huge Christian Cage fan, I love Christian. And how can you not watch Shawn Michaels and say he's phenomenal? I could name fifty wrestlers right now and talk about them passionately and say why they're so good.

Can you tell me what it was like to sign with WWE for the UK championship tournament, and what the experience was like?

Going back, it was very surreal. I’d been waiting for this opportunity and all of a sudden it's right there. It really was out of the blue. I got a phone call from Stamford, and it was William Regal saying 'We want to do this tournament' and having never ever done any kind of WWE matches before, to 'We're going to do a live, twonight tournament on the WWE network' - there were sixteen of us as well, which is different in itself. A lot of the wrestlers we hear about come onto the WWE roster as the new guy, but with this - other than Martin Stone aka Danny Birch - none of us had ever been on WWE TV. Obviously the nerves were there, but I felt confident in my abilities. It’s like anything big that happens in your life where you don't really know what's happening when you're in the middle of it. But I did know that no matter what happens, that'll always go down in history. It was the first UK tournament; it was a big deal. For example, the guy I wrestled in the first match, James Drake, I'd never wrestled him before on any independent show, and here we are having our first match on TV. It was crazy not having a clue about what's going to happen or what the future had in stock. It was special, that first tournament, something I'm very proud of. He won’t remember this, but I do remember having the first match, coming back and wondering how the reaction was when Finlay came up to me and shook my hand. In my mind that was validation. Talking about it now it’s hard to believe that it was five years ago!

Then, once I did both matches, I remember it's the one time in my life where I can genuinely admit I had tears of happiness. It felt very overwhelming. I've never had that feeling of thinking that no matter what happens from this point, I've done something I'd always wanted to achieve, something I watched as a kid. I grew up in such a small village and who would have thought I'd be in a WWE match? It was very cool.

How do you process that feeling of having achieved such a huge life goal at a relatively young age? Is it a process of setting new goals?

Yeah, definitely. I think the one mistake I've made in my life from a career standpoint, which is a positive and a negative, is that I'm very goal-oriented. I never really allow myself to enjoy a lot of the moments because I'm always thinking about what's next. With wrestling, at that point, not long after the tournament I went to

Florida and got to do media access. For perspective, I went to WrestleMania 25 as a fan, and was at WrestleMania 33 as an employee. I was always thinking, 'I've got to get in better shape, do better here, climb this ladder' so it was always just about what's next. Once I'd done that tournament, I was back on the road the next weekend doing my bookings, back at shows straight away. So, it never stops. With wrestling, you're only as good as your last match. If you have a match you don't enjoy, you have to rectify that. Now, I'm trying to enjoy things more. I'm still analytical and critical, but I let myself think 'That was cool, I enjoyed that' even if things could be better, that was a good experience, and on to the next thing.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions about professional wrestling?

Some people still think of TV wrestling as glamour, driving fast cars and flying first class. If you’re someone like Roman Reigns, that’s probably the case. But I’ve done shows in places from the Royal Albert Hall to working men’s clubs. Another misconception is that it doesn’t hurt - I can tell you that it very much does!

I’ve had some serious injuries. Without being too over the top, every time you step into the ring you’re putting your life in someone else’s hands, and they’re putting their’s in yours. You cannot take this for granted, it’s serious.

A lot of people see wrestling and think ‘I can do that.’

But you wouldn’t watch a game of football and think you could get into the Arsenal team. You’re talking about two men telling a story with their bodies. No CGI, no second takes - just two people taking an entire building on an emotional and mental rollercoaster. When it’s done well, it’s one of the purest forms of entertainment. It’s gladiatorial and Shakespearean. A play on stage. And if you can make people, like real-life superheroes, suspend their disbelief for that long, that's the real magic.

Say you get to wrestle in a fatal four-way with any three other wrestlers, dead or alive. Who are you choosing?

Wow. That’s hard. I'm going to take Bret and Shawn Michaels, but on the understanding that they're getting along at this point! They've got to be friends. Then I'm going to throw Christian Cage in there as well. It's a random one but that would be my four-way.

Sounds a decent match-up, that. To round things off, what advice would you give to an up-and-coming wrestler?

I’ve been told a few good bits of advice over the years. Tracy Smothers once said, ‘Remember that the wrestling business owes you nothing.’ I think about that when things aren’t going my way, or I’m not getting the opportunities I think I should be getting. You have to remember that this is a callous business, and you can be the hardest worker in the room but it doesn’t always count for anything.

One piece of advice I always give to other people is to stay humble. Keep your humility and remember who you were when you first stepped in and started to learn.

Pay it forward, help people, remember at the end of the day you don't actually win or lose, someone decides that for you. And the person who is asked to lose is helping you in the long run, so stay humble and keep your feet on the floor, because success will come, but it can go and then come back again. Remember who you were good to on the way up, and hope that they learn that as well. Humility is a big thing for me, not just in wrestling but in life. @joseph_conners leftlion.co.uk/issue149

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My Photo Moment Nathan Langman - @_meadowman2

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the way of the

warrior Is there anything more impressive than sword fighting? We’ve seen it in films like The Last Samurai and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and tried our hand (more or less) in games like Elden Ring and The Witcher.

Yet through kendo, the ancient practice dubbed “the way of the sword”, you can have the chance to do it for real. Despite its exhilarating premise on paper, though, it is the martial art’s values of respect, decency and self-improvement that are most important…

Channelling the truly edgy philosophy that has made LeftLion such a beloved, cherished magazine over the years (don’t laugh), we didn’t want to just showcase your ‘mainstream’ sports in this issue.

Of course, we wanted to chat about football, and wrestling, and more football. But we also wanted to shine a light on something a little different, a little niche, a little bit adventurous and out there. So you can imagine this writer’s delight at discovering the art of kendo, “the way of the sword” that combines intense discipline with battling opponents using actual (bamboo) weapons.

Yet as I sit down to dive into this intriguing activity with Phillip Whitfield, sensei at the Kashi No Ki Kenyu Kai dojo, he threatens to crush my spirits from the get-go. “It’s not a sport,” he says with a wry smile, as I begin to sweat with worry, knowing I’ll have to return, humbled and hat-in-hand, to my editorial team to let them know this great idea to explore a unique, crazy-sounding practice was a grade A beans. But just as I’m about to give up hope, he continues on and drags me back in. “It’s a budō - which means ‘the way of the warrior’.” A wave of relief washes over me - this is going to be cool, after all.

Like my own not-quite-fully-grown-up-yet self, a lot of people are attracted to kendo precisely because it sounds badass. Fighting with swords and donning mediaeval-looking headgear - it’s basically like being in an action film or taking on a bad guy in Elden Ring, right?

Well, that’s certainly

words: George White illustration: Fabrice Gagos

what people believe before entering the dojo, according to Robert Wix, instructor at the Eishin Juku Kendo Club in Wollaton. “Sword fighting is still popular in films and TV, and people spend large amounts of time pretending to swing swords when they play video games,” he says. “But if someone wants to learn to sword fight in real life, their options are limited.

Even though kendo is a very specialised form of sword fighting, it is exciting for most people to move from fantasy into reality.”

Although many who look into the martial art - including myself - go in hoping to kick ass and take names, kendo is far more nuanced, holistic and spiritual than simply beating the living daylights out of someone. Sure, you get your own sword - called a shinai - and engage in intense practice runs (known as kata) or dynamic contests against other kendōka (practitioners), sporting an intimidatingly serious metal-grilled head protector and lacquered breastplate. Yet, despite connotations of warriors and battles, the art is more about decency and self-improvement than violence and conflict.

“Kendo is all about the respect agenda,” Phillip explains. “It’s quite ritualised. We have a banner at one end of the dojo, called the high end banner, and we pay respect to that, as well as each other through a brief period of meditation and by bowing very low.”

While plenty have been inspired to take up the activity by action stars like Tom Cruise (“My phone was ringing non-stop when The Last Samurai came out,” Phillip says), there’s no room to be a hero here - if you want to succeed, you have to leave your arrogance at the door: “There’s no ego allowed.

There’s no bullying. Everything has to be in good form and good taste, and we emphasise that with every session.”

And if you make the mistake of having an ego when you first walk in, that will be taken away from you very quickly. You see, unlike with wrestling or boxing, Ultimate Fighting or simply having a scrap outside Spoons on a Thursday night, strength and size don’t matter - you can easily be humbled by someone half your size or triple your age. “Those taking up kendo have to prepare themselves, because they may find that a teenage kid can give them a thrashing, or an old man - like me - could beat them,” Phillip warns.

While size, strength and arrogance may not be the key to mastering kendo, though, you do need one thing to succeed - commitment. For all the talk of respect and honour, and while it may not be strictly classed as a sport, “It can be very physical,” as Phillip explains. “When we’re striking each other, it’s a full-contact martial art. We use a bamboo sword and try to hit specific targets that give you points including the head, the wrist, the abdomen and the throat. But we wear heavy-duty armour when we do this - for the amount of effort you have to put into it, the injury levels are very low.”

As much as there are physical demands, the mental demands are even tougher.

Everyone taking part must follow fairly strict rules - including cutting all non-kendo chat once practice begins - and there are, as Robert admits, “few external signs of success”. “There are no symbols of rank and no badges,” he continues.

“People can fail gradings if they don’t meet a standard and there are no guarantees. There are many milestones to pass.”

Yet if you can power through, not only can your fitness improve, but you can become “part of a community where you are valued” - one built on principles of mutual respect and humility, no less. As civilisation continues to flirt with the idea of self-imploding, and intolerance and hostility feel like a permanent fixture of humanity, these values seem more important than ever.

Sure, taking down enemies with cool sword swipes and battling to victory in the way of the warrior is cool as hell - but showing kindness, consideration and tolerance is far more impressive. kashinokikendo.co.uk nottinghamkendo.co.uk

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food review: little bricks

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to visit Prickly Pear on Mansfield Road since they opened in 2019 will know to expect an eclectic, vibrant and fresh plant-based menu.

It’s no surprise that, owing to their popularity, the Prickly Pear team have branched out to a second location only a few doors down the street, having set up shop at the Golden Fleece.

Little Bricks isn’t new to me. I’ve spent many a morning perched on their mid-century furniture, stuffing my face with breakfast latkes and pouring tea into little square teacups. I’m no stranger to their Turkish eggs or fruit Konfitüre-covered waffles, and I consider myself well-acquainted with the quirky local artwork that lines the walls of the eatery.

Having previously been occupied by 13th Element, the kitchen at the Golden Fleece appears to be prime real estate for vegan diners, and anything that the popular pub lost when 13th Element departed to their forever home on Castle Boulevard has been comprehensively replaced by a new menu packed full of cruelty-free comfort food.

I had, however, not visited the restaurant in the evening, during which time the space transforms and a whole new menu appears - one which I’d caught glimpses of on their Instagram page, and was eager to try.

With that in mind, I booked a table for a Friday evening and invited my favourite food-loving friends who, like I, had never ventured in past brunch.

With nine solid main choices, including pub classics like burgers, tofish and chips and an all-day breakfast, as well as a tasty looking selection of sides, the menu looks to cater for both dedicated diners and drinkers who fancy a quick nibble over a sunny pint. I was firmly in the former category, and went for the ‘sham’ and pineapple. Having been a big gammon fan in my meat-eating days, it felt a treat to be enjoying a vegan version, fully equipped with chips, pineapple and a dippy egg sauce that more than rivalled the real thing. The food was fresh, reasonably priced and, most importantly, absolutely delicious.

Chatting to Head Chef Linda after our meal, I was informed that the vegan Sunday roasts have proven enormously popular, and that booking was essential in order to avoid disappointment. I assured her that I’d be back, and it wasn’t just British politeness. There wasn’t a single dish on the menu that I didn’t want to try, from the seitan Caesar salad to the seasonal platter of roasted veg, chipotle hummus, toasted chickpeas, babaganoush, olives and pickles, it’s a vegan’s dream pub menu. Get yourself there immediately. Ashley Carter pricklypearcafe.co.uk 105 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham NG1 3FN

Wanting to try as much as possible, we decided to order for the table, mixing snacks, small plates and mains. But first, it only seemed right to taste the natural wine which Little Bricks pride themselves on, and we split a bottle of Putes Feministes - an orange wine which, I later found out, was the love child of French feminist wine-maker Fleur Godart and her business partner Louise Los. Delicious, fruity and crisp, the wine was the perfect accompaniment for the meal, which came out on a series of beautiful plates.

Appearing as a meandering conveyor belt of food, we were served a mouthwatering selection of oysters and chive oil; snails cooked in garlic; thyme prepared steak; creamy fillets of pork; scallops paired with chorizo; slow-roasted tomato and aubergine; cardamom chicken and an array of bread to wipe the plates clean.

Finishing off with a Norwegian chocolate cake (apparently a specialty of chef Joakin), I left the restaurant feeling very content and sophisticated, having tried a whole host of foods for the first time. A lovely experience, in both atmosphere and taste, this home-cooked restaurant is one of my absolute favourites. A true gem in the Nottingham food scene. Lizzy O’Riordan @littlebricksrestaurant 110 Derby Road, Nottingham, NG1 5FB

Want your Nottingham foodie business featured in the mag?

Fancy writing for us?

Email us at editorial@leftlion.co.uk

Fuel up There’s nothing quite like getting active over the summer months, or at least that’s what we’ve heard. And in our eyes, there are no marathons more prestigious than alcohol-fuelled ones - most commonly known as bar crawls.

On your next night out, why not double-down on the sports theme and try some of these drinks that best embody each of the nation’s most beloved pastimes?

Football As much as it pains us to say it, Magpie Brewery’s fortunes have proven more fruitful than Notts County’s in recent years - with the firm becoming a real gem in Nottingham’s beer scene in recent years. If you’re a County fan yourself, crack open a bottle of their aptlynamed One For Sorrow stout and numb the pain of another disappointing season…

FOOD AND DRINK

food review: prickly pear at the golden fleece

Cricket Cricket is a quintessentially British sport, so it only seems right we’d pick a quintessentially British beverage - and there’s perhaps no better choice than an English Garden at Tier, one of Nottingham’s fanciest bars.

This refreshing drink blends gin, mint, cucumber and apple juice to create a fresh and (almost) healthy cocktail.

Formula 1 If you’re looking for something to quench your need for speed, why not try out the Tropical Rumbull at MOJO? It’s made with a blend of Bacardi Spiced Rum, Tropical Red Bull and lime - and with Red Bull running away with the Formula 1 championship so far this season, it’s the best drink to get your hands on… unless you’re a Ferrari fan.

Golf Golf might be classy, but us Notts lot aren’t. That’s why we boast an adult-themed mini-golf bar, Gloryholes, who have their own signature brew.

Mixing vanilla vodka, Passoã passionfruit and prosecco, the intoxicating Gloryhole Martini probably wouldn’t be welcome at your local country club - but that’s exactly why we love it.

Ice Hockey Sure, they had a rough patch last season, but our city is still blessed with one of the finest ice hockey teams this side of the Atlantic. And what better way to celebrate the Nottingham Panthers than with a Clawing Panther?

This coffee-themed beer from Black Iris promises to get you pumped and ready for action.

Just promise you won’t pop on a helmet and slam people into walls when you’ve tried it, please…

words: Daniela Loffreda illustrations: Natalie Owen

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2022

Congratulations to all of the amazingly talented young people who have been named as winners of the Nottingham Young Creative Awards 2022

Animation & Digital Media

Graphic Design

Ages 16-18: Noah Bellamy Ages 19-24: Maria Vidal

Ages 11-15: Rhys Green Ages 16-18: Lexi Cardwell Ages 19-24: Dhanashree Pimputkar

Creative Writing Music Ages 11-15: Aine Mullan Ages 16-18: Leah Chaplin Ages 19-24: Lottie Cox

Ages 11-15: Muskan Goyal Ages 16-18: Oscar Marshall Ages 19-24: Eli Ellis

Dance Photography Ages 11-15: Lily Reyes & Maia Dajas-Portillo Ages 16-18: Samuel Onwuteaka Ages 19-24: Hal Mayer

Ages 11-15: Daisy Bartram Ages 16-18: Ava Chapman Ages 19-24: Luke Brennan

Design & Architecture Theatre Ages 11-15: Laetitia Panter Ages 16-18: Finn Dineen Ages 19-24: Lauren Leyva

Ages 11-15: Logan Miles Ages 16-18: Mia Murdoch Ages 19-24: Kate O’Gorman

Fashion & Textiles Visual Arts Ages 16-18: Emily Daniels Ages 19-24: Rebecca Allen Ages 19-24: Caleb Stutchbury

Ages 11-15: Adelle Iversen Ages 16-18: Eve Moore Ages 19-24: Hollie Betts

Film Ages 11-15: Zeeshan Majid Ages 16-18: Daniel Porter Ages 19-24: Zoltan Remetei

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fashion

KNIT AS A FIDDLE

words: Addie Kenogbon photos: Perm Ghattaura

kit’s complicated I am by no means what anyone would call a sports head. Save for a short stint playing centre in netball at school, at getting way too swept away with the Euros last year (seriously though, those penalty shootouts, am I right?), my dealings with the sports world have been few and far between in my adult life.

But when trying to come up with ideas for this issue’s theme of sports, it got me thinking about the unifying power of something as simple as a sports kit.

Sport has the unmatched ability to bring people together from across all walks of life There’s something pretty beautiful about witnessing a homogenous unit of colour made up of fans, all proudly adorned, in their team strip, cheering, crying or chanting as if one body. Sport has the unmatched ability to bring people together from across all walks of life, whether they’re actually out there on the pitch or cheering from the stands. And a team’s kit is an essential part of that.

For years, numerous studies have spoken about how simply wearing the same shirt can bring people together and foster a team spirit.

Whether it is down to superstition or grounded in scientific data, there’s no denying the power of a team’s sports kit But it goes further still. Even the colours sports teams choose for their kit can have an impact. Have you ever wondered why red seems to be the most popular colour in football? It turns out there could be some science behind it, with studies finding that red kits are linked to higher success rates, while those who wear black kits seem more prone to losing penalty shootouts.

And, some of you may even recall Manchester United 1996 match against Southampton where Sir Alex Ferguson famously made the team change from a grey kit to their red kit at half-time when they were losing.

Whether it is down to superstition or grounded in scientific data, there’s no denying the power of a team’s sports kit.

words: Addie Kenogbon

When you hear the word knitting, you may be forgiven for picturing your nan painstakingly putting together a brightly-coloured, itchy jumper. However, one Notts textile company is on a mission to change that with their revolutionary smart textiles, which use sensors knitted within the fabric to monitor health and wellbeing without the need for wires. We caught up with Footfalls & Heartbeats founder Simon McMaster to find out how these innovative textiles could hold the key to changing the game for sports performance tracking…

Nottingham is a city that boasts a rich history of textiles, dating back to over 430 years ago when local clergyman William Lee invented the first-ever stocking frame knitting machine.

Today, those techniques are still being used right here in the city by Footfalls & Heartbeats, but for a very different purpose. Specialising in textile sensors, Footfalls uses patented knitting techniques to weave conductive yarns directly into the fabric itself, using the same types of machines William Lee used to make his stockings many years ago. They then can use those yarns and put a current through them to track different metrics and characteristics such as pressure, strain and gait.

It feels like it’s come full circle, enabling Nottingham to be at the forefront of technical knitting again “We believe this is the only smart fabric of its kind anywhere in the world,” explains Simon. “It can track your full gait or walking cycle, which usually requires really high-tech electronic sensors. But instead, here, the fabric literally is the sensor.”

Using electronically conductive yarns, the socks and footwear feature specific sections that are the sensors and other sections which allow for power-in and data-out. The innovative knit structure allows the wearer to measure tensile and compressive forces and hopes to provide a revolutionary alternative to solid sensors.

Using computer-controlled knitting machines, conductive fibres and micro power sources, Footfalls & Heartbeats is able to produce smart textiles that are able to register external stimuli in the form of electronic signals. These signals can then be analysed in real-time to assess and detect compressive force.

In the sports world, many athletes, coaches, sports professionals and teams track performance using digital wearable devices. However, Simon believes Footfalls & Heartbeats’ products could provide much more accurate tracking.

“If you look at rugby for example, many players wear a device behind their neck that tells them how they move,” he says. “Everybody is familiar with the traditional digital wearables you see every day such as your Fitbits and your Apple watches. What they

do is they gather data, but then they infer movement from it because they’re not actually on the part of the body that’s moving.”

However, Simon explains that the difference between those devices and what Footfalls & Heartbeats does is that you can put their smart fabric on the part of the body that is actually moving, allowing for real-life tracking.

“A smartwatch, for example, says it can track your steps when actually what it does is tell you how many times your arm moves. Of course, it’s very good at algorithms and making it pretty accurate but it’s nowhere near as accurate as Footfalls,” Simon says.

And the uses are far-reaching. Featuring truewearable technology, Footfalls can be placed on someone with a knee injury, for example. It is then able to directly track the knee joint while still feeling like a normal piece of garment or under-layer that can be machine washed and reused. It hopes to mark the next level of data tracking for sportspeople and those looking to get a better handle on their health and wellbeing.

Though not currently commercially available, as Footfalls is a research and development company, the team are currently working with a number of sports companies and health professionals.

“Our products could reduce the number of times people need to see the physiotherapist or occupational therapist,” Simon adds. “They could see them once and show them the exercises and then our products will be able to track how they get on.

“Smart textiles is quite a new industry, but we really want to pioneer that and show people their potential and what they can do as an alternative to wearables.

We interact with textiles a lot in our day-to-day lives and we don’t even realise it, so there’s a lot of breadth in the areas we can potentially impact.”

Nottingham is a city entrenched in history and innovation, from William Kee’s stocking-making to the city’s famous lace factories, but with the help of Footfalls & Heartbeats, it could just become the home of sports performance tracking, too.

“I had no idea about Nottingham’s history with knitting when I came here fifteen years ago, but it feels very serendipitous that Footfalls is based here.

It feels like it’s come full circle, enabling Nottingham to be at the forefront of technical knitting again in the 21st century, just as it was in the 16th century.” footfallsandheartbeats.com

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literature

a novel idea

words: Lizzy O’Riordan

all booked up Interested in four free books? Well then you’re in luck, because Nottingham’s City of Literature are giving away just that as part of their Big City Reads campaign. And with stories ranging from loneliness to police injustice, and styles varying from prose to graphic novel, there’s something for every kind of reader. Set to take place this summer, our Literature Editor catches up with Matt Turpin and Eleanor Flowerday from City of Literature to find out more…

Free books. Isn’t that every reader's dream? Well, here in Nottingham, it’s about to become a reality with City of Literature’s Big City Reads campaign - the project set to give away four free titles to anyone interested.

Chosen by a selection of City of Literature’s Young Ambassadors, the books include Lize Meddings’ The Sad Ghost Club, Joya Goffney’s Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, Ibi Zoboi’s Punching the Air and Darren Simpson’s Furthermoor, all of which will be available to find around Nottingham this summer.

Happening as a kind of literary treasure hunt, City of Literature will be leaving clues on their social media to the books’ whereabouts, which are set to be scattered across schools, libraries and coffee shops. “It won’t be crazy riddles or anything,” Matt Turpin tells me, “more like a playful set of directions that we will drop on our social media.”

Musing further on the impact of COVID, Matt adds that “I think in the pandemic we all had deeply virtual lives and, in the same way vinyl made a comeback, books give you that wonderful off-screen moment. Whether reading, crafting or anything like that, people are interested in the magic of being tactile. I have books at home where the fondness isn’t just because of what’s in them, it’s the tattered sleeve, it’s the annotations, it’s all the markers of your relationship with the book.”

Happening as a kind of literary treasure hunt, City of Literature will be leaving clues on their social media to the books whereabouts

United by the theme of ‘mood boosting books’, Eleanor and Matt explain that all the titles deal with mental wellbeing in one way or another. But also, “We’re really trying to push the idea that reading can be a kind of self-care and a way to look after your wellbeing,” Eleanor explains. “It’s something that’s especially important after a difficult few years with the pandemic.”

All in all, this project which aims to get young people excited about reading comes at a perfect time - with the popularity of online reading cultures like booktok and bookstagram on the rise. An exciting feat to get Nottingham’s young readers connected on a community level, Big City Reads is ideal for our UNESCO City of Literature.

Short stories

Hoping to create a community feel, Matt comments that “hopefully we can also use social media to foster conversation between readers, especially since they’ll be reading the same books.” Colleague Eleanor Flowerday adds in agreement, “We’d love people to send in reviews to be published on our website, or doodles like in Sad Ghost Club. We can’t wait to see how people interact with the books.”

In another attempt to nurture new relationships among young people, Big City Reads will be hosting a series of meet-up events in the form of writer talks, during which participants can meet the authors themselves. Previously successful, Matt tells me that “in 2019 one of the books we gave out for free was (now Netflix sensation) Heartstopper and we managed to get Alice Oseman to the Council House. The buzz in the room was incredible and it was like we’d created this amazing book club for the people of Nottingham, which was really special.”

To Do Newark Book Festival Showcasing Notts’ best authors and the beauty of this famous market town, the Newark Book Festival is great for families, writers and readers alike.

7 - 10 July, Newark

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To Read Sneinton Market 10 Years Strong Zine Sneinton Market is synonymous with its thriving skateboarding community. So why not have a meander through Tom Quigley’s new photobook capturing the very best moments?

To Follow Poetry Scum Celebrating working-class and activist art, Poetry Scum have always got some kind of event to be keeping up on. Drop them a follow to see when their next open mic is. @poetryscum

Linking sports and literature stumped me. Would I focus on sports biography? Inspirational athlete stories? Tales of a club's golden age? But alas, none of those ideas felt right, and I got to wondering, what is a sport for readers? One which tests their endurance, pacing and dedication? Which pushes them to their very limits?

Then it struck me. The answer, of course, is a readathon.

With its title taken from the much less cosy marathon, participants wade through as many books as possible in a set amount of time. Sometimes based around a theme, or often simply used as an excuse to cut through a steadily rising pile of ‘to be read’ books, it’s an opportunity for avid readers to block the rest of the world out and dive into an imaginary land.

For many of us the last time we truly forgot ourselves in a story was childhood, tucked into a corner of the sofa with Lemony Snicket or Jaqueline Wilson But what is it about readathons that we love so much? Perhaps it’s the inherent nostalgia involved in getting lost in a book. For many of us, the last time we truly forgot ourselves in a story was during our childhood, tucked into a corner of the sofa with Lemony Snicket or Jacqueline Wilson, or heading down to the local library to take part in the summer reading challenge - one in which the librarian would reward you with a sticker for each book read, and then at the end of the summer with a tiny trophy.

I think there’s a lot to be said for readathons. Whether you knuckle down solo or take part in a community reading challenge, it’s an activity that allows us to return to simpler times. So this summer, why not pick a day, bring a pile of books to the park and give it a try?

words: Lizzy O’Riordan

interview: Lizzy O’Riordan photo: Nigel King

Literature

n

the surreal deal

Named Nottingham’s first young poet laureate in 2017, Georgina Wilding isn’t new to the poetry scene.

But despite being involved in the art for over ten years, she’s only just released her first poetry collection Hag Stone. Pulling childhood memories through a surrealist lens, the book, which muses on the grittiness and joys of growing up, has been met with great acclaim from authors including Henry Normal and Cathy Grindrod. We chat to Wilding about girlhood, being a working class poet and what her writing process is like…

You just released your first poetry collection, Hag Stone. What can readers expect from it?

So, Hag Stone as a collection is an exploration of the way that broken homes, sex and identity all interact with each other, and how those things are more connected than you might think. It’s written as a look at the ordinary world, but with the use of surrealism and magical realism to elevate some of the poems and their meanings. The book is called Hag Stone for that reason, in reference to seeing the magical side of the world, as legend says the hag stone allows you to do.

You’ve described the book as being about ‘working-class girlhood’, which I think is really special, and you capture the British teenage experience with a lot of the references you make throughout the text…

Thank you! Yeah, I mean, with poetry there are always bits that are going to be autobiographical, and my childhood was definitely that British working-class experience - so that creeps into all my inspiration and how I see the world. It’s a joy to write, because working-class voices aren’t always the voices at the forefront and there aren’t always people discussing our experiences.

So it’s nice to be able to talk authentically about memories that are both happy and difficult, and to know that even though some of those experiences are unique to me, there is that universal, shared commonality between a certain tribe of young British girls.

Absolutely. And I really enjoyed reading that through a surrealist lens. Why did you choose that style?

Surrealism in general is something that I always gravitate towards. When I first started out in poetry I was a member of the Mouthy Poets and we used to have lots of teachers who would talk to us about how poetry is a craft.

They taught us how to turn an idea or a moment into a piece of art, rather than a simple retelling.

So, for me, surrealism is always a way to turn something that happened into something more, and also a way to reclaim an experience. When you

simply retell something it feels like you’re writing from a place of things happening to you, whereas I really like the power of surrealism and magical realism because it’s almost like you’re happening to those things.

In a funny way, writing in a surrealist style allows you to capture an accurate picture of how something felt…

Yes! Because how difficult is it to sum up a feeling? You’re also never just feeling one feeling, it’s always a sea of different things and humans are so complex. We might feel sad, disappointed, resentful, angry, all at once, so trying to sum that up by simply describing doesn’t pack that punch.

When you’re writing, you want people to feel that emotion, and surrealism really allows you to paint a massive image that would be difficult to do in just one line.

Working-class voices aren’t always the voices at the forefront and there aren’t always people discussing our experiences You mentioned earlier that the anthology is in part autobiographical. Is it generally based on your experiences?

Definitely. And if it’s not me writing about something that happened to me, it’s me writing about something that happened around me, or maybe to other family members. There are some poems where the speaker of the poem has become an amalgamation of a few different women. So, yes, it’s autobiographical, but above all I’d say it’s female-led.

How was it finding the voice for your first poetry collection? What was that process like?

This book has been stopping and starting for four years. I’ve been a poet for ten years, and I had all this work but had never been a paper poet. I started working with the Arts Council to get some funding for mentors to look at my writing, basically

to see if it was good enough to be published, which, thank Jesus, it was. As a part of that I got to work with Caroline Bird, who asked me to send her everything I’d ever written to see if there were any common themes. She explained that quite often you’re subconsciously trying to talk about something without knowing, whether that’s imagery you keep using or simply a story you keep repeating.

And did you find any common themes?

She told me that a huge theme for me is home, writing about safe spaces, not feeling safe in myself, not feeling safe in other spaces. She said she could really see me jostling with the idea of trying to find meaning behind all of it. Honestly, it was almost like going for a psychic reading because she knew so much about me. Then, from there, we took that big pile of poems that seemed like they were trying to say something and we spent time writing to prompts and eventually I had this body of poetry that felt like it was vibrating. That's how we started trying to form the book.

Hag Stone has been really well received, with praise from authors like Henry Normal, Sean Thomas Doherty and Cathy Grindrod. Was that an affirming experience?

The first person to get back to me was Sean Thomas Doherty, who is the Poet Laureate of Erie in America. We became friends a few years ago on social media and I really admire him and his work, so naturally I was nervous to hear his opinion. Then I got this incredible review back which I treasured and which made me really teary. It made me feel like I’d actually done something with this book, to see that it was evoking feelings in people, and that they could feel it vibrating in their hands too.

And finally, do you have any last comments for readers?

Just that I’m hoping to tour Hag Stone in the coming year, so anyone who wants to book can get in touch with me via my website or through my social media.

Hag Stone is available through Verve Poetry Press georginawildingpoet.co.uk @georginawildingpoet leftlion.co.uk/issue149 3333

ENVIRONMENT

into the woods

words: Adam Pickering

Exploring Exploitation Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira weren’t familiar names to me a month ago, but that changed when the pair went missing, later found shot dead, in the Amazon.

Wanting to promote the importance of protecting our environment without giving out lectures, Nottingham artist Benjamin Wigley decided to emphasise the magic of our woodlands through more immersive, enchanting means. And so, at the National Trust’s Comer Woods, he put together an engaging event like no other. Our Environment Editor hears all about it…

There are worse spots for an interview than Colwick Woods. A sprawling nature reserve taking in dense deciduous woodland, some of which is classed as ancient (meaning it’s been continually wooded since at least 1600), it also hosts the only geologically-based Site of Special Scientific Interest in Nottingham City - a cliff of sedimentary rock formed in the Triassic period around 200-250 million years ago. It’s here that I meet Artdocs’ Benjamin Wigley to discuss his latest work, Hart of the Wood.

I’m not trying to tell anybody any answers. I’m just trying to put forward things that I’ve seen and experienced in an enjoyable, magical way It’s barely a minute before we’re both perusing the local flora and nibbling at nettle seeds, before stepping aside to make way for a young boy on a mini dirt bike. This is a well-used wood, for all sorts of exploits. We’re en route to one of the locations where part of the film aspect of this “multi-modal” work was shot. Hart of the Wood will get its first public outing as we go to press, as part of an immersive in-person trail at the National Trust’s Comer Woods (which is actually just past Birmingham, making an in-person trip a little hard to justify, environmentally-speaking).

“The film is a future archaeology,” Ben explains. “It's something that's been dug up by the main character, having been hidden in the ground, which is why there's so much muck and filth on the actual film itself. It’s about ​​ human relationships with the woods, and folklore, really that’s the driving thread through much of the work.”

I ask what the multi-modal bit means. “The live event is one, and it contains a combination of two of the other parts. One of them is the film sculptures which are in the woods - three hand crank celluloid film projector boxes, called kinetoscopes, that you put your head inside, crank the handle and then you see a film and a soundscape within the projectors. The film itself is another, which takes in a lot of folklore and mythology, and we've created our own characters in there as well as existing characters.

“There’s Long Tongue, who represents humanity’s greed, and there’s a Green Man character, and it reflects the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight where he chops off the Green Man’s head and comes back a year later, and it's a play on Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. The Long Tongue character is in this sort of game of chance with death.”

I sense there are a lot of layers to pick apart, and that fully appreciating Hart of the Wood probably requires a level of immersion that might be hard to communicate with a few words and pictures. I’ve managed to see some outtakes from the film before I arrive and it’s easy to get the energy of the piece from Ben’s lucid and detailed descriptions, as leftlion.co.uk/issue149 34 34

he excitedly reenacts the shot of said protagonist digging down into “the rabbit hole, or the hole to the fairy kings, or wherever you want to imagine”. But for you, dropping into all this, I ask Ben to boil down what the intended takeaway is.

“The universal message is that we need to make a bigger connection with nature, and maybe we need to look a little bit towards the past to be able to understand what to do in the future. I'm interested in the distant future and the deep past because in recorded, and more recent, history, perhaps we haven't had a great relationship with the woods. If you go back to the Bronze Age, there’s chopping down the woods for bronze, or you can look at the King’s Forest, the Spanish Armada and mass shipbuilding, or The Age of Reason and The Enlightenment, and then of course capitalism.”

Ben visibly yearns as he tries to get to the bottom of what this piece is all about, as though reaching for something not quite available to touch, outside of our usual repertoire of understanding. There’s something counterintuitive about his work, and maybe about the nature of the task ahead.

“Perhaps we need to look into something more instinctive and further back, like paganism, or shamanism,” he muses.

“Maybe we’ve forgotten, or never really knew, how to live harmoniously with nature, but there are a few people exploring this, like intentional communities. I'm interested in using different modes and methods to explore how maybe we can discover and learn a bit more about that deeper history, the side that is a little bit more mysterious, magical, folkloric and connected to instinct.”

Hart of the Wood seems intended to provoke the asking of questions and the challenging of learned assumptions via experimental, hands-on, multi-sensory approaches.

It’s not your typical terrifying problem/brilliant solution format loved by Netflix, focusing on finger-pointing or some rousing, one-size-fits-all solution. Ben’s is a more esoteric gaze.

He draws a line between this and his earlier work - a ten-minute feature on Paul Smith that features poet Benjamin Zephaniah, which takes the viewer on a journey into Smith’s subconscious, and Paa Joe and the Lion, which (unusually for the documentary format) features flashbacks and dream sequences to tell the fantasy coffin-maker’s story via the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

“I'm not trying to tell anybody any answers,” Ben affirms.

“I'm just trying to put forward things that I've seen and experienced in an enjoyable, magical way, and to enable people to have a firmer appreciation of the woods, and our place within them. We're not trying to overly venerate trees, but maybe we should be looking at how people used to do that a little bit more.” artdocs.co.uk

Environmental journalist Phillips was writing a book on the rainforest and had covered Brazil and its most famous ecosystem for the world’s biggest news outlets; expedition partner Pereira was a respected expert on the region’s indigenous peoples, forced out of an official role at the Government’s Funai indigenous agency after his team successfully shut down one of the region’s biggest illegal mines.

Both were committed to defending people and the planet against exploitation in this most brutal of climate change frontlines. In far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, a law-flouting, pro-business corporatocracy, nature is on the backfoot. Deforestation rates, having slowed, are at their highest in fourteen years. Forest fires largely set to clear land for industry now emit more carbon than the forest is able to sequester. The Amazon is about 20% smaller than it was in 1970, and grows more fragile with every lost tree.

Indigenous communities are our best line of defence against further ecocide Illegal fishers, miners who produce the copper that makes our electronic devices, and farmers who raise our beef and fodder, take precedence over the ecocentric indigenous communities protecting the land. The planet’s largest green lung has been recast as an untapped resource for profit, rather than a sustaining source of life for all.

Indigenous communities are our best line of defence against further ecocide. In Nottingham we can support them with political solidarity (write to your MP, support campaigns), by donating to their cause via charities like Choose Earth, and by considering the products we buy (check out Fairphone, for example).

Let’s hope this is a tragedy that leads to our waking up to the message these two environmental defenders were trying to convey that unless the Amazon rainforest and its native people are allowed to heal, the whole world will pay the price.

words: Adam Pickering 34

The Healing Light It's 3.42am as I start this. And it's a full moon.

This one is a super full moon which, for me, means I'm full of beans and will get only a few hours sleep tonight. I'm utilising the time by being productive.

The moon is what gives us the tides on Earth and, just like this planet, we are also made up of (roughly) 70% water, so the moon can affect us with the same intensity. A super full moon is when the lunar orbit brings it closer to the Earth, making it appear bigger.

The word lunacy derives from the Latin lunaticus, meaning “moonstruck”, and both the Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder believed that madness and epilepsy were caused by the moon. There are some interesting studies happening, one of which has shown outdoor criminal activities may be higher when there is more moonlight.

You may find yourself feeling overwhelmed and more annoyed than usual. Energetically, the light of the full moon illuminates emotions that may have been suppressed and they can feel uncomfortable when they surface. If you do any healing work during this time it can feel extremely heavy, but very rewarding.

Journaling and meditation can help you manage your emotions and intentionally move energy through your body, to consciously let go of things and emotions that no longer serve you.

WELLBEING

standing up to crime

interview: Derry Shillitto photo: Fabrice Gagos

Though it may have fallen out of popular conversation, knife crime is still a major issue in Nottingham, according to Oliver Sillito from the city’s Stone Soup Academy. That’s why the free school is throwing a creative showcase on Tuesday 19 July to open up conversation and challenge standing perceptions about young people and crime…

Oliver, you’ve been working with Stone Soup Academy for several years now. What is your role and what does the school specialise in?

I started at the academy in 2012 and am now Assistant Principal Leading on Behaviour for Learning at Stone Soup, which is a free school that works to ensure that students who fail to thrive in a mainstream school environment have a genuine educational alternative.

We will be creating opportunities, telling stories, changing minds, talking openly, hearing honest perspectives The school aims to facilitate open discussion about violence that involves young people. Do you think there is a knife crime problem in Nottingham and the UK? Yes. You can check stats all day to see that knife crime is still an issue, and that’s why we’re doing our event in July.

It is such a difficult topic to speak about for so many and that’s why we are bringing Nottingham creatives together on the night to show positive things happening in the city, as well as hearing from families and local charities trying to fight against knife crime. We will be creating opportunities, telling stories, changing minds, talking openly, hearing honest perspectives and helping to raise the issues and perceptions of knife crime in our shared communities.

That event is happening on Tuesday 19 July and is supported by lots of industry creatives. Who can we expect to see?

We have a whole host of guest speakers from families who have lost loved ones through knife crime, alongside local charities like Helping Kids Achieve. We also have a preview of a new short film directed by Luke Radford from Nottingham. The film was commissioned by Nottingham CYF, a charity which engages young people at risk of becoming involved in gang activity, and one of our own Stone Soup students has a starring role. As well as this, we have some of the best Nottingham talent performing, such as Lyvia, Janelle, Joel Baker and Jah Digga.

And there will also be some Stone Soup students performing. How important is it for them to be given creative outlets in Nottingham?

Massively important. There is a TED talk by Ken Robinson where he states, “Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” What being creative means for our students is so important. It helps them to express themselves, to get some of their childhood traumas on a page, out in the open so that they can then start to heal. Creativity equals inspiration and when young people are inspired they can set their own goals.

Stone Soup’s Stand Up to Knife Crime takes place at Metronome on Tuesday 19 July stonesoupacademy.org.uk

It's also the perfect time to cleanse crystals and all your spiritual tools, and to cleanse yourself with a moonbath. Simply sit under the moonlight and allow the light to wash over your naked (if you dare) body.

Affirmation time. This month to honour La Lunar: I Receive The Healing Light Until next time, my loves Be safe, no fear and stay blessed

Love

CECE X @lovecelestene lovecelestene.com traceymeek.com

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SCREEN

Repping the industry

interview: George White

F for Fed Up!!

If you’re up for a short trip to our beloved neighbouring county, Derbyshire, you can stop by The Repton Filmfest ‘22 this month. An extension of the popular Repton Literary Festival, this three-day event will bring short films from across the globe, legendary filmmakers from across the UK, and cinema fans from across the East Midlands to this quaint historical village.

We talk to Tom Craig, film expert and one of the festival’s organisers, all about it…

There are plenty of exciting things for local filmmakers to get into at The Repton Filmfest ‘22, including networking opportunities and workshops.

What are some highlights for those in the industry?

If you’re a filmmaker, going to festivals is part and parcel of everyday life. They’re always fantastic fun, you get the chance to have conversations with others in the industry, and can often find yourself going on to work on new shoots as a result of them. So the very notion of these festivals should be exciting for filmmakers.

Yet for Repton Filmfest more specifically, we’ve got a fantastic array of prizes on offer - the winners of each film category can get £250, and the winner of the Grand Prize walks away with £750 and a unique mentoring opportunity which they can utilise to take themselves to the next level. There are also some great speakers from across the generations - people like Deborah Hadfield, who’s just had her first big success, through to the likes of Anthony Thomas, who’s spent a lifetime making ground-breaking documentaries. So there is undoubtedly real value to visiting us.

The chance to hear from iconic filmmakers, like Robin Vidgeon - the cinematographer who worked on Indiana Jones - is truly special

Why did you feel that Repton would make a suitable place for a film festival?

The event actually started as a literary festival, and has now branched into three strands - including a kids’ festival - so the Filmfest grew out of that. There are some great cinematic links too, though. Deborah Hadfield used Repton as a location for her big feature film, We Too Together, and the Oscar-winning Goodbye Mr. Chips was shot here. A lot of younger people might not know that film, but it’s a fantastically poignant piece of British cinema that Repton’s a key part of.

How have you found the response to the event so far?

Are you expecting a good turnout?

Yeah, absolutely. We've had a lot of submissions, and we’re getting a good vibe for the festival. We're going to create a real party atmosphere right here in the East Midlands, which is really exciting.

Let’s just hope the weather’s good…

The Repton Filmfest ‘22 is taking place from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 July. Find out more on their Facebook page facebook.com/reptonliteraryfestival

Short reels

How was the response to your call for short films, and what can people expect from the final selection?

It’s been great because we’ve got quality local representation, but we’ve also got a real international appeal, with submissions from around the world. I think the student category is always the most interesting, though, because you have these people at the very start of their careers who are amazingly talented - they’re able to do stuff now that was unheard of when I was younger.

Is this something that the general public can get a lot out of too?

Definitely. You certainly don’t need to be a filmmaker to attend the festival. All of the short film screenings are free, so you can just look at whatever appeals to you, or watch all of them if you fancy it. And the chance to hear from iconic filmmakers, like Robin Vidgeon - the legendary cinematographer who worked on Indiana Jones and Hellraiser - is truly special. If you’re interested in movies at all, getting to learn about how they work behind the scenes is a must.

To Do The Afterlight + Q&A

To Remember Skins

To Follow Erin Kellyman

The Afterlight combines snippets from hundreds of films from across the globe onto a single 35mm print.

See the unique final piece and hear from director Charlie Shackleton live at Broadway.

Sunday 10 July, Broadway Cinema

Launching the career of local lad Joe Dempsie, as well as the likes of Dev Patel and Nicholas Hoult, Skins had a record for producing top quality talent. Its final series aired nine years ago this month.

She’s already had roles in The Green Knight and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and she’ll soon star in Willow for Disney+.

We reckon TV Workshop graduate Erin Kellyman might be one to watch. @erin.kellyman

3636leftlion.co.uk/issue149

For a while now, I’ve wanted to find a way of crowbarring in a dig at our corrupt, sleazy Government in this F for Film column - and, finally, our sports issue has given me the perfect opportunity to do just that.

You see, most sports films are ultimately cut from the same cloth they are, in essence, underdog stories.

Whether it’s Rocky the wildcard going toe-to-toe with world champion Apollo Creed, or Brad Pitt and his god-awful visor breaking into the big leagues in Moneyball, or Happy Gilmore raging his way to stardom, most of these movies tell a tale of characters overcoming the odds to upset the status quo.

It’s important that we channel the courageous spirit of Rocky, and the remarkable resilience of the Oakland A’s, and keep pushing for our ruling elite to do better Right now, these tales seem more important than ever as so many of us feel so powerless. While the vast majority of people across the country followed guidelines and made sacrifices to protect loved ones and strangers during the pandemic, our Government was more or less doing what they wanted - and lying about it the entire time. And yet, at the time of writing, the man who helped to set these rules, only to break them so blatantly with no sign of remorse, is still in charge. How could we not feel helpless?

But it’s important that we channel the courageous spirit of Rocky, and the remarkable resilience of the Oakland A's, and keep pushing for our ruling elite to do better. The recent local elections were a step in the right direction, but we need to continue holding our Government to account, to keep reminding people of the lies and broken trust, to protest and speak up at every opportunity, and hopefully there will be some sort of change - a move away from the growing corruption and injustice that seems to be plaguing this country’s politics at the moment. It might seem impossible right now - but, hey, did any of us see Happy Gilmore winning the Tour Championship? I think not…

@LeftLionScreen

words: George White

interview: Jamie Morris

SCREEN

branching out

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We chat to director Oliver Blair about how he walked a fine line between tragedy and comedy to depict grief in his witty, yet poignant, debut short film, The Tree, which follows two characters dealing with the loss of their father…

How does it feel to see your first short film out there in the world?

You cannot understand the level of relief I’m feeling. When you make films at university, it's a completely different ballgame because the only pressures you've got are from your tutors and your peers – whereas with a film like this, you’re motivating yourself, and I owe that to the cast and crew. The best way I felt like I could pay it back to them is by getting this film to be the best it could be and then firing it out there. It feels like a big anchor off of my neck.

You funded the whole thing yourself, right? What advice would you give to someone who's looking to make their own fully self-funded film?

Accept your limitations. I see a lot of filmmakers trying to make very big set pieces – they can be done on a budget, but I always like to put the money into the comfort of the cast and crew. Everybody understands that there’s a currency of passion, and if you build up that network around you, then it's a lot easier. Accept your limitations, but absolutely push them as far and as hard as you can.

In small towns like Ilkeston, there aren’t a lot of arts projects, but everybody is creative through comedy - through ribbing each other and absolutely tearing each other apart I think this film may have set a new record for the highest number of F-bombs squeezed into twenty minutes, but Joel Morris and Hayley Thomas deliver them in such an amusing and authentic way. Did you write the script with these two stars in mind?

I didn't. I knew Joel beforehand, but I didn't know that he was going to perform it the way that he did. I always had it in my head as more of a comedy than a drama, so when I wrote those F-bombs, they were a lot more for comedy value rather than anger. I was going to go through a huge casting process, but as soon as Joel had read this for me, I knew that he was exactly who I wanted. The performance that he gives is spellbinding. The same goes for Hayley – she's totally not like that in person, so to watch her get to that level of anger was brilliant.

We interviewed Assistant Director Alex Withers last year about his short film Dead Quiet, which was also really impressive. Do you think there's any overlap between the two projects?

I Second AD’d Dead Quiet, and Alex himself is one of my best friends and very much a mentor for me in the film industry. In terms of overlap, I would

say British realism. He comes from a small town in Leicester and I come from a small town in Nottinghamshire, so I think our values align, very much so. To have Alex join us on this project – and every other crew member as well – was a green light for quality, because a lot of these people wouldn't step onto a project in the way that they did if the script wasn't good.

Did you draw from any of your own experiences with grief for this project?

I did. In small towns like Ilkeston, there aren't a lot of arts projects, but everybody is creative through comedy. It's through ribbing each other, tearing down those walls and absolutely tearing each other apart. You're not trying to send anybody home crying – you're trying to cheer them up and detach them from the situation by looking at it objectively, and it's a really good way of processing grief.

When I was nineteen, my grandad died of stomach cancer. It was like he was fine, and then six weeks later, he was gone. It happened so fast that the trauma was much more long-term, but it was those kinds of moments that got us through it.

What can people who enjoyed The Tree look forward to from you and your collaborators in the future?

I've got a feature I'm writing, but it’s a little higher-budget and I don't know if people are willing to take a chance on me just yet. So I think there's going to be another short film between now and then, but I haven't committed to one yet. I find it harder to identify with characters that aren't like myself, so I'm looking to collaborate with another writer on the next project. That’s my big plan.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

When I picked Joel up for the rehearsals, he’d written out [his character] James’s favourite food, song and film, and really boiled him down. Hayley had done the same, and they started finding connections between their characters, and one was that they both had memories of Skegness.

We built that into the soundtrack at the end with a jaunty piano tune, like a kids’ amusement ride, and so they managed to work their own influence into the film – and the same goes for all the crew.

It was the most fantastic experience to see that from this one seed, everything just sort of grew… like a tree, right? God, please don’t keep this in. Everybody made it a little bit of themselves, and for that I’m eternally grateful.

oliver-blair.com

leftlion.co.uk/issue149 37

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MUSIC

interview: Addie Kenogbon photo: Sarah Samira

singing the blus

For quite some time now, neo soul queen Harleighblu has been making a name for herself across Nottingham, the UK, Europe and the US, with her iconic dreads, signature style and soulful vocals. Last month saw the launch of her new album Hideout, made in collaboration with American rapper, singer, producer and songwriter, Illa J. Fresh off the back of the album launch, her new video for one of the record’s tracks, Soulsearching, and the launch of her new Nottingham DJ night, Milkshake, we caught up with Harleighblu to find out more about her whirlwind year so far…

I’m really loving the new album. Can you tell us more about collaborating with Illa on this project?

Illa and I became friends after being fans of each other when we dropped a Colors session in Berlin at around the same time. We were a part of that Colors era when it first started blowing up along with Masego and Mahalia. So we got in contact with each other just off the back of being each other’s fans of our sessions. Then in 2019, I went to LA to do some recording and pretty much the only person I wanted to hook up with was him. We did a little session and that was cool, and then I was meant to support him in 2020 at Jazz Café but obviously that wasn’t able to go down because of COVID. So we just decided to hook up and see what happened and I changed my whole trip to go to Vegas to see him.

Can you tell us how the album came about?

It wasn’t actually meant to be an album, but we ended up recording the whole thing in ten days at a famous studio in Vegas called Hideout, where some crazy people have recorded. We ended up making what, in my opinion, is a work of art. He’s the most incredible songwriter, singer, rapper and is hands down the most creative and amazing person I’ve been in the studio with. We just vibe. It was a really beautiful experience to create with someone whose work rate is just as quick as mine and who artistically gets what I’m trying to do too.

upcoming vibrations

What’s your favourite track on the album and why?

That’s like asking who your favourite kid is, but I can break it down to highlight tracks. Soulsearching basically explains the entire story about my music

To Go Splendour Festival

Nottingham’s famous outdoor festival is almost here, as Splendour returns to Wollaton Park for a newly-announced two days of live music, featuring a quality lineup of Richard Ashcroft, Anne Marie, The Human League and many more.

Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 July, Wollaton Hall and Deer Park 38 38leftlion.co.uk/issue149

journey, where I am now and what I’ve been through.

That’s a special track to me not just because of what it means, but also because I wrote it in the hotel room before the studio session. It was the only track I wrote first without Illa.

Also Betty Davis Girls because I’m obsessed with Betty Davis. I think she was an absolute badass woman. Her story is crazy because she was a hidden gem, loads of people don’t know about her and only a few people have her records, even though in my eyes she’s one of the most legendary women to have ever walked the planet. She was actually alive at the time, and I wanted to show her it but sadly she died before we could. I would have loved for her to have heard it.

It’s the most creative I’ve ever been on a project - it’s the proudest I’ve been of an album I’ve done, and I’ve done a few albums now How would you sum up your album in your own words?

I would describe it as neo or new wave funk in terms of genre. It’s got a little bit of soul, a little bit of hip-hop, a little bit of funk, a little bit of jazz, singing and rapping. It’s the most creative I’ve ever been on a project, despite it only being made in ten days. It’s the proudest I’ve been of an album I’ve done, and I’ve done a few albums now.

It’s been a bit of a difficult couple of years for the music industry. As a musician, how has that affected you, and what did you do to cope?

Literally the week we went into lockdown, I was meant to play SXSW in Austin Texas. So I had to really just shake that off even though I’d wanted to play that festival for my entire career. That was quite heartbreaking for me. I was also meant to do my debut American tour - there were so many things on the cards for 2020 and it felt like I’d just got my legs back and then they were gone again from underneath me.

But I knew I had to slowly get back to what I was put here for, and so took on DJing again.

Can you tell us more about your DJing?

I had my first DJ night in May at The Carousel which went down really well. The Carousel are amazing to work with, and I had some amazing artwork from the really talented Kimatron who’s incredible and so cool. The whole night was a big female energy kind of night, which is always my jam.

What’s still to come this year?

My next DJ night will be back at The Carousel on Friday 19 August and will feature lots more funk, soul, big female energy and cool vibes. There are loads more exciting announcements still to come, which I’m not allowed to say yet. But watch this space, the best is yet to come.

Hideout is now available to listen to on Spotify @harleighblu

To Listen Shootout Sunday by Midnight Rodeo

To Follow Jerub

Notts’ hottest new band, Midnight Rodeo, bring dreamy psych and western vibes with second single Shootout Sunday, alongside a stunning music video to accompany it.

Jerub’s vocals are extremely powerful, and his music encompasses a range of genres from RnB to pop to soul. With his tunes recently making the cut for popular UK reality show Love Island, he’s one to check out.

@midnightrodeoband

@jerubmusic

Illa J x Harleighblu Soulsearching (Music Video) Conjuring up golden sun-kissed moments, with visuals of care-free summer days and created in collaboration with Illa J, Harleighblu’s latest video for her new single, Soulsearching, dropped at the end of last month, and is the perfect food for the soul. Featuring Harleighblu’s signature sultry tones and a rap from Illa J, all set against the perfect backdrop of crystal blue skies, warm tones and palm trees, it’ll have you feeling like the beach is just round the corner. Addie Kenogbon

MUSIC

u

MUSIC Reviews

local soundwaves Up until about fifty years ago, the BBC had a monopoly over radio in the UK, with licensing laws getting in the way of any commercial hopefuls. The only real competition was offshore pirate stations, whose popular broadcasts were soon silenced given their threat to the big dog’s reign.

Laws loosened, time flew by, and commercialised Independent Local Radio (ILR) gained popularity through the 1970s. In the summer of ’75, Thatcher was new Tory leader, Brian Clough was settling into management at Forest, and ILR continued to spread throughout the land, first airing locally as Radio Trent.

Acclaimed DJs from favoured pirate stations were brought in and gave the listeners what they wanted: pop music and a local twist, which before was hard to come by.

Big Den spoke, and the people of Notts listened, for no less than 28 years BBC’s local broadcasts on Radio Nottingham managed to stay afloat with the help of one particularly legendary presenter, Dennis McCarthy, whose voice could be heard on’t wireless until the day he died. Big Den spoke, and the people of Notts listened, for no less than 28 years.

While the big hitters battled it out, studious types at our universities began to grow an award-winning station of their own. Several producers and presenters who’ve progressed to the national stage have stemmed from the city’s University Radio Nottingham.

Come 2007, Marceline Powell introduced Kemet FM to the commercial airwaves.

An acronym for Knowledge, Education, Music, Entertainment, Technology, it has engaged Nottingham’s African and Caribbean communities in exactly that and more.

Nowadays, as the young’uns browse the web for a music fix, stations such as City Beat Radio broadcast selections, mixes, and interviews via their website. If you thought it was all on the wireless, get with it mate.

words: Elliot Farnsworth

The Dream at the End of the World An Infinite Pattern That Never Repeats Itself (Album) Songwriter Simon Waldram, from Chesterfield, has teamed up with Clarke Blacker, from Florida, to release the album An Infinite Pattern That Never Repeats Itself - an experimental ambient sound that is perfect for listening to at the end of the day. They have produced a cinematic wash of music from guitars, bass, loops and samples, with haunting riffs and layer-upon-layer of effects, creating a sound that is as vast as the universe but vulnerable and fragile at the same time. A great album, a great dream... Bassey

Vipera Kissin’ Kate Barlow (Single) Nottingham band Vipera have released their second single, Kissin’ Kate Barlow - a bluesy rock release that is full of energy and swagger, and as hard-hitting as their namesake. Driving bass lines and solid drums set the rhythm, riffing guitar numbers and haunting harmonica tunes build things further, and then the full-on rock vocals tell you exactly what Vipera are about. If you missed the recent single launch party at Rough Trade, download the track and enjoy their sound. Bassey

If you’re from Nottingham and want to get added to our music writers list, or get your tunes reviewed, hit us up at music@leftlion.co.uk

NUSIC BOX

Your new Notts music tip sheet, as compiled by Nusic’s Sam Nahirny. Want more? Check out the fortnightly podcasts and live sessions on the Nusic website.

Ricky Jamaraz Lo-fi emosh indie that will make your feelings…well, feel valid. This gent owns the whole bedroom-pop vibe and uses it to make an incredibly unique, and almost soothing, sound. Catchy guitar riffs and a feeling that Ricky is talking straight to you with his lyrics deliver a real sense of connection to his art. Plus, there’s a warm fuzzy wall-of-sound energy that makes you feel like you’re in a big old hug at all times. He also uses the one liner “hopelessly happy”, which we now want to get tattooed. @rickyjamaraz

Sptmbr209 Sptmbr209 is the alias of Paulie Todino, who you might have seen producing, rapping or skating near your favourite oat milk flat white-serving Sneinton establishment. This latest project is another slab of ‘why is one human this talented?’ Spacey pop-punk-tinged RnB is our pathetic attempt at describing the sound of Sptmbr209, and that’s not due to a lack of trying - it’s just hard to pigeonhole. Imagine what very talented aliens might make if they loved Drake mixed with a 2022 comeback of pop-punk, and you’re not far off. @todino

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ART

interview: George White photos: Frazer Varney

on the ball

Just a couple of avenues up from the LeftLion offices sits Art of Football, a Sneinton-based arts and fashion brand that centres around - you guessed it - football. They’ve seen their bucket hats on Ian Wright’s head, they’ve collaborated with Umbro, and they’re still only just getting started. We chat to Director Luke Cuthbert about immortalising people’s memories, the importance of community, and their plans for the future…

Art and football aren’t necessarily thought of as two things that go hand-in-hand, yet you’ve proven that there can be a real connection between the two…

We definitely see a clear link between football and art. They’re both emotive. Football brings joy, despair, hope - different feelings that art can make you feel.

We’re massive football fans ourselves, we’re immersed in football culture, and we try to showcase all of the ways that fans connect with the sport. Football has become really commercial in recent years, yet we want to see it not as a commodity, but as a community - and I think people like that about us.

You’re always really efficient with releasing artwork, coming up with cool designs almost straight after Champions League finals and play-off results. How do you pull that off?

We plan for all major events to make sure everyone’s ready to go the day after the final whistle. Sadly, that does mean there are some amazing designs that the world will never see, just because the results went the wrong way. We had some brilliant ideas for if England won the Euros that won’t see the light of day, for example.

You have such an interesting range of artwork styles. What is the design process like behind the scenes?

There isn’t really a set process. What we’ve tried to do is build teams out of different creatives within their own fields. So we have graphic designers, illustrators, photographers, and we just keep in touch with them about what’s going on in football, or they’ll bring a moment or idea forward and we go from there. It’s about trying everything and seeing what works. We want to be the most creative brand in football, so we try not to take ourselves too seriously.

Our purpose is to really celebrate those moments that made you fall in love with football

Do you feel a sense of pride knowing that you’re immortalising people’s memories and dreams into tangible, collectible items?

Absolutely. When we first started out, our purpose was to really serve and celebrate those moments that made you fall in love with football. It’s such a powerful thing. So I definitely feel proud when I see people wearing our stuff, knowing that we’ve done our small part to connect with a moment in their life.

You recently launched a collaboration with Umbro and Helping Rhinos. How did that come about?

That was actually the result of a cease and desist from Umbro, because we had some drawings of old kits that they thought had their logos on.

From there, we got talking to them and they liked our creativity and felt like we should actually be working together. So we agreed to collaborate with them, and really wanted to use that to do some good - that’s why we decided to donate some of the profits to Helping Rhinos.

One of your key focal points on the clothing front is bucket hats, which seem to have had a real resurgence. Why do you think these are such a core component of football fan culture right now?

After everyone was locked up for two years because of COVID, a lot of people just want a fun, festival feel to their look. And a lot of our bucket hats reference past kits, so there’s a nostalgia element to them people can think back to when they first started getting into football and supporting their team.

Speaking of fan culture, what’s the landscape like in the AoF office in terms of who you support?

There’s definitely a wide range. Since myself and Gabe [Cuthbert, Luke’s brother and co-founder of Art of Football] are Forest supporters, we’ve pretty much forced everyone to have Forest as their second team. But we have fans of Arsenal, Wolves, Liverpool, Crystal Palace and Gillingham. We used to have a Derby fan in the office, but I think he chose a good time to leave, after what happened this season!

As a company, you seem very proud of your Nottingham roots…

We’ve started expanding - we have a studio in London now, and we’re building a team there. But we always want to keep our base in Nottingham. Obviously, for Gabe and me, it’s the city that shaped us, we grew up here, and it’s really important for us to remember where we came from. We want to become a global brand, but we will always keep our roots in mind. art-of-football.com

brush strokes

To Buy Affordable Art Auction Nottingham Society of Artists Friday 15 – Sunday 17 July

To See Street Art Festival 2022 Surface Gallery From Saturday 23 July

To Submit Print Fair Contemporary Nottingham Contemporary Deadline: Wednesday 3 August

The auction of work by artists Beth Choo and Adam Willis is intended to make original art work more accessible and affordable for all.

There will be something for everyone and all are welcome. fb.me/e/1u2UpbOvq

This popular exhibition supports and promotes Notts’ vibrant alternative art scene by showcasing some of today’s best local talent.

Expect one of the most anarchic, spectacular exhibitions of the year. surfacegallery.org

If you’re a printmaker, illustrator, artist, designer, zine artist or textile designer, you can apply to be part of the 2022 Print Fair Contemporary. The event, which hosts over thirty stalls, is taking place in October. nottinghamcontemporary.org

leftlion.co.uk/issue14941 41

Out of Time words: Ashley Carter

While most of us will be familiar with the events of Rorke’s Drift from Zulu - the 1964 film that made a star out of Michael Caine - there is much more to the story than the Hollywood portrayal, including the presence of two Ruddington-born soldiers at the battle. In what has been described as amongst the most famous military actions in British history, the twelve-hour long battle demonstrated both the best of British bravery and the worst of the Empire’s seemingly limitless horrors…

The British sentry strained his eyes against the blinding sun, scanning for signs of activity amidst the arid, rolling plains of southern Africa. He was part of the single company of men that had been left to guard Rorke’s Drift, a small mission station located on the border between the friendly territory of Natal and Zululand that served as a store of food, ammunition and other supplies for the main British force – which numbered around 2,000 – as it marauded further into enemy territory. It was 22 January 1879 and, as part of the British invasion force, they were tasked with bringing the territory under British command and ending the dominance of the Zulu Empire in the region. But for the sentry and the other 140 men of that single company of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment of Foot that made up the rearguard, the chance of seeing action was slim. They were essentially on guard duty, while the rest of the battalion got to share the spoils of war.

Suddenly a horseman appeared on the horizon. And then another. It was immediately clear that something was wrong, so wildly were the two men gesticulating.

The news they bought was so incomprehensible they struggled to make themselves believed. A Zulu force of 20,000 had completely wiped out the British forward line, encircling, overwhelming and killing the majority of the 1,800-strong force at what would later be known as The Battle of Isandlwana. Britain had suffered its worst defeat against an indigenous enemy and the single company left to defend Rorke’s Drift were next. Lord Chelmsford, the man in overall command of the invasion, believed that the Zulus would never attack rifle-armed British soldiers in the open and, if they did make that mistake, would be swiftly and comprehensively defeated.

Isandlwana had proven him spectacularly wrong.

There was a reason that Gonville Bromhead had been left in charge of the small force defending Rorke’s Drift.

Despite being from a notable military family – his father had fought under Wellington at Waterloo, his grandfather was a lieutenant general in the American Revolutionary War and his three brothers had already exceeded his rank and achievements in the British army – he was seen as intellectually lacklustre and an average soldier at best. He’d never seen action, and was only in temporary charge because the company’s original commander had been accidentally shot by one of his own men. But being excluded from the main force had likely saved his life, and the events of the next 24 hours would see his name etched in the annals of British military history, overtaking

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anything his relatives had achieved. Having been born in France but educated in Newark, Bromhead had two other Nottinghamshire men alongside him that day. Signing up on the same day in 1887, with concurrent enlistment numbers and both listing Ruddington as their hometown, it’s likely that Caleb Wood and Robert Tongue knew each other before their army life began. They had both been framework knitters with little-to-no formal education and, having signed up for pay of a shilling per day, likely had poor career prospects outside of military service.

Neither man had seen their twentieth birthday before Rorke’s Drift, but were about to take part in one of, if not the, most famous military actions in British history.

They showed no fear of death at all… At one place their bodies were piled up to a height of four or five feet Frantic defensive preparations were underway as the previously quiet outpost became a hive of desperate activity. Initial discussions of abandoning the post and trying to run for friendly territory had been dismissed.

Heading into the open plains against a numerically superior Zulu army that excelled in hand-to-hand combat and swift movement was nothing short of suicide, but the odds of defending the outpost weren’t much better. Scouts had climbed the Oscarberg – a large hill 350 yards to the read of the outpost – to confirm the riders’ reports. The sky to the east was burning red with the flames of Isandlwana – just six miles away as the crow flies, but a craggy, zig-zag march owing to the mountainous terrain – and what looked like countless Zulu warriors were headed straight for Rorke’s Drift.

Bromhead, along with Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers, used what little time they had to good effect.

Alongside the 141 British regulars were 100 Natal Native Contingent cavalrymen, a handful of colonial troops and eleven patients in a makeshift hospital building. With the other troops, Bromhead and Chard had around 400 men at their disposal, which they set to work building a defensive perimeter of mealie bags, incorporating the storehouse, hospital and stone kraal (an enclosure for livestock). They included a biscuit box barricade running through the middle of the enclosure which would serve as a ‘last stand’ point should the Zulus break through the

outer barriers, effectively cutting the defensible zone in half. With what little preparation time they’d been afforded, the small force had done as much as they could The soldiers heading to engulf them were led by Prince Dabulamanzi, the half-brother of Zulu king Cetshwayo kaMpande who had been wounded pursuing the British survivors from Isandlwana.

While the British were doubtlessly better armed and technically superior in practically every way, it’s a great disservice to consider the Zulus as lesser warriors.

Armed with short assegai spears and nguni cowhide shields, they were well-drilled and ferociously effective at surprising and overwhelming the enemy at close quarters. Their bravery was unmatched on the continent and, since having their social, political and military spheres reorganised by Shaka kaSenzangakhona (often referred to as Shaka Zulu) earlier in the century, they’d become the dominant military force in southern Africa.

They tended to shun the use of firearms, as Bourquin writes, “The generality of Zulu warriors, however, would not have firearms – the arms of a coward, as they said, for they enable the poltroon to kill the brave without awaiting his attack." The firearms they did have – often outdated and in poor condition – they lacked the proper training to use, with many believing that the more gunpowder used, the more powerful the shot.

Even with these shortcomings, King Cetshwayo had made a sustained effort to make sure as many of his men were equipped with guns as possible, meaning that in his wealthier units (Zulu army units were split into age, marital status and social standing), around half his men were equipped with firearms. On paper at least, that meant the British soldiers at Rorke’s Drift were outgunned by as much as twenty to one.

The four - the uThulwana, iNdlondli, uDloko and iNdluyengwe – moving toward the outpost had a point to prove. The 4,000 veterans had been held in reserve during Isandlwana meaning that they were fresh, but seeing their younger countrymen take the loot, plaudits and royal favour for such a famous victory would have stung their veteran pride. Three of the regiments bore the white shields that denoted married veterans, while the other was the Zulu equivalent to a guards’ regiment, the elite infantry in which King Cetshwayo had once served. They were hungry to get their slice of the day’s glory, and Rorke’s Drift provided a seemingly easy opportunity to do it.

Facing odds of ten-to-one, with superior weaponry and some semblance of a defensive structure, the British might have had reason to feel the slightest element of hope, despite the fate of the rest of their regiment earlier in the day. But as the Zulu force drew near, both the NNH and NNC forces fled, leaving just 141 British soldiers to defend the tiny outpost. What little hope they may have held had surely gone, and they shot wildly at the fleeing soldiers in disgust and desperation, killing one of their commanding officers in the process. But there was nothing to be done. 4,000 elite Zulu warriors had finally arrived at Rorke’s Drift, and the 141 men – including Nottingham natives Caleb Wood and Robert Tongue – had to stand and fight.

“As soon as they showed themselves we fired two volleys,” Caleb Wood would later remember in a 1914 interview with the Nottingham Daily Express. “Before we could fire the third the order was to ‘Fix bayonets!’ and receive them at shortened arms.” It was around 4.30pm when the Zulu force rounded the Oscarberg, with around 600 attacking the south wall while the bulk of the troops moved for the north. Armed Zulus had scaled the hill to rain musket fire down on the defenders, ensuring that at one time or another, the British were being attacked from at least two sides as well as from above. “The first charge brought some of them in, but those Zulus never got out again,” Wood recalls. “In a few minutes it became a fight for the hospital, so that we could save the men who were hurt and sick.”

Throughout the course of human history, battles are very often decided on a number of factors much larger than the soldiers themselves. The decisions – good or bad – of the generals in charge, supply lines, terrain, the element of surprise, equipment and even the weather are often far more important than the actions of any one individual.

But Rorke’s Drift was a soldier’s battle, and each moment of that relentless fight, each action taken by soldiers on either side, was key in deciding who won or lost, who lived and who died. The brave Zulus faced the devastating fire of a Martini-Henry rifle - which at 100 yards was enough to go through fourteen inches of elm wood – decimating their number, scything wave after wave of attack down. At close range they were unable to scale the hastily built defensive walls, and had a great fear of the British bayonet.

“Had the Zulus taken the bayonet as freely as they took the bullets, we could not have stood more than fifteen minutes,” remembered a Private Hitch, “They seemed to have a great dread of the bayonet, which stood us from beginning to end.” With the protection of their defensive walls, the ability to fire between 12-20 rounds per minute and the additional length afforded by the bayonet over the shorter assegai spears, the Wood, Tongue and the rest of the British defenders were just about holding their own.

But the thunder-crack of musket fire could still be heard from the Oscarberg and, despite being comparatively poor marksmen, the Zulu sharpshooters were taking

OBJECT WALK

their toll. The waves of Zulu attacks showed no signs of letting up, either. “They showed no fear of death at all… At one place their bodies were piled up to a height of four or five feet,” described Ruddington-born Wood.

“Fighting side by side with me was Robert Tongue… who killed fourteen Zulus himself in a very short time.” He continues, “We began to think that we would never see the light of day again.”

In the long annals of military history, it is difficult to find anything quite like Rorke’s Drift, where a beleaguered force, outnumbered forty to one, survived and killed twenty men for every defender lost Realising the north wall could not be held, Bromhead and Chard pulled their men back to the inner yard, abandoning the hospital - the thatched roof of which had been set on fire - in the process. The soldiers and patients within had to use their bayonets to smash through the hospital’s inner walls, slowly moving room by room toward the new defensive position, all while holding off the seemingly endless line of Zulu warriors moving in. The building’s small doorways meant the attackers could only enter one at a time, ensuring that those soldiers defending the rooms (as well as the patients too injured to fight), never had to face odds of more than one vs. one in single combat. Miraculously, out of the eleven patients, nine made it to safety, as well as all able-bodied soldiers who had been defending the building.

The evacuation completed the shortening of the perimeter and, as night began to fall and exhaustion set in (the British had been fighting relentlessly at close quarters for almost six hours at this point, as well as the hours of brutal defensive work undertaken before the battle), the Zulu attacks only grew stronger. The cattle kraal was next to be evacuated meaning that the defensive perimeter was as small as it could be – any more ground lost would mean being overrun and annihilated. Still the Zulus came on, and still they were repelled until finally, at around midnight, they began to slacken, stopping completely at around 2am. The musket fire from atop the hill ceased around two hours later.

Not a single man had escaped unharmed, with each carrying his own reminder of the violence of the evening.

Incredibly only fourteen British were dead – mostly as a result of the musket fire from above – while two more were mortally wounded and a further eight were seriously wounded. By this point they were mentally and physically exhausted, having fought non-stop for ten hours and, having started the day with 20,000 rounds of ammunition, were down to less than 900. If the Zulus attacked again at dawn, it would be over. But as the sun

rose the Zulus were nowhere to be seen. They were suffering exhaustion of their own, having been on the move for six days without eating properly for the past two.

The number of Zulu dead has long been debated, with some estimates being as low as 350, with others claiming the true number to be nearer to 900. The disparity comes from the battle’s aftermath when, in one of the darkest chapters of an already atrocious campaign, the British are said to have killed all surviving Zulu wounded, with some sources even claiming that makeshift gallows were erected in order to execute captured Zulus in an act of revenge for those that had been lost at Isandlwana. As the true horrors of the British Empire start to be realised, the travesty and tragedy of the Anglo-Zulu War have rightly been sharply pulled into focus.

While it’s essential to put the events of Rorke’s Drift into its wider context, it’s also worth noting that for most of the men fighting that day, the British Army was the only viable career path available to them. It’s easy to make monsters out of red-coated land-stealers marching under the butcher’s apron, but men like Caleb Wood and Robert Tongue were eighteen and nineteen respectively, and from one of the poorest industrial cities in the country. Their individual bravery, fighting for their very lives under the imminent threat of death, is worthy of remembrance, as is the incredible bravery shown by the Zulu warriors. “How did we do it? Ah! That’s always been a puzzle to me,” recalls Caleb Wood. “I can’t tell you how it was done, except that every man stood firm like a rock.”

Wood and Tongue both survived Rorke’s Drift – Wood became a curtain maker in Ilkeston before dying in 1935, aged 77, whereas Tongue served until the age of 31 when, despite his action at Rorke’s Drift and an impeccable service record, he was rejected for an army pension. He died in 1918, just weeks before his son John was killed in the First World War. Friends in civilian life and brothersin-arms during Rorke’s Drift, both Wood and Tongue are buried in Ruddington Cemetery.

For Victorian policy-makers, Rorke’s Drift served as a perfect counterbalance to the humiliating defeat at Isandlwana. Eleven Victoria Crosses were handed out – the most ever awarded for a single action by one regiment - as well as a number of other decorations and honours, as they attempted to draw attention away from the loss of almost two-thousand men at the hands of the Zulus earlier that same day. As convenient as Rorke’s Drift might have been as a distraction, many historians – including Victor Davis Hanson – believe the heroics displayed that day should stand on their own merits.

“Modern critics suggest such lavishness in commendation was designed to assuage the disaster at Isandhlwana and to reassure a sceptical Victorian public that the fighting ability of the British soldier remained unquestioned,” Hanson writes. “Maybe, maybe not, but in the long annals of military history, it is difficult to find anything quite like Rorke's Drift, where a beleaguered force, outnumbered forty to one, survived and killed twenty men for every defender lost.”

We’ve teamed up with the National Justice Museum to put objects from the past into the hands of people in the present. This month, we took a medallion to Fiona Beales of Up & Running Nottingham.

Originally given to the winner of a darts competition in a pre-1980s rehabilitation centre for young offenders, this unique item highlights the important role sport plays within the justice system…

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3

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Is it a reward for prisoners after they’ve achieved something? For good behaviour, maybe? Or for winning a darts competition?

Yes? Wow, okay. You wouldn’t think convicts would be given darts, really! Of all the things they could be given to do, this seems an unusual one to choose.

When you came in, I was hoping I’d get to see some sort of torture device… This is really interesting, though. It looks like quite a highvalue item to give out. It’s quite fancy! leftlion.co.uk/issue149

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What’s on?

FRIDAY 1 JULY

TUESDAY 5 JULY

SATURDAY 9 JULY

TUESDAY 12 JULY

SATURDAY 16 JULY

🎨 Lecture: Eye To Eye

🎨 Lecture: On the Road with

📖 Newark Book Festival

😂 Mark Thomas: Black And

🎭 Nottingham Shakespeare

Lakeside Arts £3, 6pm

🎵 Courtney Barnett Rock City £25, 6.30pm

🎵 Champyun Clouds The Bodega £8, 7pm

😂 Help I Sexted My Boss Nottingham Playhouse £24 - £29, 7.30pm

SATURDAY 2 JULY

🍴 Vegan Market Blue Camel Café £1 - £2, 10am

🎨 Candle Making & Glass Painting Workshop Malt Cross £45, 10am

🚲 British Esports Student Champs Finals ’22 Metronome Free, 10am

📖 Surrender Book Launch with Cathy Grindrod Five Leaves Bookshop Free, 2.30pm

🎵 JD & The FDCs Rescue Rooms £10, 6.30pm

👪 Brinsley Animal Rescue Fundraiser The Sumac Centre £5, 7pm

🎵 Max Pope: Live + Signing

Newark Town Hall Various, All day

🎨 Make a Silver Ring with Debbie Bryan Ruddington Village £98, 10am

🎭 Yard: Young People’s Theatre

🎵 KennyHoopla

📖 Lesbians and Gays Support

🎵 The Struts

Rescue Rooms £12, 7pm

🎵 Rival Sons Rock City £25, 7pm

🎭 Solve-Along-A Murder She

Wrote Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £24, 7.30pm

🎭 The Clones - A Two Person Improvised Play The Lord Roberts Free, 7.30pm

WEDNESDAY 6 JULY

🎨 Wednesday Walkthrough:

Meriem Bennani - Life on the CAPS Nottingham Contemporary Free, 2.30pm

🎭 Participation Celebration Nottingham Playhouse £3, 6pm

🎨 Messy Drink and Draw The Carousel £3, 7pm

🎵 American Poetry Club +

New Art Exchange Free

the Libraries Five Leaves Bookshop Free, 10.30am

The Studio Theatre £8 - £6.50, 7.30pm

Antiques Fair Lady Bay Primary School £2.50, 11am

WEDNESDAY 13 JULY

🎥 The Railway Children Savoy Cinema £5 - £6.95, 2.15pm

🎵 Future Sound of Nottingham 2022 Rock City Free, 6pm

🎵 Together Pangea The Bodega £12, 7pm

MONDAY 4 JULY

🎨 Textiles and Cells City Arts Free, 10.30am

🚲 Free Football and Cricket for 8-15 Year Olds Nottingham University Samworth Academy Free, 6pm

🎲 Quiz Night

Organ Grinder Free, 8pm

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Rough Trade £27.50, 6.30pm

🎵 Engine Room Label Showcase Metronome £3 - £4, 7pm

🎵 Matt Anderson Quartet Peggy’s Skylight £12, 7pm

🎵 Slothrust The Bodega £12.50, 7pm

FRIDAY 8 JULY

📖 Newark Book Festival Newark Town Hall Various, All day

😂 Friday Night Comedy The Glee Club £8 - £24, 7pm

🎵 Michael Messer’s Mitra Peggy’s Skylight £12 - £17, 7.30pm

🎵 Kris Wood

The Southbank City 9pm

The Carousel Free, 2pm - 4pm

🎵 SHEAFS

Rescue Rooms £10, 6.30pm

😂 Edinburgh Fringe Previews at

🎵 Metal 2 the Masses

📖 Adele Parks In

🎵 The Beat

Rescue Rooms £10, 6.30pm

😂 Edinburgh Fringe Previews at

Conversation Waterstones £4 - £5, 6.30pm

Just the Tonic Metronome £8.80 - £13.20, 6.45pm

🎨 Zine Club

👪 Robin Hood’s Cat Rescue

😂 Joe Lycett: More, More, More.

The Carousel £3, 7pm

People’s Kitchen The Sumac Centre 7pm

🎵 M. Ward

The Bodega £22.50, 7pm

How do you Lycett? How do you Lycett?

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall 7.30pm

🎵 Dan Chapman: My Friend

🚲 Wrestling Entertainment

Series Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £27.69 - £190.68, 7.30pm

🎵 Katy J Pearson: Live + Signing

featuring Andy Aitchison Peggy’s Skylight £8 - £10, 12pm

🎨 Stitch and Bitch

Just the Tonic Metronome £8.80 - £13.20, 6.45pm

🎨 Gallery Tour: Martine

🎨 Pots and Pints

Waterstones £4 - £5, 2pm

Rough Trade £13.50, 6pm

The Carousel Free, 1pm

THURSDAY 7 JULY

🎵 ‘Djanco’ – Hot Club Swing –

📖 Glyn Maxwell

🎵 James Righton: Live + Signing

🎭 It’s A Trap! The Improvised

SUNDAY 3 JULY

Company: The Comedy of Errors Sneinton Market Free, 12pm

🎨 Collage Club

Newark Town Hall Various, All day

Hamilton Knight Djanogly Art Gallery Free, 1pm

Rock City £20, 7pm

🎭 One Act Plays

🏫 Nottingham’s Vintage

Nottingham Arts Theatre £20, 7.30pm Star Wars Show Nottingham Playhouse £10, 7.30pm

White - Preview Show The Glee Club £12

Rough Trade Free, 6pm

Radiant Heart + Wilted Flower + Katie Keddie JT Soar £10, 7.30pm

🎭 Chris McGlade: Forgiveness

leftlion.co.uk/issue149

Pevsner Lakeside Arts £3, 1pm

Wolf - Album launch Peggy’s Skylight £6 - £12, 7.30pm

🎭 One Act Plays

SUNDAY 10 JULY

The Studio Theatre £8 - £6.50, 7.30pm

📖 Newark Book Festival

🎲 Pub Quiz at The Lion at Basford The Lion at Basford £1, 8pm

Rough Trade £12.50, 12pm

THURSDAY 14 JULY

🎥 The Afterlight + Q&A Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 6pm

Rose Woods Waterstones £4 - £5, 6.30pm

🎵 Mush : Live + Signing

📖 Ali Milani – The Unlikely

📖 An Evening with Hannah

Rough Trade £12.50, 6pm

🎲 Classic Board Game Club The Carousel Free, 7pm

Rescue Rooms £19.50, 7.30pm

MONDAY 11 JULY City Arts Free, 10.30am

🎲 The Big Quiz Malt Cross 7.30pm

🎲 Quiz Night

Organ Grinder Free, 8pm

Signing

🎵 Lauren Bush Quartet Peggy’s Skylight £10 - £15, 7.30pm

SUNDAY 17 JULY

🎵 Mellow Baku Peggy’s Skylight £10, 12pm

🎨 Workshop: I Am a Turtle Nottingham Contemporary Free, 2pm

🎵 Vinyl Night

The Bread And Bitter Free, 7pm

🚲 Tyson Fury ‘The After Party

Tour’ - An Evening With The Gypsy King Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall 7pm

🎭 Godspell

Nottingham Arts Theatre £12 - £15, 7.30pm

MONDAY 18 JULY

🎨 Textiles and Cells City Arts Free, 10.30am

📖 Smokestack Lightning, and a Mad Parade launch Five Leaves Bookshop £3 - £10, 7pm

🎵 80s Live

FRIDAY 15 JULY

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £22.50 - £28.50, 7.30pm

🎭 Nottingham Shakespeare

🎲 The Big Quiz

Company: The Comedy of Errors The Roundhouse Free, 7pm

🎨 Textiles and Cells

Rough Trade £13.50, 6pm

🎨 Paint Your Own Trinket Bowl The Carousel £6, 7pm

🎵 Orange Goblin

🎵 Jeremy Loops: Live +

Candidate Five Leaves Bookshop £3 - £12, 7pm

Rescue Rooms £22.50, 7pm

🎨 Together in Isolation

Nottingham Contemporary £13 - £15, 7pm

🎭 Here Come The Boys

Malt Cross 7.30pm

TUESDAY 19 JULY

🎵 Beabadoobee: Acoustic + Signing Rough Trade £14.50, 6pm

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £27.50 - £45, 7.30pm

👪 Nessie’s Birthday Bonanza

🎵 The Notts Rap Show 2

😂 Stand Up to Knife Crime

Rough Trade Free, 8pm

The Old Black Horse Free, 7pm Metronome Free, 7pm

WEDNESDAY 20 JULY

SATURDAY 23 JULY

TUESDAY 26 JULY

FRIDAY 29 JULY

PRIDE 2022

🎭 Live At Lunch: The Writer

🎵 Splendour Festival 2022

🎵 The All Star Beary Jamboree

🎵 The Way We See It - NOFA

🎨 Collage Club

📖 Dr Janina Ramirez In

🎭 Do or Die Poets Return

We round up some of the best LGBTQ+ events, including Notts’ plans for Pride 2022...

Highway Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Free, 1pm

🎨 Messy Drink and Draw The Carousel £3, 7pm

🎭 Hamlet the Comedy Nottingham Castle £14 - £20, 7.30pm

🎵 Better Than The 90s

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £25 - £32, 7.30pm

Wollaton Park £30.80 - £150.60, 11.30am The Carousel Free, 1pm

🎥 3 Women + Intro Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 1.45pm

🎥 Mulholland Drive + Meshes of the Afternoon Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 6.30pm

🎵 Dry Cleaning: RT AOTY Live

THURSDAY 21 JULY

Rough Trade £13, 7pm

🎥 Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

🎭 The War of the Worlds

Works Social £10, 6.30pm

🍴 The Great British Gin Tasting Malt Cross £30, 6.45pm

🎥 Our Cinema

Nottingham Castle £10 - £16, 7pm

🎵 DIIV

Metronome £16.50 - £16.50, 7.30pm

🎵 John Etheridge’s Blue Spirits

The B Cave £5, 5pm

Conversation Waterstones £4 - £5, 6.30pm

🎭 An Evening with David Sedaris Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £27.50 - £37.50, 7.30pm

Present/Play with Gabriela Burkhalter Nottingham Contemporary Free, 6.30pm

🎨 Flipbook Animation Workshop

🎨 Street Art Festival Launch

🎵 Splendour Festival 2022

THURSDAY 28 JULY

🎨 The Adventure Playground:

Talk by Aberrant Architecture Nottingham Contemporary Free, 6.30pm

🎭 Nottingham Shakespeare Company: The Comedy of Errors St John’s Churchyard Free, 7pm

🎵 The Great Big Orchestra Project Albert Hall £6 - £10, 7.30pm

🎥 Long Day’s Journey into Night Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 8.15pm

Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 3.30pm

🎵 Batimento Duo Peggy’s Skylight £8 - £10, 7pm

🎵 Deerstock Charity Festival Newton Cross Country Course £11 - £66, All day

🎨 Basement Craics

Savoy Cinema £5 - £6.95, 8.30pm

👪 Charity Bungee Jump

📖 Janice Hallett

Victoria Centre Market £100, 7pm

🎵 Jeffrey Hewer Quartet Peggy’s Skylight £6 - £12, 7pm

📖 South African Update with David Dickinson Five Leaves Bookshop £3, 7pm

🌈 Lesbians and Gays Support

🌈 Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Works Social £10, 6.30pm

FRIDAY 29 JULY

🌈 Hedwig and the Angry Inch Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 8.30pm

SATURDAY 30 JULY

🌈 Nottinghamshire Pride 2022 – Breakfast Freeths LLP 9am

🌈 Nottinghamshire Pride 2022 – Meet Outside Marks and Spencers Free, 10am

🌈 Nottinghamshire Pride 2022

Notts Maze £20, 12pm

– March Nottingham Free, 10am

😂 Saturday Night Comedy

🌈 Nottinghamshire Pride 2022

The Glee Club £10.25 - £27.50, 6.45pm

🎵 First Wave + Noose + Arizona

🎵 Aydenne Simone & The Big

Rescue Rooms £16.50, 6.30pm

🚲 Ferret Race

🎥 Psycho

Debbie Bryan Nottingham Lace Market £64, 10am

🎵 Afflecks Palace

🎨 Textiles and Cells

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £25 - £57.50, 7.30pm

🎨 Air Dry Clay Workshop with

Law The Chameleon £5, 7.30pm

Waterstones £4 - £5, 6.30pm

🎵 And In The End

Broadway Cinema £5 - £10, 8.30pm

Barley Twist £2 - £3

MONDAY 25 JULY City Arts Free, 10.30am

🎵 Bill Kirchen Band + Peter

SATURDAY 30 JULY

The Lion at Basford £1, 8pm

FRIDAY 22 JULY

🎥 Céline and Julie Go Boating

Ortega Peggy’s Skylight £12 - £17, 7.30pm

🎥 Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Peggy’s Skylight £8 - £15, 7pm

Nottingham Tourism Centre £22, 10am

Peggy’s Skylight £8 - £10, 12pm

THURSDAY 21 JULY

🎵 Nimbus Sextet

Destroyers Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £42, 8pm

Nadia Whittome Savoy Cinema £5 - £6.95, 6.30pm

😂 Friday Night Comedy

The Carousel £3, 7pm

🎵 George Thorogood & The

🎵 Me & Mr Jones Trio

the Libraries Five Leaves Bookshop Free, 10.30am

Bruntnell Angel Microbrewery £14, 7.30pm

SUNDAY 24 JULY

🎥 Manifesto + Live Q&A MP

The Southbank City £35, 6pm

🎭 Flamenco Dance Rebeca

🎵 Dean Wareham

Wollaton Park £30.80 - £150.60, 11.30am

🎭 An Evening with Colin Fray

🎨 The Adventure Playground:

🎲 Pub Quiz

Party Surface Gallery Free, 6pm

SATURDAY 9 JULY

WEDNESDAY 27 JULY

Trio Peggy’s Skylight £12 - £16, 7.30pm

🏫 Watson Fothergill Walk

Sobar Free, 6pm

The Glee Club £8 - £24, 7pm

The Carousel £3, 7pm

Rescue Rooms £20, 7pm

Albert Hall Free, 3pm

Mama Trio Peggy’s Skylight £12 - £17, 7.30pm

SUNDAY 31 JULY

🎵 Oddgeir Berg Trio Peggy’s Skylight £8 - £10, 12pm

🎵 #4 Ascension

Nottingham Arts Theatre £15, 3pm

🎵 The Way Of All Flesh, Rome

– Post-March Meet The Old Angel Free

🌈 DirtyFilthySexy Alternative Pride Afterparty Nottingham Contemporary £10, 9pm

🌈 PRIDE 2022 at Rough Trade with Gladrags DJs Rough Trade Free, 12pm

🌈 LGBTQ+ Family Pride Malt Cross Free, 1.30pm

🌈 Nottingham Pride Alternative Afterparty 2022 The Space, Nottingham Contemporary £10 , 9pm

Burns, Byronic Sex & Exile Triumvirate Tour Angel Microbrewery £11.37, 7.30pm

FOR THE FULL RUNDOWN, VISIT LEFTLION.CO.UK/LISTINGS

👪 Magic of Thailand Festival

🎵 I’m Not From London’s Fleecy

ONGOING EVENTS 🎨 Gallery Tour: Last Orders Weston Gallery Free Until Wed 28 Sep

🎨 Ejaradini

🎨 Last Orders: Stories Of

Alcohol And Abstinence In The East Midlands Weston Gallery Free, Until Sun 9 Oct

Canalhouse 2pm, Sat 2 Jul - Sun 3 Jul

👪 Peppa Pig’s Best Day Ever

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £16.50 - £21.50 Sat 2 Jul - Sun 3 Jul

🎭 Little Shop Of Horrors Nottingham Arts Theatre £15 - £18 , 7pm Mon 4 Jul - Wed 6 Jul

🎭 Singin’ in the Rain

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £24 - £57.50 Tue 5 Jul - Sat 9 Jul

📖 Newark Book Festival 2022 Newark Market Place Thu 7 Jul - Sun 10 Jul

🎥 Repton Filmfest ‘22

Repton Festival £7.50 - £10 , 6pm - 10pm Fri 8 Jul - Sun 10 Jul

Forest Recreation Ground £5 , 10am - 7pm Sat 16 Jul - Sun 17 Jul

🎭 Waitress

Residency The Golden Fleece 8pm - 12am Thu 21 Jul - Fri 22 Jul

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £24.50 - £57 Mon 18 Jul - Sat 23 Jul

🎨 Street Art Festival

🎨 Ray Beardall

Nottingham Playhouse £10.50 - £25.50 Tue 26 Jul - Sun 14 Aug

Nottingham Society of Artists Tue 19 Jul - Sun 31 Jul

Surface Gallery Free, Mon 25 Jul - Sun 31 Jul

🎭 Identical

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leftlion.co.uk/issue149

Primary Free, Until Fri 30 Sep

👪 The Waterfront Festival

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BEST OF JULY Champyun Clouds When: Friday 1 July, 7pm Where: The Bodega How much? £8.80

Vintage Kilo Sale When: Saturday 2 July, 11am Where: St Mary’s Church How much? £2

Nottingham Waterfront Festival When: Saturday 2 July, 12.30pm Where: Canalhouse How much? £8.80

Still reeling from their self-titled debut, Champyun Clouds are kicking off the month with a gig at The Bodega. Supported by John Paul and The Big Faces, you can expect to hear a slightly new sound from the duo, blending hip-hop, Britpop, house, funk and more. Celebrating their three most recent songs Understand Your Wagon, The Search For Om and Ghosts in Rose, it’s well worth checking out.

We know we keep harping on about sustainability, but really, it doesn’t get much better than Worth the Weight Vintage Kilo Sale. Taking place at St Mary’s Church, you can choose from groovy seventies vibes, nineties chic, Y2K maximalism or whatever else is up for grabs. Regardless of your style, it’s a chance to get hold of a whole kilo of clothing for just £20!

Taking place at the beautiful Canalhouse, Nottingham’s Waterfront Festival is back again showing off all our local talent, and for a good cause too - with all of the profits heading straight to Emmanuel House and Friends of Ukraine. Showcasing a whole selection of Nottingham stars including 94 Gunships, Midnight Rodeo, Chloe Rodgers and more, this is the perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.

HAIM When: Tuesday 19 July, 6.30pm Where: Motorpoint Arena How much? From £41

Stone Soup Academy Presents…

Stand Up to Knife Crime When: Tuesday 19 July, 7pm Where: Metronome How much? Free

Splendour Festival When: Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 July Where: Wollaton Hall How much? £85

Join Stone Soup Academy at the Metronome this month to fight knife crime in Nottingham.

Showcasing rappers, spoken word artists and singers, the evening intends to challenge perceptions about knife crime through the creative arts, alongside facilitating open conversation about its impact on our community. Also premiering the short film Hollow, the event hopes to give a voice to the young people in our city.

Boasting over forty different acts across five stages, the iconic Splendour Festival is back this month. Featuring artists from across all genres, there’s something for everyone with names including The Vamps, BEKA and Craig David, alongside a heap of exciting Notts talent - with The Celestines, Alice Robbins and The Crying Violets all making appearances. We can’t wait.

Bringing seventies soft rock vibes to the present day, it’s hard not to like the musical trio that is the Haim sisters. And you can catch them live in concert this month at our very own Motorpoint Arena, performing songs from their 2021 album Women in Music Pt III. Hailed by many as their best release yet, this COVID-postponed tour promises to be well worth the wait.

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Billionaire Boy When: Thursday 7 July - Sunday 10 July Where: Theatre Royal How much? From £13.50 From the award-winning producers of Gangsta Granny comes another David Walliams story, this time centring around twelve-year-old Joe Spud, the richest boy in all the country.

Originally published in 2010 as a children's book, Billionaire Boy is now coming to the stage with a talented young cast. Described by The Spectator as “a hoot for adults, irresistible for kids”, this one is fun for all the family.

Psycho Film Screening When: Monday 25 July, 8.30pm Where: Savoy Cinema How much? £6.95 It doesn’t get much more classic than Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho, and this month you can experience it in all its big screen glory at the Savoy Cinema. As part of the Loft Movie Theatre's ongoing film club, expect a screen full of fellow movie lovers and an extra thirteen seconds of previously uncut footage. One of the most influential horrors of all time, this is unmissable for any film geeks out there.

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