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Third of freshers suffer mental health problems

Hannah Vallance News Reporter As many as one in three freshers report symptoms of a mental health disorder, a new study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found.

The study, of which surveyed 13,984 students in eight different countries, investigated the prevalence of a wide range of mental health disorders thought to be common amongst students, including generalised anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, adult ADHD, major depression and substance abuse and dependence The study comes as thousands of new students across the country start an undergraduate degree, identified by the study as an ‘extremely sensitive’ part of the life cycle when emotional problems and mental disorders commonly occur.

35% of students who responded to the survey reported having suffered one of the disorders investigated at one stage during their life, with 31% of them having suffered from them over the 12-month period prior to taking the survey.

The findings, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, are particularly disconcerting given that approximately 75% of all lifetime mental disorders have their onsets prior to the age of 24, especially critical as these early-onset cases are related to poorer clinical and functional outcomes than later-onset cases.

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Photo: Hatty Hi @Flickr

The findings follow calls from Universities UK and the youth suicide prevention charity Papyrus for all university staff to receive training in suicide intervention and prevention, amid growing concerns about the quality of services universities provide to those experiencing mental health problems.

According to estimates from the Office for National Statistics, 95 students took their own lives during the 2016-17 academic year. In the UK, suicide is the main cause of death in people under 35, with over 18,000 people suffering mental health disorders taking their own life between 2003 and 2013, The Mental Health Foundation has found.

Speaking to The Mancunion, Sarah Littlejohn, Head of The University of Manchester’s Counselling Service advised that: “The recent WHO report – although not drawing from a UK population – nonetheless raises important issues in relation to student mental health. We see the mental health and wellbeing of our students as a key priority, and offer resources at all levels.

“We offer a University-wide wellbeing framework – the Six Ways to Wellbeing – as a preventive approach to help students stay well and support their own wellbeing. The Counselling Service also offers a wide range of online tools and modules,

and students can access an extensive range of workshops and groups from everything from procrastination, daily drop-in mindfulness classes to groups for low mood and anxiety.

“In addition, those who need one-to-one help can make a same-day appointment at the Counselling Service. We also support staff to support students, offering a rolling programme of training to staff in identifying and responding to mental health crisis – and we have also developed online resources to ensure all staff have access to this information.

If you are suffering with mental health problems, or know someone who may need help, The University of Manchester offers a number of free and confidential support services that both students and staff can access.

The University Counselling Service is open 9am-4pm every weekday, and can be contacted on 0161 275 2864.

Alternatively, The University of Manchester Students’ Union offers a confidential advice service, open Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm all year round. Please ring 0161 275 2952 or email the Advice Service advice.su@manchester.ac.uk to contact an advisor.

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2 News Inside Issue 2

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

UoM ranked 5th in UK for graduate employability The University of Manchester has been ranked 5th in the UK and 35th in the world in QS World University’s graduate employability rankings Nicole Wootton-Cane Head News Editor

Album review REDUXER by ALT-J Music, Page 18

The Un ive rs ity of M anche ste r h as re ce nt ly b e e n ra n ked 5 t h i n t he UK for g radu ate e mployabi l ity.

T he Q S World Un ive rs ity Ran k i ng s i n g radu ate e mployabi l ity for 20 19 pl ace d Uo M 3 5 t h i n t he world . T h i s m ake s M anche ste r g raduate s t he f i f t h most e mployable i n t he UK af te r Cam br idge, Oxford , UCL , and Imp e r i al .

The Un ive rs ity of M anche ste r was t he on ly Nor t he r n u n ivers ity to re ach t he top 5.

The ran k i ng s s aw 5 00 u n ive rs it ie s ac ros s t he world a s s e s s e d on s eve ral d i f fe re nt fac tors to m ake u p an ove ral l e mployabi l ity s core. T he fac tors t h at car r ie d t he most we ig ht we re e mploye r re put at ion and alu m n i outcome s, m ak i ng u p a tot al of 5 5 % of t he ove ral l tot al .

Q S al s o lo oke d at t he p ar t ne rs h ip s fac u lt ie s he ld w it h e mploye rs and e mploye r/st ude nt con ne c t ion s. T h i s i nvolve d ca lc u l at i ng t he nu m b e r of i nd iv idu al e mploye rs who h ad be en ac t ive ly pre s e nt on a u n ive rs ity’s campu s ove r t he l ast ye ar, along s ide e st abl i s h i ng wh ich u n ive rs it ie s h ad b e e n succe s s f u l ly work i ng w it h g lo b al comp an ie s to pro duce re s e arch .

G radu ate e mploy me nt rate and e mploye r/st ude nt con ne c t ion s cont r i bute d t he le ast to t he ove ral l s core at 1 0% e ach .

Howeve r, t he re i s m i xe d opi n ion among re ce nt g radu ate s over whe t he r g radu at i ng f rom Uo M h as he lp e d t he m w it h the i r e mployabi l ity. For g radu ate s such as K i rst ie O’ M ahony, who g radu ate d i n 2 017 w it h a BA i n Ph i los ophy, it was n’ t t he n a me of t he i n st it ut ion but t he ext ra- c u r r ic u l ar opp or t u n it ie s offe re d at Uo M t h at s he fe lt s e t he r ap ar t : “For my c u r re nt jo b, to put it blu nt ly, my deg re e /u n ive rs ity me a nt d idd ly s q u at . It was t he ext ra- c u r r ic u l ar ac t iv it ie s I pa rt ic ip ate d i n t h at m ade me an ide al cand id ate”, s he told The Mancunion .

“Wit hout a s h adow of a dou bt I wou ld not b e i n t he indust r y I’ m i n w it hout h av i ng b e e n i nvolve d w it h t he

Ma nche ster Media G roup. People in s enior p os it ions at my workplace a re impre s s ed by t he ex p erience I got b eing a p a rt of it , a nd t hat ’s j ust phenomena l.

“If you’re go ing to go to a uni w it h 4 0,0 0 0 ot her p eople, you need s omet hing t hat give s you a n edge. The na me of t he inst it ut ion you went to a lone do e s n’t t a ke you very fa r in my opinion.”

However, she did note t hat t his m ay b e dif ferent for graduate s of more vo cat iona l degree progra m me s such a s engineering or bus ine s s st udie s.

C ia ra n McL aughlin graduated in sum mer 20 18 w it h a 2: 1 in Mat hs. Sp ea king to The Mancunion a b out his graduate prosp ect s he s a id: “ To b e hone st I haven’t rea lly b een lo oking for a j o b yet a s I’ve j ust only found t he t ime to f inish my C V. I have got a work placement s orted t hough but t hat ’s only once a week a nd I got it due to a fa m ily f riend.

“I t hink my ex p erience w it h Ma nche ster Media G roup w ill b e us e f ul. Skills I lea rned at my t ime a s a Mancunion cont ributer a nd b eing on t he Fus e F M com m it tee dif fer f rom my degree. It ’s act ua lly why I j o ined The Mancunion in my f ina l yea r when I rea lis ed t hat by t he t ime I would have f inis hed my degree t hat I w ill have not w rit ten more t ha n a p a ragraph since A levels.”

The ra nking is a s m a ll drop glo b a lly a nd a m a intena nce nat iona lly f rom 20 18’s ra nkings, where Uo M ca me in 33rd internat iona lly but st ill 5t h in t he UK for graduate employa bility.

Ta m my G oldfeld, Head of t he C a reers S erv ice at Uo M, s a id: “We a re very proud of our high ra nking in t his league t a ble. The Univers ity of Ma nche ster is a ls o t he most t a rgeted univers ity in t he UK by leading graduate recruiters, which mea ns t hat our st udent s have fa nt a st ic opp ort unit ie s to ga in new s kills, increa s e t heir conf idence a nd build profe ss iona l networks for t he f ut ure.”

The Univers ity of Ma nche ster a ls o ca me in 2 9t hin t he Q S World University Ra nkings for 20 19, ga ining a few place s on it s 20 18 ra nking of 34 t h.

Crime in M14

Fallowfield: what can be done?

Investigations, Page 7

Funraising

Great Times For A Good Cause Books, Page 12

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Features Editor: Liv Clarke features@mancunion.com Opinion Editor: Sophie Marriott Deputy Editor: Cachella Smith opinion@mancunion.com Societies Editor: Chloe Hatton societies@mancunion.com Music Editor: Olivia White Deputy Editor: Jake Oliver music@mancunion.com

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ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

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Life’s freshers’ fair complaint dropped by Office for Students The pro-life charity’s complaint to Office for Students over freshers’ fair refusals has been dropped Nicole Wootton-Cane Head News Editor The Office for Students (OfS) have told pro-life charity Life that they have “no regulatory remit” to intervene in Life’s complaint over its rejection from several university freshers’ fairs.

The complaint was made by Life after the University of Manchester, University of Warwick and University of Liverpool’s Students’ Unions all refused Life’s application for a stall at their freshers’ fairs.

Life wrote to the Office for Students asking for these decisions to be overturned on the basis that their freedom of expression was being impeded.

However, the complaint has been dropped by the OfS after they told Life “Our regulatory responsibilities extend to universities and not students’ unions.”

In a letter from their Chief Executive Nicola Dandridge, the OfS responded: “It is OfS’s view that organisations such as Life should be able to publicise its work and services to students.”

“From the information in your letter, it would appear that your complaint relates to three students’ unions who rejected your application.

“As students’ unions are generally regulated by the Charity Commission, we have no regulatory remit to intervene in the circumstances you describe at this stage.”

The University of Manchester Students’ Union defended their decision, stating: “We are happy for charities such as this one to represent themselves on platforms such as the several debating forums we hold, but it is not appropriate for the freshers fair where there will be hundreds of new students, many of whom will already be nervous about leaving home and starting a new University career.”

Photo: Johnny Whiting

1 in 4 UK graduates in school-leavers jobs Photo: Ben Ward @Flickr Photo: Ben Ward @Flickr

UK graduates are lacking basic degree level skills, says report Shivani Kaura Deputy News Editor Studies by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have found that many new graduates lack fundamental skills expected from a degree.

While graduate unemployment rates in the UK are the lowest in the world, the OECD reported, university students

are more likely to end up in non-graduate jobs related to lower incomes.

The OECD conducted a survey showing that among workers between the ages 25-64, a shocking 28% of adults in England are qualified with degrees, although that 28% are overqualified for their jobs.

Andreas Schleicher, director of the OECD education and skills division, speaking at the annual Education at a Glance

survey conference in London, said: “What we see is that a lot of people in the UK get a university degree but end up in a job that does not require that degree.

“When you test the skills of those people you actually see that those people don’t have the kind of skills that would be associated with a university degree.”

The survey also showed that 40-45% of loans will never be repaid, a consequence of graduates not making enough money to reimburse the costs of their education.

“The first thing we see is that lots of people [in the UK] get a university degree – the UK ranks quite high,” Schleicher said.

“The second thing we see is, for some of them, the wage premium is not particularly great. So, you ask yourself, what’s the reason? It could be that not many degrees are needed, or it could be that the quality of those degrees is not good enough.

“I do believe that a government that asks students to pay significant fees should also have a hard look at the quality of the services that are being provided to deliver for those students.”

Results showed that in 2016, 14% of international students chose to study in the UK, second after the US, despite Brexit playing a role in the decline of European applicants.

Another point, raised by researcher Maria Holcekova, was that “graduating from a non-Russell Group university increases the probability of insecure employment, such as shift work or zero-hours contracts, compared to those without a degree.”

This was concluded after 70% of surveyed students were found not to attend elite universities, 28% were doing shift work and 17% were underemployed. Among those who did not attend university, only 19% were doing shift work and 30% were underemployed.

Damian Hinds, the education secretary, has responded stating that the survey has shown the strengths of the UK’s higher education system and has shown support for students internationally.

Brexit is the greatest threat to Higher Education, warns UCU Chief “A deal or no-deal Brexit is the biggest challenge facing higher education and the country”, says Sally Hunt.

Sam Honey Deputy News Editor The head of the world’s largest further education union has identified Brexit as the largest threat to higher education in Britain.

Sally Hunt, chair of University and College Union (UCU) voiced her concerns as uncertainty over the agreement of a Brexit deal continues to disrupt higher education planning for post-EU life.

A whole range of issues, including the intake of EU students and the future of European academics at UK institutions are at stake.

An estimated 17% of teaching and research posts at UK universities are filled by EU nationals. A UCU-backed YouGov poll, carried out before the triggering of Article 50 suggested that almost 2/3 of EU academics working in Britain were considering leaving the country.

Around 2,300 academics are believed to have already resigned their positions at UK universities since the referendum in June 2016 However, perhaps the most pressing issue is the future of higher education research in the UK - with substantial backing provided by EU funds.

4 of the 10 Universities that will profit most from the EU’s

flagship Horizon scheme – that will invest almost €80 Billion in collaborative research up to 2020 – are based in the UK, claimed Sally Hunt.

Hunt said further, “Without a deal, funding streams will be at risk and any longer-term planning will take place without our involvement. This risks leaving research projects and collaborations on hold or collapsing altogether.”

The Government has already pledged to fund EU-backed projects until the end of the decade, post-Brexit The ease of access to UK Higher Education is another crucial issue, with Hunt stressing that “A no-deal Brexit would also mean freedom of movement would no longer apply, leaving EU staff and students in the lurch.”

She was also quick to emphasise that the challenge Brexit posed to the country and further education was one of the biggest nationally, regardless of whether or not a deal with the EU was secured.

Professionals in Hunt’s field have already urged the government to realise the need for contingency planning for the industry’s future after March 2019.

The UCU is currently in the process of holding a vote on its members’ position on a second EU Referendum - the results are expected on 10th October.

Photo: Sébastien Bertrand @flickr

4 News

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Manchester crowned the best UK city to live in Photo: Stephen @flickr

The Northern Powerhouse ranked top of British cities and 35th globally Sam Honey Deputy News Editor Manchester has beaten London to the title of the UK’s most liveable city, in the latest annual rankings by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit.

The study took into account five main categories: Stability, Healthcare, Culture and Environment, Education and Infrastructure.

The UK’s ‘second city’ extended its lead over the capital from last year, placing 35th out of 140 cities worldwide.

There is a now a gap of 13 places between the two cities – the widest since the inaugural rankings back in the 1990s.

The EIU summarised that Manchester provided “marginally fewer obstacles to people’s lifestyle, and the threat of terrorism and

petty crime are lower”, compared to the capital.

London was said to “suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion, and public transport problems than are deemed comfortable.”

Despite this, research by Your Housing Group, published in May this year found Manchester to rank below Liverpool in its Northern Powerhouse Liveability Index.

The report focused on different factors, including opportunity, desirability, availability, and finally affordability, an area in which Manchester ranked behind its Northwestern neighbour.

Controversially, it was suggested that the city would fall victim to the emerging trend of terrorist incidents affecting cities’ performances in the EIU’S stability category.

The Manchester Arena attack had been blamed for the city’s decline in the 2017 Index.

However, Editor of the report, Roxana Slavcheva, praised the city’s response in the face of terror Slavcheva said: “Manchester also represents a regional trend over the past year, where there have been notable improvements in security in several western European cities which have shown resilience in their recovery from terrorist attacks.”

Elsewhere in the rankings, Vienna displaced Melbourne as the world’s most liveable city – the first time in seven years that the Australian city has not topped the findings.

The Austrian capital boasts a near-perfect 99.1 rating, just 0.7 points ahead of 2nd place.

However, there is strong Australian representation with Sydney and Adelaide also in a top 10 that includes just two European cities.

War-torn Syrian capital, Damascus, ranking just 30.7, failed to escape the tag of the world’s least liveable city, with conflict and domestic disorder dominating the worst-ranked areas.

Furthermore, the 2018 findings represented a somewhat regression in liveability overall.

An extract from the index’s overview confirmed that “49% (of cities) registered negative changes in their overall liveability rank in the past six months.”

Fallowfield’s Tesco Express to close its doors for good Tesco’s official Twitter page has confirmed the closure of the supermarket convenience store Ashwin Tharoor News reporter Tesco has confirmed its Fallowfield store will close on October 6.

The Tesco Express is one of the area’s only shops with late closing on a Sunday.

The move will also lead to the closure of the Post Office situated inside. The nearest alternatives for Fallowfield residents will be in adjacent suburbs, such as Withington or

Burnage.

The store closure was confirmed by Tesco’s official Twitter account which stated it did not know the reason for the closure.

Staff at the store have also confirmed the closure, but they could not give a reason or say what the site will be used for in future. The manager was not available on several occasions when contacted for comment.

Separately, Tesco is launching a new branch of discount stores called Jack’s, set

to take on Aldi and Lidl. The shops will sell only own-brand products, unlike Tesco stores which sell thousands of labelled items.

It is planning to open 15 Jack’s in the next 12 months, with five existing Tesco branches being rebranded.

Tesco has reported slow growth in recent years, sometimes operating at a loss.

Photo: Mike Rosenberg @flickr

Photo: Lookaroundme @flickr

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ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

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Ecosia: Ending the student search for sustainability The UoM Students’ Union are campaigning to convert students from Google to the environmentally friendly Ecosia

Photo: Antwerp Mansion

Antwerp Mansion to launch its own brand of beer The student favourite is expanding beyond just club nights with the surprise launch of Mansion Brew Rona McCann Sub-editor Popular nightclub Antwerp Mansion has announced this week that it will launch its own beer. The pilsner, named Mansion Brew, will be sold at the venue’s upcoming events - available whilst stocks last.

1500 of the beers have been brewed by Manchester’s ShinDigger Brewing Co and will be packaged in red cans which feature an illustration of the iconic Victorian Antwerp Mansion building. Posting on its Facebook page, the nightclub expressed the belief that this first batch of Mansion Brew would be sold out by the end of Freshers Week, at events including Triple Cooked , Better in the 90s and Motherfunkers . One Facebook user

commented that the venue missed a trick by not calling the new beer ‘Cantwerp’, and was met with a reply from Antwerp Mansion hinting at even more own-brand beverages in the future. The reply included a promise to “definitely steal (his) idea next time around” and to “watch this space because Cantwerp will become a reality.” This news comes after Antwerp Mansion’s infamous closure and later reopening earlier this year. March 2018 saw the supposed closure of the club after over six years of events, following a lengthy string of licensing disputes between the venue and Manchester City Council. Freshers Week marks the beginning of Antwerp Mansion’s relaunch, that has been agreed on the condition that a new, earlier closing time of 11pm is met.

Photo: Lerkrat Tangsri @ Pexels

Emily Cushlow News reporter The Students’ Union are considering changing the default search engine on campus to the environmentally conscious Ecosia.

The move would see Manchester follow in the footsteps of Sussex University, who ran a similar campaign last year.

The Berlin-based non-profit was founded in 2009 by Nuremberg business administration graduate Christian Kroll.

It claims to be “just as good as any other search engine”, but with the added extra of planting a new tree for (approximately) every 45 searches using the site.

The SU Activities Officer, Lizzy Haughton, told The Mancunion : “Since the very beginning of the campaign at the end of July, both students and staff from the University of Manchester have planted 18 trees from 1,269 searches!

“Now students are flooding through the doors I’m hoping to get some badges made for the campaign, and send out an email to try and recruit some students who can take over the campaign.

“While it is necessary to use at least some paper to get the message out, this will hopefully be kept to a minimum – instead I aim to get academics on board and add slides to their lectures, and increase the likes on the Facebook page. A few posters will be stuck up around campus to get raise awareness.

“Fred, from Sussex, who started this campaign, recently took a trip to Berlin to meet with Ecosia themselves, and was interviewed all about why he started this campaign. It’s a small campaign at Manchester, but is clearly becoming a much wider issue – if all university students used Ecosia to do just 3 searches per day, this would fund the planting of nearly 6 billion trees over the course of a year! IMAGINE. “This is such a small thing that the University can make so easy for students to use, which will in turn have such a massive impact on climate change all over the world. If you’re keen on making this happen, please email Elizabeth.haughton@ manchester.ac.uk.”

With social responsibility being a key part of life at the University of Manchester, Ecosia could appeal to many students, and at a university of this size, the potential scale of impact is massive.

Ecosia claim that a university of 15,000 students could finance the planting of 364,500 trees in a year’s use. The University of Manchester is currently host to over 40,000 students.

Kroll’s original inspiration for a socially positive search engine came to him whilst travelling in Nepal, but his first start up, Xabbel, failed due to Nepal having access to only around 4 hours of electricity a day.

Moving his travels onto Argentina and Brazil, Kroll came across the concept of reforestation, and coupled with his nonprofit search engine, Ecosia was born.

New ‘simple’ burglary techniques are making students more vulnerable

New criminal techniques being used across the city are threatening students as the academic year restarts Sam Brougham News reporter Just in-time for the influx of (re)freshers into Manchester, many are calling to re-address one of the biggest topics on students’ minds in Fallowfield: crime.

In Greater Manchester, burglars are using new techniques which make these crimes even more common. For example, ‘Cylinder Snapping’ PVC door locks, which are a common feature of many student homes.

The burglary risk in Greater Manchester is especially high; there were a reported 12 crimes of burglary per 1000 people in 2017

in the Greater Manchester region, compared to a national average of 8 burglaries per 1000 people.

Yet for many, burglaries are more than just losing valuable possessions. One third-year student whose house got broken into last year described their experience of burglary as “not just about the stuff they took, it’s more the issue of not feeling safe, feeling violated and vulnerable in my own home”. These crimes can create lasting psychological effects on victims, which can taint their student experience.

Some argue that responsibility lies with students’ landlords to ensure homes have

secure locks which cannot easily be tampered with. Others suggest students need to be made more aware of the risks unique to these student neighbourhoods.

These risks can be seen on the Fallowfield Student Group on Facebook where students can stay updated on the local crime. Posts are made by students to inform other students of crimes and potential hotspots of activity.

However, a third-year student commented on the group stating that “students need to still report these crimes to the police, not just to the Facebook group”.

The University of Manchester told The Mancunion : ““The safety of our students is our

first concern and of the utmost importance to the University.

“We will reach hundreds more students with information on campus and in accommodation during Welcome Week, where we also hand out equipment including light timers and personal alarms. We issue ongoing targeted communications to accredited landlords regarding safety and security.

“Students should report all crimes to the police and any student who needs support should contact the Students’ Union or the University’s support services.”

Photo: James Shuttleworth

6 News

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

NUS announces support for the post-study visa

Post-study visas would allow international students to extend their visas after completing their degrees in order to continue living and working in the UK Mia Gair Sub-editor The NUS announced support for the Universities UK call to revive the post-study visa on Monday 3rdSeptember, signifying a worry that students from other countries will see the UK as an unappealing place to study.

Until 2012, international students in the UK were able to extend their study visa in order to remain and work in the UK. This was known as the post-study visa, and gave international students the chance to contribute to the country that had been their home for years.

Under current legislation, international students must apply for a regular work visa if they want to remain in the UK after their degree. This can be a daunting and time consuming task while completing dissertations and final year exams.

It is made more difficult for international

students who have not yet secured a job, because without proof of salary, employer details and many more documents, students cannot obtain a work visa.

The number of international undergraduates students is now falling for the first time in three years.

NUS International Students’ Officer Yinbo Yu suggests this will only get worse after Brexit is finalised, arguing that there needs to be a conscious effort to make students feel like the UK can be a second home for them.

With 13,505 international students (undergraduates and postgraduates combined), the University of Manchester has the second highest number in the UK, beaten only by University College London. This makes the question of how to attract, support, and meet the needs of international students a crucial one for our University.

Photo: University of Manchester

NHS England struggling to hold on to new midwives The Royal College of Midwives revealed the NHS only gains 1 midwife for every 30 trained Photo: comedynose @flickr

Josh Sandiford News reporter NHS England only gains 1 midwife for every 30 trained, a shocking new report by the Royal College of Midwives has revealed.

The number of midwives employed by NHS England rose by just 67 last year. This is despite the fact that over 2,000 midwives graduated from English universities in the 2016/17 academic year. The report states that the sheer mass of people leaving the health service is responsible for the disparity in the figures.

Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “it is of deep concern that we’re only seeing an increase of about one NHS midwife for every 30 or so

newly-qualified midwives graduating from our universities.

“It’s not that new midwives aren’t getting jobs, they are. The problem is that so many existing midwives are leaving the service that the two things almost cancel each other out.”

Walton has called for more action in retaining NHS staff, a particular challenge at the moment due to the substantial number of European midwives and healthcare professionals leaving the register in a postBrexit Britain.

Midwifery students from the city of Manchester are reportedly taking stock of this report when thinking about undertaking roles in NHS England.

Rachel Moorhead, a second-year midwifery student at The University of

Manchester, said: “there is just not enough money being put into [NHS] health services at all. The staff are so strained.

“Sometimes there’s so much to do and so little time that midwives barely have a chance to give their women their full attention” She went on to say that “all the NHS services are really struggling, and maternity care is no different. I can totally understand why some midwives choose to go private because it seems like a chance to care for women with good resources and reasonable workloads.”

Grace Broughton, another second-year midwife at The University of Manchester, said: “So many midwives choose to go private because it allows them to give the time and care to women that all pregnant women deserve,

and quite frankly people are becoming ill with the pressures of a struggling NHS. “Some midwives choose to leave the profession altogether which is very upsetting as midwifery is a calling and vocation.

“There are many midwives of retiring age currently in the NHS who are leaving every year which counteracts the new midwives joining. Midwifery is rapidly changing alongside a high risk society and unfortunately some midwives don’t like the changes they’re witnessing.”

This report by the Royal College of Midwives comes at a time when there is a record shortage of NHS staff in England, the NHS is currently short of over 100,000 personnel, including 11,576 doctors and 41,722 nurses.

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Investigations 7

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Time and money: students struggling with societies

Students are finding it hard to adequately engage with societies as university brings with it time-intensive degrees and the need for part-time work, writes Felix Hanif-Banks Felix Hanif-Banks Investigations Editor A survey asking students about their engagement in societies has found that time is among the biggest concerns affecting involvement in extracurricular activity.

Students were asked about how they felt a number of factors affected their ability to participate in clubs, societies or sports teams with a majority saying they felt time was the primary constraint.

Out of all students surveyed, 57% responded they felt they had less than enough time to participate properly in even one society actively. Unsurprisingly perhaps, respondents who studied degrees in fields such as Nursing, Languages and Sciences were more likely to be left without time to pursue other activities. Such intensive degree programmes will in most cases leave students tired and less willing to add yet another item into their schedule, especially in situations where placements or labs occur regularly or at unsociable hours.

Long hours lead to tiredness and then lack of sociability, and it’s a cycle that is hard to break out of. Biomedicine student Alex Smith wrote, “labs take up a significant portion of my time... from midday till five”. He noted that this is when many societies or clubs would hold meetings, events or training days across the week. Students across a variety of science disciplines face this issue; their already intensive lecture schedules are supplemented

with five-hour lab sessions. This leaves students fatigued and often forced to choose between socialising through societies or simply going out with more local friends, which presents a difficult decision due to social dynamics within student halls.

Other students find themselves in more strenuous circumstances because of their degree programmes, namely student midwives. Their degree requires 23 hours a week of unpaid placement, which acts as a large drain on not only time but energy and motivation. Student midwife Cressida Scott Broomfield claims “the financial pressure leaves most little choice but to pick up added employment to fund themselves, often leading to burnout and little time to socialise.”

With student loans rarely covering living expenses in any meaningful way, many students are forced to take part-time jobs to adequately fund their student lives. Working class students find themselves in greater need of this part-time work which acts as a large drain, especially as many student jobs require long hours or are in retail. The unpredictability of such jobs leads to a hectic schedule and unwillingness to be outgoing, which is behaviour that can be hard to break from when isolated at uni.

While it may seem that most of the responsibility is therefore on larger institutions, with universities giving large and in some cases uneven amounts of work to students, and student finance offering insufficient maintenance loans, societies

themselves still have work to do to themselves engage students. Students overwhelmingly responded stating that they were able to find societies that represented their interests, however 30% of responses said information on societies was either difficult or very difficult.

With Freshers’ Fairs occurring over the course of the last week and a wide array of societies representing themselves there, this statistic could be put down to students not attending for any number of reasons.

Over factors such as diversity and how welcoming societies were were shown to not be as significant factors according to the survey. A large proportion of respondents described societies as very welcoming and very diverse; combined with other answers indicating students tended not to drop societies after their first year it can be said that societies retain students well, it’s just getting them involved that is the issue.

Founder of the Student Inspire Network Milimo Banji offered insight into societies’ failings to encourage students to join them.

“The Majority of [societies] often lack good leadership and organisation making for a less than pleasant experience for new members”.

This structural issue within many societies can lead to poor marketing and many students simply being unaware of opportunities that could otherwise appeal to them. Societies lack resources to effectively market themselves in most situations, and just as students themselves find it hard to find time to join societies, those running them are always

students and affected by the same problems, often more so as they tend to be older and in more advanced stages of their degrees.

The actual activities within societies also came under criticism from students. English student Maisie Scott spoke about how most societies have little imagination outside pub socials, often not providing opportunities that relate to the society itself. “It’s less engaging to just go to the pub where no new ideas are presented... if they had regular speakers or Q&As I’d be a lot more interested”. Societies often market themselves as social clubs around a specific interest, more of a meeting point than a place of ideas and discussion, which perhaps is a wider issue surrounding the perceived function of societies.

From the survey, the it appears all parties involved in the running and existence of societies seem to play their own part in lack of engagement. Students are somewhat unmotivated, universities overwork many of the and the government forces them into hard part-time work. Societies find it hard to attract new members when there is so much on offer, unable to get their names out there despite opportunities to do so. Societies are already incredibly successful within the university, but they could undoubtedly grow and attract large proportions of the student body. In the coming weeks, the Investigations Section will talk to those within the Students’ Union as well as those who run some of the uni’s largest societies to answer more questions surrounding student engagement.

Crime in Fallowfield – what is to be done?

Felix Hanif-Banks Investigations Editor Whilst senior officers have declared that they have increased patrols, promising relentlessness in their attempts at alleviating crime in Fallowfield, there remains wide-scale doubt and fear amongst students living in the area.

There are of course schemes in place to offer safety to students, so why is there such unrest amongst t h e m? G re a t e r M a n c h e s t e r Po l i ce ’s (GMP) introduction of the Student Safe Zones scheme in an effort to protect local students is just one example of this. The scheme is ‘made up of a group of businesses along oxford road and Wilmslow road’ where students can seek refuge from a perceived dangerous situation. GMP describe them as, “a haven for anyone being followed or f e e l i n g v u l n e r a b l e ” . I t i s h o w e v e r,

questionable how successful this scheme can be deemed, considering a large handful of students claim to have been unaware of its existence Other examples of protective schemes include independent o rg a n i s a t i o n s s u c h a s M a n c h e s t e r ’s Street Angels who assist members of the public in getting home or to somewhere that is safe. Perhaps in part as a result of this, students such as Theo Leadbeater report feeling safer at night in the city centre than in Fallowfield where they feel u n e a s y. “A l t h o u g h a n e f f o r t h a s b e e n made to provide service to support people in the centre and back at halls late at night, sometimes I think that not enough is done to address the muggings and burglarie s that o c c u r. ” This raises an interesting point as there is an apparent dramatic downward shift in feelings of safety a f t e r f i r s t y e a r. S e c o n d y e a r M i l l y Whetton stated that “In first year

once I got back to halls I felt safe because the campus had so many security guards but now when I go home I have my keys in one hand and my phone in the other”. Many students living in Fallowfield, particularly second, third and fourth years report often feeling very vulnerable at night and feel that police are misdirecting resources and forgetting the students who aren’t in halls.

So what can be done and where should resources be going?

With 2017 Police crime statistics s h o w i n g t h a t l a s t y e a r, o n l y 5 % o f 1860 Fallowfield crimes reported were solved. The most common crimes committed in Fallowfield are of violent a n d /o r sexual natures. The scarcity of criminals being brought to justice for sexual crimes is worrying for Manchester as it suggests victims may be too disheartened by this low rate to report crimes in the future and the

perpetrators may remain free and unpunished. One student argued that “If there were more police or security patrolling roads with high crime rates instead of all resources concentrated around halls, I would f e e l m u c h s a f e r. I d o n ’ t t h i n k m o s t students feel safe all of the time”.

This certainly seems to be the case upon glance at the Fallowfield Student Group Facebook page where everyday features another warning to ‘lock your windows’ or avoid a certain road So whilst the schemes that stand to protect students living in Fallowfield are undoubtedly of great comfort, and the safe zones are a big step forward, police intervention to ensure that safety is not yet being entirely felt. Many students are waiting for the ‘relentless’ protection in areas other than Owens Park.

Photo: James Shuttleworth

8 Science & Tech

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

The Campus Masterplan 2022 The Campus Masterplan looks to have placed an emphasis on STEM subjects over others Jacklin Kwan Science and Tech editor Based on their 2016 staff update which listed the projected and current expenditure of construction, most of the funding pool has been allocated to the University’s STEM facilities. Approximately £707 million of the total £1.1 billion is allotted to projects such as the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) (£330 million), the Sir Henry Royce Institution (£100 million), and the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre (£60 million).

The rest of the pool has been spread amongst more diverse projects such as building the Alliance Manchester Business School (£71 million), refurbishing Coupland 3 to be the “new home of the School of Law, the School of Dentistry, Faculty of Humanities administration, the Directorate for the Student Experience and the postgraduate hub” (£40 million), and upgrading the student residences in Fallowfield (£170 million).

Planned aerial view of the Manchester Engineering Campus Development Photo: The University of Manchester With little doubt, the University of Manchester seems to be placing its chips in its science and health faculties. In 2021, the University’s Engineering Schools are scheduled to move to the the MECD, located adjacent to the main Oxford Road campus. The MECD alone is solely

funded by the University. It will be one of the largest construction projects undertaken by any British Higher Education Institution.

The University plans to transform the current Engineering buildings in North Campus, near the city centre, to be mixeduse. Aside from new residential space, North Campus will target research and STEMrelated businesses that link to the University’s industrial science departments.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell hopes that the development will “cement the reputation of the city as the place to be for technology, digital, research and development businesses”. Adding that “the development offers the opportunity to transform this quarter of the city centre, generate thousands of new jobs and advance the reputation of the University”.

Sharing the ambition for the University to become more integrated into the local economy, the Manchester City Council also approved a one-off investment of up to £21 million in July. The investment will go towards a precision medicine campus in the Corridor Manchester Enterprise Zone, which generates 20% of the city’s economic output.

The investment was identified as being part of the Northern Powerhouse industrial strategy.

The Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, Sir Howard Bernstein, seems enthusiastic about Manchester’s future as the heart of the Northern Powerhouse and about

Planned aerial view of the Manchester Engineering Campus Development Photo: The University of Manchester

the role of universities in this. Sir Howard has expressed the plan to devolve growth in “higher order sectors” such as advanced materials, energy, life science, and informatics (all sectors that the University specialises in).

The rebranding of North Campus to be a business hub has been projected to create

thousands of jobs. As well as the construction of the Masterplan creating hundreds of construction jobs for local workers. However, several have raised concerns that Manchester residents who have not been able to access education opportunities would be excluded the shifting labour landscape of the city.

Manchester scientists in breakthrough at CERN University of Manchester scientists have successfully rotate a beam of high energy protons for the first time Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Jacklin Kwan Science and Tech editor Scientists at CERN led by researchers from the University of Manchester and Lancaster University were part of a historical landmark when they managed to successfully rotate a beam of high energy protons for the first time. The technology utilises crab cavities, a type of electromagnetic container that exert a force on charged particles and deflect their orientation.

CERN successfully tested crab cavities using a beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator. Short bursts of protons were deflected using transverse radio frequencies.

After the deflection, the motion of the proton bunches almost appears crab-like (in other words, they appear to move sideways– another example of the sometimes whimsical minds of scientists). In practice, these electromagnetic cavities will help increase the overlap of proton beams that are just a few centimetres long.

The breakthrough is a crucial part of the upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). After CERN’s exciting observation of the Higgs Boson in 2012, the LHC has since been part of exciting

discoveries involving exotic particles such as the elusive pentaquark. Now the accelerator is winding down for the next two years in a long shutdown before resuming business as usual in 2021 with all new detectors and data processing infrastructure.

However, crab cavities will only see their spotlight in an upgrade much further into the future. The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) will be commissioned for operation after 2025, and it is during this phase that crab cavities will increase the luminosity of collisions that take place. Luminosity is the number of possible particle collisions in a given area over a period of time. Typically, we’re looking at an area no thicker than a single human hair and lasting no more than a few nanoseconds. So, when attempting to smash tiny particles at near light speeds, luminosity is a significant indicator of a particle collider’s performance. Higher luminosity equals more collisions, which in turn will mean a higher probability of rare processes being observed by the CERN researchers.

The success of the high luminosity upgrade is also dependent on several key technological innovations coming through. One such example are these crab cavities – other key research

and development will be going into unprecedented advances in beam optics, focusing magnets, machine shielding, and superconducting transmission lines.

If all goes to plan, the HL-LHC of the future has a luminosity five to ten times higher than the current collider. This substantial improvement would allow scientists to not only study the exact properties of the Higgs Boson and other processes from the Standard Model, but also perhaps physics beyond the Standard Model. The Standard Model, the predominant theory of particle physics that current scientists use to describe fundamental forces and matter in the universe, does not, for example, provide a quantum description of gravitation.

The larger integrated luminosity of the HL-LHC would give researchers the ability to explore exciting possibilities such as supersymmetry.

The test of crab cavities in May was also coincided closely with the beginning of civil engineering work for the HL-LHC in June. The CERN project will be part of a massive international collaboration between 29 institutions in 13 countries. Assuming a constant budget, 950 million Swiss francs (£750 million) will be spent between 2015 and 2026.

Features 9

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Student experiences: are internships and work experience worth it?

Internships and work experience can look great your CV, but often they can be difficult to get hold of if you do not have the right connections Liv Clarke Features Editor We’re all told work experience and internships are an essential aspect to add to an impressive CV and can help give you that edge when applying for jobs after university. However, they can often be exclusive and difficult to obtain, so what do students actually get from them?

Work experience can give you an insight into an industry you’re interested in and make you realise whether it’s right for you. With internships you can be given certain responsibilities which you would not have through your degree alone; these can appeal to future employers and show what you’re capable of. For Charlotte, a languages student who did an internship with Texas Instruments during her year abroad, it was definitely worthwhile, “I will now leave university with a degree and over a years’ worth of work experience with a global technology company.”

Furthermore, work placements can open doors to job opportunities within the same company, which might otherwise be difficult to access. Joe, a final year student who recently completed an internship at Harman International in Germany, found that his placement gave him an insight into working at a large-scale company “I had a lot of responsibilities; maintaining the communication platform website, delivering a nationwide Bowers marketing project of product placement in BMW dealerships, coordinating and attending marketing events and completing reports on monthly sales figures.”

Longer placements are usually more beneficial than short term options, as they allow you to develop skills and get more involved with the team. Claudia, a final year student, had a placement at a card company after leaving school. She describes how her responsibilities increased during her period with the company, “Initially I was organising data input and using spreadsheets, but in the end I was pitching ideas for social media and wrote a few blogs with the team.” In contrast, when I completed two weeks of work experience at a magazine in London, I would sometimes feel like a spare part, trying to strike the balance between making myself useful but not getting in the way of everyone. Every placement is different; some companies can afford to give interns a lot of responsibility, whereas others lack the resources.

Photo: Joe Sheen

One issue associated with internships and work placements is how to access them. For the most part it is very much a case of who you know and not what you know, which can make getting these sought-after internships rather difficult. Speaking with other students, its clear that placements can be found via a variety of routes. Some applicants are lucky enough to know people on the inside, however it can also be worthwhile sending in CV to companies even if they are not advertising; “I sent out prospective applications to KCRW [a radio station] and The Local [an online newspaper] which included a cover letter and my CV”, describes Anja, a fourth year student, “and I went in in person to ask for work experience at another station, BFBS; none of them were advertising that they were doing internships, I just applied anyway in the hope they were open to it”.

Another negative aspect to work placements is the well-known image of the abused intern, someone who is running around making cups of tea for the entire office and doesn’t get paid for a single minute of their time. Interns can be exploited by companies in order to gain cheap or even free labour, as the opportunity is usually too good to resist for the student involved.

Ironically, the industries with the most unpaid internships are

the typically the ones where a placement is invaluable when applying for jobs, such as in the media. Anja found that this was true with her roles, “None of the internships I have done were paid. But I understand there just isn’t enough money in smaller newspapers and radio stations to pay interns and often these businesses rely on unpaid interns to help with the work load of their full-time employees.”

Unpaid internships often favour students who come from more financially stable backgrounds, disadvantaging those who may not be able to afford to work for free and preventing them from moving up the career ladder. When this factor is combined with the nepotism involved, it reveals how elitist these placements can be. If you don’t have a family who can support you, or enough money from student loans, embarking on a placement is a decision that can’t be taken lightly.

Location can have an impact on whether a student can apply for an internship, with best opportunities frequently found in larger cities, which is great when you live in or around them, but not so good if you’re based somewhere else. As somebody who does not live in London, I had to make arrangements for accommodation during my work experience which made everything more com-

“for the most part it is very much a case of who you know and not what you know” plicated, despite it only being for such a short period of time.

However, other routes are available which can help students avoid these problems. Applications for smaller companies can be less competitive, giving you a greater chance of gaining work experience, while applying to local business can remove the financial pressure. Big names can be impressive on CVs, but you can still obtain similar skills from lesser-known places.

Interview: Joshua Mellard, the musical director of MSC Big Band Liv Clarke Features Editor MSC Big band is a 26 piece live band formed of students from the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music, and professional musicians. They are about to release their first EP “MSC Big Band Tapes: Vol 1”, featuring five cover songs. I spoke to Joshua Mellard, the musical director of the band about how he got involved with the band and the direction its going in.

MSC Big Band is composed of roughly half students and half graduates, and is run by a team of five. The band itself has been going for about five years now, although it has experienced a change of creative direction in the past two years. They have previously played venues such as Squirrels and Antwerp Mansion, but they have recently performed at Band on the Wall. Their musical style is branching out away from the traditional big band sound. “If we are going to set ourselves apart from other big bands we need to move in a more specific direction, more towards UK jazz and hip hop”, Joshua tells me, “we see ourselves as trying to push what generic big band style is.”

The band is certainly going from strength to strength in terms of

“we wanted to create a scene, not just a unique event. The focus is more on the environment it creates, rather than the music itself ”

Liv Clarke talks with Joshua Mellard, a Manchester graduate who is helping to take MSC Big Band into a new direction success. They have moved away from the student circuit and are now venturing into larger, more well-known venues. On Friday the 14th of September they played at Band on the Wall with underground acts K15 and SNO, enabling them to expand their audience and introduce more people to the MSC experience. The new EP further reflects their ongoing success; it’s the first time they have recorded music.

However, trying to fit a 26 piece band into a recording studio was not the easiest of experiences, “Logistically it was a very big challenge”, Joshua reveals, “it was difficult to make sure everyone was free. Obviously big bands are not recorded often, so there is not a standard procedure.” The band worked in a studio based in Withington and run by Matt Brown, who helped them throughout the process. The business side of things proved difficult too, since all the songs were covers, “we had to spend a lot of time double checking whether things were legal,” he says.

Joshua has been involved in MSC for nearly four years now, he started out just playing in the band during first year, then took over running it in his second. During his time at university he also played in the Not Quite Big Band and the Tom Barber Trio. Joshua tells me that when he started running it, he had specific ideas of where he wanted the band to go and now these ideas are coming to fruition, “we wanted to create a scene, not just a unique experience. The focus is more the environment it creates, rather than the music itself. We don’t see the performances as gigs, more as a general event. Like a 26 piece DJ.” In terms of current students wanting to get involved with music, Joshua advises them to get involved with the Manchester University Music Society as they have lots of opportunities. “If you’re setting up your own thing, find a group of people and see if you gel. Go to gigs together, see what direction you want to go in. Make sure everyone’s on the same page. If you become a member of MUMS you can book rehearsal spaces.”

After the EP release, where do the band want to go next? Joshua is keen to push the band further and get more involved with the larger Manchester scene; “A goal of the band is to branch out into the community, maybe start working with charities. Music as a degree is not incredibly diverse, so if we’re going to reflect Manchester, which is a wonderfully diverse place, we need to get more involved with the Manchester community at a deeper level. The main aim musically is to carry on what we’re doing as people enjoy it.”

You can see what MSC Big Band do next on their Facebook page: MSC Big Band.

Photo: MSC Big Band / Steve Morris

10 Opinion

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Sophie Marriott writes on the view of a mobile phone as a necessity in a culutre that already has a plethora of financial burden, exploring the parallels between the car industry and that of mobile phones Sophie Marriott Opinion editor

Photo: pxhere

Smartphones are becoming the new luxury cars

Anuli Changa writes on the potency of the ‘N-word’ and its power to both divide and unite, in an article that explores its importance in modern and future culture Anuli Changa Theatre editor Often, being a person of colour is a challenge. I am under no illusions that things are ‘better’, but racism is in no way fixed and there are times that this is forgotten. The everyday challenges I face come in the form of casual comments or ignorant generalisations.

Tame examples include: “Are you actually black though?” and “Isn’t twerking something your people do?” Half the time I don’t know whether to respond with polite education or run far, far away from the speaker. Something that crops up time and again are the numerous and varying opinions on the use of the ‘n-word’.

As a black woman, I often

“Removing the ‘n-word’ from vocabulary would be tantamount to erasing part of history” find myself being questioned as if I can answer for my whole race. This is something I cannot and will not attempt to do. But here is what I, personally, think the ‘n-word’ represents and why I support the blatant double standard it creates.

It is widely known that this word is a pejorative term and a racial slur. It is also widely understood that black people reclaimed this particular

word in order to strip it of its hegemonic power. Often, it is used as a term of endearment, familiarity, even belonging, and some may go as far as to say respect.

I, for one, think this exemplifies a genius control of language; stripping the word of its power from right underneath it. It is largely understood that those who do not identify as being part of the black community, are not allowed to utter the word. This may be to avoid causing offence or, perhaps, to simply avoid the backlash.

The conversation around the use of the ‘n-word’ often revolves around its use in popular music. Do songs using the word legitimise its use outside of a specific community? My answer: no. It would certainly be the easy option to ban the public use of the ‘n-word’. This would be wrong for reasons beyond the free speech infringements. Music, and its ability to remind people of what has changed and what has not, is so important.

Removing the ‘n-word’ from vocabulary would be tantamount to erasing parts of history. Issues of racism, of all kinds, can never be forgotten, even if, in a Utopian future, this bigotry is eliminated. Given that Golding, a white author, used the word in ‘Lord of the Flies’ (a school curriculum text), why are we even questioning its use by black artists?

To me, the double standard of the ‘n-word’ is a clever reminder on a linguistic level. Hundreds of years of oppression and double standards meant black people were not classed as people and then one day, they turned around and created their own double standard; a word that their oppressors could not use. Is it small?

Is it trivial? Clearly not since we’re still talking about it.

Later this month the latest iPhone models are set to go on sale; the Xs and Xr will enter the market at around £1,000 apiece. Despite a growing number of budget options, it is undeniable that smartphones remain an expensive phenomena which serves to highlight inequalities across age and class.

Pressure to own a mobile phone is evidentially skewed towards the younger generations, with an estimated 95% of 16 to 24-year-olds owning a smartphone in the UK. In the face of minimum wage poverty and student loans which for many struggle to cover basic costs, the necessity of mobile phone ownership can only be an extra burden on already strained finances.

Smartphones have become as much of a staple as a house or a car once was; seen as both essential to everyday life and a status symbol. It would be difficult to exist in the modern world without a one, even to conduct a hermit-esque life would be tricky without having the google maps or the National Rail app at the touch of a button. Ofcom data shows that around 62% of all time spent browsing the internet in 2017 was on mobile phones. From social media and keeping up to date with current affairs to business and studying, the ability to surf the web on the go dominates our interactions with the outside world.

It is the dialectic of this necessity alongside the culture of fanaticism and bragging which invites

parallels with the market for cars. Like cars, there are some very sleek and expensive ones out there, with turbo charged operating systems and curved corners. There are also definitely some lemons floating about which whirr and chug and occasionally splutter. Those on a budget cling on to their old models, stitching them together and putting up with cracked screens because a new phone would set them back at least a couple of hundred pounds.

The Independent recently reported that around 1/3 of the British smartphone-owning population are walking around with broken handsets. On the eve of the new iPhone release this figure is striking, yet again we are being shown the genuine inequalities that typify British society.

Furthermore, data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that 40% of all theft of personal affects either attended or unattended was of smartphones. Suggesting that the culture of phone pretension and exhibitionism is just creating another harmful example of poorer communities being forced into criminal ways of surviving in the modern world. Whilst arguably the issue of phone ownership is somewhat superficial inequality, and the solution really would be to attempt to move away from the beastly boxes themselves, they have undoubtedly become another tool for revealing the pervasive relative poverty that exists in the UK, particularly amongst students and young people.

What the N-word means to me

Opinion 11

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

breathe, or take a country walk. Whilst these are useful methods in the short term and have the potential to have a real impact, there are huge dangers associated with prescribing these things in lieu of mainstream care.

Photo: pxhere Cachella Smith Deputy Opinion editor Mental illness remains one of the biggest internet topics of the day. While half of the social media world are campaigning for it to be taken seriously, the other half is sharing memes demeaning the subject. Given the health-related impact of this discourse, why should social media have free reign to facilitate, and even encourage derogatory statements?

After years of portraying impossibly perfect lives on social media, we seem, lately, to have shifted to the other end of the spectrum.

Instead of blemish-free photos and like-counts which approach infinity, internet users seem determined to make cynical jokes about their lives. Whatever your thoughts on this transition, there comes a real problem when comments on mental illness begin to become a part of this conversation.

One of the most detrimental trends at the moment is a certain encouragement to neglect proper treatment for mental illness in favour of so-called ‘natural treatments’. Put bluntly, fresh air or a stroll in the park are not effective treatments for long-term mental health conditions. A picture of a fluffy cat is quite simply not an ‘instant anti-depressant’. Similar advice is also shared around in real life, but the online world accelerates the circulation of such ideas. Of course, laughter is positive and exercise is beneficial, but it is likely that for a sufferer of mental illness these methods alone will not suffice.

Social media users need to stop telling people to listen to music,

Asserting that a mental illness is easily curable serves to dramatically undermine the severity of the situation. Medication may not be for everyone; equally though, it should not be rejected on the basis that a social media user has informed you that country strolls are just as effective. Bear in mind that medication is the answer for some people and if they are continually seeing these ‘natural treatments’ being propagated online, they may be less inclined to choose the treatment that could potentially save their life.

The aforementioned memes and the use of the language of mental illness to describe normal emotions misinforms our perception of mental conditions. We begin here to approach the well-known debate of having a ‘down day’ versus having depression. For someone having a ‘down day’ or an abnormally low period, a chat with a friend or something similar can do a world of good. The complacent use of niche language and the broadcasting of undermining memes blurs the boundaries between mental illness and healthy emotions. This consequently erodes the notion of depression as an illness in its own right.

I completely support overcoming stigmas but we cannot normalise mental illness to the point where it becomes the ordinary.

Memes are supposed to be funny because they are relatable and this is exactly where the problem lies; mental illness is not relatable for the majority of the population.

As a side effect of breaking down the notion of mental illness, we begin simultaneously to mock the concept of mental wellness.

The suggestion that such symptoms are so widely spread and so common calls the prospect of recovery into question. If panic attacks, depressive episodes, and suicidal thoughts are portrayed as unavoidable, the sufferer becomes more likely to accept these feelings and becomes less inclined to work towards a recovery.

So, no thank you Facebook, the most powerful anti-depressant does not have 4 hooves and a swishy tail, nor are two handfuls of cashews the therapeutic equivalent of a prescription dose of anti-depressants. The most powerful anti-depressant will come in a tablet form, will require serious consideration before being administered, and can be a very effective and realistic solution to a long-term mental health illness. Mental illness is just that, an illness, and how anyone could feasibly ‘like’ a comment that says it could be cured with a handful of nuts is beyond me.

Student journalism is our best political engagement

Why depression should not be shared, liked, or commented on Cachella Smith explores to what extent mental health should be discussed online, and what impact this may be having

“Student movements and student voices have the power to shape the future here on campus and beyond” Photo: Andrew Moss

Megan Ritchie looks at the role of srudent journalism in our ability as students to have our voice heard in light of the lack of coverage recieved by national outlets regarding issues such as fees, the strikes last year and general problems that students face Megan Ritchie Opinion writer Arguably, our generation has a habit of often being passive when it comes to politics, our opinions, and current affairs.

Perhaps, too often, we take what we see on the news and on our phones at face value and believe it. However, today more than ever in the era of fake news and the ever-changing political landscape of the world, it is so important we look up from our screens, look around, and speak out. Let us ask questions, let us debate, let us express opinions, and let us dig deeper. Student journalism provides the perfect opportunity to do this.

As students we have a unique opportunity to explore our right to free-speech; campus newspapers, like the Mancunion, should be platforms for encouraging individuals to use their independent voices and explore their own opinions.

For many, University will be the first time they engage in political issues. Therefore, as institutions, Universities should encourage as much student-to-student discussion outside of the lecture and seminar halls as possible.

Reading or writing for student news does not have to be a step into a career in journalism, rather it is open to anybody that has something to say. Just like national newspapers question the elite and hold them publicly accountable, it is

“Instead of bottling up our thoughts and opinions we must put pen to paper and fingers to keyboards”

important that we challenge the most powerful on campus.

The decisions made at the top affect us all and our voices need to be heard. This is exemplified by the coverage of the UCU strikes which were poorly reported by the broadsheets.

It is not all just politics and strong opinions though, student journalism is extremely broad. This breadth and freedom is so uncommon and so it must be used and valued. We have

freedom of the press in the UK and yet 71% of our national newspapers are owned by just 3 companies. Student journalism, however, offers much greater freedom with student newspapers providing a range of views and beliefs all in one publication.

I think it is fair to say that most of us take our ability to share an opinion, no matter what that may be, for granted.

We are so fortunate to live in a country where freedom of speech is a human right that is respected and promoted.

Nowadays it is so easy to create petitions online, post our thoughts and opinions, and reach out to others to spread the word. This accessibility is particularly pertinent in cities as diverse as Manchester, with such a variety of beliefs and opinions on display.

Student movements and student voices have the power to shape the future here on campus and beyond. With all of the opportunities and technology our generation has, we have the tools to create change. Let us put them to use. Instead of bottling up our thoughts and opinions we must put pen to paper and fingers to keyboards. Words are power and we must use them.

12 Societies

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Introducing: Islamic Society The award-winning Islamic Society are looking forward to welcoming new members this year and creating a supportive environment for both Muslim and non-Muslim students Ellie Martin Contributor Freshers week is in full swing and everyone’s busy stuffing themselves with free pizza and soaking up the atmosphere around campus. One society that has, as usual, pulled out all the stops this year is ISoc – the Islamic Society. The ISoc never disappoints over freshers week, and they have the awards to prove it. These include multiple best society awards, best society fundraisers, best society committee, and best society campaign. All of their success is the result of and extremely hardworking committee, headed up this year by Zaidi Hamid.

Freshers week can be a very conflicting time for Muslim students, as many societies and activities can be incompatible with Islamic beliefs. ISoc provide a brilliant alternative, a whole month packed with exciting events suitable for Muslim students, but open and welcoming to all. Events this year include food crawls, survival guide evenings tailored to the needs of Muslim students, mentor meet and greets, pyjama parties, and laser tag. These are all spearheaded headed by the infamous flagship Welcome Dinner, an excellent evening to mix with fellow Muslim students or go and sample some of the wide variety of food on offer, portraying the geographical vastness of Islam, ranging from Malaysia to Jamaica.

When asked what he would like prospective freshers thinking about joining the society to know, Hamid responded, “If there is one thing I’d want to freshers’ to know, it would be that the society is yours, we are here to serve you all in whatever way we can and put on the events you want to see. Let us know what we are doing well and what we can improve on; we are all ears. If you don’t know anyone yet, then the Islamic Society is the perfect place to make friends for life, our members are amazing and welcoming people, and our hardworking committee will always be on hand to ease you into events if that is what you’d prefer.”

ISoc have really taken the idea that university is for everyone to heart this year, and have provided society support for new students.

“the Islamic Society is the perfect place to make friends for life, our members are amazing and welcoming poeple” The newly formed Muslim Welfare team are there to help if freshers week is taking its toll on your well-being, as being away from home and having to look after yourself for the first time can be daunting.

They are there to provide a helping hand who anyone who needs it, and make transitions to university easier for everyone. The Muslim community on campus also have access to Mohammed Ullah, their invaluable chaplain, who is there to be a professional figure of support if and when needed. ISoc this year also have events organised to encourage support and inclusivity on campus, like their upcoming introduction to British Sign Language, giving attendees a basic intro to BSL, as well as an insight to struggles the deaf and hard of hearing community might face on campus.

The Islamic Society have also recently pledged to reduce their plastic consumption as a society, especially during events. They are looking to move towards biodegradable alternatives, partnering with companies that are also moving towards this goal, as well as helping their members to reduce their plastic waste.

What’s not to love? ISoc always smash their freshers events and this year is no different. If you’re interested in finding out more details and getting involved, their Facebook page is extremely well designed with all the information you need easily accessible, and

they reply quickly to messages. Creating a support network around you at university can be very important, especially during first year as many of the experiences are brand new. ISoc have designed the society extremely well to function for this purpose, creating a strong, supportive environment for Muslim and non-Muslim students alike.

One of the best societies on campus, you really can’t go wrong with ISoc and they can’t wait to welcome this new batch of freshers into their excellent community.

Photo: Islamic Society

Funraising: great times for a good cause Chloe Hatton and Cachella Smith Societies Editor and Deputy Opinion Editor

Chloe Hatton and Cachella Smith attended Funraising and Offbeat’s recent event, Brazilian Wax, which supported the charity Lasnet, featuring Brazilian style music performed by local DJ’s

With Manchester’s 2018 Freshers week in full swing, it’s been pretty hard to choose which events to go to; there has been so much on offer!

Last week we gave you a glimmer of what to expect from Funraising’s collaboration with OffBeat, held at Night People – a night named ‘Brazilian Wax’ in aid of local charity Lasnet (Latin American Support Network) Migrant Support. We decided to head down and see what all the fuss was about.

For all you Freshers out there, or for anyone else who has missed out on the biggest up-and-coming charity society in Manchester right now, Funraising was set up by students just over a year ago. The name is pretty self-explanatory but fundamentally they aim to support of good causes and have a good time while doing it. They’re not new to hosting nights out, in the past running events such as ArtBox and PostBox, raising over £1100 for Manchester Mind. Originally set up as a blog, they are about so much more than simply collecting your cash and putting a few good tunes on in the background. They combine art with awareness, music with mental health, they are giving the people of Manchester a voice to talk about what needs to

change. Safe to say, this was not going to be your typical club night.

So, we set off on Tuesday night, cans in hand, looking for a true glimpse of South American sunshine – and boy, we were not disappointed. Night People is one of Manchester’s lesser known gems, and the two room system worked perfectly for those who, like us, wanted a nice mix of genres.

The turnout for the night was really something – within half an hour of us arriving, room one had totally filled up. The smoking area outside was constantly thriving, and if you wanted space for a proper boogie, room two was the place to be. For those fed up with the usual Freshers haunts of Factory and Fifth, this really was a gorgeous alternative night, and well worth the mere £3.50 ticket fee.

“covering hip-hop, grime, disco, and drum and bass, all with a dash of Latin thrown in, you wouls have been hard pushed not to find something you liked”

Funraising are all about inclusivity, a motto equally applicable to their beats. Covering hip-hop, grime, disco, and drum and bass, all with a dash of Latin thrown in, you would have been pretty pushed to not find something that you liked on the night. Drawing on local DJ talents, we salsa-ed away to the tunes of Mambo Finn’s Brazilian drum and bass and DJ Fast Five’s Brazil-inspired hip-hop until the early hours, closing with Celine Mostarda and Don Simon playing the very best of Brazilian drum and bass, including ‘This is the Way’ and ‘Easy Boom’.

Feather boas draped the walls, and although a few of the paint splattered balloons that hung from the ceiling soon became casualties, this definitely added some entertainment to the evening. Meanwhile, if you kept your eyes to the front, you’d see a very fun display of Aleksander Brayanov’s funky visuals.

Lasnet migrant support is a charity based in Greater Manchester.

Set up by a group of local volunteers with Latin American roots, their goal is to provide a network for the Latin American community in and around Manchester. Improving integration, raising awareness of issues facing their community and working towards the establishment of the Latin American community as an ethnic category are all key goals for the charity. Gatherings and get-togethers are organised through the network, giving people the opportunity to reconnect

Photo: Funraising

with their heritage and make new friends.

All in all, it was a fantastic night, with both Funraising and Offbeat bringing us some true carnival vibes – made even more special by the fact that they raised £702 for charity. If you fancy joining Funraising, drop them a message on Facebook. They’re currently looking for students and would love to have you join the team.

Watch out for their next event, you know it’s going to be a big one.

Inside Culture

Fallow Garms: 26

Skate Kitchen Art On The Review: 20 Sly: 25

Autumn 2018 Food Hot Right Amer Anwar: Trends: 27 Now: 16 23

CULTURE

THE

16 Music DIY music: Who needs record labels?

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Writing, recording, producing and releasing your own albums is creative, fun and needn’t cost the earth, writes Callum Lunn When I talk about DIY music, I’m not talking about the music video for ‘Satisfaction’ by Benny Benassi; I’m talking about writing, recording, and releasing your own original music, and it needn’t cost the earth.

DIY music is something I sort of fell into. A couple of years ago, mid-way though a boozy night at my house, a few friends and I decided to write a song, using only what we had in my house, and before the night was over. Using a cheap Argos guitar I received for a twelfth birthday present, a piece of wood for percussion, and an old Casio keyboard, we wrote a song. I didn’t have any recording equipment, so I used my computer headset. While what we ended up with on that night wasn’t exactly a musical masterpiece, it had a cool lo-fi sound. It became the start of an interesting, fun, and at times educational project.

The next time we met up I’d studied a little bit more on audio production techniques. I had both learned the ins and outs of the free (yet immensely powerful) audio production software, Audacity, and basic acoustics and recording techniques. As a result, the next song we record-

ed sounded far better (even if the equipment does limit just how hi-fi we could sound). While having a good recording setup is beneficial, you don’t need expensive stuff; with the right settings, even your phone may be good enough to have a good time recording.

What we ended up finding through successive sessions is that making music in this way allows for a level of creativity one might not find if they were writing with the aim of being professionally recorded. It allows you to experiment, unburdened by the considerations of a studio, or even a traditional set of instruments; we used clocks, ratchets, and sweeping up brushes throughout the album.

Once we had an album together, entirely decided by whether we liked the tracks or not, we had to figure out how to package it. Even if you’re not the graphically creative type, designing your own album art is incredibly fun. It allows you to express the feelings of your music even beyond the tracks themselves.

You want hidden tracks or other novelty? It’s your call; nobody is going to stop you; that’s the beauty of doing it yourself.

Photo: Elionas @Pixabay

The easiest (and cheapest) method of release is a digital only, online. Sites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp allow you to upload your music for free; Bandcamp even allows you to set a price. There are also services that allow you to upload your music to Spotify, iTunes, etc for either a cut of your takings or a fee.

More fun than just releasing online, however, is making some physical copies. While vinyl may be the dream, it’s expensive to get made. However, tapes and CDs are dirt cheap these days, and there’s something oddly satisfying about recording on to tape in real time. When you finally take the tape out of the deck, you’re holding something that you made from start to finish; that’s definitely something to be proud of.

HOT RIGHT NOW Odetta Hartman Contributor Winona Newman kicks off our new feature Hot Right Now with the spiritual Odetta Hartman Odetta Hartman, born in New York East Village into a liberal family who opened her eyes to a world of music, sound, and art has carried these influences into her work. Her sound is almost indescribable, it aches of a time and a music long passed yet is unmistakably modern. She is a refreshing voice and one that is gradually collecting acclaim, and no wonder with an intense musical ability coupled with an eerily dreamy aesthetic she is truly irresistible.

Odetta is a power-house and master of melody, with a mixture of collected sounds underpinned by a thundering simple bass, the strength of which reverberates throughout creating a truly unique and irresistible sound. The American singer’s second album Old Rockhounds Never Die, released last month was one of Rough Trade’s albums of the month and rightly so. It is undoubtedly a work of art and cements her as an artist to look out for.

This latest album is a heady mix of sounds. It is simulta-

Photo: Pexels

Photo: XoMEoX @ Flickr

neously sensual and sharp, ghostly archaic yet undeniably modern. Her music evokes such a strong sense of place you will be transported to the heart of an American desert-scape. Her work will bathe you in rich sounds which touch your soul.

Her music transgresses the boundary between the past and the present, carrying influences from folk and country legends such as Dylan and Neil Young. Her work is very much an ode to the past whilst being excitingly relevant. Her music is steeped in old American influence yet is electrified with the use of field recordings, some of which were recorded in her own kitchen, and an eclectic mix of instruments, all played by herself.

She is truly ethereal, but not as you’ve ever heard before.

She is a modern day cowgirl For fans of Jess Williamson, Tomberlin, and Wild Pink Odetta is currently touring her second album Old Rockhounds Never Die and will be appearing for one show at The Islington, London 24/09/18.

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Music

Review: The 1975’s comeback

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Jasmine Bennett reviews the latest singles from one of Manchester’s greatest, The 1975

R E C O R D

Photo: SVG Silh

The 1975 re-entered the music scene after a two year break with a buzzing, guitar-led track ‘Give Yourself A Try’, the first single of the upcoming album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. A distinctly new approach to production, the first track has a repetitive and glaring atmosphere. The aggressive guitar is undercut by an off-beat drum track throughout that at first listen makes it somewhat hard to love. However, the lyrics really do make the single pop. Autobiographical anecdotes fill the song, with some bordering on humorous (“getting an STD at 27 really isn’t the vibe”) juxtaposed with tragedy (“Jane took her own life at 16”). Whilst frontman Matty Healy has never been one to shy away from personal issues within his music, this particular track feels more open. There is a sense of closure on ‘Give Yourself A Try’ not previously seen on songs like ‘Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You’ or ‘She Lays Down’ from previous releases. While the odd clashing of sounds is hard to get one’s ears round at first, it eventually settles into something catchy.

Next came second single ‘Love It If We Made It’.

Drawing more on previous songs with parallels to ‘UGH’ in the heavy vocals, this is arguably resident drummer (and co-producer) George Daniels’ finest production yet. Layered with drums, synths and even strings, the electropop sound is fresh and innovative. Much like sophomore hit ‘Loving Someone’, the lyrics of ‘Love It If We Made It’ draw on our current social climate. With lashings of political criticism in reference to Donald Trump’s comments and tweets, Healy also addresses his own discomfort with celebrity culture and fame.

He writes once more of the issue of drugs in the

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industry, with a tribute to rapper Lil Peep. The continued use of postmodern events cements The 1975 as a band who are increasingly aware of the climate into which they release music. The best of the releases by far, ‘Love It if We Made It’ is a catchy anthem that deserves to be played loud.

The 1975’s third release ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ begins with a deliciously tropical introduction, reminiscent of some Drake summer anthem. With a more radio friendly feel to it, ‘TOOTIME’ comes across as distinctly less serious than the previous releases. Despite beautiful instrumentals, the production alone fails to save the somewhat dullness of the repetitive lyrics discussing infidelity.

There’s just something lacking in this single when compared to its predecessors. A formulaic structure the entire way through, you can tell that this track is fluffier; less personal and autobiographical than the other two singles, causing the track to come across as light relief.

The most recent release comes in the form of dreamy, gospel-style ballad ‘Sincerity Is Scary’.

Beautifully produced and arguably the ‘If I Believe You’ of A Brief Inquiry, the newest track is simply gorgeous. Underlaid by the use of brass and woodwind creates an orchestral feeling which will be a joy to see portrayed on stage when the band tours in January. The chorus rings with the lyrics “Why can’t we be friends, when we are lovers?” and for the first time in the new singles, Healy’s vocals shine. There’s something incredibly self-critical about this track - melancholy even. ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ stands as true testament to The 1975’s production, lyrics and musical talent, leaving us itching for the next release.

‘The Balcony’ by Catfish and the Bottlemen Editor Olivia White revisits Catfish and the Bottlemen’s platinum debut album The Balcony

R E P R A I S A L

Catfish and the Bottlemen’s platinum debut album The Balcony was released 4 years ago this September. Formed in Llandudno back in 2007, Catfish soon became one of the most well-known bands on the alternative scene. Not bad for a band that used to promote themselves by sticking their early tunes on people’s windscreens in carparks. In fact, The Balcony’s crude artwork and frontman Van’s rough-around-the-edges demeanour soon became a signature token for this thriving quartet.

On a more personal note, this particular album shaped a large part of my life and subsequent genres and artists that I listened to. I will always sing its praise. The sound of the album is comprised of anthemic drum beats, Van’s distinctively weathered vocals, and catchy, often heart-wrenching guitar licks. Yes, I am referencing ‘Tyrants’, and yes, Van did write it at 14 years old. But all jokes and reasons to take the mick aside.

This album coincided with Arctic Monkey’s AM and therefore played a large part in defining the modern indie scene. It was slightly heavi-

er than other indie counterparts on the scene and bore a brazenly courageous attitude.

In fact, The Balcony has been the backdrop for the majority of alternative angsty teen years, drunken house parties and, for those in Manchester, many an epic singalong in 42s.

Having Catfish be my favourite modern band for a 2-year period around the Poetry and Fuel EP and The Balcony era, I still stick by the fact that this 11-track indie powerhouse of an album possesses a relentless vitality live. And, for this reason, The Balcony will always be one of those timeless albums.

The Balcony always spoke as a raw, genuine and northern soul record. Admittedly, in hindsight some of the lyrics aren’t quite as good as my 14-year-old self once thought, but they are endearing.

The simplicity of the lyricism coupled with a wall of electric-infused guitar drops and stirring harmonies largely framed 2014 and 2015 for me. Back then bands were really reclaiming the mainstream spotlight when Catfish’s’ contemporary lead guitarist and co-song-

writer Billy Bibby jumped ship, departing the band just as The Balcony was set to hit the UK Top 10.

Following the album’s success, Catfish set off on a breakneck series of tours, their manic promotion another point of admiration.

Unfortunately, just before they ducked under the radar towards the end of 2016, Catfish hit a dud with their underwhelming new single, Soundcheck, which predictably amounted to an incredibly disappointing, average and generally gutting second album The Ride.

Without dwelling too much, all I can say is that Van continuously emphasised how this cracking new album was written “over a long weekend”. Frankly, you can tell.

Later failures aside, The Balcony was a greatly successful debut album supported by all the most important and relevant publications and radio shows of the time such as NME and BBC Radio 6. It even secured their winning for the 2016 Brit Award for Best Breakthrough Act. It’s just a shame that Catfish appear to have lost their identity since.

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ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Music

“REDUXER SIMPLY STANDS AS RELAXER’S COOLER OLDER BROTHER”

As someone who has loved alt-J from the very beginning, I was beyond excited to listen to their new album RELAXER which was released last June. However, along with many long time fans, I was surprisingly underwhelmed by it; unlike their first two albums (which I could listen to on repeat for the rest of my days), this release just didn’t capture my attention in quite the same way. EnterREDUXER, their newest album - released on the 28th of September - which endeavours to revamp the songs from RELAXER completely, including handpicked remixes, each featuring other musicians, with some artists you should try and watch out for.

The first song on the album ‘3WW- Little Simz’ is a really chilled remix with the 24-year-old female rapper complimenting the bands’ laid-back instrumentals. Little Simz opened for Gorillaz on their Humanz tour in 2017 and for anyone who watched them at Boomtown this year might recall her feature performance of ‘Garage Palace’; she’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. Another notable song for me was, ‘House Of The Rising Sun x Tuka’. This remix in particular made the song seem so much more alive which was completely unexpected. Whilst still slowed and chilled, the Tuka remix definitely adds what was missing from the original. Both of the ‘Hit Me Like That Snare’ remixes on this release stood out to me, with Irish superstar Rejjie Snow giving off almost Childish Gambino vibes - it’s definitely something I’d listen to on a chilled summer night with mates. If you’re still wanting more, ‘In Cold Blood- Baauer Remix’ is worth checking out if you are craving something a little more dramatic in sound.

Reduxer

by Alt-J Album Review

What also made this album special to me was the use of different languages from several obscure and unknown artists. French rapper Lomepal added some suave charm to ‘3WW’ whilst elsewhere, Germany’s Kontra K dished out some punchy bars to his take on ‘In Cold Blood’. I personally love hearing music from different places and alt-J have succeeded in merging their niche sound with the language of other countries as a nod to their international fans. It’s a route not often taken by huge acts, so this is both welcomed and enjoyable.

Overall this album is an immense improvement to the original, largely due to it incorporating so many different artists and perspectives. This brings the depth required for me to want to listen to the album more than once that was so desperately missing in the original. RELAXER is still an interesting new direction for alt-J, one which I can appreciate for the musical and technical genius it is and would bet that live, it would be incredible. However, REDUXER simply stands as RELAXER’s cooler older brother, and the variety of styles it includes makes it more enjoyable for a wider audience and proves that alt-J still understand what their fans want. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the greatness of An Awesome Wave if I am honest, however alt-J’s choice of remixes seems like an attempt to almost rectify the lacklustre flow fans encountered on the last LP. I know for a fact I am going to be listening to it a lot when it comes out on the 28th- even if you aren’t a fan of the whole thing, I’m certain you’ll find at least one that you can add to a chilled Spotify playlist.

My Mind Makes Noises

by Pale Waves Album Review My Mind Makes Noises Jake Oliver

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

6/10

Reduxer by Alt-J Alex Wain

8/10

Photo: Alt-J

“Romanticism seems to be undergoing a revival in pop music”

Romanticism seems to be undergoing a huge revival in pop music and at the helm of this movement stands Pale Waves, the indie-pop foursome from Manchester. For a while now, the group have been generating buzz with their seamlessly juxtaposed blend of woe-is-me lyricisms and shimmering electropop. We’ve grown accustomed to Pale Waves only in short bursts through handful of singles and an EP before this – so how well do they fare on a 14 track album?

Firstly, the production on My Mind Makes Noises is flawless; Pale Waves have managed to curate a vivid soundscape that would not seem out of place as the soundtrack to a cliché teen romance movie. Opener ‘Eighteen’, with its pulsing synth rhythm and triumphant guitar strokes lays on thick this notion of a blossoming romance. The amplified backing vocals on the line “I finally felt like I could feel for the first time” is a subtle but powerful way of conveying the lovesick passion that front woman Heather Baron-Gracie continues to dish out across the album.

Long time fans of the band will be pleasantly surprised at all the tweaks and modifications that tracks such as ‘There’s a Honey’ and ‘Television Romance’ have undergone. The songs sound dreamier, sharper even, with an intoxicatingly sweeter edge that showcases how dedicated Pale Waves are to perfecting their work. Conversely, those same fans who have been here from the start might be miffed that classics such as ‘The Tide’ and ‘Heavenly’ have bit the dust.

But where Pale Waves fall short, and what is of significan’t detriment to their album, is a lack of exploration in to themes beyond melodramatic teenage heartbreak. After 14 songs (equating to just under an hour) of Baron-Gracie whining about failed relationships, distinguishing between tracks becomes nearly impossible and the formulaic nature of their song writing becomes abundantly clear.

I hate to say it, I really do, but there are certain parts to this album and this band that feel like a carbon copy of The 1975. It’s a comparison that Pale Waves have been eager to escape, not out of disdain for their label mates but more so they can forge their own identity. Unfortunately, this is only achieved in moderation. The poignant album closer ‘Karl (I Wonder What It’s Like To Die)’ whilst sincere in its motives bears an uncanny and uncomfortable resemblance to The 1975’s ‘Nana’ – an acoustic ballad that appears at the end of their 2016 sophomore release. This may just be coincidental, but it’s enough to make you squirm with gritted teeth Singing about lost lovers is not exactly unchartered waters for a pop band but to continually lament on the past is not only toxic for oneself (Heather, take note), but also imposes limits to what could have been an otherwise enjoyable debut. At its best, it’s a shimmery, nostalgic experience; at its worst, it’s repetitive and tiresome. Pale Waves have certainly come a long way, but what a shame that originality was allowed to fall by the wayside in the process.

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Games

Gaming in Manchester: Development edition pt. one

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As part of a new series on the gaming scene in Manchester, games editor Jeremy Bijl looks at developers in the city Manchester: best known for its globally renowned football teams, musical influencers, and canals. It can be easy to forget, though, that Manchester is also a hotbed of scientific and technological innovation, and its games development scene is no different. Although the majority of the games development industry remains in the U.S., Manchester has plenty of riches of its own.

Perhaps best known are TT Games, established in 2005 with the merger of games publisher Giant Interactive and the developer Traveller’s Tales. Whilst the studio name may not ring any immediate bells, they are the people behind all Lego games, including Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, and Lego Lord of the Rings.

The studio recently revealed a new title: Lego The Incredibles. Their Manchester based division, TT Fusion, is responsible for their major titles and can be found in Wilmslow.

Hot on their heels are a team working on a game so ambitious that the founder once said, “I don’t want to build a game. I want to build a universe.” Said game, Star Citizen, has raised 70 million dollars in crowdfunding in the last two years alone. Their Manchester team, known as Squadron 42, are working on the game’s single-player mode, known also as Squadron 42. Squadron 42 features a truly star-studded performance-captured cast that includes Mark Hamill, Gillian An-

Photo: WhitePaperGames

derson and Gary OldmanWhilst these two studios are the largest games companies in Manchester, the city also has a plethora of indie developers looking to make their mark in the world of gaming.

Salford-based studio White Paper Games are one such company. Their debut title, Ether One, a beautifully cerebral and contemplative narrative-driven puzzle game, was released on Steam in 2014, and found enough success and praise to make its way onto the PS4 in May 2015. White Paper Games are currently working on their second title, The Occupation, which sees you play as a whistle-blowing journalist in 1980s Manchester. The game features a number of Manchester landmarks, and its setting is inspired by the city’s civic architecture.

Also among the indie devs in Manchester is UoM graduate Alex Rose. Alex Rose Games also known as Vorpal Games - debuted in 2017 with Super Rude Bear Resurrection, an innovative platformer in which you can use corpses of failed attempts to overcome obstacles. Super Rude Bear Resurrection is available on PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, and has been met with high praise for its sound design and gameplay.

Whilst these companies are really starting to make a name for themselves on the indie scene, Merge Games are perhaps the most established indie studio based in Manchester. Founded in 2009,

Merge are industry veterans with seventeen titles under their belt, most notable among which is Dead Cells. Their other games, including Frostpunk, Sparklite and Aragami are available on a range of platforms, including P.C., PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

Another company whose titles you may well have heard of is Clever Beans, the team behind WipEout Omega Collection for the ps4. They are responsible for indie titles When Vikings Attack and When Vikings Relax.

Towards the more niche end of the spectrum, we have the intriguing VoxelStorm Ltd. Alongside their two games, sphereFACE and Advert City, they have three full-length music albums and four EPs. Advert City, which is particularly innovative, sees you explore a cyberpunk city of the future in which you can post adverts almost everywhere in an attempt to build a business empire. Advert City, though, is also an interesting critique, with a compelling atmosphere and brilliantly tailored music. sphereFACE, a retro vector-shooter, is no less abstract - a quality the company prides themselves on. It was released in 2017.

That’s all for today: join me next time when I dig deeper into the more obscure end of the indie scene in Manchester and look at one company who has produced 250 games.

Photo:ZuzannaNeziri@Flickr

Fantasy Football: an overview Jeremy Bijl takes a look at one of this year’s most popular games The date is the 9th of August, 2018, and around five million people are eagerly awaiting the start of an annual release that has been growing year on year since 2002. However, this is not EA’s latest sports release or even a battle royale game, but the official Fantasy Premier League.

Although the concepts of fantasy sports began in the U.S. in the 1980s, it wasn’t until 1993 that we first saw the game in its infancy in The Daily Telegraph, who still run a competition to this day. Up until 2002, the newspaper was the viable way of playing Fantasy, and editors of the paper had to calculate and input data manually.

In 2002, a primitive version of the Fantasy Premier League we are familiar started to emerge. Although it was visually very rudimentary, and attracted only 76,000 managers, much of the scoring system we know today was still in place back then.Fast forward to 2018, and the Fantasy football scene is thriving. With over 5.5 million players - a figure that has come as a result of exponential annual increases (excluding a small dip in 2012/13) - now playing the game. To put that into perspective, that’s a level that matches the amount of people globally now playing Pokemon Go. Not only that, but, like many conventional games, fantasy football has built a real community around it. Whole businesses, such as fantasyfootballscout and fantasyfootballfix, have sprung up to serve digestible information and detailed statistical analysis to players, with the former attracting thousands of forum posts everyday.

This social element will also have translated more noticeably for many readers: it is now extremely common for an array of social and professional groups to have a fantasy league on the go. One even sprouted up on the Fallowfield Student’s Group (the infamous FSG)

recently.

This level of enduring, sustainable growth in interest is fairly rare in the mainstream games industry, where games tend to peak shortly after launch before seeing an exponential decrease over the next five to ten years, if not sooner.

Of course, much of this is because Fantasy sports are tied indelibly to a larger specimen: the sport itself. In part, fantasy sports are about promoting and sustaining interest in the league that acts as their premise. Due to the enduring ability of sports to endlessly recreate their narrative each season, fantasy sports will likely continue to benefit.

At this juncture, it’s probably worth noting that the reason fantasy is not often talked about in terms of gaming is because many wouldn’t consider a game.

Whilst the term might be a catch-all that some use, most people wouldn’t consider those logged on to the site to be ‘gaming.’ Indeed, if gaming is delineated from the likes of television by being active rather than passive, fantasy sports are problematic. Whilst the player actively chooses a team, the points are earned by professionals far removed from our realm of influence.

And yet, one might consider fantasy sports to be ‘theorycraft’ in an almost pure form. Theorycraft, which a quick google will reveal is “the mathematical analysis of game mechanics, usually in video games, to discover optimal strategies and tactics,” underlines much of what it takes to succeed as a fantasy manager.

Indeed, fantasy football is much less a game of luck than a game of probability: of reconciling form, fixtures and underlying stats with the price tag assigned to a player by the powers that be, and in optimising your balance of your line-up to get the most you possibly can out of your ever-restrictive budget.

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ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Film

Skate Kitchen Tobias Soar Head Film Editor

3/5 Photo: Pixahombre @Pixabay

Coming-of-age flicks are the new ‘post-apocalyptic young adult drama’; they’re everywhere . Skate Kitchen, however, has a lot more going for it than its synopsis suggests.

Originally a short film, then a documentary and, finally, a fictional story based on reality, Skate Kitchen is the brainchild of director Crystal Moselle and all-girl, New York-based skate collective The Skate Kitchen. The film opens with Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) skating in her local Long Island park and injuring herself in a way known to skaters as “getting credit carded”. Once her recovery is complete and an oath to never skate again is sworn to her mother, she ventures into New York City to meet the Skate Kitchen girls. The plot slowly progresses with scenes of mischief, partying, love triangles and arguments, as is seen in most films of the genre.

What sets Skate Kitchen apart is its dedication to aesthetic; characters are filmed in close-ups for the vast majority of the feature and skate sequences are captured with a low angle and steadicam for an authentic skate montage feel. As remarked upon by an audience member in the post-feature Q&A at HOME, Crystal has truly managed to capture the essence of New York. As pretty as a helicopter shot of the Empire State may be, no human on foot will ever see the city in that way. This feel is further accentuated by the attention paid to sound design; from the

wheel squeaks and chatter of the skate parks to the rolling trucks of the boards down a busy avenue filled with cars and people, this portrayal of New York is authentic and raw.

This dedication to aesthetic comes with a sacrifice: the pacing of the story. Allowing the camera to linger on a character for a couple seconds longer than expected builds atmosphere but slows the narrative flow.

Another strange choice for the film is the dialogue. While slightly awkward at first, it seems to improve slightly as the story moves through its arc. As explained by the cast in the Q&A, all the phrases said in the film had actually been said by them before filming, essentially making the story a reenactment of parts of their lives, as opposed to a completely fictional tale.

The Q&A greatly enhanced the audience’s experience by contextualising the story within the real world. Crystal met the Skate Kitchen girls on the New York subway one day and, as their friendship progressed, they brainstormed a documentary which then became the story of Skate Kitchen Accepting the sacrifices made for aesthetic purposes, Skate Kitchen is an immersive, raw story that is relatable to most audiences, regardless of whether you’re a die-hard skater or not.

Skate Kitchen releases in the UK on 28 September.

Reviews. in political conversation regarding white supremacy, while also controlling his army. This makes it clear that Lee wants you to view the film through a modern lens and explore the foundations of modern far right ideology.

When Lee bookends the film opening with a racist speech by an American governor (played by Alec Baldwin), this agenda is made crystal clear. The speech was played over various Klan and Jim Crow-era footage, and ended with modern clips and videos from the more recent Charlottesville riots, including the infamous murder of Heather Heyer and even going as far as to include Trump’s attempt to dismiss the heavy hand that white supremacy played in both instances. The point is clear, and in Spike Lee’s hands, it’s most certainly well made.

Yet this intention comes at the expense of its narratives and themes.

It makes little effort to explore the racism within the police force Stallworth works in, taking a ‘some cops are racist, some cops are good’ view, with little nuance or introspection. Perhaps the biggest victim comes in the form of Laura Harrier’s character, Patrice, a young powerful leader of a black student union in Colorado. She is allocated, for most of the film, to the clichéd female love interest for whom the main character, Ron Stallworth, must maintain a lie. In this case, Stallworth has to pretend he isn’t really a cop - or ‘pig’ as Patrice frequently calls them - in order to stay with them, before she inevitably finds out and later forgives him.

Harrier tries to give the character some more levity, and she gives a powerful performance, but the script gives her too little to work with to really stand out. This is especially grating when she is pulled over and groped by a racist male police officer for a brief moment, and the film makes little effort to explore the impact or culture of this horrendous abuse of power and sexual assault, instead just using it as set up to her and Ron getting revenge on the same officer at the end.

Yet, Lee does still make the effort to have his film shot in a unique way. He manages to work in his trademark dolly shot to pitch perfect effect towards the movie’s conclusion. All in all, Spike Lee has done well to craft yet another film that brings uncomfortable topics regarding racial tension into the mainstream.

After a long spell of seemingly falling under the radar, it’s refreshing to see him project these issues onto a big-screen studio film.

BlackKklansman may not have the emotional connections of Do The Right Thing, but it’s an exploration and a point of right-wing radicalism that will hopefully prove he is more than a controversial interview.

Carl Fitzgerald Contributor

3/5

BlacKkKlansman

Attempting to trace the career of Spike Lee and his cultural impact would prove somewhat tricky to say the least. His latest film - The BlacKkKlansman - proves no easier.

Lee is most accomplished for his confrontational dramas based on various societal issues. From Jungle Fever discussing interracial relationships, to 25th Hour’s evaluation of post-9/11 America, he’s tackled them all. But he is almost certainly known more for his outspoken political views and comments regarding the state of society than entertainment films.

He brought us one of the smartest, most nuanced, and thought provoking films about racial tension in Do The Right Thing. Yet it’s frustrating that he received more think-pieces written about him because he said he didn’t want to go and see a Tarantino movie, than for the film itself.

He’s often described as being more of an artist who makes points than an artist who makes films, which I personally have always despised, given that he’s proven he can write well rounded characters and shoot his films in interesting ways multiple times. In many ways, that’s the reason why his new film, BlacKkKlansman, shouldn’t appeal to me at all.

It explores the story of two undercover detectives, one a black man and the other a white Jew, who work together to create the identity of a KKK inductee to infiltrate the Klan. For the most part the film is more focused on making a point than it is in being a great movie.

However, if there’s anything Spike Lee has proven that he is good at, it’s making a point. And BlacKkKlansman, despite its flaws, acts as a great expression piece detailing the evolution of racism in America over the past few decades.

The film opens with Ron Stallworth, the aforementioned black male infiltrator, accepting a job offer to be the town of Colorado Springs’ first black police officer in the 1970’s. He is placed in the records room dealing with racist comments on a daily basis from co-officers.

We see Ron use his initiative to work his way up to a job in investigations, where he makes a phone call to the head of a local Klan division to gain access.

Whilst watching the film, it was during this middle portion that it felt most uninteresting. Lee doesn’t shoot the investigation in any particular way, and his script, co-written with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott, does little to flesh out the characters to much depth. It is also at this point which we see Ron and Flip interacting with members of the Klan, which the script makes its central point regarding the roots of modern racism and the rise of the far right.

It’s also no mistake that Lee has placed Duke like a Grand Moff Tarkin villain figure over the Klan. He is a character still very much active

Ph oto :W iki

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ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Film

21

Crazy Rich Asians Alana Cook Contributor This week marked the UK release of 2018’s much anticipated film Crazy Rich Asians directed by Jon M. Chu. A young couple, Rachel (Constance Wu) and Nick (Henry Golding), travel to Singapore for a friend’s wedding and to meet Nick’s family, who, unbeknownst to Rachel, are insanely rich and not the most welcoming.

Crazy Rich Asians ticks all the boxes of a typical romantic comedy: madly in love protagonists, the uptight mother, the eccentric best friend, the high maintenance family, a wedding, a makeover and even token romcom lines. Yet underlying all these typical traits of the Hollywood romcom genre is a substantial difference: the film’s identity and Asian characters.

Singapore provides the spectacular setting for the film, with its impressive and unique architecture and vibrant colours making the film aesthetically pleasing. The wedding scene is one example of where the film truly shines in bringing together visual delight with heart-warming romance and the

Photo: Warner Bros

Arrival

4/5

Head and deputy editors Tobias Soar and Aisha Al-Janabi preview the gorily glorious film festival significant female characters and is the system’s gold star.

Re-Animator is the chosen opening film for the festival, featuring the presence of Barbara Crampton who will be awarded the Grimmfest Lifetime Achievement Award. However, that is the only classic film being shown, paving the way for exciting new releases.

At the Mancunion we will be covering Summer of ‘84, Piercing and The Cleaning Lady. These aren’t the only notable releases, Nightmare Cinema, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, Girls With Balls and Await Further Instructions, to name a few, are sure to please all horror-lovers in attendance.

With hours of feature films and short films being shown – many including post-showing Q&A sessions with the cast, crew or both – over the weekend it can be hard to know which to choose. Take a look at their website: http://grimmfest. com/grimmupnorth/2018/09/ grimmfest-2018-schedule/ for more information about each of the films being shown.

perfect amount of cheesiness. Accompanied by a beautiful cover of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love , the scene is enough to make you melt a bit inside.

It certainly isn’t flawless. The film is slow off the ground in some places, therefore falling flat at times. Moreover, when Rachel discovers a shocking secret about her family the film seems to brush over it and resolve the issue rather quickly instead of considering its weight. One could also argue that in some ways the film is a form of cultural tourism; it appeals to the tourist’s gaze in its specific portrayal of cultural elements.

However, these are minor criticisms. The stellar cast and brilliant characters, particularly the women, make this a very important and uplifting film. It’s simply funny and a joy to watch. In an industry where Hollywood films all too often only feature a token minority character, Crazy Rich Asians does for romcoms what Black Panther did for superhero films.

First watch:

Grimmfest 2018

Now in its 10th year, Grimmfest is returning to Manchester to celebrate and indulge in independent horror, scifi and fantasy films. It takes place on the 4th-7th of October at the Odeon Manchester Great Northern and promises to be a thrilling weekend.

Festival coordinators, Simeon Halligan and Rachel RichardsonJones, created Grimmfest 10 years ago to showcase horror films to a greater audience, including ‘Splintered’ which the pair directed and was their film debut. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival, this will be re-shown on the 1st of October at the preview night of the festival, at the Plaza Cinema in Stockport.

Over the weekend there will be screenings of short films with F-ratings, this is a way to credit films that have supported fair representation of women and is one I’m glad is being used throughout Grimmfest. For a film to be F-rated it must have a female director or a female writer and a film can be awarded a ‘triple F-rating’ if the film also includes

4/5

Photos: Grimmfest

Anish Gulati Contributor Coming from the director of Sicario and Prisoners, Arrival is yet another masterstroke delivered by the French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. He announces his ‘arrival’ into the genre in style and leaves the audience spellbound at so many different levels. Based on the novella Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, the film was released in November 2016.

It escaped my list for a long while but when I finally watched it, I was simply delighted with the intensely mysterious and poignant plot of the film.

The film follows the fearless and resourceful linguistics expert Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who has been left grief-stricken following the loss her only daughter, Hannah. It all begins with a number of alien crafts arriving at the Earth’s surface and in the human efforts to communicate with the aliens; Dr. Banks comes to the forefront, with Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker taking up supporting roles.

The trailer makes it seem like an attempt at a Nolan-esque film but it is so much more than that. Sure, it is a sci-fi, but the pouring affection of a mother, the resentfulness of a teenager, the emotions of a daughter deserted by her father and a tubful of other such moments makes it stand out in the genre. Without delving into the deep concepts this film deals with, some of which are too complex to be fully comprehended, one can

still appreciate the sci-fi plot devices used that make perfect sense in the context of the film. The best aspect of the film is its sound effects which are hypnotic at times. Sound editor Sylvian Bellemare does a wonderful job, making her worthy of the Oscar she secured, while the visual effects are not too expressive.

As expected, Amy Adams brilliantly portrays her character who treads through a number of conflicting emotions like indifference, affection, pessimism, curiosity and disbelief.

She is confident but, at the same time, not too overpowering to be deemed arrogant. You are compelled to root for her because of the way she makes you believe that she deserves the sympathy whilst not really wanting it due to the perfection with which she goes about accomplishing her goals.

Denis Villeneuve’s amazing job of keeping you at the edge of your seat throughout the film reveals information in bits and just at the right moments to keep you gripped and full of expectations. In other words, whenever it seems that the plot is becoming a little too predictable, a tiny chunk of new information is thrown your way and suddenly catches you off guard.In the hindsight, this movie also unravels with the political turmoil that could occur in a hypothetical pre-apocalyptic world. In an interview with The Verge, Denis Villeneuve confessed “People, it seems, don’t evolve very quickly.”

I felt dumbfounded and emotional simultaneously. This is a film that left me wanting for more.

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Photo: Amer Anwar

Books

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Interview: Amer Anwar, author of 'Brothers In Blood'

Gurnaik Johal Books editor I picked up Amer Anwar’s debut novel, Brothers In Blood, because it was set in Southall, the place that I’m from. When I met him, I was on my way from Southall to get a coach up to Manchester. He was on his way back from an event promoting the book, which had just been released on September 6th.

Southall, sometimes called London’s Little India, is the sort of place where the benefits of multiculturalism are most evident. It’s been a town of immigration for a long time, with people from Wales, Ireland, India, Pakistan, Somalia and Poland making it their home. I’ve always had positive associations with the place, so I was intrigued to read a book exploring the darker side of the community. In Brothers In Blood, two friends, Zaq and Jags, search for a missing Sikh woman. Zaq is an ex-con blackmailed into becoming a detective; he’s determined to do right but often forced to do wrong. His search takes him deeper into a criminal underworld and his determination gets him in and out of trouble. The book is made up entirely of South Asian characters - it even contains Punjabi dialogue - and the gritty, violent plot makes for a gripping crime thriller.

There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns in the novel, but the story of actually getting the book published is just as eventful. I asked Anwar how he got started on the book.

“Where to start? I wrote when I was in school, but after the age of thirteen, no one’s interested in fiction. It’s all essays and factual. I could obviously write because my teachers kept calling me up thinking I’d copied my essays from books, which should have been a sign! But nobody ever said, "maybe you should look at writing as a career." People talk a lot about working class opportunities and I think that’s case and point - nobody ever saw or thought that this guy could have a career in writing. No-one ever suggested it, so I never thought about it.

“But I’d always wanted to write, because I’d always been a reader. I started reading adult fiction when I was about ten. First it was second world war books, but adult ones - so quite violent. And then horror, fantasy, sci-fi and finally crime.

“I started reading a lot of Elmore Leonard. His writing wasn’t always cops and detectives - he would write the criminals. They were such great characters. For me, hanging out in Southall in my teens, there was all this gang stuff going on, drugs and fights etc. There were all sorts of stories.

Hearing those stories and reading those books, I realised that you could write about these guys in Southall. I would have loved to read something like that. So I was waiting for someone to write that book. And nobody did.

The more I thought that way, I realised that if I was ever going to write a book, I’d have to set it here. I’d have to use these characters.

“Then there were a couple of stories in the papers that gave me the germ of an idea and other things just started to stick to it over the years. But it was twenty years before I actually started writing and in that time nobody had written that Southall crime novel. Or, someone had written it, but it had never been published. Nobody wanted to publish it. And that’s sort of what ended up happening to me.

“That’s exactly what we need; more working class voices, more BAME voices, LGBTQ voices. If tells a good story, it deserves to be published.”

Photo: Amer Anwar

“I started doing some writing courses. First a real beginners course at an adult education center. Finishing that course, I thought, well now I’ve had an introduction, I can write this book. I sat down with the best of intentions and wrote about two pages. I looked at it the next day and thought, Jesus, this is bad. This is not good. So I gave up pretty quickly.

“The tutor told me that if you want to take it further, there’s a course at Birkbeck University; I needed the course to motivate me, to spur me on. At Birkbeck, my tutor asked what I wanted to gain from the course. I said straight out, I want to write a crime novel. I want to be published. She said alright then, start writing.

“So I had another crack at the first chapter. It still didn’t work. I picked up one of Elmore Leonard’s novels and read it to really find out how it worked.

Normally I’d just read it and enjoy it, but this time I was trying to study it.

At the same time I saw the film Payback with Mel Gibson, which I love. And with both of those two influences, I finally managed to nail that first chapter.”

I asked Anwar what he did once he’d finally got the first chapter finished.

“Well, I’d known about the Crime Writer’s Association Debut Dagger Award for a couple of years, but never had anything to send. But now I had this first chapter; I sent it off and forgot all about it. A couple of months later, I got a letter saying I’d been shortlisted.

“I went along to the award ceremony - the Debut Dagger (awarded for the first chapter of an unfinished novel) was the first up. They read out the shortlisted authors and then called my name. I was shocked. It was so surreal.

“After winning the award, I was contacted by four agents. They all wanted to read the rest of the book. I was like, yeah, about that… I’ve only written three chapters! I hadn’t mapped out a plot for the book, I had no idea where it was going. I was just writing to see what happened. One of them said that I could sign with her and send the book when it was finished. She asked how long it would take to finish? How long is a piece of string? I just plucked a figure out of the air. Six months?

“Five years later, I sent her a draft I was happy with. I’d written the book longhand, it ended up being around 150,000 words, which is big for a novel.

I knew it had to be cut. Then I typed it up. By that point, I was doing an MA in creative writing at Birkbeck too and I was working full time. So it took a long time.

“In my head it was really good. I thought I just need to type it up, tweak it a little bit and send it off. But when I read it back, it was terrible. But the story was there.

“I went through, scene by scene, and started to write it again, fresh. A lot changed and by the fifth draft, I was happy to show it to my agent. They really liked it but gave a list of improvements. Going through the whole book again took about a year and then it went out on submission. My agent and the editors were really positive. It went out to about thirty publishers and got rejected by every single one.

“Their reasons were: it doesn’t quite fit our list, we don’t have the right mission plan, we’re not sure where or how we would sell this. The most telling one was: I could never see it breaking out to a broad audience.

"The worst thing was all the positive feedback they were giving the novel, they loved the way it was written, thought it had a great voice, great setting, gritty action. I thought, well if it’s got all that, what else do you want? There was one thing they weren’t saying. It’s got all Asian characters, set in an Asian community with lots of Asian references. Basically they felt it wouldn’t appeal to a broad (white) audience.

“We asked what needed changing? They said nothing. There was no way they could say, well it’s a little too asian. How would that look?

“Growing up, I was reading crime novels by white authors set in America.

That didn’t deter me, didn’t detract from my enjoyment of them. So by the same token, the fact Brothers In Blood is set in an Asian community in London shouldn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of it being a crime thriller.

“I’d been working on the book for eight years. Nobody wanted to publish it.

But I believed in it, my agent believed in it and all those publishers said it was a good book. So I thought, fuck it, I’ll publish it myself.

“I spent about six months on social media, watching how the big publishers launch their new books. I saw that they had all these graphics - my background is in design and artwork, so I thought, well I could do all that!

And I saw that they sent their books out to book bloggers to create a buzz around a book. I contacted the same bloggers that they did.

“I set up a fake publishing company, with a virtual office address in East London. I designed a fake logo to go on the spine. I designed the cover. I learnt how to typeset a complete novel, then sent the files to the same printers all the big publishers use. It was on Amazon and I was able to get it into some Waterstones stores.

“I saw that it would take two years of me working on it, as my own publisher and my own marketing team. I needed the book to gain a momentum. I would go to events and meet authors and give them copies of the book. The fact that it won the Debut Dagger always got them interested.

At one of these events I met Sharmaine Lovegrove who’d just set up Dialogue Books (an imprint at Little Brown dedicated to inclusivity).

“She read the book over a weekend and called me in for a meeting. She couldn’t believe that nobody had published it. She asked about the current publisher. I said, you’re looking at the current publisher! It became one of the first four acquisitions Dialogue Books made and went through another editing process.

“It essentially stayed the same book. It got a new cover, a new name and a great marketing and publicity push. Now it’s the Sunday Time Crime Club Star Pick for September and was recommended by The Observer Thrillers of the Month. This is ten years since I started writing it.

“Put simply, it does what a crime thriller should. Yeah it’s set in the Asian community, but so what? That’s exactly what we need; more working class voices, more BAME voices, LGBTQ voices. If tells a good story, it deserves to be published.”

Brothers In Blood certainly tells a good story. Zaq is an ex-con forced into looking for Rita, who goes missing to escape an overbearing family.

The novel ranges from honour killings and arranged marriages to drug deals and fist fights. Anwar creates both loveable and evil characters and has an ear for witty dialogue - you'll certainly learn some Punjabi swear words along the way. From its influences to its execution, Brothers In Blood is firmly rooted in the crime genre. It was one of the first crime thrillers I've ever read so I asked Anwar where someone should start if they want to get into crime fiction.

“Elmore Leonard definitely. Richard Stark is also amazing and Joe R. Lansdale, those are the three biggest influences on me. I reread them regularly. Its not just the great plot; its their styles.”

If readers are looking for more South Asian crime writers, Anwar also recommended A. A. Dhand, Khurrum Rahman and Abir Mukherjee. Though it seems that this list is growing as writers like Anwar show that a book about Asian characters does not need to be niche. The hard work seems to have payed off for Anwar: after ten years of working on the novel, Brothers In Blood is getting positive reviews and reaching a larger audience. Anwar is busy working on a sequel but for now you can find Brothers In Blood at all good bookstores (RRP £7.99).

Photo: OpenClipart-vectors

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ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Theatre

REVIEW:Hope Theatre Company’s OutstageUs Libby Williamson, Contributor, reviews the annual LGBTQ+ comedy and drama night organised Hope Theatre Company

An emphasis was put on the idea of bringing the female characters in the play to the fore. I appreciated the irony that both plays are named for their male leads. The concept was strongly portrayed by the impressive presences of Melissa Johns as Amelia and Kezrena James as Bianca in Othello. The addition of the a cappella singing of ‘Oh Sister’ by Anjana Vasan also supported the more female – centric aspects. However, I didn’t feel like this was emphasised enough to be central to this retelling. The standout performances in the first half (Othello) was the cunning Iago (Collings) and the witty, oblivious Cassio (Sandy Grierson).

I was unsure of Ery Nzaramba’s portrayal of Othello. I found it stilted and bordering on a childlike tantrum at times. However, I don’t know whether this was a deliberate choice in order to contrast the stronger female characters. Kirsten Foster grew on me with her Desdemona, switching impressively from a smiling, obedient wife, to powerful and commandeering. The toxic and violent relationship between Iago (Samuel Collings) and Amelia (Melissa Johns) was completely believable even given their limited scenes together.

I am loath to spoil any of clever twists and links between the two plays (split by the interval). I will say that rarely have I gasped and flinched at one performance so much! This performance kept the audience on their toes in the best way. Beyond the show’s many twists and turns, the well known and expected death’s absolutely terrifying and lifelike.

The design of the Othello set (Basia Binkowska) was stark and impressive. A wall of tin sheeting left only the front of the stage for the action, complete with an overhead walkway. The tin wall put powerful emphasis on the violence in Othello, each bang reverberating through the theatre.

The second half, Macbeth, was very impressive. Sandy Grierson seemed made to play Macbeth, not just because of his Scottish

accent, but his presence and ability to demonstrate the layers of Macbeth’s inner conflict and lust for power. The overhead gantry was also made use of in very clever ways, having the witches stood above the scenes, always watching and meddling. This added another layer and sense of foreboding.

A special mention must go to Kezrena James’ delivery of the classic Act 1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth speech (“unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full”), it was powerful and haunting, just as if she were becoming a witch herself. A further mention to Samuel Collings’ incredibly genuine grief-stricken scene when he finds out his wife and children have been killed.

For Macbeth, the whole stage was used and the design was very imposing. Wall to wall shiny black tiles and a white tiled floor. Stark in a completely different way and making the primary colour costumes really pop against the sterile environment.

This show had a great visceral power and comments beautifully on the connections of Shakespeare’s plays. I may not have experienced it the way it was intended but I highly recommend it, nothing quite prepares you for OthelloMacbeth.

REVIEW:Othello Macbeth at HOME

Photo: The Lowry @Flickr

A “unique retelling in which the voices of some of Shakespeare’s most iconic female characters are brought to the fore”, Anuli Changa, Theatre Editor

Photo: Pixabay

An emphasis was put on the idea of bringing the female characters in the play to the fore. I appreciated the irony that both plays are named for their male leads. The concept was strongly portrayed by the impressive presences of Melissa Johns as Amelia and Kezrena James as Bianca in Othello. The addition of the a cappella singing of ‘Oh Sister’ by Anjana Vasan also supported the more female – centric aspects. However, I didn’t feel like this was emphasised enough to be central to this retelling. The standout performances in the first half (Othello) was the cunning Iago (Collings) and the witty, oblivious Cassio (Sandy Grierson).

I was unsure of Ery Nzaramba’s portrayal of Othello. I found it stilted and bordering on a childlike tantrum at times. However, I don’t know whether this was a deliberate choice in order to contrast the stronger female characters. Kirsten Foster grew on me with her Desdemona, switching impressively from a smiling, obedient wife, to powerful and commandeering. The toxic and violent relationship between Iago (Samuel Collings) and Amelia (Melissa Johns) was completely believable even given their limited scenes together.

I am loath to spoil any of clever twists and links between the two plays (split by the interval). I will say that rarely have I gasped and flinched at one performance so much! This performance kept the audience on their toes in the best way. Beyond the show’s many twists and turns, the well known and expected death’s absolutely terrifying and lifelike.

The design of the Othello set (Basia Binkowska) was stark and impressive. A wall of tin sheeting left only the front of the stage for the action,

complete with an overhead walkway. The tin wall put powerful emphasis on the violence in Othello, each bang reverberating through the theatre The second half, Macbeth, was very impressive. Sandy Grierson seemed made to play Macbeth, not just because of his Scottish accent, but his presence and ability to demonstrate the layers of Macbeth’s inner conflict and lust for power. The overhead gantry was also made use of in very clever ways, having the witches stood above the scenes, always watching and meddling. This added another layer and sense of foreboding.

A special mention must go to Kezrena James’ delivery of the classic Act 1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth speech (“unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full”), it was powerful and haunting, just as if she were becoming a witch herself. A further mention to Samuel Collings’ incredibly genuine grief-stricken scene when he finds out his wife and children have been killed.

For Macbeth, the whole stage was used and the design was very imposing. Wall to wall shiny black tiles and a white tiled floor. Stark in a completely different way and making the primary colour costumes really pop against the sterile environment.

This show had a great visceral power and comments beautifully on the connections of Shakespeare’s plays. I may not have experienced it the way it was intended but I highly recommend it, nothing quite prepares you for OthelloMacbeth.

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Arts

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Artefact of the week: ‘Snowman’ by Nate Lowman In conversation with ‘Art on the Sly’ Bella Jewell meets with three members of the team behind ‘Art on the Sly’: a group of students who are seeking to make art accessible to all

Photo: Jackelyn Howell

In the build-up to their first event of the academic year, I spoke to three members of the elusive movement, ‘Art on the Sly’: a student-led group who are breaking down the barriers which surround the arts.The concept behind this group stems from a desire to render art less elitist and inaccessible, a reality which majorly impedes “people who have an artistic side from expressing themselves” according to a group founder, Indigo Leveson-Gower. Indeed, LevesonGower neatly summarises the central philosophy of ‘Art on the Sly’ as being “the creation of an environment where people can express themselves creatively in a supportive space.”When discussing the place of art in the student community, it became apparent that the options at the University of Manchester are surprisingly limited: Leveson-Gower recounts, for example, the difficulties there have been in setting up life drawing sessions.

This fact, however, appears to contrast the sheer demand for art stemming from the student community. Other group founders, Eleanor Moselle and Grace Conway, discussed how “loads of students do produce art, but its hidden under their bed” due to the vulnerable act of displaying one’s work.

In this way, the group seeks to produce an “informal environment” in which people can

display their work and take steps towards building their confidence.

The group’s first event took place on 16th March and provided the opportunity for students to display both visual and performative works. As such, the evening gave a platform to singers, performers, and spoken word artists. LevesonGower describes the “stressful and intense” run up to the event, which was organised in a period of ten days. The evening was hosted in a squatters’ residence behind Piccadilly, providing the perfect venue for a “relaxed environment” with much wall space to display artwork, according to Conway.

With the first event of the academic year taking place on the 19th September at Goodstock on Oxford Road, the group aims to recreate the atmosphere of relaxed creativity, this time with a focus on producing art. The group describes the event as an opportunity “to explore your inner (or even outer) artist” on their Facebook event page.

The evening gathering makes up part of Alt Freshers week, a programme which collaborates a range of “more inclusive events such as life drawing and radical

Photo: Francesca Casaburi

Observed By Francesca Casaburi In an era as controversial as the one we are now living in, the everlasting battle between morality and profit has reached a turning point. A resounding example? Climate change.

Now more than ever, we are asked to make the best choice between ethics and productivity, between selfishness and the hope for a sustainable future. Each of us, no exception, can make a difference and change the way we face this global challenge.

But how do we make people realise the huge impact they have on the environment and on future generations?

What are the communication strategies that speak to people making their way into our chaotic routines and modern life habits?

The answer to these questions can be found in public art, with a significant number of recent artworks and exhibitions used to achieve such purpose, exploring different visual formulae to create a debate among their viewers.

Placed in a public urban space, Whitworth Park, ‘Snowman’ (2014) by the American artist Nate Lowman is a compelling example of how art can help us bring attention to climate change and its hypothetical consequences.

Be it for its cartoonish nature, visual appeal or strangeness, ‘Snowman’ attracts a wide range of viewers walking around the park. Displaying an immediately recognisable subject matter, the sculpture strikes us for its peculiarity: it is and it is not the snowman of our imagination.

It meets our expectation for its visual

walking tours” to provide an alternative to the “slightly restrictive” nature of Freshers Week, according to Leveson-Gower. But what does the future hold for this newly established group? Moselle describes how ‘Art on the Sly’ is “looking beyond the student community,” aiming to run “a variety of events” all designed to dissolve the ‘highbrow’ perception of art as an insurmountable activity.

‘Art on the Sly’ doesn’t care what you produce. It is a group which fosters

features but at the same time displays them in a completely different way. The sculpture has been crafted using bronze which seems a surprising choice when aiming to evoke the texture of snow.

Not only is the material an expected choice, it is also a problematic one as the sculpture comes with a peculiar - and relatively sad metallic inscription stating: “I will be dead soon”. But how can a metallic snowman be about to disappear?

In front of the viewer is a strong juxtaposition, an inexplicable paradox between the long-lasting quality of the material and a sense of immediacy evoked by the inscription.

This contrast denies the sculpture apparent naivety and what at first glance seemed a mere representation of a funny cartoonish character appears to have a much greater significance behind it. Lowman is not simply aiming at redefining the material both visually and conceptually. He is recognizing a broader function to his piece, deliberately placed in a public space.

The apparently obscure inscription, associated with the character of the snowman, represents Lowman’s attempt to raise awareness on climate change and global warming, two of the major social issues of our era. The inscription stands as a warning and shows the necessity of a change in direction: if the world decides not to address such challenge that is everything that will be left, a metallic snowman.

As viewers, we are impressed by the artist’s simple and yet extremely effective strategy. Choosing an accessible subject matter, he has found a formula that speaks to the public giving the viewer the opportunity to build a relationship between personal history, memory and a future they will be responsible for.

Lowman’s case confirms the importance for the public to establish a connection both visual and personal with the issue at stake, leading the audience to realise both the responsibility and power that being a citizen of the 21st century entails.

creativity in a non-judgemental environment: a rarity in a society in which the arts appear intangible to most. However, given the clear demand amongst students in Manchester - as demonstrated by the queue outside their oversubscribed launch event – this movement is gaining momentum and will only continue to blossom, bringing art to the masses.

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ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Fashion & Beauty

Getting to know Fallow Garms, the force transforming student fashion fashion Editor Ella Searle chats to Alex Singhal about fallow Garms and their upcoming fashion event It is of no debate that Manchester students have a definite sense of style. Your typical Fallowfield get-up is more likely to be made up of vintage styling and smaller independent labels than your average high-street brands, opting for clothes with greater character and individuality. Yet when shopping for these more one-off pieces, it seems many are disillusioned by online selling platforms such as eBay and Depop, and vintage shops such as those in the Northern Quarter can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack for anything of taste. Therefore, how Fallow Garms wholly understands its audience (being run by students for students) has given it a unique place in the market and driven its success. Fallow Garms is an event where individuals and small brands hire rails to sell their products to students amongst a buzzing atmosphere of DJs and food. With a forthcoming Fallow Garms event taking place on Saturday 22nd, I had a quick chat with the brains behind the event Alex Singhal to learn more about the event that has swiftly become one of the firm favourites of the Fallowfield calendar.

What inspired you to start Fallow Garms?

“The idea came after a night out in Leeds where a friend and I came across some students selling their clothes on rails out-

What’s on this week?

Savvy student savers, look no further

Photo: PaliGraficas@Pixabay

side a coffee shop. We haggled with them and eventually bought some clothes which when we got back to Manchester gave us the starting point for Fallow Garms. Fallow Garms is a clothing event like no other, allowing students the opportunity to sell their own clothes in a great setting taking only a small percentage. The event has live DJs, food and drink giving the clothing event a unique vibe. We have now grown to be a platform that allows an array of independent clothing brands to promote and sell their wears as well. Since starting in November 2017, we have thrown a number of events and are looking at a very big year with lots more planned.”

What is your favourite item you’ve seen sold at your event?

“My favourite item was a vintage Versace jacket that went for over £200. I also really like Gooztees, an independent clothing brand in Sheffield that has a colourful collection of hand-drawn pictures and symbols.”

Can you tell us a few of the brands you’re expecting on the day?

“There will be a whole host of clothing brands including Poze, a cool brand started in Manchester that gives its proceeds to different environmental charities, once off a customised clothing

Ella Searle Fashion Editor As the student loan fairy has come to bless our bank balance once more, there is no excuse to not treat yourself to the once a year Student Social at the Arndale, on Tuesday 25th from 4-9pm. Brands taking part are Topshop, Selfridges, Urban Outfitters, Foot Locker and more, with some brands offering up to 30% student discount with exclusive freebies.

If you’re looking for something a bit more under the radar then perhaps the pop-up event of True Vintage, one of the UK’s largest vintage retailers, may be more to your taste. They will be based in Urban Outfitters starting from Thursday 27th September for 10 days, boasting gems from the likes of Kappa, Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste and more.

company. Also the usual collection of vintage streetwear from Nike to Stone island and everything in between.”

What do you see for the future of Fallow Garms?

“The future of Fallow Garms is hopefully going to be a student-run pop-up platform that travels around the country promoting independent brands and vintage clothing. We’re in talks to do a few festival stalls next summer but above all we want to provide the opportunities for people to resell and buy clothes in fun and different way.”

Fallow Garms takes place on Saturday 22nd at Cubo. Find Fallow Garms at @fallowgarms on Instagram.

Photo: Fallow Garms

fashion player of the week: Rihanna

is currently available in 40 shades, ranging from extremely fair shades Sub-Editor Rona McCann to deep browns, the latter of which explore Rihanna’s Fenty is so often neglected by major success beauty brands.

Worldwide the unrivalled superMove into 2018 and the Fenty focus stardom of Rihanna is associated has been on fashion. First came with her music success. However, a Puma collaboration, with a vast it’s not absurd to say that the collection of sportswear, accessowaves she has been making in the ries and shoes being released under fashion industry are significant. the name Fenty x Puma. However, a Since launching her namesake more personal venture for Rihanna brand Fenty, her creations have has been her Savage x Fenty lingerie amassed a global following. She line, a range that aims to cater to began with Fenty Beauty in 2017 everyone, regardless of shape or and her cult following meant fans style. Alongside this, Rihanna made were queuing before even seeing her Fashion Week designing debut the products. earlier this month in New York. The Rihanna’s move into the make-up perfectly-choreographed catwalk world could be compared to that welcomed models of every size and of other celebrities. Kylie Jenner, a variety of ethnicities, both a rarity for example, is famously predicted for NYFW shows. The most irregular to have a net worth of $1billlion choice used on the runway in a beauwithin the next year amassed tiful celebration of the female body from her own beauty brand. was the due-any-moment pregnant Undoubtedly Kylie’s business is a model Slick Woods. If this is what phenomenon but it is Rihanna’s a fashion-forward Rihanna can do approach that is more inclusive. for the industry in just a couple of We see Kylie Cosmetics collections years, we look forward to what she being deliberately limited edition has yet to bring. to create an air of exclusivity and invoke a buy-now-or-lose-out fear among young, impressionable consumers. In contrast, Fenty Beauty is stocked worldwide in department stores and set at a standard department store price range. Its cruelty-free Pro Filt’r foundation Photo: hunigaming @Flickr

Food & Drink 27

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Soylent is a meal replacement drink that has proved very popular in the US since its launch in 2014. The drinks are are vegan, made largely from soy protein and have 400 calories per bottle. In advance of their product launch in the UK, I was given exclusive access to trial the product.

After the launch in Canada, Soylent sales were suspended, on the claim that Soylent failed to reach the minimum requirements of meal replacement drinks and one of Soylent’s food bars was recalled in 2016 after claims it made some customers ill. Two years on, the launch in the UK is tested, safe and has been rebranded. The product is no longer to be relied upon, but to fill ‘food voids’ where we are too busy to eat a full meal.

I’ll have to admit, I was dubious, as I don’t really believe in meal replacements or ‘drinking’ your calories, but Soylent seemed to be different to most of these products; they don’t try to pretend that a Soylent drink is better than a well balanced meal, or encourage you to live off them alone. Instead, Soylent is intended for busy lifestyles, and as I am guilty of skipping breakfast when I’m late for a lecture, I thought it couldn’t do any harm to give them a try.

I was given three flavours: Original, Cacao, and the caffeinated Cafe Mocha. On my first day I passed on my morning coffee and headed to the gym with a Cafe Mocha. Surprisingly, I felt awake and full of energy, without the sluggish feeling I sometimes get when exercising too soon after eating breakfast. Even better, I felt full until lunchtime, even after a heavy workout.

Autumn 2018 food trends Natty Willetts delves into our ancestral past to explain the food trends of today

Photo: Pxhere

The cacao and cafe mocha flavours taste like your regular milkshake or mocha but with a slightly earthier, maltier kick which is the main taste of the original.

They won’t blow you away, but Soylent is drinkable, and works well in other things too. I tried blending the cacao flavour with banana and peanut butter and ended up with a great tasting smoothie. Doing this takes the ‘in a rush’ purpose out of Soylent, but also makes each bottle go further, which, at £3.33 each, isn’t a bad thing. And with each bottle containing 20g of protein, and 20% of your daily nutrition, you know that you’re getting what you need.

With each bottle having a year-long shelf life, Soylent are committed to reducing food and plastic waste and contributing to helping the cause for hunger. The plant-based protein means that Soylent produces less CO2 and uses less water than most meat-based products.

I have always been skeptical about these sort of drinks, but my trial with Soylent has changed my mind. Not all meal replacement drinks have to be about gaining or losing weight. Soylent truly is a better alternative if you don’t have the time for a proper meal. This isn’t to say that all your calories should be liquid, but I have definitely enjoyed being able to grab a bottle on the go, knowing that I’m getting the right nutrients for my body and staying full for a long time.

The three flavours (Original, Cacao and Cafe Mocha) will be available on Amazon UK at £39.99 for a case of 12 bottles.

Soylent launches in the UK

Photo: Soylent

yes, the name comes from sci-fi thriller Soylent Green, and no, the drinks are not made from human remains... well, food and drink editor catrin Stewart at least hopes not

Sources suggest that the fermentation/pickling process, buying hyper-local produce to minimise environmental impact, healthy fast food and snacks, and boozefree food and drink are all popular trends during 2018.

The trends of fermentation/pickling and buying from the most localised sources indicate a fashionable step into Britain’s agricultural past. What can we, in 2018, learn from the dedication of our agricultural ancestors five to six hundred years ago?

According to Food Aware, a community organisation for spreading nationwide awareness about food waste, Britain wastes a dizzying eighteen million tonnes of food every single year. All this food is destined to meet its doom in landfill, leaving Britain £23 billion out of pocket annually. Globally, there is a growing movement towards solving this colossal problem. In France, supermarkets are banned from wasting or destroying unsold produce.

Italy followed suit by demanding supermarkets donate leftover food to charity, and even in England, phone apps like OLIO encourage communities to pull together and offer food that people no longer want or need for free or at a small price. These parts of the no-waste revolution sweeping across Europe are reminiscent of the self-sustaining agricultural economy of Medieval Britain. During this era, whole families would work together to raise livestock, grow their own seasonal vegetables, and grow crops on larger tracts of land that would go towards feeding their rural community and the growing urban population. Capitalism has made it far too easy to buy meat, fruit and veg that carry hefty air miles, with a lot of these foods leaving an even heftier imprint on the foreign communities that grow them for us. For example, global demand for avocados has left Mexico highly vulnerable to illegal deforestation, while over in Peru and Bolivia, the demand for quinoa has driven prices up so much that this once nutritious staple is an impossible luxury for their poorest citizens. The devastating effects of Western Capitalism on the Mexican, Peruvian, and Bolivian communities and environments are just three out of hundreds of examples of why we should become more

conscientious about our consumer habits. But what can we do to help?

Just like our Medieval ancestors, you can find out ways to preserve spring/summer produce for consumption during the winter. Along with salting foods such as meat and fish, Medieval people used pickling or brining, the process of preserving foods in salt water, and oil to preserve foods otherwise unavailable after the autumn harvest. There are many online resources detailing the vastly diverse fruit and vegetables available through the British seasons – for the purpose of this article, I used Melissa Snell’s ‘Medieval Food Preservation’ article with Thought Co. to find several intriguing methods of preserving foods for months or even years and Love British Food’s article of in-season produce.

The agricultural community in Britain is currently facing a lot of pressure due to Brexit – a huge threat to Britain’s foreign labour force who often take these low-paying jobs when first settling in Britain – and inexpensive imported produce from big businesses such as Lidl and Aldi. Through buying our seasonal fruit and veg and other produce directly from our local farmers, we’ll be leading the revolution towards supporting our post-Brexit agricultural economy; keeping our farms and our bodies working well!

Finally, as a student body, we should work out how to make use of the food waste we can’t eat – like egg shells, banana skins or the bones from meat and fish. We can work together to create compost for the countless community gardens across Manchester, or even encourage our university to create a community garden of their own, where we can donate our compost to, and conduct workshops for growing our own produce. By dedicating just a few seconds of our time to scraping our scraps into a separate dustbin to the rest of our waste, the bright, successful minds of the future whom Manchester’s student body represents will be setting a good example for the people currently leading our city, our country, and our world!

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Lifestyle 29

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Homelessness: A personal account One year on from Manchester City Council’s revised vision on tackling homelessness, Sophia Ashby asked if any productive changes been made. Sean Proudman, who has been homeless for four years, spoke about his experience of rough sleeping and the support he has received to ensure there “is one less person to be seen” on the streets. By this he was referring to the movement of homeless people out of public sight and into back streets, where violence is much more likely to occur. By removing homeless people from public view,

Sophia Ashby Lifestyle Editor In November 2017, Councillor Bernard Priest admitted that homelessness in Manchester is an “ongoing challenge”. He added that “concerted action” was needed to improve the lives of homeless people. However, for many homeless people in Manchester, improvements are yet to be seen. Sean Proudman, 48, lost his flat due to Benefit sanctions in November 2014. Since then, he has been living on the streets of Manchester and Bolton. Mr Proudman spoke to me about what he saw as the “facade of progression” Manchester City Council (MCC) created following their statements made last year.

Sean discussed his mental health problems, saying that he has suffered with depression since he was young. He admitted himself to hospital three times after having suicidal thoughts, only to be told that “hospitals are not hotels”. “People don’t believe you’re ill when you’re homeless” says Sean. He tells me that accessing medical care has been difficult since he lost permanent accommodation. MCC stated that they aim to “improve health services for rough sleepers”. For Sean, those improvements are yet to be seen.

His struggle to access appropriate support appears to be part of a wider attitudinal problem directed at the homeless. “You’re not just someone without a home” says Sean, “you’re not a person”.

Sean spoke about the various violent assaults committed against him during his four years on the streets. As well as having had his teeth kicked out, Sean was pushed in front of a taxi by a group of youths six months ago. “The general public were laughing” he says, “Manchester is the worst place I’ve ever been”, people look for “an excuse to treat us like animals”. The abusive treatment homeless people regularly encounter shocked me the most; I had believe that being ignored was the standard reception. It struck me how vulnerable Sean and many others are to violence.

According to Sean, this has been made worse since M4CC’s statement on homelessness was made last year. He says their aim is

“You’re not just someone without a home, you’re not a person” the issue of homelessness is being covered up rather than being tackled.

Mr Proudman also spoke about the internal divisions within the homeless community. He said “if you’re not a spice user, you’re not welcome with the general public or with the homeless”. Spice is a synthetic drug that mimics the effects of cannabis; it has been illegal since May 2016. According to the charity Lifeshare, between 95-98% of young homeless people use the drug. It has been known to cause fatalities, addiction and to increase vulnerability to abuse. MCC have listed helping those with issues surrounding substance misuse as fourth on their priority list, as stated in the Manchester Homeless Strategy 2013-2018.

Sean is a talented artist, who occasionally sells his work for a small profit. He will be attending (In)sane, a charity event showcasing art and raising awareness of mental health. Last year, entry proceeds went to 42nd Street: a charity supporting young people with mental health problems. With his own art, Sean has struggled with the complex laws surrounding busking. He described how he is often made to “feel like a criminal” by the general public or police. Homelessness epitomises exclusion from society. Whether it be due to a lack of accessible information or, as Sean sees it, unfair treatment, he cannot operate without judgement.

For more information about Insane, plus how to donate, visit their website.

How to help: Give time, not money

Sylvie Copley talks about The Big Change Society, and how students can help tackle the issue of homelessness while at University.

Sophia Ashby Lifestyle Editor Homelessness is a visible problem around the city of Manchester, one many students would like to help improve. Sylvie Copley is a student who has been heavily involved in The Big Change Society. She talks about how students can get involved in the society and make a difference.

The society’s three main aims are fundraising, volunteering and holding conferences. They work to increase awareness about homelessness and interact with charities to improve the lives of people without permanent accommodation.

Sylvie suggests that the best way to tackle homelessness is to get involved. The Big Change Society provides a platform through which contact with charities and homeless people can be made. It also offers ambassador training. This helps equip students with the skills needed to engage effectively with the homeless community.

As well as direct involvement, Sylvie has some suggestions of what not to do when

interacting with those living on the streets.

She says “don’t look away or purposely avoid their eyes”. Recognising that it can be uncomfortable being asked for change, Sylvie still suggests responding directly to those requests. “So much of their day is spent alone”, she says, “talk to people, get to know their names”. Interaction and conversation are as, if not more, valuable than money.

“Students have a lot of time, but not a lot of money” says Sylvie, and that is why The Big Change Society encourages volunteering.

The society is connected to another group called Love for the Streets. The group holds regular events and club nights to raise money and awareness for homeless charities.

Attending charity events is the most accessible and fun way to make a difference.

University is full of opportunities to create effective change. To find out more about Big Change, Love for the Streets and their upcoming events, visit their website.

Photo: The Mancunion

No problem too big or small

The Advice Services here at The University of Manchester speak about settling into university life, and where you can find help if you need it.

Su Barton Contributor Whether you’re arriving in Manchester for the first time or coming back to a course, there’s always a lot to do and take in at this time of year.

It can feel like there’s a lot of information you’re expected to think about, when you’re only just getting settled and trying to make the most of Welcome Week. The start of the year is always an exciting time but if there is anything you’re unsure about, you’ve missed some information or something does go wrong the Students’ Union Advice Service is here to help.

The Advice Service is a dedicated service for University of Manchester students, run by a team of professionally trained advisors. We are open for advice, Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm, both in and out of term times. We’re here to answer quick questions or provide ongoing support if you’re facing a problem that could take some time to resolve.

The main information the Advice Service would like you to know is that: We are confidential. You can speak to an advisor in the privacy of our Advice Centre.

We won’t tell anyone outside the Service that you’ve contacted us unless you give us permission or there are very exceptional reasons.

We are free. You will never be charged for using the Advice Service.

We are impartial and independent. We’ll explore all your options, ensuring that the advice

we provide isn’t biased or influenced by others.

We are non-judgmental. Our advisors are here to help with all types of problems, no matter what it is. We are here to help you without judging you about what has happened.

We are empowering. We’ll help you to understand your rights and we’ll give you the support, information and tools to you need to resolve the issue you are facing.

You can come to us with questions concerning any aspect of university life, be it academic issues or student finance. We can provide advice on course changes, academic malpractice and University appeals and complaints.We can also answer questions about student finance, hardship and other money matters.

The Advice Services specialises in wellbeing; you can also speak to an advisor about bullying, harassment and discrimination.If you’re feeling homesick, concerned about a friend or worried about how you’ve been feeling one of our advisors will be there to listen and offer support.

The Advice Service is also available to help with common housing problems. They help students to tackle include deposit disputes and disrepair. in addition, they helpfully provide a tenancy agreement checking service for when you are looking for accommodation in the private sector.

If something’s on your mind, no problem is ever too big or small.

Find out more about contacting an advisor on the SU website.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

30 Sport

ISSUE 2 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Manchester City In Europe

Sam Honey examines the all-conquering Manchester City team: the greatest Premier League in history, they fell apart at the Quarter-Final stage to Liverpool – will this year be different for the Citizens?

Match Report: Manchester City vs Olympique Lyonnais City b ecame the f irst E ng lis h s ide to los e fou r cons ecutive ch ampion s le ag ue ga me s, a s they were beaten by Lyon at the Eth iad . C ity we re strong favou rite s going into the ir Eu rope a n ope ner but started the ga me without B e nj a m in Mendy or S ergio Aguerö due to inj u ry. A fte r a s low sta rt , the sky blue s fell be h ind a s M a xwe ll C orne t swe pt in following a Fa bia n De lph m ista ke.

The French side exte nde d the le ad j u st m inute s from h alf-time when Na bil Fe k ir he ld off th re e de fe nders to smash home from j u st outs ide the box a fter Fern and in ho ne e d le s s ly lost pos s e s s ion i n mid field . The home s ide improve d in the s e cond h alf, and alt houg h B e rn a rdo Silva gave

City al most h al f an hou r to f i nd an e q u al i s e r af te r s lot t i ng home, t he u nu su al ly su b -p ar host s cou ld not avo id de fe at for t he f i rst t i me t h i s s e as on . T he exte nt of G u ard iol a’s ab s e nce f rom t he touch l i ne w i l l b e de b ate d , but it ce r t ai n ly s e e me d as i f t hey we re l ack i ng t he k i nd of e ne rg y and i nte nt s o of te n pre s e nt i n h i s s ide s.

T he care le s s ne s s of City was al ar m i ng ly app are nt to s e e – s loppy m i st ake s al lowe d Lyon to e as i ly c re ate ch ance s and ke e p c ity st re tche d at al l t i me s. It ’s a ro cky st ar t to t he new Ch ampion s L e ag ue s e as on for t he M anche ste r clu b, who are le ar n i ng t he h ard way t h at t he re i s no d r i f t i ng t h roug h game s i n Eu rop e’s pre m ie r comp e t it ion .

Manchester City vs Lyon Etihad Stadium 1-2 Bernardo Silva 67’; Cornet 26’, Fekir 43’

European Season Prospects Pep Gu ard iola’s third m a n age ria l expe r ime nt, Ma nche ster City are s lowly monopolis ing E ng lis h fo ot ball, with a h ig h-pre s s ing , tota l footba ll approach th at saw the m blow away s ide s on thei r way to a 100-p oint le ag ue title vic tory. Pe p ha s worked to mou ld h is te a m , not j u st th roug h high-profile sign ings like B e nj a m in Me ndy a nd B e rnardo Silva, but a ls o by work ing to improve pl aye rs already at the clu b – Ra he e m Ste rling a sta rri ng example. Using a 4 -3-3, C ity a re d rive n by t heir u s e of widt h , su pporte d by wing backs Wa l ker and Mendy. T he re is a ls o a n e mph a s is on a creative midf ie ld , who c re ate d a nge rou s opportu n itie s by bu i ld ing from the back – ofte n the side’s sheer intens ity a nd rapid move me nt of the ball th at make the m d iffic u lt to play aga in st.

After last s eas on’s q u a r te r-fin a l d is appointme nt aga i nst Liverp ool, the clu b looks to h ave a ss erted their statu s a s s e riou s ch a lle nge rs in the Ch ampion s L eag ue, a long s ide the a n nu a l

favou r ite s – t he l i ke s of B arce lon a, B aye r n Mu n ich , and Re al M ad r id . Pe p G u ard iol a’s te am h ave t he pl aye rs to comp e te w it h such te am s and can b e forg ive n for al re ady t h i n k i ng ahe ad to t he k no ckout st age s. In t he g rou p, Lyon h ave prove d t he i r abi l ity, but City s hou ld h ave e noug h q u al ity to ai m for clos e to m ax i mu m p o i nt s i n t he i r me e t i ng s w it h Hof fe n he i m and S h ak ht ar D one t s k .

T he i r on ly we ak ne s s i s t he i nex p e r ie nce of a s q u ad t h at i nclude s m any pl aye rs t h at h ave neve r m ade t he s e m i - f i n al st age i n t he comp e t it ion . As t hey fou nd out at A n f ie ld i n Apr i l , t hey can al s o b e v u l ne rable to t he cou nte r-at t ack and h ave at t i me s st r ug g le d agai n st s ide s t h at op e n t he m u p by m i r ror i ng t he i r tot al fo ot b al l t ac t ics.

D e spite t h i s, G u ard iol a’s s ide wou ld not lo ok out of pl ace i n t he f i n al fou r, and it w i l l b e t he i r biggame me nt al it ie s t h at de te r m i ne t he i r ch ance for a f i rst Eu rop e an c row n .

Champions League Group Rivals Under the gu idance of one of Eu rope’s brig hte st young coache s, Ju lia n Nage ls m a n n , Hoffe in he im have broken into the g rou p stage s of the C ha mpion s L eague for the first time, h aving lost to Liverp ool at the play-off stage la st ye a r.

Nage lsman n h as ach ieve d top-fou r fin is he s in bot h of h is first two s e a s on s at the clu b a nd te nd s to employ a 3-4-3 form ation th at ca n be e a s ily tra nsformed into a 5-m a n back line. L ook out for Ars en al starlet Reiss Ne ls on , who h a s j oine d on a s e a s on-long loan , and Nicho S chu lz , con s ide re d a possi ble heir to Me sut Oz il’s th rone, h aving m ade hi s G ermany debut this month .

U krain ian heavy weig hts Sh a k hta r a re expe rienced UCL compe titors, h aving appe a re d i n t he grou p stage in five of the ir la st s ix s e a s on s, making it to the rou nd of 16 in th re e of thos e. Driven by Bra z ilia n sta rs Ta is on a nd Junior Moare s, who h a s s core d 7 in 8 s o fa r th is s e a s on , they are notor iou s for su pplying s ome of Europ e’s top talent in re ce nt ye a rs, includ ing Ferna nd in ho, Hen rik h M k h ita r ya n , Willia n , a nd

Photo: Dianjay @DeviantArt

Photo: Thomas Rodenbücher @Wikimedia Commons

D oug l as Cost a. M an age r Pau lo Fone s ca pre fe rs to u s e a 4 -2-3 -1 syste m , w it h two w i nge rs t h at can move ce nt ral to c re ate a de n s e m id f ie ld and u s e d such t ac t ics whe n t hey we re t he f i rst te am to b e at M an . City l ast s e as on . Wit h h i stor y i n t he Ch ampion s L e ag ue and a st rong s q u ad , S h ak ht ar w i l l b e ex p e c te d to r ival Lyon to e s cap e t he g rou p.

T he F re nch s ide h ave b e e n i n and out of Eu rop e’s pre m ie r comp e t it ion i n re ce nt ye ars and p e ake d w it h by re ach i ng t he s e m i - f i n al s i n 2 01 0.

T he te am i mpre s s e d dome st ical ly l ast s e as on , f i n i s h i ng ju st 2 p o i nt s b e h i nd 2 nd pl ace d Mon aco i n L ig ue 1 , but d i s app o i nt i ng ly ex ite d t he Eu rop a L e ag ue i n t he rou nd of 16. O ne of t he Ch ampion s L e ag ue’s more yout h f u l s ide s, t he l i ke s of Nabi l Fe k i r, Mou s s a D e m b e le and Me mph i s D e p ay w i l l al l p os e a t h re at i n a f lu id at t ack i ng syste m . T he clu b’s pit fal l s w i l l l i ke ly b e i nex p e r ie nce and t he l i abi l ity to ge t h it on t he cou nte r, but t he re’s more t h an e noug h q u al ity i n t h i s te am to ove rcome t h at .

Photo: Sam Honey

Sport 31

ISSUE 12 / 24th SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Manchester United In Europe

James Gill takes a look at the once-imperious Red Devils now seem to be underperforming both as a team and as individuals, with Jose Mourinho looking unconvincing in his tenure as United boss – will this season’s Champions League be the chance to revitalise the Old Trafford side?

Young Boys vs Manchester Utd

Stade Suisse 0-3 Pogba 35’, 44’ (P), Martial 66’

Match Report: Young Boys vs Manchester United M anche ste r Un ite d k icke d of f t he i r Cha mpions L e ag ue G rou p H camp aig n w it h a com fort a ble 3 - 0 w i n ove r Sw i s s s ide You ng B oys. Paul Pogb a g rab b e d two go al s i n a game wh ich he b ega n to s how s ig n s of t he dom i n ance s how n i n his World Cu p v ic tor y t h i s su m me r.

T he f i rst was t he pro duc t of s ome g re at link up pl ay w it h fe l low m id f ie lde r F re d . Pog b a showed s ome t idy fo otwork to work an op e n i ng to s ho ot and le f t t he ke e p e r w it h no ch ance as t he b a ll s ai le d i nto t he top le f t h and cor ne r f rom 18 ya rds out.

T he F re nch m an m ade it a brace f rom t he p ena lty sp ot af te r a du biou s cal l f rom a Lu ke S h aw cros s.

T he b al l d id st r i ke t he ar m of t he de fender Kev i n M b abu but t he re was l it t le more he could do to move h i s ar m s out of t he way. L ater in t he game a s i m i l ar i nc ide nt h app e ne d t h i s t i me w it h S h aw ge t t i ng h it on t he ar m but t he re feree wa s u n move d . T he brace i s Pog b a’s t h i rd i n his 10 1 app e arance s for t he clu b.

A nt hony M ar t i al , who came i nto t he st ar t ing 11 in

place of Alex is Sa nchez, s ea led t he dea l j ust a f ter t he hour m a rk. He m ade a p osit ive run into t he b ox a nd wa s rewa rded w it h a de f lected shot t hat Young B oys keep er Dav id von Ba llmo os could do not hing a b out .

The ga me wa s n’t a ll one way t ra f f ic t hough, a nd Young B oys had s evera l opp ort unit ie s t hat t hey p erhap s should have put away. G uillaume Ho a rau headed w ide f rom clos e ra nge while Moha med Ali C a m a ra kept de G ea on his to e s w it h a go o d long ra nge e f fort .

The s coreline is a lit t le unf lat tering for t he Sw iss tea m but t hey played s ome incredibly at t ract ive fo ot b a ll f rom t he f irst whist le to t he la st . D e spite t he home fa ns relent le s s supp ort at t he St ade de Suis s e, t heir players lacked t he clinica l edge t hat decide s m atche s on t he highe st st age.

Jos e Mourinho’s next te st in Europ e is aga in Sp a nis h club Va lencia at home on 2nd O cto b er.

They lost 2-0 to Juvent us in a ga me which s aw Rona ldo get a red ca rd on his Old L ady Europ ea n debut .

European Season Prospects

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

T he re i s a fe e l i ng of u nce r t ai nty a round M anche ste r Un ite d’s Ch ampion s L e ag ue ca mp a ign t h i s s e as on . W he t he r t hey topp e d t he g roup or d ropp e d dow n i nto t he Eu rop a L e ag ue, the fa ns wou ld not b e p ar t ic u l arly su r pr i s e d . T he genera l s e nt i me nt ab out t he c u r re nt reg i me i s one of u nde r p e r for m i ng , b ot h as a te am and i ndiv idua l pl aye rs.

Pog b a for example h as re ce ive d a lot of c rit icism .

H i s dom i n ance i n t he World Cu p t h i s sum mer s howe d he h as t he abi l ity to b e a t r ue le ader, one wor t hy of t he capt ai n’s ar m b and , however t his h as n’ t b e e n s e e n con s i ste nt ly for h i s clu b. L indelöf to o h as l acke d t h at su re ne s s he de mon st rated for Swe de n .

Conve rs e ly t he re are ot he r pl aye rs rea lly pu s h i ng on i n t he e arly st age s of t h i s s e as on. Luke S h aw e sp e c i al ly lo oks to b e m ak i ng t h i s yea r his

ow n, w it h a st ring of p owerf ul p erform a nce s.

The 23 yea r old is crucia l to United’s de fence w it h Ashley Young nea ring t he end of his ca reer.

Ant hony Ma rt ia l a nd Ma rcus Ra s hford w ill s ee m a ny more m inute s t hrough sq uad rot at ion w it h t he hop e t hat b ot h of t hem ca n push on in t heir development a nd rea lly m a ke it dif f icult for Jos e Mourinho to pick his st a rt ing 11.

The s q uad is de f initely b ot h deep enough a nd t a lented enough to q ua lif y for t he kno ckout st age s.

How fa r t hey progre s s a f ter t hat is tough to predict .

A kind draw a nd t hey m ay f ind sa fe p a ss age to t he Q ua rter or S em i-f ina ls. Alternat ively, t hey could b e draw n aga inst one of t he favourite s such a s Ba rcelona a nd rea lly st ruggle. Mourinho ha s re f us ed to sp eculate a b out how fa r he feels United ca n go but he w ill surely b e hoping to guide his s ide to at lea st t he S em i F ina ls.

Champions League Group Rivals Sw i s s s ide B S C You ng B oys m ake t he i r Ch ampion s L e ag ue de but t h i s s e as on . T he tea m i s fai rly u n k now n on t he Eu rop e an st age and are a w i ldcard i n G rou p H . Unde r new m a nager G e rardo S e o ane t hey pl ay a ve r y at t ack i ng style of fo ot b al l and won’ t b e i nt i m id ate d by t he like s of M anche ste r Un ite d and Juve nt u s.

A n i mp or t ant p o i nt to note ab out You ng B oys i s t h at t he i r pitch i s ar t i f ic i al . T h i s me an s t hat t hey w i l l h ave an advant age ove r ot he r tea m s whe n pl ay i ng at home who are u s e d to g ra ss. The h arde r su r face w i l l af fe c t t he b ou nce of t he b a ll and i nc re as e s t he r i s k of i nju r y to t hos e on t he pitch .

Tu r i n b as e d te am Juve nt u s are u ndou btedly favou r ite s i n G rou p H . T he Old L ady h ave re ache d t he f i n al tw ice i n t he l ast fou r s ea s ons and , w it h t he add it ion of Re al M ad r id’s Crist ia no Ron aldo, are lo ok i ng to to w i n t he comp et it ion for t he f i rst t i me s i nce t he 1995 /96 s e as on. A side t h at fe at u re d D id ie r D e s ch amp s, A nton io C onte Photo: James Gill

Photo: Ronnie Macdonald @Flickr

a nd Ma rcello L ippi a s m a nager.

Their only st um bling blo ck w ill p erhap s b e Rona ldo’s former club Ma nche ster United. E xcept in t he event of a m aj or up s et t he Red D ev ils a re t he only side t hat ca n hold a ca ndle to t he st rengt h of t his sq uad.

Ma rcelino’s Va lencia have ret urned to t he C ha mpions L eague a f ter a two yea r a b s ence. The side, who reached cons ecut ive f ina ls at t he t urn of t he m illennium , w ill b e hoping to keep a st rong home form a nd w ill t ry to stea l p o int s away f rom home. Rea list ica lly com ing s econd in t his group would b e a phenomena l achievement , but t he ex p ect at ion is to at lea st get t hird place to get into t he Europ a L eague.

Af ter com ing fort h in L a L iga la st s ea s on Ma rcelino w ill b e hoping to push on a nd cha llenge for a top t hree f inish. They have a lot of work to do t hough follow ing no w ins in t heir op ening four ga me s.

Remembering Celia Barquín Arozamena, the Iowa State female athete of the year, the European Amateur Golf Champion, and the student.

James Gill Head Sport Editor C o l l i n Da n i e l R i ch a rd s h a s b e e n ch a rge d w it h murder only hours after rising Spanish golfer Celia Barquín Arozamena was found dead on an golf course in Iowa, USA. Aged just 22, Barquín won the European L adies Amateur Championship in Slovakia this July after shooting a course-record 63.

She was found by police at the Coldwater G olf Links in Ames after golfers discovered an unattended golf bag on the cours e early Monday morning and alerted authorities. A police report determined that Barquín had died following an assault.

Originally from Spain, she came to the United States

to study civil engineering and became a rising talent i n t h e a m a t e u r g o l f w o r l d . H e r u n i v e r s i t y, I o w a S t a t e , h a d n a m e d h e r ‘ Fe m a l e A t h l e t e o f t h e Ye a r ’ a n d said the following about her passing: “Celia had an i n f e c t i o u s s m i l e , a b u b b l y p e r s o n a l i t y, a n d a n y o n e fortunate enough to know her was blessed. Our Cyclone [university team nickname] family mourns the tragic loss of Celia, a spectacular student-athlete a n d I S U a m b a s s a d o r. ” Her victory in the European Championship allowed her the opportunity to break into professional golf with invitations to the British and US Opens next y e a r. N a c h o G e r v á s , a t e c h n i c a l d i r e c t o r f o r t h e S p a n i s h G o l f Fe d e r a t i o n , s a i d t o E l P a í s n e w s p a p e r : “She was a player who was heading for the very top,

Photo: Angelina Jackson @Flickr

without a doubt.”

Barquín was part of the Spanish team that achieved a second and third place finish in the European A m a t e u r Te a m C h a m p i o n s h i p s i n 2 0 1 5 a n d 2 0 1 6 r e s p e c t i v e l y. R a n k e d n u m b e r 6 9 n a t i o n a l l y b y magazine G olfweek, she also became the second w o m e n ’s g o l f e r i n I o w a S t a t e h i s t o r y t o e a r n a m e d a l at a conference tournament when she claimed the 2018 Big 12 Championship in April I S U ’s h e a d w o m e n ’s g o l f c o a c h C h r i s t i e M a r t e n s said Barquín was “loved by all her teammates and f r i e n d s ” a n d wa s a n “o u t s t a n d i n g re p re s e nt at ive o f our school.” “ We w i l l n e v e r f o r g e t h e r c o m p e t i t i v e d r i v e t o b e the best and her passion for life.”

World marathon record shattered in Berlin

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

James Gill Head Sport Editor Kenyan athlete E luid Kipchoge took an incredible 78 seconds of the previous marathon record, recording a t i m e o f 2 h r 0 1 m i n 3 9 s e c . I n c i d e n t a l l y, t h i s w a s previously held by fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto a n d wa s a l s o s e t i n B e rl i n . 78 s e co n d s i s t h e l a rge st m a rg i n o f d i f fe re n ce i n a n ew m a rat h o n re co rd s i n ce 1967 when Derek Clayton broke it by 2 minute s and 24 seconds. Kipchoge adds this record to his gold medal won at the Rio Olympics and a third London M a r a t h o n w i n e a r l i e r t h i s y e a r. “ I l a c k w o r d s t o d e s c r i b e t h i s d a y. I a m r e a l l y grateful, happy to smash the world record” said

Kipchoge. “It was hard. I ran my own race, I trusted m y t r a i n e r s , m y p r o g r a m m e , a n d m y c o a c h . T h a t ’s what pushed me in the last kilometres.” From the competition at the start of the race, it was clear that the victory would be his. The only remaining question being how fast could be run.

I n 2 0 1 7 K i p c h o g e w a s a t t h e c e n t r e o f N i k e ’s controversial attempt to break the two-hour marathon record as part of their Breaking2 project.

The time was not officially recognised due to there being 30 elite athletes rotating to keep up the pace.

T h i s e x p e r i m e n t , h o w e v e r, w i t h a t i m e o f 2 h r 0 0 m i n 2 5 s ec, showed that while the two-hour barrier may not be attainable yet, the world record certainly was.

K i p c h o g e ’s time is certainly an amazing breakthrough in the marathon, however the 33-year-

old Kenyan has been in a league of his own for many y e a r s n o w. V i c t o r y i n B e r l i n m a d e i t 1 0 v i c t o r i e s out of 11 starts with this occasion being his ninth straight win. A streak of this kind has not been seen i n t h e m o d e r n e r a . U n t i l n o w, t h e o n l y a c c o l a d e h e was missing was the world record His last two visits to Berlin showed that all he needed was the right conditions. In 2015, he won with a time of 2 hours and 4 minutes dead. This time is especially impressive considering he ran most of the race with the insoles of his shoes f lapping with e v e r y s t e p . T h e n i n 2 0 1 7, h e r a n 2 h o u r s 3 m i n u t e s a n d 3 2 s e c o n d s i n t h e w e t . F i n a l l y, i n h i s t h i r d t r i p t o Berlin, the weather was perfect. This was his chance to break the record and it was a chance that he took full advantage of.

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