WWW.MANCUNION.COM 16th NOVEMBER 2015 / ISSUE 8 FREE
Revealed: Thousands of HE staff paid over £100k
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Investigation by Taxpayers’ Alliance into public sector wages shows that 7,500 employees in Higher Education earn more than £100,000
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103 staff at the University of Manchester, a figure that stands at almost one per cent of its total employees, earn more than £100,000 a year—according to data obtained by the Taxpayers’ Alliance—at a time when cuts are being made across the institution. The same results, obtained by Freedom of Information requests and analysis of annual accounts, showed that more than 7, 500 staff at Higher Education institutions across the country have salaries exceeding this. This came as part of the Alliance’s Public Sector Rich List, an extensive investigation into the incomes of worker at public institutions in the UK, from Town Halls to hospitals. The revelations into the salaries of university staff members showed that Oxford University, UCL, and Imperial had the highest number of employees on post-£100,000 salaries, at 622, 500, and 432 respectively 11 staff at Oxford University earn more than £300,000. The highest-paid staff member on the entire list was an unnamed academic at Oxford, who earns £690,200. This, however, is only the highest of the universities that responded. The highest paid named member of staff in the research was Neil Gorman,
Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University—who earns almost £625,000. The University of Manchester had the 23rd-highest number of staff paid above £100,000 in the country. All data provided by the university did not provide names along with the listed salaries, but positions were included, making it possible to work out the incomes of certain members at the top.
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The Vice-Chancellor and President, Dame Nancy Rothwell, has a salary of £247,500 plus expenses of over £1,000. Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, earns £162,500. 11 other staff members at Manchester earn over £150,000, meaning 90 staff earn between £100,000 and £150,000. In the university’s ‘Facts and Figures 2015’ booklet, they state that over 11,000 people work at the institution—meaning that 0.94 per cent of staff earn over £100,000.
This comes alongside ongoing disputes between campus trade unions and the university about job cuts. The university is in the process of outsourcing much of its IT services, a move that has led to the balloting for a strike by the University of Manchester branch of UCU. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in 2013/14 there were 395,780 members of staff at UK HE institutions. This would mean that almost two per cent of all HE staff across the country earned over £100,000. “ Taxpayers will not begrudge an inspiring headteacher or world-class academic a good salary if they produce great results and motivate their students, but too often this is not what we find,” said Chief Exec of the Taxpayers Alliance, Jonathan Isaby. “Where institutions fail but financial rewards continue to flow to those at the top regardless, there is clearly a serious problem and taxpayers have every right to be concerned. The pay and perks enjoyed by those working at our schools and universities—a nd indee d across the entire public sector—must more accurately reflect how well they are doing their jobs.” The University of Glasgow has the highest number of staff earning over £100,000 in Scotland. Despite this, they still charged the Alliance £16.38 for the results. The University of Manchester has been approached for comment but is yet to respond.
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As part of this year’s Global Fest, the University of Manchester Students’ Union hosted a Bollywood Dance Class run by the Indian Dance Society. Global week continues until Thursday 19th November. Photo: The Mancunion
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The University of Manchester is the 24th most employable university in the world
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Food & Drink: Interviewing the Twee Brewing Co.
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Free Speech Society breaks free from Students’ Union oversight The University of Manchester Free Speech and Secular Society forms the Manchester Free Speech Association after the Students’ Union refused to hold a proposed debate. Francis Edge Reporter In response to controversies over the Students’ Union’s safe space policy, and in order to hold their event, ‘From Liberation to Censorship: Does Modern Feminism Have a Problem With Free Speech?’, previously banned, the Free Speech and Secular society have formed a new group called the Manchester Free Speech Association. This group was formed to, according to member Ed Pletscher, “hold events that are not possible inside the SU.” Ed Plets cher adds that “the banning o f Julie [Bindel] and Milo [Yiannopoulos] was the cause of the Manchester Free Speech Association.”
Essena O’Neill: Sensation or sob story?
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ity, marital or maternity/paternity status, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or sexual activity, gender identity, trans status, socio-economic status, or ideology or culture.” The Free Speech and Secular society are proposing potential amendments to the safe space policy which is up for review at the next Senate meeting on the 3rd of December and the result of this meeting may have serious implication on the campus culture in future. Commenting on the policy and its need for reform, Leonardo Carella, a leading member of the Free Speech and Secular society, said that “it’s more of a problem within the student body, between the SU and the rest of us. The SSP (Safe Space Policy) creates a grievance culture that doesn’t help the people it’s supposed to protect and pits student against student.” Mr Carella further adds that “it deHead Lifestyle Editor: Eva Katz Deputy Lifestyle Editor: Alice Williams mancunion.life@gmail.com
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The University of Manchester’s safe space policy has been a controversial topic on university campuses recently. Last month the Students’ Union decided to ban the appearance of both Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos at a debate hosted by the society, due to concerns that their transphobic views were in breach of their safe space policy. The Union said in a statement at the time that they were “made aware of various comments lambasting rape survivors and trans* people, and as such we are concerned for the safety of our students on the topic of this event.” The aim of the policy is to predicate that “societies and representatives must not allow visiting speakers at events they have organised, or promoted, to: Say things that are likely to incite hatred against any individual or group based on age, disabil-
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means us students by not treating us as reasonable adults, it infringes the right to free speech, it gives the university a bad name, it fails to prepare students for the real life and it gives the Exec (student executive) powers they should not have.” Due to the fact that this is not a society that wishes to be associated with the university, the funding for the MSFA comes only from the pockets of the members of the MSFA. The new event includes a third speaker, Julie Fae (a writer for The Guardian and a well-known feminist), to be included in the debate. In the end Ed Pletscher is “glad it is going ahead” and hopes “it will be a good debate where all three speakers will be challenged.”
The Mancunion is the official student newspaper of the University of Manchester., established in 1969 with a readership of around 20,000. It is printed weekly for 20 editions and is distributed across campus and the city. All writers are volunteers and new contributors are always welcome. You can get involved by turning up to a meeting, the times of which are listed on the Mancunion website’s Join page. We gladly accept contributors from outside the University of Manchester.
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Students’ Union’s Global Fest gets underway
The annual Global Fest celebrates the wide diversity of cultures at the University of Manchester Paul Scott Reporter The University of Manchester and the Students’ Union’s Global Fest began last Monday, kicking off eight days of internationally and culturally varied talks, events and interactive classes. Global Fest began on Monday the 9th November with a seminar on visa awareness and support, followed by ‘Global Mingle’ in Club Academy—a time to “meet fellow students and discuss global issues.” On Tuesday outside University Place, a large tent hosted the Go Abroad Fair, with multiple stalls providing information on studying, working or volunteering in a variety of countries. Other events to have already taken place are the Bollywood dance class, calligraphy session, an open mic evening—‘Global Mic’—and ‘Global Games’: a “speed-debating” event held by Manchester Model United Nations. Over the coming days and into next week there will be plenty more activities taking place. The food-orientated ‘Fini Festival’ will be put on in the ‘Global Tent’ on Friday, offering cookery classes that aim to teach students to prepare
“healthy food with a global twist.” On Sunday, Manchester University’s Indian society celebrate Diwali Mela, the ancient Hindu “Festival of Lights”, in what looks to be an impressive show. Next week, local organisations will occupy Club Academy on Monday 16th to give an insight into food poverty before Global Fest concludes with the central event Global Night on Tuesday evening with cultural performances “showcasing cultural attire, music and dance.” On Thursday 19th November, the university will continue on the theme of global affairs following Global Fest with a discussion titled “Recognise Refugee Rights”. Speakers will include Dr. Zuhair Bashar—research associate at The Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute; Gulwali Passarlay, a University of Manchester student who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan; Ruth Daniel, co-director of ‘In Place of War’; and Mostafa Rajaai, NUS International Students Officer. Further details of Global Fest and information on times and venues can be found on the Students’ Union website.
GLOBAL FEST
Photo: The Mancunion
for witness as another UK universities GMP lookGLOBAL FEST student raped in Fallowfield divest from Greater Manchester Police appeal to the student community to help fossil fuels Manchesterstudentsunion.com/globalfest in the search for the key witness in the Fallowfield rape case
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Ten UK institutions have divested funds from fossil fuel companies ahead of UN climate talks. The move has been praised by other members of the divestment movement Elinor Bridges Reporter It has been announced that several universities have joined the growing trend of divesting funds from fossil fuel companies, with ten UK institutions withdrawing a total of £115 million from the industry. Some of the universities to divest include Wolfson College of the University of Oxford, who have withdrawn a huge £42m, along with £3.9m from the University of the Arts London and a further £1.6m withdrawn by Oxford Brookes University. Other institutes include Birmingham City University, the University of Surrey and the University of Westminster. This wave of divestment has arrived just weeks before UN climate talks are due to take place in Paris, where over 190 countries will be represented. The key focus of the talks will be to reduce the production of greenhouse gasses, in the hope that this will slow the rate of global warming. The increase in divestment has attracted praise from a number of groups, including the National Union of Students. The NUS
vice-president for society and citizenship, Piers Telemacque, emphasised the importance of the role of students in making choices in the battle against climate change, saying: “We need to show the sort of moral leadership we want to see from our governments. This is just the latest example of students making change on today’s most pressing social justice issue.” Fossil Free Manchester has also expressed their approval. Speaking to The Mancunion, the group said: “We are delighted that more universities are moving their investments away from coal, tar sands and other fossil fuels. This sends a strong message to industry and to politicians that business as usual is not an option and that a strong deal on climate change must be reached in Paris.” Fossil Free Manchester also expressed their hope that other universities will follow, stating: “We are hopeful that the University of Manchester will soon join the fossil fuel divestment movement. The University must consider its duty of care towards its students and future generations, who will have to live with the consequences of climate change.”
Jenny Sterne Head News editor Last month a 19-year-old student was raped in Fallowfield on her way home from a night out in the city centre. After the attack the police believe she was walked home by their key witness. Detectives describe the witness as white and skinny with messy brown hair made into a quiff. Greater Manchester Police now believe that the key witness they are looking for in the Fallowfield rape could be a freshers student. The witness met the victim at the bus stop near McDonald’s on Wimslow Road after she had been attacked. Police say they believe he then walked her safely home through Fallowfield, but later left without leaving any details. Officers stress that he is not a suspect and they do not believe he harmed the victim in any way. They however believe that he could have vital evidence for the case. He has been described as white and skinny, around 18 or 19 years old, with messy brown hair styled into a quiff. On the night he was wearing black skinny jeans and a black leather jacket. Detectives are appealing for students to help find him and
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Photo: raver_mikey @Flickr
they believe that he is probably a fresher. Det Insp Damian Simpson told the M.E.N: “We need to stress that he (the witness) is not a suspect and we don’t think he’s harmed this female in any way. He has looked after her and made sure she had got
home okay. If you are the witness we’re looking for, please contact us. “We would also like to speak to anyone who saw this couple walking together. We have already released a description of him, and she is a white female.” The 19-year-old victim was
raped on Wednesday, October 7 between the hours of midnight and 4.30am and met the witness during this period. Anyone with information should call police on 0161 856 1911 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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Cuts could mean 40 per cent of colleges close The Conservatives green paper, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, has been accused of “holding our young people and our country back” by Lucy Powell MP. Paul Scott Reporter Based on research by the House of Commons library, Labour says that if the Conservative government’s cuts to education go ahead further education colleges would lose £1.173 billion, along with £451 million lost by sixth-form colleges. Labour’s calculations predict the closure of up to 40 per cent of the 335 colleges in England. Lucy Powell, Shadow Education Secretary and the MP who conducted the research, said the current government is “putting post-16 education on a cliff edge, harming opportunities for the next generation and holding our young people and our country back. “Before the last election, Labour committed to protecting the whole education budget from the early years to 19, because we value the entire journey of a child through education, including early years and post-16.” Writing for the Guardian earlier this week, she said “the Tories’ assault on further education will cost Britain dearly”. She predicts that 25 per cent cuts will lead up to four out of ten sixth-form colleges closing in England.
She also addressed Education Secretary Nicky Morgan’s recent comment on her understanding that further education is “in a fragile state.” She said: “I’m not sure how much her understanding is worth,” since it is “her government that is modelling a further 25 per cent to 40 per cent cut to 16-19 funding.” An open letter penned from 129 college chairmen to the chancellor George Osbourne has warned that this will push further education “over the precipice” and damage the country’s productivity and future. From this year, the compulsory leaving age of education is 18. These cuts have called this policy into question, along with the viability of the government’s plan to create 3 million apprenticeships by 2020. University and College Union General Secretary Sally Hunt said “colleges need stable investment to continue to help people of all backgrounds fulfil their potential,” and that such cuts make her scared for the future of the department. Post-16 education is not the only area to be affected. The chancellor has asked nearly all government departments to cut their spending between 25-40 per cent in the Spending Review on 25th
November. Health and overseas aid are amongst the departments that have had their budgets protected. He said that “I know some ask: why do we need this surplus? I’ll tell you why: to protect working people... It will make our country more resilient, safe and secure.” John McDonnell, the Labour shadow chancellor, has said the move is “more about politics than economics.” Further education cuts in the 2015 Spending Review come as members of the University and College Union strike over pay disputes. 20,000 members of staff are estimated to be taking part. In August this year, a survey of 93 colleges in England suggested that further education was on “starvation rations”, with classes being dropped and extra-curricular activities at risk. Large classes are also an increasing problem. Almost all college principals blamed the lack of government funding for the financial health of their establishments. 36 per cent of these do not think that under the current conditions they will be able to provide the support students need. Since 2011, colleges have faced three separate spending cuts, totalling a 40 per cent reduction in the budget. Many fear that further budget evaluations next
GCSE results reflect a north-south divide
This summer’s GCSE results draw attention to worryingly stark regional educational inequality in Britain Yasmin Mannan Books Editor
An education data firm, SchoolDash, has mapped this year’s national summer GCSE results and it emerges that 4.7 percentage points more school students in the south of England achieve five ‘good’ GCSES, including English and Maths that their northern counterparts. In 2012, the gap had been 1.8 per cent, rising to 2.8 per cent in 2013 and then spiking to 4.8 per cent in 2014. A breakdown of the results implies that London has consistently been the top achiever, with the South West and East Anglia showing improvement. SchoolDash founder, Timo Hannay, stated that the overview of the mapped results suggests that regional performance up to the age of 7 “correlates closely with deprivation except in London, which does unusually well”. The north-south education gap is by no means a new phenomenon this year. Statistical evidence from IPPR North’s ‘The State of The North’ report shows that “many children in the North get off to a bad start in life, particularly
The Manchester College is the largest further education institution in Greater Manchester Photo: Wikimedia Commons
year could lead to a further 40 per cent drop in funds for post-16 colleges. Only education for 5-16 years old is protected in this current review, with all other areas vulnerable to cuts. “College budgets have been decimated in the last five years and the sector, as innovative and flexible as it is, simply cannot take more cuts,” said Martin Doel, Chief Executive of the Association for Colleges. Skills Minister Nick Boles has shown his support for the budget cuts, adding that “we need to move towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient colleges.” A spokesperson for the government said that “we have protected the schools budget and ended the unfair difference
between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student, rather than discriminating between qualifications.” “We have provided sufficient funds for every full-time student to do a full timetable of courses regardless of institution – and increased support for those who successfully study four or more A-levels and large TechBacc programmes.” Some argue that this simply isn’t enough. James Kelvin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, has said that the cuts “confirm our fears that some sixthform colleges could be wiped from the education map.”
Manchester climbs employability rankings
Manchester joins Harvard and Cambridge in top 25 of the Times’ employability league table demonstrating its appeal to firms across the globe Ailsa McNeil Reporter
According to SchoolDash, Education is not so Great Britain Photo: The British High Comission @Flickr.
those from more economically disadvantaged backgrounds.” In London, a much higher proportion of the poorest children achieve a “good level of development”: they have a 12 percentage point advantage over their northern peers. It also shows that, since 2010, the North’s overall GCSE attainment scores have slipped more than the national average. Unsurprisingly, this ‘early years gap’ between northern and southern children proves extremely hard to equalise as they get older. In 2011, The
Sutton Trust showed that a higher proportion of students from London and the SouthEast achieve three A grades at A-level and that young people from the London and South East of England are more likely to get places at top universities, even though 75 per cent of the UK’s population do not live in those regions. This year’s summer GCSE results only prove to reaffirm a regional educational inequality that is already stark in our society.
The Times Higher Education’s Global Employability University Rankings were released this week with positive results for the University of Manchester, which has once again climbed the international employability leader-board. This week it was revealed that the red brick establishment has maintained an impressive position in the annually released Global Employability University Ranking. The list, which rates how universities perform on graduate employability, puts Manchester in 24th place, a steady improvement on its standing in both 2013 a n d 2014, where it landed in spots 26 and 25 respectively. Otherwise dominated by US establishments, which make up 39 of the top 150, Britain does well, with 12 universities making it on to the list. However, Manchester’s performance is standout, joining only four other UK institutions in the top 25: Oxford, Cambridge,
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Imperial and Edinburgh. Notably, it also storms ahead of London heavyweights University College and Kings College, confirming the global desirability of Manchester graduates. The ranking was produced by French Human Resources Consulting Group Emerging Associates. It compiled the results of a comprehensive questionnaire, which put questions about the ideal attributes of graduates to recruiters and managing directors from over 20 countries. On average, grades come at the bottom of the priority list, reflecting the shift of focus away from the traditional hallmarks of result-driven academic success. Instead, it reveals that where you study is decisive; 31 per cent of companies admitted to having a preferred list of institutions from which they hire. In selecting which universities to take employees from, survey respondents cited past experience with graduates and international exposure as influential factors. Positioned amongst global institutions such as Harvard and Yale, Manchester’s place in the rankings underlines its status as a worldrenowned centre for excellence. The results provide a valuable insight into the perspective of future employers, and are sure to offer reassurance to students faced with the prospect of an unforgiving job market upon graduation.
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London rents World’s best too high for UK teacher opposes standardised tests students
London Housing Committee writes to Boris Johnson to request aid for struggling students due to crippling housing costs in the capital. Lexi Bickell Reporter Tom Copley, the chair of the London Assembly Housing Committee, has written an open letter to Boris Johnson warning against purpose-built student housing in London catering solely “for an affluent market.” London has the highest percentage of international students in the UK, with London First and PwC stating that out of 366,605 students, approximately 67,000, (almost 20%) are international. Many of these students come from wealthy backgrounds – the costs of studying in the UK as an international student are huge, with tuition fees alone being £27,000 per year to read a science subject. International students are therefore estimated to bring in huge sums of money for the capital’s economy; one report noted that they pro-
vided London with an extra £2.3 billion in a single year, less £540 million for public service costs incurred. As well as the increase in volume of international students, increasing privatisation of the student housing market in London has caused rents to skyrocket, with the average weekly price in 2012/13 rising by 26% to £157.48 since 2009/10, according to an annual NUS survey. As well as standard accommodation prices being on the rise, properties are being shouldered out of the way by investors clamouring to create luxury flats for the more affluent students from whom they can generate greater profits. A new development in Camden designed for students has top prices reaching as much as £355 per week. To give some perspective, Save the Student has recorded the average weekly rent for a student in Manchester as £75.
A current third year student at UCL commented: “Students are being squeezed out of the housing market. I know loads of people who choose to live at home and commute purely because of the cost… I’m bleeding out of my pockets to live in Zone 1. It’s definitely becoming more tailored to an overseas market.” Housing privatisation is causing ordinary families to rule out London universities as higher education options because the cost is simply too great. Copley has urged the Mayor to provide “more affordable housing in London” by altering his policies on the issue, suggesting that Johnson “encourages inner London boroughs to require that new student accommodation contribute towards the delivery of affordable housing.”
The winner of a prestigious teaching award has spoken out against the standardised test culture often found in schools. Nancie Atwell believes that this approach limits learning by students. Elinor Bridges Reporter Nancie Atwell, winner of the Global Teaching Prize, has criticised the test-culture of the American education system during a recent visit to London. Atwell, who teaches in the United States, claims that frequent testing does not help teachers to gauge the ability and progress of their students, saying: “You don’t need a standardised test to tell teachers who’s struggling with reading and maths. They should know already.” Atwell also explained that testing limits the freedom teachers have in their classrooms, stating that the test system “practically condemns kids to teaching for the test” and “inhibits teachers’ creativity.” Strongly emphasising the importance of strong literacy skills, Atwell believes that the American curriculum can discourage students from reading a wide range of books. She argues that students feel they must instead focus intensely on a small number of texts in order to pass tests.
Photo: Wikimedia Common
Aside from the impact on students, Atwell also noted the effects this system may have on teachers. She said the tests have “done nothing but decimate morale.” She believes the scope for personalised teaching is reduced, claiming: “It takes away teachers’ autonomy, their ability to respond to who their students are and what they see is going on in their classroom.” She has suggested that some parents are unhappy with this educational system, saying: “Parents are recognising that their children are being tested rather than taught.”
Rather than focussing on the importance of standardised tests, Atwell teaches based on what the students want to learn, allowing them to choose their own topics for reading and writing. Atwell’s comments follow announcements that the British government is considering implementing standardised tests for seven year-olds at English primary schools. This proposal has faced criticism as it may be detrimental to the education of young children, along with creating unneeded and damaging stress.
Religious studies Personalised web advice for GCSE faces strong cancer detection opposition from A new online tool from the University of Manchester could reduce the time between when patients detect cancer symptoms and actually go to the doctor Emily Hughes Reporter Currently, many people rely on the internet to provide them with information as to whether symptoms they may be expressing are something to worry about. However, this information is often inaccurate and can either lead to heightened anxiety over something minor like a common cold or, at the other end of the spectrum, down-plays serious symptoms. A study by the British Journal of Cancer this year also found that around 35 per cent of cancer patients had waited too long to see their doctor when they felt embarrassed by their symptoms. Delayed visits to the GP can often result from use of the internet to self-diagnose, especially in the case of symptoms that a patient may feel uncomfortable about. This provided a team from the University of Manchester with
the motivation to trial a new tool designed to get potential lung cancer patients to a doctor earlier. The team of researchers behind the new online tool are from the School of Nursing and are led by Julia Mueller, who told MedicalXpress.com that: “people often talk about ‘Dr Google,’ but web information, even from reputable sources such as the NHS, is general in nature.” The software, called When2Go, is an online cancer detection tool that will allow people to successfully discuss their symptoms and provide personalised advice. It works by asking people increasingly specific questions about symptoms they are displaying, allowing the software to build up a profile of what may be affecting the person. The collection of answers provided then result in a recommendation for the person to visit their GP or not.
Mueller also stressed that: “the earlier a diagnosis of cancer takes place, the better the chances for the patient. “The software isn’t designed to alarm people, but instead provide a better alternative to the general advice available online.” The software is still in its trial stage, and Mueller and her fellow researchers are currently looking for people to try out the software. In order to take part, participants must be displaying symptoms such as a recurring chest infection, unexplained weight loss or a loss of appetite, a longstanding cough, or changes in appearance of the fingernails. Displaying any of these symptoms does not necessarily mean you have lung cancer, but the When2Go tool aims to make it easier for patients to know if it’s worth paying a visit to a doctor.
secular groups
Parents, children and religious leaders have challenged the decision to exclude non-religious world views such as humanism from the religious studies GCSE curriculum. Merle Streck Senior Reporter A recent decision by the government to rule out the study of non-religious world views in the curriculum for the religious studies GCSE has been met with fierce opposition by parents and children. According to the curriculum, students are asked to conduct indepth research on two different faiths. A study of a non-religious world views such as humanism are not permitted as part of this research. In a statement to The Mancunion, a spokesperson for the University of Manchester Free Speech and Secular Society said: “As secularists we strongly support the right to religion. That means the right to have, enter and leave a religion, and not to be
part of any religion. “Given that - according to recent surveys - only 47 to 51 per cent of the British population is religious, we think it’s absolutely necessary that children be exposed to reason-based views of human nature.” When the curriculum was introduced in February, multiple religious leaders, including the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, wrote to the Department of Education to question the government’s judgment on excluding the study of humanism. Since then, three parents have taken the government to Court arguing that the new curriculum is inconsistent with the government’s obligation to respect freedom of religion and belief. On the topic of humanism, the Free Speech and Secular Society
adds: “If religion has a place in taxpayer-funded schools, surely a comprehensive doctrine like humanism that teaches to reject received wisdom and develop critical thinking should be introduced for the sake of balance and to reflect the diversity of modern Britain. “We welcome the fact that pupils now have the opportunity to choose between a wide range of religions, but it should not be forgotten that - from Christopher Marlowe to Bertrand Russell - questioning established religions has been a fundamental part of British culture. “Therefore we think the decision to exclude non-religious views from GCSE is fundamentally unfair, and parents have good reasons to be concerned about it.”
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ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
In the news this week... The important and interesting stories from the wider world this week.
Stories by: Andy van den Bent-Kelly, Jenny Sterne & Charlie Spargo
Baby girl born with two heads Bangladesh A baby girl has been born with two heads in the east of Dhaka. Her father, a farm labourer, is worried he is too poor to care for her properly. Thousands gathered to see the baby, before she was moved to an intensive care unit. The baby was born by Casarean section. The father told ABC news: “When I saw my baby I was awestruck”. He told reporters “she is eating with two mouths and breathing with two noses”. Neurosurgeons and paediatric orthopaedic surgeons have said they believe it to be a case of conjoined twin.
Jihadi John thought to be dead The Levant US officials have said they are “99 per cent sure” that a targeted air strike killed Mohammed Emwazi, David Cameron has said the death has not yet been confirmed. Jeremy Corbyn said of the news that it would have been far better if he had been tried rather than killed. David Cameron has said the opposite and called his death an “act of self defence” and “the right thing to do”.
Homeless sleep in McDonald’s 24hour branches
Hong Kong Homeless people have sought refuge in branches of McDonald’s across Hong Kong. This comes after a homeless women was found dead in one of their branches in Kowloon Bay last month – she was thought to be sleeping and was left for 24 hours while others ate around her. A spokesperson said the women had not ordered any food, just asked for water. It is said that Hong Kong is one of the most unequal places in terms of wealth distribution.
Welsh town avoids tax by moving “offshore” Crickhowell Local businesses in Crickhowell are joining the like of Google and Starbucks by moving their entire town “offshore”. They have submitted their own DIY plans to HMRC, copying the same agreements used by global brands who have been criticised for paying no corporation tax. It has been called the Powys tax rebellion and is led by traders from the town’s salmon smoker, local coffee shop, book shop, optician and bakery. It is being put forward as something that could be replicated nationwide.
Countries with most equal gender outlook revealed World A global survey by YouGov, asked 24 countries to answer questions on gender equality to gather their attitude toward it. Nordic countries have the most progressive outlook, with Sweden gaining the highest ranking. In Sweden there was virtually no difference between the views of men and women. The country’s wealth had a significant impact on the attitude to gender, with the US being a notable exception, scoring only five points higher than China, while they have seven times as much wealth per person. Britain has the highest level of gender inequality in any of the developed countries surveyed according to Global Gender Gap Index and on the question that creating more opportunities for women should be “one of the world’s top concerns”, however, Britain only scores higher than Morocco, Jordan, Thailand and Algeria.
Earth captured “breathing” Nova Scotia, Canada Brian Nuttall, a Canadian man captured a video of the ground near his home ‘breathing’. It’s slightly creepy, however it can be explained – the ‘breathing’ is due to the roots of the smaller trees in the forest being loosened in the strong winds which can be heard in the video. The video has been widely shared across social media, with many commenting on the beauty of Nova Scotia.
In Science this week... Homeopathy could be blacklisted Ministers are considering placing homeopathy on a blacklist, meaning that GPs in England would be banned from prescribing it. The highly controversial practice involves heavily diluting substances known to cause illness and combining them with a sugar tablet, with the belief that the new mixture will cure said illness. Critics say that patients receive nothing but sugar and water; even the NHS itself states that “there is no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition.” A consultation will take place in 2016. The practice currently costs the NHS £4m a year,.
Most distant object in Solar System spotted Astronomers have identified the most distant object ever observed in our Solar System. A small, icy body has been spotted by Japan’s Subaru telescope at a distance of 15.5 billion kilometres from the Sun – about three times the size of Pluto’s orbit. The object, catalogued as V774104, is estimated to have a diameter of between 500 and 1000 kilometres. The next challenge is to determine the orbit of the dwarf planet. It is currently unknown whether it will sweep inwards from its current location, like many other dwarf planets, or outwards. If the latter is true, it will join a very exclusive club which presently has just two members – Sedna and 2012 VP113.
Jail for woman who posed as man to sleep with friend Cheshire A judge has handed down an eight-year sentence to a woman who kept up a sexual relationship with a friend for two years whilst pretending to be a man she had met online. Cheshire woman Gayle Newland took on the name Kye Fortune to trick the 25-year-old complainant. She forced the woman to wear a blindfold during intercourse which was carried out with a prosthetic penis, apparently because of the scars ‘he’ had got during surgery. Eventually, after having sex ten times, the victim took off the mask and realised the truth of the situation. A jury found Newland guilty of three counts of sexual assault.
Crocodiles to guard death row prisons Indonesia The head of the anti-drugs agency in Indonesia has proposed building a prison island guarded by crocodiles for death-row convicts. Budi Waseso argued that crocodiles would make better guards than humans because they can’t be bribed. He plans to travel Indonesia looking for the fiercest of reptiles. “We will place as many crocodiles as we can there,” Mr Waseso was quoted as saying by local news website Tempo. He added “You can’t bribe crocodiles. You can’t convince them to let inmates escape.”
Transgender man discovers he was pregnant Florida, USA Kayden Coleman, from Florida, has lived as a man for almost a decade and thought he was out of shape but turned out to be pregnant. He had been taking hormones for over a year and never thought he would get pregnant. He gave birth to a daughter Azaelia who is now 22 months old. Mr Coleman was reported in The Mirror saying “This woman in a shop said to me, ‘Honey, you look like you’re pregnant’. I just laughed and said, ‘I am pregnant!’ She didn’t believe me.”
Martial art for selfie stick users Russia Martial arts experts have devised a new fighting technique for selfie stick users. It is called “mpd-fight” (monopod fighting). Its aim is to give tourists who get distracted by snapping the perfect shot the skills to fend off potential muggers. The method used by the fighters has not been revealed, but it was reportedly created due to the increasing amount of cases of selfie stick users having their smart phones stolen. The course comes four months after Russia’s Interior Ministry launched the “safe selfie” campaign.
Man caught smuggling 48,000 cans of beer into Saudi Arabia disguised as Pepsi Saudi Arabia A man has been caught attempting to smuggle 48,000 cans of beer into Saudi Arabia by disguising them as Pepsi. Border control officials searched his cargo at the al-Batha crossing between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, only to discover that tens of thousands of Heineken cans had been covered with Pepsi labelling. Laws on drinking or possessing alcohol are very strict within the ultra-conservative kingdom – being caught with any alcoholic beverage can lead to a prison sentence or even corporal punishment. The story quickly went viral, with images of security officials uncovering the hidden beer being shared thousands of times on social media.
Storm Abigail: ‘Foamageddon’ Flyde Coast A sea of foam engulfed the promenade along the Flyde coast in Lancashire. Traffic was brought to a standstill as authorities closed the promenade between Fleetwood and Blackpool. The Met Office explained that sea foam occurs when the ocean is agitated by winds and waves. Storm warnings were issued across Northern England as Storm Abigail brought gusts of up to 90mph.
Bill for Americans to claim space resources Resources across the Solar System could be available for American citizen to plunder, following the passing of the Space Act of 2015 by the US Senate. The bill grants ‘asteroid and space resource’ rights to companies and citizens who acquire the resources themselves and act under the law. A space resource is defined as “an abiotic resource in situ in outer space” that would include water and minerals but not life. A potential barrier to the bill is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits any sovereign claim to a celestial body. It appears that the US, who signed that treaty, intends to get around this by disavowing any national claim, while still asserting their citizens’ rights.
Genetically modified humans within 2 years The prospect of genetically modifying a human’s DNA could be a reality within two years, after an American biotech company announced plans to start trials into a pioneering technique. Editas Medicine intends to become the first lab in the world to genetically edit DNA, starting with patients suffering from the hereditary eye disease leber congenital amaurosis. By using CRISPRs – naturally occurring defence mechanisms used by bacteria – the scientists hope to be able to cut away mutated areas of DNA and potentially reverse brightness. Critics of the proposed technique are concerned that this gene editing could have negative effects on a patient’s descendants.
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Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain: A peep behind the writing
With the seminal series Peep Show drawing to a conclusion, Features Editor Joe Evans sits down with the show’s writers to discuss success, comedy, Manchester, and just ‘doing it’ Photo: Objective Productions / Channel 4
In Peep Show, University of Manchester alumni Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain created an instant cult classic. Based around the seemingly tedious lives of Mark and Jeremy, two post-university but pre-maturity flatmates, the show resounded with audiences becoming a BAFTA award-winning hit. Now, 12 years since the first series aired, and with the show a seminal cornerstone of British comedy, the writing pair has just completed their ninth and final series. Asked about its phenomenal success, Sam Bain is keener to reflect on the beginning of the show than the current series. He professes that, “getting the first series of Peep Show made and then getting recommissioned for the second series were probably the most life-changing moments.” He is quick to stress that the success of Peep Show didn’t come to them instantly: “We had been fulltime for about five years before the show got commissioned; at that point we hadn’t had anything made of our own.” The risks involved in Peep Show are revealed in his description of that period. “After series three, four, and five you get a little more blasé but back in those days, 12 years ago, there was a real sense that this could be a triumph or a disaster.” Despite any risks, the show would go on to explode and to become one of the Channel 4’s flagship shows, and has since become the channel’s longest running sitcom. Like Bain, Armstrong is quick to point out that this success was the product of the duo sweating over scripts and working at their craft, saying: “The stuff that Sam and I have had produced on TV is the tip of the iceberg. We have written so many scripts that didn’t get made, so many scripts that got changed. That is the secret of our success really: that we just kept plugging away.” Both Armstrong and Bain seem uninterested in appearing aloof to their success. They make multiple references to the need to sweat over your craft, admitting to previous failings rather than promoting any sense of egotism regarding their obvious successes. An overriding sense of humility emanates from the pair, and is evident in recollections about their first meeting, whilst undergraduates here at the University of Manchester. Armstrong, laughing, remembers, “I’m not sure if it was love at first sight,” before hastily adding: “But it was creative love. Either we envied each other’s work or liked it. I can’t remember which.”
Likewise Bain is romantic in his remembrance of the meeting: “Yeah, my fondest memory [of university] is meeting Jesse. It was on a creative writing course that was part of our degree and that was a life-changing meeting.”
“In Peep Show we have managed to put at least a dozen of my most embarrassing experiences onto television and that is quite cathartic.” Both Bain and Armstrong, when asked to reflect on their time in Manchester, give similar answers. There is a sense from both that their creativity was very much cultivated by their environment, with the university and the city facilitating their growth as writers. Bain says: “Taking advantage of the creative writing and the magazine [Square One, a creative writing magazine started by Bain, and Armstrong’s now-wife, whilst at university] as opposed to the more mainstream parts of the course that I did was the kind of thing that changed my life most dramatically.” It’s a sentiment closely mirrored by Armstrong who attributes much of his “growing up” to his five years here. “Having people to do things with is one of the things that university gives you that you can’t get anywhere else.” Where the time spent in Manchester most clearly maps onto the pair’s work is in the Manchesterbased sitcom Fresh Meat. The show, which takes place across the university lives of a number of students, is shot in Manchester and has used university accommodation buildings for sets. Asked whether they directly took inspiration from their period at university, both distance their personal experiences from the shows storylines, and instead prefer to speak about that time as the stimulus for their characters. Bain, talking about the drawing of Fresh Meat’s characters, says: “I don’t think we knew anyone that was specifically like any of the characters, it was more just types we knew.”
Likewise, Armstrong refers to the characters as “imagined versions of the type of people we’d known”. He also unwittingly reveals the type of work ethic to which they both attribute their success, saying: “It was a show that we wrote not that long after we had left [university] but was rejected in its first incarnation, but then came back much later.” Once again Armstrong is unguarded when admitting that the show was rejected at first, evidence of the long, tiring redrafting process behind even the most seemingly well-formed shows. Manchester’s diverse population also served as inspiration for Bain, with him speaking about how he “went to public school and Jesse went to a comprehensive so we had a nice mix of backgrounds to put into the show.” He draws on the diversity of the city, saying, “I liked that about Manchester when I was there, that you did have a mix like that.” Unlike the perceptions of large cities like London, Manchester’s wide-spanning demographic is suggested to have played a part in the writing of Fresh Meat. By association, the university’s wide appeal also comes out in Bain’s reply. He states: “That was one of the things that appealed to us about Manchester as a setting for that show was that you can throw a diverse group of people in a house together.” Bain reflects a sense of a diversity in Manchester that we perhaps take for granted, but that served as fertile ground for Fresh Meat’s setting. Shifting the topic away from Manchester I ask Armstrong, who has written on BBC’s The Thick of It and In the Loop, the feature film that followed, for his view on contemporary satire. “I think if you go into thinking you can change anything you are crazy. I think it’s artistic fuel. So when you see something ridiculous, annoying, or anger-inducing you can use that fuel to make material, art, comedy.” Pushed on the state of the current political climate in terms of writing satire, he laughs, saying: “I think you can always do it. Sometimes people think that this is beyond satire. A famous American satirist Tom Lehrer said: ‘Satire died when they gave Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.’ I think people are always confidently saying ‘Oh my God, this is beyond satire.’” He draws directly on an example, saying, “Often people say things like ‘Once you’ve seen Nigel Farage you can’t do any jokes, it’s all gone too crazy.’ I think it’s always been like that, there have always
been people who are utterly ridiculous who you can’t believe are around but then it’s a lovely feeling when you feel something ridiculous, pompous, stupid in the world, and a particular joke or show skewers that.” His love for satire, he says, comes from the satisfying feeling as “an individual to feel like there is somebody else out there who understands how annoying or stupid the world is.” I ask them both about their advice for writers looking to break through into comedy, first presenting them with the notion of whether people can be taught to write. Armstrong is quick to reply: “We all know people who are just not funny. You have to have talent, there has to be something there. Beyond that I think there is a huge amount you can do to take what talent you have in the right direction. You have to try and find your form and what suits you well but then you have to work on it.” Bain, likewise, is quizzical about the suggestion of teaching somebody to be funny: “It’s instinctive,” he says, confirming Armstrong’s belief. “Comedy is brutal in that respect, but then that is probably a really good way to work out if you can do it. Try, and if nobody laughs, then maybe move on.” Both are keen to stress the importance of doing it: “The most common thing is talking about it and not doing it, and I’ve done that, I’ve procrastinated,” says Armstrong, following on from Bain’s advice. “I wouldn’t too be worried about making mistakes— I’d be more worried about never making the errors and never giving it a go.” I ask the pair how they go about just sitting down and writing. “Me and Sam always write separately, by which I mean we write dialogue separately,” replies Armstrong. “When I find it incredibly useful to be in a group is when you are trying to work out plot because it is a logical problem. It’s quite a hard intellectual exercise to get a plot that works.” Bain picks up on this line: “From that point of view television writing is a lot more collaborative than, say, writing novels because even if you haven’t got a partner you’re on the team and that adds another whole angle.” The team aspect of their work is something they do not shy away from. Regarding working with people you trust, Bain affirms, “Ultimately you can’t do it all on your own, and when you meet the right people you tend to want to work with them again and again.”
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Armstrong too, when asked about the importance of casting, says, “it’s a joy to hand your characters over rather than a pain because that’s when they come alive. They’re there on the page and can be a little bit archetypal or stereotypical but when you see an actor doing it that can change.” When I ask for a specific character with whom this happened, Armstrong needs no time to think: “I remember seeing Matt King do Super Hans.” Asked what it was that made that moment so special, he says, “when you get somebody in like that you think, Wow! because this person—who’s a variation on a type on the page—is suddenly brought alive.” Both Armstrong and Bain present their jobs as ones that cannot exist without the influence of those they work with. Again, they seem keen to distance themselves from any notion that Peep Show, Fresh Meat or any of their projects are two-man vanity projects and spend huge portions of the interview praising those they surround themselves with. Unsurprisingly “David and Rob,” perhaps their most obvious collaborators, come in for specific praise, but the duo’s praise extends beyond that to the people who made their ideas happen on television screens nationwide. With time running out, I pose the question of whether comedy is a cathartic pursuit. Both agree that it is, with Armstrong suggesting that: “It’s cathartic for Sam and me when we’re writing Peep Show and we can sometimes write about painful events and varieties of relationships.” This is a sentiment closely mirrored by his partner who concurs: “In Peep Show we have managed to
put at least a dozen of my most embarrassing experiences onto television, and that is quite cathartic.” Perhaps this is the secret to their success. Away from the brilliant actors and television backing, perhaps their success boils down to doing what they know; presenting a version of humanity on screen with which it is impossible not to empathise and relate, because their characters are never extraordinary, and certainly never perfect. With Peep Show coming to an end, Bain says that he would like to work on writing something longer, feature-length next, something he says he is yet to crack. Armstrong is currently writing too, having just released a book—again featuring a main character from his adopted home of Manchester. While they aren’t clear about their future plans, it does feel that the presentation of imperfect but relatable people is their niche. What is also clear, with Peep Show drawing to a conclusion, is that their niche of television comedy is going to become less tragic, less intelligent, and far less funny.
Photo: Objective Productions /Lime Productions / Channel 4
You can see the second episode of Peep Show’s final season on Wednesday at 10pm on Channel 4. Jesse Armstrong will also be appearing alongside Tim Key at Manchester Literature Festival. He will be speaking at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on Saturday the 21st of November at 7:30pm. Tickets are available online at bit.ly/1OCGjtq
Paul Foot: A man of many words but little discernible information Features Editor Joe Evans speaks to Paul Foot and fails to get any real answers to any questions about anything at all
Let me begin this by saying that, over the course of this interview, Paul Foot beat me. I’m not sure what he beat me at, but he definitely did. Trying to interview the comic is not unlike trying to catch jelly on a tennis racket: You can try, you can even retry, but essentially it will slip, slide and evade you. Being called a bitch in an interview is rarely a sign that it is going well. When Paul Foot says it to me though, it could be an indicator of just about anything. The comic, who has been labelled everything from, “a comedy genius” to “a rare exotic bird,” is not somebody easily labelled or read. With this in mind, I feel it only fitting to open up my questions with a gentle opener. Could you introduce yourself in your own words? “I am Paul Foot, one of the world’s comedians. I was born in Buckinghamshire over 40 years ago. At first I couldn’t speak or walk, but luckily my parents carried me home from the hospital.
Photo: IWMPUK
“I performed in pubs for fifteen years before deciding to become an overnight success. I now work full-time in showbusiness, coping with attention on train station platforms and eating boxes of sushi that sometimes cost more than £4.99.” It’s an opening salvo that might leave you fumbling for words if you weren’t aware of Foot’s comedic styling. He is a genre unto himself; he describes his style as a collection of “niche genres; Disturbances, Glimpses and Mime Plus [which he describes as mime with added speech] Madness 2.0 and Madness 3.0—my latest genre which is inexplicably funny.” The more disorientating the conversation becomes, the more seemingly in tune to what is happening he becomes. Defining his appearance is as difficult as pinning down his answers. Foot occupies an aesthetic somewhere between Brian Eno circa 1970, and Richard O’Brien. Thinking I have found a residue of sanity from which to draw a question I ask him about his style icons: “I invent my own fashion seasons. Last year it was Space Casual – kind of like an off-duty astronaut’s househusband. This winter I’m moving into Vietnam Honeymoon, the Far East meets sexual doom.” Confused, and slightly shaken by that image, I move on. Despite making a number of television appearances, Foot is most known for his stand-up. Asked what first drew him to live performance his tone shifts, seemingly becoming less abstract: “Making a room full of people laugh is addictive, it’s a sport really, and also I get to see some really interesting backstage dressing rooms in provincial theatres.” Speaking to anybody else about an interest in dressing rooms might have thrown me off, but speaking about his craft seems to appeal to Foot. Continuing this line he tells me about his method for writing his sets: “I like to go on writing holidays. On this tour there’s a show I wrote in a lighthouse.” For all his apparent mania, Foot is happy to speak about the craft behind his work. As a former Oxford University graduate his wit and wordplay are, perhaps, to be expected. However what he illuminates in his answers is a level of consideration that perhaps isn’t so obvious to those who have caught his television appearances. I’m interested to ask whether he likes television work, or whether he feels it can be stifling for more avant-garde performers: “I’ve turned work down because a show is too rigid or too macho or too icky.” “I am always myself on telly but I might perform slightly older material. Nana Foot watches telly, so I probably wouldn’t tell my joke about a disastrous wedding in which the groom is wearing a kilt.” His appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, in
which he innocently enquired as to whether “Coldplay was the one with James Blunt,” is perhaps his best-known television appearance. When questioned about this apparent aversion to pop culture Foot seems totally unconcerned by it all: “With Never Mind The Buzzcocks, it’s just pop music—I’ve almost no interest in it. A friend couldn’t believe I didn’t know who Rihanna was the other day. But why should I know who she is?” As ever though he is quick to make an addition to the answer, and, as per, it is unexpected. “I know some celebrities, obviously, as I work with them. Davina McCall for example. She’s a right babe!” Speaking to Foot, in all his ludicrous brilliance, there is a niggling sense that the performance for him must be cathartic—an opportunity to exorcise his strangest thoughts. However, when presented with this suggestion, he seems unimpressed: “I’m not sure it’s cathartic; it takes a huge amount of energy to put on a good show. “I find hawk sanctuaries cathartic. Actually that’s a lie, the last one I went to really stressed me out.” Undeterred, and still determined to latch onto some solid ground, I ask him whether he thinks that his success owes anything to him being such a niche performer. “I’m not sure, but it certainly helps in brothels. I have huge admiration for professional sex workers. I’m hopeless at sex, that’s why I stick within my remit as an enthusiastic amateur.” It is at this point that I felt I was beaten. I’m very much enjoying myself, but the combination of Foot’s articulacy and surrealism was making it impossible to find any logic in the conversation. Realising this, I decide to embrace it. I asked him why he chose to distinguish his followers as ‘Connoisseurs’, not fans. “You can create fans with tricks like advertising and overexposure, whereas people have to want to become a Connoisseur. It really sorts the wheat from the chaff! “Connoisseur Elaine wore a different homemade Paul Foot T-shirt on each night at Bloomsbury Theatre.” It’s with this strange image that I am left. This is outside even the top 10,000 most clarifying conversations of my life, but is safely inside the top ten most memorable. Foot is a man of many words that provide little discernible information. All I have gathered from our conversation is that he likes sushi, space-casual fashion, and Davina McCall, and that he doesn’t particularly like pop music and icky television. I ask him if he’s got anything to add, possibly a naïve mistake: “I am actually three ducks wearing a human costume. Don’t tell Michelle!” he says. Who is Michelle?
We put some one-word statements to Paul. These are his musings. On Jeremy Corbyn – “I discussed Jeremy Corbyn recently in my newsletter that I send to my Connoisseurs. Is it a coincidence that his initials are JC? Almost certainly. But, he has some things in common with Baby Jesus. They both have beards, which I hate. They’ve both made something out of wood in the past (probably). Neither is the son of God. I could go on.” On death – “LOLZ. That’s what I want on my tombstone. Not really. I want Angela Lansbury with angels wings, not a statue though, real Angela, from 11am-6pm Monday to Thursday, just hanging out in the cemetery.” On allergies – “I presume you ask this because of my joke about allergies, which is on YouTube I believe. GET WITH THE TIMES, BITCH!” On the Royal Family – “I think they’re fantastic, but I almost definitely wouldn’t mind if they weren’t there. I think Katie Middleton has got a right doss of a job, and I can’t wait for Prince Philip to explode with gout.” On dinner parties – “I don’t go to any! My worker Ken was saying the other month when we were clothes shopping “Oh yeah Paul, that’s nice, you can wear that to a dinner party…”—“WHAT DINNER PARTY?! I’m not at dinner parties am I? I’m on the frigging stage doing a comedy show!” I don’t go to dinner parties! Not often, anyway.” On rap music – “I have to be careful what I say here because I have a rap career in the pipeline.” On Shakespeare – “Ah yeah, top playwright. Definitely up there with the greats. He’s loving it.”
Paul Foot will be appearing at the The Lowry in Salford on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of November, and is on Twitter @PaulFoot.
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It starts with tampons, but where will it end? Deborah Asamoah on the tampon tax and parlimentary patricarchy When you think of ‘luxury’ you picture something lavish, with a great deal of expense. Something that is perhaps enjoyed as a treat from time to time, or as a ‘one-off’. Tampons? I don’t necessarily think that myself, along with 32.2 million other women in the UK, squeal with sheer and utter excitement at the thought of purchasing our monthly menstrual necessities. However, our nation’s MPs seem to think so, recently voting against an amendment to remove VAT tax on these products. That is to say that the five per cent VAT rate that is added onto what is considered as ‘non-essential items’, would have been discarded. What infuriates me as well as many others in the UK, both men and women, is that in this day and age, in the face of other cuts, something as necessary as ‘sanitary plugs’ are deemed as ‘non-essential’. What adds insult to injury was that in light of all the things we do pay VAT on, such as ‘luxurious’ tampons, the items we don’t have to pay VAT on are even more unnecessary and futile than our sanitary requirements will ever be. These goods include edible cake decorations, a ticket to the zoo, and my favourite: Yes, you’ve guessed it, crocodile meat. I’m sure women in Britain are really agonising over the choice of buying crocodile meat over tampons on their weekly trip to the supermarket. This has caused me to call into question the decision-making bodies that decide how our money is spent in Britain. Still in the 21st century, after years of advancement in equal rights of women, there still seems to be a lack of regard for women and their physical health. What’s more, with the House of Commons being heavily dominated by men—a recent report showing that after the General Election 2015 the ratio of male MPs to female MPs was 459 men to 191 women— perhaps the unfairness of tax amendments is reflective of the disproportionate number of men to women in parliament.
This is an excerpt from Deborah’s article the rest of which can be found online at www.mancunion.com
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Can we just remember why we’re here?
Adam Merrill Contributor
Each year we remember those who have died in conflict. We remember and pay our respects to the contribution and sacrifices that servicemen and women have made, particularly over the past century. It is a time to remember that whilst war might be a solution in extreme cases, it is a decision not to be taken lightly, which can result in terrible consequences that last long after the original reasons for war have been forgotten. It is not a time for politicians and the media to be political point-scoring. It is always a humbling occasion when I go to a remembrance service, and this year was no exception. Representatives of all faiths and none, public service organisations, youth movements and members of the government all reverentially paid their respects, and went about their business after the Sunday service had finished. But upon my return home and the days followed, the British public were subject to a barrage of smears. Not only were
Of course, this is nonsense, and soldiers have been largely indifferent to the fact that some soldiers are gay, supporting their mates coming out, given that one day they may save their lives. The last bastion of faux outrage and ignorance that decided to bombard the British public with their bile is the farright group Britain First. As I am sure most readers of this already realise, Britain First are a bit of a joke, which is why they will only get a brief mention. These hardcore patriots who supposedly love our servicemen and women, decided to post on their Facebook page a meme about fish and chips during the twominutes silence. Britain First also ignored pleas by Lee Rigby’s family, the soldier who was brutally murdered in London, not to exploit his name for political propaganda, and posted his photograph five times during the weekend with the caption “lest we forget.” Lastly, Britain First activists exploited child poppy sellers with their “protect the poppy” campaign from “leftwing anarchists and Islamists.” This protection was in the form of two overweight, middle aged, unarmed men, tasked with singlehandedly stopping an attack by hardcore terrorists in the suburbs of Nottingham. They of course forgot to pose for photos wearing their own poppies, or if they did have them, forgot to wear them correctly on their left breast. As ever, the vast majority of us managed to observe Remembrance Sunday with respect and regard for others. However, again as ever, the minute minority successfully harnessed the day in a tirade of hate. As benign as it sounds, perhaps laughing at them is the only way around them. Anger won’t stop them, censoring hasn’t worked, so why not just deprive them of the satisfaction, and provide them instead with the ridicule they deserve.
these smears often untruths, they were incredibly disrespectful, especially when they were carried out by people claiming to be upholding servicemen’s dignity and honour. Alongside many other newspapers, The Sun decided the next day was a fitting date to not only score cheap political points against Jeremy Corbyn for not bowing low enough, but also to post this smear attack alongside a semi-naked young woman frolicking about in her underwear. For The Sun, a supposedly socially Conservative newspaper to plaster this image after Remembrance Sunday, right alongside an attack on Corbyn for being disrespectful, strikes me as hypocritical. This hypocrisy is consistent with the fact that Corbyn staying behind to applaud the horse guard parade by WW2 veterans was ignored. His decision to stay and to talk to veterans of old and recent conflicts, whilst many other politicians went to a VIP reception for a free lunch, was clearly deemed irrelevant. Naïvely, I thought the VIP’s were the veterans. What’s more, The Sun’s sister paper The News of the World previously hacked dead soldiers’ phones, to which the Royal British Legion’s response was to suspend all ties. If that wasn’t bad enough, let’s just remember that The Sun reliably backs a party that has cut the Armed Forces’ effectiveness by a third through cuts, has decided that the best thing for low morale is to cut pay rises to Armed Forces personnel in this parliament, and has responsibility for 9,000 homeless veterans on the streets. The hypocrisy of The Sun was so bad that the outspoken Richard Dawkins waded in to both criticise the publication publicly, and question the intellectual capabilities of anyone who bought the paper. The next faux outrage came from the Twittersphere. As anyone who attends a remembrance service knows, the service ends at about 11:30am, with a two-minute silence held at 11:00am. This year however,
as soon as Corbyn did his bow to the cenotaph and placed his wreath, Twitter was alight with claims that he did not bow low enough or even didn’t do it at all. The irony here is that these accusations of shame and lack of patriotism were coming from people who themselves didn’t bother to attend a remembrance service, and were sat on their computers at home during the two minutes’ silence watching the whole thing on telly. Those that did report from the scene of the crime clearly didn’t understand the significant amount of disrespect it shows to be at a Remembrance Service, supposedly in thoughtful silence, but instead tweeting rambling accusations about a man not bowing enough towards the cenotaph. You do have to ask yourself who is showing the greatest amount of dignity in this situation. One such outspoken defender of veterans, a man who’s given himself the task of smiting down the unpatriotic, is Sir Gerald Howarth MP. He claimed that Corbyn was “an embarrassment to his party” and an “embarrassment to our country.” This is a man who has previously defended a stag do in France, organised by Tory MP Aidan Burley, with the dress code of Nazi and SS officers. Our selfappointed moral abettor is an individual to whom it didn’t seem to matter that this is categorically illegal in France. It was “just a bit of fun,” and the criticism was “a very nasty witch hunt by some sections of the press.” Howarth is also concerned about the welfare of servicemen and women, especially on the issue of homosexuality. This is because he has served in the RAF reserves for a grand total of one year (1968 – 69) and therefore is thoroughly committed to driving up standards. In 2000, he called the abolishment of the ban on homosexuals in the Armed Forces “appalling” and said that the “decision will be greeted with dismay, particularly by ordinary soldiers in Her Majesty’s forces.”
Corbyn needs to play the game
Jeremy Corbyn needs to be pragmatic if he is to win over middle England
George Bolton Contributor According to Sarah Gordon and George Parker of the Financial Times, “Jeremy Corbyn has refused an invitation to speak at the CBI’s annual conference, snubbing the leading business lobby organisation as it tries to build bridges with the opposition leadership.” In addition to this, the director of the Confederation of British Industry claims, “there has been no contact between the CBI and either Mr Corbyn or the new shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, since they took on their roles in September.” As a Labour supporter, I am very discouraged by the decisions the new Leader of the Opposition has made. If Jeremy Corbyn wants to have a serious chance of becoming Prime Minister, he must win over a large proportion of the electorate, most of whom were not inclined to vote for Ed Miliband in the last election. The right-wing press slated Ed Miliband throughout his election campaign for being “anti-business.” Does not one of Corbyn’s advisors, therefore, think that refusing to speak to the CBI, with over 100 leaders of UK business present, was a huge strategic error? All Labour supporters, whether on the left or the right of the party, should be calling on their leader to end his petulant, symbolic behaviour. Refusing to speak on the Andrew Marr show to attend a fundraising event in his constituency is another key illustration that Corbyn has not adapted to his new role as the leader of the party. Attending every 30-people-strong cake sale in your constituency is all well and good when you are on the backbenches,
over Downing Street Photoshopping a poppy on the David Cameron’s Facebook photo. If that were Jeremy Corbyn, we wouldn’t have stopped hearing about it for months. Let us not dwell on this—the fact of the matter is that any mistake Corbyn makes between now and 2020, if he lasts that long, will be morphed, amplified and magnified. Surely, then, it would be wise to simply minimise these events.
“The British electorate want a Prime Minister that can responsibly handle the economy and defend his policies under intense scrutiny”
Photo: Chris Beckett @Flickr
but when you are the Leader of the Opposition you must prove to the wider electorate that you are capable of being the Prime Minister. There aren’t many better platforms in which to do this than the Andrew Marr show and at the CBI. Declining to appear on probably the most respected political chat show in the country or speak to the country’s business leaders may merit a momentary round of applause from the more hardcore Corybnites, but what does it say to the rest of the country? The British electorate want a Prime Minister that can responsibly handle the economy and defend his policies under intense scrutiny, not one
that sticks to his principles no matter what. Each one of these strategic errors produces untold scrutiny from the rightwing press. The most recent example of this was the matter of bowing at the Remembrance Day ceremony. This should not be a contestable issue, or an opportunity for Corbyn to display a noble moral act. If it means not adding fuel to the Daily Mail fire, above which Jez is constantly dangling, then surely it is worth avoiding the controversy and just bowing low enough to satisfy even Britain First. While on the topic of the right wing media blowing things far out of proportion, it is worth noting what little fuss was made
Some will argue that there are not many valuable lessons to be learned from Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister, but something that is plain to see is that he was a master of campaigning. He wooed Rupert Murdoch and held fancy cocktail parties with the country’s business elite and, for this, outraged the left of the Labour Party. But in the light of his more admirable achievements, such as the drop of relative child poverty rates from 27 per cent in 1996 to 18 per cent in 2010, doesn’t the fact that he didn’t adopt an adversary stance to the media and business elite seem petty? If Corbyn’s Labour is to even put up a fight in 2020, he is going to have to come to terms with the fact that he is no longer a member of just the intelligentsia or the backbenches. He must dilute his principles, adopt some Blairite pragmatism, and try to win over Middle England.
Opinion11
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NATO and the illusion of safety
Colm Lock looks at whether NATO has neglected to maintain its defences Under the shadow of the Russian bear, no one is truly safe. Britain has the luxury of distance between itself and Russia, but what of the rest of mainland Europe? What about Finland and the Baltic states? Where do they turn when Russian aggression boils up? They turn to NATO of course. NATO is an alliance originally set up to safeguard Western European nations against Soviet aggression by preventing Russia from goosestepping into West Germany and the rest of the continent. Back then, the alliance probably could have held off the Soviet onslaught rather respectively, yet I despair to see the weakness of our alliance today. At present, NATO is currently conducting one of its largest exercises for the best part of a decade, named Trident Juncture. It is currently taking place in the western Mediterranean where they are making a great song and dance about the whole thing and saying that it shows the strength and willingness of NATO to fight any aggression that may be targeted at its weaker partners. This is however, total codswallop. The central command are very pleased with themselves for being able to gather 36,000 troops and around 30 maritime assets for this exercise, attempting to delude us that this will be enough should an attack come. To believe such lies is a surefire symptom of idiocy. At the enemy’s disposal are over 1,000 attack aircraft, a standing army of over 400,000 with around 10,000 tanks at its disposal, and a navy numbering some 280 ships. These numbers are colossal and NATO in its present form could not hope to match them. Should Russia choose to invade Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Finland with even a quarter of this force, our armies would not even be able to muster a credible defence before Putin was taking in the sights of Riga. Now those optimists amongst you will say that I am wrong, that Putin would never try such a thing
and that another European war is completely impossible in today’s day and age. Well, to you I say read up on recent European history. After the Holocaust, people imagined that another European genocide was impossible and then, just 20 years ago, the Srebrenica massacre occurred. If you had said to someone ten years ago that Russia would go on to invade and annex parts of Georgia and Ukraine, while NATO sat by and watched, they would have laughed at you. All of this has come to fruition and it has all happened because we have become naïve in believing that we live in a world where we can all sit around a campfire and sing kumbaya, holding hands and existing in a world of mutually cooperative nation states. Russia is on the march. They rolled over Georgia to take South Ossetia and Abkhazia without so much as batting an eye. They moved onto even bigger
game when they seized Crimea without a skirmish. It is only right to assume that Putin is now looking to one up himself and this time seize a whole country predicting that NATO will do absolutely nothing. It neither has the stomach nor the resources to fight a European land war or fight at sea. The Americans have become tired of Europe constantly slashing its defence budgets safe in the knowledge that big brother America will protect them. They are fed up, and would not bear to lose thousands of troops in defence of another foreign land. Britain has trimmed its armed forces to such a shamefully small size that we could not even hope to hold the Russians off in the North sea. We hear ever increasing reports of bombers flying ever closer and closer to British airspace and Russian ships skirting the south coast yet we do not increase our number of jets. Germany is reliant on Russia for energy and fuel while its minuscule mili-
Photo: DonkeyHotey @Flickr
tary is plagued by inefficiencies and failings while the French cannot be relied upon. NATO has signalled its weakness by thinking diplomacy will be the answer. The diplomatic solution, however, died when the west failed to uphold the terms of a treaty which said they would protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine. No troops have been sent to fight the ‘rebels’ to help keep Ukraine intact, and why is this? It is because no one powerful in NATO has the balls to do so. America is currently facing serious pressures in the South China Sea and the Middle East. Britain’s defence spending should match Americans at 3.5 per cent of GDP, yet we languish at two per cent. The Germans won’t fight, the French are unreliable and the Spanish and Italians lack power projection. The only NATO member really stepping up to the plate is Poland but, being so small, one doubts their ability so significantly halt any concerted Russian advance into the Baltics. So fellow students, what is the answer? Some will say more diplomacy, some will say to withdraw from NATO and abandon the smaller nations to the mercy of the Russian bear. But I say there is a different answer. It is time that we as students stopped harping on about cultural appropriation, lad culture on campus and censoring speakers. Instead, we should be demanding that our government be able to defend our rights and liberties as well as those of our fellow students in weaker nations who might not be able to defend these freedoms themselves. Think of the peoples of eastern Europe to whom democracy is only a couple decades old. Democracy which now is at risk from the autocratic rule of Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin cronies. Russia must be stopped, and an increase in military spending across NATO and regaining a willingness to fight is the only way to deter Mother Russia from launching another European expedition.
Why it’s time to crack down on the touts
Earlier this month, thousands of fans attempted to get hold of tickets to The Stone Roses’ 2016 reunion tour after intense hype over recent weeks. Websites crashed within minutes of tickets going on sale, and many fans were left empty-handed and frustrated. The disappointment of missing out on tickets would have perhaps been reduced if they weren’t appearing on resale websites within minutes of selling out. This situation is all too common with those who look to buy tickets for many major events, not just concerts. I’m sure many people will have been waiting in virtual queues, desperately refreshing webpages only to find that tickets have sold out, being directed to partner websites advertising inflated tickets. Standing tickets for The Stone Roses were sold at £64.90 with a booking fee of £5.90 per ticket. After selling out, over 3,000 tickets have been listed on GetMeIn.com alone, just days after selling out—all well above the face value. An identical situation can be seen on other websites. Tickets started from £90 for the same standing ticket, with some rising above £1,000. Add to this the further charges on top of resold tickets by authorised agencies that regulate their sale—most websites charge a booking fee of 10 – 15% of the resale price, along with handling fees and delivery charges.
“The resale of tickets becomes an oligopoly, with a small number of sellers having a vast amounts of tickets. ” Ticket touts used to only occur outside venues with a small number of tickets, buying spare tickets and selling them at inflated prices or counterfeits. UK law now prevents the resale of tickets on the streets unless touts have a street-trading licence— though this is rarely enforced. The growth of official online ticket resale agencies such as StubHub and Viagogo have meant that much of the activity is now online. The regulation of the resale of tickets online has only shifted the problem. While it pre-
from ticket touts for securing a ticket for them. A fact often highlighted is the risk involved with touting—the danger of losing money on unsold tickets justify the value added by touts. This assumes that with every risk, a degree of benefit should come with it. Through the same logic, artists and venues should add a premium for the risk of unsold tickets (though this is often accounted for). Again, the touts are not providing the customer with any benefit by reselling tickets that could have been bought from the primary seller and the risk involved should not allow fans to be exploited.
“Ticket touting is hurting the entertainment business and the resale of tickets with inflated prices needs to be prevented at all costs. ”
Photo: Brian Siewiorek @Flickr
Luke Williams Contributor vents tickets from being fake, it doesn’t stop people making vast profits from the resale of tickets. Touts are still hoarding tickets to resell with added cost. The unauthorised resale of football tickets is illegal in the UK, whether online or on the streets. This has meant that agencies have partnered with football clubs to become authorised sellers, bypassing the law. Currently, Viagogo has partnerships with Chelsea and PSG, while StubHub has linked with clubs like Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Sunderland. Arsenal and Liverpool meanwhile have their own ticket exchanges in place. An argument is that touts utilise a scarcity in tickets to add a premium to the price of a ticket. More often than not, this could not be further from the truth. The touts add to the shortage of tickets and the scarcity is somewhat artificial. Add to this the fact that touts can sometimes have access to tickets before going on sale. The fabricated shortage increases the price of tickets while demand remains stable. The resale of tickets becomes an oligopoly, with a small number of sellers having vast amounts of tickets. This prices many fans out of the market,
meaning only an elite band of consumers can afford these tickets. The original sale of tickets could be described as a monopoly, though some degree of regulation and justification for this exists. The price is rationalised by a reasonable cost of the services of the performer, the venue and the management. Some argue that ticket touting is legitimate capitalism—buying and selling a commodity for profit. Ticket touts do not provide a service that does not already exist with the primary ticket seller. Online purchase and distribution is already available, and online resale by a tout hasn’t added any convenience that warrants an increased price. The primary seller already adds on booking fees and delivery charges that already increase the price of a ticket from the face value. The buyer is getting the same ticket with the same experience from the event which invalidates any such price increase from touts. A more valid argument would be if the secondary seller was adding a convenience to warrant an added premium. Why should I reward someone tens or hundreds of pounds for cheating me out of a product? It would be interesting to hear of anyone who avoids buying initial tickets to dodge virtual queues and instead chooses to pay a premium
Some events are now requiring the ticket holder to carry ID that matches the name on the ticket. This will prevent genuine ticket holders who can no longer attend the event from reselling their tickets even for face value or less. This can also leave events under capacity if large amounts of tickets have been bought by touts. A similar situation was seen at the 2012 Olympics, where many events were under capacity—though this was largely as a result of unused tickets from sponsors. Foreign ticket agencies also marketed tickets at inflated prices which also added to the problem. Ticket touts make tickets available closer to an event, but why should these fans have their access to such tickets for an increased price prioritised over fans who planned ahead and tried to buy tickets originally? Ticket touting is hurting the entertainment industry, and the resale of tickets with inflated prices needs to be prevented at all costs. It limits both the ability of an artist to ensure fair prices for fans and the chance for genuine fans to get hold of tickets. I encourage all fans to use apps such as Twickets and Vibe to get tickets for face value—though these companies still charge commission—and not allow touts to exploit the system for profit.
Music
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ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Feature
A Taste of Freakout Honey
Alex Daniel samples the nectar of young Mancunian psych outfit Freakout Honey, or ‘the artists formerly known as The Boris Johnson Massacre’ If you go to gigs in Manchester and you haven’t heard of Freakout Honey, you probably will have done by this time next year. They’ve not been around for long, but have a string of shows at some of the city’s best small venues under their belt, and with a name referencing the Manchester Bee they’re on an upward trajectory towards practically having a cult following - their recent packed-out headline slot at the Night & Day Café was evidence enough. Ahead of this, I dropped in on the last rehearsal before their biggest show to date to see what they were all about. After a brief prelude out in the rain waiting for someone to find a key to their scuzzy-but-characterful practice space opposite Kraak Gallery (now AATMA), I was led into the hive amid an enthusiastic run down of the names they toyed with before settling on Freakout Honey. “The Boris Johnson Massacre was one of our favourites – like the Brian Jonestown Massacre but more appropriate. It’s a bit mental but kind of cool. We actually used that name when we collaborated with the Purple Heart Parade so we were obviously determined to get it in!” In fact, two of their guitarists, Ryan and Sam, are ex-members of The Purple Heart Parade, a Manchester shoegaze outfit. When asked how and why Freakout Honey consequently came together, they explained: “We came wanting something fresh -
they [TPHP] were great musicians and great people, but another member of the band was settling down and having a kid and we weren’t having that! So we contacted Sofia [vocals] and Natalie [bass] who used to take photos of our old band. Then she enlisted Tom [drums] and then we found Taous [guitar], and that completed the jigsaw.” The shoegaze influence of their old band is certainly strong, but Ryan was quick to point out that FH are not so quick to be pigeonholed into a genre: “We’ve all come together from very different musical backgrounds. We don’t really sound like anything else on the scene at the moment because there’s such a wide variety of influences.” Indeed, when asked about their sound, words like “tropical”, “glam” and “dark” were thrown into the mix, while Taous (labelled by one publication as “the effortless French slacker”) points out “my last band was a punk outfit – more of a joke band really but it shows that we’ve all come from different musical places… we were called The Balotelli’s!” Despite the sense of being a slightly crazy, slightly ‘all over the place’ band, Freakout Honey seem to have a strong sense of identity, and they’re not afraid to bring an element of darkness to the table either. This is best illustrated in ‘The Witch Surf’, a YouTube demo of theirs which is racking up the views. Singer Sofia explains: “I named it ‘The Witch’
because the song is actually about a woman killing a guy – the lyrics are pretty fucking deep – ‘baby what’s wrong / tell me why you look so blue / did she take your soul and run away / did she abandon you?’ …When you die you go blue, so… She’s killed him and left, basically! Then we wanted to whack surf on the end because that’s just how we like it.” Ryan: “Some working titles actually stick and sound alright, you know?” Before I left, they gave a rendition of this, and it was as swirling, surfey and dark as it was on record. Finishing up, I asked about the forthcoming show. Ryan: “The Night & Day is actually our second headline gig but it’s the single launch. Definitely our biggest gig so far. We’re close to selling it out too, which is exciting.” “What?!” interjects Natalie, “shit, I told everyone to get tickets on the door too, it’s gonna be RAMMED!” She was right. Nothing in a practice room was going to match the intensity of Freakout Honey’s live performance. After support from locals Bad Molly and CABBAGE, Freakout Honey took to the stage in front of a drunken, packed out Night & Day Café and kicked off with ‘So Far’, followed by the driving, droning ‘Trap Me’. Musical intricacy is not what this set is about, but they have a real talent for creating the overall ‘sound’ that they want. Sparkling effects and swirling vocals combine to create a brand
Photography courtesy of Emilia Castles. Find more of her work at http://emiliacastle.tumblr.com
of surf-psyche, which, although far from entirely ‘unique’, has many in the audience transfixed and excited in equal measure. It’s certainly the sort of reverb-soaked gig that will help to attract a sell-out attendance to Cosmosis festival next, which they are playing along with The Jesus and Mary Chain and FH’s big influences The Brian Jonestown Massacre. My personal highlight was the aforementioned ‘The Witch Surf’. Before playing this tune they offer a prize for the best dancer, before the song descends into an intense jam in which bassist Natalie loses it, grabbing a tambourine and wielding it like a weapon before dropping into the audience to join them in the exhuberant sweat-pit of a crowd. This pretty much sums up the band for me – a driven, close-knit and slightly unhinged psych outfit that really know how to work a crowd. On the current Manchester live scene, they’re more than likely going places, so keep your eyes peeled.
Live
Album
7th November @ Gulliver’s
Released 6th November via PMR Records
Jamie Woon: Making Time
Algiers
Go to an Algiers gig and then tell us music isn’t political enough in 2015. We dare you.
Woon’s been out of action since 2011, and on Making Time, you can tell he’s been taking time.
Will Baldwin-Pask Contributor
Pierre Flasse Contributor
8/10
In the wake of race based riots, not-so-secret police violence and the ongoing presidential campaign of Donald Trump, selfreflection is something many argue the United States could do with at the moment. Atlanta-based band Algiers are holding up the blackest of mirrors to their mother country. Forging gospel, hip-hop, punk and everything in between, the dark hybrid sound that accompanies the socio-political message of the band is finally showcased for the hundred or so people gathered in Gulliver’s Pub in Northern Quarter. The group enter to the sound of swelling doomsday strings and a recording of aggrieved African-American voices, an intense welcome to the next hour of small-stage social protest. The music remains similarly eerie as guitarist Lee Tesche’s instrument screeches and echoes, whilst frontman Franklin James Fischer gives a soulful, tortured vocal performance from the start. Dressed in a suit, Fischer resembles a preacher, wincing and wailing his way through songs - at one point, he even takes to the crowd, seemingly performing an exorcism on someone. There is a sense that this band are putting on the last gig on judgement day, a final funeral for the mesmerised audience. Algiers’ strongest songs, ‘Irony.Utility.Pretext.’ and ‘But She Was Not Flying’ appear early on, demanding attention with handclaps, chants and violent harmonies, the latter track also providing the most impassioned of Fischer’s vocal performances. Although it can be hard to discern everything Fischer says, lyrics aimed at the powers that be do float up occasionally, as they are accused of “Deciding who is fit/To go out and die/And who is black enough/To be left behind”. The crowd’s interest dwindles somewhat with ‘Remains’, bassist Ryan Mahan’s attempt to cause a clap-along by beating his own chest and head becoming insipid rather than inspiring; by the time ‘Blood’ comes on, the man who was exorcised has whipped out a vape pen and a middle-aged couple are
Tracks of the
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
seen kissing to the words “four hundred years of torture”. Matt Tong, the ex-Bloc Party drummer who has joined the band for live shows, can seem like a frustrated circus animal at times. His thwacks dwarf other elements of the music, yet the clinical ferocity he displayed in his old band never surfaces, which is a shame given this is one of the best drummers British indie music has seen. Fears the band may have peaked too soon however are dismissed when they reach their slow moment. ‘Games’ is a beaten-up guitar ballad about faith, in religion and in humanity, switching the tone from aggressive to melancholic. This captivates the crowd entirely and going into final song, ‘Black Eunuch’, you can see they’ve been won over. With a fantastic guitar riff and Fischer throwing in some dance moves, just to show that it doesn’t have to be so serious ALL the time, the controlled noise builds flawlessly to the show’s successful climax. Although Algiers can hardly constitute easy listening, their message resolutely hits home. Unlike other artists in America discussing similar themes, say for instance Kendrick Lamar, the band don’t seek audience participation through catchiness or an accessible style. This makes them a spectacle. Algiers stun you into silence and force you to listen to them so you think about what they’re saying. The show ends then on a last note as dramatic as its first. An incredible performance overall, they will surely grab the attention of the wider world, as they did to this small pub in Manchester, by virtue of being a truly relevant band of today.
Aurora: ‘Half the World Away’ Released 6th November via Decca
You will probably recognise this for being chosen as the soundtrack to this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert. Penned by Noel Gallagher and appearing on Oasis’ compilation The Masterplan in 1998, it has been a while since somebody has reworked this heart-wrenching number. The delicate voice of Bergen-based AURORA works perfectly over the melody. It’s fragile yet crisp and confident over the soft piano, whilst lush strings wrap themselves gracefully around each chord change. It will Charlie Chipchase leave a lump in your throat – with or without the advert.
Week
Contributor
7/10
Jamie Woon enjoyed a buzz and fervour in 2010 around his breakthrough song ‘Night Air’, and was pegged as a new crossover dub star. His 2011 LP Mirrorwriting, however, unleashed a variety of R&B and neo-soul upon the industry, surprising and disappointing many. Since then, he’s been entirely off the radar, working on his new album. He’s made peace with this process though and is known to be a painstaking perfectionist, stating that “each project takes as long as it takes”. Initially, I was apprehensive about the album. ‘Message’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Sharpness’ use very similar drum hits, similar synth backings and similar (though beautiful) R&B vocals. Whilse there is a great deal of hype around Woon, and these songs are delicious to digest, it did seem at this point that he was a one trick pony. In an album you want more than repetition. At this point, ‘Lament’ swung the entire album for me. It takes some subtle dub from the previous tracks and combines it with a much slower beat that racks up the intensity of the vocal quality. These combine with some truly fruity melodic progressions to create a really beautiful track. Making Time soon starts to feel like a natural development from Woon’s last album - mature and selfassured. A strong, slow hip hop hi-hat permeates the entire album, with smooth synth that naturally pushes the soulful vocals. There’s a delightful acoustic element which occasionally surfaces – these for me are the shining moments and deliver a much more isolated, personal quality with his voice. Two such examples are ‘Forgiven’ and ‘Little Wonder’, in which the guitar is used much more percussively, and give a pretty fine insight into his skill as a musician. This is a guy who has really settled into his sound, and has dedicated a lot of time to experimenting with what works for his soft, soulful voice. Making Time is sequenced to perfection -as any album that took 4 years to make should be - offering a balance between the hi-hat, dub and acoustic.Despite sporting some questionable tracks, the album is overall well rounded and resonates a triumphant vocal led sound. Woon did well to ache over every hit and synth sound, resulting in polished, clean grooves. It’s a perfect album for chilling at home, and while it won’t break any records, it has the feel of an artist who’s found his own and is nailing it.
Empress Of: ‘Standard (ABRA remix)’ Self -released on 10th November
Kiiara: ‘Gold’ Released 25th October via Atlantic
ABRA has taken Empress Of’s ‘Standard’ to new heights with a remix that substitutes its murky percussive stabs with a classic techno bass that will be familiar to any producer savvy with Apple’s Logic software. Despite the original standing out as it is, the production here is slicker and somehow harder, yet minimal enough to leave space for Empress’ vocals to still assert their dominance. “I’ve been living below the standard”, she laments. This tune, on the other hand, is certainly above it.
Not strictly ‘this week’, perse, but this needed a mention. Productionwise, ‘Gold’ is undoubtedly a song that belongs in the 2010s. Reverbsoaked percussion, staggered hi-hats, and heavily effected vocals bring to mind a style reminiscent of works that range from James Blake to Nicki Minaj, and yet it still has an arresting power. Chopped, nonsensical vocals form the main body of the song, while Kiiara’s light, airy voice glides over the top. “Imma bite your fillings out”, she warns at one point. The juxtaposition between her seemingly innocent voice and this sinister imagery works perfectly here. Accessible creepiness.
Music 13
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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False Nines
LOCALLY SOURCED
‘Five per cent luck, 20 per cent skill.’ False Nines may not have done the maths, but Chrisptopher White finds theirs success story to be one of brazen gambles paying off. Manchester based indie-rock band False Nines are an up and coming group who have gained notoriety from numerous plays on BBC 6music. Their sound is an infusion of each member’s unique take on influences ranging from Belle and Sabastian to Led Zeppelin. Active since 2013, they have quickly carved a name for themselves, making it onto 6music’s Marc Riley pick of 2014 list and more recently gaining recognition from Steve Lamacq. I met lead singer Aaron and bassist Jake in the Castle Hotel pub, where their debut single launch gig is planned to take place. The Castle is a rather cosy place which fits only 80. Jake joked that they choose this smaller venue to “make the audience look bigger!” Although obviously excited by their increasing reputation, both band members were modest and charming, even going as far as to pay for my drinks! And so with a drink in one hand, pen in the other, I learned of their unlikely rise to prominence. False Nines is comprised of four friends Aaron, Jake, lead guitarist George and another Jake (Jake B) on drums. Their “how they met” story is a modern tale involving Twitter and a mutual love for the same band. Jake and George had been friends for many years, playing in various groups when they found themselves without a singer. What better way in this social media age to find one than to tweet an advertisement to one of your favourite bands? The band Jake tweeted was Field Music, who‘s subsequent retweet garnered the attention of singer Aaron. It all started out as a bit of fun, but a year in to honing their sound and ‘messing around’, they made a considerable splash on the music landscape due to a chance encounter with radio DJ Marc Riley. The story goes that George handed Riley a demo of ‘Call it Wrong’ who played it on the way home Riley played it in his car and he took an instant liking! He called the boys up, told them he was going play their song on his 6 music show and sure enough, False Nines found themselves on national radio. Bassist Jake described this as the catalyst for their careers; from here independent record label LDN signed the band and started working with them to release their first single. Manchester is rewound for football as much as it is music, and False Nines’ name unites the two. The term refers to a player whose role is more than what is printed on their back; who gives more than what is expected. Appropriate given what 4 lads with dreams and day jobs have managed to achieve. False Nines play their ‘Can’t Afford to Wonder’ single launch show on the Thursday 26th November at the Castle Hotel, Oldham St. Photo: Kmeron@Flickr
Band Member wanted
Local favourites Tourist Attractions are looking for a new member who, in their own words ‘primarily plays keys/synth and has a great vocal ability.’ The band regularly plays gigs in and around Manchester and has been recommended by BBC6’s Steve Lamacq. Citing Foals and Joy division as their influences, they have a dusky yet decidedly catchy sound. If you think you have what it takes to join these promising up and com ers, send them a message via Facebook.
The Litmus Test It seems the Manchester rain is here to stay. Which songs match the drudgery and which make you pine for summer? Sarah Massey Contributor
the Opinion Just another indie banned name
Pressure on Viet Cong to change their name has been successful. Less successful has been attempts to debate censorship in art, says Jacob Bernard-Banton
What’s in a name? Viet Cong, the Canadian post-punk quartet, recently announced that they were changing their name after accusations that it was an example of cultural insensitivity, trivialising the atrocities during the Vietnam War. The band issued a statement stating they “never intended for [it] to be provocative or hurtful”, but it did little to endear them to the people indignantly posting their anger on social media or taking to e-petition sites. It didn’t help either that the band are comprised of four white men, with many bloggers lambasting them for ostensibly indulging in smug “white privilege”. It is a strange state-of-affairs: forty years ago, a post-punk band with a provocative name would be positively quotidian. Joy Division were named after the prostitution wing of Nazi concentration camps. Andy Gill of Gang of Four (another band with a subversive name) defended Viet Cong on the grounds that the internet outrage was “illiberal, undemocratic and anti-progressive”. Controversial band names weren’t limited to punk. Soft-rock heroes Steely Dan were named after a strap-on dildo in Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch. Eighties pop doyens Spandau Ballet took their moniker from the common slang for the twitching “dance” of hanged Nazi war criminals. Lest we forget, Kasabian are named after Linda Kasabian, a member of Charles Manson’s infamous cult and his getaway driver. Slaves have also come under fire, their name accused of racial insensitivity. But that objection is itself problematic: it suggests that “slaves” can only ever be associated with the plight of subjugated
African slaves in the 18th century, rather than slavery in and of itself. It is also an aggravating state-of-affairs. While it is true that Viet Cong may be a naïve choice for a band name, one that has caused many people significant pain and offence, its censorship would be a tremendous shame. Censorship only leads to a paranoid culture that cossets our sensibilities and self-righteousness. However indirectly, band names that evoke violent and uncompromising imagery ultimately force us to confront difficult subjects. It, to some degree, erases taboos – even if it might well be distressing, shocking and in poor taste. Censorship closes down any sort of debate or dialogue in art; it prohibits people from engaging with questionable material or coming to a conclusion of their own. Censorship is didactic and refuses to treat consumers like adults. That said, we must be careful not to ignore the concerns of the offended people who dismiss Viet Cong. As a Guardian article that was critical of Tyler the Creator’s ban from performing in the UK makes clear, “free speech absolutism is as much the province of idiots and headbangers as is kneejerk censorship, and often has a pernicious and prejudiced agenda of its own.” Such is the need for Photo:Album Artwork taboo-smashing debate. Furthermore, some of the
most offensive band names in music often invites baffled amusement or even laughter, which was my immediate response after Googling a list of genuinely terrible names. They were in very bad taste, but also absurd and ridiculous. You can’t take many of them very seriously: AIDS Wolf and Gay Witch Abortion just sound silly. They make Viet Cong look a little quaint. Moreover, it could be possible that Viet Cong is open to multiple interpretations. Maybe it represents a Dadaist impulse for being intentionally offensive and provocative? Perhaps it continues Dada’s insurrectionary commitment to destroying bourgeois contentment. Who’s to say that Viet Cong doesn’t express an agitated and mischievous post-colonial ideology? Maybe it represents the skewering of liberal sensibilities? Maybe its purpose is to make uncomfortable the very people calling for the name-change, the privileged western folk on their laptops typing with anger about it? To remind them of the horrors of that conflict? If the Tyler the Creator’s ban tells us anything, it is that censorship only lends an attractive enigmatic aura to the group being censored – more people will actually gravitate to them. For the sake of “the group formerly known as Viet Cong”, let’s hope so: their music is what we should all be really talking about.
the Interview Ghostpoet
A second Mercury nomination has cemented Ghostpoet’s place as part of the furniture in British music. Elinor James caught him in as high spirits as his subdued drawl could muster. Obaro Ejimiwe, known to most of us as Ghostpoet, introduces himself via mobile phone at 6pm on a dark and unsurprisingly rainy autumn Friday: “Everyone calls me Obar”. His calm southern tones tell me that my signal from a quiet hospital café in Wigan is currently connected to one in South London. He’s taking another call at 20 past; apparently the start of the weekend is prime PR time for this musician. Musician, evidently, but not classically trained – although he’s been “listening, observing and analysing” music for years. “I’m a self-taught producer. Well, I get by, you know”. Music was not Obar’s top choice at university. He studied Media Production at Coventry University and loved it, but his career path took a few turns before bringing him here. Coming home from his old job on the phones in customer service, hours of twilight experiments with music and production eventually led to his own produced, polished material. Fast-forward to 2015: plus 3 more albums, minus one day job in customer service, he finds himself with a second Mercury nomination, playing festivals all over the world and (particularly delightfully) returning to Manchester to support Alt-J and the Horrors at the end of November (where another of the Mancunion music writers and I will be found dancing round like maniacs all night). Incidentally Obar is a fan of this pretty city of clouds and rain.“Makes a nice change from London. I remember playing Parklife a few years back. Jessie Ware was on after me and, yeah, I remember thinking what a great gig it was”.
If, after giving Ghostpoet’s new Mercury nominated album Shedding Skin a listen, you’re thinking to yourself “more of where that came from please”, and you ask a well-known music streaming website to recommend similar artists, you are steered towards the sounds of Mount Kimbie, SBTRKT, James Blake and Jamie xx. All do bear resemblance; chilled, very cool music with lots of electro influences, digital production and sampling. But asked who he himself admires in the industry, Obar references artists distinct from himself and one another stylistically and temporally, but pulled together by one thread in particular: each has not negotiated on their style and principles while moving with the music industry’s pressures. “Nick Cave is a great songwriter, he creates amazing atmosphere with his lyrics. He’s an interesting human being. Massive Attack have done great things in their time. I hear their show is really good, but have never caught them live myself. Wish I had. Oh and Patti Smith, she’s a trailblazer. She’s uncompromising”. Obar feels his own growth as an artist over the past 5 years has led him to “make better choices musically”. He cannot explain how or why, but adds that lyrically he strives to “reflect the zeitgeist of the time” (had to google that one), with each album echoing the world as it changes. “I use my music to capture moments and talk about life”: he moves with the times, yes, but chooses not to compromise on his values and beliefs, he promises me after I pick him up on this potential contradiction. “It is easy to lose your-
Tom Waits – Dead and Lovely
Death Cab For Cutie – A Lack of Colour
Travis – Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
Wonderfully dark and scratchy: Tom Waits nails melancholy, depressive and deep to a tee. Pitch bends galore and brushes on the drums makes this the ultimate rainy day soundtrack.
Softly spoken and softly played, ‘A Lack of Colour’ provides a mellow sound for drizzly times. Despite its seemingly sweet nature, it follows typical Death Cab’s “emo” side, keeping it at the rainy end of the scale.
Despite a supposedly ‘fitting’ title, this song levels at average in the general rainy day spectrum. Overplayed and with one too many major chords, this shall forever remain mediocre.
self. I’ve seen it happen to other bands.” Next we talk Mercurys, and Ghostpoet’s warm, modest approach radiates out through my battered Samsung speaker: “I am so happy to be nominated again! I’m not even thinking about winning. It’s just great to be part of the conversation.” he tells me. “I try to stay humble. I love what I do, and am grateful to be able to do it. I’m happy to be here.” Throughout the conversation Obaro Ejimiwe (everybody calls him Obar) remains himself. He’s calm, modest but also confident in his abilities. He tells me before he goes that his mission statement is “Be happy and do what you want”, then thanks me for an interesting interview. ‘Survive It’, a single from his first album Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, plays through my headphones a few hours after the call: “I’m naturally buzzing / so allow pessimism / to burn in the flames like a phoenix has risen”: I get the feeling he does just that. Photo: Kmeron@Flickr
Bombay Bicycle Club – Luna
Katrina & the Waves – Walking on Sunshine
Whilst providing waterfall-like ambience in the form of electronic tuned percussion, ‘Luna’ is too buoyant upon the waves of rainy moods to be any higher. Great song though from a rather mixed album.
For obvious reasons and general upbeat trumpet tooting, this song has happy summer tunes written all over it – not a rainy day mood song in the slightest.
14
Music
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Album Grimes: Art Angels
Record Reappraisal
Released 2010 via Basis Records
Grimes’ new release comes with a healthy dose of poptimism. Chart worthy? Yes. Overwhelmingly brilliant? Also yes. Aileen Rose Duffy Contributor
9/10
The fourth album from artist Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, is close to perfection. With her last album, Visions, charting at #67 in the UK, Art Angels is currently sitting pretty at #26. Art Angels comes after Boucher’s reported scrapping of material for the album earlier this year after the preliminary release of the single ‘Realiti’, a song that was intended to be thrown out with the other material but managed to feature on the digital version of the album - though completely remastered from the original demo. In the album it doesn’t stick out as a totally misplaced track, but it does manage to stress the melancholy Boucher must have been feeling before she started creating the new material that eventually made it to the album: “Oh baby every morning there are mountains to climb/taking all my time/oh when I wake up this is what I see/welcome to realiti”. It’s interesting she chose to save this song, as the rest of Art Angels is an incredibly upbeat, signature-weird-pop performance that we’re used to hearing from Grimes. The album is a real development from her past work, with Boucher having taught herself guitar, drums, ukulele, and violin all to feature in the new material. The overall sound this results in is a warm and explosive 90s-nostalgia episode, particularly heralded in the first official track released from the album, ‘Flesh Without Blood’, an instantly catchy “fuck-you” anthem imbued with that special dash of insanity that Grimes likes to birth into all of her music, and it marks the creative eruption that symbolises the rest of the album. What is brilliant about Art Angels is that Boucher is finally embracing her fantastic vocal ability and no longer relying so much on the extensive mixing and reverb we heard in Visions. It’s particularly evident on ‘Belly of The Beat’, a song which is self-descriptive as listening to the upbeat hooks feels as though you’re present in the party of her creating the ‘beat’. Grimes manages to keep her beautifully haunting vocals present but also demonstrate immense flair and flow in the way that she sings her story. Interestingly, Art Angels has been criticised as a very “chart worthy” piece of work – though that’s not necessarily a bad thing that Grimes is becoming a more accessible artist. However, Boucher is clearly unhappy with this accusation towards her new sound, as she tweeted on 8th November: “there is so much beauty in music. I wish perceived commercial ambition was not the topic sometimes”. Visions was brilliant, yet very dark; Art Angels has embraced the passions and extensive talents Boucher has and it’s created a really explosive, captivating listening experience. And yet we can still feel a connection to her past, with ‘Life in the Vivid Dream’ and ‘World Princess Part II’ holding stronger electro elements and darker themes than the rest of her album. What may be the best track on the record is saved until last: ‘Venus Fly’ (featuring Janelle Monae) has a fantastic mix of house-grime-pop-synth and is sure to become one of the album’s most loved tracks, along with ‘Easily’, a soft edge piano-driven melody about a past breakup that defends how great Grimes now is without her former counterpart. Listening to the album feels like an electrifying journey around the total theme park that is Claire Boucher’s head. This new wave of Grimes’ sound is demonstrating the best of her ability, and her best is utterly overwhelming.
Indigo Jam Unit: Roots
Released 2010 via Basis Records
Imagine the scene: It’s 2010, and Japanese nu jazz is finding its feet. Pierre Flasse remembers the moment Indigo Jam Unit kicked into gear We’ve come to Indigo Jam Unit’s 10th birthday and I, for one, think it’s time to look back at one of their defining midway points, Roots, released 5 years in. Indigo Jam Unit are one of the key centrepiece bands of Japanese jazz and the nu jazz scene. This group has got to be one of the most energetic, vibrant and frenzied sounds I’ve ever heard. Their music allows you to indulge yourself in the throbbing upright bass, escape in each repeated riff, and get lost in every clean drum hit. They formed as a trio in 2005 in Osaka, Japan before being suggested to add Takehiro Shimizu on the drums. This entirely transformed the sound of the group, with a twin drum setup and Shimizu’s recognisable rhythm defining their style. What’s magnificent about this group is that their outside influences are fully visible within the music, and set up each tune with a personality. ‘Roots’ is the title track, and gives the album momentum like you’ve never heard. It begins with barely any drums and a pulsating piano melody repeated again and agin, until the drums and bass build into an energetic and fulfilling piano solo. This for me, is what jazz is and should be. This quartet can frame suspense like nobody else. This is pure, nervous, tense excitement.
Nu-jazz as a movement could far easier be described as what it isn’t. As a term, it remains an overly broad umbrella, not really specifying much, apart from the blending of multiple jazz styles, usually with electronics. Indigo Jam Unit don’t use electronics. Instead I see an amalgamation of jazz-hop, traditional jazz, soul and free improvisation. The free improvisation is key as each track on this album feels off the cuff, as if it’s caught in the moment and could never be recreated. As every dramatic riff repeats in ‘Voyager’, I feel as though the track is delving further and further into my mind. A tight and energetic drum and bass-like beat darts between the melody and makes you feel lost in the music. This then somehow opens up into a surprisingly zen and controlled piano solo above the twitchy bass,. It shouldn’t work, but it does. You can imagine a curdling “yeeee” reeled across ‘La Tomatina’, their answer to Latin. This has got to be my favourite track on the album. It’s simply impossible not to move your feet, as they combine a samba piano line with irresistible drums and bongos. In an interview they named this the “Spanish Tomato Festival” but I would call it more Mexican jumping bean combined
Photo: Album Artwork
with chilli, because boy does it move. I beg you to listen to this track. The drums lose control, but the fantastic thing about this group is that every time they lose it, you’re right up there losing it with them. It’s sad to see no indication of them touring outside of Japan. They’ve also done a funkier cover album with singer Alicia Saldenha, which again entirely pushes the boat out to another level. They are incredibly active on the scene, often doing joint gigs with Fox Capture Plan and SOIL&”PIMP”SESSIONS, lending their active groove to other band sounds. I find that their unique value is in their ability to dominate any style with their own characteristic take, and bring the listener right up into the moment with them. They are a proud trophy in the nu jazz scene, demonstrating what jazz can do. Once Roots has grabbed you, listen to albums REALism (2007) and REBEL (2012) for further wig outs.
campus confidential
Someone give these students a record deal, stat! The Mancunion will be taking at least a 10% cut when it happens. This week, Henry Scanlan chats to Jacob Nico.
Genre: Miserabilia, krautrock, post-rock, ‘insert word’-rock Members: Jacob Nicholas (Guitar, computer, anything and everything else) HQ: Jacob’s bedroom
What’s your dream venue to play and why? Anywhere that isn’t designed for music to be played – I’m playing in an abandoned department store in Sheffield at some point, so that sort of thing!
Hi Jacob. Give us a few words about the album - what’s the deal? It’s the obligatory second-album meltdown. The first one came out in May and was a bunch of echoing miserabilia, so I thought I’d try something a bit different, loads of loops and distortion and silly voices, far more fun to make!
And your dream record label to sign to? One of the Beggar’s Group labels, they’ve got loads of great bands.
Is it political? Are you political? Yeah it’s kind of political. It hasn’t got a great plan I wanted to get across, as I find that’s not always great for an album, but it’s about some things that you don’t often get songs about – the political structures we live in, the effects they have on individuals, that sort of thing. It’s just taking personal sadness from the first one and extending it to the rest of society and then having a look at that and how it got there. And my degree’s in politics and I want to be a journalist, so a bit political!
What’s your current jam? The early Mogwai EPs, very different to their later stuff but really cool. Plus the new Girl Band, which is mad/amazing, and the latest Lightning Bolt.
What’s your recording method? One man band all the way? Sadly all just me, standard bedroom setup – cheapest stuff I could get. For this one I used Ableton Lite, which is fantastic for loops and more interesting rhythms, plus it doesn’t crash every twenty minutes, vast improvement. What’s been your greatest achievement as an artist so far? The track ‘Lighthouse in the Mist,’ I don’t really remember making it but it’s easily the best thing I’ve ever made
How do you get your buzz in life? Music, Marxism, Moaning.
Any upcoming gigs? Blackdog Ballroom on the 17th for the iSessions! It’s a battle of the bands thing, so come watch me and some people who are probably better! We’ll be sure to do that. Thanks dude!
Find Jacob on Bandcamp as ‘Jacob Nico’.
WIN TICKETS TO CROATIA! Photo: Album Artwork
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Well, sort of. Flights not included. Our first contest of the year is a two-ticket teaser for Love International festival on the beaches of Tisno, Croatia. In their own modest words, the festival is “by day a harmonious holiday beneath the sizzling sun, and by dusk as the beats shift gear and introduce each balmy night beneath a canopy of stars, the intimate setting holds a unique energy, sound tracked by some of the world’s leading underground DJs and producers, drawing a vibrant and diverse audience from across the world to this tiny strip of paradise.” The lineup so far includes Dixon, Ben UFO, Joy Orbison, Horse Meat Disco, Midland and Hunee.
For your chance to win, tweet @MancunionMusic with your favourite album of 2k15. The most powerful 140 character persuasion wins the prize. Hashtag #LoveInternational.
The Media Group Review Show Tune into our weekly radio show in collaboration with Fuse FM! Roundtable reviews, artist interviews and bovine moos. Mondays 7 – 9pm—find us at fusefm.co.uk
Photo: Press Release
Games 15
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Feature
Bloodborne – how to tell a story through lore Stephen Lewis Contributor Fear what you do not understand. This is one of the main themes of Bloodborne, the latest game from FromSoftware, released in March of this year. And this theme can very easily be applied to both the world of Yarnham and to first time players of this style of game. Bloodborne was the first FromSoftware game that I played, having much faster combat and—based upon trailers and reviews alone—a much more interesting world than their previous series of games: Demon Souls and Dark Souls. The Souls series has become a big name in gaming, and Bloodborne is almost a spiritual successor to it, bearing many of the elements that made the Souls series so popular. Despite gaining a band of incredibly loyal followers, there are also those who actively avoid the games. This could be because the games are perceived as punishingly difficult or incredibly vague in their narrative, with very few cut-scenes and no strong objectives apart from the bare minimum: Ring the Bells (Dark Souls), Find the King (Dark Souls 2) and Seek Paleblood to Transcend the Hunt (Bloodborne). However, I would strongly argue that with these sorts of games, the criticisms listed above are actually some of their strongest features, and are not easy things to pull off in this medium. The high level of difficulty was perhaps the most polarising aspect of the original Demons Souls, and this is the most wellknown feature of the series, but the games should not be viewed as incredibly hard; rather, they should be viewed as unforgiving. To most of you, that might not sound better. It might even be worse, but
Photo: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
stay with me. When you first begin any of these games, there is essentially no handholding. You are on your own and you have to work out how to play, where to go, how to fight, etc. Timing is key, and once you have this down, and start improving with the basics, you can get pretty far into the games. YOU have improved, the game hasn’t simply given you better gear and made the game easier, and learning from your mistakes is one of the best ways to learn. One of the best features of the Souls games—even more so for Bloodborne— is the use of atmosphere and light storytelling through lore and trying to piece things together for yourself. The story is not entirely set in stone; it can be left entirely up to your interpretation if you want, and Hidetaka Miyazaki (the creator of the series) encourages this, saying that each new interpretation just adds more depth to the world. In an exclusive interview with FuturePress, the writers of the Collector’s Edition Guide for the game, Miyazaki
discusses topics such as the use of dream worlds and reality in Bloodborne, with the main three being the Hunter’s Dream, the city Yharnam and the Nightmare of Mensis. The city at first seems to be the most realistic, but as the game progresses, what at once seemed to be the most real place in the game world starts to twist. The nightmare continues until it purely becomes interpretation as to what is real and what is not. Perhaps all of these worlds are dreams, but each is interconnected by some larger thread of the Great Ones—the mythical beings whom you encounter from time to time. Some of these worlds are even hidden away, and you could get all the way to one of the game’s three endings without ever experiencing these locations, such as Castle Cainhurst and the Nightmare Plain. There is one strong example, though, of how an attempt at this kind of storytelling can be a very bad decision on the creator’s part, and might backfire upon them greatly. Destiny is the game that I am talking about. The original Destiny experience launched
in September 2014, and whilst it sold phenomenally well, it was not the story that had been promised. Stating to have a quantity of lore similar to The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, Destiny simply did not deliver such depth. All of the backstory is hidden away in cards, which you have to find in the game and then go to the Bungie website to read. The story here is set in stone but is placed apart from the game, thus breaking the immersion achieved so well in Bloodborne. Bungie have begun to rectify this issue in the latest expansion, The Taken King, but by reverting to the type of storytelling that they best used in the Halo franchise—giving a solid story presented to the player through cutscenes and deliberate continuity, with those wanting extra backstory able to read up on it through ‘Terminals’ and books. The Taken King added a much more interesting, direct, plot, plus meaningful characterisation compared with that given in the base game. At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced the first and apparently only expansion for Bloodborne, titled ‘The Old Hunters’. According to Masaaki Yamagiwa, two expansions were originally planned, but as FromSoftware are currently working up to the release of Dark Souls 3 (announced at E3 this year), they decided to merge the two downloadable content packs into a single, larger expansion. This will include many new weapons and armour sets but, perhaps more importantly, myriad new areas and bosses with the new lore being based around hunters mentioned previously in the game’s lore, such as Ludwig, the First Hunter and now one of the bosses (as shown at TGS). Partway through the main game, players will now be able to enter a “nightmare world where hunters from the past are trapped forever,” and this will only
add to the speculation of the narrative. What is important to know is that, with the previous games in the Souls series, the ending ultimately does not matter. It is clichéd to say that the journey is more important than the destination, but that really is the case, I believe. It is your own story within these worlds that keeps bringing players back and uncovering further the layers of lore waiting to be found and analysed anew. As far as I am aware, though, Bloodborne is the only one to buck this trend through one of its three endings. *SPOILER WARNING: I shall be talking about all of Bloodborne’s three endings in the paragraph below. Please skip to the end of the article if you wish to avoid spoilers In the third, ‘secret’ ending of the game, you can ‘ascend’ to become a Great One and “lift humanity into its next childhood.” This is the only ending that breaks the cyclical nature of these games. If you instead choose the first ending, you will be released from the dream and will move on. With the second ending, you will become the Watcher of the dream and will guide other hunters through it. In both Dark Souls games, you either let the fire die out or you give your life to let it burn a little longer (but it will still die out eventually). *END SPOILERS* Hopefully, this new expansion will further improve the world of Bloodborne and maybe even attract a host of new players to the great experiences one can discover in the fantastical world of Yharnam, such as the beasts that now dwell there.
Retro Corner
Geist – review
Josh Goldie Games Editor
In the video game industry at the moment, everyone, both fans and video game companies, are used to Nintendo being the kid-friendly company who likes to do something different from everyone else, with crazy gimmicks in exchange for console power. However, people often forget that back in the early 2000s, the Nintendo Gamecube was the strongest system of its generation with a lot of major 3rd party titles like Resident Evil 4 and a lot of serious, adult titles like Eternal Darkness, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Killer7 and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, to name a few. One of the most underrated of these titles is an exclusive first-person shooter called Geist which deals with death, nudity, and a lot of religious tones—and this is a game published by Nintendo themselves. Geist came out about half way through the GameCubes life cycle and was massive surprise for fans at E3 2002. It was not exactly anything they had ever seen Nintendo do before, but many were excited. Geist is primarily a firstperson shooter, however it would not be a Nintendo game with out some kind of twist, and Nintendo definitely had a spooky game play mechanic that made it stand out. In most first-person shooters, the player can run around and change weapons by picking up other guns. Not
in Geist. Instead, if the games title did not given it away already, you play as a ghost called John Reimi, and you have to possess people in order to survive. The game has both a multiplayer aspect and a single player campaign. Both are fun but the multiplayer starts of rather barren until you unlock stuff for it by finding collectibles in the single player. The single player is where the game really shines by combining firstperson action segments with puzzle elements. As a ghost you can possess people in order to slip through areas undetected. If you need to get through a door then just possess someone with the right credentials and walk on through; however, if it was that simple then the game would not be as fun as it is. As the game explains it, people can only be possessed when they are vulnerable and they get vulnerable when they are scared. So, it is up to you as the player to make them scared and you do this by playing the poltergeist. You can possess objects and make them do all kinds of strange things from moving bins on their own to literally jumping out of a TV to scare its viewers. This is Geist’s greatest element, and I cannot stress enough how much fun and how creative some of these puzzles can be. Unfortunately, while one of the games major aspects is fantastic, its other major gameplay style is... mediocre. The firstperson shooter sections of the game are not terrible by any means, but there
is nothing about them the particularly stands out. The controls are a bit clunky and you never have to worry about ammo, so it is just a matter of shooting everyone while keeping your host alive. Sometimes these sections throw in elements that make them really interesting, like possessing grenades that are in mid-throw and rolling them back to their original owners, or hiding your host body somewhere so you can possess a Gatling gun on the other side of the room and use that to mow down your unsuspecting enemies. It is just a shame that these segments are so far and few between. Specifically, I wish the bosses used this a bit more because, except for a very few, they all just rely on shooting and hiding. Compared to more modern first-person shooter games it certainly does not feel anywhere near as polished. Even for games from its time it was a bit clunky, but it certainly was not unplayable. Geist is a game that went largely unnoticed at the time of its release despite all the initial hype behind it. It is likely that the lack of success in titles like this is what drove Nintendo to move a bit further away from more realistic style and stick to a more stylised style for future titles. This is a shame really because Geist was an incredibly fun game and one that I hope Nintendo thinks about making a sequel to someday. With the lack of GameCube games on
Photo: Nintendo Co. Ltd, n-Space Inc.
the Wii U virtual console, the only way you are going to be able to play this game is by owning a disc of it and playing it on the original system (or the Wii). Thankfully the game is not too expensive (I got my copy for about £10) and it is honestly worth it. Geist entertained me more than I expected. It was nothing ground-breaking, but what was new felt really fresh and enjoyable, and I think more people should check it out.
/gamingsociety
Want to meet fellow gamers in Manchester? Do you think you have what it takes to be considered the best gamer in Manchester? Well this wednesday at Whitworth Park’s Grove Bar, the UMGS is holding Universitywide Power Rankings for Super Smash Bros for Wii U along with various other fighters like Street Fighter 4, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and more. Join the Facebook group and check the event page for more information.
Fashion & Beauty
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ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Interview
Here come the Boys Laura: What’s your typical ‘get ready for a night out’ routine? Tom: Depending on how recent my last shower trip was, I might dip my head in the sink. Ste: I shower, brush my teeth, put on some clothes, go back into the bathroom, realise I don’t need to be there and then leave. I’ve got a beard so that gets trimmed about once a week, only takes ten minutes though.
Photo: The Mancunion
Living with three boys, you’d think I’d have all the time in the world to use the bathroom. Wrong— they actually take ages. So what is it exactly they’re doing in there to get ready? The boys I live with are your typical, no fussing with beauty products type of guys, so I thought it would be interesting to see what they’re using and why. After much arguing over the different pseudonym’s they each wanted to take on (most of them being explicit puns), we eventually settled on using their real names. So without further ado, meet Tom, Billy and Ste, and the completely unedited version of what each of them had to say…
Billy: Usually I check if I’m smelly and then shower accordingly. In the shower, I use whatever I can get my hands on (Laura: Usually my stuff). Then I put some music on and have a little dance whilst getting dressed. Chuck on a little bit of deodorant, usually Dove Men’s, or Women’s, whatever’s on offer. For my hair, I use a tiny bit of clay or wax and then I’m good to go.
Ste: Trimmed beard, hair usually to one side. I use hairspray if it needs a bit of help getting there.
Optical Opulence: Men’s eyewear In the spotlight:
Laura Mills Contributor
Billy: I’m one of those that doesn’t really wash their hair with shampoo or conditioner, so only a little bit of product is fine. I like a messy look though.
too because Lynx can be a bit smelly. I like the Tresemme hairspray because the can looks cool.
Laura: What products do you use when getting ready?
Billy: I like the VO5 Matt Clay because it doesn’t go hard or look too greasy. DAX Short and Neat is good though for when I want more of a wet hair look.
Tom: Just that extra strong hair mousse stuff. I think it’s from VO5. Oh, and some deodorant.
Laura: Are there any products you would recommend to readers?
Ste: I like Tresemme hairspray. I used to use mousse to get curly hair but now I’ve switched to hairspray for a different look. Tend to use Sure Deodorant and a Zara aftershave, can’t remember the name of it though.
Tom: If you’ve got really straight hair then that mousse stuff isn’t bad. Just whack a bit in, mess it up and Bob’s your uncle. Or is he?
Billy: I like the Nivea for Men Face Scrub when I’m in the shower. Also after shaving I like a bit of Hugo Boss aftershave or Gucci Guilty, that stuff smells nice. For my hair I like VO5 Matt Clay or DAX Short and Neat. Laura: Is there any reason why you use these products? And are they ones you’ve repurchased? Tom: It’s usually on offer so I like it because it’s cheap.
Ste: All of the ones I mentioned because I look beautiful. Billy: VO5 Matt Clay definitely. Every man has matt clay and if they don’t have it then they should. Well, there you have it. Some interesting (and odd) answers. It seems like VO5 is a popular brand with most of them, and it turns out they put more thought into their routines than I ever thought they did, and I think more than they ever thought they did too. I hope you’ve managed to learn some new tips or product recommendations from this—I certainly learned why my shower gel runs out so quickly…
Ste: Yeah, I’ve repurchased the Zara aftershave loads because I like the smell. The Sure deodorant
Trends
The evolution of suits Perisha Kudhail Contributor
James Bond, Mr Darcy, and even Justin Timberlake have been known for their suave attire. The humble suit has been a foolproof way to look dapper since the seventeenth century, and don’t these guys know it. To some, it may seem that the suit is a dying breed of clothing replaced by the ‘drop down jean’ and skater tee. But fear not—the suit, my friend, has been around for over 400 years, and I don’t think it’s planning on fading out anytime soon. The 1600s Suit The 1600s suit upheld the richness in culture and wealth. With kneelength breeches and stockings, this suit was anything but simple. Partnered with a redingote or frock coat and a frilled shirt, the 1600s look oozed elegance. Once the attire was in order, the look was completed with a wig. The 1800s Suit
Photo: 85546319@N04 @Flickr
The 1800s suit was an embodiment of Charles Dickens novels and the aristocracy. The 1800s suit was always
a three-piece. A fitted waistcoat, with a tailcoat and tailored trousers (black of course) was the traditional look. This fitted sensation was accompanied by a top hat and a cane for the ultra-fancy.
often tight, so footwear wouldn’t be missed. This look was often accessorised with gold chains and a little bit of chest tuft.
The 1900s Suit
The noughties weren’t particularly recognised for its great taste in suits, as far more casual fashion was coming into play. Those who did opt for a smarter appearance went for the classic blazer and trouser look, accompanied with a tie. As the decade progressed, so did the tailoring of the suit to what we know it to be today.
The 2000s Suit
Kyle Zabawa Contributor
Thanks to a seemingly unfortunate combination of genes, my eyesight has always been atrocious. Alas, if my hours spent trawling TED Talk’s motivational speeches have taught me anything, it’s that one must always make the most of a bad situation. I tried contact lenses once but my attempt was fruitless—I was thwarted by my reluctance to apply a fingertip to my naked eye. My solution? Owning a timeless selection of the most flattering eyewear available. Join me as I divulge my secrets to help you in your quest to find the most favourable frames for your face. SQUARE FACES For a square face, your choice of frame should always aim to lightly soften and round the angles of your cheekbones and jaw. Signature, darker toned and delicately rounded frames such as those in the style similar to what was made famous by Oliver Peoples are famed for their ability to temper sharp facial features and become the main attraction of your look. Optical illusion at its finest.
The 1900’s suit underwent extreme evolution. Just as the social and economic times were moving forward, so were the looks for men. In the early 1900s, a simple loose black suit would have been acceptable with a bowler hat—a look often sported by Winston Churchill throughout the war. As the 50s and 60s rolled around, colour was beginning to come back into fashion for men. Just with the 1600s, deep colours were desired, particularly for the rich and famous. A royal blue look wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary. The 70s adorned angelic white, accompanied with not so angelic behaviour. Saturday Night Fever brought us white suits with big lapels, and collars matched with colourful shirts. The trousers were
“My housemates styled me”
HEART-SHAPED FACES In order to streamline the breadth of your forehead and broaden the chin—light, metallic frames with contrasting heavier tops should be sported in order to help to balance the proportions of your face. Small, round frames should be avoided as these can draw unwanted emphasis to the forehead. As a patron of this particular facial structure, my exclusive top tip is to remember the old mantra of “the higher the hair, the closer to heaven” as a well-coiffed hairstyle can help to draw in the eyes of others to much better places.
The suit has become such an asset to the wardrobe that people are starting to wear them to up the ante on a casual look. The three piece is now a favourable option, with waistcoats becoming the new hoody. A smart, tailored suit with a crisp shirt is great for today’s suit look. With pocket squares making a comeback, we can only wonder when the 1600s suit will come back into fashion
Photo: ASOS
TRIANGULAR FACES Men with this face shape typically display a wide jawline teamed with a narrow forehead. To create an illusion of balancing both the chin and angular jawline, a pair of aviator style frames (think squarer designs) can help to highlight your cheekbones. Bold, solid colours
Olivier Rousteing Sarah Kilcourse Contributor
Photo: ASOS
OVAL FACES Square-edged frames can really help to fill the face and add angle and definition to the contours of your jaw. Bulky, rectangular frames in daringly dark shades can sculpt face shapes of the flatter variety, achieving an aura of masculinity and an undeniable sense of detail. Do make sure though to stray from narrower styles as these types of frames will look consumed by elongated features.
Photo: ASOS
Photo: disneyabc@Flickr
Top 5: Best Dressed Male Celebrities Meg Roberts Contributor
The 2015 Suit
1. Harry Styles
Photo: 72060323@N02 @Flickr
As a self confessed Directioner, my judgement may be slightly biased here, but even so, it can’t be denied that Harry Styles is gaining serious recognition in the fashion industry. His transformation from a Jack Wills-clad boy next door to an edgy, rock and roll style icon has been dramatic.
Photo: Ikkinphotography @Flickr
Now a regular feature in men’ BRanatunga@webershandwick.com s fashion bible GQ , and often pictured on the front row of high profile London Fashion Week shows alongside supermodels and rock royalty, he is a force to be reckoned with in the fashion world. Open silk shirts, velvet blazers, psychedelic and paisley, black ripped skinnies, bandanas, and layered necklaces all formulate the classic Harry Styles look.
Rebecca Thomas Contributor
Second look, courtesy of Pierre. Consisting of a multicoloured Adidas sweater, sourced through Ebay, Topshop leggings, and an ‘Angel’ snapback. Pierre: “I imagined Seb as a rude boy 90s hip hop star.” This look turned out to be the most divergent from Seb’s taste, his response: “I’m horrified”—a reaction duplicated by the Amb-o-meter. Channelling a grime version of Moschino, this would be a serious statement if Seb were to pair it with a bucket hat. Sadly, this look was too incongruous to his taste and had no success in summoning his inner mad dog fashionista. A crowd survey deemed Seb’s first look as a win by a very close call. The general lesson learned was that, while it might be worth trying to persuade your housemate into some new wavey garms to impress a date, they will probably end up looking awkward and a bit sad. Don’t. Photo: The Mancunion
Photo: ASOS
Angular frames are about to become your new best friend. Offsetting the soft curves of the jaw should be high on your spectacle agenda. This illusion of shape can also be achieved by adding edgier frames with soft corner details to your collection. Don’t be afraid to experiment with colour too—those with round faces can afford to make use of tortoiseshells, as these subdued tones don’t appear as harsh on a less angular face and can compliment the visage of brunette boys.
can also bring focus away from the sharper areas of the face. Cat-eye and wraparound styles are to be avoided as these can intensify the hollows of your face.
Celebrity
Meet Seb Marshall, third year music student at University of Manchester. Marshall is a very nice guy who enjoys singing ‘Barber Shop’, using his garlic crusher, and has a solid friendship with knitted jumpers. When asked what his signature go-to style is, he gave an uncomplicated answer. “Um I quite like t-shirts. And trousers. Yeah.” The question: could a new look make for a new Seb? In a battle of the sexes, Seb agreed to be styled by Pierre Flasse and Rebecca Thomas, to see who could create the best ‘Sebstitute’, and whether a new look could unleash Seb’s inner style demon. First look by Rebecca. Called ‘Mr Debonair’, the look consists of a Zara turtleneck under a tweed Topman blazer, coupled with an ASOS dagger chain, and the trousers and shoes are the model’s own. The look channels brands, The Kooples and All Saints and meets with Father Ted—but the look could improve if, overtime, Seb grew his hair to shoulder-length and gave it a ruffle. Rebecca: “I was going for the suave look of a yuppie graduate, who has recently enrolled on a wine-tasting course, and is really proud of his telephone voice. I really think this brings out the sophisticate in Seb.” The makeover got mixed reviews, with Seb’s girlfriend Amber suggesting that she would give it one out of three on the Amb-ometer scale. Seb’s response, “Yeah, I don’t hate it. I could wear it around the Northern Quarter or Spinningfields. It might encourage me to adopt a miniature dog.”
ROUND FACES
Photo: ASOS
Feature
Photo: The Mancunion
Feature
Accessories
Laura: What’s your usual go to night out look? Tom: I usually go clean shaven, unless we’re in a rush. I also put some of that mousse stuff in my hair and see what happens. I usually try to mess it up a bit.
Fashion & Beauty 17
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
2. Dougie Poynter Photo: 18097936@N00 @Flickr
Photo: disneyabc @Flickr
Photo: super45 @Flickr
Another member of an international pop sensation whose look is anything but stereotypically boy band. Dougie’s style, whilst originally rooted in pop-punk infused fashion, is now altogether more old school rock and roll. Think Seventies inspired print shirts worn oversized, paired with a structured blazer or biker style leather jacket, and accessorised with a fedora and a treasure trove of vintage necklaces. 3. Alex Turner At the risk of being entirely focused on band members, I just couldn’t leave Alex Turner out of any self-respecting article on best dressed male celebrities. Since the drop of 2013’s ridiculously sexy AM, electric guitar riffs, a hint of R’n’B, and the promise of Alex Turner doing you no good, his style has metamorphosed into a mod-
ern take on my favourite era for British and American fashion—a nod to the slick teddy boy subculture of the 50s. By day, Turner’s signature look is created with a black leather jacket, an open short-sleeved shirt, tailored trousers, and brogues. By night, we’re talking a high fashion tux, a cigarette tie, and enough hair spray to destroy the ozone layer in its entirety. 4. Eddie Redmayne The quintessential English gentleman, Eddie Redmayne’s epitomises everything that I love about British male fashion. His decidedly understated look is all about clean lines. This means classic tailoring paired with a crisp white shirt and brogues (Burberry mac optional). Pair Redmayne’s achingly cool yet uncomplicated British style with his boyishly good looks, and it’s not hard to see why he was voted GQ’s Best Dressed Male for 2015. 5. Kanye West One half of international power couple KimYe, and possibly the most talked about personality in the male fashion stratosphere—and often credited with the total style overhaul of Kimmy K—this article wouldn’t be complete without an honourable mention to Kanye West. Kanye’s style is eclectic and capsule, expressing his preference for a select few favourites in his GQ feature, investing in high end jersey basics for the ultimate in sports luxe taking the form of colour block vests and oversized t-shirts juxtaposed with a premium bomber or leather jacket.
At the tender age of 17, Olivier Rousteing began his career at Roberto Cavalli, where he went on to become head of women’s readyto-wear. At 24 he was appointed creative director at Balmain, after just two years with the brand. Although age may just be a number, Rousteing has risen through the ranks quicker than most could ever imagine. Not bad for the young Black orphan adopted by White parents. An aspect of his life which sadly some people could not come to terms with. Rousteing discussed how the issue of race impacted his childhood and his early career in Vogue’s September issue, how he would face remarks like “Oh, you’re a bastard, your parents are White and you’re Black,” or “Your mum slept with a Black man,” or “Your dad was with a Black woman.” Thankfully, the love and support of his family helped him to overcome the bullying and go on with a successful career. One of the key elements of Rousteing’s triumph at Balmain is social media. Championing Instagram ahead of the game and becoming the first creative director of a luxury label to launch their own personal account in 2012, he helped to firmly establish the historic French fashion house into the 21st century. He has recruited his very own #BalmainArmy through his collaborations—and numerous selfies—with the Kardashians, Victoria’s Secret models and many more A-list celebrities, earning the company a mainstream appeal beyond the Parisian fashion circles. The sheer extent of this widespread popularity is showcased in Rousteing’s Balmain x H&M collection. Released in stores last week, after months of hype, it caused what the Internet titled “Balmania.” Rousteing’s intricately embroidered dresses, tailored jackets and bold colours were suddenly available at high street prices. The perfect pieces for the party season, and quite unlike anything else out on the high street—the collection went down in a storm, selling out worldwide within hours. It’s hard to predict what will be next for Rousteing. After inequitable success at Balmain, will he gain a Lagerfeld-esque status with the brand and become a fashion legend? Perhaps he’ll go on to head is own fashion line? Or maybe take the new seat available at Dior? Whatever he chooses, I’m sure it will send shockwaves around the fashion world.
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Film
18
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
TV Binge
Feature
Peep Show
Disney’s Live-Action Remakes
With its final season airing this year, we look back at the legacy of the unique and witty sitcom Peep Show
Should we be excited? No matter what generation you are part of, Disney’s classic animations such as Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp and Alice in Wonderland will always hold a special place in your heart as probably some of the first films that you ever saw and fell in love with. In this collective love, their development into live-action films can only be seen as a good thing from a creative perspective. Personally I was sceptical about this whole live-action fiasco, until I was dragged along by my younger step-sister to a screening of Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella in April. The thought of Disney publicly executing one of their most precious characters
was disastrous, as they almost did with Maleficent. Thankfully, Branagh and his magical directorial vision left me in a state of excitement to upcoming releases like John Faverau’s The Jungle Book, which is influenced heavily by Andy Serkis’s work; and Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast. A re-creation of iconic films is a fine line to walk, but when some of the best actors, directors and producers are joining the party over at Disney, one cannot help but turn some attention towards them and also praise them for their frivolous efforts in delivering a new generation into the magic that is so synonymous with the brand. Take for example Alice in Wonderland, as directed by the enigmatic Tim Burton. The film broke
Alasdair Bayman & Nadia Cheung Film Critic & Subeditor
the special $1 billion mark, which prompted Disney to start exploring other films to add to this growing live-action series. Although cynics will exploit mundanity on Disney’s behalf in re-creating pre-existing properties to gain an affirmative profit on their films, I personally see it as a playground for directors, like Branagh and Burton respectively, to create a piece of work with their style and signature placed on it. Will people really comment upon Disney’s constant development of the Star Wars Universe? I highly doubt it. So why feel negative towards this side of their game? The countdown is on for a live action enactment of Hakuna Matata….
Photo: Channel 4
Georgia Welch Film Critic Is there a more original and ingenious British sitcom of the 21st century than Peep Show? If there is, I’m yet to discover it. After eight series documenting the questionable life decisions, self-deprecation and failed romantic escapades of flatmates Mark Corrigan and Jeremy Usborne, much-loved double act David Mitchell and Robert Webb have finally come together once more to reprise their roles in a final series of the hit Channel 4 show. Told through the unique point-ofview camera perspective, which has become one of the show’s most iconic features, Peep Show, for those who haven’t had the pleasure (or displeasure) of watching, became a fast favourite amongst critics and fans alike after it premiered in 2003. It’s clear to see from the haphazard and often cringe-inducing attempts by Mark and Jez to survive their everyday lives that a great deal of Peep Show’s success stems from the starkly hilarious contrast between the pair’s attitudes to, well, everything. Whilst Mark struggles to win the affections of his colleague Sophie whilst battling with his vapid office day job, Jeremy lives a life of frivolity, idleness and contributes very little: ‘As I’ve told you before Mark, re: doing a job, because of my creativity it’s kind of abuse.’ In countless Peep Show-related discussions I’ve been involved in, the question of whether I’m ‘more Mark or Jez’ has never failed to crop up. Indeed, the relatable quality of the protagonists’ deeply flawed but lovable personalities plays a huge part in audiences’ enthusiasm towards the show. With an equally amusing supporting cast, most notably Matt King as Jeremy’s friend Super Hans, the ‘crack-addled maniac’, each episode is equally quotable and rewatchable. Peep Show is arguably one of the most consistent sitcoms produced in recent years, with no particular series surpassing another. Its humour remains relentlessly dry, witty and biting, thanks to the exceptional writing of creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The uncomfortable, often humiliating scenarios the duo find themselves in make for some unbearable second-hand embarrassment at times, a personal favourite being Series seven’s The Nether Zone, in which Mark and Jeremy find themselves trapped in the airlock between Jeremy’s girlfriend’s flat and external door. It’s truly a testament to the show’s incomparable dialogue that such simple situations can evoke such hysteria among audiences. If ever a show deserved the description ‘laugh out loud’, it’s Peep Show. Dark, sarcastic and oddly comforting, Peep Show is undeniably one of Britain’s finest comedic exports. It greets you like an old friend when you’re feeling a little down on life, and is a must-see for those who love self-deprecating humour. After the cliffhanger ending of Series eight, the show’s final outing seems both promising and intriguing. Trailers for the series feature the welcome return of some of the show’s bestloved characters, and it’s clear to see from the social media frenzy generated that Peep Show is highly-placed on people’s collective TV radar. The shared paranoia, anxiety and often bizarre thoughts of Mark and Jeremy is endlessly painful and entertaining in equal measures—a combination that is absolutely instrumental to the show’s success; so whether you’re a new or old fan, be sure to tune in for the return of the ‘El Dude Brothers’ on Channel 4 throughout November. Read an interview with Peep Show writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain on page 8.
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Photo: Netflix
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures
Or should we be sceptical? For some reason, I can’t help but just feel as though live-action films of the Disney kind—particularly remakes, are a quick and easy cash cow for film producers, directors, distributors and whoever else—in the most predictable way possible. I don’t have anything against remakes. Sometimes, remakes are good because they’re an easy watch, sometimes there’s a twist in the plot and you see things in a new light—like Malificent. But live-action remakes like this year’s Cinderella made me pensive about the future of Disney films. Is there really a lack of imagination out there now? Take Cinderella, for example. Swarovski. SWAROVSKI. The glass slippers were by Swarovski. And that’s fine. But did it really
have to have a paying gallery exhibit in Leicester Square this year? That’s advertising and product placement, and Swarovski is a big company. I feel as though this shifts the importance of film into purely aesthetic value only. You won’t care about the characters or poor Cinderella. But as long as she’s the one with the glass slippers by Swarovski that’s okay, right? It’s totally not a marketing ploy at all, is it? Fairy tales were intended to teach morals and put one in an element of fantasy—especially children. I don’t want to sound old-fashioned at all, and I’m all for the advancement of technology and making visual possibilities that much more accessible, but wasn’t the Disney legacy because of animations? I don’t think there was a live-action Disney film existing
until 1950 and that was Treasure Island in Technicolor—and the purpose of Technicolor is so similar to animation in that it replicates a dreamlike quality, and this is probably why it was abused for its effect in musicals. If I were to take a stance on liking any liveaction film at all, Tim Burton—yes, fine, I like it. Alice in Wonderland was okay at best and I liked it, but it doesn’t stand out by any means. While at Disney during the 1980s, Burton’s first animation short, Vincent, was made with the help of an apprenticeship programme there—meaning Burton already had a relationship with Disney from the getgo. Sell-outs gave Burton trust and creative power with Disney—and who is he to deny a handsome paycheck in return for guaranteed success at the movies?
Classic Review
The Seventh Seal
Despite being the subject of endless parodies, Ingmar Bergman’s early masterpiece, The Seventh Seal, remains a bleak and thoughtprovoking work of cinema
Jake Sanders Film Critic
Returning from the crusades, a Swedish knight finds his home-country ravaged by plague, and enters into a game of chess with Death himself, in order to delay his inevitable fate long enough to at least discover answers about life. With a plot description like that, it’s easy to see why The Seventh Seal, and so much of Bergman’s work, has been so susceptible to mockery. Everyone from Woody Allen, to Bill and Ted, to French and Saunders has taken a swing at aping the Swedish auteur’s unmistakable style. Whilst a lot of these parodies appear to stem from places of love, many use hallmarks of Bergman’s work as a shorthand for unnecessarily esoteric arthouse cinema. With all of its heavy-handed symbolism, bleak imagery and big questions, at times, there appears to be little to distinguish The Seventh Seal from these send-ups. Yet, what comes as a surprise about The Seventh Seal is the abiding sense of optimism that lies at its heart. By no means do Bergman’s interests lie in creating a feel-good film, and certainly, a strong element of despair hangs over the film. A combination of disease and the impotence of faith appears to have driven half of Sweden to the brink of madness by the time Max Von Sydow’s knight and his squire wash up on its shores. Certain scenes, such as the burning of a young woman accused of witchcraft, go beyond the rest of the film’s palpable existential dread and venture into the realm of intense psychologi-
Photo: AB Svensk Filmindustri
cal horror—more akin to Polanski or Lynch. But despite all of this, The Seventh Seal appears to urge audiences to not search for solace in a mute, unresponsive manner, but instead to find comfort in the joys of family and companionship. In one notable scene, the Knight is invited to share in a meal of wild strawberries and fresh milk with a couple of actors and their infant son. The Knight looks out over the beautiful scenery, and explains how he will always treasure this memory. Although Death still lingers out of the frame for a brief moment, the manifest concept remains invisible. Even in the film’s haunting climax, Death might have emerged victorious, but we have come to understand that Death is not a malicious force, rather an inescapable truth—perhaps the only thing worth
putting your faith in. If that all sounds a bit heavy, Bergman is on hand to neatly undercut it with an image of a young family, bathed in sunlight, walking in each other’s arms. For them, Death is something to worry about on another day. Bergman also finds other ways to balance his intense subject matter, weaving a surprising amount of comedy into the film. Admittedly, the farcical scenes involving a blacksmith and his unfaithful wife add little. But, a strong sense of gallows humour, best exemplified by a man waking into a tree to find Death nonchalantly sawing it down suggest a Fellini-esque appreciation for the absurdity of life, rather than a morbid preoccupation with death.
Film 19
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Review
Steve Jobs
Top 5 Aaron Sorkin’s sharp writing, Danny Boyle’s energetic direction and Michael Fassbender’s note-perfect performance make this unconventional biopic of Steve Jobs unmissable
Photo: Universal Pictures
James Moules Head Film Editor Steve Jobs was (and remains) a man whom it is nigh impossible to regard with any degree of indifference—the tech visionary behind Apple has inspired devoted admirers and passionate haters in equal measure, with some attaching to him that most dangerous of words that is ‘genius,’ and others dismissing him as a narcissist who took more credit for Apple’s success than he deserved. But whatever your opinion of the man may be, it’s unlikely that Danny Boyle’s movie is going to leave it unrocked. What he gives us is a brilliantly complex and daring portrait of the now iconic tech giant. Right from the film’s opening moments, we are hit by a ferocious hurricane blast of Aaron Sorkin’s sharp dialogue as Jobs (Michael Fassbender) and his team at-
tempt to solve a technical error on the original Macintosh prior to its launch event. Backstage, Jobs is confronted by his former girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) for denying paternity of their daughter and making slanderous remarks about her in interviews. These challenges, along with other encounters with figures including Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) and John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) make up the frenzy of preparations as Jobs readies himself to take to the stage. This sequence of events represents one of the mere three scenes that make up this movie—the aforementioned launch of the Macintosh in 1984, the launch of the NeXT in 1988 after Jobs’ departure from Apple, and the launch of the iMac in 1998 after his return. Each of these scenes takes place in real time (with a few interspersed flashbacks) as he prepares himself to give the respec-
tive presentations. There’s a distinctive visual style for each one, and the three together form a grand ‘rise’, ‘fall’ and ‘redemption’ narrative in the Steve Jobs story. It’s a bold piece of film-making, and it pays off fantastically. Instead of giving us a standard model biopic in which we might see Jobs’s life play out in a chronological series of events, Boyle and Sorkin deliver a refined drama that brims with urgency and an almost manic energy. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplays often bring out the best in actors, and Steve Jobs is no exception. Michael Fassbender, despite bearing absolutely no physical resemblance to Jobs, gives one of his best performances to date in this movie. Perhaps the most notable aspect of this performance is the restraint that he brings to the role. A lesser actor would have overacted to play the famously mercurial Jobs. While Fassbender does shout and scream at the right moments, his Steve
is often more subdued and brooding. And yet that fiery intensity behind Jobs’s eyes is never absent. A well-deserved Oscar nomination (and possibly even a win) will almost certainly be coming Mr Fassbender’s way. The strongest link from the supporting cast is Kate Winslet, who shines as Jobs’s marketing executive Joanna Hoffmann. Her character acts as Steve’s conscience, albeit one that he ignores all-too frequently. The cliché of the ‘flawed genius’ persona has been portrayed many times in film history, with varying degrees of originality, so anyone approaching this film with scepticism could be forgiven. But Steve Jobs’s statement (or, perhaps, his command) of ‘Think Different’ is taken by Boyle and Sorkin as one of the founding principles of this film, leading to a fiercely unique take on the trope. Using the film’s unconventional structure, acute writing and talented stars, the director gives us a portrait of Jobs as an extraordinary man in an extraordinary moment in space and time. He may or may not be a true genius—the audience members are left to form their own judgment. Although Steve Jobs is not a monumental masterpiece on the same level as the other recent Sorkin-penned tech biopic, The Social Network, it’s still a tremendous piece of cinema. Its only real misstep is the rather mawkish ending it gives itself, but that’s not enough to destroy the electrifying two hours that preceded it. The movie is a triumph of creativity and outside the box thinking that its subject would no doubt have lauded.
5) Fool around with: The Cheeky Girls Although not a feature film, all episodes can be found on YouTube and should be watched back-to-back. This is a classic example of early, unorganised and experimental Naughties reality TV. Mix that with the peculiarity of the Cheeky Girls and you’re in for good time. 4) Samaria Cop At number 4, Samaria Cop offers a taste of slightly eccentric, very peculiar directing, which is exactly what is required for a so-bad-it’s-good film. The film can be slow at points, however, and for this reason it isn’t as high up as its contemporaries.
3) Troll 2
Saoirse Ronan is brilliant in this adaptation of Colm Toibin’s book of a young girl who leaves small-town Ireland to live in 1950s Brooklyn
Jane Simmons Film Critic When hearing the synopsis of Brooklyn, one would expect that it would be a sickly sweet film about a young girl from Ireland, finding herself in the bright lights of New York. Brooklyn is however, so much more than that. It’s sweet, yes, and it’s charming, too—it will make you laugh and it will even make the hardest of souls cry. Set at first in rural Ireland, we meet shy Eilis, who works in a local bakery and lives with her ageing mother and sister. Upon finding out that her sister has organised a job for her in Brooklyn, New York, through a local priest, she sets sail for the United States and begins her new life. Until an incident draws her back to her hometown, she must then decide whether her life is in Ireland or New York. The first merit-worthy factor of Brooklyn is the cast. Saoirse Ronan, as always, is brilliant. We see her transform from a retreating country girl, to a woman changed by experience and life. At only twenty, Ronan is an incredibly talented actress—she internally portrays and reacts how a young girl in her situation would do, showing fear and reproach perfectly; and happiness so vivid that you can feel the warmth in your brain. Julie Walters is also fantastic as her landlady—she adds a real comic element to the film. Rising tour-de-force Domhnall Gleeson appears later in the film as a love
So-bad-they’re-good is a special type of genre of film that only a select few can claim to be a part of; this is when a film becomes so unintentionally bad that the audience can enjoy it as a comedy
Photo: Epic Productions
HOME Pick of the Week
Brooklyn
Films So-BadThey’re-Good
Made in 1990, this 25-year old film still holds up. A hilarious script, terrible line delivery and overall nonsensical plot makes this film very watchable. Enjoy! 2) The Room Tommy Wiseau, the writer, director and lead actor of The Room is rather unconventional. Completely funded by Wiseau, he spent $6 million to bring us 99 minutes of hilarity. The best moments come from the unusual script, with added humour from Wiseau’s acting, which is perfectly wooden and reserved to help The Room be a solid second place.
Photo: Lionsgate
interest, too. The cast choice is scintillating in the way that they all mould together and perfectly convey their interests and motives. Another reason why Brooklyn is a must-see, is because some of you might just empathise entirely with Eilis’s experience; the hesitant excitement as you say goodbye to your hometown, the nervousness as you travel to your new destination, the initial homesickness and the contentment when you finally settle into your new life… sounds familiar doesn’t it? That particular element of the film touched a nerve, and will most likely speak to the hearts of other students or those who have had to move away from home. One scene in particular, where Eilis emits a shy tear during a Christmas meal where an Irish man sings an old Gaelic tune is enough to tug tears from any eyes. Brooklyn is essentially a young girl’s
dilemma between ambition and loyalty. Eilis’s life is a constant struggle between fully utilising the opportunities that her sister and America have given her, and staying in Ireland to care for her elderly mother. The film could be praised for its strong female lead; for a film set in the 1950s you can imagine that the film might focus on issues of the heart, or Eilis’s duties as a carer or a nurturer of some sort. Satisfyingly, the film instead emphasises Eilis’s commitment to her studies, the importance of how her decisions should be best for her, and her caution when it comes to love. In one letter she writes to her sister “I now have a boyfriend… but he is important after my studies and work of course.” Not that the film encourages neglect of personal relationships, it simply highlights the struggle of maintaining those relationships when they come into conflict with each other and with ambition for a better life.
The cinematography is also beautiful—mossy greens and muddy browns accentuate the rawness of Ireland, gold and soaring blues encapsulate the newfound beauty of the United States. Visually, the film is a treat to watch. All in all, Brooklyn is a fantastic piece of work. The cast ensemble is perfect, particularly Ronan as the strong and likeable Eilis, and the masterful cinematography only compliments this more. It should also be acclaimed for the way in which it does not approach life with rosetinted glasses. Uplifting as it is, the film shines a light on how life is not just all romance and fireworks, life can also be hard, too. Either way, Brooklyn is a perfect watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Photo: Moviehead Pictures
1) Birdemic: Shock and Terror With a budget of $10,000 and a rating of 1.8/10 on IMDB, director James Nguyen has created somewhat of a master piece. The worst CGI ever used, and an inability to pan a camera following a car are just a couple of things that will have you in stiches. Nothing I can say will prepare you for this film, you will just have to watch it, and trust me that Nguyen did not intend this film to be a comedy.
Christopher White Contributor
Books
20
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Preview
Preview: Undermajordomo Minor Hope Abbott looks at the upcoming novel by Man-Booker shortlisted Patrick DeWitt Patrick DeWitt’s Undermajordomo Minor opens with a scene that will be familiar to a lot of first year university students; the narrator Lucy (male, short for Lucian) is leaving home for a new life, where he will try new things, escape any past mistakes, and leave the people of his hometown marvelling in his wake. While he fails at the latter, his determination is admirable. Our sheltered hero has a very simple view on life. When somebody steals his pipe, he simply goes and asks for it back; when a rival suitor appears on the scene he decides the only sensible course of action is to kill him. In other hands this could come across as a lack of depth, and elsewhere DeWitt has been criticised for making his characters too literal, but Lucy’s honesty and naivety throughout the book (including during some rather gruesome and risqué scenes) make him extremely sympathetic, and his black and white outlook makes for a refreshing read. A straightforward narrative style ensures the various storylines are not laborious, and the simplicity means you are constantly focused. This is what is most enjoyable about the novel—by mixing murder, sex and loss with a familiar premise, DeWitt has produced a novel that is genuinely fun to read, without losing its emotional core. For the most part, the simplicity drives the comedy. For example, there is a very large hole, which is plainly called “the Very Large Hole” and Lucy’s
Photo: Hope Abbott
conversations with his superior Mr Olderglough are deadpan even when they are discussing murder. The whole narrative is conducted extremely eloquently—everyone in the story is very polite. Even the young vagabond, Mewe, is articulate to the extreme. The stony humour is reminiscent of Lemony Snicket, with slightly more adult themes. The unfiltered candour reveals many
an awkward situation, bordering on the ridiculous. But this still feels logical in the story, because Lucy works for a secretive Baron; so what else would you expect? The castle and its secrets are as Lucy says himself “quite beyond his experience”, and as a reader you relish his nervous determination. At the start of the book Lucy is childlike, delighting in extravagant lies and stories. The war that is going on around the castle where most of the story takes place is never explained. The soldiers assume Lucy will not be able to understand it. When he witnesses a rather scandalous rendezvous between the Baron and his guests, he is not offended, but rather confused by what the point of it all was. He is not a classic gothic hero, despite the setting, and his general misjudgement of the people around him leads to more comic situations, where he valiantly tries to impress everyone. Of course, there is a girl, and the hero must find a way to get said girl. Your sympathy for Lucy increases as you watch him struggle with his emotions. Some might find his teenage self-pity trying, but we’ve all been there before, and the speed of the narrative keeps the plot moving along. There are poignant moments both for Lucy and his companions, heartbreak and death, and despite this being primarily a funny book, these moments are still genuinely touching. Lucy meets a stereotyped but vibrant cast of characters; the ageing butler, the mysterious
Baroness, and the valiant soldier are just a few. The characters of Memel and Mewe, despite being criminals, are very kind to Lucy, and offer him help and guidance. The same goes for Mr Olderglough, the Baron, and Agnes the cook. What is interesting about them is the lack of information that is given to us about their pasts, and the secrets that they keep from Lucy. Their stories intertwine with his own, revealing themselves slowly, with small but satisfying twists lifting the plot throughout the novel. The other characters’ anecdotes, stories within stories, embellish Lucy’s world. There are also funny little references back to previous situations in the book, complementing the fairy tale theme with a cyclical history. However our hero doesn’t really learn from his mistakes. There are some loose ends left at the completion of the story, events never explained, mysteries never solved, and this is disappointing. This is where the novel is less satisfying, as there is no clear cut “happy ending” or closure. However, the characters and the setting are classic and the boldness of the story means you easily engage with Lucy’s adventure. The storyline has enough deviations from a typical model to be interesting without being too complicated. DeWitt finds a balance between dark humour and slapstick comedy, romance and sorrow, and life and death.
Feature
Top 5: Lesserknown books by popular authors
Elizabeth Gibson takes a look at fiver lesserknown novels by popular YA authors What I Was by Meg Rosoff Rosoff’s How I Live Now is a powerful war story and a great family tale. However, it is quite conventionally structured. What I Was, on the other hand, is a hazy, salty, painfully good exploration of human relationships. Set by the sea it flows in a loose, unstructured way, following a young man, for most of the novel unnamed, as he suffers quietly at boarding school. His one source of excitement is a local boy who he idolises for his bravery and athleticism. Lines between admiration, friendship and love are blurred and you come away from the book still slightly unsure about what was real and what wasn’t. The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson Ibbotson was best known for gothic fantasies such as The Secret of Platform 13 and the Amazon-set Journey to the River Sea. The Dragonfly Pool is a surreal volume, which combines elements of many of her other stories to create a bizarre yet delightful world. Starting
out as the exploits of kids at a progressive boarding school and morphing effortlessly into a tale of a lonely prince in a made-up Eastern European country, it then morphs again into a war epic, only to end up back at the school. Its strangeness is part of its appeal, as are the exotic locations and solid characters. Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery Don’t get me wrong, I love Anne of Green Gables—but Anne often strikes me as somewhat ethereal; too perfect and charismatic to be true. Montgomery’s lesser-known heroine, Emily, is far more flawed, cynical and realistic. She has the opposite journey to Anne; where Anne goes from a terrible childhood to a blissful life at Green Gables, Emily goes from a happy existence with her loving father to despairing times following his death. Her fight to be taken seriously as a female writer, and the amount of work she puts into this goal—such as spending all her weekends trekking around the countryside selling subscriptions to a magazine—is staggering. I realised recently that
she is probably the closest thing I’ve ever had to a literary heroine. I had characters that I liked, but never one I really looked up to until Emily.
Olga da Polga series by Michael Bond Paddington Bear and Olga the guinea pig are the animal equivalents of Anne and Emily: Paddington is just too nice, whilst Olga is feisty and fun. She often behaves selfishly and can be a serious diva but that is her charm. I also like how Olga and her chums, unlike Paddington, cannot communicate with humans—animals that can talk to humans were a bit of a bookbugbear for me as a child. The banter between Olga and Noel the cat, however, is sparkling. Unlike many animal characters, Olga is allowed to grow up and have pups; the knowledge that she was based on a real guinea pig makes her exploits even more poignant. Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech Creech is known for the multi-award-winning Walk Two Moons and the haunting Chasing Redbird. While both are excellent YA books, I prefer one of her earlier and lesser-known tomes. Absolutely Normal Chaos follows MaryLou, a minor character in Walk Two Moons, over the summer of her thirteenth year. In Walk Two Moons she plays the role of the class loudmouth, however Absolutely Normal Chaos reveals her to be a sensitive and kind girl, struggling to make herself heard in a huge family. The story balances precariously yet confidently on the border between comedy and tragedy, cemented by Mary-Lou’s smart, sassy, and quite sweet narrative that never falters.
Photo: potatojunkie @Flickr
GLOBAL FEST
09-19 NOV Manchesterstudentsunion.com/globalfest
Food & Drink
22
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Review
Cup North: Legal Highs Food Editor Elena Gibbs reviews the two day Northern coffee party that went on in Victoria Warehouse
According to Wikipedia: "Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug, but unlike many other psychoactive substances, it is legal and unregulated in nearly all parts of the world." In this sense, Cup North was exactly the same as Warehouse Project, but there was no amnesty box and the stimulants were free. The crowd? Just swap bandanas and lollipops for flatcaps and beards, noserings and croptops for glasses and jumpers. THE EVENT: Under the rooms of Manchester’s most underground (in the edgy sense) Hotel, lay the North’s largest two day coffee party, testing the strengths of both its visitors and the beverages they came to try. Some powered through til’ the end, some stayed only for their favourite artist, some pranged out and got the jitters, but everyone had a good time. Stalls were dotted around the two low ceilinged rooms offering constant samples of the good stuff. Imports from Columbia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to name a few. Blends were in constant supply, and from a range of sources. WHAT WAS ON: Latte art workshops Hosted by Union, participants were challenged to design the most creative patterns in the marbled surfaces of their white foamed drinks. Coffee throwing championships Four drunk men in suits and sneakers held up blackboards to judge this ‘strictly no rules’ competition. NB. all bags of coffee thrown were water damaged and not safe for human consumption. Cupping sessions This was a specialist method of product testing. Using a spoon, you huff the black liquid in one short breath in order to reach as many taste receptors as possible. You then move around the roulette style board of flavours deciding which is your choice cut. Ideally, you spit back out to avoid over consumption. We did this at the DR W stand, where collective favourite was the Ipi Rosa, a bitter blend, and not too strong. Cinema Caffeinated, A Film about Coffee, Barista.
HIGHLIGHTS: Brew tea. Yes, a coffee event. But for those of us less tolerant to caffeine, there was the wonderful Brew Tea Co. Beautifully designed, colourful and reminiscent of traditional English lettering (as in 'keep calm and...') but with a modern twist. Best: lemon & ginger loose leaf; wooden gift set with black vanilla and glass teapot; caffeine free breakfast tea - the motif is a pair of Wallace & Gromit style slippers. Buy: HOME, PLY, Home Sweet Home and brewteacompany.co.uk Neighbourhood coffee. Oh, I love a good pun. And what's more fun than sitting thinking of coffee play-on-songs while you wait for your brew? We can't go on together, with suspicious grinds. Email yours in! Best: Espresso Yourself. A thick, rich, full-bodied brew ith boozy notes, dark chocolate and a toffee sweetness. (I copied a mixture of what the man said and its description on the website—I think it's good coffee.) Buy: neighbourhoodcoffee.co.uk Small batch. The man we met outside recommended the Panama roast as the best he'd tried all day, and he'd been there since 10.30. When I went over they'd turned everything off and this guy gave me a free sample full of beans! I popped two on the way home. Best: The adorable monochrome KeepCup that they sell to save both the environment and your fresh coffee.
VENUE: VICTORIA WAREHOUSE Photo: The Mancunion
LINEUP: J.ATKINSON SMALL BATCH DR W LA MARZOCCO UNION NORTH STAR COLD BREW VBM NEIGHBOURHOOD BUNN ORIGIN SANREMO ANFIM MAHLKONIG CLIMPSON CONTI
Photos: The Mancunion
Calling all chocolate lovers—this easy and dangerously delicious fridge cake is a winter comfort that you’ll want to make again and again. A family favourite demanded at every birthday, and presented without fail at any occasion offering an excuse for a tasty treat, this is a joyful recipe that needs to be spread. Meet and fall in love with the oh-so-simple but scrumptious SPLODGE.
+ MORE SAFETY: - Stay hydrated. If you're feeling jittery, take a break and drink some water. - Don't peak too soon, pace yourself.
The event ended with a bearded human getting awarded two million points for throwing a box of 'has bean' across the rainy courtyard, he then got disqualified for being Welsh. If that doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd expect from the end of the night at Victoria Warehouse, then clearly you're in with the wrong crowd. Cup North 7/8th November Victoria Warehouse cupnorth.co.uk
The Mancunion: Food and Drink @MancunionFood
Buy: London, Brighton, Norfolk smallbatchcoffee.co.uk
Splodge
Hope Rapp Food Writer
food@mancunion.com
Photo: The Mancunion
Ingredients
Skinted: Can of Nestlé condensed milk 230g butter Large tablespoon of golden syrup 300g Sainsbury's basics milk chocolate 150g Sainsbury's basics plain chocolate 1 x jumbo pack of Sainsbury's basics rich tea biscuits (sainsburys basics) Minted: 300g Green & Blacks milk chocolate 150g Green & Blacks plain chocolate McVitie's rich tea biscuits
Method Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper, cutting out double the length of the tin so you can cover the cake once it has been poured in. Melt all the ingredients together in a large pan. Start with the butter, then add the golden syrup, broken up chocolate and condensed milk. Stir together. Crumble the biscuits up. You can do this as a stress buster by bashing the biscuits with a rolling pin, or by simply breaking them up with your hands. Stir all together and pour
into loaf tin. Pull the surplus greaseproof paper over the top of the cake and place in fridge for 3-4 hours to harden. (Be sure to take a melted spoonful though before this stage, it's too good to miss!) Extras Add marshmallows, maltesers, nuts, dried fruit or anything that takes your fancy to the mix. Just be sure to reduce the amount of biscuits appropriately.
Food & Drink 23
ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM Feature
The Tweed Brewing Co. Charlie Spargo Editor-in-chief
Photo: Tweed Brewing Co.
Young entrepreneur Sam Ward is attempting to revolutionise the beer industry. Less than a year ago, sitting in their local Robinson’s pub with a pint, he and his now-business partners lamented the poor quality of the beer on offer.
How did it start? “Most of the good ideas start over a pint,” he said. “Myself, Dave, and Anthony [were] all sat in our local just talking about how beer is bland, it’s quite boring, it always seems to have that stereotypical bitterness to it which doesn’t appeal to myself. “And then Anthony, already being a professional brewer, working for Manchester Brewery, he said, ‘Well, beer doesn’t have to be like that. You can make it sweet, you can make it dry, you can make it bitter, you don’t have to follow any rules.’ “So I said ‘why can’t you make it sweeter?’ And I compared it to Desperados—I said if beer is like Desperados I think everyone would drink it.” And that night, in that pub, was where Tweed Brewery began. Since then, they have grown at an unprecedented rate, and don’t look like they’ll be slowing down any time soon.
Where? Based in Hyde, the Tweed Brewing Co. describe themselves as “a Manchester-based micro-brewery on a mission to reinvent the pint.”
The brand: They use all the modern tools at their disposal, keeping a sharp eye on what’s on trend and making drinks they think will really appeal to the general public both in terms of flavour and style. It is extremely important to them to utilise social media in particular to market their products. “I think people are buying with their eyes now, instead of just buying with the pocket. They want something that first of all looks nice and catches their eye, but second of all there’s a certain traceability to it. So it’s local, or the ingredients are organic, or it’s not been sat on a shelf or in a warehouse for two years. “I think people like to know what they’re drinking, the background of it, they want to be able to see it on social media and see that that brand is engaging customers. People want a nice product at a reasonable price, but are prepared to pay a bit more for something that’s locally sourced.” The name Tweed and their entire branding came from the potential to market themselves anywhere. “We wanted something quintessen tially British, so whether it goes to export or wherever, we want people to know it is a British product.
“Second of all we wanted something that was going to automatically suggest a premium product. So I think tweed, being worn by royals, is definitely synonymous with premium.
The products: “We have a core range of about five craft beers,” says Sam. “We have four of them available in bottle and cask, and then cask is our core. So we have our Hopster, our American Pale Ale; we have our New World Pale which is brewed with New World hops; Orange County IPA, which is brewed with fresh sweet oranges; we have a Black Shire Stout, which is really sweet and milky; and we also have our new Equinox, which is like Black Forest gateau in a pint. “And a seasonal one which is our porter which has only just come out. Hopster is definitely [the most popular], 100 per cent. It’s really light, it’s brewed with fresh lime, it’s just such an easy drink.”
What does the brewing process involve? “So Anthony will come in at about seven in the morning—all the hot water will be ready to go at around 75°. He’ll start with the mash, which is what’ll give you your sugars, which will then work with the yeast which will turn to alcohol. “Depending on what we’re brewing at the time, he’ll get around 150-200kg of malt into the mash tun. He’ll steep that like you do with a teabag, for about 90 minutes. “He’ll then siphon that out into a boiler, bring that mash up to the boil, which will convert starches to sugars. And then, at various different stages throughout the boil—either 70 minutes, 20 minutes, seven minutes and zero—he’ll add hops for flavouring, aroma, or bitterness. “After that he’ll let that stand for 20, 30 minutes, and that’ll go into the fermenting vessel, pitch the yeast, then that’ll probably be done within four to five days. Then after that, siphon it into the casks, and drop it off at the Crown & Kettle. It’s simple, but I wouldn’t like to do it—I can only just about brew a cup of tea.”
The difficulties: Sam admits that beer is one of the most risky and competitive businesses to enter, especially in today’s market. “I knew the market was crowded, I just didn’t realise how crowded it was,” he said. “It is a risky business to go into, but I think also what people don’t realise is that a lot of the breweries are one man bands, so the brewer is the marketer, seller, delivery driver, plus the brewer. “Being a trio, we can attack it from three different angles. We have Dave who does all the
brewery management and is the delivery driver. He can go out and spend ten or 15 minutes with each customer, see how the beers are going, and work with the customer and feed back to us. “We’ve got Anthony who solely focuses on the stock, the brewing side of things. And then between myself and Tom [Ingham, former Mancunion Music Editor], we do all the social media, PR, press, selling, and just driving the business forward. “Between us, that’s what’s setting Tweed apart at the moment, especially within Manchester. We’ve got a good product, we know it sells, it’s being seen by the right people, but it’s also growing.” And growing at a serious rate too. “We sold our first cask of beer to Sand Bar round the corner on the 27th of November 2014, and since then we’re now stocked in the Hilton, the Midland, the Renaissance, Innside Manchester by Melia, Sand Bar, Crown & Kettle, Allotment, the Fonts, [and] Kros. “We now distribute to Newcastle regularly, East Anglia, London, and we’re soon to be listed in a national supermarket on a local level.” But the team, on the whole, feel that their local nature has helped them. “I think not being in the city centre has been a struggle, we could be a lot further on if we were a city centre brewery because of the clique within the city centre. “But then again, I also think it’s allowed us to keep our eye on the ball and not get sucked into this fanboy clique there is, everyone brewing mad hoppy beers at ten per cent. “I think there are pros and cons of being in Hyde, the biggest pro has been working with a local authority—Tameside council have been amazing and they’ve really bent over backwards for us. We’d move as the business needed, but for me I’d like to stay within Tameside for the time being,” said Sam.
Where to find Tweed: Try Kro bar, the Lass O’Gowrie and Joshua Brooks on Charles Street, or the Crown & Kettle on the edge of the Northern Quarter where it is stocked regularly. Tweed have an event coming up in Spinningfields in collaboration with the Dockyard, though a date has not yet been set: “That’s going to be a new soul and jazz sort of night, a weekly occurrence. And then we’ve got a load of stuff lined up for 2016.”
Photos: Tweed Brewing Co.
Arts
24
ISSUE 8/ 16th November 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Feature
A History of Western Fuckosophy
Gilbert & George continue their foul-mouthed analysis of contemporary life, says Arts Editor Ashley McGovern Gilbert and George will soon reveal their new set of profane banners, or ‘fuckosophies’, at the White Cube gallery. Written on the top of a plain white sheet in red ink is ‘Gilbert and George says:’ and underneath are their terse words of wisdom. THE BANNERS is a set of ten abrasive phrases, each repeated three times across the gallery to create a crass, liberal-baiting Decalogue: ‘FUCK THE PLANET,’ ‘BURN THAT BOOK,’ FELLATIO FOR ALL,’ and, perhaps the most offensive, ‘GOD SAVE THE QUEEN;’ all in tandem with 3500 more fuckosophy sayings recorded on vinyl. Over the last ten years their work has analysed the worrying political currents of the millennium. They are ‘state of the nation’ artists, writing in grand and frequently shocking photomontages. Utopian Images (2014) was a series of bellowing sarcastic PC commands in poster form, reminding us that fascism is wrong and pissing in the street unacceptable; Jack Freak (2008) was a sickly nationalist hymn to the Union Jack, that involved surreal variations of the red, white and blue; and Scapegoating Pictures (2013) tackled Islamophobia and showed how hatred is focused on niqab-wearing women. All of the imagery has the feel of a drunken Britain First lout cutting into his Union Jack decorated birthday cake (in my head I imagine a modified Battenberg). Gilbert and George are great satirists and they are also possibly the only contemporary surrealists of the farright. They satisfy all the criteria for being EDL propagandists and it might be useful to consider their similarities. Firstly, the city-under-threat motif. G&G love the multiArchives New Zealand@Flickr cultural atmosphere of their hometown London suburb of Spitalfields, likening the place, in an interview with Christies, to a splendid modern Babylon of diverse accents. In neo-fascist theory, the city, especially the streets and architecture, are threatened by foreign invaders. For example, in August National Action planned, and ultimately failed to organised a white man march in Liverpool, parading through the cherished streets in order to reclaim them. Their poster ‘Liverpool will be ours’ even shows a masked thug pontificating from a blackened city skyline. G&G’s city street-scenes have them dancing in Union Jack suits, a surreal May Pole dance to highlight the far-right stupidity. Profanity has always been the language of their work; so much so that ‘fuckosophies’ could well become the retrospective label for all of their conceptual affronts. Cunt Scum (1977) is part of a photographic series that used foul
graffiti written on the streets of London to show desperate unhappiness with government at the time. Their Naked Shit Pictures portraits show the naked artists standing next to blown-up gnarly turds. This unrepentant profanity can be found on any hardened EDL supporters Facebook page—Eric King’s for example, who regularly rants against the Astley Bridge’s ‘Mega Mosque’ and the left-wing ‘shite’ that enables it. For loathsome nationalists, our towns are constantly under threat from Sharia invaders who are described in terms of a profane otherness. Finally, the obsession with insignia, in particular the Crucifix. Their Sonofagod (2005) series features repeated views of the three crosses, none of which remotely resemble the holy rood, but are stylized into a tacky jewellery that speaks to the feeble militarism of all nationalist groups. Admittedly, G&G are atheists and would quite happily see religious authority wiped from the face of the earth, but what they are showing here is ignorance that phases into vain idolatry: Christ is not the healer but the hectoring military general. An obvious visual comparison is the Combat 18 or Blood and Heaven logos done up in their pathetic Nazi palate of blood reds and death metal blacks. Michael Bracewell’s catalogue to the show notes how Gilbert and George enjoy having provocative identities— libertarian, atheist, existential—but beside the sarcastic, camp comedy of the work each of their bilious slogans are entirely “proactive”, designed to encourage free thinking. They have created a unique British style over the decades, which could be called far-right surrealism, and they use this to produce the most political art of our times. They are certainly the most fuckosophical artists around.
Photo: Graham C99 @Flickr
Review: Bedwyr William’s The Starry Messenger
This week we take a surreal journey through Williams’ starry nightmare, currently on show at The Whitworth Gallery
Ashley McGovern Arts Editor Galileo’s short book Sidereus Nuncius (1610) announced to the world that the moon’s surface was uneven and the sky was more densely populated by stars than previously thought. His groundbreaking flight into space was soon pulled back to earthly corruption, however, when he had to sweeten his heretical findings by naming the moons of Jupiter after the Medici. The Starry Messenger, recreated in The Whitworth after its initial display at the 2013 Venice Biennale, is a loose artistic translation of Galileo’s title. Four centuries apart, the theme that connects the two works is exploratory verve struggling against doubt and disbelief. Galileo’s telescope spotted wonders; Williams’ dark humour doesn’t permit such luck. In Wylo (Welsh for wailing or weeping), a garden-shed sized observatory contains items that indicate an eager star-gazer has recently left: A stack of books, star maps lining the walls, a flask of tea and a laptop on standby. Without any visible mourner, a low heavy sob repeats over and over. These tears are not celebrating a eureka moment but seem to be shed over the promethean nosiness of modern science, which is too keen on knowing everything. In a comic touch, the laptop’s looped standby screen shows stars whizzing by. The main exhibit is a surreal film starring Williams as a disembodied head, covered in stuck-on mosaic fragments, giving a short mockumentary about our material connection to space. Clips of dentists’ drills grinding down teeth, cranes crashing into quarries and views of the Milky Way build up to depict the universe as a heap of excess dust, chipped off some great block. Throughout
Exhibition
Review: Richard Forster at the Whitworth Question the concept of time with Richard Forster’s photorealist drawings
Photo: Whitworth Gallery
Neil Greenhalgh Contributor Sandwiched between a historic collection of British watercolours and the refreshingly contemporary (and very aptly named) Art_Textiles, you will find Richard Forster’s meticulously crafted photo-realist graphite drawings. The level of quality and attention to detail in these drawings is absolutely incredible, with the majority of uninformed visitors entirely convinced that they are looking at photographs. Of course, when they realise that these works were in fact drawings made to look like photographs, they instantly treat them in a different way. We undeniably treat the experience of looking at drawings different to that of looking at photographs. A great deal has been written about this matter and it can be said that photographs are usually seen as factual documents, whereas drawings are representational and more capable of fiction. If we understand this to be true, it is no surprise that visitors should decide to change their viewing experience once they learn the reality of the medium. But what happens to the concept of truth and reality in this entanglement of fact and fiction? Are we to say that at one time the
viewer was happy to accept these as documents and now spends longer looking at them, admiring their fictional scenery? Or is it more about the viewer deciding that these pictures are worth looking at more because they clearly took longer to make? To what extent could it be both? The concept of time is as important for Forster in the creation of these works as it is for us in looking at them. Forster works in very meticulous ways, timing how long it takes for the tide to come in, taking pictures at regular intervals. Or on train journeys, taking a picture every so often on a small stretch of the rail tracks. The resulting pictures become the subject for his drawings which take a split second snapshot through a laboriously time consuming drawing process and into the realm of representation. In short, Richard Forster’s drawings are intelligently crafted pieces of work that explore the relationships between fact and fiction, fast and slow,as well as photography and drawing. Until 3rd of January 2016.
Top 5: Double-sided Paintings
With a double-sided Picasso recently sold for £67.5 million, we take an eclectic look at paintings that speak to us behind their backs
Ashley McGovern Arts Editor 5) Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse
these sequences, his dry voice-over is a mixture of BBC astronomy presenter and mopey victim of alien abduction—a clear example of Brian Cox’s influence.
Picasso’s image of an absinthe-flushed gommeuse (French word associated with saucy concert singers) is currently valued at $60 million and will be auctioned in November. Turned over in 2000 for restoration, the lonely singer was shown to have a strange companion on the back. Picasso had hidden a scathing portrait of his art dealer at the time, Pere Manach. He strides across the night sky in a woman’s body and angrily pisses over an indistinct landscape. 4) Roy Lichtenstein, Stretcher Frame with Vertical Bars Canvases are often treated poorly by artists. They are stretched, sanded, left waiting in a corners and sometimes, when inspiration is exhausted, they are violently destroyed. In a reversal of fate, Lichtenstein’s tight yellow frame is the star of this painting. Like a suspicious dealer, we search the back and immediately spot a signature style but what else is there beyond, or behind, this? 3) Roy Nachum/Rihanna, Anti album cover Rihanna recently revealed she will use two paintings by artist Roy Nachum for her upcoming album. They show a young RiRi holding a red balloon, eyes covered by a golden crown, against the backdrop of a gory red smear. Rihanna’s view is that the image, which also has a Braille poem imprinted on the canvas, plays on the theme of sight—the idea that those who claim to see are actually the blindest. Perhaps there is some vengeful jibe to the music industry behind the paintings but this doesn’t fully come across. They’re more of a Brother’s Grimm frontispiece with the uneasy feel of a dark parable: A child star has been spotted and is promised a dubious future of fame.
Photo: Whitworth Gallery
As we’ve seen recently, Galileo’s modern successors are rewarded for their long study with the prestigious Nobel Prize for Physics. Each year a different underground base conducting incomprehensible research at great expense is given the award. Prof Katija’s neutrino flipping lab, one half of this year’s winners, resembles a metallic torture chamber with a kinky central disco ball, and could easily feature in one of Williams’ surreal works. This show cuts through the dry science of the stars and offers up a playful alternative to the Nobel Academy. If you fancy a bizarre tour through space, then definitely take a look.
2) Marcel Duchamp, The Large Glass Artists and window cleaners agree that the best medium for prying on lovers is glass. Though cracked when it was moved in the 1920s, we can still gaze through Duchamp’s iconic work and admire the complex ritual taking place. Divided into two glass panels, the top half has a roach-like bride while the lower pane contains nine waiting bachelors, all hung like dry cleaning on metal hangers. The labours of love become the toil of engineering and Duchamp’s glass works as a see-through diagram. 1) Agnolo Bronzino, Portrait of Dwarf Morgante In mid-16th century Florence, Braccio di Bartolo was the favourite dwarf and jester of Cosimo I de Medici. He joined in all of the court festivities in exchange for occasional humiliation. Bronzino pays a fleshly tribute to the performer and honours him by showing a twin view of a hunting trip—a privilege of the court inner circle. One side is a full frontal and the reverse reveals his proud pumpkin-plump arse on the journey back from the fields, feathery catch in hand. Once considered too brazen, it was painted over with vine leaves and prudishly relabelled an image of Bacchus in the 18th century.
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Feature
Theatre goes digital: The ‘live broadcast’ revolution
British theatre performances are welcoming up to two million live viewers from cinemas across the world thanks to a creative ‘live viewing’ platform Kate Harvey Contributor We now have the potential to vastly enhance our experience of contemporary entertainment and revolutionise the arts, with efforts being made to bridge the gap between the big, bold world of cinema and its quietly sophisticated cousin— the theatre. National Theatre Live has been at the forefront of these innovations for a few years now, operating directly from the National Theatre and The Barbican in London. Their live broadcasts of theatrical performances reach over 700 screens worldwide and are subsequently setting the bar high for the likes of Royal Shakespeare Company, who have also chosen to ‘go digital.’ NT Live does well to strike a balance between farcically filling the stage with celebrities and giving classically trained performers the exposure they deserve. Take, for example, the performance of Hamlet which was broadcasted directly from The Barbican last month. It didn’t take long to realize that the (largely female) audience were diehard Cumberfans— but the celebrity protagonist in no way detracted from an expert cast that knew the stage like the back of their hand. Besides, the ‘celebrities’ that wider audiences are flocking to see are no strangers to theatre themselves. Ralph Fiennes, both a noted Shakespeare interpreter and Harry Potter
villain, delivered a flawless performance as Jack Tanner in Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman during the summer. Bringing household names to the stage has been used for decades as a mode of publicity, and that shouldn’t have to stop at live theatre broadcasts. Admittedly, I’m still not sure where I stand in regards to the sound of rustling popcorn during a stage production (particularly when somebody spills it all over my lap half way through Hamlet’s iconic “to be, or not to be” monologue). Although it’s all very well for watching loud, Hollywood blockbusters, there’s something about eating at the theatre doesn’t seem quite right. However, if it means newcomers are dipping their toes into the world of theatre, I’ll put up with it. This expansion in viewership is, in my opinion, doing wonders for theatre at a time often referred to as ‘dire straits’ for the arts—a sector often hit hard by government cuts. It really hit home for me when a woman sat next to me in a NT Live performance of Comedy of Errors told me she had never stepped foot into a theatre before, or when I had realised, that over half of the audiences watching Hamlet were parents with children. NT Live should be praised for its efforts in diversifying its audience, introducing them to timeless theatrical performances. The invention of live broadcasting is pretty ingenious really, and although there
are fears that it may replace the original concept of going to the theatre, I don’t think audiences will go to watch a live broadcast thinking that it is a substitute for the ‘real thing’. I’d argue that the emotional exchange between the actor and audience sharing the same space is by no means lost; it seems quite clear onscreen that the actors are fully aware of the audience’s presence. Live broadcasting should be seen as a new experience alongside theatre, not something that is driving it towards extinction. Internationally speaking, it is both an excellent way of showcasing British talent and bringing audiences together under the newly undiscriminating banner of contemporary theatre. Rejoice, for NT Live season is upon us! It may be getting colder, but the caliber of performing arts is heating up in the UK for the seventh season running—and there are plenty of performances in the pipeline. Get them into your diary to avoid disappointment (they sell out fast!): Jane Eyre on the 8th of December; Les Liaisons Dangereuses from the 28th of January; As You Like It from the 25th of February; and encore performances for Of Mice and Men (with James Franco and Chris O’Dowd) on the 19th of November. Performances will be broadcasted from the Odeon, AMC, and HOME cinemas in Manchester over the coming months.
Feature
Review: Alan Carr
Elise Gallagher Theatre Editor
The 2015 NTA winner Alan Carr will be ‘yapping’ his way around the UK & Ireland with his stand-up show ‘Yap, Yap, Yap!’ The BAFTA and British Comedy Award winning comedian, author and chat show supremo returns to his stand-up roots with his hilarious take on life. Love or loathe him, Alan Carr is one of Britain’s most successful comedians. Arguably a national treasure, his unique humour and effortless stage presence have earned him a catalogue of awards including Best Chat Show host at the 2015 NTA’s, winner of the 2013 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and 2013 British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality. Taking to the stage on Friday the 6th of November, he had Manchester Apollo’s audience in the palm of his hand. The sketch ranged from topics such as TripAdvisor, going on a safari holiday with his mum, dog walking and the dating scene. The main premise surrounding the show was his hate for people who simply had too much to say. TripAdvisor was naturally his prime example, where he noted comments and ratings, such as a lady giving Windermere two stars because she’d lost her handbag there. However one of my favourite moments within the show I
imagine wasn’t actually part of the sketch. On two separate occasions, Carr stopped mid ‘yap’ to shame audience members who were texting—and rightfully so. “Sorry, am I boring you?” This gathered both a large amount of laughs and respect for Alan Carr. Moments also included Alan posing for pictures at the beginning of the second half, you can imagine some of the poses. A live comedy show wouldn’t be anything without the hecklers. Especially drunken, middle aged hecklers. For those who weren’t aware, Carr has a special place in his heart for Manchester, having lived here for a while so when he asked for romantic meals in Manchester the audience rang back with a plethora of stereotypical Northern delicacies such as “fish fingers,” “pie” and “spag bol.”Hilarity ensued. In previous years, he has garnered a clutch of awards from the 2012 National Television Award for Best Talk Show, and the 2012 Loaded LAFTA Award for Best Stand Up and the 2010 TV Choice Awards for Best Entertainment Show. There were also nominations for Best New British Comedy & Best Comedy Entertainment Personality at the 2009 British Comedy Awards. The mammoth tour is raking in over 140 theatre shows throughout 2015. If you didn’t catch him in Manchester, there are still seven locations remaining before the tour
concludes. Be sure to book soon as remaining tickets will sell fast. An evening full of charged mincing, his incredulous “what’sthat-all-about” and making the most unenthused of people actually laugh out loud. ‘Yap, Yap, Yap!’ is a complete success. If you don’t manage to see his show, his DVD ‘Yap, Yap, Yap!’ Live is out on Blu-ray™ and DVD on the 16th of November.
Alan Carr Photo:Press shot
Feature
Review: Hairspray
Photo: biblarte @ Flickr
Editors’ Picks
What’s on this week? Monday Guys and Dolls, Palace Theatre 7:30PM And Then There Were None, Opera House 7:30PM Tuesday The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Lowry Theatre 7:30PM The Odyssey, Lowry Theatre 4:30 & 7PM Stacy Mawkish: Vesper Time, Contact Theatre 8PM The 2015 Brentwood Prize for Playwriting Ceremony, Royal Exchange Theatre 2PM Opera House 7:30PM
Photo: garryknight @Flickr
A few picks throughout the week in Manchester
Wednesday Upon Awakening, Lowry Theatre 8PM Stacy Mawkish: Vesper Time, Contact Theatre 8PM Pomona, Royal Exchange Theatre, 7:30PM And Then There Were None, Opera House 7:30PM Thursday The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Lowry Theatre 2PM & 7:30PM The Revenger’s Tragedy, Lowry Theatre 8PM Whose Safari Now? Lowry Theatre 8PM
Pomona, Royal Exchange Theatre, 2:30 & 7:30PM Men in the Cities, Royal Exchange Theatre, 7:30PM Friday Young Identity: One Mic Stand, Contact Theatre 7PM Pomona, Royal Exchange Theatre, 7:30PM Sunday Pam Ann: Queen of the Sky, Opera House 8PM Jeremy Hardy - Live, Lowry Theatre 8PM
The cast of Hairspray. Photo: Ellie Kurttz
Elise Gallagher Theatre Editor With an explosion of colour and music, Paul Kerryson’s Hairspray opened its doors to Manchester on the 26th of November. With a stellar cast including Tracey Turnblad veteran Freya Sutton and X Factor’s Brenda Edwards, the opening night was a sell-out. Directed by Paul Kerryson and choreographed by Drew McOnie, the tour will visit a total of 29 venues in the UK across a 40-week span. Cast also include Benidorm’s Tony Maudsley as Edna Turnblad, Jon Tsouras as Corny Collins and Bad Education’s Layton Williams. For those who don’t know, Hairspray centres on Tracey Turnblad, a “larger than life”
optimist in the middle of 60s Baltimore, America. Obsessed with all things dance, Link Larkin, and gravity-defying hair, she’s on a mission to follow her dreams whilst at the same time tackling issues such as racism and body image. Producer Mark Goucher states, “I believe theatre has an obligation to both educate and entertain.” Although Hairspray itself is marketed as a musical comedy, Goucher believes that “the message of striving to break down prejudice in all walks of life shines through. “We still experience racism. Women are still extremely conscious of body issues and we all need to strive for greater tolerance in every area of life.” Attacking issues such as racism
and body image, the show is successful to a certain extent, but they could have done a lot more with it. The plot is more pantomime than hard-hitting musical. Brenda Edwards stole the show as Motormouth Maybelle with her song ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’, which was easily rewarded with the loudest round of applause of the night. Providing some light relief to the narrative was Tracey Penn who shouldn’t go without note. Credited as the ‘female authority figure’, Penn gives us the brilliant prison officer and PE teacher whose deep voice and array of facial expressions injected some arguably needed slapstick comedy into the scenes.
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Alternative Spain
Diary of a Procrastinator Evangeline Katz Head Lifestyle Editor
as organisation is key to success 12:30pm: Finally leave for uni
Photo: Aj Mal
Aj Mal Lifestyle Contributor Unlike the stereotype of sunburnt, package holiday Spain, the unique region of Galicia has a reputation for amazing food, for a history of smuggling, for superstition, and for some of the most spectacular (and unspoilt) coastline in the world. If you can brave a scary landing at the tiny hilltop airport in Vigo, you will find yourself in a city surrounded by stunning beaches, quaint coastal villages, and almost year-round sunshine, due to an unusual microclimate. A ferry from the city travels to the uninhabited Islas Cies—home to one of the world’s best beaches: Praia de Rodas. The Pristine white sands and clear blue waters are protected from the wild Atlantic Ocean by a ring of rocky peaks along the western coast, and as far back as the Roman era, Julius Caesar described this island as paradise. Further inland lies the ancient city of Santiago de Compostela.
Enveloped by mist and rolling green hills, it is the destination of over two hundred thousand walkers every year, who travel the Way of St James, or Camino de Santiago. This is traditionally a Catholic Pilgrimage that has existed since the Middle Ages, and leads to the stunning Cathedral at the heart of the city. This is actually thought to be the rainiest city in Europe, though the weather does not put off the crowds who soak up the lively atmosphere in the tapas bars and cervecerias that line the maze like streets of the old quarter. And like Manchester, Santiago is a University City, with a large student population and nightlife to match. The Rua de Franco is the site of a famous bar crawl, dubbed the Paris-Dakar rally after the name of two bars at either end of the street. With many of the city’s bars being small in size, there are at least 30 on this one street, and the bar crawl involves a drink of the local Ribeiro wine in each of them. Helping to wash that down, there is a variety of delicious tapas dishes on of-
fer, with the Galicia region being especially famous for Pulpo (octopus) and Empanada (like a pie, but definitely not a pie). The stunning capital city, Madrid, is famous for its pulsating nightlife, fashion and food. Madrid is also a magnet for art lovers, with an astounding number of exhibitions at galleries such as the world famous Prado. Whilst many visitors enjoy the traditional Retiro Park, Bullfights and glasses of Rioja at pavement cafés, there is a growing alternative scene represented by Malasana and Lavapies. Lavapies is an edgy part of town, with a melting pot of cultures and people from all over Europe, Africa and South America. The vibrant streets dance to the beat of exotic rhythms and the scent of a diverse food scene. The hipster haven of Malasana has a vibe reminiscent of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, and the exciting nightlife is centred in the multiple bars of Calle Luna, with Bar Picnic being a personal favourite.
Essena O’Neill’s leap of faith: Sensation or sob story?
7:45am: The painful screeching of my alarm yanks me from my peaceful slumber—I snooze it for another 10 minutes, the extra shuteye will surely put me in a better head space for working 8am: Snooze over. I decide to do some exercise, as I had read somewhere that increased heart rate makes you more productive? 8:30am: After several pathetic attempts and an equal amount of time spent staring at the ceiling later, I finally drag myself to the shower 9am: Washed my hair because of the exercise 9:15am: Moisturise entire body from head to toe then proceed to wait for said moisturiser to dry
1pm: Arrive at uni and select Ali G as my study space of choice for today because its just so bright and pretty 1:30pm: After having done the rounds of Ali G at least twice, finally find a computer 1:40pm: Still checking that no-one desperately needs to contact me on Facebook 2pm: Settle down to work but need to organise my papers first 2:10pm: Paper organising has proven to be thirsty work- time to go in search for refreshment 2:15pm: Time to get down to work
9:30am: Spend the next 45 minutes changing my outfit because the library is my catwalk
2:20pm: Still staring at the same sentence, something’s not right but I can’t quite figure out what
10:15am: Still not happy with my outfit but bored now, efforts turn to makeup
2:25pm: Still no progress made—must need brain food… Time for lunch!
10:25am: Have somehow managed to put so much makeup on that I resemble a drag queen—wipe off and restart 10:40am: Finally satisfied and bored of applying makeup, I realise that my room is a tip and decide to spend a good 15 minutes tidying it 11am: Migration to the kitchen 11:15am: Still conjuring up elaborate brain food in the kitchen 11:30am: Get really stuck into Dinner Date re-runs and decide that it will play on my mind all day if I don’t finish watching 12pm: Breakfast devoured. Unpack and re-pack bag
3pm: Back at the computer 3:15pm: Sifting through my essay and thesaurus simultaneously to seem more intellectual in my essay 3:40pm: Time to tweak my bibliography and panic over what referencing method I should be using 4pm: Decide that it’s now home time and return home for dinner with the idea that I will go to the cluster and work later 8pm: Second glass of vino 9pm: Feeling rather sleepy—I question whether there’s any point on getting stuck into my essay again 10pm: Negative. Time for bed.
Aj Mal puts forward his opinion on Instagram model Essena O’Neill’s headline-grabbing exit from social media. Australian social media star Essena O’Neill made headlines around the world recently following her rebellion against Instagram and the unrealistic body image it promotes. Despite having over half a million followers herself, she cancelled her accounts and sponsorship deals, deleted pictures and rewrote a number of captions to reveal the truth behind her photos, whilst also encouraging followers to quit social media themselves. Photos typically featured Essena laughing, admiring sunsets or sunbathing whilst wearing bikinis or glamorous frocks, with captions such as, “things are getting pretty wild at my house.” The radically changed captions now criticise the contrived images, stating, “This has no purpose. No purpose in a forced smile, tiny clothes and being paid to look pretty,” and that, “the format made me feel incredibly alone.” Can we take this at face value or is there a deeper message lurking beneath the surface? In essence the message is a fantastic and healthy one, battling the perceived norm that internet culture promotes of waking up with perfect hair, staring idly out to sun-drenched seas from white sandy beaches whilst flaunting enviable curves, and promoting the ‘secret’ shakes, tablets, clothes, workout plans and diet fads that help to achieve the look. Of course, Essena is right to bring this to attention, and has done so in a bold way, which should make a genuine difference to the over six hundred thousand followers on her Instagram account, who would copy, diet unhealthily, work out excessively and purchase promoted products all in the pursuit of the ideal that has now been revealed as a sham. There definitely exists a pressure to look a certain
way, yet the perceived norm these days is not in fact normal. A brief glance at the body images in the media of the 80s and 90s reveals a plethora of normal body types. Even amongst celebrities it was not unusual to see a variety of normal shapes and sizes in all but the most exclusive supermodels. Body hair, love handles, and a bit of cellulite were all far more accepted. However, we are now encouraged to diet extremely, and work out to the maximum in order to achieve a look consistent with those we see in the media. This is prevalent in both sexes, with massive reported rises in steroid use amongst males seeking to increase muscle mass and lower body fat levels in search of the ideal six-pack. Whilst the images that social media, and formerly Essena O’Neill, sought to promote, claimed to be healthy, in addition to simply eating well and exercising more, there was a great deal of encouragement of harmful behaviour. Anxiety over body image is harmfully affecting an increasing number of people, particularly the young and impressionable. The ‘contrived perfection’ that Essena has highlighted, has led to body insecurity on a massive scale, which has in turn led to an increase in eating disorders, nutritional deficiencies, and the use of cosmetic surgery and procedures such as Botox. Those who have felt unable to obtain the body that they feel is socially acceptable have suffered social anxiety, depression, self harm and even suicide. A simple walk around a supermarket shows the increase in magazines featuring extreme exercise plans and unrealistic physiques, whilst a number of diet pills, health meals and protein shakes adorn the shelves. Ask yourself if you would be willing to place
Photo: micah_camara @Flickr
a photo upon your own social media that shows you looking less than your best. The ability to take numerous photos and select a favourite is undoubtedly contributing to promotion of unrealistic body images. Would you prefer a photo of yourself that only gets two likes, or one that scores a thousand? However, whilst Essena is to be applauded, the claim that social media caused her a great deal of suffering and ruined her life is less believable. Let us not forget that Essena was making a healthy living of this unhealthy obsession with her appearance. And whilst she has now shunned the associated image and sponsorship that accompanied her previous social media image, she has in fact launched herself into a new level of fame, with an image as a hero rebelling against the misogynistic ideals of imagery that dominate the internet. Indeed, her new posts promote veganism, a book (The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle), and her new social media sites. Her recent video blog has also featured requests for fans to donate money to pay for this ‘new’ lifestyle. Whilst denouncing the influence of the media, Essena has recently attended a flurry of interviews and has been
featured in newspapers and magazines around the world. Is this simply cold, calculated commercialism from a master of the art? Social media has made a star of Essena O’Neill, although belatedly for the right reasons. It is unlikely that she would have ever come to our attention without the success of her initial, contrived Instagram page. However, it is her rebellion against it that has led to her huge current notoriety, and this is to be applauded. Her pandering to the artificial, beach body, fat free, tanned and airbrushed airhead imagery promoted by so much of social media led to a moderate amount of success. However, it is her unique stand against this and her action of speaking out against the norm, that has led to real fame and international support. This teaches us that it is our unique differences that are to be celebrated, and our individuality that makes us special. Whilst Essena has the right to benefit from this new wave of attention, it also essential that we learn from her advice and no longer unquestioningly follow the images and advice we are fed by social media….from Essena or her contemporaries.
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ISSUE 8 / 16th NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Overheard University of Manchester The funniest things you’ve been saying around campus this week "Yeah, I thought she was inviting me round for an entirely different Peep Show." -Overheard outside Sainsburys "It was around about the time he started referring to 'man juice', I had to leave." -Overheard in the SU "Her arse was wider than the back of that 143." -Overheard on a 142 "I swear to god, I came downstairs and thought Boris Johnson was in our kitchen." -Overheard in Withington "I think I've got gout." -Overheard in Didsbury "I give it three weeks before she's back on the top floor of Factory and he's crying over his Sam Smith CDs." -Overheard in Fallowfield “Break me off a piece of that gluten free, fun free garlic bread. Actually, on second thoughts don’t.” -Overheard in the Ali G “You know, Bonfire Night would be a great night to shoot someone.” -Overheard in Withington “I really like the idea of lube...” -Overheard on a 111
Anxiety: The Unwanted Guest Perisha Kudhail explores the issue of social anxiety that is becoming ever more prevalent in our student society. Alongside the fun and frvolity of university, social anxiety is that unwanted guest at the party. The expectation is that first years will experience social anxiety and then as soon as they make friends it will disappear. Although social anxiety is an experience that most first years go through, it does not mean that it is not an issue for other students. Social anxiety is an excessive fear of social situations; this may sound extreme, but it is becoming an increasing commonality amongst students. Self-consciousness and fear of being judged is a large factor to the contribution of social anxiety. Classed as the third most common health problem in young adults, it is a surprise that social anxiety can often go undetected. Health psychologist Graham Russell outlines that social anxiety can often be mistaken for shyness and simply considered a personality trait. There are many situations that students encounter that can trigger this state of mind, and in turn it becomes very difficult to break. A social setting where you don’t know anyone can seem daunting to anybody, yet for someone with social anxiety it can trigger a feeling of self-deprecation. The fear of being judged negatively can impact a student’s decisions and influence them even attend-
ing. This avoidance of social settings can prevent a student from interacting with their peers and even impact their educational welfare. Social settings can include parties, gatherings and even lectures. Surveys have shown that amongst university students, approximately 10% of students were diagnosed with severe social anxiety. Although there is very little empirical research on how social anxiety can affect student well-being and learning, there have been focus groups which give us an insight into real situations that sufferers of social anxiety face on a day to day basis. Presentations, a common form of assessment in university, triggers fear of embarrassment for 80% of students and for those with social anxiety-induced distress. In order to avoid this distress, students often remain inconspicuous in order to avoid public speaking. In contrast to an academic setting, the drinking and socialising culture that is deemed a necessity at university can be considered as a challenge to social anxiety sufferers. They may be discriminated against and labelled as anti-social if they do not participate. This was an issue that sufferers raised in Russell’s focus group, and it was suggested that less pressurised social settings ought to be recognised. The notion of
forced interaction is one that can be very uncomfortable, hence the focus being placed on proactively forming bonds rather than just the element of communication. As many students remain undiagnosed regarding social anxiety, the desire for it to be explained more to students in university remains an issue. Many social anxiety sufferers feel that the issue of social anxiety should be tackled by the university. By offering services and support groups, social anxiety suffers may not feel as exposed, and could have access to a port of call. Indeed, there are many situations in university that can be considered a challenge and maybe even a trigger for students with social anxiety. Even in your friendship group, there may be someone suffering from social anxiety. The University of Manchester offers Nightline as a way to chat about anything, no matter how big or small. The issue of social anxiety is often misunderstood, and Nightline is one way to speak about it, to a non-judgemental receiver, anonymously. The number can be found on the back of your student card.
That’s your (Job) lot Alice Williams whinges about the student body’s job prospects, or lack thereof Let me invite you to play a game next time you find yourself bored at a party. Walk right up to the nearest person, look them right in the eyes and ask them where they see themselves in 5 years time. If they are doing anything other than medicine, witness the catastrophic failure of their mental faculties as the suppression of utter job prospect panic becomes too much to bear and they begin weeping over their mug of vodka. It seems that for about half a decade now the media has been informing Generation Y just how much the job market is preparing to fuck us up as soon as we leave the safe confines of our university bubble. When many do reach the great outside world, they are often faced with the terrifying reality that today’s twenty-somethings have been horribly misinformed. Years spent chasing qualifications no one even bothers to ask about will lead you to spend an inordinate amount of time telling any poor sod that will listen the exact breakdown of your EPQ presentation, delivered 4 years ago in a dusty secondary school assembly hall while you desperately try to find meaning for all those wasted hours. After all, the grown ups had told us that we were in a considerably better position than them—education was the name if getting a job was the game. But after the SATs, the 11-plus, the GCSEs, the AS Levels, the BAs, the MAs, the MScs and finally even maybe the death rattle of a PhD, employers turned around and announced that in fact what they were looking for was a wealth of experience. Funnily enough, this wealth of workplace experience was something you missed out on while you were preoccupied with trying to work out what the hell D.H. Lawrence had ingested before he wrote The Rainbow, or hyperventilating during a maths exam you had a day to prepare for. So the horror begins. Having asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up and then finding
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that society can’t provide the goods, the generation before us proffers internships. Internships—the solution to a problem that wouldn’t have existed had someone realised earlier on that droves of students perfectly capable of long division but totally incapable of splitting the bill wasn’t ideal. Internships, zerohour contracts and an unusual amount of part-time jobs are leading us students further and further into a situation where youth unemployment is a major issue. By October 2013, the figures had risen by four times that of 2004, and had tripled in the first 3 years of the coalition government. So, other than cry and eat an unprecedented amount of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups from the Union’s Grab and Go, what can Manchester students proactively do to try and do to help themselves? Well, some good news in a barrage of bad is that, in being at The University of Manchester, you are already in a better position of employability than many.
I’m in a very close friendship group of girls and one girl has recently got a new boyfriend who a lot of the other girls really dislike. They’ve started organizing things without our friend even when we know she’s not with her boyfriend because they claim she’s ‘changed.’ I’m really uncomfortable with the whole situation but I don’t want to end up cast out as well. What should I do?
According to recent research from The Graduate Market in 2015, and High Flyers Research, we are the most targeted university by Britain’s top graduate employers. Graduates destination data reveals that in 2013/14, 84% of Manchester graduates who got jobs went straight into graduate-level employment and the average starting salary for Manchester graduates was £22,000. However, don’t get complacent—there was also recently an interview on The Debrief which gave an insight into the life of strippers, from ‘Amy, graduate of Manchester University, 2:1 in English Literature.’ Ultimately, no-one’s going to get a job from complaining. It’s worth getting involved in as many extra-curricular activities as you’re interested in without sacrificing your degree qualification, and if you’re really stuck about what direction to go in then visit to the careers service will yield helpful information about what you need to focus on to get where you want to be..
Photo: GrishamRecession@Flickr
Dear Caught in the Middle, This is a difficult one because although you rightly know it’s unfair for the group to treat your friend in this way, most people do change a little bit when they first get into a new relationship. It’s probably worth having a discussion with the group and remind them all what you so liked about your friend in the first place, and how her boyfriend can’t have changed her to such an extreme extent. You haven’t mentioned whether the group’s reasons for disliking the boyfriend are reasonable—maybe they just don’t like change and will get used to the new situation? It might be best to talk to the friend with the boyfriend as well and give her any chance to tell you if she’s feeling isolated from the friendship group, or just really enjoying all her time with her new boyfriend. With any luck, she won’t have noticed and the girls will soon get used to being more understanding about the situation.
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Sport
ISSUE 9 / 23rd NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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Remembering
George Best Jonah Lomu Ten years on from the death of the Manchester United legend, we look back on the career of a genius
Will Kelly Sport Editor On the evening of the 25th November 2005, George Best, as he had done throughout his career, drew the crowds to Old Trafford. Only, this time, Old Trafford was not lit up by the artistry of the Irishman, for that was now a mere memory to those supporters, many who had placed bunches of flowers among the railings facing the statue of his previous manager, Sir Matt Busby, in memory of the Belfast boy who had just died at the age of 59. Andrew from ‘Stretford End Flags’ (SEF), a Manchester United supporters group, summed up his feelings at the time of the news: “It was a sad day when George passed away. I never saw George play, but like all United fans, I’ve seen the footage, and he was magic. It was sad that alcoholism took over his life and that he suffered from what is an illness.” I too, did not see Best in his heyday, and what can one write about Best that has not been penned hundreds or thousands of times before? One simply runs out of superlatives available to anyone trying to describe what he could do with the ball, and the goals he scored. The football world had lost what one can only describe as a genius. Best was born on the Cregagh Estate in Belfast. Having started playing for the local boys’ team, word spread about the dockyard of a talented skinny teenager, quickly reaching the ears of Bob Bishop, Manchester United’s Northern Ireland Scout. Bishop organised a match for Best to play in and, despite being only 15 and up against a team of 17 year olds, Best bagged a hat trick. Subsequently, Bishop contacted Matt Busby and said “Boss, I think I’ve found you a genius!”. Best was brought over to Manchester as an apprentice of Manchester United, but had trouble settling in to his new surroundings. In fact, Best would have packed it all in and headed off back to Belfast had his father, Dick Best, not spent time with his son in order to persuade him to stay in Manchester. Who knows what would have become of George Best? As Best progressed through the United ranks at the Cliff Training ground, the Belfast boy began to gain a host of admirers among the United staff, and Best would turn professional on his 17th Birthday in May 1963. On 14th September 1963, with injuries forcing his hand, Matt Busby gave the 17 year old his league debut against West Bromwich
Albion at Old Trafford. By the end of the season, Best was a regular in the side and also helped the club to an FA Youth Cup title. He followed it up by being part of the 1964/65 title-winning team, missing just one game out of the 61
rious memories they were. Best scored 136 goals in 361 appearances and holds the post-war record for the most goals by a United player in a single match— six in an 8-2 FA cup Fifth Round mauling of Northampton Town.
Photo: Nationaal Archief Fotocollectie Anefo @Wikimedia Commons
that the Reds played that season. It was his partnership for years to come with Bobby Charlton and Dennis Law that would be immortalised in United’s history as ‘The United Trinity’, appreciated by the statue outside the ground. From then on until the 1970s, Best tormented defences at home and abroad, creating goals and newspaper headlines on a more or less match-by-match basis. A second title followed in 1967 and perhaps his crowning moment was a year later in the 1968 European Cup final against Benfica, where he gave the Reds a 2-1 extra time lead en route to a 4-1 success. He was United’s top goal scorer that year with 28 goals, and was crowned the Professional Footballers Association and European Footballer of the year. Best would remain United’s top goal scorer for the next four years. However, it was in these next 4 years that the world of George Best spiralled downwards, earning suspensions and missing games, not to mention the women that came and went. By the early 1970s, frustrated that the team wasn’t being strengthened, he began to miss training sessions, and his problems grew worse. Falling out with the newly-appointed manager Tommy Docherty, Best parted ways with the club in January 1974. But as he rightfully asked, we should remember Best for the backpage headlines, and not the front. His moments of genius will never be forgotten, and what glo-
Wednesday 25th November 2015 will mark 10 years since Best passed away, and Manchester United will be lining up against PSV Eindhoven of Holland, in a crucial Champions League group stage match. Just as Best lit up Old Trafford, supporters are being called upon by SEF to light up Old Trafford. As the clock ticks onto the 7th minute—Best’s iconic number—supporters are asked to turn on their mobile phone torches and to light up all of Old Trafford. Best’s sister, Barbara McNarry, fully supports the tribute and had this to say: “During the darkest days of the troubles in Northern Ireland, George brought a shining light to so many people. It’s very humbling to know that this light has never gone out or even dimmed. Fans not just at home, but in Manchester and many other places around the world continue to honour his memory and support him in death as they did in life. Old Trafford will be lit up on the 25th of November in fond memory of an ordinary man with an extraordinary talent. Thank you to the Manchester United supporters for this beautiful gesture.” Many, when asked whom the greatest players of all time are, would point to Pelé and Maradona. But it speaks volumes when they both openly admit that George Best was indeed, the best, and it will be this banner, made by SEF, which will be displayed on Wednesday night.
Photo: Stretford End Flags
On the sad passing of one of rugby’s greatest ever players, Jonah Lomu, the world mourns and reflects on a great career Toby Webb Sport Reporter The tragic news of Jonah Lomu’s passing swept the world last Wednesday (18/11). The immense outpouring of homages to the player proved to be a measure of how loved he was. Widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest players, he accumulated 63 caps for New Zealand, scoring 37 tries in the process. Lomu’s playing career is astonishing given his problems with illness. At 21, he was diagnosed with a rare and serious kidney condition, nephrotic syndrome. He contended with this ailment through most of his career, taking several breaks from rugby because of it. That he is considered one of the greatest, despite having a debilitating illness, illustrates how good a player he was. Lomu broke into the New Zealand XV in 1994, aged just 19. Despite having only two caps, he was included in the squad for the 1995 World Cup, which turned out to be one of the most justified decisions in the whole of sport. Lomu set the tournament alight, wreaking havoc on several of the home nations. He scored seven tries in five matches, two against Ireland, one against Scotland and four tries in the semi-final against England. His performance against England would go down in history. It was an utter embarrassment on our part. Lomu brushed past the opposition with such ease. Lomu was a thorn in the side of Eng-
land throughout his career: he played 7 times against England, winning 5, losing only once, and most importantly, scoring 8 tries. Lomu holds the joint record for tries scored in a World Cup (15). He was equalled by Bryan Habana in this year’s tournament. However, Habana has accumulated his tries over 3 tournaments and Lomu only two: he was a prolific scorer. Despite this, he never won the World Cup. Lomu was a rare bread. Many rugby players have one or two outstanding attributes: Lomu had everything. Firstly, he had lightning pace. Playing on the wing meant he scored many tries by simply running around the opposition. However, when faced with defenders in his path, he could utilise his mass (he weighed over 18 stone). This led to the infamous moment when Lomu bulldozed his way over England’s Mike Catt in the 1995 World Cup semi-final. Lomu’s height (6 ft 5 in) meant he remained nimble despite his weight. Combining all of this made Lomu terrifying to play against: he had so many ways of bettering you. The decision to move Lomu from a number 8 position to the wing for the 1995 World Cup was another factor in his success. No one had ever dealt with a presence like that before. Rugby in that era was a lot to do with agility, avoiding contact by finding the space. Lomu pioneered a new style of rugby: using brute force to break tackles. The fact that he had blistering pace too meant that
he could excel in the traditional style of rugby. Lomu’s impact on rugby as a whole was and will always be enormous. Having such brute force and power in the backs was innovative. It was the beginning of the progression towards modern day rugby, where size is a universal trait rather than exclusive to the forwards. He went on to be viewed as a template for success. The current Wales team perfectly exemplifies the transition from agility to brute force. The 1995 World Cup team had David Evans at centre and Ieuan Evans on the wing. They weighed 80kg and 84kg respectively. The 2015 equivalent, Jamie Roberts at centre and George North on the wing, weigh 107kg and 109kg respectively. This illustrates the transition to power and weight in rugby. The weight increase in rugby as a whole can be linked to the increase in professionalism: dietary planning and physical conditioning. However, Lomu was the template. Lomu’s career will go down in history as one of the greatest. While there are players, and will continue to be players, that surpass him in caps and tries scored, none will have the impact that he had on the game. He shaped modern day rugby, and this is what he will be remembered for. In other rugby news, England have appointed Eddie Jones on a 4 year contract as their new head coach, following the termination of Stuart Lancaster’s contract. Jones is England’s first ever foreign coach.
Photo: Global Sports Forum@Flickr
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ISSUE 9 / 23rd NOVEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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SPORTLIGHT Sportlight provides an insight into a whole range of sports that are available across the University of Manchester
Cheerleading: It’s harder than it looks!
Handball
Jessica Persson Sport Contributor
The University of Manchester Handball Club have been around for over ten years, and last year we merged with our former Mancunian rivals Manchester Handball Club. The merge has proved successful in creating a stronger club with many volunteers, and a new energy has been injected into the student branch of the club. Also, do not worry—university students still compete in our traditional purple colours of the University of Manchester, when competing at student-only competitions. As handball is, unfortunately, not yet a BUCS sport, the biggest university handball event is the University Championships, organised by ABUHC (Association of British University Handball Clubs) on behalf of England Handball and Scotland Handball. This year’s championships kick off with a
northern round in Leeds on November 28th-29th. With this in mind, the UMHC women’s and men’s teams are currently preparing for the upcoming tournament, and are feeling confident. Josh is one of the volunteer coaches for handball, and is in his third year of playing handball for the University of Manchester Handball Club. He likes how the welcoming nature of the handball club makes it feel like a community, rather than a sports club. He’s excited for the upcoming Handball University Championships in Leeds, since this will be his final season with the handball club and wants to go out on a high. He also says that the atmosphere is always a good combination of excitement and competitiveness; he’s looking forward to playing as many games as possible in the famous purple shirt. Emilie and Julie are two of the club’s newcomers this season. Originally from Nor-
way and the Netherlands, they’re no strangers to handball, having played the game for 12 and 10 years respectively. Now students in Manchester since September, they have both enjoyed the many handball team socials and meeting new people from different countries and cultures. Handball is easy when you get the hang of it, says Emilie, and Julie encourages students to try it if they want to be a part of a fun bunch! The University of Manchester Handball Club run free sessions for students on Mondays, 5-6pm, at the Sugden Sports Centre. Join us for a fun and friendly session, whether you’ve played before or if you are a complete beginner! You can follow the team on Twitter: @manunihandball or check out local sessions on www.manchesterhandballclub.co.uk
Photo: The University of Manchester’s Cheer Team
Zara Boateng Sport Contributor To most people when they think of cheerleaders, the first thing that comes to mind is excited girls in short skirts shaking pom poms. Are we excited? Yeah! Do we shake pom poms? Of course! And our skirts? Well, you can’t really exercise in long skirts. But cheerleading is definitely more than that. When I joined the University of Manchester Cheerleaders (UMC) last year I completely underestimated how much work goes into being a cheerleader. Cheerleading can be split into two types: competitive and motivational. Competitive cheerleading is based on a routine, where the team is judged on creativity and technique. Motivational cheerleading on the other hand, is more supportive. This is when cheerleaders go along to sports games to cheer teams on. As a sports society, we mainly focus on competing against other cheer teams around the UK, but when we can we love to cheer for our University of Mamchester sports teams! Every year, we try to do at least three competitions and last year was quite successful for us. In the majority of the competitions we have participated in, our Elite team came in first, second or or third
place, and our newly formed pom dance team came second in their first ever competition! However, winning ‘Sports Society of the Year 2014-15’ definitely had to be the cherry on top! We have two teams that compete: the UMC Elite Squad and the UMC Honeybees. Our first competition is always in November or December, so by mid-October we have already formed our Elite and Pom teams. The Elite team, depending on the competition, is made up of 15-35 people. The routines are a combination of tumbling, gymnastics, stunting, dancing and jumping. To make sure we hit a clean routine, we train three times a week. Training can definitely be pretty intense. We want to make sure that we can throw our flyers super high! So, alongside improving our stunting and gymnastic technique, one of our goals this year is definitely to improve our core fitness and strength. Our last session had us doing 120 sit-ups, 120 burpees and 70 toe-touch jumps! We don’t mess around! The UMC Honeybees are our competitive pom dance team. Pom dance mainly focuses on the dancing side of cheer; there is no stunting at all. For our December competition, our pom dance team is made up of 15 people and every
week, the Honeybees get together to learn their high-energy dance routine. I joined cheer because I thought the uniform looked cool; I didn’t expect to like it this much, nor did I think that I was good enough to ever compete! I made it on to the team and in April we are going to be competing in Paris! Every year a wide variety of students come to the taster sessions. Some have experience in dancing, cheerleading, or gymnastics, but others, who are like me, have no experience at all. I thought that this would hinder me a lot, but it didn’t and this is probably the main reason why I love UMC! As a team, they don’t just look for the most talented individuals, instead they look for people who are willing to try hard and improve their skills. Every Sunday, there are open sessions held in the Sugden Sports Centre. These two hour sessions are open to anyone, which is great if you want to learn new skills and see what cheerleading is about. Check out our Facebook page, and message us if you have any enquiries. Facebook: University of Manchester Cheerleaders Twitter: @UMC_Cheer Instagram: @UMC_Cheer
Photo: The University of Manchester’s Lacrosse Team
Cycling Club
The Mancunion Sport ran a story last week on the University of Manchestter’s Cycling Club raising money for Maggie’s Cenres with a 24 hour cycle outside the Students’ Union.
The club raised £828.13 in total last Thursday/Friday, and their sponsors Homes4U are going to match that, meaning the team have raised £1,650! Well done to all involved! Photo:Flo Elliot
16th NOVEMBER 2015/ ISSUE 8 FREE
SPORT
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Four years on from Gary Speed Photo: Jon Candt @Flickr
76% of suicides in the UK are males Harry Newton Sport Editor
UoM Lacrosse
UoM Cycling Club
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Photo: Nigel Maitland Photography
FA Cup Shocks Photo: James Lobley
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This month marks a tragic anniversary. On the 26th of November 2011, Gary Speed took his own life. With 535 Premier League appearances, Speed once held the record for the most Premier League appearances — until being surpassed by goalkeeper David James — and remains a part of sporting legend. Yet behind closed doors, Speed was struggling with his own battles. With 76 per cent of all suicide victims being male, it is obvious that this statistic cannot be ignored. The prevalence of female suicide must not be disregarded or underprioritised, but as the biggest cause of death in men under 45 in the UK, serious questions regarding why men are three times more likely to take their lives than women must definitely be addressed. Removing the stigmas that still surround talking about mental health issues is very important. If we are to win this war against depression and suicide, society must enable sufferers to feel comfortable speaking out. However, overcoming the pressure that men are put under to fit into a certain stereotype of what a ‘man’ should be in British culture, is also a battle that must be fought. Challenging the cultural barrier that stops men seeking help when they need it is a crucially needed means of prevention. A certain stereotype is often forced upon men, one which can leave many feeling unable to speak as they must project a front of being ‘controlled’ and ‘strong’ at all times. To feel able to ask for help, and find available channels for help, is an essential step in combating the issues that any man, woman or child may have.
Louise Speed, Gary’s wife, told an inquest in 2012 that her husband was “quite a closed character” emotionally, and that he was on “top form” at a dinner party earlier in the evening before he took his own life. This behaviour may just have been the nature of Speed, but this implied emotional seclusion points to the importance of opening a door which many men around the country feel they have to keep locked. Despite living in a world where equality is better than ever, problems still persist and we are still not yet equal. Men find themselves in a position where they cannot act how humans should— with vulnerability; the feeling that they can talk, that they can resolve their issues, and that they can prevent the heartache that comes with suicide. A label is often fixed onto suicide
“Last year, 12 men per day committed suicide” as being a selfish act—to take one’s life is to leave another’s worse off. Although it is true that every suicide will touch and affect others, to ever suggest that this is a selfish act would be naive. The only selfishness within this matter is brought by those who still feel entitled to enforce male stereotypes which leave men feeling alone in their fight. Even the greatest of generals cannot win a war alone. CALM (Campaign Against Living
Miserably) is a charity which specifically works to prevent male suicide. The aim is to reach men through a variety of platforms—whether it be music, comedy or sport—to fight this cultural wrongdoing. With over 30,000 callers last year, it is evident that CALM are doing a great job, but it is also evident that more men should feel able to contact them. CALM can be contacted by their website (https://www.thecalmzone. net/) or by calling 0800 58 58 58, which is open 5PM to midnight every day of the year. This week sees International Men’s Day fall on the 19th of November this year. Objectives of International Men’s Day include a focus on men’s health, improving gender relations, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive male role models. The day will also highlight how social media can be used to help. You can pledge your support to the cause with a tweet or status by going online here: https://www. biggerissues.co.uk/. People need to talk and a single post will be amplified around the country, with Professor Green and Stephen Fry already among many who have pledged. The post itself states: “Suicide is the single biggest killer of guys under 45. We aren’t talking about it enough. Let’s talk #BiggerIssues.’ By going on their website anytime before the 19th of November, you can press a button that allows them to automatically tweet this on your behalf on the Thursday. Last year, 12 men per day committed suicide, and the aim of CALM and other charities like it, is to combat this issue by going down avenues where men are present, and promote discussion. Paul Farmer, chief executive of charity MIND, in
March of this year said: “from the elite level down to grassroots, sport can be used to reduce stigma and encourage positive conversation about mental health.” Whether it be down the avenue of sport, music, comedy or any other way of spreading the message, it is clear that men should feel open enough to talk. Nightline is a student-run confidential listening and information service for students by students available for University of Manchester students. It is open 8pm-8am everyday of term, and the number is available on the back of your student ID. The University of Manchester also has a counselling service available, which you can contact by phoning at 0161 275 2864, or emailing: counsel.service@manchester. ac.uk. The Student’s Union Advice Service is also available on the ground floor at the Students’ Union.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons