Issue 19

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MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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12th MARCH 2018 / ISSUE 19

Voter turnout still below 20 per cent in Exec elections

Photo: Kirstie O’Mahony

• Highest voter turnout of any UK university, but half of turnout in 2015 • Six out of the eight officers elected are women • Candidates up in arms about #DogGate Cameron Broome & Kirstie O’Mahony Head News Editor & Editor-in-Chief 19.8 per cent of students voted in the recent Students’ Union Executive Officer elections, substantially lower than the turnout of 34.3 per cent in 2015, but higher than last year’s 16 per cent turnout.

8,038 students voted in the elections from the 1st of March to the 8th of March, selecting eight officers from 48 candidates.

The Students’ Union is the largest in the country, representing 40,490 students, and received the highest number of votes of any Students’ Union.

Other Universities had higher percentage turnouts. Sheffield University Students’ Union, for example, had a turnout of 28.5 per cent, and Leeds University Students’ Union had a turnout of 22.3 per cent, based on statistics found on their respective websites.

Deej Malik-Johnson, the current Campaigns Officer, was elected as Welfare Officer with 1,241 votes.

Speaking to The Mancunion about voter turnout, Deej said, “as Campaigns Officer this year, I’ve seen student engagement get higher and higher and higher. The strikes have really focused people’s attention and they’ve made people go ‘what are we fighting for, what is the education system that we’re living in and what we’re going to do’. Students have come out in huge numbers.

“I don’t think people can talk about apathy

Manchester University student dies in canal

anymore. Every time that I knocked on doors during campaigning, people have gone ‘I know who you are’, they’ve known who the other candidates are, they’ve been excited, they’ve been engaged.”

This year the Students’ Union’s efforts to increase turnout included giving out prizes on each day of the voting period, holding a countdown celebration of voting opening in the SU foyer, and hiring a double-decker election bus which toured around campus. 500 voluntary staff hours were logged over the course of the voting period.

Alex Tayler, the outgoing General Secretary, said he was impressed with the results, despite the turnout percentage not matching up to other universities.

“Given the issues around the building works, strike action, and terrible weather, I think it’s impressive that we’ve managed to increase on last year.”

He added that another factor may have been that “some people were put off by the crap that comes with student politics”.

The most-closely fought position was Activities and Development which saw Lizzy Haughton elected with 1316 votes, beating Anthony ‘Ant’ Mendez by only 20 votes.

Speaking to The Mancunion after her victory, Lizzy said: “I’m just so exhausted. It’s amazing, I just had my heart set on the fact that I was going to win and I did win.

“I want to give to students what I received from my Students’ Union. I want to increase student engagement, I want to improve student communication between societies. I want to

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improve the University’s promotion of extracurricular activities. I want to make the University and the Students’ Union more sustainable...like zero waste workshops and a zero waste shop.”

Riddi Viswanathan, current Diversity Officer, was successfully elected as International Students’ Officer with 1,640 votes, having campaigned for the new position to be created throughout the last year.

In her victory speech, Riddi said: “thank you Manchester for re-electing me as your first International Students’ Officer. It’s such a pleasure leaving office as your diversity officer and getting elected into a brand new position. You can’t get rid of Riddi!”

Fatima Abid was elected as the Students’ Union General Secretary with 1,924 votes.

The Officer roles of Campaigns, Communities, and Citizenship and Liberation and Access were created this year and will be taken up by Shamima Khonat and Sara Khan, who received 2,344 and 1,497 votes respectively.

Huda Ammori, the founder of the Manchester Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel campaign also ran for the role. She told The Mancunion that she would have been “committed to fulfilling the role” as during her time at university she said that she’s “continuously exposed the university’s links to war crime.”

When asked why she brought a Palestinian flag on stage with her on results night, she said it was because it “demonstrated that I am a proud Palestinian and was appropriate as the students’ union officially endorses BDS.”

How was the Women in Media conference?

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Adam Rodgers, the only first year to stand in the SU Exec Elections, was unsuccessful in his bid to become Education Officer but won the ‘Miss Congeniality’ award on the night for being a positive force during the elections.

Adam said that running as a first-year student was “intimidating, because a lot of the other candidates were third or final years so they know their stuff.

“It had its benefits and it has its limitations as well because I hadn’t been here that long so people were like who are you to run the Union if you’ve only been here five months or six months.”

Olivia Meisi was successfully elected as the Education Officer, with 3,498 votes.

Adam said he is “glad Olivia won, she will make a great Exec and Education Officer.”

Adam also said that he would not run again: “I think it’s a one time thing. I think you have a shelf life and so once people have seen you once, they don’t want to see you again.”

Sara Heddi was re-elected as Womens Officer, receiving a landslide 2,326 votes.

Commenting on the increased BAME representation on the Exec Officer team, Deej MalikJohnson said: “these results are groundbreaking.

Six-eighths of the Exec next year are going to be from an ethnic minority background. We’ve got five Muslims, we’ve got LBGT Muslim women elected into positions, I believe we’ve got the first Shia woman General Secretary or President in the country.

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An ode to Antwerp

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University strike sees a week of u-turns An eventful third week of industrial action saw twitter disputes, student refunds and breaks with UUK policy all brought to the table

International Women’s Day: Highlights

Books p20 The library of the future

Photo: The Gryphon Photos @ Flickr

Hannah Vallance Senior National Political Reporter Following the third week of industrial action, several universities have broken their hardline stance with Universities UK (UUK) over the future of academic staff’s pension scheme.

Spearheading a subsequent week of u-turns, in an email to staff on Wednesday, the University of Oxford’s vice-chancellor, Louise Richardson stated that “in light of the depth of feeling of so many colleagues”, the University would be “recommending that council reverse its response to the UUK survey in line with congregation.”

On Tuesday the 5th of March, the university blocked a staff-led debate surrounding the pension dispute that has engulfed 64 university campuses across the UK. However, hundreds of staff decided to pursue with the meeting, with organisers proclaiming a ballot conducted by the meeting resulted in an overwhelming 442 votes to two to change Oxford’s position on academic pensions.

The resulting shift in policy means that the university has decidedly placed itself alongside

a growing list of 30 universities distancing themselves from the UUK’s position, including Manchester, Cambridge and Warwick.

This follows after talks between the University College Union (UCU) and UUK resumed on Monday morning, but hope for the dispute to be resolved was quickly diminished as the UUK took to twitter on Monday night to express its concerns, calling for more time to cost what a spokesperson branded as the UCU’s “unaffordable” proposals.

Opening under the supervision of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitrations service on Monday, the meeting discussed alternative proposals put forward by the UCU, of which entailed employers and employees both sharing the responsibility to increase contributions to preserve the USS pension scheme. The plan would involve universities accepting some increased risk to ensure lecturers are not left off what the UCU have calculated to be £10,000 worse annually when it comes to retirement.

As of present, the UUK have stated that changes to pensions are necessary to straighten

out a deficit in the current scheme that the USS has estimated to amount to £6 billion. In an open video to University of Manchester students, the vice-chancellor, Nancy Rothwell branded the scheme as “simply unsustainable.”

However, crossfire between UUK and academics on twitter resulted in a new round of negotiations being initiated on Tuesday morning, after UUK consistently pressed that they were “very happy to meet tomorrow” (Tuesday) despite Sally Hunt, the chairperson of UCU, releasing a statement in which she was “disappointed that the UUK have said they will not meet again until Wednesday afternoon.”

Speaking to The Mancunion, regarding the reinvigoration of talks, Hunt stated that: “We are pleased that UUK have belatedly agreed to come back to the negotiating table. Staff are losing money and students are feeling the impact of this disruptive action.

“We hope we can now sit down and try and find a resolution to the dispute. We remain committed to talks and to resolving this dispute, and we hope UUK are too.”

Additionally, in the face of increasing pressure from students, King’s College London have also broken with the stance of the majority of British universities to compensate students for the missed contact time that has resulted from industrial action.

Following student petitions for reimbursements amounting to 115,000 signatures, releasing a statement, the university declared that: “Once the nature of and scale of disruption has become clearer, we will develop a mechanism for considering cases for any further compensation that may be warranted in light of cancelled classes.”

Last week, Universities Minister Sam Gyimah called for compensation for young people for the “lost study time.” Adding to this, the Chinese embassy have told ministers that they express concerns surrounding the 170,000 Chinese citizens that study in the UK, paying an annual sum of tuition fees of £20,000 a year.

The University of Manchester has ruled out refunds for students, blaming a “composite fee” for the inability to carry out compensation.

However, in an open video to students, Nancy Rothwell ensured reserved lecturer pay would be “used for student benefit.”

When contacted for comment in query of a possible revision of this stance, following the proposals put forward by King’s, the University failed to respond to The Mancunion.

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Food and Drink p23 Review: ‘One Plus’, hot pot restaurant

“This is incredible. When we sit back and think about what has been achieved, it’s remarkable and it’s not long ago that there wasn’t six exec officers in the country and now we’ve got them from Manchester, it’s what we’ve all been fighting for. Every year things get better, there’s better representation and I’m just incredibly happy, incredibly proud.”

Several complaints had been made against Anthony ‘Ant’ Menezes for his use of his friend’s dog campaigning, despite students saying he claimed he had owned the dog for six years. The incident has been described as ‘dog gate’, with other candidates complaining that this gave Ant an unfair advantage.

Ant defended the use of the dog and told The Mancunion: “The other candidates had equal opportunity to use a dog if they so wished, the staff found a site called borrowmydoggie in

Contact us Editor-in-Chief: Kirstie O’Mahony editor@mancunion.com Deputy Editor: Tristan Parsons deputyed@mancunion.com

Lifestyle p27 How to take a guilt-free wellbeing day

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Manchester where you can borrow dogs for free. “...The candidates who complained would never have done so if they had been innovative enough to think of such an effective marketing strategy themselves. My campaign partner and I both simply agree that the complaints were motivated by simple envy over our successful lobbying idea.”

Other accusations were made against some of the unsuccessful candidates that they had pulled down other candidates’ campaign posters and put them in toilets. It has also been alleged that some candidates had tried to get people to vote for them by walking around with their laptop (forbidden in the SU election rules).

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Love for the Streets week of events to draw attention to homelessness Programme of events including conferences, art and live music will address one of Manchester’s biggest issues during Manchester Homelessness Awareness Week Elizabeth Rushton Junioir Main Campus Reporter The student-run homelessness campaign group Love for the Streets is to hold a series of events to mark Manchester Homelessness Awareness Week.

The planned programme, which will run between the 10th and 17th of March, will offer a range of activities from visual art to a sound clash.

The week of events will be kicked off on Saturday the 10th of March with an exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery featuring artworks produced by members of the homeless community in Manchester. The participating artists worked with students from Manchester School of Art to produce works spanning a variety of media, from tile making to street art, at workshops hosted by Love for the Streets over the course of six weeks.

Michael Riley, the Whitworth’s Family Engagement Co-ordinator, who has helped arrange the event together with Love for the Streets, praised the group’s “creative approach to challenge our perceptions of the lives and experiences of people who are homeless” He added: “Homelessness in Manchester has unfortunately been on the increase over the past few years and requires creative responses

to address the issue. The Whitworth, being open and for everyone, feels like the ideal place to host this discussion.”

Each artist has been supported at some point either by charity projects including Cornerstone, Mustard Tree, and the Booth Centre, or by one of Greater Together Manchester’s night shelters. Visitors will also be able to view films showcasing the work of these charities, and partake in interactive workshops.

The exhibition will also feature the work of acclaimed artist and homelessness campaigner David Tovey, whose work has been displayed the Tate Modern. Once homeless himself, he is the founder of the One Festival of Homeless Arts, which has been held annually in London since 2016, with Manchester due to host some of the festival’s events in June 2018.

Love for the Streets aims to use the events to raise awareness of homelessness among students across Manchester, open a dialogue on potential solutions, and inspire students to take action themselves by volunteering with local homelessness charities. They are working in coordination with the Big Change MCR Fund, which aims to provide homeless people with the essentials for getting back on their feet, from deposits for new accommodation to clothing for job interviews.

Thousands sign petition for barriers along Manchester canals Photo: Kirstie O’Mahony

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Manchester Homelessness Awareness Week comes not long after sub-zero temperatures and snowy conditions brought by the “Beast from the East” saw Manchester City Council pledge immediate emergency shelter during the cold snap to all rough sleepers. Several mosques in the Manchester area also opened their doors to those in need.

Monday the 12th of March and Wednesday the 14th of March will see two conference-style events entitled “Let’s Talk Homelessness”, offering attendees the chance to discuss practical community solutions. The first event seeks to challenge stereotypes and preconceptions surround homelessness through conversations with formerly homeless people, while the second aims to attract business-minded students and discuss the potential of social entrepreneurship to have a positive impact in the fight against homelessness.

Thursday the 15th of March will see a soundclash featuring the Manchester-based collective Leanin’ at Cubo in Fallowfield, where clothing donations going to local homelessness charities will also be accepted.

The week of events will culminate on Saturday the 17th with a “takeover” at Owens Park in Fallowfield, featuring activities representing each of the events from the past seven days,

including virtual reality experiences from the soundclash and some of the art featured at the Whitworth at the start of the week. There will also be vintage pop-ups, live music, and stalls offering information about getting involved in volunteering.

Greater focus has recently been turned to homelessness in Greater Manchester as mayor Andy Burnham has prioritised bringing an end to rough sleeping in the city by 2020 and finding long-term solutions for the issue.

In January of 2018, Burnham said that statistics showing that rough sleeping in Manchester had risen by 42 per cent between 2016 and 2017 portrayed a city facing “a humanitarian crisis”.

The Mayor’s Homelessness Fund, which offers grants to projects working to end rough sleeping in Manchester, had raised £135,000

by December 2017. However, charities such as Centrepoint have drawn attention to the need to also address the issue of “hidden homelessness”, which disproportionately affects young people.

Crisis estimates that this description accounts for as many as 62 per cent of those classified as homeless across the country, relying on couchsurfing or even sleeping on public transport just to have a roof over their heads at night.

A body of a man believed to be a University of Manchester student was found in Rochdale Canal, sparking heartfelt tributes and an online campaign Cameron Broome Head News Editor Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for safety barriers to be put up alongside canals across Greater Manchester.

A body was discovered in Rochdale Canal by underwater divers on Friday the 2nd of March as police searched for missing University of Manchester student, Charlie Pope.

The 19-year-old went missing on a night out on Thursday the 1st of March and police believe that the body that was discovered is Charlie’s, though a formal identification has yet to take place.

Neal Keeling, Chief Reporter at The Manchester Evening News, was one of the thousands to have signed the petition and wrote on the change.org website: “I have reported too many deaths of young men in the waterways of Greater Manchester and the city centre as reporter at MEN.” Jodie Whipday, another petition signatory, also wrote on the site: “I live in Manchester and the safety precautions around the canal are none existent. This is happening too often in the city of Manchester.”

By Thursday the 8th of March, the petition titled ‘Put barriers up on the Manchester canals’ had over 30,000 signatories and many have shared their support on social media using the hashtag “#makecharliethelast.”

Heartbreaking chat with Charlie’s Dad talking about making our canals safer.

Charlie People’s father, Nick Pope, has

endorsed the online campaign and told BBC Radio Manchester: “We are not going to stop – we don’t want anyone to go through we have been through.”

Police took Nick Pope to the spot where his son’s body had been found and Nick told the BBC: “It was icy and there were no barriers. I was astonished how dangerous it was.”

“I had no idea – people are stumbling out of bars and falling into canals. We could put up barriers in key areas where all the bars are.”

He added: “If this was a company the Health and Safety Executive would have shut it years ago.”

Manchester city councillor Pat Karney told the BBC that the whole canal network could not be fenced off but certain measures could be introduced.

He said: “We have done it at the top of the village area as we had a particular problem and so far it has stopped fatalities up there.

“But I will look at the petition and talk to them and see what measures we can come up with.”

Touching tributes have been paid to the teenager with candles, messages and flowers left alongside the canal.

An open bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale was also left in recognition of the first-year Social Sciences student’s links to the North-East.

Commenting on the discovery of the body believed to be Charlie’s, a spokesperson from the University of Manchester said: “We are all very saddened to hear this tragic news and the university will be providing any support and assistance we can to Charlie’s friends and family.”

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Women in Media Conference hugely sucessful

The Women in Media conference marked 100 years since some women got the vote

Photo: Cliona Linehan

Cliona Linehan Reporter The third annual ‘Women in Media’ conference took place at ‘The People’s History Museum’ in Manchester at the start of March, attended by hundreds of guests and raising thousands of pounds for charity.

The conference is run each year by an all-female team organised and run by the Manchester Media Group of the University

of Manchester’s Students’ Union. The twoday event featured a variety of topics and speakers including radio workshops, tackling sexual harassment in the media industry and reporting on the Winter Olympics.

The conference worked to celebrate women in the media industry, passing on knowledge from one generation to the next.

One of the first talks on the Saturday, ‘Northern PowerWomen’, highlighted the under-representation of women in the media

industry. Keynote speaker Kirsty Styles noted that despite some advances there are “still things that have yet to come out in the wash”.

The panel went on to advise fellow female journalists on how to rectify or combat this gender disparity. Despite battling a poor Skype connection, Emma Houlton, founder of her own company ‘Art of Podcast’, gave the advice that aspiring journalists should “be tenacious with people”. She argued that aspiring women in media should not “sit there stagnating, waiting for the next thing” and as the other key speakers reiterated, Emma advocated that women start their own works and use their initiative.

Although the conference is primarily aimed at women, there were multiple males in attendance, and several speakers addressed the ways in which men are also negatively affected by gender issues in the workplace.

MP for Wigan, Lisa Nandy, discussed how in many ways men’s “right to family life was not respected” in the workplace, as men are often expected to work later hours preventing them from participating in family life, as it is assumed there is a woman to look after the children. “It does none of us any favours to let this situation persist”, Nandy said.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, and the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, dealing with harassment within the media industry was a prominent topic of discussion.

One smaller workshop focused on raising awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment, and how to best deal with it in the workplace. With specific problems in the world of journalism such as informal meetings in other people’s houses and the

high percentage of men in senior posts, advice such as making a paper trail when harassment does occur, and reporting harassers to unions if nothing is done by the company were discussed.

The smaller talk also advertised ‘The Second Source’, a group of women in journalism who provide advice and offer support to other female journalists facing sexual harassment in the industry.

The ‘Women in Media’ conference 2018 saw all profits donated to MASH (Manchester Action on Street Health), a charity offering advice and support to women in the sex work industry. The charity offers help to women sex working in any capacity, offering free advice and confidential support as well as a ‘drop-in’ centre where women can visit a sexual health nurse and receive support on issues such as mental health and reporting crimes.

The smaller sexual harassment talk was very informative as one Salford graduate told The Mancunion that in regards to interviewing in someone else’s home she “wouldn’t have thought of that” and that “the dangers are unknown”. The other talks and the conference proved informative and successful, as a current third-year student at the University of Manchester told The Mancunion that this was her third time going to the conference and that it seemed to be going from “strength to strength.”

University of Manchester graduate Rebecca Allen reiterated this glowing testimonial, adding that “it being a local event was a big advantage.”

Hundred women to run shoulder-toshoulder in Great Manchester Run

The event will celebrate one hundred years since some women got the vote and will raise awareness about social injustices faced by women everyday

Lucinda Obank Reporter One hundred women will be showing their support and gratitude of the Suffragette movement by running shoulderto-shoulder in the Simplyhealth Great Manchester 10km run raising money for the Pankhurst Trust.

The event will take place on Sunday 20th of May and money donated will be fed into preserving the Pankhurst Centre itself and redeveloping the museum which relies on donations as it is run by volunteers and receives no public funding.

2018 marks a major milestone in women’s history, as it has been 100 years since they won the right to vote.

Bex Shindler, fundraising and development manager of the Pankhurst Trust told The Manchester Evening News: “I think there’s something really nice about running events in terms of building that support for each other. Whilst we’re all an individual part of the run, we’re all running together for something, [and it was the] solidarity and the sisterhood aspect that appealed to me and I think that would’ve really appealed to the suffragettes too.”

She added, “the Simplyhealth Great Manchester Run is a big event for the city and this is a great opportunity for us to celebrate the city and to celebrate our history…

I can’t wait to share our story and

Photo: Great ManchesterRun

get it out there!”

Emmeline Pankhurst is responsible for kick-starting a revolution that saw widespread social and political reform ensue for women over the next 100 years.

Her supporters became known as the Suffragettes, who branched away from the Suffragists in 1903 as they became increasingly impatient with their respectable and steady tactics.

The Suffragette Movement was born here in Manchester. The Pankhurst Centre was home of activist Emmeline Pankhurst and her family and the meeting place of the first Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).

100 years on it serves as a community centre for women and a heritage site which regularly opens to the public retelling women’s struggle for equality. It is also home to the Pankhurst Trust, a charity dedicated to tackling issues of gender inequality and domestic abuse to help improve the lives of women.

The Pankhurst Centre commented to The Manchester Evening news that raising awareness and fundraising “will help to ensure that this significant historical building remains open to the public and continues to inspire and empower generations, and to secure the future of Manchester Women’s Aid, so that we can continue to support women and children in need today”.

The 10km course sees participants run past Old Trafford, the Imperial War Museum, the Lowry, and finally Beetham Tower on Deansgate. Those taking part in the half marathon will also run on Mancunian Way.

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Gender violence panel sheds light on sexual abuse Organised by the Manchester Global Health Society Ambassadors, the event aimed to raise awareness for physical and gender-based violence Photo: Joe McGavin

Joe McGavin Reporter An eye-opening event organised by the Manchester Global Health Society raised awareness for gender-based violence on Monday the 5th of March.

It is estimated that one third of women worldwide will be subject to sexual abuse in their lifetime, with less than 50 per cent of incidents resulting in an arrest. This can have devastating repercussions, increasing victim’s chances of depression, and drug and alcohol abuse significantly.

The discussion begun with questions directed at three panellists: Hayley Brewer, Erica Sullivan, and Edward Murchie. They were quick to highlight the importance of tackling the root cause of abuse: coercion and manipulation.

Hayley Brewer, representing Manchester-based domestic abuse charity Independent Choices, pointed out that controlling behaviour from men can easily develop into a physically abusive dynamic between partners. Brewer claimed that the entrapment young women can feel in a relationship as a key reason for the silence of victims.

Silence was a recurring theme throughout the discussion with the panel. Erica Sullivan, who has fifteen years’ experience in women’s health clinics, explained how the negative stigma attached to domestic abuse and wanting to keep control of their lives can discourage victims from speaking out.

Sullivan emphasised the importance of society taking

collective responsibility for the issue, and not viewing it as a solely a women’s problem. She talked about how the idealised image of the female body can pressure women into conforming to men’s expectations. Talking to The Mancunion afterwards, she said: “Women still feel they need to alter their bodies to what is pleasing to a guy [and] live up to the ‘Barbie doll image’ […] that to me is quite sad.”

The panel also explored men’s role in combatting this issue. Edward Murchie, a third-year medical student who has set up self-defence classes aimed at women, stressed the importance of men speaking out against misogynist attitudes in general and not just domestic violence. He emphasised just being ‘bystanders’ would not tackle the problem; men must establish themselves as allies of women.

There still remains an issue in this area, however, and Global Health Ambassador Beth Cracknell-Daniels felt men can sometimes feel attacked when sexual abuse issues are brought to light. Cracknell-Daniels stated: ‘‘Some guys are not necessarily part of the problem, but can be part of the solution.”

The 80-strong audience was well-attended by men and women alike, and Erica Sullivan was inspired by the growing exposure of these issues, saying there used to be a tendency to ‘‘brush it under the carpet. We are seeing a lot of positivity […] But there is still a long way to go.”

Cracknell-Daniels echoed these sentiments: ‘‘Something has changed.”

Sex Week comes to the University of Manchester “Let’s talk about sex, baby” is the plan for Sex Week Officers, Letita Buda and Sarah Ann Walber

Student to localise global anti-poverty campaign The student hopes to engage the local community in the fight against poverty Cameron Broome Head News Editor A University of Manchester student and activist is on a mission to make international campaigns resonate on a local level.

Temilola Adeoye has been picked to be a ONE Leader — a national pilot scheme that will focus on community engagement and getting local people involved in campaigning on behalf of the world’s poorest.

Temilola Adeoye, 23, said: “I’m delighted to become a ONE Leader and can’t wait to start campaigning about international development with people in Manchester. I know that my community care about issues in the world, whether they’re down the road or half-way across the world, so it’s really important that we work together to make our voices heard.”

As part of the ONE Leaders programme, Temilola attended a campaign boot-camp, where they received training in how to effect social change successfully, how to influence the political agenda — with insider tips from politicians — and how to harness the local community’s energy to fight extreme poverty.

They attended Parliament to hear several top-flight MPs speak on how to campaign to change the law, including Stephen Twigg MP and Sir Desmond Swayne MP. Romilly Greenhill, UK Director for ONE, said: “The power of calling for change and campaigning locally cannot be underestimated. The issues surrounding global poverty can seem far away, so highlighting how important they are to people in our own areas is really important.”

ONE leaders across the country will be working to highlight the UK’s role in ending extreme poverty and helping the world’s poorest, particularly girls and women.

Referencing the Commonwealth and G7 meetings later this year, Greenhill added: “There is a lot of hope that world

Photo: Temilola Adeoye

leaders will prioritise girls and women this in 2018.

“Let’s see how our ONE leaders can really make these global issues local.”

Image: University of Manchester Students’ Union

Aisha Al-Janabi Reporter It is Sex Week from Monday the 12th until Friday the 16th of March, and organisers Letita Buda and Sarah Ann Walber have a number of events in store.

The week is organised by the Sexpression Society at the University of Manchester — a branch of the national organisation providing accessible advice and information about safe sex and relationships throughout the country.

Letita Buda and Sarah Ann Walber told The Mancunion, “at our events, we aim to create a safe space to openly discuss sex, gender, and sexuality, whilst educating students on current issues such as Female Genital Mutilation (aka.

FGM) and ChemSex.” The week offers a range of events covering topics surrounding sex and relationships, including a sex-themed pub quiz on Monday with prizes to be won and a film screening of Paris is Burning — a documentary about drag queens — on Wednesday.

Highlights of the week is a panel discussion about Female Genital Mutilation to be held on Monday the 12th of March. The panel will host those carrying out Manchester’s Zero Tolerance Policy against FGM, which Greater Manchester was the first region in the UK to declare. Recently, on February the 6th, the annual FGM forum occurred to assess the progress made since the policy has been introduced. This event will be an opportunity to continue to raise awareness of FGM within the university community.

On the same day, a Sex and Relationships Fair in Academy 2, involving charities such as Action for Trans and Cancer Research. A fair wouldn’t be complete without some freebies; the Sex Fair will include free STI testing, so you can walk away with peace of mind and a cupcake.

Tuesday the 13th of March, there will be the chance to have a conversation about porn and the porn industry in a debate in the Council Chamber.

From Wednesday the 14th of March through until Friday the 16th of March, an art exhibition will be in the Student Union Foyer to explore the issues around sex, including consent and body image.

There will be an afternoon dedicated to discussing body hair in a relaxed environment on Thursday the 15th of March, involving glittery arts and crafts in Room 2 of the Student Union.

“WTF is Chemsex” will be held on Friday the 16th of March. This will be an informational session about Chemsex — the use of drugs as a sexual stimulant — which has become increasingly common and is yet to become part of sex education provided by schools.

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“ I usually don’t like to

be asked to talk about women in science, but today is an exception ” - Dr Heather Williams Before the discussion panel, participants could mill around with a drink and browse through selections of free postcards and badges. Many chose to complete a form that is probably best described as a hybrid between a Buzzfeed personality quiz and a high school career aptitude test; it would match up your personality traits with a broad branch of vocations in science. I tested well for a future in communication; go figure!

The discussion began with the speakers highlighting complex challenges in achieving STEM parity. Gender inequality is not only entrenched and glaring in many STEM subjects, but non-uniformly distributed; physical sciences and engineering attract significantly fewer women than the life sciences, such as biology.

Other issues touched upon by the panellists included girls taking STEM subjects at school. Young girls seem to opt out of science too early, not taking up science A-levels and therefore closing major opportunities in the future. Due to the increasing lucrative demand for workers with STEM degrees, too few were choosing to become teachers, meaning that young people were often exposed to distorted caricatures of science or ineffective teaching at vulnerable ages.

Early on, the panel focused on the issue of how science is often perceived by the general public. Both Dr Williams and Dr Wade were exasperated with the stereotype of the mad, genius scientist whose work was removed from the everyday experiences of most people.

De Ionno weighed in that these distortions often also impact women from a lower-income background who often don’t have a strong community or family culture of tertiary education. Careers in research or academia don’t seem like a feasible nor safe option for these individuals, especially when society lacks clear rolemodels of successful, ‘normal’ women in science.

Here, the idea of “scientific capital” was raised.

When asked a question about how people can provide

“ You want women to not be an event in science, but just be a part of the fabric of society ” - Dr Jessica Wade An interesting and almost paradoxical point raised, and one agreed on by the panel, was that women needed to stop being singled out in STEM. Women’s success and struggles in STEM shouldn’t be huge attention points in mass media. In a way, singularly canonising “genius” women could be just as damaging as focusing on female failure in STEM. Both instances have women measured up to inaccurate standards and is counterproductive to achieving gender parity. “You want women to not be an event in science, but just be a part of the fabric of society,” says Dr Williams.

In heartening anecdotes, both scientists expressed difficulty in grasping mathematics both throughout high school and university. They also conveyed that learning to deal with struggle and failure is part of the journey. As Dr Wade put it: “You can do something and not be amazing at it, but still do it.”

Photo: Jacklin Kwan

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Dr Mostafa Nabawy of the University of Manchester presents his work on robot spiders and bees and turns sciencefiction to science fact

Aliya Ismangil Science and Technology Editor

Jacklin Kwan attends the Museum of Science and Industry’s event in celebration of International Women’s Day valuable work and field experience for young girls, there was a general consensus on the panel that science has a huge problem: accessibility to placements is crucial in determining future career paths, but it is a deeply nepotistic system.

Dr Williams expressed that her choice to become a physicist specialising in medical imaging was profoundly influenced by her placement at a hospital at the age of 15, a placement she got through familial connections.

Dr Wade also mentioned separately that both her parents had science doctorates, establishing a strong precedent for high academic achievement in STEM. However, different outreach initiatives, like WISE and the Women in Engineering Council, are increasingly attempting to reach out to schools to provide job experience and internships.

Dr Jessica Wade has received recognition for her outstanding contribution to engaging young women into science, but she expressed dismay that one of the biggest problems of ‘women in STEM’ initiatives were that “there are just too many”. Publicity stunts like competitions and science fairs engage young women who have already opted into science but don’t do enough to reach out to women who were apathetic to science, or on the borderline.

However, Dr Wade did outline a study by the Institute of Physics (IOP), ‘Improving Gender Balance’, which showed promising improvements in gender equality in A-level physics enrolment after a year of targeted interventions in schools.

Science and Tech

Micro-robots: Flying bees and jumping spiders

In conversation: Women in STEM In honour of International Women’s Day, the Museum of Science and Industry hosted a discussion panel consisting of experts in the field of science communication and engagement.

On the panel were Dr Heather Williams, the Director of ScienceGrrl and a medical physicist at Central Manchester University Hospitals, Dr Jessica Wade, a researcher at Imperial College London specialising in plastic electronics, and Damon De Ionno, the managing director of Revealing Reality, an innovative research agency. Sonali Shah, a newsreader and broadcaster for the BBC, chaired the discussions.

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Microsystems Research Theme Leader at the university’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, Dr. Nabawy, presented some of his research, “Spiders Attack: The rise of bioinspired microrobots” at the Industry 4.0 Academia Summit on Thursday the 1st March.

Industry 4.0 refers to innovations that change the way products are being made. This could be things like the ‘internet-of-things’, adoption of digital technologies, the large-scale use of 3D printing, or the next generation of robots. The summit, held at Manchester Central Convention Complex, was the first of its kind and was chaired by Professor Paulo Bartolo and Dr. Carl Driver, manufacturing experts from the University of Manchester.

The research Dr. Nabawy presented at the summit looks into a specific species of spider, Phidippus regius, that has the ability to jump six times its body length. Humans, on the other hand, are only able to jump one and half times our body length.The team record the spider’s jumps at different lengths and heights on high-resolution cameras, which they can then slow down to analyse them.

“We are now using this biomechanical data to model robots that can perform with the same abilities,” says Dr. Nabawy. “With this extensive dataset, we have already started developing prototype robots that can

Photo: University of Manchester

mimic these biomechanical movements and jump several centimetres.”

It is hoped that once this technology is perfected, it can be used to explore unknown environments and also in complex engineering and manufacturing.

As well as his spider research, Dr. Nabawy is using his background in aviation technologies to build and perfect an independently flying microrobot modelled on bees.

“The ultimate aim is to create a robot bee that can fly independently and we’re quite a long way into that project. But there are also many different opportunities for brilliant science and engineering outcomes along the way so it is a very exciting process.”

We’re aiming to create the world’s first robot bee that can fly unaided and unaccompanied. These technologies can also be used for many different applications, including improving the current aerodynamic performances of aircraft.”

Dr. Nabawy also mentions the possibility of such technology helping to pollinate crops and flowers in the case that bee populations continue to decline as they have been. Sound a bit too close to that Black Mirror episode to you?

“Whilst this may sound like something out of a Transformers film, this is our ultimate aim. But don’t worry we are some way off swarms of flying mechanical bees and armies of mechanical spider robots.”

Science and tech news around the world...

Photo: University of Manchester

Evolutionary understanding takes flight thanks to baby bird fossil

A University of Manchester palaeontologist reveals the diversity of avian evolution using one of the smallest bird fossils ever discovered Meredith Sherock Science and Technology Reporter Manchester researcher Dr. Fabien Knoll, alongside a European and American team, recently analysed the remains of a 127-million-year-old hatchling to better understand the anatomy and behaviours of extinct birds.

The size and detail of the fossil make for a preservation anomaly. Dr. Knoll, of the University of Manchester’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Ancient Life (ICAL), School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, tells The Mancunion: “There is no other example of such a minuscule, subcomplete, and articulated hatching, at least from Europe.”

The early Cretaceous chick is from the Enantiornithes group, which lived and died during the reign of dinosaurs. The nearly complete skeleton measures less than five centimetres long, smaller than the width of most smartphones. But what is perhaps most important is that the bird died shortly after birth, marking a critical stage in its skeleton formation. Prehistoric hatchlings are rarely fossilized, meaning that researchers previously lacked a full understanding of avian behaviours and anatomies.

This rare peek into ossification, or bone development, enlightens our understanding of ancient mechanics. Through this fossil, palaeontologists can study detailed facets of avian behaviour, including whether the hatchling could fly or survive independently from its parents.

The team used synchrotron radiation to create a detailed view of the hatchling’s smallest structures. This state-of-the-art technology allowed researchers to analyse the skeletal remains without harming the specimen.

The analysis revealed that the chick’s sternum, or breastplate bone, was still mostly made of cartilage, the same sort of flexible material that shapes human ears. Lacking solid bone, the baby bird would not have been able to fly.

This understanding suggests that ancient avians are more diverse than once thought. “Our work contributes to filling a gap in our knowledge of birds’ evolutionary pathways,” says Dr. Knoll.

However, the team asserts that this does not mean that the chick was dependent on its parents. In modern birds, hatchlings fall upon a spectrum of dependency for care and feeding. While lovebirds heavily rely on their parents from birth, baby chickens are highly independent. Due to this diversity, it is difficult to assume the developmental strategies of extinct species.

Dr. Knoll summarises his findings as “a nice illustration of how the use of cutting-edge technologies can help explore in depth an exceptional (yet puzzling) fossil.”

Fiona Batchelor reports on key science stories from around the globe this week

Seal poo proves plastic travels up the food chain Researchers from the UK’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory dissected faeces from male seals to find evidence that plastic affects even carnivores at the top of the food chain.

This has long been an assumption of researchers, as ingested plastic have been found in the fish that seals prey on.

However, the finding that nearly half of the seal faeces contained plastic fragments confirms the concern that the toxic effects of plastics may be exacerbated in top marine predators.

China’s first space station due to crash down to Earth within weeks The out-of-control Tiangong-1 space station is set to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere soon, but scientists are still unsure as to where it may fall.

The Aerospace Corporation has calculated that the crash will likely occur in the first week of April.

They insist, however, that the chances of any human populations being hit by debris are minuscule, as most material from the space station will not survive re-entry to the atmosphere.

Experts have known since 2016 that there would be no organised landing, as the operators had lost control of the spacecraft.

Animal tattoos on Egyptian mummy amongst the oldest in the world Blurry dark marks on the arm of a mummified man have recently been identified as a tattoo depicting a wild bull and a goat-like animal. The mummy, known as Gebelein Man A, was discovered more than a century ago and thought to have died between 3350-3020 BC. Though equally old geometric tattoos have been found on an Alpine mummy from the same time period, the Gebelein mummy has the oldest known depictions of animals inked into his skin.

AIDS conference in Boston reveals possible new route to combat HIV New findings discussed at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections held in Boston this week could provide a new explanation for why some people are more susceptible to the effects of HIV. A genetic ‘signature’ allows people of African descent to better-control the virus. The ‘signature’ was found on a segment of a chromosome that is associated with a lower stable level of the HIV after initial infection.

This may lead to new routes of treatment as it reveals biological differences that may result in improved disease progression.

Dogs may “see” when they follow a scent trail Research published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology finds that dogs may have the ability to visualise what they are looking for when following their sense of smell.

48 dogs, half of which were specially trained as police or rescue dogs, were made to search for a hidden toy, of which one was their favourite.

The dogs largely searched for the toy used to lay the scent trail, suggesting they had a mental image of what they were looking for.

A similar study in horses found that they too create mental images, in this case of their owners, based on the sound of their voice.

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Photo: Surya Prasad

TEDxUniversityOfManchester is back! Themed this year as “Uncharted Territories”, the conference hopes to explore the unexplored and challenge the unchallenged. With this in mind, the committee has curated a panel of speakers from a wide range of industries and backgrounds, including tech, music, entertainment, media, and psychology. Ahead of the event this Saturday, I talked to some of the speakers about what makes them tick and what they hope to bring to the event.

The inspirational

“Women in Media”

Raine Beckford Deputy Features Editor Alastair Paterson — Founder and CEO of Digital Shadows (talk: ‘’Into the Shadows’: digital footprints, online exposure and the future of cyber security’) What keeps you up at night?

Society’s increasing dependence on highly-vulnerable digital infrastructure. The Internet has gone from a hobbyist’s play area to a critical piece of infrastructure we all depend upon for our daily lives, but it was never designed with security in mind, with implications for all of us.

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

That we should not take for granted all the digital infrastructure we depend upon, or take our privacy lightly. However, it’s not all doom and gloom and there are innovations in cyber security that are going to help keep the lights on, including some great UK startups in this exciting and critical field.

What do you wish someone had told you at 20?

It will all be okay – keep working hard and do what you love. Say yes to (almost) every opportunity that presents itself and you will be lucky enough to have a fascinating, exciting, and fulfilling life ahead.

Dr Alan Watkins — Trained Physician and CEO of Complete Coherence What keeps you up at night?

Nothing really keeps me up at night, I sleep very well as a matter of practice. But something I think about in quiet moments is whether humanity is on the brink of a sixth great species extinction if we don’t course correct in the next 50 years.

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

Hope. If people discover how to change the destiny of their lives, and decide to do what it takes to develop themselves, then theycan deliver a brighter and better future.

What do you wish someone had told you at 20?

Follow your bliss.

Kizzy Bray Head Features Editor The annual Women in Media Conference (WIM) graced the People’s History Museum last weekend in aims to inspire and inform its audience of (mainly) women. With big industry names on the bill, such as Alex Crawford and Cat Lewis, the weekend went with a bang. Not even the Beast From The East could dampen spirits — although she did have a good go at ruining my hair.

The conference saw successful women from all avenues of the industry give talks and workshops to help the next generation of hopeful writers, producers, and radio and television stars in their career paths. The Second Source, an organisation set up to help women journalists tackle harassment in the media hosted a workshop to discuss the aftermath of the #MeToo movement; TV and radio presenter Katie Thistleton led a great radio workshop,

“For us women it was easier than for men,” Kholoud told the WIM crowd piled into the Edwardian Engine Hall. “Since April 2011 we had checkpoints which we had to cross and be checked by the police. They didn’t touch us women during the search, so I used to hide the newspapers under the folds of my clothes and smuggle newspapers outside of Darayya.”

Now living in the UK as of December, Kholoud is no longer in imminent danger as she once was, but continues to fight for the rights and safety of her home country. Her honest speech left the

“Kholoud is no longer in Yasmin Evans - Radio and TV Broadcaster What keeps you up at night?

Overthinking and worrying that I’m not representing myself in the best way. Letting my side down by not behaving the way I should.

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

I want people to be able to relieve the pressure that they may feel to be something and to feel they should know where they need to be in life. I rather them realise that the journey is more beneficial than the destination and the “ideal” and/or “dream” What do you wish someone had told you at 20?

I wish that someone told me that one day I’d be happier than I am right now and to not put pressure on keeping my happiness. Everything else I’d keep a secret because I feel like as my life has revealed itself it has been that much more beautiful because I never expected it!

Dr Mark Batey - Leadership, Creativity and Innovation Specialist at Alliance Manchester Business School (talk: ‘Five Key Principles for Creativity & Innovation’) What keeps you up at night?

I’m always full of ideas just before I sleep, especially if I am working on a long-running project. That definitely keeps me awake! However, those burbling thoughts are often a great source of inspiration for my creativity, so I shouldn’t complain.

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

That creativity is a capacity, a skill that can be developed. Often through some really simple lifehacks for your own brain and thinking, or how you can collaborate more effectively with others. I hope to share a little of the practical insights I’ve been lucky enough to pick up while working with different leaders, teams, organisations and governments around the world.

What do you wish someone had told you at 20?

That mistakes are normal and often to be welcomed. With an open mind and heart, we can embrace our failures and learn and grow from them. Be yourself always.

Sarah Hesz and Katie Massie-Taylor — Founders of Mush (talk: ‘The Future of Digital is Physical’) What keeps you up at night?

A massive dose of paranoia that we are not doing enough to make Mush brilliant. Plus my new obsession with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and my newborn.

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

I want people to think about what communities they belong to and how they can play a more active role in them.

What do you wish someone had told you at 20?

That my fears were not real.

Last weekend the People’s History Museum played host to the annual ‘Women in Media Conference’ for 2018. Kizzy Bray reports on some of the inspiring stories of the women involved

Amy Steel - Associate Director for Amoria Bond (talk: ‘The Journey to Success: how to break your stereotype and reach your goal’) What keeps you up at night?

The fear of failure.

What do you want people to take away from your talk?

I want people to come away feeling like anything is possible. I want to encourage people to take control of their own destiny & build their own empire!

What do you wish someone had told you at 20?

The importance of setting objectives and goals in order to progress in whatever walk of life. You forget how young you are at 20 and, whilst you do have your full life ahead of you, don’t wait to start a job before building a career. Set your goals now and fast track your life as early as you can.

imminent danger as she once was, but continues to fight for the rights and safety of her home country” and blogger and Instagram star Sophia Rosemary discussed her experiences as a social media influencer.

Amnesty International opened up stories of the frightening worlds that working in journalism can take us to, with panel talks on international journalism, journalists under threat, and war correspondents. One of the most inspirational — and for me, by far the best of WIM’s Saturday — speakers was Kholoud Helmi, as part of the ‘Journalists Under Threat’ panel. We learned about the amazing life, accomplishments, and tragedies of a women most in the audience had likely never heard of.

Kholoud Helmi is the genius behind the Syrian independent newspaper Enab Baladi. A journalist and Human Rights Activist, Kholoud has been at the forefront of the Syrian Revolution from the beginning, and her paper has had a huge role in fighting against the state censored media to expose the truths of the everyday lives of Syrian people under Assad regime. She spoke about the dangers of being a journalist in Syria and the murders and imprisonment of some of her colleagues.

Kholoud Helmi (middle) Photo: Allie Liu whole room in awe. Her anecdote of smuggling newspapers under her clothes at checkpoints in Syria reminded me just how powerful our voices as journalists can be, and how important it is to get the truth out there.

On Sunday, speaker after speaker provided valuable insight into their own experiences and opinions of being a women in such a stressful and often gruelling industry. Alex Crawford — said to be the most decorated journalist in Britain, as an OBE recipient and five times winner of the Royal Television Society’s Journalist of the Year award — was interviewed by Amnesty International for the ‘International Correspondents’ talk.

As a special correspondent for Sky News, currently based in Istanbul, Alex has been in many life threatening situations in the name of journalism. After watching a montage of her work, I was

left in disbelief that the woman in front of me on stage had really been through everything shown. It was overwhelming just to watch, let alone to have been through it all. Alex had watched a

“a male journalist would never

have been able to witness such a moment of vulnerability and intimacy” mother suffering from Ebola give birth, reported from the Libyan civil war, and even found herself in the hands of the Taliban.

I was expecting Alex to come on stage and be stern, perhaps even cold, hardened to her years of traumatic reporting. She was quite the opposite: softly spoken, and full of incredible stories. An observation that Alex made, and which was echoed by many other speakers at the conference, was that being a female journalist had in fact helped her tell so many stories that she believed a man would not get access to. In regards to the African mother infected with Ebola, Alex believed that, “I was allowed in that space because I was a woman”, and that a male journalist would never have been able to witness such a moment of vulnerability and intimacy.

Another thing Alex mentioned was the relationship between her career and her role as a mother. I found it refreshing to hear that, looking at her career so far in hindsight, she has no regrets in having children at an early age. Many women — in lots of industries, but perhaps in the media particularly — feel they have to work so hard for their careers that having children, especially early on in their careers, would be a set back. Some employers still discriminate against mothers because of their commitments in the home, and have a lot less to say for fathers going through the same process.

Alex believed that “if you are dedicated” you can do both. You don’t have to choose. In fact, she said, it was her strong family support system that helped her cope with the traumas of her reporting, and her experience as a mother that propelled her understandings of and interests in people’s stories across the world.

The conference was a success, but deserves far more recognition and support. It is an essential tool for women seeking advice and insight on how to develop their media careers, and will hopefully continue to grow. As mostly student run, the committee did a tireless job to pull off the event. They set a strong precedent for 2019’s Women in Media Conference. I’ll see you there.

WRITE FOR US The Mancunion Features Contributors Team 2017/18 Email: features@mancunion.com Meeting time: Mondays 6pm

Opinion

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The theatre of debate – winning the war on political correctness It would not be remiss for you to think that the West is at a time of cultural catastrophe: Nazis open to march in the ‘free world’, the sustained rise in British hate crime in the wake of xenophobic nationalism under the guise of Euroscepticism, and the spread of the hard right across Europe.

The last two years of politics have quite frankly been a brick through the window of the politically correct project, and to the pessimistic among us it might be seen that the culture war is being slowly lost and we are on a winding path towards the panorama of a “Brexit Britain” or “America First”.

Namely this can be reluctantly characterised in the rise of a new culture, a populist culture which decisively ignores and seeks to undo the bastion and progress of political correctness and multiculturalism. One that wants to exchange the progress of the present for traditionalist values of anti-immigration, preservation of whiteness, the nuclear family, and unrestricted freedom.

One that seeks to odorously belittle Islam, Diane Abbott, and Gary Lineker all in the same breath.

One that spouts crass racist, sexist, homophobic bile in the name of free speech over decency or causing offence and distress.

An indicting example of this culture would be that of Toby Jones, and the right’s soporific defence of his disablist, crassly misogynistic agenda; “he was exercising his free speech” they say, “he was hounded out by the left” they say.

My rather amusing and ironic claim to those that defend Toby Young is that they don’t understand free speech. If Toby Young has the fundamental right to call children ‘troglodytes’ and indulge in eugenics programmes, then I have the right to call him an ignorant Tory mouthpiece who should be sacked and condemned into oblivion for the

regressive stain on Britain that he is. Not is this only an indictment on the deliberately crassly offensive and repressive nature of this new rightist culture, but also, on its intellectual propensity.

They are prepared to ignore and outrightly deny criticism from any media outlet in favour of right wingers being bigots to no rational or political end.

Gone are the days when the right could hold up propagators of considered and intellectually charged debate. Need I remind you of Thatcher’s regular disembowelling’s of Kinnock and Foot at PMQs? Or Reagan’s bombast and theatre in speaking out against the scourge of the Soviet Union? Contemporary examples of right wing greatness today include self-hating bigot and professional provocateur: Milo Yiannopoulos, who when he’s not denouncing the existence of lesbians and mocking gassed children in Syria holds great integrity and appraisal from the American right. He’s seen as an online hero and public commentator in the acidic war against political correctness. Toby and Milo are parts of a greater and much more menacing whole which threatens to give Britain one giant colonial hangover, and America to become an angry white paradise that Andrew Jackson and the Confederacy would be proud of.

Now I imagine there are many who have now moved on from this article, denouncing me as a ‘leftie-ideologue’, a ‘race-baiting liberal’, or a ‘disenchanted journalist’, but I implore you to hear me out. I exercise the opinion that the liberal left need to be bombastic, explicit, and forthright in the social debate on identity politics. The rising culture has now become so toxic and corrosive to social cohesion and individuals’ sanctity that it is time for the left to reassess itself and the way it

Contributor George Walker reclaims the space for intellectual, civilised debate

Photo: Official Lebweb Photos @ Wikimedia Commons

goes about debate, or my eponymous “theatre of debate”.

How can we continue in this rising sphere of hatred and not think about how we’ve got to this point? It is therefore vital that I take aim at the conduct of debate of culture, race, gender, and sexuality in late 20th and 21st century. My point primarily being that the self-entitled and nauseating trend of “no platforming” and banning all that is deemed offensive by the omniscient student community has facilitated and even empowered a disillusioned and angry population, one that sees a haven in the fashionably belligerent diatribe of the alt-right and the Brexit brigade. This is a phenomenon galvanised by the failure of liberalism and the political correctness project; one that started in the frightening fringes of reddit threads and splinter extremist rightist groups but has now been grubbily dragged into the mainstream by those that sought to oppose it.

The solution is this: to reignite the flames of

A new Italy: Europe’s problem

Another domino has fallen… Will it topple a united Europe?

Photo: euronews @ Flickr

The only word to describe the current political situation in Italy is chaos. Voters have sent a clear message to their politicians and the European Union: enough is enough. The populist plague spreading through Europe was boosted massively

by Italy’s election, via the Five Star Movement and the Lega Party. Both parties have set their eyes on power, and one is likely to gain it. Both campaigned on heavily anti-EU, anti-immigrant, and anti-establishment messages.

For the EU, this is the nightmare scenario they did not wish for. Its implications will be huge for both Italy and the EU; the significance of this event cannot be underestimated, as it looks like Italy will have Europe’s first fully populist government. The future of the EU hangs in the balance as a result.

It was always likely that Italy’s centre-left government would fall from power. However, to say it fell from power would be an understatement; instead, Italian voters gave it a cruel beating and hung it out to dry. It received just 18 per cent of the

vote – just 1 per cent point ahead of the right-wing and nationalist Lega party.

Matteo Renzi, who looked to make a political comeback, failed to do so miserably and now it is unlikely he will remain as the Democratic Party’s leader for much longer. Like Renzi, Silvio Berlusconi, the former ‘godfather’ of Italian politics, also failed to make a political comeback, and his centre-right Forza Italia party lost ground to the Five Star Movement and Lega Party. Now, the right-wing coalition Berlusconi constructed is dominated by the Lega Party and its leader, Matteo Salvini.

Both mainstream Italian parties suffered heavy losses at the ballot box and were clearly punished

by Italian voters for years of economic stagnation, political corruption, and social alienation. They have sent a powerful message to the European Union: things need to change.

With the complete collapse of Italy’s mainstream political parties, populism has achieved its

biggest victory to date. Five Star’s Luigi di Maio led the movement to its best result since its establishment, with 32 per cent of the vote. This makes it the single largest party in Italy, meaning it will have a crucial role in opposing or being in the next government.

For the EU, the election result in Italy is a nightmare. It now looks like that the Five Star Movement and Lega Party could team up to form a coalition together, potentially after months of political impasse and gridlock. Both are anti-EU and anti-migrant, whilst being populist and antiestablishment. Whatever government is cobbled together, regardless of its party composition, make no mistake: it won’t play nice with the EU and it won’t be friendly to the likes of Macron or Merkel.

It seems that Italy looks set to be on a collision course with the EU’s biggest players. The country threatens the European Union’s attempts to reform. If no reforms to the Eurozone or the EU institutions are made, it will simply collapse.

Italy is now on the way to becoming the EU’s ‘rogue nation’. The Eurozone, for the first time in a while, is now under threat, with both the Five Star Movement and the Lega party threatening to hold referendums on membership of the Euro as part of any coalition deal. If the Eurozone collapses, then the EU itself is likely to fall shortly after. This would without doubt be the greatest challenge to European peace and prosperity since the end of World War II. The biggest winner of the night, despite many predictions to the contrary, was the Lega Party, which increased its vote share by 13 per cent from 2013, to win 17 per cent of the national vote.

The Lega Party ideology, once based on northern Italian separatism, now takes its form in right-wing anti-immigrant populism. It made a big deal of the migrant crisis gripping Europe.

As a main entry point for many refugees, the Lega Party capitalised on Italians’ fear of uncontrolled immigration and used it to make huge political

liberal opposition in the culture war by engaging by every means against the hateful culture that must be de-popularised, delegitimised, and decimated to secure a tolerant future for our children and grandchildren. I mean distancing from the culture of banning, of no-platforming, of intolerance to those we disagree with, but instead to embrace intellectual engagement. How do we have the moral or intellectual right to cry wolf at bigotry when we never explain explicitly why they’re wrong?

The theatre of debate is the crucial tool. So, next time a distasteful speaker comes to your campus, don’t sign a petition to prevent them speaking.

Instead, listen to what they have to say, engross yourself with every slur, every ill-mannered joke about Muslims, every disavowal of white privilege and undermine the bigotry. The reinvigoration of debate, and the ability to acutely polemicise every aspect of the argument of the popular right is the path to victory.

Contributor Jacob Dunn gains. This turn of events means that Lega will be eyeing up the position of Prime Minister as the dominant right-wing party in Italian politics.

The significance of Lega’s successes is their position as king maker. The party can make or break the next government that is likely to emerge – if one does emerge at all. If analysts are to be believed, a Lega Party and 5 Star Movement coalition is now a serious possibility. The Lega leader, Matteo Salvini, is the favourite to become Italy’s next Prime Minister. This is a man who called the Euro a “crime against humanity” and known for his worrying Islamophobic views.

Italy’s nationalist hard right did better than many predicted, and worryingly is now in a key position to enter government. It is shocking to consider a country that was taken over by fascists in the 1920s is now on the verge of having the hard-right return to government.

The election results in Italy are a warning to us all: Europe must change. Italy’s new government will seek to assert itself as a menace to the EU. After almost half of Italians voted for Eurosceptic parties, is almost certain that either the 5 Star Movement or Lega Party will make it their mission to deliver ‘independence’ to their voters.

Italy is just the beginning. What happened in Italy is likely to happen again and to consume other countries as political instability and fragmentation is becoming commonplace in Europe. Italy’s cocktail of populism and nationalism is setting the stage for European politics. It is a sign that things need to change, or populism will only consume more and more nations.

We should prepare ourselves for the establishment of Europe’s first fully populist government. Populism is on the march and is now mainstream: it needs to be stopped before it is too late. If the parties in Italy fail to form a government and new elections have to be held make no mistake, Five Star and the Lega will be in the wings, waiting to strike.

Opinion 11

ISSUE 19 / 12th MARCH 2018 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

An ode to Antwerp Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you will almost certainly have been made aware of a shocking announcement in the Manchester clubbing scene.

I am, of course, referring to the impending closure of the adored and infamous venue that is Antwerp Mansion.

Many people, students and non-students alike, have a special connection with Antwerp — it is arguably the site of some of the best nights you can go to not just in Manchester, but in the whole country. Of course, some people find certain parts of the Antwerp experience fairly objectionable — no-one wants to even think about those toilets, or that one pair of shoes you ruined on your first trip there. But in all honesty, these aspects form part of Antwerp’s unique charm.

It’s this, along with its ideal location and ravelike atmosphere, that means no other venue can come close to being as good as it is, and now Antwerp has become a much-loved institution.

A rather obvious factor in the construction of this venue’s status is the quality and frequency of events. Antwerp provided an outlet for all dance-oriented musical genres, but especially those whose scenes are firmly an underground phenomenon. Anyone who follows Drum and Bass, UKG, Bassline, or any other culturally similar musical genres is bound to appreciate the sheer volume of scene heavyweights that make an appearance behind the decks.

It is exactly places like these where musical cultures thrive and expand as up-and-coming names are given the chance to perform and develop their careers in ways that would not be possible without venues willing to throw themselves behind musical endeavours.

The closure of Antwerp represents not just an attack on musical culture, but the individuals who see any associated scene as an integral

part of their identity or simply their student experience. After all, what is a scene but the people that support it? It is the people who have the most emotional investments in these venues that will lose out the most. Places

Why we should mourn the decline of UK nightlife

by Ed White

to fill.

By vigorously supporting such musical scenes, Antwerp has unfortunately risked being associated with a musical culture that has attracted a grossly unfair amount of

Photo: Antonio Roberts @ Flickr

that support these scenes to the extent that Antwerp has are few and far between.

This is why the loss of Antwerp and similar venues is more than just the loss of a simple club — it is the loss of a creative and cultural hub, creating a void that is incredibly difficult

stigma from the authorities. To the outsider, any institution supporting a scene that they view as being aggressive, drug-fuelled, or simply disruptive to the general public is guilty by association, and hence more likely to be persecuted by the powers-that-be.

Racial identity in Southeast Asia as a modern social construct

It is irrelevant whether or not this is the case.

Not that it is, and even if it was, the culture of more commercial nightlife institutions is equally as bad, if not worse. As long as it maintains a negative perception by those who do not engage with the culture in any way at all, such venues will always be victimised by authorities that are unwilling to cooperate.

This is one of a handful of challenges that many music venues in the UK face. The other main challenges are conflicts with developers and subsequent revocation of licences. All of these factors combined, there appears to be a worrying pattern across the country regarding the closure of music venues.

In the past year and a half alone, Manchester has lost both Sankeys and Sound Control, Bristol has lost Bierkeller and is at risk of losing Thekla, and London almost lost Fabric.

If nothing is done, the vibrant and colourful musical culture that is unique to Britain will continue to dwindle and dwindle. The danger is also that no alternative venues will be willing to take the risk of supporting an increasingly stigmatised scene or embark on an increasingly uncertain financial gamble.

Naturally, the most apparent solution to this is to make your opinions known and take action to protect these places that are so vital to the maintenance of musical cultures. Sign petitions, go to protests, contact your local politicians. If you care about music, you must do all that you can to ensure that there will still be music to care about. And even if you don’t, understand that there are some people to whom this issue matters a great deal.

Experience Antwerp while you still can, alongside other similar venues, as we can never tell which will be the next to disappear. But, most importantly, don’t give up hope. Music has a wonderful habit of persevering and spreading against all odds.

Contributor Armand Azra

Exploitative and divisive ideologies around race are a tool of power – just take a look at Southeast Asia

Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas @ Wikimedia Commons

(co-authored with Wan Aiman Azm) When the discussion in Malaysia (our home country) turns to racial issues and concerns, it is very hard to hold back the eye rolls. These conversations are hard to avoid in post-colonial Southeast Asia, as many still hold very strongly to their ‘racial’ identity. Though the usage of ethnicity would be more descriptively accurate than using ‘race’, the continued use of the term (alongside the connotations that follow it) creates an artificial barrier amongst the people in the region.

Scrolling through news in Southeast Asia, one would think that the construction of racial identity is an integral part of its rich history, considering the large role it plays in current day politics. But on the contrary, what makes the construction of racial identity so interesting in Southeast Asia is how recent this ideology is to the region.

To understand the proliferation of racial identity in the region, it is important to note the large role colonial legacy plays. The ideas of race became highly prominent during the nineteenth-century with the rise of scientific racism and the pseudoscience of eugenics. This ‘science’ was used to highlight the superiority of Europeans who sat at

the apex of the colonial hierarchy, trickling down to the sojourner races that the colonial powers did not see as a threat, and the natives sitting at the very bottom of this hierarchy. Not only did this concept allow colonialists to feel vindicated in their European-ness, it also informed a large part of colonial policy, specifically in their holdings in Southeast Asia.

One way of expressing this ideology is through the delineation of races, where colonial masters sought to group ‘races’ in neat little categories which failed to reflect the diversity in the region.

Natives, who were from various ethnicities, were confused in picking the appropriate box asking for race. In Burma, the British helpfully provided a list of 135 separate races while in British Malaya, the number of races totalled over 70.

This was jarring to a population where the separate ‘races’ developed their cultures through the process of socialisation and cross-cultural fertilisation seen clearly through the influence different cultures and ethnicities had on the development of regional antiquities like batik and the keris (i.e. Chinese and Indian influence).

It is therefore unfortunate that contemporary

racial identity has made many of these artefacts exclusive to a single ‘race’ and there is now an obsession with local cultural practices being cleansed of the perceived stain of foreign influences.

The division of people though their ‘races’ was not enough for the colonial government, who sought to generalise somewhat similar but distinct ethnicities under one umbrella ‘race’. The result of this led to interesting mismatches from groups, as the division forced them to exclude themselves from their cultural identities and instead identify themselves in the introduced colonial concepts of race. This situation is worsened when one considers the imposition of dress codes by colonial powers, forcing the populace to wear their customary racial dress, which perpetuated an Orientalist perception of how the ‘races’ should behave.

Mass migration from East and South Asia then resulted in another aspect of colonial policy to come to the fore, specifically the de-facto segregation of the ‘races’. Following the expertise and perceived propensities of each race, the British Strait settlements, for example, set about

making sure that the ‘races’ worked to their full potential in their respective field. ‘Malays’ were put to work as farmers, ‘Chinese’ as tin-miners and later businessmen, and the ‘Indians’ in the rubber plantation. The neat arrangement conveniently separates the ‘races’, which impedes the process of socialisation and cultural assimilation that would have resulted in closer ties between these groups.

The lessons to be learned from Southeast Asia’s encounter with racial identity is illuminating because of how weak racial identity was in precolonial times. In contrast, most of the major issues surrounding the region today revolves mostly around racial logic. In Malaysia, there is resentment faced by the racial minorities when some question their loyalty to the country due to the differences with the racial majority. This has caused the persistence of ‘race-based’ parties as the only true representatives of a ‘racial’ group.

In Myanmar, the governing powers are trying to drive out the Rohingya under the basis that they are not native and have only recently entered their borders. The irony, of course, being that the racial identities and borders are recent concepts to Southeast Asia and were both created out of the ideology and for the convenience of the colonial powers.

The point of this article, however, is not to blame the European colonisers that introduced the ideology, as they themselves were victims of their time. Rather, the lessons that should be taken is how much power racial identity can have over us. The inhabitants of Southeast Asia were introduced to the concept of race as recently as the nineteenth-century. Yet they had taken this foreign idea and embedded it into their identities to the extent that their politics now revolves around it. This does not mean that we should strip away what makes us unique, but instead should be aware of how a modern social construction can shape us. We cannot allow ourselves to be used by it.

Music

ISSUE 19 / 12TH MARCH 2018 WWW.MANCHETSERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

Reviews

Live: Pale Waves

Album review: Camp Cope - How To Socialise EP Review: Everything Everything A Deeper Sea And Make Friends By all accounts, it would be fair to expect Camp Cope’s second major label record to continue where they left off. Their short yet enthralling self-titled debut certainly left me eager to hear what would follow from the Melbourne based trio.

Would they expand on their punkfuelled, abrasive yet melodicallycharged slam on misogyny? In part, Camp Cope have done just that. But How to Socialise and Make Friends is so much more than this alone.

What makes this album so rewarding to listen to is its selfawareness, and the despair and doubt it ultimately provides. This is brought by lead singer Georgia “Maq” McDonald, whose heart becomes ever-growingly visible on her sleeve throughout the record with her lyrics and delivery. Each passing track feels like a new layer of her thoughts in this descent of emotion. The record swings from the accusatory spits of, “it’s another man telling us to book a smaller venue” (‘The Opener’) to apathetic casts of doubt, “Just get it all out, put it in a song” (‘Anna’). Some parts could be related to by many, and others have a more personal edge, yet it all shares a common ground of honesty and compassion.

Georgia McDonald’s up-front lyrics placed over Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich’s

infectious bass line creates a perfect start the album, with ‘The Opener’. It takes aim at all-male festival bookers that create a divisive atmosphere through their disproportionate bookings of male acts. Camp Cope accuses men of placing women too low on the bills whilst they play to packed out tents. It ends memorably with its sarcastic and chord-striking, “Yeah just get a female opener, that’ll fill the quota,” and perfectly affirms a call to arms to end these outdated trends.

Anger turns to hurt in ‘The Face of God’, a heart-breaking address on the topic of sexual assault. “You couldn’t do that to someone / Not you, nah your music is too good,” calls out abuses of power, as well as the feelings of self-doubt and questions that arise from these actions. The song tackles the subject of victim-blaming and repeats lines to portray the agonising thought processes that stem from these awful experiences. Her vocal lines are tinged with pain and it is an element that comes back and fourth throughout the record.

‘UFO Lighter’ showcases a real mix of the emotions put forward

by Georgia McDonald whilst also best demonstrating its level of selfawareness. She confronts fears of facing her feelings towards an ex-

partner then seemingly tackles it down saying, “and he expected that I was gonna fail and run back, well fuck that.” It feels like a victory on an album that is at times filled with loss and despair and propels its self-belief in the triumph of her success. The song fits this around family issues with her hand tattoos and perceptions differing when a woman is “unfaithful” compared to a man. It’s delivered in the albums discussion-like manner that lets you delve into the subject matter and is a significant moment.

The album closes by returning to its poignancy and heartbreak.

‘I’ve Got You’ is an acoustic track dedicated to Georgia McDonald’s father who passed away in 2016. It pours out her feelings of inspiration that he gave her describing him as, “a defender of freedom, an advocate of truth,” in a pain-filled but beautiful tribute. The inspiration spoken of on this track is part of a record with its own inspiring tale, and hopefully goes on to serve that exact purpose to anyone that hears it. How to Socialise and Make Friends is a real and empowering piece of art, and should be heard by all to throw in the face of sexism.

8/10

In Conversation with Georgie

Photo: Sonic PR

electronic show of pure, futuristic force. It reflects the same disillusionment with modern life, accompanied by a music video embracing the distorted and abstract animation of the internet’s viral culture, thus commenting directly within and in the age of internet obsession and meaninglessness. Instead of offering a solution the song seems to simply cry out into the void, acting as an aching echo to the cries of a generation.

‘Ivory Tower’, from their latest album has been remixed by Tom Vek and, dare we say it, has been improved significantly.

Setting the already lyrically interesting, catchy song atop a background of electronic haze transports it to the next level, allowing it to pervade an addictive sinister aura. It grabs you at the first bar and keeps your attention for its almost five minute duration.

To conclude, the band have taken ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’ from Neil Young’s exceptional ‘After

the Goldrush’ album and electrified it. The cover was recorded at BBC’s Maida Vale in 2017. Neil Young’s lyrics generally evoke a sense of knowing and this song is no exception. The abstract imaginings of its lyrics paint the bitter-sweet cycles of life and death, offering a careful optimism.

Everything Everything have taken this slightly eerie imagery and echoed it with sound.

As such, the cover starts quietly reflective before exploding into a cacophony of electronic bliss, so much so you can almost feel the ‘castles burning’. It feels like a homage to the wisdom and gentle masculinity which has been embodied by artists such as Neil Young. As a conclusion to an an EP concerned with toxic masculinity it seems particularly fitting.

Despite the seemingly eclectic choice of material the subtle tonal and thematic links which run throughout this refreshing EP catapults the band into their tour amidst a frenzy of anticipation.

Mansfield’s rising country star supports Jake Bugg on his UK tour, and chats to Deputy Music Editor, Yasmin Duggal about life on the road unmistakable vocals, and she’s surely got a bright future ahead of her under Mr Bugg’s wing.

We were lucky enough to catch Georgie prior to her Manchester show for a quick chat.

Photo: Major Press

Mallory Knox are one of those bands that has been around for what feels like forever. However, 2018 marks the start of something new for the legendary rock group.

After nearly a decade and three albums, frontman Mikey Chapman announced on the 14th February that he was going to step down and leave the group. Whilst this was still some pretty devastating Valentines day news, all is not lost.

Bassist Sam Douglas, who frequently sang backing vocals, has stepped up to fill the role.

Sam said in relation to ‘Black Holes’: “I think it shows a completely different side to my voice. In

Live: Jake Bugg

Photo: Hannah Brierley @ The Mancunion

Monday 5th March, Albert Hall In the week NME announced that Friday’s issue would be the last printed copy of the magazine, there’s been a national nostalgia for what many would call ‘real music’: a han-

taking on lead vocals, that was something I wanted to be able to show from the get-go. It’s a song we’ve played at rehearsal for a while and we’re all really excited about integrating it into the set.”

The 2.0 version of Mallory Knox recently released latest single ‘Black Holes’, which showcased the impressive vocal talent which Sam has been harnessing. It has put to bed any questions or reservations about the band’s quality despite the recent changes, as it continues to produce an impressive almost ‘come back’ track.

Douglas says about the lyrics of the track ‘Black Holes’, “it’s all too easy in this day and age to post every single thought we have online, and at times too much can be said. Everybody seems to be so quick to have an opinion on something, which they often know nothing about, and I struggle to

10/10 defend how much negativity is spouted online.

“We really wanted to make sure that emotion was captured in the recording and our producer Adrian Bushby really brought out the bare bones of the song in the best way. It’s a conscious effort to go back to basics. We really want the listener to be able to hear every part being played and I feel we’ve achieved that.”

Their new and improved sound has held on to their dark grungy rock sounds, without sounding too similar, but neither sounding a million miles away in a new direction. Whilst it is still a shame that Mikey has departed from the band, as he had an undeniably talented vocal, it has not been in distaste. In a recent statement from the band, they respect his decision and wish him well. It’s a new and exciting chapter for the band and I can only begin to imagine the possibilities of how far the band’s musical talent will take them in the future.

Mallory Knox has also released a string of intimate venue gigs in April, make sure you get down as a gig at this intimate scale will probably be a rarity in the future, catch them at their Manchester show on the 23rd April at Manchester Rebellion.

This week in music history 12th March 2007 - Amy Winehouse made her US television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman performing ‘Rehab’.

13th March 1965 - Eric Clapton quit The Yardbirds due to musical differences with the other band members.

14th March 1995 - Tupac Shakur became the first male solo artist to have a No.1 album on the Billboard chart while in prison.

15th March 1969 - Janis Joplin was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, on sale for 35 cent.

16th March 1959 - Doo-wop group The Platters scored their only UK No.1 hit with ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ (also a US No.1 hit).

17th March 1979 - Gloria Gaynor started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I Will Survive.’

18th March 1939 - Frank Sinatra made his first recording, a song called ‘Our Love’, with the Frank Mane band.

No airs or graces, just gratitude and talent as Bugg shows he’s still a diamond in the rough, says Deputy Music Editor, Yasmin Duggal kering for guitar bands who stuck a finger up to the establishment and reinvented aggy as their public persona.

In November 2012, a sombre-looking teenager fresh off a Nottingham council estate graced the cover of the magazine. Jake Bugg had scored a number one debut album and was about to head to the States with Noel Gallagher. It seemed the world was at his feet. He may not have been boisterous or spoke about much other than his loathing of popular music, but he was about to make waves in the industry.

Lesser known tracks ‘Saffron’ and ‘Strange Creatures’ set the tone for Manchester’s Albert Hall show on Monday night. With the rain tipping down on the iconic venue, an intimate setting was more than welcomed. Choosing to sit for the understated opening of his gig,

Bugg showed off his acoustic prowess as he comfortably meandered through slower melodies.

Including B-sides and unreleased tracks in the set showed Bugg still does things his way, keeping the setlist fluid to incorporate his mood. When he stood up to “play a bit of the more upbeat stuff”, his physical demeanour remained as cool as a cucumber, the way he’s always been. He’s hardly a crowd pleaser.

There’s been ups and downs in Bugg’s career, and it was poignant nothing was performed from the risky On My One, but there was no mistaking his beautifully Dylan-esque tones with that East Midlands twang is something to behold. Darker themes from the latest project intertwined with those much-loved scruff-of-the-neck Nottingham tales of youth from his debut.

Choppy, country-tinged oozers like ‘Slumville Sunrise’ and ‘Taste It’ seemed to have transcended that laddy space of Bugg’s youth and matured like fine wine, powerful as ever even without the support of a band, and lit only by spotlight.

‘Broken’ is always a highlight with Bugg, one of those drop-a-pin moments every time without fail. It’s still astonishing that a young lad whose world seemed so limited wrote that song, but maybe that’s where the best tracks come from.

Of all the rock’n’rollers who’ve had their ugly mugs slapped on the cover of the music lover’s favourite mag, with no gimmicks, airs or graces, perhaps Bugg is one the realest of all.

9/10

Top 5 - Times the Oscars couldnt predict cult classics - G ho

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How’s the last year been for you?

It’s been great so far! This tour’s been a real highlight. It’s also nice to put some more music out.

Tell us more about the tour?

I went to Europe with Jake too which was amazing. I went to places I hadn’t seen before like Oslo and Stockholm. The UK leg has been amazing too. London Palladium was great.

When you read who’s played there like the Beatles, Dusty Springfield... it was cool to get the opportunity to play that stage.

How has touring with Jake been?

Yeah amazing, I’ve learnt so much and seen some great places, met great people. It’s been fun and so far successful too!

Will you be looking to embark on a headline tour soon?

Hopefully, it would be nice! Maybe the end of this year, that would be cool!

Are you getting out to some festivals this summer?

Yeah we are just booking them now, so I

have quite a few lined up!

Is there an album on the cards soon?

The songs are there! There are so many songs, so hopefully soon. Could even be this year.

Your voice gets compared a lot to Stevie Nicks — is she a big influence?

Yeah I love her and Fleetwood Mac. My mum brought me up with all that great music.

My middle name is Stevie which she picked *laughs*. So yeah, she definitely has been a great influence.

We love the new track ’Too Much TV’ — was it an easy one to write?

Thank you. I’d say so yeah. I already knew what I wanted to write about so once you have that idea it’s just a case of creating some music that vibes with it. Then it can just roll out! Which is what happened with this song.

It’s not the case all the time however!

What are you listening to at the moment?

I love what Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, and Chance The Rapper are doing — I feel it’s so ahead of everyone else. It’s exciting and fresh that they’ve taken a great genre and created something new with it, which isn’t easy!

I love them. I like Bruno Major too, I listen to him a lot.

They’re like the hydra of the rock world, losing one frontman and growing back another one... but in a good way, says Music Editor, Hannah Brierley

b u s t e rs

Since then she has fulfilled support duties for stars ranging from Blossoms to Jack Savoretti, and was flown out to Virginia, USA to record her debut single ‘Company Of Thieves’ with the legendary Matthew E White and his Spacebomb house band. Blending her British grit with such an accomplished American soul band resulted in a truly spellbinding single that earned Georgie spots on a whole host of watch lists for 2017.

Supporting Jake Bugg on Monday at Manchester’s stately Albert Hall, Georgie still seemed humbled by the support shown for her. With a voice regularly compared to Stevie Nicks, her influences were clear as she story-told her way through life’s everyday in her beautifully husky tones.

Few words were spoken, and few were needed — her voice said it all. The hauntingly relatable ‘Hard Times’ struck a chord whilst gorgeous track ‘This Ain’t Heaven’ was met with admiration for the young singer-songwriter. An unusual acoustic cover of muchloved Dirty Dancing number ‘Be My Baby’ was a smart choice from Georgie, who appealed to popular taste with an undertone of East Midlands grit.

Her girl-next-door vibe is sure to swing awfully well in the music industry, let alone her

Preview: Mallory Knox

st

Not always destined for a life in music, Georgie once had a promising career in professional football looming ahead of her. But the sudden discovery of a guitar and her uncle’s record collection whisked her off the pitch and into her bedroom to hone her musical craft.

She quickly mastered the art of blagging her way into pubs underage to play open mic nights, and it wasn’t too long before her relentless graft paid off when her music caught the attention of local hero Jake Bugg, who took her with him on an intimate UK support tour.

Ahead of their tour Everything Everything have released a melancholic gem of an EP. A Deeper Sea comes after their decidedly more frenetic 2017 album A Fever Dream. The four song EP showcases masterful versatility and, inspired by singer-songwriter Jonathan Higgs’ shock at high male suicide rates, aims to challenge the promotion of toxic masculinity.

The lyrical opener ‘The Mariana’ tackles this head on as the EP’s only exclusive track. The title refers to the Marianas trench, the deepest point in the ocean, linking to the EP’s title and acting as a metaphor for the bleakness of depression.

There is a sense of being lost and awaking in a messed up world of confused ideas and expectations.

The EP’s second song ‘Breadwinner’ was recorded a year ago with James Ford but didn’t fit onto the latest album and as such it aligns tonally with A Fever Dream. It acts as a stealthy reminder of the power this band has, rumbling into an

career. Hearing them live after such a hiatus had everyone in the venue screaming.

Despite the somewhat sombre nature of the lyrics that may otherwise want to make you lock yourself in your room and cry with a bottle of Echo Falls, Pale Waves have this uncanny ability to make you feel inexplicably happy.

The combination of jangly riffs and undeniable catchy melodies from the entire band just make you want to get up and dance. Even with the showcasing of some unreleased songs, the band never disappoint.

I promise you now, in a year’s time (or maybe even less), Pale Waves are going to be massive.

Genuinely. This isn’t speculation, rather an assertion. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for fans of The 1975, being a hopeless romantic or just having a good old bop with your mates, Pale Waves are the ones to watch this year.

How F

Contributor, Winona Newman

Contributor, Jack Saddler

Bare Nece

Photo: Album Artwork

6/10

Tuesday 6th March, Gorilla Like the rest of the Dirty Hit gang, Pale Waves are following in the hugely successful footsteps of their fellow label cohorts. Within the last two years, this hotly tipped quartet have received accolade after accolade. Following on from several massive tours with The 1975 and their own headline tour across the States, Pale Waves are one of the best bands out there at the moment.

The group drifted onto stage, accompanied by an ominous electronic hum in the background that set quite an eerie tone throughout the venue. Drummer Ciara Doran counted us all in to the single ‘Television Romance’ and suddenly the lights came up and everyone was dancing.

Lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie was already commanding control over the crowd with her crazed expression and floaty voice.

I’ve genuinely not seen people go this mad for a band since The 1975, and if that’s any indication as to how big Pale Waves are and will no doubt go on to be, then I don’t know what is. With would-

s G h o t b us

bum, the driving hard rock guitars just don’t seem that driving, the punchy drums aren’t that punchy, and the lyrics are often a little quieter than they should be. The whole album has this quiet, muted, feeling, and lacks the raw energy and punch W.K. had on I Get Wet. While I appreciate that this was 17 years, ago, it seems that subtle changes to the mixing could have really brought out that energy.

You can still hear Andrew really giving the lyrics his all, but the number of layers on pretty much every track seem to drown it out.

While this is by no means a bad album and the message is truly uplifting, it makes me feel like some key part is missing, that would complete the whole thing and make it truly great.

A]

For’. Other positive, uplifting tracks featured are ‘Keep on Going’, ‘(We Won’t) Give Up on You’, which sounds almost like a fanfare, and the album’s title track, ‘You’re Not Alone’. The overbearing feeling of the album, even down to the art, is that of a hard rock motivational tape. It makes sense, as that’s what Andrew W.K. does the best, but I find it difficult to square off with some of the other tracks on the album.

Alongside self-help, the other theme of the album is W.K.’s staple: partying. One track that seems (to me, anyway) to break with the theme of the album is ‘Party Mindset’. It explains how W.K. apparently needs no friends to party, which sort of goes against the title of the album.

While there are some technically brilliant and exquisitely produced tracks on this al-

be-mentors Matty Healy and George Daniel being involved in their musical production, you could definitely feel their synth-pop influences shining through.

But rather than rely on the success of their contemporaries, Pale Waves are able to blend 80s aesthetics with a 21st century flare.

“And I swear that I’ll never stop loving you, and I’ll die by your side if you want me to” are the sort of emotionally charged lyrics that the crowd screamed in unison back to Heather. It’s a nod towards 80s romantics inspirations such as The Cure. Pale Waves have indeed placed themselves at the forefront of goth-pop and certainly have the looks to match.

Songs ‘The Tide’ and ‘Heavenly’, had clearly been polished and perfected to arena anthem quality after being ‘brought back from the dead”, according to Heather. This rebirth was greeted with electric enthusiasm from the crowd, especially from fans who knew these tracks from when Pale Waves were in the early stages of their

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Andrew W.K. just falls short of a great album, says Contributor, Callum Lunn

Rewind

Goth-pop heroes Pale Waves bring their 80s inspired heartbreak to Gorilla, says Contributor Jake Oliver

cident Ac a

Album Review: Andrew W.K. - You’re Not Alone Almost nine years since his last studio release, the sublime ’55 Cadillac, and seventeen (yes, seventeen!) years since his seminal (and by far his most well-known) album, I Get Wet, motivational speaker, classically trained pianist, and 24-hour party person Andrew W.K. is back.

You’re Not Alone combines W.K.’s hard rock stylings with short, self-help tape style segments featuring his trademark motivational speeches. These often touch on very dark topics and seem to be inspired by the recent high-profile tragic suicides in the rock scene.

These speeches try and imbue a new lease for life, explaining that we can’t beat our demons, but we can ‘party with them’.

These definitely fit in with the lyrical style of the album. The first full-length track on the album is the uplifting ‘Music is Worth Living

Music 13

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That’s A

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Beaten by ‘Talk to the Animals’ from Dr Doolittle in 1967. This track was frankly inspirational and iconic.

Trumped by ‘Al otro lado del rio’ from the Motor Cyle Diaries 2004.

Emotive, fun and a cult classic!

Lost out to ‘City of Stars’ from La La Land. Disclaimer: this is the song that got my house a noise complaint.

Runner up to ‘Secrete Love’ from Academy Jane in ‘53. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

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Opinion

Review

Should we be worried about games servers shutting down?

The multiplayer portion of your favourite games won’t be around forever Chris Glover Chief Games Correspondent The logistics of running and maintaining servers for online games is something the vast majority of gamers never think about, probably for the same reason you never wonder about the intricacies of the postal service or holiday insurance: it’s boring, and not your problem.

However, game servers do become your problem when they’re switched off. Fancy a quick online game of FIFA 09, or got that itch that only a multiplayer bout on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 will scratch? Almost certainly not, granted, but it’s not just outdated iterations of formulaic sports games whose servers are lost to the ravages of time.

Last month, servers of Demon’s Souls - the landmark action RPG which many cite as spawning a whole new genre of games - had its servers shut down.

Demon’s Souls had some truly innovative multiplayer elements: though a single player game, you would sporadically encounter the ghostly after-images of other players who had died, serving as a warning that danger lay ahead. It was a great system that integrated multiplayer without detracting from the game’s signature sense of loneliness and dread.

Immortal Redneck The name is the worst thing about it Jeremy Bijl Games editor mmortal Redneck was never a game I was meant to like. From its immature sense of humour to its roguelike game design to its nostalgic invocation of an era of gaming which predated my experience, I fully expected to hate Immortal Redneck. What I soon found, however, was almost the complete opposite.

The backbone of the game is your ‘run’, in which you must navigate the floors of a randomly generated pyramid. Each room you enter requires you to kill every enemy in order to leave it until you eventually hit a dead end, die, or find the stairs up to the next level (or boss). Each death is permanent, sending you back to base, where you must re-enter the pyramid and start the run again. There are three pyramids, and you must defeat each one to gain access to the next.

On top of this simplistic backbone, however, developers Crema have built a whole network of intricate sinews, impressive muscles, and a fully realised skeletal structure to boot, fleshing out the game into a really quite impressive specimen.

The game, as a whole, combines a triumvirate of genres: the first person-shooter, the roguelike, and the RPG, retaining the fast-paced, action packed gameplay of the former, the randomness of the roguelike, and the grind-based progression system of the latter.

The first-person shooting mechanics are undoubtedly the first thing you’ll notice when playing Immortal Redneck. In the game, combat is high-octane, hyperkinetic, and minutely responsive. If you’re standing still in Immortal Redneck, you’re probably doing something wrong, and when in a room you hardly have a second to think until the room has been cleared.

This goes a long way to compensating for the game’s biggest weakness: its narrative and dialogue. In Immortal Redneck, there is little in the way of either, and what there is is generally annoying or nonsensical. I soon realised, however, that I barely noticed this. Immortal Redneck completely circumnavigates that emotional, analytical part of your mind and taps straight into your lizard brain.

I

Photo: RobObsidian@Flickr

If iconic games from less than a decade ago are undergoing server shutdown, what will things be like 10 or 20 years from now?

If I want to go back and play (literal) game-changers like like Super Mario Bros and GoldenEye I can just fire up an emulator and enjoy them in all their glory. But when I inevitably attempt to force my interests on my future children and show them similarly groundbreaking titles from my era like Call of Duty 4 and Halo, I simply won’t be able to. The multiplayer element is what made both games so great, and it’s doubtful that servers will still be up and running to show it.

The unfortunate upbringing of my future kids aside, server shutdowns are already proving an issue for publishers and consumers alike. It may not surprise you to learn that of all companies, it seems to be EA who have caused the most friction.

Whilst some gamers would be happy to see the end of servers for EA’s latest debacle, Battlefront II, the speed with which their sports titles are stripped of their online capabilities is a frequent source of dissent. In 2013, a man called Justin Basset filed a lawsuit against the industry giant for shutting down servers for their games before he had received enough enjoyment from them.

“Had plaintiff known at the time that he would not be able to play the products online for a certain amount of time”, the court heard, “he would not have purchased the products or paid the price he paid for the products.”

Indeed, EA seem to waste little time in shutting down servers to save money and resources; FIFA 14, one of the highest rated games in the series, has already had its servers closed down, and Crysis 2, despite achieving both critical and commercial success, only lasted three years before having its servers shut down for PC. To be clear: I’m not saying that servers should remain running indefinitely. I don’t expect in fifty years time I’m entitled to switch on an antique Xbox 360 in my care home so my geriatric buddies and I can enjoy a spot of 2012’s Grand Slam Tennis on immaculately-maintained servers.

However, issues of finite server support for video games are worth taking note of, especially as more big companies are setting their sights on lucrative ‘games as a service’ models with always-online titles like Destiny and the upcoming Anthem.

Perhaps it’s time for a legal minimum server-lifespan to be declared on game boxes, or some kind of assurance for consumers that the gameplay experience they pay for can’t simply be revoked in a couple years to save money for the next big release.

Without any such guarantee and with servers being closed left, right, and centre, gamers may find themselves wondering: am I really buying this game, or am I just renting server time?

Photo: Crema

8.5/10 nearby enemies.

Photo: Crema

These RPG elements made it so that the pyramids weren’t the only place you were constantly moving, ensuring that you were always progressing, adapting your metagame, and finding new ways to optimise your run.

The roguelike elements of the game also add plenty of variety. Whilst you start with a preallocated set of guns, enemies will occasionally drop more. An arsenal of more than fifty weapons ranging from weak and cumbersome to powerful and satisfying ensures that rooms can always be approached in a variety of ways.

The strongest randomised element of the game, however, was the ‘scrolls’ - drops which acted as modifiers of your run. Scrolls could be game breaking or game making, but were always game changing and kept things interesting. With a hundred scrolls in the game, each pickup was a true lottery. One scroll immediately took 80% of my health, and another got rid of all my guns spare one. On the other hand, one effectively gave me another life, whilst another meant I was followed by an illuminati triangle that killed minions.

Perhaps because of this level of chance in terms of drops, I was a little disappointed by the range of enemies and rooms. Whilst it admittedly made the game easier, I soon knew every enemy and recognised the vast majority of rooms. Whilst each room and enemy were sufficiently different from each other to maintain diversity, it meant some runs felt a little stale, especially when the more irritating, awkwardly tiered rooms started recurring.

Regardless of how many hundreds of enemies and rooms you encounter, though, what lends the game its old school feel is that is only ever one real enemy: the game itself. It’s a game that challenges you to beat it, but, unlike some similar games like RUINER, it is a game that is intelligent in its approach to challenge: Immortal Redneck always pushes you, but shows enough restraint to give you the tools to unravel it if you’re willing to put in the time.

In some ways, Immortal Redneck isn’t so different from the pyramids which act as its levels. On the outside, it looks simplistic and antiquated, but on the inside lies a surprisingly thorough, intelligent and intricate web of design mechanics that keep you compulsively playing, and make you enjoy it while you do.

Nonetheless, had Crema relied on the strength of the gameplay alone, it would quickly have become monotonous, and this is where the RPG elements come in.

In each run, killed enemies drop gold. You collect this gold, and it stays with you when you die and return to the homebase. This can be spent at the skill tree (which, pleasingly, is a physical tree that grows as you upgrade), which, in turn, will make you better equipped for your next run by granting you more health, better attack or defence stats, or various other benefits.

Additionally, you can, in true RPG fashion, unlock eight different playable classes (after the redneck), all of which come with different weapon loadouts, special skills, and stat benefits. One, for example, regenerates health from kills (at the expense of being able to pick up health kits), whilst another can summon a falcon to attack

Photo: Crema

Review

Question reveal The Blackout Club

The team behind The Magic Circle are set to return in 2019 with their second title

Jeremy Bijl Games Editor

Photo: Question

Indie developers Question have outlined their intention for a new game titled The Blackout Club, described as a “a cooperative horror paranormal mystery” game.

Developers Question, whose staff credentials include experience on Bioshock, Dishonoured, Prey and Thief, say of the game’s premise: “Set in a small town with a monstrous secret, The Blackout Club follows a group of teens who band together after learning they’ve all been temporarily losing consciousness – waking up in strange places with no memory of what they have done.

Recently, one of their closest friends vanished entirely. When none of their parents, teachers, or even the police are willing to believe them, the friends launch an investigation. Together they will discover a maze of tunnels – a hostile underworld filled with hypnotic music and populated by a clandestine group of adults — all beneath their seemingly idyllic suburbs.”

Possibly drawing on the recent popularity

of coming-of-age via horror releases such as IT and Stranger Things, The Blackout Club looks to add to an already strong roster of upcoming indie games, such as The Occupation and We Happy Few. Question have underlined the importance of coop in The Blackout Club. According to Question co-founder Jordan Thomas, “Our story is about vulnerable heroes -- for whom co-op gameplay is a matter of survival — who unite to save their friends [...] Every member of the group will play a distinct role and utilise devices like drones or deployable traps to outwit their foes and gather evidence of their crimes.”

Photo: Question

It also looks set to feature RPG elements, as well as sneaking mechanics, with Question saying “Surviving the dangers of night will require intelligence, improvisation, and skill. Sleepwalking

adults that could be their neighbours or relatives now seek to drag them underground. Players must create and coordinate diversions and use other tactics to break the enemy’s vice-like grip.

The last player left standing must avoid attracting the attention of an even more dangerous entity – one that pursues its prey relentlessly – one that can’t be seen with open eyes…”

“Player characters will be customisable with a variety of powers and equipment loadouts.

Every member of the group will play a distinct role and utilise devices like drones or deployable traps to outwit their foes and gather evidence of their crimes. When the mission is complete, players will head back to the hideout, where they can level up and acquire new abilities for use on future outings.”

The first teaser trailer is as enigmatic as one might expect. Showing stylised but clean, polished aesthetics, the trailer depicts a sinister-looking group strumming sonorous guitar-like strings that resonate through the network of tunnels under the town. Following this, a teenager wakes abruptly in their bed, and there follows some indistinct cut-aways of chasing and grappling, followed by a door emblazoned with a symbol opening to engulf the screen in red and reveal the game’s title.

The Blackout Club has been touted for a Q1 2019 release

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Navigating sexuality as a Muslim woman Aneesa Piracha explores the difficulties in navigating sexuality and beauty as a young Muslim women in the West

Photo: GeoffLivingston @ flickr

Growing up a Muslim girl, you are taught to cover up.

From a young age, many girls are told to protect themselves from the unwanted gaze of boys and men around them. Out of devotion to their faith, these girls are encouraged to preserve their chastity and dress modestly. This can involve anything from wearing a headscarf (hijab) to avoiding mini skirts, with pressures varying between communities and cultures.

In the West, there is a growing pressure on young girls and women to sexualise their fashion, with hyper-sexualisation of women in media all around us. Beauty has been warped and extended to mean sexually attractive, and these ideas have infiltrated the minds of young women all over.

A Muslim woman living in the West is therefore stuck between two norms.

Going through adolescence as a young woman is hard, with immense amounts of pressure building to conform to popular ideas of beauty, as well as exploring and expressing sexuality. If that wasn’t enough, a young Muslim woman also

has the added stress of dealing with these pressures within the constraints of their religion.

Trying to be beautiful in a society in which beauty means sexy, whilst staying true to the moral codes you’ve been raised with, leads to a major conflict between two simultaneous norms for many women. The struggle is faced by a continuous effort to strike a balance between sexy and modest; wearing tights under dresses, tops under deep blouses and doing your best to show your contours, but never too much.

It only gets harder at university. Going away to study means no longer being subject to the same amount of pressure to be modest that you might have been at home. University opens up new freedoms and removes all the previous boundaries we may have lived within.

For a young Muslim, this can make things even more difficult when trying to dress modestly. It leaves women torn between trying even harder to be modest, relative to what they know, or using the freedom to express themselves however they like.

You are forced to make a choice: be sexy, be modest, or awkwardly straddle between the

two. Navigating between the two renders, many young women de-feminise, as they struggle to be beautiful behind more clothes than others.

This of course isn’t the full story. Being modest does not mean giving up beauty, nor does it mean that every Muslim woman has a problem with being modest. There are beautiful clothes easily available to everyone, and many women are happy with the balance they have found.

The crux of the problem is this: the idea of both modesty and sexuality are subjective and constantly changing. Being sexy today isn’t the same as what it meant ten years ago, or what it will mean 10 years from now. At the same time, modesty will also change relative to the norms of the society around you.

To all the women, in university or not, who are struggling to express themselves through their wardrobe or to feel beautiful in a hypersexualised world, just know that one idea of beauty isn’t the only one, nor is one idea of modesty.

Everyone’s journey through womanhood is unique, and everyone can feel beautiful through that journey, however they choose to define beauty.

Reconstruct Collective: Free-from hair routine Mitchell-Turner gives her top tips for union in uniqueness Kittyachieving fabulously healthy hair Is Reconstruct Collective leading a fashion revolution? Contributor Ellie Fraser investigates

Photo: www.reconstruct.nl

Reconstruct Collective consists of five (originally six) rebellious fashion graduates of the prestigious Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. Inspired by Sailor Moon – an anime centred upon girls coalescing their powers – Laura Aanen, Alyssa Groeneveld, Kim Kivits, Michelle Lievaart and Sanne Verkleij are the geniuses behind the all-female fashion label.

Armed with a shared desire to start a fashion revolution, the established principle aim of their collective is “to combine these individual specialities and gather our strengths to create one powerful collection.” Thus, every collection is a group effort – a combination of all their individual talents.

Their aesthetic can be described as extraterrestrial. Taking inspiration from street wear, music, youth culture, and fairy tales, Reconstruct creates unique art-clothing that can be worn day through to night. Their collections test the boundaries of fabric manipulation – bringing back a sense of modern craftsmanship to the fashion industry. The collective further questions the nature of ‘fast fashion’ by placing a focus on its one-off exclusivity.

In the world of Reconstruct, no one person, race or gender is favoured over another. All garments are unisex and play into contemporary youth culture. Aiming to restore a balance, their

clothing reflects both their rebellious attitudes and their desire to make powerful waves in fashion. The all-female designers pay persistent attention to their ever-evolving environs and continuously experiment with a variety of mediums: from colour to geometry, printmaking to re-staging subcultures.

Their SS18 collection ‘RESURRECCIÓN’ took inspiration from the strength and power of anime characters. The 17 looks, styled by JeanPaul Paula, featured unconventional silhouettes in vibrant colours – each look its own animeenthused oddity. The collection is founded upon three stages: Couture (one-of-a-kind extravagant pieces), Culture (what’s being snapped up by the contemporary youth) and Division Wear (functional clothing).

Currently only stocked at Tokyo boutique Candy/Fake, and with a limited amount of ‘merch’ for sale on their webshop, Reconstruct Collective garments are unsurprisingly hard-tocome-by. But, with New Yorkers and Londoners alike increasingly putting their ‘buying power’ behind independent, quirky-cool fashion labels and with an army of fashion-forward enthusiasts – from Highsnobiety to Converse to R&B singer (and Neneh Cherry’s daughter) Mabel – the future looks extra-terrestrial and extra-ordinary for Reconstruct Collective.

When researching hair routines for maximising health, I found a huge buzz around opting for more ‘natural’ hair routines. As well as discouraging people from bleaching, dying, or styling their hair with heat, many people online (who also happened to have long, healthy hair) advised using products without sulphates and silicons.

Sulphates are the chemicals that make your hair lather in such a satisfying way but acan also be found in many household cleaning products like washing-up liquid.

They effectively strip everything from your hair and leave it feeling squeaky clean.

The bad news is, that in removing the dirt and grease from your hair, they take all the natural oils and nourishment from your hair, which makes it dried and damaged, and as a result your hair gets greasier sooner and you end up in a vicious hair-washing cycle.

Silicones on the other hand, are found in most conditioners. Silicones are a kind of plastic, and they behave no differently when in hair products. They wrap around the hair follicle and seal it, which makes it seem softer and shinier when they prevent nutrients from getting in or out.

So, after being told what I shouldn’t be doing and using, what should I do? I searched

far and wide for shampoos and conditioners free from these nasty ingredients and found the Rainforest collection from The Body Shop at a reasonable price (Rainforest products start at just £2). I also invested in a brush with wooden teeth which was gentler on my hair. I also stopped brushing my hair when it was wet, as wet hair is the most fragile and that is the time it breaks most, which is why we end up with so much hair down the plughole.

When I first changed from my regular hair products to these, it was like weening my hair off drugs. It went through a horrible withdrawal where it was dry and knotty, and I seriously considered switching back. But I stuck with it, covering my hair in coconut oil a couple of times a week, reducing how often I washed my hair, and not having scolding hot showers, and the difference has been incredible. My hair is so much softer and shiner, it has been falling out a LOT less, it gets greasier and knottier far less, and a lot of people have been commenting on how long and healthy it looks.

It turns out that the hair industry spends their time promoting products that feel and look good, rather than those that do good, so consider switching next time you feel your shampoo bottle getting lighter.

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Riccardo Tisci replaces Christopher Bailey at Burberry Alice Reynolds reviews the most anticipated design appointment of the year, ex-Givenchy creative director, Riccardo Tisci joins Burberry Since it was announced in October that Christopher Bailey would be stepping down as the creative force behind Burberry, fashion’s high society have been working overtime to figure out who might fill his boots. After all, those are not insignificant boots to fill.

Bailey’s work for the house transformed it from a small UK name to a global fashion powerhouse. He took the heritage Burberry check and pushed it beyond relevance, to icon status. With all of this to follow, Bailey’s successor would have to be fearless. They would have to inherently understand Burberry’s history and identity as a quintessentially British brand. But most crucially, they would have to be able to stamp their own identity onto that brand without cheapening what Bailey has created.

You can see then why Phoebe Philo, British designer and fashion darling – after her immensely successful run at Celine – was a hot contender. And you can see why the announcement that Italian-born, Givenchy radical and avant-garde trend-maker Riccardo Tisci would take over, was the shock of the season. No-one was expecting this.

This is the man whose penchant for embracing both sexuality and sensuality had him tipped to be next in line for the Versace throne. Whose tenure at Givenchy pulled the now supremely popular streetwear trend into the realms of luxury fashion.

Herein lies the major issue people have with this news. The Burberry brand is steeped in history and over the last nine years, under Bailey’s leadership, it has become synonymous with British fashion. Will introducing this nontraditional, subversive style twist Burberry into something it’s not? Will the label’s Britishness be lost to Tisci’s brand of dark drama and

leather kilts (see the infamous Kanye West/ Riccardo Tisci fashion collaboration from West’s ‘Watch the Throne’ tour)? Will we see streetwear at Burberry?!

The answer to that last question is probably, yes. Streetwear was specifically mentioned in Burberry’s statement and fits perfectly with the brand’s plans to refresh their image to attract a younger, more adventurous customer-base.

This is something Tisci has always had a talent for. He sees things before anyone else does and his ability to reinvigorate a house has been emphatically proven at Givenchy. Bailey has already begun planting the seeds for this, with puffer jackets and parkas a key feature of his final collection for the label. Not forgetting the SS18 capsule collaboration with Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy, which paired the ultra-classic Burberry check with trackies and polo-necks to celebrate the legacy of British football.

In answer to the first two questions: we can only wait and see. There has been a general emphasis on “Burberry’s British heritage” and Tisci’s connection to London, who was once a student at Central Saint Martins. This at least provides some reassurance that both brand and designer are aware of the risk they are taking and, more importantly, what they stand to lose if it goes wrong.

To be honest, no-one really knows what’s going to happen but that’s what makes the whole thing so exciting! Unpredictability has been an integral quality of the fashion industry for so long and now more than ever, when the status quo is being challenged from both sides, it’s refreshing to see Burberry embrace the chaos and do something utterly and completely unexpected.

Photo: Style Hub8 @ Flickr

Gucci’s turban ‘accessory’ is disgraceful Ginah Shergill looks at the appropriation of turban’s in Gucci’s Autumn/Winter 2018 show Gucci have received a highly critical response on social media after their Autumn/Winter 2018 runway at Milan fashion week.

The luxury Italian fashion brand sent a series of white models in turbans down the runway in an attempt to showcase them as fashion accessories.

In Sikh culture, the turban is a traditional, religious emblem that carries high importance within the community. However, many Sikhs have to deal with chastisement for this aspect of their appearance. Why is it fair for them to be torn down for expressing their identity, only for it then to end up on the runway?

In the current social climate in which Sikh people are discriminated, racially profiled, and abused for wearing a turbans, it was an irresponsible, and frankly offensive move from Gucci to have models wear them for the sake of fashion. It was only recently that a Sikh man was attacked outside Parliament. Someone had tried to rip his turban off of his head. It is cases like these which make it ever more important to normalise other people’s cultures, not merely steal aspects of it for the benefit of something like a

fashion show.

Gucci’s actions are a typical case study of cultural appropriation: adopting an aspect of a minority’s culture, whether that be clothing or a hairstyle, without the consent of those people. This only reinforces the lack of diversity and inclusivity in the fashion industry. Gucci, a hugely influential global brand, completely missed the mark and, importantly, the opportunity to hire actual Sikh models to show their turbans on the runway. The lack of representation combined with the disregard for the Sikh religion and culture in order to display a fashion collection, is not acceptable.

Religious and cultural dress is not a fashion accessory. It is not a costume for high fashion designers such as Gucci (who have such a profound impact in the fashion world) to use at their disposal, whilst turban wearing Sikh’s are falling victim to abuse.

Photo: www.gucci.com

Fashion Players of the week: The Kamani family Ella Searle delves into the story behind the Kamani family, Manchester’s very own retail tycoons

Photo: www.thebodyshop.com

This week’s fashion profile is based a lot closer to home than the distant catwalks of Paris, Milan and New York. Rather, thanks to the Kamani family, Manchester has been placed firmly on the map as the home of one of the biggest fast-fashion empires. Dubbed the ‘Boohoo Billionaires’, the Kamani’s are a selfmade success story that have catalysed their wealth from humble beginnings to owning multi-million pound fashion brands Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, and Nasty Gal, boasting an estimated £1 billion pound shared fortune.

The Kamani’s fast fashion empire began with father Mahmud Kamani, who began selling handbags on a Manchester market stall, to later move to establish wholesaling giant Pinstripe, where he supplied textiles for the likes of New Look, Primark and Topshop and became an

expert in his field.

It was at Pinstripe where Kamani met Carol Kane (now Joint Chief Executive of Boohoo), and both recognised the huge potential the internet offered for fashion retailing and e-commerce. It was out of this shared excitement that Boohoo was born. Their contacts in the local rag trade is what truly bench-marked Boohoo, as they revolutionised the lead time for garments hitting their site, rushing the hottest celebrity trends onto their site within a two-week period.

This completely re-hauled the design process used by traditional high street retailers.

Their business model is evidently successful, with profits doubling to £31 million on sales that grew by 51% to almost £300 million in 2017, showing how despite scorn from traditional retailers, the numbers don’t lie. Boohoo is now

worth three times that of traditional retail giant Debenhams.

Yet, the entrepreneurial spirit of the Kamani’s doesn’t end with their father Mahmud, but rather they have made their fashion empire a family affair. Brothers Umar and Adam founded PrettyLittleThing in 2012, using the same fast fashion model as their father’s label, but aimed at a bolder, more fashion-orientated customer. Their marketing strategy involving celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Instagram influencers to promote their brand has boosted PrettyLittleThing’s success to be crowned the fastest growing company on the web in 2017. This saw the company be acquired for a significant £3.3 million deal by Boohoo in 2016.

The fruits of the Kamani’s success is clear; they are able to uniquely relate to their

following of young, cash strapped customers keen for a fashion fix and are un-paralleled in the speed in which they offer their trend led product. Furthermore, their rags to riches story is boosted by their online presence, where the younger brothers flaunt their lavish lifestyle and fashion-forward style on Instagram, creating more allure to their brand as they mix their low-cost items with iconic designer brands.

Looking forward for the family, it seems to hold only more growth, with the recent launch of boohooMAN led by youngest brother Samir and Boohoo’s acquisition of Nastygal, it seems Manchester will remain the Northern powerhouse for fast fashion for many years to come.

Film

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Feature

Awards Season

In Conversation with Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay talks about her latest film, the current state of cinema, and the time Joaquin Phoenix punched an extra

Photo: Allocine.fr

James Gill Film Critic & Books Editor Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish film director and screenwriter who specialises in visceral films with themes of guilt and death. She has been described as one of the best British filmmakers of her generation. Despite this lofty praise, Ramsay is one of the most down to Earth people I’ve had the pleasure of talking to.

“Ramsay is one of the most down to Earth people I’ve had the pleasure of talking to.”

Her latest work, You Were Never Really Here, is a gritty thriller based on a novella by Jonathan Ames. “A friend of mine is really into his genre films. He works with a lot of really interesting filmmakers like Jacques Audiard and so he sent me this novella. I read it in 85 minutes which is probably the same length as my movie.

They didn’t have the rights to it so I started writing it on spec to see if it would work out.”

“I had a draft in about four weeks and I was getting into it but it’s a very pulpy, B-movie kind of novella. Ames wanted to make this dime novel but the character was unusual. We talked about the script but he was never prescriptive, the only thing he said to me was he wants it to have the feeling of a page turner and I wanted that too.”

From beginning to write the script purely as speculation to the finished film, there were many twists and surprises “It was strange for me with the script because there was a bidding war at Cannes and I was like what this isn’t even finished yet. Then Amazon bought it and then we were in Cannes the next year it was so fast.”

“Sometimes when you’re under the gun you have to kill your darlings a little bit. I knew I had 29 days to rewrite and prep, it was a

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nightmare. I don’t think I slept but I think that’s why it’s a bit of a hallucination. It was also super hot in New York, never shoot in summer in New York it’s totally brutal.

There was something about going there when I had previously lived in a village with no cars, it was driving me mental. You shut your eyes and it’s just noise. I think that really went into the sound design.

I hate to say it but some of the limitations actually brought around brainwaves when you have your back against the wall but it would be nice to have a bit longer time though.”

Part of what made it possible to prepare the script in under a month was the length of the book, at just 96 pages. “With my last film, We Need To Talk About Kevin it was a huge book and was armchair edited. In order to get the money and edit it, we had to cut huge parts of the book out and it was so forensic. For this one, it was about 70% from the original book though it is quite different. Obviously, I would never want to do a straight adaptation.”

The main performance in the film is Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Joe. Phoenix was haunting in his role and ended up winning Best Actor at Cannes but his collaboration with Ramsay began quite unusually. “I think it was a first for both of us. I’ve never not met the actor before but I knew I wanted him to play Joe before I wrote the script that I didn’t even have the rights to. I think I was telepathically willing him to be in the movie because he’s quite choosy.

He arrived as soon as we, the crew, arrived, and I was terrified. I had six weeks to look at 90 locations in New York which takes weeks and he was building up and becoming this beast. It was exciting how it evolved really.”

“No-one recognised Joaquin that much, which was great, they thought he was a construction worker or a bum. I remember someone throwing some coins at him when he was on the floor tying his shoe. That meant we could run and gun in a way, there wasn’t that crowd with iPhones or anything.

I saw French Connection at this screening in LA and was blown away at how they shot it, without permits! It was just really inspiring because the car chase in that is one of the best car chases ever.”

During this time in New York, she found out her film was going to be in Cannes, just one year after her script was purchased by Amazon.

“I got this call from this French company saying I have a meeting in London for four hours. I put two days aside in the schedule I had to shoot stuff in New York and I was just thinking ‘oh my god he’s not giving us the rest of the money to make the film’. He just said to me ‘it’s in Cannes’.”

“It was a lovely thing to hear but I had my head in my hands. Cannes is quite a brutal place and I was still only writing the script, it was kind of surreal, a bit like this film was telling us it was going to be crazy the whole way through. I edited this one in half the time of We Need To Talk About Kevin but it had the same frenetic energy that the prep and the shoot did. Sometimes a film tells you what it’s going to be and it just felt like a nervous breakdown the whole time in the coolest possible way.”

In order to convey the feeling of a nervous breakdown, Ramsay turned to sound. “The sound is like music. It’s subconscious. You don’t know why it works but it does. It stirs you or takes you into a dream.

For me I worked on the sound really early, I never understand why some people only think about the sound at the end. With this is was very much the opposite, we’d do a cut and then do sound so that the sound could inform the cut.”

“After that, we’ll get a piece of music from Johnny Greenwood and it wasn’t like that’s the exact place you need to use it. You were looking at the pieces and it was a bit like a puzzle. Joe Bini, the editor, and I were getting all these pieces of music and they were amazing. We took them and put the right piece to the right part of the picture and then cut the picture to the music.

It’s not a very conventional way of doing it but that works for me. If you ever watch a non-mixed film you instantly know, it’s a different experience. We were premixing ours the whole way through.”

With a runtime of 90 minutes, Ramsay keeps this film lean. As a result, it never drags, and just as Ames wished, it truly feels like a page-turner. That said, there were quite a few scenes that didn’t make the cut. “It was never really a long assembly but you could have made a Harold and Maude type film with the stuff with Joe and his mum. There was so much good stuff, some amazing scenes.”

“I was constantly thinking that it could be a different film, this hitman living with his mum, a totally different tone. Plus his takes were all so different, sometimes he’d do something funny and other times you’d just think what the hell was that. You just have to let this animal loose. Like in that scene with the drug dealer he really did punch that guy and we were all shocked.

Luckily the extra was pretty cool about it. It’s the same improvisation with the scene where he’s singing on the floor of his house with the agent.”

Phoenix punching an extra isn’t the only problem Ramsay had with her extras in New York. “Well, there’s a thing called a tier system in New York. If you shoot something super low budget then you can use who you like but after a certain kind of budget, you have to use a union like SAG extras. You can’t even speak to them there’s this weird system where only the assistant director can. I had this experience with We Need To Talk About Kevin with SAG extras where the shot was down a street in New York and I was saying ‘why are these extras all walking so slowly’, it’s because they all wanted to be on camera for ages. So I was getting into trouble for telling these guys to hurry up.”

“I also remember with Kevin I had to get quite a few waivers because there was a kid that just hung out on set in a Halloween scene. There was a SAG guy who was telling me I can’t just pull someone in like I can do in the UK. I got fined by SAG that day for making a girl cry, but she loved it, she came up to me and went ‘that was the best experience of my life’. It was because I was telling her to really feel the emotion.”

At Cannes Ramsay also won Best Screenplay for her film and it drew comparisons to similar iconic films such as Taxi Driver and Léon: The Professional, something that meant a lot to her. “Just to be mentioned along with those

films is amazing. What was great was when I was in Paris on the radio. They did a trailer that was dubbed and asked me about my film. Afterward, they played an old clip of Paul Schrader talking about Taxi Driver saying almost the same things I did. It was weird was I thinking along the same lines as him?”

“I was talking to someone recently about the film Five Easy Pieces, a character study of Jack Nicholson. Maybe it’s a bit of a cliche but where are those movies these days, with the real conviction behind them. There’s such good television these days I think we need to elevate the movies. The cinema needs to be a spectacle and not just a marvel one.”

Best Picture

Best Director

Call Me By Your Name – Luca Guadagnino Darkest Hour – Joe Wright Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan Get Out – Jordan Peele Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig Phantom Thread – Paul Thomas Anderson The Post – Steven Spielberg The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro (Predicted) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonough

Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan Get Out – Jordan Peele Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig Phantom Thread – Paul Thomas Anderson The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro (P)

If I’m honest, the outcome for Best Picture surprised me. I wanted The Shape of Water to win as an acknowledgement for the great work Guillermo del Toro has done, but I expected Get Out to get the Oscar. With the amount of build up surrounding Peele’s film and the timely racial discussion it created, it seemed inevitable. There were also a few films that really shouldn’t have been nominated, Darkest Hour and The Post are among them.

90th Oscars Roundup

Best Actor

Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (P) Margot Robbie – I, Tonya Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird Meryl Streep – The Post For the life of me, I can’t understand why Meryl Streep was nominated for The Post. I think if Steven Spielberg used a text-to-speech program he could have got more life out of those lines. At this point, it almost feels like an inside joke to nominate her for every role she as much as glances at the script for. Regardless McDormand fully deserved a second Best Actress Oscar to go on her mantelpiece next to the one from Fargo.

Photo: ABC

Review

Game Night

“The thing that

makes me feel the best as a human being is just creating stuff ” “The first time I went into the cinema and felt like I was in a complete other world. When I came out I was still in it for another couple of hours. That was with Blue Velvet when I was 15. I went with my boyfriend at the time and had to lie about my age because he was a bit older than me, but then he found my school bus pass. Half the audience walked out of that film because they didn’t get it, and they really didn’t. It’s quite a scary film.

The way Lynch uses sound, like in Lost Highway, I think it’s very inspirational. You can only get that feeling by being in the cinema.”

Looking forward, Ramsay isn’t quite sure what her next film will be. “I’ve no idea, a comedy. I’ve been thinking of a few things for a while but you don’t finish a film when it’s finished anymore. It gets a release and then you have to go here and here and then talk about it and try to explain it. I’m used to being behind a camera not in front of one you know. I know people who have been doing screenings and such a year after. The thing that makes me feel the best as a human being is just creating stuff so it doesn’t feel that great talking about it, but I think it’s all a part of getting it out there.”

Best Actress

James Gill Film Critic & Books Editor

Timothée Chalamet – Call Me By Your Name (P) Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour Denzel Washington – Roman J. Israel, Esq. Best Actor was the second and last mistake I made for the 90th Oscars. Gary Oldman’s victory for Darkest Hour just goes to show, you don’t need to be in a good move to win an award, or even a half decent one. Denzel Washington put in a very good performance in Roman J. Israel, Esq. but I think the lack of advertising hindered its chances. Chalamet was an outlandish choice but the 22 year old definitely has quite a career ahead of him.

Again, like Best Picture, my heart said Guillermo del Toro but my head said Jordan Peele and if anything, I expected Peele to win this category more. With this win Del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro González Iñárritu, known affectionately as the ‘Three Amigos’, have all won the Best Director Oscar in the past five years for the films The Shape of Water, Gravity and Birdman respectively.

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams star in an innovative action-comedy from the writers of Horrible Bosses and Spider-Man: Homecoming

Photo: Allocine.fr

Lucas Hill-Paul Film Critic Game Night take the easily exploitable premise of misunderstood, dangerous scenarios, and wrestles with an idea that could have easily fallen into traps of derision and vulgarity.

Instead it delivers frequent laughs, eccentric characters and inventive direction. Jason Bateman (Office Christmas Party) and Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) star as a couple obsessed with board games, charades and trivia who unknowingly embark on a dangerous mission, when Bateman’s older brother is kidnapped in the midst of a murder mystery game night.

Jason Bateman’s presence has always been hit and miss, and there’s no masking the fact that the poster’s declaration as being “from the guys who brought you Horrible Bosses” doesn’t exactly lend itself to promises of a new comedy classic. Screenwriting duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley may have contributed some high school charm to last year’s surprising Spider-Man: Homecom-

ing, and Horrible Bosses was a capable farce, but their track record is shaky considering their first directorial baby steps, the crass reboot of National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Thankfully, Ed Helms and Christina Applegate are booted here in favour of a pair that, admittedly, are the least exciting entries on the cast list but are at least capable of believable chemistry and some much needed comedic timing. They’re not entirely the straight men of the ensemble, as comedy a notch above dead-pan is needed to ensure the idiosyncrasies of their supporting players aren’t too sharp of a contrast. However, their wry confidence and genuine emotional range, pulled from their drama experiences, is a welcome respite from the antics surrounding them.

What thrusts the film’s laugh tally from middling and crude into genuinely refreshing character dynamics is the thrilling supporting cast. Billy Magnussen channels his unpredictable energy from last year’s indie favourite, Ingrid Goes West, for a winning blend of naivety and scummy fortuitousness that cements him as a must-have wild

card for any comedic cast. Lamorne Morris (New Girl) and Kylie Bunbury’s (Under the Dome) childhood sweethearts are in danger of suffering from a baggy admission and subsequent interrogation of infidelity that almost becomes the film’s most overplayed comedic through-line, before we’re treated to the best pay-off of the movie and it all feels worth it again.

For anyone who recently enjoyed the latest series of Black Mirror, the biggest laughs are likely to come at the end of Game Night’s second act. Jesse Plemmons is perfect casting for their jilted and paranoiac neighbour, who embraces his current public persona as the sinister and manipulative captain of the USS Callister.

Much of the direction is largely flat and bland, with no discernible use of inventive colour or lighting, but this is not to the film’s detriment. In fact, there are moments of genius camerawork that would have you fooled Edgar Wright has a new movie in cinemas.

Its car chases don’t have the slick kinesis or impeccable timing of Baby Driver, but they have life, stakes and continuity.

The tilt-shifted landscape shots of suburbia effectively evoke the feeling of looking down at a game board, Bateman and co simply the pieces of a larger puzzle, and you’ll have a blast figuring out which action set piece is reminiscent of which party game.

One long shot that recreates the panic of a game of ‘Hot Potato’ is particularly inventive and, take away the laughs, would be one of the several action beats that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in something like John Wick.

It’s easy, referential stuff on paper, but every moment of stunt work and combat is choreographed with care and purpose, ensuring that each scene has visceral impact as well as the peppering of humour. Bizarre as it may seem, it’s rather heart-warming to realise that Goldstein and Daley have released an unassuming action comedy that holds the same reverence for ‘Jenga’, ‘Operation’ and ‘Charades’ as Hot Fuzz has for Point Break and Bad Boys II.

4/5

Food & Drink

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Five Guys opening this summer in Manchester University Green Daisy Tolcher Head Editor

whipped cream. Five Guys claim there are over 1000 possible flavour combinations to try which means we will probably be visiting very often!

It has been announced that as part of University Green’s massive new development project, a Five Guys will be opening on campus!

This branch will be the third to join our city, yet, unlike the ones situated in the Arndale or Trafford centres, this one will be right on our doorstep.

For those of you who have not been to a Five Guys before, the general concept is you can build your own burgers using a wide range of toppings and condiments. The chain prides itself on being able to serve a whopping 250,000 possible burger and hotdog combinations.

All the burgers are handcrafted and made to order, and even the fries are hand cut each morning and cooked in peanut oil. Five guys do not have freezers or microwaves in any of its restaurants and only use locally sourced produce.

Aside from burgers, Five Guys are also famous for their milkshakes.

The milkshakes are entirely customisable with a number of ‘mixes’ to choose from including peanut butter, chocolate, Oreo cookies, and salted caramel. You can also add interesting extras such as bacon and

This opening is therefore not just great news for students who love eating at the chain, but is also an exciting opportunity for those of you who are interested in finding a job whilst at university.

Five Guys’ rapid rise in Manchester and in the U.K. shows no sign of stopping, especially following news that they have knocked Nando’s off the top spot and are now the UK’s favourite fast food chain. And with celebrity fans such as Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith this restaurant opening is sure to be a hit amongst students.

Five Guys will be opening in Summer 2018 in Manchester University Green which will be under the Manchester Alliance Business School.

For more details about the development look here.

Photo: Five Guys

Photo: Five Guys

Five Guys CEO has said about the opening “It’s so great to see another Five Guys opening in Manchester this year. We’re gearing up to serve our fresh, handmade and fully customisable burgers, hotdogs and milkshakes to a vast number of students at our new location in Manchester University Square. The new location will create 35 new local jobs, seat 66 people, and will hopefully be the perfect spot for students to enjoy a meal, work and relax in between classes”.

Photo: Five Guys

Review: Gusto Didsbury Steph Grosse Contributer

“Gusto has a great ambience” Photo: Steph Grosse

The menu had a really good selection, with loads of starters and main courses. It did not really deviate from standard Italian cuisine but nonetheless still featured a wide variety of pizza, pasta, meat, and fish dishes. However, despite the wide selection, I have to point out that there wasn’t actually any allergen information on the menu.

It says it is available ‘upon request’, but there was not any specific ‘vegetarian’, ‘gluten-free’, or ‘may contain nuts’ labels.

We began by ordering two starters to share between us: Hand-Rolled meatballs in a tomato sauce and the Crispy Calamari. The meatballs were good, but there just seemed to be a lot of tomato sauce and not much meat for the price of £6.50. The calamari on the other hand was very tasty and definitely good value for money. It also came with a decent helping of lemon-mayonnaise.

For my main course I ordered the Tagliatelle with Smoked Salmon and Dill. It was a healthy portion which came with spinach and peas in a cream sauce. If you are a lover of salmon then I would certainly recommend this dish - especially if you get bored of the almost obligatory tomato flavouring in Italian places. This main was £13.25, which I thought was quite reasonable. I would definitely say that the mains are much better value for money than the starters.

The service in Gusto was excellent: all the staff were really friendly and the food came very quickly. We decided to stay and finish our drinks in the heated terrace outside, which was quite cute. It’s not the most amazing place, but if you’re looking for somewhere closer to home to have nice meal and evening, Gusto is a very good option!

Review: Tzatzikis Samuel Piggot Contributer Stumbling out of The Friendship or 256, the first thing on most people’s mind is food. Burger, kebab, we all know the sorts of things that take our fancy at that time of night. Having recently sampled, and thoroughly enjoyed, a late-night gyros — think a sort of upmarket kebab with tzatziki and chips included — I thought it was only fair to give this Greek deli a fair chance at impressing me sober.

I was greeted by a pleasantly cheap menu, with prices from just £6 for a souvlaki, flatbreads, tzatziki, and a Greek salad — something which always helps a meal go smoothly. There is a wide range of the more famous Greek dishes on offer, and those which one doesn’t have to be a connoisseur to have come across.

You can order chicken or pork souvlakis, skewers of meat marinated in garlic, oregano, and lemon juice, before being cooked on a charcoal grill, moussaka and a mixed mezze plate containing pitta bread, a selection of dips, stuffed vine leaves, halloumi, and souvlaki meat.

Alternatively, should you wish to try something a little more authentic you can choose from dishes such as spanakopita, loukanikos, or biftekia (that’s a feta and spinach filo pie, traditional Greek sausages and spiced minced meat skewers.)

I ordered a mixed souvlaki and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the meat. The chicken was tender and flavoured well, carrying just the right amount of charring from the charcoal grill, and the pork, despite looking as though it might be a touch dry, was succulent and once again very good.

The hand-cut chips come coated in oregano and salt, exactly as one would expect to find in

Photo: Steph Grosse

Greece, and had an excellent crisp coating.

We may all be familiar with feta, but the feta on offer somewhere like this is nothing like the feta on offer in a supermarket. It is rich and creamy and the combination of the obviously highquality ingredients in the Greek salad combined with the excellent souvlaki and delicious chips and flatbreads makes for a delightful meal, again washed down fantastically with the memory of parting with just £6.

Perhaps the star of the show, however, is the tzatziki. Countless times I have strived to make something that even slightly resembles the yoghurt-based dip I have sampled abroad, and yet it always falls short. It must be said that Tzatzikis’ namesake isn’t quite at that level, but it is certainly up there with the best I have had in this country.

All in all, given the variety on the menu, and the associated prices, I would wholeheartedly recommend checking out this deli-cometakeaway, be it just for a late-night gyros or a delectable dinner, I cannot imagine you will be disappointed.

Recipe: Lemon, Chilli, and Oregano Prawns Samuel Piggot Contributer Ingredients: One pack of shelled, raw king prawns One large lemon One red chilli finely sliced One spring onion finely chopped One tbsp tomato puree One tbsp runny honey Two cloves garlic, finely diced Two tbsp ground oregano One tsp each smoked paprika, thyme and ground cumin 100ml sunflower oil Two slices quality white bread 25g butter One small bunch each of fresh flat leaf parsley and coriander finely sliced Method: 1. Begin by marinating the prawns. Add to a bowl the zest of the lemon, the chilli, spring onion, tomato puree, honey, half the fresh herbs, garlic and the dried herbs and spices.

2. Add enough oil to make the mixture into a runny paste and then add the prawns. Ensure the

Photo: Samuel Piggot

Review: One Plus Aiswarya Kishor Contributer

If you are looking for an “I want something nice, but not too expensive” evening, Gusto Didsbury is the place for you. The restaurant is situated in the heart of Didsbury amongst other various restaurants and bars on the high street. It serves mainly Italian cuisine, and while I usually don’t get overly excited about a standard ‘pizza-pasta’ menu this was somehow different.

I went with my boyfriend on a Wednesday evening, and it was the ideal place for us to go and have a late meal. There’s something not so romantic about heading to Nandos in Fallowfield, and town is sometimes a bit too far when you live in Withington. It had a great ambience, which I would recommend for dates! It was both dimly lit and spacious.

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When I returned to Manchester after the winter break, I heard through the grapevine of a new hotpot restaurant in town: One Plus. Although the restaurant had only opened a few months prior to my visit, I had already read a number of rave reviews online. The concept of the restaurant piqued my curiosity and I decided it was worth further investigation. And so, the next weekend that I was free, I grabbed an innocent bystander (also one of my closest friends) and went to One Plus to see if it deserved its current 5-star rating on Google Reviews.

And the verdict? It does! Our expectations were high and One Plus did not let us down. As soon as we entered the restaurant, the staff greeted us and explained the concept of an off-the-belt hotpot meal. First, you are shown to a table with your very own individual hotpot cooker (perfect for people with special dietary needs). You then pick the broth of your choice, with options including: Tom Yum (tasty and Thai-style), Hot Spicy (popular –­ but it will set your mouth on fire), Chicken (mild and wonderful) and Vegetarian (the mildest of them all).

Next, you either create your own sauce or choose their tried-and-tested mixed house sauce.

My own concoction featured a blend of sesame butter, soy sauce, chilli oil and coriander, which I have to admit did taste quite strange. Thankfully, the taste of the broth blended in nicely with that of the sauce. Once your sauce is ready and the broth begins to boil, you then pick up the dishes you want to add to your pot from the rotating conveyor belt. There are over 50 dishes on the menu – including a range of vegetables, seafood and meats (some halal) – so you are truly spoilt for choice! If the dish that you want does not appear on the belt, you can request it and the the staff will bring some directly to your table.

To my boiling pot, I decided to add some Enoki mushrooms, thick noodles, seaweed, frozen tofu, sweet potato, pork luncheon meat and mussels.

It was an unusual mix of ingredients but the Hot Spicy broth made it delicious. My vegetarian friend also enjoyed his meal and particularly liked the Tom Yum broth (Tasting his food gave me a bad case of food envy, so I second that recommendation). Once we were done eating, we felt full but not stuffed. The hotpot is a feel-good meal that is perfect for a student budget: the broth and the sauces (with unlimited refills) cost only 5 pounds and each dish is individually priced. So for those of you who haven’t tried a traditional Chinese hotpot, I would highly recommend a visit to One Plus. Eating a hotpot is a cultural experience disguised as a very tasty meal.

A typical Chinese hot-pot Photo: Wikimedia Commons @ Misaochan

Photo: Samuel Piggot

prawns are entirely coated, adding more oil in needed, and then cover and marinate for at least a few hours, ideally overnight.

3. Preheat a griddle pan to a fairly high heat.

Add the prawns, along with the marinade, to the pan. The prawns will take very little time to cook, approximately a minute and a half on each side depending on size, so be careful to not overcook as they will become tough and rubbery.

4. Halfway through cooking squeeze over half the over lemon juice and season one side of the prawns with salt and pepper.

5. While the prawns are cooking lightly toast the bread. Remove the prawns from the pan and allow to rest for the same time as it took for them to cook. 6. In this time add the butter to the griddle pan and then remove from the heat and allow the butter to melt. Ensure the butter has mixed with the remaining juices in the pan before pouring it over the toasted bread.

7. Season both the cooked prawns and the bread, before topping with the remaining and the remaining half of the lemon juice.

8. To bulk this dish out simply serve with noodles to which a large amount of the marinade have been added.

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Lifestyle

How to make a complaint - the right way Thinking of making a complaint, but unsure of the process?

Hopefully, this will help you to understand the different University complaint procedures and help it all feel a little less complicated. This guide will shed light on how you would begin the process.

Students who are currently studying (or have completed a course recently) have the opportunity to raise a concern to the University by using a complaints procedure.

At the University of Manchester, there are two types of complaints. The first is a general complaint, and this could be about something on your course, or about a service which you have received.

The other type is a ‘Dignity at Work and Study’ Complaint. This is the kind of

“ If you are unsure

about anything to do with the c o m p l a i n t s procedure you can always pop into the Advice Service. ” complaint that you would make if you felt that you had been subjected to bullying, harassment or discrimination, by either a member of staff or another student.

There is a university complaints form

which you will need to complete, and this is the same for both of the complaints procedures. However, the procedures do have different policies so this is something to watch out for. You can find all of the relevant documents on the university website, including the complaints form and the regulations for each of the complaints.

The complaints form has questions for each section, and we would advise you to include any information that you feel is relevant to the case. Then, you would also be required to attach any evidence you may have, to support your case. This could include emails, letters, and any other type of correspondence you may feel is relevant.

Once you have done a draft of your complaint, you can send it to the Students’ Union Advice Service and one of our advisors would be happy to review this for

you. We can also offer you any comments or suggestions that we feel may help you and you can then decide if you feel our advice is useful to your case.

One of the first things to remember when considering whether to raise a complaint, is that if you are seeking an academic outcome (such as a change in grade, or another chance at a piece of work or an exam), then you would need to do an academic appeal and not a complaint. For further guidance on the academic appeals procedure please see our website.

If you are unsure about anything to do with the complaints procedure you can always pop into the Advice Service. And remember you can also send us a draft of your complaint to advice.su@manchester. ac.uk and receive some feedback from one of our professional advisors.

How to hygge: a student abroad’s guide

Deadlines and bad weather got you down? Calypso April explains the Danish concept of ‘hygge’ and how to apply it to your everyday life

Calypso April Lifestyle Contributor The Danish concept of hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) has seen an unprecedented rise in popularity in the UK over the past few years. It is easy to see why. Loosely translated as ‘cosy’ or ‘cosiness’, the idea of snuggling down and relaxing is very appealing, especially with recent weather considered.

However, whilst many British interpretations of hygge have chosen to focus largely on the application of hygge to living spaces, an equally important aspect of hygge is its sociality. It is not only an environment which can be hyggelig, but also an evening with family, friends, or a conversation. Although, the most common setting for hygge is within the home, it is also easy to access hygge outside of the home, perhaps by sharing food or drinks with loved ones.

Whilst there is no direct translation of the word hygge into English, Danish anthropologist Jeppe Linnet has approximated its meaning as “cozy, homey, informal, sincere, down-to-earth, warm, close, convivial, relaxed, comfortable, snug, friendly, welcoming and tranquil.” These

words apply to interactions, conversations, and surroundings alike.

With all this in mind, here are a couple of tips that I have picked up from living in Denmark, which are useful for applying some hygge to your daily life.

from improved mental health, to better sleep quality. Turning off or silencing your phone when spending time with friends and family allows you to be more present, and create deeper connections with people, thus contributing to a more hyggelig experience.

Organise your time effectively Less screen time The Danes are known for being organised, punctual and efficient, which is crucial to being able to relax and switch off in your down time. Often it can be impossible to do this knowing how much work you have left to complete, which is why effective time management is both a useful skill in general, and one which will help you add a little more hygge to your life.

Plan and adhere to a timetable of work and relaxation, factoring in activities which are important to you, as well as university work and everyday chores. Planning this allows you to totally relax during your time ‘off’, knowing you have left yourself enough time to complete necessary work and tasks.

Take time offline There is a vast body of work suggesting the benefits of taking time away from our phones and social media for everything

Whilst an evening in eating popcorn and watching a movie could certainly be a very hygge one, it’s nice to ensure you also spend time doing other activities with friends, family and housemates. Why not choose some activities that require more interaction? Get out of the city and go on a walk together, play a board game, card game, or cook a meal together.

Mood lighting On the whole, the Danes are a huge fan of mood lighting, particularly candles. Turn off your main overhead light and switch on your side lights, desk lamps, or whatever you have. Pick up some cheap candles or fairy lights and get cosy in your living room.

Decorate

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Take a wellbeing day, without an ounce of guilt How often do you take some time for yourself? James Johnson gives you six tips to take some time for you, and why you shouldn’t feel guilty about it James Johnson Lifestyle Editor

Photo: Advice Service

Laura Sullivan Senior Advisor

Lifestyle

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ISSUE 19 / 12th MARCH 2018 WWW.MANCHESTERMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

In order to create a hyggelig atmosphere, you don’t need to spend a fortune. In fact, anthropologist Jeppe Linnet has argued that spending a lot of money can be counter-productive to creating a hygge space or occasion, as it distracts from the quality time you’re spending with your loved ones. So go ahead and decorate with plants, photographs, cushions, blankets and textiles, and don’t worry about matching everything — there’s no need to break the bank.

Although hygge as a concept is not something that we have a word for in English, it basically connotes quality time, joking and conversation with those that we love, facilitated by a warm and welcoming atmosphere. It’s about enjoying the little moments, whether that’s going for a walk with some friends in the cold, and warming up with a hot chocolate, or playing boardgames in a cosy room.

Hygge is almost like a philosophy. It highlights the importance of simplicity, taking time out and relaxing. It has even been suggested that hygge is the key to why the Danes are some of the happiest people in the world. So why not take a leaf out of the Danes’ book, and add a little more hygge to your life.

Photo:Calypso April

The academic year follows a constant rotation of deadlines. Holiday waypoints signal a break in studying. Reading weeks are often used to catch up and to travel home for a short break.

Before you know it, you’re back at a desk somewhere, or at a job, wondering where all of your time has gone.

Evenings are usually the prime opportunity for taking a little time for ourselves; let’s call it ‘me time’.

Sometimes we can manage to squeeze in an hour or two to catch up on some dearly missed TV or maybe catch up on some reading. Sometimes we might even get to do something we love.

But, and this is a big but, do we ever (really) take a day to ourselves? To set aside our work priorities, our obligations and errands, to simply sit back and do something that will help us to recharge.

The answer is a likely no. We’re either running to and fro, chasing an upcoming deadline or worrying about what little care we take of ourselves.

So, here are some ideas and tips for you to take a ‘you day’, how to stop feeling guilty about prioritising yourself and how to take a day to recharge your batteries;

Why not treat yourself to some amazing local produce, some natural beauty products or a hearty meal at their wonderful café.

If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, consider venturing to Unicorn in Chorlton, a supermarket for all of your veggie needs.

Find cheap store-cupboard essentials and

Hydrate It may seem rudimentary to proclaim the benefits of staying hydrated but it cannot be echoed loudly enough. Make it your late resolution to drink at least two litres of water a day.

Go someplace new Everybody’s heard somebody talking about some wonderfully eclectic neighbourhood they visited recently. Most people know about these various different neighbourhoods in the Greater Manchester area.

So why not go? Get to know your city a little better and take a leisurely afternoon in Chorlton or Urmston or Didsbury Village.

There are so many other coffee shops, bookstores and spots for you to indulge in a little ’you time’ outside of the city centre.

Plus, the quieter atmosphere only adds to the calm of a trip outwards.

Do whatever you like

Photo: James Johnson

Give yourself permission to do something, or nothing at all.

The life of a student can largely be separated by spending most of your time working and the rest of your time wondering why you’re not doing something productive.

Sometimes, it’s okay to give yourself permission to do nothing or to do the things you love. ‘Wouldn’t it be great to go back to bed with a cup of coffee and read books all day?’ So do it. Take the guilt out of doing something for yourself and indulge.

There are no confines or limits to what it is that relaxes any one person. Going to sit in a café, lost in a novel may sound torturous for the more adventurous soul.

Whether it’s catching up over coffee with a friend you haven’t seen for a while, venturing to the cinema to see that film you’ve been meaning to see, cooking yourself something comforting or just taking a hike; the possibilities are endless.

Switch off

Photo: James Johnson

Nourish Struggling through a busy week on a diet consisting entirely of junk food is likely going to run you into an extended power nap every day.

Manchester has some of the finest places for you to source local, organic, nourishing foods to help you stay awake and to fuel your concentration.

Walking a few minutes North of University Place will lead you to The Eighth Day Cafe; a haven for all those who know about it and a gem for all those yet to discover it.

Try staying hydrated for a week and notice your need for constant caffeine drop and your ability to stay awake and alert increase tenfold.

Photo: James Johnson

fresh, organic fruits and vegetables for a fraction of the price of smaller convenience stores.

A trip to either of these spots is a small exercise in self-care.

Treat yourself to a fancy reusable bottle if that’s an incentive. Campus is dotted with plenty of spots for you to refill and besides, the money saved on expensive bottled water or sugary drinks will thank your pocket, too.

No really, switch off. In the time spent answering a constant flood of emails, or the time spent scrolling through feeds or social media, we’ve travelled from point A to B without noticing what’s going on around us.

The terror of switching off our phones is, arguably, the best way to recharge your mind.

Those emails will still be waiting for you when you get back, but before you know it, you’ll be feeling calmer than ever without the constant threat of breaking news or an email request that just has to be answered.

Consider the last time you really took some uninterrupted time for yourself. Can you even remember?

This Sunday, whilst your cramming your week full of appointments and study sessions, make some time for yourself, and don’t even begin to feel guilty about it.

Photo: James Johnson

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United need a Fergie time screamer to win at Crystal Palace They came down from 2-0 down to bag all three points

FINAL YEARS! THE NSS COULD STILL BE USED TO RAISE FEES. #DONTFILLITIN Last year, final years refused to fill in the National Student Survey (NSS) because it was used to justify raising tuition fees.

This year, tuition fees have been frozen. However, if they are unfrozen again by 2020, any responses to the NSS this year will be used to raise fees again.

Just don’t participate - #DONTFILLITIN! Find out more: manchesterstudentsunion.com/nss

Photo: wallpaperscraft.com

James Gill Sports Contributor With Liverpool comfortably beating West Ham 4-1 and moving up into second place, Manchester United need a win against relegation-battling Crystal Palace to stay above the rest of the pack fighting for those Champion’s League positions.

Mourinho would have been feeling confident however, as Palace have not won a single game against the Red Devils in 17 Premier League Meetings.

There was just one change from the side that beat Chelsea 2-1 on the 25th February 2018. De Gea played in goal with a back four of Valencia, Smalling Lindelöf and Young. McTominay gets yet another start alongside Matic and Pogba.

Lingard came in for Martial to join Lukaku and Sánchez in an attacking three.

Crystal Palace’s McArthur got the game underway. Roy Hodgson opted for a two-striker setup with a 4-4-2 formation so I expected more crosses at Selhurst Park than at the Vatican’s Sunday service. The centre-back partnership of Smalling and Lindelöf looked nervous when faced with the initial influx of crosses. They needed to get settled, and fast, if there was to be any hope of getting a 16th Premier League clean sheet.

Palace were moving the ball around very well and United seemed to be caught out by their intensity. After Pogba needlessly wasted possession by launching the ball upfield, a single pass cut through the United back line giving Benteke acres of space to manoeuvre in. He found enough space to shoot but instead passed it laterally to Townsend on the edge of the box who hit it first time into the top corner. The replay

shows that the shot took a massive deflection off Lindelöf, which gave de Gea no chance of stopping it. Although luck was on their side Palace were by far the better team in the opening ten minutes.

If Hodgson’s side were to win this game, it would be their first points this season without Wilfried Zaha in the side. They have lost all eight games without him this season and his return in a couple of weeks may be the difference between relegation and survival.

The main issue United had was their narrowness on the ball. All of their possession was channeled through the centre of the pitch and that suited Palace. Townsend and Schlupp came inside and congested the midfield area with the open space on the wings being left open

by United. If they wanted to penetrate this welldrilled side, they needed to use more of the pitch and spread their opposition out to create pockets of space for Sánchez or Lingard to run into.

Slowly but surely United built into the game and a major part of that was adding width to their attack. They took a lot of confidence from Palace keeper Hennessey fumbling a couple of simple catches. Their defence isn’t one of the best in the Premier League but if they can’t get past the midfield and into dangerous positions they wouldn’t trouble Hennessey at all.

Scott McTominay got a yellow card for completely mistiming a challenge. As he slid in it seemed like a simple tackle, but he missed the ball and took all of the man. Meanwhile, Valencia and Young kept making great runs down the wings but continued to be totally ignored. I wasn’t then surprised when Rashford came on at the start of the second half.

At halftime, Mourinho would have surely had a stern talk with his side. Presumably part of

that talk would have involved an introduction of Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia as the way Manchester United played in the first 45 minutes, it looked as though they had never met. The first substitute took place as Rashford cane on for McTominay.

Matic conceded a foul just inside the United half in the third minute of the second half. The free kick was taken quickly and no one on the Manchester United team noticed until it was too late. When the closest defender Lindelöf saw what was happening, van Aanholt was one on one with de Gea and smashed it in to make it 2-0 to Crystal Palace. That goal really embodied the game as a whole. Palace, always looking to make a quick break and United, lethargic, looking like they’d left their desire to win on the team bus.

The first defensive mistake by Crystal Palace was capitalised on by Manchester United. The ball was crossed into the box and Tomkins was a little late in setting the offside trap and played Chris Smalling onside. The England international still had a lot to do but placed his head into the side netting of the far corner leaving Hennessey no chance. If United came back to win this game it would be their first 2 goal deficit recovery since 2013 at Hull. Just after Ashley Young gets a yellow card for a strong cuddle on a Palace player.

The game was really opening up now with both sides coming close with shots. Hennessey especially made a good save to deny a Pogba shot. Mourinho made a double change to try and spur Manchester United on to victory. Luke Shaw replaced Ashley Young who was on a yellow card and Juan Mata replaced Antonio Valencia. With 20 minutes left to play there was still enough time for the outcome to change. Palace could climb all the way to 13th if they hold out.

Matic came close to scoring his first goal for

Manchester United after his move from Chelsea but it is cleared off the line by Benteke. Palace and desperately tried to hang onto this lead but they got relentlessly attacked by United. Townsend got a yellow card for a foul in the frenetic defending.

In the 75th minute, United got their equaliser.

Sánchez saw his shot deflected off a defender and then off the bar into the feet of Lukaku three yards out. Immediately he was swarmed by five defenders but somehow he found a space to get a shot off and found the back of the net for the 99th time. The Crystal Palace defence looked dejected. Benteke got a header less than a minute later but de Gea showed why he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world with an unbelievable stop.

Palace were hanging on to this draw by a thread but there were only four minutes plus stoppage time left. Surprisingly Hodgson had only used one of his three substitutes. He had Souaré and Delaney on the bench who are both solid defenders, and it was clear that his back four were completely out of steam.

The fourth official holds aloft the board to show three minutes of additional time. Pogba has a shot from 20 yards out but it got blocked to Matic who was about 25 yards out. He lined himself up and hit it on the volley going straight into the bottom left-hand corner out of reach for Hennessey. Heartbreak for Palace who lost in the closing minutes to Tottenham last week too. Roy Hodgson would have been especially disappointed as he seemed to have done everything right.

Both sides face major tests in the next round of Premier League fixtures with Manchester United playing Liverpool and Crystal Palace playing Chelsea.

WRITE FOR US Mancunion Sport 17/18 Contributors Group Email: sports@mancunion.com Meeting time: Tuesdays 4:30pm, Students’ Union

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United must be on guard against the Seagulls

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University footballers battle to draw Manchester are now all-but guaranteed Northern 1A football in 2019

José Mourinho’s silverware-hunting men face a difficult tie in the FA Cup

Charlie Benny Sports Contributor

So far adrift of the rampant Manchester City in the league, United’s hopes of domestic silverware rest solely on their FA Cup exploits. With City out after a shock loss to third tier Wigan Athletic, fans may expect that they emerge victorious as the new favourites to lift the trophy.

United however, first must negotiate a quarter-final clash with Brighton and Hove Albion. This is not by any means a straightforward task as the Seagulls are hitting form at the right time. Albion are now tenth, seven points clear of the relegation zone, after stretching their unbeaten run in the Premier League and FA Cup to seven games.

Shrewd additions in January have given Chris Hughton far more scope to make changes. £14 million forward Jurgen Locadia has two goals in two appearances since joining from PSV. His first came on his debut in the last round of the FA Cup where Brighton fielded a strong team against Coventry, especially given that Hughton made nine changes from the league game against Stoke a week prior.

Featuring Locadia, a Premier League title winner in Leonardo Ulloa, Netherlands international Tim Krul, and Championship player of the season Anthony Knockaert, suddenly Albion have a strong secondstring eleven after being criticised for not bringing in a forward in the summer transfer window.

Despite bringing in further attacking options, no one could have anticipated the phenomenal form of Glen Murray. Now on 13 for the season, Murray has scored the same number of Premier League goals as Tammy Abraham, Marcus Rashford, and Danny Welbeck combined, prompting questions of an England call up. Likely to be on the bench at Old Trafford, the 34-year-old may still have a say in the latter stages of the game after scoring a 89th minute winner to send Brighton through against Middlesbrough in the fourth round of the FA Cup in the 87th minute in the round before against fierce rivals Crystal Palace.

Although United came away from the earlier league fixture against Brighton victorious 1-0, the result, though, was not an accurate reflection of the game. Albion were organised, disciplined, and looked extremely dangerous on the counter. Desperately unlucky not to have been ahead after Anthony Knockaert and Pascal Gross both went close after getting behind the United defence, Brighton were dealt a sucker punch in the 66th minute. Ashley Young’s hit and hope attempt from 20 yards was blocked by Lewis Dunk, and inexplicably looped over keeper Mat Ryan into the net. Mourinho will be hoping

Photo: SPORT Manchester @flickr

Arthur Salisbury Deputy Sports Editor In his darker moments, Guy Debord foresaw a future in which the authentic would be Photo: Dominic Alves @flickr

for this kind of luck this week, but certainly knows a similar level of performance to last time will surely not be rewarded.

Speaking after the league win, Mourinho admitted “what Chris [Hughton] and Brighton deserved was more than the result they got.

They played really well. When they had the ball they were dangerous on the counter-attack. I thought Brighton were very, very good. Many congratulations to them.”

Though this was a stand-out performances of the season, Hughton will be hoping for an improvement on the result. Asked if a psychological barrier had been broken after taking their first points against one of the top six in Arsenal, Hughton said: “yes, I probably didn’t think that before. More importantly, if you’d said to me at the start of the season we’d stay up with a certain number of points but not beat any of the top six, we’d have settled for that. But that (win) will do us the world of good.”

Chris Hughton’s answer is indicative of his calmness throughout the

season. During a nervy campaign that now approaches the climax, a mere ten points separates Leicester in 8th and Stoke in 19th. In amongst all the drama, a cool head has guided Brighton to potentially their highest ever finish in the top flight, in their first ever season as a Premier League team. He deserves immense credit, not just for what he’s achieved but also the manner in which he has done so, showing humility and respect while so many desperately push mind games and frenzied touchline antics.

With so many teams in the mire, Hughton will be quietly confident of survival-all the worse for United and their cup hopes. Going into the game Albion have been afforded a level of freedom to look to the cup, particularly with the aforementioned luxury a deeper squad with quality in all areas. United need to get it right on the day, with the game to go to extra time and penalties if it ends as a draw. With home advantage, Mourinho’s men should have enough-but Brighton will not make it easy.

City take big step to Premier League title with Chelsea victory The Manchester blues take a 1-0 victory against their London counterparts

completely replaced with the spectacular.

So he would have been pleasantly surprised with the university footballers on Wednesday night, where the former was abundantly present at the expense of the latter.

Manchester played out a 0-0 draw with Sheffield and gave a big boost to their survival hopes at the Armitage Centre. A win against Leeds Beckett on March 15th would see them finish a respectable 3rd in the sixteam table. This context the majority of the spectators were unaware of, leading to some bemusement at the final whistle, at which the celebrations of the Manchester footballers were poignantly dissonant with the game they comprised half of.

Manchester playing in the traditional purple colours, were the brighter of the two sides, both technically and physically stronger.

They attacked predominantly down the right, Will Seccombe and Moses Seitler creating what few chances there were in the first half.

Sheffield should have gone into the break a goal up when their right-back played a long ball that beat the Manchester centrehalves for height — in itself nothing to worry about, except when you are simultaneously beaten for pace by the opposition front line. Sheffield’s #7 thought he’d made the breakthrough when he poked the ball past Stu Morrison, only to be denied on the line by Jak Alcock.

Even though the audience was generally

unaware of its wider significance, there was an undeniable hint of tension throughout the second half. The full-backs put it through to captain Max Thompson in the middle, who spread it to either wing, where the ball would ricochet about until reaching Ben Alport, by a distance the most dazzling player on the pitch, playing to a step three standard in what was closer to a step five match.

And yet, despite the heavy lifting, Manchester were unable to get a shot away.

Their satisfaction with the point, which means they need only avoid heavy defeat next Wednesday to stay in Northern 1A, coupled with Sheffield’s heavy legs, meant the game became a turgid midfield battle.

Cheers were raised only occasionally and exclusively at a mishap, [captain]’s dithering in the centre circle providing a few chuckles.

There is only so much a humble match reporter can squeeze out of a frankly bloodless stone. The fun is to be had in the live experience, which cannot be conveyed in print. I therefore urge you to take yourself down to the Armitage Centre this Wednesday, just two steps from Squirrels, and sample some free sport from the university’s finest.

Heavyweight Boxing Division – the contenders assessed Joshua looks red hot, but Fury is the man to beat in 2018 Dane Massey Sports Contributor Boxing in general isn’t everyone’s favourite sport, but when the big fights come around the audiences increase dramatically. This is certainly becoming the case with the heavyweight division, with four champions battling it out to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world – the first since Lennox Lewis in 2000.

Here, I will assess each champion, asking a question of each of them and rating each one out of 10 ahead of a big upcoming year for the division everyone has their eyes on.

points, but AJ will be by far the stiffest test of his career so far and he will go into the fight in Cardiff as underdog.

Parker currently holds the WBO strap, and if he manages to defy the odds and find a way around the imposing figure of Joshua, he will be carrying four belts and will be one

Deontay Wilder Passion. Power. Charisma. The main traits of the big American are there for all to see and he looks to be the real deal.

of character to come back from the brink of defeat – much like Joshua did against Klitschko.

As a black American and a confident character, Wilder is an exciting boxer who is looking to emulate the greatness of fellow Americans Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson. If the challengers are willing to step in the ring with him, the bright lights of New York or Las Vegas will be the best venue to host such a super-fight – in Wilder’s home country.

In his 40 fights, nobody has found a way to stop Wilder yet, but if he gets the fight he’s craving in Joshua, will a significantly heavier AJ prove too powerful?

Rating: 8/10 Anthony Joshua

Photo: Sam Cooper @The Mancunion

Sam Cooper Head Sports Editor Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City took another considerable step towards the Premier League title after defeating Chelsea 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium. A solitary goal from Bernardo Silva in the second half was enough to win the game for City as they move 18 points clear at the top of the table.

Straight from kick-off the game settled into its natural rhythm as City dominated possession in the opening stages. The rigid back five of Chelsea looked to prevent Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva from finding any space near the area and the Chelsea defence marshalled City well.

Chelsea had opted to play a front three of Pedro, Willian and Eden Hazard with the Belgian operating in the false nine position. It was clear from the onset that Conte was looking to play the same tactics that earned him a 1-1 draw against Barcelona in the Champions League. Sit deep and look to hit rapidly on the break.

This plan largely did not come off for the visitors though as City did well to suffocate the London side in their own half. When they did break, Chelsea gave away the ball to easily with Pedro being particularly guilty of this.

City continued to look for the opening goal without creating any real chances. If they were to score, it looked like it would come down the left flank operated by Leroy Sané as the pace of the German allowed him to get in behind on frequent occasions. A last ditch block on the line denied Sané the opening goal.

The teams went in level at the break with City dominating possession and looking the more likely to score.

The domination was quickly turned into goals as within one minute of the game restarting, City were ahead. In the same way, a Christensen mistake had cost City in their Barcelona tie, he cost them here as failed to deal with a long pass. Instead of knocking it clear, he played it into the path of Sergio Agüero who rolled the ball into the path of the incoming David Silva. David crossed to his namesake Bernardo who beat Marcos Alonso to the the cross and turned the ball past a diving Thibaut Courtois. It was 1-0 to the hosts and it was deserved

considering the balance of the play.

Despite being a goal behind, Chelsea continued to sit deep and their tactic of launching long to the diminutive Hazard, Willian and Pedro was failing. The tactical choice of playing Hazard in the false nine position was not working as it limited his time on the ball and meant he was easy to defend against for the City back line.

With the goal advantage, City slowed the pace of the game right down to a walking pace. Knocking the ball about between their back line, the home side were in no rush to push forward and could comfortably maintain possession.

With the game drawing to a close, Conte finally looked to make changes. Introducing a natural number nine such as Olivier Giroud did look to make a noticeable difference and made it all the more puzzling why he was benched. Chelsea looked to mount a final attack with Álvaro Morata also now on the pitch but it was too little, too late as the final whistle blew at 1-0.

An ecstatic Guardiola stepped out into the Manchester rain to congratulate his players and had the look of a man bearing down on the title.

Tyson Fury

Where else to start? Boxing’s golden boy and cash cow has gone from strength-to-strength since his first professional fight in May 2013 – winning all 20 of his fights by knockout.

Inside and outside of the ring, Joshua is becoming a role model for boxing’s younger generation. Victories over the likes of Dillian Whyte, Dominic Breazeale, Carlos Takam and, of course, the iconic knockout of Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley have been a part of Joshua’s rapid rise to becoming the IBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion of the world.

Three belts could soon become four when he faces Joseph Parker at the Principality Stadium on March 31st and should he stop the tough New Zealander in his tracks he will no doubt lay down a marker as the man to beat in boxing’s top division.

AJ has everything in his armoury as a boxer but tougher questions will really start to be asked of him in 2018. Can he come up with the answers?

Rating: 9/10 Joseph Parker The latest man who will step into the lion’s den to face Joshua is Parker – the man from Auckland is undefeated in the 24 fights he has took part in so far in his career, winning 18 by knockout.

He beat Joshua’s last opponent, Takam, on

Photo: Karl-Ludwig Poggemann @flickr

belt away from becoming the undisputed champion.

The 26-year-old has had a solid career up to now, and no doubt he’s a real prospect who is tough to beat, but might Joshua prove to be a step to far?

Rating: 6/10

Wilder is a knockout machine. Although he came through a dogfight in his latest battle with Luis Ortiz with the Cuban putting up a real battle, Ortiz was knocked down by a ferocious jab from Wilder in the tenth round in Brooklyn, New York.

The man from Alabama overcame a huge hurdle in Ortiz and proved his strength

How could we forget? Fury is a very vociferous character outside the ring, but inside the ropes he more than backs up his words.

The Gypsy King has an unorthodox style which even Klitschko couldn’t cope with back in November 2015 – the Ukrainian was out-boxed and out-thought by a better fighter on the night. Fury deservedly relieved Klitschko of his belts, but has not appeared in the ring since due to a drugs ban and personal problems, which has seen the other contenders take the belts he once owned.

After a long lay-off from the sport, the still Ring Magazine and once lineal heavyweight champion is nearing a comeback and has a real point to prove. If he can get himself fit and at the level he was in 2015 again, the other contenders have a huge problem on their hands.

A fully-fit Fury, standing at over six foot nine, is the toughest fight of the lot. But the question everyone will be asking is: can he reach the level he was once at?

If he can, and does, it’s hard to look past the Manchester-born fighter as the man who will light up the heavyweight division over the next 12 months.

Rating: 10/10

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Photo:James Gill @TheMancunion

Basel beat City at the Etihad but are knocked out regardless

A 4-0 win in the first leg meant that Guardiola could play his under 19’s without worrying about the result

James Gill Sports Contributor Manchester City suffered their first home defeat since 2016 in the Champion’s League against Swiss side FC Basel losing 2-1. Regardless of the result City still progress to the Quarter Finals as their 4-0 cushion from the first leg was enough to see them through.

Basel’s win means that they go into an exclusive list of clubs that have beat City this season: Wigan, Shakhtar, Girona (preseason) and Liverpool. This game was very reminiscent of the last Group Stage game against Shakhtar. If manager Pep Guardiola knows he will be going through to the next round he will opt to play a very young and inexperienced side.

Zinchenko, Foden, and Jesus all got starts with Diaz and Adarabioyo coming on later in the game. All of those players gave energetic and spirited performances but they lacked composure. Far too often their passes fell short or behind their man or they picked a safe pass rather than attempting to spark an attacking move.

The only veteran player that made it into the side was Yaya Touré but that was more of an advantage to Basel than to Manchester City. As great a player as The English sides competing in Europe continue to impress, as two of three teams will progress so far. City and Liverpool both overcame their opponents to secure qualification into the quarter finals, but Tottenham were knocked out by Juventus.

Having won the first leg 5-0, it was a calm night at Anfield for Jürgen Klopp.

Safe in the knowledge his side were all but through, he rested the likes of Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk and the two teams played out a 0-0 draw.

Touré has been in the past that player was not there tonight. His passing left a lot to be desired and his mobility was just painful to see.

Basel do deserve a lot a credit for the way they handled the game. Jesus and Sané were man marked for the entire 90 minutes and City didn’t have a solution for that. All their possession had to be channeled through the centre of the pitch but the well-drilled Swiss side left no open spaces whatsoever. As a result, the ball went backwards more than it did forwards.

It took only seven minutes for the game to get a goal. Gabriel Jesus got on the end of a Bernardo Silva low cross to grab a goal on his first start of the year. The goal was more a product of defensive errors than City’s attacking prowess however as the cross went through the legs of two, yes two, Basel defenders.

That lead lasted for ten minutes as Mohamed Elyounoussi bagged an equaliser after a lucky deflection left him all alone in the middle of the box with only Bravo to beat. There was perhaps a question to be asked of Bravo’s positioning as Zinchenko was blocking part of the goal but to save a shot from six yards out was always going to be tough.

Manchester City also boasted a healthy aggregate lead having beaten Basel 4-0 in the first leg. This coforabtle cushion was needed as Basel managed to inflict a rare defeat on Guardiola’s side at the Etihad. A goal from Gabriel Jesus was cancelled out by Mohamed Elyounoussi before Michael Lang netted the winner.

Tottenham meanwhile were sent crashing out of the competition as they los 2-1 at Wembley to Juventus. After securing a respectable 2-2 draw away

The second half was a lot poorer from Manchester City, one of the poorest we’ve seen this season. Going forward they were like watching England play in a major tournament and defensively they were like watching England play in a major tournament. The lack in attacking intent proved costly when an Elyounoussi pass to Michel Lang left Touré and ZInchenko exposed. Lang blasted the ball from a tight angle and Bravo could only knock it into the roof of his own goal.

What was most surprising about the game was Guardiola’s choice of substitutes. 2-1 down he decides to leave Walker, Agüro, and De Bruyne on the bench in favour of Diaz and defender Adarabioyo. Even if the tie is over in the first leg it was disappointing to see the lack of desire to win the game. That frustration was evident in the stadium with the only chant heard in the full 90 was a handful of the old ‘Cmon City’ whenever they played the ball from Sané back to Bravo.

That 2-1 victory means that Basel are the only side to have beaten both Manchester clubs this season. With Manchester United playing Liverpool this weekend, however, that could all change. Manchester City goes to Stoke on Monday.

in Turin, Spurs were feeling confident ahead of this second leg. They took the lead through Heung-Min Son, but quick fire goals from Gonzalo Higuaín and Paulo Dybala sent the Italin juggernaut through.

Manchester United and Chelsea are yet to play in this round of fixtures.

The Red Devils host Sevilla with the aggregate score at 0-0 while Chelsea face a trip to the Camp Nou looking to get the better of Barcelona with the aggregate score at 1-1.

UoM Football

P31 Photo: SPORT Manchester @flickr

Brighton FA Cup preview

P30 Photo: Dominic Alves @flickr

Palace 2-3 United

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Books

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Review

If you’re complacent like me, read “The Autobiograph of an Ex-coloured Man” for its irony

Biko Street Presents:

Books Contributor Margherita Concina gives her thoughts on race and politics in regards to James Weldon Johnson’s book Have you ever had an epiphany?

I think I’ve just had one, and it has made me realize that I need more. Badly. This week’s reading for my 20th-Century African American Literature module deals with parody in James Weldon Johnson’s 1912 novel: “The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man”. You may have heard of it, but I hadn’t before it ended up on my reading list.

The nameless protagonist is the son of a former slave and her former master, who can “pass” as white due to his Caucasian skin tone and features. He’s a cigar roller at a factory, then a pianist in New York, then he travels to Europe and back. The book is amazingly well-written, engrossing, even exciting.

As I sat down to do my work, I vaguely tried to pinpoint what was being parodied. Was it the nameless narrator’s delusion of artistry? His self-satisfaction? The hypocrisy of the supposedly egalitarian North in the 19th- and 20th-century United States?

Turns out, it was all of the above, and more.

It is the main character’s whiteness which is the main source of parody: his complete unawareness of his own prejudice, his brushing off of the tragedies he witnesses without really feeling

any sympathy for the victims. And his rationalisation of all of this. There are plenty of demonstrations of his obliviousness, like when he casually accepts a drink from a self-proclaimed white supremacist or fantasises about creating a classical (i.e. white) masterpiece from ragtime music.

And I’d missed most of them. I suddenly felt like the butt of the joke I was supposed to be a part of. How could this be? I live in a time and place where equality is supposedly the norm, and which at any rate is very different from segregated America. I’m all for equality, obviously. My social circle has people from all walks of life.

Oh. It hit me. I’d missed the irony, because I sympathised with the character’s motivations. I have internalised the same complacent tendencies he displays. When I see a homeless person, I feel justified in looking away. Reading newspapers depresses me, so I don’t. There was a recent election in my country, and I haven’t given it a second thought, because politics is just a sham and nothing ever changes anyway. But things have changed, and more needs changing. If I’m not

careful, I could end up like the main character, with a vague sense of dissatisfaction hinting at a deeply-rooted selfishness – and missing the latter. I may have had an epiphany, but now I need to get to work on myself.

I know that if you’re reading this, chances are you voted Jeremy Corbyn, are politically aware, and are not unsympathetic to the tragedies of the world. But it’s not like I was a white supremacist myself when I picked up the book. So if you like to challenge yourself and your perspective, do the same. If you feel like you challenge yourself enough already, pick up the book all the same, simply because it’s amazingly well-written.

Just for me: I’m selfish because I willingly distance my self from caring, because I justify continuing to punish my parents for my anxiety although I know it’s unfair, for concentrating on my melodramatic insecurities instead of the faults and choices that impact my ethical perspective. I too have artistic fantasies that I never have the balls to act upon, and often pretend to care about people and causes more than I do.

chocolate feastival

Photo: @Wikimedia Commons

Feature

The Library of the Future

100 acclaimed authors will each write one piece over the next 100 years for a literary time capsule, to remain unpublished until the 22nd Century James Gill Books Editor In Nordmarka, Norway, 30km outside of Oslo, a thousand trees have been planted for a very special purpose: the library of the future. In 2115 they will be used to make paper for a collection of books.

The Framstidsbiblioteket, or Future Library, is a 100-year project launched by Scottish artist Katie Paterson. In every year from 2014 until 2114, a notable writer will give one piece of writing, destined to remain unread until after the project has concluded. The purpose is to give readers of the future a fresh anthology of works by some of the century’s greatest writers.

Starting the Future Library off in 2014 was Margeret Atwood, five-time nominee for the Man Booker Prize, who gave a work entitled ’Scribbler Moon’. She said of the project: “Future Library is bound to attract a lot of attention over the decades, as people follow the progress of the trees, note what takes up residence in and around them, and try to guess what the writers have put into their sealed boxes.”

The second contributor, for the year 2015, was David Mitchell, who contributed a piece called ‘From Me Flows What You Call

Time’. Mitchell said “Civilisation, according to one of those handy Chinese proverbs, is the basking in the shade of trees planted a hundred years ago, trees which the gardener knew would outlive him or her, but which he or she planted anyway for the pleasure of people not yet born. I accepted the Future Library’s invitation to participate because I would like to plant such a tree. The project is a vote of confidence that, despite the catastrophist shadows under which we live, the future will still be a brightish place willing and able to complete an artistic endeavour begun by long-dead people a century ago.

Imagine if the Future Library had been conceived in 1914, and a hundred authors from all over the world had written a hundred volumes between 1915 and today, unseen until now – what a human highway through time to be a part of. Contributing and belonging to a narrative arc longer than your own lifespan is good for your soul.”

In 2016, Icelandic artist Sjón’s piece was ‘As My Brow Brushes On The Tunics Of Angels or The Drop Tower, the Roller Coaster, the Whirling Cups and other Instruments of Worship from the Post-Industrial Age’. Patterson, who came up with the Future Library concept said of Sjón: “Sjón creates a world of metamorphosis: his poetic works weave together history and

myth, folklore, ancient storytelling, the surreal and the magical, through the language of past and contemporary Icelandic.”

His writing is dynamic and melodic, and like Future Library interlaces the human and natural world through stretches of time. In addition to writing poems, novels, plays, librettos, lyrics, and children’s books, Sjón often collaborates with other artists and musicians, so I am very excited about the possibilities his contribution will bring to this hidden library growing through the trees.”

The most recent addition to the project is Elif Shafak. Patterson spoke about Shafak saying “her work dissolves boundaries: cultural, geographic, political, ideological, religious and spiritual, and embraces a plurality of voices. Her storytelling is magical and profound, creating connectivity between people and places: a signal of hope at a particularly divided moment in time.”

The works will be kept in a purpose-built room in the New Deichmanske Public Library that will be opening in Bjørvika, Oslo. The room, designed by Patterson, will utilise wood from the forest and will try to emulate the tranquility. There will be a list of the name’s and titles of the works included in the project, however, none will be revealed until 2114.

Choc Till You Drop University of Manchester Students’ Union Monday 19th – Friday 23rd March 2018

Arts

24

Feature

Artist profiles: behind the Lens

Our contributors introduce two photographers Petra Collins and Vikram Kushwah whose art have has transcended from their conceptual dream scapes to major fashion campaigns

Petra Collins’ imagined nostalgia Liv Clarke Arts Contributor You might not recognise the name Petra Collins, but you’ll probably know her face from the recent advertising campaign for the new Gucci Bloom fragrance. Though, Collins isn’t just a model or a muse, she’s an influential photographer and video artist, having created videos for fashion houses such as Bulgari, directed a music video for Selena Gomez, and her images have featured in Wonderland magazine and Teen Vogue.

Alongside these commissions she has an extensive portfolio of personal artwork exploring themes such as femininity, nostalgia and adolescence. Every photo she produces features her signature dreamy style giving her work a strong voice in a world which is saturated with Instagram images. Her recent book, Coming of Age (2017, Rizzoli) is a collection of her photographs and personal essays, revealing some of the ideas behind her work.

Collins turned to photography at 15 after injury prevented her from pursuing a career in ballet and her relationship with her body has been an idea continually explored in her work.

She began by photographing her younger sister Anna and her friends, capturing teenage girls in their bedrooms as they struggle with what the outside world throws at them and what the inside world of their body presents them.

Her next project was capturing life in high school, with her sister continuing to be the muse, posing in baseball jackets and knee-high socks. In Coming of Age Collins describes how she used photography to escape her reality and

capture a version of adolescence she missed out on “I shot my sister at high school dances, in the library being bored, or at a basement party with our friends – situations I was rarely in.”

There’s a certain irony in the fact that its not only the viewer who feels left out of these ‘All-American’ experiences but

almost amateur, but that’s no bad thing.

In a time of super-airbrushed, HD photos Collins’ style is refreshing and unique today.

Moving away from the teenage bedroom her latest work continues to hark back to a different era, this time taking inspiration from the 70’s with brightly coloured disco

Petra Collins Gucci campaign Photo: Vimeo

the photographer does too — emphasising the sad nostalgia in these images.

There’s a longing for something which never happened and never will, and it reflects how the teenage experience is filled with moments of disappointment and sadness. The idea of nostalgia is enhanced by the hazy style of her images; they look

lighting rather than a 90s softly lit haze.

Collins, who is Canadian, ventured to Hungary and photographed her mother’s family for Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2017 eyewear collection. The resulting images are saturated with colour and almost verge on Kitsch, but the deliberate poses of her subjects ground them in the present day.

Her accompanying words perhaps reveal why nostalgia is a recurring theme in her work, “Budapest: the place that has stayed constant in my life. It’s a city with a rough history, which has caused it not to change…When I was younger, visiting felt like travelling back in time.”

But if Collins’ images are so imbedded in the past, why is she relevant today? One word: feminism. Firstly, she’s a female artist photographing women and this female gaze affects how the viewer sees these women; they are not reduced to just a sexual object.

She captures aspects of the female form and bodies in general which you don’t see elsewhere such as bruises, braces and pubic hairs (Collins’ own Instagram account was recently deleted after she posted a photo of herself with an unshaven bikini line). Furthermore, she’s supported women throughout her career so far.

In 2010 she founded The Ardorous, an online art collective for female artists; since 2011 she’s worked closely with Tavi Gevinson, editor of Rookie an online magazine for teenage girls; and in 2015 she curated the book Babe, which featured the work of The Ardorous artists.

However, for Collins the pressure felt by women to look a certain way is still very present, and she highlights the fact that her bikini photo was one out of “5,883,628…images at the time to be tagged with bikini” which wasn’t deemed appropriate. That’s a lot of women conforming to beauty ideals. Collins’ photographs are aesthetically perfect; however, she captures the imperfections around her which is what makes her work so captivating.

Vikram Kushwah and his surreal fairytale narratives Ellie Fraser Arts Contributor Vikram Kushwah is a commercial and art photographer born in New Delhi, India and based in England. After stumbling upon the medium of photography whilst studying for a BA in Fashion Design, Kushwah worked for a year as an assistant photographer in Mumbai.

He soon turned his attention to pursuing academic training in the field. He first studied photography in Ooty, South India for a year and later moved to England where he attained a post-graduate diploma at the London College of Communication and an MA at the University for the Creative Arts, Rochester.

But, with his work featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle to name a few – and the proud recipient of a Bronze Young Lions Award at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – Kushwah’s photography is critically acclaimed.

His photographs possess a dreamlike quality as the boundaries between fiction and reality are transgressed. Inspired by childhood narratives like Alice in Wonderland and his own childhood nostalgia, Kushwah reconstructs reality as distorted by memory.

Aided by his curiosity and penchant for magic; the viewer is relocated in a phantasmagorical world.

Surrealism, Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites all gave impetus to Kushwah’s works – an artist who lists his inspirations as the French fashion photographer Guy Bourdin, British fashion photographer Tim Walker, and American fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville.

This is manifested in his coalescing of the Romantic and the Uncanny in his narrative-driven projects. His nostalgic longing for an innocently whimsical and romantically idealised world unscathed by modernity – when ‘miracles were taken for granted’

(as Vikram reveals) – becomes apparent in his fictionalised portrayals of the innocence of youth.

Kushwah takes memories and transforms them into fantastically surreal images. Responding to Freudian theories, the Surrealist practice of automatic writing and drawing, and Rene Magritte’s The Treachery of the Images and The Lovers; his artworks express reverie as filling the void left by memory.

His latest project the Exile (2017) series reconstructs a dream from ‘what then felt like a nightmare.’ After wedding his British-American wife in 2016, he was denied a spousal visa to the UK – a country he had called home for the last eight years. The appeal process was to take between 4-18 months, and so they made the decision to live in ‘exile’ in Sweden.

Kushwah confessed that: ‘The desolate landscapes of Sweden, a country with four species of tree throughout its woodlands, and the falun-red-painted houses and outbuildings, which throwback to a 17th-century tradition, set the scene for entering our own kind of fairy tale.’

The viewer is once again transcended into a dreamlike and surreal world where ‘naked, vulnerable bodies appeared’ and ‘forests grew indoors.’ Exile marries magic with fear and desolate landscapes with Nordic light.

Woman in the Mirror – easily my favourite image of the series – combines the natural and the man-made by bringing the outside, inside. Reminiscent of the PreRaphaelite Millais’ Ophelia; Kushwah presents an ethereal beauty (hair covering her face) in a room veiled with moss, and where branches of white roses stem from the floor.

Kushwah confronts reality by presenting us with an otherworldly existence – one which is modest yet extraordinary. A Surrealist-Romantic photographer, the darkness of the fairy tale and the peculiar nature of dreams are transparent in the melancholia of his theatrical photographs.

Theatre 25

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Interview

Cara Looij on (IN)SANE Orla Quilligan talks to the project manager of the multimedia arts event

Orla Quilligan Contributor Cara Looij boiled down for me what her event (IN)SANE, taking place at Texture on 19th March, is all about: “(IN)SANE is a multimedia arts event which aims to open a platform for artists to explore testimony through creative practice regarding mental health experiences, and all the money raised for the event will be going to 42nd Street.”

42nd Street is a charity that aims to support young people aged 11-25 with their mental health. They also (in their own words) “champion young person centred approaches that demonstrate local impact and have national significance.” The charity is so important in Looij’s eyes as she believes, “young people often aren’t taken seriously enough, especially when it comes to mental health.” In particular, she thinks that young women’s mental health is often belittled; their expression of it sometimes seen as just attention-seeking.

With the aim of raising £1000, Looij, along with Julia Morgan and Sam Williams, have involved over fifty artists to contribute to the event — all using completely different media, from spoken word to duologues, film, and more. Looij’s mother is even in on the act, making a portrait of a friend from university who suffered from fluctuating mental health. Looij believes it was important to exclude no one from the event and instead create a safe space that acts as a platform to create discussion and to both celebrate and empower.

Looij spoke on her fears of how the the event could be anticipated: “we were worried that it could come across as something harrowing, or something that made people dwell on sadness. We wanted it to be about moving past those times and what people have learnt from their

experiences. We want to reimagine the conversation around mental health because everyone has mental health in the same way they have physical health. We want to talk about something hard without it being hard to talk about.”

I asked her if she thinks drama lends

“(IN)SANE will help to

really open people up to talking about mental health ” In fact, she believes that “everyone is creative in their own way” and that work coming from those untrained in any particular discipline is “fresh. It’s less filtered. There’s no pretence to it. I think sometimes that’s the best type of art — it’s true to you – it’s not made to be good, but to simply make something.”

With this philosophy, I can certainly see how (IN)SANE will be a positive platform to get people creating art and performance and to really open people up to talking about the ‘challenging’ topic of mental health and I can’t wait to see what the event has to offer.

Tickets for IN(SANE) can be purchased through Skiddle.

Credit: Julia Morgan

Review

Circle Mirror Transformation Elise Gallagher enjoys the quiet depth of Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation at HOME Elise Gallagher Contributor

Circle Mirror Transformation is a play that Manchester has been craving for quite some time. Spanning across a six week period, the play is set in a scarily realistic community centre where we meet characters Marty (Amelia Bullmore), her husband James (Anthony Ofoegbu), reluctant teenager Lauren (Yasmin Paige), recently divorced Schulz (Con O’Neill), and Teresa (Sian Clifford) —who herself has also just come out of a relationship — all taking part in an adult drama workshop.

Marty, played brilliantly by Bullmore, leads

The character of Schulz, the lonely carpenter desperate for a connection, particularly stood out for me. Con O’Neill played him with such fragility but hope it broke my heart, a standout performance.

The repetitive shopping list, the counting to ten, the moving around the room all echoed the exercises I once did at school — but I feel

there may have been too much emphasis placed upon these as opposed to exploring deeper the wonderfully flawed, very much three-dimensional characters which inhabit the space.

However, the subtlety of the storytelling and the mood it casts in the theatre is remarkable.

Once our group of non-sequiturs finally are

“The subtlety of the storytelling and the mood it casts in the theatre is remarkable ”

Photo: Vikram Kushwah

itself particularly well to collaboration and campaigning. She pointed out that although it was through drama that she met Morgan and Williams, as well as learnt how to go about putting on events, the artists and collaborators featured at (IN)SANE hark from all sorts of artistic disciplines, including no creative experience at all.

the class somewhat recklessly. Marty and James, once happily married, seem to have reached a crossroads and it seems that James has attended the class to support her and their relationship, as well as spare her the embarrassment of the fact that only three other people had originally signed up.

Marty employs the drama exercises to try and get her class to confront their own demons, as well as her own. However well intended this is of her, the little group and its internal politics quickly come to the surface revealing a very flawed, lonely, and lost ensemble.

Photo: Marc Brenner

able to count to the elusive ten (which they’d been attempting since week one) instead of joy and laughter of finally being able to reach it, they lie in awkward silence.

Described as “a Chekhov of our times”

by Walter Meierjohann (Artistic Director of theatre at HOME), Annie Baker’s writing is incredibly delicate. What is disguised as a typical awkward drama workshop is actually a study of flawed human nature. The complexities of modern lives and emotions stand out. The quiet nature of the play gives off a European feel to the production, the minimalism of the piece amplifying its characters and their circumstances.

One aspect that must not go without note is the incredible work of lighting designer Jack Knowles and designer Samal Blak. The authenticity of the set completely blew me away. The way the overhead lights flickered and murmured to life each time the characters returned to the stage took me straight back to my own experiences in taking part in workshops such as those.

I particularly loved the fact that you could see the reflection of audience members in the mirrored walls prying into the lives of these five individuals, who don’t know they’re being watched.

Circle Mirror Transformation is a performance which is rich in character and feeling, brilliant performances and sadness. A quiet must-see.

Circle Mirror Transformation runs until March 17th at HOME. Tickets can be purchased from the venue website.