NOW THEN | ISSUE 11 | A MAGAZINE FOR MANCHESTER

NOW THEN

MR HASS | TYCHO | CENTRAL LIBRARY A MAGAZINE FOR MANCHESTER | ISSUE 11 | FREE

NOw THEN.

Now Then

is a free , independent magazine published in Sheffield and Manchester. It is all about supporting independence in art , trade and citizen journalism . Local people are strongly encouraged to contribute and each magazine includes artwork from a different featured artist .

Now Then is published by social enterprise

Opus Independents .

opus distribution A print distribution service for independent traders, charities, statutory organisations and arts institutions.

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Opus PResents A live music project hosting regular events, from intimate folk and blues nights to dancing till dawn.

wordlife A literature organisation dedicated to showcasing exciting new creative writing and performance.

Background art by Michael Latimer

Opus also operates a flyer and poster distribution service, and a variety of music and spoken word events.

At its core, Opus is a democratic arts collective providing mechanisms for creative activities which support local communities and affect social change .

EDITORIAL. As this summer edition lands on the streets of Manchester, our exciting new collaboration will already be on the taps of the city’s finest alehouses. I’m referring to our summery pale ale brewed recently with Marble Beers, which I’d encourage you to try if you haven’t already. Read about our day at the brewery on page 48.

On Saturday 26 July we continue our summer events series, visiting the Miners Centre in Moston. Vocal sculptor and issue 2 interviewee (read that online if you missed it) Jason Singh will be performing to a film in the Small Cinema venue and Mind On Fire will be running a DJing workshop in the next room. It’s all free to attend so get involved. There’s more info on page 35.

Inside the magazine, particularly eye-catching are Simon Bray’s photo feature of Moston, David Dunnico’s second statues instalment, Grace Williams’ visit to the Central Library and Mr Hass’s illustrations, and dive in deeper for music, theatre, film, literature and more.

IAN. ian@nowthenmagazine.com

NOW THEN 11, JULY - AUG 2014 Brewed With A Floral Nose 5 // LOCALCHECK Peace of Stone

7 // CENTRAL LIBRARY

A New Chapter for the Multi-purpose Venue

8 // MOSTON In Pictures

12 // FOOD

Nutritional Reports Can Kill You

16 // WORD LIFE Hosted by Joe Kriss

Our world is increasingly unequal, characterised by apathy, disconnection and the interests of the few. We can do better.

Now Then is a platform for independent art, trade, music, writing and local news.

18 // URBAN PSYCHOSIS Inner City Pressure

21 // GAY VILLAGE

It’s about supporting the things that make a community what it is – creativity, cooperation, collaboration, conscience and consciousness.

What Has Happened to Canal Street?

Anyone can contribute to the magazine, both online and off, remotely and in person, in support or in opposition – the discussion is what matters.

G-Fest and the Red, Heart-Shaped Balloon

We want you to write for Now Then. Get involved.

Super Craft Work

Writer? Musician? ian@nowthenmagazine.com

33 // SOUND

Artist? sam@nowthenmagazine.com Poet? wordlife@nowthenmagazine.com Theatre? andrew@nowthenmagazine.com Advertise with us? amelia@nowthenmagazine.com Search ‘Now Then Manchester’ on Facebook.

Twitter? @nowthenmanc #nowthenmanc The views expressed in the following articles are the opinion of the writer(s) and not necessarily those of Now Then Magazine. Reproduction of any of the images or writing in Now Then without prior consent is prohibited.

23 // GEORGIA’S CHILDREN 28 // MR HASS

A Year on the Manchester Music Scene, 1999-2000

34 // LIVE

Swans / Shield Patterns / Niskala / Listings

36 // ALBUMS

Matthew Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra / Douga / Manchester Standards / Neko Neko / Plank / Kirk McElhinney

38 // TYCHO Wide Awake

40 // BUDGET FESTIVALS Bigger isn’t Always Better

44 // STAGE

Now Then may be unsuitable for under 18s.

Summer Festivals

Now Then is a registered trademark of Opus Independents Ltd.

46 // FILMREEL Kinofilm

Contributors.

MANAGEMENT. IAN PENNINGTON. JAMES LOCK. EDITOR. IAN PENNINGTON. STAGE EDITOR. ANDREW ANDERSON. DESIGN & LAYOUT. THURSTON GORE. PROOF & COPY. IAN PENNINGTON. SAM WALBY. FELICITY HEIDEN. ANDREW ANDERSON. ADVERTISING. AMELIA BAYLISS. JOE WEBSTER. JENNY SHAW. JAMES LOCK. AD DESIGN. THURSTON GORE. ADMIN & FINANCE. SARA HILL. FELICITY HEIDEN. MARIANNE BOLTON. PHOTOGRAPY. DAVID DUNNICO. SIMON BRAY. SAMUEL BUCKLEY. REUBEN WU. STEVE MURRAY. DISTRIBUTION. OPUS DISTRO. WRITERS. DAVID DUNNICO. GRACE WILLIAMS. DR KAT TAYLOR. SAMUEL BUCKLEY. JOE KRISS. JAMES HOLDEN. KAYO CHINGONYI. KEV TITTERTON. ANDREW COLLIER. CHRIS TAVNER. IAN PENNINGTON. MARK HATTERSLEY. THOMAS DIXON. STEFANIE ELRICK. ANASTASIA CONNOR. LIZ HIRD. NATHAN MCILROY. MIke AINSCOE. STEVE HANSON. DAISY KIDD. ADAM ROBERTSHAW. ANDREW ANDERSON. ART. MR HASS.

48 // FAVOURITES

Our Pick of Independent Manchester

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Localcheck Peace of Stone

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previous year’s winner had to be changed when a children’s playground got in the way. What’s more, it didn’t feature any doves, so they also commissioned ‘Doves of Peace’ from Michael Lyons.

This steel ring of 15 stylised birds is outside The People’s History Museum on Bridge Street, just by the plaque remembering the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Meanwhile, the councillors looked down from the Town Hall onto their new Peace Garden where two of the statues were sited. A combination of shady aspect and bad drainage had killed off the grass, recalling the mud of the Somme, only without the poppies. So it’s fitting that Edwin Lutyens’ war memorial is being plonked on top of it to help St Peter’s Square become a bigger tram stop. The suggestion of moving Collyhurst’s war memorial prompted the local councillor (who is also City Centre Coordinator) to threaten to resign.

Over in Piccadilly Gardens, the grass wasn’t faring any better.

Here the Council put up a concrete wall, recalling the one the people of Berlin pulled down in 1989. Several trees did their best to soften it. One of these was dug up in 2005 to make way for an 11-metre-tall bronze and steel ‘Tree of Remembrance’ by Wolfgang Heron. It commemorated civilians killed in World War II and was unveiled on the anniversary of the end of the war in Europe (VE Day), rather than the end of the war with Japan (VJ Day) in case it reminded people of atom bombs or the Nuclear Free Zone, which had quietly been laid to rest in peace lest it frighten property developers, who would show as little imagination and as much repetition as the Labour Group had done. And as we shall see, these statues would commemorate turning the city into a big shopping mall.

David Dunnico

Ph otos by David Dunnico

here are about 15,000 public statues in Britain, according to Terry Wyke and Harry Cocks in their book Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Many are of the great and the good, some are great and many are not so good. Most probably inspire indifference, others more ire than awe, but all of these statues tell us more about the people who run our cities than the subjects they portray.

Manchester has a bad record of bad sculpture and of using statues to give passing whims a whiff of permanence. In the 19th Century, the city’s political leaders commissioned portrait busts of Gladstone, Cobden, John Bright and other heroes of free trade, creating a “Liberal Valhalla” in the Town Hall’s sculpture gallery and coffee shop. Not everyone approved and there were “calls to banish the monstrosities in stone trousers – worthies who could not be named by many citizens”. Today, effigies of Council leader Sir Richard Leese or City CEO Sir Howard Bernstein would be more likely put on a bonfire than a plinth, so politicians salve their vanities with stone shrines to their policies.

As the policies become empty promises, it’s fitting that the memorials are empty of worth.

On Bonfire Night 1980, Manchester declared itself the world’s first nuclear free zone. Signs, plaques (there’s one in the sculpture gallery) and eventually statues heralded the absence of municipal atom bombs. In 1985, a “Sculpture For Peace” competition looked for an “easily understood and durable statue”. From the 44 entries, ‘Messenger of Peace’ by Barbara Pearson was chosen. It showed an all too rare female figure – chosen because, in the words of the sculptor, males were “essentially belligerent” – and some doves, which were soon stolen. Probably by a bloke.

The Chair of the Planning Committee, Councillor Arnold Spencer, got all belligerent when declaring, “It was not the Council’s opinion that all men were aggressive,” and showed remarkable restraint in not stating the bleeding obvious: the statue looked rubbish. 20 years earlier, one of his predecessors had described Manchester Airport’s memorial to transatlantic flight pioneers Alcock and Brown as looking like “a bewitched, bewildered and bemused budgerigar”. Elizabeth Fink’s sculpture is no longer on public display.

The fathers of today’s city liked statues, so one of the runners up, ‘Sheep’ by Ted Roocroft, was put out to graze in Castlefield. 1986 saw a new competition with a familiar theme, ‘Struggle of Peace’. Philip Jackson called his winning entry ‘Struggle For Peace and Freedom’, which seemed to fit the brief right enough, but everything else was wrong. The sculptor’s name on the plinth was misspelt and the plan to site it near the

David Dunnico is a documentary photographer dunni.co.uk

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Central Library A New Chapter for the Multi-purpose Venue

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ecently completed renovation works mark the beginning of a new era for Manchester Central Library. Having been closed since 2010, the library saw its doors finally reopen in late March of this year. Upon receiving a £100,000 grant from Arts Council England as well as funding from other public bodies, LibraryLive was established – a programme taking in various events happening at the Central Library over the next 12 months.

In conjunction with Museums At Night, a UK-wide celebration of our nation’s museums, galleries and public libraries on Thursday 15 May, local promoter Hey! Manchester and the North West Film Archive promised a free evening of film and music.

To honour their new home at the Central Library and the opening of new Archives Plus film booths, North West Film Archive presented two films from their vast collection in the clean white canvas of the Performance Space. The first film, ‘The Voice of a Region’, a docu-advert for the Manchester Evening News’ then-new home on Deansgate, provides a window into a pre-inter-

band’s instrumental number is overlaid with voices of the past.

A recording of a Moston man accompanies the piano and guitar.

Heavily accented, he happily recalls travelling on the trolley bus which ran to Stevenson Square up until the 1950s. The Montgolfier Brothers’ live show is steeped in nostalgia. They create authentic soulful sounds and lyrics laden with colloquialisms and reflection to convey a love for their city. Both film and music implored us to draw the similarities between the past and present.

The evening’s celebration of seldom seen footage, Manchester and the voice of the ordinary man was a special chance to experience some of the various ways in which the library spaces can be utilised. As a hub of learning and creativity in the centre of the city, the Central Library now has the capacity to be many things under its one roof. A community centre, an arts venue, a meeting place, a quiet place to study, an exhibition space; the list goes on.

Expectations of what a library can be have been raised. To offer so many different experiences within one building is a triumph of

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“The light-flooded dome is both awesome and silencing”

.................................................................... net age. References to housewives’ love of shopping and shots of smokers on public buses illustrate societal norms of the mid-1970s and provide intrigue amongst the charming familiarity of scenes of the city centre. The second screening, produced by University of Salford students in 1974, compiles footage of tragic Lowry-esque figures, young hopeful lovers and migrant families of a pre-Tadao Ando Piccadilly Gardens to depict a scene not so different from today. The vast resource of the archive is now accessible to all at the booths located in the open plan ground floor foyer.

Moving upstairs to the historic 300-seater Wolfson Reading Room, The Montgolfier Brothers greet us for their intimate performance. Most immediate is the room’s impact on the body.

The light-flooded dome is both awesome and silencing – a perfect setting for Marc Tranmer’s soaring cinematic arrangements and Roger Quigley’s heartfelt lyrics. Their sound befits the serenity of the room and plays on its uniquely sensitive acoustics.

Although it is only 80 years old, the library looks and feels much older. Listening to Roger sing songs full of regret and endings, his vocals cracking with emotion, the voices of the subjects in the films just witnessed and of visitors who’ve walked through this library over the years also ring out in my head. Even the

government spending, worth the £50m revamp price tag and the Arts Council funding gamble.

As an institution in Britain, libraries have taken a battering over the last five years and will continue to do so if predictions prove correct. The Library Campaign, which acts to support users of libraries, predicts that over the period of 2009 to 2016 more than 1,000 UK library branches will have closed with many more under threat due to public spending cuts. Gone are the days when libraries simply housed books and offered a desk to study at.

Instead, for survival, libraries that can are embracing change and asserting their continued relevance to a modern public with new and transforming priorities. Manchester Central Library offers an example of how to do this successfully. With a full programme of events planned via LibraryLive and with organisers actively seeking further events to host, the Central Library now stands among Manchester’s foremost venues.

Grace Williams librarycampaign.com | manchester.gov.uk/centrallibrary

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Moston In pictures

Moston Lane is the most vibrant street in the area, home to a large selection of shops, banks, churches, community organisations and services.

Moston Cycles owner Ian has been based there for many years and these days finds most of his work in repairs rather than bike sales. His son is an artist going under the Bizr One moniker and has painted various murals, including the Whitemoss Youth Club & Community Centre.

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Streetfold Methodist Church is the oldest church in Moston still in use, having been established in 1825. St Dunstan’s is the most prominent Roman Catholic Church in the area, situated in the centre of the town along with its adjoining primary school.

At the centre of Moston lies Broadhurst Park, a large green space home to many recreational and community activities. To the east is Nuthurst Park, complete with sports facilities and children’s playground.

Formed in 2005 after Malcom Glazer’s takeover of Manchester United, FC United’s rise has seen them reach the 7th tier of English football in their short lifespan. Having previously played home games at Bury’s Gigg Lane stadium, the club recently began building the £5.5m, 5,000-capacity Moston Community Stadium on Broadhurst Park.

Photos by Simon Bray

Housed in the back of the Miners’ Community Centre, the Small Cinema is a real gem. The 70 seater cinema now hosts regular screenings, acting as a focal point for the community.

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MANCHESTER ACADEMY VENUES

BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111 www.manchesteracdemy.net

www.gigantic.com

facebook.com/manchesteracademy JULY

Kids In Glass Houses Saturday 11th

Bam Margera’s FuckFace Unstoppable Wednesday 2nd

Miles & Erica Saturday 11th

Ska Face Saturday 5th

Attila Monday 13th

Sebastian Bach Monday 7th

Wheatus Wednesday 15th

In Hindsight Wednesday 9th

Anti-Nowhere League Thursday 16th

The Ocean Saturday 12th

Kid Ink Thursday 16th

Shape Shifterz – Arun Verone Birthday Celebration

Clean Bandit Friday 17th

Sirus Hood / Arun Verone / Lance Morgan / Marcus Nasty / In2Deep / Dumplin & Subz / Brian Murphy / Damo / Sonny Koko & Christopher Pablo Saturday 19th

Waka Flocka Flame Wednesday 23rd Mamma Freedom Friday 25th Church Of Misery Monday 28th AUGUST

Converge Monday 4th Anberlin Thursday 7th Kingsland Road Thursday 7th Dead Kennedys Wednesday 13th Evergreen Terrace Wednesday 27th SEPTEMBER

@MancAcademy

The Orb Saturday 18th Mutineers Saturday 18th Heather Peace Friday 24th Katy B Saturday 25th SOiL Saturday 25th Bernie Tormé Thursday 30th Asking Alexandria Friday 31st Big Country – Steeltown 30th Anniversary Tour Friday 31st

Haken Friday 31st NOVEMBER

Deathstars Monday 3rd

The Janoskians Thursday 4th

Y & T – 40 Year Anniversary Tuesday 4th

The Felice Brothers Friday 5th

Cockney Rejects – 35th Anniversary Tour Thursday 6th

Ourzone Found Tour 2014 – As It Is + Like Torches

Lindsey Stirling Friday 7th

Tuesday 9th

The Magic Numbers Friday 12th Azealia Banks Thursday 18th Sleaford Mods Friday 19th The Axis Of Awesome Monday 22nd The Fray Friday 26th

Turin Brakes Saturday 8th Absolute Bowie Saturday 15th The Quireboys Sunday 16th Dan Baird & Homemade Sin Friday 21st Pop Punk’s Not Dead – New Found Glory + The Story So Far + State Champs + Candy Hearts + Only Rivals Friday 21st

The Dunwells Friday 26th

Limehouse Lizzy Saturday 22nd

Evile – Album Launch Show Saturday 27th

The Beat Friday 28th

Lewis Watson Monday 29th

Tonight Alive Saturday 29th

OCTOBER

Hopsin Friday 3rd Hawktoberfest – Hawkwind + Senser + Pink Fairies + Poisoned

The Lancashire Hotpots Saturday 29th DECEMBER

Electrick Head + The Crazy DJ World of Arthur Brown Saturday 4th

Hollywood Undead Monday 1st

Bednarek Sunday 5th

At The Gates Friday 5th

The 8123 Tour feat. The Maine Monday 6th

Professor Green Friday 5th

Crucified Barbara Thursday 9th

Mostly Autumn Friday 5th

The Neighbourhood Friday 10th

A Certain Ratio Saturday 13th

For full listings check out: www.manchesteracademy.net NOWTHEN.MASTER.indd 1

Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PR • Tel: 0161 275 2930

16/06/2014 16:41

MARBLE & NOW THEN ALE

Food Nutritional Reports Can Kill You

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y fridge is empty. It’s better this way because to open a fridge full of food is to open Pandora’s box, a maelstrom of health issues that makes me wobble with hypochondriac fear. Heart disease, vacuum packed in plastic wrap, sits above a glass drawer housing a colourful harvest of cancer causes. Jars of tangy, sweet pickle threaten gastro hell, whilst sticky, ruby red jams will crash my immune system with their fatal sugar hits. There are two cartons of milk scowling at one another. One is cow’s milk, the other soy. The cow’s milk could make my bones strong but it could also increase the risk of osteoporosis. The soy milk might help lower my cholesterol but the plant oestrogens found in soy beans could lead to unwanted breast growth and I just don’t have the time to go bra shopping or find a food to prevent breast cancer.

I flop into a seat, hungry and exhausted. All I wanted was breakfast.

The onset of anxiety happens before I open the fridge.

It starts when I open the morning paper and nervously eye the list of today’s killer food, brought to me through a toxic mix of pseudo science and bad journalism. The reports that name and shame our favourite foods as potential killers originate from epidemiological studies carried out by various public health organisations, which are fed to the media as a press release headed with an attention grabbing statement. This is churned into an article, with similar gusto, by an editor keen to catch the eye of the public with bold headlines, in a bid to sell newspapers.

One such article appeared in our nationals recently suggesting that a diet high in proteins, like those found in red and processed meat, was nearly as likely to cause cancer as smoking 20 cigarettes a day. This statement is nowhere to be found in the official report, but the head of the study Dr Valter Longo created this comparison to make the results newsworthy. Good news for smokers who now only have to lay off the ham sandwiches to remain as close to death.

The results of this epidemiological study are born from a 20-year period of recording the dietary habits of a cohort of around 6,000 people. During this time a database is drawn up measuring diet, disease and death. The ‘cause and effect’ treatment given to the results is actually more of a highlighted relationship between two observations – in this

case, eating a diet of red meat and number of deaths caused by cancer. All of the other socio-economic variables that may have contributed to the development of the disease, such as exercise routine, alcohol consumption and general wellbeing, are ignored.

The bottom line is that without the use of a controlled dietary experiment these results skip actual science and conclude with a presumptuous link, leading to media reports that misinform the public with bogus nutritional advice.

Food is supposed to be fun, not terrifying. It’s a balance of impulse and guided information taken from our bodies.

From now on I’m sticking to age old dictums. All in moderation, maintain a balanced diet, a little of what you like is good for you and a little of what you don’t like makes you stronger. The right choice at the right time is also important.

Take the common craving for a fry up after a night of drinking. We wake up bog eyed and foggy headed, yearning for the tang and smoke of streaky bacon, creamy sausages spitting fat like an angry Sunday clergyman, the greasy, golden bite of fried bread soggied under a heap of buttery mushrooms and eggs, all splashed with Lea and Perrins, the Old Spice of the breakfast world. Smothered by these sizzling pangs is the cry of our anxious heart that two wrongs don’t make a right. But here’s the science behind our greasy desires. Alcohol is a diuretic, hence the night-time rush back and forth to the bathroom. These trips result in dehydration which leads to the body’s need for salt in order to hold onto any water left in our pickled systems. Alcohol also produces the brain protein galanin which increases our appetite for fat, which in turn lines the stomach as protection from gastritis, which is caused by alcohol consumption.

All that our body needs in this time of self-inflicted woe can be taken from this plate of greasy treats.

The studies and polls that read like future obituaries should be taken with a pinch of salt, regarded as a commonsense guide but not taken to heart. Perhaps a trip to the fridge needn’t be followed by a deep anxiety attack and, who knows, a more relaxed attitude to what we eat may even do the blood pressure some good.

Samuel Buckley

Further reading: bit.ly/1fF8hmV | bit.ly/1qcgNMC

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Teriyaki Salmon Popsicles

Cucumber Pickle

Serves two as a main or four as a starter — 110g sugar 4 tbsp light soy sauce 2 tbsp sake 1 tsp dark soy sauce 4 salmon fillets Sesame seeds

1 cucumber, peeled and deseeded 1/2 tsp salt 50ml groundnut oil 1/2 tsp chilli oil 1 large garlic clove, crushed 1 fresh red chilli, diced 1 dsp soy sauce 5g caster sugar 1 dsp white wine vinegar 3 spring onions, finely sliced

As I said, most foods have been under interrogation by some public health authority so I have carte blanche this issue. I thought I’d tempt people to lift the hood of their BBQ with this salty salmon kebab, accompanied by a sweet and spicy pickle. Just the right amount of sugar and salt to scare off the surgeon general and tasty enough to make double.

Place the sugar and light soy sauce in a small pan over a low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for five minutes until thick, add the sake and dark soy sauce then allow to cool.

Cut the salmon into chunky goujons (three or four per fillet) and rack onto skewers. Brush each piece worthily with teriyaki sauce and grill for five to seven minutes, turning halfway through. If the weather is keen the BBQ will give the tastiest results. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with an honest helping of cucumber pickle.

Slice up the cucumbers. Mix the salt with the cucumber and place in a colander. Let it drain off its juices for about 20 minutes.

In a pan, gently warm the groundnut and chilli oils with the crushed garlic and red chilli for a few minutes. Add the soy sauce, sugar and white wine vinegar and bring to a simmer. Lightly dry off the cucumber and throw in with the spring onions, then add the mixture to the simmering oil and increase the heat, stirring for 30 seconds only.

Remove from the heat and tip the pickle onto a cold plate to chill as quickly as possible. Pour into an airtight jar where it will remain tasty for up to a week if refrigerated.

Recipes and Photo by Samuel Buckley

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Wordlife Hosted by Joe Kriss

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wo poems and a prose piece this month along with our listings of what’s coming up in live literature in Manchester over the coming months. We’ve featured Hollie Mcnish a few times in Sheffield ourselves and she is definitely one of our favourite poets, so I highly recommend you get yourselves down to The Eagle Inn on 2 August.

It was the anniversary of The Battle of Orgreave last month, one of the famous confrontations between striking miners and police in Sheffield during the Miners’ Strike, so Kev’s poem here arrived at a timely milestone. James Holden’s prose piece will strike home for all of us who frantically check our pockets for phone, house keys and wallet.

Keep the submissions coming to wordlife@nowthenmagazine.com.

Joe

Open and Shut Locked.

The door is locked.

I can see the door is locked.

I can see from here that the door is locked.

I can see from here, from where I’m standing, that the door is locked and that the chain’s on and that the bolts go across. Look, it’s locked.

The door is locked.

I can see from here, from where I’m standing, that the chain’s on and that the bolts go across. And I can see the clock on the alarm, the clock that would raise the alarm, would ring its bell. The silent alarm clock set to ring its bell, its bell louder than the door bell, silent, but it won’t ring as the door is locked. Check it. It’s locked.

I can see those things and I can hear the noisy tick-tock of the kitchen clock. Tick. Tock. The tick and the tock of the kitchen clock. Tick and tock, back and forth, like the swinging back and forth of a pendulum, like the swinging back and forth of a pendulum in a grandfather clock, tick and tock, like the pendulum in my grandfather’s grandfather clock, like the swinging open of the front door, except the front door can’t swing open because it’s locked. Tick. Tock.

The door is locked.

Hollie McNish

Evidently 14 July | The Eagle Inn, Salford | £3 Evidently is one of Manchester’s leading spoken word nights, this time featuring Martin Stannage and Big Charlie Poet alongside eight open mic slots.

The Big Slam 23 July | New Century House | £3 Part of the 24:7 Theatre Festival (18-25 July). Watch local poets, wordsmiths and storytellers slug it out in a live poetry slam.

Evidently 2 August | The Eagle Inn, Salford | £6 Featuring Hollie McNish, one of the UK’s leading performance poets after her poems ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Embarassed’ went viral earlier this year. Also featuring Inja.

Interested in performing or writing something for Wordlife? Contact Joe Kriss at joe@nowthenmagazine.com

I can imagine the pendulum swinging back and forth, ticking and tocking, and I can imagine the minute hand turning, the hand turning, like I can imagine my hand turning the key in this lock, this key, my hand turning and this key turning and the door unlocking. The door is unlocked. I’ve unlocked the door. No! I’ve only imagined it.

Concentrate.

Now remember this: feet straight, hand on the handle, one two three four, the door is locked. Remember this time, 23:57, the time on the clock when you checked the door was locked. Check it. It’s locked.

In the quiet I can hear the ticking of the clock and the clicking of the fridge. The fridge door is shut and the front door is shut.

The door is shut.

The door is shut and I can still hear the clicking and ticking of the fridge and the dripping and dropping of the rain, of the raindrops dropping from the porch, a raindrop prelude this dripping of the water on the other side of the door, the shut door. I can still hear this dripping, can hear it like water dripping and dropping from a tap. It’s like water dripping from the taps. Is that dripping noise coming from the kitchen taps? Is the house flooding? No. I’ve already checked. The taps are off and off. The dripping

Orgreave noise is coming from outside, from the other side of the door, the shut door.

Concentrate. Now remember this: feet straight, hand on the handle, five six seven eight, the door is locked. Remember this time, 00:02, the time on the clock when you checked the door was locked. Check it. It’s locked.

Concentrate.

Now really concentrate.

Now remember all this and go to bed. Step and step and stop and check. Check again to check your anxiety.

Remember all this checking and this resistance and at 00:04 walk away. Trust yourself. Turn the light out. Don’t go back. Never go back.

This is the last time.

Locked.

James Holden

The thundering of hooves reverberates through time Scarlet rivulets adorn the breakfast table As the face of the hero stares out shockingly The ‘assaults are on us all’ we’re told.

Facing lines of lies. In blue and black Uniform letters. Spelling trouble.

The weight of which will bear down On generations yet to be lost.

But we don’t get the view of those whose love of the sound of cork on willow Felt the blow of wood on flesh and bone From bat to baton, in cricket weather.

An early morning picnic with no food Before they paid the price, or charge, for work.

Maybe, true sounds will be heard one day But there’ll be no winners.

Not for the ‘Enemy within’ Not for any of us.

Not just ‘bread on t’table’ or ‘ten bob for t’gas’ But a whole community with no breadwinners A bank of blue with perspex sheen That, can reflect no pride now. Manipulated. Orchestrated.

The rising crescendo of a Zulu beat The percussion of orchestration

Praise Song for a First Niece

Umwana webeli balamonaulu - Zambian Proverb* Your parents rejected my suggestion.

I told them you could pull off Ethel.

The jury is still out, Alicia out of the question (ditto Shaniqua and Chantelle).

But that cannot truly frighten those who face odourless, invisible gas Not like their only real fear. The future.

Rising great sods of dew covered earth. That thundering is coming on Deep underground, it’s the sound of destruction by compression Here, it rings the destruction of heritage by oppression But it can’t match the Brass volume of community strength.

With impunity, a waved wage slip is soon spent up With unity, a Branch Banner will always hold value.

Kev Titterton

I’ve a soft spot for Malaika, Dambisa, or Mambwe but, whatever you are called, you should know we’ve all been waiting for your birthday; the look on your face as you apprehend snow.

I hope you will hold on to your wonder, never grow so into your poise that an old song is not enough to conjure your smile; the fullness of your voice.

Kayo Chingonyi * The first-born is fussed over

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Urban Psychosis Inner City Pressure

.......

T

he city beckons and we answer. Jostling with the crowd to squeeze onto a long steel tube that will rattle through districts in the blink of an eye, offering a multitude of sights and sounds at a blurred and frenzied pace. It rattles past high-rise structures, their oblique windows appearing as eyes, peering down into a cramped carriage, making miniatures of us all. Squeezing off the train, the passage out of the station is controlled by a mechanical barrier that must be fed with a permit before it yields. Cameras on poles monitor every movement and although the organism sways in one mass wave, each cell will look up and sense with individuality the burden of surveillance through the camera’s eye.

On the street, in each face you pass you think you recognise a friend, only to discover repeatedly that you are recognising in yourself the desire to pick out an individual from the mass.

The traffic rumbles, sirens whir, road works attack and remnants of passing discourse converge to play tricks on your mind. You think you hear your name being called and pirouette to glance around through the intrusive urban landscape. The street signs, adverts and shop fronts call out to you to fit in, to adhere to the rules or to attain something higher, to be as one or to step out in front. It is a sensory overload that easily brings about confusion and disenchantment.

It is no wonder that a number of recent studies show a significantly higher chance of developing psychosis in an urban environment, with the risk increasing the closer you get to a city centre. Moreover, people who develop psychosis in a city take longer to recover than their rural counterparts, and are more likely to experience a recurrence of mental ill health in the future. The term ‘psychosis’ is an umbrella term for a wide range of experiences, loosely considered as disordered thoughts that disrupt a person’s typical functioning. As such, psychosis might describe phenomena including visual hallucinations, hearing voices, intense paranoia or a firm attachment to delusional beliefs. Lower level psychotic phenomena are relatively common and can vary from experiences of being over-suspicious to losing track of racing thoughts.

In 1903, sociologist George Simmel linked the phenomenon of the modern city to an “intensification of emotional life due to the swift and continuous shift of external and internal stimuli […] with every crossing of the street, with the tempo and multiplicity of economic, occupational and social life […] the reaction of the metropolitan person to those events is moved to a sphere of mental activity which is least sensitive and which is furthest removed from the depths of the personality.” Even as early as

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1845 in The Condition of the Working Class in England, Engels reports of city workers, “They are exposed to the most exciting change of mental condition, the most violent vibrations between hope and fear.”

Although these early theories are still relevant to our contemporary environment, Simmel’s description of “the resistance of the individual to being swallowed up in the socialtechnological mechanism” has been completely reversed and our heightened sense of estrangement has reached an extreme. We navigate our way through the city with handheld GPSs, following not the actual path but a series of virtual lines and arrows made up to represent our environment. The city’s sonic scape is blocked out as we plug our ears with our chosen soundtrack to the effusive movements. The friends we meet in the city throughout the day are not really there, but instead are represented by the interface of a social networking site. And now with the advent of interactive glasses we will shut off another of our senses. We seem to strive for total sensory detachment from the vivacious sway of city living, to reach a point where it will be only our physical matter that occupies the street whilst our mental state, completely estranged, will belong entirely to the discarnate world of cyberspace.

This month, Manchester Metropolitan University is exhibiting the work of multimedia artists from cities around the world who have engaged with the theme of urban psychosis in contrasting ways. Works include a film by Luke Fowler that delves into the initiatives of the Kingsley Hall experiment carried out by writer and psychoanalyst R.D. Laing, photography by Moyra Davey exploring human interaction on the New York subway and video and performance from Gillian Wearing. Alongside the exhibition, talks will be held by experts in the field, including Will Self, award-winning author and psychologist Professor Richard Bentall, and Jacqui Dillon of the Hearing Voices Network.

Dr Kat Taylor and Samuel Buckley

The exhibition opens on 14 July at the Holden Gallery. holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk/2014/urbanpsychosis/ Further reading: bit.ly/1qAvp8R | bit.ly/1nOzDFX bit.ly/1iMoVn8

20

Gay Village What has happened to Canal Street?

.......

“T

hat’s the price you pay for acceptance”. Those are the words that someone once said to me after one of my regular rants at the state of the Gay Village. I didn’t know the guy, but that is what he said to me after turning round from the row in front. I was at a gig and spent the next hour or so lost in thought rather than music. It took days of weighing that statement up against what my friends and I saw most weekends heading from bar to bar, pushing our way through the revellers.

Let’s begin by examining the evidence. Ten years ago Manchester’s Gay Village was basking in a post-Queer as Folk glow, buoyed by a new wave of acceptance emanating from both cultural and political spheres. The cobbles rang with the cries of hundreds of Will and Graces (and Jack and Karens). The village, at least on the surface, seemed like a safe place to be yourself.

Time passed, Will and Grace finished and now seems like a twee throwback. Acceptance in all its varied forms continued to spread across the country, bringing with it more curious visitors to the village. Things would have kept moving at a steady pace if it weren’t for the looming economic clouds developing on the horizon. Then it happened. As the economy crashed, the ripple effect meant that the village was changed forever.

I don’t want to sound too dramatic and I am taking into account my age difference between wide-eyed teenager and cynical 30-something, but the village feels like an alien landscape these days. I know that bars need people in them in order to make money and in a recession that means loosening up door policies to get the head count up. Taxes and business rates are through the roof, people are staying in to drink instead of heading out. However, the knock-on effect has been detrimental beyond anyone’s predictions.

Take two steps onto Canal Street on a Saturday night and you feel like you’re an extra in a Mad Max film. Policemen on horseback trot past causing neon hen parties to stumble into doorways, cackling loudly. Metal detectors corral revellers moving between bars, while sizzled groups of lads fight with security guards. It’s no wonder the Gay Village is now officially the least safe area of the city centre. A glance at the crime statistics reported to a Council Communities Scrutiny Committee in 2013 shows that the most common crimes committed in the Gay Village are theft and assault. The Gay Village recorded twice as many assaults as the Arndale/King Street area and the density of violent offences was higher than Piccadilly Gardens. Overall, the Gay Village has the ignominious title of winner of the most reported thefts and assaults in the 67 divisions of North Manchester. A sobering thought to consider en route to your Saturday night out.

“Got any drugs, mate?” a wide-eyed girl asks me as my friends and I negotiate the cobbles, now more of an assault course. “Why would you ask me that?” I enquire quizzically. “Because you’re gay, mate. You’ve all got drugs.” What a way to start an evening, and comparatively a drop in the ocean compared with the stories I’ve heard about rampant homophobia and transphobia. When the dust settles and the sun rises, how many more bodies are going to be found floating in the canal?

There are always rays of hope. Richmond Street has become an alternative destination away from the carnage, replete with bars that have a mixed crowd but a safe environment. Other bars on Canal Street have kept their door policies and thus offer a place for vulnerable members of the LGBT community to be themselves without the fear of violence or intimidation. The economy is slowly mending, but does this mean the Gay Village will also emerge from its recession?

When we’ve fought our way to a quiet bar and ordered a cocktail named after a serial killer, my friends and I usually discuss the big question: what should be done? Tougher door policies put the bars at risk of closure. Doing nothing leaves the Gay Village to become a museum, devoid of LGBT members of society and instead a haven for hen parties and the lads who chase them from bar to bar. Are we being snobs, sneering at the exploits of inebriated young girls wearing plastic phalluses around their necks, tutting at a city that likes to have a good time on ‘our’ patch? The answer lies somewhere in finding a balance between acceptance for all and keeping some bars exclusively for the LGBT community.

Other cities have a traffic light policy: green for ‘all welcome’, amber for ‘be respectful of regulars’, red for ‘reserved for LGBT community only’. This may seem isolating, but when you see the alarming figures for transphobic attacks in particular, it becomes a viable option.

“That’s the price you pay for acceptance.” That may be so, but if acceptance means dealing with the current state of the Gay Village, by all means take me back to a time before Will and Grace made their way down the cobbles.

Andrew Collier

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22

Georgia’s Children G-Fest and the Red, Heart-Shaped Balloon

.......

S

work in their own villages.”

This might be the real answer. In these villages Cambodians are learning the skills and being given the facilities to make clothes, in this case school uniforms. They are making a quality product at a more competitive price than the average multinational, because the charity as a non-profit-making organisation isn’t taking a cut. Unlike working for most big companies, they can work in their own village and earn a proper, decent wage. The first customer for the school uniforms? Wood Street Mission, a Salfordbased charity which will provide the uniforms for free for children of low income families.

Back at G-fest I release my balloon with all the others. As hundreds float up into the sky, mine inevitably gets stuck in a tree.

I laugh at this, and Steve laughs too. Smiles are all around at the festival, and now they are spreading from Salford to Phnom Penh.

Chris Tavner

Ph oto by Steve Mu rray

tanding in a field in Swinton holding a red, heart-shaped balloon, I feel somewhat self-conscious. But this is G-Fest, and hundreds of people are doing the same as me. This is a music festival fundraising to help people in Cambodia – a link between Salford and Phnom Penh that few would think existed.

The festival is organised by Steve Murray in memory of his daughter Georgia, who tragically passed away at the age of 19 whilst undergoing her third serious heart operation. They used to sell these balloons together on Valentine’s Day to raise money for the Children’s Heart Association. This is the symbol for Georgia, whose life and death inspired Steve to raise money to help children in Cambodia.

“I wasn’t looking to set up a charity when Georgia died,” says Steve. “I just wanted to get away.” Like many looking for escape, he went travelling around Asia. While travelling he was struck by the levels of poverty, especially amongst children. In Thailand he saw a piece of Banksy graffiti depicting a small girl releasing a red, heart-shaped balloon. It felt like a sign.

Steve notes that it was travelling through Cambodia that “really struck a chord”. Having travelled there myself, I understand what he means. Whilst there are many similarities with other countries in the region, Cambodia is a little different.

In 1975 the Khymer Rouge came to power. In an attempt to emulate Mao’s Great Leap Forward they tried to create a communist society based on the peasantry. As well as spinning an already dizzy Karl Marx in his grave even further, this process of forcing people to become peasants, and a ‘purging’ in society, led to the deaths of approximately two million people, around a quarter of the population. When you see anyone middle aged or older in Cambodia, you are looking at someone who is a survivor of genocide.

Needless to say, if ever there was a group of people that deserved charity, this was it. Choice, the charity that Steve fundraises for, has tried to help. Through its work there are a number of villages now receiving clean water. Facilities have been built, and volunteers also provide medical support.

But what good does it do? Everyone needs clean water, but what about the questions of infrastructure, of democracy in a political system that is one of the most corrupt in the world? Is this just another sticking plaster where there is a need for a cure?

Worse than that, is this making people reliant on handouts rather than working to improve their own lives?

Steve is aware of that problem. “We have built facilities to provide education, including vocational training for languages, IT and so on. We have also built sewing workshops, so people can

Chris is the MC at a fundraiser for the charity on 19 July at Ellesmere Sports Club, M28 4RZ. The Ginger Fringe Comedy Night features performances by Danny Pensive, Red Redmond and Big Lou. georgiaschildren.com | choice-cambodia.org woodstreetmission.org.uk

23

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27

Mr Hass Super Craft Work

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M

r Hass’s illustrations will be more familiar than you might realise. Based at Islington Mill in his SuperCrafts studio, his finely tuned pen and ink drawings have found their way onto walls such as last year’s Artcrank exhibition at Twenty Twenty Two, while he’s been in increasing demand to design events posters, t-shirts and album sleeves. His green peacock adorned the Mind On Fire record label’s ninth birthday poster last year and he has also created diverse images for groups including Fat Out Fest, Dub Smugglers, Raikes Parade and Shabazz Palaces.

What initially drew you to illustration?

Probably seeing old-school skateboard graphics and comics. As a kid that had a big effect. There was just something intense about that stuff, so my response was to draw like that.

Years later a graphic design course in Sheffield helped me rediscover that childhood pastime. Now with the work I do there’s usually an interplay between graphics and illustration.

What’s your working process when starting a new piece?

It’s funny you ask, not long ago I was in a school doing a talk about that very thing. In my case the work stems from hand drawn images, so once I’m happy with the pencil draft everything is inked with brushes and dip pens. When the original is done the computer lets me finalise everything. It’s nice to actually see the process in the final work, so I avoid tidying things up too much.

How do you spend your days?

Most days I can be found in SuperCrafts, the studio I set up in Manchester. Luckily there are a few friends who make sure I get outside.

Animals appear through much of your work. What makes you want to draw them and how do you select which animals to depict?

There’s definitely a lot of animal based work at the moment.

It’s a subject I’m interested in right now, and people ask for that stuff quite a lot, so I’m happy to do it. Generally I like drawing things that don’t need explanation, so anyone can get it. That way it’s more inclusive, and the work stands on its own two feet. Or four feet as the case may be.

The intricacy of your pen lines looks like it requires a lot of concentration to maintain a steady hand. How do you stay in the zone to do that?

Good question. There are certain rituals and habits that keep my pen work moving the right way. Good music, being comfortable with the tools and having fun definitely keep me

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tuned in.

Do you think having a studio at Islington Mill has helped you to develop your work in terms of being around other artists and creativity?

There’s a good vibe to Islington Mill, and it’s cool being around like-minded people. Of course nothing will develop creative work more than dedicating time and effort to it, but it’s nice to do that amongst others who are also on a creative path.

Which other artists or art forms inspire you?

My own inspiration comes mainly from music. That’s a really big one for sure. There are loads of artists and illustrators whose work I admire, both past and present, but music really makes it happen. Maybe it’s the rhythm and the flow. It stirs up this movement which pushes me to draw.

How has your work changed over the years?

Hopefully it got better.

Is there anything you dislike in illustration?

Naturally there’s stuff out there that doesn’t suit my taste, but it’s not something that needs to be commented on. There’s loads of impressive work coming out at the moment, and it’s more positive to focus on that.

What are you working on at the moment?

In general the studio keeps me busy, doing either selfinitiated or commissioned work. Right now there’s clothing graphics, pattern design, trademarks, some tattoo illustrations. There’s also some really exciting character design in the pipeline, plus some digital prints are being released around the time this issue comes out. Check out supercrafts.tictail.com.

Excuse the plug.

Good advice you wish you’d been told earlier?

I suspect good advice finds you when the time is right.

Ian Pennington

super-crafts.com

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32

Sound A Year on the Manchester Music Scene, 1999–2000

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A

Year on the Manchester Music Scene is a time capsule featuring 136 pages of reviews and articles by journalist Louie Shelley between 1999 and 2000.

To anyone who may not remember, the charts in 1999 began with Chef from South Park lyricising about his ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’, and music in 2000 ended (perhaps forever) with Bob the Builder’s anthem for a generation, ‘Can We Fix It?’ Go back ten years and ask anyone which Morrissey would be chart No 1 in a decade’s time – who would have guessed Neil?

Interestingly, it’s not a time in Manchester’s musical odyssey that you would immediately be encouraged to chronicle, as other eras are more widely idolised in history. The 70s had that formative Sex Pistols gig in the Free Trade Hall, the 80s had The Smiths and the start of Madchester, and the 90s had Britpop.

Culturally, the period is perhaps more immediately known for Manchester United’s treble-winning exploits than for its music. For novelty purposes alone, this era certainly makes for intriguing reading, if only to see how our region’s culture coped with the vacuum left by past successes.

The turn of the Millennium saw Manchester’s most successful musical export, Oasis, release the darkly-tinged Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. For better or worse, it showed change at the highest level. Shelley’s book aims to recount this change through an anthology of gig reviews and features, collated by the author in one digital-only publication.

In his prologue, Shelley notes that “culturally the city was thriving. It was still in the process of being rebuilt, physically and spiritually, after the IRA bombing in 1996.

“Tony Wilson was still alive and doing his damnedest to get the city he loved on the map, and ‘Madchester’ had happened only ten years earlier; yet there was still a freshness and certain unself-consciousness about the place, which only added to the city’s charm and which, subsequently, may have been lost.”

Shelley’s position as author is clear here. As Manchester followed suit to become a modern city, full of commercial spin, epitomised by Tony Blair’s grinning façade, he was there to report what was going on musically. He points out modern cultural landmarks like the Northern Quarter, with the highest concentration of record stores in Europe, and nails his colours to the Haçienda mast – the “most overrated club in history”.

It’s wonderfully easy reading, and Shelley is certainly the type of person you would like to give you a potted history of our culturally industrious city.

But the prologue is easily the most enjoyable part of the book. The collection of features that make up the body of

the work are too disjointed, and as a whole they just don’t do enough to make a convincing argument that this time is noteworthy – at least not one worthy of your time and banknotes.

The most revisited band is Bolton’s own Buzzcocks, but they reformed in 1989 – hardly the band of this generation. These short articles are varied enough – with reviews of gigs, books, events and club nights all included – and in their diversity they tell an interesting narrative, but they are simply too isolated in time. For some, say an under 30-year-old not of gigging age during the time, it is completely alien and therefore not directly nostalgic. For a book of nostalgia stories, that feeling really is pivotal to the experience.

Each review could have benefited from some context.

Shelley could have reflected in a short closing paragraph on the significance of each article. There could even have been some research into a sort of ‘where are they now’ for some of the more obscure acts, or a historical exploration of some of the venues. As it is, reading the book is like stumbling upon an old pile of newspapers and spending an afternoon flicking through the music sections. It doesn’t engage with the present, and without any modern context it feels a little idle of the author.

There’s also a strange inherent hubris to this kind of collection. Articles that would otherwise form Shelley’s scrapbook become different when a price-tag is attached. They need more to justify their publication, and I’m not sure this does. To make it worthwhile – to avoid conceit, even – the author would need to provide something new, and by their very nature, article republications don’t.

That being said, if you were a prolific gig-goer in Manchester in these two years, if you have the prior knowledge or particularly if you’re a fan of Buzzcocks (Pete Shelley, the author’s unrelated namesake and the band’s founding member, writes the book’s introduction) the low price of purchase – around £3 – makes it well worth a browse.

Mark Hattersley

33

Live .......

Swans

Shield Patterns

22 May Academy 2

4 June Soup Kitchen

The only consistent thread through Swans’ 30-year existence is an emphasis on stamina. It takes real stamina to perform and enjoy such harrowing music. Swans’ songs generally consist of propulsive rhythms bludgeoned out using every instrument they can cram onto a stage. But this description downplays the complex effect the band has on one’s conception of music.

Until recently it took a concerted effort to find Swans’ miscellaneous music. With a string of critically acclaimed albums, including the recent To Be Kind, Swans have expanded their audience tenfold, enough to embark on a UK tour where for the first time they are consistently filling rooms as large as Academy 2. In the past the band has generally shunned the masses, preferring to maintain an outsider status. They inspired only listeners that had taken the time to revisit their music time and time again. Thriving on this exposure, they encouraged devotion in their small listenership. But to fill Academy 2, something must have changed.

Recent single ‘A Little God In My Hands’ stuck out as the only vaguely derivative territory in their two-hour set. Gira’s low drawl on this song is reminiscent of Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, except with more bite. Still, this track was really an exception to the rule on the night. The rest is best summarised as one complete experience.

As for the phenomenon of Swans suddenly becoming more palatable, tonight’s live show sheds some much needed light.

They are still brutal but their sound is no longer achieved solely by pure, perpetual syncopation. Instead there is variety and fluidity within the performance. The intensity and volume of their playing is the same, but this isn’t used to forge animosity between the band and the audience anymore. Now it’s a deafening embrace of the audience. Most crucially of all there is a self-awareness of the difficulty of their music. Where violence and posturing coloured the band’s serious early years, they now readily admit this is a performance. They bow at the close of the night and, in doing so, recognise their own as well as the audience’s commitment to the night’s proceedings. This recognition has transformed the experience of seeing Swans from one that would fill you with self-loathing to one that is unequivocally joyous and vital.

Outside it might be a soggy, misty night but down in the music hub of the Northern Quarter’s Soup Kitchen the air is filled with jubilant excitement and anticipation. Claire Brentnall and Richard Knox, otherwise known as Shield Patterns, are already receiving a lot of praise from all corners of the press, and being a band of Mancunian descent, they clearly have dedicated local fans who braved the unfortunate and by no means atypical weather to get to this album launch party.

Having seen them only a month earlier at Sounds From the Other City Festival in Salford, I’m excited both about the gig and their debut album, Contour Lines. Their festival performance marked them out as a very different proposition from the now ubiquitous offerings of sparse and otherworldly electronic sounds. I was bewildered and amazed.

The band’s arrival on stage is greeted with shouts of encouragement. They set off on a sonic odyssey accompanied by a reel of mesmerising visuals creating a special unity of sound and vision. Claire’s vocals are immediately reminiscent of Kate Bush, taking you on an exquisite sonic adventure. As a very fresh act, they seem slightly awkward and uncomfortable with so much attention devoted to them. Music is their language, so not a lot is said between the songs, but their own personal warmth melts away the icy snowflakes of their sound.

Earlier on, the single ‘Dust Hung Heavy’ has an earthly, textured sound underpinned by spacious piano and trembling synth patterns. Debut single ‘The Rule’ is another standalone number pulsating with dub-influenced rhythms and ghostly vocals. But it is the last album track, ‘Charon’, that offers a genuinely new sonic space, a composition of adventurous sound architecture building up to a grand avant-garde structure of towering frozen fantasy. A stunning ending to the night that brings forth what may prove to be one of the most sophisticated and eclectic electronic albums of the year.

Thomas Dixon

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Anastasia Connor

LISTINGS Recommended by Now Then

.......

NISKALA 13 JUNE SATAN’S HOLLOW It’s not often that the metal scene sees something genuinely unusual emerging from its heavily plumbed depths. It’s rarer still that it finds itself fused with something tribal and absorbing.

Plenty of bands pull tricks to make their particular sound stand out, but often miss the point. Superficial peacockery is meaningless without a solid foundation of bad-ass rhythm and raw power to back it up.

That’s why Niskala’s debut EP launch at Satan’s Hollow was such a pleasure. It felt like we were witnessing something special as eight masked men began to play an intricate hour-long set defined as ‘Gamelan Mathcore’. The closest comparison that might be tentatively made is with Serj Tankien’s experimental project, Serat. Niskala go deeper and darker than that, with sharpened incisors latching straight on to the jugular of the violent and divine.

Gamelan is an ancient form of music indigenous to Java and Bali, predominantly used in Indonesian ceremonies and ritual.

It predates Hindu-Buddhist culture, thus coming heavily loaded with innate mystical significance. Fusing the style into one Janus faced offering of classical orchestration and meaty thrash metal is mind-blowing.

Trying to describe what was witnessed on Friday 13th is an impossible feat. I couldn’t even hum you a catchy hook, but the energy coming off these guys was palpable. Niskala demands your involvement, whether it’s singer Zee Coppack forcing microphones at the front row or scampering about in the crowd like a serpent possessed by a deity and trapped in the skin of a man. Remaining uncommitted was not permitted. The songs themselves aim to assault that part of our brains reluctant to provocation and this was no gig of half measures, inside Satan’s there was no choice but to get sucked in. The tongue-in-cheek, ghost-train-reject backdrop fed perfectly into the live spectacle.

The term ‘Niskala’ describes ‘the formless, undifferentiated Absolute in utter transcendency’ and is tightly bound to ritual magic, deliberately composed to instigate trance. A modern incantation with electric guitars, Ceng Ceng hand cymbals, nocturnal swamp samples and undefinable lyrics cackled down the mic confuses, obliterates and consumes. Niskala offer the chance to transgress into primordial potency, using the medium of metal to rip temporary portals into pandemonium.

Stefanie Elrick

THIS IS IT FOREVER: LABEL NIGHT 9 July | Kosmonaut | Free The Ghosting Season label project launches its regular night with some suitably ambient producers pushing the buttons.

THEO PARRISH 15 July | The Ritz | £14 Pick out your dancing shoes from under your festival wellies and find the groove that’s been stifled because Theo Parrish is coming to town with a full live band.

VIDEO JAM 17 July | Manchester Art Gallery | Free The Video Jam team return to the scene of one of their best events to date, this time matching Denis Jones, From the Kites of San Quentin, The Hipshakes, Money’s Charlie Cocksedge, Vitalija Glovackyte and more with cherry picked short films.

FIVE YEARS OF DEBT 18 July | Dancehouse Theatre | £8 adv Debt Records are dab hands at putting on spectacles at the Dancehouse. This time they’re bringing the whole roster to celebrate five years, including Honeyfeet, Walk, SnowApple, Ivan Campo, Becca Williams and Richard Barry.

JASON SINGH 26 July | Miners Community Arts & Music Centre | Free Our next touring all dayer, this time in Moston, begins from 2pm and features a DJing workshop led by Mind On Fire.

We can’t wait for the headlining slot – Jason Singh will be performing his mesmerising live score to John Grierson’s 1929 silent documentary, Drifters, before talking about his beatboxing and vocal sculpting craft.

CLOUDSPOTTING FESTIVAL 1-3 August | Gisburn Forest, Slaidburn | £80 adv This year’s Cloudspotting looks set to be another treat, with Melt Yourself Down, Leisure Society and Cate Le Bon claiming the pole positions on the bill. Manchester ties include Denis Jones, Liz Green, Plank, Pins and Gideon Conn, and it’s based a mere stone’s throw north of the city.

ECLECTICA PROJECT 2-3 August | Kraak | £12 Eclectica aims to enable and encourage women in music, the arts and beyond. This launch weekend invites learned minds for onstage interviews and panels discussing how women can pursue a path in music, with live sets by local duo Acre Tarn and more from across the country.

AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA 2 August | Soup Kitchen | £7 The blogger and label boss Brian Shimkovitz shows off his cratedigging skill that has seen him amass a vast collection of tapes across Africa’s various music.

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Matthew Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra

Douga

When The World Was One Gondwana Records

The Silent Well Do Make Merge Records

Matthew Halsall is an exceptional artist. People say of Frank Zappa that he would sit and write parts for his extensively qualified band straight from imagination. Without doing an injustice to the amount of time Halsall and others may have put into the creation of this latest release, When The World Was One, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was written in the same way. Released on Gondwana Records, there’s a nice current to this contemporary jazz offering as its songs flow into existence. Championed by the likes of Gilles Peterson and Mr Scruff, Halsall is causing a certain stir and his collaboration here with the Gondwana Orchestra is the latest hint as to why.

The opening title track is structured around a building piano melody and snare-heavy drumming, with saxophone, harp and flute weaving between the spaces. ‘Sagano Bamboo Forest’ reprises much of the melodic character of earlier song ‘Patterns’, carrying the theme towards the album’s close, where concluding track ‘Tribute To Alice Coltrane’ provides a great, dusky, bassheavy denouement. The album’s theme seems to relate to the natural world, with songs like ‘A Far Away Place’, ‘Falling Water’ and the album title itself. Some jazz instruments reflect the theme better than others – the harp sounds more akin to a natural ambiance than the startling trumpet, for example.

It’s a great album though, with ‘Kiyomizu-Dera’ a highlight.

The song interplays harp and piano with the exotic phrasing of the koto, a Japanese stringed instrument, to make a real standout track. Jazz in Japan has historically been criticised for being an imitation of US styles. Matthew Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra have leaned more heavily on the Japanese style, imported it to the West, and it works brilliantly. If Halsall’s next project is a record expanding on this, it will be one to look out for.

Manchester band Douga’s debut LP, The Silent Well, rides high on the new wave of dreamy psychedelia resurgent in British music. The album’s sensuous sonic landscape is decorated with hypnotic rhythms and melodies, which are countered by heavier, psychedelic grunge sections. Johnny Winbolt-Lewis’s vocals illuminate the lush backdrop, sounding not unlike a young Richard Ashcroft at times. As Winbolt-Lewis chants “TV Believers and rabid receivers” on ‘Accidents’, he could be Kasabian’s Tom Meighan minus the bravado. Douga are versed in musical history, with 60s and 70s krautrock influences prevalent, but this LP is more homage than carbon copy.

Standout tracks include ‘Still Waters’, which takes a more upbeat turn, reminiscent of hazy summer evenings as intricate guitars intertwine amongst fuzzy rhythms. The insistent chorus of “I’m not a yes man” is a refreshing assertion that Douga is a band with something to say. ‘Chains’ is a song draped in repeating rhythms, not shy of making a statement: “Does it seem real to you that the world has laws / Which wrestle down all except corporate whores”. ‘Albatross’ is more melancholy and clever sampling adds to its emotive sense of nostalgia. Neither shares much with the similarly named Fleetwood Mac songs. The single, ‘Blue Is Nothing’, drifts along over lush strings, driven by an insistent beat and introspective vocals.

This is a complex and musically mature album, with contemplative, clever lyrics; not just a great sound but also an important anti-corporate message for modern times. Their stance against “jumping through hoops” (‘Beat Konductor’) is almost Radiohead-esque at times, and they touch on everything from pollution to corrupt governments. This first full-length album is a triumph, showcasing how they have refined their experimental early sounds into a complete and captivating record.

Mark Hattersley

Liz Hird

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Manchester Standards

KIRK MCELHINNEY

Sides Three and Four Only Joking Records

WORLD GONE BLIND Limefield Records

The Manchester Standards series represents a scene treading its own path away from the city’s musical past. This second instalment of a vinyl trilogy compiles 15 tracks as testament to the diversity bands can achieve if they steer away from trends. Split vaguely into two camps, Side Three is an enthralling display of DIY belligerence led by Mistoa Poltsa and Salford Media City, whilst Side Four contains more polished recordings of bands already established outside Manchester, including Young British Artists, Egyptian Hip Hop and others from the impressive SWAYS roster. Humour, irreverence and great songs no longer seem integral to a business model that picks the next big thing from a conveyor belt, so this record is a convincing riposte to those who overlook these traits. Manchester Standards captures an eclectic scene thriving under the upturned noses of the old guard.

Scratch the underbelly and take a sniff.

Rochdale presents its latest musical son in singer Kirk McElhinney.

World Gone Blind, an album recorded at Manchester’s Limefield Studios, received the official launch treatment at Band On The Wall back in January. With all songs written by the man himself, bar a cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Inner City Blues’, McElhinney flexes his songwriting muscles, showing both variety and diversity.

From the picked opening of ‘Circle’, which gives the first nod to guitarist Bert Jansch who McElhinney considers his guru, to the likes of ‘Price You Pay’, the album epitomises the laidback cool of John Martyn and the pastoral feel of Nick Drake, particularly on the gorgeous ‘Where I Belong’. There are contemporary Weller grooves on ‘Answer To Our Prayers’ and the title track reflects on balance in the world, inspired by encountering poverty during a visit to India. With sophisticated production, it’s an album of stylish quality.

Nathan McIlroy

Mike Ainscoe

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NEKO NEKO

Plank

BETWEEN TWO CITIES, PT 1 My First Moth Records

Hivemind Akoustik Anarkhy Recordings

Neko Neko’s latest single ‘Where’ introduces the first part in his Between Two Cities series. Opening with fluctuating harp samples and breaking down gradually through an array of contrasting tempos and rhythms, this crafty original mix takes on the form of a chilled instrumental house tune that has been expertly intertwined with a systematic arrangement of layered percussion.

Set up for a remix, the next track has an altogether different vibe executed by French producer Fulgeance. The initial sample of the celestial sounding harp has been fragmented over stronger beats and synths, coupled with the input of some rough and dirty vocals. Working under his alias Claude for a further remix track, Fulgeance produces this mix further, adopting an accelerated tempo and an unexpected underlay of piano and synth, metamorphosing the initial version of ‘Where’ onto new levels which will certify its success as the sound of the summer.

The synth patterns on this album recall pioneers such as Mother Mallard, a group who worked in the Moog factory with Bob himself. This is prog revivalism that goes right back to the original source for its raw material. ‘Waterboatman’ begins with the kind of Korg fuzz that raises hairs and ‘Cricket’ is Another Green World-era Brian Eno. When it’s moving languorously, Hivemind is a joy, but where it stretches the patience occasionally is in the extended, angular guitar riffing. It recalls 80s King Crimson, but Dutch Uncles have rescued that sound in a much more creative way by placing it firmly back in pop. ‘Swarm Behaviour’ is a fauxChapman Stick take-off, but the destination remains obscure.

The more motorik-influenced sounds here are great. Take the expanding gravure patterns of ‘Aphidelity’ or the percussive build of ‘Metamorphosis’. If this was remixed by, say, Theo Parrish or Moritz von Oswald, that would be something.

Daisy Kidd

Steve Hanson 37

Ph oto by Re ub en Wu

Tycho Wide Awake

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F

or a long time Scott Hansen was better known for his design work as ISO50 than his music as Tycho, but four years ago he decided to expand his live set up from solo laptop troubadour to a full band and his ambient, instrumental soundscapes have been increasing in popularity ever since. His roots as a designer remain key to his music, with distinctive album covers and live projections adding to the overall experience.

Hansen spoke to me about graphic designers, crowd funding and touring from the other end of an online phone call to San Francisco.

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You can see how your art and music are created by the same person. Does one ever reflect or influence the other directly?

Obviously they’re informed by each other on some levels.

They’re both kind of within the same ideas so it’s like two sides of the same coin. But the visuals do come second so, if anything’s informing the other, it’s the music pushing the visuals.

Would you say that’s the same with your projected visuals at your shows?

I think more so. The album covers are there to lead things in a certain direction and not necessarily to echo any specific

sentiments of the music. They’re more to target in one direction or another. Because the music is instrumental, there aren’t any lyrics to give meaning, so I feel the visual element is needed to anchor the performance. This project’s always been an audiovisual project so I’ve wanted this to reinforce what’s going on with the performance and the music.

So you’d avoid performing in a dark room where people can’t see anything?

We’ve done that before when sometimes we can’t have visuals and we’ve had to play the show without them, but I think it adds a lot. It’s part of the project, for me. They’re inseparable.

I don’t think the whole story’s being told unless you have that visual element because that’s just how I’ve always seen this project.

Your first full band show in the UK was crowd funded via Songkick. What was your experience of that?

I’m not really up on the economics of the whole thing, but the show definitely wasn’t something on our radar until that came about. It’s not like we had the opportunity to play there otherwise, so from our perspective it seemed like a great way to go about it. It measures the demand that’s built in, you don’t have to gamble on anything because it’s pretty expensive to mount tours overseas for US bands and, I’m sure, vice versa.

About crowd funding in general, do you think we see a more democratic music industry these days, with the advent of that and the internet?

From my perspective, the music industry has definitely

been super supportive. They really seem to understand what I’m trying to do and they let their artists go and do what they’re best at and stay out of their hair. So it’s been a great home to work from because it’s pretty effortless in the relationship and they really helped me get to where I wanted to be as an artist.

One of your label mates is Matthew Dear, who went along a similar path from solo to full band. Was his path an influence at all?

We were already doing the band thing before I became aware of that. I think he was a DJ back then, and then I saw he was doing the band thing, but it seemed like at that time there was this movement of indie electronic bands adding at least some sort of live element to their show. It was just a natural progression as bands realised that what people want from a live show isn’t necessarily a direct representation of how the music was made. If you’re just making it on a laptop at home, they want to see it from a different perspective, so you saw a lot of bands evolving into these multi-piece bands, like Toro Y Moi and Com Truise, who had a drummer.

How does touring with the full band differ?

It’s intense, but it’s infinitely more fulfilling for me. I didn’t really enjoy the laptop thing that much. I didn’t feel like that fitted my character. There are people who could pull that off and create a compelling show with stage presence, but I’m not one of those people so, for me, having friends and collaborators makes it a much more enjoyable experience. The logistics of the whole thing is something I’d never really thought out. Every time we

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“A big part of our original appeal and demographic seemed to be computer professionals”

.................................................................... become more democratic based on the ability to have this distribution and promotional reach as an individual, instead of having to rely on an organisation to pick you up and do all that. As part of the crowd funding and people using Kickstarter to fund albums, it does seem like if you can build an audience then you can fund your own records if are technically savvy enough to be working with those platforms.

Did you find that the same people who liked your art and design also liked your music?

Absolutely. A big part of our original appeal and demographic seemed to be computer professionals – graphic designers and programmers, people like that. That was the world that I had access to through the blog and computer design work.

So that was the platform we used to launch it to a more mixed group of people. The shows are now a typical kind of concert, whereas before it felt more like a convention type of thing. It seemed like everyone there was a designer or doing something in the industry, so it was always funny how we had a room full of people who had similar interests. It was kind of neat to have that, but you can’t scale that. You’re going to be playing 300 person shows for the rest of your life, because there just aren’t enough of those people out there. So it’s grown from that, but that was definitely our core and the launchpad for everything.

How has Ghostly International helped you to progress your music in recent years?

If I was to put a line in the sand where I think my professional music career started, then even before that I was with Ghostly, so they are pretty much all I have ever known and have

go out now it takes a lot of planning and execution. It’s worth it – it’s fun and it’s a challenge – but it’s definitely not the same as packing up your laptop and headphones in a backpack.

I was in a bar in Lyon in France recently and heard one of your songs on the stereo. Which cities on this side of the Atlantic have tended to show you the most support?

London is always strong for us. Paris last time was a great show. Berlin was good. But the thing is we’ve only played the big cities over there. This is the first time we will have tested out places we haven’t been yet, so I really don’t know because in a few of those cities we’ve been to, we’ve developed a kind of base there, but it will be interesting to see, like in Manchester for example, if anyone even shows up! But it’s always an interesting thing each night to watch the place either fill up or not. So we’ll see how it goes.

Is there any musician, alive or dead, who you’d like to have a chat with?

There’s lots of them, but if I could talk shop then obviously Boards of Canada would be the people I’d want to talk to most, just to talk about process and how they made some of their stuff.

They’re the most interesting to me from a sonic perspective.

Ian Pennington

Tycho is performing at Gorilla on 22 July. tychomusic.com | blog.iso50.com

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Budget Festivals Bigger isn’t Always Better

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W

ith festival season in full swing and so many huge, over-priced, commercial giants with copy-and-paste line ups dominating the summer calendar, more and more people are choosing to spend their hard-earned income on the smaller, cosier boutique and DIY festivals that are popping up across the country. These provide the same carnival atmosphere without having to remortgage your house or embark on a ten mile hike through muddy terrain to get to the main stage.

In the North West alone there is a smorgasbord of these friendly little festivals to choose from. Cloudspotting takes place in the beautiful surrounds of Gisburn Forest, not far round the Ribble Valley from the more established Beat Herder, which has steadily grown since its debut in 2006. Due north in Cumbria, there is the Fell Foot Wood-based ‘festival with a conscience’ We Are All Trees and due south on a campsite in Buxton, Velvet Badger, like many of these budget festivals, started life as a rave in a field. This year’s Ramsbottom Festival will be its fourth on the site and remains affordable.

Audio Farm, a budget festival held in the grounds of The Workhouse in North Wales, is now in its second year. It promises two fun-packed days of good vibes, DJs, bands and interesting installations for the reasonable price of £50.

Some of you may recognise the name Audio Farm from the club scene in Manchester. Since 2008, the crew behind the festival have put on heavyweights like Derrick May, Derrick Carter, Greg Wilson and Luke Vibert at venues like Sound Control and Deaf Institute, and their residents have graced the stages of Warehouse Project and Parklife. You may have even been to the legendary after parties at their shared house in Withington, which saw John Carter, Hybrid and A Guy Called Gerald play sets in their basement.

The Audio Farmers have also been regulars on the outdoor free party scene for years, spending their summers putting on raves in woods and fields across their native North Wales. Last year they decided to up the ante, as organiser Ste Chesters explains. “Once we found that we could use The Workhouse site, we decided to put on a festival instead of just a rave.

Though we only gave ourselves five weeks in which to organise everything. All of our friends helped out, from decorating the site, finding bands and artists to play, selling tickets – everything. God knows how but we managed to pull it off. It’s been a lot less stressful this year as we’ve had pretty much a year to plan it, which means we can make it bigger and better.”

Anyone who has been to Audio Farm’s club nights and

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danced among life-sized plastic farm animals will agree that as much attention to detail goes into their décor as it does their music. Their festival is no different. In the true spirit of grassroots festivalism, the second annual gathering of Audio Farm promises more creativity and innovative music. From the weird and wonderful curios and cabaret acts to the alluring and peaceful surroundings of the healing gardens, it can be a weekend of all-out hedonism or a time to unwind.

There will be live music and cabaret from the likes of post-punk stalwarts Pig Bag and ‘electronic rave dub funk punk explosion’ Age of Glass, fresh from headlining the Rabbit Hole stage at Glastonbury. Once darkness descends, the emphasis shifts to electronic music, with DJ sets from Audio Farm residents as well as familiar names from the North West techno and house scene.

Part of the charm of budget festivals is the fact that they rarely rely on corporate sponsorship for funding. This means there is less of a budget for booking household names, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just means that the acts they book are usually local, up-and-coming acts, with the odd blast from the past thrown in. This ensures varied and eclectic line-ups across the variety of festivals and gives smaller bands the opportunity to play to a festival audience.

As another of the Audio Farm organisers, Andrew Taylor, explains, “Even if we had a huge budget, we would refrain from putting on really popular acts. I think it creates an amazing festival vibe when the smaller bands and artists come, because they want to play and bring all their friends and family.”

So if you want to party this summer without breaking the bank or entering an endurance test, get your festival calendars out and choose from the many fun and friendly budget festivals.

Adam Robertshaw

Audio Farm festival runs from Friday 29 August to Monday 1 September at Workhouse, LLanfyllin. Weekend passes are priced at £45 plus booking fee and are available at audiofarm.co.uk cloudspotting-festival.co.uk | beatherder.co.uk velvetbadger.co.uk | fellfootwood.co.uk/events ramsbottomfestival.com

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Summer Festivals

Music and Theatre Performance

presents

JAZZ Manchester Youth

F

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D

A

T

I

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Summer Course with performance at Band on the Wall for ages 8 – 18.

Monday 4th August 9.30am – 4.00pm Tuesday 5th August 9.30am – 6.00pm Wednesday 6th August 9.30am – 6.00pm Performance: 4.30pm on Wednesday 6th August Full 3 day course £75.00 / Per-day: £30 bandonthewall.org/education#/2014/08 info@brightersound.com Tel: 0161 830 3972

Register online: Email:

BAND ON THE WALL

jazznorth

OneEducation

Stage Summer Festivals

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S

ummer is here, which means it’s festival time, and that’s no different for the Stage section. But while the masses are imbibing mind altering substances, urinating in the open and generally living like animals, the sophisticated among us are preparing to expand our horizons in an altogether more refined atmosphere, with the approach of 24:7 and The Greater Manchester Fringe Festivals. What’s great about these festivals is seeing new talent and people ready to take a risk, something that is often absent from their musical equivalents. But who are these newcomers and what is it like being involved in the hubbub, hubris and heat of a Manchester theatre festival? To find out I spoke to half a dozen 24:7 first timers to get their take on what’s fun, what’s thoroughly hard work and what we’ve got to look forward to this summer.

How have you found 24:7 so far? Is it different from your expectations?

Julie Burrow (writer and actor, ‘Afterglow’): It’s been really exciting, very fast and I haven’t had much time to catch my breath, but I think that’s a good thing! Even though I knew the writers became ‘in charge’ of their own project, I don’t think I realised just how much they are required to do. But it’s been a fantastic learning curve and it’s great to be allowed to take ownership of the work you’ve created.

Eve Burley (actor, ‘Stuff’): You know, fringe shows are often pretty stressful – finding somewhere to rehearse, sorting out the stage, selling tickets. But this takes the pressure off. It’s very relaxed.

Madeleine O’Reilly (director, ‘Anonymity’): Exciting, it’s been great to work with Gareth (the writer) so far on both the production and the script.

Greg Scott (director, ‘Stuff’): I had no idea just how much support you get as a writer, that’s really different for me to work with, but good so far.

What has challenged you and what have you learned so far?

Mick Cooper (writer, ‘Stuff’): The feedback has been great.

Some of it I have vehemently disagreed with, but you don’t have to accept all of it, you just have to be open to ideas. My writing has really improved as a result, and I’ve learnt a lot from my mentor Martin Jameson.

Madeleine: So far I’m learning about the different relationships we can have with strangers (the subject of ‘Anonymity’).

It’s fascinating asking the question: can we ever really know or trust anyone?

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Julie: I’ve learnt more about what I’m capable of and I’ve learnt to practise the art of delegation, which I think I can find difficult.

Megan Griffith (director, ‘Afterglow’): I’ve learned to double and triple check everything before sending!

What are you most looking forward to?

Megan: Midway through the rehearsal period when everything starts to find its feet and things come alive in the room.

And obviously festival week, getting it in front of an audience and seeing everyone else’s shows.

Gareth George (writer and actor, ‘Anonymity’): There’s nothing more exciting as an actor than getting your teeth into a script. After all the writing, revisions and production stuff I can’t wait to start rehearsals.

Eve: The Q&As. I love doing them.

Mick: Seeing it on its feet, and seeing the other productions.

I’ve taken the week off, so when I’m not at plays I’ll be in the pub.

Any advice for people thinking of getting involved next year?

Megan: Make sure you do your research, and don’t be disheartened if you aren’t successful first time round. I went to the producers meeting three years running and pitched for a couple of plays each year before I actually got to direct one.

Greg: It’s fun, interesting and brilliant exposure, so you might as well give it a go.

Julie: Don’t stress yourself out that it has to be the most perfect thing you could submit. It won’t be – that’s the nature of writing – but do your best at that time and be brave, because if you’re selected then 24:7 give you great support in developing your play.

Gareth: It’s the best place to start your writing career and it’s brilliant having a deadline, because that makes you work.

Once the door shuts, that’s it till next year, so you’d better get working.

Andrew Anderson

Now Then will be reviewing all ten plays at 24:7 on our blog. You can find more about each of the productions on the 24:7 website 247theatrefestival.co.uk

The Box of Tricks at 24:7 Theatre Festival

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Filmreel Kinofilm

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rom 28 May to 2 June, Manchester International Short Film Festival returned for its 12th year, taking place in various venues across the city centre. As in previous years, the festival provided great depth of choice with 19 separate screenings made up of over 110 films, the vast majority being free to attend. Considering the financial tribulations it has overcome – Arts Council funding cuts being a major blow in 2010 – credit is due to the festival team. It is for the love of film that it continues year on year.

A collective of devoted film enthusiasts operating under the banner Kinofilm organises and runs the festival in addition to monthly short film events and smaller one-offs through the year. The festival remains small, utilising intimate and unusual venues across the city. One of Manchester’s hidden gems, Three Minute Theatre on the ground floor of Afflecks, played host to programmes including Redhead Shorts (a celebration of all things ginger), Made in Manchester and Women in Film, as well as the final night Best of the Fest celebration. With its charming patchwork décor, home from home feel and shared DIY ethos, the venue provided an ideal festival headquarters for Kinofilm. The Cervantes Institute, Gullivers and Islington Mill all hosted screenings, maintaining consistently high audience turnout, atmosphere and standard of films over the week. The Engine Shed at the Anthony Burgess Foundation provided the setting for the International Panorama and Kino Fantasy showings. The exotic and otherworldly films were swoon-worthy on both screen and the lovingly restored exposed brick backdrop.

Starting in the Central Library’s Performance Space, the Festival Preview provided a taste of things to come. Director Mark Gill presented his Oscar-nominated, multi-award winning film, The Voorman Problem, which won the Kinofilm 2014 gongs for Best Director and Best UK Short. Shot in Manchester, the film lives up to all the accolades with its twisted plot and impeccable performances from Tom Hollander, as enigmatic prisoner Mr Voorman, and Martin Freeman, the psychiatrist sent to examine him.

Further film highlights came from various programmes over the course of the week. In the Redhead programme, Manchesterbased production Nobbly Carrot 7 won plenty of laughs with its hopeless yet loveable heroine, standing in contrast to the dark humour of Nate Camponi’s Kerby, an unnerving snapshot of a volatile young man in an empty bar. Produced in Argentina, the spirited and innovative Luminaris is another festival standout, appearing in the Animation and Romantic Tales programmes and ultimately scooping the award for Best International Short. It is a joyous romance of the quirkiest kind. Enjoying its UK premiere, 46

Daisy Jacobs’ The Bigger Picture, winner of Kinofilm’s Best Animation Short, is a beautiful film. An artwork in motion, the watercolour stop frame animation tells the sad but resonant story of two brothers as they cope with their mother’s drawn out death.

Some of the festival’s biggest named performers and filmmakers were to be found within the BAFTA short nominees’ programme, which saw Kinofilm return to the Central Library. The mix of live action and animated films saw bigger budgets and a sprinkling of Hollywood stars. Mackenzie Crook was kept busy, appearing in both intergalactic romance Orbit Ever After and I Am Tom Moody in voiceover duty as the creatively stifled protagonist.

Championing local filmmaking talent is a Kinofilm mission and there were certainly plenty of North West productions on display. Shot in Manchester by a young crew, Concrete Sleep won last year’s Kino Student Exposures award and appeared again this year in the festival’s British New Wave 2 programme.

Lying somewhere between fiction and documentary, director George Haydock has created a work which is both observational and dramatic, anthropological and poetic. Completed in early 2014, the festival provided Geezer with its world premiere showing. The film’s kitchen sink realism and rangy shots of a grey and windswept Yorkshire are sure to see it travel to many more festivals in both the UK and internationally.

There’s a lot to say about the value of short films to both the filmmaker and the viewer. In many ways, the limited running time offers greater freedom to experiment with narrative, cinematic techniques and general aesthetic, with often beautiful and surprising results. Animated film Sebastian is a perfect example of this with its utopian storyline and stunning psychedelic dream sequences. The compact format of the short can be a gift. For us time-poor folk, the prospect of ‘dipping in and out’ – mentally, emotionally and physically – between each ten minutes of film is an appealing one. No three-hour commitment required here.

A stellar line-up combined with some of Manchester’s most diverting venues is a winning formula for Kinofilm and the team are already pulling together the second instalment of the 2014 festival. If you love thought-provoking cinema and would like a chance to see films you missed this time round, Part 2 will be taking place this November and is the perfect opportunity to show Kinofilm the support is needs to continue.

Grace Williams kinofilm.org.uk

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FAVOURITES Our Pick of Independent Manchester

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Leo Zero

Marble Brew Day

Twenty Twenty Two

marblebeers.com

twentytwentytwo.co.uk

The railway arches of Manchester are home to a new industrial revolution. On Salford’s Trinity Row with First Chop and on the arches behind NOMA with Blackjack, microbrewing is a blossoming trade. Today we’re at the brewery Marble moved to a couple of years ago when upscaling an independent brewing operation they began in 1997 in the back of their flagship pub, The Marble Arch. Our plan is to brew a Now Then ale, without any prior experience.

Fortunately, Marble’s Head Brewer Matthew Howgate has a list of ingredients prepared for us to use and our brewing guide Slav is on hand with instructions at the key junctures. They’re part of the team that has brought us fine beverages such as Pint, Ginger, Earl Grey and Manchester Bitter. Our ale begins as malt is milled and mixed with brewing water to make a 66°C mash.

During this stage, the malt’s natural starch is converted to sugars, which are later fermented to create alcohol. After transferring the liquid to a copper kettle, we add a variety of hops, then with another transfer and the addition of yeast and oxygen we leave it to brew.

When we return a week later there’s a flavoursome, hoppy pale ale with 3.7% abv ready and waiting for us to taste. We may only be fledgling brewers, but we’ve had more experience of tasting, so we can vouch for the finished beer as one you should try yourselves. It’s a limited edition special and will run out quickly, so keep your eyes peeled in your favourite alehouses during July.

With its entrance tucked away down Northern Quarter’s Little Lever Street, Twenty Twenty Two is a subterranean hive of all things beer, music, art and ping pong. Driven by its support for emerging artists, the venue and bar space boasts a diverse programme of events – exhibitions, club nights featuring renowned DJs from Manchester and beyond, talks and workshops.

On top of all that there’s even a dedicated ping pong room with four tables.

Twenty Twenty Two has already hosted an array of exhibitions across illustration and design, from music photography displayed by Ex:ample Magazine (hip hop) and Ashes 57 (dubstep) to the ArtCrank cycling themed expo and a recent World Cup themed exhibition with Barcelona graphic designers, Hey. For a month from 10 July you’ll see two new exhibitions. The Main Room will feature Cut Stuff Up by Leo Zero, whose abstract visual compositions adorn records released by labels such as EMI, Heavenly Records and Junior Boy’s Own. He is also known for his musical ear, having remixed the likes of Madonna, Bombay Bicycle Club, Psychemagik and many more. This month marks his first solo show in Manchester, so make sure you pay a visit.

On the far side of the Main Room is the Ping Pong Room, where you’ll find To Whom It May Concern. This is a first full group exhibition by the Manchester-born Generic Greeting Collective, a collaboration including a wealth of talent in illustration, design, music, filmmaking and more. They’ve specially commissioned work by illustrator Tim Hopgood and their DJs will select sounds on the opening night, Thursday 10 July.

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TROF TROPHY

CHORLTON ART MARKET

JUSTGIVING.COM/TROFTROPHY2014 SUNDAY 13 JULY

CHORLTONARTMARKET.COM

We’re returning as defending champions to this year’s Trof Trophy, having beaten Comfortable on a Tightrope, Sound Control, The Travelling Band and Dutch Uncles en route last time. It’s a charity 5-a-side football tournament arranged to pit the amateur footballing skills of some of Manchester’s music-related groups at the Ardwick Power League. There are 16 teams in all, including Manchester Academy, Hoya Hoya, Murkage and our team, a joint effort with hip hop group The Natural Curriculum. The aim is to raise £1,000 for local alcohol and drug abuse support charity Lifeline Project. There’s a free-entry after party at Deaf Institute from 6pm, including raffle prizes and a big screen showing the World Cup Final.

STRANGE BREW 370 BARLOW MOOR ROAD, M21 STRANGEBREWBAR.CO.UK Situated on the Barlow Moor Road strip opposite Chorlton Bus Station, a haven for South Manchester’s music, food and beer lovers, Strange Brew takes over Jackalope’s recently vacated spot, with new owner Dave Williams dedicated to showcasing an excellent array of real ale, local music and quality food.

Since opening its doors last month, Strange Brew has been working with a who’s who of local breweries, counting Shindigger, First Chop, Blackjack and many more among the regulars on their pumps. With an open mic night every Monday, the Strange Quiz every Sunday and one-off gigs and DJ nights throughout the month, the bar offers opportunities abound for upcoming local artists. A welcome new addition to Chorlton’s booming bar scene.

M20 COLLECTIVE M20COLLECTIVE.WORDPRESS.COM Formed by students and locals, one aim of M20 Collective has been to increase the link between these often separate groups through collaboration of artists and creatives via community initiatives. Based in Withington, they aim to give all creative people an outlet to display their diverse talents, from photography to urban gardening, and have staged a range of local music and arts events at Solomon Grundy and beyond. Head to their fundraising festival at Antwerp Mansion on 11 July for a night promising to be a creative journey across three rooms, plus face painting. Eyes on their blog or social media sites for creative opportunities, events and other collectives’ and artists’ work they recommend and publicise.

On the fourth Saturday of every month, Chorlton Art Market’s stalls fill the courtyard outside The Post Box Café to the brim with some of the region’s most exciting artists selling their art and design work. There’s also live music from upcoming local musicians and The Post Box Café BBQ. Each month has a different theme, covering Baby & Family, Home & Garden, Textiles, Summertime and more. So whether you’re after adorning your own walls or buying presents for friends, it’s well worth dropping by.

The market is always on the lookout for artists and traders to get involved, whether you are an emerging local artist or a veteran of the scene. Check the website and get in touch with Alice at chorltonartmarket@gmail.com.

NEW WEBSITES NOWTHENMAGAZINE.COM/MANCHESTER SCREENINGFILM.COM Our new Now Then Manchester website has arrived.

From now on, each issue of the magazine will also be published via this online format, meaning any links to external websites or videos will be immediately clickable.

We’ll also provide links to the music we feature. Follow the above link to explore.

Another new URL we’d recommend is Screening Film. Set up by filmmaker Sam Meech, who was part of the team behind the construction of the Small Cinema in Moston, the site will act as a hub to highlight any and all film screening listings, from pop-ups to regular cinema clubs and nights. Although predominantly focusing on the North West, it also accommodates listings from across the UK.

NEW ART SPACES FEDERATION HOUSE CASTLEFIELDGALLERY.CO.UK New Art Spaces Federation House is Castlefield Gallery’s pop up space for the next five years. Located in the Co-op’s old HQ since March, the building offers 80,000 square feet across six floors for emerging artists to use as exhibition spaces or studios. Its first few months have seen many displays from across art forms and exhibitors.

Global movement Kino00’s Manchester branch, Filmonik, is resident of the third floor, where their short filmmaking Kabaret week will take place from 24 July to 3 August.

Other floors include art groups such as Mark Devereux Projects, DIY Art School and Verb Project. Ascend to the top floor where the TOAST team host a cocktail of artist residency projects.

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Dedicated PingPong Room.

Late Night Dancing. Exhibitions.

Event Space For Hire.

The Basement Little Lever Street (Off Dale Street) Manchester M1 1EZ twentytwentytwo.co.uk

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10. JOSHUA BROOKS 11. ANTHONY BURGESS FOUNDATION 12. THE EIGHTH DAY CAFÉ 13. MCR ACADEMY 1, 2, 3 & CLUB 14. HAZEL BEE

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