Issue 1374

Crime special: Selly Oak

Police and the Guild tell us what's being done, p.3 Plus: advice on how to stay safe

Redbrick

Most Outstanding Society 2010 AU Outstanding Contribution to Sport

Friday April 30th 2010 Friday 22nd October 2010 Volume 73 | Issue 1370 Volume 73 | Issue 1374 redbrickonline.co.uk redbrickonline.co.uk

The University of Birmingham's Student Newspaper since 1936

Compensation payout for lost exam papers College investigation after History department loses 14 final-year exam scripts

The Great Hall in the Aston Webb Building: 'tighter guidelines' on the handling of scripts are set to be introduced Caroline Mortimer Reporter

Several of last year's History final-year exam scripts were lost during the marking process last summer, Redbrick has learned.

Fourteen exam scripts from a 20-credit module entitled Living and Writing in Shakespearian England, were due to be sent to the first marker.

Unfortunately, the address was written incorrectly and there was a hasty packaging process where the exam scripts only became available 15 minutes before they were due to be sent off.

After the department's attempts to retrieve the scripts proved impossible, a college investigation was instigated.

In July, the affected students were contacted and offered 'a sincere apology for the fact that the scripts were lost, for the distress and inconvenience, and an offer of financial recompense for the distress caused.'

The department provided explanatory letters attached to their transcripts to explain why they received a 'pass' rather than a particular mark. In addition, arrangements were put in place for each individual student to receive the fair degree classification and these recommendations

were closely supervised by all the relevant exam boards at school, college and university level.

The department stressed that 'it is an extremely rare occurrence' that any exam scripts go missing and that around 2000 exam scripts pass through the office during exam time.

Professor Susan Hunston, who conducted the college investigation, commented on the mistakes that were made: 'During exam time, when papers have to go from A to B very, very quickly and come back very, very quickly it is difficult to account for every eventuality that might come up.'

Following the investigation,

the pro-vice-chancellor for the College of Arts and Law, Michael Whitby, asked for recommendations for a code of practice and guidelines to ensure this does not happen again.

Professor Steve Ellis, Director of Education for the College of Arts and Law said: 'Whenever these mishaps happen, it is important that we learn from it and put the systems in place to ensure it does not happen again.'

As a result, the College of Arts and Law, as well as the University as a whole, have assured students that they will introduce 'much tighter guidelines' on the handling of scripts

Freddie Herzog

due to be sent to markers.

They are 'looking seriously at issues of proper registration and post registration,' according to Professor Ellis, and they hope to avoid 'any repetition of this extremely unusual and unfortunate occurrence.'

INSIDE Crime special >> 3 | Steve McCabe >> 4 | Puzzles >> 10 | Fierce or Finished >> 21 | Full Sports coverage >> 25-28

2

News Redbrick Editorial

Editor Samuel Lear Deputy Editors Victoria Shires Sam Langtree Online Editor Micaela Winter Treasurer Jonathan Craven Art Director Thomas Walters Chief Photographer Mike Roberts chiefphotographer@redbrickonline.co.uk Technical Director Jeremy Levett News Editors Helen Crane Glen Moutrie Anna Hughes news@redbrickonline.co.uk Features Editors Rosa McMahon Seb Mann features@redbrickonline.co.uk Film Editors Elmley de la Cour Matt Davis film@redbrickonline.co.uk Arts & Culture Editors Sian Gray James Reevell arts@redbrickonline.co.uk Music Editors Will Franklin Charlie Bailey music@redbrickonline.co.uk Television Editors Natalie Timmins Joe McGrath tv@redbrickonline. co.uk

Full interview with Selly Oak MP Steve McCabe Anna Hughes, page 4

Picture of the Week

Sophie Bryant

Lifestyle Editors Briony Singh Rob Lewis lifestyle@redbrickonline.co.uk Food Editors Harriet Constable Dami Olugbode food@redbrickonline.co.uk Travel Editors Ed Gordon James Cull travel@redbrickonline.co.uk Sport Editors James Phillips Simon Hall sport@redbrickonline.co.uk Crossword Editor John Rizkallah Editorial Assistants Victoria Bull Rochelle Balach Laura Hewitt Vikki Jeff Will Hunter Kate Selvaratnam Junior Art Directors Lauren Wheatley Jazzarie Lee Photography Editor Bethany Richardson Copy Editors Jennifer Anderson Laura Dean Rebecca Evans Swaranjit Grewal Sandra Heng Rachael Hewison Gurpreet Kong Caroline Mortimer Francis Shaw Lydia Smith Sian Stanfield Olivia Wilson

Meeting Times News - Thurs 5pm Features - Tues 5pm Film - Fri 2pm Arts - Wed 3pm Music - Wed 4pm TV - Wed 3pm Lifestyle - Wed 12pm Food - Wed 2pm Travel - Weds 1.30pm Sports - Fri 2pm Photography - Fri 11.15am Designed and typeset by Thomas Walters.

Copyright (C) Redbrick 2010

G

raffiti at Bournbrook recreation ground.

Send your pictures of the week to pow@redbrickonline.co.uk

Redbrick Calendar Theatre

0121 251 2462 editor@redbrickonline.co.uk www.redbrickonline.co.uk Redbrick is printed through www.quotemeprint.com: 08451 300667.

Music & Nightlife

The Cherry Orchard

Verdi's Requiem

THE REP, MONDAYS - SATURDAYS UNTIL 6 NOVEMBER , 7.30PM A major new production of Chekhov’s final play comes to The REP this Autumn in an English version

by Tom Stoppard. Tickets from £10. For bookings and more information, see www.birminghamrep.co.uk.

TOWN HALL, 24 OCTOBER, 3PM Performed by the English Concert Chorus and Orchestra. Tickets from £8. For bookings and more information, see www.thsh.co.uk.

Full Moon HMV INSTITUTE, WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER, 10PM - 3AM Drawing inspiration from the wild beach revelry of Koh Phangan, Rough Hill's Full Moon parties are now legendary across the UK. Entry £4. See venues.meanfiddler. com/hmv-institute/home.

Sports

The Cherry Orchard

Hairspray HIPPODROME, MONDAYS SATURDAYS 25 OCTOBER - 6 NOVEMBER , SHOWINGS AT 2PM AND 7.30PM The West End's favourite musical comedy, Hairspray, is coming to Birmingham. Starring Brian Conley as Edna Turnblad and Les Dennis as her husband Wilbur.

Tickets from £19.50. See www. birminghamhippodrome.com for bookings.

O2 ACADEMY, 2 NOV, 6PM Hard on the heels of the release of their latest album, 'Underclass Hero', Sum 41 lead The Eastpak Antidote Tour with a dose of raucous punk-rock and thunderous heavy metal. For tickets, see www. o2academybirmingham.co.uk.

Sum 41

Talks & Workshops

Birmingham Half Marathon

Sports Photography Workshop

THROUGHOUT BIRMINGHAM, 24 OCTOBER, FROM 9AM. Cheer on the 15,000 people taking part in the Birmingham Half Marathon Race Against Climate Change. The race will be passing along Pershore Road in Selly Oak so keep your eyes peeled.

LEARNING CENTRE UG04, 26 OCTOBER, 6-7PM A masterclass organised by Photosoc with talks and tips on taking photos of sporting activity.

Colonel Kemp

Richard

AVON ROOM, 26 OCTOBER, 5PM Former Chief of Command of British Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, will be giving a presentation entitled 'Afghanistan to Gaza: 21st Century Warfare'. £2 Admission (free for all military personnel)

Sum 41

To contact us: Redbrick Guild of Students Edgbaston Park Road Birmingham B15 2TU

Full events listings available online redbrickonline.co.uk/events

Redbrick strives to uphold the NUJ Code of Conduct. The views expressed in Redbrick do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the Guild or the publishers. If you find an error of fact in our pages, please write to the Editor. Our policy is to correct mistakes promptly in print and to apologise where appropriate. We reserve the right to edit any article, letter or email submitted for publication.

Advertising: Contact Aimee Fitzpatrick in Guild Marketing on 0121 251 2524 or a.fitzpatrick@guild. bham.ac.uk

Redbrick

22nd October 2010

redbrickonline.co.uk

Trick or Treat Football MUNROW TRACK PITCH, 27 OCTOBER, 1.30PM Cheer on the men's 1st XV footballe team in their first big event of the season against the newly promoted University of Stirling.

There is a Halloween fancy dress theme for spectators; feel free to dress up.

Talk from Chief Rabbi ARTS BUILDING, LECTURE ROOM 7, 27 OCTOBER, 1PM With Chief Rabbi Lord Jonothan Sacks. The topic of the discussion is 'Is there a role for faith in Modern Britain?' Admission is free.

Redbrick

Editors – Helen Crane, Glen Moutrie and Anna Hughes

News 3

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Crime in Selly Oak: what can be done?

Glen Moutrie investigates the causes of crime and methods of prevention

As crime rates are rising in the area, what can students do to prevent themselves from becoming a victim?

Jonny Kirby, the Vice President for Housing and Community began by stating that 'Selly Oak has three times the regional rate of burglary.

Unfortunately, if you come to the University of Birmingham 1 in 3 of us will become a victim of crime while we are here.'

The number of occupants in Selly Oak houses is often as high as six people or more.

Not only has this skewed the crime statistics for the area, but it also means that there is a large amount of valuables within the house. This makes the area an attractive target.

Police Constables James Duffy We asked 100 students: Do you feel safe in Selly Oak?

and Richard Adams explained that many police had gone on patrols throughout Selly Oak looking for potential targets.

They said that there are frequently houses that would either have windows open with valuables that could be taken on show or their doors unlocked.

In some cases they would have been able to reach in and take laptops or enter the house unnoticed.

In these cases the tenants were notified of their vulnerability to burglary.

Kirby also noted that 'when a student looks around a house they consider whether it has got double beds, its proximity to campus. Not necessarily if there is a fence that goes all around the house, if there are gate locks, whether the windows have the proper locks on.'

It's also easy to tell what a student house looks like, as there will frequently be tell-tale signs such as more rubbish outside due to the number of people who occupy the residence, or a Vodbull poster in the window.

Furthermore, students who are new to Selly Oak who have moved from the Vale may not be acclimatised to the crime that is there.

Last year there were only two crimes reported on the Vale, both bike thefts. Sometimes the difference between the two is not fully appreciated amongst students.

Advice on how to prevent crime: Don't walk home alone – it's always safer to go home in a group.

When you are walking home at night don't display your valuables such as mobile phones and wallets.

Be aware of Crime – most students are not aware of the risks that they are exposed to in Selly Oak. Join Selly Watch – you can do this online on the guild website.

Lock all windows – even if leaving a room for five minutes.

Lock doors – A high proportion of student burglaries are through unlocked doors – establish a system to check your doors are locked when going out and going to bed.

Check your front door locks properly – if it's a wooden door make sure it has a second lock and is used. This is especially important if you have a glass panel to the front.

Sophie Bryant

Crime is on the rise in Selly Oak

What are the police doing about it?

What are the Guild doing about it?

The police have set up a plain clothes task force to deal with burglary in Selly Oak specifically. Both Police Constable James Duffy and Richard Adams have been a part of this for over a month.

Part of their task has been to keep tabs on a list of target people that are essentially listed potential offenders who are known to frequent the area. In these cases letters have been sent to them, in an attempt to try and act as a deterrent.

Spotting other potential suspects can be a particularly difficult area of their work; as there are thousands of people, picking out the right people is very difficult.

The team has also been looking to increase awareness, including a door knocks by police officers and talking to students along the 'student grid.' There have also been uniformed police standing outside of the Goose at the OVT pub handing out literature on crime awareness.

West Midlands police has also

Johnny Kirby's election manifesto had focussed heavily upon crime, as he felt that it was something that had not been given enough attention to in recent years.

'The first thing that we have done is to work very closely with the city council on the 'Safer Birmingham Partnership' to do a big crime campaign', Kirby explained. This is notable throughout much of Selly Oak, particularly in advertisements on phone booths.

Kirby has also launched 'Selly Watch' this year, fulfilling one of his campaign promises. Selly Watch is a text service designed to keep students 'one step ahead of a burglar' and also provides statistics for those who sign up. If there is an incident in your area, you will receive a text to inform you of the incident and to keep you informed.

Next term, the Guild is looking to do more work on 'people crime', which involves lobbying for more street lights where they are

been given a £2,000 grant to install Lojack, a computer program for laptops, which can track the computer; enabling them to 'deal with the aftermath.

Sometimes, however, there is little that the police can do to respond to reported incidents.

Even in cases where they are half a mile away from an incident and arriving quite quickly, and the suspects can be gone by the time that the first responders arrive.

Constables Duffy and Adams

Sophie Bryant

needed, and more police to try and make those who live in Selly Oak feel safer.

However, where the Guild does struggle with regard to Selly Oak is that 'the resources we have got and impetus that we have in Selly Oak is nowhere near the amount we have in halls.'

Lock your side gate – this will prevent access to the rear of the property which is a common access point. Report any repairs promptly to your landlord or Bournbrook Community Safety Project.

Don't leave valuable items on display – especially in street facing windows. Use net or blinds on ground floors windows and windows that open onto flat roofs.

Take valuables home with you – when going away over the holidays.

Set timer switches if you're going out – these give the impression that someone is in. Community Wardens can provide these free of charge.

Burglar alarms – if you have one fitted get your landlord to demonstrate it and always set it.

Use the Guild approved taxi firm Castle Cars – but remember a taxi pulling up outside your house is a signal that you are out – so ensure your property is secured and lights are left on timers.

One of the Guild's awareness ads

Sophie Bryant

Get insurance – the average student burglary costs the student over £900.

Spending review announced in Parliament George Osbourne reveals where the budget cuts are going to be made

Laura Frost & Freddie Herzog Reporters

George Osborne described Wednesday's Government spending review as 'the hard road to a better future,' saying that it would provide 'a stronger Britain for all.'

Statistics show that 490,000 public sector jobs are likely to be lost, with an average of 19 per cent cuts in departmental budgets over the four year period. This includes the Home Office, which will be cut by 23 per cent over the four years,

defence which will be cut by 80 per cent and welfare by up to £7 billion.

The spending review states that it is a priority to secure economic stability at a time of continuing uncertainty in the global economy. There was little mention of matters that will affect students in higher education.

NUS President Aaron Porter predicts that the cuts will lead to 'the effective privatisation of universities' and restrict the opportunities of students. He adds that this is a spending review that looks

an entire generation in the eye and says 'You're on your own.'

As a whole education will have a 3.4 per cent cut in spending.

However universities will have to suffer more cuts than any other educational establishment. Excluding research, funding will be reduced by 40 per cent, from £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion, and for those aged 19 and over, funding is going to be cut by 25 per cent — a reduction of £1.1 billion. Particularly at risk are humanities subjects as the government will be prioritising science and technology subjects.

Osborne announced that the government will be investing in adult apprenticeships with a plan to have 75,000 more people in training by the end of the four year period. Those wanting to pursue a university education could be left with tuition fee debts of up to £7000 a year, reflecting the recommendations of last week's Browne Review.

Positive outcomes that have emerged from the review include £530 million will be spent on bringing super fast broadband to rural areas and the promised £9.3

billion provision will remain for the Olympics Games in 2012. Also the NHS and the English schools budget have remained protected with the NHS budget rising every year till 2015.

Political parties remain divided on the spending cuts. Former Chancellor Alastair Darling, calling the review a piece of 'political sophistry' that has deceived the whole country.

What are your views of the Spending Review? redbrickonline.co.uk

4 News

Uni

Watch York

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22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – Helen Crane, Glen Moutrie, Anna Hughes

Steve McCabe MP: Lib Dems have 'brought politics into utter disrepute'

Plans have been put in place for an ÂŁ11 million sports village to be built at York University. It will contain a 4G pitch (suitable for rugby, football, American football, hockey and lacrosse), several dancing and fitness studios, a 150 station fitness suite and an 8 lane county competition standard pool.

The village will be completed by Easter 2012.

Moscow State Moscow State University announced the launch of the 'Zvorykin project', a project concerned with Russian scientists and inventors. The people of Moscow will be invited to learn about the discoveries of Russian scientists in the field of natural scientists via online resources. They will then be able to vote for the person they believe made the greatest contribution to the world of science and technology.

Brown, USA Recording artist and aid activist Wyclef Jean has been appointed a fellow in Africana Studies at Brown University. He has recently been involved with the Help for Haiti aid campaign. Jean will attend lectures, classes and Haitian Initiative events.

Reading A new study led by Dr Tim Woolings at the Department of Meteorology at Reading University has found a link between the blocking of the jet stream which results in colder winters and variations in the 'activity' of the Sun. This study could provide valuable information in predicting seasonal weather forecasts from now on.

Monash, Australia Australia's largest university faces a $45 million drop in revenue next year due to a loss in income from foreign students, who make up around 20% of the universities income. There is expected to be a 10% drop in foreign student admissions in 2011, which could result in a loss of 300 jobs.

By Katy Adnitt and Freddie Herzog

Checkout new video content on: www.redbrickonline.co.uk

In collaboration with

Anna Hughes News Editor

Elected in May this year, Steve McCabe has already made his mark on his constituency of Selly Oak, home to the majority of second and third year University students. We met with him to discuss his opinions of the area, what he makes of the Browne review and how he perceives Labour's rival coalition government.

Statistics show that by living in Selly Oak you have double the chance of being a victim of robbery than anywhere else in Birmingham. What are your opinions?

I admit there was a significant blip on crime maps around student areas of Selly Oak. People are away from home for the first time, they are possibly not used to securing their property or taking the same care, certainly in their dwellings.

Student wardens and representatives are essential in helping students to become more aware of crime and the importance of security.

However, I recognise that there needs to be more direct policing contact with the student population. There is an element of exploiting people who are away from home for the first time and are distracted by a new lifestyle. It may also be the case that students may

have been to the bars or the pubs and will be coming home after a few and not be paying the same attention they would at other times.

I think that factor in part explains the crime figures.

The Browne Review has recently been released. What are your views on it?

Earlier this year I signed the NUS pledge against increasing tuition fees, and I will honour that, unlike the Liberal MPs. Now is not the right time to increase fees and for Nick Clegg to make the statements he did before the election and to now be willing to support increases tells me he can't be trusted in anything he will ever say again. The increase in fees may in fact not improve the quality of learning.

The coalition have seized on tuition fees as an opportunity to make cuts. It has emerged that they are contemplating cuts of around 60% of a university's budget, so any proposal to raise fees isn't to improve the standard of university provision, it is simply to cover up for a Government cut.

It is not feasible for higher education to be free, and it is utterly dishonest for anyone to say they could abolish fees when perhaps they knew it wouldn't be the case.

That's the kind of thing that brings politics into utter disrepute.

The Lib Dems recently back-

tracked on their election promises to abolish tuition fees. What do you think?

Liberal Democrat MPs who promised the abolition of fees before they were elected should be quaking in their sandals. Liberal Democats are acting as the Conservative party pet poodle come the next election they are likely to suffer dramatically in term of votes.

It is very easy to tell students what they want to hear, that this and that should be free, but the truth is people aren't students forever and promises that have no validity don't last for very long. If you are honest and straightforward your voters will have respect for you and will vote for you, even in difficult times.

What do make of Ed Miliband's support of a graduate tax?

We do want a form of graduate tax, although there are issues. We don't want to end up with a tax structure that means people with modest incomes are paying as much as people with very high incomes, or a structure where only the folk who choose to stay and work in the UK pay.

I am worried that the focus will be on those on lower incomes. It is quite right that they should be protected but increasingly those from lower middle class incomes

This week in statistics 2.2 4.2bn 5 The number of Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this October, something which only happens once every 823 years.

The amount in pounds of government funding to be cut for universities in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

The speed in miles per hour of the rescue capsule that lifted the trapped Chilean miners to the surface.

are losing out.

There is a real risk that there could be a situation that has no provision for the vast majority. Ed has made a good start, it is very difficult to be leader of the opposition, expecially when the government are still in their honeymoon period.

In your opinion, are huge cuts from the public sector necessary?

I am aware that cuts do need to be made in order to avoid a banking collapse and depression. However, I believe that the coalition government has ideological ideas about how many cuts they can make; deciding to double the scale of cuts over four years.

The coalition have decided to pretend they discovered the deficit and to pretend it is higher than they thought it was. The salaries of the senior reaches of the civil service, in government and some public services are far too high and are areas where cuts could be made. Governentment plans to cut child benefit and the impending restructure of the police service are unnecessary.

There are savings to be made by looking at how we can get more out of what we do by bearing down on extraneous costs and rationalising the situation. redbrickonline.co.uk

46

The percentage of Americans' approval rating of Barack Obama this week, compared to 68 per cent in April 2009.

Redbrick

Editors – Helen Crane, Glen Moutrie and Anna Hughes

Strip club to stay on Broad Street Edwina Moorhouse Reporter

Broad Street adult entertainment venue Boujee Rooms have won the legal battle to continue running their 24 hour lap dancing operation.

Owners of the club had been involved in a tough court case against businessmen representing the Broad Street Business Improvement District (BID), who argued clubs like Boujee Rooms encouraged prostitution in Bimingham.

It is the ninth establishment of its kind in the area, and has only served to cement Birmingham's reputation as what one Daily Telegraph journalist called 'Europe's lap-dancing capital.'

In June of this year, the club gained the approval of Birmingham City Council to evolve from an average club into the home of live, late night shows – an approval encouraged by the lack of police objection. His lawyer, Sarah Clover, had earlier told the committee that there have never been formal complaints or objections to any of Mr Taylor's other premises.

At the time, owner Sidney Taylor said he was 'delighted' declaring 'we work with police and council to ensure our clubs are well run and trouble free.'

Mr Taylor is somewhat of a nightlife entrepreneur in Birmingham, owning many hotspots including bars inside the Arcadian, and his father gained fame for opening one of the UK's first strip clubs 'Legs 11.'

The decision to allow Boujee Rooms to continue its current

practices has come at great disappointment to many managers with businesses on Broad Street.

Broad Street manager Mike Olley, said: 'Many of our members [in BID] who are made up of the bars, restaurants, offices and hotels, have told us they are dismayed at the decision.'

'We will do all we are legally empowered to do to stop the proliferation of such venues.'

Birmingham's licensing committee will meet on the 17th of November to discuss the cap on sex entertainment venues.

News 5

October 22nd 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Birmingham student makes thousands from iPhone app Helen Crane News Editor

An enterprising Birmingham student has created his own app for the iPhone, making himself thousands in sales.

Greg Hughes, a third-year Computer Science student, created the app called 'WiFi Sync' earlier this year after noticing a gap in the market. Since it was launced in May of this year, it has sold 24,000 copies at 9.99USD each.

When downloaded it enables users to synchronise their iPhone with their computer wirelessly without the use of a connecting cable.

Although this is an original amd workable idea, iPhone owners

Apple rejected Greg's offer to sell it to them for use on their app store, where customers buy products to use with their phones. This means that it is currently only available for customers who have 'jailbroken' their iPhones so that they can download unofficial apps.

Despite this setback the idea has proved popular, with the app becoming one of the most downloaded products on the bootleg version of the app store; an unofficial marketplace for jailbroken iPhones.

Although Apple rejected his idea, they did recognise his potential and have invited him to send in his CV when he graduates.

However, Greg has other ideas and is considering setting up his

own technology business. At the moment he has other iPhone developments in the pipeline, but did not want to give too much information on these away.

Greg said: 'I was really surprised at the app's success. I knew that if Apple took it on it would really take off, but what I didn't realise was that if it was rejected it would still do well.'

Greg did not want to disclose exactly how much his invention had earned him, but when asked about how financial success has affected him, said: 'It's been pretty surreal. You have to try to resist the urge to spend all of the money at once and not fritter it away. Also I want to make sure I can use the money to make more apps.'

and was later awarded a DSc Honorary Degree in 1998.

For the last seven years, Nurse has acted as a president of New York Rockefeller University , and has recently accepted the post of Royal Society president. He has also been named the new director of UKCMRI ( the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation).

Dr Simon Campbell is named as number 31 on the list, with his accomplishments including the discovery of new medicines Cardura and Novarsk, and leading the research programme at Pfizer that led to the discovery of Viagra.

Dr Campbell graduated with a BSc in Chemistry in 1962 and has subsequently received a PhD

(1964) and a DSc (2004), also from Birmingham.

The Simon and Jill Foundation, established by Dr Campbell and his wife, provides financial help to talented students from state schools that chose to study Sciences or Maths in the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge.

Dr Campbell said: 'As a researcher from industry, I am delighted to be included in the prestigious Times/Eureka Top 100 UK scientists, which contains numerous Nobel Laureates, and particularly to be in such a favourable position. I am also very pleased that Birmingham has made such a strong showing.

Alumni named top scientists Nargis Erabi Reporter

Photo: alanhitchcock49 on flickr

Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize winning geneticist, and Dr Simon Campbell CBE FRS have been listed among the UK's most influential scientists by The Times.

The first place went to Nurse, for his achievements in genetics and cell biology. His extensive work on cancer research was rewarded by a knighthood in 1999, and his contribution to the discovery of genes that control cell division earned him a joint Nobel Prize in the field of Medical Physiology in 2001.

He graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1970 with a BSc in Biological Sciences,

Carnival RAG tainted by company's negative image One of the university's biggest fundraising societies Carnival RAG spoke to Redbrick this week over the confusion between their popular bar crawl, Carnage, and the notorious nationwide events run by the company Carnage UK. Carnage UK, which is banned from organising events on the University of Birmingham campus, attracted criticism last year when a student from Sheffield Hallam University was caught on CCTV urinating on a war memorial at one of their events.

The company have also been accused of not providing a sufficient number of stewards for their events and of neglecting to liaise with the police.

Tim Lucas, President of Carnival RAG, says that they often struggle with students (particularly first years) and even Guild members assuming the event they run is affiliated with the profit based

company.

The Carnage Bar Crawl is one of several events organised through the year to raise money for eight charities (including the university support service, Nightline) chosen by the Carnival RAG society members. This year the group hopes to raise £38,000.

Although Carnival RAG events are safe and well organised, it has yet to escape the shadow of the infamous events company which has its official headquarters here in Birmingham.

Carnage UK was founded in 2007 by several Birmingham graduates and allegedly even used photographs from Carnival RAG when initially promoting the events.

Last year the National Union of Students organised a campaign against Carnage UK and its events which attract an estimated 350,000 undergraduates in 45 university towns and cities each year.

17 student unions have already banned Carnage UK from their

campuses and many more are concerned about the ethos and conduct of the events held.

The Carnival RAG logo is now featured on all Fresher's t-shirts and the Facebook event includes a disclaimer saying they are in no way associated with Carnage UK. Despite the negative press that Carnival RAG mistakenly receives they have no plans to change the name of their bar crawl.

Tim Lucas says: 'Carnage is our brand, by changing the name we would move away from the negative image people have but then we potentially lose the ethos of the Carnage we run.'

The society are keen to disassociate themselves from Carnage UK's reputation and insist that the events they organised are more 'family friendly' than the headline grabbing antics of Carnage UK 's events.

The Guild's Vice President for Student Activities and Development, Matt Lamb, added:

'Carnival RAG provide well trained stewards to ensure a fun and safe experience for students. They have a very positive relationship with

162

700

7.7

56

Caroline Mortimer Reporter

The wind speed in miles per hours of Typhoon Megi which hit the Philippines on Monday and has killed 10 people.

The cost in thousands of dollars for a 30-second advertising slot during TV show American Idol.

The jobless rate in Britain for the three months to August compared with 7.8% in May showing a very slight improvement

local venues and police, and all proceeds go to a good cause.'

Students on a Carnage bar crawl. Photo: Courtesy of Carnival RAG.

The percentage of Germans who believe Germany should take steps to curb the traditional Islamic lifestyle.

66

The percentage increase in the Global Hunger Index score (malnutrition and infant mortality) in Congo since 1990.

Edward Robinson

6 redbrickonline.co.uk

22nd October 2010

Redbrick

Comment & Features Editorial Seb Mann

Features Editor

Osborne: let the cuts commence The Chancellor's austerity plans are based on grossly misinterpreted figures and pose a huge risk to recovery

Our notion of the middle class is a myth

Comparison of debt as % of GDP

T

wo weeks ago George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, revealed plans to cut benefits for the well-off. His plan? To withdraw child benefit from families in which one or both parents earn more than £44,000 a year.

Cited by some as evidence for the existence of a progressive vein to the Lib-Con coalition amid a culture of vicious cuts and branded by others as a naïve axe to the pockets of core Tory support, this plan has sparked a bonfire of controversy. While much criticism of the recent announcement is not entirely groundless, I can't avoid this nagging feeling that somehow the point has been missed.

The point is that those who earn £44,000 or more are not the middle-class when we consider the term in any truly relevant, income-related sense. Figures released last year by The Office for National Statistics in their Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) paint a wildly different picture of who the middle-class of society really are to what many might expect. The survey found that mean gross annual earnings across all employee jobs, full – and part – time, came to £26,020, a figure that rises to £31,323 when you only consider full-time employees. So, even if everyone from the top to the bottom is considered and levelled out to your conventional average, the middle of society still falls short of £44,000 by between £12,000 and £18,000.

But, perhaps more tellingly, the ASHE calculated the median gross annual earnings for fulltime employees to be £25,123, which means the man right in the middle stops short of reaching the aforementioned income threshold by nearly £20,000. It is not until you reach the upper echelons of UK earners, the top 10 per cent in fact, that you find individuals earning more than £44,881.

Dry statistics these may be, but they illuminate something which is quite significant. George Osborne's planned cut to child benefit was received with such antipathy because our widely held perception of the middleclass, that is, the middle-earners in society, is wrong. This proposal is set to affect an estimated 3,274,000 individuals, not the whole middle of society and up.

We can be forgiven for thinking that the middle ground of society comprises 'the wealthy'; figures and institutions of financial prosperity are all around us. But the statistics tell a rather different story.

We need to seriously reassess our view of who makes up this middle ground of society and thus work out what is fairer for everyone.

Comparison of General Government Gross Debts

Source: IMF World Economic Outlook, Spring 2010) Tackling the recession head on? Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne Oliver MacArthur Commentator

O

n October 20th, 2010, the government finally unveiled its comprehensive spending review. Aimed at addressing Britain's largest peacetime budget deficit, George Osborne calls it 'the great national challenge of our generation: after years of waste, debt and irresponsibility, to get Britain to live within its means.'

As outlined in the emergency budget, the majority of measures are spending cuts in order to foster a 'private sector led' recovery. At a ratio of 4:1, roughly 80 per cent of the savings will be from cuts to government services rather than tax increases. Chancellor Osborne has called for all departments, except health and international development, to implement cuts between 25 per cent and 40 per cent.

David Cameron suggested we must 'reboot and rebuild'; yet we must do it properly.

It is nonsense to assume that merely tapering back the influence of the state will, almost by magic, allow the private sector to blossom.

Outlined in the spending review, the blind, rash and savage cuts to government spending are positively medieval. They are comparable to razoring and applying leeches when the patient is ill: an archaic, unenlightened and ultimately retrograde strategy.

Recently, the general election campaign highlighted the cartoonish nature of modern political discourse and served only to caricature the real issues and polarise what should be rational debate.

There is nothing fair about running huge budget deficits and burdening other generations with debts we are not willing to pay

At the recent Liberal Democrat conference, Nick Clegg exclaimed, somewhat ridiculously: 'Would you ask your children to pay your credit card bill?'

Treating national finances like family finances is idiocy. This rhetoric is either misleading or incompetent, and neither approach is effective for government.

Rather than pantomime politics of old, Britain needs evidence-based government, not merely ideological attacks on apocryphal public profligacy. After all, it was private speculation not public engorgement that led us to recession.

Against the backdrop of the Greek debt crisis, the hawkish rhetoric of panic in the money markets and the absolute need for austerity superseded the realm of hyper-

Beth Richardson/Lee Durant on Flickr

bole. National headlines such as 'Britain's debt set to be higher than that of Greece' and 'Greek Crisis: There but for the grace of god goes Britain' highlights the overblown mainstream debate. Let us look at the facts: Britain's budget deficit stands at 60 per cent of GDP for 2010/11, compared with 177 per cent in 1932, and well above 200 per cent during the Napoleonic wars. Historical comparisons highlight the ridiculousness of contemporary debate. Furthermore, Britain's sovereign debt possesses an average maturity of roughly 14 years, far larger than any other major economy – this means we have the most time to pay our debts back.

Britain's gross debt is undoubtedly higher than Greece's, yet our national income supersedes the Greek economy more than tenfold – meaning we have the ability to safely borrow more. Our debt to income levels are broadly in line with Germany and France, not Greece and Italy. America's enormous debt represents an anomaly, its position as the international reserve currency means it can safely borrow huge amounts.

In retrospect, it was ridiculous to suggest that the national debt placed Britain's long-term economic future in danger and that indecision would be disastrous. It appears the perceived fear of indecision is merely a veil for ideological cuts. Britain's politicians, by not debating these crucial debt-toincome ratios, have succumbed to the climate of hysteria and offered voters false choices: Cuts or more cuts? If it weren't for the forthcoming decimation of public services,

one would congratulate the coalition on its skill at media manipulation.

In contrast to the mainstream rhetoric, Ed Balls has posed a radically different perspective with the most compelling argument against Osborne's fiscal austerity. An important reminder that austerity budgets of the 1930s led Britain not only into recession, but depression. Across Europe, unemployment reached staggering levels and served only to stoke the fire of extremism. Fascists revelled in the 'Great Depression', increasing their influence upon dangerously divided nations and broken economies. Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, recently said: 'Whenever you have high unemployment, you have risks of other tensions. We see this now in debates on currencies.'

If there is high unemployment, the mood of the country hardens against international competitors and, to some extent, immigrants.

Therefore, it's not rocket science to suggest that by reducing unemployment, one can radically reduce cross-cultural and international tensions. The civility of all societies is crucially dependent on the availability of jobs. If they are created on a so-called 'credit card', so be it, far better to pay bills than fight wars.

Zoellick suggests, almost prophetically, 'if one lets this slide into conflict or forms of protectionism, we run the risk of repeating mistakes of the 1930s.' Let us hope the coalition will soon realise the best tonic for deficit reduction is growth, not fiscal pruning. Austerity is the road to ruin.

Redbrick

Comment & Features 7

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – Rosa McMahon, Seb Mann

Making waves in a changing media world Former Redbrick editors, WannabeHacks, are trying to make it in the real world

How do you solve a problem like...

Growing up

by Charmaine Katz

Rosie Widdrington Commentator

Ask most people these days and they will tell you that journalism is a dying industry.

As a profession it is over-subscribed, notoriously difficult to 'hack' it in and, no doubt according to some, not even worth considering as a potential career these days.

Mainstream newspapers are scaling back their print runs and big names like the Guardian and The Financial Times are allegedly considering close to terminating their print newspapers in the next 5 to 15 years.

So should us wannabes admit defeat? Give up and go home? Not according to five University of Birmingham and Redbrick alumni.

The creators of 'Wannabe Hacks', a journalistic blog detailing the efforts of five recent graduates, are all trying to break into the industry in different ways.

Ben, 'The Student', is studying an MA in Newspaper Journalism; Nick, 'The Intern', is adding to his skills and contact list interning at various newspapers; Matt, 'The Freelancer', is trying to make his name in the industry writing for different publications; Ned, 'The Detective', is studying Investigative Journalism; and Tom, 'The Chancer', is trying his hand at anything and everything that comes his way while also studing with Ben for an MA. Clearly the Wannabes don't think it's time to throw in the towel just yet, and the reason for this is simple: print journalism may be in decline but this does not mean that journalism is dying, merely that it is evolving and, as Chancer Tom

points out, expanding to the point where it is actually 'easier to be a journalist' and get your work out there.

This evolution refers to the shift from print journalism to online journalism; to blogs and social networking sites, online newspapers and iPhone apps. The growth in popularity of these alternate mediums is reflected through the decision of newspapers like The Times to charge for their online content. Online is clearly where the industry is now heading.

In fact, this shift to the web has been so vast that 'being a good

journalist is no longer just about being a good writer,' claims Student Ben. '[It is now] equally important to be able to use the internet effectively' and not just to circulate articles. Social networking and status updates on sites like Twitter and Facebook, for example, have now become such a part of daily life that the internet has also become a valuable tool in discovering new leads and getting the scoop before the national newspapers.

Already generating a great deal of interest, 'Wannabe Hacks' seeks to exploit this change by not only providing advice for other wannabe journalists but also by

Beth Richardson/Wannabehacks trying to 'spark debate' about the future of the industry, providing its five creators with a 'unique way to reach [their] audience', according to Freelancer Matt.

If nothing else the website proves that in the world of journalism, changed as it may be, all it takes to get noticed is innovation and determination. 'Wannabe Hacks' promotes a willingness to change and adapt alongside journalism to keep the journalistic flame alive.

Journalism is not dying; it's merely changing direction. wannabehacks.wordpress.com

It's wrong for long-standing international prizes to reward culture; our tastes are entirely subjective Laura Hewitt Commentator

Two globally famous prizes were awarded last week: the Nobel Peace Prize and the Man Booker Prize.

While the two clearly have very different agendas, they both annually make headlines with their controversies: there are surely merits to acknowledging the work of others, but the shortcomings are also worth consideration.

The media hype surrounding prestigious arts prizes such as the Booker might lead the uninterested to wonder at the fuss. Even those who read fiction regularly might argue that such an award will not change the face of literature. The same argument can be made for any creative prize: would the art world be different without the Turner? The cinematic world without the Oscars?

My personal objection is on the grounds of individual taste.

Culture is subjective, and the plethora of disparate responses is a natural outcome. How can one work be supposedly elevated in quality above others? Everything that makes a person individual will have a bearing on their tastes, and their tastes will always be changing according to their life situation. Will you still be watching Skins when you're eighty? The

books I read now I might not have appreciated two years ago before I started my degree, and it may be a fair few years more before I fully appreciate Ulysses.

Similar arguments have been made about the Nobel Peace Prize (and many other prestigious prizes, although space constricts this discussion to the two awarded last week). 'Taste' translates into matters the judges believe to be the most pressing humanitarian issues that the nominees have addressed.

We all have causes we believe to be more crucial than others. We'd all choose different charities to donate some of our lottery money to if we won, and the human response of empathy dictates that these will probably be based on our own experiences.

It is more difficult to argue that 'no-one cares' about the Nobel Peace Prize. Commending a person for humanitarian work is a dignified and laudable concept.

The pomp and ceremony seems entirely justified for an individual who has worked for the betterment of some portion of our human society. The 2010 laureate, Liu Xiaobo, is currently serving an eleven-year sentence (his fourth prison term) for speaking out against the government in the name of democracy and human rights; or, in the official terms of the Chinese government, 'inciting

'How can one work be supposedly elevated in quality above others?

Everything that makes a person individual will have a bearing on their tastes, and their tastes will always be changing'

subversion of state power.' It may have damaged Sino-Norwegian relations, but there are no raised eyebrows over this year's decision; last year's winner, Barack Obama, was considerably more controversial. As is the case with all major prizes, its omissions are as opaque as its decisions, the most famous being Mahatma Gandhi.

The Booker is a subject of political controversy, too. Over the years it has had its remit questioned as a prize for Commonwealth writers. This inclusion criterion engenders a range of controversies: Ireland and Zimbabwe are also included, despite their troubled relationship with British colonialism; the additonal criterion of works published only in the English language has furthermore been called a form of linguistic neo-colonialism that might exclude writers with a non-Western standard of education.

As for the prize money, while few people would have a problem with most Nobel laureates receiving approximately £1m, the proportionately smaller amount of £50,000 for the Booker still seems decadent. A.S. Byatt spent hers on a swimming pool for her house in Provence; Kingsley Amis bought curtains (maybe it's best not to ask). Howard Jacobson's supposed plans for his £50,000? A handbag for his wife.

About a month ago, I attended a family gathering. It was one of those dinners with the cousins, the cousins twice removed, their wives and partners and everyone else in between.

Greetings and catch-ups over, we moved to the dinner table. Traditionally in my family, the 'children' (which is anyone who isn't married, or over the age of 30) sit on one table, the 'adults' on the other. And to my surprise, I had not been seated on the 'children's' table, but on the 'adults'. Shock horror, not only am I not married or over the age of 30, but no longer could I have the catch up with the cousins. I was onto some serious, 'what are you doing with your life?' conversations and I just wasn't ready for it.

Being in my final year means I am one step closer to entering the real world, and saying goodbye to the joyful bubble of university life.

But does this mean that childhood joys must be said goodbye to as well? When I was much younger, and looked forward to my future lifestyle; I imagined that being a student would be sophisticated, intellectual, and incredibly 'grownup'.

Now that student life is my reality, I don't think my maturity levels are quite what were expected. I still watch Disney films, sing along, and remember all the words. I do have a cuddly toy with me, a small panda called 'Show Pung', which means 'Little Fat' in Chinese (and even still find the name funny). On drunken nights, my friends and I have made up dance routines, and pretended we were the spice girls.

I still laugh when someone says the word 'poo'.

Now I am no longer referred to as a girl, but as a woman. I do think that being in such a transition between the carefree lifestyle of university, when thoughts of lectures and Fab oscillate in our minds, and the future of searching for a full time job around the corner, is very difficult. But my question is: do you really have to embrace adulthood by leaving the child behind?

For me, to really solve the problem of coping with growing up, there are only really two options. To pick up some J M Barrie, adopt a green suit with a fairy on my shoulder and never ever grow up; or to become a semi-serious person, one that can still laugh at the sillier things in life. So maybe the next time I watch a Disney film I'll wear a suit – and hold a briefcase.

8 Comment & Features

The Chilean miners that lived happily ever after Zahra Kassmali Commentator

On 13th October, an amazing feat of engineering skill, international co-operation and human determination graced our screens, as the world saw the 33 Chilean miners hoisted through 2000 feet of earth through a capsule, back to safety.

All 33 remained in fairly good health, with the exceptions of some dental problems and one case of pneumonia. This harrowing story has also done much to boost Chile's international profile, and has shown a positive step towards the shaking off their legacy of a dictatorial past.

However, this epic rescue, which my flat mate and I predict will be become a Hollywood blockbuster, raises some interesting questions. In an age of mass media and instant messaging, the story of the Chilean miners gained international credence incredibly quickly.

This led to massive worldwide contributions of technology, money, man-power and equipment. All these aiding to ensure that the miners were rescued much sooner than the Christmas deadline. As well as allowing for the provisions of rations vital to keeping the miners alive, well and healthy. However the question remains, had this story not captured the media's attention would the outcome have been the same?

Would Chile have had the resources and energy to orchestrate such a successful rescue operations and give provisions to the men to keep them alive?

We could ask ourselves the question of whether to become a fairytail story and have the happy

ending, it had to become the focus of media attention, and gain international coverage. These questions have no easy or straight answer, but I believe these are important questions that must asked.

This heroic rescue also serves to highlight the darker side of mining. In January 2006, in the same area of Copiapo, an explosion occurred leaving 70 miners trapped underground. Whilst most were rescued, two people died. Similarly less than a week after the epic Chilean rescue, a gas explosion in China on Saturday 16th October killed 26 people, leaving 11 more miners still trapped underground.

As of today, hopes for their rescue are looking thin and there are doubts that there will be a repeat of this fairytale scenario.

These stories along with many others illustrate the unacceptable levels of mining accidents worldwide.

Whilst China has the highest death rate of miners, it is estimated there are about 20,000 deaths by mining accidents every year. This is by no means a paltry figure which, if anything, must be used to raise awareness of the frequency of mining accidents, many of which can be avoided by practicing adequate safety measures.

If there is one thing that can be highlighted from the miraculous rescue in Chile, it is that there should not be a need for such a rescue again. If money and time had been invested properly in the first place, Chile would not have had to foot the bill of at least $7.6 million needed to rescue the miners. This money could instead have been used to cover the costs of improving the quality and safety of existing mines – arguably a better use of such a large sum, if a little less sensationalist.

Redbrick

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – Rosa McMahon, Seb Mann

Cash for those who can't give up their vice Should the tax payer bear the burden of smokers and the overweight?

Unfair weight on the NHS? Michaela Walters Commentator

An NHS advisory group has controversially suggested that in order to make a healthier Britain, incentives should be handed out to encourage people to stop smoking and lose weight.

I'm sure your thinking what I am, that incentives such as exercise bikes, fruit and vegetables doesn't sound like a bad idea.

However, that would be too sensible. Instead, the hard earned money of taxpayers, most of whom aren't obese and don't smoke, would be handed out to people who voluntarily choose to put their bodies in harm's way.

While it seems ludicrous to simply hand over tax payers' money, the NHS claim that little money spent on incentives could save a greater amount of money in the long run. Each year the NHS spends £4.2 billion treating obesi-

Photo: Mike Roberts ty and £5.2 billion on smokers in Britain.

While incentives are a good way to guide people in the right direction, it does appear slightly backwards that thin, non-smoking, health-conscious people are missing out on a cash prize to those who are less concerned about their health.

The television series 8 Out of 10 Cats comedian Sean Locke joked that the government should drive around with a gun and shoot one smoker per week. I, of course, am not suggesting cold-blooded murder, but if there is going to be an incentive to get people to stop smoking, maybe it should involve negative repercussions, as opposed to a cash prize.

Speaking of cash, isn't Britain still trying to recover from a recession? You cannot turn on the TV without hearing a coalition politician exclaim that we need to cut spending and that, to do this, we must prioritise Government spend-

ing. Giving smokers a bit of extra cash must prove extremely important then, much more important than child benefits. Why should we waste taxpayer's money rewarding people for behaviour that some do voluntarily? It is more than possible to quit smoking and to lose weight on your own, many people do.

Those who don't take these steps on their own are hardily likely to be persuaded to quit for a bit of cash. Besides, if a person does decide to quit smoking for monetary reasons, once the cash is in, aren't they are likely to start smoking again. After all, the NHS can't monitor them forever. It is not hard to imagine people taking advantage of the scheme, almost viewing it as a 6 month work commitment to earn some money.

Alternatively, not only could it mean smokers merely quitting for a 6 month period for the cash, some would probably go as far as to pretend they are smokers in order to jump on the bandwagon.

As for the smokers or the obese that do join the scheme with authentic intentions, I would still predict that paying somebody to quit smoking would not provide any long-term success. The first way to get over an addiction is a want to stop.

Ultimately, the scheme sounds like a bribe, which may only cause half hearted effects. The motivation to lose weight or to stop smoking should come from wanting to improve your quality of life. Once you have made that decision, there are plenty of clinics to give free help and guidance. A person's will power, and not a monetary incentive, will always be the determining factor. And what's more, it will prove sustainable.

Abortion: no longer the phenomenon of the 'fallen' woman?

Alicea Francis Commentator

Abortion. The mere mention of it is likely to have women shifting uncomfortably in their seats and men scouring the room for the nearest exit.

I have to admit that even I, a devoted pro-choice supporter, minimised the screen when my housemate looked over my shoulder as I was typing this article.

Whether you agree with it or not, abortion remains a highly controversial subject; a subject which many people would rather pretend did not exist, and certainly would rather not talk about.

This came to light earlier this year when the first ever television advert offering abortion services was aired, and became the seventh most complained about campaign of all time. Launched by the sexual health charity, Marie Stopes International, the 'Are You Late?' ad campaign featured images of three women, a voiceover informing viewers of the advice and services the charity can offer to women who are 'pregnant and not sure what to do'.

The organisation hoped the campaign would 'bring abortion out into the open', a mission which unsurprisingly was much easier said than done. The Adver-

tising Standards Agency (ASA) received almost 5000 complaints from viewer watchdogs, religious groups and pro-life campaigners, who labelled the advert as 'grossly inappropriate', claiming that it was 'a campaign to normalise what is, after all, an extremely sensitive subject.'

As something that has been legal in the UK for over 40 years, experienced by a third of women in their lifetime, how can abortion still not be considered 'normal'?

Do too many still believe that unplanned pregnancy is something experienced only rarely by the occasional 'fallen' woman? 'Normal' is not a word that many members of today's society would like to associate with 'the A-word'.

Anti-abortion protesters argue that the 'normalisation' of abortion will lead women to be less careful when it comes to using protection. But with so much stigma surrounding the issue of abortion, largely due to an uniformed society, many women are forced to suffer in silence, too ashamed to confide in parents, peers and even partners about the difficult situation in which they find themselves.

Surely the importance of putting an end to this suffering outweighs unjustified fears of it promoting promiscuity and unsafe sex?

With the peak age for abortions being 19-20, university stu-

dents are likely to be among those most in need of advice and support for unplanned pregnancies, especially with difficult decisions needing to be made about the future of their education.

But despite trawling through both the Guild and Counselling and Guidance websites, I found no mention of what support is available to students who fall pregnant

during their studies. Similarly, the University Medical Practice offers advice on contraception, yet their website only mentions the services available to women who are going ahead with their pregnancy.

Last month, after much controversy, the ASA rejected all complaints against the advert, stating that it 'was not harmful in that it

would not promote promiscuity or overly appeal to young people'.

While this does show that society is making a move in the right direction, we still have a long way to go before abortion can be discussed as openly and without shame as any other 'normal' dilemma that women may face.

195,296 The total number of abortions carried out by resident women of England and Wales in 2008 Source: Department of Health statistics

Millie Guy

Redbrick

Comment & Features 9

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – Rosa McMahon, Seb Mann

Abracadabra, a magical degree!

Does studying Harry Potter at a well-respected university signify the begining of a dark end for undergraduates?

Alison Hendy Commentator

The innocuous little '™' squeezed into the faculty handbook of Durham University's module, hints that this is a description of quite an extraordinary academic elective.

On further perusal of the list of lecture topics, rather than including the deluge of mundane names, dates and theorems most students are accustomed to, phrases such as: 'Squib', 'Mudblood' and 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare' are found.

This is 'Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion', a new module created by Dr Martin Richardson, head of the Education Department at Durham University, which aims 'to consider the relevance of Harry Potter to the education system in the 21st century'.

Of course, the use of a contemporary phenomenon which holds such powerful commercial-

This new controversy merely serves to highlight the age-old frictions between government and educational bureaucracy, and the academic sphere.

ity has drawn mass attention from the media; the location and time of the first lecture last week had to be secretly shifted to outfox the gathering crowd of reporters. Indeed, 'Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion' coincides with the current governmental stew and media finger-pointing over declining standards in university education, and the resultant denunciation of 'Mickey Mouse' modules, for offering dumbed down topics to gradeinflated, dumb-as-bricks students.

As one of the most prestigious universities in the country, Durham has been placed under close questioning and scrutiny for choosing to place Harry, Ron, Hermione et al on their syllabus. Nick Seaton, the voice of Campaign for Real Education, stated that 'It does not merit a course at one of the country's top universities'. Negative, hysteric news coverage of the module can be summarised by the Daily Star's well-informed, capslock shouting headline: 'HARRY POTTER DEGREE'. However, this new controversy merely serves to highlight the age-old friction between government and educational bureaucracy, and the academic sphere.

As the world-and-his-local-MP are expected to make a statement on the national state of education, it becomes gratingly blatant that a reliance on the impact, and empty subjectivity, of words such as 'quality of learning' does not reflect the individual brilliance and fresh thought being quietly transferred

Core texts for university? from professor to student across country.

In May 2010, Universities UK released a statement upholding that it is the 'heterogeneity of the 10,000 courses offered nationwide that is the key strength of the sector'.

Fizzing damnation of anything that has not 'stood the test of time' stifles the importance of innova-

tion in academia, and also misses the point of the university as an experimental instrument of the new.

Strangely enough, the specific topic areas to be covered in 'The Age of Illusion' include: citizenship, prejudice and intolerance in the classroom, the moral universe of the school and most pertinently, the commodification of education.

Perhaps Harry Potter can offer

more to society than fat cat publishers and Emma Watson.

And if we were to make a (albeit slightly exaggerated) comparison of the stubborn snobbery of the Ministry of Magic and its ongoing bid for raised, homogenous standards at Hogwarts – ultimately leading to exclusivity, with current educational issues – the relevance would be utterly spellbinding.

Vince Cable – fighting an uphill battle?

Joe Jervis

Political Commentator

Vince Cable must sometimes wonder why he ever got into politics.

After 40 years of gaining hardearned respect as a leading political economist, the Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham now finds himself working under a chancellor whom appears too inexperienced for a role for which Cable himself has time and time again been lauded as the ideal candidate.

Furthermore, he must work alongside a group of politicians whose principles and vision for Britain compare to his own in the same way that a lump of old, mouldy cheddar compares to a freshly quarried deposit of the finest chalk.

After securing the role as Business Secretary in David Cameron's cabinet, the 67 year old ex-Labour candidate has found himself under constant attack for his lack of opposition to Conservative-driven policies.

The most noteworthy example can be seen in Cable's recent remarks on the Browne Review. In the run up to the election Lib Dem MPs signed an agreement promising to 'phase out university tuition fees within six years', but now, just a few months down the line, Cable claims that these plans are 'no longer feasible.'

While he rejected the idea that there should be a 'fees-free market', he claimed that the report's recommendations that tuition fees

Vince Cable continues to face criticism over his stance on Higher Education should increase significantly 'was along the right lines' and that the new plans were 'fair and progressive.'

Of course, the accusation that the Lib Dems have broken promises such as this one can be laid at the feet of all the party's MPs in the cabinet, or indeed any of those party members who voted to jump into bed with the Tories.

Cable has come under more personal scrutiny largely because

he is known to sit on the very left of the party. Therefore, cooperating with George Osborne over ruthless government cuts will prove more nauseating for Cable than for fellow cabinet members such as Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander.

Unfortunately, poor old Vince has limited options. He could of course declare his resentment of certain policies. This would be perfectly plausible given the nature of a coalition government; one which

Liberal Democrats

collaborates ideas from across the political spectrum and is based on compromise.

But such a defiant move would hand the media a field day given its habit of feasting on any factionalism within a government. And such an onslaught may damage Cable's own position and cause splits at a time when the government is keen to display unity and install confidence for the sake of the economy.

Moreover, the Business Sec-

retary will know that leaving office would only serve to cut off his nose to spite his face. Any replacement would undoubtedly lack the talent of a man who voiced concerns about the state of the economy as early as in 2003 and has since gained a reputation as one of the finest modern day politicians.

Furthermore, his replacement may come from the right of the party and this move would do nothing to help Cable and his supporters in their attempt to promote their own agendas and battle Tory policies.

Incidentally, a complete collapse of the cabinet is clearly not in the interest of the Lib Dems. It is highly unlikely that another election would see the party achieve an improved result due to their drop in popularity and the fact that voting is likely to polarise in order to avoid another indecisive result.

Furthermore, the dissolution of Parliament would severely damage Britain's credit rating and threaten the prospect of economic recovery.

As for Vince, his role is clear: he must continue to battle from the inside, take the rough with the smooth, implementing as much Liberal Democrat policy as possible whilst doing all that he can to oppose those Conservative measures which his party deemed unacceptable just a few months ago. And while he should not be immune from criticism from his supporters, they should perhaps show an understanding of the limitations placed on his position.

10 Editorial

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Redbrick Editorial Victoria Shires Deputy Editor In a rather romanticised way, I am writing this first Editorial by candlelight in my new (but simultaneously very old) University bedroom. The lack of internet in the new house has reverted us all back to the days of Austen, with no tweeting, facebooking, poking or stalking. At the moment, my only means of internet are to shamelessly steal Redbrick Office time and run the risk of being fraped by sneaky Section Editors, or to sit in the shiny new Guild Reception and pretend to check my.bham whilst secretly entering the virtual social world...

It is this concept of social networking that has got me thinking this week. After seeing the highly anticipated The Social Network on Monday – and perhaps the absence of my own ability to have constant access to my Wall – I have come to realise just how reliant we as a student body, a young community and a society have become on social networking sites. As becomes obvious in the film, Facebook has become an imperative tool for us to keep up-todate, 24/7 with everything that's going on with ourselves, our friends, our families and possibly even our enemies and exes.

We all do it. Well, over 500 million of us do. We tie ourselves up into these virtual and everlasting friendships with people we met once, we 'like' things we probably wouldn't in real life and we tag and comment and create a whole new virtual life

for hundreds of 'friends' to see whilst we hide behind a probably pretentious profile picture.

I am in no way mocking or degrading the Facebookers of the world – I am indeed one of them – but aren't we all too embarrassed to admit just how addicted we are?

Don't we all secretly spend an hour or two a day scrolling through people's profiles, stalking the occasional picture and wasting time, and then justifying our knowledge of everything and everyone with the staple quotation: 'Oh yeah, I saw that on my mini-feed...'

Perhaps what made me laugh the most upon leaving the cinema, was a friend revealing that the first thing she did once the film had finished was look at her Blackberry and realise that she had four new Facebook notifications waiting for her attention. How this made the film all the more relevant and realistic and prove yet another ironic example of networking overload in a world where it is now more ridiculous if you don't have a Facebook account; in a time when calling an old friend for a two hour-long phone call has become a quick text-speak conversation on Facebook Chat.

But whilst I may advocate that we have become an age of the networking obsessed, it is undeniable that social networking has become one of our strongest allies today. In a way, we are lucky to be of a generation where connecting and commu-

The Redbrick Crossword

nicating with hundreds of different people is commonplace.

Over the summer, I spent my time flitting between various work placements and internships in London, meeting new people and making connections in the hope that one day I would be recognised and hopefully employed.

I'd like to think that I'm pretty socially aware. If University has taught me anything, it has been how to network and maintain relationships with people. I've learnt that it has to be done in order to get anywhere and I've somehow conjured the confidence to introduce myself to someone and make sure that they remember me. During these placements, the value of networking successfully and staying firmly on the same page as everyone else was taught to be essential so perhaps I owe a lot to our modern networking abilities.

Long gone are the days where you'd be fired if you were found to be on Facebook between the hours of 9 and 5. On some of my media-based placements, I was actively encouraged to be on Facebook all day and my superviser made me sign up to Twitter. Now, as well as revelling in a little Facebook stalking, it is all too tempting to actually 'Follow' people, although I admit that I am not a top tweeter yet.

Another new introduction was Linkedin. Linkedin is, effectively, the Facebook of employment where you upload your CV, past experiences and job aspirations and link into companies so that they can recommend you. Now, no one can tell me that wasting my time on social networking sites won't help me get a job because, actually, it could. As a final year living an imminently ending student life, getting oneself noticed

Mordo Nahum Puzzles Editor

This weeks prize is a £10 Waterstone's voucher

1_2_3_4_5_6_7 _=_=_=_=_=_=_ 8____=9______ _=_=_=_=_=_=_ 0_______=a___ ==_=_=_=b=_=_ c_____=d_____ _=_=_=e=_=_== f___=g______h _=_=i=_=_=_=_ j______=k____ _=_=_=_=_=_=_ l____________ Across

1. Fear of spiders (13) 8. Strong, light lumber (5) 9. Character in Shakespeare's The Tempest (7) 10. Citrus fruit; Chinese language (8) 11. Social insects that live in colonies (4) 13. Wilbur and Orville ______, inventors of the airplane (6) 14. Delicate, sensitive (6) 16. American space agency (4)

17. Fortress destroyed during the French Revolution (8) 20. Alan _______, former English football captain (7) 21. Ryan _____, former Welsh football captain (5) 22. Criminal's photo album? (6, 7)

Down

1. Collection of songs, photos or stamps (5) 2. Beat poet who wrote Howl (5, 8) 3. Migraine (8) 4. Type of flower (6)

5. Video game series; Beyoncé Knowles song (4) 6. Lethal disease of the Middle Ages (7, 6) 7. Pardon, immunity; many set (anag.) (7) 12. Country on the Iberian Peninsula (8) 13. Knot for neckties; castle belonging to the Royal Family (7) 15. Fantasy creature that killed Gandalf in The Lord Of The Rings (6) 18. Thesis, treatise (5) 19. Soft French cheese (4)

Redbrick

and remembered in the employment realm of things is a big deal.

I feel that we have come to a point where we need to think about where the world is going to go from here. Another friend questioned what we would do without Facebook and what's going to happen when we are married with children in thirty years time – will it still exist then?

With a social networking site still to rival the international success and billion pound fortune of Facebook, is the next example of virtual insanity just around the corner or will we all wake up one day and realise that we need to take it back to basics?

If anything, my internetless University home has done wonders for my relationships at the start of this term. Although, admittedly, my housemates and I have bonded over Sky+ as our only connection to the outside world, the four of us have been sitting together most evenings talking and joking about our days and spending quality time with each other face-to-face and not from behind a screen facade. No one has been locked away in their bedrooms on their laptops or sat in the living room with one eye on their homepage and the other on their mobile.

Having no access to social networking sites has improved my real life social connections, we even played Articulate the other evening, possibly a highlight of my University career so far.

So for all of Facebook's wonder, modernity and relevancy it's important to remember how we communicated before 2003. I know that reverting back to pre-profile has been a breath of fresh air for me and I'd encourage everyone to take a day or two off from the world of social networking. Ironically, it forced me to see a lot more faces and books.

Sudoku

Apologies and Clarifications Apologies to Owen Earwicker, whose surname was mis-spelt in both the Browne Review and the Nightbus articles in News last week.

The TV section would also like to apologise for revealing the finale of Dexter in last week's newspaper.

Please send all letters to letters@ redbrickonline.co.uk Letters for publication must be marked 'for publication' and include your name and course title. Letters without these details will not be published. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Video of the week

The objective of the game is to insert the numbers 1-9 into each row, column, and 3x3 box once

Students protest on campus Check out Redbrick's first video courtesy of GTV at www.redbrickonline.co.uk and see the student protest against the Lord Browne Review.

Did you know?

Scribble box

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than lefthanded people do.

Last issues solution:

===b=c=b=d=== =couchpotato= =o=n=i=w=f=l= smog=maintain =p===e=e=p=v= conjure=rupee =s=u=a=l=n=r= stork=turkish =h=a=r=g===a= feasting=bach =a=s=g=a=r=k= =philipglass= ===c=d=e=g===

Last issue's winner was second year, Isobel Harris. We will email you to arrange a time to collect your prize.

Finished crosswords to be submitted to the Redbrick office.

Deadline 26/10/10.

All polar bears are left handed.

Last issues solution:

If you yelled for eight years, seven months and six days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

On this day 1953 – Laos gains independence from France.

1983 – Plan B, English rapper and actor was born.

1964 - French philosopher/author Jean-Paul Sartre refuses Nobel prize

12

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Redbrick

22nd October 2010

Arts

Rare paintings worth £30,000 found in Surrey woman's attic. news.bbc.co.uk

Afro-Vibes Festival

Stewart Lee Live @ Town Hall Robert Hanson and Joey Price Critic

The Drum Sian Gray Arts Editor It has been three weeks now since the launch of Black History Month 2010 and, joining with Manchester and London, Birmingham has played host to a number of events which, according to the official website, have intended to 'promote the knowledge of Black history' through displaying a wealth of challenging and emotive events.

In each of the three major cities, these eclectic promotions have ranged from photography exhibitions to talks, theatre productions and workshops, all of which have drawn in huge crowds up and down the country.

In Birmingham, these events have been held across several wellestablished venues including the Hippodrome, which played host to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, a group which conveys the African-American cultural experience through powerful dance displays. In addition to this, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery held photography exhibitions which have remained hugely popular.

One of the most prominent venues in this years festival, however has been The Drum theatre in Aston which, under the heading of AfroVibes, has created a festival rich with talent and imagination.

As Charles Small, the Chief Executive of The Drum, states, the AfroVibe Festival will explore

what 'being African means today, not just for African Caribbean people, but for all of Birmingham's diverse communities' and indeed The Drum has not failed to create an undeniably varied and popular programme, one which is said to include harsh and confronting theatre.

On Monday 18th October The Drum hosted 'The Meeting' a play that examined the different strands of resistance within the Civil Rights Movement, using Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. The play was a clear example of the diverse audience that the festival attempts to draw on. The play was accompanied by an photography exhibiton that sought to educate about the movement. This combination seems to perfectly reflect the festival's dual aims to educate and also entertain.

Indeed, The Drum has not held back on ensuring the performances given are nothing if not confronting; there have been onewoman productions exploring homophobia in South Africa, and work by the 'Township Tarantino' and epic and somewhat shocking hip-hop dance displays.

Outside the festival, The Drum's calendar is packed with events that stir up inspiration and captivate its audience, and for those that have yet to experience some of the AfroVibes and Black History Month events go to the website www.birminghamblackhistorymonth.com or simply take a trip to The Drum where you will not be left disappointed.

Ncamisa! @ The Drum Therodora Barzakova Critic Last week the Drum hosted Afrovibes, a festival of South African theatre, music and visual art, accompanied by an extensive Fringe of talks, workshops, exhibitions, etc. One of the most breathtaking plays undoubtedly was Ncamisa! Kiss the women, directed by Peter Hayes and performed

by Pam Ngwabeni. The one-woman play is breathtaking and shocking, but also somehow positive at the end. It explores the experience of black lesbian women in townships, drawing on the actress' own stories of discrimination and violence. The performance draws our attention to the gap between South Africa's post-apartheid constitution and the real lives of its gay citizens.

Hayes and Ngwabeni are both gay-activists that have made a great deal of theatre about South

Africa and are brave enough to tell stories that are not often told. One of the play's underlying real stories is of Ngwabeni's friend – Zoliswa Nkonyana – that was brutally murdered in 2006 at the age of 19 for being a lesbian. Another topic that is raised by the performance is of the newly emerging 'corrective rapes' that are meant to 'heal' gay people from their homosexuality. Ngwabeni's life story also emerges out the fragmented plot – a journey of a suppressed tomboy that loved football to a devoted performer and gay activist. These issues are remarkably explored in dance, monologue and song.

Namely Ngwabeni's life gives the play a positive note. After all the challenges life had prepared for her, she managed to come out and bravely talk about South African women's struggles, assure them that they are not alone.

It can be said that the entire career of all stand-up comics is in a persistent state of 'in progress'. With a new line-up of material expected every year, a comedian can never rest on their laurels; new observations must be made, new cultural icons must be ridiculed. At this incarnation of Stewart Lee's Vegetable Stew, this reality is clear.

Lee opened his set with the admission that he was going to be testing new material. As a lover of stand-up comedy, I relish these occasions. It feels as though you're being treated, given material that may never see the light of Edinburgh, let alone by the wider public via television. On this particular occasion however, the spectre of 'in progress' reared its head, and one segment of the set suffered from a severe lack of polish.

As any fan of Stewart Lee will

Gavin Evans know, his skill is the where he dissects an icon or phenomenon, exposing the contradictions and lunacies within. Here on the other hand he turns his attention to Mock the 'Weak', whom he accuses of abusing the disadvantaged. In particular he targets Russell Howard and his charity work. The overriding feeling from this segment is that Lee is not so much identifying the ridiculous as pursuing a dead end, and result is less surgical precision and more of a personal attack

However, it would be unfair to judge the entirety of Lee's set on this single, arguably unsuccessful segment, and throughout the audience is in no doubt that he still commands the proceedings, from jovially advising a heckler on how best to be heard over the amplifiers and acoustics, to swinging the crowd between quiet attentiveness and satisfying mirth.

You come away from Vegetable Stew content, and certain that it has the potential become an excellent show.

Spring Awakening @ The Crescent Jessica Bull Critic This daring production is still young in the world of musical theatre, smashing Broadway in 2006 with Glee's Michelle Lea as the female lead; Wendla and coming to London's West End two years later for ten week stint.

The show tells of the struggle of adolescence amongst a group of teenagers in late 19th Century Germany facing pressure from parents academically and essentially struggling to come to terms with the sexual awakening they are experiencing.

It is brought dramatically into the present through its modern day language, rock music, set up of hand held microphones and the rock band on stage, thus providing an effective outlet for the rebellion of these frustrated youths.

Birmingham School of Acting's production reproduced these elements spectacularly resulting in an energetic performance with

impressive vocals from the two principal actors and as one would expect of a drama school, good acting throughout the rest of the small cast.

The set was extremely innovative in its simplicity and use of stage and audience space, as was the choreography. The gymnastic talents of a few members of the male cast were shown off in a few scenes adding further to the modern sense the production is imbued

Toby Farrow with. The dancers were performed with a consistent adherence to timing and space, resulting in energy filled scenes that could not help but captivate the audience.

Overall this production seemed to convey the right emotions and effects, being hilariously funny at times, drastically explicit both physically and emotionally at others, but maintaining a dark tone throughout this tragic yet profoundly moral story.

Mahler Cycle @ Symphony Hall Jemimah Shaw Critic Throughout 2010, the musical world is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Mahler and Birmingham is to play a part by announcing its first ever Mahler Cycle. This cycle is commemorative of Mahler's nine completed symphonies, and his tenth symphony, which due to his deathwas left unfinished and was completed in the twentieth century.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is of course at the heart of this cycle, presenting a host of musical directors including the renowned Sir Simon Rattle and Vassily Sinaisky. As well as Birmingham's resident orchestra, the cycle plays host to three acclaimed visiting orchestras and their conductors.

Mahler himself said that 'the symphony must be like the world – It must embrace everything'. While

Marco Borggreve the Mahler Cycle is hosting Symphonies 1-9, Symphony No. 3 however, is widely regarded as one of Mahler's more outrageous works. The Third Symphony encapsulates life in all its frivolities and truly reflects the 'triviality' that according to Mahler 'goes beyond all bounds' in this movement.

Mahler's music is exceedingly forward-looking and breathtak-

ingly ambitious and Symphony 3 is extremely complex and has extraordinary musical proportions. This movement alternates between three musical elements: the dark sounds of the opening, pastoral sounds and triumphant marching music. Whatever your musical taste, there can be no doubt that these hair-raising melodies cumulate in a fabulous symphony.

Redbrick

3Bugs presents...

The Caucasian Chalk Circle Sam Langtree Critic A harsh yellow lighting gives the faces of The Caucasian Chalk Circle cast members a frightfully burlesque appearance as they saunter into the Amos Room.

Already in character, they waste no time with dramatics, and instead focus on having short slightly mocking conversations with the audience.

The gothic tone of a dark fairytale that director Luke Harris has given to The Caucasian Chalk Circle may appear confusing at first, given that this an ancient Chinese play, adapted in a piece of political theatre by German Modernist Bertolt Brecht. Instead it looks to have been a stroke of enlightenment for Harris and his creative ensemble as this carnivalesque tone fits perfectly into the minimalist tone of the production.

At first slightly confusing for an audience member ignorant of the plays events, the first ten minutes are a raucous whirlwind of song, dance and eclectically presented speeches. But as the storyline becomes more obvious, so do the characters appear more fleshed out, allowing some terrific performances by some of the university's most consistent and wellknown fringe theatre performers.

It would appear that all these actors and actresses are in complete ease performing around each other, especially given the amount

of guild plays they regularly appear and this is what made The Caucasian Chalk Circle a successful and engaging performance.

With a storyline too complicated to begin to breach within this article, this play managed to maintain its energy through the use of frequent character changes and sudden bursts of humour in the more unexpected moments. The use of a puppet to portray a character was a clever stroke and the attention to detail in order to make this portrayal as lifelike as possible was riveting and slightly disturbing. This use of innovation was a hallmark of this production.

On a final note, the musical intervals with original songs composed for the performance by Leonie Spilsbury and Rob Atkinson clearly added an extra dimension to the show. Although it appeared to take them a while to loosen up, their musical interchanges between the many characters of the play was used in just the right manner.

Overall a strong presentation of the performing talent this university has to offer, with strong support from the director and production team. Innovation and talent make this production one of the highlights of the student season so far, and raises the bar high for 3Bugs next performance. The largest compliment that this play can be offered is that with every passing scene I was both more engrossed, and more impressed.

National Theatre Live

A Disappearing Number

The Rep

The Cherry Orchard Rosie McKaig Critic Walking into the performance around 40 minutes after the start had its own difficulties, bumping into the back of the intrepid member of the REP staff who led us to our seats was one amongst several, but my apprehension about settling into a crunchy Chekhov was even greater. However, to my delight, I was welcomed into the world of The Cherry Orchard with ease.

The set was stunning; a wide open stage floored with mixed browns and the slender forms of several Cherry trees in the back ground. The actors bodies in relation to the large space gave scenes a sense of suspension as were the relationships between characters being constantly suspended in a bizarre limbo. Josie Lawrence gave a fantastic portrayal of Madame Ranevskaya, the lady of the house whom persistently diverted her attentions from the looming auction of the Cherry Orchard. John

1 play. 8 actors. 19 captivated countries. 2 stories of love, logic, life and loss. It might just sound like a bunch of numbers and a return to a hellish maths class, but Complicité's last performance of A Disappearing Number shows us that maths is not only beautiful, it's in everything we do and everything we are. Simon McBurney devised and directed this breathtaking production, and effortlessly weaves two cross-cultural narratives together – collapsing a hundred years and thousands of miles into two hours of dizzying theatre.

In the present day we follow the laid-back 'American-Indian' Al as he attempts to seduce highly-strung mathematician Ruth and realise her dreams that 1+1=3 as they try for a family. Meanwhile, we are transported to 1914 to watch the real-life story of how Cambridge professor, G.H. Hardy, discovers the Indian genius,

Srinivasa Ramanujan, and brings him to England to develop the theories that underpin much of what we didn't listen to at school.

As we pass seamlessly from India to England, from 1914 to 2010, from lecture halls to hotel rooms, McBurney's talent for orchestrating colours, music, lights and bodies into visual poetry culminates in a poignant message of connectedness that leaves the audience immersed in the most profound maths lesson of their lives.

Unfortunately, Thursday's performance of A Disappearing Number was its final one, but as McBurney, G.H. Hardy and Ruth teach us, nothing ever really ends, it is just one moment in a neverending series. So, in fact, this performance is not an ending, it's a beginning; a beginning of the start of the second season of the National Theatre Live scheme, which broadcasts West End shows to cinemas around the country for a drastically reduced price.

Ramm's performance of Lopakhin, a business man hungry to expound his interest in the property where his father once worked as a peasant, particularly shone in this cast of well rounded actors.

My favourite scene was the ball; the dancing took place behind misted glass lending the majority of the stage to the agitated encounters of characters.

Dunyasha's (Joanna Horton) attempts to inspire attraction in the self-assured Yasha (Philip Correia) were brought painfully to the forefront of the action and the tiny circles of influence amid the character body were made visible to the audience. Lopakhin buys the property and resounding thuds of the Cherry Orchard being cut down closed the production with a sombre tone. I read The Cherry Orchard last year and felt it was static, however, this performance has breathed life into my juvenile judgment. This play ends with real resonance, and is symptomatic of an excellent production.

Previews Al Murray

The Symphony Hall 24th October Your first chance to see The Pub Landlord's new show, so far being recieved with rave reviews. With Murray now an official national treasure, not one to be missed.

Tickets £25

Salif Keita

The Town Hall 26th October Fresh from headlining Womad, make sure you see this world music superstar in his only British appearance this year.

Tickets £26

The Rep

Cheltenham Literature Fest

Dawn French

National Theatre Charlie Cosham Critic

Arts 13

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – Sian Gray, James Reevell

Cheltenham Fest Maria Lunn Critic This years Cheltenham Literature Festival boasted an array of prestigious names such as Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry and Germaine Greer. An unlikely number amongst these names was the talented and inspirational Dawn French.

French's career has seen her turn her hand to acting, comedy writing and even an appearance with the Royal Opera Company, an escapade she wittily relayed to the audience in her usual self-deprecating, but nonetheless endearing way. What makes French so truly inspirational is her refreshing attitude to life as she talked about having 'no fear' and one cannot wonder at this marvellous approach to life as being the root of her success.

Despite these impressive accolades however, it was for her debut novel A Tiny Bit Marvellous is about to hit our shelves.

In this book, French endeavours

to explore the intricate familial relationships of a fifty-something mother struggling to relate to her two teenage children, within the challenging form of writing in three different narratives.

As always French entertained the audience in her usual charming manner, but the interview also offered poignant insights into her writing technique and the intense investigative research that surrounded her book; from going to see a child psychologist to delving into the realms of teenage life on facebook (this however, was seemingly made more difficult by French's evident technophobia).

French even wrote the whole of her novel with a good old-fashioned pen.

True to form, French entertained the audience with an array of engaging anecdotes from her career in her unique, larger than life way.

Dawn French's debut novel A tiny bit Marvellous is available for purchase from 28th October

The Rocky Horror Show Alexandra Theatre 25th-30th October Unlike Redbrick, you may need an excuse to break out the suspenders, if so get yourself down to the Alexandra, and see Ainsley Harriet in this superb production of a classic.

Tickets £19.50

Robert Plant and the Band of Joy Symphony Hall 27th October Musical legend, Robert Plant brings his fantastic new band to Birmingham.

Tickets £40

Rum & Coca Cola

The Drum 28th Ocotber A comedic look at Calypso and Trinidadian culture,written by acclaimed writer Mustapha Matura, and guaranteed to give you a taste of sunshine.

Tickets £8 -£10

14

redbrickonline.co.uk

Film

Disney pays $115 million for The Avengers Despite owning Marvel, the distribution rights for both upcoming films The Avengers and Iron Man 3 were owned by Paramount.

News

Georgina Bull Reporter

First off in this week's round of film news, it has been announced J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit will go into production in February 2011 and Peter Jackson will take his rightful throne as director, writer and producer.

Yet with good news comes bad. Sadly, a dispute has erupted meaning Jackson may be unable to shoot the two instalments in New Zealand, the home of 'Middle Earth'. One thing is for certain however: the films will both be released in 3D, perhaps providing some relief for any disappointed Harry Potter fans.

Continuing with the third dimension, Jackass 3D has had an astounding opening weekend over in the States, hurling in $20 million on Friday alone.

And from adults that act like muppets to the actual Muppets, Amy Adams (Charlie Wilson's War, Sunshine Cleaning) has announced she will be starring in James Bobin's The Muppets movie. She will play Jason Segel's girlfriend, following him to the LA Muppets studio, where they will be joined by Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog. Unfortunately though, fans of The Muppets franchise will have to wait until December 2011 to see the film.

More casting news reveals

UK Film Council Closure Tom Hardy, most recently in Inception, has been offered a part in the next Batman film. However, no details of his role have been released. Fortunately, it can be revealed that Christopher Nolan, director of the last two Batman films, will continue at the helm.

Exciting news for How I Met your Mother fans: Neil Patrick Harris is set to direct his first movie named Aaron and Sarah.

The film follows the relationship between two friends through high school into early adulthood.

Despite Harris having only every directed one episode of HIMYM,

I'm certain he will be 'legen – wait for it – dary!'

Finally, the cult classic Top Gun is about to get a revamp as Paramount begin discussions about a possible sequel. Tony Scott has been invited to return to the director's chair, while speculation circulates over Tom Cruise's involvement. Rumours have arisen that he will play a smaller role than his iconic Maverick.

Redbrick Recommends – The Fall Genevieve Taylor Film Writer

Using all our powers of superfilm-knowledge, Redbrick will be recommending a film a week.

These cinematic masterpieces won't just be your average blockbuster, they will be the hidden gems that somehow slipped under the box office radar and are all the more rewarding when you seek them out, especially as you'll look like a total film buff to your friends!

This week, The Fall (2006).

Breathtakingly beautiful, sweetly sumptuous and deeply dark, The Fall recalls fairytales of old in a wonderful mix of The Wizard of Oz, Arabian Nights and Pan's Labyrinth.

Set in a hospital in 1920s California, the film follows two patients: Roy, a love-sick, suicidal stuntman and Alexandria, a sweet little girl with a big imagination.

The pair meet while Alexandria is playing and form a heart-rending relationship, escaping in Roy's stories of adventure where they become bandits, along with a crew of unusual but wonderfully entertaining characters: bomb-maker

Redbrick

22nd October 2010

Luigi, Charles Darwin, a warrior ex-slave and an enigmatic Indian.

Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), a possible heir to Johnny Depp's kooky, charming-but-troubled throne, is our charismatic lead. He plays the turbulent Roy beautifully, from his adventures as the masked bandit to his emotional breakdowns in his hospital bed.

However, it is the Romanian child actress Catinca Untaru who shines magnificently as Alexandria in perhaps the most endearing child performance to date. The actress, who was under ten years old at the time of filming, largely improvised her lines. Adorably naïve, she is the heart of the film – the stubborn, brave and optimistic Alexandria cannot fail to tug the heart-strings of any viewer.

The Fall's fairytale world is a stunning visual feast adorned with unbelievable landscapes and epic set pieces. A true labour of love, director Tarsem Singh spent four years touring 28 countries to produce this stunning film, and remarkably, the other-worldly aesthetic of The Fall is entirely effects-free.

This is perhaps what makes the film so incredibly special. In a world where blockbusters rely on imitation and falsity, Tarsem has truly created a dream from pure hard-work, and his effort and care pays off.

The Fall is an unmissable, extravagant spectacle with a beautiful, tender story and heartfelt performances at its core. I cannot recommend it more!

Georgina Bull Reporter

Over the summer, a decision was taken which not only disgusts me as someone who is interested in politics, but as a British cinema lover as well.

On 26th July, it was decided to scrap the UK Film Council in another bid to cut spending by the Coalition Government. Labelled as another unnecessary 'quango', the Council will be sadly missed by anyone who has enjoyed a British film in the last ten years.

The UK Film Council was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government.

Its aim was to develop and promote the film industry in the UK, and it received money from various sources including the Government and National Lottery.

Since its creation it has distributed more than £160m to over 900 films including Atonement, Slumdog Millionaire and

Kidulthood – some of the finest British films of the decade. It also helped to develop low budget, independent films, often by firsttime filmmakers, such as London to Brighton and Fishbowl.

The abolition of the Council not only means hundreds of people will lose their jobs, but it puts the future of British cinema in serious jeopardy. Almost all of the British films that won BAFTAs or Oscars in the last ten years received a significant amount of funding from the Council. Where will British films now get their funding – private investors? In the current economic climate this does not look

promising.

The last decade has been a golden age for British cinema – our films have received dozens of Oscar nominations in the big categories. We have also had an array of British talent emerge, whether it be actors like James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, or directors such as Sam Mendes and Danny Boyle. We are a talented nation, but talent is nothing without funding or encouragement.

The abolition has caused widespread anger amongst British cinema's finest. Pete Postlethwaite, Timothy Spall and Sir Ian Holm have all publicly campaigned against the decision. Screen legend Clint Eastwood has also written a protest letter to the Government.

If you feel as strongly as I and Dirty Harry, then please sign the online petition to keep the UK Film Council, and secure the future of the British film industry.

Top Ten – Actors Over 60 Katherine Coates Reporter

This week sees the release of Red (reviewed on page 16) , a film starring Morgan Freeman and Dame Helen Mirren as over-the-hill spies struggling to cope with retirement.

Knowing that the film industry itself may call time on looks, but never on talent, this week's list comprises the greatest actors and actresses that have continued to astound, even in their sixth decade and beyond.

characters that suffer physical torment, but he has enjoyed a versatile career. His performance in The Elephant Man was one of his most prominent. His roles in V for Vendetta, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and 44 Inch Chest are also significant.

7 Alan Rickman Rickman earned a reputation for masterfully playing villains, but has since successfully proven his diversity. More recent performances include: Sweeney Todd, the voice of the Caterpillar in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

4 Jack Nicholson An unquestionable screen-legend, Nicholson has consistently set the screen alight with performances such as those in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, About Schmidt, Something's Gotta Give and The Departed.

3 Judi Dench Regularly stunning playing dignified and strong-minded characters, Dench's most famous roles are in Iris, The Importance of Being Earnest, Ladies in Lavender, Nine and as 'M' in the James Bond movies.

10 Julie Walters

2 Meryl Streep

Walters' roles in: Billy Elliot, Calendar Girls and Becoming Jane show her versatility as an actress, with Educating Rita showcasing one of her finest performances.

Her role in the Harry Potter series is possibly her most recognisable.

Streep frequently plays real life characters (she is tipped to play Margaret Thatcher in an upcoming biopic) and is famous for mastering accents, which she demonstrates in Julie and Julia. Her role in Kramer vs. Kramer is one of her greatest screen performances.

6 Maggie Smith 9 Ian McKellan Undoubtedly most famous for his role as Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, McKellan's other prominent roles include those in the X-Men series and The Da Vinci Code, as well as voice acting in Stardust and The Golden Compass.

8 John Hurt Hurt is well renowned for playing

Smith is also likely to be chiefly recognized from the Harry Potter films, and for her performance in A Room with a View. Other notable appearances include Gosford Park, Keeping Mum, and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang.

5 Vanessa Redgrave Redgrave is an actress who is known to take on complex and insightful roles, shown particularly in Atonement. Other notable performances include Deep Impact and Letters to Juliet.

1 Morgan Freeman Most celebrated for his performance in The Shawshank Redemption, Freeman has carved an iconic career, excelling in roles as profound characters. Recent successes include: Million Dollar Baby, Bruce Almighty, The Bucket List and Invictus.

16 Film

Redbrick

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Reviews Red

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Despicable Me Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud Cast: Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Jason Segel Cert: 12A

Director: Robert Schwentke Cast: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich Cert: 12A I'm part of a throng of tourists who are suddenly prevented from crossing the street. A minute later I'm propelled off the pavement and ordered to 'Walk quickly, eyes ahead!' A few seconds go by and then a loud voice yells 'CUT!'

From strolling the streets of New Orleans this spring and finding myself suddenly on the set of Red, I knew this would be a fastpaced but enjoyable film. On the surface, you might assume that Red follows any other action movie. However, these main characters are not in their prime; in fact, they're retired... Retired yet Extremely Dangerous, that is.

The plot centres on the character of Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) and his trigger-happy trio of friends (played by Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich), who he knew back from when they all worked for the CIA.

Now into retirement, their peaceful existence is abruptly shattered and they are thrust back into a world of deception, where even the people who lead the country are involved. Along the way, they are joined by the 'civilian' character of Sarah (played by Mary-Louise Parker), who adds a touch of realism to the, at times,

unrealistic narrative.

The storyline takes us on a fast paced adventure to various locations across the United States.

From the bustling streets of New York's Chinatown, to a glitzy gala event in Chicago, the backwaters of Pensacola and the interior of the ever-mysterious, Langley; CIA HQ. Red highlights the fascinating diversity of American cities and makes you want to re-live the film's journey yourself.

Another aspect that sets this film apart from other generic action movies is its use of humour.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the script so funny, especially in taking a stance of deprecation towards the actors – namely, the subject of Bruce's baldhead.

Similarly, Red encompasses an abundance of fanciful moments and this only adds to the film's amusing undertone.

The film has a suspenseful soundtrack underscoring the various skirmishes that occur. Not only that, the plot's interesting twist at the end of the movie provides a much needed revival of surprise, which was lacking during earlier scenes where the story seemed somewhat predictable.

Overall, Red lives up to its name; at times not Realistic, full of captivating Escapades, but ultimately a Delightful watch for male and female viewers alike.

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Bargain Bins-Love in Limbo I love doing bargain bins for a number of reasons: the terrible plots, the laughable sets, the dismal actors, just everything about them. They cheer you up on a bad day; they make a surprisingly good date and they are incredibly funny -although I doubt that was their original intention. So it was with great excitement that I watched my first 'Bargain Bins' of the year. Entitled, Love in Limbo, it was everything I wanted from a 'Bargain Bins'.

The plot, from what I could gather, seemed to follow a young guy called Kenny (Aden Young) and his journey of sexual discovery. Once introduced to us, his character recalls sexual fantasies and constantly draws explicit naked photographs of women.

After he is expelled from school for selling the drawings, he is given a job at his uncle's factory. Here he befriends Barry, with whom he forms a bromance in an attempt to pull girls. They end up losing their virginity to some

prostitutes before getting girlfriends.

At times the film felt like a sex education video except all I learnt was that Russell Crowe definitely can not do an accent. He is plugged as the biggest star of the movie despite only having minor part as a Welsh factory worker, yet his accent varies from Welsh to Italian to Scottish in parts.

The one highpoint of the film though was the historical context.

It was based in the 'Grease' era and the costumes, the music was spot-on and some of the dance routines were incredible. Shame everything else in the film let it down.

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For all of Pixar Studio's fantastic achievements, most recently Toy Story 3, the one criticism of their films (if it can be called that) is that they are all children's movies; the way adults think they should be. They invariably feature friendly, cuddly characters and finish with a large dose of morals. It's this noble tradition, combined with the recent mediocre offerings from DreamWorks, which makes Despicable Me such a breath of fresh air.

Gru is a super villain, determined to win back his title as the world's number one bad guy, by stealing the moon. He is creepy, ugly and a long way removed from the likes of Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

However, he isn't all-bad; his plan dictates that he adopt three orphaned girls to help him and he soon develops a soft spot for them (the same can't be said for their

favourite bedtime story.

His madcap personality and Carell's over-the-top accent help to quickly establish him as a likeable and memorable character.

It would be fair to say that Pixar don't shy from putting some sentimentality into their films (the borderline, miserable opening to Up springs to mind). In addition, some might say that this ability to enrapture the audience, with essentially a few pixels, is what makes them great movies. The

charm of Despicable Me, however, lies in the fact that it doesn't have many examples (at least until the final act) of these emotional appeals; it's simply relentless, silly, and often crude fun and it's very entertaining.

While other animated films these days are trying to please all age groups, Despicable Me simply pitches for the mischievious child in everyone.

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Legend of the Guardians Director:Zack Snyder Cast: Helen Mirren, Abbie Cornish, Sam Neill Essentially, this is a film using good owls verses bad owls with a big battle at the end. In depth, this is the story of Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young barn owl who, with his brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten), is kidnapped by the Pure Ones and is taken to St Aggie's orphanage, a place where the evil Metalhead is building an army to take over other owl kingdoms.

Soren and a group of brave owls, manage to escape and journey to Ga'Hoole to find the mythical Guardians, their only hope of defeating the Pure Ones. So yes, it's a film about warrior owls.

With the plot being quite intense, it left myself and the other older and wiser journalists a little over-

whelmed at times, suggesting that it should be directed to a more mature audience, as opposed to children.

The film also dragged on longer than it should have, having been adapted from a series of books. Aside from that it had a large cast of excellent voice talent, including the legend that is Helen Mirren. The 3D element worked extremely well with owls flying out of the screen at you and the visual effects were stunning. The owls were very realistic and the

designers worked hard to ensure that you could see all the feathers move in the wind. They also created credible facial features, which helped you to empathise with the creatures.

A surprisingly dark film for children, that was in a way strangely enjoyable. The plot was not so great but the visual effects alone make it worth seeing.

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Vampires Suck Director: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer Cast: Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Chris Riggi Cert: 12A At last, the nation will get to see some humorous mocking of Hollywood's vampire phenomenon. As opposed, to the teenage fantasy of young broody vampires.

Excited and full of anticipation of what spoof 'masterminds' Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg had in store for us, I was amazed, and when I say amazed, I mean shocked at how appalling this was.

It was inevitable that a parody of the Twilight franchise would make its way to our screens, but never at this level. I have a soft spot for ridiculing an overhyped original title, however, this film

definitely deserves first place in the top ten list of low budgeted, poorly scripted spoofs (along with Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and other films with 'movie' in the title).

Vampires Suck, based on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, casts 90210s Matt Lanter, as Edward Sullen, the pale-faced vampire. In this story of unrequited teenage love, the comical pale-face falls for Becca Crane (Jenn Proske), a clumsy mortal who, I must admit, nails the lip biting twitches of

Kirsten Stewart.

However, this doesn't stop Jacob White (Chris Riggi) from falling for the sulky teenager's charm. Apart from that, and the scene where she pulls her father's moustache off, this film offers very few laughs. On the plus side, at least it parodied two films in one. I don't think that viewers could bear a whole spoof based upon New Moon.

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Television The Top Ten Sci Fi Shows

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Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

This TV version of the successful film franchise gives us a glimpse of John Connor's teenage years through the eyes of his mother.

Whilst faithful to James Cameron's vision, the show remained its own beast, building both engaging storylines and characters, such as Summer Glau's T800 and Shirley Manson's T1001. Sadly, it was cut short after only two seasons.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Building on the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation sees Patrick Stewart at the helm of the Enterprise D as Captain Jean – Luc Picard. The melding of consistently enjoyable, individual and developing story lines and identifiable characters make this sci-fi show a classic.

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Red Dwarf

Arguably the only successful sci-fi sitcom, Red Dwarf's winning formula lies in the small cast and low budget. The premise relies on radiation poisoning, a three million year stint in suspended animation and a creature that evolved from the ship's cat. The sheer comic genius of the actors brought viewers a concoction of blue yet clever comedy and prop humour that made the show what it was. 'Everybody's dead Dave'.

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The X-Files

Mulder and Scully are the FBI agents who said, 'I want to believe'. Dealing with those cases that no one else wanted, the duo tackle everything from alien abductions to cockroach infestations while also dealing with their own alien shaped demons. While the individual cases were gripping and sometimes just plain strange, the show's success also grew from the pair's developing relationship.

6 Stargate: SG1 Born from the film Stargate, this show far surpasses its silver screen counterpart. Stargate: SG1 follows the adventures of the SG1 team as they venture to other worlds, al-

lowing for the exploration of fresh sci-fi territory. The characters are instantly likeable, and the action is interspersed with comic relief based mainly on the misunderstandings of the alien Teal'c and Colonel Jack O'Neill's sharp oneliners.

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redbrickonline.co.uk

22nd October 2010

C3P0 and R2D2 to advertise Dixons www.guardian.co.uk

Star spangled television Why US TV is the best

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

In many ways this children's show explores the in-depth story that the prequel trilogy failed to provide. The portrayal of familiar characters is much more psychologically engaging than in the live action films, making for a stronger experience.

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Battlestar Galactica

A revamp of the eighties show of the same name, Battlestar Galactica is the accumulation of all the right sci-fi ingredients: desperation and despair, Cylons, a religious subplot and characters to both love and hate in equal measure. Couple this with consistent fire-fights and an annoyingly ambiguous ending, and you have pure sci-fi genius.

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Doctor Who

The longest ever running sci-fi show, Doctor Who began with a grumpy pensioner in a blue box, who over 47 years has regenerated no less than ten times to bring viewers one of the most altered characters in sci-fi. It is the Doctor's outlandish and clashing personalities and his relationships with a variety of sidekicks and enemies that have allowed for such enduring success.

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Fringe

A relatively new sci-fi offering, many aspects of Fringe are reminiscent of The X-Files.

With a team of FBI agents, this time investigating incidences relating to fringe science. Drawing on an already proven formula, the serious and often gruesome nature of the science involved in Fringe makes for dramatic viewing.

Genvieve Taylor Reporter

The Wire, Lost, The Sopranos, Buffy… These are some of the best TV shows of the past decade and what do they have in common?

They are all American. Not a single BBC period drama in sight.

I don't think it's any secret that American TV is better than that of our own shores.

For many years now British TV has been relying on American imports for most of its quality entertainment.

So why is it better? First there's the issue of genre; American shows

A spin off from the successful Stargate SG1, Atlantis see a team discover the lost city in another galaxy. The storylines, enemies, locations and the FX all make Stargate: Atlantis an immersive experience, but it is also the cast, John Sheppard, Rodney Mckay, Teyla Emmagan and Ronan Dex, that make the show so appealing.

Kelly Shrimpton

encompass a huge variety of genres and address many different audiences.

There is action (Human Target, 24), horror (Supernatural, The Walking Dead), cop shows (CSI, Hawaii Five-0 ) and shows for teens (Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries) as well as adults (Desperate Housewives, True Blood) and shows like The Wire, which aren't afraid to tackle serious, real-world issues.

British TV, on the other hand, seems burdened with indulgent, repetitive period dramas and second-rate comedy, with barely more than one or two programmes

appealing to teens and viewers in their early twenties.

When good British shows do surface they are afforded virtually no air-time, as with the exciting but short-lived Sherlock, which has (despite the massive success of its first three episodes) only been afforded a measly three-part second season.

Another great show, Being Human, is relegated to BBC Three, while primetime slots are continually filled with outdated soaps and yet again the dreaded PDs. However, across the pond, series actually have episode counts in double figures (shock horror). But it's not simply an issue of quantity over quality either. Production spending in America is much, much higher.

For instance, the effects in shows like Battlestar Galactica and Supernatural easily outshine Doctor Who, one of the UK's best shows. It is no surprise then that while BBC America has poor ratings, American imports here do well.

The talent on American television is also of a much higher standard. Showrunners like JJ Abrams who created Lost and Alias went on to direct the recent Star Trek and Mission: Impossible movies.

Meanwhile, world-famous director Martin Scorsese has just produced a new American series called Boardwalk Empire as well as directing the pilot.

There is absolutely no doubt about it; American television is simply better.

Single and ready to mingle

David Tennant steps out of the Tardis and into fatherhood

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Stargate Atlantis

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Sarah Pullen Reporter

Many of us were expecting that when David Tennant returned to the BBC it would be as part of something special. He is after all, not only the man who many people – young and old – grew to love as the tenth incarnation of Doctor Who, but also an actor who thrilled the nation with his portrayal of Hamlet.

However, if you made this assumption, you would have been rather disappointed to see him cast as the lead role of the new, surprisingly innocuous, mini-series Single

Father. The plot of which centres on Dave (Tennant) as he struggles to raise four children alone after the unexpected death of his wife.

It was not a complete disaster by any means. It was just very bland, with Ashes to Ashes writer, Mick Ford, surprisingly unable to deliver the level of emotional complexity the story really required.

It was a great shame to see a promising premise dissolve into eye-watering sentimentality.

There were some positive glimpses of what the show could have been.

However, it continued to spiral into melodrama with a script that would have better suited to a soap opera.

Tennant, it must be said, does remarkably well given the script he has to work with. He seems to slip with ease into the role of the father and gives a convincing performance.

Suranne Jones does a good job with run of the mill scenes, but when deep emotional turmoil is called for, she falls short. She only manages to produce a rather placid, pained expression when utter devastation is required.

Natasha Watson gives an ambivalent portrayal of a fifteen year old girl struggling to find her iden-

tity. With Watson's character sulking for practically the entire time she was on screen, Ford's characterisation falls flat once again.

The rest of the child actors work well as a unit. But it was only Chris Hegarty's performance that stood out as particularly impressive. In his small amount of screen time, he does brilliantly as an eleven year old who has had far too much responsibility placed on his shoulders and is desperately trying to hold his family together. He, more than any other cast member, displayed the kind of understated emotion the show was aiming for, but largely missed.

So is this show worth watching? It had the potential to be a hard hitting drama about loss which ought to have had you reaching for the tissues; unfortunately it never quite manages it.

On the other hand, if you are already at the tissues, laid up in bed with Freshers' Flu, looking for something to pass the time, watching this show is as good a way as any.

Why not write for us? Join us at our weekly meeting on Wednesdays at 3pm in Student Development

18 Television

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Redbrick

Editors – Natalie Timmins, Joe McGrath

Medieval Mayhem

Redbrick examines Channel Four's attempt to recreate Medieval England in The Pillars of the Earth.

Mr Darcy from the latest film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Set in the midst of twelfth century England and a religiondominated feudalistic society, the eight-part mini-series opens with a royal ship set a-blaze, leading to the untimely death of the King's only heir to the throne. This in turn sparks a gargantuan power struggle between both the nobility and extended members of the royal family, each hoping to have their eldest son rise to the throne.

Whilst civil war rages throughout England, the show also lends

itself to a variety of smaller interconnected stories covering tales of love, deceit, the occasional bout of witchcraft. The central plot is the building of a great cathedral in Knightsbridge, spear headed by master builder Tom and Prior Phillip (Matthew Macfadyen), which underpins the main event and adds some much needed depth to the show.

Amongst the show's positives are its impressive production design and spectacular graphics, adding to a realistic interpretation of medieval towns and fortresses.

This jointly-funded German-Canadian epic boasts both accurate religious and historical contexts as well as the occasional injection of humour.

Finally, the all-star cast manage to meet most, if not all of the viewer's expectations in terms of acting quality and dramatic deliverance.

However, the action within this programme should come with a health warning for the faint hearted with little left to the imagination in terms of gore and unorthodox family relationships.

From a confusing starting position of complex mini-stories, a coherent story line finally develops although not until the latter part of the second hour. Despite the shaky start after a promising performance by Sarah Parish, whose devious character looks set to cause a stir in the second episode, I was left intrigued and wanting more.

If historical dramas like Spartacus and The Tudors are to your tastes then this is definitely for you.

The Pillars of The Earth is shown on Channel 4 every Saturday at 9pm.

about the characters.

Although the demons are pretty low budget, Buffy was original and incredibly progressive for its time: in what other show would you find a witch coming to terms with her sexuality and a demon with an identity crisis?

The show is also incredibly funny, with characters like Xander ready to add some comic relief to some of the darkest and unlikeli-

est moments: 'I laugh in the face of danger...and then I hide until it goes away'.

Finally, for all those hopeless romantics out there, whose minds have been corrupted by the overly-sentimental Twilight saga, the Buffy chronicles are television's greatest vampire-human love story. 'Forever', Angel tells Buffy, 'That's the whole point. I'll never leave. Not even if you kill me.'

Screen legend Donald Sutherland (centre) stars as Earl Bartholomew in C4's The Pillars of Earth Sarah Murphy Reporter

When attempting to understand Medieval England in all of its plundering, pillaging and political glory, three concepts often spring to mind: greed, love, and in particular, the acquisition of power. Enter Channel 4 and the latest period drama to hit our screens.

With these three things in mind, Channel 4 has sought to bring to life the twelfth century in an adaptation of Ken Follett's captivating novel, The Pillars of The

Earth.

Amongst those who will be gracing our screens and donning a variety of medieval attire – ranging from tunics to chainmail – are British screen regulars Ian McShane (Waleran Bigod) and Mistresses actress Sarah Parish (Regan Hamleigh). Even Hollywood names have been drawn into battle, with the cast including the ever-talented Rufus Sewell (Tom Builder), the on-screen legend that is Donald Sutherland (Earl Bartholemew) and actor Matthew Macfadyen (Prior Phillip) known to many as

TV Gold Buffy the Vampire Slayer Amber Alexander Reporter

'If the apocalypse comes, beep me'.

Passed off as just another weird cult hit by those who didn't get it, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is actually one of televisions most underrated gems, and definitely worth sinking your teeth into.

The premise of the show was to turn the horror movie cliché of the damsel in distress on its head.

Instead of running away from axewielding murderers, Buffy Summers (Sarah-Michelle Geller) is endowed with super human strength and embarks on a lifelong quest to rid the Earth of the forces of evil, 'I can beat up the demons until the cows come home...and then I can beat up the cows'.

Aided by her faithful pals Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendan), and with the help of her Watcher Giles (Anthony Head), as well as unlikely almost-ally Spike (James Marsters), Buffy battles an assortment of gruesome beasts and bloodsucking fiends, not to mention her biggest nemesis, High School.

The wonderful thing about Buffy is that slaying vampires is only a small part of what the show actually stands for. Through its run of seven series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has dealt with profound issues, including the nature of good and evil, life and death, love and

friendship, and most importantly how not to kill a boy on the first date.

While the first few series explore what it is like to grow up as an outsider, the later storylines get considerably darker as the characters find themselves fighting the monsters within.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is brilliantly written, acted and directed and you end up really caring

Good Neighbours?

Rosie WidringtonMay Reporter

In the land of soap opera, where the unreal reigns supreme and reality is left outside the door, a landmark episode deserves something special; a shocking twist or a dramatic cliff-hanger perhaps would be suitable to mark the occasion…

Well, the 6000th episode of the hugely popular Australian soap Neighbours last Friday on Five certainly celebrated its anniversary with a bang – or rather, a crash!

Over the years we've seen it all: murder, marriage, mysteries and mayhem.

Fan favourites like Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) and Elle Robinson (Pippa Black) have come and gone, while others like Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) and Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) have remained all the while. Twentyfive years of drama and heartbreak have all led to a moment filled with happiness and heartbreak.

It seemed only fitting that this landmark episode revolved primarily around one of the soap's best-loved and most-villainous characters Paul (Stefan Dennis) – the last remaining member of Ramsey Street's first family, the Robinsons.

Throughout his time on the long running soap, Paul Robinson has made many enemies and has even managed to alienate his own family in recent weeks; suffice to say that the list of people who want him out of Erinsborough – in or out of a bodybag – is a long one!

But who really would consider murder?

Following the events of the explosive 6000th episode it would appear so, as Paul is pushed from the balcony of Lassiters, his own hotel complex, it truely is 'who shot J.R?' Australian style!

There's certainly no shortage of plausible suspects either, and with several main characters like unstable ex-wife Lyn Scully (Janet Andrewatha), long-suffering current wife Rebecca Robinson (Jane Hall), angry step-son Declan Napier (Erin Mullally) and devious business-woman Diana Marshall (Jane Badler), it's set to be an exciting 'whodunit' over the coming weeks.

The rest of the episode, admittedly, passed in unremarkable fashion, as the feud between the Kennedys and Scullys continued and characters returned from love-struck teenagers, Donna Freedman (Margot Robbie) and Ringo Brown's (Sam Clark) wedding reception.

Ultimately though, this only served to make the episode's shocking conclusion even more dramatic and unexpected.

So, the question on everyone's lips: 'who pushed Paul Robinson?'

More importantly, will he survive?

Or is this destined to be a twisted tragedy?

Place your bets, but Neighbours fans will just have to wait to find out, in what promises to be a captivating storyline. Here's to Neighbours, and the next sixthousand episodes!

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22nd October 2010

Music

Diana Vickers to be sued

by Red Hot Chilli Peppers? new.uk.music.yahoo.com

Album Reviews

Jukebox

Shrag

Life! Death! Prizes!

William Franklin & Charlie Bailey Music Editors

Kanye West – Monster The last two years have seen some exciting collaborations (Them Crooked Vultures, Gorillaz and N.A.S.A providing some of the most inspired) and Kanye's G.O.O.D Friday releases also provide great examples. Of his free weekly releases (available for download from his website every Friday) Monster sticks out. Vocals are provided by Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj, a bizarre bunch that you wouldn't expect to see in the same country let alone studio. Nevertheless, it benefits from their various stylings and comes together as a hulking hip-hop beast.

The Klaxons – Venusia I'll say it even if no-one else will: Surfing The Void was a flop.

And rightfully so. It will hopefully teach labels not to cover their eyes and sing whenever someone suggests their acts should change their sound. Venusia is the only real highlight, with some genuinely intimidating guitar effects and wailing vocals. Honestly though, they should have retired after Myths Of The Near Future.

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Life! Death! Prizes! is the second album from the Brighton-based five piece who pride themselves on a distinctively British experience.

However, like many Alt-Rock acts before them, Shrag seem to fall a little short when it comes to creating their own unique sound. I can't help feeling that I've heard almost every track on this album before, just by Los Campesinos.

Donning faux cockney accents (which is quite an achievement, as they grew up in one of the most middle class areas of the country) and shouting over poorly produced instrumentals, this album seems more irritating than melodic. However, the album matures past the first couple of songs, breathing new air into the album.

The vocals are capable of rectifying a shaky start and act as the perfect accompaniment to the music as the shouting stops.

Generally though, the album still feels very amateur. The guitar is blocky, and with lyrics like 'maybe we should go to my dirty flat/talk about the things that make us fat' you can't help feeling that this band are just a group of friends messing about. I wonder if this is all they will ever stay?

Will Hunter

Deerhunter

Halycon Digest

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Bradford Cox is a music fan. Sure he's the front man of Deerhunter, the brains behind Atlas Sound and the blogosphere darling of Pitchfork.com, but he is, first and foremost, a music fan like you or I. Regular compilations or 'Micro-mixes' of his favourite songs appear on his site. Plus, he has been known to release free EPs online, just for kicks. He is, in short, one of us. A music lover who wants to share and collect and compile and be absorbed in a multi-layered sonic world. However, does this make for a good musician? The question is really whether these magpie-like tendencies towards sound can lend themselves to a cohesive album?

Unfortunately, in this case, they do not. Deerhunter's new album Halcyon Digest is beautiful and textured, but it doesn't flow as an album should. You are constantly being jerked from one sound to another.

The constant shifts make it hard to emotionally connect with the album and you are left a distant observer, listening to a band of passionate music lovers play snippets of genius, without expanding on anything.

James Grady

Essential Albums

I can think of no way to describe how elegantly sardonic the lyrics of this specialist indie rouser are, so I'll just quote the first line, 'I wanna tell you there's a really good reason why I came home wasted in the middle of the night/A tiny kingdom at the bottom of the trees where I was always a winner and I was usually right'.

Devin Townsend – Bend It Like Bender Manic depressive, musical genius and now complete pop convert, Devin Townsend goes full force with big melodies and lush female vocals on a track that will stick in your head for days. Check out the video as well for some arty, trippy joy.

Satan

Found on the classic Once Upon The Cross album, this is how old school death metal was supposed to sound: big, groovy and dirty as sin. Like Slayer on steroids, this track is over the top and all the better for it.

Serj Tankian

Imperfect Harmonies

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Imperfect Harmonies is the second solo album from the idiosyncratic former frontman of ArmenianAmerican alt-metal band, System Of A Down.

Whilst his first solo attempt Elect The Dead drew clear influences from the heavy and frenetic guitar-driven music of his S.O.A.D days, it seems that with his second effort, Tankian has made a concerted effort to carve out his own identity and relinquish any ties with his former band.

Aside from the distinctive vocals, Tankian has certainly achieved this with his latest, more experimental record which features the backing of a symphony orchestra as well as a significant electronic element.

Tankian describes his new sound as 'electro-orchestral – jazzrock', a term which prior to listening to the album, I was admittedly dubious of. After several listens, it appears I had good reason to be.

The end result is a disjointed, dischordant and clumsy arrangement of tracks. Very few of the songs actually work. Even tracks which may initially have had potential, such as the love song, Beat Us, which begins in an impressive

Upcoming

Pixies

Doolittle (1994) Alex Spencer Ex-Music Editor

Some bands write songs full of subtext and allusion, pleading for someone to crack their heads open and see just how clever it all is in there. Not the Pixies. Their best songs shoot past at a hundredmiles-per-hour in a cloud of gibberish.

All that poncey stuff was left to the listeners and journalists.

Maybe they were convinced of their inevitable legendary status.

Perhaps Frank Black just didn't know how not to write songs that are straight-up about aliens, Gods and tattooed tits.

What he did know was how to write songs that build. These are songs that come crashing against your speakers in overwhelming waves of noise. Songs that demand to be turned up louder, until there is just a red gooey mess left be-

#4 tween your ears.

Doolittle is as good an example of this as any, existing between the rougher debut Surfer Rosa and Bossanova. If it doesn't sound like I'm recommending this album in particular, it's because you should go and buy all four Pixies albums.

Right now.

They were a band of personalities. Kim Deal's swaggering bass and choirgirl-gone-bad backing vocals and the swooping circular guitars of Joey Santiago are just as prominent as the lunacy of Frank Black's screeching.

Now, look around the rest of this page. I bet it's all fringes, experimental sounds and references to philosophy. Not the Pixies, though, not never.

No other band could have made Doolittle's two-minute bursts of insane pop music. And unless we're very, very lucky, no one will ever do it again.

manner but is ruined by bizarre Middle Eastern instrumentation and melodramatic orchestral interludes.

Tankian describes his new sound as 'electroorchestral jazz rock' Never one to shy away from political controversey, the track Yes It's Genocide, with its Armenian lyrics and haunting piano melody is a moving tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and is one of few tracks on the album (along with the System Of A Down-esque track Electron) that are worthy of mention.

Overall, I was left disappointed and with the feeling that the album is unfortunately a little too aptly named.

Alisdair Macdaid

Supersonic Festival 22nd-24th October

Charlie Bailey Music Editor

Tokyo Police Club – Bambi

Deicide – When Rules His World

19

Now a firm fixture in the Birmingham music calendar, Capsule's Supersonic Festival is an eclectic showcase for leftfield music, old and new.

This year promises a typically strong lineup with hometown heroes Napalm Death bringing their dirty brand of grindcore back to the land that spawned them.

American Noise rock legends Swans return after a lengthy hiatus with a sound that, legend has it, was so heavy it made people vomit.

Industrial pioneers Godflesh will also be back after their recent reformation to add a little more local class to the proceedings.

Featuring everything from lo-fi, ambient and psychadelic through to metal and acoustic, there will be something for anyone even vaguely interested in unusual music.

And for those of you with a more artistic taste, there will be exclusive screenings of films and documentaries, as well as workshops and discussion groups.

All in all, this weekend looks like a great opportunity to experience the other side of music for everyone.

Toss The Boss Urban Village, Selly Oak 30th October

William Franklin Music Editor

Aiming to provide a showcase of local and resident student talent, Toss The Boss returns this Halloween after its successful gestation last June. Live bands are the order of the day and headlining the event are The Manic Shine whose prolific appearances have earned them accolades from NME and BBC Introducing. On record, they're a classic rock band with some undeniably funky grooves, so expect a stellar performance from them in the flesh.

Acoustic sets will go on through the day (the Tom Leech Trio will appear among others) and keeping you moving well into the wee hours are Birmingham graduates Disc Junkies and the Twelve10 Society. To keep you hydrated, drinks are offered with a nice risk-reward element – by rolling dice. The better your result, the better your order will be. An all-day BBQ and a Shisha lounge complete the picture of a very comfortable Saturday afternoon.

With the recently-formed LUMSoc and now Toss The Boss, new artists in Birmingham have two great local outlets for their creativity. See you there.

20 Music

Redbrick

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – Charlie Bailey, William Franklin

Spotlight On... Latitude

Music Diary 22nd-29th Friday 22nd Plan B O2 Academy

Hot Hot Heat O2 Academy 3

Saturday 23rd

Marina & The Diamonds Town Hall KRS-One HMV Institute

Alison Hendy went down to The W oods, all in the name of journalism Away for Reading Festival and having missed the Glastonbury ticket release due to over-sleeping, I decided this year to gamble a slice of my holiday on something smaller and therefore less likely to involve sitting at my computer, stamping on the refresh button for an hour straight. Pure laziness presented my local, the hippie-esque Latitude Festival, as an obvious option.

The festival is a quickly expanding music and culture weekend in Southwold, Suffolk – a place which otherwise only boasts a lighthouse, George Orwell and fish and chips.

First held in 2006, Latitude sells itself as an eco-friendly three day commune celebrating music, art, poetry, literature, theatre and fashion. Think Hay Festival, but with a stunning soundtrack and many more bean burger vendors, or Glastonbury, with a capacity of only 35,000.

Of course, with a line-up fea-

turing Sebastian Faulks, Bret-Easton Ellis, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Sadler's Wells and Nigel Kennedy, it's to be expected that people spied in the crowd are often holding a glass of white wine and pulling on a fleece for the evening chill. Despite this, the choice of musical acts this year was truly excellent: Mercury Prize winners The xx, fresh debutantes Everything Everything, Blalock championed band Wild Beasts, lyrical crowd pleasers Mumford & Sons, quirky jack-of-all-trades Charlotte Gainsbourg, veteran indie Gods Belle and Sebastian and the perpetually touring Frank Turner. All four music stages are crammed with talent, and as each arena fails any attempt to pigeon-hole artists, it is possible to watch the sweet yet static, 'mockney'-voiced Corinne Bailey Rae followed soon after by the experimental, lo-fi group Crystal Castles. Incidentally, the latter in-

Live Reviews

volved the scene of an insane Alice Glass clumsily straddling members of the crowd whilst trying to punch a girl in the face, before returning to the side of the stage to dry heave and stumble off into the wings fifteen minutes early.

Undoubtedly, Latitude provides utter wackiness. The area known as The Woods is, during the day, scattered with canvas and overalled figures with messy hair creating colourful images with chalk and cans of spray paint.

Dented pianos left in leafy alcoves invite strangers to play Muse and Beethoven tributes to the point when it becomes difficult to identify whether performers were even employed by Festival Republic, or had just brought their banjos and set up stage on a spare patch. At night, people cluster to the red-lit cabaret tent or the trippy DJ set in the woods. However, the festival does sleep and an eerie calm sets

AC/DC

Crystal Castles

Bob Dylan

It has been another English summer crammed with live music and many a festival. For me, this summer brought a chance to reacquaint myself with the rock'n'roll I loved in my teenage years.

And what better way to do it than Download Festival 2010, where the high voltage band AC/ DC headlined their own exclusive and personalised stage? The band steamed on with Rock'N'Roll Train framed by a huge steam engine crashing through the backdrop. Front man Brian Johnson blasted out his unique vocals and rang the giant bell which appeared to descend from the sky during Hells Bells.

However, it was the most flamboyant member of the band, Angus Young, who stole the show.

Shouts of 'ANGUS!' could be heard throughout Donington over the intro to Whole Lotta' Rosie. Despite being well into his fifth decade, Angus was as loony and entertaining as when my Dad first saw them in 1979. Still hopping around the stage in his infamous school boy outfit, Angus enthralled us all with the final guitar solo in Let there be Rock, not to mention the sexy strip tease to reveal his glorious AC/DC pants.

These veteran monsters of rock bring oldies and young ones alike together in an electric celebration of rock'n'roll. They are not to be missed.

The label 'Music terrorist' has often been associated with Crystal Castles, and Monday night was no exception.

Fans were treated to an array of music, from the melancholic splendour of indie band Team Ghost to fellow support band HEALTH. Crystal Castles delivered an energetic performance, with neither bassist John Famiglietti nor vigorous drummer BJ Mille stopping to catch their breath.

With high pitched screams filling the room, Alice Glass began ripping into Alice Practice and the inevitable raving, head banging and moshing ensued. The band played singles from their debut album Crystal Castles, including Courtship Dating, Reckless and 1991.

Amidst these were bursts of new material from the album Crystal Castles II. The trademark song of the night, Baptism, fuelled the crowd into a collision course, ready to catch Glass's crowd surfing performance.

After an hour on stage the crowd desired more, so the band returned with an encore of Crimewave, filling the sweaty hearts of diehard fans.

This was an audio experience not to be missed, a mix of live sounds that usually shouldn't go together, but in the case of Crystal Castles, works incredibly well.

The prospect of seeing Mr Dylan at Hop Farm Festival was set to be the highlight of the summer with crowd and critic expectations set high.

Unfortunately for me, I had envisioned witnessing the genius with the same passion of the sixties, which brought us Blonde on Blonde. People expecting to see a burned out 69 year old deliver a reluctant performance would be pleasantly appeased.

It seemed that what remained were rhythmic grunts over a tight backing band. His nasal drawl has become incomprehensibly strong and, it pains me to say, unpleasant to listen to. I struggled to understand which songs he was croaking.

Don't Think Twice It's Alright was a recognisable crowd pleaser.

The remainder of the gig blurred together and the crowd began to dwindle. There was a complete lack of audience interaction and the same image of the static band did nothing to improve the ambience.

The lacklustre atmosphere improved with a stand out rendition of Like a Rolling Stone and ended with Forever Young, which was tinged with irony as he warbled, 'May your songs always be sung, may you stay forever young'.

I question Mr Dylan should step back and finally finish the 'never ending tour.'

Lucy Britton

Download Festival 11/06

Rebecca Sibson

Wulfrun Hall 09/10

Rutchna Bawrie

Sunday 24th in at about 3am. There is a distinct lack of anxiety about whether or not you and your tent will be carried off to burn on a deodorant fuelled fire by a faux-angry mob.

Latitude makes a real effort to provide a spectacle; multi-coloured sheep, giant papier-mâché flowers and cloaked stiltwalkers become an everyday sight. Despite being slightly bookish, it is undoubtedly an attention-seeking festival with an exceptional line-up of new talent and a fantastic selection of bill-toppers – a welcome alternative, in this sense, to the over-used, tired out stadium rock offered by so many other festivals. You might want to consider Latitude as a kind of timewarp, before the dawn of gas canister bans, Kate Moss and the bright, moneymaking idea of cramming people into a field like cattle. If you decide to go next year, be prepared. It's only going to get bigger.

Forever Never & Sworn To Oath O2 Academy 3

Monday 25th Alter Bridge O2 Academy

Tuesday 26th UB40 Symphony Hall

Tame Impala with November And The Criminal O2 Academy 3

Wednesday 27th

The Strange Death Of Liberal England The Flapper

Thurdsay 28th

Dillinger Escape Plan O2 Academy Egyptian Hip-Hop The Flapper

Hop Farm Fest.

03/07

Above: Crystal Castles, Below: AC/DC

22nd October 2010

Redbrick

Lifestyle

redbrickonline.co.uk

Fierce or Finished?

Catwalk We want to be Forever 21

One of America's top fashion chains, Forever 21, has landed in Birmingham. This giant American clothing retailer boasts 480 stores across the US and many more throughout both the Middle East and the Far East, and it has chosen Birmingham's Bullring as its first destination in Europe. A store in Dublin will be opened later this year.

The first flagship store will cover two floors of the Bullring and

will be situated in the former locations of Curry's and Borders. Each floor totals 53,000 square feet of space which will feature a women's clothing range, a men's department, children's clothing as well as shoes and accessories.

This is a vast amount of space and the venture itself has excited many avid shoppers, especially as the retail team behind the move previously snubbed London, instead opting to place the first UK store in Birmingham.

The website for the store states that it is 'celebrated by many style-conscious and trend-savvy shoppers,' so Birmingham was always destined to be one of its many homes!

The Forever 21 story began in 1984, with the first store opening in Los Angeles, originally called Fashion 21. However, sales within the first year sky-rocketed, spurring the owner and founder to create a chain of fashion stores, opening a new store around the US every six months.

Several members of the Lifestyle team have visited a branch on a trip across the Atlantic and have excitedly described the treats that await us. The Forever 21 story, as well as the first-hand experience of our own fashionistas, is proof that

Skirt $17.80 the store is 'the source for the most current fashions at the greatest value,' as the website claims.

Forever 21's key pieces are set to be their boyfriend cardigans, suede ankle boots and faux leather mini skirts and shorts.

If you are impatient to browse the apparel Forever 21 has to offer then head over to the website, but just make sure you don't drool over your laptop. We can see from the styles (and the price tags) it will compete with our high street favourites, New Look, Topshop and River Island, and deservedly so: the clothes are gorgeous and so on trend it hurts.

Excitement within the city is evident when observing the in-

Fierce

trigued shoppers who frequently stop to examine the advertising boards covering the face of the shop, straining to catch a glimpse of the décor.

And when exactly will this trend-setting store be opening its doors for business? Lifestyle can exclusively reveal that early November is when we will be queuing up with the money left over from our student loan, clutching that pair of glitzy heels that we eyed up on the website a few weeks ago.

Aren't you glad you chose Birmingham, the city that Forever 21 chose as their prime location, as the place you wanted to study? Let the cat fights and shoulder barging commence.

Heels $29.80

Rosie Hatch examines how to diet without breaking the bank

Book of the week Blow by Blow: The story of Isabella Blow by Detmar Blow and Tom Sykes. An absolute fashion must-read. A poignant tome charting the rise of a true English fashion maven, who killed herself by drinking weed killer.

iPhone App of the week Vente-privee. This genius little application allows users to access massively discounted fashion and accessories sales whilst on the move. Recent sales have included Diesel eyewear and Philosophy di Alberta Ferreti. Seriously, check it out.

The arrival of the infamous student loan We have been waiting for you all summer with bated breath and now those must have purchases are very much an affordable reality.

Maggie Smith As the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. Anyone who can rock a dead fox is worthy of fierce.

Factor fever A predictable contender but a worthy one to say the least. Current debates being Cheryl's new fiery look, Diva Fever's 'shock' exit and the nation's love for Matt.

Studentrecipes.com Struggling to conjure up a culinary delight for meal times? Log on and you can search for thousands of recipes.

Health Student dieting: lose lbs not £s

Cut your carbs: have your chilli without rice, and try to reduce your alcohol intake I cannot deny that I am somewhat way to go, apparently it's worth not going to pretend it tastes exobsessed with dieting, or at least doubling your shopping bill to actly the same because it doesn't, the concept of dieting. I have nu- spare your body all those pesky but it does taste nice, and you'll get merous diet books sat on my shelf: toxins. I'm beginning to think the used to it in no time. everything from Skinny Bitch to only reason celebrities are so skinGive up carbs at dinner time, The South Beach Diet. Most of ny is that they are the only ones even though they are the staple of a them are vastly different, but they who can afford to be! student diet. Pasta, noodles, chips all seem to have one thing in comOn a quest to find a plan that and potatoes are easy foods and mon: sticking to their plan is going will cut calories but not my shoe taste so good that it's hard not to to cost you a small fortune. budget, I have come up with a few overload.

The Detox Diet wants me to tips to help you slim down without It isn't advisable to give up buy twenty different kinds of fruit, burning through your student loan carbohydrates altogether though. including papayas and cherries; by early November.

Leaving them out of your evening The GI Diet suggests I stock up on Switch meat for Quorn (or other meal means your body doesn't auextra-lean meats, including veal veggie brands). They are at least tomatically store the energy from and rabbit, and Skinny Bitch gives half the price of their meaty coun- the carbs as fat whilst you're sat me a list of specific products I'm al- terparts, and all contain less than about at night time. I must stress lowed to purchase as I am now on a 3% fat. Compare this to beef, which that this is inadvisable if you're vegan, sugar-free, wheat-free diet. has around 5-10% depending on headed out that evening – your Nightmare! the cut (rising to 20% for mince) stomach needs a good lining!

And of course, I am reminded and chicken, which has up to 6%, Speaking of drinking, make constantly that organic is the only and Quorn comes out on top. I'm vodka and a diet mixer your drink

21

of choice. Alcohol is a major cause of weight gain amongst students, and beer, cider and wine are some of the worst culprits.

Vodka only has about 50 calories a shot, whereas a bottle of wine has around 600! And whatever you do, stay away from alcopops, which have extremely high sugar contents.

Try some frozen food that isn't of the chicken nuggets and chips variety! Frozen food tends to be cheaper than fresh, it lasts a lot longer and freezing food helps it retain vitamins for an extra health boost. Frozen fish is a great option for low-calorie, tasty food, and frozen vegetables are a great accompaniment.

If you can't possibly bring yourself to give up meat, the frozen alternatives are usually about half the price. Just be careful to follow the defrosting instructions carefully so you don't risk food poisoning.

Dieting can be cheap and easy so long as you're sensible about it. As much as I like to kid myself, ultimately I know that if I eat less chocolate and more carrots I will drop a few pounds (although this won't stop me indulging from time to time).

So ditch the diet books and use your head – you'll have the figure you want in no time.

The Cinema With Freshers' week regrettably over, why not take a break from the booze and take advantage of Orange Wednesdays? Your liver will thank you later.

Lanvin for H&M Drops 23rd of November. Scream. We predict a riot! One almost as mental as when Krispy Kreme gives away doghnuts. P.S Avoid the doughnuts.

Rosie Keegan

Finished Gamu-gate Just let it go people!

Yes it's sad but there is no need for every headline and Facebook status to be about it.

Extortionate taxi prices Since when does it cost a tenner to get down Dawlish Road? I would rather walk in my killer heels, thanks.

Hareem pants These unflattering trews need to be shoved to the back of your wardrobe.

Try tapered trousers for a similar look without looking like Aladdin.

The building works at Uni They need to be finished now! Hot builders aside, it looks ugly and the incessant noise does not help the hangover either!

Primark on a Saturday It gets so claustrophobic in there that buying that £6 bag just doesn't seem worth the queues.

Cold wintry nights out Do you take a coat? If so, do you put it in the cloakroom? Do you wear heels in the ice and risk looking like Bambi? Decisions, decisions....

Bills, bills, bills Who knew that heating could cost so much?

Wearing a hoodie and wrapping yourself in a blanket suddenly seems like a far better option.

Geraldine Tovey

22

Redbrick

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Lifestyle

Editors – Briony Singh, Rob Lewis

Issue Want empowerment? Think Male. Fashion Work the trend Grace Owen

Julia Whiting

Reporter

Reporter

'Do I look fat in this dress?' It's a question asked by thousands of women, but it seems that female celebrities are fixated with highlighting their apparent 'flaws' more so than us mere mortals.

Sheryl Crow thinks she has a 'very crooked nose', Taylor Swift thinks her eyes are too small and even Megan Fox, the focus of many a girl crush, feels the need to tell reporters she is 'painfully insecure'.

For a complete contrast, look no further than male celebrities: Liam Gallagher claims that Oasis is 'the greatest band in the world'; Kanye West admits his 'greatest pain in life' is that he will never be able to see himself perform live, and there seems to be numerous male R&B artists who believe they are sexual gods.

Consider even your average male and female University student; generally if a girl is turned down by a guy, by default she initially takes it personally and assumes she is not attractive enough.

On the other hand, if a guy is rejected by a girl, he'll question her sanity for a moment and then move on, pride unhurt, to her hotter best friend.

To be honest, neither sex appears to have a full grasp of reality, but I know which attitude sounds most enjoyable, and it doesn't in-

volve letting everyone know what parts of my body I'm not happy about. Everyone has insecurities, no matter how thin, attractive, intelligent or outgoing they may be, and while it's great to share these with close friends, the rest of the world definitely doesn't need to know.

It's a well-known fact that if you appear confident people will respond to you more positively, and generally the male population seems to have mastered this idea.

And attaining this male view on life is easier than you may think. If you have things you don't like about yourself, stop obsessing about them and start focussing your attention on things you do like. As Carrie Bradshaw would say, 'it's the reviews you give yourself that matter'.

Recognise that other people's opinions should not define who you are or how you feel about yourself – and that brushing off

any negative opinions is incredibly empowering. Maybe people dislike you because they're jealous of you, so there must be something within you to be jealous about. Or at least it's a good way of looking at things.

Since adopting this 'male attitude' my life has become richer and a lot more fun. I no longer blame myself if I don't get the highest grade in my year, but instead work as hard as possible to realise my own potential. If my hair isn't looking too great one day, I replace my 'God I look a mess' attitude with a 'Well, I still think I look pretty damn good' thought.

And hey, if you do come across someone who doesn't think you're marvellous, take a moment to pity their poor judgement then and move on. It's surely what any selfrespecting male would do.

When it comes to believing in yourself, men are definitely on to something.

Debate Cheap vs Chic?

Lifestyle debates the merits of getting it all out and asks is less really more?

Show it off!

However, seeing as she has the body and oozes confidence, why should she not embrace the mantra of 'tight is right' and dress to enhance her femininity?

Feeling daring?

Less is more!

After Sunday night's episode of The Only Way Is Essex on ITV2, I found myself lusting after their vacuous lifestyles of extensions, vajazzles and acrylics. Perhaps that's more to do with the 'glamour' of Essex in comparison to a grungy Selly Oak, but it has also helped me conclude that men officially do prefer the 'less is more' look.

In the name of research I texted twenty five boys to ask what they would ideally like to see girls wear on a night out. A range of responses came back but amongst them...'something that shows off the curves', 'a dress that makes the bum look pow!' and 'revealing but dare I say, not slutty'.

I also asked, based on clothes alone, who they preferred from Alexa Chung and Katy Perry. Granted, these two women have completely different bodies but also are at opposite ends of the spectrum in style. All but one responded very much in favour of Perry's taste in clothes (perhaps helped along by certain assets).

I am by no means advocating that women should be dressing purely for men nor suggesting that our inner Chloe Mafia should be unleashed upon unsuspecting lecturers.

However, the choice we make when it comes to outfits coupled with bags of confidence can give us that femme fatale feeling that Megan Fox, Beyonce and Cheryl have nailed.

Skimpy does not necessarily mean slutty and the way we dress to flaunt what we've been blessed with makes a statement of female empowerment; to enjoy and make the most of being young and care free.

The Only Way Is Essex is basically the UK's version of MTV's Jersey Shore – everyone is just as orange, fake and loud and both are representative of a national subculture. It's car crash television – the girls on the show think they're glamorous but most men watching will be cringing and appreciating the fact that their girlfriend is not like that.

The typical Essex girl look can be seen all over the UK, comprising of fake chests and hair, too much make up and not enough clothing.

It will often attract men of a similar type and whilst the look may work on a drunken night out, it often fails to attract a lot of men in the long term.

Ask most guys whether they

With camel shades and sheepskin taking the autumn catwalks by storm, you may feel perplexed as to which trend to invest in.

Each season we face the same dilemma – what will be a fabulous investment and what will be a five minute money waster. On a student budget, this problem is more advanced, so I feel it is time to reveal how each of the above can be showcased at minimal cost.

Arguably the biggest Autumn trend this year is camel. This feminine and subtle style is easy to wear, even for the most faint hearted of fashionistas.

For minimal cost you might invest in a simple camel tee or vest to update last year's separates.

Topshop have a range of jersey tops for as little as £6 (£5.40 with student discount!)

If your budget is less constrained, the High Street has effortlessly interpreted the trend, offering shorts, trousers and skirts.

H&M has a pair of beige panelled trousers for just £14.99, and they have recently launched an online shop along with Zara. New Look has a practical knitted skirt in 'stone', which will keep you warm in the cold weather. The skirt can be teamed with calf or ankle boots to lock in extra warmth.

If you want to go for a smarter look, cropped trousers are an option. A suede version of these can be found in Dorothy Perkins for £25.00. Shorts are particularly 'this season', as animal hides have become must-haves among high end designers.

Moving swiftly onto sheep skin, this material has fast become an iconic trend. It is hard to find

a jacket that doesn't have a sheepskin collar for that matter! For those who want to rock this look . I have some advice for you. With the temperature falling quickly and it is better to invest in a longer sheepskin jacket, as many of the cropped jackets on the High Street will become impractical over the coming weeks.

For those on a budget New Look has a waterfall faux sheepskin jacket for £25.00, but for those who are looking to invest for the winter months, you might prefer the longer version at £54.99.

Keep your eyes peeled for the 20% student discount that New Look periodically advertises.

For those who prefer not to latch onto the sheepskin bandwagon, fear not, as other types of faux fur are equally as trendy. For an all out fur look, River Island has an excellent coat at £89.99.

But if this is too much for your bank account to handle, there are plenty of cheaper options.

And for my last tip, don't forget to check out the mid-season sales that have now begun, as you may be able to bag yourself a sheepy bargain!

like seeing their girlfriend in next to nothing anywhere outside the bedroom, and I'm sure they will answer 'no'.

Boys are jealous creatures and more often than not they'd prefer the drunk guys in clubs not to ogle their girlfriends and 'accidentally' touch their behinds when walking past.

Classier girls attract a lot less unwanted attention so most men will have more respect for them and be more inclined to take them home to their mums.

The crux of the problem with the typical Essex girl look is its lifespan – fake tan, fake hair and fake boobs may look great for one night only but from my experience, a lot of guys feel cheated when they find out that what is on the surface is pure artifice.

While everyone is entitled to their own sense of style, I believe there is a sophisticated medium between grandma-chic and Jodie Marsh, to be found and stuck to.

Derrina Jebb and Julia Good

This season's style dictats are pointing towards a wearable womanly silhouette in a muted tonal colourway, so far, so on-trend. If you're feeling daring you might add an element of discipline with a splash of leather tailoring or a sophisticated animal print accessory, but if you're looking to remain on the right side of cool this winter then that's about as wild as it's going to get this year.

To be honest, I'm bored already and don't even have to wear this stuff (I'm a fella incase you forgot). So how about getting a refund on those oh-so perfect suedette camel shoe boots and dressing up like there's no tomorrow, in the vein of the true style eccentrics.

I'm spotting the over-hyped shearling trim and badly died diarrhoea camel confections everywhere already, and I'm guessing they'll reach saturation point within weeks. Seriously if you want to get noticed ditch the Chloe runway as your source of style inspiration and look at some of these highend bag ladies for an idea of how to work it like a bonafide fashion fiend.

Anna Dello Russo: Editor of Japanese Vogue, this fashion wildchild literally busts full on runway looks including mad styling everyday of her fashion soaked existence.

The late great Isabella Blow: She discovered Alexander McQueen, purchased his MA collection in installments and pulled off esoteric dressing like only a mad woman can. One-off pieces made

directly onto her body by the dark prince of Fashion himself, LEGEND. Zandra Rhodes: Fashion and Interior Designer her life is as crazy, glamorous and extrovert as her designs. Far from a wallflower.

The Olsens: Fans since their Two of A Kind days, The Olsens' epitomise the young and modern 'I've just escaped from solitary' look and always accessorise to the nth degree.

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Vivien Cavendish: Stella Tennant's granny has been known to feed the chickens in head-to-toe Balenciaga.

The Queen: Must be the only person with the ability to wear an acid lemon twinset and still rule check out the handbags!

And for the boys: Andre Leon-Talley: Anna Wintour's right-hand man is never knowingly underdressed, wearing a 1960s diamond encrusted Piaget watch and sporting the whole line of Louis Vuitton accessories just to play Tennis.

Obviously all these fashion folk have more or less unlimited budgets, but we can at least take inspiration from their maverick style choices, and remember if anyone gives you a funny look whilst you rock your latest 'running out of happy pills' ensemble, then just shake your mane/birds-nest/deliberately bad weave and scream 'Baby, don't look at me I am SHY!' before stomping off into the darkness and into the fashion light.

Rob Lewis

Redbrick

22nd October 2010

Travel

redbrickonline.co.uk

23

Airports continue to be no man's lands Emily Booth Reporter

Airports bring out the worst in everyone. As soon as you enter the 'Departures' swing doors and start squeaking your way over to the check-in desk, it is like you have entered a bubble of heightened hysteria.

You feel guilty as soon as you walk in and find yourself worrying quite seriously what they will do if they find your blunt first aid scissors in your hand luggage. You become suspicious of everyone and begin to wonder why you ever agreed to leave the country. Even worse is when you spot a child; despite the fact that in the real world most children are fairly inoffensive, in an airport they translate into time bombs and you find yourself subconsciously watching them with mounting dread that they will be on your flight.

Some airports are worse than others, however, and after six months travelling around Asia, I now consider myself something of an expert. Having previously only really known Aberdeen airport intimately, the stream-lined sophistication of the likes of Hong Kong and Beijing was a shock to the system.

Big and glossy, they house countless restaurants and shops that could rival Bond Street, but it is the staff that are the most impressive.

Big white teeth, big smiles and big hair greet you at the door, politely ignoring the huge 'back packer' sign you have stamped across your forehead, and usher you from A to B as if it was what they were born to do. There truly is no compari-

Cattle in flight: Ryanair in business son to the thin lipped, tan-tastic horrors that stamp your passports at most UK airports. Then, once you are through the slightly terrifying security systems, the Duty Free could entertain you for hours.

In fact, after being left rather unenamoured with Beijing itself, we arrived at its airport 5 hours before our flight just so we could indulge in clean lavatories and the 'try me' sections of the beauty counters.

Not all airports are so organised or foreigner friendly however, as we discovered in Mongolia's Chinggis Khaan Airport. After landing onto a runway perched precariously on Mongolia's lunar landscape we were bustled out of the plane by red-cheeked air hostesses, more Hattie Jaques than trolley dolly lovelies, along with huge Russian businessmen to col-

ihateryanair.org Maddy Barr-Hamilton Reporter

Ihateryanair.org is a website created by Robert Tyler, from Walthamstow, North-East London. It is a forum for the public to share their own 'horror stories' and previous travel experiences with Ryanair.

Mr Tyler was forced to remove the website after legal action from the company who stated that the site took unfair advantage of its name and made false claims. I, however, couldn't help agreeing with Robert Tyler, after experiencing Ryanair's peculiarities first hand.

My particular stress was about hand luggage allowance rather than cramped sitting space, ridiculous food/fluid costs, and the stampede to actually board the aircraft. A friend and I were going to Gran Canaria and had decided to take only hand luggage to cut down on costs and to speed up journey time.

Before we got on the plane, we were all forced to place our one item of hand luggage into the 'bag size box checker cage' to make sure we all weren't sneaking on too many luxuries that would make our journey more enjoyable.

The man before had managed

to push his bag into 'the cage box', but was now struggling to remove it under the disapproving eye of the Ryanair hostess. Now it was my turn.

Apparently I had to fit everything I had bought in duty free into my suitcase, along with my handbag. After much rearranging, the bag was shut. Now, to fit it in that box... There was absolutely no way it was going to fit and the air hostess and I both knew it. So the case was open again. In the end, I ended up wearing most of my clothes including two jumpers and a coat.

I had to fill my coat pockets with the entire contents of my handbag and lunch.

Now extremely hot and weighed down, I managed to lift my case into the box which, to my relief, was a perfect fit. The next hurdle was to down the tea that we had just bought before our tickets were taken, as for some unknown reason, we were not allowed to take them with us. I did not throw away a single item and as soon as I was aboard the plane, I was able to return all of my belongings to their rightful place in my bag.

A pointless exercise then. No more than an inconvenience to passengers, but an experience that adds to the stress that apparently comes with flying Ryanair.

lect our bags from the airport's one, broken, baggage carousel. This required nothing more than British nerve however – we would need something much stronger when it came to leaving. On arriving for our 5am flight to Bangkok we were told that it had been cancelled as there weren't enough people to fill the plane and the next flight was at 5pm.

With a 12 hour delay, one broken iPod, no books, we browsed its one shop, the tourist centre, which, at 8ft by 6ft consisted of nothing more than postcards and furry objects. We sat on our bags and decided to do the one sensible thing: open a bottle of 40% Chinggis Khaan vodka and hope that it would get us through. It did, and the next thing I knew we were in Bangkok.

Andy Mitchell on Flickr Ever since watching Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, where Bridget is falsely accused of drug trafficking, I have had an irrational fear of Bangkok airport. I am not a drug trafficker, and the most illegal thing I have ever done was stealing a sweet from the pick-and-mix store, aged five.

Even then, I was so riddled with guilt that I spat it back up on the counter. Added to this irrational fear was the fact that Bangkok was in the middle of political rioting and if we had left the airport, which we needed to do to reach Laos, our insurance would have been void. We decided that, as the wimps that we were, the most sensible thing to do would be to sleep in the airport and get a cheap flight the next day to Vientiane. Finding somewhere to sleep with all

our bags was our first port of call, and after testing numerous seats from the many levels that makes up Bangkok Airport, we settled on a bench in a greasy Chinese restaurant.

My travelling companion possessed that infuriating ability to be able to sleep anywhere, so as she slept I devised my own, rather jet lagged way of preventing thieves/ drug planters from tampering with our bags; strapping all our bags together with a metal dog chain I had picked up in China to my leg and the table next to us- my theory being that I would feel it if anyone was moving our bags.

Needless to say, we had no problems and Bangkok Airport actually turned out to be the most pleasant, with all the expected amenities and the even more distracting 'do you think he bought her?' conversations.

I could go on to list the horrors of South West China's Kunming Airport, or the tin shed that was Luang Prabang, but after the varying experiences of fifteen airports you become immune to all problems. Be it delays, lost bags or being checked for liquid explosives with the option choice of 'you can let us check, or not, in which case you will be detained in the country,' I found that there wasn't much a cheap coffee, British grit and a chocolate muffin couldn't cure.

They really are a no man's land, temples to McDonalds at 3am and scary velour tracksuits, but as long as you're wearing your body armour of bloody-mindedness and determination to get through it, they are not so bad after all.

Stand and deliver Claire Chinn Reporter

It seems 'no frills' is fast becoming an overstatement when booking your Ryanair flight. The likely introduction of its paradoxical 'standing up' seating is set to be the next money saving plan for cheaper tickets for weekends away.

Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, has also set out plans to introduce a £1 charge to use the toilet. With claims of £5 tickets for a standing up seat, are these cuts really going to be reflected in the cost of travel for customers? Initially you may think 'brilliant, loan's in, let's go to Berlin for the weekend for a fiver!' Then you take a second to think about it... You will be standing up on an aeroplane.

Not getting a seat on the train for a couple of hours is annoying.

Your feet may hurt but it's do-able.

Let's not forget, a train doesn't, by some baffling scientific calculations, take off. Even more importantly, it doesn't land either. Just think of all the things that being sat in a fairly uncomfortable yet comfortingly safe seat prevents. Would a seat belt bolted to a stool give you the same reassurance?

The Civil Aviation Author-

The new 'standing seat' ity has said there are still safety requirements to be met. Which means that this is not a definite rejection of the idea. I am not a timid flyer; I've had the 'frequent flyer' t-shirt since my sixth birthday trip to Disneyland, yet this idea scares me. Is Ryanair going too far to save money? Despite the increasing likelihood of this plan going through safety checks and regulations, the reality of putting our safety at risk for a cheap holiday is becoming too real.

As for being charged £1 to go to the toilet, would we stand for

Google images this anywhere else? Is this not against some human or consumerist right somewhere? You might argue: we're charged to use a toilet in a train station, so do airlines have the same right? McDonalds provide a low quality service for a budget price, if they were to charge for the use of the toilet, would you still eat here?

Is it worth risking your safety for a cheap seat? Should airlines be allowed to treat flyers like cattle?

Ticket sales might say otherwise out of desperation for a holiday. I, however, will stick to my seat.

24 Travel

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

A whistle-stop tour of Europe Rachel Rogers Reporter

I never considered taking a gap year before university. Well, I did briefly, but the idea of travelling to far off places scared the socks off me. I was a stay-at-home kind of girl, but my first year in halls helped me out of this. After doing my own laundry, cooking and getting the train back home, I realised that I could in fact look after myself!

So when friends suggested going inter-railing – the phenomenon of travelling across Europe by train – I jumped at the chance.

We backpacked across Europe for three weeks and went to ten different cities. With a lot of time spent travelling from place to place, we did not have very long in each city, often only one day. Many people would say that this is not the way to see the world. And I would certainly agree; I cannot say that I have 'done' Germany after two days in Berlin, or even say that I have 'done' Berlin, but there are many advantages of this whistlestop tour of Europe.

Dorms are a great for meeting people from all over the world, until you have to catch an early morning train...

I may not have had time to see the vampire castles of Bulgaria, but a couple of days in a city are enough to see the top sights. Cramming lots into a small amount of time, with little free time makes the trip feel longer, thus making

Debate

The Great Bed Debate

CAMPING Daniela Ferdenzi Reporter

Railway Track the most of your money.

Not that inter-railing is a budget holiday. It obviously depends where you go, but Eastern Europe is far cheaper than in the West.

Hostels in Istanbul were about £10 a night for a dorm, where as those in Amsterdam were closer to £25 a night.

This is also where you have the choice between private rooms and dorms. Dorms are great for meeting people from all over the world, which is brilliant, until you have an early morning train and your room mates don't. This is something which can be coped with and I would recommend a dorm over private room to meet other people who can recommend places to go.

Many hostels in Europe have

Trickymundo2009 on Flickr kitchens which guests can use, making the trip cheaper – you can buy food from a supermarket and cook in the communal kitchen instead of eating out all the time.

This also has a multitude of social benefits.

Constantly moving around has its down sides as you have to live out of a suitcase or backpack, struggle with money (the majority of the countries I went to did not use the Euro), and sit through 14hour train journeys. However, it is so exciting going to a new place every few days. There are places I may not go back to, but interrailing certainly opens your eyes to the diversity of Europe, and reveals many places I wish to explore more of.

Picture of the Week

Redbrick Editors – Ed Gordon, James Cull

The great outdoors: air you can breathe without inhaling fumes, hearing the sounds of wildlife instead of passing cars, and cooking porridge on a portable gas stove instead of ordering pizza from your local Domino's.

What better way is there to truly get to grips with this lifestyle than camping? Forget the central heating, internet and phone signal, setting up camp in the middle of a field is the best way to literally 'get away from it all' that you could possibly ask for.

Yes, it may be dirty and wet, and it may cause arguments with your friends whilst trying to pitch that thirty-year-old tent you found in your dad's shed, but camping for me has always been the most memorable travelling experience.

Your holiday becomes more about chilling out in the campsite, participating in a communal game of ultimate frisbee, watching the stars at night and staying up until the early hours drinking around the campfire. And when it rains, just sit inside the biggest and driest of your friends' tents and drink in there.

Furthermore: festivals. Anyone who doesn't lug along their tent and sleeping bag and books into a nearby hotel or hostel is most probably an arrogant arse and missing out on the best part the festival. For example, coming back from the night's revelries at Bestival this year, only to find a man asleep in my sleeping bag inside my tent is just one of the fond memories I recall from camping this year.

Camping - whatever the circumstance, wherever the destination, and whether a good or bad experience at the time - never fails to leave you with memories that stay with you forever. Incidentally, upon waking up this rather drunk man, he informed me he was simply 'looking for Stephen.'

HOSTELS Stuart Gittings Reporter

Firstly, I'd like to state that I am rather prejudiced against tents, sleeping bags and pretty much all camping apparel because of being a taller guy. It is with great difficulty that I find an adequatelysized tent to fit into without having to sprawl across the person next to me or, in less intimate circumstances, imitate the occupant of a coffin.

This summer I camped in a borrowed tent on a safari site, spending most of the night flashing my torch periodically to check whether the army of fleas, which had assembled on the roof, had migrated into my sleeping bag.

The bottom line is that camping is uncomfortable. When you're travelling you need some sleep; camping doesn't provide that.

It is well known that camping is cheaper than staying at a hostel, but is not usually accounted for that hostels are often no more than £1 to £3 more per night and provide a better time. Hostels generally offer a warm and clean bed in a dorm shared with anywhere between 4 to 24 people.

The prospect of sharing a room with possibly up to 23 strangers may seem daunting at first but you rapidly become aware of the sense of community and friendliness it entails. The first time I stayed at a hostel, I had a collection of padlocks for my rucksack, but soon realised that these would-be thieves were, in reality, too occupied in planning their travels to steal my Jesus sandals.

I haven't even touched on the great travel advice you receive from dorm mates, the party atmosphere, or ridiculous drinking games which epitomise many hostels. It is definitely something to be experienced rather than simply read about it. Next time you travel, don't bother excavating your mouldy old tent. Book a hostel instead.

Jammin' away.....

Zara Sekhavati reviews the Jammin' Party Hotel in Rimini, Italy

Railay, Krabi, Thailand

Maddy Barr-Hamilton

Before you even see the front door, the words 'Jammin' and 'Party' are splattered across a bright yellow Volkswagen van outside the hostel. Yes, you've come to the right place!

From free pasta and drinks to a jamming music room and an unforgettable hostel pet, Jammin' Party Hostel in Rimini, Italy is the ideal place for any exhausted traveller or for those looking for an east coast tan. With the beach less than five minutes away, the hostel really is in a perfect location.

Staff are always friendly, approachable and more than willing to direct you to the selection of nearby Italian restaurants (with special Jammin' discounted prices!) and local clubs. The energetic party scene of open air clubs is something that Rimini is well known for.

Jammin' Party Hostel offers a

range of different sized rooms for various numbers of people; single sex rooms are also available. Each person is provided with their own individual locker so there's no need to lug around unnecessary belongings – and of course your passport.

With an overall rating of 92% on Hostelbookers.com, you can't go wrong with this hostel! Get Bob Marley on your iPod and make sure you jam! Perfecto!

Have we inspired you to pack your bags and jet off into the sun? Flights to Federico Fellini Airport, the nearest airport to Rimini, cost around £145 for 2 people including taxes and baggage charges flying from London Stansted.

Rooms at the Jammin' Party Hotel cost from around €13 (£11.35) a night.

Head over to the Travel section on the website for our all-new weekly motoring column and more exclusive online articles

Redbrick

redbrickonline.co.uk

22nd October 2010

Sport

25

Women's rugby union pulverise woeful Warwick Page 27

Page aiming for strong title defence Captain's profile Name: Sarah Page Nickname: Pagey Age: 21 Course: Sociology Year of Study: 3rd School: Millfield National Team: England Senior caps: 2 Best sporting moment: BUCS gold 2010 Who do you regard as your toughest opponent this season?

Loughborough is always a massive game for us. Last year they were quite weak compared to what they have been. But this year they've got a few young England girls. Also Durham, who we played last year in the final. I reckon those two will be the toughest.

Sarah Page earlier this week Dave Rudge Sport Reporter

Back in March, the women's hockey 1sts lit up university sport, beating Durham 3-1 to clinch the BUCS Championship. As the girls prepare to defend their title, newly appointed captain Sarah Page speaks to Redbrick about the team's chances ahead of the new campaign.

The new BUCS season is about to get under way. Are you excited?

I'm so excited. We've had two

Tom Flathers

friendlies and won them both. Our first BUCS game is this Wednesday against Loughborough, which is obviously a massive rivalry. We need to start well.

After winning gold convincingly last season, how confident are you of retaining your title?

We're really confident. We have the potential to go all the way again.

We all love BUCS. We just want to play well as a team and there's no reason why we shouldn't get to the finals again and win gold.

new players in and if they make a mistake the last thing they need is you to shout 'What are you doing?!'

I'll be looking to use the experience I've gained over the last two seasons to help them.

You put in some excellent performances last season. Do you think the captaincy could affect the mentality of your play?

No, I don't think so. Obviously if you're losing, it's down to you to get the team's spirits up, but I hope it doesn't affect my game.

What's the standard of the new intake of freshers like?

Really high, actually. We've got a couple of England girls who are here through the National Performance Centre (NPC). They've played U18s and are in the U21s setup.

Fresher-wise? I'd probably say Alice Sharp, she plays in midfield.

She's got really good skills. She will literally make defenders look silly.

I don't know if it presents a special challenge. It's something I'd love to do and as captain you have to take it more on yourself to help get the team focussed and get them to gel, because you're in charge. But it's not up to one person, it's the whole team.

Did you lose many key players in the summer?

I'm quite vocal. I play in midfield; that helps because you can talk to the forwards and the defenders.

I'm supportive; we've got a lot of

It's amazing having someone like Susie. She's just been in India, she came back yesterday, and we've been hearing all her stories. She was saying they had gunmen actually walking them into the stadium!

She's a fantastic player, incredible, and it's good to have someone like her around.

With morale still soaring from last season, and with the influential Page as captain, the Brummy girls must surely start the season as favourites. However, their opponents, sore at having been so outclassed last term, will undoubtedly mount a fierce challenge.

Is there a particular one-towatch?

Does the prospect of leading the side to successive titles, as captain, present a special challenge for you personally?

How would you describe your leadership style?

medal at the 2010 Commonwealth games?

Yeah, we did. And we lost them from every line of the team. Alys Brooks up-front, Ashlie Caddick from midfield, Naomi Halladay from the back and Izzy Fullwood.

They were important players. It hasn't made the lines weaker, but we need to mould the new personnel into the team.

Finally, how does it feel having a team-mate, Susie Gilbert, who just won a bronze

Tom Flathers

Pike predicts another BUCS lacrosse gold

Photos: Lucy Percival

Simon Hall Sport Editor

This time last year, the women's lacrosse team was embarking upon a new season with nothing but hope and expectation. However, there is no way they could have anticipated the glory in which they were ultimately covered, after completing an unprecedented unbeaten season which culminated in a thoroughly deserved BUCS championship to cap it off.

Following last year's monumental success, one could forgive co-captain Molly Pike for having slightly lower expectations for the forthcoming season. But the Welsh senior international has her sights set firmly on a repeat of last season's heroics: 'We're definitely hoping to go unbeaten again this year and we obviously want to reclaim our BUCS Championship. We feel our team is just as strong this year so there's no reason why we can't perform just as well this year.'

However, despite Pike's positive outlook, the nature of university sport is such that teams lose important players at the end of every year and she concedes that this one has been no exception in that respect: 'Our biggest loss is our goalkeeper from last year, Catherine Gaunt. She was an England international, which is always going to be hard to replace and she's now gone to Loughborough, which means she could be playing against us this year. But we've got two great new goalies who we'll be able to train up and they should do a good job for us.'

This certainly promises to be another exciting year for the lacrosse girls and after last year's success Pike expressed her desire to generate more support for one of Brum's best sports, saying: 'We'd really like to get more supporters down to watch us, particularly for the tough home matches against the likes of Loughborough and Durham. Having some volatile support can always give you the

Captain's profile Name: Molly Pike Age: 21 Course: Geophysics Year of Study: 2nd School: Monmouth National Team: Wales Best Sporting Moment: Completing unbeaten season Other Sport: Cricket edge in those tough games.'

Pike shares the lacrosse captaincy this year with Kirsten Lafferty, an England international in her own right and one of the team's stars last year. The double captaincy will be something of a foreign concept to many sports fans but Pike can only see the benefits of the arrangement: 'It's great having two captains as it just makes it all a

lot easier. Kirsten and I were childhood friends and we're best friends now we're at university. We went to different schools so generally used to play against each other so it's great to finally be playing together in such a successful team.'

As for Pike's individual longterm goals, she is keen to continue to represent Wales at an international level: 'I'd really like to continue lacrosse beyond university; that's definitely the plan. Ideally I want to go to the 2013 World Cup so I'll definitely be striving for that.'

The multi-talented Pike, who also represents the university cricket club, certainly has an exciting lacrosse career ahead of her so she will definitely be looking to continue her progression this season and if she can lead her team to a successful defence of their BUCS Championship then she will be well on her way.

As for her lacrosse team, they can expect another exciting season, which got underway with a fantas-

Tom Flathers

tic 13-4 victory away to Edinburgh on Wednesday. If that result is anything to go by then they will be a force to be reckoned with again.

26 Sport

Redbrick

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – James Phillips, Simon Hall

Netball girls jumpstart season with win over Nottingham

Next Wednesday, the 27th October, the Guild will be hosting the second in the new series of ‘Sports Nights’, following on from a near capacity debut earlier this month. Special guest DJ ‘Twenty-Ten’ will be playing a Dubstep/D&B/ElectroHouse/Hip-hop set in the Underground and the redeveloped Mermaid Square and Joe’s Bar are sure to be buzzing. All students, whether from a sports team or not, are welcome. Tickets are £4 from Joe’s Bar.

Netball

Birmingham 1sts

50

Nottingham 1sts

39

Dave Rudge Sport Reporter

After the disappointment of losing out to the Loughborough 2nds in last season’s BUCS Trophy final, the netball 1sts were determined to bounce back in their opening league fixture of the season, and they bounced back in style. Opponents Nottingham presented a laudable test, but goals from Hannah Kennedy and the prolific Laura Brocklebank propelled Birmingham to victory in a game they never looked like losing.

The game began in pulsating fashion, with the Birmingham girls spurred on by an electric home support. But it was the visitors who drew first blood with two early goals from Taryn BelcherBrow chastening the Brum faithful. Birmingham were soon back in it though. After a couple of misses, Kennedy found her range to level the scores and the crowd rediscovered their voice.

The nervous tension affecting the players prevented both teams from gaining the ascendancy. Nottingham goal-attack Georgia Rule struggled to make an impact, missing a series of easy chances, allowing Birmingham to nudge ahead.

But Rule eventually broke her duck in the fifth minute to tie it up at 4-4.

The pattern of the game changed on seven minutes. Birmingham found another gear, and for the remainder of the quarter, Nottingham couldn’t get out of their half. Brocklebank scored a hatful in quick succession to open up a 9-5 lead. The hosts’ goalkeeper Lucio Karonias had the Notting-

Sport Shorts

Nottingham tried hard but they couldn't overcome the Birmingham girls ham forwards in her pocket, and a plethora of athletic interceptions provided her team with the confidence to extend their lead to 15-6 by the end of the first quarter.

During the interval, Nottingham captain Emily Staite questioned her team’s desire to win the game, asking "do you really want this?" At first her words did not appear to have the desired effect, with the home side picking up right where they left off: harrying their opponents all over the court, and stretching their lead to 20-7, courtesy of the magnificent Kennedy. Nottingham were in danger of being embarrassed, but remarkably they managed to conjure some resistance.

Nottingham’s Rule overcame her early nerves with a string of goals to reduce the deficit to 28-17, and although Birmingham went in at half-time still with a sizeable

lead, their plucky opponents arguably shaded the second quarter.

Neither side was able to get the upper hand at the start of the third. Sloppy passing from both sides caused the scoring to slack, but it didn’t take Birmingham too long to reassert their dominance; a feint pass by Robyn Smith allowing Brocklebank to make it 31-19 on 34 minutes. Nottingham needed some of their earlier inspiration but couldn’t threaten the irrepressible hosts. Brocklebank really began to stamp her authority on the game, extending the lead to 36-21, and at the other end some clinical shooting by Belcher-Brow only just managed to keep the scoreline respectable. However, Nottingham refused to lie down, scoring six goals in the final five minutes of the third to pull it back to 38-29 and the hosts were met with muted applause as they left the court.

Tom Flathers But their fears were soon allayed as a rampant Birmingham came back out for the fourth. Captain Kate Roberts, revitalized from a rest on the bench, made a real difference, linking up well with Brocklebank to make it 39-29 in the first attack of the quarter. The crowd responded, greeting every tackle like a goal. Brocklebank and Kennedy were unerring in their shooting as they put their team out of sight at 50-39. Belcher-Brow battled on bravely but after hitting the rim three times in a row, her expression said it all and Birmingham ran out easy winners. After the game Roberts said her team had 'gelled really well' and spoke glowingly of Hannah Kennedy: 'She hardly missed a shot all game.

She was brilliant.' Next up for the girls is a visit to the stronghold of Loughborough.

The Birmingham half-marathon is set to take place this Sunday, the 24th October, starting at 9am. With a record 14,650 entrants, it is sure to raise plenty of money for various charities.

Many students are taking part, and with a route that takes the runners through Selly Oak on Pershore Road and into Broad Street in the city centre, nonparticipants should get out there and cheer the runners by!

In the first home game of the season, the men's rugby union team crushed local rivals Warwick 31-0 at the Bournbrook Campus. Dave Devlin-Jones and Stefan Cooksammy were among the tries. Redbrick Sport covered the game live and you can also read a full match report from Mesh Johal at www.redbrickonline. co.uk/sports

First team fixtures Game of the week: Men's Football vs Sterling 1sts Wed 27th 1.30pm Munrow Track Pitch

Promising Brum performance against all-conquering Oxford Women's volleyball

Birmingham 1sts

1

Oxford 1sts

3

Joel Lamy

Sport Reporter

Birmingham Women’s Volleyball team showed great potential but ultimately went down 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 25-20, 25-11) to champions Oxford in their first match of the season. Oxford came to Birmingham having lost their first match of the season to Loughborough, but their coach, John Williams, said the team ‘would be as good as last year’s’, which was an ominous thought considering Oxford won all ten of their matches last season.

Boasting England international Hannah Ruddick in their ranks, the away team posed a formidable task for Birmingham, as coach Graham Fowler acknowledged, but Oxford had to produce a spirited performance to go home with the points.

The first set highlighted the differences between the two sides. Whilst Birmingham at times proved as adept as their opponents, sloppy mistakes came back to haunt them and an opportunity to take the game by the scruff of the neck slipped by. At 6-6 it appeared early on that the two teams were

Birmingham fought valiantly more evenly matched than had previously been expected. However, Oxford took charge after a flurry of faults by Birmingham servers and never relinquished their lead. At 14-12 the visitors turned the screw and went out to close the first set comfortably.

Any thoughts that this would be a routine victory for the Champions were quickly dismissed though as Birmingham mounted a spirited fight back in the second set. Clearly rattled, the Oxford women began to make the sorts of mistakes the home team had been making in the first set, with serves missing the target and other unforced errors creeping into their game. After a timeout at 12-11 down, Birmingham rallied to take

Rita Toth the next four points and from then on proceeded to hang on to their lead as they scraped towards the twenty-five points needed to take the set. With neither side being able to take more than one point in a row it became nervous viewing, but the hosts did not yield and hung on to level the match.

With this new momentum it looked like Birmingham could cause an upset, but their second set comeback only buoyed Oxford to raise their game again.

With their star players coming to the fore, Birmingham were unable to match their second set standards. A string of five points in a row after another timeout again demonstrated that they were a match for the away team. Unfortu-

nately, they could not sustain that level and after winning the third set Oxford then breezed through the fourth with minimum fuss.

It was a disappointing end to what had been a promising performance by Birmingham.

Coach Fowler, though, was encouraged by his side’s efforts, claiming ‘we showed we had the game to beat them’ but that this match had come too early in the season as the team looked to gel. Overall, this was a promising start for the volleyball team and is something to build upon. If they can reduce the number of unforced errors then they can look to better last season’s final position of fifth.

Most consecutive points won

Trick or Treat? There's a halloween theme for the first men's football home game of the season.

Get down there in fancy dress and cheer on the boys against the Scottish opposition!

Women's Basketball vs Edinburgh 1sts Wed 27th 4pm Munrow Sports Hall Women's Football vs Essex 1sts Wed 27th 1.30pm Metchley Men's Lacrosse vs Nottingham 2nds Wed 27th 2pm Metchley 3G Women's Lacrosse vs Warwick 1sts Wed 27th 5pm Munrow Track Pitch

Thomas Walters

Men's Rugby League vs Northampton 1sts Wed 27th 6.30pm Bournbrook

Redbrick

Sport 27

22nd October 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors – James Phillips, Simon Hall

Terrific twelve for brilliant Brum Sam Price Sport Reporter

Women's Rugby Union

Birmingham 1sts

66

Warwick 1sts

0

On a perfect afternoon for rugby, an extremely one-sided encounter saw the University of Birmingham Women's Rugby 1st XV defeat their Warwick rivals 66-0 at the Metchley pitches. They amassed an incredible 12 tries in the contest, with four scored by Garnet Mackinder, three from Chloe Downer, and one each from Alex Harrison-Wolff, Ash Aiston, Debbie Hartley, Nat Kwatia and debutant Ash Bryne.

New coach and Birmingham alumni John Critchlow has inherited a talented squad, the core of which has come off the back of an impressive previous season in which they finished second in the BUCS Midlands 1A League and were also cup finalists. This dominant victory gives them a solid foundation from which to build on for this campaign.

Brum were raring to go, having began their warming up an hour before kick off, whilst a new-look Warwick side depleted by graduation and injury looked a beaten team even before the match got under way.

A frantic opening saw the hosts take the lead within two minutes, after progress down the right flank was touched over by Harrison-Wolff. While Warwick looked shell-shocked, the hosts were buoyant, and added to their lead ten minutes later through the highly impressive Downer, who powered through all before her in a dominant first half display, scoring a hat-trick of tries.

Great work from the forwards and from captain Faye Hamp ensured that Warwick did not carry the ball into the Birmingham half for the entire duration of the first period. Mackinder added one just before the interval leaving the score at 27-0.

An early second half try from the home team and an injury to Warwick's captain and stand-out player Molly Probert put paid to

Brum's powerful attack was simply too much for a frail Warwick defence any second half resistance from the visitors. Half time substitute

Nat Kwatia's impact was felt very swiftly as she made the score 32-0

Brum showed quality in tight as well as out wide

Tom Flathers

after just three minutes on the pitch. Birmingham's passing and handling was excellent as the second half progressed, and first year Bryne marked her debut with a try on 48 minutes after a bursting run.

The hosts' substitutes came on and impressed, leading to a flurry of tries in the closing stages. More great play from star performer Bryne set up Mackinder and Aiston for tries, whilst a superb individual effort from Hartley in which she ran from her own half made the score 54-0.

Two more tries and a conversion from the irrepressible Mackinder added gloss to a rampant performance, Mackinder herself scoring 26 points - a tremendous

Tom Flathers

effort.

Coach John Critchlow was understandably delighted after the game, having had only three training sessions to work with the team.

'We came out of the blocks very quickly, kept piling on the pressure, and Warwick couldn't live with us,' he said.

The signs are certainly good, and Birmingham can look forward with confidence to a tougher test in the next Midlands 1A league game as they travel to Cambridge, who will be going into the game in fourth place following a 5-5 draw with a strong Nottingham Trent side on Wednesday.

If Birmingham produce a similar result the league will start to look very healthy indeed.

Rugby league boys lose to Devon opposition Patrick Surlis Sport Reporter Rugby League

Birmingham 1sts

8

Exeter 1sts

40

On a pleasant Wednesday afternoon at the Bournbrook pitch, Birmingham Men's rugby league first team delivered an unpleasant performance as they were handed a comprehensive defeat by a welldrilled and ruthless Exeter side.

The away side's long trip up from the south coast seemed to have little effect upon them, as they stormed to a 24-0 lead after less than 20 minutes. Tries from

Josh Jones, Josh Webb, Matt Laventure and Olly Paget put Exeter in complete control from early on in the tie, with lacklustre tackling proving to be Brum's fatal weakness. On numerous occasions in the opening quarter of the game Exeter were allowed to break Birmingham's line and have Brum's defence chasing back towards their own try line. Once inside the opponent's 22 Exeter finished moves clinically and deserve credit for the way in which they took advantage of Birmingham's mistakes.

However, as the half progressed, Birmingham, under the stewardship of captain Josh Reid, looked to rally and ended it on a high with a superb blind pass by Rohdri Kent allowing Chris Bolton to go over for the try. The missed

conversion meant Birmingham trailed 24-4 at the halfway mark.

Coming out for the second half Birmingham looked to stem the tide and find a way to haul themselves back into the match. They started positively, pressing Exeter back early on and remaining on the front foot through a combination of accurate kicking and incisive running. This combination was rewarded 10 minutes into the second half with James Johnston breaking and accelerating superbly to race away for the try.

Unfortunately for Birmingham, Exeter responded almost immediately with their hooker, Josh Jones, slaloming through the Brum defence again to extend Exeter's already healthy lead.

Missed Photos courtesy of UoB Sport tackles were proving to be Bir-

mingham's undoing as on numerous occasions Exeter players were allowed to gain precious yards and control territory.

As the second half continued Birmingham struggled to make further inroads into Exeter's stout defence, and immediately after Exeter extended their lead further through Luke Evans, strong running from Birmingham's Adam Cusack set up an opportunity for James Johnston but strong tackling and a lack of space prevented the Birmingham winger from doubling his try count.

With five minutes left and the match petering out, Exeter's Josh Jones sealed his hat trick with an opportunistic dart through Birmingham's weary defence, making the final score Birmingham 8 – 40

Exeter, crowning a disappointing afternoon for the team.

First team captain Josh Reid was gracious in defeat but was still confident his side has what it takes to recover from a poor start and achieve the stated goal of promotion from the Premier South division. He went on to say that the 'disappointing result was mainly the result of poor communication and a lack of intensity in the early stages but we remain a good side and believe promotion is definitely still a possibility.'

Next week's match with a solid Northampton side provides the first opportunity for the players to get back on track and after this week's below-par performance it is crucial that Birmingham begin to pick up some positive results.

28 Sport

Sport

Redbrick

October 22nd 2010 www.redbrickonline.co.uk

Editors - James Phillips, Simon Hall

Captains fantastic Redbrick Sport meet Sarah Page and Molly Pike, the captains of our two BUCS champions on P25

Loughborough flop as Follis hits top form

Tom Flathers

Birmingham's football girls showed Loughborough's second team who were in charge at the Metchley pitche. Smiles all round.

Women's football

Birmingham 1sts

4

Loughborough 2nds

1

Joseph Audley Sport Reporter

In what was by no means an easy tie, Birmingham women’s first XI opened their season with a heavy win against their rivals Loughborough 2nds at the Metchley pitches. A brace from Emma Follis, and a goal apiece from Fran Boggi and Aoife Commane sealed a memorable 4-1 triumph, as only Sophie Weedon found the net for the visitors.

With the disappointment of relegation from the premier division last season still fresh in the minds of the home squad, Birmingham remained quietly confident entering this match, as captain Lucie Vickers explained, "Although it’s the start of the season this game could potentially decide the title. We have the home advantage today and hope to begin our push for promotion with a win over our tough rivals.”

Brum were right to be cautious of the opposition as Loughborough came flying at them from the start, forcing the home side to defend two early corners and an onslaught of pressure. The hard work prevailed, however, and Birmingham established themselves

in the game through a defensive error by Loughborough which was pounced upon by Follis, who smashed the ball into the left corner after just three minutes.

The visitors were reluctant to accept defeat and continued to pressurise the hosts. Good work

by Emily Blake down the left wing allowed Emma Pilling to send a cross over the Birmingham defence and into the path of Weedon who scored on 13 minutes to level the score at 1-1.

The remainder of the first half saw Loughborough retaining most of the possession, with Birmingham finding it hard to push out of defence. The home side’s midfield did well in tracking back to assist the defenders, and thwarted

any possible chances the visitors created. Both teams probed the wings and refused to give away possession. The disciplined performances were clear from the fact that Loughborough were not caught offside once and Birmingham were only penalised for the offence twice in the whole game.

On the stroke of half time a cross from Birmingham’s Shauna Chambers found its way to the feet of Follis who got ahead of the last defender and slotted past the hapless away goalkeeper Alison Spriggs to make it 2-1 on 44 minutes.

In the first twenty minutes after half time Loughborough searched hard for a second equaliser but a resistant Birmingham

defence battled hard to stop any attacks. After 65 minutes the home side pushed up and Loughborough keeper Spriggs could not hold onto a shot by Follis allowing Boggi to tap in for a third.

The visitors’ heads seem to go down after this and four minutes later Commane added a fourth to make it 4-1. Birmingham played with much more confidence in the second half and despite a nasty injury to captain Vickers, the side had a successful start to the season, as coach Mark Smith reiterated- “The girls applied themselves better in the second half and despite the injury, we are very pleased with the performance.”

Brum will hope for a repeat against Essex in next week's cup tie.

Golf seconds squeeze past Lincoln at Edgbaston Charlotte Hope Golf Correspondent

The golf second team did Birmingham proud at Edgbaston on Wednesday

Tom Flathers

Birmingham’s golf 2nds overcame Lincoln at the Edgbaston golf course on Wednesday afternoon.

Veteran of the 2nd team, Lauren Spray, set the standard of the day by winning her match 6 and 4 going out first. Fresher Tom Owen then battled his way to a well-deserved victory of 2 up in a nip and tuck match.

A narrow defeat followed for Ben Talbot, his first loss in a BUCS

match, which gave Lincoln their first point.Closely behind him the second fresher of the team, Olli Hart, managed to win the last hole to halve his match.

Charlotte Hope, club captain was then narrowly defeated, taking the score to 2 and a half- 2 and a half.

The pressure was then on for Will Lambert, who managed to turn his match around after being 2 down through 9, to finally secure his match 2 up and seal victory for the team.

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