The Red Bulletin November 2018 - UK

UK EDITION NOVEMBER 2018, £3.50

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

WRESTLE (WO)MANIA London’s pioneering female fighters

CAVE CULTURE Inside the world’s deadliest caverns

HE WILL ROCK YOU Freddie Mercury biopic star Rami Malek

Robyn returns

The Swedish singer breaks her eight-year silence PLUS: 13 WATCHES YOU’LL WANT TO WEAR

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A T HO ME OU T DOORS

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ADVENTURE COLLECTION JIMMY CHIN SERIES

All mountain multi-taskman, Jimmy Chin is a celebrated photographer, filmmaker, and mountain sports athlete.

He is part of the Punks and Poets roster, the ambassador collective that unites a diverse community of creative originals from around the world.

S TA N C E . E U . C O M / R E D B U L L E T I N

EDITOR’S LETTER

In today’s connected world, it’s not easy to discover a truly untrodden path, but this month’s issue is packed with stories of people who have done just that.

Our cover star, Swedish singer Robyn (page 42), found the courage to stray from the restrictive pop route planned out by her record company and instead go it alone, seeking artistic freedom on her own terms. The result: an enduring, hit-studded – and refreshingly authentic – music career.

Dan Wilton braved the intense heat of a sell-out event to shoot EVE’s wrestlers in action: “It was heaving. Who knows how they manage it! But they were amazing characters with such a sense of community.” Page 62

Then there are the stars of EVE pro-wrestling (page 62): women who are slamming and headlocking their way to the top of what has always been a male-dominated world – and attracting sell-out crowds in the process.

And Italian geologist Francesco Sauro (page 48) is literally treading new ground every time he and his team of intrepid experts enter an as-yet-unexplored cave and face unknown dangers far from civilisation.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

LAUREN O’NEILL

The London-based writer is used to meeting unexpected personalities in her staff role at VICE UK. But when O’Neill interviewed Queen B in a rainy backstreet for The Red Bulletin, the car vlogger left a big impression. “As someone firmly outside the automotive world, it was fascinating for me to get Queen B’s expert insight,” she says. “She’s a breath of fresh air in an industry that seems like it desperately needs one!” Page 30

STEVE FRIEDMAN

The New York City-based journalist, who received a National Magazine Award nomination in 2016 for his feature writing, shadowed B-boy Crazy Legs as he provided disaster relief in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico.

Friedman was particularly struck by the veteran breakdancer’s sense of purpose. “What seems to make him most satisfied is how hip hop has let him help others,” say the writer. Page 36

Enjoy the issue.

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THE RED BULLETIN

HEJI SHIN (COVER), DAN WILTON

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CONTENTS November

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22 BULLEVARD 11 Climbing K2 wasn’t enough for Andrzej

Bargiel – the Pole had to ski it, too

14 Hot source: the origins of sriracha 16 How to escape the Desert Of Death 18 Kitty Hawk’s traffic-busting car-copter 2 0 The surfboard that doesn’t need waves

3 0 Queen B

Meet the petrolhead vlogger who’s rattling the fossils of the car fraternity and opening up motoring to a younger, broader audience

3 6 Crazy Legs

How the veteran B-boy helped to heal his parents’ devastated homeland

4 2 Robyn

Faced with the prospect of becoming just another pre-packaged pop star, the Swedish singer broke free – and she hasn’t looked back

4 8 Francesco Sauro

We get deep with the cave explorer who goes where others fear to tread

6 0 Peter Thompson

Endurance tips from the man who ran – not cycled – the Tour de France

6 2 EVE pro-wrestling

There’s a revolution going on in wrestling. The Red Bulletin steps into the east London ring where a gang of ‘punk-rock feminists’ reigns supreme

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proves he’s more Evel than Knievel

24 Rap crew Warm Brew pick four tracks

that influenced their West Coast sound

26 Screen Queen: actor Rami Malek on

filling Freddie Mercury’s shoes

28 The subaquatic art of the Coralarium

GUIDE 75 Exploring Columbia’s hidden city 80 DJ Esa Williams: spinning the globe 82 Cold comfort: our pick of the best

insulated jackets you can buy

84 An essential guide to Manchester’s

vibrant Northern Quarter

86 Timepieces with heroic qualities 92 This month on Red Bull TV 94 Dates for your calendar 98 Jug-smashing high jinks in Mumbai THE RED BULLETIN

ALEX DE MORA, GETTY IMAGES, LA VENTA ESPLORAZIONI GEOGRAFICHE

FEATURES

2 2 Motocross star Travis Pastrana

48

BULLEVARD LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

Bargiel ascending K2 on July 21 this year. The next day, he became the first person to ski from the summit

DESCENT FROM HELL

MAREK OGIE Ń/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Reaching K2’s summit is the ultimate challenge for many climbers – but not ANDRZEJ BARGIEL. The climb was just prep for the main event: the world’s craziest ski run

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MAREK OGIE Ń/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (2), PIOTR PAWLUS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

TOM GUISE

B U L L EVA R D

Rock hard: the Polish ski mountaineer climbed all the way to the summit of K2 without oxygen, and with his ski equipment strapped to his back

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THE RED BULLETIN

“I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE A WINNER, BECAUSE THE MOST DIFFICULT PART STILL LAY AHEAD OF ME”

Bargiel also holds the record for the fastest descent of Manaslu.

On skis, of course

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t was in 2015, while conquering the world’s 12th highest mountain, that an idea formulated in Andrzej Bargiel’s mind. Distracted from the magnitude of his present endeavour, the Polish climber’s focus was drawn to a greater challenge.

“During the long ascent and descent of Broad Peak, I could see K2’s face,” says the ski mountaineer. “I’d never thought of going there before, but when I saw the whole face, I envisioned the line and knew it could be skied.”

Ski mountaineering is a dangerous discipline: it entails scaling a mountain to its peak before skiing back down, bringing the risk of avalanches, fragile glaciers, crevasses and lethal drops.

But Bargiel, 30, is one of the best. Alongside the 8,051mhigh Broad Peak on the border between China and Pakistan, he’d already skied other ‘eight-thousanders’: Shishapangma in Tibet (14th highest at 8,013m) and Manaslu in Nepal (eighth highest; 8,156m). But K2 is a different ball game.

At 8,611m above sea level – 237m shorter than Everest – it’s the world’s second highest mountain, but perhaps its deadliest and most technical to scale. Only around 300 people have ever reached its

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summit, and almost a third of that number have died trying. In 2009 and 2010, two mountaineers fell to their death while attempting ski descents. No one had ever succeeded from the summit.

In 2017, Bargiel made his first attempt, but a high risk of avalanche and rockfall forced him to abort.

“I don’t like going back to the same place, but I had to give it another shot,” Bargiel says. “I was worried that due to climate change the big glacier would transform too fast, the line would no longer be viable, and all my work would be wasted.”

So, at 11.30am on July 22 this year, after three-and-ahalf days of climbing without oxygen, Bargiel summited K2. “I took a selfie. I didn’t feel like a winner, because the most difficult part was still ahead of me.”

K2 presents potentially lethal hazards, the deadliest being the ‘Bottleneck’ – a narrow gully, or couloir, just 300m below the summit, with a punishing 50-60° gradient.

Overhead sit precarious seracs – huge pillars of ice that can crash down without warning.

“You have to pass at the right time to be safe, so the snow isn’t too hard or soft, there’s no avalanche danger, and the sun shines on the exact spots you need,” says Bargiel. “But not too warm, otherwise seracs will fall on your head.

There’s a lot of data.”

To guide him, Bargiel’s brother Bartek used a drone – and, in the process, saved another life. While scanning the face of K2 at a height of 7,000m, he spied Rick Allen, a Scottish climber who had plunged from a cliff and was presumed dead. Spotting signs of movement, he directed rescuers to Allen. Bartek now holds the record for the highest drone film ever recorded.

But it wasn’t the greatest record broken that day: eight hours after leaving the summit, Bargiel skied into Base Camp.

He had descended 3,600 vertical metres and linked four separate routes to become the first human ever to ski from the top of K2.

“I feel huge happiness,” Bargiel said immediately afterwards. “But I’m glad I won’t be coming here again.”

Watch Bargiel ski from K2’s summit at redbull.tv

Bargiel during his ascent. For the descent, he connected four routes: the Abruzzi Rib, the Cesen, the Messner variant, and the Kukuczka-Piotrowski

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B U L L EVA R D

It’s the hot condiment that has become the world’s coolest. What’s the magic recipe? Breaking every rule in the business handbook…

I

n 2015, Kylie Jenner Instagrammed a selfie in which she wore a red sweater, with green hair. “Don’t you just love sriracha bottles,” the model/social-media celebrity wrote, racking up more than 1.1 million likes. But the red-hot sauce didn’t need the endorsement. Here’s an unorthodox tale of success…

Sriracha, as we know it, is the invention of David Tran, a Vietnamese refugee who arrived in LA in 1980 and created his own hot sauce based on a sweeter condiment from the town of Si Racha in Thailand. He named his company after the freighter he’d escaped on – the Huey Fong – and branded the bottles with his Chinese zodiac sign: the rooster. “I had no expectations,” says Tran, 72.

Last year, Huy Fong Foods, Inc sold more than 35 million bottles, bringing in US$109 million (£84m) in revenue.

Tran attributes his success to a failure to trademark the

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name ‘Sriracha’. Without ever advertising, he found that copycats led customers to his brand. In 2013, crisps makers Lay’s nominated sriracha as a potential new flavour, and in 2016 Lexus released a hotsauce-red car named the Sriracha, fuelling the legend.

And, as Tran has never increased the price, when restaurants want sriracha it’s better to buy from Huy Fong Foods than from a competitor.

Also, the company doesn’t sue those who use its logo: “We license vendors royalty-free,” says operations manager Donna Lam. “We only ask for items to sell in our gift shop.”

As a result, rooster-branded popcorn, jerky and even beer is available. And US celebrity entrepreneur Marc Cuban launched his own Huy Fong sriracha key rings.

Last year, a bottle of the condiment was spotted floating on the International Space Station – the ultimate validation of Tran’s strategy.

“My American dream was never to become a billionaire,” he says. “We just started this business because we like fresh, spicy chilli sauce.” huyfong.com

TOM GUISE

SECRET SAUCE OF SUCCESS

The key to Huy Fong Foods’ winning flavour?

Chillis are picked and processed within a day

In 1980, David Tran was making sauce in a 460m2 warehouse. Today, his firm has a 60,000m2 facility

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ALAMY, HUY FONG FOODS INC

Sriracha

B U L L EVA R D

and it would get poached.

Air-con doesn’t work – you drive with the windows open and it’s like being inside a convection oven, the sand howling through the car.”

How to...

ESCAPE THE DESERT OF DEATH

Stay dune-smart

“These sand dunes are hundreds of metres high. You need a fair bit of pace, but don’t hammer over the top.

Get someone to check it first, because the wind can change the angle of the slope on the other side and you can roll.

As you sweat, you lose salts and minerals, which reduces your ability to concentrate. It doesn’t take a huge lapse in concentration to roll a vehicle while going over a sand dune.”

Usually, Superman comes to the rescue, but while crossing one deadly wasteland, expedition leader Aldo Kane was tasked with protecting the Man of Steel himself…

Watch for heatstroke

“It’s a silent killer, so look out for anyone who’s red in the face but also dry because they can’t sweat any more. The sand is fine and soft, so cars get bogged down and some sink up to the doors. Then you have to climb out of the window and start digging.

That’s the most dangerous part, because you’re doing physical labour in the heat.”

Dress for the occasion

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Kane (left) and Cavill take a moment’s break while filming in the Taklamakan Desert in 2013

the 2013 Discovery TV series Driven To Extremes. “Cavill’s brother is a Royal Marine, so he understands surviving on your wits – which is just as well, because the Taklamakan goes from 50°C to -15°C. You can get hypothermia and frostnip at night, and die from heatstroke during the day.”

Here are Kane’s five desert survival tips…

Learn to live in an oven

“You need to drink six litres of water a day just to stay alive in the Taklamakan. It was so hot, you could put an egg in a plastic bag on the dashboard

Enjoy ‘type-two fun’

“Part of the ‘Commando Spirit’ is cheerfulness in adversity, and previous experience of ‘type-two fun’ helps. It may be incredibly difficult now, but in a year’s time you’ll think, ‘It wasn’t that bad.’ Become good at knowing nothing lasts for ever, then you can get on with it and have a bit of banter with Henry Cavill.”

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MATT RAY

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he Taklamakan Desert in northwest China has another name: the ‘Sea of Death’. Covering an area almost as big as Germany, it’s the world’s second-largest shifting sand desert, its towering dunes constantly in motion. In antiquity, the Silk Road traders would travel around the Taklamakan, rather than dare to enter it.

“There was no way across.

The people who tried died,” says adventurer Aldo Kane, who was tasked with leading Superman actor Henry Cavill safely across the desert for

“Always have goggles and a scarf with you, or you’ll be blind and unable to breathe in a sandstorm. One night, a dust devil burst through our open-air campsite and most of our kit and sleeping bags were swept away. I had to evacuate the crew and Henry in the dark, using only a compass to navigate, walking ahead of the crew and cars while being sandblasted.”

ALDO KANE

Kane and Cavill’s car becomes seriously mired in a Sea of Death made of fine sand

B U L L EVA R D

INSTANT TAKE-OFF

Imagine a flying car you can master in minutes and drive without a pilot’s licence. Somebody just invented it for you

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The Flyer uses an auto-stabilising system, similar to that of a drone, to make piloting it easier

odd Reichert knows a thing or two about ground-breaking vehicles. In 2010, the Canadian aerospace engineer created and flew the first successful humanpowered flapping-wing plane.

In 2013, his team won the Sikorsky Prize for the first human-powered helicopter.

And, in 2016, Reichert broke the human-powered landspeed record on a bicycle he co-designed. But his next vehicle is perhaps even more revolutionary: a flying machine anyone can pilot.

The Flyer is a single-seater, electric-powered multi-copter with just 12 moving parts – 10 propellers and two control

sticks – and some advanced flight computers, making it extremely easy to pilot. At manufacturer Kitty Hawk’s Lake Las Vegas training camp, novices can master it within an hour and a half. And, as it’s limited to an altitude of 3m at a speed of 32kph, the Flyer falls within the FAA’s ultralight aircraft rules requiring no pilot’s licence over uncongested areas. “So we fly it over water,” explains Reichert, who is the project’s senior engineering director.

Kitty Hawk’s mission is to “free people from traffic”, he says. “The sky is the next step in personal transportation, and it’s possible to beat the car in every way: faster, cheaper, less material, less energy, safer.” While the Flyer isn’t yet that solution, it is the first stage in what Reichert calls progress from “recreation to exploration to transportation”, and Kitty Hawk began taking pre-orders in June this year.

“Our hope for [the] Flyer is that in the future it becomes as ubiquitous and utilitarian as today’s cars,” Reichert says. kittyhawk.aero

TOM GUISE

Kitty Hawk Flyer

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KITTY HAWK

Built from lightweight waterproof materials, the Flyer is capable of taking off vertically and landing on water

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Turning 30 has clearly not dimmed Atherton’s lust for life. A five-time UCI Downhill World Champion, five times the overall winner of the UCI Downhill World Cup, and a recent winner of BT Sport’s Action Woman award, the youngest Atherton is the family’s biggest star.

Bigger and stronger, the elite men of downhill mountain biking will always be faster than their female counterparts, but, like the men, the elite women are already training to ride at the limit of their ability, and would leave a male rider from outside of the World Cup circuit for dead. “It’s always strange when people say, ‘You inspired me to start riding’. But I’m inspired by other sports people, so I guess there is some truth in it. But there’s still a lot to do; still a long way to go on the women’s side.”

“Because it’s an extreme sport, perhaps people think it’s more about the skill, or how gnarly you are, or how crazy. But that’s why downhill is great: it’s about the whole package. Like a dance or a meditation. Your body is so aware of everything. You’re aware of your breathing and every bit of your skin. You’re even aware when you blink on the track, and you don’t want to be blinking in the middle of a rock garden.

You’re so aware of the crowd. Sometimes, you can smell beer, or hear the music.”

“I always think that the losing feels worse than the winning feels good. Winning feels really good, it’s what everyone aims towards, but losing definitely feels worse. When you don’t win, that feels ten times worse, and it doesn’t ever leave you.

Losing is hard to explain, but that’s what makes you keep going.”

Rachel rides in Endura. #AllTribesAllWoman

RENEGADE PROGRESS

stories.endurasport.com/rachel-atherton

endurasport.com

B U L L EVA R D

The Boost's battery delivers 45 minutes of power and is easily swapped. It takes around 120 minutes to fully recharge

Lampuga Boost

GOODBYE WAVES

Apparently, surfers spend 54 per cent of their time paddling and 24 per cent waiting for waves.

Here’s a board that delivers 100 per cent surfing

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balance, and its swappable battery allows you to ride the calmest waters for up to 45 minutes. But perhaps the most crucial number is the price – €21,000 (£19,000) – which makes this either a luxury toy or the kind of reward that Point Break ’s Bodhi might buy himself if he successfully pulled off one more bank heist.

Whether the Boost finds any love with real surfers remains to be seen, but it makes sense that the board should come out of Lampuga’s hometown of Hamburg – it’s a good couple of hours’ drive to the nearest decent swells on the northwest coast of Germany. And, for the old-school hardcore, the Boost at least delivers one classic surfing experience: weighing in at 40kg, it’s as heavy, if not more so, than those ancient wooden Polynesian longboards. lampuga.de

TOM GUISE

he surfboard has evolved quite a bit since the ancient Polynesians rode around on 6m-long solid pieces of timber. Early in the 20th century, Hawaiian George Freeth – known as the ‘father of modern surfing’ – introduced a shorter board, and in 1926 the first hollow board was invented by US surfer Tom Blake, who, not long after, added the first fin.

It wasn’t until 1980 that three fins appeared, in the form of Australian surfer Simon Anderson’s ‘Thruster’ design, which has remained an industry standard to this day. Now, the next generation of surfboard has arrived – and this one doesn’t even require a wave.

The Lampuga Boost is a 2.56m-long board powered by an 14hp electric engine capable of rocketing it along at a staggering 58kph without the assistance of a single wave. You can, in fact, ride into waves if you wish, so defiant is the Boost. The board is controlled by a throttle and steered by shifting your

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LAMPUGA

The throttle controller is actually wireless and can be untethered from the board and strapped to your wrist THE RED BULLETIN

NEC BIRMINGHAM

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B U L L EVA R D

Travis Pastrana

TRIUMPH OVER EVEL

In one evening, the motocross star performed three epic motorcycle jumps, beating a series of records that took stunt icon Evel Knievel eight years to achieve

2018 Half a century after Knievel, Pastrana clears the fountains at Caesars – albeit in the opposite direction

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n New Year’s Eve, 1967, US stunt rider Evel Knievel leapt over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Landing awkwardly, he flew over the handlebars of his Triumph Bonneville T120, tumbling across the parking lot before coming to a stop, unconscious.

At 29, just two years into his daredevil career, Knievel suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, a fractured hip and wrist, two broken ankles and a serious concussion. The jump made him a global superstar, and he would go on to perform ever-more-ambitious stunts for another decade, living to the ripe old age of 69.

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1967 Knievel jumps the fountains. At 43m, it was his longest-ever jump, but a bad landing cost him dearly

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Stunt stats How Pastrana leapt ahead of Knievel’s legendary feats

“THIS WAS DEFINITELY THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER DONE” Travis Pastrana

Car jump

NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES, BETTMANN ARCHIVE TOM GUISE CHRISTINA LOCK

At Los Angeles Coliseum in November 10, 1973, riding a Harley-Davidson XR750, Knievel clears 50 crushed cars.

The record stands for 35 years

On July 8 this year, freestyle motocross supremo Travis Pastrana paid homage to the stunt that catapulted Knievel to fame, catapulting himself over the same Vegas fountains, dressed in his predecessor’s trademark white leather jumpsuit emblazoned with a blue-and-red star-studded V. Riding a lighter – but more powerful – Indian Scout FTR750, the 34-year-old succeeded where Knievel failed. It was the victorious conclusion to a day of topping the legend’s stunts, starting with Pastrana jumping over 52 stacked cars and then clearing 16 Greyhound buses.

And this wasn’t the only triple triumph he achieved in Vegas.

“To be in Las Vegas… so much of my history has been here,” Pastrana said.

“I proposed to my wife here, and I had my first Nitro Circus show here. But this was definitely the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

However, there is one record of Knievel’s that Pastrana hasn’t topped, and hopefully never will: the Guinness World Record for the most bones broken in a lifetime. The stunt icon’s tally reached 433. nitrocircus.com THE RED BULLETIN

Cars cleared:

37M

43 M

50

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Bus jump October 25, 1975: Knievel clears 14 Greyhound buses. His rear wheel clips the last, saving him from flipping backwards

Buses cleared:

41 M

59 M

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Fountain jump In the 51 years since Knievel’s jump, the area around Caesars Palace has become more built-up, giving Pastrana a shorter run-up to reach the 112kph needed to clear the gap

43 M

46 M

Knievel jump

FAIL

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Warm Brew

“MAC DRE MADE RAP’S LORD OF THE FLIES” LA’s rising stars of rap deliver their personal guide to West Coast hip hop

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ormer high-school friends Ray Wright, Manu Li and Serk Spliff were refining their blend of tight funk riffs and chilledout psychedelic beats when, in 2014, they were discovered by underground hip-hop icon Dom Kennedy. A year later, the trio – natives of the beach-front LA neighbourhoods of Venice and Santa Monica – released their critically acclaimed breakthrough album Ghetto Beach Boyz, and today they’re hotly tipped to be the West Coast’s next big thing. Here, the rappers reveal four tracks that helped shape their Westside vibe… Warm Brew’s album New Content is out now; redbullrecords.com

MAC DRE CALIFORNIA LIVIN’ (1991)

Wright: “This tune really started the West Coast sound.

Before that, most rap came from the East Coast and was like, ‘A hip hop, the hippy, the hippy…’ [Rapper’s Delight by Sugarhill Gang]. When people heard Eazy-E, they got the vibe of how it is to be out here. My family would still blast it in their old-school Chevys years after his death [in 1995].”

Spliff: “California Livin’ plays an important role in the West Coast story, because it introduced people to a different perspective. Coming from Oakland [east of San Francisco], Mac Dre describes California’s beauty, but also talks about the difficulties of being a minority here.

Lyrically, it’s rap music’s Lord Of The Flies.”

WARREN G & NATE DOGG REGULATE (1994)

KENDRICK LAMAR ALRIGHT (2015)

Li: “This song introduced the world to [the genre] G-funk.

The sound is smooth and funky, but they rap about gangs and revenge – it’s ghetto gospel. It taught a lot of people about life in Long Beach, because they could relate to the sample it’s based on: Michael McDonald’s ’80s hit I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).”

Li: “When we look back on the Trump administration, years from now, we’ll remember this as the great protest anthem of our time. Its rebellious energy calls [LA rap legends] NWA to mind, but with a soul that can only come from one who knows California’s diverse culture. It reminds me of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, but in a rap way.”

ROBB KLASSEN

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

The Brew crew, from left: Serk Spliff, Manu Li and Ray Wright

EAZY-E BOYZ-N-THE HOOD (1986)

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DISEASE

THE NEW ALBUM AVAILABLE NOW BEARTOOTHBAND.COM

REDBULLRECORDS.COM

“EMBODY THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT”

Portraying rock legend Freddie Mercury on film could make or break your career. The Mr Robot star says it brought him enlightenment

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s computer hacker Elliot Alderson in the hit TV series Mr Robot, Rami Malek proved his talent for portraying unique and fascinating characters – the performance won him an Emmy in 2016. But then came a project that was far more challenging: for the role of former Queen singer Freddie Mercury in the film Bohemian Rhapsody – out this month – the 37-year-old American had to convincingly bring to life one of the most iconic and dynamic rock frontmen the world has ever known. In doing so, he discovered the key to fulfilment. “[Mercury] represents a revolutionary spirit,” says Malek. “And that allowed him to embody who he was to his fullest capacity.”

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the red bulletin: What drew you to this role? rami malek: Freddie Mercury is, to me, what I think he is to all his audience: a massive inspiration. When he put his mind to something, he’d try to make it happen. And if it didn’t work out… rather than try to hide it, he’d be first to tell you. That’s what makes him relatable. But he also defied stereotypes and broke convention in his music and the way he lived his life.

What do you think made him that way?

He lived a fascinating life even before Queen. This is a man who was born in Zanzibar, went to school in Bombay, then came back home as a revolution was taking place in his country, so he and his family flew to England to seek refuge. On the one hand, that heritage made him shy and timid, but he had this underlying bravado and steeliness, too.

How do you get into the skin of someone like that?

His movements were key.

The reason you respond to him so viscerally on stage is his power to connect – in a split second, he has you. So I went to a movement coach.

For a month, we barely looked at Freddie’s performance but rather at the way he handled himself in interviews: his physicality, his eye contact when he used that bravado, and when he just chose to pick at some lint on a couch.

Were you able to decipher him that way?

That was one step. But the way he articulated himself was also informed by the people he loved. I was looking at Bowie, Jagger, Hendrix and Aretha Franklin almost as much as I was at Mr Mercury.

To understand him, I had to get inside him through the people he admired so much.

Is that revolutionary spirit inside you?

I’m a first-generation American. At massive risk to themselves, my parents left their lives in Egypt and came to this foreign country so that their children could have more opportunities. In the beginning, they struggled, which I was very much aware of. So when I told my parents I was going to be an artist, that was quite a challenge.

But there’s something that transforms in me when I do this craft; I accept a challenge that I don’t know I would in other areas of my life. It takes me to a different place.

Bohemian Rhapsody is in cinemas from October 24; foxmovies.com RÜDIGER STURM

Rami Malek

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B U L L EVA R D

Malek: “There’s something that transforms in me when I do this craft; I accept a challenge that I don’t know I would in other areas of my life”

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B U L L EVA R D

The Coralarium

DEEP DIVE INTO ART You’re looking at a giant sculpture crossed with an underwater zoo. But the living exhibits inside aren’t sea creatures – they’re the humans who have come to visit…

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THE RED BULLETIN

Inside the cage are sculptures of humans blended with coral.

Eventually, new coral will grow on the figures

sponges. The mussels are filter feeders, so the water is even getting clearer.

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JASON DECAIRES TAYLOR

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

he dress code for the exhibitions of Jason deCaires Taylor is trunks and a snorkel. The 44-year-old British sculptor creates works for display on and beneath the sea’s surface. These include Grenada’s Molinere Bay Underwater Sculpture Park – one of National Geographic’s ‘Top 25 Wonders of the World’ – and the world’s largest subaquatic sculpture, Ocean Atlas, the 5m-tall, 60-ton figure of a girl. Taylor’s latest exhibit is the Coralarium – a 6m-high steel cube that humans and marine life can enter – in the Maldives.

“It’s an inverse zoo,” says Taylor. “Usually, we look at caged animals; here, the marine life observes us. That’s my point: to change our interaction with the natural environment. We should treat the ocean like a museum that it’s important to protect.”

Human and aquatic guests can visit the Coralarium, which sits 150m from the shore, rising and submerging with the changing tide

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What makes the seabed an enticing exhibition space?

Everything evolves quickly: I install a sculpture and the next day it’s changed. I just completed a project in a fjord near Oslo. The water’s cold and murky – you think there can’t be much living there.

Six months later, there are thousands of blue mussels, bright orange sea squirts and

What draws marine life to your sculptures?

I’ve developed pH-neutral cements that attract marine life to grow on the surfaces.

The sculptures last for hundreds of years and are very heavy, so they can’t be moved by currents or storms.

How are the works built?

We made Ocean Atlas in nine sections, fitted together underwater by a crane, to a centimetre’s precision. I was snorkelling, talking to the crane drivers and divers who were lining everything up.

You’ve been working on something for a year or two and everything comes down to one very stressful day.

What’s the goal of your art?

To draw people away from fragile areas. In Grenada, there are three snorkelling areas, and tourists cause a lot of damage. The sculpture park attracts almost 30,000 people a year to a different bay. Another motivation is to raise awareness.

Awareness of what?

Scientists predict that in 50 years only 10 per cent of coral reefs may remain, with a loss of almost 40 per cent of ocean species. We live in a vital time and have to change how we think about the seas. underwatersculpture.com 29

In the new YouTube video Drift Queen, Evans explores Japan’s drift scene and learns skills from the master himself, ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett

QUEEN

of cars

If the merest mention of the auto industry makes your eyelids feel heavy, allow Becky Evans to wake you up. QUEEN B is here to prove there’s more to motors than torque and lug nuts… and leave the old guard eating her dust Words LAUREN O‘NEILL Photography ALEX DE MORA & PATRIK LUNDIN 30

or some, the term ‘car culture’ conjures mental images of middle-aged men in beige corduroy trousers, the ability to nerdishly reel off facts about suspension, and – regrettably – the word ‘epic’. Meet Becky Evans, the 26-year-old driver shaking up that once-inaccessible automotive scene, riding low in her cherry-hued, customised 1983 BMW E21, which she has named ‘Red’.

To her 39,000-plus subscribers on YouTube and her 58,000-strong Instagram following, Evans is better known as Queen B, and her pages teem with car expertise delivered with an appealing aesthetic that’s more fashion vlogger

Bought by Evans on eBay, Red has had an extreme makeover, including new paint and wheels, an air suspension system, and refurbished interiors using vintage BMW materials

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than Top Gear presenter. As such, she offers a fresh alternative to the staleness of the present-day car industry.

In the flesh, parked in a questionable neighbourhood of east London, Evans lives up to her online persona. Dressed in camo combat trousers, Old Skool Vans and an understated limited-edition Helmut Lang T-shirt, she’s relaxed and open, infecting everyone in the immediate vicinity with her enthusiasm – both for her beloved Red, which she leans against as she talks, and for the world of motoring in general.

Petrol has run through Evans’ veins her whole life. The daughter of two carfanatic parents, she was a go-karter, then a drag racer, from the ages of eight to 18. But she rarely saw her own interests reflected in the mainstream motoring media. “I looked online and the content that was being put out there just was not relatable for me,” she says. “I was like, ‘That’s not how my car world works.

That’s not the vibe at all.’”

After moving from her hometown of Coventry to London to work in PR, Evans was inspired by the vloggers and influencers she encountered. She realised there was real potential for change in the car universe, and that she could be just the person to make it happen. “The car industry has been the same way for a long time now, and there are still a lot of old attitudes; there are people who have been around so long they’ve become too comfortable,” Evans says. “The industry just hasn’t been made relevant to people today. That’s where I wanted to step in – to bring something new.”

Queen B was born. Evans quickly made an impact because, as she sees it, she’s “representative of an audience that isn’t really being spoken to right now”.

She’s driven by a determination to show that car culture is something a new generation is adopting and liberating from old stereotypes. “It’s so much more accessible than people think,” says Evans. And by speaking the visual and conversational languages of her peers – in everything from her slick aesthetic to her informed but down-to-earth presenting style – she proves this.

Whether she’s taking a drive to McDonald’s in a bright green McLaren 570S or testing the mettle of various high-performance motors in her Girl’s Guide series of videos, Evans’ online content is characterised by her THE RED BULLETIN

“Cars have always represented a kind of freedom for me�

Evans (pictured with Red): “What I’m doing isn’t female-centric. It’s about accessibility”

adventurous spirit and her keenness to show that cars can be a creative outlet. In fact, her own ride – the aforementioned Red, with its hypnotising bottle-cap rims and the satisfied purr of its exhaust – is a perfect example.

The BMW is the product of everything that inspires Evans about motoring; a labour of love that began five years ago when she found a photo of her mum with the same model. “I fell in love with it. It was a bit of a fixer-upper, but I had this vision for it, and I eventually ended up with Red as she stands today,” says Evans, her eyes lighting up. “The paint was a full back-to-bare-metal restoration; she has BBS RS wheels – they’re a classic motorsport wheel – and there’s air-ride suspension. And then there are the classic touches, like a wooden steering wheel and the original ’80s louvres [on the rear windshield]...”

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“There are still a lot of old attitudes in this industry” This is as geeky as Evans gets, but her energy makes her knowledge engaging, and this is helping to draw new people into her world. She’s starting to build a new scene that bears no resemblance to what’s come before. “Of course I’m an anomaly: I’m a female in a particularly male-dominated world,” she says. “But that’s only because of how it’s been –

there’s never been a variety of role models to help more people get into this space.”

It would be easy to create a narrative about a woman reclaiming the petrolheavy space around her, but that doesn’t represent what Evans is trying to achieve.

“What I’m doing is not female-centric,” she explains. “It’s about accessibility and saying, ‘You can do it, too!’ The fact I’m a girl is, to me, not an issue. When I was growing up, I was never made to feel any different, and that’s what I want to pass on. It’s great that I can inspire women – I love that – but I want to show that car culture can be extended to a different audience more generally.”

Evans says the mainstream automotive industry isn’t a welcoming place for newcomers, with prejudice and elitism blocking the path of anyone who doesn’t conform to the current norm. “I’ve had to work hard to get people to trust my knowledge base and my driving ability,” she says. “It’s an ongoing project. But the floor has never been opened up to someone from my background before.

My USP is that I can talk to a completely different type of person.”

So, how can those of us who see a car purely as a means of getting from A to B catch Queen B’s automotive bug? “The internet has made our community so much more accessible,” she says. “I love that. What I would say to anyone wanting to know more is: get out there and do your research – through social media, YouTube – and get talking to people! A lot of my success and my growing audience is down to me being open and answering questions. I had my questions answered, too. And, of course, just follow me while you’re at it!”

Queen B doesn’t care who you are or where you’re from – she simply wants to share her passion, and to show you that once the dull language and unnecessary exclusivity is scrubbed away, you could feel differently about cars, too. “Cars have always represented a kind of freedom for me,” she says. “To create, escape, laugh and excite. I want to pass that on to other people. I want to breathe life into an industry that hasn’t had life breathed into it for a long time. I want to be the voice of a new generation of car lovers.”

Watch Queen B’s latest motorsport adventure – Drift Queen, in which she learns how to drift cars with the world’s best – at YouTube.com. And follow her on Instagram: @queenb THE RED BULLETIN

IT’S TIME TO GO TUBELESS FIND YOUR NEAREST TUBELESS SPECIALIST AT NO-TUBES.CO.UK

BE FASTER. BE LIGHTER. RESIST FLATS. THE ORIGINAL AND STILL THE BEST

Richie Colón – aka Crazy Legs – was at a hip-hop festival in the Netherlands when the full impact of events in Puerto Rico hit him. Doing nothing wasn’t an option. Four days later, the B-boy was on a private jet, taking water filters to those in need on the devastated island

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THE RED BULLETIN

An unlikely saviour A year ago, the world watched as Puerto Rico was devastated by the worst hurricane in decades. As relief efforts stalled, famed B-boy CRAZY LEGS decided to jump on a plane and do something about it Words STEVE FRIEDMAN Photography BALAZS GARDI

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B

orn in the Bronx to an alcoholic father and the woman he beat, raised in poverty, a small-time gangster… Richie Colón had escaped. He’d triumphed. Now, on a street in the Netherlands city of Helmond, as people screamed his name and begged for photos, he was no longer Richie Colón but Crazy Legs, one of the world’s top B-boys.

He had performed for the Queen.

He’d chatted with Tina Turner and David Bowie. Gene Kelly once shook his hand.

One night, while still a teenager, he drank Cristal champagne with Richard Branson “before hip hop knew what Cristal was”.

A pioneer of the athletic solo dance moves that sprang from some of the US’ poorest communities in the ’70s and ’80s, Colón was regarded as one of the greatest and most enduring B-boys around; he was undoubtedly one of the most successful.

The art form changed his life. He had homes in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. He’d performed in Egypt and Uganda and virtually every European capital. He’d been to Japan 40 times. He judged competitions. And he was proof to aspiring B-boys and B-girls all over the world that if they work hard and stay true, they too might become something great.

But on this day in September 2017, at the Urban Matterz hip-hop festival in Helmond, everything was wrong. Why couldn’t he breathe? Why was he crying?

He shook his head, walked away from the crowds. He told his longtime friend, photographer Joe Conzo, he had to leave the festival. He needed some time alone.

Four days earlier, Hurricane Maria had hit Puerto Rico. The devastation was immense. An entire island without power.

Structures destroyed. Hospitals without the supplies they needed. Corpses that couldn’t be refrigerated.

Like many, Colón and Conzo had been following the news. The snapper’s mother was on holiday on the island. Colón’s parents were Puerto Rican, and since the age of 15 he had become increasingly

invested in the island. But few – maybe not even Legs himself – knew how deep the investment would prove to be.

Colón remembers calling two friends in Puerto Rico – Pete Perez and Jansy Gonzalez – after leaving the festival. The airport was shut. Water was running out.

Food was spoiling without refrigeration.

People were scared. But what could he do? He sat down at his computer.

“Hi, everyone,” Colón wrote to his corporate sponsors. “I am in need of some serious help. Any resources to get me to PR that allows me to help my people is desperately needed. My friends are missing, my home may no longer be there, but I need to help. I have so many people reaching out to me and I’m emotionally and mentally drained. I can’t express the amount of pressure that I’m under.

I don’t mean to cross any lines, but we are desperate. Sincerely, Crazy Legs.”

He called Perez again. “The minute you see planes flying over Puerto Rico,” Colón told his friend, “I’ll be in one of them.”

Four days after the Netherlands event, Colón was on a Gulfstream Seven private jet, en route to Puerto Rico, accompanied by 300 water filters and a film crew. A week after the most devastating natural disaster to ever strike the island, as the US government reacted angrily to charges it wasn’t doing enough, he set out to get drinking water to as many of its 3.3 million residents as possible. Other than Waves for Water – an international non-profit organisation that provides clean water where needed – which was already on the ground, Colón was relatively alone.

The seven-day trip comes to him in fragments, even now. He would later be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and vivid, disjointed flashes now form his memory of the event.

These are some of the snapshots: Walking into his friend Perez’s house, hugging, crying, and seeing a large pile of change had been dumped on the kitchen table because ATMs were inoperable.

The toughs surrounding him at the beach, demanding water and multiple filtration systems, “My ghetto instincts kicking in,” then realising he had to deescalate the situation. “I got you, brother,” he said. “Everyone’s going to be taken care of, but you need to chill the fuck out.”

The children crying, their hands outstretched. And old people lying in the sun, pleading with their eyes.

On the seventh day, he cried.

Then he couldn’t stop 38

The filth and the heat. Cutting his leg as he trampled through downed brush.

Feeling hot, flu-ish and tired. (It turned out to be the Zika virus, which he’d caught on the trip. He avoided the cholera, typhoid and leptospirosis also prevalent.)

The mum-and-dad empanada stand near his house, miraculously open and willing to feed his crew. He gave them twice what he owed them, because he knew how much people needed money.

Surfing! The insanity of surfing amid chaos and loss, and one of the Waves for Water crew, a surfer, telling him, “Legs, dude, when you’re doing things like this, THE RED BULLETIN

Colón and pro surfer Dylan Graves – a Waves for Water staffer – lug a sample from a contaminated stream near Rincón for a filtration demonstration

it’s important that you take care of yourself, take a break, hit the waves.”

Despair. Helplessness. Exhaustion.

Waking up at dawn, falling asleep soon after dark.

The Waves for Water people trained him how to operate the portable filtration systems, and he instructed island residents, then the residents instructed their neighbours. Every day, Colón and his crew drove potholed roads for hours, seeking the hardest-hit areas. They would look for streams, reservoirs, anywhere they could find water, and gather a crowd. Sometimes the crowd had already gathered.

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The island didn’t look much different when he left on October 4. Ninety per cent of its citizens had no electricity, 86 per cent no phone signal. But it was different. Some of the impact was small and personal. He gave people batteries for flashlights and radios, and food to keep them going. He handed out thousands of dollars: $20 here, $100 there. Much of the impact was larger.

Each filtration system he delivered could filter a million gallons of water, enough to last a family of five 20 years. Fewer people would die of dehydration or dysentery.

In subsequent trips to the island, Colón – through his own efforts, partnerships

and his non-profit organisation, Rock Steady for Life – would distribute many more filtration systems and solar-powered lights. He doesn’t remember feeling anything during the trip – he had too much work and not enough energy. But on the seventh day, preparing to fly back to New York, he cried. Then he couldn’t stop.

As a boy, Colón wanted to box, or play baseball, or wrestle, but without money, what could he do? One night he followed his older brother, Robert, to a street corner.

There was a boombox, and a guy doing weird things with his body; then Robert threw a piece of cardboard onto the 39

The devastation on the island was immense

Hands-on hero: Colรณn clears debris strewn

by Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in September 2017

Colón displays before-and-after samples to show concerned Puerto Ricans how the filtration system can make toxic water drinkable

ground. Colón thought, “What’s my brother doing, embarrassing my family, throwing himself on the floor?” Then he tried some of those moves himself. He was pretty good. He was 10 years old.

After that, Colón took to hanging out on the street corners, practising his moves.

While other kids played outside at recess, Colón looked for empty classrooms where he could break. He was working on new moves one day when the captain of the middle-school cheerleading squad walked by with some of her team and peered in to watch. “Ooh, he’s got some crazy legs,” she said. That year, he won the role of Johnny Casino in the school production of Grease.

As Johnny’s band sang Born To Hand Jive, Colón did something no one had ever seen in a production of the musical before. The crowd screamed. “That was the transition from Richie to Crazy Legs.”

Soon, Colón was performing for money.

He made $50 one night at a club called Negril. The next day, he walked into the Greek restaurant next to JFK High School and bought himself a “big-ass brat and fries”. It was the first time he’d ever bought lunch at a restaurant. The previous year, aged 15, he’d become president of the Rock Steady Crew, a 500-member hip-hop troupe. Other members were as old as 21.

“Dance steps are performed solo to an accompaniment called rapping – chanting voice and percussion,” The New York Times wrote in 1981. Three years later, Virgin Records released a Rock Steady Crew album (hence the drinks with Branson).

Colón travelled to Paris. He – somewhat surprisingly – doubled for Jennifer Beals in a crucial sequence in the 1983 movie Flashdance, then played himself in Beat Street the next year. One day in 1983, in Hawaii, he says, “A white guy in tan pants came up and said, ‘Weren’t you on David THE RED BULLETIN

Letterman?’ That’s when I realised, ‘This is real. It’s beyond ghetto celebrity status.’”

But his dad still drank and his mother was still poor. And even though people still paid to watch him dance, Colón drank, too. And snorted coke, and worse. Breaking didn’t require a lot of money, but some basics were needed. You also had to prove yourself. A Rock Steady Crew wannabe in the early years satisfied both by robbing on the street. It was a form of initiation.

“You had to stick someone up for sneaker money. You had to snatch a purse.”

Even for the more successful dancers, the outlaw roots of breaking became a limitation, career-wise. Disillusionment set in. “The dancing was a start,” Colón says, “but after a while a guy would say, ‘How the fuck am I gonna apply for a job?

Write, ‘Well, I can dance on my head?’’”

Colón felt it himself. He sold fitness club memberships. He continued to drink and get high. In a dispute over drugs and money, someone jumped him and broke his jaw. He decided to go and find the guy.

He got a gun. When he was pulled over by cops, he knew he had to change his life.

And he did. Colón walked to The Point Community Development Corporation

Colón shares an emotional hug with Pete Perez last September at his childhood friend’s home

in the Bronx and offered his services. He taught kids to break. He talked with their parents about the importance of school.

He took them to the circus, to basketball games. There was one catch: to take part, you had to perform in school. “In Rock Steady Crew, the first thing you had to do was snatch a purse,” he says. “With this programme, you had to get straight As.” He volunteered at The Point from 1993 to 1996, and was honoured with numerous awards for his work. He also won an MTV Award nomination for Best Choreography, for his work with Wyclef Jean.

Life was good. Life kept getting better.

But then the hurricane came.

Nine months after he stepped off a jet and onto a devastated island, Colón hosted the sixth Puerto Rock Steady, a threeday dance and arts festival of concerts, parties and educational and mentoring programmes. The event has been a way of thanking all those who have participated in, donated to, or merely followed Rock Steady for Life. This year, there were added pressures: most of the attendees flew from the mainland, and many were worried about conditions on the island. There were also concerns about whether its infrastructure could support the festival.

But the 2018 event was a huge success, with film screenings, an opening-night party, two all-day pool parties, DJs, B-boy and B-girl contests, workshops and dance battles. And, for the first time, there was a Puerto Rock Steady Marketplace offering products made by local artisans, and info about relief efforts. It was a different world from the one Colón had lived in less than a year earlier. But it was still beautiful.

His PTSD is no longer as bad, and even if a lot of the memories from that first trip remain fragmentary, Colón can live with that. He’s 52 and, except for an exhibition match against German B-boy Niels “Storm” Robitzky, 49, last year – “to bring awareness to the situation in Puerto Rico, and show older dudes you don’t have to get fat and old” – he has no plans to dance. He’s had four knee operations and at least five herniated discs. But he has a son in college, and a long-time girlfriend. He has fans around the world. Mostly, though, through this journey Colón has discovered a clearer sense of himself, a sense of what he can do. A sense of what anyone can do.

Colón recalls drinking beer with the film crew and some of the Waves for Water guys on the final day of his first post-Maria trip to the island. He’d finally stopped crying. Everyone was exhausted.

It was quiet. That’s when it really hit him.

“Hey,” he said. “We did some shit.” wavesforwater.org 41

Free SPIRIT

She‘s a record company’s worst nightmare: a pop star who doesn‘t play by the rules. Fellow artist and fan Katy Perry calls her the epitome of effortless cool. Following an eight-year hiatus, ROBYN reveals how her craving for independence made her your favourite musician’s favourite musician Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER Photography HEJI SHIN 42

Pop perfectionist, tech nerd, comeback kid: Robyn’s versatility has made her a role model for young music artists all over the world

“My fear of stagnation was bigger than that of not succeeding”

Robyn channels ’80s Madonna at the shoot – by photographer Heji Shin, in collaboration with Red Bull Music – for her new album cover

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THE RED BULLETIN

D

oing things on her own terms. That’s been the leitmotif of Robyn’s 25 years in music. From the moment the Swedish singer decided to leave behind her prefab career as a teenage pop star to follow an independent path and realise her artistic vision, she has collaborated with artists she finds inspiring, no matter what their musical genre. Over the years, Robyn has worked with everyone from Max Martin – the most successful chart-pop producer of our time – to rap icon Snoop Dogg, and has eschewed the shiny side of the pop industry. The lyrics of her songs about break-ups and lost love don’t come with a happy ending; they’re rooted in reality and often brutally honest. In her music videos – such as the one for the single Call Your Girlfriend, which topped Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart in 2010 – Robyn doesn’t attempt to seduce the viewer; she appears wearing a thick sweater, her choreography including a backward roll and arm-windmills.

Robyn represents a new type of pop star: not inaccessible and perfect but, rather, real. She’s one of us. And this is a reason why she has become an idol and role model for a new generation of strong female recording artists, from Lorde and Charli XCX to Katy Perry, who famously called Robyn “the epitome of effortless cool”.

The 39-year-old has also abandoned the norm with regard to her recording schedule – long breaks have punctuated the release of new material. As any music industry executive will tell you, artists today are expected to be ubiquitous, incessantly sharing new songs on various streaming services in order to stay on news feeds. But Robyn’s most recent album, Body Talk, was released eight years ago.

So, when her new song, Honey, premièred in 2017 in the final season of Girls – at the request of the TV series’ creator and star Lena Dunham – and then Robyn revealed during a lecture at the Red Bull Music Festival New York

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earlier this year that she was preparing to release her eighth album, both fans and music critics went into overdrive.

With that album, also titled Honey, out at the end of October, Robyn tells us why independence is crucial to every career – and how slowing down can help get you up to speed. the red bulletin: You’re known to be one of pop music’s most versatile collaborators, but for this album you decided to enter the studio alone.

Why change your working method? robyn: Usually, I have ideas for the songs but mostly leave the production to other people. But this time I was more certain about how I wanted the album to sound, so it was really important for me to explore that by myself first.

Collaborating is such an important process for me, but it leaves very little space to hear yourself. This time, I just really knew what I wanted.

What were the benefits of working on the new songs by yourself?

I needed to get to that space where I was doing things instinctively; to have time by myself and not be affected by other things. It was very lonely at times.

Enjoying being on my own, getting really nerdy about things like working with new software, going to my dance studio and practising… that was a learning process. It felt like being a student again.

Do you feel that, in today’s tech-heavy world, we tend to forget to take time for ourselves and cultivate our skills?

Yes, definitely. There are so many opportunities that happen when you work with other people, but there’s another quality that comes from letting something take its time. Sometimes you need to dig where you’re standing, instead of reaching outwards, to galvanise the energy within you.

But isn’t that the exact opposite of what every music industry expert would tell you? Today’s artists drop new tunes every month to keep their name in the public eye…

Probably, but when I went through a separation and I lost a very good friend 45

[long-time collaborator Christian Falk] to cancer, it was a natural decision for me to take some time out. I started therapy, which was really intense, and I didn’t want to interrupt the process by doing other things.

What kind of therapy?

Psychoanalysis, three to four times a week for five years. Basically, you build up a relationship with your therapist and you go through the things you might not have worked through earlier in your life. The therapist is there to follow you through the different phases.

Some of it is great, some of it frustrating.

It’s all about letting things roll out in their own time and not interrupting it.

It’s like healing.

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Four career moments that prove Robyn

1997

2005

Aged just 18, Robyn releases Show Me Love, which hits the top 10 in the US and UK singles charts, and she is one of only a small number of non-black artists to perform on US TV music show Soul Train. A year earlier, Robyn earned the praise of Tina Turner when she opened for the legendary singer in Sweden.

Following negative feedback from her record company to her new material, Robyn starts her own label, Konichiwa Records, in order to liberate herself artistically.

Her new direction results in the critically acclaimed electro-pop album Robyn, which goes on to earn her a Grammy nomination.

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“I think I enjoy not knowing exactly where things are going”

What effect did it have on your everyday life?

I slowed down. I’ve never been that calm in my whole life, and I did very little. Now, all of a sudden, there’s a lot more information in everything I do.

What do you mean?

When you work a lot, you have a different kind of speed: you’re rushing through things and forcing more into your schedule, but you’re not really present.

With psychoanalysis, I started to just appreciate being, and when you’re in that space it’s really difficult to power through things. It didn’t feel good to rush. I felt the need to allow myself to be in the present.

How do you maintain that calmness now you’re back in the spotlight with the new album?

Since everything has started to speed back up again, I’ve realised that meditation is a really good tool: it helps you to centre yourself and return to your feelings. Another thing I do is try to have a virtual discussion in my head with my therapist; I think about what she would say. In therapy, you learn how to have a discussion with yourself about your emotions, and you can imagine that even when you’re no longer in therapy.

It’s all about making time for your thoughts; you can just sit down in a park somewhere and be with yourself.

When you felt trapped in the industry 13 years ago, you decided to turn your back on major record labels and release the album Robyn yourself. Does

is the world’s coolest pop star

2010

2013

Flouting music industry rules, Robyn releases three albums in just six months. Why? Too many good songs, she says. Swedish magazine Fokus names Robyn ‘Swede Of The Year’ for her “unparalleled integrity that is an inspiration to everyone who feels trapped by boundaries or stereotypes”.

Robyn receives the KTH Royal Institute of Technology Great Prize in Stockholm for “artistic contributions and embrace of technology”. With the prize money, she starts the Tekla festival, an event aimed at improving access to tech – and careers in the industry – for teenage girls in Sweden.

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it feel like you’re at a similar point now, rebooting your career after eight years of personal difficulties?

I feel much calmer about what I’m doing.

I really made the album that I wanted to make. I think I did in 2005 as well, but I didn’t know as much about myself then.

How did it feel back then, basically ditching the safety net of a big label?

I was really scared. I had sleepless nights, because at the time it seemed almost impossible to be an artist without a record company. It was a big risk, but I felt like I had nothing to lose.

Not even your career?

I didn’t see it going anywhere. I didn’t know anyone in the industry – or, at least, the part that I was working in – who felt the way I did about music, so I really didn’t have much of a choice.

But at the same time, the other option – to do something on my own – wasn’t clear-cut, either. It was a free-fall, but I think that’s another thing I’m still enjoying: not knowing exactly where things are going.

Robyn was a big success, so your decision paid off. But a lot of people would have chosen the safer option.

How did you overcome the temptation to take an easier route to success?

In my case, the fear of stagnating was bigger than that of not succeeding. And in music, if you don’t risk something that really matters to you – like your integrity, or your pride, or your time, or your security, or your reputation – you can hear it in the music right away.

Do you have any tips for getting out of your comfort zone and making a new start?

Having a routine is really important when starting something new, because if you’re destabilising yourself it’s essential to have your own routines and your own process you can trust. Also, allow yourself time to explore, and give yourself space – don’t rush into new things. And, lastly, talk to people you trust. Play them your music, or have them read something you’ve written, whatever it is. Find your balance between a more isolated and a more shared space. Having both of those things really was key for me when I started working on the new album.

Watch Robyn’s RBMA lecture at redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/ robyn; robyn.com 47

Deep impact FRANCESCO SAURO has two jobs, both of which are worthy of the big screen. The Italian geologist and his team of researchers, La Venta, explore caves that no one has ever entered – and he trains astronauts below ground, too. Here, Sauro reveals how to make fear your friend, and what obstacles you can expect to come up against underground Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER Photography LA VENTA ESPLORAZIONI GEOGRAFICHE

GORNER GLACIER, SWITZERLAND

The cave that could crumble “In this cave, even the slightest fluctuation in temperature can cause the chambers to fall in,” explains Sauro. “If you stay for longer than a couple of hours, there’s a chance you might not be able to get back out again. The water temperature here is 0.1°C.”

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NAICA MINE, MEXICO

The cave that burns “Miners discovered this cave, where there are gypsum crystals that grow to up to 13m in length. The extreme conditions – it’s 50°C and almost 100 per cent humidity – make mining impossible. You’ll burn your lungs here if you don’t wear overalls with breathing equipment and a cooling system.”

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TYNDALL GLACIER, PATAGONIA, CHILE

The cave that floods “This shaft is 100m deep and can fill with meltwater in a matter of hours. Therefore, we observe the melt at any glacier cave for several days before we dare to get started.”

“There’s a huge, totally unexplored continent right below us”

ROLEX AWARDS/STEFAN WALTER

In 2014, Sauro was presented with a Rolex Award for Enterprise – a prize given to pioneers in the fields of science, technology and exploration

Francesco Sauro, 34, is one of the few individuals who need both a microscope and a pickaxe for the work they do. The first he uses in his job as a professor of geology at the University of Bologna, Italy; the second as a member of La Venta, a Treviso-based community of experts in speleology – the study of caves – who explore rocky gullies in the farthest-flung corners of our planet.

In 2013, for example, Sauro became the first person ever to enter Imawari Yeuta, the world’s longest quartzite cave system. The caves are situated within Auyán-tepuí, one of the largest tepuís – the local word for table-top mountain, meaning ‘house of the gods’ – in the Venezuelan rainforest; to date, the Italian has mapped 22.5km. “Before we went in, there hadn’t been light down there for millions of years,” Sauro says, “and there probably hadn’t been any sound either.”

So, what is it about caves he finds so fascinating? Sauro says he thinks of them as gigantic libraries: he can read off precise details about the history of the Earth’s climate from stalactite formations, to gain new insights into global warming. And, he says, you learn a lot about yourself in them – as a cave explorer, you could easily be inside one for six days, in total darkness.

The Red Bulletin finds out why the greatest risk in extreme situations comes

from yourself, and why caves are the perfect place to prepare astronauts for space… the red bulletin: When were you last scared? francesco sauro: I get scared every time I go on an expedition, and it’s important that I do.

Why? Leonardo da Vinci once wrote that when he looked into a dark cave, he was overcome by two sensations: fear and curiosity. As different as the two are, they’re still mutually dependent. Fear keeps you on your toes and stops you taking a rash step; it’s your lifesaver.

But curiosity is what really drives you on.

How do you strike the right balance between the two?

The first time I went on an expedition to the Dolomites with my father as a child, I really had the jitters. But the further I dared myself to go, the less fear I felt.

Experience is the key to getting the balance right.

Isn’t experience relative when you’re exploring unexplored caves? How can you prepare for an expedition that no one has undertaken before?

You can, in part. When I set off for the caves in Venezuela, I’d already racked up a lot of experience in Arctic ice caves, volcanic caves, caves in the Alps. Then I got there and…

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bam! It was a totally new world. My experience was only of limited use.

If you don’t have experience to fall back on, what other skills can you rely on for survival?

Concentration. Of course, there’s always a serious risk of rockfall, or of you breathing in life-threatening fungal spores, like I encountered in Mexico. But the greatest risk comes from you yourself, and that’s fatigue. If your concentration lapses in a cave and you stumble and break a leg, you’re going to be in serious trouble: you’re hundreds of metres below ground in total darkness, and no rescue helicopter is going to come to your aid. It could be days or even weeks before anyone reaches you.

Have you ever stared death in the face?

Of course. It happened in one of the world’s deepest gorges, in Mexico. We were the first people ever to venture down there. As we were descending through a waterfall, the drill we needed to fix grapnels [fastening hooks] into the rock face slipped out of my colleague’s hand. We couldn’t go up or down without it. We were stuck in a freezing cold waterfall, 170m below ground.

What happened next?

I found a bush in the wall and attached my rope to it. I tested it carefully to see if it would support my weight. If I’m totally honest, I didn’t really think it would. But it was our only chance. So we all abseiled 100m down, very carefully, one after the other.

Luckily, it all passed off fine.

What I learn from situations like those is that you can’t prepare for every risk or eventuality, which makes the ability to improvise all the more important for explorers.

You do astronaut training underground for the 54

European Space Agency – what does that involve?

We leave the astronauts in caves – like those on Lanzarote, for example – because of the conditions there. Lanzarote has a dry desert landscape with volcanic craters similar to those on Mars. The astronauts have to complete scientific tasks in teams of six, in surroundings they’re completely unfamiliar with.

EMERGENCY KNOW-HOW Four extreme situations you might encounter in caves – and how to survive them

CLAUSTROPHOBIA

Always go through narrow sections feet-first so you don’t get stuck, then check that your helmet will be able to fit through the space, too. If you suffer a bout of claustrophobia, take deep breaths, stay calm and move slowly.

EXHAUSTION

People tend to walk more quickly in unfamiliar surroundings, but exhaustion and a lack of concentration could cost you your life in a cave. It’s important to regularly remind yourself not to go too fast.

PANIC

When you push on into a cave for days at a time, you’ll need just as long to get back out.

You can go crazy thinking about it, because you know that help is days away. How do you cope?

Try not to think any further ahead than your next step.

EXPOSURE

Due to subterranean rivers, you’re usually wet when exploring caves, and temperatures are often low.

It’s important not to stay still under any circumstances if you’re cold. Proceed slowly until the movement warms up your body again.

What makes caves so useful in preparing astronauts for space exploration?

There’s no difference between day and night in a cave. The astronauts must learn to live and work together in a very confined space. They have to make precise plans for their food rations and equipment.

If the batteries in your torch run out in a cave, things can become very uncomfortable.

In other words, caves are unforgiving when it comes to mistakes. And they’re real, not simulated, which is exactly why astronauts love them. It’s the first time before they fly off to the Space Station that they’re exposed to a situation where every mistake can have consequences and they have to cooperate with each other.

What can an astronaut learn from you?

I’m sure that future astronauts will need cave-exploring skills too. Look at Mars: due to radiation, no life is possible on the surface. But caves are out of its reach, meaning that if we were to ever set up camp, they would be the best place.

Do caves harbour any other secrets?

The surface of the Earth was once inhospitable to life, just like Mars. That’s why I’m convinced that microbial life on our planet could have begun and initially evolved in caves.

But we’ll still have to wait to discover that for sure. We’re only just getting started. Over the last 50 years, we have explored 30,000km of cave passages, but 10,000,000km are still unexplored. It’s crazy: we’re pushing further into space when there’s almost a whole untrodden continent directly below us.

The book Into The Heart Of The World: La Venta, 25 Years Of Exploration, which documents the most important expeditions of Francesco Sauro and his team, is available at skira.net; laventa.it/en

PUERTO PRINCESA UNDERGROUND RIVER, PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES

The cave that comes alive “There’s a huge subterranean ecosystem here, but beware: the chambers are home to highly venomous tarantulas and snakes.

And, in the evening, hundreds of thousands of swifts migrate to the cave, just as swarms of bats fly out. The sound of their flapping wings reaches the volume of a speeding train.”

DARK STAR CAVE, UZBEKISTAN

The cave that mummifies you “The dryness and the icy temperatures in the cave mummify the bodies of animals, as you see here with the head of this mountain goat. The conditions we led the expedition in were extremely trying: a 1,000m descent with a constant icy wind, for days at a time, in total darkness.”

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AUYÁN-TEPUÍ, VENEZUELA

The cave that stays hidden “We searched for the entrance to the cave leading to this tepuí on satellite images for two years.

Due to the remote and rocky jungle landscape, we had to be dropped off by helicopter.”

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TAK E F I V E

Long-distance runner Peter Thompson on…

PUSHING YOURSELF BEYOND YOUR LIMITS Tackling the Tour de France route on foot meant running as much as 50km every day for 10 weeks, and climbing the equivalent of five Everests in the process. But, says the 34-year-old, it was mental rather than physical strength that got him to the finish line

2 Identify your motivation

I’m incredibly competitive when I put my mind to something. But fundraising is also a big thing for me. Friends of mine have suffered with mental health issues, so I’ve seen how it affects lives. That was a huge motivation to raise money [for the charities Mind and Livability] and promote awareness. To have more than one stream of motivation is very important.

3 Break things down

I try not to look too far ahead.

I didn’t really think about the finish line until I was more than halfway through.

It’s incredibly daunting to think about running 2,000 miles [3,350km] in 70 days, so you keep your eye on the next day or two. In France I was doing 50km a day, but I’d break it up into 10km slots. It was a case of just getting to the next one, because when you’re 2km into that, you tell yourself you’re almost halfway, and at halfway you’re almost at the next 10km.

4 Seek support

Thompson training in his hometown of Bournemouth earlier this year. In 2017, he ran 44 marathons, through every country in Europe, on consecutive days

1 You don’t have to be unbelievably fit; you just need to really want to do it” PETER THOMPSON

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Don’t fear failure

Making it to the start line is often even harder than reaching the finish. You have to accept you might fail. That doesn’t make you weak, it’s just realistic. If, after five days, I’d fallen apart, at least I’d have tried. This means you start with the attitude that you’ve achieved something.

You’ve given up a period of your life to train for this. A huge amount goes into making the start line; you don’t just turn up and see what happens.

On a previous running challenge my knee swelled up, and I honestly didn’t know if I’d be able to get through the next day. Luckily, I was with a couple of friends, who reassured me and kept me calm. You can be incredibly driven and self-motivated, but there will still be times when you need to draw on other people’s motivation and confidence. As stubborn as I might be, I needed the support of others to get me through.

5 Draw on your mental strength

You don’t have to be unbelievably fit to do something like this; you just need to really want to do it. For the Tour de France challenge, I had to run for six or seven hours every day. I don’t see why someone who was mentally strong couldn’t do that for 10 hours a day, even if they weren’t the fittest. People are capable of achieving more than they think they are.

Interview MARK WILDING Photography DAN ROSS THE RED BULLETIN

These punk-rock wrestlers are changing the face of the modern match. And discovering their inner strength in the process

Grand EVE OF DESTRUCTION SLAMS Words RACHAEL SIGEE Photography DAN WILTON 62

Academy trainer Rhia O‘Reilly (left) teaches Sierra Loxton a proper lesson in the EVE ring

S

aturday afternoon at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, east London.

Two women, known as Kay Lee Ray and Viper, sit in the middle of a wrestling ring, playing Connect 4. Beside them, swamped in pink tinsel, is a pug named Bubba, who is being Instagrammed by several women in hysterics. Behind them, others make use of the impromptu hair-curling station that has materialised on the staircase.

Fast-forward five hours and the same space is packed with almost 200 punters screaming at Kay Lee Ray and Viper, who are once again in the ring, only this time leaping from corner posts, bouncing off the ropes and hurling each other to the ground (now scattered with those same Connect 4 pieces, making every slam more painful). At one point, a kick from Ray knocks off Viper’s false eyelashes. And these two are supposed to be best friends.

This is fight night at EVE, billed by its founder Emily Read as “the wrestling company that the wrestling world doesn’t

want”. Tickets for shows starring this selfproclaimed ‘feminist, punk-rock’ gang of all-female pro-wrestlers sell out almost every month, with competitors clamouring for a spot in the ring, and punters flocking from across the UK and beyond to see them smashed, slammed and thrown about.

It’s a long way from the bikini-clad sideshow that women’s wrestling – thanks to it being largely ignored by the rest of the industry – has become synonymous with. When Read struts onto the stage stroking her giant neon-pink mohawk and announces, “The first rule of the secret girl gang... is that you must tell everyone about the secret girl gang!”, then follows it with a stern warning about zero tolerance for hate speech, it’s clear that EVE isn’t only trying to change the face of wrestling, but to make a political point, too. This is a safe space – unless you’re in the ring, that is. There may be two (or three, or four) women beating the living daylights out of each other to a baying

Holding their own: Portsmouth’s Zoe Lucas (left) comes off second best to eventual winner Laura di Matteo in August this year

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THE RED BULLETIN

“EVE is the wrestling company that the wrestling world doesn’t want” Founder Emily Read (right)

“It’s basically theatre that we do; you have to come to see it to actually understand” Above: Wrestling is a family affair for Leah Owens – her identical twin Kasey also competes in the ring Below: It’s all about EVE for this dedicated warrior

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THE RED BULLETIN

“To enable people to escape normal life is the coolest thing in the world” Above: Dave Coulson is one of many EVE mega-fans who flock to the Resistance Gallery on a Saturday night Below: Aussie combatant Charli Evans views women‘s wrestling as a form of art

THE RED BULLETIN

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crowd, but they’re doing it with a clear message of empowerment, inclusivity and mutual appreciation; when the fans are really loving a match, they chant, “Both!

These! Women! Both! These! Women!”

But this positive ethos doesn’t make the wrestling any less dirty a spectacle than a traditional men’s show. Rhia O’Reilly and Sierra Loxton’s opening match ends with them grappling on the floor after flipping over the ropes and into the audience. And the climactic match of the night – reigning EVE champion Charlie Morgan versus Kasey Owens – ends with the entire audience rushing outside to watch as the fighting continues next to the bins. According to Owens’ identical twin Leah, this is normal: “The word I use is shenanigans. She-nani-gans. Be prepared to move, be prepared to get out of the way. There will be dives, craziness, sadness, happiness, every emotion you can think of. It’s basically this theatre that we do; you have to come to see it to actually understand.”

She’s right: the EVE experience is like watching a high-drag pantomime with added punching – the camp and characterisation are crucial to the show.

Jetta, the self-styled “Princess Diana of British wrestling”, enters the ring to Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better, conducting the crowd in a sing-along. Zoe Lucas is an uptight high-school bitch who arrives flanked by two goons in T-shirts that read “Is Wrestling A Carb?”. And Charli Evans takes her loss to Addy Starr (a secondaryschool English teacher by day) so badly that she ignores the referee and has another go at the victor, who ends up being carried backstage. Most of the women on this card have loved wrestling from an early age and stumbled across training schools either through curiosity or tagging along with a friend. They have gone from tentatively being the only girl at training camps full of men to travelling the world, but they keep coming back to EVE because here they can just show up and fight without having to justify themselves.

“This is a form of art, really,” says Evans, 24, a full-time wrestler from Central Coast, near Sydney, Australia.

“And it’s like no other. To be able to tell a story and make people laugh or cry and feel something genuine... To enable them to escape [normal life] is the coolest thing in the world.” And the effects on the wrestlers themselves can be profound.

“I’ve completely grown as a performer and a person over the last eight years,” says Belfast native Rhia O’Reilly, 33, who works for The Big Issue Foundation when not in the ring. “I used to be nervous and 68

Trash talk: Charlie Morgan (standing) and Kasey Owens take it to the bins

When the fans are really loving a match, they chant, “Both! These! Women!�

Connect floored: Kay Lee Ray (right) and Viper are out for the count(er)

“You’ll see craziness, sadness, happiness, every emotion you can think of”

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Tips from the ring When writer Rachael Sigee (pictured below, right, with Cydoni Trusste) arrived at the EVE Academy, she had no idea she’d end up being put through her paces. Here’s what she learnt…

1. Pick an experienced wrestling partner

The whole point of wrestling is to work together, and the job of the more advanced partner is always to make the newbie look good.

It’s the fastest way to learn the coolest-looking moves.

2. Don’t be intimidated

These may be the toughest women in London, all of them happy to hurl you to the mat, but they’ll be cheering for every new girl who walks through the door. Everyone wants you to get good enough that they can justifiably put you in a Boston Crab [a pro wrestling hold].

3. It’s all about the sell

Most wrestlers would refer to what they do as an art rather than a sport (although that doesn’t mean it’s not a serious workout). Convincing the crowd that you’re in agony – when you’re actually in total control – is key to making it look realistic.

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4. Get your head in the game

Wrestling is almost as much of a mental workout as a physical one, and there’s a lot to think about. Executing the moves correctly and safely is one thing, but how about making sure the crowd can see your face at the same time? In terms of learning choreography, teamwork and show(wo)manship, it’s like taking a super-challenging dance class, albeit with a few headlocks thrown in.

5. You bruise, you lose Storylines may be pre-planned and sequences practised, but wrestling moves are very real.

The next day, I ached in places I didn’t know existed, and I had bruises developing before I’d even finished cooling down. But if anyone asks how I got them, I can legitimately say, “You should see the other girl.”

shy, but I’ve learnt how to work a crowd.

As my confidence has grown in wrestling, it’s grown in life, too. Even looking at how my body has developed – I now take risks I would never have considered. It’s pushed me as a person in all kinds of ways.”

It feels timely, in this age of #MeToo, to see women showing off extraordinary athletic talents in such a male-dominated sphere with no fear of being treated differently. EVE has already had a global impact – tonight’s line-up includes Australian and Canadian wrestlers. And it regularly hosts competitors from New Zealand, Germany, America and Japan, which has a huge women’s wrestling scene where many of EVE’s home-grown fighters have spent time. As tides change in many industries, Read’s approach is no more ‘softly softly’ than that of the women in the ring. She doesn’t think patience is necessary: “People say it takes time to do this or that. But it doesn’t. You just do it.

It didn’t take time to have good women’s wrestling. We just took good wrestlers and put them in a wrestling show.”

The first time Read – a long-time fan of wrestling, and a one-time trainee – did this was with her husband Dann back in 2009. EVE started small, as a familyfriendly show in Sudbury, Suffolk, with the aim of creating “a company for women to better themselves, for women to prove a point and show how great they were. A place for people to see women being celebrated as strong heroes.”

In mainstream wrestling, Addy Starr explains, women’s bouts used to be a novelty: “You’d have the main event, your normal matches, then you might have a gimmicky one like a death match or a comedy match, or a women’s match,” she says. These generally featured skimpy costumes, lasted three or four minutes, and were considered a “piss break” for those waiting to see the big names (ie, the men). But things are changing: WWE has announced its first all-female pay-per-view event, which airs this month. And EVE is at the forefront of the movement to put women’s wrestling front and centre.

EVE gave London its first-ever allwomen show in 2016 and has been on a roll over since, with a helping hand from Netflix’s hit wrestling drama GLOW. Kate Nash – who plays Britannica in the series – is a regular at matches, and among the hardcore EVE devotees are first-timers such as Kyle and his friends, from Denver, USA. “This promotion was just so well spoken of and there were so many great performers coming through that we were like, ‘We have to go and see this,’” he says. “To see a show where it’s all women THE RED BULLETIN

“EVE sees us as wrestlers rather than just women who are there for sex appeal” – and really empowered women – is so cool. Every match has been a banger!”

Newbie Laura from London is squashed onto the staircase, craning to see the ring.

“I’ve been watching GLOW and it just inspired me,” she shouts over the crowd.

“I was like, ‘I want to try out wrestling.’

But maybe not now I’ve actually seen the quality and strength of these women.

I think I’d need to work on my muscles.”

If Laura does decide to give it a try, her first port of call will be the EVE Academy, run by Rhia O’Reilly, who wrestled at the very first EVE show and is now a regular on the bill. On Sunday mornings, the Resistance Gallery is transformed once again: the fairy lights are on, the music is turned up to 11, and roughly 20 women are taking turns practising forward and shoulder rolls on the mats as Limp Bizkit’s Rollin’ thumps through the space. Every few minutes, O’Reilly or her co-trainer, former wrestling pro and stunt man Greg Burridge, yells, “What day is it?” and everyone throws up their hands to shout back, “EVE Sunday!” There may only be a tenth of the people who attended last night’s show, but it’s already just as sweaty.

T

raining is open to anyone who self-identifies as a woman, and generally attendees are aged 1835. There’s a mix of beginners and more established amateur wrestlers, but everyone gets involved, no matter what level of fitness or experience, and evidently it’s pretty addictive. “A whole bunch of people who watched GLOW went, ‘I want to do wrestling!’ without knowing what they were getting themselves into,” O’Reilly explains. “But, to their credit, they’re still here six months later.”

Above all, O’Reilly aims to carry the EVE philosophy of solidarity, support and celebration from the show to training.

“We’ve created a really special and unique atmosphere unlike any other wrestling school I’ve been to. It’s so positive and supportive. Yes, I wanted to create a training school, but really I just wanted a space where women could feel safe, make noise and do something that maybe sometimes they feel they shouldn’t.”

This attitude has helped make the EVE Academy the world’s biggest women’s wrestling training school, and not one attendee can speak highly enough of it.

Becki Ashton and Winona Makanji have travelled down from Nottingham just to train here for the morning. “It’s a great place for women to get together, wrestle and feel confident, no matter their size, their experience, how they look or how they dress,” says Ashton. Makanji was making plans for her debut on the card at EVE just a day after her first training session last December: “It was amazing, the best day of my life,” she says.

One trainee who has already graduated to the ring as part of EVE’s step-up shows – SHEVOLUTION – is Cydoni Trusste, who fights as ‘psycho dyke’ Rebel Kinney. Trusste has been wrestling for around 10 years, but found her home at EVE because it “sees us as wrestlers rather than just women who are there for sex appeal and nothing more”.

She views it as a progressive force leading the way for women wrestlers: “We have a lesbian champion. And we have me, who could not be queerer.” Trusste pulls down her T-shirt to reveal a huge chest tattoo reading ‘QUEER’, before showing off ‘LESBIAN’ inked across her knuckles.

“Literally, I could not be queerer.”

The lesbian champion she’s referring to is Charlie Morgan, EVE’s breakout star, who has just fulfilled her “childhood dream” by signing to work with the British branch of WWE. The Norwichbased 26-year-old – whose motto is ‘Be#brave. Be#you. Be#fearless’ – has been wrestling for around eight years. In July, Morgan came out as gay in the EVE ring, which she describes as “probably one of the best moments of my career”.

She knows that few wrestling companies would provide such a supportive platform. “I feel like this world is far too wrapped up in what everyone else thinks, and EVE just struck me as this bold company who stood up for what people don’t usually stand up for, especially in the wrestling business,” Morgan says.

If you go to an EVE event, don’t expect your average night out. As an audience member, you might need to be prepared for a kick in the head from a wrestler flying over the ropes (as evidenced by one die-hard fan cheerfully recounting the concussion she received here last year), but you’re also treated to biscuits if you’re dedicated enough to be at the front of the queue. That’s EVE: putting you a headlock with one arm, but giving you a hug with the other. evewrestling.com 73

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guide Get it. Do it. See it.

AROUND THE WORLD IN A NIGHT

GET THE GEAR: PUFF PIECES

CITY GUIDE: GO MAD FOR IT

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MATTHEW STERNE

Take a multicultural musical tour with DJ Esa Williams at Phonox

Five of the finest padded jackets to see you through the winter

Discover the best spots in Manchester’s buzzing Northern Quarter

COLOMBIA’S HIDDEN SECRETS Jungle trekking in the Sierra Nevada mountains Page 76

THE RED BULLETIN

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GUI D E

Do it

Our reporter Tom climbs to Teyuna’s higher terraces. Once upon a time, each of these stone rings was the foundation for an ancient building

CUIDAD PERDIDA

REDISCOVERING THE LOST CITY The jungles of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada are so deep they hid a whole ‘city’ for almost 1,200 years. Tom Guise was tasked with finding this ancient treasure in just five days

F

ittingly, this story began in a town called Machete.

That was two days ago, and I couldn’t tell you where I am now, except it’s deep in the jungles of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada. I’m wading across my second river of the day, and it’s

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only 5am. As I take my boots from around my neck and pull them onto wet, bruised feet, expedition leader Juan Diego points into the foliage and says, “The steps.”

Finally we’ve reached the concealed entrance to Ciudad Perdida – ‘the Lost City’.

Crossing one of the many rivers on the way to Teyuna.

Some are so deep you need a rope to guide you across

THE RED BULLETIN

Colombia

TRAVEL TIPS

HOW NOT TO GET LOST IN COLOMBIA

Our five-day trek started in the town of Machete Pelao. However, Santa Marta – a two-hour drive away – is your best base Santa Marta Ciudad Perdida

Medellín

Dry season is from December to March, and the wet season is at its worst in October and November. The Lost City is closed every September for religious ceremonies

Bogotá

Moments later, rain transformed this hard clay path into a mud slide within minutes

Colombia

PAY

VACCINES

Colombian Pesos (COP) € 1 = about COP 3,500 COP 1 = 100 centavo

Typhoid, Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever, Diphtheria, Rabies

A council of Wiwa tribal leaders meets our group. In the middle sits mamo Ali Jose Miguel

GETAWAY/MATTHEW STERNE

TOM GUISE

EAT First thing to clarify: Ciudad Perdida isn’t a city. Built by the Tairona people, 650 years before Peru’s Machu Picchu, Teyuna (its indigenous name) was more of a temple, a place for their spiritual leaders – the mamo – to train disciples and fulfil their duties as guardians of the natural world, until they abandoned it when the Spanish arrived in the 1500s.

Second, it wasn’t lost: the Wiwa, Kogi, Kankuamo and Arhuaco tribes, descendants of the Tairona who still live in the arboreal wilderness, have always known of its existence. But in 1972 it was ‘found’ by huaqueros – looters of antiquities. Today, the gold buried in its tombs is gone.

THE RED BULLETIN

When it rains, the rocky paths become rivers and mud slides. Crabs scuttle around my feet Trekking here is tough. It’s hot, humid and, when it rains, the rock-strewn paths become rivers and mud slides. Crabs scuttle around my feet. Nothing dries – hang your clothes at night and they’re wetter in the morning – and no wound heals. Reaching the steps up to Teyuna doesn’t earn you a rest: there are around

AJIACO A hearty chicken soup flavoured with the herb guascas CEVICHE Raw fish cured in citrus juice AREPAS Small patties made from corn flour. The Colombian speciality is arepas stuffed with cheese

VISIT MUSEO DEL ORO The Gold Museum houses incredible indigenous artefacts EL RODADERO BEACH White sand beach surrounded by lively bars and clubs PARQUE DE LOS NOVIOS A bustling park and starting point for an authentically Colombian night out

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Do it

Colombia

LOST CITY STATS

THE ULTIMATE JUNGLE METROPOLIS

The Tairona began building Teyuna around 800AD and successfully managed to hide it for more than a millennium. That’s even more impressive when you check out the scale of this gigantic structure CIUDAD PERDIDA DATA

ABANDONED Late 16th century

POPULATION Approx 3,000 (1500AD)

REDISCOVERED 1972 (by looters)

NEAREST TOWN Machete Pelao

AREA 300,000m2

TREK TIME 2.5 days each way

TERRACES More than 200

TREK DISTANCE Approx 70km

ELEVATION 1,100m above sea level

TOTAL CLIMB 420 storeys

THE BOSS The head mamo of the Wiwa is 77-year-old Ramón Gil, who lives in Gotsezhy. In his 1990 film From The Heart Of The World: The Elder Brother’s Warning, documentary maker Alan Ereira interviewed Gil about the destruction of the natural world

THE PEOPLE In 1991, the indigenous people of Colombia were granted autonomy in the governance of their territories. However, anything buried 30m or more beneath the surface – ie, minerals, gold etc – still belongs to the Colombian government.

MORE LOST CITIES At Teyuna is a stone map the Wiwa says reveals other undiscovered lost cities. The ability to read the map is lost in time, except to the mamos, who pass the information from generation to generation.

The map stone at Teyuna. Good luck decoding it – even our Kogi guide here doesn’t possess the secret

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A secret area of Teyuna, off the tourist trail. Some Kogi people still live among the terraces

1,200 of them, and because the Tairona were a short people – 1.5m-tall remains were discovered – the steps are perilously small.

Waiting in a stone circle at the top is our Wiwa guide, Jose. He’s fidgeting with his danburro, or poporo – a gourd he stains with a mixture of ground seashells, saliva and chewed coca leaves (contrary to popular belief, masticating the unprocessed leaf doesn’t make you high, but if swallowed it can have a laxative effect). As years pass, this layer builds up in a similar way to rings in a tree trunk. A mamo can study a person’s danburro to see their life; it’s like a spiritual diary.

Jose instructs us to leave our negativity in the circle. We are then free to enter Teyuna. At first, it seems little more than a garden. Then we break out of the glade and a breathtaking vista of grass-covered stone circles rising to the heavens is revealed.

On the highest shelf is Edwin Rey. For 24 years, the 57-year-old guide has led travellers here. But in 2003 his group was abducted by rebels. Rey was tied up and left behind. “The authorities accused me of working with the guerrillas,” he says. His voice is drowned out by an army chopper thundering overhead and landing

on the largest terrace. Soldiers unload supplies. They’re here because of what happened to Rey – no kidnappings have occurred since. Rather, tourism has spiked.

Three days later, we emerge from the jungle at the Wiwa village of Gotsezhy. Mamo Ali Jose Miguel stands by the river.

Distinguished from his fellow Wiwa by a pointy hat, bare feet, massive danburro and an aura of serene enlightenment, he spiritually cleanses each of us, tying a thread to our wrists.

Then he speaks. He says the discovery of Teyuna taught his people to relearn respect for the sacred site. It is the heart of the world, and they are its guardians.

Thanks to tourism, they have a chance to buy back the forests stolen from them to grow illegal substances. “We need lands to pay back to Mother Nature. We shouldn’t cut down trees, or mine for minerals or oil. These are the seeds of life,” he warns. Today, they are fighting for the forest to be recognised as a living creature.

I went to Colombia looking for a lost city; I found something more.

The Red Bulletin travelled to Colombia with G Adventures, who are partnered with Wiwa Tours, an indigenous-run organisation promoting and funding local culture; gadventures.com

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TOM GUISE

STEPS 1,200

MATTHEW STERNE

BUILT Circa 800AD

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Clubs

ADVENTURES IN SOUND London-based DJ/producer Esa Williams is a truly global selector. When you check into one of his sets, be prepared to touch down in Ghana, Uganda, Cuba and South Africa – all without leaving the dancefloor Rememory Music. He also curates for music-focused educational programmes in Cuba and Uganda, providing a seat at the table for musicians who might otherwise fall between the cracks.

More recently, Williams began his Saturday residency at south London club Phonox, where he takes dancers on a journey across continents and musical genres. The Red Bulletin caught up with him…

“My family always gave me the opportunity to look outside our community”

What do you mean when you say you looked outside your community?

At the age of 17, after the difficulty of my father’s death [the late Mervin Granger Williams was himself a house DJ with an extensive record collection], I had just finished high school and my mum encouraged me to visit my uncle in Frankfurt to get some inspiration. When I arrived, I saw techno DJs in Frankfurt and Berlin for the very first time. I didn’t have that time with my father to sit and quiz him about music, so

Opened in 2015, Phonox attracts a discerning crowd of underground house and techno lovers

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JAKE DAVIS, ALEX ZALEWSKA

HAYLEY JONES

Never afraid to travel and explore, Esa Williams left his native Cape Town in 2004.

Having flown to Scotland as part of a work-exchange programme, destined for a job as a door-to-door energy salesman, Williams instead saw the move as an opportunity to pursue his dream of making it as a DJ and producer.

The world of sales is now a distant memory, his unique brand of Afro-influenced house and techno – released on underground labels such as Dekmantel and Burek – having gained critical acclaim.

Today, Williams hosts a show on Gilles Peterson’s station Worldwide FM and is band leader for Ghanaian dance-rap group Ata Kak, all the while running his own record label,

the red bulletin: Who nurtured your creativity when you were growing up? esa williams: After Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, the whole country felt like there was this newly acquired freedom. But we were still living in challenging conditions. I was lucky that my family always gave me the opportunity to look outside the communities we lived in.

It was the vision of my parents and my grandparents, who always pushed forward and let us know we could achieve whatever we wanted.

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Phonox my uncle really played that role, helping to open my mind. That was when the seed was planted.

In 2013, you worked with music network Santuri Safari in East Africa, in addition to international projects with the British Council. What did you learn about yourself and the power of collaboration?

I suppose I just get so much from collaborating. I could really tap into a different side of my creativity. There was a mutual understanding, and all we did was share good energy and create some amazing tracks. In fact, it was during a session in Uganda that we created the monster track Blast with the singer Pendo Zawose. That was the moment. We didn’t think about it – she just put on the headphones, started singing and blew my mind!

How do you break the ice when collaborating?

I want to get to know the artists first; I like to laugh with them and eat with them, to make them feel comfortable. You must respect the artists and the environment. I can’t expect too much, I can’t give too much. You just have to go with the flow and have fun.

In addition to all his other work, Williams collaborates with fellow musician Auntie Flo on the global music project Highlife World Series

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Will you adopt the same philosophy at your residency at Phonox?

Yes! The club has a great sound system and a great vibe. Once, I played a last-minute show and grooved for two hours.

Plus, I want to connect a bit more with Brixton. I’ve been living in east London for five years, but I’ve met loads of amazing musicians based in the south of the city. Now, I want connect with the south London jazz scene and bring more local music into my set.

Find Esa Williams behind the decks at Phonox every Saturday; phonox.co.uk

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TIM KENT

Equipment

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THE RIGHT STUFF Gone are the days of bulky, heavy outer skins. These comfortable all-weather hoodies are filled with lightweight insulating materials and take up minimal room in your pack This page: PATAGONIA Micro Puff Hoody with Plumafill synthetic insulation, eu.patagonia.com Opposite, clockwise from top left: ARC’TERYX Cerium LT Hoody with 850 fill-power down, arcteryx.com; MARMOT Avant Featherless Hoody with 3M Thinsulate Featherless Insulation, marmot.com; JACK WOLFSKIN Atmosphere Jacket with duck-down fill, jack-wolfskin. co.uk; MONTANE Icarus Flight Jacket with ThermoPlume synthetic fill, montane.co.uk

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TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR PARTY QUARTER A bohemian mix of street art, trendy bars, vintage shops and the best nightlife the city has to offer, the Northern Quarter is Manchester’s bustling heart. Here are 10 of the gems that make the area so popular…

Junkyard Golf’s ‘Gary’ course – one of three – mixes scrapyard decor, ’90s tunes and lurid graphics

EASE INTO THE EVENING AT… 1. Junkyard Golf

Forget neat little windmills – at this nine-hole joint, crazy golfers must overcome obstacles such as scrapyard slides and life-size fibreglass cows. Although it hasn’t been scientifically proven that cocktails (try the gin-based Ribena Turner) improve your accuracy with a club, they surely make for a fun game. 2 First St, M15 4RP; junkyardgolfclub. co.uk/manchester

2. Eastern Bloc

Established in 1985 by a future member of ‘Madchester’ techno crew 808 State, this vinyl store helped to launch the music careers of local heroes such as The Inspiral Carpets and Stone Roses. Today, the shop houses a bar where regulars and DJs supply the tunes, and a café with outdoor seating. 5a Stevenson Square, M1 1DN; easternblocrecords.com 84

3. HOME Gallery

Part of Manchester’s impressive arts complex, this 500m2 gallery is the city’s go-to place for contemporary art. Thanks to a grid system built into the ceiling and floor, the space is customisable for each event or exhibition. Check out the forthcoming show by multimedia artist John Walter, opening on November 10. 2 Tony Wilson Place, M15 4FN; homemcr.org

HAVE DINNER AT… 4. Luck Lust Liquor & Burn

Inspired by a culinary road trip from Las Vegas to Mexico, the owners of burger bar Almost Famous opened their Cali-style Mexican restaurant in 2013.

Catch the Killer Happy Hour (Sunday to Friday, 5-8pm) and compete in the Taco Smack Down (two people, 12 tacos and two tequilas, against the clock).

100-102 High St, M4 1HP; lucklustliquorburn.com

5. Albert’s Schloss

Named Manchester’s best bar at last year’s Pub & Bar Awards, this 600-capacity ‘Bohemian Bier Palace and Alpine Cook Haus’ beneath the concert venue in the Grade II-listed Albert Hall aims to bring you an authentic Oktoberfest experience all year round.

Wash down a hearty meal of schweinshaxe (crispy Bavarian pork knuckle), berglamm (pan-roasted lamb rump) or sauerbraten (slow-cooked beef) with a cold pint of Paulaner München lager. Dirndl and/or lederhosen not required.

27 Peter St, M2 5QR; albertsschloss.co.uk

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Manchester

LET YOUR HAIR DOWN AT… 8. Stage & Radio

This 200-year-old building has a lot of musical history: in the early ’70s, jazz greats including Horace Silver and Ronnie Scott performed here; and in 1998 Coldplay performed at a Battle of the Bands, where they also signed their first professional contract. While the focus today is still on music – the sweaty basement club hosts some of Manchester’s best club nights – Stage & Radio has gained a reputation for its New Yorkstyle pizzas and ‘bottomless brunch’ with prosecco, served in the restaurant above.

43 Port St, M1 2EQ; stageandradiomcr.co.uk

9. Twenty Twenty Two

coming DJ talent behind the decks. 11 Stevenson Square, M1 1DB; hulabar.co.uk

7. Science & Industry

THE VAIN PHOTOGRAPHY/CARL SUKONIK FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

Award-winning mixologist Massimo Zitti runs this hidden gem behind an unmarked door at Northern Quarter staple Cane & Grain. In collaboration

with the chemistry department at the University of Manchester, Zitti has created a ‘dedicated drinks laboratory’ to concoct cutting-edge cocktails, pushing the boundaries of molecular mixology. Try the vodka-based Dazed With My Youth, or the short-rich Tribunal Express with coffee-infused rum and chilli-cacao. 49-51 Thomas St, M4 1NA; caneandgrain.co.uk/ science-industry

THE RED BULLETIN

10. Crazy Pedro’s

Crazy Pedro’s doesn’t attempt to compete with your local pizza joint (who else would offer toppings such as beer-soaked frankfurter and Cadbury’s Creme Egg)? Instead, it offers the largest selection of mezcals and tequilas in town and is a godsend if you get the latenight/early-morning munchies (it’s open daily until 4am).

55-57 Bridge Street, M3 3BQ; crazypedros.co.uk

GET A DRINK AT… 6. Hula

This 1950s-inspired, tiki-barthemed basement den is not only a haven for rum lovers who can’t afford a flight to Hawaii – it offers more than 100 imported brands – but also one of the best spots to see and hear Manchester’s up-and-

With enticements including a 4am licence, ping pong tables (there’s a tournament every first Tuesday of the month, with a £100 bar tab up for grabs), retro arcade-game cabinets, and DJ sets by the likes of disco dons Horse Meat Disco and Greg Wilson, it’s no wonder this arty bar is one of the Northern Quarter’s most popular latenight party venues. 20 Dale St, M1 1EZ; twentytwentytwo.co.uk

Sounds of the underground: the popular basement club at the historic Stage & Radio

Find out more about the best spots in Manchester – and those in your own town – with the Keys To Your City; redbull.co.uk/keystoyourcity 85

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HERO PIECES

These watches all possess special powers – all you need to do is find the right one for you. Blinded by watch terms?

Our seven jargon-busting facts might help…

Words WOLFGANG WIESER

Backwards logic: the second hand of the Hamilton Jazzmaster moves anticlockwise

TIME OF CHANGE HAMILTON JAZZMASTER FACE 2 FACE II AUTO CHRONO

This watch has two faces – and we don’t just mean front and back. One face, as you might expect, shows the time and the date and has a chronograph function. The other is a life hack: its telemetric scale calculates the proximity of any sudden flashes of lightning or explosions, and the pulsometer allows you to measure your (presumably now-racing) heartbeat. hamiltonwatch.com

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THE RED BULLETIN

1 MAKING HISTORY TUDOR BLACK BAY FIFTY-EIGHT

This timepiece was inspired by one of Tudor’s classic ’50s diver’s watches, the 1958 Oyster Prince Submariner ref 7924.

Updates include a slightly larger case – 39mm instead of 37mm – numbers that are a little brighter, and snowflake hands replace the ‘Mercedes logo’ originals. It’s available with a stainless steel, leather or cloth strap – we recommend the latter, produced on a traditional Jacquard loom, for added luxury. tudorwatch.com

What is a chronometer?

A watch must pass 15 days of strict testing before it can be called a chronometer.

Timepieces are assessed by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), which has laboratories in Biel/Bienne, Saint-Imier and Le Locle. Numerous brands, including Patek Philippe, Rolex and Omega, have developed their own testing procedures, some of which are even stricter.

Not to be confused with chronographs – timepieces with a stopwatch function.

2 The escapement

connects the train and the balance wheel to keep the watch ticking over

SLICK SUSPENSION FORMEX ESSENCE AUTOMATIC CHRONOMETER

This Formex has everything a watch could need: a 43mm stainless steel and titanium case, water resistance to 100m, and a COSC-certified movement. Plus, there’s an interesting extra: it possesses a patented case-suspension system to protect the movement from impact and strong vibrations, and make it more comfortable to wear. formexwatch.com

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SUN WORSHIPPER EDIFICE EFS-S540DB

This Edifice is certainly a good-looking watch.

But the most crucial thing about the timepiece is invisible to the eye: tiny solar cells behind the carbon dial ensure it remains charged.

These cells even react to artificial light, and if they produce too much energy it’s stored in the battery. This creates a power reserve that allows the watch to work in the dark for up to 24 months. edifice-watches.eu

3

How much water can my watch resist?

Waterproofing is one of those terms that, in the watches world, is easily misunderstood.

If a watch is water-resistant to 30m, it can withstand pressure of 3 bar – ie, you can splash it. If it can resist 5 bar (50m), you can shower with it; 10 bar (100m) and you can swim with it. If you’re going diving, you’ll need a watch that’s resistant to at least 20 bar (200m).

PACE SETTER CHRISTOPHER WARD C7 ROSSO CORSA

Inspired by the world of motor racing, this could be just the timepiece you need to power through the day. If you love Formula One and Ferrari, you’ll know what rosso corsa is.

If you don’t, it’s the typical racing red used by F1 teams – the Italians, in particular.

(For those who need the exact proportions of rosso corsa using the CMYK colour model, it’s 13, 100, 100, 4.) christopherward.co.uk

4 The power

SOLID PERFORMER CITIZEN PROMASTER TOUGH

A no-nonsense watch, reduced to the bare essentials, the Promaster Tough has a military green strap and dial, and it uses Citizen’s Eco-Drive technology, meaning it’s powered by a solar cell. It also has a monocoque (one-piece) case, which makes it shock-resistant. citizenwatch.com

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reserve refers to the period of time a watch can run without needing to be wound

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NEVER WALK ALONE CASIO PRO TREK WSD-F20

This smartwatch is for outdoor enthusiasts who feel most at ease when they’re close to nature, miles from civilisation. The Pro Trek is fitted with an energy-saving GPS that allows you to determine your location without being reliant on a smartphone, so that you don’t get lost in the wilderness. The battery is no slouch, either – it lasts for up to two days, even if your GPS is on the whole time. protrek.eu

DIVE WITH BOND OMEGA SEAMASTER DIVER 300M

The Omega Seamaster is a legendary watch – not least because, for many years, it has adorned the wrist of a legend: Bond, James Bond. And Daniel Craig wears the model you see here. In case you’re not a diver, the ‘button’ you can see at 10 o’clock is not a second crown but the helium escape valve, which prevents the Seamaster from tearing apart during dives. omegawatches.com

With its blue rubber strap, and waves on its dial, this is a watch made for water THE RED BULLETIN

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BACK TO THE FUTURE ORIS CHRONORIS

Things were good in the 1970s. If you weren’t there at the time (or can no longer remember it), this is what watches looked like back then: snappy beauties with sweeping curves. The Oris Chronoris was one of them, and now it’s back in a new, 200-piece limited edition complete with a vintage-look, rustic leather strap. The watch also comes with a special case containing a NATO strap and everything you need to change it. oris.ch

With its zipped leather case and tools, the Oris Chronoris is clearly a premium timepiece

5

Why are watches always set to the same time in publicity shots?

Look at any watch photo or advert and the timepiece will invariably read eight minutes past 10, or eight minutes to two. Legend has it that Seiko introduced this in the ’60s to make it look as if the watches were smiling – but what it also means is you get an unhindered view of the brand name. Oris sets its watches to seven minutes to seven so that they’re smiling when resting on their crown.

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DUTY BOUND VICTORINOX I.N.O.X CARBON

The best thing about this watch is the strap, which makes the timepiece a real survival tool.

Once you’ve cracked the four plastic seals – very easy to do with the penknife supplied – you can use it as a shoelace, fishing line or sewing thread.

And there’s no need to hesitate: the I.N.O.X Carbon comes with an additional rubber strap. victorinox.com THE RED BULLETIN

COOL RUNNINGS SEVEN-24 LEADER

Every detail on this timepiece exudes selfconfidence: the stainless-steel case is a striking 46mm; the Milanese-look strap has a cool, airy feel. But the most striking element of this 255-piece limited edition is the matt-black bridge connecting the 12 and the six (or the other way round).

The name says it all: Leader. seven-24.watch

TIME SQUARE TAG HEUER MONACO GULF SPECIAL EDITION

6

What is a complication?

If a mechanical timepiece has a complication, that’s no cause for concern. On the contrary, it means the watch has functions that go beyond merely telling the time – eg, a date display, a calendar or a moon dial.

As these functions require high levels of skill from the watchmaker, the value of a timepiece increases depending on the number and type of complications.

This watch harks back to a revolution: when the original Heuer Monaco was unveiled on March 3, 1969, it was the first square, waterproof, automatic chronograph in the history of Swiss watchmaking. Then actor and racing enthusiast Steve McQueen made the timepiece world-famous by wearing it in his 1971 film Le Mans. This is the very latest version, inspired by the stripes on the Gulf Oil racing suit sported by McQueen in the movie. tagheuer.com

7 A watch

SIZE MATTERS SWATCH DRAWING

This Swatch was picked out from a whole plethora of plastic watch models for one reason: it has a sense of irony. No other timepiece so clearly illustrates the significance of size in the world of watches, the average having grown significantly over the last few decades.

And all for a very affordable £50. swatch.com THE RED BULLETIN

reference number is a combination of letters and numbers for a specific model 91

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RAMPAGE ON THE ROCKS

The toughest challenge in freeride mountain biking, a BMX odyssey, and maverick tricks in a winter wonderland – just some of this month’s highlights

WATCH RED BULL TV ANYWHERE

Red Bull TV is a global digital entertainment destination featuring programming that is beyond the ordinary and is available any time, anywhere. Go online at redbull.tv, download the app, or connect via your Smart TV.

26 October LIVE

RED BULL RAMPAGE

The red, rocky terrain of Virgin, Utah, once again hosts the greatest test of guts, skill and creativity in freeride mountain biking. An elite group of 21 riders will do battle at the 13th edition of Red Bull Rampage, including veterans Kurt Sorge (CAN) and Cam Zink (USA), who took gold and silver respectively in 2017. Also returning is hometown hero Ethan Nell, who will be hoping to improve on his third-place performance last time around. Watch all the tricks and lines live at redbull.tv

To find out more, visit redbull.tv

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THE RED BULLETIN

October/ November Red Bull Rampage veteran Kurt Sorge practises on the Utah course in 2017. He went on to take gold

Hear hand-picked music and interviews with influential artists.

This month’s pick is…

Canada’s Brandon Semenuk won in the event in 2016

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GARTH MILAN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ORCHARD ENTERPRISES NY, CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, PETER MORNING/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

12

November

ON DEMAND

ROGUE ELEMENTS

As 2017 drew to a close, the full, ferocious force of winter was felt across the US and Europe. What it created was the perfect playground for a certain breed of action sports athlete, as recorded in this breathtaking film.

TRUE LAURELS

5

20

November ON

DEMAND

ETNIES: CHAPTERS

Sports apparel company Etnies presents its third fulllength BMX video in an award-winning series, filmed in 15 countries over a span of three years, and featuring one of the most highly revered teams in the sport today.

October LIVE

RED BULL STRAIGHT RHYTHM

The supercross event returns for another season at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, but this year it’s going retro: only two-strokes racing is permitted.

17

October ON AIR

Driven by acclaimed journalist and publisher Lawrence Burney (pictured), this new weekly show (every Wednesday at 11pm BST) aims to elevate discourse in the world of rap and hip hop.

True Laurels grapples with some of the most fundamental questions in rap culture today, connecting the best new hip-hop, dancehall and afrowave music from around the globe to social issues in the communities from which it comes.

LISTEN AT REDBULLRADIO.COM

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October/November

November

CHILDISH GAMBINO LIVE

It’s billed as the This Is America tour, but this is definitely the UK and, for one night only, rapper Gambino – aka actor/comedian Donald Glover – is bringing his show to London. Apparently, this will be the final Childish Gambino tour – Glover plans to retire his rap pseudonym (which he got from the online Wu-Tang Clan Name Generator) after the next album. Maybe the Solo actor will use the Star Wars Name Generator for his next alter-ego.

O2 Arena, London; theo2.co.uk

After almost seven years in the wilderness, superstar comedian Chappelle blazed back onto the standup circuit in 2013, and last year Stewart, another self-imposed comedy exile, joined him on stage at one of his New York shows. They’ve since teamed up for sell-out performances across the US. Catch the rare chance to see these two comedy icons in the facetious flesh here in the UK. Royal Albert Hall, London; royalalberthall.com

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28

to 29 October Movie Nights At The Museum The Natural History Museum’s Hintze Hall is the iconic gallery where you can gaze upon the 25m skeleton of a blue whale and now, for two nights, also watch a selection of horrormovie classics hosted by openair screening supremos The Luna Cinema. Entry includes access to the museum’s new nocturnal exhibit, Life In The Dark. Natural History Museum, London; nhm.ac.uk

28

to 31 October House Of Horror Feel that Hallowe’en events are becoming a little bland? Here’s something so scary you have to sign a waiver first. This 4D experience features 12 rooms of immersive horror delivered by real performers, including a demon exorcism complete with a 360° rotating head (hopefully not one of the actors’).

Brentwood, Essex; houseofhorror.co.uk

to 18 November Kendal Mountain Festival More than 100 movies and documentaries celebrating the might of mountains will be screened across four days – but this is the least sedentary film festival you could attend. Other events on the programme include a 10K trail run up the slopes of Scout Scar, as well as presentations by climbers, authors and naturalists.

GETTY IMAGES, KEVIN MORAN

21

to 22 October Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart

Kendal, Cumbria; mountainfest.co.uk

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LITTLE SHAO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO THE ACTIVE-LIFESTYLE-MAGAZINE Distributed free every second Tuesday of the month with the London Evening Standard.

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THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in seven countries. This is the cover of November’s French edition, featuring platinumselling rapper Sofiane For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to: redbulletin.com

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THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Christian Eberle-Abasolo Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (Ltg.), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Kristina Hummel Media Sales Management Alfred Vrej Minassian Sales Promotion & Project Management Stefanie Krallinger Digital Sales Bernhard Schmied Media Sales Franz Fellner, Thomas Hutterer, anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722 Editor Pierre-Henri Camy Country Coordinator Christine Vitel Country Project M ­ anagement Alessandra Ballabeni, alessandra.ballabeni@redbull.com Contributors, Translators and Proofreaders Étienne Bonamy, Frédéric & Susanne Fortas, Suzanne ­Kříženecký, Claire ­Schieffer, Jean-Pascal Vachon, Gwendolyn de Vries

THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258 Editor David Mayer Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (Ltg.), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Natascha Djodat Advertising Sales Martin Olesch, martin.olesch@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN Mexico, ISSN 2308-5924 Editor Luis Alejandro Serrano Associate Editor Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo Managing Editor Marco Payán Proofreader Alma Rosa Guerrero Country Project Management Giovana Mollona Advertising Sales Humberto Amaya Bernard, humberto.amayabernard@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Arek Piatek Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (Ltg.), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Channel Management Barbara Hobi Advertising Sales Marcel Bannwart, marcel.bannwart@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN USA, ISSN 2308-586X Editor-in-Chief Peter Flax Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Copy Chief David Caplan Director of Publishing Cheryl Angelheart Country Project Management Melissa Thompson Advertising Sales Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN

THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

The Knog+ light is so powerful and versatile you can even wear it

LIGHT FLAIR

To change behaviours, sometimes you need to change products

I

t’s sad but true that truckloads of cyclists still don’t think all that hard about their lights.

Or worse: they do, and choose to ride without.

Why? Sometimes it’s the price. Or maybe the recharging is a hassle. Or it’s hard to mount where it’s needed. Or it’s daytime, so they’re not needed (hot tip: they so are). Or perhaps you’re just a weight weenie. Whatever the reason for riding unlit – whether justified or not – it happens.

One Australian brand has a simple approach: remove the reasons people don’t use useful products.

In 2016, Knog realised it was aesthetics that caused many cyclists to remove the bell from their brand new bike. So the company got on with sticking up its middle finger to the 4,000-year-old idea that a bell has to be domed in shape. Knog CEO Hugo Davidson, along with designer Chris Bilanenko, created Oi, a curved bell that wraps around the handlebar.

Knog has just manufactured its one-millionth unit, ahead of releasing a ‘Luxe’ version later this year.

Now, Hugo and his team have created a bike light called, simply, the Knog+ . The ‘Plus’ uses highly visible ‘Chip On Board’ LED technology, and a USB recharger is built into the light, so no cables are required. The magnetic-assist mount fits on forks, headtubes and helmets, with a 1kg pull weight – more than enough for a tiny 12g light! What’s more, the Plus is wearable and can be attached to shirts and socks for – as research has shown – added visibility. This makes it perfect for urban and trail runners as well as cyclists.

These features individually aren’t new, but putting them together for £17.99 ($19.99) is. Which is one of the reasons why Knog just won yet another award at global bike trade show EUROBIKE. knog.com.au/plus

Pyramid power Take 35 friends, a suspended clay jug filled with yoghurt, and add a huge measure of peril. Welcome to Red Bull Jod ke Tod, the annual competition based on the Hindu tradition known as dahi handi. The aim of each of the teams (or mandals) taking part – there were 54 this year: 48 male, six female – is to form a human pyramid and smash the vessel in the quickest time. For more on August’s nerve-wracking final, head to redbull.com

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on November 13 98

THE RED BULLETIN

FOCUS SPORTS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

DAVID MAYER

Action highlight

Finally. A dull watch from Christopher Ward

The C60 Trident Bronze Pro 600, made from a corrosion-resistant bronze alloy, swiftly develops a protective layer of copper oxide when exposed to the elements. Whether you take it down to 600m, or no further than the office, the oxidization creates a patina which is unique to the wearer’s environment. One thing that won’t take the shine off it, however, is the price.

Do your research.

christopherward.co.uk

FILSON.COM/UK 9 & 13 NEWBURGH STREET, LONDON, W1F