FOR THE REST OF US
ISS 42/NOV
/ ABOUT In five years Jack has gone from an idea to putting on live events, urban festivals, had a bi-monthly, A5 fanzine that grew into a monthly A4 glossy magazine and launched Who’s Jack online and Jack TV. Today Who’s Jack is going from strength to strength, largely due to the attitude of its creators. Jack began because we wanted something more, something attainable, something relatable and something lacking in arrogance. Something for the rest of us. Jack Loves You More.
/ HOW TO GET INVOLVED Whether you are a band, a brand, a designer or simply want to tell us about something, get in touch. General enquiries can be sent to: press@whos-jack.co.uk, contributions can be sent to: contributions.jack@googlemail.com, finally, advertising enquiries can be sent to: tom@whos-jack.co.uk.
/ FROM JACK Welcome to November. One of our favourite months of the year. Bonfires, fireworks and nearly Christmas Holidays. Though I know that due to how the dates fall this year some of you won’t be getting home till midday Christmas eve but hey, no one else will be doing much so at least you can just sit on 4OD or something. You will notice a rather manly issue this month. What with our trip to the Movember launch we have come over all testosterone-y and with the need to re-watch the Old Spice Adverts and possibly take a hike in some woods where we can chop a tree or similar. We wanted to share this new found masculinity with you and therefore have a well balanced collection of manly comment features lurking in the pages beyond. All in all we have had an interesting month including an introduction to the world of car-booting, and all the scariness and fights it holds (there was a full on bust up over a pair of old trainers on the stall next to us). We have hung out backstage at Koko with Chiddy Bang (coming to Jack TV soon) we have also given Jack TV a little make over for the moment whilst we tweak and perfect the full platform behind the scenes. Take a look at www.whosjack.org/jacktv where you’ll see all the behind the scenes bits and pieces from shoots and features coming up along with video reviews and general bits and bobs we like. We are in fact looking for some further contributors on the video editing side of things so if you are a dab hand at Final Cut get in touch by contacting our contributors email to the left. And for everyone else, have a great November! Lu x
/ TEAM JACK / CONTRIBUTORS
Who’s Jack likes a good collaboration, event or campaign. We can work with you or for you. Get in touch.
/ ON JACK TV THIS MONTH What happened when Jack Met Band of Skulls and Vicky Mclure from This is England. www.whosjack.org/jacktv
Katerina Pantelides Freelance writer
Rory Broadfoot Music Journalist
Esme Riley Comment
Katerina picked up on the new fastenings being used in many a garment at London Fashion week just gone and tells us this month how it will all effect our wardrobes and the way we get dressed.
Rory is right in there with new music. His most recent suggestion to us being to check out Random Impulse who we now can’t get enough of. He is a talented fellow and also shoots music vids for the likes of Patrick Woolf and other impressive names.
Not only does she share the name of a beautiful vampire from a certain hit film series but she is also pretty good at putting pen to paper and this month gives her guide to being a London newbie, being one herself.
FEATURES / REGULARS
folloown us tter Twi t e r . c o m /
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Music : Review One Liners : James tells you what to bin, what to burn and what to buy and Matt tells you what’s new. Comment : Shit Lit : Adam looks at the books that are perfect for your commute. Music : Example : Drinking gin, growing boobs and getting your teeth knocked out. Fashion : Boys Fashion : The Gilet Film : Marks Film Roundup of the month Fashion : Chasing the Light : Girls it’s time to smarten up. Pick of The Month : Bags, things, restaurants and fireworks Music : Rory’s Band Picks : Yes it’s not a great name for a column but it does what it says on the tin. Art : Inkie : Getting to the core of it. Fashion : Leila Loves : Crosses, bags and belts. Comment : Loco For Lomo : Why you should ditch digital. Beauty : Katie Does Beauty for boys and girls. Art : Champagne and Baked Beans : Rob Ryan takes over from Ruthie Comment : The Return of the Demon Barber : Yes Mustaches at on trend Art : Introducing Hybridity and David Wightman Music : Perfume Genius : When depressing songs are great Fashion : The Death of the American Apparel Dream? : It looks like the lycra is on the rocks. Comment : What Maketh a Man? : Mark tells you. Comment : My 2-4-1 Pound Life Art : Art exhibition round-up : What should you see this month. Fashion : Over Cold Afternoons : Male fashion story with lovely coats Fashion : A Change of Skin : Katerina introduces us to the dawn of scientific dressing. Comment : A Bumpkins Big-City Guide : Who’s thinking of moving to the big smoke? Fashion : Settling Dust : Fashion story.
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/ STOCKISTS Size? - (in London stores): Beyond the Valley: Number 22: Paper Dress: 55 DSL: Camden Blues Kitchen: The Old Queens Head: Chateau Roux: Tatty Devine: The Hawley Arms: The Lexington: The Keston Lodge: The Lock Tavern: Bullfrog: Vintage Store: The Lazy Ones: The Sun and 13 Cantons: Bar Story: Rough Trade East: The Victoria: Candy Cakes: Bullfrog:
Carnaby Street, Soho, W1F 7DW 200 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, W11 1LB 37a Neal Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9PR www.size.co.uk 2 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RD www.beyondthevalley.com 22 Carnaby Street, W1F 7DB 114-116 Curtain Road, EC2A 3AY www.paperdressboutique.blogspot.com 10A Newburgh St, W1F 7RN www.55dsl.com 111 - 113 Camden High Street, NW1 7JN www.theblueskitchen.com 44 Essex Road, Islington, N1 8LN www.theoldqueenshead.com 17 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RZ www.chateauroux.co.uk 44 Monmouth Street, WC2H 9EP www.tattydevine.com 2 Castlehaven Road, NW1 8QU www.thehawleyarms.co.uk 96-98 Pentonville Road, N1 9JB www.thelexington.co.uk 131 Upper Street, N1 1QP www.kestonlodge.com 35 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AJ www.lock-tavern.co.uk 20 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BJ www.bullfrogs.co.uk 182 Brick Lane, E1 6SA 102m Sclater Street, E1 6HR www.thelazyones.blogspot.com 21 Great Pulteney Street, W1F 9NG 213 Blenheim Grove, Peckham, SE15 4QL Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL www.roughtrade.com 110 Grove Road, Mile End, E3 5TH www.thevictoriae3.com Monmouth Street, WC2H 9EP www.candycakes.com 20 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BJ www.bullfrogs.co.uk
Shock and Soul: The Westbury: The Hospital Club: Rough Trade: Fopp: Mint: The Book Club: Behave: Sanctum Hotel: Defectors Weld : Pirate Pop Up Shop: LCB Surf Store: Pure Groove: Beyond Retro: The Rest Is Noise: Banquet Records:
46 Essex Road, Islington, N1 8LN www.shockandsoul.co.uk 34 Kilburn High Street, NW6 5UA www.westburybar.com 24 Endell Street, London, WC2H 9HQ www.thehospitalclub.com 130 Talbot Road, W11 1JA www.roughtrade.com 1 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LL www.foppreturns.com 20 Earlham Street, WC2 H9LN www.mintvintage.co.uk 100 Lenard Street, EC2A 4RH www.wearetbc.com 14 Hanbury Street, E1 6QR 50 Lexington Street, W1F oLR 20 Warwick Street Soho, W1B 5NF www.sanctumsoho.com 170 Uxbridge Road, W12 8AA www.defectors-weld.com 27 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5RN 121 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 7DG www.lcbsurfstore.co.uk 6-7 West Smithfield, EC1A 9JX www.puregroove.co.uk 110-112 Cheshire Street, E2 6EJ 58-59 Great Marlborough Street, W1F 7JY www.beyondretro.com 442 Brixton Road, Brixton, SW9 8EJ www.therestisnoisebrixton.com 52 Eden Street, Kingston, KT1 1EE www.banquetrecords.com
Also with online orders of Urban Outfitters : www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk See an up to the minute list of stockists online, if you would like to stock Who’s Jack contact: press@whos-jack.co.uk
jack
Editor/Creative Director : Lu Orcheston-Findlay : louise@whos-jack.co.uk // Deputy Editor : Laura Hills : laura@whos-jack.co.uk // Fashion Editor : Leila Dante Hartley : leila@whos-jack.co.uk // Arts : Ruthie Holloway : ruthie@whos-jack.co.uk // Film : Mark Williams : mark@whos-jack.co.uk // Music : Laura Hills : laura@whos-jack.co.uk // Comment : Adam Roan Henderson : adam@whos-jack.co.uk // Pick Of : Lu Orcheston-Findlay : louise@whos-jack.co.uk // Intern : Tania Willis : intern@whos-jack.co.uk // Advertising : Tom Ayres : tom@whos-jack.co.uk Stylists : Leila Hartley // JACK Photography : Kristoffer Myhre : www.krismyhre.com // Stuart Leech : www.music-photos.co.uk // Andrea Bono Tempo // Caity Reeve // Kevin Morosky // Matt Crockett // Rhiannon Adams // Natalie J Watts // Contributing writers : Jason Gregory // Lucy Hancock // Erin Daniel Mckee : erin@erindmckee.com // Donna Marie Howard // Georgie and James // Matt Hamm // Georgina Childs // Luke Farrell // Zoe Whitfield // Kerry and Greame // Jenifer Lewis // Tania Willis // Cassie Powney Illustrations/Artwork/Layout : LOF // pandamilk : www.pandamilk.co.uk // Anne-Sophie Rosenvinge-Skov // Katie Allen // Hair & Make up : Luke Stephens // Ms Moo Make Up // Adjhani Barton // Ceri Cushen, Michiko Yoshida // Nathan Gooding // Nikki Jackson Cover Image : James Lincoln // Want to see your work in Jack? Contributions : contributions.jack@googlemail.com Thanks to : Kensington Roof Gardens, Alex at Proud, PUMA, Buweiser, Grange St pauls. And Assistants : Chalin Barton The Jack-Father : Edward Fitzpatrick // Who’s Jack Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part with out the permission of Who’s Jack. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the opinions of Who’s Jack. Who’s Jack Ltd can not be held responsible for any breach of copyright arising from any material supplied. Who’s Jack, 93 Barker Drive, Camden, London, NW1 0JG
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REVIEWLINERS MUSIC
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James Lynch
BIN: Nadine Coyle Insatiable Let’s be honest, Girls Aloud only really worked because with the five of them together you couldn’t hear what was going on or have to look at the ginger one, but now the second Girl Aloud releases solo stuff. Nadine has forced us to tolerate her strange Northern Irish-American twang and also put herself up against the first lady of the tabloid, Cheryl Cole. Fact is, Nadine’s just not fit enough to make anyone care. www.nadineworldwide.com
BIN: Tinchy Stryder Second Chance (Feat. Taio Cruz) ‘And so in conclusion: all you need to be a successful commercial rap artist is a pair of sunglasses big enough to cover half your forehead and the confidence to wear them indoors at all times, a warped perspective on what ‘love’ is, the ability to write at least four consecutive lines that rhyme, an ill-advised foray into a dubious clothing line and a mate who can sing and play the synth. Any questions? www.starinthehood.net
BURN: Gold Panda Lucky Shiner The long awaited debut album from the remixer wunderkind and possessor of one of the greatest names in music is as eclectic as expected but none the worse for it, sounding like a compressed tour through a space age record collection that defeats any of my attempts at classification other than under ‘Awesome’. I also have no idea what a ‘lucky shiner’ actually is, so I’ll just childishly take it to be some sort of euphemism… www.iamgoldpanda.com
BURN: Chapel Club All The Eastern Girls A rare moment of happiness from the skinny peddlers of angsty shoegaze depression sees them so apparently surprised with themselves for being capable of such emotion that they have to clarify it by repeatedly singing ‘This is a love song.’ And if that wasn’t enough they even manage to slip in a refrain of ‘Sha la la’… quite what has happened to Chapel Club I don’t know but I like it. www.chapelclub.com
BOOM: DJ Shadow Def Surrounds Us/I’ve Been Trying The man that invented the instrumental album is back and to prove he isn’t to be outdone by these young whippersnappers and their rock and roll dubstep whatyamacallit, Shadow arms himself with a mess of drum hits and a dirty deep bass line to create this dub inspired breakbeat monster but still manages to make it sound unmistakably his own by mixing in some choice old skool samples. www.djshadow.com
BOOM: Naked and Famous Young Blood The upside down lands of Australasia have given the world Neighbours, the boomerang, kiwi fruit, the duck-billed platypus, Crocodile Dundee, the didgeridoo, surfing and Speedos but they have recently just been content in supplying the world with great electro bands and these guys are no exception, Naked and Famous sound just like a mid air collision between Empire of The Sun, MGMT and Passion Pit and that sounds good. www.thenakedandfamous.com
LESSERKNOWN words : Matt Hamm
Zola Jesus So normal is it to hear a new band carelessly thrashing on multiple instruments, that whenever a beautiful tender vocal talent emerges an irrepressible smile creeps along you face. Just a piano and her v-chords, US songwriter Zita Danilova is simply a joy to behold and with a support slot with Fever Ray on her Euro tour; this one won’t go away. www.myspace.com/zolajesus
Foster The People Like pre 2010 MGMT hurtling at Blur’s Beetlebum in a VW camper van driven by Peter, Bjorn & John; this US quartet these guys nuzzle out a significant crevice, that is sure to find a pleased crowd here in the UK and a sound replacement for the now experimental MGMT. www.fosterthepeople.com
The Vaccines British guitar rock has a new love child in this London 4 piece, who released tracks ‘Wrecking Ball’ and ‘If You Wanna’ to set blog tongues wagging at 10 paces. Armed with a killer Beach Boys/Ramones-esque sound, it’s difficult to not include the foursome in the 2011 one’s to watch. www.thevaccines.co.uk
Adam takes on a book a month to judge it for ease of read, quality of content and ability to make you forgeT the packed sweaty minutes of the commute.
SHIT LIT PUNCH FICTION I’m not the most macho guy in the world. I don’t spend my days chopping trees, fighting fires or chasing criminals. I’m usually found tapping away on a keyboard, sitting on an ergonomically designed chair, sipping English Breakfast tea. Why is it then that I choose to read so many books about tough, testosterone driven, uncompromising characters? Possibly because it’s the best form of escapism. I don’t want to read about my life, I want to hear tales of manly adventures. Bad guys being floored by a single haymaker, girls seduced by a hard stare, being slung over a shoulder and (metaphorically) dragged back to the hero’s cave. One of the premier writers of such tales is Lee Child. In Jack Reacher, Lee Child has created a character that is 100% machismo. This is a man who doesn’t wear a watch, because he always knows what time is. Jack Reacher also always sleeps in his shoes (always Cheaney’s for their uncompromising durability), just to be ready for action. Not only that, but Reacher is a surprising hit with the ladies too. He is BA crossed with Face, a one man A Team. The books in the Jack Reacher series are not literary classics by any standard, the formulaic plots are such that you can skip a chapter and pick up the thread of narrative in the next chapter’s first paragraph. The novels are therefore perfect for a tired commute; you can pick
words : Adam Roan Henderson
them up and be transported into Reacher’s world of unrelenting action, and nothing is really expected of you in return. Each novel begins in a similar way; the nomadic, rebel without a cause hero Jack Reacher arrives a new town. After his six foot five frame (we are told his dimensions regularly) immediately attracts attention of the local roughnecks he slowly realises the town has a sinister secret / past and is soon fighting to save a damsel in distress. Guided by his selective moral compass (if in doubt, take them out) Jack Reacher rights the wrongs, settles scores and acts as a self appointed enforcer. When all the bad guys are vanquished, before the dust has barely settled, Reacher hits the road again to the next unsuspecting trouble spot. This makes them sound dull. But don’t get me wrong, even though you know what’s coming, you can’t wait for it to happen. The latest Lee Child installment is called ‘Worth Dying For’ and pits our fist happy hero against a hick town in Nebraska. A local family have the populace living in fear but in his attempts to overturn the oppressors Reacher uncovers a far darker evil. Reacher pits his wits against a variety of enemies in this latest novel, from local ex football stars to gangsters from the city. So is it any good? Well that depends on your criteria. If you’re looking for romance, Jack is more of a surly one night stand kind of guy, no Mills and Boon swooning here. Similarly if you’re
after some deep philosophical musings and powerful messages you’ve picked up the wrong book. Jack Reacher sees the world in black and white. Picking ‘Worth Dying For’ off the shelf is the equivalent of choosing to lunch in McDonalds. A quick, reliable hit of dirty enjoyment but ultimately lacking in intellectual nourishment. If you only read Lee Child novels I’m sure there’d be some psychological ill effects (if you wake up in the morning with your shoes on in a state of high alert, it’s time to change authors) but sometimes an action romp is just what I want. As an enjoyable way of passing the time on your commute ‘Worth Dying For’ ticks all the boxes, and in hard back form could prove a useful weapon if anyone crosses you on the mean streets of London. On second thoughts, it would probably be best after all that high octane action that you take a deep breath before getting off the tube. Just because Jack Reacher can get away with wreaking his form of physical justice on anyone who crosses his path, it doesn’t mean you’ll be given the same grace by the constabulary if you decide to go all Chuck Norris at Old Street station. If you’ve got a problem, if no-one else can solve it… I can’t help you, but in ‘Worth Dying For’ you can escape into a world where there is a man who probably could. With his fist. Worth Dying For’ and written by Lee Child. Out now in hardback for £16.99 RRP
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Example words: Laura Hills pictures: James Lincoln
I first met Example a week before our interview at our August Jack Comes Alive night. It was approximately 5 minutes before he was due to start a live MC set and as the crowds of fans who had waited patiently for his appearance grew anxious for his arrival the man in question was nowhere to be seen. After some asking about I finally tracked down Example, or Elliot as he’s known to his mum and friends, propping up the bar, drink in hand, talking animatedly to those around him. It was then that I realised the man everyone was waiting for was drunk. Really drunk. As I politely asked him if he was still OK to perform he gave me one sweaty kiss on my forehead told me to stop worrying and to grab him a microphone. The next hour saw people stampeding the stage (and being escorted straight back off) as Example held it together better than any drunk person should be able to. Cue a huge amount of Who’s Jack shaped love for the rapper turned electro/pop singer. A week later in East London he’s swapped gin for green tea and is ready to tell us a bit more about his new found crazy life, his critics and why people attending his gigs may be in danger of losing a tooth...
Example wears : cover T from Chateau Roux : £35 : www.chateauroux.co.uk/ blue trousers from Humour: £55 Inside : black trousers from Humor : £55 : Stockist number is 0203 3580030 T-shirts : Weekend Offender : £25 www.weekendoffender.com
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Example grew up in Wandsworth, South London, where he was better known for his rapping skills rather than catch pop chorus’ and sold out tours ‘At my school you either rapped or you played football and basketball. I was rubbish at sports so I had to rap to fit in. I didn’t really have a choice,’ remembers Example.
‘I started writing lyrics when
I was 11, they weren’t proper songs, just pages of rubbish and then we’d all stand in the playground trying to outdo each other. My early lyrics were stuff like, ‘I’ll slaughter your daughter / I’ll knife your wife’ just silly stuff. I’d spend my spare time listening to American rappers like Snoop Dogg who, to me, were really, really exciting. In the same way that Goodfellas made everyone want to be a gangster, all those American rappers made me want to get in to hip hop. My raps were even done in a semi-American accent when I was a kid.’ It was a while before music would become his full time career and in the mean time Example took up a bizarre variety of jobs in his teens including a stint as a stand up comic, as a scaffolder and finally jobs in the film business. ‘I went to University when I was 18 and studied film and when I graduated I went over to Australia for a year and worked on film sets like Star Wars Episode III. I recorded a lot of music while I was out there and while doing it I met a guy who had an incredible studio and I thought to myself, ‘I want that to be me. I don’t want a 9 to 5, I don’t want to wear a suit’,’ says Example. And so the decision was made and in 2004 and Example released his first single, A Pointless Song. At the time there wasn’t even a whiff of a record deal and so Example decided to go it alone, doing his own promo, PR and radio plugs to push the record and yet, despite his obvious determination, Example found getting people to take a young, white rapper seriously was pretty difficult.
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‘My early lyrics were stuff like, ‘I’ll slaughter your daughter / I’ll knife your wife’’ ‘I’d go along to rap battles at record labels on Carnaby Street and hand CDs out to everyone there. The problem was they took one look at me and didn’t believe that I could rap. I had long hair, think Mick Jagger circa 1972, and I looked and dressed more like an indie kid. It wasn’t until I got on the microphone that they started to believe that I was actually quite good. I used to base my style on my idols, people like Roots Manuva and I’d imitate them on stage. It all went from there and in 2007 I released my first album,’ he tells me. Yet this MC battle winning, Roots Manuva wannabe that we’re hearing about here is a far cry from the dance-y, pop we’re used to from Example’s recent chart hits, a change that he says has left him wide open to criticism. ‘My first album was very rap focused but as my confidence grew so did my style of music and now it feels more natural to be singing and rapping over electro tunes than it ever did with hip hop, it’s just that hip hop used to be all I knew.
I liken it to someone playing for a lower division football club and not doing very well at it so they move to rugby, dance music is my rugby. I’m very aware that people think I’ve sold out and that they think I’m doing it for the fame and money but that’s ridiculous,’ says Example. At the time of interview Example had sold over 100,000 copies of his second album, Won’t Go Quietly, compared to his first attempt, What We Made, which has sold 30,000 copies to date, this might start to give a sense of the type of over haul Examples music and life has taken in the last year or so. ‘My first album had quite a cult following but the production wasn’t as good as what I’m doing now, the hooks weren’t as catchy, there were a lot of samples and it was quite disjointed. I had less direction back then, on the first album there’s a song about nuclear destruction, a song about being good in bed and another about going back in time and meeting your old self, it’s all over the place. It’s taken me some time but I know now that writing a song about putting
‘I know now that writing a song about putting Rohypnol in someone’s drink isn’t right for me,’ Rohypnol in someone’s drink isn’t right for me,’ laughs Example. ‘A lot of my songs used to be quite derogatory towards women too, I was in a destructive relationship and because of that I ended up writing misogynistic lyrics. I’m in a happy relationship now so it’s easier to write nice lyrics that people can actually sing along to.’ With the shift in style has also come a shift in fan base which Example tells me has switched from being 70% male dominated to 70% female dominated. ‘The people at my gigs used to be mini versions of me, now they have breasts,’ says Example. ‘The thing I love about music is that once you’ve released a song it belongs to the public so people can make their own interpretation of what the song means. For example, Kick Starts is about falling in love with someone all
‘The people at my gigs used to be mini versions of me, now they have breasts,’ over again but I met a guy in Ibiza who thought it was about the time that an Ecstasy kicks in when you’re in a club. If you look at songs that way you can’t pick and choose your fans, they chose you.’ While covering Relentless Boardmasters Festival this summer I got to see firsthand what sort of audience Example is now attracting. During a half an hour set I saw perfectly normal and calm teenagers transform in to moshing, sweaty and at times slightly aggressive fans who sang along to each and every word whilst elbowing anyone in the head that dared to get too close. ‘I’ve seen a kid lose his front tooth at one of my gigs, I’ve seen another girl break her ankle, my fans are pretty crazy.
They threw bread rolls at me, full cans of Stella, even coins.
I even wrote a song about them called Hooligans,’ he laughs. ‘A lot of people write me off as just another pop singer but when they see me live they soon learn that it’s more like rock ‘n roll pop. At Boardmasters Festival a girl threw a dildo on stage. I threw it straight back and washed my hands afterwards.’ But it isn’t all adoration and dildos at Example gigs, a few years ago he supported the Rifles where there fans took less than kindly to him. ‘Rifles’ fans are quite aggressive and they didn’t take well
to me at all. I tried my best but as soon as I started rapping they decided they hated me. They threw bread rolls at me, full cans of Stella, even coins. There was so much distain that they actually wanted to catch me in a tooth or in my eye with a pound coin,’ says Example. Moving towards the present day and Example has switched from the support to the supported having just completed a sold out UK tour. ‘I’m always working. I think I’ve got one Sunday off between now and Christmas,’ says Example. ‘But that’s OK because I love what I’m doing, I’ve finally nailed what I do and everything’s going really well.’ Before we let him get on his way Jack wanted to know where Example places himself amongst other people in the music business at the moment, a question he answers with the analogy of a triangle. ‘At the top of a triangle is Calvin Harris and Justice, in the bottom right hand side sits Tribal Quest and Slick Rick and in the left hand corner there’s the Rolling Stones with Kurt Cobain on backing vocals. I’m sitting somewhere in the middle of them all smiling to myself.’ Example releases his next single, Two Lives on 14th November
[Stop! Jack Time] Example. You have a lot of fans on Twitter and so we decided to hand this part of the interview over to them so that they can ask you a few questions of their own. We’re calling this The Who’s Jack Twinterview...
@emilymcguiness Why do you think The Wanted look like Hollyoaks extras?.. Because they do. I didn’t mean it in a bad way.
@willyham94 Why are you so obsessed with Nando’s?.. I was the first person to get a Nando’s Gold Card. I first went there in 1993, two years after it opened in the UK when I was 11 years old. I used to rap about them in my songs then and so they got in touch with my manager after my first album was released and said they wanted to give me some free vouchers but I’d get through, like, ten a week so they invented the Gold Card. I think Chris Moyles and Emma Bunton got one at the same time as me too.
@Lady___Jane Who, dead or alive, would you like to collaborate?.. It would have to be someone that worked with my style of music. I idolise Damon Albarn but we wouldn’t work together musically. I’d like to work with Underworld and Faithless because I think we’d go well together.
@claudiatrier What’s your favourite biscuit?.. A Fox’s Crunch, they’re a next level biscuit. I could roll with a Custard Cream too or one of the cheap, imitations Jammy Dodgers.
@erickhc (from Brazil)
How does it feel to have fans in other countries thanks to things like Twitter?.. It’s brilliant. It never ceases to surprise me. I’ve been offered gigs in South Africa and I’ve never even been there. I think I was number one in Dubai, I get loads of radio play in Holland and I had a top ten in France. Brazil isn’t somewhere I’d associated with British electro rap though. I’m waiting for someone to contact me from the North Pole.
@allisonneugie What video is your girlfriend in?.. Me and Mandy.
@xfran_ejg Why are you so damn cool?.. Cos I’m just being me.
@ThatsMe_Roisin Why do you hate the X Factor?.. I don’t, I love it! I just wish that after people won that we never had to see them again. I feel bad being mean because they’re all so nice, I’d like to have a go at Diana Vickers but I can’t because she’s so lovely. From an entertainment point of view though I think it’s an amazing show.
@viennaz How many pairs of trainers do you own?.. About 170 but I’ve gave 10 pairs recently to my cousins but then again, I’ve got more pairs coming from Adidas and Vans.
@adamrh Shag, Marry, Throw off a cliff: Ellie Goulding, Laura Marling, Marina?.. I’d marry Ellie because she’s a mate of mine and really lovely. I’d shag Marina. I don’t want to throw Laura off a cliff though because I’m friends with her boyfriend and it might get me in trouble. Maybe I could just be mates with her instead?
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Jason Gregory
FASHION FOR THE BOYS From time to time, I, like most people, find myself looking up how to pronounce a word before I risk embarrassing myself trying to say it. Of course, the invention of modern technology has made this far easier than it used to be. Where as in the past you were forced to confide your pronunciation dilemmas with a close friend, and preferably one who wouldn’t relay your tongue-tied incompetence to others, these days you can go on Google and find a robotic voice that does it for you. Or at least you can for every word other than Gilet, which, it transpires (and believe me I’ve looked), is unpronounceable. No one - not even a robot that sounds like a loquacious C-3PO - seems to know the definitive way to say it. During my search I came across one website, for example, which had gone as far as to stage a vote offering users three choices: ‘Ghee-Lay, ‘Gill-let’ or ‘Ji-let’. For the record, ‘Ghee-lay’ was first with 47%, but even then people weren’t convinced. ‘I’ve never said it before in my life, but before looking at the options, I said the last one lol,’ said one confused reader. I raise this interesting point because the fashion world has invested some serious time in the Gilet this autumn, which means, if you want to buy one, you’re going to have to learn how to say it. At first glance, the sleeveless waistcoat-like jacket seems an odd and not particularly fashionable item to resurrect. When the trend last enjoyed popularity towards the end of the 80s, for instance, it was eventually condemned because designs began to make the wearer look like an ambassador for the RNLI - or the Michelin Man. But upon closer inspection, the Gilet is actually quite an attractive and practical solution to overcome chilly November nights. Not only are they padded, but to appeal to a wider audience this season, designers have opted for vibrant colours and subtle detailing, like lumberjack or leather-bound shoulder pads. Of course, there are ridiculous designs available as well; German designer Tomas Maier showcased a studded leather Gilet in Milan, which was more bondage than windbreak, and definitely not something to wear to the office. They’re also quite versatile, and can be used to either embellish a casual outfit or add a touch of informality over a smart shirt. The options, it seems, are endless - just like the debate over the jacket’s proper pronunciation.
Gilet or not Gilet?
Featured colorway
PLATTAN AUBERGINE Models: TANTO MEDIS
Available in 12 colors:
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Feature 3.5mm standard microphone and remote.
www.urbanears.com hello@urbanears.com
Photo: Vincent Skoglund
film: words: Mark Williams
Monsters
Here are two words that some feel should never be uttered sequentially, yet so often are: romantic comedy. It’s hard to think of another genre which takes such a consistent beating from critics giving films of its ilk such terrible reviews. Yet, like a boxer that just won’t stay down after a barrage of punches, it gets back up, staggers to its feet and attempts another feeble effort. It just won’t stay down!
Machete
The thing is, these films do tend to guarantee quite hefty financial returns for the studios and their investors. Take Valentines Day for example, this year’s film that was brought out in time for, yep you guessed it, St Valentine’s day.The fact that they couldn’t be bothered to think of a better name than that says something, although they couldn’t really have called it Exploitative Load of Old Crap Designed to Make Maximum $$$. With a budget of $50m, spent largely on assembling a cast who may have dabbled in the past with artistic integrity, but now prefer having races with their wheelbarrows of money, it has accrued, to date $215m, meaning a return of over 400%. Even 2010 Jennifer Lopez vehicle, The Backup Plan has made $85m from a $35m investment! Sandra Bullock in The Proposal racked up over $300m from a budget of $40m. That’s more than 700% profit! If you’re the head of a studio in these financially precarious times, what are you going to do? Take a punt on a risky, but interesting film and hope it makes the money back, or finance a guaranteed winning horse that you know will swell the coughers? From an economic point of view, there is a clear answer. Of course, this is not to say that the good films aren’t out there, because they are. There’s loads of them, they just don’t get quite the same marketing and advertising budgets as The Bounty Hunter, starring Jennifer Anniston and Gerard Butler. Which is why Who’s Jack is always on hand, to separate the wheat from the chaff and the good from the bad and the ugly. We’ve got your back.
Here at Jack Towers, we do like a good horror film to sneak up on us, take us by surprise and maybe even scare us so much that a bit of wee comes out. For such incontinent purposes, We Are What We Are (Somos Lo Que Hay) (12th Nov) seems to fit the bill quite nicely. In a nutshell, it’s Mexican and it’s about a family of cannibals living in Mexico City. Not an all-out constant jump-fest, but more a tale of a dysfunctional family, spliced with something quite a bit darker, as the father of the family dies, leaving the mother and children to hunt for themselves. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somos_Lo_ Que_Hay The winner of the Palm D’or prize at Cannes Film Festival this year was a Thai offering called Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (19th Nov). It’s a slow-burner for sure, and hasn’t had an easy ride from all corners, with some describing it as overly ponderous, but if you have the required attention span, then it could be a rewarding experience. It’s about ideas and images more than a straightforward narrative, looking to find the magical in the mundane, and exploring how memories can shape human interaction. www.the-match-factory.com/films/items/ uncle-boonmee-who-can-recall-his-pastlives.html In what feels like quite a short space of time for a trilogy to hit the cinemas, we have had The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and now The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (25th Nov). All three have been adapted from the wildly successful Millennium Trilogy novels, written by the late Stieg Larsson.
Despite being really rather good, the films haven’t made quite the same impact as the books on a worldwide level, hence the planned Hollywood remakes starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Which, lets face it, will probably be heavily sanitised and only fractionally as stylish as the Swedish versions have been. Plus, if Rooney Mara is anywhere near as cool and moody as Noomi Rapace, playing tattooed computer-hacker Lisbeth Salander, I will eat my shoes. So, make the most of Noomi and the Swedish language version of the trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, before it gets re-worked into American next year. www.yellowbird.se And while we’re on the subject of American remakes of perfectly good Swedish films, let’s give a quick mention to Let Me In (5th Nov). Only a quick mention mind, as this film is basically a shot-by-shot rehash of the fantastic low-key Swedish horror, Let the Right One In. It was quite easily one of the best films to come out of 2008, and so maybe just spot the poster for Let Me In on the side of a bus and use it as a reminder to re-watch Let the Right One In sometime soon… www.letmein-movie.com Machete (26th Nov) is an exciting prospect for several reasons. Originally, it began life as a spoof trailer that showed before the Rodriguez/Tarantino double bill Grindhouse a few years ago. The idea was to create a trailer for an action film starring Danny Trejo, that looked like immense fun, but was clearly too over-the-top to ever actually be made into a film. Well, as will often happen these days in the modern world of t’internet, a
Uncle Boonmee
Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
17 surge of demented fanboy support gained momentum behind the idea of making said spoof trailer into a real film. And it also turned out that director Robert Rodriguez had been hoping to do something like this for years, ever since he first worked with Danny Trejo, on Desperado in 1993. And it’s about high-bloody time Trejo got a starring role in something too; he’s been cast as a minor-role, menacing Mexican bad-ass in pretty much every film he’s been in, bar a cameo in the Anchorman. OK, so he’s cast as a Mexican bad-ass here too, but when a man is clearly as bad-ass and Mexican as Trejo, you can’t exactly re-make Pride and Prejudice with him can you? The rest of the cast raises some eyebrows in a good way too; you’ve got Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Jessica Alba and even the Lindsay Lohan found time to film a part between court appearances. www.vivamachete.com Monsters (26th Nov) is in the Cloverfield/ District 9 mould of being forced to share planet Earth with a bunch of many-tentacled aliens. It’s stylishly done, and on a tiny budget of $15,000, if we believe everything we’re told, which doesn’t get you much these days. The whole thing was shot on location, often roping in whoever happened to be around as extras! The premise of Monsters is that we follow Andrew (played by Scoot McNairy) and Whitney (Samantha Wynden) as they
attempt to get back to Whitney’s family in America, but they must pass through the quarantined area of the Mexican/US border, which is where the highest concentration of creatures from outer-space are. It’s been written and directed by British director Gareth Edwards, and if he can pull off a feature-length, sci-fi monster movie with a budget that Steven Spielberg would barely have time to light a Cuban cigar on, then imagine what he could do with a few million! In fact, he should probably be given a role within the government if he’s that good with money. Maybe he can run the British Film Council on shoestring? www.monstersfilm.com
Into Eternity (12th Nov) is a somewhat apocalyptic documentary concerned with the storage of still radioactive nuclear waste. It focuses on the construction of a huge underground repository being built in Norway, which will supposedly hold such waste until it is no longer dangerous. However, one problem with radioactive material is that it remains hazardous for about 100,000 years. It’s slightly stating the obvious to say that a lot can happen in that time, and this film explores what could prove this Norwegian waste dump to be a less than fantastic idea in the future. www.intoeternitythemovie.com
DVD Roundup Family Guy: Season 1-9 boxset (1st Nov) Giggidy, giggidy: all nine seasons of Family Guy together. That’s a hell of a lot of flashback sequences, evil plans by Stewie and Quagmire’s strange sexual urges. Giggidy.
Kicks (8th Nov) Two girls are so upset at the prospect of their favourite Liverpool player leaving for Real Madrid that they kidnap him! (Maybe I could do that with Fabregas if he ever tries to leave Arsenal?)
The Pacific (1st Nov) If you didn’t catch The Pacific on the telebox this year, and you have previously enjoyed Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan then you will most certainly want to see this.
Maid (8th Nov) Spanish psychodrama about a Maid who is a little upset when the family she works for hire a younger maid to help her out with her duties. Upset in the slightly unstable meaning of the word…
CHASING THE LIGHT photographer: Kris Myhre stylist: Leila Hartley make up: Solo James hair: Hannah May Kahn models: Meghan at D1 and Jenny at Bookings
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Dress: Harold Kensington Meghan wears: Wool coat stylists own
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Jenny wears: Suit jacket £79.90 Mango, Slip from dress worn as top £429 Thurley, Suit trousers £49.90 Mango, Shoes £22.99 New Look Meghan wears: Trench coat £25 Rokit, Orange sleeveless shirt £36 American Apparel, Trousers £446 Osman, Shoes models own
Jenny wears: Nude shirt £52 American Apparel, Black trousers £254 Stolen Boyfriends Club
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Dress: Jelin George : www.arts.ac.uk/showtime/Jelin
Meghan wears: Shirt models own, mesh body ÂŁ34 American Apparel
Jenny wears: Orange sleeveless shirt as before, Trousers ÂŁ65 American Apparel, Shoes as before
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Meghan wears: Silk shirt £545 Maria Grachvogel, Trousers £40 Topshop, Shoes as before
From Left to Right : Sega indoor fireworks projector : £129 www.firebox.com / Jim fixed it for me medel Suckuk at urbanoutfitters £8.00/ Vivienne Westwood plastic pumps £65 www.fashion-conscience.com / Gold watch : £119.99 : www.stormwatches.com / Pendleton Heavyweight Winter Gloves : £80.00 www.oki-ni.com / Sass and Bide ring : £85 : www.net-a-porter.com / HAOSHI Cat Ring : £50.00 : www.bitchingandjunkfood.com/ Supersweet: Sunday Best Pounch Necklace : £60.00 : www.supersweetshop.com / Deborah Lippmann Nail Color House of Harlow £11 : www.shopthetrendboutique.com / Black trainers : £55 : Boxfresh www.boxfresh.co.uk / Lee has collaborated with Japanese retailer nano universe on a capsule collection for Fall/Winter 2010 : www.Lee-Store.com / Stripy Cardi : £95 www.henrilloyd.com / Lady Million : www.theperfumeshop.com £59 / Black Leather Brogue Boots : Dr. Martens : www.store.drmartens.co.uk : £110.00 / Silver knuckle duster ring : Hannah Martin : £245 : www.hannahmartinlondon.com / Sterling Silver Orb Seal Ring : Vivienne Westwood : £110.00 www. my-wardrobe.com / Garbstore Red Penfield 1940’s Life Preserver Puffa : www.my-wardrobe.com : £150 / Striped scarf : Paul Smith : www. paulsmith.co.uk : £79 : Volcom Bandito Sock Puppet www.hardcloud.com £7.99 / Hare snow dome : www.caravanstyle.com : £8.95 / Gloves £17.99 www.newlook.com / White strap watch : Nixon : www.uk.nixonnow.com : £130 Russian Scarf Tapestry Throw : £30.00 : Urban Outfitters / Oven Glove & Hate Oven Mitt by Stuart Gardener : £14.50 : www.magmabooks.com / Indoor sparklers : www.superstarsfireworks.co.uk : £2.49 / Shorts : www.jackwills.com : £69 / Panasonic Lumix LX5 : www.techradar.com : £351.69 / Black Rebel watch : www.eu-shop.swatch.com : £42.00
The l l a Sm Bag After Mulberry released and furnished a fair number of celebrities with their new mini leopard print bag it seems that no one can be without a small shoulder companion. The main thing to remember with these is that the strap needs to be long or, if short, the bag needs to be held as a clutch. Those small bags that sit under your armpit are a no no unless you want to look like you should be in an episode of The Only Way is Essex. Here are our picks. From top left to right: £363 Smythson www.smythson.com Topshop £28 www.topshop.com Black snake crossbody bag £15.00 www.dorothyperkins.com £24.99 www.riverisland.com Fur Bag : www.accessorize.com £28.00 Anya Hyndmarch prices start at £395
JACK’S PICK OF THE MONTH
e r Fi s k r wo
Funny to think that for 405 years we have been re-creating the burning of a man and getting excited about it... But yet again this year we can’t wait for bonfire night and below are our choice picks of where to re-live some burning this year in London.
Battersea always has an impressive firework display and enormous bonfire. There is also a fun fair surrounding the bonfire and licensed bars with plenty of stalls for food and drinks.
What with Ally Pally Fireworks very sadly being cancelled this year North Londoners will have to go a bit further afield.. This north London attraction has been going for 30 years and again includes a large fun fair.
Blackheath Fireworks : Sat 6th Nov: 8pm Nearest train Blackheath (10mins from London Bridge) Entry : free Blackheath will become full of food stalls and drink stalls creating a very traditional Guy Fawkes night.
Victoria Park Fireworks Sunday 7th Nov : 9.30pm Nearest tube : Mile End Cost: Free Held in Victoria Park these fireworks are also free and have a 1940’s band playing along to the firework bangs as this year marks the 7th Anniversary of the Blitz.
Battersea Park Fireworks : 6th Nov : 6pm till late, fireworks at 8pm nearest tube Pimlico Cost :£6
Enfield firework display 6th Nov : 8pm display 19.30 Enfield Town Park Cost : £6.00
Bishops Park 5th Nov : 18.00 Neaerst tube : Putney bridge, Cost : £6 Again this one comes with fun fair, it also has a mini kiddy firework display perfect for anyone that doesn’t like loud bangs. Pre event information suggests ‘something extra special’ to mark the 405th anniversary of Guy Fawkes
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JACK EATS
108 Marylebone Marylebone Lane W1U 2QE www.108marylebonelane.com
Nipa Thai Restaurant 1st Floor, Lancaster London, Lancaster Terrace, W2 2TY www.niparestaurant.co.uk
Joels Brasserie Park Plaza Hotel, Westminster Bridge, London SE1
A hidden gem in the middle of Marylebone Village. The atmosphere is relaxed and informal whether you’re popping in for an after work drink, lunch meeting or a three course dinner. All produce is sourced from local suppliers including award winning Biggles Sausages, The Ginger Pig, La Fromagerie and Rococo Chocolates as well as a good range of meat, fish and vegetable dishes. After our helpful waiter had given us his recommendation for the best of the menu and wine list we tucked into starters of Stilton and Leek Tartlet and duck followed by mains of Monkfish and Sausages in a Chocolate sauce (surprisingly it works). What we really loved were the range of deserts. Where most restaurants stick to the fail-safe options (Eton Mess we’re looking at you) 108 Marylebone offers a great range of alternative deserts like Strawberry and Champagne jelly and Pears in Spiced Red Wine. They also offer an express lunch menu whereby if two-courses are not served within the allocated 45 minutes you don’t have to pay but considering how efficient the staff are you may have to come up with sneaky plans to delay the service if you want to dine for free.
Having eaten like an absolute gannet on holiday in Thaliand, I feel reasonably qualified to give an opinion on Nipa, a plush Thai restaurant located on the first floor of the Lancaster London hotel. And Nipa is everything a great dining experience should be. The staff are very friendly and attentive, and the restaurant itself is ornately decorated and so authentically Thai-looking that you might think you’ve just stepped off the Khaosan Road.
Don’t get confused when looking for this restaurant, it is in fact upstairs inside the Park Plaza rather than somewhere around the periphery. The restaurant offers grown up dining with a relaxed yet formal atmosphere. The particularly nice herb plant touches on the tables and individually wrapped french butters with the pre-meal bread are lovely too. The menu sticks to mostly common meats and fish yet with new twists, fish cooked in a bag and cut open at your table for example and cassolettes served in Le Creuset-style pans but the mains don’t disappoint. Sides are very much what you would expect, green beans, spinach etc though the mash is a must. Deserts range quite largely in size strangely enough. We had a chocolate fondant with vanilla sauce that was lovely but enormous along side the some of the more realistic portion sizes. If you have a large sweet tooth you certainly won’t be complaining. Maybe not one for the long awaited night out but rather when you want to go somewhere easy for wonderful food.
St Pancras Grand Champagne Bar (Bar) St Pancras International Station, Pancras Road, Kings Cross, London, NW1 2QP www.searcys.co.uk/stpancrasgrand
Paul Deville Carte Noire NV at £7.50 a glass. Sitting at the bar makes you feel like you belong in a black and white 20s movie. As the ceiling space above you in enormous the bar can get cold but this has already been addressed for you. There is heating under the tables that you can control yourself and when it gets really cold the bar supplies blankets. What could be more perfect for winter drinking?
The food was all utterly delicious, but there are a few extra-special mentions worth giving. The satay sauce must be the best satay sauce since records began, the generous helping of succulent pan-fried prawns in garlic and pepper were simply joy in every mouthful and the bottle of house white Chablis was a perfect accompaniment to the variety of flavours. The indulgent fried ice cream with chocolate sauce desert nearly put us into a food-coma and rounded off what can only be described as a really excellent meal.
JACK DRINKS
At the top of Kings Cross St Pancras stretches the Champagne and Oyster Bar that is the longest in the country. With glasses of champagne starting at a very reasonable £6.00 and beautifully fresh plates of oysters for £17.00. We had organic Dorset Oysters that are far larger than many of their cousins and the bars current Champagne of choice, Jean
Gordons Wine Bar 47 Villiers St, WC2N 6NE www.gordonswinebar.com Another cosy option, Gordons wine bar is the oldest in London, open since 1890 its cavernous underbelly of seating has recently been further improved by an outdoor BBQ that backs directly onto a beautiful park when there is no seating left. The bar also serves cheese boards and is famous for it’s very own, Fat Bastard wine. Arrive early on an evening to secure a seat.
GROW A MO
Grow a Mo for November and show your support for research into prostate cancer. On the first of November all over the world men will be shaving off their mustaches or beginning to put their razors in the bin to grow a mo and raise money for charity. Watch our boys in the office attempt mustaches throughout the month online at www.whosjack.org and keep up the words of encouragement as some might not be as bristly as others. If you want to show your support for Movember whether you are able to grow a mo or not (you might be a girl and therefore hopefully don’t have a mot to grow) go to www. www.movember.com and find out why every man deserves to grow a bit of luxury.
Ride Launches at Proud on the 6th November. Promising a complete transformation of the already alternatively decorated venue, Ride is Proud’s new venture into the world of soft fetish. With fresh-cut grass flooring, centaurs, horse headed performers, stilt walkers and many a breaking act, we have been told to think; human cages, PVC uniforms, fire-breathing burlesque performances, peep-show cabinets and kinky dancers, among an unexpected line-up of desirable antics fit for an extravagant fetish party. Great, we can’t wait to go! Ride at Proud The Stables Market London NW1 8AH 6th November
RIDE AT PROUD
Southbank Food Festival 5 - 7 November Friday 11am – 8pm Saturday 10am – 6pm Sunday 12 noon – 6pm
Get all foodie down at Southbank where 40 selected producers from the annual Real Food Festival come together to offer a multitude of tasters and tasty things to take home. You’ll find quality fresh produce and ingredients at affordable prices, direct from the producer. There are demos and talks, and even real farm animals along with perfect cooked-infront-of-you lunch options.
IcE Skate
Natural History Museum Cromwell Rd, SW75BD As it does every year The Natural History Museum opens its outdoor ice rink on the 5th November. This ice rink always gets busy fast so we would suggest you book in advance if you want to get your skate on. The 1,000-metre-square outdoor ice rink, also has a smaller ring for children and around the edge there are plenty of places to grab a hot chocolate or mulled wine for those that don’t have great balance. With thousands of fairy lights everywhere and a truely magical setting it’s the perfect place to get in the winter swing. www.nhm.ac.uk
www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Charles Cinema Films for 1 Pound Golden Tickets Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place
The Charles Cinema in Leicester Square is picking golden films each week and showing them for £1. At time of print the current film was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, however films change every week so keep an eye on the website to see which film is offered each week. The Prince Charles always has great promotions and events on so it’s always worth keeping your eye on the website. www.princecharlescinema.com
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www.youtube.com/whosjackmag THIS MONTH | EXAMPLE | MCFLY | SKY FERIERRA | HENDRICKS GIN VISIT |
Rory’s Band Picks (terrible title for a column….) Kassidy: I saw Kassidy by accident earlier this year and it’s no lie to say I have never heard a band sound better live. Refusing to acknowledge that music has moved on since Crosby, Still, Nash and Young they consist of nothing more than four duelling guitars, one bass drum, long hair and more close harmonies than is normally decent in polite company but somehow they make music with more energy than a thousand bands that are oh so ‘now’. Catch them before they get too big to keep a secret. I also once got very drunk in a strip club with them and Professor Green but that story is for my autobiography. www.kassidymusic.com
Benin City: Have you ever flicked through your record collection and thought to yourself ‘gosh darnnit I really just want to listen to some funk infused – spoken word lead hip – hop with an Afro jazz beat’ You haven’t? That’s only because you haven’t heard the world’s finest (and quite possibly only) proponents of this woefully unappreciated musical genre, Benin City. Fronted by two of London’s finest spoken word artists Joshua Idehan and Musa Okwanga they take music in directions that make your toes tap and body smile. I am white, male, middle class and Scottish and thus have the least rhythm of all people and this band makes me want to groove, I can think of no higher compliment. www.myspace.com/wearebenincity
Marcus Foster: If you take anything from this column it’s this: watch music live. It’s where you’ll find your new favourite band, your new hero, the guy/ girl you’ll be jabbering about to your friends for weeks to come, whose home printed EP you’ll sweatily hold to your chest with excitement as you stagger out of the venue giddy and humming. The last time this happened to me I was half way out of the Communion night at Yo Yo before I truly realised what a special artist I had just seen. His name was Marcus Foster and he sang with such focused energy and passion that it nailed my ears to the walls. Every movement, every quivering note and lung-busting howl slammed into me and left me utterly stunned. Think this is hyperbole? Go and see him. Now. I’ll meet you after outside the venue…you’ll be easy to spot, you’ll be the one clutching his EP and telling everyone around you what you’ve just seen. Image by Todd Roath www.myspace.com/marcusfoster
Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss We’re firm believers that chocolate and pampering go hand in hand. Having your nails done after enjoying a tasty treat is definitely our ultimate luxurious experience. What if the nail polish itself was inspired by a new chocolate bar? We’re pleased to announce that the most pampered chocolate bar to hit the shelves, new Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss (you may have seen it on a sheepskin rug in front of fireplaces on the telly), has partnered with nails inc. to create two limited edition nail polishes. The two shades, Vanilla Bliss and Cocoa Bliss are bang in tune with what we’ve just seen on LFW catwalks and were inspired by the delicious smooth vanilla mousse centre and creamy chocolate of this latest addition to the Cadbury Dairy Milk family. And we love new additions. The partnership gives lady chocolate lovers the chance to take some time out of their busy day to pamper their taste buds as well as their fingertips! In stores now, Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss is the bar Heather Steele, colour created to provide a stylist for nails inc. moment of pure says: indulgence, and with six breakable chunks per ‘The rich cocoa colour of the bar, it’s the perfect chocolate was a perfect chocolate treat to slip in reference for the brown tone your handbag. that is going to be across all the high streets next season. The So in order to offer you velvety vanilla mousse gave us the perfect chocolate the perfect neutral nail colour pampering experience, to complement the romantic we’ve teamed up with lace looks sweeping across all Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss the catwalks. The shade of to give you the chance to Vanilla Bliss adds a subtle hint win: of romance to any outfit, an ideal match for soft creams or • 6 nails inc. manicures earthy colours to create the • 14 nail polishes hottest look for next season. • 20 bars of Cadbury In contrast, Cocoa Bliss offers Dairy Milk Bliss warm cocoa tones that will be the perfect balance to the To be in with a chance of luxurious shades of camel, set winning all you need to to be Autumn’s hottest trend.’ do is: Email press@whos-jack. co.uk with why you deserve to be pampered. the best 6 reasons will win nails inc manicures, the runners up will win a nail polish and those of you who we feel a little sorry for will be sent a Dairy Milk Bliss to make your life that little bit better.
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Live and Unsigned Auditions ARE BACK!
Want to Play at the O2?
Thousands of unsigned acts have been eagerly awaiting its return, and now the wait is almost over. Auditions across the country for Live and Unsigned 2011 are almost here.
Those who make it through the audition stage will get to perform to industry judges, A&R associates and celebrity guests in some of the UK’s most prestigious venues. Those who make it to the Grand Final will get to share the stage with some of the UK’s best musicians at the Live and Unsigned Final at the 02 in London!
Live and Unsigned is the UK’s biggest original music There’s also over £100,000 worth of competition for bands, prizes up for grabs throughout the vocal groups and solo artists. Travelling across the nation, the competition searches for the ultimate and best UK unsigned act. Every act that get through to auditions is auditioned live in front of a judging panel, which is what makes Live and Unsigned so unique; there are no demos or recordings. All genre’s are encouraged to enter the competition so whether you’re a pop, RnB, punk, rock or acoustic artist, the competition has a place for you.
competition and at every stage there is a chance to win. Prizes include a world tour to four continents including Europe, Asia, America & Australasia, extensive coverage and promotion on both MUZU.TV and You Tube and single releases of all Grand Finalists. The overall winner will receive a winners package which also includes a UK tour exposing their music to over 40,000 people, festival slots and a recording contract with Future Music, with up to £50,000 investment!
The competition’s aim is to find potential recording artists. Over 10, 000 acts entered the competition last year and the Grand Final saw the cream of the UK’s unsigned talent showcase their music in front of thousands of audience members and the judging panel which included Slade’s legendary front man Noddy Holder, Radio 1’s Annie Nightingale, Kerrang’s Alex Baker and RnB star Shola Ama. Auditions begin again in January 2011. Acts are now being urged to enter as places are in high demand and auditions are limited. For information on how to secure your live audition for 2011 go to www.LiveandUnsigned.uk.com and register today.
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INKIE GETTING TO THE CORE OF IT Inkie is one street artist who’s been on the street/urban/graffiti art scene since Jean Michel Basquait (who some call the first and perhaps father of the art of the spray can) first initiated its ascent from vandalism to art. Before I delve into what projects he’s been wrapping his talent around, I get straight to the point about a question which still plays on people’s minds no matter how much it’s been discussed.
It’s that which concerns the street-togallery occurrence which made street art just as much of a commodity as other art genres. It seems a number of anti capitalist street artists are beginning to take a wage from the exact kind of corporations the stood against. Is this selling out or is it simply getting real? Inkie says ‘I think if someone’s gonna pay silly money to buy your artwork in a gallery then fair enough, you know? Take ‘em for all you can’. It’s a fair point and still, one could argue taking the money from the big man to make further comment through work now funded. But as controversial or brash as this may appear (a trait which let’s face it, throughout the history of art, certainly modern art, has made art and artists all the more a constant talking point) the foundations of this comment are spot on. It was only inevitable that the success of street art would lead to elevating its commercial value and giving it a comfortable place in consumerism culture and mainstream galleries. For those still ringing true to the ‘don’t sell out’ tune there seems a frustration in the air. Not only when watching certain artists getting involved with large companies such as HMV or giving plush bars a much needed hint of street but with those that have seen the pound signs ready and waiting for street styled art and jumped on for the ride. Artists such as Inkie who have intertwined their art stories with the uprising of street art for years find it hard ‘It’s frustrating for a lot of the older artists, particularly the graffiti guys, to see this happening. Some of these guys have been doing it for twenty-five years, and people are not appreciating what they’re doing whilst at the same time, others [money-hunting street artists] are taking a white sheet of paper with a black stencil.’ Inkie, although aware of the trends making the dollar is sticking firm to what he believes in and his own style regardless. For the moment, it is stencil work that is conjuring up the most interest. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think some stencil work that’s been done and being done is amazing, like Logan Hicks or Banksy’s stuff – you can really see the style of their stencilling – but I do think in ten years’ time, it’ll look very
dated. There’s a fashion thing going on there with that type of art. It’s important to have your own unique style.’ He goes on to say that ‘in 40 years time, I want to still be doing the thing that I do, so that people will be able to recognise my work and say, ‘oh that’s an Inkie bit of artwork.’ I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a street artist or a graffiti artist.’ Inkie is looking to reinforce this idea of rejecting the graffiti or street artist labelling and just be named simply as an artist. He’s already looking into the possibilities of wood carvings, stained glass and mosaic and his stronghold idea that ‘every good artist should teach themselves about all the different ways there are to create their art,’ certainly offers a wider path to success, as it has done with many an artist, established or otherwise.
‘I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a street artist or a graffiti artist’ However Inkie, like everyone else has to earn a living and now-a-days teaming up with brands and event led ‘live sprays’ along with the heavily PR and marketing controlled music meets art scenes brings in a decent wage and gets his work further noticed. Inkie has not only done live sprays at such events as Cartier Polo while the punters are having their dinner and events at Movida but is also part of the phenomenon that is Secret Wars – a literal spray-off between artists. (If you haven’t seen any footage, get googling.) Inkie has also been part of the Urban In Ibiza project which ‘pushed the live spray to the next level.’ We’re not talking people crowded around a brick wall down an
alley here, we’re talking five-star resorts; the full-on luxury sector welcoming a live spray with open arms, amidst catwalk shows, a gallery exhibition and numerous DJs and bands. As Inkie puts it, ‘it’s everything in a melting pot.’ One big multi-sensory money spending experience. Next year they are planning to put on an Urban In Ibiza series which will go global, ‘to every centre of wealth.’ So there will be ‘Urban in Dubai, Urban in Cannes etc.’ Lisa Moran, (Roots Manuva’s manager) has a hefty role in the running of all this along with Dizzy, who used to own Velvet Underground on Shaftesbury Avenue. They bring Graf art and street art to the people with money and that is what has made it thrive in richer circles, it is something they wouldn’t have seen if these events had not been cleverly targeted at them. But as with many of these music-meets-art events, the more truely creative heads involved, the better the outcome. But happily it’s not just the lucky rich that Inkie is working with. He’ll also be working with Bristol City Council to make it ‘a centre of excellence for urban art.’ Bristol, know it or not, has long been extremely saturated with urban artists and street/ graffiti art so this project should have some visually exciting outcomes – ‘we’re going to paint a whole street and then we’re going to take all the twin towns in Bristol and start doing artistic exchanges.’ Big ideas bring big outcomes, I imagine. There are also future plans to work with Polish artists, undertake projects in Brazil with art-loving kids and shake up the art hotpot that is stirring in Sao Paolo. All of this paints a brightly coloured cocktail of Inkie’s past, present
and future projects. There will, no doubt, be much of Inkie for street art lovers to see in months and years to come, but there is one project we must finish on because it ventures into heart-string pulling stuff and shows that it’s not all about marketing and making money.
Inkie, not so long ago, raised enough money with his art projects to pay for the operation his daughter needed to cure her deafness. Not only that, but he’s also collected enough cash to pay Great Ormond Street to cure another child’s deafness and following this, there are imminent ideas in the art pipeline to work with Great Ormond
Street to raise even more money. Creativity and money have a turbulent relationship, but, it seems, these street artists have got more surprises up their spray-painted sleeves lately, than rats with bombs on their backs and kissing policemen stencilled on walls...
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“Pick up your crosses, and follow me” Matthew 16:24
Leila loves Crosses
Kabiri £80 www.kabiri.co.uk
Leila Hartley
ITS WHAT JESUS SAID, AND IT SEEMS THE FASHION CROWD HAVE DONE EXACTLY THAT. OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF MONTHS I’VE NOTICED AN ABUNDANCE OF CRUCIFIX MOTIFS ACROSS BLOGS, MAGAZINE PAGES AND EVERY WEDGE-WEARING BUN BRIGADIER AT FASHION WEEK. BUT WHY? AND HAVE I MISSED THE BOAT?
Asos necklace £8 www.asos.com
Maria Francesca Pepe pendant £365 www.mfpepe.com Lazy Oaf necklace £16 www.lazyoaf.com
Maria Francesca Pepe rings £125 www.mfpepe.com
Knuckle Duster Cross Ring Urban Outfitters £12.99 www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk
Alex and Chloe at Asos necklace £50 www.asos.com
£157 www.edocharrette.com
16.99 Amazon www.amazon.co.uk £138 www.alexandchloe.com
My first cross pendant was bought for me by a very early suitor at primary school. Aged eight, I didn’t like the idea of bearing the symbol of Christianity round my neck, and I liked the poor boy even less, so when he tried to hold my hand in the playground, I gave it back. My second was a Celtic cross given to me by a much more serious boyfriend aged 16. I was shocked at how little he knew me and my atheist beliefs so when my heart was broken eight months later the necklace ended up in my typically teenage Tracy Emin style pile of torn up memories I subsequently set fire to. Oh how I regret those childish decisions now. I could have been so ahead of the trend, doubling-up my chains before the boys and girls started channeling Wham era George Michael with single cross earrings. Browse any fashion blog and you’ll find amateur digital SLR taken shots of skinny girls with elegant fingers weighed down with multiple, layered up crucifix rings, inspired by the model-off-duty vibe of Freja Beha et all. Models are getting rich off this trend, with Erin Wasson starting her own jewellery line, Low Luv, complete, of course, with a series of crucifix pendants. To show their undying (and permanent) dedication to fashion, the hippest ones are even getting prison-style finger tattoos of small black crosses which sneak into view between their heavy-duty finger wear. How are they going to look aged 70 I wonder? I assumed that post Pete Doherty, the rosary bead thing had died too. A transitory fad which, embarrassingly I bought into with a selection from eBay. But no, you can now pick up juicy coloured plastic rosarys for a quid at your local Catholic church, and probably now from Topshop. How can the kids resist? These days I’m saving my crosses for next Halloween, but if you want to get in on the trend I’ve found a lovely variety of examples for every price range.
Leila Loves… Lulu Guinness and Rob Ryan Fan Bag Who’s Jack loves Rob Ryan, hence why he’s guest editing Ruthie’s Baked Beans and Champagne column this month. In conjunction with his new exhibition ‘The Stars Shine All Day Too’ at the Air Gallery Rob has created a limited edition fan bag with accessory aficionado Lulu Guinness. It’s based on a detailed illustration of a London night sky, which takes over 40 hours to hand stitch with hundreds of Swarovski crystals shining like stars. The inside is embroidered with one of Rob’s typically romantic poems, like the text that forms the basis of his cutwork illustrations. The bag will be available to purchase once the exhibition opens this month. www.misterrob.co.uk www.luluguinness.com
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Leila Loves… James Small W Insider Belt As part of his beautiful SS/11 menswear collection James Small has designed a leather utility belt in collaboration with W Hotels. The creation will be sold exclusively in the new W London hotel opening in 2011. James has said of the partnership, ‘Whether at work, travelling around London or through a field to a festival, I wanted to design something which would reflect not only the transitional requirements of the W Insider and the dual nature of W London, but also the demands of everyday life’. The belt features in James’ fashion film ‘Journey’, a partnership with Jamie Hince and Tom Beard.The video was shot in the Cotswolds to a Roxy Music soundtrack with Super 8 and digital cameras to achieve a vintage aesthetic and to portray a sense of nostalgia. The film follows models of the moment Jack Guinness, our cover boy from January, and Louis Simonon who was immortalized by Hedi Slimane for an issue of Dazed & Confused as well as Max Barreau and Dave Ashby. The boys amble through the English countryside in short shorts, shirts and scoop-neck t-shirts and end up horsing about by a bonfire. Check out the film on the W Hotels website. www.wlondon.co.uk/gallery www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/jamessmall
Loco for Lomo /Bucky Litch/
41 Overheard the other day were two girls chatting about some pictures they’d taken of a holiday and the exclamations of how much of their night would be taken up by photoshopping. Isn’t this a bit old now? It’s a shame how skills with software was the most important thing to these girls, their most sought after who cares about what was actually in the pictures? Photos should be spontaneous and capture a moment in our lives that is just that - a moment, and not an excuse to demonstrate to all and sundry our graphic design prowess and skill at slimming a thigh or creating a vignette effect. We’re all wannabe photographers now admit it and unusual looking photos are slowly but surely becoming more sought after - the perfect moment caught imperfectly, as it were. I want to see grime. I want to see the sunlight streaking across a face. I want the mistakes, the blurs and the red or green or orange eyes to show the chaos of a drunken moment with my friends. When we all eventually get round to creating families of our own, (christ....) they are going to be the generation in which photos as memories are lost. Did anyone have family albums they poured over as a child? Did you laugh at your Dad’s pre-beer belly Jimi Hendrix era and your Mum resembling a youthful Kevin Keegan on her wedding day? (Uh...just me then.) We’re not going to have that! We’ll have digital pho-
tos taken in ‘beauty mode’ that will probably by then be lost in cyber-hyper-space. It’s lucky then that film photography has officially made a comeback. Those who have previously sworn by their digitals are harking back to an era in which we had to get up-close-and-personal to our subjects and not spaff about how great our super duper lens is. Connections are being made as we’re looking at you face to face and asking for your picture. I want to capture my travels around the globe with these individual, crazy shots - I’m so bored of seeing the same old images in guide books. The mind is not a Lonely Planet. Just this weekend a digitalhead was caught sneaking out of my local camera store, he seemed a little guilty almost. Pictures of friends seem warmer with the inevitable blurring on photos - when you do manage to capture an instant perfectly you are all the more happy and grateful that you were able to. But what is perfect nowadays? You see, that’s the thing with Lomography - the definition of perfection has become skewed. Jo loves her Fisheyes of friends’ faces close up - they didn’t mind the honing in, the flaws on the display, not caring if it’s shown to their world on social networking sites as who cares?
They were having a good time. Khumo loves barbeques and rooftop parties; the light blanketing her subjects in crystallised psychadelic colours. Tash loves her blurry pics of things she finds on her travels, bits and bats scattered on the floor, another man’s trash is another’s treasure and all that. She says that she prefers expired film. The imperfections make the whole thing a whole lot more interesting. And, you know what? I think that about a lot of things. Anyone make the change - it’s easy and fun, get yourself down to number 3 Newburgh Street, (just off of Carnaby street) and ask for the Holga 135 BC or the latest launch in the Diana range the mini Petite Noire. Get a flash with colour filters. www.lomography.com for inspiration.......
Autumnal Beauty Pick Me Ups
As the cold weather kicks in, our natural instinct is to curl up and hibernate till spring. Katie Service has gathered together the beauty and grooming essentials to help you make it through the cold.
Lost In Beauty For those ever on the hunt for new beauty havens, Lost in Beauty on Primrose Hill is bound to become a regular. With a stunning vintage themed beauty boutique on the ground floor and an intimate salon on the floor below I’m now hooked on Lost in Beauty’s girly atmosphere and high quality treatments. The Boutique boasts some of the best brands on the market, (Shu Uemura, Becca, REN and Belmacz to name a few) and the salon boasts some equally fabulous treatments such as Shellac manicures, lash extensions and hairdressing by leading professionals in the industry. Check out their website and blog on www.lostinbeauty.com.
Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed Whether you are a regular early riser or not, no-one is loving the fact that our mornings are getting darker and colder meaning that pretending that you are wide awake at your 9am meeting is becoming increasingly difficult. Cue the brand new age erasing eye cream from Origins. In all honestly it takes a lot to get rid of the blue/grey circles under my eyes at the moment but this eye cream certainly has helped to soothe the swelled up, puffy eyed look I so often have in the morning – leaving me looking somewhat more human by the time I get into work. Soothing Mimosa has been used to treat burns in the past and has been proven by Origins to reduce the appearance of fine lines and those ever intruding wrinkles. Origins Starting Over Anti-Ageing Eye Cream, £25, is available from Boots.
Melvita Flagship Store Although you may not have heard of it, Melvita is France’s number one organic beauty brand and is bit by bit becoming a hot favourite in the UK organic market too. Head down to St Martin’s Courtyard, Covent Garden, this November to see the full range of over 300 products under a faux ‘sky’ ceiling adhering to the environmentally friendly philosophy of the brand.
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4
Kyoku
Not a Perfume
Whether you boys are actually a bit smelly or whether you just need a bit of olfactory refinement, it is definitely worth slipping a bottle of one of these behind your shower curtain… Joining the already successful Kyoku for Men range are four new skincare fragrances inspired by the elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water (Basically camping in bottles… clever). Each fragrance contains a Body Wash, Body Scrub and Body Lotion. They may look pretty simple, but don’t worry their plain appearance is just, well, an appearance! Inside each formula is a host of natural ingredients, many of which are proven to benefit skin and slow down the ageing process. For example, the Earth collection contains high levels of betulinic acid which is an excellent anti-inflammatory and forms of quartz that promote skin firmness. And they don’t smell bad either! In fact I think I shall be sneaking a pump or two of the Fire Body Lotion, which is an oriental fragrance (my favourite) with ginger and other spicy goodies. The products, £17 each, are stocked in Liberty and nationwide from this month.
Although this looks like a perfume, it is not a perfume. ‘Not a Perfume’ by Juliette has a gun is a single note fragrance. And even more extraordinary, its creator Romano Ricci has chosen the synthetic substance Ambroxan, normally used as a very subtle base note as the one and only note in the bottle. If the name Romano Ricci rings any bells it’s probably because his great grandmother was Nina Ricci as in ‘The House Of…’ After training to become a nose, Ricci established his own name in the perfume world as the creator of cult brand Juliette Has a Gun, based on the emotions and personalities of Ricci’s heroine, Juliette. The Ambroxan note smells, on paper, very fresh – almost like fresh linen. In fact ambroxan, a white crystal, tends to evoke the smell of skin – subtle but sensual. When sprayed on the skin it smells a bit more green than white and in time develops a more muscy, amber smell. Ambroxan has been used by Romano in all the other Juliette Has a Gun fragrances – it is his favourite note – but for the first time here he brings it out to the forefront. It is an extremely expensive ingredient about 500 /kilo. The result is minimalist and pure. Not a Perfume by Juliette Has A Gun, £60 from Selfridges.
Religion for Men This is a perfume for the rough and ready as much as it is for the city slicker. The ingredients list is the molecular equivalent of taking a bite of a lemon, jumping into the Atlantic ocean mid-winter and then warming yourself beside a cosy open fireplace: Sharply refreshing yet warming. Citrus top notes give the fragrance its initial zing, while ginger, herbs and marine notes fill the heart giving an air of spicy manliness. If you’re not won over yet, then you will be by the final drydown into a sophisticated Vetiver (famously used by the all-powerful Tom Ford to encapsulate masculinity at its finest). Religion for Men, £30, Boots.
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Title: Baked Beans and Champagne Candidate: Rob Ryan
Who’s Jack has the pleasure of introducing Jack readers to Rob Ryan, the guest writer for Ruthie’s column this month
I’ve followed the same traditional path that many artists undertake: a foundation course from 1980-81 at Birmingham Polytechnic, then Fine Art at Nottingham Trent Poly in 1981-84 and then Printmaking at The Royal College of Art from 1984-1987. Like most people who go to art college, I made friends there, who share the same interests as me and who inspire me and we’re still friendly now. I’m inspired by everything around me. I really love London – the business, the frantic lifestyle, the people and the fact that the city is always moving and changing. For inspiration, I find I tend to lean towards more decorative art and I also love post-war, pre-60’s English illustration. I like the work of photographer, Tim Walker, and his extravagant staging and typical motifs. He has an unmistakable style that has adorned pages and pages of Vogue for the past ten years. I also take inspiration from the work of the American artist/illustrator/designer Maira Kalman. When I was a student in Nottingham, some friends and I exhibited some pictures in the Peacock Pub on Mansfield Road. I sold a pastel drawing of a woman who looked like Helen Terry from Culture Club. The picture was called Hold Me Tighter In The Rain and was inspired by the then current soul song by Billy Griffin.
It was a nice picture and selling it made me feel good and still does. It justifies what I do. About seven years ago, I decided it was time for a change. My style is constantly evolving and I moved into paper-cuts and screen-printing as I find these mediums more precise to work with. The decision-making is stripped down; you don’t have to think about colour or tone but just focus on the shapes and coherence of the work. Paper-cuts are intricate and time-consuming. One can take anything from an hour to as much as 200 hours. I’m not overly patient but I’ve always enjoyed and loved my work. The intricacy doesn’t frustrate me, actually I find it calming, and I only get annoyed when I can’t come up with a good enough idea – but, eventually, it comes. I use 80 gram book end paper and cut using Swann-Morton, 10A blades with a number 3 handle. My ideas for pictures come from sketchbooks that I work on at any given time but mainly in bed before I fall asleep. I jot down thoughts and the
“..selling it made me feel good and still does. It justifies what I do.”
drawings and words become entwined. I like the tactile quality of pencil and paper and never draw using computers as I don’t find I can truly express myself on a screen. I’m a very romantic person and my works are deliberately very romantic and wistful with quite a fanciful edge. I like to think that my pieces are positive and that they make people feel happy. I’ve always got so much on the go. I’ve just finished doing the illustrations for Carol Ann Duffy’s new book The Gift which was really brilliant to be involved with. I have been working on a major solo show with TAG Fine Arts called The Stars Shine All Day Too which is at The Air Gallery in Dover Street for all of November. For this show, I’ve created an entirely new body of work, both limited edition screen-prints and paper-cuts. The works continue in my usual vein but, this time, they’re larger and better. I wanted to strip my art back down to its roots with these new works and they are more intricate than ever before. I Opened My Heart is so big we’ve even had difficulty getting it framed and photographed. This piece uses the metaphor of a windy tree to show the new life and freedom a young girl feels
when she opens her heart to her new-found love With these new works, I’ve tried to push myself in new ways and I really like the different challenges I’ve confronted. One of the things that is so satisfying about finishing a piece is knowing I’ve crossed all these hurdles and still produced an amazing work. As part of this exhibition, I’m collaborating with, among others, Brown’s Hotel, and who knows what the future will hold. I love that my work brings me into contact with so many different people and that through the different forms of reproduction and communication so many people see and hear about my work. I hope they are all inspired by the things I do as much I am inspired by the things around me. Rob Ryan, The Stars Shine All Day Too, presented by TAG Fine Arts will be at The Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street, London W1S 4NE from Monday 1st – Saturday 20th November with a late opening on Thursday 4th November. For more information please contact info@chloenelkinconsulting.com or info@tagfinearts.com. www.tagfinearts.com/Ryan.php?id=Ryan
words : Ellie Fazen
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The Return of the Demon Barbers -Brave the Cut Throat Whether it’s the pencil variety of the 1930s Hollywood spiv or the Kitchener style from WWI, moustaches are back, as is the trend for male grooming and old fashioned barbering. We talk to three moustachioed experts who all agree that there’s nothing more invigorating than allowing another man to hold a razor to your throat.
Barbering. It’s as ancient as prostitution and much more dangerous. There was a time when visiting the barber was part of the weekly or even daily habits of most men. The bearded Victorians, who commonly wore huge moustaches as fashion statements, would have made frequent trips to the barber - if not to get their beards trimmed then to get their teeth pulled. Visiting the barber was a social, manly experience. They were men only zones that smelt of leather, mahogany and citron wax. Fathers would take their sons. ‘Barbers are places for men to get together and spend time as men,’ says Master Barber Mr Natty, Matt Raine. ‘In places like Naples you can still get a really good haircut and wet shave for a couple of Euros. Men go there to talk about football, politics and complain about wives. They go to find out what’s going on in business and make contacts. This is a tradition we have all but lost.’ Barbers know how to cut mens hair, and they won’t gossip to other hairdressers in the mirror while they’re doing it. Having a proper haircut or a wet shave in a leather chair surrounded by men is a sensational experience. It’s therapeutic and relaxing. ‘Men want to take pride in their appearance again,’ says prominent moustache wearer Johnny Chrome. ‘Men used to be frightened to dress properly
or groom properly because it is seen as feminine.’ Reality is the opposite. ‘Visiting the barber, shaving with a cut throat. It’s manly,’ says Mr Natty, who teaches men to wet shave. ‘Men now are soft. They don’t fight and they don’t like punch ups but having a proper shave is a manly thing to do. Allowing another man to hold a razor to your throat is invigorating. You haven’t lived until you’ve taken your life into your hands.’ You can bet your life that Michael Caine shaves with a cut throat.
Death of the barber Barbering fell into decline with the advent of the safety razor, invented by King Camp Gillette in 1895, mass marketed as ‘disposable but indispensable.’ This coincided with research that seemed to prove beards unsanitary. A French investigator walked with two men through Paris. One was bearded, the other was not. At the end of the walk both men kissed a young lady whose lips were then tested for bacteria. While the lady kissed by the beardless man had only harmless yeast germs on her lips, the lips kissed by the bearded man ‘swarmed with malignant microbes’. Would you want to kiss that? No. And neither did the genteel ladies of the early twentieth century.
Beards and moustaches fell out of fashion, and the magnificent barbers fell into decline. The chivalry and good manners that we associate with gentlemen of old seemed to die with it. Prominent moustache wearer and proprietor of Time for Tea Johnny Vercoutre believes that ‘manners have been lost in society. Men don’t open doors for women anymore. I don’t know if you can link the degradation of manners to the decline in male grooming, but I can safely say that when men were better groomed manners were better.’
Respectable and razored Now barbers are making a comeback, and it’s acceptable for men to be properly groomed. Steve Parsons, the Secretary of the Handlebar Moustache Club believes that ‘Growing facial hair is a right of passage. It’s also down to fashion of course, and at the moment they definitely seem to be in fashion. We have a lot of younger members.’ It’s a nostalgic aesthetic, which goes hand in hand with the rise of the chap. ‘You have to wear a moustache,’ says Mr Natty. ‘It’s something that requires you to put on a bit of an air, it makes you dress more smartly and moustache wearers should reflect that in
their manners. In the current climate people want something study and reliable. If they are going to pay for something they want to pay for a proper experience. I teach wet shaving because I believe that not everything should be disposable. You might pay £100 for a cut throat but you will have it for life.’
The easy guide to hirsute happiness. According to an old proverb, ‘A kiss without a moustache is like strawberries without cream.’ And if Movember hasn’t persuaded you to grow a moustache then perhaps Engelbert Humperdinck will. ‘I grew a moustache. It started with an article in a magazine called ‘American’s Top Ten Sexiest Men.’ I was number four in the chart and the top three all had moustaches. So I grew a moustache as well and the next year I went up to number two.’ Girls will find you sexy. Useful advice for anyone thinking of growing a moustache comes from a book of etiquette for men published in 1904. ‘A man with a trivial nose should not grow a large moustache. Doing so will increase the insignificance of his insignificant nose. With a large nose, the moustache may be large too, but its ends should never extend further than in a straight line with the outer corners of the eyes. This imparts to him a belligerent, aggressive air that makes small children refrain from asking him the time.’ Of course if you don’t want small children pestering you for the time then grow it as long as you want. Mr Natty has other advice for the potential moustache wearer. ‘You have to look after a moustache like a good suit - you can’t go around looking scruffy and have a moustache. Those things are at odds with each other.’ 1. Grow an all over beard for six weeks or so, that will give you a god basis 2. Then look at your beard, and look at lots of moustaches. Look at men in magazines. Create a mood board. Think about what kind of shape would you like. 3. Get a barber to cut it for you, at least the first time. They are experts and can cut the shape right. 4. Think about it as a hobby. You need to groom it and get a good wax. I recommend my new wax, Mr Natty Hair Preparation. www.mrnatty.com Steve agrees. ‘I put on pomade every morning to keep it in shape, and I use moustache wax and even hair straighteners if I want it to look spectacular for an important event,’ he says. And he has some more slightly more unusual advice. ‘Many of the club members swear by the beneficial effects of beer on the moustache. This is why we meet on a monthly basis in a London pub - to give our hirsute appendages a good dousing!’
www.timefortea.org.uk www.mrnatty.com
To Get barbed. Our dapper chaps recommend... ‘Getting laced, as Dickie Attenborough would have put it, is a fabulous experience,’ says Johnny. ‘Tommy Guns is great - it feels like something almost spiritual has just happened. You feel high when you walk out. And I’ve had a wet shave at Murdock. My skin felt really smooth afterwards.’ www.tommyguns.co.uk, www.murdocklondon.com
‘Probably the best known traditional barbers in London is Trumpers,’ says Steve. It’s been open since 1875 and has individual cubicles and mahogany panelling. You can even enroll in shaving school there. www.trumpers.com Mr Natty recommends Steph from Parlour Macabre. She runs a pop up barbers at the Victoria Pub on Sundays and Tuesdays. www.parlourmacabre.blogspot.com
Introducing... Hybridity Mixture. Fusion. Synthesis, even. Call it what you will but ‘hybridity’ - the space between a number of different influences, techniques and ideas - is both the gift and curse of the contemporary artist. In a Catch-22 state of play that has seen originality become increasingly elusive, artists are having to rely on finding something new to reveal about existing concepts and methods. To employ an obscure analogy, this task has much in common with how an archaeologist digs away at the same patch of earth: they persevere in the hope that they will find something, anything of worth. Often these efforts are unsuccessful. Everybody is left disappointed, exhausted, and dirty. But, every now and then, someone finds a dinosaur.
words: Donna Marie Howard images: David Wightman and Donna Marie Howard
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the space between
abstraction and landscapE David Wightman is one artist who has made a career out of this very pursuit. Based in London’s Hackney Wick, he occupies the space between abstraction and landscape, high art and low, the home and the gallery - his ‘hybridity’ is not of two elements, but several at once. He builds painted layers of precision-cut wallpaper shapes in an attempt to both reference the loftiness of abstraction (from which the shapes’ place in art originated), and undermine it through references to his personal background. The rich theories that formed the idea of abstraction and which were explored by artists such as Frank Stella have served not as straight inspiration, but as fuel for Wightman’s particular perspective, imbuing abstraction with an intimacy that never would have worked unless its key concepts were manipulated. In this, Wightman’s work does not represent a return to abstraction, but in a sense, brings it kicking and screaming into both contemporary art and contemporary society. By removing the smoke and mirrors that surrounded it until now for those unequipped with an artistic vocabulary, he actively uses the past to engender something entirely different for a modern audience. Progressing in the direction of nostalgia and whimsy rather than academia, Wightman’s drawing upon art history, personal history and everything in between makes art accessible, which is precisely why it works - a pretty considerable feat for an artist who graduated from the RCA less than a decade ago. There is no pretence about his work, but because audiences are so used to reading something “deep” in art, it is almost as if they can’t make sense of an art which doesn’t seek to be more than it actually is. It is this sense of failed aspiration (visually appearing as if it is looking to achieve something more but never succeeding) that drives his work, and it is only because of the numerous realms upon which he has drawn that he actually pulls it off. The artist tells me an anecdote in which Lord Snowdon came to his studio and became enraptured: “he loved the wallpaper and said that he had this one in one particular residence, and this one in another...I told him that he couldn’t have done; this was just cheap wallpaper from B&Q”. Snowdon’s subsequent cooling toward the work is suggestive of his disappointment that something he invests with connotations of wealth and grandeur is actually more evocative of your dad bumbling around the house on a Sunday, looking for wonky cupboard doors to repair.
Audiences are au fait with the idea of high art, and they expect you to fulfil it: they don’t necessarily expect to understand it, and approach it prepared to be overwhelmed by the theoretical concerns inevitably hidden within. When it is revealed that they are already in the know, that their first impression was absolutely right - the work is about them: it’s about their childhood, their family home - they are utterly disarmed. They are almost disappointed they can understand it because it interrupts their perception of what art should be. Skeptics might consider Wightman’s particular hybrid angle to be a touch too simple - it’s not world-changing, but that’s the point. It is honest and humble about its origins and its future - it’s not the Lady Gaga of the art world and it won’t ever win an Oscar, but it will certainly make sure that audiences respond to art in a way entirely unfamiliar to them. By making art personal, and inclusive to all rather than exclusive to many, Wightman’s work reveals that hybridity does not necessarily exist as an approach with one eye on the clock and an awareness of the finite amount of past subject matter which may inform it. In one sense, it has become the ultimate pursuit; there may not be an endless supply of referents upon which we can draw, but there will continue to be new and increasingly subtle ways in which the same stories can be retold, updated and reinvigorated for new audiences. After all, isn’t this what artists have always done? Haven’t they always drawn upon the familiar, the foreign, fusing inspiration with imagination and a little artistic flourish? In this respect, hybridity seems not only natural, but necessary. In the seventeenth century, Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer was a pioneer of the renowned genre portrait (which offered modest and humble insights into private interiors that often narrated a woman’s engagement in a leisurely pursuit), and is considered to have combined it with the technology of the camera obscura. His subsequent reputation as “painter of light” owes a lot to the hybridity of his approach: his subject introduced the lighting patterns - situating his figures to the right of leaden windows is a particular idiosyncrasy - but his scientific technique facilitated their ethereal appearance. Were it not for a combination of ideas and methods, Vermeer may well have remained an unknown artist well past the eighteenth century when he was discovered. And as for Andy Warhol, had he not pursued a synthesis of art, advertising, and a shockingly successful self-promotion strategy, nobody would be anywhere near as preoccupied at the sight
of a tin of Campbell’s soup, or a box of Brillo Pads, for that matter. Of course, this idea of hybridity cannot be limited to art alone: it plays a role in every creative, academic and cultural pursuit. Developments in PhD theses come about through thorough research into what has gone before, changes to the law are the result of careful and considered reflection upon the past. Culinary progress materialises as the result of thorough research into established traditions and ingredients usually pigeonholed for other purposes - here I refer you to the deep-fried Mars bar. And let us not forget that American band The Flaming Lips were actually taken to court after it was revealed to them that both lyrically and musically their song ‘Fight Test’ (from the 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots), was near-identical to Cat Stevens’ ‘Father and Son’ of 32 years previous. Originality is becoming an increasingly difficult status to achieve and - as David Wightman’s works admit in their sense of failed aspiration - there is no shame in that. It simply ups the ante: we should feel encouraged to pursue the ideas we consider as worthy, in whatever guise they may come and from whichever unexpected corner; it just means that when we can call ourselves truly original, it becomes all the more impressive. Whilst art informed by hybridity may not at first have appeared to be of particular cultural value, if we consider why it is that the artist has returned to a previously excavated subject matter, or an abandoned technique, it is because something of value can yet be drawn from it. If Science were a person, it wouldn’t think ‘Oh, but we’ve seen something like it before, how dull’. Science would eagerly lap it up, thankful for the exposure of something previously bypassed, and become excited at the prospect of the future developments to which it could lead. As such, hybridity is not merely a return to the past, but a manner of laying the foundations for the future. And so, to return to the pre-historic analogy - it may have fewer feathers than before, a few more scales and perhaps an extra set of teeth, but if a newly discovered dinosaur means anything - it means progress. David Wightman: Secret Name at Art Work Space, The Hempel, W2 3EA. November 19th - December 19th, this exhibition being the first time his landscapes and target works have been brought together on equal terms. upcoming residency at Berwick Gymnasium, Northumberland information is online www.davidwightman.net. David is represented by www. sumarrialunn.com.
words: Laura Hills pictures: Caity Reeve
Perfume Genius Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, is a man who writes sad songs. In fact, you’d be hard pushed to find a man who can write a sadder song. His debut album, Learning, is a direct product of a tough life growing up in various suburbs of Seattle and has been described as being capable of inspiring a sense of guilt, as if you’ve stumbled upon a diary and are reading it uninvited. On first look, 29-year-old Mike you’d be forgiven for making the assumption that he is just another indie kid (he looks a lot younger than his 29 years) but one listen to his music (which is all recorded in his mum’s living room using her piano) and your opinion will change entirely. Perfume Genius’ songs sound grainy, as if recorded on a really old tape player, and his singing is often so hauntingly soft that you have to listen to a song a few times to understand what he is singing about. Jack went along to meet Mike at Cecil Sharp House in Camden ahead of his only date in London on his current tour and he was every bit the nervous, shy man that he comes across as in his songs. We sat down with him to find out more about his childhood, googling himself and why his self consciousness nearly lead him to not write a single song... ‘Up until a couple of years ago I was working in a department store. Before that I worked cutting keys and I also did a stint mixing paint for people. It was awful and I hated it. At first I quite liked working in the department store it was like I was in a film especially when I was there after
hours but after a while it sunk in that it was actually my job and I could be doing it forever. When I was in a bitchy mood I used to wear someone else’s name tag so that if I wound customers up it wouldn’t be me that got in trouble,’ he laughs. We are sitting in the room that he is due to perform in shortly after the our interview, with a debut album that received critical acclaim both here and in the US under his belt it is hard to imagine that Mike almost never had the confidence to take his passion for music further. ‘I didn’t even write my first song until a few years ago,’ remembers 29-year-old Mike. ‘I’d always liked music and deep down it was all that I wanted to do but I didn’t ever think I could make it. There are so many other good people out there – how was I ever going to make it? I didn’t see the point in trying. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I got over that mentality.’ It was a call from record label Turnstile which turned things around for Mike who was, of his own admission, on a bit of a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol when they first got in touch. ‘I’d written a bunch of songs which I’d uploaded to my Myspace and then after that I went in to a pretty dark place of booze and drugs and it was during that period that Turnstile contacted me via my Myspace page. That was pretty scary for me, I’d never even played live but it also made me get my shit together and sort out my life. I felt a bit bad because a lot of the time when I was talking to them I was pretty wasted but now I’m being good and I’m clean again. On a very superficial level you feel more creative when you’re fucked up but in reality your perspective is just messed up so really I had nothing to say at all.
It’s much more productive to be clean.’ Despite America being his home Mike launched his singing career in the UK before going over to the US. ‘I don’t want to sound like I’m talking shit but UK audiences are so different to American ones. Audiences over here are much more excited about music, I don’t know if it’s be- 51 cause in America we’re kind of trained to be sceptical but British audiences seem to be warmer and more accepting,’ he says. You can’t help but get the impression from Mike as he talks that he still isn’t entirely comfortable with even having an audience, let alone fans. When I ask questions about his fans he hesitates and stumbles and continually tells me how ‘weird’ it seems to him to even have fans at all. ‘I grew up not believing I was capable of anything so I’m having a hard time getting my head around the fact that people actually want to buy my music or see me play live,’ he tells me. His obvious anxiety is something that he says he is working to get over although he still hasn’t quite mastered the confidence that is required of a man on the brink of musical success. ‘I prefer to keep the gigs that I play really small. I get really nervous before I go on and I have to really psych myself up just to get out there and do it. I kind of fall in and out of enjoying playing gigs, sometimes I have my eyes down on the piano and I’ll look up and be taken by surprised that lots of people are watching me. Before I go on I drink tea, say some prayers that I made up and pace up and down my dressing room and that calms me down a bit.’ Mike describes a Perfume Genuis gig as ‘a bit like rehab for people who have experienced lots of different things, something that can quite
DATING DATE | THE ESSEX BOY VENUE | THE GEORGE, SOUTH WOODFORD TIME | 5 HRS (15 IF YOU INCLUDE THE SLEEPOVER) SCORE | 7/10 This is the Essex Boy. He’s got scruffy blonde hair, blue eyes (uh oh) and countless tattoos. Oh, and he’s from that glorious place called Romford.
obviously be blamed on his tormented and at times, deeply disturbing lyrics. In one song, Mr Peterson, Mike sings about a relationship with a teacher who went on to kill himself singing, ‘He let me smoke weed in his truck/ If I could convince him I love him enough/ He made me a tape of Joy Division / He told me there was part of him missing / When I was 16… He jumped off a building.’ Mikes lyrics document a 29 year battle with more dark things than most people deal with in a life time, everything from sexual abuse to death are covered on the album and of his own admission he uses his songs as a kind of rehab for himself too. In one interview Mike spoke of his past saying, ‘I spent my whole life hiding from the things that happened to me, to my family and friends. The entirety of all these experiences: abuse, addiction, suicide, all that ‘cool’ stuff, I couldn’t bear to look at it.’ It makes sense then, that his fans are often people who can relate to his songs and who have been in similar situations, something that Mike describes as ‘intense’ telling me, ‘They write to me and tell me about situations that they’ve been through. Some of the stuff they send me is pretty heavy which can be tricky to deal with. I want to write back with something really inspirational and sometimes I can but other times I just don’t reply because I want to say something perfect that will help them but I can’t think of it so I put it off. It’s the same with interviews, if stuff is asked that is really personal, I’ll want to answer because I really want to do my best but I find it hard and I end up not knowing what to say.’ Learning was released in the UK in June of this year and to say that it was well received is somewhat of an understatement, something that Mike says he was really surprised by. ‘All the praise I received over the album was a bit overwhelming at first. When it first came out I would read a review and then close it down straight away and not look at it again. I really wasn’t expecting any
of it so I find it kind of hard to deal with. It probably doesn’t help that I google myself quite a lot. I know it’s cooler to say that I don’t read stuff about myself but I can’t help it. I don’t really care if there’s bad stuff about me though – it’s kind of like when you think your boyfriend’s cheating on you and you go snooping through his stuff and find out that he is. I kind of expect the bad so it’s not that much of a shock but when I read the good bits it does make me really happy,’ says Mike. ‘It’s weird,’ he continues with a smile, ‘I always believed that I couldn’t handle things very well, especially anything adult or grown up but my friends and mum tell me all the time that I’m capable and I guess I’m finally starting to believe them.’
[Stop Jack Time]
A quick game of getting to know you... Who is the best person you’ve ever seen live? Joanna Newsom. I don’t go to gigs very often but that was a really good show. She’s like a wizard, she’s insane. When people care about the music and what they’re doing it really shows and that’s what makes someone a good artist in my opinion. Who do you get compared to? Any other gay singer who can play the piano. What one thing will always make you cry? Edward Scissor Hands. What one thing will always make you laugh? Humiliating people. My mum taught me a game where she used to grab my hand when we were in a queue and make me touch the butt of the person in front of me. That works pretty well. What’s the best bit of advice you’ve ever been given? That it isn’t circumstances that make you happy.
If you’re from Essex, you’ll know how exciting it is to meet someone else from our infamous county, tell each other where you live and who you know until you find somewhere, or someone you are both familiar with. In this case he was a member of my old gym (note, it’s my old gym ever since the date with the gym bunny. Not sure he’d be so happy to see me on the treadmill any more). But luckily, for me and the Essex Boy, our link was made. We also knew some of the same people, albeit vaguely (classic Essex), HOW exciting. He took me to some dirty old man pub for drinks and then a slightly classier bar. He did have the manners to come and pick me up though, in his Vauxhall Nova, no I’m kidding, it was a Ford Escort. Anyway, after him driving about 15 miles over the speed limit and leaving it VERY late to change gears, old man pub there we were. And, lo and behold, I actually found I was enjoying myself. He held open doors for me, bought me drinks and even said I looked nice. (I was wearing a black dress). What good manners. You all know I’m quite old-fashioned/share the same views as your gran when it comes to manners. Unfortunately, every other word that came out of his mouth was a swear word, not sure granny would approve of that. But to give him his dues, he did use a wide range. ‘Innit’ was also a common feature in his vocabulary - but I’m down with that cos, let’s face it, there are times when there just aren’t any other words. Innit. Funny thing is, I couldn’t help but think his accent was horrible. And that’s how I speak - admittedly though, I try to watch my Ps and Qs. I also don’t say ‘bare’ or ‘butters’, but he IS from Romford. In my dating quest, I’ve learnt (through an interesting speed dating session) that I judge people by their jobs. Essex Boy is an estate agent. He’s a wide boy, cocky, sales-type person. I’m not sure what I think about this job, but I don’t think I’d buy a house off Del Boy, I mean Essex Boy. Ironically the Essex Boy lived on Essex Road. That sort of gives away how this date ended, doesn’t it. Oops... What we’ve also confirmed this month is that I’m a sucker for blue eyes. Might as well tell you now then, that he even made me a cup of tea in the morning. Manners... Innit.
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THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN APPAREL DREAM? SEXY AD CAMPAIGNS, SEXY SHOP ASSISTANTS, SEXY CLOTHES AND A SEX OBSESSED CEO - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AMERICAN APPAREL DREAM?
AMERICAN APPAREL. THE HYPER SEXED, HIPSTER RETAILER IS ON THE ROCKS. EVERYONE FROM GAWKER.COM TO GRAZIA ARE NOW TALKING ABOUT IT BUT WAS IT ALL TOO OBVIOUS IN ITS COMING? The store started retailing in 2003 and then proceeded to grow at one of the most rapid paces that the US retail industry has ever seen expanding swiftly to the 280 stores over 20 countries that it owns today. It gave every Hoxtonite and downtown L.A hipster the lurex hotpants and cut off T-shirts they had always dreamt of and better still, at affordable prices and with a ‘look how hot the sales assistants are, you could be that hot too’ promise.
The stores were everyone’s favourite for that perfectly shaped hoody or boy styled pants, and every kid just out of school or out of uni were gagging to work there. It would seem the shiny back to basics sexed up brand could do no wrong. Yet after 6 successful years, in May this year the store witnessed a substantial drop in their profits and saw shares reduce by 62 percent compared to the start of the year. The company released a statement to saying that they saw, ‘substantial doubt that we will be able to continue as a growing concern’. Nothing if not honest then, and as the CEO Dov Charney has said in the past, the kids love honesty.
American Apparel, now boasting in the region of 10,000 employees, has never been one to be unhonest with their buyer, take, for example their at times uncomfortably sexual advertising and barely there bikinis and hotpants. Models are mostly real people and in the start, porn stars, showing their wares in the simple clothes with honest make up, styling and lighting. It no doubt had all the essentials anyone could need the perfectly cut jeans, the vest tops of every colour, that V neck acid washed T, they had it all. But adding to its mounting problems is that the store has begun to prove something of a one trick pony, providing the same styles over and over just in different colours or materials. There are only so many pairs of lurex leggings a wardrobe can contain! Then there were the lawsuits. Coming about for all sorts of matters from general employee issues to sexual harassment, you name it and they have probably been accused of it and eventually this summer (after some rumours stated it was the pay off of these lawsuits that has damaged the financial state of the company) the largest clothing manufacturer in the US lost it’s auditors, Deloitte & Touche. Deloitte & Touche, resigned from American Apparel causing shares to drop further as uncertainty for the chain
55 spread. This meant that without anyone to submit the companies quarterly earning reports the New York Stock Exchange would be quick to drop them also. Currently the company has appealed to the Stock Exchange and has been given until the 15th November to make the filing, meaning we’ll see the outcome of this and whether the store will continue to keep all its doors open a bit later this month. In the mean time the law suits have piled up. These came from AA’s investors regarding their apparent use of illegal workers, declining revenue and escalating debts. The worst of these being $80million owed to British based private equity firm Lion Capital. The personnel is another issue for the chain with Deloitte & Touche saying that they had left because they felt that the company’s 2009 financials could not be relied upon, and that American Apparel suffered from a lack of internal controls and adequate accounting personnel.
Within this vein of accusations a number of further revelations about the stores staffing have bubbled to the surface leading to an almighty eruption of information. Many stories have surfaced regarding American Apparel’s hiring techniques and worker calibre. Surely you, like anyone else who has been into one of the chains has rarely been helped by any member of staff other than to pay for an item? I have even heard stories of people being sniffed at when they have asked for a larger size and for the most part all the workers seem to do is stand outside the store one after the other in the latest trendy AA attire smoking fags. Grazia has recently described the AA worker as ‘sexy-but-sour-faced’. This particular breed of staff stems from the tough regulations used to hire the store’s staff. After internal documents were leaked in June it turned out that hiring and firing was based on full body photographs and that ‘grooming standards’ were sent out regularly to staff
‘shares to drop further as uncertainty for the chain spread.’
‘Makeup is to be kept to a minimal- please take this very seriously. Liquid eyeliner, pencil eyeliner and eyeshadow are advised against; mascara must look very natural (ie. should not be clumpy or a color that does not compliment your skin and hair colour).’ so they knew how they were supposed to be dressing. One such email, leaked to Gawker.com, including these guidelines included the following instructions: a) Makeup is to be kept to a minimal- please take this very seriously. Liquid eyeliner, pencil eyeliner and eyeshadow are advised against; mascara must look very natural (ie. should not be clumpy or a color that does not compliment your skin and hair colour). Blush must not be overdone- should not have glitter or sparkles. Liquid foundation is prohibited (undereye concealer is understandable if it looks natural- ie. not clumpy or caked on, must match your skin tone). Please do not use a shiny gloss on your lips; any lipcolor must be subtle. b) Eyebrows must not be overplucked. Full eyebrows are very much encouraged. Please do not dye your eyebrows a different color. c) We encourage long, healthy, natural hair, so please be advised of the following: -Hair must be kept your natural color. -Blow-drying hair excessively could cause heat damage, so this is advised against. -”Bangs” or “fringe” are advised against. It is not part of the direction we’re moving in. d) Jewellery must not be distracting. Please do not wear accessories with another brand’s logo on it- this includes watches. No gauges whatsoever. One earring per ear is encouraged. Earrings, necklaces, watches, bracelets, etc. must be simple and tasteful. Please E-mail me or work@americanapparel.net with a photo if you have any questions about a specific piece of jewellery you’d like to wear in the store. And for men : a) Hair should look natural. Excessive product to the extent of creating stiffness and an unnatural or greasy appearance to
your hair is advised against. b) Eyebrows should be natural. Please do not dye your eyebrows a different color or overpluck them. c) Males should not wear makeup. d) Facial hair needs to be kept clean and well groomed. Any mustache or goatee of a contemporary style are advised against. e) No gauges allowed whatsoever. Reminders about basic dress code: a) Button-up shirts must be tucked in to trousers. b) Sneakers of any style are not allowed. Plain white clean Keds or Keds-like shoes are allowed. c) Please do not wear any earrings. All accessories and watches must be clean, simple, and tasteful. They cannot distract from the garments. d) Garments must fit properly. Trousers cannot be too tight or too baggy- and must be clean. Shirts cannot be oversized or too tight. If there is an employee that does not wear garments that fit properly, please contact me ASAP so we can resolve the matter. e) Belts must be worn with trousers that have belt loops. This long list of the do and don’t of the AA worker obviously didn’t impress many people either having to adhere to them or being given them and content started to be gathered from many a disgruntled employee that had been discriminated against for the kind of reasons outlined above with some coining the stores the ‘fashion dungeon’. Employees had been made to sign contracts that outlined a lot of the above style guidelines that were expected of them. And suggestions that a ‘no uglies’ policy was also in place came out soon after. With these kind of guidelines taking precedence over intellect or ability to do a job it is no wonder the stores staff have helped somewhat in the brands downward decline. The stores trend-led attitude has even gone so far as to spark hate crimes with one store in LA getting smashed and looted by trend haters. The company have always had an amazingly strong image, created by CEO and founder Dov Charney. But Dov, like his brand, is by no means squeaky clean. He has stated that when hiring - ‘It is imperative that the people who wear our clothes are really attractive, vain hipsters, and any priority they exhibit that runs counter to looking really awesome should be a warning sign that maybe they should not work here.’ Dov, a man who openly admits to having a habit of calling women sluts as a general nickname is a whole topic and feature in himself. He is a man that decorates the interior walls of his company with covers of Penthouse Magazine and female employees in risqué poses that he has snapped himself. A man that is happy to conduct interviews whilst only wearing his underwear and a
man that has three outstanding cases of sexual harassment to his name. When journalist, Claudine Ko spent a month with him writing for Jane Magazine he continually masturbated in front of her during interviews telling her ‘Masturbation in front of women is underrated, it’s much easier on the woman. She gets to watch, it’s a sensual experience that doesn’t involve a man violating a woman, yet once the man has his release, it’s over and you can talk to the guy.’ She also watched on as he asked an assistant to give him a blow job, who obliged while he explained ‘I’m not saying I want to screw all the girls at work ... but if I fall in love at work it’s going to be beautiful and sexual.’ Dov allegedly gave himself a £1.1million bonus last year despite debts of around $91 million and share prices that were once $17 now being worth $1. Yet Dov said just a few months ago, ‘I naturally have a very high level of confidence in our longterm viability’ so he obviously does not feel the fight is over for AA and feels the company has a long way to grow, although some might say that it is indeed Dov that might, at the age of 41, need to grow up and begin to run a company rather than using it for sexual gratification. I say some… All of these factors have led to the brand falling rapidly out of favour with the public. The prices have increased yet the range of styles has not. The sexually explicit advertising that was once exciting has begun to be a little creepy knowing it’s beginnings. The stock has many a limitation, we are never really going to wear our lame leggings again and no man is really ever going to need a supply of crop tops on tap. However, as probable as the decline of AA seems there may still be a glimmer of a silver lining. Lion Capital, no doubt in an attempt to keep the company solvent in the hope that it will regain the $80 million its owed, have begun to work together with the failing company saying, ‘we are working together to support a number of key initiatives within the business, including hiring several new senior executives.’ This could well be a good start to put things back on track for the brand but now that the restructuring firm have been hired it is highly likely that the old AA will melt away regardless, ready for a new, less controversial brand no longer relying on ‘sex sells’ rules. What might also be an idea for the brand is to get prices back to the affordable level they once were and possibly bringing in some new lines. We await to see the fate of the American Apparel Dream.
WHAT MAKETH A MAN? In today’s metrosexual world of tight jeans, manscara and guyliner, sometimes us men need a bit of guidance, a rugged example to look to and define what it is to be a man. Ok, so there’s nothing wrong with embracing a bit of feminism, or maybe even pretending to like Joni Mitchell to impress a girl, but at the end of the day you still shave in the mornings and piss standing up, so what’s wrong with wanting to define yourself as a real man?
Manliness in film and television can be easily confused with chauvinism, sexism or misogyny, which is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about men that would help an old lady cross the road, go home and cook a mighty steak and ale pie, and then smoke a pipe after dinner. If anyone smoked pipes any more. On-screen masculinity has always been a varied creature, ranging from the rather silly stereotypes of Roger Moore-era James Bond, to the super-pumped Arnold Schwarzeneggers and Stallones of the eighties. These are not what interest us, we laugh heartily at them, shake our heads, stroke our well kept moustaches and turn the page in Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. All we want is a little less androgyny and a little more facial hair. We want to be the man that opens the jar with the really tight lid, that puts up the shelf with a hammer, some nails and our two manly hands. We want to order a steak in a restaurant so rare that it still moos, drink real ale and not be afraid to get some pork scratchings with that. We are MEN, hear us ROAR! So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the men from whom we can seek guidance in our masculine endeavours.
The roundhouse kick of Chuck Norris
between his top lip and his nose. If they could tear their eyes away, they would probably have seen some mighty chest hair protruding from an open-topped shirt too. This was the eighties after all.
Easy charm of Paul Newman
We’re certainly not advocating violence as a path to attaining true manliness but everyone has wished at some point during their life, be it as child or adult, that they were absolutely deadly. Well Chuck Norris doesn’t wish it, he is it. You may have heard the rumour that Chuck Norris can cure the blind with just his touch. This is true and was proven when a blind man bumped into Chuck Norris in the street one day. His sight instantly returned to him but the first, last and only thing he ever saw was a fatal roundhouse kick to the head. Because no one bumps into Chuck Norris.
Effortlessly cool, Paul Newman is not only one of the Hollywood greats, but even has his own range of bottled sauces! The Sting (1973) is a particularly fine example of his ability to charm his way into or out of any given situation, all without breaking sweat.
The pipe smoking of Orson Welles
Tom Selleck’s moustache Sam Elliot’s voice
Just look at that glorious facial accoutrement and tell me you don’t want one too. You can’t can you? When Magnum P.I. walked into a room, the first thing anyone noticed was the space
Probably most familiar as ‘The Cowboy’ in the Big Lebowski (1998), Sam Elliot is a man with a voice so smooth he could sell snow to a Polar Bear. It’s a good job they’re not allowed to advertise cigarettes on television any more, because if they got him to do the voiceover, we’d all be smoking twenty-a-day.
Smoking a pipe is an optional extra in the quest to be the man you know you can be. But you can’t deny that it lends a little more gravitas to the words spoken by someone, if after they’ve said their piece, they sit back and light up a pipe. Orson Welles isn’t necessarily a man that needed any extra gravitas; much more and he might have caused random objects to orbit around him.
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The quick hands of Bruce Lee
The no-nonsense approach of Sean Bean
So fast was Bruce Lee, that he invented his own form of martial art called Jeet Kune Do, based on his belief that traditional martial arts were too slow and inefficient. He developed, and demonstrated at international Karate tournaments, something called the unstoppable punch. He could take a dime from the palm of your hand and replace it with a penny before you have time to close your hand around it. In conclusion, he was really, really fast.
Sharpe was not a man to suffer fools gladly. He was more likely to nut them and call them a basta’d. Often looked down on by the military gentry for his working class background, during his exploits through the Napoleonic Wars, Sharpe made his name as a leader of men and winner of battles. And if they didn’t like his style of leadership, well he would probably just nut them and call them a basta’d.
The quiet authority of Sidney Poitier
In the Heat of the Night (1967) is possibly Poitier’s best known film role, as Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs who has to deal with prejudice and racism whilst trying to solve a murder. Poitier was America’s preeminent black actor during the American civil rights movement and said he used to run all his potential film roles past his father for approval first ‘because I did not want ever to make a film that would not reflect positively on my father’s life’.
The piercing gaze of Yul Brynner
If you stood him in the middle of Oxford Circus, he could probably stop the traffic just by staring at it. But this is a different kind of stare to your usual, run-of-the-mill menacing look. It is commanding, but not intimidating; Yul Brynner is a man with tractor beams in his eyes.
The swordsmanship of Toshirō Mifune
If you’ve ever seen one of the masterful Samurai films of Akira Kurosawa e.g. Yojimbo (1961), then you will probably know who we’re talking about. Mifune and Kurosawa were the Johnny Depp and Tim Burton of Japan in the 1950s and 60s, except they didn’t become quite dull and start making Disney films. If faced with any of Mifune’s characters wielding a sword, the best advice was usually just to run away.
Michael Caine’s sharp suits
If you’re going to look the part, look no further for aesthetic inspiration than the one and only Michael Caine. The Ipcress File (1965) and Get Carter (1971) are two films in his vast canon in which he tends to look especially dapper. No doubt the finest minds and hands in Savile Row were involved in one or both of those. For your ability to wear a suit with such impeccable style, Michael Caine, we salute you.
Win Black Death, starring Sean Bean on DVD To be in with a chance of bagging yourself a very manly copy of Black Death on DVD, we would like you to tell us what is the manliest thing you’ve ever done? You don’t have to be of the male persuasion to enter, and it doesn’t necessarily even have to be true. How are we to know? Just send an email with the subject line ‘The manliest thing I’ve ever done’ to mark@whos-jack.co.uk Black Death is out on Blu-ray and DVD on 18 October, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
© 2010 EGOLI TOSSELL FILM. All Rights Reserved.
MY 2-4-1 Pound Life Lucy Hancock
I spent an afternoon last week of my fruitful and fulfilling life window shopping on Oxford street. I don’t know why I did this for two reasons. The first is that with £9.75 in my bank account wandering doey eyed around Cos, not buying, but touching all the soft leather I will never be able to afford is the capitalist equivalent of water boarding. The second is that with extremely fizzy feet and visible work bruises, shuffling behind a Japanese tourist photographing every billboard, street sign and bollard is not my idea of a laugh. I am not really the kind of person that soils my pants laughing trying on silly hats in Accesorize, but persuaded by a friend I ended up standing outside Ann Summers: the emporium of broken sexual fantasies. The moment I stepped over the thresh hold I was handed a free sample of scented lubricant which I hastily stuffed into my pocket, not wanting anyone to think I was so dried up I needed synthetic assistance. I walked around the shop that smelled oddly a bit like the plastic swimming bag I owned as a child, and carefully dodged all of the menacing looking hunks of plastic protruding from the walls. My friend was having the time of her life. ‘Lucy! Lucy!’ she shouted tearing across the shop brandishing a fuchsia pink, gelatinous rubber dong and slapping it against my hand. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ I said. A woman in a black v-neck revealing her heaving bum chest squeaked across the shiny pink floor behind her. ‘That’ she said ‘is the rampant rabbit three way vibrator. It has two arms for clitoral and anal stimulation and a 7.5 inch penis.’ It’s two enormous arms made it look like a faceless pink rapper, giving the world two fingers, rather than an erotic piece of fanny furniture. She grabbed it from my mate’s hands and twisted the thing on. I looked at it horrified. The sound filled the empty shop and the two of them smiled at each other. I was not smiling... I was remembering. When I was a young child, being the doting daughter I was, I would give my mother foot massages. I would get out all my special creams and line them up by the bed pretending I was a beautician. One day as an extra special treat I told Mum I would give her a foot AND a back massage. I finished her feet and carefully wrapped them up in a warm towel and got to work on her back. As I was reaching over for the Clarins moisturiser, my hand struck on something hard under the pillow. I pulled it out gleefully. ‘Mum, you never told me you had a massager!’ I flicked the smooth white object and set about kneading into her shoulder blades with my newfound tool. She immediately sat bolt upright. ‘OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD! PUT THAT DOWN’ she screamed. I dropped the massager on the floor in fright and it rolled across the carpet still buzzing. ‘What’s the problem Mum? I was just giving you a massage’ I said tearfully. ‘NEVER touch that again’ she said, looking aghast. I ran to bed crying, so upset at my Mother’s reaction. I was only trying to do something nice and she didn’t even appreciate it. The massages stopped after that, because I thought my mum must hate them. It was only a few years later, flicking through a dirty magazine that the realisation of what I had done prickled to the ends of my fingertips. I had massaged my mother with her own dildo. As we left the shop, my friend swinging her paper bag filled with 7.5 inches of illuminous rubber I tried not to think about her (or my mother for that matter) using it. Overall I just don’t get them. What’s wrong with good old fashioned willy? I don’t really want my orgasms to come with the added stress of figuring out whether their deliverer will be waterproof, require batteries or be dishwasher friendly for that matter. Sorry Mum.
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S G N I R D L O G E FIV // CHATEAU ROUX XMAS TEASE AVAILABLE NOW // wwww.chateauroux.co.uk 17 Newburgh Street // Soho // London // W1F 7RZ
n o i t i b i h To feast your eyes on Art ex this month… p u d n u o r Jennie Gillions
Mick Rock: Rock : Music in association with Zippo, Idea Generation Gallery 11th Nov –16th January
David Spiller: Forever Young Beaux Arts 10th November –11th December
To coincide with the release of his new book, Exposed: The Faces Of Rock n’ Roll, the Idea Generation Gallery is displaying works by the legendary music photographer Mick Rock – ‘the man who shot the 70s’. Featuring iconic images (including the photos of David Bowie that launched and cemented Rock’s career), previously unpublished works and rare portraits that offer a fascinating, unique insight into the last 40 years of rock music. Bands will be able to practise for free in the sponsored Zippo Rehearsal Rooms from 12th – 19th November. Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, E2 7JB; Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 10pm - 6pm; Saturday & Sunday: 12pm – 5pm; first Thursdays open until 8pm www.ideageneration.co.uk/generationgallery.php
Fresh from Spiller’s studio in south-east London come 25 new works. Traditionally drawing on popular culture – comics, TV, art history, graffiti and lyrics – for his inspiration, in this new collection Spiller continues to include poetry, songs and cartoons but also utilises Bible stories and, on occasion, ventures into straight abstract. Spiller has no expectations about the effect his work has on viewers – Beaux Arts’ press release quotes him saying ‘it’s enough if they want to stop and look’. Spiller’s work is fascinating and the exhibition is free, so there’s no excuse not to. Beaux Arts, 22 Cork Street, W1S 3NA www.beauxartslondon.co.uk Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am - 5.30pm; Saturdays 11am - 1.30pm
Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work National Gallery 25th November 2010 – 22nd May 2011
Rob Ryan: The Stars Shine All Day Too The Air Gallery 1st – 20th November 2010
Riley returns to the National Gallery with an exciting exhibition that features some of her recent paintings and some works from the National’s collection that have particularly inspired her. Visitors will see a version of Arcadia, last seen in 2008 in Paris, an early copy of Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of a Man (1433), a film where Riley discusses her relationship with the National Gallery and, perhaps most interesting, Composition With Circles 7, a wall-painting that Riley and her studio will create especially for the Sunley Room. Not to be missed, this one. The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square www.nationalgallery.org.uk Opening hours:Daily 10am – 6pm; Friday 10am – 9pm
From internationally renowned artist Rob Ryan comes a major new exhibition, in association with TAG Fine Arts, of fresh papercuts and screenprints. As readers familiar with his work will know, Ryan is an illustrator and fine artist, creating poetic, many-layered works from a single piece of paper. Ryan’s intricate work has won fans across the world and resulted in some interesting partnerships - coinciding with this exhibition is Ryan’s collaboration with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, as illustrator for her new book, The Gift. TAG Fine Arts will be selling a limited number of exclusive screenprints from the papercuts. The Air Gallery, 32 Dover St, W1S 4NE www.airgallery.co.uk Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 10pm – 6pm
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Over Cold Afternoons... images : Photographer: Claire Pepper model: Tim Renouf @ Elite London this image: lambswool coat: Marni / jumper: models own / jeans : Topman
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coat: Burberry / shirt: vintage
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jumper: Marks & Spencer
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sheepskin jacket: vintage / shirt: vintage / jeans: topman / shoes: Marni
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SHOWCASED LAST FASHION WEEK AND AT THE LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL IN SEPTEMBER 2010, A SMALL GANG OF DESIGNERS PROMISED TO CHANGE THE WAY WE DRESS FOREVER. Seams, threads and fastenings, features of dresses that we take for granted, were nowhere to be seen, and in their place were spray jets and magnetic fields. The locations of these impresarios–– not the most glamorous Mayfair fashion houses or trendiest East End boutiques, but the London science-hub, Imperial College, and the unpretentious Puff and Flock parlour at Designersblock 2010 in the South Bank Bargehouse. After ten years of lab-based work, on September 20th at Imperial College, textile engineer and designer Dr Manel Torres showcased a catwalk of Fabrican Spray-on clothes, literalising the effect that Hervé Leger’s skin-tight dresses can only achieve metaphorically. Fabrican Spray-On fabric is made from short fibres bound with polymers and solvent that are sprayed onto the body in liquid form, and solidify when they make contact with the surface of the skin. This means that Torres’s creations are ready within minutes as opposed to the 550 hours taken to confect a Chanel haute couture gown. Inspired by the statue of Queen Victoria at the foot of Exhibition Road, Torres’s Spring/ Summer 2011 collection, was surprisingly versatile, featuring luminous, light-as-air crinolines and clinging, wet-look bodices. Loop-the-loop hemlines and bubbling trains of fabric belie Torres’s joy in his versatile, threadless material, and appear refreshingly futuristic after seasons of worship at the gods of vintage. Still, despite changing the vocabulary of
fabric construction, Torres has a couturier’s attention to detail. Although originating in labs, Torres’s clothes with their intricate knots and fluid drape are meticulously designed to grace the wardrobes of even the most demanding clients. Styled in a conventional catwalk manner, with professional models and lighting, Torres was keen to assert the high-fashion status of his creations. Rather than opting for a catwalk to display her Ferrofabric accessories, which attach themselves to the body through magnetic fields, Jenny Leary invited visitors to peruse, wear and buy her magnetic coin-purses and jewellery at the Southbank Bargehouse. As with Torres’s collection, Leary’s designs evoke the Victorian spirit of scientific innovation and delicately-wrought design features–– incorporating a magnetic magnifying glass, her ethereal, wisp-like silver pendants and earrings house secret messages that only the wearer is privy to. But it is Leary’s interactive magnetic latex apparel that provides a truly wacky experience. As wearers exerting a positive magnetic charge draw in their negatively-charged counterparts, Leary’s great lacy webs of fabric proves dangerously attractive–– and useful. Though the fabric-based innovations of Torres, Leary and their contemporaries have a fantastical aura and may require further refinement before they can become part of everyday life, we cannot underestimate the impact that new fabrics
and construction methods can impact the way we dress and even live. In 1924, Coco Chanel used knitted cotton jersey, a material previously reserved for bandages and baby-wear for the bathing-suit costumes of the ballet LeTrain bleu. Though less outwardly spectacular than the ornate papier-mâché-stiff frocks of the early Ballets Russes, Chanel’s androgynous, deceptively simple costumes that allow the body to take centre-stage, are monumental to the history of fashion. Easy to slip in and out of, the bathing suits remove the need for dressing assistants, and evoke the playful loucheness of 1920s morals. Whether spray-on and magnetic fabrics will be as important to our lifestyles as knitted cotton jersey, is at present doubtful. In nostalgic London of 2010, where fashion journalists praise revivals of classic cuts and fabrics on a daily basis, and Ma dMen fever is at its height, a revolution in dressing is difficult to stage. Unlike Chanel’s innovation, which made life simpler and more enjoyable for forward-thinking wearers on a grand scale, Leary’s and Torres’s confections remain for the moment delightful novelties in a fashion market saturated with vintage influences. Still, perhaps as headier times approach, along with increased confidence and spending power, these designers’ inventiveness will prove contagious.
A Change of Skin words: Katerina Pantelides
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I’M GOING TO GIVE IT TO YOU STRAIGHT. I GREW UP IN A PLACE WHERE HOUSES HAVE NAMES NOT NUMBERS; WHERE MOBILE SIGNAL IS A NO GO (UNLESS YOUR PHONE’S ON THE WINDOWSILL OR STUCK UP IN THE AIR); WHERE MANY OF MY FRIENDS GO MISSING OVER THE SUMMER - BECAUSE THEY’RE BUSY WORKING ON THE FARM. I KNOW MY NEIGHBOURS (SHE’S AROUND 75, HE’S ABOUT 50, MARRIED BUT WE THINK HE’S GAY), I SAY HI TO STRANGERS WHEN WALKING MY GOLDEN RETRIEVER, AND I HAVE TO GET BEHIND THE WHEEL FOR MY NEAREST PINT OF THE WHITE STUFF.
g i B s ' n Bumpki e d i u G y Cit
e Riley words : Esm der Hughes xan le A e: ag im
I loved growing up in Norfolk.
I loved looking out of my bedroom window and seeing green stretching for miles. But following a three-year jaunt to university in Sheffield and a three-month holiday round the other side of the world, I knew London was inevitable. Desperate to be a journalist, I knew The Big City was where it’s at career-wise. Cue work experience placements in central London, coupled with my brother’s living room floor followed by my friend’s sofa-bed. My suitcase had never seen so much action and my sense of ‘home’ disappeared. Nonetheless, I was having too much fun to worry about my gypsy lifestyle and the comfortable country routine I’d left behind. Finally, a few months on, I’ve signed for a house of my own (to rent, of course. I may have a golden retriever but money is tight) and I eagerly await my big move-in date. The last few months I’ve been in training. The warm up and stretching, if you like. The marathon/sprint/match/insert your own sporting metaphor here, begins this month when I wave goodbye to ma and pa, close the front door, and open the metaphorical door to My New London Life.And what these last few months have taught me is that I’ve got a hell of a lot to learn. So I’ve decided to help you out (thank me later) and write a little guide to surviving this vast, overwhelming, dirty, wonderful, exciting city – based on what I’ve learnt so far. Or, if you’re already well settled, you can laugh at my country bumpkin naivety.
1) Personal hygiene is of utmost importance. A packed tube, lack
of air con and possible face in your armpit requires you to have washed, shaved (ladies) and deodorised (whatever the time of year). Then you’ve just got to pray others have been as considerate. And if not, you’re perfectly entitled to feel holier than thou.
2) When on a squashed tube, stand with your feet level, shoulder-width apart, AT YOUR PERIL. The tried and tested best stance is
with one foot slightly in front of the other. I had to survive falling on a fat (cushioned the fall, I guess) 60-something year old man and accidently brushing his bum in the process to learn this.
3) Metro-reading etiquette is a hard one to master. Sat in a packed carriage, it’s impossible to fully open the newspaper (I’m talking pages at 180 degrees) without intruding another’s space. So you either sit with your head between the pages, (at about 60 degrees to one another), or you do the awkward folding it in half thing, and deal with a crumply paper and a massive faff when you want to turn the page (which, when you’re reading the Metro, is quite regularly). Take your pick. Or your iPad.
4) Don’t talk to strangers. A smile may be reciprocated (on occasion), but don’t see this as
encouragement to strike up a conversation. You’ll only receive a frown and an embarrassed nod. And they’ll forever remember you as that weirdo stranger who tried to talk to them. Worse than this, they’ll probably talk to their friends about you: “He/She was probably lonely and just wanted someone to talk to.” Mortifying.
5) Just because everyone else is rushing doesn’t mean you have to. Chances are you’ll be early if you do.
Ignore the flustered suited businessmen with somewhere Very Important to get to. Chill out, relax, dare I say dawdle, even.
6)
But if you are running late...
cool. This is eternally difficult for me to achieve, but if I keep it quiet that I’m from Norfolk, it helps.
14) Wave goodbye to the heady smells of sugar beet and manure (strangely comforting), and say hello
to car fumes and body odour. Which is more pleasant, I hear you ask? It’s a close call.
15) Woken up with a headache in the middle of the night? Puking
your guts up at 6am? Got a craving for marmite on toast before bed, but your cupboards are bare? There’s always somewhere open here (amazing, no?) for you to get your essential item, whatever the time.
16) Get used to the homeless people and the buskers. But don’t
It is not your fault you’ve turned into an all-shoving, all-hating, all-scowling, rude human being. It is the city’s fault. I’m still coming to terms with this.
feel like you always have to acknowledge them with a pound or two, or you’ll be joining them soon enough.
7) Girls, this one’s for you. Don’t bother with clear nail varnish.
17) Avoid Oxford Street on a Saturday. Or a weekday. Or even on
By the end of the week your nails will be grimier than a Toddla T set. Go with a bold colour, instead. Incidentally, boys, if you want to give this a go, nobody will think you odd.
8) Don’t be alarmed! The black goo on your tissue after you’ve blown your nose is normal. Just
don’t spend too long afterwards staring at it in public. Remember the boy who used to do that at school? Exactly.
9) Just because two people are in London, does not mean they are in any way close to one another.
Travelling from the top of London down to the south of the city takes hours. It’s a logistical nightmare!
10) What are you used to paying for a pint or glass of wine outside of London? Double it. And add
a grumpy/gorgeous barman/woman.
Sundays. In fact, just keep away from it at all times. Unless you enjoy a constant feeling of claustrophobia and the fear of death by keen-eyed shopper stampede.
18) Get used to and embrace the cacophony of foreign languages you will hear every day,
rather than variations on the Narfoock doialeect, buh.
19)
Family coming to stay?
Expect to feel embarrassed/enraged when they pass comment on how busy everywhere is, and their under-breath ‘give me the green green grass of home any day’ sighs.
20)
Don’t expect rest. And don’t wish to rest. Get out there, meet people, go places, explore. Make the most of being in the best city in the world.
11) Don’t bother romantically gazing to the stars of an evening,
So there you have it. I think I’ve highlighted just how difficult the transition from country to city can be. Every day is a learning process of new experiences and embarrassing situations.
12) Unsurprisingly, you’re more likely to spot a celebrity on Brick Lane or Carnaby Street than you are on
Yet however hard I try, there’s one aspect of city life I can’t get to grips with. Buses. They give me the heebie jeebies. How do you know where to get on? And where to go? And where to get off? I fear they will forever remain a mystery to me. But for a girl from the sticks, I think I’m doing OK. One step/tube/taxi/Boris bike at a time.
expecting to see the Plough. Or Orions Belt. Or even the North Star. Because all you’ll see is a smoggy grey-black sky garishly lit by yellow sodium.
Long Green or Mellis Common. But stay cool, and don’t gawp. Nonchalance is key.
13) Hide your garden centre wellies at the back of your wardrobe. Practicality is not an issue
here and one must try much harder to be
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photographer : Cara O’Dowd / styling : Lauren Dietze / model : Alex Parker
Settling Dust
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