FOR THE REST OF US
ISS 43/DEC
/ 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.
/ FROM JACK It’s finally December (I confess, my favourite month of the year) and there’s already snow and transport issues afoot before we even get to the 2nd! Here at Jack HQ we have had a great year and put out some brilliant issues so we wanted to send out a big fat thank you to all of our contributors and collaborators over 2010, you make the magazine what it is. Thank you. Onwards and upwards to 2011 we have a lot ready to tell you though we can’t spill the beans just yet. Don’t let that get you down though, you only need wait a month and in that time you have plenty of mince pies, delayed trains, naps, presents and arguments to distract you until we are back in January. The only thing left to say is to keep an eye on Jack TV between now and the 12th December where we will be giving away some great potential Christmas presents for your loved ones or yourself, to save you the hassle of trotting down to the shops, and who would want to when it’s this cold? www.whosjack.org/jacktv. Merry Christmas from all the Jack Team. Lu x
/ 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.
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te t w i t mag . w ww jack whos
/ TEAM JACK / CONTRIBUTORS
Who’s Jack likes a good collaboration, event or campaign. We can work with you or for you. Get in touch.
A big thanks to all our contributors this year, models, writers, make up artists and photographers alike, as you know, each issue wouldn’t be here without you so a big fat THANK YOU and a Merry Christmas to the lot of you. Thank you too to all the brands we have worked with over the year and the people that have helped us out in general whether it be to carry, to intern or to deliver mince pies. We’re already looking forward to working with you all again in 2011.
/ ON JACK TV THIS MONTH Jack goes on tour with Chiddy Bang and we meet Vicky Mclure from This is England. www.whosjack.org/jacktv
/ ISSUE 43 . DEC / 2010 FASHION
MUSIC
14. Fashion For Boys Jason discusses the best way to wear the hiking boot. 18. Shiff, Silk and Wool for All A collection of indoor party wear and outdoor warm wear. 38. Leila Loves : Printed Ts Leila has discovered her own way of getting her hands on those slogan/image T’s you simply must have. 44. Beauty All the products you’ll need to stop yourself from drying up this winter. 51. How To Wear It : The Cape Do it how they did it in Renaissance paintings, just without the red tights. 52. Settee Chic : Illustrated Settee Chic, that new style that feels as comfy as if you were sat on a sofa but looks way better. It may be drawn but you can still buy it. 64. Rubber Wear Our exclusive look at 80’s designer Daniel James’ new collection.
6. Review One Liners James takes his pick of the best, the worst and the worth a listen and lets you know his thoughts in a few brief lines. After that, you’re on your own. 8. Inside the Mind of A Boy Band : McFly Laura meets the boy band that never breaks up and finds out how they will soon be the most accessible band in history. 37. Rory’s Band Picks Yes we know it’s a shit title for a column but at least it says it like it is. Rory has his finger on the pulse with all the new whippersnapper bands coming up the ranks, if you like to be in the know, read it. 48. Band Of Skulls James meets Band of Skulls and chats about how things have changed for them over their sudden rise to fame.
FILM
16. Film Round Up Mark covers everything out and worth a look this month along with the DVD’s you really should have in your Christmas collection. 37. Christmas Film Fix If you don’t have any of the DVDs Mark suggests to get in the festive swing then there are plenty of places showing them. 63. Projection Mapping What happens when you play film over the exact dimensions of an object?
ART & DESIGN
46. Ian Brown Meets Nick Walker Nick Walker, the acclaimed street artist talks to Ian Brown about how he feels when his work fetches crazy prices and what music he likes. 61. Introducing the New Radical Donna takes a look at wether artists today can still be truly radical. 78. Advertising In a world where we notice little, what are advertisers having to do to grab and hold our attention? 81. A Tattoo is Forever? Jennie takes a look at the permanence of the tattoo for the wearer and the impermanence for the artist.
LIFE & LONDON 7. Shit Lit The literary column where Adam discusses the ease at which a particular book is read on the tube and general commute. This month, The 75 Worst Ways To Die. 32. Pick Of The Month Our pick of all the products you’re going to want, if not this month then in the near future. We also cover restaurants, Christmas Presents, bars and Christmas Tipples. 41. My 2-4-1 Pound Life Lucy documents her ever eventful life in this here column. 51. Dating Georgina, who gets so many dates we can’t keep up, this month is out with The Older Guy. 76. Whiskey Renaissance It’s all about the renaissance this issue. Whiskey is regaining it’s foothold amongst the youth of today, Emily finds out why.
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jack 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
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 : louise@whos-jack.co.uk Stylists : Leila Hartley // JACK // Melissa Bailey // Nessa Wrafter // Photography : Natalie J Watts // Felix Cooper // James Lincoln // Barry Macdonald Contributing writers : Jason Gregory // Lucy Hancock // Donna Marie Howard // Matt Hamm // Georgina Childs // Katie Service // Mimi Howard // James Lynch // Jennie Gillions // Anna Claire Sanders // Emily Jupp // Rory Broadfoot // Ian Brown // Illustrations/Artwork/Layout : LOF // pandamilk : www.pandamilk.co.uk // Melissa Bailey // Hair & Make up : Ceri // Cally Borg // Solo James // Cover Image : James Lincoln // Want to see your work in Jack? Contributions : contributions.jack@googlemail.com Thanks to : Everyone that helped make our 12 issues in 2010 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: X Factor Winner Christmas Single Release The X Factor makes my winter weekends bearable but the outcome of all the hysteria, tears and bitching is ultimately a limp and vacuous cover of some long forgotten crooners hit or a heavily contrived effort to be ‘current’ and judging by this years contestants I would rather put a hammer through my beautiful face than listen to them sing when the series is over. www.xfactor.itv.com
BIN: Nicki Minaj Pink Friday Feminism is a beautiful and righteous thing but when you dress yourself up as a cross between Rick James and a Barbie branded nightmare and release music that is nothing more than a pornographic victory lap for how much cock you can take then you make a mockery of even the Spice Girls and their rough translation of ‘Girl Power’. www.nicki-minaj.net
BURN: Girls Broken Dreams Club EP Dreamy surf pop layabouts Girls have put their newfound fame and cashflow to good use and spent a fair chunk of time and change in the studio for their new release which takes its lead from last years rather ramshackle Album and puts Girls natural naivety and heartfelt melodies into a more polished environment but without losing any of the charm. www.myspace.com/girls
BURN: Spark Revolving It’s been fairly quiet on the kooky female singer-songwriter scene recently (you can’t count Diana Vickers) but Spark might be set to change that, looking like a 50s pin up dressed as an 80s rockabilly enthusiast and sounding like Robyn, Kate Bush and maybe even Enya, the 18 year old manages to blend chiming synth chords, a smacking 80s beat and echoing vocals on Revolver… which isn’t a bad start! www.sparkthemusic.co.uk
BOOM: Mansions On The Moon Paradise Falls Mixtape (Hosted by Benzi and Diplo) Enigmatic new three piece MOTM were already moving in some enviable circles, counting N*E*R*D, Clipse and Chiddy Bang among their mates and collaborators but now they have got major name noisemakers Benzi and Diplo onboard for their debut mixtape, a lot of attention will be paid to their genre-defying lo-fi electro sounds which is just as well they are this good then. www.myspace.com/mansionsmoon
BOOM: Lupe Fiasco I’m Beamin’ Remix (Feat. All City Chess Club) Taken from the ever-delayed Lasers album, the original I’m Beamin’ single was released in January and it has obviously taken since then to get Lupe’s hot new crew together for this remix that dispenses with needless pleasantries like a chorus and instead lets the stellar cast including; Asher Roth, Cool Kids, B.O.B and Charles Hamilton ride over the space age beat until there’s nothing left. www.lupefiasco.com
LESSERKNOWN words : Matt Hamm
IO Echo Currently on tour with The Drums and boasting the kind of buzz that a lonely housewife could only dream of; LA’s IO Echo have a promising 2011 ahead of them with a blend of gorgeous dreamy rock and a comfortably familiar shoe-gazing sound that promises to only get better with each listen. www.myspace.com/ioecho
ANR Musical Miami brothers in arms, Awesome New Republic may well be the MGMT replacement you’ve been looking for. New album ‘Stay Kids’ hints at a new style of psych-pop, that builds into a wonderful wall of synthy disco, bathed in ethereal vocals and oozing strong Pink Floyd influences. www.myspace.com/anrmiami
Dry The River Folk is currently the toast of the town, laying a bypass for likes of East London’s newest band Dry The River to avoid getting lost on the musical M25 on their way to your ears. Where Fleet foxes left off, this quintet takeover; but a more accessible hat on and catchy collection of tracks to hand, their vocals will melt the coldest hearts with relative ease. www.myspace.com/drytherivermusic
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 75 WORST WAYS TO DIE One of my favourite children’s books was called ‘Would You Rather?’ by John Burningham and posed some very tricky questions; would you rather be eaten by a fish, or sat on by a rhinoceros? Those kinds of questions prompted some heated debate when I was about five. My book this month combines an element of that, with the hilarious internet phenomenon, the Darwin awards. If you are not familiar with the awards they ‘Honour those who improve the gene pool by accidentally removing themselves from it.’ In essence, stupid people who die in stupid ways. 75 Worst Ways to Die: A Guide to the Ways in Which We Go is a gruesome look at the various ways we shuffle off the mortal coil with some fascinating analysis. With a nod to computer games each method of kicking the bucket is rated by various icons. Categories such as horror factor, kills per annum and lethality (the more skulls, the more likely the encounter will make you dead) help you get an at a glance measure of the sticky end. 75 Worst Ways to Die is written by H. P. Newquist and Rich Maloof. Newquist is the author of several books and the creator of Celebrity Death Trio TM, a blog that chronicles the passing of fabled icons – who always manage to die in threes. Maloof writes for CNN, MSN.com, For Dummies and Sterling Publications
words : Adam Roan Henderson
amongst others. Very impressive, but reading the book I can’t help but imagine them as spooky looking men who wear a lot of black, and possibly carry scythes. I hope whilst researching the books they took some time out to paint pretty pictures of flowers, reading it cover to cover for this piece left me wanting to sleep with the light on. The breadth of information is very impressive, it covers everything from terrorist favourites such a ricin and anthrax, to some frankly silly deaths such as going over Niagara Falls. Each one is illustrated by historic facts and a nod to any notable victims. The truly horrific stories about the Komodo Dragon has haunted my nightmares ever since, worse than any horror film I’ve seen. If this was a ‘would you rather’ game I think, from the evidence in the book, I’d choose booze or drugs, certainly nothing to do with disgusting parasitic worms or being burnt at the stake. 75 Worst Ways to Die helpfully tells you where the highest risk lies for each form of earthly departure; I’ve now struck Columbia off the holiday list because of the Poison Dart Frog, the Amazon for the snakes and backpacking in North America because of the bears. Although written in a light-hearted entertaining style the book doesn’t shy away from actual facts; including a bluffers guide to medical terminology
which may come in handy for pub quizzes. I now know that if a doctor ever tells me that ‘infarction has led to necrosis’ that I should be very very worried! An entertaining foreword by a noted physician and a solemn afterword by a funeral director lend gravity to the anthology. Yes it is dark, but injected with humour so you can enjoy it without having to paint your nails black and listen to My Chemical Romance. Thankfully. Each macabre method of expiration takes about ten minutes to read, so the book is perfect for dipping into on a short commute, or keep in a work desk drawer to aid thinking up a hideous death for your boss, when they really get on your nerves. (If an Alligator turns up at the editor’s office you never read that though, ok?) 75 Worst Ways to Die: A Guide to the Ways in Which We Go By H.P. Newquist and Rich Maloof RRP £8.99 If you know a book or have a book that you think is ideal for the commute send details to adam@whos-jack.co.uk.
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words : Laura Hills images : James Lincoln styling : Nessa Wrafter Credits: Danny/Renton: Tee : Burton Jacket : Around the waist American Apparel Trousers : Myfly’s own Harry/Spud : Shirt : Stylists own Trousers : Mycfly’s own Tom/Sickboy: Jacket : Alison Rasch Shirt : Jaegar Tie : Jaegar Gloves : Jaegar Trousers : Jaegar Dougie/Begbie : Tee shirt : American Apparel Gilet : American Apparel Rings : Tania’s
Mcfly
9
Inside The Mind Of A Boyband Let’s begin this by outlining a couple of things we know about ‘The Boy Band’ (TBB) genre which seems to be massively on the rise and re-brand at the moment (The Wanted, Take That, One Direction, we’re looking at you). Firstly, they are almost always manufactured. Secondly, they absolutely never play their own instruments, it’d get in the way of the stools and the dodgy dance moves. Thirdly, they rarely sing live, especially on TV appearances. Fourthly, everything from their image to their single releases and relationships is heavily controlled by their record label and management. The list of TBB attributes goes on and on but seeing as none of the Who’s Jack office have ever been in a boy band we decided that it was time to find one who were willing to sit down with us and talk us through what it’s actually like being in one. TBB in question came to us in the form of McFly who have had all the success a boy band can dream of numerous top 10 singles and albums, hundreds of sold out gigs, awards by the bucket load, many a girl screaming their name on many an occasion, famous girlfriends and at last count, a collective twitter following of 898,594 people – and what’s more they’ve been together for an (impressive in TBB world) seven years meaning that they’re fully qualified and plenty old enough to tell us exactly what goes on behind the scenes of TBB machine.
No bars held. Over the past few months McFly have returned to the music scene after a 2 year break touring and recording their ‘new’ sound (aka more synth led than guitar led pop with a slightly more RnB feel than what their die-hard fans might be used to). The change in sound has seen some of their dedicated fans get into a bit of a tizz worrying that the four piece they’ve loved for years had... drum roll please... turned their back on pop. ‘Some of them got a bit panicked. Our sound’s quite different and they assumed that we’d ditched our instruments and changed the way we were doing things. We hadn’t but we just needed a change of sound,’ explains Danny. The new sound was also accompanied by the launch of the online McFly Super City which allows fans unprecedented access to the band, their music and their life, a questionable move for a band who have had such success without such means but more of that later...
McFly on getting together... ‘I met Tom when auditioning for a band called V. As soon as I got there I wanted to go home, I was like, ‘Why doesn’t anyone else have a guitar’ but my mum made me stay,’ says Danny. It was at this audition that Danny met Tom who had been working filming auditions for record labels. ‘I was there at the time with our manager Flex and we saw Danny and thought he was good,’ says Tom. ‘I’d previously done some auditions but hadn’t got anywhere so I was concentrating on writing songs while I was at college and doing bits of filming on the side. After Danny’s audition we got chatting and I asked him to come down to write with me in London, so he moved from Bolton to come and live with me and my parents for a summer. We spent the rest of the year writing what would later turn out to be our first album,’ continues Tom.
Once the two of them had finished the songs they approached record labels with the plan to turn the twosome in to a four piece band and got signed to Island Records, a branch of Universal and held auditions to find Harry and Dougie whom for both it was their first audition. ‘Everyone always thinks we were manufactured but we spend 24/7 together, if we were manufactured we probably wouldn’t get on with each other meaning we wouldn’t still be together,’ concludes Harry.
On being controlled by their management... ‘When we were first starting out we were a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds living together for the first time, of course our management had to control us to an extent,’ says Dougie. ‘We had a lot of growing up to do and that’s what the
Danny / Top - American apparel / Hoodie -American apparel / Harry : Tee - am apparel / Jacket -Burton Tom - Suit - Jaegar / Shirt - American apparel Dougie : Polo Shirt - American apparel Jumper - Burton
management tried to teach us. It was basic stuff like we weren’t allowed to go out drinking the night before a photo shoot. It was all common sense really but when you’re that age it helps having someone to keep you on the straight and narrow. Now we’ve grown up though they can’t really control us as much.’ And what about media training? ‘We’ve only once had media training at the record label but we didn’t really listen and just said whatever we wanted to anyway so they decided to give up on that because it was a bit of a waste of time for them,’ says Tom.
in a boy band and a lot of people look down on them. That used to really bother us because we wanted people to see that we could write our own songs and that we always played our own instruments and didn’t mime. All those things that are attached to being in a boy band weren’t what we were about,’ says Harry. ‘I think it’s easier to shake the boy band connotations now we’re a bit older because we’ve been around for quite a long time but as long as our fans are enjoying our music there’s not much to complain about is there?,’ says Tom.
On shaking the boy band image...
On the hardest thing about being in a boy band...
‘When we were younger we were worried that being classed as a boy band would mean that people didn’t take us seriously so it used to affect us quite a lot. There is a stigma attached to being
‘For me it’s that so many people have opinions of you. A lot of people like to knock us without even knowing what we’re about and it can be very frustrating,’ says Harry.
‘What annoys me the most, and it’s something we got a lot in the earlier days of being together, is that everyone assumes that we always mime. People would see us on TV performing and think, ‘They’re good, they must be miming’, but we weren’t. It’s not until people come and see us live that they realise we can sing and can play instruments. We’re not just sitting down miming,’ says Danny.
On promoting releases... ‘Promo lasts for two or three weeks and is pretty intense with lots of early mornings and late nights and really random schedules so we don’t really ever know where we are,’ says Tom.
11
One of the hardest things about the endless promo that is required of a boy band, they tell me, is having to always appear happy and nice even when inside they’d rather be anywhere else. ‘During promo we meet so many different people and that’s the hard bit because you have to be super nice while answering the same question you’ve answered 100 times already that day,’ continues Tom. ‘It’s tiring, we end up having to be quite fake just to get us through it,’ says Harry. ‘This is where it comes in handy that we get on so well because we can have a laugh and be a bit immature to try and get us through it,’ continues Dougie.
On interviews... ‘There have been a couple of occasions where we’ve really had our patience tested during interviews. We must have done a couple of thousand interviews and we’ve only ever walked out of one,’ says Harry. ‘We were on tour and a local journalist came to interview us. The interview went like this, ‘Obviously you’re miming tonight, how does it feel to never sing live?’, so I told him, ‘You fucking wait until you see us on stage’ then he was like, ‘So does your record label tell you to say that?’ And so it went on until the point where we had to walk away. He was a rude, obnoxious prick and it was probably the worst interview we’ve ever done.’
On the McFly haters... ‘It used to bother us when people said horrible things but we’ve learnt to ignore it now,’ says Harry. ‘We’ve watched all the hate videos on Youtube with people shouting at their cameras, ‘I hate McFly, this isn’t music, they’re a bunch of puppets!’ but I find it pretty funny now. I think it winds some people up that we aren’t just some poppy boy band, that we do play our own instruments and we do write our own songs. Not all boy bands can do that, but we definitely do,’ says Harry.
On leaving their record label... Despite having seven number one singles and two number one albums under their belt at the time in January 2008 McFly decided to go it alone to set up their own record label, Super Records, which they ploughed hundreds of thousands of pounds of their own money into creating. A brave move for a band that were proving so successful under their current label. ‘We got to a point with Island Records where contractually we could leave if we wanted to and so we decided to do it alone,’ says Tom. ‘The people we were working with at that time weren’t the people we were working with originally and we didn’t feel like they had the excitement for us that other people had in the past.
They were trying to get us to release a greatest hits too which was the nail in the coffin,’ continues Tom. ‘Normally when you release a greatest hits it’s because you’re breaking up. We’d only had 3 albums out, we were nowhere near ready for a greatest hits,’ says Dougie.
On getting back with their record label... 18 months after leaving Island Records, McFly returned to the label. ‘After our last tour we took some time out to do some writing in Australia and the record label heard some of it, really loved what we were doing and asked us to come back,’ says Danny. ‘We went back to them because firstly, they had access to lots of great producers like Dallas Austin who we worked with on our new album and secondly because this time around things are different, we have more control. I think it’s really brave of Universal and Island Records to back us, we have a partnership now so we share everything, including the control over our music, with them 50/50 which was the main reason we went back to them. There’s a new way of thinking now and all the decisions are being made for the right reasons,’ says Tom. ‘If you’re allowed all the creative control and lots of vision but you have the backing of someone like Universal then it’s the perfect combination and that’s what we
have now. We had to prove ourselves to get to that point though, it wouldn’t be easy for a band starting out now to get that sort of deal,’ continues Harry.
On trying to do things differently... The McFly Super City website was launched in October and is a virtual world that allows fans access to everything from Danny’s (virtual) bedroom to Tom’s song writing and offers a kind of points-make-prizes scheme which can see fans winning the chance to meet the band as well as other things that a dedicated boy band fan would give almost anything for. As part of the site McFly, who have so far stayed away from reality shows, are being filmed constantly to give the fans as much of an insight into the band as possible. The site was paid for entirely by the band and was created, they say, as a way of combating the ever changing way that people download and buy music and to curb fans need for more from the band they listen to. ‘So much has changed in the last few years with music downloads and the internet that we realised we needed to find a new way of releasing music and content. On the site fans can get videos, albums, singles, photo shoots, everything, but that’s the tiniest part of the site. Since we started out we’ve noticed the fans demand for access to bands grow and grow, thanks to the
internet people want to be able to see every part of your life. I don’t think that any other band on the planet right now are giving as much access to their fans as we are,’ explains Tom.
makes fans get caught up in a band. In all honesty, I think that only a small amount of people are totally just about the music, things like personality and style comes in to it and makes people fascinated. It’s an aspiration thing.’
On how the record industry has changed over the last seven years...
On the pressure to look good...
‘I think more than ever people are copying each other’s styles, which is why the music industry gets saturated with people from the same genre much quicker now-a-days. But it soon moves on to the next genre, it’ll go back to pop soon. Record labels have changed so much that it’s making new bands panic a bit because there’s now more opportunities for people to get noticed – Xfactor being one of them – which means that it’s harder than ever for a band to get noticed and signed,’ says Tom.
On what makes fans so fanatical about boy bands... ‘It’s a combination of things,’ says Harry. ‘Of course they like the bands to look good but I think it goes further than that. I was 11 when the Spice Girls released Wannabe and I loved all five of them. That’s the thing with pop bands, they have to have a good song but it’s also about the feeling they give off, the vibe. It’s the same with rock bands too, it’s what
‘There’s pressure on any band whether they’re a girl group, a boy band or an indie band, everyone has to look good for their audience, indie kids just make themselves look a bit fucked up and edgy,’ says Harry. ‘For a while we ignored our image and then we went to Australia and saw all these tanned, fit guys and felt like shit about ourselves. We looked at each other and said, ‘How the fuck do we sell records?’ so we decided to get fit and make ourselves look better. It’s like anything in life though, if you go to a job interview you’re expected to turn up in a suit, there’s pressure whatever industry you work in but that expectation is heightened because we’re in the public eye and people don’t want to see a fat, scruffy boy band on their TVs,’ says Tom.
On the advice they give to any bands starting out in the music industry... ‘Stay off drugs and get a support slot on a Busted tour. We found that helped us,’ laughs Harry.
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Jason Gregory
FASHION FOR THE BOYS For all its preconceptions, you can’t argue with the fashion world’s tenacity; when it’s got a bee in its bonnet, it really doesn’t give up. Take this winter’s key male trend, Town and Country. Essentially the by-product of a one-night stand between Countryfile’s John Craven and Mad Men’s busty office manager Joan Holloway, it’s actually a marriage of two different worlds that designers have gradually been piecing together for the last few seasons. Since autumn-winter 2007 alone, we’ve seen everything from Fair Isle jumpers to quilted hunting jackets injected back onto the high street without so much as a blink of the eye from shoppers. Indeed, what are actually quite eye-catching symbols of country life, and normally reserved for the type of folk who like to stare at birds and shoot foxes at the weekend, have now become staple ingredients for city dwellers as well. It seems you can no longer commute anywhere without stumbling across someone who’s a chicken short of a battery farm. As someone who was brought up near the countryside before moving to the city, it’s been an intriguing union to watch,
Get On Your Hike and one that’s completed this winter by the introduction of hiking boots. Thankfully, what sounds like a rather daunting final piece to the Town and Country puzzle is actually something of a welcome addition. Unlike traditional walking boots, which, lets face it, make the wearer look like they’ve strapped two giant pieces of licorice to their feet, the contemporary designs come in a range of colours, from neutral, earthy shades to bright reds. And if you’re not keen on a solid leather shell, then you can opt for a softer suede finish.
Wearers are advised that city-worn hiking boots should be seen as somewhat of a statement piece as well. Not only is there a variety of lace colours available, but ideally they should be worn with trousers tucked into a thick pair of outdoor socks. Or so we’re told. But then who’s to argue with the steady resolve of the fashion world? If they’ve made it this easy to embrace the great outdoors, then one could argue that there’s really no need to leave the boundary of the M25 ever again.
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
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Yeah yeah, it’s Christmas once again, that oh so magical time that happens but once a year. Bah humbug! At least that’s what old Ebenezer Scrooge might say as he denies Bob Cratchet a little more coal for the fire, to warm his chilly hands.
Machete
But we, at Who’s Jack are happier folk, with central heating, and as such are looking forward to being able to stuff our festive faces without remorse, until we explode like Mr Creosote. But not everyone likes Christmas. For every schmaltzy Christmas happy ending, there’s a bad guy who is out to ruin Christmas for everyone. And in my opinion, they’re much more fun than merry little elves making toys or doe-eyed sprogs expectantly waiting to see what jolly old St Nick has dropped down the chimney for them. What kind of film would Home Alone have been if it wasn’t for Harry and Marv, who decide that Christmas is the perfect time of year for a spot of burglary? It would have just been young Macaulay Culkin sat at home eating ice-cream and staying up past his bed-time watching TV. Santa Claus: The Movie is so sickly sweet that it would probably be unwatchable if it wasn’t for John Lithgow, playing the dastardly uncle, smoking his fat cigars and wanting to get the children of the world all hooked on his chemically volatile lollipops. The aforementioned Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably never better played than by Michael Caine in A Muppet’s Christmas Carol. Although he does bottle it as a bad guy in the end, by embracing the festive spirit and denouncing his old ways. Even the Grinch can’t keep up the misery until the final credits roll; he learns his rhyming couplet lesson and is invited to carve the Christmas beast for the Whos. Billy Bob Thornton gets pretty close to being the ultimate Christmas villain in Bad Santa, but he does eventually warm to the small boy following him around,
Monsters
even if it is after he’s cleaned out his grandma’s safe and stolen her car. But when all’s said and done, and the last cracker has been pulled, there is really only one true Christmas villain: Hans Gruber.
isn’t a kids film. Still, taking a child to see it may renew their belief in Santa, just not the one that drinks fizzy cola with Polar Bears in the adverts. www.rareexportsmovie.com/en
Now, you may not think of Die Hard as an obvious Christmas film, but take a closer look. Bruce Willis, as John McClane, just wants to get home, deck the halls and drink mulled wine with his family, but along comes Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), taking his wife and all her colleagues hostage until he can escape with the loot. But Hans doesn’t factor in the rogue law-enforcer (McClane) leading him a merry dance and is soon taught that if you will try to ruin Christmas, you will plummet 200 feet from a skyscraper to your doom. But at least he’s a bastard right to the bitter end, and that’s the main thing. Stick to your principles, don’t get all warm and fuzzy inside just because Tiny Tim wishes you seasons greetings.
Easier with Practice (3rd Dec) is a lo-fi romantic comedy with a difference, that difference being that the romance is phone-sex. Davy (Brian Geraghty, The Hurt Locker) is a writer aiming to promote his unpublished novel by going on the road with his brother. One lonely night in a motel he receives a phone call of the type you usually have to pay £2 per minute for (so I’m told...) and so blossoms the most meaningful relationship Davy has had in a long time. www.easierwithpractice.com
There aren’t that many surreal horror-comedy Christmas films about, but the Finnish Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (3rd Dec) looks to be just that. Forget the jolly fat man that you’ve always believed Santa to be; it turns out he’s actually somewhat more grizzled and sinister! A team of shady archaeologists have discovered unusual activity coming from beneath Korvantunturi Mountain, in the far North reaches of Finland. Could it really be that they’ve discovered the secret hideout of Santa Claus? Should all the seasons greetings and ho-ho-hoing be getting too much for you, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale could be an ideal dose of something a bit different. While a cute child with a funny hat is one of the film’s main protagonists, this really
Before we describe On Tour (Tournée) (10th Dec), a French film ostensibly about the art of burlesque, let’s first make sure no one confuses this with the horrifying prospect of the film that is called Burlesque, starring Cher and Christina Aguilera. If there’s anything worse than the idea of Christina Aguilera trying to do burlesque, it’s the possibility of Cher and nipple tassles. Gah. Urgh. Bleuch. Anyway, On Tour features neither of that gruesome twosome, but instead is all about a touring troupe of Burlesque dancers, led by a producer eager for success in Paris after returning home from America. Most of the cast are well known burlesque dancers, and many of the dance routines were filmed in front of real audiences. www.tournee-lefilm.com The Thorn in the Heart (10th Dec) is a documentary that le genius known as Michel Gondry has made about his family
17 history, and in particular his Aunt Suzette. You might know Michel Gondry from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and that White Stripes video where it’s all made out of Lego, or you might know him for something else incredibly cool that he’s made. This documentary is certainly a lot more personal and stripped back visually than we normally get from Gondry, and is no doubt an interesting addition to his directorial CV, before he directs superhero movie The Green Lantern. www.michelgondry.com Epic journey tale would be a succinct, three word summary of The Way Back (26th Dec). A group of prisoners manage to escape from a Gulag in Siberia in 1940 and have to make it to India by foot in this fact-based drama starring Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess. Expect immense landscapes, mouth-watering cinematography and some dodgy Russian accents. www.entertainmentone.co.uk Tron: Legacy (17th Dec) is of a somewhat huger, if not astronomic budget than the kind of films we normally feature in this here film column, but it could well be the perfect Boxing Day movie this year, should you need something to see with family including young’uns or old’uns. If your brain is simply so stuffed with turkey
and sprouts that you just want to switch off, put on some 3D glasses and get involved in some almighty visuals, then sit back and bask in the neon lighting of Tron. They’ve even got Jeff Bridges back for this sequel, set 20 years after the first Tron, and if Jeff Bridges is in a film, its chances of being great are eminently higher. Add to that light-cycles zipping about, around and into each other, plus a highly anticipated soundtrack by Daft Punk and Tron: Legacy looks like a potential winner. www.disney.go.com/tron
Instead of telling you what’s out this month on DVD, here are five films with more guaranteed Christmas spirit than a bottle of sherry.
DVD Roundup Elf (2003) Will Ferrel is a man who was raised as an Elf in the North Pole, but sets off for America to find his real dad. The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992) Kermit and co. recreate the Charles Dickens tale of Scrooge, who needs a visit from the spirits of Christmas past, present and future to make him see the error of his ways. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) ‘You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch, you really are a heel, you’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel.’ It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) Win bonus points with your Nan, by putting on Frank Capra’s classic tale of a man visited by his guardian angel on Christmas Eve. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Jack Skellington and other animated oddities from Halloween town attempt to take over Christmas.
NOEL shiff silk and wool for all images :Natalie J Watts make up & Hair: Ceri styling : Jack Models thanks to Cosmic, Bookings and Nev This page : Ruby dress : Rokit Fur Stole : H&M
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Above : Ring : Galibardy : www.galibardy.co.uk Right : Steel silk dress : Karen Millen / Grey Cardigan : Urban Outfitters
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Dress and Cardigan as before / Emerald Silk cocktail dress : Rokit
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Red Velvet Jacket : Sand / White dress shirt : Rokit / Blue cords : American Apparel Green Velvet Jacket : ASOS / White dress shirt with black velvet collar and red pattern tie : Sand / Plum cords : Fred Perry
From Left to Right : Red Berry : New Look / Fur cropped jacket : ASOS / Back Chiff dress worn as top : French Connection / Black pleated skirt : American Apparel / White shear blouse and oversized socks : Topshop / Black leather cocktail dress : ASOS / Gold pattern cardigan : Urban Outfitters /
From Left to Right : Black leather cocktail dress & Gold pattern cardigan : as before / Brown Barbour : Barbour / tapestry bag : ASOS Tights : Bebaroque at mytights.com / Silver Spike Shoes : Kandee Shoes : kandeeshoes.com Red Berry, Back Chiff dress worn as top and Black pleated skirt : as before / Tartan blanket : Brora Shoes Stylists own. White shear blouse and oversized socks : as before / Black puffa : Barbour Black scarf : New Look Shoes : ASOS
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From Left to Right : Grey Overcoat : ASOS Black Scarf : New Look Jeans : H&M Boots : Topman White shear blouse and oversized socks : as before / Bead detial Shorts : Topshop Black puffa , scarf and shoes: as before
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Purple bead detials dress worn as top : French Connection/ Blue wool skirt : American Apparel /
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Boys wear from Left to Right : Pattern scarf : Pretty Green / Grey Knit : Weekend Offender / White Shirt as before Black overcoat : ASOS Blue scarf : Pretty Green / Black overcoat : ASOS Jeans : As Before
CHRISTMAS
Left to right : Stag Head CCoushion by Chocolate Creative £55 : www.chocolatecreative.co.uk / flower crochet ring : a-keles.com £10/ Marc Jacobs Stinky Rat slippers : www.marcjacobs.com / Payot mens skincare : www.payot.com / Heart Earings Anna Lou of London www.annalouoflondon.com £12.50 / Reindeer Scarf by Lily and Lional www.lilyandlionel.com £118 / Converse and Offspring Chuck Norris Collaboration : www.converse.co.uk / Scented shoe stuffer www.totalwardrobecare.co.uk £16 / Bungee Bird Feeder www.pedlars.co.uk £9.95 / Down Undies from Gilly Hicks £10 each / Dark denim Shirt One True Saxon £75.00 www. shop. onetruesaxon.com / Refract iphone cover www.dsstyles.com £16.99 / Write your own message on Kiels Creme De Corps bottles : www.kiehls.com £44 / Sainsburies Mince Pie Ice Cream £3 www.sainsburys.co.uk / Adventures of Simon Pegg graphic novel App www.peggapp.com £1.79 / Ace of Spades Art Print www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk £59.00 / nail varnishes from Nail inc, all that glitters range :£20 for three / Silver Globe www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk £49.95 / Yankee Christmas Cookie Candle www.Yankee.co.uk £12.75 / designer toys - www.medicomtoy.co.jp Bearbricks / Tweetowel www.wearewhatwedo.org £10.00 / Wall Panels : Orchid Furniture £190 orchidfurniture.co.uk / Convertable i Pad case www.goincase.com £30.00 / Paperchase frames Verdello flock frame black 4x6 £12.75 www.paperchase.co.uk / Westbourne Grove kit £60 : www.aesop.com / Blue wallet with spotty inner Tierack www.tie-rack. co.uk £24.99 / Microvision SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector plugs into any smartphone : www.amazon.co.uk £330 / Juergen Teller and Marc Jacobs Skatedecks www.marcjacobs.com £43.00.
e l p p i t s a m The x What’s a more appropriate time to drink and to indulge than Christmas? If it’s not for Santa it’s for you so it’s of equal importance that you have good quality liqueur in the house and some great recipes ready for the perfect Christmas Tipple. This Christmas for a truly festive drinks cabinet/ cupboard/shelf, you will need the following :
Southern Comfort for Christmas This bottle is limited edition for the festive season. It’s wrapped in an award-winning illustration designed by illustrator Christian Northeast and was inspired by the home of Southern Comfort, New Orleans.
Hot Buttered Rum
Jameson gift box Jameson Irish Whiskey is the UK’s number one selling Irish whiskey and is the fastest growing international spirit brand in the world so it makes sense that they have released this Christmas contemporary gift pack which is perfect for whipping up a festive cocktail or two.
Vanilla Extract
Bloom Gin Bloom is a floral gin inspired by the beauty of nature, or so their website tells us. It is a premium London dry gin with floral notes and an aroma that has been enriched by the natural botanicals of chamomile, pomelo and honeysuckle. It also comes in a lovely pale blue gift box with a flower opening at the top - a perfect pre-wrapped gift. Appleton Estate Rum This is a rum we can personally vouch for and if you have been on our website today you would have no doubt seen it on our Christmas themed table in front of James while he talks through our 12 days of Christmas Competition (if you don’t have the foggiest about what I am talking about then get to www.whosjack.org). This rum comes in different ages so you can pick one up for £24 that is 8 years old or really push the boat out with a 21 year old bottle from the Christmas shopping mecca that is Harrods for £147. Once you have chosen your age and price range you can set about making a jolly Christmassy drink. Tails Cocktail Shakers Finally, if you’re not one for making your own cocktails but love them all the same the Tails Cocktail shakers are your answer. Readily brewed to cocktail perfection, the Tails shaker contains all you will need for the perfect cocktail, simply keep in the fridge, add ice when ready, shake and serve. Ideal. And after all the hassle of Christmas cooking or the full belly of eating, you might just be able to muster the strength to do that! Kings Ginger Kings Ginger is a very Christmassy option. Maybe some of you are not overly familiar with it but look for the bottle below in your local liqueur shop and make yourself a Kings Brambling.
50ml Appleton Estate V/X 75ml Boiling Water 1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
1 Small slice of Butter Ground Cinnamon (Optional) Ground Nutmeg (Optional) Cinnamon Stick Orange Peel Method: Place the butter, sugar and spices in a mug or coffee glass. Pour in Appleton Estate V/X and muddle together. Pour in the boiling water. Stir, garnish with orange peel and cinnamon stick and enjoy! Appleton Estate V/X is available from all major supermarkets at £17.99
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Kings Brambling: 40ml Kings Ginger 10ml Lillet Rouge 1/4
Lime diced
5-6
Blackberries
150ml Chegworth Blackberry and Apple Juice Method : Muddle the lime, blackberries, and Kings Ginger in a highball. Then fill with rock ice and add the Lillet and Chegworth Blackberry and Apple Juice. Stir well to thoroughly mix and chill.
JACK’S PICK OF THE MONTH
JACK EATS Clos Maggiore 33 King Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 8JD The restaurant voted London’s most romantic certainly lives up to it’s majority vote. Clos Maggiore is easily missed in the theatre land area of Soho but maybe that’s a good thing as it means there is hope of getting a table (if you book at least a week in advance). With a walk way full of topiary and a glistening bar and the back end of the restaurant complete with roaring fire and twinkling fairy lights covering the walls and the ceiling hanging off delicate bunched branches anyone can see how it got it’s votes. The food is exquisite and made even more so by the surprising affordability of the prices. A perfectly festive English tinged menu offers starters such as Celeriac and Truffle soup and Smoked Eel and Leek salad with mains including Pan roasted whole maine lobster and an oven roasted corn feed chicken breast with Israeli couscous and garden herb risotto. Mains come in between £17 and £30 (see massively reasonable) and starters between £6-13 This is without doubt a hidden gem for anyone that has not already had the pleasure. I think it is going straight to the top of my favorite restaurants list. www.closmaggiore.com
Tiny Robot 78 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, Notting Hill, London, W2 5RT Yo Sushi Southbank Centre Belvedere Rd, City of London, Greater London SE1 8XT Yo Sushi has taken over the capital some time in the raw fish, miso soup stakes. But we thought that now some competitors are on the rise it may be worth going back, just to be sure they are still on top. Seated at the trademark conveyor belt we are instantly excited to grab fresh fish and freshly cut rolls off the sushi carousel for our own. All perfectly fresh and all perfectly as they should be, rolls, tampura, miso, some potato cheesy cake things we couldn’t get enough of and of course the brilliant sashimi. Yo can never be doubted as an educated decision when it comes to where to go for raw fish. The added bonus of the chains is that you always know what quality to expect and you always know that even if you drag along an unwilling friend there will be enough of a selection on that conveyor to satisfy any sushi unsure stomach. Yo Sushi, we salute you with our full bellies and content dining experience! www.yosushi.com
The diner-esque interior of Tiny Robot, little brother of Giant Robot, is inviting. I say Diner-esque because although it is showing of red leather seats and a bar down the left hand side along with a canteen feel it is lacking the bright lights, annoying music and fries 10 different ways. They have a wide selection of cocktails, something, it seems that every restaurant in London should now have and a slightly strange menu. We got a bit confused over the two offerings of meat balls that seemed exactly the same and how we were meant to order, it’s not laid out in the most clear sense. However after having a discussion about what was what we plumped for meatballs and a burger. The burger was to be expected but the meatballs were worth travelling to Westbourne Grove for (if you don’t live there). Not sufficiently stuffed after all this meat we went for a slice of chocolate torta that was very good. The great food was only slightly marred by relatively slow service but on the whole Tiny Robot is a tiny restaurant that has utilized space well and is bringing great food out of what must be an equally tiny kitchen. Great for quick meals with friends or a late Sunday brunch www.tnyrbt.com
JACK DRINKS The Nightjar 129-131 City Road, Hoxton and Shoreditch, EC1 1JB The Nightjar opened last month bringing a slice of 20th Century European glamour to City Road and offers cocktails, champagne and live performance including a lot of jazz and gypsy music, something rarely done well at the moment and we are happy to see the Nightjar already gaining a reputation for showcasing it at its best. Situated in a secret basement bar with the only suggestions of it’s existence an under construction website, The Nightjar offers a pretty impressive cocktail list which was created in association with Shaker UK, one of the UK’s leading bar schools and offers a welcome change from your
run-of-the-mill cosmopolitans and margaritas, in fact we haven’t even heard of most of the cocktails on the list, pretty unusual for that to happen! If you like your cocktails and don’t know what Shaker UK is log onto whosjack.org and Jack TV to win the Shake UK beginners cocktails course being offered up on our 12 days of Christmas series.
L E V NO S A E D I
All Christmased out and it’s only the beginning of the festive month? Not got a clue what to buy friends and families and watching the calender gain days? Well not to worry. We have put together a little round up of some gifts you can find online therefore beating the Oxford Street crush. We also hope that they are unlikely to be replicas of past gifts or what someone already has.
You can also see past designs from recent users of the site if you fancy pinching someone else’s style! Either way the present of a bespoke dress for Crimbo ain’t half bad. www.styleshake.com
Perfume Fairy Ok so almost everyone has perfume but not everyone has every perfume and yes we know that department stores are hell over December so that is why we are putting Perfume Fairy to you. A one stop internet perfume stop where you will be hard pushed to not find exactly what you are looking for. www.perfumefairy.co.uk
Experience Days With Motorsport Vision For the boys and men in your family rally car experiences are always winners. Motorsportvision offer great rally car driving experiences in Kent where your chosen male can drive a rally car for upwards of 15 minutes after a full lesson and tutorial and then after that put their stomachs and nerves to the test again when they have a high speed passenger ride. www.motorsportvision.co.uk
Afternoon Tea with Le Cordon Bleu at The Marylebone Hotel Take your loved ones as an early treat around the back of the West end to the Marylebone hotel where you can have an unbelievably great value high tea (£9.95 per person). Why so cheap I hear you ask after salivating over the picture above! Well all the pastries and cakes are made by students from Le Cordon Bleu’s Patisserie Diploma course, they will be using you as guinea pigs for their wonderful creations. These include traditional pastries such as Paris Brest, Tarte aux Fruits and Strawberry and Champagne Mousse, all hand-crafted and laid in front of you to enjoy in the sumptuous surrounding of the Marylebone hotel. See the 108 Marylebone Lane Restaurant & Bar in the Marylebone Hotel website for more details as to when these teas are served.
Jessops Bespoke Another very personal option is what Jessops are offering this year. Bespoke printed gifts. Going further than the mug and the mouse mat Jessops can put images on pillows, small key ring teddy bears, into a photo albums come books or into a snow globe - how festive. If you are creative with these options there is no end of fun presents to be had.. and given. www.jessops.com
108 Marylebone Lane UK W1U 2 020 7969 3900 www.108marylebonelane.com www.lcblondon.com/ottawa/patisserie/ en Style Shake Style shake is a great idea for a website. You can design or you can get gift vouchers for your present receiver to design their own dress, top or skirt from a massive array of choices from material to obviously size and cut and colour. Style Shake has recently done a capsule collection that you can see on their site to give you some inspiration of what you might like.
JACK’S PICK OF THE MONTH
www.youtube.com/whosjackmag THIS MONTH | EXAMPLE | MCFLY | SKY FERIERRA | HENDRICKS GIN VISIT |
Rory’s Band Picks (terrible title for a column….)
words: Rory Broadfoot
Gaggle: In the meeting rooms of every major label a fat man in a suit, with braces and a cigar jammed into his sweaty jowls is being told by his skinny pale minions that female solo singers with an 80’s synth vibe and ‘crazy’ personalities are very ‘now’ or electric male duos with an 80’s synth vibe are the next big thing or that UK hip hop is really coming back strong but could probably do with an 80s synth vibe to make it current. What noone in these factories of bland is suggesting the music industry needs is a twenty members strong all female alt – beat choir singing songs about drinking, fucking and other such fun but that’s because they are idiots. Gaggle are the most original band out there at the moment. Trust me, you need Gaggle in your life….although to be honest they may not wait for permission before they smash their way in. www.myspace.com/gagglespace
Matthew and the Atlas: I’m not much of crier really. I don’t blub in films when the violins kick in and the woman with cancer learns she’s not going to lose the farm because her local community has learnt a lesson about giving or other such toss, human interest stories just make me realise that humans are just really whinny as a rule and I sometimes find my (better than me in every other way) girlfriends weepy empathy with every waif and stray on telly odd. As a result I found it very confusing the other day when I was sat on the bus listening to the wonderful Matthew and the Atlas EP and discovered that my eyes appeared to be leaking all over my cheeks. The eponymous Matthew Hegarty has a voice that sneaks up on you and just hits you in the heart. It’s deep, mournful and effortlessly beautiful. Like I said, I don’t cry often but when I do this band soundtrack my tears in the happiest way possible. www.matthewandtheatlas.com
Jamie Woon: Jamie Woon is quite simply the most beautiful musician Britain has produced in years. He’s only stayed underground because sometimes the underground music scene is not willing to share. Years of pushing and pulling at his sound has produced some sonically astounding music that is always accompanied by a voice that other musicians would sign deals with the devil to get. My copy of the ‘Lazy Journalists Guide to Music Writing’ tells me I need to compare him to someone else so that you can get a foothold on him but I can’t. He doesn’t sound like anyone else and is all the better for it. Go out and find him. You can thank me later. www.jamiewoon.com
Your as m t s i r Ch ix Film F
Not sure about you but I have a collection of festive DVDs that I only get out and allow myself to watch at Christmas time. If sadly you don’t have any festive films in your collection or you feel like giving yourself an authentic trip out in the snow and icy wind to arrive at somewhere warm and cosy to watch a film then worry not, Jack has lined up some of the best Christmas screenings in town for you to warm your toes and souls to.
1st-21st December Film Screenings at BFI Southbank of It’s a Wonderful LIfe, a classic that Mark has put forward in his Christmas DVD round up this month. Where is BFI : Waterloo How Much : Ticket prices vary 5th-19th December Christmas Films at the Soho Hotel. Here you can enjoy either a lunch, Champagne afternoon tea or dinner before snuggling up in the warm to watch a festive flick with a choice of White Christmas, The Chronicles of Narnia or again, It’s a Wonderful Life. Where is the Soho Hotel : Errr.....Soho How Much is It : £35.00 per person (meal included) 29-30th December Peter Wolf at the Royal Festival Hall. The animation I missed because I fell asleep last year is now playing at the Royal Festival Hall with an amazing live accompaniment from the Philharmonia Orchestra. Where is the Royal Festival Hall : Embankment/Waterloo How much are tickets : £14-£50 4th December Watch Classic Christmas Films with a dram in hand at the Water Poet Christmas Fair. Not happy with just Christmassy films, the Water Poet will have Carol Singers and a hog roast in the garden and stalls with home made gifts galore inside. This is where I’ll be. Where is the Water Poet : Liverpool Street How much are tickets : Free 17th Dec-28th January See Disney’s, A Christmas Carol in 3D at the IMAX. One for the kiddies here we think (that is the kiddies within us) as Jim Carry takes centre 3D stage as Scrooge in this the most recent of Disney’s Christmas Carols. Where is the IMAX : Waterloo How much is it : £13.00 / £8 for Kids 19th-24th December One more It’s A Wonderful Life at The Electric Cinema. We can forgive the Electric for also playing It’s A Wonderful Life as the chairs are so damn comfy and the surroundings so damn decadent and above all they are giving out mince pies. The cinema will also be hosting the Feel Good, Great Sing-a-long on Christmas eve for all those that don’t do midnight mass, or maybe those that want to warm up their vocal chords for Midnight mass. Where is the Electric : Notting Hill How much is it : £7.50-£10
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Leila loves Independent T-Shirt Makers Leila Hartley
FOR THE PAST YEAR OR SO I’VE BEEN STUCK IN A BIT OF A RUT FASHION-WISE. MOST MORNINGS WHEN I’M GETTING DRESSED I FIND MYSELF REACHING FOR THE TRUSTY T-SHIRT DRAW TO PICK ONE OF MY MANY PRINTED EXAMPLES. My friends think I’m just going through a dykey phase but I think it’s more of an obsession, and it seems there are many designers out there to fuel this for me. It all started over a year ago when I heard about Do Be Do, where for £100 you would be sent five different t-shirts over the course of a year. Each was an exclusive edition of 100 printed with an image from an up-and-coming photographer, including the now celebrated fashion photographer, Mario Sorrenti. Schemes such as Do Be Do’s have encouraged copy-cats in recent months. T-Shirt Party for example, offer 12 tees for £110 and with one new design released each week that’s 52 to choose from, each printed with a public service announcement, like ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘Always On The Roads’. It seems as though there’s a new breed of designer emerging, sitting in their bedroom hand printing t-shirt after t-shirt with random images or designs that they’ve collected over the years. That’s how I imagine Ranks London, set up by two friends who couldn’t quite find the perfect t-shirt. For their first collection, James John Nuttall and illustrator Daniel David Freeman were inspired by Dancehall tour t-shirts, producing three very wearable designs for the affordable price of £20 each. Getting a female to model the collection proves the unisex quality of the graphic tee that I swear by. The Orphan’s Arms, founded by Joshua Wilks and Jay Shipley seems to have grown out of a fascination with English Heritage, with designs such as ‘Visit Kent’ and ‘The Whitechapel Boys Club’. All designs are printed on white or natural coloured organic cotton and are priced at £30, which is probably as high as I’d go for a t-shirt. The major problem with the printed t-shirt industry is the high prices which designers think they can set. J.W. Anderson, for example has the cheek to charge £115 for his William Gedney print tees. Yes the prints are beautiful, but they are not originals, so
one really is just paying for the label. For a while now I’ve been getting my own t-shirts printed. It started when choosing Birthday presents for an ex. I found a website where I could get Stanley Kubrick film stills from Google printed onto t-shirts – the ideal gift for the self-proclaimed film buff (read twat). Inspired by the J.W. Anderson Americana prints I found my favourite Sally Mann photograph and a Black Panther poster and Vista Print turned them into t-shirts for me for only £3.50. Thanks to them, I’ll soon have an endless supply of printed t-shirts. For me at least, the dykey look is here to stay.
mage Kris Myhre, Models Symara and Ruby, Makeup Mira Parmar
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MY 2-4-1 Pound Life words : Lucy Hancock | image : Lucy Barnes
As I write this, sat up in bed with my new Deirdre Barlow glasses on (thankyou Specsavers) catching ironic wafts of BO from my London Fashion week T-shirt I can’t help but feel my zest for life might be leaking out of me. The bunch of monumental dickheads that my sister just accidentally invited back to our flat have now put on Ellie Goulding in the living room. I have just spent 10 long minutes trying to get to know them and have ascertained that they intend to eat my goldfish after three shots of vodka from the red Glen’s bottle cap. Having spent my entire day indoors watching videos of the New York club kids on Joan Rivers I feel thoroughly ashamed of myself. Let’s for now set aside the fact that the whole thing was actually fairly sinister (I don’t plan to hack off anyone’s legs at any point in the near future) and focus on the fact that those kids were fucking cool. They rummaged about in the fancy dress box, picked up a few bags of cocaine and got themselves to the nation’s capital to live out their creative fantasies. I cannot say that things have worked out quite the same for me in the big smoke. First off, I am not by any stretch of the imagination cool enough to be invited to parties where people snort ketamine out of each other’s bum cracks. My experience of London ‘the (other) city that never sleeps’ has involved quite a lot of walking round Soho at 1.30 in the morning whispering ‘where have all the people gone?’ The other day I was walking through Holborn at around midnight when a Spanish couple chased me down the road. They asked me where they should go out, so I just popped them on a bus to central knowing full well when they got there their only London experience would involve a late night McDonalds and probably a couple of
bin men. Although to be fair there are very few things in London I see tourists queuing for anyway that have anything to do with London at all. The only attractions that anyone seems to be interested in are Madame Tussaud’s and the London Aquarium, neither of which make any sense to me at all. They might take in a show, the popular American hit musical Chicago perhaps or the family favourite ‘The Lion King.’ I don’t really understand why anyone would fly across the Atlantic to look at a waxwork of Kylie Minogue, which is probably more realistic than actually looking at her, or indeed ponder the shiny likeness of Arnold Swazzeneger. I propose they make the Aquarium an authentic London experience. Sack off the sharks and the manta rays and just fill it with foamy brown liquid. Chuck in a few tampons, condoms, a shopping trolley and an old school shoe and see how the yanks like them apples for 25 quid. Likewise at Madame Tussaud’s. Take out Arnie and Kylie and replace them with true British legends like Natalie Cassidy, Nikki off big brother and Bombhead off Hollyoaks. I’d like to see ‘Swindon’ the musical hit the West End stage and maybe punish the visiting public with live performances from former X-factor contestants. Oh wait, that already happens. I digress. Basically I wanna be aspirationally weird, but I just don’t have the foresight. Maybe I should just start wearing sandwich bags and get people to call me Mrs Swizzler. We’ll see how that goes down. Anyway must dash, one of my charming and hilarious guests just threw a lemon off the balcony.
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Win A World Tour And Perform At The 02!
Auditions for the UK’s biggest unsigned music competition are about to begin...
submissions. 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. And 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 Festival at the 02 in London!
With over £100,000 in prizes and the chance to play at the 02 in London, Live and Unsigned is set to attract thousands of unsigned musicians when auditions across the UK begin in January. And the National music competition has just announced another amazing main prize for the winner comprising of a world tour across four continents! World Tour up for Grabs :
Competing acts will have the chance to play at a leading music venue in Dublin as well as playing at Tour Music Fest in Rome’s Piper Club where artists like David Bowie, the Beatles and Pink Floyd have all performed. I Rock, Asia’s biggest Rock festival, will be awarding an act with a slot on their main stage and entrants will also have the opportunity to play in Australia at The Na-
tional Theatre, Melbourne and perform in the US – a once in a lifetime opportunity for any aspiring musician. Live and Unsigned is the UK’s biggest unsigned music competition for original artists and it’s open to all genres. So whether you’re into Pop, RnB, Punk, Indie, Alternative, Rock or Acoustic, the competition has it all. Each year the competition prize pool gets bigger and better as acts take to the stage and battle it out for equipment, festival slots, clothing, studio time and master classes. Other prizes up for grabs include a UK tour with up to 100 dates, extensive coverage on MUZU TV and You Tube and a recording contract with Future Music, with up to £50,000 investment! All acts in the competition are auditioned live which is what makes Live and Unsigned so unique, there are no demos or
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 MOBO award winner Shola Ama.
Celebrity Judges:
Judges set to join the panel in 2011 include Radio 1’s Tom Deacon, Kerrang’s Danielle Perry, NME’s Iain Baker, Heat Magazine’s Lucie Cave, Happy Mondays star Bez and Nigel Clark from 90’s Brit pop band Dodgy. Auditions begin again in January 2011. For more information go to www.LiveandUnsigned.uk.com
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The Winter Wish List Feeling the full force of winter? Plagued by dry hands, chapped lips and sallow skin? Katie Service tells us why only Rudolph should have a red nose this December.
Six Scents There seems to be a sudden surge in unisex scents. Not that I’m complaining, personally I love the idea of wearing a fragrance that smells just as good on a guy as it does on a girl. After all, why shouldn’t smells cross gender boundaries? My latest favourites to enter the unisex scene are the third series of Six Scents. Each year Six Scents produces six new fragrances. Each fragrance is produced by a collaboration between one innovative artist and one prominent perfumer. Each fragrance team is then sketched by Robert Knoke and each fragrance has a series of short films made about them. This isn’t just a perfume project; this is a multi-sensory artistic development. My favourite has to be the Rad Hourani/Christophe Raynaud collaboration which explores mortality and contains notes of birth (the artist’s own seamen), life and death, all in one.
Elemis Pro Radiance Cleanser
Peace to all Mankind Why is it that you only seem to find luxury beauty brands or eco beauty brands? The two seem to be rarely one and the same. Surely when you pay for luxury – then the eco friendly nature of the products should be a given? These were the words that I heard from Davina Peace, a young eco warrior with a taste for the finer things in life. Davina and her ethically responsible products have hit the shelves of Harrods this month. The capsule range (set to expand) contains body oil, body butter, candle and hand cream, all of which have 100% recyclable packaging and responsibly sourced ingredients. To find out more about Davina Peace and her quest to save the beauty world go to www.davinapeace.com.
Hair, Sheep and Brazilians This month I fell a little bit in love with a Brazilian. Not only is he rather good looking but also he has figured out a way to smooth out my lion-like maneHurrah! His name is Van Tiboli and he is the Founder of the hair taming treatment Global Keratin. Keratin straightening burst onto the market as the greatest thing since highlights and has genuinely transformed the way that many women and men approach their hair. Van was the first to officially market a keratin treatment, in which he uses a special complex of proteins called Juvexin, which is produced from the wool of sheep in New Zealand and restructures the damage of the hair shaft from the outside in. Visit the site www.globalkeratin.com to find out more info on the treatments or purchase the at home hair care range.
Chanel Riva: It’s Ar-riva-ed! I am willing to bet a large sum of money that by the time you read this page the brand new Chanel Limited edition nail polish will have sold out. Nevertheless I’m going to tell you about it anyway! Riva is part of the Cruise Collection and is launching in Selfridges and Chanel Boutiques in the first week of December. Yes I have a bottle, and yes I love it. The aim of the Cruise Collection is to inject a little bit of summer into the winter months – like taking a long weekend in
St Tropez in November. The colour itself can only really be described as bluetack blue. It is a very milky shade but if you look closely it has a thread of metallic running through it. It’s fresh, it’s exciting, it’s out on a limb – how very Chanel! Queue up, camp outside Selfridges – do whatever it is you have to do to get this shade and bring a little sunshine to your nails. I repeat: this nail colour will sell out. Get in there!
Each year I prepare myself for a winter skin battle. I am quite used to hearing my friends and family say things like, ‘you do look tired’, ‘your skin looks very sallow’ and ‘why is your nose peeling?’ I have become used to such criticism and have succumbed to the fact that I need to up the foundation and bronzer during the winter months. This year however, things are changing. I have discovered Elemis Pro-Radiance Cream Cleanser. You rub this rich cream into dry skin twice a day and wash it off with warm water and special exfoliating gloves. The formula contains skin protecting peptides and 45 brightening antioxidants that gently dissolve make-up and remove grime and daily pollutants. The exfoliating gloves ensure that you remove the dull top layers of dead skin cells leaving you with skin that looks as perky as you are.
Ian Brown meets street artist Nick Walker
Nick Walker continues to take the art world by storm and like his friend Banksy he’s caused some controversy along the way. Nick began his career as a stencil artist moving from walls he could reach to much, much bigger canvases when he projected images onto some of London’s biggest landmarks using a giant laser. Nick also broke records in 2006 when he sold his spray-painted work, Moona Lisa (an image of the Mona Lisa mooning) at Bonham’s Urban Art auction for a record £54,000. Recently he sat down with his friend and fan, The Stone Rose’s Ian Brown, to chat about his career, the art world and his taste in music... Ian: As you know I am a big fan and collector of your works. I believe you are one of the few rebels artists who are saying ‘how it is’ in the world in the 21st century and expressing it beautifully. New music currently lacks this. I know you love your tunes so if you agree with me, why did music lose its rebels while urban art gained so many? Nick: It’s weird, there’s enough shit going on in the world to inspire clever meaningful lyrics but most of it is derivative nonsense. Look back at the last big recession in Thatcher’s era and the Specials were smashing it because they’re music reflected the time and angst of a whole generation. You’re right, no one’s telling it how it should be heard. Street art will always be seen as a rebellious art form as it still has close associations with graffiti and vandalism, the two taboo words of the last decade.
In my game there’s no one to answer. Something might happen in the media that sparks an idea and you just go and do it. If Catholic priests are behaving like wrong’uns one of us will paint our feelings about this somewhere where everyone can see it… You’re now becoming well known in the USA, how do you feel about this? Happy. I’m right into the States and given half the chance I’d be out there even more. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in New York and Los Angeles over the last three years and made some good friends. People over there are really helpful and happy if you’re successful which is encouraging. The one greatest plus about LA is that wind and rain is not an issue when you’re painting. What’s your favorite music? Over the years my taste in music has become more eclectic. I’m always partial to a bit of Reggae but I still love listening to breaks and my old Africa Islam mix tapes from this Zulu beat show - they’re insane. When ‘Give it up or turn it loose’ rolls in, it’s pencils down time and out come the old B-Boy moves until such a time as my knee goes. If I need to zone in on a particular piece the Blade Runner soundtrack will be on loop. I got hold of the 25th Anniversary issue of the unreleased tracks a while back and it’s brilliant – completely ahead of it’s time. You Have visited a lot of countries with your work. Which are you’ve favourite and why? I love New York - It’s the city of serendipity, the weirdest stuff always happens to me in New York. I get inspired every time I’m there. Each visit revitalizes me. Japan is one of the most bizarre places I’ve visited. Tokyo is pure visual bombardment but at the same time spiritually calming. I plan to spend more time out in Tokyo as I’m launching Nickwalker.jp (Nick Walker Japan) in the next couple of months. Have you been to Brazil and seen the quality of the street art there? Not yet but it’s on my list of places to go. I’d like to hunt down the old Osgemeos street work, it’s great.
I love how you’re work is appreciated worldwide yet you still represent Bristol. Do you still live there? Yeah, still in Bristol. It’s a good place and a convenient base. It’s been good to me and it’s got an airport. I do miss the old days though when there was a scene here with sound systems all over the place and house parties every other weekend. Bristol is a small place, a little bowl with a big spoon, everyone knows each other so I’ve learnt to be pretty guarded about what I’m working on. I’m feeling it might be good to go live in sunnier climets for a few years. You only get one pop at life so why not. Are we all a product of our environment? Some more so than others, possibly more the younger generation because we live in an age of information overload. I think we are all products of our environment when we are very young what with parental influence. I grew up in the suburbs of Bristol and stumbled on a sub culture from another part of the world. I was uninspired by anyone or anything from my immediate environment so in that sense I wasn’t a product of my environment at that time. These days most of us are wise enough to control our own destiny. The urban art scene is like punk rock, a few frontrunners and many who join in inspired by what’s happening. I see it and I also remember punks scaring the crap out of me on The Kings Road. There’s been a surge of new street or stencil artists over the last few years. I think a lot of them saw it as an easy way of getting their 5 minutes of fame – fair play. I think the new wave saw that there was a few quid to be made so they threw away their graphic design jobs and became graffiti artists.
Who are your heroes (if you have any) and who inspires, or has inspired you? Buffalo Gals, & D’ya like Scratching were both massive eye openers back then and no doubt steered me along the path to what I do now. I’ve been inspired by people from many walks of life. One of my earliest influences in art was Andy Warhol and later when I got to know about the graffiti movement it was Futura, Dondi and Lee Quinones. Being able to travel has broadened my tastes in architecture especially that of Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner you can only be awe inspired when you see that stuff. How did you feel when you heard your MOONA LISA canvas sold for £54,000 at Bonhams? Hearing that blew me away. That single event changed my life. I’d just had the opening of my show ‘Pretty Decorating’ at the Carmichael gallery in LA which was literally the weekend before the auction. Suddenly the entire show was sold out – it was a crazy chain of events and something I’ll never forget. What is it like to have such a talent and know you will never starve? Kind words! When I release a print edition and it sells out super quick it’s always a great feeling - I feel properly blessed. I’m not about to get complacent about any of this. Never forget to celebrate and all that! Mind you it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea if I did starve a little - might possibly of overdone it on the burrito consumption in New York. Next time you’re there check out Café Habana on Elizabeth Street – they do the best chicken diablo burrito! www.web.mac.com/nickwalkerz
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BAND OF SKULLS Who’s Jack managed to catch up with Band of Skulls as they prepared for yet another headline show in a year which has seen them traverse most of the Western world as their music has taken off, carrying them with it. Sitting in front of me, folded into their dark high collar coats are Russell Marsden (vocals and guitar), Emma Richardson (vocals and bass) and Matt Hayward (drums) and they look very much the successful rock band. words : James Lynch | images : Barry Mcdonald
Band of Skulls, for those that haven’t listened to you yet can you describe your sound? Matt: We’re a rock and roll band. I wouldn’t say classic but heavy, bluesy, we kind of have some quiet, pretty moments sometimes. Russell: Generally some good rock and roll. How did you all meet up? M: Me and Russell knew each other as kids and we met Emma a few years later at art college. We never knew anything else, we weren’t good at anything else but playing in a band so… So you weren’t very good at art then? M: I didn’t actually go to art college, Russell went and I used to just go to the parties. R: He did go he just wasn’t on the register in the morning! You were technically there then but just not doing any art?! R: Which is exactly what most people do isn’t it? M: That’s pretty much what the rest of them were doing as well so I fitted in just fine! As your artwork is used on the cover of Baby Darling Dollface Honey does that make you the best at art then Emma? Emma: I wouldn’t call me the best no, I’ve seen these guys draw. R: Yeah, Emma is a very talented artist and also a very modest person with it. We used one of her paintings for the record sleeve and I imagine we’ll do something quite similar for the next time. We’ll probably have to pay her a lot more money than last time though! As a band you started off together as Fleeing New York and later became Band of Skulls, how did that change come about? M: I don’t know really how it came about. E: We ended up writing a bunch of new material over a year or two and it ended up being a little different from what we were doing before so we just wanted a new name really, a fresh start. R: It was more of a mental thing for us, we felt like a new band and it worked really well actually, it’s amazing what something small like changing your name can do for you. Whatever we thought we were as a band before, we got to leave that behind and move on so that was really a good thing for us to do. Was there a time when you as Band of Skulls looked at each other and there was a feeling that you had made it as a band? R: Yeah, we had done our first recording
session with no money and no food, so I think it was when we stopped eating soup and had enough money to buy a proper square meal, then we realised we were onto something! Our first set of touring in America went going alright but when we came home and did our first set of festivals and bigger shows in London it was brilliant. I think coming home and seeing it going so well was a big moment. What do you think it is that you have done differently to make you so popular in America when it is a notorious problem for other British artists? E: I think it’s just a lot of hard work. America’s a huge country so each state you have to play a couple of times and make sure you are hitting it hard. I think we did four tours out there and every time we went back there was a few more people showing up and we ended up playing in some pretty good places. So, hard work and respecting your fans. R: I reckon our live shows are a lot better for it. I’d say we’ve done two years of straight touring now and our bodies and our minds are much worse for it but our live show is all the better for it because we’ve just done that many shows. Having your first single, I Know What I Am as an iTunes Single Of The Week must have helped? E: The iTunes thing really helped because we hadn’t had any exposure. The record wasn’t even finished when they called saying that they wanted to use it. We were nervous but it was such a good platform. M: It was our first experience of having something on that kind of scale. We were in Canada when it was released and we were sat in a bar on a computer and there it was and it’s all over the world. R: There was a bit of pressure because one day there’s five or ten people that have heard it, our producer, our manager and us. And then the next day it’s like anyone who wants to get it can listen to it and make there own opinion so it’s a bit nerve wracking.
You also had the single Friends on a Twilight movie soundtrack, how did you feel about that? E: We didn’t really know what the hell it was all about really when we first got offered it. I think we saw the list of who else was being involved on the music side and just thought it would be cool to be involved. The latest film especially has got loads of people that I didn’t think would ever submit a track for it. M: We also felt that it got our songs out to a whole new audience who would never listen to anything we did before. What’s the most rock ’n’ roll thing Band of Skulls have ever done? M: We’re not really rock ‘n’ roll, we’re more like Spinal Tap. Have you ever got lost on your way to the stage then? R: Oh yeah, that happens surprisingly a lot. When it happens, everyone always goes, ‘Oh it’s just like in Spinal Tap!’ M: I think it was in LA and we were walking out onstage, Russell was in front of me and I had this glass of red wine and Russell got nervous and just stopped dead and I walked straight into him and spilled the wine all down my front and I was fucking furious! This was onstage and we looked like right amateurs. R: I never go on stage before the rest of them now. M: Yeah, we have more mishaps than rock ’n’ roll anything else. So, what’s next for Band of Skulls? R: We are going in to the studio soon to start writing the new album. E: We’ve done a few weeks already so we are just going to carry on and see what happens. R: Yeah hopefully it will be out next year, early next year. The Band of Skulls album Baby Darling Dollface Honey is out now on Shangri-La Music. www.bandofskulls.com
: T I R A E W O T W HO Old Master Style
DATING DATE | THE OLDER GUY VENUE | ONE OF TWO, OLD BROAD STREET TIME | SCORE | 8/10 This date didn’t get off to the best start…
Ercole de’ Roberti Griffoni Polyptych: Predella (detail), 1473 Image courtesy of Web Gallery of Art, www.wga.com
AW10: The Cape As seen on the catwalks of YSL, Chloe, Burberry and this 15th century painting! Though an impractical garment the cape remains a go-to trend for designers running out of ideas. It has become a way to spice up the winter silhouette whilst maintaining warmth and elegance. Our lesson to be learnt from Ercole de Roberti (14501496) - clearly one of the more fashion-savvy Old Masters - is that the common people should not fear this strange coat cum shawl ensemble. Our Renaissance models amply demonstrate the flattering effect of a voluminous top half combined with a skinny bottom half and while I would not recommend going for red tights straight away, capes look great with tight jeans or trousers. Though you may have problems accessing essentials; handbag, handrail, or just your other hand really, your legs will look fabulous. Now, while capes have been mostly on womenswear catwalks I think you’ll agree these chaps are pulling the look off as were the models in this season’s Paul Smith show. I wouldn’t normally encourage men to wear silly things like capes but there is a certain Renaissance/ vampire cool that may appeal to some daring hipsters out there.
After traipsing around Soho for about 20 minutes, I finally admitted I was lost. The bar was buried deep down an alleyway – don’t worry it was all perfectly above board – anyway, I couldn’t find said alleyway for love nor money. So, I had to give the Older Guy a call. Now, I’m not socially inept, seriously, I’m not. Some of the people I’ve dated for this column have been, but that’s a whole other story…I’m not socially inept, but I really don’t like talking to people I barely know on the phone. Especially as me and the Older Guy had never had any form of communication involving a mobile phone. Not even a text. You see, the Older Guy only does E-MAIL. He has a REALLY fancy work signature with the words ‘regional’ and ‘manager’ in it, and everything. Anyway, like most things you dread, work, Christmas, bumping into an ex, it turned out not to be so bad. Instead of feeling like a foolish woman who can’t follow directions or use a Blackberry map app (WISH I’d got an iPhone), he was cool and calm. He gave me crystal clear directions and said he’d see me at the bar. And that he did. When I eventually got there, slightly over schedule, he was, at the bar. He wasn’t stood outside pretending to read a text on his phone (he doesn’t do text, remember). He was at the bar with a drink. How grown-up, he didn’t even look awkward. Anyway, the first thing he did was take my bag from me and offer the chair he’d been saving me (Nan is going to love him). He then told me I looked nice, (I TOTALLY mixed it up and wore a navy dress) and then he asked me what I wanted to drink. I ordered a gin and tonic, cos that’s really grown up, innit. And he put his credit card behind the bar. It was around about here that I fell in love with the older guy. Joking, I’m shallow, but I’m not THAT shallow… It was around about here that 51 I noticed he had a few grey hairs. If he wasn’t quite fit and wearing a really nice suit, I would’ve been outta there. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely aware of how old he was in comparison to me. Plus 10 years. That’s a decade. He was born in the 70s. That’s like, when the Beatles were alive, or something. There was a time when he was DOUBLE my age. When I was starting school and trying to learn the alphabet, he was skipping school and trying out cigarettes. Anyway, you get it. He was OLD. He was however, very (I can’t say nice, can I?), charismatic. He was a gentleman and he was confident - I bet you in his hay-day he was a right cocky bastard. Nevertheless, he’d evolved well. Okay he wasn’t quite that old that he’d been involved in the evolution process, but he had grown-up nicely. He talked to me about his very-important-and-impressive job (regional something or other manager) and I nodded in ALL the right places and smiled inanely. But other than him having an established career (regional…manager) and mine having only just begun (I don’t even have an e-mail signature) the age difference wasn’t that apparent. He had been to a lot more weddings and stag dos than I had, mind.
So make like a Renaissance courtier and don that cape, you never know, you might get immortalised in paint!
10.30pm rolled around and we, well, more he, decided it was time to head off. Not before he picked up my bag and walked me to the tube stop, however. He even diverted our route to avoid some cobblestones because I was wearing heels. How thoughtful. His charm and good manners managed to score him an eight, which by my standards is highly commendable. And it would probably have reached a nine if he’d been under 30.
Mimi Howard
One thing did slightly baffle me though. 10.30? Was he really that old that he couldn’t stay out past 10.30? Or was it that he had to go home to his wife and kids? I really hope it wasn’t the latter. Chloe AW/10
The Bling 3-Finger Ring in Silver : www.karmaloop.com : £14.00 / Army Crop Knit : www.shopnastygirl.com : £30 / Tapestry Design Bag : Topshop : £40.00 /
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Settee-Glam Illustrated
images and styling : Melissa Bailey Animal Print Pussy-bow Blouse : www.asos.com : ÂŁ28.00 / Madonna Pop Art Print Canvas Bag : www. rokit.co.uk : ÂŁ24.00
Jacquard Maxi Sweater : www.zara.com : ÂŁ59.99
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70s Floppy Felt Hat : www.asos.com : £22.00 / Biba Marabou feather bolero jacket : www.houseoffraser.co.uk : £175.00 Dark Brown Leather Shorts : www.rokit.co.uk : £35.00 / See by Chloé Studded leather and velvet lace-up boots : : www.net-a-porter.com : £330
The Wild Thing Turband By Gold Saturn : www.karmaloop.com : £15.00 / Hooded Military Cape : www.asos.com : £75.00 / Biba Slim flared black ava jeans : www.houseoffraser.co.uk : £65.00 / Studded cloggs : Jeffrey Campbell : www.solestruck.com : £76.00
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Bettie Bow Black Dress : www.coggles.com : ÂŁ160
House Of Harlow Tribal Cuff : www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk : £176 / Solid Gold Shades : www.shopnastygal.com : £19.00 / Bamboo Scoop Top - Ivory : www.shopnastygal.com : £38.00 / Leopard Denim Short : www.shopnastygal.com : £37.00 /
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Heavy metal Cuff : www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk : £16.00 / Band the Bombs T : www.dollboutique.co.uk : £60.00 / Leaf Charm Hairband : www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk : £12.00 /
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
Introducing...
The New Radical words Donna Marie Howard | photography by Noah da Costa, courtesy of Alexis Hunter/Richard Saltoun
In 1978, an artwork infuriated the security guards of Belfast City Gallery so greatly that they staged a walk-out until it was removed. To the delight of the artist and her feminist comrades, this act pointed out the absurdity of their situation: naked women may adorn the covers of countless magazines, but when men became the object of sexual desire, it was suddenly unacceptable. Feminist art’s blatant challenging of such trite gendered norms saw the movement declared ‘radical’, but as entry to this elusive category becomes increasingly difficult for the contemporary artist, it begs the question: can art still be radical at all? The artist whose work so offended is Alexis Hunter, a London-based photographer whose contributions in the Seventies saw her become one of five truly key feminist artists in England. Hunter ‘sexed up’ art by pointing the camera (and in some works, even a gun) at men, with Approach to Fear XVII: Masculinisation of Society - exorcise (the provocative work in question) showing a nude male porn model, whose groin is annihilated by ink smeared across it by the artist’s hand. The work is invasive, tactile, and spilling over with sexual suggestion: the resulting objectification of the model subverts the typical woman as object/man as voyeur relationship, and it was this bold undoing of known structures that so offended. Considered shocking, this was one of a number of works that fulfilled the idea of ‘radicalism‘, and was recognised as such by
a mass audience of both male and female spectators. Feminist art made its point largely because, along with the political movement itself, it was a valid challenge to an outdated way of life. Ultimately, it can be argued that Feminist art was radical because, well, the cause for which it fought simply couldn’t be denied. Whilst equality has not yet been fully achieved, the contributions of feminist art have been hugely influential in terms of its progress thus far. Hunter’s 1978 Dialogue with a Rapist (albeit banned at the time) was one of a number of works produced by feminist artists that actually helped the government recognise rape as a serious crime, giving its victims both a chance to have their suffering acknowledged, and new advice that it was okay not to be passive in such a situation. Be it the artist’s intent or otherwise, power ultimately seems to fall to the audience as to whether a work is declared as radical. A reading like this will naturally depend on your cultural disposition; your age; your race; your nationality; your political standpoint, and even down to more basic things like your knowledge of the history of art. In this respect, whatever constitutes radicalism in art can be unpredictable and diverse, at times conflicting wildly with expectation and resulting in anything from surprisingly passive receptions to seemingly unfounded complaints. To put it into its broadest terms, to be considered radical, we imagine something groundbreaking; something utterly original which exposes or highlights the previously overlooked, or introduces something new. Feminism fulfilled all of these criteria: it recognised the inequitable position of women compared to their male peers. By working to exploit this gap and underline its flaws, they introduced the new percep-
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tion of women that was the long-awaited postscript to the Suffragettes’ campaign for the female vote in 1918. Feminist artists brought art in line with the political atmosphere, and as the movement was radical, its art was deemed so too. It is rare that art has such a widely recognised effect: more often the radical nature of a work is found only by a few. Dadaism, Cubism, Futurism and Fauvism are all movements intelligent enough to be so, but due to this difficulty in revolutionising multiple aspects of society at once, perhaps it has come to a time where being radical in one of a number of ways is enough. Perhaps radical art doesn’t need to cover all the bases. In this, have we found that we have overruled some truly great and impressive works because we were expecting something more? A common pitfall in any reading of potentially radical art is that we expect it to be immediately obvious - and why shouldn’t we - why shouldn’t such a nature be reflected in its appearance. As an audience, we have been desensitised due to modern culture’s wealth of horror movies, ballsy advertising and disconcerting news stories. As such, we misinterpret what is shocking for what is radical. The 1997 exhibition Sensation at the Royal Academy, composed of YBA works from the collection of Charles Saatchi, was actually publicised with a warning that some visitors may find the work “distasteful”. From Marcus Harvey’s controversial portrait of notorious murderer Myra Hindley comprised of children’s handprints, to Damien Hirst’s renowned formaldehyde shark and Tracey Emin’s tent adorned with the names of Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, the show’s title tells you everything you need to know. Attracting unprecedented visitor numbers, the exhibition was a resounding success box-office-wise, but what was its value in terms of art? Some would argue that Harvey’s work was insensitive, shocking for the sake of it and intended to cause offence without sufficient societal merit to justify its production. Equally, some would consider that Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living contributes to our understanding and relationship with death, and that Emin’s autobiographical tent introduces an intimacy between artist and audience that was refreshing and exciting. Hence the difficulty in extricating shock from radical sometimes they do come in one package. To employ one particular artist, sculptor Paul McCarthy produced his giant inflatable dog fæces Complex Shit in 2008, a work which aroused more controversy due to its taking off in a high wind and crashing into a children’s home than it did for its subject matter. It is not, however, the fact that such a sculpture has been made which should be of note,
but the fact that it was allowed to go on public display to begin with. The same can be said for his Santa Buttplug, a 24-metre tall inflatable visualisation of the festive chap, brandishing a flesh-coloured ‘christmas tree’ and exhibited in Antwerp’s Middelheim Sculpture Museum in 2007. A refreshingly (strangely?) liberal approach, the display of such ‘offensive’ works alerts us not to the lost meaning of Christmas as perhaps intended, but to an increasingly wide acceptance of art in public forums - a wonderful development even if the works whose presence the move heralds are not to your taste. Of course, radical art does not have to be visually shocking: in many cases this more subtle approach is preferable. Often these works are more successful - in the same way the silent treatment is much more effective than an angry tirade, subtle art tends to have much more longevity, and a much more considered impact. Picasso’s Guernica, for instance, may bear the aesthetic hallmarks of their maker’s distorted figures, almost woodcut-like in their angular construction and presenting a reasonable challenge for any viewer who attempts to distinguish whether particular forms are body parts and if so, for whom? But amongst this we have more surprising features: a near-total lack of colour, and screaming forms whose angular bodies represent not an intriguing physical construct but pain and anguish. The resulting image penetrates our awareness of the horrors of war and somehow makes it all the
more vivid, all the more tactile (despite the comparative lack of blood and gore) by addressing and tapping into the fundamental fear and confusion inherent with our perception of war. Provocative in spirit and on first glance seemingly fairly tame in appearance, Guernica is one of a number of works which exemplify the fact that art need not come equipped with scandalous imagery to be deemed progressive. So where does this leave us with regard to contemporary art? We cannot possibly expect every work to be radical, and nor should we. But nor should we fall into the trap of overlooking those that are. The increasing accessibility of media coverage of events and developments, local and global, has whittled down the number of angles from which an artist can approach a great deal of topics, particularly if they want to remain original. There is a benefit to this, however: it has made us more discerning as an audience. If our society continues to produce and encourage artists to approach and consider issues through an increasingly diverse range of perspectives, this seems to be a positive outcome. To find ourselves in a position where radicalism in art has not been extinguished or denied, but perhaps complicated in ways inherent with societal development, and by looking to artists to find and communicate the intriguing and exceptional within this, we can but gain. We just need to pay attention. Alexis Hunter is represented by Richard Saltoun www.richardsaltoun.com
Projectors Ain’t Just for Slideshows! words : Mark Williams
Every now and then, a new bit of visual technology comes along and we are all told that it will dramatically change our viewing experience, be it in the cinema or on the telly. Let’s take 3D as a quick example. It’s been around for a long time, (mainly in theme parks) but in the last year or two has gone mainstream, to much fanfare from the major studios. What has it done for us? Well, it’s meant cinemas can stick an extra couple of quid on ticket prices and that Hollywood can churn out more of the same and just stick 3D in the title, in the hope of fooling us into thinking it’s something new. Well it’s not, so show us something that really IS new! Projection mapping hasn’t really had much of a trumpeted arrival, it has crept onto the visual technology scene, and is still largely unheard of. When offered the chance to write a piece about it, I had to admit it sounded cool, but I didn’t actually know exactly what it was. But as a film enthusiast (read: geek) and person who likes to sound relatively clued up (read: usually bluff my way through), it sounded like something I should learn more about, so I may distil this knowledge to ye olde faithful Who’s Jack readers. So, with the broadening of my technological horizons in mind, I went along to meet the Superglue team at their offices in Shoreditch and tried to learn a little bit about projection mapping.
They had been working like mad people lately, on an assignment for Toyota, to promote the new hybrid Auris. This assignment was essentially a short film that revolved around projection mapping, and the team were all too happy to educate me in its seductive ways… The Superglue team members that met Who’s Jack are: Simon Cam, Gavin Rothery, Marcus Chaloner, Jax Evans and Mark Jenkinson. How would you describe projection mapping to someone who’s never heard of it? It is literally using a projector to throw artwork out into the real world, illuminating surfaces and manipulating them for some reason. It’s being able to augment otherwise static objects, to create animations and textures and make those static objects come to life. How new is it, as a piece of technology? It’s been around since about 2006, but commercially since about 2008 really, that was when the art installations and big buildings started. And how is it primarily used at present, where do you see it most? People use it on buildings as a screen essentially, they’ll get a load of people together, call it an event, put the projectors behind people and shine it over their heads onto a building right in front of them.
You’ll get blocks appearing in the building, lots of shadows disappearing, curtains coming across, the whole thing crumbles, there’s about four or five standard tricks. Festivals use it quite a lot. That’s why it was so important to us to try and do something difficult [on the car, the Auris project]. We had to make this up as we went along, we didn’t have a case-study to use as reference. It was a huge, huge technical challenge; we learnt why most people just shine it at flat buildings! Other than your Toyota film (www.getyourenergyback.co.uk), where are the best places to see examples of projection mapping? Vimeo [www.vimeo.com], a lot of the research we did was finding things on Vimeo, if you do a search for projection mapping you get a lot of examples. Blogs like Create and Digital Motion, the more technology focused of the creative blogs will also feature prominent work. Is there much live stuff? Every so often… Ford did one last month and Honda are doing one next week… car brands are great for going after the innovative stuff, because they want to celebrate the innovation in their products.
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Is it used by VJs? I think a lot of the earlier stuff was pioneered by VJs. Now, they’re starting to use projection mapping on stages when bands are performing. They’ll have blocks around them and they’ll aim projectors onto these blocks, so there’s loads of potential there, because you know the measurements of the stage, it’s not going to change.
Gavin Rothery Gavin Rothery is a visual effects artist, who has worked with models, C.G.I and now projection mapping. His best known work of late has been on the BAFTA winning, 2009 film Moon, directed by Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell as an isolated astronaut. How did you get started in visual effects? It kind of goes right back to when I graduated as an illustrator; straight away I was going to be a comic artist, I was really into comics, but the bottom fell out of the industry. When Sony launched the Playstation, it was a perfect slide-over career wise, because a lot of the design and illustration skills are the same. So that got me into using computers for my artwork straight away, and as soon as you start using 3D, it just kind of pulls you along and you want to do cooler and cooler stuff in 3D. That, and I became friends with Duncan [Jones] who directed Moon at a games company. He was at film school at the time doing all these little test commercials, so all of the stuff that he wanted to do was science fiction and he
Do you think it could be used to screen existing films in new and exciting ways? For example, Blade Runner on the side of several large buildings? The film would have to be shot bespoke; you’d have to know exactly the geometry of the thing you are to project onto. But with all these technologies coming together, the projection side, the interactive side, the real-time motion
tracking side, it’s going to lead to some pretty interesting stuff in the future. Could you do it with a person? Project another person onto them? You’d have to stay really still! Although, motion capture could be a possibility…
was asking me to help him out, so I was like ‘alright, I’ll do you a flying police car, I’ll do you this or that…’ You’ve also worked on video games, such as Grand Theft Auto 3; how long does a project like that take compared to something like Moon? It depends, I’ve worked on a game, although I wasn’t on it all the way through, that took four and a half years, which is ridiculous. Moon was 22 months from start to finish and I was on it all the way through, so I’ve worked on games that have been a lot longer than films. It’s all swings and roundabouts, you can make a film in three months, if you’ve got everything lined up and it’s more of a guerrilla thing. Do you prefer working with models or C.G.I.? I love them both, but you’ve probably noticed that on Moon we kind of moved away from C.G.I. into models. There’s a couple of really good reasons why we did that: the main one is that I really wanted to, because it’s cooler and the other one is that the C.G. budget was just stupid. One of the first things I did was to
draw up the entire film, break the script down into shots, look at what the job list was, as far as post production went. We ended up spending £2.2 million and our cheapest visual effects quote for just the C.G. was over four times that! So, models were the only way we could afford to do it. I do think models have more charm to them. Yeah, it’s got a personality somehow, it’s just alive. Because they’re physical models, there’s something about the way the light hits them, it’s got an honesty to it, it doesn’t look like C.G. I agree, it’s a bit like when you compare old Red Dwarf with the models, where you can almost see the strings to newer Red Dwarf, when they got a budget and used C.G.I. Just not the same [sheds a small tear].
2010
WeActivist CHRIS PASTRAS SHOT BY CHERYL DUNN www.wesc.com
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The 80s is clearly back in fashion. Last month I showcased George Michael style crucifix jewellery in Leila Loves and in January Who’s Jack meets This Is England’s Vicky McClure and looks at Skinhead fashion. This month I’d like to introduce you to something a little more gentile. Daniel James is the real deal; in 1982 he was latex clothing designer, slogan t-shirt creator and Soho nightclub owner. A true Renaissance Man in the 80s sense, with fingers in all the pies, surrounded by a flock of club kids, creative visionaries and celebrities. Daniel James’ Designs found a niche in the increasingly popular fetish market for haute-couture rubber wear. He can rightfully claim that he was the first to manufacture the fabric for fashion rather than fantasy. Not that it was easy - through years of extensive experience, Daniel has come to perfect his manufacturing technique, unprecedented in quality, probably because he produced each garment by hand, and still does. Not many designers can claim that now. Daniel makes each piece to order, even the samples for the shoot (which I then had to hand polish), and despairs at the thought of anyone wearing an ill-fitting piece.
Rubber Wear
One of Daniel’s 80s sidekicks was renowned photographer Carlos Bob Clarke who shot his Maid In London look book in 1985, some of the shots becoming his most iconic photographs. Daniel credits him with contributing so much to the success of the collection and I can see why. The catalogue contains beautiful images that truly capture the substance of the 80s. It shows Daniel’s truly innovative use of latex, in peg leg trousers for example, or in the most extreme case, a fantastic mermaid tale. Twenty-five years on, Daniel is reviving his brand, perhaps sensing the demand for genuine 80s gear (Boy London re-launched only a matter of months ago). Back then, his rubber wear pieces were featured in every important fashion publication, including Vogue, Elle and The Times. Now Who’s Jack has the pleasure of exclusively presenting his new collection, firmly routed in his old designs but much more wearable. With pieces like the rubber collared chiffon shirt and pleated latex skirt, rubber can now be part of your daily wardrobe, especially with prices for skirts starting at around £60 and dresses at £120. www.danieljameslondon.co.uk
words & styling Leila Harteley images: Felix Cooper make up: Solo James hair: Cally Borg model: Rory at Profile
Rubber Wear pleated skirt / Cheap Monday at Urban Outfitter jumper £55 / A Peace Treaty at Kabiri jalez necklace £194 / Finsk shoes £428
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Rubber Wear mini skirt / Obakki long-sleeved top ÂŁ276
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Rubber Wear chiffon dress / Topshop gold chain ÂŁ8
Rubber Wear shirt dress with rubber trim / Obakki vest ÂŁ248
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Obakki long-sleeved top as before
Rubber Wear chiffon shirt with rubber trim / Winter Kate at Oxygen boutique velvet shorts £120 / A Peace Treaty at Kabiri chiras rings £166 / Scosha at Kabiri sun ring £161
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Whisky is having a renaissance. Once the preserve of dusty, old, tweed-cladded men with hunting dogs and a passion for clay pigeon shooting, the drink is being re-discovered by a hipper crowd of ‘young fogies’. I am in Camden. It’s 4pm on a Sunday, a rock band is playing, I’m surrounded by lots of young people. And we’re all drinking whisky. Lots of whisky.
THE WHISKEY RENAISSANCE words : Emily Jupp
‘Pop a Malteser in your mouth. Nice isn’t it? now take a sip of the 12 year, and that’s how you make a Malteser into a chocolate liqueur!’ exclaims our enthusiastic Scottish host, Tom Jones, the brand ambassador, as we slurp a twelve-year-old triple-distilled single malt, matured in Spanish Oloroso barrels, through a malty confection. The 12-year Auchentoshan whisky (pronounced Och-un-tosh-un, Gaelic for ‘corner of the field’) tastes good with the Maltesers, as does the classic Auchentoshan, and the Auchentoshan with ginger ale, and the denser Three Barrels Auchentoshan, though I need some water with the last one, which is usually considered a sin in traditional whisky-drinking circles, but is encouraged here. I realised I liked whisky three years ago when I stumbled upon a whisky tasting at my local Waitrose. I got to try about ten different types and it was a revelation that there were so many flavours of the stuff, and mostly that you could drink them for pleasure, not just as an accompaniment to your cola when the Vodka runs out. Greater still, according to the demand for whiskey tasting that has recently become apparent, I am not the only person aged under thirty to like the drink. ‘It’s a new era for us,’ says Kirsteen Beeston, head of brands marketing for Auchentoshan. It’s the only one of Scotland’s hundred-plus distilleries that carries on the complicated tradition of triple distillation to refine its whisky, which makes it smoother and therefore a good ‘beginner’s whisky’. ‘Sometimes you go to a tasting and they say something like, ‘it tastes like polished sideboards’. We are trying to talk about it in ways people can understand. We don’t want to dumb it down, but we want to help people to get it.’ The chocolates and mixers are definitely helping me and Mr Auchentoshan to get friendly, but whisky hasn’t always found it so easy to get on with younger crowds mainly due to the perception the drink has as an old man’s tipple. In 2004, in an attempt to shake off the pipe and slippers image, Glengoyne malt whisky sponsored an art exhibition in Glasgow, entitled Sex and the Truss, the exhibits were described as ‘highly-charged erotic art’ by Glasgow artist, Bill Blackwood, including images of semi-naked women in stilettos, basques and stockings. Sadly this tact didn’t quite work and Glengoyne’s exhibition did not
attract a new young following. In 2003 The Easy Drinking Company, part-funded by the Famous Grouse whisky blend, brought out three whiskies in alcopop bottles, which won them the nickname, maltopops. They had names like, The Rich Spicy One and, The Smokey Peaty One. A tell tell sign that these didn’t do too well either is that the website that once sold them is now defunct, so we can only assume the no-nonsense labels failed to win over the yoof market also.
Pierre get it, ‘That kind of overt advertising probably creates more suspicion,’ says Pierre, ‘the whisky industry isn’t that good at promoting itself, so whisky is usually something people have discovered for themselves. I think modern-day whisky drinkers like the authenticity of it. Like Talisker, its a functional product; you look at the bottle and you can imagine it sitting in a crofters cottage on the isle of Skye. It has a romantic ruggedness that appeals to its drinkers.’
So why after all this miss-guided hard work.. that didn’t work is whisky now starting to attract a younger group of drinkers without so much as a finger lifted? Pierre Thiébaut is the co-founder of Connosr , the online community for whisky lovers and the online whisky magazine, Connosr distilled. Nearly half of Connosr’s members are in the 25-34 age range and 74% are aged between 25 and 44. Connosr‘s features include a googlemap showing all the distilleries, links to Facebook and Twitter and an A-Z listing of whisky brands, it’s style is sleek and simple and it is clearly aimed at the Twitter generation.
The new generation of whisky drinkers aren’t uber-cool; rather than being old men in tweed, they are young men in tweed; literate, bookish types who like the old-fashioned gentility of whisky, and who long for a simpler way of life. ‘It all comes down to authenticity, tradition and craft,’ says Pierre ‘... and feeling they are part of that.’
‘From what we know,’ says Pierre, ‘young people’s interest in whisky has to do with them having a good disposable income, not going out so much as prices have risen, but still wanting to enjoy the finer things in life.’ This quiet revolution, according to Pierre, is down to a mix of the influence of modern fiction, the slow food movement, and pure romance. ‘Literary references make whisky drinking sound romantic, Ian Banks’ novels give whisky drinkers stature and sophistication, so it has gone from seeming stuffy to being quite cool.’ ‘Increasingly, people want to know what goes into their bodies. Whisky has a sense of place and it’s also very simple, it’s just made from barley and water, it has a sense of craft that people find appealing.’ And finally, there’s something for everyone: ‘Because it’s produced in hundreds of small distilleries, in different conditions, its so diverse in flavour.’ So the more ‘trendy’ advertising, that whisky companies have, in the past, employed to infiltrate the youth market hasn’t always worked, because according to Pierre, it’s aimed at the wrong section of that youth market. The kind that see straight through a desperate attempt to get down with the kids... ‘You’ll find us where the party is at’ kind of marketing, which is actually read : We will put ourselves into all the ‘cool’ bars that have live music and a good reputation and the kids will buy it because we have put images of our bottles over raucous parties. No.. they won’t.
So with so many different whiskeys what’s best for what? Well we are on hand to help you with that: What’s the best Auchentochan for...? A house party: The Classic, it’s the entry point to the range and its affordable so you can buy a couple of bottles of it for your guests. Make it into a long drink with tonic and lime. A Romantic meal: Either the 12 year on the rocks or the Three Wood mixed into a sophisticated cocktail, like a Rob Roy or a Martini. A lazy Sunday: It has to be the Three Wood, slow sips of a dram, cradled in your hand, in front of a open fire.
Want a try? Auchentoshan host whisky and music sessions at the Lock Tavern, 35 Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8AJ with the next one on the 5th December. If you can’t make that though not to worry there are three more dates to be confirmed in the new year to get your whiskey on. www.connosr.com/distilled www.lock-tavern.co.uk www.facebook.com/auchentoshan www.connosr.com www.auchentoshan.co.uk
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Advertising : The Lengths they will go to Anna Claire Sanders
On my daily commute the other week, involving the time old London tradition of angrily moshing through a herd of suits before we all make up by embracing uncomfortably on the sauna come public bathroom that is the tube, I realised the worst had happened. I hadn’t picked up a metro and there was no scrumpled one flung carelessly about the place to acquaint myself with whilst pretending I’d merely picked it up to get to the chair beneath it. Without a suitable distraction this left me to stare uncomfortably around the tube counting down the stops and I realised this was my first commute without a book or mp3 player to engross myself in and the first time I became fully aware of my surroundings.
The woman opposite me was reading vogue, the inevitable perfume ad on the back with a starved celebrity looking at you like you’re a pork roast after that salad she had last Tuesday really didn’t fill her up (Presumably the advert is implying that even though you may look like Mickey Rourke on a particularly bad hangover this perfume will transform your life into one of whirlwind romances, decadent parties and constant semi-nakedness). Looking around at the rest of the carriage littered with adverts it struck me that despite there being roughly twelve in each carriage I am rarely awake enough to look up and take any notice of them. The majority of the people in my carriage scarcely lifted their eyes from the pages of their newspapers, books and magazines only breaking their dedicated silence to check for their stop and leave without a second glance.
People have become notably withdrawn from their surroundings, only pausing when something out of place with our safe and recognised visual landscape changes. The average person living in the western world is exposed to approximately 630 images in an average day but if asked to remember them can only recall one or two. Possibly these images are being internalized on a subconscious level or we’ve become so accustomed to them they’ve lost all impact and meaning. Most adverts I’ve come across either follow a monotonous format or are so confusing I stare for minutes waiting for a rusty friend to clean the drool off my uncomprehending face and tell me its going to be alright, but no, they don’t understand it either. Either adverts are too dull to warrant a glance or too clever to do their job. Take the Meerkat, you all know what I mean, the one that compares
the market, no meerkat, no market..... This campaign was so successful that you can now buy meerkat toys in homage and the Inbetweeners took on it’s ‘Simples’ catchphrase but did it result in more people checking at comparethemarket. com whether they could get a cheaper deal on car insurance? No. It’s simples, being exposed to so much visual imagery has meant that to counteract this nochelance when it comes to our surroundings and inability to be impressed by imagery advertising has had to push the boundaries even further, to get our attention with something that’s out of the ordinary, outrageous, overly violent/sexed or completely weird. This year more than past advertisers have been pushed to their limits to grab our attention and with so many resources now at their fingertips it seems the ways to advertise a product are endless. No one wants an image on a page any more. To sell a product you can use a game, an interactive film, projection mapping, competitions, personalized, virals, events, freebies etc. The viral, the digital equivalent of word of mouth means that any web content has the ability to become to gain millions of views in a matter of minutes. What with social networking enabling the viewer to pass content on in a matter of seconds effectively doing the advertisers work for them while unsuspecting telling their mate to watch this video because it’s hilarious. Advertisers have begun exploit this ability for everyone to become a critic. The to only double edge of the sword is when they get it wrong.
A particular favourite viral ad of mine is ‘Diesels 30th birthday’ from 2008, directed by Keith Schofield and produced by www. sfw-porn.com (That’s ‘Safe For Work Porn’ for those who don’t look at porn at their desk while the boss leers over your shoulder mentally debating how to fire you) Featuring cartoon drawings over any naughty areas of porn clips with a jazzy backing track and sound effects to make your Nan blush, the viral has absolutely nothing to do with the company’s product and presumably the party it was advertising wasn’t actually a mass orgy to celebrate denim. Diesel’s sfw-xxx has become well known and loved by porn and cartoon fans alike because it’s fun, tongue in cheek and an amazing use of an arts degree. No doubt you’ve seen similar clips that appear to have no intent and purpose but to amuse clamouring for attention on Facebook or Youtube and most of the time they do. Yet I’m fairly sure I’m not alone in feeling like I’m missing something with most adverts, the product being completely detached from the idea used to sell it and often I’m left fearing more for my sanity than realizing an sudden urge to run to the shops. Brand are going down a feeling route rather than the showing of an actual product. If they can evoke the correct feelings they want a buyer to get from purchasing their product then they are on to a winner and within those realms anything goes. Nike’s newest viral for their Nike Zoom DK Boots is the perfect realisation of this conceptually absurdity. The video sees a table laden with a Victorian Feast surrounded by zombies furiously ripping
into professional snow border Danny Kass, buried amongst plates of meats wearing the boots. A beautifully gothic production, the ad seems to have jumped from advertising a new pair of shoes to creating a sinister short film along with a befitting budget jump. Whilst I’m impressed by the provoking ideas behind the ad I’ve missed the connection of the product to flesh eating zombies and am completely bemused as to what I’m being sold or really what I’m meant to feel. Do the zombies covert the shoes? Do they not eat the shoes because that is the one thing in the zombies soul-less eyes that is sacred? Is it about excess? Pushing things to the limits? There are a thousand more obscure adverts surfacing every week in the bid to strike a cord with the buyer, archived through platforms such as YouTube these clips can be delved into at leisure. They are now not forgotten or unobtainable like previous TV adverts that would, after a few weeks on our screens, quietly retire. Maybe this is an added reason for more long standing adverts to be created using more budget and spanning a longer period of time allowing them to be viewed and shared and stay relevant for more that just a few months. Yet while the mass media of our predominantly digital age seems to have become internet rather than TV based, there is of course still image upon countless unmoving image to be considered by the advertiser. And with the current average click through rate of a banner for example being about 4% there is still a lot of work to do in these areas to catch the browsing eye.
It is because of this matter of points of seconds a still image has online to capture your attention and then once it has it, draw you in enough to want to click and explore further that still imagery is showing signs of succumbing to shock 79 tactics. Arguably in some cases the message is not that of consumerism but a warning that needs to be heard, yet often the mass market use visually disturbing and controversial means of grabbing your attention for materialistic purposes. Released in november 2009, New Zealand based clothing store Superette’s adverts beautifully utilize black humor to create images that are simultaneously humorous and startling to look at. Twisting the phrase ‘Wouldn’t be seen dead in’ the adverts are reminiscent of a horror film, quietly beautiful scenes punctuated with unashamed gore and bloodshed. The images are macabre high fashion. Yet this could be for any fashion house. Its visual style is so detached from the brands iconography and creative identity. Yet the work is undeniably faultless in its beauty and execution, in an age where originality is hard to come by if not impossible DDB have taken an over used phrase and turned it round to present something morbidly and stunningly breath taking. Showing how a simple idea can often be transformed into the most powerful message. Chi and Partners for Roy Castle Lung Foundation, a UK based advertising agency and charity respectively produced the most hard hitting imagery of 2008 with
their warnings regarding second hand smoke. An girl is sat in a chair playing with her doll. On first look she seems to be sat smoking yet the hand grasping the cigarette belongs to a grotesquely adult arm. Her downward gaze and vulnerable body language all serve to emphasize the innocence of childhood through this powerful use of visual juxtaposition. Another advert regarding second hand smoke was created for the NHS that shows children going about their day to day lives whilst exhaling smoke. Whilst some might argue it desensitizes the viewer to children smoking or find the imagery exploitative or offensive, it’s positive ramifications cannot be argued, for the sake of preventing lung problems in children some might deem such a shocking campaigns not only effective but long overdue. The most prevalent technique for peddling goods is sex, an incentive dating as far back to 1920’s advertising and one we continue to be seduced by. In tradition with the Great British humour for all things tongue-in-cheek The Home Office released adverts aimed at first time passport applicants following the government’s decision in 2007 to introduce compulsory interviewing. Devised by advertising agency Rainey Kelly, with inspiration drawn from the fear of many teenagers potentially missing out on ouzo influenced vomiting, sunstroke and clumsy sexual encounters with strangers on trips to Faliraki. Labelled ‘pornographic’ the campaign received a negative response from those concerned the message conflicted with previous safe sex adverts also funded by the government. Michaela Aston, of the charity Life, said: ‘Given the latest surge in abortion rates and the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in the UK, it is irresponsible of the Home Office to
produce adverts aimed at young people which blatantly give the message that holidays are only about sex.’ Whilst a fair point, intelligently made, I very much doubt any 18-year-old has ever been encouraged to engage in sexual activities because of an advert, especially one by the home office which is most probably the least arousing of all government departments. The advert embraced a well know truth that teenagers are walking hormones prone to enjoying nudity, and sex, particularly when presented with the lethal combination of sun, sea and sangria. Another recently condemned advert is that containing the beautiful Lana Stone at Westifeld for their new Suit Supply store. Maybe it’s just Lana as this is the second of her adverts to be taken down after the public deemed them too sexually explicit. This one however suggested all manner of naughtiness below the cut off point of the imagery. Mans hands go towards the undergarments and poor Lana has her boobs out pretty much all the time however her hands are grabbing them which is rightly so as it must be mighty cold having them out this time of year. The Dutch companies advertising campaign has been branded ‘Shameless’. It seems there is a fine line between sexily suggestive and overly sexed. When it comes down to male and female inclusive advertising posters similar rules apply as to porn ratings. Nudity is fine but as soon as anything starts happening it’s not right for public consumption. Tom Ford is a brand that has never played safe and quickly found out that while having a woman completely naked and grabbing a clothed mans crotch is fine, having a close up of a woman biting a mans finger is most definitely not and neither is (surprisingly!) using your scent
bottle to cover up a woman’s private parts. Both of which received a large outcry form the public to have them immediately banned. Our reactions to certain unfit advertisements is often little to do with the visual imagery and more about our attitude to the realities of life and willingness to accept them, or of course our prudishness. Resorting to disquieting adverts with serious subject mater and consequences far beyond the original intention of the advert is invariably seen as a step too far for some. Yet most people accept these adverts, and many that would be seen as inappropriate several years ago are now slipping through the net of common morality as the industries tendency to shock begins to dull our outrage. The results are often a disconcerting look at how tolerant we’re becoming to such extreme imagery and the disappearing relevance products have to the means used to sell them. With technological advances allowing more imagery to be produced quicker, faster, better in a world that demands instant results we’re being flooded. This indiscriminate production has resulted in products jostling for our attention, desperate to stand out and has produced some results that are often a testament to the talent in the creative world but also a worrying insight into how complaisant we are becoming to what is put in front of us. Either way I’m off now to watch the Old Spice ads on Youtube for the 40th time, the product might not smell like jet planes and fighting and I may not have a boyfriend to buy it for but any man who can make me laugh that much is worthy of my time and who knows, when I do pur chance buy aftershave next I might find myself gravitating to the Oldspice without realising
A TATTOO IS FOREVER…? Tattoo art is supposed to be permanent. After all, that’s the point. A tattoo is a big commitment, but one that can turn a person into a unique and beautiful canvas. Some tattooists will happily admit that not everything they do is ‘art’, but a beautiful back piece or sleeve doubtless compares favourably to paintings and sculptures on display throughout London’s galleries.
words: Jennie Gillions / this image : © Lal Hardy/ New Wave Tattoo
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Yet, unlike painting and sculpture, tattoo art by its very nature can last only as long as its canvas – permanent for the owner but fleeting in terms of the art’s legacy. Lal Hardy, renowned tattoo artist and founder/owner of New Wave Tattoo in Muswell Hill, isn’t bothered about this at all. Lal’s been in the business for over 30 years and says ‘it’s no big deal’ after that long. ‘All tattoos age, and a lot won’t look so good after a few years anyway.’
‘permanent’ body modification but its lifetime is not guaranteed.
have selected a perhaps less wholesome method…
London-based photographer Anna Hindocha knows hers are sometimes the only record of some tattoos. ‘I photographed one girl who had lots of tribal tattoos and she was planning to get them covered up – she asked me to avoid putting them in the photos if I could but you can see some of them. And they don’t exist anymore.’
Surprisingly blasé, perhaps, but then a tattooist’s relationship with his/her customer is not one of artist and canvas. ‘Most of the time it’s the client that comes into the studio with the concept and vision,’ says Martin Crosthwaite, of Flaming Gun Tattoo Studio, ‘so true ownership of a piece was never mine to begin with.’
Anna is interested in how tattoos often make people’s personal stories public. She concentrates on photographing women who are happy to put their personal stories on show, and to have their artwork preserved for perhaps longer than they will live. Anna photographs her subjects for the aesthetics of their tattoos – ‘these are beautiful women who’ve chosen to make themselves more beautiful through tattoos’ – acknowledging at the same time that not everybody shares her views on the attractiveness of tattoos. Collectors of tattoo art are naturally defined and judged more for their art collection than most people who buy paintings, and sadly the fact that they choose to carry their collection permanently on their bodies is still judged negatively by some.
The University ofTokyo Medical Museum, for example, has a collection of flayed tattooed skins, donated by their previous owners. The collection was started in the 1920s by Dr Masaichi Fukushi, and is still being added to. Primarily designed to further Dr Fukushi’s research into skin pigmentation, it now naturally has cult status among tattooists and collectors; understandably, access is restricted, but Lal Hardy has been lucky enough to visit and found it a fascinating experience. Alongside the skins are photographs of their original owners, emphasising that the (ok, slightly bizarre) art does not stand alone but, again, is integral to how the skins’ owners are defined and remembered.
It’s that easy to let your work go? Rod Medina, tattooist at Kings Cross Tattoo Parlour, is philosophical – ‘I have done tattoos on people from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and many countries in between. I think it’s very cool to know that your art work is going around the world.’ Their mobility makes tattoos unique in the art world, and enables an artist’s work to be seen all over the place - if the canvas allows, that is. Thirsty as we might be to see people’s tattoos and admire the art work, the majority of people don’t get tattoos for display. Once a painter has put his work in a gallery, that painting has no say in who comes to look; a person with tattoos has the choice of whether to be treated as art, and whether to explain their tattoos, which are often deeply personal. Tattooists don’t tattoo for us art lovers, or even to satisfy their own creativity; they tattoo to commemorate family members, express stories, cement people’s personal histories. As Martin points out, ‘the thing that sets tattoos apart is that the story behind the creation of a piece will always be linked to the owner of the art.’ It’s true also that a good experience will deepen a person’s love for their tattoo, whereas a bad one can lead people to hate even the best work.
Anna is also keen, as a self-confessed ‘hoarder’, to preserve tattoos in a way that tattooists and tattoo owners often don’t. Most tattooists take photos of their work; Lal has a vast portfolio of pictures built up over decades, but he uses them to learn from and as a record of the people he’s met. Anna puts tattooed women in galleries and exhibition spaces (her latest exhibition was in aid of women’s rights charity FORWARD), and knows some of her work will outlast the subjects as well as the tattoos. Some of her photographs show tattoos in stages, as large back pieces are worked on over several sittings, or as new tattoos heal. She photographed her own tattoo as it healed, watching how it changed over time.
‘I knew a guy once who had a ¾ body suit – a beautiful body suit – done by a famous tattooist,’ says Lal Hardy. ‘The guy was gay, and for some reason this tattooist went off into a massive homophobic rant. The guy got his entire suit blacked in.’
This is a luxury many tattooists don’t have. ‘Very few people will come back to the studio with the sole intent of showing us the tattoo, even though we ask them to,’ says Martin. ‘Often we will see the tattoo because the client is expanding their collection with another but not always.’ Lal admits to getting emotional when he finishes a piece after working on it for years. ‘After building up a relationship over 20 years they’ll come back into the studio, but as friends, not to show us their tattoos.’
Pretty painful to think that something that beautiful can be destroyed in favour of something so ugly, but a perfect example of how a tattoo means so much more than a painting. A painter can decide whether to destroy their work, but a tattooist can’t really do that without getting into a whole heap of trouble. Their canvas, however, can decide to destroy that artist’s work if they choose to, without being sued for criminal damage; a tattoo starts off as a
Yet still they aren’t fussed about preserving their work. Martin believes ‘it is a vital part of being a tattooist that you learn to let go of your art. You must realise that you… have no say in the treatment of it once it has been finished.’ It’s clear though that some people with tattoos are more concerned than the artists about showing themselves off and preserving a legacy; while Anna’s subjects have chosen to do it in a conventionally acceptable way, others
In this case the art has not disappeared with its owners because of choices the canvasses made. However, Martin feels ‘the fact tattoos disappear with their owner is one of the things that makes them unique. It can make them mean more than a wall hanging or sculpture ever could. It makes them a part of you as much as a memory is.’ Preservation of the art then is not the responsibility of the tattooist but of the canvas. ‘As a Tattooist I see myself as a commissioned artist, for the most part,’ says Martin. ‘This is why I never take commissions for my paintings, I like to retain that as an outlet for my personal creativity.’ It is important then for some tattooists to express themselves in art that is theirs? ‘I do paint,’ says Rod Medina, ‘and I would love to one day work on large scale paintings and sculptures in public places... maybe that is my subconscious wanting to do some work that will last longer than someone’s life span!’ Despite the gorgeous work they do, giving people uniquely personal pieces of art that they can keep ‘permanently’, there are very few tattooists who will live on like well-known artists. Once an artist dies the art often remains, but once living memory of a tattooist fades, once their canvasses die and take their art with them, a tattooist’s legacy often remains only within the tattoo community. But tattooists seem fine with it. ‘Very few tattoo artists have left a legacy,’ Rod points out. ‘By now I don’t know if I will be one of them.’ As Martin succinctly puts it – ‘Nothing lasts forever.’ www.newwavetattoo.co.uk www.kingscrosstattooparlour.com www.flamingguntattoo.co.uk www.annahindocha.com www.ambigraph.com
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Š Anna Hindocha/Ambigraph
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