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Day: 5 December 2011

‘The enemy within’

Written by Oliver Johnstone on . Posted in Opinion.

The most unimaginative, intellectually bland and lazy political commentators on the left are forever drawing comparisons between the 1980s and today, specifically in reference to rising unemployment and a robustly radical Conservative-dominated government in office. It is clear, however, that the only thing that has remained constant since then is their own reluctance to move with the times and defend narrow sectional interests.

Once again, the ordinary hard-working men, women and families of Britain find themselves battling not only a turbulent world economy but also the forces of reactionary politics in the trade unions. This is not simply a matter of being for or against austerity measures regarding public expenditure, but more about the government’s programme of progressive reform versus the public sector oligarchs.

A month or so ago, I was making my way to work when I was accosted by a young Union member brandishing a flyer demanding that local parents oppose plans to upgrade the local high school into an academy. When challenged about this matter, the woman argued that I didn’t know what I was talking about as “an upper class Tory who only cares about bankers”.

The language of the Unions is telling. Accusing the entire government of being of a certain class or suggesting that NHS and education reforms are ‘privatisation’ measures – despite not involving the sale of any public assets to the private sector – clearly demonstrates a political agenda behind the rhetoric. Rather than being based on high-minded principle or reasoned argument, this campaign is rooted entirely in self-interest.

Whether it is an attempt to prevent the government from prising offensively lucrative pension arrangements out of their clutches (despite the private sector shouldering such a burden for years already), or the threat of a more independent and free-thinking public sector workforce, outside of the sphere of union control, the Unions are digging in and refusing to compromise.

They would, of course, disagree with my analysis; but forgive me for failing to come over tearful at the wails of Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT, who languishes on £100,000 per year in a council house whilst depriving another hard-working, impoverished family of a roof over their heads. Neither do I hold much sympathy for the Lecturer’s Union, who provide little in the way of tuition or support for students (especially here at the University of Manchester), yet whinge about being entitled to greater benefits, salary and pensions whilst they busy themselves with navel-gazing and furthering their own careers.

I have always been far more sympathetic to trade unions than most other right-wing commentators and they do provide a valuable service to members who cannot afford legal protection in employment tribunals or require extra support in the work that they do. However, when blatant self-interest threatens to ride roughshod over securing the best for Britain, my patience begins to dwindle.

This “upper class Tory who only cares about bankers”, who is in actual fact a working class Mancunian and the son of a postman, calls upon people of sound mind and sensibility to reject bully boy Union tactics and accept that we are all in this together. We must all shoulder our share of the burden caused by the mistakes of the past, learn from them, and build a better and stronger Britain for the future, lest this green and pleasant land becomes stained with deepest red.

My Political Hero: Tom Watson

Written by Jak Dyehouse on . Posted in Opinion.

Politicians are not a well-liked bunch.

Though most likely sharing the dubious accolade of Britain’s most-hated profession with traffic wardens and bankers, a particularly nasty kind of vitriol is reserved for those people who are elected to represent us. This is unfortunate: after all, we should not judge such a wide-ranging group of people by their occupation, and the vast majority of Parliamentary inhabitants are hard-working, honest politicians who work tirelessly to fulfil their democratic responsibilities.

Due to the scurrilous nature of our media, it is unsurprising that our finest politicians garner minimal coverage – good work hardly makes for a tantalising story. So it is always a joy when, occasionally, the hard graft of one individual is thrust to the forefront of the political spotlight. Step forward my political hero, Labour MP and tireless media campaigner, Tom Watson.

Watson is one of a small but steadily growing group of politicians to have fully embraced the digital age. Westminster is largely an antiquated relic of centuries past, and often the people who inhabit it seem to find modern technology a struggle, embarking on awkward projects which betray their unease at the pace of 21st Century change – recall the awful ‘Webcameron’, for example.

Not so with Tom Watson, a social media butterfly whose Twitter biography describes him as a “busy dad, disorganised politician, lover of film and video games”. He is a prominent champion of policymaking on digital matters, an area largely ignored in Parliament for aforementioned reasons, having campaigned for a variety of specific causes including the right of every UK citizen to connect to the internet, public sector data transparency and continued attempts to persuade his fellow MPs to utilise the internet as a tool to improve the functions of our democracy. In the digital age, our MPs must be dragged kicking and screaming into the present if they are to effectively represent us. Perhaps if they more made an effort to do so, they would be held in slightly higher regard.

As important as his digital mission has been, however, it is Watson’s more recent activity which has most earned my respect. Over the past few months, he has played a vital role in helping to uncover the depth of scandal and illegality endemic throughout the News of the World, setting in motion far wider implications for News International, the UK-based division of Rupert Murdoch’s colossal News Corporation. Sitting on the Select Committee which has questioned some of the most powerful players in the media including Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch, he has commonly been viewed as the most aggressive of the committee, labelled by The Independent as its “attack dog.” Notably, he recently called James Murdoch “the first Mafia boss in history who didn’t know he was running a criminal organisation”.

Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Murdoch’s titanic influence on British politics – gaining the backing of The Sun is of paramount importance for any party wishing to form the next government – will undoubtedly agree that describing Watson’s actions as ‘courageous’ might be something of an understatement.

For his part in bringing down the News of the World, Watson himself has earned the ire of the Murdoch press. It was revealed recently that he was one of a number of MPs targeted by private investigator Derek Webb. How this will play out for him remains to be seen, but for now his desire to stick to his principles in the face of a potential threat from the murky world of the media should be appropriately respected and celebrated. If it were not for campaigners like Tom Watson, the horrors of phone hacking may have remained a secret – with the practices continuing unchecked – for many years to come.

Here’s to you, 2011

Written by Andrew Williams on . Posted in Opinion.

When we witness history, we almost inevitably fail to recognise the significance of events as and when they happen. Yet this has truly been a momentous year in world politics.

Sometimes, you just have to stand back to realise that you are living through a remarkable period. The Arab Spring, which began tentatively this time last year as one man in Tunisia took a courageous stand against his own government, has spread across North Africa and the Middle East, sparking a chain reaction of protests, uprisings and (in the case of Egypt and Libya) full-on revolutions.

We have seen nothing on this scale since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Who in their right mind would have predicted at the start of 2011 that Colonel Gaddafi would be deposed and deceased by now? Or that Egypt would be holding its first democratic elections before Christmas? The Arab Spring has irreversibly shifted the international paradigm, and with the Syrian uprising escalating it seems that the wave of demonstrations is far from over.

Meanwhile, Europe has experienced its fair share of turmoil, with economic crise0s in the Eurozone threatening to boil over into a full-blown catastrophe. The Greek bailout package has been the source of much contention amongst European leaders, fully aware of the severity of the crisis but equally determined to shield their respective countries from having to shoulder the burden of financial responsibility. The crisis has claimed both Greek and Italian Prime Ministers – so long, Silvio! – and is far from over.

In the United States, Barack Obama’s faltering premiership received a welcome boost as US forces finally captured and killed al-Qaeda figurehead and 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden. His death was seen as a symbolic victory for Americans after ten years of botched attempts to find the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted Terrorist’.

However, Congress left the US economy on the brink of collapse as Obama’s efforts to raise the debt ceiling were repeatedly blocked by dogmatic Republican opponents. It took a serious feat of brinkmanship to avert disaster.

Speaking of the Grand Old Party, a wacky field of presidential candidates was assembled as the race for the White House continued apace. Michelle Bachmann’s ‘hockey mom’ approach won early plaudits on the American right, only for a series of Palin-esque gaffes to derail any realistic hope of winning the nomination; Rick Perry, the darling of evangelical conservatism, announced his candidacy only for his campaign to follow a similar trajectory. Several thousand televised debates later, we are still no closer to finding a winner with the February primary season just around the corner.

On the domestic front, the full extent of the phone hacking scandal revealed itself, forcing the closure of Britain’s oldest and biggest Sunday newspaper, the News of the World. Revelation after criminal revelation left the Murdoch family with no choice but to wind up the legendary paper – a sensible decision in light of the ongoing Leveson Inquiry which has shocked us day after day with stories of depraved tabloid practices. The country was appalled as it emerged that celebrities were not the only targets of phone hacking; journalists had gone as far as hacking the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. A grim year for the media, and for News International in particular.

Moving on to Westminster, the angry response to severe austerity measures imposed by George Osborne’s Treasury has made life difficult for the Coalition government in its first full year. The abiding images of 2011 in this country are undoubtedly those of burning buildings, as furniture shops and department stores went up in smoke during the worst riots in a generation. The country was shocked: £200 million worth of damage was caused in August, a vivid reminder that these harsh economic times have created a sense of injustice and an atmosphere of unrest. There would be myriad further anti-austerity protests, from a succession of tuition fee marches to last week’s unprecedented walkout by two million public sector workers.

The government ploughs on, though, driven by a steely determination to get our economy back on an even keel, seemingly at whatever cost. Bonded by the ‘national interest’, the Coalition shows no signs of falling apart despite reviled Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s tremendous unpopularity filtering through to his party; the Liberal Democrats have polled as low as 12% in recent months. A resounding ‘No’ vote in May’s AV referendum set the tone for a bad year for Clegg and Co. Things, as the infamous political anthem went, can only get better.

Dame Nancy criticises fees policy

Written by Joe Sandler Clarke on . Posted in News.

There is continued uncertainty over how much universities will charge for postgraduate courses after the introduction of higher tuition fees in 2012, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester has acknowledged.

Speaking to students at a meeting in the Student’s Union building last week Dame Nancy Rothwell said that the coalition government hadn’t thought of the impact on postgraduate study when deciding to increase fees for undergraduate courses.

“The government hasn’t even sorted out the impact on choices for postgraduate study, when students are leaving university with higher levels of debt,” she said, in relation to the increase in fees for courses starting in 2012.

The University of Manchester has been forced to increase its fees for Masters Courses starting in 2012 due to government cuts to higher education; with most courses rising from around £3,500 to £5,000 for 2012-13. There is no government loan system for postgraduate study; meaning that students who don’t receive a bursary from their institution have to find a way of funding their degree themselves.

Earlier this year Professor Vincent Emery, vice-head of the graduate school at University College London said that it was likely that fees for Master Courses would increase in 2012, so as to be more in line with fees for undergraduate courses.

“It is sensible that if the charging is changing for undergraduate programmes then universities will need to look at what they are charging for postgraduate courses,” he said.

“Students will have to focus much more on what it is they want from a postgraduate course and why they want to do it. They will also need to be more focused on the advantages for them in terms of career and employment of going on to do a master’s.”

It is widely felt that students with higher levels of debt from their time as an undergraduate will be less inclined to continue on to postgraduate study. A poll of 672 graduates and postgraduates conducted by the Student Room in May this year showed that fewer than half of them would have gone on to postgraduate study if the £9,000 fees had been in place while they were studying.

Dame Nancy Rothwell also used the meeting with students to defend her decision to raise tuition fees for undergraduate courses in 2012-13 to £9,000.

“The reason we decided to raise fees is quite simple: it covers the cost of our bursaries and makes up for the loss of government funding. It doesn’t give us any extra profit,” she said.

“In fact, if we maintain the same student numbers, which we may not, we will have about the same income.”
But the Vice Chancellor was still at pains to show that she was troubled by the decision to triple fees for 2012.

“The rise in fees concerns me greatly,” she acknowledged. “Particularly in terms of the impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Classic Album: Otis Redding – Otis Blue

Written by Daniel Jones on . Posted in Music.

Otis Redding
Otis Blue
Stax Records
Released September 1965
5 stars

It is often difficult to hazard a guess at the exact moment in an artist’s career when they realise that their life will never be the same again.  The release of Otis Blue is a good shout though.  It not only shot Otis Redding to the top of the US Soul charts for the first time in 1965, it also set him on the path to stardom.

The album, his third in the studio, is a complete exhibition of Redding’s soulful repertoire, from the epic opening ballad ‘Ole Man Trouble’, written by Otis himself, to the floor -stomping covers of Sam Cooke ‘s ‘Shake’ and Mick Jagger’s ‘Satisfaction’.  The track listing includes two more Cooke tributes, the first of which, a soul-charged rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come”, is undeniably one of the best songs on the album.

It was actually recorded in just over 24 hours, with the help of Stax house band, The Mar-Keys, featuring Isaac ‘Chef’ Hayes on the Organ.  Redding’s voice is on another level though.  It is showcased best on ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ where he is able to demonstrate both ferocious power and sweet, sweet tenderness.

There is also the inclusion of ‘Respect’, another Redding original, which was famously championed by Aretha Franklin.  His may not be as technically brilliant as hers, but you feel every single word he says.  It is raw, gospel-fuelled and unmistakably Otis.

It is almost impossible to find a flaw anywhere on Otis Blue.  It combines elements of rock, soul and rhythm and blues to create a unique and inimitable sound.  Each track feels so spontaneous that it’s difficult to know what emotion you will experience next.   Every song taps directly into your heart, and some even make you shiver.

Otis Redding – Wonderful World

Otis Redding – My Girl

Otis Redding – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Interview: Lisa Hannigan @ St. Phillips Church

Written by Hannah Mead on . Posted in Music.

Lisa Hannigan
St Phillips Church
25th November
3 Stars

Lisa Hannigan’s speaking voice is almost as beautiful as the vocals on her second album, Passenger. She speaks so softly that at times it’s almost a whisper and my clumsy accent sounds crude in comparison. We covered a variety of subjects, from favourite venues, home, touring, the album, artwork, university and more. She really does seem to have a brilliant life; she tours with those nearest and dearest to her, describes tour as a summer holiday and speaks of their week in Wales recording the album with nostalgic longing. Today she is having a bit of an off-day, feeling cold and tired, which the rest of the band respond to with “extreme slagging off”. In general, however, she seems to be enjoying it all.
I was surprised to learn that a church would not have been her first choice of venue. I had imagined that a church would be the ideal setting for her music and given how many bands and artists tour churches now, there must be something that attracts them to it. There is an intimacy that comes from being in a church and given that they are generally beautiful buildings, it is fitting to listen to beautiful music inside them.
“It’s really nice to sing in a church because it’s so designed for singing. But in general I really like standing gigs, when people are kind of up close. [In churches] there’s this huge gap down the middle. I don’t want to be negative, I mean, I’ve had some lovely gigs in churches, I’m really looking forward to tonight, it’s beautiful, but I like a mix and certainly it wouldn’t be my absolute favourite.”

Watching Hannigan’s set, I could see where she was coming from; we were miles away from the stage, lined up on uncomfortable benches in a venue where you feel naughty for saying the f-word. She needs a venue that is less restricting, where she can be at ease and feel freer. I felt detached from the music that I love on the album and couldn’t help but feel she would have been happier in a sweaty little club, with her crowd standing at her feet.
Nevertheless, the church crowd still loved her and the music was faultless. The highlight for me had to be ‘Safe Travels (Don’t Die)’, which has the perfect combination of witty lyrics and deep, delicate vocals.

Lisa Hannigan – Knots

Live: Thurston Moore

Written by Joe Goggins on . Posted in Music.

30th November 2011

The Ritz

5/10

There’s something fundamentally not quite right about seeing Thurston Moore playing an acoustic guitar. This is a man who, through his work with the hugely-influential Sonic Youth, revolutionised the way in which the electric guitar is viewed; along with bandmate Lee Ranaldo, he blended elements of punk, art rock and noise rock to create a signature style, characterised by unorthodox tunings and screeching harmonics. With the band’s future now hanging in the balance after Moore’s shock divorce from frontwoman Kim Gordon earlier this year, he arrives at the Ritz tonight to promote a new solo record that couldn’t sound less like Sonic Youth: the Beck-produced Demolished Thoughts.

The album’s great triumph is that, for what is ostensibly an acoustic rock record, it’s sonically very dense; whilst the guitar is undoubtedly at the forefront, the throb of the bass and the chime of subtle string sections help create impressive soundscapes.

Unfortunately, Moore’s efforts to translate them to the live arena prove only partially successful. The seven-minute ‘Orchard Street’, for example, comes together perfectly, it’s hazy first half and instrumental second, superbly driven by live harp and violin. On ‘Circulation’, on the other hand, Moore fails to find the right tempo, delivering an oddly-rushed rendition that fails to replicate the crisp sound of the album version. On typically eccentric form, Moore prefaces a number of tracks with short poems that share the wistful, nostalgic tone that underscores the record lyrically, and there’s also a nod to the ‘mythology’ of the Manchester music scene.
A smattering of tracks from debut solo LP Psychic Hearts are a pleasing addition, including closer ‘Staring Statues’, but as far as the set-dominating Demolished Thoughts is concerned, there’s something lost in the live translation.

Thurston Moore – Benediction

Live: The Staves @ Sacred Trinity Church

Written by Hannah Mead on . Posted in Music.

The Staves
Sacred Trinity Church
24th November
4 Stars

People behave better in church; everyone here is absurdly polite and you certainly won’t find any antisocial piss bottle antics here. The tiny room is packed with people of all ages sitting cross legged on the carpet and the set is minimally decorated, with just a few fairy lights lining the amp, which makes for an intimate atmosphere; sort of like story time at primary school.

The delightfully timid Rae Morris opens tonight with a promising set; compared to her awkward banter between songs, her powerful singing voice comes as a shock. Paul Thomas Saunders, who followed her set, was even more cripplingly shy, barely able to utter a word to the audience between songs and hidden behind a thick mop of dark hair. In spite of this, he leads the band with confidence. The music is technical stuff and the band use their instruments in interesting ways to create atmosphere. The songs generally start off well, but at times they drift and I find myself easily distracted. It’s technical, brooding, musical prodigy stuff, which comes as a contrast to the light-hearted, personable Staves who headline the show tonight.

The Staves are a choir of 3 young sisters, with angelic voices, folky tones and complex harmonies. Tonight they are appropriately dressed in sensible Sunday school attire; long sleeves and sensible necklines, with their locks flowing freely. Their personalities contrast their appearance and they have 2 major swearing slip ups within the first 15 minutes, for which they jokingly apologise. They are likeable, down to earth and at times hilarious, which goes down well with the crowd. Think Laura Marling multiplied by three with an added Sunday school vibe.

The Staves – Mexico

Live: Wild Beasts

Written by Joe Goggins on . Posted in Music.

16th November 2011

Manchester Cathedral

8/10

Between songs tonight, singer Hayden Thorpe sheepishly sips red wine and asks, “does anyone else feel a bit naughty doing this?” He’s referring, of course, to the show’s hallowed setting, but surely the evening’s most sacrilegious aspect is that this isn’t a more regular occurrence. With superb acoustics, whites-of-the-eyes intimacy and atmosphere in abundance, it’s a criminally-underused venue, and a perfect fit for Wild Beasts.

Hailing from Kendal in the Lake District, via Leeds, the four-piece saw their short career take a steep upwards turn following the release of their second record Two Dancers; with its ethereal synths and chiming guitars perfectly underscored by the unlikely combination of Thorpe’s falsetto and bassist Tom Fleming’s baritone, the album’s rich critical acclaim propelled the band into a limelight they’ve been bathing in ever since. Their third record, May’s Smother, met with a similarly rapturous reception and forms the crux of tonight’s setlist; just as on the record, opener ‘Bed of Nails’ sets the tone, the most simple of piano riffs accompanied by the same kind of shimmering vocal prevalent throughout Two Dancers; a slew of tracks from that record follow, including ‘We Still Got the Taste Dancin’ on Our Tongues’, the bass-driven ‘This Is Our Lot’ and the set highlight, ‘Two Dancers (I)’.  A harrowing tale of rape set against a backdrop of hunger and desperation and delivered, through Fleming’s deep tones, with absolute sincerity, it’s as if its delicate guitars and haunting backing vocals were supposed to be heard in such ambient surroundings.

Closing the encore with another cheeky religious reference – “this is a song about virginity”, says Fleming before ‘All the King’s Men’ – both band and venue remain amongst the live circuit’s best-kept secrets; on this evidence, they surely won’t much longer.

Wild Beasts – Albatross

Live: A Day To Remember @ Academy 1

Written by Frances Roach on . Posted in Music.

A Day To Remember
Academy 1
15th November
4 stars

Promoted as the final ever Eastpak Antidote Tour, starting in mainland Europe and ending with a string of UK dates, it brings a stellar lineup from the other side of the Atlantic.

Dominating  the stage are Floridian hardcore-pop-punk-whateveryouwanttocallthem five-piece A Day To Remember, blowing up over the past year after the release of latest album, What Separates Me From You, and deservedly so. Successfully carving out a niche in the saturated market of bands in related fields, breaking down borders and redefining genres to create the music they and their fans want.

Most bands leave their pyro and confetti displays until the end of their set, yet ADTR go straight in. Starting with ‘Sticks & Bricks’, it turns into instant confetti-blasted insanity.

Punching through the next few songs with no breaks, the energy level is at its fullest. A mass amount of toilet roll is flung around as they play their way through current single, ‘All Signs Point To Fort Lauderdale’, continuing with “the heaviest song we’ve ever written”, ‘Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End’, from album Homesick. Keeping the tempo high, they blast through ‘2nd Sucks’ and classic ‘Why Walk On Water…’ where Jeremy McKinnon requests a giant circle pit from the participating members of the crowd.

The last song before the encore is most probably in every fan’s top 5, the ever popular ‘The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle’, before returning to the stage for a stripped down acoustic version of ‘If It Means A Lot To You’, receiving the loudest sing-a-long of the entire lengthy set.

Finally ending with an insane amount of confetti, balloons, blow-up beach balls and crowdsurfers for ‘The Downfall Of Us All’ and witnessing a superb show from start to finish- it is likely to take the majority of the dripping wet and bruised crowd a while to recover, but bloody hell was it worth it.

A Day To Remember – All I Want (live)

Live: Aphex Twin @ Warehouse Project

Written by Felicity Peel on . Posted in Music.

Aphex Twin
18th November
Warehouse Project
5 stars

Simultaneously described as one of the most influential DJs in electronic music and as a producer of unintelligible noise, I was excited, if not a little apprehensive, to enter into the weird and wonderful world of Aphex Twin. Otherwise known as Richard D. James, this was only the Irish-born producer’s second set on British soil in over a year.

It must be said that I have never seen such a strange and eclectic group of people gathered together for one DJ and this may be representative of his indefinable genre. Often wrongly described by others as Intelligent Dance Music, Aphex Twin is self-defined as Electronic Listening. In short, his sets are not about genre or limiting definitions, they are about the experience. Those who came to listen to a set list composed of album tracks such as ‘Film’ would have been sorely disappointed. Aphex Twin was all about his experimentation with sounds that reverberated around your head and a light show that was just as captivating as it was disturbing.

However, Aphex Twin was not the only star of this night. Hudson Mohawke and Zomby graced the main stage with fantastic sets that both ingeniously combined infectious electronic beats with some classic West Coast hip-hop. Nevertheless, for me, the surprise winner of the night was the home-grown, Manchester producer, XxXy. He provided a UK Funky bassline with melodic vocals in a style that I guess could be described as Future Garage. Regardless, he offered a set that was technically tight and extremely enjoyable.

Above all, aside from the fact that every DJ that I saw pulled out an impressive set, it was so refreshing to experience a style of music that I don’t often see in Manchester. This warehouse was definitely up there with the best.

Aphex Twin – Digeridoo

Album: Drake – Take Care

Written by Phoebe Clarke on . Posted in Music.

Drake
Take Care
Young Money Records
2 Stars

If anyone had asked me about my expectations for Canadian-born rapper Drake’s second studio album Take Care a week or so ago, my answer would have been one of positivity and excitement. With a platinum debut album and former success in producing chart-topping hits for artists such as Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige, I was convinced Drake wouldn’t fall at the second album hurdle which has taken so many before him. Alas, I was wrong.

Despite having arguably one of the most recognisable voices in the hip-hop community, sparse arrangements on near to every track cause Drake’s voice to croon unbearably on ‘Marvin’s Room’ and ‘The Real Her’. Although he sets an assertive mood describing how he ‘killed everybody in the game last year’ on ‘Over My Dead Body’, his lyrics include little material that doesn’t talk about his own self-absorbed greatness, showing a gaping hole in the rapper’s talent.

Take Care does have some redeeming moments however. ‘Lord Knows’ shows Drake effectively experimenting with gospel backing vocals and leaves you wondering why he didn’t bother to further try out new sounds. Similarly the album’s title track, which features Rihanna and Jamie XX, shows how he seems to be more successful with a collaboration safety net and the help of other artists.

Nevertheless it’s the lack of courage to branch out and experiment that really kills this album and makes it a victim of ‘once you’ve heard one track, you’ve heard them all’.

Drake feat. Rihanna – Take Care

You can buy extension cords for less than a fiver

Written by Ben Green on . Posted in Opinion.

Recently I have begun, or rather, attempted to begin, research for my dissertation (I won’t bore you with the title) only to discover that it is a task worthy of Sisyphus. But surely, you say, it can’t be that bad – it’s just a lot of reading and note taking. And you would be correct, but that isn’t the hard part. The day begins at the library which, despite being one of the largest academic libraries in the country with over six million books on offer, invariably only ever contains one copy of the book which you are looking for and it is always out on permanent loan to somebody else, a sort of 12-month loan which I cannot even begin to fathom how to gain permission for. The sort of loan where that person really ought to just buy the damn book. But that’s OK you think to yourself, so none of these remaining five million books are of any use to me, I can get on the Internet and go check out some articles, there’s no limit on the number of people that can use them.

Not so fast. In order to get on the Internet in the first place, you need a computer. Which means standing in a queue which would make a Soviet frown, all the while becoming more and more frustrated because you can see most of the people on the computers are just on Facebook or else working on something much less important than what you need to do.

Yet fortunately you have prepared for this eventuality, and have come armed with your own laptop – now you have no need to stand and wait an eternity for the cluster computers that don’t actually work anyway. All you have to do is plug in your laptop and you’re good to go, something so simple yet equally impossible. Plug sockets, which are so simple to put in you could do it yourself and which cost the university effectively nothing, are like gold dust around campus. At least in the library, one would think an ideal ratio of students to plug sockets, if not 1:1, would be at least 2:1 or 3:1 as many people have their own laptops they like to use. Now, I haven’t done an exact survey, but my experience seems to suggest that the actual ratio is somewhere in the region of a billion to one. You would stand a better chance of rubbing your feet on the carpet and trying to power your laptop through static electricity than trying to find a free plug socket anywhere on campus.

So you leave the library, you spend an hour or two searching high and low across the university for a place to study; maybe, in desperation, you even head over to North Campus and the Joule library, but you may as well have gone to Lapland for all the good it will have done you. By this point it’s time to stop for lunch and you’re so demoralised you end up in the pub for the rest of the day. Again.

The moral of this story is to stay at home. Study in your room, kitchen, linen cupboard or wherever you can find space in your house. Because you can be damn sure you won’t find any on campus.

Disagree? Tweet us @Mancuniondebate, or email us at [email protected]

Everything’s all right

Written by Mercedes Antrobus on . Posted in Opinion.

We used to value tolerance, multiculturalism and international cooperation in Europe but it increasingly seems that over the last two decades we have witnessed the slow return of fascism and we are doing very little, if anything at all, to stop it.

Currently, there is an undeniable predominance of centre-right governments within the EU, but more importantly far right parties seem to be doubling, and in some cases quadrupling, their votes after every election. These far right parties, which include Le Pen’s Front National in France, Wilders’ Freedom Party in the Netherlands, and Bossi’s Northern League, have taken an aggressive stance against immigration, the EU and Islam in what they are calling a ‘defence of their threatened national identity’. Surprisingly, these parties are the more ‘moderate’ of the far right when you consider that Barbara Rosenkranz of Austria’s FPÖ has called for the law banning pro-Nazi speech to be repealed and that Timo Soini of Finland’s True Finns has openly expressed his belief that Finnish women should be discouraged from pursuing higher education so that they can preoccupy themselves with making more Finnish babies. As Europe prepares to roll out the red carpet and welcome fascism back into our lives we need to take a step back and ask: who is voting for these parties, and why?

In a recent seminar the rising popularity of extreme right-wing parties in Europe came up and the consensus within the room seemed to be that voters were dissatisfied with the economy and needed someone to blame. The current governments had welcomed immigrants into the country which ‘meant’ fewer jobs and higher taxes. These governments then signed on for EU membership which was supposed to benefit the voters, but instead they were stripped of their national identity and told to be ‘European’. Immigration, Europeanisation and globalisation were not providing the benefits the voters had been told they would enjoy; they were losing patience.

The far right had the perfect opportunity to take advantage of these sentiments and told the people to do away with the ideals of tolerance, multiculturalism and international cooperation that the current governments were promoting and instead take a harsh, Eurosceptic anti-immigration stance. People were angrier than expected and it was only a matter of time before the parties of the far right saw their share of the votes skyrocket.

 Other parties have also begun to notice the rising popularity of the far right and in an attempt to secure more votes they have allowed themselves to also lean in the direction of the right-wing. In France the banning of the burka and the expulsion of the Roma are just two perceived examples of a centre-right government embracing extremist ideals. The far right have without a doubt infiltrated the European political stage and it is time to worry.

Admittedly, nationalism is integral to any state’s survival and a country’s citizens should always come first in the eyes of its government, who unfortunately have lost touch with the needs of the electorate and instead focus on fulfilling international obligations. For this reason the presence of far right parties can be appreciated, but we must also be careful that we do not allow ourselves to be fooled by what they are promising us and forget what we would actually get if they ever win a majority in government. We cannot forget that Hitler and Mussolini once appealed to the desires of the masses only to wreak havoc in their countries and across Europe. These far-right parties also echo anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi sentiments. If we allow them to rise to power we will regret it.

We may not be part of continental Europe but Britain is not immune to this phenomenon. The existence of the BNP, though not as prominent as many other European far right parties, cannot be ignored either; as anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic sentiments rise in the UK, the number of votes the BNP receives might increase in turn. Moreover, many far-right parties have won seats in the European Parliament, which holds considerable legislative and economic power within the EU, and thus within the UK.

 The far right has resurfaced and fascism is following closely behind it; are we going to stop it or are we going to allow Europe to fall back into the 1930s?

Disagree? Tweet us @Mancuniondebate, or email us at [email protected]

In defence of polyamory

Written by Isabelle Dann on . Posted in Opinion.

What’s so “crazy” about polyamory? An article run in The Mancunion recently (issue 8, 21st November) described the act as such; as selfish, heartless, and “a want to be rid of marriage”. Concurrently, concern was raised over its consequences on the mental health of children.

Firstly, the assumption that polyamory is a strictly enduring desire is ridiculous, considering that, as the author observed, its proponents “are mostly young people” – the logical and pragmatic quality behind a polyamorous twenty-something life in preparation for a potential lifetime of monogamy circa thirty-something is obvious enough to require minimal explanation. How can you commit to someone perpetually if you feel that there’s still so much more to explore sexually? At the same time, the wish to experience all your own personal sexual desires by no means necessitates a permanent aversion to commitment.

However, the most irksome aspect of critics of polyamory is the assumption that the whole practice must be meaningless and without sentiment. Surely the clue lies in the name? The play is amorous, not apathetic or acrimonious. Friends-with-benefits / fuck buddy situations appeal because you’re not sleeping with just anyone; you get to sleep with someone you actually care about (hence “friends” / “buddy” rather than “that physically attractive yet total bore of a person”). You can go round each other’s house, have amazing sex, then follow-up with naked pizza and passing out in front of Frozen Planet in a post-orgasm haze. You’re also entertaining each other in between all of this activity with your super-witty and delightful conversation.

So far, so applicable to monogamous relationships. The difference is that, at the end of the day, you have nobody to answer to but yourself. You’re not obliged to call your sex friend on a daily basis or take their daily calls. You’re free to ask out that beautiful creature from class and make-out goodby at the end of the night. You’re free to have ex-sex (or not, depending on how #dark you left it all). You’re free to fly off to a foreign country for a few months, or forever. You’re free to focus on yourself.

If you’ve just come out of a long-term breakup, you’re moving, or you’re already living in different cities, such a set-up may well be your most attractive option.  This is neither selfish nor heartless; sex friends, like any other friends, are there for each other when shit happens and make each other giggle uncontrollably in between. They just also happen to give you free orgasms (and perhaps the odd cuddle).

It only gets selfish when a polyamorous person attempts to persuade someone else to play likewise when it’s evidently not their game. They might concede because, perhaps, you’re just so wonderful and some of you seems better than none of you, but it will ultimately end in heartbreak on their part and you’ll have to live with being an intolerant, pressurising douchebag.

Cue the fundamental rule of polyamory: be honest with your partners and with yourself about what you want. Mild sexual jealousy is fine as it’s human and you can turn it into an aphrodisiac if managed appropriately, but if anyone seems like they might become possessive or cry alone into a bottle of wine to Taylor Swift (not that I’ve ever done that, absolutely not), then obviously you have to stop before you start.

As for the hideous destruction of children’s lives everywhere, the first point to emphasise is that for many, as previously discussed, polyamory is not for life. At the same time, chances are that the kids of a resentfully monogamous married couple who fight all the time are going to be more unhappy than the offspring of a happily polyamorous couple. As someone who comes from an unconventional family set-up, I can say this much with certainty, considering that I am (mostly) not a mental case. If a polyamorous situation, even within the bounds of marriage, seems ideal for and is desired by all the individuals involved, then that’s their best chance at happiness. In turn, happy parents who are honest with each other make happy children; when families are destroyed by marital infidelity, it’s not the third sexual party that’s the destructive force but rather the illicit and deceitful quality of the whole affair.

It should also be noted that a desire for polyamory is definitely not a desire to sleep with as many people as possible; you can sleep with the same person for months or nobody at all and still be polyamorous because the desire is defined by the attitude and personal freedom rather than the practice. As for myself, I’m hardly against monogamy or relationships – I spent three and a half years in one. I just understand that different people conjure different states of mind.

See the other side of this debate.

What’s your opinion? @Mancuniondebate

Debate 4: An affair of marriage

Written by James Haslam on . Posted in Opinion.

I have a friend who might mind very much about my relaying a story. Jeff (as he is not called) had an exceedingly short-term relationship with what one could term a ‘crazy person’, and crazy person had her eyes fixed on an open relationship. ‘It’s the future’ she might have said, ‘marriage is finished, who could expect to be tied down for so long? And besides, who wants to be, we should be able to sleep with whomever we want’.

There’s just a few problems with her view, though I was paraphrasing. What I take from it is a want to be rid of marriage, and so all will be free to pursue as many sexual relationships as possible, without any thought to feeling or companionship. What’s disagreeable with her outlook is the dual want of a relationship as well as wanting and having all the benefits of singledom. Also, her idea forgets (deliberately or not) the importance of love, the bastardisation and possible mental well-being of future children, and the feelings of a potential partner; there is such a focus on selfish happiness which I find deplorable, but that’s before I tackle the small issues.

Polyamory is a young argument. By young, I mean that its proponents are mostly young people. It’s difficult to predict what one may look or be like in thirty years, but there’s near certainty that it will not be as attractive as one is now. Not to say that’s the end of one’s sex life, but people have got to be a bit more realistic about themselves, and opportunities that may arise at university generally won’t in real world situations.

 And then there’s children. What children? Well, future ones. Little versions of you running about. What if they learn about the easiness and openness with which a parent lives out his or her life. They would either be perpetually estranged, or would look to the example being set and copy it. There is also a problem with legitimacy, not only of inheritance but also of the mere fact that without marriage a child could be separated from a parent without legal issues arising. Families keep people together, even after divorce.

Crazy person’s original argument is entirely focused on selfish happiness, but then I wonder what a definition of happiness might be for someone who wants to be ‘happy’ all the time. What if ‘happiness’ is only a state when someone isn’t unhappy? Would that then make happiness an extension of unhappiness, and, therefore, a component of unhappiness? I can’t see the justification of pithy self-satisfaction found in multiple wholly sexual relationships when so many rewarding things are not just lost, but totally rejected.

It is perhaps difficult to attempt to defend monogamy when there are so many variables that govern relationships, but I want to base my thoughts in the notion of love as a binding factor between two people, something that can be degraded or snuffed out if one or both partners are unfaithful (whether open about it or not); since how can one trust another who would openly stray, or who has to be with more than one person? I don’t buy the argument that people are biologically programmed to need to sleep with everyone. Because otherwise, why would people love?

See the other side of this debate.

What’s your opinion? @Mancuniondebate

Interview: University of Manchester Drama Society

Written by Josephine Lane on . Posted in Theatre.

Josephine Lane met up with Elisha Mansuroglu and Sophie Taylor to talk about their upcoming performance ‘Let Me Go Home’.  The girls competed through Drama Society for a slot at the Contact Theatre and have written and devised the play themselves.

 

Josephine Lane: Tell me about the show.

Sophie: It started off as a 10 minute exam piece that we did for a physical theatre module in the second year. It was the same characters and basic story. There was no dialogue and was outside in the geological gardens.

Elisha: Over the summer we developed it, we wanted to put some physical theatre on together. The story focuses on four characters: Michelle, the mum; Simon, the dad; and Lucy and Sarah, the two children. A month before the play starts, Lucy dies and the play documents how the family deal with that. Michelle doesn’t deal with it well at all, she gradually starts to go insane.

S: Lucy is a character in the play and only Michelle can see her, which is where a lot of the tension comes from, and gradually starts to go insane. It works well physically because it is a mainly visual idea.

E: We’ve used multi-media elements too such as projections and different types of music.

JL: How did you come up with the idea?

S: We were given the task to make our exam piece sight-specific, it wasn’t in a theatre. We had to do it somewhere in or around the Martin Harris Centre and we didn’t want to do it inside because it would have just been corridors and we weren’t sure what we could do with that that was interesting. We went outside and found the geological gardens.

E: It has four benches around some stones. It was April so was all pretty dead, grim and rainy and had a sort of graveyard feel to it. We asked ourselves what we could do with the space, and since it looked like a graveyard. We don’t know how we came up with the actual narrative, we wanted to do something we could relate to. In terms of why we’ve decided to direct and write a physical theatre piece, its because we’ve always wanted to do something together.  We built our friendship on it. We knew each other in first and second year but our friendship blossomed when we took this module. We found we had really similar ideas for plays and for the future and now we’re best friends!

E: Because we’re both interested in the naturalistic style of acting, we thought it would be great to try and fuse that and physical theatre together, because I don’t think that’s done very much at the moment. It’s either all physical stuff bordering on dance, which puts a lot of people off. 

E: Most of the physicals stuff we’ve devised are naturalistic movements in a physical fashion. You have to see it to believe it really.

JL: What is the rehearsal process like?

S: We direct the naturalistic scenes as if we were doing a naturalistic play but when it comes to the physical bits we choreograph certain bits we want to have it, show it them and then work with them, because we aren’t performing it, they are, so they have to feel comfortable doing it.

E: There have been a couple of cases where we’ve devised something and on that certain actor it doesn’t look as good or it doesn’t feel like they should do that. For example, yesterday we did one of the scenes with two of actors and it didn’t feel quite right. Obviously we wrote the script before we established character with them but now we’ve got to know them and they’ve got to know their characters.

S: we’ve done a lot of improvisation and the way they went didn’t exactly go with the script, which we’re completely open to.

E: So we’ve rewritten parts, which is exactly what we wanted to do in the first place. We wanted to do a completely devised piece and wanted the script to come from improvisation and working with the cast. We are also filming it and putting it on a Facebook group so the actors who aren’t in the scene or weren’t at the rehearsal can look at it to remind themselves. It’s like a video blog of the rehearsals, its nice to keep the actors feeling involved and included and its useful to look back at the physical bits.

JL: Why did you want to do this? Why now?

S: Being a student in Drama Society you get money, space, an audience, people to audition so I think it was a case of making the most of the opportunity.

E: At the end of last year when we did our physical theatre piece I found myself really optimistic and proud. It was something I wanted to show it to people and to develop. I felt I needed to develop because so far at university, there was nothing I’d found that I was 100% committed to, I was committed to most stuff but this was one thing I want to take further. This might be the route I take after university, it would have been stupid to waste something so good.

S: And we work really well together as well, we have quite different ideas and we talk about it and come to a nice compromise. The chance to work together was something we really wanted to do.

E: Our relationship is really professional and that might not work if we didn’t know each other as well. I know how she works so much because we spent our module and then the whole summer writing.

JL: What is your favourite thing about this process?

E: For me, the devising process and seeing my ideas develop in themselves. It sounds mushy but its really nice having an idea, telling people to do something and seeing how they develop and interpret it.

E: The thought of it being on stage at the Contact is scary but the best feeling in the world. We’d like to get agents to come and see it and NSDF and hopefully if they like it will take off.

S: What’s nice is that we’ve been given this trust to do it, it’s the first show the Drama Society have done at the Contact for 5 years and its something that they’re hoping to make an annual thing and the fact they have this opportunity is amazing.

E: I think our show and ideas for it are perfect for the Contact because they’re so relevant to young people, and they are so supportive. We didn’t know that much about there until we had a meeting with Bubba Israel, the artistic director. He was great. He showed us some of the things he was dong and the way he was talking about how he directs is exactly the same as how we are treating this process, a lot of his material has come up with is improvised and that’s how we want to make theatre.

S: It was so lovely to talk to him and validate our ideas. We all found theatre doesn’t have to be process where you have a script, read through and talk about the play really analytically and its so playful just being able to get up have a scenario and do it and that’s going to be how we want to work in the future.

JL: What was the competing process like?

E: It was an open proposal process. We had to fill in a form with ideas, artistic proposal, budget, technical requirements, script. It’s quite like being in the professional world.

S: it’s a good learning process for the future for anyone who wants to prepare a piece for the MIFTAS, Autumn Showcase, independent production, or the Contact which hopefully will continue.

E: If I could say anything to students Id say do it now. Having to do all this alone, after university and having no links, no budget, no additional help, it would be incredibly hard and demanding. It’s demanding anyway but it’s a good type, we have support and a mentor from Drama Society who checks up on us.

JL: What have you learnt and would you have done anything differently if you could?

E: This cant be helped but id have liked more time, this is our first go at everything together, maybe the timescale will prove to be a good thing, because we have had to whip ourselves into shape and be really committed and motivated and when shows have too much time it can get a bit slack and this timescale will make us be more on it. I’m always learning, directing is so fun.

JL: Why should Manchester go and see your play?

S: What do you think about physical theatre? We’re going to change it. If you think its rubbish, come with an open mind, its not going to be an hour of silence and dancing and actors with a really dramatic expression on their face.

E: We’ve got great cast members as well and it would be shame for people not to see how talented they are.

 

‘Let Me Go Home’ is on at the Contact Theatre, Space 2 on the 7th of December at 6pm and 8pm. Tickets are £4.50 for students and are available from the Student Union Box Office

Mental Health

Written by Jane Hartnett on . Posted in Opinion.

Mental health is a sticky topic; one that too easily falls by the wayside in life. We’d like to think that it’s just a minority who experience problems with their mental health – these people, we hope, can be packaged away and dismissed from the mainstream. It’s not that people are insensitive, but our reliance on our own perceptions to tell us the truth, no matter what the circumstance, is what allows us to continue to function. As Descartes rightly asserted, to question everything is neither productive nor stable. The idea that we, or those close to us, can suffer from a disorder of mental health is itself not conducive to a sane outlook.

Nevertheless it remains a fact that between 10 and 25 percent of the population as a whole suffers from a mental health disorder (defined medically) at any given time. Here at University, where the pressure is suddenly and definitively switched to ‘on’, where friends and family are often left behind for the first time and where the responsibilities of adult life first start to knock on the door, it’s unsurprising that students can fall prey to demons previously held at bay. And it seems to me that from private conversations and public confessions, a large portion of my close friends – too many – have been suffering in silence. Maybe I just attract those I affectionately call ‘mentalists’. I’m aware that the term is often misused, but it is not derogatory; I count myself among their number.

My personal demon, after a brief flit with schizoid symptoms in my teens, has restlessly settled under the umbrella term ‘depression’. It’s an overused word; I’m torn between thinking that people should shut up about what they don’t know about and thinking it’s something empathetic even when it’s used in ignorance (like ‘I have an OCD about x’, hearing someone who seems happy enough describe themselves as ‘clinically depressed’ for what I can only assume is comic exaggeration makes me cringe a little inside – the psychology student in me, maybe?). But as I said, perhaps people aren’t as ignorant on the subject as I had suspected. Given that you need a certain level of ability to reach university, and that mental health problems are more common among the *ahem* cranially well-endowed, perhaps I’m operating with a biased sample.

Which in a roundabout way is why I’m writing this article. Because if you, like me, and like so many others, are having psychological problems, I’d like you to know that whilst unique you are not alone, and that there is help available for you. The simplest way to get help is to go to your GP – largely useless and conceited individuals though they may be, but the systems in place are there to support you no matter how flawed they may be. My experience ran roughly as follows:

GP: “So, what kind of problems are you having?”

Me: “I think I’m depressed”

GP: (Bluntly, and not without a pull-yourself-together look) “And what would you like to do about that?”

Me: “Well, I’d like to take a pill and not have to really worry about it any more than that.”

GP: “Ok, here.” (Hands me a prescription for a well-known anti-depressant. I won’t say the name lest you think this is some sort of advertorial, but if asked by a friend I say “it’s for Pro’s”.)

And that was about it. I’ve tried therapy and it’s not for me. This is something I realised around the age of 16, when faced with the prospect of hospitalisation – because the drugs had failed to work, the next resort was one which I felt threatened me with a descent into the kind of stigmatised wreck which I had seen my father become. There’s nothing worse or more disempowering to me than the prospect of having my personality and personhood dismissed with the platitude ‘she’s ill’. This way, I maintain the control I need in order to continue – I take the pill, and it stops me from coming up with empty ‘con’ columns on the pro/con list of gently stepping out in front of any passing bus. I would point out here that suicide is a stupid, wasteful, selfish, ugly act.

However, there are other options – I’ve had the ‘oooh, but you’re not addressing the root causes, only the symptoms’ lecture, and although I think it’s a stupid holdover from when people didn’t understand that the brain, and the personality, depend on physical systems which can malfunction and be corrected, the fact remains that therapy/counselling works for many people. People who have fewer issues with control, probably. Therefore I suggest – in seriousness – that you visit the universally kind and professional people at your nearest counselling service, of which there is one near the precinct on Oxford Road. Although difficult to find unless you know where you’re looking, the people in there have been nothing short of fantastic when we’ve had occasion to meet.

If you’re gay, bisexual, trans, or fall under the ‘queer’ denomination and are experiencing mental health problems related or unrelated to that, the folks at the Lesbian and Gay Foundation offer a number of services. This especially applies if you’re coming out and need help, or if you’re being worn down by the amount of prejudice you’re meeting. Their website is accessible at www.lgf.org.uk, and they offer a number of other services as well.

Finally, the Disability Support Office can help you in a number of ways if you have received a mental health diagnosis. Their office is on the second floor of University Place.

That’s all. If you’ve read this far you’re either the editor or you can relate. Assuming the latter, I hope this article has informed you a little. In my good moments I know I’m not alone. Hopefully, now you do too.

Disagree? Tweet us @Mancuniondebate, or email us at [email protected]

Arts Council Internship Guidelines: step towards change or façade of equality?

Written by Becky Williams on . Posted in Theatre.

Anyone who has ever contemplated working in the arts knows how hard it is to not only gain experience but meaningful experience that also pays a wage.  In answer to this problem Arts Council England recently published new guidelines in which rules where set for any organisation taking on interns. These include paying the national minimum wage, setting clear guidelines of how long and what the internship entails furthermore making sure the work undertaken by interns contributes to the organisation involved and that the internships themselves are offered openly, fairly and awarded to the person with the most potential whilst also acknowledging that these positions are designed for people starting out in the sector. On the surface this is fantastic news that cannot have come soon enough; with continued economic pressures looming, cuts to arts budgets and rising university fees it is vital anyone starting off in the arts industry is giving some kind of back up.  In the future rules such as these are going to be necessary to keep passionate, talent, enthusiastic people from staying in the sector who otherwise simply could not afford it. With these and incidents such as the Fox Searchlight law Suit are people finally beginning to take a stand? Are we heading towards this brighter future in which interns are treated fairly and jobs in the arts sector are not simply open to those who can afford to work long enough for free? On a closer look of the guidelines it appears that maybe we are not.

 There are clearly some genuine ideals amongst the publication but some of the rules do not sit right. First of all the attempt to define what constitutes an internship has been undertaken in great detail but despite the Arts Councils best efforts there are still glaring omissions in which it seems it would be relatively easy for any organisation who wished to do so to side step these initiatives. The main problem is by laying down explicitly what can and cannot constitute and internship, it would be simpler for companies to advertise for work experience placements or merely offer shadowing positions, a role which is constantly emphasised as not constituting an internship and subsequently not part of the same restrictions. In this way the Arts council have circumvented their own proposals and left many organisations liable to categorise placements under new names in which payment would not be necessary and especially with regards to shadowing roles would leave employees with no valuable role at all something which the guidelines are clearly aiming to prevent. Another detrimental issue is that the Arts Council themselves cannot regulate all internships within England, they may contribute substantially to arts funding but they do not control all organisations so for many people these guidelines will have no effect at all.

Another hindrance is that the council is only being able to specify minimum wage throughout England and ‘encourage’ payment in London of the living wage of £8.30 an hour. With sadly most arts groups being based in London, and encouragement despite best intentions, not being able to regulate a living wage, the guidelines are doing little to help the most needy who are based in the centre of the arts sector further closing off potential interns. There is also an issue with age and although not the Arts Councils fault by any means wage on an internship is the same as the national minimum wage and so anyone under the age of nineteen would only be earning £3.68 an hour. This is important to arts as a sector in which people often start earlier not necessarily needing to take the further education route, a lot of the people applying for these internships will be under nineteen. This combined with the fact most of the internships will be in London it is not practical for people to live by and so the guidelines are somewhat pointless. The issue should be raised here that internships are not long term employment and so should not necessarily be viewed as some ones main source of income however the Arts Council themselves refer to no set time an internship can be undertaken but there estimation is between two weeks and six months. With this in mind and the level of involvement they intend the intern to undertake the wage should be assumed to be an income with which an employee could sustain themselves.

There are also problems with the idea of internships being awarded openly, honestly fairly and for potential. This is something the industry needs to tackle as a sector built largely upon connections it can be impossible for people to break into it even on a work experience level it is clear the Arts Council has tried to change this but they are frustratingly vague. There are no guidelines on how to go about advertising or employing interns openly and fairly and so it seems to be more of an idealistic statement rather than a set rule.

It is clear there are fundamental problems with the guidelines and heartbreakingly it seems they will do little to really open up the arts world, to industry outsiders, or to people not wealthy enough to work for very little. It is however finally a step in the right direction hopefully culminating in a change that will allow new talent to emerge into the arts regardless of background. A lot of the guidelines may be idealistic and have no real foundation in establishing a new approach to encourage future employment in the arts but at least someone is taking note on the issues and with such a large body as The Arts Council England on board with these ideals maybe things are heading for the better.

 

Instant Art

Written by Phoebe Chambre on . Posted in Arts.

We spent another evening in the company of our old friend, art. Cornerhouse decided that what it really needed to brighten this cold November was a Night of Art. We couldn’t agree more.

Which surely can mean only one thing: a Sketch-O-Matic. I jumped to the conclusion that this would be a giant Etch-A-Sketch. I envisaged rows of heads bowed into Pacman style cubicles etching out their favourite shapes. I can’t say I was disappointed when I discovered that the O-matic was a man-powered portrait booth, it just didn’t match my expectations.

The booth stood proudly central with a queue snaking all the way to the bar. The source of its power lies in this queue, which hums and thrums with anticipation. Until finally, you reach the painted box and the man with the clipboard takes you’re name and you’re in!

The booth comprises a merry-go-round of sketch-o-maniac pros who work unseen on the artistic side of the box. They offer a range of artistic feats: portraits, poetry, or caricature. Then, you enter the mysterious portal, with a friend or solo. A  two-way mirror awaits, along with a very British silence. We were unsure how to proceed; I managed a wave, but didn’t want to disturb the sketcher. Dani chatted and slurped her way through her time in the booth and was received a crackin’ goaty on her sketch as a reward.

The experience was a cross between an unsociable ghost train ride and a police ‘interview’ room. There is a specific type of awkwardness that arises from being watched from an unseen source, whilst trying to avoid eye contact, with yourself.

But then the thrill of the party bag took over, burying the memory instantly. Out churned an original product-o-sketch to take home, a unique portrait of us to cherish the memory.

The booth was central, literally, to the evening. It was the flashy wooden attraction to reel in the crowds.  Around it, there orbited not too much else – a chance to see the Rashid Rana exhibition, a photography book talk. Most of all a chance to lay down some dollar at the bar. The art of the Art Night works to attract the crowds with its bright colours, setting the culture in its new context of nighttime and its escapades. But, why not? It’s just a pub with better wallpaper.