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Month: September 2013

Travel: Unknown Festival

Written by Joe Hand on . Posted in Lifestyle.

Whether it’s Glastonbury, Dimensions or Shambala, festivals are a staple of many a student’s summer. This year, I chose Unknown, a house and techno festival in the Croatian beach town of Rovinj. (As you all know, house and techno is so in right now.) Why Unknown? I’d like to think that I wasn’t just jumping on the ‘deep house’/ ‘future [insert any genre here]’ bandwagon. This was Unknown’s first year, and going to the first of anything is usually fun – bar first dentist appointments and first days of school.

The first thing I thought when arriving in Rovinj was that there was a lot of fake tan, snapbacks and bicep tattoos, as if lots of edgy students, a few hipsters and the odd meathead had been transported to idyllic Croatia. But this was just a first impression; once I got chatting to fellow festival-goers, I realised that most people were just there to have fun and enjoy the music. And there was certainly plenty of music to enjoy, with an amazing line up curated by our fellow Mancunians from the Warehouse Project. My personal highlights included Richie Hawtin, Kerri Chandler and Jackmaster.

Although the organisers delivered on the music front, this music festival is undoubtedly a big business, a long way from the hippie roots of festivals like Shambala and Glastonbury. Punters had to book accommodation through the Unknown website, a shrewd system which meant the festival could dictate the price of accommodation. As far as I know this is a European festival first. Although the camping was reasonably priced, many of the villas and apartments were over what you’d expect to pay in Croatia.

My lasting impressions of Unknown will be great music, so-edgy-it-hurts students, and my poor bank balance at the end of it. All in all I had a great time, but I don’t know if it was so great that I’ll be back again. As a country Croatia is beautiful, and the people are very friendly. However, with Outlook, Dimensions, Hideout and Unknown all located in Croatia, I get the feeling that its festival market is at saturation point. This year I tried something new. Next year, I’m going to try something different: for summer 2014, all roads lead to Sonar in Barcelona. Many have told me it’s the best festival around, so watch this space…

Joe Hand

Microsoft’s Mixed Messages

Written by Alasdair Preston on . Posted in Games.

The biggest event in the gaming calendar is always E3, the gaming show held in Los Angeles annually. This year’s E3 did not disappoint. Microsoft and Sony wowed audiences with hordes of new details of their upcoming consoles. The Xbox One and Playstation 4 are set to launch on November 22nd and 29th respectively.  The launch price for the Xbox One is £429, with the Playstation 4 coming in £70 cheaper at £349. At times like these, fans of a particular brand like to pick apart everything about their rival console. Unfortunately, Microsoft gave them a lot of fodder.

While the ideas behind the Xbox One’s controversial policy changes are innovative, MS barely even mentioned their reasoning and instead worried many gamers with talk of stricter DRM (Digital Rights Management) involving the console requiring a constant internet connection to function and a harsh cutback on the viability of used games sales. Understandably, a vocal portion of the gaming community reacted badly to this news and, in an unexpected move; Microsoft later announced that many of these new functions would be reversed with a day one software patch. A victory for video game enthusiasts?

Image source: Xbox.com

Not necessarily. What Microsoft failed to emphasise about their stricter control of used games sales was that they’re aiming to adopt a system not unlike Steam, the most popular digital distribution platform for PC, Mac & Linux gaming. The main idea was to associate all of your purchases to your account. This allowed you to, for example, go to a friends house, sign in and have access to every game you own, not just the ones on your Xbox account or the ones you remembered to bring the disc for. The boxed copies of games themselves should be thought of more as a distribution system for this digital content, to save time and bandwidth for the bulky downloads. However, due to their lack of explanation, Microsoft eventually went back on this plan after a large fan backlash and will instead allow game trade-ins pretty much as before.

Microsoft made a big deal over their expansion of the Xbox Live server capabilities. From a current total of around 15,000 servers powering the service, the Xbox One will have up to 300,000 servers. This is approximately equivalent to the processing power of the entire world in 1999 and has cost Microsoft a reported $700 million to implement, perhaps explaining the higher price point on the Xbox One. They explained in a closed doors press conference at E3 through Engineering Manager Jeff Henshaw some of the potential applications of this power previously unheard-of in the current generation.

Mr Henshaw demonstrated this with an asteroid demo, and not the classic arcade game. Using data from NASA, engineers at Microsoft created a model of every single celestial body in our solar system. This tracked their trajectory and orbital position accurately, and even included everything approximately 30,000 light-years outside the system. This, Jeff explained, was being run on a single Xbox One unit. He zoomed in on a section of space between Mars and Jupiter containing about 40,000 asteroids. He elaborated that they “crammed the horsepower of ten 360s into this one elegant design that lets us do computationally insanely complex operations”. However, using the power of the cloud that every Xbox One will be able to utilise, the model generated a further 290,000 asteroids.

Image source: Xbox.com

Now, this is a simple example and definitely just a demo for the benefit of the media invited to attend so all claims should be taken with a pinch of salt, but the implications of this setup are powerful. As has been pointed out several times, the Playstaion 4 seems, on paper at least, the more powerful system. However, with the power of the cloud the Xbox One would have a clear advantage. And how did Microsoft choose to tell the general public of this? By stating that they’re enforcing an “always-online” policy that meant the console would have to connect to the internet once every 24 hours to function, and some games would require constant connectivity, without explaining why.

However, shortly after E3 then-head of Xbox Don Mattrick released a statement on the Xbox blog saying: “An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360. Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.” The one-time system set-up he refers to is a day-one patch that almost certainly has many engineers at Microsoft groaning at having to completely undo all of their hard work before the console even ships. The bottom line is that barring the initial installation, the Xbox One will no longer need to be connected to the internet, nor will it police your used games.

 

The Art of Budget Mixology

Written by Ben Walker on . Posted in Food & Drink.

Making a stir in student drinking trends.

Dale DeGroff is the King of Cocktails. He led a revolution in cocktail design and drinking and he pioneered a gourmet approach to mixology. He is the founder and president of The Museum of the American Cocktail. He is accredited to reinventing and professionalising the art of bartending. Keen cocktail drinkers owe a lot to DeGroff, but let us not forget great cocktails must be exchanged for great amounts of money.

No room for highfalutin Iordanov Vodka or Nolet’s Dry Gin here—my mission was to make drinkable cocktails both easily and cheaply.

I had a great time making and sampling these cocktails—it may not have been completely coincidental that the more I made the tastier they were. All I can say is that these are tasty, cheap, and easy to make for you and your friends for a house party or pre-drinks. You can scale the quantities up to make a jug or fish-bowl or make individually to drink with an air of sophistication—your choice.

 

For 4 easy, delicious Vodka classics you will need:

 

Vodka (I got a 35cl bottle from Sainsbury’s for £7.50)

Bitters (again £7.50 from M&S, but also available from Sainsbury’s—one bottle will last you forever)

Pomegranate, cranberry, and orange juice,

Ginger ale,

Soda water,

Fresh lime wedges

Brown sugar

Lots of ice

 

PRETTY IN PINK

Fill an Old Fashioned Glass (a short, stubby glass) mostly with ice and add 3 dashes of bitters.

Add 2 parts vodka and top up with pomegranate juice.

Rub the rim of the glass with lime, squeeze in a spritz of fresh lime and add a wedge to finish.

 

MADRAS

2 parts vodka and 3 parts cranberry in a high ball glass and stir well.

Top up with orange (about 1-2 parts). There should be a fade effect of orange to deep red.

 

MOSCOW MULE

Muddle two lime wedges in a high-ball glass and add lots of ice.

Add two parts vodka and top up with ginger ale.

 

 LONG VODKA

Either .5 part lime cordial or mix fresh lime juice with a little sugar.

Add a few good dashes of bitters, 2 parts of vodka and top up with soda water or lemonade

 

If vodka is not your spirit of choice…

GIN FIZZ (you can substitute the gin for rum)

I used Bombay Sapphire here, but if you are using a basics gin do taste it first, as cheap gin can be very sweet—if so, hold back on the brown sugar.

Muddle half a teaspoon of brown sugar and lime wedges until the sugar begins to dissolve in the lime juice.

Add 2 dashes of bitters and 2 parts Gin. Top up with ginger ale and a lime wedge.

 

OLD FASHIONED

Jim Beam is reasonably priced bourbon and works well in this drink.

Rub fresh orange peel on the inside of an Old Fashioned Glass. Saturate half a teaspoon of brown sugar in Bitters and fill the glass with ice.

Stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved—the ice should begin to melt to help this process.

Then add 2 parts bourbon and stir in well. Serve with a spritz of orange zest and a piece of orange peel.

Why we love Fallow (the new and improved incarnation of Trof Fallowfield)

Written by Maddy Hubbard on . Posted in Food & Drink.

I was so disappointed when I heard Trof Fallowfield was changing hands. “It won’t be the same” I insisted. “Where am I going to go and gossip over a bottle of red wine now?”. But having visited a few times I now see the error of my ways. From its humble origins as a vegan cafe on this site through astronomical expansion to the empire of today, this outpost of the Trof family had become neglected and stagnant. Although the owner has changed, the lovely staff remain the same, and they are now being given much more freedom to shape the bar and cafe with their own ideas. This can only mean good things, and below are four reasons you should definitely give Fallow a chance.

1. The awesome staff, cool atmosphere and great nights they have

Trof is not a place for harder club nights or embarrassing drunkenness *cough 256 cough*. Instead they put on events of up-and-coming bands and nights with music that is fun to dance to even if you haven’t downed 10 Jeigerbombs. The chilled vibe is helped by how lovely the staff are, and during the day you can always expect a really cool soundtrack.

2. This is the home of the best hangover cures for miles

Already well known for their full english (treat yourself to one, you really won’t regret it), you should definitely also try the american pancakes and the milkshakes (my friend who had the vanilla one on our visit described it as being creamy and “deeply vanilla” with proper substance, the perfect cure for the morning after). But if you’re more of a hair-of-the-dog sort of person, then you should check out their range of bloody marys, with the ‘Bloodyest Mary’ (£5 compared to a standard one at £3.50) containing more vodka, port, wasabi and a heap of other interesting ingredients that are sure to sort your head right out!

3. Speaking of cocktails, the drinks here are something special

Made with skill, care and premium ingredients, you won’t find watered down polish vodka here. While slightly more expensive than Font, the depressingly popular vendor of bubblegum-sweet drinks that mainly consist of ice round the corner, these are worth the extra pound for drinks like the Moscow Mule, Bourbon Fizz or Espresso Martini (all £3.50), while there selection of bottled beers is astonishingly good, making my beer-loving friend go slightly weak at the knees and geek out with the staff for a while.

4. Long lazy lunches

All this combined creates the kind of place you just want to chill out in for hours, with one of their mediterranean platters or great burgers. While you could buy a meal and a drink with change from a tenner, there are also some more premium dishes on the menu now, making it a good shout for somewhere to take your parents if they visit. Steak, chips and onion rings anyone? They also serve up a pretty great sunday roast, and the specials board changes daily so it would be pretty hard to get bored of this place. Of course, all this means worrying things for my student loan this year!

The Booker of Bookers

Written by Annie Muir on . Posted in Books.

Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist, born in Bombay in June 1947, the same year as Saleem Sinai, the fascinating protagonist of Midnight’s Children. The novel was written whilst Rushdie was a copywriter for an advertising company, and then in 1981 the Man Booker Prize brought him to fame.

The narrator describes the life of a child, or Children, born at midnight on August 15th, 1947 – the exact moment that India gained Independence from British Rule – and the story is set in context of the historical events surrounding that night.

The story is told in first person by Saleem, who constantly addresses the fact that he is telling his own story rather than the story of his country; however, it becomes clear throughout the novel that the two births cannot be neatly separated. At one point Saleem realises an error in his own chronology of historic events and asks: “Am I so far gone, in my desperate need for meaning, that I’m prepared to distort everything – to re-write the whole history of my times purely in order to place myself in a central role?”

The narrator dips backwards and forwards into past and present and past again, between memory and history and fiction. The book screams like a baby when you put it down, each sentence exploding inside your head with images and colours but then leaving it plagued with questions and confusion.

Unlike a history textbook, Saleem does not ask to be trusted, and using historical facts and events Rushdie masterfully sets up a story of magic and wonder which is both fictitious, truthful and symbolic depending on who is reading.

In 2003 the prize celebrated its 35th anniversary by appointing a group of three previous judges to select the best novel out of all the winners: Rushdie’s novel won. And for the prize’s 40th anniversary in 2008 the novel’s glory was revived by a public vote naming the novel, again, the ‘Booker of Bookers’.

Retro Corner: Sonic Adventure 2

Written by Alasdair Preston on . Posted in Games.

Before hating 3D Sonic games was cool, there was Sonic Adventure 2. First appearing on Dreamcast, then Gamecube and later even on the XBL Marketplace and PSN Store, SA2 has been around for over 12 years. The game was from a time before length of the game was sacrificed for the bigger budget, shorter single player modes came into fashion and came with days worth of missions, side missions and other activities.

 

The main game told a surprisingly detailed story (for a Sonic game) from both the ‘hero’ and ‘dark’ perspectives. No guesses for working out which sides Sonic and Dr Robotnik (pardon me, “Eggman”) were on. It also introduced a handful of new characters, one of which being Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow divided fans into those that hated him and those that loved him, although the latter group may well just contain myself. His ill-fated spin-off game did little to convert any of the haters. After beating both sides of the story, a secret “Last” section opens up in which all the characters band together in a race to save the planet. This featured one of the hardest Sonic bosses of all-time, and a Super Sonic/Super Shadow finale set to an excellent Crush 40 soundtrack.

 

Image source: sega.co.uk/sonic-adventure-2.aspx

By far, the most time I spent with the game was raising the adorable tamagotchi-type creatures known as Chao’s (see what they did there?). These little guys could be trained, customised and used to compete in several levels of race and sports events. They could even go to school for the day, often coming back with adorable new tricks such as trying to play a trumpet. Depending on which character you visited them with, and how you treated them, they would switch allegiances between the hero, dark and normal types. Many, many hours were spent trawling through levels to collect the pickups needed to raise a particular chao’s stats, or give it those cool bird wings it so desperately needed to complete the outfit. Heartbreakingly, the chao’s could eventually die. Although they had the potential to come back as a child, this was never a certainty, which made the animation in-between a bit nervy.

 

While some may look back and regret spending so much time on a 3D Sonic outing, I can’t help but see it on the XBL marketplace and seriously consider doing it all again.

On Your Bike!

Written by Jessie Cohen on . Posted in Film.

Recently, we have witnessed the emergence of Middle Eastern cinema that flips the lens onto the female subject, powerfully conveying the positions that women hold under the Islamic Republic. In particular, Wadjda hit British cinemas in July 2013 and marks a watershed moment, producing the first ever Saudi film directed by a woman – Haifaa Al-Mansour.

In subtle and unlabored terms, Wadjda exposes patriarchal values that underpin female disempowerment. We see Saudi culture through the eyes of Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), a ten-year-old girl whose all-female school exhibits a globe at the back of her classroom, highlighting that as a young Saudi woman even Wadjda’s ability to move around her hometown is limited.

Wadjda makes some headway towards achieving small personal freedoms. She takes pride in wearing Converse trainers under her burqa which pierce the uniformity of her appearance. This seemingly insignificant win, for which she must assert herself in the face of vigilant female elders who police other women’s appearances, prompts Wadjda to act on individual thought and desire as we follow her onto her next venture to acquire a bicycle.

Central to the narrative is a broader comment on women’s freedom of movement in Saudi Arabia. Even if Wadjda is able to defeat convention and ride a bike, as a Saudi woman she will not be allowed to eventually upgrade to a car, limiting her agency to the confines of the domestic sphere. Wadjda’s determination is moving but holds tragic implications when considered in relation to her mother who relies on male drivers and suffers her husband’s abandonment. In a final shot where Wadjda cycles down a road which meets a highway in the distance, the film points to the fickle nature of Wadjda’s achievements which delude her into thinking she may continue to strive towards achieving her goals.

When censorship rules loosened in the West in the early sixties, Hollywood placed the female form at the centre of its gaze, fetishizing women’s bodies to the extent that a woman’s image can barely exist on screen without being sexualized. Filmmaker Peter Gidal refuses to show images of women in his films, stating: ‘I do not see much hope for representations of women’ as he cannot see how ‘there is any possibility of using […] any image of a woman other than in an absolutely sexist and politically repressive patriarchal way’ – The Cinematic Apparatus.

Contrary to Gidal’s position, Wadjda – together with other Middle Eastern films like A Separation (2011) – situate women at the centre of the narrative, presenting a heightened mirror of our own gender constructs. Al-Mansour’s stark depiction of patriarchal privilege raises awareness about women’s rights in the Middle East but, equally, she grants the Western viewer the opportunity to develop a critical lens towards the oppressive images that dictate our value systems and produce gender inequality in less obvious ways, such as in the ubiquitous Bond films.

In the opening scene of Skyfall (2012), for example, the female heroine drives Bond out of a sticky situation and brings him to safety. Compared to Wadjda’s mother, this is a woman with serious agency. But while some women may sit snugly at the wheel, others are subjugated to male will as Bond’s other lady-interest is a powerless sex slave and an object of exchange between men. Like most box-office hits, Bond films are packed with fast-moving action whereas Wadjda is pared down and takes a slower pace. With an uncluttered window into a young girl’s life in Saudi Arabia, Al-Mansour equips her audience with practical ways to pin down patriarchy and – for the sake of the next generation – to ramp our critical faculties up a gear.

The Manchester Anthology

Written by Elizabeth Mitchell on . Posted in Books.

The Manchester Anthology 2013 was recently launched at the John Rylands Library. It contains highlights from the work produced by the University of Manchester’s Creative Writing MA students over the past year. The event consisted of recitations by the students, including poetry, short fiction and novel extracts, and concluded with the editor, Natasha Smith, paying homage to the late Seamus Heaney.

The University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing plays host to some of Britain’s most prestigious programmes, with students flocking from far and wide to attend its courses in Creative Writing and in Contemporary Literature and Culture. Its members of staff include Geoff Ryman, John McAuliffe and Jeanette Winterson, who was appointed as Professor of Creative Writing last year. With such literary giants giving workshops and seminars, it is no wonder that students of the Centre for New Writing produce the sort of work seen in The Manchester Anthology. The Centre runs a host of exciting events throughout the year. ‘Literature Live’, for example, is a series of on-campus readings, with past authors including Hilary Mantel, Ian McEwan and Will Self. This September, the Centre held the third British and Irish Contemporary Poetry Conference.

However, the students themselves must surely take the lion’s share of the credit for The Manchester Anthology’s success. The extraordinary range of genres that the students can handle is immediately noticeable. The various novel extracts leave you wanting to read the completed masterpiece, whether they be comic, historical or fantasy. On the other hand, the short stories seem like finished jewels. Lu Croft’s ‘Ellie’s Lump’ looks at how women do (or do not) deal with having a mastectomy. Though the story is little more than a page long, it successfully addresses this sensitive issue; it is intense but not overwhelming.

The students who contributed to The Manchester Anthology are of all ages and backgrounds, and the subjects they tackle reflect this. While Croft’s piece deals with breast cancer, Helen Isserlis’ poems are clearly written from a younger woman’s perspective:

I grew up with Britpop, the Walkman

the Gameboy, episodes of friends

(the first time round) and Disney

while Walt was still alive; his obituary,

a double spread in The Young Telegraph;

had a picture of him with his dogs.

With a foreword by Jeanette Winterson and the collective effort of 28 promising new writers from the University of Manchester, The Manchester Anthology is certainly worth a read.

Preview: Oldboy

Written by Fred Adomakoh on . Posted in Film.

Here it is. The famous, loved, even revered Korean film has been re-made for our precious Anglo-tuned ears. It seems as though the ideas from Hollywood diminish in quality one by one; like a fat man, whose rope is finally thinning, clings to the nearest mountain ledge, they turn their hand to stealing successes from the past, the present and the rest of the world. Luckily for them original, moving and complex storylines can be produced without the aid of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Oldboy follows the struggle of the average Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) who, for apparently no reason, is kidnapped and locked in a windowless room for twenty years. Upon an equally spontaneous release he begins an enraged search to discover why he was so brutally imprisoned; along the way cutting through a fog of allies, enemies, twists and turns.

The original drags you in from the moment Oh Dae-su (the Korean main character) comes on screen. Sliding smoothly from the comical first scene through to the ominous tone of the rest of the film, you watch his gradually deteriorating appearance and as you become entwined into each scene you more understand the care taken to relate his intense struggles. Dark humor is injected at the most unlikely but effective moments developing a completely immersive and provocative journey.

We have seen some of the pitiful  Hollywood efforts to translate classic stories into anything more than their trollish over produced style of film. Often the endearing charm of a story is captured and drowned in the concrete of Hollywood’s over-epic formulas. Sometimes succeeding more by a game of numbers than by any artistic direction, the besmirched name of the film they have pillaged inevitably fades into contemptuous obscurity.

  Despite the failings of some of its predecessors, there have also been many remakes where their original style is enhanced by the western budget and approach. Hopefully Oldboy can mirror the cleverly adapted film The Departed. Through the aid of spectacular actors like Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio, The Departed completely blew away audiences in 2006 and will remain a benchmark to anyone attempting to capture success from the Asian market.

The director of Oldboy, Spike Lee, has a history of making intriguing and subtle films whilst still channeling the power of American cinema. With the inclusion of the champion of Asian style cinema, the venerable Samuel L Jackson, and the lead played by Josh Brolin who is no stranger to presenting a dark, tortured and angry character, this film seems to have most of what it needs not to follow The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo  into the sin bin of remakes.

Whether you have experienced the original and want to see how it will fair in the western format or you are just looking for something interesting to watch in the cinema, Oldboy promises to deliver a darkness and brutality reminiscent of the recent Batman series and hopefully will not be as horrific as listening to your stoned housemate explain why a degree in yoghurt would be useful.

Release Date: 6th December 

Review: Blue Jasmine

Written by Robbie Davidson on . Posted in Film.

I felt on edge when I came out of the cinema having seen Blue Jasmine. Being on edge is not a feeling I’d normally associated with a Woody Allen picture. Sometimes a little sad, maybe cynical, often still laughing, but a feeling that at any moment the song Blue Moon might send me spiraling into madness (it makes sense when you’ve seen the film), was certainly a new sensation. But this wasn’t  a ‘typical’ Woody Allen film, although his recent output might suggest there’s no such thing. The prolific director has been steadily producing a film a year to very varying levels of success. So, perhaps it’s the law of averages which has led to Allen’s best film in decades.

It’s certainly not the ‘return to form’ which many critics are hailing it as: Allen’s had many returns to form before ( the critically adored Midnight in Paris) only to follow them up with epic misfires (the charmless To Rome With Love). There’s no telling if his return to Europe in his next feature will continue the cycle. But I suspect when Allen returns to New York, a city so inextricable from his nature, he will produce his best work. Whilst the majority of the film takes places in San Francisco, it’s New York where the titular Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) remembers her old life as a Park Avenue socialite, before her husband’s (Alec Baldwin) financial crimes leave her with nothing (bar a few Louis Vuitton bags) and living with her estranged sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in San Francisco.

Jasmine’s descent into madness, her brief glimmer of redemption in the form of Peter Sarsgaard, and her final scene alone on a park bench talking to herself with no hope of a future, are a marvel to behold. All the superlatives to describe Blanchett’s performance have all been used, suffice to say that I haven’t believed so completely in a character for years. You can both pity and loathe Jasmine over the course of a short scene: as she swigs martinis and pops Xanax whilst dispelling wisdom to Ginger’s kids on the merits of being a ‘good rich person’, Blanchett both entrances and terrifies.

Allen never makes her out to be a villain or a figure to be despised. But then Allen’s films have never been about passing judgement. They may have got darker and more cynical over the years, but he never sets out to demonise the rich. Indeed I imagine the high life of Manhattan’s upper class is a lifestyle Allen is all too familiar with to pass any condemnation. If there was anyone Allen seeks to draw scorn upon it would be the adulterers (strange given his past films and his own personal life). Whether it be Jasmine’s philandering husband, or Ginger’s potential suitor, Al (Louis C K), it’s the men who cheat who are shown to cause the most emotional anguish.

So whilst Blue Jasmine has some of the strongest political undertones of any of Allen’s films, the real interest is in the characters and their response to Jasmine’s drastic change in fortune. Allen has assembled a great supporting cast, who all shine when they could easily have been overshadowed by Blanchett’s towering performance. Blue Jasmine engages as comedy, drama and satire – a balance Allen hasn’t struck for years.  But, perhaps Allen’s real masterstroke is that at times you feel like you’re not watching a Woody Allen film at all. And isn’t that after all what he’s always wanted?

 

Mainstream cinema should open the door to the ‘one who knocks’

Written by Angus Harrison on . Posted in Film.

How Breaking Bad could change movies forever.

Contains spoilers.

It is over. The series that possibly marks the apex of America’s recent ‘Golden Age of Television’, has finished. Yet as we were so often reminded after the Olympics, there is no point dwelling on what has been, it is time to start talking about legacy and Breaking Bad has left a tangible and effective one. The impact it has made on television is fairly clear. Along with Mad Men, the Sopranos, the Wire and a handful of others; the scope of a television drama has been completely redefined (and incidentally completely left Britain behind). Yet the lessons to take from Breaking Bad need not end on the small screen. If employed and properly understood, the golden age of television could save a far from golden age of blockbuster cinema.

Pretty much every major release this summer was plagued by the same problem – stakes. Consistently in high concept, largely sci-fi/fantasy writing, the threat or impact of danger is focused in very large scale physical terms. It seems that whatever happens to Superman, Captain Kirk or Tony Stark, ultimately the greatest damage will always be suffered by bridges, skyscrapers or even planets. Script doctor Damon Lindelhof, recently spoke out against this fetish for gigantism, despite being one of its chief proponents as a writer on both of JJ Abrams Star Trek films and Cowboys & Aliens (2011). In a recent interview he said –

“We live in a commercial world, where you’ve gotta come up with ‘trailer moments’ and make the thing feel big and impressive and satisfying, especially in that summer-movie-theater construct. But ultimately I do feel—even as a purveyor of it—slightly turned off by this destruction porn that has emerged and become very bold-faced this past summer…It’s almost impossible to, for example, not have a final set piece where the fate of the free world is at stake. You basically work your way backward and say, ‘Well, the Avengers aren’t going to save Guam, they’ve got to save the world.’ Did Star Trek Into Darkness need to have a gigantic starship crashing into San ­Francisco? I’ll never know. But it sure felt like it did.”

So now, we turn to view the achievements of Vince Gilligan, and his writing/directing team. What are the elements in Breaking Bad that could persuade a change in blockbuster cinema? Firstly let’s consider the physical investments. Breaking Bad is shot on location, in the punishing terrain of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The scenery has become almost a character in the show itself. Electric and rolling time-lapses link scenes, situating Walter White’s rise (or fall depending on your perspective) against a backdrop that is as wild and unpredictable as his own actions. It is hard to imagine more surreal moments, like Danny Trejo’s head aboard a tortoise, ringing true in a faster more grounded environment – such as the shows originally pitched setting in LA.

Beyond the value of location, the independence of the Breaking Bad directors should be valued exceptionally highly. Despite being the showrunner, Vince Gilligan far from directs every episode. He is surrounded by exceptional directorial talent, most notably Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper) and Bryan Cranston himself. Importantly when these directors take the reigns, Gilligan allows them to do exactly that. Far from making every decision from up on high, he values that his is not the only voice in the room – in fact he recently said that “the worst thing the French gave us is the auteur theory”. Yet Gilligan does not see the alternative to the auteur being a committee, rather he trusts the multiple strengths and individual palettes of his team to produce something that is as singular as it is collaborative. The next, crucial layer to this relationship is the respect Gilligan is then allowed by AMC, the network that produces and broadcasts Breaking Bad. Gilligan has always expressed the huge amount of freedom he is afforded in his narrative and stylistic decisions. It has allowed him to organically develop the concept without the bonds of studio interference. When we consider Lindelhof’s feelings towards the ‘commercial world’ that films are now produced in and view the colossal financial success of Breaking Bad, it becomes possible to re-imagine independence as the more reliable guarantor of profit.*

Yet ultimately we return to the idea of ‘stakes’. What is the ultimate cost of the danger? Well again Breaking Bad provides a fascinating model, for in this case the protagonist “is the danger”. As many times as Hollywood blows up London or wipes out 89 percent of the population, I will never feel the rush of fear and dread I felt watching a DEA officer sat on the toilet reading Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. It is the reason Shaun of the Dead works better than World War Z, why Drive is better than Fast and Furious and why District 9 is better than Elysium. Over the five seasons of Breaking Bad the investment in character is labored over so exquisitely that the thought of harm befalling them – even psychological – conjures heart-aching, gut-wrenching, exceptional television. This doesn’t completely remove spectacle from the equation, take the demise of Gus Fring or the plane crash at the end of season two. Both of these were moments of shock and awe, but built into such meticulous contexts that the true impact was beyond visual. It was a payoff with both an instant rush and an impression that lasts for days.

I listened to a podcast recently, wherein a writer said he didn’t want film to try and incorporate the sprawling character investment that features in shows like Breaking Bad or The Sopranos. Instead he felt cinema should progress toward visual developments to tell stories. In some respects he has a point, how can a film of two hours hope to produce the same level of narrative finesse that Vince Gilligan can spread out over five seasons. Yet more recent films like Moon, Skyfall and to an extent the first Pirates of the Caribbean, are an indication of how wrong it would be to assume that character development is for ‘television only’. We also have a wealth of brilliant pre-millennial cinematic examples to draw from. The new Hollywood generation of Coppola, Spielberg and Lucas, to name a few, may have invented the ‘blockbuster’ – yet forty years after the Godfather, Michael Corleone’s corruption still fascinates us.

Since the arrival of Christopher Nolan we have come to expect our blockbusters ‘dark’. Yet the mistake came when we started assuming ‘dark’ meant ‘death’ or ‘mass destruction’ or ‘really moody sporadic violins’. The darkest moments in Breaking Bad are lies, deception, and moral compromises. As we stand looking back at this ‘Golden Age’ of television it would be easy to romanticise. It isn’t all perfect, most notably the pervading obsession with masculinity that seems to run through all the major television dramas of the past 10 years (a run possibly broken recently by Netflix’s Orange is the New Black). However, the overarching success of these dramas is in understanding that human relationships propose the highest stakes and always will. Seeing the world blown to pieces another time will no longer effect us. There is no variation with such unimaginably high stakes. Seeing a man destroy his family through his own hubris? His selfish search for significance in a universe that seems to have forgotten him? That is a full measure.

*See Armando Ianucci’s BAFTA lecture for more on this theme.

 

101: Combatting A Young-Life Crisis

Written by Dana Fowles on . Posted in Lifestyle.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? I have just started third year and am incidentally questioning my future. Up until now I have always been one of those annoyingly organised people with a well thought-out life plan. Since sixth form, I have had my sights set on a career in women’s magazines, but now I’m freaking out about committing myself to one industry. Do I want to be a journalist, teacher, author or ball-breaking businesswomen? In other words, I’m having a young life crisis.

I have always loved to write. From the stories and poems of my childhood to my articles for The Mancunion, I have never second guessed that putting pen to paper is what I want to do. The problem is, I don’t know if writing about the latest diet, Kim K dying her hair blonde or Miley Cyrus rubbing her nether regions with a giant foam finger is enough to keep me fulfilled for the rest of my days. Don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of goss- but in reality, does anyone actually care? At the risk of sounding uncharacteristically pensive, do these articles make a difference to women’s lives, entertainment value aside?

Anyone who has read any of my previous articles will probably be screaming, ‘Hypocrite!’ as we speak. In the past, I’ve predominantly written about my (pretty disastrous) love life. Although these articles have usually been received with a laugh, I can’t imagine me turning men into my full-time career focus. In the words of my A Level History teacher, ‘Girls, we may like a man, we may want a man, but we do not need a man.’ That said, not all women’s glossies are limited to sex tips and new ways to starve ourselves. Take the October issue of GLAMOUR, for instance. There is plenty of career inspiration, from interviews with women who have set up their own successful businesses despite the recession, to tips on how to stay sane while job hunting. So it’s not all bad.

The problem is (and it’s really more of a privilege than a problem) that there are so many opportunities with a degree from UoM. The question is: which path is the right path? I’m hoping that at some point in the year I’ll suddenly have a light bulb moment and everything will become clear. In the meantime, I’m going to try my very best to stop this young life crisis in its tracks. I’m sure that by semester two, it will have been replaced with dissertation dread, but I’m going to try and see my future as exciting rather than daunting. The POA is to carry on writing (just maybe not about members of the opposite sex – boys, you’re safe for now) and getting as much experience in different fields as possible, in the hope that this epiphany is going to happen. Wish me luck!

Album: DJ EZ – FabricLive.71

Written by Sam Bartram on . Posted in Music.

Released September 2013.

Fabric Records

9/10

The FabricLive series has grown to become a unique and honourable opportunity for the best DJs of the moment to express their musical diversity and mixing capability, all under the name of one of Britain’s most iconic dance music brands. In recent memory, the FabricLive mixtapes have been conquered by the likes of Jackmaster, Oneman and Four Tet, so it seems long overdue that the greatest UK garage DJ of all time should be asked to compile a mix and add the name DJ EZ to this respected list.

Though EZ has been a staple figure in underground music for over a decade, the overwhelmingly positive response to that Boiler Room set has prompted somewhat of a resurgence over the last eight months for the North Londoner. From Parklife to Outlook, EZ has had a triumphant summer doing what he does best: leaving punters mimicking his rather special cueing technique whilst shouting “Little man!” at the top of their voices.

Indeed, DJ EZ’s FabricLive demonstrates perfectly how the garage legend has been able to win over new fans. This mixtape is constructed with a brilliant track selection: old school anthems like ‘Sincere’ by MJ Cole and ‘All I Do’ by Cleptomaniacs are met with modern takes on garage from Disclosure and Woz as EZ confirms his relevance in today’s dance scene. However, for all the undoubtable classics that DJ EZ graces this mix with, it is his own twist on them that makes FabricLive.71 great. The individual style of vocal chopping and cueing is an art that EZ has perfected so well that he is able to create an almost totally new sounding track before the imminent drop of another party shaking selection. EZ’s craftsmanship behind the decks is beautifully exemplified in this FabricLive mix as the steel drums from Wookie’s ‘Little Man’ remix are mixed and matched with the previous track before a brief climax to the drop. The mixing is of such quality that at times there is an uncertainty as to whether it is the original track, a remix, or whether EZ has blended something entirely different – but this is what makes any of DJ EZ’s work so original and interesting, you just don’t know what’s coming next.

With Fabric providing a sizable launchpad for this mixtape, EZ deserves to break away from merely being a garage legend and step up to the status as one of the best DJs across any genre from this country.

‘Unwelcoming’ Navy had Council permission to be outside Union

Written by Michael Williams on . Posted in News.

Manchester University Royal Navy Unit had Council permission to occupy the space they were ejected from during Welcome Week, it has emerged.

Two permits – a council parking dispensation and a council parking suspension – were issued by Manchester City Council to the Manchester  URNU.

The passes cost the URNU £300 – £30 per day for each pass across the five days of Welcome Week. Parking dispensations and suspensions allow vehicles to park in areas where they otherwise would not have been permitted.

Part of the conditions of the passes being issued was the understanding that the URNU van would be parked as close to the Union building as possible, a council spokesperson told The Mancunion.

This was to ensure foot traffic in the area – where Oxford Road joins Lime Grove – was not blocked.

But, as The Mancunion reported last week, the Students’ Union Exec Team asked the URNU to move their van away from the Students’ Union building on Monday morning, and were eventually relocated to outside University Place.

“We had been to the council planning enforcement officer months ago and asked permission,” said Lieutenant Commander Louis Gardner of the Royal Navy.

“We asked exactly who owned that little spot of land, the council stated that they owned it, and we actually paid the council a considerable amount of money to park there.”

The URNU were in possession of the valid paperwork on Monday morning – but were still asked to move.

Lieutenant Commander Gardner said, “Initially, what looked like an undergraduate who worked for the Union came out, and then I showed my pass, that I had a permit to actually be there.

“She went away and got [a Union staff member], who came out and said that everything the council said was wrong.”

Grace Skelton, General Secretary for the Students’ Union Exec Team, said in a statement, “there was a large Royal Navy mobile unit on Union property.

“It is the norm for external organisations to pay the Union a sum of money to operate on its premises, this hadn’t been the case.”

After being approached by a Union staff member, Lieutenant Commander Gardner then tried to reach the parking council official via telephone, but she was on leave.

The decision to move was made “to keep peace with the Union”, he said. “I said ‘look, we’re not here to annoy anyone at all, that’s not what we’re here for.’

“The union say that they own it, but the council say that they pay for that area of land to be paved in the same manner as the rest of the pavement because they own it.”

The Students’ Union Exec Team caused controversy last week when they labeled Armed Forces societies “unwelcoming”.

“It was felt by the exec team that the highly visible presence of the armed forces large mobile unit directly outside the Students’ Union, may look like an affiliation and would make some students feel uncomfortable,” a statement from the Exec Team said.

“They were therefore asked to move from directly outside the Students’ Union and were subsequently relocated on the main University campus.”

Liveblog: Save Our NHS demo

Written by Aidan Gregory on . Posted in News, Opinion.

12:45: The sun is shining, and Greater Manchester Police are out in force as thousands of protestors line up on Deansgate.

13:00: Air horns blare as the demo sets off on its route towards the university.

13:15: The demo stops just outside city hall.

13:40: Protest on the move once again. GMP officers briefed to be dealing with 30,000 people.

13:50: Crowds file past police cordon, 100m away from the Midland Hotel, where the PM will be staying.

Crowd chants “Tory boys!” as three young men in suits walk past.

14:00 Demo passes the GMEX. Chants now more aggressive. Copies of Conservative Home newspaper abandoned on the street

14:15: Thousands of people and banners flood onto Oxford Road. Crowd chants ‘Tories, Tories, Tories – OUT, OUT, OUT’

14:20: GMP helicopter circles overhead

Estimates of up to 50,000 people on the march – one of the largest ever policed by GMP

14:30: March has reached University of Manchester Oxford Road campus

14:45: Protestors reach Whitworth Park, big rally and speakers expected

14:55: Crowds gather at TUC sponsored stage

One person arrested after trying to scale security barrier.

15:20: The last of the protestors file past the Students’ Union.

16:00: Heavy police presence on campus. Steady stream of protestors making their way home.

16:10: The Stalybridge brass band and The Farm play All Together Now on the TUC stage. A musical end to a peaceful demo.

 

 

Top 5 Songs… of the Summer.

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Music.

Breach- Jack

Love it or hate it, Jack’s sheer omnipresence safely secures it the title Tune Of The Summer. Its stupidly catchy vocal hook gave an otherwise uninteresting song mass appeal and an express ticket to Radio 1-playlisted fame.

Paul Woolford- Untitled

The combination of a driving, dark bass roll and a gorgeously-summery piano line would be enough. But then that vocal erupts. At first a surprise, it evolves with every listen into an anticipated, yet still spine-tingling, climax.

Disclosure- You and Me

Though now totally unfashionable, Disclosure reminded us this summer why they’re preposterously famous. Yes, the lyrics- “home is where the heart is”- are doormat-awful, but when your chorus has a bassline this danceable it really doesn’t matter.

Tessela- Hackney Parrot (Special Request VIP)

With the original being last year’s most-hyped tune, this took us through it all again. Littered with spin-backs, sirens and samples referencing Ford Fiestas, crowds were ignited on hearing this for the  first time. Roll on its release.

Ten Walls- Gotham

Gotham certainly isn’t your textbook summer anthem. Clocking in at over nine spooky and shadowy minutes, this techie roller is given legendary status by its timeless creep-up, creep-down synth line.
Label Innervisions never fails to impress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I047BWE9YHg

Interview: Sub Focus

Written by Phoebe Clarke on . Posted in Music.

Nick Douwma, better known as Sub Focus, has become one of the most important voices working in British electronic music today. From humble beginnings as a bedroom DJ, the now household name worked his way to notoriety as producer for chart toppers ‘Kickstarts’ (Example) and ‘Flashing Lights’ (Chase & Status).

Drum and Bass heads will know him best for single ‘Out The Blue’ that has been played at every club and festival around the world and features on new album ‘Torus’. However, the rest of his new material is set to propel him further into the realm of mainstream success.

“I started off wanting to write a bunch of electronic music in different genres,” he explains. “I’m certainly known for DnB such as ‘Out The Blue’, but there’s a mixture of a lot of different influences on this album. There’s House, Dub Step, general Electronic and even Indi references on tracks ‘Turn It Around’ and ‘Tidal Wave’. I wanted it to be diverse, a listening journey from start to finish.”

Defending the diversion from his signature DnB sound, he replies, “it wasn’t a conscious decision to go more “mainstream”. It’s just adding extra dimensions to my sound. I used to spend years making underground club music and so it seems like a nice evolution to be writing more songs.”

In fact, the diversity of the album has secured much support from DJs ranging from Skrillex to Avicii. “It’s been really cool to see different DJs playing it. I wanted to write more songs than I did on the last record as it’s true a lot of artists write new material depending on the reaction to their last album.” With collaborations ranging from Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke to upcoming vocalist Foxes, diversity is the running theme on ‘Torus’.

“Coming from DnB, I wanted to pick people who were quite unusual and not normally associated with it for collaboration. I really like ‘Until the End’ on the new album, as I feel Foxes suits the track perfectly. MNEK has a great tone that works perfectly on ‘Close’ and I’ve always been a big Bloc Party fan so was keen to work with Kele.”

“I believe it’s the unusual combinations that work. When you combine two things that don’t normally mix, for example the Indi sound and Drum and Bass, you get a cool mix of retro Dance with modern House, such as on ‘Turn Back Time’. I also have more confidence writing songs with other people than on my own. Although I would consider using my own vocals in the future, it’s a bit weird working on your own voice.”

It’s not just collaborations but the artwork and samples used on ‘Torus’ that push boundaries. He describes, “a lot of my material is influenced by futuristic sound tracks as I’m a massive fan of sci-fi”. Similarly, the artwork has an unusual concept where a ‘torus’ shaped disk is the running feature “I wanted a simple shape people could easily identify with Sub Focus” he explains. “The film 2001: A Space Odyssey was a big influence as I wanted the artwork to reflect the idea of an unexplained object.”

“I started off playing with a disc shape on the cover of ‘Out the Blue’ and ‘Torus’ was the geometric name for that shape. It felt like the natural title, as the design became such a monument for the album. It reminds me of space ship design in the future, something rotating, to imitate gravity.”

The Sub Focus website similarly features this ‘torus’ shape in stunning 3D graphics that uses panorama to place the shape in locations around the globe. Excitingly, visitors can also preview every track before its release on 30th September here. “I wanted to move this shape into the real world and so placed it in various locations on Google maps that had relevance to the tracks. It was great fun working with a 3D web designer to animate the disc and see the concept come to life.”

Looking to the future, Sub Focus will be hitting the Ritz in Manchester on 17th October. “Although the next thing for me is touring with my live show, hitting Manchester soon and then onto the USA and Australia, I’m always coming up with different ideas and will no doubt be making all kinds of music in the future. I feel my sound development for this album happened very organically and I’ve similarly already started working on music that could be the direction of my future material.”

You can catch Sub Focus Live at the Ritz on the 17th October whilst album ‘Torus’ is available now to pre-order and buy on the 30th September.

Preview: Carrie

Written by Jack Crutcher on . Posted in Film.

This October Stephen King’s 1974 horror novel will get its second chance to shine on the big screen. Carrie was largely seen as a runaway success in 1974 and many fans of horror fiction will recognise it as one of the stand out films of its genre. All that then, should highlight how much is at stake for this autumns’ A-list fright-fest.

 You might think Chloë Grace Moretz would have shied away from taking the lead role in a remake of a much-loved classic – after all, her career so far boasts almost unblemished success in acclaimed roles such as Rachel Hansen in 500 Days of Summer, Isabelle in Hugo and Hit Girl(!) in the mega-money Kick Ass franchise. However, not ones to shy away from the expectant eyes of the public, Moretz and director Kimberley Pierce (Boys Don’t Cry and Stop-Loss), will hope to have increased their stock further with this latest foray into the Hollywood big-time. Pierces’ take on Carrie promises to stick closer to the King novel than the 1976 film version – mainly in an attempt to differ as much as possible from Brian De Palma’s take on the book. This may appease die-hard fans of the original, who will probably view this addition as a needless money spinner

Carrie is ultimately a horror-story centered on emotional abuse. As a film fan you would hope for a director with an impressive repertoire, that goes without saying. But also one able to take on the subject in hand and make it entertaining, even emotionally challenging, but not distasteful. In this respect, Pierce is a sensible bed-fellow for this Carrie re-run. Perhaps Pierces’ most impressive success to date is with Boys Don’t Cry; a film that cleverly tackles the challenges faced by Brandon Teena, a transgender teenager who lives life as a male until it is discovered he was born biologically female. Much like with Carrie, the film tackles the issues facing a young person with deep personal problems.

 

As with any horror remake, the chances are high that this film will be enjoyable, but lacking in the magic of the original. The horror genre is a pretty saturated market with a number of big franchises like Saw, Paranormal Activity and Final Destination. Market saturation is not the only challenge faced by Carrie. As with many of the aforementioned films, the horror paradigm seems to have hit a brick-wall of late. However with a decent director and a promising up-and-coming lead actor, anything is possible.

 

Release Date: 29th November 

Cornerhouse Pick of the Week: Hannah Arendt

Written by Robbie Davidson on . Posted in Film.

‘The banality of evil’ is one of those phrases that has become more famous than the person who originally coined it, which is perhaps why the biopic of its creator, Hannah Arendt, is such an intriguing prospect. But as is obligatory with biopics, the balance between the professional exploits and personal struggles has to be struck to appeal to the widest audience.

Ardent’s professional life was a fascinating one, as a German Jew who emigrated to America during Hitler’s rise to power, she went on to become a respected political theorist and philosopher. But it was her work during the trial of Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, for which she perhaps best known and why the film naturally focuses on this period. But whereas the drama would, you might think, stem from the personal impact for Arendt of reporting on a key figure of the Holocaust, the film in fact explores the controversy which surrounded the publication of her articles for The New Yorker in 1961. Far from writing a basic account of the events of Eichmann’s trial, Ardent was vocal in her criticism of the conducting of the trial in Israel and, most controversially, argued that Eichmann and other Nazis like him were far from psychopathic murderers but in fact ‘normal’ people who chose to commit appalling acts of genocide.

It is from this ‘the banality of evil’ phrase came about and in which, in a scene from the trailer, Arendt (Barbara Sukowa) precedes by stating “the greatest evil in the world is the evil committed by nobodys”. And by the looks of things the film won’t shy away from portraying the vicious attacks Arendt received as a result of her work.

Directed by Margarethe von Trotta, one of the leaders of ‘New German Cinema’ in post war West Germany, we can hope Hannah Arendt pulls no punches when it comes to casting a critical eye on the social issues from the time. The film boasts an excellent international cast including Brits, Janet McTeer and Nicholas Woodeson. The film also makes the wise choice of trusting the audience to be able to enjoy a film with subtitles: rather than attempting to jarringly insist that every character speak the same language (usually English) but change their accent to reflect their true nationality, the filmmakers have decided to have characters speak in the language they would have actually spoken. As a result the large parts of the film’s dialogue are in both and German and English, which may not seem that novel a notion but hundreds of great European films have been denied mass distribution simply because the characters speak in their native language. So if you aren’t afraid of reading and have any passing interest in history or psychology, or just want to try something different, then go see Hannah Arendt which is now showing at The Cornerhouse.

Live: Babyshambles

Written by Rob Earle on . Posted in Music.

Manchester Academy 1

7th September

8/10

The air is thick with sweat and hope at Manchester’s Academy 1. Few bands arouse such diverse feelings of anxiety and excitement in their fans, (see Guns N’ Roses’ recent live stints… actually, don’t), but Babyshambles are truly one of them, recently causing controversy after arriving onstage 90 minutes late for their album launch at Brixton.

Pete Doherty’s post-Libertines project has been a tumultuous affair, a freewheeling, schizophrenic trilby-wearing soiree whose moments of magic are sadly overlooked by Doherty’s personal life. Doherty’s off-stage antics can be as chaotic and as unpredictable as his live performances. In an interview with NME, the former Libertine declared that he would have to ‘lose a hand’ in order to quit his relationship with drugs, a confession which destabilized his apparent aversion to such substances in recent years and could even shatter the faith of his most loyal fans.

Fortunately for tonight’s crowd, most of the tension is deflated by an early entrance and a sprightly-looking Pete bounding across the stage and soaking up the admiration of his audience. The band waste no time in kicking off the proceedings with the rapturous ‘Delivery’ from their 2007 album Shotter’s Nation followed by their latest single ‘Nothing Comes to Nothing’. After 10 years, 3 studio albums and countless bootlegs, their setlist is a solid and eclectic showcase of classics and rarities interspersed by cuts from their new album ‘Sequel to the Prequel’, the fruits of which are mature and necessary ventures into new terrain for the band. ‘Picture Me in a Hospital’, written about bassist Drew McConnell’s car accident, manages to combine gut-wrenching lyricism with life-affirming pop music whilst the reggae-influenced ‘Dr. No’ excites the crowd into bopping and cheering along. Album track ‘Fall from Grace’ translated surprisingly well into the live medium, eschewing its country-and-western dynamics in favour of a hearty indie anthem.

Doherty injects (no pun intended) a great deal of showmanship into his performance. What he lacks in professionalism, he more than makes up for with an abundance of charming and charismatic manoeuvres, stage-diving, microphone-swinging and rodeo-dancing with fans to name but a few. A lesser performer would make falling into the drum kit look pathetic but he pulls it off with great finesse! There are times during the show where his raw performing style comes at the expense of the fans’ patience, such as inexplicably slinking offstage during live-favourite ‘Killamangiro’ which provokes bemusement and jeering from the crowd.

It is the vibe that he inspires that allows him to be messy, declaring at one point, “We’re in Manchester, it doesn’t matter how we play!”, and he’s absolutely right. However, this isn’t to say that the band don’t deliver a unique and thrilling live performance, from the melodic sing-along chorus of ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ to the dark and thunderous ‘The Man Who Came To Stay’. A great deal of credit has to go to his band mates Mick Whitnall and Drew McConnell whose talents are greatly underrated, no doubt overlooked by their enigmatic frontman, but are responsible for keeping the good ship Doherty afloat and producing the goods.

Whilst the outfit may never match the flair and originality of The Libertines, Babyshambles are unarguably a tremendous band in their own right. I defy anyone not to be impressed by the force and creativity of their standard closer ‘Fuck Forever’, a punk anthem up there with The Clash’s ‘I Fought the Law’ and The Jam’s ‘In the City’. The song’s chant of ‘They’ll never play this on the radio’ seems to represent the band’s necessity in today’s music scene where too many artists play it safe. The risks of a band like Babyshambles are obvious, but the rewards are completely worth it.