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Day: 19 December 2014

Live: Angus & Julia Stone

13th December

Albert Hall

4/10

A very family orientated evening saw sister act The Staves open for Aussie brother and sister duo Angus & Julia Stone. The haunting vocals of The Staves are even more inconceivably beautiful live than on record. The term ‘folk’ is often misused for artists like George Ezra who play pop songs with acoustic guitars. But these three have the sort of vocal power and control that physically stops you in your tracks, combined with woody acoustic guitars and clever lyrics, their sound harks back to the golden years of folk. Their down to earth, dry humour between songs was an unexpected contrast to their music and made it sound even more ethereal. These three are definitely ones to watch but, perhaps, not ones to follow on stage.

After the striking vocals of The Staves the scratchy, babyish tone of Julia’s singing was more than a little abrasive and incredibly repetitive. While easier on the ear, the lyrics and song themes also have this dully repetitive quality. I imagine their cover of ‘You’re The One That I Want’ (yes, the cheesy theme from Greece) is supposed to be cool and subversive, an unexpectedly edgy twist on everyone’s childhood favourite, but I found it cringe inducing and it dragged on for far too long. Although I did admittedly look around and see a few older faces in the crowd bobbing up and down happily.

This is followed up by another twee cover of ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and when a few songs later they announce  they’ll be playing a cover of The National, my plus-one leans over and asks “wait, haven’t they all been covers?”. This does seem to be the theme of the evening. However ‘Santa Monica Dream’ is a memorable closing note to the show. Angus’s deeper tones chime in to finish Julia’s lines nicely.

Club: Hi Ku presents Luke Vibert / Funkineven / Romare

6th December

1 Primrose Street

8/10

For their second birthday, well-regarded club night Hi Ku visited 1 Primrose Street. Formerly known as Underland, and before that an abattoir, the venue is relaxed and has a DIY aesthetic to it. Though down the road from Sankeys, it thankfully feels a world away.

Funkineven was first up in the basement. The Londoner’s tunes have a serious Detroit bent to them, sitting well with Hi Ku’s previous bookings from the motor city. Bopping in the booth for two hours, he was clearly having fun. Moving quickly between soulful disco and gritty techno, his set was fast-paced and thrilling. Classics were drawn for –  Jeff Mills’s ‘The Bells’ and Ron Trent’s ‘Altered States’- along the way. Whilst his own work ‘Igno’, a Funkineven and Kyle Hall track, sounded huge, particularly at the speed it was played at.

Upstairs, in what was less ‘Room 2’ and more ‘cold barn’, the genre-crossing and African-influenced Romare did a fine job in less-than-ideal circumstances. The speakers were small, the room freezing and the dancefloor an awkward podium. Yet this didn’t stop him drawing a sizeable crowd who lapped up his fine selections which worked as a breather from the intensity downstairs.

Back to the basement, now packed and sweaty, for headliner Luke Vibert. This veteran and master-of-monikers gave the crowd a brilliant display of his trademark acid sound. The basement space now really came into its own, made all the better by the punchy and crisp Void sound-system. Unsurprisingly, Luke’s choices going back to the 90s got the best responses: LFO’s classic ‘LFO’ was met with wild cheers. Bringing Vibert, a name rarely seen in Manchester, paid off for Hi Ku and was a great way to round off their birthday bash.

UAE set to invest in Fallowfield redevelopment

The University of Manchester has announced a partnership with the United Arab Emirate’s Mubadala Development Company in the redevelopment of the Fallowfield campus, worth approximately £175 million.

The plans, which involve the demolition of Oak House and the Owens Park Tower, expect the first phase to be ready for students for the 2018/2019 academic year. Ultimately, the project will result in 3000 new rooms for University of Manchester students.

Lettings will be managed by the University of Manchester’s Accommodation Office, and a spokesperson from the university told The Mancunion: “In terms of rents, we have acquired legal guarantees that residence rent levels would be affordable.

“Future students will enjoy high quality accommodation at market rates. Rents will be benchmarked against other Russell Group universities in the north of England, as well as private sector providers in Manchester.”

The partnership with Mubadala builds on the already-established relationship with Masdar, the Abu Dhabi-based clean technology and renewable energy company that is owned by Mubadala.

Mubadala in turn is itself wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, and its Chairman, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the Al Nahyan family, is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

Mubadala’s company strategy aims for “long-term, capital inensive investments that deliver strong financial returns,” and a share of profits from the development will go to Mubadala.

The university declined to give further information regarding how much Mubadala will profit from future first-year students, saying: “We are unable to say much more at this stage, as there is still a formal planning process ahead, and the next phase involves a meeting of the City Council Executive on December 22nd.”

Mubadala helps to finance the government of Abu Dhabi and ensures its economy is diversified. Abu Dhabi has become infamous in recent years for its human rights abuses, particularly of LGBT individuals and women. In May 2014, a woman was sentenced to death by stoning in the city for committing adultery whilst married.

LGBT individuals face up to 14 years imprisonment for homosexual behaviour and after the arrest of a group of homosexual men in Abu Dhabi in 2005, Minister of Justice Mohammed bin Nukhaira Al Dhahiri said: “There will be no room for homosexual and queer acts in the UAE. Our society does not accept queer behaviour, either in word or in action.”

The university did not comment when asked if the university was aware of these issues in its search for suitable investors and whether or not it felt that the partnership may be insulting to female and LGBT members of the University of Manchester—especially in light of the fact that future rents will aid the government in Abu Dhabi in carrying out such policies.

Instead of addressing this the spokesperson added: “The UAE is already the UK’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, whilst several British universities have opened campuses in the UAE.

“In the 2014 Human Development Report the UAE was ranked second in the Arab World and 42nd out of 187 countries—the UK was 27th.

“Abu Dhabi itself is a liberal Muslim metropolis, and their investment in Manchester reflects a continuing affinity with our city. The Emirate already has $1 trillion estimated in overseas assets.”

The University of Manchester Students’ Union has been contacted for comment.