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Day: 8 April 2016

Preview: Manchester City vs West Brom

October was the last time that Manchester City managed two back to back wins in England, as they saw off Bournemouth at The Etihad—so now seems the perfect time to tear apart that statistic after beating Bournemouth away from home last weekend. A great result in Paris will have given them great confidence that they can get past West Brom this Saturday.

Injuries

·         David Silva – not a real problem, should be fit for PSG on Tuesday

·         Vincent Kompany – not far away now. Perhaps could be in the squad for PSG

·         Raheem Sterling – two to three weeks away

Main Battle

Salomón Rondón vs Eliaquim Mangala

Rondón has seven Premier League goals this season for West Brom, and is their top scorer in all competitions. Although he may not sound like a very impressive forward with only eight goals in all competitions, he has recently scored against Manchester United, Leicester City and Everton who have all struggled against the Baggies. United were beaten, Leicester were held to a point at their home ground, and Everton were beaten also. Mangala had a fantastic performance against PSG in the Champiosn League midweek, and will be looking to kick-on and prove his worth to incoming manager Pep Guardiola before the end of the season—stopping Rondón would be a great way to do that.

Photo: Wikimiedia Commons

Last Time

Manchester City 3-0 West Brom

David Silva, Yaya Touré and Vincent Kompany romped home in the Midlands, as City opened the Premier League with an easy win. This was the first of six wins in a row for City.

Quote of the Presser

“Everyone said last week at Bournemouth that we could be thinking about the Champions League but we did very well and that gave us trust for Wednesday – it will be exactly the same tomorrow,” – Manuel Pellegrini on whether City can perform as well in this match, knowing that PSG are around the corner

PSG

Photo: Wikimiedia Commons

City made history on Wednesday night, as they featured for the first time in the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League. City travelled to Paris to play PSG, and came back to Manchester very happy. City came back with two vital away goals, and a great performance under their belt. It looked like it would be City’s day from very early on, when Joe Hart superbly saved Zlatan Ibrahimović’s penalty. Justice was served, however, as the penalty decision was a howler from the referee.

The first goal came for City after the returning Kevin de Bruyne thumped the ball into the net! City quickly found themselves back level for half-time though, after Fernando had a bit of a wobble in his own penalty box and Ibrahimović was lurking just behind him. The last few weeks City have been struggling for form, but Fernando has dragged the team kicking and screaming through some decent results after pulling out some great performances, but its safe to say that he had a bit of a nightmare with that one.

Not to matter though—City came back out for the second half and, despite falling behind, pulled back a goal from the ever-reliable Fernandinho! Two away goals in the Champions League cannot be underestimated, as City have a massive opportunity to go on and get to the semi-finals of the competition. Despite how Fernandinho scored and put in a fantastic performance yet again for City, Eliaquim Mangala was Man of the Match for me, after an especially good second-half performance. Furthermore, Blaise Matuidi and David Luiz both picked up bookings in this match so will not be able to play against City in Manchester on Tuesday. This will give City great confidence for this weekend’s match against West Brom.

WBA

From PSG to WBA! I’ll have another vowel please Rachel.

The Baggies aren’t in the best of form at the moment, and seem to be comfortable in mid-table, as they so often are. However, after recent wins against United and Everton, and a draw against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, it is evident that they can definitely turn on the heat in the big games. City have been pretty comfortable in recent seasons against the Midlands side, but will need to be careful at The Etihad. It’s now that City really need to find their form, with Manchester United and West Ham United breathing right down their necks in the final furlong. Although City fans may dream, it would be very surprising if the Blues won the Champions League, so performances in the Premier League must improve if they hope to secure a top four and Champions League qualification spot for next season.

Prediction

Sneaky feeling Wilfried Bony will score too.

Manchester City 3-0 West Brom.

 

Brexit could cost UK £3.7 billion generated from EU students

Analysis by Universities UK (UUK) claims that students from the European Union “spend money and create jobs in all corners of the UK”.

According to the research, students from other EU countries studying at UK universities generate £3.7 billion for the UK economy, and they support over 34,000 jobs in the country.

The research, based on 2011-12 student numbers, revealed that the EU students create £1.44 billion through spending on campus, and another £220 million on fees and costs. The rest of their contribution is created through off-campus spending of £1.49 billion on goods and services, including food and rent.

The UUK report also broke down the money generated by region, which revealed that London benefits from European students the most, generating £788.9 million via income and 7,580 jobs. Northern Ireland gains the least, with £78.1 million and 841 jobs.

5 per cent of the UK university population is made up of EU students, with most of them coming from Germany, with 13,675 students.

Dame Julia Goodfellow, president of UUK and vice-chancellor of the University of Kent, said EU students “make a very important academic and cultural contribution to university life, creating an international, outward-looking culture on campuses which, in turn, benefits UK students.

She added that leaving the EU and “putting barriers to work and study makes it more likely that European students and researches will choose to go elsewhere, strengthening our competitors and weakening the UK universities.”

Angus Dalgleish, professor of oncology at St George’s, University of London and speaking to Times Higher Education said that a vote to leave the EU would not make a “blind bit of difference” to the money brought to the country by EU students.

Dalgleish claims the £3.7 billion figure released by UUK did not include the money which the country loses from EU students, referencing the money they take out as student loans and don’t pay back. In 2012 THE reported that 42 per cent of EU students were not keeping up with repayments.

Jo Johnson, the Universities and Science Minister has commented that the UK’s “success as a knowledge economy hinges on our ability to collaborate with the best minds from across Europe and the world.”

He claims it would “be reckless to cut ourselves off from the rich sources of the EU funding, the access to valuable shared research facilities and the close institutional ties that provide so many opportunities to British students and academics”.

Johnson and 13 former ministers are all signatories to a letter to The Times argued that leaving the EU would “weaken our universities and lessen their positive impact”.

Survey reveals British public stands behind all-out junior doctor strike

The latest wave of industrial action undertaken by junior doctors from the 6th – 8th of April was largely supported by the British public, a YouGov survey found. 59 per cent of people asked approved of strike action, while 23 per cent opposed it.

The YouGov survey further found that almost half of the British population approve of and support the all-out junior doctor strike planned for the 26th – 27th of April between 8am and 5pm. This strike will be the first time that junior doctors will not be providing emergency backup.

Chair of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, Johann Malawana, said: “We deeply regret the disruption this will cause and this is not a decision we have taken lightly.

“Junior doctors have no other choice—the new contract is unfair and would be bad for the delivery of care, and the NHS, in the long term.”

Previous polls revealed the likelihood of declining support if the junior doctors refused to provide emergency cover, however, the survey revealed that 45 per cent supported the strike, 38 per cent opposed it 15 per cent did not have an opinion on the matter.

Many participants of the survey, a total of 45 per cent blamed the Department of Health for the continued dispute over junior doctors’ contracts. Further outrage was spurred last week when the government announced that the new contracts they are planning to impose will “impact disproportionately” on women’s wages.

Dr Rachel Clarke told The Independent: “The Department of Health hasn’t even tried to hide the discrimination at the heart of its new contract. In other words, for [David] Cameron, the alleged champion of women, women’s salaries are mere collateral damage.”

To show support for the junior doctors a protest was organized by Plan C Manchester outside Spire hospital in Whalley Range Hospital in Manchester. The protest also meant to highlight the growing trend of the government’s healthcare privatisation and austerity strategies.

“We don’t want the public to be fooled into thinking this strike is just about Saturday working conditions. We want to support the Junior Doctors who are already fighting against the continued privatisation of the NHS and to keep the pressure on the Conservative Government” said Kevin, a member of Plan C MCR.

Holding banners reading “Stop the NHS Sale,” the group protested against Spire Healthcare who are in charge of delivering public healthcare contracts. The company came under scrutiny recently as it was revealed that spire had paid a total amount of £3 million in taxes in between 2008-2010 despite making an operational profit of £123 million in 2010 alone.

Plan C Manchester will be protesting alongside junior doctors in future strikes and want to encourage more people to support industrial action for improved contracts and a safer NHS.

The Closet x MISSGUIDED Preview

The Closet is a student-led charity clothing shop occupying the old RBS building at The University of Manchester, which aims to promote sustainable fashion and youth entrepreneurship.

It represents a collective of youth creativity and aims to showcase the power of student action, by encouraging participation in charity projects.

Since The Closet’s opening in February, the store has been host to a variety of fundraising events such as their cheese and wine night and “Fill a bag for £5” sale. But their next event is one that has had everybody talking!

The Closet have teamed up with the clothing company MISSGUIDED to hold a sample sale and it is expected to be the biggest event at The Closet to date.

The event begins this Monday with the official launch party, where you can expect heaps of fashion, live music and a whole bundle of freebies. The event is free for anybody to attend so make sure you get down early to avoid disappointment!

The MISSGUIDED sample sale will occupy The Closet for a further two weeks, with all proceeds going to Manchester Mind, a mental health charity. The store will be open from Monday 11th April – Friday 22nd April between 2pm and 6pm.

For more information and to keep up-to-date with all the events happening at The Closet, head over to our facebook page: www.facebook.com/theclosetmcr or follow us on instagram:@theclosetmcr or on twitter: @thecloset_mcr

Club: Dixon and Âme

Albert Hall

25th March

7.5/10

The 25th of March saw the two co-founders of Innervisions play a six-hour set at Albert Hall. With no supports before and after them, the set really gave them the duo ample time to craft an atmosphere and delve deep into their music collections. Now in its eleventh year Innervisions continues to churn out exciting releases, so it’s fair to say we were really looking forward to this set.

As expected with such a long night ahead, the set started off quite slow. 11.30 saw a cheeky steel-drum infused number, but until midnight it was nothing special. It would have been nice if they had used the opportunity to play some more interesting slower cuts, but oh well. A slow start wouldn’t normally have been a problem, but the Albert Hall suffered from being surprisingly empty. With the balcony completely barren in some patches, it felt like we were rattling around a bit.

Following a move to the much more atmospheric downstairs, the night really got going soon after midnight, and got really exciting at 1am. Piercing beams of light set the scene for Darlyn Vlys’ extremely eerie ‘Colours’ (Ruede Hagelstein Remix) and the assembled crowd really got into their groove.

The pair played stretched out compositions, which meant each song would be about 10 minutes long, really giving it time to grow and expand. The Drifter remix of ZK Bucket’s ‘Let Your Body Control The Beat’ was perfectly suited to this and had us hooked on every beat, as did the equally luscious Ewan Pearson remix of Glenn Morrison’s ‘Into The Deep’.

Around 2 o’clock things got really hot. Dixon dropped the absolutely gorgeous ‘Moorthon II’ Frank Wiedemann (Innervisions release 63). Âme followed it with the stomping unreleased track Trikk ‘Proto-Rhyt’, whose cascading thunderous drums sent us into a collective euphoria and cutting through the melodic techno that thus far had kept us entranced.

While the music was definitely heavier than what I would normally go for, it sounded great live. The masterful selection and blending by Dixon and Âme meant that it was impossible not to get caught up in the atmosphere of it all. Once again the Albert Hall was amazing clubbing venue; the breath-taking surroundings of the balcony, organ and stained glass windows giving the event a vibe that perfectly suiting the intense atmosphere of the crowd. As we left around 3.30 a drop of Bicep’s recently released remix of Isaac Tichauer’s ‘Higher Level’ sent the crowd into a such a frenzy that we nearly decided to stay. Not wanting to outstay our welcome however, the track’s name was telling of what was an apt point to leave.

Review: Inside Out

A psychiatric timetable lists one patient’s mordantly comic sessions for later that day: Sigmund Freud, R. D. Laing, Dr Prinzhorn and, lastly, Dr Death. The promise of a grueling programme of personal scruntity and overbearing psychological probing is not only felt by this poor patient, created by artist Nick Blinko, but also by the breed of artists dubbed ‘outsiders’. Their work is so often written off as the hermetic, aesthetically illegible by-product of therapy, as opposed to the more controlled, critically-sponsored world of Fine Art. Academic, artist and writer David Maclagan, a proud outsider himself, has teamed up with Castlefield gallery to create a show based around these eccentrics. Full of weird and wonderful visions, all of the works are obsessive, meticulous and more than worthy of serious attention.

The highlight of the show is the work of David Brian Adcock. He works on hand-framed boards that intertwine electronic buttons, hidden underdrawings only revealed by a probing UV light and brilliantly detailed ink drawings. They need activation to work fully as the light reveals dour asides and intricate backgrounds—the proverbial ‘outsider’ now thrives on inspection.

There is a nice selection from South African artist Marlene Steyn, including a totem-like sculpture of clambering figures and three paintings on linen. In these images, women sprout from the kneecaps and elbow joints of other reclining women; some legs are covered in thorny hairs and the spontaneous pregnancies appear sexy, pleasurable. Steyn describes her work as a metamorphosis of bodies into history, myth and psychology. Her sharply drawn anatomies pop open like the layers of shrinking females in Russian dolls; the contortion in the drawing is perfect.

The appointment card mentioned previously belongs to a series of tormented works by the anarcho-punk singer Nick Blinko. His oeuvre quite literally comes out the confines of the sanatorium as his band’s album Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric (1995) was reportedly composed during his residency in a psychiatric ward. The album’s punning title is illustrative of Blinko’s dark religious visions, which are placed either side of a grey institute façade—a window of which holds back small leaping lunatics in the tallest tower of the hospital. Blinko’s analysis schedule may be a witty tally of white-coated shrinks but it serves as a reminder of the imprisonment of outsider art, generically and critically. Joel Lorand’s work reflects the reclusive-hermetic streak in outsider circles. His dense works are in line with ancient Roman grotesques, another neglected form that wasn’t discovered until the accidental 15th century discovery of Nero’s Domus Aurea.

Unfortunately, it is the more acclaimed artists who disappoint. Real visionary skill cannot be affected. Mit Senoj has enough art fair credits and accolades for a successful-looking leaflet biography (whereas the brief lives of full-blood outsiders tend to read like psychiatric recovery notes, stereotypically speaking), however, his fruit-laden, vine-wrapped women are weakly drawn and unimaginative—tinned fruit versions of Arcimboldo’s bountiful portraits. Pat Darach, another serious award-winner (1995 John Moores Prize and the 1997 Jerwood Drawing Prize), has only one painting on show and it is a dull abstract expressionist plughole-spin called Well (2012). Mehrdad Rashidi’s doodles are just repetitive mind-melds of heads leaking into one another.

For those who want to uncover the secrets of these works and find out more about the fascinating curating process then Castlefield have some tours and talks coming up. On 16th April there is a in-conversation followed by a curator tour given by David Maclagan and Bryony Bond. Also, on the 20th Lauren Velnick will be talking about her uncle, the prolific outsider Christopher John Holme (1952-2010), and her recent work of cataloguing and promoting his unknown output.

Find out more at Inside Out (4th March – 24th April)

Manchester PhD student wins Science Communication Competition

Molecular Biology PhD student at The University of Manchester,  Ben Stutchbury, has won an international science communication competition. The contest was hosted by the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Chemistry World. Its aim was to make the topic of chemistry more accessible to the public.

Those passionate about science, writing, and science communication were called upon to enter the competition, after a report from the RSC exploring public attitudes to chemistry revealed that subject is viewed as an isolated field, which was seen to be inaccessible, serious, and intimidating. This stood in stark contrast to the public’s general perception of science as being mostly fun, interesting, and engaging.

The RSC report highlighted how chemistry fails to relate to the wider population, prompting improvements in the way the field is communicated to the public.

The competitors first had to submit an 800 word article exploring a theme uncovered by the research. Stutchbury concluded that establishing why science was tangible and chemistry was not, would help to make chemistry more accessible.

Stutchbury argued that this may be due to the lack of a ‘public champion’ for Chemistry in the mainstream media: Biology and David Attenborough, or Physics and Brian Cox.

Stutchbury said:  “The RSC Public Attitudes to Chemistry Research Report highlighted a number of issues in the way chemistry is perceived by the public. For example, when asked where a chemist was likely to work, most people said “in a pharmacy”!”

“One thing that struck me was how negatively the term ‘Chemistry’ is viewed by the public in comparison term ‘Science’. As chemistry is a huge part of science, I was surprised by how differently they are perceived. I think that the public opinion to the terms ‘Biology’ and ‘Physics’ would be more positive than that of ‘Chemistry’.”

After completion of the essay, finalists were shortlisted, and were required to produce a 10 minute talk explaining a chemistry concept in an engaging way. The five finalists competed for the grand prize in the prestigious Faraday lecture theatre at the Royal Institution.

After his talk explaining the chemistry behind mucus in our bodies, Stutchbury was awarded the Science Communicator award. The £500 cash award comes with publication of his essay in Chemistry World, and the opportunity of work experience with AkzoNobel—a world leader in the Chemistry field.

Stutchbury commented on his experiences of the competition: “It is really fantastic to have won the award, but the most exciting thing was just reaching the final. The opportunity to present in the historic Faraday Lecture Theatre is something I will never forget. The other finalists all gave brilliant presentations and it really showed that the communication of exciting chemistry has a bright future!”

White children fall behind at GCSE due to “lack of parental support”

White British children are falling behind students from ethnic minority groups at GCSE level, despite being in the top 3 highest attaining groups at age 5.

They fall to 13th in an attainment table by age 16; behind pupils of Chinese, Indian, Asian, and black African descent.

The research by the CentreForum thinktank suggests that this substantial fall in performance is due to a lack of parental support in white families.

Jo Hutchinson, CentreForum’s associate director for education, has said: “We are talking about things such as parents attending parents’ evenings at school, talking to their children about subject options, supervising homework, ensuring that the family eats together and has regular bedtimes.”

The report also suggests that a parent’s aspirations are becoming less important than the support they provide. Hutchinson says that “most parents actually want their children to continue in education and be successful in education.”

“What sometimes differs is the extent to which they have the knowledge and the tools and resources to help them to make that aspiration real.”

“It’s not just aspirations but behaviours that support the aspirations.”

CentreForum’s executive chairman and former Liberal Democrat schools minister in the coalition government, David Laws, has said that the suggestions in this report aren’t definitive.

He said: “I don’t think we know all the answers to this. We know that we’ve got this very bad performance of white pupils versus other ethnic groups.

“We know from this analysis that it’s not embedded in the beginning of education because actually they appear to be doing relatively well at the beginning of their journey.

“So something is clearly happening about their ability to take advantage of the opportunities that other ethnic groups do manage.”

But it seems that these findings are not being accepted too readily. A University of Manchester student told The Mancunion that she is concerned over the report, claiming that accusations about the lack of support in white families is “offensive”.

“To say that white children are failing at GCSE because our parents do not show enough support is… wrong.

“I come from a family where the children have a pretty wide range of academic abilities and it isn’t because some parents are or were more involved than others.

“There are other factors: the school, natural ability, the interests of the child”. These suggestions are “completely unfair”.

Expressing her disapproval further, she says: “In parts of the report they may have well as written ‘white parents can’t discipline’, because that’s what it sounds like.”

Muslim women academically outperform male counterparts

A comparative study conducted by Dr Nabil Khattab of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar and Professor Tariq Modood from the University of Bristol found that more Muslim women, approximately 25% aged 21-24 have gained degrees at university level, compared with 22% of Muslim men of the same age.

The research further found that girls are out-performing the boys before university too. After studying GCSE results of over 6,600 candidates in England, the academics show that Muslim girls aged 11-14 score higher on tests in school than Muslim boys.

Dr Khattab and Professor Modood said this was a “cultural transformation” of previous trends, especially “when one considers that in 1990 and 1991 that Pakistani and Bangladeshi men admitted to higher education outnumbered their female peers by more than two to one and more than three to one respectively.”

The research proves interesting in comparison to recent research showing a gender gap among Muslims both in education and the labour market. “While older men are more likely to be degree-holders than their female counterparts, younger women are more likely to have degrees,” Dr Khattab explains.

One of the reasons the research was described as striking was “the well-established educational disadvantages among some Muslim ethnic groups, most notably Pakistanis and Bangladeshis”.

Muneera Lula, Politics and History student at the University of Manchester says: “The reason these findings seem so ‘shocking’ to people is because they have preconceptions of Muslim women, that they are docile, homely, and passive rather than the intelligent and driven people they often are.”

The academics explanation for this ‘shift’ might be that young Muslim women “understand that they are likely to face labour market penalties due to widespread stereotypes and racism, perhaps more so than Muslim men.”

Khattab explained that this new research “can reinforce their determination to obtain higher education qualifications not only as good as those of the majority group but even better, in order to resist the anticipated labour market discrimination preventing them from achieving a desired job.”

Responding to this, Lula asserts that the “British Muslim women push themselves in education as a way of making it clear, with a cap and gown, they aren’t to be underestimated” adding, “I will take up the opportunity for all the women far smarter than me that never had the chance.”

Album: The Pet Shop Boys – Super

Released 1st of April via x2

It’s a big year for the Pet Shop Boys! Thirty years and a handful of days ago, they released their debut, Please, with that iconic tiny photo on the album sleeve, looking so ahead of the curve now that the largest I generally see any album art is the 190×190 Spotify image. That’s the way I’m ingesting the cover of their thirteenth record, Super, and though the musical landscape has changed much over the Pet Shop Boys’ career, they remain as camp and clever and profound as ever.

In fact, we are at a cultural moment—finally!—where the curve appears to have caught up with them. Where underground musical culture is more obviously indebted to the queer club sounds and bad-taste-rendered-sublime that they pioneered, than the guitar tradition they made themselves foils to. In this context it’s hard to imagine the Pet Shop Boys being able to pull off something new; no potential to do something as contrarian and as brilliant as releasing an album of campy Latin tunes as answer to Britpop. Instead of standing out, they’ve wormed themselves into the existing pop landscape this time around, but in such as way that they’ve made it clear quite how indebted everyone is to them. Super is effectively a retrospective, a Pet Shop Boys tribute to the Pet Shop Boys, and it works because of course it does.

Super cribs relentlessly from a lot of contemporary dance trends—moody Berlin basslines, tropical house fills; even the godawful Avicii country sound makes an appearance on opener ‘Happiness’. It’s all blended with more retro sounds: ‘Burn’ has so many orchestra hits it could only be by them, and lead single ‘the Pop Kids’ and closer ‘Into Thin Air’ both run off the back of Neil’s dreamy, bittersweet vocals the way all their most transcendental singles did. It’s also a 2016 hi-NRG record, a criminally underappreciated genre they’ve been carrying the torch for this whole time. All of the cribbing—and of course the self-reference—is done with the utmost care though; the sound of them as lovers, producers, critics and curators of pop for thirty years and counting.

There is definitely filler—they have always been a band of Smash Hits! over concept albums. There is nothing as perfect as ‘Being Boring’ here, but that’s a level of pop perfection I wouldn’t expect from anyone else. They’re still the biggest, cleverest, funniest; still the best at what they do.

7/10

 

Cosmosis Festival 2016

Victoria Wharehouse

12th March

8/10

Cosmosis Festival has come a long way. Last year it was held in the pokey student Mecca of Antwerp Mansion, whereas this year saw it grace the cavernous halls of Victoria Warehouse. As well as this, the line up this year was stratospheric, making it a must for any paisley fiend or hirsute shoegazer in the Manchester area and beyond. It is testament to the gravitational pull of headliners Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Sleaford Mods, that it was an excited Mary Chain fan all the way from Dublin who lent me his programme as we waited to collect our wristbands.

After sounding out the various stages and attempting to come to grips with the token system, youthful Manchester outfit Freakout Honey were my first foray into the woozy sound of Cosmosis. On the gratefully-heated Fire Stage, they took their glitter-laced surf-psych to some heavenly highs and set a precedent for the festival’s direction. The recent psychedelic revival has slowly seemed to mutate into a thicker, fuzzier, shoegazing existence, and as a result, everywhere you went, a barrage of guitars and effects pedals enveloped you. Despite this vogue, Freakout Honey were, in their best moments, more 13th Floor Elevators than My Bloody Valentine. It was in these more jangly songs that their ear for off kilter psychedelia was apparent.

Then, it was back into the warehouse (which was honestly colder than outside) and to the Earth stage, to see how one of the most vital post punk bands of the late seventies and early eighties held up live as the band members enter their own late seventies and early eighties. (That might be a bit harsh.) Nevertheless, I arrived at Wire expecting a tight, if eclectic, show. I left thinking that Cosmosis 2016 might well have peaked too early. I was prepared for the angular spiky punk of debut album Pink Flag, and they made my ignorance of their development show as they sent a cascade of unearthly atmospheric songs fizzing around the room. They began well but finished magnificently; it was indicative of the sheer power of their sound that other than the peculiar scrub in the fedora air-guitaring beside me, no one was moving a muscle. Dancing would only have distracted from the mind bending experience being thrust upon us all. The final 15 minutes of their show…I couldn’t tell you what they were playing, I wouldn’t be able to hum you a tune, but I do remember it being so loud and so affecting that I began to hallucinate melodies. A large column impaired my view, and I had to peek around it once to assure myself that no one on stage was embellishing the wig-out with some Gregorian chanting. At the end, everyone quietly filed out and, if they were anything like me, took a good 20 minutes outside digesting what had just happened.

If I’m honest, I was quite hard to impress for a period after that; I thought Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats sounded like the Darkness, which is all that needs to be said about that. The Raveonettes, of whom I’d heard rave reviews, had some promising moments early on, but started to bore with a succession of what seemed to be quite straightforward, countryish pop songs. I could see why lots of people were enamoured by them, but it took some chips, an in-depth discussion in the queue about the career progression of Daniel Radcliffe, and another trip to the cosy Fire stage to see The Altered Hours to raise my spirits. The best-received song from the quiet, Irish, indie sorts was ‘Sweet Jelly Roll’, (I say that, but it was the only one I knew so I sang along). The audience were fairly muted, but this was more a sign of appreciation than apathy, as they ranged from loud fuzzy numbers to more Swirlies-esque songs. As they came to the last couple of tunes, they should have taken no offence at their steadily thinning audience; The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s set loomed and they themselves might have wished they could have sloped off early to a good spot for one of the clear highlights of the night.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre thrilled with their quivering organs and retro psychedelic stylings, none more so than during ‘Anenome’, for which Anton Newcombe delegated vocal duties to a woman whom I couldn’t identify. She did a fine job of it, though, and the majority in attendance at Cosmosis spent a blissful hour in an ethereal ’60s trance. It was then quickly from the retro, to the blindingly current. Sleaford Mods have been knocking about for quite some time now, but it’s taken 7 albums for the listening public to align their tastes with what is a highly abrasive sound. Live, they were electric; if you haven’t heard any of their music before, just imagine if Slaves ditched the guitar, bought a Macbook, and weren’t utter bollocks. The minimal electronic beats combined with 47 year old Jason William’s impassioned diatribes against almost everything and anything resulted in a febrile atmosphere.

Getting on to 1 o’clock, there was no let up, as next on the Main Stage were the band most often compared to a washing machine, original ’80s shoegazers The Jesus And Mary Chain.  If I’m to be entirely candid, I was far too tired to make the most of this opportunity to see one of my all time favourite bands live. My head lolled about uncontrollably, and whilst we explored some of the Chain’s later work, my focus was on my aching heels. ‘Just Like Honey’ lifted me temporarily out of my slumber and I spent a really lovely two minutes with my head aimed upwards, singing along to one of the most beautifully simple songs ever written. My resurgence was short lived, however, and although I’m sure the rest of their set was equally sublime, my day had come to an end and I was off home.

My paisley detox is on-going.