Year: 2018

Album Review: Iridescence by Brockhampton

Written by Luca Mariani on 28th September 2018. Posted in Music.

Brockhampton, the talented self-proclaimed ‘boyband’, returns in 2018 with a new project. After dropping 3 albums in 2017 the boys are back with another. Many expected Brockhampton to drop Puppy in early June but allegations aimed at ex-member Ameer Vann ultimately saw the proposed release being dropped and Vann being kicked out.

After being teased with tracks ‘1997 DIANA’, ‘1998 TRUMAN’, and ‘1999 WILDFIRE’, Brockhampton finally dropped Iridescence, the 15-song album. This was the first label-backed project by the band, after signing a $15 million deal with RCA in The States; recordings took place in both Hawaii and at the iconic Abbey Road Studio in London.

Many Brockhampton fans may have been excited about the new project or even worried that without Vann, Brockhampton would crumble. I would like to remind people that Vann isn’t the only member who has left Brockhampton. Singer Rodney Tenor (one of the faces on the All-American Trash cover art) and producer Albert Gordon (an important part of Brockhampton’s early work), both left the group.

Their respective departures didn’t affect the Saturation trilogy being a success, albeit Vann was a larger contributor to the group then either Tenor or Gordon. This is why I did expect his departure to affect the sound and direction of this release.

Like Ameer, I felt the fun samples and jumpy beats were missing here. Compared to the Saturation trilogy, the choice of samples made the beats sound darker – I wouldn’t say this was bad or good but it makes me curious about the direction of future projects. The second thing that struck me was the promotion of Joba, Merlyn and Bearface’s vocals. It was a pleasant surprise to here Merlyn taking on more of the lyrical load. In fact, he spat my favourite lyric “Colonized Christian, now I’m losing my religion” on opener ‘NEW ORLEANS’. Joba (one of the most versatile members of the boyband) further flexed his wide skill set. The catchy lines, fun deliveries, and originality are three things which definitely have not departed.

The project starts on ‘NEW ORLEANS’ and seamlessly transitions into ‘Thug Life’. The latter features Bearface’s verse from “New Orleans”, which contains possibly the most ear-pleasing adlib of the year – “Ah” has never sounded so good. The album flows between sounds and genres like you would expect from any of Brockhampton’s discography. We experience an impressive journey of going down to the abrasive dark sounds on ‘J’OUVERT’ and rising to heart-filled, Auto-Tuned ballads such as ‘SAN MARCOS’, and then finding a way to harmonise both of these styles on ‘WEIGHT’.

Iridescence ends on ‘FABRIC’ which is a perfect closer with de facto leader Kevin Abstract criticizing media outlets for focussing too much on Vann’s behaviour and not enough on the group’s success. “Why the hell the BBC only writes about me when it comes down to controversy? What about three CDs in one year with no label?” he laments.

Iridescence failed to grab my attention like other Brockhampton projects on my first listen. Once listening through a few times, I came to appreciate the album. I’m glad they didn’t try and push out another Saturation. They evolved. This evolution, however, did not do enough for me to rank it higher than other Brockhampton releases. Although I like Iridescence, it is probably my least favourite of their work.

This album is an important first step in Brockhampton finding a new style in an era post-Ameer Vann.

6/10

The Debate: did Wolf Alice deserve the 2018 Mercury Prize?

Written by Ethan Davies on 28th September 2018. Posted in Music.

For:

The mercury award helps to bring bands and musicians into the limelight. Wolf Alice deserved this, they’ve worked so hard as a band and they deserved to be more readily recognised for it. Of course, as a band they’ve have had many tours, and two best selling albums but prior to this Mercury win they were not a household name. This will give them that more well-rounded recognition that they are so worthy of.

It has been argued that Wolf Alice was a safe choice to win. But I disagree, I think going for Noel Gallagher or Arctic Monkeys would have been safe — how controversial. Wolf Alice aren’t a basic guitar band, nor are they strikingly inaccessible; this album was progressive and by melding genres together, it allowed for both the band and the album to be more inclusive. The sound of Visions of a Life is bold, exciting, and totally immersive.

It is important to say that if the judges had wanted a bog standard guitar band, they could have gone for Arctic Monkeys or even Nadine Shah. If they had wanted something with more edge and hip-hop vibes, they could have gone for King Krule. Wolf Alice’s Visions of a Life merges many different aspects of music and moves the band away from their indie beginnings. It shows the bands growth in a positive, and futuristic way. The album is beautifully creative, moving through many sub-genres with a perfect fluidity. As an entity, it is very pleasing to listen to; from track one, ‘Heavenward’, to the title track, ‘Visions of a Life’. It brings in aspects of electro-folk, post-punk, indie, and so much more than just plain old rock.

Wolf Alice are, arguably, one of the smaller names on the list. The Mercury is helping to bring them further into the limelight. No, they are not an unknown band, but in comparison to Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and the Arctic Monkeys they are not selling out arenas or headlining major festivals. Yet.

The Mercury Award is of such prestige that giving it to a band like the Arctic Monkeys would be a very peculiar choice, just as giving it Ed Sheeran in 2017 would have been. This is only their second album and it is the second to reach number 2 in the charts. Having both albums do this well should, and deserves to be, recognised. By giving Visions of a Life, the Mercury Award the industry is giving back to the band and helping them to be noticed as an ever-evolving and intriguing group to watch and follow.

Another point worth exploring is that the Mercury Award itself is at fault slightly for the backlash. It could be argued that there is an issue with inclusivity. Yes, Grime, Jazz Fusion, and other underground genres are pushing through. Sampha beating out Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and The xx in 2017, shows how the Mercury Award focuses on quite easy listening music. Despite the last few winners not being guitar wielding indie bands, the shortlist is still disproportionate in terms of the British population’s genre preferences.

Against:

The Mercury prize is very simple: it gives an award to the best album released by a British or Irish artist in the last 12 months. There’s a £25,000 cheque, and a lovely gold award handed out on the night to the winners. That’s it. The beauty of the prize is that it’s so simple — it’s the best album, from an artist from one or two countries, with a small prize fund.

Wolf Alice, therefore, did deserve a Mercury Prize — in 2015 for My Love Is Cool — but not for Visions of a Life (VoaL).

VoaL is far more ambitious than My Love Is Cool, but ambition has to be tempered with an overall direction: at times, it feels as if the sophomore effort is experimenting for the sake of experimentation. “St. Purple & Green” comes across as filler before the sprawling seven-minute title track. The preceding track, “Sadboy”, is a good song in itself, but fails to act as a good bridge between the dream-like “St. Purple & Green” and fiesta “Space & Time”. All this contributes to an album that’s beautifully competent and brilliantly produced, but not nearly as memorable as their debut.

A lot of the conversation around Wolf Alice being a safe choice for the award comes back to the 2015 ceremony: that night, Benjamin Clementine won for his truly mesmeric debut At Least For Now. This was a bolt from the blue, with the near-universal reaction being “who?!” Compared to the Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen, and Noel Gallagher, Wolf Alice are unknown. However, they’re not Benjamin Clementine unknown. They’re not Nadine Shah unknown. They’ve released two albums and had countless tours. Wolf Alice, as much as my 16-year-old self is at pains to say, are now a big band. We can throw out the argument that they were given the award for publicity and exposure, as other artists on that list are in much more need of it.

There’s a misconception that the Mercury Prize favours guitar bands, but it frequently challenges this assumption — Dizzee Rascal won in 2003 before grime had even left the capital in a major way. Indeed, the past three winners all were black, London-born, hip-hop influenced artists: the shift to a guitar-led nomination list might only be a blip this year. However, there are more effervescent acts on the list. The aforementioned Nadine Shah’s superlative-inducing Holiday Destination takes aim at almost everything wrong with our world and still ties it up into a nicely delivered, focused package. The Arctic Monkeys’ Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino also would be an unsafe choice: lounge rock has never won. By moving away from London hip-hop, Mercury had an opportunity to really make a statement. Instead, they chose an artist very much of the indie zeitgeist, again from the capital, who already have an established following.

The Mercury Prize, up until 2018, has often surprised by going on a limb and picking something no one has ever heard of but has been justified by its true musical excellence. This year it’s surprised by picking something that a lot of people have heard, which very few describe as truly excellent.

In conversation with LAUREL

Written by Alexander Corns on 28th September 2018. Posted in Music.

LAUREL is p*ssed off, and she wants you to know it.

With herself, with the world, and most explicitly, with the ‘you’ to whom she refers in almost every song.

There is a tried-and-tested formula immediately apparent in the contrastingly catchy, poppy music of much of her set, meeting the beautiful and melancholy voice that perfectly matches it.

“If you loved me, why did you leave? / If you need me, why did you go? / If you want me, why don’t you see?” she sings in ‘All Star’, the opening song of the set.

The raw emotion, and the obvious fact that these are her words, written by herself, give the lyrics real weight. It is impossible not to pay attention. This isn’t to say that her songs are difficult to relate to, though.

Whilst singles like the stomping ‘Adored’ (a song “about loving the feeling of being adored, but not the person offering it”) might be a little specific, themes of love, heartbreak, and anger are universal.

The minimalist set up on stage aids in terms of build-up. She is flanked by two guitarists and a drummer; all three of whom, are not fazed by the gravity of some of her lyrics. They are clearly, and endearingly, having a great time and sound brilliant to match.

The middle of her set at Soup Kitchen featured a three-song solo section, with ‘Sun King’, a song “very special” to her, especially heartening. Songs from singles earlier than her newest album DOGVIOLET like ‘San Francisco’ and encore track ‘Blue Blood’ offer an insight into pre-DOGVIOLET LAUREL.

Were comparisons at all necessary, one might say that her music has advanced from a British Lana Del Rey to a Florence Welch in waiting. But they aren’t. With the acclaimed release of her debut album, LAUREL is at a stage where she should be respected as an artist in her own right, and one who doesn’t need to be likened to others. It is her individuality that makes her so special, and if she continues performing and recording as strong music as she has so far, she will undoubtedly go far.

I had the chance to catch-up with LAUREL before she took to the dingy Soup Kitchen stage. Here is what she had to say:

DOGVIOLET has a slightly different sound to some of your earlier singles like ‘Come Together’, would you say that was a deliberate change or was it just what felt right at the time of writing it?

Yeah, it came out on the 24^th… I guess that was a while ago now! It has definitely got a different sound to the first stuff that I released, and it was definitely deliberate. I picked my guitar back up and just changed my tastes a bit and started swaying towards this style. It came out really naturally, though, I wasn’t thinking “I need to make it sound like this” it just happened that way. The first song I produced in that style was ‘Life Worth Living’, which is the first song on the album, but I released it a couple of years ago. It just came together: it took a while and it wasn’t right for a while but then this sound happened, and I decided that that was what I was going to try and create more of on the album.

You’re going all over Europe on this tour, do you have anywhere you’re particularly looking forward to playing?

I’m really excited to play London. It’s my hometown, and we’re playing The Dome so that’s going to be fucking amazing. I’m also excited to go back to Poland, I love Poland and have always played really good gigs there: the crowds are amazing and it’s a beautiful country. I’m also looking forward to going to Budapest and Prague, because I’ve never been before, but sadly I might not get that much time to look around!

Regarding the new album, you’ve said that you’ve tried “to capture the true mania that comes from love; although a beautiful feeling, it can often feel a lot uglier.” Do you use song-writing and music as a mechanism to deal with, to exorcise, and to better understand things life throws at you?

100% yes. I often wonder what people do if they don’t write music! I’ve been in some really dark places or just been fucking mad, sometimes irrationally and just don’t want to speak to anyone, and my music becomes somewhere to put those emotions. Whether the song ends up on an album or not, or whether I ever even listen to it again, for a brief moment I am putting that energy somewhere and after I finish that song I feel so much better. It happened recently and I just thought: how do people deal with things without song-writing? You have to find a way to channel emotions, and I don’t know how I’d do it if I didn’t do this. Instead of running away from my emotions it helps me face them front on. To be honest, it’s the only reason I write songs.

So you wouldn’t write something like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ for example, that isn’t personal to the singer’s own life?

No, I’ve tried! I did do when I was younger and playing folk music and hadn’t been in love so I think I was writing about other things because I hadn’t had much life experience myself. But I find it a bit harder to write storytelling: I know you can feel passionate about someone else’s story but I have to really be deep inside what I’m writing about for it to come out easily in my writing. I find it hard to write in the third person.

In terms of how personal DOGVIOLET is, it also paradoxically does a great job of feeling equally relatable to anyone, from someone feeling a first love to someone twice your age!

Yeah, I think the subject matter is something everyone of a certain age has been through. A lot of the songs, when I listen to them, are very situational because I remember the exact time in my life that I wrote them. It isn’t the situations themselves that are correlating in people’s lives, but rather the feelings — frustration, hate, love, obsession, addiction — which are relatable to people in every sense, not just the ones I was thinking about when I wrote the songs.

Were you listening to anything yourself during the writing process?

There’s a track by The Neighbourhood that I really like called ‘Sweater Weather’. I was listening to that a lot. I love the lyrics because of how conversational they are — I love conversational lyrics, and I love the production. I listened to a lot of Florence + The Machine, I think she’s amazing.

A lot of people have mentioned similarities in my music to hers which is funny because they never did that on my earlier music and I probably listened to more of her then. But I just like how she has alternative music that’s also pop and doesn’t go off on a tangent and really has a clear point to it. I also listened to a lot of Talking Heads, Pet Shop Boys, and Fleetwood Mac — all those classic bands. Whilst I was producing and mixing the album, though, I didn’t listen to any other music because you immediately start comparing and wondering whether you should be doing what they’re doing.

On another topic, tell us about the book, The Mutterings of a LAUREL, that you announced today!

Yeah! It’s the first test run and I’m only selling it on the tour for now, but I wrote it whilst I was finishing the album. It references my life whilst I was writing the music, so whilst it doesn’t actually speak that much about music and my career other than a chapter about touring, it just shows what was going on in my life whilst I was writing songs. And, I think, if you listen to the album and read the book you can tell when the songs were written. It’s a journal, but there are days where I didn’t write anything so it’s quite loose in that sense.

So did you start with the idea you were you were going to make a book out of it?

No, funnily, the first chapter explains this. I write “starting a journal is probably a bad idea” and mention that I’m thinking about writing a book, but I never thought this journal would turn into one. I started writing every day and the writing was quite creative, not just statements about what I’m doing, and I just decided I was going to turn this into something. It’s taken a while, but I’m really pleased with it.

Going back to your music, but looking at the future, is there anyone you’d really love to collaborate with?

Hmm. I’m trying to think. One person I’d really love to collaborate with is someone whose EP I’ve been listening to recently and she’s fucking awesome: Maggie Rogers. I really love her EP. It’s so sick, and the production is quite poppy, but I’ve heard some of her acoustic stuff and it really is just top class songwriting. So that would be fun. She’s fucking cool.

Brilliant! Lastly, any plans for album number two?

Always! I’ve written half of it already. I think this time I’m going to get somebody else to help me produce it, though, rather than doing it all by myself. I’ve already recorded some demos that I think sound great.

Album Review: The Story So Far – Proper Dose

Written by Callum Lunn on 28th September 2018. Posted in Music.

While it may be easy to think of The Story So Far as relative newcomers to the pop-punk scene, they have in truth been around for over a decade. Established in 2007 in California, The Story So Far have released several critically-acclaimed albums, bringing an edgier, more hardcore-influenced sound to the genre than many of their contemporaries.

Their latest release, Proper Dose, comes after the longest interval between the band’s album releases to date; their last album was the eponymous The Story So Far in 2015. With Proper Dose, the band show their more adult, mature side; deviating (though not completely) from the usual pop-punk fayre of relationship angst and hometown hating.

As the title of the album implies, there are plenty of references to drugs; the first single from the album, ‘Out of It’, details the experience of numbing one’s feelings using, as lead singer Parker Cannon describes it, an “appropriate opiate”. While it may be easy to include drug references for the sake of it, and I do think that maybe that did happen once or twice on the album, I am of the opinion that for the most part they are appropriate and work well.

The theme of numbed feelings continues into the second single, ‘Upside Down’, which attacks the feelings of getting older and moving away from the feelings that may have motivated the band to write in the way they used to.

This is really compounded in the album’s acoustic, sad track, ‘Take Me as You Please’. This is where there are echoes of the traditional pop-punk style — the song is about a lost relationship, but rather than dwell on it as the band may have done in other albums, the theme is, as with much of the album, about moving on. Again, featuring references to drugs, it’s perhaps about how these can modulate — and moderate — emotions. The instrumentation, even on the more upbeat tracks, reflects the new mood of the album; more calm and measured.

Overall, the album presents a much more melancholy, mature feeling than their previous releases. As the saying goes, write what you know; The Story So Far have definitely followed this mantra to great success. Could they have written a good album with less mature, reflective, more stereotypical pop-punk lyrics? I don’t doubt it. Would it be as sincere and enjoyable? Probably not.

As well as the band, I think their fans are maturing, too. People who were in their teens in 2007 are now adults in their twenties (and perhaps even thirties); they have a different, more reflective outlook on life. For your favourite bands to mature with you is probably a welcome experience for many.

8/10

Menna Fitzpatrick: In Her Own Words

Written by Sam Honey on 28th September 2018. Posted in Sport.

Entirely blind except for 3% vision in her right eye, Menna Fitzpatrick hit headlines across the world this February when she won four medals, and Britain’s only Gold, at the Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang. The 20-year old Mancunian now has her eyes firmly set on becoming a world champion in January.

Before jetting off for training in Germany, Fitzpatrick is currently leading Ski Confidence camps, aimed at raising the profile of snow sports across the country, which she sees as crucial, ”Winter Sports is an amazing sport to be a part of, and it’s so sociable. There are so many universities and schools at the moment that have snow sports teams. The schools that I went to didn’t do those sorts of things. I think it’s a recent thing in the last few years (and) we’re starting to get there in terms of opportunities.”

She is teaching beginners at Chill Factore, a trip down memory lane for the gold medallist, who recalls first being discovered on the same slopes, ”Yes that’s right! It was about 7 years ago now that I was spotted here. It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to go to the Paralympics – my aim was always to go to Pyeongchang 2018. I didn’t realise that it could actually become possible until I reached the World Cup circuit in Aspen, Colorado two and a half years ago.”

That meteoric rise has seen her become Britain’s most decorated Winter Paralympian after just one games, and Fitzpatrick recognises the challenge of equating the Winter showpiece’s reputation with the Summer games, ”It’s slowly getting better, as the level of interest in Paralympic sport grows, so will the competition. The standard of the sport is also changing — even from Sochi four years ago — athletes are having to work harder to keep at the top which is really exciting.”

This well-needed awareness has been boosted by her story, with many encapsulated by her ability to ski to such a high standard, with the little vision she has. Working closely with guide Jen Kenhoe, she explained how the two collaborate on the slope, ”We have two-way Bluetooth headsets on our helmets so that we can communicate. Jen will go down ahead of me wearing a bright orange jacket that contrasts with the snow, which helps me with the visibility. With the vision I do have I can make out Jen’s exaggerated movements — that gives me an indication of when she’s about to take a turn, for example, and then I have to do the same, 2 seconds or even a millisecond later. It may sound like we’re shouting at each other, but we’re just trying to get the message across!”.

The pair are very close, with Fitzpatrick has even described Kenhoe as a ‘sister’. She elaborated to explain how such a connection off-slope aided their success when competing, ”We have a really good relationship. One of our strengths is that we get on so well — everything is very natural and because of that we don’t have to work on the teamwork and communication side of things. It’ll be the little things Jen does, like pointing out a step, that reinforces the trust between us. That is really important when it comes to the skiing.”

This close teamwork and the achievements that she now has under the belt make Fitzpatrick one of the most experienced athlete’s in her field, but she admits that you can never quite shake the anxiety of performing and outlined how she deals with nerves, ”I still have nerves every time I get into that start gate. We chat to a sports psychologist and she gives us strategies to help us manage. There are essentially three strategies that I used for the Paralympic games. The first is to focus on the butterflies in your stomach and imagine that you are trying to get them into a formation, the second is to try and think calmly under pressure at all times. Finally, there’s Yogic breathing. Don’t try all these at once, they won’t work! Although, when I tried I did end up picturing butterflies doing yoga…”

As the 20-year old talked through her coping mechanisms, carefully-crafted relationship with her guide and her long-term commitment to the sport, a picture of a dedicated, enthusiastic Paralympian, already at the top of her field emerged. Having been recognised with MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year, her remarkable success has put skiing at the top of her priorities list, and she discussed how once-hobby has now blended into a full-time job, ”I do explain that my profession is a full-time athlete. The saying is true though, if you find something that you love, it doesn’t feel like work. That is the case for me most days. When you have those days that it’s raining, windy, and there’s a 4am wake up, you do lose your motivation a little bit and then it feels a bit more like a job again. We work so hard though, we get a lot out of training by the end of it.”

She certainly harbours an intense training schedule and will be abroad for almost all of November and December, preparing for the world championships. Despite this, Fitzpatrick already has her eyes firmly set on the future.

‘’There’s Beijing 2022 to look forward to’’. ‘’My plan is to just keep going, keep training, and use every moment to get better.’’

Credit: Wikimedia Commons User @Edwin Martinez

Serena Williams and her lack of regret

Written by James Gill on 28th September 2018. Posted in Sport.

Serena Williams denies that she was coached from the stands by Patrick Mouratoglou in the US Open Final. This is despite him admitting that he “was coaching but I don’t think she looked at me. Everybody does it.”

Speaking on The Sunday Project on Australia’s Network Ten, Williams said “I just don’t understand what he was talking about. I asked him [Mouratoglou] ‘what are you talking about you were coaching? We don’t have signals, we’ve never had signals.

“He said he made a motion. So I was like ‘you made a motion and now you told people that you’re coaching me – that doesn’t make sense, why would you say that?’”

“I was on the other side. I didn’t see the motion. It was just a really confusing moment, I think, for him.”

In the US Open final this year, Williams was penalised three times. Once for coaching, once for racquet smashing that resulted in a point penalty, and once for verbal abuse that led to a docked game.

The American told the umpire Carlos Ramos “you will never ever ever be on another court of mine as long as you live.” After the dust settled on the incident she told The Sunday Project “what I’m trying to do most of all is to recover from that and move on.”

It seems that part of the moving on process involved forgetting that certain events took place as Williams chose to ignore questions about whether she regretted breaking her racquet on the court. Remorse for her actions also seems to be absent from that process as neither the umpire nor her opponent Naomi Osaka, who was booed to tears during her win, received any form of apology.

This latest interview seems to be more about sweeping the issues under the rug than acknowledging what she said was wrong and growing as a person and athlete. It is interesting that she chose to speak only about the one code violation for which there was at least some argument, and not about her tirade about how she was unjustly treated because she was a woman.

There are many instances of sexism in sport, and having situations like this, where the athlete blames sexism for her own actions or, perhaps, an incorrect call from an umpire, devalues those real claims. It would have been a far greater moment for women’s sport if Williams admitted that anger got the better of her and apologised. She could have then used the limelight as a platform to get a proper discussion about sexism going.

Instead, we are just pretending that none of what she said actually happened and the tennis world is even more divided than it already was. It is a shame as this could have been the beginning of a large step forward, rather than a small step back.

On the Loan: Manchester United Women 3-0 Sheffield United Women

Written by alexthrower on 28th September 2018. Posted in Sport.

Welcome to a brand-new addition to The Mancunion. On the Loan is not just about giving you a match report, but a review of the whole experience from different teams in the North-West. It takes the wealthy world of football and asks, can it be enjoyed on a student budget? We start with Manchester United Women against Sheffield United Women.

The Match: Manchester United Women were playing their first home league game in 13 years, having been disbanded in 2005 in order for the club to focus on their youth set-up. Having won their first game in the Women’s Championship a resounding 12-0 away at Aston Villa, we were expecting big things from a side with a young and promising squad.

Alex Greenward, the former Liverpool player now turned Manchester United captain, said in her programme notes that the target of the club this year was to return to top division having re-entered in the lowest (second) division. Given their performance on Thursday night, this ambition does not look particularly challenging to achieve. With England legend Casey Stoney watching on as the new United manager, they set to work against Sheffield United on a wet Thursday evening.

After twelve comfortable minutes, Lauren James was brought down in the area, and Katie Zelem cooly converted the penalty. Later, Sheffield forced a rare, but exceptional, save from veteran keeper Chamberlain. Hanson, however, ruined any chance of an equaliser for Sheffield by adding United’s second, cutting in from wide and curling an effort over Hobbs in the Sheffield net.

If the first half proved how dominant United could be, the second half had us staple them down as title favourites, with Lauren James — just sixteen years old — pulling the strings in the midfield and playing both attacking and defensive roles, such was the space open to her. She will be a commanding influence wherever this exciting United team end up. Substitute Lizzie Arnot wrapped up the points with a tap-in midway through the second half. A comfortable 3-0 win confirmed United remain top of the table.

The Commute:

This is the area where Manchester United Women may struggle gaining student support. They play their home matches at Leigh Sports Village, where buses are more frequent to Wigan, rather than Manchester. To get there from Fallowfield we had to drive an hour and a half, and although we have travelled further for matches, the Manchester rush hour traffic was infuriating. That traffic is made unavoidable given that the games kick off at 19:00.

There are a lot of more local games that we will cover in the coming weeks and months, but we recommend going to watch Manchester United Women if you have a car, not least because of the excellent price.

The Cost:

The reason we started On the Loan was to find football to watch without having to go over our student budget. Manchester United Women offer excellent value for money. A £5 ticket with a free programme — although that may have been due to it being their first home league game — makes this one of the cheaper teams to attend in the local area.

I will admit that On the Loan has caused my pie intake to rise exponentially and, with no meat and potato available, I resorted to the cheese and onion. What surprised me about this was that it didn’t taste like sick in a pastry, but actually quite nice. The pie and a Pepsi set me back £4.30, and I also had to provide a few quid for petrol.

Overall, a night at the football cost me £12.30, which in the modern age, is extremely reasonable, especially as you are seeing one of the best up and coming teams in English Women’s football.

Score:

8.5/10 – We can’t find any fault in the cost, but we did get rained on a fair bit and the second half was a bit flat with United looking so comfortable.

On the Loan can also be found on Instagram, @ontheloan for more football experiences both in the UK and abroad.

James Richardson: “The staple of English pundits that float around don’t really have any expertise to bring to it”

Written by James Gill on 28th September 2018. Posted in Sport.

James Richardson is a football broadcaster, podcast host, and journalist who specialises in Italian league Serie A. His love for all things Italian was sparked by a girl he met in Rome, 1990, which resulted in him learning the language and the league. That girl started a chain of events ultimately creating one of the greatest football shows of all time, Channel 4’s Football Italia.

26 years after it debuted, Football Italia still holds a place in the hearts of those who watched it every week. “There were a unique combination of circumstances in the early 90’s that caused it to be successful and the biggest factor of them all was Paul Gascoigne. Everyone was desperate to see just how he would get on in Italy.” Says Richardson.

“On one hand, because it was the biggest test an English footballer could have at the time and secondly because he hadn’t played anywhere in 18 months.” Gascoigne missed the entire 1991/92 season after suffering a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee while playing for Tottenham Hotspur. During his recovery, there was a media circus about whether he would sign for Italian club Lazio or not, which he eventually did for £5.5 million.

“We were all really interested to see how he would do, whether he was still Gazza. So you have that and the fact that it was essentially the only football that was on TV because Sky had just taken the English First Division away.”

“It was also in Italy where we had just had a really successful World Cup with Italia 90. There was a great vibe around those stadiums, those same grounds where we had seen the World Cup take place. All the big stars of that World Cup were still playing there. It felt almost like a window into another world of football.”

“You wouldn’t have those things now, not least because everyone’s schedule is saturated by football.” That certainly is one of the difficulties for the modern football fan, a wealth of options and limited time makes it difficult to know what to watch. “I think certainly for Football Italia, doing a proper highlights show with context of who these players are and what these games mean is something that we really don’t see all that much of on TV [nowadays].”

“We don’t get a proper Spanish show or a proper Italian show. We were doing something along those lines on BT with the European Football Show before it was cancelled, but there will always be a place for a show like Football Italia.”

Nowadays you can find Richardson on BT Sport’s Champions League Goals Show. Hosted on BT Sport 1 it has a panel of experts, one for each of the top European leagues, who watch all the night’s games giving opinions and analysis on the action as it happens. The most attractive aspect of the show is that every goal is shown, allowing the viewer to have a rounded knowledge of the week’s action.

Having a panel of experts rather than pundits was something Richardson was adamant about from the outset. “Whilst a former pro can give you a unique insight on how to play the game, when you’re dealing with foreign matches there is no point in having someone with only a cursory knowledge, or someone who has just read some research notes into a fixture. They won’t be able to give you anything beyond truisms, whereas an expert or journalist will be able to really bring you information that you wouldn’t otherwise get.”

“Unless the pundit is someone who has maybe played at that club ten years before, most of the time you’ll be giving them more information than they are giving you, which is not really the right dynamic for pre-game or post-game analysis. I’m really a strong believer that pundits can be ex-players, only ex-players can know what it’s like to be on the pitch, but equally, in terms of summing up a game it’s not like they are the only one who can do it.”

“If you were to buy a newspaper and all the match reports were written by ex-pros, I don’t know how much fun that would be. We trust journalists to do the job of reporting and analysing in print and in other forms of media so why punditry should only be the province of former players is something that I’m not clear on.”

“I guess that’s just the way it’s always been done but particularly as I say with foreign matches, the staple of English pundits that float around don’t really have any expertise to bring to it. It made total sense to use people that actually know and understand what these games are and BT was completely on board with that.”

With the results of the show being so positive there have been calls to introduce experts and journalists to other programs such as Match of the Day. “I think everyone in the country has a view on what they would do if they were in charge of it and it’s difficult because it kind of belongs to everyone.”

“Equally it’s extremely difficult to plot an editorial course that’s going to upset the least amount of people, but I do think you could do that more with shows like that. It is a show that, in as much as they try and do other things, has a lot of things they haven’t tried to do yet.”

Another potential opportunity is for Match of the Day, highlight type, shows of different European leagues. “I think one of the issues is an audience for that because things are getting increasingly fragmented. Sky did have the rights for La Liga and then they, for whatever reason, decided it wasn’t a viable thing. BT got rid of the European Football Show and I guess [the] audience was probably a significant reason for that.”

“I think now that everyone watches television on demand it means that people can catch up whenever they want. So I absolutely think there is room for a highlights show for things like the Italian and Spanish leagues. Everyone loves to see Italian or Spanish goals but most people would struggle to find 90 minutes of their Saturday or Sunday night to sit down and watch two foreign teams in a league which they might not have too much skin in themselves.”

“A properly put together and explained highlights show though is always something that will be popular, perhaps even more so than the live games.”

With BBC, BT Sport, Sky, and now Eleven Sports owning rights to different leagues it is becoming increasingly difficult, and expensive, to keep up to date with what’s going on regardless of the format. “You need three subscriptions now to watch the biggest leagues. I think it must be really hard for the average viewer. It costs me a fortune but then it’s kind of what I do anyway.”

“Then again if you go back 20 or 30 years nobody really expected to be able to watch all of these things on TV. We had a brief period in which suddenly there was everything all over the place and now we are reverting to an era in which you maybe specialise in one league. There’s no question about it though, it is frustrating for a lot of people to not be able to follow the sport they love in different countries.”

Photo: Francisco Farias Jr @ PublicDomainPictures

“Living in fear”: Horror as cockroaches infest Owens Park

Written by Nicole Wootton-Cane on 28th September 2018. Posted in News.

Students in an Owens Park flat are demanding financial compensation after they were left “traumatised” by a cockroach infestation in their hall.

Those living in Little Court, one of the Owens Park buildings, have also complained about sewage leaking from their taps and flooding in one of the bedrooms.

Residents told The Mancunion that they felt the University were neglecting to invest in them due to Owens Park being earmarked for demolition in the near future.

The first years, who moved into the University-owned halls at the beginning of Welcome Week, believe that the insects were already in the flat before they arrived due to the presence of cockroach traps in one of the bedrooms.

First-year Midwifery student Honor Kelly said the cockroach traps were already in her room when she moved in on Saturday 17th of September: “At first I didn’t realise, like I didn’t check them. I didn’t know what they were, I just assumed every room would have them.

“Then the more that we found we realised [the University] had already put traps down, so we looked in them and they were full of cockroaches so I think they must have known that my room was a hub for them before I moved in.”

Honor told The Mancunion that she has a fear of bugs, and described hearing the cockroaches scratching at the walls at night when trying to sleep, something her flatmates say they also heard.

“I’ve been here a week and I’ve already slept in the common room because I could hear them in the walls.”

Residents claim that they have had no responses from the University, despite them sending several emails. The students say they have also contacted ResLife and the main Fallowfield Campus reception regarding the issue.

The flat is shared by thirty-two people, who share four toilets and four showers between them. The students, who are catered for, pay £144 a week to live there.

“You expect your uni halls to be a bit grotty, but not like this,” said Anya Lyons, a first year Politics and Economics student. “This is too much.

“Pest control said it will take five weeks to make a dent in the population. I don’t want to live for five weeks in fear.”

“The thing is, [the University] obviously were aware. Even if it was just one cleaner that went to the shop and bought some traps, someone was aware. It makes me angry, they must be breaking some kind of rule.”

The students said they felt torn between wanting to move accommodation and also wanting to stay together. They told The Mancunion that they wanted financial compensation for the situation:

“Ideally I want a rent reduction, but you actually live in fear. I hate bugs, but they’ve been really sneaky about it, they’ve allowed us all to become friends so we don’t want to move because they wouldn’t put all of us together.” Honor commented.

“Even like £20 a week off, just something, a gesture would help. We just feel like they don’t really care.” added Anya.

Another student in the flat reported that her room had flooded during the course of the week. “A gutter broke, and there was water all over my room, soaked into my carpet.” she told The Mancunion.

“At first they said they were going to move me but they came back and said there were no spare rooms. All they did was give me towels.”

The residents then showed us a recently recorded video of another flat in Little Court that appeared to show sewage coming from the taps. One girl had opted to leave the flat because of the conditions.

Rebecca Hopkins, a first year PPE student from the flat with the broken taps, told us that that the problem had started last week.

“I’d say it’s a mix of food and sewage [coming out the taps]. We were told it would be dealt with the night it started and it wasn’t. Then they said they’d deal with it in two days, but all they’ve done is put signs over the taps saying to not use them.”

Flatmate Annie Lamb added: “I feel like we pay the most out of anyone. There have been quite a few issues so far, we just want some money back.”

Students expressed views about Little Court being unfit for purpose; “I read that the new development is a multi-million pound project,” Anya said, “So I just feel like they’re trying to squeeze the rent out of us. They don’t take the issue with the cockroaches seriously because we’re the last year that will have to deal with them.”

A University spokesperson has responded, saying: “The University is committed to giving all students the best possible service in all of our halls and we will react quickly to any maintenance requests. There is currently no planned demolition date for Owens Park and we have continued to invest in Owens Park, including a refurbishment of areas of the hall in Summer 2018.

“In Flat x [redacted], prior to current residents arriving in September there were no reports of the presence of cockroaches. The area concerned has previously been treated for cockroaches, and traps are left for monitoring purposes as part of our housing management practice. Following the reports received the University has been working with its pest contractor to eradicate the problem.

“In Flat x [redacted] we had reports that a blocked pipe had caused some flooding. This was not sewage and we have spoken to the residents to inform them that work is being carried out this afternoon [Thursday] to fix the problem.”

Owens Park, where Little Court is situated, was built in 1964 and forms a large part of the University of Manchester Fallowfield Campus.

The University is currently building new, modern halls of residence on the Fallowfield Campus, which have been rumoured to be replacements for Owens Park and Oak House. However, plans have been plagued by setbacks.

The Students’ Union advised: “Students affected by the infestation or leaking sewage can contact the Students’ Union Advice Service for further advice and support. An advisor will look at what action you have taken so far, set out your options and advise on your next steps.

“You may want to consider making an accommodation complaint and one of the SU’s advisors can guide you through this process. Advice Service opening hours are Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm.

“Find out more about contacting an advisor here – https://manchesterstudentsunion.com/top-navigation/advice-service/contact-an-advisor.”

If you or a friend have experienced similar problems in your university halls, you can email [email protected]

Photo: Chris McAndrew @ Wikimedia Commons

Chuka Umunna brings People’s Vote campaign to UoM

Written by Nicole Wootton-Cane on 28th September 2018. Posted in News.

Chuka Umunna recently visited the University of Manchester Students’ Union to give a talk about the People’s Vote campaign.

Umunna, who is a Labour MP for Streatham, gave the talk during Campaign Supernova, a day of campaigning festivities hosted by the SU.

He told The Mancunion: “This issue, Brexit, is going to affect younger generations more than any other, and so we’ve got to make sure that their voices are heard.

“My worry is that a lot of young people, over a million who can now vote haven’t had any say in this.

“I think really to bring this campaign alive we need to put young people right at the centre of it so I’m here at my own university trying to get more people involved with it.”

People’s Vote is an all-parliamentary campaign group founded in July 2017, calling for a public vote on a final Brexit deal. Umunna is co-chair of the group with Anna Soubry MP.

He encouraged young people who want to get involved with the People’s Vote campaign, telling them: “Sign up to the campaign online, physically go and visit your Member of Parliament, and make sure you email them, you write to them, and ensure that they can hear your voice.

“We know that the majority of young people want a say on this and don’t like the fact that we’re leaving the European Union, but that won’t be heard unless you speak up and have your say.”

Clapping banned at Students’ Union events

Written by Amy Wei on 28th September 2018. Posted in News.

Jazz hands will be used instead of traditional clapping, whooping, and cheering at University of Manchester Students’ Union (SU) events, following a motion voted through the first Senate session of the academic year, held on Thursday 27th September.

It was argued that the loud noise of traditional clapping and whooping pose an issue to students with anxiety or sensory issues. BSL (British Sign Language) clapping – or, jazz hands – would be a more inclusive form of expression.

Liberation and Access Officer Sara Khan authored the motion, called ‘Making Senate More Accessible’. It resolved to swap out audible clapping for BSL clapping at SU events, and to “encourage student groups and societies to do the same, and to include BSL clapping as a part of inclusion training”.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has been using BSL clapping since 2015. Khan’s motion received little opposition in Senate.

Thrice per semester, the SU holds a Senate session where students can bring forward motions to amend the SU constitution.

All motions are voted on by attendees, which include a variety of stakeholders in the student community: for example representatives from University halls, student media representatives, random members of the student body, and our SU exec officers. Each motion needs a 66% majority to get passed.

Sara Khan also proposed a second motion to the September Senate, campaigning for greater QTIPOC (Queer, Trans, and Intersex People of Colour) inclusion and advocacy.

The motion steers the SU to “ring-fence £500 for QTIPOC events and campaigns” and “include representation of, support for, and advocacy for QTIPOC in the role descriptions for part-time BME, LGBTQ and Trans officers”.

Sara Khan herself was absent from Senate. This meant the Senate’s questions about which fund the £500 would be ring-fenced from were unanswered. As a consequence, they voted to postpone the motion for the next Senate session, which will be held on Thursday 8th November.

The September Senate passed another motion titled: ‘Lobbying UoM to Make Resit Examinations Flexible for International Students’. This motion resolved to “actively lobby the university to enable international students to undertake resit exams in their home countries”.

Author Riddi Viswanathan noted: “Other Russell group institutions enable their international students to undertake resits in their home countries through partnerships with British council centres or other university verified assessment centres”.

One Senate representative questioned the exclusionary nature of the motion to domestic students: “If you live 600 miles away in Scotland, you’ll still have to travel 6 or 7 hours to resit an examination.”

Viswanathan expressed interest in expanding the accessibility of remote resits to national students, after it proves successful with international students.

The fourth motion was to ‘Make Islamophobia Awareness Month, Black History Month, LGBT history Month and Global Week Compulsory Campaigns’. This motion was not passed.

A number of Senate attendees were made uncomfortable by the word ‘compulsory’.

“Might this mean exec officers have to forsake some of their other duties to accommodate this?” Laura, the Fallowfield Community Officer, asked.

Shamima Khonat, the Community, Campaigns and Citizenship Officer, who proposed the motion, responded that she was confident there would not be any problems: “This is what we were elected for.”

Riddi argued for the motion: “The SU needs to be mandated to carry them out no matter who carries them out. Who carries them out is not known.”

This did not convince the Senate. One attendee closed the debate off: “We can resubmit it next month, with the wording changed from ‘compulsory’ to ‘priority’, and with proper steps laid out with a hierarchy of who the responsibility will fall to. You don’t pass something that’s sub-par.”

To the friendless fresher

Written by isobelgough on 27th September 2018. Posted in Lifestyle.

“Have you got the wristband?!” was a frequent ask across Freshers’ Week. For some, it was the best week of their lives. They make friends, go on great nights out and eat copious amounts of Turkiss. But for others, Freshers’ Week was a very different experience. Social anxiety can inhibit some students from creating valuable relationships immediately. UK students were ranked the loneliest last year, with 46% admitting to have struggled with friendships. To those struggling, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Freshers’ week is designed to help you navigate your new city and remove the stress of deciding where to go. That considered, I spent the majority of my time sat alone in my room, waiting for that evening’s events. Even then, most of them were not my cup of tea. The idea that I must continually present my best self to people I had never met was daunting. Introduction upon introduction became exhausting and I felt growing pressure to find my crowd. In reality, the first few weeks in halls were a lonely place. Happily though, I made actions that helped me find my feet, and my university friends.

I may sound like your Reslife advisor but, the university truly does have an array of societies open to you. Whether you love Medieval re-enactment or yoga, (or yoga in medieval re-enactment garments), it is much easier to meet like-minded people through societies. Anxieties about being ‘cool’ inevitably spill over from college days, but societies tend to be less judgemental spaces. They are also the best way to meet people outside of lectures or university accommodation.

As well as societies, your course will bring you close you will spend great amounts of time with. It is easy to forget about your course during Freshers’ Week, but it will bring you into contact with people with similar interests. These are the friends who will wake you up when you start snoring in lectures, send you the sheets you’ve managed to lose, and stay up with you in the library on deadline day. If you get on with someone, ask them for a coffee or a pint! The chances are that they are just as nervous as you and looking to make friends. My closest friendships started with awkward coffee chat in the Ali G café.

Finally, go out and explore your new city. If you do not immediately find close friends, take it as an opportunity to learn to be comfortable in your own company. With art galleries, museums and £5 cinema tickets, there are multiple ways to escape the University bubble.

Cut that wristband off: Freshers’ Week is not the be all or end all. Be brave for another few weeks, be yourself, get involved and you’ll have found your people before you know it! Also, be kind to the person at teatime who keeps going on about how amazing freshers was. They are probably lying anyway.

2018 Forward Prizes for Poetry announced

Written by Daisy Lester on 27th September 2018. Posted in Books.

Last week, the 2018 Forward Prizes for Poetry were awarded at the Royal Festival Hall, London. They are the most coveted awards in British poetry, with past winners including Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney and Carol Anne Duffy.

This year saw the £10,000 first place prize for Best Collection awarded to 29 year-old Danez Smith, making them the youngest and first gender non-binary winner.

Smith’s winning collection, Don’t Call Us Dead, ranges across issues of race and gender as well as addressing Smith’s HIV-positive diagnosis, police brutality, and gun violence in America.

The popularity of the collection and the thousands of views his performance poetry have gained online represent a rebirth of readership and interest in poetry, especially amongst younger people. Smith’s work demonstrates poetry’s relevance and potential influence in important current issues and offers a deep insight into the African-American experience.

Head judge Bidisha Mamata (known professionally as Bidisha) commented that “at a time when poetry sales are growing, the jury’s choices illuminate the capacity of contemporary poets to find public words for matters of intimate importance and political urgency.”

One of the collection’s stand out poems, Dear White America, has over 300,000 thousand views online. In this piece Smith speaks emotively of gun violence and the lawlessness of police treatment of African-Americans. They compellingly write “we did not build your boats (though we did leave a trail of kin to guide us home). we did not build your prisons (though we did & we fill them too).”

The poem imagines leaving Earth for a place where black people can forge a “new story and history.” Bidisha argues that Smith’s collection serves as a “powerful warning: this is what’s happening, be alert, pay attention.”

A further winner, Phoebe Power, was awarded the £5000 Felix Dennis award for Best First Collection with The Shrines of Upper Austria. Her evocative collection was inspired by Power’s grandmother’s life, and relays the story of an Austrian woman’s marriage to a British soldier following the Second World War.

Liz Berry, another Forward Prize winner as of 2015, won the £1000 Prize for Best Single Poem with The Republic of Motherhood. Berry’s poem details new motherhood in a challenging and contemporary way— as a “wild queendom” in which she proclaims she “handed over my clothes and took its uniform.” The widespread reaction from mothers relating and resonating with Berry’s poem is a further example of the affecting and increasingly accessible nature of contemporary poetry.

Bidisha concluded by highlighting how all the winners confirmed “poetry’s power to bear witness, express new ways of seeing, and apply itself with endless versatility,” and the prizewinners certainly provide ample evidence of such a feat.

The Goldsmiths Prize shortlist “breaks the mould”

Written by Devi Joshi on 27th September 2018. Posted in Books.

Established in 2013, The Goldsmiths Prize aims to celebrate and reward fiction which “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”. With an annual prize of £10,000, and an impressive list of past winners, the winning novel must be a well-crafted piece of dynamic long-form fiction. One of my favourite novels, Eimear McBride’s “A Girl is a Half-formed Thing”, published by independent publisher Galley Beggar Press, was the recipient of the first award in 2013. The emotive, uncompromising and heart-breaking prose of McBride, full of disaster and transgression, is a lot to live up to. But after 5 years of selecting innovative works which really are “genuinely novel,” I was excited to read the 2018 shortlist and was not disappointed.

Robin Robertson’s verse novel, “The Long Take”, is a noir narrative following the life of Walker, a D-Day veteran with PTSD. Unable to return home to Nova Scotia, he moves around America’s great cities, from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Desperate to piece his life together, America falls apart around him. The novel delves deep into modem America’s anxieties, and promises to be a “work of thrilling originality”.

“Murmur” by Will Eaves takes its inspiration from the arrest and legally enforced chemical castration of mathematician Alan Turing. Described as a “rare achievement”, the novel relays the account of a man’s response to physical and mental stress with love, honour and an “unsentimental curiosity” about our perceptions of ourselves and the world. The opening section of “Murmur” was also shortlisted for the 2017 BBC National Short Story Award.

Described by the Guardian as ‘one of the very best writers now at work in the English language’, Gabriel Josipovici’s “The Cemetery in Barnes” follows three separate plots whose relationships and time-scales are woven into a single, intense story. Of the novel’s three voices, the voice of a translator who moves from London to Paris to Wales is the main one, the voices enhanced by a chorus of friends and acquaintances. The most “literary” of the shortlist, the novel is charged with an awareness of “all the threats to culture and happiness.”

Rachel Cusk’s final instalment of her trilogy, “Kudos”, is the perfect ending to “one of the greatest achievements in fiction.” A book of conversations between the main character, Faye, and the people she meets on her trip to Europe tap into some of the most human questions people ask. With the conversations ranging from art to love, justice and politics, the novel deals with huge themes with acute insight. Cusk’s first two instalments were both nominated for the Goldsmiths prize in the past- maybe third time’s a charm?

“Love during the apocalypse” is how Olivia Laing’s novel “Crudo” is described, and with her main character Kathy preparing for her wedding in a Brexit-voting UK, with Trump over in the US, insistent on starting World War Three via Twitter, the phrase is apt. Charting the horror-filled summer of 2017, Laing’s novel remains funny and empathetic through the worst of times, with Kathy the “commitment-phobe” writer really being thrown into the deep end.

And last but not least, we have “In Our Mad and Furious City” by Guy Gunaratne. After the killing of a British soldier, riots spread across the city, and three boys – Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf – dream of a future “beyond the ends” they call home. Exploring the approach of danger in a city at the point of exploding, Gunaratne handles such raw material with “a sophisticated treatment” whilst not limiting the voices of the novel in any way.

You can catch both Guy Gunaratne and Olivia Laing at the Manchester Literature Festival this October.

The Man Booker Prize 2018 shortlist is here

Written by Rona McCann on 27th September 2018. Posted in Books.

The Man Booker Prize continues to recognise the best of English-language fiction released this past year. Judges are hand-picked from the world of leading critics, writers and literary academics who will come together to announce one triumphant author on the 16^th October. Man Booker chair, Kwame Anthony Appiah, has described the dominant theme of all 171 novels submitted to the prize this year as involving “our species” and its position of being “challenged by anxiety, suffering and pain” in the modern day.

The Man Booker ‘dozen’ of 13 long listed novels, announced in July, has now been narrowed down to just six authors, each of whom are in the running for the £50,000 prize. This year, three of the shortlisted entries were written by UK novelists.

2018’s competitors also include the competition’s youngest ever shortlisted author. 27-year-old Daisy Johnson writes about a troubled mother-daughter relationship in her novel Everything Under, set in the heart of the English countryside. Her protagonist Gretel, a lexicographer and life-long fan of words, is forced to remember childhood memories of her estranged mother and the made-up language she invented from what feels like a lifetime ago, all whilst living on a canal boat.

Milkman is the entry from Belfast’s Anna Burns, a past winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. It tells the story of an unnamed sister and her unnamed family in their unnamed violence-struck city and her encounters with the so-called ‘Milkman’. The novel brilliantly depicts the power of gossip and rumour, as well as touching on the subjects of social pressures and harassment.

The only Canadian entry, Washington Black, is Esi Edugyan’s third novel and is told in the voice of its titular 18-year-old character. Black is a freeman recalling his time as a plantation slave in Barbados. Having escaped and befriended an eccentric abolitionist inventor, he travels across the globe, from Virginia to the Arctic to London, all the while pursuing newfound talents and searching for his own place in the wide world.

Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room focuses on Romy Hall, an inmate starting two life sentences plus six years at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility. Here she enters a new routine, a new hustle, and discovers a new set of skills needed in order to survive. Surrounded by daily violence and fickle convict allegiances, Romy’s future begins to look bleak, until news from the outside sparks a new urgency in her will to escape. With this novel Kushner gives a great insight into the hardships of life in the American prison-industrial complex.

Lastly, comes an eco-epic of trees and the people who understand them. The Overstory by Richard Powers sees nine strangers make one last stand to save America’s few remaining acres of virgin forest. These are no ordinary people, however; they are gifted with ability to see a world parallel to our own. The strangers’ stories are spread across the centuries and interlock in a powerfully-written plot. These characters, caught up in this vast, awe-inspiring and magnificently inventive parallel world, are drawn into its unfolding catastrophe.

The winner of the prize will be announced on the 16th October. You can see shortlisted author, Esi Edugyan, in conversation with Anita Sethi on the 17th October as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Fallowfield, the South Manchester suburb where many students will return this month. Photo: James Shuttleworth @ The Mancunion

Manchester universities renew security firm contracts

Written by Sam Honey on 27th September 2018. Posted in News.

Both the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University have renewed their contracts with G4S in an attempt to keep noise at an acceptable level and reduce tension between students and permanent residents.

New measures could see students kicked out of the University over extreme noise complaint cases. This follows a number of clashes in areas of high student populations in recent years, with residents complaining about ‘rowdy’ student parties. In response to this, a series of Welcome Week events involving residents and incoming student tenants have been held to encourage the two groups to engage with one another.

Security patrols will operate at night in Fallowfield and Withington, both hotbeds of student housing, and will have the power to hit houses with noise abatement notices.

The teams will function as a group of ‘professional witnesses’, relaying any relevant information to the police; this will be supported by video recording equipment to capture any incidents involving rowdy students. They will not, however, have the power to enter any properties or to issue fines.

They will operate in force on some of the biggest nights of the year, to ensure student behaviour remains respectful. At peak times, patrols are expected to run from 10pm-6am.

They will further work alongside Manchester Student Homes to gather information about residents meetings, to use in conjunction with patrol teams.

The scheme has been running since 2016 when, in the first few weeks of term, 64 properties were visited by council officers handing out warnings. Despite this, it is believed that both residents and students alike welcome the proposals.

In addition to exclusion from university, students could face the seizure of noise-creating equipment, council visits and even prosecution in severe cases.

The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University released a joint statement, re-affirming their commitment to harmony in student areas, “both universities are committed to promoting positive relations between students and long-term residents.”

Who’s Helping the Homeless?

Written by Felix Hanif-Banks on 27th September 2018. Posted in Investigations.

Manchester is known internationally as one of the UK’s best places to live, a reputation that locals and students alike will never tire of flaunting. Buzzing nightlife, expansive shopping centres and an ever-rising skyline all show off the best Manchester has to offer, but in stark contrast to this the issues of rough sleeping and homelessness are as visible and severe as ever.

Despite the abundance of new housing developments popping up across Manchester, those at the bottom of the social ladder remain forgotten. Figures from homelessness charity Shelter last year reported that the number of people without a permanent residence rose 30% on average from 2016.

Homelessness now affects 1 in 633 people in Greater Manchester, with many of those forced to stay for long periods in B&Bs or hostel-type accommodation. From that number, official reports claim 278 people were sleeping rough throughout 2017, although according to claims by GPs, council workers and charities, the true figure could be twice that due to inaccuracies in the collecting of the statistics.

An issue as prevalent across the entirety of Manchester (Only 2 boroughs saw a significant decrease in homelessness across 2017) needs to be met with a heavy-handed solution, which is being delivered in part by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and a whole host of local charities and groups, many of which are either owned or greatly aided by Manchester’s student population.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham made it a manifesto pledge to eradicate rough sleeping by 2020. As of August of this year, over £2.6m has been put into the fund for the scheme, which focuses on using homes owned by private landlords and housing associations to offer those who have been sleeping rough for a number of years a stable and far less challenging way of life. The scheme has so far appeared to be a success as it boasts a 100% retention rate of participating homeless people.

While the work of the GMCA appears to be both widespread and effective, the scale of homelessness in Manchester is such that other groups will inevitably need to contribute to the cause. One such group, Big Change Manchester, seeks to directly empower local homeless people by providing them with the practical items they need to move forward in their lives. They accept applications for flat furnishings, clothes for job interviews, funding for training courses, and a whole host of other things that can effect long-term change in the lives of homeless people. Their funding panel is made up of a former rough sleeper, as well as those who are experienced in working with both homeless people and local business, councils, universities etc. in order to better connect those in need to those who can offer tangible support.

Another prominent Manchester organisation, Love For The Streets, seeks to tackle engagement with homelessness predominantly among young people, a demographic they claim ‘charities struggle to reach…in the ways that engage them.’ LFTS works with many other groups, including Big Change Manchester, to spread awareness through digital marketing, education and music & technology based events. They aim to provide a platform that encourages a broad and diverse range of students to engage with local issues and inform student communities about the tangible ways they can benefit those in need of support around them. LFTS utilises social media and event marketing unlike many other currently existing groups, giving them an incredible amount of coverage and connections to other successful groups. Networks that exist between groups such as LFTS and Big Change Manchester are undoubtedly the way forward, and only through collaboration can the unfortunate rise in homelessness be reversed, a goal that both students and locals alike can easily pursue given the ever-increasing visibility of charitable organisations.

Alice Kettle: Thread Bearing Witness

Written by Louis Haddad on 27th September 2018. Posted in Arts.

Provoked by the Migrant Crisis, Alice Kettle’s wonderful project and exhibition ‘Thread Bearing Witness’ uses the process of stitching textiles to transcend the modern rhetoric of borders and discrimination, giving voice and solidarity to displaced people.

I had the immense privilege of meeting Alice and her fellow artist, friend, and refugee at the exhibition at the Whitworth. In our interview the true warmth and inclusiveness of the project became clear.

The exhibition displays a mixture of large scale pieces produced by Alice, which are informed and inspired by the narratives of refugees, alongside works made by other artists, groups, men, women and children.

When walking through the exhibit, one understands how this is the combined work of numerous human connections. Indeed, the names of all the refugees and asylum seekers who produced these works with Kettle centrally adorn a wall. Cultural heritage, creativity, and resilience is weaved integrally into this collaborative exercise.

As soon as you enter the space of ‘Thread Bearing Witness’, the Stitch a Tree Project is the first piece that captures both your attention and something of the project’s primordial essence. A forest of hundreds of individually-made, individually-inspired stitched trees covers a huge wall. This work was made by volunteers across generations, races and genders who made their own tree patches to demonstrate support for displaced individuals.

Kettle’s affinity for working on a large scale can be perceived in this exhibition, where three huge pieces occupy the vast space on the second floor of the Whitworth: SEA, GROUND, and SKY. The scale of these pieces reflects the mass of human connections and partnerships formed during this project.

Through the shared stories of migrants, Kettle forms spaces of patterns, sites, and kites in GROUND and SKY, the latter a more optimistic expression of hope. SEA explores the dangerous journeys taken by migrants that have become a frequent item of media coverage. As one of the first of the new works for this exhibition, SEA arrests the viewer as a dreamlike, ultramarine arrangement of incandescently coloured bodies flowing in patterned motion.

Alice described the medium of stitch as a way to think about life and the world, which underpins this project’s raison d’être. You can change the world with stitch; we live in a thread world where threads can become interconnected and brought together, forming something new. The use of embroidery functions as a way of decorating and drawing, but also mending and making something new. Seen through this optic, art becomes an exercise in valuing human life and dignity.

The project describes migration as “the defining issue of our time”, and with the current controversial and heated discourse surrounding the refugee crisis, the role of art in the expression and validation of migrants is truly powerful.

Alice Kettle’s ‘Thread Bearing Witness’ runs from 1st September 2018 to 24th February 2019. Visit threadbearingwitness.com to find out more about her project.

Review: ‘Thick Time’ by William Kentridge

Written by Frank Radcliffe-Adams on 27th September 2018. Posted in Arts.

William Kentridge admits that his preferred drawing material is “think chunks of charcoal” (ideally those cut from the roots of the swamp cypress tree). “Charcoal is very changeable, one can change the drawing as quickly as one thinks,” he says. For Kentridge, this mirrors the way in which ideas are repeated and changed over time.

Thick Time is a multimedia exhibition which blends film, tapestry and drawing to depict the human condition within time. The underlying inspiration for the exhibition is Kentridge’s native Johannesburg where, as a child, he was fascinated by the landscape created by repeated gold excavation.

This observation, combined with the socio-political changes in South Africa following the apartheid, piqued the artist’s interest in time and the changing of ideas. Through his reflections on the city, he examines global themes such as colonialism, industrialisation and revolutionary politics, considering their place within the broader fabric of time.

The influences shown in the six pieces, created between 2003 and 2006, are diverse. The first room of the exhibition contains 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, Day for Night and Journey to the Moon. These projections are a homage to the French filmmaker and stage magician Georges Méliès, who pioneered the concept of cinema as a narrative art form.

Journey to the Moon is a remake of Méliès’ film Voyage à La Lune, featuring Kentridge himself in an absurdist performance. As a young man, the artist had had an interest in acting, and continues to work with actors and theatre companies.

The most intriguing parts of the exhibition are the tapestries based on Shostakovich’s opera The Nose, which Kentridge directed in New York in 2010. The libretto was adapted from a short story by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, published in 1836. It features a former army major who wakes up one morning to find that his nose is missing, robbing him of his profile both figuratively and literally. The story appealed to Kentridge as, despite its absurdity, it reflects the senselessness and implausibility of many historical events.

Despite a certain charm, the sense of chaos and absurdism in each section of the exhibition is unsettling, as if to imply that no matter how much history changes or repeats itself, there will always be suffering. Projections of South African workers against what appear to be pages of Chinese newspapers, comment on the industrialisation of South Africa.

The movement of the characters on the screen, however, reminded me of minstrel performers of the US segregation era. It suggests that, although progress appears to have been made, exploitation has not ended.

Kentridge’s show is a poignant reminder of the impact of the past on the present, marrying together two opposing concepts: time as both a fluctuating and rigid concept.

William Kentridge’s ‘Thick Time’ can be seen at The Whitworth Gallery from 21st September 2018 – 3rd March 2019.

Artefact of the Week: Make Blood Cancer Visible installation

Written by Bella Jewell on 27th September 2018. Posted in Arts.

Whilst walking towards Piccadilly gardens last weekend, I suddenly came face-to-face with a life-size, glowing, Gormley-esque statue. After stepping back, I saw a crowd of 10 transparent human figures arranged upon the edge of the lawn.

On closer inspection, these ethereal characters stand on red plinths, upon which one reads ‘#makebloodcancervisible’ underneath a digital panel. As passers-by stop to read the information on the plinths, they are encouraged to press a red button, so to add another ‘view’ to the digital count.

The aim of this travelling installation is to raise awareness of blood cancer, a devastating illness which currently afflicts 240,000 people living in the UK.

The semi-invisible nature of the sculptures, which match the exact heights of real life cancer-sufferers, highlights the way in which blood cancer is an unseen disease, despite being the third most deadly form of cancer.

Commencing in Westfield Stratford City in London on the 4th September, the installation is touring the UK as part of Blood Cancer Awareness month. Having paused in Manchester from Monday 17th to Saturday 22nd of September, the sculptures have now made their way up to Edinburgh, where they shall be on display in Waverly Mall until the end of the month.

Quite strikingly, each sculpture is modelled on a real blood cancer sufferer, who narrate an audio recounting their story. The intense personalisation of these motion-activated bodies has a truly emotive impact; they are not merely invisible statues, but a shell projecting the experiences of real people who are suffering.

On the Bloodwise website, you can read the stories of blood cancer patients, such as that of Bloodwise ambassador Brett Grist, who is undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia. He describes his struggle through three rounds of chemotherapy, and the emotional impact such a disease can have upon family life.

Grist is just one of the many narratives one uncovers from this moving exhibition: an installation designed to bring a largely unnoticed disease into public discourse. The official ambassador of the campaign, Dame Kelly Holmes, underlines the unfamiliar nature of blood cancer, having experienced the loss of her mother to myeloma last year.

On the website she describes how “it’s so important that more people know about the various blood cancers, and of their symptoms” as a greater awareness of the disease would provide the opportunity for early diagnosis. In this way the unofficial mantra of the installation ought to be: ‘knowledge is power’.

With the support of charities Anthony Nolan, Bloodwise, CLL Support Association, CML Support, Leukaemia CARE, Lymphoma Action, MDS UK, Myeloma UK, and Waldenstrom (WM) UK, this installation is an example of how art can be employed as a force for good. These life-sized figures are sparking a nation-wide discourse and changing public perceptions, whilst providing potentially life-saving information.

To read more about the campaign, visit this site.

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