Widespread student testing in the run-up to Christmas only identified 3% of Covid-19 cases, a new study has found, meaning some undergraduates could have wrongly received negative results before going home.
A study at the University of Birmingham did a retest of 710 “lateral flow” tests out of the total 7,189 who took part in the Government’s mass testing drive across the country. Of the 710, the initial number of positive tests was two. However, when retested, this figure rose to eight positive cases.
Professor Jon Deeks from the University of Birmingham said: “We found six false-negative cases, we thus estimate that we found two cases and will have missed 60 – because we only double-tested 10 per cent.”
What was the sensitivity and how many false positives were there from Mass Testing of University students?
Results from University of Birmingham and Universities in Scotland don’t make good reading.
SENSITIVITY 3% (not a typo) 42% of Innova positives were FALSE POSITIVES
The lateral tests were freely available to all University of Manchester students between the 3rd and 9th December.
Each test was self-administered using a swab which was then mixed with a “buffer solution” by trained professionals. Students had their results in less than an hour.
Rapid testing was implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus across the country and was carried out in numerous universities ahead of the Christmas break including Bristol, York, Leeds and Birmingham.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care told The Tab student website: “The country’s leading scientists rigorously evaluated the Lateral Flow Test and confirmed the accuracy of the tests using a sample of over 8,500.
“Latest figures for similar settings showing sensitivity of 57.5% generally and 84.3% in people with high viral loads. This means they are accurate, reliable and successfully identify those with COVID-19 who don’t show symptoms and could pass on the virus without realising.
“With up to a third of individuals with COVID-19 not displaying symptoms, broadening testing to identify those showing no symptoms will mean finding positive cases more quickly and break chains of transmission.
“Anyone who tested positive with a lateral flow test during the university testing earlier this month would have been asked to get a confirmatory PCR test.”
After a mammoth effort to get thousands of students tested and back home, Manchester University campuses will be a lot quieter in the run-up to Christmas.
But this won’t be the case for everybody. Many students have decided to stay in the city, either because of difficulty getting home or because they don’t want to put vulnerable members of their family at risk.
So, what support is the University putting in place for students staying in Manchester this Christmas? And what can students do to make the best of a difficult situation? Here’s what you need to know.
What support is available from the University over Christmas?
The University has said it will be there to support students over the Christmas break whether they are staying in Manchester or travelling home.
This includes mental health services, safety and disability support and self-isolation guidance.
Whether you’re staying in Manchester or travelling home, there will be plenty of support available to you over the Christmas break.
It has launched a Christmas support webpage and a dedicated email address which students can contact is they have a query over the University closure period.
“This email address will be monitored daily during the University closure period,” an email to students read.
“Rest assured that there will also be emergency 24/7 support available for all students through our security and ResLife teams over the period too.
“If you need help or advice before the end of today, please contact your School support team for details of any local arrangements. If you need support from Saturday, the 19th of December to Sunday, the 3rd of January 2021, please visit our Christmas support webpage to find out more about the services on offer.”
What can I do if I’m staying in Manchester this Christmas?
Whether you are alone or spending Christmas with housemates, bosses have put together a list of things you can do if you are staying in Manchester.
There are virtual events and outdoor activities listed, from Christmas movie marathons to the markets and lights in the city centre.
The University has also highlighted volunteer opportunities available to those who want to spend time doing some good this festive period.
What support is available from Manchester SU this Christmas?
The SU will also be on hand to provide support for students this festive period, taking a short break but then coming back in the new year.
The Advice Service will remain open until Thursday the 24th of December, before closing and reopening on the 4th of January. During this time the SU will not be reading or responding to emails.
The Students’ Union will be closed until Monday, the 4th of January 2021.
But our advice service is open until the 23rd of December! We are here for you. pic.twitter.com/8EI4lwKoqq
— University of Manchester Students’ Union (@ManchesterSU) December 18, 2020
The Union’s website is packed with everything you need to know about support during the remainder of December and beyond.
Tips for staying at University over Christmas
The Mancunion also spoke with student living specialists, Scape, who shared their top tips for students remaining at university over Christmas.
Here’s what they said.
Get involved in virtual Christmas celebrations
In a year like no over, Scape say there are many different virtual offerings to choose from this Christmas. They suggest making a schedule of events to keep busy over the coming weeks.
They say you can “jazz” up your evening with a virtual backstage pass to the Royal Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker broadcast for free on YouTube, or attend a masterclass on how to make a gingerbread man garland or marshmallows and hot chocolate with John Lewis.
Explore the city
Many of us might not have seen much have Manchester this year. Have you thought about taking time to explore the picturesque lights and decorations which adorn Manchester this time of year?
This Christmas, we'd like to say thank you. In what has been a challenging year for everyone, our supporters have pulled together and had such a positive impact on @OfficialUoM. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us in 2020 pic.twitter.com/M9srNH4o3F
Lockdowns are beginning to take their toll and Manchester has been in Tier 3 for as long as anybody can remember. This makes it a perfect time to reconnect with loved ones. Let’s be honest, we all know how to use Zoom now.
Decorate your student space
Scape also suggest decorating your student space to make things feel a bit more Christmassy. Festive decorations and lights will automatically cheer you up and help you get into the Christmas spirit, they say.
Rest-up
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s essential students get some rest of this festive period.
It has been a trying and challenging year. And once students return in January and exam season starts, your schedule is likely to get busy fast, so enjoy some self-care to ensure you feel ready once the new term starts.
The debut album of Manchester-based composer and musician loz feels fresh and sounds impeccable, cementing his status as an artist to watch out for in the future.
With Simple Tenderness revolves around optimistic piano melodies, thought-provoking vocals and mesmerising synth riffs. They blend effortlessly together throughout this thirteen-track soundscape to evoke a feeling of gentle affection and warmth – of tenderness.
At points in this record, I found myself drifting off into a whirlpool of introspection.
However, I was never lost for long before loz brought me back to reality with pulsating beats, which morph from breakbeat into house, DnB and garage. The end result is something with the power to uplift, soothe and provoke. It is multifunctional yet sentimental, conceptually simple yet technically complex, hopeful yet melancholic. For an electronically-produced album, With Simple Tenderness feels anything but artificial.
A resonating, high-pitched piano riff introduces us to the title track. Pressure builds through the immersive but softly-played notes, complemented by reverberating synths. The trepidation subsides within a minute of the track, when breaks explode and punctuate our ambient cocoon. Listening to this track felt like the moments before a reunion with an old friend; an unwavering sense of optimism, intermingled with the odd pang of anxiety, which melts away as soon as you see them.
loz carries us through the second and third tracks ‘Potomac’ and ‘So Beautiful’ seamlessly. The familiar piano melodies and staple synths harmonised beautifully with rhythmic house and breakbeat grooves. These continuities blur the lines between songs, which, alongside the hypnotic instrumentals and polyphonic vocals, make our journey through the album feel like a fuzzy dreamworld.
That said, With Simple Tenderness at no point induces drowsiness. loz’s expert ability to build and release tension is a constant source of captivation. A case in point is ‘Forgive Me Love’, the album’s fourth track which crescendos in an avalanche of Tame Impala-esque synths and broken beat. Another is ‘The Way I Feel’ with its punchy bassline, which pierces the simple piano chords and undulating pitch-shifting vocals. If these head-boppers inexplicably fail to grab your attention, look no further than ‘Out of My Way’. The track wades into the ecstasy-imbued waters of DnB. In our rave-free Covid-culture, these tracks are more than a suitable replacement.
loz delves into a contemplative tone in the second half of the record. The progression from the optimistic grooves of the first half, to the slightly moodier ambience of the second, feels unforced. Heavier, bass-driven sounds like those of the rolling Korg synthesiser found in ‘Epilogue’ and throbbing bassline in ‘Glaciers’ contribute to a sense of nostalgia and melancholy. loz’ own voice leads us into this new reality in ‘Froze’. Phrases like ‘I’m sold, you don’t have to convince me’ signal this change in tone. From the blissful ignorance of part one to sullen wisdom. Accompanying the slower BPM and bassy instrumentals, of course, are the trademark piano melodies which serve as excellent counterpoints, keeping a buoyant air in the final few tracks.
The core sounds characterising this album disappear in the outro, ‘The Deserter’. Instead, a solitary whistler and enveloping ambience lead us into a brooding silence. This atmopheric yet uneventful finish is loz’ way of showing us that he has nothing to prove.
Behind loz lies a litany of talents. At once he is a singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. For loz, this album was the next logical step. Indeed, some of the tracks have been awaiting release for four years! With Simple Tenderness sheds light on love, but the quality of its contents speaks even greater volumes about its artist, and his lifelong romance with music.
You can listen to With Simple Tenderness on any streaming platform here.
For the most part, Brexit has stayed out of the headlines over the last 10 months. We are leaving the EU, perhaps without a deal, and it is only one of the many national headlines. Love or loathe Brexit, it will have a far-reaching impact on society. You would be hard pressed to find an individual or business that won’t be affected by the disruption of the current supply chain.
However, what really requires closer analysis, is the impact of Brexit on the UK’s international standing. Where do we go from outside of the European project and how much can a country with a currently faltering economy stand above rest on the global stage? In all likelihood a post-Brexit Britain has neither the economy nor influence to be an international player and not being part of the EU project will only further this point.
‘Global Britain’, much like ‘build back better’, is one of those buzzwords with interchangeable and ambiguous meanings. The government can apply it in any context to claim success. In many ways, Britain is already global. Not even Brexit can stop the UK being part of the hyper-globalised world.
So, if being part of a global economic system is not at stake, then what is? I would argue that it is our influence, begging the question of whether we will hold superpower status or not.
It seems as though the current Conservative government is trying to isolate us from the global development of third world countries in this sense. With the recent move to cut global aid, the clarity here is abundant. There are clear faults with foreign aid. The question of whether our aid actually reaches those in third-world countries being one of them. However, its disappearance is at least an indication of that our priorities will be elsewhere.
Of course, Covid-19 complicates Britain’s future standing on the global stage as we must navigate economic recovery whilst withdrawing from the world’s largest trading bloc. Even without Brexit, our financial future would look uncertain. Somehow, China has somehow managed to grow its economy during this time but few countries will come out of the pandemic without long-lasting blemishes. With new pricing for imports a strong liklihood, Britain’s economic stability looks uncertain.
Although Britain does have some trade deals in place, notably with Japan, South Korea, Iceland and Norway, these by no means replace free trade with those in the EU. The danger is that without an effective economy and a triple A credit rating, borrowing will become difficult, and our already limping economy may lose its crutch. Put simply, how can we compete with economic titans such as China, the EU and America with financial problems being amplified at home.
We may see a revival of the commonwealth as a result of Brexit. The post-colonial union can often be reduced in the modern age to nothing more than a recognition of Britain’s former empire. Not to mention the fantastically dull commonwealth games. Though, it may be a crutch that Britain has to stand on in the aftermath of Brexit. A union recognising the legacy of empire and attempting to build a new commonwealth free trade zone could tackle the problem of post-EU tariffs. It would also give a financial leg up to those countries that the current financial order of Britain owes so much to. Britain could become the driving force behind the continuing development of former colonies and alleviate the weakened British image. But, without a conscientous government, this point is almost rendered mute.
We may in time come to look back on our relationship with the EU with rose-tinted spectacles, or conversely, we could see it as an overwhelming success. In all likelihood, I believe we will eventually look back on Brexit as a flashpoint moment that killed an already crumbling standing in the world. The economy will contract and a new financial world order may be in place. This is not to say that the EU is problem-free and a beacon of hope in itself. A point ostensibly proved in its failure to influence the Polish abortion rights debate. However, being part of the EU meant that we could comfortably sit at international debates with the ability to influence major global decisions. Now, we seem to be attempting to forge our own path. One which is not necessarily clear and will no doubt weaken many aspects British life.
Whether you’re spending the holidays at home or in an accommodation, you should certainly treat yourself to something festive this year. Reward all that hard studying with yule tide activities and something scrumptious to get you in the mood!
You may be wondering what you can do with the restrictions in lockdown or various tiers that are still in place; There is still plenty of things to lift your mood! There’s the traditional turkey with all the trimmings, but perhaps you’d like something different this year?
Here’s a list of some of the most festive treats and activities that you, your friends or family could enjoy this December!
Stock up on your favourite Christmas food and drinks
Photo: PxHere
Christmas isn’t about food, but it certainly is a bonus. As festive treats like mince pies and fruit cakes reappear in shops, be indulgent! Additionally, your favourite alcohol, soft-drinks or hot chocolate are also a great way to get into the festive spirit.
Even better: try making your own treats this year! Release your inner child and go wild decorating festive cookies or cupcakes. If you’re stuck and have no idea what to make, check out Pinterest or BBC Food.
Zoom or FaceTime loved ones
I would highly recommend utilising technology to your advantage. Make the distance between you and friends or family feel smaller: play a fun quiz or game over the internet or have a simple phone call. You could play Heads Up or Charades, Among Us, or anything else you can think of!
Put up decorations or make your own
If you have some decorations with you, put them up to feel festive. If not, perhaps use a few spare scraps of paper and make your own. We’ve all made paper snowflakes before, but try one of these tutorials to keep you in the creative Christmas spirit.
Listen to some Christmas Music
Enjoy the festive season and the records you can only crack out at this time of year! Tired of the usual festive songs? Why not check out our Music section for alternatives?
Watch a Christmas Movie
Photo: Stephen McKay @ Wikimedia Commons
I could rattle on for hours about the sheer quantity of Christmas movies available, from classics like A Christmas Carol and A Wonderful Life to more recent movies like Arthur Christmas, Fred Claus, The Polar Express, The Grinch… These are only a few of the movies available across streaming services. Keep an eye on the TV schedules over the next few weeks!
Wrap up in warm winter clothes
Nothing is cosier than wearing your woolly jumper and fluffy socks. Even if you aren’t going anywhere, I guarantee you will feel more relaxed if you wrap up. If you’re feeling especially festive, wear your ugly Christmas sweater and antlers or a comical hat and share your spirit with friends and family!
Compete in fun Christmas Quizzes
If you are not sick of online quizzing yet, lots of societies have been offering a variety of fun quizzes. If these aren’t your cup of tea, perhaps try one from YouTube, even if you don’t want a Christmas theme, there will be plenty of music, film, book, and science quizzes across the web.
Whether it’s creating a short movie, painting, or writing a short story, doing something you enjoy will help you feel better, besides creating skills and experience for your CV.
Do some Christmas shopping
Shopping doesn’t have to be a pre-COVID activity with most retailers owning a website and delivery services. It also doesn’t have to be expensive. You may be struggling with what to buy your friend, but before you check out the most expensive brands, why not check out gifting companies like Not On The High Street for ideas. Additionally, there are many student-led, a well as local businesses that would greatly appreciate your support by buying locally and ethically.
Even if you are not an expert musician, you can still have fun making music. It could be Christmassy, reflective, emotional, energetic, or whatever you want. Try singing with a small group.
Watch a Theatre show.
Missing theatre this year? Look no further. Many theatre companies have released opportunities for free screenings of their shows. This Christmas, some of the most notable shows will include:
Sky Arts:
‘National Theatre Live: Twelfth Night’@ 9pm Monday 21st December 2020.
‘Phantom of the Opera at The Albert Hall’@ 9pm Thursday 24th December 2020.
‘Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary’@ 6:05pm Saturday 26th December 2020.
& Much more!
YouTube:Theatre Weekly‘s article contains links to different theatre reproductions, including Henry V, Richard II and Top Story.
Dinsey+: If you have access to Disney+ then be sure to check out their filming of Hamilton.
Listen to relaxing podcasts
Listen to something educational, festive or relaxing; anything that you can think of will keep you occupied this Christmas. A great historical podcast is BBC’s ‘In Our Time’ if you have a passion for history.
Join in on your society’s socials
Lots of the societies are offering activities, quizzes, and socials, with some really unique activities. Check their social pages or find more information here.
Watch Christmas specials of your favourite shows
No matter the show, it’s pretty likely that they will have or will be releasing a Christmas special. From Friends to Strictly Come Dancing and Coronation Street.
But most importantly, take the holidays to relax and recover after the first semester, reflect on positives, and reconnect with family and friends. Do what makes you happy.
Just over a month ago, a proposal to fundamentally reform the finances of English football was leaked to the press. A plan concocted by the owners of Liverpool, Manchester United and Rick Parry (Chairman of the English Football League) sent shockwaves through all levels of the game.
However, the majority of other Premier League clubs and football fans at large condemned it as nothing more than an elitist power grab for England’s biggest teams. As a result, it has been dropped – for now.
But with inequality rife throughout the football pyramid and more clubs left on the brink of administration, the ideas behind Project Big Picture won’t go away. In fact, they go to the heart of the economics, politics and soul of the beautiful game.
It’s not hyperbole to describe Project Big Picture (PBP) as a fundamental reform of the game. It covers nearly everything from bailouts to cover the losses of COVID-19 to distribution of media rights. Surprisingly, given the labels of elitism and greed thrown at this plan, there’s a lot in it that attempts to address the struggles of clubs in the EFL (the tiers below the Premier League).
In Greater Manchester alone, Bury Football Club has been liquidated and expelled from the professional leagues. Bolton and Wigan face severe financial difficulties thanks to awful mismanagement of careless, gluttonous owners. In recent years, money in football has risen to the top, leaving the rest gasping for air. Even before the pandemic, while the top clubs posted record earnings, many other professional football clubs were on the brink.
Now, with their main source of revenue (spectators) gone, it will only get worse. Macclesfield are the latest casualty of football’s economic crisis, entering liquidation in September. Therefore, PBP’s offer of a £250m bailout for COVID-19 losses is a welcome start. EFL clubs would also see their share of money from the Premier League grow from 8% to 25% via a change in the distribution formula which dictates how money is allocated in the English football system.
Bury F.C. is the first club to go under due to COVID financial restrictions. Image Source: Neil Theasby @Wikimedia
So far, so good. But it’s the main idea within these plans that has garnered such backlash. In return for greater funding of the EFL, it is argued that the biggest clubs within the Premier League should be given increased power over the running of the game.
The ‘one club, one vote’ system, where any rule changes need the backing of two thirds of clubs, would be scrapped for certain decisions such as media rights and approving new owners. The biggest clubs would be the traditional “big six” of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham, along with Everton, Southampton, and West Ham.
It’s very hard not to see this as a seizure of power by England’s most wealthy clubs. The big clubs would be able to keep changing the aforementioned distribution formula for their own benefit, and thus enrich themselves at the expense of the 11 other teams. The finances of the Premier League are already drastically unequal; it’s easy to see how this change would make it even worse. The most recent accounts showed that revenues for the ‘big six’ were nearly four times higher than the two lowest earners.
Power and wealth would be further concentrated in the hands of the richest. Furthermore, Liverpool and Manchester United’s willingness to secure the long term future of the EFL rests on them gaining more money and influence, which would only further incentivise increasing the gap between themselves and the rest of the Premier League.
There’s no guarantee that any compromise would continue to be generous to the EFL either; the return of full capacity stadiums (whenever that is) would give them a good excuse to end this kind offering. PBP’s backing by the chair of the EFL and (apparently) all the owners of EFL clubs could offer some protection, but given that both these parties have been blamed for the mismanagement and collapse of several clubs this approach must be treated with scepticism.
Added to this is the looming threat of what happens if the big six don’t get their way: a potential European Super League. This would see the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and others would join the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus in abandoning their domestic leagues. Instead, the elites of the football world would play each other in their own division, freed from the responsibilities of playing and supporting the rest of the footballing crop in their respective countries.
This would be the end of a ‘people’s game’, with the continent’s richest clubs unashamedly in it for themselves. The football landscape would be dominated by multinational entities with little ties to, or responsibility for, the rest.
The prospect of a breakaway ‘Super League’ looms large over the football world. Rumours of the Big 6 jumping ship have been moot for a while now. In January of last year, The Guardian quoted one Premier League owner who alleged: “they threaten it all the time: ‘We’re going to break away,’… every time they want more money, it’s ‘Well, we’ll just go and play the big European teams.’”
Der Spiegel, a German publication, released documents the previous winter with similar claims; European clubs such as Bayern Munich and Real Madrid were said to be supportive.
The question therefore is: is the threat merely a bargaining tactic for more money or a genuine (perhaps inevitable) possibility? It’s true that the Big 6 have previously gained a larger financial share as a result of this threat, and may do so again. But given the upcoming reform of the Champions League (which will see teams enter based on historical pedigree rather than league finishes) and worsening inequality between Europe’s elite and the rest, a breakaway remains a serious possibility, and will change football as we know it if it goes ahead.
Marcus Rashford MBE is a shining example of the good football can do. Image credit: Maisie Scott
Ultimately, this issue goes to the heart of the paradoxical roles large football clubs play in our society. On the one hand, Manchester United are seen through these proposals as nothing more than commercial enterprises, driven by and beneficiaries of financial self-interest at the expense of a level playing field.
By contrast, their star striker Marcus Rashford has been a shining example of the good football can do in our society, leading the fight against child poverty. Liverpool have also benefited the wider community through their support of the Fans Supporting Foodbanks group, providing several bespoke vans for collections and large donations from players and club staff.
But if United and Liverpool abandon their domestic league, insulating themselves amongst football’s elite for more cash, can they genuinely claim to be rooted in their home cities like Rashford is? Football, even at this elite level, is nothing without a variety of teams of different shapes and sizes.
The fact that teams from Burnley to Bolton can play at the highest level and pull off upsets against the biggest in the business keeps the game unpredictable and romantic. If the big clubs had their way, they would forever be condemned as a choosing money over the (somewhat) egalitarian nature of domestic leagues and all the soul that goes with it.
Project Big Picture has much promise and has at least started a conversation on restructuring a failing system. For too long, the leadership of the game – from the Premier League and EFL to the FA – has offered no solutions to football’s current predicament.
Nevertheless, the fact that they desire even more power and wealth in return for generosity demonstrates their true intentions. It is not a shock that self-interested corporations sit at the heart of football.
But the least they can do is be aware of their fortune and, with that, their responsibilities to others. Going forward, a combination of precarious clubs and a vast imbalance of wealth means the game is going to need more fairness, not less.
Before watching ZAPPA (directed by Alex Winter and Ahmet Zappa), I wouldn’t have been able to recognise a single song by Frank Zappa. Having watched the documentary, I still can’t, but that is entirely besides the point.
For a start, he was a compulsive self-saboteur, who stubbornly refused to write a hit-single (his only one was an accident). But, more importantly, this documentary covers the amazing story of the man himself, with his work providing bizarre and vibrant footage and sound, interspersed with archived interviews, home videos, and news reels.
My only Zappa point of reference before this documentary was ‘The Black Page’. I remembered reading that he had composed one of the most difficult drum pieces of all time, so-called because the page was filled from top to bottom with notes. This anecdote is just a tiny fraction of all of the weird, wonderful, and wacky escapades that Zappa got up to.
He grew up with no interest in music, instead making explosives from age six with his father’s chemistry equipment (who worked at a US chemical weapons lab). The documentary then treats us to footage of Zappa’s zombie film that he made with his siblings, before Zappa admits that he once tried to set fire to his school.
Zappa got into music with ‘The Blackouts’, a racially diverse RnB band (the only RnB band in the Mojave desert, according to Zappa). In late 50’s America this got him arrested and intimidated, but it didn’t stop the band from being a success.
After teaching himself to orchestrate through school, he ended up living in a studio with no shower, drawing greetings cards to scrape a living. This earned him the enmity of the locals, and once again he found himself in prison, this time through breach of censorship laws.
From there, he collaborated with Don Van Vliet of Captain Beefheart (not for the first time), before finally establishing himself as band leader in The Mothers of Invention, a group that would stay with him, in various forms, throughout his career.
Frank Zappa. Photo: K. Tenbrock @ Flickr
You simply could not invent a career like Zappa’s. He lived for a stint in the same valley as Charles Manson’s cult, opposite Houdini’s house. He discovered Alice Cooper, and performed with The Turtles, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono, even appearing on The Monkees’ own television show. Whilst satirising the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, he had Hendrix feature in the album cover photo, and he recruited Ringo Starr to play him, Zappa, in his own film.
He was both adored and derided by his band members for his perfectionist, thankless, and ‘autocratic’ style, with many concluding that he placed his music even above human emotion.
December 1971 saw all of Zappas equipment destroyed in a fire that inspired the Deep Purple classic ‘Smoke on the Water’. A week later, he was attacked and pushed off stage in London, resulting in him having to stay in a wheelchair for the next nine months. The rest of Zappa’s career became more politicised in nature. He led a high profile legal challenge against music censorship in the US, in which he was partially successful, and he even said he would consider running for president if it didn’t entail him having to spend four years in Washington.
By the end of his career, he wound up as the cultural and trade representative for Czechoslovakia to The West, due to his astounding popularity in the country. This position, however, was revoked at the demands of the US secretary of state James Baker, who was infuriated by Zappa’s opposition to the censorship laws that Baker’s own wife had championed.
Zappa’s death from cancer in 1993, aged 52, brought to a close one of the most diverse and prolific careers in music history. He was the first major artist to go independent, releasing 62 albums in his lifetime, with another 53 released since. He stood for freedom, in both his music and his politics; yet he was a flawed and provocative character, also known for his infidelities and abrasive personality. His genre defying music remains his legacy.
Do watch ZAPPA if you can. The events highlighted here only begin to scratch the surface of this complex man and his exceptional life. Created with the splicing of footage and audio, it is in itself free-form and artistic, true to Zappa’s nature.
Anyone who considers themselves a music junkie owes it to themselves to learn about this enigmatic, cynical, and inspiring pioneer.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen Artificial Intelligence (AI) move forward in leaps and bounds, from self-driving cars to actual near sentience. This year we have a possible field frontrunner with a solution to a prominent, complex and life defining problem: why and how does a protein actually fold?
In the 1950s, a pioneer of biochemistry, Dr Christian Anfinsen, carried out research that led to our current understanding of proteins. He investigated how the amino acid sequence – the building blocks of protein encoded in our DNA – is responsible for how a protein folds and what it folds into. However, the details of the process is far harder to discover, and requires investigation of vast 3D shapes and configurations. It’s been suggested that if we fully understood it, we would understand biological life itself.
Some researchers have devoted their entire careers to solving this problem, and strides have been made. One area of knowledge which has developed is how a protein’s shape determines it’s function. However, there is thought to be more than 200 million proteins, and we have only confirmed the structure of about 170,000 – only 8.5% of all known proteins. These are laid out in the Public DataBase (PDB).
Computational chemistry, which uses computer simulations to solve chemical problems, is nothing new. It’s helps us to map data, determine structure and even model the universe. Applying it to proteins was a logical next step, which is where Deep Mind came in.
From battling Atari users to now taking on the biggest biological mysteries
Deep Mind is a company that a lot of our tech-savvy readers (and some conspiracy theorists) will be familiar with. The company is well known for its ‘man vs. machine’ programmes that enables AI to defeat chess masters, and old school Atari wizards. Alongside the fun, the ‘Deep-Learning program’ has been using gaming and strategy to get ready to tackle tangible, complex problems.
The AI system ‘Alpha Fold’ was trained using the PDB, running its sequences and shapes over a number of weeks to find correlations between the sequences and structures. This allows for predictions to be made about the structure of other unknowns based on all the available data. It does this by using ‘neural networks’ to compare the analytic sequence against the data bases. This in turn creates physical productions about the distance and angles of the molecules that is then scored and a structure is proposed.
‘Alpha Fold’ has well and truly shaken up the science world. The ‘Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction’ (CASP) seeks to “help advance the methods of identifying protein structure from sequence” by providing “an objective testing of these methods”. They set a challenge of solving 100 amino acid chains. The standard score for experimental methods is 90/100, but Alpha Fold completely dominated the competition, gaining a median score of 92.5/100. However, when dealing with harder, massively more complex this fell to 87, yet still besting all current models and programmes. This extraordinary outcome has led to ‘Alpha Fold’ being used to solve all sorts of decade-old problems including those of developmental biology and Alzheimer’s treatment.
For some in the science community, this is a cause for concern. They argue that whilst this AI has advanced the field by decades, there is still a lot we don’t know. In addition, to improve and confirm the accuracy of the software, we need practical experimentation, but the AI simultaneously suggests we don’t need to experiment as much.
Whilst we can make reasonable predictions based on data, it doesn’t actually tell us why things happen. Asking ‘why?’ is arguably a summary of science itself.
However, there is no doubt that this software has thrust forward the entire field of biochemistry, and this means of prediction is bound to give us insight into cause and effect. With the advancement of AI, we are even closer to understanding the fundamental fabric of life itself. What a time to be a scientist!
In this series, our columnist Anna Jin brings attention to the unique and talented people of colour working in fashion.
Michelle Asare is a London-based fashion lover and founder of Sincerely Nude. The brand is striving to create nude clothing that fit for all skin tones.
This venture was born in 2018, as Michelle became increasingly frustrated with women of colour being excluded from ‘nude’ clothing lines.
“I just noticed everywhere I went that my nude wasn’t at the forefront of anything,” says Michelle. She found that a lot of these products tended to be a “beige colour”, that was drastically different from her own skin tone.
“Just out of frustration, I decided: I’m going to start my own brand that had more than one beige of nude.” And so, Sincerely Nude was born.
The brand aims to include all women in their version of nude and “empower [them] to feel beautiful and sexy in their skin tone no matter what shade or size.”
Photo: Sincerely Nude
Despite working as a nurse and having no formal experience in the fashion industry, Michelle didn’t let this stop her.
“I feel like a lot of young people feel like they need to give up their nine to five in order to start a business,” says Michelle. She is eager to demonstrate that it is possible to devote yourself to your business, whilst also having a day job for financial support.
The combination of her hard work and society’s need for a more inclusive idea of ‘nude’ has led to Sincerely Nude gaining immense success.
It has since been featured in various mainstream fashion magazines, including The Telegraph, Elle, and Black Beauty & Hair Magazine.
Michelle has also attributed a lot of this success to her faith. Stating that she “just start[ed] and let God do the rest” when tackling the daunting process of launching her new business, crossing over into the fashion industry.
Photo: Sincerely Nude
As well as offering four distinct shades of nude, with hopes of more in the future, Sincerely Nude are also size-inclusive, and are currently in the process of expanding their range.
Michelle also hopes to start hosting workshops to educate people on how to start their own business. She frequently receives messages from young women asking her for advice.
Michelle is currently working on new designs that will launch in 2021 in response to her customers’ feedback.
Sincerely Nude’s products can be ordered via their website, and they can also be found on Instagram.
What would Christmas be without a marathon of festive films? Whether you prefer to revisit cult classics, or to discover something new in the Christmas genre, here are our suggestions for what you should watch in this year’s festive period.
Love it or hate it, this film has become a staple in the watching spree of many film fanatics. Set in a wintery, tinsel trimmed New York City, this Jon Favreau classic screams holiday season. It offers bright, candy cane colours, extravagant commercial styling, and a mixture of comedy for all ages.
A happy go-lucky, affable Will Ferrell as Buddy, means that Elf (2003) has long been a hit with parents and children alike. American culture and family values are called into questions amongst a giddy soundtrack, bright lights and spirited performances. Ferrell’s performance is unchallenged as ever by the rest of the cast. But who could deny the hilarity of the yellow stocking tights and the laugh a minute quality he brings?
A firm favourite, and a great chance to see a few famous faces cut their teeth on a classic story and setting.
As a rare example of a Christmas family horror film, Gremlins is a unique holiday viewing. The titular characters bring a chaotic atmosphere that is undeniably brilliant. The film is full of reflections and parodies of the Christmas film genre. With a small town setting and typically unlikeable antagonist, it sets you up to think you’re watching a traditional holiday film. Only to then unleash the anarchic gremlins on the entire town. In their hedonist and consumerist antics, these loveably evil little creatures are a little closer to the average holiday shopper than we might like to think.
It’s a Wonderful Life shows how unaware we might be of the impact we have on our surroundings. It also shows how important we are for people close to us, just by being there for them. It shows the lowest of lows transform back into happiness. I’m sure it can help everyone feel a bit more valued and appreciated. Although we won’t get our guardian angel to show us the beauty of life directly, Capra’s heart-warming masterpiece might be at least its imitation. It provides a bit of Christmas magic we all need this festive period.
Perhaps unexpectedly, this 2019 Netflix release already has the makings of a modern Christmas classic. No one on earth was asking for a Santa Claus origin story, yet Sergio Pablos Animation Studios’s work easily exceeds expectations. Heartwarming and visually stunning, Klaus is a story about how a postman’s unlikely partnership with a reclusive woodcutter accidentally created a modern legend. JK Simmons brings particular depth to the titular character. His evolution into Santa is immensely satisfying, and leads to a climax with surprisingly genuine emotion.
For the film, a team developed specific software to render more realistic lighting and shadows. The end result looks like an incredible blend of 2D and 3D. I really hope to see more of this innovative new technique in the future.
Klaus’s simple yet charming execution truly make it a perfect relaxed choice to watch with your family this Christmas.
Most Christmas films are awful, and horror-comedy is famous for being difficult to execute well. So it is of note that this 2015 horror-comedy isn’t awful, and is in fact quite fun. Counter to the typical Hollywood festive cheer, the film starts with (generally more relatable) family dysfunction causing a boy to disavow the Christmas spirit. This invites Krampus, the evil shadow of Saint Nicolas. Certainly not a perfect film, although if you’re looking for something new to watch this Christmas you probably won’t have a bad time with Krampus.
Note: extraneous recommendation for fans of impressive puppeteering!
It takes a special kind of film to bridge the gap between heart-warming and horrifying. The Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas Specials somehow manage it. With its iconic larger-than-life design, clunky movements and uncanny facial expressions, the ‘animagic’ of the movies is certainly bewitching.
While those who grew up in the UK may not have experienced the bizarre joys of these movies, they remain a festive staple across the pond. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the first Christmas creation from Rankin and Bass, came out over 60 years ago. Since then, the timeless kitschy aesthetic has had a huge impact on Christmas imagery. The creators of Elf, for example, made no attempts to hide their love of the Rankin/Bass animation style. They borrowed almost directly from it, to the point that the opening scenes could almost be canon.
Aside from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, I recommend The Year Without a Santa Claus and Rudolph’s Shiny New Year. Both are highly original festive tales, which include some truly out-of-this-world character designs and catchy tunes that you won’t be able to stop humming, and the kind of completely nonsensical plots that only a vintage children’s movie can get away with. While children seem to love these films and completely overlook the strangeness, my advice to any adult intending to watch these for the first time this month is to have several glasses of eggnog, and then throw any common sense out the window.
Man is finally returning to the moon. Correction – NASA will be rocketing the first woman to the moon in 2024.
NASA has planned the first human mission to the moon in the 21st century, and this time, a woman will be taking both one small step and one figurative giant leap into the new frontiers of space exploration. This endeavor is called the Artemis Program.
On December 7, 2020, NASA held a virtual livestream media conference covering updates and the science priorities for the Artemis III mission. While the scientists and engineers at NASA and around the world are anticipating this mission to be a breakthrough opportunity to collect and analyse data that rovers cannot, it is also a revolutionary mission for womankind.
Women in STEM and spacesuits
The matter of gender inequality has permeated through social and professional avenues. Aside from the physical wage gap between men and women working the same jobs, there exists an underlying perception of STEM to be a masculine subject. This is one of the reasons why the proportions of women to men ratios in STEM degree programs are so disparately tilted in favour of the latter sex.
Former NASA scientist Rita J. King gave a speech at a TEDxYouth NASA event for students in 2011 while wearing a glittering gold dress that shined almost as brightly as the stars dotting the night sky. Her choice of wardrobe was motivated by a letter from a group of young girls who wanted to see a scientist wearing something “sparkly”.
This request from the young girls reflects that they don’t see relatable female figures within the dominant views of STEM and the reality that women are underrepresented in these professional spaces. King, by donning the dazzling dress, makes a statement that wearing sparkles and being feminine “does not in any way diminish the seriousness of what we are doing.”
NASA and the hard work of the dedicated women in this space program have continued to break down societally constructed gender roles. Last year, astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir undertook the first all-female spacewalk and Koch also broke the record for the longest ever single space flight by a woman, placing herself in one of the top spots surrounded by the accomplishments of the men before her. The first woman on the moon will join Koch in shattering records and breaking barriers.
Photo: Billy Brown @ Flickr
The Artemis Project
Aptly named after the Greek goddess of the moon, the Artemis Program intends to use advanced technologies and new inventions to explore the lunar surface like never before. The ultimate goal of the Artemis Program is to set up a foundation for sustainable lunar research, exploration, and preparation for the next leap to Mars.
NASA hopes this space program will yield new knowledge from the astronauts personally conducting scientific experiments and data collection that rovers are unable to complete. For example, human driven investigations on the moon can uncover answers about planetary processes and the history of crater impact.
What is more, the moon can serve as a platform for science experimentation under unique conditions, unable to be replicated here on Earth. This platform can further be used to study other celestial bodies and even Earth itself, offering a moon’s eye view of our home planet.
Drawing on past lunar missions, NASA has compiled novel research and improved technology to design new space suits and space crafts for this operation. Summarized in the NASA Lunar Exploration Program Overview, the Artemis Project is organized in stages:
Artemis I is an uncrewed space flight scheduled for 2021 to test the efficiency of the rocket and the integrity of the spacecraft, including the heat shield necessary for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Artemis II is a 10-day crewed mission scheduled for 2022-2023 to test communications, navigation, and life support systems for the longer Artemis III mission to the moon.
Artemis III is the ambitious 2024 mission to the moon where the first woman and next man will step foot on the lunar surface for the first time in the 21st century.
Fly me to the moon
Women are consistently fighting this uphill battle of the workplace in proving themselves to be taken as seriously as men. As a woman in STEM, it is amazing to see we will reach the moon in another few years. This space mission is a historic step towards not only the future of science and technology, but also narrowing the social issue of gender equality. I feel this milestone is, quite frankly, out of this world.
The Labour Party haven’t won a majority since 2005, and the road back to government looks longer than ever. In Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class,firefighter and trade unionist Paul Embery spells out how and why the Labour Party managed to lose touch with its one-time supporters.
A class above
Embery says that the problem is the Labour Party’s ever-growing disconnectedness to the working class, the very people in whose name the party was founded. Labour have increasingly come to view the working class with disdain. They treat them more like an elderly, embarrassing relative than as a constituency to be won over.
The attitudes of the working class towards the family, the nation state, law and order, culture, community, and custom and tradition are no longer fashionable among the bulk of newer Labour members. Worse, they’re actually considered unacceptable.
The balance of priorities in the party has certainly tipped too far in the direction of a more middle class, more socially and economically liberal constituency. The history of Labour election success is a history of compromise. The working class and lower middle class voters who share the ideals of economic fairness, social empowerment, and some – dare I say it? – small ‘c’ conservative values, have had to build a coalition with those of a more liberal persuasion.
“The modern Left and the working class currently inhabit separate worlds and are motivated by conflicting priorities.”
But Labour became, especially under Blair, the party of global capital and unfettered immigration; the unquestioning supporters of ultra-capitalist supranational projects (like the EU); and bedfellows to the richest and most powerful people within and across national boundaries.
In doing so, they left the working class very much behind. ‘They’ll vote for us anyway’, might have been the mantra. Well, the working class finally said, ‘no, thanks’.
One might choose any number of statistics to illustrate this, but none speaks more emphatically than the fact that 48% of people in the C2DE social grade (which comprises the working class, as well as the un- and underemployed), voted Tory in 2019.
Tear down this wall!
This led to the now famous collapse of the ‘Red Wall’. Constituencies up and down the country voted Conservative for either the first time in a hundred years, or the first time ever. My hometown of Burnley turned blue for the first time since 1910.
Embery reminds us that Labour’s best chance at electoral success is to start with the working class and build outwards. For too long now the Labour Party has started outside the working class and built even further away.
I found Embery’s arguments to be convincing, especially coming as they do from a card-carrying member of the Labour Party, and someone who has been part of the broader Labour movement for two decades. Embery was one of a handful of Labour supporters who predicted the calamitous 2019 general election. He said the Red Wall would crumble, and it did. For that, he’s surely earned his chance to explain why.
Embery’s characterisation of the ‘cosmopolitan, liberal, woke, Guardian-reading graduates’ of the modern day Left borders on a generalisation. It also lacks the bite of George Orwell’s descriptions from almost a century ago, of the same kind of political animal. But nonetheless his general diagnosis is sound.
There is a fundamental difference in outlook between most of the modern members and MPs of the Labour Party, and the people in whose name it was created.
Blast from the past
In the final chapters of the book, Embery affirms his traditional leftist credentials by suggesting a new economic programme. He calls for the nationalisation of industries, such as the railways and the Post Office; investment in lost and decaying industries; strengthening of the trade unions in the private sector; and generally reorganising the economy in favour of public provision and the public good.
He even argues that sterling ought to be devalued, to give us a chance at reducing our significant trade deficit.
I mention these proposals because none of them would have seemed out of place in a Labour manifesto before about 1970. These priorities were front and centre (and unashamedly so) in a battle to create a fairer and more humane society.
Believe it or not, plenty of people still think the government ought to have the ability (and the instinct) to put its people ahead of an obsession with unchecked liberalism and change for change’s sake. The Labour Party may no longer believe this, but millions of working class people never stopped doing so, and in that belief, there is hope.
The road (back) to power
Up and down the country there are disillusioned constituencies, ripe for the taking. If Labour can become, once again, a party for and of the working class, if they can bring these people through the movement and into positions of power – they might become a credible choice for millions of voters.
In light of their worst electoral result in a century, one ought to channel George Orwell and point out to the Labour Party and the Left that, by engaging honestly and fully with the working class, as they once did, they really have nothing to lose except their aitches.
Shane MacGowan can appear to be a relatively one dimensional figure.
The colossal and enduring success of Fairytale of New York, the Christmas classic recorded by his band The Pogue’s, has turned MacGowan into a seasonal occurrence for many. For others, MacGowan is little more than a heavy-drinking, word-slurring, tooth-missing jester. Crock of Gold – A Few Round with Shane MacGowan, the latest documentary from Julien Temple, manages to go beyond these facets of his persona to create something far more special.
Over the course of 2 hours, a series of interviews, animation from Ralph Steadman, and archival footage pulls together the story of MacGowan’s tumultuous life, from London punk to resurrector of traditional Irish music, places MacGowan’s sincere love of his Celtic heritage front and centre throughout.
Crock of Gold is an endearing and poignant celebration of Irishness abroad, and will resonate across the globe with the many descendants of Irish emigrants.
The thematic concern with MacGowan’s Irish roots are obvious from the film’s opening frames, with an introduction to MacGowan’s rural childhood home in Co. Tipperary. It seems the lifelong abuse of alcohol in his life started here – MacGowan admits to drinking pints and smoking cigarettes from as young as six years old. The counterpart to this, however, was an introduction to jigs and reels – the cultural bedstones of Irish traditional music.
An animated shot from Crock of Gold – courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Julien Temple directs the film away from Ireland, following MacGowan to his teenage years in London, where he becomes engrossed in the rising tide of punk. Frequenting Sex Pistols gigs and having his ear bitten off at a Clash show gave MacGowan his first taste of fame within local circles Before long he was fronting his own punk outfit, The Nipple Erectors. The rebellious spirit of late 1970s London spurred MacGowan in 1982 to create what would become The Pogues – a radical update on the distinctive melodies and poetry of Irish folk music. The Pogues, a shorten Gaelic name meaning ‘kiss my arse’, married raucous gigs and fast rhythms with the sounds of Irish folk – the accordion, tin whistle, banjo, mandolin, and so on.
It’s at this point in the timeline of MacGowan’s career that Crock of Gold could have steered towards the hedonism and anarchic anecdotes that can somewhat cloud music documentaries. But the triumph of this film is its focus at this point on MacGowan’s yearning for what he considered home – his native Tipperary. MacGowan the poet frontman steadily became the voice of a growing Irish diaspora in London, a group historically discriminated against in England and increasingly so in the midst of the IRA’s 1980’s bombing campaigns.
MacGowan aligned himself with Republican causes and proclaims in archival footage that if English people wanted to brand him a paddy, he’d “show them fucking paddy”. A particularly stirring moment comes when the subject of the Famine is touched upon, with MacGowan stating bitterly that “45 million Irish are in America when they should be in Ireland”. As the documentary progresses, one begins to see MacGowan’s pride in his place of birth as central to all that drives him – in fact, his sister, a frequently featured interviewee, claims that MacGowan would like to be remembered for “having done what he did for Ireland”.
The interviews featured throughout are exceptional and the cast shown interviewing MacGowan himself, speak volumes as to what kind of a figure he is. He is joined by Johnny Depp for wine in a French chateau and shares druggy, rock-n-roll anecdotes, but in the next frame MacGowan is featured talking Irish independence in a living room alongside Gerry Adams, the eminent former Sinn Féin leader and possible IRA-affiliated politician. It is in a segment from this conversation that Adams speaks of MacGowan’s “authentic and defiant expression” on behalf of the London Irish community. The sluggish, ageing MacGowan is noticeably revered by Depp for his former punk lifestyle, while Adams lauds him for his contributions to Ireland’s rich poetic tradition.
The admiration from two very different figures displays perfectly the dichotomy in Shane MacGowan’s life, between an earnest affection for Irish literature, culture, and political nationalism, and a preoccupation with drugs, booze, and rockstar cliches. It could be argued that the music of The Pogues is what brought these two elements together in harmony.
Viewed purely as a rock & roll documentary, Crock of Gold certainly covers all the necessary tropes. A rich introduction to the musical catalogue of The Pogues is provided alongside a comprehensive storytelling of MacGowan’s personal journey, and drugs, booze, and tales from the road are plenty. But startlingly, Crock of Gold manages to tell a simultaneous story; of Irish emigration, literary culture, and Republican ideology.
The centuries of poetic tradition and rebellious struggle that MacGowan so eloquently wove into his punk songwriting is woven similarly into the fabric of this documentary, and to fantastic effect.
Do you stick to a beauty routine? I definitely try to but being in lockdown and hardly leaving the house has caused me to be more lenient with this. I have hardly worn makeup this year, although I still make a conscious effort to keep on top of my skincare routine and not neglect it.
What are your favourite makeup products? I prefer more natural makeup looks these days, so my favourite products tend to be sheer, glowy foundations (Flower Beauty’s Light Illusion Foundation is my absolute favourite) and tinted brow gels. I’m also a massive fan of bronzers and blushers – my face looks dull and lifeless without a pop of colour!
What are your favourite skincare products? I’m a huge fan of various products from The Ordinary – their range feels quite daunting and confusing at first but once you put in the research, it really pays off! I’m also a massive face mask fanatic and couldn’t go without them – they’re the ultimate self-care tool and my skin feels blessed because of them.
Photo: Daisy Bradbury @ The Mancunion
Anything you’re guilty of doing (or not doing?) I definitely don’t wash my makeup brushes as often as I should! I know it’s kind of gross but I always forget, plus it feels like a massive chore that I don’t really have time for.
Are there any skin issues you struggle with? Thankfully there aren’t at the moment; I feel like my skin has finally calmed down and stopped being as problematic. Although as soon as I say this, I can guarantee that I’ll have some spots brewing tomorrow morning!
Is there anything in particular you like to splurge on? Honestly, not really! I’m a massive fan of budget beauty and feel like you can get some amazing products at the drugstore, so I never feel the need to spend ridiculous amounts of money on makeup or skincare.
On the contrary, is there anything that you think is not worth spending money on? Mascaras, hands down. There are so many great ones available in Boots and Superdrug so I could never see the point in buying an expensive one, especially when they dry up so quickly. I’m currently using a £4 Technic mascara that works miracles for my eyelashes, I’d highly recommend it!
Photo: Daisy Bradbury @ The Mancunion
How did you learn to do makeup? My mum used to do my makeup for parties and special occasions when I was younger, so I figured out how to apply makeup and what products work best for me through her. I also grew up watching tons of makeup tutorials on Youtube and experimenting from there.
Do you like to play around with makeup? I used to love playing around with makeup and trying some cool, creative looks. These days, I prefer to keep it much simpler and I often find myself sticking to my tried-and-tested holy grail items. Although I’ll admit that if I have an excuse to do my makeup and go out, you’ll find me getting ready hours beforehand surrounded by a sea of products.
What are your favourite hair products? Dry shampoo – I genuinely couldn’t live without it! My hair gets greasy incredibly fast and it’s both time-consuming and damaging to wash it constantly, so this is an absolute lifesaver for me.
Any beauty secrets? I don’t know if it’s really a secret but I’ve stopped doing the Instagram-esque triangle concealing technique and instead just opt for a small dot in the corner of my eye and another on the outer edge. This focuses the product where it’s needed rather than the heavy, cakey look that creating big triangles of product under your eyes can cause.
Is there a specific product that you are endlessly looking for and still haven’t found the perfect one? I’d love to find a pair of false eyelashes that work perfectly for my eye shape. I have really small eyes that are also downturned, so finding a lash that I don’t have to cut up or that doesn’t make my eyes look droopy feels impossible. I’m also not the best at sticking them on, so I’m really tempted to try the magnetic eyeliner false eyelashes and see how they work.
Cinnamon palmiers are a super easy festive twist on my favourite kind of pastry, and excellent as a sweet treat to impress your family (or five friends in an outdoor space)!
Most pre-made pastry sold in supermarkets happens just so happens to be vegan, so these cinnamon palmiers can also easily be made fully plant-based by substituting butter for a non-dairy alternative.
Ingredients
Ready-made puff pastry
Sugar
Melted butter
Cinnamon
Method
1. Preheat your oven
2. Take your puff pastry out of the fridge and let it warm up for about 10 mins
3. Melt your butter.
4. Mix your cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. I don’t tend to have precise measurements as it depends on how cinnamon-y you want, so I would just add some cinnamon and taste and add more as appropriate. Spread half the melted butter on one side, making sure to coat all of it, then add the cinnamon sugar mix, making sure to spread it to the edges.
5. Carefully flip the pastry over and repeat step three.
6. Once both sides are coated, take the shorter ends and roll them at the same time towards the middle until they meet each other, as if it’s a scroll. If you look at the end you should have a vague heart shape, like below.
Photo: Ruby Martin
7. Put baking paper onto a baking tray. Depending on whether you like your palmiers crisp and hard or soft and chewy in the centre will change how thick you cut them. Thinner if you like them crisp, thicker for chewiness. Slice them and lay each slice down on the baking tray like so:
Photo: Ruby Martin
8. Cooking time depends on your oven and thickness, but once one side is golden brown, flip it over. Once both sides are done, take them out and leave to cool.
There you have it, cinnamon palmiers – the perfect delicious yet sophisticated holiday treat and no one needs to know you did not make the pastry yourself!
When the words ‘lockdown’ and ‘business’ have appeared in a sentence this year, they are usually followed by ‘bankrupt’. But students at the University of Manchester are disrupting this narrative by turning lockdown woes into entrepreneurial wins.
The pandemic has forced us all to adapt and accept a ‘new normal’. Unemployment rates have hit a record high, and we now attend university through Zoom. But this year has been about surviving. So, while some of us perfected our TikTok dances, others found relief in creating.
From upcycled jewellery and clothes, to artistic prints, students donned their entrepreneurial hats when they turned their creative outlets into successful student start-ups.
Photo: @itscheriejewellery @ Instagram
Rhiannon Ingle, a third-year student studying English Literature, started creating jewellery “just for fun.” Before the lockdown, she “had no interest in it” as a business, but wanted to fill the copious amounts of free time. “It’s therapeutic, you have to focus so much so your brain shuts off.”
Jewellery making soon presented itself as a business opportunity for her when people started asking, “can you make this for me?”
“In Manchester, everyone has a side hustle.”
After being furloughed, Rhiannon – like many students – found herself in a difficult financial situation. She still had to pay rent and realised her hobby offered an alternative income, as well as a connection to other creatives in the city. “It’s important to remain in the community of local small artists,” she explains.
For her, lockdown was also marked by the killing of George Floyd. To pay homage and “put [her] money where [her] mouth is,” she is donating a percentage of her profits to the charity Black Lives Matter UK. She can be found on Instagram @itscheriejewellery.
“It’s so important to think before you shop,” Rhiannon says. With small businesses, creators don’t have to sacrifice their values for the sake of profit or mass production. Sellers are able to make the products when needed, and can upcycle old and unloved materials.
This is exactly what second-year students Nina Fahey (Fashion, Buying and Merchandising) and Rosheen O’Hanlon (Drama and English) did.
Photo: @co_ordinary @ Instagram
Nina created a business offering made-to-measure clothing to escape the mundane lockdown life: “I was just doing things to take my mind off [the pandemic]. I decided I’m going to use my student loan and buy a sewing machine.”
So, armed with sewing skills learnt on TikTok and “using mainly deadstock or rejected fabrics,” she established @co_ordinary.
Rosheen O’Hanlon similarly creates earrings by recycling broken and unloved jewellery, @rosheensbeads. Each order is unique and repurposed, which made the experience rewarding for her as she could, “give back something that someone [had] loved.”
She described the process as “laidback,” since she didn’t set out with the intention of starting a business. It was important to Rosheen that she kept her business as eco-friendly as possible, so she urged students to do the same.
“Shop small. It’s so important to think before you shop.”
Christmas is fast approaching and shoppers can put this into practice. Rosheen’s claims are true: Fast fashion certainly isn’t personalised.
Photo: @rosheensbeads @ Instagram
“I was just losing my marbles”
Students often cited the positive effect keeping busy during lockdown had on their mental health.
Josh Lord, a fourth-year student studying French, started a sustainable vintage clothing brand and community during lockdown to give his days purpose: “[We] wanted to stay busy to keep our sanity this lockdown.”
He recognised that not all students had the opportunity to stay busy, and credited the joint effort that went into establishing the business. Josh saw the business as a way to build a student network and community in what has otherwise been an isolating first-year experience.
“Student mental health is so important, our main idea was to build a community.”
The business has grown exponentially and Josh hopes to keep up this momentum into the new year. They will be hosting more pop-up shops in collaboration with Fallowfield bar and venue Haus, and can be found on Instagram at @fallowgarms and Depop.
Photo: Josh Lord @fallowgarms @ Instagram
Michelle Lavelle, a third-year Fashion and Promotion student, also found that creating gave her the mental headspace a cramped lockdown couldn’t physically offer:
“I was just losing my marbles. I wanted to let loose in my head.”
She creates custom collages; customers choose images that Michelle then photoshops and arranges them into elaborate prints. She joked that if Paris Hilton can rock a photomontage of her face, then so can we.
Lavelle perfectly described her process as, “a brain dump of random stuff.” Her prints can be found @shellers__, and she has a website pending.
Photo: @shellers__ @ Instagram
It has been an undeniably challenging year but, if these burgeoning student start-ups are anything to go by, the gloom of the pandemic might also be responsible for breeding a new wave of entrepreneurs.
Bombay Bicycle Club announce their latest release this month, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, Live From Brixton with a date set for Friday 11th December 2020. The album, recorded on 8th November 2019, marks a cornerstone achievement for the band. The Mancunion spoke to frontman Jack Steadman about celebrating the 10th anniversary of their 2009 debut album, and aspirations for 2021.
The music industry in the UK has faced an undoubted shake-up during this tumultuous year. No venue, no matter how beloved or culturally significant, has been safe from the swathes of cancellations which brought a loss of vital opportunities to showcase music in dynamic, live formats.
Casting our minds back to March, it seemed that for many musicians, the initial break was an ideal opportunity to relax from touring and get creative with the new-found abundance of free time. Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman recalled friends and musicians excitedly discussing the concept whilst he “really struggled at the beginning of the year to write…[and] found it incredibly uninspiring” as others around him appeared to be thriving. Even as we speak, he candidly admitted that this enthusiasm and process was only just starting to return in full. I asked if he felt that social media had impacted this struggle, to which he replied “definitely.”
EP Two Lives
A clear and motivated kick-starter for Bombay Bicycle Club’s return to form revolved around their EP release in July 2020. After cancelling the rest of their tour dates, the band recorded acoustic versions and a cover track of Bonnie Riatt’s ‘Two Lives’ from Jack’s home, to raise money for Youth Music and British Chineke! Orchestra.
Jack noted Chineke! Orchestra’s vital work to increase diversity in classical music, tackling “an issue with the music industry at large, and most profoundly in the classical music world.” As a lover of classical music, it seemed that he had been moved by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protest over the summer and was eager to contribute by facilitating some funding towards the future of diversity in music.
Recording New Material
The Bombay Bicycle Club frontman was keen to keep the details of recording under wraps for the time being, as he explained there were plenty of people they wanted to work with but, under current restrictions, they were “limited with travelling”. Surprisingly, there was no mention of Zoom band meetings which characteristically garner results on a severe, sliding scale of success – with musicians categorising the experience somewhere between ‘bearable’ and playing in an extremely experimental Jazz band with no discernible bass line or tempo.
He emphasises that work is now underway as they “really want to be playing new music to people”, with the return of events and festivals next year well within their sights. Clearly disappointed about the last album tour and subsequent opportunities cut short, Steadman seemed determined to make decisive choices about their next album and plans to get out their playing as often as possible.
According to Jack: “The beauty of festivals is that connection and being close to people…for so many people it is cathartic and its finally a moment where you can forget daily anxieties.” He voices concerns that social distancing makes this experience much more difficult but laughs that, at the current rate, “we’ll take whatever live experience we can get!”.
I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, Live From Brixton
The simple reason their latest album came to be was through a profound re-discovery of tracks and, with that, a sentimentality which Jack Steadman explains is something that the band have never previously dwelt on, nor had time to. Having frequently played Brixton 02 throughout their musical journey, he comments “we have so many emotional memories there… someone finally convinced us to document it.”
There is also a distinctively crowd-centric nature to the album and Jack agreed: “When we were mixing it, we were slowing turning up the mics that were in the crowd. We were making it a bit more about audiences noise, making it that bit more immersive.”
On the subject, I wondered where they might perform if they could re-create a moment in an ideal, pre-pandemic world with a crowd. Jack quickly responded “Camden Barfly with the song ‘Evening/Morning’, which is just one of the heaviest songs – and actually, if were going all out, I want there to be a stage invasion, all our equipment to break and for me to get a black eye.” Sounds about as dramatic and downright dangerous as a small gig could get!
Bombay Bicycle Club. Photo: @Press shot
With new music expected to arrive in 2021, the band are excited to share their progress, and Jack quite eagerly expressed a real urge to get back to performing. In celebration of the live album release, Bombay Bicycle club will be performing the album live and in full at Konk studios in London, on 15th December 2020.
Access to tickets can be found here and might take you back to that live gig experience, just for a moment.
Shame entered into the post-punk scene two years ago. Their critically acclaimed debut Songs of Praise made them an articulate and enraged force to be reckoned with. They have now returned with two punchy new singles for us to sink our teeth into, giving us an insight as to where they are going musically: ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Water in the Well’.
There is always a certain pressure for bands to follow up a successful debut. Will they stick to what fans know and love? Or venture into uncharted waters?
After announcing the title of their sophomore album, Drunk Tank Pink, to be released in January, Shame unveiled a second single ‘Water in the Well’. The single certainly marks a fresher sound for the group, featuring echoes of Talking Heads and Fugazi. Lead singer Charlie Steen’s booming tone is complimented by harmonised backing vocals from the rest of the band, as he continues to deliver magnetic and satirical energy.
There seems to be a level of refinement to their approach this time around. The single lacks the lawlessness that we hear in tracks like ‘Lampoon’ and ‘Gold Hole’ on Songs of Praise. On the other hand, watching Steen in the music video maintain his infectious charisma and presence, I can’t help being hugely excited for the new album.
Shame continue to tread the line between being derivative and greater than the sum of their influences. I believe what sets Shame apart is their knack to treading this line. They channel the tongue-and-cheek lyrics of Ian Dury and Squeeze, with guitar licks reminiscent of The Fall and Joy Division. The collage-like sound creates something accessible but fresh.
‘Alphabet’, the first single released from the album, seemed like more of a ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’ kind of song. The track would have sat comfortably on Songs of Praise. This suggests that there will still be a continuation of their angry and sarcastic sound.
Drunk Tank Pink Tour. Photo: Shame
Alongside these releases, Shame have announced a socially distanced tour of independent UK venues in February next year. They declared on Instagram “we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for independent venues giving us a state to perform…these venues are often criminally overlooked when it comes to government funding and many are under treat of closing”. The tour includes two shows at independent favourite YES, which sold out in a matter of days.
Judging from the singles so far, Drunk Tank Pink certainly seems a highly anticipated album for post-punk in the forthcoming year. I am intrigued to see how Shame build upon these particular songs, since they are very different in tone and influence. Both ‘Water in the Well’ and ‘Alphabet’ pack a punch, and set Shame up for yet another successful album.
Melanie Martinez’s livestream Can’t Wait ’til I’m Out of K-12 tonight is not one to miss.
Last year, Melanie Martinez embarked on her K-12 tour, a world tour in support of her album. ‘K-12’ is a serialised album, in which Melanie takes us on a journey that we are all familiar with: high school. In her typical playful style, the album’s first track is titled ‘Wheels on the Bus’, whilst the last is titled ‘Recess’.
This nostalgic conceptual album tackles themes such as high school romance, bullying, and inappropriate relationships with teachers: “Teacher’s pet – if I’m so special, why am I a secret?”.
In 2019, Martinez released a musical horror fantasy film of the same name, in which she brought these songs to life, before taking the album (and film) on tour. It was a great show to review as The Mancunion’s Theatre Editor and a Music writer because the show was, essentially, a mix between a concert and a musical.
In September this year, Martinez released her ‘After School’ EP and included those songs on the new deluxe edition of ‘K-12’.
Now, Martinez is ready to perform live again: she recently announced a global streaming event titled ‘Can’t Wait Till I’m Out of K-12’. This event will see Martinez celebrate both her album and her film with a “spectacular” concert production, featuring a full band, dancers, and “all of the one-of-a-kind theatricality fans have come to expect from this visionary, multi-talented artist”.
This livestream is the last time that fans will have the opportunity to experience a K-12 concert production, which will be similar to the tour version, with the addition of ‘After School’ tracks.
When Martinez tours, she performs very few songs from her back catalogue. The K-12 tour saw her perform the entire ‘K-12’ album before performing only three older songs in the encore and then the unreleased ‘K-12’-era track ‘Fire Drill’.
Her next tour will probably be similar, in that she will perform the entire album in a musical-like concert. So, if you really like a song from ‘K-12’ or ‘After School’ and did not get to see Martinez on tour, make sure you get tickets to the livestream – it could, potentially, be your last chance to see Martinez perform it live!
General Admission tickets are only £14.50. The K-12 VIP package, which includes GA and a t-shirt, is £40, whilst the £60 After School VIP package includes the additional item of a tote bag.
Unfortunately for any huge Melanie Martinez fans, the Ultimate K-12 Deluxe VIP package – which includes the additional items of a signed puzzle and a post-show small group virtual M&G with Martinez – is, unsurprisingly, sold out.
Fuse TV spoke to Since September’s band member Patrick Ralphson, the University of Manchester student who’s ditching the Ali G to perform to tens of thousands at the O2 arena after winning Little Mix: The Search.
On the 7th November, the four-man band Since September were announced the winners of the BBC One talent search. Put together by Little Mix, the newly formed band will be joining the world’s biggest girl group on their 2021 UK ‘Confetti’ tour.
We have our winning band 🎉. Huge congratulations to Since September! We can't wait to tour with you! Also a massive thank you to all the bands who took part in @LMTheSearch… pic.twitter.com/3k8SynhDd5
Congratulations on winning BBC’s Little Mix: The Search. How did you feel when it was announced that Since September had won the competition? Was it a shock?
I just couldn’t describe it in any way. The words just couldn’t come to me and they still can’t really. It hit different.
It was mega. When we were stood there on stage and they said ‘The winner is…’ I kind of knew. I wouldn’t say I knew but I had this feeling in my gut that Since September would sound right right now but it was still just mega. You reflect on the whole journey in one second when he says your name. It was all a year in the making and it just slapped.
“What would you say has been the biggest change in your life since winning?
“The fact that I’m stopping University in January. I’m finishing the semester and then obviously we’ve got the tour. I’m going to be in London rehearsing. Being able to actually be a full-time musician – it sounds like a cheesy comment – but it’s just something that I’ve always dreamed of doing. Just being able to wake up, write songs, play music, go to bed. It’s just all I want to do and now I can actually finally do that.
“That will definitely be an upgrade from University then”.
“No definitely – I won’t be going to the Ali G anymore. I’ll miss it. I’ll miss trying to go to a study space that I booked and someone else be there and then not be able to get in.
When do the tour rehearsals start? Do you know what that looks like?
“We don’t have a set date for when we start. But yeah it will be start of the year, February time.
“I actually have no idea but that’s what’s so exciting about it you know. There’s so much unknown to this experience- I’ve never done this before, I’ve never played at arenas or had such a serious tour. When I was younger I toured festivals when I was 18, but that was just playing with my mates and doing songs that we wrote in our garage. This is an adventure and it’s so exciting.
What would be your top three desert island discs?
Stone Roses- first album – obviously. There’s an album by a guy called Yellow Days which is called A Day in a Yellow Beat and that’s just a beautiful album. It’s interesting because no one really listens to albums anymore because of Spotify and streaming. Michael Kiwanuka’s album it’s called Love and Hate and this yeah again is a beautiful album. The production on it is just mega.
Settle a debate for us. Where is the best place to get a takeaway in Manchester?
Oh- ‘AL ZAIN’ on the curry mile. The Shawarma from there is just unreal, yeah- no doubt.
Since September were put together by Little Mix. The band moved in together for 8 weeks whilst the show was on hold due to Covid. What’s the relationship like between you all? Does it ever feel contrived due to the nature of its creation?
“Not at all. It’s quite interesting because we got formed in February and the show was meant to finish in May and the tour was going to be this summer and then because of Covid and everything it stopped. So, we actually had six months of calling every day just getting to know each other and it just become so natural. So as soon as we moved into the house together it was like I’d known them for years. It was really good to have that buffering period, it worked in our favour. So, it’s never contrived.
What’s been the biggest highlight from the experience?
Meeting McFly.
Tune in to Little Mix: The Search at 7PM on @BBCOne where we'll be performing and mentoring Since September! @LittleMix aren't going to be giving us a score out of 100… right?! 😰 pic.twitter.com/sMbDI380uK
They were my first gig and first album. They were what made me want to play guitar. I grew up with that album Room on the 3rdFloor and I’d have it on and be playing air guitar in the mirror just like jumping around my room. And then I was just there with them and saying hello to them. I’ve got Danny’s pick as well so I use that every time I play now.
Can we expect any Since September original material anytime soon?
“Without a doubt. We’re being put in sessions with some really talented people writing songs. We all write songs in our own right but there’s a difference between me having written a song that’s got 30,000 streams on Spotify and someone who’s written 15 number ones. Being able to work with these people is an amazing opportunity and we want to get songs out before the tour starts.
We have yet to define our sound. When we get into these song writing sessions we’ve got the time and the opportunity to mess around with so many different sounds and find out what ticks for us.
I really want to be in Manchester arena at the end of the tour, singing a Since September song that I’ve written, and having the arena sing it back to me. That’s the dream”.
