The big issue 18 august 2014

Page 1

EVERY MONDAY £2.50

Babooshka! Kate’s back SOUNDS OF LOVE, page 16

LONDON

August 18-24, 2014 No.1116

A HAND UP NOT A HANDOUT


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Paul McNamee EDITOR

August 18-24, 2014 No.1116

“KATE’S A CHATTY WORKING MUM PICKING UP CHEESE FLANS FROM THE SUPERMARKET” 16

THE MIX Posted: your letters & tweets 4 The Big Picture 6 Samira Ahmed 9 My Week: Lloyd Langford 10 John Bird 13 Denis Lawson 15

FEATURES Kate Bush 16 Reforming prisons 20 Rubbish collection 22 Vendorendum update 25

THE ENLIGHTENMENT Film & TV 28 Books 30 Music 32 What’s On 34 Puzzles & competition 43 Street Lights 44 My Pitch: Jack Richardson 46

D

NIGEL, WHERE ARE THEY?

o you have them? Are you hiding them under your bed or in the shed out the back? That’s it – they’re all in the shed, thousands of them, packed, like silent sardines. Actually, that’s not true. They’re not there. They’re not anywhere. The vast tide of millions of Romanians and Bulgarians who we were warned were arriving to take us to hell in a handcart just haven’t come. On January 1, when EU movement restrictions were dropped, there were around 125,000 Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK. Figures released last week said there were 132,000 (it’s worth noting that the reading of some stats puts this at 140,000 rising to 153,000 but that’s stats for you). Either way, Nigel Farage said there’d be 5,000 people a week coming for years. Nigel’s wrong – who’d have thought that of Nigel? The vexed question of immigration won’t go away, though. On messageboards on most newspapers under fact-based pieces that illustrate just how wildly inaccurate stories about the arrival of the eastern menace have been, readers still

continue to gripe with the old “why do we need so many of these bloody foreigners coming over here, taking our jobs” lines. And while it’s xenophobic and unpleasant, it is illustrative of a feeling that is out there. Politicians, from Gordon Brown to David Cameron, who have pushed the British people for British jobs line, don’t help address or quell such thoughts. Though it’s interesting that John Major, the last Conservative leader to actually be able to form a majority government following a general election, praised the “guts and drive” of immigrants. He said they showed a “very Conservative instinct”. I’d argue that the instinct to reach up and try to make a better life is a human instinct free of party alignment, but that is a small point. John Major is broadly right. We need people coming here to do jobs that Britons can’t or won’t. We also need to always extend a hand to those fleeing situations we can barely imagine. Address the issue of numbers, yes, but let’s stop the casual demonising of anybody from beyond Britain’s borders. It’s boneheaded and it’s this that will really take us to hell in a handcart.

Editor of the Year 2013 (British Society of Magazine Editors)

THE BIG ISSUE JOURNALISM WORTH PAYING FOR If you have any comments please email me at: paul.mcnamee@bigissue.com or tweet @pauldmcnamee

A HAND UP NOT A HANDOUT: Big Issue vendors buy the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50, keeping £1.25 for each copy that they sell. All our vendors

receive training, sign a code of conduct and can be identified by their photo ID badges, which must be worn at all times on their pitch. The Big Issue was set up in 1991 to provide homeless and vulnerably housed people with the opportunity to earn a legitimate income. Becoming housed is only the first step on the journey away from the streets, so we allow vendors to continue selling the magazine once they have found accommodation. Through the Big Issue Foundation, we also provide support to vendors looking to address the issues that led them to become homeless. The Big Issue Foundation is a charity that relies primarily upon donations from the general public. To find out more about the Foundation’s work visit bigissue.org.uk.

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p3 / August 18-24, 2014


THE MIX

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POSTED

@hjrothery Just bought a Big Issue for the first time in ages – what persuaded me? The vendor talked about the magazine’s contents – which is unusual!

THE DOC GETS A FACELIFT I enjoyed Adrian Lobb’s interview with Malcolm Tucker and the glimpse it offered into Mr Tucker’s intentions for the newest Doctor [Cover feature, August 11-17]. Unfortunately I think Lobb was mistaken in describing the “budgets being stretched tighter than the Face of Boe”. Surely he intended to say tighter than the face of Lady Cassandra – a character whose face is nothing more than stretched skin as a result of hundreds of surgeries to extend her life. The Face of Boe on the other hand, despite being millions (some say billions) of years old, is not stretched but wrinkled. If this “fan letter” seems a bit obsessive, I’m sure Mr Tucker would understand. All the best of luck to him in his new role. Chris Sampson, London

@bluemac79 @BigIssue Thoroughly enjoyed John Bird’s piece on #WW1 in latest issue. Germany as French & British Frankenstein so true

FIGHTING TALK “We had to stand and fight” the First World War, writes John Bird. I love that word “we”. It wasn’t you, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t John Bird, though no doubt he would have bravely marched off had he been alive

at the time. I am concerned, though, with the memory of those young men who didn’t want to fight or who realised that they didn’t want to fight when it was too late to get out of the military machine. They are all gone now but I talked to some of them when they were alive (including my grandfather, who as a teenager was given a white feather by a member of the ‘stand and fight’ brigade). There was no democracy as we understand it; they had no votes and almost no choice. They would be threatened, abused and imprisoned if they refused to kill young German-speaking men who had been told precisely the same thing. If you want to know what it was like for the nonconformists, read DH Lawrence’s Kangaroo. If you want to know what it was like at the front, read about Harry Patch.

OF THE WEEK

CHAT’S THE WAY TO DO IT One of your reader’s emails in the last Big Issue [August 11-17] in your Comment of the Week section struck a chord. I used to be one of those people who would walk on by a Big Issue vendor every day to work until the day I stopped and spoke to Phil. Over the last 18 months my husband and I have really got to know Phil, and Reggie his little black dog. We stop every day to have a chat and buy our Big Issue every Tuesday without fail. I prepare a pack lunch for Phil each day and I know this means a lot to him. If he is not on his pitch or unwell we do worry about him. He always says good morning to everyone as they pass by, even if they do not buy a Big Issue. He will always ask how our day or weekend has been. It has been a pleasure to get to know Phil. I know he has a sweet tooth and also enjoys a good book to read. It is so frustrating to see so many people pass him by. I wish there was a way to make people care more. They will not hesitate to spend £2.50 on their morning coffee but if just 50 people a week gave up one cup of coffee this would have a significant impact on a Big Issue vendors like Phil. I have been actively promoting Phil and Reggie and The Big Issue with friends and colleagues at work to encourage more people to get to know them. Karen and Duncan Betts, email

Nice interview @BigIssue – not sure why they needed to make me look like a drag queen though?… oh well, all right! @JLloydWebber

Merryn Williams, Oxford @lookingforcache @BigIssue got this from Lincoln only had £2.20 on me. The guy said it was ok. I came back with the rest later. Gd guy

#CELEBRATEYOURVENDOR A huge thank you to my vendor – Donny at Green Park – who this morning gave me a gift to say thank you for being one of his regulars. What an act of generosity! He brings such a bright, friendly and open-hearted approach to what he does. I’ve thanked him in person and would love him to receive this public praise. Hazel Russo, email

@nickbroom @BigIssue great and friendly new vendor in #horsham – he’s always got a smile and a witty one-liner or gag at the ready! #makesmesmile

A GOOD READ Read with great interest the article on Bob the Cat in the July 14-20 issue. Why? Because my book group has just read A Street Cat Named Bob and for some of the group it was a revelation about life on the streets, and most importantly three members said they had never bought The Big Issue but will from now on! Mary Rensten, email

@MartinBarrow @BigIssue’s Vendorendum gives a voice to Scotland’s most disenfranchised ahead of next month’s vote. Could they swing the result?

@mother_shipton Sat reading The @BigIssue I bought from my favourite vendor in #Salisbury yesterday; the happy guy in the Panama hat! #WorkingNotBegging :-) Write to: The Big Issue, Second Floor, 43 Bath St, Glasgow, G2 1HW Email: letters@bigissue.com Comment: bigissue.com Follow: @bigissue

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p4 / August 18-24, 2014


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MANDOWN NOUN. / ONE OF THE TWELVE MEN WHO TAKES THEIR LIFE EVERY DAY IN THIS COUNTRY.

#MANDICTIONARY

KEEPING MEN ALIVE BY TALKING www.thecalmzone.net CALM is a registered charity in England & Wales no 1110621 & Scotland no SC044347

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THE MIX THE BIG PICTURE

WorldMags.net DARK LAND OF THE “DEAR LEADER” North and South Korea, 23.04.2014

SHROUDED IN SHADOWS An International Space Station picture shows the Korean peninsula at night. The brightest area is South Korean capital Seoul, while the dark strip is North Korea, languishing in blackness as a result of the North’s lack of electrical infrastructure. Pope Francis visited South Korea last week, home to 5.5 million Catholics – 11 per cent of the population. Speaking in English, he called for dialogue to replace “mutual recriminations, fruitless criticisms and displays of force” in the region. North Korea launched three short-range rockets off its east coast shortly before the papal visit on Thursday, but denied any link to the event. A Pyongyang rocket scientist was reported as saying, “We have no interest at all in what [the Pope] is going to plot with the South Korean puppets.” North Korea has test-fired more rockets than usual this year.

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p6 / August 18-24, 2014


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THIS IDEA IS CHANGING THE WORLD

WHO RATES STREET PAPERS? WE DO…

A

fter the Commonwealth Games, another cultural exchange took place in Glasgow last week. The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) celebrated its 20th anniversary with editors, photographers, distributors and vendors from 46 street papers worldwide. More than 90 delegates got together to share ideas at the conference, hosted by The Big Issue UK. Attending were representatives from 23 countries, from Austria to Taiwan. They took part in a lively programme of workshops, presentations and talks, with Big Issue founder John Bird, editor Paul McNamee and CEO Jim Mullan leading events. Street papers offer vendors the chance to connect with their community, as well as contribute to the publication and move away from begging to earn a legitimate income. Since The Big Issue’s foundation 23 years ago, the concept of the street paper continues to change the world, and discussions included innovative ideas on how to take the movement forward in the digital age. The INSP supports more than 120 street paper projects – in 40 countries and 24 languages. It has helped 250,000 vendors improve their lives and has given hours of reading pleasure. The Big Issue sold more than 4.2 million copies last year, with each magazine sale earning vendors £1.25. Thanks for your support! O

TOP 5

FANTASTICAL BABY NAMES People really name their kids after Game of Thrones characters. Here are the most popular ones from 2013…

O 1 ARYA

187 babies

O KHALEESI 2

50

O 3 THEON 11

O 4 SANSA Photo: Nasa

5

O DAENERYS 5

4

Source: ONS

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p7 / August 18-24, 2014


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Future of cities Giant outdoor bubbles Theatre, cabaret & comedy

Botany Food waste Jewellery design

The Simpsons Society and the media Sex, maths & the brain many

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Get your tickets now at www.britishsciencefestival.org British Science Festival

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THE MIX WorldMags.net COMMENT

MAKING THE CONNECTION TO 21ST CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT

Samira Ahmed B

lackwell’s bookshop in Oxford has three-anda-half miles of books. It’s a wonderful place. The deputy manager told me how they staged Doctor Faustus in its stacks recently. Nearly 25 years ago as a student, I was there for what turned out to be Salman Rushdie’s last public reading from The Satanic Verses. I was the only person to ask whether he feared his Muslim background meant he was going to be treated in a way no other writer would. Rushdie said no, and it’s highly probable he believed it at the time. It felt like a singular madness. When I agreed a year ago to chair some discussions for the World Humanist Congress in Oxford, it was as a favour to the head of the British Humanist Association (BHA), who’d introduced me to the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But the weekend turned out to be a thought-provoking chance to connect what happened after that 1988 book reading to the global fight by humanists for a moral framework of human rights without religion. Among more than 1000 delegates in Oxford I met Norwegians concerned at how they felt the Lutheran church had pushed to cement its state influence after the Anders Breivik massacre. Exeter University professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou described how some of her students, funded by American Christian fundamentalist organisations, waste hours of teaching time challenging her expert authority on the historical origins of Bible texts. Babu Gogineni, a leading humanist campaigner in India against superstition, which is embedded in public Hindu life, recounted stories that made you laugh, such as embarrassing astrologers on national TV for their failed predictions but also incidents that made the audience sit in sombre silence – the regularity with which Dalit (untouchable) caste Hindus were harassed and tortured for “witchcraft” by landowners. Babu told me how the police stopped him boarding his flight to the conference and held him for just long enough to remind him that they

can make his life difficult. Leo Igwe from Nigeria has been beaten up for his relentless campaign against Christian witch hunters who starve and torture children. All these years after the murder of Victoria Climbié as a result of such beliefs, Leo pointed out that a prominent Nigerian witch hunter was set to come to London in a widely publicised visit. Valentin Abgottspon, a school teacher from Switzerland, might not have faced any violence but his fight to enforce the law protecting freedom of belief by taking down a crucifix in his classroom exposed the hypocrisy of a nation that likes to claim it is a bastion of human rights. His challenge to the Catholic Church and its privileged support from the supposedly secular state authorities embodied the biggest question of the congress:

Does every case of religious discrimination matter equally? After all, the congress was taking place as Yazidi minority Iraqis were starving to death or being buried alive in the desert by Islamic State (IS) fighters. So who better to ask than Richard Dawkins, vice chairman of the BHA at the congress, whose belief in logical thinking and his related provocative pronouncements on Twitter have led to huge controversy? I put to him Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs’ criticism – that it was a mistake to pick on moderate religious believers and alienate potential allies in the war against extremists. Dawkins said watching the horrors of Islamic extremism, he did wonder if Christianity was a useful “bulwark” against it. But he also felt moderate faith leaders, by upholding core superstitions, ultimately made it possible for extremists to flourish. In the Q&A one prominent ex-Muslim pulled an easy stunt by ripping up a paper homemade IS flag with a flourish, to great applause. Afterwards another ex-Muslim told me how one delegate had suggested to him that someone should invent an anti-Muslim “vaccine”. An isolated moment but revealing of human nature at a conference all about the danger of sweeping prejudices. The conference theme, you see, was building a 21st century Enlightenment. Europeans during the 17th century one proved capable of advocating human rights while widely tolerating slavery, child labour and the subjugation of women as subhuman and the property of men. Today western leaders condemn IS while remaining politically close to the Gulf States from where much of their ideology and funding is believed to emanate. I bought a book in Blackwell’s before I left by the novelist and humanist EM Forster. That bloke who said: “Only connect!” O Samira Ahmed is a columnist for The Big Issue. She is a journalist and broadcaster. @SamiraAhmedUK Photo: PA

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p9 / August 18-24, 2014


THE MIX

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REAS NS TO BE CHEERFUL

MY WEEK

LLOYD LANGFORD We challenged the comedian to ditch technology. Could he cope?

“I HAD TO WRITE EVERYTHING ON PAPER AND REMEMBER IT. I FELT LIKE A CUT-PRICE SAMUEL PEPYS”

Illustration: Miles Cole

Big Issue busk

I’ve been griping about modern life in my show at the Fringe,

Not having my phone encouraged me to live in the moment.

so The Big Issue challenged me to 48 hours without technology. I put my laptop under my bed, let my phone die and smashed up the television (don’t worry, I’m renting a place for the Fringe). Then I gritted my teeth.

If plans fell through I went along with other people. On Sunday I bumped into Tim Vine who always carries pub darts with him – not as a weapon, just because he really loves playing darts. I asked: “What shall we do?” And he said: “Darts!” Which I would never have arranged using my phone – it’s not something I’d have ever thought of doing. Tim is always thinking of darts.

The first problem was the diary. Normally I would have got my schedule from alerts on a computer calendar. Instead I had to write everything on paper and remember it. I felt like a cut-price Samuel Pepys.

Not contacting people was the hardest. I couldn’t confirm I was coming to extra gigs, so I had to turn up early. I couldn’t contact friends. In Edinburgh it was easy to bump into people I know – it might be harder in London.

I was meeting a friend but he didn’t turn up, so I tried to ring him on a payphone. Yes, they do still exist and they smell really badly of piss. They’re dotted around the country, monuments to a forgotten age. Like smelly Stonehenges. I visited four but the coin slots were blocked and wires severed. I begged for a phone in a hotel reception but as my mate didn’t recognise the number he refused to pick up. No technology made me a sleuth: I found him by having an idea of a show he was going to and tracking him down.

I’ve been coming up to the Fringe since 2002, when I was a new comedian doing open spots, getting five to 10 minutes where I could. Then I didn’t have a laptop but a Nokia 3210 with the snake game and a good battery life.

I’ve got a brother in Japan and Skype means we can talk. But technology can be a distraction. Though it brings people together it takes you away from the moment. When people film gigs they’re just making a digital note so they can put it on Facebook and show their friends.

It’s hardly the most taxing thing you can do but I thought no technology would be harder. I was tempted to do it for longer – when I turned my laptop back on I felt a bit downhearted. After the Fringe maybe I’ll turn off the phone at weekends. Make my plans, then just switch it off! O

I wrote a letter to my girlfriend. I didn’t know where the Post Office was. Without Google I was wandering the streets figuring out where to buy a stamp.

Music fans were treated to a busk by Feeder frontman Grant Nicholas, who teamed up with The Big Issue to help raise awareness of hardworking vendors. Nicholas, who last week released his debut solo album Yorktown Heights, stopped by The Big Issue’s Cardiff office to play a 30-minute set to 100 fans on Queen Street. “I always love playing in Cardiff and always will,” said Nicholas. “And I was glad to be able to team up with The Big Issue in Wales to help draw

Lloyd Langford: Old Fashioned is at the Pleasance Jack Dome until August 25. lloydlangford.com INTERVIEW BY ROBBIE GRIFFITHS

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p10 / August 18-24, 2014

attention to the great work that they do.” Nicholas’ support follows our hugely successful UK tour with Passenger, the songwriter behind juggernaut hit Let Her Go, earlier this year.

Rugby winners! Well done to Edinburgh Rugby pair Grayson Hart and Carl Bezuidenhout, who sold the most copies of The Big Issue during the Pro 12 side’s guest sell-off competition last week. Now they can tell their teammates they must try harder...


RANDOMISER

THE MIX WorldMags.net “YOU’VE FORGOTTEN SOAPBOX ONE THING – ME” Screen siren Lauren Bacall’s words from The Big Sleep. She died last week aged 89.

PANDAMONIUM

Expenses claimed by Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds in 2012/3, including his wife’s salary. He resigned last week, saying he couldn’t afford life in London with his £28,000 living allowance.

President Barack Obama, paying tribute to much-loved comedian and actor Robin Williams, who died aged 63 last week.

Soon there might be three times as many pandas as Tory MPs in Scotland. Edinburgh Zoo said Tian Tian is likely pregnant and could give birth within weeks.

‘HE MADE US LAUGH. HE MADE US CRY’

TWO THIRDS

1

… of people with mental health problems get no treatment at all, according to the new head of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Professor Simon Wessely.

plastic bottle spoiled a Downton Abbey promotional photo. The new Downton series is set in the 1920s…

‘WE ALWAYS AGREED THAT WE WOULD SHARE THE WINNINGS’

Edinburgh decorator Willie Sibbald won a £7m Lottery jackpot and split the cash with mate Rab Layden. The two retired the next day.

STREET PAPERS STREET-PAPERS.ORG

THERE ARE MORE THAN 100 AROUND THE WORLD. EVERY WEEK WE SHOWCASE ONE.

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY BUT NOT BEING HEARD? HERE’S YOUR PLATFORM... Get real, says MAL MITCHELL. The Madagascan paradise depicted in DreamWorks films is a far cry from reality – and we need to help.

I

ts famous lemurs and other unique wildlife are apparently believed by some to be taken care of either directly by David Attenborough or the BBC natural history unit. But the reality in Madagascar in terms of chronic deforestation, and the smuggling and slaughter of endangered species, goes from bad to worse. Lemurs are now seen as our planet’s most endangered mammal group, with some 95 per cent of the 100-odd known species reckoned to be facing extinction. Madagascar is one of the poorest places on the planet. Despite the lush green image of Madagascar typically seen in the media, if it’s seen at all, the situation on the island is already critical. What’s this got to do with us in Old Blighty? Well if a sense of shared humanity wasn’t enough, go back 300 years to a time when we’re laying down the foundations of Britain’s economic power, the time of transatlantic slave trading, and you’ll see abductions of Malagasy people to Barbados by the English. And while you need to go that far back to find plague in the British Isles, you can find bubonic as well as pneumonic plague among people in Madagascar today. Things are bad. Like a candyfloss smoke screen, Madagascar is best known in the west for a cartoon film bearing its name but which has virtually nothing to do with it. How to address this critical situation? Raise awareness. While there’s still time for it to count. O

madagascar.co.uk

AL MARGEN, ARGENTINA Argentina may have lost the World Cup final but one of the country’s street papers, Al Margen, still celebrated all things fútbol in their latest edition. Launched in 2004 and distributed in San Carlos de Bariloche, the bi-monthly magazine is sold by 20 vendors reaching 10,000 readers per edition.

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p11 / August 18-24, 2014

Get on your soapbox and tell us about a campaign or issue you care about and the change you want to see. Email editorial@bigissue.com Tweet @BigIssue


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THE MIX WorldMags.net COMMENT people in need, and that the sooner you can get people out of the mire of dependency, the sooner you can get them to Oxbridge – there to join many others who can then get a job in a think tank. I feel I am in a way describing a muddy field in which many people of differing takes on things are putting up a tent while others are taking it down, and others are saying it’s in the wrong place. I wish we could reach a consensus but it does not seem likely. And because we don’t, the people caught in need in the summer of 2014 are the ones that suffer a cold future. Next year there will be an election and if the ‘other lot’ get in, within a short space of time the excoriating attacks by liberal papers will be directed at the successfully elected ‘other lot’. And the bitter betrayals of the British taxpayer by government, as witnessed by the right, will be underlined. In some ways editors could save themselves a lot of money by reproducing the terrible exposés of the present government’s indifference to the poor, or over-indulgence of them, again next year: but instead of Cameron, IDS and Osborne, substitute Miliband and his band. So Miliband, if you are wise and successful next year, you better get practising the argument that though you recognise there have been cock-ups with delivery, or you’ve given too many ‘handouts’, this is totally unacceptable and will be righted on the morrow, if not earlier. Practise the facial moves, the honesty, the integrityloaded words. And don’t worry about the

MOVE PAST THE HEADLINES TO A BETTER PLACE

John Bird W

ho was it who said that “even though the government does cause problems for the poor, it supports so many poor people that it should be forgiven for not always getting it all right?”. No one. You don’t get that kind of thing said. The only people who would say something near that is a member of the government defending governmental record. For instance, any government department that has cocked up over benefit provision would always declare that this was an oversight that was being looked into, and would be repaired on the morrow, if not earlier. I see that there is a 350 per cent increase in people being punitively punished, as opposed to being told off by letter, for not keeping appointments with government departments to talk about their benefits or for job opportunities. I saw the figure on the front page of The Independent. Stark and hard-looking. What does it actually mean? Are we or are we not committed to reforming the social security system so that instead of it being a millstone around someone’s neck it becomes an opportunity for social mobility? No! No, most of the people on the liberal side are against any form of reform because it shakes people out of their livelihood, causes pain and panic to people who have not had to face the job market for too long. And on the right they want the whole superstructure, or most of it, swept away so that if you don’t work you don’t eat, and you certainly don’t live in prime real estate rent free. There might be one or two people who tend to see the whole of social security as a fraudulent short-changing of

liberal press or the vicious righters because over the decades, through their excoriations, they have changed little –other than complain at governments for not making poor people more comfortable, or more uncomfortable, depending of which brief you take. The final argument is yet to be had. The final reform is yet to be made. The final piece of legislation yet to be put into place; to at last free the people living dependently, to soar above their encouragers and detractors to some place where they can at last be themselves. And not controlled and fought over by people who would either be hard on them or be lovingly sympathetic to them. To be out of the thoughts of those who say “grow up” or those equally harshly saying “please don’t, and stay as you are”. What a mire those who need our help find themselves in. They are the booty fought over daily, poisoning the debate and turning government into bluffing and lying and failing, when they should be governing. Miliband, it may be your turn soon to square the circle. Although of course we could stand back and look at all the poor rigging and unrigging of the tent of government in the midden field that takes up so much airtime in governmental and oppositional hours. We could think outside the chamber. O

John Bird is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Big Issue. john.bird@bigissue.com @johnbirdswords

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p13 / August 18-24, 2014


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THE MIX WorldMags.net LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

great affection for him. My main impression is of being quite insecure but knowing what I was going to do without having any clue how to do it. I still haven’t worked that one out because making the decision to be a performer from my background was curious. I would tell my younger self not to worry about his love life. It will all work out in the end. Just hang on in there. I think we all need that advice. All actors have to be prepared for rejection. And when I was younger, it was tough not getting a role you were up for. When you go for an audition you have to commit yourself fully and really see yourself in the role. So it was hard when they came back with a no. You do develop a much thicker skin. If one job doesn’t work out, fine, what’s next?

DENIS LAWSON Actor and local hero AGED 66 “THE LOVE LIFE WILL WORK OUT IN THE END... JUST HANG ON IN THERE. I THINK WE ALL NEED THAT ADVICE”

M

y 16-year-old self was very naïve. I was brought up in a small market town called Crieff, in Scotland, which is a gorgeous place, beautiful, and a great place to have a childhood. We moved from Glasgow when I was three. When I was a teenager there were a few jukeboxes in town, so we were all into rock and roll. But you also had this amazing countryside to run about in.

I was quite skinny and seemed to have these big ears. When I look at old photos, they stuck out in an odd way and yet now they don’t – it’s usually the other way around. I was five when I knew I wanted to perform. I was inspired by the movies – Singing in the Rain, people like Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, those guys. I wanted to sing and dance. I was quiet at school because I was bored to death. I was privately, I think, quite funny and ran with a bunch of guys who shared a sense of humour. But I wasn’t the class clown at all. So I was sort of charming and quiet and not any great trouble to anybody – except I wasn’t very good at school. They kept saying they were sure I was intelligent, and I was, but they couldn’t find it anywhere. But don’t get me started on that! When I look back on my younger self, I like him a lot. He is sensitive and I have a

Acting is a curiously transient profession. You have to make sure you have good friends around you. This was very hard at the beginning. You do jobs, meet other actors and because of the nature of what we do – playing off each other emotionally – become very connected very quickly. But I used to finish a job and couldn’t understand why the people would never get in touch and I wouldn’t see them for a year. Along the way you make certain friends More Younger Self: that stay with you and they are No-longer Christian very important. Make sure you actor Eddie Marsan hold onto those friends for the is born again and long term. again… bigissue.com We imagine actors to be extrovert but we are often quiet and shy. Being an actor can be an escape from life in general – you can hide behind someone else. And you know what? It works very well, thank you very much. If I could go back to one day it would be the day I got into drama school. It was also the morning of my sister’s wedding. I had been for my second audition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow (the first was my first bit of rejection), so I was waiting for this envelope. I took it into the bathroom, locked the door, opened it and had got in. I came out and my mother, father and sister were all there and so thrilled for me. A few minutes later, everybody left and I just fell on the floor in complete hysterics – it was wonderful. And then my sister got married. So it was a bit of a day, that one. A real life changer. O Denis Lawson’s book The Actor and the Camera is out now in paperback. New Tricks is on BBC One, Mondays at 9pm. INTERVIEW BY ADRIAN LOBB Photo: Rex Features

IN 1963, THE YEAR DENIS LAWSON TURNS 16… John F Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas / A tsunami in Pakistan and Bangladesh kills 22,000 / The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire / Martin Luther King Jr delivers his “I have a dream” speech

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p15 / August 18-24, 2014


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HELLO EARTH: THE MIGHTY BUSH IS BACK! FANS ARE AT FEVER PITCH AS KATE BUSH GETS READY TO RAISE THE CURTAIN ON HER FIRST FULL SHOWS SINCE 1979. DJ MARK RADCLIFFE, HER FAVOURITE INTERVIEWER, UNRAVELS THE MYSTERY OF HER MAGIC he’s got ever y t h i ng: she’s personable, beautiful, talented and yet she has a layer on top of that of sheer originality. She’s a one-off. Her work is magical. I love her voice, I love her piano-playing, I love her composition and ideas. Her records ta ke you to another place. My favourite album of recent times is A Sky of Honey, the second disc on Aerial, which has birdsong all the way through, tracking a day with birdsong. I love the song on there, Somewhere In Between, it works as a piece of pop music but it’s in the middle of this concept album. There’s no one else in the whole world who would have thought of doing this. 50 Words for Snow, those long songs, just her at the piano; she does exactly what she wants to do and has the confidence to carry it through. From a very early age she could make the music industry bend to her will, whereas the other way around was the norm. She then took time off to be a mother to her son, even though she was kind of working but not at any particularly great rate in those years. Kate Bush is that old-fashioned thing, she’s an artist – she creates this music and a by-product is people want to know about her personal life. And she doesn’t want to tell them. She doesn’t want to put it on Facebook, it’s her private life. What she prizes over all else is being able to live a normal life with her family. The thing I found most surprising when I met her was that she was completely normal, she’s a really friendly, chatty, welcoming, working mum. The first time I went to her house she hadn’t had time to make any food so she’s got this cheese f lan from the supermarket, she hadn’t made any particular effort in what she was wearing, she was just going about her day and that day happened to include me as well as taking her son Bertie to school and whatever else she was doing. She’s absolutely not crazy (despite tabloid clichés). It’s not for me to speak for her but I don’t think she’s wildly overconcerned, my impression was she finds it quite funny that they think she swans around in a

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Photo: Anton Corbijn / Contour by Getty images

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CAN’T GET TO A VENDOR EVERY WEEK? THIS IS FOR YOU WARN PLEASE ON ING! SERVICE IF LY USE THIS GETTING IT YOU’RE NOT REGULARLY Joh Issuen Bird, The found Big er

WE HELP PUT £15M IN THE POCKETS OF OUR VENDORS EVERY YEAR WE SPEND MORE THAN £500 A YEAR SUPPORTING EACH VENDOR ON THE STREET £250 IS THE COST OF RECRUITING AND TRAINING A STREET-BASED VOLUNTEER £100 IS THE COST OF GETTING A VENDOR STARTED YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WILL CONTINUE TO GIVE VENDORS A HAND UP NOT A HANDOUT. AND YOU GET A CRACKING READ EVERY WEEK.

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batwing dress in a gothic castle. She’s picking up cheese flans from the supermarket! I never thought I would get the chance to see her play live, I didn’t see her one and only tour and I just never thought it would happen. When I’ve interviewed her I’ve always asked about it and she always said “I’ve not ruled it out” but I never took that as an indication she was really serious about it. So it was quite a big surprise when she announced the dates. I would be very surprised if it was anything other than quite theatrical, dramatic and well designed with some overarching concept to it but I’m guessing. That picture of her in the lifejacket; water has cropped up in her work quite a lot, I don’t know whether there’s some aquatic theme. Will she dance or sit behind the piano or both? Will she talk or will it be a sculpted whole piece? I would be amazed if she bounded on and said “Hello

FEATURE LABEL

Hammersmith!”. Keeping the shows under wraps is her way in everything, really. My feeling is not that it’s an overwhelming desire for secrecy. She’s lived outside showbusiness and her way of doing things is to just get on with it without distraction. She cares very much about what people think about the work. She always asks you very carefully about it. She is interested, and the reaction to records is very important to her – she pours her heart and soul into them. She is wildly imaginative and creative, and she’s fantastically single-minded, quite pragmatic about what needs done, it’s not an airy-fairy flighty idea: it’s work, it’s art, the process of creation. She takes all that very seriously. She has meticulous control over the music and artwork. She’s a one-off, a true original. And she’s fantastically good humoured and giggly and smiley. O

HOW SHE KEEPS SCALING THOSE WUTHERING HEIGHTS… Gered Mankowitz, the photographer with Kate Bush in his eyes, who shot the iconic Wuthering Heights image and captured Kate in 1978-79: I was brought in to create the launch image for Wuthering Heights. She was very young, 19, when it came out and was wonderful to work with. Very frenetic, quite difficult to get her to focus on making an idea work, she wasn’t very experienced in having her photograph taken, which was part of the challenge. Her individuality shone through. I knew I had to be at the top of my game to produce an image that was going to complement this extraordinary talent. She was very much in control of the way she looked. When she stepped out of the dressing room and I saw her for the first time, ready for the camera, I was blown away and knew it was going to be something special. We did the famous leotard pictures. I chose the leotards to make a visual link with dance, which was clearly very important to her. We did four big sessions between January 1978 and April 1979. She could just look at the camera and you would melt. The pink leotard Wuthering Heights picture is one of those pictures that became iconic and represents so much. It has a life of its own and it has energy. It’s a beautiful portrait of a very beautiful young woman.

Sa ra h Had la nd reinvented Kate’s Wuthering Heights for the Horrible Histories generation: She’s not a singer where you go, “Who’s that?” The instant you hear her vocal you know it’s Kate Bush. She is original, unique and it always felt there was a psychological element. Her videos were very melodramatic and had great narratives. They were really different, new and theatrical. That’s what Kate Bush has in spades. Paul Muldoon, the great modern Irish poet: Take a first-rate musical intelligence. Add a first-rate lyric intelligence. Then throw in a voice from who knows where. That’s why Kate Bush is out on her own. John Robb, writer, Goldblade powerhouse and first-wave Kate Bush fan: There are few moments of total pop genius… when something sounds so original you are stopped in your tracks. Wuthering Heights was just that. The fact it came out in the middle of punk only added to its brilliance. We were slavering droogs hooked to the noisy stuff. Ostensibly Kate was a mainstream artist, maybe EMI perceived her as a return to the rustic mid-’70s when things were fine before the phlegmencrusted punk thing crashed in and rewrote the rule book. That mattered little with a record this startlingly original – it FELT like a punk record in spirit because it was an uncompromising piece of art even though it sounded like there were 100 chords in it. She was startlingly original-looking as well. Her rare mix of English rose with a glint of Irish blood and a no-future starkness rolled into one made her photogenic – but above all it was her artistic vision and no-compromise spirit that was more powerfully attractive.

Photo: Rex Features

“I like Kate Bush because she didn’t do what she was told and as a woman in the music industry at the time she started, that was revolutionary” JO BRAND, COMEDIAN, WHO CHOSE KATE BUSH’S OH ENGLAND MY LIONHEART AS THE RECORD SHE’D SAVE FROM THE WAVES ON DESERT ISLAND DISCS

Lucy Benson-Brown stars in obsessive fan-inspired show Cutting Off Kate Bush: My show is about a girl who discovers a box of old Kate Bush records when she is having a crisis and starts putting videos online, emoting through her

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Clockwise: performing 30 years ago; receiving an award from Michael Palin in 1979; picking up a gong for her 2011 album 50 Words For Snow; a press image from Before the Dawn, her new 22-date show; in her Babooshka video music. She speaks to a young generation because her music is honest. It doesn’t matter what age you discover her. My grandmother was telling me about her, and I’m going to see her with my mum. Her music is theatrical: it lends itself well to theatre, in a genuine way unlike Lady Gaga. I don’t think you can ever predict what she’s going to do, she’s not in the hands of the music industry – she makes her own rules. Graeme Thomson wrote acclaimed biography Under the Ivy, The Life and Music of Kate Bush: People recognise somebody who’s a completely free spirit in the best sense. She was laughed at by a huge proportion of the male music press and it took a long time to get a handle on her: she was a posh hippy girl who pranced about. It’s been great to hear the whispers about the shows. We’ve heard she’s doing The Ninth Wave [second part of The Hounds of Love record], it’s a conceptual suite, it will be fascinating to see how she presents that. I won’t expect her to carry the show physically like she did 35 years ago, I’d be happy with just her and a piano. The ‘reclusive’ label is reductive but she doesn’t appear in public very often, it’s not something she’s entirely comfortable with. Walking out to this enormous wave of adulation is a massive thing for her to embrace. O A new exhibition, Kate Bush: photographs by Gered Mankowitz and Guido Harari, is at Snap Gallery, London, August 26–September 2; snapgalleries.com


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LESS THAN A YEAR ELECTION, POLITICIANS SHOWING AN ENLIGH L THEY SHOULD – IT’S VITAL

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he prisoner approached me with a broad smile. “Don’t bother about trying to move me to another prison,” he said. “I’ve decided to go back on heroin instead. Any time you want some, let me know.” All sorts of drugs are available in prisons but cost about seven times more than they do on the street. Prison staff do their best to stop both dealers and users but are handicapped because there are not enough of them to do the necessary high number of searches. I know this because for nearly 10 years I was a member of the watchdog body, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) – the last three as chairperson – at Wormwood Scrubs in London. It is the most well-known prison in the country. Famous former inmates include the spy George Blake, the musician Pete Doherty and Rolling Stone Keith Richards. The Scrubs, as it is usually called, is a local prison holding up to 1,279 convicted and remand male inmates aged 18 and upwards, plus detainees awaiting deportation. As an IMB member I could go into the prison at any time, was given keys and went round unaccompanied. Aside from the drug-taking, what shocked me most was the number of seriously mentally ill prisoners kept in the jail. These men are society’s hidden people. Although there is a legal requirement that they are moved on to a secure specialist establishment within two weeks, these are so full they remain locked away often for months on end. Many were unpredictable and prone to violence and when one prison has had too much of them, they are swapped for another difficult prisoner from another jail. “They might be just as bad but at least it makes a change,” a member of staff confided. Both groups plus

alcoholics should, in my view, not be kept in jail but treated in special units where they can be helped rather than just monitored. In prison heroin addicts, for example, are given substitute drugs like methadone, itself incredibly addictive, rather than encouraged to go cold turkey to prevent them overdosing on drugs once they are released. One prisoner was furious. “I’ve come into jail to get clean,” he said, “but they are just dosing me up.” Treating some prisoners in special units would help with the overcrowding. The grim fact is that at the beginning of this month there were 81,866 male prisoners in jail, with some prisons operating at nearly 200 per cent above their recommended capacity. Since October 2013 when the Coalition’s draconian cuts came into effect, there simply has not been enough prison staff to deal with them. Wormwood Scrubs, for example, lost 20 per cent of its budget and 128 out of 585 staff. In the immediate aftermath there were as few as five officers running a wing of well over 200 inmates. The only way they could keep control was to lock them up – sometimes up to 23 hours a day. The way officers worked also significantly changed last October. Instead of being assigned to one wing, they were now expected to be troubleshooters and sent to three different wings a day. This didn’t make sense. The role of an officer today is part social worker as well as law enforcer. Prisons are potentially volatile places. Officers who know the inmates on their wing can more effectively handle troublemakers and stop rows exploding into violence or a riot. It’s no surprise that violence in the prison estate shot up by 67 per cent for the year ending March 2014. One prisoner was angry. “If they treat me as an animal I’ll behave like one,” he said. Being familiar with a wing also meant officers could keep a watchful eye on troubled prisoners and those at risk

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p20 / August 18-24, 2014


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INSIDE WORMWOOD SCRUBS

FROM A GENERAL WON’T BELIEVE THAT TENED APPROACH TO L WIN MANY VOTES. BUT L, ARGUES ANGELA LEVIN LEVIN’S LAW • End the obsession with building super-prisons and use the money in better ways. • As staff numbers fall, prisoners’ cell hours rise. Come good on rehabilitation promises by increasing officer numbers. • Ease overcrowding by providing more specialist mental illness and addiction units. Help these prisoners rather than just warehouse them.

of suicide. It is no coincidence that as staff numbers went down and time in cells shot up, incidents of self-harming increased by 750 to 23,478 over the past year, and suicides by 88 – the highest number since 2005. Next year’s results are bound to be worse. Prior to October 2013 the Ministry of Justice talked enthusiastically about giving prisoners a work ethic and education. The buzz word was rehabilitation. The reality was that Wormwood Scrubs’ prisoners were lucky if they were unlocked to go to a workshop or a course for two hours a day and often had to choose between that and taking a shower. Lying on their cell beds for much of the day makes prisoners less rather than more likely to cope with the outside world and more than 50 per cent of those with a short sentence end up homeless and reoffend within a year. Earlier this month the Ministry of Justice’s own statistics revealed that 28 prisons including Wormwood Scrubs were classified as being a ‘cause for concern’. They have spent £5m on redundancy and are now desperately recruiting many of the same officers back on short-term contracts. With the 2015 election approaching, funding for prisons is not going to be a vote winner for any party. Savings could be made by cutting back on bloated bureaucracy and not giving companies long-term contracts with no penalty clauses for running services including transport, telephones and the prison shop. It also makes sense to abandon the enormous titan prisons the Ministry of Justice wants to build, and use the

money more productively on special units for the mentally ill and addicts. Detainees, of whom there are hundreds in the Scrubs, should be in prisons in a less populated part of the country where their special needs can be dealt with. There would then be an opportunity to work with fewer men with fewer officers. Many come from dysfunctional families and have no male role models and a background of crime. One recidivist told me his mother threw him out of the house when he was 11 and he survived on the street. These men need to be motivated, need to take plenty of exercise and need to be helped to build up their self-esteem, to learn to read and write and take responsibility for what they do. Art and music can help. One of the most moving afternoons I spent in the prison was watching a group of difficult prisoners put on a rap concert from start to finish in a week, helped by the charity Music in Prisons. Afterwards one of the group said it had opened his eyes to the possibilities of working as a team. Another said he realised how much his mother had suffered from his criminal behaviour. Most of all it gave them hope and pride. It was something the audience of mainly prison staff hoped they could hang on to. O

Angela Levin is an award-winning journalist, author and former prison watchdog. Her new book, Wormwood Scrubs: The Inside Story, is out now in paperback and on Kindle

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p21 / August 18-24, 2014


WorldMags.net The museum’s electronic waste includes kettles, fax machines and PC monitors: all can be recycled.

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ost of us get rid of our rubbish as soon as we can. And as soon as we chuck it away, we never want to think about it again. Artist Joshua Sofaer is a bit different. His obsession with rubbish dates back to an exhibition at the Tate Modern where he asked visitors to go on a treasure hunt and bring select items of junk back to the gallery. Since then he has visited Brazil to join human scavengers (the catadores) at work and journeyed to Japan where recycling is an elaborate social ritual. Both trips inform his latest project at the Science Museum – The Rubbish Collection – a bold attempt to engage the British public in the management of their own waste. Visitors to the museum’s basement have been asked to help sort through the bags of rubbish coming down from upstairs, identifying any interesting or unusual objects that might be reused or perhaps go on display. “We hate carrying our rubbish around. But when you throw it away, it’s not disappearing,” says Sofaer. “But rubbish needn’t all be bad news – the circular economy is an important thing for people to think about. “In Brazil the scavenging is so well organised, unofficially, that there is a strata of people sifting and sorting and selling things on privately,” the artist says. “They’ve started to form unions to get agreed market rates for what they’re selling on. It’s not ideal, obviously, because it splits society between the reveller throwing away a can and the poor picking the can up. “And in Japan there is real social Food from the museum’s café mixed pressure to recycle properly,” he in with paper and plastic. Even a adds. “They have different coloured tiny bit of yogurt contaminates a bins with little windows so your bag earmarked for recycling. neighbours can see what you’re

Breeze block bricks made from ash formed in the waste incineration process, now on display. An unwanted plastic bomb from a museum demonstration.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM RAKING THROUGH BINS ADAM FORREST GETS HIS RUBBER G L O V E S O N A N D G O E S S C AV E N G I N G AT T H E S C I E N C E M U S E U M

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p22 / August 18-24, 2014


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THE RUBBISH COLLECTION

A collection of stationary, toiletries and medicines dumped by the museum’s visitors.

410g bales of aluminium cans that have come back from the recycling plant to go on display.

Photos: © Science Museum and © Katherine Leedale

200 litres of cooking oil from the museum restaurant.

throwing out or recycling. People wash their rubbish and throw it out correctly.” When I put on some rubber gloves and joined Sofaer to sort through a few bags of rubbish, I’m not sure I thought there was very much to be learned. But it turned out to be an enlightening (if slightly smelly) experience. The first thing you understand is how easily food contamination occurs. A collection of empty plastic bottles in a bag marked “recyclables” is covered in a few pots of kids’ yogurt, and so it must be bagged back up and chucked in with the general waste. Like anywhere else, the Science Museum can be fined for sending contaminated waste to the recycling plant, so unless visitors have placed things in separate bins as they’re supposed to, it remains easier to send it with the general waste for incineration. Apart from sanitary waste and nappies (which go to landfill) everything that cannot be recycled goes to an incineration plant. By the end of the first part of the experiment, Sofaer and his team will have sorted through and taken photographs of around 32 tonnes of rubbish: the average amount of waste that goes through the museum on a monthly basis. The second part involves the creation of an exhibition of discarded objects.

Sofaer shows me t he su it s, t ies a nd dresses people have dumped in the museum’s bins, now neatly piled up in display cabinets. There are also 16-and-a-half pairs of discarded shoes now sitting in a row. A small pile of money – £40.16 of coins and notes – had accidently been thrown out, and there is a intriguing teenage love letter that begins: “I know I said I like you, but…” There are also 18 tonnes of material on display that have partially gone through the recycling process: recycled paper bales, piles of ash, steel ingots, compacted cubes of aluminium and flakes of old plastic bottles waiting to be made into new plastic bottles. It’s all there to show visitors just how much waste can be transformed into something useful without dumping it all in landfill or burning it. “In the fascination with looking at all the rubbish that’s come through this building, hopefully it provokes a thought process and maybe some behaviour change,” says Sofaer. “Believe it or not, I’m actually someone who likes sorting through things and keeping things neat and tidy. So for a very clean and tidy person, rubbish is an opportunity.” O The Rubbish Collection, Science Museum, London, is on display until September 14

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p23 / August 18-24, 2014


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Just imagine… a unique cycling challenge exploring amazing India, and seeing our life-changing work firsthand.

Human Writes The hand of friendship.

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Challenge highlights include: )\TIVMIRGI E HMJJIVIRX ERH JEWGMREXMRK GYPXYVI 'SRRIGX [MXL 0ITVE TVSNIGXW 'EQT MR EXQSWTLIVMG WERH HYRIW )\TPSVI XLI TMRO GMX] SJ .EMTYV :MWMX XLI 8EN 1ELEP

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BRITAIN’S FUTURE: WHO’S IN?

VENDORENDUM

BOTH SIDES IN THE SCOTTISH REFERENDUM DEBATE HAVE BEEN SLAMMED FOR PAYING LIP-SERVICE TO THE POOREST IN SOCIETY, AS ANDREW BURNS REPORTS

Illustration: Jon Berkeley

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t’s the biggest decision in generations and could change the face of Britain forever – but neither side in the Scottish referendum debate is engaging with the poorest despite claiming to represent the best interests of those at the margins of society. That’s the view of charities, politicians and political commentators following our Vendorendum poll. Last week, we revealed the results of a poll we held for Big Issue vendors across Scotland, asking them how they’d vote. It showed a small majority (50 per cent to 46 per cent) in favour of Scotland remaining part of the UK. However, despite us showing how those taking part feel excluded from the debate, the response from Yes Scotland and Better Together has been casual. They issued brief statements though neither camp has stepped up to actively connect with the country’s most disenfranchised men and women. The volume is rising, insisting they do more. “Those in society who are experiencing a difficult time in their lives must get a voice and have an opportunity to express their opinion,” said Graeme Brown, chief executive of Shelter Scotland. The homeless charity recently launched a campaign with the Electoral Commission to encourage registration. “The two opposing camps are doing a lot of knocking on doors but are they visiting hostels, bedsit accommodation, day-centres? Have they visited Big Issue vendors when they’re picking up their magazines first thing in the morning? That would be a good place to start.” It has been estimated there are some 35,000 homeless people in Scotland. If they all engaged with the vote on September 18, they could play a significant part in the outcome. David Torrance, columnist and director of Five Million Questions, a website designed to explain many aspects of the referendum, said there has been a naïve outlook on this proportion of the electorate from both sides. “If they are serious about engaging with that section of the electorate then it’s too late to develop any proper strategy,” he said. “If you think about people who are homeless or people who sell The Big Issue, you probably have an impression in your head they don’t have a fixed address and therefore they can’t vote. My suspicion is that they didn’t think there were many votes there.”

Labour activist Duncan Hothersall added: “I can’t hand-on-heart point at any instance of an explicit attempt to engage with the homeless. I think it’s a missed opportunity.” Playwright and Yes campaigner Alan Bissett highlighted the “complacency” of mainstream politicians in engaging with the poorest in society. “The people at the top don’t really stop to consider those at the bottom because they think ‘they don’t vote’,” he said. “They don’t vote because they are not being targeted. We have to reach out to people who have been alienated from the system. If the poorest people in society started making their voices heard and became politically active, that’s when we would see real change. That’s what the Establishment fears.” He added that grassroots movement Radical Independence was “getting out there and trying to get people registered that maybe haven’t voted before or have been locked out of the political discussion”. Stevie Pryce sells The Big Issue in Edinburgh and has lived in Scotland for 20 years. The Newcastle-born vendor, 37, feels disconnected from the politics of the country he now calls home. “If I do vote, I’ll probably vote yes because I think Scotland should have its own say but ultimately it doesn’t really matter, does it?” he said. “The government is going to do what they want to do. They all take us for fools.” Glasgow City Mission, which provides support to more than 200 homeless and vulnerable adults every day, will host a special hustings event for its clients later this month to try to include the homeless in the debate. “Many of our clients are extremely marginalised and are living at the fringes of society,” said City Mission chief executive Grant Campbell. “We want to ensure they are included within the debate and have the information they need for one of the biggest political decisions the country has seen.” “I do think the country’s homeless and poorest have been overlooked,” added SNP MSP Sandra White. “A collective effort is required from all sides to engage the country’s most disenfranchised. It is shameful that such a large proportion of the population feels disconnected.” “The clock is ticking,” said The Big Issue editor Paul McNamee. “If both sides want to genuinely show they are doing more than paying lip-service to those at the margins of society, to build a genuinely inclusive future, they need to step up now.” O

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p25 / August 18-24, 2014


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FILM / T V / BOOKS / MUSIC WorldMags.net

THE ENLIGHTENMENT SALTY OR SWEET?

I

’ll have a large popcorn please… Glasgow-based artist Mick Peter’s Popcorn Plaza juxtaposes cement block structures with the odd, random and massively enlarged shapes of popcorn kernels. Perhaps it represents the frustration of dropping snacks down the side of the sofa. Make your own mind up, as the work is on display at Edinburgh’s wondrous Jupiter Artland as part of Edinburgh Art Festival. O Until September 28; jupiterartland.org

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p27 / August 18-24, 2014


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FILM EDWARD LAWRENSON

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT Directors: Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne (15)

CHARULATA Director: Satyajit Ray (U) Both in cinemas August 22

JUST THE JOB

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ou mustn’t cry,” the lead the cash – a brutal blow to her character of T WO DAYS, ONE self-confidence as she’s fragile NIGHT tells herself, only min- from a ner vous breakdown. utes into the film. Sandra has But she has a second chance: the just awoken from a deep sleep boss agrees to a fresh ballot on and is now in the kitchen of the Monday; she has a weekend to modest flat she shares with her persuade her colleagues to vote husband and two kids. She’s on another way. The set-up is typical of the the phone to her pal from work, and in a state of tremulous dis- brothers’ films in the way it protress. Moments later she’s in the vides urgent dramatic form to the stark options that bathroom, gulping down an unfair economic pills of anti-depressants system confronts us and looking at her blurry w it h . W h at m a kes self in the mirror. She is, I Two Days, One Night should add, crying. different from their Welcome to the world ot h er f i l m s i s t he of Belgian writer-direcactress playing Santor pair, Luc and Jeandra: Marion Cotillard. Pierre Dardenne. The brothers have, since the Charulata: Satyajit Ray’s W her e a s t hey h ave relied in the past on mid-1990s, made com- portrait of a woman relatively little-known mandingly naturalistic dramas about the lives of work- actors, Cotillard is a star, and an ing-class Belgians. Their films impossibly glamorous one at that, are compassionate, sometimes winner of an Oscar, spokeswomharrowing portraits of people on an for Dior fashion house, the face the margins of society, pushed to of countless Vogue covers. She’s not the kind of person desperate extremes, and Two I’d associate with committed Days is no different. Sandra is about to lose her job social realist dramas about Belat a local factory. Redundancy gians fighting unemployment – will force her family on to the but that, frankly, says more about breadline. What makes the news my prejudice than anything else. Among other things, Two even harder to digest is the fact that 14 of her 16 colleagues voted Days strips away the white noise for her to go. Faced with keeping of fame and lets us see Cotillard Sandra on staff or a €1000 bonus, for the terrific actress she is. the majority of them opted for Early on, Sandra hesitantly

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p28 / August 18-24, 2014

telephones her colleague to request he vote for her: Cotillard’s face, shot in a single take, flickers with emotion, from fear, then uncertainty, to wordless triumph when her workmate finally agrees. It’s a magnificent performance. From here we’re off, as Sandra chases down her colleagues to ask the impossible: that they sacrifice their bonus for her employment. In Cotillard’s look of quiet desperation, you realise the threat Sandra faces is as much about dignity as financial concerns. This is a defiantly political film about solidarity, loy a lt y t o w ork m at e s a nd presenting a common front when jobs are threatened. I can think of a bunch of people with annual remuneration packages that dwarf the €1000 offered to Sandra’s colleagues who could learn a few things here. The price of admission to Two Days, One Night is a drop in the ocean of a banker’s bonus – but of far greater value. O

AND ANOTHER THING… The work of director Satyajit Ray has fallen out of fashion since his death but the re-release of his 1964 film CHARULATA , a majestic study of a woman in an unhappy marriage in late 19th-century India, reminds us why he was considered one of the world’s greatest directors.


M AC KENZIE MEETS…

WorldMags.net BROADCAST REVIEW

This is 2014. Why do we need superheroes in our lives? CM: It is the new mythology – a structure of characters and situations that allow people to test moral quandaries. SM: It’s a genre we do well. We used to do Westerns well and every studio put out a tonne of Westerns. This is a genre where you have nice clear lines of good guys and bad guys. Then we move in to murk that up.

STEPHEN MCFEELY & CHRISTOPHER MARKUS SCREENWRITING The last two Marvel films, Guardians the Galaxy and Captain America: The SUPERHEROES ofWinter Soldier, have had very different FOR MARVEL tones. How can the same franchise have

such varying styles? SM: In Captain America 2 we wanted to occupy the gritty, adult space in Marvel franchises. The tone you saw is where we’ll live to separate ourselves from Iron Man, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy. Captain America 2 is quite political. Was it important to include a message? CM: You have a guy walking around named Captain America and he has a red, white and blue outfit. If it doesn’t become political you’re avoiding the question. SM: Given that he’s come from 1945 we have the chance to look at the country with fresh eyes. What’s changed morally and ethically? How many little decisions have there been in the last 70 years to get to where we are now, with helicarriers watching your every move? How much of your story comes from yourselves and how much is part of the studio’s grand plan? CM: A little of both. You don’t initially think, let’s tear down the giant organisation that is the backbone to the entire Marvel universe. But Kevin [Feige, president of Marvel Studios] enjoys doing this – he’s done it on Avengers 2 as well but I won’t tell you what he did. If you did give away a spoiler, what would the punishment be? CM: There would be a phone call… Is it more difficult to write a script knowing you have to keep in mind what’s happening elsewhere in the Marvel universe? CM: It generally makes it easier in that you have a rock to tack towards in your rowboat. You don’t feel lost, even if the rock isn’t all that important to where you’re going. SM: Chris has broken out a new metaphor I have not heard him use before! CM: Yes, rowboats. I got a whole new thing about rowboats that I’m working on. I’m looking forward to that profound speech in Captain America 3. CM: “America’s like a rowboat, Bucky…” The comic books tell us that Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier, will one day become Captain America. Sure you don’t have any spoilers for us? SM: Everybody becomes Captain America eventually! CM: Having this big an interconnected movie universe go on this long is uncharted territory. What do you do when the actors get too old? These are amazing problems to have if Marvel winds up having them. Where this is going, I don’t think anybody knows. O Captain America: The Winter Soldier is out on Blu-ray and DVD INTERVIEW BY STEVEN MACKENZIE @stevenmackenzie

SAM DELANEY

WE’RE ALL ALIENS ON PLANET PERFECTION “I have often said that the sole cause of a man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room”

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he French philosopher Pascal Blaise wrote that in the 17th century. And bear in mind that back then there wasn’t nearly as much distraction to tempt a man from his room as there is nowadays. I know next to nothing about the 17th century but I bet there weren’t any decent gastro pubs. If it was hard to sit quietly in a room in 1650 then we’ve got no chance today. For a start, there’s the cacophony of social media, enticing us to live better, faster, sexier lives; implying that our friends and neighbours are experiencing all manner of extravagant hoop-la while we sit idling in a dreary pit of ennui. But it is rare that actually getting off your arse and leaving the house winds up with you partying with sexy ladies on a yacht like social media implies it does. More often than not you just end up getting rained on, stepping in dog shit or having an argument with someone about football. Last week, too much work and not enough sitting quietly in my room caught up with me and I woke up all shivery and ill. The doc ordered me to take some time off. It’s been great. I’m sat on the bed writing this, laptop propped up on a pillow. Tracksuit bottoms on, unshaven face and four cups of tea down before midday – I feel like the king of fucking Spain. I have also had time to read an awful lot of comment on the sad death of Robin Williams. When a celebrity commits suicide it brings out the worst in social media. Everyone is suddenly the deceased’s biggest fan and an expert on the vast complexities of mental health. I’ve got no problem with sympathy and kind words but there’s something so synthetic and insulting about the mawkish enthusiasm with which people respond to this sort of tragedy. So much of the professed sympathy reads more like a transparent statement about the author themselves. Anyway, poor old Robin Williams. I bloody loved Mork and Mindy. But how the hell did the writer get the pitch past the studio execs? “It’s a sitcom about a suburban woman having a sexually ambiguous relationship with a wise-cracking extra terrestrial.” More imaginative times, I suppose. O @delaneyman

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p29 / August 18-24, 2014


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ALL THE BOOKS ARE A STAGE Playwright Samantha Ellis’ How to be a Heroine (Chatto & Windus, £16.99) is out in hardback

FALLOUT Sadie Jones, out now in hardback (Chatto and Windus, £14.99)

OLIVIA’S CURTAIN CALL Lyn Gardner, out now in paperback (Nosy Crow, 6.99)

ALL CHANGE Elizabeth Jane Howard, out now in paperback (Pan, £7.99)

MAN AT THE HELM Nina Stibbe, out August 28 in hardback (Viking, £12.99)

STATION ELEVEN Emily St John Mandel, out September 10 in hardback (Picador, £12.99)

I

t was only after I started writing plays that I realised how many of my favourite books were about the theatre. As a girl I’d loved reading about the orphaned Fossil girls getting to grips with greasepaint in Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes (1936). As a teenager I’d fancied Zooey, reading scripts in the bath, in JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey (1961); later I (over)identified with the eponymous heroine of Herman Wouk’s 1955 doorstopper Marjorie Morningstar, who shocks her conventional parents by becoming an actress. But why are so many writers attracted to the stage? Streatfeild did 10 years as a jobbing actress. Before the joyous, breezy Ballet Shoes, she wrote The Whicharts, which portrays theatre as venal, exploitative and cynical. Once she’d exorcised her ghosts, she was able to write something more hopeful. Though not mindlessly so; Ballet Shoes is honest about how tough young actors and dancers have to be. Playwright Mikhail Bulgakov was also looking back in anger when he wrote Black Snow, a bitchy, absurdist satire about his bruising experiences with the Moscow Art Theatre.

Sadie Jones flirted with theatre before becoming a novelist, and her affection for it shines through FALLOUT. Her hero, a damaged playwright, has a painful affair with a fragile actress, while not realising he may be in love with a stage manager. Set in the 1970s, the novel captures, better than anything I’ve read, theatre’s febrile, ephemeral intensity. Writing from the other side of the curtain are theatre critics Lyn Gardner, whose charming OLIVIA series is set at a stage school and full of her own passion for theatre, and Charles Spencer whose fictional avatar Will Benson is an alcoholic, crime-solving… theatre critic. With paradoxical combinations of high stakes and thin sk ins, glamour and sleaze, rivalry and camaraderie, the stage is fertile ground for fiction. Torrid romances often feature – as in Elizabeth Jane Howa rd’s A L L C H A N G E . I wa s thrilled that the heroine – gauche, unhappy Clary – had become a playwright but less delighted that she was dallying with her leading man. Playwrights come off even less well in Nina Stibbe’s debut, MAN AT THE HELM , in which a divorcee uses

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p30 / August 18-24, 2014

Illustration: Mitch Blunt

GUEST COLUMNIST SAMANTHA ELLIS

playwriting as ersatz therapy, writing hilarious revenge plays about her ex-husband and getting her children to act them out. And Eleanor Catton took the idea of playing games with truth and illusion to an existential level in her 2008 debut The Rehearsal. But Emily St John Mandel’s STATION ELEVEN gives a more heartfelt explanation for why theatre is such a good theme. Station Eleven opens in the midst of King Lear. The star has a heart attack on stage and medics try to revive him, fake snow still falling. From here the novel skips 20 years to a world where epidemic flu has made civilisation collapse, and a band of survivors travel across Nor th A merica per forming Shakespeare by candlelight, “the age of electricity having been and gone”. This breathtaking highwire act argues theatre is primal – an instinct to tell and act out stories, to come together to experience art. Who wouldn’t want to write novels about that? O

AND ANOTHER THING… What is going on with Penguin’s new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cover? The girl, presumably Veruca Salt or Violet Beauregarde, is in feathers and lipstick, an image so creepy and sexualised it would be more appropriate for Lolita.


5 BOOKS...

M

WorldMags.net

EVERY YOUNG SCALLYWAG SHOULD READ

GILES ANDREAE Award-winning author of Rumble in the Jungle and Giraffes Can’t Dance

1 TEN TALL TALES

Dr Seuss A beguiling collection of fables that shine an affectionate yet uncompromising spotlight on some of the absurdities of human behaviour, told with characteristic anarchy and zest.

2 PETER PAN

JM Barrie Don’t watch the film – read the book! They are chalk and cheese. Barrie’s acute and beautifully phrased character portraits are a delight for grown-ups, prefacing the sophistication and knowing tone of recent Pixar films. And for children… pirates, red Indians, fairies, flying… what’s not to like?

ME, CLARICE BEAN 3 UTTERLY

Lauren Child Child’s narrative voice is as unique as her illustrative style. Her first novel has an overwhelming charm as well as great insight into modern family life. Child can make you laugh and cry at virtually every page.

4 FAIRY TALES

Oscar Wilde The artful, mandarin tone of Wilde’s narrative style sets off perfectly the poignance and richness of emotion contained in these stories. Wilde is the master of paradox: beautiful yet tragic, short yet sophisticated, simple yet profound. It’s extraordinary to think so many of the fairy stories we now consider to be standards came from the pen of one man.

5 WHEN I TALK TO YOU

Michael Leunig Not strictly a children’s book but accessible to everyone of any age. Although Leunig would be categorised as a cartoonist, he is the most insightful yet lightfooted philosopher that I know. His deep compassion and understanding of the human condition are matched only by the grace and playfulness of his drawing pen. This is a collection of his prayers.

Giles Andreae’s Sir Scallywag and the Deadly Dragon Poo (Puffin, £6.99), illustrated by Korky Paul, is out now in paperback

AUTHOR FIRST PERSON

TOMÁS GONZÁLEZ Keeping the memory of his murdered brother alive

“I STUDIED JUAN’S DEATH COLDLY, AS A CRAFTSMAN MIGHT STUDY A FALLEN TREE TO MAKE A CANOE”

y brother Juan was killed with a shotgun by the manager of his farm in the gulf of Urabá, in northern Colombia, one night in April 1977. He died at 36. Juan and I had a close friendship; my affection for him was boundless. Words cannot measure the grief I felt at his death. At the time I was 26 years old, and more or less regularly for eight years I had been writing. I was working on a book of short stories I never tried to publish, a collection of poems that also remained unpublished and a short novel that ultimately did not work and which, years later, I rewrote and published as a long short story. I had developed a certain aptitude for seeing the literary possibilities in those events that we call real and perhaps this is why I quickly realised that Juan’s death had the qualities of a tragedy. The aesthetic qualities, I mean. That was all it took. Although I was devastated by his death, I studied it coldly, as a craftsman might study a fallen tree and calculate the size and shape of the canoe that might be made from it. Obviously I had qualms before I started to write the novel, since it meant exploiting family tragedy to create literature; nevertheless I started to write. Thirty-seven years have passed since Juan’s death; 31 since In the Beginning was the Sea was first published. After so much time it is difficult to know which details in the novel are taken from life and which are incidents or places that I had to imagine, invent or infer from other events in order that the novel could take form and become real. With the passing years, the facts which, though simple, had been difficult to comprehend even at that time, in that place, gradually disintegrated and crumbled, losing their reality. The novel, by contrast, has survived – kept alive by readers – and it could be said that it is more truthful or more real than the events that prompted it. Over the years many people read the novel, which was regularly reprinted. Perhaps it will continue to find readers for some years yet and come to be the sole trace of what happened on that night in April 1977 on a beautiful beach hemmed in by sea and forest just south of Panama. The novel was my attempt to prevent everything being swept away by the wind. I no longer have any qualms of conscience about having written it. Now, it seems obvious to me that literary works stem, and have always stemmed, from memories – whether recent or remote, whether our own or those of others. Where else could they originate? I believe that it is impossible for human beings to fashion out of whole cloth, still less to create – that only nature, or God, can create and we are left to work with what already exists: recreating, reinventing, that is to say recalling it in all its horror and its harmony. It is our safeguard against death.

The Year 1977 The gulls walked along the beach inscribing track marks in the sand. Then once again flew out to sea and left their track marks in the sand. How brutally it fell, that year, the tragedy! Then came the water, sea-spray, silk, and washed away the tracks. Inland the palm trees, mangos, acacias.* * From the collection of poems Mangrove. O In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González, translated by Frank Wynne, is out in paperback (Pushkin Press, £12)

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MUSIC ROCK & POP MALCOLM JACK

ROYAL BLOOD Royal Blood (Warner Bros)

LUKE SITAL SINGH The Fire Inside (Parlophone UK)

JAMES YORKSTON The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society (Domino)

BLOOD BROTHERS

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ock bands might be rarefied b e a s t s on t o d ay ’s p op dominated planet but on the plus side it means the best ones can stand out a ll the more. Brighton boys ROYAL BLOOD are becoming hard to miss with their tightly-clipped protrusions of prickly fuzz and volume. And that’s just their beards. Striking a fine balance between precision and power, the best songs on their self-titled debut album are like works of key hole s u r ger y p er formed with a pneumatic drill. More impressive still, and this may be the secret to their tightness, there are only two of them in the band – bassist and singer Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher. Clever application of the bass through an octave effects unit – duplicating Kerr’s parts at higher frequency for added guitar-y thickness – gives the duo both distorted grit and the thudding low-end many two-piece rock ensembles tend to lack. Think a weightier White Stripes or a more bowel-shaking Black Keys. Their economical setup has its limitations – like a lot of their songs, opener Out of the Black recalls a pocket Muse with its

speedy, savage riff and high ra nge a nd climbing voca ls. B ut Roy a l Blo o d st i l l f i nd plenty of minor variations on their signature sound. The stoner-blues of Figure It Out boils the s pi r it of fel low r e g a l hard-rockers Queens of the Stone Age down to base elements. Careless borrows the rhythmic, almost half-rapped vocal style from Jack White’s The Dead Weather while indulging in some metalquality deathly bleakness with lines such as “I hope you know we’re digging our ow n g raves for your mistakes”. Better Strangers slips bursts of weird pitch-shifted noise and harmonic feedback among heavy chords. A ll told, plenty of reason to appreciate why Arctic Monkeys – whom Royal Blood supported this year – have been vocal backers of a band whose fans are soon to number many. LUKE SITAL SINGH is something of a fixture alongside Royal Blood in top-of-the-year tips lists. He also makes his debut with The Fire Inside, although his arrival could hardly be more different in sentiment. Where the other lot pummel you around the head, this singer-songwriter

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cups your face affectionately and sings into your eyes over a polite ripple of ambient acoustica and c h i m i n g R a d i o s -1 - a n d -2 targeted alt-folk with residual indie cred, guiding him into the slipstream of other such contemporary troubadours as Bon Iver and Ben Howard. The Fire Inside follows a string of EPs which, while strong trailers for the full-length set, have been loaded with spoilers. Little here tops rousing opener Nothing Stays the Same, a song that has been in the public sphere for a year. On I Have Been a Fire, Singh betrays a tendency t o sl ip i nt o s upr a- e a r ne s t over-emoting. But one listener’s dull drip is another’s dreamy r om a nt ic . A r m e d w it h a n undoubtedly fine voice and songs including the A-grade tear-jerking Fail For You, Singh stands to mean a great deal to at least a few spooning couples out there, if no one else. O

AND ANOTHER THING… There’s a familial warmth to Fife alt-folk singer-songwriter JAMES YORKSTON ’s excellent sixth album, produced by Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. It features contributions from KT Tunstall and The Pictish Trail. Hear the harmonies on Fellow Man and feel the glow.


WorldMags.net Marcel Dettmann

JOIN THE

fabric 77 “Apt, scintillating and always on point. Dettmann does it again and again.” - Hyponik

Join hundreds of people to walk, jog or run the streets of London to help save an endangered species from extinction

DJ at Berghain’s forerunner Ostgut from the late 90s, and now resident at the world-renowned Berlin institution for a decade, Marcel Dettmann inhabits techno’s top tier. fabric 77 is a wellbalanced selection of current techno in a master’s hands. Incorporating unreleased material from his own MDR label, unheard Marcel Dettmann remixes, and such masters of the genre as Terence Fixmer and Robert Hood, the mix may surprise some listeners with its vibrancy, delicacy and range.

Forthcoming in the series: Erol Alkan, Raresh, Illum Sphere www.fabriclondon.com

The Nation’s favourite pop night

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... in a gorilla suit

Register and get your very own gorilla suit to keep! Go to greatgorillarun.org or call 0207 916 4974

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st 7 S ept Special Gue ine ime Mach Hot Dub T hour set! Special 2

Every Sat 02 Academy Islington Clubdefromage.com

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WHAT’S ON

LONDON

D I A RY: 1 8.0 8. 14 - 24 .0 8. 14

Trust him... he’s a Doctor! Shake your thing at Notting Hill. Crave even more shake? Master the art of mixology

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he last Bank Holiday weekend of the summer traditionally sees a frantic two-way dynamic whereby Londoners flee to the coast or the countryside and tourists flood in, with the net result being the capital remains just as crowded. On the downside, there are more people blocking Underground tunnels as they try to make sense of maps Londoners have hardwired into their DNA; on the plus side, there are noticeably fewer people harrumphing from the toil of trekking across London on a daily basis and their faces are lit up with the energy, excitement and exhilaration of being in the big city for a few days. The big draw, of course, this weekend is the NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL (August 24&25, Notting Hill and surrounding areas; thenottinghillcarnival.com). It has been going since 1966 and celebrates the West Indian community that changed the shape of London since the last century. Across its two days it draws one million people in to see the parades, eat the food and listen to the booming sound systems. Needless to say, the streets will be incredibly busy so pick your spot and expect not to stray too far. There are lots of music events (beyond Carnival) this week, ostensibly aimed at people looking to make the most of the good weather and three-day weekend. GREENWICH MUSIC TIME (August 20-23, Greenwich; greenwichmusictime.co.uk) takes place in the stunning grounds of the Old Royal Naval College and, leaning towards a slightly older audience, its four headliners this year are The Australian Pink Floyd, Goldfrapp, Russell Watson and Jools Holland. Those who are younger in body or spirit can head to SW4 for, well, SOUTH WEST FOUR (August 23&24, Clapham Common; southwestfour.com) and two days of genteel raving. It has a hugely impressive line up across multiple stages including deadmau5, Above & Beyond, Pusha T, Laurent Garnier, Sasha, Skream, Gorgon City and Josh Wink. Expect spikes in the number of sufferers of

“raver’s knee” the following week. Undoubtedly the hottest run of gigs in London this year, KATE BUSH kicks off her 22-night BEFORE THE DAWN residency at the Hammersmith Apollo. Tickets sold out in seconds so, unless you were inexplicably lucky, don’t expect to get in. But you can console yourself with other likeminded people at the Kate Bush Night alternative party (August 26, Hackney; amygrimehouse.com) where they’ll revel in her music, videos and choreography as everyone tries to forget they’re not seeing her first shows since 1979. Another arty musical residency happens this week at the Roundhouse with IMOGEN HEAP’S REVERB (August 21-24, Camden; roundhouse.org.uk) where she will, in her own words, take the audience “on an exploration of living contemporary composers who have heavy leanings toward technology”. She will be performing her latest album (deploying her special gloves built to trigger music and sounds) and there will also be talks, workshops, interactive sound installations and an improvising orchestra. This summer has been pretty good in London, aside from a few powerful thunderstorms, and you can toast its remaining weeks with cocktails that you have learned to make yourself. The self-explanatory COCKTAIL MASTERCLASS CLASS (August 23-27, Southbank; southbankcentre.co.uk) is run by the Department Of Good Cheer and its bartenders will aim to make you “cocktail literate” in an hour. It wouldn’t be a summer Bank Holiday without a new episode of Doctor Who and you can watch DOCTOR WHO: DEEP BREATH (August 23, Barbican; barbican.org.uk) on the big screen with fellow Whovians but the biggest draw is surely the Q&A with Peter Capaldi, the box-fresh twelfth Doctor, afterwards. Also for adults who refuse to leave their childhood behind them, DINO SNORES FOR GROWN-UPS (August 22, 25, 27, South Kensington; nhm.ac.uk) allows you to spend the night in the Natural History Museum. Food is provided as are science shows, edible insect tasting, comedy, music, quizzes and monster film screenings for insomniacs. Tickets cost (a terrifying) £175 each and only those over 18 can attend. O WORDS: EAMONN FORDE

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p34 / August 18-24, 2014


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FOLK MUSIC TODAY

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To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p36 / August 18-24, 2014


FOLK MUSIC TODAY

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To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p37 / August 18-24, 2014


CLASSIFIED

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To advertise: Jenny Bryan / jennifer_bryan@dennis.co.uk

tĂůŬŝŶŐ ,ŽůŝĚĂLJƐ Θ DŽƌĞ ŝŶ ƵƌŽƉĞΖƐ ŵŽƐƚ ŵĂũĞƐƟĐ ŵŽƵŶƚĂŝŶƐ

ƵƐƚƌŝĂŶ ůƉƐ /ƚĂůŝĂŶ ŽůŽŵŝƚĞƐ WŝĐŽƐ ĚĞ ƵƌŽƉĂ WLJƌĞŶĞĞƐ

tŚĂƚ ŵĂŬĞƐ Ă ŽůůĞƩ Ɛ ǁĂůŬŝŶŐ ŚŽůŝĚĂLJ ĚŝīĞƌĞŶƚ ) ƌƌŝǀĞ ĂŶĚ ĚĞƉĂƌƚ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ĚĂLJƐ ŽĨ LJŽƵƌ ĐŚŽŝĐĞ ƐƚĂLJ ĂƐ ůŽŶŐ ĂƐ LJŽƵ ǁŝƐŚ ) ^ĞůĨ ŐƵŝĚĞ Žƌ ũŽŝŶ ĚĂŝůLJ ŽƌŐĂŶŝƐĞĚ ǁĂůŬƐ Žƌ ĚŽ Ă ŵŝdž ŽĨ ďŽƚŚ ) ŚŽŽƐĞ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ ŚĂůĩŽĂƌĚ Žƌ Θ ŝŶ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵůůLJ ůŽĐĂƚĞĚ ŚŽƚĞůƐ ĐŚĂůĞƚ ŚŽƚĞůƐ Žƌ ƐĞůĨ ĐĂƚĞƌ ) džƚĞŶƐŝǀĞ ƐƵƉƉŽƌƚ ĂŶĚ ŶƵŵĞƌŽƵƐ ƉƌŽƉŽƐĂůƐ ĨŽƌ ƐĞůĨ ŐƵŝĚŝŶŐ ĂůƉŝŶĞ ĂĐƟǀŝƟĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŽƚŚĞƌ ĚĂLJƐ ŽƵƚ sŝƐŝƚ ŽƵƌ ǁĞďƐŝƚĞ Žƌ ƌĞƋƵĞƐƚ ŽƵƌ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵů ďƌŽĐŚƵƌĞ

01799 513331 ǁǁǁ ĐŽůůĞƩƐ ĐŽ ƵŬ

AN URGENT APPEAL

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for the strays in Sri Lanka dŚĞƌĞ ĂƌĞ ϭϬϬϬ:Ɛ ŽĨ ƐƵīĞƌŝŶŐ ƐƚƌĂLJƐ ůŝǀŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ĚLJŝŶŐ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ƐƚƌĞĞƚƐ ŽĨ ^ƌŝ >ĂŶŬĂ DĂŶLJ ĂƌĞ ŵĂůŶŽƵƌŝƐŚĞĚ ǁĞĂŬĞŶĞĚ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ĚŝƐĞĂƐĞ ĂŶĚ ŚĂǀĞ ŚŽƌƌŝĮĐ ŝŶũƵƌŝĞƐ ŶŝŵĂů ^K^ ^ƌŝ >ĂŶŬĂ ŝƐ Ă ƐŵĂůů h< ZĞŐŝƐƚĞƌĞĚ ŚĂƌŝƚLJ ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ƚŽ ĂůůĞǀŝĂƚĞ ƚŚĞ ǁŝĚĞƐƉƌĞĂĚ ƐƵīĞƌŝŶŐ ŽĨ ƐƚƌĂLJ ĂŶŝŵĂůƐ ďLJ ƉƌŽǀŝĚŝŶŐ ůŝĨĞƐĂǀŝŶŐ ǀĞƚĞƌŝŶĂƌLJ ĐĂƌĞ ƌĞĨƵŐĞ ƌĞŚĂďŝůŝƚĂƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ŚŽŵŝŶŐ ƐĐŚĞŵĞƐ tĞ ĂůƐŽ ĐŽŶĚƵĐƚ ǁĞĞŬůLJ ŶĞƵƚĞƌŝŶŐ= ƌĂďŝĞƐ ĐŽŶƚƌŽů ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵƐ ĂŶĚ ƉƌŽŵŽƚĞ ĂŶŝŵĂů ǁĞůĨĂƌĞ tĞ ĂƌĞ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚůLJ ĐĂƌŝŶŐ ĨŽƌ ŽǀĞƌ ϲϬϬ ƌĞƐĐƵĞĚ ƐƚƌĂLJƐ Ăůů ŶƵƌƐĞĚ ďĂĐŬ ƚŽ ŚĞĂůƚŚ Ăƚ ŽƵƌ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵů ƐĂŶĐƚƵĂƌLJ ŝŶ ƐŽƵƚŚĞƌŶ ^ƌŝ >ĂŶŬĂ tĞ ĚĞƐƉĞƌĂƚĞůLJ ŶĞĞĚ zKhZ ŚĞůƉ ƚŽ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞ ƚŚŝƐ ůŝĨĞƐĂǀŝŶŐ ǁŽƌŬ PLEASE HELP THESE ANIMALS IN DIRE NEED BY DONATING TODAY There is no greater gift

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WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p38 / August 18-24, 2014


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WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p40/ August 18-24, 2014


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:SPYRXIIVW ÂŻ 4EXMIRXW ERH 'EVIVW 6S]EP 'SPPIKI SJ 4L]WMGMERW

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%VI ]SY SV LEZI ]SY FIIR E TEXMIRX SV GEVIV# %VI ]SY MRXIVIWXIH MR ZSPYRXIIVMRK# ;SYPH ]SY PMOI XS LIPT GSRXVMFYXI XS MQTVSZMRK WXERHEVHW JSV TEXMIRXW GEVIVW ERH XLI TYFPMG# If you answered yes to all the above questions then we would like to hear from you. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is recruiting new volunteers to join our Patient and Carer Network (PCN). The RCP works to improve standards of patient care, and we are committed to putting patients’ voice at the core of what we do. Our PCN is made up of patients, carers and members of the public from a range of backgrounds across the United Kingdom. As a member you will have the opportunity to make sure that the views and experiences of patients and carers are fully integrated in the work of the RCP. If you are enthusiastic about improving patient care and you enjoy working with others, then we want to hear from you. No prior experience is necessary, and we welcome applications from people of all ages and backgrounds who can share their views as a patient or carer. Some of the work you could be involved in includes: s 0ROVIDING A PATIENT S OR CARER S PERSPECTIVE TO 2#0 committees working on topics ranging from patient safety to stroke medicine. s 0ROVIDING PATIENT INSIGHT ON HOW NEW MEDICAL GUIDELINES can reect patients’ needs and experiences more effectively. s !TTENDING REGULAR WORKSHOPS AND MEETINGS AT THE 2#0 S national headquarters in London.

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WORK FOR THE BIG ISSUE FOUNDATION!

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VACANCY: Events & Corporate Fundraising Executive

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Vauxhall, London : Full time dĹ˝ ĂƉƉůLJ ƉůĞĂĆ?Äž Ĺ?Ĺ˝ ƚŽ ‘Work for us’ on ŽƾĆŒ Ç ÄžÄ?Ć?Ĺ?ƚĞ Ä‚Ćš Ç Ç Ç Ä?Ĺ?Ĺ?Ĺ?Ć?Ć?ƾĞ Ä?Žž Ĺ˝ĆŒ Äž žĂĹ?ĹŻ Ć‰ÄžĆŒĆ?ŽŜŜĞůΛÄ?Ĺ?Ĺ?Ĺ?Ć?Ć?ƾĞ Ä?Žž ĹŻĹ˝Ć?Ĺ?ĹśĹ? ĚĂƚĞ: ^ƾŜĚĂLJ ĎŽĎ° ĆľĹ?ĆľĆ?Ćš ĎŽĎŹĎ­Ď°

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p41/ August 18-24, 2014


Write Your Way To A New Career! WorldMags.net Writers Bureau Celebrates Twenty-five Years of Helping New Writers by Nick Daws !∗∋0񡑀&+45#0%∋񡑅.∋#30+0)񡑀2+10∋∋3 񡑡30∋45񡑀񡑧∋5%#.(∋񡑀(160&∋&񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀!3+5∋34 񡑘63∋#6񡑀+0񡑀5∗∋񡑀.#5∋񡑀񡑈񡑔񡑓񡑇4񡑄񡑀∗∋񡑀%#0 ∗#3&.:񡑀∗#7∋񡑀&#3∋&񡑀∗12∋񡑀5∗#5񡑀58∋05:񡑅 (+7∋񡑀:∋#34񡑀10񡑀+5񡑀816.&񡑀∃∋ #%−018.∋&)∋&񡑀#4񡑀񡑘3+5#+0񡑃4񡑀.∋#&+0) 83+5+0)񡑀4%∗11.񡑆񡑀∀∋5񡑀41񡑀+5񡑀2317∋&񡑄񡑀8+5∗ 5∗164#0&4񡑀1(񡑀!3+5∋34񡑀񡑘63∋#6񡑀456&∋054 4∋∋+0)񡑀5∗∋+3񡑀813−񡑀+0񡑀23+05񡑀(13񡑀5∗∋񡑀(+345 5+/∋񡑆񡑀񡑗0&񡑄񡑀(13񡑀/#0:񡑀1(񡑀5∗14∋񡑀8∗1 2∋34∋7∋3∋&񡑀8+5∗񡑀5∗∋+3񡑀83+5+0)񡑄񡑀5∗∋ &3∋#/񡑀1(񡑀∃∋%1/+0)񡑀#񡑀46%%∋44(6.񡑀83+5∋3 ∗#4񡑀5630∋&񡑀+051񡑀3∋#.+5:񡑆 񡑰56&∋054񡑀46%∗񡑀#4 “My writing 񡑱+/񡑀񡑰−∋.510񡑆񡑀񡑗0 career took off ∋0)+0∋∋3񡑀∃: exponentially.” 231(∋44+10񡑄񡑀∗∋񡑀∗#& #.8#:4񡑀∗#3∃163∋& #0񡑀#/∃+5+10񡑀51񡑀83+5∋񡑄񡑀#0&񡑀#5񡑀5∗∋񡑀#)∋ 1(񡑀񡑐񡑇񡑀4+)0∋&񡑀62񡑀8+5∗񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀!3+5∋34 񡑘63∋#6񡑆񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀&∋%+4+10񡑀%∗#0)∋&񡑀∗+4񡑀.+(∋񡑕 񡑂񡑧:񡑀83+5+0)񡑀%#3∋∋3񡑀511−񡑀1(( ∋9210∋05+#..:񡑆񡑀񡑥񡑀45#35∋&񡑀#22∋#3+0) 3∋)6.#3.:񡑀+0񡑀.+(∋45:.∋񡑀#0&񡑀+0񡑅(.+)∗5 /#)#;+0∋4񡑆񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀(1..18+0)񡑀:∋#3񡑀񡑥񡑀8#4 %1//+44+10∋&񡑀∃:񡑀񡑘3#&5񡑀񡑱3#7∋.񡑀񡑣6+&∋4 51񡑀83+5∋񡑀#񡑀)6+&∋∃11−񡑀51񡑀񡑦69∋/∃163)񡑆

How To Become

񡑥񡑃7∋񡑀#22∋#3∋&񡑀+0񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀񡑱+/∋4񡑀#0&񡑀񡑱∗∋ 񡑥0&∋2∋0&∋05񡑄񡑀#0&񡑀62&#5∋&񡑀)6+&∋∃11−4 (13񡑀񡑢1&13񡑃4񡑄񡑀񡑱∗1/#4񡑀񡑙11−񡑄񡑀#0&񡑀5∗∋ 񡑗񡑗񡑆񡑂 񡑗015∗∋3񡑀456&∋05񡑀8∗1񡑀∃∋0∋(+5∋&񡑀8#4 񡑤#;∋.񡑀񡑧%񡑤#((+∋񡑆񡑀񡑤#;∋.񡑀8#05∋&񡑀51 /#−∋񡑀∗∋3񡑀#%#&∋/+%񡑀813−񡑀+0񡑀񡑧∋&+%#. 񡑡5∗+%4񡑀/13∋񡑀#%%∋44+∃.∋񡑀51񡑀2∋12.∋񡑄񡑀#0& &∋%+&∋&񡑀51񡑀83+5∋񡑀5∗∋񡑀5∗∋/∋4񡑀+051 017∋.4񡑆񡑀񡑢1..18+0)񡑀∗∋3񡑀!3+5∋34񡑀񡑘63∋#6 %1634∋񡑄񡑀񡑤#;∋.񡑀∗#4񡑀∗#&񡑀(+7∋񡑀017∋.4 26∃.+4∗∋&񡑄񡑀#0&񡑀#22∋#3∋&񡑀#5񡑀5∗∋ 񡑡&+0∃63)∗񡑀񡑥05∋30#5+10#.񡑀񡑘11− 񡑢∋45+7#.񡑆񡑀񡑰∗∋񡑀#.41񡑀∗#4񡑀∗∋3񡑀180 8∋∃4+5∋񡑀#5񡑀888񡑆∗#;∋./%∗#((+∋񡑆%1/񡑆 񡑰1/∋5+/∋4񡑀456&:+0)񡑀8+5∗񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀!3+5∋34 񡑘63∋#6񡑀5#−∋4񡑀456&∋054񡑀&180񡑀0∋8񡑀#0& 60∋92∋%5∋&񡑀2#5∗4񡑆񡑀񡑩#53+%+#񡑀񡑤1.0∋44 13+)+0#..:񡑀∋031..∋&񡑀10񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀!3+5∋34 񡑘63∋#6񡑃4񡑀!3+5+0)񡑀(13񡑀񡑙∗+.&3∋0񡑀%1634∋񡑆 񡑤18∋7∋3񡑄񡑀4∗∋񡑀4110񡑀3∋#.+4∋&񡑀5∗#5񡑀8∗#5 4∗∋񡑀8#4񡑀.∋#30+0)񡑀#22.+∋&񡑀51񡑀15∗∋3 5:2∋4񡑀1(񡑀83+5+0)񡑀#4񡑀8∋..񡑆񡑀 񡑰∗∋񡑀+4񡑀018񡑀#񡑀(6..񡑅5+/∋񡑀83+5∋3񡑄񡑀 3∋)6.#3.:񡑀4∋..+0)񡑀4∗135񡑀4513+∋4񡑀(13񡑀∃15∗񡑀

A Successful Writer!

As a freelance writer, you can earn very good money in your spare time, writing the stories, articles, books, scripts etc that editors and publishers want. Millions of pounds are paid annually in fees and royalties. Earning your share can be fun, profitable and creatively most fulfilling. To help you become a successful writer we offer you a first-class, home-study course from professional writers – with individual guidance from expert tutors and flexible tuition tailored to your own requirements. You are shown how to make the most of your abilities, where to find ideas, how to turn them into publishable writing and how to sell them. In short, we show you exactly how to become a published writer. If you want writing success – this is the way to start! Whatever your writing ambitions, we can help you to achieve them. For we give you an effective, stimulating and most enjoyable creative writing course… appreciated by students and acclaimed by experts. It’s ideal for beginners. No previous experience or special background is required. You write and study at your own pace – you do not have to rush – as you have four years to complete your course. Many others have been successful this way. If they can do it – why can’t you?

Hazel McHaffie

We are so confident that we can help you become a published writer that we give you a full refund guarantee. If you have not earned your course fees from published writing by the time you finish the course, we will refund them in full. If you want to be a writer start by requesting a free copy of our prospectus ‘Write and be Published’. Please call our freephone number or visit our website NOW! 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀 񡑀

COURSE FEATURES 27 FACT-PACKED MODULES 2 SPECIALIST SUPPLEMENTS 20 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ADVISORY SERVICE TUTORIAL SUPPORT FLEXIBLE STUDY PROGRAMME STUDENT COMMUNITY AREA HOW TO PRESENT YOUR WORK HOW TO SELL YOUR WRITING 15 DAY TRIAL PERIOD FULL REFUND GUARANTEE

www.writersbureau.com

Tim Skelton

%∗+.&3∋0񡑀#0&񡑀#&6.54񡑆񡑀񡑰∗∋񡑀#.41񡑀∗#4񡑀# /105∗.:񡑀%1.6/0񡑀+0񡑀񡑠∋710񡑀񡑦+(∋񡑆 񡑱∗∋4∋񡑀#3∋񡑀,645񡑀#񡑀4∋.∋%5+10񡑀(31/񡑀5∗∋ +042+3#5+10#.񡑀536∋񡑀4513+∋4񡑀(31/ 456&∋054񡑀1(񡑀񡑱∗∋񡑀!3+5∋34񡑀񡑘63∋#6񡑆 񡑱∗∋3∋񡑃4񡑀01񡑀3∋#410񡑀8∗:񡑀∀񡑨 񡑀%16.&0񡑃5 ∃∋񡑀5∗∋+3񡑀0∋95񡑀46%%∋44񡑀4513:񡑆񡑀!+5∗񡑀#񡑀񡑈񡑑񡑅 &#:񡑀(3∋∋񡑀53+#.񡑀#0&񡑀/10∋:񡑅∃#%− )6#3#05∋∋񡑄񡑀5∗∋3∋񡑀+4񡑀015∗+0)񡑀51񡑀.14∋ #0&񡑀215∋05+#..:񡑀#񡑀8∗1.∋񡑀0∋8񡑀%#3∋∋3񡑀51 )#+0񡑁񡑀񡑰1񡑀8∗:񡑀015񡑀7+4+5񡑀5∗∋+3񡑀8∋∃4+5∋񡑀#5 888񡑆83+5∋34∃63∋#6񡑆%1/񡑀13񡑀%#..񡑀10 񡑢3∋∋2∗10∋񡑀񡑇񡑓񡑇񡑇񡑀񡑓񡑑񡑒񡑀񡑉񡑇񡑇񡑓񡑀(13񡑀/13∋ +0(13/#5+10񡑖

Hannah Evans, Winchester “I’ve been published in The Guardian and Good Life earning £400. And now I’ve got my first book published by Bloomsbury called MOB Rule: Lessons Learned by a Mother of Boys. The Writers Bureau course provided me with structure, stopped my procrastination but most importantly it provided the impetus to try something different.” Michael Foley, Essex “Completing The Writers Bureau course has made it possible for me to attain my life-long ambition of becoming a published writer. The level of success I have achieved has far outweighed what I was hoping for when beginning the course. I have now had seventeen books published with two more under publication at the moment.”

Jane Isaac, Northamptonshire When I started the Writers Bureau course, I wanted to explore avenues for my writing and develop and strengthen my personal style. I had no idea that it would lead to me being a published writer of novels and short stories. I still pinch myself when I receive emails and messages from readers who’ve enjoyed my work or when I give talks to book clubs and visit bookstores to do signings. These are magical moments that have changed my life – my dream has come true.” Please send me free details on how to become a successful, freelance writer: NAME ....................................................................................................................................... ADDRESS .................................................................................................................................

FREEPHONE 24 HOURS

Quote: SZ18814

0800 856 2008 www.facebook.com/writersbureau www.twitter.com/writersbureau

email: 14W1@writersbureau.com Please include your name and address

.................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................... POST CODE EMAIL ......................................................................................................................................

Freepost RSSK-JZAC-JCJG

The Writers Bureau Dept SZ18814 Manchester, M3 1LE

WorldMags.net

Writers Bureau

25

Years of Success

Members of The British Institute for Learning and Development and ABCC


WorldMags.net

PUZZLES

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

ISSUE 1115 SOLUTION

PRIZE CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

To win a Chambers Dictionary, send completed crosswords (either cryptic or quick) to: The Big Issue Crossword (1116), Second Floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW by August 26. Don’t forget to include your name, address and phone number. Issue 1114 winner is Marlene Milne from Plymouth.

There is just one simple rule in sudoku: each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the numbers one to nine. This is a logic puzzle and you should not need to guess. The solution will be revealed next week.

CRYPTIC CLUES

QUICK CLUES

ACROSS

DOWN

ACROSS

2. Place accommodating a friend (3) 5. Look to see if huts have collapsed (6) 7. Quite troubled before end of day by fairness (6) 9. Too thorough when suffering ocular fever (11) 10. Clown to mock good man inside (6) 11. Force Ruth amended, by the way (6) 13. Edward accepted a team that had travelled on the runway (6) 16. British tanker’s heater (6) 18. Twinkle and hide surprisingly rapidly (4,3,4) 19. A zero movement south of the islands (6) 20. You stopped short of returning basket with curdled food (6) 21. Part of foot oddly left at home (3)

1. Metal coming from capital city church first (6) 2. Claw’s military movement? (6) 3. Found out about revised rental (6) 4. In all honesty lustfulness gets the needle (6) 6. One having priceless ideas? (11) 8. Harsh and severe when not pardoning (11) 10. Spray coming from aeroplane (3) 12. Rubbish built up to a height (3) 14. A fire burning brightly (6) 15. Dislike having notes for examination (6) 16. Extras, two said cheerio (3-3) 17. Last to finish on river in Yorkshire (6)

2. 5. 7. 9. 10. 11. 13. 16. 18.

Triangular sail (3) Forces (anag.) (6) Astonished (6) Business enterprise (11) Award (6) ------ schnitzel (6) Fan chaff from grain (6) Money order (6) Sharp corner in road (7,4) 19. Series of steps (6) 20. Range (6) 21. Climbing plant (3)

DOWN 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 15.

Excessively (music) (6) Carpenter (6) Hand-propelled cart (6) Water sprite (6) Ambient (11) Feat (11) In what way? (3) Regret (3) Breathe in (6) North American deer (6) 16. Transmit, communicate (6) 17. Not fastened (6)

ISSUE 1115 SOLUTION CRYPTIC: Across – 1 Nosebag; 8 Amphora; 9 Xeroxed; 10 Garment; 11 Brummie; 12 Tripoli; 14 Turning; 18 Almanac; 20 Hipster; 21 Reclaim; 22 Nutcase; 23 Tendril. Down – 1 Next best thing; 2 Shroud; 3 Buxom; 4 Gadget; 5 Upbraid; 6 Bolero; 7 Bactrian camel; 13 Mistral; 15 Repute; 16 Garret; 17 Unfair; 19 Mâcon. QUICK: Across – 1 Politic; 8 Reptile; 9 Crackle; 10 Well-off; 11 Unhinge; 12 Legroom; 14 Warrior; 18 Emperor; 20 Niagara; 21 Stamina; 22 Ontario; 23 Neglect. Down – 1 Picture window; 2 Loathe; 3 Token; 4 Crewel; 5 Apology; 6 Gigolo; 7 Self-important; 13 Bizarre; 15 Rialto; 16 Reason; 17 Bruise; 19 Prang.

WIN! NEW ALBUM SYMPHONICA GEORGE MICHAEL’S

LIMITED EDITION GATEFOLD VINYL VERSION

George Michael’s chart-topping Symphonica album, his ninth number one record, will be released as a double-gatefold vinyl album on September 1. The 14-track album, which topped the charts when it was released in March, has produced three singles. The third single, Feeling Good (with a video featuring burlesque star Dita Von Teese), is out now. We have one copy of the gatefold vinyl version of Symphonica to be won, and four runner-up prizes of CDs of the album. To be in with a chance of winning, answer this question: Which burlesque artist features in the Feeling Good video?

Send answers, with SYMPHOINICA written in the subject line, to: competitions@ bigissue.com or post entries to The Big Issue, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW. Don’t forget to give us your name and address. Closing date is August 26. Please include OPT OUT on your competition entry if you would prefer not to receive any future information or updates from The Big Issue. We will not pass on your details to any third party. Only one entry per competition is accepted, multiple entries will be disqualified along with any entries submitted via agencies or third parties.

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p43 / August 18-24, 2014


STREETLIGHTS

The work on this page is mostly by homeless, ex-homeless and vulnerably housed people. Much of it is produced by groups supported by The Big Issue.

WorldMags.net EST 1991 FOUNDERS John Bird & Gordon Roddick Group chairman Nigel Kershaw Group chief executive Jim Mullan EDITORIAL Editor Paul McNamee Deputy editor Vicky Carroll Senior reporter Adam Forrest Features writer Steven MacKenzie Web content manager Theo Hooper Staff writer Andrew Burns Office manager Robert White Production journalist Sarah Reid PRODUCTION Art director Scott Maclean Production editor Ross McKinnon Designer Jim Ladbury Assistant production editor Rosanna Farrell Central advertising production co-ordinator Terry Cimini ADVERTISING 020 7907 6633 Advertising director Steve Nicolaou Advertising manager Ciaran Scarry Senior sales executive Esme Collins Sales executive Richard Staplehurst

ART BY JOHN SHEEHY

Classified and Recruitment 020 7907 6635 Jenny Bryan & Brad Beaver

John, 67, is a regular contributor to StreetLights and lives in London. He has experienced homelessness over the last 50 years and credits The Big Issue with first helping him discover his enjoyment of being creative. An exhibition of his work, titled The Colours Choose Me, will take place at the House Gallery in Camberwell, London, from Aug 20-27. Here are two selections from the exhibition. For more info see house-gallery.co.uk.

Marketing and communications director Lara McCullagh Commercial and development director Mark Reen THE BIG ISSUE FOUNDATION Chief executive Stephen Robertson 020 7526 3456 Editorial Second Floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW 0141 352 7260 editorial@bigissue.com Distribution London: 020 7526 3200 Printed at BGP. Published weekly by The Big Issue, 1-5 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2LN

POETRY THE BOY AND THE FLY BY EDWARD MCHUGH British Editor of the Year (Lifestyle) 2013 Paul McNamee

PPA Scotland Awards 2013 Editor of the Year – Paul McNamee Feature Writer – Adam Forrest Backstage Star – Robert White

Born in Dundee, the late Edward McHugh was a Big Issue vendor in St Andrews around 14 years ago. His poetry was brought to StreetLights’ attention by Christine Band, a friend of Iain Thompson, to whom Edward left all of his poetry when he died of a brain tumour. Edward’s last wish was that some of his writing be published. Christine and Iain believe this to be Edward’s best poem, the meaning of which they describe as being “open to interpretation”.

WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p44 / August 18-24, 2014


WorldMags.net

CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

If you have anything to contribute to StreetLights email streetlights@bigissue.com or post to The Big Issue, Second Floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW WorldMags.net

THE BIG ISSUE / p45 / August 18-24, 2014


MY PITCH

#celebrateyourvendor WorldMags.net

I’m outside the Boston Tea Party on Park Street. They’re lovely – always bringing me cups of tea. I’m a bit of a tea connoisseur – I love my Assam tea.

I PARK STREET BRISTOL

JACK RICHARDSON AGE 36 “I’M A FULL-ON NERD – I’VE BEEN A DUNGEON MASTER SINCE I WAS 11. BACK IN THE REAL WORLD I’M HOPING TO CONTINUE WITH MY DEGREE”

A BIG THANK YOU One of my customers is so nice – he bought me a bicycle. It’s been great. Another customer got me a new pair of glasses because my last pair were stuck together with Blu-Tack. What wonderful people.

ON MY PITCH… I’m there from 7am to about 5pm and I might stop for some lunch about 2pm.

’ve been selling the magazine in Bristol for the last six months. I came here from Cornwall when I got involved in a very intense relationship, so I came here to move in with her. But the relationship exploded. So I ended up without anywhere to live. You know the drill: without a local connection, the council won’t rehouse you. I got a place in the Salvation Army and now I’m staying at a friend’s place. Selling the magazine has been great – it turns out I’m really good at it. I use little rhymes and poems that get people smiling. Things like: “When the sky is bright and blue and the weather is warm and sunny/The mighty Big Issue is honest and true and also great value for money.” I do love Bristol. I’ve lived all over the country – as far north as Orkney, as far south as Penzance, and I don’t think there’s anywhere as welcoming and friendly as Bristol. People only need the slightest excuse to get together: getting involved in politics, culture, music and poetry slams. I speak to everyone from single mothers to artists putting on shows. It’s the sort of place where people strike up conversations very easily at the bus stop. I’m a full-on nerd and I don’t

mind admitting it. I’ve been a Dungeon Master since I was about 11 years old. My nephew and I came up with our own campaign world we’ve been working on for almost two decades. You start creating a small world and before you know it you’ve magicked up two moons, new legal systems, islands floating in the sky and races of people like the Slantaginets alongside your elves and dwarves. Back in the real world I’m hoping to pick up where I left off with my Open University degree in sociology and psychology. I’ve done one year so the credits should count. The money I make from The Big Issue should help me finish the degree. It’s such an amazing opportunity this organisation gives you – you get out there and sell a product you genuinely believe in. And you’re not only making money for yourself but you’re part of something helping other people in the same situation. O INTERVIEW BY ADAM FORREST Photo: Sean Malyon

NEXT WEEK

RISE OF THE GOLDEN ARCHES Is McDonald’s the new global peacemaker? WorldMags.net THE BIG ISSUE / p46 / August 18-24, 2014

ON SALE AUGUST 25


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