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Inside... Sin City Norwich Fringe Festival Totally Frank

Contents

Features TV 4 Film 5 Music 7 Art 9 Fashion 12 & 13 Regulars Listings 6 Creative Writing 8 Horoscopes 8

Hello

Hopefully, by the next issue, this section will become a thought provoking and renowned passage that intellectuals will sit down with a tumbler of whiskey and a thin cigar to read. Currently, however, due to the masses of blood, sweat and tears that have been splashed on every page of this pub- lication, its turned into a brief hello. So here goes- hello all you Event readers, I hope you enjoy the following pages! If you do, then please tell as many people as you can about them. If you don’t, then please don’t tell anyone at all. Despite deadlines being tighter than Tom Jones’ pants, it has all been a lot of fun and everyone involved deserves an extra scoop of icecream and a hardy pat on the back for all their great work. Several nights that could well have been spent down the pub were instead spent infront of a glowing monitor, tippy-tappying away into the small hours. Although they were undoubtedly worth it, its still a difﬁcult sacriﬁce for we students to make. This leads comfortably on to the huge list of thankyous that I have to make. Without masses of help from more people

Cover Story Interview with SFA bassist, Guto! 10 & 11 Reviews TV 14 Art 15 Film 16 & 17 Music 18 & 19

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than I can count, this magazine would have rather more empty pages. First of all Tom Stevens, who was twice am- bushed at the last possible moment to write features for us and produced the goods on both occasions, is certainly owed a frothy pint. Secondly, all the editorial staff on The Event, who cut their summers short by a good week to sit in a dreary ofﬁce and do paper work, snaps for them. Keep it up! Finally, a mention of last year’s editorial team, great friends and ﬁne writers who have all gone on to conquer new hori- zons. I hope they’ll all miss the late nights and the coffee.

Kate

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Feature

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t’s a long established TV fact that standards are allowed to slip considerably during the summer months. Major music and sporting events make for great schedule ﬁ ll- ers, and the balmy evenings mean that the primetime 7-9pm slot can be spent sipping Pimms in a beer gar- den rather than fuming on the sofa about the drivel on the box. This year has been no exception, with the same mindless trash dominating our screens. There were, however, one or two shows worth remembering. Big Brother took over Channel 4’s summer schedules once again, thrusting another parade of society’s misﬁ ts on an unfortunate watching audience. Attempts made to inject a bit of interest into proceedings included introducing new housemates randomly and trying more feverishly than ever to get the participants to sleep with each other, with mixed results. Partway through, plans were made to pull the plug on the series after racist comments were hurled at Makosi, but the public voted in droves against the chav perpetrator Saskia and she was kicked out, ending the cringe-inducing feud. The problem at the heart of the matter, which producers failed to spot, was that interest in the programme peaked at this all too trashy point. The annual ubiquity of Big Brother in Chan- nel 4’s summer schedules was tiresome as always, with some programs on the channel even being edited at the last minute due to important things happening in the BB house that were obviously deemed more important. The constant rabble of groaning, unwilling BB victims would seem to suggest that the public is tired of seeing Jade Goody wannabes attempting to become famous through acting up for the cameras – although the 7.8m viewers that tuned in to see Anthony win this year would probably disagree. On the subject of wannabes attempting to become famous through acting up for the cameras, ITV unleashed Celebrity Love Island – a dire cross between I’m A Celebrity and a dating show. Twelve ‘stars’ such as tabloid favourite Abi Titmuss, ex-TOTP host Jayne Middlemiss, club owner Fran Cosgrave and Callum Best (famous through ex-footballer and alco- holic father George Best) were isolated on a remote island in the program, as viewers voted off those that they deemed unin- teresting, with the over-

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all aim being to leave the two that seemed best matched. Despite the attraction of the celebrities prancing around in swimwear and ﬂ irting with each other, the program (which ITV had declared as being one of the year’s biggest shows) had so many viewers turning off that it was nearly ended several weeks prematurely. However, enough of an audience tuned in over the course of the series to sustain interest and lead to Jayne Middlemiss and Fran Cosgrave winning, even though they weren’t a couple. As the intention was to form a celebrity couple, the show ultimately seemed pointless. Comedy highlights included the excellent Australian sitcom Kath and Kim. Following the lives of a mother and daughter in suburban Australia, the subtle humour was

-PTU QSPWJOH PODF BHBJO UIBU "NFSJDBO JNQPSUT DBO QSPWJEF UIF NPTU FOHSPTT JOH DPOUFNQPSBSZ ESBNB reminiscent of Frasier and the deliberately exaggerated ac- cents were hilarious (‘look at me’ – the show’s catchphrase – became ‘luke et moy’). Kath and Kim also served to re- mind audiences that good television can sprout from other countries besides the US. The series will hopefully open the fl oodgates for a barrage of varied, quality programming from some more exotic corners of the earth. After a lacklustre third series, Bo Selecta creator Leigh Francis brought us a sitcom based around The Bear called A Bear’s Tail, which perfectly parodied the established sitcom format and included cameo appearances from classic characters like Craig David and Avid Merrion. However, it wasn’t particularly funny or entertaining – the fi rst series of Bo Selecta remains the best thing to have come from the franchise. Ricky Gervais returned with Extras, following the life of TV extra Andy Milman as he struggled to get even a speaking role on any show he featured in. Stars like Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson and, less impressively, Les Dennis were wheeled out in front of the camera, only to perform with a bare-minimum level of energy. There were some amusing moments (Ben Stiller’s bragging about how he had touched up Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Aniston was hilarious) that redeemed it, but it never came close to the genius of The Offi ce. The third series of the excellent Scrubs was also shown on Channel 4 and proved that it is still one of the best American comedies of recent years, due to it’s combination of humour (ranging from slapstick to very dark), drama

and characters that you actually care about. In August, Channel 4 brought us the superb Lost, prov- ing once again that American imports can provide the most engrossing contemporary television drama (like Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under). Created by Alias writer J. J. Abrams, the series followed the lives of the survivors of a plane crash, left to fend for themselves on a remote desert island. Instead of going for a simple Lord of the Flies-esque drama, elements of sci-fi and mystery were thrown in as the group discovered polar bears and invisible monsters in the jungle and a spooky radio signal that has been broadcasting from the island for 16 years. The structure of the show was original too – fl ashbacks for each character occurred once an episode, explaining more about them and why they were on the aeroplane before the crash. Each fl ashback revealed more secrets and motives for each person, as well as throwing up even more questions in a show already packed with unanswered mysteries. These plot twists and cliffhangers made the series truly addictive, making the viewer want to carry on watching to discover the answers. With a second series about to be shown in America, Lost was a defi nite rare highlight of the summer TV schedules. Various music events of the summer were brought into our homes, including Live 8, which was shown in it’s entirety on BBC1, attracting 6.6 million viewers. It features performances ranging from the amazing Scissor Sisters, to the pre- dictable efforts of David Walliams and Matt Lucas milking their fame with a boring Andy and Lou sketch. Highlights of this year’s muddy Glastonbury were shown on BBC2 and were particularly entertaining in that we were shown things other than the music – a series of features into Glaston- bury’s other aspects exposed carnivals, New Age tents and Victorian style ghost trains, amongst other things. Some of the highlights of the weekend were Basement Jaxx, Brian Wilson and The Kaiser Chiefs – seeing so many people singing along conveyed the festival atmosphere perfectly. With the Christmas period approaching (when producers tend to whip out the best that they have to offer), TV will hopefully be providing lots of entertainment in the next few months. Sadly, however, other than Lost there is little programming venturing outside the parameters of the tried and tested. The breath of fresh air that Kath and Kim provided illus- trates the variety we need in order to pre- vent the plethora of Celebrity Love Is- land style dross from bringing good telly to a grinding halt.

Feature

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hile a recent crop of French and Brit- ish fi lms has prompted a steady but ultimately contained debate over the issue of onscreen sex, it has taken but one American fi lm to put all that fi rmly on the back burner. Sin City, released in cinemas last June, kicked up a controversy around its graphic movie violence that pervaded nearly all levels of the media, drawing ranging and often extreme reactions from both critics and cinema- goers – an opinion confl ict that was revisited this week with the DVD release. On the small screen, of course, Sin City is a less provocative prospect, but the question remains: nihilistic sadistic exploitation, or morally confrontational neo-noir? Or perhaps both? The type of violence that Rodriquez’s fi lm deals in is American. Or, more precisely, it’s generically American: it’s the violence of fi lm noir, of gangster pictures, and of hard- boiled graphic novels (the fi lm adapts Frank Miller’s cult comic series of the same name). Everything that happens – from the one-man rampages to the large-scale gunfi ghts – is determinedly artifi cial, sealed tight in the noir genre by expressionistic black-and-white (mostly) photography, fl am- boyant costumes, and continuous voice-overs. Where Sin City does diverge from the 1940’s and 50’s noir fi lms is the way in which violence is represented onscreen. In classic noir, the most atrocious crimes were nearly always kept off- screen, lurking at the back of the narrative, and the edge of our consciousness. The victims of Harry Lime’s poisonous scheme are never shown in The Third Man;; Sin City presents us with an entire room full of recently severed heads. With its unfl inching depiction of excessive violence Sin City makes for uneasy viewing at times, but there is something provocative about its full-blown approach, and the shifts from exhilarating aggression to sickening cruelty highlight the pleasure we take from certain sorts of violence, no questions asked. Most American action cinema does its level best to achieve the opposite – to make pleasure in violence seem natural, and valid. We’re right behind John Wayne when he takes down his rivals, because shooting them is heroic, honourable even, and we are usually entirely unaware of any suffering on their part. Modern action-thrill- ers contain huge amounts of violence, but because it is dished out by American heroes (agents, soldiers, maverick cops), and because the recipients are the enemy (criminals, often foreign, often terrorists), it’s simply something that has to be done to save innocent people. Most of the violent American genres are built around the gun, a very American symbol of power, and vital equip- ment for action heroes. Of course, the gun and American gun-culture, where anyone is free to buy a deadly fi rearm, has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of recent high-school killings, and several fi lms. Most prominently Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant have refl ected upon the tragic violence that guns enable. Thomas Vinterberg’s recent Dear Wendy, un- burdened by a specifi c source of ‘true events’, is a more playful fi lm than those two, but its satirical take on the romantic myths of Westerns is never less than piercing. The fi lm tells the story of a band of misfi ts, residents in a (fi c- tional) Southern US mining town where the opportunities for young people are about as extensive as the tiny town quarters. Their leader Dick (Jamie Bell) works in a shop and is one day obliged to buy a present for a relative of a friend;; he buys a toy gun, keeps it, and, upon discovering that it is in fact a 6.65 double-action revolver (the Wendy of the title),

becomes fascinated with the object and forms a secret society in which to test and discuss guns. The society is named The Dandies and is only open to disempowered pacifi sts – they are ‘pacifi sts with guns’. Dear Wendy’s criticism of a violent fi lm genre is highly self-conscious where Sin City’s was only ever inadvertent. As a Dogme fi lm that’s to be expected, and Lars von Trier (who wrote the script) has done this sort of thing before, caus- ing calculated uproar in 2003 when his feature Dogville was perceived to paint America as an inherently arrogant and violent nation. The anti-Americanism in Dear Wendy (which Vinterberg denies exists) is less fi erce, but there is certainly a constant mocking of Dick and The Dandies’ sense of no- ble heroism. Dick seems completely unaware of the irony that resides in a group of pacifi sts worshipping guns, and confi dently tells his friend Stevie that the use of his gun is to be strictly recreational. Stevie is in complete agreement:

History of Violence (a title that quite possibly refers to cinema’s history, as well as the fi lm protagonist’s) as ‘specifi cally American’, and the fi lm looks at how classical fi lm stories are built upon heroic violence, whilst also building its own story around violence, and presenting audiences with some shock- ing moments of gory brutality. Not nearly as outrageous as the Sin City stuff of course, and Cronenberg’s fi lm is unlikely to generate the same amount of controversy. But if the hy- per-stylised hermetic world of the former represents modern cinema’s most perfectly fantastic-generic take on American violence, then A History of Violence, and Dear Wendy, speak compellingly about cinema in general, and the violence there that we sometimes take for granted.

4JO $JUZ OJIJMJTUJD TBEJT UJD FYQMPJUBUJPO PS NPSBMMZ DPOGSPOUBUJPOBM OFP OPJS 0S QFSIBQT CPUI ‘Hey. I’m a pacifi st too. So I would never dream of shooting anyone.’ The Dandies’ characters, though elaborately dressed in 19th century style dandy cloaks and big hats, are based partly on the cowboy heroes of 1960s Westerns, who carried guns and killed people in the name of freedom and honour. Dear Wendy recreates the violent shoot-outs of fi lms like The Wild Bunch, but ridicules its own heroes’ do- the-right-thing posturing with a scene that sees Dick and his gang risk their lives for the sake of a bag of coffee. There is a sense in Sin City that violence is a seductive affair, particularly for men, who cannot grasp the mystery of women and can only properly express their passion through a series of violent acts. (Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, spends the whole fi lm avenging Goldie, the gorgeous blonde girl that he spent one night with, and thinks he loved.) In Dear Wendy it is the guns themselves that are seductive. The fi lm starts with what sounds like a love letter, which is in fact addressed to Dick’s gun, Wendy. Other links between the guns and sex are more explicit: Dandy members ‘marry’ their guns in strange rituals, and the act of fi ring to kill is so forbidden that it cannot be referred to directly, and so the word ‘killing’ is replaced with ‘loving’. The most startling thing about all this is that guns are cast as active temptresses;; they want to be ‘loved’ (i.e. to be fi red), to kill – and they will do their best to convince people, even pacifi sts, to kill with them. Consid- ering how packed America is with guns, it’s a particularly unnerving thought. Violence in American cinema seems to be something that, currently, a lot of people want to discuss. David Cro- nenberg has described the type of carnage in his forthcoming A

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Listings

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Feature

The Sounds of the Summer

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hoever we are and whatever we are into our lives will always be defined by the music which has shaped them. Experi- ences are always remembered by the music which accompanied them. Love, loss, success or sadness are always landmarked by a track or song. Epic films need epic music, great romances need great ballads and three months of summer 2005 needs three months of classic nostalgic soundtrack. Whether you were washed away at Glastonbury or lost in Asia, here are some of the highlights to the soundtrack of our summer. It seems so long ago now, but summer was kick started by the Live 8 big names proclaiming world aid on a huge scale;; London, Philadelphia and Tokyo united in song, Will Smith clicking his fingers every three seconds and the like - all very eye opening, all very idealistic. But what better way to get a message through than by the universal language of music? What better spokesperson than a rock god? What better soapbox than being live to 11 major international cit- ies? If you were there you were apparently involved with history in the making. But then again, instead of being hailed as a ground-breaking charitable event, Live 8 was consid- ered a political lunge at the selfish Western government. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom banned the “3 second click” advert from television and radio as it breached their political advertising guidelines. Perhaps these preaching celebrities do not have the political immunity that initially gave them the air of righteousness. One of the acts benefiting most from the Live 8 gigs was a humble five piece from Leeds who came from nowhere earlier this year, only to epitomise their talent by opening the world televised gig in Philadelphia. Unheard of in America they didn’t fail to make their mark on the US audience, but more importantly they overshadowed Mercury prizewinners

Franz Ferdinand who had been ruling the britrock roost since last year. More important to the development of britrock was the return of the genre-deﬁning Oasis after three years away from the helm. Other emerging artists this year

*U XBT PG DPVSTF UIF GFTUJ WBM TFBTPO UIBU CSPVHIU BMM UIF TVNNFS CSFBLUISPVHIT UP MJHIU included a dominance of female vocal artists such as Jem, KT Tunstall and Kelly Clarkson, all making waves in the pop world. For the politically-charged rap enthusiasts Chuck D and the Flavor Flav returned to the streets. And, not forget- ting, the evermore self assured Ian Brown is back to stay, it seems, touring with his greatest hits album. But no hint of a Stone Roses revival. It was, of course, the festival season that brought all the summer breakthroughs to light. Glastonbury saw the sinking of over 400 tents and for the ﬁrst time it looked as if the mud would actually act against gig going morale, but Michael Eavis proudly proclaimed that in fact “the sun makes people lethargic and rain stimulates the character.” And what better to dance the discomfort away than the diverse tones of Basement Jaxx with some classic, timeless cultural dance tracks that exempliﬁed the ethnic diversity of the Glastonbury concert as a whole. Elsewhere, in Staffordshire and Chelmsford for instance, those rockers more inclined to cleanliness were bigging it up at the ever more popular V festival, armed with portable hair straighteners and disposable toilet seat covers, the armies

of nu-mod fashionable types gathered to see the best of true English metrosexuality. On the other side of the coin was the Carling weekend at Reading and Leeds and at the latter the return of antisocial trouble making reinstated the hardcore image of the festival. Not even Mean Fiddler could harness the wills of angst inﬂicted youths;; their change of venue three years ago meant little to the clientele. The Carling weekend still, however, remains one of the most authentic summer festivals, partly because of its evermore diverse line up;; one of the only times quality hip hop and dance is acclaimed along- side classic rock. More recently the Mercury Music Prize was awarded to Anthony and the Johnsons only a few weeks ago. The Mer- cury Music Prize is voted for by a panel of industry experts, journalists and artists and is said to reward originality and creativity rather than sales success. Anthony was up against the likes of Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, KT Tunstall and even the multimillion-selling band Coldplay, who had headlined the Glastonbury pyramid stage earlier this year. Damon Al- barn once famously likened the Mercury prize to “carrying a dead albatross around your neck for eternity”, but the prize has never been linked to popularity - perhaps a good thing for the Magic Numbers, already a sell out here at the LCR, who look to be rising to the forefront of the music scene this year. Not so much credit for Seth Lakeman, the folk musician who hammered out quality riffs on a viola whilst haunting the audience with his romantic vocals, skills which were severely underrated. Summer of 2005 may have been no Summer of ’69, but this was our summer all the same and it was epic none the less. There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you’re young and free for the next three months, not to put a downer on the autumn term of course.

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Creative Writing TAXI Cabby’s Corner

Cabby’s corner is a new addition to the creative writing section, it is dedicated to the taxi drivers of Norwich with their endless facts, stories and anecdotes.

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Yeah those thin ones where you can’t even whistle for laughing. Me and the lads had a whip round after poker and got a crate of them, we thought they’d be like a Peter Kay dip-a-biscuit-thing but they’re just the same as the thin ones. Jaffa’s though now there’s a biscuit, can’t compromise on a Jaffa – they’re a meal. I had someone in last week who told me they’re a cake. You don’t pay tax on cakes. Linkins! What about Linkins, you remember Linkins? No, here’s your mission – try and find a packet of Linkins, that doesn’t matter, bet you can’t. I’ll tell you what else you can’t go wrong with – fig rolls, grandma biscuits;; no you can’t go wrong with a fig roll and a cuppa. Am I alright to drop you here? £4.50 then luv.

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Take this… Touch porcelain oblong dish, and moss cloth where clipped toes pot. Red yourself. I pale petite local touch star snow. Shufﬂe golden down white and grey under villages My dark diverse family pleasures, Their roofs, ethnic silk Curl crafts shoulder. Rules made small Clip rich hands from food The poor painted the pearl: the land, the rivers, and home countryside sky in boat village, vast black. Take this. Bind it. Brake bones back. Red yourself.

Flag Etiquette A wonderful trick that the way her tongue tips up the thread dips in wet as one and it loops through ‘Easy.’ Easy like I never could. A simple thing yellow to red thread through and slip into a rhythm of stitches. ‘It’s nearly two’ She sighs, lifting the corner of fabric and whips it up like magicians ﬂick their cloaks, it arches then settles like a serviette light, ﬂat across her lap.

!NNA 3TEWARD

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-AR )F ONLY YOU COULD ALIGN YOUR LEFT FOOT WITH YOUR RIGHT ELBOW AND THUS BRING BAD FORTUNE TO THE CONSTELLATIONS FOR A WEEK 5NFORTUNATELY FOR YOU IT WORKS THE OTHER WAY AROUND AND THE MOVEMENT OF THOSE DAMN BURNING BALLS OF GAS HAS CREATED SOME REAL CHALLENGES AHEAD "UT AS YOU TRY TO NEGOTIATE BETWEEN FEUDING FRIENDS TOUGH DEADLINES AND FINAN CIAL RESTRICTIONS THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS THAT YOU ARE NOT A MASS OF FUSING HYDROGEN ORBITING IN THE ARM OF A DYING GALAXY

Feature

Fringe Festival Follies

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f in the upcoming weeks you find yourself reclining in a poetry cubicle, knitting and designing hats, then there’s only one place you can be – a disused shoe factory! This is the main exhibition site for the Norwich Fringe, the annual arts festival that is taking place between the 24th September and 9th October. The Fringe Festival is home to over 50 artists, both national and local. They range from the well established, such as Pop Artist Colin Self, to the less well known local talents. Most of the art is exhibited in The Old Bally Shoe Factory in Hall Road, but as chief organizers Sarah Cannel and Marion Catlin are keen to stress, this year the festival is branching out. The Fringe has found its way into various corners of Nor- wich city, taking up space in the usual artistic haunts such as Elm Hill and Take Five. Yet it is also penetrating some more corporate venues such as Habitat and the U.C.I cinema. This, according to Marion Catlin, typifies the Fringe’s inclusive attitude. It is a festival without funding, relying on sponsors and a group of dedicated volunteers, and rather than selecting artists and artwork, it is open to anyone willing to contribute. This is why the work on display at The Factory is so diverse. International artist Zacron is an obvious highlight. Zacron’s exhibited work includes the famous design for the Led Zeppelin III record cover. Yet, when Concrete got a sneak preview around the gallery the work of local artists was equal- ly impressive. As one might expect, the work from Norwich City Art College is terrific, but Lowestoft Art College and Nor-

scribbling with The Big Draw workshops (in early October). In addition, there is the Mad as a Hatter, Hat Self Portrait Competition;; all entries will be eligible for the Hat Parade on Sunday 3rd! And if that doesn’t appeal, how about a spot of Creative Writing? You can always get inspired at The Factory. On the bottom floor the Inprint poetry group have an arresting instal- lation, incorporating a cigarette machine that dispenses poetry rather than fags! UEA lecturer and poet Tim Lenton has told Concrete that he would love to install one on campus;; it is nice to imagine drunk students paying for cigarettes and getting poems instead. The organizers have also set up a Fringe in the City Vis- ual art trail, which maps out the twenty nine locations of all Fringe artworks on show in Norwich. These include: a projec- tion with music at the NewMu Bar, Mountergate/King Street;; a poetry exhibit by Inprint in The Forum;; Sculptures and Pho- tography at The Granary in Bedford Street;; and textiles and paperworks at Boarman House, Redwell Street. Many of the locations making up the Fringe Trail incorpo- rate specific events. At Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, for example, local artist Tara Sampy will be creating artwork on site on the 26th, 27th and 28th September (but for those reading this a little too late, it will still be on show until 12 October). And if art just doesn’t float your boat, then there’s always performance in its various guises. The Factory features open- mic busking between 4-5pm each day;; and Factory ‘Plugged- in’ on Thursday 6th October 7-10pm is an evening of poetry. The Fringe New Music Showcase brings the best of local bands - two nights have already passed (26th and 27th), but visit the Waterfront on the 28th and 29th if seeing some quality live music is your thing. There really is a lot to do at the festival. If you’re interested in anything even remotely arty - from pottery making and writing to knitting hats and mask making - then visit the festival and indulge in your creative side. 7JTJU XXX OPSXJDIGSJOHFGFTUJWBM DP VL UP mOE PVU NPSF

Event 9 The

Feature

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here is a loud cracking sound as a golf cart crashes through the doors of LCR. ‘Nooo!’ cries Guto, bassist of The Super Furry Animals, as he jumps out of the driving seat to check the dam- age. I hand him a smashed wing mirror and he laughs sheepishly, refusing to let it dampen his mood. It is September 13th and the band are here at UEA for the ﬁrst night of their new tour. They have been setting up for three days and have found the campus ideally suited to test driving their brand new cart. It’s pretty nifty too. They keep it plugged into the wall of LCR, charging it up like a mobile phone. Their only worry, Guto tells me, is UEA security who chase them if they drive on the grass. ‘We don’t want to take the piss’ he says. Having just spent an hour as Guto’s passenger, driving around and relaxing by the lake, the band are living up to their reputation as Welsh eccentrics. I am taught a little Welsh (Iawn! means ok), and I have a deep discussion about the merits of sweet po- tato. So far;; s o stu-

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pid. SFA seem as relaxed as ever. When I put it to Guto that the band are truly bonkers, he sets me straight. ‘We’re deadly serious about our music,’ he says, looking like a man who means it. And it is hard to disagree. Their seventh album, Love Kraft, was released this year to critical acclaim;; some critics comparing it to ‘White-Album’-era Beatles and others declaring it the defining record of their career. Not bad for a band that formed back in 1993. I ask Guto how they keep inspired and he replies without hestitating, ‘we’ve not stopped doing stuff – either recording or touring’. He is keen to tell me about the making of the album, about the people and places that have shaped the sound. It was recorded in Catylunia in rural Northern Spain, a landscape of sunflowers and fields. Guto only wishes that they had had their Golf Cart with them then;; ‘that would have been fantastic!’ he grins, going on to tell me about the con- trast of mixing the album in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a city which he describes as ‘twenty four hour madness’ and the place where they worked with Beastie Boys producer Mario C. Mario, is a ‘lovely, mellow, balanced guy. He really en- couraged us just to keep things simple and to play a song well’. Guto agrees that the relaxed sound of Love Kraft can partly be attributed to his input, as well as the change in locations. But Mario isn’t the only outside influence. Another individual to leave their mark is Sean O’Hagan of The High Lama’s, who created the lush string arrangements on the album. When I ask Guto whether working with other people has helped the band keep fresh for so long, he hesitates, ‘Kind of. We have a lot of strong ideas ourselves… we can’t just hand things over to people. So when we work with a producer, say Sean O’Hagan, we might whistle him

a tune then he’ll go away and do it in a way we’d not thought of. It gives it another dimension’. This method of working seems ﬁtting for a band so dedicated to melody. Their last release, prior to Love Kraft, was a collection of their singles in all their catchy hummable glory. However, as Guto tells me: ‘sometimes the radio plays them, and sometimes they don’t’. He says it without an air of bitter- ness, shrugging casually and taking a drag on his cigarette. I get the sense of a band at ease with the music industry. He tells us about appearing on Top of the Pops, ‘We insist on miming. That’s the record you’ve made. We get drunk and have a laugh.’ I push him further on his views about more manufactured pop and he tells me ‘I like it if it’s produced well.’ When I

A* EPO U XBOU UP CMPX PVS PXO USVNQFU CVU UIFZ SF BNB[JOH TBZT (VUP A5IFZ MPPL MJLF EJDLT XJUI BOUMFST disparage fellow welsh star Charlotte Church, Guto leaps to her defence, ‘I think she’s spot on! She’s been very successful as an opera singer and rightfully so. She’s very talented and she’s also a teenage girl who likes drinking Barcadi Breezers and smoking fags. Her music’s ﬁne.’ It is a view in keeping with a band so unassuming. Right from the start of the interview, Guto has been nothing but good humoured, offering us a drink from their impressively stocked rider and taking us for a trip in his beloved golf cart. Perhaps this is to be expected from a band with a history of daftness. Last time at UEA they encored dressed as yeti’s and they once owned a tank which they drove at festivals. ‘We don’t have the tank anymore’ says Guto, when I ask if next time I could ride in that, ‘it was too expensive.’ Perhaps, for the sake of the UEA campus, this is no bad thing. Besides, the band is funny enough without the gimmicks. As Guto puts it, ‘We’ve never wanted to be wacky and laughed at, but we can laugh at ourselves.’ The ﬂip-side however, is the bands attitude toward their music, and as Guto is keen to stress, ‘there’s nothing more serious than that’. With a sense of melody and a penchant for the surreal, the band is never less than imaginitive. Lyrically, there is also a darker edge to The Super Furry Animals. In the past, on albums Rings Around the World and Phantom Power, their songs have been overtly political. Guto explains that ‘this is because of the history, because of Bush coming through’. Though he sees Love Kraft as a step away from poli- tics, it doesn’t mean the band are any less cynical about current affairs, ‘it’s just we’re not a political band we’re a musical band. Sometimes we’ll just sing about dinosaurs’. Given this eccentric streak, it is perhaps not surprising that when performing at the Reading Festival, SFA brought onto the stage another bonkers welsh band, Goldie Lookin’ Chain. Guto tells me that they have been fans of GLC since before the band had a record deal. ‘They gave out their stuff on the internet and got a following in South Wales from that… we became fans’. I suggest that being a bit eccentric might be

Feature a part of being Welsh, but Guto doesn’t think it is as simple as that. ‘If you’re Welsh your role models are either fucking Max Boyce, Tom Jones or Rugby. That’s why Howard Marks was great because he was a Welsh anti-hero, who wasn’t an all singing rugby playing bloke.’ I sense a touch of the Super Furry cynicism creeping through, and I am again reminded of how contradictory the band can be. As easy going as the band all seem, they are not short on passion or opinion. Guto is also quite self-conscious. For a man who is later to take to the LCR stage dressed in a fibre-optic suit, it strikes me as odd how uncomfortable he is with being pho- tographed. ‘Some bands are really good at pulling shapes and poses and looking cool. We always look rubbish in pictures.’ He says this is why they find other ways to appeal, by dressing up and driving tanks and golf carts. Without a doubt, part of the band’s identity has been forged in their visuals, not only in their elaborate live shows but also in the artwork of long time collaborator Pete Fowl- er, who throughout their career has designed their album sleeves, websites and merchandise. ‘He visualises our music’, says Guto with admiration, ‘He’s totally reliable.’ Included amongst the gig merchandise are hand painted Pete Fowler snow domes. Based on the Love Kraft album sleeve, they are exquisitely detailed and don’t come cheap at a cool twenty quid. ‘I don’t want to blow our own trumpet but they’re amazing,’ says Guto, ‘They look like dicks with antlers!’ He also gives us a preview of the band’s costumes for the gig. ‘They look amazing in the dark,’ Guto says, point- ing to an electric suit which is lit by thousands of fibre optic lights. Surprisingly, he assures me they are perfectly comfortable, if a little hot. I think to myself that there can’t be many jobs in the world in which a person can go to work in an electric suit. No wonder SFA are so passionate about what they do. And they do it well too. Later that night, the crowd await the band’s entrance. With accompanying fanfare, the show begins with a film, projected onto a giant video screen. In it, the Super Furries appear like superheroes, lit up in the dark by their electric suits;; and just as Batman has the Bat- mobile, the Super Furries have the SFA golf cart, they speed across UEA in a montage taking in the campus sites. Even- tually, when the film ends, the Furries make their entrance with style, driving the cart onto the stage. As they step out, their costumes shimmer green. Guto was right, they do look amazing in the dark.

The set begins with the seven minutes of lush psychede- lia that is Zoom!, the opening track from Love Kraft. With trademark wit, Ghryff croons the punning lyric: ‘Kiss me with apocalypse,’ and it sets the trend for a gig dominated by tracks from the new album. In favouring their most recent material, the band might disappoint anyone hoping to hear more of the hits collect-

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Event 11 The

Fashion

Welcome Freshers!

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Event The

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Fashion

1.A Scarf A long, winding, woolly scarf is ideal for keeping snug on chilly days. Choose one in a cheer- ful shade with a soft, comforting feel and com- pliment with gloves in a clashing colour to perk up your dull winter warmers. A scarf is also

great for hiding those mysterious hives that erupted on your neck after an encounter with that second year of whose face you have no rec- ollection.

P.S. *NQSFTT UIF 6&" XFMM ESFTTFE Wrap your scarf around the collar of your Sgt. Pepper, military style jacket. Keep warm in a deliciously, comfortable fabric like velvet, and opt for hues like midnight blue, sludgy, khaki green, and jet black, and if your lucky enough to beat the crowds - blood red.

2.Pretty Pjs At least one pair of decent nightware is needed for cohabiting. From chatting in the kitchen to letting in the cleaner, have a pair for every pos- sibility! Shorts and vests are cute for autumn, and when winter hits, keep cozy after lights out in ﬂ eecy sets. You ﬁ rst years are as yet unaware of the time

some people will spend in their bed clothes, as they embrace student life some won’t dress for the UFO, the bar and if they get there, lec- tures. All you well dressed freshers would never behave in such a way, although if you’re lucky, entire weekends will be happily spent never getting dressed at all.

P.S. *NQSFTT UIF 6&" XFMM ESFTTFE Standards shouldn’t fall once night does. Keep your bedware as sleek and smart as day, Desperately fashionable sleepy heads will still be saying Autumn ‘05 even in their dreams by wearing ﬂ oral print camisoles and hot pants, and for extra warmth, soft cotton shrugs.

3.Perfect Outfit An outfi t that emphasises your best assets and showcases your own unique style will be paramount for last minute party invitations. A timeless uni outfi t will fi t in at any location, something that you can throw on, add a slick

of lipgloss to and still feel fabulous in is fun- damental. If original ideas escape you, a pair of fi gure fl at- tering jeans, some pointy heels, a vest and the new no- brainer for every outfi t – the shrug.

P.S. *NQSFTT UIF 6&" XFMM ESFTTFE This season’s most aware will gather gleeful stares in lean jeans. Yet if you do like to eat oc- casionally, there’s the summer staple – shorts. See them right through to winter with tights and rounded heels. Add a silky vest or a Victori- ana blouse and sprinkle with sparkly jewels.

Event 13 The

Primetime

Totally Frank $IBOOFM QN 4VOEBZ Totally Frank started on T4 on Sunday, providing something a bit different from the current dross on TV (Lost excluded). The concept of the program is that four girls (Charlie, Ta- sha, Neve and Flo) are trying to start a rock band and it follows their efforts to become accepted by the rock press, get a record deal and become The Next Big Thing. The characters, to this reviewer, all seem to have been plucked from the Big Book of Music Personality Clichés. The singer, Tasha, is the one that pushes the band forward towards new, different and better things. Neve, the drum- mer, has been ‘on the scene’ for years and knows everything about every band ever. Flo, the bassist, is unsure about wanting to become big and would prefer to stay at home with her comfortable life there. Finally, there’s Charlie, who ﬁlls in the mould of stereotypical short-tempered and com- petitive guitarist who wants to become a solo artist. Add to this an assortment of roadies, recording studio managers and band managers, and we have another program about

Let Loose is the latest endeavour by Hollyoaks producers to entice an older and (supposedly) more mature audience to tune in. The premise is fairly basic- Ben and Lisa now have an entire programme to themselves, one which focuses largely upon their relationship and its current trials and tribulations. It’s on in a later time slot - coming to our screens at the post watershed time of 9pm and lasting for an entire hour. The late night showing is the most signiﬁcant incentive to entice the viewers to switch on in their multitudes. It allows for deeper, darker plot-lines and, most signiﬁcantly, a healthy dose of sexy, sultry action to reward our insatiable appetites for lust. There’s nothing like living vicariously through the enjoyment of others and Hollyoaks provides this kind of sofa- bound fun by the bucket load. The later time also means that if you nip to the uni bar for a swift half after your late after- noon lecture, you can still catch it without having to rush. The new late night licence basically means that they can include everything they could never include in Hollyoaks, giving the shows writers a free reign to go as wild as they feel like with ideas for storylines. Let Loose picks up the slightly more porno friendly bits of Hollyoaks that used to be saved for late night specials that were full to bursting with naughty goings on. As well as being broadcast later, Let Loose is also a full - count them- sixty minutes worth of soapy entertainment for you, compared to the pithy half hour Hollyoaks episodes. This means that Ben and Lisa can get up to twice as much as their small-town pals and still have time for a few steamy scenes thrown in for good measure. Overall then, we should expect a slightly more detailed, more intimate, and generally more risqué version of Hollyoaks. If you’re a fan of this show’s forefather, then it should be well worth watching. There’s more action, more melodrama and more crudity. Bring it on. 3PBOOB #POE

Event

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TV show? It all seems a bit cynical that the group are using the show as a way to launch their career. It is completely harmless viewing and even entertaining in parts, but it’s all been done before and the feeling of exploitation in that the band are using their audience somewhat hangs over the proceedings.

TV DVD

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The

rock musicians. The problem with this program is that it has been done before. At Christmas, Channel 4 showed ‘The Last Chancers’, starring Adam Buxton of ‘Adam and Joe’, which followed the vain attempts of Bux- ton’s David Brent-esque character as he tried to catapult his band (The Chocolate Factory) into the big time. A few years ago, we had ‘The Young Person’s Guide To Being A Rock Star’ on the same channel, which followed a band of teenagers trying to break into the charts. And now, we have this. The twist with ‘Totally Frank’, however, is that the girls in the band are actually in a real band together, and are using this program as a vehicle to get to the charts. The question is;; where do the boundaries between reality and ﬁction end? In the ﬁrst episode, for example, we meet their manager – is this actually the band’s manager or an actor simply for the

The concept behind the series is that Bear, of x-rated Bo’Selecta fame, has been adopted by the Hennerson family, played by Patsy Kensit, Sean Pertwee and Yasmin Kerr. Writer and star Leigh Francis is obviously a huge fan of sit- coms, as the program deliberately takes all the stereotypical sitcom staples, like ‘wacky’ neighbours and canned laughter, and exaggerates them to the point of ridicule. It doesn’t take itself seriously for a single moment – one plot device is that the script writer, played by Dexter Fletcher of ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, lives in the cupboard under the stairs and is often asked by the characters to alter the script to suit them. This sense of fun adds to the show and is reminiscent of the subversion of series 1 of ‘Bo Selecta’. Apart from this, there’s not a lot else going for it. Favourite characters like Mel B and Mick Hucknall reappear and celebrities also feature frequently in episodes, usually with no real purpose other than to boost their popularity (Harry Hill, Bob Mortimer and Doon Mackichan all taking forgettable cameos). These aspects give the impression of tiredness

with the formula – it’s as if Francis knew the show wouldn’t be as popular as ‘Bo Selecta’ and got as many celebrities involved as possible to raise its proﬁle. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make good television. Add- ing to this are paper-thin plots, boring characters and oc- casional offensiveness. If you enjoyed ‘Bo Selecta’, then you will probably see some merit in A Bear’s Tail. However, it can’t be recommended to casual comedy fans or those who don’t like toilet humour. Hopefully, any future ‘Bo Selecta’ projects that Francis is planning will be a lot funnier than this – although that does seem very doubtful. $ISJT )ZEF

Telly Classics

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Also known as Riget, Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom is set in a state of the art Copenhagen hospital. The hospital’s endless, yellow corridors and sinister ambient noises play host to some of the greatest cult entertainment of all time. The show’s plot is a dense maze of unfathomable occurences, some supernatural, some comical, and many quite unnerving, surrounding The Kingdom’s staff and patients. Much is made of the more brutal side of the medical industry, highlighting the less-often-trodden nooks and crannies that ER avoids. For the most part the show walks an artful line between controversy and ambivalence, leaving the audience disturbed but engrossed. A young, immature doctor attempts to woo a female colleage by leaving her a

severed head he has stolen from the morgue but his gift is discovered by an already frazzled intern. The incident is typical of the off-beat humor the series is dripping with. Much of The Kingdom will prove enitrely unfamiliar to contemporary telly viewers, plot developments are slow, cryptic and often frustrating. Instead the emphasis is placed on embracing the loaded atmosphere this mess of loose ends creates. Fans of Von Trier will recognise the roughness of the editing and the cast of undesirable yet absorbing characters but the director’s tentative dabbling with television provides a rare chance to see the medium used with craft and innovation. ,BUF #SZBOU

Art

Theatre

Harry Hill 5IFBUSF 3PZBM

Bestsellers 1 +POBUIBO 4USBOHF BOE .S /PSSFMM Susanna Clarke £7.99 Bloomsbury

2 5IF %B 7JODJ $PEF Dan Brown £6.99 Corgi Adult

3 4DPUMBOE 4USFFU Alexander McCall Smith £6.99 Abacus

As the wide collared ﬁgure strides onstage, blinking and nodding ‘mmm mmm yes yes’, it’s impossible not to return the smile he brandishes. Spilling out a constant stream of one liners, running gags and obscure references that will niggle their way into everyday conversations, it’s plain to see that Harry Hill is a masterful live comedian. He is the kind of comedian who cannot possibly ‘turn it off’ - simply by walking into a room and taking a seat he exhumes a certain something into the air that is smile-worthy. Without a wry smile or a slick comment in sight. With televisions still static from the recent series of Harry Hill’s TV Burp, a topsy-turvy take of the weeks top shows, and a new childrens show Shark Infested Custard in production, the comic is barely taking the time out for a cuppa. On top of this he’s managed to wedge a national stand-up tour into his calendar, one night of which will be spent at Norwich’s Theatre Royal. Few other funnymen have managed to straddle both on-air and onstage success, Ricky Gervais being a prime example of how a successful television career can be a handicap. It seems that we’re not over the Hill just yet.

4 5IF 8PSME "DDPSEJOH UP $MBSLTPO Jeremy Clarkson £6.99 Penguin

5 "OHFMT BOE %FNPOT Dan Brown £6.99 Corgi Adult

6 5IF 5JNF 5SBWFMMFS T 8JGF Audrey Niffeneger £7.99 Vintage

7 5IF 'JWF 1FPQMF :PV .FFU JO )FBWFO

Mitch Albom £6.99 Time Warner Paperbacks

8 3PBTU $IJDLFO BOE 0UIFS 4UPSJFT Simon Hopkinson, Lindsey Bareham £12.00 Ebury Press

9 #JSET 8JUIPVU 8JOHT Louis De Bernieres £7.99 Vintage

10 "VTDIXJU[ Laurence Rees £8.99 BBC Books

,BUF #SZBOU

Books

5IF %B 7JODJ $PEF %BO #SPXO Fresh from hours of languishing on beaches surrounded by people with little to do but read, it is impossible not to reach the conclusion that there must be a copy of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code on every coffee table in England. Every now and then a book permeates the national consciousness to such an extent that you rarely meet an individual who hasn’t encoun- tered it. The Da Vinci code has become the subject of just such a phenomenon. The action begins when a proliﬁc art curator is brutally murdered at the Louvre. Our hero, Robert Langdon, a renowned Harvard profes- sor of symbology, and heroine, Sophie Neveu, a gifted French cryptologist, are brought in to help decode the cryptic messages written by the curate shortly before his death. What unfurls is a sinister plot to uncover a secret held by a clandestine society from the days of Christ.

Ultimately, The Da Vinci code is a thor- oughly absorbing thriller. The pace is superb, the reader left breathless as they rush through the narrative at breakneck speed. With a cliff- hanger on almost every page it literally rede- fines the phrase ‘unputdownable’. However, the novel’s overriding flaw is that, in crafting this highly accomplished thriller, Brown manges to utilise every formulaic cliché imaginable. Consequently, though the theological concepts contained in The Da Vinci Code are truly fascinating, the book suffers from such a mindless lack of originality that it is difficult to become appropriately submerged in the narrative action. The quality of the writing tugs irksomely at any enjoyment that might have been derived from the plot. 3PBOOB #POE

$PVOUEPXO UP -PWF %BWJE 5BUJBOB )JOET David and Tatiana Hind’s first book in collabo- ration with each other begins with the precept that the most valuable thing in life is to love and be loved. It is split between inspirational writing from David and the Matchmaking Equa- tion from Tatiana. The majority part is David’s: Over five sections he has tried to cover every aspect of finding the perfect partner, begin- ning with the aims for wanting to do so, going through dating, and finally on to how to reach and maintain a level of intimacy equal to other ‘great twosomes.’ The Equation sections are much shorter. The reader answers a number

of questions to determine their compatability with their partner. The problem is, convincing and simple as David arguments are, ideas on relationships differ from person to person, and the equation only relates to David’s. Granted, what David says is surprisingly well-argued, however the implied claim to have a infallible test for the lon- gevity of a relationship is ﬂawed and dangerous. "MFY 'MVY

Event 15 The

Film

Main Feature

Howl’s Moving Castle %JS )BZBP .JZB[BLJ 3FMFBTFE 4FQUFNCFS

Since Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away (which won the 2003 Oscar for Best Animated Film), the reputation of Studio Ghibli, the production company founded in 1983 by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, has been steadily growing in the west. Miyaza- ki’s eagerly anticipated adaptation of Dianne Wynne Jones’ novel, Howl’s Moving Castle, is sure to earn the studio even greater acclaim and to continue the development of an Anglophone audience. It is a good thing, therefore, that the English dub is of such a high quality, with Billy Crystal particularly worthy of note as the amusingly insecure ﬂame spirit Calcifer, who spends much of the

time agonising over the fact that he might be ‘going out’. Howl’s Moving Castle relates the story of Sophie (Jean Sim- mons), who lives an uneventful life as a seamstress until one day she inadvertently offends the witch of the Waste and is transformed into a 90-year-old woman. Still coming to terms with wrinkles and her arthritis, she sets out for the fabled wizard Howl (Christian Bale), who supposedly preys on the hearts of young girls and lives in a castle that walks around the wastelands upon ostrich legs. On arrival at the eponymous castle, which is beautifully conceived by Miyazaki, she discovers Howl to be entirely unlike his monstrous reputation. A sensitive dandy and solitary drifter, Howl has chosen to isolate himself from the rest of humanity. The graceful story un- folds against a backdrop of political intrigue and growing conflict between two nations, sparked by the disappearance of a prince, and the film is underscored by an eloquent and sincere, if sometimes too obvious, ant-war message, which can’t fail to resonate with the current political landscape and the war with Iraq. With a growing audience in the west it is perhaps no great surprise that Miyazaki’s latest film, from its source material to its Renaissance European architecture, is also his most western influenced. It would, however, be unfair to conclude that because of the deal struck with Disney in 1996 (The Disney-Tokuma deal), which gives the American giant global distribution rights of all Studio Ghibli films, that Miyazaki has begun to pander to western tastes. Studio Ghibli’s house style has always fallen somewhere between the big-eyed stylisation of Japanese manga and the more realistic renderings familiar to English eyes. This aesthetic, which has made his work so much of a novelty in Japan, has also ensured the kind

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Mindful, perhaps, that America’s movie backwoods are now so chock-a-block with psychotic working- class bogeymen that no youngsters in their right minds would ever consider stopping in for a holiday, Wolf Creek transposes the generic kids-in-peril saga to the Australian Outback, where the scenery is less burdened with horror’s terrible myths. Nevertheless, what emerges is the closest thing to Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for decades, from the documentary-style photography to the two-act narrative, which entails a long, portentous build-up, followed by a frenzied final pursuit. As an Australian film, Wolf Creek manages to bring two original features to its naturally deriva- tive genre. The first is the spectacular Outback cinematography, which expertly exploits the unfamiliar contours of the dusty bush landscape, emphasising vast mysterious spaces and unusual wildlife. The second is a wicked reclamation of that most persist- ent Australian stereotype: the charmingly unrefined but capable bushman. Here director Greg McClean presents us with Mick Taylor, an appalling cousin of Mick Dundee (the ‘this is a knife’ joke from Croco- dile Dundee is repeated here, with a great deal more menace) who chats cheerfully about exterminating ‘pests’, and is never less than genial even when hunting and killing those unfortunate enough to take him at face value. If Mick seems like a slightly unfeasible character, simply because his murderous psychosis is kept

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so perfectly hidden by a friendly, rational front, then the trio of young protagonists are drawn in impec- cably realist terms. The three of them joke, sing, and make up stories for almost the entire first half of the film, conversing in what must be partly improvised dialogue. For a large stretch, Wolf Creek is content to do little more than subtly shade in its characters, and throw up some ominous warnings – a strate- gy that may come across as tiresome and slow, or deliciously anticipatory, depending on your horror tastes. When the bloodshed does come though, all thoughts of restraint vanish. Torture, knifing, shooting, crucifixion, enforced-paralysis – the nastiest of acts are all depicted in a grimy, horribly convincing way, with little breathing space between shocks. The relentless sadism is particularly hard to stomach because the film allows us no ‘Final Girl’ (the central female hero present in most slashers, who uses her wits to survive or kill the monster) with which to identify;; the only survivor makes a desperate geta- way late on, and never even faces the killer. Wolf Creek ends how it began, with some in- tertitles insisting on the ‘truth’ of the narrative events. Quite where this truth came from is a bit of a mystery, since the only person capable of telling it was stuck in a small room for most of the film, but then McLean and co. are far more interested in myth-making than documentation, as the final image of killer Mick literally disappearing into the open space of the Outback attests. After such a pummel- ling, disheartening second-act, it’s both a welcome reminder of the disquieting visual poetry that came earlier, and an appropriately chilling conclusion.

of mass cross over appeal that is unthinkable to the vast majority of Japanese anime. It is well-known that Miyazaki was heavily influenced by a lengthy stay in Europe toward the start of his career, which is perhaps most evident in Porco Rosso, the story of an Ital- ian WWII fighter pilot who is turned into a pig, also by a witch. However Howl’s Moving Castle, like Spirited Away before it, still has at its heart a narrative that is quirkily surreal in a pecu- liarly eastern way, in particular Howl’s search for his ‘missing’ heart turns out not to be symbolic but literal to dramatic effect. The characters themselves are also highly unconventional by West- ern standards, for instance in one delightfully unexpected scene a jilted Howl throws an enormous and very unheroic tantrum, and the choice to feature a 90 year old woman as the film’s protagonist turns Disney’s celebration of youthful beauty on its head. In Howl’s Moving Castle Miyazaki seems to be playfully re- working a number of popular western cultural sources, as well as quoting some of his own earlier films (the Moving Castle could be seen as a return of Laputa, which was in turn influenced by Gulliv- er’s Travels). Of course the most obvious source is the book from which the film is adapted, which itself has roots in a long tradition of English children’s fantasy writing (eg: The Chronicles of Narnia), but there are also numerous references to the Wizard of Oz, from the magical scarecrow that helps the protagonist to the wizard himself who is lacking a heart. Add to this the anti-war message and it becomes clear that Miyazaki’s engagement with his growing western audience is far from simplistic, and is all the better for it. %FBO #PXNBO

Film

DVD Releases 5IF &EVLBUPST SFMFBTFE 4FQUFNCFS The Edukators, though it begins by recording a bourgeois family’s startled reaction to a political act, makes no secret as to where its heart really lies, and that is with its three mixed-up young protagonists. Jan, Jule, and Peter are anti-capitalist activists: they leaflet against Third World exploitation, inform wealthy suburbanites that their ‘days of plenty are numbered’, and arrange furniture into ab- surdist sculptures. But as a purely political force, the trio are unfo- cused, indulgent, and a little hypocritical (after a hard week rallying against consumerism, they go clubbing, or book flights to Barcelo- na), and it is only when their idealistic concerns give way to human ones that they start to really engage as characters. As a study of a three-part friendship negotiated against poli- tics, love, and jealousy, Hans Weingartner’s film owes a specific debt to Truffaut’s freewheeling classic Jules et Jim, and also to the French New Wave in general in its documentary-style photography of romantic landscapes. The cinematography and editing here are a triumph;; from the intimate handheld camerawork that illuminates and intensifies the more intimate encounters, to the spectacular mountain panoramas, which stop the right side of picturesque thanks to the graininess of the DV footage. After an assured first half of amusing protest stunts and bur- geoning romance – Jule and Jan fall in love while Peter is away – We- ingartner moves his drama up a notch, and his protagonists up a mountain, as the trio are forced to kidnap a wealthy businessman

who discovers them in his house. Ironically, life on the lam turns out to be a far more relaxed affair than city life ever was. Together with their ex-radical captive Hardenberg they chew over political responsibility and play cards, with Hardenberg’s wry world-weari- ness forming a welcome counterpoint to the earnest idealism of his captors. But it is the film’s final gear-shift that leaves the biggest impression, as Weingartner indulges in a brilliant spot of thriller dramatics that recalls The Silence of the Lamb’s house-storming scene. And in a final victory over the authorities and bourgeois conservatism, our heroes reveal themselves to be not as naïve as you might think. 4FC .BOMFZ

5IF %7% GSPOU DPWFS IBT B QSFUUZ OBTUZ MPPLJOH TLJOIFBE PO JU *T JU TVQQPTFE UP CF MJLF B #SJUJTI "NFSJDBO )JTUPSZ 9 PS TPNFUIJOH Not exactly but there are similarities. The film was written by David Leland as part of a trilogy for television known as Out of School, which also included Flying Into the Wind and Birth of a Nation. They were intended to be documentary-style dramas that explored antisocial behaviour of children in British schools in the early 80s. Made in Britain was about a skinhead, as the cover implies, named Trevor who is played by Tim Roth in what is usually called his first major role. The narrative follows him from a court appearance for assault and vandalism to a corrective institute and finally to Borstal, where his embittered attitude to the world is unchanged. %P ZPV mOE PVU XIZ 5SFWPS JT UIF XBZ IF JT 8IZ IF IBUFT UIF XPSME TP NVDI

Special Feature

Welcome to the Dollhouse After the mixed reception to this year’s Palindromes, where a good few critics took that film’s theme of the impossibil- ity of real change to be a sadly apt comment on the direc- tors’ own stagnating output, Solondz’s 1995 Welcome to the Dollhouse comes as a particularly timely release. His first ‘valid’ feature (his actual first, 1989’s Fear, Anxiety and Depression, experienced an apparently compromised production, and is now disowned by the director), Welcome to the Dollhouse displays many of the same traits that would furnish his later works – but it is also a startlingly fresh item, riotous and heartfelt;; and determinedly indie in its small- scale tale of adolescent outsiderness. More so than any of Solondz’s other films, Welcome has a central and largely sympathetic hero. Where Happiness pushed us identify with increasing unease with a gallery of sexually frustrated misfits (a lonely wannabe singer, a pa- thetic phantom sex-caller, a paedophile), and Palindromes stretched the whole idea of identification to the limits (is it even possible to identify with a character who keeps chang- ing bodies?), here things are a whole lot simpler, and we get Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo), a droll, world-weary and dissatisfied seventh-grader. Dawn is a particularly sup- portable character because she is constantly under siege from all the institutions she must rely on: at school she is ignored, bullied, and maliciously labelled a ‘lesbian’;; at home she harassed by her parents who place her third in their affections after pampered kid-sister Dawn and college- bound brother Mark. One of the most provocative things about Welcome is the seemingly unreasonable limitations it places on its own protagonist. Dawn is not a child genius waiting to be discovered by NASA, or an ugly duckling waiting for someone to take those glasses off and reveal her stunning beauty, or even just a girl whose best qualities are hidden by shyness. She’s just a normal, awkward 12-year-old, with an unfortunate pair of glasses. Her natural ‘way out’ seems like an awful way away (high school’s a little better says her brother, ‘they’ll still call you names, but not so much to your face’),

Cinefile N o 99 Made in Britain

and her attempts to short-cut – by engineering a romance with a hunky senior, and then by running away – simply fail. In a genre most commonly about transformation, or realising one’s ‘true potential’, Welcome can seem unceas- ingly downbeat, misanthropic even. Yet Dawn does find moments of grace, if not real catharsis. One of the film’s finest and most strangely touching scenes comes when Dawn’s biggest tormentor at school, Brandon, marches her off to a deserted wasteland in order to carry out his repeated threat to ‘rape’ her. In a moment of unforeseen openness, Bran- don tells her about his brother, who is retarded and not enrolled at school. The two of them share an awkward but tender kiss, and Brandon lets her off the ‘rape’, muttering something about there not being enough time. Elsewhere, Solondz finds plenty to laugh about in the absurd milieu of middle-class suburban family life, where parents are hopelessly ignorant of their children’s individu- ality (‘what kid wouldn’t want to go to Disneyland?’ says her mother, as if non-conformity was a freakish misdeed), and schools encourage near-fetishistic nurturing of the personal record. Nevertheless, most of the characters retain a measure of humanity despite their self-centred arrogance, particularly Dawn’s mother and brother Mark – two beautifully judged performances by Angela Pietropinto and Matthew Faber – who stop short of caricature where others occasion- ally slip over the edge. Solondz of course has gone on to do far more ambitious things with both characterisation and narrative, and Wel- come does not share in the dizzying meta-narration of Sto- rytelling, or the avant-garde provocations of Palindromes. But its rough-hewn rock‘n’roll exuberance, hard-edged poignancy, and mordant humour shine through bright as ever, and amongst junior-high indies it is conspicuously without peer.

To a certain extent. The dialogue is quite sparse on the explanatory front, but there are some notably insightful speeches from Trevor and from those charged with looking after him. At one point he is locked in a room after starting a fight;; two staff at the corrective institute are at a loss for what to do with him. One of them is frustrated with Trevor and challenges his idea of honesty. Trevor replies, “...we’re not talking about honesty, we’re talking about sticking to the rules. All those honest buggers out there are just sticking to the rules, but they lie and they fucking cheat all the way. They just think they’re being honest because they’ve swallowed all the bollocks they’ve been handed;; they’ve been conned. But I’ve not been conned.” 4P UIFSF T OP IBQQZ FOEJOH PS SFWFMBUJPO GPS 5SFWPS No, and that is what makes it so unsettling. Tim Roth’s performance captures how remorseless Trevor is of his crimes and of biting every hand that would feed him. Many people have claimed to identify with Trevor and the London he lives in because he embodies an extreme of alienation from the social ideals promoted during the Thatcher years, such as independence from the state and entrepreneurship. He ad- mits at one point that at school he was given an ultimatum to “be the best otherwise forget it,” and it is clear he has chosen the latter. However, he is never anything but a product of his society and that is the point – he is rebelling against what he sees as a failed country. *T UIF TUPSZ TUJMM SFMFWBOU UIPVHI TFFJOH BT UIFSF BSFO U UIBU NBOZ TLJOIFBET MFGU BOZNPSF The fact that this one film rather than the other two is available on DVD is testimony to its relevance. Also, regarding the culture of post- war Britain in general, the film tackles two of the most important factors, Thatcherism and the punk movement, and how the different views of Britain clash. It was intended to be about the moment though, and that was 1982, but if you care anything about recent Brit- ish history or culture, you should find it relevant. *TO U JU GBNPVT KVTU CFDBVTF PG 5JN 3PUI UIPVHI There is always that. Maybe all the youth culture/rebellion stuff isn’t the point. Roth just looks like a total nut-case, maybe it was just for parents to point at and say to their kids ‘look what can happen if you don’t straiten yourself out...’ On the other hand though, it was a serious study of a subject that has long held interest in this country, and a remarkable piece of television, the rarity of which is still clear today.

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Event 17 The

Music

Goldfrapp Golden Sounds Supernature -FE ;FQQFMJO ***

Recorded and released in 1970, Led Zeppelin’s third album was a deﬁnitive milestone in the band’s career and the face of popular music. Moving away from their hard rock sound, folk and blues inﬂuences crept into centre stage, resulting in a controversial but successful smash hit both sides of the pond. Opening with the bone-crunching pounding of Immi- grant Song, III then augments its tone perfectly as it moves through its tracks - arguably peaking at the mournful and en- chanting Since I’ve Been Loving You. The now renowned cover of the album was designed by pop artist Zacron (who will be appearing at Norwich Fringe Festival this fortnight) and features a rotat- able cardboard disc covered in pictures that can been seen through holes in the cover. An innovative cover for a timeless album. ,BUF #SZBOU

Singles

Alison Goldfrapp, the white witch of glam-pop decadence re- turns to the lush soundscapes of a ‘70s Eurodisco styled fu- sion of synth elegance and ghostly vocals that flood through your veins with an icy chill. The uniqueness to Goldfrapp’s style is responsible for flinging the English duo into the forefront of the trendy music scene in both Europe and the US. What’s more it’s 100% their own supernature;; their own designs, image and their own music. Independence in every aspect has allowed them to create an album that’s highly polished and caught between being too melodic for dance music yet too original and arty to satisfy the standard pop market. Goldfrapp are a seriously well marketed band;; they’re hip, they’re stylish and are surrounded by a vail of mystique, their bizarre animalistic imagery for instance. Alison describes animals as “great metaphors for human emotions and ideas” and as having an unexplainable sensu- ality which is really attractive and mysterious”. Hence their live show spectaculars with dancers dressed as stag and the lyrics of Ride A White Horse. Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory met in 1999 and released their debut record Felt Mountain in 2000 which became a Mercury Music Prize nominee. The Bath-based twosome had massive success with the Brit Award nominated Black Cherry single, which has since become a landmark in art- pop history, but Supernature has gone that one step further to define the band as cutting edge electro house fashion setters. The first single off Supernature was the highly acclaimed Ooh La La;; with a dirty bass line to cushion sultry vocals Goldfrapp may fail to take our ears to places they’ve

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It’s been only two years since the Audio Bul- lys became a recognised house outﬁt with the release of Ego War, but their attention seemed to only stem from the most ‘in the know’ house fans. The release of Shot You Down (Bang Bang) was to be their apogee, thrusting them to the forefront of media attention. It was always going to be a hard task following this success but then I’m In Love doesn’t follow the standard ‘Bullys sound with its smooth piano licks and calming vocals. Plain and simple are the words that this single screams;; they should stick to rough bass beats. 4BN 8BMMBN

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Apply Some Pressure conveniently sums up this summer in music as a whole, in this era, where everyone loves to rock, Maximo Park, typical English boys enjoying the music, epit- omised the festival season. Reviews have claimed that Maxïmo Park have attacked contemporary culture, mixing art and poli- tics with the subversion of good honest pop songs but when it comes down to it their catchy stop-start jerky heart-attack beats, all wound up in a pulsating cry: “What happens when you lose everything?” is as pop as anything right now but they’re not false in any way – just trying to do what they do best. $IBSMFT 3VNTFZ

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Strange choice of comeback single for pops most intriguing character it seems, but then again dark lyrics and double meanings appear to be Robbie’s chosen route nowadays. Tripping may have the classic strings and cocky poise of the Robbie we all know and love but it actually has a light reggae or ska feel and, although the pop hooks that he would normally ﬁnd in a ﬂash are somewhat lacking, his matured approach to music since collaborating with a new producer last year have taken his music up a step in the pop experimentation leagues. He will undoubtedly continue leading the way. 3JDIBSE "ULJOT

never been but do demonstrate retro production that main- tains their position on the fringes of mainstream success. Tracks like You Never Know and Let It Take You show a mild- er side to Goldfrapp’s foot tapping style with silky smooth sounds. Lip-glossed, multi-layered, bewitching, sonic-pop Goldfrapp are too exclusive to be judged on taste alone and should be heard not evaluated. Enter the pure world of Goldfrapp unaltered by any outside sources. $IBSMFT 3VNTFZ

5IF ,PPLT 4PGB 4POH The beautifully groomed hyperactivity of the Kook’s alternative pop rock antics is a breath of fresh air for the uptight rock scene. Set for release on October 17th Sofa Song is the follow up to the success of Ed- dies Gun which made it to the commend- able spot of 35 in the UK charts. The perky yet dark style of Sofa Song highlights the reputation the band has of being a quality live act but this is in no way another immature adolescent band, the gritty and emotive lyrics and epic guitar reveal tones of experience even though they are still so young. 5PN #FEGPSE

SE %BO 'BMM 'SPN (SBDF The pristene radio friendly Manchester based pop punkers have long been known for their efﬁcient clean cut music, rock by numbers, but Fall From Grace is a less glossy approach to music. The change creates an intensity and thus a far more powerful message is put across. In a rock scene that demands more and more edgy and spontaneous music 3rd Dan had failed to make it big as perfectionists, Fall From Grace might just serve them the opposite. 5POJ .BMPOF

"SDUJD .POLFZT * #FU :PV -PPL (PPE 0O 5IF %BODFnPPS Te Arctic Monkeys certainly seem to be the best thing since sliced Libertines. Fresh from a tour with The Coral and an enthused festival slot at the Carling weekend they’re currently at number 1 in the NME charts. The monkeys have clearly earnt themselves a golden opportunity. A cocky song about being useless on the pull, the single is gritty and true to life, conﬁrming the authentic- ity of new and fresh youth with an energetic and ﬁery spirit. The Arctic Monkeys are surely guarenteed a future of deserved respect. $IBSMFT 3VNTFZ

Music

Fun Lovin’ Criminals

-$3

With the reggae warm up watching from the wings, Huey strolls on to the stage in a dazzling white shirt and shades. It’s quickly clear that the Fun Lovin’ Criminals are more than at home on the stage, and to say that they have style is an understatement. It shows throughout the whole night as they effortlessly slide between old and new with window rat- tling bass and mournful trombone that provided a unique and unparalled sound. With it all comes emotion, from songs dedicated to Huey’s sick dog, to the impressively in- troduced politically charged track Gave Up On God – the proceeding speech not only called George Bush’s actions

that of a ‘drunken child’, but also labelled him and Osama together as ‘thuggy idiots’;; unsurprisingly, this went down rather well with the crowd. Of course Scoobie Snacks went down a storm with its sam- pled intro – including ‘everybody be cool this is a robbery… [I’m sure you know the rest]’ from pulp ﬁction - and plenty of crowd participation. In all it was a great performance spanning their respectable career and inﬂuences that gave the crowd the full and inspiring performance they had all come to see. 1IJM #BOLT

The Poozies /PSXJDI "SUT $FOUSF

of Irish nursery rhymes about johnny being blinded by a petrol bomb;; but despite the often sad nature of the lyrics the passion of the performers and power of the songs shone through making it an enjoyable night. They seemed to genuenly enjoy themselves too, even going so far as hiding a crowd members pint when he left it unattended on the edge of the stage. Even if your not a ‘folky’, it was good clean fun. 1IJM #BOLT

1IPUP 1IJM #BOLT

I never knew an accordian had a use other than accompanying morris men in the middle of a crowded Gentleman’s Walk, but last night proved otherwise. The 2 harps, ﬁddle and accordian both backed and led an emotive chorus of voices through a selection of tunes and songs from across the British Isles and afar. The performers certainly wern’t lacking musical skill - anyone who can change the key of their instrument from note to note is alright in my books. The music ranged from traditional folk songs to renditions

Albums 'BCSJD -JWF %JQMP 7BSJPVT "SUJTUT

The new compilation from Fabric, the London based Drum and Bass venue, highlights the history of the electro and Miami Bass sounds compiled by the growing underground DJ Diplo. The Philly based DJ is famed for his Hollertronix sessions but has produced records for the up and coming artist Kano and this year’s starlet M.I.A. Diplo has also mixed records for Gwen Stefani, Beck and Le Tigre, a respectable back catalogue for an almost unheard of underground DJ. Fabric Live 24 sets out to prove that music cultures can be merged with such ﬂuidity that even the most narrow minded music lover will ﬁnd a gem of their genre here, albeit funked up to the extreme. The playlist itself combines

rock classics such as The Cure with hip hop favourites like Outkast seemlessly, so authentic yet of a class so underrated in the grand scale of musical geography that it becomes one of those unique and desirable relics of the underground. $IBSMFT 3VNTFZ

5IF 4PVOET PG .POTUFSJTN *TMBOE 7BSJPVT "SUJTUT The White Noise, Dead Meadow and Man- fred Mann are just a few of the artists on the volume one of Monsterism Island Record’s compilation;; ring any bells? I doubt it;; this certainly is no comfortably generic British band material, this is the “sound you can see” arm of EMI and with wings of lead it takes the listener to new heights of experimentalism. The perfect authenticating label for any second rate relaxation soundtrack musician is experimentalism and experimenting with cartoon style backing music and echo effects is not the best way to stay up there in quality with the pan pipe and ocean sound classics. Still if mellow Sunday afternoons in the psych-

edelic 60s is your cup of tea then Monsterism Island can meet you halfway providing a “bug eyed weekend break from reality”. $IBSMFT 3VNTFZ

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