The Event - Issue 129 - 17 October 2001

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

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Plus: Super Furry Animals Interviewed FAN Animation Festival Previewed Aphex Twin Reviewed

During the day, Cafe style dining serving anything from cheese on toast to pot roasted knuckle of lamb I•

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MONDAY NIGHTS

70s pre-wash with free entry and no queuing to the Car Wash party at Liquid nightclub

4 Bottles 4 a fiver Choose from a selection of oleo pops and beers

TUESDAY NIGHTS

Picture: from Don 't Panic by Cold play; directed by Tim Hope, who IS one of t he animat ors profil ed in t he FA N Fest ival

Student night Old skool dance with old skool prices ALL pints and bottles only £1.50

Treble vodka and Red Bull 7 . ,: only £3.99 NESDAY

It' s not long now until we are thrust out into the real world with the proper adults. But don· t worry. As this issue illustrates. from the TV s how s we wat ch to the books we read. the differen ces between adults and the kid s ar e real l y not so big.

Y'know, for kids: Reviews: 06 Do you remember . . . ?

Shaken not Stirred with the best in soul and funk + two alco shakes 4 the price of one

We take a look at everyone' s favourite kiddie shows of yeste ryear to help you brush up on everone 's favourite pu b convers-,t ion .

07 Hotter than Potter The Event investigates why so many adul t s are reading novels written for ki ds at the moment, and looks at whic h authors are the best of the best.

Having a party?

Hire the beach bar for free

08 Philip Pullman The celebrated children' s author was recent ly longlisted for the Booker Prize - the only author of children's novels ever to be nominated. He talks to us about his love of soaps and hatred of CS Lew is

Cheese 'n' Choons With free entry and no queuing to the Ministry of Cheese at Liquid night c lub. Free shooter with every cocktail

Inside: 03

Comp e titi ons Win lots and lots of COs in t his week ' s competitions: Paul

Weller and HMV

Enjoy a bottle of wine together with nachos and dips for only a fiver everyday 4-7pm

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Knowl e dg e Undertones

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14 Albums Aphex Twin; Cake; Paul Weller; Crackout

15 Singles Gorillaz; System Of A Down ; Beta Band; Alabama3 ; Cranberries

16 Film Legally Blonde; Atlantis; American Pie 2

18 Video 101 Reykjavik ; Goodbye Charlie Bright

19 TV/Interactive Fat Bloke; Model Behaviour Website; Soaps

20 Arts This M an 's Pill; M ark Thomas; Castl e Preview; Atonement Puppet Theatre Anniversary

Listings: 22

Listings The best guide to what 's on in Norwic h. Ever.

Sup e r Fur r ie s Talk about George W Bush and life in Surround Sound

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On a different note. you may or may not be aware that Norwi eh will be s oon ho s t i ng the FAN International Animation Festival COct 25 - 28 ) . In light of thi s . we've pre viewed the highlight s and interviewed one of the panel j udges . animator Sayoko Ki nos hi ta. Read on to find out more ...

Inquisitor DJ Ru ski

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Cinefile Driller Killer

10 Creati ve Wr i ting On the Arvon Creat ive Writing course run by author Ruby Dawson

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Editor-In-Chief · Adam Chapman • Editor · Markland Starkie • Arts Editor • Charlotte Ronalds • Film Editor · Merek Cooper • Assistant Film Editor · Phll Colvln • M usic Editor • Anthony Lovell • Assistant Music Editor · Kieren McSweeney • TV / Radio Editor · Llz Hutchinson • Assistant TV/ Radio Editor · Gemma O' Donnell Picture Editor · Will Benthall Assistant Picture Editor · Ed Webblngall Contribut ors · Metln Alsanjak · Amy Bennet · James Brown · Sara Edwards · Sarah Edwardes · Andie Francls · Chloe Garrett · Kate Herrlngton · Slmon Howarth · Greg lvlngs · Emlly Knee · Rebecca Lawrence · Lois Metcalfe · Jamie Murray · Shane O'Connor · Mlscha Pearlman · Owen Roberts · Jamle Robson • Jonathan Rolfe · Anna Savage · Mark Wheeler · Luke Wrlght

We chat to the DJ for UK hip hop act Mark 8 and Blade

Band of Brot hers

dance

A review of the most expens1ve TV programme ever made

12 Ani mat i on Specia l No. 1 Farmers Avenoe, Norwich TeL 01603 765512

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The Event talks to Japanese animator, Sayoko Kmoshita, and takes a look at the Norwich Animation Festival

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The Eve nt i s published f ortnig ht l y by Concrete: Post: PO Box 410. Norwich. NR4 7TB Tel: 01603 250558 Fax : 01603 506822 E·mail: su . concrete@uea.ac.uk Printed by: Eastern Counties Newspapers. St Andrew' s Busi ness Park , Nor wich

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Competitions 03

Paul Well er

Competition:

HMV Competition: HMV Student card

Picture the scene. it's the start of the academic year, you're down the union bar hollday-eamt cash In hand, beer/bottle of alchopop (whatever's your poison) down the neck ... and you know what? You 've managed to pull your dream bird/bloke (delete how you seEt fit) and you 've made it back to your place, you 've even remembered clean pants, but SHOCK, HORROR, GASP you suddenly remember your CD collection hasn't been updated since the Levellers were cool. " Oh the shame!" you cry. How can I prevent this Intensely embarrassing situation happening to me?

Tadal Help Is at hand. HMV, In their Infinite music knowledge and generosity, have put together a list of the top ten albums you need this semester to save you from such a predicament.

10% 0 ff *

when you visltHMV

eo uk for extra promotions in addition to the 10% dls<ount at HMV •Subject to terms and conditions. See reve~ for details.

WNW nusonl1ne

The albums on offer: THE STROKES • IS THIS IT? STANTON WARRIERS • STANTON SESSIONS AVALANCHES· SINCE I LEFT YOU MERCURY REV • ALL IS DREAM WHITE STRIPES • WHITE BLOOD CELLS KYLIE • FEVER STARSAILOR • LOVE IS HERE ROOTS MANUVA ·RUN COME SAVE ME EMBRACE • IF YOU ' VE NEVER BEEN KOSHEEN • RESIDUE You can win all ten of these beauties.

We just want to know what products students can receive ten percent off of at HMV? (hint: they're featured on the new design HMV 10% Off card) DO NOT SEND ANSWERS TO CONCRETE. Instead fill out the entry coupon (right) and send lt to: Jo@ NUS Ents.

Q. With which famous punk band did Paul Weller begin his musical career?

Answers should be put Into the Concrete competition box, located near the reception desk In Union House (or emall us at su.concrete@uea.ac.uk) with your name, phone number or emall address and favourite colour.

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45 Underwood Street.

To celebrate the release of the Modfather's new singles box set, Days Of Speed, we have three copies of the album to give away, If you would like to win one of these cds, just answer the following question:

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NMne: . ...... • .. . ... • . • . . . . . .• • .. . • .... . . • .• . .. .•...• . . ~

London.

N1 7LG

Address: ....... . ... .. .. ... . .. .. . . .. .. ...•.. ... ...... . . . .

Terms and conditions: 1. All entries must arrive on or before the 31.10.01. The winner will be drawn on 02.11.01 and the judge 's decision is final.

Prizes will be despatched within 28 days of the draw . 2. No purchase necessary . One entry per person. 3 . The prize package includes 1 set of 10 CD Albums from the list above. 4. No cash prize alternative . In the event of unforeseen circumstances the promoter reserves the right to offer an alternative prize of equal or greater value. Promoter: HMV (UK) Limited, Film House, 142 Wardour Street , London W1F 8LN

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ······ ·Postcode: · · . . ... · Date of Birth: .·· · .......... . ........... Age: .. . ........ .

Mobile Number: ... . . . ................ .. ... .. .. . ... . .... .

E-maii.AddrRSS: ..................... . ......... .. .. .. .. . . . univ~ity/College: .... . .... ... ......... .. ... . ....... .. ... .

Year oHtudy: . . ........................... . ............ .

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We d ne s d ay , 0 ct o b e r 17 , 2001

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Inquisitor: on the up.

DJ Rusl<i ha s only been writing mu s i c on his computer for 18 month s , bu t he' s already got an album available. In the house or needing eviction? The Event find s out more.

How long did it take you to make your first album Introspection?

I worked on it for a year, having started to make music about a year and a half ago. lt was just as a hobby. but I suddenly came out with an album.

How do you put your music together?

I've got this £600 shit laptop. Basically I just got software off the internet · synthesisers. drum machines, trackers . I build up the samples myself, work in melodies, work in drumbeats and I come up with tracks. Each one is totally different from the others , and I haven't worked out a style. I don't think I ever wi ll. I love being eclectic .

How would you describe your music?

Unusual. There·s no way to describe it really because it doesn't fit in w1th any particular style. it's not drum ·n· bass. it's not hip-hop, it's not house, it's not tucked-up electronica. it's not ambient. it's just unusual: it's just a little bit of everything.

Who are your influences?

Everyone I've ever heard! You can only listen to so much music in your lifetime, but anything from The Beatles to the Stone Roses, to Massive Attack, to DJ Shadow. I don't know how the guitars manifest themselves, but it's somewhere deep in my soul, I'm sure.

You're working on new material.

I 'm thinking of getting an EP out. which will probably be sold cheaper than my album. One of the tracks that I 'm working on will play the same backwards as forwardsl It' ll be about 12 minutes long, and it's pretty good.

Do you think that it will be better than Introspection?

I'm getting better as I learn. Hopefully the last album I ever make w il l be better than all the previous albums. I hope to continually improve. There's no point in stagnating and mak· ing the same album over and over again. I mean, look at Steps! I 'm thinking of doing a cover though, just for a bit of fun .

What are your plans for the futu re?

Enjoying myself. I'd like to be famous. but after I've made my mus1c and been listened to in years to come, because in that way I'll have become immortal. I don't want to be on Top of the Pops, I don't want to be playmg the cheesy stuff that sells to the kids that read Smash Hits. If I can make ten grand a year from music I'll be happy.

Anthony Love//

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in the chair

The Welsh Wonders have never been shy about their politics, constatly deriding 'The Man' and preaching a resistance of the system.

Merek Cooper delves deep into Furry World 11 Governments are liars and murderers, all governments are liars and murderers, all governments are liars and murderers". You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was the chant of the anti-war protest in Union Square . But in actuality it was the Super Furry Animals, courtesy of a sample from the late great Bill Hicks who were most vocal in their condemnation of the current systems under which we all live. As their explosive set rose to an electronically enhanced crescendo, it became clear to me that the Furries were in perfect synchronisation with the wave of an t i-war feeling that was sweepmg the campus on the same evening.

But that was later. much later in a day that saw your erstwhile reporter immersed in a t he surroundings of Furry World TM. But how did I get here? Let me start at the beginning: Weeks ago, being the indie-music who re I am . I k ic ked and screamed blue murder in the Concrete office unt il I was given the treasured interview that the music editor had managed to secure with the Super Furry Animals when they were to vis it our fine institution. Unfortunately, being the desperately skint student that I am, I was also offered the chance to be the runner for the gig by the entertainment department m an effort to save my rapidly Sinking financial situation . Let me explain: being a runner basically involves driving around fetching anything t hat the band could want, from extra guitars strings to bizarre food requests I would be the man the Furries would call. "You're doing an interview with them too? Great. You' ll get the inside track on the entire day, plus you'l l get paid," were the words I seem to remember and sounding too good to be true, I bit the arm off the offerer.

Admittedly at eight o'clock on the morning of the gig, it seemed a less appealing prospect. But cigarette and coffee clasped in hand, I was still enthusiastic and besides I'd get to live out all my 14-year old gig going fantasies and finally get my hands on that much coveted access all areas backstage pass. The first task of the day turned out to be a surprising ly ordinary one, that is if your idea of ordinary is spending £350 at Sainburys w hi le shopping for a Welsh psychedel ic supergroup. My partner on this gargantuan food run was the Furries catenng manager Tomo, a suitably deadpan Mancunian with a hangover from hell. "Heavy night?" I inquired. "They always are,· was his reply and that was unfortunately all the information that I could get out of him on the hedon1st1c happen1ngs of the tour. He did however. offer me some advice on interVIewing the lads. "You have to understand. they think m Welsh and speak in English so there's a bit of a t1me lag before they reply especially w1th Gruff, but they're all good lads."

The next port of call was the laundrette to drop off a sack load of Super Furry washmg. You'll all be pleased to know that my cold-blooded JOurnalistic cunnmg fa1led me and I resisted the

Oct o:> er 17 , 2 0 0 1

urge to rifle through the sacks of clothes in searc h of a story.

On returning to the laundrette however . I was informed by one of the attendants that one of the sacks contained some myster ious green sli me w hich clogged up the mach ine and had to be cleaned twice. Where this mystery substance came from I will never know and truthfully I think I feel happier that way.

Shopping for the band's rider also threw up some interesting questions. The only strick request being that under no Circumstances should any of the wine be American. Do the Furries hold a grudge against the greatest nation in the world? With my official duties over and the interview looming I would soonhave the chance to find out.

But on my return from the cash and carry the band were already hard at work shmoozing with the gathered media, Gruff talk ing to the BBC and Guto online for a web interview . I wou ld have to wait, the journalist in me, denied for so long today, then reared its head and I decided to go for a snoop around the empty dressing room. A curious odour hung in the air, instrumental guitar music dribbled from a pair of turntables and a TV flashed the option screen for a Playstation football game. hardly surprising when you consider that the video for Play it Cool featured the Furries as characters in such a game.

More alarming however, was the poster of Destiny's Child that hung over the decks, was th is an ironic j oke or a more serious case of true admiration? Agai n we will never know.

Guto was now free to do t he interview but Gruff was feeling pretty talked out and so wou ld not be joining us. Since I was hoping to get a close up Insight on the group dynamic I was slightly disappointed. But this disappointment soon subsided after talking to Guto for a few minutes who proved to be both friendly and down to earth.

So, How' s the tour going?

Yeah, it's going we ll Any wild moments?

No, not real ly I notice you have turntables in your dressing room,what kind of music have you been listening to?

Lots of reggae because we're coming to t he end of the summer. A lot of experimental hip hop. I'm really interested 1n hip hop, it just seems to be push ing the barriers forward at the moment.

Do you still enj oy touring t hese days?

Yeah. we·ve been in the studio at lot recently and it's nice to get out.

What kind of new gimmicks have you got coming up on this tour?

We've got true surround and we're usmg the V-Jam (v1deo Jam)

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Undertones

Who?

program which is all connected to the music. A lot of the stuff we do now is electronic and it has a midi signal, and the midi signal connects up to the V·jam and tnggers off the images on the screens. Basically using V-jam makes it possible for the sound and the image to be in time. We'll also be DJing from the dressing room , [hence the decks] . We've got a camera positioned above, which is connected to the screens downstairs, so people will be able to see us putting the records on.

What happened to Creation records?

lt just disintegrated.

Did you notice this disintegration at the time?

Oh yeah. I mean when you spend ages working on something and then you get no video for the first single you know there is something wrong.

But you were the second highest grossing act on creation?

Yeah, but there was a pretty big gap between us and Oas1s.

But you guys are still on the cutting edge, unlike Oasis?

(Laugher) Oh thank you. Well, what we're 1nto is mventive music and people being creative . We 're JUSt trying not to get bored .

You've Issued this album on both CD and DVD. What gave you the Idea to use this new technology?

The DVD thing just came from the surround sound thing . We realised we could do surround with DVD technology and so it just made sense to do the films as well. But the surround sound idea was there first .

You've got a pretty famous person on the album. How did that come about?

The Paul MaCartney thing came about when him did some music for a Peter Slake exhibition we went to.

What's he actually like In person, because he's coming here soon?

Well , I've literally just shook his hand. But it started a connection and we got to know h1s secretary. Eventually we sent him a tape and some celery with instructions for the rhythm track for Receptacle for the Respectable. He on there in the mix just chewing away We basically ripped the idea of the Beach Boys who did a song like that called Vegetables in the late sixties.

The song No Sympathy contain some pretty strong lyrics. "You deserve to die" for example. What motivated this?

Gruff originally wrote the song for a film and the main character was so bad you could have no sympathy with him. But it's also like something that President Bush would say because he executed more prisoners than anyone. So it's kinda about that whole attitude ¥'know.

So how do you think Bush Is dealing with the current crisis?

lt doesn't convince me that he's saying the words. I mean he's got his advisors and everthing is so well rehearsed but I don't believe what he's saying or that he knows what he talking about.

He also well renowned for not being up to speed on his geography. Do you think Bush has any Idea where Wales Is?

Feargal Sharkey (vocals). M1ckey Bradley (bass). Billy Doherty (drums), and brothers Damian and John O'Neill (guitars) . Blending the Buucocks' loves1ck lyncal neuroses w1th Joey Ramone's eye for a cataclysmic three-mmute rock anthem, The Undertones were Ireland's finest punk band .

No, he'll probably bomb it accidentally.

Of course you recorded a lot of the album In America so you got lots of first hand experience of the country, right?

Yeah, America's so weird but I love it. it 's such an inspirational place because it 's so diverse but it definitely has its dark side.

Havmg said that I'd live in New York tomorrow , I love it.

So there you have it , maybe the Furries don't have a huge grudge against America. but they certainly have a gripe with it's corporate systems and leaders, 'The Man ' as tney like to call 1t , and the following show proved 1t. In the aftermath of September 11 the climate of reverence is such that everyone feels duty-bound to tread on eggshells and steer well clear of any issues that may be deemed offensive. Not the Super Furries though, they almost stand alone in continuing to broadcast their anti-government message . After the interview with Guto, I slipped him the poster for the Peace Protest that was going that night in The Square. I told him that a few of my friends were involved and that they wanted me to ask if the Super Furries would like to come out and jom them. Guto declined,

Do you think George Bush knows where Wales 1. s ?. N0. He'll probably bomb i t , accidentally but promised he would show the poster on the big screens before the gig . True to h1s word, just before the Furries took the stage the two screens beamed the poster and its "Stop the War" legend to the entire audience. And this was not to be the only reference to the current problems. In fact it was remarkable how relevant the night seemed to be. Gruff prefixed it's Not the End of the World, with the comment "this one is called it's Not the End of the World.. .question mark." The song being accompanied by a welter of stock images showing nuclear explosions. Likewise the accompanying film for Presidential Suite featured the adventures of a cartoon Air Force One as it skilfully weaved between cigar shaped missiles and bright red atom bombs. This film was obviously a dig at the long gone Cold War but the correlation with recent events left me agog as the symmetry between the gig and what was happening outside solidified in my mind. There was more: Presidential Suite according to Gruff was about "those incompetent untrustworthy idiots in The Oval Office", The film of Juxtaposed with U ended with another image of mass destruction, Run, Christian, Run's film flashed musings on j Ome of the more bizarre and disturbing aspects of religion but assured us that it 'was not telling us how to think ... not like them.' The Man Don 't Give a Fuck was the perfect encapsulation of the evening's message: Don't trust 'The Man', question more, find new ways to express yourself, and if you feel like it protest peacefully. The Super Furries have always preached non violent direct action and both inside and outside the LCR that was exactly what was happening. An interesting end to an interesting day. 'The Man' might not give a tuck but the Super Furries certainly do; about their music, about their wine, and about the wider world around them. Just stay away from their washing .

When?

They first started recording together m Derry 1n 1977, inspired by the DIY ethics of punk to move away from cover versions and make some proper music of their own. Having ·no pretensions towards art " , The Undertones were a more accessible antidote to the Sex P1stols' defiantly political stance; a band who - like the Clash - believed that music should reflect their own provincial lives. Stardom beckoned, w1th JUSt a little bit of help from John Peel.

John Peel?

In 1978 the DJ picked up on The Undertones' debut single Teenage Kicks, launching the band to the dizzy charts heights of Number 33. Aided by Sharkey's distinctive quavering vocals, and a refusal to conform to the safety-pins-andspittle imagery of their contemporaries, the release of their eponymous debut album saw the band become frontrunners in the punk scene.

Was this their defining moment?

Peel 's description of the single as his "favounte song of all time" helped to cement Teenage Kicks' enduring reputation as a punk class1c, but it was by no means the1r biggest hit.

This title fell to the spitefully juvenile My Perfect Cousin, ("He always beat me at Subbuteo") which reached Number 9 in April 1980. However, as the band attempted to move away from the three-chord conventions of punk by exploring their Motown influences, they fell foul of another rock cliche, eventually splitting in 1983 due to "musical differences" .

Solo careers beckoned, then?

Yes, for Feargal Sharkey, although after a brief foray into middle-of-the-road ballads and a Number One hit with Maria McKee's A Good Heart, Sharkey gave up music altogether and got a proper job. The O'Neill brothers formed "technorock act " That Petrol Emotion, who gained critical acclaim without commercial success.

Where are they now?

The Undertones reformed in 2000. Paul Mcloone replaced Feargal Sharkey on vocals, but the rest of the line-up returned to play live together for the first time in nearly twenty years. A film about the group, Teenage Kicks - The Undertones, premieres at the London Film Festival next month. Teenage Kicks, meanwhile, has been covered (with varying degrees of success) by modern hopefuls including Skunk Anasie and Ash. A quick summary ...

Amid some classic singles, four vivacious albums and an impeccable live reputation, The Undertones still retained the decidedly un-rock'n'roll status of being the only punks you could take home to your mum. And they were all the better for it.

In Retrospect ...

Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?

• Sara Edwards

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

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"TV's just not as good as it ,,

used to be. • •

Remember when children's programmes were actually good and not just patron1s1ng pieces of rubbish presented by talent-less models? Let Ann a Savage refresh your memory as she remembers her favourite kids TV show ...

The Villains

hunderthunder.thunderthunder cats .... Hooooooooo! Everyone 1n Bntam over the age of f1fteen knew and loved the Thundercats. Come on girls, how many of you used to wisll desperately that you were Cheetara? And boys, you al l fancied her. Admit it, spotted hair and n1ce orange leotard were a lethal combmation.

But 11ow many of you really remember them in detail? If I said the names Bengal1 and Mandora to you, would you leap up cry1ng "Yes! The Thundercats!" No . You wouldn't.

Because unlike me. most of you have consigned Third Earth and its occupants to the distant parts of your m1nds labelled ·My Childhood'. Well. here I am to g1ve you a crasl1 course in all things Thundarian . Hold onto your swords of omens ...

T

Mumm-Ra is the one who springs to mmd first.

Poor guy, there he is, happily asleep m llis tomb and suddenly this bunch of feline elitists land 1n hiS backyard. domg everythmg in their power to annoy and undermine him. Is it any wonder he used to get so stressed?

But there were other villains in the land of Thundera.

Take Ta-Shea for example. an Egyptian Princess trapped in a tlmewarp pnson because all men fal l in love w1th 11er and do her bidding, (doesn't sound too bad actuall y!).

The Thundercats

The New Thundercats

These guys were the royal family of Thundera.

They were the elite. hence the1r spec1al powers. In Thundera they lorded it over tile other Thundenans liv1ng by a strict hierarchy, regardless of JOb suitability.

Lion-o could be a complete moron at t1mes. yet no one ever ques~ioned him because he was. in his own words "Lion-o, hereditary lord of the Thundercats. You dare laugh at me?''

Wel l , yes, actually.

Aha, now no one remembers these guys . Th ey were three Thundenans (not Thundercats. they were not thought classy enough) who managed to escape tile destruction of Thundera even t11 ough they were considerately left behind by their so called mates. Coincidentally. they found the1r way to Th1rd Earth where they lived until captured by the comb ined forces of Mumm-Ra. Hammerhand and the mutants. L1on

o rushes to rescue them, fucks up, and final ly has to summon the other Thundercats. The three new Thundenans, Lynxo, Bengali and Pumyra are adopted and made into Thundercats.

The 1\l.lies There were other people who helped out tile Thundercats. such as Mandora the Evil Chaser, a leather clad uber-bitch who sounded scarily like Cheetara. The Berbils were little Robo-teddies who refused to hurt anyone and somehow grew fur over their metal bod1es and Tile Snowman was a Russian Walrus who rode around on a giant white sabre toothed tiger modestly calling himself the Lord of Hook Mountam.

"Ma-mut. Mumrn-Ra's dog belched poisonous smog"

Also Safari Joe, a b1g Game hunter with h1s eye on the Thundercats. Imagining a set of Thurderca t heads mounted on the wall. or the flayed hide of Panthro spead out on the floor.

Then there were the Mutants. who are actually just like the Thundercats, but different animals. i.e a Jackal (Imaginatively named Jackal Man).

So ... human-animal hybrids are classed as mutants while human-feline hybrids are the mightiest and most noble race in the galaxy?

Oh well, moving on.

There was also Driller, Hammerhand the P1rate with his ·qu irky· feature- answers on a postcard if you know what it was. and Ma-mut, MummRa's bulldog wl1o belched fou l po1sonous smog at anyone who upset l1im.

And finally, Capta1n Sh1ner. He was German, w1th a penchant for nding britches. knee high boots and a monocle. Oh, and 11e wanted all races except his own el1m1nated. Honestly, all the guy needed was a side partmg and a l1ttl e moustache to comp lete the get up .

o there you have it. A brief h1story of the Thundercats. and those they encountered.

Of course. I have refrained from ment ioni ng the one person you all remember. I know what you want to hear. All together now-Snarf snarf!

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Hands up if you remember al l of these nuggets of chi l dhood splendour ...

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SPECIAL OFFER: Top price seats £6 Moo to Wed eves. Simply present this ad at the lime or booking. Maximum of 2 tickets per ad. SubJect to avallabllitv.

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Tickets: £4.00 - £21.00 BOX OFFICE: (81603) 63 00 00 www.theatrerovatnorwich.eo.uk

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October 17, 2001

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Pirates of Dark Water Dogtanian and the Muskahounds The Myst erious Cities of Gold She-Ra, Pnncess of Power Moondreamers Centurions Battle of the Planets Pole Position Jayce and the Whee led Warriors Captain Pl anet Fantastic Max Ewoks Ulysses 31 Transformers Rainbow Brite and the Colour Spntes The Real Ghostbusters My Little Pony Mask Dungeons and Dragons Sharky and George He-Man and The Masters of the Universe The Adventures of Willy Fogg Jem! Truly Outrageous Rude Dog and the Dw eebs Count Duckula Once Upon a t1me . .. Life

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The Shoe People [ J The Paddington Peas [ l Puddl e Lane [ J Pigeon Street [ l Stoppit and Tidyup [ J Bananaman [ J SuperTed [ l The Adventures of the American Rabb it [ l Gummi Bears [ l Tailspm [ J The Racoons [ J The Care Bears [ l Potsworth and Company [ l Jamie and the Magic Torch 0-09: Erm ... TV? Childhood? Ring any bells?

10-19: I'm not likmg you.

20-2 9 : Not bad, not bad ...

30-39: Very lmpress1ve ...

All 4 0 : I' m the undiputed queen of kids TV.

Not you. me! You are hate you.

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Since the Potter phenomenon exploded over a year ago, children's fiction has started to be read by more adults than kids. Why? Read Text: Emily Knee on to find out. • •

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summer ago a tatty copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (eagerly thumbed and lovingly read) was the ultimate accessory . The Tube became averitable rainbow of children's fiction readers.

Commuters put aside their broadsheets in the favour

olds." But with shades of Blake and Milton's Paradise Lost in Philip Pullman's work, carnival-esque social parody in Harry Potter and post-modern plurality in the work of the amazing illustrator Anthony Browne- can we afford to? Children's fiction is not just a beltingly good read- it's rich with the kinds of

"Children's fiction is a secret passage back into the cosy world of childhood. And lets be frank, it's a welcome respite from a lot of the self-obsessed modern fiction, brimming with post -modern angst." of t he magical Hogwarts, and Bridget Jones was ejected from handbags by a young lad in glasses. The words on the street were 'Quiddltch' , 'Muggle', 'Gryffindor' . Harry Potter was the verve, the moment, the thing to be reading under the desk . The eagerly anticipated film of the first book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -out Nov) is the current focus of frenzy - a stopgap for fans salivating over the next Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- due sometime next year) . And judging by the success of the film trailer, the kids won't be able to see for the adults hogging the front row. Harry Potter is a modern day phenomenon - a book essentially written for children, but adored by every age.

So why have adults fallen for Harry Potter? Why do we lap up Phi lip Pullman and hunger for more? The most obvious answer would be the complete and utter escapism these books provide.

Who wouldn't trade in the everyday world , with its war, mad cows and 10,000 word essays, for an evening of castles, spells and magic? Just like watching a mind-numbingly bad episode of Days Of Our Lives - reading Harry Potter is 'the ultimate chill-out activity·. And , unlike trashy American soaps, these books happen to be superbly well written . You've really got to hand it to JK Rowling , it's no mystery that her books are a fantastic hybrid of the greatest kids books this century . Reading Harry Potter is like one long nostalgia trip. Blyton fans will recognise the boarding school atmosphere- wanting to blurt out "Oh what beastly luck !" when Harry is glum and "What a brick! " when he catches the golden snitch . And as a foil to the formulaic, Rowling gives her cosy tale a uniquely modern tw ist . The electric atmosphere at a Quidditch match is lifted straight from an England game , " Bertie Botts All Flavour Beans" are a creative version of j elly belly beans and their dormitories sound like your living room - but better. Children 's fict ion is a secret passage back into the cosy world of ch ildhood . And lets be frank , it 's a welcome respite from a lot of the self-obsessed modern fiction, brimming with post-modern angst . After a day of essays, lectures, seminars and a night at the LCR, who wants to take a Intricately woven plot to bed? The usual pap-aga-sagas, chick-lit tasting a bit stale nowadays? Let children's fict ion reintroduce you to your imagination.

Ah now , the unconverted . Those readers who will be scoffing as they read, puffing out their chests and mentally shout ing , "No I haven't read Harry Potter because I happen to be all GROWN UP . Leave the spells and armoured bears to the eight year

issues, themes and philosophical theories that have professors of literature watering at the mouth. Just as The Simpsons isn't merely 'some cartoon' but a rich social satire full of popular culture references - modern children's fiction has multiple layers of meaning . it 's not just all about Harry Potter. There is a plethora of excellent children's fict ion out there. Hardened children-fiction-readers have probably read them already . And as for the waverers, those of you who have yet to step foot in the children's section of a book shop - try them, you never know, you might like 'em . When was the last time a book kept you up all night? Or found a book so gripping you read it in one sitting?

Rediscover the ch ild in you (trust me, you do have one) . it 's like coming across your old Lego. Who could resist?

Hotter than Potter: • Holes by Louis Sachar (pictured above right )- a gripping tale with a twisting plot reach ing an ending so clever you will want read it all over again to spot the carefully lain clues.

• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfe - almost as good as the hype it received but well worth a read for the modern day fairies and James Bond style plot, not to mention the knickerbockers.

• A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (pictured above left) quirky, perfectly formed stories of the Baudelaire orphans whose lives are plunged into one pickle after another.

• Junk by Melvin Burgess - award winning, an honest but harrowing look at teenage drug abuse.

• Anyth ing written/illustrated by Anthony Browne - his illustrations are a feast for the eyes.

• Anyth ing by Phil ip Pullman - an author of lucid prose and thought-provoking tales of the fantastic.

Err, not really . Try a blood drenched horror epic from indiemaestro Abel Ferrara. Set in late 70's New York, Driller Killer follows the degeneration of Reno (played by Ferrara) from a frustrated art ist into a deranged drill-slinging psychopath, as he ploughs his way through well. .. everything and everyone.

He must have had a screwed up childhood.

There are no deep emotional scars to be seen; Reno's anguish is superficial and visible only on a surface level. He is unnerved Initially by fiscal concerns and his father's vagrancy before being pushed over the edge when a discordant punk band use t he apartment beneath his as a studio. Distracted by the incessant cacophony of Tony Coca Cola and The Roosters, he is prevented from finishing the giant oil painting on which his economic sustenance hangs. Slowly descending into a dark world of private madness he hits the streets with a menacing gleam in his eye, and a power drill in his holster.

A tortured artist violently lashing out against the Ignorant world around him ... sounds like every director's dream.

Ferrara unashamedly allows the manifestation of his darkest desires. His unfaithfu l girlfriend; his unsuccessful father; his pretentious and insensitive art dealer: all fall helpless to the way of the drill. The most disturbing aspect of the film however is the way Ferrara invites you to share in his fantasy , rendering you wholly empathetic to Reno's unstable, psychotic frame of mind . Despite his homicidal misgivings, he is eternally cool, and his actions are always justified.

How did Ferrara get away with this Immoral filth?

He didn't . The 1984 Video Recordings Act meant that Driller Killer, and fellow '70s slasher movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, were removed from distribution. Such censorship ensured that children were able to walk the streets aloof from the threat of power tool carnage. However, Driller Killer managed to seep out of its dusty, morally-bound closet and back into circulation in 1999; as shock ing and sordid as it was on first release In 1979.

Has Ferrara been twiddling his thumbs all this time?

Far from it. He 's evolved considerably from his low budget horror roots into well respected , credible auteur territory with classics such as The King of New York, The Addiction, and Bad Lieutenant under his belt. Unlike many directors, his artistic vision has endured his transiti on into a bigger budget Hollywood player and has imbued itself upon the vast bulk of his work . His auteristic trademark is generally construed as the corruption of the human soul which Is mirrored In the sinister representation of a decaying New York City .

Anal Verdict:

A compelling psychological insight 1nt o the defunct mechanisms of a warped mind. Shot like a doc umentary with a hand held ci nema-verite style, Driller Killer demonstrates t he successful convergence of art house style with low budget horror. Not suitable for the weak stomached , or mentally unstaJam/e Robson ble viewer.

Wednesday. Oct ober 17 . 200 1

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n tile world of literature, children's authors are not often credited for their work. Yet writer Ph i lip Pullman broke boundaries getting onto the prestigious Booker Prize longlist for his work, The Amber Spyglass. When asked if he thinks that children's fic tion is now becoming more popu lar thanks to him and the likes of JK Rowling, he doesn't take long to answer. Clearly he has been asked the question many times before. "I can name many writers whose work has been publislled and is highly literary, wonderful writers and people of enormous achievement and distinction. but because they were writing books that were ca lled 'chi ldren's books', they simply are

event ~·Jednesday,

October 17,

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not known about by the adult reader. it's not like chi ldren 's books have sudden ly acquired a certain literary dignity that they didn't have before."

Yet to adults. this is just what it seems like . Indeed many people still don't know who Philip Pullman 1s. nor realise that he is one of the most successfu l ch ildren's authors of his time.

Yet for Pullman, being labelled as a children's author is something that he's not totally happy with . "''m conscious of being in a market place . an Eastern market place. where there are lots of act ivities going on : people are eating and drinking and swimming and talk1ng and gossiping and stealing. And in this market place there are storytellers and jugg lers and musicians. Now I do not set up a stool say ing ·only

2001

child ren' or 'adults keep out'; my aim is to attract as many people as I possibly can of any age because it's a technica l challenge, if you like, t o te ll a story that wi ll be enjoyed by every age."

Without even knowing Pullman's occupation, it becomes clear straight away t hat he is a man who has a supreme grasp of how to tell a story. He goes on, "W hat I don't want to do is t ell a children's story that is for adults and will go over the heads of children; I want ch ildren and adu lts to be enthralled by the story and en tertained by it a moved by it. so I never say that I w rite books for children; I write books that chi ldren read, which is a different thing."

We move on to discuss his Dark M aterials Trilogy, a tit le taken

09

Philip Pullman

.. I' m not

saying that CS Lewis is promoting suicide bombing, but that continuum between the fanatical zeal of the people who did that terrible York and the caged mind of a calm, rational, traditional old scholarly tleman, sitting in his Oxford study. saying that children are better off from Milton's Paradise Lost. Pullman is one of those rare breed who do not feel the need to patronise children. Indeed the concept of the trilogy, which took eight years to write, is one that philosophers would not be embarrassed to have thought up. The three books deal with the fall of man, assert that God was just another angel and that the universe lies in the hands of one young girl, Lyra. Not your average children's book by any means. He is also not afraid to quote Slake, Milton and the Bible. "I quote them because they were saying things in those quotations which sustained me during the writing of the story and resonate most strongly and powerfully with things that I happen to believe."

One of the things that Pullman believes in is atheism. Despite his grandfather being a vicar (who, incidentally, was situated in Norwich) and attending church every Sunday, Pullman decided in his teens that God didn't exist.

"The whole business about death and what happens after it is a terribly difficult area for those of us who don't believe in God because we have to contend with, and deal with, the deaths of those who we love and the deaths of children and so on, and how do we deal with it?"

Declining to answer his question, Pullman has a stab at it. ·we can't just say 'oh well, you die and that's the end of you', but on the other hand, I do feel quite passionately that I want to counter this notion that we can escape this life by going to heaven."

And he does just that in The Amber Spyglass, portraying death as a prison camp filled with the ghosts of people who disobeyed The Authority by listening to the rebel angels. But there is an escape route, as he explains, "If you go down there and tell the harpies, who guard the dead, your story and if you bring them news of the world, tell them what the world is like, physically, what it's like to feel the wind on your face, the taste of a fresh apple in your mouth, if you live your life when you're alive, if you fully engage with it physically and emotionally and sensually and sexually and in every other way, then, if you tell this story you can come back alive again, you can JOin the world of the living and come out in the sunshine and the air. We know that our atoms fall apart and we go up into the grass and the sky with the birds and that's also true emotionally: we would like to go on living."

Focusing on the rather morbid topic of death and of religion, I mention CS Lewis. Pullman has created rather a st1r in the literary world, describing Lewis' work as a "Blasphemy against life".

As soon as I say this, he becomes animated. Clearly it's an issue that he's incredibly passionate about. "I detest his books. the Narnia books in particular because I think that they are propaganda on behalf of a religion which I detest, which I despise. " Many critics have drawn comparisons with the resurrection of Christ and the rebirth of the lion king, Asian, but that's usually where the comparison ends. Pullman goes further. "He says at various points that the world we live in is only a shadow of something much better somewhere else. This is exactly the cast of mind that lies behind suicide bombers, they think

they're going to paradise and then they're quite happy to fly a bomb Into the side of a building. I'm not saying that CS Lewis is promoting suicide bombing, but that there is a cast of mind, a continuum between the fanatical zeal of the people who did that terrible thing in New York and the caged mind of a calm, rational, traditional old scholarly English gentleman, sitting in his Oxford study, saying that children are better off dead."

I am about to remind Pullman that he too went to Oxford and was a lecturer there for some time but I feel that he wouldn't appreciate the interruption. "If you read The Last Battle, which is the final one, it ends with all the children who have been through all these extraordinary adventures being given the greatest possible reward that they can be given, which is to be killed in a railway accident and go to heaven. So instead of living their lives on this earth, making it better for other people, they are whisked away. " Thinking that a change of subject is in order, I move on to discuss Pullman's travelling as a child. But even this is linked to death as his father, an RAF pilot, died in a plane crash when he was still a child. Nevertheless, I ask Pullman whether he feels this travelling helped with the settings for his books. "it may have served as a starting point for some of what I wrote about, but not everything, I've never been to the North, for example.

You just have to make it up, do all the research that you can, and then just make it up."

And this is exactly what Pullman has done. Set in six universes, his trilogy describes animals and places that require the most original of minds to construct . His characters vary from elephant-like animals that use giant seedpods as wheels, tiny spies who ride on the backs of dragonflies and armoured polar bears that rule the North. But perhaps the most unusual feature is Pullman's idea of a 'daemon', a human's soul personified as an animal.

Pullman admits that many of these ideas come from past experiences. There is one instance which sticks in his mind and that is a trip to the zoo with his children. They are observing the monkeys and a little bird flies down near the cage. Immediately a hand whips out between the bars and snatches it. The monkey then proceeds to tear the bird apart, whilst Pullman and his children watch . "I didn 't know what to make of that and I still don't " explains Pullman. "You see the monkey wasn't killing the bird to eat it, he was just curious, yet I felt I'd experienced something ev11."

Pullman stored this vision up and placed it in The Amber Spyglass, only with the monkey becoming golden and the bird becoming a bat .

Pullman admits that he observes life through the eyes of a writer and loves being alive. Another thing he loves, oddly enough, is perhaps not something you would expect of him: Neighbours. "I'm out of touch with Neighbours at the moment" he moans, so I proceed, in great length, to ;nform him of all that's been happening. He's especially interested in the Tess, Darcy and Dione saga. "Oh wonderful, well it's fascinating. I've been watching that develop and it's a variation on a very

there is a thing in New English gendead."

ancient pattern, the eternal triangle pattern as a lot of things are in Neighbours. Dione should have dropped a dish of gravy and carrots over Darcy's head, though! And Joel and Dione, eh?

Well you could see that coming, couldn't you? Because Joel was getting a bit cool towards Flick, wasn't he?" lt becomes clear when discussing the highly sophisticated plots for which Neighbours is renowned, that there are two sides to Pullman: the serious intellectual who is passionate and opinionated about literature and life, and the normal, everyday man, who likes to watch trashy TV, flick the end of his ruler and lean his chair back on two legs. Such habits have something to do with his disdain for the National Curriculum and its attitude towards teaching English. "They tell you to plan for 15 minutes and write for 45 and that's just utterly stupid. I think there's a continuum between what I do as a novelist and what children do when they're writing stories."

Finally, I wonder what Pullman's life holds for him in the future, now that he's in his prime. He mentions that there's talk of a film being made of Dark Materials but that it won't be for a few years yet. He also hopes to illustrate his own picture book one day. Clearly, life for him is still very much about living.

Pullman once declared, "Stories are the most important thing in the world . Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all." Some writers merely write stories- Pullman tells them. One day he should tell his own.

Pullman's Past: Born in 1946, Pullman attended Exeter College, Oxford, to read English. He worked at various middle schools for twelve years and was a part-time lecturer at Oxford. He's the author of numerous books and has been nominated for and won enough prizes to gain him a place as one of best children's authors of our time.

His most notable novels are: • The Ruby in the Smoke, winner of the International Reading Association Children's Book Award, in 1988.

Shadow in the North, shortlisted for the Edgar All an Poe Award.

• The Tiger in the Well, shortlisted for Guardian Children's Fiction Award in 1992.

• Northern Lights, won The Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the Carnegie Medal, and was selected as Children's Book of the Year in the British Book Awards in 1996.

• Clockwork was shortlisted for Whitbread Children's Book of the Year, in 1997.

• The Amber Spyglass, got onto the longlist for The Booker Prize this year.

• Pullman's most famous work is his Dark Materials Trilogy; Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (pictured above). Future books will include one on Dust, as discussed in Dark Materials and possibly a picture book, illustrated by himself.

Wednesday. October 17, 2001

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The write way to learn •• The Arvon Creative Writing course, situated in the quiet countryside l s the perfect place to hone your writing skills as Rebecca Lawrence found out this summer cl imbing up through the floorboards, window seats to curl up on with a tabby cat, no television, no mobile phone signal , no noise of traffic, enclosed in empty fields, isolated in a writer's comm unity ... But enough of all that , this is Totleigh Barton, a writer's 'ctreat for students at the Arvon Foundation Centre 1n Devon .

On Ju ly 30, 15 students, ranging in age from 16 to 8 1 ( if you can be a student at 81) began t he " Starting to Wr ite" session . The creative wrtting course costs £360 but grants are avail· able for st udents, and the fee covers all food and accommodation . The courses book up very qu1ck ly so it is best to reserve a place well in advance. Although the centre does not offer any ac t ual qualification, the courses are very creditabl e, as they give people a chance to ex plore t heir own styles and voice.

item in the style of streams of consciousness.

We also explored metaphors in various different ways, such as passing around a penc il and describing the thoughts that it provoked, for example "Sarah and I had our first argument over a penci l, the yellow and black stripy ones that look like wasps."

The afternoons were less regulated . with students being able to explore their ideas generated during the workshops. There was also plen· ty of opportunity for individual tutorials with Mario or Jill. I came on the course with the idea of a novel in mind, and Jill gave me some much·needed advice on how to plan it. The workshops acted as a catalyst for further ideas, and I revised some of my earlier works. weav ing in more vivid imagery. A good piece of advice that Mario gave me, which would be useful to all you budding writers out there. is to write as if you are 'in' something, and then

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always dread i t before I come [but] by r-·ida y, I 'm always genuinely surprised and (jP] ig hted by the quality of writing and the ;n dships made." - J i 11 Dawson 4.

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Totl eigh Barton , an old thatched farm house. futl o: dark oak furniture. is the perfect setting fo' wr itrng a novel, a huge change in atmos· [ll lPre from the busy, noisy environment of llclll s, and is perfect for anyone who loves reading 01 writ ing. it's also good for those who are a b1t fed up with pasta ·n · sauce everyd ay as t here IS a cooking rota shared between the group (anyone brave enough to suggest that in t he1r student house?).

A tvptra l day started around seven o'clock and wP. at e breakfast all together around the l lt<ll P.n table, thereby subjec ting ourselves to t11e ·unique· tastes of some; who 's for mashed billlana on toast? We gradually traipsed across t o lte barn , holding our mugs of tea, for the f1rs . sess1 on of the morning. Snuggling up on t11e sofc. s like bugs, cocooned from the outside wo1 ld an d listening to the rain (a very frequent 0ccu rre nce in Devon), enabled all the students to teel rel axed and begin the tricky task on putt ng words on a piece of paper and making t hem interest ing.

011 every Arvon course there are two tutors.

One of ours was Ji ll (Ruby) Dawson, of Fred and Ed;e fame, who is a fellow here at UEA. ork::,hops with Jill involved discovering techntques for writ ing short stories. for example, desc nbing ten things you might find in a characte•'s bag and answering questions such as " Doe s your character have a recurring dream?" and "Can your character whistle?" By the end of t he week , most of the writers had complet· ed a short story. after discussions about their plot w ith J1ll.

Jtll reveo led to me, ''I've taught about seven or ~1ght Arvon courses. I always dread it before I ~ome. the thought of spending a week holed .• p 111 a barn with a bunch of st rangers fills me .nth te rror. By Wednesday. I'm always ringing "ome to te ll my boyfriend how wonderful it is.

By Fnday. I' m always genuinely surprised and oeltg l,ted by the quality of writing and the ftiendsh1 ps made ." Well that 's a relief.

The secon d tutor was Mario Petrucci, who has published severa l poetry co llections, and is the r;cH.:t 1n !eSidence for the Imperial War Museum, no; .-·el as t he Royal Literary Fund Associate rcJ 1ow for Oxford Brookes University. Mario 's ( 'erc 1ses were more diverse. He gave each of us an Objec t to feel: we then described the

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put it into a scene . For example, a sect ion described as if in a sunset to promote the sense of the colour and atmosphere.

Every wall in Totleigh Barton is crammed with books by every author imaginable, so many afternoons were spent in the very cosy lounge, cur led up with a cat, dipping into several books and fee ling rust ic. I became much more aware of how the skills of writing and reading are so intensely connected. Looking at other author's styles made me more conscious of my own writing and how part icular sentence struc· lures would appear to the reader. One skill I came away with - which has helped me develop my work - is editing. In the past I have asked friends, who are not necessari ly experienced writers. to check my work . Now if I read it aloud to myself, I can see my own mistakes.

Evening activities were spent in the barn again . Each Arvon course invites a guest to come and read. On the Tuesday night, Jamie McKendrick arrived, looking like a typical poet in his tweed trousers, with dusty, long hair.

He read from his book , Sky Nails, and proceed· ed to get drunk with us. Another evening all the students read from their favourite books; the authors ranged from Sylvia Plath to Shakespeare. At the end of the week , an anthology was compiled of work written during the course, and read aloud that evening. I learnt the value of sharing work within a group. as that feedback doesn 't mean stinging criti· cism and can actually lead to new ideas within the writing. The programme was very inspiring and encourages al! different kings of writing , from prose and poetry, to film scripts and screenplays. Other courses can be more specia lised , such as looking at the style of biographies or the connections between fact and fie· tion and authors who have tutored at the Arvon Centre include Carol Ann Duffy , Helen Dun more and Simon Armitage.

The week was entirely stress-free and at the end, it was hard to return to reality and the lack of barns. Rosie Ward , 18, a student from Dartington College, studying performing arts, said, "I found my week at the Arvon centre an amazing ex perience , it was so exciting to share my work with other writers, and gather fresh inspiration, whilst making friends for life."

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1n a s Text : Meti n Alsa njak and Shane O'Connor n America people are not going to back bite you just because you do something and become successful. In England they will. If I keep feeling people are shunning me it might be a case of exiling somewhere else instead.· Splitting his fan base over the recent Ya Don't See The Signs single, controversially mixed by Grant Nicholson of Feeder, Blade is very angry, as always, at his critics. "No one dissed KRS.One when he sampled rock, no one dissed the Beastie Boys when they sampled rock, no one dissed Run-DMC when they sampled rock, and they called their album King of Rock. I think it is a sad state of affairs that people want to be so shallow." lt is a sentiment that features on his latest collaboration with Mark B, the EP There's No Stopping lt. The track Sealed With A Diss, is " for all those who dissed me for the Feeder remix." If you're wondering why Blade is so angry, you have to bear in mind that he's been making records as a solo artist since 1989 and has been recently at the forefront of the resurgent British Hip-hop scene.

His album with Mark B (The Unknown), which proved to be both critically and commercially successful is now going through a backlash, a backlash which has Blade seething. "I've read people saying that The Unknown album is wicked and then suddenly after the Feeder remix I read The Unknown album is shit. And I knew this was coming, but the rock rem ix is something I wanted to do for some time, and I suggested it to Mark even before the album came out - ' lets do a rock track' and he was 'nah, nah, nah,' but eventually I convinced Mark to do it and that was it, so mainly it's me to blame."

The result of the collaboration hasn't been all bad though Blade recently worked with one of the most respected hip-hop producers today - RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. "I thought the [Wu Tang] talent scout was pulling my leg, and I told him to have his fun and tell everyone you had taken the piss out of Blade you know, piss off. Eventually someone said he was for

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real. About four or five months later things got connected and I did the work with the RZA. He's one of the safest producers I've met. As a person he was really down to earth. I thought he was going to be really egotistical, but he was the tc.t al opposite, he was 'how you doing?'; 'You alright man?'; 'You want something to eat or drink?'"

A losing battle?

Cc-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, it cost about $125 and includes stars like, amongst others, David Schwimmer. Unfortunately, as the hard driven Lt Herbert Sobel, Schwimmer was frankly unconvincing. I wanted to believe that he wasn't Ross, I really did. Yet I couldn't shake the nagging feel· ing that even as he revoked weekend passes, made men do 12-mile hikes in the dark with full packs, and generally played the part of an uncaring bastard, that Rachel, Joey et ai were lurking just around the corner. lt's a shame because Schwimmer clearly tried to leave his geeky alter ego behind, but he has become too synonymous with wisecracking sitcom to quite pull ver paid, over rated, over here'. The phrase commonly associated with Gls in the Second World War was used by many critics to herald the arrival of Steven Spielberg·s epic drama series Band of Brothers. But is it really true? lt would appear that the BBC sank a fortune into the making of this ten-part drama, hyped it up, then lost their bottle and moved it from its primetime Friday night slot on BBC1 into the less popular BBC2 arena. With the threat of another world war lending the drama's hideous irony, its success or failure wit h the viewing public will rest not just on the acting of a drama series, but on our own capacity to be confronted by the realities of conflict. After the runaway success of Saving Private Ryan Spielberg's previous foray into the biggest battle of them all - it was inevitable that another extravaganza would be on the cards. And an extravaganza Band of Brothers really is.

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So whilst the current tour might not be as successful as Mr Blade might have hoped, in the face of those who wish to keep him down, he is as resilient as ever, "I never let no one stop me before and I ain't going to let them stop me now. And you can watch this space because I will be back again and if you don't like it I don't give two shits. Done."

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mos t expen s i ve T se r 1es ever made . The Event asks whet her i t was worth t he Text : Amy Ben net bother able. The quest for realism appears to have known no bounds.

Producers planted a forest for one battle scene - then blew it to bits during filming. lt is alleged that on a heavy day's filming 700 guns would get through 14,000 rounds of ammunition. The actors were sent to boot camp before filming started to learn to live and fight like real paratroopers. Not even the harshest critic could say that Spielberg and Hanks haven't paid attention to detail in their mission to tell a real-life story against the biggest backdrop of them all. But do we really need another one-eyed perspective of the war? A lot has been made recently of American glorification of their part in the war. This argument which had smouldered through Saving Private Ryan flamed again with the release of Pearl Harbor. The same arguments will probably be thrown at Band of Brothers, but those critics who see dramatisations of the war as something that must show either 'us or them' will miss the point of the series. Anyone watching will soon realise that it doesn't matter what stamp these men have on their passports. As one real life member of Easy Company puts it before the drama begins: · we did what we did because we had to, not for medals or for accolade.

Because we had to. •

"Not even the harshest critic could say that Spielberg and Hanks haven't paid attention to detail in their mission to tell a real -life story. But do we rea 11 y need another one-eyed perspective of the war? .. off a role that isn't comic. In contrast, Damien Lewis (Hearts and Bones) in the role of Lt Winters was excellent. He was utterly believable as the Lieutenant who ultimately led Easy Company into battle. There were other familiar faces (anyone remember Dexter Fletcher in Press Gang?), but it was Lewis and Schwimmer who dominated.

Thi s series tells the true story of Easy Company, a band of para· troopers from the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Each episode begins with real life members of the division sharing their oftenpoignant memories. This is just one contributing factor that makes the whole thing so realistically, and grotesquely, believ-

So if you like your drama gritty, fast-paced and true to life, Band of Brothers is a must. After exorcising his demons in Schindler's List and cutting his teeth with Saving Private Ryan, this is Spielberg back to his story-telling best. The man who made millions of children empathise with a homesick alien has produced a brilliantly directed, superbly filmed drama that anyone with an open mind can enjoy. Anyone looking for an historical overview is looking in the wrong place. All that counts is the survival of this band of brothers in arms and thetr fight to liberate France from Nazi occupation. A timely reminder if ever one was needed that there are no winners in war, just survivors.

Wednes day, Oct ober 17 . 2001

@vent

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Fi 1m Art s Norw'ch (FAN) is holdin g th e biggest a rt1 oe st showca se of animated wor ks in the co unt ry from October 25-28. Wan t to know more ? Tl1e Event has previewed a selecti on of what's happening over t he weekend , as wel l as inter vi ewing a member of the Fes t iv al Ju ry , Japanese ani ma to r Sayoko Kin oshita . Do you f eel animated?

IAM A C o rJ .S '-" ME a_

ANQ \-f ou)!

WH t>R.E {

Sayoko Ki nos hi ta has been workin g wi t h animation in J apan fo r over 30 y ~ ars . and in that time has watc hed an i mat i on grow f rom a rid iculed waste o~ t ime t o a r en own ed art f orm. This year she has been ch osen t o be one of t he panel j udges at the upcomirg An imat i on Fe s ti val . The Even t ema il ed her a few ques t i ons about he r ca reer .. . Interview: Merek cooper

The FAN International Animation Festival is not just a celebration of profession a 1 artists, it is also a competition with entries from around the world. Here are some of the highlights ... Text: Astrid Goldsmith The grossly ugly boy gurns at the camera and plays sick jokes - a far cry from the calm world of Wall ace and his everpatient dog, Although an excerpt from the commercial hit Chicken Run is included in the latter half of the programme, it is the newer, less populist material that is more exciting.

International:

Aardman Retrospective: Aardman is the most popular face of British animation at the moment. and if the word 'Aardman' is less than familiar to you, then the phrases 'Wallace and Gromit' or 'Chicken Run' should definitely ring several bells. The Bristol-based animation studio has been producing work of a consistently high standard for years, and this is a one-off opportunity to view a selection of t he best and most recent shorts. From classics like Morph and the ever-popular Creature Comforts, to more recent, edgier work like Angry Kid, this retrospective is a chance to see fresh new talent on the big screen for the first time (apart from Chicken Run, nearly everytbing else has previously been restricted to television or, in the case of Angry Kid, on the int ernet). Highlights include Pib and Pog, a study in ultra-violence, presented in the form of a sanitised dayt ime TV educational kid's programme. As the cultured BBC tones of a female narrator gently chasti se the two plasticine characters, Pib and Pog hack into each other w ith chainsaws and throw each other into buckets of acid. The Angry Kid shorts have the same irreverent tone, but are much more subtle, and, at times, surreal.

@vent Wednes day.

The International section of the competition programme is overwhelmed by films from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Indeed, while the focus of this year's FAN Festival is Japanese animation, Festival Director Rose Hanna says that the standard and quartity of Russian entrants to the competit ion this year was so high that next year's focus will definitely be on Russian animation. One of the more challenging pieces in this category is Alexander Tatarsky's Gone With the Wind, one of the t~ree Russian films. A disturbing political allegory, Gone With the Wind depicts a 'former hen struggling to return to her former life.' In other words, a headless, de-feathered chicken falls out of the fridge, gets electrocuted into life by unexplained radioactive material, then goes on a mission to recover her feathers and attempts to fly out of the window. The continuous rain and the shadowy quality of the animation accentuate the dark subject matter and, wh ile thought-provoking, there is something faintly threatening and unsettling about watching a headless dead bird staggering about an empty house, wielding a flick knife. On the other hand, it is admirable and inspiring that the medium of animation is finally being used for something other than kid' s cartoons. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, there is plenty of variety in the International section.

One of the more light-hearted films is Croatian animator Daniel Sujic' s Film With a Girl. While the style of animation is simple and far from polished, the use of paint on glass (an animation technique currently popular in Eastern Europe) is truly beauti ful. The restless little girl picks up one fad after

October 17. 2001

another - playing with a ball, playing with others, even smoking dope- before getting on a train that will take her to the stars.

Student: Whilst this category opens the festival up to younger and less experienced animators, the entrants are by no means stumbling amateurs. Like the rest of the programmes, the Student Competition is international, with short films from all over: Poland to Korea, UK to the Czech Republic. The pick of the bunch, however, comes from a young French animator, A rthur de Pins. His entertaining work, Geraldine, won the student prize at the French animation festival, the biggest of its kind in the world.

Geraldine follows a young Cassanova, Gerald, who wakes up one day and discovers he has turned into a woman. After struggling with his identity and the complications of being female (the tired bra-heels-periods jokes are dealt with swiftly and very refreshingly), Geraldine starts using her femininity to his/her advantage.

The sketchy style of animation is somewhat reminiscent of Quentin Slake's illustrations, and suits the rapid, a year-in-thelife-of subject matter perfectly. The complexities of plot are all dealt with in the form of visual jokes, and the 'speech' is burbled, non-language squeaks, which means that there are no translation problems (an important factor to consider in international competitions). Although Geraldine appears to be mere entertainment on the surface, some interesting - and slightly unsettling - issues on modern-day gender are raised. For example, after Geraldine accepts that unwanted male attention is a fact of life, she uses her looks to jump from porn to advertising Coca Cola. However, the bright colours, quick-fire visual humour and bouncy soundt rack save Geraldine from becoming too heavy-handed.

• For more Information go to http://www.fllmartSnorwlch.co.uk

I read somewhere that you used to hate animation. What happened to make you change your mind and want to become an animator?

After graduating from art college (Plastic Art Department at Women's College of Fine Arts, Tokyo) in 1966, I was looking for a job related to drawings. At that time, it was very difficult for the new graduates to find work in Japan. Then, I found a newspaper ad of Mushi Productions, and thought perhaps I may be able to do some artistic work there, but joined them firstly as an office worker. There were many animators working, drawing the same characters all day long and day after day, it seemed to be far from the creative work I was expecting, and I wondered why they do not get tired of such work ... Thus, at the beginning, I was not fascinated by animation. Also, I was not especially fond of Manga in general too. However, one day, I had a chance to see short animations, and recognized t hat animation was such an effective media to express yourself, to convey your own messages, and also that it is an art form you can create by yourself. Then, I very much wanted to make animation myself!

ter, some citizens of Hiroshima were moved cy animation art, and they supported us with working on the ci;y government for many years. lt took us indeed 12 years to realize the first Hiroshima Festival in 1985. I am now preparing for our 9th edi· tion which will be held in 2002 August.

Although we are surrounded by animation everyday In the media and advertising, lt seems to be viewed as a lesser art form by the critics and Isn't granted the same status as say, film. What do you think the reasons for this are?

Generally, throughout the world, animation is still just taken as the entertainment for children, and people do not feel much interest in animation from the beginning. I feel it is a preconception of the critics to view animation as a lesser art form, and they are looking down on this art form . You will be requested to have broad and deep knowledge on various fields in order to understand artistic animation.

Perhaps, criticising animation art might be more difficult than film criticising . .!?

·r think that adult animation is becoming more popular in the mainst ream. Beca use. today the re are many people wor ldwide who were fostered by J apanese an i ma t i on wten t hey wer e children, and they have now b ~come adult s and enj oy i t together with t heir chi ldren• Could you tell us a bit about your career as an animator and as curator of the Hiroshima festival?

In 1967, I started to join the production team at Mushi Productions, and there I also met my partner Renzo who was having the same wish to make independent animation shorts.

Since 1968, I joined Renzo's studio (Studio Lotus), and we made numerous TV commercials, promotional works. and various TV programmes including educational, music, specials for adults. etc . With the money we received from these commercial works, we started to make our independent shorts, and our first work, What On Earth Is He? was completed in 1971. In 1972, we completed our second independent work Made In Japan, and received Grand Prize at the New York International Animation Festival. Many people came to us and said that we will have a successful future as artists, and we returned to Tokyo with a lot of expectations.

However, to the contrary, we had to face the very hard situation to live as an artist because animation art was not yet recognized in Japan at all. Renzo and I continued making independent shorts, and submitted them to the festivals abroad. On the other hand, we thought that we should not only make animation, but also try to introduce the variety of animation to many people widely in order to elevate the social position of this art form. For this aim, we thought that to organize a festival would be the best method, and thus we started to study how to organize a quality festival by attending many festivals abroad. Also, we started to find a city where we can hold a festival. When we made a short film Pica Don (1978) describing the A-bomb disas-

Japan Is weU known, In England at least, for being at the forefront of animation. What Is lt that gives Japan this edge? And do you have a sense of this, living In Japan?

I assume that "the forefront of animation" is about Japanese Ani me such as TV series and the special verSion of theatrical features. Japanese people are basically fond of Manga, and as you may know, most Japanese Ani me has been the adaptation from already popular Manga animations. As such, Anime became very popular in Japan, and has been produced in a mass. The story telling is much important in Anime, rather than animation movement, and this point makes A1ime different from the other animation. Many years ago, when Anime started to be exported in a low price, it was just because the production companies thought it would be better than just keeping their films in the warehouse. But it happened to attract children of various countries, and now Anime is at the forefront of animation.

Manga Aim has had a huge Impact on the way we view any animation coming out of Japan. In England there Is the preconception that all Japanese cartoons are awash with technology and have to contain extreme violence? Do you find this preconception hard to combat?

Japanese Anime places much emphasis on story telling rather than animation movement. In order to cope with the very very low budget of TV series, it has been essential for the production companies to sell the character goods to supplement the deficit. And thus, also in order to increase the sales, the story had to give much impact to children, and it became more and

more stimulating and violent.. . it has been an easy way to effectively attract large audiences with a very small budget. I think it is not difficult to combat the preconception. it is also true that there is some Japanese Anime with conscientious quality, such as Heidi and the films by Hayao Miyazaki. These works are highly accepted in a different way. Also, there is more interest arising towards the artistic animation too. As I continue Hiroshima Festival, many young people are getting interested in animation art, and have actually started to challenge in making their own work. I hope that the variety of Japanese animation will be introduced more to the world.

With the success of Princess Mononoke and Rnal Fantasy can you see adult feature length animation becoming more popular In the mainstream?

Yes, I think so. Because, today there are many people worldwide who were fostered by Japanese animation when they were children, and they have now become adults and enjoy it togeth· er with their children. I think this tendency will be escalating.

So far the adVance Interest for the Norwich Festival has been very good. How Important do you think events like festivals are for showcaslng animation? Do you think they have the potential to reach a wider audience? it would be a good international chance to introduce various types of animation as well as the filmmakers with much talent.

There are many filmmakers who are encouraged to continue their creative work by presenting hisjher film at the festivals, highly appreciated by the audience and critics. I believe the festivals have the potential to reach a wider audience, and also provide a positive future for the filmmakers.

What do you hope the average audience member will take away with them from this festival?

I hope the audience will understand that animation has various possibilities as a form of expression media, and that it is not only for viewing but also for creating yourself to express your own ideas. Also, when you have any question on the animation you saw , I hope you will bring back the question and keep it in your mind. I believe that some time later the answer may cross your mind, and then you will be able to enjoy the film once again.

• Sayoko Klnoshlta will be presenting a selection of her favourite animated films at Cinema City on October 26 at :1.5.00

Pictures: (This page from left to right) 1. from Star Scope by Hoshi Megane 2. Sayoko Kinoshita 3. from J-Star 01 (opposite page from top to bottom) 1. from Rejected by Don Herzfeldt 2 . from Pib and Pog by Aardman Animations • All works displayed here will be on show during the Festival

~ vent We d nes d ay, 0cto ber 17 • 2001 t:

14 Albums

Aphex Twin: Obscurity, thy name is Richard D. James. Eschewing t he indescribable hostility which made Come To Daddy such a classic, and forsaking the relative smoothness of Windowlicker, he has returned with a monster double album. At times, this resembles an atmospheric film soundtrack rather than, well, whatever this effort was int ended to be. The truth is, I don't t hink I've ever heard anything like this on such a scale. Thankfully, there are hands and footholds on this gigantic, dark cliff. The feeling is that you are listening to a small collection of sounds w ithin a massive, infinite space, and it is only at the height of some of the sonic madness that they expand to fil l it. Much of the mad· ness is drum 'n' bass stripped to its bare bones and given a new synthetic skin that reta ins the trademark Aphex Twin com· plexity, but at the same t ime never sounds overloaded. But there are several desperately simple piano-led tracks, such as avri/14th and kesson dalef(lncidentally, those are not spelling mistakes. The majority of the song t itles on drukqs are nothing more than a random set of letters . either that or they' re all in Welsh) . it's a baffling series of non-sequiturs, musically speakIng. You are flung from tracks that resemble little more than random atmospheric sound effects (gwety Mernans) to slightly more accessible material such as bbydhyonchord, which actual· Jy veers a little closer to the Window/icker sound which won Aphex Twin many fans. There are some noticeable stand-out tracks though. cockjver 10 and 54 cymru beats are exceptionally inventive, and the former contains the only non-sampled vocals on the album ("Come on you cunt let's have some Aphex acid!"). Genuine melodic sensitivity is also a welcome addition to the Aphex Twin armoury, although you have to dig deep to find it. it's found on the second CD primarily, with btoum-roumada and petiatil ex htdui being prime examples. This is the real problem with the album. however. The lack of accessibility which is naturally engendered by releasing a 30 track double album, allied to the fact that it is nigh-on impossible to do anything except listen to virtually all of it (dance? You'd need sev· eral extra legs and a truly bizarre sense of rhythm · a sense on a par w ith Richard D. James, probably) means that this is almost certain to be one of t he great overlooked albums of our time. it's a t ragedy, it really is. Only t he enlightened and the faithful will buy it , only the t ruly patient and musically sensitive will appreciate it. There is real genius at work here, but it is beyond comprehension for so much of the time. This isn't something that you can j ust put on as background music as you go about your business. If you did that, I doubt that you would hear any of it. This has to be listened to as a body of work, and concentrated on. And you'd have to do this for several listens. How many people are going to do that? Buy this and be amazed, but you'll have to TRY. Anthony Lovell

Cake:

Crackout:

Paul Well er:

Comfort Eagle

This Is Really Neat

Day s of Speed

Cake' s fourth album has all the right ingredients- funky drum· beats, dirty, fuzzy guitars, brass instruments, a very under-produced sound, the distinctive vocals of singer/songwriter John McCrea, odd song titles, even adder lyrics. These traits, so important and essential to the typical Cake sound, are not used formulaically, however, but mixed up, screwed up, played around with and served up in a variety of different ways and in differing amounts. Yep, Comfort Eagle sounds very much like a Cake album, but at the same time it also manages to sound fresh and new. But not always. The title track, for instance, is possibly the weakest song on the album, due to a nonchalant monotone present throughout the record that is its downfall.

Quite why it's the title t rack of the album only Cake know. This Is an ethos that can be applied to the majority of t he lyrics.

Even when they are too obscure and surreal to make any sense whatsoever, there is always a feeling that they do mean something, that they are heartfelt and sincere. This is nowhere more evident than in Pretty Pink Ribbon. lt starts light-heartedly and nonsensically • "Without the pretty pink ribbon you'd end up just like me 1 Without the pretty pink ribbon you'd float down t o the sea" - but it soon descends into what is undoubtedly the darkest song on the album. "Without the room that you live in," sings McC rea, "your cancer would eat through the bone... your demons would all be around. Without the pretty pink ribbon you 'd end up just like me." Nonsensical? Maybe, but that doesn't matter. because you believe every word he sings.

That's where the beauty of this album lies. it isn't an amazing album, but it's more than j ust good. And there are moment s, like Pretty Pink Ribbon, when you can really feel the music, when it consumes you entirely, when nothing else matters.

When that happens, it 's something very special.

Crackout have paid their dues on the toilet circuit supporting such superstars as 28 Days, Easyworld and Miocene. Will their debut album send them rocket ing to stratospheric fame and universal acclaim? After all, they can't be any worse than Feeder... can they? Firstly, this isn't their debut at all. Crackout recorded t heir debut album in 1998 but Shifty Disco refused to release it. This time they've tried to fuse the pre-pubescent hormonal rush of Blink-182's bubblegum choruses to the Foo Fighters' insufferable self-importance. All of the blame for the failure of this can be ascribed to Steve Eagles. Eagles is the guitarist. Somebody needs to tell him about chord changes. He should also be disabused of the notion that crashing guitars enhance any song, regardless of trivialities like melody, structure and rhythm. However, Eagles is a veritable Hendrix on the guitar compared to his talents as a singer and lyricist. His 'punk' voice on fast songs sounds like a retarded dog Impaled on a fence-post . No wait, it sounds like the singer in Sham 69; which is far, far worse. The first track, 142, is one of the less bad efforts. The chorus is one of their better Blink-182 impersonations but it comes too quickly and runs out of steam; a problem with which Blink-182 are doubtless familiar. Things liven up a little with a song called - no, really - Breakout, the obligatory vague paean to defiance and independence. lt rips off The Pixies and might be a moshpit anthem if it did not get so tedious so quick ly. Crackout do have redeeming features.

The bassist is solid. The audibly j azz-influenced drummer outc lasses his playmates by several light-years. But they need to ditch Eagles and they need to write some half-decent songs.

Crackout can do bad imit ations of Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, The Ramones, Blink-182 and the Foo Fighters, but on this album they're less than the sum of their influences.

One of Britain's greatest ever songwriters, Paul Weller is still winning awards and still producing albums. He has out-survived other artists who appeared in the seventies and pushed himself into the 21st century while continuing to sound modern. After the success of his Heliocentric album he strikes again with Days of Speed.

The album is an attempt to capture the experience and magic of a live gig on tape as well as giving a history of his career_ The mix created is great, as over the years Weller's gig performance has just kept on improving. The electricity from a gig that he says he wished to catch when producing a live album is caught excellently.

However this is probably not the album for those Weller virgins out there. This is mainly due to the fact that the tour was purely acoustic and solo, so although its great for established fans new fans might not agree. it's t rue that the acoustic nature of some of the songs does mean that the feeling of the togetherness is lost. However these new versions are still good alternatives. The raw state of the whole album does stick it together well and gives you a real feeling of actually being there. This leads you to listen to the whole length rather than skipping from track to t rack .

The album spans the years of his career with songs such as 1978' s English Rose from his time in The Jam and the Style Council tune Headstart for Happiness.

Of course, the bulk of the songs come from Wellers' phenomenal solo career, and includes classics such as Wild Wood and Out of the Sinking. For the experienced Well er fans t his album is well worth buying as it contains some of the best live examples of his songs. it has been t houghtfully put together and is certainly a wort hy addition to a Paul Weller collection.

Mischa Pear/man

Jamle Murray

Owen Roberts

6/10

ivent Wednesday.

3/10 October 17 . 200 1

9/10

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Singles 15

Gorillaz â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘ Rock The House Being the world's first animated band is not an easy job, but the Gorillaz seem happy to do it. After snubbing their Mercury nomination, they are back with their fourth single from the eponymous debut LP. Rock the House has a more conventional funk inspired groove than most of the rest of the album, but it complements the breakthrough single Glint Eastwood nicely.

The primary reason for this is the vocals of Del Tha Funky Homosaplen, but this track also maintains its hip-hop beat, and has not been remixed for release . Damon AI barn is also noticeably absent . Many might think this is a good thing, but it does mean that it is less of a cross-genre extravaganza than previous Gorillaz tracks. But enough muso style train spotting - what this song actually like?

Funky, is the simple answer. lt just makes you want to groove slowly but surely, swing your booty , and when Del asks you to "tap your toes and clap your haaaands" you cannot help but comply . The vocals aren't afraid to display a little bit of loungecore smoothness and whilst it may not rock the house, it' ll certainly caress it up and down seductively. The trumpets add the needed anthemic quality and the recorder riff firmly stamps Damon's zany new direction upon this record . Britain's seemingly unstoppable obsession with all things hip-hop may well see this single doing very well indeed .

Luke Wrlght

A1abama3: Wade Int o The Wa ter Cranberries: The bizarre Brixton indie-rock band returns with another single from their newest album (La Pest e) to help launch their UK tour.

Larry Love has written a tune that incorporates blues, indierock, techno percussion and Love's country vocals. But despite the mix of styles the music is bland, and does not Inspire anything . The chorus is rescued by the guest vocals of Elleen Rose, which insert a finger-thin slice of funk into the song.

The two b-sides are both live recordings from April 2001. This is wisely chosen as the band have a strong reputation for their live performance. However, the songs do not do justice to this; they are not overly different from the first track, although they are slightly more upbeat and entertaining .

Finally , although the music may not be interesting, the fact that the band's fan club is run from Her Majesty 's Prison in Littlehampton is!

Chloe Garrett

Beta Band:

Ana l yse

Now in their tenth year since forming in Limerick , The Cranberries have rel inquished themselves of their two most recognisable traits. Whilst the political tension that characterised Zombie and the soul-searching lyricism of Linger have both disappeared, Analyse reflects the simpler philosophy of a band who are concentrating on "seeing the beauty all around them" . After a violent drum solo at the beginning, the song settles into a mid-paced but upbeat guitar-led anthem, with a crowd-pleasing " la-ya-ya" section in the middle that will be popular during the spring tour next year. However, the song 's lyrics ( "Close your eyes 1 close your eyes I breathe the air I out there ") do seem insipid, and it is now only the distinctive Gaelic tones of singer Dolores O'R iordan that really mark out this band from other indie acts. This single is pleasantly meandering , but uninspiring even if we don't 'analyse ' it.

Jonathan Rolfe

Human Bein g System Of A Down: Chop Suey

Sometimes the only reason for reading reviews is to answer the buy it / don't buy it questions. If this is the case, do not buy .

This isn't because the single is bad . On the contrary, it's fantastic . Almost anything that The Beta Band does ends up sounding like a cool trippy solution to life's problems. The lyrics make no sense - but on the 3EPs (first singles collection release) even singing "dog's got a bone now " sounded wicked.

They cared about the music, about the fans and about not qualifying for the charts. Stylistically they 're messed up; soft strumming with weird, simple organ noises building to beautiful craziness. I forgot, don't buy this single because it's on Hot Shots 11, a whole album of perfection. The B-sides aren't Included either, so this would make an essential purchase.

Slmon Howarth

Taken from their third album Tox icity, the four members of System Of A Down return with a single entitled Chop Suey.

Even after listening to the single several t imes, its difficult to establish what point this track was attempting t o make. Well , they did say they wanted to redefine music rules, not follow them.

The single begins with a melodic 30-second acoustic guitar intro, before dropping into a heavier succession of verses and choruses. Some lyrics seem a little confusing, particularly the lines "trust In my self-righteous suicide, I cry when angels deserve to die".

Not a great track , but seeing as the track was one of the most requested songs on American Radio over the summer, it looks Mark Wheeler set to do fairly well in the UK too.

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Pictures (clockwise from top): 1. Gorillaz; 2. Alabama 3; 3. Cranberries; 4. System Of A Down;

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5. Beta Band

Wednesday, October 17 , 2001

event

16 Film

Legally Blonde ••

re et d by Robert luv.et1c 'ta r1ng: Reese ~-ther--p on luke Wilson ard Selma Bla;r

Witherspoon stars as like this totally hot blonde who goes on one major crusade to win back her like total Ken do 11 of a boyfriend. and instead like finds her true self. Like totally!

I think it's time to share my secret obsession with you all. Is it just me or does Reese Witherspoon look like a billy goat?

Maybe it's the gentle jutt of her chin or the subtle flair of her nostrils, I really can't decide, the one thing I do know is when· ever she appears on the screen all I can think of is cute little cartoon billy goats. No matter how weird this might seem, I actually find this phenomenon a pleasurable experience and I now actively seek it out, even if it means I often sit through a lot of dross as a result. She first caught my eye in in the twist· ed urban retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fable Freeway and from then on I was smitten. I sat through Cruel Intentions on the pretense of catching another glimpse of this miracle of nature, I shouldn't really mention that I actually quite enjoyed the film as well but I will . Pleasantville was well. .. pleasant enough, American Pyscho was less harrowing for me than it was for most people and Election was just pure marvel.

This was the obsession that brought me to Legally Blonde and I was not disappointed. But, hey that's enough about my rather worrying/charming preoccupation with Reese Witherspoon, "what about the film," I hear you cry as I perch on my psychoanaylist's couch. Okay, I am getting there but, first have I ever told you about my childhood?

Only joking, Legally Blonde is basically Clueless for the now generation. Why the now generation cannot be trusted to find it's way to the dusty end of the video shop I don't know. But I don't make the descisions around here, and from what you've already read, I bet you're glad that I don't. Anyway, yeah Legally Blonde is really exactly what you'd expect from this

kind of romantic comedy. The plot is so featherlight it threatens to float away at any moment and the aesthetics so sickenenly cute you almost fear that when you leave the darkness you will find your clothes have been dyed pink by the screen glow.

Witherspoon is Elle Woods, the girl with everything; She's president of her sorority, has the highest grade point average in her major (fashion, of course) and the rich, handsome law school· bound boyfriend. Unfortunately, said boyfriend harbours ambitions of becoming a senator and so needs a 'Jackie' not a 'Marilyn', promptly dumping Elle before leaving for Harvard.

Despite this snub El le follows and, like totally glams the funky old place up with her natural charm.

Unl ike Clueless I actually liked this film, mainly because Reese Witherspoon's character is not just a vacuous bimbo who accidentely saves the day but a steely sharp young woman who just happens to indulge her feminine mores to the full. If people mistake her for an airhead, then it's too bad, they'll soon realise the truth when she cuts them down with her razor sharp wit.

Elle Woods is the perfect character for Witherspoon's comeback film (she recently took time off to have a baby) giving her the perfect part to showcase her malevolent cuteness with maximum effect. Unfortunately the surrounding cast are seemingly only present to feed Witherspoon the ammunition she needs to detonate her deft comic timing. And this leaves the film feeling very lop-sided indeed and it ultimately undermines Merek Cooper the whole piece.

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Atlantis:

D,rected by Gary Trousda e and Kirk w1se Featurina tre voice~ of: Michael J. Fox and James Garner

What do you get if you cross the directors of Beauty and the Beast, a selection of the worlds finest animators and a popular legend? An exce l lently crafted piece of filmmaking? Not exactly Atlantis continues the trend Disney began with Hercules in consciously avoiding spectacularly sleek animation styles and special effects (knowing that 2-D animation just can't keep up with its CGI counterpart in this area), instead concentrating on and experimenting with more stylistic techniques. Its characters are excused the face-engulfing eyes and all round uber-cuteness that formed the rudimentary features of early to mid 90s Disney in favour of a more angular structure. Also thankfully missing is the obligatory bestial sidekick, plus any other talking animals for that matter, and there is not even a hint of a random musical outburst during the entire 95 minutes. Which is rather refreshing. However, this is pretty much where the favourable aspects of the film dry up (pun intended).

The story is based around Milo (Fox). a reclusive linguist who idolises his dead grandfather and obsesses over the old relative's quest to find said sunken city. This obsession is realised with the help of a random old man, who appears in the film just long enough to put together a team of explorers- each with their own special skill - build a huge submarine and fund the entire expedition, before disappearing again. There then occurs a Jules Verne influenced journey to the centre of the earth, in which the heroes find their paradise, only to discover that All Is Not As it Seems.

Although the cast is strong and each of the main characters is very well acted (or is that voiced?). the actual characterisation and much of the plot direction just pushes the boundaries of the ridiculous. The band of merry men and women recruited for the expedition have all been plucked from the Big Disney Book Of Stereotypes. There is a seedy French man beset by drilling tunnels; a suave Italian; a fiery Hispanic girl; a black doctor; and a bitter ageing old woman; all lead by a white middle-class military officer with a blonde bombshell at his side.

However, the main problems with this film revolve around the

fact that it just reeks of Saturday morning cartoons, with elements of the original series of Star Trek thrown in for good measure. The blend of CGI and 2-D backgrounds is occasionally quite messy, making the whole thing look like an episode of Johnny Quest, and at least two of the characters have been directly pinched from Recess. Furthermore, not only does Leonard "ears" Nimoy play the Atlantean King, but the whole exploration team seems to be based around the original Star Trek cast; and in true Trek style, 95% of the 200 strong crew is

American Pie 2:

wiped out in the first five minutes of the trip without anybody seeming to realise .

There are certain gems within the film that do shine through.

Florence Stanley is wonderful as the deadpan Mrs Packard, and the comic timing is pretty spot-on throughout. But, overall it wouldn't surprise me if, in a few months time, Atlantis: The Lost Empire will have sunk without a trace.

Markland Starkle

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The sequel to one of 1999's most successful films has arrived. but is the second slice worth your precious cash or will it leave you wishing you had gone for the cheese board instead?

People will tell you this film is terrible, that it is just a string of juvenile gags and set pieces, stuffed Into a rehashed version of the original story line. For what its worth I agree; this film is a string of juvenile gags and set pieces, and they are stuffed into a rehashed version of the original story line .. , but it is fantastic.

With the original being such a huge hit American Pie 2 had the potential to disappoint, frustrate and flop on a massive scale.

However, it is saved by the quality of its writing. Director James B. Rogers and writer Adam Hertz know how to get good mileage out of an obvious gag - the masturbation mishap with a tube of super glue is about as subtle in its approach as a jumbo jet and yet still funny enough to make you laugh out loud. The second key to this film's success is its genuine affection for its characters, which is palpable no matter what humiliations they suffer.

And suffer they do.

The action again revolves around Jim (Jason Biggs). and while he seems to have outgrown his fetish for baked goods, he is still looking for ways to increase his sexual experience, and improve his technique for the imminent return of Eastern European sex goddess Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). He turns to his old prom date, the flute toting, self-confessed band geek Michelle (Aiyson Hannigan), for pointers. Apart from this there is a striking lack of plot, but lets be honest, who really expected one. With a film like American Pie what is important about the sequel is that it holds on to the spirit of the original. Pie 2 feels like more of a follow on than a sequel and manages this by reuniting the whole of the original creative team and cast, and yes that means the return of Eugene Levy. Wisely given more screen time as Jim's over attentive and acutely embarrassing father, Levy pretty much steals the whole show as he comes out with line after line of things that you should never, ever, hear your father say. it is by no means a perfect sequel, what is missing from Pie 2 is the heart-felt sentimentality that its predecessor managed to achieve. Attempts are made to bring the same quality to this film, and to an extent they are successful. But, although the cli· mactic scene of the film has its inevitable Pie-esque twist it is still more cliched than one would expect. it also takes time to gather momentum; apart from the opening scene the first half hour threatens to disappoint.

The bottom-line? Although Pie 2 lacks the ability to shock in quite the same way, and perhaps has a little more "pastry than filling", go and see it, take your friends and laugh at things that Tom Hlnes will hopefully never happen to you.

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101 Reykjavik: Directed by Baltasar Kormakur Starring路 Hllmir Sn~r, Victoria Abril and Hanna Maria Karlsdottir They don't call it Iceland for nothing. It,s cold and there's sod a 11 to do. Might as well get pissed and impregnate your mother,s lesbian lover.

Meet Hilmir. Hilmir is lazi ly cracking one off under the duvet as morning drifts towards afternoon. "Why is there no porn on in the morni ng?" he muses, and let's be honest. who hasn't run that quest ion through their mind from time to time. But where the similarities between you or I and Icelandic dosser Hilmir end, though, is when it comes to his lesb1an mother and her lover who he sleeps w ith.

101 Reykjavik is very much your basic boy meets girl/boy sleeps with girl/boy finds out she's his mother's girlfriend/she has his baby anyway type film, but what sets it apart is its arc tic setting in baron Ice land . Nat ive di rector Baltasar Konnakurwho punctuates a dark, gritty view of Reykjavik with sweeping shots of the sprawling snow-strewn peaks- clearly feels some affection for the city, with the film coming across from time to t ime as a promoti onal video for t he Ice landic Tourist Office.

However, Kormakur wards this off with some cutting lines about the country. "The only people who live in Iceland are those that are born here, and there aren't many of them," comments the

dosser lead, played bnlliantly by Hilm1r Snaer. "People in Iceland need to fuck more often .路路 Whilst the sentiments of this comment are appreciated, it would appear that the people of Iceland are doing a pretty good job as it is. The film opens with Hilmir rhythmically pounding a nameless blonde: even the credits heave along w1th the act .

Later, Hilm ir and Lola (his mother's girlfriend) energetically mark the coming of the New Year . Later still, Hilmir watches a couple at a house party and offers a running commentary of inappropriate comments. He also rec1tes a porn movie with gusto while chilling with friends. And don't forget the lesbians.

But desp1te the proliferation of sex and nudity, 101 Reykjavik maintains a tongue-in-cheek humour throughout. The film is not perfect - at times in the opening half hour it feels pretty slow but with a few superb comic scenes mingling among the nothingness (most involve traffic wardens or sex). Kormakur maintains a warm glow about the picture.

The performances certainly help. Hilmir is a useless waste of

space approaching 30 and still living at home, but you can't dislike him. nor his bizarre but rewarding relationship with his mother. The other woman in their life. Lola, also produces an excellent performance, while her character's name adds to the film massively - the set piece of the score is a deliciously elec tronic rendition of the Kinks' classic La/a.

Indeed, 101 Reykjavik enjoyed much publicity due to part funding and musical involvement from Bl ur frontman Damon Albarn, and he doesn't disappoint. But while much of the film retains a quality, low-key dance murmur, it is the various ve rsions of La/a that steal the show.

101 Reykjavik is not the finest film ever made. lt probably IS, however, the finest film ever made about the capital of Iceland, a 30 year-old dosser and his lesbian mother. Whatever, it probably beats cracking one off under the duvet on a lazy late mornlllg. And that's high praise indeed.

Will Ha/sey

8/10

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Goodbye Charlie Bright:

Directed by Nick Love Starring: Paul Nicholls and Roland Manoonkian

To us natives your average Brit-flick is as familiar and grimy as a greasy bag of day old chips. But to Americans they're exotic foreign beasts.

As an American, I knew I was in for a doozie when I opened the box of Goodbye Char/ie Bright and popped it into the VCR. lt was my first British flick, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to break free from my traditional Hollywood movie heritage. In the US, movies based on typical teenage lives typically involve sexual liasons with pastries, beer-binging fraternity parties, homecoming queens, and tattoos of the words "dude" or "sweet .. magically appearing after a heavy night of partying. Indeed, the first scene of this movie seemed all too similar to a Blink-182 music video, and not too different from Hollywood , as a bunch of good 1ook111g teenage boys ran down the streets of their hometown naked.

Yes, that's right naked , for all of you Paul Nichol ls fans out there ... don't worry he made me look twice too. After trying to figure out what al l of the cha racters were saying in the ir south London accents (yes, I rewound the tape a few times,) I realised that despite its light-hearted beginning, the film delves in to deeper issues affecting the boys who are growing up in a tough council estate neighbourhood.

Th1s dramatic film is based on the volatile friendship of two boys, Charlie (Pau l Nichol ls) and Just in ( Roland M anookian). Charlie seems like the most likely to succeed; Justin is overly dependent on Charlie to get h1m out of h1s 'right roya l messes'. Along with the rest of their "mates" (Damien, Tommy, and Franc is), they have mastered the art of th ievery, snatching purses, car-radios, and burglarising homes, but often and conveniently are always on the brink of getting caught. They spend their free time doing drugs, attending parties, chasing after girls, and playing football.

All of their summer fun begins to wear thin as Tommy joins the Army, Francis has many a crisis with his girlfriend, Damien

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argues wi t h Just in , Justin self-destructs, and Charlie decides that he wants to move on in his life. Phew! Not only this, but Nick Love attempts to include some anti -war sentiments and an unex pected ending, proving that the plot wil l not disappoint you if you have a low attention span and a need for constant action in your movies.

Aside from his evocative story line, Love adds a few quirky extras to make the film stand out even more. The rough urban setting exudes bright and clean colours. which provide an interesting contrast to some of the more disturbing actions committed by the teenage boys. There are also many scenes where the actors were runn ing: symboli sm perhaps? Often the shots were high quality - indeed, if you are trying to master running cinematography, there are a few nice examples. The dialogue seemed a bit underdeveloped but the chemistry between the characters made up for their lack of in-depth commun ication. Also in general, the characters were quite attractive, making the mov1e easy on the eye. The humour, possibly the most confusing part of the movie still left me unsure whether I was supposed to laugh, or feel a bit disturbed. An old woman curses. a very young boy smokes cigarettes. and the word "wanker" comes up more times than I have ever heard before, but I have to admit that I did like the change in comedic perspective.

Funny, appealing, and dangerous. by the end of Goodbye Charlie Bright I found out that the British do do it differently, and that change wasn't such a bad thing ... maybe Hollywood isn't what it's cracked up to be after all.

Andle Franc/s

8/10

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TV/Radio 19

Essential TV· In years to come, when we finally lose our little toe due to evolution, we won't notice because we won't be able to see our feet past our beer gut. That's what the scientists and sociologists will have us believe anyway.

You may well ridicule those sumo sized ladies fighting on Jerry Springer and laugh at the amount of fatsos in America, but within two or three years, the UK will have the same levels of obesity as the United States. it's a sobering thought isn't it, and after watching Fat Bloke you will almost certainly be reaching for that appetising stick of celery lurking in the salad drawer as opposed to that Twix glistening in the kitchen strip light.

Think Fat Bastard from Austin Powers and you have the general idea. We're talking man breasts, love handles and extra tyres, but while you marvel at some of the torsos on offer, spare a thought for those men who, tired of being stared at, have decided to do something about their weight.

Contrasting a posh, motivational course for Home Counties business men with an all male slimming class in Liverpool, this documentary follows scouser George as he slims from nineteen to fifteen stone and, rather like Barry

Bethel from the slim fast advert, is surprised to find that he doesn't wobble anymore.

However, despite the gentle humour of the programme, the stories of the men, who are brave enough to expose themselves on a screen notorious for adding pounds, are heart warming to say the least. As a househusband, George finds it easier to look after his wife, an MS sufferer, and his three children once he sheds the pounds, whilst others talk about the shame they feel at being the 'wrong size'.

The programme is part of Channel Four's Body Image season, which aims to highlight the body issues and prejudices that are such a part of society today. They have already shown a programme entitled Skmny Women, which looked at a group of women with distorted images of their own bodies, many of whom had eating disorders, so Fat Bloke is the other side of the coin.

And if you can stomach (ha ha) any more programmes about people who hate themselves then tune into Bodysnippers, also this week , which examines the growth in plastic surgery among the Asian and black communities.

Llz Hutchlnson

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nicked a leaf out of Janine's book by getting glammed up and sneaking off to ·secret places'. Also Laura accidentally burns down the Beale Empire after she falls asleep leaving the deep fat fryer on (like you do) , but the kids come out unscathed . Maybe next time ...

This bizarre flatmate thing seems to be in the air in Ramsey Street too, as Lou causes havoc when he moves in with Harold.

Although, why anyone would want to share a shower with Lou Carpenter is beond me.

Other insane goings on include Toadie dumping Sheena (don't flatter yourself, love), and then being asked out by i1er mum. I mean, what is this, is the world going mad? Doesn't anybody have any taste? And then Toadie st arts to lose his edge. But what edge?

Strewth, he never had any edges in the first place, you only have to look at the guy to work that one out!

On a more serious note, things aren 't looking good in Hollyoaks this week, as Jodie moans to Nick that the flat stinks (my advice is Carpet 2000, it works a treat), lzzy confronts Dan about his surprise trip to Ibiza and Geri comes back from Marbella engaged. Oh yeah, and Lewis dies from an overdose.

Kate Herrlngton

Wednesday 10th October - 7 .30pm

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Ben\ard Manning

Wednesday 17th Octobef' - 7 .30pm .Jimmy .Jones

Wednesday 24th October - 7.30pm

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The Blues Brothers l)1bute Show

Essential Web·

Model Behaviour

Monday 29th October - 7 .30pm

The Sensational British Chippendalea

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Sunday 4 th November - Top 1\-blte Bands •

I have always hated reality TV. Why turn to the telly to see uninspired, talentless and dow nright ugly people from the monochrome world when I can just walk down St Stephen's street and see it in the flesh and blood.

Model Behaviour is the latest in a long line of such programmes and, muc h like Popstars, it slowly (and painfully) whittles down thousands of wannabes to a mere five and gives them their dream job. However, not wanting to miss a trick, the makers of Model Behaviour have their own website. This means that anyone who couldn't make it along to the auditions can post a jpeg of themselves on the irrternet so people can tell them how god damn sexy they are. Tempted? I hope not.

There are hundreds of pictures on this site, all of them hoping that perhaps their face might be favoured over the rest. We are invited to score each picture from 10-100; the scores are averaged and then a chart is constructed. lt seems as if the website is proving to be a success, as most female pictures have received around 1200-1500 votes whilst the

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Fat Bl oke C4 Thursday October 25 9.00pm

Essential Soaps: Jeez Louise, you'd think after all the trauma in last weeks Eastenders that the Square would be about as busy as an old man's underpants, but it seems that somebody somewhere is determined to pull all the stops out, because this week's episodes are just as juicy. Not content with having just Beppe 'Don Juan' di Marco as the stud of Walford, the Beeb have decided it's time for a new hunk to grace our screens and set our pulses racing. Yep, Billy Mitchell's back In town; we've all seen him smarming about, but this time he's ditched the overal ls for a suit and has money to throw around. Now, we all know poor old Billy's not too sharp at the best of times, but it seems all this money's gone to 'is 'ead, as he decides to lust after M iss Piggy herself, Janine. No, it's not a joke. lt al l cracks off when Billy asks her to help decorate his gaff and then Janine goes to the house warming wearing some skimpy number probably hot off one of the market stalls. To put the ugly icing on the ugly cake he then invites her to view his waterbed. Personally, I don't know who's worse off but it's a match made in 'El l and by t he end of the week they're thinking of setting up home together.

And talking of dressing up, it's all go for Pauline, the dirty dawg, who seems to have

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men averaged about 500-1000.

No one seems to have been sycophantic with the ir voting either; the highest ranked girl was only averaging 50 points. But then again that might be because people like me have gone through and given everyone ten, simply because they can't be arsed. Some people have obviously taken this very seriously, one girl sent in a black and white photo of herself in a human sized birdcage , although those in the top ten have mostly just sent in snaps taken in very modest circumstances. The website also keeps you up to date with what's going on in the TV series, however. the best addition to this site is the option to write to Channel 4 and tell them that you find a photograph offensive; we spent all afternoon saying how we thought many of the photos were inappropriate for a beauty contest of any sorts.

Whatever your views on Model Behaviour this website is worth taking a look at, it will certainly provide a few laughs. www.channel4.comj appsj modeljlndex.jps Luke Wrlght

Steps Be)OIId & Pure Britney 3.30pm

Wednesday 7th November -

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The Spectacular RockJn' On Heaven'S 0oor• Muoic from EMs

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lhl.I"Sday 6th December Rock Explosion!

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Theatre Box. Office Open Daily 2pm to 8pm • BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT •

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Wednes d ay, 0 cto ber 1 7, 2001

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20 Arts Frederick Sandy s and the Pre Raphaelites Norwich Castle, Oct 15 Ja n 6

Exhibition Review:

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Wandering around the newly refurbished gallery in the castle it was easy to see why so many people are so passionate about Frederick Sandys· work. However no one could be more passionate than Betty Elza, Sandys' biggest follower. Forg et Elvis: to this woman Sandys is 'the King' . After discovering Sandys' in a junk shop for £1 .50 her passion spiralled into 20 years of searching to compile an extensive catalogue of Sandys' work.

Comc1ding with the release of the catalogue is the opening of the new gal lery's exhibition. comprising many pieces by PreRaphaelit es such as DG Rossetti, Albert Moore, Wil liam Bell and many more. Though all the pieces contribute to the mood of the exhibition , the work of local artist Sandys provides most interest. As a short time student of Norwich ' s School of Art and Design in the mid 19th century this exhibition provides loca l im port ance alongside beaut iful art work. The use of the brightl y paint ed gallery is very impressive and the sty li stic decision t o harig the pieces in a true Victorian style is a refreshing change, after the blank wall syndrome of many modern art exhibits.

Bur sting t o the seems with over one hundred pieces the lively gallery provides hours of perusal. The collection is certainl y di verse. from still life to portraits. which provide the possibi lity of plotting the progression of Sandys' career. However the paintings that clearly shine through are Sandy 's images of women , particularly the sections named Infatuation and Classical seduction which , next to his portraits of local industrialist s. sit on a whole other level. Conforming to the PreRaphaelite idea Sandys paints beautiful porcelain skinned, firey haired women whose big blue eyes appear to follow you around the room. The comment that Sandys is the "greatest draughtsman " by Dante Rossetti certainly rings true when you examine the immense detail of each piece. The castle also has an interactive section where you can research the artist and col lection further, a very usefu l resource for all history of art students.

Also t he calm ing atmosphere of the cast le will provide re laxation alongside a chunk of culture. The mystical feeling of the exhibition certainly converted this modernist into wanting a little bit of escapism from the now.

Lo/s Metcalfe

Book Rev i ews: Th i s Ma n's pi 11 earl Djerassj

Atonement Ian McEwan

The Pill is taken by millions of women - 80% born since 1945across the world. and probably a fair few on campus as well. it's considered by some to be a modern miracle - empowering women and to others a modern curse- preventing life.

This book (for those of you with a ch emistry doctorate) seeks out the origins of the pill and its consequences , both soc ial and scientific, as well as running alongside the life of the author and creator of the Pill , earl Dj erass i. Djerassi spends most of the first half of the book debu nk ing various myths and accusations about the past of the Pill and tri es to establish its true route to being; as well as defending his corner from the critics over the years, suc h as "The Pill is not anti-baby ... 1t is pro-baby ensuring every child is a wanted ch ild ." Reading at times like a scientific paper, the book uses complex language expected from a sc ientist whom, from examining the inside cover. appears to have won every accolade going. But for those of us without such qualifications. the book increasingly hard work and yawn-inducing. In having created the Pill, Dj erassi explains in the rest of the book how he progressed from the com mercial environment into one of academia and furthermore into one as an author of novels, autobiographies and plays (you get the fee ling that he is a modern day Da Vinci - turning his hand to everything and being good at it as well). His fiction (of which there are extracts th roughout the latter half of the book) is heavily scientific and is more accessible to understanding the Pil l than the init ial chapters . Whi lst I find the book hard going it is clearly very in-depth and informative as the reviews on the back read - all written by what I view as the ta rget audience Nobel Laureates. A wordy book , good if you wa nt an authorit ative account on the development of the Pil l (but do people really want to know all that?) but terrible for a spot of light reading. Only approach if you are doing a Chemistry degree.

Set in the 1930s, Atonement's opening sees 13 year-old Briony Tallis making an accusation that leads to the imprisonment of the innocent Robbie Turner for rape. The novel focuses on the power of tel li ng tales: Briony's fictions help her explain the world around her: Robbie 's tales help him find the strength to make it through prison and later, as a wounded soldier, back to the Dunkirk for the evacuation of France.

Atonement considers whether people can correct past mistakes by making amends in the present or only by changing their history. The end of the novel returns to an aged Briony, diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease that wil l quickly waste all her memories.

In a novel that lets its characters live for remembered glimpses of stolen moments, the idea of erasing a lifetime's thoughts and experiences is all the more ch illing. McEw an subtl y asks many questions about the nature of fiction and telling and interpreting. Readers are made aware of the fragile gestalt of plot: how various authors and narratives can bend the truth, how history can be re-written deliberately and accidentally.

McEwan briefly allows himself and readers unaccustomed luxuries: a hero and a happy ending, but then shatters these comforts.

The novel 's opening is deliberately and essenti ally slow and almost tedious. lt al lows t he book to end with a series of twists that operate on a level much more exciting than mere plot. prompti ng readers to analyse their own hopes for the lives of the characters who may or may not ever have existed. An alumnus of UEA's Creative Writ ing MA, Mc Ewan 's last novel won t he Booker Prize, and this novel is similarly nom inated.

Whilst hating to agree with crappy publisher's blurb , this really is " Mc Ewan ' s finest ach ievement " . Simply dauling.

Greg /vlngs

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Theatre Review: Mark Thomas Mad dermarket The at r e Mark Thomas is a man with something to say. This may not come as a su rpr ise to anyone who has seen his te levis ion series The Mark Thomas Comedy Product - a satirical sledgehammer towards multinationals and politicians, among many, many others- but amongst the Jim Davidsons of the stand up circuit , Thomas is something of a unique force.

A comedian w ith his roots in poli tica l activism , Thomas knows how to get results on and off stage. Tonight's show is presented as a lecture, subtitled "Dambusters: Tales of Dissent". lt is the story of the llisu Dam, a controversial project due t o be built in Turkey - funded partly by the UK - wh ich will potentially leave up to 78,000 Kurdish people homeless.

As a leading campaigner in the effort to stop the dam, Thomas relat es his cause with fiery passion and a quick wit. His allencompassing knowledge of the subject, and ability to relay the intricacies of the ca mpaign in meticulous, animated detail make him a singularly engaging speaker.

Alongside this- perhaps surprisingly - the show is also peppered with incredibly funny, laugh-o ut-loud moments. Thomas draws the mirth from his subject with reliable accuracy, underpinning his polemic with a ca ust ic (but never tasteless) brand of humour and pinpoint sense of the ridiculous.

Thomas benefits from the live fo rmat , freed from the const raints of television to fo llow up tangents and ad-lib in a more traditi onal stand-up fashion. Nevertheless, the show is far from conventional, and rema ins a defiant alternative to t he threadbare mother-in-law gags of so many of Thomas 's contemporaries.

Occasionall y controversial, at ti mes immensely powerful : in the pleasant confines of the M addermarket Theatre this show is a sharp reminder of just how vast our small world can seem. You wouldn't get that from Jim Davidson.

Sarah Edwardes

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Arts 21

21st Anniversary of Norwich Puppet Theatre

Theatre Preview:

For a relat ively small provincial city , Norwich has continually managed to maintain a reputation in sustaining , and to a lesser extent, supporting some of the more obscure and idiomatic art forms in the region . Many , especially those who have lived in the area for a long time, may feel perplexed as to why this citi zenry , renowned for their almost Incomprehensible accent and affinity for Country and Western music, unconsciously built a rather urbane and refined backdrop to an otherwise standard city. But this same city has a proud , almost radical, history in trying to 'buck the trend ' and this individuality has provided the space for some of the creative arts to develop. Incidentally, one of the more unique venues to have established itself, and in this case surprisingly successfully , is the Norwich Puppet Theatre .

This venue is situated in a converted Medieval Church on the Inner Ring Road; adjacent to the River Wensum, and only a few minutes wa lk from t he Law Courts. Like any city endowed with approximately 50 churches, some have seen their usage changed to more recreational use, and some have become less interesting than the Anglican faith that they replaced . The Puppet Theatre is unique, unlike several of the incarnations of the Norwich Art Centre, as it celebrates its 21st Birthday and simultaneously announces a com prehensive programme for the Autumn/Winter period . The puppetry, from within the eastern region, draws from both the traditional European folk tales and the children stories that culminates in the Christmas production of Jack and the Beanstalk . The programme seems to adhere to

the very same ethos that Row ling has created w1th the Harry Potter series; namely that certain topics can operate on a range of different levels, making it both attractive for adults and children. But back to the puppetry, and the initial highlights between now and the beginning of January are the productions of Pinocch1o, Harlequm in Trouble, and Thumbelma; with each having gained recogn ition in national publications; The Guardian descnbing Pmocchio as a · wonderful work that celebrates the possibility of theatre." A variety of techniques and puppets are fully utilised to enthral the concentration span of the younger children and intrigue the developed mind of the adult.

Unfortunately the present line-up cannot allow for the greatest act of puppetry, in the Anglo-American tradition. of the last 30 years. The story concerns a former crooked , neurotic and narcoleptic president who receives a 'full, free and absolute ' pardon from his former vice-president covering crimes committed over a period of five and a half years. The protagonists, in this case, were R1chard Nixon and Gerald Ford but this premise of human fallibility can be found in the above mentioned allegories, indicating that adult orientated puppetry does not necessarily concern the region of the penis! Much can be taken from the folk tales, especially those of African and Latin·American origin because they emanate wit h a verbal and moral history, but it is also useful to paraphrase the French writer Rousseau, from the Social Contract, with "All mannequins are born free, but are lames Brown everywhere in chains. ·

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Film: -

Campus All films start at 8.30 pm and are shown in Lecture Theatre One

0 Brother Where Art Thou Cinema City Oct 20-21 2.30 , 5.00

Tuesdays Soft Cell

Po Na Na

Discofide Breakbeat 1 funky breaks and beats and Latin grooves.

Free b4 10pm, £2 after.

Scary Movie 2 Ster Century Sat-Thu UCI Mon-Sun

LCR October 23 £16

The LCR disco

SW9 UC/ Mon-Sun

Elbow

LCR (duh) £3

The Circle Cinema City Oct 17-18 2.30, 8 .15

Waterfront October 23 £8

Thursday October 18

Tears of the Black Tiger Cinema City Oct 19, 20, 22 8.15

Oct 23 5.45

LCR October 30 £12 .50

Evolution

Friday October 19 Pi or Memento

The Score Ster Cent ury Sat-Thu UCI Mon-Sun

Tuesday October 23

Thea Gilmore

Norwich Arts Centre October 30 £5

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Thursday October 25 Terminator

Friday October 26 Best In Show

Tuesday October 30

City A Knight 's Tale Ster Century Sat-Thu UCI Mon-Sun

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Amelle UCI Mon-Sun American Pie 2 Ster Century Sat-Thu UCI Mon-Sun America 's Sweethearts Ster Century Thu

Music: Gigs Wednesdays

Charty Handbaggy

The Loft Gay night

Underground

Fridays

Mojos Lo-fi and non-commerica l lndie £2.50 (NUS)

Atlantis Ster Century Sat-Sun Battle Royale Cinema City Oct 17-18 2.30, 5.45 Delicatessen Cinema City Oct 21 7.30

Waterfront October 24 £9.50

Fridays Shed Seven

LCR October 19 £12.50

LCR October. 26 £8

Sundays Australia n Pi nk Floyd LCR October 21 £12.50 JTQ Hammondology: The Very Best Of

Driven Ster Century Sat, Sun, Thu UC / Mon-Fri Enigma Cinema City Oct 19-22 5.45;

Oct 23-24 2.30, 8.15; Oct 25 8.45 Ster Century Sat-Thu UC I Mon-Sun Fast and the Furious Ster Century Sat-Thu UCI Mon-Sun Legally Blonde UCI from October 26

Delirium

Play

The Concept House, garage and R n' B.

Po Na Na Disco, funk Free

Hy Times

Waterfront October 28 £11

Mondays

Tuesdays Funk Friction

Hot

Owens cafe Bar

Ikon Pop and commerical dance £4 b4 llpm

Slinky

Wednesdays

lt's the Business

Hys Club anthems Free with student ID.

Superfly

Liquid £2 b4 11pm

Students Only

Mojos Funk and hip-hop £3

Marvel

Meltin' Pot

The Alibi Jazz, funk and soul Jitterbug

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Gas Station

The Loft Hip hop , funk £3 b4 llpm , £4 after.

Therapy?

OPM Artificial Intelligence Ster Century Sat - Thu UCI Mon - Sun

Clubs

Jam

Po Na Na Funky drum 'n'bass I house Free b4 10pm, £2 after

Gorgeous

Manhattans Hardhouse and Trance £5 b411pm Elegance

Mojos R n' B

DJ Jam

Hys Charts and Dance £1

Parkside

Aockin ' Sheep

Po Na Na House Free b4 9pm, £3 after.

Ikon Charts and Cheese £2 b4 11pm

Saturdays

WeRK

Melt down

Manhattans'

The Waterfront lndie

LCR October 22 £13.50 Starsailor

LCR October 29 £10.50 Ugly Duckling

Moulin Rouge Ster Century Sat-Thu UCI Mon - Sun

Waterfront October 29 £7.50

event Wednesday.

October 17, 2001

Liquid Commercial dance and pop £1 b4 10pm Life

Time Commercial dance £1 (NUS)

Arts •• Theatre Men Of A Certain Age ... Too!

Thursdays

Playhouse October 19 £8

£41£3 Return To The Forbidden Planet Satisfaction

Hys House and Swing

70s Night

Hys Retro £2 (NUS)

Theatre Royal October 22 - 27 The Cherry Orchard

Status

Isotonic

Kafe Da Progressive trance and house Free

The Concept Chart and retro £3 b4 11pm, £3 .50 after.

Maddermarket Theatre October 25 - November 3 Natyaprlya Dance Company

Playhouse October 20

Refresh

Ikon £5 b4 llpm

Spank Eels

Ikon Charts and commercial dance £2 b4 11pm Liquid Retro £2

Hys Dance anthems £3

Spy Kids

Aockin ' Sheep

Funky Jam Carwash

Embrace Toy Storyj Toy Story 2

Mondays

Saturday Rewind

Mise.

Time House £1 b4 11pm (NUS)

Mojos Chart, dance, garage

Value for Money

Butter Me Up

Liquid House £2 b4 llpm

Po Na Na Funky house 1 jazz beats £3 after 9pm

FAN International Animation Festival

Bassment

Sundays

Various locations October 26 - 28

Mojos R'n ' B and hip hop

Sunday Service

Prlorite A Gauche

Manhattans £2 .50

Arts Centre October 26

Sandys and the Pre Raphaelltes

Twisted Skunk

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Bottom Heavy

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Underdog

Castle Museum October 15 - January 6

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The Directory: ABC Taxis All Star Taxis Beeline Taxis Bettacar Taxis Five Star Taxis Loyal Taxis Canary Cue Club Cinema City Hy's Ikon Liquid Maddermarket Theatre Mojo's Manhattans Norwich Arts Centre Norwich Playhouse Po Na Na's Ster Century Theatre Royal The Loft The Waterfront Tourist Information Time UEA Studio UCI UEA Union Ents

01603 666333 01603 744444 01603 767676 01603 747474 01603 455555 01603 619619 01603 627478 01603 622047 . 01603 621155 01603 621541 01603 611113 01603 620917 01603 622533 01603 629060 01603 660352 01603 766466 01603 619961 01603 221900 01603 630000 01603 623559 01603 632717 01603 666071 0870 6078463 01603 592272 0870 0102030 01603 508050

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Picture: Frederick Sandys, Mede, 1866 ŠBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery. On Show at the Pre Raphaelite exhibition being held at the Castle Museum (see Arts Mise)

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UNION FILMS Thursday 18 Toy Story/Toy Story 2

Friday 19 Thurs 18 xtreme Skate, metal, nu-rock, indie Thurs 25 Smoove R'n'B and Rap with DJ Ess-Ay-Em and guests

NOVEMBER

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Thurs 01 Oxygen DJ Ben locks'n'loads with House and Trance Thurs 08 Fruity Flava's DJ Hotwingz and guests plays the finest in UK Garage

Evolution

Thurs 15 xtreme Skate, metal, nu-rock, indie Thurs 22 Resist!

Guest DJs bring it on with Funky Breaks 'n' Hip Hop Thurs 29 Smoove R'n'B and Rap with DJ Ess-Ay-Em and guests

Tuesday 23 Pi or Memento

Thursday 25 Spy Kids

Friday 26 Terminator

x DECEMBER ' Thurs 06 Oxygen ' DJ Ben locks'n'loads with House and Trance

Tuesday 30

·<<-

Best in Show

NOVEMBER

NTS PROGRA

Thursday 1 Pearl Harbour

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1 /1 0/01 Shed even £12.50 adv .

21/10/01 Australian Pink Floyd £12.50 adv 22/10/01 Eels £1 3.50 adv 23/10/01 Soft Cell £16 adv 26/10/01 OPM £8 adv 28/10/01 Crai~ Charles £7.50 adv 29/1 0/01 Starsailor. £10.50 adv .

30/10/01 Embrace £1.~.50 adv 02 & 03/1 0/01 Jools lolland & His Rhythm & Blu Orchestra £16.50 adv 05/11/01 Howard Marks - An Audience with Mr Nice £1 1.50 adv 11/11/01 The Manfreds & The Blues Band £11.50 "v 26/11/01 The · \ · eague £16.50 adv 02/12/01 Ash £12.50 adv 04/12/01 Bjorn Again £1 4 adv 07/12/01 Naughty Rhythms Tour feat.

Canned Heat, Kurzal Flyers, Dr Feelgood & John Otway £1 5 adv 10/12/01 Xmas Special: Slade & TRexstacy & Dr & the Madics Ti ckets available in Norwich from: Waterfront, UEA Union, Soundclash, Our Price, HMV. For credit card bookings tel: 01603 50-80-50.

All prices are advance only (always more on the door) and may be subject to a booking fee.

Doors open 7.30- 11pm (except Sundays at Waterfront 7 - 10.30pm) unless otherwise stated.

(All gigs have an over 14s policy unless otherwise stated). );

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Wett 17th Sports Societies Social Hive Bar. £2/£2.50 adv Sat 20th Retro Active feat the Cheeky Monkey live tribute band £5 a (9.30pm - 1.30am) Wed 24th Firstlight Club Tour feat exclusive four deck action from Freddy Fresh, Krafty Kuts, Dynamo Productions' Andy Smith Portishead) and Scott Handy. £4 adv (9pm 1am) Sat 27th Faith presents Hal Ba'fl with Brandon Bl George t £10 adv (9pm - 2am) Wed 31st Chill 'Em £3 adv (7 .30pm) NOVEMBER Fri 9th SKOOL DAZE DISCO price tbc (9.30pm - 1.30am) Sat 10th Ministry of Sound feat Oliver Lieb £4 adv Mon 12th Keith Harris and Orville £4 adv Fri 16th Club Retro £3 adv (9.30pm 1.30am) Sat 17th Pam's House £7.95 (9pm - 2am) Mon 19th Chill 'Em Out Jazz Cafe Hive Bar £3 adv (7 .30pm) Fri 23rd Skill feat Scratch Perverts tbc Sat 24th Now That's What I Call the 90s feat Timmy Mallet £4 (9.30pm 1.30am) DECEMBER Sat 8th Retro Active feat Booze Bros £5 (9.30pm - 1.30am) Tues 11th XMAS FANCY DRESS PARTY feat Chesney Hawkes £4 adv

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Friday 2 W es Craven presents Dracula 2001

Tuesday 6 The Croupier (9pm start)

Thursday 8 Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Friday 9 Ginger Snaps

Tuesday 13 Bread and Roses

Thursday 15 Breakfast at Tiffany's

Friday 16 Planet of the Apes

Tuesday 20 Timecode

Thursday 22 Swordfish (9pm start) In dividu al t ickets cost £2.75 A term film pass is only £12.50 and covers all the films showing this term. That's less than 35p per film, making us the cheapest cinema in Norwich by f ar! All films st art at 8.30pm an d are in LT1 unless otherwise stated.

See film poster for full terms and conditions.