The Event - Issue 143 - 30 October 2002

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Wednesday, October 30, 2002

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Editorial 03

Con ents:

Event Editorial:

Inside:

No Celebrities for Sale

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The Event Editorial No Celebrities for Sale. Contents and Credits

ell, what a week for the sly entertainment hacks of the nation 's tabloids. No one can quite believe (or bring themselves to care} that John Leslie might just be the man that forced himself on Ulrika Jonsson in 1988.

Now , as the media dust settles, scores of women come forward and tell the 'caring ' journalists at The Sun and The Mirror about their similarly traumatic experiences at the hands of the former Blue Peter presenter. Meanwhile, Ulrika continues the promotional tour for her autobiography, the ironically entitled Honest, keeping her mouth shut and her sallow face tuned into its 'victim' setting.

I am not suggesting that Ulrika has fabricated the harrowing experiences outlined in this book , not even the legendary George Carmen coultl have got her out the legal troubles it would place her in if she had. However, I do think that what we are looking at is not so much the just undoing of another 'disturbed and depraved ' celebrity like Leslie, but rather the greatest publicity stunt of all time. Since the scandal broke last week , the sales figures of Honest have skyrocketed; what 's more, Ulrika's TV career has rather spontaneously sparked up again _ But this is rape we are talking about, using it to sell books and revive careers in the public eye is as tucked up as the tabloids and their 'morals' allege people such as Leslie are. Aside from anything else it doesn't set any kind of example to follow. Two of the women that have come forward to say that they have also fallen victim of John Leslie's vicious sexual appetite have not gone to the police, but rather to PR 'guru' Max Cliftord. How are we supposed to feel sorry for these 'oppressed victims? ' If what they say is true, and they were too frightened or ashamed to come forward at the t ime, then why have they waited until now and chosen to go a PR advisor and not the Police? This only serves to trivial ise rape and cast more public suspic ion over the heads of other rape victims who only wish for justice, not their fifteen minutes of fame and fifteen million of cash .

The net result is that the incredibly serious subject of rape has been turned into a media ci rcus attract ion , a particularly racy form of entertainment, only available through the glorious medium of British tabloid culture. The latest in a long line of messed-up men who think they are above the law , and messed-up martyrs who think this country owes them a quid for every drop of botox they 've injected into their soulless bodies in starring roles.

Well , we won 't entertain them . The Event chooses to focus on nicer celebrities, hurrah for the nice celebrities. In this issue we start by chatting to Chris Rank in, the incredibly likeable star of the Harry Potter Movies. Rank in plays Percy Weasley , Harry 's best friend 's older, more serious brother. Chris talks about Maggie Smith 's autograph hunting, why John Cleese is a bit weird, and gives us an insight to why UCI insist on calling their staff cast members. We also caught up with Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy . The author of The God of Small Things took time out before her talk at UEA's International Literature Festival to tell us why she believes so passionately in what she does, and what makes her smile. She is also so amazingly gorgeous that there was no question about who should grace the front cover of this issue.

We also feature interviews with Ed Byrne, Ed Harcourt a'nd, possibly the nicest celebrity of them all, Robert Winston. The professor speaks to Kathryn Hinchlift about his new series, Human Instinct, and why he • feels that science needn 't be dubbed down on TV. There is also the usual amount of reviews, previews and features, plus a centre spread focusing on the live action the city's gig venues has seen over the past few weeks. So what need have we for scandal and the public confession? Entertainment is not human destruction, how ever famous those people happen to be.

04 ~~e~j~~es~£~J~SRa~n~~!cal Weasley in the Harry Potter films, to find just why he's working at UCI in Norwich

05 Cinefile 06 Ed Harcourt

After his LCR visit last week we go backstage with the whimsical songsmith to find out what's new

07 Ed Byrne The Event chats to the Irish comedian about Anne Robinson, Davina McCall and comedy

08 Network Rivals

Boys Vs. girls; ITV Vs. BBC. The real battle is begin ning to hot up

09 L'horreur, L'horreur

With Halloween fast approaching The Event takes a peak at world cinema for the scariest movies around

Excess Hollywood

1O ~ra~~9~~!L~SYThingstalks~o The Event about her life and work

11 .R obert Winston The star of The Human Body and new series Human Instinct, Lord Winston talks to us about celebrities, the BBC and the dumbing down of science.

12 Live Reviews The music team rounds up Norwich' s best gigs of the past few weeks. Including Dj Shadow , Beth Orton and Goldrush

Almost Famous 13 Burn Out, Fade Away

Reviews: 14 Albums

Manic Street Preachers; Sigur Ros; Ron Sexsmith; The Stone Roses

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Luke Wright, Editor

~i~~~J~~gababes;

Queen Adreena; Psychid; Fischerspooner; Kirsty Hawkshaw

Pictures: (Above, in descending order} Chris

Rankin and J.K. Rowling ; Arundhati Roy ; Robert Winston; The Manic Street Preachers

16 Film Changing Lanes; High Crimes; Orange County; Singing In The Rain; About A Boy

Credits:

19 Arts John hegley; King Lear; The Alegra Of Infinite Injustice; Grapes Of Wraith; The Dressing Station

2 1 N/Radio

Editor-In-Chief · Katle Hind • Editor · Luke Wrlght • Editorial Assistant · Toby Lewls • Arts Editor · Kathryn Hlnchllff • Film Editor · Jlm Whalley • Assistant Film Editor · Phll Colvln • Music Editor · Mischa Pearlman • Assistant Music Editor · Claire Burwell • TV & Radio Editors · Brltt Juste and Joe Mlnlhane • Picture Editor · Ed Webb-lngall • Listings compiled by Toby Lewis • Text · Emma A~>-Thomas· Sam Brooker ·Clare Butler· Paul Case · Nathan Dlxon · Sarah Edwardes · Rebecca Fenton · Jenny Fry · Kate Herrlngton · Charlotte Mann · Owen Morgan · Tom Nelsh · Marc Peachy · Matt Sargeson · Alex Sehmer · Ryan J. Stephens · Joel Stlckley · Matthew Stratton · Tom Sutton · Joel Tu mer

The Event is published fortnightly by Concrete: Post: PO Box 41 0, Norwich, NR4 ?TB Tel: 01603 250558 ·Fax: 01603 506822 · E-mail: su.concrete@uea.ac.uk Printed by: Archant Newspapers, St Andrew's Business Park, Norwich

Essential Soaps; Celebrity Fit Club; The A/ice Cooper Story; Human Instincts

Listings: 22 Listings Simply what 's going on, and what 's not. Plus all the numbers you neea

24 Livewire I Directory Wednesday, October 30, 2002

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OVIeS

1n Text: Jim Whal ley

Chris Rankin, Percy Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, had some time to kill between shooting the second and third parts of the series. So what did he do? He went to work for UCI Norwich. The Event spoke to him about not letting fame go to his head. fall the thousands of jobs performed daily in the film industry, closing the concessions stand of a multiplex cinema must rank among t he least desirable (one possible except ion might be being Rob Schneider). Balancing out the wonders of free tickets and free speedboats (ok, so that last perk isn't true) , there's something about plunging your arms elbow-deep into congealed nacho cheese that doesn't fall into the category of 'fun ' . One night last week, however, as the umpteenth close of my lengthy UCI career loomed closer, I wasn't feeling quite as daunted as usual. In fact, I was actually looki ng forward to it; because fo r t he first, and probably on ly, t ime, I was c losing wit h a wizard. And not just any wi zard. As 6pm rolled around I found mysel f work ing alongside Chris Rankin , known to hundreds of millions of Harry Potter fans around the world as Percy Weasley , third oldest brother of Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend.

Now, let's put this into perspective for a second. Imagine turning up for a shift at McDonald's in 1980, only to be told you were flipping burgers with Bil ly Dee Williams, Lando Calrissian from The Empire St rikes Back. -Or stacking shelves at Tescos a coup le of yea rs ago wit h one of t he agents from The Matrix.

Though c learl y not one of the star parts, Percy played an important role in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a role that · if the second, third and forth books are anything to go by · will increase with each successive sequel. By Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, novel three in the series, he was head boy of Hogwart 's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and found himself a girlfriend. Most recently, in Harry Potter and the Goblet

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"Imagine turning up for a shift at McDonald's in 1980, only to be told you were flipping burgers with Billy Dee Williams" of Fire, he began work ing fo r t he Ministry of Mag ic.

The one const ant in this progression is t hat , t hrough it all , Percy remains a pompous ass with a hugely infl ated sense of his own importance. Th ankfully, t hese are t raits that Chris Rankin lacks. Throughout the evening he was im pressively modest about his sudden success, seeming much happier talking about the Potter productions in general than his own contribution to them. Apparently , it still hasn 't hit him that he featured in t he fifth highest grossi ng film of all time. As for the crucial question of what he's doing at UC I, it's "to keep me out of mi sc hief. We fin ished t he second fi lm in July and the next one isn' t till February, so basical ly I've got all this time to k il l. " Prior to Harry Potter he knew he wanted to be an actor, but was taking the more usual route of school plays (he's still only 18) and youth theatre . Then a friend saw on Newsround that the film's producers were appealing for people to audition and suggested Chris apply. Though he doesn 't know how many tried for Percy , in total 30,000 hopefuls responded: "The website said 'if you don't hear in two weeks , fo rget you ever applied', and then six months later they eventually wrote back ."

After the long delay , events began to move more quickly. First he had to get an agent ("Warner Brothers rang to say I'd got the part and asked if I had an agent.

I said no, and t hey said, "Get one now. " · he ended up with the same guy who represents Joseph Fiennes) , and there was the reality of the initial script readthrough: " Everyone was there . I got a lot of autographs. But it was OK because everyone went around. People like Maggie Smith were going around getting everyone ' s autographs. lt was a bit weird."

The actual filming of Philosopher 's Stone sounds no less incredible. Cast were ferried to film their scenes a week at a time on CO'll tact the massive Hogwart 's sets.

When discussing other participants, Chris 's speech is peppered with "lovely " and " amazing " . Chris Columbus was · great " and was forgiven by everyo~ for Home Alone. J.K. Rowling, who he met at the read-through and the premiere, is "lovely, she 's amazingly rich and amazingly famous , but she's really nice" . Similar prai se is offered for Julie Waiters (his on-screen mother) and Alan Ri ckman (although the cast and crew quickly learned not to approach him once he was in character).

In fact , the only two stars who were less than wonderful were John Cleese and

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Wednesday, October 30, 2002

the now late (at the time we spoke he hadn 't even announced he had cancer) Richard Harris. Cleese. who wasn't on set because he appears as a ghost and had to be shot separately, was " an odd man, not just because he's about six foot seven.

He 's a bit iffy sometimes, that's the rumour. " Harris, on the other hand, was "just a famous old actor, that's all it was ", spending most of the time in his trai ler and, a hell-raiser to the last, flinging the odd chair. ince the film's release Chris has been kept busy with promotional work , going to schools and DVD releases, and the small matter of, four months after the first movie was finished , making part two, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. While. due to the short break , shooting Chamber of Sec rets felt like a continuation of Philosoph er's Stone (to the extent t hat "it seemed a lot easier second time round "), fans should ex pect some fairly maj or changes. Apart from the departure of Zoe Wanamaker (after criticizing Warner 's levels of pay) and the arrival of Kenneth Branagh ("he was absolutely amazing , much better than Hugh Grant would have been"), the production also brought in a new director of photography (Roger Pratt) and a different special effects house.

For the actors, it was the arrival of Pratt that had the most immediat e influence. A new director of photography meant a new approach to lighting , giving t he film a diffe rent feel.

Everyone , however, was delighted by the news that Industrial Light and Magic were taking over the effects: " We had a Sony com pany doing the effects on the first one. I think the general consensus was that nobody was pleased with how they came out at all. This time they 'l l be a lot better. "

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"Everyone was at the first read-through. People like Maggie Sm ith were going around getting everyone's autographs . lt was a bit weird."

Another criticism of Philosopher 's Stone was how much of the book it attempted to film, occasionally at the expense of story.

Die-hard fans of Chamber of Secrets may be distressed to learn that the second movie leaves out rather more: "The list is pret· ty long. There are bits that are missed out , and bits that are skipped over ." Though for Chris personally , the cuts have been kinder. One of the few major om issions from the first film was Peeves the Poltergeist (shot with Rik Mayal l but discarded during editing). a section Chris describes as "my bit ". Although Peeves wasn 't even filmed for Chamber of Secrets, Percy has

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Transformers: The Movie

Hang on, the only Transfonners I know of Is that 80s TV show. Did they make a film of that? Was 1t live action?

No, Transformers The Movie is animated like the original TV series. A live action film would cost a small fortune today and would have cost many times more when the film was originally made in 1986. But it Is indeed a spin off from the TV series and toy line. lt was a trend at the time in order to cash in on the franchise- many other TV shows such as Care Bears, My Uttle Pony, and Thundercats also released films in the early to mid eighties. lt is a craze that has continued to this day with Power Rangers and Pokemon, to name just two, that have done the same.

Why would I want to see a film of some eighties TV show that I can't remember? sOmetimes I forget that I'm getting on a bit now and that my nostalgia fixations aren't shared by all. However, for a kids' film , and a product that was only supposed to milk more money out of the franchise, this is very good, with some excellent action scenes, as well as being one of the earliest examples of manga animation released in Englishspeaking cinemas. There's also a great deal of character development and characterisation. lt wasn 't until I rewatched it two years ago that I realised how much two of the characters flirt. some good scenes.

What the exact nature of those scenes might be, Chris is unable to say, having signed a confidentiality agreement (Warner Brothers as an entity are •a bit scary because they're so big."), but what will be the highlights of the film as a whole?

"The duelling club, definitely; the bit where they discover the writing on the wall; the bit in the Weasley house is really funny.

And, If they get it onto the DVD, they did a bloopers reel for the wrap party that was excellent." The overall standard of the child actors has also improved. Malfoy, who, I suggest, wasn't quite right in the first film, is ·much better. His voice has broken and he's a lot taller. I had a good scene with him - a shouting match in a corridor. • Daniel Radcliffe (fame hasn't changed him) and Rupert Grint (wasn't teased too much for Thunderpants), too, benefited from deepening voices.

As for the future, Chris confirms that Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron is already preparing for when he takes over from Columbus in February. Indeed, Chris was phoned by his agent on the morning before we spoke to confirm that he was required for part three. Is he concerned that Cuaron will take the franchise In a more erotic direction after the director's hit Y Tu Mama Tambien? "As long as the money's good ... • Of all the actors, Chrls is probably the one with most to fear, thanks to Percy's aforementioned girlfriend, a role that he was asked to help cast. "They got it down to five or six and then invited me along· to have my say as well. Her name is Gemma Padley. She's been in Casualty a couple of times." Is he happy with the selection? "Oh yes. • After Prisoner of Azkaban, the future is less clear, particularly in light of Columbus' recent comments that he didn't think Radcliffe, Grint and Emma Watson would want to make a fourth

movie. No decision has been made regarding how the 636 page Goblet of Fire should be condensed for cinema. "There was talk when Chris Columbus was still around about ideas of doing the fourth book in two halves, so you'd have two acts to it - you go to see one two hour film and then another. But I don't know .

Alfonso might decide to do a seven-hour epic." Unlike Robbie Coitrane, Chris has not been told by J.K. Rowling how his character progressed in book five and beyond: "she won 't tell anyone anything. She means it when she says she woo't give anything away." Neither did the cast receive any clear inside knowledge on when the fifth novel might appear: "I heard she said 'soon'. I reckon it'll be out in February. That's my personal opinion. But there've been rumours that it'll be out by Christmas, or that it'll just appear on a shelf one day.· Away from Harry Potter, Chris has largely found his life to be unchanged. He hasn't been recognized on the street and doesn't go around saying "don't you know who I am?" As he puts it, "I just disappear for two weeks at a time and stay in nice hotels." So far, the film's exposure has only led to one further engagement, a Norwich pantomime this Christmas, for which he'll sadly have to leave UCI. However, it is early days and his film commitments limit what else he can take on. He acknowledges that, when the time comes, having Harry Potter on his C. V. won't hurt. And, if nothing else, playing a wizard does have certain advantages- Chris magically got out of closing concessions.

Pictures: (clockwise from top left) Chris with J.K. Row ling; with Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; with fellow pupils at Hogwarts.

But weren't all the robots male?

No, but the film did introduce several new characters including Arcee, the first female Transformer to appear since the very early episodes of the TV series. it's probably just as well because Transformers was almost as homo-erotic as wrestling. Not wanting to disappoint the masses, however, there is still a great deal of homo-eroticism in the movie, including the introduction of the campest robot since C3PO, Wheelie. While I'd love 'to get into a rant about how the entire film is a homo-erotic power fantasy, I'll spare you the theories of my twisted mind. If you're that interested you can ask me in person.

So what's the film actually about? it's surprisingly quite complex, actually, but simply the heroic Autobots (the good guys) have to fight off the Decepticons (the baddies) as well as the new threat of the planet-eating Unicron. And they have to do this after the death of their leader Optimus Prime. This is assumed to be the first death in Transformers (even though Jetfire died in the TV series a year or two before) and was certainly a shock to me when I saw it in the cinemas at the age of five.

Sorry, but I'm still not convinced. You're making 1t sound like Pt&cllla Queen of the Desert with robots.

Well, if that doesn't sound too exciting, then watch it for guests voice-acting appearances by Orsen Welles (as Unicron), Lenord Nimoy (as Galvatron) and Eric Idle (as Rekgar). And just admit that you enjoyed Priscil/a- it's OK.

Wednesday, October 30, 2002 " ' ' IJ,

Ryan J. Stephens

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From Here to Sphere: Text: Joe l Stickley

Prolific, profound a nd passionate about music, Ed Harcourt was the perfect support act for Beth Orton's homecoming gig at the LCR a couple of weeks ago. The Event went backstage to talk to him about his music, his music and his music ... was expecting ... we ll, to be honest, I was expecting arrogant. I was expecti ng to rtu red genius, 'you couldn't possibly understand' arrogant, 'what am I doing in this two-bit town?' arrogant. Why? Because he sings arrogant; because he performs arrogant; mainly, I guess, because he's sold as arrogant. But, strangely, I don't get what I expect. Sure , there are traces of it - he steps off the tour bus with the hood of his anorak pulled over his face and strides around backst age wit h a k ind of care less, rock-sta r assurance- but not hing too offputting. He's friendly and engaging, without a hi nt of coo ler-than-thou scorn. Conversely, though, no one cou ld describe him as modest. " I'm twenty-five ,路 he says, " and I'm only on my second album. I think I'll get better and better. I think t hat one day, I'll make an album and then won't be able to better it, but right now I'm definitely not at my peak ." it's a st range thing to say , for a man who re puted ly has a back cata logue of some five hundred unreleased songs. If he's only j ust getti ng into his stri de as a songwriter, whe re does t hat leave all this material from his past?

"Well , you know , I'd say , of five hundred songs, only maybe two hundred are really good. " So , only sixtee n albums' worth of material to draw on, then. Time to sit back and reap the rewards? No, it would seem . Of the twelve songs on the new album (From Every Sphere, out in January) , on ly two are from t he back cata logue, he te lls me. All the rest have been written since t he reco rd ing of Here Be Monst ers, his first ful l-length album. " You've got to keep writ ing," he says. " You can't stop. Because I just love melody , I'm obsessed by it . I can 't imagine ever not wanting to write music. "

"Being on tour sends you slowly insane.

You buy so much random crap as you go. You just accumulate it. I bought this b ig white plastic dog the other day, and I have no idea why. Just anything to fi ll the time ."

And of course, that 's where it all started. The deep, almost obsessive love of mu sic that found Ed, at twenty-three , recording his debut EP, Map/ewood, on a dusty four-track in a bedroom . His own songs, his own voice, his own accompaniment. Map/ewood wa s all him, and it was what got him noticed, what got him his first record deal. Within months, he was making his first fulllength album. rec ording both track s from Map/ewood and a few new songs in a proper studio.

The four-track wonder had discovered production values.

On his new album , he goes one step further - two of the tracks feature a twenty-three piece orchestra, and on the London dates of his December tour, he will perform with live string and brass sections. Is this the future for Ed , then- sprawling orchestral scores and production budgets that read like phone numbers?

"In a way, " he says, "I 'm just doing it because I can, and, you know, why the hell not? I think at some point I might want to return to that whole thing of recording albums for nothing, but right now, I' m enj oying this."

To be fair, it shows. On From Every Sphere , he seems to revel in the space afforded to him. happily skipping across genre boundaries with every track. In some of his songs, Ed' s voice is the on ly uniting factor , the only thing making them identifiably the work of the same artist. He seems to love experimentation , toying with different ways of presenting melodies, and so that is precisely what he does. How. then, does he classify himself? What is his genre? I ask him this and he shrugs. " I write pop songs, I suppose. I just write songs."

He doesn 't mind being described as pop?

"God , no. I mean , pop's a label that ' s come to mean someth ing bad, but if you look back just a short while, to the sixties and seventies, then you've got the Kinks, you 've got the Beat les that's all pop. There 's no reason why pop music can't be interesting music."

Okay , so he's pop. Th e thing about pop, th ough , its defin ing factor, if you li ke , is t hat it sell s, and sells big. Does he ever dream of having a big hit , one song that just takes off? " lt'd be useful ," he says, with a smile. " lt'd be really useful, but .l don 't know ... if it happens, it happens. I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing now , just carrying on. I don't feel like I need a big hit to be a success. " What are his ambitions, then, what is he aiming towards? " I'd like t o be in a position whe re I cou ld just put out a k ind of antho logy, not wo rry ing about albums or si ngles, just a huge collection of songs. But, you know, that ' s asking a lot from your audience. I can't do that right now ."

"At V2002, they put me on first and wanted to make life hard for whoever was on after me, so I set fire to the piano and chopped it up with an axe." o this is how Ed Harcourt is - a musical obsessive, in love with melody, in love with writing songs. it ' s hard to see him as arrogant because he doesn't seem to be at all concerned with himself, just with music. Any ego the man might have is entirely tied up with the tunes he writes - it ' s them he's proud of, not himself. Which is strange, because this all seems somewhat at odds with reports of him trashing pianos during live performances and simil ar rock and rol l ant ics. To what extent is his public image a deliberate const ruction?

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the event We dnesday, Oc to b e r 30, 2002

"At V2002, they put me on first , and I wanted to make life hard for whoever was on after me, so I set fire to the piano and chopped it up with an axe. Then at Glastonbury, I smashed up my guitar, but you know, that was just because it was no good. lt wasn't playing right and I got pissed off wit h it. it's not lik e I rea ll y plan t hese t hings, but people want to be entert ained, so you've got to entertain them. If I feel like wearing a safari suit on stage, I'll wear a safari suit. If I feel like a velvet jacket, it's a velvet jacket. it's not a matter of image , it ' s just me ."

Does he enjoy being on tour, getting a chance to do all this stuff? " I think .. . I think I prefer being in a studio, to be honest. Being on tour just sends you slowly insane. You buy so much random crap as well , 路as you go . You just accumulate it . I boug ht this big wh ite plastic dog th e other day, and I have no idea why. Just anything to fill the time. Then, towards the end of the tour, you find yourself sitting around on the coach and playing these really violent video games, and you think: hang on, I should be reading philosophy or something , not this. 路 And maybe that 's the key to understanding Ed Harcourt- tie 'd rather be quietly reading somewhere, fiddling with an old four-track, but here he is on a national tour, promoting the second album of a career that prom ises to last a long while to come . Is t his how he sees his future? Is this what he wants to be? He answers, of course, by talking about the songs he writes. " I won't know when I'm at my peak. I don't ever want to have a peak, really . I just want to keep getting better and better. There's so much you can do in musi c, still. So much to be garnered ."

Maybe it's his sheer focused drive. or maybe, yes , a touch of arrogance. but I'm tempted to believe him . There is a lot still to be done in music , and this might just be the man to do it .

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Byrning Ambition: Text: Kathryn Hinchliff

He appeared on The Weakest Link comedy special and has just embarked on an international tour. The Event caught up with Ed Byrne to ask him, among other things, What is Anne Robinson really like? d Byrne is t he latest comedian to arrive in Norw ich, as part of a comedic influx that has recently seen Lee Mack, John Hegley and Jenny ~clair grace our city venues. Either they think we need cheering up, or Norwich has become the comedy capital of the country. Perhaps most well known for his long hair and now famous Alanis Morissette sketch, Ed Byrne will be in Norwich for one night only on the 1st November, as part of his international tour. He took some time out from being funny to answer our questions:

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Did you always want to be a comedian?

Yeah, it was alw ays something I quite fancied doing. I never really thought I'd be able to do it. I used to listen to Billy Connolly records when I was a kid and Not The Nine O'Clock News and Monty Python. I had whole tracks of them memorised.

Were you encouraged at school?

I had one teacher years ago, called Mrs. Gannon, who used to encourage me. She always thought I should be an actor. But teachers only ever giye a certain amount of encouragement and then they tell you to shut up and learn.

Stand-up or acting?

Well both, hopefully, bec ause it's nice to be able t o do one thing when you feel like it. I've been acting for the last couple of years and now it's nice getting back into standup and doing a tour again. The tour goes on until the end of December and after then I've got January off and then I've got the international leg. So I'll be sick of doing stand-up by then so I'll want to do something else anyway.

You cCHJta"ed with Davlna Mccallln the ITV show Sam 's Game.

Will there be a second series?

No there's not. They decided against that. I don't think Divina wanted to do another series anyway because there were rumours in the press that they were going to cancel the show and ITV did nothing to confirm or dispel those rumours so I t hink Divina just said "well tuck it, if you 're not going to say whether you are or you aren't then I'm going to say right now that I'm not.• One of your most famous jokes Is the Alanls Mo"lsette sketch, does your new material live up to that standard?

No it never will. Nothing is as evidently quotable or stealable as that. Is there still stuff that is as good? Nah, probably not. I've had a number of people tell me t hat they've stolen it and that they pass it off as their own in conversation quite a bit which is quite flattering. Although the original observation is nothing particularly original. lt was a pretty obvious point that I made; that the song is not ironic. Anyone with half a brain knows that. But at the same time I was always quite pleased with that myself.

How easy do you find coming up with new material?

Writing new material is the hard part and when you' re t ouring you do have to keep coming' up with new stuff. You do drive yourself mental and I drive my girlfriend mental.

The tour is as extensive as it is because once the new materials written you want to get out there and tell it to as many people as possible.

Do you use your girlfriend In your material?

Yes, quite a bit, although a lot of the stuff I do about my girlfriend is fictitious, there 's a couple of bits that are true, but the thing is you don't know what's true and what's not so it all reflects badly on her.

How does she feel about that?

She enjoys it. She thinks it very funny . She loves coming to the gigs but I think sometimes she wants to stand on st age behind me and go "ok t hat was true, that's not true.· How Important are your Irish roots to your comedy?

I don't pigeon hole myself as being particularly Irish but I guess the fact that I'm from there is going to reflect to a certain · extent on what I do and say but it's not something I consciously think about. it's more when I go to the States that I particularly have to be an Irish comedian . They like to put you in a box as it were. I really like going to Ireland because there I'm just a comedian, that's it, full stop. I don 't think, by and large, being Irish is something I play on particularly.

Do you get recognised a lot?

No, not at all. Especially not now I've had my haircut . I used to a lot more when i had the long hair because having long hair is quite a distinctive thing if you're a bloke but no, generally actually no, I don't.

Do you prefer lt that way?

Well it means I don't get anywhere for free. I used to now and again get in t<fplaces for free but it doesn't really happen anymore. it's nice not getting hassled. I used to get it a bit, especially in Dublin because I was probably more well known there

than anywhere else and after the first few times, when you're back to the drawing board. trying to have a chat with somebody else and people keep comit's set in a Student Union I used to work in. The show I've writ· ing up, that can be a bit annoying but I've never been that .ten is based on my experiences so it has a ten year old feel to madly famous that I ever experienced a problem as such. it and ten years isn't long enough to be retro but it's too long Who Is your favorlte comedian? ago to be up to date so that's really what doesn't work about it I don't like watching comedians who are like me in anyway just at the moment so I'll fix that. Maybe I'll just shelve it and wait for it to become retro. because when I watch comedians with a similar style t o me, an observational sort of comic and they say something really funny, What are you most proud of?

I particularly like it when my family say they 've met somebody you get that double laugh thing where you go haaa ha ha that 's very funny . Oh tuck, I wish I'd though of that . Where as when who'd say out of the blue "ahrr do you know who I like, I like your man Ed Byrne, he's good.· And they get to go "that's actuyou are watching comedians who are nothing like you, you don't ally my brother or that's actually my son.· They go· "oh God he's get that. So I really enjoy watching Bill Bailey ·and Steve not your brother.· When my folks tell me stories like that, Coogan, musical comedy and character comedy. it's very differthat's when I get the biggest kick out of it I think . ent from anything I do so I can just watch it with pure unadulterated pleasure.

You appeared on the comedy special Weakest Unk, so MON-SAT: 5.00pm-3.30am what's Anne Roblnson like In real life?

SUN: 5.00pm-1.00am I don't know what she is like in real life because when she's doing The Weakest Link she gets into character the whole day so she is a miserable cow.

Got the Munchies? Well why not visit our friendly staff at Master Chef and But that might actually be her? take up our n as 1c pizza deal. We also offer delicious kebabs, pizza's , Yeah that might be what burgers, chips and much , much more ..... she's like all the time. We did make her crack a smile a fair few times though but they cut that out. Johnny Vegas particularly made her laugh.

9" Original (Cheese and Tomato) with up to 4 Toppings You are writing a sitcom at 12" Original with up to 4 toppings the moment?

I've written a first draft but it still needs work and I find 87 Prince of Wales Road 01603 765555 it very soul destroying to go

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Wednesday, October 30, 2002

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08

Network Rivals: Text: Joe Minihane

The demise of Hear'Say has shown the volatie nature of made to order fame. But the fact is it keeps us glued to our screens. With Popstars: The Rivals and Fame Academy though, has the genre gone one stop too far?

opstars. Pop Idol, Model Behaviour and now Popstars: The Rivals and Fame Academy. Over the past couple of years the re's been a surge in "fame to order" shows . Some say that this degrades fame and t he people who wo rk hard to achieve it. Others that it simply shows us the process by which people become household names. Either way, it makes for riveting te levision. Or does it? The Popstars formula, first conceived by Nasty Nigel Lythgoe and carried to fruition by (the now thankfully defunct) Hear'Say, was used to effect again by Pop Idol and now more recently by the producers of Popstars: Th e Rivals, which aims to create two bands, one all g irl , one al l boy, who will compete for the Christmas Number 1. But other show s, especiall y the BBC' s rather li mp version, Fame Academy, simply don't hit the mark, as viewing figures have shown over recent weeks. The question is then why do ITV seem to make good versions of these shows while their competitors lag behind, hanging onto their coattails?

Perhaps the biggest reason why people love watching these shows is that those participating in them are just normal people off of the street with an ambition which they want to fulfil.

Sebastian Grantham , producer and director of Popstars: The Riva ls believes that, "t he public want to see the hopes and dreams of ordinary people come alive," and that it gives them added inspiration. While this is true of both Popstars and Fame Academy, the difference is found in the fact that Popstars does not plunge straight into a publi c vote on candidates, but instead offers the viewers a chance to see the auditions too. This not only offers the chance for the audience to see fresh new talent, but also the cringe worthy efforts of no- hopers who can't sing to save their lives. The genius, therefore, lies in making the wan nabes endeari ng to the audience before voting for their favourite and in tuning in to see what Davina McCal l (who hosts the new incarnation of the show) is wearing. This is something which Fame Academy lacks, leading Grantham to comment that his competitors don't give the audience any, "emotional engagement. • Sadly, when asked about this , amongst other questions, the Fame Academy team failed to answer.

Enough said.

"The public want to see the hopes and dreams of ordinary people come alive," Sebastian Grantham, Director /Producer, Popstars: The Rivals The public are pretty important. Sure, it helps to have top presenters, but if the viewers aren't there (and in Fame Academy's case they aren't), then the validity of the winner's fame is called into question. This is arguably why Popstars: The Rivals is using the same technique employed

by Pop Idol, and having a public vote rathe r than going for the initial Popstars formula of having a group of indust ry know-ai ls choose the stars. Will and Gareth seem to be carrying on strong whilst the members of Hear' Say are seen as a byword for the dismal manufactured pop of the late nineties; early noughties. Grant ham believes that "Hear'Say left plenty of lessons to be learned but the fact that this is being voted for by the public highlights that this is not manufac-

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Wednesday, October 30, 2002

"This is not recreating a winning formula.

We're not making a Pop Idol, we're creating the next Spice Girls and Take That and putting them head to head." tured pop.· This is debatable, but the fact remains that the viewers are voting in their millions.

That they get to choose who gets the Christmas Number 1·empowers them slightly, and also gives the bands greater longevity as they have been chosen by the public. hilst the success of Popstars: The Rivals is undoubted, the question remains as to whether thi s is an exercise in reusing a winning formula, or simply overkill to reflect away from the bad publicity which has plagued ITV in recent years.

Grantham argues that this is not reusing a formula at all, and that it is in fact highly original piece of programming: "This is not recreating a winning formula.

We 're not making a Pop Idol, we're creating the next Spice Girls and Take That and putting them head to head." Nevertheless, ITV 's ability to play with the formula, so that it appears different but is, to all intents and pu rposes, the same style of show, clearly appeals to the audience at large . The BBC's attempt is nothing but a second rate Pop Idol and because of this it has not managed to lure in the viewers. The vitality of the audience to these types of programmes is quite clear. Without them the shows would quite simply not be able to operate. But who are the audience and how do the different channels attempt to appeal to them? Grantham continually mentions young impressionable females as his target audience, c laiming that the boys may sneak a victory, "because t hey are instant ly more grabbable to young girls." Whi lst t his is te ll ing about how the show is run , Popstars: The Rivals does this very im plicitly . The 'Extra' shows are run aft er Children's ITV, but not explicitly as part of it. The use of figures such as Davina McCall also help appeal to a more adult audience. However, Fame Academy uses the BBC's children's digital services to directly appeal to voters. Not only does this alienate a more adult audience. it arguably debases the show for mid to late teens, a key target group who feel too old to be watching a show aimed solely at chi ldren.

That Popstars: The Rivals outstrips Fame Academy is not debatable. Its success is guaranteed because of the huge success of Popstars and Pop Idol, and the involvement of a simi lar production team . Grantham reckons his show is preferable to the viewing publ ic because, " ... it's established and people know what they'll get. " But how long will this last? People bought into Hear'Say hook, line and sinker before realizing that they had actually been duped. The fact is that the show is about rollicking ent ert ainment for t he masses rathe r than the succ es s of the few contestants who make it to the latter stages. When people realize this, will they t urn off their TVs in disgust, or simply keep their eyes glued to the screen for more? Either way, it seems th at the future is rosy for Popstars, and the people at Fame Academy ought to look-tor somethi ng more original and appealing if t hey want to compete to be number one.

W

a

Picture: The lovely ladies from Popstars: The Rivals

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L' orreur, 'horreur: Excess

Text: Ryan J. Stephens

Halloween's here, so it's -time to watch some scary movies. But forget American slasher films - world cinema can be much more terrifying.

For some, watching a foreign film is a horrifying experience in itself. But fans of the horror genre are doing themselves a disservice by not looking abroad to satiate their cravings for blood and screams. So as it's approaching the end of October, and those purse strings will need tightening as a result of start-ofterm spending sprees, the solution may be to stay in and watch one of these international horror extravaganzas.

Cronos (Mexico, 1993) Long before Mexican director Guillermo del Toro was being forced to work with Luke Goss in Blade /1, he had to make a debut film - and this was it . Cronos is a revamping of the vampire story in which an aging antique dealer, Jesus Gris, finds a mechanized scarab, which, when opened, painfully stabs him .

The wound brings youthful vigour - and a vampire's need for blood. Unfortunately, a dying tycoon is also after the device .

While the film contains some stomach-churning scenes - Gris licking blood off the floor of the public toilet made me very uncomfortable - it forgoes the usual fast pace of many horror films. Del Toro builds the characters slowly. The relationship between Gris and his granddaughter, Aurora, seems to be of vital importance to him and gets a great deal of time. Tamara Shanath as Aurora provides a beautiful performance in those scenes. Most of the action comes toward the end of the film, but there are plenty of gruesome occurrences before then as the affects of the device become known. The film is equally focused on gore and characters and while some may find the approach refreshing there are no doubt others who will get bored with the moody atmospherics and character development and give up.

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Hollywood

A quick look at the least uninteresting news emanating from LA The last couple of years have seen the Farrelly Brothers sliding in worry ingly family-friendly directions. Shallow Ha/ had happy, sunny things to s~y about it being what's on the inside that counts, whereas Osmosis Jones actually was for children. Hopefully their next project, Stuck on You, will go some distance to placing them squarely back on their former vulgar patli . The news that they are trying to cast Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as Siamese twins is certainly promising. Apparently the only factor preventing the deal from going ahead is Damon's intention to replicate his success with The Bourne Identity by ·starring in John Woo's Pay Check. Pay Check is described as an action movie about a man who loses his memory -wouldn 't it be easier to call it The Bourne Identity 2?

The Day of the Beast (Spain, 1995)

Suspiria (Italy, 1977) Now, if you consider yourself a connoisseur of horror and have never seen Dario Argento's Suspiria, you 're obviously deluding yourself. The film sees a young American dancer travel to Europe to join a famous ballet school. As she settles in, she hears strange noises and is trou~led by bizarre occurrences.

She eventually discovers that the school is merely a front for a coven of witches. Although the story takes a backseat to style, Suspiria manages to surprise with several disturbing and effective set pieces. My favourite is the scene featuring a girl trapped in a small room filled with barbed wire. The more she moves, the more she cuts herself and by the end she is covered in blood. The film's script is poor and there is a large portion in the middle of the film where· nothing seems to happen , as well as occasionally grinding dialogue. lt would also be foolish to say that the film has a plot, as it is simply a collection is welldirected set pieces. The gore is sparingly but effectively used and even if you find it a bit dull and not particularly frightening, you leave with a feeling of having watched something worthwhile.

Les Yeux sans Visage (France, 1959) Released in England as Eyes without a Face, the film tells the story of Professor Genessier, a brilliant surgeon. With the help of his assistant , he kidnaps young girls to remove their faces and try to graft them onto his daughter who was horribly disfigured in a car crash that he caused. The film not only contains some suitably graphic operation scenes, but also some of the best music ever composed for a horror film - it is as classy and understated as the acting. But this isn't just creepy men stalking around and abducting schoolgirls- the story of Genessier's search for redemption for himself and his daughter is incredibly. touching and the noir photography brings the poignancy powerfully to the fore . As with many older films, the special effects are dated, resulting in many dubbing the film camp. Don't listen to them; the more graphic scenes still make me squirm . An American adaptation was made in 1977 under the title Mansion of the Doomed but simply stripped away the original film's qualities and replaced them with blood. Watch the original if only in the name of intellectual masturbation .

Or El Dfa de la Bestia as it was known in Spain. For those who thought that Spanish cinema was reduced to Pedro Almod6var's dramas and Bigas Luna's homo-erotic comedies, you are much mistaken. This is a comedy horror by director Alex de la lglesia which sees a Basque priest find, during a cabalistic study of the bible, that the anti-Christ is going to be born on Christmas day in Madrid. In an attempt to invoke the devil and find out more he meets, picks up, forces into recruitment , and avoids the bullets of a weird assortment of frauds , fascists, Heavy-Metal fanatics , and other indiscriminately demented freaks who inhabit the lunar world of Madrid. The dark humour and general silli· ness is portrayed in a genuinely sinister vision of Madrid, which makes it look like something out of Blade Runner and gives the movie a unique flavour. lt juggles comedy, horror and social criticism marvellously and never loses sight of its themes of faith, evil and moral responsibility. lt doesn't score particularly high on the gore-o-meter, but this is nonetheless a very frightening and thought-provoking film , even to a mild-mannered atheist like myself.

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Jackass: The Movie has landed in American cinemas, taking $27 .5 million in its first three days, a clear seven million dollars more than its closest rival, The Ring. it's not a bad total for a film described by The New York Post as a "plotless collection of moronic stunts that is by far the worst movie of the year." But then plot has never been particularly high on the Jackass team 's list of priorities. Their 'film' is essentially a collection of all the bits they weren 't allowed to show on T.V. Most of them involve vomit. Take, for example, the man who eats a snow-cone made of his own urine - it doesn't stay in his stomach for long. The man behind it all, Johnny Knoxville, contrJbutes a daring stunt where he jumps from a trampoline into a ceiling fan . With that level of classy entertainment on offer, expect Jackass: The Movie to do just as well in the U.K.

Ring (Japan, 1998) This is The Blair Witch Project done Japanese style. After the death of her cousin Tomoko, reporter Reiko hears stories of a videotape that kills anyone who watches it. At first she discounts the rumours, but when she learns that Tomoko's friend , who watched the video with her, died at exactly the same time, she begins to investigate._After viewing the tape herself, strange things start happening, and so she teams up with her ex-husband to try to rid herself of the curse. The film has some very scary moments- especially the ending which I'm not going to give away. While there are no exploding heads or men in hockey masks, it's rather a question of playing to the viewers expectations of horror - shots of people with doors just over their shoulder, or the TV lingering in the rear of the shot - as though something is going to happen. lt is one of the most genuinely terrifying films I've seen . As well as the conclusion, the cursed video footage in the -film is genuinely eerie and there is a creepy feeling of dread to the whole film. Unplug the phone after you've watched it .

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At the opposite end of the box office spectrum is Guy Ritchie's third movie, Swept Away, starring his wife. Critics have called the film the nadir of Madonna's already pretty dismal cinema career, a reaction that has been matched by the public 's resolve not to go and see it. After just two weeks on release, Swept Away' s distributor has pulled it from the few remaining screens it still clung to.

Conservative estimates place its losses at around $40 million. Unsurprisingly, the director of the movie Swept Away is based on has announced she regrets selling the rights to her film . Even worse, she accepted as payment the box office takings of the remake 's Italian release .

Wed nesday, October 30, 2002

Jlm Whalley

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10

•

A Novel Injustice: Text: Alex Se hmer

Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy is unafraid of tackling political issues. Here to promote her new book of challenging essays, she spoke to The Event about her need to stay in India. ue to the usual inefficiency of whoever is running the British Rail service these days, Arundhati Roy has only been in Norwich for fifteen minutes whe n I ca ll up to l1er hotel room .

The minder from her publishers explains that I am going to have to give them a bit more time. I wait nervously in the foyer. Aware that time is ticking by, and that if we do not speak soon she wi ll be whisked away to talk at the University's Lit erary Festi va l. I sit in t he hot el recepti on, tapp ing my pencil against my notebook and frantically looking at my watch. By contrast Arundhati Roy, when I finally meet her, is a model of calm and quiet assurance. Her publicity photo shows her with long unruly curls, but she has cut her hair short . She answers my questions quiet ly in her delicate . musical voice and gent ly co rrects me whe n, at one point , I get my f acts wrong. I am left to wonder whether the reactionary, 'foghorn'-voiced (to quote The Sunday Telegraph) critic has not been badly misrepresented.

"I stood a criminal trial for one year. If you read the judgement it is like a joke.

They say 'she has strayed from the path of art and literature, but because she's a woman we are giving her one day ' ."

Although Roy is now distinctly recognisable as a political voice, she first stormed onto the international scene in 1997 with her extraordinary novel The God of Small Things. lt is a book that is - like the writer herself- both political, and lyrically beautiful.

She smiles calmly . folding her hands in her lap. "I think there is an interesting debate about the place of sentiment and fee ling in literature, in fiction and non-fiction. And I really fight for a place for feeling, for passions. People are very suspicious of that. you know? They think that there can be an argument which doesn't include sentiment. and doesn't include feelings and doesn't include rage. and doesn't include sorrow. And I refuse to play that game. -I refuse to pretend that I am some subjective academic that suddenly stumbled upon these facts."

Roy"s own passions and rage have meant she has spoken out against the things she does not believe in. Things like the Narmada Dam construction. American response to September 11 and corruption within India to name but a few. Her fame has meant that people the wo rl d over have heard what she has to say, but the response has not always been favourable. even landing her with a prison sentence.

"Sabu Thomas alleged a love scene 1n the book between a Christian woman and an outcaste Hindu would corrupt public morality, Which was pure before I came along ."

"Since I started writing about the dam. they've been trying to slap this contempt of court thing on me for a while. And then once there was i3 demonstration "o utside the gates of the Supreme Court - at which I was briefly present and then left when these five lawyers- who are basically thugs - filed a case saying that I and one of the main activists of the movement had tried to kill them. lt was some ludicrous charge which even the police station wouldn't file because there were 300 police men there. But the Supreme Court accepted. And then I filed an affidavit ... " As it happened it was the angrily worded affidavit that landed

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her in trouble. In the end she was only sentenced to a day. I cannot help but get the impression she feels this was an insultingly short time.

"The thil'lg is for the media, or for the newspapers, or that kind of circus, it appears that this must have been some cutesy stuff. you know. putting a writer in for a day but people must realise that I stood a criminal trial for one year ... If you read the judgement it is like, you know, a joke. They say she has strayed from t he path of art and literature, but we th ink better sense w ill prevail. And because she's a woman we are giving her one day .· t is not the first time Roy has been pulled up in front of the law. When her novel first came out a man named Sabu Thomas alleged the final chapter of her book- whic h conta ined a love scene between a Christ ian woma n and an outcaste Hindu- was obscene and, "lt would corrupt public morality." finishes Roy, "Which was pure before I came along."

For someone like Roy, however. censorship is a more serious issue than merely something affecting public morality. lt is about speaking out. "What is properly censored? How do you even know if you start censoring yourself? The point is t o keep your eye on the ball. to say what you have to say regardless of ·all that"."

Strange that Roy should be seen to need censorship when the 'Jackie Collins esque· works of the far racier Shoba De go uncensored. But the comparison is unflattering. Shoba De is a Bombay socialite and saucy novel1st whilst Roy, who lives in Delhi , has a Booker prize behind her. She is a literary heavyweight, and the more obvious comparison is Indian novelist and fellow Booker prize winner Salman Rushdie. Roy is, however.

I

Wed nesday, October 30, 2002

the first Indian winner who is not also an expatriate of her country. '"I don't want to wave t hat flag ... Most of the writers w ho are supposed ly bi g [ Indian ] w rit ers or whateve r. all of them have studied here [England] and lived here before they became, you know. big writers. And they are comfortable here. But I am not ."

Not comfortable in England? Roy shakes her head. She needs to be in India. " I do thi nk t hat at t his poi nt Indi a is bei ng turned inside out, and huge things are happening t here. If you're not there you cannot have your finger on the pulse. lt ·s very frightening there just now, and it's also ... it "sjust you 're mesmerised by what's going on there. I think if you r not there, then you don't know rea lly what's happening ."

I begin t o see the flames dancing behind her eyes. Roy·s is the unfettered voice of a struggling new India, a country whichshe has said herself- often operates in several centuries at once. She is serious in her criticisms but it does not stop her enjoying a very clearly defined sense of fun.

Since The God of Small Things is a homage to the comforting nature of the too often overlooked 'small things' in the world, I wonder what they would be in her life. What makes her smile? '"A beautiful sentence. The most precious thing to me is that.

The act of writing itself. The business of crafting a narrative.

Whether fiction or non-fiction. l"m not one of those writers who suffers when they write . I love the process of writing. I'm a little scared of how obsessive I am. when I do it. But, you know. as they say when you play basketball: l"m in the zone, man!""

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Su.per Human: Text: .Kathryn Hinchliff

He's an active Lord, N Presenter, Scientist; NHS director, Professor and an excellent skier, Lord Robert Winston made· a gap in his busy schedule to visit UEA and talk to The Event

ord Robert Winston has just arrived at UEA after driving up from London, during rush hour, following a long day asking questions in the Houses of Parliament. it's six o'clock and he still has to deliv· er a lecture and sign copies of his latest book at Waterstones. His commitments include being a • • • Professor of fertility studies at Imperial College, a • director of NHS research at Hammersmith hospital, a regular speaker in the House of Lords, and Chancellor-elect of Sheffield-Hallam University, so it was actually a relatively ·relaxed day for him.

He is here in perhaps his most well known guise, as the televi· sion presenter of The Human Body, Superhuman, The Secret Life Twins and his latest programme, The Human Instinct, of which the first of four parts was broadcast last week. Instinct took Winston all over the globe as he traced, throughout the animal kingdom, the innate factors that govern everything we do, from speeding off at traffic lights to wearing make-up. The focuses of his programmes come not from Winston but from the BBC, so they are often as much a learning process for him as they are for the audience. "All the stuff I've done in the last few years has all been pre-sold in America. The BBC are a bit sneaky bec!luse they say, 'we've signed up Robert Winston to present it' and very often the first time I hear of it is when they've already got the eo-production money. What happened with Instinct was that they just decided I would do it and went ahead with their plans even though really I was very unimpressed with the subject.• Although a drain on his limited time, Winston has embraced his role in television. He feels that it is his mission to make science more accessible to the masses. " I haven't done the television to become a celebrity. I did it with a very concrete purpose in mind, scientific understanding which is very important in our society. As we become more arid more dependent on science, it' s very important that we understand it and we can control it, and you can 't control it without the knowledge. What will be surprising to a number of people when they analyse what they've seen after an hour of any of those four programmes will be the amount of science we've actually packed into them. it's extraordinarily dense with scientific facts but it's not a Horizon programme, so it's completely effortless and you don't realize that actually you 've got to scientific grips with a whole lot of things. The challenge really is to do that for BBC1 and not BBC2. I think it' s much more interesting to do science for nonscientists.· Winston is critical of psuedo-scientific programmes and presenters that dumb down science in the name of enter· tainment: "Tomorrow's World is a bit dumbing down, it treats

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science as a kind of freak show. I think that's very undesirable; I watched a programme the other day on alchemy on BBC 2, which I thought was incredibly patronizing. A very engaging presenter but I felt his style was completelY inappropriate ·very jokey. The subject's inherently interesting; you don't need to feel that you' re trying to engage your audience unnecessarily.

My stuff, when there's humour, it's there for a purpose. So I hope people don't feel I'm dumbing down.• However unintentional his celebrity may be, it is an un~voidable side effect of being the public face of modern science and is the part of the job Winston finds the most difficult to cope with. He dislikes being continually accosted in the supermarket by nice but annoying people and prefers to spend time with students and children who are more casual about what constitutes fame.

"Unless you're David Beckham they don't go overboard and I find that much easier to deal with really. I feel much more in tune with students than I do with almost any other gr.oup of people.•

"As we become more and more dependent on science, it's very important that we understand it and we cah control it" Professor Winston became interested in science after visiting the Science and Natural History Museum as a seven year-old boy. His interest was further stimulated by his first chemistry lesson at school: "Here was this boring old fart of a master who stood there in the front of the room with his hands behing his back pontificating. And I thought 'what a boring subject chemistry is' and then suddenly, after about ten minutes, there was the most monumental explosion behind him and, of course, he'd set this up half an hour before his lesson. Nowadays you couldn't teach like that because the Health and Safety Executive or parents would complain. • According to the newspapers, science and technology is becom· ing more and more dangerous to our existence everyday as cloned sheep and designer babies threaten to take over the planet. Winston dismisses these fears as essentially invalid and he questions whether people are really worried or whether the

press sensationalizes and thus stimulates our fears. "I don't think an awful lot of people are really desperately unnerved by cloning. They're probably more concerned about things that might actually affect them, like GM food. Many of the things that have been portrayed in the press as being threatening, when you stand back probably aren't.· One debate that has raged in the newspapers recently is the controversy over stem ·Cell research and President Bush's decision to halt it in America. This is an area that Winston feels very passionate about: "Stem Cell biology is likely to be one of the most important branches of celi biology in the next decade. it's a very exciting development because it really does offer concrete hope for completely new treatments for a whole range of very serious diseases.· ord Winston's television career sat isfies an interest in the arts that was previously catered for by directing plays. "I directed at the Edinburgh Festival and I directed a one-off performance in London about four years ago. lt raised sixty-nine thousand pounds for charity • it was a fairly rich audience of course. • When he has the time Winston also loves to ski, and is a member of Britain's Parliamentary Ski Team: "The parliamentar5> race is a bit scary because we ski against the Swiss Parliament and they have two Olympic skiers and one national Swiss champion. Now, of course, they're old but you could be ninety-five and, if you were that gpod originally, you're still going to be good." There are not many scientists who can provide insight into the government's skiing talent but Robert Winston is one of the few who can: · "Some of the members of the Commons are surprisingly good.

Probably, relatively speaking, there are more good skiers in the Lords than in the Commons.• Aside from being incredibly proud of his children, Robert Winston is unsure of what he considers his most significant achievement. "When you look back at anything that you've done, you always think how totally inconsequential it all is.

People who think that they're famous are incredibly stupid because in fifteen years time, if they've won the Nobel Prize for chemistry or literature, they became a footnote at the bottom of a page. What's really important in our society is rather different from what our society sometimes thinks is important.· However modest Winston is about his achievements it is clear from all his accomplishments· from his charity work, to raising the profile of science and innovations in fertility treatment · that he is one celebrity that deserves to be remembered. When asked how he manages to do so much, Winston replies, "I do it all rather badly and I go to bed late. •

L

Wednesday, October 30, .2002

the event

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12

13

A ·I m 0 s t Famous Looking beyond the Top 40 ...

N0.4

So Many Gig s

So ·Little T1me

There have been so many concerts since . . the start of the term that we've all been spoiled for choic e. As October reaches its end, The Event takes a look bac k at five of the month's most recent gigs.

9eth Orton - 16 October LCR

'

DJ Shadow - 22 October, LCR

Benn 's Little Rebellion have a strange name and a bright future ahead of them .

The Eventosked the Norwich band the usual questions ...

How long have you been t ogether?

Deva (bass): About two years now. We haven't had the chance to gig outside Norwich much, though.

James (vocalsjguitar): Wait. Where was that weird hippie festival we played? Aylesham? They gave us hash-cakes and vodka before we went on. lt all got a bit, er, messy.

Playing a festival was cool, though.

Andy (guitar/vocals): Before that, Tris (drums) and I were in a band called Big Empty who gigged around Norwich a lot.

What did we sound like? Sort of electro-emotional-metal (cue much laughter from the rest of the band). Hey! We played Fat Pauly's a couple of times!

"Barn, Barn, Barn, Barn!!!" drinbled the delirious Tom Cornwell (SOC 3), clearly unable to express himself properly, having been blown away by one of the be& events at the LCR in recent years. DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, provided a visceral explosion teamed with a diverse retrospective of his album work. The huge crowd gathered at the venue, as well as the sometimes-dark contemplative mood of his altum work, led to the night being slightly less of the dance test it would perhaps have been had he mainly mixed other people's records. So it became a slightly chin-stroking affair, which disappointed some; though most were left astounded at the breadth of one of the few DJs managing to capture such a vast fan base whilst challenging people and were happy to dance around. Daniel Chomp (EAS 2) described the final encore in terms that could make the Nietzsche reading members of campus proud: "lt didn't erupt! lt created the impression of a continual quest that has meaning in movement.· Pretensions aside, it was a hugely exhilarating finale that sadly stopped short of the 1 am deadline. lt was a night where most of the crowd would probably have been keen to continue forever.

The one real letdown of the evening was Beans. A rapper and the second act, he was not much of a showman. Though he did have evident skill at the craft and made a daring attempt to speak poetry at a crowd desperate to see DJ Shadow. By contrast the other supporting act, Fingerthing, were a great discovery. They impressed numerous audience members with their daring com· bination of turntables with an electronic double bass. The self-effacing musici13n Rob Hoffman (SOC 2) ·s description of Fingerthlng's performanc~ provides an insight into the performance that set a brilliant night in place: " For once, people who can combine quality electronic a with technical virtuosity and pull it off live. He was a bassist to rival my playing and performance skills!" DJ Shadow's set also comprised sumptuous offerings from The Private Press, Entroducing and Unkle's Psyence Fiction.

In the penultimate song he transformed an extraordinarily banal teach-yourself-to-drum video into an adrenaline-packed party piece that left the crowd aghast at his allility to manipulate his equipment. Some perhaps wondered what he does in his spare time, for the combinations in his music display someone who must meticulously trawl through record shops and expose himself t o extraordinary quantities of junk on his road to perfection.

Toby Lewls

For more info on the band and how to get hold of their EP, ema/1 bennslittlerebe/lion@yahoo.com or visit www.geocities.comjbennslittlerebellion.

whatever happened to...

Cat Stevens?

Marc Peachey

British Sea Power - 20 Oc tober, Colchester Arts Centre Yan, Noble, Hamilton, Wood, and new acquisition (a bloke in a tin hat) wander onstage, amidst the sound of some old :>loke mut· tering about times past. The stage, stripped of its usual forest, has a few branches strewn about, and a good few stuffed down the bass drum. Not only that, but the band also leave current trends in fashion, and stick to their 'military decommissioned look,' with woollen trousers, a few additions of twigs and the odd flat cap.

When it comes to the music, they also fail to follow current trends, leaving garage rock standing, which in their case is no bad thing. lt's hard to pin down their style, kind of indie before the baggy period, but not even that really. Included in the set is the new single Childhood Memories, which goes down well, as do previous singles Spirit of St. Louis and Remember Me. The band take influence for their songs from anywhere and everywhere, i.e. Trade Unions, WWII and eastern Europe. Although, more to the point, this is a band that can perform, and are quite mad as well. The fifth member of the band, at some time during the set, decides to leave the stage, and walk around the audience banging the shit out of a big drum. Also, the man coos like a bird as backing to some songs. Classic.

All said and done, the closing track is the high point. Taking the song t o epic proportions, the band systematically take apart Woods' drum kit, leaving him with only the snare drum to.play, and allowing the crowd to join in on the cymbals. There was also climbing of the lighting rig (Noble-the daredevil) reaching ever higher. Then there was Hamilton (bass) sitting on Van's shoulders, whilst both were still playing. And the fifth member went for a wander again. British Sea Power left triumphant. The crowd left d~d. . .

Mise/la Peariman

Below: Goldrush

Who? Cat Stevens was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in 1948 to a Greek father and Swedish mother who ran a restaurant in the upper part of Shaftsbury Avenue, London. Encouraged by his parents and influenced by the local theatres, he started playing the piano at an early age, but soon changed t o t he guitar. He started to write his own songs soon after as a way of expressing the thoughts he'd gathered as a self-styled observer and recorded demo tapes in a studio ,down the road from his parents' house. He disappeared from the music industry In the late 1970s.

What?

Sometimes, the experience of a gig can be more rewarding than the gig itself. Such was the case with Goldrush, who played to what must be one of the smallest crowds the Waterfront - which is intimate at the best and most crowded of times- has ever seen. At any one time, there were no more than 60 people watching the band, but all the empty space inside made it feel like about 20.Considering this, Goldrush did a very admirable job, smiling frontman Joe Bennett doing his best t o create an atmos- · phere, talking to and joking with the crowd in between songs, making the concert a nice two-way affair. And t he audience were equally responsive to the band, reacting very well to Goldrush's nice, if rather unexciting, string of songs. There were moments when they were very good · Best Intentions being one of the definite highlights- but there were also times when Joe sounded far too much like Kelly Jones for anybody's liking. Still, when all is said and done, this was a very humbling experience, anj a wel· come reminder that there are still bands out there who have to work hard to get where they're going, a fact often forgotten in this hideously commercial and insincere world. Goldrush obviously enjoyed the gig, and for no other reason than their sheer. tenacity and dedication to their cause, deserved a better turn-out. lt is with gigs like this that most of the best bands start out, and a shame that some - and some truly amazing bands at that · never manage to get any further. Goldrush weren't truly amazing, but they were better than to just play to 60 people. Shame.

He had his first hit in 1966 at the innocent age of eighteen.

Tit led I Love my Dog, it was not an astounding success but was still a place to build from and served to promote his debut album Matthew and Son. Unfortunately, he caught meningitis and spent several months in a hospital to recov· er. He released his fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman, in 1970. Possibly his best-loved and most successful album, it lead the way to ten more albums over the following ten years, and included such hit singles as Moonshadow, Morning Has Broken, Lady D'arbanville and Peace Train. His last album Back to Earth was released in 1978.

Why? His melodious voice and soul-searching lyrics as well as his melodies and heartthrob good looks made him a rock idol in the late '60s and early'70s. The music and the message were more important than commercial success, but he was talented enough to become one of the most popular recording artists of those times. Since then, his music has been covered by many other successful bands, such as Boyzone's debut hit single Father and Son and various offensive Muzak versions.

So where is he now?

Above (clockwise from t op): DJ Shadow; one half of Fingerthing; Beans; the other half of Fingerthing. Photos by Jay Patel.

Kosheen- October 21 , LCR That Monday the LCR was pac ~ed w ith dedicated followers ready to be treated to the Kosheen they know and love. There were a few others, such as myself, who were unknowing fans going on reputation and left surprised at how many tunes they actually knew and liked. There seems to be something about the group that allows you to remember their songs but not to connect the band to them.

Their music Is not conventional drum 'n' bass as we know it, but a fusion of different influences. This was evident on the night as the listener was taken through a range of different emotions while fortunately being kept on a constant high. Possibly due to their newcomer status, the concert could be described as 'short but sweet', but it certainly confirmed the rumours that their live performance is better than the recorded version, even with popular singles such as Hide U, Slip and Slide (Suicide) and the recently released Hungry. The sound system did justice to all aspects of the music, letting the vocals as well as the bass be appreciat· ed. The group clearly thrived en performing at the venue and Sian was happy to sign eager fans' tickets, COs and even t-shirts after the show. She described us as a •great crowd" and seemed pleased with the performance. Hopefully the next album will be able to capture the great live atmosphere and performance that the audience were witness to.

Allstair Lawrence

the event

Burn Out, Fade Away

"I 'm wearing my sparkly Homecoming Queen dress. You like?"

Despite any trace of a Norfolk burr having long since been superseded by the flat twang of an adopted Londoner, Beth Orton's opening gambit this evening is still received with rapturous cheers and indefatigable applause. Certainly there will greater tests of resolve than an audience who embrace her every glance and gesture and who hang on every swing of her hips; but our Beth is in giving mood, and knows which side her bread is buttered.

Wiry of frame and wicked of tongue, Orton's on-stage persona marries modesty and innocence with a superlative humour and showmanship, ·and her sumptuous spell is rarely broken during a two-hour set replete with no fewer than three encores. She performs new album Daybreaker in its entirety, and can afford to · she is, remember, on very steady ground here, yet she atill sees fit to reward and indulge. A raucous rendition of Stolen Car meets with near fanatical approval, as do Best Bit and She Cries Your Name, though an emotionally charged Feel To Believe is the arguable highlight.

So as she saunters off and the audience saunter out, there's an abiding feeling that everyone played a part in tonight's proceedings. Beth Orton gave as good as she got.

Goldrush - 24 October, Waterfront

Working with two principal songwriters In the band, Is there a big difference In the subject matter for your material?

Andy: I can't speak for James; lyrically I try to be as abstract as possible. Similarly, musically !'m not consciously influenced by anyone as most of my writing comes from playing about with my guitar, finding chord progressions that sound good.

James: I'm more Influenced by stuff that's happening in everyday life when I write lyrics. Relationships, friendships.

Also, if I don't like someone, I'll put it in a song!

Ah yes, your name. A bit of an odd one, Isn't lt?

Andy: (laughing) Yeah, it started off as a reference to Mr. Benn.

James: The 'little' rebellion. is almost taking the piss out of ourselves. lt's like, "this is our thing and you can be a part of it, if you want.·

• •

Matt!Jew Stratton

Who Influences your sound?

James: Like most people my age, the first decent band I listened to was Nirvana. lt sounds like a cliche now, but I love that 'proper', early grunge like Dinosaur Jr. together with more modern stuff like Hundred Reasons and elements of the Deftones.

Deva: As a band we started off much heavier, with more of a punk/ metal sound. it' s evened out now and we have quite a good mix of styles, I think.

James: We don't tend to play the quieter songs that we've written live, though, as there's always a danger people will get bored.

For a relatively y oung band (lames Is the oldest member at 18), Is the Norwich scene a good one?

Deva: Yes. The majority of people are really friendly and supportive, including all the bands we've played with. That makes it easy to have fun.

James: Jetplane Landing were really good to us, too. For example, they made sure our name was on all the posters adVertising the gig.

•

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

When he disappeared in the late 70s, still a 'popular star, Cat Stevens had in fact converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. He abandoned the spotlight to devote his life to his religion. He now dedicates his life to his religion and does a great deal of work for charity; for example, he owns four Muslim schools in London.

Through his production company, Mountain of Light, he has continued to make music , but of an Islamic nature. He has shunned the limelight, and has only performed his old songs publicly once in over twenty years- at The Concert for New York City which took place after the September 11 attacks.

He was last seen in October, during the Kalachakra for World Peace meeting in Graz, Austria, when he met the Dalai Lama.

Ryan J St ephens

Owen Roberts

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

the event

14

A1t1fums

Manic Street Preachers: Forever Delayed: Greatest Hits Not all greatest hit s albums are cynical record industry ploys designed to make as much cash as possible off brain-washed adolescents in middle England who have far too much of daddy's money and 'issues'. This, however, is. The t itle, Forever Delayed, is, unfortunately, a lie, like much else t hat has spewed out of Nicky Wire's mouth over the years. I am not one of these people who hates the Manics for selling out- to be honest I don't think they have changed that much. They've always said controversial things to get press attention and then contradicted themselves the next minute. Sadly, this seems to have been their only talent of late, as songs have been distinctly lacking in quality (and those of you who bought Know Your Enemy know exactly what I'm talking about)! Cue the greatest hits collection, complet e with remix CD. With contributors such as Davld Holmes and Chemical Brothers, they obviously think we'll believe it's good, which, obviously, it· isn't.

Culled from six albums and ten years of recording, Forever Deiyed appears to lean rather heavily on material from the period after Richey Edwards decided that his band were actually shit and ran away to Timbuktu (or was it Abergavenny? Answers on a postcard). Of course, this has set self-mutilating diehard Manic fans into bloodt~irsty frenzy (possibly quite literally). Not only have their beloved boys not made a good LP since ...well okay they 've never made a good LP ... but they've dared to Include more songs by Nick than Richey! In truth, this is actually t he album's fat al flaw . Anyone who thinks that The Everlasting even deserved to get onto any record in the first place, let alone onto a Greatest Hits package, has clearly been taking lessons from the Richey Edwards school of insanity (to enrol just look around for self righteous wankers that c all themselves Manics fans).

Okay, so we've established what 's crap about this record. And to be honest, the Manics fans are right to complain about the fact that Richey 1s poorly represented. His songs are clearly better, both lyrically and musically, and in those rare moments when the Manics did make sense, it was always with songs that Richey had written. Kevin Carter's simple stabbing guitar line, coupled with the tortured lyrics of a man about to fall off the edge is still as wonderful as when we first heard it in the summer of '96, a year after Edwards decided enough was enough. Similarly, Motorcycle Emptiness is fantastic, a testament to the fact that when they're on form the Manics are hard to beat. The sad truth of the matter is that Nick Jones and Richey Edwards were so het up on talking intellectual bollocks that they forgot that they should really concentrate on what matters - the music.

In theory, the Manics should be a really cool band who make thoughtprovoking music; they aren't stupid and they play their instruments well. The truth is somewhat removed. The unmitigated shit that they have produced far outweighs any decent songs that they thought to write, making this album a non-entity, a Christmas stocking-tiller for a new breed of angst ridden teenagers.

2/10

Sigur Ros:

Ron Sexsmith:

The Stone Roses:

( )

Cobblestone Runway

The Very Best Of...

( ) is Slgur Ros' third album, and the follow-up to their breakthrough previous effort, Agaetis Byrjun. Its eight songs, like the album itself, are untitled and total an epic 72 minutes. There are no words to any of them - instead, singer Jon Thor Birgisson uses his extraordinary and Incredible voice as an instrument, making up random sounds and syllables, following the music wherever it takes him.

Surprisingly, the lack of lyrics doesn't matter, and, in fact, it adds a strangely ethereal quality to the music - Birgisson sounds like a fallen angel, beautiful and enchanting, yet at the same time raw and haunting, ghostly. His singing is heartbreak, is love, is happiness and amazement, and does so much more than any trite lyrics possibly could do. Listening to this album conjures up images of midnight graveyards, medieval choirs and derelict churches and somehow - rather mysteriously - evokes, simultaneously, every ounce of joy and sadness that you have ever experienced in your life. lt makes you want to cry and laugh and shout and fall in love and live forever. it is that good.

That said, it is not just Birgisson's voice that has this effect, and the other instruments (piano, guitars, drums, and other assorted sounds and noises) are equally important, drawing you deeper and deeper into the songs themselves until it's impossible to not let go and give yourself into them. The music quite literally overpowers you, both physically and mentally, and parts of ( ) can leave you cold, stunned and unable to think, which is quite some achievement.

To some extent, this is a new kind of classical music, and if there were to be any criticism, it would be that, from a distance, the songs could be considered too long and indistinguishable from each other - you really need to give yourself into the music to properly enjoy it and get something out of it. If you do that - and it's very hard not to - then you'll be blown away. ( ) is, quite simply, near perfection.

Ron Sexsmith sings like a cross between Nick Drake and Chrls Martin of Coldplay (who makes an appearance on the album).

His lyrics are touching and he writes songs·that are subtle, sometimes beautiful, and which creep up on you without you noticing and stay with you, in a good way. In short, he is underrated.

Cobblestone Runway is Sex smith's sixth album. Like his other albums, this is definitely a grower. On first listen, it is a sweet little' album and no more. By the second listen, you may find yourself hummlng parts of songs in. By the third listen, you may miss it when it ends. By the fourth listen, you may be hooked, in a folksy sort of way. lt opens quietly with Former Glory, a warm and hopeful acoustic number, but then changes track straight after with the pessimistic These Days, complete with Walk on the Wild Sidestyle backing vocals. I suppose this is quite an eclectic album, in a strictly folksy sort of way. That is to say, drum machines and synthesizers make there appearances. But this isn't a caSe of "Look guys, I can do electric too• - it all sits together quite nicely. The only misfire on the album is the disco-y Dragonfly on Bay Street; with Sophie Ellis Bexter- esque production values that simply don't work in the context of a relatively low-key album.

Sex smith believes this to be his best album to date, but I would disagree. There is not a track on Cobblestone Runway as good as Sacred Heart, and the album does peter out towards the end, only to come back in full force (in a folksy sort of way)' with Gold in them Hllfs, the track with Chris Martin on it.

If you are not familiar with Ron Sex smith, this album may be worth investigating. Put it on in your room, snuggle up in your bed oron a chair, close your eyes if you want and let it grow on you in a folksy sort of way.

it's taken almost as long as their second album, but here, finally, is the definitive Stone Roses compilation. Arriving soon after John Squire's critically panned solo album, this is a timely reminder of what the masterful guitarist and his band were once capable of. A group whose mission statement was nothing less than world domination, the Stone Roses exploded onto the Manchester scene in the late eighties with their eponymous debut album. Five years later, Its follow-up, The Second Coming was met with universal disappointment, and the Roses split in the aftermath.

Bookended by the defiant statements of I Wanna be Ado;ed and I Am The Resurrection, this 'best of is, nevertheless, the testament of a band that imploded in style. Their self-belief remains infectious: when he proclaims "The past was yours but the future's mine" on She Bangs The Drums, lan Brown epitomises the punk attitude which characterised the Roses' approach to their music.

Taking obvious musical cues from Johnny Marr's trademark guitar riffs, the Roses made an overused sound their own. The groove of Fools Gold - now a staple of every indie disco - still sounds unique, while a thunderous Begging You is Primal Scream raving with Dobie Gray in a warehouse somewhere off the M6. Any loss of focus that troubled The Second Coming is well disguised against the blistering arrogance of early singles Made of Stone and Waterfall. A highlight of the later material is Ten Story Love Song, an introspective ballad on which lan Brown's voice is uncharacteristically tender.

While New Order continue to release records, and Shaun Ryder is miraculously still alive, the Stone Roses have long since become part of the fabric of Manchester's musical history. The Very Best Of The Stone ROSf!S may be a shameless cash-in on a band whose era-defining material has already been repackaged often enough, but when the music is this good it would be churlish to complain.

Mlscha Pearlman

Tom Sutton

Satah Edwarda

( )/10

the event

8/10 Wednesday, October 30, 2002

9/10

Singles 15

Alicia Keys: Girlfriend Nothing is sacred in hip-hop, and, increasingly, nothing is new. This record uses an 'interpolation' (aka creative rape) of the classic 1995 track Brooklyn Zoo by 01' Dirty Bastard. it's a nice sample, but entirely out of place on this song, lacking synchronicity with the vocals. Jermalne Dupri produces, so the listener can enjoy the dwarfen one's whiny Atlanta drawl periodically interrupting Alicia Keys' singing. The song itself languishes somewhere between a club track and a ballad, and for all its productional polish it lacks a certain edge.

Miss Keys does indeed have a beautiful voice, but don't expect exciting, or even interesting, lyrical content. Apparently, unbeknown to me, the song "deals with the most tricky of issues - unrequited love.• I thought it was about lesbianism. Unfortunately, it lacks the vocal presence and beauty of her debut single Fallin', but it is clear what she is aiming forthe song i6 slickly produced, reasonably catchy and radio-friendly. I get the feeling she has a higher quality song-writing ability in her, so I just hope she doesn't sell her soul to r'n'b banality. In a month that saw a middle-aged man sing a song· about Bunsen burners and reach the top ten, however, it will surely chart well. Besides, she is currently riding the wave of 9 million worldwide record sales, as well as being an exceptional singer, songwriter and a winner five Grammys. Surely nothing can go wrong when it's going so right...can it?

Joel Tumer

Pictures (clockwise from top): Alicia Keys; Mr. Fischer; Sugababes; Mr. Spooner

Fischerspooner:

The 15th

Could misters Fischer and Spooner have covered a more obscure song? Nope? Well, I thought not. The 15th, their second single from their ambitiously titled album, #1, was originally written by 1980s art punks Wire, from their album 154. The song itself is true to the original version, yet Spooner's vocals are more a whine than singing. In addition, there is a dreamy, yet slightly monotonous, beat and backing track to the song, designed to be played by a live band (NYC's French Kicks).

However, what this may lack in substance is found in the remixes by Felix da Housecat, Sono, and Tommie Sunshine. They give a much more electroclash·y, dance-y and guitar-y sound respectively. All in all, the song (by Fischerspooner) isn't bad. The fans will have heard it all before, and electroclash connoisseurs may like it for the Felix mix. Personally, I preferred Emerge.

Matthew Stratton

Kirsty Hawkshaw :

Queen Adreena:

FM Doll

The strange thing about Queen Adreena is that while the lead singer seems to take herself too seriously, the band don't take themselves seriously enough. This, more often than not, leads to a bizarre (and, occasionally, workable) mixture of soul-bearing screeching mixed with glam postgoth whatevercore guitaring. Fair play to them and all, but they seem far too concerned with throwing random lyrics of hatred at us than actually thinking of anything constructive to do with their time. FM Doll is a quirky little bastard, with a decent (i.e. strange) enough rockabilly beat and an even stranger dark, gothic tinge to it. The second track is just...well, pointless. lt starts nowhere, rapidly goes nowhere and finishes where it started. lt falls on the wrong side of The Cure (not being heavily into gothic music, it's my only reference point). and when being on the right side of The Cure isn't that good you know you have problems. I remain utterly, utterly indifferent to this.

Paul Case

Fine Day

If we 'd been made to recite the Velvet Underground's Heroin instead of the Lord 's Prayer in our Primary school assemblies, maybe we could have done away with techno altogether. Surely, then, no-one would be musically inept enough to find the idea of making or listening to such synth-driven dross as this actually fun.

According to the press release, this song was released in the early 90s heyday of the aciiiiiiiiiiiidhouse dance scene and "conjures up images of where you were and who you were with when you first heard it." Perhaps, but I was never much into the ecstasy scene when I was 9, and I doubt this would have stood out in my chemically-eroded memory anyway. Tired beats, bored keyboards and Kirsty Hawkshaw's l~cklustre vocals lend this to the very murkiest depths of the bargain bins, where only the most monkian of townies sift for that elusive, ultimate Trevvin ' masterpiece.

Matt Sargeson

Sugababes:

Stronger I Angels with Dirty Faces

lt would be easy, if not expected, to condemn this record .without further thought, in alliance with current dim views of music deemed "pre-produced processed pap.· However, let us give the double A-side a spin before making any hasty judgments.

The opener, Stronger is a typical Sugababes ditty - powerful electronic drums and bass, soothing vocals -a tune that runs as smoothly as the well-oiled commercial industry that powers it.

The girls (Heidi, Keisha and Mutya) declare in Angels ... , that they have "dirty faces in the morning" -a submission that makes us realise that perhaps they are not permanently polished puppets after all. This track is more upbeat than Stronger and the semi-rapped verse follwed by lovely harmonised chorus is the high point of this package.

The single is released on 11th November- a day for us all to reflect and remember fallen heroes.

But probably few will commit this effort to memory.

Tom Nelsh

Psych id:

J

Split Lip EP

Psychid are coming to the Waterfront later on in the semester to support Electric Soft Parade, so maybe I should be sporting and give them a glowing review, and perhaps even encourage people to attend the gig. But then again, why should I? The patent mediocrity of this EP disallows me to be even charitable about this pig swill pie of a band .

Split Lip Sucker sounds like a Starsailor b-side, Not Too Late sounds like wank-period Suede and I don't think .even Muse would wipe their arses with the other two tracks. Psychid are a self-professed 'experimental ' band and if this is true, then the Stereophonics are on the cutting edge of the British rock scene. The only thing we have here is some more earnest strummings from another uninspired indie band who delight in irritating us with their 'unusual' chord progressions and whiney voices. Avoid this EP, or better still, buy it and burn it. And I mean on a fire.

Tom Sutton

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

16 Film

Changing Lanes: Directed by Roger Michell Starring: Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson/ Toni Collette

â&#x20AC;˘

A rich, white lawyer gets involved in an ugly scrap with a poor, black insurance salesman. Just look at the thematic opposition. Go on, look at it.

As I sit here, wh ite screen before me, I can barely begin typing , so many irate comments are trying to force themselves through my fingers. From the direction to the script , every element of this Ben Affieck j Samuel L. Jackson blockbuster makes me want to spit bile. Where do I possibly start? Well , first ly let 's talk about the vomit inducing camera work. Every scene seems to have been shot on the back of a bucking bronco, with the foc us occasionally on, say, a large tree. Perhaps the director, Roger Michell, who previously directed Notting Hill, thought that such nonsensical , quasi-ch allenging shots would make us think , "Wow ! He 's really clever. Like French people ".

Out of this chaos come the duel vehicles of Affieck and Jackson who, after crashing in busy New York , find themselves locked together in a spiral of anger and vengeance against each other in this, the ultimate expression of what it means to get road rage . Interesting idea, huh? A clumsy doubling structure, coupled with Ladybird Book binary oppositions gives us c lunky, over boi led character traits. Affleck work s in Law . secure in the illusion of security that his glass office provides, echoed in the Trompe D'Oei l that resides in the office of the woman with whom he is having an affair. Jackson s~l ls insurance , the ultimate in -hmm- perceived security. Afflet:k is affluent, white, successful , happil y married. Jackson is black, poor, separated and struggling to take custody of his sons. All that 's missing is a Driving Miss Daisy accent.

The cross-cutting to show the two characters ' relative experiences with law , society and faith are interesting, as are their respect ive methods of vengeance. White collar Affieck , feeling he has entered into a Faustian agreement with his evil Law Firm Partner, is plagued by moral and ethical concerns as he

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attempts to understand the complexity of the world. But this doesn 't stop him casually manipulating Jackson from afar, Machiavellian sty le, by manipulating his social security records, while blue colla r Jackson relies on a Luddfte's outlook , destroying the technology Affleck replies upon at its most basic level. but all this lacks any bite due the c lumsy script and poor, poor acting whilst repetit ive religious imagery and themes of redemption are handled like a heart surgeon wielding a pitchfork As a rare exception, characters stand out impressively , at least for the most part . I seem to be alone in believing Ben Affleck to be the Hollywood equivalent of the playdoh figure Morph taking to the stage with his play doh features . Jac kson provides a toned-down version of his Pulp Fiction freak out, but memories of that far superior film can only serve to damage this one , especially when Jackson breaks into his bible-quoting rants (love his nostrils). Toni Collette rises above the stereotypical mistress role to deliver a typically note-perfect, subtle performance that is a rosy pink next to Affleck 's grey.

Pleasant as it is to see Chagall appear on film again, it is hard to tell whether this is a reference to the director's work on Notting Hill or a metaphor for the state of the characte rs . When this is the most comp lex ambiguity in the film, yo u know that you have a case of the worst crime in the Hollywood Casebooka great concept ruined. Perhaps Clanging Lines would be a more appropriate title for this lacklustre, mind-and-buttocknumbingly pretentious waste of life t ime.

Sam Brooker

3/10

We dnesday, October 30, 2002

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Film 17

Orange County:

Directed by: Joke Kasdan Starring: Colin Hanks, Jack Black

Stanford University would like you to know that they played no part in creating this unprincipled attack on Americans' right to a privilaged, vastly expensive education.

Orange County stars Colin Hanks (Tom's son) and Jack Black, supported by assorted celebrity cameos (play the game; 'which slightly unfashionable but still famous actor will appear next?') .

To me, this seemed a recipe for disaster. I was wrong. Although it Is a vehicle for Hanks, the cast in the film work together to produce a quirky, sarcastic and witty comedy that works because of all of their contrasting styles.

The film follows Sean (Hanks) who is an intelligent student in ...you guessed it, a high school in Orange County, California, where the sun shines eternally , and the cheerleaders dance to Crazytown Butterfly all day for seemingly no reason at all. After the death of a close friend in a Tsunamijsurfing accident, Sean finds a book on the beach one day, and Is inspired to sell his surfboard and pursue a career in writing. He applies to Stanford (a prestigious American College), and, after then being rejected because of a mix-up, tries everything to get himself there. His main reason for going away to college is to escape the ridiculous (and highly entertaining) family set-up he has. What with a clinging, alcoholic mother, a geriatric stepfather that his mother 'married for him ' and a .permanently tripping brother (Jack Black) , we, as an audience, can see his point.

When I heard that this film starred Jack Black, I felt pangs of dismay and apprehension, because the last film I unfortunately saw with him in was Shallow Ha/. However, on his first appearance in the film, I decided that this may be different (rather than just a side project to fund Tenacious D) . Black puts on a hilarious performance, convincingly showing his adaptability and ability to do 'crazy'. Although ~e has a small part relative to Hanks, I found myself waiting for his next appearance, which gets increasingly stranger and funnier as the film progresses.

Hanks, on the other hand, is convincing in the sensitive and slightly brooding role he is given, and delivers· a performance on a par with every other teen film actor (Jason Biggs et al) Despite this, he doesn't seem any better than any one of them either.

The film is effective because between all the comedy and laughter, it does deal with some sensitive issues, such as relationships, dysfunctional families and death. They are handled in such a laughter-through-tears way that this aspect made me warm to the film further. The main message in the film seems to

be that what you think you want may not necessarily be what you ultimately want, and running away is never the best solution.

Orange County does have flaws, as with many of the films in this genre, and most events seem unnecessary, and could logically be resolved in a matter of minutes, rather than characters having to drive across the country and have strange adventures.

However, I would definitely recommend this film to any student,

•g h c r1• m es • Hl

because we can identify with the excitement that unnecessary adventures bring.

Rebecca Fenton

8/ 10

Directed by: Carl Franklin • ?tarring: Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman

The only crime this film commits is to be completely unoriginal. Would you be able to pick it out of a line-up of the dozens of movies (mostly starring Judd) it resembles?

The best way of describing this film is to say; "you've seen it before.· Even the poster is about as original as an episode of Hollyoaks: "Trust no-one"? Please. The plot is an old standard: a happily married couple all of a sudden find their lives threatened by depraved outsiders. Hold onto your seats.

The story centres on hotshot defence lawyer Claire Kubick (Ashley Judd, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) who is happily married and about to be made partner at her firm. Her world is torn to pieces when her husband Tom (Jim Caviezel, The Thin Red Line) is arrested by the military and accused of a

terrible crime. His hidden past as a classified military operative is disclosed to a devastated Claire who finds herself defending him in a toJ)-secret military court where none of the normal rules apply. With the help of lawyer and recovering alcoholic, Charlie Grimes (Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption, The Sum of all Fears), crazy, lazy sister (Amanda Peet, The Whole Nine Yards) and inexperienced military lawyer (Adam Scott, Ronnie) Claire sets about proving her husband's innocence.

Freeman, who delivers an excellent performance as "wild card" ex-military attorney Charlie Grimes, provides a stamp of much

needed quality. He has the best lines in the film and is one of the few reasons it is worth watching. Judd also performs admirably in a role that a lesser actress would have made detestable Based on the novel by Joseph Finder and directed by earl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress) this film is a stereotypical US military courtroom drama. Most characters are farcical mimics of characters from the superior Rob Reiner classic A Few Good Men. Whilst well acted, Ashley Judd 's role is worryingly one-dimensional. Claire doesn't care about anything except getting her husband back. As a consequence the film falls short in its attempts to portray the emotional trauma caused by the murders in question. The cliched opening sequence depicts the aftermath of the killings in El Salvador and should be moving but is devoid of feeling . The sad reality of the unnecessary vier lence is never even touched by the hollow and empty attempts at depicting the massacre.

The only living representative of the victims is creepy and vier lent. To make matters worse his connection to the village is unexplained. He pops up sporadically in a menacing fashion and manages to make supposedly threatening behaviour incredibly amusing. This unfortunate character provides an unsympathetic victim 's perspective and is given overdone and unnecessary scenes. At one point Claire questions the character (who is given no name. How eerie.) • Just tell me the truth? " to which he relies; "You don't want to hear the truth.· Honestly ...

High Crimes takes itself far too seriously and relies heavily upon the over-done military courtroom drama formula. However, despite such a superficial script and such exaggerated direction, it isn't dreadful, and if this type of film is your thing then you ' ll probably like it.

Emma Ap-Thomas

4/10

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

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18 Video/DVD

About

a

Boy:

Directed by Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz Starring: Hugh Grant Toni Collette

Introducing Hugh Grant version 1.1 featuring a new accent and a new haircut. Even better than the original, he's now starring in good films.

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In case you didn't already know: About a Boy is another successful 'page to screen' novel by Nick Hornby; this time starring Hugh Grant as Will Lightman (ho ho),a rich, child-free and irresponsible thirty-something ·Londoner in .search of available women. To aid him in his rakish quest, Will invents an imaginary son and attends single parent meetings, believing embittered yet needy women to be easy pickings. As a result of one of his subsequent liaisons he meets M arcus, an odd 12-yearold boy with problems at home and school, and strange eyebrows. Gradually 'events conspire' -forcing Will and M arcus into becoming friends. Will teaches Marcus how to be accepted by the fad-mad adolescents at school ; M arcus helps Will to finally grow up.

Grant's role as lethargic Lothario is a refreshing one. Gone, at least in the main part, are his more tedious roles of bumbling, floppy-fringed Four Hills and a Knotty Funeral fops; what we have instead is a far more interesting ·lost modern male, with one of those ubiquitous, painstakingly messy crops. I say lost, for Will has had to llve with a terrible, enervating legacy: his father has left him the royalties for an infuriating Christmas jingle that renders four months of his year intolerable; particularly in supermarkets. He lives entirely off the song's seasonal proceeds and divides his lacklustre days into manageable halfhour segments of hedonism. Conversely , M arcus, the jointly eponymous young 'boy' , has had to grow up too quickly . Hoult acquits himself admirably as the floundering youngster, delivering a significant portion of the film's emotional range successfully - as well as a good slice of the narration- while also remaining remarkably- less slappably twee than most child actors. Some of his jokes do miss, however; but then he 's only little, bless him, and comic timing is difficult; even for grownups. lt may come as a shock to many that the film is directed by the New York (Weitz) brothers responsible for the 'seminal,' cerebrally-challenged buffoon-test, American Pie. I say shock, as the humour is by no means in the same 'morbidly obsessed with bodily functions' vein . Instead we find evidence that Hugh Grant is a fine light-comic actor displaying consummate skill

;::::==iii;;:::::::::;w:::::::; with only occasionally modest material.

Watching him work an under-written punch line around his face is a joy .

Where High Fidelity made a smooth - but irksome, for novel purists - transplant onto American soil, it was decided not to relocate shallow Will from Hornby 's native Finsbury to somewhere more stylish , and this works well.

The tone is kept closer to that of the book and the actors seem relaxed in their surroundings, which helps them perform well.

Toni Collette is good as Marcus' manic-depressive mother- in one of the film 's more difficult roles she walks the fine line · between irritating_ self-pity and sympathetic suffering well. She is just lachrymose enough to provide a mild air of tension, out of concern for M arcus, while still providing the requisite wry fully this isn't so. Instead we have a refreshing, modern view of humour to be amusing in places. familial dysfunction with a happy, but not mawkish, close. The Despite a slight, awkwardly acted hiatus (in what might have Weitz brothers tell a simple story with clarity, employing fluid been a very touching scene between M arcus and his mother) camera strokes and imaginative framing ; it is fun and easy to the film displays an overall balance: a potentially cringe-inducwatch . So do. Watch it, that is. ing ending is dealt with successfully with uncharacteristic, Nathan Dlxon understated style. Indeed, this movie could have been absolutely awful, given the American predilection for cloying, overtly moralistic nuclear family propaganda pieces, but thank-

8/10

Singin' in the Rain Directed by Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Starring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds The Aim

Apparently the ninth best film of all time (if you trust the critics), Singin' in the Rain has just had its fiftieth birthday. To celebrate, it has joined the long list of classic films made over for special edition DVDs. The result is a pri stine print that could have been released yesterday .

The plot has aged rather elegantly and has somehow managed to avoid becoming dated , even though it relates the story of the transition from silent movies to talkies and the effect that had on the silent era's often abysmal actors.

Singin' in the Rain is a musical comedy starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald 0 ' Connor and Jean Hagen . Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a st unt man who falls into acting (literally). The silent films he stars in have no use for his talents as a si nging, dancing, Fred Astaire-sty le God but when talkies come along his skills are essential. Unfortunately his beautiful eo-star, Lina Lamont , has no such talents. Instead she sports a voice that would do El iza Dolittle proud - before her makeover. Solution: Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds), a feisty dancing girl with a voice of an angel , is brought in to save the reputation of the obnoxious Lamont (Jean Hagen) and thus launches her own movie career.

The plot merely serves the function of providing a framework to showcase the singing and dancing skills of its three main stars - this is a musical after all. Considering it was released in 1952, the format is fairly modern with little cohesion connecting the story to the musical numbers. lt frequently veers off into surreal film within film sequences, which can be confusing for first time viewers, though luckily most people have seen it before.

An inherently interesting plot and a mesmerizing comic quality to Gene Kelly 's dancing mal<es Sing in' In The Rain an enduring classic The Extras

This special edition is packed with extra features , which is probably why they're calling it a special edition. Aside from the digitally remastered print, it also has an all star commentary with everyone involved in the film, from the coffee maker to director Stanley Donen featuring on it.

Unfortunately each person 's part was filmed separately and then edited together so it lacks the spontaneaity that traditional commentaries have.

The two documentaries, one at 86 minutes and one at 30, provide insight into the making of the film and the musical unit at MGM . Musicals, Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed unit at MGM has been padded out with extended clips to make it last over an hour and is probably only interesting to die-hard fans. What A Glorious Feel ing is more specific to Singin ' in the Rain. Narrated by Debbie Reynolds, it has never-before-seen interviews with the surviving members of the cast and crew as well as an in depth history of the making of Sing in· in the Rain. Finally , disc 2 features all the usual outtakes, songs and rare footage that we have come to expect.

Kathryn Hlnchlfff

8/10 the event

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Arts 19

Book Review: Jonathan Kaplan The Dressing Station

John Hegley is not your average poet. The Sketch Books, appropriately enough, is not an average show.

Part book reading, part gig, with some stand-up comedy in between, this is performance poetry with an engagingly contemporary twist. Hegley has written a number of collections (Five Sugars Please and Glad To Wear Glasses being amongst the best) but it is onstage that his charming, eccentric verse truly comes alive.

Hegley specialises in the comedic poem, drawing delightful whimsy from subjects including dogs, potatoes, and his beloved home town of Luton. Often using bathos or slightly sarcastic irony, each poem closes with a witty climax which is never easily anticipated. An achievement rarely managed by most comedians, the consistency of the humour is one of the most impressive facets of this evening.

Aside from comedy, the show is also a celebration of the joy of the word, relishing the immediate response of the crowd to a sudden moment of seriousness or an unexpected punchline.

Hegley's verse echoes John Betjeman's deceptive simplicity to great effect, varying the tone from the poignant to the downright silly in the space of a single line. This gap between comedic and tragic is evident throughout the show, heightening the whisper of pathos which underlies many of Hegley's poems.

Indeed, for a predominantly humorous show The Sketch Books is far from inconsequential. The poems are expertly contrasted

to create the most emotional resonance, and when Hegley turns to the subject of his father - as he does on many occasions throughout the show -the subtle melancholia of his verse becomes evident. Most memorable is the sense of lost opportunities in Hegley's description of his regret that he never spent time with his father in his native France. The tale is illustrated obliquely by a rousing Poem de Terre, written in elementary French and translated by a member of the audience.

Elsewhere, the musicality of his verse is brought out with help from percussionist Andrew Bailey, whose willingness to act the crowd-pleasing stooge sees some of the funniest moments of the show. Hegley accompanies many of the poems on the mandolin, such as the inexplicably surreal ode Blancmange ("it's the love of my life") which also features Bailey playing an industrial rubber glove as a drum.

The poems are characterised by a particularly strong sense of rhythm and Hegley makes full use of the live theatre to experiment with beats and pulsating vocals, to captivating effect.

Poetry's intensely personal medium can be difficult to translate to stage, but Hegley's bespectacled persona and boyish devotion to his topics make the progression successful. Long may Luton's most famous poet continue to write his enchanting, and not at all average poetry.

Sarah Edwardes

For many, the first foray made into the realms of published writing will be autobiographical. You might picture any number of fatuous celebrities setting to work on their equally fatuous memoirs with a hefty advance, vindictive agenda, zealous ghostwriter, and perhaps even a belated rape accusation all in tow.

Autobiographies are all too often spiked with vanity, indulgence, and mawkish pleas for public sympathy, but here we have a candid and earnest exception. The Dressing Station Is Jonathan Kaplan's first book. lt is an autobiography. lt is superb.

Under the varying guises of journalist, aid worker and battlefield surgeon, Kaplan journeys through both wards and war-zones, and recounts his story without respite. He has lost out to the near impenetrable public-sc hool nepotism of the NHS, where those boasting a greater wealth of social connections preferentially prosper, and been slave to the callous commercialism of American medicine and the abiding influence of drug company pror.t margins. He bears witness to the striking injustice of~ outh African apartheid, the Western world grappling wi 'h its own conscience in South America, and the brutal realities of religious genocide in Kurdistan.

Kaplan has done more than merely work with medicine, he has lived with medicine, and it is this distinction that is pivotal to The Dressing Station. In his writing he is coming to terms with the Janus face of the healing profession, recognising its awesome capabilities, but blighted by its often Mile shortcomings. The sense of helplessness when surgical skills are outstripped is convincingly captured, and so too are the competing machinations of medicine and money.

As you might expect, Kaplan's account is as sharp as his scalpel. His narrative possesses a clinical precision and efficiency, yet his prose remains accessible and engaging. He has acquired the attributes of an accomplished author: an episode as a ship's surgeon on the South China Sea where Kaplan finds his clinic beset with doses of salmonella and acute VD demands re-reading for its wry wit and observation, yet his chapters on ethnic cleansing in Eritrea and Ethiopia are both poignant and moving. The Dressing Station is a noble account of frequently funny, often ironic, but more often harrowing experience, transposed beautifully to ttie page.

Marc Peachy

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20 Arts

Theatre Preview:

路King Lear

Theatre Royal

Having studied King Lear for A level and therefore having watched every film adaptation going , I had high expectations from Stephen Unwin's version on at Norwich 's Theatre Royal last week. And it was absolutely fantastic.

The strikingly minimalist set design was undoubtedly effect ive throughout the performance , however, the over use of technology (i mages being projected onto a suspended screen) seemed unnecessary and detracted from the audience's attention. The stage space was used efficiently, with the hovel in the storm opening up from the floor, and distances were well implied by traveling around the elevat路 ed main area of the stage. The limited number of props were successful in portraying the scene and drew attention to Shakespeare 's themes. lt was very well thought out .

The characte rs were well cast and the general level of the performances were high. Timothy West (pictured) was powerful as the broken King sent mad by his daughters, he was particularly brilliant in the storm scene, although he had the advantage of having played Lear around 20 years ago.

Gloucester was played exceptionally well by Michael Cronin. His performance was faultless and arguably outshone that of Timothy West's. The t w o sisters, Goneril, Jessica Turne r, and Regan, Catherine Kanter, we re a little disappointing in that they could have been more venomous, particularly towards each other at the end. As it was there seemed little distinction between when they were working together and when they were working agai nst each other.

Edmund, (Dominic Rick hards), delivered his soliloquies exceptionally, as the vengeful bastard son of Gloucester, although his sexual nature could have been brought out to a greater extent, or maybe that's just how I saw Edmund.

My personal favourite however was Edgar, who seemed more human and more developed as a character, he was perfect. 路 The only major criticism I have to offer would be the sound and music effects, as they sounded like bad 80's keyboard music . However, even that didn 't seem so awful alongside the exceptional cast, so that bizarrely enough, after 3 hours I was pretty immune to it. There is suprisingly little to criticize in Unwin's production. He managed to capture the genius of Shakespeare while using only the simplest of sets. it was a masterpiece .

Jenny Fry

Theatre Preview:

Books Re-Viewed: Book Review: Student's favourite novels Tlte C apes "f A/rath John Steinbeck

James and the Giant 路

The Algebra of Infinite Injustice Arundhati Roy

Poach

Theatre Royal

The Grapes of Wrath is Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck's undisputed masterpiece. Set in Dust Bowl Oklahoma and California it richly evokes migrant life during America's Great Depression.

A contrapuntal style splits movement between shorter lyric al chapters, illuminating a background relevant to the general migrant group, and longer narrative chapters following one family: the Joads. The changes of pace and style ' hit the reader below the belt opening him up with the rhythms and symbols of poetry, while at the same ti me introducing things on an intellectual level'.

The novel has been criticised, like other works fashioned out of an American rough-hewn style, for its sentimentality, flat characterisation, heavy-handed symbolism and unconvincing dialogue . But th is misses the book's true significance. lt is not interested in stilted academic brain-fodder; it is interested in the soul.

Granted, the story is rather emotive, but it never slides into sentimentality . it is also, admittedly , somewhat tendentious; but it never lapses into tedious didacticism , or splenetic jeremiad . This is due to the novel 's essential grounding in humanity : the poetic spirit in which we witness man's endurance in the face of debasing or destructive forces- in particular the obduracy of Capitalism. The Grapes Of Wra th is a novel of faith in man's ability to maintain dignity and hope in periods of despair.

Steinbeck's st ory is hewn out of an unsurpassed , soulful grandeur and st ays with the reader long after the book is c losed . lt is emotional because people are emotional. lt can be one-sided , but then it is from the perspec t ive of those t hat always bear the brunt in hard times- those at the bottom. it may also be overt ly symbol ic in its biblic al undertones, but the n these are symbols that always retu rn - indigent or disenfranc hised populations on the move. We haven 't learnt a th ing.

Arundhat i Roy is repaying her people in kind. She feels she is undeserving of the praise, prestige, and profit generated by her debut novel. She is perennially dogged by the feeling that 'every emotion, every little strand of feeling in The God of Small Things, had been traded in for a silver coin.' She has since begun t o redress the balance.

To this end, Roy has penned The Algebra of Infinite Justice, a compendium of pol itical tracts com prising eight individual essays culled from her now notoriously vehement political writings. Most have seen the light of day before : the two principa l works here, The End of Imagination and The Greater Common Good, featured in 1999's The Cost of Living, and the remainder, for the most part, were written for the broadsheet media in wake of various wor ldwide developments. Among the included essays are searing attacks on American conduct in the war against terrorism , India's nuc lear programme , and the co nstruction of numerous monumental dams that threaten the livelihood of some 40 million people living along the banks of the Narmada River. Cynics will accuse her of appropriating these causes to assuage her guilt over sudden fame and wea lth, but Roy ex hibits the courage of her often controversial convictions. In 1999 she donated 1.5million rupees, the equivalent of her Booker Prize purse, to the 'Save The Narmada' campaign , and in 2001 served a nominal prison sentence fo r her part in a protest against the construction of the Sard ar Sarovar Dam. Roy is an impeccable personal and politic al observer; she adroitly examines worldwide issues on an intim ate scale, though at times t he grisly punch line of nuc lear warfare or mass impoverishment is al most masked by the grace of her prose.

She does, however, leave her mark on all of the issues she chooses to tack le and leaves the reader w ith the overwhelming co nvictio n that progress is a pseudonym for suffering .

There aren't many people of this generation that haven't read at least one book by one of the top children 's authors ever, Roald Dahl , whether for pleasure or for study, or to younger siblings or children. Who can say they didn 't cringe at The Twits or roar with laughter at the Revolting Rhymes.

James and the Giant Peach was the very first of Dahl's c hildren's books. lt tells the story of an amazing adventure, w ith a giant peach (the clue is in the title). Made into a feature film in the late 90s it has now been successfull y transposed into a magical stage play .

The inquisitive James is played by Joel Chalfen in this juicy adaptation by David Wood, presented by the Birmingham Stage Company and directed by Graeme Messer. lt has received rave reviews in the local press where this tou ring production has travelled so far .

In case you don 't know the story , James is an orphan living with his two aunts, the most c ruel , wi ck ed and revolting relatives you c an imagine . He is forced to work and slave all day and forbidden to play with other children. His life is transformed when a stranger gives him a bag containing the most powerful magic in the world! Spilling the bag at the foot of the peach tree turns out to be the start of an incredible journey for James, befri ending giant insects, travelling far and wide in a giant peach!

Pantomime fans will th ink that Christm as has come early, as this tasty morsel is funny, and entertaining, a 'Dahling' piece of chi ldren' s theatre! Not to put to fi ne a pun on it .

On the oth er hand you might just fancy a trip down memory lane. Whatever you 're look ing for the Theatre Royal is the place to marvel at this peachy produc t ion w hich runs fo r four days (6th-9th November) and is a must see for 6 year olds of all ages!

Nathan Dlxon

Marc Peachy

Owen Morgan

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Wednesday, October 30, 2002

N/Radio 21

Essential Soaps: The carnage in the Eastenders' cast list continues. No sooner had we waved goodbye to Lisa's 'rabbit in the headlights' expression, complete with quivering' lip, when news comes that Evil Trevor (ET?) will be leaving Walford in a box -but how? Will he choke on one of Patrick's breakfasts In the B&B? Will Lynn poison him with an extra strong cuppa in the caff, or will Sam perhaps strangle him with a piece of her underwear? No, that would be too straightforward. Following Billy and Little Mo's engagement, ET decides a bit of baddle-esque behaviour is called for. After kidnapping his son, (as you do) he gatecrashes Billy, Little Mo, Tom and Sharon's party in a mask. All straightforward so far. He then drags Little Mo back to the Slater house, and threatens to torch the joint, little kid in situ, but in a rather surreal psycho twist, it's Little Mo who lights the match. While the Slater house burns, Kat 's many fashion experiments with it, it's left up to fireman Tom to save the day. After rescuing Little Mo and small child, he goes back for ET ... he may only have been given a few months to go by dishy Dr Truman, but will he even survive that long?

Elsewhere in the Square, The Queen Vie gets a new manager and Derek moves in with the Fowlers. Sonia has suspicions that Nita might have a bit of a thing for Gus. Well he does write poetry ...

Moving up north to Hollyoaks the fight for Tony continues between lzzy and Julie, and with him renaming Deva, 'Gnosh Village ', can 't you just see why? Tony also takes opportunity of the revamp to try and launch his career as a celebrity chef.

Hilarious. There's a new family in town too, leading to the inevitable question: which one of the brothers will end up going out with Mandy?

Down Under, things are hotting up on Ramsey Street. While the KarljSusan debacle continues, Steph hatches an ingenious plan to find M itch and make him confess to the police. The Scully sisters are also greeted by another horror: their parents' sex life, and whether there'!! be the pitter-patter of tiny feet in the Scully household. But is Linny as keen as foxy Joe for another nipper? Meanwhile, could Drew and Libby be persuaded to move out with Drew's folks? Might this spell the end of Drew's helmet- like hair in that lovely Melbourne suburb? Will Rosie's Salvation Army concert run as planned? And who are all these new blonde people with strange names such as Boyd and Sax on?

Charlotte Mann

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Essential TV: Essential Radio ,. ,.,. r ; I tir et T v"l I I Bc8 BBC Radio 2, Sat November 2, 8pm. BBC l, Wed November 6, 9pm

Miss This:

You may be in danger of losing your dinner as A lice Cooper tells his life story for the first time.

From chopping up babies with an axe, to running for president, The Alice Cooper story is ultimately one of redemption. Now 53 years of age and happily married, Cooper is a surprisingly placid man. That's not to say he doesn 't still get kicks from choreographing his own decapitation, but these days he's just as happy playing a relaxing game of golf.

When Cooper was 14, he started his career in music with his own band "The Earwigs•. But it wasn 't until the then Vincent Furnier changed his name to Al ice Cooper (due to his belief that he was a reincarnation of a 17th Century witch of the same name) that people began to take notice.

Infamous for excessive substance abuse and myth-making publicity stunts, Alice Cooper, -became known as the lord of shock rock and his controversial on-stage antics gained him a reputation for extreme tastelessness. One of the most shocking Alice Cooper legends occurred at the 1969 Toronto Rock & Roll Revival at the Varsity Stadium where a live chicken was thrown on stage. The hapless bird was thrown into the first ten rows of the audience where it was torn to pieces by rabid fans.

Not surprisingly the band's abrasive style and shocking stage shows caused uproar in the music industry and general public alike. Bob Ezrin, a close friend and confidant said: "I always considered Alice as much an actor as a singer. With many of his songs he was playing a role.· At the end of every show Alice would be executed as a symbol of penance for his horrific actions. This show charts the heights and depths of the career of an original rock'n ' roll demon who by the mid-eighties had completely reinvented himself. Having conquered his addictions he was embraced by new fans as a metal pioneer and by Hollywood as an A-list celebrity .

Now if that won 't make your stomach turn nothing will.

Emma Ap-Thomas

There's just nothing overly spectacular about this week 's episode, which continues to haul us through the trials and tribulations of our bunch of D and E list celebs as they desperately attempt to shift a few inches for the benefit of the camera. Potentially , it started out as a great idea; getting the assorted likes of Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, cru ise ship warbler Rik Wailer and Groundforce gardener Tommy Walsh together to see how they fared in the blubber-busting stakes was a sheer stroke of genius. Throw in another five willing guinea pigs, a ruthless personal trainer and a TV camera and you can 't really go wrong . Yet fighting flab takes time, especially when some members of the club literally just aren't pulling their weight, which unfortunately means that we're likely to find more physical action staring at a brick wall than we are in the actual program . Not only that, but it seems to be the same old story , week in, week out. The weekly saga of fitness instructor Harvey getting narked off because the famous fatties keep churning out poor excuses for bunking the morning jog (or just not even being bothered to turn up full-stop) is now devoid of comedy and is more reminiscent of year ten P.E lessons than it is of determined and dedicated dieters. Thank heavens this week then, at least, that one member -and an unlikely one at that- seems to be taking it seriously, as we discover that they have a secret passion for mountain biking . H.ooray! Yet one man and his bike still isn't going to cause the fireworks this show needs, and it has to be said that, on the whole, this is a show which is truly cringe-worthy and even at times deeply saddening . Anybody who witnessed Rik Wailer's shopping excursion to New York (where he failed to find any size 5X -that 's nearly tw ice as big as triple X, you know - shirts) will know what we 're getting at. Save your emotions and tune in to something else instead.

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1Nl, Fri November l, 8.30pm

Yes, it's a documentary but don't be put off! In this, the third episode in the series, esteemed fertility expert and general genius Professor Robert Winston explores the nature of human competition. The Professor, who recently went down a storm at UEA's Arthur Miller International Literary Festival, uses his token accessible style to delve into brain-blowing biology without dumbing it down for the masses. If his other previous efforts Your Life in Their Hands, Making Babies, The Human Body and Superhuman are anything to go by, this should be pretty interesting.

This week Winston discovers how our competitive streak kicks in early . Even when we 're in the womb we 're apparently demanding little so-and-so's, fighting our mother's bodies for more food , raising their blood pressure into the bargain arguably setting a precedent for our lives to come. Winston also relates evolutionary changes in diet to stimulated brain development and asserts that this catapults competitive instinct onto a whole new level, rendering us the most successful species on the block.

With celebrated historical figures such as Charles. Darw in and Florence Nightingale the programme discusses how siblings compete with each other for parental attention considering a study by the University of Michigan which found that from a younger age, younger siblings frequently challenge the rules to get what they want.

What 's great about Winston's style of documentary is that, rather than having it all floating about in the abstract , he appl ies science to real-life situations and he's always game to play guinea pig. In an examination of what makes winning feel so good and losing feel so, well, crap, this programme sees him measuring his own testosterone levels during that England v Argentina match of the World Cup, spec ifically during Beckham 's goal. I won't give the results away but I reckon they explain a lot ...

Clare Butler

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Kate Hemngton

the event

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I Midweek Madness!

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Film:

Music:

Campus

Gigs

Monday - Thursday from Spm - close

ALL PINTS ALL BOTTLES ALL ALCO POPS NO EXCLUSIONS!

ALL£1.75 TRIPLE VODKA+ REDBULL- £3.99 4 BOTILES FOR £5 CSlLECTEO RANGE ONLY)

All films start at 8.30 pm and are shown in Lecture Theatre One unless otherwise stated.

Tickets £2. 75 40 Days and 40 Nights Thursday 31/10 The Scorpion King Friday 1/11 Crossroads Tusday 5/11

XMAS '02 PARTY BOOKINGS NOW BEING TA

No. 1 Fanners Avenue, Norwich, NR1 3JX Tei:01603 765512

City UCI From 29/10 Audition Tuesday 16:30 19:00 21:30 Japanese atmospheric movie that is not for the squeamish but is highly recommended Halloween Resurrect ion Tue 14:45 17:00 19:15 21:30 Wed 14:45 17:00 19:15 21:30 Thu 14:45 17:00 19:15 21:30 High Crimes Tue 16:15 18:45 21:15 Wed 16:15 18:45 21:15 Thu 16:15 18:45 21:15 K-19 Tue 15:00 18:00 21:00 Wed 15:00 18:00 21:00 Thu 1 5:00 18:00 21: 00 Lilo and Stitch Tue 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 Wed 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 1 9:00 Thu 15:30 16:00 17:00 My Big Fat Greek Wedding Tue 16:30 18:45 21:00 Wed 16:30 18:45 21:00 Th u 16:30 18:45 21:00 My Little Eve Tue 20:15 Wed 20:15 One Hour Photo Tue 21:30 Wed 21:30 Robin Williams can act!

FREE ROOM HIRE OFFERED TO ALL STUDENTS, WHATEVER THE OCCASION, FROM BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS THROUGH TO SOCIETY OR SPORT CLUB SOCIALS!!

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Red Dragon Tue 14:30 17:15 18:00 20:15 21:00 Wed 14:30 17:15 18:00 20:15 21:00 Thu 14:30 17:15 18:00 20:15 21:00 Road to Perdition Mon 14:45 17:30 20:15 Tue 14:45 17:30 20:15 Wed 14:45 17:30 20:15 Simone Tue 15:00 17:45 20:30

Wed 15:00 1 7:45 20:30 Thu 15:00 17:45 20:30

Waterfront

Signs Wed 15:30 20:30

Golfing On the Moon Tour Wed 30/10 Hang out with the kids and see 4Ft Fingers, Whitmore, Gash and Mixtwitch. £6

Suede Fri 8/11 Will Brett Anderson have a seizure on stage? Will Bernard Butler come back?

Sold Out

The Electric Soft Parade Sun 3/11 Brighton lndy Kids t hat appeal to teary eyed Stone Rose nostalgics. £8.50

Level42 Tue 12/11 £18

XXX Tue 15:00 15:45 16:15 17:45 18:30 19:00 20:30 21:15 21:45 Wed 1 5:00 15: 4 5 16:1 5 17:45 18:30 19:00 20:30 21:15 21:45 Thu 15:00 15:45 16:15 17:45 18 :30 19:00 20:30 21 :15 21:45

From l /ll Chorl Chori Mr Deeds They 28 Days Later Changing Lane Jeena Sirf Mira Live Donnie Darko

From 8/ll Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Rabbit Proof Fence Orange County

Cinema City All or Nothing 1/11-14/ 11 Sweet Sixteen 29/10 - 31/ 10 Ken Loac h upstages Leigh with an even grimmer take on life. Set in Glasgow.

Midtown Tue 5/11 With Recover and Knee High in support .

£7 Complete Stone Roses 6/11 Playing covers of the songs that The Electric Soft Parade and half the country grew up on. £8.50 Alabama 3 Thu 7/ 11 £10 Lindisfarne Sun 10/ 11 £12

LCR JJ72 Wed 6/11 10.50

Freaks I The Devil Doll 3/11 3 p. m Tod Brown ing double bill that is essential viewing for anyone curious about exploit ation in the cinema.

Insomnia 8/11-14/ 11 Poor sleep st arved AI Pacino.

Ster Century From l Ill Hope Springs Changing Lanes They 28 Days Later Mr Deeds

From 8/11 The One and Only Blood Work Orange County Rabbit-Proof Fences Kaito

Norwich Arts Centre King Adora Tue 28/10 Four piece, gl amjpunk band compared to Suede, Manics, and Supergrass. Recent tour support for Queens of the Stone Age. With Little Nikita in support. £6 Spraydog Fri 1/11 With Mos Eisley (Dinosaur Jr. wannabes) and Hyperkinako (Tokyo meets Norwich in an electronic guitar splurge). £4.50 Kaito Mon 11/11 The most succesful band to come from Norwich in recent years, yell and scream with punky ties. Coin-Op and The Asleep in support. £6

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23 The Bank Stonaaaurua and Friends Wed 30/10 The Hedonist's Societies first event (the Human Chess Game in the Square at 3p.m) is publicising the UEA pastiche rappers' Halloween party. First live performance from high concept band I Don't Know. Free

Clubs Wednesdays Superfly Lock Stock Funk and Hip-Hop £3 Jltterbu& I Jam Po Na Na Funky drum 'n' bass & house Free b4 10 pm, £2 after Clank: Hits Ikon 10 pm until 2 am £2 b411 pm

Marvel I Gas Station The Loft Hip hop & funk £3 b4 11 pm, £4 after Skool Rules Disco Waterfront Classic Pop Hits 18th October £4.50 or £3 in uniform

Saturdays

Thursdays

Now That's What I Call the

Isotonic Kafe Da Progressive trance & house Free

UEA/LCR 19th October 9.30 pm - 1.30 am £4 adv

Bassment Bar Metro R&B and hip hop

Refresh Ikon £5 b411 pm 9.30 pm until 2.00 am

90s

The LCR disco LCR £3 The Underground Last thursday of every month From 10 pm £3

Saturday Rewind Bar Metro Chart , dance, garage

Sundays

Girls and Boys Comercial Pop and Chart Time £2 b4 11.00 £3 after

Sunday Service Manhattans £2.50

Charty Handbaggy The Loft Gay night

Hot2Trot Liquid 9.30 pm until 2.00 am £2 students

Ministry of Cheese Liquid 9.30 pm until 2.00 am £2 students Rebel Lion Bank Thu 7/11 £4 The great reggae night

Fridays Delirium The Concept House, garage and R&B Charts and Dance Liquid 9.30 until 2.00 £2 students Chart Hits & Classic Anthems Ikon 9.30 tll 2.00 £4 b411 pm

Mondays Loaded Lock Stock 10pm until 2am £2.50 students I £3

Tuesdays Life Time 9pm until 2am £1 students

Arts: Norwich Playhouse

The Merry Widow Frothy Franz Lehar opera, maybe good for. a date if youwant to show off.

7.30 pm 1-2/11 £10 The Pub Landlord Offensive banter from the suecestui comic AI Murray.

8.00 pm 4/11 £16.50 God's Official Footy comedy play.

6-8/11 7.30 pm Stu £7 National Youth Jazz Orchestra Britain's Best Big Band at the BT British Jazz Awards.

9/11 7.30 pm £10

Clockwise from top left: Suede, Seamus Heaney, Jeremy Paxman, Level 42 , JJ72 and AI Murray, the Pub Landlord.

The Love Child • Adaptation from an Edith Olvier novella.

12/11 7.30 pm Stu £7

UEA, Hive Chlll'em Out Jazz Cafe Student Slam - £100 prize for the best performance poet.

7.30 pm 29/10 Stu £3 Banana Splltz Mitch Ban, James Dowdeswell and McAifie Joey crack a few gags.

7.30pm 4/11 £3

LTl Jeremy Paxman 4/11 Stu £3 Seamus Heaney 11/11 Stu £3

Maddermarket Theatre The Angel of Rome 3/11 7.30pm £10 7.30pm 6-9/11 Stu £5

Electra Euripides play.

7.30 pm 1/11

Humphrey Lyttelton & his Band 7.30pm 10/11

£8

£14

TRUST A LSTAR TAXI.S LUXURY 6 SEATERS

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USUAL STUDENT DISCOUNT

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Local Friendl Service

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Schedule:

Monday ·

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8-10: Fresh OJ 10-12: Armed & Dangerous 12-2: Magic al Mystery Tour 2-4: Vanishing Point 4-6: Far From Home & Far From Talented 6-8: B.E.A.T.S. 8-10: Daydream Nation 10-12: Dro p tha Bomb! 1 Hip Hop Trax

Tuesday 8-10: Sound Advice 10-12: That Show 12-2: "Look, a Squirre l!"

2-3: After Lunch wit h Miss Nicki 3-4: Culture Shock I S.E.E.D. 4-5: Mat t Brown 5-6: Kill an 'Hour 6-8: Dancing Ro und the Borders of the Curfew 8-9: Cont emporary Music Society 9-10: Evening Please 10-12: We t he Funky Foo

Wednesday 8-10: Eastern Exposure 10-12: The Grapevine 12-2: The To m & Joe Show 2-4: Frontier Psychiatry 4-6: Mad Man Dan & His Musical Monkeys 6-8: The Mental Institute 8-9: The Untitled Show 9-10: Sports Report 10-12: T with the Vicar

Thursday 8-10: Trans-Atlantic Express 10-12: Tast i 12-2: The Undecided 2-4: The Vanessa B Show 4-6: Mark Boutros 6-8: The Reverends ' Revival 8-10: Rebel Lion Roots 10-12: The Funk Connection

Friday 8-10: Where the Wild Things Are 10-12: Illegally Bl onde 12-2: Essential Select ion 2-4: Simonson & Nickelback 4-6: You Don 't Know You 're Born 6-8: SKI LL and Superfly 8-10: Progressi ve Minds 10-12: Rebel Soldier

Saturday 9-11: The Hook 11-1 : Alternative Session 1-3: No More Barbie P* rn 3-5: The Groove Bu s S-7: Sports Frenzy 7-9: Underground Session 9-12: TSN 1 Digital Nightmare s

Sunday 9-11: Thi nk !

11-1 : Soundtrack to the Revolution 1-3: Sunday Review 3-5: The Incident Room S-7: SBN Chart Show 7-9 : Livewire Chart Show 9-12: Albionart s Community Trust

Directory: Your guide to the best food in Norwich .. ... ... ..

RESTAURANTS:

INDIAN: Rice and Spice 16c Earlham House, Earlham Road 503080 or 504020 10% discount on collection

CHINESE:

Loch Fyne Restaurant 30-32 St Giles Street Norwich 01603 723450

Nazma Indian Cusine 15 Prince of Wales 616101 Only Indian Restaurant in Norwich , open 'till 2am WedSat. Student Friendly The Fountain Chinese Restaurant Shop 9, Earlham House, Earlham Road 453269 10% off with valid NUS ID

Useful Numbers: Canary Cue Club Cinema City Ikon Liquid Maddermarket Theatre The Light Bar Lock Stock Norwich Arts Centre Norwich Playhouse Po No No's Ster Century Theatre Royal The Loft The Waterfront Tourist Information Time UEA Studio UCI , UEA Union Ents

01603-627478 01603 622047 01603 621541 01603 611113 01603 620917 0 1603 622533 01603 629060 01603 660352 0 1603 598598 01603 619961 01603 221900 01603 630000 01603 623559 01603 632717 01603 666071 0870 6078463 01603 592272 0870 0102030 01603 508050

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