Quench 148

Quench December 2014

In this issue:

Quench Video p.14 Game Awards

Was Taylor right to remove her music from spotify? p.35 What to do in Cardiff this christmas p.14 BOOM! POW! BANG! ACTION MOVIES P.54

Issue 148

DOMINOS.CO.UK ER

S

F F O % 0 5

*

UDEN T S

T

G N I O G T O N IT’S . . .

F L E S T I E T I R W O T

V IC E

0 2 £ D N E P S U O Y N W HE E N I L N O E OR MOR ONLINE CODE: CARNOV50

Type in code when prompted at the checkout

dominos.co.uk COLLECTION

/dominos.cardiff

OR

DELIVERY

@CardiffDP

Call

dominos.co.uk

Pop in

Tap the app

*50% OFF when you spend £20 or more at regular menu price online at www.dominos.co.uk. Excludes 14 and 21 chicken pieces, drinks and ice cream as part of the £20 spend. Offer cannot be used with any other offer or promotion. Participating stores only. Subject to availability. Collection or delivery – delivery areas and minimum delivery spends may apply. Offer must be used at the time of ordering to apply and cannot be used retrospectively. Offer can be amended or withdrawn at any time without notice. Conditions apply see Competitions and Offers at Boring Legal Stuff at dominos.co.uk for full details. Offers expire 30/11/2014.

CONTENTS FEATURES 6

Why We Write

A collective testament to the written word and why it matters

9

Cuffing Season

Tis’ the season to be saccharine! Ciara Rafter on why we get so sentimental around Christmas

COLUMNIST 13

The Sketch

Gareth Evans says that the ills of the world have one cause, and that is reality TV

CULTURE 14

Students’ Guide to Christmas

Everything fun to do in Cardiff at Christmas on a student budget.

16

Interview: Radhika Sanghani

We chat to young author Radhika Sanghani about her debut novel

17

Culture in Modern Times: Bookshops

Bookshops are threatened by the digital age, we look at how they are fighting back

56

Gifts for Him & Her

We’ve got all the gift ideas you’ll need, whatever your budget

22

Mallzee

The new fashion-savvy app for your mobile – all your favourite stores in one place

23

Streetstyle Diaries

Following last issue, we bring you Cardiff ’s very own brand of streetstyle

24

Beauty Reviews

Get the lowdown on this season’s most popular winter skincare products

26

Christmas Beauty Hamper

Think Christmas sparkle – the ultimate beauty hamper to keep you looking your best

TRAVEL 28

Christmas Markets

Where to find the best around the globe

30

New Year’s Eve on a Budget

Where to go to get more party for your pound

31

Alternative Winter Holidays

For those looking for something a little bit different

31

32

New/Newydd

New artists to look out for as per our editors’ recommendations

35

The Spotify Debate

We take a look at the fallouts and upshots of Taylor’s trouble with Spotify

36

Interviews: Honeyblood & Superfood

We chat to Honeyblood and Superfood about the changing face of new music

38

Music Reviews

This month’s live and album reviews, including One Direction and The Kooks

VIDEO GAMES 40

COVER: Quench Video Game Awards

The best of the best and the worst of the worst. Awards season is upon us!

46

The YouTube Phenomenon

The shifting sands of Video Game media are analysed this month

47

Early Access

Pay for an incomplete product? Is that really a thing worth doing?

FILM & TV 48

Festive Film Night: 10 Best Christmas Films

With the holidays fast approaching; we list our 10 best seasonal films

50

For & Against: Period dramas

A to and fro on the very marmite genre

51

Documentaries: An Introduction

Bored of blockbusters? Let us introduce you to the overlooked sector of documentaries

52

The Decline of the British Sitcom

With so many shows debuting from the US, is the Brit-Sit on its way out?

53

The Christmas Special: What Can We Expect?

It isn’t the holidays without TV specials; we look to what’s coming up

54

Genre In Review: Action

Continuing our editorial series; the next instalment tackles the Action genre

17

Credits: ‘Shakespeare and Company bookshop’ by Tomer T / Wikimedia Commons

MUSIC

Credits: ‘2012 UP200 Dog Sled Race’ by Greg Kretovic / Flickr

FASHION & BEAUTY 20

35

FOOD & DRINK 56

Don’t care, JustEat - or help make it better

Tom Reeder investigates how JustEat have cashed in on our takeaway treats

60

Cardiff Christmas Dinner Guide

Haven’t planned your Xmas meal yet? Don’t sweat; we’ve got it covered

62

Quench Food Evening: The Gutsy Goose

Everything you want and need to know about our latest Quench Food Evening

48 3

December

February

The Stranglers

Echo & The Bunnymen

KERRANG! Tour 2015

Sleaford Mods

04/12/14, £26.50 ADV

13/02/15, £16.50 ADV

Enter Shikari 17/02/15 - SOLD OUT

LEGENDS The Bob Marley Experience

Chelsea Grin

05/12/14, £13 ADV

17/02/15, £10 ADV

Embrace

The Jesus And Mary Chain

09/12/14, £19.50 ADV

Funeral For A Friend

10/03/15, £23 ADV 10/03/15, £10 ADV

April Limehouse Lizzy vs Livewire AC/DC 17/04/15, £20 ADV

27/02/15, £25 ADV

18/12/14, £16 ADV

March January Neck Deep

Stiff Little Fingers

08/03/15, £18.50 ADV

26/01/15, £10.50 ADV @CARDIFFUNION

CARDIFFBOXOFFICE

CARDIFFBOXOFFICE.COM | All tickets subject to booking fee

Quench EDITOR Sum Sze Tam

editor@quenchmag.co.uk @QuenchMag

DEPUTY EDITOR Chloe May FEATURES Aimee-lee Abraham Jason Roberts COLUMNIST Gareth Evans

features@quenchmag.co.uk @Quench_Features

@_GarethEvans

CULTURE Elouise Hobbs Jasmine Freeman

culture@quenchmag.co.uk

FASHION & BEAUTY Franciska Bodnar Nicole Petty

fashion@quenchmag.co.uk

TRAVEL Olivia Waltho

travel@quenchmag.co.uk

MUSIC Charlie Mock India Thomas

music@quenchmag.co.uk

VIDEO GAMES Alex Glazer

videogames@quenchmag.co.uk

FILM & TV Aaron Roberts Charlie Andrews

filmtv@quenchmag.co.uk

FOOD & DRINK Emma Giles Kathryn Lewis

food@quenchmag.co.uk

HEAD OF DESIGN Emilia Ignaciuk

design@quenchmag.co.uk

ART EDITORS Franciska Bodnar Naomi Brown Eleanor Duffy Lucy Okell Olivia Thomas Georgia Hamer

@QuenchCulture

@Quench_Fashion

@Quench_Travel

@QuenchMusic

QuenchStreetStyle

Quench_Travel

QuenchMusic

@QuenchGames

@QuenchFilm

@Quench_Food

QuenchFoodCardiff

@frankiebods @honeyandbrown @eleanorduff y @lucyokell @oliviadthomas @georgialeehamer

SPECIAL THANKS TO Tom Rudenko, Eranan Thirumagen, Michael O’Connell-Davidson & Rhys Johns for helping us out with the inaugural Quench Video Games Awards; The Gutsy Goose for hosting our party of forty hungry students; India Thomas, Danii Penny, Emily Giblett, Charlie Mock, Zenn Wong, Aaron Roberts, Elouise Hobbs and Kathryn Lewis for helping us out on deadline night; Sue Howkins and Julie Giblett for being our most devoted supporters.

EDITOR’S N O T E In which student media has emerged from a cloud of conspiracy; but everything’s settled just in time for assessment season and then the holidays. Now, only the sweets, meats and good eats await...

There’s a crispness - on top of the usual perpetual damp - in the air. Lidl is selling German christmas sweets, my housemates are bickering over how much to turn the heating on (not that it does anything), and people are putting up lights all over town. Michael Buble and Idina Menzel (two of my favourite singers, ever) have released a duet of one of my favourite wintery songs, ever. Christmas has properly arrived in Cardiff.

We were thinking of running a feature article this month about how people celebrate the Christmas holiday differently all around the world, and also how its meaning changes accordingly. We scrapped that article because it seemed too cheesy, and also because there are people out there who are probably quite fed up of people repeatedly reminding them it’s Christmas. (How can you possibly get fed up of Christmas though?!??)

I don’t feel like I’ve written very much about the editorial process that goes into creating Quench.

We have our biweekly editorial meetings, but not everyone comes to those. They can be kind of boring at times, except when feature editor Jason Roberts cracks out his latest conspiracy theory (ranging from a worldwide emoji language takeover, to Stevie Wonder not being blind), or when a section has happened upon a particularly interesting gem of a feature.

This month, we’re showing off how much more of a push we’re putting into the Video Games section and we’re hosting our first ever Video Games awards! Obviously we know nobody on our judging panel is a Big Name (yet), so take their verdicts with a pinch of salt. Better yet, when the article goes online, comment and let us know what you think of the shortlist.

I think a large portion of our readers might not be hardcore video games fans. At a guess, I think most of you will be here for the exhaustive music coverage, the increasingly notorious food coverage (we did say we were eating our way through Cardiff with the Quench Food Evenings), and our bangin’ features articles. Despite that, the rate at which the Video Games section is growing is very impressive.

That’s not to degrade all the work of the other section editors, or saying that it’s superior in any way (sorry, Alex). I only chose to talk about it so much here because the section is a bit of a maverick, because it often appeals to a different sort of reader; I see it as an underdog.

I can’t help but be a fan of the underdog.

How can I, when every heroic tale involves a weedy

protagonist overcoming the odds? Sometimes I think of Student Media as an underdog. After all, we’re essentially volunteers with the privileges of an office and just over a dozen computers between all four platforms. A lot of us are pretty weedylooking (interpret that how you like), too. But we all aim towards, and indeed, sometimes succeed in, producing professional-quality work. Despite that, we’ll always be taken a little less seriously by both the pros and our peers. To most of the student population, we’re just a bunch of kids who are overly enthusiastic about an expensive hobby. Most of our readers are friends or housemates of people who were involved; and even those people don’t always enjoy the product for its own value, and only enjoy it to support their friends. That’s not something to be devalued, of course, but the thing that truly brings us joy is when people pick up and read the magazine of their own accord; to see them flicking through the pages, and being pulled in by a deadly combination of our writers’ conviction and our designers’ skill.

In the very first issue of the year, I set out a little manifesto of what I’d like being in Quench and Cardiff Student Media to be. Recent events have threatened that experience, as well as possibly discrediting much of the work that’s already been achieved this year. If you follow us or any CSM member on social media, you’ll probably have seen that we recently went on strike. You were probably plagued by the sounds of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ as you walked through the union. But here in the office we’re just glad it’s all over, and we can get on with moaning about our awful computers, the misuse of apostrophes, and geeking out whenever we find a new shortcut in Adobe InDesign (the software we use to design our pages). Bitchery aside, we just can’t wait to get on with Quench, and slowly reducing the distance between making something we want people to read and making something people actually want to read.

After our first few months, it’s a relief to have finally settled into this funny routine. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about recent events, it’s that people need to come and see how CSM works and runs before they make judgements about what would be best for us. So come along to our editorial meetings, our proofreadings (free pizza!), our Quench Food Evenings. I promise you that Chloe May (deputy editor), the Quench team and I plan to bring you a whole new sea of ways to help out with the magazine - so keep an eye out; hopefully we’ll get to meet more of you in the coming months.

5

Why We Write 6

In light of the recent turmoil in Cardiff Student Media, Quench Features asked writers from within the Cardiff Student community to share their motivations for putting pen to paper. This is the result: a collective testament to the written word as a means of creative expression and personal development.

This is Why We Write, and why it matters.

— Illustrations: Bryn Evans

We write to discover our true selves

We write to escape “You know those moments when you just want to scream into a pillow, throw a plate at a wall or punch someone in the face? Well, generally, venting frustration through words is a much safer method. By writing about things that make you happy, things that make you want to sing out loud and shout from the rooftops, you find escapism. It isn’t a form of escapism that wastes time, either.

There is the possibility that another person may read what you’ve written

We write to create “Words have power. Written words have even more power. Just try saying a feeling or emotion out loud. It already feels more ‘real’ doesn’t it? Now write it out, take time to immerse yourself in it, to explain it…it’s almost like giving your thoughts and emotions the BODY they need to exist and thrive. For this reason, I’m a lover of writing. Without it, I struggle to express myself. Being a part of Quench and editing the fashion pages of the magazine is a creative and productive way for me to express my passions for fashion with words.

Otherwise, they’d only exist in my mind. They come to LIFE through the pages of the magazine. They solidify.

It’s empowering to be able to take thoughts from my mind (that may have gotten lost) and bond them together with words. A hard copy of my thoughts can be physically picked up, travelling to the minds of others. Words are the middle-man that connects two minds. Writing is the power to CREATE and with it, we create Quench.”

— Franciska Bodnar

and be inspired to try something new.

This is a great achievement. Words are your platform to get viewpoints across, and they are your right of expression. This may sound silly: my passion is writing about food at the end of the day. But if my string of words can hold someone’s attention, encouraging them to do something differently, or simply entertaining them on the loo for a few minutes, I’m content with that.”

- Kathryn Lewis

“The escape I find in the process of writing is the only way in this world that I can be victorious in retreat. Its a way out of the struggle of everyday life into the comfort of myself, where I don’t need to create an image crafted in the likeness of who I want to be, but where I can sit back and explore who I am and what I think. I don’t mean to lionise myself - this is universal. It could be true of Hemingway or Joyce or Vonnegut, but it could also be true

of the blogger next door who has found that their eating disorder is a little easier to handle if they publicise it, for whatever reason has meaning to them and no matter the vanity of their motive or the merits of their prose. It brings colour to the monochromatic, and it brings reflection to a universe where light otherwise only ever sprawls in one direction.”

- Anonymous

We write to be heard I think the need to write stems from our want to create something that will last. While conservations can be rich and long – nothing quite beats the written word. A story can shoot out of nowhere. As soon as pen touches paper, or fingers touch the keyboard, the jumble of words we know pour out of us and create something that is distinctly our own. In the deafening noise created by so many people and publications in the world; writing gives us the space to step forward and put our ideas down and out for everyone.

Writing is both for the individual and for the collective. Student media resonates with the writer in all of us as we’re all after the same goal: to have what we produce on a public platform seen. It encourages personal and professional growth, whilst giving us the freedom to tackle new things and test our abilities in a supportive peer environment.

— Aaron Roberts

FE ATURES

We write to feed our egos

We write to preserve

In his essay ‘Why I Write’, George Orwell lists ‘four great motives’ for writing. One of these is sheer egoism: ‘It is humbug to pretend that this is not a motive and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful business men – in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.’

Sixty-seven years after Orwell wrote that essay, I feel this motivation drives the majority of all humanity to write. This is not so negative an attitude as it might appear. It is indeed inevitable now that everyone effectively carries around a notepad via mobile phones and, if they have particularly snazzy versions, they can quickly connect to any social media site you can imagine and put their writing out into the world.

It can never be underestimated how the world has been changed and, in many ways, shaped by social media. Obviously, these sites serve ultimately as communication tools but if we probe deeper, their popularity lies in the desire to be heard. It would not be unfair to criticize continual use of these sites as a childish scream into a void that is never quiet; the amount of noise makes such an act almost impossible to have any meaning.

Nevertheless, there is a pleasure to be had. I can’t deny having a smug feeling when a status gets over ten ‘likes’ or my tweet is favourited by a celebrity. But this smugness isn’t just a sign that you’re doomed to be a selfish narcissist. To me, it comes from the satisfaction that my opinion is being heard and someone has waded through the overwhelming clutter online to take the time to not only read what I have to say, but let me know that they actually gained something from its existence.

The fairly ridiculous and unnecessary turmoil around Cardiff Student Media has brought something positive by reinforcing the power of the written word. The petition and numerous Facebook statuses provided enough information to make it clear how CSM was at risk of having its voice obscured. Making lots of noise, as chaotic as it may be, can be effective if we all sing from the same hymn sheet.

The power of the written word to affect wider society has always existed through political pamphlets to influential novels, from revelatory articles to their later mutations into tweets and blog posts. The power writing can give you is unparalleled. Writing is one of the oldest forms of expression we have and we need not look far to see why it remains so powerful.

—Michael Leitch

“There are so many reasons why I write. To understand and immerse myself in the world around me and to shut it out in equal measure.

Perhaps the biggest reason, though, is the one I admit to less readily: the link between my need to write and my complete, vicious denial of my own mortality. Sometimes writing can feel like spitting in the face of death. I was a curious child, waking up in the night in a cold existential sweat long before I knew what existentialism was. When I was eleven my Religious Studies teacher asked the class to describe what death would look like if it was an object. I said it would be a tape containing nothing but white noise. You can imagine how fucking annoying I was. Thankfully that angsty phase passed long ago: I no longer write terrible lyrics about unrequited crushes in school canteens while blasting MCR on a pink iPod, but I still find an immense amount of comfort in putting pen to paper.

Writing can transcend time. It can outlive the writer. It lets people know that you were here, that you stood for something. It preserves things. It captures people and places as they are, so that we can remember how they were. When my Grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimers I began feverishly collecting fragments of his past. I rummaged through old shoe boxes stuffed with film. I secretly recorded our conversations and transcribed them. I started a blog about his travels, posting mementos and anecdotes. I painted his personality onto a page so that even when he forgot who he was, the world couldn’t. I wanted everyone to know how ethereal and endlessly fascinating he was and although words failed to capture this, they were the only way I knew how to begin. Jonathan Safran Foer said that ‘everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia’. This is probably true. Writing, unless it’s written as a stream of consciousness, gives the writer time to beautify their experiences and present them in a better light. It can turn the mundane and the ugly into something meaningful, even if it’s just a complete illusion crafted in the imagination.

It’s magical and strange and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it.”

— Aimee-lee Abraham

While conversations can be rich and long, nothing quite beats the written word. A story can shoot out of nowhere

7

We write to entertain “We write because without words, everything would be so fucking boring.” — Georgia Goold-Jones

We write because without words, everything would be so fucking boring

We write to dream “I write because it gives me the opportunity to create something beautifully imperfect and be happy with that, because in stories people don’t need to have a happy ending,

We write to learn but maybe by writing something interesting and inspiring I can help real people find their happy endings.”

— Kalika Puri

We write to heal My love of writing really took off after I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Being diagnosed with a disability is like having your life turned upside down. Looking inside myself and writing about the experience and the illness itself helped me come to terms with it. It was also a useful tool in explaining to my friends and family what I was going through. I could communicate on a level that I just couldn’t express out loud. When

8

To write is to be creative; we write for joy, to imagine and to make our passion visible to others.

Cardiff student media has been a huge part of my life over the past

year, and the experience gained priceless. Writing has given me the opportunity to show others my passion and creativity in print.

— Nicole Petty

We write to express I posted a piece on my blog and shared it via social media, it really seemed to help people take a step back and think of arthritis from a different perspective. They were enlightened; no longer seeing it as an old person’s disease, which was very empowering for me.

When you’re speaking about a topic like disability, people often blindly stereotype, undermine or stigmatise. Writing gives me the power to challenge that.

— Emily Jones

Whether it was prose, poetry or lyrics, I always wrote as catharsis; sometimes deeply drenched in metaphor and symbolism only I would understand, sometimes blatantly direct, writing was my way of dealing with life, dealing with the world. Things were always clearer down on the page than spinning in my head. And I wrote for the same reason I decided to make music - that there wasn’t

anything else out there I could directly relate to. I write the way I think, in dramatic, hyperbolic terms. Ultimately I write for myself, for my own selfish amusement. It’s through luck more than design that my words sometimes resonate with others who support my writing.

— Sorin Annuar

FE ATURES

all I Want For Christmas Is You Ciara Rafter looks at ‘cuffing season’ and asks: is winter really worse as a singleton?

T

hat time of year is again swiftly approaching; the time when Michael Buble’s ‘make all the girls weak at their knees’ voice reappears.

Everybody’s Instagram feed is overloaded with Starbucks red cups and a happier spirit fills the frosty air. That’s right, the festive season is here. There are always a few Scrooges lurking around but I think we can all agree that the ratio of Christmas jumpers to tinsel-tearing-Grinches favours the former.

I’m not sure whether you can

pinpoint exactly what Christmas spirit is.

It could be the fact that it’s the only time of year where we are allowed to eat one thousand extra calories without anyone passing judgement, or the way it shows the generosity of human kind. In a world where bad things constantly happen, Christmas is a time of peace. A time of sanity where we pause, stop thinking with our heads and start following our hearts instead.

Christmas spirit wouldn’t be Christmas spirit without that one essential factor: Love.

Christmas is the exception to the rule. It can’t be a coincidence that the greatest love stories of motion picture are set at Christmas time. Love Actually, The Holiday, When Harry Met Sally...Maybe this notion of love has stemmed from the nostalgia that is attached to the season.

Looking at our elders at Christmas parties; we see their smiles, we hear their laughter, we skip through our homes with glee in our eyes and mistakenly take the wrong route to get our tenth slice of Grandma’s homemade mince pies and end up getting

caught underneath mistletoe with that distant relative who only ever seems to appear at annual Christmas parties. He creepily (although, this demographic of people think it’s cute and fail to see the utter fear in our eyes) asks for a peck on the cheek and the whole room is suddenly watching and ‘aw-ing’ as if we’re on a chat show with a cue man telling the audience how to react. All we wanted was our eleventh mince pie, but Grammy’s delicious bake is replaced with cold, hard humiliation.

9

Now, we have reached the age where, finally, that annually-appearing distant relative can see the creepiness of asking for a kiss. We can replace the once humiliating reality of mistletoe with the magic of it instead. Winter, alternatively known as Cuffing Season, is the season that makes us crave love more than any other season.

There is something about winter that makes relationships seem so desirable. Maybe it’s the Christmas spirit that everyone acquires at this time of year; everyone is nicer to each other, more caring, more passionate, and more generous. Maybe the magic of this spirit is what makes us love harder.

Phoebe Greenland, 20, shares her opinion on love at Christmas. “It’s lovely having someone to cuddle up to in the cold weather. I love walking down the streets under the lights; it just creates a perfect romantic setting for you to hold hands under, especially if it snows. I love helping my boyfriend with Christmas presents; he has no clue and can’t be bothered. The atmosphere is so positive it’s hard not to enjoy it, especially being with my love. It is a time of love. You have family and friends, but being in a relationship is a different kind of love; it completes you. Being with him

all year round makes me feel complete, and I know it’s cheesy, but there is a genuine feeling of emptiness when I’m not with him at Christmas. That complete feeling is totally enhanced and it makes me love and appreciate him more. The spirit of Christmas correlates the spirit of loving.”

We are at university, the age where many of our relatives met the love of their lives, and when we are reunited at Christmas parties, expectations are high, the pressure is on for us gals and guys on the verge of adulthood. Picture this: it’s Boxing Day. You’re sat at the dinner table with 10+ relatives, you have your newly purchased maternity pants on (applies to men too - if Joey Tribbiani did it, you can too) from the Christmas sales, because yesterday, the big birthday of JC, got you good and you feel a little (a lot) restricted to wear jeans today.

You are mid-shoving your sixteenth left over slice of Turkey in your mouth. You are in your element. Nobody could ruin this romantic moment between you and Turk. And that’s when the prying begins. It happens every year, yet always startles you like the Lash (or Yolo, if I must) queue does in the first few weeks of term. Nobody ever sees it coming.

“Ohhh, university, I bet there’s all types of

“We are at university, the age where many of our relatives met the love of their lives, and when we are reunited at Christmas parties, expectations are high, the pressure is on for us gals and guys on the verge of adulthood.”

10

girls/guys there!”, “Who have you got your eye on?”, when your mother, who truly believes she is helping, interrupts with “Oh, she’s never tell. She gets all the attention, but she gets shy when you ask”. Okay, mum, if you want to believe that, I’ll let you. It can be your Christmas present.

Big in the US, Cuffing Season is the practice of having a significant other during the season of winter and is becoming a universal phenomenon. Or is it? Is is a real thing? Or rather, is it what a single person wants? Do the movies released at Christmas give us hope and desire but in reality, we are still as single as ever?

One of the perks of a singleton’s life is having the time to look at and analyse relationships through rose tinted glasses and create make belief stories of how the grass is oh so greener on the other side. The Hallmark image hypnotises us to believe that our Christmas would be better if we had somebody to share it with. Does anybody actually go so far to consciously search for a partner during this time?

One case of Cuffing Season comes from 19 year old student, she admits “this is my first Christmas where I won’t be single. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my boyfriend

and I made it official at this time of year, I mean I wouldn’t say that I actively looked for a quick fix to keep me warm on cold Winter nights and then chuck them in the New Year, but I think this season gave us a push and helped us move the relationship along. I’m not as grouchy at Christmas, neither is he.

That probably helped. Last week, he hinted at what present he was getting me, and then he stopped mid-sentence and said ‘Wait- Is that weird if I buy you a present?’ because, you know, do you buy a present for someone you are only seeing? And that’s when we decided to make things official.”

With love being all around at Christmas, when we have given our love to our friends, family and strangers, we crave for something else. Another kind of love.

A love that replaces humiliating Mistletoe moments. When this kind of love is missing, it makes us want it more. And bam, that’s why loneliness hits us at Christmas. And what do you do when something isn’t going to plan? You fix it! And there we have it, Cuffing Season - killing loneliness since... sometime in the Noughties. It makes sense - sure, the fact we have a name for it is pretty tragic, but how else do we highlight the fact we don’t have someone to cuddle by the fire

FE ATURES

“You are mid-shoving your sixteenth left over slice of Turkey in your mouth. You are in your element. Nobody could ruin this romantic moment between you and Turk. And that’s when the prying begins. It happens every year, yet always startles you like the Lash (or Yolo, if I must) queue does in the first few weeks of term.”

when it snows outside? People need to know, okay.

Christmas is a time for grand gestures, a ton of clichés and following your heart.

After a countless amount of films, in our media-dominated culture, it has become an expectation for someone to knock on your door on Christmas Eve and confess their love to you. Another Cuffer, as we shall call the people who are fully involved in the notion of Cuffing Season, said that Christmas time has a fantasy element. “It feels like your life is a movie and what’s a movie without a love story? Cuffing Season is a chance for my happily ever after.”

It’s not just women who crave love at Christmas, either. Men get cold too. One male Cuffer opened up about the season. He said “it’s just nice to have somebody to do

things with at this time of year. It’s a loving time and seeing all the happy couples does make you kind of envious. I think the appeal of Cuffing Season is the idea of sharing your happiness with somebody special at such a big holiday.”

Understandably, it is nice to have someone to do snow angels with and go to Christmas markets with, but does that someone really have to be a significant other?

Not necessarily, but at Christmas, everything is romantic, isn’t it? And there is something appealing about being with your favourite person at your favourite time of year. After asking friends, parents, strangers, I have come to the realisation that however big the internet thinks Cuffing Season is, the general opinions on why people become over friendly and flirtatious in winter were:

1.

It is not always the case that people become more loving, but rather people don’t want to break up with people at Christmas time.

2. Everybody is happier and therefore more attractive.

3. And my own mother offered that everybody is constantly drunk at Christmas time so beer goggles are more prominent. Thanks mum.

Is Cuffing Season something invented by singletons in the hope that we can join the couples we see holding hands walking down the street and sipping hot chocolate together in coffee shops? Christmas marketing is all about bringing people together, but in reality, do we see a separation between those hopelessly in love and those hopelessly wanting love? And Cuffing Season is merely

an attempt to rid the separation?

With the three most loved companies at christmas, John Lewis, Coca Cola and Sainsbury’s, we annually see their adverts marking the start of the holiday. John Lewis’s ‘Monty the Penguin’ advert shows a young boy in an episode of make-belief with his toy penguin. In the end, he finds Monty a companion; this portrayal is strikingly similar to a single person’s hunt for love during Cuffing Season. You know the struggle is real when even inanimate objects feel the ache of loneliness.

— Illustrations: Bryn Evans

11

COLUMNIST

THE SKETCH with GARETH EVANS

Screw religion; reality TV is the opium of the people - and it’s killing us all Let me talk you through some of the most successful TV shows of 2014. The following programmes have dribbled, and continue to dribble, from our telescreens: The X Factor, I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, Big Brother, The Apprentice, Made in Chelsea, The Only Way is Essex, Geordie Shore, The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent. Combined, these programmes pin millions upon millions of British people down, fixated and anaesthetised, to their flashy flashy fun boxes. Often, I am one of these people. Afterwards, I feel a bit dirty.

With this in mind, let me draw your attention to the often misquoted and overused Marx quote about religion being “the opium of the masses.” Now, we can forgive Karl for being slightly outdated, but the UK is no longer a predominantly religious country. Most of us aren’t religious at all. This is because we now worship at the Church of ITV, and congregate every Sunday in living rooms across the country to hear the mighty Pope Cowell preach. Reality television is the real opiate of the masses and, look, the quote still works.

“Reality TV is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and

the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” And this is true. It numbs us, makes us less angry, less self-aware, less conscious. When we return from a day from hell at some menial job, to our unheated flats, to a grotesque gelatinous meal, we don’t want to question why. Being left alone with our thoughts is the last thing that the TV oligarchs want. So we turn on the box and let ourselves be absorbed into a world of the inane. It is a place of excessive strobe lighting, shouting, extreme FONTS, vanity and relentless clichés. Reality television is totally absurd; just consider some of the concepts.

Yes, they’ve become normalised, but when

you take a step back and consider them it makes you think. What the hell are we actually doing?

Take I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, or, more accurately, ‘I was deemed worthy of a pay-check, I get said pay-check regardless!’ This crowd are so washed-up that when they arrived on the Aussie beach I struggled to distinguish them from the sand.

The line-up reads like the clientele of the world’s worst agency firm. Moreover, in what surely resembles reality TV’s worst excess, one celebrity, Jake Quickenden (??), is only regarded as such because he appeared on The X-Factor weeks earlier. That’s right, ITV are now finding celebrities by mopping up the rejects of their other reality shows. There is also Gemma Collins, star of The Only Way is Essex, another one of ITV’s televisual blisters. These people exist in a bizarre bubble,

By indulging ourselves in reality TV, we’ve made the likes of Joey Essex and Spencer Matthews famous.

Hang your head in shame. being recycled between shows and channels and branded celebrities based on their prior appearances. All the while, nobody really knows where they came from.

If anything, we should feel ashamed for perpetuating this cycle. As a result these people get to enjoy all the trappings of fame without any of the talent. By indulging ourselves in the world of reality TV, we’ve made the likes of Joey Essex and Spencer Matthews famous. Hang your head in shame.

Forgive us, Pope Cowell, for we have sinned.

Yet, the damage is greater than this.

When watching an episode of any given reality show the sheer amount of adverts is mind-numbing. They are relentless, an inexorable bombardment of sales and shiny things. The worst are the Iceland ads during I’m a Celebrity. Over the years, the likes of Kerry Katona, Christopher Biggins and, now Peter Andre, have endorsed this fauxfood. Individuals who have all appeared on the show, and have all consumed some form of testicle as a result. There is a slight flaw in then paying these people to advertise your own food. These people eat Kangaroo anuses for money; they are not going to convince me to buy anything edible. Regardless, the food looks awful – less food, more ‘Exhibit A’ in a child negligence case.

The point is that these reality stars, as a result of their mass exposure, can then be utilised as human billboards for a short while afterwards. Willing to smile and hold any old sludge, they become cogs in the consumerist machine; cogs that rust quickly and are soon replaced by new, shinier, cogs. Reality

TV, then, is fuelling commercial culture at an increasing rate.

It is also fuelling something darker – societal vanity. These shows, in particular

These people eat Kangaroo anuses for money; they are not going to convince me to buy anything edible the likes of Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex, foster an environment in which appearances and material possessions are the ultimate definer of identity. The cast look like Oxford Street mannequins with a more wooden acting style. They live lives that would be untenable without inherited wealth or some high-earning job which they never seem to go to. Ultimately, they propagate vanity and superficiality as not only acceptable, but essential.

This recent phenomenon of ‘semireality’ programmes demonstrates how reality television has reached an ugly peak.

Presumably the phrase ‘semi-reality’ comes from the state of existence of the show’s cast. They seem to be 50% on this planet and 50% on some other one. In all seriousness, the popularity of these vanity programmes astounds me. The idea of watching a gaggle of toffs pretend that they aren’t acting is less appealing than eating one of the aforementioned Iceland meals. I know that art is subjective, but every rule needs an exception.

When watching these programmes I can feel my mind entering a state of stasis as I await the mental arrival of Dermot O’Leary, ready to declare that my consciousness has entered ‘Deadlock!’ Their huge prevalence is, in my mind, saddening.

It is saddening because these programmes – these visual anaesthetics – appear to have reached a point of no return. If you can think back to the novelty of Pop Idol, or of the first Big Brother, for example, then you’ll appreciate how times have changed. Now it seems like reality television is a permanent fixture, and in its numerous, ugly, damaging, forms, I just can’t see it going away.

13

Credits: Jonathan McIntosh / Wikimedia Commons

Try something different this Christmas!

Zenn Wong shows us what Wales has to offer this festive season

Arabian Nights, Sherman Theatre Main House Date: 5 December to 3 January (previews on 4 and 6 December) Price: £15 - £25, Previews – £12 - £20, Concessions – £2 off, Under 25s – half price Ages 7+

Ice Storm Exhibition, Wales Millennium Centre Date: 24 November to 18 January Price: Free entry

14

This December, be sure to catch the Sherman Theatre’s rendition of Arabian Nights.

The star of the show in this adaptation of the legend, written by Dominic Cooke, is none other than Shahrazad, an intelligent and imaginative young lady with a gift for storytelling who has just been married to a vengeful and dangerous King. Shahrazad must now rely on her enchanting tales of Es-Sindibad the Sailor, Ali Baba and other imagined stories to save her life and transform the King.

Arabian Nights will be the second piece directed by Sherman Theatre’s new Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan, and will feature a stellar cast including Joanna Hickman, Pete Ashmore, and Ashley Alymann as the King. Award-winning composer Conor Mitchell from Northern Ireland will also be performing live on stage an original score,

along with the actor-musicians who will take on multiple roles in this performance.

As the Sherman Theatre’s main Christmas production, Arabian Nights is set to be a musical adventure filled with laughs and thrilling stories, bringing some excitement this holiday season.

If you have friends or family members with autism, learning disability, Down’s syndrome or a sensory and communication disorder, Sherman Theatre provides a relaxed performance on 30 December at 2.00pm, which will take these into consideration to ensure that they will be able to enjoy the performance comfortably. A captioned performance will also be held on 20 December at 2.00pm.

For more information, please visit http://www.shermancymru.co.uk/ performance/children/arabian-nights/.

Paper sculptor Andy Singleton has been commission by the Wales Millennium Centre to create a series of wintery paper sculptures to be displayed throughout the centre’s public areas from 24 November 2014 to 18 January 2015.

Andy Singleton, a Nottingham-born paper artist and illustrator based in Wakefield, England, studied Animation with Illustration at Manchester Metropolitan University and graduated in 2006. His work is described as “an exploration of the natural and manmade world through intricate paper cuttings, paper sculpture and hand drawn illustrations”. In addition to having held workshops in locations such as the Tate Modern in London, Singleton’s past works include an installation at the Manchester Art Gallery, detailed papercut renditions of London and New York cityscapes, as well as

window displays for luxury fashion house Hermés.

The large-scale yet intricate sculptures, hand crafted and constructed entirely out of paper, will be made to resemble ice formations and clouds of mist, evoking images of nature on a cold winter’s day. This exhibition is completely free and not ticketed, so just show up at the Millennium Centre whenever you want to enjoy the sight of these magnificent paper sculptures, or make sure to keep an eye out for them whenever you are in the area. This fascinating and impressive installation is not one to miss out on.

There will also be an official opening evening with drinks and entertainment on 28 November at 6pm.

For more information please visit https://www.wmc.org.uk/Productions/2014-2015/Exhibitions/IceStorm/.

CULTURE

On the 18th of December, the streets of Caerphilly town centre will be illuminated by hundreds of lanterns carried by participants in Caerphilly’s annual River of Light Parade.

The handmade lanterns can be made at the River of Light workshops held on 6, 7, 13 and 14 December from 10am to 5pm, with the location of these workshops yet to be confirmed (as of 17 December 2014). These workshops are a great idea for a fun day out with friends as they are extremely flexible, with no set design or level of skill required, and no set duration or time limit. The workshops are also completely free, save for a £1 cost for an optional light.

The River of Light is the longest running Christmas event organised by the Caerphilly County Borough Council, and has been

Caerphilly Medieval Christmas Market, Caerphilly Town Centre, Caerphilly Castle Date/Time: 13 December 9am5pm, 14 December 10am-4pm Price: Mostly free (entry fees apply for Caerphilly Castle)

held annually for more than 10 years on the last Thursday before Christmas. The parade is inspired by Scandinavian cultures, in which there is a tradition of celebrating Christmas with lanterns.

The River of Light Lantern Parade is the finale to the Caerphilly County Borough Council’s series of events leading up to Christmas, and is free of charge, featuring stalls and entertainment on the evening of the parade. The parade will leave from the Caerphilly Railway Station Park & Ride at 6.30pm and will make its way down the town centre, ending off with a dazzling fireworks display over Caerphilly Castle.

For more information, please visit http://your.caerphilly.gov.uk/christmas/lantern/lantern-parades.

Caerphilly’s annual Medieval Christmas Market will return to the Caerphilly Town Centre on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of December this year.

Have a blast from the past enjoying the medieval-themed entertainment such as medieval magician, a castle jester, and dragon puppeteers, whilst browsing the stalls run by over 150 traders selling everything from food and traditional crafts to replica medieval goods. Visitors to the market are sure to find a selection of unique gifts for loved ones this holiday season.

Caerphilly River of Light Workshops and Parade, Caerphilly Town Centre Date/Time: Workshops - 10am – 5pm on 6, 7, 13, 14 December, Parade – 6.30pm on 18 December Price: Free

There will also be a Continental Market at the Twyn and a Farmers’ Market at Twyn Community Centre, sure to tempt visitors with the sights and smells of fresh food and mulled wine.

Street performers will also be present to entertain, as will funfair rides, live music performances and wood carving demonstrations, providing something for visitors of every age. Real reindeer and Santa’s grotto will also be present at the market, adding to the festive cheer of the market.

For the young ones, a large variety of children’s workshops and entertainment

will be available in Caerphilly Castle. In addition, Father Christmas will also be making his way through the town centre into the Castle for a meet and greet as well as a photo-taking opportunity, something that is sure to delight the young and young at heart.

Entry into Caerphilly Castle, one of Wales’ greatest castles, is at a fee, though most of the entertainment in the town centre outside the castle will be free of charge.

For more information, please visit http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK/ caerphilly-medieval-christmas-market.html.

15

interview:

What made you want to write a book on a subject seen by so many as taboo or would you say that the subject of sex is no longer a taboo?

I don’t think sex is as taboo as it used to be. Shows like Sex And The City helped with that. I do feel like my book breaks taboos because it doesn’t just discuss sex and virginity – it does it in a really honest, and sometimes graphic, way. It doesn’t shy away from the fact that girls masturbate and have disastrous Brazilian waxes. They are all part of a reality for most young women, but they’re never written about.

A lot of books have sex scenes but they miss out all the detail – like the pressure for the girl to shave her legs, and all the awkward things that go wrong. I wanted girls who have these experiences to pick up a book they can actually relate to and laugh at.

Although this book is fictional, were you inspired by your own experience at university?

Most of it was inspired by conversations with friends. I also have a lot of friends who were virgins well into their twenties, or still are.

Some of their awkward stories really inspired me. Also, just being at uni gave me so much material.

Everyone plays drinking games like ‘Never Have I Ever’ where it’s just assumed that everyone there is sexually active, and it’s incredibly difficult for virgins to deal with that sort of social pressure.

Did you do any research before or during writing the novel?

I spoke to a number of people, whether it was girl friends who shared their funny pubes/oral sex/masturbating stories, or doctors who helped me with the medical stuff. I put in a lot of the stories my girl friends told me just because they were so hilarious and realistic. It means that anyone reading this book can know that most of the stuff that happened to Ellie has happened to a bunch of 20-something girls out there.

16

Your book mostly focuses on women and their battles with sex but do you think the representation of men within the novel paints them in a negative light?

There’s still a huge lack of books that show really strong female heroines, and really go into gender equality when it comes to sex and relationships.

My main goal was to create a character who is really influenced by patriarchal norms, but slowly learns about feminism, and starts to make decisions based on her and her pleasure. All too often young women feel like they have to please men.

I don’t think men come across badly in the novel. Ellie has Paul as a decent male friend, who also feels the pressures of sexual expectations – it shows it isn’t just a female thing. The main guy, Jack, turns out to not be exactly what Ellie thought but I don’t think it’s his fault. The big problem was Ellie’s desperation to fit in, to be what society deems normal.

Your novel makes awkward situations funny. Would you say this perspective opens up the conversation to talk about sex openly?

I would love if Virgin inspired more people to be open about sex. My girl friends and I are incredibly open with everything in life, and I honestly don’t know how we would survive if we didn’t have each other to share things with. So I think it would be amazing if the close female friendships in the novel inspired other people to do that with their friends.

I also think it’s really important if people speak to their partners about sex, and what they want in the bedroom without fear. It would be great if Virgin can inspire people to be more up front about that.

— Asal Golshaie

RADHIKA SANGHANI Funny, honest and thought provoking, Virgin is the tale of Ellie, a 21 year old English Literature student who is desperate to lose her virginity before graduation.

Rhadika Sanghani’s debut novel, Virgin, tackles sex in a modern world with excruciatingly funny honesty. Quench Culture caught up with Rhadika to chat about her inspirations, gender representations and attitudes to sex

CULTURE

Credits: Martin Hearn

Culture is changing; the news would have us believe bookshops are closing, theatres lie empty and art galleries use gimmicks to attract audiences but is this really the case? Quench Culture investigates whether the beloved bookshop is set to stand the test of time and the digital age.

CreditsL lilivanili

Credits: Phillip Capper

Credits: Garry Knight

C U L T U RE IN M O D ERN TI M E S : BOOKSHOPS

17

tHE DEATH OF THE BOOKSHOP The news would have us believe that the bookshop is dead. Libraries are quiet all year except for the week before deadlines and walking around town it is difficult to spot an independent bookshop. However, all is not as it seems. Independent bookshop Foyles has just opened a massive shop in Bristol town centre holding 15,000 titles over two floors. Alex Chapman investigates the plight of our local independent bookshops and sees if the myths are actually a reality.

For many students, there is nothing more enjoyable than shutting the world out and curling up with a juicy hardback, to get lost in someone else’s world for a while. Yet, worrying statistics from the past few years highlighting the decline in sales of printed books have hit a nerve. With Christmas around the corner, the offer of a Kindle as a Christmas gift seems tempting but many prefer to turn the page and watch the slow progress made through a novel via the thinning of one side of pages and the thickening of another. You lose the chance to scribble on the pages, make notes, highlight your favourite lines; a bent spine is an indication of a cherished copy.

According to Nielsen BookScan data, book sales fell by 98 million in 2013, lending to a rise in e-book consumers and, unsurprisingly, a fall in sales of E.L James’ record-breaking Fifty Shades of Grey as the craze slowed (make of that what you will). Aside from this best-selling anomaly, books are still in an ever-escalating downfall as the years go by. Borders, a UK retailer which went into administration in 2009, was where book lovers spent hours curled up with a new paperback and a hot chocolate from its café. Many were heartbroken when it closed down, and have been hunting for another venue to

18

nerd out their reading obsession ever since. So it is nice to see an independent bookshop, hidden in one of Cardiff’s arcades, is still standing tall and raking in the business, around twenty years after it opened its doors.

Troutmark Books (39-43, Castle Arcade) boasts floor-to-ceiling bookcases teetering with thousands of books from all genres over three floors, specialising in

floor-to-ceiling bookcases teetering with thousands of books from all genres over three floors both first editions and second hand novels. It doesn’t stop there - venture up to the third floor and find a vast array of vintage comics, records, annuals and magazines you’ll find you will spend more time in this shop than you ever intended. Ranging from sci-fi to crime to children’s and even gardening books, so many volumes are crammed in that even descending the stairs to the basement floor,

you will find them stacked up underneath the steps. The beauty of Troutmark’s is that it is basically an instant Amazon - most books are in good, some even perfect condition, at a fraction of the cost you would pay in retail giant Waterstones (and with no delivery price, either).

Even better is if you have a growing pile of last year’s textbooks at the end of your bed, or collecting dust on a shelf - Troutmark’s also buy your old books to add to their enormous collection.

Alternatively, there is Bear Island Book Exchange, nestled between a sweet shop and a meat and cheese deli counter, in Cardiff Market. It contains everything from well-thumbed bestsellers to old-school classics, because once again, Bear Island buys your books as well as selling them - and has a mail order service thrown into the mix.

For those (like me) who love antique books, not even to read, just to look at, they have a healthy selection, combined with all sorts of novels championing the Welsh - even if you’d like to learn a phase here and there, there are beginners books also. Apparently, there are cascading mountains of Mills & Boon, too. Eat your heart out, Fifty Shades.

- Alex Chapman

CULTURE

INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOPS IN WALES

If you love literature and fancy getting a bit more adventurous, then you can travel the lengths of the Welsh borders and discover some great hidden gems.

B o o t h ’s Bookshop

Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival For 10 days in May, Wales hosts the biggest literary festival in the UK. It is a gathering of everyone from comedians and scientists to poets and novelists, but all these people have one thing in common; their love of writing. Hay celebrates writing and the ability to change the way we think. The festival hopes to use literature to begin a conversation that has the potential to change society.

It is not just in the UK that the festival is popular, since the festival was formed in 1987 it has welcomed guests including Prince Charles, Dame Judy Dench, Stephen Fry and Toni Morrison. Bill Clinton even referred to the festival as ‘The Woodstock of the mind’. Hay now hosts events all over the world from Bangladesh to Lebanon, Mexico to Hungary. As the festival has grown so much in popularity, they now also hold a winter event in November and this year they welcomed Booker Prize-winners Graham Swift and Eleanor Catton. This shows the intense thirst and interest in literature and how this interest is growing.

Having this festival on our doorstep is great, even better if you are a student. Tickets are relatively inexpensive and better yet, this year they offered students the opportunity to go to five events for free.

This bookshop is unique in its conception; tucked away in a small corner in Hay-onWye, Hereford, this bookshop has an amazing collection of both new and second handbooks.

Oh, and it also has a cinema in a small room off to the side. This bookshop is surprising because it is able to blend the forms of reading and filmmaking: after watching the latest blockbuster in the intimate 50 seat, vintage style cinema and you can grab a cappucino in their café or relax on the sofas and read your book. It also has a performance space upstairs which is regularly used for local productions and visitors. Although it has other functions, this hideaway is primarily a bookshop where people who love books can read but also indulge in some other arts at the same time.

T-Hwnt Located in Carmarthen, this family affair is run by four sisters in their twenties and this bookshop is Welsh. Painted yellow and green to mimic Welsh national flower the daffodil, the shop stocks many Welsh titles on everything from poetry to philosophy to picture books. The interior is bright and welcoming and the best part is the “cwtch” in the corner of the shop which is a hidey hole of pillows which you can sit and while the afternoon away leafing through your new favourite title.

19

Burt’s Bees Endless Shine Trio Bodycare Gift Set - £9.99 from John Lewis

Benefit Sweet Tintations Christmas Gift Set, £19.50 from Boots

These lip glosses from Burt’s Bees are 100% natural and enriched with apricot wax that make them mouth-wateringly moisturising without being sticky. The set contains three shades (coral, pink and red) and will give your lips a sheer wash of colour and shiny finish.

Containing two full-sized moisturising tinted lip balms (worth £14.50 each) and two mini lip and cheek stains in Benefit’s popular Benetint and Lollitint formulations, this bang for your buck gift set is sure to please. Benetint is a rosy red colour, while Lollitint is candy-orchid shade.

£10 Steam Cream Christmas Star Decoration £7.99 from Debenhams This award winning moisturiser contains 11 natural ingredients and is steam infused to allow deep nourishment and quick absorption. It comes in a stylish aluminum tin and is suitable for all skin types, including sensitive skin, so even the fussiest of friends will appreciate this gem.

£20

GIFTS FOR HER

Checked Wool Scarf - £12.99 from H&M Checked prints are very on trend this season, with tartan scarves flying off the shelves of every fashion retailer. This classic red, white and blue version from H&M is made of 100% wool, perfect for snuggling up with a hot chocolate on a cold wintery morning.

— Zenn Wong Light pink mini satchel - £20 from River Island With gold hardware and a vintage-inspired style, this structured bag will certainly turn heads by adding a splash of colour to any dull winter outfit. The pastel pink colour also means that this bag will see you through to the spring/ summer months. No money-wasting here!

£50

£100

Croc Embossed Leather Bucket Bag in Navy Blue - £99.99 from Zara This 100% leather bucket bag embossed with a crocodile skin pattern will make the fashionsta in the family a very happy lady. The bag has a handle and shoulder strap, and is large enough without being bulky, making it an extremely practical, yet stylish gift.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Box £49.95 from Lush Cosmetics With 12 bath products including the Christmas limited editions, this gift set from Lush will provide more than 12 days of pampering. Products include “Honey I Washed the Kids”, a caramel and honey soap and “Dashing Santa”, a Satsuma bath bomb shaped like St Nick himself. After dancing the night away at the Christmas parties, a relaxing, soak in the bath would nurse those twinkle toes back to health in no time.

20

Jo Malone Cologne Collection £68 from Jo Malone This set contains five best-selling fragrances – Lime Basil Mandarin, Blackberry and Bay, Peony and Blush Suede, Amber and Lavender, and Wood Sage and Sea Salt. The scents, 9ml each, can also be layered to form a unique signature scent - sure to please even the pickiest of people.

FASHION & BE AUTY Double Plait Leather Wrap Bracelet £8.50 from Topman

Adidas Originals Classic Backpack - £18 from JD Sports

This black leather look braided bracelet comes with a magnetic closure for convenience. The silver clasp gives a subtle industrial look and the double loop lends some movement while still retaining its sophistication.

This classic black backpack features a trendy oversized logo and ample storage space, lightly padded shoulder straps and laptop compartment, as well as a large front pocket for easy access. Practical, easy to clean and lightweight, this backpack would make an inventive gift option.

Moroccan Myrrh Shave Cream 50g - £8.00 from Crabtree & Evelyn This shaving cream has a moisturising formula with added vitamin E to help nourish your skin and ensure a comfortable and close shave to avoid unpleasant cuts or irritation.

The scent is exotic and mature, with traces of myrrh, bergamot, cardamom and warm amber.

£10

£20

GIFTS FOR HIM

Assorted quirky socks, £3.00 for 1 pair or £7.00 for 3 pairs from Topman Quirky socks are always fun to give and receive, and this pair featuring pandas is cute. Sorry, we meant manly...very ‘manly.

Calvin Klein CK one Eau de Toilette 50ml £13.50 from Boots This classic scent is described as naturally fresh and pure, with fruity top scents including bergamot and fresh papaya, an aromatic middle essence including jasmine and nutmeg, and a warm base scent of musk and amber.

— Zenn Wong Cade Grooming Collection - £49.50 from L’Occitane This best-selling men’s collection features strengthening and soothing properties of the wild juniper. The eau de toilette, shower gel, aftershave balm and pebble soap all have a woody, spicy scent with a subtle bergamot, cedar and cade infusion.

£50

Ralph Lauren Big Pony Holster Eau de Toilette 10ml Gift Set - £34.50 from Boots This set contains mini versions of all four of Ralph Lauren’s Big Pony fragrances as well as a holster. Ralph Lauren Blue is a fresh scent, Red a spicy scent, Green a crisp scent, and Orange a unique scent, ensuring that this set will appeal to a wide range of wearers and compliment a range of moods.

£100

Herschel Supply Co. Little America Backpack in Grey Plaid - £89.99 from Route One This unique take on the ever popular backpack, features a quirky grey, red and turquoise plaid pattern with Herschel’s iconic red and white lining. Other features include a 15-inch laptop compartment, internal pockets, padded shoulder straps, and a ventilated and padded back.

Fossil Grant Men’s Chronograph Leather Strap Watch - £95 from John Lewis This vintage-inspired watch by Fossil adopts a classic and simple style. The watch features a 44mm case, cream dial with Roman numerals, chronograph movement, and a brown leather strap.

21

M A L L Z E E MALLZEE a Tinder for Fashion

Quench Fashion and Beauty introduces you to technologies newest and savviest app, Mallzee - your very own portable wardrobe and style guide at the tips of your fingers. Think Tinder with a twist. A whole new platform of style inspiration, shopping experience and personally tailored style recommendations, what’s not to love? Words by Adam Steffan Jones, illustration by Stephany Damyanova.

Get those thumbs ready to swipe as there’s one thing in particular that’s going to be keeping you warm this winter: that comfy knitwear you found on no other than the new personal styling app, Mallzee. The Tinder-esque app takes a new spin on the shopping experience, introducing a simple yet sleek design that combines social media and your sense of style as one. Just another tedious fashion-related app, you might say? Let me convince you otherwise.

The app as a whole is really easy to use: swipe right if you like the product and then left if it doesn’t quite take your fancy. Those items that were lucky enough to get a thumbs up are then saved to the app so you can start building an outfit together. The app replicates the personal stylist experience, but instead of paying hundreds of pounds, it allows you to create your desired look for free. Be always in the know with the price drop notification which acts as a great way to search for that chic but cheap garment.

Mallzee is quite literally at hand for every occasion; whether that being an outfit for a first date or a high street bargain. The way in which the app brings about its unique Style Feeds ensure that you never miss out on looking hypercreative and universally individual. The Style Feeds are a new tool that allows you to generate specific product searches by specifying colour, price range and desired brand. Mallzee then creates your style-graph through a mixture of speedy swipes from the tips of your fingers. The app also offers various

22

recommendations, which you can buy on the app or simply use as inspiration for future outfits.

Similarly to the TOPSHOP’s personal shopper and stylist concept, Mallzee becomes your very own personal fashion guru inside your pocket, introducing over 200 major brands you might never consider when piecing your outfit together. These brands range from Urban Outfitters to ASOS,

A NEW PAIR OF SKINNY JEANS PROBABLY WON’T STAND YOU UP OUTSIDE THE PUB ON A RAINY WEDNESDAY EVENING therefore, your quest to find that eye-catching dress or musthave blazer as has never been easier.

Still not convinced? There’s more. The Blogger Showcase is there to help and inspire you with their own opinion and advice on current fashion trends. Trend of the week is also a great feature that picks out best sellers, such as

the new blanket jackets that are taking our high street stores by storm.

What separates Mallzee from other styling apps is that your friends can see what you’ve liked. Through sharing your chosen item with them via WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, you receive that all-important second opinion from the people that matter most to you. However, if the majority of your friends give the item a thumb’s down, Mallzee then blocks you from purchasing it. So, if you are already addicted to snatching up bargains on Depop, there’s no longer any need to feel the financial burn from buying just anything online because it’s cheap.

Mallzee’s clever way of throwing in your friends’ opinions will ensure that you don’t just buy offensive tat online, making your purse as well as your wardrobe a lot happier! Also, for the girls, think of the app as a way of stopping your boyfriends from buying those God awful shoes you wish had never left the box last Valentine’s day. The app tailors for both women and men, so to all the guys out there, you have no excuses to break those old habits and try something new this season.

Those of you looking for love on Tinder, ditch the small talk and awkward dates for great style advice and clothes from Mallzee. At the end of the day, a new pair of skinny jeans probably won’t stand you up outside a pub on a rainy Wednesday evening.

FASHION & BE AUTY

Name: Pip Rule Age: 19 Studying: Journalism, Media and English Literature Favourite store: Zara Current favourite pieces of clothing: Chunky Boots Fashion Inspiration: Tends to gravitate towards a monochrome styles and gets day-to-day inspiration from the people around her.

Name: Louis Browne Age: 19 Studying: English Literature Favourite store: American Apparel Current favourite pieces of clothing: Big chunky clothes Fashion Inspiration: Gets his inspiration from magazines and bands as he believes that fashion is highly manifested within music.

Name: Rosie Couch Age: 20 Studying: English Literature Favourite store: Urban Outfitters Current favourite pieces of clothing: Knitwear, oversize coats Fashion Inspiration: Alexa Chung and anything black.

Name: Imogen Philip Age: 21 Studying: Economics with Spanish Favourite store: Zara Current favourite pieces of clothing: Scarves Fashion Inspiration: Her dressing is mostly dictated by her mood but she’s inspired by pastel colours.

Cardiff Universityʼs

Name: Ffion Hopkins Age: 19 Studying: Fashion Marketing Favourite store: Miss Selfridge Current favourite pieces of clothing: Coats Fashion Inspiration: Inspired by Chanel, lots of colour and detail and pastel colours.

Name: Simona Daugnoraite Age: 21 Studying: Psychology Favourite store: Zara Current favourite pieces of clothing: Jumpers Fashion Inspiration: Lana Del Rey and any of the 60’s fashion trends.

STREETSTYLE DIARIES Pictures and words by Chizoba Uzuegbunam and Ana Giraldo

23

beauty insider reviews

Quench Fashion and Beauty know how important it is to buy the right beauty and skincare products, and testing each one until you find THE one can often be a bit of a knock on the bank balance. For this exact reason, we have asked some of Cardiff University’s beauty enthusiasts, Adelle Jones, Vicky Chandler and Sophie Payne, to shed light on their favourite and most trusted winter skin care products, sparing you the expense and bringing you the honest results.

“This product showed potential to become a lifesaver after just one use.”

24

Part 2: Winter Skincare

It is common knowledge that the harsh, windy weather can dry out your skin; even the oiliest of skin loses its ability to maintain moisture during winter. If like our reviewer, Sophie, you struggle with particularly dry skin, you may find that you’ve had trouble finding a lotion that ticks all the boxes.

During the cold winter months, moisturising before bed and after showering becomes all the more essential. This is where Sophie’s beauty saviour comes in; Dove’s Limited Edition Winter Care body lotion.

“After previously trying many of their products I can honestly say this product showed potential to become a lifesaver after just one use”. The lotion rubs in extremely easily and leaves no residue at all, helping you avoid that feeling of being greasy even when you’ve just come out of the shower. “I have noticed my skin is amazingly soft and smooth even after battling the harshest winter breezes and it feels exceptionally healthy for this time of year.”

If you experience more dryness and roughness to your skin in the winter, Dove’s lotion is an ideal product for you as it works to deeply nourish your skin, minimise roughness and flakiness and replenish the essential oils that your skin may struggle to uphold during the colder, dryer days. Sophie says, “I have noticed in the past with some lotions I have used in winter that I am constantly reapplying whenever I have the chance. However, this

product most definitely leaves skin hydrated throughout the entire day and I have barely needed to reapply.”

Retailing at £3.99 in most stores, it may be hard to believe how inexpensive this product is, considering its quality and generous size. The amount needed when applying is minimal and the lotion goes a long way – perfect for us, students on a budget. Dove has chosen to make the product a limited edition which may in fact be relevant due to the lotion’s rich texture and consistency as it may not be suitable for the warmer weather of summer months.

The product contains something which Dove calls the ‘Care Complex’ which contains the natural nutrients and oils for skin, though this could just be marketing jargon. In any case, the fragrance of the product is beautiful, it’s clean, extremely pleasant and very long lasting. The only negative thing our reviewer Sophie points out is to do with the packaging – “I wish they had packaged it differently, a pump instead of the squeeze bottle would be much more user friendly for a body lotion.”

However, after two weeks of using Dove’s body lotion, Sophie has reported that her skin is feeling 100% happier when stepping out into the cold weather, so for that reason, it successfully passes our test.

fashion & be auty

“Dehydration is a state that all skin types are prone to, especially during the winter.”

Another one of our recommended winter skincare essentials are Nip + Fab’s new Dragon’s Blood skincare range. It’s a new range from a great brand that both Kylie Jenner and Millie Mackintosh admit to loving. These products help hydrate your skin and battle against the tough, cold weather that we’re undoubtedly going to have this Christmas.

The Fix Pads are filled with salicylic and hyaluronic acid which deeply cleanse the pores and the witch hazel it contains helps to reduce the appearance of imperfections.

They work well as an exfoliator and as part of your daily morning routine.

The Dragons Blood Fix Mask is an intensely hydrating gel mask that you can apply a thick layer of to the face and neck and leave for ten minutes to restore skin suppleness and brighten the face. A personal tip is to put on a thin layer and leave it on overnight, then wash off in the morning!

The final part of the Dragons Blood trio range is the Fix Serum, a lightweight serum that delivers instant moisture to dehydrated

Our second reviewer, Adelle has also acknowledged that the biggest problem for our skin in the winter is the combination of cold, windy weather and dry air from central heating that can leave your pores more than a little parched. Of course, moisturiser is vital; but what you really need is a concentrated product that works harder than a moisturiser.

Cue the serum.

Dry skin? You need one. Oily skin? You still need one. Dehydration is a state that all skin types are prone to, especially during winter; so even if your skin isn’t looking typically dry and flaky, its moisture content might still need a boost. Uneven, bumpy or rough skin texture, dullness, visible fine lines or foundation sinking into your skin are all signs that it lacks hydration.

The Hydraluron serum from Indeed Laboratories has received rave reviews from bloggers and skincare gurus alike, and is the best weapon in my winter skincare arsenal.

Fairly affordable for a serum and no-frills, it contains a decent dosage of hyaluronic acid.

If the word ‘acid’ is ringing alarm bells for you, don’t be put off; this skin enhancing ingredient is naturally produced by the human body to keep our joints moving and skin elastic. One molecule can hold up to 1000 times its weight in water, and when applied to the skin it functions as a humectant; drawing moisture from the environment and helping your thirsty skin retain its H20 content.

Already a HA devotee? This serum’s hyaluronic acid has a low molecular weight, making it able to reach below the skin barrier, quenching even the lower layers of your skin.

The only downside to this product is having to resist the temptation to slather your face in it. A little (pea-sized) blob goes a long way; with two daily doses before your moisturiser in the morning and evening, the tube lasts at least 3 months.

The serum itself is colourless and fragrance-free (sensitive skinned humans we’re looking at you), and has a light gel consistency; not too heavy or rich for oily skins, and perfect for layering with a rich moisturiser or oil for dry skins.

Is it really worth the hype? Well, according to Adelle, it certainly is. “You will notice real results after a week of regular use, and I imagine even drier skins than mine will see a significant improvement. The only way I can describe the effect this product has on my normal-ish skin is that it makes it look juicy; even in the grey, Welsh winter daylight.

The texture is completely transformed; little bumps and dry patches are gone, and makeup applies more smoothly.”

Well, it seems to us that this product ticks all the boxes! Hydraluron is available from Boots and currently is often part of money saving deals such as 1/3 off, making it a price as low as £16.66 for 30ml. That’s 18p a day for beautiful, moisture nourished winter skin!

skin. It appears to work best under a thick moisturiser, and it’s fantastic for city folk who also have environmental aggressors to battle with such as pollution.

The smell of the Fix Pads isn’t amazing, but the fruity scent of the serum and mask makes up for that - it’s lovely. After using the products for two weeks, our final verdict from our reviewer Vicky is – “They made a massive difference to my skin and I would definitely buy it again. Priced at £34.95 for all three, they aren’t the cheapest skin care products out there right now but they really do work!”

Nip + Fab have just recently been stocked in St. David’s new Superdrug and it’s a great place to go and try them out. Based on our review, it’s ideal for use in the cold winter months, so whether you want to try something new for yourself or give them as a Christmas present to a friend, it’s a trio that has passed our beauty test and one that we recommend.

25

1

Christmas 3

4

2 St. Tropez The Ultimate Self Tan Kit - £25 ASOS - Why can’t we look our best all year round? For a permanent summer glow we look to tanning Gods, St. Tropez. Streaky orange lines have no place here!

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner & Skinny Mini Mascara - £8 - ASOS -≠ All we want for Christmas is to master the cat-eyed flick in the way that Eyeko collaborator and it-girl/ goddess Alexa Chung has.

9

10

Stila Colour Outside The Lines - £36 - Fashion and beauty sensation Zoella is just one of many who has raved about Stila eyeliners, and who are we to argue with the leader of *gasps* six million YouTube subscribers?

Real Techniques Core Collection 1403 £21.99 - Boots - Nothing makes you feel more in control of your life than owning a professional make-up brush collection.

These essentials are kindly priced at £21.99.

11

12 Burt Bee’s Essential Kit - £12.99 - John Lewis - All natural everything. Tough ‘I only eat organic’ pals - sorted. Contains soap bark, cleansing cream, hand salve, body lotion, lip balm and foot lotion.

Benefit Goodies A Go Go Gift Set - £19.50 Set an example by giving someone something delightfully practical this Christmas. No, we’re not thinking tool-kit... but we are thinking make-up tool-kit!

Clinique Power Lashes Set - £20 - John Lewis - We loooove a Clinique Christmas - we get to gift our buds - or open for ourselves - makeup magic at a fraction of the price. Clinique Christmas Gift Sets rule!

19

17

18 Cath Kidston Flora Mini Hand Cream 30ml £3.50 Cath K’s second appearance on this list and we’re thinking maybe we should just do a feature on her stock alone. Cute! Stocking fillers don’t come much more delightful!

26

Urban Decay Shadow Box Eyeshadow, 12 Shades - £22 - We went mad over the Naked3 palette release this time last year, and now we can obsess over something else.

Too Faced Brow Kit - £35 - Eyebrows frame the face. Get them wrong, or get ‘Too Faced Brow Kit’ and get them right. This wax and gel set with brushes and tweezers is like life’s number one non-negotiable.

20 GHD Rose Gold Styler & Air Kit - £195 ASOS - Number 1 on our list to Santa - we want this straighteners and hairdryer combo in rose gold or we don’t want anything at all!

Well, GHD is the all-time hair champ.

Bliss FatGirlFaves Set - £30 - The ultimate spaexperience in a box: scrubbing, massaging, and sleeping your way to a cellulite-free state of body-Goddess-ness in the comfort of your own home!

FASHION & BE AUTY

BEaUtY hamPEr

5

8

7

6 SensatioNail Deluxe Starter Kit - £50 Boots - Hurry and get your hands on this gel nails starter kit. No need to fuss over salon appointments if you have this polish and lamp set in your (perfectly polished) claws.

Eyelure New York Lash Eye Wardrobe - £12 - Topshop - Our most loved false eyelash brand has us covered for our Boxing Day bash and New Year’s Eve.

Sleep-in Glitter Rollers £22.39 - Argos - If you want to let someone know you love them this Christmas, treat them to celeb-favourite ‘Sleep-in Rollers’.

Clinique Whole Lotta Chubby Gift Set - £20 - House of Fraser - So, we’ve had Clinique’s Chubby Sticks as our number one for years, and now, Clinique have given us four in the most darling make-up pouch!

14

13

16 15 Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream EDT Christmas Gift Set 50ml - £53.50 - The Perfume Shop - A charming variation of the ‘Daisy’ lot, this scent brings to mind unicorns, candy-canes, an exotic beach date with David Gandy.

Essie Lux Duo A Cut Above - £13 - Base coat + glitter top = diamond sparkly fingers.

What part of that doesn’t sound like every girl’s dream?

Cath Kidston Flora Pink Geranium Scented Soap Trip - £10 - Okay, let’s admit...we would buy Cath Kidston products just to keep the packaging; it’s that adorbz.

Percy & Reed Voluptuous Volume Totally Tempting Treat Pack - £15 - THE greatest hair-care products out there, and the best way to impress a first-time visitor doing the customary snoop of your bathroom shelves.

22

21

24 23 Yes To Cucumbers Face Mask - £10 - Hell yes to anything that will give us a pretty glow.

Models Own HyperGel Trio Christmas Gift Set - £8.

Now let others treat you on this day...

25

Soap & Glory Clean Get Away £10 - Boots

Matte Lip Bullet in Could This Be Love - £8 Topshop - for the perfect Kylie Jenner pout!

Merry Christmas from the F&B team!

27

Credit:Otto Schlappack

Credit:Carsten Pescht

THE BEST

CHRISTMAS MARKETS Credit: Gary Bembridge

Credit: Eugenijus Radlinskas

Vilnius’ Christmas market traditions are still fairly new, with the first market in the Town Hall Square being held in 2009. This year, head to the square to sample Christmas foods and see all the wondrous performances. Vilnius is easy to get to with the cheap tickets Ryanair offer from Bristol to Kaunas, which is an hour from the capital Vilnius. Another reason you should go is because this is the last chance for you to see and use the Lithuanian currency, litas, before the euro will be introduced on 1 January 2015. Lithuania is also a very cheap country for Westerners and it can almost be guaranteed there will be snow for an authentic feeling of Christmas. There will be a huge, towering Christmas tree in Town Hall Square and the international Christmas Charity Fair where you can buy all kinds of Christmas hand-made souvenirs made by employees of embassies and foreign ambassadors currently staying in Lithuania. Cathedral Square will feature a 25-metre tall Christmas tree with flashing LED lights and decorations, as well as the lighting show featuring foreign artists and fireworks. A seasonal Christmas town is going to be built this year where hand-made glass products, jewelry, pottery and other traditional Lithuanian art can be purchased. In terms of food, one can expect internationally recognized classics like mulled wine and gingerbreads, as well as authentic Lithuanian food like cepelinai, a type of dumpling made from potatoes. What is perhaps the most interesting attraction, despite being slightly reminiscent of CocaCola’s Christmas adverts, is the Christmas train. All Vilnius Old Town visitors can have a chance to ride it!

28

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Credit: Graeme Maclean

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

A two-kilometre long Christmas market, with around 240 stalls resembling gingerbread houses all the way through the capital of a country claiming to have more than 1,000 types of beer should leave no one bored.

The Grand Place UNESCO World Heritage Site holds a sound and light show that lights up the dark skies of cold winter, while just around the corner the ice rink, a Big Wheel, roundabouts and marching bands can be found. Additionally, this year for the first time a small skating rink will be put up to please all the little ones.

Free performances and ice sculptures, including the ice dinosaur monster, are also part of the whole event. There are many mouth-watering Belgian specialties to taste like croustillons (doughnuts), caricoles (winkles in spicy sauce) and, of course, chocolates. The market even has a name: Winter Wonders, and is located in the marvelous Place Sainte Catherine. The multinational heritage is reflected in the architecture and once everything has been illuminated with Christmas lights, it looks simply magical. If it’s Christmas presents you’re looking for, you can easily find them in Brussels because over the festive period of five weeks, all the shops will be open on weekends. Traditionally, there is a guest of honour (a city or a country) at Place Sainte Catherine to show its gastronomy, music and pottery. In the middle of December, the Festival of Ice & Snow Sculptures starts and runs until February, which is one more reason to visit Brussels during Christmas time. Last year Winter Wonders was voted as the third best Christmas market in Europe. With the help of Megabus, you can get return tickets from Cardiff to Brussels for £50 and discover the illuminated fairyland for yourself.

Whilst quite small in comparison to its counterparts, the Christmassy village of rustic cabins and stalls on Argyle Street still has all the traditional artisan products such as mulled wine and fresh food on offer from hog roast to French crepes. Usually the market takes place on St Enoch Square but due to the squares subway entrances being refurbished, the market had to move from its traditional place. Nonetheless, the location of the market, which is just next to the St Enoch's Shopping Centre, makes it particularly attractive for all shopping lovers. The spirit of Christmas in the market is very international, with traders from places like Russia, Ecuador and even Lapland, as well as closer countries in Europe, such as Italy and Germany. As a result, a wide range of goods is on offer, with the Meats of the World stall having palatable exotic meats including wild boar, venison, springbok, kangaroo and even ostrich! Scotland's largest outdoor ice rink welcomes all visitors to move a little after indulging in a Bratwurst or Marzipan. One could argue that the market is heavily food-oriented with the huge selection of German foods, but if wellprepared, succulent food is what you're after, Glasgow market should be your next foodie destination. It is a seven and a half hour journey from Cardiff and costs a mere £15 by bus.

—Ingrida Kurlinkutė

TRAVEL Credit:LenDog64

Credit:Michael Caven

AROUND THE WORLD

The nearest and quaintest Christmas market to Cardiff, open from the 27 November until 14 December, will provide a perfect weekend away before heading home for the Christmas break! The streets of the beautiful spa town, aglow with Christmas lights, are lined with wooden chalets stocked with unique gifts, decorations and traditional British Christmas food and drink to warm oneself on a crisp winters day! If home baked mince pies with brandy butter don’t tickle your taste buds, why not try a local Severn brewed cider or a glass of mulled wine? If you tend to struggle finding the perfect Christmas gifts for him, her, friends or family, it’s definitely worth having a potter around Bath. They really cater for every need with such a huge variety of gifts, ranging from ‘The chilli alchemist’ to ‘The wooden tie company’ to ‘The stencil shed’ – which has been inspired by local street-artist legend, Banksy. This Christmas market is really special as they promote local businesses such as ‘Somerset lavender’, ‘The Welsh slate company’, ‘the silver shed’ and ‘the Wiltshire beekeeper’ too.

With such a wide variety, there’s something for every taste (some very obscure) and every budget, with beautiful hand crafted gifts and local produce you will struggle to find elsewhere! To add to the festive ambiance, Bath Abbey is located in the heart of the Christmas market, so one can always hear the sound of carol singers or musicians drifting through the centre of Bath during the festive period.

STRASBOURG, FRANCE

Credit: Tsteenbergen

Credit: Francois Schnell

BERLIN, GERMANY

Credit: Heather Cowper

BATH, ENGLAND

The Germans are renowned for their Christmas markets, so where better to go than their capital, Berlin. Here, there is not just one market but over 50 Christmas markets each year, which begin on 24 November and continue until 31 December. Berlin is transformed into a winter wonderland; it is impossible to miss the Christmas festivities with markets spread along the grand boulevards, through squares and even into the smallest side streets. The market at Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche is the biggest and most popular, people travel far and wide to peruse the jewelry, decorations and artwork. Expect an array of smells from your traditional German Christmas markets: aromas of hot chestnuts, weisswurst (grilled sausages) and glühwien. The beauty of the German Christmas markets is that they transport you to the traditional, romanticism of Christmas, rather than the tacky, mass-produced and commercialised version that we see so often. It would be rude to wander the streets of Berlin in the early evening without enjoying a glass or two of their deliciously aromatic glühwien to warm yourself up alongside a weihnactsplätzchen (Christmas cookies), a piece of Christstollen (a German fruitcake) or a piece of Pfefferkuchenhaus (one of Germany’s oldest Christmas traditions, the gingerbread cake).

Strasbourg is home to one of the largest and longest running ‘Christkindelsmärik’ (Christmas market) in Europe and has been so popular that it has been named ‘the Capital of Christmas’, bringing approximately two million visitors a year between 28 November and 31 December. This market is famous for its authenticity and fine quality of merchandise, with hundreds of Alsatian Christmas huts selling little surprises and treasures, all very traditionally French. The market is separated into ‘7 countries, 7 atmospheres’, so there is something for each and everyone of you: the land of taste, the land of mysteries, the land of light, the land of Christmas stars, the land of Christmas gatherings, the land of songs and fine fabrics and of course, the land of Christmas trees! The streets of Strasbourg are filled with orchestras, choirs and gospel music during this period and the Christmas tree is the focal point for all tourists as it towers up as high as 32.5 metres high. Strasbourg Christmas market prides itself on sharing and generosity, there are over 80 humanitarian charities that collect donations, toys, food and gifts for those in need, with the hope of brightening as many Christmas’ as possible.

Strasbourg has been said to be an unforgettable Christmas experience for the whole family, and the children’s village has been said to ‘make children’s eyes shine’. As with every country, the French have a collection of Christmas spiced delicacies, the main one being a sweet biscuit called ‘Bredle’, which can be found in numerous different flavours including butterbredle, anisbredle, schwowebredle (almonds and golden egg glaze), spritzbredle, lebkuchen, leckerli and springerle. Baking bredle is for the whole family, not only are they delicious but as they are colourful they’re also used as decorations on the Christmas tree. When in Strasbourg, it would be a shame to not try their famous Christmas beer as well.

—Lucy Pierce

29

NEW YEAR’S EVE ...on a budget Help, Newquay Newquay is the party capital of the shores. In the summer it’s a surfing haven and in the winter, clubbing central. At the harbour, fireworks will be going off for thirty minutes at midnight and an age-old tradition of fancy dress consumes the streets in Central Square.

Help (don’t read into the name) nightclub is the place to be at midnight as the fireworks kick off, onlookers outside are hosed with fake snow and most other bars and restaurants clamour to offer the best deals on booze and food. Another dual offer with a party package at just £10, these tickets offer queue jump and entrance to Help and Salt Club, another favourite on the strip.

30

Garlands, Liverpool Championing the North is Liverpool’s very own Garlands. With five enormous rooms catering to different types of music, this New Year’s special is an all-white party and goes on until 6am. The ceilings are starlit, with UV lights and snow everywhere. If you plan to watch fireworks somewhere else at midnight (the Albert Dock has fantastic views of the Liver Bird buildings), last entries are up until 4am. If staying in the city centre proves too expensive, surrounding boroughs offer cheaper hotels and hostels- try Booking.com for individual B&Bs, where some private overnighters even offer pick ups from town included in the cost.

Edinburgh

Cardiff Winter Wonderland

Scotland’s New Year Hogmanay celebrations prove to be an absolute corker, promising a three-day extravaganza including street parties, concerts, torch lit processions and ceilidhs (traditional Gaelic folk dances). This year’s headliner at the Concert in the Gardens is Lily Allen, who will be followed by a firework display from Edinburgh Castle. More acts are yet to be confirmed, but past performers have included The Vaccines, Friendly Fires, Mark Ronson and Chvrches. At the end of the night, Edinburgh bus services will be offering free lifts home all over the city, ensuring you don’t waste your cash on taxis, and the entire event will be televised live, all over the world. The street party tickets are a respectable £20 and even cheaper if you have a Scottish friend who is living in Edinburgh’s main streets as they’re reduced to £16.

Of course, starting where our heart is, Cardiff offers an amazing night at its Winter Wonderland. There’s ice-skating until midnight, a miniature Alpine village, fairground rides and a glorious firework display when the clock tolls twelve. If you want to venture into town, there is a Party Pass package available to buy for £18, which gives all-night access to Tiger-Tiger, Missoula and Walkabout. Bookings can be taken all the way up to 2pm on New Year’s Eve, and if you can stay in your student accommodation, you can afford to splash out on a few extra jagerbombs.

Newcastle Home of the Geordies, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne has a massive line-up for the New Year, starting as early as 5pm, and has no clear ending (naturally). Still in the festive spirit, The Winter Carnival Parade makes its way through the city, ending at the Civic Centre, with early 6pm fireworks for families with young children.

The main event, the firework display at midnight, kicks off over the iconic Tyne Bridge. For something different, try the 007 James Bond themed fancy dress party in NE6 Suite. Guests will be greeting by Bond Girls, casino tables will be in full swing and martinis will definitely be on the menu. Without food, tickets are just £6 but if you want to go the whole hog and have food included, tickets are still only a mere £20.

— Alex Chapman

TRAVEL

A L T E R N A T I V E WINTER SPORTS

Dog sledding: Feel the refreshing air rush against your cheeks and prepare to look majestic as a pack of huskies tow you at speed. Being able to soar through the snow covered lands while admiring nature at the speed it was created to be appreciated at, it’s no doubt that dog sledding has attracted plenty of tourists across Scandinavia. It’s a widespread sport in the Arctic regions of the United States, Canada, Russia and some European countries and there’s even timed competitions such as sprints and long distance races. While dog sledding might seem like a fancy nature excursion, don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s all about appreciating nature. There will be a guaranteed workout and you will need to maneuver your loyal pack and traverse through countless windy paths.

Expect sore arms in the morning!

The winter wonderland season is upon us once again and for many sport enthusiasts, skiing seems to be the go-to option. But what if youʼve already mastered the art of skiing or are looking for something more impressive to post on your Instagram profile? Kat Pooprasert explores the weird and wonderful world of alternative winter sports!

Ice Climbing: This sport involves ascending inclined ice formations such as icefalls, frozen waterfalls and frozen cliffs.

It’s actually simpler than it sounds; all you do is wear protective and official looking gear, then engage your glutes, core and all those leg muscles in a pretty intense workout. When ice climbing, a climber chooses equipment according to the slope and texture of ice.

For example, on a flat ice, almost any good hiking shoe would suffice, but for serious climbing, double plastic mountaineering boots (think Mount Everest gear) would be used to help maintain ankle support. For longer and steeper slopes, crampons are used for safe climbing and in all scenarios, special rope systems, tying in, leading and belaying techniques are used to ensure safety.

Tobogganing: Boarding a toboggan will surely send you whirling down memory lane, back to the good ol’ days when you and your friends would squeeze together into your magical pretend-ship, and fly down hills at a million miles per second (or so it seemed at the time). Whilst you might like to pretend that the toboggan is a spaceship, a perfect weapon of choice to conquer the world with, it’s simply a wooden or plastic sled and is in fact, a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada.

A toboggan is often used to carry one or more people, often children, down a steep slope, and this action can be repeated again and again until your hearts content. Almost all ski resorts worldwide offer tobogganing and there’s certainly no shame in boarding these vehicles again, even if you’ll most likely be the only adult amongst a hoard of little people..

Snowkiting: Snowkiting can be summed up in three simple words: kiteboarding on steroids.

If having to plant your feet firmly on the ground seems oh-so-boring, give snowkiting a go. In this bizarre sport, you use the kite as your power source and resisting its pull, the power is transmitted to your body. It’s similar to waterbased kiteboarding, but participants wear footwear used in snowboarding or skiing, and elegantly ninja-glide over the ice (disclaimer: appearance may vary depending on level of expertise). In the earlier days of snowkiting, foil kites were most commonly used, whilst nowadays many kite boarders prefer inflatable kites. Snowkiting is rapidly creeping into the mainstream consciousness in places such as Russia, Canada, Iceland, France and Austria as well as Sweden, Norway and Northern and Central United States.

Ice Swimming: What’s a better way to celebrate the numbingly cold season than to fully embrace it (quite literally) by immersing yourself in a chilling body of water? This is your instant access to join the tough breed of swimmers with more-than-human and quite clearly, biologicaldefying capabilities. Ice swimming is what the name says: swimming in outdoor locations or in unheated pools or lidos. There are competitions globally with strict rules and regulations. The International Ice Swimming Association (yes, such thing exists), requires that the water is colder than 5°C, and typically the water can get as cold as 0°C. In Eastern Europe and Russia, ice swimming is part of the celebration of Epiphany, a Christian holiday, while in many other countries it purely serves ‘recreational’ purposes. Many ice swimmers swim with standard swimming costumes, rather than protective gears such as wetsuits or other thermal protection, because where’s the fun when you can’t feel your internal organs slowly freezing? Ice swimming is also a tradition in the UK, and famous locations include the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, and Highgate Ponds in Hampstead, with races taking place all year, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

31

New / new y dd

Whilst Bono recovers from a nasty accident and Band Aid 30 hits the shelves, we pick out some of the most promising new artists to look out for this month

Carneyval

Willow Smith has been getting a lot of attention recently. Whether it’s her sweet, sweet style or equally enticing voice, there’s always something flagging her up for comment. This time, though, it’s not about Willow. This time it’s about Carneyval. The 20 year old producer, otherwise known as William Carney, has put his magic touch on the youngest Smith’s King Krule cover, and my God, was he right to do so; a glistening example of indie turned pure pop, ‘Easy Easy’ shows Carneyval at his best. With efforts in funk and dance also firmly under his belt, this multi-faceted musician has something for everyone.

For Fans Of: Everything; you can’t not like Carneyval.

Download: Willow Smith & King Krule – ‘Easy Easy (Carneyval Remix)’ soundcloud.com/carneyvalmusic @carneyval

thestand4rd Meet thestand4rd: Spooky Black, Psymun, Bobby Raps and Allan Kingdom. All brilliant in their own right, this recent project from the St. Paul, Minnesota natives is exactly what you’d expect. Building beautifully crafted bridges between RnB and hip-hop, thestand4rd combine daydreamy synths and hypnotizing verse in an amalgamation of all their best individual endeavors. Clearly practiced at what they do and showing off the ability to flit between genres with ease, thestand4rd are not to be taken lightly.

For Fans Of: SZA, The Weeknd Download: ‘Binoculars’ soundcloud.com/thestand4rd @thestand4rd

32

PALMISTRY There’s something incredibly appealing about PC music and PALMISTRY has got it spot on.

From swooning vocals dripping in distortion to blipping synth lines, this London-based producer comes bearing a musical escape you won’t be able to turn down. With a fulllength debut album knocking around on Soundcloud there’s ample to get your teeth stuck into and by the time you reach track nine, it becomes clear that there’s going to be a hell of a lot more to come as well.

For Fans Of: Hannah Diamond, Oneohtrix Point Never Download: ‘DROPdrip’ soundcloud.com/palmistry @Palmistrybeats

Bruising Enigmatic gets thrown around a lot when talking about new music. Who are they?

Where did they come from? How are they so bloody good? Similarly, we know very little about Bruising; we don’t even know how many of them there are. What we do know, however, is that their gritty offering of shoegazey pop is just what we need right now. With only one song available for listening, they’re certainly pulling off the whole ambiguous vibe - Bruising, we await your next move.

For Fans Of: Wolf Alice, Honeyblood Download: ‘Honey; soundcloud.com/bruising @BruisingMusic

A SPOT OF TROUBLe We weigh in on the Spotify debate; was Taylor Swift right to take her music away from the world始s largest music streaming service?

“

C

ountry star turned pop giant Taylor Swift reached the coveted platinum mark for her newest album, 1989.

Selling nearly 1.3 million copies in the first week, the album is expected to have the largest first week sales since Eminem sold 1.3 million copies of The Eminem Show way back in 2002. This album could be one of the most important albums for a slightly downtrodden music industry in quite some time, and not just because of the amount of copies that it’s sold; Taylor Swift’s handling of 1989’s release is an interesting insight into the way that the music industry feels about its future, for a number of different reasons.

Taylor’s milestone has garnered a lot of media attention recently and not because it’s a large amount of copies to sell. Swift should be congratulated for selling so many in such a short amount of time; 1989 is the first album of 2014 to reach this milestone.

In 2012, Taylor Swift released Red, which went on to sell 3 million copies, and in 2013, One Direction’s Midnight Memories sold 4 million – all figures that add up to portray an industry experiencing a steady decline.

The RIAA (Recording Industry of America) puts out a list of the top selling albums of

34

the year, where the top ten will all be platinum certified. In 2013, the tenth best selling album of the year was Beyoncé’s self titled album, which sold an extraordinary 2.3 million copies in the last 13 days of 2013. Compare this to the second best selling album of the 2014 so far, Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, racking up only 383,000 copies sold, the problems of the industry are really fleshed out.

Many industry experts attribute this concerning amount of sales to the new popularity of music streaming websites, namely Spotify and Pandora. The way in which the average music listener now gets their fix of their favourite artists and new releases has been completely revamped by these, driving home the way many music lovers are calling the modern era the start of the ‘death of the full length album’. It’s the singles that are garnering the majority of attention leaving it clear why this trend is occurring; in an era where it’s extremely easy to press a few buttons and listen to whatever takes your fancy, it’s understandable that many people don’t feel they have to plod through filler tracks to get to the beloved singles.

With 60 songs that selling over one million copies this year - Pharrell William’s ‘Happy’ selling the most with 1.65 million copies compared to the singular album that has reached the same heights, it’s clear that the outlook for the future isn’t too great. So

Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable.

Valuable things should be paid for.

much so, that Spotify is now able to boast revenue that is 13% higher than that of iTunes.

Yet, Taylor Swift has taken a slightly different approach than the average pop star with her most recent release.

Not only has she put an emphasis on the physical copies of her album, she has also somewhat started a beef between herself and Spotify, potentially paving the way for many other artists to follow her. Even though it would be logical for Swift to release the album on as many different platforms as possible in order get the greatest amount of coverage and plays, she has decided to not release it on Spotify. This is a tactic that she employed in 2012 for her album Red, eventually putting it back onto the site shortly after. But this time, she’s gone one step further; Taylor has even has gone so far as to completely remove her entire discography from the streaming website. This may be seen as a blow to what Taylor Swift could have potentially earned from such a hyped up and eagerly anticipated album, but it could be almost

”

as damning to Spotify as it is to her. Before the release and subsequent snub of Spotify with this release, Taylor Swift, the global superstar that she is, was one of Spotify’s most popular artists with 16 million subscribers listening to a Taylor Swift song in the month of October. The CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, claimed in a recent blog post that Taylor Swift could expect to earn $6 million a year from Spotify streams, whilst also pointing to others such as Daft Punk and Ed Sheeran, both artists extremely popular on Spotify but also benefitting from album sales.

However, it is this potential revenue that Swift has critiqued in the past. Each time a song is played on Spotify, the artist receives royalties of between $0.006 and $0.0084. Swift, along with other major artists such as Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and The Black Keys, have all been vocal about

Beyoncé’s self titled album sold 2.3 million copies in the last 13 days of 2013, whilst Coldplay’s 2014 release, Ghost Stories, has sold only 383,000 copies so far

MUSIC their views on the subject, with both Yorke and the Black Keys also having previously removed albums of from the system due to arguments involving these royalty figures.

Swift even went as far as to write an article for the Wall Street Journal concerning this, where she argued that the amount of money is effectively nothing compared to what an artist should be getting paid for their work, and stated that; “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable.

Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.”

Spotify claim that they are paying out a fair amount of royalties to the artists,

with 70% of their revenue going back to the artists, which adds up to $1 billion. Yet, musicians have argued that this revenue does not directly benefit artists; instead, it goes straight into the pockets of music labels and the managers of these artists.

Taylor’s refusal has also carved out a way for her to gain a fairer revenue from her music, something she, and many other artists, believe she deserves. Swift has put a lot of work into the actual physical copies of 1989, especially the CDs. Within the CDs, there are extensive linear notes along with voice memos and 13 exclusive polaroid-looking photo prints that are exclusive to the CD copies only. Whilst the CD business is by no means a small one, this is the kind of promotion that’s sure to rejuvenate a format under attack from the easily available music online and a culture that does not put a premium on the physical copies of music. This kind of extra content is sure to entice many a hardcore fan of hers, and the

It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is.

figures have clearly shown that this technique has worked; of the 1.2 million copies that were sold in the first week, over half of these have been from CD sales.

These kinds of CD sales are quite extraordinary for the modern day, where music downloads have sped past them as being the most popular way to purchase and own music. The sales figures have posed a new, but rather familiar question for music producers, music labels and music consumers alike: is the CD of the past now the future?

While Taylor Swift’s venture into this new way of selling her music has turned out to be a way that has potentially benefitted her, her case is an anomaly and shouldn’t be taken on board by too many others artists.

When you have an established and loyal fan base like Taylor Swift’s, it’s hardly a risk to take away this music from services that are so well known and widely used, such as Spotify. But, if a band that has a significantly smaller following than Swift’s is thinking of taking a similar route with their album release, it is likely a risk that is too large to take. While Spotify has been critiqued for unfair royalties, it cannot be argued that it is a service that has helped many up-andcoming bands get a foothold in the music industry and start to establish a following, as well as helping give fans the ability to lis-

ten to their albums before purchasing them in other forms. So, while it is likely that Spotify will continue to dominate within the music industry, Taylor Swift’s outburst and distancing from Spotify may tempt many other artists like herself, who are able to absorb the potential losses of consumers streaming their albums, but ultimately this course of action probably won’t be a regular feature for many artists into the near future.

The problem with Spotify and other music streaming websites in the same vein is that they are not completely transparent in their handling of royalties. Although it may seem difficult to sympathise with large music corporations and artists that earn sizable amounts of money, the problem, it seems, with music streaming websites, is that they legitimize the thought that music is a product which should be free. If their way of thinking becomes fully accepted in society, the downfall of the whole music industry is likely to follow straight after.

— Jack Boyce

35

SUPERFOOD

Q We chat to Superfood and Honeyblood about the 1990s, being the ‘ones to watch’ and exactly what they think about music magazines Words: Charlie Mock

“W

e didn’t take it very seriously, we were quite bored at the time.” It seems a pretty devil may care attitude, the way Ryan Malcom - guitarist of Superfood speaks of his early days in the band. “We actually booked a gig before we had any songs,” he continues, “we kind of just thrashed out four songs so that we could play the show.” Cavalier and carefree spring to mind, but, chatting amongst the hustle and bustle of the UK’s biggest music magazine’s radar tour, it becomes clear that the whole doing-a-band-thing wasn’t quite so off the cuff as it may sound.

Ryan sits with Superfood comrade and drummer Carl as the stream of fans flows steadily behind them. “The shit two [of the band],” they brand themselves, chuckling, before launching eagerly into a discussion about their debut album; Don’t Say That was officially released just under a month ago. “We’re really proud of the album.” Ryan looks over at Carl; “we put so much work in before hand, saw it progress and develop and [now] we’re really focused on getting the live shows up to scratch.” There’s an air of integrity in the way they talk, bouncing off one another’s sentiments, and when it comes to “it was just what came out naturally,” you can’t help but believe them. “We’ve always made a conscious decision not to let [the

36

“We booked a gig before we had any songs”

press] have an influence over what we’re writing,” they explain, a mantra easier said than put into practice when picked up so early on by covetous music publications staking their claim on the next big thing. “Having people watching you and watching what songs you’re going to put out there does play a part [in the writing process]” Ryan admits, but it’s something the Midlands quartet have tried to give a wide-berth. “It’s the worst position to be in when you’re writing music and you’re writing with the intention of impressing people.”

Impressing people isn’t something they needed to be worrying about, though. Don’t Say That shot straight into the good books of fans and writers alike, its addictive hooks and 90s throwbacks satisfying all those who fell into its grasps. Drawing comparisons to all the Britpop greats, Don’t Say That has more

What’s it like being on a tour supported by one of the most popular music magazines in the UK? S tina (Honeyblood): To be honest,

from day to day it’s just like any other tour! The things I have noticed that are different are the crowds. The people coming to these shows have been great fun!

They’ve wanted to dance about and sing, and even crowd surf at some of the crazier gigs! When a crowd is like that, I love every minute of the show.

Ryan (Superfood): There’s been a lot of work put into the shows promotion-wise.

It’s always a bit daunting when you play a show and you don’t know if there’s only going to be like, five people in the room.

It’s nice to know that there’s definitely gonna be a crowd!

than put the band in good stead for the coming months, but “they’re my favourite band from the 90s” harks not to Blur or Oasis as you might expect. Instead, Carl has other ideas: “We should sound more like Steps I think,” he smirks, reminiscing on being caught revisiting Steps’ Gold: Greatest Hits on a recent trip to Berlin.

Despite the recent release, there’s an air of confidence that surrounds future work. “There’s always new material that we’ve got in our sights,” Ryan ensures, detailing hopes of recording ideas throughout the tour. For now though, it’s enjoying the fallout of the debut they’ve worked so hard to put out that’s the priority, and do you know what? We don’t bloody blame them. —CM

What has your experience of the music cycle been like over the last couple of years? With the inf luence of the Internet, it’s a lot easier for artists to get music out there… Have you noticed things moving quicker than you expected?

Ryan (Superfood): There’s been a steady progression with us, even in our live shows. Our last headline tour was to about 20 or 30 people a night.

Stina (Honeyblood): We have been lucky; although the Internet really gave us a big push when we weren’t ready for it, our label FatCat have given us time to develop. I think the Internet has advanced music listening so it can’t be bad! But there are more eyes on the artist now… With Instagram and Twitter, you’re posting about your life to people, and it can get quite personal. Gone are they days when bands were enigmatic!

MUSIC

& A

HONEYBLOOD “I donʼt think anyone can successfully set out to make music in a certain way without making it artificial”

Do you think music publications have become too interested in ensuring they’re ahead of the up and coming music nowadays? Words like ‘Buzz Band’ and ‘Ones To Watch’ get thrown around a lot; can this have an adverse effect on how people consume music?

Ryan (Superfood): Do you know what?

I think it might be the other way around.

I think it’s normal for the music press to try and jump on a new band, but I think a lot of new bands try to milk that. If they get a bit of hype then they try to go all out and take advantage of that rather than develop naturally as a band. You see a lot of bands start fast then burn out and by that point, they’ve put everything out there.

Stina (Honeyblood): I think terms like ‘Ones To Watch’ are for the bands who are different to their scene in some way, and that makes them get attention. But mostly, when I read these terms and the bands they are quoting, I’ve seen the acts at festivals or heard their music already; they’ve been working hard to get noticed like that.

Ryan (Superfood): People will [always] dispose of a band if the next hype band comes along. It’s good to have the kind of people that will stick with you through thick and thin and not move on when a new trendy band comes along, with better hairstyles…

T

here’s little left of the 1990s that Buzzfeed haven’t got their mucky paws on; breeding sentimentality and nostalgia is, after all, what they do best. But back in 2013, a year after Glaswegian lo-fi indie-pop duo, Honeyblood, first started making waves on the scene, a somewhat unexpected throwback list encroached on the World Wide Web. Their article “Here’s Why The Riot Grrrl Movement Will Always Be Empowering” seems a fairly left-field rambling for a site more concerned with telling you which Friends character you’re most like, but perhaps they’d picked up on something worthwhile this time. “They were my role models as a teenager,” lead singer and allround girl power advocate Stina Tweeddale explains, speaking of the artists behind one of decade’s most vocal subcultures. Characterised by a DIY attitude and fanzines galore, the riot grrrl movement stood up for female-kind worldwide with an influence still felt nearly twenty years

down the line; it’s 2014 and Honeyblood are part of a resurgence.

“The biggest compliment is if someone references a [riot grrrl] influence that is very close to my heart; it makes me feel that I’m putting across the right ideas,” Stina goes on to say. For Honeyblood, it’s the ideas that ground the music; grassroots ethics and honesty in both principal and production. “I don’t think anyone can successfully set out to make music in a certain way without making it artificial,” Stina ventures, thinking about their original aims as musicians.

It’s the authenticity of Honeyblood’s debut self-titled release that has earned them a place in Rough Trade’s Top 20 Albums of 2014 and the hearts of

many, a series of events that still seem phenomenal to the rising duo. “I couldn’t be more thrilled about the reception the album has received,” Stina enthuses. “It makes me proud to hear that people enjoy it; it makes me think we did a good job by the people who like the band.”

And they have; Honeyblood went down a storm, leaving only the future open for discussion. With a support slot for Catfish and the Bottlemen lined up, along with more writing and recording, Stina and drummer Shona aren’t letting up anytime soon. For Honeyblood, 2015 is shaping up to be – in their words “really exciting.” —CM

37

MUSIC REVIEW S

We review the new albums from One Direction, Savages and Bo Ningen, Parkay Quarts and Foo Fighters, and shows from New Found Glory, The Kooks and The Gaslight Anthem

THE KOOKS

The Great Hall, November 22nd

Motorpoint Arena, November 22nd On a night where they have to compete with the Welsh rugby team for punters, there’s a worry that The Gaslight Anthem could play one of their largest shows ever to a half-full room.

Indeed, during Bayside’s angst-punk opening set, the throng is barely ten deep, with many electing for the seating at the very back of the arena. The veteran New Yorkers pound through a half-hour set characterised by earnest vocals and squalling guitar solos, the highlight being the mellower ‘Mona Lisa’, showcasing frontman Anthony Ranieri’s vocal ability.

Coinciding with the first influx of boozed up rugby fans, Rhode Island rockers Deer Tick’s set catches the crowd’s interest with a gritty blend of good time rock ‘n’ roll that shows off their versatility. From a twelve bar blues romp to a ‘Replacements’ cover via Dylan-esque melodies and a wild saxophone solo, Deer Tick win a fair few new fans tonight.

Arriving onstage with no fanfare, The Gaslight Anthem bizarrely, but brilliantly, begin with ‘Have Mercy,’ a rare B-side from their latest album; it’s a low-key, husky croon which paves the way for juggernaut ’The ‘59 Sound’. Their congregation swollen by the rowdy latecomers, the New Jersey five-piece set to work on a mammoth set that dips in and out of all of their releases.

Skilled lighting technician aside, there’s none of the histrionics associated with arena shows on display here. Gaslight let their songs do the talking and, lucky for them, they have bags of them. Bayside’s Raneri returns to duet on a lung-busting rendition of ‘Great Expectations’, pared back to the bare bones of Brian Fallon’s fingerpicked guitar and heartfelt lyrics.

Two hours and thirty songs later, The Gaslight Anthem blast out of Cardiff with a euphoric ‘The Backseat’, having bravely and successfully rocked an arena audience without compromising the style they honed in clubs across the globe.

—Dillon Eastoe

Credit:Les Davies

38

Credit: Veryan Leaper

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

It’s been a bit of a musical rollercoaster for The Kooks; with a slippery on-record slope since finding an incredible debut in Inside In/Inside Out, they’ve been hanging by a thread for the past few albums. But, having ownership over the odd tune to keep them in contention has helped, with 2014 seeing them pick up the slack with their fourth LP, Listen.

Walking On Cars bring the evening’s support. For a band that sound a tiny bit like The Wanted on record, the Irish newcomers bring a combination of anthemic, Coldplay-like drama, tinged with riffs fresh out of the Bloc Party songbook.

As the stage is illuminated by static-screen TV’s, The Kooks arrive. They don’t linger on the screaming crowd, instead jumping straight into into ‘Around Town’; by it’s own admission, no ‘Ooh La’ or ‘Always Where I Need To Be,’ but a sign of the band’s progression. The Kooks have rediscovered a groovy niche and subsequently play their new material incredibly. They bring the funk ten-fold. Sporting some floral facepaint, frontman Luke Pritchard struts himself into a visual reimagination of Mick Jagger, where flawlessly effective guitar solos are laced with retro synth and a cowbell rhythm that scream both ‘disco’ and ‘why do Friendly Fires look like The Kooks now?’ in equal measure.

Laying each audience members’ childhood down whilst making ‘hip gyration’ The Great Hall’s new favourite sport is a damned task if there ever was one, but The Kooks have pulled off this show immaculately. They came, they saw, they shook some ass; they played the hits and they blew our minds all in the space of an hour.

—Veryan Leaper

POP PUNK’S NOT DEAD TOUR

with New Found Glory, The Story So Far, State Champs, Candy Hearts & Only Rivals

Y Plas, November 23rd Crack the snapbacks out; the Pop Punk’s Not Dead tour has rolled into Cardiff. Touring in light of their latest record, Resurrection, New Found Glory have brought their gang on the road with them in order to breathe a bit of life into this supposedly dying scene.

Relative newcomers, Candy Hearts, transport us from 2014 to 10 Things I Hate About You in a matter of minutes with their bubblegum punk sound.

New Yorkers, State Champs, take to the stage to a raucous response, a mere six months or so after their debut UK performance. Yesterday marks the one-year anniversary of the band’s first album and the mood in the room is fittingly celebratory. After a jovial start, anticipation in the mosh pit reaches fever pitch, ahead of main support, The Story So Far. Hat on, hood up, Parker Cannon and his crew play an astounding set devoid of any ‘rock star’ pretension. Their hardcore influence is evident in their aggressive set, and the sweaty state of the crowd is testament to their fan’s enthusiasm for TSSF’s angsty anthems.

Bruised and battle-worn, we retreat to the back of the room in order to watch New Found Glory. Pop punk is familiar, fun, and far from one-dimensional, as the array of talent tonight has proven. As long as we have iconic songs like ‘My Friends Over You’ and ‘Understatement’ supported by fresh material from the bands coming up through the ranks, we’ll be sticking up for pop punk for years to come.

—India Thomas

MUSIC

ONE DIRECTION FOUR

FOO FIGHTERS Sonic Highways

PARKAY QUARTS Content Nausea

SAVAGES & BO NINGEN

Words To The Blind

Despite their meteoric rise to fame and global success, Four does nothing to cement One Direction’s status as the most successful boy band since The Beatles. The aptlytitled fourth album from the band boasts a more sophisticated 70s pop-rock sound with Fleetwood Mac-esque guitar riffs and layered choruses reminiscent of Eagles’ Hotel California. On paper, this sounds like a step in the right direction (pun intended) for a maturing gaggle of floppy-haired, tattooed, painfully attractive young men, but in reality, it highlights how One Direction are awkwardly outgrowing their fan base of 13 year old girls.

The promising subtlety of new tracks like ‘Fireproof’ and ‘Fool’s Gold’ are muffled

by the expectedly shouty chorus of ‘Girl Almighty’ and ‘No Control’, which only serves to make the more refined material sound like filler. In fact, the only track on the album that manages to nail the classic One Direction sing-along crowd pleaser formula, whilst still pursuing a rougher sound, is the first single ‘Steal My Girl’.

Another hint that the band are ready to move on with their music is that Louis, Niall, Harry, Zayn and Liam have been cowriting many of the songs on this album.

Harry is credited on ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and Liam and Louis co-wrote ‘Fireproof’.

At a guess, this seems to indicate that they are no longer willing to be a micro-managed group of X Factor clones. But, it is this image

that has brought them such overwhelming success.

Overall, Four is an impressive album, but it also shows that the band are becoming increasingly out of touch with their followers.

—Frances Stewart

If you find yourself stuck indoors on a rainy day – which in Wales, is very common - a fun way to pass the time is to compare a band’s first single release to their most recent. With many artists, it’s 5 years, maybe 10 if touring hasn’t broken them, but Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways marks the 20th year since their debut single ‘This Is A Call’. Formed from the smoking remains of the feral anarchy of Nirvana, many considered Foo Fighters’ days to be numbered; many were wrong. Using his official title, The Nicest Dude In Rock, Dave Grohl, has been shaking stadiums with his band mates for quite a long time now, and unfortunately on this album, it’s beginning to show.

Sonic Highways was an unexpected child.

After touring Wasting Light, the Foos announced in January 2013 that they were taking a break, yet by August of the same year album number eight was due for a 2014 release. Sonic Highways is an aural road trip around the USA. The album’s lead single ‘Something From Nothing’ is dedicated to the windy city, Chicago, while ‘What Did I Do?/God as My Witness’, an outrospective stadium track with classic rock twists, takes inspiration from Austin, Texas. While some of the tracks such as ‘Feast and the Famine’ retain that ‘White Limo’-esque ferocity, others like ‘Subterranean’ and ‘In the Clear’ are coming dangerously close to that dreaded F for Filler, which on an 8-track album should not exist.

Foo Fighters have been held dear to listeners for almost a quarter of a century, dragging kids through feisty adolescence and into their twenties. They’re an institution; up there with the untouchables, but this album may not be up there with them. ‘I Am a River’ makes the listener feel more like River Cottage than Rivers Cuomo; bring back ‘All My Life’ and let us tear pieces out of each other in the pit one more time.

—Greg McChesney

Parkay Quarts - Parquet Courts’ offshoot consisting of Andrew Savage, Austin Brown and a few friends – return with Content Nausea, juxtaposing the last Parquet Courts release, Sunbathing Animal, which heavily featured ideas of freedom, with the idea of ‘content.’

Content Nausea is a slower, plodding release compared to the more up-beat, aggressive albums previously released, but the characteristics of a sharp punk band are still present. With heavy emphasis on complacency, Parkay Quarts build on the already solid foundation they have crafted throughout their career; lo-fi guitar riffs laid on top of witty, sleepy lyrics that fringe on spoken word create a release that is

extremely easy on the ear. With the majority of tracks running under three minutes, and three of these under one, there’s an undeniable encouragement for the listener to coast through at a leisurely pace.

One track that really disrupts the hypnotic blend of unhurried punk is the cover of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’, which makes it one of the true standouts. While sharing the same tone as the original, Parkay Quarts flip the pop aesthetic and unite a horn section with the typical grinding sounds of the band to climax in a intense screaming battle between vocalist and instruments.

Content Nausea will be able to stand up with the other critically acclaimed releases

by Parquet Courts, Sunbathing Animal and Light Up Gold, as a tight, sturdy take on a genre of music they are undoubtedly skilled at. This release serves as a reminder of how adept Savage and Brown are as lyricists and musicians, and another flash of brilliance from a band that seems to keep on delivering again and again.

—Jack Boyce

Words To The Blind sees two of London’s most exciting alternative bands, the postpunk institution Savages and Japanese noise rockers Bo Ningen, perform simultaneously.

At the heart of this 38 minute long experimental track is the early 20th century art movement Dadaism, in which artists valued and expressed irrational thought through visual chaos and unconventional structures.

Words To The Blind finds the practice of automatic writing embodied by music, forming a simultaneous aural poem. As such, the track fittingly begins with Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth and Bo Ningen’s Taigen Kaiwabe’s spoken word poetry intertwined. This first section feels both loose

and lucid, Kaiwabe’s Japanese and Beth’s French combining into an eerie opening, followed by a wave of soft feedback. After the track finds its feet and begins to run, the two bands hit full force; you can all but pick out each separate member’s particular sound, both combining to form a sprawling and erratic groove. Each sound then begins to wind down as the track then reaches a psychedelic peak indebted to Bo Ningen’s calmer moments.

Being a live recording, the crowd begin to cheer only to be interrupted by aggressive guitar feedback. We are, at this point, midway through. What happens next could be a particularly sparse Savages track, Beth’s vocal ring in a section of order, a mesmeric

break from the chaos. Beth’s vocals are fairly low down in the mix, obscuring the syllables and letting her words function as another textual layer of instrumentation.

The track then reaches a natural and haunting end, leaving just the two softly spoken vocals ringing out. Then there is another cheer from the crowd and the bands suddenly explode back into chaos, three minutes of pure aural assault, a wall of sound barely punctuated by any semblance of style, but gripping nonetheless. Words To The Blind is a truly experimental endeavour and, for the most part, is exciting, pulsating work.

—Oli Richards

39

IMAGES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Shocktilyoudrop / www.avpgalaxy.net, Bungie / www.gameinformer.com, agacross / DeviantArt, Eddie Gluskin / DeviantArt, goku252525 / DeviantArt, gaboxr1 / DeviantArt.

This year Quench Video Games have decided to host an awards segment for the Video Games industry for 2014. The awards have been divided into 12 categories and our five judges have decided on their favourites for each category. So without further hesitation, repetition or deviation, let’s get this started!

VIDEO GAMES

G A M E

O F

T H E

Y E A R

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

ALIEN ISOLATION

DARK SOULS 2

THE WOLF AMONG US

DESTINY

Following the flaming comet of death that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, this lauded film franchise was crying out for a standout tie-in video game.

Enter Creative Assembly. The studio most known for creating the strategy series, Total War, decided to return to the principle that Ridley Scott followed in the first film. Single-player, survival horror. The reason that this game gets the nod for GOTY is that it is revolutionary in having i t s advanced AI. The Alien is a masterpiece and has set the standard for years to come.

Drangleic, a world of mystery and strife is the setting for Dark Souls 2; it is a place where “the flow of time itself is convoluted, with heroes centuries old phasing in and out”. Many veteran Souls fans should recognise that quote and honestly should already understand why this is Game of the Year material. A beautiful, rich lore shrouds the main story and as you learn more about the bosses, they become more endearing to you – more human. For a fantasy RPG that doesn’t hold your hand while being a strict teacher, this masterpiece only gets better with age as more DLC is released.

A lot of people have heard of TellTale’s The Walking Dead and loved it as well as t h e protagonist Lee Everett. In the Wolf Among Us there is similar love but also hate for Bigby Wolf. He is a character you can connect to both within the game and from an outsider’s perspective.

Oh, and the story is absolutely smashing.

Destiny is the game of the year – how could it not be? I’ve clocked up 10 solid days playing it, and I’m still coming back for more. As someone who enjoys MMOs and FPS games, Destiny represents some really exciting developments in both genres. Sure, it’s a flawed diamond – but it’s a diamond all the same.

W O R S T

G A M E

O F

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

DUNGEON KEEPER: MOBILE

CASTLEVANIA:

A n y number of mobile games could be more than worthy of this award. However this particular one not only contains some of the worst microtransactions in the history of the industry, but also smears the name of one of the best-loved franchises ever created.

A new Castlevania game? Yeah! A brilliant premise which didn’t deliver on its promises. An addition of an unwieldy stealth mechanic and lack of interesting bosses only served to disconnect the player from the original series.

LORD OF SHADOWS 2

T H E ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

THIEF An alerted guard spins on the spot like a broken ballerina.

Immersion is lost. The plot never really led on. Story was lost. Makes you feel more like a naughty boy rather than a ‘master thief’.

RHYS JOHNS

WOLFENSTEIN:

THE NEW ORDER

The newest instalment of this much-loved franchise boasts very good writing and characters while still retaining the well-known flair of the series, deftly matching the great gameplay and incredulous mechanised war machines with a loyal and unyielding alternate history that makes the whole game come to life.

Y E A R MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

GROUND ZEROES I love Metal Gear Solid, and, while I thought MGS4 was a good end to the franchise, I leapt at the chance to see more of Big Boss in Ground Zeroes. But not like this! Ground Zeroes should have never been released. A half-hour long demo at full price, it’s hard to see what Ground Zeroes adds to the franchise – or video games as a whole.

41

B I G G E S T ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

LORDS OF THE FALLEN

WOLFENSTEIN: THE NEW ORDER

A first person shooter that isn’t focused on multiplayer but on story?! You cannot be serious!

Wolfenstein returned with a bang and really should not have been as good as it was. In a world where the Nazis won WWII and have the world under their thumb, dual-wielding alternate history shotguns has never felt this good.

S U R P R I S E

A “heavy” version of the Souls games.

Brilliantly designed bosses, immersive world and lots of replayability.

This is recommended to anyone who enjoys a dark fantasy setting and smashing things with massive weapons!

B I G G E S T

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

EVOLVE

SHADOW OF MORDOR

This game is something else.

Imagine Shadow of the Colossus m e e t s Left for Dead.. Five hunters including Daisy the..... dog (I think?) vs one epic monster. All player controlled. Sounds like it wouldn’t work, but it has done so beautifully.

Wait, what? A video game adaptation that’s actually good?

Apparently so.

Shadow of Mordor is a much better game than it has any right to be, being set in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe. It’s bleak, dark and crazy fun, and one of the best things to come out the industry this year.

D I S A P P O I N T M E N T

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

RHYS JOHNS

WATCH_DOGS

THE EVIL WITHIN

ESO ONLINE

TITANFALL

THE SIMS 4

Ahh. A franchise famous for epic games sticks its hand into the epic MMO cookie jar and pulls out a stale custard cream from the bottom of said jar.

Should’ve never stuck their hands into that cookie jar.

Titanfall, oh Titanfall. If there was any game that tripped up on the hype it had built up prior to release this year, it would be Titanfall.

There was so much excitement that it would break Call of Duty and reinvigorate the FPS. But once it was released, it just vanished. My advice? Just buy Advanced Warfare.

This game was highly anticipated and promised a great deal of new features, but fell far short of fan-expectation. While the character creation and AI have been improved, the game is plagued with bugs along with a distinct lack of content or openworld play, resulting a generally disappointing experience. At least until the issues are ironed out.

A game that has been talked about since 2012 should be great, Right? However a delayed release, a dreary story featuring one of the most lifeless characters ever created and controversy over the PC release meant that Watch_ Dogs was not what it advertised.

A truly massive disappointment.

42

Bethesda, please…

You’re better than this. Unrelatable characters narrate the campaign of which is more a gore-fest than an actual horror game. Enemies seem cheesy and janky at best.

Black bars encompass the game and the world too; only twothirds of the game is visible at any one time.

VIDEO GAMES

F I R S T

P E R S O N

G A M E

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

GTA V – NEXT-GEN VERSION

METRO 2033 REDUX

TITANFALL

DESTINY

Look past the hype from the internet media. This game delivers what it said on the package. A new experience.

Moving from a highly mobile infantry pilot to a less mobile, but packing waaaaaay more punch and mech. Look for that and you will have more fun in this than almost any other multiplayer shooter of this year.

We’re back to talking about Destiny, but, this time, we’re focusing on the gunplay. And man oh man, gunplay in Destiny is fantastic. It comes in many forms – from hulking hand cannons to sniper rifles that turn you invisible when you look down the scope – but if there’s one consistency, it’s that it always feels awesome.

Fantastically improved version of Metro 2033. The brilliantly narrated story sets up very nicely for the sequel while still keeping its own identity. If you enjoy well-crafted stories with an FPS element to them, Metro 2033 Redux will blow you away.

Although GTA V enjoyed a successful release last year, you may be asking why it is winning an FPG award. This is because a true first-person mode has been added to the game and it looks spectacular. Outside of this the game has been upgraded graphically and over 150 new songs have been added to the radio.

RHYS JOHNS

WOLFENSTEIN:

THE NEW ORDER

As a shooter, the gameplay is excellent and very enjoyable, allowing for unlikely yet undeniable fun combinations (duel-wielded machine guns being a personal favourite). But it is the combination of gritty environments and situations with almost alien mechanical giants and robotic foes that give this game the charm that other FPSs are lacking.

S P O R T S / E - S P O R T S ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

NBA 2K15

KILLER INSTINCT

MADDEN NFL 15

ULT R A S T R E E T FIGHTER IV

Ever wanted to chain more than 150 hits in Street Fighter? Now’s your chance! A free to play game on the Xbox, this achieves a unique take on the 2D fighter genre. Gorgeous graphics and hugely unique characters combined with an addictive and interesting combat system lend themselves excellently to this new title.

Madden has always been a lot of casual fun. But now… now you can actively defend more often (yay defensive play). Also there is a lot less of Mario Williams stretching across the pitch or pinging into space from a tackle.

Ultra Street Fighter IV is a shot in the arm for a game that’s been out for over half a decade now. I’ve been playing SFIV for years, and Ultra really represents a step forward.

It’s more than just new stages or characters – sweeping mechanical changes make one of the best fighting games ever even better.

The masters of basketball simulation games returned again this year and yet again they really upped the standard. A graphical masterpiece and a faithful recreation of one of the most exciting sports means that there is no doubt in selecting it for this award.

R A C I N G ALEX GLAZER

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

FORZA HORIZON 2

NEXT CAR GAME

The only really notable racing release on the next-gen platforms this year also happens to be the best. Combining the ultra-realism of the track-based cousin and the open world from Test Drive: Unlimited 2, Horizon 2 is the runaway choice for this award.

You want a realistic car game?

Buy one of the billion others.

You want a fun car game? Buy this, love it. Something along the lines of a demolition derby reminiscent of Carmageddon.

IMAGES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Bungie / www.gengame.net csteoh / DeviantArt, Titanfall Artwork / imgarcade.com/1/titanfall-fan-art, Trophy Lives / www.vg247.com, Harkyn / http://lordsofthefallen.wiki.fextralife.com/Harkyn, Hollander Cooper / Games Radar, K_Putt / FLICKR, Taxi / Nextcargame.com

43

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

TROPICO 5

HEROES OF THE STORM

ROME TOTAL WAR 2: EMPEROR EDITION

FTL: ADVANCED EDITION

The humour returned to El Presidente this year. Tropico has been one of those franchises famed for its quirky take on the citybuilder genre. Following a solid entry two years ago, the fifth instalment returned to the strengths of the game and delivered a truly wonderful experience.

The upcoming new MOBA by Blizzard puts more emphasis on team play and communication than both DOTA and LOL put together. Focusing more on map objectives than individual performance, this provides a more relaxed, but equally competitive system than its predecessors. Perfect for someone who’s played WOW and Diablo.

FTL on iPad is pretty much the perfect version of an already great game. The UI transitions nicely to a touch screen, and it’s the perfect game for a long journey. The new ships and new races breathe life into the space-bound rogue-like making FTL: Advanced Edition one of the most enjoyable releases this year.

Remember all those problems people complained about during this game’s initial release? All gone. Now it reveals an amazing strategy and battle game. Oh, and this time, be nice to family members, or else you are in for a world of backstabs.

R O L E - P L A Y I N G

G A M E

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

RHYS JOHNS

SHADOW OF MORDOR

DIABLO 3: REAPER OF SOULS

DARK SOULS 2

DIABLO 3: REAPER OF SOULS

WASTELAND II

This game was better than it has any right to be. Introducing a truly revolutionary combat and enemy system, Nemesis, this game was most definitely one of the highlights of the year. A subpar ending aside, this is a must play for any fans of Middle-Earth.

A great addition to the Diablo universe.

This expansion fixed all of the issues that the base game had, including improving the loot system to resemble that of Diablo 2 and adding a “seasonal ladder” for competitive progression. The story takes up where the base game left off and definitely does the lore justice.

I N D I E

44

That moment when you realise you must have a masochistic streak for buying and enjoying Dark Souls the first. You’re still going to buy Dark Souls 2, aren’t you? Yeah you are.

G A M E

O F

Reaper of Souls is another great overhaul of a great game. The main thing I loved about D3 was the couch co-op, which has been improved substantially by Reaper of Souls.

The new class, new areas, and new game mode have also done a lot to add spice to a game with a lot of repetition, making it more than just a maintenance dose for those with an RPG addiction.

T H E

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

BANISHED

TRANSISTOR

BROKEN AGE

A fantastic little city-builder created by just one person.

Banished strikes a perfect balance between difficulty and fun all while in a wonderful art-style.

Many thanks to YouTuber Quill18 who promoted this game a lot.

Brilliantly crafted story and characters push this game through the roof in my mind. In addition to simply beautiful aesthetics and creative mechanics, this little indie game surpassed all expectations. This is to be expected from the creators of the award winning Bastion though. A truly mindboggling game!

Girl is chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a giant cloud monster, boy is forced to stay indoors on a spaceship by his motherfigure (who is also a computer). Girl fights back, Boy breaks free, Parallel Lives/ Universes. Let’s go.

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

This is the long awaited sequel to the original Wasteland, the game that inspired the Fallout franchise, and has revived the title with all its old-school charm intact. It still retains traditional RPG elements and combines them with wonderfully dark humour and an enjoyable storyline to deliver an excellent role playing experience.

Y E A R MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

WAYWARD SOULS Wayward Souls is Rocketcat Games’ answer to Dark Souls on iOS. A rogue-like, hack and slash with an axe to grind, it’s tough but fair and avoids many of the problems that come with playing an action game on a touch screen. I’d recommend Wayward Souls to anybody with an iPhone or iPad that doesn’t think the iTunes store offers enough – it’s a great little surprise.

IMAGES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Tropico 5 iTunes / Apple, Artwork 4 / www.totalwar-hq.de, Loic Locatelli Kournwsky / www.comicsalliance.com, Top-Entwickler / www.androidpolice.com, Nathan Stapley / blog.fidmdigitalarts.com, Jen Zee / supergiantgames.com, Nigel Thornberry / Reddit.com, Naomi Yaki / www.naomiyaki.com, Ken Levine / www. gamefront.com, 2K Games Developer: In-house (Australia) / www.edge-online.com, SurvDonkey / www.tattoodonkey.com

S T R A T E G Y

VIDEO GAMES

Is Nigel Thornberry the only positive thing about The Sims 4?

G A M E

W E M O S T W A N T S E Q U E L F O R

A

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

ERANAN THIRUMAGEN

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

RHYS JOHNS

SOUTH PARK: THE STICK OF TRUTH

SHADOW OF MORDOR

BIOSHOCK INFINITE: BURIAL AT SEA

WATCH_DOGS

TOTAL WAR: EMPIRE II

This game was delayed many times and for a good reason. It enabled the creators of the show to pinpoint exactly what South Park is all about. Comedy. Honestly, this is one of the funniest games ever made and a sequel in the same vein is very much welcome.

Okay, imagine this: Assassin’s Creed fused with Pokémon set in Middle Earth. Sounds insane… and yet it works so well. Aside from a fun campaign mode, branding Orc Captains and promoting them to “Warchiefs” through training them against Orcs and beasts is pretty satisfying.

Ahem...

A: Nobody wants Bioshock to end I am sure.

B: They still got some explaining to do...

Watch_Dogs is kind of crappy. I’ve not enjoyed anything I’ve really played of it, and the driving is a bit like going ice skating for the first time.

But remember the first instalment of Ubisoft’s last big franchise? The original Assassin’s Creed was rough around the edges, but the sequel and brotherhood are some of the most enjoyable games from this generation. Let’s hope Watch_Dogs ups its game next time round.

S E Q U E L T H A T S H O U L D H A V E B E E N M A D E

The first Empire was a brave new chapter to the Total War series and introduced line infantry and naval combat for the first time. A sequel could bring about an enhanced political system and improved real time combat, realising the title’s almost infinite potential.

N O T

ALEX GLAZER

TOM RUDENKO

MICHAEL O’CONNELLDAVIDSON

RHYS JOHNS

THE SIMS 4

BORDERLANDS THE PRE-SEQUEL

ROLLERCOASTER

THE SIMS 4

The Sims 3 was great. It was a game where the expansions really added to the experience. If you enjoyed building houses, then The Sims 4 in its current state is not for you. A massive let down from EA as they continue to dumb-down their games.

2k Australia was the lead developer rather than Gearbox and it certainly shows. Most of the jokes are geared to native Australians and while that’s not a bad thing, the reusing of Borderlands 2’s legendary weapons is.

Small maps, lack of content and game breaking bugs induce much rage.

TYCOON 4

Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 is an unbelievably cheeky offering.

For starters, it’s not very good, because it’s loaded with free to play mechanics that mean rollercoasters literally take days to build. More than that, though, RCT4 is a free to play game that you have to pay to download. It’s a scam in the clothing of a great franchise – and it shouldn’t have been made.

While The Sims 3 deserves a sequel, this particular sequel is not what it deserves.

As is the problem with the series in general, each iteration brings with it a noticeable loss in content, so any sequel should bring something truly new and innovative to the table in order to compensate for that loss in content. The Sims 4, however, did not.

45

THE PHENOMENON Playing games is a very personal experience. So why do so many of us choose to spend hours watching others play instead?

Video games media has been shifting over the last three or four years. This shift has seen the traditional print media transform into something very different. This change has manifested itself on YouTube.

First things first. YouTube was a revolution of its time. It was originally created for the purpose of allowing other people to share their experiences for free in the public domain. Now it has become a career path. From so-called “Let’s Players” to Reviewers to “Machinimators”, gamers have taken over YouTube and made it their own. However, the question remains as to why people spend their time watching these “internet celebrities” instead of playing the games themselves and formulating their own opinions.

The main element that these YouTubers add to video games is personality. People such as Daniel Hardcastle, more commonly known as Nerdcubed, have struck a perfect balance between comedy and passion in their coverage of games.

While he also serves a commercial purpose by identifying what is and what is not a good investment, he mainly serves the entertainment side of things. He has become rather popular and the most recent check of his subscriber numbers has him at nearly two million followers. On the flipside someone like TotalBiscuit services the

46

more PC inclined gamers with in-depth reviews that not only discuss the gaming mechanics but the technical side of matters as well. He has also checked in at nearly two million subs as of the latest check. People like these have really carved out their own niches in the internet by not only providing a service but by being entertainment.

This is primarily what these people provide. This is some of the best entertainment you can get and all you need is a computer and a half-decent internet connection to enjoy it.

However there is still that niggling question of whether it is really worth it. Surely you can create your own unique stories when playing games? This is 100% correct. That is the big attraction about playing video games. They are truly interactive entertainment. But there is just something about watching others do it whatever reason you have for choosing to do so. The best way to look at it is that what you see on the screen is akin to watching a movie or a film. It is someone else’s creation which was created for the sole purposes of entertaining their audiences.

Take the YouTube channel Rooster Teeth and its sister channel Let’s Play (Achievement Hunter) for example. Here is a channel that started out by making a fantastic and hilarious parody, “Red Vs Blue”, which was created by filming and voice

acting over footage acquired from the early Halo games. Now they are a fully-fledged company with merchandise by the bucket load and their very own, annual convention, RTX. They have also spawned hands-down the funniest gaming related channel on YouTube, Let’s Play. This is the channel of the ”Achievement Hunters” who are made up of Geoff, Ryan, Jack, Ray, Michael and Gavin and they just play games and are generally hilarious to watch – mostly because they are incompetent fools, particularly Gavin who is doing a fine job of representing the UK over in the US. The main point about these guys in particular is that they embody the joy and fun that we all have with video games and there is just something about this that is hard to pin down.

Overall this revolution, if it can be called that, has brought video games media into a completely new dimension. While there is still space for the traditional media, it would be foolish to disregard what these people are doing on the internet. It is therefore fair to say that it is not a waste of time to watch other people play games because if you do not, then you will be missing out, big time!

— Alex Glazer

EARL

VIDEO GAMES

Y ACC

Many games produced nowadays are done with the help of the general public.

But is it really worthwhile paying for something that is not yet complete?

As of October, Minecraft has sold nearly 54 million copies over various platforms such as Xbox 360, One, Playstation 3, 4 and Vita, Android and iPhone application and of course, PC. It is one of the highest selling and most successful multiplatform video games ever to exist.

To most reasonably informed people, Minecraft is something they will have at least heard of, or been in contact with, or exposed to through friends, relatives or being out and about in town. This is much the same with many games such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and FIFA. You may not have played it, but you have almost certainly heard of it. The difference between Minecraft, and the aforementioned games is that there was no big studio behind it. It was one man, Markus Persson, who crafted the game through crowdfunding via early access, or alpha-test gaming.

Put simply, early access games are games that have not been officially released, and yet are available to game players for a subscription fee that aids in the development and maintenance of the game. Most early access games, to date, have not seen mainstream release, just fewer than 25% in fact.

Which does beg the question, why should you pay for early access to a game that does not even get released?

Is there even a benefit really for gamers? Is it just a way for games developers to get drunk and still maintain a full bottle of wine?

While there are those that have had general release, it does not necessarily mean those that have not been released yet have not done well financially. In fact, those that have not are still “doing well” by firstly, garnering funding through the early access subscription base, which is now seemingly monopolized

by Steam. Secondly, and perhaps just as importantly, feedback and developmental bug fixes via the public, which makes for more importance perhaps than financial gain.

It has been embraced by Steam as an integral part of PC game development as individuals and small studios which do not have the funding and resources to fully test games, utilise players and subscribers to test early access games much like Beta testing does on console gaming. A prime example of this being successful in the console world was when Crackdown was released.

It featured a Beta version of Halo 3, one of the most successful franchises ever, and as such, Crackdown, regardless of how good or bad it was, saw massive sales due to the chance to play Halo 3 before completion.

Such is the prestige to gamers that it satisfies their thirst and anticipation of the next chapter in their story, before anyone else. To analogise this, it is like going to watch your favourite band early before anyone else and you get to trial their new album, and moreover, they request your feedback and maybe even take heed of it. Ultimately you can influence the world you come to love, and have a hand in creating.

Recent games that are pending full release are Prison Architect and Kerbal Space Program. Minecraft was a game that was placed firmly in the sandbox, or open-world genre. Many early access games were based around this genre, however while PA and KSP

are a construction management and space flight simulator respectively, they also have a sandbox element which gives the gamer free reign.

This aids in the development of the game from a publisher’s point of view as they can get a modicum of genius from even just one alpha tester, let alone the thousands of alpha game testers. Kerbal is now going from “alpha” test mode to beta, seemingly gaining traction and moving towards a general release.

It is a testament to why early access gaming is working, just like Minecraft did, and is a substantial factor in the development of a game where without crowdfunding schemes a game may not survive to see its full potential.

Of course there are not always hits like Minecraft, or even Day Z, which capitalised on the zombie craze of the last decade with its open world survival approach. Some games will quite simply never amount to the success such as the aforementioned.

However that is the risk that one takes when partaking in the world of early access. The good thing about this however, is just like watching a TV series or a film, or listening to music; you do not have to partake.

It is simply up to you and you do not have to immerse yourself into this world. You can pick and choose which games you like the look of and avoid the ones you do not. You can even wait for a few months for it to develop into something better. It is still a debate that remains alive and well. However it can only be viewed as a good thing that more games are being developed, and further to this, the public is not just consuming, but also producing.

ESS

“AS OF OCTOBER, MINECRAFT HAS SOLD NEARLY 54 MILLION COPIES OVER VARIOUS PLATFORMS”

— Ian Dunne

47

THE

FESTIVE FILM NIGHT

10

BEST CHRISTMAS FILMS

With the nights drawing in and a frosty chill in the air, there’s nothing to get you feeling festive quite like a Christmas movie washed down with copious amounts of mulled wine and

1

an entire tin of Celebrations. Whether you fancy a classic or an unknown gem, let Quench Film & TV give you some suggestions to while away the evenings this Winter with our pick

Love Actually (2003) It is worth watching Love Actually with a pen and paper at the ready if you want to successfully track the multitude of relationships that thread their way through this countdown-to-Christmas comedy. Featuring names such as Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and Martin Freeman, who is charming as a socially awkward and romantically inept movie-sex double, the storyline follows more than twelve different relationships, both romantic and familial, towards a timely and unitive finale on Christmas Eve. Richard Curtis’ directorial debut, in the words of Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister character, aims to warm our frost-bitten hearts with the notion that ‘love, actually is all around’, and, whilst cheesy in the extreme, is somewhat successful.

48

2

of the ten best Christmas movies for a festive film night.

The beauty of Elf lies in the fact that despite essentially being a children’s film, its humour transcends all ages, so there’s absolutely no need to feel guilty about laughing hysterically at a grown man in tights. The decision to cast Will Ferrell in his first leading role as a human that grows up as an elf in the North Pole and returns to New York to introduce himself to his cynical father proves highly successful as even the most Scrooge-like viewers will find it extremely difficult to resist his addictive, peppy outlook and will inevitably find themselves singing loud for all to hear - it’s the best way to spread festive cheer.

Elf (2003)

3 5

4 6 FILM & T V

It’s A Wonderful Life(1946)

This film is probably around 50 years older than most readers of this article. However, it has been voted the nation’s favourite Christmas film in more festive opinion polls than you’ve had turkey dinners.

Downcast bank manager George Bailey intends to commit suicide on Christmas Eve until his guardian angel shows him the difference he has made to the world and those around him and he realises that *spoiler alert* he does indeed have a wonderful life. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the black-and-white picture will fail to capture the full festive experience. What this movie lacks in Technicolor, it certainly makes up for in old-school glamour and a heart-warming message.

Bad Santa (2003)

If the mere thought of another sickly sweet family movie is enough to send you crackers (no pun intended), then perhaps Billy Bob Thornton’s portrayal of a safe-breaking sex addict posing as a department store Santa in order to rob shopping malls is worth a watch this Christmas. With such a lewd script there is always a danger of a film like this being offensive enough to overshadow its own humour, but Bad Santa manages to successfully avoid this, making it the ultimate in anti-cute festive programming.

The Muppets Christmas Carol(1992) It would be hard to find someone in the English-speaking world who is unaware of Dickens’ infamous Scrooge and his feelings about Christmas. To find an original take on the story amongst the sea of remakes therefore, must be even harder. The Muppets’ take on this classic does not, as some might expect, ‘dumb down’ the storyline in order to appeal to younger viewers, and many of Dickens’ most poignant lines are lifted straight from the original text. Michael Caine’s Scrooge never suggests that the Muppet cast is anything less than human and the result of this is a surprisingly moving retelling of a Victorian classic.

Home Alone (1991)

After a few cameos in Austin Powers and a recent disastrous UK tour with his band The Pizza Underground, I think it is fair to assume that the Home Alone franchise was the high-point of Macaulay Culkin’s career. The original 90s family favourite sees eight-year-old Kevin revel in the freedom of accidentally being left behind when his family fly to Paris for the Christmas holidays. When burglars target the house thinking that it is empty, Kevin is forced to use his cunning to outwit the thieves using a series of booby-traps. It’s hard to find a festive movie that better embodies the phrase ‘Christmas Caper’.

7

Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Halloween and Christmas collide in this stop-motion animation that is a result of the characteristically gothic production style of Tim Burton. After accidentally opening a portal to ‘Christmas Town’, ‘The Pumpkin King’ Jack Skellington decides to usurp Santa in order to provide us with a decidedly more creepy Christmas, flying across the winter sky in a hearse-like sleigh pulled by skeleton reindeer. Unsurprisingly, shrunken heads and and vampire teddy bears don’t feature highly on the wish lists of many children, but if you’re interested in a spooky departure from the generic Christmas heart-warmer, then this is a safe bet.

8 9

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Another black-and-white film with a strong message - Santa exists. Kris Kringle is an old man who takes on a job as a store santa when the man due to fill the role is found to be drunk. It soon becomes evident that Kris believes himself to be the real Santa leading the in-store psychologist to bring a case against him before a judge to rule that he is insane. What follows is a surprisingly tense courtroom battle where prosecution fights for the ruling ‘Santa Claus does not exist’. I won’t spoil the end for you but I will say that this version is infinitely better than the 1994 remake that is so sickly-sweet it actually succeeds in making you feel more cynical about Christmas than you did when you sat down to watch it.

Nativity! (2009)

Die Hard (1988)

When considering films that truly capture the spirit of Christmas, the original Die Hard movie does not immediately spring to mind. Amid the thrilling action that sees maverick cop John Mclaine single-handedly battling a gang of terrorists led by Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber, it may be easy to forget that all this takes place during the office Christmas party. Despite perhaps not having a completely festive vibe, this is a must watch, if only to see what Bruce Willis looks like with hair.

10

If you are sick of the often over-produced sweetness that goes hand in hand with big-budget festive flicks, Nativity! provides a refreshing change. Martin Freeman plays a primary school teacher tasked with creating a nativity play to rival all others (gripping, I know, but bear with me). The majority of scenes with the children are improvised (rather than scripted) giving the humour a more home-grown feel and sweeping even the most cynical of viewers along for the sleigh-ride.

49

F O R OR A G

Few genres incite strong opinion like the marmite of the world of television: period dramas. Emily Giblett and Amy Purdy battle it out over this ʻlovehateʼ genre:

D R A M A S

‘I’ll never get that hour of my life back’. A phrase uttered by many a viewer after watching a period drama that didn’t quite measure up to the sexed-up trailer that quite possibly featured the heaving bosom of at least one Tudor maiden or Colin Firth in a wet shirt. The main reason that period dramas are dismissed as dull by modern viewers is that despite the efforts of producers to create narratives that appeal to a 21st century audience, there is only so far they can push the storyline whilst adhering to historical accuracy. In a time when programmes with the highest ratings often feature increasingly outlandish and unlikely narratives in order to captivate their audience, it has become clear that the shock factor is integral to the success of British television. In order to deliver this within the strict confines of the period that a drama represents, killing off a central character is often the method of choice for producers struggling to convince the viewer that the genre of period drama is not dead. This often causes sadness and anger on the part of viewers who will waste no time in airing their discontent via Twitter e.g. “If Matthew is dead I absolutely refuse to watch the fourth season of Downton Abbey. I think I’m having a stress-induced stroke.” helpfully creating more public-

ity for the programme despite the inevitable limits on the amount of creative license used to create the narrative. In comparison with television and film set in the modern age, the creators of period dramas are under immense pressure to ensure that the minutest details of the programme or film are complete in their historical accuracy.

This is an almost impossible task, as the creators of the World War II themed drama Land Girls found out when the BBC received over 100 complaints from many viewers who had lived through the period and had highlighted numerous errors in costume, set and the general aesthetic of the programme. More recently, Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby has come under fire from many critics for various anachronistic features, most notably the soundtrack produced by Jay Z which perhaps ironically for a film about the ‘Jazz Age’ contains very little jazz. Period dramas may provide an escape from the daily grind for the viewers that they entice, but rarely do they succeed in fully representing the age that they attempt to, leaving the viewer unimpressed and dissatisfied with the result.

AGAINST

For most people period dramas either strike a nostalgic note or just fall flat. I for one believe them to be mesmerizing pieces. Period dramas involve being transported into the past and being able to completely immerse yourself in another point in history. The best kind of period dramas incorporate actual historical events; this allows an insight to the emotional tensions of the time period. One of the most captivating features of the period drama is the human interest that it generates, allowing the audience to engage with history on a personal level.

Downton Abbey is one of the best examples of this as the conflict of World War 1 was incorporated into season two. The producers showed how every man, woman and child endeavoured to do their bit for the war effort and how the lives of the characters changed from that point on. Sometimes political movements and social attitudes are also explored, allowing the viewer to witness alliances that existed between classes and permitting them to see how the world has evolved. Upstairs, Downstairs, The Portrait of a Lady and Bleak House all incorporate this, and audiences most recently saw Lady Cora Crawley the Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey complaining of feeling useless and

—Emily Giblett

without purpose after women were no longer required for manual work post-war. You can’t discuss period dramas without taking into account the recreated look of the time they are representing. Mad Men captured 1960s fashions and decor impeccably. Every man donned a well-tailored suit, every woman sported a different version of the bouffant and every house was filled with bold colors, floral designs and a housewife.

Consistency and accuracy within the aesthetics and historical value help period drama to be so popular. The narrative also plays a big part in keeping an audience captivated. Most period dramas plots are relatable, either about passionate love, tragic loss, dramatic conflict, and pure unadulterated hatred, but the issues within the episode, and indeed within the series, are nearly always resolved by the end. This keeps it light, easy to follow and enjoyable to watch. It also evolves subtle plot points into big and exciting cliffhangers. It’s a genre that has everything needed to be enthralling viewing, is it any wonder it thrives on TV and in the cinema?

FOR

50

AIN S T

P E R I O D

—Amy Rose Purdy

Period dramas involve being transported into the past and being able to completely submerge yourself in another point in history

FILM & T V

DOCUMENTARIES

D

AN INTRODUCTION

Still, how can we judge a useful documentary With visually stunning backdrops, attractive cast members and epic storylines, blockbusters have from a harmful one? Some argue that journalism never been more appealing. Despite this lack of and accessibility is essential. The best documentaries glamour in documentaries, audiences still tune in tend to be from companies rather than individuals; to watch them. Lets face it, no one can resist David the BBC for example create their own documentaries Attenborough’s charming voice and there is nothing ranging from the discovery of lost Ancient ruins in like a capital punishment documentary to fuel a debate. Egypt to taking hidden cameras into North Korea. They Perhaps the greatest achievement of factual films discover places that people are interested in. They also is their ability to inspire. Three years on and I will never employ specialists that are interviewed, narrate and forget crying into a box of tissues at the end of Senna, have special access to closed off areas. Demonstrating a documentary about a Formula One driver who met that the best information and technology is utilisedto a heartbreaking demise. The novel worthy plot reveals provide a well rounded view on the subject matter. the strength it takes to follow dreams, be the best, and Now more than ever online streaming sites are encouraging break boundaries. Yet, not all documentaries have such a broader audience to tune into documentaries. Contrary a profound effect and though some have Hollywood- to popular belief, there is a significant interest within the esq appeal to them, they do not neccesarily suit the big younger generation for jobs such as filmmaking. With the screen. The fact that we can watch them in the comfort rise of online streaming sites, documentaries have become of our homes is all part of the appeal. It means they more accessible to watch. This means that we can choose are less commercialised than other types of media. from different genres and eras. Netflix in particular has There are however, many controversial factual a wide range of well renowned documentaries; Man on programmes on British television such as Big Fat Gypsy Wire, for example follows Philippe Petit’s journey of Weddings. Unlike many other documentaries, the purpose travelling between the tops of the twin towers of the of this offering is to provide light entertainment. It does World Trade Centre with nothing but a net. Post 9/11 this at the cost of placing largely negative stereotypes on it is remarkable to see someone do such a thing and the Romany Gypsy community. In an interview with the it is something that would not be able to occur again.

One of the best things about filmmaking is that Guardian, Brian Foster, an educational consultant, stated anyone can do it. It’s a way of pushing interests and ideas that the show was harmful in the long term. Despite the forward to people who are interested in the field or topic. reception, documentaries are always important to watch They tend to steer away from mere profit-making, in as they promote critical thinking. It is one of the best turn focusing instead on political, social and economical ways to enjoy something informative, and being able to choose which topics are relevant to your interests. issues. Many of which are contentious. The BBC’s

The independent industry bolstered documentaries to a greater standing this past year, catapulting them into the mainstream. Here we introduce the quality that you can expect from this genre.

Panorama mostly looks at news topics, ranging from a fake sheikh exposed as a journalist to the significance of Nigel Farage in politics. They interest people in worldly affairs, building on popular stories. Documentaries are important; no reason more so than the fact they allow us to empathise with the struggling. Watching a documentary on Panorama about care home abuse caused me to become aware tof the need for stricter regulations on time constraints that care workers receive. Those most vulnerable are the elderly, it is an environment where they should feel safe, but in some cases they are verbally and physically abused. This is not discussed mainstream media it is an integral part of our society and by spreading awareness it could potentially contribute to the resolution.

So, next time you see a documentary you may be interested in, do not change the channel or decide to watch the latest sitcom. You may be surprised at how much you learn, analyse and enjoy it. Look back at the other documentaries and ask yourself why you enjoyed them, what intrigued you? Aim to watch a documentary every fortnight. Pick ones that you already have an interest in, then when you’re comfortable branch out and pick random topics. You may well be surprised at how enjoyable they can be!

—Rifah Ahsan

Lets face it, no one can resist David Attenborough’s charming voice and there is nothing like a capital punishment documentary to fuel a debate.

51

DECLINE OF THE BRITISH SITCOM With various opinion polls and a general consensus from audiences that the highpoint for British sitcoms were decades early; we take a look at why the Brit-Sit is becoming no more.

52

While the Brits were too shy to create sitcoms In a world where Ebola is spreading, ISIS is becoming a huge issue, and crippling European debts threaten that rivalled their predecessors, the audience still to engulf the nation, there is one thing that us Brits had an appetite for humour. This led the British love, and that is a laugh. Helping us to forget the big audience to look for comedy elsewhere, finding more bad world for thirty minutes or so, sitcoms have been than they could ever want across the Atlantic. Since providing a welcome escape since the 1970s. But if the emergence of shows such as Will and Grace and you look through the pages of this weeks TV guide, Friends, the USA have dominated the comedy circuit both overseas and here, creating a you’ll notice that sitcoms produced in trend that started twenty years ago the UK seem to be dwindling, replaced WHILE SITCOM and is still prominent today with big on screen by celebrity panel shows comedies such a How I Met Your Mother and American comedies. Why is this?

CREATIONS ARE and The Big Bang Theory. Not only do Twenty years ago British TV looked very different. Dominated DECLINING, PANEL these shows have much bigger budgets, but they also cater to a new, younger by sitcoms such as Keeping Up audience as opposed to the more mature Appearances and One Foot in the SHOWS ARE audience of classic British sitcoms.

Grave, Britain’s comedy mirrored its Even in shows created in the audience; working class, pessimistic BECOMING MORE UK, young people are the target and hugely sarcastic. Bad tempered yet audience. While sitcom creations are lovable Victor Meldrew and snobbish POPULAR declining, panel shows are becoming aspiring socialite Hyacinth Bucket worked their way into the hearts of the nation, not more popular in British television. With anything just through their highly popular catchphrases (“I from quiz shows to news-related discussions, panel don’t believe it!” and “The Bouqueeeeeeet residence, shows based on facts and statistics to just an annual the lady of the house speaking!” respectively), but summary of the past year, its impossible to escape also through their increasingly relatable similarity the sheer amount of programmes of this genre to that of the British nation. These hilarious TV featuring on prime time television. What with the shows lasted well through the 90s, but in the new inclusion of social media interaction and the sheer millennium the number of sitcoms began to decline. youth of the people who feature on the show, it Classics such as Blackadder, Only Fools and is clear that the audience who previously enjoyed Horses, Fawlty Towers and The Vicar of Dibley sitcoms are less than welcome in this genre. Standmade stars of scores of comedians, writers, and up comedy and comedy showcases triumph where producers, such as Stephen Fry, John Cleese and sitcoms used to live, which could be partly because Dawn French, highly prolific comedians that still of a lesser commitment to a narrative but also feature on today’s TV schedule. Bizarrely, talents of the ability to feature many more high profile this calibre don’t seem to be as prominent in today’s comedians without giving any of them a leading role.

So does it really mater what Britain is laughing television. As these beloved comedies began to wrap up their narratives and air their finales, no British at, as long as they’re laughing? There is still British replacements emerged. What could be said for the comedy out there, but in different formations, and sitcoms, albeit not British, are still prominent in sitcoms that did surface was that they lacked the modern TV. It’s clear that the genre has certainly humour and appeal of the classics, leading shrunk in the last ten years, as dramas and different to poor reviews, even poorer ratings and types of comedy surged in popularity, but does eventually cancellation. Hard-hitting this mean that audiences have become more drama filled the gap left by these discerning towards sitcoms? Not necessarily. sitcoms, and became increasingly Just because they are less common nowadays, popular with the British audience, it doesn’t mean that they are not going to the main type of becoming emerge on our screens from time to television time. Successful shows produced such as The IT Crowd, Mrs Brown’s Boys and Outnumbered prove that the genre of British sitcoms is not dead or even in fact dying, just less common. Britain is still a major by U K player in the comedy p r o d u c t i o n circuit, and is companies. Channels such as still capable Dave and Gold air repeats of beloved c r e a t i n g TV shows that are no longer created on comedies mainstream channels, but very few sitcoms emerge that are loved and remain in the current television climate. Even by the nation. current successful comedies tend to conclude the —Em Gates comedies quite rapidly in fear of their once successful venture turning sour, ie Miranda and Gavin and Stacey.

FILM & T V

THE

CHRISTMAS

SPECIAL

W H AT C A N W E E X P E C T ?

With Christmas right around the corner, what better way to set the anticipation off by looking to what Christmas TV has in store for us!

T

here’s no better compliment to the inevitable food coma that follows Christmas dinner than top quality festive television. The hype for Christmas Specials begins months in advance; so what can we expect to see coming to our telly boxes this year?

Soap fans can certainly look forward to the traditional climax of storylines which culminate in a mushroom-cloud of melodrama on Christmas day. EastEnders has promised a dark and shocking Christmas episode with the Carter family tree under the microscope.

If EastEnders’ reputation for putting its characters through hell at this time of year is anything to go by, things could get messy. ITV’s Coronation Street residents are on their way to a rocky Christmas too, with the Pratts as the focus; while Downton Abbey lovers can expect a very festive episode, though not starring George Clooney as rumoured. He will instead be making a cameo for a charity sketch on ITV. Over on Channel 4 two hour-long Hollyoaks episodes will air on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and Charlie Brooker’s dark satire Black Mirror returns starring Mad Men’s John Hamm, guaranteed to be a very sinister addition to the Crimbo schedule.

Call the Midwife will return to BBC One for a special on Christmas Day ahead of its fifth series in the New Year. Following the departure of protagonist Jenny Lee in March the show will welcome two shiny new midwives. Joining the cast are Linda Bassett, best known as the long-suffering matriarch in East Is East, East and Charlotte Ritchie, easily recognisable for her role

as try-hard hipster and rebel without a cause Oregon in the screamingly accurate University comedy Fresh Meat. Returning characters include dependable midwives Trixie, Cynthia and “Chummy” played by Helen George, Bryony Hannah and Miranda Hart respectively.

The charming family drama is known for its heart-warming storylines and tender yet authentic portrayal of domestic working class London in the 1950s. I can’t tell you what will be on the cards for the episode, but unless there is a box of tissues in my stocking I can bet I’ll be a puddle of emotion by the end.

It’s not all gloom and tears though, and there will be plenty of comedy to keep up festive cheer. Miranda Hart will grace

SLIMY MONSTERS, A BIG OLD SHINY RESEARCH BASE AND THE NORTH POLE (or rather blunder across) our screens in the role of another loveable buffoon this Christmas when her sitcom Miranda returns for two specials to act as a finale after a twoyear hiatus. Last time we saw Miranda she seemed to have triumphed over her blunders and was left considering not one, but two proposals! The specials will finally reveal to fans whether she chose to accept Michael, her boyfriend who loves his “Quirky” just the way she is or Gary, the long term friend who can never quite get his timing right. Either way it seems the character, based on Hart herself, has somewhat grown out of her goofy, ungainly ways; but you can wager that there’ll still be plenty of simple slapstick fun. Other comedies include Lee Mack’s Not Going Out which will air the final episode of its seventh series on Christmas day; the classic Mrs Brown’s Boys in which Brendan O’Carroll will once again don that familiar wig and get up to who-knows-what kinds of antics; and the newer, and perhaps a little fresher BBC Three comedy Cuckoo will get its first special this

year, returning after its second series which starred Twilight ex-pat Taylor Lautner. The series ended with Lautner’s character getting off with his dead, estranged father’s widow… that could be an interesting one. Finally, James Corden and Mathew Baynton will star as regular-guys-turned-heroes in the second series debut of their comedy/action drama The Wrong Mans. Corden will also be seen narrating the TV film of Roald Dahl’s beloved Esio Trot, adapted by rom-com genius Richard Curtis. The 90 minute film will also feature Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman, telling the tale of a hopeless romantic and his desperate plan to capture his neighbour’s affections.

QI and Pointless will make their traditional appearance with festive topics aplenty and Strictly Come Dancing will showcase celebrities such as Rachel Stevens, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Russell Grant.

A special which will be greatly anticipated is of course Doctor Who. Last year’s instalment, which observed the loss of Matt Smith in exchange for Peter Capaldi’s rougher, tougher no nonsense Doctor, received mixed reviews with some concerned that the show had gotten a little too complex. This year’s episode has gone back to grassroots themes, can you get much more so than Father Christmas? Yes, comedy actor extraordinaire Nick Frost will star as jolly old St. Nick. The teaser promises a classic: slimy monsters, a big old shiny research base and the North Pole to boot. Dan Starkey is even tipped to return as potatoheaded Sontaran Strax. Just as well as the Doctor’s going to need a distraction after the heart-wrenching farewell he bid Clara in the series eight finale; while some fans remain unconvinced of Jenna Coleman’s departure, her absence is bound to be something the Doctor will struggle with, especially considering the distinct lack of closure in the parting of ways.

Christmas Specials are a chance to see British television at its best, in one enormous rich serving. With such an excess of great programmes and wellloved actors it won’t just be the food that I plan to over-indulge in this Christmas.

—Hannah Crombie

53

Continuing Film & TV’s exploration into narrative film genres; this month we tackle the most explosive of all, Action.

E IN

NR GE : IEW

REV

54

N

TIO AC

It is easy to pin point this genre in the sea of films released: It starts with a grand opening; the panning across the open road or a plane shooting off into the distance that then cuts to the explosion of a title sequence. This is an action film, and by god do the producers need you to know that. The genre can be noted for many things, kicking things off in style is just part of its all-consuming nature.

Like many genres of this industry it can be divided into stylistic eras; for easy exploration and structuring of this I shall be categorising them as ‘the classic’, ‘the borrowed’ and ‘the new’. Action films from each decade have their significance of course: ‘the classic’ period in this instance doesn’t detail the films of the early cinema but those that encapsulated the 80s hyper masculine trend – you know the type, muscle bound men going full throttle at anyone in their way – Die Hard, Predator, Rambo, Lethal Weapon etc. What could be said about 90s action films is that they embody the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it “ – The decade of the sequels saw Die Hard, Predator and Terminator all get a second round shot at the box office, with pretty much an identical narrative structure but made different by adding a ‘2’ to the title.

It is pretty evident as to why they didn’t change the structure – explosions sell. Heroes sell. Villains sell. It is a genre that plays out the same narratives with every release, and we just need more and more.

FILM & T V

It’s not De Niro fighting in the ring in Raging Bull or Arnie battling robots in The Terminator or hell even Stallone going up against the military in First Blood – it is Sony, Disney, Fox and Marvel fighting in a ring made solely of CGI centres and editing suites, that’s the real action sequence.

The shift in this genres evolution came about when the mainstream took superheroes and the idea of the everyday ‘hero’ into its heart and so cemented action films at the centre of fictitious dreams held by young viewers; the hope to be saved or save someone. ‘The new trend’ returned them to the mainstream and gave them fantastical pictures to endorse their homecoming, whilst also giving those without superpowers a big welcome; Kill Bill, X-Men, Batman Begins, Bond and all of his chapters and not forgetting Iron Man all supported this structure of heroism and its importance to us, the viewer.

Action films are those typified mainly by explosions. Explosions everywhere they can fit into the frame; it’s the sort of genre convention that says “balls to plot development and character construction, let’s see that car explode and that building on fire!” These sequences of violence exacerbate all expectations from the audiences; we root for the heroes just as much as we do the villains (who look totally more suave handling cool looking weaponry).

Speaking of which there is no hero without an enemy and action films portray some of the worst of the worst – whether it’s the subtleties of Javier Bardem in Skyfall or Heath Ledger’s enigmatic Joker in The Dark Knight Rises.

The main pull of this genre is that it presents believable characters in unbelievable situations. We can agree that a computer programmer can be the saviour of the world in the Matrix trilogy or that a college student can hold the key to the Autobots destruction in Transformers,, because they present an everyday character and transform him into a hero (excuse the pun). Whether the leading man be the nerd, the student, the mechanic or even the muscle bound god (think the Rock in The Scorpion King)) the leading man is always presented as the ultimate man. He may be flawed and not to everyone’s physical likening, however men want to be and women want to be saved by him. If the power of the hero can help Shia LaBeouf win Megan Fox by the end of Transformers,, it reinforces the idea it could happen even to you.

The 2010s are as abundant with sequels, trilogies and series’ just as much as the 90s were – trends come back into fashion we know this, and everyone always likes their favourite films getting another slice of the action pie. The best way to describe this genres evolution into the 2010’s would be to entitle it ‘The Battle of the CGI War’ – and I don’t believe I am overreaching by calling it thus. Inception, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, its sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy – just to name a few, have all stimulated this genre into spectacle that it is. Long gone are the films of the cop chasing the baddies and groups of non-superheroes fighting crime

(Though The A-Team, The Expendables, Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down have all made a significant impact to break up this superhero leaning in mainstream pictures).

The most visible development of this genre is its change in visuals. Gone are the days of the one-shot one view point explosions; CGI has taken this genre and ran into the future, literally with some narratives, and is utilised to create not just the collapsing buildings and cityscapes but full on universe bending fight scenes. Thanks to the godfather of action George Lucas and his otherworldly visuals within Star Wars; many films to this day are trying to imitate and make better these stunning visuals.

Sharper, crisper camera lenses gave directors of this bourgeoning genre the freedom to do more than their elder counterparts from earlier decades. Bigger however is not always better, it’s just to make their production competitors look weaker on the market to audiences. It’s not De Niro fighting in the ring in Raging Bull or Arnie battling robots in The Terminator or hell even Stallone going up against the military in First Blood – it is Sony, Disney, Fox and Marvel fighting in a ring made solely of CGI centres and editing suites, that’s the real action sequence.

However, the most predictable of all genres (though it is very much on par with the formulaic Rom-Coms that are released by the tonne), these three act structure narratives are mind-numbing activities. The guy gets his task, beats the baddies, gets the girl and lives happily ever after. Along the way you may see several explosions, a couple of tense stare offs and usually a sex scene or two – which are given the same focus and production value as the explosions in the scene before. Action movies are the films for the boys (speaking strictly in widely used stereotypes of course); you find them positioned in cinema lobbies all gun’s ablaze, exploding backgrounds and a menacing frown upon the young hero’s face. The climaxes of these films are short, sweet and usually wasted.

Sure, they were enjoyable whilst it happened but once over you’re left with the

thoughts of a not so very satisfying experience. The main strike against this genre is that it loses its substance and substitutes it for uniformed sequences of explosions.

Not to end on a negative however, this genre has some great pictures coming up in: Unbroken, The tale of war hero and Olympian Louie Zamperini and his years in several prisoner of war camps in Japan. American Sniper is a biopic about the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history – Chris Kyle. This Biblical inspired interpretation, Exodus: Gods and Kings will be depicting the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt led by Moses and finally, and certainly not least: The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, the conclusion to a very well loved franchise and series promises a 50 minute battle scene, the action fanboy inside of us is crying with excitement!

The link between action and other genres; westerns; thriller; crime; fantasy; and superheroes all come under the same genre umbrella: Adventure. All of these genres implore their narratives and characters on some adventure whether that is physically, mentally or emotionally. Bolstered by some magnificent imagery, it is no wonder this genre is at the forefront of technological use and at the hearts of its audiences.

— Aaron Roberts

55

Don’t cook care, JustEat

As students, we’re familiar with the odd take away or two, and with new services such as JustEat.com it’s becoming easier to have a wide range of cuisines delivered to our doors. But are us students really the ones benefitting from this service, or is it the greedy pockets of company directors? Tom Reeder investigates...

Photography: Tudor Popescu

56

FOOD & DRINK

“There are some gems: ‘Just Eat – what an absolute clusterfuck of a shambles’”

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a time when dinner would miraculously appear on the kitchen table.

No matter how long the school day, how much homework there was to be done, the parent fairy could be relied upon to prepare the evening meal. Unfortunately, with newfound independence in student life, came daunting kitchen responsibilities. Evening fatigue and rumbling stomachs remain, but gone are the times of supermarket evasion and kitchen shirking. Unless, of course, you order a takeaway.

What could be easier than Google searching a restaurant, ordering over the phone, and having food delivered to your house? Home-delivery works because the process is simple. The line of communication is customer, kitchen, delivery-driver. The operation is seamless, and it’s unsurprising that the takeaway industry generates more than £30 billion a year from the hungry consumer.

Sometimes, though, it can be a little more difficult.

Takeaway cravings tend to creep up spontaneously, and in a new city it might take longer to build a mentalencyclopedia of favoured restaurants. In situations like these, a streamlined guide of places to try would fit the bill perfectly. It was inevitable that this market gap, albeit small, would eventually be filled. For such a booming industry, takeaway restaurants have always had a relatively small online presence, with Pizza giant Domino’s only introducing their online ordering service in 2007. The year before, Danish company Just Eat moved to the UK. Founded in 2001, Just Eat and Foodzoom merged, attempting to revolutionise the takeaway process. Keeping the former’s brand, Just Eat was an online service, acting as a middleman between takeaway restaurants and customers. Now valued at more than £1 billion, the self-proclaimed ‘leader in food delivery’ has permeated 13 countries worldwide, and represents over 22 000 restaurants in the UK alone. Just Eat claim to make the takeaway process more convenient, provide the consumer with more choice, and better value for money.

Above all, they remove the need to talk to someone over the phone, which seems to be one of their most appealing traits. However, despite its commercial success, excessive complaints on Just Eat’s Facebook page suggest there are some basic conceptual problems with the service.

In the postcode surrounding Cardiff ’s Student Union, Just Eat will take orders for 139 restaurants. They will typically charge these restaurants 10% commission on any orders placed through Just Eat. Here, we have a company with the sole purpose of generating profit.

Obviously, this is paramount to financial success and growth, but a company like Just Eat has an immense amount of influence on a city’s food industry.

Unfortunately, to be associated with Just Eat is to be associated with a company that has no concern for who they represent. ‘As long as they have a trading licence, they can join. We do not decide what’s good for you or for me’, said David Buttress, CEO of Just Eat. They also have virtually no quality control measures in place. ‘We present customers with all the options available, and let the reviews speak for themselves’, he said.

However, even the credibility of the review system is dubious. Only after placing an order can ‘customers’ review the restaurant they’ve used. There is nothing to

57

stop say, restaurant owners ordering from their own establishment, and reviewing the order process. Perhaps coincidentally, of all 139 restaurants in the SU’s area, not a single one has less than 3/6 stars. The average star level is 5. Many of the restaurants reviewed on Just Eat are impossible to find on any third party review sites. It is somewhat difficult to believe the integrity of a restaurant’s reviews, when the only medium in which to read them is on a site that financially benefits from its takeaway output.

Just Eat’s Facebook page is littered with customer complaints, usually about the quality of the food, and the time it took to arrive. There are some gems: ‘[the food] has turned up burnt and even the dog is rejecting it’; ‘Just Eat – what an absolute clusterfuck of a shambles’, but most highlight perhaps the biggest issue with the company.

Their operation as an intermediary allows restaurants of a poor standard to use Just Eat as a scapegoat. In response to customer complaints, restaurants frequently push the blame on Just Eat, normally citing some form of miscommunication, ‘we don’t deal with complaints or refunds’. While Just Eat cannot refund customers instantly (due to banking regulations), they do offer customers vouchers redeemable on the site so they can order again. Nevertheless, the process is laborious, and contrasts greatly with Just Eat’s ‘making takeaways easier’ ethos.

In our Quench survey on Just Eat last month, we had a variety of responses, with the general consensus being that Just Eat is a useful service for lazy nights in.

It helps having Cardiff takeaways listed in one place, and it’s nice to be able to order online or from a smartphone.

However, many responses suggested that the quality of food and delivery times varied greatly, and that the blame should be put on specific restaurants instead of Just Eat. It is perhaps worth noting here, again, that Just Eat choose the restaurants they represent, and that they seek to represent as many as they possibly can.

Just Eat could very easily adapt their selling process to ensure that top quality restaurants are prioritised.

Why should takeaways selling sub-standard food benefit from Just Eat’s ginormous consumer base, and free advertising? Such establishments only create problems for Just Eat, when they’re met with complaints like ‘[the] food was disgusting and arrived smelling of sick’, for example.

Just Eat’s problems could be easily rectified, and they could have a major influence on improving the takeaway industry for all parties involved. Whether or not they do so largely depends on the demands of their customers. If, as students, we are happy to pay standard takeaway prices for revolting food, then Just Eat will be immensely successful in Cardiff. Soon, every restaurant will be pressured to jump on the Just Eat bandwagon.

They will find themselves listed among many highly rated (on Just Eat) takeaways, all with varying qualities of food.

However, Just Eat will have failed to achieve their main objective: to ‘empower consumers to love their takeaway experience’.

The consumer already has the power. If there was greater demand for provision of good food, and a focus on supporting local independents invested in quality produce, Just Eat might change their marketing attitude.

They have the ability to transform themselves into a unanimously loved brand, which consistently helps its customers find and enjoy good takeaways. They could implement more stringent measures of quality control, applied to restaurants before they are allowed to sign up.

They could streamline their service, incorporating only the restaurants that meet preset criteria of high standards

58

in food.

By no means is Just Eat a bad company, or an unnecessary concept. As an online directory that functions as a takeaway ordering service, it has the potential to be great. To get there, it needs you. If you have a bad takeaway ordered through Just Eat, make it heard. Be specific; shame the restaurant. If Just Eat pay heed to this, we will eventually be left with a reliable service that is consistent in the food outlets it represents.

We will make it easier for the restaurants that love food, and lazy dinner disappointment will soon become a rarity.

“As students, we are happy to pay standard takeaway prices for revolting food”

t chicken katsu curry 1.

2.

3.

4.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Finely crush a couple of handfuls of cornflakes (Lidl’s own will do). Then grab four skinless chicken breasts, dip them each in a beaten egg mix and then coat in the crushed cornflake crumb. Line up on a baking tray and cook for 15-20 minutes until they are cooked through.

Whilst the chicken is cooking, crush two garlic cloves and add to a pan before adding two tbsp of korma curry paste, one tbsp of soy sauce, four tbsp of ketchup, two tbsp of honey and two tbsp of corn-flour to the mix also.

Into the pan pour 500ml of water and heat until it boils and starts to thicken. Cover the pan with the lid and let it simmer for a further five minutes.

To serve, spoon some sauce onto plates before slicing the chicken breasts and placing on top. Serve with rice and enjoy.

FOOD & DRINK

akeaway akeover

Takeaways will always appeal to the lazy student due to the lack of effort needed to acquire one, as well as the calorie loaded treats that promise to heal our hangover/indulgent desires. Simple. Recreating this at home often seems a laborious and unneeded process, therefore week after week we retreat back to the phone/internet and succumb to the ease of ordering a meal to our doors. Yet emulating your own takeaway style meal can not only be rewarding, but often cheaper too. Taking the takeaway into your own hands means that you are granted quality control, therefore reducing the risk of the dodgy takeaway belly. Here at Quench we’ve compiled a list of recipes perfectly suited to the student budget, as well as the less culinary skilled amongst us. So next time you get that craving for a Friday night curry, dig deep for the little amount of effort needed to make these simple dishes and give it a go.

chicken, spinach and sweet potato curry 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Peel 500g of sweet potatoes and cut into small chunks before boiling in a pan with water for 12- 15minutes until soft.

Meanwhile, finely chop one large onion and heat over some oil until softened.

Next cut up four chicken breast fillets into large chunks and add to the onions.

Continue to cook for around 5-6 minutes until brown and cooked through.

Stir in two tbsp of Rogan Josh curry paste and cook for one minute before adding a can of chopped tomatoes and cooking for a further minute.

Add the spinach and cook for two minutes until wilted.

Drain the sweet potatoes and stir into the mix before simmering for a further two minutes.

Serve with boiled rice and naan.

chinese-style pork 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Heat a little oil in a pan on medium heated hob. Finely chop a bunch of spring onions and two cloves of garlic and add them to the pan along with a tablespoon of grated ginger. Let them sizzle in the oil for a couple of minutes before adding 200g of sliced pork.

Give the ingredients a good stir with a wooden spoon, and once the pork has cooked remove it from the pan.

Next, add three tablespoons of soy sauce, two tablespoons of white wine, one teaspoon of Chinese five spice and a good helping of salt and pepper to the pan and bring the sauce to a simmer.

After about 10 minutes the sauce should have thickened slightly, so it’s time to add a sliced red pepper and 100g frozen peas to the mix, along with the cooked pork. Make sure to give all the ingredients a good stir.

Once the peas are cooked through, serves with noodles or egg fried rice if you’re feeling adventurous.

59

Credits: Freakypic

THE CARDIFF STUDENTS’ GUIDE TO:

CHRISTMAS DINNERS Attending University is good for many things; earning qualifications, gaining quality life skills and learning about “the real world”, but even more importantly, it provides us students with the excuse to celebrate the jolliest time of the year twice.

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without stuffing yourself silly, and studying away from home usually means you get to indulge in some serious festive food with your friends, as well as with your family.

With a brilliant abundance of restaurants and pubs, Cardiff definitely has every type of Christmas meal going, from your traditional pub lunch to alternative festive cuisines. So, if you’re not sure where to go yet, don’t sweat. Quench Food has the lowdown on some of the best festive feasts for you and the housemates this Christmas.

Okay, it wasn’t à la carte, but it was pretty damn tasty If you’re looking for cheap and cheerful, without sacrificing flavour (or even edibility), look no further than The Mackintosh.

With three courses for only £10.45, the Mackintosh Place pub is every scrimping student’s dream. There’s a good selection of seasonal favourites to choose from, and the portion sizes don’t reflect the price (which is often the case with festive deals). Last year’s meal was everything you could ask for from a relaxed and informal Christmas dinner. Service was quick, even though there were a few large bookings, and the food was plentiful and tasty. The breaded mushrooms

starter went down a treat, and the roast turkey which followed was moist and topped off perfectly with pigs in blankets, stuffing balls and lots of fresh vegetables. Dessert was the Pièce de résistance, a steaming slab of Christmas pudding smothered in custard, okay it wasn’t a la carte, but it was pretty damn tasty, and at this time of year that’s all that matters. If you’re heading down in a large group, they’ve got some tempting drinks offers too, with bottles of wine a steal at just £7.95.

—Kathryn Lewis

Bill’s: The Christmas dinner spirit is fully created by sharing amongst guests Opening its doors with a warm, rustic and homely hearth, Bill’s is a rare gem among Mill Lane’s generally average branded restaurants.

Encapsulating the friendly welcoming feel of most independents, its pairing of heartwarming food and cosy atmosphere will get any Scrooge into the festive spirit. The menu caters to all tastes, from those who want to fully fling themselves into a traditional tasting, to those who prefer a lighter option.

Beginning with starters, the delectable take on the classic prawn cocktail, an avocado and prawn salad, sits amongst richer offerings of scrumptious soups or chicken liver pate.

With the choice of a traditional roast turkey

Credits: Rubber Slippers In Italy / Flickr

Credits: Rasmus Lerdorf / Flickr

The Mackintosh:

60

or refined options such as roasted cod and butternut squash, as well as a flavourful vegetarian offering, no guest is left uncatered for. Accompanied by bowls of trimmings, and steaming vegetables the Christmas dinner spirit is fully created by the sharing amongst guests. And then we come to desserts; truly decadent in all degrees, they end the meal in the lap of Christmas luxury. Finishing with complimentary mini mince pies, it’s certain that no guest will leave Bill’s not feeling full of Christmas cheer and the faultless festive food.

—Jade Attwood

Credits: Helen K / Flickr

Food & Drink

Gassy Jacks: Cheesy Christmas music, paired with the compulsory crackers and party hats, add to the jolly atmosphere

Giovanni’s: An exciting menu, filled with pastas, casseroles, tiramisu, and not a Christmas pudding in sight If you’re not a fan of turkey, or you’re just a bit bored of the abundance of seasonal traditions, why not take the plunge and try something a little less British this Christmas.

Giovanni’s restaurant, in the city centre, offers an exciting Italian festive menu, filled with pastas, casseroles, tiramisu, and not a Christmas pudding in sight. A cosy little restaurant, bursting with classic Italian charm, with a hint of Welsh pride, provides a warm and friendly atmosphere, perfect for a small party of intimate friends. The

restaurant, established in 1983, knows a thing or two about proper Italian food, so be prepared to indulge in delicious handmade ravioli and traditional family sauces.

Although the menu may bear a little more weight on the pocket, wining and dining in the centre of Cardiff, rather than a scruffy pub in Cathays, gives you the chance to throw on the party dress and add a little student sophistication to the end of the year.

—Kathryn Lewis

Located in the heart of Cathays, Gassy Jacks is a popular choice for the cosy Christmas dinner that students treat themselves to once a year. The popular student venue offers two separate menus. The two or three course party menu features all the Christmas classics including the traditional roast turkey with all of trimmings and Christmas pudding with custard. There’s also a selection of pub favourites on offer too, for those who fancy something a little different, including the famous Gassy Jacks chocolate fudge cake. The alternate option is the buffet menu, incorporating all the tasty seasonal pickings such as pigs

in blankets and turkey sandwiches, just served in a slightly more relaxed style.

With the three-course party menu only causing an £11 dent in the student budget and the £7 silver buffet available for those less willing to splash out, the popular student venue gets even livelier over the festive period. Cheesy Christmas music, paired with the compulsory crackers and party hats, add to the jolly atmosphere, making Gassy Jacks the ideal place to get into the fun festive spirit with your housemates.

—Imogen Byers

The Taf: The Taf manages to retain its slightly shabby yet, undeniably endearing appeal only £9.95 for three courses it is unbeatable on price as well as delivering on quality.

Even if you’re a bit of a picky eater, the three options for starter and dessert should mean that you find something to take your fancy. Booking is recommended, as it gets pretty busy and they’re slightly restricted on space. Partnered with the usual student atmosphere, The Taf is a great choice if you’re looking for convenience, a decent meal, and the possibility of getting a bit greedy at a buffet. Five trips to the buffet spread? It’s fine, it’s Christmas after all…

—Emma Giles

Credits: flipsockgrrrl / Flickr

Credits: Freakypic

Despite having a minor makeover this summer, The Taf manages to retain its slightly shabby yet undeniably endearing appeal and is still treasured by the students of Cardiff. So why venture out into the city streets to look for a Christmas meal location? Convenient, cheap and tasty, The Taf Christmas meal is not to be overlooked. Mirroring its weekly Sunday carvery set-up, the Christmas meal adopts a buffet style dining experience, including all the trimmings. as well as a couple of nice surprises such as carrot and swede mash. With a choice of meats (turkey or gammon) as well as a vegetarian option (nut roast), you can’t really go wrong. For

61

The Gutsy

Quench Food Evening:

Goose

Photography: Naomi Brown

Zenn Wong

Another month and another chance for Quench to explore Cardiff’s independent eateries. This time around, we’re heading to The Gutsy Goose for the second of our Quench Food Evenings. Despite having to battle the elements to get to the Crwys Road restaurant, everyone remained lively and eager to be let loose on the sizable menu to see what The Gutsy Goose had to offer.

Dominating the small and perfectly cosy restaurant, the crowd of self-confessed foodies and simply hungry students indulged in some classically British dishes, cocktails and food hedonism before heading home full and with only a small dent in their pocket. Considering we had exclusive access to the restaurant and arriving in quick succession, therefore dominating the restaurant, the service was excellent; quick, efficient and friendly, ultimately hard to fault.

The menu itself is centered on British classics such as pork belly, fish and chips and lamb, served beautifully as well as being an ample portion. Giving in to dessert also seemed a wise - isn’t it always? choice, with the appearance of more traditional dishes including sticky toffee pudding, as well as crossAtlantic cheesecake, ensuring that the menu catered to a range of tastes. Don’t just take our word for it; here’s what some of the attendees had to say about their evening at The Gutsy Goose.

62

“It certainly didn’t disappoint” I have always been really eager to try The Gutsy Goose and it certainly didn’t disappoint. For the starter, I had the mushrooms with blue cheese and chorizo on toasted bread which was absolutely beautiful, and the delicious, rich creamy texture continued into my mains where I enjoyed monkfish on a bed of noodles in a cream, chorizo and chilli sauce. The monkfish was nice and meaty, however it lacked just a little bit of seasoning. The wine was lovely, and the ambience of the small venue was equally nice. Would definitely visit again!

—Victoria Chandler

Food & Drink

“I found The Gutsy Goose a refreshing experience”

With the gastro-pubs and restaurants of Cathays usually being so focussed on offering low cost, low quality food for students, I found The Gutsy Goose a refreshing experience. Providing fresh tasty food, in a cosy atmosphere, The Gusty Goose is definitely a venue where as a student I would be prepared to pay more. The burger was on point, with crispy onion rings, delicious seasoned beef and a beautiful homemade chunky salsa, it was perfection within a bun.

—Kieran Patel

“The sweetness of the whole dessert was immensely satisfying”

The pork belly was really tasty, with soft fat that melted in the mouth and a gravy that was not overtly rich, which was good as the crackling on the pork was already salty enough. The vegetables were rather runof-the-mill, but they were cooked to perfection and not overdone or soggy. The only other thing I would say is that the sea salted creamed potatoes were somewhat bland, though the pork and gravy combined packed enough punch for the potatoes to simply serve as a stomach filler.

The generously-sized sticky toffee pudding was another winner. It was somehow not particularly sticky or toffee-ish, but that didn’t make it any less delectable.

Perhaps the pudding could have been a little more syrupy and a little less spongey, and the sauce a tad creamier and toffee-tasting, but the sweetness of the whole dessert was immensely satisfying anyway.

All in all, a wonderful and value-for-money meal.

—Zenn Wong

“I was terrified I would regret my decision and fall victim to the dreaded food envy, but I couldn’t have been more wrong” I’d heard great things about The Gutsy Goose and was really looking forward to eating there as I love to try new and independent restaurants. I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed. I looked at the menu online and had been wondering what to have for a good week beforehand. Everything sounded delicious and there was something on there for every taste and mood. When the evening came around, I played it safe and went with The Gutsy Goose burger. When everyone’s food arrived, I was terrified I would regret my decision and fall victim to the dreaded food envy - I couldn’t have been more wrong. The beef was cooked to perfection and my chosen combination of cheese and onion toppings on the burger worked together beautifully. The homemade salsa was a lovely touch too.

I also swapped the potato fries the burger was served with for the sweet potato chips. This was the best decision of the night as I quite literally got a bucketful of tasty salty sweet fries with the perfect crunch. The whole evening was great; the staff were helpful and friendly and the atmosphere and decor added a touch of class to the evening. I had such an enjoyable night, and was so desperate to try more of the menu, that I immediately booked a table for the next week when my mum was visiting. I couldn’t recommend The Gutsy Goose any more, the perfect venue for delicious food at affordable prices, giving you the chance to indulge in a little foodie luxury and forget that in reality you’re a struggling student.

—Julia Niblett

63