LeftLion Magazine - August 2005 - Issue 6

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credits LeftLion Magazine Issue 6 August-September 2005 Editor Jared Wilson Deputy Editor Al Needham Distribution Big G and Tim Evans Sub Editors Alan Gilby Cristina Chapman David Blenkey David Bowen Timmy Bates Nathan Miller Design reasondesign@hotmail.com Photographers Dom Henry Kevin Lake Contributors Adrian Bhagat Ashley Dilks Guy Gooberman Paul Klotschkow Popx Roger Mean Sadie Rees Hales Other side of the world Yemi Akinpelumi “You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time. All else is grandoise romanticism or politics.”

Charles Bukowski

contents . . .

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Local News For Local People People get busy: G8 report Roots Manuva Interview Rob Newman Interview Little Barrie Interview Punish The Atom Skateboarding is Nott a crime Game on: Nottingham Sports Daniel Taylor Interview Dave McVay Interview Carl Froch Interview Out and About Pete Jordan Interview Nottingham Events Listings Amusement Parks on Fire on tour Nottsword Rocky Horrorscopes & The Fun Cave

editorial You hold in your hands the sixth bi-monthly issue of LeftLion magazine, which (if my maths are correct) means we’ve been putting this together for a year now. We love doing what we do. At times it can be hard work, with a seemingly endless list of emails to trawl, serious sacrifices of spare time and a constant pressure to balance the books. However, we don’t get paid for producing this and we’re still doing it, so that in itself must tell you something!

In this issue we celebrate (if that is the right word) the current sporting scene in Nottingham. On the eve of the new football season, we speak to Daniel Taylor and Dave McVay, two authors who have penned amusing, if slightly frustrated, books about our local football teams.

I also got the chance to speak to Carl Froch, who is probably the best performing sportsman in Nottingham at the moment. Watching him fight at the Ice Arena a few weeks after we spoke was an at times gruesome, but seriously enjoyable experience. He won by quite some distance.

To represent alternative sports, the first person to be fined for Skateboarding after it was outlawed in the city centre, has penned us an article about his (sometimes expensive) hobby.

This issue also gave me the chance to speak to two of my own personal heroes. Neither Roots Manuva or Rob Newman hail from this city, but both of them have paid visits here recently and share a healthy respect for our local scene. On top of this we feature a couple of damn fine Notts bands in Punish The Atom and Little Barrie, as well as all the usual features.

As always, if you’re interested in joining our crew then send us an email. These days we might take a couple of weeks to respond, but if you have the right attitude and a decent grasp of written English then LeftLion will never turn you down.

This issue is dedicated to Ian Frazer Larcombe 1979-1998

We’ll be back with the next Issue of what is now the longest-running free Entertainments magazine in Nottingham, in October. Expect it to be choc full of meaty goodness as usual…

LeftLion 349a Mansfield Road Nottingham, NG5 2DA info@leftlion.co.uk

jared@leftlion.co.uk

Advertising enquiries contact: advertising@leftlion.co.uk mobile: 07867 801019 8,000 copies distributed in over 50 venues around Nottingham

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Nottingham Voices things people have said on the leftlion forum IS NOTTINGHAM RACIST?

local news for local people with Guy Gooberman our correspondent in London

“I’ve been told there are areas which are quite racist but I’ve never noticed it in Notts in general. I met a girl who reckoned people are more racist the further north you go.”

Pisces J “I don’t think we are a racist bunch! All cities have some problems but if you look around, you see all colours, creeds & religions mixing together.”

Barnze “There’s areas in Notts which are predominantly white and want to stay that way. At the same time we’ve got multi-racial communities all over the shop, but you can find racism anywhere in England.”

Jamie

Please note that Guy Gooberman is a fictional character and therefore only as real as the news he writes for more painful laughs visit www.lunch-break.co.uk

St Anns Man Thinks He’s A Jedi Master Wells Road resident Arthur Biscuits (pronounced “biscuits”) has the force in him and he’s sharing it with anyone who’ll listen. Arthur was so moved by the final Star Wars movie that he emerged from the cinema believing he was a Jedi and has been caught acting like one in the streets.

“There are incidents in some areas which are shocking, but the City itself is better than most because there are so many different communities living and working together without any segregation.”

Kp “My friend from Newcastle was amazed at the number of black and Asian people in Nottingham. This may have something to do with the idea that the girl had. There are more non-white British people the further south you go.”

Fossy “Apart from Bradford, Burnley, Blackburn, Oldham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, all of which have large black and minority ethnic populations, and are in the North of England.”

Denz “I blame the Daily Hate Mail. I know too many otherwise lovely people who turn into the KKK when discussing race and all fuelled by this toilet paper of a rag.”

Niffer

WHO’S IN THE HOOD? “The BBC is going to commission a new series of Robin Hood on prime-time TV, so who would you pick to play him? Names being touted include Robert Carlyle, Ralph Little, Sean Bean and Paul Nicholls...”

Jared “I wouldn’t mind seeing Ralph Little or Robert Carlyle in a pair of tights!” ladie sadie “As long as it’s not sodding David Tenant.”

BigFatBadger

The old loon waves a branch around and tries to hit children he thinks are androids. The man’s neighbour, Daffers Countryside, said: “His wife died four months ago but since he’s seen Star Wars he’s a changed man.

Every night I hear him smashing his house to pieces, and screaming.”

Biggest Hair Ever Scrooby near Doncaster is now the proud home of the man with the world’s biggest hair ever - and he’s taken the record off his own stepfather! Aaron Lardy and his nonblood-relative papa Dandy Assnovic both have huge hair, inspired by West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United midfield warrior Remi Moses.

Aaron beat his father when his hair achieved the width of a cloud and the height of two engorged moose.

His proud father said: “It’s a beautiful thing, hair, and I couldn’t think of a better lad to take the title off me... except maybe the Pope”. Both men are unemployed and list ‘smoking weed’ as their main hobby.

Beer Fiend!

Nottingham is a real hit with foreign visitors, but one Japanese tourist literally exploded in the early hours this weekend on Loughborough Road.

Witnesses said the small Asian man consumed almost fifty times his body weight in real ale and lager, becoming ‘totally bloated’ with booze.

The man (who cannot be named for eagle reasons) refused to stop drinking, saying: “Me like beer, bitch,” before growing to the size of a baby elephant. Cruel bystanders made him say rude things as he slowly died from the effects of excessive fermented crops. He eventually exploded at around 2am Sunday morning, covering the watching crowd in his own guts.

The Sad Face Of Unemployment A disgruntled Bulwell man called Frank Back took the new “Maverick Business Village” hostage in Hempshill Vale, which had been built on the site of his former employers: “Hempshill Vale Cooked Meats” and threatened people in suits with his fists.

Mr Back was protesting at his job being taken away by someone called “Regeneration” and described how he wanted to “smash his own mouth in”. The nutter was eventually taken away with tears streaming down his face and a broken heart. Economic development carried on regardless.

“A talking fox. There’s your answer.”

Jamie “My choices would be Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean style), Derek from Big Brother and Gordon Strachan.”

Pete Spectrum “From ages 7 to 11 I actually was Robin Hood, I would be prepared to be him again if it helps, but I was banned from my bow and arrow after almost hitting Carolyn Wilcox from across the road.”

Ro “Paddy Considine or Toby Kebbell. Local boys through and through. Maybe Sam Morton could be Marion and then we’d have it sorted.”

Fossy

make your voice heard

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Government Grants Gone Mad Some people in Chilwell have just put a bid together for funding to go out on the razz like its 1999… but better.

Mike Lemon, Manfred Bender, Carter Whisk and Linda Fullon have applied to the government for £78,000 to get “so drunk that we sick up our livers and our noses inflate to red baboon hooters and we lose our minds, therefore forgetting what empty, shallow, human beings we are”.

The group believe their efforts will be a massive boost to the local economy.

A government spokesman, Leslie Heartfelt said: “These kinds of people disgust me. Off the record, I’d like to have them sold into slavery”.

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The issues of trade justice, debt cancellation and better aid for the worlds less economically developed countries that surfaced with last months G8 meeting in Scotland almost vanished from the mainstream media a day after they had begun.

The first day of the actual G8 meeting in Gleneagles on the 6 July was rivalled in media spotlight by Britain’s victory in the race to host the 2012 Olympic games. The second day was overshadowed by the tragic bombings in London.

This is understandable, but the fact that a child dies every three seconds as a direct result of poverty, was already becoming almost ‘old news’. The day after it was announced that the G8 had decided to take down trade barriers, cancel the debts and double aid by 2010, people didn’t seem to be celebrating. This may have been partly because of past broken promises and lack of hard commitment. It was mainly, however, because of the shock of the bombings, so very close to home, making any celebration hard to stomach.

Over 300 Nottingham folk arrived in Edinburgh together for the official Make Poverty History gathering. We were joined by over 200,000 others from many walks of life. Together we stood united to make a human white band around the city centre and send our statement to those eight men. The day proved to be a peaceful promotion of the genuine concerns of those physically present, as well as those who were self descriptively ‘there in spirit’.

Elsewhere that day the Live8 concerts mobilised many who would usually not be attracted by the ‘politics’ of it all and billions got the message loud and clear via the filter of popular music. Over in Edinburgh we had our own Edu-tainment from the

Scenes from the demostration by protesters who marched to the Gleneagles Hotel on July 6th. likes of Baaba Maal and a host of other MPH supporters who graced the stages set up on the Hyde Park like meadows where people could relax before or after joining the continuous circular march that passed through the park and lasted for about 6 hours.

My biggest natural buzz came when seasoned political activist/ musician Billy Bragg announced that “if in a years time nothing had changed, it won’t be the fault of Bob Geldof, Christian

Forum crew on G8 . . .

Music has always been a great drum for awareness and change, that doesn’t change because live aid was 20 years ago.

Pisces J Way back in the eighties, the idea of a charity single and a huge transatlantic showcase of all the biggest bands of that time was new, innovative and rather

marvellous. These days, the kids aren’t political, nobody gives a shit.

Skinny Tinni They could have tried bringing some African musicians out of poverty by giving them the publicity only a massive global TV event can provide.

NJM

Aid, Oxfam or 400 other NGO’s.

It will be the fault of eight men and we need to send a message to them. That message is: “We know where you live.” And no, he wasn’t joking…

the clarity of the injustice suffered by the worlds oppressed in the minds of the uninformed. But that is exactly what many are doing and will continue to do if their legitimate concerns are not heard through non-violent means.

a just world and are intent on causing terror for hates sake.

It will also meet the needs of the millions upon millions in desperate need of the basic resources necessary to live a decent and dignified life.

We need to be sharing the resources of this planet with those who have every bit as much a right to them as any of us. This will take away any excuses for the violence of anyone who may have gone beyond the need for

The Bush administration might not share this approach but they are not the most powerful group on the planet. We, the people, are.

One Love, People get busy.

I’m sure Geldof has good intentions, but I’d like to see all the big mega-bands that play pay some kind of ‘projected sales’ fee from the extra albums they’ll sell after their worldwide exposure slot.

Likewise with text messaging.

Don’t the phone companies make money on every text?

The Milkman

like the plot for a Cliff Richard film.

Lord of The Nish

ing. They will ride out the storm and when everyone forgets, go back to business as usual.

Hipster K

It’s been stated clearly that this one isn’t about raising cash but to make world leaders realise that Poverty is Wrong, which sounds

Any political power worth it’s salt knows this is a temporary boom, it will soon be at the back of the queue of political decision-mak-

The problem with issues as serious as these is that desperate situations lead to desperate measures.

“A hungry mob is a angry mob” as Bob Marley once sang.

Responding with violence to injustice often serves to distort

Geldof has made huge amounts of money for people who actually need it and helped people from starvation, so it doesn’t matter that he’s a twat.

Mr Itch

I dig what bob geldof is doing, I’m just confused as to why they let out of touch middle aged, middle class British white men (some of the most priveliged people on the planet?) choose the bill. Annie Lennox, Dido, Elton John, Mariah Carey?

These people aren’t relevant are they? Are status playing as well?

Floydy

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DEEP Roots Roots Manuva (aka rapper Rodney Smith) is probably the highest profile artist in UK Hiphop history. Ever since he released the Mercury Music Prize nominated Run Come Save Me (and standout single Witness The Fitness), he’s managed to appeal to traditional Hiphoppers and mainstream audiences alike.

That’s not to say he has become a coffee table act. On his latest release Awfully Deep, there are conscious signs of him trying not to conform, as he continues to lead us down the entropic, yet enticing journeys that have characterised his career.

As a warm-up to Glastonbury, he brought his band to Nottingham and sold out the Rescue Rooms (with less than a week’s notice).

We caught up with him for a chat…

Where did Roots Manuva start out?

I started rapping when I was fifteen. I had a mate who was really into LL Cool J and I was really into Rakim. He wrote a rhyme and I wrote one back. It started out from there.

Did you ever think that Witness The Fitness would break as big as it did?

I didn’t have a clue. To me it’s a very annoying tune, a moronic boogie, but I think that it’s what people have made it into that makes it special, not the harmonic and rhythmic structures. It’s now just one of those piss-up tunes. I think we got lucky with the video as well…

It is a brilliant video. Was it your idea?

It was my idea to film some sort

words: Jared Wilson photo: Kevin Lake of sports day. Without having the budget to make a super-glossy video, we ended up just using what was there to make what we could. I’ve never since been able to do a video that has impacted on people as much as that.

In interviews everybody asks you about UK Hiphop and what you think of the scene. Are you sick of being asked that?

I do get sick of it, but I suppose that it is a good thing. It’s good for copy, but it’s something that can rumple me out of my laid back messing and get the sweats going. What is UK Hiphop? There are so many people across the country influenced by rap culture.

This is a sport that has existed before it became TV friendly and it will exist after.

On Awfully Deep you said “This could be my last LP”. Do you seriously think of quitting?

It’s not about quitting out and out. It’s more the possibility of stepping down from the chase of trying to sell more and of my effort to be a thorn in the side of the machine. That’s what keeps me going...

I heard that you tried to get Kate Bush in for guest vocals…

We try and get her every album. I think she must be quite bemused when she gets my records through the post. Sinead O’ Connor came to see me in Dublin the other week and so we might

try and get her in sometime.

What’s your favorite of your own tunes?

My favorite guest track was with Mr Scruff. As for my own stuff, there are too many to choose from.

So you’re not one of those artists that hates listening to their own music?

Time allows you to stand back from it and not listen so close and so deeply. It’s just now that I’m enjoying Brand New Second Hand. My son really likes Awfully Deep. He’s only two years old and it’s a total different listening experience when he’s walking round mimicking it.

Do you think being a father has changed your approach to music?

It made me scared of losing my edge. It made me want to make my music even more difficult to listen to. I’m not here to give people an easy time. I’m still trying to tap back into the spirit of being a fifteen year old. As nice as having your songs on radio and having hit records is, it’s about doing it because you can’t help it.

Do you have any views on Nottingham’s recent gun violence?

It’s just hype. Nottingham is known for the most guns per square mile or whatever, but that’s just the nature of news and

it sells papers. There’s a whole bunch of amazing communal developments that are going on in this city, but the tabloids don’t want to print that. There’s a community spirit here that doesn’t exist in certain other regenerated areas in London and elsewhere.

Any favourite haunts around here?

My brother supported Nottingham Forest way back in the days of Viv Anderson and Trevor Francis.

It’s been like a little Mecca in my head, especially with all the Robin Hood legends. Some of the music that has come out of here is quality. People like Joe Buddha and Tempa. It’s always had a quality to it. I’ve got Cappo’s Spaz The World LP. He beats the beat and is an amazing lyricist!

Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?

In the words of my good friends Oasis, don’t believe the truth.

Seek your own realness. Don’t watch too much MTV. No disrespect to them, but it’s like you shouldn’t eat too much McDonalds. You must try and expand your mind. Read a book, eat at least one meal a month that you haven’t tried before. You know I never used to like couscous. Now I eat it all the time. www.rootsmanuva.co.uk

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In the early nineties, when I was in my teenage years, I used to watch a TV show called The Mary Whitehouse Experience.

Perhaps when you are younger things just seem funnier, but I fondly remember the raucous laughter caused by TMWE being enough to make me physically fall off the settee because lines like “You see that Peter Beardsley… that’s your girlfriend that is,” were being uttered for the first time.

The general TV viewing public eventually realised, however, that of the four founders (Rob, David Baddiel, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis) only two of them were actually funny (and only one wasn’t destined to live out the rest of his life as Frank Skinner’s irritating football sidekick). After two BBC TV series’ and a sell-out gig at Wembley Stadium (still a record for British comedy ticket sales), the four decided to go their separate ways.

So, as the wittiest, most intelligent and verbose of the early nineties so-called ‘Rock and Roll comedians’, Rob Newman did the sensible thing to preserve his status as a legend and quit! He chose instead a more reclusive life as an author and has since put out the novels The Fountain At the Centre of The Universe, Independence Day and Apocaypse Ciao.

He also still keeps his finger in the stand up circuit, but it’s more politically-driven these days. We caught up with Rob for a chat before his recent gig at Nottingham Castle.

What was your favourite sketch from the Mary Whitehouse days? ”There was a sketch I loved called Let Him Have It, about the incidents which led to the hanging of Derek Bentley.

We did the sketch live, gave parts to the roadies and it was quiote madcap and music hall with loads of running about, shouting, falling over and the stage littered with props and debris at the end. It was like being a kid again.”

You took your stand-up show ‘From Caliban to the Taliban’ to America. How did that go down..? ”I did a US tour last year in

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twenty-six cities as well as three gigs in Canada. In some places, like Austin, Texas I did pure stand-up. That gig sold out a 500-seat theatre and it went very well. I got two encores and a Professor from a local University introduced me with a ten minute talk about my work. At most places I did a mix of reading from my novel ‘The Fountain At The Centre Of The World’, some spoken word and some bits from Caliban Taliban.”

In a previous interview, when asked about how you would vote you said “The self respecting thing to do is not to vote at all.” Can you explain what you mean by that?

Power has been privatised.

The CBI and the corporate lobby and the financial markets always get to decide what the policy is going to be (big business friendly) and all the parties are the same.

Change has historically always come from people outside parliament doing direct action and mass organizing. It has only very exceptionally come purely from within.

How did you feel about the ‘Scribbling’ TV documentary about your struggles as a writer. I found it really interesting, but sensed that it may have left you feeling quite exposed and vulnerable…

I’m glad you liked it. I never saw it myself. I can’t stand watching myself on telly.

I should have suspected as much from a man with no TV in his house. I take it you have no plans for an on-screen comeback then?

It’s funny you should say that as I have a programme on the history of oil, in development with Channel 4 right now (that’s a scoop for LeftLion).

What was the last thing that made you laugh a lot?

Hmmm… good question. I think it was either some stray thought crossing my brain or listening to Richard Pryor talking about having a heart attack.

Can you recommend one book that everybody should read?

Lovers of fiction will love Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides or To The Wedding

by John Berger. Lovers of fact might want to take a look at the Schnews annual (‘Schnews at Ten’).

Are you a fan of Charles Bukowski or Hunter S Thompson?

No, take away the myth and the legend of the holy drinker and the writing seems a bit thin to me. They seldom recognize the existence of other human beings apart from themselves and never know the first thing bout any of the places they find themselves in.

Who’s the best new comic you’ve seen in the past year?

Daniel Kitson (well, he was new to me).

Do you believe in God? No.

If they asked you, would you host the next Comic Relief and how would you do it?

What book are you reading at the moment?

The Berthold Brecht play Caucasian Chalk Circle.

I’d do it by saying you can only give money to organizations dedicated to

the overthrow of capitalism (if you want to end poverty then you have to, as Robb Johnson sings, to make the wealthy history. I’d also make a rule that no-one is allowed on the show who has more than £500 in the bank.

Do you and other political comedians, like Mark Thomas and Jeremy Hardy, ever meet up just to hang out and shoot the breeze?

If so, are there more arguments or cuddles?

In truth I don’t see much of them, except for at benefit gigs these days.

Do you wish you’d been more politically aware or active when you

were at the height of your fame? ”And Catch 22 says if I sing the truth they won’t make me an overnight star” The Specials, Gangsters.

Rob Newman played Just The Tonic at Nottingham Castle on 27 July 2005. www.justthetonic.com

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words: Paul Klotschkow Little Barrie are led by Beeston lad Barrie Cadogan and have recently released their debut album, the imaginatively titled ‘We Are Little Barrie’. It was produced by ex-Orange Juice man Edwyn Collins, who has described Barrie as, “the best guitarist of his generation”.

Edwyn is not the only one who has been giving the band accolades. Barrie has recently been touring with DJ Format (who was raving about him in the last issue of this magazine) and according to the music press Noel Gallagher is a fan (of Barrie’s guitars at least). We caught-up with him for a chat as he was on his way to rehearsals…

How did the band start out?

I had been in bands before, but they were mainly instrumentals, and I wanted to do something more song based. So I got some rough demos together and started to get some interest. Then I met Wayne and we started jamming together. We bought a drum kit, and Wayne learnt how to play drums, so that we had a drummer.

Then we moved to London to try and get noticed and that’s where we met our bass player Lewis.

You played guitar in Morrissey’s band last year, how did that come about?

I’m friends with his long-time guitarist Boz Boorer and when Alain Whyte got ill, I got a call to ask if I could step in and play guitar. This was the Tuesday and on Friday they were playing Ireland. I asked how many songs were in the set, and they told me twenty. So I had to learn twenty songs in three days. But the tour was good, I went to Italy and spent a lot of time in America.

What’s Morrissey like?

I didn’t really get to know him, he keeps himself to himself. I would see him in rehearsals and soundchecks, but that’s about it. We did go for a night out in Copenhagen and he bought everyone drinks.

Did he get drunk?

No he didn’t. He didn’t stay out long. He’s a very personal guy.

What was it like making the video for the single, Long Hair?

It was made by Chris Cairns who I liked working with. It was shot in Chris’ house, he has this big open planned room. He did the editing as well. It was all completely finished in a day. Tom Vek was there too, so we met him. Yeah, I like Chris. I like his animations.

Noel Gallagher has been singing your praises. What is it like to be rated by someone like him?

Has he really? I didn’t know that.

Well, it’s cool. It’s always good to know that people like you. I’ve met Noel a few times actually. I used to work in a guitar shop and I sold a few guitars to him.

You’re also good friends with DJ Format.

Yes that’s right. We have toured together and we are label mates. People thought that it was a bit strange that we were touring with someone who is quite Hiphop, but to us it made sense, as the influences are the same. The tour was a bit mad actually, we did 23 dates in 24

days and we were on the same bus together. We used to jam on stage together, and we went down really well, it was good. We are actually talking with Format about collaborating together in the near future. We are also thinking of doing something with his emcee Abdominal.

The festival season is upon us, have you been doing any?

Well, we were due to play Glastonbury and we were on the M4 on our way to the festival when we found out that the tent we were due to play in had collapsed. The beer tent next to it had been struck by lighting.

It’s a shame, because it’s not on next year. We’re playing a lot of the small festivals that are happening around the country.

We’ve just played in Coventry with bands like The Others and The Paddingtons. We are playing a festival in Blackburn next week and we’ve done a few festivals in France as well. I’m off to Japan soon to play the Summer Sonic Festival and it’ll be good as things are stating to happen there.

What have the crowds been like?

They’ve been good generally. In France we were on really late, but still got a good turnout. It is really positive.

What do you think of the Nottingham music scene at the moment?

To be honest, I don’t really know that much about it. It does seem much more vibrant then when I was around. That is one of the reasons we moved down to London, because there wasn’t much happening in Nottingham.

Are you still in touch with any bands here?

I do quite like a band called the Sound Carriers. I used to be in a different group with them.

Well, it’s Friday, any plans for this weekend?

I’m off to a gig tomorrow at the Koko in Camden. Then the band is off to Blackburn to play a festival.

Keeping busy… www.littlebarrie.com

Punish The Atom

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They’ve supported Death From Above 1979, been bigged up by the NME, played the South by Southwest festival, been on proper radio, and have left music journos with deep gashes as they scratch their head and try to pin a label on ‘em. Punish The Atom (aka Joey Bell, Pete Dale, John Cox, Jonny Legender and Cristy Fownston) are currently working on their second LP, which was reason enough to, er, shoot some questions atom… words: Sadie Rees Hales photos: Dom Henry What inspired you to start a band?

Joey: We saw the Wolves of Greece do a gig at the Boat Club a few years ago. We just looked at each other and knew we had to do it. But our first gig (at the Social) was shit.

John: I was working there at the time and didn’t know what to think.

Joey: We’d just bash about on untuned guitars. We started off playing anywhere, gradually gaining more confidence.

You’ve got a sizeable fan base here now, but what reaction do you get outside of Notts?

Joey: We get a good reaction in Birmingham, as some of our Nottingham fans have travelled up there to see the gigs. We do quite well in Camden. It’s hard to tour the country, though, because we don’t have lots of money. We could have toured with Radio 4 and Ikara Colt in Europe but it fell through at the last minute.

What’s it like having Anton Lockwood as a manager?

It’s obviously helped a lot in terms of getting gigs with high-profile bands…

John: Yeah, this is something that we are a bit paranoid about. We got a good billing at the Dot To Dot festival, so maybe other bands think “Oh yeah, they would get that.”

Joey: We know we’re very lucky to have him as a manager as he’s so wellconnected, but he’s been our mate for years. We asked him to be our manager and he said yes. We really like him as a manager as well as a friend.

Your drummer left you to join Amusement Parks On Fire.

Any beef between the bands?

Joey: There is rivalry between us. However it’s with the name, not the people. We still really like Pete as a friend, but we didn’t want him to leave.

Christy: I love Pete, but I definitely feel rivalry.

John: We’re lucky to have Anthony though, as he’s got a lot of experience…

Anthony: I’ve worked with Julian Cope, and done lots of session work. They’re lucky to have my talents. Yes, I’m very modest…

Joey: We were so close to calling it a day after Pete left.

We didn’t know if we could continue after that, but then we played at South By South West in Texas and that, as well as Anthony joining, gave us a real kick up the arse.

Has appearing in the NME increased your fanbase?

John: You’d be surprised, it doesn’t really makes a difference in terms of the amount of people turning up to gigs. After all of that we haven’t gained loads of new fans. Again, it’s down to money and promotion.

As for Notts, who are you rating at the moment?

Joey: For a while the music scene dipped off in Nottingham, it seemed to go quiet for a while, but now we have great bands like The Hellset Orchestra, who put on an

incredible show, as well as The Wolves of Greece and You Slut.

Anthony: I run the Mouse House studios in Sneinton and get to see lots of local bands working away there.

Jonny: There are loads of good acts in Nottingham considering it isn’t the biggest city.

What do you feel about people downloading your music off the internet?

Anthony: We’ve got no problem with it. As we can’t afford lots of promotion, wordof-mouth advertising is good for our band. So if someone downloads our music and likes it, they’d probably pass it on to someone else. We’re a small band so we can’t be too controlling over things like that. We’re not Led Zeppelin, yet.

Jonny But we were number two in the charts on a Ukraine radio station. We were between Oasis and The Bravery. That felt very surreal.

You’ve had some airplay on British radio too. How does it feel hearing yourselves?

Christy: We’ve actually always missed our songs on the radio! We’ve meant to listen out for them but it’s just not happened.

I read somewhere that you used to play the viola.

True?

Christy: I did, until we realised that you couldn’t hear it over the rest of the music.

We were just mucking about, trying to make music and realised that it didn’t work. So I took up the guitar instead.

Your name sounds like a sadomasochistic physics experiment. Where did it come from?

Joey: It came from a line in The Ninth Configuration by William Peter Blatty.

Anthony: Playing music is like S and M, though.

Jonny: We should be wearing rubber! www.punishtheatom.com

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It was a Sunday evening in the summer of 1996, or maybe 1997… in fact it might even have been 1995 but it’s relatively unimportant. I was skating with a good friend of mine. As we rolled past an old English pub (the one next to The Tales of Robin Hood) two men stumbled out, covered in tattoos and sovereign rings both with shaved heads and bellies the size of their mums. One of them looked directly at Ben, pointed and said in an incoherent manner: “Why don’t you get a bleeding job?”

I still remember it vividly today because it is a brilliant example of how all the hype, sponsorship and money haven’t really changed the fact that skateboarders are looked down on by most people.

At that time Ben was the editor for Sidewalk Surfer, regarded as Britain’s only respectable skateboarding magazine, which was available throughout Europe.

Personally I count that as not only having a job, but also having a bleeding good one too.

Although international skateboarding competitions with huge prize money are broadcast to millions and skaters like Tony Hawk’s have even gained celebrity status, skateboarding is still perceived as an immature hobby practiced by kids seeking an avenue for rebellion. So I would like to clear a few things

up here; skateboarding is a healthy sport and a valid art form.

It carries with it a philosophy, a code of conduct and a strong mutual respect between its participants (and it definitely kept me from getting involved in less wholesome pursuits). I have met countless people through skateboarding, the majority of whom have been artistic, intelligent and very amicable and through their perspectives on life I have learnt many valuable lessons. If you think I’m being sentimental about an activity, which involves throwing yourself down steps then you just don’t get it. One of the great things about skateboarding is there are no real winners or losers. There are just people who get it and people who don’t.

The greatest thing about the scene back in those heady nineties was the solidarity of the entire skateboarding population.

The market square would be teeming with skaters ranging from sponsored pros to little kids who could hardly make it up a curb. The skateboarding community in Nottingham was an entity that moved through the city, a dynamic and flowing unit of energy that could fragment and regroup as it pleased. This doesn’t just apply to Nottingham, you can rock up to any city in the UK (or the world for that matter) with your board and instantly

have a massive group of friends, all keeping an eye out for each other and united by the love of the sport.

Skaters perceive the city in a unique way. We see it as a blank canvas begging to become a work of art. We have mentally composed a highly detailed local knowledge about dispersed places, micro-architectures and accessible times. Walls, benches, ledges, railings and banks present an opportunity for not only tricks but flow. Flow is about style. It’s about riding from spot to spot, at high speed, during rush hour. On a good day, when the traffic lights work in your favour, you feel like you’ve figured out where your place is in our fucked-up world. This lasts for a short time, then the feeling disappears and you’re lost again.

You develop the “skater’s eye”, constantly on the look out for new angles or approaches to use what most people see as an object or form within the city.

So next time you see a skater and he doesn’t land a trick, don’t assume that he’s not very good, assume instead that he’s trying to perfect a new stroke with his brush. If you hear a skater coming down the street behind you at high speed don’t change your path because he has a plan of how to get around you and if you step in his way your more likely to mess up the flow.

Skateboarding got outlawed in the city centre in 2001 (thanks to Nottingham City Council).

More recently, I was amused when a two day skateboarding event in the Market Square, including music, body art and breakdancing, was cancelled because they feared that boards may be used as the primary means of travel to the event and upset the precious shoppers.

Well I wonder which genius Council worker came up with that groundbreaking revelation..!

The main impact of the law was that it took away the central meeting point (the Market

Square) but was anyone really surprised? We used to tear that place apart all weekend! It is irritating that they banned it (especially when, as the first person caught skateboarding in town after the ban, I had to pay an £80 fine), but I haven’t got any time for people who whinge about it. You can still get away with skating popular spots especially on a Sunday night and it should encourage you to branch out a little and explore your local area and hook up with local skaters. Or you could do what my mate Nick did and move to Leeds (bit drastic though).

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m edha e N l wen s: A word David Bo o: phot

Just because Forest and Notts are rubbish at the moment, it doesn’t mean Nottingham is a sporting backwater. There are supposed to be more sporting facilities per head in this city than anywhere else in Europe. Sadly, there are even more chippies and pubs per head, which is why there are so many fat bastards in town.

Anyway, let’s put aside the fact that local football stinks like a cat’s arsehole in August for a moment and remind ourselves that there is more to Nottingham sport than football. Even though we have the oldest professional club in the world, the world’s first local derby, and when you think about it, Nottingham is the spiritual home of professional football and the new national stadium should have been here. As well as the Olympics.

Consider the facts; If you did some steroids and chucked a stone hard enough from the middle of Trent Bridge (home of the first-ever five-day test match), you could bounce it off the roof of the Trent End and land it in the middle of Meadow Lane, the oldest football ground in the world (even though they ripped everything down and put some grey corrugated sheeting up). You wouldn’t be able to hit up such a storied triumvirate of stadia anywhere else in the world. Who cares if the teams who play in them are crap…?

In this issue, LeftLion pulls on the BO-encrusted rugby shirt that Sir always make you wear when you forget your Games kit and runs about town in its pants, having a word with a selection of local heroes and sports journos in an attempt to see what’s up with Nottingham sport these days. And then we’ll be going off for a fag round the back of the sports hall.

THERE’S ONLY FOUR TEAMS IN NOTTINGHAM Nottingham Panthers Formed: 1946

division, the most famous recent player was Brian Moore, who played for the Lions.

Why? Because of the intense late40s mania for ice hockey, sparked by loads of Canadians based in Notts during the war and the sudden availability of the Ice Stadium, after it had been used as a munitions dump during said war.

Are they any good? The oldest and one of the best in the country.

By the 50s, Nottingham was going absolutely mental for the Panthers and the team were national champions two years running. They probably would have dominated the 60s, were it not due to the fact that ice hockey basically died on its arse due to poor attendances and teams were breaking up left, right and centre. By the end of the 70s, the reformed club begged the Ice Stadium to let them back and before too long, the semi-pro team were jamming ‘em in.

What have they ever done for us?

Helped get us a whopping big arena that hosts the kind of gigs that you used to have to go to Birmingham for, as well as virtually every other indoor winter sport. It is also a place for gawky youths to try and cop off with each other on Saturday afternoons. And brings in crazy

What have they ever done for us? Kept all the rugger buggers in Beeston.

Torvill and Dean revenue one weekend a year when they host the national championships and attract thousands of chunk families in ice hockey shirts. As soon as the next Ice Age kicks in, Nottingham will be hosting a Winter Olympics. Believe.

Nottinghamshire CCC Formed: 1838 Why? Because, back in the days when the Meadows was really a meadow, they found somewhere to play. William Clarke, the founder of the club, got shacked up with the landlady of the TBI just so he could rope off the field at the back of the pub and charge money to watch games. The saucy bleeder.

Formed: 1975 Are they any good? Among the also-rans, sadly. After their second county championship in 1929, they went 52 years without another one.

Had a decent run in the 80s, but have only recently dragged themselves out of the second division. Plenty of individual highlights, though.

Gary Sobers whacking six sixes in an over against Glamorgan in 1968 being the most famous.

What have they ever done for us? If it wasn’t for them, Trent Bridge would only be somewhere to have it off and sleep under when you’re too pissed to get home. Yearly test matches have given our ethnic population a great opportunity to congregate and have a laugh as their countrymen beat the shit out of England.

Nottingham RFC Formed: 1877 Why? Because a 16 year-old lad called Alick Birkin spent a bit of time at Rugby School, where William Webb Ellis caused a ruckus when he picked up the ball during a game of footy and ran with it. When he came back to Notts, he formed a club with his mates.

Are they any good? Hmm, well…

Nottingham’s not really a rugger town, is it? For the first 75 years, their Beeston ground was regularly flooded by the Trent and when they first started up they were barred out of the local pub and had to change in the stables. Currently in the second

Why? Because Chris, a 17 yearold copper, and Jayne, an 18 year-old who had already won the British championship with Michael Hutchenson (no, not the one who shagged Kylie and ended up hanging himself) were simply meant to be together.

Are they any good? Stop being so sucky, of course they are. The best, mate.

What have they ever done for us?

Gave our city some restored civic pride after Forest went on the wane in the 80s. Also, whenever people around the world hear Ravel’s Bolero, they think of Nottingham.

Instead of Dudley Moore trying to shag Bo Derek in 10.

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Lost In The Forest Words: James Walker Danny Taylor has been a sportswriter for the Guardian since 1999, predominantly covering the (mis)fortunes of Manchester United and England. Although Danny is a devout red he is of the Nottingham variety and consequently dreams of the City Ground instead of Gold Trafford.

He has recently had a book published entitled Deep into the Forest in which he tracks down fourteen of his favourite Forest idols.

Unsurprisingly, no-one from the current squad features.

Where the anecdotes of some of the larger than life players interviewed could marginalise a narration, a quick turn of phrase and beautifully weighted observations ensured the author was not overshadowed, making this a must have Bible for any true fan. I caught up with Sibthorpes’ finest to discuss life, the universe and the tricky trees.

Was the book something you always wanted to do?

I’d had the idea for a few years and I thought it was a good time to do it. Nostalgia is the football fan’s best friend, particularly when there is fuck all to celebrate of the present team.

Were the players accommodating?

Larry Lloyd and Garry Birtles were particularly hospitable, inviting me into their houses.

None of them was awkward, although John McGovern was a bit hard to nail down as he had just released his own book and Des Walker was distant and evasive. Trevor Francis and Archie Gemmill were nice

surprises. For no particular reason, I’d got it into my mind that they would be awkward interviews, but they were great company.

If you could bring in two extra players for the book who would they be?

Martin O’Neill would be the first, just to prove that I still love him. A Scottish journalist mate of mine has told me that Martin was spitting mad when he found out I missed him out.

I used to cover Leicester when Martin was in charge and he was absolutely top man. But he’s also the hardest guy in the world to pin down and it was a question of him or Larry Lloyd. Anyone who reads the book will probably agree that Lloyd was a great person to interview. He calls David Platt a dickhead, for starters.

The second extra chapter would have to be Peter Shilton. I missed him out because I was unwilling to pay for memories and unfortunately that’s not the way he works. Had it been a book about the best-ever XI I would have had no choice but to speak to Shilton and empty out my bank account but, as it is, the book features 14 of our best players. To call it ‘Forest’s best-ever XI’ etc would have been a bit egotistical because who am I decide what their best team is?

Roy Keane was the only player not to grant an interview. Was there ever a moment when you thought bollocks to you Keano, I’m replacing you with Brian Rice?

Quite a few. It’s certainly divided people. Some say I was wrong to include Keane if he wasn’t going to spare the time for an interview.

Others agree with me that it nicely breaks up the book,

and besides I wanted to write about how he once roadraged me. Keane’s always interesting, isn’t he?

I hear your girlfriend Zoe and her parents are Derby fans, bet Sunday dinners have been just as interesting as anything Mr. Keane could offer up?

Her entire family support Derby, sisters, brother-in-law, friends, everyone. I shame myself. They take the mickey but they know when to stop as well. When Derby have thrashed us over the last two seasons and when Forest were relegated they kept a diplomatic silence. It was as if it never happened. Me? When Preston beat them in the play-offs I was hammering my mobile. I was hysterical.

Do you see a similar rivalry with the ‘pies?

Is there such a thing?

Notts County are a club for pensioners and small children.

I never think of them. Forest’s rivals are Derby, Spurs, Liverpool and sometimes Leicester. Oh, and Chesterfield this season.

Nottingham is unrivalled as the media’s favourite scapegoat. How do you find the city?

Top place. So many memories.

Can’t believe what I keep reading about the crime etc.

I’ve got mates in Manchester who think a night out in Nottingham is too dangerous, and I just think that’s ridiculous.

Concerning the current team, do you see anyone evoking similar passionsin you as Gary Birtles (who you describe as ‘the type of guy who would have You’ve Lost That Loving

Feeling as his ringtone’?)

Kris Commons, allegedly. We’ll see when another club tries to sign him. Maybe Wes Morgan if he stays a few years.

I keep having dreams about winning the league and the LDV. Am I an idiot?

No. It’s just part of the mourning process.

What are Forest’s hopes for the new season then?

To keep their incredible fans and to win promotion.

Would you consider writing a follow up entitled ‘Down in the Forest’ a quest to find the worst fourteen players of all time. If so, do

you think this would take more or less consideration?

With David Platt and Joe Kinnear as joint managers, perhaps? It’s a good idea, but I doubt the players would want to be interviewed... and I don’t have a number for Silenzi.

DEEP INTO THE FOREST by Daniel Taylor is priced £9.95 at all good bookshops now Contact: www.parrswoodpress.com www.jameskwalker.co.uk

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Midfield General words: Jared Wilson photo: Kevin Lake Dave McVay was a midfielder for Notts County in a different era from today. In the seventies, he trained all week, went for a pint after work and did a milk round in his spare time. After retirement, he embarked on a career as a reporter and has moved from covering football for the Nottingham Post to The Times.

Five years ago he was going through some old diaries and sent them to a publisher. The result was Steak Diana Ross, the story of a ‘football nobody’. As a document of the era the book stands out not only for its humour, but also for it’s gritty and loveable honesty. We caught up with him to talk local managers and ‘sexy’ football…

How much rewriting was there with Steak Diana Ross from your original diaries?

There was quite a lot of touching up, but there was no real need to embellish. Some of the things I wrote about sparked a lot of memories. I was eighteen and writing about self-indulgent issues such as my personal lovelife that I just had to leave out and move on from.

I hear there might be a screen version of it one day…

I talked to Billy Ivory recently and he’s been asked about it by an up-and-coming director who bought it in a bookstore on Canning Circus and asked his agents to buy the film rights. I’m not living in Barbados, so they haven’t come through just yet, but it’s an ongoing project.

It was extremely easy if you were in the right clubs with the right company. There was a 99 club at Trent Bridge, which was the big pulling palace. As it got towards 2am and the witching hour approached there was a pincer movement from the women. They were a reliable bunch.

Who do you want playing you..?

Haha! It’s got to be Brad Pitt… for my own part I just want to do an Alfred Hitchcock and get a walkon part. Maybe I can be the bloke at the back of the bus saying “McVay, you’re bloody rubbish!”

What was the relationship between the players and the local media like? How did it compare to the Forest team getting hammered last season for drinking in town a few nights before a big game?

The only time I remember us getting any bad press at all was when Rachid Harkouk and a couple of others were in a club and splashed a soda siphon all over. It became a story because Notts were struggling at the time. The following week Ronnie Fenton got the sack and Jimmy Sirrel returned from Sheffield.

Fortunately I was on loan to Torquay at the time. That was the only time that sort of publicity ever came out. I suppose County weren’t really a ‘sexy’ club.

Do you feel you were born at the wrong time as a footballer in terms of the financial rewards?

When I see people like Robbie Savage running around and earning thousands it does make you wonder. Sitting on the other side of the fence though, the players don’t have the involvement in the community that we had. My diaries are laced with characters from both sides of the pitch because you had experience of actually meeting the people who paid your wages.

I’m rich in memories.

How easy was it to pull women in the seventies as a County player on a night out?

Do you think they ever have been?

Unfortunately not. With Jimmy and Jack Dunnett there it could never have been sexy. Howard

Wilkinson wasn’t exactly Mr Charisma, but he did a great job. When Neil Warnock was there he hyped it all up a bit and tried to broaden the image, but since I was a kid the club has always been in the shadow of Forest. Notts’ generation of fans went with the demolition of the Meadows and I don’t think they have ever really recovered from it.

What do you think it is that makes a Notts fan a Notts fan?

I think people are born and bred as Notts supporters. There is animosity towards Forest, but not like in certain cities where it’s life or death.

Any thoughts on new Notts manager Gudjon Thordarson?

He’s got a good track record. He had a good spell at Stoke and was unlucky to get the boot from Barnsley. I just hope he brings in a few players who can get them promotion.

In five years time who will be the dominant club in Nottinghamshire?

I’d have to say Forest have more potential because of their crowd base. In my days County were the dominant club. We regularly beat Forest and regularly finished above them in the league. As a

player that was a great feeling!

Do you think we don’t make enough of the fact that Nottingham is the home of professional football?

I remember when Albert Scardino took over at Notts and got quite a lot of mileage in the press. He was misguided in many ways, but he did plan to exploit the history.

The problem is that you can only sell that line so often before it loses meaning. Locally everybody knows it and familiarity breeds contempt.

There’s talk at the moment of a statue for Brian Clough. What about one of Jimmy Sirrell?

I think he is one of the great unsung heroes of local football.

He didn’t have the wit or wisdom of Cloughie, but he’s got a stand named after him at Meadow Lane. If they were to do a small statuette of him somewhere in the ground it would be quite fitting, but it should be covered over during the daytime and anyone of a nervous disposition should be warned beforehand. www.parrswoodpress.com

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HARD AS Froch!

I never was particularly one for fighting at school, but since back in those days I can remember enjoying watching a good boxing match. Right from the days of Eubank and Benn’s titanic battles on ITV, it made amazing viewing to see two athletes pummel each other until one eventually falls. Brutal, but appealing in the most base sort of way.

Carl Froch is the best boxer that Nottingham has produced in some time. Now undefeated in sixteen fights, having won twelve of them by knockout, he currently holds the British and Commonwealth titles. At the age of 27 he appears unphased by the temptations of drugs and crime that have hindered the careers of other recent talented boxers from the city.

I met up with Carl at his family pub in Carlton, just before he had begun training for his recent fight at the Ice Arena against Matthew Barney. He told me there and then that he was going to destroy his opponent and when I went to watch him a month later he proceeded to do so, despite breaking his hand in the fifth round.

When did you first realize that you wanted to be a professional boxer?

Well, my dad was a boxer. He boxed at a borstal and when I was young he had a bag hanging up in the garage. I went down to my local amateur boxing club when I was ten. (the Phoenix ABC in Gedling) and that was when I first started training

properly. I had my first fight at the age of eleven, which is the youngest that they allow. You can’t really hurt each other that much at that age, you’re landing shots, but they don’t really pack a punch.

I take it that you got the nickname ‘The Cobra’, because of the way that you fight…

Yeah. I usually stun my opponents with a venomous attack and then strike. It’s a pretty good phrase for PR too, with the alliteration of ‘Carl’ and ‘Cobra’.

Which of your fights so far has given you the most satisfaction?

Probably the points win with King Charles Adamu.

He was a real tough strong Ghanaian veteran, who had been to the Olympics and is like a king in his home country, with his head on stamps and everything. It seemed at times during the fight that I just couldn’t hurt him and I was taking a lot of shots myself. It was my first twelve round fight and I was fighting for the Commonwealth title. It was an honourable fight throughout and for me to come out victorious at the end was very satisfying. He’d never been put down before and I took him down in the eighth. For me that is much more satisfying than a first round knockout. I’ve got a lot of respect for him as a boxer.

So what do you do to recover after a fight. Do you just lie in bed for a few weeks?

After that fight I couldn’t move for a fortnight, literally. I couldn’t clench my fists or anything. My back and my neck were sore and it felt like I had

been in a car crash. Usually you need a week or two off just chilling out and relaxing. In that time I just do things I want to, like going on holiday. Then after a couple of weeks you start to get back onto it.

It’s nothing too harsh or intensive though, until you get the date through for the next fight that is…

So what’s your training schedule like before a big fight?

I do four to five runs per week which vary in length up to about six miles. I don’t struggle with my weight, unlike a lot of boxers, which is a big advantage in the weeks building up to a fight. It means that I don’t have to do long runs, but instead I make them quite intense. Nottingham is built on mountains and there are a lot of hills (like Donkey Hill), so I do eight or ten runs up and down them each day. It is really intensive. About ten minutes in you always want to stop, but you just have to keep going. It’s a test of mental strength, not just fitness.

I understand that you have a problem finding suitable sparring partners?

There’s definitely a problem getting them in England. There’s only two people in the country that I can get in to spar these days and they’re not always available. Usually I don’t keep them for very long. Sometimes they don’t even come back for the money.

I know you have a burning passion to box on terrestrial TV...

My second to last fight was televised in America,

words: Jared Wilson photos: David Bowen but not here. We showed it in our family pub and had a lot of locals turn out, but I want people to see me when I fight and there are so many that haven’t.

I’d love boxing to get back where it belongs. The BBC really fucked it up a few years ago when they gave Audley Harrison £1million for ten fights. Noone was interested in watching him knock a pub doorman out. He was fighting people who didn’t have a chance and that’s why no-one knows or cares about him anymore.

If you look back at when Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn were both massive it was because they were on national TV. Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe have had a lot of press recently, but in terms of boxing champions they’re still unknown to most of the British public. Boxing fans know who they are, but not your next door neighbour. But ITV are getting back into the sport. They showed my fight and they showed the Amir Khan fight and hopefully the great days are about to return.

You’ve also been baiting Joe Calzaghe, the world super-middleweight boxing Champion, on live TV… He’s been carefully sidestepping me. I called it on with him in front of six million viewers, which is maybe a little out of order, but if it gets him up and into the ring then I’m happy. The problem with British boxing at the moment is that not enough British fighters want to fight each other. They want to walk into each fight 100% guaranteed to win because the guy they are fighting isn’t good enough.

I’d like to take on Joe Calzaghe. He’s strong fit and dedicated, a real warrior. I’ve actually got quite a lot of respect for him after watching him box right from when I was a kid, but I’d slag him off to get him onto the ring. I know that a fight with him won’t be easy, but I’d be prepared to train harder than ever to beat him.

Why do you think he’s not up for it. Is it a money thing?

Well, he’s been hanging around for nine years with the word title and beaten Chris Eubank and Henry Wharton in two great fights, but apart from that, it’s been a while since he’s fought anyone decent.

His last match wasn’t exactly a big pay day, but he’s been in America and looking for a couple of million before he retires. If he fights me and gets beat then there isn’t really anywhere else to go. I can’t blame him for what he’s doing, but he can’t say that he’s not afraid to get into the ring with me, otherwise he’d just do it.

You’ve been accused by some of being overconfident.

People can say that I’m overconfident, but I’m undefeated. The thing is that I know these guys are tough, but with the training that I do and the preparation that I put in for every fight, it means that I can confidently sit here and tell you that I’m capable of taking them out. I’ve got a natural talent for this game. As an amateur I won the national title three years running when I was just messing around in my spare time and not really keeping a

real boxing regime at all. The training itself would take an average person so far, but with the talent I’ve got as well I’m a sure thing!

Where do you go on a night out in Nottingham?

I don’t spend much time in bars or clubs, but I like going out to eat a lot. If you can’t go out and get tanked up with everyone else, which is what it’s all about really, then it kind of defeats the point of it all. Don’t get me wrong, going out drinking is tempting, but I can live that life later on. At the moment I’ve got an important job on and I just want to be the best at it and to do what I do well involves cutting out the vices in life like drinking and smoking and being up at all hours.

Your training sessions in London sound pretty hardcore…

It’s like a training camp. I’m up at six running and in bed by ten o’clock. I’ll have a big bowl of porridge and banana and honey. No caffeine at all, I’m on mint tea. That’s Monday to Friday for six weeks and I come back home for the weekends.

I read a previous interview where you gave a slating to other British sportsmen like David Beckham and Tim Henman…

The way I look at it is that pound for pound and sport for sport I’m better at boxing than Beckham is at football. He’s great at corners and free kicks and passing, but he can’t tackle and is not an allround talent. I was really trying to get the papers to take note of boxing and say ‘look we’ve got a talent here, someone who is going to dominate on a world level’. As soon as I unify the world titles everybody will be onto me like a rash. I just want to get them on board early…

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Other Nottingham Boxers Jason and Nicky Booth Bantamweight and flyweight double hard boxing brothers from the city. Jason is IBO Super Flyweight Champion and has a fine record as a boxer.

Former British Bantamweight Champion Nicky was jailed for two years in March 2004 for house burglary and theft after he lost his title.

Kirkland Laing Born in Jamaica, but resident of Nottingham, Kikland Laing won the British Welterweight title in 1979 and again in 1987, before going on to win the European belt in 1990. Most people know him for his win over Roberto Duran in 1982, which was the upset of the year. After he retired he hit upon a downward spiral of drug addition.

Bendigo Grew up in a nineteenth century Nottingham Workhouse and became the era’s equivalent of Muhammad Ali. In February 1839 he beat the fearsome Deaf James Burke in a fight for the all-England championship. After that he kept the title for over a decade. His last fight was on the 5th June 1850, against Tom Paddock, which he won in the 49th(!?!) round. During his later years he became a Preacher and would address his congregation with: “See them belts, I used to fight for those. But now I fight for Christ.”

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Out&About

BARS/GYMS/RESTAURANTS/SHOPS

In what is by now a regular feature, LeftLion whips out the credit card and wallows in the retail wonderland that is Nottingham. Our correspondent, looking nervously at the unopened creditcard bill on the mantlepiece, is Cristina Chapman.

RESTAURANT: SALTWATER

GYM: DAVID LLOYD Where do you go in Nottingham on a hot day if you don’t have your own pool? Well after they closed the lidos down (admittedly quite a few years ago now) you don’t have much choice.

So what you need is a brother with a corporate membership to one of Nottingham’s most bourgeois gyms.

Sunny summer days lying by the pool at David Lloyds is where it’s at. That alone is reason enough to join. Not so welcoming in the spring, it just makes you run really, really fast back inside, it’s a real treat as the temperatures rise. It’s just like being in the Algarve. No really.

Aside from the pool, David Lloyd offers the complete mix of sports.

Badminton, squash, tennis (outdoor and indoor), classes, gym equipment, the lot and there are personal trainers for everything.

All this, combined with the family oriented facilities (creche, area with plastic balls, kids menus in the

restaurant), makes David Lloyd very much like a posh leisure centre. It figures then, that the two Nottingham ones are in the suburbs…

David Lloyd Leisure Aspley Lane NG8 5AR David Lloyd Leisure – West Bridgford Rugby Road NG2 7HX

Saltwater cocktails are always a well-earned prize for fighting through the layers of Chav Cake (that’s the Cornerhouse if you are wondering).

A meal then, at World Service’s little sister, is the sign of a truly special occasion. Or maybe it’s just a sign that your overdraft has been reduced to nought after pay day.

The service matches the views from its fab rooftop terrace. It is so very European to be in a restaurant where the waiters and waitresses look like they are enjoying their job. A place where they know that a smile, swift responses and unobtrusive attendance makes eating out a much more enjoyable experience.

The food isn’t half bad either. We tried the mussels in a scrumptious bath of Thai chilli and coconut and the soup of the day. We followed this range of goodies with salmon on a bed of sweet potato mash and steak with pomme frites (that’s French fries to you and us). Everything hit the right note, except for the chips.

Anaemic and emaciated, they were the impoverished relations of the meal.

There was also a good selection of wine by the glass. Normally we’d go for the bottle, but when your menu choices don’t match it’s nice to know that you don’t have to resort to the optics.

Although there may be an altitude tax on cocktails, this rooftop bar and restaurant is one of our favourites and it provides just the right mix of lively atmosphere, intriguing tastes, professional service and realistic prices.

Saltwater The Cornerhouse Forman Street NG1 4AA 0115 9242664

BAR: BAR NONE If you want to dance all night to the sounds of the happy days of the nineties, the funky nights of the seventies or the Motown phase of the sixties, this is where to head.

The DJs at Bar None are skill, so there’s never an empty dance floor (unless you count 8pm, when it’s more of a chilled place to chat than fully-charged for a big night out.)

But that’s the beauty of Bar None.

Whatever time you go, the atmosphere seems to suit your mood and it’s one of the friendliest and most unpretentious places left in Nottingham.

We put that down to its location. Out the way of the usual Living Room, Brass Monkey, Pitcher and Piano haul or the Eleven, Lloyds, Coco Lounge row, you have to venture downstairs to soak in the Bar None atmosphere. This is the original basement bar of Hockley. It seems to have kept those relaxed, “we’re here to let you have fun” roots.

Bar None is up there in the Nottingham venue hall of fame with The Social and Malt Cross. They made an impression and they’re here to stay.

If you haven’t been down yet, test the

GALLERY: WEST END STUDIO

water on a Sunday afternoon, when the place becomes a much more chilled out affair and resembles a Parisian Left Bank café for bohemians poets, artists and writers, with its bistro tables, comfy sofas, leisurely feel, cool tunes and lunch menu.

Then pop by on a Friday night when you’re fed up of the Ted Baker crowds and just want to get sweaty.

Bar None, 19 Stoney Street Lace Market Nottingham 0115 9417072

Fancy commissioning a bespoke work of art for your living room? Lacking the proper funds to do it? Fear not, help is at hand…

Hidden away in the West End Arcade just off Angel Row is the West End Studio. In run down old shopping centre with several cool underground shops around it, Liam Sheppard has set up a unique little studio. This is a place where for the price of a decent meal, you can commission your own unique work of art and feel like a lord of the manor as it is unveiled in front of your very eyes.

Get a 10x10” piece for just £25 or a 16x20” for £60. If you’re feeling really flush you could go for the three foot long piece for £200 or even get a set of three.

Liam will sometimes paint a small one there for you there and then. Or you can give him a general theme and come back a day or so later.

We thought we’d put Liam to the test and asked him to do us a piece based upon the lions in the old market square for the LeftLion office. The result (above)

we’re sure you will agree is a unique way to brighten up your home or office.

Well done chap!

West End Studio 12-14 West End Arcade Chapel Bar NG1 6JP 07939 232949

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue5

Notts Going ON Mm Deli

Heading north out of the city? Then you have to stop at Sherwood’s emerald, Mmm Deli. This is a place where non-carnivorous are made welcome, a place where you can buy the best fresh produce and some unusual non-meaty delicacies.

bread ruled out my goats cheese and pepper ensemble. But the sheer array of other goodies soon put paid to that. What to choose, what to choose? In blind panic, a Parma ham, mozzarella and vegetable toasted panini was on order and so was perhaps not the best of choices. The ham was far too salty and spoiled the sandwich, which should have been a much more mellow taste experience. Our second choice, was fantastic though and involved lashings of rocket, goats cheese and peppers. I was stricken with food envy, not helped by my Innocent raspberry, banana and pineapple smoothie being off. It’s not surprising given the heat wave and there were no quibbles and big apologies from the staff. So the service gets a thumbs up from us.

On the lunch menu are dozens of different bread and baguette combos, toasted cheeses and invigorating coffees. They also stock a great range of homemade jams and lemon curds. There are even high stools and side tables where you can sit and watch Sherwood go by.

With the added guarantee of unusual but tasty food items which you can pick up to wow your spouse (insect lollipops, 22 carat gold chocolate, ‘Pain is good’ chilli sauce etc) then this place is a must stop.

Mmm Deli, 610 Mansfield Road, NG5 2FS. 01159 101601. www.mmdeli.co.uk

Atlas Sunday brunch (I use the term loosely, it was about 2pm) started with disappointment after an absence of walnut

The cappuccino was the usual too weak, too milky UK interpretation, but we won’t hold this against Atlas because of the quality of its cakes. They were delicious.

The almond and raspberry tart made up for the previous disappointments, as did the range of deli delights they have on sale.

Italian chocolates, cakes, pastas, oils, French sweets, and a few other nationalities’ gastronomic specialities to boot. Well, it is called Atlas. Just make sure you don’t walk out with the whole world on your shoulders. It’s just too much to carry.

Notts Landing #3: Mill Lakes Country Park I found this place after I took up long distance running. Behind the City Hospital you can take a footpath that follows the route of an old railway line parallel to Hucknall Road. This runs for about 3 miles and, despite being covered by dumped rubbish, it’s a nice route which takes you past the Bestwood Estate - although the right-wing press know this as the ‘infamous no-go area of Bestwood’, I’ve never had any more trouble than a group of kids shouting ‘Run, Forrest, Run’ (about 100 times.)

As you reach the end of this path, you are confronted with a sign pointing right into Bestwood Park and left to Mill Lakes.

For my first year of running, I never knew what lay to the left (Mill Lakes is off the top of the Nottingham A-Z Map) but when I decided to try it I went back every week.

Reaching the park is my reward for a long run so it inspires me to keep going.

Adrian Bhagat

What you will find there is an old mill lake (funnily enough) with reed beds surrounded by grassy areas and lots of water fowl - though no trace of the actual mill building. There is a path around the lake which is about a mile long and the whole place is really tranquil - except for disputing ducks and the occasional passing Robin Hood Line train. This isn’t Nature in the raw, it is Nature at its most civilized... but it is an idyllic setting. I’ve never seen more than about a dozen people in the park at a time, although it lies on the route of the National Cycle Network most visitors seem to be local residents giving their dogs, kids or grannies an airing. The existence of Mill Lakes is a testament to our successful Green Belt policy. It lies on the well-defined border between city and countryside. Why not discover the park for yourselves? (just not on Sunday mornings when I want to be there alone).

17

COMING TO A CITY CENTRE NEAR YOU...

Atlas Delicatessen, 9 Pelham Street, NG1 2EH. 0115 950 1295

Café Nero

Bravissimo A festival of knickers and bras. That’s what this is. And you’ll love it. Unless you’re a boy, it seems from the conspicuous lone males twiddling their thumbs on Pelham Street all trying to look purposeful.

Nottingham has been a bit on the mean side as far as bra shops are concerned. I should know. After several unsuccessful trips into town trying to find a suitable hammock for my sleepy mammaries, I seriously contemplated opening a decent lingerie shop myself. Most of the grumpy, fumbling shop assistants I encountered couldn’t tell a floppy beach hat from a double D Playtex, let alone give you a realistic fitting. Cross my heart. So I’d trudge home, flick through my Bravissimo catalogue and wish that there were a shop in Nottingham.

And just like that my fairy godmother appeared. Now, big and small girls alike can browse through the cornucopia of lace, ribbons, gingham and pastels knowing that whenever they stop and stare, they’ll find the size that fits their fair bosom.

If you’re bulging out in all the wrong places and your boobs are closer to your naval than your shoulders, you’ve got the wrong size and a bad bra. Get yourself a fitting appointment from the very glam specialist department upstairs. After all, while we are getting older, they will be getting lower or flatter. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Boycotted Starbucks and fed up of fighting to get into the Bridlesmith Gate branch?

Well now you can get your Nero coffee, biscuits and sarnies and get a seat.

On the corner of the Market Square, this is a prime spot to catch drifting friends, looking for a place to sit and chat. And Neros produces some of the better coffee in town.

The window displays of the Swim and Dancewear shop will be sorely missed by the Out and About team, but we have to say that entering Neros is a lot less scary than entering its predecessor.

We can see how rows and rows of spandex, glitter and fluorescent bikini separates might be useful to the up and coming modern dance diva, but really, wouldn’t you prefer a piece of carrot cake?

Cafe Nero, 19 Bridlesmith Gate, NG1 2GR. 0115 9500911. www.cafenero.com

Bravissimo, 11 Pelham Street, Nottingham, NG1 2EH . 0845 4081910. www.bravissimo.com

There’s a place in every city where you just want to be.

Whether you want to people-watch or think about the good times, everyone’s place is different. Each issue, a member of the LeftLion crew explains the spot they like best…

18

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue6

featured listing

clubs/theatre/live music/comedy/exhibitions

Nottingham Voices things people have said on the leftlion forum TIPS FOR COOLING DOWN IN THE SUMMER HEAT “Eat less salt and fried food; you’ll have less body mass to cool down” floydy “Straight in a cold shower after a run after work.”

Ollie K “Put one hand (up to the wrist) in a jug of icy cold water.

Cools down the blood, works a treat.”

NJM “Strip naked and get your missus to fan your body and feed you chilled peeled grapes! Works for me.”

Barnze “Drive with the windows down (or the roof, depending on how flash you are).”

Fossy “Not masturbating.”

Polish Count “During the heat wave, I lay naked in a bath of frozen veg.”

Jude

THREE WAYS TO IMPROVE NOTTINGHAM “1) A new tramp. 2) A new Aldi. 3) Change ‘Hockley Village’ back to just plain old ‘Hockley’.

Theninja “1) A beach. 2) A cage in the Market Square where twats can fight without bothering everyone else. 3) A better police force.”

Lord of the Nish “1) Thunderdome! 2) “Bust a deal and face the wheel” 3) a network of under-city mines run by a Big Dude with a Little Dude on his back. Big Dude has the muscles, Little Dude has the brain. They run Nott-ing-ham.”

Themilkman “1) Better media coverage. 2) Police force who could give two shits about anything. 3) Fewer chain stores, more small independent ones.” morgan griffin “1) Weekly French market. 2) A decent footwear shop! 3) A Chairman with some balls at Forest - Booooo!”

Skinny “1) A big bulldozer. 2) Halving bus fares. 3) Shoot-to-kill policy against chavs.”

Adrian “1) Stop digging up all the roads at once. 2) Destroy Clumber Street and the crossing in front of Vic Centre. 3) Reinstate the old landlord at The Fox in Sneinton.”

BigFatBadger “1) Being by the sea. 2) A Jazz Club. 3) Cannabis coffee shops.”

Baron of Carlton

make your voice heard

www.leftlion.co.uk/forum

Over the last four years Pete Jordan has built Spectrum, from being a small Notts club night into the best breaks event in the world. Along the way it has also taken him on tour from Croatia to Glastonbury, not to mention putting him in touch with some of the best DJ’s in the business. We caught up with him to find out more…

How and when did Spectrum start out?

Spectrum was first held in February 2001 at Beatroot.

It was my intention to create a night where I could play all the music I liked (breakbeat, hiphop and funk) and develop a crowd that would appreciate it. We had Aston Harvey from the Freestylers play and to our amazement over 500 people came. We had a crazy year there before moving to The Bomb and then Stealth since May 2004.

What were you doing before you started the night?

I had moved up to Nottingham and was working for Big Daddy Magazine, which is still undeniably one of the best music magazines ever to have been published! I worked part time at Big Daddy until the summer of 2003 before going full time with Spectrum.

What are your personal favourites of all the events you’ve put on?

Too many to mention really.

There have been classic nights at every venue we’ve been at, and it always seems as though there have been very few dud nights. The two festivals (Specfest and Respecfest) meant a lot musically to me, but to be fair it would be unfair to single out one particular event.

I understand you had John Peel lined-up for a DJ set, before his sad death last year…

That is true, something that I was looking forward to immensely. It felt like losing a member of my own family when I heard of his passing, radio will never be the same again!

What was it like DJing at Glastonbury 2004?

Glastonbury was a lot of fun.

About five minutes into my set, the crowd picked up and we went from 4 or 5 hippies rolling on the floor with cans of special brew, to a few hundred people dancing. It was amazing how many people from Nottingham went to Glastonbury that year, it felt almost like a Spectrum night

in a big tent in the middle of Somerset.

You keep winning awards for being the best Breaks night in the world…

Well it does come down to public voting to win the International Breakbeat Awards which we have now won for the last three years. Perhaps the best way to justify the awards is by the number of DJs and live acts who have voted for us and the list is pretty long and prestigious.

For artists who play at nights all over the world to vote for us gives me a real indication that what we have in Nottingham is significant.

You seem to have some good fun with your flyers. Who comes up with the ideas for them?

I’ve been collecting flyers since 1990 and have tens of thousands in my collection. Sometimes I think clubbing is taken far too seriously and for that reason I find flyers a great outlet for a bit of satire and humour. The man behind the design is my old housemate Simon Dunn (Seismik). By combining our warped sense of humour and his design skill, we have come up with some good work.

If you could get any musical artist in the world at one of your nights who would it be?

Bob Marley (RIP), Gorillaz, Gangstarr, De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Gil Scott Heron, The Pharcyde, The Bangles, The Beach Boys or James Brown.

The one thing that would top all of that off would be to have Jeff Wayne perform War of the Worlds live with the full London Philharmonic Orchestra and the original cast including Richard Burton and David Essex. That would be worth watching!

What’s the best thing about clubbing in Nottingham?

Clichéd as it may sound, but it really is the people. Lots of friendly people who actually want to enjoy themselves to the range of diverse music that thrives in the city. Trust me when I say that what Nottingham has is envied by many other cities around the UK, and we should not take that for granted.

www.spectrum48k.com

listings...

clubs/live music/comedy/exhibitions/theatre sat 20/08

Period of August / September Club Nights

thu 04/08

Liquid Funkt Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Image Bar Price: Free Times: 7pm - 11pm Random Guy, Rema D, Timmy Hands Rah, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion

The Wake Venue: Fudge Price: Free Times: 8pm - 1am Old school Goth, deathrock and Alternative Night with DJ’s Mavis Cruet, DJ Foxt & Cavey Nik

thu 25/08

Funktion Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Synergy Price: Free Times: 8.30pm - 1am Random Guy, Rema D, Timmy Hands Rah, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion

Highness Soundsystem Style: Reggae, Dub Venue: BluePrint Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late

fri 26/08

fri 05/08 Basement Boogaloo Venue: Bar None Price: Free Times: 10pm - 2am With Rob Bright (Bugged Out) plus Nick Shaw & Ed Cotton Spam Style: Venue: Price: Times:

Soul, Pop Junktion 7 Free 9pm - 1am

sun 28/08

Spectrum Style: Breaks Venue: Stealth Price: £7 adv Times: 10pm - 3.30am Tayo (Mob Recs), Pete Jordan, Hexadecimal, Lounge Core: Dave Boultbee

sat 06/08 Pure Filth Style: Techno, DnB, Deep House Venue: BluePrint Price: £6 Times: 10pm - late Mark Hawkins , Filth Residents Agent Smith & Suspect-1, Planar & Fijjitt Paul Murphy, Ed Cotton

thu 11/08

Funktion Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Synergy Price: Free Times: 8.30pm - 1am Random Guy, Rema D, Timmy Hands Rah, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion

sat 13/08 Psycle Style: Trance, Breaks Venue: BluePrint Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late Mind bending Psy-Trance.

Kombination Funk Style: Drum and Bass, Techno Venue: BluePrint Price: £6 Times: 10pm - late

sat 20/08 Sixties, Soul, Pop Junktion 7 £6 Adv £8 otd 10.15pm - 2am

Basement Boogaloo and Keep on magazine present... Backyard Boogaloo Venue: Nagshead Price: £3 Times: 2pm - 12am With a BBQ and 10 hours of music featuring Schmoov! (full live band), Nick Shaw & Ed Cotton (Basement Boogaloo), Keep On DJs, Alex Chase (Undercover Magazine / 93 Feet East), Red Rack ‘Em, DJ Beane (Noodles / Soul Buggin’), Leon Moran (Ritmo Radio)

thu 01/09

Liquid Funkt Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Image Bar Price: Free Times: 7pm - 11pm Random Guy, Rema D, Timmy Hands Rah, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion Highness Soundsystem Style: Reggae, Dub Venue: BluePrint Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late Crazy Penis Venue: Bar None Price: Free

fri 19/08

Spam Style: Venue: Price: Times:

Detonate Style: Drum and Bass, HipHop Venue: Stealth Price: £8 motd Times: 10pm - 3.30am Zinc, Transit Mafia, Trouble, Timmy Hands, MC Biggie, MC E-ll, Santero, Detail

fri 02/09

Spectrum Style: Breaks Venue: Stealth Price: £8 adv Times: 10pm - 4am Hybrid, Will Saul, Pete Jordan, Sound Alliance, John Gilbert

sat 03/09 Pure Filth Style: Techno, DnB, Deep House Venue: BluePrint Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late D-Omen, Dom Slater vs Dom Filth

thu 08/09

Funktion Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Synergy Price: Free Times: 8.30pm - 1am Random Guy, Rema D, Timmy Hands Rah, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion

Wiggle sat10/09 Style: Deep House, Funky House Venue: Bar None Price: Free Strakes (Lost My Dog, Kahua), PhilL (Shivoo, Kahua), Dan Hamilton (Infectious), Neil Quinn (Infectious, Wiggle)

fridays

Love Shack Style: Eighties Venue: Rock City Price: £4 adv £5 otd Times: 9.30pm - 2am

Fridays @ The Market Bar Style: Breaks, House, Disco Venue: The Market Bar Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 9pm - 3am Resident Ian Tatham plays the very best in what’s new and worth dancing to!”

saturdays

fri 16/09

Kombination Funk Style: Drum and Bass, Techno Venue: BluePrint Price: £6 Times: 10pm - late

Spam Style: Venue: Price: Times:

sat 17/09 Sixties, Soul, Pop The Rescue Rooms £6 Adv £8 otd 10.15pm - 2am

thu 22/09

Funktion Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Synergy Price: Free Times: 8.30pm - 1am Random Guy, Rema D, Timmy Hands Rah, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion

fri 23/09

Detonate Style: Drum and Bass, HipHop Venue: Stealth Price: £tbc Times: 10pm - 3.30am Swift, Chase and Status, Transit Mafia, MC IC3, Canibal OX, Crayz Walz, Mr Jam

Weeklies Tiger Style Style: Breaks Venue: Stone Price: Free Times: 9pm - 1am Pete Jordan, Future Proof

fridays

Soul Buggin with DJ Beane Style: Funk, Jazz, Disco Venue: Bar Humbug Price: Free Times: 8pm - 1am DJ Beane’s weekly throwdown, spazzin’ out to everything from old school funk and diva soul to future jazz and broken beats via lo-fi house across to brazilian samba shuffles to NYC style glitterball disco. Yum. Salt Style: Hiphop, House, Breaks Venue: Dogma Price: Free Times: til 2am Funky Breakbeat for the dancefloor laced with Hiphop, House and Latin flavours.

Sabotage Style: Eighties, Nineties Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 10.30 - 2am Anything from Acid House to Brit-Pop. Atomic Style: Eighties, Nineties Venue: Cookie Club (The) Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am Friday night at The Cookie Club is Retro night featuring two decades of music.

Stylus Style: Funky House, Funk Venue: Snug Price: £3 - £6 Times: 10pm - 3am Expect an eclectic mix spanning soulful house, hip hop, RnB, soul/funk, Drum & Bass, peppered with old school and party classics Saturdays @ The Market Bar Style: Funky House Venue: The Market Bar Price: £5 Times: 9pm - 2.30am Consistantly bringin’ it week after week, Market Bar residents each play you a slightly differently slice from the house spectrum.

Rise and Shine / Funk U Style: Indy, Alternative Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £5 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am Lovezoo Style: House, Funky House Venue: The Lost Weekend Price: £5 Times: 10pm - 3am Distortion Style: Rock, Indy, Alternative Venue: Rock City Price: £5 (NUS) Times: 9pm - 2.30am DJ’s Gazz & Spiky Mike will be mixing it up, playing mainstream rock, hardcore, punk, ska, Indie & hip hop all night!

Stealth Style: Venue: Price: Times:

vs Rescued Anything Goes...

Stealth Free b4 10.15pm £5 after 5pm - 4am

sundays

Out To Lunch Style: Jazz Venue: Dogma Price: Free Times: Afternoon Less of a club night and more of an experience. Sunday Jazz and beats to ease away the night before.

mondays

Motherfunker Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £1 b4 11pm Times: 10.30 - 2am “Anything goes music wise on this night.

A real pick ‘n’ mix of Retro, Rock, Funk and alternative sounds to kick start the week. You want to hear it then we’ll play it. For futher details or to place requests for the evening text 07859 725 430. “

listings...

Crash Style: Venue: Price: Times: Dusk Style: Venue: Price: Times:

clubs/live music/theatre/comedy/exhibitions tuesdays

Indy, Alternative The Rig £2 / £3 (NUS) 9.30pm - 2am

Period of August / September

Live Music

No Use Venue: Price: Times:

For A Name Rock City £10 adv 7.30pm

fri 12/08

mon 01/08

Hiphop, Soul Snug £4 (NUS) 10pm - 3am

Tuesdays @ The Market Bar Style: Disco, RnB Venue: The Market Bar Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 9pm - 2.30am Holding its head up high over the summer boasting the only full tuesday venue in town, with residents: Matt Tolfrey, DJ Ellis and Damien Wells

wednesdays The Big Wednesday Style: Alternative, Rock, Pop Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £2.50 (NUS) Times: 10.30 - 2am Upstairs plays current Indie and downstairs is nothing but Rock, Metal, Punk & Ska all evening.

Big Trak Venue: The Social Price: £1 Times: 8pm - 12am Public Display Of Affection, The Scarlet Tuesday, Monkey Swallows the Universe BJ Cole Venue: The Social Price: £7 adv With Bent DJ Set

Hot Renault Traffic Night Venue: Cabaret Rebus (above), The Strand Arcade

Blusoma Venue: Synergy Price: Free Times: 10pm - late Blues covers with a twist of the trippy and the ambient, 2 vocals each playing guitar and bass, and a laptop supplying the craziness.

The Mascara Story Venue: Rock City Price: £3 adv Basement Show

fri 05/08

sat 13/08

Mirrorball Style: RnB, Disco, Funk Venue: Snug Price: £3 - £4 (NUS) Times: 10pm - 3am An eclectic mix of R&B, disco, funk and dancefloor club classics...

sun 14/08

tue 16/08

Thursdays @ The Market Bar Style: Funk, HipHop Venue: The Market Bar Price: £4 Times: 9pm - 2.30am DJ Santero showing how he knows his thursday crowd better than anyone. expect heavy funky bass lines.

Audio Style: Funk, Soul, Disco Venue: Snug Price: £5 (£3 b4 10.30pm) (NUS) Times: 10pm - 3am An evening of funky grooves, soul, and retro disco beats.

Nu World Style: HipHop, Funk Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 7pm - 11pm Every dawn is a new day and every thursday is a brand new world. Danny Berman takes us on an eclectic voyage of funk, hip-hop, broken beats, re-edits, disco...

Generation Style: Sixties Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £2.50 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am Offers you a whole evening of tunes ranging from Beatlemania, Mod, beatpop, Soul, Motown and psychedelia all thrown into one big melting pot of Nostalgia.

Dogmatic Style: HipHop, Drum and Bass Venue: Dogma Price: Various Times: 10pm - 2am Club NME Style: Rock, Indy, Alternative Venue: Stealth Price: £2 - £4 (NUS) Times: 10pm - late

Dustins Bar Mitzvah Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Times: 7.30pm - 2am Dustins Bar Mitzvah, The Pigeon Detectives, Captain Dangerous, Pioneers of Industry, Ilkeston Brass Band Venue: The Arboretum Price: Free Times: 2pm - 5pm

fri 26/08

Sharon Lewis Venue: Social Price: £6 Sharon Lewis, Rose Polenzani, Rogue

sat 06/08

sun 07/08 Derwent Valley Wind Band Venue: Victoria Embankment Price: Free Times: 2pm - 5pm Data Panik Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv

Blusoma Venue: Synergy Price: Free Times: 10pm - late

thu 18/08

tue 09/08

Long Eaton Silver Prize Band Venue: The Arboretum Price: Free Times: 2pm - 5pm Turbonegro Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £11 adv Times: 7pm - 10.15pm Two Gallants Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv Dungen Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £6 adv Elkie Brooks Venue: Royal Centre Price: £18 - £20

sun 28/08

thu 01/09

fri 02/09

Jet Venue: Rock City Price: £15 Times: 7pm

fri 19/08 Hot Renault Traffic Night Venue: Cabaret And what will be left of them, Misterlee, The Henry Road, The Vultures, Harbouring The Criminal

sun 21/08

Bmused Venue: Golden Fleece Times: 8pm Bmused are a 5 piece female folk/acoustic band from Newcastle upon Tyne, harmonies and instruments sometimes romantic, sometimes rude!

LeftLion Presents..

Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 7.30pm - 11pm Bringing you the best live music that Nottingham has to offer. (But then we would say that...)

sat 27/08

Rolls Royce Band Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: Free

thursdays Indy, Alternative, Pop Rock City £4 / £3.50 (NUS) 8.30pm - 2am

Hot Renault Traffic Night Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Times: 7.30pm - 2am The Escapologists, Ripchord Hot Club Night DJ’S

tue 02/08

Inner Mantra Venue: Rock City

Ritmo With Leon Moran Style: Funky House, Disco, Breaks Venue: Bar Humbug Price: Free Times: 8pm - 1am The bar night for the radio show: soulful house, brazilian beats, up tempo latin, chilled disco, funk, neo-soul, nu-jazz all up in this piece. Tasty.

Tuned Style: Venue: Price: Times:

thu 11/08

Lincolnshire Hospitals Band Venue: Victoria Embankment Price: Free Times: 2pm - 5pm Wheatus Venue: Rock City Price: £10 Times: 7.30pm

Hot Renault Traffic Night Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Times: 7.30pm - 2am Fifty Nine Violets, Kalena,

sat 03/09

tue 23/08

wed 24/08

Hate Eternal Venue: Rock City Price: £11 adv Times: 7 pm Basement Show Hate Eternal, Behomoth Blood Red Throne

Muffin Men Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £10 adv with support from Jimmy Carl Black Skinny Puppy Venue: Rock City Price: £14 Times: 7pm Best Fwends Venue: The Social Price: £3

thu 11/08

MXPX Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv

Skid Row Venue: Rock City Price: £16 adv Times: 7pm With support from Jeff Scott Soto

listings...

Reel Big Fish Venue: Rock City Price: £14 adv Times: 7.30pm

live music/clubs/theatre/comedy/exhibitions/theatre wed 07/09

Clem Snide Venue: The Social Price: £7 adv

mon 19/09

tue 13/09

wed 14/09

ASVA Venue: The Social Price: £7 Times: 7.30pm

Stamping Ground Venue: Rock City Price: £8 adv Times: 7.30pm McFly Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £20 adv Times: 7pm Absolute Nonsense

thu 08/09

Hal Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £7.50 adv

Stereophonics Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £27.50 Stereophonics will be bringing their handbags and gladrags to Nottingham arena to tour their new album ‘Language.

Sex. Violence.’ And we thougth they were such nice boys as well...

JJ72 Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £10 adv

wed 21/09 Super Fury Animals Venue: Rock City

thu 22/09

Good Shoes Venue: The Social Price: £3 adv Times: 10.30pm - 2am

sat 10/09

sun 11/09 Jake & Elwood: Blues Brothers Show Venue: Rock City Price: £15 adv Times: 7.30pm Killer Queen Style: Rock Venue: Royal Centre Price: £13 - £15 Times: 7.30pm Queen Tribute Act

Fun Lovin’ Criminals Venue: Rock City Price: £17.50 adv Times: 7.30pm Super smooth Huey and the crew will be in once again to rock Notts. Expect plenty of Scooby snacks and Bombing of the L. Decapitated Venue: Rock City Price: £10 Times: 7.30pm The Drifters Venue: Royal Centre Price: £16

thu 15/09

fri 16/09

Sea Change Venue: Cabaret Price: tbc Times: 7pm

sat 17/09

The Men They Couldn’t Hang Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £12.50 adv Times: Early Show - 10.15 finish as clubnight follows

Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies Venue: Rock City Price: £12 adv Times: 7pm Million Dead Venue: Rock City

Jamiroquai Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £28.50 + BF This is the return of the space cowboy.

Yes, Jay Kay has decided to go on tour again, most likely as a means to fund his expensive car habit. The new Jamiroquai album ‘Dynamite’ is out now.

tue 20/09

Holly Golightly + Envelopes Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 8.30pm - 10.30pm

Puressence Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv

Stephen Fretwell Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £7 adv Times: 7pm - 10.15pm Much touted singer songwriter comes to the Rescue Rooms.

Ray Davies & Band Venue: Royal Centre Price: £22.50 - £25 Legend in town! Ray Davies, formerly of the Kinks, is the cool sixties survivor dude who penned such hits as Waterloo Sunset and You Really Got Me.

Alter Bridge Venue: Rock City Price: £13.50 adv Times: 7pm

fri 09/09

The Kull Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Times: 7.30pm - 2am With support from Pioneers Of Industry

The Mission Venue: Rock City Price: £15 adv Times: 7pm

wed 28/09

thu 29/09

Avenged Sevenfold Venue: Rock City Price: £12.50 adv.

Times: 7.30pm Plus Very Special Guests TBA

Pere Ubu Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £15 adv

Immortal Lee County Killers Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv

Revlon 9 Venue: The Social Price: £3 adv

tue 27/09

Dionne Venue: Price: Times:

Warwick Royal Centre £27.50 - £30 7.30pm

Hayseed Dixie Venue: Rock City Price: £12.50 Times: 7.30pm

sun 18/09

fri 23/09 The Alvin Ailey Dance Company Venue: Royal Centre Price: £15 - £26 Runs Until: 24/9 The Hot Puppies Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Times: 7.30pm - 2am The Hot Puppies, Computerman Beats Capri, Radiator Experts Nevermore Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv Times: 7pm

sat 24/09

3 Colours Red Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv Times: 7pm 3 Colours Red plus The Yo Yo’s, The Smash Up, Along Came Man

sun 25/09 Trivium Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv Times: 7.30pm

ITF UK 2005 Turntable Competition Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £7.50 adv Nottingham Heat With Tiger Styles, G Kut, Johnny Crump and T-Cutt Hosted by Broke n English To enter or for more info check www.itf-uk.com

Rogers Sisters Venue: The Social Price: £3 adv Corosion Of Conformity Venue: The Rig Price: £10 adv Times: 7pm

fri 30/09 The Favours Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Times: 7.30pm - 2am The Favours, Public Display of Affection, The Crimson Roadmap, Seretone

tue 27/09 Editors Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £8 Hotly tipped band with Nottngham Guitarist Check out the intervew on LeftLion.co.uk

LeftLion Presents..

Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 7.30pm - 11pm Bringing you the best live music that Nottingham has to offer. (But then we would say that...)

listings...

clubs/live music/exhibitions/theatre/comedy

Period Of August / September

Theatre

Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Times: 7pm Rudi Lickwood, Mark Walker, Dave Williams, Michael Legge Runs Until: 3/9

Voulez Vous Venue: Royal Centre Price: £14.50 - £16

mon 01/08 Classic Thrillers Season Venue: Royal Centre Price: £8 - £14 Dangerous Obsession 1 – 6 August 2005 Murder With Love 8 – 13 August 2005 Deadly Lovers 15 – 20 August 2005

thu 01/09

sat 17/09

mon 26/09 Colin Fry and Tony Stockwell Venue: Royal Centre Price: £17.50 Times: 7.30pm

fri 30/09

tue 30/08

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: £12 Shakespeare season at the castle.

wed 31/08

Macbeth Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: £12 Shakespeare season at the castle cont.

thu 01/09 The Taming Of The Shrew Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: £12

fri 02/09 Macbeth Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: £12 Shakespeare season at the castle continues with the play that bought us such lines as: “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble,” and “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” Performed outdoors in a marquee at Nottingham castle.

1001 Nights Now Venue: Playhouse Price: £7 - £22 “Sometimes we tell stories to entertain.

Sometimes we tell stories to explain who we are. And sometimes we tell stories to survive.

Somewhere in contemporary Britain, in a factory making Christmas decorations, a group of migrant workers sustain one another by telling their stories. In all of them the flames of hope, passion and identity burn bright.

Leading writers of Middle Eastern origin revisit the story of Sheherazade, exposing with insight, colour and wit the lives of people who seek refuge.

Nottingham Playhouse and Northern Stage - join forces as Alan Lyddiard directs a stunning piece of devised theatre, featuring award-winning comedian Shazia Mirza.”

Exhibitions Waking Dreams: Art of the Pre-Raphaelites Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: £6 Runs Until: 4/9

thu 08/09 The Working World Venue: Surface Gallery Price: Free Times: 11pm - 5pm Dave Ball, Mandy Bray, Simon Bolton, Jenna Collins and Minna Kantonen.

Runs Until: 11/8 Lens Based Open Exhibition Venue: Surface Gallery Price: Free Times: 11pm - 5pm Opens: 16/8 Runs Until: 26/8 Something Less Than A Terrible Nightmare Venue: Surface Gallery Price: Free Times: 11pm - 5pm Opens: 30/8 Runs Until: 9/9 Outspeak Venue: Surface Gallery Price: Free Times: 11pm - 5pm Date: 19/9 Runs Until: 7/10

thu 15/09 Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Times: 7pm Andre Vincent, Geoff Boyz, Ian Coppinger, Dom Carroll Runs Until: 17/9

dis(comfort) Venue: Angel Row Gallery Price: Free Times: 11pm - 5pm Opens: 21/9 Runs Until: 19/11

sun 18/09

Knitwork Venue: Angel Row Gallery Price: Free Times: 11pm - 5pm Opens: 21/9 Runs Until: 19/11

Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Times: 7pm Phil Nichol - straight back from Edinburgh

Comedy

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Venue: Playhouse Price: £7 - £22 It is fifty years since this sizzling drama first scandalised Broadway. Richard Baron directs the rarely performed original version, preferred by Tennessee Williams. This unflinching examination of family, money and sexuality comes to the playhouse.

Runs Until: 24/9

sat 03/09 The Taming Of The Shrew Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: £12

wed 07/09 Circus Oz Venue: Royal Centre Price: £10 - £30.50 Circus Oz icombines exhausting skill and inspirational imagination. Bringing together some of Australia’s finest performers, the show features: highaltitude acrobatics, tightrope walking, wheels on fire, wiry bodies, strong women, beautiful men, flying freaks and live music.

Runs Until: 10/9

Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Times: 7pm Adam Crow, Junior Simpson (above), Sandy Nelson, Paul Chowdry

thu 04/08 Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Sean Percival, Glenn Wool, Joe Rooney Paul Tonkinson Runs Until: 6/8

sun 25/09

thu 11/08

Day to Day Data Venue: Angel Row Gallery Price: Free Runs Until: 7/9 Andrew Wright Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: All Day Runs Until: 14/8

Liliane Lijn Craft Showcase Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: All Day Runs Until: 7/8

Peru & Bolivia Exhibition Venue: Wax Cafe Price: Free Runs Until: 17/8

Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Martin Beaumont, Rick Right, Ricky Grover, Paul Thorne Runs Until: 13/8

thu 18/08 Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Roger Monkhouse, Jason Wood, David Hadingham Runs Until: 20/8

thu 25/08 Jongleurs Price: £8 - £15 Silky, Marty Wilson, Simon Bligh (left), Gary Delaney Runs Until: 27/8

Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Times: 7pm Ed Byrne - straight back from Edinburgh

thu 29/09

Jongleurs Venue: Jongleurs Price: £13 - £15 Times: 7pm Rex Boyd, Patrick Monahan, Neil Delamere, Gavin Webster Runs Until: 1/10

Sporting Fixtures

football/cricket/icehockey

Nottingham Forest FC Fixtures

2005 06/08 09/08 13/08 20/08 23/08 27/08 30/08 03/09 10/09 17/09 24/09 27/09 01/10 09/10 15/10 22/10 29/10 12/11 19/11 26/11 06/12 10/12 16/12 26/12

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Huddersfield, 3pm (H) Walsall, 7.45 (A) Swindon, 3pm (A) Scunthorpe, 3pm (H) Macclesfield (CC), 7.45 (H) Gillingham, 3pm (A) Bristol City, 7.45 (H) Brentford, 13:00 (H) Barnsley, 3pm (A) Rotherham, 3pm (H) Swansea, 3pm (A) Blackpool, 7.45 (H) Tranmere, 3pm (H) Southend, 16:00 (A) Hartlepool, 3pm (H) Yeovil, 3pm (A) Bradford, 3pm (H) Bournemouth, 3pm (A) Southend, 3pm (H) Huddersfield, 3pm (A) Port Vale, 7.45 (H) Walsall, 3pm (H) Scunthorpe, 7.45 (A) Doncaster, 3pm (H)

Notts County FC Fixtures

28/12 31/12 2006 02/01 07/01 14/01 21/01 28/01 04/02 11/02 15/02 18/02 25/02 04/03 11/03 18/03 25/03 01/04 08/04 15/04 17/04 22/04 29/04 06/05

v MKD, 7.45 (A) v Chesterfield, 3pm (H) v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Colchester, 3pm (A) Brentford, 3pm (A) Oldham, 3pm (H) Rotherham, 3pm (A) Barnsley, 3pm (H) Blackpool, 3pm (A) Swansea, 3pm (H) Oldham, 7.45 (A) Port Vale, 3pm (A) Swindon, 3pm (H) Bristol City, 3pm (A) Gillingham, 3pm (H) Doncaster, 3pm (A) MKD, 3pm (H) Chesterfield, 3pm (A) Colchester, 3pm (H) Tranmere, 3pm (A) Yeovil, 3pm (H) Hartlepool, 3pm (A) Bournemouth, 3pm (H) Bradford, 3pm (A)

2005 06/08 09/08 13/08 20/08 23/08 27/08 29/08 02/09 10/09 17/09 24/09 27/09 01/10 08/10 15/10 22/10 29/10 12/11 19/11 26/11 06/12 10/12 17/12 26/12 28/12

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Torquay, 3pm (A) Wrexham, 7.45pm (H) Lincoln City, 3pm (H) Stockport, 3pm (A) Watford (CC), 7.45pm (A) Bristol Rovers, 3pm (H) Mansfield, 3pm (A) Darlington, 7.30pm (A) Chester, 3pm (H) Shrewsbury, 3pm (A) R’den & D’monds, 3pm (H) Grimsby, 7.45pm (A) Macclesfield, 3pm (A) Boston Utd, 13:00 (H) Rochdale, 3pm (A) Carlisle, 3pm (H) Bury, 3pm (A) Cheltenham, 3pm (H) Boston Utd, 3pm (A) Torquay, 3pm (H) Peterboro’, 7.45pm (A) Wrexham, 3pm (A) Stockport, 3pm (H) Oxford Utd, 3pm (A) Northampton, 7.45pm (H)

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Fixtures

Nottingham Panthers Fixtures

2005 09/08 National Cricket League Division One Gloucestershire v Nottinghamshire

2005 10/09 11/09 17/09 18/09 24/09 25/09 29/09 01/10 08/10 09/10 13/10 15/10 22/10 26/10 29/10 30/10 05/11 06/11 12/11 19/11 20/11 23/11 26/11 27/11 04/12 07/12 10/12 11/12 18/12 20/12 23/12 26/12 27/12 31/12 2006 02/01 07/01 08/01 10/01 14/01 15/01

10/08 County Championship - Division One Nottinghamshire v Middlesex 14/08 County Championship - Division One Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire 22/08 National Cricket League Division One Essex v Nottinghamshire 28/08 National Cricket League Division One Northamptonshire v Nottinghamshire 30/08/2005 County Championship - Division One Glamorgan v Nottinghamshire

05/09 County Championship - Division One Nottinghamshire v Gloucestershire 09/09 National Cricket League Division One Nottinghamshire v Gloucestershire 11/09 National Cricket League Division One Nottinghamshire v Worcestershire 14/09 County Championship - Division One Kent v Nottinghamshire 21/09 County Championship - Division One Hampshire v Nottinghamshire 25/09 National Cricket League Division One Hampshire v Nottinghamshire

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Sheffield (H) Sheffield (A) Cardiff Devils (H) Newcastle (A) Edinburgh (A) Coventry (A) Belfast (A) Basingstoke (A) Edinburgh (CC) (A) Edinburgh (A) Newcastle (H) Sheffield (A) London (H) Belfast (H) Edinburgh (A) Basingstoke (H) London (A) Cardiff (A) Coventry (H) Edinburgh (H) Coventry (A) Belfast (H) Sheffield (H) Cardiff (A) London (A) Basingstoke (H) Basingstoke (A) Newcastle (A) Edinburgh (A) Cardiff (H) Edinburgh (H) Sheffield (A) London (H) Newcastle (H)

v v v v v v

Cardiff (H) Sheffield (H) Newcastle (A) Edinburgh (H) Coventry (H) London (A)

31/12 v Leyton Orient, 3pm (A) 2006 02/01 v Barnet, 3pm (H) 07/01 v Darlington, 3pm (H) 14/01 v Wycombe, 3pm (A) 21/01 v Shrewsbury, 3pm (H) 28/01 v Chester, 3pm (A) 04/02 v Grimsby, 3pm (A) 11/02 v R’den & D’monds, 3pm (H) 14/02 v Wycombe, 7.45pm (H) 18/02 v Peterborough, 3pm (H) 25/02 v Lincoln City, 3pm (A) 04/03 v Mansfield, 3pm (H) 11/03 v Bristol Rovers, 3pm (A) 18/03 v Oxford Utd, 3pm (H) 25/03 v Northampton, 3pm (A) 01/04 v Leyton Orient, 3pm (H) 08/04 v Barnet, 3pm (A) 15/04 v Macclesfield, 3pm (H) 17/04 v Carlisle, 3pm (A) 22/04 v Rochdale, 3pm (H) 29/04 v Cheltenham, 3pm (A) 06/05 v Bury, 3pm (H)

20/01 28/01 29/01 04/02 05/02 09/02 11/02 14/02 18/02 25/02 26/02 28/02 04/03 08/03

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Belfast (A) London (H) Coventry (A) Newcastle (H) Newcastle (A) Belfast (A) Basingstoke (A) Basingstoke (H) Coventry (H) Sheffield (H) Cardiff (A) Newcastle (H) Sheffield (A) Belfast (H)

24

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue6 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue

First, We Take Manhattan...

AMUSEMENT PARKS ON FIRE Bar 13, East 13th Street, New York, May 2005

By Matt Glazebrook, our correspondent in Gotham, NYC When you tell New Yorkers that you are from Nottingham there is often a flash of recognition: “Right, like in the Hugh Grant movie”. Forget Robin Hood. Over here, our fair city is most famous for sounding a bit like that place in London where Julia Roberts fell in with a bumbling bookshop owner and his funny Welsh housemate.

Once you manage to establish you are not actually from Notting Hill (no easy task, as for many Americans the terms “London” and “England” are used pretty much interchangeably) describing Nottingham’s cultural significance is a fairly humbling and frustrating task. Namedropping D.H. Lawrence and Byron draws mostly blank looks, no-one in the Big (Bad) Apple is impressed with gun crime statistics and as for music, the Tindersticks, Six By Seven and OutDaVille have never quite managed to ‘break’ America.

It creates quite a stir among Manhattan’s small East Midlands immigrant community, therefore, when it is announced that a real live Nottingham band is coming to New York. Amusements Parks On Fire! It’s quite a name! Sort of one-upping The Arcade Fire in terms of leisure facility-based tragedies.

The poster for the band’s first American tour has a quote describing their music as “sporadic, hedonistic teenage genius”. This seems scrupulously honest, not to just erase the first word from the review. Or perhaps the band think that “sporadic” is a compliment, the scamps.

Amusement Parks On Fire’s mini-tour of New York takes in three shows at venues across the Lower East Side, a sprawling, vibrant district currently undergoing a cruel sort of gentrification which has left it populated by an uneasy mix of Manhattan’s hipsters, yuppies and homeless. The second of the gigs is at Bar 13, an upstairs joint, on the fringes of the neighbourhood, around the corner from the chain-stores and multiplex cinemas of Union Square.

Bar 13 is about the size of a living room (and a New York City living room at that).

There’s even a TV in the corner, showing a cheap 1970s exploitation flick, a film which appears to be based around the undeniably arresting premise of a young woman with a singing vagina. There is no stage lighting here, in fact there is no stage and the only illumination comes from homely little lamps with deep red shades. The band occupies one corner of the room and peers out through the gloom at eye level with the audience. It’s a little awkward, having someone rock out this close to you.

The band is the proverbial elephant in the room that the fashionable New York crowd pretend to be only vaguely aware of.

No matter, as the Amusement Parks are unassuming performers, a sensibly dressed

www.amusementparksonfire.com

troupe of fresh-faced young men, who make a swirling, squalling racket within the confines of each simple, insistent song. Frontman Michael Feerick has a little of the Craig Nicholls about him, all eye-rolling and hair-flopping, even a hint of Kurt Cobain, as he hunches over his guitar, but the band’s energy is as much about tension as release, and the audience are soon able to relax into the vintage leather couches or tap their feet on the vinyl dance floor.

Now is as good a time as any for Amusement Parks on Fire to try to take Manhattan. Just as for the past couple of years the British music press have been fawning over anything sharply-dressed and New York, so all the American rock magazines have carried the compulsory “new British invasion” article in the past few weeks. Kasabian, the Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party have all sold out recent shows in New York. Any old rehashed Britpop will do, it seems, so long as it is accompanied by the necessary angular ’80s riffs and “new wave” style.

Endearingly, Amusement Parks appear to have drastically missed the boat on this front. If anything, their fuzzy, swirling rock sounds to me like an updated version of un-hip early ’90s shoe-gazers Swervedriver.

In its more transcendent moments, the show recalls an early Six By Seven gig at the Skyy Club on Alfreton Road (now BluePrint Club), with clanging, tinny guitar swelling into waves of brutal, fragile sound. Appropriately enough drummer Peter Dale even wears a t-shirt promoting the former next-big-things. But, unlike that rock beast which emerged fully formed from the backwoods of Nottingham’s music scene in ’97, Amusement Parks On Fire are at present merely a tight young Notts band full of potential. While that might not be enough to quite ‘break’ America on this first attempt, it is good enough for this member of the Nottingham contingent to go home from Bar 13 with his head held a little higher.

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue5

This time around all the answers are related to local sport in some way or other. For the answers to the previous Nottswords log on to www.leftlion.co.uk/nottsword Across 3. Pop Star David’s first name gets an organ (5,7) 6. This cartoon cat is not drunk! (8,6) 8. Former County player who deals in cloth (4, 6) 10. Mik went back to Finland to play Hockey (3,7) 11. Former Notts County and Celtic player with a magic sirname (5, 8) 14. More of a headcase than Anthony Perkins (6,6) 18. Tradesman goalkeeper with a road named after him (6,9) 20. Ketchup-licking manager with a stand named after him (5, 7) 21. Fast ex-forest winger who drives like a Citroen or Renault (5, 4) 22. Snooker player whose sirname sounds like a weight of sick meat (7,8) 23. Former Forest striking donkey who always brings flowers (6,7) 24. Architecturally structured ground with umpires not referees (5, 6) Down 1. Former forest striking donkey with a quiet girls name (6, 7) 2. Flowery sounding local sports arena (6,4) 5: The legendary iceman with two first names (11,4) 9. Former forest striking donkey with a pineapple on his head (5, 3) 12. Ice Queen who always shows you round her house (4, 6) 13. Local cricket skipper with sirname of spittal (7, 6) 15. Ice Hockey player/ manager with the same name as Cappo (4, 4) 17. Legendary for his large cranuium (5, 6) 19. Panthers winger who is a letter away from enlisting (4, 7) 20. Local golfer with a hiphop sirname (3, 8) The winner of last issue’s Nottsword is Suzanne Robinson.

She wins our least favourite CD’s and an I Love Nottingham T-shirt.

Submit your answers to nottsword@leftlion.co.uk

25

26

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue6

Aries (March 20 - April 20)

Libra (September 23 - October 23)

A child’s perceptions may hold the key to the Universe. As we grow older we are taught how we should see. They just do it by instinct. Probably the only way to reexplore this for yourself is to load up on hallucinogenics, put on a nappy and try to reenter the nearest womb. Lubrication is important.

The supermarket is no longer safe territory. They are watching you in there, placing cameras very carefully through the aisles. The unnecessarily bright lights show up the blemishes of your skin. Get out while you still can. Bring ice cream.

Taurus (April 20 - May 21)

Scorpio (October 23 - November 23)

Guys dig girls with big jugs. Girls dig guys with big wallets. Archaeologists dig bones and relics. Hippies dig freedom and cheap booze. Rabbits dig warrens and shagging.

Gravediggers dig dead people. What do you dig hombre? Think about it before you go under yourself...

“In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman.”

Gemini (May 21 - June 21) You think you know what boredom is fool? Try sitting in a dirty prison cell for months on end, with nothing but a thin sponge mattress, a toilet bucket and a copy of Fern Brittan’s Family Favourites. It’s not even like you can try out the recipes in here. Help...

Sagittarius (22 - December 22) To keep ants out of the house, find where the ants are entering the house and sprinkle a barrier of cinnamon or ground pepper to block their way. If that fails then parallel rows of miniature burning crosses smeared in jam will let the insects know they are not wanted in this place.

Capricorn (December 22 - January 19)

Cancer (June 21 - July 23) Try and start a fight with someone today. It’s good etiquette to pick on someone that is around the same size as you, but if they’re smaller the fight is usually easier to control.

Don’t let them off easily, the angrier you get them, the more they will put into hurting you. Aim to maim!

The launderette have been alerted to the suspicious black bags you are bringing in and out of the place. It’s time to take your work back underground. Go for a derelict cellar, low lighting and a soap and hydrogen peroxide mix, followed by a cold rinse to protect the fabric. If some staining remains, repeat.

Aquarius (January 20 - February 19) Leo (July 23 - August 23) Check out your local newspaper. Those women advertising their ‘escort’ services and ‘massage parlours’ in the back... In the spirit of journalism I phoned them up, went along and got a full body massage from one of them. Then she asked me if I wanted any ‘extras’. “You’re not a fookin’ DVD, love,” I told her.

Virgo (August 23 - September 23) They say that money won is twice as sweet as money earned (and six times as salty).

But gambling can get sticky after you’re a dozen tequilas into the red haze. Go home and sleep a bit more. Gather your strength for judgment day.

Your restlessness will lead to a change of interest in your building society. Consider doing something that will maximise your balance and enhance your outlook. A creative project should be finished and put to the test. Try and excel early, then as you steer near the finish line you can pull a few wheelies for the crowd.

Pisces (February 19 - March 20) Sticks and stones may break my bones, but only if you throw them at me very hard!

Until then you better wise up and watch your mouth because I heard you been around your local neighbourhood chatting some stuff about what and who you think you know.

Everything you know is wrong fool!

Local Football Teams

Grate Misstakes in Cultural Histroy Hey buddy, i never felt this much love for my fellow colonialists before

get ‘em down you, boys. there’s a fresh batch just here.

can’t talk... ...mashed...

so there i was, having just double dropped, when i was asked to fire the cannon...

Nottingham Forest

Yeah, fire the cannon... let’s get a wild groovy happening going on. yee-hah!

Years In Existence Average attendance last season

those lights look real swell right now

Estimated spend on transfer fees in last 3 years Songs about Wheelbarrows Ken Clarke Factor

#06: July 1746, The Boston E Party take place

Notts County

140 18,000 £5m

143

Years In Existence Average attendance last

season

fees Estimated spend on transfer

0

Songs about Wheelbarrows

1

Ken Clarke Factor

in last 3 years

6,000 £5k 1 0