LeftLion Magazine - February 2006 - Issue 9

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credits

contents

editorial

LeftLion Magazine Issue 9 February-March 2006

4. Notts The Nine O’clock News New regular ‘real’ news feature

Editor Jared Wilson

5. Retail Revelations Potemtial new shops coming to Nottingham

It’s 2006 already! Time really flies when you’re having fun. As always, the start of another twelve months bring with it a sense of new opportunity and among our lot there is a sense that this will be the year of the Lion.

(jared@leftlion.co.uk)

Deputy Editors Al Needham (nishlord@leftlion.co.uk) Nathan Miller (njm@leftlion.co.uk)

6. TAG – Me vs the City Catching up with director and breakdancer Jonzi D

Photography Editor David Bowen (photography@leftlion.co.uk)

7. Sway MOBO award winning rapper coming to Nottingham

Technical Editor Alan Gilby

8. She Bangs The Drums Notts-born Faithless percussion player Sudha Kheterpal

(alan@leftlion.co.uk)

Out and About Cristina Chapman (cristina@leftlion.co.uk) Listings Tim Bates

(listings@leftlion.co.uk)

Cover and Magazine Design David Blenkey (mail@skip-intro.co.uk ) Illustration Rob White

(rob@thearthole.co.uk)

Photographers Dom Henry (dom@dlounge.co.uk) Damon Hope Florence Gohard Kofi Allen Contributors Alasdair Catton Amanda Young Ben Spurr Dan Gardner Des Ball Jenny Hill Kate Symons Meg Rowell Michelle Bayton Roger Mean Tom Hathaway Marketing and Sales Manager Ben Hacking (ben@leftlion.co.uk)

“For it was Saturday night, the best and bingiest glad-time of the week, one of the fifty-two holidays in the slow-turning Big Wheel of the year, a violent preamble to a prostrate Sabbath.”

Alan Sillitoe

9. Dirty Ol’ Basford Local blues-rock merchants set to play LeftLion Unplugged 10. Smack My Pitch Up We speak to Notts noise merchants Pitchshifter 11. Skin Up Former Skunk Anansie frontwoman going solo 12-13. From Ashes to Rashers Interview and new work from Full Bacon Jacket Author Tom Hathaway 14. Ed Byrne We have words with the Irish funnyman Local Radio Special 15. Podcasters guide and Hospital Radio Memoirs 16-17. Top Ten Nottingham Radio DJ’s From Dale Winton to Dennis McCarthy to David ‘Kid’ Jenson 18-19. Out & About Beer Barons, Bar Schnapps, Golden Fleece, OhMyGosh and more..

20. Flotel Local electronica producer set to play at the Loom festival 21-27. Notts Events Listings Clubs/Live music/Theatre/Arts/Comedy 28. Pub Quiz and LeftLion abroad Questions from the LeftLion pub quiz and places we’ve stuck stickers in.

29. Nottsword All this weeks answers are all restaurants within NG1 30. Rocky Horrorscopes vs The Fun Cave Bad advice and bad-taste jokes from genrally bad people.

Between us all at LeftLion we now run six live events every month. Four of these are our weekly pub quiz at the Golden Fleece on Mansfield Road.

The hosts swap every week from a pool of chelpy chaps including LeftLion radio hosts Nish and the K, LeftLion forum mod NJM and myself. It’s every Wednesday from 9pm, if you fancy a funny night out.There are some sample questions later in this magazine.

Alongside this we have LeftLion Live at the Orange Tree on Shakespeare Street, where on the 3rd Thursday of every month we showcase Notts music acts in a lively and late-opening city centre pub. Then, starting this February, we have LeftLion Unplugged, which offers a chance to see strippeddown sets in the delightful surrounds of the Malt Cross on St James Street. Up first we have Notts blues rockers Old Basford (Find out more about them on page 9) playing on Tuesday 7 February.

So we’re much more than just a magazine, but this is our bread and butter. Within these pages we take a wry look at the world of the local radio celebrity, with a top ten including the likes of Dale Winton, Kid Jenson and Colin Slater. This is in line with the recent launch of LeftLion Radio podcasting, which is a radio experiment of to try and get homemade music out to the masses.

From now on you can check out some of the most entertaining choons and chat at www.leftlion.co.uk/radio Also in this issue we speak to the likes of Faithless percussionist Sudha, former Skunk Anansie frontwoman Skin, Mobo award winning rapper Sway and Notts Noise veterans Pitchshifter. As if that wasn’t enough, we also have Ed Byrne, Flotel, The ramblings of the Shedfixman and more. Unlike certain other syndicated local mags, we actually ask them questions about Nottingham too.

So put the kettle on, make a cup of tea, spark up a fag, sit yerself down and have a good read about what’s going on in the city around ya. Enjoy…

LeftLion 349a Mansfield Road Nottingham NG5 2DA 0115 9123782 LeftLion Magazine is funded entirely by advertising. If you would like to reach our readers by advertising your company in these pages, please contact Ben on 0 7 8 4 3 9 4 4 9 1 0 or email ben@leftlion.co.uk 8,000 copies distributed to people in Nottingham

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Notts The Nine O’Clock News In the first of a new regular feature, Al Needham shares his diary of the last month’s news in Hood Town.

THURSDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2005 The BBC ask Nottingham’s most renowned living writer Alan Sillitoe about binge-drinking in his home town. His response? “The British, they drink, they’ve always drunk, they’ve always got drunk, for better or worse, right from Hogarth’s day, and before”. So there. Meanwhile, A Drop In The Ocean announces it will be putting another all-dayer on later in the year.

FRIDAY 2ND DECEMBER 2005 People are already fucked off with the manky Christmas lights in town, especially the dome of the Council House, which looks like something you’d buy off QVC for 12 quid.

For some strange reason, someone boots a football into the hanging display over Clumber Street. And it stays there throughout the month.

SATURDAY 3RD DECEMBER 2005 Plucky minnows Nottingham Forest gallantly lose 3-0 to mighty League Two big boys Chester City in the second round of the Cup. “We’ve had a great run, and it had to end

Nottingham Voices things people have said on the leftlion forum OneNottingham ‘Have Your Say’ Consultation ”This survey is sillier than the sillyness of all forum surveys put together.”

Dave West ”I’m studying for a Social Research Methods masters and if I handed in work using a survey like that, my lecturer would first laugh at me then kindly ask me to leave the course in disgrace.”

DazedNConfusing ”You might as well ask questions like: do you like things which are good? If something beneficial to you happened would you like it? Do you enjoy fun?”

Hoodmonkey

sometime” says manager Gary Megson, as his players went back to their full-time jobs of shopping in Hockley, driving around in Jeeps, and getting pissed in Geisha. Meanwhile, Notts County go out 2-1 to Torquay…

MONDAY 5TH DECEMBER 2005 Three youths are found guilty of the murder of a heroin dealer with a metal bedstead in St Anns, made more poignant by the fact that the mothers of the victim and one of the attackers knew each other by giving birth to them at the QMC. All three get banged up for 13 years min.

TUESDAY 6TH DECEMBER 2005 One of the Marion Bates killers gets his appeal slapped down. Meanwhile, there’s a serial taxi-stabber on the loose in Sherwood, County beat Peterborough 2-0, and Forest beat Port Vale 1-0.

SATURDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2005 Forest draw 1-1 with Walsall. County get the same result against Wrexham.

SUNDAY 11TH DECEMBER 2005 More grief for cabbies, as 75 black cabs get spot-checked at Nottingham Stupid Long Name Airport. Osama bin Laden is not found in the back of any of ‘em with a wrapped up kebab, but ten cabbies are busted for drawing dole or for being unlicensed...

THURSDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2005 Nottingham gets its third massive incinerator, in Eastcroft.

Despite mass protests from locals, the Council says it’s a necessary step. “God knows we’ve got to get rid of all those unread copies of Exposed and all the other glossy shit left about in pubs somehow,” a spokesman said…

FRIDAY 16TH DECEMBER 2005 The students break up for Xmas, and town is utter, utter carnage. On a more seasonal note, a Carlton postmaster called Deva Kumarasiri announces that funds he raised after the Tsunami will be going to the building of a Sri Lankan village called Little Nottingham. Respect. On the downside, a bloke from Aspley gets life for stabbing his best mate 16 times after a birthday piss-up in town, and Forest lose 3-1 to Scunthorpe. Fucking Scunthorpe!

SATURDAY 17TH DECEMBER 2005 Notts County beat Stockport 2-0.

FRIDAY 23RD DECEMBER 2005 Everyone knocks off work for Xmas. More carnage.

”I’d love to meet anyone who answered “NO” to reducing teenage pregnancies or reducing deaths!

No...I’d like to see an increase in deaths please!

Unbelievable!”

Catherine K

SATURDAY 24TH DECEMBER 2005 The South Terrace of Nottingham Castle reopens. A burst water main almost nine years to the day has meant it has been fenced off, and the repair bill came to half a million.

Town is absolutely dead for the first Saturday night in ages, with miles and miles of cabbies milling about and doing fuck all.

“I just put all ‘no’ answers down. Because I am special.”

Dirty Joe

SUNDAY 25TH DECEMBER 2005 Santa comes, obviously.

“By answering them all “no” you have achieved nothing. Take one minute and email the fools on general@onenottingham.org.uk. This will still achieve next to nothing.”

Ash D

MONDAY 26TH DECEMBER 2005 Forest batter Doncaster 4-0, but County lose 3-0 to Oxford.

“This survey is a joke. You have no way of prioritising or indicating your level of agreement or disagreement on these issues. By claiming to be giving the people of Nottingham a voice, this survey actually denies them one.”

NJM

make your voice heard

www.leftlion.co.uk/forum

WEDNESDAY 28TH DECEMBER 2005 Loads of kids in skintight all-in-ones are seen in town doing that walk you do when you’re in a mad rush to have a shit and you’re trying not to draw attention to yourself. But don’t worry… it’s only the Junior British Open speed-skating tournament, held at the Ice Centre.

FRIDAY 30TH DECEMBER 2005 Boooooo. The police fence off the front of the Market Square. Bad enough that you can’t watch a moron climb up the Xmas tree this year, but no opportunity to snog a Sharon up against a lion? Political Correctness Gone Mad, youth.

SATURDAY 31ST DECEMBER 2005 Anyone who was anyone was at the LeftLion do at the Orange Tree, actually. Anyone who was a bit thick was standing outside Nottingham’s biggest alcoholic crèche, The Works, not knowing that it had finally had its licence snatched out of its chatty hands. It will be remembered for being the place where Brian Harvey had a rather extreme flat-top… and fuck-all else.

WEDNESDAY 4TH JANUARY 2006 The Council announce that, starting at the end of the month, buskers in town may be facing X-Factor style talent tests. Two questions: does this mean that we’ll soon be seeing twats like G4 on street corners, and what the fuck would they have made of Xylophone Man? MONDAY 9TH JANUARY 2006 A massive clock is erected on London Road. Don’t panic, kids, it’s not counting down to Armageddon or anything like that, it’s just the developers’ way of telling us that another massive development is taking place on Boots Island with (more) poncey apartments, offices and bars…

TUESDAY 10TH JANUARY 2006 Two drug dealers from Sneinton get done for a shooting in Radford after having their carpets fitted, paying the tradesmen in crack and heroin and then mistakenly thinking a shoebox with 60 grand had been nicked. The judge describes the fitters’ workmanship as ‘a catastrophic piece of idleness’. Well, what the fuck did he expect? The poor sods had just got paid.

WEDNESDAY 11TH JANUARY 2006 Big news day in Notts. The QMC and City hospitals announce plans to merge into the unwieldly-sounding Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in April, while Notts Police reveal that shootings in Nottingham fell by 74% in 2005. There were 11 reported shootings, compared to one a week the year before (and one a day, according to shit-stirring bell-ends in the media). Well done, everybody.

FRIDAY 13TH JANUARY 2006 Something called One Nottingham puts out a questionnaire asking ‘Young Adults’ about the future of the city. It contains such challenging yes-no questions such as ‘Do you want Nottingham to be the safest city in the country?’ and ‘Do you want Nottingham to reduce cancer by 20%?’. (See Nottingham Voices, left.)

MONDAY 16TH JANUARY 2006 Three men are charged with the murder of three homeless women in Notts, and it is revealed that one of them wanted to become Nottingham’s first serial killer, which would have made for an interesting careers talk at school. Didn’t he know that Harold Shipman went to High Pavement?

WEDNESDAY 18TH JANUARY 2006 Two local mouth-breathers get suspended sentences for nicking a couple of life-jackets from a plane at NEMA. One question…why?

THURSDAY 19TH JANUARY 2006 The skintest month of the year drags on, as fuel bills hit the mat all over town. But at least you’re not Lisa Crossley from Arnold, who gets a whopping £202,020,052.47p leccy bill from Powergen. No, she didn’t have a ridiculous amount of lights on her house at Xmas. It was a cock-up.

FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY 2006 The Police announce that crime figures in Nottingham fell over Xmas, but violent crime went up. Talking of which, a chav on a bike from Radford is on trial for biting a police officer in a car.

SATURDAY 21ST JANUARY 2006 A non-fatal shooting happens in the car park of the Showcase in Lenton, keeping up the one-a-month average.

Cuh.

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Retail Revelations… words: Jenny Hill illustration: David Blenkey

Nottingham is currently ranked as the fifth best retail centre in the United Kingdom. From reading tourist information on shopping in the city, you are told of the wonders of two great shopping centres, Victoria and Broad Marsh. Speak to anyone who has actually been shopping in the city, however, and you discover that the latter of these is actually less like a New York mall than a series of Newark market stalls.

As a teenager, my friends and I never used to have to arrange where we would meet on trips to town. It was a fact that we would rendezvous outside Boots in Broad Marsh Centre. That was many moons ago now though.

Shopping was then an excuse to get out of the house and gain an inch of independence, while spending the coppers in our purses on the latest glittery nail varnish. As my wallet expanded and my shopping style matured, however, I moved away from the pound shops and bargain basement of the Broad Marsh to the bright lights of Vicky centre.

With £400 million being spent on the redevelopment of Broad Marsh, I might find myself using it as more than just a place to walk through once again. John Prescott said when looking at the plans in 2004 that the new centre would have “wow factor”.

We can only hope people aren’t

going to be saying ‘wow what a waste of money’. Westfield is the company who manage Broad Marsh and they do have a pretty impressive reputation. With shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, America and the UK spanning approximately ten million square meters of retail space, they clearly have the experience to do a good job.

Their plans for the centre include two new department stores and an extra floor, creating room for double the space available at the moment. Lets just trust it doesn’t mean twice as many discount jeans stores and pound shops.

One major change already revealed will involve a food court large enough to seat 1200 hungry people. If done right this will be a convenient place for people to stop off and enjoy a meal with friends who might not have the same culinary tastes as you do.

It can be difficult to find a nice place to eat in town that caters for the under 18s and isn’t a café in a department store. The food court should provide those of you forced to take young kids out in half term week with a place to rest your weary feet and eat. On the other hand it could be a haven for townies to squabble over the merits of Burger King and KFC, while taking up all the seats with their babies and Footlocker bags.

One group who will not benefit from Westfield’s changes are the Notts cruise racers. For decades they have floored their pimped-up Nova pedals around Collin Street, tormenting those of us trying to get the last bus on a Sunday night. This road is now being swallowed up with the shopping centre and they’ll have to ride the Broad Marsh kiddie cars instead.

The police have already done their best to get rid of most of them, but there will still be a few sad faces. Apart from that, most of Nottingham will be happy with the push Westfield is giving us towards being at the forefront of British shopping once more.

Broad Marsh is not the only area to benefit from expansion.

Personally I’m very excited about the Trinity Square building site that will eventually transfer into a hub of intriguing shops, restaurants and even a casino.

The word on the grapevine is that amongst these will be a Borders Book Shop and, despite everyone already being bored of the first one, another TK Maxx. Although this has been in the pipeline for some time, it still looks nothing like the Piccadilly Circus style artist’s impressions we have been shown. Still, as the Guinness adverts insist, good things come to those who wait.

Although the millions of pounds worth of progress in Trinity

Square and Broad Marsh Centre is something to look forward to, my pennies are waiting for one shop in particular. My purse threatens to spring open at the thought of the unveiling of Primark at the site of the old Littlewoods.

With clothes that are cheap and trendy, who cares if they turn

into a sack when you wash them?

Primark is a bit like Tom Hanks.

Young, old, scally or skater, you may try to deny it but deep down you know you like at least some stuff in Primark, and you know you love that moment with the oversized keyboard in Big really.

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With performances from all over the world under his belt, Jonzi D has become one of the most recognised names in dance production. Also actively involved in British Hiphop culture, Jonzi brings to Nottingham a groundbreaking new theatre production TAG… Me Vs the City. Collaborating with some of the most successful artists and dancers he tells us what it’s all about… words: Michelle Bayton photos: Kofi Allen In a nutshell can you tell us what your new production TAG Me Vs The City is all about?

My nutshells tend to be quite big... It was an idea I had in 2000 as a result of working with a graffiti artist called Prime on a previous theatre show. TAG is about the graffiti artist, the unsung hero of Hiphop culture and it says a lot about our oppressive society. I thought, ok we’re not allowed to use aerosols in the theatre so let’s work with dancers. This is the idea of physical calligraphy, the concept of dancers making letters and shapes with their bodies. Then we just saw how far we could take that concept…which has been really fun!

So did the concept of physical calligraphy stem purely from the fact that you can’t use aerosols in the theatre?

Not purely… I basically work with dance a lot and the idea was to represent the paint. We could have done it with other mediums but I think that like dance, these graffiti artists bring the city to life. Their disciplines serve various physical ideas like dripping, waving, popping and freezing shown by the way these dancers use quite gymnastic positions to create letter forms.

You talk of disciplines in your work, mentioning the use of breakdancing and bodypopping. Do you practice any other disciplines like Parkour or Ballet?

Yeh…The production set itself is a playground…we use 3 metre by 2 metre solid graffiti letters

which the dancers actually jump off and on to so Parkour is incorporated into the production.

In comparison to the use of the stereotypical classical ballet techniques where the emphasis is on creating a light and weightlessness, I’m very much into the idea of actually using the ground and creating impact between surfaces.

What is it about TAG Me Vs. The City that links to your other productions in terms of social message?

It’s quite abstract. The main character has got issues with authority stemming from a relationship with his father and so he challenges any form of authority. The message is less explicit in comparison to my other work and very much steered toward the visual as opposed to textual. Vision and sound is my main delivery.

TAG brags quite a prestigious cast with DJ Pogo and graffiti artist Prime to name a couple.

Do you find inspiration from your collaborators?

I’m very much inspired by Prime and his virtually Arabic style, it’s beautiful. I know DJ Pogo from way back in the day, he’s a long standing collaborator and Ben Wachenje from the 7samuri, who made the flyers and a short film for the production, has done my images for the last ten years now. I’m always happy with what he does.

The production seems quite a radical show for the traditional theatre settings. Why choose theatre for the show?

Since I was born I’ve been involved in theatre…so when Hiphop culture came about I was always thinking of how its performance components would work in a theatre space.

Is there an audience you’re aiming at in particular?

I’m aiming it at the new Hiphop audience to get them inspired by theatre because to be honest I don’t think theatre is that inspiring. A lot of it doesn’t speak to young audiences.

Any plans for future live productions yet and is there anyone you’d really like to work with?

I would love to work with a guy called Soweto Kinch who recently won young jazz saxophonist of the year and also produces Hiphop music and is one of the best emcees I have ever heard.

I have plans for a new theatre show that I wanna make in a year or so called Marcus the Sadist and I’d really like to get him involved.

What tunes are you listening to at the moment?

I only listen to hardcore underground Hiphop. Generally speaking I don’t listen to heavily promoted gangster ‘Hippop’.

Respect for MF Doom, Mad Lib, Kev Brown who are all American artists. UK-based I’m listening to Vex, who is a sick emcee, Black Twang and Skinnyman.

Have you heard any Nottingham Hiphop?

I’ve got a bit of a relationship with some Nottingham based artists so I’m interested in the scene.

I take it you’ve heard of our folklaw legend Robin Hood?

Yeah, Im very much up on the idea of stealing from the rich to give to the poor. I think that the Robin Hood philosophy is kind of what I’m doing with theatre.

Bringing Hiphop into what is a relatively rich environment.

What motivates you?

Injustice! I make art from injustice because that’s what inspires me.

What was the last thing that made you laugh?

This interview… and before this I saw a sitcom by Chris Rock called Everybody Hates Chris. I can’t wait until it comes here because it’s so funny.

What was the last thing that made you cry?

(After a thoughtful pause.) I’d say the death of my brother which made me cry buckets… oh and the movie Beloved.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to LeftLion readers?

Yeah. To the Hiphop community, this show’s for you! I’m proud to be creating a language that the community can understand and that people outside of it can learn from. I’d like to present Hiphop as an educational tool and as something that can benefit the whole of society!

TAG… Me Vs the City is on at the Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 4 February.

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‘I’m actually a shy person, it’s music that’s made me a bit outspoken.’ eath of fresh Sway Dasafo isn’t so much a br ’s more like a air for the UK Hiphop scene, he ficially still an great big gob full. Although of rather than unsigned ar tist (through choice to pick up lack of interest) Sway managed at last years’ the award for ‘Best Hiphop Act’ is such a great MOBO awards. What makes th ly without on t no is ay Sw at th is t en em ev achi t he was also up the backing of a major label, bu The Game and e lik ts gh ei yw av he al ob gl t ns agai idering his full 50 Cent. More amazing still cons rly Febr uary. album is not set to drop until ea een words: Ben Spurr photo: Jake Gr

How did you feel about winning the MOBO, some artists play down the success of winning such insider industry awards?

I’d never play it down, it was good for my career. It was a positive move on behalf of everyone involved and at the end of the day it was normal, it wasn’t going to make or break me but it helped get me a lot more press and things like that. The award also looks alright at my mum’s house!

Do you think it is the way forward for smaller artists to promote their music without using a major label like you and others have done in the Grime scene?

First of all I wouldn’t say I was Grime. I make Hiphop music, I’m as Hiphop as any Hiphop artist… you understand? I make music and sometimes I experiment and go in to different genres but it’s all still Hiphop. The whole independent hustle isn’t for everybody. Not a lot of people

‘There’s too many ego’s in this UK thing, nobodies done shit.’ are business minded and you have to be a bit multi-talented to do it. You have to have a good team. I wouldn’t be doing stuff completely on my own. Obviously it’s not me walking around everywhere giving people my CDs. You have to get a good team of people who believe in what you’re doing and let them help to propel you to the next level. The independent hustle is only good if you’re determined enough…

When will the album This Is My Demo be dropping?

On 6 February. It will include Up Your Speed and Flo Fashion.

How was your trip to New York and what kind of reception did you get?

I only went over there for a short period, but the impact we made in that time means that I have to go back. I did three live shows

and was on radio as well. They treated me well and it was a good move, I made a lot of links.

On some of your mixtapes you seem to make fun of American slang terms and accents, is that because you think a lot of their artists are fronting?

You know what, it’s like retaliation really and truly.

They always take the piss and the British things that sell in America are like stereotypical British stuff. They like Austin Powers and stuff like that and he is like a stereotype of a lot of British people. They mould it in to one and make some comedy out of it and no one really does that back to Americans. I know that they are the metropolis for entertainment in the world so it’s not a thing about “I hate Americans,” but if they’re going

to take the piss, I think it’s about time we take the piss back!

You seem quite humble compared to a lot of rappers out there, is that an accurate judgement of character?

Yeah, that’s just me by nature and on the other side I’m not near to accomplishing what I want to accomplish within my career so there’s no time for me to start going all diva-ish. I’m actually a shy person, it’s music that’s made me a bit outspoken. There’s too many ego’s in this UK thing, nobodies done shit, no ones done nothing to start having an ego.

So would you not say that the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Mike Skinner have blown up as they have had success in the States?

Not as far as they need to be. Like at the end of the day, to really be massive and big, you need Michael Jackson hollering at you!

When Michael Jackson hollers at you then you know you are at the pinnacle of what you do. Like the

Neptunes for example and Biggie Smalls, Michael Jackson had relationships with these people.

So I don’t believe that you are anything massive until Michael Jackson gives you a call!

What are your plans for the near future?

The albums coming out just to set the year off and from then it’s going to be everything. DVD’s, you name it. I’m going to be working with other artists aswell, building on the Dasafo camp, a lot of people coming out and there’s going to be a lot of projects I’m going to be on.

Sway’s album This Is My Demo is out early February.

Sway is performing in Nottingham at the Royal Centre as part of the Urban Growth tour for under 18’s.

He then plays at Camouflage’s Birthday party at Stealth on Friday 17 March. www.swaydasafo.com

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She

bangs the drums

oo o

words: Kate Symons photos: Damon Hope Girl Power was a load of nonsense, but talented girl drummers make you proud to be female. Sudha Kheterpal is one of those women. As the percussionist with Faithless, she’s an accomplished rhythm mistress and also a Nottingham girl.

Some of you might have seen her on stage with Faithless at the Arena in December, she’s been with the band ten years. She’s also played with Talvin Singh (winner of the 1999 Mercury Music Prize) and formed part of the original Sister India band, as well as countless other appearances in British-Asian crossover music. Sudha is currently working on her first solo album, so we caught up with her for a chat.

How did you start playing percussion?

I was given the opportunity to learn at school. I studied at Nottingham Girls High School and I remember my music teacher telling us that the drum teacher from the boys school would be coming over to give trial lessons.

I’d never felt so excited in my eleven year-old-life and that night begged my parents to let me go.

I studied with drum teacher Mike Sillitoe for five years and he still remains to this day my biggest mentor. After university, I moved to Leicester to do an Access to Music course where I met a number of session musicians.

Realising I’d found my vocation, I moved to Manchester to further realise my dream. It was here I launched my professional career with 90s pop band K-Klass.

Is being a good percussionist all about the rhythm, baby?

Being a good Percussionist is, of course, about understanding the intricacies of rhythm. It’s also, as with any instrument, about feel. About knowing when not to play and when to punctuate.

My style is influenced by many world music types, predominantly Cuban. Cuban music fires me up.

It gives me goose bumps.

If you were stuck on a desert island, which three percussion instruments would you want with you?

A conga, a tabla, and a glockenspiel. A conga because that’s my main instrument and I couldn’t live without at least one, a tabla because it reminds me of much of what I love about being Indian and a glockenspiel so I could create melodies. Needless to say I’d create sticks and shakers out of coconut trees!

Which gig has given you the biggest adrenalin rush?

It’s hard to isolate just one. Live 8 this year with Faithless, Werchte in Belgium where we caused an earthquake and Lapland in minus 30 degrees (if there was no adrenalin we’d probably have died!) Playing with Talvin Singh in Brazil, playing with Sister India at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1999.

What’s the greatest challenge you’ve faced in the music industry?

People not taking me seriously because I’m a woman drummer.

What’s your experience of Nottingham’s music and arts culture? What local musicians do you rate?

When I grew up, Nottingham was already at the hub of cultural activity. Now, it seems to have reached new heights with the likes of Bent and Crazy Penis and a multitude of new arts venues. Vocal talent such as Zoe Johnston, who featured with both Faithless and Bent, certainly gets my vote. What a voice! Her first album will be released this Spring so watch out for that one.

What are your fondest memories of Nottingham?

The Arboretum, Goose Fair, playing at The Old Vic and Eden, Xylophone man and The Hippo.

You must have some amazing memories of touring with Faithless. Any funny stories you can tell us?

There’s no real way of describing touring with Faithless other than utter madness. If a social worker passed by we’d probably be sectioned. Most of us have worked together in the band for ten years so we’re completely like family. Funny stories? Wow! There are hundreds. Being chased off stage by hundreds of frantic Norwegians half way through our set was quite a mad one.

You did the percussion for Kylie as part of a full live stage PA at Cream when she launched Confide in Me and she made you wear a dinner jacket.

Sounds like a strange musical experience..?

The dinner jacket part was rather strange but it kind of worked.

I remember Kylie being quite nervous but very professional.

Overall it was a professional affair.

The days you played at Cream sound pretty cool. Would you consider these your favourite career years?

Those days were simply fantastic.

Playing at Cream, The Hacienda, Ministry of Sound in the early 90s was exciting, new and er…

a little messy. It’s amazing how many people I bump into from back then. Other favourite career days are playing with the likes of acid jazz band Corduroy and Dido.

Are there any female musicians, past or present, who are important role models to you?

Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar, Sheila E, Ricki Lee Jones, Bjork, Cindi Blackman, Annie Lennox, Carole King.

You are currently working on your own musical projects. How are they progressing?

I’m writing my album which should be completed by the summer. The music’s cheeky and eclectic. Check my website for updates and downloads.

Future ambitions?

To have people listening to my music all over the world and to show young people, particularly girls, that it’s possible to make

your mark on the world in any way you want to.

What advice would you give to up and coming musicians?

If you’re totally committed you’ll get there. Doing something you love 100% is of utmost importance, but there will be times when you’re not working, so have a back up plan too! www.sudha.co.uk

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words: Meg Rowell photos: Dom Henry

Old Basford are four Nottingham guys who met through other bands, to find a shared love of boogie blues, rock and roll and playing hard. With a new record out, interest from record companies and a string of successful gigs they are a Notts band on the up and not to be missed. For one night only they have agreed to leave their mammoth amplifiers and electric guitars at home and will be playing a stripped-down set for us at the first LeftLion Unplugged at the Malt Cross on the Tuesday 7 February 2006.

What’s the story behind Old Basford?

Ceri: Old Basford is a refuge for four men whose mental health is maintained by its existence.

We’re clearly a bunch of dreamers, who can string a song together from time to time Chris: We’re into good times and playing boogie blues, getting out there and enjoying ourselves as much as possible.

Nick: The band is like striding through the pissing horizontal rain to practice huddled, like some kind of snapped otter colony.

Describe your music to those who have not heard you yet.

Nick: The first urban morning sunshine on naked belly against belly. Mango and chilli, deep heat, poppers and a glass top coffee table.

Ceri: We’re trying to describe our music here Nick, not your morning routine!

Nick: What was the question..?

Dan: We write a lot about food, music and sex. We play rock’n’roll laced with heavy boogie blues.

I hear you have a record coming out soon, tell us about that.

Chris: Field records approached us after seeing a couple of shows and offered to put our stuff out.

So, over the Christmas period we recorded five tracks in five days at Random recordings. We’ll call it Red Mist and there’ll be an animated video for one of the tracks on the CD. Nick: It should be out in spring and we’re really pleased to have such cool people working on it.

Hopefully it’ll sound, look and taste delicious.

You play a lot both in and out of Nottingham. Do you prefer home or away gigs?

Nick: It’s the city I was born in.

Place of my roots. I love to travel and get away, but when you’re playing to more of your mates, they really know how to heckle… a recent best was “Jesus in a pork pie hat!”

Chris: We’d definitely like to play more gigs out of town, but it’s also about creating a scene where we are. We’d rather fill a room in Nottingham and have a great time than drag ourselves to London on a Tuesday night.

Dan: We always try to get the best from a gig whether it be here or there.

Ceri: Still, it’s a great feeling driving to a venue you’ve never played before to do your stuff in front of an unknown crowd.

But like every band must, we’ve driven for hours to play to empty rooms before.

What are your favourite places to play around Nottingham?

Chris: Parties, basically. Playing on the floor, squashed into the corner of the room, there’s no us and them like that. That’s the vibe we like. Sweaty, dancing, pissed up and squashed in.

Ceri: I’m glad the Maze is open again. That’s a great little late night venue.

Are you looking forward to playing at the Malt Cross for the first LeftLion Unplugged?

Chris: We’ve never done an acoustic set before. Normally we have a wall of sound behind us so it will be completely different.

Dan: It’s a nice place. Seems clean!

Ceri: The Malt Cross has a great feel to it. That old music hall should create a certain atmosphere for the Unplugged gigs that you wouldn’t get in Rock City or the Social. It’s been good to re-discover the songs and pull out some tracks we haven’t played in public before. We’re also playing our first ever cover version on the night and it’s come out beautifully.

Tell us a bit about how you’ll be changing your set for that.

Dan: We’ve added a load of new songs to the set that were hanging around unfinished and the acoustic format really seems to work for them. We’ve tried not just to convert the existing set but to re-work it.

Nick: Stripped down, a musical loft conversion of sorts, but

backwards. It’s been a refreshing inspiration, reassessing what’s needed for a song to work.

Chris: Not a big muff in sight!

Which other Notts bands would you recommend at the moment?

Dan: Heard some of Huw Costins’ new stuff at the studio over Christmas which sounded really strong. Also love seeing Grain play live again.

Ceri: I’m liking Huws’ stuff too, it’s very emotional. The Smears kick ass, and the Hellset Orchestra are unusual in the best possible way.

Chris: The Stoatz are superb. The nearest thing to Cream I’ve heard in ages.

Nick: I saw Elshaday play Enjoy The Ride’ at The Malt Cross. She’s a solo artist on electric guitar and vocals all bluesy and raw with great songs. Grain and Stone Soul Picnic do it too.

Any other gigs coming up?

Chris: There’s the LeftLion event on 7 Feb. Then The Horn in Hand with The Smears and Ed Bannard.

Back up to full volume for that one!

Ceri: Should be a very good night that one. Get there early folks I think we’ll hit capacity pretty quickly. That’s it so far, but we’ll hope to support the EP release with as many gigs as possible.

What’s next for Old Basford?

Ceri: Sell all the CD’s! Then make some more and sell all of them.

Stay sane through the long dark winter. Eat more fruit, maybe by adding it to the cocktails.

Chris: Gigs, gigs, parties and more gigs. We’re never happier than when we’re on stage.

Dan: Raise our standards, become a better band.

Old Basford, Will Jeffery and Tim McDonald play LeftLion Unplugged on Tuesday 7 February at the Malt Cross www.oldbasford.com

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words: Alasdair Catton

If you’re not familiar with Pitchshifter, they are probably the biggest rock band Nottingham have ever produced. Their sound is drum and bass darker than anything you’ve heard down at Stealth, but with heavy metal licks and aggressive in your face vocals. They spit out their music like propaganda and blend it with stunning visual artwork and live visual effects, adding a third dimension to their live shows.

They use digital effects to create amazing sounds with guitars and use interesting samples to add depth; it’s unlikely that there’s a single pedal or FX processor out there that these guys haven’t tried. Regarded by critics as way ahead or their time, the band has a huge cult following of fans that see Pitchshifter like Marmite; if you like it you will love it! If not, you’ll probably hate it and be quite afraid that this kind of music exists, there’s no inbetween. We put some questions to Pitchshifter frontman and Notts lad JS Clayden…

What made you decide to reform Pitchshifter?

Well, technically we never actually really split. We all just got caught up in the madness of our own lives. None of us fell out with each other. No musical tantrums.

We just kind of expanded. We are ‘back together’? Because we fucking love it. Pitchshifter has given me personally some of the

best things in my life. I love it. We all love it. I can’t think of anything we’d rather be doing than playing live for a room full of ferocious lunatics. It’s a long-standing addiction we all have. Playing live is our crack cocaine.

So you live in LA these days… what have you been up to out there?

Putting music into movies and TV, managing bands, writing my own music, shooting guns, sitting in traffic, sunbathing, doing interviews.

Is Nottingham well-known over there?

All Americans genuinely think Nottingham is a myth, a storytale. Highly amusing when you show them pictures of it.

What do you like to see and do when you come back over here?

England is fucking freezing. I forget that each time until I come back. I see my family and friends mainly. I always go to Rock City and see my buddies there. What would Nottingham be without Rock City!?

Is there going to be a new LP? It would be incredibly naughty of a band to clandestinely create new music and not let their fan base be privy to its existence until a new tour. I have no idea what kind of immoral heathens would commit such a foul act!

www.pitchshifter.com is an incomparable record and very ahead of it’s time, how did you come up with that sound?

Many bands have ‘bolted on’ electronic elements to their rock music. The whole premise of Pitchshifter was to make each part equal in the whole. The electronic and analog elements should share the stage, neither taking precedent. Bands paid DJs to remix their music at that time, but Pitchshifter sounded like it was ‘pre-mixed’, not ‘re-mixed’.

We mangled our own music digitally to start with. We had a lot of fun seeing how far we could go with that.

You are renowned for your love and use of computers, what kind of hardware are you running?

Mac G5’s. Noded. The latest OSX Tiger. Tons of Ram, terrabytes of drive space. wifi. 2 laptops. Logic Pro 7. RME Fireface 800 soundcard.

Universal Audio 6176 pre-amp. SE Electronics z5600A mic. Sans Amp RBI. Damage Control USA Guitar pre. Pods. Waldorf Microwave XT synth. Korg Prophecy synth.

Dunlop Crybaby Wah. ProCo Rat. Tube Screamer. PSP Vinatge Warmer. IK Multimedia T-Racks.

Strobosoft Tuners. We could go on for ever here . . .

Do you think you can relate to the Gallagher brothers?

Well, the current line-up of Pitchshifter is actually two sets of paternal brothers. Myself and Mark, and Dan and Tim Rayner.

We are the band of brotherly love.

Yes, Mark and I do occasionally

fight, all brothers do. But we kiss and make up pretty fast. We live so far apart we try not to waste time being hard-asses with each other. Life’s too short for that shit.

Have you played at many free parties? What would you say if you were asked too?

I have DJ’ed on occasion. In fact Jim and I used to DJ drum and bass at Rock City for the rock kids.

They loved it. Pitchshifter would scare the living hell out of true ravers high on E, but I think we could DJ without too many hospital cases. I remember the days of the free festivals i.e. in a field, bands like Torquemada would play in masks. Intense days. www.pitchshifter.com

Pitchsfiters greatest moments…

The band, formerly signed to Earache records, were snapped up by US label Geffen in 1997.

To date they have recorded nine studio albums, dozens of singles and videos and made their own DVD. Their music has been highly used in film (Mortal Kombat, Paycheck, The Crow) on television commercials (Volkswagen) and in computer games (Test Drive, Twisted Metal, SX Superstar, Rallisport Challenge).

They held numerous sessions for the infamous John Peel Show (RIP) as well as becoming staples on XFM and the Radio One’s rock shows in the UK. Pitchshifter have graced the covers of Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Rocksound, Big Cheese and many more. Front-man J.S. Clayden was the longest starring guest columnist for Metal Hammer Magazine.

They’ve played the main stage at the Reading Festival and toured the UK, USA and Europe on the Ozzfest and Warped Tours.

Highlights included inducing a stage invasion at the Phoenix Festival and performing a piano solo with a sledgehammer at the Garage Club in London.

Oh and they started their own record company, PSI Records.

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Many will remember Skin as the lead vocalist for Skunk Anansie in the mid- late 90’s. Together with bandmates Cass, Ace and Mark she released a string of great rock tunes like Selling Jesus, Charity, I Can Dream and the anthemic Weak.

Their split a few years ago left a void in the hearts of rock music fans across the country and their gigs at Rock City remain talked about in Notts to this day. words: Ben Spurr Skin (aka 36-year old Deborah Anne Dyer) is now back and touring her new album Fake Chemical State, including a Rescue Rooms gig in March.

Still distinct in her style and armed with a range of solo material from heartfelt ballads to straight up headbangers, her live performances are always charged with high voltage energy from start to finish.

Tell us about your days before Skunk Anansie, before you made it in music?

I went to Teesside University, well Polytechnic it was at the time, studying interior design architecture and that’s where I first started singing. I got hassled to be in a band for the whole year and by the end of it I said ‘yes’ and ‘why not’? Then I really got a taste for it while I was studying, but I stopped a bit just because I had to finish my degree.

Do you miss the days of being in Skunk Anansie and the other guys that were in the band?

Erm, well actually one of them is here with me now, Mark Richardson. I still see them all the time and we’re all friends. It’s all cool really, I don’t miss being in a band with them, or at least I don’t most of the time. Little things remind me of the old days like when I go to a venue and there’s a picture of us. I’m like “Oh yeah, that was great’ but I’m very happy with my boys now. I’ve got my own band, my own crew and we’ve been up and running for three years. I think it’s good to look forward, not to look back.

How do you think your first solo album Flesh Wounds was received by the press and the general public?

Well critically it did quite well, in New York the album’s sold quite well but in England it’s

like nobody knew it was out.

The record company didn’t really put any kind of money or effort into promoting the album. It was all word of mouth in England.

Whereas in Europe, they put a bit of money into it and it sold over half a million copies. It was a bit annoying that no-one really knew I had an album out. I think with this record and being on a new label, people will think it’s my first solo album, and that I’ve not done anything since Skunk Anansie.

Tell us about your upcoming album Fake Chemical State.

What can we expect and how does it differ from your last?

It’s much more loud and aggressive. The first download single Alone in my Room, is quite indicative of the rest of the album.

Flesh Wounds was a very dark time, lyrically it was really quite vicious. A lot of the songs were

really quite nasty and that was buckled by the fact that the music was mellow so that you could hear that in the lyrics and in my voice. This time the lyrics are a lot lighter… a lot more positive and a lot less blue. I do like my dark music and things that are a little moody. I’m not in to happy music or bright shiny pop or anything like that. This album is much more feisty and a lot louder, it’s more of a dirty indie pop kind of thing. It’s a heavy album soundwise but lyrically it’s a lot lighter.

That’s how I feel really, where I’m feeling comfortable, where I’m at.

What are your future plans?

The whole album project is going to keep me busy. It started with a cool little venues tour in November to bring it all back up again. It’s really good fun to do little venues because in Europe we played to crowds of five and ten thousand before we

came here. So it’s really nice to do venues where we are right in front of people’s faces and can see what’s going on. Then basically it’s onwards and upwards, shooting a new video, recording some new B-sides and then touring the album and festivals.

We’re just going to be out there from now on, it’s hectic!

Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?

I think if people listen to this album with open ears they will love it. This is the best album I’ve ever recorded by far and I’ve never said that about anything before.

Fake Chemical State is out 20 March on V2.

Skin plays at the Rescue Rooms gig on Tuesday 28 March. www.skinmusic.net

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Just before Christmas we got sent a copy of a book with the intriguing title of Full Bacon Jacket sent to LeftLion HQ. It was accompanied by some interesting ramblings from the author and as we began to read it we realised it was set almost entirely in Hood Town. words: Jared Wilson The book tells the tale of The Chimneys, a Notts rock and roll band in the eighties, who became local legends, perhaps more for their boozing and partying than their music. They get tanked up, break stuff, play practical jokes with food and occasionally get arrested. Author Tom Hathaway (aka the Shedfixman), was one fifth of the band (alongside Crocodile, Sticky, Planet and The Skipper) and when met up around Christmas in the Rose of England, I immediately began to warm to his no-bullshit approach.

Full Bacon Jacket is your debut work as an author. How and why did you come to write it in the first place?

Most of the reasons for writing FBJ are other peoples’ reasons.

Some alive people, some dead people, some dead lucky to be alive people. A lot of these were often telling me how I ought to write a book about the capers we’d been involved in. and eventually I had to agree with them. For myself, I have just two reasons. Firstly and most importantly, it was written as some futile attempt to say ‘thanks’ to Mark and the Lads for dragging me out of the solitude and depression of bedsit land, back in ’82. Secondly, it serves as one sure, hefty and lingering boot up the arses of each and every distopic, pucker-mouthed, smallminded snotsack who ever looked down at the way I conducted my life back then and since. As if properly enjoying yourself was a crime!

You say that the book was begun in ’96, finished in ’99 and yet, it’s now six or so years on from there. What kept you?

The first main problem was that I was completely computer

illiterate. I was having initially to rely upon delivering manuscripts written in tiresome block capitals to a dedicated alcoholic who owned a computer. The deal was that I ‘Oil his fingers’ with a fortnightly supply of drinking whisky and rolling baccy and he would then sort the typingup. Some twelve distilleries and fifteen Dixie plantations later, I suspected an ongoing secret agenda and although he’d done a great deal of work, he’d also managed to inject a great deal of personalised crap and formative damage into the document which would later take ages to sort out.

I then passed it over to someone else to try and have a go at, while I flew out to a contract in Holland for a couple of years, just to get my head straight and break the booze loop in Nottingham. I left England with a bag of rice, a bottle of soy sauce, a Jif lemon, four cans of out-of-date baked beans, the burnt out remains of a giro and a cocky attitude and returned five months later, driving a Chevrolet Silverado with a tall blonde tart in the passenger side.

Sounds fun!

It was, but things soon fell apart and I returned to these shores in ’02, determined to take a welldeserved one year break from women and hit the sauce with Tallbob Weedley every night, as well as getting churched up on a free drop-in computer course.

So, steadily, one free evening at a time, with the priceless help of the Girls at South Notts College IT, I was gradually able to turn the project around into a more fluent and viably formatted proposition.

The ending of Full Bacon Jacket alludes to a sequel called Full

Chicken Jacket. When can we expect it? Ten years time?

Absolutely not. The politactics and timings of release could still hold it on the blocks for a while yet; but that shouldn’t read as a problem. In the meantime, I’ll be looking to release a collection of some thirty or forty crap poems entitled The Ravings of The Shedfixman, probably in the spring of ’06. Additionally, there is a collection of travelogs underway called The Rovings of The Shedfixman, in case people including myself, end up waiting around too long.

spoiled rotten for multi-national ‘haute cuisine’ restaurants around where we live, which is lucky, because I’m renowned for eating absolutely haute.

their manoeuvrings were forged primarily upon stiletto heels plus the blokes always fetched the drinks in those days. Very Silletorical, eh?

What and who do you read?

Which authors have been an influence on your work?

If I said ‘no-one’, I’d probably get away with it, because I’m so crap that no-one living or related to or besotted with the eloquent living or dead would dare besmirch their heroes’ good names by drawing the remotest of comparisons.

Is the booze under control these days?

I boozed for days or weeks on end, I was a Chimney! But then, we could always pack it in for days or weeks on end, too. No doubt, in the eye of the shandies, we were alkies. We practised devout alcoholism for sure, but we were never alcoholics. Well, speaking for myself, anyway.

Sadly these days, my hands are somewhat tied in the matter, as alcohol tends to immediately inflame my most recent acquisition, gout. It’s the latest in a line of ailments I’ve incurred by sitting in front of a computer screen for three years solid.

Not even Nottingham’s own Sillitoe?

Some two or three years after I’d finished writing FBJ, I decided it was time I both watched Saturday Night/Sunday Morning all the way through for once and had a look at the book for the first time. Well, I got through the film at last, but typically only stuck at the book for the first chapter or so, due probably to getting a phone call to the evening. But I was absolutely stunned by the many glaring similarities between the leery attitudes of Sillitoe’s characters and my own! The ‘rebels without a snap tin’! Maybe it’s a Raleigh thing… my old man worked there too and, having met a good few of his workmates over the years, I would say that being a dedicated practical joker or stand-up comedian was a useful qualification. I remember him telling me about the favourite Friday night, after work trick of letting a bagfull of ball bearings go across the lino floor in the busy tap room of the White Horse Pub, then him and his mates biting their tongues as various jiving Jack-the-Lads proceeded to break their necks all over the place.

The women were okay, because

What music are you listening to these days?

Ah! Music! The Zimmer frame of the young! What fucking music? I joined the Chimneys in ’87 because I was sick to the back teeth of ‘music’. The entire premise of the Chimneys’ formation was fuelled by seething hatred of the local music scene, specifically inverted West Nottingham snobs, all cred-starved into religiously visiting each other’s gigs to forn for England and put fruit up each other’s arses backstage afterwards. ‘Yeah, I dig your stuff, Man!’ Yeah. Heard it a million times in St James Street, alone.

The real statement read: ‘Yeah; come to nick your bird, your bookings, your drummer or his job, Man! ’Ere! ’Ave some more fruit!’ No, I seriously think that as a society we’ve become a bit too reliant on music in our days and that we’re over exposed to it to the point of devaluing the specialness of what we like best.

Juh! Music, eh?

Curry for you, sir?

I still hold an avid fascination for the pantalonial testings of the Subcontinent. After Sue and I got chained, I decided to properly get into the actual science of curry making and grind my own spices from origin. The Ma-in-Law got me a dinky little mortar and pestle set for our first Christmas and to cut a long story short, I’m still making diabolically crap curries that I wouldn’t give to a starving hyena. In the event of yet further disaster, we’re actually

What’s your idea of a perfect night out, these days then?

Walk thirty five miles, spend an hour in a stinking, ripped up pub which, not unpredictably, is halffull of strange, vindictive morons.

Kip peacefully out on a park bench and wake up around dawn, reminding myself that I’ve got a fantastic wife, home, fridge and telly to walk thirty five miles back to for a perfect night in, without any trouble whatsoever when I get there.

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As well as being a regular on TV clips shows like I Love Father Christmas and 100 Greatest Muppets and starring in the sitcom Sam’s Game, Ed Byrne has been a major league hitter on the stand-up comedy circuit for over a decade. He’s about to record his first ever live DVD, a Greatest Hits set of all the best material from his many tours and Edinburgh shows and recently played a warm-up gig at Cabaret in Nottingham. We spoke to him afterwards and found out how he makes with the funny. words: Nathan Miller You’ve played in Nottingham a lot, do you have any special affinity for the place?

I do for Just The Tonic. It’s somewhere that I kind of grew up as a comedian, I suppose.

I played it very early on in my career and I’ve always had a really good gig there, so it was one of the first places I picked when we were looking to do some warm-up gigs for the DVD. The only time I had a bad gig there was one New Year’s Eve. New Year gigs can be a hooer.

The DVD is a ‘Greatest Hits’, isn’t it?

Yeah, I’ve got this thing about always touring with new material, I don’t like doing stuff that I did on the last tour. With the DVD though, it’s a DVD, so people are going to watch it again and again. I’ve got all this stuff that I don’t really do on stage any more, because it’s old. But it’s good. And I just like the idea of it burned into a disc for all eternity, so it’s always there.

How do you know when a joke’s really good?

You don’t know, this is the weird thing. Sometimes you think the punchline is really funny bit and

“All my favourite jokes are the ones that in conversation pop out fully formed without anybody thinking about them.”

End run and the poster was me with short hair. People were like, “Who the fuck’s he, doing the Ambassador’s Theatre?” Whereas if I’d had the long hair they’d be going “Oh, that’s that bloke. We’ll go and see him.”

the audience laugh at the set up.

For instance: you wake up and you’ve no idea what time it is, then you look at your clock and it’s 4am. But then you remember you’re a milkman and you’ve slept in. The milkman’s the punchline, but it was waking up and seeing it was only 4 o’clock that was getting the big laugh. So when I do it now the milkman is like a little tail on the kite, as it were.

You’ve no way of predicting what people think is really funny.

knee or something I wish it hadn’t happened, I wish it happened to me instead. I’d rather I felt the pain for her than hear her fucking moan about it. I said that to an ex-girlfriend on holiday when she wouldn’t stop complaining about her mosquito bites and we both laughed and went “That’s a fucking great joke.” All my favourite jokes are the ones that in conversation pop out fully formed without anybody thinking about them.

So what’s the best joke you’ve ever written?

People still tell me the best thing I ever wrote was the Alanis Morissette routine, so that’ll be on the DVD in some form or another.

I’ll either do it live on the night or I’ll put it on as an extra feature.

One of my own favourites is about how you know you’ve fallen in love because you can’t stand to see the other person suffer in any way. If my girlfriend cuts her

Well, you’re often described as an observational comedian, but you’ve said before you’re more anecdotal. Is there a big difference?

The two go hand in hand but the majority of my act is taken up with anecdotes. I do a lot of travelling and when you look at different countries and different cultures it makes you see your own culture in stark relief. I went to Australia in the early days with

Another trademark is your smoking. When the new laws come in will you be forced to give that up too?

Yeah, that is a problem. When I started I had this great visual joke about part-time smokers, it worked really nicely but I needed to be smoking a cigarette and I needed to have a beer to be able to tell it. And every gig, I did that joke. I even got to do it on TV because if the joke specifically demands that you have to have a cigarette, then they have to let you do it. But in non-smoking gigs, as soon as you light up the audience just stop laughing. I don’t smoke when I do gigs in Ireland any more, so if they stop it here I won’t smoke on stage here any more. Which is another reason why the DVD will be quite the curiosity!

half an hour of material and found out ten minutes of it didn’t work, so I had to hastily write new stuff. You’re looking at everything and thinking “that’s new, that’s different, we don’t have that at home,” and so you just write jokes about it. Then you come back to England and notice things that are different from Australia so you start writing jokes about that and it just ends up more anecdotal. It was a perk of the job when I started out. I lived in a shithole with Ross Noble and we turned it into a bigger shithole than it should’ve been, so it was nice to get away from the house anytime a comedy festival came up anywhere.

You experimented with short hair for a bit but you’re growing it out again now.

Yeah, I got it cut for a sitcom, then I had it shaved for a play and things started to go tits up from there really! I did a West

www.edbyrne.com www.justthetonic.com

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a licence to ill words: des ball illustration: rob white

I was lured into the world of Hospital Radio by a friend. I was, admittedly, a little apprehensive at the thought of numerous Daniel O’ Donnell requests being forced on my person or sat in a studio playing Cliff Richard for two hours non-stop. It didn’t take me long to realise, however, that though you’re never far away from a Sir Cliff or Mr O’Donnell tune, there is a whole lot more to the Hospital Radio experience than that.

member, myself and four other new recruits were whisked off for some ward visiting. This is to collect requests and dedications or just to talk to the patients.

After all, nobody wants to be in hospital and not only are the patients ill but on many occasions they are also feeling lonely and vulnerable. You really do meet some fantastic characters wandering the wards and corridors and you usually come away having learned something.

You would be mistaken if you thought that volunteering for an organisation like NHR would just be a matter of sitting in front of a microphone and playing a few records. My first week as a

Every member has to do their bit to raise money for the station.

NHR is a registered charity and receives no financial support from the hospitals. Every year the station needs to raise a figure in

the region of £15,000 to stay alive.

A small portion of this comes from donations, the rest must be raised by members’ own efforts. These have involved standing around in pub car parks on a freezing cold October mornings and washing any car that happens to pull in to pushing a hospital bed a full 13 miles around the Robin Hood Marathon course.

growing) and extensive record library, that mostly consists of donated music covering the likes of Glenn Miller to Glenn Medeiros and Mozart to Motorhead. Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra is the most requested by NHR listeners, along with Elvis, Abba, Stevie Wonder and Tony Christie who all feature in the top ten most requested artists.

Being a bit of radio buff from my student radio days. I was amazed to see how well equipped the NHR studios were. There were three studios that would put some commercial stations’ to shame. What really stood out was the massive computer based selection of songs (6,000 and

NHR don’t just do music however.

Being a die-hard Notts County fan, I soon found myself becoming involved in NHR’s sports department. Since the early eighties NHR has broadcast live commentary from the main sports grounds around the city. Every Saturday, sports fans in the QMC

and City Hospitals can listen to live commentary from Meadow Lane or the City Ground (and during the summer; Trent Bridge).

The highlight for me is sitting just a few seats away from Radio Nottingham’s Legendary ‘Uncle’ Colin Slater. This always sends a shiver down my spine and never seems to lose its appeal (a shame the same thing cant be said for the action on the pitch). www.nhradio.org.uk

HOW TO DO A PODCAST words: Al Needham Podcasting: a revolution in cross-media divergence, or a load of spods who like the sound of their own voices talking absolute wank? Both. And yet, neither. Like the worldwideweb allowed 14 year-old youths to create their own pages and compete with massive corporations, Podcasting allows Johnny Nobody to create their own radio show, or an aural blog, if you will. Although it looks complicated, doing a Podcast is a piece of piss. It’s more personal than a blog, a great way to promote your runnings and absolutely essential if you’re in a band. Come, take my scabby hand and let me walk you through it…

1. HAVE A NATTER If you’ve got a computer, internet access and a mic, you can do a Podcast. All you need is a few free programs that can be easily whipped off the net to record your ranting and convert it into an mp3. If you’ve got a PC, we recommend Audacity (www. audacity.sourceforge.net). It’s free, it’s unlimited, and it’s easy to use. It only converts your soundfiles into wavs, though, so we use Lame (www.lame. sourceforge.net) to convert it into mp3 format. If you’re making a

quick-and-dirty Podcast with no frills (and a lot of them are), that’s all you need. A quick word about mics, pay no more than £15 for cheap and decent from Tandy or Maplin.

2. TART IT UP ALL PROFESSIONAL, LIKE If you want to add music, effects, and all the other stuff to make it sound a bit more radio-like, you need a mixing program. We use Magix Music Maker, but Acid Pro and E-Jay do the job just as well, if not better. If you have a Mac, GarageBand does everything you need. You should be looking for an end product that lasts between 20 and 90 minutes. Warning: the bigger Podcast sites get a bit arsey if you’re using copyrighted music, so be careful.

3. WHACK IT ON THE INTERNET Bit obvious, really. You need server space… and if you’re planning on archiving your old episodes, you’ll need a lot of it.

If you’re up for doing a Nottsrelated Podcast and can do an episode on a fortnightly basis, drop us an e at radio@leftlion. co.uk. We might be up for hosting it on our website.

4. CREATE THE CODE You don’t need an iPod to listen to Podcasts. As long as you’ve got iTunes, Windows Media Player or Quicktime, you can hear a Podcast, but if you want as many people as possible to find and subscribe to your Podcasts, you need to create a bit of XML code that describes the show.

Go to http://www.podcast411. com/howto_1.html for a full explanation, or use Feed Editor (www.extralabs.net/feed-editor. htm).

5. NOISE UP THE PODCAST DIRECTORIES There are a shitload of Podcast directories about, and you need to hit ‘em up and promote your Podcast. The iTunes Directory is a must (you can reach it through the Podcast button on your iTunes), and the Yahoo! Podcast area (podcasts.yahoo.com) is also a decent place to inform the world of your masterful chelp.

And that’s it. piss-easy, really, once you get the hang of it. And remember, if you’re interested in doing one, get in touch with radio@leftlion.co.uk

NOTTS-RELATED PODCASTS WE KNOW OF...

LEFTLION RADIO With your hosts Nish and The K and a wide selection of Notts tunage. Gerrit in yer tab youth! www.leftlion.co.uk/radio QUANTICO ONLINE PODCASTS Sizzling unadulterated chartered accountancy chat from Nottingham. Oh yes. www.quantico.libsyn.com NAANCAST The Nottingham Area Artist Network brings local tunage.

Now in it’s fifth show, which is a lifetime in Podcast terms www.naan.org.uk FLYINSHOES Highly recommended Americana Podcast from Nottingham which showcases unsigned artists, and even features live sets recorded in Cabaret. www.flyinshoes.fsnet.co.uk/ radio

THIS IS NOTTINGHAM Yes, even the Post have got in on the act. Features Editor Jeremy Lewis reprises his Nanny-StatePolitical-Correctness-Gone-Mad routine that makes you feel like you’re trapped in a taxi and you can’t get the door open (and is absolutely begging to be sampled, Hiphop youts), while Erik Pedersen goes on about being a Yank in Notts. They’re reading out their columns, basically. Why? www.thisisnottingham.co.uk MIDNIGHT SEX TALK From Resonance FM, the new and bewilderingly eclectic London radio station, a load of sexperts gob off about all things shagular from sex in the media, wanking, necrophilia and all points inbetween. So why are we bigging it up? Because LeftLion’s Dep Ed is a regular guest… www.midnightsextalk.com

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1. Dennis McCarthy An absolute shoo-in for No.1. The Voice of Sunday Dinner, the most listened-to local DJ in the entire British Isles, and an absolute Notts legend. Dennis ruled the local airwaves like an benevolent tyrant for nearly 30 years.

In the week, he manned the decks for Radio Nottingham on the afternoon slot. But it was the Sunday Show that he was best renowned for, which was an all-powerful Nana-magnet.

How popular was it? Well, the phone number for the show (44444) was dialled so regularly during broadcasts that the GPO had to announce that if you lived in Nottingham, your own number began with four, and you were waiting for an important call on Sunday afternoons, you were fucked, mate.

The rather nepotistic ploy of drafting in his daughter Tara absolutely smashed it with his elderly audience, even though she became a hate figure amongst jealous kids. Wonder what she’s doing now?

In between making annual appearances on the BBC whenever Crufts rolled around, Dennis wrote a best-selling book about a spaniel and bagged an MBE in 1991. When he died in ’96, 20,000 people clogged the streets of Nottingham to see his funeral cortege pass through the city centre. One of the trams is named in his honour.

2. Dale Winton Yes indeed, the King of Camp started his career in little old Nottingham (after a stint as a DJ at a biscuit factory... seriously). One of the original DJ’s on Radio Trent when it first started, Dale became the Typing Pool heart-throb and Housewives Choice with his mid-morning stint. Even then, however, you could tell that said typists and housewives were gonna be shit out of luck if they ever tried to cop off with him at one of his Funk Nights at Rock City. He seemingly dropped off the map when he tried to kickstart a TV career and ended up as a warm-up man for TV shows in the 80s.

His role as presenter of Supermarket Sweep in the early nineties, however, confirmed him as a star of daytime TV and subsequent appearances presenting the National Lottery on Saturday nights have made him a household institution.

One of his greatest recent moments must be his hoax wedding to Nell McAndrew for a BBC Three spoof.

Graeme Souness was best man and Cilla Black was on hand as maid of honour alongside a host of other celebrity guests.

It was so surprisingly well done that it wasn’t even obvious it was a spoof. Our money is on Dale appearing in a celebrityreality TV show soon…

3. Chris Ashley In the late 70s and early 80s, this Australian-born preacher of bile was Hate Figure No.1 in the red half of Nottingham as Radio Trent’s Forest-hating sports host. Once rammed out the Broadmarsh Centre when he promised to have his head shaved there if Forest beat Leeds in the 1978 League Cup Semi-Final, and would deliberately go through kids’ autograph books, look for where Brian Clough had signed with his trademark ‘Be Good’, and would write ‘Be Bad. Chris Ashley’. His Forest-hatred went to the extremes of making a guest appearance on Tristram Shandy’s Magic In Madrid (a pre 1980 European Cup Final record), popping up to shout “They’ve got more jam than Hartleys!” and whatnot amidst the castanets. Now on Radio Shropshire, probably pissing himself with glee every time he picks up the paper and looks at the League One standings.

4. Kid Jensen Oh yes. David ‘Kid’ Jensen was the star transfer on the original Trent line-up in 1975, before pissing off sharpish to Radio One after just a year. Jensen earned the name ‘Kid’ while working his debut slot for Radio Luxembourg, because he was the youngest of all the deejays at the station. The Canadian-born DJ went on to present Top Of The Pops every other week and became a champion of many a New Wave band. He was also an original member of CNN at its launch and a descendent of Robert Louis Stephenson.

5. John Peters Possessor of the deepest voice in radio, a fashionably Transatlantic boom that would make whales instantly start breeding, John Peters was the first voice ever heard on Trent and was original pirate material, having cut his teeth on a ship in Essex for Radio London with his mate Kenny Everett.

Peters was an absolute stalwart for Trent for 13 years before moving on to whatever they’re calling the oldies station these days. Gem? Century? Fucked if I know…

6. Brian Tansley Radio Nottingham’s Voice of Sport since the year nineteenlongtime, so much so that just the sound of his voice reminds you of being in Meadows chip shop at 5pm on a Saturday. A long-time Bridgford boy and a County fan, although he hides it well.

17

7. Steve Merike Another pirate radio veteran (who actually got into the Top 50 in the 60s with a cover of the Stones’ Lady Jane), Merike jumped ship from Radio Caroline to Radio One, becoming the only DJ to fill in for the massively popular Tony Blackburn’s breakfast show without seeing a dip in listening figures.

After a spell at pretty much every other independent station in the country he finally settled at Trent doing the late night slot, which involved putting his best reassuring voice on and endlessly playing Judy Tzuke and Moody Blues records for distressed aunties in Sneinton whose husbands had ran off with barmaids. Sounded a lot like Steve Wright, without the tediously vacuous ‘Posse’.

8. Graham Neale Very controversial choice, this, but he’s in because he was one of very few local DJs to actively take an interest in local bands (in this case of the Metal persuasion). Graham Neale’s Castle Rock show on Radio Nottingham was a must-listen in the early 80’s if you had hair below your arse and drank in the Salutation. Regular interviewing stints on Tommy Vance’s Radio One show garnered him a serious rep, but it all went horribly wrong when he was convicted of his girlfriend’s murder (which is still disputed by some people who knew him) and committed suicide in prison.

9. Simon Mayo Another local lad who went on to The Big Show, Mayo started off at Radio Nottingham (with a bit of help from his mam, who worked there) and did a four-year stint there before being poached by Radio One in 1988. Two years later, he landed the most important job in all of Radioland, the One FM Breakfast slot. Never one to hide his Christian beliefs, he also nearly lost his job when he played KLF’s Get On The Dancefloor, unaware that the first line of the song was “Get on the dancefloor, motherfuckers”. Now handling the afternoon slot on Radio Five Live, he would have placed higher if he wasn’t a Spurs fan.

10. Colin Slater The man they call ’Mr Notts County’ was actually born in Bradford in 1934. He cut his journalist career working on local newspapers in West Yorkshire and moved to Notts in 1959 to cover football for the Evening Post and the Football News (a then more popular rival to The Football Post). In 1968 he joined the original cast of BBC radio Nottingham broadcasters to provide reports on Notts County FC and Notts County Cricket and has not looked back since. In that time he has clocked up almost 2,000 matches for Notts including his classic commentary of the club’s play-off final victories in the early nineties. Now 71, he’s still going strong and was awarded the MBE in 2001. His eloquence on the mic has sadly never quite been matched by the standard of football at Meadow Lane.

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Out&About

BARS/GYMS/RESTAURANTS/SHOPS

SHOPPING PAGE 45

DRINKING BAR SCHNAPPS If you want some late night drinking with sociable company and an outside chance of pulling a nice girl or boy then get yourself over to the ultimate Notts late drinking hole Bar Schnapps on St James Street.

This place has and it seems always will remain open later than pretty much anywhere else in the city and once they call time, it really is time to go home. Their serving hours are until 2am Monday to Saturday and 10pm-12.30am on Sundays. The bar is stacked with an extensive selection of spirits, beer and shooters from around the globe, certainly enough to appease yourself with on a night of partying.

They also have some quality music there on certain nights thanks to the lively crew from Doodle on the last Saturday of each month. Their nights usually

In what is now an established feature, LeftLion whips out the credit card and wallows in the retail wonderland that is Nottingham. Our correspondent, looking nervously at the unopened bill on the mantlepiece, are Cristina Chapman and Jenny Hill

cost just £1 and they bring in some quality DJ’s from the city and further afield. Their door policy is that only “nice people get in.” We recommend a suspicious look at the ladies who entered the New Years eve ‘Miss Doodle 2006’ competition on their website. www.barschnapps.co.uk

LATE NIGHT BOOZING BEER BARONS

If more people read comics, hypothetically speaking people would be more thoughtful and more imaginative and there would be less general beef in society. For those in the know there is nothing quite like losing yourself in a good illustrated novel and it’s not just the likes of Spiderman and Batman we’re talking about at Page 45 (though you can get all of them too).

This shop is quality and has been for years, ever since it was set up by Mark Simpson and Stephen Holland after a brief stint running a comic shop in Virgin Megastore.

Adult-themed comics are becoming more and more popular and the likes of 100 Bullets and Preacher (and before them Watchmen, Sin City and From Hell) have now sold millions across the globe and those that haven’t yet made the transition to film are likely to sooner tather than later. Page 45 also stock a huge range of independent comics and were winner of the first ever Diamond Comics Award for Best Retailer in the UK in 2004. It’s a blessing to have one of the best comic shops in the country on your doorstep, especially one that concentrates on selling really good comics rather than cheesy action figures and wrestling paraphenalia. And the staff are always able to recommend

something you’llmlike, even if your experience of comics begins and ends with Garfield in the Evening Post.

Page 45 9 Market Street, Nottingham, NG1 Tel: 0115 9508045 www.page45.com

EATING ULTIMATE BURGER

Fancy a late-night booze delivery to your door? For those of you that fondly remember the Thirst Emergency Service and the Booze Brothers, there is a new contender in town to offer you a crate of beer after pub closing time.

The Beer Baron is actually three Nottingham chaps Sam Dickerson, Dan Lord and Sam Culshaw who will deliver to your door from 10pm-6am from Tuesday to Sunday. They offer a crate of 24 Carling 500ml Cans for £20 or two bottles of Glens Vodka 70cl for £20 plus a 2L mixer free. They also sell a range of snacks and rizla’s, which can always come in handy for that unexpected party. “Yes it’s late, but we are a late night service. We sleep all day and work all night” says Culshaw.

‘Nobody likes to be at a party when the alcohol runs out, we aim to solve that problem and solve it quickly.’ reassures Dickerson. ‘We know what its like to run out of alcohol, it can ruin the night. Our customers so far have expressed their appreciation in many ways by hugging, shouting, grabbing us and best of all, kissing our hands.’

Dan Lord adds ‘Beer Baron is a safe, efficient and friendly service that we want people to use as a convenience rather than as a novelty.”

Beer Baron hotline: 0115 9812203 www.thebeerbaron.co.uk

From the outside Ultimate Burger appears to be a trendy and sophisticated, yet goldfish bowl like, restaurant. It seems to fit neatly in line with the row of chilled out pre theatre or club bars and eateries that fill up Forman Street. This makes it even more of a shame that the inside layout of Ultimate Burger is more of a cross between a standard McDonalds and a cleaner who actually cares, without the enlarged cutout of a scary looking clown. The tables are laid out in a row in the same way as just about every fast food restaurant you can think of. The music is similar too. I was pleasantly surprised when amidst the Sean Paul and Pussycat Dolls was a hint of something not played every 5 minutes on Radio 1.

This was off course turned off before it had a chance to infiltrate and was immediately replaced by mainstream hip-hop.

Okay so I may have not approved of the ambience but the only thing that really matters is was my burger of the ultimate variety? When it comes to the food I was impressed. Being boring I tried the cheeseburger but there was

more to it than just a bit of processed beef and a slice of plastic. The Scottish beef is teamed with a delicious sauce.

Not quite sure what it was but I know it was tasty and may or may not have contained raisins. There are 15 burgers to choose from ranging from the classics to the more adventurous aubergine and pesto burger. Most are served in a fresh sesame seed bun and are so massive that you realise why everyone is eating with a knife and fork. The food does arrive quickly and the waitresses are helpful, although they are all so skinny that I’m convinced they’ve never looked at the food they sell.

Ultimate Burger, 21-23 Forman Street. NG1 4AA, www.ultimateburger.co.uk/nottingham

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Notts Going ON

COMING TO A CITY CENTRE NEAR YOU...

Nottingham Voices things people have said

Hotel Deux

on the leftlion forum

A rare treat to be found off the beaten track off Hucknall Road, Hotel Deux serve French food and drink in a friendly vibrant friendly atmosphere. Managed by Rob Gibson (formerly of the Gladstone), the place has plenty of character and a good selection of beer, including a regular guest ale.

Their Jambalaya nights seems to be going down well with crowds of all ages, offering a mix of Acoustic performances and general Americana fare, run by the crew behind Trailerstar. They’ve also showcased some good upcoming Notts bands recently too on Saturday and Sunday nights.

If you fancy some French cuisine, then the chef has years of experience working in kitchens on the other side of the English channel and you are unlikely to ever come away disappointed. The bar staff are nice and friendly too. All in all a top place to eat and drink…

Broad Marsh centre redevelopment “ It looks like Hanson chinees supermarket is going!

Surely he should get a spot inside the new Broad Marsh centre?”

Barnze “Sometimes, you wonder if this town is being run by balloons with faces drawn on them. The idea of Broad Marsh expanding must surely be a typo. What the Post must have meant is that Broad Marsh is being shrunk down, surely? What happens when the next recession comes along? Nottingham is going to take a right pasting.”

Lord of the Nish

Hotel Deux, Clumber Avenue, Sherwood Rise. NG5.

“Knock down Broad Marsh, build another Hansons.”

Cash Mark

The Golden Fleece The Golden Fleece used to be a bit of an old man’s pub, much in the same vein as the Lincolnshire Poacher, The Rose of England and a few other pubs along the Mansfield Road strip. This was until, towards the end of last year, it was bought out by the crew who run Detonate and given a complete overhaul.

Inside it is now a discreetly cool venue, with great music and entertainment on offer. Many of the original features remain in tact (such as the window in the floor at the end of the bar that looks down into the beer celler), but the place itself is enitrely different. The food is pretty good. They pride themselves on their Sunday lunches and having sampled the beef dinner we can only concur. Drinks-wise they serve the usual selection of beers, wines and spirits at fairly normal prices. There are plenty of nice places to sit with your mates too.

Being owned by the same people as one of the biggest nights in Nottingham club music has its obvious advantages. In the last few months they’ve had 1xtra heads like DJ Flight and Mista Jam in for DJ Sets. If there’s a big Detonate it’s always worth stopping by.

Notts Landing #6: Meadow Lane by Jared Wilson

“Just as people are getting their heads around the ease of internet shopping, Notts builds the biggest shopping centre?”

David

There is always a chance you might get to see an exclusive pre-gig set.

The place is also home to the brand new LeftLion quiz.

Every Wednesday members of the LeftLion crew rock up and ask the questions that matter (…or not) with a unique audio experience. Come along and join in the fun!!

So yeah, all in all we like it a lot and think that with this place alongside Fade and The Loft, Mansfield Road is becoming a new hive of Nottingham drinking cool!

The Golden Fleece, 105 Mansfield Road, NG1 3SN 0115 947 2843 www.goldenfleecenottingham.com

“ Remember the re-development of Sneinton Market?

Ooh it’ll be just like Covent Garden. Total disaster! Oh, well let’s move onto our next project.”

Stodge “I hate these mall-type shopping places. They do my bloody head in!! I much prefer wandering around the open air rather than these horrible candy coloured hell holes!”

Sara

make your voice heard

www.leftlion.co.uk/forum

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…

I have to confess, I am a Notts County fan. It’s not a very cool or popular thing to admit to around here… but I am.

I’ve been going to Meadow Lane regularly for nearly twenty years now. It started in the late eighties when my old man took me along as a Saturday treat. It all seemed very exciting at the time, as I was issued with a Junior Magpie pen, a membership card and an autograph book. I watched ninety minutes of football and soon learned that this was the only time of the week that you were allowed to shout at people and sing rude songs. I agreed not to tell my mum and we started to go every week after.

Since then I have experienced the full spectrum of highs and lows of a lower division football fan. The early nineties saw a steep rise in fortune, with successive play-off final victories, followed by enough relegations to send us back to the bottom again.

Believe it or not, in that time I have seen world-class players such as Oliver Bierhoff, Gheorge Hagi, Juninho, Juergen Klinsmann and Eric Cantona play against us. My affections always veered, however, towards local favourites such as Steve Cherry, Tommy Johnson, Devon White and Mark Draper. A couple of good managers too in Neil Warnock and Sam Allardyce (surely the next England boss).

So it’s not all doom and gloom for county fans, especially at this time of year. February 12 is annually celebrated by Notts fans as Sir Charles Palmer day. It marks the anniversary of the last time Notts County FC met Nottingham Forest FC in a football league match (back in 1994). On that day Palmer scored the winner and proceeded to run the length of the pitch to celebrate with the home fans. In that ecstatic Meadow Lane moment I knew I would always be a magpie…

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featured listing

clubs/theatre/music/comedy/exhibitions

Nottingham Voices things people have said on the leftlion forum LeftLion Forum crew on local Pirate Radio “Power FM was ace for a bit. But really, One Step Ahead on Heatwave, I was fourteen, Stetsasonic ‘all that jazz’... yessah!”

Floydy “Power FM, Dice FM, Freeze, The Scene, Max FM all 107. something. Rave FM back in the day. Heatwave used to rep notts hard. Unique are pretty kool at the mo.”

Megaman X “Scene FM was baaaaad!” theonelikethe “There used to be Globe 107.something about 95-96?

That was good.”

Tom@Origin “Pirate radio tend to be utter chaff. Why can’t we have a pirate radio station that blasts out a bit of Enya or something similar? Come on criminals, do the right thing!”

Harwill Tuesday “Anyone in the Mansfield area around mid-to late 90’s may remeber Mac FM. A dreadful station that played Happy Hardcore and Vibealite type shyte. Twas run by a bunch of goons who eventually got caught and fined.”

Piethagorus “I think that Scene FM had the biggest impact on Nottingham radio. It was so popular that The BBC and/or Trent FM took the 2 students that were running it to court and they were fined for a record amount.”

Ohmygosh “It’s all about the itrip baby!”

Ed

ASBOs! “I got these leaflets in the post with pictures of kids on ASBOs. It’s weird, what do they think I’m going to do, go out with night vision goggles looking for them? It’s a bit like neighbourhood watch, just an excuse to find out all the goss.”

BigFatBadger “It’s a bit like a Justice system, except without the burden of proof or a fair trial, and with the possibility of getting locked up for things which aren’t against the law.”

NJM

Go With The Flo’ words: Amanda Young photos: Dom Henry Among the many flats and houses of Nottingham there are thousands and thousands of talented bedroom producers making music. The challenge, however, to get your music out of your abode and into the homes and favourite nightspots of others. We caught up with one who’s doing that, Notts-based electronic musician Leigh Toro AKA Flotel, to talk about his upcoming musical adventures including a new album, summer festival gigs and Loom the Experimental Music fest happening late February in Hood Town…

“ASBOs serve to make people more scared and more supporting of the government increasing its powers at the cost of freedom. So far a very successful PR move.” davewest

What music do you make?

I make acoustic synthetic ambient textures. Mixing my own acoustic sounds and then synthesised to give more textural qualities. It fits into the world of electronica.

“We should reduce the working week in this country (one of the highest in the world) and give parents more time to take on the responsibility of rearing their own children, giving them security and love so they can develop into decent people.”

Kofi Agibbo

Would you describe yourself as a sound artist?

Yes and sound collage, music concrete rather than using midi.

I tend to cut and paste a lot with found sounds and improvisation

“The answer is not handing out ASBOs but providing these young people with the kind of support they need to keep their faces off these scaremongering, hateful leaflets.”

Guy Gooberman

Where did the name Flotel come from?

My friend Tim. He got a dictionary for Christmas, was flipping through and said, “I’ve got a perfect name for you, Flotel!” It is a floating hotel.

“I do think it has become a badge of honour for a lot of young people who get them. It can have a flip side; I used to work with a lad who had one and had to take his hood down every time he went into town. As a show of solidarity, all his mates did too.”

Vini

make your voice heard

www.leftlion.co.uk/forum

What have you got planned for the Loom experimental music festival?

It’s going to be fantastic! I’m playing the Malt Cross on Sunday 26 February collaborating with two resident Nottingham video artists. I am playing live using a laptop and triggering devices combined with the visual element.

What is the feel of your set?

The nature of Sunday night is primarily ambient, so quite relaxed.

I want to leave a lot of space in the sounds, leave notes hanging. I don’t like filling the space. I like to have it quite minimal. I’m going to play a lot of environmental recordings in there as well and just mess it up.

How do you think the visual works with sound, do you think it detracts from the audio?

We have had a tradition of live bands on stage as spectacle. I make music that is quite immersive that you listen to, taking Brian Eno’s idea of background ambience, so stage isn’t the right space for laptop musicians unless there is a visual focus. I’ve been to a few venues where they made a point of having surround sound as opposed to a stage. Promoters need to think how to present and I think eventually things like that will start to become more familiar.

I saw Scanner playing at Nottingham Arts Theatre, and the music was ace but it was odd to sit in the audience and watch sound.

I did a gig in Sweden and the whole audience came in with mats, lay down and closed their eyes. It was amazing because they weren’t concentrating on me they were listening to what I was producing as a soundscape. I think we are in interesting times, with the ability to take the entire studio out in a box, but you often feel the need to dress up. I definitely do.

You have recently had your amazing debut album Wooden Beard released, how did it go?

It was great! Went to Abbey

Road Studios to master it, had the tour, played the Penny Lane piano… honestly I was like a kid in chocolate land! It’s taken me to Sweden, into Nottingham’s Loom festival and the possibility of many international festivals.

Are you an MP3, Vinyl, CD or Cassette boy?

All of them to be honest. I love vinyl, because if electricity disappeared you could still play vinyl, so just on a survivalist tip I support vinyl because if the apocalypse comes we can still play our records. MP3s are fantastic, it has introduced me to a lot of music I have never heard from wax cylinder recordings through to folk. Cassettes were brilliant back in the day, CDs… I love them all.

What relates you to Nottingham?

I came down here for the Rock’n’Reggae festival, went to a few pubs, met people in Nottingham and really liked the place. I joined the contemporary arts degree course and have been here since.

What do you think about the music venues in Nottingham?

I love going to the Rescue Rooms.

I love Bunkers Hill. I think there could be more, smaller venues. I’ve not been to the ice rink yet to see Elton john! I would like to see more impromptu things where it wasn’t necessarily in a venue. When I was in Sunderland, we used to put on nights in peoples bathrooms!

Flotel is playing at the Malt Cross on Sunday 26 February as part of the Loom festival. www.expandingrecords.com

listings...

live music/clubs/weeklies/comedy/theatre/exhibitions fri 03/02

Period of Feb / March Live Music Soulfly Venue: Rock City Price: £16.15 Times: 7.30pm

thu 09/02

Bandsoc Presents Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £2.50/£3 non-members Times: 8.30pm - 12.00am

wed 01/02

Soil / American Head Charge Venue: Rock City Price: £14.50 Times: 7.30pm With support from Panic Cell

Liars Club Venue: The Social Price: £4 adv Times: 9pm - 3am Adult, Battant

Morning Runner Venue: The Social Price: £7 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Nottingham Classics: Halle Venue: Royal Centre Price: £28 - £8 (NUS) Times: 7.30pm Team Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 8.30pm - 12am

Liars Club Venue: The Social Price: £4 adv Times: 7.30pm - 10pm An Albatross, Damn Arms

Nick Cave Venue: Royal Centre Price: £40 / £30 Times: 7pm Opera North Spring 06 Venue: Royal Centre Price: £12 - £25 Salome

thu 02/02

Multi Purpose Chemical Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £3.50/£3 NUS (NUS) Times: 8.30pm

fri 10/02

The Open Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £7adv With Support from Polytechnic Days In December Venue: Rock City Price: £3 adv Tera Tora & The Henry Road Venue: The Orange Tree Price: Free Times: 8.00pm Sunset Solo Venue: Maze Price: £3 b4 10pm £4 after Times: 9pm

The Lucida Console Venue: The Social Price: Free Times: 7pm - 10pm

Old Basford, The Smears & Ed Bannard Venue: Horn In Hand Price: £3.00 Times: 8pm onwards

Funky Way Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Wildside Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £4 adv Times: 9pm

sun 05/02

Opera North Spring 06 Venue: Royal Centre Price: £12 - £25 Hansel and Gretel

The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Sunset Duo Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late The Cool Off Venue: Golden Fleece

The Rolling Clones Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

mon 06/02

tue 07/02

Roland Venue: Price: Times:

Shanks The Social £7 adv 8pm - 11pm

P.M.T. Venue: Rock City Price: £5 adv Times: 7.30pm

Funking Cuct fri 03/02 Venue: Wax Cafe Price: nuttin Times: 9.30pm - 1am Dirty Joe and Furious P serving up a fortnightly dose of Hiphop, funk and soul.

With thinly-vieled offensiveness and turntablism.

Mood Indigo Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Filthy Lucre Venue: Maze Price: £4 Times: 9pm Christian Forshaw: Sanctuary & Renouncement Venue: St Marys Church Price: £8 - £15 Illuminatus Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £6 Times: 9pm

Defiance Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £5 Times: 8.30pm LeftLion Unplugged Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free!

Times: 8pm - 11pm With Old Basford, Will Jeffery and Tim McDonald. Our new night where we challenge the best in Notts music to perform unplugged. A great opportunity to see bands playing in a way you won’t usually get chance!

The Fallout Trust Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm

wed 08/02

The Most Terrifying Thing Venue: Junktion 7

sat 11/02

Punk Alldayer Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £6 adv £7 otd Times: 4pm start Drongos For Europe, Disorder, Poundaflesh, 3CR, Dogsflesh, Eastfield, Chimp Biscuit, Splynta, F.T.W.L.

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm - late

Simple Minds Venue: Rock City Price: £28.50 adv Times: 7pm

Oasis Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £32.50 - £40

tue 14/02

Forward Russia Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 8pm Mew Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £9 adv Times: 7pm - 10.15pm 65Days of Static, Chris Clark, The Mirimar Disaster, visuals by The Media Lounge

sat 04/02

Punksoc Presents Venue: Junktion 7 Times: 4.30pm start

Broken Social Scene Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £8.50 adv

The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late

Part Chimp Venue: Cabaret Price: £3 / £4 Discharge Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £8 adv £10 doors Times: 9pm

mon 13/02

All-American Rejects Venue: Rock City Price: £11 adv

Broxtowe College Presents Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £3 / £2 (NUS) Times: 9pm - 1 am Headlined Open Mic Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - 11pm Does what it says in the tin! and what’s more it’s at one of LeftLions favourite venues...

Daniel Patrick Quinn and the Rough Ensemble Venue: Maze Price: £3 Times: 8pm

Gordon McIntyre (Ballboy) Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £6.50 adv Dawn Of The Replicants Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm Elbow Venue: Rock City Price: £13 Times: 7.30pm Get Amped Venue: Junktion 7 Times: 8.30pm

sun 12/06

Buster Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late

thu 16/02 Supernight Presents...

Venue: The Social Price: £3.00 Times: 8pm Grain, The Dirty Backbeats, Liner DJ Mr Farenknight

Nottingham Classics City of London Sinfonia and RS Venue: Royal Centre Price: £28 - £8 (NUS) Times: 7.30pm A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare with music by Mendelssohn, Douglas Boyd is the conductor.

Francoiz Breut Venue: The Social Price: £7 adv Times: 8pm - 11pm

wed 15/02

Sandman Presents Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £4 Times: 8.30pm

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late LeftLion Presents..

Venue: The Orange Tree Price: Free Times: 8pm - 12am Our Monthly event at The Orange Tree, bringing you the best live music our fair city has to offer. Previous acts include The Hellset Orchestra, Kids in Tracksuits, Formication and loads more! Get there early to get a seat.

listings...

live music/clubs/weeklies/comedy/theatre/exhibitions fri 17/02

Takota Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £5 adv £6 otd Times: 9pm - 1am

Bands and Solo Artists Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - 11pm

Isobel Campbell Venue: The Social Price: £7 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm Roy De Venue: Price: Times:

tue 21/02

Barracuda Venue: Golden Fleece

Broomheads Jacket Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv Times: 8pm - 11pm

Wired Southbank Bar Free 8pm - late

The Modern Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 8pm

tue 28/02

Boy Kill Boy Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 8pm

Your Awesom Galatic Heroes Venue: Junktion 7 Times: 8.30pm

Liars Club Venue: The Social Price: £4 adv Times: 9pm - 3am New Young Pony Club, Letters and Colours

Ryan Adams Venue: Royal Centre Price: £21.50 Times: 7pm

sat 18/02

Burst Venue: Rock City Times: 7pm

Rolling Venue: Price: Times:

Gemma Hayes Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £8 adv

thu 23/02

Splodgenessabounds Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £5 Times: 8.30pm With support from X-Rippers

Headlined Open Mic Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - 11pm A chance to get your guitar out and play alongside some established acts. At a lovely pub in the city centre.

Absentee Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm

Highness Sounds Venue: Golden Fleece

The Wrens Venue: Rock City Price: £8 adv Times: 7.30pm

Darren Hayman Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £6 adv £7 otd Times: 9pm With Support from We Show Up On Radar

Sunburned Hand of Man Venue: Arriba Club Price: £5 / £6 With support from Hush Arbors, Vibracathedral Orchestra

wed 01/03 Cathedral Venue: Rock City Price: £9.50 Times: 7.30 pm Cathedral, Electric Wizards, Grand Magus

Two Gallants Venue: The Social Price: £6.50 adv Times: 8pm - 11pm

Grain Venue: Maze Price: £3/£4 Times: 11pm onwards

Hypocrisy Venue: Rock City Price: £11 Times: 7.30pm

X Factor Live!

Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £24.50 + bf

Sticky Morales Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

sun 19/02

Brilliant Corners Venue: Golden Fleece

Static Party Presents Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £4 / £3 ADV Times: 9pm Dean Dirg, Gods Chosen Dealers, Chinese Lungs, The Spazzmatice Roy De Venue: Price: Times:

Wired Southbank Bar Free 8pm - late

George Venue: Golden Fleece

Delays Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £10

Kelly Clarkson Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £22.50

fri 03/03

Fab 4 Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late The Darkness Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £24.50 + bf

mon 20/02

Liars Club Venue: Old Angel The Price: £3 adv Times: 8pm - 11pm AIDS Wolf, Cleckhuddersfax, The Good Anna The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late Rocksoc Presents tue 21/02 Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £3 Times: 8.30pm Drag The Lake, El Cielo, Sanzen, Stuntmen

The FRF Presents Venue: Junktion 7 Price: Free Times: 9pm Illuminatus, Four Way Kill, Deadfall, Asomvel Rock Steady Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late Deep Sound Channel Venue: Golden Fleece Price: Free The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late Wolfmother Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £6 adv

sun 26/02 mon 27/02

Liars Club Venue: Maze Price: £5 adv Times: 8pm Numbers + Woman

James Blunt Venue: Rock City Price: £14 adv Times: 7.30pm Gogol Bordello Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £9 adv Times: 7pm - 10.15pm

sat 04/03

Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra Spring Concert Venue: Royal Centre Price: £5 - £15 Cathedral / Electric Wizard & Grand Magus Venue: Rock City Price: £9 adv Times: 7pm

sun 05/03 Thank You For the Music Venue: Royal Centre Price: £18.50 - £19.50

The Rifles Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 8pm LeftLion Unplugged Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free!

Times: 8pm - 11pm Our new night where we challenge the best in notts music to perform unplugged. A great opportunity to see bands playing in a different way!

Jack Johnson Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £21 + bf Beth Orton Venue: Rock City

Liars Club Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £5 adv Times: 8pm - 2am Doscotak 2: Diamond Nights, The Violets, The Horrors

The Wonder Stuff Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £8.50 adv Sometime contributor Miles Hunt in town.

sat 25/02

Jazz Concert-Rhapsody in Blue Venue: Royal Centre Price: 1st tier £15 (£11/£6) Front stal Times: 7.30pm-10.00pm

mon 06/03

thu 02/03

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late Wired Southbank Bar Free 8pm - late

Staind Venue: Rock City Price: £16.50 Times: 7.30pm

tue 07/03

Death Cab For Cutie Venue: Rock City Price: £11 Times: 19:00 - 22:15

Roy De Venue: Price: Times:

Clones Southbank Bar Free 8pm - late

Chris Ward Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

fri 24/02

sun 05/03

Travis Ledoyt Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £12 adv

wed 22/02

Goldielookin’chain Venue: Rock City Price: £12.50 adv Times: 7.30pm

Monster Magnet Venue: Rock City Price: £16.70 Times: 7:30pm

wed 08/03

The Feeling Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm Avenged Sevenfold Venue: Rock City Price: £12.50 adv Times: 5.30pm doors - 8pm show Numbers Venue: Maze Price: £5 / £6 Support from Woman

thu 09/03 Yellowcard Venue: Rock City Price: £11 Times: 6.30pm

listings...

live music/clubs/weeklies/comedy/theatre/exhibitions thu 09/03

sun 12/03

Crowbar/Will Haven Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv Times: 7.30pm Fab 4 Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late

mon 13/03

tue 14/03

fri 10/03

The Osmonds Venue: Royal Centre Price: £29.50 Times: 8pm

Midnight Jim Bob Venue: The Social Price: £8 adv Times: 7pm 10pm With support from Chris T-T

sat 18/03

Liars Club Venue: Cabaret Price: £8 adv Times: 8pm - 12am Black Dice (DFA Records)

Funky Way Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

sun 19/03

Wired Southbank Bar Free 8pm till late

The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

Boysetsfire Venue: Rock City Price: £10 adv Times: 7.30pm

Bands and Solo Artists Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - 11pm

The Young Knives Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv Times: 8pm - 11pm

Cara Dillon Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £12.50 adv

Headlined Open Mic Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - 11pm

Wired Southbank Bar Free 8pm - late

P.A.I.N. Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £6 Times: 9pm - 2am Plus 360, Homebrew, The Heels

sat 11/03

Trivium Venue: Rock City Price: £15.05 Times: 7pm

Against Me Venue: Rock City Price: £8.50 Times: 7.30pm Supernight Presents...

Venue: The Social Times: 8pm - late

wed 15/03

thu 16/03

thu 23/03

Rock Steady Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Resistance77 Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £tbc Times: 9pm - 2am With Support from Boredom, Lowlife and Airbomb

Van Morrison Venue: Royal Centre Price: £30 / £27.50 Times: 8pm Fly-on-the-Wall Venue: Junktion 7 PMX, Mr Wolf, Weeble, Mummrah

sun 12/03

LeftLion Presents..

Venue: The Orange Tree Price: Free Times: 8pm - 12am Our Monthly event at The Orange Tree, bringing you the best live music our fair city has to offer. Previous acts include The Hellset Orchestra, Kids in Tracksuits, Formication and loads more! Get there early to get a seat!

mon 27/03 Tonight’s The Night Venue: Royal Centre Price: £10 - £29.50 Featuring the songs of Rod Stewart The Herb Birds Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

tue 28/03

Sugababes Venue: Royal Centre Price: £21.50 Times: 7pm

Headlined Open Mic Venue: Malt Cross Cafe Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - 11pm

Cosmic American Music Presents Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £10 adv Seth Lakeman Roachford Venue: The Social Price: £12.50 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm Daniel O’Donnell Venue: Royal Centre Price: £27.50 - £23.50 Times: 7.30pm

The Jamm (Tribute) Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £7 adv Times: 8.30pm - 12am

fri 24/03

Sing-a-long-a Sound Of Music Venue: Royal Centre Price: £13.50

The Hollies Venue: Royal Centre Price: £20 - £18 Times: 7.30pm

sun 26/03

Chimps Southbank Bar Free 8pm till late

wed 29/03

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Chris Ward Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8.00pm till late

Congos Venue: Price: Times:

Skin Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £11.50 adv

Bell x1 Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £7.50 adv

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

The Shortwave Set Venue: The Social Price: £5 adv Times: 7pm - 10pm

wed 22/03

The Australian Bee Gees Venue: Royal Centre Price: £13.50 - £17.50 Liars Club Venue: The Social Price: £4 adv Times: 9pm - 3am Dan Sartain

sat 25/03

Sticky Morales Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

mon 20/03

The Buzzcocks Venue: Rock City

Mystery Jets Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: £8.50 adv

Euros Childs Venue: The Social Price: £6 adv Times: 8pm - 11pm

Pitchshifter Venue: Rock City Price: £12.50 adv Times: 03/25/2006

tue 21/03

Nottingham Classics: Sinfonia ViVA Venue: Royal Centre Price: £26 - £8 (NUS) Times: 7.30pm

Roy De Venue: Price: Times:

fri 17/03

Roy De Venue: Price: Times:

Liars Club Venue: The Social Price: £4 adv Times: 9pm - 3am Liars Club 3rd birthday: Shy Child, Dandi Wind, Klaxons, Simian Mobile Disco Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm - late

The Bezerker Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £10 adv Times: 9pm - 1am

New Generations Superstars Venue: Junktion 7 Price: £4 Times: 9pm - 2am New Generations Superstars, Renegade Playboys. Skandal

Gene Pitney Venue: Royal Centre Price: £17.50 - £22.50

thu 30/03

Richie Muir Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late Sunset Duo Venue: Southbank Bar Price: Free Times: 8pm till late

fri 31/03

7: The Magic Number Nottingham’s biggest Drum’n’Bass and Hiphop institution, Detonate is preparing to celebrate it’s 7th Birthday with with De La Soul’s Maseo and Roni Size coming to party. Promoters James, Kath and Rich share some of their best (and worst) memories from the last seven years.

7 Classic nights Andy C at Dubble Bubble From 2000 to 2001 Detonate ran fortnightly Thursdays at Dubble Bubble (now Cuba Libre). Sweat would regularly drip from the ceiling, but the atmosphere was hard to beat and set the tone for later. No-one knew when it closed and the bouncers never stopped the music. After a while it turned into a competition to see who could play the most ‘one mores’. Andy C won in style playing 15!

Roots Manuva at The Old Vic We had been trying to book Roots Manuva since he first released Motion 5000. Eventually they managed, but only in a 400 capacity venue. Two weeks before the show ‘Witness the Fitness’ made it into the Top 20 and the show sold out overnight. After drinking to the point that he couldn’t speak he got up and played an incredible set, accompanied by a full string section.

Aim live Shortly after the Hinterland album dropped AIM played a full live show to a packed out Ballroom (Garvey), vastly out selling all expectations. After the gig loads of people were heading on to a house party, so they parked their tour bus outside in Forest Fields and got wasted!

Radio One at The Bomb As part of Nottingham’s One Live week, we had Grooverider at The Bomb. The venue was always a bit tight for space on Detonate nights, but this one was just pure vibes. From the moment it went on air the place went off.

Grooverider ended up playing for nearly 3 hours and still mentions it often.

Rahzel and Roni Size Live When we did the third Next Level event at Rock City.

Rahzel and Roni’s collaboration Out of Breath had just dropped so we thought we might be able to talk them into a live performance. Rahzel’s rendition of 7 Nation Army had just torn the roof off, but when he came back on during Roni’s set we knew we were in for a world exclusive. Unfortunately Roni’s management lost the only existing video footage of it. Gutted!

The Roots There are acts you try and get but never manage to. We’d put The Roots in that category but then it looked likely… and actually happened. They played pretty much non stop for two hours with a full live band. If we were talking ultimate line-ups they would be pretty near the top!

Detonate Launch Party at Stealth The first time Drum’n‘Bass had ever been played on Stealth’s Function One soundsystem and Ed Rush and Keaton broke it in properly. Jehst made his Nottingham debut and Detonate favourite DJ Ease (Nightmares on Wax) headlined room three.

7 Things that went wrong The Smoke machine breaking at Dubble Bubble Whilst DJing James realised it was quite smoky. When it got to the stage where he couldn’t see the ember of his own cigarette he realised the smoke machine at the was knackered. It took the best part of 10 minutes to get across the dancefloor and unplug it!

A whole line up get stuck on the M1 Events either run very smoothly or everything goes wrong.

When most of the Rock City line up called to say they were in a traffic jam in Luton that hadn’t moved for half an hour we were looking at the 2,500 strong crowd thinking ‘shit!’.

Thankfully only one went back and everyone else made it.

Rich taking care of artist liason whilst partying Firing a champagne cork directly at Paul Goddfrey from Morcheeba’s head whilst he was DJing and picking a fight with Drum’n’Bass giant Mampi Swift are just two of the reasons he’s not allowed anywhere near DJ’s anymore!

Smoking directly under a smoke alarm in the Garvey Fire engines, 15 fire officers, 10 minutes of no electricity or music at 3.30am at Detonation! Props go to Kath who frantically tried to cover the smoke alarm with her hand once it was going off! Yeah, that’ll do it!

Calling our Recordings release Hell’s Angel Following calls from the legal dept at Hells Angels HQ (not to be messed with) the name has been changed. Look out for the next release ‘Triads’ backed with ‘The Crips’.

The lights go down on Beatroot We’d been at Beatroot for a few events, but fewer lights worked each time. One night we had a desk lamp lighting the whole dancefloor. Whilst DJing, I noticed someone who was barred, so pointed the lamp at him to alert security. The bulb fell out and smashed... It was a dark night

Relying on mates to lift the soundsystem at 6am We didn’t care about the massive guest list because we needed help carrying 50 speakers down a wet fire escape at the end of it all. When the time came, the mates had gone. Obvious really.

7 Dates in the Detonate Diary Detonation.

Saturday 11 February at The Ballroom. With Pendulum, Zinc, Friction, Mampi Swift, Craggz, Parallel Forces and Phobia. Detonation is a simple but effective formula: a big rave venue, a massive system and an enormous line up.

7th Birthday Allnighter Friday 24 February at Stealth with Roni Size, De La Soul’s DJ Maseo, Scratch Perverts, Sub Focus, Break will all be their to help celebrate the big seven!.

Detonate and DJ Bailey present Xtra Bass 2006 Tuesday 14 March at The Rescue Rooms and going out live worldwide on 1xtra digital radio!

Detonate Records launch After running away from the Hell’s Angels, Detonate Records finally launches in March.

Detonate Live Launching at the Golden Fleece on fortnightly Thursdays.

Detonate The Next Level You heard it hear first, arguably the biggest dance music event to happen in Notts ever. Sunday 30 April sees Rock City, Stealth and The Rescue Rooms involved.

Rich getting the sack James and Kath thought it would be best to break the news to him this way. www.detonate1.co.uk

listings...

live music/clubs/weeklies/comedy/theatre/exhibitions Firefly Style: Venue: Price: Times:

Period Of Feb / March

Club Nights Dollop Venue: Golden Fleece Times: 8pm - 12am

thu 02/02

Liquid Funkt Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Image Bar Price: Free Times: 7pm - 11Pm With Residents: Random Guy, Timmy Hands, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion Highness Soundsystem Style: Reggae, Roots Venue: BluePrint Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late

fri 03/02

VinylJacks Style: Sixties, Soul, Alternative Venue: Junktion 7 Price: Free Times: 9pm - 2am

Spectrum’s 5th Birthday Special Style: Breaks Venue: Stealth Price: £10 adv Times: 10pm - 5am Room 1 - Breakbeat Stanton Warriors, Meat Katie Phantom Beats, Pete Jordan Room 2 - HipHop DJ Yoda (DVD Set), B Boy J, DJ S1, Ryo Room 3 Crazy P (LIVE), Dave Boultbee, Nick Cotton & Ed Shaw (Basement Boogaloo) Focus Style: Drum and Bass Venue: BluePrint Price: £8 (NUS) Times: 9pm - late Room 1 Generation Dub, Taxman, Jaydan & Disfunktion, $pecial X, Kronic & Apocalypse, Type 1 Mc’s: $pyda, Choppa D, G1, Koop, Joskin, JB MC Room 2 - Hosted by Funktion - Liquid Timmy Hands, Random Guy, Weazel Man Room 3 – RugKutta DJs - Deep House

sat 04/02

fri 10/02 Techno, Breaks, Electronica Stealth £10 tickets 10pm - 4am

The Elective Venue: Maze Price: £3 Times: 10pm DJ Rubbish, Transit Mafia, Foe and Stika A showcase of Notts finest DJs

sat 11/02 Psycle Style: Trance, Techno, Drum and Bass Venue: BluePrint Price: £6 Times: 10.30 - late Main Room: Full-on Psy-Trance F’da F’da, Psychosonic, Dark Angel, Pertan Back: Soothing Rhythms Mr Smith + J, Axis of Dub, Betwetter, Mike Wild Downstairs: DnB Vs Tekno Lobes + Toad, Dave + Dom (Pure Filth) Detonation Style: Drum and Bass Venue: The Garvey Price: £15 adv Times: 10-6am Pendulum, Friction, Mampi Swift, DJ Zinc, Craggz & Parallel Forces, Phobia, Transit Mafia, Calmboy, MC’s Fearless, IC3, $pyda, SP, Verse, Menace Friends Of Lovezoo Presents... ..:: TOUCH ::..

Style: Soul, Funky House, Deep House Venue: The Lost Weekend Price: £5 - £6 After Midnight Times: 10pm - 4am Sexy, Soulful, Funky House With Dirt Thrown In!

fri 17/02 Product Venue: Stealth Layo & Bushwacka, DJ Hal, Son Of The Electric Ghost Live, Carbon Community Live

wed 08/02

Alive Style: Funky House, Soul, Jazz Venue: Coco Lounge Price: £3

fri 24/02

Loom Festival Style: Electronica, Dance, Alternative Venue: The Edge Price: £5 Times: 10pm - 4am The Second event of the Loom Electronic Music Festival with: Mark One & Virus Syndicate, Sendex, Digital Mystikz, Ceephax Acid Crew, Geiom, Dr Derek T, Ardisson, Mijim, Aled Jones Hed Kandi Style: House Venue: Mode Price: £7 adv Times: 10pm - late

sat 25/02

Funktion Style: Drum and Bass Venue: BluePrint Price: £3 Times: 10pm - late Vaccine Live, DJ Lynkx, Timmy Hands, Random Guy, Weasel Man, Ben Fawce, Jumma

sat 04/03

Basement Boogaloo Style: Soul, Disco, Funk Venue: Maze Price: £5 / £4adv Times: 10pm - 3.30am Jon K, Nick Shaw and Ed Cotton

Pure Filth Style: Techno, DnB, Deep House Venue: BluePrint Price: £6 Times: 10pm - Late Lineup TBC

tue 07/03

Firefly Style: Techno Venue: The Garvey Doodle Style: Venue: Price: Times:

fri 03/03

VinylJacks Style: Sixties, Soul, Alternative Venue: Junktion 7 Price: Free Times: 9pm - 2am

Funk, Soul, Alternative Bar Shnapps £1 9pm - 2am

Loom Festival Style: Electronica, Dance, Alternative Venue: Muse (formally Synergy) Price: £4 Times: 9pm - 2am Day three of the Loom Electronic Music Festival with: Brooks, Secondo, A Greenman, Marks Brother, Mag, Shizie

thu 02/03

Spellbound Style: Alternative, Electronica Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £3 Times: 10.30pm - 2am

sat 11/03 Focus- First Birthday Party Style: Drum and Bass Venue: BluePrint Price: £8 (NUS) Times: 9pm - Late Randal, DJ Kane, & Residents

mon 13/03

Chemistry Venue: Sugar Bar Price: £15 Times: 7.30pm-1am Singles Lock and Key Party!!?

fri 17/03

Keep On Party Venue: Golden Fleece Kombination Funk Style: Drum and Bass, Techno Venue: BluePrint Times: 10pm - 3am

sat 18/02

VinylJacks Style: Sixties, Soul, Alternative Venue: The Rescue Rooms Price: Free Times: 10.30pm - 3am Basement Boogaloo Style: Soul, Disco, Funk Venue: Maze Price: £5 / £4adv James Holroyd, Nick Shaw & Ed Cotton

thu 23/02

Loom Festival Style: Electronica, Dance, Alternative Venue: Cabaret Price: £4 Times: 8pm - 2am First event of the Loom Electronic Music Festival with: DJ Scoth Egg, Ove Naxx, Doddodo, Model Fighter, Horacio Pollard, The Senti-mentalist, Gin www.loom.org.uk

Repercussion Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Lost Weekend (Velvet) Price: Free with flyer Repercussion returns to Notts again with something a little different. Featuring: Ill Logic & Raf, Mugga, Jackflash and the Repercussion DJ’s.

Ohmygosh Presents...

Style: HipHop Venue: Muse (formally Synergy) Price: Free Times: 9pm - 2am With Baby J, Mista Jam, Jo Buhdha, Squigley and Furious P plus more...

Liquid Funkt Style: Drum and Bass Venue: Image Bar Price: Free Times: 7pm - 11pm With Residents: Random Guy, Timmy Hands, Weazal Man, Groove Distortion Highness Soundsystem Style: Reggae, Roots Venue: BluePrint Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late

Kombination Funk Style: Drum and Bass, Techno Venue: BluePrint Times: 10pm - 3am Heavy drum and bass session Hed Kandi Style: House Venue: Mode Price: £7 adv Times: 10pm - late Doodle Style: Venue: Price: Times:

sat 25/03

Funk, Soul, Alternative Bar Shnapps £1 9pm - 2am

listings...

live music/clubs/weeklies/comedy/exhibitions/theatre mondays

Weeklies

fridays

Motherfunker Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £1 b4 11pm Times: 10.30pm - 2am

Al Murray - The Pub Landlord Venue: Playhouse Price: £18.50 Times: 2.30pm and 7.45pm

Soul Buggin with DJ Beane Style: Funk, Soul Venue: Bar Humbug Price: Free Times: 8pm - 1am Each and every friday DJ Beane mixes up a hotpot of funky flavours.

tuesdays Wax Works Style: Acoustic Venue: Wax Cafe Bar Price: Free Open Mic Night, To get a slot call 07932 821 369

Salt Style: HipHop, House, Breaks Venue: Dogma Price: Free Times: til 2am Friday night at The Cookie Club is Retro night featuring two decades of music.

The Horseshoe Lounge Style: Country and Western Venue: Hotel Deux A tongue in cheek take on c&w old and new, from 21st feb: La Cantina - eat all you can.

Sabotage and Atomic Style: Eighties, Nineties Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am Audio Style: Venue: Price: Times:

Crash Style: Venue: Price: Times:

sun 19/02

sun 05/03 Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £7 / £4.50 (NUS) Alun Cochrun, Al Pitcher, Steve Williams, Henning Wehn, Darrell Martin

sun 12/03 Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £7 / £4.50 (NUS) Will Smith, Stephen Carlin, Dave Dynamite

tue 14/03

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

wednesdays

Funk, Soul, Disco Snug £5 (£3 b4 10.30pm) (NUS) 10pm - 3am

Love Shack Style: Eighties Venue: Rock City Price: £4 adv £5 otd Times: 9.30pm - 2am The Market Bar Style: Breaks, House Venue: The Market Bar Price: £4 (NUS) Times: 9pm - 3am With Resident DJ Santero

LeftLion Pub Quiz Venue: Golden Fleece Times: 9pm start Think you’re clever do you?Come test me bloodclat!

Stone Style: Breaks, Jazz, HipHop Venue: Stone Price: free (NUS) Times: 9pm - 12am Meaty Beats, Beefy Breaks n HipHop Shiznit every Wednesday.

The Big Wednesday Style: Alternative, Rock, Pop Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £2.50 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am

thursdays saturdays Style: Funky House Venue: Market Bar Price: £5 Times: 9pm - 2.30am With Residents: Dean Marriott, Matt Tolfrey, Griff, Damian Wells Stylus Style: Venue: Price: Times:

sat 18/02

Funk, Funky House Snug £3 - £6 10pm - 3am

Stealth V Rescued Style: House, Breaks, Electronica Venue: Stealth Price: Free b4 10.15pm / £5 Times: 5pm - 4am 2 Clubs, 3 Bars, 2 Patios, 1 Cinema - 1 Price!

Rise and Shine / Funk U Style: Indy, Alternative Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £5 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am

Mirrorball Style: RnB, Disco, Funk Venue: Snug Price: £3 - £4 (NUS) Times: 10pm - 3am Generation Style: Sixties Venue: The Cookie Club Price: £2.50 (NUS) Times: 10.30pm - 2am

24/02

sun Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £7 / £4.50 (NUS) Earl Okin, Wil Hodgson, Matt Ford

26/02

wed 15/03 The Mighty Boosh Venue: Royal Centre Price: £18.50 Times: 7.30pm Playing zookeepers Howard Moon and Vince Noir, they battle with authority figures, Zoo-Niverse owner Dixon Bainbridge (Matt Berry) and his Manager Bob Fossil (Rich Fulcher). Frequently coming to their aid with his mystical powers is zoo kiosk worker and local shaman, Naboo (Michael Fielding). Vince and Howard are the unsuspecting heros of The Mighty Boosh where an adventure to the Arctic to find a mystical lost egg or taking part in a boxing match against a killer kangaroo are pretty avarage every-day occurrences!

sun 19/03 Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £7 / £4.50 (NUS) Mick Ferry, Stan Stanley, Russell Howard

sun 26/03

Jimmy Carr Venue: Royal Centre Price: £17.50 / £16.50 (NUS) Times: 8pm

Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £7 / £4.50 (NUS) Graham Anthony, Darrell Martin

Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company presents

sun 05/02

tuu 09/02

The Cooke Pot Style: Various Venue: Hotel Deux Times: 8pm Great live music at a very friendly venue.

Sunday Bounce Style: Reggae, Bashment, Soul Venue: The Edge Price: £3 Times: 10pm - late Reggae, Bashment & Soul every Sunday

Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £7 / £4.50 (NUS) Junior Simpson, JoJo Smith, Liam Mullone, Russell Howard.

Coming Soon to

THE WHITE ALBUM

Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £8 / £6 (NUS) Chris Addison, Andrew Bird, Tom Wrigglesworth, Jon Richardson

Should I stay or Should I go?

Venue: Maze Price: £3 Times: 8pm Stand up comedy competition. 15 acts compete and the audience decides who gets to stay. Guaranteed laugh fest.

sundays

fri Jo Caulfield Venue: Lakeside Arts Centre Price: £14/£12 (NUS) Times: 8pm

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

Comedy

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 and Hiphop all night!

wed 22/02 Ben Elton - Get a Grip Venue: Royal Centre Price: £19.50 Times: 8pm

Club NME Style: Rock, Indy, Alternative Venue: Stealth Price: £2 - £4 (NUS) Times: 10pm – late Tuned Style: Venue: Price: Times:

Jethro Venue: Royal Centre Price: £16.50 - £15 Times: 7.30pm

fri 03/03

The Market Bar Style: Funk, HipHop Venue: The Market Bar Price: £4 Times: 9pm - 2am With Resident DJ Santero

Essence Style: House, RnB Venue: Mode Price: £5 Times: 10pm - late

Just The Tonic Venue: Cabaret Price: £11 / £9 (NUS) Daniel Kitson, Also extra show Monday 20th Feb... but it’s a no smoking night

by Michael Pinchbeck

from an original concept by Giles Croft

Sat 18 Mar - Sat 8 Apr

THREE SISTERS

by Erich Maria Remarque adapted for the stage by Robin Kingsland

Sat 11 - Sat 25 Feb

by Anton Chekhov adapted by Mustapha Matura

Tues 2 - Sat 6 May Old Big ‘Ead in

THE SPIRIT OF THE MAN

by Stephen Lowe

sun 12/02

Wed 17 May - Sat 10 Jun

BOX OFFICE 0115 941 9419

Based upon the novel ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by Erich Maria Remarque presented by special arrangement with the Estate of Paulette Goddard Remarque

www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

listings...

live music/clubs/weeklies/comedy/theatre/exhibitions thu 02/03

Michael Clark Company Venue: Playhouse Price: £18 / £16 / £7 (NUS) Times: 8pm Runs Until: 3/3

Period of Feb / March Theatre

wed 01/03

Exhibitions

wed 01/02

tue 31/01 TAG - Me versus the City Venue: Playhouse Price: £16 / £14 (NUS) Times: 7.45pm Runs Until: 4/2 See page 6 for full information and an interview with Jonzi D.

sat 04/03 Paco Pena Flamenco Dance Company Venue: Playhouse Price: £18 / £16/ £7 (NUS) Times: 8pm Runs Until: 5/3

mon 06/03

Romeo and Juliet Venue: Royal Centre Price: various Runs Until: 4/2

wed 02/02 Buddy Venue: Royal Centre Over thirty years ago, the man who changed the face of popular music tragically died in a plane crash aged 22. Buddy The Musical tells the story of the three years in which he became the World’s top recording artist.

Runs Until:11/1

mon 06/02 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Venue: Lakeside Arts Centre Price: £7 / £5 Times: 8pm + Matinees New Perspectives Theatre Company.

Alan Sillitoe’s ground-breaking picture of 1950’s Britain, as seen through the eyes of the unforgettable Arthur Seaton (immortalised on screen by Albert Finney), is now brought raging back to life and bang up-to-date in this fastmoving new stage adaptation.

Runs Until: 18/2

mon 06/02 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Venue: Lace Market Theatre Price: £8/£7 (NUS) Times: 7:30pm Runs Until: 11/2

tue 07/02 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Venue: Royal Centre Price: £10 - £26.50 Runs Until:

sat 11/02 All Quiet On The Western Front Venue: Playhouse Price: £5.50 / £8.50 (NUS) Times: Various Paul Baumer is a butterfly collector – a dreamer abruptly cast into one of the greatest nightmares in history. That he endures at all is down to the deep bonds of comradeship forged in the trenches.

Just as the brimstone butterfly thrives in the field of battle, somehow the men keep one another’s spirits alive even amid the horrors of the Great War. Runs Until: 25/2

mon 20/02 Out Loud: Rosemarie Cow Venue: Playhouse Price: Free Times: 7.30pm

mon 27/02 Opera & Ballet International Venue: Royal Centre Price: £21 - £31

tue 28/02 Northern Ballet Theatre: Madame Butterfly Venue: Royal Centre Price: £29 - £7.50 Times: 7.30pm Northern Ballet Theatre’s Madame Butterfly, choreographed by David Nixon.

Runs Until: 4/3

tue 07/03

Phoenix Dance Theatre Venue: Playhouse Price: £16 / £14 / £7 Times: 8pm Renegade Theatre presents a Hiphop take on Romeo and Juliet, fusing stunt dancing and pumping grooves, beat boxing and sampling. Forget feuding families, think rival break-dance crews in this slice of urban dance theatre.

Runs Until: 8/3 Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers Venue: Royal Centre Price: £27.50 - £7.50 (NUS) Times: 7.30pm Set in Willy Russell’s native Liverpool, it tells the tale of twin boys, separated at birth only to be re-united by a twist of fate and a mother’s haunting secret.

Runs Until: 11/3

wed 08/03 Cider With Rosie Venue: Lace Market Theatre Price: £8/£7 Times: 7:30pm Based on Laurie Lee’s story of a bucolic childhood, this will be performed by members of the Lace Market Theatre Youth Group.

Runs Until: 11/3

The Animators Venue: Angel Row Gallery Price: Free Times: Mon - Sat 10am -5pm Runs Until: 4/2 Curated by Angela Kingston. In recent years, the term animation has widened considerably and the artists in this exhibition use a suprising range of techniques.

Present Venue: Angel Row Gallery Price: Free Runs Until: 4/2 Present is a contemporary craft showcase featuring a unique selection of interesting and desirable jewellery, ceramics, accessories and housewares.

Modern Chinese Art - The Khoan and Michael Sulliva Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: All day Runs Until: 4/2 A fascinating insight to the story of twentieth-century Chinese art and its artists. Rich and varied, it includes works ranging in style and technique from traditional Chinese ink and brush drawings and calligraphy, to the work of Chinese artist’s who have been clearly influenced by contact with the west.

Ming-Hui Chen - Recent Work Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: All day Runs Until: 19/2 Award-winning artist from Taiwan works with ink on paper, supplemented with paint and water creates huge, intense images dealing with timeless themes of life and death, hope and despair.

mon 13/03

sat 18/03 The White Album Venue: Playhouse Times: 7.45pm In thirty scenes, each the length of a song, Giles Croft directs a play by new Nottingham writer Michael Pinchbeck that’s as riddling as a Lennon lyric and as emotional as a McCartney ballad. Take a helter skelter trip into the heart of the sixties – and join the revolution.

Runs Until: 31/3 mon 20/03

Mick & Mabel Venue: Royal Centre Price: £24 - £8 (NUS) Times: 7.30pm / 2pm / 2.30pm Runs Until: 25/3

Jack Holden Venue: Surface Gallery Runs Until: 10/2 Local artist exhibiton, to be confirmed.

mon 13/02

Nottingham Nights Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: all day Runs Until: 26/3 Fifty years of Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings played out in a quirky collision of archive and contemporary photography.

sat 18/02 A Day in The Sun Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: all day Runs Until: 9/4 Outdoor Pursuits in The Art of The 1930s The pursuit of leisure was one of the most remarkable social phenomena of the 1930s. While this movement was celebrated through guidebooks, Shell posters and the building of over one hundred lidos, it seems to have had relatively little impact on the fine art world of painting - or did it? mon 27/02 Urge Venue: Raffles Art Cafe Price: Free Runs Until: 10/3 Mixed Media Fine Art Exhibition, bar open all night. Plus live music including We Show Up On Radar’ and DJ’s fri 03/03

Jonty Lees Venue: Moot Gallery Runs Until: 9/4

mon 06/03

Sky Writing Venue: Surface Gallery Runs Until: 17/3 Emma Rose and Neil Boynton

sat 11/03

The Retirement of Tom Stevens Venue: Lakeside Arts Centre Price: £12 / £9 (NUS) Times: 8pm Runs Until: 25/3 Smaller Venue: Royal Centre Price: £27 - £12 (NUS) Times: 7.30PM / 2.30PM Runs Until:18/3

Mixed Belongings Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: Free Runs Until: 19/3 Mixed Belongings: Eight Contemporary African Makers explores how eight people, four based in the UK and four in Africa, forge their own creative paths through their African heritage to produce work that is both dynamic and contemporary.

TR03-05 Digital Prints, Trams & the City Venue: Nottingham Castle Price: Free Runs Until: 19/3 A visual narrative of a journey which explores trams interacting with the city by photographer Neville Smith.

Building for Life and Leisure Venue: Lakeside Price: Free Times: All day Runs Until: 1/5 Based on the wealth of building plans and architectural drawings held in Nottinghamshire collections, this exhibition explores some of the ways in which our buildings shape and reflect our lives and interests.

Apassionata Venue: Nottingham Arena Price: £18 - £29 One of the most successful horse shows around where you’ll be taken on a journey across the globe with gallant steeds, splendid costumes and stirring music. Finished off with astonishing special effects and lighting shows.

Carl Jaycock Venue: Surface Gallery Runs Until: 14/4

mon 20/03

To get your events included here and on LeftLion.co.uk please use our new online form which can be found here: www.LeftLion.co.uk/add Alternatively email them to: listings@leftlion.co.uk.

LeftLion tries to ensure that all event listings are correct.

However we cannot be held responsible for incorrect or missing listings.

28

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue9

LeftLion Pub

Quiz

e on Wednesday at the Golden Fleec ery ev s en pp ha iz Qu b Pu ion ftL The Le o grabs each week and there’s als for up is er be of n llo ga A . ad Ro Mansfield team’s week-to-week scores. ur yo on d se ba zes pri r ge big n a league to wi (11 Jan) and Legend Alert r de Or e rbl Ma ms tea ing nn wi Congratulations to to www.leftlion.co.uk/quiz. go on ati orm inf re mo r Fo n).

Ja (18 AD SLOGANS

FILM QUOTES

What brands were these slogans used to advertise?

1. “Buy it. Sell it. Love it” 2. “Taste The Rainbow” 3. “Nottingham is my New York.”

4. “It’s slightly rippled with a flat underside.”

5. “Made in Scotland from girders”

What films do these lines come from?

1. “That's it then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!”

2. “We've gone on holiday by mistake.“ 3. “Contemplate this on the Tree Of Woe.” 4. “It's a very difficult job and the only way to get through it is we all work together as a team. And that means you do everything I say.”

5. “Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?”

1. Which musical featured Daddy Warbucks?

2. Name the rapper who recorded the tune ‘Raw’ and posed in his socks and pants for Madonna’s ‘Sex’ Book…

3. Name the song that connects Darts and Boney M 4. Tony Booth is the father-in-law of who?

5. Giant Haystacks’ biggest enemy was…?

BONUS: What was the real name of the answer to 5?

NOTTINGHAMIA 1. Which shopping centre opened first – Victoria Centre or the Broad Marsh Centre?

2. Which mass murderer went to High Pavement college in Bestwood?

3. Richard Beckinsale was a drama student at Clarendon College.

Name one TV show he appeared in.

4. What was Xylophone Man’s real name?

5. Ten years ago this month, 20,000 people turned out on the streets of Nottingham to witness the funeral procession of which local hero?

SPORT 1. Name the Notts cricketer who was the first to make six sixes in an over.

2. \Name 2 of the 3 teams in England’s World Cup group.

3. Which local sporting couple are starring in an ITV game show?

4. Dusty Hare was born in Newark and represented England at which sport?

5. Name the two cities where Nottingham Forest won the European Cup. BONUS: Name all of the players who scored in those games.

MAVERICK ROUND: “I’M FROM NOTTINGHAM, AND I’M NOT REAL” 1. Name the Viz comic strip set in Nottingham 2. In the Disney version of Robin Hood, what animal portrayed the lead character?

ANSWERS: AD SLOGANS: 1 eBay, 2 Skittles, 3 Clarke’s, 4 Cadbury’s Boost, 5 Irn Bru; WHO’S YER DADDY?: 1 Annie, 2 Big Daddy Kane, 3 Daddy Cool, 4 Tony Blair, 5 Big Daddy, BONUS: Shirley Crabtree; NOTTINGHAMIA: 1 Vic Centre, 2 Harold Shipman, 3 Porridge, Rising Damp or The Lovers, 4 Frank Robinson. 5 Dennis McCarthy; FILM QUOTES: 1 Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, 2 Withnail & I, 3 Conan The Barbarian, 4 The Italian Job, 5 Donnie Darko; SPORT: 1 Gary Sobers, 2 Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden 3 Torvill & Dead, 4 Rugby Union, 5 Munich & Madrid, BONUS: Trevor Francis, John Robertson; MAVERICK ROUND: 1 The Fat Slags, 2 A fox, 3 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 4 Connie, 5 Peggy Ollerinshaw, Barry Stewart-Hargeaves

WHO’S YER DADDY?

3. Name the book and film set in Nottingham that features Arthur Seaton.

4. Stephanie Beecham played the title role in a TV series about the rag trade in Nottingham. What was it called?

5. Name one of the two characters in Hi-De-Hi who came from Nottingham.

Providing vocational education and training in specialist areas and a wide range of life-long learning opportunities. Broxtowe College, High Road, Chilwell, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 4AH. Telephone 0115 9175252 (minicom available). Visit www.broxtowe.ac.uk e-mail learn@broxtowe.ac.uk

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue9

Get Ahead at in Music!

Broxtowe College provides the very best training in the field of popular music.

CREATIVE MUSIC PRODUCER Composing, music programming, recording & production, business & marketing skills and instrumental skills.

PERFORMING MUSICIAN Songwriting, instrumental skills, stagecraft, performances, musicianship and business & marketing skills.

VOCAL ARTIST Voice development, street dance, stagecraft, performance and business & marketing skills.

So to get ahead, get on the phone today!

CALL 0115 917 5252 FOR DETAILS!

This months answers are all the names of restaurants within the NG1 postcode. Please send your answers to nottsword@leftlion.co.uk or by post to the address on page 3. The first person to send in all the correct answers will win a LeftLion goodie bag and all the new years resolutions that we decided not to keep.

Across:

02. Highly addictive drinking spot? (5) 09. Italian restaurant that sounds like the best-o horse-o! (4, 5) 10. Sounds like what Prince Charles might wear to this restaurant (5, 4) 12. Feel a lacy vegetarian eaterie? (5, 4) 13. First hit in international tennis game? (5, 7) 16. Bar with a strange dress code – South American slacks only! (5, 6) 17. Don’t burn your fingers when you help yourself here! (3, 3, 6, 5) 18. Bar in London? New York? No, right here in Nottingham (4) 19. Lively continental restaurant? (6, 6) 20. Where the actors drink? (4) 21. Restaurant designed to fit grid, say? (3, 7) 22. Bar at home on the water (10)

Down:

01. Restaurant for unsuccessful Japanese wrestlers (6, 4) 03. Restaurant with a small capital? (5, 5) 04. You can see the memoirs of this bar at the cinema (6) 05. Halt a jam at this curry house (3, 5) 06. Restaurant for masked Venetians? (11) 07. How a dog may shake a mother at a Japanese restaurant? (8) 08. Where to eat on a niche? (5, 3) 11. Bar with homeless snail and salad leaf (4, 3, 7) 14. Where retired Italian journalists eat? (5, 7) 15. Where to come and play on Captain Corelli’s instrument? (7) 18. This bar is a banger! (7)

29

30

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue9

Aries (March 21 - April 20)

Libra (September 24 - October 23)

There are mysteries to be unravelled about sleep. Why do we need it? Does everyone do it? What’s it all about? Some believe those little slices of death contain the answers to many profound questions asked over the ages by great thinkers and drinkers alike.

Unfortunately you were snoring so loud I missed what they said…

This is a time of upheaval. Soon you’ll be gone with the wind with a new job in a new city and a new life. Fear not, there will be plenty of old friends to ease you in on the other side. But remember to keep in touch with your old amigos duck. Que sera sera…

Taurus (April 21 - May 21)

If I was a gambling man (which I most certainly am) then I’d advise that you withdraw all the money you have been saving in that ISA and go to the geegees to find yourself a nice pony to risk everything on. Don’t get saddled with savings accounts. You are the mane man after all.

Nowadays there is a deluge of human wants. Wherever there is profit, virtue is taken lightly. Material value wins over humanity, moral principles are gradually lost and interpersonal relationships deteriorate day by day. Numbers are replacing the pricelessness of life and life itself has become merchandise. Buy a T-shirt!

Gemini (May 22 - June 22) I’m horny baby. I walk you home late one evening. I place a tender kiss on your lips at the door, before being invited in for coffee. Fuck the coffee though, because while our lips are together, you’re rubbing your thigh up inside my legs and making me go all hard. Then when I’m as hard as I can get, I go outside and beat someone up.

Cancer (June 23 - July 23) Gee, thanks, Dave. Bang-up job so far. Extortion, coercion. You’ll pardon me if I ask you to kiss my pucker. The same fuckers that rounded us up and sank us into this mess are telling me they’ll bail me out? Fuck you. You think a guy like that comes this close to getting fingered and sticks his head out?

Leo (July 24 - August 23) I was walking my pet lion down the street, when I came across a local police officer. He looked surprised and told me to take it to the zoo immediately. I did. The next day we were walking down the same street and saw him again. “Why didn’t you take it to the zoo?” he asked. “I did”, I said “and today we’re going swimming.”

Virgo (August 24 - September 23) Life is like a basket of eggs. Some of them taste good and some of them are rotten. To determine whether an egg is fresh, however, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water.

If it sinks, it is fresh and you can eat it. If it rises to the surface, throw it in the direction of the nearest politician.

Scorpio (October 24 - November 22)

Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22) Ever get sick of balding men in grey suits making decisions that you have to live by every day? With their long-winded words they’re destroying the world. What the ayup me duck is filibustering and how did anyone think that would be a good idea?

Overthrow the government. Smash the system. Say no to Lionel Blair.

Capricorn (December 23 - January 19) Tell her everything. Don’t act very interested necessarily, ‘cause it could offend delicate ears. If she cracks reach away Pedro. Go everywhere, to America, Barbados, Egypt, Thailand, Tasmania, Erewash, Radford, Bakersfield or Oman. Kingmaking is not so terribly exigent after dark.

Aquarius (January 20 - February 19) There is romance on your astrological horizon. Unfortunately it’s going to be a brief fling, with minimal action and you’re still not going to get laid. When will you learn that you were born to be lonely fool? Either arrange a trip down south for a visit or quit your jibba jabba.

Pisces (February 20 - March 20) Spend some time concentrating on your senses. Get a blindfold or some ear plugs or whatever and try and isolate and appreciate the way they shape your perception of the world. The only reason you see things as you do is because of the way the light falls on them. Look out for things that make the difference.

LOCAL IN DU SPECIAL!!STRY !

Boots vs . Pork Fa rms

Grate Misstakes in Cultural Histroy

BOOTS

No. of stores in the UK No. of staff in the UK 2004-05 profits Pre-menstrual women (%) General stench of death (out of 10)

#09: December 1666: Isaac Newton fine tunes his revolutionary theory of gravy

PORK FARMS

1,400

453

No. of stores in the UK

68,000

No. of staff in the UK

£481m

2004-05 profits

7,300 £15.7m

80

Pre-menstrual women

6

General stench of deat

(%) h (out of 10)

40 10