The Red Bulletin_0411_NZ

Sophie Hart / Manny Marroquin / Daniel Ricciardo / Mark Webber / Jamie Woon / Jamie xx / Jay-Z

NZD 6.95

april 2011

an almost independent monthly magazine

THE STROKES New album

New Angles

Champions Electro KIDS of 88

“We didn’t even realise that we’d started a band!”

Last Action Hero LIAM NEESON

Hollywood’s least likely hitman talks tough

Man Alive Our epic story Human Planet

+

MUSIC Clubs travel food gear

The all-new BMW X3

www.bmw.co.nz

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Bullhorn

life class Somewhere, right now, on this big, blue planet we call home, a fellow human being is doing something utterly remarkable – yet something that by their standards is routine, humdrum, run of the mill. Just as you, dear reader, might hop onto a train and join thousands of others on a daily commute to the workplace, thinking nothing of it, so will one of Malaysia’s Bajau people, who live in a community of precarious water huts poking out of the coral sea between the Philippines and Borneo, have got up this morning, stretched, stepped out of the front door and dived straight into the sea to catch a fish or three for breakfast.

Meantime, deep in the forests of Yandombe, in the Central African Republic, a Ba’Aka pygmy might have sung a verse of praise to the jungle gods that have provided shelter, warmth, food and water. Further north, in the almost perma-frozen Arctic, families on Greenland will have allowed themselves to start thinking of the return of sunny days after the longest, darkest winter, with barely three daily hours of sunlight from October to February. That’s before setting off for a spot of whale-watching.

As you’ll be reminded by the centrepiece of this issue, our Human Planet photo-reportage, ‘life’ is seven billion different things to seven billion different people – yet each individual experience of this ‘same’ thing is as real as the next, just as each feels as normal from the inside as it might appear alien to an outsider.

Photographer Timothy Allen spent 18 months accompanying the team who filmed the Human Planet documentary.

The result is an amazing collection of images. See his work starting on page 32

Cover Photography: Timothy Allen/BBC 2010. Photography: Patrick Murray

Your editorial team

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contents

welcome to the world of Red Bull

82

Inside your all-action Red Bulletin this month

Bullevard 16 HERE IS THE NEWS Including Awolnation’s ‘megalithic’ music 20 SOPHIE HART Good enough to ace the Coast-to-Coast as an amateur – but she isn’t that bothered 21 Where’s YOUR HEAD AT: Jay-Z From NYC unknown to the world’s hippest hopper. Gotta fry your brain, right?

22 manny Marroquin Mix booth magic from the man with the sharpest hearing this side of Big Ears

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24 KIT BAG Wooden rims served cycling’s greatest champ well; now carbon makes ’em dated 26 Jamie woon Keeping it in the family with his ma on debut album backing vocals 28 WINNING FORMULA Wearing a wingsuit, a BASE-jumper can fly like, ahem, a squirrel…

30 LUCKY NUMBERS As The Space Shuttle shuffles off, The Bulletin asks: “What’s out there…?”

Action 32 HUMAN PLANET It takes all sorts… The story of mankind’s extraordinary population of planet Earth 48 LIAM NEESON Pushing 60 and with a movie CV that spans Star Wars to romcoms, Neeson is Hollywood’s new favourite action hero 52 RED BULL FARM JAM Three brothers, a big field, beer, bikes and burgers. Just another NZ weekend 60 running for their lives In Ethiopia, running is more than a pastime: it’s a chance to escape 68 Webber and ricciardo Both Aussies, both super-quick F1 drivers, but can either sing Waltzing Matilda?

72 DIE ANTWOORD “Where did they come from?” We have the answer on SA’s hottest rappers 04

16 90 32

72

68

52

Photography: Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Photofiles (2), Graeme Murray (1), Red Bull Records (1), Getty Images (2), Timothy Allen/Bbc 2010 (1), Alan Mahon (1)

contents

More Body & Mind 82 red bull X-fighters turns 10 How to get the most from the biggest FMX-fest you’re likely to see 84 GET THE GEAR The unique challenge of Red Bull Crashed Ice calls for some pretty specialised kit 86 PRO TIPS Three hundred chin-ups before breakfast?

Now that’s a workout, kayaker-stylee 87 THE STROKES Guitarist Nick Valensi spills on album #4 88 World’s best clubs Dancefloor thrills with luxury frills at Dublin’s most talked-about venue 89 Take 5: Jamie xx The ambient mood-master on the five discs that inspired a career in music 90 KIDS OF 88 No rock star super-egos here: they didn’t even realise they’d started a band!

92 CUCINA MAXIMUS With this month’s dish, upon the humble tails of oxen, was built the Roman Empire. Plus this month’s Hangar-7 chef 94 The LIST You can’t do everything, so here’s our guide to the global essentials in sport and music 96 save the date Out and about this month? Ink these into your diary right now. Go on!

Every Month 06 Kainrath’s calendar 08 pictures of the month 98 mind’s eye

out Now The Rapp Bulletin

the Red Bulletin goes iPad

50 Cent. for free FROM 12.4.11 in the iTunes store

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illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

06

moscow, RUSsia

play icely Boys will beveriusti boys. And whensl those boys are top-line skaters from Lenit disciplines as diverse as ice hockey or speed skating, and they’re on a purpose-built ice raceway through one of the world’s great cities, then a bit of rough and tumble is bound to result. These conum incil ip etueracers, minimcompeting volut autatinutround praessequis ice cross downhill three of the 2011 nullandreet dignaIce commolore magnism odipis dit dio feugue Red Bull Crashed World Championship, are part of aeugrowing dolore dolortis nonsectet laor sim quam vulla nim ice illaor clan that has taken an obscure discipline from,commy ahem, thin si.Unt ilitone ventofniam eliquis aci bla aut wis nulla faccumsan to being the fastest-growing winter sports.

This kind ulla commy atemfew quis lutat. exer adiate of streetnulput racinginisullutat something ofdelit us have yetOn witnessed, magnibh aliquisi tiohas commod tat, volore exer ad dunt adit, so any of ea these events pulling power measured in tens of consed tie cor suscidui ditAnd nonwith ut utat incidunt dio includes conullandio thousands of spectators. a venue list that the eugait wissectem nos del Munich, ute te dip euis eugue voleniscip elit city centres of Lausanne, Moscow, Quebec City, Prague am ver iuscill ummolorper aliquisislif eu facip ea feuisl and Stockholm, don’t be surprised four skaters blastduis past you. www.redbullcrashedice.com ercip eugue dolore magna feum

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Credits

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conum incil ip etue minim volut autat ut praessequis nullandreet digna commolore magnism odipis dit dio eu feugue dolore dolortis nonsectet laor sim quam vulla commy nim illaor si.Unt ilit vent niam eliquis aci bla aut wis nulla faccumsan ulla commy nulput in ullutat atem quis numsandre delit lutat. On exer adiate magnibh ea tio tat, volore exer ad dunt adit, consed tie cor suscidui blandrem dit non ut utat incidunt dio conullandio eugait wissectem nos del ute te dip euis eugue voleniscip elit am ver iuscill ummolorper aliquisisl eu facip ea feuisl duis ercip eugue dolore magna feum

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conum incil ip etue minim volut autat ut praessequis nullandreet digna commolore magnism odipis dit dio eu feugue dolore dolortis nonsectet laor sim quam vulla commy nim illaor si.Unt ilit vent niam eliquis aci bla aut wis nulla faccumsan ulla commy nulput in ullutat atem quis numsandre delit lutat. On exer adiate magnibh ea tio tat, volore exer ad dunt adit, consed tie cor suscidui blandrem dit non ut utat incidunt dio conullandio eugait wissectem nos del ute te dip euis eugue voleniscip elit am ver iuscill ummolorper aliquisisl eu facip ea feuisl duis ercip eugue dolore magna feum

Credits photography: Jürgen Skarwan

Credits

ullandignis

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mount beauty, australia

RED CROSS

photography: rutgerpauw.com/Red Bull Content Pool

Not your average skate park quarter-pipe, is it? When Red Bull Dirt Pipe contest director Mike Daly said the event was all about doing things a little bigger, he wasn’t kidding. He picked a spot in the Australian mountains, deep in the bush, and designed a series of slopes and curves that had the assembled BMX glitterati as awestruck as they were excited.

“I think the best way to describe it,” says British BMX Dirt rider Kye Forte, “is that it’s like a snowpark-style half-pipe, but with plenty of street park-style hits built into it. And it’s fast!”

Pre-event rain threatened to turn this sublimely sculpted series of runs into a mudbath, but fearsome Aussie rays managed to pack the surface hard in time for competition.

Video highlights at en.redbulletin.com/dirtpipe

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Anaheim, california, USA

think pink

Anyone fancy telling Supercross teen sensation Kyle Regal that pink is for girls? His competitors don’t, for they recognise in Puerto Rican Regal a talent that has been honed in the school of hard knocks. Regal, 19, has spent the past two years motorhoming around the US Supercross circuit, carving out a reputation as one of the sport’s future stars. Supercross is American-style motocross: indoors and highly technical, placing great demands on riders’ handling skills. This is California’s Angel Stadium, which this time was not a happy hunting ground for Regal, who finished 12th, while his San Manuel Yamaha team-mate James Stewart won outright.

But you can be sure it’s just a temporary setback, as Regal likes things tough: “My trainer is an ex US Marine and he’s kinda gnarly,” he says. “But I need a tough person to get me in the right direction.”

More pics at en.redbulletin.com/regal

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photography: Matt Pavelek/Red Bull Content Pool

Yosemite valley, california , USA

I EYE CAPITAN

photography: Paul Nicklen/national geographic/getty images

Bugs on a tree? No, it’s a men on a rock face – more specifically, two rather brave climbers tackling the renowned south-west face of the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park.

Were we able to ‘zoom out’ from this pic, the daunting, sheer nature of El Capitan would be more obvious: it’s a 3,000ft hunk of Cretaceous granite, rising almost vertically out of the Yosemite Valley basin. And therein lies the challenge for keen rock-scalers: a lot of mountains are much taller and other ranges attract more violent atmospheric conditions, but there are few lumps of rock that really put the ‘climb’ into ‘climbing’ quite like ‘El Capi’ (as the mountain brethren know it).

Now search for more daredevil climbers at www.redbull.com

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Bullevard Sporting endeavour and cultural excellence from around the world

You and your crew Would you like to sail one of the world’s most exciting racing boats with a crew of leading professionals?

On April 30, a charity dinner in Hochfügen, Austria, will raise funds for the Wings For Life spinal cord research foundation. For the price of a dinner ticket, you can share five courses with WFL ambassadors such as F1 champ Sebastian Vettel. At the after-dinner auction you can bid for the chance to be the fifth man on the Red Bull Extreme sailing boat next time it races, under skipper Roman Hagara. See below for the crew list for that fantastic voyage.

Reservations: isabell@kini.at

Roman Hagara Skipper The man at the wheel making the decisions is a double Olympic gold-medal winner and one of Europe’s leading sailors.

Hans-Peter Steinacher Tactician Hagara’s right-hand man for over a decade, including the Olympic wins. Has one eye on the weather even when asleep.

Craig Monk Bowman Two-time winner of the Americas Cup, his duties as bowman include hoisting/lowering sails and watching for other boats.

will howden Trimmer Responsible for the rigging, and the control of the sails therewith.

Howden is a veteran of the Extreme 40 racing circuit.

YOU! Fifth Man Saying ‘thisisawesomethisisawesome’ over and over in your head, you are moveable ballast. It is one of the great days of your life.

PICTURES OF THE MONTH

every shot on target Email your pictures with a Red Bull flavour to letters@redbulletin.com. Every one we print wins a pair of adidas Sennheiser PMX 680 Sports headphones. With a Kevlar-reinforced, two-part cable (it can be short when running with a music player on your arm, or extended with a built-in volume control), reflective yellow headband stripe and fully sweat- and water-resistant parts, they’re perfect for sports. Visit: www.sennheiser.co.uk

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Phoenix Golfer Alexis Thompson gets the other kind of driving tips from NASCAR’s Brian Vickers.

Garth Milan

b u l l e va r d

the little Questions Kasey Kahne Checklist

From the beginning, all the way to the end

Adam Malysz Just retired, the Polish ski jumping legend picks his hardest opponents

Do past crashes prey on your mind in a race?

I don’t think about them.

Poles and wins help build the confidence.

Photography: Sabine König (1), Mark Teo/Red Bull Photofiles (4), Getty Images (1), Lukas Nazdraczew/Red Bull Content Pool (1), Imago (3), Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool (2)

Aaron Bruno, frontman of Awolnation, explains the origins of the first and last tracks on his band’s debut album Megalithic Symphony Even as a little kid I went to punk and hardcore concerts.

There’s this band, Sick Of It All from Awolnation’s album, New York, a classic Mega­lithic Symphony, hardcore band, is out now and they walked out to What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. People would go crazy. From that moment I knew, if I ever made music, I wanted an intro. Other bands might use something like the Star Wars theme, but I wanted to make my own, something epic.

Knights of Shame Of all the music I’ve ever been a part of, this song is probably my favourite. It was a huge goal to make a 12-minute song that actually keeps your attention. All the parts keep coming and coming: in the beginning there is this barbershoplike theme, then it turns into more of a Euro dance track, like Justice, and then there’s a hip-hop section, too. It totally encapsulates what the album title means to me: it’s a megalithic symphony. www.awolnationmusic.com

Thus far in NASCAR 2011, the Red Bull Racing driver has a top-10 finish and a Daytona 500 wall prang

Martin Schmitt “Our battles were legendary. For a time in the World Cup, it was basically him versus me.”

What about when you see a crash in a race?

My first thought is that I don’t want to get hit.

How do you stay fit?

A lot of cardio. I work out

more in the off-season, and focus on the racing as the year goes on.

Is it true NASCAR cars can’t be changed much?

I know the feeling I need at each race track, and the crew makes little changes to allow that to happen.

How do you cope with searing raceday heat?

Food and water help the situation. You have to be mentally ready for it too. www.nascar.com

Simon Ammann “The Harry Potter of skijumping, he pipped me to Olympic gold not once, but twice.”

Uniformula Gregor Schlierenzauer “A legend. Equally as good on the normal hill as he is on the large.”

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had a big say in the design of the new Red Bull Racing driver kit, including the raceday cap, which is available online now for €29.95 ($48) plus shipping. www.redbullshop.com

Belfast Putting the ‘fast’into the Northern Irish

Kingston “I‘m taking my wife to BMX event Red Bull

capital during a demo: F1 legend David Coulthard.

Corey Rich

Conquer The Spot.” “Jamaica?” “No, it was her choice.”

Agustin Muñoz

Florianópolis Off the coast of Brazil , the Red Bull Music Armada sets sail. Boarding party, anyone?

Marcelo Maragni 17

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Wear three well

Huffer: 2011 look Chair in the air: Aaron Fotheringham

Cameron Cole

Head over wheels Single-mindedly devising a brand new sport

Cole rush Five days before winning his first national mountain bike title, Cameron Cole was in the National Bank on Colombo Street in Christchurch when the earthquake hit. “Most of the windows smashed,” says Cole, “and we climbed over broken glass to get out. Outside, it was carnage.” Depsite his traumatic experience, Cole aced the downhill event. The win is a big boost ahead of the 2011 World Cup series, which starts this month; an injury-hit 2010 series left Cole ranked eighth in the world. www.cameroncole.blogspot.com

Plymouth For this all-terrain boarder, poletapping while can-hopping is all in a day’s work.

James Everitt 18

“Waiting at the top of the ramp was terrifying, but I landed it and rode for a couple of feet before I crashed. I was so angry with myself.

How cool would it have been to land the front flip first time?”

Aaron Fotheringham is his own harshest critic. The 19-year-old from Las Vegas is referring to his almost-perfect world’s-first front flip in a wheelchair, on the Auckland leg of the Nitro Circus Live New Zealand tour. He face-planted his second attempt, but it was third time lucky when the stunt show moved on to Wellington.

“It felt amazingly smooth,” he says, of his legit flip. “I was shaking my head at the end: ‘No way I just landed that.’” Fotheringham was born with spina bifida, a congenital spine disorder. He got his first wheelchair aged three; a few years later his brother took him to a skate park. He taught himself how to make his chair spin, slide, flip and fly, essentially inventing a new sport, wheelchair motocross.

“I’m pretty much a lone ranger,” he says. “I’m the only person to have done a backflip, a double backflip and a front flip. But I’m trying to get more people out there doing it.” www.aaronfotheringham.com

Rakitna Ice hockey players in Slovenia pull off moves far smoother than their frozen lake ‘rink‘.

Jelen Matej

Albany On the New Zealand leg of the Nitro

Circus tour, Travis Pastrana has a bit of a lie-down.

Stewart Wilson

Words: Robert Tighe. Photography: Huffer, John Cosgrove, Sport the Library/Jeff Crow

Designer Aimee McFarlane, who joined leading New Zealand label Huffer last year, is trying to crack the womenswear market.

“I’m injecting femininity into our range, with a focus on good fit and great fabrics. It’s really good, wearable, high-end streetwear, a relaxed but interesting look.”

She has three universal style tips: 1) “Never wear jeggings,” the leggings styled to look like jeans.

They’re the “worst invention ever”.

2) Dress for your personality and body shape. “If you’re comfortable in what you’re wearing then you’ll feel confident, and if you feel confident, you’ll look great,” but...

3) “...cut loose from time to time.

Wear something unexpected or outrageous or downright cheeky.” www.huffer.co.nz

THE 3RD RED BULL TROLLEY GRAND PRIX NEW ZEALAND

12PM SUNDAY 10TH APRIL, 2011 AUCKLAND DOMAIN For further information visit www.redbull.co.nz

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Nothing to coast about

SOPHIE HART

She’s a record-breaking adventure athlete, but no win-at-all-costs obsessive. Sophie Hart is just an outdoor junkie with a taste for fish ’n’ chips

Born March 8, 1983 Adelaide, Australia African adventure She spent six weeks working in a rural hospital in Uganda as part of her medical studies Competitive eater On a South American cycling holiday she won an empanada-eating competition, scoffing 13 of the tasty pastries in 30 minutes

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Three days after winning the 2011 Coast to Coast, New Zealand’s top adventure race, Sophie Hart was back working in Nelson Hospital’s A&E department.

Topping the women’s category in the 243km multisport race from one side of the South Island to the other at the age of 27, when most multisporters peak in their mid-30s, is impressive. To do it while training to be a doctor is outstanding.

“Before the race I told her, ‘You’re racing against full-time pros – I hope you win but you shouldn’t,’” says her coach and former adventure racing world champ, Nathan Fa’avae. Hart finished nine minutes ahead of the second-placed woman and just 10 men beat her time of 12:10.31. ‘‘She’s an enigma,” says Fa’avae. ‘‘In 2009, after we did a multi-day race together, I said to her, ‘I don’t think you realise, but you’ve probably got the most potential of any female I’ve seen in this sport.’ Sophie just said, ‘Don’t be stupid.’”

An above-average runner in high school, Hart was asked by a friend to join her in the team category of the two-day race at the 2004 Coast to Coast. The pair finished third. Two years later Hart competed solo in the two-day race and won, but it was only in 2008 that she felt ready to tackle the big one-day event.

The one-day Coast to Coast starts in the darkness at Kumara Beach on the West Coast. A 3km run is followed by a 55km cycle, 33km mountain run, 15km cycle, 67km kayak down the Waimakariri River and a final 70km cycle to the finish line at Sumner Beach in Christchurch.

Over-trained and over-eager, on the day Hart struggled home in eighth place, vowing never to do the race again.

Then, in 2009 she was a late stand-in on Fa’avae’s team for an adventure race in New Caledonia, in which Fa’avae saw Hart’s potential. “After 60 hours, she was walking ahead and I thought she was having a cry,” says Fa’avae. “I asked her how she was, and she smiled and said, ‘Great, but I’m starving. Have you got any food?’ She was lapping it up.”

On the flight home Fa’avae told her she was good enough to win the Coast

to Coast. Hart was adamant she wasn’t going to do the race again after her bad experience in 2008, but by the time they touched down in Auckland they had worked out a training programme.

Hart was the third woman home in the 2010 event and came 34th overall, with a time of 11:47.28. It was a solid performance in a race that was shortened by foul weather, but one that banished all memories of 2008. ‘‘It’s pretty overwhelming,” says Hart of her 2011 win. ‘‘I had the perfect race.

I don’t know when it will happen again.”

With her medical career to focus on, she isn’t just playing down her achievements. ‘‘My job provides a balance and I don’t think I could handle the pressure of fulltime racing,” explains Hart. “It started as a hobby and I still want to enjoy it. I’ll do the Coast to Coast again, but I don’t have ambitions to be a multiple champion.

There are other races around the world I want to do. I just love being outdoors.

Reaching the top of a mountain and seeing for miles is such a privilege.” ‘‘She’s incredibly humble,” says Fa’avae. ‘‘She doesn’t feel she deserves any of this.

A lot of people have invested more time and money and made the Coast to Coast a bigger part of their lives, and come away with little to show for it. Sophie strolls up, wins the race and wanders off down the beach to get some beer and fish ’n’ chips.” ‘‘I think it annoys some people,” Hart adds, referring to her humbleness.

“I don’t mean to, it’s just the way I am.”

“There are other races around the world I want to do. Reaching the top of a mountain and seeing for miles is such a privilege”

Read about the gruelling race here: coasttocoast.co.nz

words: robert Tighe. Photography: Dean Mackenzie

Name Sophie Hart

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where’s your head at?

Jay-Z

If he didn’t exist then HBO would invent him: the kid from the New York corner who made it there and, after swapping a life of crime for a life of rhyme, made it everywhere. This is the life and times of S Carter Fro Grow Fo ’ Flow

Dawn Of The Shawn

Tennis legend Björn Bor g wouldn’t shave during a winning streak, hence all those hai ry grins next to the Wimbledon trop hy. Jay-Z has similar traditions whe n he’s recording an album: he doe sn’t get his hair cut and always wea rs a ‘Jesus piece’ necklace formerly owned by his great pal and inspirat ion, the rapper Biggie Smalls.

December 4, a track on Jay-Z’s The Black Album (2003), opens with Gloria Carter saying that her son, Shawn, was born on December 4 (she doesn’t mention the year; it was 1969). Shawn, Gloria goes on to say, “Was a very shy child growing up,” but, aged about 10, he saw a local boy freestyle rapping at the centre of a circle of kids in Brooklyn, New York. And that, as they say, was that.

‘I’m A Bus ine ss, Man!’

Rhyme s With ‘Tip-To p Trooper Car’

Jay-Z’s moneymaking is discussed as often, if not more so, than his music these days.

Forbes magazine puts his fortune at US$450m, and rising.

Two of his smar ter moves include selling the Rocawear clothing label for US$204m while remaining in overall control, and securing ownership of the master tapes of his early albums. It’s not such a Hard Knock Life any more.

Obsessed with rapping, little Shawn and his older friend Jaz become regulars in local rap battles. He’s known as Jazzy, which over time became Jay-Z. In later life, Jay-Z has said he doesn’t write down his lyrics, but back then he was filling notebooks and binders with ideas, and, he says, even, “Writing rhymes on the back of brown paper bags.”

What More Can I Say?

Words: Paul Wilson. Illustration: Lie-Ins and Tigers

Published last year, Decoded is a splendidly designed book in which the artist also known as Jiggaman and Hova unpicks his lyrics and gives an insight into his life and times. But an earlier memoir, The Black Book, remains unpublished following its subject’s ruling that it was too revealing.

Let’s see WikiLeaks dig that one out.

King Deposed Despite the distractions of boardroom and bottom line, Jay-Z continues to do good things on record. His 11th solo album, The Blueprint 3, went straight to number one in the US in September 2009.

A collaboration album each with Linkin Park and R-Kelly also topped the charts.

With 11 number ones, he is one ahead of Elvis and eight behind The Beatles.

American Gan gster

Along with the skills that would eventually see him become a recording artist, a teenage Jay-Z also developed an aptitude for hustling: selling crack, and the life that goes with it. Aged 12, he shot his crack-addict brother in the shoulder. When he was 16, he “worked 60 hours straight” on the streets with a kid who owed him money. Another time, he was shot at, but all three bullets missed: Jay-Z unplugged.

Behi nd Fren emy Lin

Empire State Of Union Every king of hip-hop needs a queen. After first meeting in 2002, the year they duetted on O3 Bonnie & Clyde, Shawn Corey Carter married Beyoncé Giselle Knowles in NYC in April 2008. As well as making a lovely pair – they really do, don’t they? – they kick ass in the highest-earning-celebrity couple surveys.

es There have been many riva lries between hip-hop artists: some in song, some in each other’s faces; som e friendly, others decidedly not so. And yet its two current biggest names, Kanye We st and Jay-Z, are currently touting a collab orative album, Watch The Throne. U2 and Coldplay wouldn’t do a whole album togeth er, would they?

The A-Z of Jay-Z: www.rocnation.com

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studio sessions

Manny Marroquin

One of the world’s most successful record mixers tells Tom Hall that when it comes to being top of your game, sometimes less can mean more

Age 39 Born Guatemala City, Guatemala Current projects Forget You, Cee-Lo Green; Grenade, Bruno Mars; the upcoming Ting Tings album

“When you can pick out a detail that puts a smile on an artist’s face, that’s the greatest feeling”

He’s a multiple Grammy Award-winning musician who calls Rihanna, Alicia Keys and Kanye West his contemporaries.

But you’d be forgiven for never having heard of Guatemalan-born Los Angeles resident Manny Marroquin. And despite an undeniable talent, that’s the way he’d like to keep it. Because according to this backroom beat wizard, when it comes to delivering magic in the mixing booth, it’s not about who you see, but what you feel.

You’ve worked on some huge records, but some people might not be aware of what a mixing engineer actually does. Can you talk us through it?

Of course. Someone will start with a song idea and take it to a producer who will help them make it into an exciting record. But once everything has been recorded, you still need someone who can manipulate the sound for maximum emotion. That’s where I come in.

For example?

Well, say a producer will be like, “This should feel like a really warm ’70s disco joint.” That’s what’s inside his head but he may not have the tools or expertise to take it there. I use a system called Pro Tools to help me produce that feeling through KANYE WEST KANYE WEST sound filters and effects. But with

ALICIA KEYS ALICIA KEYS

MARY MARY

John Legend

the end result, people should not be hearing the song and be thinking, “Wow, what a great mix.” I should be invisible.

So name some songs that we might not know it was you adding the magic to?

There are so many. I worked on Kanye West’s Stronger – there were 11 guys who tried to mix it, but the way I managed to level out the Daft Punk sample so it didn’t get in the way of Kanye’s vocal meant that my mix became the finished result. When an artist thinks they know a song inside out but you can still pick out a detail that puts a huge smile on their face, that’s the greatest feeling in the world.

Do you think more accessible computer technology is making hard-earned experience less of a requirement now?

Music is about new sounds and creative emotions, so the good side is that kids can do anything they want in their bedrooms.

But economically, what’s happening is the middle-class of everyday studio engineer is slowly disappearing because up-andcoming acts have less need for them. So I feel beyond blessed to be able to work on the high-level projects that I do, because it’s becoming a smaller field.

You’re obviously in demand. Are your ears insured?

Oh man. Like J-Lo’s ass? Yeah I could be walking by a construction site and an explosion goes off and I suddenly find myself with blood streaming out of my ears, but no, I haven’t considered that.

But I do get them tested pretty regularly.

Discography: mannymarroquin.com

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The albums that won Marroquin Grammys: John Legend, Get Lifted; Alicia Keys, The Diary of Alicia Keys; Kanye West, The College Dropout; Mary Mary, Thankful

Photography: Theo Jemison (1), picturedesk.com (1), Corbis (1), getty Images (3)

Name Manny Marroquin

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B u l l e va r d

Well spoke

It’s all about speed with racing bike wheels. And the quest to be quickest has brought carbon to replace wood, with a spoke or two dropped along the way

Life’s a beech Bianchi/Cerchio Clement, 1950 This is the rear wheel ridden by the great Fausto Coppi – Il Campionissimo [Champion of Champions] – in 1950. The rim is made from glue-laminated beech wood and retains its perfect roundness thanks to 40 three-cross spokes keeping things tight 24

between hub and perimeter (even tough mountain-bike wheels only have a maximum of 36 spokes these days). Hub clearance could be adjusted via a cone, but a skilled mechanic was needed for smooth rolling.

The four-speed ‘Paris-Roubaix’ shift system

by Campagnolo – now highly prized by collectors – was operated with a deft hand on the gear lever. It gave a marked competitive advantage. If you weren’t Coppi, you could only dream of four functioning gears in 1950. www.cerchiinlegnoghisallo.com

words: werner jesner. photography: kurt keinrath

Kit evolution

b u l l e va r d

Light fantastic Lightweight Standard Clincher, 2011 Around 16 hours of handiwork go into creating this carbon wheel, now used by professionals the world over. Riders can choose between 16 or 20 carbon spokes on the front wheel; then 20 or 24 on the rear, depending on how they will be raced

and the rider’s weight. The 53mm-section carbon wheel-rim is a compromise between aerodynamics and performance. The hubs rotate with low wear and low friction around moulded industrial ball-bearings, while a swap of cogs makes the wheel compatible

with transmission components from SRAM, Shimano or Campagnolo, with a choice of 10 or 11-speed gear ‘blocks’. A Lightweight front and rear pair of these beauties weighs just 1,100g – less than Coppi’s rear wheel alone. www.lightweight.info

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b u l l e va r d

Future Soul Man

Jamie Woon The hotly tipped Londoner lets loose on his debut album, family affairs in the studio and old school chum Amy Winehouse

Born New Malden, Greater London Family As well as releasing a string of solo albums, Jamie Woon’s mother, Mae McKenna, has also recorded backing vocals for everyone from Michael Jackson to Kylie Minogue and Björk

Dark side of the Woon: Jamie Woon loops soulful samples and dubstep beats into his atmospheric live sets

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If your mother has sung backing vocals for Björk and Michael Jackson, a school mate has eight-figure album sales and the BBC listed you fourth in its influential Sound of 2011 poll (former list-toppers: 50 Cent, Adele and Mika), then you have three good omens for a career in pop.

That said, Jamie Woon is in no rush. The 28-year-old spent three years tweaking his debut album, Mirrorwriting. It is an elegant interplay between Woon’s soft voice, subtle R’n’B beats and synths – like Boys II Men and dubstep prodigy Burial in a jam session. But as Woon tells us at the London Red Bull Studio, it’s an album in which the Brit has sought to find the perfect sound for his lyrics.

After your 2007 gospel-style debut single, Wayfaring Stranger, people were probably expecting an acoustic album from you. But it’s turned out really electronic...

I’ve always enjoyed messing around with technology. Listening to DJ Shadow got me into sample-based music when I was a teenager. Then one day I just sat down at my laptop and came up with a track; my friends loved it and encouraged me to keep going. I set myself a challenge.

Would I be able to find a modern sound that would suit my songs and lyrics?

And? The recurrent theme of the album seems to be about reducing the overall sound… A commitment to tranquillity.

Absolutely. I’m a nervy person sometimes.

The only idea I had going into making

the album was that I wanted it to be quite a calming record, also for my own nerves.

It’s a personal, inward-looking album.

That’s why it’s called Mirrorwriting.

One name often mentioned in the same breath as yours is Amy Winehouse.

We both went to the BRIT School, an artistic secondary school in South London.

We occasionally used to hang out together.

Later on, we met at a concert we were both performing at in New York. It was when things were just taking off for her, the day before she first appeared on David Letterman. It was amazing to see someone you went to school with just before her big breakthrough. So I went up to her and said hello: it was cool, she remembered me. [Laughs.]

Your mother, Mae McKenna, is also a musician. Did you spend your youth in the recording studio?

I did. If she couldn’t organise a babysitter, she’d take me to the control room. Going to Nashville with her when I was 15 was a big thing for me. I’d just started playing guitar and bluegrass musicians were in the studio playing fantastic music and having fun. I think that was the moment I decided to be a musician.

And then you invited her to the studio for your first album. Did you get on well on a professional level too?

Of course! She really likes what I’m doing, and it’s great she’s done backing vocals on Night Air, my single. We joked about it, though. She was like, “There’s no way you could have afforded me!” [Laughs.]

“Bluegrass musicians were in the studio playing fantastic music and having fun.

I think that was the moment I decided to be a musician”

Mirrorwriting is out now. Listen to Jamie perform here: Redbull musicacademyradio. com/shows/1716

Words: Florian Obkircher. Photography: Phil Sharp, Getty Images

Name Jamie Woon

b u l l e va r d

Sense of adventure: Ben Brown knows the risks of paddling rivers for the first time

Words: Robert Tighe, Ruth Morgan. Photography: Jakub Sedivy, Teddy keen, Action Images, ted grambeau/Red Bull Content Pool, Getty Images. Illustration: Dietmar Kainrath

Hard & fast

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe

His beard froze n by -50°C winds, English amateu r endurance skater Teddy Keen (centre) completed the 200km Finland Ice Marathon in an impressive time of 9h 27m .

Tribute to A kayak pioneer

Ben Brown remembers Hendrik Coetzee NZ’s top adventure kayaker Ben Brown has paid warm tribute to friend and fellow adventurer Hendrik Coetzee, who died in a crocodile attack. South African Coetzee was leading a three-man expedition on the Lukuga River in Congo last December when he was attacked. Regarded as the world’s most experienced African river explorer, Coetzee was dragged under water by a crocodile.

His kayak returned to the surface, but his body was never recovered.

Brown, who learned to paddle African rivers including the Zambezi and the White Nile with Coetzee, said that while the tragedy had shocked the kayaking community, Coetzee knew the risks.

“Hendrik was acutely aware of the dangers associated with paddling in Africa,” says Brown. “Crocodile attacks are not a major risk for most paddlers, but they were for Hendrik because it was a part of the world that he loved to paddle in. When I paddled the White Nile with him in 2008, we had seven or eight encounters with crocs, but the hippos scared me more. They’re more unpredictable and there are a lot more cases of hippos attacking kayakers than crocs.”

Despite the tragedy, Brown says Coetzee’s death has not put him off his chosen sport. “It certainly makes the risk more of a reality, but Hendrik lived an extraordinary life and achieved some amazing things. It wasn’t about fame or money; it was a personal quest, and if you want to be the first person to paddle a river, you’ve got to accept there’s probably a good reason it hasn’t been paddled before.” www.benbrown.co.nz

French legend Sébastien Loeb (right, with co-driver Daniel Elena) won the Rally of Mexico.

Is an eighth world title on the card s?

At the Gold Coast Pro in Australia, the first stop on surfing’s 2011 world tour, Jordy Smith of South Africa came third.

There was a fir st se gold for Russian nior long jumper Darya Klishina at the Europe an Indoor Championship s in Paris.

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b u l l e va r d

Winning Formula

Glide Rules

Wingsuit flying – BASE-jumping wearing specially ‘webbed’ kit – is what Icarus would have wanted. But how does it work?

Scientific Officer “BASE-jumping with a wingsuit comes close to realising man’s dream of flying like a bird,” says Professor Thomas Schrefl, professor of Communications & Simulation Engineering at St Pölten University of Applied Sciences.

“After jumping off the cliff, the gravity pulls the flyer down. Moving forward at high speed, his fall rate is much slower than that of a regular skydiver. Head first, chest down, a skydiver without a wingsuit will reach a terminal velocity of about 200kph. A wingsuit is much like an airfoil: with sufficient forward velocity a lift force is created. This lift force reduces the fall rate to 65kph.

“In order to glide, the wingsuit flyer has to gain sufficient forward speed. Firstly, the air resistance, or drag, has to be as small as possible. Keeping the head and arms in line with the body reduces the cross-sectional area and minimises drag; tilting forward also increases the speed. More air passes over the wings and a lift force increases. By changing the descent angle, the flyer can change his air velocity and thus control the lift force.

“A wingsuit flyer may reach a velocity of more than 160kph.

When flying with a constant velocity v, the net force acting on the body is zero (otherwise the flyer would accelerate).

Three forces act on the body: the weight, W = mg, the lift force, L = 0.5CLρAv², and the drag force, D = 0.5CDρAv². Here m is the total mass, ρ is the density of air, A is the wing area, C L is the lift coefficent and C D is the drag coefficient. The lift force is proportional to the velocity squared. With a descent angle α, the condition of zero net forces gives: L = W cosα and D = W sinα. Now we are able to compute the distance travelled starting from a given height, h: d = h/tanα or d = h L/D. The ratio L/D is also known as glide ratio. Wingsuit flyers reach a glide ratio of 2.5, meaning that they travel 2.5m forward for every metre they lose in altitude.

Ascend into descent video heaven at www.redbullairforce.com

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Words: Matt Youson, Professor Thomas Schrefl. photography: Natalia Rozova/Red Bull Content pool. illustration: mandy fischer

Flight Commander “We like to say that we fly, rather than fall, using gravity as our engine,” says Jon DeVore, wingsuit flyer and manager of the Red Bull Air Force. “A normal skydive might give you a minute of freefall. It’s overwhelming; you can really lose yourself in that minute, because what you’re experiencing is pure freedom, but with the wingsuit on you can really extend the experience.

“Natural body flight might be the purer form of sky diving, but it’s not nearly so efficient as when we wear the wingsuit.

With the wing, what we do becomes almost an entirely different sport. It allows you to dramatically slow your rate of fall and gives you time to truly comprehend what’s going on around you.”

b u l l e va r d

Taking flight: Wearing a wingsuit enables a BASE-jumper to get close to man’s dream of flying like a bird

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B u l l e va r d

Lucky Numbers

Space

With the final Space Shuttle flights just weeks away, we look to the heavens and ask: what on Earth goes on off-Earth these days?

Weather permitting, on April 19, one of the most complicated machines will be launched for the penultimate time. On mission STS-134 of NASA’s Space Shuttle programme, a six-man crew on the Endeavour shuttle will perform four space walks, four payload experiments, and deliver equipment to the International Space Station (ISS). Then, on June 28, Space Shuttle Atlantis will undertake a round trip to the ISS: the 135th and final Shuttle flight, 30 years and two months after the Colombia Shuttle undertook the first. NASA is working on a replacement craft, Orion.

15,899

According to statistics published in the latest edition of Orbital Debris Quarterly News – the only magazine you’ll ever need about stuff in space – there are 15,899 objects greater than or equal to 5cm in diameter in orbit, categorised as either payloads (satellites, etc), rockets or debris. Smaller things can’t be tracked; estimates for all orbital fragments soar past half a million. This includes bits of the Death Star and the stuff General Zod and the other two baddies break out from in Superman II.

803 Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev’s interests are listed as, “swimming, skiing, bicycle riding, aerobatic flying and a range of amateur radio operations, particularly from space”. He has been able to indulge the last of those hobbies more than anyone else, because over the course of his six space missions he has spent more time in space than any other human being. When he returned to Earth for final time on October 10, 2005, he had logged 803 days, nine hours and 39 minutes in space, including 41 hours of spacewalking.

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How long is it going to take us to get to Mars?

Some say it will take several months for a manned mission to reach the Red Planet. Others who favour the embryonic VASMIR (Variable Scientific Impulse Rocket) propulsion system, which may one day propel spacecraft at 55kps – kilometres per second, that is – say man could reach Mars in about six weeks. In February this year, volunteers in the Mars500 project, a simulated Mars return voyage at a Moscow research centre, stepped onto the ‘planet surface’ after 256 days in their ‘spaceship’. Have these people never seen Capricorn One?

200,000 The Mercury Seven, NASA’s original bunch of astronauts, will go down in history as having The Right Stuff. Now anyone can go into space as long as they have the right bank balance.

Since 2001, seven people have spent time on the ISS, having paid Space Adventures a reported US$20m each for training, a berth on a Soyuz spacecraft and some freeze-dried meals. Virgin Galactic says 400 people have already paid US$200,000 for places on its suborbital spaceship. Test flights are progressing nicely.

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Mankind is reaching further into space with the Voyager 1 probe, still travelling and undertaking scientific analysis more than 33 years and 17 billion kilometres after launching on September 5, 1977. It is also carrying a gold-plated disc the size of a 12-inch record, containing 116 photos, 90 minutes of music and greetings in 55 languages for alien life forms. “Zarg – how charming of the humans to send us this!” “I know, Rixmmus, but I can’t believe they still use LPs.”

Space travel on a budget: www.worldwidetelescope.com

30

Words: Paul Wilson. Photography: Getty Images (2), Rex Features (2), corbis (1), The Kobal Collection (1)

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Action

THE HUMAN PLANET From Pole to Pole mankind has populated Earth’s every square inch. With this series of stunning images, we reflect on how Planet Earth has become the Human Planet

NOW WATCH IT all ON Prime Human Planet is described by the BBC, who produced it, without a shred of hyperbole, as “an epic eight-part blockbuster that follows in the footsteps of landmark series Life and Planet Earth”.

You’ll be able to catch Human Planet on Prime in 2011.

sea

LIVING AT THE SOURCE OF ALL LIFE

Bajau village Sabah, Malaysia Semporna is a small town in a remote corner of the province of Sabah in northeastern Malaysia.

The town is on the mainland, but most of the Bajau people live on stilt villages in the bay in part of the coral sea between Sulawesi, the Philippines and Borneo. If you truly want to understand the Bajau, and what the sea means to them, you only have to watch their children playing. These water babies cavort in the ocean like young seals, splash about, dive and swim and their fishing skills must, surely, be the historical product of otter genes.

The Bajau have been at one with the water for generations and the sea answers almost all their needs; their sole requirement from nearby terra firma is fresh water to drink.

Not for nothing have the Bajau been nicknamed ‘reef gypsies’; until not so long ago, they considered even the fragile houses they now inhabit to be too much of an earthly obstacle to a truly free life. photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

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mountains

HUNTERS OF THE CLEAR AIR

Altai Mountains, Mongolia Caught in magnificent, elemental isolation, Sailau Jadik and his son Berik contemplate, for a fleeting moment, life in one of the remotest places on Earth, the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. Few other locations can be so challenging to their inhabitants: a harsh climate on a barren plateau with few trees and ill-suited to agriculture. When the Kazakhs who live here go hunting, they do so with their trained golden eagles. It takes years to tutor these magnificent birds of prey to slay marmots, foxes and hares for their masters. But hunting isn’t only vital for survival in the Altai Mountains; adolescent boys must also prove their manhood by training the birds.

Boys such as Berik, who jokingly named his eagle Balapan, or ‘duckling’. When Balapan snatched his first fox, he was fed its liver, as is Kazakh custom. Berik’s reward was less visceral: only his father’s praise on becoming a man. photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

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jungle

PARADISE OR AN UNTANMED WILDERNESS?

Yandombe, Central African Republic Tropical rain forests cover just two per cent of the Earth’s surface, yet half of all known species thrive here – mankind included. Here more than anywhere, where friend and foe are hard to tell apart, you need smarts to survive. But the Ba’Aka pygmies add a spiritual dimension to their jungle-savvy. For them, the rain forest is the ultimate divine being, which gives them everything they need for daily life. They sing praise to its gifts of fruit and animals to eat; of plants and barks for medicine; of leaves to make the roofs of their huts; of wood to make their fires.

Many Ba’Aka have long since left behind the nomadic lifestyle, to become more sedentary, small-scale farmers and traders.

But most keep their traditions alive. The Ba’Aka may, one day, choose to leave the jungle, but the jungle never leaves the Ba’Aka.

Jungle photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

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Action

Arctic 38

DESERT

WATER OF LIFE (MAY CONTAIN FISH)

action

Lake Antogo, Mali You’d be hard-pressed to recognise this scene for what it is: an annual ‘festival of fish’ that can occur only once during the year, as tradition dictates.

On this special day – usually in May – during the six-month-long winter drought, the Dogon tribe of southern Mali live out a particular time-honoured ritual: men are allowed to fish in the sacred Lake Antogo. The ‘lake’ in question is in reality more of a large pond and when it’s being surrounded by several hundred fishermen waiting to pounce, it looks even smaller, set as it is amid a barren desert landscape.

On a signal – a gunshot – the Dogon men storm into the water. Fish are caught with bare hands and rough-weave baskets; many hold on to their catch with their teeth. In this maelstrom of arms, legs and bodies, the fish don’t have a chance. After just half an hour, a second gunshot brings proceedings to a close.

The catch is gathered and divided by the village elders.

Photography: Jasper Montana

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ARCTIC

BACK TO THE LIGHT

Ilulissat, Greenland In October and February there are three hours of sunlight a day in Greenland, but for most of the Island’s inhabitants, it feels as if the sun disappears at the end of the summer and doesn’t return until the start of summer the following year.

The animal and plant kingdoms have adapted to this challenge over millions of years and Greenland, the world’s largest island, boasts some suitably epic wildlife: the polar bear, the musk ox, the white-tailed eagle, the narwhal and the walrus are all common – and prized by hunters. Whales visit Greenland’s waters in abundance – humpback, minke, bowhead and blue.

Mankind has adjusted to this sometimes alien environment by watching nature closely. Only by assimilating Arctic rhythms and accepting the dark and cold for what they are is it possible to survive this long northern night. photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

41

RIVER

THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER

The Mekong River, Laos During monsoon season, 20 times more water than usual flows down the Mekong.

For fishermen such as Sam Niang, that means more fish – but it’s a whole lot harder to catch them.

Undeterred, Niang builds himself a ropebridge near the Kohne rapids to reach his special fishing perch – although this isn’t a bridge many of us would be comfortable to cross with such a raging torrent below.

It’s just two hemp ropes across the river and it makes for a wobbly daily commute. Viewed from a distance, the ropes disappear in the Mekong’s muddy spume, so Sam appears to be walking not just on water, but above it.

Skilled though he is at this unique high-wire act, Sam’s always aware of the danger he skirts – especially when returning home carrying a heavy basket laden with fish. “I have to be careful, otherwise I’m dead. And who’d look after my children, then?” he asks. photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

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Grassland

THE FIGHT FOR LIFE

The Omo Valley, Ethiopia It’s been the vital question since the dawn of time: who’s the strongest? Who’s the best? The Surma, a pastoral people who live in the savannah of south-western Ethiopia, let Donga decide. In this man-on-man – often village-on-village – combat, two rivals pummel each other with a stick about 3m in length. The aim is to disarm your opponent, and in so doing to win glory, a head of cattle or the favour of a woman.

Some fighters protect their heads with helmet-like caps woven out of thick strips of twine. Others are naked but for a codpiece and body-paint that they hope will make them invincible. In spite of all the force with which the men lash out at each other as they try to hit each other with the flexible sticks, a complex set of rules forbids unsportsmanlike conduct. The wounds the fighters eventually bear are relatively small, but they are borne with pride. photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

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CITy

SLUMDOG SURVIVor

Mombasa, Kenya The many teeming metropolises across the Earth demonstrate in the most explicit way the extremes to which humankind has been pushed, faced with environmental degradation, overpopulation and diminishing natural resources. When millions are forced to live in a confined space, under-resourced, under-sanitised, the weakest, such as this young boy stranded – blink-and-you’d-misshim – on a Mombasa rubbish dump, are hardest hit. Yet they represent (assuredly not through choice) a return to mankind’s most primal instincts as hunter-gatherers; the arrival of a loaded rubbish truck brings forth the dumpdwellers of Mombasa to rummage for anything that might help them survive, just as many thousands of years ago tribes would have found a use for every part of a slain animal. This is their hope for a future. photography: timothy Allen, BBC 2010

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Credit

What Liam Neeson learned in his youth as a boxer he’s now channelling into his roles as an action star

action

Fight Club Captain No one saw it coming: Liam Neeson, the guy from Schindler’s List, Michael Collins and Love Actually, becoming Hollywood’s newest senior action man. The star of Unknown explains how and why he got tough

Photography: Picturelux/interTOPICS

Words: Christian Aust

red bulletin: How can you play an action hero in a movie when you’re knocking on 60? liam neeson: Believe me, no one can be more surprised about that than I am. Action is a genre that I didn’t really have my foot in the door of in Hollywood when I was in my mid-30s.

Back then there was Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all those guys. And there wasn’t really any reason for me to attempt to make my mark in that field. Not to mention the fact that nobody was offering me that kind of role. The late change in my career came in 2008 with the success of Taken, a French action thriller produced by Luc Besson. The film was then marketed very successfully in the US and all of a sudden I discovered I was an action

hero. The reaction has been incredible.

Who’d have believed it?

You’ve founded a new genre: action hero with depth…

Thank you very much! That’s the nicest compliment I’ve been paid in quite a long time. I hope that I really can pull off that balancing act.

Maybe this is your earlier career as an amateur boxer finally paying off?

I think it is. I’ve started feeling that everything in life happens for a specific reason. Back then, I actually dreamed of a life in the sport. I was a passionate boxer for six or seven years. I really applied myself, which is why I knew what a fight looked like but producers didn’t. And then they started thinking, ‘Oh, this guy knows how to hit properly.’

And then I suddenly started getting all

these action scripts. I’m enjoying it enormously anyway. I feel like a kid who’s accidentally been locked up in a toy shop for the night.

What was your toughest fight?

The one that made me think for the first time that it’d be better to give up boxing. I suffered a minor brain trauma in this one fight when I was 16. But ultimately I’ve been able to put that injury to good use in preparation for my role as the professor who’s lost his memory in Unknown. I was certifiably insane for about five minutes after that fight. I was trapped in a parallel universe and couldn’t understand what the people around me were saying, I could just see their lips moving. I was staring at my hands and thought that they were part of a different body. I couldn’t remember 49

Action

anything afterwards. But remember that this happened in 1960s Northern Ireland. No one there had ever heard about brain traumas back then. I’d even won the fight. I was just sent home afterwards. I felt like an alien who’d suddenly ended up in a human body. But afterwards I thought, ‘You’re not letting that happen to you again.

You’ve got to give up boxing.’

Do you still train?

I’ve never stopped. I’ve always tried to keep fit and I go to the gym regularly.

I often work 15 hours a day when we’re shooting and I don’t think I’d cope with that kind of workload if I wasn’t fit.

Training has become part of my daily routine. I always say, ‘Be a good friend to your heart. Don’t eat rubbish and 50

don’t overdo the alcohol. Your heart is “ I’ll Never your best friend at the end of the day.’

Surely you pull the gloves on every once forget in a while, just to get the feel of them?

I still train with the punch bag, but meeting I don’t get in the ring any more. you could still look after yourself Muhammad But if you had to, couldn’t you?

With my fists, you mean? Definitely.

Ali. All It’s another question when it comes to guns. I’ve been going through intensive I could do weapon training of late for my films. I’m scared of guns. I don’t know was Splutter, actually what it is, they just give me the creeps. see you as something ‘i love you’ ” Aoflota sexof women symbol. That must flatter your ego, mustn’t it?

Me? A sex symbol? Come on! Are you trying to make me laugh? I’m an old

Photography: Corbis, Warner Bros

Schindler’s List: Liam Neeson (right) with Ralph Fiennes (left), Ben Kingsley and director Steven Spielberg

Boxing, Guinness, stage and stardom Liam Neeson was born William John Neeson in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, in 1952. He was a Northern Ireland boxing champion in his youth, which left him with a broken nose and a striking profile. After studying physics and computer science at and theatre at Queen’s University Belfast, he worked as a forklift operator at the Guinness brewery. He then ventured onto the stage in Belfast and Dublin, and then moved into film. After supporting roles in films such as Excalibur (1981), The Bounty (1984) and The Mission (1986), he stepped up to the lead in Next Of Kin (1989) and Darkman (1990). His big break came in 1993, playing Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List; it brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Neeson’s latest film is action thriller Unknown, co-starring Diane Kruger and January Jones.

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guy who farts in bed at night. I definitely wouldn’t be much good as a sex symbol.

How do your two sons [Michael, 15, and Daniel, 14] react to having a much cooler father all of a sudden?

They joke about it with me a bit, but I get the impression they find it a lot of fun too. A couple of days ago I called one of them while he was at school. He was with a couple of friends during break time, and he said, ‘Oh, Dad, can you do your monologue from Taken, the one where you threaten the bad guys with all those sick reprisals?’ I did it as well as I could for a young audience, and I could hear everyone going wild in the background. My sons are proud to have a cool dad all of a sudden. It’s good that they don’t take me too seriously.

Who from your world do you find cool?

Oh, there are a few people. I will never forget meeting Muhammad Ali in 1980.

My knees were shaking I was so excited.

He came up to me and shook my hand.

I was thinking in a panic, ‘You’ve got to say something to him because you’ll probably never meet him again.’ But I couldn’t think of anything! And as he took my hand in his, all I could do was splutter, ‘I love you, Muhammad…’ [Laughs.]

How did he react?

He hugged me. I know it sounds silly, but I really meant it. He’s my hero.

In your recent films there have been a lot of car chases. What sort of driver are you off-screen?

I’d be very bad in a real car chase. I can only go a maximum of 55mph in New York State, so I never go faster than 54.

[Laughs.] I’m no speeder. My kids make fun of me, but what can you do? I’m really too scared to drive fast. When we were shooting Unknown, a crazy French stuntman was haring around Berlin with me in the car and I thought, ‘Damn, tonight you’re going to die.’

You spent time in Berlin shooting Unknown. How does someone from Northern Ireland make friends with the German capital?

I hope I became a bit of a Berliner during that time. I love the city. I’d already made one film in Berlin [Shining Through] with Michael Douglas and Melanie Griffith.

That was only a couple of months after the wall came down. We mostly shot in Potsdam back then. It was incredible.

I was staying at the Kempinski Hotel in West Berlin and was driven to Potsdam every morning. It was a journey back in time. This time I liked all the vitality and potential that the city has. It’s really bright and vibrant. There are great restaurants, museums and galleries. I’d

the fact that I’ve always had a feeling

“ after I finish that my run of good luck won’t last I want to try and earn enough a film I think, forever. money while I’m given the chance to settle my accounts and finance my ‘that was children’s education, because I think these roles are going to dry up at some the last point. After I finish every film I think, was the last job. I should look job. I should ‘That for another one straight away.’

You’ve been a boxer, a forklift look for operator, a long-distance lorry driver and an architect’s assistant. What another’ ” would have become of you if you get up every morning in anticipation of discovering a new bit of Berlin.

Can Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg compete with Hollywood?

Of course. Our crew was unrivalled and they’re the oldest film studios in the world. Marlene Dietrich filmed there!

That fact alone I found really inspiring, and it really touched me. It was a very emotional time for me – I’d just finished The A-Team and had spent Christmas with my children and then flew straight to Berlin after the New Year. I felt tired, depleted. But in all seriousness, Berlin recharged my batteries and put me right.

You’ve been through some hard times.

[Neeson’s wife, Natasha Richardson, died after a skiing accident in 2009.]

Can work be a crutch when fate deals you a blow?

Yes, work gives your life structure when you lose your way. It’s why I’ve deliberately worked a lot in recent times. Plus there’s

Liam Neeson plays a scientist who wakes from a coma to find his identity has been stolen

hadn’t discovered acting?

I actually ask myself that question quite a lot, even though I got involved in amateur dramatics after work very early on. But what would have happened if things hadn’t worked out with acting?

I think I’d have become a tradesman of some sort, probably a carpenter, stonemason or bricklayer, because I like working with my hands.

Do you ever have the time to satisfy that particular passion?

Not as often as I’d like to. But I really like gardening, and I go fly-fishing whenever I have the time. I even make my own flies. Those are my hobbies.

And I’ve rediscovered sex. [Laughs.]

Is shooting for your next film going to be less action and more easy-going?

Not really. I’m shooting again right now in Canada, with all the physical exertion that the film requires [survival thriller The Grey, with The A-Team director Joe Carnahan]. There’s a lot of snow, ice and action where I get attacked by wolves. I hurt my back somehow during one of the fight scenes: I was leaping onto the tail of a plane that was about to crash… After that happened, my doctor gave me strict instructions not to fly to Berlin for the film festival. I was disappointed because I love the city.

What kind of turn do you see your career taking when you’re too old to beat up gangsters?

I’d love to work with an auteur like Pedro Almodóvar, or one of those really cool French directors. It would be great to work with Werner Herzog too. And it would be wonderful to really be able to let go in front of the camera without having to worry whether the film is going to be a success according to Hollywood criteria. I’d like to do a crazy film with some mad, inspiring director. Forget all those Hollywood rules! I’d just like to be present in front of the camera to create a real moment. That’s my goal.

Unknown is out now. Watch the trailer here: unknownmovie.warnerbros.com

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Down on the Farm

A sheep and cattle farm in Southland is the unlikely location for a celebration of two-wheel trickery Words: Robert Tighe Photography: Graeme Murray

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MTBer Elmo Cotter wows the crowds with his powers of levitation

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arm Jam shouldn’t work.

It takes place miles from anywhere in the middle of nowhere; it’s a two-hour drive from Queenstown and then 17km off the main road that ends in Invercargill.

Then there’s the fact that the event brings together mountain biking, BMX and freestyle motocross, three very different disciplines, in a format that’s rarely been tried before. And get this – nobody cares who wins.

“Farm Jam is for the riders,” says Kiwi freestyle motocrosser, Levi Sherwood.

“There’s no stress. If you don’t ride well, so be it. We all still have a good time and it’s somewhere unique.”

First held in 2007, Farm Jam has been described as, ‘one part X Games, one part Woodstock, three parts Kiwi’. Make that 54

Around 2,000 fans headed down to Farm Jam

three parts Frew. The Frew brothers, Kris, 35, Dan, 31, and Brett, 33, grew up on the family farm. It is almost 2,500 acres of flat paddocks and native bush, on which 5,000 sheep and 150 cows are farmed.

There’s trout in the river and deer in the hills. This place was their playground when they were younger – and still is.

What started out as the Southern Freeriders informal AGM – an excuse for local bike enthusiasts and friends of the Frews to jump a few jumps and sink a few cold ones – is now New Zealand’s premier two-wheel freestyle event. Farm Jam now attracts attention from overseas, too. For the 2011 event, held last month, 15 riders from Australia and the USA made the trek to the Frews’ farm.

Riding around this place on bikes is in a Frew fella’s blood. When they were kids, the brothers would get up early and head for the hills before school. Kris would drive their old Yamaha MX 80, with Brett behind him and Dan perched

on the tank. Their mission: to check the farm’s 100-odd possum traps.

Most mornings they’d find four or five possums, and with the pelts selling for up to $10 each it was worth going to school stinking of possum. With the money they saved from this and from selling wool, the boys went shopping at their local bike shop.

Dan got into motocross. Brett preferred BMX and mountain biking.

But Kris didn’t feel the need for speed as much as his brothers. He’s still involved, providing technical support for Farm Jam, while Dan takes care of FMX (freestyle motocross) and Brett is responsible for the BMX and MTB (mountain bike).

The younger brothers’ immersion into their chosen sports was helped when, in the mid-’90s, the boys earmarked a small plot of land with natural contours, and started to build.

“We built some crappy jumps and they gradually got bigger and better,” says

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From top: The Frew crew (l-r) are Dan, Kris and Brett; Farm Jam has no rules on wheel size, all are respected; friends Wayne, Andy, Rabb and Blair help set up the grandstand seating with hay bales

“Farm Jam is for the riders.

There’s no stress. If you don’t ride well, so be it” 55

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Clockwise from above: FMX stars Nick Franklin (left) and Levi Sherwood; Dan Frew puts up a schedule for the riders; a helpful Farm road sign; Tim Watson turns the corner at the bottom of the freestyle course

“The Frew brothers put a lot of effort into the course… it’s cool to come wreck it”

Aussie FMXers Rhys Hillier and Joe Sheppard

Dan. “We didn’t truck any soil in. We just moved it around. We harvested the dirt.”

Thousands of man hours shaping the dirt and riding the jumps paid off, with Dan securing a professional ride for the Crusty Demons team from 2004-06.

Brett was a nationally ranked BMXer who travelled the world with his bike and his chef qualifications. He spent 10 years living in Queenstown until he moved back to the farm last year. Kris lives in Queenstown, but comes home for Farm Jam, while Dan has been back on the farm for seven years, and for him the success of Farm Jam has been unexpected.

“We’d get bored if it was just farming,” he says. “But we really didn’t think it would get this big, not after only four years.”

At this year’s Farm Jam there were 13 FMX riders, 20 BMXers and 20 MTB contestants. The first event was a pit bike race for local hoons, followed by the freestyle motocross competition.

For over two hours, some of the best

freestylers in the world did their thing on a flowing, cruisy course: a series of 50-80ft jumps linked by berms and a 150ft flat-out, step-up jump from one side of a ridge to another. The Frews have shifted tonnes of dirt to create the track, but compared to the portable ramps and landings at many FMX events, this is as close to a natural FMX course as it gets.

“Dan and I never liked those portable ramps and landings,” says Brett. “That’s not FMX, that’s lame. You need to know how to ride our dirt jumps before you throw your arms and legs all over the place. We challenge the guys to ride the course first and then make it look cool.”

The riders come out three at a time for a seven-minute jam. Each rider can watch all of the others. This is important: this is a self-regulating system. The riders are the judges, casting votes for top fives, which are counted up at the end.

First into the track are the all-star cast of Levi Sherwood, Nick Franklin and

Josh Sheehan. For the second year in a row, Franklin hits the dirt early. Last year his bike bogged in practice and he broke five bones: three in his wrist and two in his elbow. This year it bogged halfway up a ramp on his second run as he set up for a flip. A bike is bogged when the fuel supply to the engine accidentally shuts off. It can last for only a fraction of a second, but when it happens on a ramp, it’s always bad news. This time Franklin’s lucky. Apart from losing a meaty chunk of elbow, and a few grazes, he’s in good shape and good spirits.

“It’s still been a great day,” says Franklin. “The Frew brothers put a lot of effort into the course and it’s cool to come wreck it for them. No one takes it too seriously. At a competition you can see the nerves, but here everybody is pumped for each other.”

The rider the 2,000-strong crowd is most pumped to see is Levi Sherwood.

The 19-year-old is still walking with 57

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Clockwise from top left: BMXer Anthony Napolitan (in Red Bull cap) at the barbecue with (left to right) BMXer Jaden Leeming, Brett Frew and Unit rider Jed Mildon chat; Raglan’s Lewis Jones performs his MTB tricks – a 360 X-Up in the step-up

“It’s about promoting the sport and having a bloody good time”

Dane Searls does a moto whip on the big dirt line

a limp after he broke his femur last year and he’s also having issues with his bike. He manages a couple of runs before calling it quits.

“I’d rather go home in one piece.

There’s so much stuff I want to do here, but I have to tell myself, ‘Don’t do it, man.’ It sucks but I don’t want to push it and end up in hospital at the start of a new season.”

With the top two New Zealand riders out of the competition, Australia’s Josh Sheehan is the unanimous winner, pulling off some mad whips and flips as well as nailing a 360.

As the FMX jam finishes, the BMXers and MTBers drop into line at the start of two downhill courses. Looking from above, down the hill, the larger course on the left is a series of jumps, while the one on the right is shorter, more flowy and trail-like, with a trick-booter to finish. Each set of riders tackles both

courses. As the riders launch themselves into the air, the hills and trees provide a dramatic backdrop for the crowd gathered on the ridge overlooking the two courses.

Red Bull MTB rider Kelly McGarry broke his collarbone only four weeks before Farm Jam, but his performance is outstanding. His day ends with a blowout on his last run, the noise of his exploding back tyre causing many in the crowd to spill their Speights.

Invercargill rider Conor Macfarlane, a crowd favourite, lands two huge front flips before making the mistake of trying the same trick off the 10ft drop-in.

“I went a little too slow, cased it, and caught the top of the landing,” says Macfarlane. “Another pedal or two and I would have had it, but I’m superstoked.” This despite the fact that he’s just dislocated his left shoulder. He’s a tough nut, though; he’s dislocated his right shoulder four times, so this fifth

pop-out isn’t so much of a big deal.

If you’re squeamish, look away now.

“It’s popped back in now,” says Conor, rubbing his newly righted joint. “My mum wanted me to go to hospital, but it’s going to be a fun night at the farm.”

Farm Jam is as much about the afterparty as the podium. During the event, many riders and fans camped by the river, where the bonfire burns and the beer flows. During a lull, cash prizes are given to the winners – Macfarlane won a second consecutive MTB title; Paul Langlands was voted best on a BMX – but it’s very much a token prize.

“Riders don’t come here to get rich,” says Dan. “It’s about promoting the industry and the sport and having a bloody good time. We’ve made enough to pay our bills and do it again next year.

That’s all that matters to us.”

To check out more of the Farm Jam action, visit www.unitriders.com

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RUN FOR YOUR LIFE To be an Ethiopian longdistance runner is to be more than an aspiring – or often world-class – athlete. It is to run for the very soul of your country and to uphold its proud traditions while striding for a brighter future Words: Tobias Haberl Photography: Olaf Unverzart

the dawn par ade

Rise early in Addis Ababa and you’ll find hordes of Ethiopian running hopefuls pounding the city’s streets

Meskel Square, Addis Ababa

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Haile gebrselassie

Approaching 40 and still hopeful of a sub two-hour marathon time

“ I know a lot of young athletes who will not reach the top, but I’d never advise them to give up” 62

ou’ve got to get up early in the morning if you want to understand Ethiopia. If you want to experience the will and elegance of its people, you need to be out and about by sunrise, preferably wrapped up warm. It’s cold in Addis Ababa between four and five in the morning; the city is 2,400m above sea level. The streets are grey and empty. A muezzin makes the call to prayer. Every now and then a taxi rattles past. A couple of street lamps are on, but Ethiopia can’t afford to light its streets properly at night.

But the people glow. One after another they appear out of the dark.

Yellow, red and green specks. A sea of luminous colours. T-shirts, jerseys, tracksuit bottoms. It’s only when they come up close that you can see their determined eyes. Some leave a T-shirt to change into by one of the cedar trees.

Some simply start running. Some are barefoot. Like animals, silent and tireless, they run through the city. They run towards Meskel Square, past the Hilton Hotel and the Prime Minister’s office. They run north on the city highway. They run for an hour or two at a time, mile after mile, morning after morning, until the sun comes up and the blue taxis reclaim the dusty roads.

In Europe and the US, people jog or toil on treadmills or drag themselves around a park; they sweat, they stay fit, feel good about their bodies and then get a coffee to go before firing up their computer at the office. When people are doing sport in New York or Berlin, they seem free and easy. The rest of the time they’re stressed and concentrating. In Addis Ababa it’s the other way around.

Running here is serious. The rest is all play, idleness, boredom. Thousands of young men and women run every morning in Addis. Then they go home and chill out before running again in the evening. Their country is one of the poorest on Earth. Almost half the people are unemployed. The average Ethiopian dies before the age of 50. So running in

Ethiopia is more than just a distraction and more than just a sport. It’s a sort of unpaid job, but also an opportunity.

People are actually trying to run away from their destiny. And they know it’s possible. Haile Gebrselassie showed them how, which is why they worship him.

Haile Gebrselassie arrives back at 10am. He has been training in Sululta, the eucalyptus forest in the north of the city. It’s the ideal setting, with soft, mossy ground and fresh mountain air.

His Mercedes is parked down on the street while he sits in a cream leather armchair on the eighth floor of his office block. The building belongs to him. He owns another a few hundred metres away. He’s still in his black tracksuit and running shoes. He is slight: 1.64m tall and weighs 56kg. His face is wrinkled.

If he was wearing a suit, he’d look like a boy at a religious ceremony who hadn’t got enough sleep. On a shelf behind his desk there are books about management and corporate governance. Every day of his life is divided into three parts: training in the morning, daytime in the office and then training in the evening.

“I used to sleep between training sessions,” he explains. “But I can’t do that any more.”

His property company, Haile & Alem International, employs 400 people.

Gebrselassie has become quite the man of the world. He asks if anyone would like something to drink. He goes to his desk. Makes a quick phone call, and two minutes later a secretary serves us freshly squeezed mango juice.

Gebrselassie is one of the world’s most successful athletes. He dominated the 5,000 and 10,000m for years, winning Olympic gold twice and four world championships, setting 27 world records in the process. These days he runs marathons, as he no longer has the strength for shorter distances.

An Ethiopian magazine has just run a story about him at home. Gebrselassie

Ethiopia’s capital is shrouded in smog after sunrise

and his family live in a villa with a pool.

He employs two cooks, two housekeepers and two bodyguards. He collects art and antiques. In April of this year he’ll turn 38. In Ethiopia he’s a sort of Franz Beckenbauer for running. The perfect role model: a farmer’s son from Bekoji who first became an athlete and then a businessman. Many Ethiopians think he could become the next president.

“Me? President?” he laughs. “I’d like to do a bit more running first,” he says.

Gebrselassie still holds the world record for the marathon at 2:03.59, set in 2008 in Berlin, beating his previous world record of 2:04.26, which was set at the same marathon one year earlier.

Even though he too gets a year older once every 12 months like us lesser mortals, he still seems to think that a time of under two hours is possible.

He couldn’t finish last year’s New York marathon because of injury and then announced that his running career was over. But a week later he retracted

the statement. And now Gebrselassie will be on the starters’ line-up for the 2011 Tokyo Marathon.

Yet Gebrselassie chiefly talks and thinks about things beyond sport, beyond the finishing line now. In that way too he’s like Beckenbauer, who eventually swapped the dressing room for VIP seats and helicopters. Gebrselassie knows that he has a responsibility. He knows that it’s easier to solve problems when they are addressed by someone people know. Sport and politics are overlapping more and more, and people like Gebrselassie, who can think in a diplomatic way, are becoming more and more important.

Ethiopia really only has two ways of attracting international attention: when millions of people starve – as they did when a catastrophic drought hit in 1984 – and when its athletes bring home medals. Athletes like Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Sileshi Sihine, Tsegaye Kebede, Gete Wami and Aselefech

Mergia give their fellow countrymen a raison d’être. It’s as if their medals are a bridge into the world’s consciousness.

It shows young Ethiopians the importance of a will of iron and how vital it is to keep on running, even when your feet hurt and you want to cry, such as in 2005, when Kenenisa Bekele broke his own 10,000m world record just weeks after his 17-year-old girlfriend died from heart failure while out training with him.

But there is a second Haile Gebrselassie in this city. He is 18 years old. He looks at you shyly. Like the Olympic champion, he too has a small moustache. When someone asks him his name he says, “I’m called Haile, Haile Gebrselassie, just like the champion,” and his voice brims with pride. He and his father and five siblings live in a tin shack in the north-west of the city near the Merkato, the largest open-air market in Africa. The streets here are winding and there are rocks and potholes all over the place. It’s a hurly-burly of donkeys 63

Even when haille is running now, he still holds his right arm as if he’s carrying his school bag

Wami Bir atu, 92, the first legend of Ethiopian running

Abebe Bikila’s name was written into the history books after he became the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal in 1960, but at the time Biratu was Ethiopia’s hero with national records at 5,000m and 10,000m

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With just one all-weather track in Ethiopia, athletes are forced to train wherever they can

and oxen, beggars, street children and cripples who drag themselves through the dusty streets with tattered plastic sandals on their hands.

He is just one of thousands of hopeful athletes who proudly speak of their best times whenever they meet a white man.

They can scent a useful contact, as a white man means sponsors, money and a future. Haile trains in Addis twice daily and usually only has his first meal of injera – Ethiopian flat bread – in the evening. His speciality is the 3,000m steeplechase. His personal best is 8:52; the world record, which was set in 2004, is 7:53. Haile trains alone, without guidance, without hurdles. The only place with hurdles is the stadium, but only members of the national squad can train there. A couple of times he’s managed to sneak past the guards into the stadium at night, but it was so dark that he kept falling over and one time he injured his leg. Now he’s training on the roads and in the forest again. There are hyenas in the forest, but they’re more afraid of him than he is of them. He’ll often walk for miles to get to the place

where he wants to train. He knows how important it is to train at altitude.

There is only one all-weather track in Ethiopia. That’s one track for 82 million people. One track for the world’s most successful long-distance running nation.

A woman crushes garlic in a wooden pestle by a hole in the adobe wall. She’s his aunt, Haile explains; his mother died a couple of years ago. There’s no shower inside, just a bowl for water. There’s no kitchen either, just a couple of sacks with grain and somewhere to sit. All in all, it’s 30m 2 for six people. A wooden ladder leads to a small bedroom. Haile has to bend down not to hit his head. He shares a bed with his four brothers. Next to the bed on a wooden ledge lies everything he owns: a pair of trousers, three T-shirts, a pair of sandals, a pair of New Balance running shoes and three books. The most important of them is an English to Amharic dictionary. He studies it when he’s in bed. He also tries to teach his younger brothers some words from it.

Haile has still never left Addis, has still never seen a film, has still never

kissed a girl. “I only want to have a girlfriend when I’ve achieved something,” he explains. “Until then, I want to concentrate on running.”

He knows the life story of his namesake and idol, the man who whizzes around between his villa and his two office blocks on the other side of the city.

Gebrselassie’s life motivates him and drives him on, but also daunts him. It could be dangerous to emulate such a life.

But for now there are the hopes and the enthusiasm and the incredible willpower that seems to be an innate characteristic in everyone here.

“I run fast; I improve; I am eager to win.” Those are the phrases young Haile repeats over and over. They’re the phrases everyone here says. And the phrases are true enough, except that most of these people will never stand on a podium and hear their national anthem play. Yet they all believe so firmly in their dream that they don’t even entertain the possibility that it might not happen.

They try to get into one of the clubs or to draw attention to themselves at regional championships. They don’t go to school 65

“ I only want to have a girlfriend when I’ve achieved something”

Haile Gebrselassie

This 18-year-old is determined to follow in the footsteps of his legendary namesake

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or to work. They don’t even look for work. They run, they pray, they sleep.

Many people come to Addis from the mountains. They leave their families behind in the village and promise that they’ll come back rich and famous.

Their parents sit at home and also pray, sending letters to the capital, enclosing a bit of millet, tea or grain.

At some point between the ages of 20 and 25, most realise that they haven’t got what it takes. Their times are good, but not good enough. None of the agents have appeared, and neither has the money. So what happens then?

“You’ve got to give them free rein,” Gebrselassie the champion explains.

“I know a lot of young athletes who will not reach the top, but I’d never

advise them to give up. Give up?

You can’t give up in sport.”

They should learn how to help themselves, too. They shouldn’t just run. They should also work or study.

“I practise what I preach. My children won’t be successful runners,” says Gebrselassie. “They don’t walk one metre.

They even get driven to school.” Anyone who wants to become a great runner needs to be “obsessed with the sport”, he advises.

As a boy, he would run the 10km from Bekoji to Asela to get to school – exactly the distance at which he was later unbeatable for years. Even when he’s running now, he still holds his right arm as if he’s carrying his school bag.

Young Haile knows that he needs something to fall back on. He goes to

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“ Ethiopians always want to win. they don’t want to get beat. it’s because of our history” evening classes daily. Once he finishes he’ll be qualified to teach sport. The school costs £60 a month. His relatives throw in some money and somehow they always manage to scrape enough together. And why does he torture himself every morning? Why does he often leave the house without breakfast to run 13 miles? He answers without hesitation: “Firstly, because I want to be famous. Secondly, because I want to earn a lot of money. Thirdly, because I want to help my family with money.”

There’s one thing he’s sure of: if you can’t help your own family, you can’t help your country. This is why he is trying to get into one of 30 clubs. He did get into one, having been approached and accepted after a cross-country race, but the club was a bad one and didn’t pay him a salary. The club members had to chip in themselves to pay for a trainer.

Haile left the club. If he was to join another, it would be the Police Club or the Mugher Sports Club, which pay their athletes between £30 and £60 a month.

The best athletes then form part of the national squad – 300 in all – and are the only people who get to train in the Abebe Bikila Stadium. Haile would do anything, and is doing all he can, to become one of them one day. He often makes his way to the stadium to try to catch a glimpse of one of his heroes in among the young kids cleaning businessmen’s shoes.

Much of Ethiopian runners’ success can be traced back to one man: Dr Woldemeskel Kostre, who has long supervised the training of the national team. He’s now over 60 but looks a lot older. Actually, he’s sort of ageless. He was involved in a serious car accident in 1999 and has walked with the aid of a stick ever since. A running coach who has to drag himself around the track and limps up the stadium steps, Kostre has an artificial hip. He moves a bit like a tortoise. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics he accepted an offer to go to work in Qatar, but for a number of years before that he had trained the best long-distance runners in the world

Dr Woldemeskel kostre

The inspirational coach behind many of Ethiopia’s most successful long-distance runners on cast-iron principles. Every Ethiopian champion was taught by him. His authoritarian teaching method is based on two words: discipline and respect.

Two words he constantly repeats and which he drums into his runners from the first second he meets them.

“Athletes and soldiers need discipline and respect,” he says. “Respect for their fellow man, respect for the coach, respect for the country, respect for the government. Too much democracy only spoils the athletes,” he explains.

“Democracy begets idleness.”

The runners would do as he said because they knew that he knew what was best for them. In 2007, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) voted him the world’s best coach. He has this explanation for where the strength of will that marks out his countrymen comes from: “Ethiopians always want to win,” he explains. “They don’t want to get beat. It’s because of our history.”

Ethiopia is the only country in Africa to have driven out its colonial masters – in this case the Italians. They dealt the Italians two devastating defeats without many weapons. The same miracle occurs on the running track. Ethiopians don’t race each other. They run for their country and for its good reputation.

Gebrselassie doesn’t race Kenenisa Bekele. They run against the clock, against temptation, against the comfort zone. It doesn’t matter how much money they’ve earned, the next time they want to be quicker, and the time after that they want to be quicker again.

There’s one man and one story that everyone in Ethiopia knows: Abebe Bikila, the first black African to win Olympic Gold, a feat he achieved in the marathon at the 1960 games in Rome.

Having only been added to the Ethiopian Olympic team as a last-minute replacement for the injured Wami Biratu, Bikila ended up with a pair of running shoes that didn’t fit properly. So a few hours before the start he decided to run barefoot, which is how he had always trained. Bikila went on to cross the finish line barefoot in a new world record time of 2:15.16. He is now a legend, an idol to both the young and the older Haile Gebrselassie. He is an idol for millions of Ethiopians who toil and suffer and who cover dozens of miles every day, hungry, thirsty, in tattered shoes and all for no medals, no reward and never hearing anyone say to them: “Well done. I’m proud of you.”

The 2011 London Marathon is on April 17.

For info visit www.virginlondonmarathon.com

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the whizzes of oz

Mark Webber is the third Australian to win an F1 grand prix; Daniel Ricciardo is a hot tip to become the fourth Words: Matt Youson Photography: Alan Mahon

Australia’s best racing drivers walk into the room and take up position on the couch. As always, the race overalls look highly incongruous away from a racing circuit. It’s Australia Day, albeit Australia Day in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, complete with slate-grey skies, drizzle and a raw 3°C. Nevertheless, too good an opportunity to miss, so Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo are in front of the cameras today. Both are doing their stereotypes proud. Ricciardo, 21, continues to wear the Cheshire Cat grin that’s been ever-present during 2010. The duties of Red Bull’s reserve driver haven’t given him much to do except attend briefings and soak up the experience over the course of last season, but he’s given the appearance of loving every minute. For the new Formula One season he will move down the pitlane to be test and reserve driver for Red Bull’s junior team, Toro Rosso.

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Webber, a veteran of 34 years, is more circumspect. Polite and relaxed, but never for one minute giving the impression that he wouldn’t rather be at home watching the cricket, or pounding around on one of his bikes. He’s happy to do the interview and pose under the lights if that’s the price for having the best job in the world.

Ricciardo just finds the whole thing very amusing. Admittedly, he’d probably be having more fun back home in Perth.

“I checked my friends’ Facebook pages this morning,” he says. “They’re in limos, going to beach parties and stuff. With hindsight I think I’d rather not know.”

“It’s not something we really celebrate over here,” adds Webber. “Though I might have a cheeky lemonade tonight.”

They’re relaxed sharing the space, something that’s not always the case with drivers. The accident of a matching passport doesn’t fully explain it and it would be overly dramatic to suggest there exists a common bond between men born thousands of miles apart in different decades, but there is a synchronicity to their careers and backgrounds. Like most motorsport tragics, they both trace their infatuation with single-seaters back to

the excitement of sitting watching all the F1 races in the small hours before dawn.

“It was a religion in my house,” says Webber. “We never missed a grand prix or the Indianapolis 500, though Dad would snore his way through most races.

I struggled a bit when the adverts, came on, but I usually managed to stay awake. I thought it was sensational.

“The first race I watched was Nigel Mansell crashing the Lotus up the hill in the rain at Monaco in 1984. I remember thinking, ‘How the hell can he do that?’

I’d have been eight or nine and I absolutely loved it. I’d record it, so I could watch it again with a bowl of ice cream when I got home from school. I used to bore my mates, dragging them with me to watch it. They’d rather be outside, and most of the time I would too, but motorsport was just my thing. It’s like Marmite isn’t it?

You either love it or you hate it. I loved it.

“I still think it’s funny that I’ve met some of those drivers. Mansell was writing me letters pretty much every race last year, which was amazing. Back then I was a fan of Alain Prost. At that age you pick up on what your Dad likes. Mine liked Prost, so I liked Prost too. I only became a big

aa Ck Tc I Oj N a

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fan of Ayrton Senna after he passed away.

I suppose that’s natural, in a way. You only realise what people stood for when they’re gone. Now, having worked with some of the people who worked with Senna, and having looked back at the things he did and the way he handled himself, you realise what an individual he was.

“I’ll never forget the night he was killed. I went to bed thinking it was just another crash, and then Mum came to wake me up in the morning and said he died. I thought, ‘Nah, he’s fine.’ It didn’t sink in. Then I watched the news, and the newsreaders, who didn’t usually talk about Formula One, were saying he didn’t make it. I was crying before school.”

“I wasn’t even five when it happened,” adds Daniel. “But I had the same experience; Mum told me on Monday morning. I think it had such a big effect because my Dad was a huge fan of his.

But most of those early memories of watching the races were fantastic. I didn’t have an alarm clock, but I was pretty good at waking up just before the race started, running into my parents’ bedroom and bouncing around until they put the TV on. The days I didn’t make it I’d record it, then I’d spend all day in school with my fingers in my ears to make sure no one told me the result. I’d watch every sport – if the lawn bowls was on I’d be on the sofa fascinated by it – but F1 was special.”

F

rom the sofa many are called, but few are chosen; even fewer of those come from Australia.

“Politically and financially it’s harder for us to make it to the highest level in motorsport,” says Webber.

“Obviously Jack Brabham [Australia’s knight-of-the-realm triple world champ, of the ’50s and ’60s] opened a few doors, and made it easier for the likes of Alan Jones [1980 world champion] to come through, but we definitely struggle. It isn’t like tennis or cricket; it isn’t the huge sport for us like it is elsewhere, and there aren’t the [single-seater] opportunities at home, so you have to leave. Motorsport is expensive, but motorsport on the other side of the world is even more so.

Financially, and to a certain extent emotionally, that’s tough.

“There are sponsors out there, but back when I was coming through, all the tobacco money went to South Americans, because you aren’t going to sell many fags in Australia. It’s the same with the car manufacturers: if it was me against a German for a drive then forget it.”

Webber did it the hard way, moving to England and scrambling through Formula 70

from a land down under Daniel Ricciardo moved to Europe at the tender age of 17. Initially he lived in Italy (despite speaking barely a word of the language).

He won the Formula Renault West European Cup in 2008 and moved to England and the British F3 Championship for 2009. Driving for Carlin Motorsport, Daniel took the title at his first attempt and was rewarded with a three-day F1 test for Red Bull Racing, during which he consistently topped the timesheets. For 2010 he moved up to the World Series by Renault (WSR) and took the championship to the wire before narrowly missing out at the final round.

He bounced back soon after with another timesheet-topping test for Red Bull Racing.

In 2011 Daniel will combine another year in WSR with Friday driving duties for Scuderia Toro Rosso. But before all that, we give him much sterner Australia Day-style challenge.

RB: Daniel, do you know all the verses of Waltzing Matilda?

DR: No I don’t, unfortunately.

RB: OK, not a problem. Could you maybe identify some of the things mentioned in the song.

DR: I’ll give it a go…

RB: What’s a Jumbuck?

DR: A what? A Jumbuck? Sorry I have no idea.

RB: OK, moving on, how about a Squatter?

DR: This is really bad isn’t it?

A kangaroo, maybe?

RB: Not usually. And finally, can you describe a Coolabah Tree?

DR: Is that one near water or something like that?

RB: Good enough. Well done, Daniel. Happy Australia Day.

Ford and Formula 3, existing on talent when money was scarce and always knowing if he didn’t win races, he’d be going home. Daniel’s experience under the wing of Red Bull sponsorship has been somewhat more cosseted, though he argues the mentality is really no different, “because there’s always the pressure of having Dr Marko [Dr Helmut Marko, head of the Red Bull Junior programme] breathing down your neck. And even before I had Red Bull sponsorship, it would be my dad, or sponsors from home trying to push me along,” says Ricciardo.

“Ultimately it doesn’t matter, though.

It isn’t important who’s watching you because you want to win for yourself.

The pleasure of driving and doing a good job was enough to keep me going.

Leaving home at 17 and travelling halfway around the world, it’s not easy – like Mark said, you’re homesick at first, but when you’ve been here a few months and you’re doing something you love, you forget about the things you miss.”

A natural replacement

Despite going to Toro Rosso for 2011, there’s a lot of talk about Ricciardo ultimately replacing Webber. Raising this subject is delicate, but Webber is a rare F1 driver in that he will meet the big questions head on. The flip-side of that is a tendency to throw the toys from the pram if he thinks the question is impolite or just dumb, and few things are more likely to rile drivers of a certain age than talk of retirement. Today, though, Mark is sanguine on the prospect of passing the torch. He stresses he isn’t going to ride off into the sunset any time soon, but like any pro, he avoids using the word ‘retirement’. To name it is to call it forth.

“I think it’s pretty obvious people would draw that conclusion,” says Webber. “I’ve probably been close to it a few times, but in the last couple of years the fire has been well and truly relit. And so long as my desire, my results and my motivation are good, I’ll continue. I love to see the work the guys do in the factory and being the one to take that out on track. I don’t take it for granted, I love competing and I enjoy the responsibility and being accountable to the team for a good performance. Race weekends are very enjoyable. Testing isn’t as exciting as it used to be, but I can’t wait to drive the new car. While I still feel like this then who knows how long it’ll be before I decide to… begin a new chapter.

“Having said that, I’ve been the only Australian racing over the last decade, so when a youngster comes along

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there’s going to be comparisons and a convenience to the theory that Daniel will slot in when I leave. Maybe that’s how it will happen, or maybe there will be an overlap of two or three years. Maybe he’ll be racing later on this year and we’ll be on the grid at the same time in 2011. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what people think. I don’t mind the speculation – I think it’s only normal.”

Toro Rosso

Rather than replacing the man who won four F1 races in 2010, of more immediate concern to Ricciardo is getting to grips with the Toro Rosso STR06. Moving down the pitlane to be test and reserve driver for Red Bull’s junior team is a case of one step backwards to take two steps forward: a smaller team, but the golden opportunity to drive a car in the practice sessions at each grand prix.

In another quirk of fate he will emerge from the garage with the same team that gave Mark a debut: Minardi then and Toro Rosso now. It’s still a little Italian outfit with a lot of heart and a place where Webber reckons Ricciardo can learn a lot in a short period of time.

“It’s a sensational opportunity for him, but he really deserves it,” says Webber.

“Obviously there’s the track time, but he’ll also have his eyes opened just by seeing how that team operates. Working with us [at Red Bull Racing] last year he saw a lot of how a winning team works, and now he’s going to get another perspective.

It’s absolutely the best of all worlds.”

All the practice sessions on bona fide grand prix circuits will be worth their weight in gold for Ricciardo. F1

simulators are excellent, but there’s no substitute for time on the Tarmac. The downside, if it can be called that, is that he will be driving someone else’s car.

“I don’t think being careful because it’s Sébastien [Buemi]’s or Jaime [Alguersuari]’s car will be in my head too much. I think Toro Rosso will want me to rag the shit out of it! At least hopefully that’s what they’ll want me to do. I’m not sure what I’m going to feel when I roll out for the first time at a grand prix. I know it hasn’t hit me yet, but it will. The fact it’s ‘just’ a Friday practice is irrelevant, it’s going to feel very real to me because I’ll be on track with all the guys I’ve watched race for the last 15 years. That’s going to be surreal, but as Mark says, it’ll be good preparation for the future.”

The third driver rules have been in and out for a few years and have operated under various constraints during that time. The one constant has been the race drivers’ unvarying opinion of the exercise: they hate giving up their car and they hate it even more when the guy with his hands on their kit is young, eager and lightning fast. If Ricciardo is quick – and his stellar testing pace suggests that very strongly – there’s going to be pressure for

‘There’s a convenience to the theory that daniel will slot in when I leave’

him to move up sooner rather than later.

Team Principal Franz Tost, a man who recognises a win-win situation when he sees one, says: “It’ll certainly keep them [Alguersuari and Buemi] on their toes.”

That’s the understatement of the year.

But Ricciardo is a little more reserved.

“I don’t see the need for there to be any tension,” he says. “As far as I’m concerned my job is to do the first practice and to drive to the best of my ability.”

It’s a polished answer; one might say a carefully rehearsed answer. But he needs to work on his honesty face. If you’re telling a whopper it’s best to not be laughing when doing it. Webber, of course, is the king of the deadpan, though at the moment he’s grinning. With nine seasons of F1 behind him, he knows a thing or two about the warfare bubbling under the surface of every garage.

W

ord comes through that England’s cricket team have beaten Australia in the One Day Series at the Adelaide Oval. As an Aussie in an environment dominated by Poms, Webber takes a lot of stick when Australia lose, and he isn’t averse to giving it back when they win.

But some say 10 years living in England has knocked off the edges, leading to some bloggers saying he’s gone soft – becoming anglicised in more ways than just talking about Marmite rather than Vegemite.

“Never. I’m still right behind any and every Australian team, no matter what the sport – and I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of amazing Australian sports men and women,” says Webber. “But you pick up a few things along the way, and what I’ve learned in the last 10 years is that just because we’re Australian doesn’t mean we’re always going to win.

“Other teams work hard, they apply themselves and they love to kick our arses. They do that because we’re good at cricket, we’re good at rugby, we’re good swimmers. I fly the flag for Australia and I’m very proud of what we achieve as a sporting nation. But maybe these days I’m more balanced in my opinions.”

“We’re a sporting country,” adds Ricciardo. “It’s in out nature to want to win. Obviously motor racing isn’t a big team sport, which means it doesn’t have the mass recognition at home, but the same rules still apply – we want to go out there and kick arse.”

In attitude at least, it’s very difficult to tell these two drivers apart.

Follow Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo’s 2011 seasons at www.redbullracing.com and www.scuderiatororosso.com

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photography: corbis

Die Antwoord: The Bigger Question

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Die Antwoord is fronted by Waddy Jones and Yo-Landi Vi$$er. Jones inhabits his ‘Ninja’ persona with such dedication that he refuses to allow anyone to refer to him as anything else

Controversial electronic/ hip-hop group Die Antwoord went viral and took South African music global. True or false? A little bit of both, actually. Before, during and after their rise to fame, other South African artists were making a noise, both at home and abroad Words: Bruno Morphet

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die antwoord

photography: ross garrett

own at the front of a Die Antwoord show, it’s like you’re waiting for someone to throw the first punch. The sense of foreboding is laced with adrenalin as the group’s front man, Ninja, stands sullen and silent, scowling at the crowd assembled in a Cape Town warehouse.

Front woman Yo-landi Vi$$er squeaks out the intro to Enter The Ninja, DJ Hi-Tek drops the bass, and Ninja comes alive: fists out, teeth bared, whipping up a riot.

His performance is relentless, impossible to ignore. Some poor guy takes his eye off the stage for a moment, and suddenly Ninja is nose to nose with him, barking orders through the mic, telling him that he should leave if he can’t handle it. Ninja will get into people’s faces if he has to.

The event is the launch of Die Antwoord’s single, Evil Boy. Both song and accompanying video were produced

by American electro maestro Diplo. It is October 2010, just nine months after the group went nova, thanks to the video for Enter The Ninja finding its way onto the hugely popular BoingBoing blog, and after that, pretty much everywhere else on the internet. The resulting wave of interest led to a world tour and a deal with the Interscope record label, home of Lady Gaga and Eminem. It also directed the world’s attention onto the wider South African music scene. And where many of those observers see overnight success, there is in reality something inevitable about all this.

For a long time, South Africa was a cultural dumping ground. In the aftermath of the boycott of the apartheid state, the country’s artists and creatives suffered from a deeply entrenched inferiority complex brought on by 30 years of geographical and cultural isolation. In music, local bands were

STYLE: Known as ‘zef-hop’, it’s like Vanilla Ice, only much scarier. This is heavy rave hip-hop with a lot of swearing. career: Known for his propensity to tear things down soon after building them up, Watkin Tudor Jones has stuck with Die Antwoord and achieved massive incendiary success. Listen to: Die Antwoord unleashed their belligerence last year with debut album, $O$. WEB: www.dieantwoord.com

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Die Interview Nothing is conventional about Die Antwoord. Conducted via email at his request, here is Ninja, in his own words Why do you think there is such a big buzz about South African electronic music now?

Probably because of Die Antwoord or something. Me and Yo-landi also got a buzz after we smoked a zol and went for a ride in a SAP helicopter last week. It was during dis secret project we doing wif Neill ‘Fokken’ Blomkamp, the D9 director. I got ‘D9’ tattooed inside my lower lip.

Are there any South African musicians right now that you’d like to work with in the future?

Ja I would work with Scallywag, Isaac Mutant, Jaak Paarl, Knoffel and Jack Parow again. I also shmaak Jitz Vinger.

Have you got a favourite Die Antwoord gig?

All our gigs are da same. We come, we see, we skop fokken gat.

How did your recent collaboration with American DJ and producer Diplo come about?

Diplo sent us a beat and asked us if we wanted to rap on it.

It sounded like a Kwaito beat, even though Diplo can’t even spell Kwaito or his own name. We thought da beat was real nasty, plus it mystikally fitted wif dis rap we was working on called Evil Boy. So everyfing worked out spif.

Who did you think was cool early on when you were starting to make your first raps?

N.W.A, Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, and Da Fresh Prince of Bel Air. In your book, you mention the many other rap groups you formed while you were smoking weed. Why so many? Were you bored?

I get bored when things are kak. If things are ace of bass, I never get bored.

Is it true that you have kicked some people in the face at your gigs?

No. I’ve never kicked someone in da face at a gig. I only kneed some dronk Scottish guy in da face in Glasgow after he threw a full beer can at DJ Hi-Tek’s face and cut his eye open. DJ Hi-Tek punched him in the face also. The Scottish people party fokken rof. We love dem, except dat one guy.

Yo-landi was the one who kicked some French guy in the face during a live show after he kept trying to grab her while she was rapping. She also hit him fokken hard on da head wif a Sure SM57 microphone which is a very tuff mic. But Yo-landi uses a AKG mic now cos it suits her voice better.

" DA BEAT was real NASTY, it FITTED WITH WHAT WE WAS WORKING ON" NINJA

not supported with any great enthusiasm and international acts only toured as a last resort. After liberation in 1994, South African musicians were given, slowly but surely, the opportunities available to their overseas peers.

After that international bands and DJs started visiting more often, the internet and social networking bridged the geographical gap, and homegrown artists and audiences became more confident in their own product. A burgeoning electronic scene sprang up in South Africa’s major cities, with artists and producers collaborating more freely.

Some even went on to achieve success overseas. The announcement of South Africa as the host of the FIFA World Cup, however, directed global attention on the country more than ever before.

Suddenly, journalists arrived in numbers to document the road to 2010 and artists found their music travelling much further than before. When District 9, the sci-fi movie set in a township outside of Johannesburg, took US$200m at the worldwide box office in 2009, it was clear that South African culture was ready, willing and able to make more big noise on the world stage. Enter the Ninja.

Die Antwoord (which translates to ‘The Answer’ in Afrikaans) is the latest in a long series of collaborative projects in which Ninja, aka Waddy Jones, has had a hand. This latest endeavour has been the 36-year-old’s most carefully orchestrated and successful, yet it is only one of many sonic catalysts that ignited the explosion of South African electronic music. (Die Antwoord stand poised to move beyond music with a film project currently being planned with Neil Blomkamp, the director of District 9.)

It’s important to know that the seeds for this ‘sudden success’ have been germinating for years among a nexus of South African talent, drawn together through collaborations, and propelled by a relentless drive for success that has seen the group leave behind allegiances and identities like so much obsolete studio equipment.

Inspired by the DJ sets of South African hip-hop pioneer Ready D, Simon Ringrose, aka Sibot, started spinning in small clubs in Cape Town in the late 1990s, and quickly became one of the city’s leading scratch DJs. A meeting with Waddy Jones in a Johannesburg club led to the formation of Max Normal, an electronic/hip-hop four-piece. The marketing savvy of Jones, then going under the stage name of Max Normal, and the band’s reputation for solid live 75

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" I got INVOLVED in sWEAT X for THE FAME RATHER THAN AS AN ARTISTIC PURSUIT" MARKUS WORMSTORM

Spoek Mathambo

MArkus WormSTORM STYLE: A classically trained hip-hop and techno-influenced musician, producer and DJ known for his atmospheric soundscapes. career: Has collaborated with Waddy Jones and Felix Laband. Was also involved with Real Estate Agents, Sweat X and Blackheart Gang. Listen to: Check out his Not I, But A Friend mix, a download from Wormstorm’s website. WEB: www.markuswormstorm.tv

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performance earned them spots at major festivals in South Africa and abroad, but just as interest in Max Normal peaked, Jones disbanded the group.

He and Sibot, however, stayed in touch and upon meeting producer Markus Wormstorm, started working on their Constructus Corporation project.

The creative nucleus of Jones, Sibot, Wormstorm and fellow producer Felix Laband, produced The Ziggurat, an ambitious concept album for the pioneering African Dope label, that came with an 88-page graphic novel. The scope of the project, and its escalating costs, proved to be the undoing of the

photography: morne van zyl (2), nico krijno (1)

STYLE: Mathambo’s progressive sound has been labelled everything from African-electro to new wave and rap. career: A self-styled Afro futurist, he gained prominence fronting SA electro-rap outfits Sweat X and Playdoe.

Listen to: His heavy Mshini Wam album features a Kwaito-style cover of Joy Division’s Control. WEB: www.spoekmathambo.com

band. Jones retreated into solo work, while Wormstorm and Sibot formed scratch ’n’ synth duo Real Estate Agents, becoming the darlings of Cape Town’s underground club scene thanks largely to their irreverent performances in elaborate costumes.

While touring South Africa with the Real Estate Agents, Wormstorm began a collaboration with Johannesburg rapper Spoek Mathambo, a contributor on Jones’ 2005 album, The Fantastic Kill. Wormstorm and Mathambo formed Sweat X in 2006, whose fusion of proto-rave, ghetto tech and local patois gained the attention of international booking agents, which resulted in gigs at clubs such as London’s Fabric on several tours of Europe.

“There’s no doubt I got involved in Sweat X for the fame rather than as an artistic pursuit, but I am proud of what we achieved in that time,” says Wormstorm. He is currently involved in The Blackheart Gang, a collective of animators and illustrators whose 2006 film, The Tale Of How, won a succession of international awards.

Mathambo is a creative force all of his own, but he also typifies the evolution of South African electronic music. Attending the same school as Sibot in Johannesburg, he was drawn into the scene at an early age. Dropping out of medical school to study advanced marketing was a logical step for someone looking to promote himself, and soon after, in 2006, when Mathambo was 22, Sweat X was formed. Not content with just the one collaboration, he teamed up with his school friend Sibot to form Playdoe, who, like Sweat X, played festivals as part of European tours.

Playdoe was a killer combo of Mathambo’s electrifying stage presence and Sibot’s deft scratching. They were signed to French label Jarring Effects in 2009.

“Playdoe brought me my biggest success to date,” says Sibot. “But at that stage, South African electro was also getting a lot of attention through stuff like DJ Mujava [Mujava’s electronica track Township Funk was released on legendary UK label Warp, home of Aphex Twin]. His Township record virtually spawned an entire sub-genre in the UK.” By 2010, Mathambo had gone solo and signed to the prestigious BBE label in London. He put together a full live band, and named his album, Mshini Wam, which translates to ‘my machine gun’, in reference to President Jacob Zuma’s much-loved political anthem.

“I wanted to move away from the whole ‘one guy on a mic, one guy on a laptop’ aesthetic that I’d toured with Playdoe

SIBOT STYLE: Difficult to pin down. Somewhere between electronic, hip-hop and Kwaitech. career: Max Normal, Constructus Corporation, The Real Estate Agents and Playdoe are all on Sibot’s CV. Has worked a lot with Waddy Jones and Markus Wormstorm.

Listen to: Sibot’s Super Evil Me mix on MySpace is a perfect example of his deeply eclectic sound. WEB: www.myspace.com/sibot

" PLAYDOE BROUGHT ME MY BIGGEST SUCCESS TO DATE" SIBOT 77

STYLE: Modern, deep Afro house blending African voice choirs and interpretations of Zulu Maskandi rhythms. career: Found success after being selected for the 2009 Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona. De Song was inspired by the African house spun by DJs Black Coffee and DJ Kabila. listen to: His first album, We Baba, is a hypnotic, lush affair.

WEB: www.myspace.com/culoedsong

" The internet changed everything.

I’m amazed that my music is well known when I travel" Culoe DE SONG

photography: morne van zyl

CULOE DE SONG

and Sweat X,” says Mathambo. “I wanted to create a big party atmosphere on stage like P-Funk had. George Clinton and those guys had literally 20 guys on stage, you can’t help but party with them.”

Mathambo recently returned from a tour of the United States and Europe, during which he was offered a deal by legendary Seattle label SubPop, one-time home of Nirvana. Even though Die Antwoord singled him and Wormstorm out in their 2009 diss track, Fish Paste, Mathambo regards Die Antwoord’s success as well-earned, but distinct from his own: “Their success hasn’t affected me much,” he says. “But they were the first to break that difficult US market.”

Eloise Jones, aka EJ von Lyrik, feels differently. “I think Die Antwoord makes great business sense,” she says. “But with that kind of power comes responsibility.”

Jones grew up in the Cape Flats community (south-east of Cape Town) from whose slang and cultural identity Waddy Jones (no relation) borrowed in the process of creating Die Antwoord. As a member of female rap group Godessa, EJ achieved recognition through the Rogue State Of Mind series of albums, as well as playing large European festivals such as Pukkelpop in Belgium. Now solo, she has two albums under her belt and toured Germany and France last year with her band. She also disagrees with the violent, hyper-sexualised ‘zef’ manifesto of Die Antwoord. Coming from the gang-infested streets of Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town, it’s easy to see why.

“I don’t see why a woman needs to flash her ass at the audience to get results,” she says. “I think Die Antwoord’s content is questionable, but I can appreciate the planning that’s got them to where they are.”

Hip-hop and electronic artists aren’t the only South Africans making their mark internationally. Largely unsung on taste-making blogs is the country’s deep house sound, made by producers such as Black Coffee and Culoe De Song, both alumni of the Red Bull Music Academy.

Coffee’s production career took off after securing a place at the 2003 Academy in Cape Town, while De Song’s big break came in 2008 when he attended the session in Barcelona. The latter’s lush sound captured the attention

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" I don’t see why A woman has to flash her ass at the audience to get results" EJ VON LYRIK

EJ VON LYRIK STYLE: Influenced by funk, rock and roots reggae, von Lyric’s message-orientated lyrics are concerned with social progression. career: First gained notable success with all-female hip-hop crew Godessa in 2000. As a solo artist, she performs with her band The Champions. Listen to: Showed her true lyrical brilliance on second solo album, The Human Condition. WEB: www.ejvonlyrik.com

of German label Innervisions, who released his tune, The Bright Forest in 2009. This led to a string of bookings on the European club circuit, where he remains in high demand.

“The internet and social networking changed everything for us,” says De Song, who is wise for his 21 years. “Producers and DJs who you previously never had access to could suddenly be reached, and collaborations were made easier. Selling music online became simpler and more producers could get their sound out to a wider audience than ever before. I’m always amazed when I travel to Italy, for instance, and my music is well known.”

Die Antwoord’s ‘year zero’ approach to their music has made it somewhat difficult to revisit the network of collaborative projects that form their history. Waddy Jones will not answer questions about anything before Die Antwoord, nor will he allow any of the material to be re-released. He inhabits the Ninja persona with such conviction that not even his friends and family are permitted to refer to him by any other name. Yet those he has collaborated with on the path to international recognition have made their own imprints on the world’s music market, and continue to achieve success in their own right, both because of, and in spite of, the unprecedented focus on Die Antwoord.

South Africa has been forced to play catch-up with the rest of the world in terms of cultural exports, but the pace with which its current roster of noted artists have succeeded shows that boundaries to competing on the world stage exist only in terms of desire and ambition – if you want it, you can get it.

As interest in South African music increases outside the country, so does the support for them from inside, making possible a second wave of producers and artists. Hip-hop acts such as Sedge Warbler and P.H. Fat play to capacity crowds at clubs in Cape Town and Johannesburg, while SA festivals no longer rely on big international names to draw crowds. As the local electronic and hip-hop music scene reaches a critical mass, its clear that not only is the product stronger, but that best is yet to come.

South Africa’s music industry can be found online at www.mio.co.za

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Contents 82 TRAVEL IDEAS Follow the 2011 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour 84 GET THE GEAR Wanna try Red Bull Crashed Ice? You’ll need this lot 86 TRAINING Top tips from the pros 87 THE STROKES Guitarist Nick Valensi on making their new album 88 BEST CLUBS The Wright Venue, Dublin, Ireland 89 TAKE 5 Jamie xx on his top five albums 90 BANDS TO WATCH Kids of 88 92 FOOD Chef’s secrets and a recipe to follow 94 THE LIST

Body+ Mind

photography: Daniel Grund/Red Bull contentpool

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Flippin’ amazing: NZ’s Levi Sherwood flies high at Red Bull X-Fighters in Madrid last year. This year’s visit to the Spanish capital marks the series’ 10th anniversary. Turn the page for tour dates

96 SAVE THE DATE 98 MIND’S EYE

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Up and away This month‘s travel tips

X = 10 years Red bull X-fighters world tour

Those Red Bull X-Fighters have been wowing crowds for a decade. The big anniversary party takes place in Madrid this summer, so we thought we’d give you some ideas to make your stay in the Spanish capital that bit better 82

The Red Bull X-Fighters competition at the Plaza de Toros de las Ventas in Madrid has been a highlight on the sporting calendar since 2002.

More than 23,000 bike-crazy fans – some armed with chainsaws and white handkerchiefs – guarantee a frenetic atmosphere at Spain’s largest bullfighting arena. The crazy freestyle motocross event turns 10 this year, making it an extra-special season, and this Madrid leg of the tour promises to be a unique occasion, as Spanish daredevil Dany Torres, last year’s winner Robbie Maddison and eight other bikers lock horns with reigning champion Nate Adams in a display of their breathtaking flights through the night sky. But step away from the arena and you’ll find the city has plenty of other attractions. www.redbullxfighters.com

Tour dates April 15 JBR Beach, Dubai, UAE May 28 Esplanada dos Ministérios, Brasilia, Brazil June 24 Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy July 15 Plaza de Toros de las Ventas, Madrid, Spain August 6 Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw, Poland September 17 Sydney, Australia

Words: ulrich corazza

A colourful, action-packed show and a deafening atmosphere at Madrid’s Plaza de Toros de las Ventas

top 10

Tips for your Red Bull X-Fighters trip to Madrid The Plaza de Toros de las Ventas arena is right next to Ventas metro station on lines two and five.

A single ticket costs €1 ($2). It’s only 30 minutes in a taxi from Madrid’s Barajas Airport in the north-east of the city to the arena and the journey isn’t expensive, but the traffic is terrible in rush hour. If you haven’t got much luggage, you could take a motorbike taxi to avoid the queues.

1

Regardless of where you sit in

3 the 23,000-capacity arena, your view will be unimpeded thanks to the steeply set stands. The best place to sit is right in the middle so that you’re swallowed up in the atmosphere. The Madrid fans are very enthusiastic and crazy about bikes. Some bring chainsaws (without blades) to the stadium which makes for quite a racket. Ear plugs are essential!

2 always been held over two days.

In recent years, the event has

4 in what is probably the most

If you really want to get involved

But this year it will take place on one day – July 15. You can buy tickets online at www.redbullxfighters.com and www.elcorteingles.es as well as at El Corte Inglés department stores throughout Spain. If you can’t get your hands on a ticket, you can still follow all the action on Red Bull Web TV.

colourful stop on the tour, you should dress up as a superhero or bullfighter.

But don’t put on too many clothes – the temperature in Madrid in July can reach a sweltering 40ºC. One tradition that’s been

5 borrowed from bullfighting is

If you want to stay right next to

If you want more action, you

6 the arena, check yourself into the

9 could take your (hired) bike

modern, four-star Rafael Hotel Ventas.

Its big talking point is a wonderful art collection. Then there’s the swanky four-star Zenit Abeba. It’s about 600m west of the Plaza de Toros in the pretty district of Salamanca. Prices for a double room including breakfast start at about €80 ($155) for the room.

for a spin at the Jarama Circuit (30km north of Madrid) or a little further north at El Molar Motocross Circuit, which is open every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 3pm.

You might meet one of the riders 7 at Los Timbales, on Calle Alcalá 227. This tapas bar is right next to the Plaza de Toros de las Ventas and has real ‘torero flair’. You should definitely try their speciality of Rabo de Toro – that’s oxtail to you and me.

If you’ve got time to hire a

8 motorbike for a day, you should

Ángel Nieto is a 13-time

10 motorcycle road-racing World Champion, so it’s little wonder he’s a hero in his homeland. If you want to know more about the life of a man who racked up 90 grand prix victories, then head over to the Museo Ángel Nieto. It can be found at: Avenida del Planetario 4. Opening hours in July: 9:30am to 3pm and 5:30pm to 8pm weekdays; 10:30am to 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

definitely ride along the open mountain roads from El Escorial to Avila. One of the places bikers like to stop for a snack is at the Bar Cruz Verde. Get your wheels from one of these hire services: www.motocircuito.net www.rentscooterspain.com www.imtbike.com

Photography: Predrag Vuckovic/red bull Content Pool (2), Jörg Mitter/red bull Content Pool (1). illustration: andreas posselt

spectators waving white handkerchiefs.

That’s how the public express their admiration for a torero, so it seems fitting that the crowd does the same for a fancy bike trick. The handkerchiefs, which are distributed free for the Red Bull X-Fighters competition, are a sought-after collector’s item. Make sure you grab one on the day.

Last year’s winner Robbie Maddison in action… And then celebrating

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TSG downhill helmet; Scott goggles Safer, better-looking and much more comfortable than an ice hockey helmet, plus downhill goggles with transparent lenses. Special Ice Cross Downhill helmets will soon be on the shelves.

CCM elbow pads It’s only natural to come into contact with the boards in our sport. Top-quality ice hockey pads are a must-have item.

Red Bull Crashed Ice bag Airlines frequently try to charge me $555 excess baggage fees for the bag, and it’s always a pain to get it down to $110.

Salming gloves These lightweight ice hockey gloves don’t just keep your hands warm; they’re protective, too, in case you fall over.

get the gear Pro kit

Crashed Ice socks My favourite pair of socks are from Red Bull Crashed Ice Lausanne in 2009.

Ice-cool all-rounder

claudio caluori The Swiss mountain

bike downhiller and World Cup team boss is a Red Bull Crashed Ice expert, impromptu cameraman and TV pundit.

This is his equipment for testing tracks at the fiercely contested downhill races

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Graf Ultra G-70 ice hockey boots Top Swiss skates.

The blades are interchangeable for different tracks and temperatures.

Biberli A Swiss pastry with an almond filling for something to eat on the road. The best thing to go with it?

An ice cold… Well, what did you expect?

CCM pants Heavily padded, good-quality ice hockey pants are a big must.

CCM shoulder pads A loan from the world of ice hockey. Pads are being developed that will also give spine protection.

Photography: jürgen skarwan

Knee and shin pads Another ice hockey loan. As we don’t have to block flying pucks, they can be a bit thinner in our sport.

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tuesday

MORNING 300 chin-ups, wearing a 16kg rucksack for the last 100

MORNING 12 sets for the back and stomach muscles using weights

10 sets of bench presses

AFTERNOON Paddle 10 × 2 min at 100 per cent; 1 min at average speed.

Then 20 sec at 100 per cent, and 10 sec taking it easy: repeat until end of 8km course

AFTERNOON Paddle (8km, level of difficulty: 5); keep pulse rate lower than in the morning Uphill sprint 3 × 450 steps

wednesday MORNING 300 chin-ups, wearing a 16kg rucksack for the last 100 10 sets of bench presses Friend Challenge To bring a bit of variety, a friend and I think up funny challenges, such as who can do 1,000 press-ups the quickest

thursday

friday

MORNING 12 sets for the back and stomach muscles using weights AFTERNOON Paddle 10 × 2 min at 100 per cent, 1 min at average speed.

Then 20 sec at 100 per cent, and 10 sec taking it easy: repeat until end of 8km course

AFTERNOON Paddle on flat water; 5 to 10 min warm-up, 5 min at 90 per cent, 1 min taking it easy, 5 min at 100 per cent, 1 min taking it easy, 4 × 2 min at 100 per cent, 20 sec taking it easy, 10 × 20 sec at 100 per cent, 10 sec taking it easy

MORNING 20 × 5 sets of chinups (five per set, ending up as high above the bar as possible). 100 chin-ups in total 10 sets of bench presses AFTERNOON Paddle the whole river at different intervals: 5 min at 100 per cent, 2 min taking it easy

saturday ALL DAY Crosstraining For a charity race for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, I had to do a kayak race, then a mountain bike race that went from 2,400m to 3,000m, and after that a 10km run with 900m of elevation gain, then we had to do a road bike race up the Vail Pass.

This sort of torture helps you push your limits. Plus it’s for a good cause

Train like the pros

Christian Schiester Extreme runner

Tao Berman The extreme

kayaker on his intensive competition training

If your job involves making your way down 10m waterfalls, it’s not a bad idea if your body can handle a few hits. “It wouldn’t work if I didn’t have a strong body,” Berman, 31, explains.

His training consists of gym in the morning and kayaking in the afternoon. And it’s important to be flexible. “I get bored quickly if I do long endurance training exercises, so I don’t run much,” he says. “That’s why I keep my training as short and as intense as possible, up to the point where I’m ready to puke.

When people tell me they don’t have the time to train, I say: ‘Do what I do.

You can get all the positive effects of training in 25 minutes.’”

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ALL DAY Sunday is normally a laid-back day when I do what I feel like. But if my friends and I are in the mood, things can get out of hand.

One time, someone bet us we wouldn’t be able to do 150km on our racing bikes.

We got home after 250km and a couple of serious mountains.

That sort of thing keeps you motivated

work out

success secrets from…

Fast & hard

sunday

1. Think short-term Think from checkpoint to checkpoint, milestone to milestone: 250km is too big to get your head around.

Partial successes motivate you and will urge you on.

3. Do your homework You can only be physically and mentally prepared to take it to the limit if you have an idea about what to expect. You can’t just blindly stumble into things.

2. No pain no gain You can’t fight pain. Accept it and learn to deal with it.

I once ran on with an open flesh wound in a 200km jungle race in the Amazon; it made me much stronger mentally. Long-term damage: none.

4. Stay flexible Things don’t always turn out how you expect, of that you can be sure. I was lost for hours during my first desert

race. But try not to be put off; think in terms of solutions, not problems. I ended up finishing that race third after being in 44th at one point.

5. Learn from things You learn something from every experience. Whether it’s the visual impressions, the culture or the pain, they all help you develop.

Photography: Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool (1), Ian Coble/Red Bull Content Pool (1), Jürgen Skarwan/Red Bull Content Pool (2)

Monday

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‘I was often all alone in the studio’

THE STROKES The new album Angles rivals their classic

debut but, guitarist Nick Valensi tells Piers Martin, recording it wasn’t an entirely harmonious affair

Photography: Pieter M Van Hattem/NME/IPC+ Syndication, Ryan mcGinley

When New York indie titans The Strokes shot to fame in 2001, they made rock ’n’ roll look easy. Millions of record sales and numerous solo projects later, the five-piece are back with Angles. This adventurous fourth album finds the band embracing different styles while staying true to their garage-rock sound. Although Nick Valensi reveals a fractured approach meant it was a long time in the making.

Why spend so long recording just 10 songs?

We started in January 2010. We were in a big, expensive studio [Avatar Studios in New York] for two and a half months. We spent a lot of money and recorded an album, but we kind of scrapped it and started over by ourselves. In future I’d like to make albums faster. I think that having a band that’s in the same room together would facilitate that.

What do you mean?

The process of making this record was more fragmented. Once the songs were written, our singer Julian [Casablancas] never showed up to the studio when we were recording. He was on tour doing his solo stuff a lot of the time. There were days when I would go into the studio by myself and

out now Essential listening

lay down guitar solos, then someone would come in and want to change something.

Nevertheless, you’ve moved out of your comfort zone: the song, Games, features synthesisers and a drum machine.

I think I was most comfortable working within the limitations of two guitars, bass, drums and vocal. There are some new sonic elements, which maybe I was resistant to at first.

I can stress out about how we’re going to do stuff live. Are we going to get a keyboard player? I don’t know if I want to be in that band.

So do your influences extend beyond Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground and these days?

Joy Division was a sonic reference, as well as a lot of ’80s stuff – we love The Cars.

Daft Punk was referenced too: not in terms of song writing, but more the sound of things.

Angles is out now on Rough Trade.

More info at www.thestrokes.com The Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi

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Natural born lady killer Cee lo Green Despite fears over his response, we quizzed the Grammy Award winnner

PArty the world over

Night cube-ing The Wright Venue, Dublin

It’s got the thrill of dancefloor mixed with the intimacy of a luxury members’ bar, but the club’s owners explain there’s even more to it When we started the club in July 2009 our idea was… …to create a combination of the best nightclubs from around the world. Taking inspiration from the likes of XS, Pacha and Tao. This form of nightlife experience has never been seen before in Ireland.

From outside the club looks like a… …gigantic flashing Rubik’s Cube, incorporating a multicoloured light show.

If we were to compare our interior to a movie it would be… …Studio 54 meets Moulin Rouge.

We usually get going… …from the minute the music kicks in. It’s a mystical world of glamour, theatrics and fun.

We consider the club packed if there are… …2,800 people partying the night away.

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If we had to define our regulars, they would be… …sexy, glamorous, fun-loving and FABOOSH, and with just as much love for music as us.

The craziest night was…

We’ve had many. Our most recent ultimate night was when Usher came to party with us. He arrived on Friday and didn’t leave until Sunday.

Or when Rihanna ended her European Tour at the club.

We should also mention our bathrooms because… …the men’s LED urinals flash to the beat of the music, the ladies find themselves looking into heart-shaped mirrors, and the sinks are held up by mannequin legs.

The best night spot nearby to buy something to soak up the alcohol is…

Pizzadog. Whether you’re a pizza or a hotdog lover, they’re the best in Ireland.

The Wright Venue South Quarter, Airside Retail Park, Swords, Co Dublin, Ireland Tel: +353 1 8900099 www.thewrightvenue.ie

1) Y our spring break song?

Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

2) Y our wild vacation?

Freaknik [spring break in Atlanta; now defunct].

3) Y our unusual music choice?

Nothing’s unusual.

4) Y our karaoke song?

Perfect Day by Lou Reed.

5) Y our 9-to-5?

Goodie Mob’s new album.

Cee Lo Green

The Lady Killer tour dates: www.ceelogreen.com

PHOTOGRAPHY: REX FEATURES (1), FLORIAN STRAVOCK (1), MARC O’SULLIVAN (1), SYNC IMAGING (3)

BESt CLUBs

The last few weeks in Cee Lo Green’s life have been more exciting than many other popstars’ whole careers. In a feathered Muppets outfit the US soul singer teamed up with Gwyneth Paltrow on stage at the Grammy Awards Show, where he won not just a golden gramophone, but also the audience’s sympathy. Soon after, he scooped the prize for Best International Male Solo Artist at the Brit Awards, and just recently he entered the Red Bull Soundclash ring in Las Vegas to meet fellow musicians The Ting Tings in a creative battle. It was a brilliant show, witnessed by 6,000 spring breakers, and both acts finished with a collaborative rendition of Cee Lo’s hit Forget You. And that’s not all. His new tune Bright Lights, Bigger City, from his album The Lady Killer, is just about to be released and his European tour kicks off in early April. The Red Bulletin broke into his schedule to ask him to think fast and give his off-the-cuff responses to our nosy questions.

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Portishead – Dummy I heard this for the first time in the late ’90s when I was about 10. It was the first piece of electronic music that blew my mind.

I had a couple of mates at secondary school who were into the same stuff, so we’d go to the electronic nights where DJs played this kind of experimental hip-hop.

But Dummy inspired me to start making music myself.

The whole record sounds like one piece, but every track is also individually amazing.

Take Five The music that influenced the stars

words: florian Obkircher. Photography: Jamie-James Medina

“ Portishead inspired me to start making music myself”

Crystal Waters – Gypsy Woman This is my favourite dance track from the ’90s. It’s the chord progression that I love, it’s melancholy but people dance to it. Recently I’ve been playing more house tunes in my DJ sets, and I love to drop Gypsy Woman.

I think it’s the progression in dance music, that’s the big thing for me – going to clubs to hear new music and how it’s moving forward.

Jamie xx The London beat maker kicked off a solo career

this year with a reworking of one of his favourite albums by soul legend Gil Scott-Heron. He explains why that record is so special and talks about four others that inspired him

It’s been quite a year for London-based indie trio The xx. Their eponymous debut album waltzed up the UK charts and received the vaunted Mercury Prize, while numerous artists including Gorillaz and Shakira covered their gentle, melancholic pop gems. The band’s beat juggler, Jamie xx, managed to escape from media hype by locking himself up in the studio to fine-tune his solo project, We’re New Here – a reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s 2010 soul standard comeback album I’m New Here – recently released to critical acclaim.

Jamie, 22, recreated Scott-Heron’s original with wobbly bass sounds, bouncy dubstep beats and shimmery synths and the result is an album that sends the listener back to the future. However, Scott-Heron is just one of his influences.

Rjd2 – Deadringer It’s the first sample-based record I got into, I love the creative way Rjd2 boiled bits from soul and funk.

Sometimes I dig through my record crates – lots of them have parts I want to sample some day. I was impressed by Deadringer as I had no idea how they did it. I wanted to find to out more and that led me to the Akai MPC. It’s now one of my main instruments.

The Streets – Original Pirate Material One of my favourite albums of all time. It has this sound of London in it, and it’s a very nostalgic thing for me because it came out about the same time that I started going to pubs. Of course I could relate to the lyrics a lot, too. My favourite tune is Turn the Page, the first track, and I love to end my DJ sets with Weak Become Heroes. Just recently I’ve heard a couple of tracks from Mike Skinner’s upcoming album. It’s OK, but still not half as good as this early masterpiece.

Gil Scott-Heron – I‘m New Here I’ve been a huge fan of his music since my childhood, as my parents are big soul fans. But I admire the fact that this recent album wasn’t a political one like most of Gil’s others: it shows a more personal side of him.

As for the production, it complemented Gil’s vocals so perfectly. I stripped away most of Richard Russell’s music from his production of the original album. I felt it was a fresh start, I wanted it completely different to what Richard was doing. And it seems I did well – Gil loves it.

Jamie xx and Gil ScottHeron: We’re New Here (XL Recordings).

Listen to Jamie xx on the turntables at redbullmusicacademy radio.com/shows/3689

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bands to watch in 2011 #3

All back to My House

Kids of 88. They’re former schoolmates – if thinking the other guy’s a douchebag makes you friends – and school-of-life grads. The Red Bulletin caught up with the duo backstage at Wellington’s Homegrown festival

The NZ Herald stated the album Sugarpills has “beautiful moments... shows there’s more to them than My House”

90

The Red Bulletin: What is it with trendy twosomes in music at the moment?

Sam McCarthy: Jordan and I have been good friends for a long time and music was the thing we had in common.

Creating music together was a logical progression.

Jordan Arts: It got to a point where we didn’t even realise we’d started a band. It was just us mucking around with songs.

SMcC: It wasn’t part of a masterplan, but with electronic music, if you have too many cooks it doesn’t work.

Your song My House gets catchier with every listen.

SMcC: That was the catalyst for everything. It’s quite strange that the first song we wrote is the one that would go on to get us the prize, if you like.

JA: We never thought that much of it, then some of our friends started DJing it around Auckland and the response was really good.

Ashley Page, who’s now our manager, had the idea to send it to C4 for a promo and when it got on TV, it put us in the limelight.

SMcC: For us, it was just a song, but Ashley saw an opportunity for the song, more so than an opportunity for the band.

I thought that was going to be it – we were going to be a one-hit wonder, and I had come to terms with that – but things got out of control. That was when we had to commit to it and admit, ‘We’re a band now.’ It felt like we were almost too lucky. We were signed to a worldwide deal with Sony and I don’t like to admit it, but all the record company industry interest came from that one song,

we had never played a live show.

JA: It was kind of cheating.

SMcC: It was cheating, but now we’ve put in the hours and the blood, sweat and tears.

For live shows you’re joined

by Jaden Parkes on drums and Luke Van Hoof on guitar. You call them your ‘two minstrels’.

Are they OK with that?

SMcC: They’re fine with it and I’ll tell you why: they get paid.

JA: They earn more than us.

SMcC: They’re happy as long as they get their cheque at the end of the day and they probably make more fun of us than we do of them.

Plus, they don’t have to do any interviews or promotion.

SMcC: Exactly. They’re chilling out, watching some bands…

JA: …getting stuck into our rider.

SMcC: They drink all of our rider

Words: Robert Tighe. Photography: Kyle Dean Reinford, Getty Images, Sean Aickin/WeSC/Red Bull

Cruisy control: laid-back ’lectro lads Sam McCarthy (left) and Jordan Arts

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“We thought we’d just be a little brainy band playing indie shows” and still get paid, so I think they should be very appreciative.

And they’re good friends of ours, so we never have any bust-ups.

In one review, you were noted as being part of the ‘rash of what can be loosely termed Kiwi synth-pop bands – The Naked and Famous, Computers Want Me Dead, Kidz In Space’.

Does it annoy you when you’re pigeonholed like that?

SMcC: One of the hardest questions is when people ask you to describe your music. We have trouble doing it, so I can’t complain when someone else gives it a label. But it comes down to the individuals: they’re each going to decide what it sounds like. We’ve been called the new Phoenix and someone else has compared us to Prince. We have this niche college alternative edgy following in the US, and we also have this mainstream, pop appeal. It’s quite weird.

You’re starting to make some noise in the US? Is that your focus for 2011?

SMcC: It’s funny because there are so many stories about how hard it is to break the US, but we’re finding the response has been really good. We played the

CMJ Music Marathon in New York last year, and each show was packed out. I think if we had a calling in London we’d jump on it, because I think we’d feel more at home there than in the States.

But the way things are warming up in the US right now, we’ve got things moving and it’s best to run with that while we can.

It helps to have someone like Perez Hilton in your corner.

He recently tweeted that he was ‘obsessed’ with My House.

‘I can’t stop listening to this song,’ he said. And this is the blogger instrumental in breaking Lady Gaga…

SMcC: We’ve known him for a while now. He recommended My House and the song had 45,000 plays that day, but it ain’t no thang.

That clearly means you’re ready to be as big as Gaga.

SMcC: God no! I don’t think I’m going to be making a meat suit anytime soon. I think we’re just seeing how far this goes.

Originally, we were just a production outfit creating songs in our bedroom, but we’ve turned into a really different band than we thought we’d be. We thought we’d be a little brainy band that played indie shows. We’re pretty cruisy. We work hard, but we don’t think hard and I think that’s important when it comes to this type of music. You can’t pull it apart, otherwise it will feel lifeless. When you create music, what you want to do is make people feel alive.

Gig deal: Kids Of 88 play live in London and (above right) at Homegrown in Wellington

Need to know The line-Up Sam McCarthy – vocals/programming Jordan Arts – programming/keyboards The Album Debut disc Sugarpills, released in New Zealand in August 2010, made number two in the charts and will be released in the USA later this year.

The Look “We’re both visual,” says McCarthy. “We love film, photography, design and creating cinematic little videos. Jordan takes most of the photos for the blog on our website. I love photography, but Jordan has a bigger and better camera.”

The story so far FIRST STEPS Sam McCarthy and Jordan Arts were 13-year-olds in form three at St Peter’s College in Auckland when their English teacher asked the class to bring in a favourite record. (The year is 2001: Kids of 88 is a statement of fact, as well as a solid band name.) Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit and various metal bands were popular picks; McCarthy and Arts each chose a Jimi Hendrix album.

“I remember thinking Jordan was a douchebag,” says McCarthy, “but apart from that we didn’t really know each other. Hendrix set off our little fire, that’s for sure.

I brought in the Electric Ladyland album and Jordan went with Are You Experienced? Admittedly, we had raided our parents’ music collections. If we’d brought in our own records it would have been Billy Ray Cyrus or something.”

‘I USED TO BE IN A BAND’ They played together in a college group, Incursa, that won the Smokefreerockquest in 2004. Arts went on to study digital design at university, while McCarthy started a music degree but left to play guitar in a band called Goodnight Nurse: “I learned on the road rather than sitting in a classroom listening to someone talk about it.”

BIG BREAK, LITTLE BY LITTLE In 2008, McCarthy and Arts started making electronic music together, and the Kids of 88 were born. Their first completed song was My House, a slow-burner with a killer singalong chorus, which was available on their Myspace page for eight months before eventually catching on big.

Free music, the Kids’ photo blog and more at: www.kidsof88.com

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The World’s best chefs our guest at Hangar-7

Best food forward

Daniel Humm After cooking up a storm in

Switzerland and San Francisco, this top chef now works – and runs – in New York City

“At 14 I had to choose between cooking and becoming a professional mountain biker,” says Daniel Humm.

He chose cooking and, after training, Humm began working for the best chefs in his native Switzerland.

“Gérard Rabaey had a big influence on me,” says Humm, who worked with him at the triple Michelinstarred Le Pont De Brent. “Every day I spent with him was like a competition. He’s a perfectionist.”

From Rabaey he moved on to Nik Gygax. It was with Gygax that Humm cooked his way to a first Michelin star of his own at the Gasthaus zum Gupf in the Appenzell region of Switzerland. He was 24.

“All of a sudden all eyes were on me,” he says. Two years later he was invited to chef at Campton Place in San Francisco. “Until that point, I’d spent all my working life in Switzerland. It was my chance to see the world.” Then his French cuisine won over critics and drew attention from the east coast. “When I was offered a job in New York, I said yes straight away.”

The people, the energy and the city fascinate Humm. But he still needs sport for some balance: “I run the New York Marathon every year; that makes me happy.” And he doesn’t just jog it either.

Last year he ran it in a rather rapide 2hrs 51mins.

St Pierre [John Dory] with lemon sauce, grapefruit and young soya beans

My restaurant Eleven Madison Park 11 Madison Avenue New York, 10010 USA www.elevenmadisonpark.com “What I really love about the restaurant is its tall windows,” says Humm. “You’re right in the heart of Manhattan with a good view of the Flatiron Building, but at the same time you’re surrounded by all the nature of Madison Square Park. I consider myself very privileged to work here.”

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Contact Interaction with his diners is particularly important to Humm.

“The guests eat one course at a table in the kitchen,” he says. “They can keep a close eye on us from there.”

Minimal “Words can’t describe a dish all that well,” says Humm. “So we only write the main ingredients on our menus. That gives us a little more freedom in the way we prepare the dish and a diner can also remove an ingredient if he or she wishes.”

Inspiration “Five years ago, a critic gave us three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying that all we were missing for the perfect four was a little bit more Miles Davis,” he says. “She was referring to Davis’ coolness, spontaneity and ability to think ahead.

A large Miles portrait has hung in the kitchen ever since.”

Hangar-7’s guest chefs Every month, a guest chef comes to the Ikarus Restaurant in Hangar-7, at Salzburg airport, and teams up with the permanent in-house kitchen staff to create two menus.

The guest chef for April 2011 is 34-year-old Swiss Daniel Humm, who’s head chef at the Eleven Madison Park restaurant in New York City. You can find more information about Humm’s menus and forthcoming guest chefs at the Ikarus restaurant at www.hangar-7.com.

For bookings and enquiries send an email to ikarus@hangar-7.com or call +43 662 2197-77.

Words: Lisa Blazek. Photography: Francois Portmann/Red Bull Hangar-7

My Philosophy

more body & mind

tastes of the world National dishes to make at home

Roman oxtail stew Words: Klaus Kamolz. Photography: Fotostudio Eisenhut& Mayer

Italy The rich, meaty dish with a sweet surprise is food fit for gladiators. Buon appetito!

Coda alla vaccinara or Roman oxtail stew is considered by many to be The Eternal City’s signature dish, loved for its beefy flavours set off by chocolate. In Imperial Rome, cows were butchered according to a strict and rigorous social pecking order: nobles got the best quarter; clergy the next best; the bourgeoisie got the third-best part with the last quarter for soldiers. That still left the tail, however – the so-called ‘quinto quarto’ or fifth quarter.

The butchers in Regola, the seventh rione [district] on the banks of the Tiber, had no complaints: offal, head and tail were all money in the bank and they devised a panoply of cuts and dishes for the poor from these leftovers. Coda alla vaccinara – Oxtail butcher’s style – became the most famous. Why so? As any abattoir worker will tell you, the best meat is close to the bone.

the recipe Serves four 1.5kg oxtail, cut into pieces at the joints Salt, pepper Flour Olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 2 carrots, finely cubed 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 500ml white wine

400g Italian canned tomatoes, roughly chopped 70g pancetta (Italian bacon) 3 sticks of celery 3tbsp small raisins 3tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted 15g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa content) Nutmeg 3tbsp chopped celery leaves

Preheat the oven to 150ºC. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper, dust with flour and brown gently in olive oil in a large baking tray. Remove the oxtail and add onion, carrot and garlic. Cook through and deglaze with white wine and tinned tomatoes. Cube the pancetta, brown in a pan without any fat and add to the baking tray. Put the oxtail back in the sauce, cover and braise in the oven for 2½ hours. Meanwhile, slice the sticks of celery into 5mm pieces and blanch in salted water so that they remain crispy. Remove the baking tray from the oven and stir in the celery, raisins and pine nuts. Cover and leave to braise for another 30 minutes. Then grate the chocolate into the sauce and season with a pinch of ground nutmeg and more salt and pepper to taste. Finally, simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes and sprinkle with celery leaves just before serving. Eat with polenta or crusty white bread.

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Vettel and Webber’s one-two finish in Malaysia

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Motorsport NASCAR Sprint Cup Series USA (1) Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, 09.04.11 Last year’s championship runner-up Denny Hamlin can’t wait to get to Texas. Last year the 30-year-old came out on top in both races on the 1.5-mile quad-oval.

FIM Motocross World Championship bulgaria (2) Sevlievo, 10.04.11 This season’s favourite is current champion, Antonio Cairoli. The Italian is out for a third title, but there will be competition from his German KTM team-mate Maximilian Nagl, who won last year’s Bulgarian race.

WRC rally jordan (3) Dead Sea, Amman 14–16.04.11 This is Jordan’s third appearance in the World Rally Championship. Sébastien Loeb is the latest in a long line of Jordanian rally kings, taking the 2010 crown on the dirt roads – but can he continue his reign in 2011?

Formula one Grand Prix Malaysia (4) Sepang International Circuit, 10.04.11 Last year’s race was all about Red Bull Racing: pole position, fastest lap, and a one-two finish for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber respectively. As ever the question in Malaysia: when will it rain?

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Formula Renault 3.5 Spain (5) AlcaÑiz, 16–17.04.11 Having finished just two points behind last year’s winner, Australian Daniel Ricciardo is eagerly anticipating another chance to take the coveted crown, starting with the season opener at Motorland Aragón.

Red Bull Rookies Cup portugal (6) Estoril, 30.04-01.05.11 The youngsters are already familiar with the 4.36km Estoril circuit from pre-season testing in March. After the season-opener at the Jerez track in Spain, the talent moves on to a further two races in Portugal.

The List April 2011

this month there’s a whiff of petrol in the air as the motorsport season gets under way. here’s our guide to the events NOT TO BE MISSED 94 94

Watersports Red Bull Cliff-Diving World Series Mexico (7) Ik Kil, Yucatán, 10.04.11 The magical location of Sacred Blue Cenote is just 3km away from the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá. Here the world’s best cliff divers jump from almost 27m into the pool below.

O’Neill Coldwater Classic Scotland (8) Thurso, 13–19.04.11 This contest is all about extreme surfing. Last year, only the most daring took to the waves clad in thick wetsuits to contend with chilly water temperatures and heavy snowfall.

ASP World Tour Australia (9) Bells Beach, Victoria, 19–25.04.11 Sally Fitzgibbons is yet to register a win on the ASP Women’s World Tour, and with the support of her home crowd, Bells Beach would be the ideal place to change that.

Extreme Sailing Series CHINA (10) Qingdao, 15–17.04.11 The season’s second port of call sees the Red Bull Extreme Sailing team at the 2008 Olympic sailing venue. The season began with a very promising third place in Oman.

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Electron Festival Switzerland (19) Geneva, 21–24.04.11 For three days, the Electron Festival turns the whole of Geneva into one big digital playground. There are interactive installations all over the city, exhibitions and conferences at the Museum of Modern Art and electronic gigs at a range of venues, including the Red Bull Music Academy stage.

11 The B-Boy heroes will call into the Caucasus

Unsound Festival USA (13) New York, 06–10.04.11 Poland’s best festival is going on a junket, crossing the Atlantic for the second time to bring some weird electronic music to New York. Germany’s acid dandy Atom™, British bass-futurist Lone and Bulgaria’s new house guru KiNK will all be on the plane.

Photography: Red BUll Racing, Getty Images, Camilo Rozo/Red Bull Content Pool, Hörður Ellert Ólafsson

Music Red Bull Funk-se Tour Brazil (11) Various cities, 01–24.04.11 The Akai MPC [Music Production Centre] is a compact groove machine with something like holy cow status in Brazil. It was on this gizmo that local producers came up with Rio’s distinctive electro-rap baile funk sound. On the Red Bull Funk-se Tour, the best MPC artists go head-to-head with the craziest beats their machines can muster.

Red Bull Thre3Style USA (14) Pittsburgh 08.04, Minneapolis 16.04, Chicago 22.04, Brooklyn 22.04, To play three music genres in 15 minutes is the challenge the local DJs face at Red Bull Thre3Style. The styles they go for don’t matter, as long as they manage to meld them together elegantly. The DJs are judged on their choice of songs, skills, creativity and – most importantly – how well they rock the house.

snowbombing Austria (12) Mayrhofen, 04–09.04.11 For one week only the Austrian valley of Zillertal turns into a music Mecca, as thousands of young Brits come to spend their spring break at the Snowbombing Festival in Mayrhofen. But there’s none of the traditional après-ski music here – these holidaymakers will be getting down to The Prodigy, Ms. Dynamite and Ramadanman.

Break On Stage Spain (15) La Casilla, Bilbao, 09.04.11 Head-spins, power-moves, top-rocks: this dance contest sees international crews including De Klan from Rome, La Smala from Bordeaux and the Jinjo Crew from Seoul turn into human spinning tops.

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Sally Fitzgibbons hopes for a home win in Oz

Coachella Music Festival USA (18) Empire Polo Field, Indio, California 15–17.04.11 Coachella is America’s most important outdoor pop event, but it’s not child’s play, even for hardened festival fans. During the day, temperatures in the Californian desert can reach 38°C; at night it’s bitterly cold. But that doesn’t bother the 25,000 fans – as long as they’ve got a line-up with stars like Arcade Fire, Kanye West, The Strokes and Interpol.

Rokolectiv Romania (20) The Ark & MNAC, Bucharest, 23–25.04.2011 With transgender activist and conceptual artist Terre Thaemlitz answering questions from the audience, and Nabaz’mob planning to perform an ‘Opera for 100 Smart Rabbits’, it’s quite clear that the Rokolectiv Festival isn’t your usual muddy-field affair. Though it’s partly staged in a museum, it won’t just be populated by people in horn-rimmed spectacles: Motor City Drum Ensemble, Omar-S and Legowelt will be sure to light up the dancefloor with some house sounds.

L.E.V. Spain (21) VARIOUS VENUES, Gijón, 29–30.04.11 With the likes of Mount Kimbie, James Blake, Aufgang, Scuba, Shackleton all starring, the L.E.V. Festival brings together an eclectic line-up of young guns for an electronic marathon. And to top it all off, bosses at the experimental Raster-Noton label are hosting a Red Bull Music Academy workshop.

Red Bull BC One Cypher bolivia (22) La Paz, 30.04.11 The world’s best B-Boys are set to come together for the next Red Bull BC One competition this autumn in St Petersburg.

But before that can happen a host of local up-and-coming breakers need to show what they’ve got now in national qualifying heats, with the aim being to impress champion jury member Lilou. Now it’s time to call in at the Bolivian capital.

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Red Bull BC One All Stars Azerbaijan (16) Baku, 14–15.04.11 Georgia Tbilisi, 16–18.04.11 Armenia YErevan 18–20.04.011 Champion Frenchman Lilou and his six dancing colleagues are to the B-Boy world what the Justice League is to the world of comics. They are light-footed superheroes, each of whom has special powers. This time around, the Red Bull BC One All Stars make their way to the Caucasus armed with a host of new tricks to show the locals.

Timbre: Rock & Roots Singapore (17) Marina Promenade, 15–16.04.11 The Timbre Festival in Singapore has a line-up as sumptuous as a four-tier wedding cake. Multiple Grammy Award-winner John Legend joins British rising star Imogen Heap and hip-hop poet Michael Franti, all topped off beautifully by the inimitable Bob Dylan.

British dubstep duo Mount Kimbie

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UNtil May 18

Save The Date

April 2011

don’t be Stuck for something to do this month. choose from our selection of inspirational events

Lemmy ’n’ Lennon It’s an unlikely pairing, but Motörhead’s lead singer and The Beatles’ rhythm guitarist are headlining the World Cinema Showcase. Lemmy is a documentary about the man Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters called, “the king of rock ’n’ roll… a living, breathing, drinking and snorting legend”. At 65, Lemmy still enjoys a bottle of Jack Daniel’s a day, among other vices. “I’m sure that movie will be played loud,” says Rebecca McMillan of the WCS. LENNONYC details the legend’s love affair with the city he called home in the final years of his life. Other highlights of the 36-film programme, playing in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, include Hong Kong martial arts comedy Gallants and Smash His Camera, the story of Ron Galella, the original paparazzo. www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz

Lemmy

April 10

April 28

Taking the Michael A ruptured appendix was the inspiration for one of Michael Franti’s most successful works.

In 2009, Spearhead’s lead singer was laid low by a gut pain. After suffering for a week, he recalls, “my whole body became septic”. Out of that experience came the songs on The Sound of Sunshine, his band’s poppiest album to date. Franti and Spearhead’s music, fusing reggae, hip-hop beats and soulful folk-rock, has drawn comparisons with Jack Johnson. Those who have seen him live know that positive energy is guaranteed when he plays the Powerstation in Auckland at the end of the month. www.ticketmaster.co.nz

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Trolley tastic The third Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix rolls into the Auckland Domain at high noon. Watch teams climb into their backyard buggies and let gravity do its thing on a 700m downhill course. Success here is not solely measured in minutes and seconds: competitors will also be judged on their creativity and performance.

Teams are required to perform a sketch or similar short burst of live entertainment to impress the

judges before their run, and while fancy dress isn’t compulsory, it is expected. The event was last held in 2005 when a massive crowd watched the team from Wanganui Ford take the title in a replica of a V8 Ford Falcon. Best advice: get there early in order to get a good view. www.redbull.co.nz

Photography: Corbis (2), Graeme Murray/red Bull Content Pool (1), Rene Vaile/red Bull Content Pool (1)

Michael Franti

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Beyond the ordinary the red bulletin

W

hatever you do on the internet, someone is watching. But do not be alarmed, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

In the mid-1990s, when the internet started to go mainstream, we all entered the age of data. Almost all of the new habits we developed, and many of our existing ones, could be logged, retrieved, reported and analysed.

This doesn’t mean that everyone knows everything you’ve been doing.

Indeed, in many cases it’s vital that your private information remains private, for both your benefit and that of the person or company you share it with. What it does mean is that a lot of information concerning what we do collectively can be aggregated for fun and profit.

For instance, back when I did my thing via a short radio slot rather than a blog, the only info I had regarding how many people had liked (or even heard) it was imprecise and anecdotal: people told me about it afterwards. The jump to fully fledged web data was prodigious.

Suddenly, I could tell what was popular.

If I chose to, I could allow that knowledge to guide what I wrote.

Thanks to Google Analytics, I also know, down to individual towns and cities, where my readers are coming from. I know who has pointed others to my blog, and what search terms have been typed into search engines to get there. It’s free, because my participation gives Google data that, in turn, it can use.

I can proudly note that readers spend longer on average on each page of my site than those of any other website in the country. The Nielsen Company, a consumer research firm, tells me that my readers are more likely to contribute and comment than those of any other site.

(I tell ad agencies that this is proof of ‘engagement’, which is a very good thing.)

Everyone in this business is staring at numbers to see if a pattern emerges.

A key element of Twitter’s appeal is that it disgorges data, and makes it easy to build tools to show statistics. There

Mind’s Eye

Matter Of The Facts With new ways of seeing, says Russell Brown, there’s no such thing as information overload are free services that will build you a ‘word cloud’ to tell you what words you tweet most often. The website, www.trendsmap.com, for example, will show you what the Twitter buzz looks like across the globe, or in your town. Twitter itself uses the information it gathers in a variety of ways.

The age of data presents special challenges for journalists, because so much information is available now.

Government departments spew it out.

Often it’s hard to understand, and there are some awful mistakes made by people who can’t get a handle on statistics or, it can seem, even count.

And even when journalists do know what they’re doing, conveying complex data to the masses is very difficult. The Guardian newspaper faced a big problem when it received via WikiLeaks information about the war in Afghanistan: it was a daunting 92,000 documents containing reams of statistics regarding military events

in Afghanistan, all of which were logged in a spreadsheet over 92,000 entries long. No one could read all that.

The newspaper’s ‘data journalists’ – writers, researchers, graphic designers and online producers – found a solution in a surprising place. Using a template of an interactive web graphic the paper had created to show readers what was on where at Glastonbury Festival, they were able to show, day by day, year by year, all the roadside attacks and associated civilian casualties of the war. It was a new and powerful way to do what journalists have always done: tell stories.

Another example of data journalism is the work of Adrian Holovaty, an American computer programmer, hacker and journalist. With www.chicagocrime.org, he took public crime statistics and mashed them up with Google Maps, so that people could see what crimes were being committed, when and where.

Holovaty has since expanded that work to www.everyblock.com, which maps everything from new liquor licences and building permits to local blogs and geo-tagged Flickr photos, for thousands of neighbourhoods across the US. If most data visualisation is fairly utilitarian, some of it is simply beautiful.

Hence the name of David McCandless’ blog, ‘Information Is Beautiful’, which showcases images of real design merit that boil down knowledge, from the meaning of different colours in various national cultures to the relative carbon footprint of 200 common products and services. The best of these images are more than useful: they are inspiring.

We have more information now than might ever have seemed possible, but that’s not the same as knowing what it is saying to us. We need new tools to help us figure that out, and with them, as an acquaintance in the web business likes to say, “You can never have enough sweet, sweet data.” Amen.

Russell Brown is a media commentator and blogger and lives in Auckland

The Red Bulletin New Zealand, ISSN 2079-4274: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bulletin GMBH Editor-In-Chief Robert Sperl General Managers Alexander Koppel, Rudolf Theierl Editorial Office Anthony Rowlinson (Executive Editor), Stefan Wagner Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Andreas Tzortzis Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Subeditor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Photo Editors Susie Forman (head), Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Valerie Rosenburg, Catherine Shaw Design Erik Turek (Art Director), Miles English, Judit Fortelny, Markus Kietreiber, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Andreas Rottenschlager, Robert Tighe Production Managers Michael Bergmeister, Wolfgang Stecher, Walter Omar Sádaba Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (head), Christian Graf-Simpson, Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovic, Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher, Thomas Posvanc, Thomas Safranek Multi Media Martin Herz Finance Siegmar Hofstetter Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head); Justin Hynes, A product of the Christoph Rietner, Nadja Žele (chief-editors); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor). The Red Bulletin is published simultaneously in Austria, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Poland, South Africa and New Zealand. Website www.redbulletin.com. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0)20 3117 2100. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 1 90221 28800. Printed by PMP Print, 30 Birmingham Drive, Riccarton, 8024 Christchurch.

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Illustration: Albert Exergian

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