The Red Bulletin_0910_ZA

www.redbulletin.com

an almost independent monthly magazine / september 2010 Experience

Print 2.0

Picture Perfect The world’s greatest sports and action photography contest: Red Bull Illume

The crown is OppiKoppi

Why 2010 was a landmark year for SA’s legendary music festival

F1’s fallen idol

40 years on, the only posthumous world champ remembered

Skizo’s tough road back

BMX phenom Sifiso Nhlapo on his brilliant return to the top

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BullHorn

COver Photography: Jeremy Koreski, Alessio Barbanti, Dean Treml, Josh Letchworth

picture perfect “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer”.

The quote is from Ansel Adams, one of the most celebrated landscape photographers of our time, and it touches on the relationship that’s central to the photographic art: that between photographer, subject and audience.

It’s a relationship celebrated by the Red Bull Illume competition, winning entries from which you’ll find in the centre of this magazine.

It takes a special kind of talent to ‘catch the moment’ as each of these 10 winners have, and then to share that image, connecting photographer forever with their subject and their audience. As Chris Burkard notes of his winning entry in the ‘Illumination’ category: “It was as if everything in nature fell into perfect harmony for this moment.”

The 10 pictures featured are each the best of their respective categories and result from a search lasting two years, across 112 countries that netted 22,764 entries. If that doesn’t constitute a ‘pick of the pics’ then it’s hard to know what does. We’ve let the pictures do the talking on the Illume pages – you wouldn’t want journalists’ gobbledy-gook across those stunning images, would you? But elsewhere in the magazine you’ll find our usual mix of stories to amaze and inspire.

We’ve been to OppiKoppi this month (page 68) to uncover the compelling story of how SA’s ever-diverse, ever-vibrant music scene has kept the soul of this uniquely hardcore festival alive through the decades.

And we’ve taken a lingering look back at a fallen hero: Jochen Rindt (page 60). Forty years ago he was crowned Formula One World Champion – weeks after he’d been killed in practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix.

The first pop star of his sport, who achieved fame at just the moment when image – and images – became so intertwined with success, Rindt remains an icon. Gone too soon, but assuredly not forgotten.

This is Chris Burkard, who took the best action and adventure photograph in the world.

His shot, and 249 others, are brought together in the stunning Red Bull Illume coffee table book.

Order your copy now at www.redbullillume.com

Your editorial team

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Your Red Bulletin can do more than you think Movies, sounds, animation 10

12 Print 2.0 – the extra dimension in your Red Bulletin. In this issue you’ll find it with the following stories:

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Print 2.0

The new multi-media experience.

Wherever you see the bull’s eye!

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How to get started: turn to page 7 or enter za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 in your web browser

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Contents

welcome to the world of Red Bull 100 pages that positively reek of adrenalin in this month’s Red Bulletin

Bullevard

10 pictures of the month

16 now and next The latest happenings in our wacky world, from TV on the web to a celebratory gossip with the Red Bull Air Race world champ 19 where’s your head at?

Heart-throb to females, nemesis to felines, Antonio Banderas opens up about life as a screen idol… and that pesky Puss in Boots 22 kit bag Snap happy: why Leica lenses remain the optics of choice for top photographers 25 me and my body Despite recent setbacks, on four wheels or two, yoga-loving NASCAR ace Brian Vickers knows how to get the most from his hard-trained physique 26 winning formula Want to understand what it really takes to hit a six? We did, so we asked beast of the boundaries, JP Duminy, to reveal all 28 lucky numbers Know your golf? So how many holes did ‘gentle’ Ben Crenshaw have to play without his putter in the 1987 Ryder Cup after smashing it in a fit of temper? Hmm?

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Heroes

32 awolnation International fame and fortune beckon for this breakthrough indie success – just don’t take him too far away from water…

34 SIFISO NHLAPO A world-class BMX rider, beating home-country antipathy and a broken neck, Nhlapo has his sights set on London 2012 gold 38 makode linde A self-proclaimed ‘ultimate misfit’, Linde was born to do things his own way, in pursuit of true artistic self expression 40 stöhr & fischhuber They might appear the archetypal Euro‘cappuccino couple’, but look closer and you’ll see the ripped torsos of top climbers 06

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contents

Action

84 68

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Photography: Thomas Karlsson, www.squirephotographers.com, Bildagentur Kräling, Liam Lynch, Graeme Murray, Philipp Horak,

46 red bull illume After a global search across 112 countries, lasting more than two years, we present the world’s finest sports action images 60 f1’s first pop star Forty years ago, at the 1970 Italian GP, world champion-elect Jochen Rindt was killed. The sport lost a genius, but weeks later gained a posthumous world champ 68 maximum oppikoppi No music festival keeps it more real than this favourite South African celebration of down-’n’-dusty rock ’n’ roll

More Body & Mind

80 sarka pancochova World domination is on the menu at Hangar-7 for this snow(board) queen 82 Get the gear Even the mightiest boulders present no obstacle with champions’ kit 84 uphill struggle Mountain runner Jonathan Wyatt tells his tricks for tippy-toe-ing to the top 86 listings Worldwide, day and night, our guide to the ultimate month-long weekend 90 nighTlife Cash on making music, not, erm, money; Montreal unskinned; what happened at Sonisphere; and clubbing Brazilian style 96 short story I’m a comedian, so laugh, damn you. Why aren’t you laughing? I’m hilarious…

98 Mind’s eye Anonymity is the scourge of the internet comments section, says Kevin McCallum

the red Bulletin Print 2.0 Movies, sounds and animation wherever you see this sign in your Red Bulletin 1

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za.redbulletin.com/ print2.0 In your browser window you’ll see the magazine cover. Just click at ‘Start Bull’s Eye’

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Switch on your webcam If a webcam activation window opens, just click ‘activate’

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Hold your Red Bulletin up to the webcam You’ll see all the multimedia content in this month’s mag – movies, sound and animation

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illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

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Keeps you moshing, from support Act to heAdliner. fits pocevery

ket

Tent? Check. Sleeping bag? Check. Wellies? Check.

But when you’re packing your rucksack for festival season, leave a little room for Red Bull Energy Shots.

At only 60ml, our shots can easily slip into a side pocket alongside the wet wipes. And whether you’ve spent

the day dancing in the sunshine or trudging through the mud, they deliver the boost you need in just a couple of sips.

With no carbonation and no need to chill, Red Bull Energy Shots are the perfect companion to long festival days and nights. It’s concentrated energy from Red Bull.

the only shot thAt gives you wings.

Bullevard Who’s making the biggest splash this month? Keep reading to find out

P o l i g n a n o a M a r e , I ta ly

High Drama Orlando Duque of Colombia undertakes a dive during the training session of round four of the 2010 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.

Duque, the reigning champion, secured second place during the competition proper. Britain’s Gary Hunt, winner of the first three rounds, finished third thanks to a slightly muffed landing for his Triple Quad, a complex dive that begins with a running start from the platform (which here is 26.5m above the Adriatic). Hunt had landed the dive in training, but, for the one that counted, said Duque, “I think he might have been caught by one of the waves.”

Artem Silchenko of Russia was the weekend’s winner, which took him to second in the overall standings, behind Hunt and above Duque. All three go into the final two rounds, in Sisikon, Switzerland and Hilo, Hawaii, with hopes of overall victory.

Watch Duque, Hunt and all at www.redbullcliffdiving.com

Print 2.0

Photography: Damiano Levati/Red Bull Photofiles

za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Watch the spectacular cliff diving action from Polignano

U t r ec h t, N e t h e r l a n d s

Pole Position

Photography: Rutger Pauw/REd Bull Photofiles

It’s a gondolier’s worst nightmare, but it’s the very foundation of fierljeppen: a pole stuck in a river is the only equipment required for one of Europe’s oldest sporting pastimes. As far back as the 12th century, Dutch farmers used poles to navigate wetlands; since 1972, an annual national fierljeppen championships has determined the leading exponent of the ‘far leap’. Competitors sprint towards the water’s edge, leap for the pole and then climb it, hoping to reach the top before gravity kicks in and forces a descent. The rules are simple: get to the other side – and don’t get wet. In competition, leapers land in sand, as they do in the long jump, the best of them making their mark as far up the riverbank as possible. A crowd of 13,000 turned out for Red Bull Fierste Ljepper: a Dutch sporting triumph to lessen the blow of that World Cup final loss to Spain…

Cross ‘insane river crossing’ off your to-see list at www.redbull.com

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Print 2.0

za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Discover the history of the Netherlands’ oldest extreme sport

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Photography: Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles

Lo s A n g e l e s, U SA

Miracle Smile Ryan Sheckler has such a big grin on his face because he knows he’s just snatched X Games victory from the jaws of defeat.

A few seconds before this picture was taken, a few seconds from the end of his final Skateboarding Street run of X Games 16, he had very nearly bailed after sliding down the metal handrail on a flight of concrete steps – a ‘cab lipslide’, to those in the know – and landing awkwardly. Superb reactions, and a strong left arm, thrust out behind him and to the floor for a fraction of a second, allowed Californian Sheckler to maintain momentum and win a third X Games gold (he also has a silver, from 2006). He first topped an X Games podium in the summer of 2003 when he was just 13 years old. There can’t be many sportsmen considered veteran at the age of 20, but Sheckler is certainly one of them.

A day in the life of Ryan Sheckler: en.redbulletin.com/sheckler

And Action!

Welcome. Make yourselves at home. Then enter Shaun White’s secret stunt factory, or get inside the head of Felix Baumgartner. Maybe you’d prefer a peek into the private life of Sebastian Vettel? Or to watch what’s probably the world’s most bonkers gaming show? Get ready for Red Bull Web TV

HEROES AND LEGENDS Momentum

Sebastian Vettel, Mick Fanning, Sébastien Loeb… Momentum casts light on the stars of the sporting world from a very personal angle. Touching, human, surprisingly different.

ProgrammE Highlights on new

Red Bull Web TV

THE REBELS Pirate TV

Action… until the police come.

Wakeboarder Duncan Zuur tears up a flooded St Mark’s Square in Venice while NASCAR driver Brian Vickers makes an unscheduled pitstop on Times Square in New York.

FREAK FRIENDS

STAR SCHOOL

LIVE SHOWS

THE ADRENALIN DUO

RED BULL CLIPTOMANIACS

Tricktionary

LIVE WEBCASTS

Red Bull Rivals

Freestyle freaks and snowboarding professionals Tim Warwood and Adam Gendle present the best sports clips under the sun, such as breathtaking Red Bull Crashed Ice action from Munich.

The show for people who want to learn from the best: snowboarding and skateboard hero Shaun White (above) explains the stunt that won him Olympic gold, while Ryan Sheckler shows you how to wall-ride blunt.

Best of motorsport, live: hair-raising action in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, legendary Red Bull X-Fighters and the Motocross World Championship (catch it on Redbull.com/tv on September 12, live from Fermo, Italy).

They’re the missing link between the couch potato and extreme sports stars. Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries jump off 26m-high cliffs and try their luck in the world’s toughest endurance race.

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 Email: letters@redbulletin.com

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Rohr im Gebirge After five rally victories in a row, Raimund Baumschlager has secured his ninth Austrian state championship win Joseph Bollwein

photography: Ray Archer/Red Bull Photofiles, imago stock&people, Jörg Mitter/Red Bull Photofiles, rutger Pauw/Red Bull Photofiles, Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles

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photography: Christian Black/Red Bull Photofiles, JONATHAN BRADY/EPA/picturedesk.com, John Gibson/Red Bull Photofiles, Gold and Goose/Red Bull Photofiles, flo hagena

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THE FAMILY MOB

THE WILD PRINCES

THE EXTREMISTS

Young Guns rising

Red Bull TopS

A docu-soap about the MotoGP champions of tomorrow, who are still children today. The Red Bull Rookies Cup has Danny Kent and Co fighting it out over hundredths.

Then they play with their teddies.

Faster, higher, crazier. If it’s Felix Baumgartner jumping into a black hole, a helicopter doing somersaults or sports stars defying the laws of physics you’re after, you’ve come to the right place.

HOW TO GET RED BULL WEB TV An hour of fresh material every day on your mobile or computer Action and entertainment, pop stars and sporting heroes, live events and lifestyle shows at their best: all-new Red Bull Web TV is TV for a new generation: an hour a day, round the clock and updated daily.

You can watch Red Bull Web TV on any computer with internet access, on Red Bull Mobile or on your iPhone. Just download the Red Bull Web TV app from iTunes, and ‘Action’!

Click through to Red Bull Web TV free of charge at www.redbull.com/TV

Hangar-7

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, gets behind Felix Baumgartner and his Red Bull Stratos project Servus TV

Silverstone

THE MADMAN

The Atherton Project

Play!

Docu-soap starring the world’s best mountain-biking family: Dan, Gee and Rachel Atherton on their famous victories, major falls, everyday worries and sibling rivalry v sibling affection.

Plenty of people hate him, but a lot more love him. Cult presenter Uke Bosse showcases the latest computer games. But really he showcases just how utterly bonkers a gaming show can be.

POP STORIES

HIGH-FLYERS

watch it loud

on the loose

Get up close and personal with Lady Gaga, Eminem or the Rolling Stones. A new music video every day, plus exciting background info on the superstar in question and their latest song.

Aaron Hadlow and Ruben Lenten’s travelogue: the kite-surfers take us with them as they travel to the most beautiful places on earth and show us stunts a human really shouldn’t be able to pull off.

At the International Formula Student 2010, FH Joanneum’s JRX scored with economical fuel consumption, design and endurance Julia Feir

Cairo No time for seeing the Egyptian sights: riders at Red Bull Wake It Up kept their eyes firmly on the prize Ramy El-Shakry 17

Super Fly Guy

This self-confessed “grumpy, grouchy, impatient” English gent also just happens to be one hell of a pilot. Paul Bonhomme reflects on his second consecutive Red Bull Air Race world title

Bonhomme celebrating. Where would he like to race in the future? “Hong Kong, Silverstone, Brands Hatch”

You’ve had a year filled with trophies.

You were always on the podium; the Royal Automobile Club awarded you The Seagrave Trophy and there was another from the Royal Aero Club.

Where are all those cups?

I’m not very well organised with my trophies. I don’t even know where they all are. I should have a trophy room, but until now I’ve been kind of busy winning them.

Your biggest rival was 2008 champion Hannes Arch. How did you beat him?

I think it’s consistency. What’s amusing

Cheltenham The hat and glasses may be a little bit big, but the Red Bull Shot is just right Benedict Jones 18

this year is that Hannes won four races and I won two, but I took the title. Two years ago it was the other way around: I won four races, he won two and got the title. I learned that lesson from 2008.

It’s all very well winning races, but you need to be on the podium every time, be consistent and if you don’t win, just be somewhere nearby and pick up points.

Have you altered your flying style at all?

I read an article about Graeme McDowell, the Irish golfer who won the US PGA Tour. There’s a lot of psychology in sports

Durban More than 180,000 spectators at the Durban Airshow at Virginia Airport get treated to a top-class aerobatics display Prem Moodley

articles, which is very useful for a competitor. One comment in the article said McDowell won because he had nothing to lose: he wasn’t expected to win and he had no expectations of victory himself, so he could just go out, have fun and play. Brilliant. He won because he was so relaxed. I tried to think: ‘Actually, as long as we all walk away on Sunday, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose.’ That is a good mind-set to go into a race.

We had the first Red Bull Air Race in New York this year. How did the Big Apple taste for you?

New York was special. Its aviation history hasn’t been so bright recently, with 9/11, the Airbus landing in the water – where everybody got out safely, that’s not too bad – then the midair collision with the helicopters, which was very ugly. That we had a race there was great. Firstly, because the New Yorkers said we can come to their city And secondly, us really going there. We had a fantastic race with no scares. It was a healthy competition and I won, which was he best bit.

How’s your temperament?

Grumpy, impatient, grouchy… Before a race there’s the fear of failure and the fear of losing; then the fear of frightening yourself or crashing. The fear of frightening yourself should be a very big bubble, the fear of losing should be a little bubble floating around. That’s important. Flying can be very dangerous, you have to avoid distractions. If I get distracted on the morning of race day, I get grouchy.

What are your plans for the off-season?

We didn’t have off-seasons until now, we were always busy getting the plane ready. There will be an off-season now.

I’ll be spend some time at home, chasing an 18-month-old around the house.

Read more about the Red Bull Air Race World Championship and Paul Bonhomme at www.redbullairrace.com

Chichester Mike Skinner looks peaceful as he smokes his way up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Martin Henn

Words: nadja Zele. photography: Hamish Blair/Getty Images for Red Bull Air Race

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Where’s Your Head At?

Antonio Banderas From homeland theatre to Far Far Away via heroes, villains and a few hundred thousand bottles of wine: the Spanish actor has led a full and fascinating life. Here are the highlights

Hollywood wife

s Since 1996 Banderas has been married to actres Melanie Griffith. “To be married in our profession isn’t easy,” he said. “There’s too many beautiful people around, very interesting people. It’s just a matter of being patient and probably having the capacity and the faith of falling in love with your own wife again.” Then again, his mother- in-law, Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds, runs a big-cat sanctuary, so he wouldn’t want to upset her…

Break A Leg

José Antonio Domínguez Banderas was born in Málaga, Spain, on August 10, 1960. As a boy he set his sights on becoming a professional footballer, but, aged 14, an injury forced him to quit the sport and focus on other activities.

His acting talent led him to Spain’s national theatre, where he was spotted by film director Pedro Almodóvar, who then cast him in several films, including Matador and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Drink and drive

In June 2009, Banderas bought a 50 per cent shareholding in the Bodega Anta Natura in Ribera del Duero, renaming the northern Spain winery Anta Banderas. It exports 600,000 bottles a year. He has also started his own motorcycle racing team, fielding Joan Olivé and Kenny Noyes in the Moto2 category. He hopes to have his team firmly established in this class within two years.

“Maybe then we can make the step up into MotoGP,” he said.

The Big Time In 1995, the 50-year-old actor broke through to the movie mainstream thanks to roles in three Hollywood films. In the excellent Desperado, he starred as the bandito with a gun in a guitar case; he appeared briefly in the hotel-set anthology Four Rooms; while in Assassins he and Sylvester Stallone played rival hitmen. This very daft film was written by the Wachowski brothers – their first film credit – who four years later would unleash The Matrix on an unsuspecting world.

Words: Uschi korda. illustration: lie-ins and tigers

Village people

That lovin g feline

Having appeared in more than 70 films and TV shows, Banderas is both prolific and wide-ranging in his choice of roles. He was Benito Mussolini in an Italian TV movie, and one of his earliest Hollywood roles was that of Tom Hanks’s lover in Philadelphia.

“I don’t believe in careers,” he said.

“I just picture myself always as one of those old actors from the 19th century who go from village to village in their repertoire.”

Providing the voice of Puss In Boots for the Shrek films has been one of Antonio’s biggest earners, but its success has proved to be a double-edged sword.

“I hate that cat,” he explained. “Ever since he app eared in my life he’s more important than me. Now women always say, ‘Oh, I love that cat.

He’s so cute.’

Before, it was, ‘I loved you in Zorro…’”

All That Jazz

Curryi ng favour

in Before his private jet touched down 2004, England for the Shrek 2 premiere in meal n India an for d ahea d dialle eras Band n Luto at him to en to be chauffeur-driv rind airport from the Michelin-starred Tama curry the love just “I air. restaurant in Mayf ious.” in Britain,” he told reporters. “It’s delic rest the took ith Griff He and wife Melanie . of the meal to the film’s launch party

Alarmed burglars

Banderas claims to keep the sword from his 1988 film The Mask of Zorro in a secret place at his home as a deterrent to intruders.

“I truly pity any burglar who shows up,” he said, “although I wonder what the authorities would make of it if I said, ‘Officer, he tried to rob me, so I cut a giant Z into him!’”

Banderas’s next film, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, is his first time in a Woody Allen film.

“When I was 25 years old, I worked in Madrid wearing a T-shirt printed with his face,” said Banderas. “So, being on the set and seeing the same guy on my T-shirt – he is literally the same guy because he wears the same glasses and the same hat – it was quite impressive.

I talked to him a lot. All you have to do is just talk about jazz, and he will go on and on.”

Watch his latest trailer at www.sonyclassics.com/ youwillmeetatalldarkstranger

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The inside line

In the hot seat: DJ Sasha (right) shares his musical knowledge

How to nail the perfect Jeffreys Bay wave, by world surf champ Mick Fanning The Right Board “You need one that has drive and holds a good line. I don’t like boards that are too long because you want to get really tight in the pocket of the wave, and that’s where you get most of your points in competition. This year I rode a 5ft 1in x 18 3/8in x 2 3/16in shaped by Darren Handley of DHD.”

Tell it like it is DJ Sasha holds court at Cape Town’s Red Bull Music Studio The Red Bull Music Academy Info Sessions have a simple format: just sit a respected musician, DJ or producer on the couch in the Red Bull Music Studio in Cape Town in front of a bunch of like-minded individuals, and witness the knowledge-share as the question and answers fly.

The most recent of these musical encounters was with the pioneering DJ and producer, Sasha, who for 20 years has been a key figure in dance and electronic music. He has played all over the world, including SA many times, and remixed leading bands and artists such as Faithless, Orbital and the Pet Shop Boys. In town for work and play, Sasha made time to share his experiences and talk about his musical journey at the Red Bull Music Studio.

Taking himself as a case in point, Sasha talked about the potential pitfalls of having too many foreign DJs on your 20

home turf. “You can’t rely on having international talent every week, it just wouldn’t work as a business model,” he said. “For you local guys, it’s really important you keep going and keep pushing your own sound.”

Sasha also gave his insight into the nuts and bolts of working behind the desks, and was scathing of software that has interfered too much with the art of DJing: “People actually quite like the imperfections when a DJ is playing, the beats not quite fitting. Modern technology takes that away and you have to be careful about that.”

After an hour on the couch, speaking to and answering questions from an engaged and knowledgeable crowd, it became clear that picking the brains of a leading music-maker is almost as entertaining as watching him perform.

Tune in to the latest news and events at redbullstudioscapetown.wordpress.com

Choose Wisely “You have to pick waves with a wall, but not too much: you don’t want to be playing catch-up the whole wave. Sometimes you can see the double-up and these are the ones that barrel through the inside. It’s hard to pick a good wave, because they all look good when they come around the points.”

The Moves “On a big J-Bay wall you can do some big tight snaps and drawn-out arcs, but nothing beats a long barrel. When you flow with the wave not against it, that’s good surfing.”

More on Mick at www.mickfanning.com.au

Words: Steve Smith, Richard Rumney. Photography: Rowan Pybus, Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Photofiles

Gods Are Smiling “Ideal J-Bay conditions: 6ft SW swell with a light offshore and a super low tide. When it’s on it’s probably my second favourite spot on Earth, behind Snapper Rocks on Queensland’s Gold Coast.”

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KIT EVOLUTION

Snap Judgement

Old Photos Leica Compur c 1930 Oskar Barnack, the head of development at German camera firm Leitz, came up with the idea for the first 35mm camera in 1914, so that he could take photographs when he went out hiking. The camera, the Ur-Leica, was improved upon over the next decade and eventually went on sale, 22

under the name Leica I, in 1925; it was during the following year that Leitz released the Compur. It had the same housing and lens as the Leica I, but featured a new shutter system that gave it faster shutter speeds of up to 1/300th of a second. This made for sharper images

of moving objects, and thus the Compur became a boon to the growing band of professional photographers. Legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson acquired his first Leica in 1932, and to him it was like “a sketchbook. Quick, discreet and no bigger than one’s hand.”

words: robert sperl. photography: Kurt Keinrath. with thanks to leicashop.com

From a film-loaded black box to a computer with a hole in the front, the change in compact cameras has been astonishing. Here’s how one legendary camera maker developed its picture-taking

New Shoots Leica M9, 2010 The fortunes of some of the great names in photography have fluctuated wildly with the advent of digital imaging; Polaroid and Kodak are not the leading lights they once were. However, Leica has survived and thrived for the best part of a century (the Leitz company became the Leica

company in 1986), making cameras upon which professionals and enthusiastic amateurs alike lavish a nerd-like level of reverential devotion. Its latest camera, the M9 – a descendant of Leica’s first digital compact, the C1, which was released in 1998 – has an 18-megpixel CCD, developed

by Kodak, which can replicate, in super-high definition, the 35mm format picture so beloved of photo pros. Plus, there’s that red Leica dot right where you watch the birdie: a reminder of a century of photographic quality. www.leica-camera.com

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Hard & fast Top performers and winning ways from across the globe

Slopestyle, SA style

How it went down at the snowboarding champs in Lesotho It’s fair to say that the SA snowboard community is small but committed.

The season may only be a patchy three months long at locations few and far between, but these are boarders clearly able to make the best of what they have.

This ethos was clearly in evidence at Quiksnow 2010 in August, the premier event of the season.

Held at Afri-Ski in Lesotho, on a massive slopestyle park with several kickers and rails, plus a new skin on the Red Bull wall ride, the location gave the competitors the required canvas.

The level of competition was way beyond that of 2009; half a dozen SA riders are now landing 540 rotations or better, and in Lesotho they were pushed to their limits by two European pros.

Jojo Krivec from Slovenia stole the show, sticking the first 900 in SA competition on the way to overall victory.

Marcin Jekot (above) was the highest placed South African, finishing second to Krivec, while Marcin’s sister, Marta, continued her domination of the women’s slopestyle division with an emphatic win.

“Everyone’s really stoked with the set-up and level of riding this year,” said 24

Marcin. “It’s a big leap forward and I think the field next year will be even better. The Bagjump [a giant airbag used in practice] should play a big part in that. It helped me learn to do a frontside five in a day.”

Fourteen-year old Luke Dutton earned himself R1,000 from sponsor Resolution, for a front edge bail on the big kicker that saw him stretchered off the mountain with a suspected fractured femur. But after getting a controversial green light from medics, Dutton was back on his board a day later and competed in the final.

As snowboarding in South Africa grows, it’s not unimaginable that we could one day have a Mzansi Olympian dropping into a pipe. If the Jamaicans can have bobsledders, surely we can have snowboarders?

South Africa’s Khotso Mokoena easily beat 11 others to win the men’s long jump final at the African Athletics Championships in Nairobi, with a jump of 8.23m.

ausser Beach volleyball duo Phil Dalh and Todd Rogers claimed their the seventh gold medal this year, at nd.

Mazury Orlen Grand Slam in Pola

Follow the SA snowboarding scene at www.snowboarder.co.za Women’s RESULTS

MEN’s RESULTS

1. Marta Jekot 2. Vicki Mayes 3. Natalie Scott

1.

2.

3.

Jojo Krivec Marcin Jekot Stefan hagi Hagleniter

With $50,000, Carissa Moore, 17, from Hawaii bagged the biggest prize in women’s surfing at the US Open Pro at Huntingdon Beach.

Words: Dorin Brambus, Ruth Morgan. photography: Luke Patterson, SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images, Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles, FIVB, J.R.Kenworthy

the Moto American Ashley Fiolek won es 16 Gam X at l Fina en’s Wom X er X Sup ing. runn year nd seco the for to take gold

b u l l e va r d

me and my body

brian vickers

A well-earned reputation as one of NASCAR’s best counted for little when the 26-year-old Red Bull Racing driver had his 2010 cut short by a blood disorder. Here’s how illness has – and hasn’t – affected him

Thin king Time

Being out of the car has been tough to deal with: it is the blood clots have definitely affected me, but what it is. I think these things happen for a reason and I’m trying to make the most of my time away and learn something from the experience – but obviously I’m itching to get back racing.

Scoff For The Off

Over the years I’ve figured out a routine that seems to work for me. On race day I have a good, hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, for the protein, then for lunch I’ll get in some more protein, some carbs and a little bit of sugar for some punch – probably a chicken and pasta salad, and I’ll make sure I have sweet potatoes, since they’re really good for sustaining energy for the long term.

I’ve worked with nutritionists in the past, and I’m going to work with one again because the blood thinners I’m on can affect my diet.

really Great Outdoo rs

Words: matt youson. Photography: Thomas Hoeffgen

I’ll go in the gym and do weights and some cardio work, but it drives me crazy, so whenever the opportunity arises, I’ll do my training outside. If I’m not on a bike, I’ll swim or surf or go rock climbing, conditions kayaking, hiking… whatever suits the right time the it’s and West and location. If I’m out the winter for ies Rock the into up get I’ll year of ings, which spor ts. I’ll cross-country ski in the morn lf in the myse enjoy and out, work ome awes an is ding. boar snow or hill down afternoon with some and hike. s place same the to go I’ll er summ In

What Sup?

We have to drink a lot of fluids in the build-up to a race because it’s very hot in the car. It isn’t specifically something for race day; the hydration process is something I’ll work on in the 72-48 hours leading up to the event. The day of the race I’ll hydrate with electroly te drinks, sports drinks or even just water. The temperature outside will determine when I stop drinking: it might be 4°C or 44°C – in fact, one time in California it was 47°C when the race began. If it’s cool outside, I’ll stop drinking three or four hours before the start; when it’s really hot I’ll keep going until 30 minutes before the start. I’ll be hydrated, but I don’t want all of that sitting on my bladder.

Hot

Stuff Bikram Yoga is the best exercise I’ve found to prepare me for what I do for a living. The biggest thing for our racing is def initely the heat inside our cars. There is a physica l strength aspect to it also, but the heat is fore most. I used to make fun of yoga and pilates, but I had a girlfriend who talked me into going to a class with her. Bikram Yoga is a hot yoga; it’s held in a steaming room, hea ted to 105°F, and is an intense workou t for an hour and a half. It’s fantastic preparation for driving in NASCAR. And holding those yoga poses… not eas y.

Four Wheels For Two I’m based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and when I’m there, I’ll jump on a bike and cycle to the ocean to swim for a couple of miles.

One of my favourite vacation spots is New York City, where I love to cycle just about everywhere on my single-speed, fixed-gear track bike. I have a proper road bike for when I’m taking longer rides outside the City and out into Jersey. Basically, wherever I am I’m usually out on a bike.

Switch It Off

Meditation is good for inner peace and being a calmer individual. I have a little bit of ADD and I find meditation helps me with that tremendously. It isn’t something I just use to help me at the race track, it’s something that’s useful for my everyday life, but when I’m at the track it helps me focus and gives me the ability to just turn everything off.

Sit Back An d Rela

x

For me, being in a raceca r is a ver y comfortable, ver y relaxin g environment.

Under red flags or betwee n practice sessions, I’ll tend to doze off. We do have huge crowds, but for me I don’t really pay attention to the fans when I’m in my pre-rac e routine and in the race itself. Before and after that they are a massive positive influen ce and help me get into the right frame of mind – but sometimes I like having the ability to switch it all off as well.

Follow Brian’s progress at www.brianvickers.com

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Winning formula

best of the six

It’s one of the great sights in sport: an attacking batsman smashing the ball back over the bowler’s head for a six. Here, one of international cricket’s finest explains how it’s done, while back in the pavilion, our resident scientist explains why the ball files so hard and fast

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Smash It! “Hitting a six back over the bowler’s head is almost always a premeditated shot, says JP Duminy, the South Africa batsman, “especially in limited-overs cricket, where scoring boundaries is a key part of the strategy.

“I keep my backlift low, to generate power. My legs are not too wide apart, with my front foot pointing toward where I want to hit the ball and the back foot properly planted: this anchors your core, where all the power really comes from. All the guys who hit the ball far have well-developed core muscles.

“There are two crucial factors in the connection you make with the ball: where on your bat you make contact, and the timing. The bat’s sweet spot is about 15cm up from the bottom.

You feel it when it happens – there’s hardly any vibration through your hands and you’re still in full control of the bat.

“Timing comes from making sure the ball is just below your head, under your eyeline, when you connect. Hit it earlier, when it’s too far in front of you, and it’ll go straight up in the

Words: Steve Smith, Dr Martin Apolin

b u l l e va r d

Photography: Gallo Images. Illustration: Mandy Fischer

Hit squad: Batsman JP Duminy (South Africa) and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal (Pakistan)

air and won’t clear the boundary rope. Hit it too late, and its trajectory will be too low to make the ropes. I focus on hitting through the line of the ball, making sure I follow right through.

“It’s not about how hard you swing, but getting your body into the right position, making the right contact with the bat and then following right through.”

Math It! “Cricket is a duel between bowler and batsman, says Dr Martin Apolin, of Vienna’s Institute of Sports Science, “and the best bowlers can reach bowling speeds of up to 40kph (39m/s).

“When you knock one object by moving another, heavier object – bat hitting ball – then the lighter object can travel at speeds significantly greater than the first object. This is why tennis balls can reach 250kph (69m/s) on the serve.

“Let’s consider momentum (p). Multiplying mass (m) and speed (v) gives the linear momentum of an object. A cricket ball has a mass of about 160g, whereas a tennis ball’s is only 57g.

That means a cricket ball has a maximum momentum of about 6.2kgm/s whereas a tennis ball’s is only 4kgm/s. So the impact of a cricket ball can be about 55 per cent greater.

“It’s not the momentum, but the force (F) generated by the collision that hurts. Force is the change of momentum multiplied by time, therefore F = ∆p/∆t or F x ∆t = ∆p. When the ball hits, there is a decelerating force that generates counter-momentum, which the ball’s momentum almost absorbs until the ball is compressed as much as possible and comes to a standstill.

“Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the ball is coming up against a hard surface and that the force increases in line with the ball’s distortion. A cricket ball is significantly harder than a tennis ball: distortion is shorter and the resulting force is considerably greater. A simulation following balls until they come to a standstill reveals that the force of a tennis ball is about 1,700N, whereas that of a cricket ball is 9,000N, more than five times higher. No wonder those guys wear a box.”

JP Duminy’s free-scoring ways are plain to see at www.youtube.com

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B u l l e va r d

Lucky Numbers

What was once a friendly transatlantic golf tourney is now one of the most keenly fought and anticipated contests in all sport.

But did you know about the guy who played without his putter?

Handicap of Mr Samuel Ryder (on the left), upon joining the Verulam Golf Club, St Albans, England, in 1909. Ryder, then 51, had a successful business selling seeds via mail order and had taken to golf a year earlier. By 1911 he was club captain and in love with the game; by the ’20s his firm was sponsoring tournaments, and in 1926, after an informal Britain v America match at Wentworth, he proposed a competition proper. A gold trophy was commissioned in his name, and the first Ryder Cup took place at the Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts in 1927. The United States beat Great Britain by 9 ½-2 ½.

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Cup-winning percentage of the United States team. Of the 37 tournaments played, the US have won 25. They only lost two and drew one of the first 19 Cups, so, in 1973, players from the Republic of Ireland joined the Brits. Three defeats later, in 1979, the United States lined up against a combined European team for the first time. With the likes of Bernhard Langer of Germany and Seve Ballesteros of Spain among the world’s best, the tide slowly turned, and, including a first victory in 1985, Europe have won seven and drawn one of the last 12 Cups. A toothless Tiger (right) hasn’t helped: Woods’ Ryder Cup record is 10-13-2 (won-lost-halved).

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Points won by the Ryder Cup’s winningest player, Nick Faldo (right), thanks to a record of 23-19-4. The Englishman also holds the records for most tournaments played (11, from 197797) and most matches (46). He was also the non-playing captain for the last match, in 2008, at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky – a US victory to which Faldo’s captaincy was said by many to have contributed – and, in happier times, aced the 14th at The Belfry in 1993 to record one of only six holes-in-one in Ryder Cup history.

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45

Distance in feet of Justin Leonard’s tournament-changing putt in 1999.

Immediately after holing out on the 17th during his final-day singles match at the Brookline Country Club, Leonard (left) was congratulated by his US teammates, some of whom ran onto the green before his opponent, José María Olazábal, had chance to putt. No rules were broken, but as on many occasions in the Ryder Cup, the gentleman’s agreement that is the game of golf was pushed to flashpoint. It’s not all like the ‘Battle of Brookline’, though: the Cup is also noted for its many moments of good sportsmanship.

12

Holes played without a putter by Ben Crenshaw (left) of the United States, in his 1987 singles match against Eamon Darcy. The American, one of the all-time great putters who was nicknamed Gentle Ben because he was most certainly not, snapped this most vital of clubs on the sixth green after going 2-0 down to the Irishman. The rules meant he wasn’t allowed a replacement, so for the remainder of his round, he putted using his one-iron, sandwedge and, on the 18th, his three-iron. Darcy sank a five-footer on the last to win by a hole.

135,000 Spectators expected for the 2010 Ryder Cup at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales. The crowd plays a large part, with European players complaining of zealous American fans, and the US team getting a hostile welcome. After the 2008 Cup, Lee Westwood called the abuse he received “shameful”, while in 1999, a nadir of misbehaviour was reached when a US fan spat at Europe captain Mark James’ wife. For next month’s match, the internet can tell you what “hit it in the trees” is in Welsh.

The 2010 Ryder Cup is on October 1-3, Celtic Manor Resort, Newport/Wales. www.rydercup.com

Words: paul wilson. photography: Action Images (2), Bettmann/CORBIS (1), Getty Images (3), PA (1)

6

Ryder Cup

kunde

DEFYING LOGIC

Reg. charity 267444 Photo: © Rodrigo Baleia.

Cattle ranchers in Paraguay want to cut down vast tracts of uncontacted Indians’ rainforest and still portray themselves as environmentally responsible.

How? Simple. Just call the islands of forests that are left ‘nature reserves’. Help restore logic. www.restorelogic.org/paraguay

Credit photography: Thomas Karlsson

Art of the matter: Swedish artist Makode Linde’s work is designed to make people think. Find out more about the man and his methods on page 38

Heroes

Men and women climbing mountains – in sport, music and art 32 awolnation 34 sifiso nhlapo 38 makode linde 40 anna StÜhr & Kilian Fischhuber

Heroes

Awolnation AWOL has never met Madonna, even though she got him his first record deal. But it doesn’t matter, as now he’s sharing the stage with the greats of indie rock Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Mark Glassner

The last three weeks of AWOL’s life have been exciting. They’ve had more excitement packed into them than many other musicians get in their whole career. He played an open-air show in Brooklyn with Weezer, one of his childhood heroes. There was a sea of people in front of him and the Manhattan skyline behind. He was the DJ for the VIP launch of M.I.A.’s new album. He played to a sell-out crowd in his home-town of Los Angeles, gave his first European concert in London, and in Chicago he shared a stage with MGMT, the hippest indie band in the world right now. In between, it’s been all airports, hotel rooms and interviews. It’s stressful, says AWOL. But it’s the best stress in the world.

This Californian singer created AWOLNATION only two years ago, an experience he found liberating: at last he wouldn’t have to compromise; at last he’d be able to do his own thing. “There were often endless discussions in the two bands I was in before,” he says. “Things shouldn’t go in this direction, we can’t do this like that. I’ve cast off those shackles now. AWOLNATION is 100 per cent my vision.”

His two previous bands were Home Town Hero and Under the Influence of Giants. Both were successful and both had record deals with big record companies. Home Town Hero was even signed to Maverick Records, Madonna’s label. “Sadly I’ve never met her in person,” AWOL explains, “but when we were signing the contract, the guy promised us we would.”

There was no huge breakthrough, though. Two years ago AWOL had to make a decision: should he carry on making music or become a lawyer?

“I made the right decision, and it probably would have been too late to become a lawyer anyway,” he says with a smile. “I wrote the best songs I’ve ever written during that time.”

You can hear those songs on AWOLNATION’s debut album, Back from Earth. And there’s no escaping the anger and doubt that AWOL felt in those times of upheaval. “If you need a little hit in your face, then that’s what I’m here for,” he rasps in the energetic 32

opener ‘Burn It Down’, an electronic rock anthem which just screams at you: “Stand up and let it all out!”

“That’s what life’s all about,” he says. “Giving your feelings free rein. Whether it’s euphoria or rage, whether it’s in your professional life or your love life.” The other songs on Back from Earth are testament to AWOLNATION’s musical scope. He shows his soulful side in ‘Guilty Filthy Soul’, and with its droning synthesisers, ‘Sail’ sounds like blues rock from Mars. The recurrent theme is raw, unbridled energy. AWOLNATION’s debut is an emotional powder-keg which threatens to explode at any moment. It’s high-voltage rock music.

Off-stage, AWOL is a very relaxed kind of guy.

He’s a calm interviewee. He answers thoughtfully.

He loves surfing, the ocean, Californian beaches.

At private gatherings he likes to mimic freestyle rappers. And his party habits have given him both a nickname and the name he performs under today.

“I often just up and leave without saying goodbye.

Which is how I became AWOL: Absent Without Official Leave,” he explains.

AWOL has three main musical influences.

Firstly, his father, who taught him to play ‘La Bamba’ on the guitar when he was eight. Then Kurt Cobain, whose band Nirvana encouraged him to write songs. And finally Jeff Buckley, whose song-writing masterpiece Grace made him realise that it needn’t be embarrassing for a man to sing up.

“When I was in a band in high school, I screamed more than I sang, because I was afraid to reveal too much of myself, especially in front of girls.

Which meant that we soon ended up just playing to drunk guys,” he says and shows me a tattoo on his arm. It says ‘Grace’ in blazing letters.

Given the band’s stellar rise, we probably shouldn’t be surprised if young musicians are soon having AWOLNATION tattooed on their arms.

He’ll get under your skin, one way or another.

You can find AWOLNATION videos, sound samples and an iPhone app at www.redbullrecords.com

Name AWOLNATION Born Westlake Village, California, USA Lives Thousand Oaks, a small town north of Los Angeles Occupation Musician Records His debut EP, Back from Earth (Red Bull Records) was released in May Web awolnationmusic.com

Print 2.0

za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 See the Californian afloat on Wolfgangsee and much more

AWOLNATION loves water. Doesn’t matter if it’s a mountain lake or the Pacific Ocean. “What do I dislike about being on tour? The fact that I can’t go surfing,” he says. “And getting the middle seat on a plane”

Heroes

Sifiso Nhlapo

He carried the hopes of a host nation into the recent world BMX racing championships and rode out the pressure to win a medal. Next up?

He’ll give you the one-race-at-a-time line. A ll we’ll say is London 2012

Name Sifiso Nhlapo Born May 13, 1987, Soweto, South Africa Lives Brackenhurst, Gauteng Brains trust Hervé Krebs has coached Sifiso since he turned pro at age 18. The Swiss still races, and finished third in the over-35s cruiser class at the ’Maritzburg worlds No 105 Nhlapo’s race number.

He won the Junior Elite Cruiser World Title in 2005, hence 1 in 05 Turning point Nhlapo broke his neck in a crash in June 2009: “I appreciate what I do and the people I meet along the way much more now than I did before”

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Not everyone likes Sifiso Nhlapo. He calls them The Few and The Few say that he has too much luck and not enough guts. The Few are a small fraternity in the South African BMX scene who resent what Sifiso Nhlapo has become. They are quick to bring up his crash in the 2008 Beijing Olympic final as a ‘choke’, or to ascribe his more-than-impressive tally of international podiums to good fortune.

“Jealous” says Nhlapo. “That’s the bottom line.

They’re in it for themselves, not the sport.”

It’s a chirp from a guy who’s genuinely frustrated with the way things are in a sport that’s always been the runt of South African cycling.

The irony is that these detractors are often parents, and without their involvement there would be no administrators, and therefore no junior competitive structure. Skizo, as Nhlapo is known, could not have come through the ranks if those ranks had not been there to come through.

And with no Skizo, there’d be no 2005 Junior Elite Cruiser World Title – in his matric year – or 2008 World Championships bronze medal or no representation at the 2008 Olympics final for South Africa. No one is more aware of this fact than Nhlapo himself, and it drives his passion for growing BMX racing in South Africa. He speaks about ‘giving back’ and ‘grassroots development’ with the sage wisdom of a 50-year-old veteran, not a 23-year-old elite racer coming into the prime of his professional career.

But in tandem with playing the long game, Nhlapo has to make short-term gains of his own to maintain his standing on the world stage. It is here, on tracks of manicured, ramped and bermed earth, that he prefers to let his performances do the talking.

On a balmy KZN Saturday in late July, at the 2010 UCI BMX World Championship, there was very little left for Nhlapo to say. Standing on the tallest ramp in the middle of the purpose-built track at the Royal Pietermaritzburg Showgrounds, with the rainbow flag around his shoulders and his helmet raised in salute, the only people in the 6,000-strong

capacity crowd who weren’t screaming his name were blowing vuvuzelas – and those instrumentalists didn’t stop going mental for half-an-hour after the final. Thirty minutes earlier, Nhlapo had crossed the line in second place, half a second behind the 2008 Olympic champion, Maris Strombergs of Latvia.

A BMX race day is a pretty intense affair. It starts with a time trial, which cuts the field in half. Then comes the Main, which consists of three motos, or qualifying heats, in which a racer has to accumulate enough points to advance to the quarter-finals. In ’Maritzburg, the Elite Men’s field was cut from 80 to 64 after the time trial, then cut in half after the motos, leaving 32 riders in the quarter-finals.

The time trial isn’t Nhlapo’s favourite discipline – he prefers the thrill and push he gets from having other racers around him – but knows how to race it.

That said, a technical mishap almost let him down in ’Maritzburg. “The first turn was pretty slick and it led to a lot of crashes,” he says. “I was running a soft-compound tyre, which almost made me lose it.”

What could have been a wipeout was curtailed into a skilfully righted slide, and qualification was comfortable. “We then changed the tyre to... more of a medium rubber, which was a lot better, and hooked up good,” he explains.

BMX isn’t nearly as glamorous as road racing, where teams have dedicated mechanics. ‘We’ in this instance was Nhlapo and Dean Holdstock, his close friend, rival and part-time mechanic, who was sitting out the Worlds because of a back injury.

“Set-up is very important,” says Holdstock, “but there isn’t much we can customise on our bikes, other than running stems and handle bars. Of course, how they look is important in this sport too.”

For a moment, during Nhlapo’s second moto, he looked like he was going out. He had a bad line into a jump and mistimed the launch, which threw him out of rhythm and off the pace. He came home in fifth place, leaving himself with a lot to do in the third and final moto, in order to qualify for the

Driving force: Sifiso Nhlapo is passionate about growing BMX racing in South Africa and developing grassroots talent

Heroes

“Brilliant ride for Sifiso Nhlapo! From a neck brace to silver at BMX Worlds in a year...

Great job!! GO RSA�

Garmin Transitions road pro Robbie Hunter on Twitter after the final

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Heroes

additional photography: www.squirephotographers.com

Left: Nhlapo’s injury taught him to race with his mind and body engaged. “I race smarter now,” he says Centre left: The 23-year-old prefers the thrill and added push he gets from having other riders around him in a race to solitary time trials Bottom left: Nhlapo on the podium with Maris Strombergs of Latvia, who won gold, and Frenchman Joris Daudet, who claimed the bronze medal

quarters. “I always need to loosen up a bit,” says Nhlapo, matter-of-factly. “That was my loosener.”

“He needs to have a bad heat somewhere in the day,” says Mark Squire, Nhlapo’s manager.

“Everybody does, and that was Sifiso’s; Fields had his in his final.” American prodigy Connor Fields, who was hotly tipped in the run-up to the contest, crashed out of the Junior Men’s final after having won every heat leading up to it. Crashing is a part of the game, and few riders know that better than Nhlapo, who, just over a year ago during a training session in Norway, fractured two cervical vertebrae in his neck in a horrific tumble.

“He did a lot of ligament damage and they had to operate through the front of his neck,” says Squire.

“He was miraculously lucky to not have any nerve damage, and so there was no risk of paralysis.”

From that point, the road back to top racing would be long and hard, but Nhlapo was determined to get there. “Deep down inside I knew the only things that could stop me from coming back would be death or being paralysed,” he says. “I went to see a doctor back in SA about my recovery time and he was like, ‘Sifiso, you need to find an office job or go back to school, because your neck will never be the same.’

I thought to myself, this dude doesn’t know who I am and what this sport means to me.”

If the injury and the crash in the Olympic final have taught him anything, it’s to race with mind and body engaged. “I’ve learned to listen to my body more in training, and I race smarter now,” he says.

“Within my limits when I need to. I guess I’m a little more calculated.” His calculated approach during the elimination rounds in ’Maritzburg paid off. He didn’t win any heats, but was always comfortably home in a transfer spot. It wasn’t attention-grabbing, but those in the know saw something. “Podium,” said Aaron ‘Big A’ Holdstock, father-figure of SA BMX, father of Dean and one of Sifiso’s first coaches, as Nhlapo finished the quarter-final. “I can’t tell you on which step he’ll be, but he’ll stand on the podium today.” Big A called it, the crowd wanted it and feeling it, more than anyone, was Nhlapo.

“There was definitely a lot of extra pressure on me because the event was at home,” he says. “But I like that kind of pressure; I perform well when there’s a bit of it on me.”

He proved his point in the semi-final, delivering his best finish of the day to that point after a disastrous start. In the final, Nhlapo lined up on top of the 8mhigh start ramp alongside Strombergs, the reigning World and Olympic champion, and event favourite Sam Willoughby of Australia. Strombergs took the holeshot – first place through the first turn – and led from start to finish, but Nhlapo stayed with him, the two opening up a lead on the rest of the field that never look like being challenged, especially after Willoughby crashed out of the race early.

It was the sort of performance that instils belief in a sportsman, in his fans and maybe, just maybe, in his detractors. Not that Nhlapo is worried. “The only thing to do is just hurt them where it hurts most: keep getting the results.”

Watch Nhlapo in action at www.skizo105.com

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Heroes

Makode Linde The Swedish artist uses his musical and artistic talents, coupled to a real and vivid sense of humour, to play with clichés and cock a snook at racism and prejudice Words: Uschi Korda Photography: Thomas Karlsson

Name Makode Linde Born June 28, 1981 Stockholm, Sweden Places of residence Stockholm and Berlin Occupation Artist Provenance Something of a renaissance man, with talent in a number of areas. He produces and composes music for theatre and film; prepares VJ art performances (with, for example, the artist Klara Lidén) and installations; designs record covers (for bands like Swedish alternative rockers Kent); and has plastered Stockholm’s legendary club/hotel/ venue Berns with his fluorescent wallpaper Upcoming Preparing exhibits for the Aland Art Museum in Finland as well as the KIASMA in Helsinki, for 2011 Web www.makodelinde.com

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“I’ve just been in India. South of Goa. It was a spontaneous decision to go. To find myself.”

“And, did it work?”

“Hell yeah! I found myself, lost myself, found myself again, lost myself again and then stopped counting. So I’m still the same person, just with more of a suntan.”

Swedish artist Makode Linde has an innocent look and a serious face, though the rogue can shine through in a fraction of a second. And if, like he has, you have stood out since childhood because of the way you look and the way you think, your sense of humour – no matter how dark – is likely to be perfectly pitched.

Linde says he knew in primary school that there was only one way he would get through life: to make himself into a humorous and complete work of art. Regardless of perspective, he was always an outsider. His father is a black musician who fled the strict Muslim environment of the Ivory Coast for Stockholm in the 1960s; his mother is a Swedish actress of Jewish origin.

“I am black, but I’m not very dark. I’m not a Muslim, nor am I Jewish. And I’m a Swede, even if I don’t look like one. It’d be hard for one person to invite more prejudices.” Thus the 29-year-old has made the most of what he has been given.

His personal style is somewhat eccentric.

“I was constantly being stared at because of the colour of my skin. So I began getting interested in fashion, because I wanted to give people another reason to stare at me,” he says. A walk around Stockholm with Linde cannot be an anonymous little stroll. At about 6ft 2in tall, the artist towers over most Swedes – already a tall bunch – helped in no small part by his pinned-up dreadlocks. He will enhance his outfits with little details, like an orange sticker with the word ‘aktas’ on it: “It’s Swedish for fragile and that’s exactly how my heart felt this morning.”

Having understood as a child that there was never going to be a nine-to-five to suit him, Linde

first turned to acting. “I was useless. I’m a great liar, but was unsuited to the stage,” he says. The look on his face as he says this suggests he may be lying, but it didn’t matter either way because the young man also had music in his blood. At Stockholm’s famous Adolf Fredriks music school, he studied, among other things, audio engineering and music production, composed music for the piano and synthesiser and founded bands with which he toured Sweden as lead singer. He also developed soundtrack elements for film and theatre and worked for The Royal Dramatic Theatre and Swedish television.

His graphic talents were discovered more by chance when he began drawing animations for his music. At 25, he enrolled at the Konstfack, Stockholm’s University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, where he has a small studio to this day.

“I’ve been a full-time artist ever since and can make a living from it,” says Linde.

Given his family’s background, it was perhaps obvious in which direction Linde’s performing arts would take him. “My work focuses on prejudice, against black people and all ethnic minorities.”

He goes about his work with an off-the-wall, slapstick humour, because he knows that people only take things seriously if they can laugh at them too, which is why he once made a mop out of dreadlocks, and he’s currently giving white icons, such as cartoon heroine Betty Boop, black skin.

He recently created an irreverent yet memorable installation in which he put the beards of famous characters from world history, such as Che Guevara, on Adolf Hitler. By playing with clichés, the Swede brilliantly shatters taboos, including his own.

“So was your India trip a success?”

“Yes, and imagine… I discovered I’m racist! The people there constantly touched me and there was a child who pulled my hair and I really screamed at her. I was shocked! I felt really awful afterwards!”

See Linde’s work at the Pantocrátor Gallery, Berlin, from October

Zitat Head: Zitat.Velis exer suscipsusto dion ut loborer ostiniamet in henisse vero exero odigna facipsusto corero

Bildtext im Bild ut velesto ercin utatum zzrit lut ea alisi exer sisim dipisl ullaorperos ad euis raesent am deliquipsum dolore te commy num aute dolortie faccum ver at lutpat.Ro od dolorer

A black Betty Boop (in the background on the printing press)? “Why not?” Swedish artist Makode Linde asks. “She looks good, doesn’t she?”

Heroes

Stöhr Fischhuber Anna

and Kilian

The best male boulderer in the world is going out with the best female boulderer in the world. So what’s it like when two rocks collide – and what on Earth is a boulderer?

Words: Werner Jessner Photography: Philipp Horak

A young couple trundle through Innsbruck’s pedestrian zone on their bikes, their sporty figures and tanned faces marking them out as, perhaps, fitness instructors or sport science students. He has just turned 27, has a dark shock of hair and a narrow face. She is 22, has long, plaited hair, a bag slung over her shoulder and a beaming smile. Both lean their bikes against the veranda of a venerable café. It’s the sort of scene that occurs thousands of times every day in certain cities in certain parts of the world: a living cliché of boho living. The picture would be complete with an order of two very specific coffees, but both opt for water.

Kilian Fischhuber and Anna Stöhr – both studying sport and English, as it turns out – are world leaders in bouldering, a type of rope-free climbing where height is unimportant and complexity is everything. It is a sport that attracts thousands of spectators to events in Italy and Austria and Russia and China and America. It’s a very urban form of climbing: it brings the mountain to the people, and it brings the people to the edge of their seats.

If regular mountain climbing is like a rock concert that goes on for hours where the little mistakes don’t matter too much, then bouldering is more like open-mic jazz improvisation: always new, unique, unpredictable. Fischhuber likes the comparison, in theory, “even if I don’t like jazz”.

Indie and alternative are more his scene, and he stretches to drum ’n’ bass, whereas Anna, at a push, will swap the last of the three for reggae.

Fischhuber’s CV currently has four overall bouldering World Cup wins and he’s finished in the top three for the last seven years. He is a threetime winner of the prestigious Rock Master event in Arco, Italy; all that eludes him is a World or European Championship title. Stöhr has already been crowned World Champion and has also won the overall World Cup and the Rock Master.

Where their records of achievement aren’t exactly alike, their climbing styles are: both are quick, powerful and efficient. Whereas most boulderers 40

tend to hang on the wall (either natural boulders or, increasingly, the man-made kind fabricated solely for climbing) while they balance their weight, adjust their hold, pause and shake down their hands and arms in an improvisational and interrupted attempt to ascend, Fischhuber and Stöhr storm up the wall like Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. The two-time World Rally champion Walter Röhrl of Germany had a theory about this approach: “I just take the bends quickly because then they’re done.”

For these two, speed is a state of mind. To be able to climb as quickly and safely as they do, experience and physical conditioning are not enough.

“Bouldering is all in the head,” says Fischhuber.

“No two competitions are alike. Even the best climber might come unstuck against a no-hoper in our sport.

The boulders themselves and the holds you get are what matter. Hermann Maier was the best skier there was, but on some courses he didn’t have a chance. Two things count in bouldering: the middle and the top. Nothing else matters. A single boulder, more or less, can often make a difference of 10 places in the World Cup. Every movement is unique and you can’t reproduce them, even when you train 200 days a year, as we do. Everyone has their own style, and that is how you develop problem-solving strategies.

You’ve got to think things over beforehand, and the more you do that and the more experience you have, the more solutions you’re going to come up with.

Other than that, you’ve got to remain flexible and be able to make changes when you’re up on the wall.”

The rules of bouldering say that for a climber to finish correctly, he or she has to, with both hands, maintain a hold in the marked finish holds for three seconds. It’s not uncommon for a competitor to lunge for that last hold while letting out a roar to rival any scorer of any goal, touchdown, point or what-have-you.

“When you’re climbing a difficult boulder, you want to rip the hold out of the wall,” says Fischhuber.

“All the tension fades away. You’re up at the top, everyone else is down below you, and it takes a lot

Name Anna Stöhr Born April 25, 1988, Reith im Alpbachtal, Tyrol, Austria Lives Innsbruck Occupation(s) Bouldering, studying English and sport Achievements World Champion 2007; overall World Cup winner 2008; Arco Rock Master champion, 2006, 2007 and 2010 Web www.anna-stoehr.at

Name Kilian Fischhuber Born August 1, 1983, Waidhofen/Ybbs, Lower Austria Lives Innsbruck Occupation(s) Bouldering, studying English and sport Achievements Overall World Cup winner 2005, 07, 08, 09, 2nd in 2010; Arco Rock Master champion 2005, 08, 09 Web www.kilian-fischhuber.at

Top couple: Kilian Fischhuber and Anna Stöhr have a successful partnership – both in life and sport

A holiday snapshot: Stรถhr and Fischhuber in South Africa

Heroes

“I need my muscles and I like the way they make me look”

photography: Reinhard Fichtinger

Anna Stöhr of aggression. You’ve got to push yourself. When you’re up there, you can let it all out.”

The pair do have a common weakness: they are terrible spectators. “Problems look more logical from far away than up close,” explains Stöhr. “Often I want to shout to him: ‘Look, this is what you should do!’”

“From a couple of metres away, the layman in the audience can see the solution quicker than the athlete on the wall,” agrees Fischhuber. “Plus, it really brings out your stubborn streak when another top sportsman says to you that you should be doing things the way you just have done.”

There will be lots of boyfriends and girlfriends who will tell you that the last person they want advice from is the interfering so-and-so with whom they share their life. But when those other halves are the best in the world at what they do, and what they ‘do’ is the same, then things can get complicated. “I try to give Anna tips during training only,” says Fischhuber.

“You want to help, after all. But it’s often no use.”

That has to do with something very specific to the sport: you alone define your boulder in training.

Technique is one side of the coin, but pre-existing physical capabilities the other. Climbers that don’t have the best technique, but long limbs, can leave competitors of smaller stature in the dust with holds and reaches that they’re unable to make.

Any ambitious male amateur climber, for example, would be able to negotiate a boulder that Anna couldn’t do, even if she is better technically: “He’d just have to increase the gap between holds.” It is said that the ideal body for bouldering is 170-175cm tall, weighs 60-65kg and is male; that pretty much perfectly describes Kilian Fischhuber. But, he hastens to add, “women’s climbing is more aesthetic because they have less relative strength and so their technique is more important.” However, Stöhr points out, “Kili’s main rival, Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic, has a physique you’re unlikely to see the like of on anyone else: an incredibly long neck and little muscle.”

Bouldering isn’t beach volleyball, but climbers still care what their bodies look like. “Defined muscles are considered nice on a man but not on a woman,” says Stöhr. “I need my muscles and they suit me. I like the way they make me look.”

“Neither of us goes to the gym,” Fischhuber says.

“Compared to other top sportsmen and women, we have lower basic stamina, but that’s not the point of bouldering. If I go out cycling, I do it because I like cycling and not as training. Our fitness is largely down to us doing lots of different sports.” For Fischhuber, this plurality of pastimes began at school.

“We had a wonderful PE teacher at my secondary school in Lower Austria, which focused on sports.

His name was Herbert Lettner and he commanded

complete respect. He tried all sorts of sports with us, and he laid the foundations for my career.”

“Kili was incredibly talented. Regardless of the sport you presented him with, he was always good at it,” remembers Lettner. “You couldn’t go wrong with him.

He could do 40 chin-ups without batting an eyelid.”

The responsibility for their careers fell to others.

His first trainer was Martin Kerscher, followed by Rupert Messner, who’s also Anna’s trainer. “Our success wouldn’t be possible without Rupi as our trainer and advisor, and Reinhold Scherer, who opened doors for us in the climbing hall,” says Fischhuber.

Stöhr herself was born into a sporting environment.

Her parents both climbed and would take their young daughter with them to the mountains in France. She grew up in Innsbruck’s climbing community and never had to force herself to train; climbing was an excuse to meet friends and to do something fun with them: “It’s such a social sport. I climbed because it was always such a laugh. My social circle is extremely important to me. My rival Olga Bibik has to train alone in a basement. We wouldn’t put ourselves through that.”

Stöhr believes that fate brought her a fellow climber for a partner. “It’d be really boring to be with a guy who doesn’t climb. I like the fact that we get to spend so much time together when we’re competing and training, and the fact that there’s always someone there for me, in good times as well as bad. If my boyfriend wasn’t a climber, training would be a chore, and that would make everything more difficult.”

You’d be right to think that Fischhuber and Stöhr lead very happy lives. Neither of them gets bored, and as he explains, “we can live our dream and make a living from it too. We’re not in a hurry to finish our studies either. We travel abroad, earning money from sport. How could things be any better?”

Their preparations for competition are simple. Stöhr switches on her MP3 player to relax, Fischhuber most certainly does not: “I have to try and let my nervous tension build,” he says. “You shouldn’t be too relaxed when you’re about to compete. And I get into that frame of mind, on my own, in my own way.

“Up on the wall, we can’t help each other.

I have no way of communicating with Anna during a competition. Only when I know that she’s made it into the final and hear the audience going wild do I realise it’s all gone well. If we want to get on well as sportsmen and people, it’s important to understand each other and to be able to put yourself in the other’s shoes. We do that well. The worst thing would be to patronisingly console one another if one of us has done really badly in a competition: ‘It’s not that bad. There’s always next time.’ We can do better than that – we’ve got to be honest with each other.

“I came third in a competition in Russia this year and was annoyed with myself. At the next competition in Holland I came third and was happy.

People outside the sport don’t understand the difference: for them, third place is third place. No one can appreciate what a sportsman or woman does as well as someone who’s done it themselves.”

Stöhr, listening intently, nods in agreement.

The European Sportclimbing Championships are on September 15-18, in Imst/Innsbruck, Austria. Visit www.euro-2010.at

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photography: liam lynch

The rough with the smooth: The conditions at the OppiKoppi festival may be a challenge, but the music from artists such as Haezer (pictured) makes it all worthwhile. Read why on page 68

Action

Snapshots from a big, wide world of amazing exploits‌ 46 Red bull Illume photographic contest 60 The first f1 pop star 68 SA’s biggest music festival turns 16

category: illumination

Chris Burkard USA

Athlete: Peter Mendia Location: Buchupureo, Chile “The light, wind, and swell were perfect.

It was as if everything in nature fell into perfect harmony for this moment. As Peter eased into the wave, the backwash hit, sending him down another barrel.”

Burkard’s image has been voted the best adventure and sports photo in the world by the Red Bull Illume jurors.

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action Print 2.0

za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Explore the relationship between photographer and athlete

a winning

vision

In Red Bull Illume 2010, a global photography competition, 4,337 lensmen and women from 112 countries entered 22,764 images in 10 categories.

The 53 jurors had their work cut out in selecting the 0.04 per cent of photos worthy of winning, but their pick of the pics is astonishing in both its scope and impact. Here the winning photographers talk us through their champion shots

Category: Playground

Tim Korb­macher Germany

AthletE: Stefan Lantschner Location: Krefeld, Germany “The setting was perfect by the time we arrived. Stefan rode intensively for a while, so I had the chance to test various shots. It took me some time to realise how massive this pipe actually is when you look at it from the outside – and it’s only a piece of what was destined to become part of an even bigger industrial pipeline system”

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Category: spirit

Adam Kokot Poland

AthletE: Michał Król Location: Spišské Tomášovce, Slovakia “The main issue I had was talking climbers into going to this spot, as the region is known for this kind of dangerous and unsafe climbing route. The idea for the photo only came into my mind when we were up there during Michał’s climb. He was resting before the difficult final section of the route and I just asked him to lean back and enjoy the views.”

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Category: sequence

Miguel Ángel López Virgen Mexico

Athlete: Alfredo Salcido Location: Guadalajara, Mexico “I was a little bit worried because the deadline for the contest was approaching and I didn’t have any pictures to enter. So I decided to take pictures of my friends’ shadows while they skated at night.”

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Print 2.0

za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Find out how to compose a sequence photograph

Category: energy

Stuart Gibson Australia

AthletE: Ryan Hipwood Location: Shipstern Bluff, Tasmania, Australia “When the waves here are this big, you have to be towed in by jetski. They’re moving so fast, drawing so much water from the reef, that paddling is out of the question. Ryan’s wave wasn’t the biggest of the day, but it was the heaviest.

He’d had serious wipeouts and made the typical ‘one more’ call... then this huge black beast filled the horizon.”

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Action

Category: culture

Vincent Perraud France

Athletes: Alex Baret and friends Location: Tallinn, Estonia “This photo was taken during the Simpel Session, one of the biggest international BMX events, after a long day of qualifiers.

Everyone was tired and looking forward to getting back to the hotel because of the weather: it was -10°C. So the riders started cramming into the bus, which wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.”

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Category: wings

Marcel Lämmerhirt Germany

AthletE: José Eber Pava Ordoñez Location: Hamburg, Germany “This is the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, a perfect backdrop for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. It was 4pm and I moved to a bridge over the canal to get this angle, so I could shoot against the sun.”

Action

Category: close up

Nathan Smith AustraliA

Category: Experimental

Daniel Grund Germany

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AthletE: Andrew Mooney

Location: Wamberal, New South Wales, Australia

“This is my mate and fellow Central Coaster Andrew Mooney, a damn good surfer who’s got all the tricks.

The shot was taken late in the day, when it was pretty dark, at his home break, only about 20 minutes from where I grew up. Surf photography is all about moments like this one. It’s what I’m addicted to.”

Athletes: Alejandro Maclean, Nicolas Ivanoff

Location: Monument Valley, Utah, USA

“Alex and Nicolas executed this perfectly, switching on the smoke on at precisely the right moment. It all happened so quickly: you’re standing outside the helicopter on the skid and the planes race toward you at about 350kph. Of course, this picture looks a lot better when you’re wearing 3D glasses.”

Category:

New Creativity

Eric Berger Canada

AthletE: Dan Treadway Location: Whistler, Canada “I took this in snowmobile-only backcountry just south of Whistler. I managed to position myself in a sort of cave and shoot out towards the opening. I was both nervous and excited when I realised that it was a unique angle and there was the potential to get a great shot.�

An exhibition of Red Bull Illume 2010 photos is currently at Trinity College, Dublin. www.redbullillume.com

Action

Jochen Rindt died 40 years ago at Monza.

Afterwards he became World Champion.

The first Formula One pop star

When he died at the age of 28, Rindt had only just pushed open the door to new dimensions. He brought a new form of glamour, esprit and lightness into Grand Prix motor racing, unknown ’til then. To say nothing of his outstanding talent to master a race car of the ‘wild era’. Those who shared some of the journey found it magnificent – a fabulous splash of colour in their lives

As a youth in Styria, Jochen Rindt was held in the way, it was simply too tight. The Impala, caught same social esteem as his similarly aged pal Helmut in the headlights of Rindt’s Simca, seesawed a Marko, today Red Bull’s motorsport consultant. couple of times on the bank until Marko decided to Their Graz secondary school approached the two abandon ship. The car fell in the other direction.) young gentlemen with a tempting offer. Making a The intended car-less time in the remote boarding mockery of their educational prowess, the principal school was, however, made bearable by a skiing would give them a positive leaving certificate if they accident that befell Rindt: leg in plaster. The company would just clear out, schnell, and rock that he would eventually inherit (a spice up at some other school – preferably in mill in Mainz; his parents were killed in Name a remote place, as far away as possible, the Hamburg bombing raids), sent a VW Karl Jochen Rindt where their arrival would surely be Beetle with chauffeur for the poor boy’s Born awaited with great anticipation. daily shuttle service. The chauffeur April 18, 1942, Mainz.

The ‘Boarding School of Last Hopes’, immediately received his marching orders Germany Died on September 5, 1970 in 100 miles away in Bad Aussee, sounded – after all, there were other pupils who Monza, Italy ideal. There, Jochen Rindt’s bundle of already had a driving licence. In fact, Lived police moped fines would never find entirely predictably, the only people Graz, Vienna, Paris, him, nor would questions be raised as to ever to take the wheel were those sans Begnins near Geneva why, late at night and without any form documents. And a plastered leg firmly Profession of driving licence, Helmut Marko had planted on the throttle was no handicap.

Racing driver demolished his father’s Chevrolet Impala.

Four would sit on the car, the driver Success (Their intentions hadn’t been all bad: plus three witnesses who looked at the Formula One following the clique’s code of honour, the stopwatch, checked the maximum revs World Champion faster car [Impala v Simca Monthléry] was and gave points for cornering style. If (posthumous); Six only allowed to overtake in the corners. grand prix victories; 10 the committee found fault, the next Even as a teenager, Jochen Rindt wasn’t passenger took a turn at the wheel. pole positions one to offer the ideal line to rising talents, During one serious test run back in Web www.jochen-rindt.at and with a lorry then coming the other Graz, a snowplough split the Simca to 60

photography: Bildagentur Kräling

Words: Herbert Völker

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“The cars were incredibly fast but had little grip – wings were only just being developed, the underbody had no aerodynamics, the wheels were narrower”

photography: Alois Rottensteiner/Archiv Klein (2), Milan Schijatschky (1), Bildagentur Kräling (1), Schlegelmilch Photography (2)

the front axle – the skier, attached by a 3m rope to the back of the car suffered the usual bruises.

Helmut Marko: “Today all the talented youngsters start out at kart tracks. We had the twisty roads and cars that we ‘borrowed’ from Dad’s garage. Our street competitions replaced two Formula 3 seasons, today it would be a case for the juvenile court.”

Five, six years later, 1965, Rindt won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a private Ferrari against the works Ferraris and Fords, putting his name on the map.

Formula One contracts followed with Cooper, then Brabham, but the cars were lemons, just good enough for spectacular moments in the F1 album: but how he would harass the Ferraris and Lotuses, a Jim Clark or Jackie Stewart, so fabulously sideways in the corners. Jochen Rindt’s overwhelming talent became even more apparent in Formula 2 where all Grand Prix stars competed those days. Rindt was practically invincible.

Helmut Marko, who went on to race in Formula One before being involved in a career-ending accident, can best vouch for Jochen’s talent: “He went absolutely flat out, so mercilessly that I can only compare him to Ronnie Peterson and Gilles Villeneuve, and to Gerhard Berger on his best days.

His extreme car control, which defies further explanation, was complemented by extreme courage. This became obvious in the fastest track sections – for example in 150mph (240kph) corners like the notorious right-hander after the finish straight at Silverstone – before it

Licence to thrill Jochen Rindt is remembered as one of the boldest and most spectacular drivers in Grand Prix history. He pulled off some amazing sideways manoeuvres. The king of Formula 2 (1968, top left), mischievous with the heavy Cooper-Maserati (1967, top right), brilliant in his triumphant year in 1970 (in the Lotus 49 at Monaco, bottom row). In the Lotus 72 at Brands Hatch (main picture)

Rindt could do what he wanted. It always somehow worked out OK

was tamed. It was a corner where you needed all the faith in the world to take it practically full tilt. Rindt took it sideways, in full drift. It was his trademark way of letting the car’s rear hang out where no one else dared.”

There were practically no neutral or understeering vehicles, if there were, it was purely a design failure.

Helmut Marko: “When it got serious there was oversteering. When the rear came around you knew you were at the limit. The cars were incredibly fast but had little grip – wings were only just being developed, the underbody had no aerodynamics, the wheels were narrower. It was an unbelievably dangerous generation of race cars, and no one mastered it more brilliantly and resourcefully than Jochen Rindt.”

Jochen’s beginnings with the Finnish beauty Nina were less successful. She prescribed a two-year pause before discovering in this rakish young hero a person she could take seriously.

They married in 1967.

His “funny looks”, that gave young Nina a start at their first chance encounter, turned into an international photo motif: a pop star in progress, coincidentally at

the time when America’s fashion for posters and T-shirts flooded Europe.

He couldn’t put a foot wrong, which made a huge impression on the likes of young Niki Lauda, later to win three Formula One World Championships: “There was a marketing photo for Ford.

Jochen was wearing the most unbelievably apish fur coat you could imagine, a racoon monster of a coat. Anyone else would have looked completely ridiculous in this fur, but Jochen looked so fabulous that it gave you goosebumps.”

Jochen’s voice was unmistakable.

It had something nasal about it, like in the jokes where people come to the doctor with adenoid problems, but there was also something metallic, and an accent of husky, Styrian barking. Added to this was his perfect English with clever abbreviations – opening another door for witticisms. With such an easy lightness of word, there unfolded for him a culture of conversation that was unique.

Rindt’s career received a very special kick through his relationship with Bernie Ecclestone. The Briton was 12 years older than Rindt and had just saved his neck from his own racing attempts. Now in his mid-30s, Ecclestone was in the fast lane of wheeling and dealing in the racing business, with an immaculate reputation and ‘handshake’ business qualities.

The grandeur to regard motor racing as British Territory by right was part of Ecclestone’s basic equipment. It soon enabled him to set the style in the world of racing, wherever he moved. And the friendship with a total outsider, an Austrian (though born in Germany), opened new worlds for them both.

Two characters of this calibre alone would have been enough to evolve the consultant-driver constellation to become a very special and successful team, and the mutual attraction added an extra quality to life. Part of this was the legendary school of practical jokes, which a lad from the Styrian provinces went through to get entry into the inner circle – and rightly so, because such an honour wasn’t easily bestowed.

It would be a few years before backgammon became the dominating pastime of the racing circus, Ecclestone’s circle favoured Gin Rummy in the mid-’60s, all bets on, of course, but still at reasonable levels. Rindt loved this game and would quickly pick Bernie off between two practice sessions. What wonderful paddock magic. Imagine it today.

A certain, shall we say, respect for money was typical of the two. This went 63

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Driver interviews: anthony Rowlinson photography: Getty Images (1), Grand Prix Photo (1), Bildagentur Kräling (2), Milan Schijatschky (1), Schlegelmilch Photography (3), Sutton Motorsport Images (2)

His “funny looks” gave young Nina a start at their first chance encounter, and turned him into an international photo motif: a pop star in progress as far as the mutual outlines of business ideas, far exceeding people’s imagination back then. That’s why the topic always keeps popping up: what if Bernie and Jochen had grabbed all of Formula One for themselves? The fact is that Jochen, even in 1968, was completely convinced there was a great deal of room in F1 for entrepreneurial fantasy and that he just had to survive in order to then leap into a joint venture with Bernie. Looking back today, how would that have affected Ecclestone’s 30-year world domination over F1? Long after Rindt’s death, Ecclestone said: “I wouldn’t have had to worry about the clashing of characters…

Jochen was as gentle as a baby.”

With the announcement of a switch to Lotus in the autumn of 1968, interest in Rindt grew dramatically. Lotus was sheer excitement, and its boss, Colin Chapman, an awe-inspiring constructor and team boss, the charismatic, absolutely unique ‘Mr Lotus’. His most important heroic deed had happened several years earlier – the invention of the monocoque for motor racing [an idea that would revolutionise racing car design].

So it came to the legendary summer of 1970: Jochen Rindt in Lotus took on the rest of the world. At the unbelievable conclusion to the Monaco Grand Prix, where he hounded triple champion and race leader Jack Brabham into making a mistake in the very last corner, Rindt’s image as a hell-raiser was cemented.

Then came the winning streak: victory at Zandvoort [Holland], at Clermont-Ferrand [France], at Brands Hatch [UK] and at the Hockenheimring [Germany], gave Rindt

THE BEST OF TIMES Compared with today, drivers were much more relaxed with one another: with Jacky Ickx and Piers Courage; with Jackie Stewart. The start at Brands Hatch in 1970 (front row l-r): Rindt (Lotus), Jack Brabham (Brabham), Jacky Ickx (Ferrari). A Repco engine in Brabham’s F1 in 1968. Victory ceremony at Monaco with Princess Grace, Princess Stephanie, Prince Rainier and Princess Caroline

memories of rindt by those who raced in the 1970 Italian Grand Prix

Jacky Ickx

BE, Ferrari Not winning at Watkins Glen was such a release. How could you beat someone not able to defend his own chances?

[Post-Monza, Ickx was the only man still capable of out-scoring Rindt. But Ickx’s fourth place at the American GP, the penultimate round of the championship, confirmed Rindt as champion.] The fact that Jochen won the world championship was the most perfect solution. Now when I think back I feel so sad.

sir Jackie Stewart

Jochen Rindt at the beginning of his Grand Prix career in 1965

a clear world championship lead. Austria and Germany were mad for F1 and mad for Rindt. The stories that emerged later about Rindt knowing the danger he was in, about his desire to retire and his yearning for a real life were largely true.

First, Rindt was intelligent enough to work out the statistics, that eventually it would be him. Racing those days was Russian roulette, especially in a Lotus.

Drivers lost their lives back then in even less daring constructions. In Rindt’s six F1 seasons, 12 drivers died, the most famous being Jim Clark, Bruce McLaren, Lorenzo Bandini, Gerhard Mitter and Rindt’s close friend Piers Courage.

During his international years, Rindt had matured considerably and become a serious person, so much so that he could very well imagine a life without the madness. He loved his wife Nina, he loved his daughter Natascha, he wanted to see how it was to be a normal father.

But then, on the other hand, he was crazy enough and seemingly invulnerable enough to hunger after Chapman’s talk of a turbine car, how they would take home the first world championship and then the second; how they would show the whole world. And this wasn’t wild talk: in the sum of their genius they were

GB, Tyrrell It was very traumatic. Helen (Stewart) went to the hospital with Nina (Rindt) and that’s never a nice thing for a wife to do, to look after another wife. After the accident I’d been to Jochen and come back to Nina, who had totally disappeared with Helen.

When I went out later to qualify I was in tears.

But when I had the visor down that was when I did my qualifying time, which was the best lap I had ever done at Monza. I didn’t have a death wish, but as I came back in, my best friend John Lindsay, handed me a Coca-Cola, I took a drink and I was so angry I smashed it against the concrete wall that separated the pits from the track. That was my emotion.

John Miles

GB, Lotus (team-mate) Jochen had a tremendous urgency about the way he conducted his life and he was very quick to judge.

The Lotus 72 [the title-winning car on which Miles helped the development] was such a troublesome child – every time I got into it something broke. Jochen kind of didn’t want to drive for Lotus in one sense because he knew the cars were liable to let him down, but there was engineering rashness with the 72. If we hadn’t been doing stupid experiments like taking the wings off with zero aerodynamic data to base it on and if the mechanics hadn’t pulled an all-nighter to do this stuff, then maybe Jochen would still be alive.

Emerson Fittipaldi

BR, Rob Walker Lotus (team-mate) By the time of Monza I was the third driver at Lotus, behind Jochen and John Miles. Over breakfast before practice, we were talking about my 1971 contract. Then came the disaster. It was awful for me. I was only 22 and he was a guy I had looked up to as an idol. He was always very good to me when I arrived in Europe from Brazil and his death was a big shock. Although Jochen could sometimes seem quite cold if you didn’t know him, he was a really warm guy underneath. He was an extreme talent and a fantastic guy.

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memories of rindt Chris Amon

NZ, March I talked to Jochen at Monza just before he went out for his last practice lap. His confidence levels were very high. He was on his way to winning the world championship and he was confident of a good result. A few minutes later he got in the car and never came back. I don’t know if we ever saw the best of him. Around that time the two guys I really rated were Jochen and Jackie (Stewart).

For me he will always be one of the best.

Peter Gethin

GB, McLaren As a competitor he was exceptional, in everything he drove. When he came into F1 he was with Cooper which at that time wasn’t a great car, but you could see he was exceptionally good and that he was destined to be a world champion. I was on track when he crashed and not that far behind him. I remember Jackie Stewart running back to me in the pits asking if I’d seen what happened. It was a very sad and traumatic day, but if you thought about it too much you couldn’t do your job. That’s how it was.

Sir Jack Brabham

AUS, Motor Racing Developments Monza 1970 was a very sad weekend for me. I had become very close friends with Jochen and we had so many great races together.

I rated him very highly as a driver and felt he was a wonderful competitor. He was a very good type of man and beyond that he was one of the best drivers of that period and captured the imagination of the racing public.

Jean-Pierre Beltoise

FR, Matra At that time, it wasn’t a question of if we would die in a racing car but when. So after I learned that Jochen had died, I didn’t really feel a huge shock. I’ll always remember him as a very nice guy. I knew him well and we were very good friends. When he died he was the man to beat: definitely one of the great drivers.

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THE FINAL MINUTES Practice on Saturday, September 5, 1970. A standard routine in the pits, with Nina taking up her customary position – until a horrible silence drifts across the track. Jackie Stewart (bottom right) with Nina during the Monza weekend

indeed unbeatable, with their technological foresight, in the art of their implementation, in the sheer scope of their visions.

Looking back now on the accident on September 5, 1970, during Saturday’s practice at Monza, it seems just as banal as it was 40 years ago. Approaching the Parabolica a brake shaft broke – legacy of the lightweight-daring Lotus construction – and Jochen had no chance. The crash

against the barriers (in those days guard rails) would have left a modern F1 car heftily crumpled, then in the gravel trap the driver would have removed his steering wheel, climbed out, refitted the wheel, the marshals would have pushed the car away, maybe the safety car would have come out, while the driver, helmet in hand, would have marched back to the pits.

In fact, Rindt had a very clear idea that racing had to become safer, if only to prevent sanctimonious politicians from eventually banning the entire sport, as happened in Switzerland.

Jochen, with his friend Jackie Stewart, was standing at the very beginning of the development leading to calculable risks, that would subsequently pick up great

photography: Paul-Henri Cahier/The Cahier Archive (1), Milan Schijatschky (3), Sutton Motorsport Images (4)

John Surtees

GB, Team Surtees At that time there were a number of drivers, if they were in the right car at the right time, who had the potential to become world champion and he was one of those. The accident was probably caused by mechanical failure, too, and that reawakened memories that there are things beyond your control at times, particularly in those days. You had to recall why you were there and what you were there to do – a job that generally you loved.

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memories of rindt Tim Schenken

AUS, Williams That weekend was only my second Grand Prix. I’d been doing F2 up to then, so I’d already raced against Jochen and he was a bit of a hero of mine. When you were with him you knew you were in the presence of someone special. Then suddenly someone who you look up to is killed and you feel very confused. So somehow you put another driver’s death out of your mind.

I didn’t reflect on it, which seems quite harsh and at the next race it was if he had been forgotten, which was quite odd and quite sad.

Andrea de Adamich

IT, McLaren

By Monza 1970, the only reason that Jochen was not dominating, rather than simply leading, the championship was that his Lotus was fragile as well as fast. Just before Jochen crashed he had come out of the pits. It’s my belief that his belts weren’t done up properly, and this is what caused him to slide under them, with the buckle crushing his neck. We’ll never know, but I think if his belts had been properly fastened, he could have survived

Nanni Galli

IT, Ecurie Bonnier The fact that Jochen is the only posthumous world champion tells you how good he was. We were firm friends. Sadness has blocked some of the memory of the weekend, but at first I thought the accident was not too serious, because there was no fire. Fatalities were just a fact of life, but it also meant that the relationships between people were closer and that driving standards were more correct.

photography: Crash Media Group (1), Milan Schijatschky (2), Sutton Motorsport Images (4)

Jackie Oliver

As hard as the impact was, Rindt would have survived the crash had today’s safety standards been in place momentum with Niki Lauda and later Ayrton Senna and lead to the era of carbonfibre monocoques and wide run-off areas.

Heading to Monza, Rindt had twice as many points as closest rival Jacky Ickx, of Ferrari. Afterwards, there were races in Canada, the USA and Mexico. Rindt couldn’t defend himself anymore, and

mathematically Ickx was still in contention for the title. But when he secured only fourth in Watkins Glen (USA), the guessing was over. Jochen Rindt became World Champion posthumously. It was good and right like this, said Ickx back then, greatly relieved, and he still says it today.

More images at za.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Explore today’s F1 at www.redbullracing.com

GB, BRM It was a very dangerous period for motor racing. Lots of us were getting nailed and in a situation like that you didn’t dwell on accidents. I shut myself down. No remorse. No sadness. No tears. As far as I was concerned Jochen was just gone. Looking back it was probably an inappropriate way to behave, but I suppose a number of others were exactly the same.

Henri Pescarolo

FR, Matra Jochen was exceptionally fast, very spectacular and aggressive. Great for the fans to watch. I remember the year he died, 1970, at Monaco, I stayed ahead of him for most of the race until he won at the very last corner when he passed Jack Brabham. I knew that if I had stayed ahead of Jochen I had done a good job.

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come as you are Over August 6-8, SA’s biggest music festival was held for the 16th time. OppiKoppi bears testimony to the strength of live music in this country, and the sweaty, dusty dedication of its audience. This, with a history lesson from the legendary Valiant Swart, is the story of Oppi 2010 Words: Steve Smith Photography: Liam Lynch

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It’s the music that matters: Taxi Violence join the party at OppiKoppi 2010

There’s a soothing Balm, THOUGH, that blunts the geography’s challenge – the music

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his place requires commitment. You have to love music to come to here. You have to love it a lot.

That “it’s all about the journey” stuff?

Bullshit. The journey – a three-hour drive from Jo’burg – is a walk in the park compared to the conditions that await.

There’s nothing here to make your stay easy. When the sun’s up, it’s blazing hot, and when it goes down, it’s freezing.

Your tent’s either a sauna or a fridge.

And the dust… A fine, red powder infiltrates every pore and binds with sweat to coat you in a maroon veneer.

Even the vegetation is out to get you.

It’s so dry the few bushes without thorns still poke and scratch you.

“Ja, the conditions do frighten away some people,” says Carel Hoffman, the OppiKoppi Productions president and the man behind it all. “It’s getdown-and-dirty, hand-to-hand, hedonistic warfare. It can cut you down at the knees. But that’s just part of the allure… People love it.”

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Playing at Oppi was a challenge that the genre-defying rock/reggae/jazz outfit, Blk Jks, were once again willing to step outside their comfort zone to meet. Playing there for the second time, the guys knew what they were in for.

“Oh man,” says guitarist Mpumi Mcata, steeling himself for what lay ahead, “we’ve had some interesting times while we’ve been touring, from sleeping on people’s couches, sleeping in vans, to sleeping in seven-star hotels…

And then there’s OppiKoppi. It’s rough man. I don’t know if this is how they want to keep it, but this is what it is.

For the most part it’s been surprisingly enjoyable. In terms of festivals around the world, there certainly are things that Oppi does… ‘differently’. This feels pretty… yeah… dusty.”

There is a soothing balm, though, that blunts the geography’s challenge: the music. Nowhere else in this country do you witness the energy, the talent, and the diversity that exists in South African music. Fifteen thousand people testified to that this year. For the first time ever, OppiKoppi was sold out.

“ The first time I played here was in 1994. That was even before they had festivals. It all started when Koos Kombuis played a gig in nearby Thabazimbi and hardly anyone arrived besides Oom Boors – die baas vannie plaas, the owner of the Oppikoppi farm – and his wife Tess. They are both huge music fans – Oom Boors is an old rock ’n’ roller with a massive vinyl collection. Anyway, they suggested to Koos that he comes and plays at their little bushveld bar instead. And that’s how it started. My band and I, and Koos Kombuis, started playing in that little bar at the top of the hill for the locals and people from Pretoria. Those were crazy days man. One hectic party.”

Valiant Swart

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Clockwise from top left: Kreef Hotel, the ‘VIP’ campsite; Funafuji commands the decks on the Red Bull stage; Blk Jks rock Oppi

Southern gypsey Queen

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you’re among like-minded people here – folks bound together by dedication, endurance and a desire to party themselves into the middle of next week

The crowd dance through the dust at the Red Bull stage.

Right: Philadelphia Grand Jury. Below right: Albert Frost performs during the Valiant Swart Tribute show

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he tunes have a second function too. More than body armour against the conditions, the music is a conduit for that other great Oppi experience – the vibe. You’re among like-minded people here. Not similar people – festivalgoers are young, old, students, professionals, black, white, sober, very drunk – but folks bound by similar qualities. Dedication… endurance… and a desire to party themselves into the middle of next week with the musicians who make the music they love. At Oppi that relationship between the festivalgoers and muso is more than audience/performer.

Given the fact that everyone is camping, there’s no “us and them” at all. You’ll see Jack Parow and Lucky Fonz ordering a beer from the same bar as you.

Or you might come across Aussie punk rockers Berkfinger, MC Bad Genius, and Calvin of Philadelphia Grand Jury having a stroll around after their energetic set that, at one stage, had singer Berkfinger vaulting into the crowd to sing his “favourite song”.

The third song he’d described as such.

“ Ja, OppiKoppi has become ground zero for SA rock ’n’ roll, ground zero. If you’re a band and you get booked at Oppi, you’ve kind of arrived. You count. You’re in the loop. But this festival has also performed a social function. It’s affected the people who have attended.

You mix with people normally outside your social group… you listen to music you’ve never heard before. It’s meant different bands and musos got to know each other, which gave rise to the cool collabs Oppi is famous for.”

Valiant Swart

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Action Haezer

MC Bad Genius: “It’s fun man! We got transported to the backstage area with all our gear in the back of a ute [Aussie for bakkie]. That would never happen back home. They’d be like ‘no way man, that’s not safe!’ It was 11 o’clock at night, it was bloody freezing, and the guy driving was just caning it on this dirt road with us on the back. It was half scary as hell… and half bloody hilarious.

Berkfinger: Our music is crazy music, which was great, because this audience is crazy. Yeah, OppiKoppi is pretty up there in the crazy stakes. The whole festival is loose as hell man.

One of the highlights of the show, these Oz imports and their stage personalities were entertaining and then some – Berkfinger and his heliumvoiced edginess, the crazy eyes of Confederate general look-alike MC Bad Genius, and the jack-in-thebox energy of drummer Calvin.

MC Bad Genius: I guess that’s why we have stage names. We can go into character. Stage is our outlet.

My wife would never let my stage character come home.

Berkfinger: I have no wife.

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mong the standout collaborations this year were blues rocker Albert Frost and Vusi ‘The Voice’ Mahlasela sharing the stage for a set that blended country-blues slide guitar with Vusi’s African folk songwriting.

They are part of a legacy that goes back to the earliest days of Oppi. Collabs that featured the likes of Pops Mohamed, Waddy Jones of Die Antwoord, Madala Kunene and Bruce Cassidy are the stuff of legend. What they have helped do is forge the kind of links Valiant talks about that go beyond the one-off collabs. Hip-hop artist Tumi is an example. His backline at Oppi this year was a bunch of white kids from the band Isochronous. They created a tight electro/rock/pop canvas over which Tumi’s laid down his intelligent rhymes and phrasings. It was a wonder.

In the audience, eyes were opened.

Eyes got watery too. Four pm on the Sunday will no doubt go down as a highlight in OppiKoppi folklore. To celebrate this article’s historian, an hour-long tribute set was staged to celebrate Valiant Swart’s 20th year as a performing artist.

With various SA musos covering his music, some were straight covers, but others were totally reinvented.

Stand-outs were Van Coke Kartel’s

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Despite the challenging conditions, the campers were in great spirits.

Right: Valiant Swart thanks the crowd who celebrated his 20th year as a performing artist

“Valiant Swart has been part of this from the START and it’s important for SA music to acknowledge its heroes”

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“ People up here in the north are different to the people, say, in Cape. Down there they’re a lot more chilled and laidback. And that means you would never have a festival like OppiKoppi down there. People here are real SA rock fans. In the same way they fanatically support their rugby team, the Blue Bulls, they are seriously committed to their rock music. They will come here. They will camp, they will eat dust and drink beer for three days to party with their favourite bands.”

Valiant Swart

Below left a c(l-r): t Simon i o nOrange (musician), Carel Hoffmann (‘President for life’ of OppiKoppi) and Jack Parow (musician) backstage during the Valiant Swart Tribute show. Haezer (left) and The Narrow perform

‘Buitenkant’, Pierre Greef of Die Heuwels Fantasties’ ‘Son Sak in Durbaville’, and Francois van Coke, Pierre, and Jack Parow’s Run DMC-meets-zef version of ‘Die Meeste Mense is Maar Lekker Zef’.

When Valiant himself appeared at the end to sing his iconic ‘Die Mystic Boer’, it was lump-in-the-throat stuff.

“I was backstage,” says Carel Hoffman, “and I couldn’t stop crying.

Valiant has been part of this from the beginning and it’s so important for SA music to acknowledge its heroes.

Rock ’n’ roll has no other platform to do this, but here at OppiKoppi.”

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on’t think for a second though that Oppi is all about guitarbased music. Especially not this year. For the first time the festival featured a stage solely dedicated to electronic music. On the Red Bull Studio stage young DJs like Haezer and Red Bull Music Academy 2010 participant Richard Gomes shared the stage with the likes of Markus Wurmstorm, Killer Robot, Krushed and Sorted, and international acts, PH DJ for Australia and the UK’s Boom Monk Ben. “The crowd response was, like, ridiculous,” says Cape Town-based dance/electro meister, Haezer. “And

“ I remember one Sunday afternoon in the early days. We were up at the top bar, with the festival slowly winding down.

Pops Mohamed was playing.

I looked around and, like me, people had tears running down their faces. Big, bad, burly, tattoo’d okes were wiping their eyes. The music was just overwhelming them. Everyone knew that what they were witnessing was special. We’d made the mission to come out here into the bos and the stof and the dorings, and here we were listening to this beautiful, beautiful music being played just for us. It was a spiritual thing. People were moved.”

Valiant Swart

that was easily the sickest rig I’ve ever played on. The sound was incredible – even the monitor in the DJ booth was faultless. But the crowd, man. The electro scene is growing rapidly up here in Jo’burg and Pretoria, and I’ve played up here quite a lot… but I still didn’t expect this. The audience were right on it – they knew every single cue in the music. I played more of a, call it, a ‘festival’ set than I would usually play in a club. I simplified it – big four-layered tracks with big beats. No a capella vocal stuff, I just kept it wide open.”

And that, in a nutshell is OppiKoppi.

It’ll ask a lot of you. It’ll hit you on the back of the head. And still you’ll love it.

You’ll make new friends and memories (even remember some of them on the Tuesday), and start the long drive home plotting your return. The music makes it all worthwhile. From the headliners this year: Taxi Violence, Heuwels, Van Coke Kartel, Zebra & Giraffe, Prime Circle, and Jack Parow; the international acts: Billy Talent, Philadelphia Grand Jury, C-mon & Kypski; the electronic beatmasters, to those hair-on-the-backof-your-neck-raising collabs, it’s the music that will lure you back. And back.

Watch out for details of next year’s festival and follow the Facebook link to see pictures from 2010 at www.oppikoppi.co.za

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Photography: Andreas Panzenberger/Red Bull Photofiles

One of the hottest of Hot Spots on page 86 is the final of the FIM Motocross World Championship featuring MX2 leader Marvin Musquin of France (pictured)

More Body&Mind Live the high life, whatever your passion

80 sarka pancochova visits hangar-7 82 Get the gear 84 how to conquer red bull dolomitenmann 86 listings 90 nightlife 96 short story 98 Mind’s eye

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Hangar-7 Interview

Sarka Pancochova New to the scene but already a huge hit, this Czech snowboard prodigy credits her success to a pre-jump soundtrack featuring Queen and Abba Words: Ruth Morgan “Oh shizzle – this place is crazy!”

Sarka Pancochova is all smiles as she bounds into Hangar-7 for the first time, a whirlwind of energy. Anyone who knows this snowboarding prodigy would tell you this is nothing unusual: excitement is Sarka’s default emotion. And, though still recovering from knee surgery, she has plenty to smile about: the 20-yearold from the Czech Republic is changing the face of women’s snowboarding with her uncompromising style. She’s just been named Rookie of the Year 2010

by Snowboarder Magazine, won the first-ever women’s quarterpipe world championships and is currently ranked third in the TTR World Snowboard Tour. Not bad for a rider approaching only her third season as a pro.

Red Bulletin: So you’re staying at the Red Bull Diagnostics and Training 80

Centre (DTC) here in Salzburg for a few weeks to get back on track after your surgery?

Sarka Pancochova: Yes, I tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in my left knee. I’ve been out for three months and I have another three to go before I can compete. I’m not even sure how I did it. But it’s cool as now I’ll be more inspired this season, like ‘get me out there!’ And the DTC is cool. You have physiotherapists, psychologists and coaches all working out what’s best for you and how to train.

So you’re being your usual, positive self, then?

It could be worse. Surgery was pretty cool. It was done under local anaesthetic and they had a partition there so I couldn’t see any of the gory stuff, but on a screen I could see what they were doing inside my knee. I could see the surgeon

screwing the ligaments back together.

And I’m quite proud of the scar.

An editor of Snowboard Magazine recently said you were the best overall female rider in the world today. Is that how you see yourself?

Oh, he was kidding (laughs). No. I don’t know. Maybe. I want to be the best. But there’s definitely so much more to do.

Learning new stuff makes me so excited, so if I have snow and a board, I’m happy.

Would you agree that women’s snowboarding is moving to another level?

Yes, everything’s growing so fast for girls’ snowboarding. Guys’ snowboarding is already big in terms of tricks: they do doubles, some even do triple flips. But the gap is closing. It’s a physical thing, but attitude plays a part. Now loads of girls are like: “Right, let’s push it, let’s progress,” which is perfect. I’m very

Photography: Vitek Ludvik/Red Bull Photofiles(1), Monika Saulich (2)

“Get me out there”: Sarka Pancochova has been out of action for three months following ligament damage, but she can’t wait to get back to competing.

“I’ll be practising a double backside rodeo when I’m back on snow,” she says

excited about this season. I’ll be practising a double backside rodeo as soon as I’m back on snow.

You seem pretty fearless in terms of what you’re willing to try. Is that how you feel?

I was always up for everything and wanting to try everything when I was a kid. In the Czech Republic I lived in a tiny village and all my friends were guys. We were always running around the forest and climbing, getting into all sorts of sports. I think that helped me when I started snowboarding at 11. But I do get scared sometimes, you just have to learn how to talk yourself through it.

You’re so new to the pro scene you’re still winning rookie awards. Has it sunk in yet that you’re already up there with the best of them?

At first it was really strange. I rode in the European Roxy Chicken Jam

competition, then the European Open, with all the pro riders that I’d watched on TV. I was competing against my idols and I wanted to show off, so of course I fell (laughs). But now it’s normal to hang out with them.

You have a reputation of being quite a party girl…

Yeah, I do. It’s quite hard not to party when you’re travelling with riders like Jamie Anderson or Kjersti Buaas: one of us is always on the podium so it’s like, ‘Right! Let’s celebrate!’ But I also love sleeping. Sometimes I have a nap after lunch and it’s so amazing. I get very excited about sleep.

What would be the soundtrack to your perfect competition run?

I always ride with music. A great song pushes you, and you don’t get scared.

I listen to a lot of old-school stuff – Abba, Queen, The Beatles. Dancing Queen is

a great track to listen to as you prepare for a big jump. I think there’s a secret rock star in me somewhere. Me and some of the other pro girls have a sort of band.

There’s five of us with two guitars, a harmonica, a ukulele and me on drums.

We hang out together on tour and play the The Beatles and stuff for fun.

You reached the semi-finals at the Winter Olympics earlier this year.

Is going back to win a medal high on your list of goals?

Yeah, I just couldn’t land my last run.

I was kind of bummed not to reach the finals, but I know I’ll be back next time for sure. A medal would be fantastic but you can’t plan these things too much or you jinx them. For now I’m just getting fit so I can go for it this season – it’s going to be intense.

Follow Sarka’s snow progress at www.sarkapancochova.cz

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More Body & Mind

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Kilian Fischhuber and Anna Stöhr: world-class boulderers

Get the Gear

Anna and Kilian’s Kit

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These two can be found on climbing walls the world over. This is what Anna Stöhr and Kilian Fischhuber take to feel at home on the road 1. Sony headphones www.sony.com "Anna likes to listen to music to relax and motivate herself before competing.”

2. Mammut Basic Chalk Bag Trio www.mammut.ch “You can’t climb without magnesium supplies Simple as that.”

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3. Mammut Lucido headlamp www.mammut.ch “Makes bouldering and reading possible when it’s late.”

Photography: kurt Kainrath, Philipp Horak

4. Recheis wholemeal pasta www.recheis.at “Gives us power.”

5. Mammut Venus climbing harness www.mammut.ch “Safety comes first.

This one is tailored specifically for the female body.”

6. Brushes “To help remove the chalk on the holds left behind by previous climbers.”

7. Edelrid belay www.edelrid.de “Light and welldesigned – this one is ‘oasis’ coloured.”

8. Zillertal: Klettern und Bouldern [Climbing and Bouldering] “Climbing guide by Markus Schwaiger.

We’re locals after all…”

9. Sunglasses www.smithoptics.com “For those sunny days.”

10. A small first-aid kit “Emery board for skin, tape, plasters, painkillers.”

11. Around the World in Eighty Days www.amazon.de “Jules Verne’s classic.”

12. Deodorant www.dove.com “Shower in a can.”

13. La Sportiva Solution climbing shoes www.lasportiva.com “Soft and precise.”

Find out more at kilian-fischhuber.at

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more body & mind Print 2.0

Jonathan Wyatt is a seven-time world mountain-running champion and four-time winner of the running leg of the Red Bull Dolomitenmann (the other legs: mountain biking, kayaking and paragliding). Here the New Zealander shares his tips for getting to the top

Eyes Front When you’re running off-road, you need to look a bit further down the trail than you would if you were running on an easy, smooth path.

You want to see what obstacles are coming up, and know what to expect. If you’re looking at your feet you’re going to hit a tree root, or something, before you notice it. I tend to scan the trail ahead and focus 5 or 6m in front of me.

Train To Strain When I’m training for longer mountain runs I try to run continuously for 30 minutes uphill: you need a goodsized hill to do that. To work on my speed, I do shorter repetitions of three minutes uphill, followed by two minutes of recovery. I jog slowly uphill for the first minute of the recovery and then jog back down the hill for the second minute.

Game Of Two Halves Watch any of the top downhill runners and you’ll see their arms flying about all over the place, but from the waist down they are very stable and relaxed and their legs seem to move quite easily down the hill. Good downhill runners rarely put the brakes on because if you try and use your legs to slow you down, it has a jarring effect and can deaden and harden your legs. I’ve heard that if you get out of control on a descent, jumping straight up in the air will slow you down, but I’ve never tried it myself.

Beat It The most important thing about mountain running is to get into a good rhythm. Runners who are used to running on the road tend to overstride, and they get fatigued much more quickly on hills. Chop your stride a little and take slightly smaller steps: the steeper the hill, the smaller the steps.

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One Step At A Time Looking at the top of the hill can be a bit daunting and you think, ‘I’m never going to get there.’ So focusing on getting to the next tree, or the next rock, is a good way to break a run down into manageable parts. If there’s a particularly steep section, I say to myself, ‘I’ll work hard to get to the top of this section and try and recover on the next section.’

Push And Pull I use my arms a lot to generate more power and momentum. I try and keep my shoulders and arms relaxed, and as I pull back with my arms I exaggerate the movement a little, because on the way forward it gives me a bit more momentum and my legs then usually follow suit.

Pick Your Battles I sometimes take a slightly longer route if I think it’s less steep and easier to run, rather than choosing the absolute shortest way up a hill.

I’d rather run all the way than stop and start, and I don’t like to walk.

Save Some In The Tank You don’t want to waste energy on exaggerated movements: go bounding up a hill you and you’ll travel fast but not for long. The most efficient way to get up the mountain is to use as little energy as possible.

A Lean Spell Something I’ve always done on steeper hills is run on my toes more, digging in and pushing off hard from them with all my leg power. The steeper the hill, the more you need to lean into it. If you’re running at 90 degrees to the hill, you’re going to fall backwards.

I lean into it and try to keep my momentum always moving forward.

Follow Red Bull Dolomitenmann live on September 11 at www.redbulldolomitenmann.com

Words: Robert Tighe. photography: GRAEME MURRAY

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Red Bull Rampage 01 – 03.10.2010 The world’s top riders, including Gee Atherton, Darren Berrecloth and Andreu Lacondeguy, compete in this unique mountain bike downhill challenge to the finish line 1,000ft below.

Virgin, Utah, USA

hot SPOTS

photography: Ray Demski/Red Bull Photofiles, Garth Milan/Red Bull Photofiles, Erwin Polanc/Red Bull Photofiles, Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles

Wet and wild or thrills and spills, there’s a sporting event to suit every fan’s tastes

EHC Black Wings Linz – EC Red Bull Salzburg 10.09.10

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 12.09.10

Having won both the 2010 Continental Cup and the 09/10 Erste Bank Hockey League season, the Red Bull Salzburg team starts the competition in a strong position.

Linz, Austria

The action arrives at the sport’s spiritual home for a spectacular finale to an incredible year of competition. With new dives and locations, this season has proved there’s more to come from this exhilarating sport.

Hilo, Hawaii

Red Bull Dolomitenmann 11.09.10 More than 100 teams from 20 nations take to the Dolomites to do battle in mountain running, paragliding, kayaking and mountain biking disciplines, each determined to take victory in one of the world’s toughest races.

Lienz, Austria

Formula One Italian GP 12.09.10 With only five races to go after this event, tension is mounting.

While Rubens Barrichello hopes for a repeat of last year’s win, leaderboard top-enders Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari will vie for pole position.

Autodromo di Monza, Italy

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 11.09.10

FIM Motocross World Cup Final 12.09.10

With Brian Vickers out for the season, it’s down to team-mate Scott Speed and stand-in driver Reed Sorenson to bring home the points for Team Red Bull.

Richmond International Raceway, Virginia, USA

An adrenalin-fuelled final is a given as defending champion Antonio Cairoli from Italy hopes to seal his second successive world cup victory.

Fermo, Italy

Red Bull 5000 Down 11 – 12.09.10 The 250 fastest MTB riders on the first day will gather at the mountain’s peak for a massstart race to the finish down a 7,000ft-long track, with a vertical drop of 5,000ft, to cross in Whistler Village.

Whistler, Canada

Red Bull Beach Boys 11 –12.09.10 After heats all summer, the best 32 amateur beach volleyballers in Germany have been chosen, and the final will decide which four will take on world champions Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann.

Düsseldorf, Germany

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ASP World Tour 12 – 18.09.10 While South African surfer Jordy Smith enjoys a strong season, defending champion Mick Fanning needs his first win of the year to stay in with a chance of defending his title.

Trestles, California, USA

Red Bull Under My Wings 15.09.10 Motocross world championship contenders Marc De Reuver and Jeffrey Herlings give young Dutch riders a taste of the big time as they invite them to watch the pros prepare, race and evaluate their performance during a world cup round.

Veldhoven, Netherlands

Red Bull Latitude Zero 23.09.10 Some of the world’s best beach volleyballers line up either side of the equator to compete in a game of south versus north.

Macapá, Brazil

more body & mind

FIS Grand Prix Skispringen 03.10.2010 This event is the last of the summer mat-jump competitions. Then it’s time for the world’s best ski jumpers to gear up for the winter season.

Klingenthal, Germany

Red Bull King of the Rock 18.09.10

Formula One Singapore GP 26.09.10

Alcatraz is the location for a tough basketball head-to-head between the best West Coast amateurs, hosted by All-Star guard Rajon Rondo.

Alcatraz, USA

Sparks tend to fly during any F1 get together, but this is the only place you’ll see them. The one night-race on the calendar provides the ultimate spectacle for fans and a challenge for even the most talented drivers.

Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore

Red Bull Flugtag 19.09.10 More than 100,000 gather on the banks of the Dambovita River in Bucharest to see 40 teams launch off a ramp in homemade contraptions, all hoping not to make a splash.

Bucharest, Romania

German Touring Car Championship 19.09.10 With only three races to go before the teams head out to Shanghai for the November finale, pressure is rising.

Oschersleben, Germany

Red Bull Rising Camp Mexico 2010 19 – 26.09.10 Twelve of the most promising surfers from around the world, including Wiggolly Dantas and Conner Coffin, gather to practise on near-perfect waves.

Salina Cruz, Mexico

Extreme Sailing Series 23 – 26.09.10 The penultimate high-octane racing weekend gets the crowds on shore as close to the action as possible.

Trapani, Italy

IFSC Climbing World Cup 24 – 25.09.10 The world’s top male and female climbers, including Austrian Angie Eiter, compete in the lead discipline as the 2010 World Cup competition enters its final phase.

Puurs, Belgium

Red Bull Motocross of Nations 25 - 26.09.10 Red Bull Box Cart Race 24.09.2010 More than 250 participants and 50,000 spectators put handmade box carts to the test down a punishing hill in Soweto.

Johannesburg, South Africa

What began in 1947 as a race between three countries’ teams is now a beast of a battle involving more than 30 nations. The annual event returns to the USA, with all teams determined to break Team America’s five-win run.

Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Red Bull X-Fighters world tour 02.10.10 Having visited Mexican and Spanish bullfighting rings, London landmarks, an Egyptian sphinx and Moscow’s Red Square, all roads lead to Rome for a thrilling FMX finale which sees the 2010 king crowned.

Or should that be emperor?

Stadio Flaminio, Rome, Italy

WRC Rallye de France 01 – 03.10.10 It’s all change at this year’s French rally, which moves from its long-term home on the island of Corsica to a course in the Alsace region. But for defending champion Sébastien Loeb, it won’t be the course that counts, but the winning.

Strasbourg, France

FIM Superbike/ Supersport France GP 03.10.10 With Jonathan Rea and Eugene Laverty enjoying strong seasons in the Superbike and Supersport competitions respectively, the 2010 final is a chance for the riders to end the year on a high.

Magny-Cours, France

MotoGP of Japan 03.10.10 Title challenger Dani Pedrosa is determined to beat his impressive third-place finish last year, and so, as the competition reaches it final stages, every second counts.

Motegi, Japan

Red Bull Roof tops 05 – 08.10.10 The town’s beautiful balconies, domes and spires become a picturesque playground for British freerunning’s first man, Ryan Doyle, who won the Red Bull Art of Motion competition in 2007.

Santorini, Greece

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more body & mind

Lunice The multi-talented B-Boy, dancer and singer Lunice takes us on a personal tour of his home town of Montreal. The port is a no-no, but he’ll show you where you can party all night, on page 93.

Montreal, Canada

night spots

Photography: Jennifer Dunaj, Green Valley, Jacob Hodgkinson, www.thudrumble.com

And the beat goes on – come party with us at festivals and gigs all around the world

La Bâtie Festival 03 – 18.09.10

The Black Seeds 09 – 11.09.10

Since 1977 the event has showcased some of the best local and international actors, musicians and dancers.

Originally held in a forest, it now takes over urban sites including old theatres and industrial hangars, creating exciting venues for the local population and the many visitors it attracts.

Various locations, Geneva, Switzerland

The octet may hail from Wellington, but the band’s musical roots lie elsewhere.

With their fusion of dub, afrobeat, funk and soul, lead singer Barnaby Weir and his boys bring together the feelgood sounds of summer.

9.09 – Sammy’s, Dunedin; 10.09 – Memorial Hall, Queenstown; 11.09 – The Bedford, all Christchurch, New Zealand

Music Fest NW 08 – 12.09.10

Bestival 09 – 12.09.10

One of America’s largest indoor festivals annually takes over the city of Portland to showcase some of the world’s most exciting musical acts.

This year an outdoor venue is added, and the line-up is characteristically high-calibre, with Major Lazer, The National, and The Decemberists among those joining the party.

Various venues, Oregon, USA

With fancy-dress theme ‘fantasy’ expect to see the unexpected as the much-loved annual gathering turns the Isle of Wight’s green fields into a musical wonderland. The Flaming Lips, Roxy Music, Hot Chip, The XX, Jonsi and Erol Alkan are sharing in the magic.

Robin Hill Country Park, Newport, Isle of Wight

Numusic Festival 08 – 18.09.10

FABRICLIVE 10.09.10

Always showcasing innovators and original sounds, this year’s mix fits the bill. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Grandmaster Flash, Whitest Boy Alive and Aeroplane are a few making their way there.

Stavanger, Norway

It’s a night for genre top dogs as dubstep poster boys Skream and Benga join Caspa, the grime stylings of London’s Plastician and drum ’n’ bass legend Shy FX for the latest in the FABRICLIVE series.

Fabric, London, England

The New Pornographers 09.09.10

Elektronikka Festival 10.09.10

The pop quartet can now add new album Together to a long list of critically acclaimed releases spanning more than a decade. Formed in Canada, the band’s sounds have travelled the globe, earning them fans in some far-flung places. The release of their fifth album has prompted a world tour.

Concorde 2, Brighton, England

Yes, smoking laws even apply to a dance festival in a tobacco factory. But Moonbootica, the house duo from Hamburg, and electro entertainers Stephan Bodzin and Fritz Kalkbrenner should fire up the smoke machine enough for the dancers to become lost in the haze by the end of the night.

Tobacco Factory, Linz, Austria

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Green Valley When the girls from Ipanema go for a picnic they go to the Green Valley, in southern Brazil. It’s probably the hottest club in the country, see page 92.

Balneario Camboriu, Brazil

more body & mind

Cash Two Kiwis conquer London: Rosie Riggir and Mailee Mathews, alias Cash, make super-cool electro-pop and take over the Red Bull Studio for their debut album, on page 90.

London, England

Hunter Gatherer 10.09.10

M.I.A 16.09.10

Dark, twisted electronic beats designed to create “an audiovisual nightmare” greet any one daring enough to take to the dancefloor.

Fresh off the back of his debut album Left For Dead’s release, the robe-wearing dark lord of the dance showcases his forthcoming offering: ‘I Dreamed I Was a Footstep In The Trail of a Murderer’.

Twisted Pepper, Dublin, Ireland

Being a Grammy Awardwinning singer, rapper, producer, visual artist, activist and fashion designer, it’s a wonder the controversial and oft-outspoken Londoner finds time to take to the stage.

But US fans have the chance to see her live this month when she appears at the famous Tabernacle.

Tabernacle, Atlanta, USA

Berlin Festival 10 – 11.09.10

The South-Eastern European Music Event is a music conference for anyone who’s involved in the industry. It gives everyone from DJs to label heads the space to meet up and test out the latest technology. Then as day tuns to evening an important element is added to proceedings – the dance-hungry crowd.

Sofia, Bulgaria

The airport is the final destination for two days packed full of the best in international entertainment.

Editors, Hot Chip, Fatboy Slim, Peaches, 2ManyDJs, Soulwax and Tricky are just some of those who will be touching down.

Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany

SoundEdit Festival 10 – 12.09.10 The festival devoted entirely to music producers was an instant hit when it began last year. Therefore it’s back for 2010 with a line-up that includes Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy and Peter Hook of Joy Division fame.

Klub Wytwórnia, Lodz, Poland

Green & Blue 12.09.10 That’s Green for the festival’s forest home and Blue for the sky if lady luck is smiling. Or the colour of the lake where festivalgoers can cool off while listening to the likes of Ricardo Villalobos and Sven Väth.

Forest Lake, Langen, Germany

Scopitone Festival 15 – 19.09.10

Hipnotik Festival 18. 9. 2010 A celebration of hip-hop culture with concerts and workshops – graffiti, breakdance, rap and DJs such as QBert feature.

Barcelona, Spain

The worlds of music, art and dance collide at this multi-venue explosion for the senses. Cinemas, castles, factories and swimming pools open their doors to film, video, multi-media collaborations, interactive installations and a soundtrack courtesy of Andrew Weatherall, Busy P, Carl Craig and Uffie.

Friche Numérique, Nantes, France

SeeMe 16 – 18.09.10

The Golden Age of Formula one 16.09.10 – 24.10.10 Sixty years on from the first Formula One World Championship, the sport’s foremost photographer, Rainer Schlegelmilch, has opened up his archive of over 350,000 images documenting all the action both on and off the track. Those he has selected best sum up his five decades of passion for the sport.

Proud gallery, Camden, London, England

felix da housecat 17.09.10 The electro-house DJ from Chicago reached über status in the early noughties, remixing stars like Britney and Madonna.

Tonight he’s bringing the bling to The Forum, Scotland.

Aberdeen, Scotland

Alpha-Ville Festival 17 – 18.09.10 Leave the tent and canned ravioli at home, and pack the black-framed spectacles and turtleneck sweater instead: this festival takes place inside London’s well-respected Whitechapel Art Gallery. It’s an appropriate location for the avant-garde beats in store.

Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England

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A sterling achievement: Cash’s Rosie Riggir and Maliee Mathews find London life to their liking

Studio Sessions

Money Talks

CASH LONDON

Colourful and charismatic, New Zealand pop duo Cash have charmed their home crowds. Now, it’s on to London, where Andreas Tzortzis caught up with the girls as they laid down the first song of their album at the Red Bull Studio Fronted by the curly-locked and charmingly named Rosie Riggir and guitarist and keyboardist Mailee Mathews, Cash (the more literal interpretation of their original, cockney rhyming-slang name Charlie Ash) have spent the past three years unleashing frosted ’80s-flavoured indie pop on an appreciative Kiwi public.

Their elaborate stage shows have been augmented online by fantastical, coloursplashed videos, produced by Riggir, for each song they’ve recorded.

With their first album firmly in sight, the duo decided to break out of the plucky, if insular, Kiwi music scene and head to 90

London. In late summer, Cash headed down to the Red Bull Studio near London Bridge to cut a first track – as yet unnamed – over two day-long sessions.

Did you get drunk last night?

Rosie Riggir: No, I had a couple of ciders.

Mailee Mathews: I had a few beers.

A short discussion on favourite tipple follows before guitarist Geordie McCallum, who’ll be joining Cash on their song, shows up and Mathews leaves to greet him.

Many new albums are the product of laptop producers. Is going to a studio still worthwhile?

RR: Sometimes it’s not worthwhile, because

we’re sitting in a very static room, with soundproofing. Often, quite strange people are running studios. Ultimately, when you’re in a studio you’re collaborating with the people around you. And sometimes it doesn’t work, and it’s not worth it, which is why lots of people work at home where they can have control over the whole thing. But here, it’s different, because there’s amazing gear. We’re sitting next to seven different microphones, with different qualities. The gear is definitely better than what I could afford in a normal type of studio. And because there isn’t the pressure of spinning hits and money… they don’t have the

more body & mind

Sounding out: The girls and guitarist Geordie McCallum laying down some tracks at the Red Bull Studio in London

expectations or constraints or worries.

With tech and computers, even I could make some track and beat. I think you really have to earn live instruments.

What do you mean, earn them?

It’s more expensive. You can download a plug-in for your computer and make a beat.

It doesn’t take any skill, really. It doesn’t take time. It doesn’t take any money.

I really want, on the new album, a big saxophone solo. But to do that you need a really amazing sax player and you have to have a good studio. All these things have to be earned. You have to be in a position where you can pay. And all that live

instrumentation, it’s tough to get that sounding really good. You can’t do it in your bedroom.

You’re working on a song at the moment, but do you want to do the rest of the album here as well?

We’re going to try and produce most of our album here. We’re working with a big team. We’ll make three to four songs with different producers and musicians. So they’ll all sound different.

How important is a good album at a time when live shows are the bread and butter of most artists nowadays?

I listen to more albums than I ever used to before. I find shuffle really irritating.

I think albums are so awesome. It’s so much more exciting to give an artist an hour and say, “take me somewhere”, instead of, you know, three minutes.

You go all out with your videos. How big a role do they play in your overall presentation? And are you taking the same considered approach to your album?

Definitely. We’ve just made an EP. All of the songs are very different and very individual. They do work together, they’re brothers and sisters, but they’re not exactly holding hands. The EP was made pretty much with shuffle in mind. But it’s the album, the artwork, the videos, the live shows, the merchandising, all together, an all-sharing concept, and all working to make some sort of great thing. I think what we’ve been doing with our recordings is testing borders and I think these recordings (at the studio) are going to be closer to a true sound.

How do your songs come together?

Mailee understands structure. I’ll usually have a poem, or Mailee will have a chord structure. But when it comes to the structure, I will blow it up and Mailee will bring it back down. I’ll have a paint brush and swipe the canvas and she’ll draw the nose. So that’s how it works: crazy, sane.

But who’s the craziest one, actually…

Are you happy you decided to make the move from New Zealand over to London?

London is really inspiring. In New Zealand I felt like I was a fish in a bucket with the lid on. Here in London, it’s like ‘Aaaahhh, the lid’s come off.’

Someone leaves the door to the studio open and the rough cut of Cash’s song comes drifting out. The beginnings of a cigarette lighter holding, crowd-swaying love paean are clear, as is Riggir’s lush voice. She gets up to shut the door again.

Why did you do that?

Because… it’s not finished.

Cash songs and info: www.myspace.com/charlieash More on Red Bull Studios: www.redbullstudios.com

Reworks Festival 17 – 18.09.10 As much a treat for the eyes as the ears, the first completely audiovisual arts festival in Greece is back for 2010. It combines beats with live performance, exhibitions and original visuals, with greats such as Fischerspooner, Kraak & Smaak and Miss Kittin joining in.

Vilka Complex, Thessaloníki, Greece

N.A.M.E Festival 17 – 18.09.10 The annual musical celebration of all things electric returns to three sites in neighbouring cities for two days of dancing. National treasure Laurent Garnier will be headlining, with Radio Slave, Boys Noize, Erol Alkan and Busy P making sure there’s no break in the beats.

Tourcoing, Dunkerque, Lille, France

Earth Dance 18.09.10 At 200 locations, in over 50 countries, there is one message: The ‘Prayer for Peace’. It will be sung at the world’s largest synchronised music festival, in the morning in Australia, in the afternoon in California and at midnight in London. The Cape Town, South African edition of the global party will see acts including Krushed & Sorted, Richard III and Funa Fuji take to the turntables.

Nekkies Resort, Worcester, South Africa

New Zealand Fashion Week 21 – 25.09.10 Kiwi fashion goes way beyond flipflops and surfer style. In fact, the country’s fashion industry has doubled its exports since 2000. Now the Viaduct Harbour Marine Village is set to be transformed into a fashion hub as designers, models, buyers and fashion lovers flock to see the new creations hitting the catwalk.

Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand

L’Ososphére Festival 22 – 25.09.10 An apartment block is shut off and oversized speakers take over, as music lovers gather to witness six stages of the best new sounds.

Visuals light up the stage and fringe exhibitions draw in local artists. But it’s the beats that rule, with reggae, dub, electro, techno, funk and hiphop from Birdy Nam Nam, Chloe, Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld and Dave Clark keeping the windows shaking.

Laiterie, Strasbourg, France

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Pygmalion Music Festival 22 – 25.09.10 Artists from far and wide flood into Chicago. Caribou, Janelle Monáe, Cut Chemist and Plastician are just some of those taking over the city. And there are no worries about missing out, as Red Bull Music Academy Radio won’t miss a beat.

Various locations, Chicago, USA

Reeperbahn Festival 23 – 25.09.10 Fifty years ago this year, The Beatles first began to frequent the Reeperbahn, and the ‘wicked mile’ is still a hub for entertainment today. Each year established talent perform alongside emerging acts.

Various locations, Hamburg, Germany

Decibel Festival 23 – 26.09.10 This annual gathering has aimed to bridge the gap between technology and creativity, holding innovative live performances, workshops and seminars. This year Carl Craig, Mary Anne Hobbs and Moritz Von Oswald Trio are among those experimenting.

Neumos, Seattle, USA

Photokina Party Night 24.09.10 Photography, light installations and visuals combine with the sound of top international acts.

This year they include La Roux and Simian Mobile Disco.

Stadtgardten, Cologne, Germany

Dance K.O 24.09.10 The fourth running of the contest invites anyone who thinks they can dance to show off their skills, in any genre and at any level. The winner receives a $1,000 first prize and the all-important bragging rights.

Tempo Dance Center, Amman, Jordan

The Notorious IBE 24 – 26.09.10 Returning for its 10th edition, crowds witness both amateur and professional B-Boy battles, including the European qualifications for the upcoming UK B-Boy Championships, across a number of venues in south Holland. And the Red Bull BC One All Stars will be there to add extra excitement to the proceedings.

Various locations, Heerlen, Holland

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GREEN VALLEY Balneario Camboriu World’s Best Clubs

Sweet Valley Yes, no one does nightlife quite like Brazil. But Cassio Cortes discovers this expansive tropical paradise defies all superlatives Rio, Salvador and even nearby Florianopolis get the international hype, but Brazil’s bestkept secret in the oceanside-party-town category has an even funnier-sounding name: Balneario Camboriu.

Extravagant yachts and cars line the marina in this coastal city of 200,000 down on the country’s southern shore. Its global reputation is guaranteed by two elegantly curved beaches and the tram cable car that

connects them, and also by a fantasy-like club spread over an impossible 10,000 square metres of tropical landscape and three, man-made lakes.

It’s called Green Valley, after – you got it – the lush vale across which it spreads.

The great ambiance has attracted some of the world’s top DJs over the years. Tiësto and Carl Cox, the British rave master a ‘regular’ of sorts, have manned the pickups on the club’s last three birthdays.

There are no major flights to Camboriu, so a plane ride to Florianopolis and an 80km drive are needed to gaze upon Green Valley’s massive entrance. On the Tuesday I find myself inside, under the lush trees made even greener by coloured lighting, Greek-Swedish DJ Steve Angello is the star attraction for a crowd nearing 8,000.

The night is hot and humid. And that means a shortage of fabric covering the daughters of Brazil’s Eurocentric Southern elite, most of whom have paid well over R 900 to see Angello play. The VIP boxes or “camarotes” for 20 people fetch R 27,850 with R 18,750 spent on drinks.

Even in this high economic realm, synthetic drugs are rare: security asks you to turn on your mobile phone and digital camera at the entrance to prove they are electronic devices, not mini drug mules.

Good connections mean we’ll have a camarote of our own, with one downer: no 20 people to fill it. Our problem is solved by Junior Lima, one of the biggest pop singers in Brazil, who arrives with two male friends and 15 females, all improbably gorgeous. Lima’s decision to come was last-minute, so although the management quickly arranged for VIP wristbands for him and his friends, they won’t have a camarote. How do you say, “mi casa, su casa” in Portuguese?

Green Valley, Rua Mamoré 1083 , Rio Pequeno, Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina, Brazil; www.greenvalley.art.br

credit Photography: Green Valley

British rave-master Carl Cox has manned the turntables at Green Valley’s last three birthdays

more body & mind

Lunice Montreal

Resident Artist

A Royal Tour

Lunice loves the slow pace of his home city, Montreal

Photography: Jennifer Dunaj

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Unlike London or New York, Montreal isn’t a fast-paced city. Montreal leaves the speed up to you. And I really value the city’s multifaceted character, its balance. Take a walk through the old town with its imposing 19thcentury buildings and you’d think you were in Europe. Then you go to the east of the city, to Mile End, and all of a sudden you’re in a hip, artsy area. That’s where most of my musician friends live. There are loads of galleries, studios, rehearsal spaces and nice bars. There’s creativity in the air. You can feel it as you wander down the narrow streets.

I grew up in Lachine, a western suburb of Montreal. And although the area is anything but urban, it had a huge influence on me musically. Or, to be a precise, a hip-hop store called Sam Tabak (1) did. I spent a good deal of my youth in there, met friends, hung out and listened to new music. And I discovered my love of B-Boying at the Do-ItJam, Sam Tabak’s huge hip-hop festival held by the large graffiti wall next to the store.

I still live out west, but thankfully a lot closer to the city centre. LaSalle isn’t the

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Avoid the port and check out his home town’s mobile clubs and midnight feasts, Lunice advises Florian Obkircher

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1 Sam Tabak Inc, 915, Rue Notre-Dame 2 Manzo, 1033, 90th Av, LaSalle 3 Blue Dog, 3958, Blvd Saint Laurent 4 SAT, 1195, Blvd Saint Laurent

most exciting area, but it has a few gems which attract people from all over Montreal.

The best example of this is Manzo (2), which is well-known for making the best ‘subs’ (submarine sandwiches) in the city. It’s not the kind of place you’re going to stumble across by accident though. Manzo is small and inconspicuous. There are only four seats. It’s totally ghetto. But they work wonders in the kitchen: sandwiches with loads of meat in them. They’re amazing.

Other than poutine, a Canadian speciality of chips and cheese curds, it’s the best afterparty snack for when you’re on your way home from Boulevard Saint-Laurent.

That’s where most of Montreal’s nightlife is to be found. The street is lined with bars, clubs and pubs. Blue Dog (3) is one of them.

It’s very relaxed. A really straightforward kind of place. It’s somewhere between a club and a bar, which I appreciate both as a customer and as a DJ. It’s the perfect place to get the night started. My favourite place is SAT, which is short for Society for Arts and Technology (4). SAT is a modular

space and its structure changes every night depending on the event being held there, which might be an exhibition, a club night or a workshop. So SAT might be huge one night and tiny the next. They achieve the effect by using huge black curtains to divide the loft-like space up differently every time.

And as if that wasn’t enough, did I say that SAT’s sound system is also world class?

They say Montreal is a romantic city.

And they’re right. But appearances can be deceptive! Because the most obvious place for a date, the Old Port, might look like the perfect place to film a romantic comedy, but any couple that meets there will bicker by the end of the night. Believe me. I know what I’m talking about. My new girlfriend and I avoid the port whenever possible. We prefer to walk hand in hand around Le PlateauMont-Royal, a cool part of town. It has a lot of small galleries and bars and a great view of this city’s namesake: Mount Royal.

Lunice’s new record, ‘Stacker Upper’ (LuckyMe Records) is out soon. Find videos, tour details and sound samples on www.myspace.com/lunice

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more body & mind

Green Room

The Kids Are Alright

Sonisphere Knebworth

Metal and rock royalty dominated Sonisphere’s top stage, but Tom Hall was on hand to witness the festival debut of two bands that are looking to join their ranks

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Just like the musicians, fans sport skinny jeans to watch the bands playing on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage

street fashion that sets these bands apart from their black-clad metal brothers. From metal to punk to hip-hop, that old mantra of Keeping it Real is slowly giving way to a more considered approach to getting music out there. Staying afloat might be the new maxim. With the traditional music business failing, Blitz Kids say it’s fallen to brands like Red Bull to help get new bands heard.

“I don’t care. It’s not about being cool,” says James. “They’ve gone out of their way to help us. Why wouldn’t we accept help?”

Hawx elaborates, “If the band is writing their own music and enjoying it, then what does it matter? Give me £50 billion, I’ll take it, that’s not selling out.”

At 6pm Saturday, the band take to the stage to deliver a short set of anthemic pop punk. It’s a tight performance that shows they can compete with the big names given the chance. But it’s not without incident:

Hearts Under Fire lead singer Mary O’Regan has her heart on her sleeve

text: Stuart Codling; fotos: Thomas Butler

Skin marked for war, hair down to the waist, men are traipsing in their thousands to the main Apollo stage at Sonisphere, Knebworth Park, UK. It’s mid-afternoon. It’s Slayer time.

“Dance with the dead in my dreeeams!” wails chief screamer Tom Araya and as devil horn salutes go up in unison before being replaced by a churning sea of black leather, we’re witnessing something tribal. But on a nearby stage, there’s another tribe fighting their corner. They’re younger, fresher, and probably smell better too. Among the skinny jeans and wonky haircuts of the 20-plus bands playing on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Stage this weekend come acts playing punk, electro, emo, hip-hop, hardcore, all those catchily perfect sub-genres tailormade to soundtrack a slightly over-dramatic teenhood. Most of them are still teenagers themselves, having battled for a place on the bill each week via the Red Bull Bedroom Jam web TV show. Six months ago, playing to festival crowds just wouldn’t have been possible for a band like Blitz Kids.

“We’ve been around for a while, but never in the eye of the industry,” says lead singer Joe James, “but now we’re being allowed to show more people what we can actually do. And that’s exciting.”

He’s is the serious-faced spokesman for the emo-tinged quintet from Crewe filled out

by Jono Yates and Billy Evanson on guitars, bass player Nic Montgomery and drummer Eddie Hawx. But the excitement James nonchalantly refers to is obviously catching.

“I just got my picture with Corey Taylor from Slipknot!” beams Montgomery. But you can forgive him. They’re meeting their craggy metal heroes while only two shows into a possible festival career. But it’s more than a fresh-faced brush with high-

Blitz Kids deliver a tight set of anthemic pop punk

Elements Festival 25.09.10 This day-long electro extravaganza includes the Redbull Elektropedia Mainstage, showcasing homegrown talent such as Mish Mash Soundsystem, Turntable Dubbers, Ed & Kim, Soda & Sunds and The Mixfitz.

In addition, there are four other stages ensuring a wealth of music to choose from.

Stal Tillegem, Bruges, Belgium

Park Life Gold Coast 25.09.10

The Kids relax after their act

The festival season gets underway down under. Groove Armada, Sinden, Holy Ghost! and Missy Elliott are all on hand to help usher in the summer season.

Parklands Showgrounds, Gold Coast, Australia

Deer Tick 28.09.10 Far from his US home in Providence, Rhode Island, frontman and band founder John McCauley leads his fellow Deer Tickers in performing their own brand of indie folk, blues and country with his customary growl.

Cargo, London, England

The Loerie Awards 01 – 03.10.10

Photography: James Pearson-Howes

The world’s biggest advertising, communication and experimental media awards don’t stop at a ceremony. After the winners have been announced, Long Street becomes the site for one big street party, with live music, DJs and a battle of the bands contest.

Cape Town, South Africa

James somehow takes an unplanned tumble across the entire length of the stage, but laughs it off like a pro.

“It’s a big stage,” muses Mary O’Regan in a rare moment of reflection. The normally mouthy 19-year-old stands in front of the stage barrier nearly 24 hours on from Joe James’s superman-like stage crossing.

“Better go fill it then,” says Lexi Clark, the no-nonsense drummer for the all-girl quartet Hearts Under Fire, completed by guitarists Nicky Day and Steph Forrow.

They waste no time unleashing a tide of aggressive punk tunes. It’s textbook American emo-punk stuff with hearts on sleeves and riffs everywhere. By the time they’re done, the thin crowd they started out with has turned into a respectable throng for their insanely early one in the afternoon slot.

“The amount of people we’ve had come up to us and talk to us just because

we’ve played these festivals has been incredible” says O’Regan of the band’s newly found reach.

“It’s helping us to make a living doing what we love,” says Day. “At the end of the day it’s a business,” adds O’Regan. “So these shows have helped us get a wider following, and it allows us to keep doing our job. That’s how you have to see it.”

And it’s business as usual as the band quickly pack up their equipment in order to make their 4pm show later on down at Underage Festival in London.

Will they be back to headline Sonisphere next year? Youth is unpredictable. But in the short term there are colourful times ahead for bands willing to put in a little hard work. Just as long as that colour’s black.

Check out redbullbedroomjam.com

Deadmau5 02.10.10 The mouse-headed master of the decks is fast heading for superstar DJ status, winning coveted industry awards and bringing out fans in force to populate dancefloors. The Canadian arrives in the US, ready to give the auditorium exactly what they’re hoping for: house from the mouse.

Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Tennessee, USA

Aloe Blacc 02 – 05.10.10 His soul anthem ‘I Need A Dollar’ is the theme song to US TV series How To Make It In America. Now the Californian Red Bull Music Academy graduate tours his first album, Good Things in Europe.

Bohannon, Berlin, Germany

95

A story by Howard Shemp

The Last Laugh Joking apart, comedy can be a serious business…

The lights – stinging my eyes. And beyond the stage, beyond the dazzle of the lights – the audience, mute, invisible, enveloped in darkness. I may as well have been in an empty room. Time to hit them with a crowd-pleaser, get a feel for them. Warm them up, sound them out.

Do you know what the secret of comedy is? Timing. Delivery. Wit. Get a load of this: A man gets home and says to his wife, “I’ve won the lottery. Quick, pack your bags.”

“Why,” she asks, “where are we going?”

“No questions. Just pack your bags…”

-BEAT“… And sod off!”

Goes down a storm in working men’s clubs, that one, and it’s not even mine.

I stole it from Bernard Manning.

Here? Abject, hateful silence, broken only by a few sharp intakes of breath, some contemptuous muttering and the grinding of cheap false teeth. The booking agent had forgotten to tell me the party was for OAPs. I only found out when the lights went up – well, if I’m honest, there was a bit of a frisson even before that – but once you’ve lost an audience, they’ve gone, 96

you can’t get them back. Especially when half of them haven’t cracked a smile since Flanders and Swann went off the air.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m here all week. Try the coronation chicken.”

My name is Tarbuck Braithwaite. I know, stupid name. Blame my gran. She insisted on it. She loved the old variety performers.

When they got shuffled off to the procelebrity golfing circuit in favour of smug berks like Ben Elton, it was the final disappointment that tipped her over the edge. Mother shipped her off to a home, where she could lose the rest of her marbles well away from the fearful spectre of alternative comedy.

Now she spends her days dribbling, drinking tea – sometimes both at the same time – and being unfailingly polite to visitors because she can never remember who they are or whether she owes them money. And I’m saddled with a daft name, a pointless memorial to Saturday nights in front of Eric and Ernie, which keeps bouncing me between the nostalgia circuit and chav pubs. I could be writing for Radio 4, you know. Meanwhile, the

egregious Jimmy Carr is coining it in: panel shows on every TV channel, endorsements, stand-up tours, corporate parties. I bet he opens nightclubs as well. I’d settle for a gag-writing gig on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. Jimmy Carr? I’ll spit on his grave – once I put him in it.

Bob Monkhouse said you should keep all your ideas for jokes and speeches in a card file. I have two card files: one for jokes, the other for details of people I’m going to murder.

It doesn’t pay to cut down on your potential audience, so I prefer to kill people with no sense of humour. You can find them every day on internet message boards: joyless ghouls, braying and heehawing at one another from behind their pseudonyms, dropping pastry crumbs into their keyboards. Tracking down the physical locations of these greasy-fingered keyboard jockeys is sometimes tricky, hence my filing system. But I edge my research along a few names at a time, then pay them a visit disguised as a pizza delivery man. And when they’re dead, nobody misses them – except, perhaps, their mothers, who they usually live with.

I do make exceptions, though.

Remember that booking agent?

“Look, mate,” he said. (Mate? We’d never previously met. I felt positively violated by this unsolicited and thoroughly insincere proclamation of amity.) “I’m really sorry. In fact, I’m mortified.”

By the time I’ve finished with you, I thought, mortified is exactly what you’ll be.

“But here’s the thing,” he continued, although I was barely listening now. I could predict the outcome of this exchange with the accuracy of a caesium oscillator.

“You bombed out there tonight. It was a disaster. They’ll all want a refund. You know what pensioners are like.

“And they’ll never come back. You’ve materially damaged my business. The Playhouse is supposed to be a familyfriendly venue – no wife-beating or cheap penis jokes. I wouldn’t have minded if you’d done politics – well, actually, yes I would.

“But you’ll understand, won’t you, if I can’t pay you for this? One old dear actually pissed herself – and not in a good way. I’ll have to get the seat cleaned.

Most of the front row looked so clenched, I thought they were going to prolapse.”

“Fine,” I said. “Goodbye.”

Here’s another joke for you: A man walks into a bar. Ouch! It was an iron bar!

I’m being economical with the actualité, of course, because he didn’t walk into it. I swung it in a crude but effective trajectory towards his head as he left his grotty little enterprise via the back door after counting the day’s (meagre) takings.

illustration: James Taylor

more body & mind

More Body & Mind His eyes had just enough time to register a modicum of surprise before the iron bar smacked his nose back into his cerebellum with a satisfying crunch.

I relieved him of his wallet, decanting into my personal coffers a sum equal to what he owed me, plus a little extra for my trouble, and then I used his credit cards to order a substantial quantity of pornographic DVDs for delivery to someone I hate – that someone being Colin Byfield, the glorified bean-counter who is BBC Radio’s head of comedy. I’ve had enough rejection letters from him to remember his address without consulting the card file.

Once, and once only, I managed to submit a joke successfully to Byfield’s lackeys. It was a moment of great pride.

My fingers trembled as I pressed the tape machine’s record and play keys simultaneously, capturing the entire episode of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. I salivated throughout. And when Chairman Humph curled his elderly but lascivious tongue around my cunningly constructed, wine-themed double entendre? Dear reader, I had a Semillon…

See, I can do clever jokes, but they just don’t pay unless you get on the BBC. The Archangel Monkhouse knew that.

He could write intelligent material, but he knew the real money was in motherin-law jokes and corporate speaking.

Shame he spunked half of it on fake tans.

Apart from poverty, the other occupational hazard of the marginally successful comedian is the standard question at parties: “So, what do you do?” If you’re lucky, when you tell them what you do, all they’ll say is, “Tell me a joke, then.” That’s if you’re lucky. At some do in Palmers Green once I was mildly taken aback when my interrogator replied, “All about temporarily suspending the rules of adulthood, innit?”

“Eh?” “Comedy. All about temporarily suspending the rules of adulthood. Innit?”

Oh God. Spare me from these know10-things-about-everything types.

“Well, that’s the Freudian reading of it,” I said. “The Aristotelian view is that laughter arrives as a result of a narrative or discourse being interrupted by a surprising conclusion. The more developed version of that theory is that the moment of surprise contains two contradictory syllogisms, one plausible and the other implausible, but each with its own functional logic.

“What’s yellow and dangerous? Sharkinfested custard. Obviously sharks couldn’t live in custard, even if you built a big enough tank for them to swim around in – but if they could and you did, then the

‘ Once you’ve lost an audience, they’ve gone and you can’t get them back’ result would indeed be shark-infested custard, which is both yellow and dangerous. The implausible syllogism beats the plausible one. Bang! There’s your laugh. If you’re five years old.”

You don’t need me to tell you that, as of my second sentence, his eyes had taken on a glazed appearance.

“Right you are,” he said. “So – do you do mother-in-law jokes?”

That’s why you’ll never find me in the kitchen at parties.

Visiting my Gran is always an ordeal.

I don’t mean the general atmosphere of the place – the joyless staff, the constant olfactory interplay of disinfectant and urine, the old dear who shouts, “Edith?

Edith!” every 20 seconds – but the tawdry routine of our opening exchange.

“Oh, hello dear,” she’ll say every time, concentrating on my face, smiling even as her synapses fail to connect. “How are you?”

“Fine, Gran. How are you?”

“Fine, thank you, dear.” The familiarity confuses her. She sets her teacup down and smacks her lips, looking briefly away to study the patterned wallpaper carefully before she turns her head back. “You’re not from the gas board, are you? I think I left the gas on. Or did I forget to pay the bill? I don’t rightly recall.”

“No, I’m your grandson – Tarbuck.”

My name is a gap-toothed key to memory. Some of the tension dissipates from the lines around her eyes as all those electrical impulses inside her brain start to connect again.

“Oh, Tarbuck, I haven’t seen you for weeks,” she says (actually, if I’d visited the day before yesterday we’d be having exactly the same conversation). “Are you still doing your comedy?”

“Yes, Gran.”

“You know I always liked my comedy.

Except later, when it all started to get blue.

I never liked it when it was blue. You don’t do blue jokes, do you, Tarbuck, love?”

“No, Gran.”

“You look a bit scruffy, love. You should dress smarter. Your grandfather never went anywhere without his hat. Or a tie.

And you should wear a jacket. That nice Richard off the telly always wears a jacket.”

She means Richard Whiteley. Funny how she can remember someone who’s been dead for years but can’t tell you what she’s had for breakfast.

I was walking home from one of these dispiriting encounters when my phone

rang. The unfamiliar voice at the other end of the call brought strange tidings.

“Tarbuck Braithwaite?” The voice bore the nasal twang redolent of a respectable middle-class education, followed by a simpering progression to upper middle management. “Colin Byfield at the BBC. I was wondering if you’d like to come in for a chat. We have an, er, situation.

What’s your address? We’ll send a car.”

Next time, whether you’re queueing at the post office or waiting on the phone to renew your TV licence, or falling back onto your sofa in horror as you open the renewal notice, picture me reclining in the back of the Mercedes as we wafted through London to Broadcasting House.

Byfield, who looked like he talked, offered me a sweaty-palmed handshake and pushed his wire-rimmed spectacles back up his nose as he ushered me into his office.

“Is Tarbuck your real name or a stage name?” He sat down behind his desk and fiddled with a pencil. To one side I could see a large brown-paper parcel that could conceivably contain a rather large number of unspeakable DVDs. “It’s my real one, believe it or not,” I said, feeling a little edgy.

“Seems a little odd and old-fashioned.

Not what a modern broadcaster usually likes to hear listed in the credits. But still, we’ve, ah, got a – situation. The writing team of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue came down with the Norovirus after their script meeting yesterday.

They’re utterly incapable of producing a script and we’re recording a show tonight. You’ve written for the show before so you know the drill, don’t you?

It’s trickier now that Humphrey’s dead and we’ve got all these guest presenters.

I need totally dynamite material. You think you can do it?”

“Of course,” I stammered. “Who’s presenting? Jack Dee?” “No. Jimmy Carr.”

I felt light-headed. It was as if I was rushing through a tunnel. And at the end of it, rushing towards me – the smug countenance of Jimmy Carr. Timing.

Delivery. Wit. Syllogisms. Was this some kind of joke? Oh – what to do?

Reader, I strangled him.

About the author

Howard Shemp was born into the automotive aftermarket parts business. His father invented the wedge-shaped, ‘stick-on’, wide-angle mirror. When the patent (and the family money) ran out, Howard turned to short fiction.

97

R

ecenlty, I stopped reading the comments section at the bottom of columns I have written online. I’m Irish. My temper is prone to overheating quickly and sharply, a bit like the engine of an old Alfa Romeo in rush-hour traffic. I get ‘comment rage’, which is probably why my employers have suggested – in that gentle way they have – that I do not reply to my readers lest I do myself a nuisance.

But, when I’m alone and behind the cold-yet-warm comfort of a Hansa draught, I find myself complaining to Dumi behind the bar that people are just plain nasty sometimes. Of course, Dumi tends to remind me that I get paid to be a critic myself and have little room to complain when the people I’m writing for take the opportunity to take me on via cyberspace.

“They just don’t get what I’m trying to say, though,” I keen. Perhaps I don’t understand modern readers. My job, as a columnist, is to offer an opinion that gives the reader a basis of knowledge from which to form an opinion, whether they disagree or agree with my take. It’s a starting point for conversations around braais, in bars, lounges, boardrooms and on the bus. Some get it. They get me and in the comments section, usually under their real names, they put forward a plausible counter or an add-on to my rant. Others don’t get it. They. Just.

Simply. Don’t. Get. It. A column I wrote about Carlos Alberto Parreira returning to coach South Africa before the World Cup described him as a “Messiah”. One reader commented that I was against Christians and would burn in hell. Another argued that I wouldn’t use an Islamic metaphor in my copy. Er, people, the column is about football… In no time at all the comment table became a battle ground between religions until the website moderator, no doubt exhausted from sifting through the Crusades, closed the column for comment.

It’s the anonymity that the internet offers that gives some readers a form of

Mind’s Eye

Rage of the Cyber Men Anonymous online column commentators get the sharp end of Kevin McCallum’s tongue Dutch courage and unleashes their basest emotions. It’s like a series of electronic shots of whiskey; after a few, the beast inside emerges and the façade worn in public is torn away. That’s not to say all are like this, but anyone who has visited a forum has come across them – the WebWolf, who howls at the moon and tears the throats from its victims and only comes out shortly after the full moon of the log on.

Journalists do not get behind masks. Well, they shouldn’t. There have been some very fine columns written under pseudonyms, but journalists take responsibility for what they write: putting a face to an opinion, sticking a hand in the air and saying “that was me”. Sports players and administrators tend not to write their complaints in the ‘comments section’ when they disagree.

In Brisbane in 2003, during the Rugby World Cup, I wrote a piece in which I suggested that Springbok coach Rudolf

Straeuli had such strength in depth he could drop Corné Krige, his captain, who was not in the greatest form, if he wanted to. Back home a sports editor put the headline “Krige to be dropped” on top of the piece. The Bok media liaison called me up. I was in trouble.

The next day, at the press conference to announce the team to play Samoa, Krige, Straeuli, Victor Matfield, Joost van der Westhuysen and Joe van Niekerk arrived. I sat at the back of the room, needing to leave as soon as the presser finished to file for our afternoon papers.

All, save for Van Niekerk, who I knew well, gave me the evil eye. Big Joe even gave me a thumbs up. Straeuli gave me lip during the presser, Krige glared at me. What fun. When it finished, I legged it to my hotel to whip out a team announcement, and on the way conducted an interview with a Jo’burg radio station. I later learned an angry Krige had stormed out of the presser looking for me and one of my colleagues, desperate for a story, interviewed him about this “coward” journalist. It made the front page of Beeld, the largest Afrikaans daily in the world. Myself and the hack who wrote it had a few words, but sorted it out over a few beers.

A week later we had dinner with the Springbok management before the quarter-final against the All Blacks.

I looked around for someone to sit beside who wouldn’t give me strife. I saw Ray Mordt, the Bok assistant coach, and as I walked over to sit beside him, I heard a booming voice call my name. It was Straeuli and he wanted me to sit next to him. We chatted. I explained what I had meant. He said he understood and would organise a “clear the air” meeting with Krige. We sorted it out. A discussion was had, understanding reached. No anonymity, no hiding behind a sharp tongue. Comments section closed.

Kevin McCallum is an award-winning sports journalist and acclaimed columnist for the Independent newspaper group

South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bulletin GMBH Editor-In-Chief Robert Sperl Editorial Office Anthony Rowlinson (Executive Editor), Stefan Wagner Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Andreas Tzortzis Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Production Editor Grant Smyth Photo Editors Susie Forman (Chief), Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Markus Kucera, Valerie Rosenburg, Catherine Shaw Design Erik Turek (Art Director), Miles English, Judit Fortelny, Markus Kietreiber, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Werner Jessner, Uschi Korda, Ruth Morgan Contributors Martin Apolin, Dorin Brambus, Cassio Cortes, Tom Hall, Jazz Kusche, Kevin McCallum, Florian Obkircher, Olivia Rosen, Richard Rumney, Howard Shemp, Robert Tighe, Herbert Völker, Matt Youson, Nadja Zele Production Managers Michael Bergmeister, Wolfgang Stecher, Walter Omar Sádaba Repro Managers Christian Graf-Simpson, Clemens Ragotzky Augmented Reality Christoph Rietner, Martin Herz, www.imagination.at General Managers Karl Abentheuer, Rudolf Theierl International Project Management Jan Cremer, Bernd Fisa Finance Siegmar Hofstetter. Editor, South Africa Steve Smith. The Red Bulletin is published simultaneously in Austria, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Poland, South Africa and New Zealand. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bulletin GmbH, Am Brunnen 1, A-5330 Fuschl am See, FN 287869m, ATU63087028. 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 CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. For all advertising enquiries, contact Anthony Fenton-Wells, +27 (0)82 464 6376, or email anthony@tfwcc.net Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com

The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on October 5

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