22 FEATURES
Arts Editors: Alice Hancock and Lara Prendergast
Friday February 19th 2010 www.varsity.co.uk
arts@varsity.co.uk
Arts Comment DONALD FUTERS
W
e all know that music piracy is evil. Just as any self-respecting, delicatelyfragranced member of polite society would never dream of pinching a handbag or slipping the odd Twix into their underwear at the cornershop, so, too, would they dissolve into fits of terror and revulsion when confronted with a ‘Download’ button, knowing what havoc its clicking would wreak upon the life of an unsuspecting proto-rockstar. So, when it emerged last week that Google had deleted numerous prominent music blogs on the grounds of multiple copyright claims made by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the world rejoiced. Except, it didn’t. Despite the attempted smear campaigns of a handful of record companies, most people don’t actually believe that music piracy is all that bad. The majority of us came to the conclusion some time ago that enjoying one of infinite potential copies of
Music blogs are good for you—and for the record industry, too something you wouldn’t have paid for anyway doesn’t really qualify as theft, and that many of the organizations involved in tackling filesharing have motivations which are, at best, questionable. The deletion of those blogs was particularly dubious; most of the popular websites involved operated entirely above board. For some time, record labels, promoters and musicians have been supplying
“It’s musicsharing with only charming intentions.” them with MP3s of their latest material. In other words, they don’t need to pirate anything. Blogs are good for music, and they are good for the industry. These websites work so well
because they are written by hobbyists and music-lovers; the bloggers who have become successful have because they use their enthusiasm (and good taste) to inspire a similar excitement in their readership. Even when the law is not on their side, it’s not so much a case of piracy as of music-sharing, carried out with only charming intentions. The result is a new journalism, preoccupied with any song that makes its hair stand on end and its feet twitch. Where it excels is in discovering unknown artists and nurturing them; the genius of the music blog is to give you what you don’t even know you want yet. The blogosphere has proven an invaluable resource in its short life so far, offering independent artists like Vampire Weekend
Classics Revisited
an alternative path to success and helping to bring bands like Justice and Animal Collective into the limelight. Along with more obviously piratical branches of the filesharing world, it has also brought about an explosion in remixing which continues to bring a welcome influx of creativity into the music world. More and more, the industry is coming to embrace this new medium. Unfortunately, there still exists a cadre of cave-dwelling suit-wearers who remain mired in the paranoid belief that they are waging a war against a public of thieves and incapable of recognising the blogs for what they are: an invaluable PR resource – an opportunity to foster a loyal fan base of gig attendees free of charge. They will continue to mar this universally beneficial resource, as they have in the Google case, until someone achieves the impressive feat of convincing them of their own short-sighted stupidity. Still, look on the bright side: they all have to die off eventually.
William Wordsworth The Prelude (1799) The Prelude, Wordsworth’s book-length spiritual autobiography, is so often neglected in favour of poems about daffodils – and yet this is where the daffodils came from, the reasons why his heart leaps up. It is a work of such minute honesty and self-awareness, and the joy he describes is so seductive, that it cannot but inspire a determination to see the world through such passionately sensitive eyes. “I was most rich,” he writes: “I had a world about me.” In such a world, where “all that I beheld respired with inward meaning,” how can we fail to see how rich we truly are? KIRSTY UPHAM
FOOD & DRINK
The Rumble Tums
Tour Rider HELEN MACKREATH
This week, proud Churchillian Rosie Corner gets her cook on for The Rumble Strips at Churchill Spring Ball
F
irst, an admission: until the Churchill Spring Ball committee asked me to cook for them, I had never heard of The Rumble Strips. A bit of Spotifying later I realised I loved this brasstinged, honey-voice, Dutch-pop band hailing from Devon, but did I hell know what to cook for them. Help arrived in the form of the band’s ‘hospitality rider’ – no, that’s not a domestic groupie, but actually a piece of paper listing, in precise detail, no fewer than 23 dressing room essentials. Making 160 triangular sandwiches is not a problem to a seasoned kitchen dogsbody such as myself, but who on earth wants fresh chillies to eat with their Jameson Whisky? The superstar rider had mythological status in the world of showbiz. Perhaps the most famous diva is Jennifer Lopez, who routinely demands a white dressing room with white curtains and white roses and a security guard who must remain within four feet of her at all times and refer to her as ‘No.1’, although Jim Carrey’s pet iguana who demands its own vegetarian cook on location comes in a close second. I have great respect for Britney Spears, who, when playing on Top of the Pops, demanded a bowl of fresh tuna
salad, with Hellmann’s mayo, eggs, relish and albacore tuna only. Well, I may not be able to tell albacore tuna from the bog-standard dolphin-friendly, but one has to respect a member of the transnational elite plumping for this nation’s (arguably) most famous condiment. Another albacore tunaeating star is Mariah Carey who notoriously requested a litter of puppies and kittens for an MTV appearance – not to eat, obviously. On many levels the Spring Ball committee came off lightly; The Rumble Strips only demanded five ‘clean, dry towels’ to P Diddy’s 204. Eventually I decided that these canny lads with a penchant for local ales would appreciate that greatest of County Durham dishes – sausage casserole with rice. Ladling it out to the ravenous band I was struck by just how much I resembled their mother, making sure that they all had a good dinner in them before they went on stage. I tried hard not be piqued when the keyboard player cut up a chilli to sprinkle over his casserole – sign of a decrepit palate. Despite this effrontery, four members even had seconds, filling me with maternal pride. Perched on a saxophone case I chatted to the boys about life on the road and the perils of
trying to eat well before gigs. “So, is this a change from takeaways? What do you tend to eat on tour?” I asked. “Er…this,” said the tour manager, pointing to the rider. Well, blow me, I thought. A hot meal inside them, the Strips played an excellent set, for which I take much of the credit. The way to a band interview, like the way to a man’s heart, is truly through their stomach.
Sausage Casserole (to serve 7 indie rockers) 3 tbsp cooking oil 3 garlic cloves 1 inch piece of ginger 4 onions 18 phat pork sausages 3 peppers 3 cans of tomatoes 2 tbsp tomato purée Any leftover veg 2 apples 1 cup of apple juice 1 kilo of rice Any herbs/spices/booze you fancy throwing in the frying pan 1. Begin by heating some oil in the largest heavy bottomed frying pan you can find. 2. Chop up the garlic and ginger real fine and cook until soft. Have someone who wears contacts (top tip) chop the onion and add those to the pan and fry until soft. 3. Next, slice your sausages (buying a slightly more expensive and meaty one does make a heck of a difference) and add to the pan, followed by the chopped peppers, tomatoes, puree and any other veg. 4. When everything is bubbling throw in some cubed, unpeeled apple (something flavoursome like a Cox works well) and the apple juice. 5.Cook until the apple is soft and the sauce has thickened slightly. Season with salt, pepper and spices TASTING AS YOU GO. Serve with rice, yoghurt and maybe even a little cheese. Nom.
Someone’s got a rumbly tummy
Finger, leg, torso-lickin’ good