The Courier 1227 by The Courier Online

C OURIER THE

Issue 1227 Monday 7 March 2011 www.thecourieronline.co.uk

THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF NEWCASTLE STUDENTS

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No expense spared • •

University’s top execs splash out almost £150,000 since June 2008 Students foot the bill for five star hotels, first class travel and fine dining

• Money, money, money: globe-trotting Vice-Chancellor Chris Brink, who earns £240,000 a year, splashed out £39k on expenses since June 2008 including a £300 withdrawl from a cashpoint at Haymarket and £673 on a bed for his house on the outskirts of the city

Simon Murphy News Editor University chiefs have blown a staggering £148,922 on expenses, The Courier can reveal. At a time of unprecedented cuts to higher education, the Executive Board have lavished the six-figure sum on fine dining, first-class travelling and luxury five-star hotels since June 2008. As the University expects to lose as much as £7 million in funding, the colossal expenses total could have paid a year’s tuition fees for

almost 50 underprivileged students. The ﬁgure also dwarfs those at rival North East institutions such as Sunderland University, where bosses claimed only £26,121.41 and Northumbria, which totalled £115,108.35 over the last three years. Newcastle’s Vice-Chancellor Chris Brink, who earns £240,000 a year, was responsible for the largest chunk of the claims, totalling £39,600.66, including £1.40 for a metro ticket. The other major claimants were Deputy Vice-Chancellor Ella Ritch-

ie, whose tally totals £20,713.76, Director of the University’s Institute for Research on Sustainability Paul Younger, who has racked up an expenses bill of £24,468.43, and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Medical Sciences Chris Day, who has claimed £22, 453.16. Among the Vice-Chancellor’s claims were £673 for a bed and a £358.70 shopping spree at Ikea to deck out his home on the outskirts of Newcastle, which is supplied by the University. He does not have to pay any rent to the University for

Vice-Chancellor claims £39,000 including £1.40 for a Metro ticket

his Ponteland property despite his huge salary. Globe-trotting Brink has also racked up an astonishing number of stays at luxury hotels, including the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo, Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore, Hyatt Regency Johor Bahru and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Malaysia, and the Sofitel Plaza in Xiamen, China. Meanwhile, South African Brink – who has been Vice-Chancellor since 2007, has entertained guests at the exclusive Raffles Hotel in Singapore and Jesmond Dene House, which

once served as the temporary home of former Newcastle United star Andy Carroll. The University’s Finance Director Richard Dale told The Courier that he expected members of the Executive Board to look for value for money. “My experience with the Executive Board is that they’re very scrupulous in the way they behave. I am aware at times when we’ve used Rafﬂes and sometimes the University does that for alumni events which are major fundraising Continued on page 4 and 5 stress-

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

News Editors: Simon Murphy and Charlie Oven

Have you got a news story for The Courier? Email us at: courier.news@ncl.ac.uk

‘Pyjama day’: medical students raise money for leukaemia charity Elliot Bentley Seeing students running in their pyjamas to lectures at ﬁve to nine in the morning may not be an entirely uncommon sight, but it’s not often that an entire course turns up in their jammies. Last Thursday, Medicine students (as well as a few Dentistry and Biomedicine students) donned their nightwear in order to raise money and awareness for leukaemia. The day was organised by Marrow, a student group that fundraises for leukaemia charity Anthony Nolan, and included a cake sale in the Medical School foyer. Students who wore pyjamas to their lectures were asked to donate a pound towards the charity. Gerard Carlin, a second-year Medic who helped organise the day, told The Courier: “So far today it’s gone really really well - we’ve raised just short of £100.” Leukaemia is the most common type of blood cancer and 2400 people are diagnosed with it every year in the UK alone. Because of the speciﬁcity of bone marrow transplants, new donors are constantly needed. The clinic will run on the March 16 in the Medical School foyer, allowing students to quickly join the bone marrow register. “All you have to do is give a spit sample and sign a form and then that’s you signed up for the register,” said Carlin. “We know that a lot of people hear stories that donating’s really painful and stuff. A lot of that has been changed. It’s similar to dialysis, where you have a needle in each arm and they pump the stem cells through.” He also stressed that those who are unable to give blood

Recently released UCAS ﬁgures show a rise in undergraduate applications to Newcastle University of just over 5 per cent - close to the increase in applications for the country as a whole. As of as of February 27, Newcastle University had received just over 28,000 applications for undergraduate degree programmes. A spokesperson for Newcastle University management said that she was “very pleased to see that Newcastle continues to attract a high number of excellent applications across a broad range of subject areas.” Applications to universities in the North East rose by 3.2 per cent. The national picture shows another record-breaking number of applications – but the 5 per cent increase

Comment I’d rather have an apple: Helen Lam questions the ethics of ‘Baby Gaga’ breast milk ice cream Page 9

Lifestyle Pete Warcup knocks back cheap beer as he takes in Bratislava, Warsaw and Budapest Page 18

Culture Film Editor Adam Williams chats to Get Carter director Mike Hodges Page 29

Sport Rugby Union: relegation worries slipping away as Royals seal victory over Northumbria Page 42

Meetings Timetable: Monday Sport- 12pm, Crow’s Nest News & Comment - 1pm, Rm 6 Park Terrace Photos - 2pm, Rm 6 Park Terrace Fashion - 4pm, Rm 5 Park Terrace Tuesday Life & Style - 12pm, Room 6 Park Terrace Fashion - 12pm, Room 6 Park Terrace

Dress-gown day: scores of Medics braved a cold March day to raise cash for leukaemia charity Marrow on Thursday last week

might still be eligible to donate bone marrow. At the end of the month, the annual Marrow Full Monty will be taking place at the Hyena Comedy Club, in

which teams strip off to compete for a grand prize. A citywide bar crawl will also be taking place after the competition. “Last year, three of the teams went

down to underwear,” said Carlin, “and two of the teams went all the way!” And himself? “I ended up in a thong!”

A rise in applicants for 2011 hits Newcastle Simon Childs

The Union Society, King’s Walk, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QB. Tel: 0191 239 3940

is the lowest in recent times which have seen year on year application rises. On the face of it the ﬁgures suggest that prospective students are not being put off university as course cuts and rising tuition fees dominate the agenda. However, applications by 18-year-olds crept up by a tiny 0.3 per cent, and applications by 17 year olds fell by 0.1 per cent, suggesting that school leavers are beginning to look for alternatives to university. There was a fall in applications at the time of the tuition fees vote in Parliament and the protests against fee hikes and funding cuts. Elle Chilton-Knight, a member of Newcastle Free Education Network, commented: “The fact that applications dropped at the time of the vote in Parliament suggests that students from poor backgrounds have got a clear message from the government

that education is not for them.” On the other hand, Knight also raised concerns about the possibility of young people missing out on their gap years in a bid to beat the fee rises, asking: “How many applicants this year were forced to give up years-out providing valuable training, placements, work or lifeexperience?” One such applicant is Luke Hayton Baker, a sixth-former from Heaton Mannor school. Speaking to The Courier he claimed he wouldn’t have applied if it wasn’t for the fee rises. “I wanted a gap year to work out what I wanted to study, but I made an application for a course I am unsure about. The fee increases meant I really felt rushed”, commented Baker. Concerns have also been raised about the number of students who will miss out altogether. Last year

over 200,000 applicants failed to get places, and only 10,000 more places have been provided since then. Highlighting the number of prospective students not getting a place, departing NUS President Aaron Porter said: “For the third year running, a cap on student numbers looks set to leave tens, if not hundreds of thousands of well-qualiﬁed applicants without a place and forced to contemplate both a long process of reapplying next year and facing huge increase in fees.” A spokesperson for Newcastle University admitted that the rise in applications poses challenges: “The combination of an increasing number of applications and a squeeze by the government on the number of new students, we can accept means that we are having to disappoint some very good applicants.”

Wednesday Arts - 12.30pm, Room 6 Park Terrace Film & Music- 1pm, Rm 6 Park Terrace TV & Radio - 1.30pm, Room 6 Park Terrace Editorial Team: • Editor - Fran Infante • Deputy Editor - Joshua Shrimpton Dean • News Editors - Charlie Oven & Simon Murphy • Comment Editors - Danny Kielty & Laura Heads • Life & Style Editors - Mary Mullarkey & Kat Bishop •Fashion Editor - Lauren Girling • Arts Editor - Stephanie Ferrao • Film Editor - Adam Williams • Music Editors - Polly Randall & Joe Skrebels • TV & Radio Editor - Ellie Wilson & Lynsey Fawcett • Puzzles Editor - Andy Pitkeathley •Listings Editor - Ciara Littler • Sports Editors - Kat Bannon, Jono Taylor & Wills Robinson •Photo Editor - Briony Carlin • Design Editor - Helen Mamalaki •Head of Digital Media - Aimee Philipson •Online Editors - Bethany Sissons, Katie Hicks, Elliot Bentley and Colin Henrys •Proof Editors - Charlotte Loftus, Katy Lawson, Hannah Davey, Gemma Farina, Jessica Cree, Amy Jordan, Rebecca Gee, Gemma-Jayne Turner,Verity Cunningham, Emma O’Neil, Jenny Beer, Georgia Morgan, & Tatiana Horniakova The Courier is printed by: Harmsworth Printing Limited, Northcliffe House, Meadow Road, Derby, DE1 2DW. Tel: 01332 253013. Established in 1948, The Courier is the fully independent student newspaper of the Union Society at Newcastle University. The Courier is published weekly during term time, and is free of charge. The design, text, photographs and graphics are copyright of The Courier and its individual contributors. No parts of this newspaper may be reproduced without the prior permission of the editor. Any views expressed in this newspaper’s opinion pieces are those of the individual writing, and not of The Courier, the Union Society or Newcastle University.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

News

Wheels in motion: Newcastle students take on cycle challenge of a lifetime for charity

Don’t hike just bike: ﬁve second year students will cycle a 1000 mile route from London to Barcelona in Spain, for 12 days between 5 September and 17 September 2011 in order to raise money for Cancer Research UK

Jessica Cree Five Newcastle students are taking on the challenge of a lifetime by cycling to Barcelona in aid of Cancer Research UK. The ﬁve second year students, Ben Castillo Bernaus, Julian Beazley, Jamie O’Neill, Tristan Abbott and James Moncrieff will cycle the 1000 mile route from London to the Catalonian capital for 12 days between

September 5 and 17 2011. They have one big aim: to raise £15,000 for a great charity that helps to care for people with cancer and fund research to prevent, diagnose and treat one of the UK’s biggest killers. In addition, they will be cycling in memory of O’Neill’s mum, who sadly passed away last year after suffering from the disease. The guys aren’t novices, however; Beazley is a near expert and has cy-

cled from London to Paris, raising money for charity along the way. The others all play for University sports teams and so ﬁtness isn’t really their biggest worry. They’ve even decided to make the whole thing a little bit harder for themselves, as if it wasn’t a difﬁcult enough test as it is. On top of cycling up to 100 miles a day, the team has chosen to include the Col de Tourmalet route to cross the Pyr-

enees, which is renowned for being the oldest and one of the most gruelling stages of the Tour de France. They will be fundraising at their old schools and have also thought of a possible, rather inventive, new way to raise even more money from the student community. They hope to be able to have a sponsored drink in a bar, and every time someone purchases it, a donation will be made to their cause. Surely it will

raise a small fortune! If you would like to ﬁnd out more about the guys and what they’re doing, check out their website, www.ride4cancer.co.uk . You’ll also be able to ﬁnd a link to their JustGiving site and Twitter page, which they will be updating daily during their trip.

Dental School lures volunteers with free treatment Louise Naylor The University’s Dental School is looking for volunteers of all ages and ailments to come forward to assist with the training of young dental practitioners. The dentists will be third year students who will carry out the free procedures under the watchful eye of highly qualiﬁed and experienced practitioners. The practice of using volunteers is

believed to be one of the most effective ways to encourage learning and to produce the skills required to become a fully qualiﬁed dentist. Anyone sceptical about the scheme’s safety will take comfort in the fact that Newcastle’s Dental School ranks in the top ﬁve in the country and has state-of-the-art equipment and training. Dr James Field, Clinical Academic Fellow at the Dental School said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for peo-

ple in the North East to receive the highest quality dental treatments for free.” Carolyn Hare, a third year dental student at Newcastle, believes the treatment could be of a higher quality than one booked in a paid practice: “I have had two fillings and both have been better than fillings I had to pay for from a qualified dentist,” she said. The financial reasoning is hard to counter; Hare gave an example of a

patient who has received treatment that would have cost in excess of £300, for free. Without the help of the students and the dental hospital she would not have been able to afford any of it. The only downside appears to be the cost in a patient’s time. Volunteers are required to attend appointments on a regular and reliable basis; there is no room for session changes because this could have serious consequences for the young

dentists’ training schedule. The students perform a wide range of procedures from a simple clean and polish, to more demanding fillings, caps and dentures. However, these are short term contracts and ongoing care will have to be passed to a regular qualified dentist. Interested? To apply for and find out more information about the free dental treatment, visit ncl.ac.uk/dental/about/ treatment

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

News

‘Reasonable expense’? First class travel, fine dining, luxury hotels

Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore “Wake up to spectacular city views by opening the remote-controlled drapes from your bed”, says the five star hotel’s website. In the heart of the vibrant Marina Bay area, this is one of Singapore’s top places to stay. On a Friday or Saturday night you can indulge in a luxurious poolside “Barbeque Bonanza” - at $98 per person. Vice Chancellor’s bill: £479.12

As students are set to pay more in fees and lectures to be paid less, the Executive Board claims almost £150,000 on expenses. News Editor Simon Murphy investigates Continued from front page opportunities for the University.” The Vice-Chancellor also withdrew £300 from a cash point at Haymarket in October 2009, with no record where or how the money was spent. He used a University payment card, which he can use as he sees fit if it is deemed in “the business interest of the University”. Finance Director Dale said he accepted that unsolicited withdrawals from cash points were questionable. “One of the reasons we’re trying to stop it is that we recognise the perception that that gives,” he explained. But Dale defended the University’s travel and expenses policy which allows members of the Executive Board to travel business class on long haul air flights despite some single tickets costing more than the price of year’s tuition fee.

“In just four months between November 2008 and February 2009 the Vice-Chancellor claimed more than £3,700 on first class rail fares.” The Finance Director said: “I don’t mind whether it’s a research assistant or the Vice-Chancellor, if we’re expecting them to do complex negotiations when they get to the other

end of a long flight, then there’s a justification for them going in a higher class of travel. “To be an important international player racks up the costs. We wouldn’t do these international initiatives if we didn’t expect to make some money out of them. We’ve got to fly out members of the executive board to lead these initiatives. “Reputation drives employability. You don’t get that kind of level of reputation [for the University] by not giving appropriate entertainment to visitors to the University or by going abroad.” Last week The Courier reported that the Vice-Chancellor urged lecturers at the University to accept a settlement which would mean a real term cut in their wages. Professor of Global Politics Barry Gills, who is President of Newcastle’s branch of the University and College Union, criticised the profligate corporatist culture that he felt existed at the University. “In a period of national austerity and much personal sacrifice, we hope to see a change in administrative culture and attitudes to expenses, in line with the principles of fairness and equity,” he said. Among the Executive Board’s claims are scores of examples of first class travelling on trains. The University’s travel and expenses policy states that claimants “should normally travel standard class” but Richard Dale explained to The Courier that the policy was “deliberately worded that way” to allow a loophole for executive members. In just four months between November 2008 and February 2009 the Vice-Chancellor claimed more than

£3,700 on first class rail fares. Olivia Grant, Chair of the University’s governing body, Council, defended the Executive Board’s claims. She said: “Newcastle is the biggest research intensive university in North East England and has the largest Executive team, which is inevitably reflected in the total expenses claim.

“Last week The Courier reported that the Vice-Chancellor urged lecturers at the University to accept a settlement which would mean a real term cut in their wages.” “The size of our Executive team was determined some time ago and also reflects their broad range of expertise and responsibilities. This is our choice to ensure that we have the capacity to influence and be heard nationally and internationally, which is crucial to the university and the region. “However I am very confident that the Executive are ever mindful of the need to economise and that their ethos is one of restraint. Hospitality is offered appropriately and travel is booked sensibly, according to the circumstances.”

Living the life of luxury: the Vice-Chancellor and members of the University’s Executive

Transcription of News Editor Simon Murphy interviewing the University’s Finance Director Richard Dale over expenses claims:

SM: But it has happened. RD: It has happened occasionally.

SM: Are members of the Executive Board just allowed to get out cash if it’s deemed in the business interests of the University? RD: No, no they’re not. (SM shows RD evidence of Vice-Chancellor withdrawing £300 from a Haymarket cashpoint) RD: Yes there are some specifics when the Vice-Chancellor’s been away but that’s the only one and we would expect him to use that sensibly in line with the policy. SM: So the Vice-Chancellor is allowed to just get out cash and spend it as he sees fit if it’s deemed in the business interests of the University? RD: (stutters) Well that isn’t happening so often now.

Money man: Dale said the University was trying to alter some of its practices

SM: Do you think that’s reasonable? He earns a quarter of a million pounds a year, does he really need to get out £300 on his company card? RD: I think there are some cases where it makes sense for him to do that. One of the reasons we’re trying to stop it is that we recognise the perception that that gives.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

News

Keio Plaza Hotel, Tokyo Malmaison Hotel, Newcastle

The luxury hotel in the centre of Japan’s capital boasts an “emphasis on uncompromised relaxation and privacy.” Guests can take their pick from 1,435 sumptuous rooms that offer “spectacular city views of Tokyo from wide picture windows.” No less than 10 gourmet restaurants are on offer at the Keio Plaza. After dinner, guests can relax with a cocktail at one of the many bars. ‘Brilliant’ offers “a wide selection of liquors, spirits and premier cigars imported from around the world.”

One of the city’s best. In the restaurant, “every ingredient is genuinely prepared with passion by superstar chefs.” The bar is “a low-lit den of deep soulful sounds punctuated by the popping of corks.’ Vice Chancellor’s bill: £347.22

Vice Chancellor’s bill: £839.81 Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur You’ll want for nothing here; even the door handles are “custom-carved.” And for those who like to keep an active mind, the housekeeping staff will even leave “a bookmark with a contemplative quotation on your pillow.” The five star hotel makes an ideal retreat from the bustle of Malaysia’s largest city; the spa takes a “holistic approach to your wellbeing, providing a complete sensory journey.”

Brasserie Black Door, Newcastle According to The Guardian, this prestigious restaurant “has French classicism at its heart”and provides “smart food with an emphasis on flavour.” Housed inside the Biscuit Factory (one of the region’s leading art galleries), Brasserie Black Door customers are invited to book the “impressive gallery space for private or corporate functions.”

Vice Chancellor’s bill: £457.78

Vice Chancellor’s bill: £439.67

Board have splashed out on some of the Far East’s most prestigious five star hotels. Closer to home, expense claims have been lodged for the Malmaison Hotel on Newcastle’s Quayside and £1.40 for a Metro ticket

‘So long as University execs treat their roles as if they were heads of private firms, they will lose any moral justification for their everyday duties’ Simon Murphy Commentary

’m travelling in a space age-style lift with a glass wall, so when I peer down the people look like tiny ants scuttling around on the

floor. I’m in the multimillion pound newly constructed King’s Gate building and I’m on the way to interview the University’s Finance Director, Richard Dale. I’m immediately struck by the symbolic significance of the University’s management having their offices up here, so far above us mere mortals – I suppose you could say they live in the stratosphere. My mission is to find out just why the University thinks it’s justifiable to let their chiefs travel first class, dine at swanky restaurants and stay at the finest hotels countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and China have to offer. As I’m shepherded into Dale’s

office by his PA, he greets me with a nervous smile and gestures me towards the table by his desk. I spot that he has, clasped in his hands, the University’s travel and expenses policy which was, incidentally, masterminded by himself. “We’ve tried to get at the hearts and minds and do what is reasonable – and what is reasonable is variable to location,” he says. “If you go to New York then you’re not going to get a cheap hotel room anywhere. “We do expect members of the executive board to look for value for money. My experience with the executive board is that they’re very scrupulous in the way they behave.” But when I highlight questionable claims, Dale backtracks, stutters, twitches – it’s clear he’s been put up to defend the indefensible. When I point out that the ViceChancellor has gone to a Haymarket cash point and withdrawn £300 of the University’s money with

no explanation of where or how it was spent, he looks positively panicked.

“A couple of years down the line when students could be shelling out £9,000 a year for tuition fees, is it likely that they will continue to accept the Executive Board’s profligacy? I, for one, think not.” “Have you seen all of these claims?” I ask. “Err, no,” he says. And why would he? After all, he is presiding over the University’s annual turnover of £385 million; why would he quibble over a few

hundred quid? Well, the answer is of course because students – and indeed some lecturers – are quibbling over much less than that every week. Therein lies the University’s dilemma: they must maintain their international reputation and status, yet they must also become more transparent, accounting for each and every penny they now spend. As the cuts to higher education begin to bite - and they almost certainly will; one need not look further than the recent lecturers’ pay dispute – the University will come under ever increasing scrutiny over how it spends its cash. A couple of years down the line, when students could be shelling out £9,000 a year for tuition fees at Newcastle, is it likely that they will continue to accept the Executive Board’s profligacy? I, for one, think not. Now is the time for the University to change. Now is the time for the University’s top brass to stop travelling

first class, cut out luxury hotel stays and give up fine dining. So long as the University’s top executives treat their roles as if they were heads of large, corporate private firms they will lose any moral justification for their everyday duties. And as for expecting students to pay more and lecturers to be paid less, the Vice-Chancellor need not look further than his own over inflated salary. Richard Dale will tell you that the Vice-Chancellor’s salary ranks 43rd highest amongst other universities and is therefore acceptable. I say that is no justification – if anything, all universities need to reconsider the gross wages they pay their vice-chancellors. I personally find it abhorrent that the highest paid member of this institution earns almost 20 times the lowest. Newcastle University is an educational charity, not a private corporate firm. I think that seems to have been forgotten somewhere along the line.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

News

Photography competition works to defy negative perceptions of ageing B.BARBER

Like father like son: Dr Bob Barber, a senior lecturer at the University, won the Newcastle University Employees Competition; the photo captures a warm father and son moment depicting two people from different generations

Georgie Cossins In an attempt to defy the negative perceptions of ageing and older people in society, Newcastle University launched its Changing Age Campaign last year. One of the events held was a photography competition. Congratulations are in order to Dr. Bob Barber, a senior lecturer at the University

and winner of the ‘Newcastle University Employees Competition’, and to Gobinath Murugesapillai, winner of the ‘Newcastle University Student Competition’. The population in the UK is ageing according to government statistics. However, these statistics have received a predominantly negative reaction in our media. The University’s campaign challenges these depressing outlooks

and instead promotes the positive contributions older people make to our society. “The way things are going now, the vast majority of us are going to live to a ripe old age and if there has to come a point when you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see, that’s very undermining for your self-esteem,” said Professor Kirkwood, Director of the University’s Institute for Ageing and Health.

“That’s why elements of the campaign like the photography competition, which encourages people to think and respond differently, are so important.” When I asked Dr. Bob Barber about his photograph, he spoke modestly: “I guess the starting point for the photograph was to try and capture an aspect of the relationship between two people from different generations – in this instance a

father and son – and in a way that was as informal and spontaneous as possible! “I hope the photo conveys the natural warmth and humour between them and reﬂects a genuine quality to their relationship. I’d like to thank them both for agreeing to take part”. The exhibition was held at the Great North Museum, Hancock, and closed March 2.

Government set to provide university funding to students from privately educated backgrounds Finola Miles The Government’s Universities Secretary David Willetts has announced that students from a privately educated background will also receive loans upon request. The issue has two underlying themes; the question of whether every student should be entitled to

a loan when applying to university, and the recurring nightmare of the impending rise in tuition fees in 2012. Statistics from Britain’s privateeducation sector allow for much debate, with some school fees equating to as much as £29,862 a year at the more elitist institutions – equal to three years’ proposed university

tuition. Many private schools, like universities, provide funding for students through bursaries and scholarships in a range of specialities. Alongside this, the British military part-fund private education for service children in boarding schools as a means of sustaining stability in their education. These factors are of-

ten ignored in judgement of privately educated students, considered to be wealthier than their state school counterparts. Cleo Pino, a third year History student who was schooled locally at a comprehensive in South Shields, believes the proposal for universal loans should come without prejudice: “Students should not

be judged simply on the amount of money their family possesses. There are plenty of young people whose parents can, and have, funded a private secondary education, but who choose not to fund their children through university for whatever reason. If ﬁnancial help is sought, it should be available.”

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

News

Delegates revealed for NUS national conference Louise Naylor Following recent by-elections, the five student delegates who will represent Newcastle University at the NUS national conference this year have now been confirmed. The Courier can reveal less than one per cent of students voted, raising serious questions about levels of student political participation on campus. The five successful delegates are: Peter Campbell (of the Newcastle Free Education Network); Charley Wright (Athletic Union Officer); Sarah Fearns (Welfare and Equality Officer), all from the first ballot; and from the subsequent by-elections: Emma Budge (PGCE secondarygeography), and Elle Chilton-knight (BA Hons Politics). The NUS national conference takes place each year and sits over three days. It is the main decision making body which sets NUS policy for that

The Careers Service provides information and advice on developing your skills, ﬁnding a part-time job, work experience, supporting business start-up and (when the time comes) exploring graduate opportunities. For more details about these and other vacancies, including details of how to apply, visit their website at www.ncl.ac.uk/careers. Vacancies brought to you by the Careers Service... PART-TIME VACANCIES Job Title: Demonstrators, Mystery Shoppers and Merchandisers Employer: Gekko Partners Ltd Closing date: 11/03/2011 Salary: Competitive Basic job description: We are currently looking to recruit staff on a casual and ad-hoc basis to work weekends within retail environments. Demonstrating technology products such as laptops and cameras during the busy Easter trading period and for the rest of the year as campaigns arise. Location: Newcastle Job Title: Outbound Customer Executive Employer: Echo-U Ltd Closing date: 20/03/2011 Salary: £12,500 pro rata Basic job description: You will be working on an outbound data acquisition and conversion campaign during which you will be required to demonstrate exceptional customer service skills as well as meeting and exceeding targets. Location: Newcastle Job Title: Sales Advisor Employer: CC Viyelle Closing date: 15/03/2011 Salary: Meets National Minimum Wage Basic job description: Sales, customer service, housekeeping, deliveries. Person Requirements: Must have

year. Delegates from every Student Union association can attend to discuss and vote on policy, which this year will relate to education, welfare, union development and citizenship. The NUS executive for the following year will be elected at this meeting. When voting opened in January, only three candidates were standing for election out of a possible ﬁve places, and in the subsequent byelections held to ﬁll the remaining positions, two days of voting were allocated and 0.8 per cent of students participated. Given the importance of the conference in deciding burning issues such as increasing tuition fees, which thousands of Newcastle students have actively protested against, it calls into question why such a small number of people actually voted or posed their candidature. It also raises doubts about how representative the manifestos of the

retail experience Location: Gateshead Metro Centre Job Title: Team Member Employer: Revive Juice Bar Closing date: 18/03/2011 Salary: Competitive Basic job description: Customer service – experience required. Location: Gateshead Metro Centre Job Title: Sales Assistant Employer: Lipsy Closing date: 20/06/2011 Salary: £300 - £350 per week Basic job description: Duties will include: till operation, stock replenishment and accepting deliveries. Person requirements: Previous fashion experience desired Location: Gateshead Metro Centre Job Title: Casual Support Workers Employer: ID Partnership Closing date: Ongoing Salary: £6.50 - £7.50 per hour Basic job description: Providing person centered support to adults who have learning disabilities. Location: Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside Job Title: Customer Service Advisors Employer: Lloyds TSB Closing date: 30/03/2011 Salary: £14,000 - £18,420 pro rata Basic job description: To be the key, and often only, point of contact for customer calls, providing an excellent level of customer service. Location: Sunderland Job Title: Inbound Sales Advisors Employer: Sitel Closing date: ASAP Salary: Competitive + bonus Basic job description: Receiving activation calls for credit cards and introducing customers to a

ﬁve delegates are on issues affecting our 19,000 students. Successful representative Elle Chilton-Knight is not worried about misrepresentation since she ensured that her manifesto “included issues that affect most, if not all, students, such as the shocking trebling of tuition fees, negligent landlords and the election of our NUS National Executive”. Regarding the low turnout, she does believe that the problem is not indifference, but rather the failure of the Union Society to adequately publicise the elections and give support about becoming a representative: “I found that time and publicity was dedicated to actually informing people of the election, never mind campaigning for myself,” she said. The NUS national conference takes place this year from April 12 to 14 at the Sage in Gateshead.

range of other services such as payment protection insurance, direct debits or balance transfers. Location: Longbenton Job Title: Student Representatives Employer: Newcastle University Closing date: 25/03/2011 Salary: £335 Basic job description: The Student Recruitment Team is looking to recruit a team of 64 Student Representatives to support the Bite size Uni Summer School. The dates you’d be needed are Tuesday 19 – Friday 22 July 2011. Location: Newcastle University Campus Job Title: Sales Consultant Employer: Goldsmiths Closing date: 11/03/2011 Salary: Competitive Basic job description: Customer service, sales, stock display and replenishment. Location: Gateshead Metrocentre Job Title: Part-time Sales Employer: G-Star Raw Closing date: 21/03/2011 Salary: Competitive Basic job description: Working in a sales team working towards daily targets. Full availability required. Retail experience essential. Part-time vacancy, hours to be conﬁrmed. Location: Gateshead Metro Centre Job Title: Service Assistants Employer: Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Closing date: 09/03/2011 Salary: £13,653 to £16,753 per annum Basic job description: Duties to include general cleaning on ward areas, ofﬁces and departments. The available hours are all part time, with various shifts available including evenings and weekends. Location: Gosforth and Newcastle

Local: the magniﬁcent Sage in Gateshead will host this year’s NUS national conference

sufferers of multiple Glasgow student accommodate sclerosis. attacks lecturer on class night out Manchester Uni Society causes Satish Beri controversy William Allan, 23, a Music Business student, attacked lecturer Rodrick McKenna after an argument had taken place on a class night out. The argument took place in Burger King and resulted in Mr McKenna being punched in the head before the police were called. William Allan has been ordered by the courts to pay Mr McKenna £200 in compensation.

A society at Manchester University, which deals with male health and social issues, made a request not to be placed near a number of left wing and feminist groups during last month’s student fair, it has emerged. The Masculinity Exploration Networking and Support (MENS) Society feared they would be disturbed by members of feminist, communist and socialist societies on other stalls if placed too close to them. Gareth Morris, the Society’s chair, explained, “The reasoning for this was very simple; in the past, certain members from these groups (though by no means all of them) have disapproved of the activities of the MENS Society.”

Bristol and UWE team up in performing arts and fashion Oxford show Opportunity England’s largest student-run fash- Bursaries come ion, dance and music show, FUZE, took place at the weekend at the under scrutiny Passenger Shed in Brunel’s Old Station. Talented students from the University of Bristol and University of the West of England took part, making up the dancers, models, performers and committee members. Since being founded in 2004, it has raised more than £70,000; this year the proceeds went to charities Malaria No More and the Moonstone Appeal. The event hosted a mixture of stunning fashion, and theatrical and street dance. For many, the highlight was creative Mikail Wushishi taking to the stage adorning a giant snake in ‘African Jungle’. Bristol student James Morrison described the occasion as “insane”. FUZE aims to help reduce malariarelated deaths by 2015, while the Moonstone Appeal is looking to fund a new purpose-built centre to

A third of Oxford Opportunity Bursaries awarded to current ﬁrst years were given to students from independent schools, the student newspaper Cherwell can reveal. This comes just weeks after tutors at the University’s Congregation called for a “radical” overhaul to Oxford’s approach to Access Schemes, which many tutors feel still do not go far enough to reach students beyond a certain “cultural and social elite.” The university had not intended to publish the statistic that one third of bursary recipients are educated within the independent sector, but Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, recently disclosed this ﬁgure during comments he made at a Teach First presentation in Somerville College last week.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Should we really judge our politicians by their sexual misdemeanours? Comment Editors: Laura Heads and Danny Kielty - courier.comment@ncl.ac.uk

> Page 11

Democracy’s descent into voting apathy P. HUGHES

Simon Childs

Turnout for UK General Elections hit an historic low of 59 per cent in 2001. This caused concern, but how low would turnout have to go before the very legitimacy of that election was challenged? For instance, would you describe an election in which less than 1 per cent of people voted democratic? I wouldn’t. But that’s exactly what happened at last month’s elections to choose delegates for the NUS national conference - the sovereign body of the NUS. As I reported for The Courier, delegates were elected with 62, 57 and 52 votes respectively – out of a possible 19,000 voters! All weren’t even contested, so a by-election had to be held. The result? A similar turnout and allegations of a botched vote count. This means that virtually nobody who reads this voted in those elections. Six delegates who you didn’t vote for will attend the national conference and vote on important and controversial decisions, like how the NUS resists increased tuition fees and course cuts, whether or not we should allow the BNP to speak on our campuses, and who the NUS President is – on your behalf. But hey, who cares? Well, I for one don’t buy the argument that young people are apathetic. Look at the

You, The Courier Lisa Bernhardt, Media student, reviews the last edition

s me and some of my friends frequently write for The Courier, the first thing I usually do when a new issue is published is flick through it to find our articles. Last week, my course mates Luke and Ben had some pieces in the paper: well done, boys! Besides the report about RAG week sexism which was seriously upsetting, I found the lead article about students and their problems with landlords particularly interesting, as I‘m going to move into private accommodation for my second uni year in September. My favourite section of The Courier is Culture and my personal highlights this week

student protests on the streets in the past months, and the wave of university occupations, including the occupation of Newcastle University Fine Art building that I was so

included the previews of the musical Blood Brothers at Theatre Royal and the ﬁlm Sucker Punch. I‘m admittedly not a keen reader of the Lifestyle section, but I really enjoyed the debate about Fairtrade products as well.

proud to take part in. We do care passionately about politics and issues that affect us, so why don’t we vote? The truth is, NUS leaders are hap-

Helen Lam

News, page 7

C OU RI ER

2011 www.thecourieronline.co.uk

Rogue landlords leave students out in the cold

Issue 1226 Monday 28 February

Elliot Bentley

Students are increasingly falling victim to rogue landlords, leaving no students homeless with little or as warning, The Courier has learned the result of an in-depth investigation. Scores of students have been up evicted, as landlords fail to keep their mortgage repayments, leaving houses to be repossessed. The Student Advice Centre and the University Accommodation Servhas ice stress that the phenomenon become a growing problem within recent years. There is speculation that, with number the reduced having banks of mortgages provided in the wake are of the credit crunch, landlords being forced to turn to sub-prime lenders. These sub-prime mortgage lenders tend to demand higher interest and are more aggressive when repossessing properties from borrowers who have failed to keep up their payments. Sebastian Forbes, a third-year Biology student, was threatened with eviction twice. He told The Courier

NEWCASTLE STUDENTS THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF

how he and his housemates became “worried and stressed” when they received their eviction notice, anda had to take a week off to look for new home. “I literally do not trust landlords at all now,” he said. “It was something I didn’t really need,” said Megan ThompsonGreen, a second-year English Literature student who received a notice of eviction in November. “We called the the estate agent but were told landlord was out of the country.” Sebastian and Megan are not alone. The Courier has spoken to several students evicted with little warning, at or in the case of one student, none all, within the last six months. The charity Shelter said: “Sometimes the ﬁrst a tenant may know up of this is when the bailiffs turn on the doorstep. This is obviously unjust when tenants have paid their rent regularly. It can also be deeply left distressing because people are facing homelessness. nanﬁ out lose also can “Tenants cially. Some lose their deposit, others lose the rent that they have paid Continued on page 4 and 5

B.CARLIN

EST 1948

FREE

‘Banter’ culture of RAG week exposed after claims of sexism Jonathan Offredo

were student Becky Hair and her housemates Nowhere to call home: second-yearlandlord failed to keep up his mortgage payments threatened with eviction after their

The Students’ Union has launched an investigation into the ‘banter’ culture within Raising and Givof ing week after multiple claims sexism and discriminatory behaviour were reported during one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in recent years. The inquest began after two anonymous emails sent to Union Sabbatical Officers following RAG Roller Disco cnight at Sam Jacks where RAG offi ers on the door used permanent pen to mark attendees hands with numbers one through to 10, later found out to be ratings of attractiveness. According to those close to the situoration, the numbers were given by ganisers to all 136 people, both male unand female volunteers who were later. until cance aware of the signifi One crew member dropped out of RAG as a result of the incident. An official statement from RAG apologised for any offence that was caused and said the group understood the Union’s decision to investiit. gate and was cooperating fully with to “It was never our intention rehurt anyone’s feelings and we the ally regret that this has been consequence of our thoughts and actions,” the statement said. One RAG supervisor who was involved deeply regretted the action, saying that they personally should have taken a step back and said: “This is not what we should be doing.” if “We thought it would be funny a the people you knew found out, bit of a laugh about that, but didn’t think about the people we didn’t know and the issues they might have and the impact they would have on them - it was probably naïve in but I don’t think it was malicious the slightest,” one person added. The investigation is being led by WelSarah Fearns, the Union’s is fare and Equality officer, who herself a former RAG organiser. “I think it’s a really horrible thing Continued on page 5

What do you think of The Courier this week? Send your 180-word review to courier. comment@ncl.ac.uk

egates, whom overall received 293 first preference votes between them will have the honour of voting for the man (it will be a man) who supposedly represents us. But I still haven’t answered my own question. Why don’t students vote? Perhaps the answer can be found in our own student union which “prides itself on being run by and for students”. We vote for our officers in the union (such as President, Welfare and Equality Officer etc.). The turnout’s not great, but it’s in double figure percentages, so our Union’s got one up on the NUS in terms of democracy. So what about union council, where policy is debated and decided? If you don’t have the time to be an officer, or run an obscure committee, you’d be lucky to get to vote on anything. Only a few lay students get to vote on council, and they have to be elected to council by students who are already members of council! It’s all very confusing and disempowering. You would have thought that as a student of this University you have the right to turn up to council and vote on student business. So, the system discourages students from meddling in their own affairs at every turn. Our votes are courted once every so often to lend it a sense of democratic legitimacy, so it’s no surprise that most people don’t bother. Democracy means power to the people. At the moment, student “democracy” is anything but that.

‘Baby Gaga’ ice cream scandal

Record breaking RAG week brings total to more than £85,000 THE

py to proclaim their democratic legitimacy when they face criticism, but the NUS seem to see democracy as something of an inconvenience. Why else would they have decreased the number of delegates allowed to attend the conference from 2010? This measure was carried out by the NUS “Democratic Procedures Committee” – at least they have a sense of humour. Perhaps more importantly, if the NUS are so democratic, why have none of us ever had the chance to vote for our President? The President is voted for by the tiny minority of students who attend conference, but why not all of us? Current (and soon to be ex) President Aaron Porter has come in for a pasting recently for his failure to properly support the actions of those students who have taken up the ﬁght against rising tuition fees and budget cuts. He’s been shouted at, nasty things have been said about him, and he was even kettled by students in Glasgow. Poor lamb. While I’m ecstatic that Porter’s gone, I’m slightly uneasy about some of these tactics. But whatever the rights and wrongs, surely those who hurled abuse at him for being a scab would have had fewer grounds for doing so if he had been elected in a genuinely democratic way. Fewer still if there was a genuinely democratic election coming up soon, with a chance for all students to boot him out if we wanted. But, alas, at this year’s conference, out of a possible 19,000 Newcastle University students, only six del-

The health and nutritious beneﬁts of breast milk have always been quite highly publicised and encouraged, but its supposed delightful taste has until now never been made so evident. A restaurant in Covent Garden, London has recently revealed its ‘’Baby Gaga’’ breast milk ice cream. Yes, breast milk. Pasteurised and then churned with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest, the controversial ice cream is served with a rusk biscuit and optional shot of Calpol or Bonjela for a pricey £14. My ﬁrst reaction, I’m sure, follows the same path as most others in pulling a face of disgust. Swiftly followed by asking myself who would donate their breast milk and who would want to try it? Well it seems there are women (200 of them!) willing to donate their milk

towards this cause after responding to an advert, including one woman who believes that if more people realised how tasty breast milk can be, then they would be encouraged to breast-feed. Speaking from the position of someone without children I may be wrong, but I’m sure when the time comes for me to decide whether to breast-feed my children or not, the taste of the milk is not going to be registering highly as a factor.

“My ﬁrst reaction, I’m sure,

follows the same path as most others in pulling a face of disgust”

The breast milk volunteers do, however, also get paid £15 for every 10 ounces of milk donation, so there may be understandable ulterior motives to their willingness. The founder of the restaurant, Matt O’Connor, claims the new recipe is ‘’pure, organic, free range and totally natural’’ and also suggests that if it’s good enough for children, then

it’s good enough for everyone else. The purpose of breast milk is traditionally not for the consumption of adults and I personally believe it should stay this way. However, this does not appear to be the general consensus, with O’Connor revealing that the ice cream sold out within hours of its release. Understandable intrigue towards the taste of this odd ice cream is inevitable and when asked whether people would try it I’m sure opinion is quite divided. If I’m ever myself after an organic and natural snack, I think I’ll just grab an apple. However, it seems none of us may now get the chance to sample its delights. ‘’Baby Gaga’’ has currently had to be removed from sale over health concerns following two complaints, despite the women volunteers undergoing health checks at a leading medical clinical. O’Connor, who interestingly also set up the campaign group, Fathers 4 Justice has however made it clear that if the tests reveal the ice cream is safe for human consumption then he will ﬁght for it to remain on sale.

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Comment

Do charities go too far on the High Street? Yes Danny Kielty Comment Editor

Whilst I have to admit ﬁrst and foremost that I have no problem with people collecting for charity on the high street, many people have a problem with the manner in which they are encouraged to give to a good cause. Every time I walk down Northumberland Street, there are always plenty of friendly faced volunteers shaking their containers at passing shoppers, but there are almost as many sharply veering away from the central area taken up by the charity collectors. You’ll see a couple of students abruptly breaking their chattering and slipping as close to the shop windows on either side as possible, in order to avoid pretending not to hear the appeals of the bucket shaking young chap trying to meet their gaze. I’m guilty of doing the same myself. I’ve often given to charity on the high street, but each time I shamefully skulk away, whilst the unsuspecting woman ﬁddling on her phone gets confronted in my place, I’m not doing it out of some inner evil. We British are a reserved lot on the whole, and we’ll avoid being put into uncomfortable situations like the plague. I feel if I’m confronted by a charity collector and I say no, or ignore them, I’ve committed the equivalent of drowning a puppy in the Tyne. But I don’t think that it is so much the confrontation that is the problem. It’s the numbers collecting. There is a large number of good causes out there, and we can’t give to them all. But obviously charity collectors know that high pressure encouragement is often the only effective means of not only getting people to give, but to give more. The problem is if I give £2-a-month

to WaterAid, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t give a damn about the world’s diminishing tiger population. Writing this reminds me of the sketch from the BBC comedy Little Britain, in which a man donates £2 to a charity collector in order to acquire a coveted sticker, which then provides him with safe passage through the hordes of rival collectors peppered across the street. The example is a bit melodramatic, of course, but there is some truth to it all the same. Perhaps then, there are a few too many collectors about at the same time, and in the same place, but they are here to stay. Yes, the sight of the bouncing collector, shaking and shouting as he snares some generous givers, whilst Moses-like he divides the others like the Red sea, won’t be disappearing anytime soon. So be sure to give if your loose change rattles conspicuously when you pass one by, but be on your guard if you’ve already given this month’s donation to the protection of Sunderland’s cats.

No Louise Naylor

As a charity fundraiser myself this year, I think it’s awful that they want to ban people from raising money for charity on the high street by putting in time and area restrictions. This shows a lack of basic human compassion, both for the fundraisers and the people they are fundraising for. I know from experience that going up to people in town and asking for a bit of spare change is one of the hardest and most thankless jobs around. And I admit, in the beginning, I did feel more like a beggar than a caring individual. The only thing that made me carry on is the knowledge that I was helpH. SHAW

Charity collectors: Are they too forward when asking for your money or is it justiﬁed?

ing someone in a far worse position than I would ever be, not just on the occasional day I chose to shake my bucket on Northumberland Street. People like to jokingly (and sometimes seriously) call charity volunteers ‘chuggers’, or charity muggers to the rest of us. This is the most ridiculous exaggeration I have ever heard in my life. I’ve been burgled three times, and never once have the theives politely asked for some spare change, and when refused, cheerfully told me to have a good day. If that happened I’d put the kettle on before they arrived! But as it turns out, a TV set is more lucrative in the world of real crime. People often forget, although it is annoying to be asked for loose coppers or an email address once a day, how it feels for the fundraiser who does the asking. They have to be refused nine times out of ten, treated like a leper and thrown the occasional abusive remark for good measure. And they do all this for free, in the Newcastle cold, and still keep a smile on their face. Now that’s real patience and, hell, even if they weren’t raising money for a good cause, doing that surely deserves merit or at least a friendly chat. Looking back in history, this stingy indignation wasn’t a problem, as charity was praised; the most famous example being Robin Hood, who took from the rich, to give to the poor. Now, that modern day Robin would probably have given up his bow and arrow (we are in a health and safety age, after all) and be walking the streets too. The government making it illegal would only add to the thrill. But I realise, many students do ﬁnd charity fundraisers overbearing, and for that reason I am going to try a different donation approach on you, the readers of The Courier: digital. You can go online at ‘justgiving.com’ to look at my cause and if it’s worthy, please donate a few pounds. Don’t worry, I’ll give you some time. But if the response is weak, you can count that I’ll be out next Saturday, along with my fellow chugger outcasts. This time I’ll be stopping you.

The County Register: money can buy you love Kat Bannon

We all lead busy lives. That’s why ready meals were invented. The 21st century doesn’t allow for chopping vegetables and marinating chicken, never mind roasting potatoes and certainly not washing numerous pots and pans. Then we discovered that they contained more than half your daily allowance of saturated fat and twice the recommended salt intake. They also generally tasted a bit crap. So, in stepped the higher quality Finest and Extra Special ranges. They made the minimal effort eating experience, although a bit heav-

ier on the pocket, a fair bit tastiest on the tongue, so it was almost like eating the real thing. Is dating following suit? Move over match.com, take a step back Eharmony, The County Register, the newest revolution in online dating, is about to take hold. Admittedly, social times have changed. We now live in the internet generation; we can sit in the same spot to do our shopping, check the weather and speak to Uncle Buck in Illinois. Simultaneously. But this is old hat. Online dating has been around since 1995. This isn’t just about how you meet your next potential partner; it’s about how much you pay for it. To place your name on The County Register introduction agency costs from £2,000 for 12 months’ membership to £10,000 for 18 months’ membership. It doesn’t require a photo. Clients are interviewed before they are of-

ﬁcially taken on by the register, asking them what expectations they have from any potential relationships and sometimes even visiting their homes. If you are selected, the agency will then pre-select potential dates for you. The more you are willing to pay, the more customized the service becomes, from personal matchmakers to priority introductions. Perhaps this is the logical solution. If time equals money and money equals time, then maybe. However, no matter how much you’re willing to pay acceptance is not guaranteed. Gray & Farrar, one of the most exclusive agencies, openly states that “only the most eligible single people are accepted” and acknowledges that “we are certainly not right for everybody”. One client, who paid £7,500 for her ﬁrst year’s subscription, stated: “I suppose one hopes one is buy-

ing a Bentley and not a second-hand car with 100,000 miles on it!” One would hope so wouldn’t they. Even then, regardless of the money involved, are these relationships too processed, too forced, perhaps expecting too much? Maybe discovering things about each other is intrinsic to growing to love one another, rather than being handed your next spouse fully formatted and still with original packaging. Unless of course you couldn’t scrape together those few extra thousand and are faced with settling for ‘damaged – widowed with teenage daughter who listens to Justin Beiber, 10 per cent reduction.’ It’s alright getting talking because you like old movies, like the Godfather III, but they say three’s a crowd, and perhaps The County Register makes things a little bit too busy.

The best of the online comments: ‘Banter’ culture of RAG week exposed after claims of sexism ’, News, 28/2/11

Anonymous-

“The ‘ratings’ were not even ratings, they were a way of the people on the doors counting people in... evidence of this - I was on crew and for one didn’t get a number written on me because I was involved in the setting up of the venue and was already inside (so it is not even correct to say all 136 members got them). As for the crew member who dropped out, I have it on good authority that they left the day before the Roller Disco and it was because of their work load. Such a shame that the positives of the week and the efforts of all the people who have worked so hard that week and all year have to be so harshly overlooked just for a ‘good story’.”

Anonymous-

“I have been a part of RAG and freshers for some time and this whole situation has been blown massively out of proportion. The week is about raising money for charity. This is what we did, and we did it quite successfully. Shirts of shames were banned halfway through the week and ‘scandalous’ behaviour still continued. Although things used to happen and it appears that RAG has become a hotbed for these activities; what is to stop these activities occurring not in organised weeks? Everyone knows it happens. As for the article headline claiming sexism allegations. Well this is nonsense. It happened to both sexes, and the whole ratings thing is partially unfounded. I wasn’t a part of the ratings ‘scandal’ but I understand that it was mostly random.”

Dan“Sexism is considered to be discrimination against or degrading/demeaning attitudes towards men or women. Sexism against women is not cancelled out by sexism against men, just in the same way that racism against one ethnic group is not cancelled out by racism against all others. While I agree that RAG is a successful fund raising exercise, people obviously had an issue with what they considered to be sexist behaviour and are entitled to make a complaint, even if it is only one person. Charity fund raising does not preclude sexual equality and vice versa. The article makes no suggestion that RAG is a bad idea in general or that it should be stopped, quite the opposite in fact, but it is entitled to report on anything it chooses. The article shouldn’t just focus on the fact that £85,000 was raised as that was not the point of this article, in fact there was another which did just that. Just because you don’t agree with the subject matter doesn’t make it rubbish, it just means you don’t agree. Good article Jon!”

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Pressure increasing on student studying Wills Robinson

If you asked students to reminisce about their experience in higher education, they’d talk about all-nighters before deadlines, cramming before exams and the elusive, third year dissertation. All of which are related to high levels of stress, thus resulting in higher blood pressure. Combine this with other student activities such as the occasional (or frequent) drink, the odd trip to Greggs and a Tesco ready meal when you can’t be bothered to cook, all of which have a detrimental effect on blood pressure. However, a recent study in the BMC Public Health Journal has shown that a longer duration as a student in higher education actually

results in a decreased blood pressure. Higher levels of education amongst the adult population has been linked to lower levels of heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and heart disease. Researchers say that lower blood pressure is probably behind this. The study looks at 30 years of data, taken from over 3000 participants who were being followed as part of the Framingham Offspring Heart Study. When the average systolic blood pressure from the 30 year period was calculated, it was found that women with higher levels of education had around 3.26mmHg higher than women that hadn’t been in education as long. In comparison, the difference in men was less substantial, with an average difference of 2.26mmHg between those of higher and lower levels of education. Natasha Stewart, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “These ﬁndings support existing

evidence about the link between socio-economic deprivation and heart disease risk”. The conductor of the study, Professor Loucks, of the prestigious Brown University in the US, discussed the larger difference in levels amongst women than that of men: “Women with less education are more likely to experience depression, they are more likely to be living in impoverished areas and are more likely to be living below the poverty line”. However, would the results come out the same if the research was carried out today? The modern student lifestyle has changed signiﬁcantly since then, and today’s economic problems are far worse. In comparison to 30 years ago when the study started, students nowadays generally live unhealthier lifestyles. More nights out, less sleep and the appeal of plummeting prices of comfort foods and alcohol to the student budget producing poorer diets. I would love to argue that this

doesn’t have a detrimental effect on health, but that would be fairly naïve. We also have to look at the broader social picture. Political and economic commentators have continually stressed that we are currently experiencing the worst depression since the 1930s. The job market is producing equally depressing levels of employment for both graduates and the general population. So now, with students working harder to move into the higher socio-economic groups, whilst dealing with heightened debts and an increased struggle to ﬁnd work, surely those leaving higher education will be a bit hotter under the collar than they were 30 years ago.

Courier Online What are your views? Let us know! www. thecourieronline.co.uk

Is monogamy vital for political integrity? J. WHITTAKER

Niall Haughey

Well well, once again a man in political power has been caught with his pants down! Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi is facing serious allegations regarding charges of having sex with an underage prostitute. The scandal, which has been labelled as ‘Rubygate’, concerns the Moroccan born Karima El-Mahroug who was allegedly paid €7000 for sex at one of Berlusconi’s ‘Bunga, Bunga’ parties. These allegations have led to Berlusconi, who has previously branded himself as ‘the dream of all Italians’, standing trial and facing a considerable period in prison. This is not a rare occurrence, and men of power have regularly been caught taking part in some ‘extracurricular’ activity. An infamous case in 1998 saw President Bill Clinton impeached by the House of Representatives following his affair with then 22-yearold Monica Lewinsky. Clinton categorically denied the claims, famously stating ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman’. He was surely regretting this following the discovery of Lewinsky’s semen-stained dress, giving conclusive evidence of his misdemeanours. Sloppy Bill, very sloppy! In 2002, it was revealed that the former Prime Minister John Major had a four year affair with colleague Edwina Currie. Anyone who has seen Edwina Currie will be thinking exactly the same as myself - why?! This affair was particularly amusing considering Major’s ‘back to basics’ campaign while in government, which was interpreted as a moral campaign, focusing on public moral principles: honesty and decency! And then we have John Prescott, 72, who was found with egg on his

face once again in 2006, when the former Deputy Prime Minister admitted to having a two year affair with a 43-year-old secretary. But why is it that these men are regularly caught munching on the greasy cheeseburger from the takeaway rather than sticking with the ﬁllet steak at home? Are women throwing themselves at these ﬁgures purely due to their stature and power? One thing is for sure, looking at these men, it isn’t for their frighteningly good looks. Maybe it’s the money. Call me cynical, but the cheque book must be a huge draw for the women who are involved in these scandals. Just look at the thousands of pounds, which have been made by women who sell their stories to the tabloids - who are more than happy to expose the private lives of many people. A quick look at the vast number of scandals involving footballers only supports this claim. John Terry, David Beckham, Peter Crouch and

Wayne Rooney have all contributed to female bank balances via the tabloids. Even Ashley Cole, who was married to arguably the most lusted after women in the world, could not keep it in his trousers. Maybe Crouch was spot on when he suggested that if he wasn’t a footballer (and his wallet was considerably lighter), he may well be a virgin! One thing is for sure, if Rooney wasn’t a footballer, he’d make more money as a Shrek look-a-like than a male model. However, does this represent a culture among men with power, whether it through their political positions, the size of their bank account, their sporting prowess, or is this really just a representation of a wider public trend? Nearly everybody knows someone who has been caught playing away or maybe has been involved in it themselves. If this is the case, is it really fair to lambaste such public ﬁgures purely because they are in the public eye?

To me this seems slightly hypocritical. Just because you are the President of the United States, Prime Minister of the UK, or a footballer on £200,000 a week, does not mean you are not human and subject to the same passions and temptations as everybody else. It could be argued that these ﬁgures that have been caught up in such scandals are meant to be role models to the wider community as a whole, especially children, but aren’t the parents of these children also meant to set an example? The expectation for these men to adhere to a higher moral standard seems ridiculous and even unrealistic. Maybe the concept of monogamy is to blame. Is it really practical to expect people to stay with one person all their life? Critics of monogamy claim that it is a denial of natural human instincts, and point the way towards more open relationships – a sort of ‘what’s mine is yours’ philosophy!

Mind your manners Katy Covell Columnist

It is with great sadness that I must reveal to you that this week’s article, will be my last. No more will my bemoaning the status of my bathroom, abundance of smug couples and the many other trivialities I have jabbered on about, be inflicted upon you. I do have one final ‘manners mishap’ to discuss with you before I go: that of the devoted, yet soap-skimping dish-washer. No I do not refer to an unusually intelligent, economically-aware machine that refuses to release the lemon-fresh tablet you have just fed it, but an actual human being. You know what I’m taking about - the one who doesn’t seem to rate the fat-fighting properties of Fairy. I must first make a confession or risk being stoned by my housemates - probably quite justifiably for crimes of hypocrisy. You see, I may have gone home the other week and left the remainder of my ‘sausage surprise’ supper in my slow cooker. And I may also, having forgotten about it, left it festering in its cosy ceramic casing for a further two weeks. I do feel it necessary to explain that a ‘sausage surprise’ is not a euphemism, but refers to a sausage casserole recipe - both my own recipe and recipe title I might add - and in my defence, I did wash it up without (much) complaint last night and our kitchen is now blissfully mouldspore free. How then can I take umbrage with someone else for their washing-up habits when I can be so lax myself, I hear you ask? Yes, I can appreciate your point there and I am even willing to publicly admit that the ‘sausage surprise’ incident was pretty gross, however at least it was obviously dirty and unusable. Sure I hadn’t washed it up, but I also hadn’t given the pot a quick rinse under the cold tap and shoved it back in the cupboard. Now I know that the housemate who leans towards this ‘wipe and it’s washed’ method is incredibly good at taking it upon herself to wash up everything that is piled up by the side of the sink, regardless of whether it was she who dirtied it or not. But you see, the downside to this well-meaning and really rather generous attitude becomes apparent when you reach into the cupboard for a plate, only to find the remnants of someone’s meal from the night before, still attached. Surely it’s far more pleasant to feel the water from the hot tap running over your Marigold clad hands than the almost slush-puppy temperature stuff that streams from the cold one? Add to this the fact that whilst a well-washed plate is good to go straight away, but a slap-dash job requires a rewash and thus effectively hikes up the water bill a little, I would think that the preferable method was obvious. Anyway enough of this complaining. I’m off to make another ‘sausage surprise’. Stay classy Newcastle.

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Comment

PC exam move needs qualifying Letters to the Editor Dan Robinson

Whether you want to be a financier, lawyer, or a doctor, the chances are that computers will form a major part of the day-to-day life of any profession. So it would seem only natural to promote their usage in schools in order to bring education into the 21st century, wouldn’t it? Well that’s what the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) suggested last week, with chief executive Isabel Nisbet proposing the abolition of written exams in place of computerbased tests. Currently, only a handful of school examinations can be taken on computers, and this has led to many observers adopting this as yet further proof of the old-fashioned nature of British education. The argument follows that the computer is at the pinnacle of any modern day workplace and it is therefore crucial for the scholars of today to learn these core skills which are imperative in a vast number of jobs. Indeed. Whereas reading and

writing were once considered the basics of learning, we can now add computer literacy to these essential practices in not only employment, but life. Should you need to send a letter to your lawyer, doctor, or bank manager it is no longer acceptable practice to scribble it out with a pen. In some cases, the letter may even be thrown out. In fact, you may not even have an address for your recipient, never mind a phone number; possibly just an email. In actual exams, access to PCs would make life far easier. Anyone who has had to sit a three hour test and write four or more essays, each about four to ﬁve pages, will testify to this. Most youngsters now can type far faster than they can write, and it doesn’t hurt the hand half as much! One of the biggest worries facing students can be whether they will be able to write everything down that they want to say in such a short writing time, so the writing on a computer would place the emphasis on content as opposed to handwriting. Handwriting inevitably becomes less legible throughout and this also leads to misreading by markers, with recent reports of mistakes by markers leading to students missing out on preferred university choices a sad reﬂection of how our

formula for education is living in the past. However, we must accept that such a change in assessments would not be without its problems, with practicality a major issue from the outset. Not only would it be far more difficult to arrange a hundred or so desks fitted with computers attached to a load of plug sockets in exam rooms, but just how much would all this cost? At a time when the government is making savage cutbacks across the country, including to education, it would be difficult to justify buying stacks of new computers. And we would no doubt also see a major difference between schools, with more wealthy institutions buying an abundance of state-of-the-art models in comparison to the poorer schools struggling to string together a dozen second-hand ones. In the exam room, as well, there would be problems involving the use of the internet, spell checking and the adaption of kids who may not have PCs at home and, thus, can’t type as quickly. So as great an idea as it is, and perhaps crucial in this day and age, Ofqual would need to propose just how exactly the government can accommodate the spiralling costs and practical problems, which would come with this plan before we can seriously consider implementation.

“Confused and offended” Dear Editor, In response to Harriet King’s article ‘Free speech and the fundamentalists’, The Courier, Issue 1226. I was confused and offended by Harriet King’s article on ‘Free Speech and the Fundamentalists’ (Feb 28, p. 9). Her implication that Newcastle University acted indulgently by “not reacting strongly even against student take-over of the Fine Art building during recent student protests” was especially misguided. What is she saying - that the University authorities would have been justified in bringing in the riot police as happened during similar protests on campus at Birmingham and Oxford? In which case, Harriet King seems to have the same attitude to free speech as the current government: that it is fine, but only if the authorities agree with it. In general, the article was really bad. It had no coherent argument if she hadn’t mentioned the occupation, I wouldn’t have even read it. I really think that you have better ways to fill up half a page than publishing this kind of drivel.

SINCERELY, ZOE MCNAMEE Dear Zoe, Thank you for your letter. Whilst I understand your anger expressed at the nature of Harriet King’s article, it is after all an opinion section, so there will often be controversial content that not every reader will agree with. Opinions expressed in the Comment section belong solely to the writers of the articles themselves, and they do not necessarily reﬂect the views of the any of our section editors. Comment does after all provide a forum for expressing opinions on topical issues that can often be controversial, but as long as they are not of a sexist or racist nature, they will be published at the behest of the writer. As I’m sure you can understand, it is a tricky line to tread, and hope this won’t stop you from reading The Courier in the future. SINCERELY, EDITOR

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Pancake day: how will you eat yours? > page 17

Sex & Relationships blind date

Dangerous Liaisons

Patrick McCorry & Alice Holloway He said: My friends thought it would be hilarious to sign me up for a blind date and I have been absolutely buzzing off it since the very beginning, cheers guys. So as I never say no to any opportunity I agreed to be set up with the best lass about. A few texts were exchanged and since Alice is the worst texter in the world, it was decided that we would go bowling – the perfect 15-year-old style date. Dressed up and ready to go, I quickly checked directions and headed out. Alice, like any girl, was fashionably late. The bowling alley was a proper dander from Palmersville Metro station which gave us plenty of time to get to know each other. Well I say that... she spoke and I listenedI didn’t think a girl could talk so much! First impressions were good as she was quite fit, had a southern accent and lives on a farm in Greater London. Bowling itself was very entertaining, although I reckon I lost several man points since I got absolutely smashed in every game. What can I say? Absolute machine she was with the balls! After a few games we decided to hit the arcade in proper student fashion. This was certainly my turn for the rebound for some much-needed man points. Firstly, I bounced about and pimped it with her on the dance machine, proper lad or what? Then the basketball hoops... keep in mind she is the President of the girls basketball team, l got put to shame as I absolutely slam dunked her at her own game! Although shortly afterwards she did set the high-score on

the machine... To end the night in perfect style we had a romantic stroll through an industrial estate in search for the Metro station. Cupid, in the form of a Geordie doing his business on top of a set of stairs, was certainly a highlight of the night. I must say this was a once in a life time experience. I don’t believe we are exactly two peas in a pod as certain chemistry was missing, nor did we end up in the paddy pad. Personality and character – perfect descriptions for this lass and I wish her the best of luck in the future.

madame vs monsieur

She said: After some gentle persuasion by a certain sports editor, I found myself agreeing to a potentially very awkward night. However, when I arrived at Jesmond Metro station a cool five minutes late (to which my blind date was not impressed), I was warmly greeted by a tall, darkhaired Irish guy. We said our hellos and Paddy instantly made me feel at ease, and the chat flowed easily between us as we headed toward Palmersville for an evening of bowl-

K.VONG

Madame & Monsieur, I keep getting back with my ex- what shall I do? I’ve been with my boyfriend since before coming to Uni, and now that we have totally different lives, I am starting to doubt our compatibility. I love him, but is it enough to stay together? Despite my concerns about his financial security, and his lack of genuine interest towards me, I wonder whether we can survive in the long run. He makes me laugh, but isn’t romantic enough. He is caring, but can be selfish. I broke up with him twice, but seeing him in person made me change my mind. I feel like we can be together in the future, but sometimes I feel like I’m spending my teenage years with someone temporary.

Monsieur

It sounds to me like you are very, very confused; you say you love this guy and then you give a huge list of reasons why you shouldn’t be with him, all of which are problems with him. Are you just making excuses not to be with him? Maybe you don’t love him but don’t want to be seen as that nasty girl that dumped a really sweet guy for no good reason. On

the other hand you may be scared of committing yourself to someone for the long term, especially when you are in such different places at the moment. When you broke up with him did you miss him? If the answer is a definite no - get rid; if you miss him and want to spend time still, then keep him for now. You’re only young and people change over time, if you do part ways there will be plenty more fish.

ing! He assured me it would be a short walk from the Metro, but after about 20 minutes and having passed the third ghostly industrial estate I did start to wonder... Eventually we reached our destination unharmed and quickly made our way to the bar before swapping our shoes for a more fashionable pair. As Paddy was a self-proclaimed Irish champ, I was expecting big things from him; however, it was all talk as I proceeded to win three games on the trot (clearly the years of bowling birthday parties paid off). My very complex ‘look at the pins’ technique seemed to work well for Paddy too though and his game definitely improved towards the end, even if it was just because he kept stealing my lucky bowling ball. We exchanged funny stories, favourite places to go, and bonded over a mutual love of Sinners, whilst avoiding the cliché topics of potatoes and slam dunkin’. After bowling for a while, Paddy convinced me to have a go on his favourite arcade game, the dance mat. I immediately regretted it as he was obviously a pro, but luckily there weren’t too many 14-year-olds around to stand and laugh at me. Paddy was a true gent throughout the night and didn’t let me spend a penny, and despite our apprehensiveness about bowling beforehand, it actually turned out to be great fun. On our walk home, we managed to find a shortcut back to the Metro, thank god, and parted ways in West Jesmond. Although I had a lot of fun with Paddy, and there was never an awkward moment, I don’t think a second date is on the cards, but I’m sure we’ll bump into each other out on the Toon sooner or later.

Madame You’re young. You should be free. Not whining about whether the man you’re going to be with now is the one you’re going to be having three children and a Vauxhall Astra with when he works at McDonalds full time as just how will you be able to afford new trainers for baby Ben when Ashley just has to have the new Air Hostess Barbie and Danny has just gone and broke the neighbour’s window with his football again. Give. It. Up. You need romance in your life, a chance to feel like you’re truly loved, in which you can sicken everyone in public with over-active PDAs and send at least four ‘I miss you’ texts in an hour. Otherwise how will Ben and Ashley and Danny feel when Mummy and Daddy are arguing again because all that Daddy got Mummy for Christmas was a box of chocolates from the garage. If still in doubt, flip a coin. You can even have best out of three.

#14 Fight or forgive? Pamela Mardle Columnist

Everything has been going swimmingly for months: you are the golden couple of the moment, not even an earthquake could rock your smooth running relationship. Strangers give you adoring looks and your grandma says you remind her of “me and Grandpa Jim when he returned from the war”. Then the unspeakable happens: you disagree. How could this happen? You were a match made in heaven; to have an argument is as unheard of as Jordan and Alex having an agreement. Maybe his decision to ditch Paco Rabanne for Calvin Klein was just too much – he’s just not the same person you fell in love with. Or perhaps you having the audacity to discuss what he wanted for tea during the crucial moments of Football Manager proved to him that you just don’t have as much respect as is due. Cue the frozen moment of horror: did I make the right decision to give up sleeping diagonally for this person? Now comes the make or break moment: attempt to save the relationship or cut your losses and go your separate ways. Aside from the obvious kissing - and other things - and making up, how to go about it? If when explaining the argument you begin the story with “it all started when he arrived late to Sinners...”, cutting his clothes up and feeding them to the birds in Jesmond Dene is a bit melodramatic. It’s clear that one, or five, too many trebles will have been downed in this critical period: how quickly depends on how irate you are/unapologetic they are. The mathematicians amongst us will work out that five multiplied by three shots of vodka consumed in as many minutes all equates to one big fat stupid row minus one pint of lager. Somehow, the spirits in Newcastle bars have the ability to turn even the most strait-laced ladies into wailing banshees (or perhaps it’s the cheap prices making us shot happy). How about when the argument isn’t alcohol fuelled? I know I’d be hard pressed to stay cold when confronted with a bunch of red roses and a heartfelt “I’m sorry” card at my door. But hey, I’m assuming it’s always the guys fault... perhaps a night of free reign with the Xbox and a home-made curry? If you’re both too stubborn to apologise, you could always resort to the ‘obvious’ make-up routine; that way you’re both happy, off the hook and still (technically) in the right.

Life & Style

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Life

life It’s a man’s world; now the girls of the armed forces tell their story... Editor Fran Infante speaks to the smallest student minority on campus, as they talk for the first time about training for war and how being a student soldier defines their degrees, bodies and relationships University, as we all know is a time of experimentation, a time to try things you never thought you would or could and with some luck, finding out who you really are along the way. At Newcastle this applies to more than just the obvious drink, drugs and hangovers as huge numbers of students dabble with being part of the armed forces, joining up to Officer Training Corps to enjoy adventure weekends and experience life in the army. But for some students this is not a weekend hobby, or a temporary adventure that leads to nothing more than a novelty uniform and some new friends. For some, an increasing number of whom are women, Newcastle University is a necessary stop on a journey of training that leads them from military colleges, through university and DTUS to Sandhurst and ultimately, to war. Surrounded by men and learning to cope with pressures that few other students, female or male can relate to, these girls speak exclusively to The Courier as they explain the best and worst bits of university life in the armed forces; in order to protect their identity their names have been changed. For many DTUS students, the journey begins in military sixth forms where, at the age of 16 they start their training for military life alongside studying for their A-levels. Prior to beginning their engineering degrees at Newcastle both Jasmine and Nicola attended Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College in Loughborough. They explained how they got into what for many teenage girls, is an unusual career choice: “I always wanted to be in the forces,” says Jasmine, “I was brought up in a military family, my dad was in the navy, my mum, my uncle, my cousin, I think once you see the military way of life up close you just want to be a part of it.” Like any young recruits, a visit to the army careers advisor is pivotal, dependent on the standard of their GCSE grades, they are encouraged to consider a more specialised route of Officer training through institutions like Welbeck rather than immediately joining up as a soldier. “There aren’t enough engineers in the armed forces” Nicola explains, “so there are these whole programmes

whose goal is to recruit the best candidates, put them through an engineering degree and turn them into Engineering Officers.” The benefits of such a system are enticing but the commitment is also huge, at the age of 15 would-be students must sign up to do two years of college, followed by three or four years at university, then a year of officer training at either Sandhurst, Dartmouth or Cramwell depending on whether they join the Army, Navy of Air Force, and then finally to fulfilling three years of returning service in the military. As Jasmine explains, the prospect is more than a little daunting, “at 15 you are effectively signing on the dotted line to say, yes, this is what I am going to be doing for the next 10 years of my life.”

You look at boys who you know don’t train, don’t play university sport, they don’t go to the gym and they’re still quicker than you becasue the bottom line is they are boys The environment at Welbeck is extremely structured, Physics and Maths are compulsory subjects at Alevel, all students are boarders, public shows of affection are banned and a shirt and shoes dress code is enforced at all times. At University the training continues as all students join the Defence Technical Undergraduate Scheme DTUS which acts as a shadow programme throughout their degrees. DTUS students train every Tuesday night and must fulfil a minimum requirement of weekends away each year, the scheme also provides them with a bursary with which to pay their tuition fees. “It’s different to the OTC in that those people aren’t recruited yet,” explains Nicola, the army are trying to recruit them, so they get to go down and do cool things. They get to play with weapons and do exciting weekends away; we go down and have lectures on equality and diversity, or talks from people who have recently returned from tour.

Unlike the other students, we are in effect, already in the army.” For civilian students, the prospect of having chosen a career path in your teens and then having to stick to it through the first half of your twenties, is alarming to say the least. How many final year undergraduates still have the same aims and ambitions as they did when they were 16? This is perhaps where the slick DTUS machine breaks down; when students want to leave. “The problem is,” Jasmine explains, “you don’t really know what you are letting yourself in for when you are so young. Then if you change your mind and want to leave you have to pay back all the money that the army has invested in training you, which can be a huge chunk after three or four years and so people can become a bit trapped in the system.” Whilst at university DTUS students are given a £4000 bursary each year, any student wishing to leave the programme must repay this money as well as the contribution that the government paid towards their education at sixth form level. Given the expert training these students have received over a number of years, this policy seems reasonable aside from one stumbling block; Welbeck is neither a private nor a state school, to maintain equal access, each pupil makes a contribution to their board and lodgings based on their parent’s income and the government tops up the rest. The unfortunate result is that students from a low-income background are more heavily subsidised by the government through their studies meaning that should they wish to buy themselves out of the programme at any stage, they owe a lot more and often have less parental financial support with which to pay it back. Despite these hefty financial implications the dropout rate is still high compared with mainstream degree courses; when asked the girls estimated it to be around 40 per cent. The DTUS programme is combined for students at Newcastle and Northumbria, there are around 150 of them and together they are known as Trojan Squadron. From the start the girls are very much in a minority, but due a disproportion-

ate dropout rate this often becomes more and more accentuated through the course of a degree. According to Jasmine’s calculations girls make up around 18 per cent of total annual intake but account for around 30 per cent of the dropout rate. “Physical fitness is the main problem for most girls; all the girls in our year who have dropped out have struggled with fitness tests.” The fitness test in question is not for the faint hearted, though there are different standards set for girls and boys, it essentially consists of two minutes of press-ups, two of situps, a warm up, as if you wouldn’t already be warm by that stage, and then a mile and a half run, boys must complete the run in 10 minutes and 30 seconds, the girls get 13. This varying requirement however does little to actually help the girls complete the tests explains Nicola: “In fitness as with a lot of things in the army, the thing that makes it really hard for girls is the lack of a real peer group because there are so few of us. I’m nowhere near the standard of the boys so I quickly get left behind. When there are only a few of you running at the supposed girls’ pace, you’re not really doing that, you are just trying desperately to keep up with the boys.

The army is a lot like Never Neverland; the boys never really grow up. They are incredibly tight knit and as a woman that can be really hard to infiltrate, you have to accept that you’re never going to be one of them “It means that I’m constantly struggling and have no sense of achievement in completing the run in the allocated girl’s time because I’m always last. It’s really hard to be competitive against people who are a totally different ability to you; it gets really demoralising if you are always lagging behind the group, even if you are actually fulfilling the requirements.” Despite being naturally athletic Jasmine agrees that this is a real

Never able to let their guard down: these girls are in

problem; “you look at boys who you know don’t train, they don’t play university sport or go to the gym and they’re still quicker than you because the bottom line is they are boys. “The army teaches you that you are always meant to strive to beat the person in front of you and that’s a great attitude but if you can’t see the person in front of you, what are you supposed to do?” Despite the obvious difference in physical capability between the sexes, there appears to be an enormous amount of pressure for the girls to be able to compete with the boys in terms of physicality. “It’s not just a case of being able to run as fast in training,” explains Jasmine, “there are real life reasons why the girls have to push themselves especially hard. If I’m at war and I get blown up I would want my team to get me on a stretcher and get me out of there but that is equally true if I’m with a troop of men and something happens to one of them. I’ve got to be able to carry his weight and get him out of there. “As a girl you don’t have to just match the boys in physicality but you have to be better than them because they’re bigger and heavier than you and you still need to be able to do the same things.“ When asked how they are viewed

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

n the forces because there is nothing they’d

Life

rather do, but that doesn’t mean existing as a girl in such a masculine environment is easy

by the boys they train alongside with, both girls smile ruefully. “When you go in as a female officer, you have to strike a really careful balance because you are going to be in charge of a group of men who probably didn’t think they would join the army and find themselves being shouted at by a woman,” explains Jasmine. “You basically have to make the choice to go in all jokey and try and act like you’re ‘one of the lads’ or try to be excessively feminine so they don’t all think you are a big butch lesbian who wants to be a man. The bottom line you just have to accept is that basically you can never win.” It’s an unfortunate stereotype that Nicola also recognises: “it’s so frustrating sometimes you find yourself just wanting to scream at some of the assumptions people make about you – I don’t want to be a boy, I don’t want to have sex with girls, I just want to be in the army and do well for myself.” In order to cope most girls go through phases of accentuating their characteristics one way or the other in order to make a point as Jasmine explains: “I think on some level it will always affect you - that people don’t really get why you do what you do. When I was younger I used to try and blend in with the boys, I used

to drink lager because I thought it was cool, I was always the one that my friends would call if they had a spider in their room. I was excessively blokey because I thought that was my role but then you go to college and your identity is so stripped back; you’re not allowed to wear any makeup, you wear these uniformed, not very flattering clothes. So when you get the opportunity it becomes really important to push the fact that you are a girl and remind the boys that although you’re training to do the same job, you’re not trying to be them, you are female.” It’s not only platonic relationships within the forces which are difficult for these girls also the prejudice and often downright confusion they face from men “on the outside” because of how different their lives are to ‘normal’ girls. “Everyone I’ve ever been with has been in the army, I think it would be really difficult for me to be in a relationship with a boy who wasn’t - I think there would just be a lot that he didn’t understand. It’s different for the boys though, they have relationships with girls because it’s quite an attractive thing for a boy to be an officer in the army and it gives him nice qualities too; they all know how to dress smartly, they shave on a regular basis, they’ve got a bit of a life plan going for them, good man-

ners, muscular toned bodies. “Army boys are what you want, army girls not really a sex symbol in anyway. I’m actually trying to think of any girls who are in the army who have a boyfriend!

It’s not our fault that we change the dynamic of a group of boys, we don’t want to, we just want to go in and do the job In the face of this disparity I ask the Nicola how she feels about indirectly having to sacrifice her love life for a career. “I think it is possible to say to yes I’m a woman and yes I’m going into the forces this is what I’m doing but I also think boys who aren’t part of that world are a bit intimidated by us. I think a lot of them are also intimidated by how male orientated our lives are, you’re not a girl who’s a girly girl and just hangs out with her female friends with no threats, you’re a girl who is on her constantly surrounded by boys, on her course, at DTUS and usually also lives with a lot of boys. “If you go out with friends from uni or DTUS you almost always end up being the only girl in a group of

boys, some people might think that would be perfect but most boys won’t come up to that.” To further complicate this issue is the idea of girls rather archaically “getting a reputation” amongst the boys they work with. “It’s the balance between making them realise that you’re a girl but not letting them think you’re a slag -it can be a lot of pressure.” Jasmine remembers being warned about the future ramifications of any flirtatious behaviour in college: “we had a girl’s meeting, with all the female prefects and all the first year students and they said, ‘don’t sleep with the boys, don’t go near them because at some point in your future career you could be working with this bloke and if he has a dirty story about you from college it’s going to undermine you’re authority.’ “I suppose it is a bit strange to be told at 16 to very be careful what you do because the bloke banter will follow you, to be reminded that you could meet these people again at any stage in your career in a negative way, but it’s true and it’s necessary. “It doesn’t work the other way around though because for the boys it is just banter, they don’t care because it’s all a joke – its exactly the same double standard as exists in normal life, it’s just amplified. You need to retain your dignity and you need to keep your respect, you can never let your guard fully down.” Although attitudes to women in the forces have changed drastically over the last few decades, both girls still feel there is room for considerable improvement. “I think there is still an element of close mindedness in the forces towards women” says Nicola, “one of the genuine reasons they give for not letting women work in the submarines is that they don’t have the toilet facilities – I would have thought that was fairly easily solvable really. “It’s as if they recognise that we [women] bring different skills to the fore than our male colleagues, we are better at strategizing, cope better with sleep deprivation and extended periods of physical exertion, but at the same time there is a reluctance to let us all the way in. Jasmine agrees: “A lot of the reasons they give for women not being on the front line are sort of fluffy. It’s not our fault that we change the dynamic of a group of boys, we don’t want to, we just want to go in and do the job. The idea that supposedly men can’t concentrate in the instance of a woman getting injured in front of them and that they will automatically try and save them and lose focus on the task at hand, is not accurate. It is the nature of conflict and is something we are being trained to deal with. These people are on tour together for months at a time, they’re family to each other, the idea that women matter more or that men instinctively feel a greater need to protect them is nonsense.” In the face of these complications I ask why these girls put themselves through it, wouldn’t it be easier just to be a civilian engineer? The answer is emphatic, “it’s who I am” says Jasmine “your friends become your family, you travel the world and you face new challenges everyday - I never wanted to be anything else.”

Life & Style

The Penny Pincher #14 Health Sarah Bennett Columnist

With all those coughs and colds that are flying around at the moment, staying healthy is pretty important. We all hate getting ill, but at the same time we all hate paying for stuff to make us feel better. Here are my top tips to staying healthy on the cheap: Fruit Now, I’m not the government, so I’m not going to tell you that you have to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. But, I am going to say that even eating a couple of portions will make you feel that bit better. For some reason, when you’ve got a bit of a cold, there’s nothing better than eating a couple of clementines/satsumas/oranges to make you feel better. Plus, make your mum proud by eating some greens at dinner time. Exercise If you’re a gym bunny, that’s fine. If you’re like me and not, just walking to uni can get you the exercise you need during the week. If you take the Metro, why not walk up the escalators at Haymarket, instead of waiting for it to carry you up? Bracing walks along Tynemouth beach and even making your way down to Quayside are also pretty good, cheap exercise options. Medicines To be honest, I never think it’s worth buying the most expensive over the counter medicines. If we’re talking about things like lemsipstyle drinks, or even cold and flu tablets, Boots own brand will do just the same job as the expensive named brands. Yes, I do think a lot of these things play on the placebo effect, but if it makes me feel that little bit better, then I’m happy to get it – as long as it’s own brand! Other Medicines So you’ve got something that actually needs proper, prescribed medicine. With prescriptions now costing £7.20, this is definitely an unwanted cost. However, there is some help available. You can order a HC1 form from the NHS online and yes, it is a lengthy form, but it may entitle you to full financial help with things like prescriptions, sight tests (a HC2 form) or partial financial help with a HC3 form. Dentist The HC2/HC3 forms also help pay for any dental treatment you may require. Granted, this means finding an NHS dentist in the first place, but they are out there. It’s worth it, even if you don’t need any work done. Private examinations for just a routine check-up cost around £25 and if you look at fillings, they can cost anywhere up to £75, ie. a lot of dosh. There’s also another way of getting free dental treatment: you can be treated by one of our many student dentists, helping them in their degree. You will get an initial check-up with one of the students and then advised what you need. Fancy it? Then go to the university website and just search for ‘free dental treatment’ and you’ll be able to find the online form to fill in.

Lifestyle

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Health

health

Feeling ratty? It could be Weil’s disease... Maria’s Weil’s disease is a relatively rare bacterial infection in humans. Andrew Curry explores its effects In terms of epidemics we seem to have had them all. Bird flu, Swine flu, rabbit flu, Spanish influenza, the bubonic plague, I’ve survived them all. Sometimes I ring my mum after a night out and suggest, tentatively, that I might have contracted SARS, but she’s not often sympathetic. So what does the peculiarly named ‘Weil’s Disease’ even have to do with our life style choice? I’m prepared to bet that a large number of you have barely heard of it, I know I hadn’t. However, it is common and extremely easy to contract. The basic premise of the problem, as gleaned from Wikipedia and my medic girlfriend, is that you can contract it when you ‘allow water that has been contaminated by animal urine to come in contact with unhealed breaks in the skin, the eyes, or with the mucus membranes.’ But come on, I hear you cry, how often does one consume rat urine? I mean, it’s not exactly your drink of choice is it? When you’re buying the rounds for the lads you don’t get four Appletinis and a chaser of rat piss now do you? So how on earth can this disease even come close to affecting you? The answer is disturbingly simple.

In the city of London alone, you are never more than three feet away from a rat. In the city of London alone, you are never more than three feet away from a rat (I dread to think what the Liverpool statistics are). They are everywhere, out of sight and out of mind for the most part but lurking around all the same. They also seem to breed constantly, especially in heavily populated areas. So when the landlord of the pub leaves his crates of Diet Coke cans in the cellar, the rats can crawl all over them and urinate at will.

Maria Moffatt tests the ‘Stone Age diet’ Weight before: 9 stone 3 pounds Weight after: 9 stone 2 pounds

More deadly than they look: Weil’s disease is caught when contaminated water comes into contact with broken skin, cuts or eyes

I’m sure the health standards of the pub in question are more than up to scratch (unless it’s on Merseyside) but you cannot keep the underground free of rodents, it is impossible. So a simple failure to use a glass or decanter could result in you directly consuming rat pee, which is probably not what you’re looking for when that strapping lad buys you a tipple. Similarly, anyone who pursues water sports on a river is at huge risk of contracting the disease as rivers are ridden with samples of animal excrement. Rowers, kayakers, canoeists and even sailors are often

exposed to the infection, resulting in a London rower tragically dying as a result of being splashed on a long session. Admittedly the mortality rate is small, but at University we are so much more laissez faire with our health. At home, the mother would always dispatch you to the doctor’s if they felt it was serious, but here we tend to drag our heels before seeking help and time is not something you are blessed with if you contract Weil’s. The symptoms resemble a bad fever with vomiting and high temperatures also present. The infection moves quickly and, in serious cases, can lead to dialysis or

infusions. Whilst the rate is small at 0.2%, they rise if the subject visits less developed parts of the world. However, there are more and more cases of the outbreak in England, particularly amongst the water sports society. So this serves as a warning, albeit not a dire one, to rowers, canoeists, kayakers, sailors and anyone who enjoys knocking back rat piss. Be careful and seek help if you feel under the weather on your return from a competition. Bet this has brightened up your day.

You are what you eat

Xiaodan Li on why junk food really is so bad for you Food-wise, what is the first thing on your mind when you get home after a long, exhausting day? Is it that KFC family bucket? McDonald’s Big Mac? Pizza Hut stuffed crust feast? Or a Subway twelve-incher? Fast food is quick, easy and relatively cheap, so it comes as no surprise that people choose to buy it. In our society, fast food is becoming increasingly popular, but have you ever felt like you’re losing control over what you eat? Or have you ever been concerned about the lifestyle you are choosing? As a matter of fact, there are an increasing number of people who have mixed feelings about fast food. On the one hand, we find it really difficult to resist, as it is quick, tasty and convenient. On the other, we tend to feel guilty after eating them, as we are aware of their potential risks (there are lots of unhealthy ingredients inside those delicious pizzas or hamburgers!)

diet diary

Nowadays, guys and girls alike pay attention to this issue, mainly because they are keen to keep ﬁt and attractive. Now here comes the good news. For people concerned with the dangers associated with fast food – the government is encouraging supermarkets, restaurants and food manufacturers (such as Mars and Unilever) to display all the nutritional information in an attempt to give consumers a clue about their calorie, salt and fat intake. Thus, you are able to choose the food you eat based on its contents, as well as its price. Apparently, this is good news since we’re able to decide what we put into our bodies. However, no matter what has been done by other people – whether it’s the efforts made by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, or those involved in campaigns for healthier food choices – what really matters is your own attitude

Junk: the Government is encouraging food retailers to display nutritional information

towards healthy eating. Essentially, healthy living is only achieved if you are prepared to consider the implications of fast food upon your health. Admittedly, there are many factors that contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle. Fast food discounts are a big one and seems to be wherever you go, there seem to junk food restau-

rants everywhere. But don’t worry. When eating fast food, it’s better safe than sorry. Always bear in mind those potential consequences and keep reminding yourself: I ‘m not going to risk my life on this. Remember, you are what you eat. Now, are you determined to make the right choice about food?

The Stone Age diet: cutting out processed foods and making everything from scratch but with little rewards. Many restrictions included some of my most loved food and drink: dairy products, caffeine, alcohol, chocolate and bread just to name a few! Having followed this strict diet all week, I can say that it is challenging. Most meals were bland, and even a breakfast of bacon, egg and fried tomatoes was rubbish without any ketchup. The effort put into this irritated me, as I am used to pouring cereal and milk into a bowl rather than messing around with pans and grills. Having to restrict drinks to mineral water (no tap water!) and redbush tea meant the thing I missed most at breakfast time was a cuppa. Lunchtime consisted of egg and bacon salad most days, but I missed the simplicity of a sandwich and a bag of crisps! I found snacking throughout the day a bit of a chore. When you’re out and about, it’s hard to find something to eat that will also tickle your taste buds. In the evenings I had vegetables with salmon or chicken. Finding chicken quite bland on its own, I experimented with some flavours: peanut butter chicken and chicken with chopped tomatoes and basil were surprisingly tasty. Not liking soya milk and having no need for it on this diet (no cereal or cups of tea), I was surprised to find soya yogurts a tasty replacement for regular yogurts. In the evening I substituted chocolate and biscuits for raisins, dried apricots and dates... they just don’t compare to biscuits and chocolate! Two days into the diet I bought a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice-cream just so I knew it was at hand for when I could next have some! If you’re trying to lose weight, I see this as a short-term solution rather than long-term and even then, I’m sure there are easier ways to shed the pounds. For me, it was not worth the minimal weight loss: too many restrictions left me with too many cravings! Cheese and chocolate lovers, this is not the diet for you.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Food and Drink

Gusto, Quayside 0191 260 2291

Enjoy: Gusto serves up delicious Italian-inspired cuisine with a stylish ambience

the miniature vases on each table with slight bubbling imperfections were purchased from IKEA. At 6.30 on a Friday it was less than moderately full, only the odd table ﬁlled with small groups. However, as the evening developed there wasn’t a spare seat in sight. The ‘crisp, dry and fruity style’ of La Gasconne Blanc accompanied the meal to give a refreshing lift. To begin the garlic pizza bread, half mozzarella and half tomato, was a fair cut above your average. The simple act of leaving the slicing until the rustic base had reached the table was a perfect midpoint to preserve that sense of Italian authenticity while preventing you from feeling knife and fork action was crucial.

The menu overall ranged from pizza, pasta and risotto dishes to 28 day matured steak and lobster. The average dish pushing just over the ten pound mark proved this was no Spagos Happy Hour, but the quality definitely demanded the extra few pounds to give it an extra edge over a typical meal out. The roasted field mushroom starter, at £5.95, was sat on a bed of crisp ciabatta with mozzarella and with pesto dressing. Although difficult to get every taste sensation in the same mouthful the Tuscan ham could easily have been eaten by the handful alone. Meanwhile the tomato glazed chicken skewers with melted mozzarella at £6.45 with pesto dip were a light and tasty start. The main feature, an 8oz 28 day

matured sirloin steak with gorgonzola, spinach and red wine sauce. Heading towards the higher priced end of the menu at £14.45 the sauce was in plentiful supply and the steak, although probably not the best I’ve had, justified the price tag. The rosemary roasted potatoes were a fitting accompaniment. However the more impressive choice was the chicken stuffed with Italian ham and mozzarella and tomato risotto. Although the tomato risotto lacked a certain kick the chicken was succulently tender and the filling faultless. Saving the best until last,you could not fail to leave without a smile on your face after Gusto’s signature Nutella and Mascapone calzone desert. Served warm the lightly iced sugared pastry was oozing with a rich chocolaty filling. The sharp relief of the vanilla ice cream was a perfect complement. Overall the service was quick, professional and individual. Recommendations were always at hand, and good ones at that. Gusto also provides set menu options ideal for 21st celebrations ranging from £19.95 per person as well as a cheap and cheerful lunch menu at £8.95 for one course and a glass of wine or beer. If you just take two minutes to sign up to membership on their website you could be entitled to 20% off your total food bill if you book online as well as monthly offers, such as the recent January sale offering a whopping 50% reduction. Kat Bannon

It’s Pancake Day! Georgie Davies shares her favourite pancake recipes It’s Shrove Tuesday this week, so get your frying pans at the ready as we explore some scrumptious pancake recipes. Pancakes, for me, conjure up happy childhood memories, as I happen to be fortunate enough to have an excellent cook for a mum who, as I recall, treated my sister and I to pancakes every morning before school (much to the envy of all our friends!). These days I can’t seem to contain my childlike excitement when it comes to Pancake Day, or even if it’s simply whipping up a batch of pancakes for breakfast on a lazy weekend. The knowledge of a good, basic pancake recipe is a must, something to fall back on at any impromptu pancake-making moment! It is superbly simple and wonderfully versatile, with only three main ingredients that most of you will probably have in your fridge or larder already. The traditional Pancake Day pancakes are for me, the thin, crepe-like treats, providing the brilliant challenge of flipping with the great endeavour of the pancake remaining in one piece and preferably in the pan! To make 12 pancakes, sieve 110g of plain flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt, make a well in the centre and break in 2 large eggs. Whisk the eggs, slowly incorporating the flour from the edges. Meanwhile, measure out 275ml milk, and slowly add this to the mixture, whisking well to keep lumps at bay! Melt 50g of butter and add 2 tablespoons to the pancake batter- save the rest in a bowl and use to keep the pan greased. Now

Lifestyle

food & drink

review

With eight restaurants scattered across Britain it is safe to say that Gusto (Italian for taste and enjoyment) claims a comprehensive place amongst the fiends that compose the ‘chain’ restaurant category. However, rather than feel you’ve once again slipped into the façade of fine dining through fancy décor and dusky lighting there is something about this chromo tone blend of classic chic and upper-crust Italian menu that makes you feel you have found something particularly special. Located along the quayside adjacent to La Tasca and unfortunately denied its front row view of the Tyne by the ungainly lump that is Pitcher and Piano, Gusto offers a dining experience which could mark anything from birthday celebration, lazy weekday afternoon or, perhaps most fittingly, a chance to impress a certain someone. Its delicate combination of deep mahogany panels and black and white chromo tone, Gusto falls the right side of ostentatious in that iconic thick framed photo way. The lights, dangling at varying lengths across the front of the balcony created a subtly unique ambiance, although I may have recognised that

compare the market

Olivia Mason ﬂips her way through a selection of pancakes 10/10 Green’s Pancake Mix: £1. This is best value and most fun. They are easier than ﬁnding your own recipe, but still gives the enjoyment of frying your own. All you need is an egg and some water. This makes about 6 large crepes in a frying pan.

8/10 Tesco Large Pancakes: £1. Again these are cheap, and you get a pack of 8. These are very easy if you want an actual pancake as you can eat them hot or cold, and are more crepe like. Not the real deal though and still a bit stodgy.

6/10 Kingsmill Scotch Pancakes: 63p.

The cheapest option and the perfect choice if you prefer a thicker pancake. They are very doughy. These can be toasted or fried or just eaten cold. One of the better scotch pancakes on the market and a good price.

Versatile: Pancakes are a great snack that can be topped with anything. Strawberries, ice-cream and chocolate are always favourites

you’re ready to get flipping! Get the frying pan really hot, add some of the melted butter (not too much) and use about 2tablepoons of batter for each pancake, to coat the base of the pan. Fry the first side till it’s golden brown and can easily be flipped over then cook the other side, which shouldn’t take as long. I often find that the first pancake doesn’t work as well as the rest so don’t be disheartened! If making ahead of time stack the pancakes on a plate in between layers of greaseproof paper to prevent sticking. Of course you can’t go wrong with the traditional

sugar and lemon adornment, but why not try the following ideas for something special this year! Try banoffee pancakes by topping them with sliced bananas, caramel and grated chocolate. If you can’t ﬁnd tins of caramel or dulche de leche in the supermarket, a really quick and easy way to make caramel is to take a tin of condensed milk and place in a pan of boiling water (unopened), keep it simmering for 3hours and allow the tin to cool before opening, and you’re left with gorgeous gooey caramel. You can’t go wrong with a choco-

late and strawberry combination, so try topping your pancakes with sliced strawberries and this irresistible chocolate sauce. Take 4 mars bars and melt slowly in a pan with a little butter, pour in 100ml of single cream and continue to melt everything together. The result is the most divine chocolate sauce, also heavenly on vanilla ice cream. Pancakes are a great idea for dinner parties; you can make them ahead of time, or even get guests to ﬂip their own! Lay the table with bowls of a variety of toppings and get everyone to help themselves.

4/10 Tesco Chocolate Filled Crepes: £1.97. This is deﬁnitely the laziest option as the pancakes are already ﬁlled with chocolate. More of a snack than a substitute for the real thing. Still tasty, although a bit dry.

Lifestyle

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Travel

travel

Budget Travel: Bratislava, Warsaw and Budapest Best Travelling around Eastern Europe is a favourite for budgeting students. Pete Warcup reveals the cheap beer, food and lodgings

of Britain

Nicole Stevenson visits Bangor, Wales

Budapest by night: Holidays and trips to Eastern Europe are often extremely good value for money yet it seems many people remain oblivious to the inexpensive breaks on offer

When selecting the destination for this summer’s holiday, you are unlikely to want to stretch your finances any further than necessary. So don’t fret when you can’t afford the holiday of your dreams, as there are bargain holidays to be had in locations you may have previously overlooked. The countries of Eastern Europe offer incredible value for money; despite this, it seems many people remain oblivious to the inexpensive breaks on offer. Although some individuals are averse to any holiday which doesn’t include both sun and sand, city trips to the likes of Slovakia’s capital Bratislava provide an interesting alternative. ‘Partyslava’ as it is otherwise known, has become an increasingly popular destination for UK stag parties. This has in part been facilitated by the availability of budget airline flights, but the greatest draw is simply the price of the beer. Half a litre will typically set you back less than 80p. What’s more, Slovakian beer tends to be far more flavoursome than your average, overly fizzy British lager. Many of the bars in the city will claim to have the cheapest beer that side of the Danube, but a tour around the numerous pubs will show the price difference to be only a few pence. Bratislava has the unfortunate distinction of having been used as the supposed backdrop to the film ‘Hostel’. Don’t let that rather squalid portrayal deter you from visiting the real Bratislava, which is a welcoming and truly beautiful city. One hostel has however taken full advantage of the film and created a ‘Hostel’ themed basement bar, complete with an assortment of severed limbs and blood-streaked tables. The hostel Possonium is only £10 per person per night (sharing) and is

located close to both the main train station and the city centre. If Bratislava’s undeserved Hollywood image or the thought of the grislier contents of Possonium’s bar have put you off, then I would urge you to visit Poland’s capital. Like many other Eastern European cities, Warsaw has a rich cultural heritage and is home to more than 60 museums. If you find traipsing round museums all day a touch too dull, then the breathtaking sights of Warsaw’s Old Town quarter will not disappoint. Despite over 80% of Warsaw’s buildings being destroyed in World War II, the majority have been meticulously reconstructed. The city is once again home to castles, churches, columns and cathedrals-not to mention palaces and a multitude of monuments. Ever popular amongst tourists is the 30th floor viewing terrace of the Palace of Culture and Science, from where it is possible to survey the expanses of the city and perhaps look out for somewhere to sample Poland’s native cuisine.

You will not be short of interesting places to visit, nor will you find yourself without quality accommodation. Arguably the best value hostel - and certainly the most fun, is the Oki Doki hostel, found in the centre of the city and only 10 minutes walk from either the Old Town quarter or the train station. The hostel has a range of fantastic facilities and is a brilliant place to get to know your fellow travellers. With a stay in one of the quirky rooms or dorms starting at about £8.50, Oki Doki hostel comes highly recommended. Whilst both Warsaw and Bratislava are great cities to visit, the true gem of Eastern Europe is without hesitation Budapest. The flow of the Danube divides the city’s two halves, Buda and Pest, and provides the backdrop to many of the cities greatest sights, which are best appreciated by taking a boat tour costing about £14.50. Alternatively a thighburning tramp up Gellért Hill to the Citadella will give you a panoramic view of the city for free. During the summer months, Budapest’s tem-

Warsaw: Post-WW2 construction meant the Old Town retained its rich cultural heritage

perature averages 26 degrees, so to make the most of it, visit one of the city’s famous spas. The Széchenyi spa’s indoor and outdoor pools are fed with natural thermal waters and have been in use since 1881. Be careful to maintain those bikini bodies though, as restaurants throughout the city offer exceptionally good food. Although the more luxurious restaurants are not particularly cheap, they are still far less expensive than restaurants of equivalent quality in the UK. Like elsewhere in Eastern Europe, beer is very cheap and here tends to cost around £1 for half a litre. The nightlife rivals that of any city in the UK (well, perhaps not Newcastle), so if you fancy a cheap and cheerful night out, then try Morrison’s bar, which has a good mix of locals and tourists. Accommodation too is inexpensive, with a stay at the Groove Hostel costing just £4 per night (sharing), despite its central location and good transport links. Should you be inclined to visit all three countries, then it may be worthwhile purchasing an Interrail train ticket, which will allow you to travel anywhere in continental Europe. Interrail ticket prices begin at £149 for 10 days, however nonEuropean travellers will need to purchase a Eurail pass, which tend to cost considerably more. Return flights to Bratislava are available from £45, Warsaw £50 and Budapest £64 from airports across the UK, making a trip to Eastern Europe a particularly attractive alternative. More information on the Hostels mentioned can be found at www. hostelworld.com, and further information about Interrail and Eurail tickets can be found on www.interrail.com and www.eurail.com respectively.

Located in North Wales, Bangor is one of the smallest cities in the UK, bursting with culture, attractions and outstanding natural beauty where the Snowdonia Mountains reach the sea. The rich city also has a Victorian Pier, giving you a sense of freedom as you walk by the sea; a very different sound to the noise pollution you get in a typical city. Would you like to walk down the longest High Street in Wales? Renowned for their love of music, especially of the folk genre, the atmosphere on the Bangor High Street is never dull. It has two major shopping centres to please fashion-hungry students. For a great end to the day, visit the Apollo Plaza Cinema or catch a play at the Theatre Gwynedd. Attention sport and nature lovers: Have a breathtaking bike ride, a sensational swim, or a beautiful walk admiring the Mountains of the Snowdonia National Park or the coastline of the Menai Strait. There are many opportunities for extreme sports here, with fast flowing rivers and waterfalls. If you’re interested in impressing your parents with cultural snaps, Bangor Cathedral is the place to go. It is the oldest cathedral foundation in Britain, and is definitely worth a visit. As you walk in, its original charm and simplicity is striking. It has a grand aura, and holds the tomb Grufydd ab Cynan, King of North Wales. As a tourist always should, a stay in Bangor is not complete without a visit to a museum. Just behind Bangor Cathedral, you will find Gwynedd Museum, containing Bangor’s history dating further back than the 12th century. The appropriate word to describe the nightlife in Bangor is probably ‘cute’. It may not impress the Rave Society, but why would you travel miles for a typical night out if you live in Newcastle…there are two main clubs and a few bars, which are bound to be packed with students and friendly faces. The beauty of the outdoors during the daytime definitely outweighs the decent-ish night out, and it is the main reason for this city to be a major tourist attraction. As this is a small city, it would be ideal to stay in a cottage, rather than a hotel, to get the full taste of Wales. Either way, you are guaranteed to be taken by the views and discover history!

Bangor Cathedral: the oldest in Britain

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Spring on campus: your new trends > Pages 20 & 21

London Fashion Week: ones to watch

Hot from the catwalk, Katie Henry tracks the new designers to watch for Autumn/Winter 2011 Ladies and gentleman, brace yourselves, as it’s that time of year again. The time when the crème de la crème of the fashion world gather together for one of the ‘big four’ catwalk shows in the world. That’s right, this month was London Fashion Week and saw the Autumn/Winter 2011 creations of designers from all over the world being showcased in London town. Fabulous as they may be, you have probably already seen reports and blow by blow accounts of all the acclaimed designer collections from this season show. Therefore, we have instead scouted out the upand-coming designers who we think you’ll be hearing lots of good things about in 2011. A name that you may not be as familiar with is Scottish designer Christopher Kane. His designs have been worn by famous fans including the newly appointed Ambassador for British Fashion Samantha Cameron, with Alexa Chung and editorin-chief of American Vogue Anna Wintour taking front row seats at his Autumn/Winter 2011 show last week. Last month the up-and-coming designer was awarded the prestigious British Fashion Council/Vogue Fashion Fund, a £200,000 grant to invest in his design business. The aim of the Fund is to assist talented British designers to start making the transition from a developing ,creative business to a global fashion brand. For his A/W 2011 collection, the designer went for a sterile

CATWALKING.COM

The new “it” labels: Kane, Fulton and Burberry all turned out vibrant collections, cementing them as fashion labels to watch in 2011

approach. Using the bubble effect found in a lava lamp or soda stream for inspiration, the talented designer used bizarre liquid-look plastic that would normally be associated for pencil cases and ofﬁce stationary with his creations. Each year, Central Saint Martins MA Fashion graduates are actively involved in London Fashion Week as either budding designers or design directors. The MA Fashion course is the only student course

that shows during London Fashion Week and is a great opportunity for new talent within the industry to be spotted. As one of the stand-out students at last year’s Central Saint Martins show, the Singapore-born designer Tze Goh earned himself a spot in the Vauxhall Fashion Scout ‘Ones To Watch’ show this season. His design ethos is minimal, sharp, sculptural and conceptual with his trademark piece probably being a ‘sculpted T-shirt’.

Another helping hand available to promising new designers is the BFC/Elle Talent Launch Pad. This offers support to selected young designers to help grow their businesses through marketing and building relationships with British retailers. ELLE magazine also give the winning designers access to the industry’s top stylists, photographers and creative directors. As one of the BFC/Elle Talent Launch pad winners for 2011, Holly Fulton, is

another promising designer to look out for. Her A/W 2011 collection at London Fashion week included an array of graphic/digital prints using luxurious materials and hot accessories to add a touch of glamour to her designs. However, we couldn’t let London Fashion Week pass by without mentioning those whose designs we dream of wearing, and who are no stranger to the catwalk. Vivienne Westwood as ever had everyone talking with her outrageous designs which included pinstriped and plaid tailored suits. Throw in some models with spray painted hair and faces and you have yourself the usual Vivienne Westwood circus show. Burberry produced a world first by streaming their ‘Coats of Many colours’ collection live to 150 countries and 40 events, including a public showing on a 32 metre digital screen in Piccadilly Circus. The show, which was inspired by the Chelsea girls of the 60s, ended with a blizzard of fake snow, with models shielding their outfits using clear plastic capes. The Mulberry show included an enchanted forest backdrop, finished with stuffed foxes, birds and trees. The brand, which is famous for its luxurious leather bags, showcased a number of boxy satchels in a variety of textures, along with pleated chiffon dresses in earthy browns and greens - a perfect colour palette for a promising Autumn/Winter 2011.

Difﬁcult Menswear trend: Sheer is here

Matthew Keefe discovers more about one of the most difficult trends to hit menswear in years For us guys, the trends for Spring/ Summer 2011 are mesh fabrics, floral prints and leggings. No, this is not a joke! Hot off the catwalks from London and Milan fashion weeks are a few looks which will definitely push the envelope of gender-specific clothing. It has long been established in fashion that men’s trends tend to evolve at a slower pace than women’s do - styles in suits, t-shirts and jeans change slowly and subtly, but this year the development of sexualambiguity in fashion has taken yet another leap forward with men’s ‘must have’ looks for this season resembling that of our female counterparts more than ever before. With designers such as Roberto Cavalli and Louis Vuitton showcasing models of each gender in layers of semi-transparent mesh and croptops (yes, for the guys too!) on the runways, it is clear that the genderblending of high-end fashion in the past few years is reaching a pinnacle.

But how well will these styles dilute down to the high street for the average man around town? The sheer look for women is all about glamorous femininity and sex appeal. It’ll be a bit ﬂirty, but without being too provocative. However for men, the sheer look translates less easily from the catwalks to the High Street. Since last winter, men’s open-knit jumpers in a variety of styles have been popular and can achieve a lot for this trend and will probably be quite practical for Newcastle’s climate until the warmer weather hits us. Topman, which has always produced consistent, modern clothing, has already introduced a small sheer range, incorporating tees with sheer panels and a number of dark, mesh hoodies. Whilst these may not be as ostentatious as their catwalk-counterparts, it is unlikely these pieces will be the easiest thing for a guy to wear casually out round the Toon, if only for the fact that translucent fabrics are a relatively new development in male

CATWALKING.COM

fashion. However trend-setting just requires the extra thought as semitransparent clothing can be done successfully if lots of different shapes and colours of sheer pieces are mixed, or if they are worn with trenches or pea coats (which should be just about right for the intermediate ‘warmish’ parts of spring). There may be some scepticism, but it is to be expected when on the cusp of a change in fashion - whenever a traditionally ‘female’ fabric, style or piece of clothing crosses over into the male fashion vocabulary in a prominent way it takes a while for us to acclimatise, if we do at all: think of the unsuccessful attempt of designers like YSL and Comme des Garçons to introduce the ‘men’s skirt’ in 2009. Small developments in fashion though, are easier to handle and are usually more successful. Semi-transparent fabrics will be one to watch as they are set to be a big hit over the next few months, and will do well if the high street chains avoid the

pitfalls of taking things too far into string vest territory. So far, Topman is leading the pack quite tastefully and more designers are each producing more wearable sheer clothing for men. Their new catwalk-inspired lines play cleverly with existing fashions, with which men are already comfortable; so with a bit of work and careful thought, some of the ‘seemingly outrageous’ trends for guys could end up setting them apart in that ‘über-confident, modern-man’ kind of way girls seem to find so attractive. Although most of us will find it easier to work with more accessible trends, such as the ‘preppy’ look, rather than donning ‘sheer’ or ‘floral’ this Spring/Summer, I think those fashion-forward gents who are confident enough to go fully with these new trends should, I think, be praised. If fashion is going in a more androgynous ‘anyone can wear anything’ direction, then it will be these people paving the way for the rest.

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Fashion Campus Style

Style for Spring

A spring in their step: the new season’s As Spring slowly arrives in the North East we have scoured the city on a quest to discover the and Victoria Mole and Katie Henry act as our eyes on the ground as they patrol the popular hang styles Lauren Girling makes her first foray into the world of geek chic as she discovers the rising The familiar stench of vomit, the sticky floors, some guy (usually who has no rhythm) getting his Shakira on in the cage is a usual start point for Wednesday night and an evening fuelled by £2 trebles. Cue Sinners! To find a girl not dressed in funky neon clobber or another sports social fancy dress was somewhat of a challenge. However for the few and far between that I did manage to track down it was a dressy affair. A night on the ‘Toon’ wouldn’t be complete without lots of leg and sky-high heels. In all cases the sense of occasion tonight seemed to be party hard and drink more. As I was getting out of my taxi, I spotted Jenny, an economics and business student who almost looked like a little ray of sunshine in a playsuit that would definitely brighten up my wardrobe. Forget diamonds; playsuits are a girl’s best friend. Playsuits have been an acceptable wardrobe staple for a couple of years

and this playsuit is a glamorous and versatile one-piece styling. With its nipped-in waist, luxe silk look and tailored cut, a simple shape is given instant standout; proving you don’t have to look like a toddler in this playsuit. As Spring 2011 fashion would dictate it, one-piece anything are perma-trendy and definitely a worthy investment. When I asked Jenny where her outfit was from she said, “It’s my cousin’s but shhhh!” With the current economic woes and just being a student in general, Jenny has shown style savvy. Her degree is definitely paying off! A few statement accessories and this outfit would be perfection. The second girl of the evening was Kerry, a 2nd year Business Management student. Cheryl Cole as her inspiration, Kerry teamed a crop top with Capri pants and statement accessories. Skinny pant cuts may have dominated for the last few years but

there have always been other styles coming and going around the nebulous edges of the fashion world. The Capri pant is one such trend, Kerry teamed the ladylike 50s/60s trend with a crop top, a difficult trend for many but very well-executed. To finish, she elegantly accessorised this outfit, making it a definite winner. The final lady of my night was Stephanie who studies Medicine;. For the evening Stephanie had opted for glamour chic, she was wearing some sharply tailored capris trousers and a timeless, black and white print top. To add elegance to her outfit, Stephanie had her hair pinned up in an on trend beautiful knot. Stephanie told me her outfit was vintage, showing 2011 trends, a good price tag and vintage style can all go hand in hand if you look in the right places to covet the key looks.

In pursuit of what’s currently hot in campus fashion, I was stationed outside Campus Coffee. It was the perfect place to observe everyone’s ensembles; the walk up to the arch is like the university equivalent of a runway, so it was interesting to see everyone’s take on Spring 2011! Everybody is ditching their thick winter coats for trenches and jackets like first year English Literature and History student, Charlie. In a black bomber jacket paired with a khaki skirt from, she said of her choice: “I wanted to incorporate new spring colours, like the khaki is part of the whole military look”. The contrast of how edgy the jacket is paired with the feminine touch of the floaty skirt embodies the new campus style for Spring 2011. Moreover the subtle but pretty touch of her long gold pendant is an on-trend way of adding an extra sparkle to the ensemble. I noticed that a lot of the girls were adding some attitude to spring florals by donning military boots with their dresses and skirts. The essential mantra for fashion this season is to keep it effortless and fun: throw together ditsy prints layered with

block colours and tone down frills with smooth textured fabrics. The next fashionista I spoke to was first year English Language and Literature student Paige who had, like Charlie, gone for a black bomber jacket for casual chic at its comfiest and added a splash of colour with red bootlaces. With garments from high street hot spots such as Topshop, Urban Outfitters and a fringed scarf from H&M her outfit is worthy of prompting many ‘I like your ____, where did you get it from?’ comments. When asking what went through her mind when she put together her outfit, Paige replied “All I was really thinking was I have a nine o’clock lecture, it was just what I could find on my floor!”- it’s an enviable selection of clothes to just be able to throw together from your floordrobe. At some point during your university career it is likely that you will have to get ready at lightning speed to make that dreaded nine o’clock (that extra 10 minutes in bed instead of straightening your hair is all too tempting!) so a way to ensure that you pull off a last minute fashion success like Paige’s outfit is to make sure that you invest

in lots of items that you a) really love and b) can match with most of your other clothes. Campus fashion wouldn’t be covered without representing the male student population so I spoke to fifth year Dentistry student James. His outfit consisted of a red quilted designer jacket, a top from student favourite, Abercrombie and Fitch and pieces from Topman. He stated that the main factor in his wardrobe choice was “The weather definitely, I decided to go for these instead of my boots”, gesturing to his moccasins as his main wardrobe changes to compliment the season. Campus fashion is all about what feels good as well as looks good so from what I observed it’s wise to invest in a staple jacket and garments in soft, cotton fabrics. For girls leggings are the essential and a top tip for accessorising this season is a neutral and patterned scarf. For guys a favourite this season is the henley, perfect for the transition between winter and summer being warm enough for Newcastle weather but a step down from usual Arctic attire.

With their happy hour prices and buzzing atmospheres, the restaurants and bars of Osborne Road have long been a popular haunt with Newcastle students. This in mind, Wednesday night seemed the perfect opportunity to visit and see what was on offer in terms of student fashion. The bar was packed with sociable guys and girls and it was obvious that visitors were there with different motives. Some were there for casual drinks with friends after a hard day of lectures, whereas others were using it as a pre-drinking venue before a night out in town. With no clear-cut dress code, the bar played host to a range outfits, from glamorous strapless mini

dresses to chilled jeans and Converse. For those sat outside, the electronic heaters didn’t seem to be doing the trick, as parkas were a popular choice for keeping warm. Those wearing blouses and skirts gathered inside where it was much warmer, however bare legs and all, I decided to man up and start my search for Berlise’s best dressed in the outside seating area. Frances, a fourth year student, braved the cold in a grey lace top and black skinny jeans. She explained that her outfit, which was mainly from Topshop, acted as motivation to keep her body in shape, in particular the cheeky see-through lace top. One student opting for a fur coat

to keep out the cold was Romilly, a third year English Literature student. Her outfit was mainly from charity shops and was inspired by the styles of Sienna Miller and Chloe Sevigny. She accessorised a plain white top with a large jewelled necklace creating the perfect balance between casual and elegant. Anya, a fourth year Marketing and Management student from California was feeling rather patriotic on this particular evening, when she rocked an American flag printed tee along with a leather jacket. Anya looked to the British High Street and stateside favourite Macy’s for her outfit.

Harriet Webb

Victoria Mole

Katie Henry

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Campus Style Fashion

Style for Spring

best student looks from across campus secrets of effortless and seasonal style. Harriet Webb examines our need to dress to impress outs of Campus Coffee and Osborne Road. Meanwhile in a search for some more masculine trend of academic styling and Tim Perkins tries to accurately define male style on campus V MOLE, L GIRLING H WEBB

When it was decided that the fashion section was going to scour the campus on the quest to see if there is certain styles that Newcastle students covet, I initially thought that we were going to find constant ‘college wear’ and aspirational brands. However, our search soon turned into looking for those hidden gems from all parts of the campus, seeing what students will be wearing this spring. I was stationed outside the library and, despite it being the end of February, it was freezing and overcast so consequently, most people were wrapped up in their Ugg boots and coats. However, amidst the cold faces, there were two brave lads who were worth putting in this week’s feature, purely for their effort. Adam, a second year Geography student was dressed feeling hopeful for warmer weather in casual chinos and a striped jumper to smarten the look up. Knitwear was also popular with Adam’s friend, Glen, also second year Geography as he wore a Lyle and Scott multi-way, chunkyknit grey cardigan with a plain tee and jeans, finished with some casual deck shoes. Glen said that he was freezing that morning so put on the thickest jumper possible and his functional choice proved to be stylish too. After some time stood searching for the perfect spring outfit, Sophie, a third year Classical Studies stu-

dent caught my eye as she cleverly teamed nautical stripes with a ladylike brown leather bag and matching boots. Sophie explained that she chose her nautical cable-knit cardi as she felt that the cold warranted it and she was a great advocate of stripes. Jasmine, a second year biologist was the next girl I spotted and she embodied precisely what I was looking for. She used the pleasant weather by dressing in a bright skirt that is an example of Spring/Summer 2011’s colour-blocking trend with neutral brown shades of her shearling jacket and her brogues. And where would Spring/Summer be without florals as Jasmine had a Cath Kidston bag to finish the outfit. She said that she picked the first garments she saw in her wardrobe that morning but this hit on a very important concept for students – do we actually plan what we are going to wear each morning, let alone each season? From speaking to all the students photographed, it became apparent that students, despite appearances, do not have one single style but either choose to buy into trends or be individual by being spontaneous with their fashion choices. This season, to discover what students are wearing, you’ll just have to wait until we’ve actually decided!

Does the male student population of Newcastle have a distinctive style? This question stumped me for a while as I sat in my room pondering it, is there a typical Newcastle look? Being the hard-hitting investigative journalist that I am I decided to go into ‘the field’ which actually equated to me standing outside the Union for ten cold minutes eating a pasty and observing what the average lad was wearing, as for you readers I go the extra mile! Of course the student population of Newcastle has a plethora of styles but there are some definite trends that mark us students apart. The penchant for Barbour jackets worn oh-so-casually over Canterbury tracksuit bottoms is probably the signature style of the public school crowd, showing a mixed agenda upon garment selection. On nights out, checked shirts seem to be the norm from Digital to the Den and I thank god for the most part that Newcastle students have avoided the plague that is super low V-neck T-shirts. Man cleavage is not a good look. Jeans are ubiquitous throughout the student population apart from the chino-loving students synonymous with Newcastle. Julian Middleton, a third year English Lit student had this to say, “Personally I think Newcastle does have a distinctive style however this is not such a good thing, I believe students in Manchester and Leeds have a wider selection of styles.”

Dom Desmond agreed with this, “In Newcastle people follow trends too much so that they wear clothing that neither suits them or their lifestyle but just because everyone else is”. So is this distinctive style we simply have lack of imagination and diversity amongst our student body? Newcastle was recently voted one of the top ten ‘middle class’ universities and I believe this is a factor in the uniformity of the Newcastle boys’ dress. As many people from a similar background are far more likely to have the same kind of style and influences. One thing I would note is that Newcastle fashion is very unselfconscious, it is definitely not gimmicky and there are very few uber-trendy scenesters that you might find hanging out in Dalston. I would describe the main fashion as street casual and there are not really that many sub sects of fashion amongst the student body. Whether this general lack of diversity is a good thing or not it’s up to you to decide or maybe everyone just dresses the same because in Newcastle we know we boys look good!

Lauren Girling

Tim Perkin

Web Exclusive

Check out www.thecourieronline.co.uk/fashion for more from campus fashion

THE COURIER Monday March 07 2011

Listings

what’s happening on your campus? tuesday

monday

Listings Editor : Ciara Littler - courier.listings@ncl.ac.uk

thursday

wednesday monday

Lecture

Public lectures

Vibrance music

Public lectures

Space 4/5, Culture Lab, 15:00

Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, 17:30-18:30, FREE

Hyem Bar, Chillingham Road, Heaton, 20:00, FREE

Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, 17:30-18:30, FREE

The Fundamentalist City? Professor Nezar Aisayyad talks on ‘The Fundamentalist City? Reﬂections on a “Medieval Modernity”’. Globalization and the compression of space and time have fundamentally changed the standard relationships between peoples and places. Across the world, despite these changes, national, communal, and religious allegiances have often only become stronger. Some scholars argue that these strengthened ties are an important means of resistance against the hegemonic forces of globalization. Others interpret the rise of fundamentalist practices as articulating alternative forms of non-Western modernity. His aim is to understand the urban processes by which religious movements transform into fundamentalist ones, possibly engaging in tactics of control that reshape the life and form of cities.

Rock society Quiz

LYH, 19:00-23:00, Members-FREE, Non-Members-£1 If awesome music, beer and questions are all you desire from life (beer is optional) then get down to Rock Soc’s fantastic pub quiz. After a large turn out last time, be sure to get there before 7pm for the chance to win around £100 worth of prizes. With a range of music, picture and standard knowledge rounds, along with more prizes for things like ‘best name’, everyone’s a winner (well, not technically). Followed by a trip to Legends (free for members before 11pm every Monday!).

Give it a Go!

Muslim heritage

Emeritus Professor Salim Al-Hassani is the Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, he is giving a talk on ‘Muslim heritage and the cultural roots of science’. Human civilisation is an accumulation of contributions made by our global ancestors. However, these are not always remembered despite their immense impact on today’s society. FSTC created a new space using roots and routes of inventions academically and innovatively, through edutainment techniques, to inspire future generations to respect one another and to contribute positively to society.

People and Planet

Food, Inc. Film screening Salsa Cafe, 19:30

People and Planet Newcastle are showing Food, Inc. at the Salsa Café. It’s the story of the American food industry, and the dangerously untenable, disturbingly artiﬁcial, inhumane way food is being produced.

Gig

First Assault

Head of Steam, 20:00 The alternative/ pop punk/ rock band from Newcastle University play the ﬁrst of a number of gigs this month. The evening is headlined by dance music enthusiasts Abduction Of Margaret.

Women for women

Global Bridge Campaign

Live at Hyem

Winning women

Vibrance music continues to bring you the best music in Newcastle with another quality live line up at Hyem. Including performances from Zadok, The Basingstoke Encounter, GregGenre and The Phoenix Quartencl.. See the Facebook page ‘Vibrance music presents live at hyem’ for more info.

Inspired by International Women’s Day, NUWomen hosts an “in conversation” style event with a number of leading professional women who have links with the University. Hear about their careers and perspectives on success and join in the discussion.

ArcSoc

Seven stories

Spring Fling

Behind the Scenes Tours

As You Like It, Jesmond, 19:00, Members-£29, Non-Members-£33

Seven Stories, Ouseburn Valley, 14:00-15:30, £6/£5

Spring is on it’s way and ArcSoc are going to help you bring it in style. Get your party dresses and bow ties out for a night you wont forget. With everything from a champagne reception to a four course meal and a jazz band after dinner, this promises to be a great evening to lead you on your way into spring. ‘ArcSoc Spring Fling’ on Facebook for info.

Give it a Go!

NUFC St James Tour 13:00, £3

Come and get an exclusive tour of the Magpies’ stadium at Newcastle landmark, St James’ Park. You’ll see the changing rooms, get to stand pitch-side, see the dugouts and see the view of the city and stadium from the grounds’ highest point, as well as learning lots about the grounds from the tour guide. For more information and to sign up, email giag.union@ncl. ac.uk or visit www.facebook.com/giag. newcastle.

Your North East: Two horseriders are seen on Bamburgh Beach. Captured in the evening light, Lindisfarne is visable in the background. Photo by Josh van den Dries. To enter your pictures into Your North East, send your photo to courier.listings@ncl.ac.uk

NUTS present Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Northern Stage 2, March 10-12, Tickets on sale from the Union Shop MonWed, £6.50 Join two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet as they attempt to make sense of their own existence. It’s (almost definitely) the funniest existentialist play you’ll see this March! The play is an absurdist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. It expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world

Massage Training Course 17:00-19:00, £7, for 3 weeks

Meeting at the Fine Are Building at 17:30

Kielder observatory

The ﬁnal week of this two hour long, three week training course to teach you basic massage skills for you to apply to yourself or people around you. A great opportunity to learn from a trained professional. For more information and to sign up, email giag.union@ncl.ac.uk or visit www. facebook.com/giag.newcastle

Join the Global Bridge Campaign with a march and celebration to mark International Women’s Day. You will make your way down to the Millennium Bridge where we will gather at 7.15pm to demonstrate our unity and solidarity and our belief that stronger women build bridges of peace.

20:00, £6/£8

Your City:

Our top events happening in Newcastle this week 4. Music 3. Film 2. Theatre

1. Film/ Talk

Observe The Night Sky In these sessions, you can turn up and use our incredible equipment under supervision - including the computer-controlled 14” Meade telescope and the 20” reﬂector telescope - and observe for yourself some of the universe’s most incredible objects.

Route Irish & Ken Loach Faith and Cold Reading Live Theatre, to March 19, 19:30, In Conversation £10-£18

Arrivals (Various)

The Tyneside Cinema welcome the legendary Ken Loach back for this special preview of his latest ﬁlm Route Irish. At this exclusive event, Ken will discuss his new movie and his career Route Irish is a thrilling story of a private security contractor in Iraq who’s looking for the truth behind his friend’s death. It is powerful, political and packing a mean punch. Don’t miss out.

Part of the Films Without Borders Season. Three documentaries looking at the experiences of refugees on arrival in European countries. Featuring Glasgow, Greece and Benwell. Followed by discussion. Including From Brno to Benwell, a story from Newcastle upon Tyne about Roma activist and musician Miro Simko, and Welcome (2004).

Tyneside Cinema, March 9, 20:00, £10/£9

Don’t miss this play directed by Jonathan Moore. Faith and Cold Reading is gripping, sinister and savagely funny. Sam is a professional medium who lives with Carla. He owes a lot of money to Freddie, a big time gangster who has recently buried his mother. Will Freddie overlook the debt if Sam can re-connect him with his mother in spirit? www.live.org.uk for more info.

Star and Shadow Cinema, March 9, 19:30, £6/£4

Keith James: The Songs of Leonard Cohen

The Cluny, Ouseburn, March 9, 20:00, £12.50 Each song stripped back - desolate, naked and sensual… the most incomparable, enigmatic, mysterious and sub textural songwriter the English speaking world has ever known. Keith James, with a lifetime reputation of performing in this exact way and an undying love of the pure song, gives you a concert of this amazing material in the most personal, intimate and sensitive way imaginable.

that is beyond their understanding; they cannot identify any reliable feature or the significance in words or events. Their own memories are not reliable or complete, and they misunderstand each other as they stumble through philosophical arguments while not realising the implications to themselves. They often state deep philosophical truths during their nonsensical ramblings, yet they depart from these ideas as quickly as they come to them. Pick up your tickets this week.

NUTS present Pool (No Water) Northern Stage 2, March 7-9, Tickets on sale from the Northern Stage and OTD, £6.50 A famous artist invites her old friends out to her luxurious new home and, for one night only, The Group is back together. Celebrations come to an abrupt end, however, when the host suffers an horrific accident. As the victim lies in a coma, an almost unthinkable plan starts to take shape: could her suffering be their next work of art? Together The Group examines, re-defines and breaks apart the fine line between life and art. Get your tickets while you can.

Take a nostalgic trip to Seven Stories and get a real insight into the creation of an exhibition. Enjoy finding out about There’s Nuffin Like a Puffin and discover all your favourite children’s books from The Borrowers to Stig of the Dump. The behind the scenes tour also includes a unique handling session with Seven Stories collection of original manuscripts and illustrations from the recently acquired Enid Blyton archive.

friday Do you want your event advertised in The Courier? This listings spread is for you. A place for students and societies to advertise any events that they are organising. From team trials, to fundraising and charity nights, to live music and art shows - we want you to know what is going on around your university campus - and more importantly we want you to be able to let others know about it too! To get details of your event published in these pages, all you have to do is email the date, time and location of your event with a short description to: courier.listings@ ncl.ac.uk.

weekend Give it a Go! Fellwalking 09:00, £5

Another chance to go across to the gorgeous Lake District with our Fellwalking Society and have a great day out walking some of the highest peaks in the country! Your £5 includes transportation both ways, all safety equipment and training, and a great day out. For more information and to sign up, email giag.union@ncl.ac.uk or visit www. facebook.com/giag.newcastle.

English youth ballet Coppelia

Journal Tyne Theatre, Sat 12, 14:30 & 19:30 Janet Lewis’ production of Coppelia is a delight. It is a witty, humorous, sparkling classical ballet with internationally known principal dancers Alex Newton, Emma Lister, Lorien Slaughter and Matthew Powell alternating the leading roles of Swanilda and Franz, and supported by a large cast of local talented young dancers.

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Life & Style

14 days until NSR go FM. Check them out on 87.7 FM from March 21

art

Surf’s up!

Wendy Malkin on a gallery exhibition that is making some serious waves on campus The Hatton Gallery will shortly be featuring Ben Cook’s Littoral Drifter - an installation-centred interpretation of the North East‘s surfing culture, which brings together both an abstract representation of surfing, and an unconventional attitude to the area’s picturesque coastlines. The event represents five years of work culminating in an exhibition that displays a variety of art works and materials that provides the North East with a reflection of their much loved coast and surf culture and brings to light the deeper issue of human contamination of the North’s coastal environment. The exhibition features various installations comprising of surfboard materials such as foam and wax, which create alternative ensembles that challenge the existing stereotypes of surfing. The artist has also created pencil drawings which seek to visually articulate the anticipation a surfer feels when arriving at the shore front and seeing the waves crash into the sand. Ben Cook graduated from Sunderland University with a BA in Fine Art in the late 1980s. Since then he has explored many different cultural subjects; notably fashion and football in the city of Manchester, in

order to see how they affected the environment. His first project, entitled Found Paintings used textiles to describe his views of the city. Found Paintings was praised because of its abstract nature and relevance to Manchester’s cultural life. He then moved to Cornwall to pursue surfing, and during his time there he worked with the Museum of British Surfing, who described Ben’s work as being relatively innovative in the field of surf art. The artwork Ben Cook has created vary extensively and they manage to exhibit a portrayal of surfing that is both simplistic and aesthetically attractive whilst still highlighting the importance of the sea and its surfers. He combines minimalist textiles with beautifully intricate drawings and exaggerated colours, making the collection multi-tonal and easily likeable. Most importantly, Littoral Drifter seems to be a representation of the artist’s history and personal interests, in which he sends out a message that subtly spreads awareness of the deeper issues surrounding the coast. Littoral Drifter is on at the Hatton Gallery until May 21

Ben Cook’s Littoral Drifter takes a refreshing look at the North East’s surﬁng culture and the environmental challenges that it faces

opinion

stage

Does film hype mean book success? Sartre-bleu, no way out The number of films being released that have been adapted from books has increased over the past decade, however, does this mean that people are more compelled to read the books after watching the multi-million blockbusters? Or do they feel that by watching the film they have sufficiently enjoyed the story? We constantly see the Booker Prize list and best-selling books being turned into box office smashing films, however, the hype that surrounds the films does not necessary surround the books. Although within a queue for the Harry Potter films there will be few who have not read the books, can that be said for the lesser known books that have been turned into films such as Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro or The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini? Despite the books receiving critical acclaim the past has demonstrated that it will be the films that people will remember. However, after a recent seminar it has become apparent to me that some people take the opposite view and argue that if a film interpretation of a book has come out then

they would be unwilling to see the film until they had read the book. As they wish to appreciate the original, before seeing something that they would always expect to not quite match up. It could be argued that this is a pretentious view of books versus films and that in fact by adapting books for films it is creating a wider audience for people to enjoy the story; would lead to more people buying and then taking pleasure in the book afterwards. This is can be seen in particular with cult books such as A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, where the production of film caused such controversy and media hype that there became a world-wide fascination with both the book and film, and despite it being banned in many countries it still remains on many of the ‘read-before you die’ lists. However, sometimes the value of a book can be disintegrated by the creation and production of a film. Cecelia Ahern’s book P.S I Love You, was the number one bestseller for 19 weeks in Ireland and was a bestseller in the UK.

After books have been turned into films many are republished with a new cover featuring the film’s stars, supposedly so that they are more identifiable by their new-found readership. However, when PS. I Love You was released in 2007, only 21 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, which meant its influence on people to buy and read the book was compromised. There are bad examples of film adaptations of books, but in many cases it can be seen as beneficial to the commercial success of a book, as it is undeniable that the media hype that surrounds a film is substantially larger than that of a book launch. Therefore, film adaptations allow for a book to be brought to the attention of more people. It’s tragic that it requires a multimillion pound production for a story to be appreciated by the masses. Perhaps after the success of such books as the Harry Potter series, more people will be willing to enjoy the book before going to see the film production. Sally Priddle

“Hell is other people”- Jean-Paul Sartre’s most famous quotation, comes from the landmark play that it aptly describes – No Exit. Written in 1944, No Exit, depicts the afterlife in which three characters are trapped in hell to eternally endure eachother’s company. In hell, a single room with no mirrors, the characters try to determine why they are there and how they will be tortured, in doing so revealing their deepest fears, secrets, sins and desires. Sartre’s most well-known play is being interpreted by Fishbowl Theatre, a company made up of recent Newcastle University graduates founded in 2006. Their unique style and emphasis on the art of process has recently been found in an artistic residency in Heaton. Moving into the philosophical world of Sartre should allow their uniqueness to come through whilst maintaining the existential marvel that is No Exit. Born in 1905, Jean-Paul Sartre is credited as being a philosopher, playwright, political activist, novelist and literary critic.

Fishbowl Theatre is housing No Exit in the Jazz Café, one of Newcastle’s most renowned spots. They hope to play on Sartre’s classic text by integrating their trademark devised ‘frills’ to the play, using both floors of the Jazz Café to create a fully immersive and fresh take on No Exit. One of the most prolific philosophers of the twentieth century, Sartre believed that presenting his concepts through the medium of fiction would convey them in the most effective way whilst using narrative themes and symbolism to bring his ideas alive. No Exit is perhaps the clearest embodiment of this, Sartre’s concept that the mere presence of another person will torment an individual because subjectivity is infact competitive. Interpret this as you will, I will leave it with you to see the play and judge whether Sartre’s great experiment really does work. No Exit is on at the Jazz Café on March 16 and 17. Georgia Snow

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Arts Editor: Stephanie Ferrao - courier.culture-arts@ncl.ac.uk

stage

Roald Dahl’s thoroughly twisted tales

Bringing stories to life: The master of children’s story-telling Roald Dahl has his Tales of the Unexpected re-invented by the creator of The League of Gentleman to create a dark, comedic and grotesque stage presence

Roald Dahl in many people’s minds occupies a revered space as the grandfather of all children, the writer of magical stories of wonder and humour that have defined thousands of childhoods. This production may make you think again about such assumptions as five of his short stories are given a macabre twist in which you should “expect the unexpected”. Taken from his collection of stories aptly titled Tales of the Unexpected which comprises of many of his earlier short tales which went into the books Kiss Kiss and Someone like You, this is a glimpse into the world of

Dahl that many are unfamiliar with and are more than likely to be surprised about. The stories have been adapted by Jeremy Dyson for what was a popular run at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, and are now touring around the country. Having first produced Ghost Stories for the same theatre, Dyson seems to have taken something from that tradition for this production, with the use of an eerie stranger acting as narrator underpinning the structure of the play. If you wanted an example of the type of work Dyson has created in

the past look no further than The League of Gentleman to exemplify his ludicrously macabre view of the world. Fans of the show will recognise the use of odd characters and bizarre circumstances and this production certainly plays up to those qualities. Whilst having been a popular book, for many older members of audiences their thoughts will automatically go to the TV adaptation of the tales but for a student audience The Tales will seem intriguingly wicked and with each based around an unexpected twist you will be left guessing until the last minute.

Not that those minutes last particularly long, for those afraid of theatre and of an easily bored disposition this may be the perfect play for you; at only eighty minutes long and with no interval, it is a short sharp burst of theatrical talent, easily digestible except the subject matter may leave you feeling a little queasy. The subject matter ranges from a man having his brain removed from his body and preserved in a tank with only one eye so he could continue to see two adulterous wives who get their comeuppance in the end and possible limb amputation; ideas of revenge are certainly iden-

tifiable throughout. Seeing this production will open your eyes to the twisted side of Dahl’s imagination and perhaps make you think again about all those seemingly innocent stories read in childhood. One thing is for certain, this production definitely is not for children and maybe even those adults with a nervous disposition. Roald Dahl’s Twisted Tales is on at Northern Stage from March 16-26 Polly Randall

debate

Cultural podcasts: are they relevant to students? YES “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” is that famous quote wheeled out time after time when any discussion regarding art and culture journalism raises its ugly head. What separates podcasts (and radio) from print and television is that, obviously, there are no pictures. Which leads to a strange dilemma: how can journalists discuss art without any sort of visual representation for the viewer, and in such a case should they bother with podcasts at all? Well, for a start, assuming all art is purely visual is something of a gross overstatement. When Adrian Searle covered Ai WeiWei’s Sunflower Seeds for The Guardian’s culture podcast last year, he recorded his thoughts

while walking the exhibition. The listener may not be able to see the hall of seeds visually, but the soft crunching of the seeds under Searle’s feet is in some ways a far more descriptive illustration than any image of the seeds themselves. This is perhaps an exception to the rule: describing paintings or video installations using words alone is a fairly tricky process. Which isn’t to say TV or print are perfect, either. Have you ever watched a play on a screen? It’s a pretty dull experience, it must be said. Live theatre only truly works when it is (er) live, which probably explains in part a dearth of stage coverage on television. Besides, not all journalism is purely informative: sometimes I just want to hear (or read) an intelligent discussion of something I’ve just seen to help me form an opinion about it,

in which case meticulously describing the exhibition is not necessary. Podcasting is just one of many media forms, and one perfect for intelligent, lively debate mostly impossible elsewhere. While it may have its shortcomings, it also has an advantage over television in that, armed with a microphone and a head full of thoughts, anyone can do it. Elliot Bentley

NO Podcasts may have been around a while now but who can actually say that they are regular listeners. Although they can be an interesting way of getting information across to a wider audience, the excitement of having cultural podcasts at your fin-

gertips will no doubt prove expendable in the near future. Leading online newspapers are keen to use podcasts to reach a younger and more technologically minded audience. However the value of this media format is somewhat questionable. The podcasts will no doubt become outdated and unfashionable before we even get to grips with it. The podcast might relieve boredom when travelling or simply pass the time of day away but I cannot see it as being an integral media source that I will be using anytime soon. The cultural podcasts can seem somewhat dull and uninspiring because they can often regurgitate the same information about the latest stage shows or book reviews rather than offering a new discussion on the arts. A couple of years on, interest has

waned and only die-hard technological fans are getting their cultural discussions from these sources rather than turning to the traditional newspaper format. Therefore the future for podcasts seems more than uncertain. Although the podcast can be a varied way of sharing information and cultural news, I simply do not think that this format has enough benefits to warrant the lengthy and even costly production methods that it requires. But this is all well and said, as long as the demand is there, podcasts will continue to be made and listened to and perhaps I will come to realise that I am missing out on a technological wonder that opens up discussions and debates surrounding the arts. Juliet Armstrong

Culture

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Arts

arts reviews

Making shapes: It has to be this way2 is an audio-visual exhibition which explores the personal history of the artist Lindsay Seers and her family by addressing the disappearance of her own step-sister in West Africa

It has to be this way2 BALTIC 12 Feb - 12 June ‘I was her mother but she was never my daughter and now she has gone missing, I can honestly say that I never loved her’ is the line that epitomises Lindsay Seers’ new exhibit; It has to be this way2. The installation is a moving and surreal view of the fragmentation of personal memory, and explores the uncertainties of personal history.

Purpose of Process The Cluny Feb 17 - March 31 The studio space is crucial to all artists in their creative development and is a place where they are at their most productive. For example in the case of Picasso, he locked himself away in his studio for an entire summer, only to emerge created ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ possibly the most inﬂu-

Yes Prime Minister! Theatre Royal Feb 22- Feb 26 With politically satirical comedies, such as The Thick of It striking a chord with today’s television audiences, it seemed like the right time for original screenwriters Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn to reincarnate their eighties comedy Yes Minister! into the contemporary Yes Prime Minister! which graced the West End last

Her work explores the complexities and shifts at play in any understanding of past and present. Exploring relationships within her family, the installation resumes the story of the disappearance of Seers’ stepsister, Christine Parkes. Narrated by Christine’s stepmother, the audio-visual installation retraces her travels through West Africa and recalls the shameful colonial past of British and European exploitation. The disappearance of a young woman, the transfer of a mother's focus from her daughter’s to a life in West Africa with a new husband – these are traumas that run through a family and are revisited and ex-

plored from different perspectives in time. The screen itself is inside a structure design, based on forts on the West African Gold Coast, and the ﬁlm is presented on a circular screen, presenting a monocular view of the journey. When you enter the screen, you’re looking down onto the screen from a balcony, as though you are observing these events from above. It seems to locate the spectator behind the camera, as the narrator says; we too have “beady eyes, looking down”. The voice that narrates the story is slightly distorted, and the constantly changing images give the installa-

tion a disjointed and distant feel. As soon as you enter the gallery, you can hear the voice narrating the film. From afar, it’s hard to hear what’s being said, and it appears more distorted than it does inside the screen. There’s also two objects outside of the screen, one could be representative of the blood diamonds described during the film, the other is hard to describe, it’s spiky and black, and crops up throughout the film. It’s hard to understand what the significance and symbolism of it is, but Seers’ has evidently used it for a reason. Inside the screen there is no other light other than that coming from

the screen so you’re going to have to watch your footing when you walk in. The images are cleverly chosen, and lend meaning to the story being told. Considering I’m not really a fan of audio-visual installations, this was different to most I’ve seen. By taking a life story and retelling it in a reﬂective way, it causes the viewer to think about their own past, and captivates the audience; deﬁnitely worth a look for those normally averse to modern art and alternative mediums.

ential painting of the Modern era. For Newcastle based artist Duncan Newberry, this inherent connection between creative space and artist is emphatically signiﬁcant, in that he creates his studios in order to build a framework for his practice. These makeshift spaces allow Newberry to experiment and develop his painting style, “best conveying the notion of a developing working method.” His ideals are represented by a new exhibition of his work Purpose of Process at the Cluny. Through developing an alternative painterly surface, by stretching paper over canvas frames, the squares pieces have a smooth ﬁnish.

Newberry argues that, “the fragility of the paper in relationship to the weight of the hall forces them to be handled in an almost reverent way.” The full process is demonstrated across the eight works that make up the exhibition: from straightforward white canvases, to neutral washes of colour into abstracted, angular forms. Furthermore, Newberry entitles all his works with combinations of letters to emphasise a progression and their connections to each other. Paint is applied via an experimental technique, dragging it over the surface with pieces of wood; there

is hence a calm, smooth feel with slightly drippy areas in his three neutral works. They also have a subtle circular movement where he has clearly worked into them in more detail. This is juxtaposed by the triptych of abstract works, separated by an industrial beam in the architecture of the building. In this case very conventional compositional practices are employed in the dominance of diagonal lines. These create hard-edged planes of colour allowing the Purpose of Process to come full circle. The colour palette is limited and what is used is constricted to greens

and blues, which allow the paintings to work together harmoniously, providing a tranquil, serene atmosphere. Set against the gnarly, industrial bricks of the Cluny, the art is intensely prominent, whilst its subtlety allows one to enjoy light conversation and a few drinks on the comfy sofas of this trendy venue. Why not enjoy a fantastic, studentfriendly, free trip to the Cluny, while in the process trying to explore and understand Newberry’s process of artistic creation.

year before embarking on a national tour. Jay and Lynn have reopened their imagination to bring the satire right up to date and modernize the central characters – the endearingly buffooning and increasingly perspiring Prime Minister Jim Hacker and the obsequious yet plotting Sir Humphrey Appleby. Complementing the arrogant and self-interested Sir Humphrey comes Bernard Woolley, the Principal Private Secretary, played by Chris Larkin. Unassuming and constantly wary, the almost slapstick humour he is subjected to offsets the wordy and

fast-paced satire which is ﬁred all guns blazing from the other characters. Hacker’s government is in demise and, set in Chequers, the plot focuses on a dubious deal with the “Kumranistani” foreign secretary to save both the economy and Hacker’s job. McCabe brings the failing Jim Hacker to life and his desperately humorous caricature-like portrayal of a Prime Minister out of control really makes the play. Predictably he manages to pull it all together at the last minute to wrap up the story into a neatly tied yet worryingly familiar cover up, saving his job and gazumping the

villain – the BBC. The original cast is supplemented by Charlotte Lucas, who plays Claire Smith, a strong and sharp Special Policy Advisor, who brings a female perspective and is a necessary addition when updating to the politics of today. There is a sense of being a ﬂy on the wall throughout, with the exception of the ﬁnal scene, where a superb observation of the BBC, reminds us of the way that Jay and Lynn have brought the characters and the plot into the 21st century, with a prime ministerial broadcast being shown on screens around the auditorium. If a little slow moving to begin

with, it is politically and culturally relevant, combining intelligent political satire with entertaining characters. The reliance on Blackberrys and talk of the celebrity obsessed society we live in brings the play bang up to date. The strong characterization allows the audience to ‘get to know’ the characters in a way that makes this brilliantly written satire not just entertaining for fans of the original show but a delight for any audience.

Lucy Johnson

Catherine Langley

Georgia Snow

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Film Culture

film

Film Editor: Adam Williams - courier.culture-film@ncl.ac.uk

film of the week

Animal Kingdom Director: David Michôd Cast: Guy Pearce, James Frecheville, Joel Edgerton Runtime: 104 mins

“You are in danger – don’t be confused about that. You’ve got to work out where you fit.” From the writer of Hesher, and shorts such as Netherland Dwarf, I Love Sarah Jane and Crossbow comes the story of teenager J, propelled into the criminal world of his uncles after the death of his protective mother. As his involvement within the Cody family deepens, young J becomes vulnerable to the corruptive influences of both his uncles, under the deceptively sweeteyed grandmother, ‘Smurf,’ as well as the detectives who see him as a gateway into finally unraveling the entire family. After losses on the sides of both the family and the law, nets close in, ruthless detective Nathan Leckie favoring J and heightening the hysteria within the house, gradually exposing the Cody family as perilously poised on the brink of implosion. At the centre of this mul-

ti-layered drama reside J and girlfriend Nicole, exposed to the imposing influences around them, and left not only to discover how to play the game, but more importantly, who to side with. Beautifully acted and sharply written, this Melbourne-set crime drama is superb. Audiences acquainted with Michôd’s short films will recognize his ever increasingly pronounced style; the punch of Spider is certainly comparable here. Whether writing or directing, Michôd plays with suspense, tension and sharp swings in mood, as well as the relationship between all these dramatic elements, to produce something deliciously unsettling. From a knife scratching the burn off toast to characters scrubbing the soles of their shoes, the drama is charged intensely throughout, with just enough abnormality to make viewers themselves suspicious of everyone in or out of the frame. The soundtrack adds a beautifully suspended quality to the film, building at times to the point of excruciation or jolting unexpectedly into a silence which feels neither anti-climactic nor reassuring. From the opening sequence of security camera photos and moments of

complete stillness almost levitating on sustained notes, Michôd disassociates the Cody lifestyle from excitement and instead highlights the strange, detached reality that has engulfed the entire family. The cast is superb, with blinding performances from Oscar nominated Jacki Weaver (grandmother Smurf) with just enough bite in her smiles to know the matriarchal lady will devour anything which threatens the safety of ‘her boys,’, and new face James Frecheville in the lead role. Mendelsohn provides a chilling performance as eldest Uncle Pope, whose heightening paranoia gradually blurs the line between

preview

glamour and instilled instead with gritty, uncomfortable intensity, this Australian gem is perfect. Verdict: Heart-stoppingly tense, moving, and in places a little hypnotic, this ﬁlm is a must-see that will keep you anticipating the demented sound of a gunshot for minute after minute. A perfect mix of action and brilliantly acted emotive drama. Hayley Hamilton

film five

Cowboys & Aliens

British ﬁlms of the 70s 5) Straw Dogs Released the same year as A Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs is notorious for putting the fear into the more conservative members of the British public that there was a rise in violence on screens. Featuring a brutal gang rape and the infamous slaughter, Dustin Hoffman discovers the darker side of a small village in the English countryside. But through the violence, Straw Dogs is an incredibly interesting psychological thriller in an unusual setting that hasn’t really been done since.

Director: Jon Favreau Cast: Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford ETA: August 2011 With Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the rest of our favourite comic-book characters adapted and re-adapted several times already, it’s no surprise Hollywood is turning to more obscure titles for inspiration. Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s sillilytitled Cowboys & Aliens is the latest property to be snapped up for the purposes of a summer blockbuster. As the cryptic name suggests, Cowboys & Aliens pits a Wild West town of cowboys against an invading alien force. Viewers are recommended to leave their brains at the door as Daniel Craig plays Jake Lonergan, a mysterious cowboy with no past attempting to understand the equally mysterious shackle around his wrist. Little does Lonergan know is that in his past life he was a notorious criminal hunted ruthlessly by Harrison Ford (in his ﬁrst blockbuster appearance since 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull), ruler of the backwater town of Absolution. Meanwhile Tron: Legacy star Olivia Wilde provides additional geek

control and madness, leaving everyone else questioning where they can stand. Guy Pearce (Memento) stars as Leckie, experienced detective and composed manipulator with faultless conviction. Even viewers not naturally drawn to this genre will ﬁnd difﬁculty in faulting such an impressively crafted and highly entertaining piece of work, and well worth a step, jump or indeed sashay outside the comfort zone. A little dark in places, perfectly performed and all the while challenging the balance between tension and relief, control and chaos. Reminiscent of a Michael Corleone transformation stripped of

Space cowboys: Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford star in Jon Favreau’s upcoming ﬁlm

credibility and, presumably, Craig’s love interest. Together, they must put aside their differences to save Absolution (and most likely the world) from complete annihilation at the hands of the extraterrestrial invaders, unlocking the secrets of Lonergan’s futuristic shackle along the way. With an estimated budget of around $100 million and Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man and Will Ferrell’s Elf), Cowboys & Aliens looks to be a CGI-heavy action-adventure with plenty of explosions, lasers and people falling off horses. Despite this, Favreau is to snub the 3D craze of late, having stated that Westerns should only be shot

on 3D-incompatible celluloid film. There isn’t really much more to be said about Cowboys & Aliens - it pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin. In fact, you have probably already made your mind up about whether you wanted to see this film as soon as you read its name. If you’re looking for intellectual stimulation, Favreau’s new film is probably best avoided - but this silly, explosive genre mash-up isn’t designed to appeal to those people, it’s for our inner ten-year-olds. And for them, Cowboys & Aliens comes highly recommended. Elliot Bentley

4) Watership Down Potentially one of the most depressing and shocking animated films, only somewhat rivalled by Grave of the Fireflies, Watership Down was notorious for scaring a number of children across the country with its trippy sequences and rather grizzly deaths as a group of rabbits escape the destruction of their homes in search of the mystical Watership Down. Featuring legendary British actors such as John Hurt, Richard Briers and the last performance of Zero Mostel, Watership Down is still a tearjerker to this day. 3) Quadrophenia Quadrophenia is very much a product of its period. Featuring icons of the time including Toyah Wilcox and Sting with music by The Who, it’s described as one of the quintessential 70s British films. The film follows Jimmy, a young Mod from

London, who simply tries to get through life with sex, music and melees with police and rival Rockers being central. Influencing hundreds of British teens to pick a side, this is the film for kids growing up in the 70s. 2) A Clockwork Orange It might not be Kubrick’s best film but it’s probably his best known film. Based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange is a trip inside the twisted mind of a teenage boy in a warped vision of England. With a penchant for Ludwig Van, a bit of the old “ultraviolence” and milk, Alex deLarge is the key player in this darkly satirical social commentary from Kubrick. Controversial in every sense, but an important British film nonetheless. 1) Monty Python and the Life of Brian It really does seem like the 70s were a time of controversy. Life of Brian is no different, which was hated on by a number of religious groups for blasphemy. Focusing on Brian, who is mistaken for the Messiah after being born on the same night, and next door, to Jesus, it’s easy to see why they might be angry. But it’s easily one of the funniest British films ever made. It’s very much Monty Python, with trips to outerspace and absurd characters, which is where the charm comes from. Chris Taylor

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Culture Film

film get carter is 40

Getting Carter

Chris Binding looks behind the story of how a cult film became a fully fledged British classic Throughout the ‘swinging sixties’ Britain underwent a social and cultural revolution, mirrored by the vibrant and exciting output of modern culture. Yet this veneer of popular optimism quickly disintegrated through the cinematic releases of the early 1970s. Following the similar pessimistic nihilism wielded in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Nicolas Roeg’s Performance (1970), Mike Hodges’ 1970 crime thriller Get Carter’s combination of social–realism and unadulterated violence produced huge controversy at the time. Based upon the novel Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis, the narrative follows hardened gangster Jack (Michael Caine) who after visiting Newcastle to tie up loose ends, is drawn into its seedy underworld of pornography, gambling and violence. In the wake of its 40th anniversary this month, the film still harbours a huge cult following and a symbiotic relationship with Newcastle. However Get Carter’s cultural impact over the last 20 years exhumes its marginalisation after its initial release. Although its transition from seminal crime thriller to popular acclaim has been an arduous one, its impact upon contemporary and modern audiences alike characterise its enduring impact upon British cinema. The revolutionary motif that changed

Get Carter from its precedents was its social realism. With a handful of local extras and a four week shoot in the North East, Hodges captured landmarks including the Victorian high level bridge, real public houses and the recently demolished Trinity Square car park in Gateshead. As Hodges was impressed by the ‘visual drama’ of Newcastle, the city is presented as important to the narrative as Michael Caine’s character. The city’s dark, industrial iconography mirrors the social circumstances affecting the region and was something the director drew from local realities. The 1960 ‘betting and gaming act’ transformed working mens’ clubs into gambling dens while the publicised trial of the Kray twins’ murders in Newcastle presented the city in a dangerous light. In a media sphere of sensationalist crime stories, the gangster genre became popular and profitable, with Hodges fully capitalising on the favourable context. Nevertheless the realist depiction of violence and sex placed Hodges in a precarious position with censors and studios. Caine’s ruthless killer underwent cuts to make him appear more sympathetic, while an erotic scene featuring Britt Eckland was trimmed for ITV screenings and removed by South African censors. This depiction of the Dickensian underbelly

Hitman: Get Carter was considered a critical failure at the time of release but is now seen as one of the best British films ever made

of society showed a side of Britain people didn’t want to see and with a violent, misogynist protagonist the film soon faded into obscurity in the political correctness and conservative 80s politics of Thatcherism. Get Carter’s rebirth began in the mid 90s when critics, fans and filmmakers began to re-evaluate the gangster genre. Several popular publications began to publish articles, and following the release of Pulp Fiction (1994), director Quentin Tarantino labelled Get Carter as one of his British influences, having seen it in 1973. Similarly Guy Ritchie’s mock gangster debut Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels referenced Get Carter in its poster art, demonstrating the effect the picture has had in the re-writing of film canons. Growing interest in the film led to formal

rehabilitation with re-releases and the British Film Institute labelling it the ‘best gangster film ever made’. This intense national pride for a film also manifested itself in the hostility towards Sylvester Stallone’s American remake, which bombed financially and wasn’t even released in the UK. Get Carter may have undergone a long unmerited period of exile but through an intense cult following and appreciation it is finally gaining the recognition it deserves. With narrative affinities to drama and tragedy, experimental cinematography and a cynism towards the ‘free -spirited’ nature of the 60s, it is far more complex and stimulating that it appears. And for a film that was originally marketed on the basis of star-power and genre, it has

emerged into a multi-faceted viewing experience from its fashion and social commentary, to the sexual appeal of its protagonist. The real tragedy of the film is the North East setting, which was devastated by the dissolution of industries such as coal mining and ship building. As the film was once an elegy to this industrial region, it is now appreciated as an absorbing historical retrospective and sociological study of a vanishing world, as well as an important well-spring for the success of the modern gangster genre. A special screening of Get Carter with special guest Mike Hodges takes place at the Tyneside Cinema on March 11th with further showings of the film on Sunday.

feature

Location, location, location

Jack Torrance looks at the normal Tyneside locations turned local landmarks When searching for a location for the film, Get Carter’s director Mike Hodges said he was looking for “a really hard place” for the story to be set. That hard place ended up being Tyneside. Forty years later Newcastle has come a long way from the dreary, poverty-stricken industrial landscape depicted in the film, but many of its iconic locations can still be seen around town to this day. The first sight the viewer gets of Newcastle is when Michael Caine’s character, Jack Carter arrives on the train at the beginning of the film. Through the window we can

glimpse the signs of the platform of Central Station welcoming passengers to the city. The darkness of the night adds to the foreboding tone of the location. After leaving the station, Carter heads across Neville Street and into The Long Bar. Not The Long Bar which exists today, with its hip cocktails and soft lighting, but a stereotypical Geordie pub located roughly where The Head of Steam is situated now. Carter turns heads in the pub by ordering a pint of beer “in a tall glass”; this served as an indication that he was from the south. Also featured in the film is another Neville Street watering hole, O’Neill’s. Known back then as the Vick and Comet (colloquially referred to as “Spit and Vomit”) this pub was the setting for the wake of Carter’s brother’s funeral, as well as a bar fight later in the film. One particularly hard to spot setting of the film is the Oxford Galleries, currently home to Liquid and Envy nightclubs. This building used to house a dancehall whose interior and exterior was used for a scene where Carter chases one of

his adversaries into the toilets. Also close to the city centre is Pink Lane, which used to be known for prostitution but nowadays is the location of the popular Jazz Cafe. In the film, Carter meets his niece on Pink Lane after she emerges from Bowers Cafe which used to be located there. The bridges and quays of the Tyne feature particularly prominently in Get Carter. When a meeting with his brother’s mistress goes awry, Carter is chased across the lower half of the double-decker high bridge, climbs down onto the quayside not far from where Riverside is now and jumps into a waiting car. No article on the locations of Get Carter would be complete without mentioning the iconic Trinity Centre car park which used to be visible across the river in Gateshead until it was demolished towards the end of last year. Hodges described the ‘Get Carter car park’, as it has come to be known, as “a monumental example of 60s British brutalist architecture which, along with the city’s vast cast iron bridges stretching across the Tyne, seemed to capture the nature of Jack Carter himself.”

Brutal: Gateshead’s Trinity Square car park was the most famous location used

As well as those already mentioned, a whole host of other locations across Tyneside are featured in the film. Its immersive setting was

one of the most striking features of Get Carter; these many familiar locations will hopefully continue to be part of the city for some time yet.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Film Culture Film Editor: Adam Williams - courier.culture-film@ncl.ac.uk

feature

Interview: Mike Hodges Film Editor Adam Williams talks to Get Carter’s director about the creative process behind the film and the reason for its good reputation As writer and director of Get Carter, Mike Hodges is the man behind the film’s success from script to screen. He began his career in documentaries, spending his early years directing for ITV documentary series World in Action, something which he made good use of when making Get Carter. Based on the book Jack’s Return Home, Hodges’ first task was giving the novel’s nonspecific setting a real home. He scouted numerous locations before settling on Newcastle and used a real life murder to give his film an even more realistic edge. “You can find a lot by researching real crime locations, when I decided to shoot in Newcastle I did a lot of research and then fitted it into the script. There was a murder around the same time at the La Dolce Vita nightclub; I started investigating the background to the crime and it had involved the a killing of a man by a hitman who had came up from London, so the similarities to the original novel were pretty extensive.”

I’ve never understood why Geordies took to the film so much as Carter’s so rude about Newcastle! Despite it being Hodges’ debut feature film, the already distinguished Michael Caine was signed up to play the film’s titular character, Jack Carter. In spite of his fame, Caine bonded with Hodges, something which helped the fledgling director transfer his vision to the screen “I was incredibly lucky, he was incredibly generous to work with and never baulked at anything I asked him

to do. There are scenes where other stars would have insisted on having a close up or to shoot on their good side, and I had none of that, even though he’s on screen for practically the whole film.” Utilising locations across Newcastle and the North East, the film quickly became a real favourite in the local area, something that surprised Hodges, given the lead character’s less than complementary opinion of his birthplace. “The audience’s reaction to Get Carter was very different from what I’ve expected. They took to Jack Carter; it seemed to only be the establishment who took against his character, which surprised me. I’ve never understood why Geordies took to the film so much as he’s so rude about Newcastle!” he laughs. The film made ordinary buildings into local landmarks, most famously the Brutalist car park in Gateshead’s Trinity Square, and Hodges said that Tyneside was an ideal place to shoot such a picture “I love Newcastle, it was hard and real. It’s a great place to film but now the car park has gone most of the locations are down now. There’s not much left although I believe Vince Lander’s house is still standing as a B&B.” Despite his lengthy career, Hodges tells of the struggle he continues to face in getting funding for his films. His latest project, Mario and the Magician, has been in development for a number of years without going into production, an irony given the speed Carter went from the page to the screen. “I only received the book in the January then we were shooting in July, which would be unheard of now. I had to move so fast, in that time I had to write the scripts, find the locations, cast the film and find the crew.”

On its release, Get Carter was greeted with mixed reviews from critics, most of whom lamented the depiction of violence. Hodges stringently defends the film, arguing that it was much less graphic than some of its counterparts at the time, he says the implication of such violence in the realistic setting of the film may have troubled audiences more than the pictures themselves “People were very shocked at the time, even though there were a lot of very violent films coming out at the time like A Clockwork Orange, which were much more violent than Carter. There’s a sense of violence in Carter, rather than dwelling on actual violence. It’s very brief and clinical, and then we move on. He’s a hit man and that’s his job; it had to be clinical.” After gaining a real cult status in the UK, the inevitable Hollywood remake arrived in 2000. Starring Sylvester Stallone, the film was a commercial and critical disaster, with Variety magazine deriding it as a “useless remake”. Hodges refuses to watch this version and bemoans the way classic films are remade so regularly “It seems to me that it’s a death of the imagination. It’s even more surprising when even more top filmmakers do it, when you get the Coen Brothers doing it with True Grit it really surprises me. They’ve also recently remade Brighton Rock and I just don’t understand why.” Not that the Stallone version was the first remake of Carter, less than a year after the original a Blaxploitation version was released in America which was basically a shot-forshot remake but set in Los Angeles with black actors. While Hodges is pleased with the way some of his work has been given a second life

Mike Hodges was the director behind Get Carter, Croupier and Flash Gordon

on video and DVD, he says that modern filmmakers run the risk of simply duplicating their favourite films, rather than creating something original.

As a filmmaker you should be very careful how you watch older films. I think you can become too influenced by a film you admire “As a filmmaker you should be very careful how you watch older films. I think you can become too influenced by a film you admire, it’s happened with Get Carter to a large degree; there have been a lot of films that have emulated it, but I think that’s to the disadvantage of

these filmmakers because they’ve watched it too much. The nice thing about the way I was introduced to film, you’d only see it once so you couldn’t get to know every nuance and it was easier to resist the temptation to copy.” While a sequel is expected to follow a successful film these days, Hodges said that he wanted to close the door on Jack Carter’s story at the end of the film, giving his picture a notoriously downbeat ending “It was one of the conditions on which I made the film, Carter is such an amoral character and I felt after his reaped his vengeance, vengeance would be reaped on him. He had it coming to him basically. It’s not something I think the studio was happy with as there was talk of sequel but I didn’t want to leave it open to interpretation.”

get carter is 40

Mike Hodges filmography Although Mike Hodges is best known for Get Carter he has had a career spanning decades and is responsible for changing British post60s cinema. Born in Bristol on 29 July 1932 to a middle class background, after school he was trained as a chartered accountant but soon desired a more creative occupation. He began working in television in the 1960s by producing and directing cuttingedge documentaries for ITV before an art series called Tempo, and then two television thrillers Suspect and Rumour in the late 1960s. It was after these shows that Hodges received the opportunity to direct and write the screenplay for his first feature, Get Carter, in 1971. Featuring our very own Newcastle and a gangster’s return to investigate his brother’s sudden death, Get Carter quickly reached cult status

and for many marks the pinnacle of Hodges’ career. Hodges’ next film was Pulp in 1972 and continued Hodges love of mystery and crime portraying the story of a sleazy pulp fiction writer. But although fairly successful it did not reach a huge market simply due to distribution. Despite this set-back, Hodges still had enough reputation for Warner Brothers to ask him to direct The Terminal Man in 1974 about a computer scientist, played by George Segal, who becomes psychotic after a brain implant. Once again this did not reach a huge audience as it was considered to be too obscure and unmarketable. With these two setbacks behind him Hodges found it harder for companies to take him on but in 1980 directed Flash Gordon, a modern version of the 1920s cartoon character,

which received more universal success. Hodges then produced another sci-fi spoof in 1985, Aliens from Outer Space, before returning to a thriller in 1987, telling the story of an IRA hitman renouncing violence, Prayer for the Dying. This film ended in a bitter dispute over music with Hodges disowning the film. He was given full control over Black Rainbow in 1989, but another failure meant that Hodges did not direct or write another film for a decade. In 1998 a co-production with Channel 4 resulted in Croupier using new cinematic styles such as film noir. This was Hodges best film since Get Carter but suffered from poor distribution in the UK until sucess in America saw the film properly re-released in Britain three years later. This renewed interest has resulted in Hodges completing further

projects recently with a documentary about serial killers in 2001, Murder by Numbers, and a thriller starring Clive Owen in 2003, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead. Although his career has contained many ups and downs Hodges is still one of the most significant players in post-60s British cinema with Croupi-

er and Get Carter rightly considered modern classics. A season of Mike Hodges’ films at the Tyneside Cinema begins this Thursday with I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead and continues until March 17. Olivia Mason

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Culture Film

film in cinemas West is West Director: Andy DeEmmony Cast: Om Puri, Robert Pugh, Jimi Mistry Runtime: 103 mins Sequel to the 1999 ﬁlm East is East, West is West follows the story of now teenage Sajid who is struggling to ﬁt in at school, spending most days running from some overtly racist classmates. Sajid is having an identity crisis, so his comically strict father, played by Om Puri, takes him on a trip to Pakistan. He’s never been before, doesn’t speak Punjabi and has a huge extended family he

I Am Number Four Director: D.J. Caruso Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer Runtime: 104 mins

To get straight to the point: you have watched this ﬁlm before. Several times. The indications: while you watch I Am Number Four, you

No Strings Attached Director: Ivan Reitman Cast: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline Runtime: 108 mins

Can being friends with ‘beneﬁts’ ever really work? Following hot on the heels of Love and Other Drugs this question forms the basis for an entertaining, if predictable rom-com. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher play Emma and Adam, college friends who are reunited in Los Angeles and put their relationship at risk when they have sex one morn-

The Rite Director: Mikael Håfström Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue Runtime: 113 mins

Anthony Hopkins plays a spiritually troubled Welsh exorcist ﬂuent in Italian residing in Rome. To say this ﬁlm sparks curiosity is an understatement. The Rite follows the journey of sceptic Michael Kovak (played by big screen debutant Colin O’Donoghue), whose attempted resignation from Seminary school results in him being sent to Vatican City to take an ‘Exorcism for Dum-

knew very little about. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea; Sajid wants to leave as soon as he gets there, refusing to wear traditional Pakistani dress and making jibes at his new-found second cousin. Through burgeoning relationships with new friends, Sajid learns more about himself. He understands more about his father and is painfully honest to old and new friends alike. It’s a mild journey of discovery for Sajid, who manages to sort out everyone’s happy endings. The ﬁlm is missing a fair few of its original cast members such as Jordan Routledge who played the original Sajid ten years ago; he’s now replaced by Bradfordborn Aqib Khan. His performance is brilliant; it’s hard to dislike him. He’s cheeky, funny and the kid that most of our generation wished we

could be at his age. Watching him, he seems to be Yorkshire’s answer to Dev Patel. Om Puri’s performance is faultless as ever, but, due to Ella (played by Linda Bassett) appearing in only a few scenes, some of the discourse between the two of them is lost, which proved to be some of the most heart-warming scenes in the first film. There’s still the humour inherent in the first film; George is frequently using the words ‘bloody’ and ‘bastard’ as much as he did be-

fore, but it’s Sajid’s constant misbehaviour and frequent one-liners that get the most laughs. West is West is a relatively good attempt at continuing the story after East is East, but it lacks the charm of its predecessor. By taking the story out of Salford and placing it in Pakistan, it’s hard to feel for the characters because the story feels so far from home. However, the setting is stunning; there are beautiful shots of rural

probably experience a frightening amount of deja-vú. The reason: the ﬁlm seems to be a compilation of concepts that have worked well for other movies. But that doesn‘t mean they do for this one. An unnamed alien with outstanding abilities from the planet Lorien (Pettyfer) and his guardian Henri (Olyphant) are hiding on the earth from the evil Mogadorians who have destroyed Lorien; they are now hunting down the nine surviving aliens with superpowers in a certain sequence. After the third is killed, the alien travels to Paradise, Ohio, under the name John Smith, knowing he is number four. As he

tries to fit in as a high school student, John befriends conspiracy nerd Sam and falls in love with the introverted photographer Sarah (Agron) whose former boyfriend Mark starts picking on him and Sam. In the course of time, John starts to explore his supernatural abilities, but is firstly unable to fully control them; he attracts the attention of the police suspecting him and Henri to be terrorists, but also of the Mogadorians who have tracked him down and stop at nothing in their attempt to kill John. The film is based on a young adult novel of the same name and, therefore, can‘t actually be blamed for its story. Nevertheless, it doesn‘t tap

its full potential to be a decent sci-fi movie (the action scenes are admittedly well made) by including outworn movie stereotypes and obviously imitated feautures from other fantasy/sci-fi films. Besides the usual high school personnel and ‘mysterious’ (i.e. random) symbols, we‘ve got the contrast ‘attractive good guys vs. ugly villains’, a monster dog and John‘s Jedi-like telekinesis abilities that wouldn‘t stop Master Yoda from owning him. Oh, and there‘s of course the obligatory love story with the enchanting innocent girl being as pretty as she is helpless; in this case, this role is

ing. As a junior medical worker, Emma is too preoccupied and over worked for a serious relationship. So she offers Adam a compromise: that they use each other for sex, and nothing else. Adam, a TV assistant in a Glee style sitcom has no such concerns and lives his life in a very care-free fashion. But in a twist from the conventional rom-com, it is Adam who begins to fall for Emma, over-stepping the mark in a number of ways, most bizarrely in making her a mix tape of classic pop songs for when she’s on her period. He becomes desperate to take her on a real date but when his wish is granted it ends in disaster and they break up. For Portman, this is a step out of her comfort zone, and miles away from her award-winning role in Black Swan. But despite some initial reservations she grows into the genre and oozes likeability, even mies’ course, with the double barrelled intention of casting out Kovak’s doubts and providing America with an (apparently) much needed exorcist. Along the way Kovak is introduced to Father Lucas Trevant (Hopkins), a veteran of his art who invites the young apprentice to tag along as he undergoes his daily business of, well, exorcising demons. This is no throwaway horror however; director Mikael Håfström has done his demonology research and based his ﬁlm loosely on reality, taking inspiration from the events depicted in Matt Baglio’s 2009 book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. In a self-referential quip to the genre, Hopkins asks at one point ‘What did you expect? Spinning heads, pea soup?’ It is shortly after this though, that Håfström, much to everyone’s delight, removes his sen-

Pakistan, and the music completely complements the scenery. They’ve stayed faithful to using traditional music throughout, and scenes where the cast are all in traditional dress are particularly striking. Verdict: For those who particularly enjoyed East is East, you may leave the cinema a little disappointed. It’s a brilliant debut for Aqib Khan, but with the possibility of a third ﬁlm in the pipeline, this may not be the last we’ve seen of the Khan family. Lucy Johnson

played by the lovely Dianna Agron who is much better as the bitchy Quinn Fabray in Glee. Verdict: Typical popcorn cinema which is without question enjoyable, and the ﬁght scenes are especially appealing. But it is still neither exacting nor unpredictable and doesn‘t offer anything new to the genre. Lisa Bernhardt

having great sex ever lead to true love? The ﬁlm also seems content to be sweet rather than edgy, a shame considering the nature of the subject matter. But despite this, it is wellpolished and has a steady stream of amusing moments to keep the audience engaged.

though her performance is unlikely to win any awards. Ashton Kutcher, so often the annoying goofball, looks like he is ﬁnally showing the potential to become a Hollywood leading man with a much more toned down performance. Kevin Kline makes a rare appearance and steals every scene he is in, playing Kutcher’s dad who dates his son’s ex-girlfriends.

The rest of the large supporting cast all make their mark with a series of smutty and controversial one-liners. The characters do lack depth (Emma’s real motivation for not wanting commitment is never really explained) and there are some missed opportunities along the way to pose intriguing questions into the nature of such a relationship. After all, can

Verdict: Despite being directed by Ivan Reitman, a man with very little experience of this genre, the ﬁlm is not terrible. The quality of Portman and Kutcher’s performances, allied to their believable chemistry means No Strings Attached rises above the mediocrity of many of its predecessors. Simon Howard

dictably, and in typical conservative Hollywood fashion, the ﬁlm ends with an afﬁrmation of our religious faith, don’t let this put you off though, The Rite is no sermon and is worth seeing for Hopkins alone.

sible hat and the demon fun can really begin. After an incredibly slow build up, viewers are rewarded for their patience with grotesque bodily contortions, regurgitated nails, voices which most do not belong to the person they just came from and plenty of demonic guttural snarls. It takes a while to get there, but the tension is enjoyable and the ﬁnal act

is undoubtedly worth the wait, as heavyweight Hopkins is unleashed and allowed to dominate the screen with a blistering performance of a man who quite obviously has a problem. Despite the baptism of ﬁre (excuse the pun), rookie O’Donoghue does not wither, he holds his own with the iconic star and puts in an impressive ﬁrst performance. Pre-

Verdict: Popcorn in the air jumpy moments can be counted on one hand and it seems scares and punches are pulled, perhaps an attempt to retain some scrap of credibility. Hardened horror goers may scoff at the tameness of The Rite, but this doesn’t detract from the ﬁlm, simply makes it more middle of the road. Matt Blackwell

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

albums

Music Culture

music

Music Editors: Polly Randall & Joe Skrebels - courier.culture-music@ncl.ac.uk

top 5

Beady Eye

Different Gear, Still Speeding And so the spotlight falls on the man once lauded talentless: Liam Gallagher who has hit the ground running following the acrimonious split from the shadowing influence of elder brother Noel. It’s time to dust off the old parka and get your swag on, emerging from two years producing fashion lines and doing the school run, Liam fronts his new band Beady Eye. Not that there is much ‘new’ about them, this band have been playing together for ten years and are essentially Oasis minus Noel. Yet considering Noel held such an influence over Oasis, Liam’s big moment is surprisingly good, at some points even eclipsing the generationdefining What’s The Story (Morning Glory). With all the swagger and arrogance of his former teenage snarling self, Gallagher opens with ‘Four Letter Word’ an anthemic swipe at his old band’s signature tune. Liam bellows “Nothing Ever Lasts Forever”, setting the tone for an album consisting of anger, optimism, psychedelia and good old fashioned

1. Final Form - Everything Everything

rock ‘n’ roll tunes. This band is not solely however a vehicle for Liam’s ego, as Gem Archer emerges from Noel’s shadow as the song writing, guitar playing cog in Beady Eye’s wheel. While the album stagnates in the middle, the Beatles-esque ‘The Beat Goes On’ sets up a climatic finale with the Archer-composed big riffs and tubthumping choruses we have come to expect from him. If you didn’t like Oasis, Different Gear, Still Speeding wont appeal to you but Beady Eye now stand alone amongst British bands for producing catchy no nonsense rock n roll songs. Definitely Maybe it is not. But after twenty years in the glaring media eye there is still a seat at the musical elite table for these boys. With a confident Gallagher back on form, and revelling in his new role, a benchmark has been set, but I’m sure there is one member of the Gallagher family hoping to smash through it. Over to you Noel.

New Release It seems that, with every single Everything Everything release, they just go from strength to strength. Finally releasing one of the best tracks from Man Alive, Final Form is less “weird” than the rest of the album but still features the swooping synths and Jonathan Higgs’ distinctive vocals synonymous with EE.

2. Tyrant Song – Foe New Release Channelling nearly every single fighty female vocalist from Laura Mary Carter (Blood Red Shoes) to Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Foe manages to create one of the weirdest singles of 2011. Scratchy guitars and unusual sound effects make Tyrant Song the musical equivalent of a David Lynch film. Yet, like a Lynch film, it’s interesting to just take in the weirdness.

Anthony Broxton

Frankie and The Heartstrings Hunger

The Chapman Family Burn Your Town

The Chapman Family are a band that have the potential to do so much for the post-punk scene and yet Burn Your Town is far more noticeable for what it lacks than for what it delivers. The four piece originating from Stockton on Tees have made somewhat of a name for themselves over the past two years through high proﬁle airplay on Radio 1 and a slot on the NME Radar tour. Whether the hype machine has helped proceedings for this their debut album is somewhat unclear yet. The Chapman Family’s ability to combine driving bass lines with memorable melodies is shown unquestionably on lead single ‘Anxi-

ety’. With verses that steadily build up to a chorus perfectly crafted for audience sing-along’s it is undoubtedly the highlight of an album that fails to deliver on this early promise. Opener ‘A Certain Degree’ begins well with a moody guitar led melody, reminiscent of The Cure, that constantly promises to reach a grand ﬁnale that never comes and as a result it just ends up ﬁzzling out. On ‘Kids’ Kingsley Chapman’s vocal bears undeniable similarity to that of fellow Tyneside star Paul Smith but on comparison lacks the passion and with lyrical content such as “The kids are not alright, the kids are not ok” the result is a forced and uninspired sound. The Chapman Family certainly have potential but if they are to realise it they need to steer away from the uninspired clichés. Jack Kidder

Hunger is the debut release from the much-hyped Sunderland-based ﬁve-piece Frankie & The Heartstrings. The North East has enjoyed relatively recent success with guitar pop bands such as Maximo Park and The Futureheads, so there’s some pedigree to live up to. Unfortunately, ‘Ungrateful’ sounds unbecomingly like a worse Futureheads – it’s reasonably tuneful but forgettable, backed up by a video which features an unseemly amount of hair rearranging. ‘Hunger’ features a suitably jaunty intro, as does the opener ‘Photograph’, which also adds some choral “oh-oh-oh”s. Though the two aren’t necessarily connected (see The Hold Steady for great lyrics AND lots of hollering), and to top it off the lyrics here aren’t exactly inspirational. Sadly things already seem a little bit too generic. A variation of the same crops up on ‘That Postcard’, although this time it’s deﬁnitely more of a “woahwoah-woah”. ‘Possibilities’ is shorter and strolls along cheerfully enough but it’s pretty hard to differentiate it from quite a few bands

you may have heard before. Things are similar on ‘Tender’; a catchy intro, some more “yeah yeah” refrains and lyrics which sound as if they could really be saying a few different things and it wouldn’t matter or really inﬂuence the song a great deal either way. Themes of less than ideal romantic situations appear to be the order of the day, often conveyed through slightly anguished Mackem-tinged vocals, such as on ‘It’s Obvious’ which seems to try and ape Franz Ferdinand a little too hard. ‘Fragile’ brings a slower intro, but speeds things up in the chorus and just gets a little bit muddled. Overall it might outstay its welcome a touch. ‘Don’t Look Surprised’ might sadly reﬂect the album as a whole. Again it is hooky enough and not an unpleasant listen but without ever really grabbing you. More of an addition to things which have been done better before than anything different, ultimately Hunger seems unlikely to be tugging either at your heartstrings or your purse strings.

Ed Banger Records Let the Children Techno

ing mix. Ed Banger is able to enlist well known names from his label to make an impressive list of featuring artists; Busy P, Sebastian, Breakbot, SKream to name a few creating a strong mix of ﬁrm favourites as well as new and upcoming artists from the scene. Breakbot is a particular darling of Ed Banger - a man all about funk. If you combine his revival with the recent signings of Cassius and Squarepusher a really good vibe is being created around the label. Particular tracks to listen for are Skream’s ‘Boat Party’, Discodeine’s ‘Grace’ and Duke Dumont’s ‘Hipgnosis’. Although reasonably solid listening this would be a perfect party mix, great to walk to, and just a good compilation for the different genres of music. Let the Children Techno will deﬁnitely have the children talking. Olivia Mason

This latest offering from Ed Banger Records is a compilation that thankfully lives up to its expectation to be very good. Despite the obscure name it features very little techno and marks the French label’s return to good old-fashioned mix tapes. Opening with robotic vocals the CD quickly moves through track after track of every genre possible: house, electro, dubstep, ﬁdget and funk. The CD plays more like a DJ set than a compilation of individual stand alone tracks and this works very well. Playing host to a plethora of although deﬁnitely techno based tunes, a well rounded and interest-

Martin Flynn

3. Dance Yrself Clean – LCD Soundsystem (Unofﬁcial Muppets video) YouTube Video Technically not an ofﬁcial release, but it’s hard to ignore this fantastic video which features a range of Muppets plus Cookie Monster playing one of the more infectious tracks from LCD Soundsystem’s great swan song This Is Happening on the streets of Brighton. It’s only after watching this that you realise how much James Murphy sounds like Kermit.

4. I <3 U So (Skream Remix) – Cassius New Release The original track, which has been ﬂoating round the club scene for a good few months now, is already yet another infectious track from French house music duo Cassius. Throw legendary dubstep producer Skream, now of Magnetic Man, into the mix and you get a track that, if played in a club (which it should…a lot) will cause everyone to down their drinks and just dance away without a care in the world.

5.Anxiety – The Chapman Family New Release Anxiety is a tough single to fathom. Whilst the rest of the band makes a real effort to secure the dark, brooding atmosphere akin to the track’s title, Kingsley Chapman’s vocals seem to drop. They’re ﬂat and with no emotion. It’s clear he’s trying to channel Joy Division, which the rest of the band does relatively successfully, but failing. A great single that’s being held back by a certain member of the family. Chris Taylor

The Courier Online For exclusive reviews of album releases and live gigs from around the city, as well as Spotify Playlists, head to the music section of The Courier website: thecourieronline.co.uk/music

Culture

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Music

music listings

Monday 7th – Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, O2 Academy2, £8, 7pm We’ve all been waiting for it, and now it seems the first post-hardcore supergroup has arrived. And they’re called D.R.U.G.S. Make of that what you will. Featuring members of From First to Last, Story of the Year and Matchbook Romance, they play the intimate Academy2 on Monday. Tuesday 8th – Underclass, Head of Steam, £4, 8pm There’s very little going on this Tuesday, so if you have a spare four quid knocking about, it may be worthwhile seeing Edinburgh pop-rockers Underclass over at the Head of Steam. With three support acts making it £1 per band, you’ll be hard pushed to find much better value. Wednesday 9th – Keith James in Concert: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Cluny2, £12.50, 8pm Leonard Cohen is one of the most beloved singer-songwriters of all time, renowned for his deep, rich lyrics and stirring instrumentation. If you weren’t able to make it to Germany or Portugal to see him on his 2010 European tour, then seeing Keith James play his songs at the Cluny2 is probably a cheaper, more convenient option. Thursday 10th – All Time Low, O2 Academy, SOLD OUT, 7pm So apparently pop-punk is still a pretty big deal, as proved by All Time Low, who I’ve never heard before, but are apparently selling out Academy-sized venues. More exciting is that Yellowcard (remember them?) have reformed and are supporting on the tour. Friday 11th – Pad Thai HiFi Warehouse Launch Party, £5, 10pm Now, this is the real deal. The launch of an immense new soundsystem from the Inertia crew is set to be the, yes THE, party of the year. You know on TV and in films there are massive warehouse parties so awesome that they make you think “that never happens”? Well, they do, and this is. So be there! Saturday 12th – Justin Bieber, Metro Radio Arena, SOLD OUT, “OMG, OMG, OMG, etc, etc. Argh! OMG, Justin Bieber is guna b at th arena!!! ! Lol!” If you write like that, it’s pretty likely you already have a ticket to see Justin Bieber, the terrifyingly confident floppy-fringed pop scoundrel who has a habit of walking into doors. Everyone else, stick some earplugs in. Squealing at Bieber is mandatory. Sunday 13th – The Levellers, o2 Academy, £23.49, 7pm It’s the 20th anniversary of folk-punkers The Levellers’ second album ‘Levelling the Land’, so to celebrate they are currently touring the album in its entirety. It’s a pricey ticket, but apparently a classic British album. Ben Travis

feature The Independent issue: what newcastle does differently Rowan McCabe discusses the state of live music in Newcastle I’ve spent practically my whole life in Newcastle and, on the surface, the city’s nightlife looks the same as always. Every weekend you can still see loud girls with unfeasibly short skirts and large knuckled lads with angry faces falling around the Bigg Market, looking for chips, in a dance as old as time. Yet despite this seeming status quo, the BBC recently published an article asking whether Britain’s music scene is under threat at the minute. To be honest, the conclusion seems to be that in most areas things are looking pretty cushy if you’re an established artist, like Paul McCartney, booking dates at every available Dr Pepper-Super-Sugar-Free Auditorium around the country. Generally the downside, according to various interviews in the article, is that smaller bands are struggling to pull crowds and independent venues are shutting down. So what’s the craic in Newcastle? Well, roughly the same amounts of people are going to the Metro Arena, the O2 Academy and such. Despite the recession I think, for the foreseeable future, people are happy to pay that little bit more money to see their favourite act. A recent investigation has shown that many Justin Bieber fans will actually turn to crime in a desperate effort to feed their habit. Either the recession’s not as bad as its meant to be or most people are doing a lot of begging, stealing or borrowing to have a good night out. Smaller companies like Head of Steam Ltd. seem to be fairing up ok. Maybe a few less people here and there but gigs at the Cluny and the Cluny two still run, even if business is a bit worse off. So what about the independent venues? Whoa whoa now. Let’s slow down a minute before I carry on. I don’t want to run the risk of making this section seem like some far left political slur against ‘corporations’ or ‘the man’ or whatever. Leaving politics completely out of this, I think Newcastle needs independent venues to create a thriving and individual music scene. Why?

debate yes

Firstly, because it helps local musicians get noticed and get experience. The O2 academy do put on local acts, but the problem is this: It’s not very often that the manager of the Newcastle division of the O2 academy is taking a pleasant stroll down the street when he hears you and your band (or you and your decks) having an impromptu jam in the middle of the kitchen and pops in to ask if you could headline for a night or two. “But couldn’t they just send in a demo?” you ask. Well yes, but first of all they need to get experience in smaller independent venues that are willing to put them on. That’s a fact. Secondly, big venues will only put on music that’s safe for sales, and I think that’s why less established bands that play in places like the Academy Two aren’t particularly innovative. Thirdly, the ridiculous level of security means that it’s often impossible to see an exciting performance in larger venues. Mandatory bag searches, health and safety controls on dancing and rules that mean you can’t leave the venue and come back in (you know who you are), you can hardly scratch your nose without filling in a form and, aside from making it hard to have fun, the rules make it difficult for an act to really engage with their audience. Independent venues, as a rule of thumb, are more relaxed which helps promote new and interesting performances. Unfortunately, in the past few years Newcastle has lost a lot of them. The greatly missed Cooperage is one example, which put on a great student night and also held host to some of the most exciting raves from dubstep to drum n bass to gabba and everything inbetween. It was shut down because of issues over sound restrictions which is a familiar problem down the Quayside. People are moving into upmarket flats next to old pubs which have been converted into clubs; then they’re complaining when they hear music coming out of them. “It’s simply unbearable, who would play music at this hour in THE CENTRE OF NEWCASTLE’S NIGHTLIFE?”I suspect this is part of the reason that Stein Bier Keller next door, another extremely promising independent

venue, has also had to shut down recently. Also, the recession hit smaller businesses the most and drawing in enough punters to stay open is much harder when your acts aren’t particularly famous. But enough wallowing, we’ve heard about how everything’s looking okay for the rich and famous, is our independent scene dead or is there a glimmer of hope for all things undiscovered and individual? Well, to name a few, there’s Morden Tower, The Dog and Parrot and also The Cooperage has actually reopened under new management, although I can’t

yet vouch for how good it is or who owns it. Of course the Jazz Café is still standing on Pink Lane, which is run by the hardest working music lover in Newcastle- Keith the Jazz man. You’ll often see him flyering tirelessly outside Campus Coffee despite making a weekly loss of money. Sadly, making less money because of a passion for music seems to be becoming more and more of a job requirement for most independent venues these days. So I’ve decided I’m putting that few quid I was saving for Justin Bieber to better use.

The Cluny: One of the few venues still around that maintains an independent spirit

Is independent music dying out?

The universal argument for the piracy of independent artists is “I would never have heard them otherwise and now I’ll go see them live”. Such a point may be valid to an extent, but we know that the vast majority of people who actively acquire this music have strong, inquisitive palettes. We download because it is the most accessible medium to acquire the music we want to hear. Twenty years ago, we would be the ones scouring the local record stores, making completely uninformed purchases of Pavement’s debut EP. It is not the knowledge of saving money that is the driving force behind piracy of independent

music, it is simply the desire to hear the music. Unlike the major label artists, independent music is incredibly easy to acquire illegally; fewer efforts are made to remove popular hosts. The ultimate flaw in the pirate’s argument is that given a lack of infrastructure (and knowledge of it), they would still be actively seeking out new music with the same intensity. Without the financial support from record sales, they soon won’t be able to even pay for gig tickets. Independent artists simply won’t be able to afford to tour. And that’s why the “alternative dream” died with Napster. Stuart Edwards

It’s hard to deny that the economy isn’t going to have an effect on the music industry; it is a business after all. But it has the potential to stay afloat and can, in some ways, be a positive experience. For starters, there is definitely a market for the music. Arcade Fire’s latest album, The Suburbs, although a larger album than others such as Everything Everything’s debut, still managed to garner a lot of attention, sitting atop album charts for a number of weeks. Secondly, record labels apprehension to take on new artists might keep out the Oasis clones and welcoming, and putting focus on, the

next truly original artist. This may seem a very Darwinian outlook on the industry, putting the economic climate in the place of a musical Malthusian catastrophe, but it is ultimately what the indie scene needs. It’s become too saturated with “lad rock” bands such as Brother. The current situation might lead to an increase in original artists, which is great for the listener and the labels. Ultimately, even though it might not seem the right time, the music industry needs to take risks instead of relying on what it knows. The rise of original artists of late has shown what a difference it can make. Chris Taylor

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Culture

Music

music

Music Editors: Polly Randall & Joe Skrebels - courier.culture-music@ncl.ac.uk

column

feature

Five years on, no sign of stopping Ben Travis talks to the musical innovators behind Newcastle’s constantly evolving independent brand

It’s one of World Headquarters’ biggest and best club nights, one of the most renowned student events, and, if all goes well, a potential homegrown Newcastle music institution. Last Thursday saw a celebratory fifth anniversary edition of the student (and ex-student) run Inertia, with typically electrifying results. “We’ve all been doing it for a while now, we’ve all got our goals. At the moment we’re about developing our brand,” explains Matt Stoppard, who has been involved in the running of the night for 18 months after a free flyering stint turned into something much bigger. “We always went, we always supported it. We started doing little bits of free flyering work, then we were asked if we wanted to get on board.” Renowned for its relaxed atmosphere, high-quality DJ sets, and eclectic range of music, the monthly night has become a landmark of independence in a frequently commercial market. “Newcastle’s nightlife, there’s a real threat of it being taken over by big companies,” says Katie Sheinman, another of the organisers. “It’s important for us and the people who love this music to have somewhere that they can come and meet together.” Whilst Tim Shaw and Sully’s resident DJ sets never fail to ignite the crowd, Inertia has increasingly taken the opportunity to introduce upand-coming local DJs, as well as providing some impressively credible big names. “I loved James Blake’s DJ sets. They’re really fantastic because they’re very eclectic. They’re down-tempo but he can still hold a crowd. He makes really interesting, forward-thinking dubstep,” recalls Matt of the previous guest slots. “In terms of technical ability, Hudson Mohawke was fantastic, as was DJ Zinc. That was a really good party

interview

Joe Skrebels chats to local DJ and club owner at WHQ, Tom Caulker about the spirit of independence When asked what the name World Headquarters means to him, resident DJ and club owner Tom Caulker sums it up neatly: “We named it that to express the notion of a place where all nationalities are welcome & all types of good music are represented.” That sense of inclusivity is World Headquarters’ deﬁning feature – a bastion of personal choice, good feeling and, crucially, independence in a city characterised by its chain bars and run-of-the-mill

atmosphere.” In the long term, Inertia’s reputation is growing such that they are increasingly in a position that allows the introduction of brilliant but little-heard talent. As Matt explains: “My aim personally is for it to be successful in its own right as a residency, but then to be putting on smaller electronic music acts which aren’t necessarily the big names, so that we get to a place where people come because it’s Inertia, and then leave having discovered something they’ve never heard before. So we’re helping new DJs and producers, and our reputation as a clubnight also grows.” “One of the aims is to branch out so that more people from around the city come along,” adds Katie. “Having local DJs like Wax Lyrical allows us to cross the barrier between the local scene and the student scene.” A perfect example of the innovative and independent stance that Inertia takes can be seen this week in the launch of the Pad Thai Hi-Fi Soundsystem on Wednesday night at the Hoults Yard warehouse. “We did the Rave in the Cave in June, which was a really good atmosphere, like a proper party. The soundsystem we used for that was half of the system that it is now!” enthuses Matt. “Our friend Joss has been a really good supporter, it’s his soundsystem that he’s finally finished making. It’s a new venue, a new soundsystem, and it’s going to be something different!” With a headline DJ set from Tim Shaw and Sully, those who have been to Inertia before will know what to expect. “They’ll be playing everything – Balkan beats, disco, hip-hop, electro, anything you can shake a stick at! It’ll be really eclectic and test the full range of the soundsystem,” claims Matt. Trying out new venues, seeking out new soundsystems, searching for new and exciting sounds is, after all, what Inertia is about, searching for artistic development rather than playing it creatively and financially safe. It’s a vision that potentially could see a huge expansion of the Inertia brand in coming years. “This is what we’re working towards. We

launched a new website recently, with the idea that we use a blog format to promote other, smaller artists,” Matt explains. “If there’s still demand for the residents parties next year and we’re in a good place, then it would be a good time maybe to launch some sort of music label. It’s a long-term vision.” For the moment, however the predominant focus is on continuing to maintain the high standard of one of the best club

clubs. So what does it mean to be in that position in Newcastle? For Tom it’s a simple answer: “It means we can do what we like and take time to evolve the Club into something that can justiﬁably be called really special. We also don’t have to deal with anyone we don’t like and we can run things totally on our own terms, in our own way, speciﬁcally for people who really get it.” But that freedom can become a double-edged sword – without the support of a brand name or major corporate backing, how has the club managed to hold its own? “There’s no doubt we’ve taken the long way around, relying on word of mouth and avoiding putting on the kind of themed nights other places rely on, but we started it to make the city more interesting and to give it a ven-

ue that was music led, as opposed to all the places that just basically sell alcohol and copy each other.” It’s this determination that seems to underpin the continuing independence of WHQ, and that goes hand in hand with the club’s willingness to let new promoters use the space to run their own nights. “We always wanted the club to be self generating & all the many club nights we host are really good, that’s why they are popular. Having run clubs in the city longer than anyone else, we always want to encourage new promoters to diversify what the city’s nightlife has on offer. We don’t have to dilute things down, so we can help nurture niche events and do whatever we can to help them succeed and grow.” This also seems to be part of helping newcomers avoid

nights in the city. “One of the things that I love about Inertia is the crowd that it brings together and the music quality is consistently high. My main aim is to keep that going, and looking at different venues such as the Hoults Yard for the Hi-Fi launch to keep it interesting,” states Katie. “Newcastle is a place that’s growing in terms of entertainment and creativity a lot, and it’s great to be part of that.” S.C. ROBERTS

Inertia’s organisers are working to make the night a true brand with real pulling power

the troubles that he himself faced in setting up independently – “It’s great fun working with so many different people who put nights on and it’s a good feeling knowing that by working with us, they don’t have to go through the hard knocks pantomime we did as kids, just to get on the decks.” It seems that, for Tom, the most important aspect in staying independent is sheer hard work. “It’s not like some master plan type affair, it’s just grown through a commitment to teamwork, day by day, over a sustained period.” So, after all the hard work, and it ﬁnally paying off, what does independence mean to him? “Not having to kiss ass, having integrity and positivity. Also being able to do business on a handshake and help others be independ-

Metal Monthly Graham Matthews Columnist

The days are getting longer and slightly warmer which can only mean one thing, summer festival announcements! Yes it’s that time of year when festival organisers start to drip feed us lists of bands playing their festivals, internet rumours turn out to be false and people start testing out their tents in the street whilst queuing for tickets. The UK’s two major hard rock/ metal festivals, Download and Sonisphere, have already made at least six announcements between themselves, including headliners and other big names. So now it’s time to decide whether you’re more bothered about the big headliners or seeing lots of your favourite smaller bands. Both festivals have main events that could arguably be highlights of the festival season (What? Better than Coldplay at Glastonbury?). Download have the reformed System of a Down whilst Sonisphere have ‘the big four of thrash’ (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) playing in the UK together for the first time, ever! However, if you find that nearing summer you could be low on pennies (paying deposits on houses, repairs to damaged windows/walls/ furniture) then have no fear for festivals do exist that don’t cost as much as one moths rent. Bloodstock is viewed as the UK’s premier all metal festival, taking place in Derbyshire, and has been around for 10 years now. A standard five day weekend ticket costs a mere £105, and boasts a line-up including black metal overlords Immortal and death metallers Morbid Angel. If you’re looking for more of a holiday then why not try one of the most bizarre festival combinations ever (sadly not ‘Metal on the Moon’, that would be awesome though), but ‘Hard Rock Hell Road Trip to Ibiza’! Included in the ticket is a se ven or 10 night stay in a hotel, lots of live music (including Breed 77, Malefice and Panic Cell) and a boat trip of course. Costing upwards of €210 this works out at €30 a day, what more could you want? Newcastle is also launching ‘the North East’s first Rock festival’, in the form of Ex-Fest. Set to take place in Exhibition Park (hopefully amongst the cows) in August the bands should be announced anytime now. Featuring three stages of rock, metal and punk bands it shouldn’t disappoint. Sticking with the Newcastle scene there are a few gigs worth checking over the Easter period. On the nineteenth March Neil Buchanan (yes, THE Neil Buchanan of Art Attack fame) and his band Marseille are playing at Hyem bar in Heaton. A week later metalcore upstarts Glamour of the Kill bring their mammoth tour to the O2 Academy. Finally, on the 23rd April Bring Me The Horizon, Parkway Drive and Architects (with support) are set to demonstrate why they’re three of the most hyped bands in metal at the moment.

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Culture

TV & Radio

tv & radio

tv highlight

soaps

Jamie’s Dream School

Coronation Street

Jamie Oliver brings together Britain’s most inspirational people to persuade 20 young teens to return to education Wednesday 9pm, Channel 4 Nearly half of British children leave education without the qualifications they need to succeed. Jamie Oliver was one of them: he left school at 16 with just two GCSEs. Now he wants to do something about it. He’s bringing together some of Britain’s most inspirational individuals to try to persuade 20 young people, with few qualifications, to have another go at education. Having been failed by the conventional education system, Jamie brings in a range of unconventional high -achievers for his staff. The kids will be supervised by experienced headmaster John D’Abbro and taught by people including Professor Robert Winston, David Starkey, Simon Callow, Jazzie B and Alastair Campbell. In the first episode we saw Professor Robert Winston, a doctor and scientist, trying to take a practical teaching approach, involving the kids dissecting rats and a pig. Meanwhile, famous artist Rolf Harris showed the kids how to paint like an impressionist and inspired one student who loves to use a spray can. Round-the-world yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur takes the kids on a sailing trip and at the end of the episode we saw the first conflict, as David Starkey demands that

tv previews

Law and Order: UK Monday 9pm, ITV 1

Mon, Thurs, Fri on ITV1 Graeme feels pressurised by Tina and when they protect a friend, they realise the seriousness of their actions. Kylie uncovers David’s deception and Audrey and Gail are stunned by her announcement. Sophie fights feelings of jealously when Sian returns from holiday and Rita is struggling to accept her new future while Fix is anxious as Hope is finally allowed home.

Eastenders

Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri on BBC1 Ronnie is worried that Glenda knows her secret, so Phil helps Ronnie find a way of making Glenda leave. Shirley has a big decision to make and later she accidentally humiliates Julie in the Vic. Max embarrasses Abi on her date and Kat and Alfie throw Shenice a birthday party. Jane makes a decision about her marriage.

Emmerdale

Inspiring Dream: Jamie attempts to get 20 inexperienced young people who have left school to give education another chance

the students need to be disciplined, whereas headmaster John D’Abbro suggests that it is Starkey that needs the discipline. In the second episode, Jamie tries to tackle the issue of discipline and behaviour, which includes banning mobile phones during class time. Teacher Alastair Campbell thinks he

Monroe Thursday 9pm, ITV 1

can get the kids excited about politics by showing them the potential world-changing possibilities. Having got off to a bad start with the kids, David Starkey turns to Jamie and this leads to a fresh start. Simon Callow hopes that a contemporary twist on Romeo and Juliet and a trip to the theatre will bring

Famous, Rich and In The Slums with Comic Relief Thursday 9pm, BBC 1

the students round to Shakespeare. Meanwhile Jazzie B’s tough but fair style seems to be winning over converts among the previously unengaged kids. Join Jamie and maybe you will learn something yourself. Maria Moffatt

Wonders of The Universe Sunday 9pm, BBC 2

Weekdays 7pm on ITV Jimmy is frustrated that being at home has not jogged his memory and Nicola’s attempt to help him backfires. Jai confronts Cain over his threat against Nikhil and Charity is unimpressed that Jai offered Cain money. Aaron is disappointed that Jackson is being distant, Adam agrees to keep a secret for Declan and Lisa wants Zak to confide in her.

Hollyoaks

Weekdays 6.30pm on C4 Warren decides to dig further into Brendan’s past and Sinead cruelly rejects Seth at her party. The McQueen family reveal a lot of secrets as they discover the truth about William, with Kathleen sharing a shocking relevation. Cindy arrives back badder than ever and Carl suspects Heidi is having an affair. Lee and Jamil start their own radio show, but put agony aunt Lynsey in grave danger.

Neighbours Back by popular demand, Law and Order UK returns with its fourth series this week, promising unmissable and emotional storylines with its critically acclaimed cast. The first episode begins with the murder of an ex-premier league footballer and a likely suspect who proclaims his innocence and points to a well known East End gangster. In their search to discover the truth, DS Ronnie Brooks (Bradley Walsh) and DS Matt Devlin (Jamie Bamber) face witness intimidations, false plea bargains and corruption. The episode addresses the consequences of doing the right thing, but will the right man go where he belongs, behind bars? Meanwhile, Senior Prosecutor James Steel (Ben Daniels) faces difficulties when accused of tampering with evidence and perverting the course of justice. This new series is set to illustrate why TV legal dramas are so successful.

Monroe follows the life of a brilliant neurosurgeon (James Nesbitt). His patients treat him like God, but at home he struggles with the fear that his life is falling apart. Monroe has to deal with obstacles at every turn, not only medical, as he tries to thaw the glacial cardiac surgeon into cracking a smile, rather than noticing all his flaws. His young trainees make him doubt if they are ever going to survive as doctors, with one suffering from a lack of guts, while the other has too much. The first episode follows the choice of a brain tumour victim, with the option of an operation possibly leaving her paralysed or even dead. Does Monroe have what it takes to focus on the job, when his own life is spiralling out of control? This series will be perfect for anyone into exciting hospital dramas and the crazy situations people find themselves in every day.

In a ground-breaking documentary, four celebrities including Lenny Henry and Reggie Yates will be spending a week living in unimaginable poverty. The celebs have agreed to swap their privileged lifestyles to live in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera. The celebrities embarking on this experience have been on previous trips to Africa for Comic Relief but nothing could prepare them for the heart breaking reality of actually living in and surviving in the slums. Lenny stays with a 16 year old who is the guardian for his four siblings and faces a daily struggle to avoid poverty. Samantha, Reggie and Angela face emotional journeys and are pushed to their limits as they meet people who are struggling to cope with their lives. This is a revealing documentary which will force you to question your own priorities and make you realise how lucky we actually are.

It really seems that Professor Brian Cox is the science man of the moment and his latest offering certainly doesn’t disappoint. After teaming with Dara O’Briain for Stargazing Live over Christmas, this series tries to discover the truth about the universe, who we are and where we come from. Delivered in his usual enthusiastic Lancashire tones, Brian focuses on the relationship between nature and science. Investigating the influence on creating the universe in the first episode. Using the landscape of Peru stretching to Costa Rica, Brian studies time, how it shapes our life on Earth and highlights just how small the human life cycle is compared to that of cosmic time. An excellent program not only for scientists but for everyone, Wonders of the Universe certainly is a thoughtprovoking series and once again Cox not only makes science interesting but also accessible to everyone.

Samantha Brooks

Louise Naylor

Rosie Daly

Ayse Djahit

Weekdays 1.45pm & 5.30pm on Five Karl starts a battle of the sexes in an attempt to raise money for the Scully house rebuild. Tash’s check-up day has arrived, and Andrew decides to break up with Tash no matter what happens, but Tash has a suprising relevation for Andrew. Sonya and Toadie regain the spark in their relationship while Kyle and Lou struggle to work together.

Home and Away

Weekdays at 2.15pm & 6pm on Five Dex faces the wrath of the River Boys and Sid is concerned when he does not arrive home. Charlie tries to move the gang from Summer Bay beach, but feels she may be making the problem worse. VJ is impressed by the group’s surfing skills, but disaster strikes in the water. April breaks up with Xavier and Miles prepares for Elijah’s return. Lynsey Fawcett TV & Radio Editor

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Culture

TV & Radio

tv & radio

nsr

TV & Radio Editors: Lynsey Fawcett & Ellie Wilson - courier.culture-tv@ncl.ac.uk

radio highlights

“Washing Machine Eats Brick” Uploaded by: lolzing4gifs

This week I’m going to shine a light on our excellently eclectic Thursday evening shows. First up are the intriguingly named Angry Beavers aka Becky Such and Rachel Belward from 5-6pm. They collate a mixed up theme show with a recent delight being ‘Guilty Pleasures’ – The Divinyls ‘I Touch Myself’, anyone? Or is a bit of Cyndi Lauper your secret indulgence? Quite often a beaver or two decide to linger in the studio and join Helen Stephenson with her frenetic show NSR in Your Bass bringing you everything from Hip-Hop to Drum & Bass. Last week’s show had me dancing around my kitchen to some 90s club classics as well as a brief interjection from Mr. Scattman John. Bee’s Banging Beats takes over at 7.30-9pm for their diverse and entertaining show working their way through bands beginning with a letter of the alphabet each week. There are plenty of options for audience participation with a ‘Celebrity Treasure Hunt’ competition to test your mental capacity and a new feature: ‘Blunty’s’, inspired by James Blunt’s tragically tag-lined nightclub in Ibiza where ‘Everyone is Beautiful’. This feature enables you to use ‘Blunty’s’ as a new Room 101 voting who and what you would banish there never to return. Rounding up the night’s shows are Nick Searling and Phil Whittington with indie anthems from the 90s intersected with upcoming bands. To celebrate NSR’s imminent FM broadcast from 21st March until 1st April, we will be taking over The Cluny 2 on 17th March for a launch gig. As per usual we will be mixing the best local acts with student bands for a musical showcase which will cost you a mere £3 entry for at least four bands. Acts will be confirmed in this column next week, so watch this space!

Radcliffe and Maconie: elbow Monday 8pm BBC Radio 2

Stand Up For Comic Relief Monday - Wednesday 11pm, BBC Radio 4

This week, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie welcome award winning alternative rock band elbow into the studio. Having catapulted to success after a Mercury Prize win for their last album The Seldom Seen Kid in 2008, elbow are embarking on an arena tour with their new album Build A Rocket Boys! and will be performing a set of new songs on Radcliffe and Maconie’s show, live from Manchester. The lead singer, Guy Garvey, has his own radio show (Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour) on BBC 6 Music, the station that Radcliffe and Maconie will be moving to with a brand new weekday show launching on 4th April. The band’s friendly and relaxed style allows them to perform well live, as they laugh off mistakes and crack jokes with each other between songs, they really give the feeling that they enjoy every minute of being on stage. The previews of songs that elbow have released on their website from the new album show great promise for another outstanding record, which will hopefully translate into a brilliant performance on this programme.

Over the course of the next few weeks six radio presenters will prove that being a comedian isn’t as simple as it seems as they take part in Comic Relief’s latest challenge. The radio DJs will endure a test of wit, bravery and silliness in an attempt to become stand up comedians. They will have to end the week by performing in front of the general public at The Comedy Store. Competing in the challenge are Dev from Radio 1, Tony Blackburn from Radio 2, Tom Service from Radio 3, Jenni Murray from Radio 4, Tony Liversey from Radio 5 Live and Shaun Keaveny from 6 Music. Each of the DJs gets a mentor from the world of comedy to teach them how to make their act hilarious and also what mistakes they need to avoid. Despite this guidance the celebrities are still nervous about performing. Radio 1’s Dev, who is mentored by Chris Ramsey, summed the experience up by saying “this is one of the most exciting and terrifying things I have ever agreed to do.” Listeners can tune in throughout the week to learn how they are getting on and hear their routines at the end of the week. You can vote online to say who gets the last laugh.

Louise Morris Station Manager

Ellie Wilson TV&Radio Editor

Rosie Daly

Subsequently Erin decides to accompany her Israeli-English friend Eliza as she returns to Israel to complete her national service in the army. Whilst Eliza is away training, Erin begins a daring retrace of her grandfather’s footsteps that leads her further into the complexities of this fraught country. Addressing the subject of the Middle East is inherently controversial, but Kosminsky leaves us to make our own minds up.

There are no caricatures, no villains and no heroes. Just effective characterisations based on real people. Erin’s character is essentially dislikeable; she is rude, sulky and abrupt. Yet this actually has the effect of making the series less sentimental. The acting and script are utterly believable. The architecture and landscapes of Israel are beautifully captured. The scenes of terrorism and violence are shockingly real. The Promise does delve significantly into the vast subject of the birth of modern Israel - as its total running time of nearly six hours suggest. Yet despite the political backdrop, The Promise is also fundamentally a love story. The Promise is not an easy ride, but it is both enlightening and compelling. So if you fancy watching something that prompts a level of concentration slightly higher than that required by an episode of Hollyoaks, then The Promise is a good place to start. The last episode was broadcast on Sunday 26th February, but the whole series can still be viewed on 4OD. I urge you to catch it while you still can.

review Sophie Douglas reviews Channel 4’s recent political drama offering, The Promise, which you can still catch up with on 4OD. Channel 4’s new epic four-part drama The Promise is a vivid dramatisation of Arab-Israeli politics. From the BAFTA winning writer and director Peter Kosminsky, and with a star-studded international cast, it promised (pardon the pun) to be first-rate. A period and modern drama in one, it is set partly in 1940s Palestine and partly in modern-day Israel. By interweaving the stories of eighteenyear-old Erin (Claire Foy) and her grandfather Len (Christian Cooke), Kosminsky reminds us that the Arab-Israeli conflict is still very much alive today. In episode one we watch as Erin unearths and begins to read her grandfather’s diary which he kept during his youth. We soon learn that he was part of the British occupying forces in Palestine at the end of World War II.

YouTube clip of the week

Kosminsky does not patronise his viewer; we are not permitted to think in a simplistic way and rightly so Some prior knowledge of Arab-Israeli politics is assumed. This is because Kosminsky does not patronise his viewer; we are not permitted to think in a simplistic way and rightly so. Nor does Kosminsky fall in to the trap of presenting anyone – Jewish, Palestinian or British as morally superior.

Luke Hearfield shares his YouTube video of the week. To catch the best each week, visit www.thecourieronline.co.uk. In a time where animation is reaching new heights and producing wonderfully vibrant characters, every now and then you find something that truly makes your day due to its simplicity and blunted humour.

Adapted from someone else’s video they’ve used simple animation to bring comedic value to the destruction of a household utility. He looks like a character rejected from the Brave Little Toaster movie, but you can really feel the pain in his crudely animated eyes when the chaos incurs. It is fifteen seconds of guilty pleasure fun for anyone needing a quick giggle.

tweets of the week Sarah Millican How many Oreos will it take to kill my hunger? Let’s find out. Gok Wan Good morning tweeties. Off to ballroom dance lessons with sister Wan for her birthday. Cuban heels and sequins are a dish better served hot!

Dawn Porter Why doesn’t Rihanna just change her name to something she can remember? Louie Spence Nite from OZ tweeps, busy day tomorrow talking about myself, now that’s going to be hard, what with me being so shy...

Animosity: The Promise is a vivid dramatisation of events from the Arab-Israeli conflict

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Culture Puzzles

puzzles Across 1 Unit of energy relating to work done (5) 8 Negative (2) 9 Shakespearian comedy (7, 5) 11 Dash, flit (4) 12 Mistake (5) 13 Couch (4) 14 South American mountain range (5) 16 Came into possession of (8) 17 Mother, familiarly (2) 18 Pakistan capital (9) 20 Party, fete (6) 23 Tree related to Sapodilla (6) 24 Forsaken (9) 26 Rating for movies (abbrev.) (2) 27 Younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II (8) 29 Japanese city famous for an environmental protocol (5) 30 Young of domestic cattle (4) 32 Bringing death (5) 33 Mr Bowers of Another Level fame (4) 34 Pugilist’s hand protection (6, 6)

36 To a higher intensity (2) 37 An awareness or consciousness (5)

Down 1 Largest city in S. Africa (12) 2 Single, undivided thing (4) 3 1982 Spielberg film starring Drew Barrymore (2) 4 Police drama set in 1960s (9) 5 1975 James Clavell novel set in Japan (6) 6 Favouring one side over another (6) 7 Professional cook (4) 10 Organise information into preset way (6) 15 Comedian Lee or DJ Chris (5) 17 Native language (6, 6,) 19 Everything or everyone (3) 20 Enthusiastic devotee (3) 21 Dark hardwood (5) 22 Aim, goal (9) 27 Amount a saloon or sports vehicle will hold (6)

Puzzles Editor: Andy Pitkeathley - courier.puzzles@ncl.ac.uk 28 Crime syndicate organised in families (6) 31 Leave a job (4) 33 English River (4) 35 Academic administrator (2)

Last week’s Crossword answer

word link

wordsearch

Find the word that can be placed between these words to make two new words or phrases

Find all the words in the grid below, the words are all linked. This week’s link is Olympic cities. Barcelona Montreal London Munich Moscow Beijing Tokyo Seoul Athens Rome Paris Sydney Melbourne Berlin Atlanta

TIME

LOOK

FAITH

THAN

HOME

OUT

DRIVE

LINE

PART

OFF

phone in Use the clues and the keypad to find the answers to the grid using the week’s theme to help you. For example the number 3 in a clue could be D, E or F. This week’s theme is Famous Scientists.

Across

Down

2. 2647 5. 327946 6. 334766

1. 3272329 3. 639866 4. 28743

sudoku

andy’s number cruncher logic problem At the introductory meeting of a political convention even number of delegates shook hands an odd number of times. What is a simple way of proving this?

logical What does this say?

Keep your brain in shape by trying to complete these sums as fast as you can without using a calculator

EASY

-12

MEDIUM

Divide by 6

Square Divide Times this by 9 itself Cube this

1/3 of Square this root

HARD

Multiply 2/3 of by 0.5 this

-66

+46 +2

Times 6% of itself this

Half this

-1

Cube Divide by 25 this

Square root

-20

Square root

The puzzles get harder as you work your way down the page.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Newcastle football goals scored in Stan Calvert 2010

days to go

Sports Editors: Jono Taylor, Wills Robinson and Kat Bannon - courier.sport@ncl.ac.uk

The greatest show on earth

Rory Brigstock-Barron looks at some of the more unusual sports to be on show in London 2012 With the world’s premier sporting event coming to London next year, much of the anticipation and prestige will be focused on the 2000 athletes who will compete for 47 gold medals at Stratford’s Olympic stadium. However, the true Olympic experience is one of variety, bringing a collage of exciting disciplines which many of its spectators will have never witnessed. Here are four worth looking out for in London 2012.

Beach Volleyball Aside from the lure of some of the most physically attractive athletes in some of the most revealing attire, beach volleyball should appeal to anyone wishing to witness a display of elite athleticism and strategy. It may be perceived as a couple of friends mucking about in the sand, but this is certainly not a stroll on the beach for the competitors, jumping and diving on the uneven surface for a potential three sets. With cheerleaders, loud music and high ﬁves between points, a unique and fun experience is sure to be had by all in attendance. With London’s lack of golden beaches it was always inevitable that the venue would have to be man made to some extent, but how to compete with Bondi and Bora Bora? For this the organisers turned to the history books, choosing to hold the event at Whitehall’s famous Horse Guards Parade. The square that was the venue for jousting tournaments in the time of Henry VIII will be the setting for perhaps the games’ sexiest sport, juxtaposing tans and tank tops with pomp and tradition, just across the park from Buckingham Palace.

Synchronised Swimming One of only two exclusively female sports at the games, synchronised swimming is so much more than sophisticated splashing. The sport requires remarkable levels of ﬂexibility, strength and artistry as well as a perceived ability to not breathe. Indeed, the athletes are at times mermaid-esque, looking more at home with their heads under water than above it. Often referred to as ‘water ballet’, the sport is one in which each performance looks seamless to the untrained eye, with the judges scoring the routines on technical merit and artistic impression. Two competitions will take place at the games with duets and teams of eight looking to wow the judges and the audience in a bizarre but truly remarkable sport. The venue for the synchronised swimming will be the distinctive aquatics centre currently being built in Stratford. It is estimated that the

17,500 capacity aquatics centre, with its wave shaped roof, will eventually cost £300m. Resembling a cruise ship, the venue will contain two 50 metre swimming pools and the 25 metre diving pool in which the synchronised swimmers will ‘egg beat’ and ‘rocket split’ their hearts out in an attempt to win gold.

Canoe Slalom Having tried canoeing myself and continuously capsizing, the prospect of trying to guide one down white water is one that I would not wish on many. The aim of the canoe slalom is to guide your carbon fibre raft through up to 25 gates in the fastest time possible, requiring incredible balance, flair, judgement and upper body strength. Touching a gate on the way through incurs a 2 second penalty whilst missing a gate leads to a fatal 50 seconds being added on to your time. In this fast flowing event, the next competitor begins as his predecessor finishes the course, making for exciting non-stop action. The canoe slalom event will be held at the brand new Lee Valley White Water Centre in Hertfordshire, roughly 20 miles from the Olympic park. The construction of the centre includes a 300 metre course for the games, as well as a 160 metre course for intermediate level athletes; one of many examples of the organisers’ efforts to create a legacy in many Olympic disciplines. The flow of white water will be pumped from a 10,000 square meter lake at a rate of 15 cubic meters a second in an attempt to create a rough ride for the athletes.

Wrestling An iconic sport that dates back to Egyptian times, wrestling was one of the most popular sports at the ancient Olympics in Greece. Two forms of the sport will be on display in London: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. Both forms of the sport require mammoth strength and balance as well as great technical skill to manoeuvre opponents around the mat. Spectators can expect high intensity action and the excitement of throws and trips. The venue for both forms of wrestling will be the ExCel exhibition centre in Newham along with other events such as boxing, fencing and table tennis. The £500m complex, which hosted the G20 meeting in 2009, and has even staged X-Factor auditions, was one of the few existing assets of the London bid. The venue will be divided into ﬁve sports halls for the games with capacities ranging from 6,000 to 10,000.

Working Progress: Development is well under way across London to ensure that the city is ready to host next year’s Olympic Games

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Sport

Off the field antics: Sometimes even the In the light of the recent story about Ashley Cole shooting a student intern at Chelsea’s training ground, The Courier looks at some of

Ashley Cole

Paul Jewell

The dictionary definition of ‘idiot’ is ‘a foolish or senseless person’. What is missing from this definition is an example. Many people, especially those in the sporting world, could quite easily step up to the mark. However, no one exemplifies the definition of “idiot” more than Ashley Cole. It is no longer a surprise when you see the Chelsea defender gracing the covers of the tabloids and gossip magazines, with his headline-grabbing scandals and acts of pure stupidity. His affair during his marriage to one of the country’s most loved celebrities, Cheryl Cole, sticks in the mind. Overnight, he became public enemy number one amongst Britain’s female population, and was faced with a messy divorce that dominated the major news channels last year. However, his acts of stupidity have reached a new level, after revelations last week that he shot a student intern at Chelsea with an air rifle. Even though it was deemed to be an accident, it’s questionable as to why he had an air rifle at the training ground in the first place. It has lead to a police investigation and potential criminal action. Even though Cole has recently become the most-capped full-back in English footballing history, it seems like sometimes, he can’t do anything right. Hopefully, when England grace Brazil in 2014, he may be able to restore some of his reputation.

What do Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Jordan have in common? Well, apart from blonde hair, poor acting and frequent appearances in lads mags, they’ve all been the unfortunate victims of leaked sex tapes. While maybe not a benefactor of the previous three statements, and perhaps not the most likely name to be searched in conjunction with ‘sex tape’ on Google, you can also add Paul Jewell to that ‘captured’ celebrity list. In 2008, Jewell, manager of that Premiership record-breaking Derby County team at the time ,woke up to see his face splashed across the front page of the News of the World, in a tape showing him with an unidentified blonde. Not for the faint-hearted, as you can imagine. If Derby’s spectacularly awful 11-point total wasn’t embarrassing

Wills Robinson

Dan Robinson

Tino Asprilla Harry Slavin

Ashley Cole is now more renowned for his antics off the pitch than his skill on it

Tiger Woods Owen Evans

American born Tiger Woods is well known for being one of the most successful golfers to have ever lived. He has often been described as the world’s most marketable athlete, and according to Forbes magazine, is the richest athlete on the planet. However, this ‘golden boy’ image and incomparable success started to collapse when an allegation was made that Woods had engaged in an extramarital affair - something which Woods denied. Two days later, speculation intensified after the golfing star suffered minor injuries by crashing his car into a fire hydrant and a tree, allegedly after a heated argument with his wife. From the intense speculation drawn from this story, 11 more women came forward to confirm that Tiger had been hitting stray balls. Woods could no longer go on denying and admitted his mistakes, confirming his marriage was on the rocks, losing millions in sponsorship money and declaring his indefinite hiatus from golf. As off the field antics go, nowhere could you see an athlete with such an impeccable, untouchable reputation fall so catastrophically from the top, purely because of his inability to keep his club to himself. Although he has now returned to golf, he will never hold the same power and respect he once did.

The loveable Columbian Faustino Asprilla has been subject to numerous bizarre stories since he left England in 1998. The former Newcastle United star has been subject to stories of phantom transfers and drug trafficking, but he is probably most renowned for his love affair with guns. Tino first brought his penchant for firearms to the attention of the public when he decided to produce one at a training session at his club Universidad de Chile in 2003. Asprilla thought his teammates hadn’t been training hard enough and felt obliged to give them some much needed encouragement, deducting that firing his pistol into the air might do the job. Unfortunately, this course of action only halted the training session and resulted in Tino having to apologise to his teammates, protesting that he was in fact firing blanks.

John Terry Grace Harvey

Tiger Woods arguably holds the title of the greatest fall from grace in sporting history

John Terry is in a whole other league of his own for his off-the-pitch misdemeanours, yet still stands as a role model for young aspiring players. He’s renowned for his excessive gambling, once blowing over £13,000 in less than three hours, and his violence, spending numerous nights in police cells as a young player. Amongst his more serious allegations is the outrage following his drink-driving after a Champions league match at Stamford Bridge, where he allegedly hit a Chelsea steward. Despite making a swift get away, police were quick to question and breathalyse him and he was later held responsible for the incident, leaving the steward with a broken leg.

enough for Jewell, who unsurprisingly failed to become a sex symbol for ladies across the land after this story, his next training session may have been a touch awkward after one of the funniest face captions in the NOTW’s history.

“What do Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Jordon have in common?” What is perhaps more amusing is that, while the paper ran with the story of him cheating, the blonde in the film turned out to actually be his wife. The bad news though is that while you were clearly ready to have a sneaky peek on YouTube after reading this, the video has since been removed from the internet. His dignity, however, remains intact.

Fast forward to 2008 and Faustino was at it again near his farm in Columbia. Asprilla, incensed by the refusal of a private security checkpoint to allow his three guests past, strolled to the boot of his car to produce a machine gun and spray the checkpoint with no less than 29 bullets. Luckily no one was hurt but the misunderstood Columbian was put under house arrest and was stripped of his prized possession.

“Tino first brought his penchant for firearms to the attention of the public when he produced one at a training session” Despite his misdemeanours, it is interesting to see that Tino is just as consistent since leaving the world of football; 29 shots with none on target was always something of a speciality of Asprilla’s.

The list of his off-field antics is endless, but one of his most recent and detrimental accusations has been claims of infidelity. Terry was caught having an affair, but the fact that it was his team-mate, Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend, made the fling far more scandalous.

“He’s renowned for his excessive gambling, once blowing over £13,000 in less than three hours” It subsequently led to Bridge leaving the England squad, fearing internal conflict within the team. Even though Terry is one of England’s favourite players, we cannot forget that he remains a rich source of inspiration for the next generation of players. Parents beware.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

Sport

greatest sportsmen do the silliest things the sportsmen and women who, despite their skill and ability, have done things in their private lives that they would rather forget

Andrew Flintoff Wills Robinson

Freddie has risen to a legendary status in England, after his part in two Ashes victories and countless other heroics on the cricket pitch. On the other hand, his reputation off the field is far from perfect, with images of him fairly intoxicated during the Ashes celebrations in 2005 becoming

Graeme Swann Charley Wright

Graeme Swann, England’s joker in the pack of 5 frontline bowlers has also had his fair share of embarrassing moments, the most recent of which occurred just over a year ago. Swann was stopped by police on April 2nd 2010 following a party

synonymous with the events that took place on the field. However, it is one event that really stands out in the minds of the majority of cricket fans around the world. It was the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, and England had just been beaten by New Zealand. The side decided to drown their sorrows, despite being in the middle of a World Cup campaign. With eyewitnesses confirming the players’ appearance at a night club, the England management reacted by fining

Liam Plunkett, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Jon Lewis and Paul Nixon. However, there is one occurrence that stands above the rest. Freddie decided to go for a late night, alcohol-influenced pedalo ride, taking it out to sea. He got into difficulties on the water and subsequently fell off. He was stripped of the vicecaptaincy and was banned for their game against Canada. Events like this have come to typify the persona that Freddie brings to the sporting world.

in Nottinghamshire where he plays his county cricket. The spin bowler was arrested after a breathalyser test came back positive, and was subsequently charged in June. When he appeared in court in early August, Swann initially told court that he was on his way to purchase screwdrivers. He needed these screwdrivers in order to rescue one of his two cats, Max and Paddy (named after the Peter Kay and Paddy McGuiness sitcom), from under

the floorboards. The England cricketer was effectively saved by his career as, due to his cricketing commitments, the trial had several adjournments before he was cleared in February this year, on the grounds that the blood sample with which he tested positive last April could not be used as evidence. Swann will tear us apart, again. Andrew Flintoff is one of the most loved sportsmen in the world, despite some hiccups

They also do nice things Javier Hernandez Charlie Scott

Recently a female worker at a supermarket in Manchester was approached by a nervous young man looking for something he was clearly having difficulty pronouncing, but after a couple of goes, and some profuse apologising for his poor English, the woman realised he was after some tagliatelle. At one point he even offered to go as he felt embarrassed at his failure to pronounce a word many native English people would struggle with. Having located the tagliatelle, the man then offered the woman a five pound note, much to her surprise. He described it as a tip, which she explained she was unable to accept, but thanked him anyway. Cue more embarrassment on his part.

The woman recognised the man as being a professional footballer and told him how her son was a fan of the player’s team. Much to her son’s later dismay they chatted for a few minutes about football, without the woman asking for his autograph, before the player left. After being called to the customer service desk the next day, the woman was amazed to find the player, who must have read her name tag, standing with a signed football shirt and a photograph ready to write a personal message to her son on it. It is not every day that you hear a story about a footballer’s private life that not only inspires respect but also offers hope to the many that believe that the days of honest and decent footballers are behind us. Javier ‘Chicarito’ Hernandez: not only a fantastic finisher but also a fantastic person.

Hernandez has been an instant hit with United fans both on and off the pitch this year

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Sport BUCS

Team of the Week Rugby League1sts

Overview

Newcastle University Rugby League have enjoyed their most successful season ever after being crowned double league champions and earning a place in the semi ﬁnal of the BUCS cup competition last Wednesday. Both First and Second teams have enjoyed victories over their Northumbria counterparts this season, which puts them in good stead for the Stan Calvert match on March 30, when a win will surely giving the Owls a good chance of earning the coveted ‘Team Of The Year’ trophy.

Captain - Liam McGee fourth year Civil Engineering. Home town - Bradford. Position - Centre. League tries - 8 Man of Bash - Daniel Caparros

PHD in Surveying/Music Technology. Home town - Chorley. Position - Prop. Career ending tackles - 5

Doyle - Sam Jacques. Home town - Beckermet. Position - bench. Career missed tackles - 210

Standing from left to right: Ian McPherson, George Matthew, Dave Knox, Dr Dan Caparros, Will Winter, Mike Ward, Jimmy Phillips, Liam McGeezer, Deadlift Dawson, Myles Hudson, Sam Flowers, Sammy Boyd. Kneeling Front from left to right: John Kingswood, Wacky Webb, Robse C. Greaveslington, Chris Grifﬁths, Harriet Baxter

Treading water: Polo lose surface Men’s Waterpolo Tom Connolly at Northumbria Pool The Men’s Waterpolo BUCS trophy semi-finals were played in Newcastle on Saturday, with Loughborough, Nottingham and Bradford making the trip north. With home advantage on their side and a recent run of wins, Newcastle entered their first game of the day confidently. Stuart Mac Manus and Terry Clarke got them off the mark to win the first quarter 3-2. A further goal each for the duo in the second quarter and one for the visitors brought the game to 5-3. A lapse of concentration led to the home side losing the third quarter by a single goal. A stunning final quarter performance from fresher Michael Grantham scoring twice finished the game 7-4 to Newcastle. A great start to the tournament followed by an 8-8 draw between Loughborough and Bradford stood them in good stead. Knowing that they must win the group to make the final, the Royals started nervously against Bradford, whom they had narrowly lost to in the group stages. An early goal from Clarke settled the team; however, Bradford replied instantly to level the game. With a further two goals for the home team from veteran Luke Watkins and poacher Rich Jackson, Newcastle stormed into a 3-1 lead starting the second quarter. Clarke and Mac Manus added to the tally, giving a four goal lead going

into the second half of the game. Newcastle started somewhat complacently and conceded twice in the third quarter, bringing the score to 5-3. This saw the start of an outstanding comeback by Bradford, who brought the match to 6-5. Late chances weren’t to be and Newcastle went on to suffer an excruciating loss. A 7-3 win for Loughborough meant Newcastle’s final match against them was crucial. However, with team morale down from the previous game, they lost the first quarter with the visiting captain scoring twice. They repeated this in the second with only Mac Manus hitting back. The Royals began to lose their grip on the match and a further two scores for Loughborough put them into a convincing 6-1 lead going into the final quarter. Despite a goal for Watkins, the visitors were just too clinical and finished off the match 7-2. A win for Nottingham over Bradford finished the day’s proceedings, leaving the home team in a bitterly disappointing third overall. A solid performance in both attack and defence by Michael Grantham led to him being awarded M.V.P.

Web Exclusive

Intra Mural football match reports: Dyslexic Untied vs Medics and Ar-U-Shavin a Laugh vs FC Molesok

Biggest Slob - Will ‘the Warrington Walrus’ Winter, third year History. Home town - Warrington. Position - Prop. Body Mass Index 50

Biggest Nose - Chris Grifﬁths,

1st year English Language. Home town - Warrington. Position - Standoff. League tries - 13.

Team Strengths -

the combination of a very mobile forward pack and a well oiled back line gives the Owls options all over the pitch. More importantly, NURL centre Dave Knox is an outgoing and bubbly character who makes time to talk to everyone and is always happy to chat about his extra curricular welding course over business lunch at the bistro, which makes him a great advert for the club.

Team Weaknesses - Kicking One to Watch for 2011-12

Sammy Boyd. Course - Geography. Hometown - unknown. Position - full back. Terrified defenders - countless Sammy Boyd is NURL’s One to Watch for 2011-12 because he is as evasive off the field as he is on it. This mercurial full back torments defenders for fun on the pitch but becomes instantly unreachable after the full time whistle. Anyone who spots this fiery character should approach with caution and alert John Kingswood immediately. Ian McPherson

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

BUCS Sport

Inspirational team talk fuels Durham defeat Men’s Lacrosse

Newcastle 1sts Durham 1sts

11 0

Harry Mead in Durham Newcastle Men’s Firsts faced the short trip south to face Durham, their long-standing, although clearly inferior, rivals. With so much talk, Newcastle couldn’t afford to lose face, let alone the match, and led by the inspirational Zanner Michael, stormed to an 11-0 win. The team, in all its glory, marched onto the foreign soil with such a degree of candour and verve that none could question their commitment to the game. Michael, as impressive in

stature as in reputation, chose this moment to step forward to give an inspiring speech of unparalleled excellence: “Brothers,” he called “three weeks from now I will be lying on the sofa playing ‘Halo’. Imagine where you will be and it will be so. “Defence, hold your ground. Midfield, stay with attack; if you find yourself alone in white rooms with strobe lights and damp on your back - do not be troubled for you are in Tiger and you’ve already won. Brothers, what we do on this field will echo in eternity.” This inspirational speech appeared to work wonders, as Alex Elliot bagged four goals and Ben Beattie three as Newcastle eased to victory. As the bright sun shone through the first quarter, so did Newcastle’s

starting attacker, Alex ‘Chunky’ Elliot, who stepped up to what can only be described as Olympian levels; bagging two quick goals with the sheer pace of his shot. The only thing the ball found more than his stick was the goal. The chronically, and some say terminally, fatigued Ed Rowell oozed confidence as he handled the ball with ease, dodging at will. As for Ben ‘The Blade’ Beattie, his solid man-of-the-match earning effort and goal tally was described as a true David and Goliath battle, only this time Goliath dominated. Goals of his storming shooting prowess found the net all too often even after the Durham defenders adopted an ‘if you can’t beat him, beat him’ approach as they earned numerous penalties for their helmet

crunching head-checks. Beattie, descending into an uncharacteristic red mist, was quoted saying, “I enjoyed the fear in his eyes as I confronted him.” He rubbed salt into the wound in the third quarter when he dodged three defenders and shot over shoulder with blistering pace, sealing a goal past the bewildered and well-beaten Durham keeper. At the other end, it is worth mentioning the exploits of Newcastle’s Phil ‘The Pain’ Ellwood. Not content with shattering the hopes and dreams of opposing attackers, he made more than one full pitch charge towards goal, making the Durham defence seem like nothing more than background scenery, despite the attacking handicap of his defenders’ six-foot D-pole.

More lucrative Newcastle skill ensued when, out of nowhere, a Ronaldo-like kick finish from Ollie Whale got him on the score sheet too, showing that almost anything goes in the game of the Gods that is lacrosse. Alongside Elliott, Beattie and Whale, John Buckland also grabbed two goals and Harry Kaye one. Additionally Rupert Grimes proved a valuable asset to the team as he continues to grow and grow in the intricate knowledge of the game. What can I say except that we played to thrill and shot to kill? Too many shots; too many thrills. We had our sticks at the ready and we shot at will. We were like a bomb that’s ready to blow. That’s all you readers really need to know.

Manchester end Royals cup campaign in quarter finals Ladies’ Hockey

Newcastle 1sts Manchester 1sts

1 3

Alice Hogg at Longbenton A beautiful Wednesday last week saw a gloomy end to what was a brilliant BUCS season for Newcastle’s First XI with an unfortunate 3-1 defeat at the hands of national league’s Manchester Uni Firsts in the quarter-finals of the BUCS trophy. This was to be the last BUCS match for several of Newcastle’s players so, with enthusiasm and nervous wees galore, the Royals were definitely up to start the game well. Sporting what was an oddly familiar line-up to their Second team squad we’d played just weeks previously (orange stick, you know who you are), Manchester came out fighting to show that (unfortunately) the long travel did not affect them. However, excellent defending from Coral Lapsley and the returning captain full of Swiss air, Abi Moreland, kept Newcastle with a clean sheet until they adjusted to the fast pace set by Manchester and allowed the Royals to find their feet. Although seemingly on the back foot, the Royals’ determination soon paid off when a beautiful ball from Erika Coakley at right midfield found centre-forward Jenna Watt ahead of the Manchester defence. With only the goalie to beat, her renowned silky skills allowed Jenna to coolly slot the ball in the bottom left hand corner. Nicely done. Although being behind was clearly a familiar position for Manchester this season, they did not enjoy it and if their highly ‘banterous’ match report is anything to go by, they attempted to turn on ‘drunk Annabel’ and continued their onslaught of the Newcastle ‘25’. Despite Manchester’s multiple chances at short corners, Newcastle confusion over casseroles did not deter from numerous exceptional saves by keeper Emma ‘Powerhouse’ Peters, who kept the away team’s efforts to no avail. Newcastle confidence from strong defensive play and a 1-0 lead, allowed the Royals to take control of what was a predominantly Manchester directed game. Despite the tireless efforts of wings Sophie McClean and fresher

Jenna Watt (pictured) gave Newcastle an early lead on the break, picking the ball up on the half way line to capitalise on poor defending and hammer the ball home from top ‘D’

Erika Coakley, the ball just seemed to refuse to cross the halfway line and the score remained 1-0 Newcastle as the half time whistle blew. With some positive half time words and a new-look line-up, a draw or even a win was looking likely for the Royals. However, Manchester did not back down and eventually it just seemed too much for the Royals,

their first goal coming just minutes into the second half. An attentive crowd member on the sideline, who was more attentive than I, informs me it was a result of a relentless rebound attack after some scrappy tackles. Heads down and losing their structure somewhat, the Royals allowed another Manchester shot to

drift across the line, just minutes after, despite strong defending from replacement right-back Sophie Fox. Realisation began to dawn on the Royals and several well-placed passes from Rebecca Smith in midfield saw Newcastle gaining some momentum and enter the opposing ‘D’ to secure several short corners. Despite the well rehearsed drills, the

rebounds seemed to repel the goal, denying Tutu Osifodunrin from finishing off her last match for Newcastle University in style. Manchester fought back strongly in the last 10 minutes and their claims of rugby-like tackles by the home team were rewarded with a final goal to secure their place in thei semi-final, away in Loughborough.

Sport

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

BUCS

Defence proves the key for Royals Rugby Union

Newcastle 1sts Northumbria 1sts

17 0

Rhys Davies at Cochrane Park Newcastle further eased their relegation worries with a victory against their local rivals at Bullocksteads. The win put Newcastle up to nine points, with Northumbria and Nottingham behind them at the foot of the table with six and three points respectively. The game started well for Newcastle with a penalty at the kick off for taking flanker Paul Smyth out in the air. Newcastle played territory and kept the ball for the first 10 minutes. With the lineout working effectively and the scrum dominant, the forwards laid a platform for Newcastle’s exciting backline to cause havoc with the Northumbria defence.

15 minutes into the game and it was the scrum that paved the way for the first try. A huge scrum from the Newcastle eight won the ball against the head, allowing captain Shires to break down the blind-side. After bulldozing his way through two or three tackles, he slipped the ball to scrum half Harry Peck to dot down under the posts. Yarnton added the conversion for a 7-0 lead. Newcastle lost forwards Ben Morris and Tom Bull not long after this to injury, but the pack continued to dominate in the scrum and lineout. Captain Shires made several bulldozing runs into the heart of the Northumbria defence. A break by Gross set up the second try, with his strong ball carrying supported well by Incledon. The ball was recycled under the posts and shipped wide through the hands of Dave Swetman for Dave Smith to add to his season’s try tally in the corner. Yarnton narrowly missed the difficult conversion from the touchline. The remainder of the first half

was a scrappy affair with both sides making mistakes and handling errors. There was also the usual fights and handbags that inevitably comes with such high profile derby matches, with both sides desperate to gain the upper hand ahead of the Stan Calvert showdown later this month. The second half started well for Newcastle, with their tight defence and never-say-die attitude pinning Northumbria back in their own 22. Several raids on the Poly line were met with strong defence from the home side, refusing to lie down on their own patch. Further attacks, mostly from the strong Newcastle lineout pressurised the hosts’ defence and this resulted in fresher Charles Incledon scoring out wide on the left. Yarnton missed the conversion but Newcastle had built a substantial lead, and appeared to be in complete command. Strong ball carries from Wilcox, Yarnton and Kitching allowed Newcastle to keep the ball and frustrate

the Poly forward pack. The ferocious Royals’ defence, if a little desperate at times, was nothing short of heroic. After throwing bodies at onslaught after onslaught of Poly attacks on their try line, Newcastle managed to keep the Poly at nil on the scoreboard. The strong defence forced mistakes and harried Northumbria into errors in the wrong part of the pitch. At this point, the Poly supporters decided to start the banter early before Stan Calvert, despite their team losing 17-0 on the pitch. The final whistle brought celebrations and a loud rendition of 40 Geordies close to the Poly changing rooms. This victory was down to sheer hard work and a never-say-die attitude. The First XV now have a week off before playing Durham in two weeks time for the Stewart Evans Memorial Trophy; a match which the team go into on the back of successive league victories, and an ambition to end the season on a high.

Squash Round-up Mark Pass Last Wednesday saw Newcastle Seconds achieve a closely fought 3-2 victory over Northumbria Firsts. An all round great team performance was finished by Andy Blackburn, who secured the win in a five set battle. Now the Seconds are in close contention for promotion and are finishing the season in strong form. The First team finished top of their division and narrowly missed out on championship squash next season after a play off defeat to Edinburgh. Consistent performances throughout the season from Tom Oldfield, George Marley and Marc Pass have ensured that Newcastle Firsts will remain one the top BUCS teams. At the BUCS individuals, captain Colin Wilson and Robbie Atkinson both lost the final in five sets, having both played six matches of squash in 60 hours and only just missing out on silverware. With nine players leaving, let’s hope the high standards set this year can be maintained

Boat crowned BUCS river kings Boat Club Andrew Curry in Peterborough To the untrained eye, Peterborough seems like one of the most depressing stretches of river in England. It is long, straight, narrow and, above all, dull. However, every year the stars of the academic rowing world descend on the River Nene. It is the BUCS Head which, despite popular belief and much campaigning, does not stand for ‘Bloody Unpleasant Corner of the South’, ‘But U Can’t Scull’ or ‘Beats Ure Casual Sunday’. It is the British Universities and College Sport and it is up there with the most uninspiring acronyms in the English Language. Every year, the gloriously horrendous town of Peterborough plays host to an armada of rowers assembled from every corner of the country, who have come to test their mettle and flex their muscles, each determined to outperform the other and walk away with that much coveted currency: BUCS points. The premise is simple; win, and you take with you those little nuggets that will help your university climb the metaphorical ladder to glory. Newcastle prides itself on its sporting prowess, repeatedly gaining enough BUCS points to call itself a ‘high performance centre’. Most sports have already finished their BUCS leagues, gained their handfuls of points and have already offered them upon the altar of sporting prowess, like some sort of Athenian Harvest Festival. Now it is the turn of the rowers, to try and win their slice of the cake. There was so much action in both categories, Senior and Novice, with each having its own significance and each returned with spoils and stories to help keep the glint in coach Angelo’s eyes, as he continues his assault on the rowing world. The novice rowers, fresh-faced and full of beans, travelled down to Peterborough in order to do as much

Newcastle’s rowers recently descended upon Peterborough to compete in the BUCS Head, earning 74 points for the university after another excellent weekend on the water

damage as possible, whilst still gaining valuable racing experience. The men’s and women’s teams both had their own priorities and each acquitted themselves well. The women achieved two fantastic results by getting a silver and a bronze in both the Novice coxed 4s and the Novice 8s. Although they were narrowly beaten each time by arch rivals Durham, they still left with their heads held high after an extremely encouraging day. The Novice women’s second 8 also raced out of their skins to achieve a third placement in their category, finishing 17th overall. The novice men had a weekend of mixed fortunes, racing well but let-

ting conditions and marshals get the better of them. The two eights managed to squeeze into 13th and 25th places which, whilst strong, are far lower than they hoped they would come. The seniors arrived on the Sunday to see if they could repeat last year’s feat. Whilst they had not enjoyed the training they had hoped for, they were still firing on most cylinders and were aiming to come away with the spoils. The Men’s Championship coxed 4 smashed their way to a gold medal to kick-start the 2011 campaign. Chasing them down were the coxless 4 who, with a sub on board, managed to snatch a bronze.

The Men’s Championship 8 also had a strong race and came in third, behind Imperial and the Cambridge blue boat, which is one of the fastest 5k racing 8s in the world. The women’s Championship 8 had a disappointing race. Stripped of some of their most influential athletes, they were overhauled by several crews and came in eighth. However, the Championship heavyweight and lightweight quads achieved bronze and silver medals respectively. The men’s Intermediate 4 raced to a hugely impressive silver medal and the Lightweight 8, masquerading as a third 8, laid waste to all around them, storming from way

down to settle into fourth place, beating most universities second 8s and a fair few championship crews. The lightweight 4 had a strong row but, due to a severe lack of preparation, were edged out into fifth place. The lightweight quad suffered from a similar fate and came in seventh. With a rich haul of 74 BUCS points, the Boat Club returned, sated and satisfied, but with a desire to climb higher in the rankings ahead of the Head of the River in March, and our next BUCS event in May. Hopefully we shall return with double the number of points and, maybe, even an invite to the AU ball.

THE COURIER Monday March 7 2011

BUCS Sport

Angry Leeds lucky to escape with draw W. SEBAG-MONTEFIORE

Men’s Football

Newcastle 1sts Leeds Met 2nds

1 1

Jimmy Booker at Cochrane Park The visit of a decidedly vocal and often contentious Leeds Metropolitan second-string to Cochrane Park resulted in a fiery, battling and occasionally bad-tempered clash last Wednesday. Leeds were incensed after only 30 seconds following a late, meaty tackle by George Coyle on a Leeds defender, as they felt his caution was too soft a punishment, despite the game being less than a minute old. In a scrappy opening period that provided little in terms of goalmouth opportunity but lots in terms of midfield competitiveness, spirit and desire, the visitors from West Yorkshire had the better of the early exchanges. Newcastle were fortunate not to concede 10 minutes in, after pinball in the home side’s area from a corner saw the ball cleared off the line at the last minute, just as the Leeds attack were bearing down. The home side were unable to utilise the pace and trickery of left-sided speed merchant Dan Clements, due to the strength and organisation of the Leeds right flank. It was from a neatly worked throwin from this right side that spawned the clearest chance of the half, when playmaker Josh Greenalgh was sent clean through, but was denied by an excellent sprawling save by Newcastle keeper Andrew Kilshaw. Both defences looked solid going into the second half, and the home side took the game by the scruff of the neck with their strong running and neat interplay, the most notable being when tireless left-back Kurran Dhugga gloriously swept the ball to the left hand side, and Coyle curled the pull-back off the outside of the post. Newcastle were in the ascendency for the next 15 minutes, and winger James Swainston was agonisingly close to giving the home side the lead when he volleyed the wrong side of the post after the ball had been nodded across the Leeds box. However, despite their pressure, Newcastle could only watch on as Leeds took the lead just after the hour mark in glorious fashion. Leeds right-back Tom James curled

After a hard-fought encounter at Cochrane Park last Wednesday, the Royals came away with a deserved point, but will perhaps feel aggrieved that they could not take all three

home a free-kick, fully 25 yards out and to the right of goal, into the far top corner, to give the away side the lead somewhat against the run of play. However, Newcastle quickly dusted themselves down and were level a few minutes later, when Ben Burt,

who, along with John Addy had worked tirelessly in attack all game for the hosts, prodded home from eight yards out after a loose ball had fallen kindly in his path. There was little to divide the sides in the last 20 minutes, with Newcastle perhaps the more likely to ﬁnd a

winner, with substitute Mike Peace failing to fully connect with a lovely cross from Swainston, although he was under heavy pressure from the Leeds’ full back. In a game that was chieﬂy dominated by Leeds’ chirping at every decision made against them, the

away side looked the far happier at the ﬁnal whistle, and although Newcastle battled hard for their point, they will probably be disappointed they didn’t leave Cochrane with two more.

BUCS Results - March 2nd Badminton

Mens 2nds 4-4 Leeds 2nds

Basketball

Mens 2nds 47-64 Huddersﬁeld 1sts Mens 3rds 109-15 Cumbria Womens 1sts 58-64 Sunderland 1sts Womens 2nds 56-26 N’umbria 2nds

Football

Mens 1sts 1-1 Leeds Met 2nds

Mens 2nds 0-4 Leeds Met 3rds Mens 3rds 0-5 Sunderland 2nds Womens 1sts 2-1 Hull 1sts

Golf

Golf 2nds 3.5-2.5 Shefﬁeld 1sts

Hockey

Mens 1sts 3-3 Shefﬁeld 2nds Mens 2nds 3-7 Northumbria 1sts Mens 3rds 3-2 Leeds 3rds Mens 4ths 1-2 Hull 1sts Womens 1sts 1-3 Manchester 1sts

Womens 2nds 1-1 York St John 1sts Womens 3rds 1-3 Shefﬁeld 2nds Womens 4ths 3-4 Leeds Met 3rds

Lacrosse

Mens 1sts 11-0 Durham 3rds Womens 1sts 21-3 Loughborough 2nds

Netball

3rds 11-53 Shefﬁeld 1sts

Rugby

Mens 1sts 17-0 Northumbria 1sts Mens 2nds 20-25 Shefﬁeld 1sts Mens 3rds 33-5 Leeds Met 3rds Mens 4ths 17-38 Bishop Burton 1sts Womens 1sts 15-15 Leeds 1sts

Rugby League

Mens 1sts18-16 Northumbria 1sts

Squash

Mens 2nds 2-1 Northumbria 1sts Womens 2nds 1-3 York 1sts

Table Tennis

Mens 1sts 0-17 ICL 1sts Mens 2nds 10-7 Durham 2nds Womens 4-1 Northumbria 1sts

Tennis

Mens 1sts 10-2 York 2nds Mens 2nds 2-10 Durham 3rds Womens 2nds 8-2 Shefﬁeld Hallam 1sts

Volleyball

Mens 1sts 3-0 Hull 1sts

Monday March 7 2011 THE COURIER

Sports stars do the stupidest things... Sports Editors: Paul Christian, Jamie Gavin and Tom James - courier.sport@ncl.ac.uk

> Sport, pages 38 & 39

Sports Editors: Jono Taylor, Wills Robinson and Kat Bannon - courier.sport@ncl.ac.uk

Owls soar past Poly in Cup

NURL edge past ﬁerce rivals in thriller ahead of Stan Calvert showdown

W. SEBAG-MONTEFIORE

With Newcastle set to lock horns once again with rivals Northumbria in the Stan Calvert clash on March 30, the Owls pulled off an inspired cup upset in the ﬁnal 20 minutes courtesy of tries from McGee, Baxter and Ward

Rugby League

Newcastle 1sts Northumbria 1sts

18 16

Ian McPherson at Cochrane Park A stunning comeback at Cochrane Park saw Newcastle’s Men’s Firsts overturn a 12-point deﬁcit to beat rivals Northumbria 18-16 in a true Cochrane cup classic. NURL went into their cup match against the Poly as underdogs due to their opponents Super 8 league status, however it was not long before the simple-minded Poly players knew they were in for a gritty contest. The ‘Death Machine’ is customarily sparked into life by some bone shattering tackles from a gargantuan prop forward; however this week’s bruiser was winger and parttime womanizer Myles Hudson. He put in a succession of punishing hits

to set the tone for the Owls’ defence, which would prove the difference between the teams over 80 minutes. It was not long before the backs got into gear, with skipper Poops McGeezer and birthday boy Dave Knox running lines from hell to heap pressure on the Poly back line. This sustained pressure was eventually rewarded with a try; Knox delivered a perfectly measured, and completely intentional, bouncing pass to winger Harry Baxter, who ﬂew down the wing before popping the ball off to McGee who crashed over for the opening try. The hosts were clearly ﬁred up after this, with prop forwards Dr Dan Caparros and Joe ‘Deadlift’ Dawson bashing their Poly counterparts into the ground. Added to this, Sammy Flowers put in a man of the match performance from full-back in the absence of Sam Boyd, who has moved to Russia to join the circus. The Owls’ early dominance was

short-lived however, as the Northumbria drongos started to move through the gears and became the more likely to score. Their opening try was a fortunate one; their winger was on a Forest Gump-esque sprint with no intention of stopping at the try line, however he tripped over his untied shoes lace in the dead ball area and a try was awarded. The match continued to be an edgy affair, and when the half time whistle blew, the teams were perfectly balanced, with only a missed Newcastle conversion separating them. However, the start of the second half proved a terrible time for the Owls, who appeared to have lost all composure after the break. Northumbria crashed over for a brace of weak tries in the space of ﬁve minutes, but crucially missed their second conversion, leaving the score 16-4 with 20 minutes left on the clock. The game had been played at a furious pace and intensity which had

clearly taken its toll on both sets of players. Luckily the Owls had a secret, vomit soaked weapon in the shape of Will ‘the Warrington Walrus’ Winter who came on to bash a host of Poly players and gave the Owls a lift. The hosts ﬁnally found a way through the Poly defence through the quick hands of their back line; Chris Grifﬁths shipped the ball wide to Jimmy Phillips, who evaded a handful of tackles before passing to winger Harry Baxter who sped down the right wing and scored under the posts to make the score 16-8. Five minutes later the Owls had their visitors penned on their own goal line once again thanks to a string of crash balls from prop Dave Chatterton and narcoleptic centre John Kingswood. NURL hooker Robse C. Seagreaves scooted the ball over from two yards out to score a trademark try with less than 10 minutes left to play.

With only a matter of minutes left in the match Northumbria were awarded a scrum around 15 yards from their goal line. NURL knew a converted try at this point would see them take the lead and their inspiration came in the familiar form of Teddy Ward. The loose forward expertly stripped the ball from their stand-off before resisting a series of tackles to touch down for a superb solo effort. This left a huge amount of pressure on NURL’s trusty kicker, Seagreaves, who stepped up and slotted the conversion to give the Death Machine an 18-16 advantage. The Owls soaked up the Poly’s ﬁnal attacks to see out the match and earn a famous cup victory over their bitter rivals. This is just another highlight in a glittering campaign for the Owls who cruise through the next stage in the cup and can take a huge amount of belief into their Stan Calvert match on March 30.