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INSIDE THIS ISSUE: NEW OFFICERS INTERVIEWED!
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YOUR KCLSU STUDENT OFFICERS 2012-13
King’s News King’s Entertainment Vol 19, Issue 9 March 26th - May 15th 2012
www.roarnews.co.uk Got a Story? editor@roarnews.co.uk @roar_news roar! newspaper 020 7379 9833 Macadam Building, Surrey Street, London WC2R 2NS
...BUT WAS IT ALL A BIT OF A SHAMBLES?
An insight into: 9
scriptwriting and film
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SPORTS
CAREERS
FEATURES
Roar! is an independent Student Media society at KCLSU. Views expressed in Roar! do not necessarily reflect those of Roar!’s Editorial Board, KCLSU, its trustees, or its employees, or of King’s College London.
The Rotten Core of Student Politics?
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KCL Mountaineering Club trip report
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
1. The boring bit: build you CV
If you can say “oh yes I was one of the editors of my student newspaper” in a job interview you are bound to get hired ... right?
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
Editor’s Note
March Madness
2. Experience Regardless of whether you want to be a journalist or in publishing you can’t do better than being able to use indesign, edit copy and manage a bunch of unruly student writers! Oh and being able to stick to a deadline always helps! Infact, whatever you want to do, the transferable skills - management, teamwork, working under pressure and to deadlines, professionalism - will take you anywhere.
3. Power Who doesn’t want to be able to control what goes into the student newspaper? Roar’s reach means that over 2000 people get a copy of the paper every month and over 600 look at our website. That is some powerful influence.
4. It might be fun? Yes it is massively stressful for those few days around the deadline, but otherwise it is really good fun!
5. Freebies You get A LOT of them! And shameless blagging is totally condoned!
6. Eves dropping is allowed It is totally fine to sit in the Waterfront or Guy’s and just listen to conversations, it gives you ideas for articles and some great quotes! So maybe this is a step down from phone hacking... but even we think that’s going too far.
7. Something exciting might happen Who knows what you’ll stumble across, notepad/ camera in hand!
8. Hearing people talking about Roar! is hilarious!
Well the mayhem that was the KCLSU elections has come and gone and all that went down has seemingly been forgotten (funny that!). I would suggest that no one lets anyone forget the screw-up that it all was, unless we are happy for King’s to be made a laughing stock of on a regular basis. I have to admit the journalist in me loved every miniute of the whole thing, the barrage of disgust that came from King’s students when the Returning Officers refused to divulge important information - with students and KCLSU powerless to influence them - and the backlash that ensued. Seeing a huge number of King’s students outraged for one cause was amazing, and we, as a collective really did ourselves proud. Shame we were ignored - for these elections at least (see p 4 for info on how you can make changes for future elections). I think the new Student Officer team are going to have a really exciting and challenging year, I’m sure they will all manage to make KCLSU better as promised. I wish you all masses of luck, and on a more Roar! related note, I’m sure Charlotte will do great things with both the paper and wider student media. Away from elections and Union business, our exam timetables have finally been released. Anyone else cry a little inside? I know it isn’t the same for first and second years (and even some third years) but for me that is really the signal that the end is nigh. Dissertation has been submitted and revision will start soon. It is only now that I am starting to realise how much more I should have done, hindsight and all that! Anyway what the release of exam timetables really means is that most of us can forget about peacefully studying in the library. There is no chance of a seat ever again. So sadly all my revision will be happening in the Waterfront...
DIY Fashion
Because we all have that little bit of Gok Wan / Kirsty Alsopp inside us!
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Pimp my Plinth Trafalgar Square’s Forth plinth
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Finally, and it’s a very shameless plug, we are looking for next years Roar! team so APPLY APPLY APPLY! I’m sure we don’t need to remind you of competitive job markets, no graduate jobs, need for CV building etc.
Especially when they don’t know you are involved. People say the oddest things!
Lots of Love,
9. It is a great launching pad
Zoe xxx
If you want to get a job in any sort of media/ journalism/ marketing/ PR/ creative industry a few clippings here and there or your own vanity blog will only get you so far! Being able to pull out a full newspaper that you put together looks way better - and also shows that your work is good enough to get through an editing process.
FASHION
10 Reasons to: join Team Roar
ARTS
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editor@roarnews.co.uk
Phantogram @ Cargo
The NUS student walk out - picture by Katy Blottr
10. Roar! is amazing. obviously!
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So why would you not want to be an editor!? APPLY NOW!
Roar review the best up and coming bands...
The most viewed on w w w. r o a r n e w s . c o . u k 1. KCLSU Election petition
FILM
2. Chibundu: Student, Author, Superwoman - Dora Wakeley 3. Second Time Lucky KCLSU Elections – Really Have Your Say. - Olivia Selley 4. KCLSU election results 5. Claims of Electoral Fraud in KCLSU ElectionsBen Jackson
This issue of roar was proofed by www.proofreading.co.uk. For special March offers for KCL students visit www.proofreading.co.uk/KCL.
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Cinema of the Month: The Glorious Screen on the Green
Editor Zoe Tipler editor@roarnews.co.uk
Comment Editor Olivia Selley comment@roarnews.co.uk
Student Groups Editor Laura Arowolo students@raornews.co.uk
Arts Editor Theodora Wakeley arts@roarnews.co.uk
Music Editor Shivan Davis music@roarnews.co.uk
Head of Design Steph Fairbairn design@roarnew.co.uk
Comment Sub-editor Ben Jackson
Careers Editor Georgia Rajah
Features Editor Matt Lever features@roarnews.co.uk
Fashion and Lifestyle Editor Coryn Brisbane fashion@roarnews.co.uk
Film Editor Beth Cohon film@roarnews.co.uk
Sports Editor Charlotte Richardson sports@roarnews.co.uk
Film Sub-editor Maurice Loach
Proofing Editor Sofie Kouropatov proof@roarnews.co.uk
News Editor Luke Chattaway news@roarnews.co.uk
Proofing Sub-editor Max Edwards Legal and Advertising Fran Allfrey vpsme@kclsu.org Next content deadline: 1st of May
Wanted: next year’s editorial team. Roar! are on the hunt for next year’s team. So, if you are interested in being part of it then apply by the 31st of March at 5pm to editor@roarnews.co.uk. Editor: 2 published articles 250 words or less each, CV of one A4 page, 400 words on what you like about the paper, and what you would change.
Demonstrate your interest in student media and your team leadership abilities. Benefits of being editor include libel and indesign training, and more! Section editors: 2 published works of 250 words or less each, CV of one A4 page and 200 words about what you would do with your section. No editorial experience necessary. Computer whizz? Dab hand at design? Love photography? Got a keen eye for grammar? If you don’t fancy being a section editor, but think you’ve got the other skills the Roar! committee need, then tell us what you can do! Send us an example of your related work (if possible), CV of one A4 page with relevant experience, and 400 words on what you’d bring to the table.
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News
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Edited by Luke Chattaway news@roarnews.co.uk
POON SCHOOL
King’s is £20 million pounds richer after a very generous donation from Hong Kong business man Dickson Poon. Poon, who is the Executive Chairman of Dickson Concepts, the same company which owns Harvey Nichols Department stores made the donation to the School of Law which shall now be renamed in his honour. The donation is the largest single amount the college has every received and the largest to any School of Law in Europe. The College now has the task of matching the £20 million to make a £40 million pound investment in the School. The plan is to expand the School’s research position, grow in the field of transnational law and set up a scholarship scheme which will benefit 75 students a year, 15 of whom will come from mainland China and Hong Kong. Principal Professor Sir Rick Trainor said, ”This £40m project has only been made possible thanks to the extraordinary vision of Dickson Poon and his exceptionally generous offer to partner with us.” Dickson Poon said, “My donation reflects a shared enthusiasm with the distinguished Law Faculty at King’s College London to set new standards in legal education and research. The faculty will be expanded, student scholarships increased, leadership forums created and a new degree introduced. These ground-breaking innovations underscore our unique focus on transnational law that will groom future leaders needed to guide an increasingly connected world.”
Bye bye ‘KCLMS’
King’s to carry THE torch
No longer will we refer to medical school teams at KCLMS, they get to be GKT again (as if we ever called them anything else!). Student Council passed a motion on February 28th to “change the official name of KCLMS sports teams to GKT on the basis that KCLMS was a misnomer, our medical school Guy’s, King’s and Tommie’s were known at CKT until 2005 when the Union changed them to KCLMS. From now on all kit, and any media and publicity from both the Union and clubs will refer to the teams as GKT.”
Three lucky King’s students have been chosn as Torchbearers for the Olympic Flame. Abigail Morris, Laura Arowolo and Ian McFadzean have been chosen to carry the torch through London as it travels on its 70 day journey before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
KCLSU Hide and Seek
So what do you have to add? Printing costs really do seem to be the biggest bug bear, with Strand based student Dom Moffit telling Roar!that “I have to add again that the printing costs are a complete disgrace at KCL. This University should be ashamed. Printing lectures and courseworks costs us a lot of money.”
Laura told us, “I’ve got to say finding out I’d be carrying the torch left me pretty thrilled. I’ve always been fascinated by the Olympic games and dreamed of competing, so being able to be a part of the occasion in this small way Whilst the motion is yet to become solid KCLSU policy, is quite special. I’m slightly nervous but beyond excited.” Roar! think this is an excellent step in the right direction for recognising rich history at King’s. Congratulations to you all, just please: don’t fall over!
This semester, your KCLSU Student Officers and Student Council have been on the hunt for Hidden Course Costs: those pesky costs that we have to bear that no one warns us about, or just build up way beyond what we expect as our degrees progress. Students have asked to write down how much they think they’ve spent, and on what, with the results attached to a giant pound sign, and an online survey is also in progress.
Over at Guy’s Roar! heard the same story: “Printing out lecture notes, I believe that the dental school should give us printed notes. The medical school and biomedical sciences courses all get printed lecture notes beforehand. We should too, it’s not fair!” With printing priced at 5p per page at King’s, when you have big things to print like dissertations, lecture packs, and course readings, the cost really starts to add up. Time for KCL to start taking on the burden of printing it seems! Other things you hate paying for? Well, it seems again Health students are hardest hit. Equipment used to practise clinical skills all have to be brought- from needles and blood-taking equipment to catheter and suture packs. These used to be provided free but are now charged for, and students need to use them at least a few times each in order to practise. KCLSU have found that 58.3% of medics did not expect to pay for travel to essential work placements, and of those students 71.4% paid more than they expected.
So far KCLSU have found out that on average: • King’s students spend £570 on course related trips over their degree • £52.50 on essential clothing (such as lab coats) • £43 on essential software • £56 on printing per year • £454 on placement travel per year (especially in the medical school) • And a whopping £189 on resit fees over a typical 3 year degree
KCLSU Vice President for Student Media and Engagement, Fran Allfrey, noted that “Hospital placements can be anywhere between Zone 1-6 or even as far a field as Margate and Chichester. Students find the policy on reimbursement is unclear and unhelpful. And, as many have to travel in peak times, they are currently spending £15 three days a week - in a year when student loans and bursaries have also been less for many 4th and 5th year students.” If any of these stories sound familiar to you, KCLSU and Roar! - are keen to know! Keep filling in the hide and seek details at kclsu.org/hideandseek and look out for the pound sign, coming soon to a campus near you.
Picture by Matt Lever
Support the London Student Manifesto for the Mayors! In case you hadn’t noticed the London Mayoral elections are happening on the 3rd of May. But how does that effect you? Well as a Londoner and a student, we can expect to be affected very differently depending on which mayor gets in! The London Student Manifesto was put together by Student Officers of LSE, Imperial, UCL, ULU and King’s Students’ Unions and took into account many of the complaints they receive from students. The demands include: a city wide policing strategy for student safety, discounts on pay as you go travel, a maintenance allowance that accurately reflects the cost of being a student in London and for employers in London to be forced to pay interns fairly. KCLSU President Hannah Barlow told Roar! “With 24,500 students at King’s and nearly 450,000 in London we want Mayoral and Assembly candidates to recognise the needs of students living in London and pledge to help improve the city for them. This manifesto outlines key themes of change needed in relation to Crime, Housing, Accommodation and Transport. When surveying King’s students unpaid internships and a lack of discount on pay and go travel were two of the most common rants. This manifesto demands changes in areas like these, and then (as the practical students we are!) we have provided the candidates with solutions. Check out the website to see the full manifesto www.visionforlondon.org.uk, and sign your support”
Remember to register to vote in the mayoral elections. Unfortunately, there’s no one stop website for doing this. Google ‘your borough’, plus ‘mayoral elections 2012’ and you should find what you need. People in halls: you should be registered, but please check with your
TOP GREEN AWARD FOR KCLSU Khush Vaghela
This week, KCLSU has been awarded the GOLD award from NUS Green Impact. This is an improvement from our Silver award last year. In order to be given this prestigious standard, KCLSU has had to make many improvements across the campuses. These include setting up bird boxes, bat houses at its sports grounds, sponsoring an offsite beehive and transforming the Terrace at the strand campus (you might have noticed our bird feeders). We have also cut down on our electricity consumption by lobbying King’s to install motion sensors in stairwells, corridors and communal areas. For next year, we want to work more closely with King’s’ environment and energy teams and students (including Green Reggie and the Green Ambassadors) to cut down on our overall impact on the environment. If you have any ideas on how to make King’s and KCLSU greener, do please get in touch with Holly, VP Activities & Facilities and Fahan, our Environment Officer at - vpsaf@kclsu.org!
Comment
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Democracy in action?
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Picture by Jamie Barras
The KCLSU Election Saga: From start to finish Zoe Tipler & Fran Allfrey 2 March - Candidates are announced and campaigning begins Right from the start, Roar! noted that social networks began to be peppered with questions surrounding the regulations of the elections: with students musing on things such as how many flyers people are legitimately allowed to have on campus (answer: an unlimited amount), speculation on the costs of campaigning and whether there is a cap (there is none), and also on the use of the KCLSU logo on candidate produced materials (which again, there is no current rule on).
7 March - Voting Opens Complaints coming into the vote@kclsu.org inbox were dealt with by the external Returning Officers as they arrived, and were treated on a case by case basis as per the remit of the ROs.
mailed a link to their King’s account which allowed them to vote securely. VPSME Fran Allfrey said at the time, that she would “ensure that KCLSU publicise the new timetable thoroughly and ensure that KCLSU take some of the campaigning load off candidates as that is the right thing to do for both candidates, and all voters”. Nothing was released to voters to keep them informed that any investigations into candidate misconduct were ongoing. The evening of the 14 March also saw a petition launched urging the Returning Officers to release the names of any candidates found guilty of election misconduct, along with the nature of their misconduct and their penalties. The petition noted that the information was necessary so that voters could make more informed choices, and so that candidates and voters could police any penalties which had been imposed. Over 24 hours, 600 people signed the petition: with 300 signing with @kcl.ac.uk email addresses. However, the petition had to be closed following a hack which generated fake signatures.
It was noted by KCLSU students and staff alike that the standard and creativity of campaigning, and the size of the campaign teams were certainly something to be celebrated - despite a growing undercurrent of discontent surrounding problems with the logout button of the voting software apparently not working as expected. Students found they were able to press ‘back’ after logging out, and could find themselves logged back in. KCLSU staff at voting stations reminded candidates to close their browser in order to ‘log out properly’. A solution which didn’t actually solve the problem every time, often a cache clear was needed - but KCLSU didn’t communicate this.
Despite KCLSU’s promises to help candidates retain momentum, and the appearance of more KCLSU branded flyers and posters, manned voting stations and candidate ‘walls’, the meagre 2034 votes cast arguably indicates that the Union failed in its promise to help candidates run a successful election. For example, on the first new day of elections not a single twitter or facebook message came from KCLSU to promote elections. Many candidates felt that the majority of the work to get those votes was actually done by them. The fact that many candidates appeared to stop campaigning altogether - with one candidate formally pulling out - further shows that candidates simply felt unable to dedicate the necessary time to campaign as they had done the first time round.
8 March - Ballot Suspended
Who done it?!
On the 8th of March KCLSU shocked everyone by being only the second union in the country to suspend elections this year (Manchester managed it first). Without prior warning, candidates were sent an e-mail informing them the elections were being suspended at 8pm, because ‘it has been brought to our attention... that votes have been cast without voters’ knowledge’. Later that night KCLSU released a statement on their website and to all students stating ‘voting shall be halted with immediate effect and all votes cast declared null and void.’
As noted above, the main stumbling block for candidates was that they were unable to tell voters who had been found guilty of misconduct, and the punishment those people had received. On March 14 The Returning Officers Anne Poulson and Chris Shelley said “The Disciplinary Committee reviewed all the evidence for each of the serious complaints referred to it and applied sanctions that were appropriate and fair to all candidates and voters”: which Roar! interprets as meaning that the punishment was their penalty, and to reveal their identity would be further ‘sanction’. This message was shared with candidates.
Cheating Allegations and Technical Problems
duct [but because of the logging out problem].” Roar! sought student reaction to this, best summed up by one student who simply said, “I’m not voting in case I vote for the person who cheated”. Student Thomas Williams noted, “It is disgraceful that electors have no knowledge of who was guilty of what is alleged to be very serious misconduct. We have a right to know who caused our elections to be suspended”. However the Returning Officers failed to heed student’s requests on the grounds that individual candidates “are not victimised” the names will only potentially be released “as part of a wider review of the Electoral Code of Conduct for next year’s elections.” And so the matter was finalised.
Now: Keep up the pressure Regardless of the fact that elections are over and new Officers are in place, there is still work we can all do. Roar! urges you to keep up the pressure on KCLSU to lobby the Returning Officers to release the names of the people who tried to defraud their way into a £22,500 a year job, and furthermore to work to ensure that as many students as possible can give their input into improving future election regulations. Indeed, the KCLSU AGM of Thursday 22 March saw students mandate KCLSU to do just that (see www.kclsu.org/agm for the motion in full). KCLSU have to listen now. After all, we don’t even know whether the winning candidates were found guilty or not. For the sake of those who did not commit misconduct, Roar! urge that the names be released. If elections are supposed to be ultimately “free and fair”, don’t we all have the right to know who was trying to con us? It is a sign of a strong democracy that we, as the student body who elects them, will know how best to deal with disciplinary issues. This should not be allowed to be the decision of four people alone, two of whom are neither elected nor students!
But try explaining to voters that someone cheated, but you can’t tell them who exactly they are, or what they did and that they are still running in the election. To make matters worse, although KCLSU passed on the above message from the ROs to candi- Send your suggestions on how to improve the KCLSU elecdates, this was not clearly, nor in a timely fashion, communi- tions to vote@kclsu.org, they will go into changing the cated to students. There was no mention of disciplinaries in any regulations from September 2012. KCLSU website statements see kclsu.org/news, and refer to news story ‘KCLSU Elections - let’s try that again...’ then they would receive a campaign suspendated 13 March. Confused? We are! Standing for election at any level is a privilege sion, and that is exactly what happened last and a burden, not something that all candidates year. However, if their cheating was malicious After a notable silence on the 14 March - And they’re off.... Again! in this election acknowledged. There is sup- then would be excluded from the election. issue, KCLSU President Hanposed to be a great amount of organisation and nah Barlow released a stateHaving waited the weekend, candidates attended meetings on the work involved in running a successful cam- This year’s committee was made up of Anne Monday 12 March in which the Returning Officers and KCLSU ment on the 16 March (only paign, not things that can circumvented any Poulson (Returning Officer), Chris Shelley took questions, confirming that some candidates ‘may or may not a couple of hours before close other way than delegation. (Deputy Returning Officer), a Student Trustee, have been disciplined for election misconduct’. Despite pressure of voting) which included the and a member of Student Council. ROs above statement, and from candidates, the ROs would not release the names of those The election was marred from before it began who had been punished, why they were punished, or what their added “the issue identified with allegations of cheating, one candidate is This group decided that those people, there with logging out [meant] that punishment was. supposed to have started campaigning 11 days were at least three candidates, found guilty of we could not be sure that each before they should have done, and would attempting to defraud the election, should only member of KCLSU had only Candidates were informed on the 13 March that voting would definitely have been aware of this. Also, the receive a short suspension. resume the next day, with all previous votes null and void. been able to vote once. The voting software was clearly flawed, and this KCLSU promised to do all it could to repair the damage done decision [to halt elections] weakness had been flagged to KCLSU during ‘Due to the fact that the voting process has to the reputation of the elections. Following advice from the Re- was not made as a result of the referendum a month earlier. been declared null and void, the final outcome an individual candidates’ conturning Officers, laptops were banned and instead people were eof the election has not been affected by any The overriding rule of KCLSU elections is that of the complaints. Therefore it was not felt they must be free and fair. Last year we saw necessary to remove any candidates from the The winning candidates - Charlotte, Tom, Kiki and Lucy - are now all an election where this spirit was broken, with election.’ the overwhelming use of laptops, but no actual mandated to review the elections for next year, if the review continrules were broken. This year that was sadly not I may be engaging in ‘reductio ad absurdum’ ues into their term of office - which begins in July. to be. but we still consider attempted murder a pretty serious crime… Candidates are charged with voting for others without their knowledge. There were com- There are still many weeks left of this year, and plaints of voter coercion, and there is one then it’s a new year, with new Student Officstory that a voter had a laptop snatched from ers. Maybe apparent conspiracy to keep what their hands as they were voting, and their vote happened a secret will be broken, or maybe we changed. will never know what happened. But most importantly it cannot be allowed to happen again. Maybe having so few rules we had to expect some infringements, but that these would be I may have said I had no faith left in KCLSU, adequately dealt with by the ‘Election Com- but I can have faith in the future, and even in plaints Committee’. Last year the convention KCLSU’s future. was that if someone cheated without malice It was thought at the time of the Ballot suspension that the reason for the suspension was the complaints made by candidates against certain other candidates: that some of their number were taking advantage of the ‘press back to log back in’, in order to use other people’s votes. Speculation was allowed to ferment as candidates and student media groups, complained of a lack of definitive, clear information. KCLSU could not reveal anything that the ROs didn’t deem appropriate.
A Candidate’s View
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Comment
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
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Edited by Olivia Selley comment@roarnews.co.uk
Soon to be Forgotten
Happy Apathy Max Edwards
Salma Benyahia
Mary Davies
As someone with very little interest in student politics, upon hearing the news that KCLSU’s electoral voting had been declared null and void over allegations of malpractice, I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s fairly obvious for all to see that the system is inherently flawed. The Autumn elections, according to KCLSU’s website, attracted 1,631 voters. Of a student body of 23,000-plus, that represents a reprehensible 14% of students voting. While student unions across the country report similar figures, the low turnout is clearly a signal of vast apathy. Of those, one can assume that many were friends/acquaintances of those involved, and voting purely for those reasons. Clearly, not many actively care. But why? The election for officers of KCLSU (which, let’s not forget, are full-time, untaxed, well-earning jobs) amounts, on the whole, to a pissing contest. If someone you know is up for a position, it’s more than likely that they (or a mutual friend) will ask you to vote for them. And, 9 times out of 10, as a good friend, you will. How many people can honestly say they looked at each of the manifestos of the forty-or-so candidates, and made an informed decision, based on who actually deserves the job? At the same time, each manifesto says generally the same thing: “We need a cash machine in the Strand,” “We need the campuses to be more unified”. The spirit of the elections was summed up by a happy half hour spent mocking the quality of short manifestos in last month’s Roar! in the Macadam Lobby with some friends. The answer? I don’t really know, but it’s fairly clear that it needs looking at. Student politics is made out to be a vibrant, flourishing thing, with far reaching results. In reality it is an irritant, and, following the recent scandal, clearly an unfair one at that. What is needed is a review of the whole system of governance, of student representation. Are these people needed? Some, yes; there clearly needs to be a democratic student voice in the running of the university. But do we need some of the roles that no-one actually knows about? What exactly is a vice-president of media and engagement? What do they do? Where is the transparency on where £25 grand of our student debt loans are going? Are these people in it for the greater good, or are they in it for their back pockets? These are questions we all should be asking.
Confinement Retirement It was revealed last week that David Cameron would not be bringing into question the extradition of 65-yearold Chris Tappin with Obama during his trip to Washington this week. Tappin was extradited on 24th February after claims that he conspired to sell batteries for use in Iranian missiles emerged. Claiming that he was the victim of a sting operation, Tappin denies any wrongdoing. His deportation has sparked a debate over whether British and American citizens are treated equally under the two countries’ extradition treaty.
No doubt the story of the US soldier opening fire on 16 Afghan civilians has reached you. I read the story with great disgust; however, I could not help this overwhelming feeling of ‘I told you so’ come over me. For me, the story did little but to confirm my existing beliefs that corruption is rife in the U.S and British military alike. Not so long ago a video of U.S soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban members went viral. Everyone recoiled in shock and horror at the usually oh-so-patriotic, righteous and honorable soldiers committing an act that was so far from the overall conduct of the military. NATO issued an apology and the entire incident was brushed under the carpet and that was that. Now another story of U.S soldiers’ misconduct in the region has come to light. But not to worry, the story will dominate the media for only a little while longer before that too is swept under the carpet and nothing more is said of it. Let me assure you that there are many more cases like these, which we hear nothing about and the U.S/British soldiers
‘‘Who Are They?’’ Benjamin Nelmes There are certain things that the Brits hold dear: keeping Sterling, maintaining our state pensions, the decent treatment of our war-veterans, the list goes on. At the top of this list is the NHS, which, as Nigel Lawson said, is “the closest thing the English have to a religion.” When politicians mess with these secular religions, it can be fatal for a government. The way some Lib Dems have reacted to the public’s opposition to the NHS has been telling. Their party leadership tells us that the bill is transformed, thanks to them reigning in the Tories, and that the NHS is safe in coalition hands. Their party activists, like most of the public, see the NHS reforms as an assault on our treasured universal healthcare. Those activists are so opposed to the reforms that at a conference last weekend fliers and badges were distributed, and a website set-up calling on the
receive no punishment for. The language used by the media to describe the incident is also infuriating. Many news outlets have simply reported it as ‘US soldier kills 16 Afghan civilian in gun rampage’ or ‘Rogue US soldier’. Now, it makes a change to see a headline which isn’t specifically written to evoke emotion or with a certain bias but it is the rarity of this that makes me believe that this story will soon disappear from the hearts and minds of people. It is almost as if the incident is being purposefully downplayed and the U.S soldier will be very unlikely to suffer greatly for what he has done. In a written statement, Mr Obama said: “I offer my condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and to the people of Afghanistan, who have endured too much violence and suffering. This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.” I could have predicted this clichéd statement; in fact, I am sure it has been recycled and reused on numerous occasions, by numerous U.S of-
ficials in order to excuse the behavior of the people who should be the best representation of America, the cream of the crop. An article regarding the killing rampage in Afghanistan from The Week with The First Post perfectly concluded my disdain for the military operation in Afghanistan. The article was short and concise, presenting the story with various quotes from NATO, The New York Times and The Sunday Times. As a conclusion to the article the reader is presented with the following: “Last week six British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the worst attack on British forces since the operation in Afghanistan began in 2001.” If it wasn’t so sickening it’d be funny. The “worst attack on British forces since the operation in Afghanistan began” is the death of six British soldiers by a roadside bomb. The killing of 16 Afghan civilians, of which many were women and children is just another statistic to add to the pile of ever increasing casualties in Afghanistan.
party to ‘kill the bill’. All this leaves us asking, “who are the Lib Dems?” Isn’t this exactly the sort of policy they would have collectively opposed in the past? The Lib Dems have divisions which rarely raised their head in opposition. It’s easy to agree on what you disagree with. The present party is composed of former Social Democrats, Labour defectors and relics of the old Gladstonian Liberals. Their inevitable differences have only surfaced under the pressures of being in government. In the last 10 years, the Lib Dems have picked up support at the expense of Labour, voters on the left who saw New Labour as being too centre-right. They became the activists and the members, and so the support-base of the party became largely centre-left. The party leadership, however, has become laissez-faire liberal, and not of the centre-left. With the publication of The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism in 2004, the laissez-faire liberals
The 2003 US-UK extradition treaty made it easier for the US to seek the extradition of someone from the UK because the US would no longer need to present evidence to the British courts against the suspect. This assumes an equivalence in the way other jurisdictions work. However, the US legal system has been marked and eroded by the rough justice known as plea-bargaining. Swapping the golf club for 23 hour-a-day solitary confinement, Tappin is being forcefully encouraged to plead guilty. Unless he does so Tappin will, in all likelihood, face lifetime imprisonment waiting for his trial. If he pleads guilty to a lesser charge, his trial will reach the court within a few years but he will leave the US with a criminal record for a crime he did not commit. No longer innocent before proven guilty, the very foundations of our legal system have been undermined by these extradition arrangements. On leaving the UK, Tappin complained that he seemed to have fewer human rights than Abu Qatada. Tappin, our own citizen, can be removed to the States, without any inspection of the judicial evidence. Yet Abu Qatada, the surveillance of whom is costing many thousands of pounds, has avoided deportation to Jordan because evidence against him may have been wrongfully obtained. All of the allegations against Tappin concern conduct committed on UK soil, surely he should be allowed the right to trial in a UK court. A citizen of such a close ally to the US is being denied the presumption of innocence. Worst of all, the UK government has treated the case, and the man forced behind bars, with little more than apathy. He is a businessman, a husband and a father but to all those that have turned their backs on him, he’s no citizen of ours.
marked out ways of solving problems with less government and more choice and competition. Of the seven Lib Dem cabinet members who have served in the present administration, five were contributors to The Orange Book. Only Danny Alexander and Michael Moore did not contribute, Alexander was a public park press officer at the time of its publication. Moore once advised a Question Time audience member, who was worried about becoming homeless as a result of government spending cuts, that every citizen had to make sacrifices. The laissez-faire liberal dominance of the party leadership was conifirmed when Nick Clegg ran for the leadership and no one from the Menzies Campbell/Charles Kennedy left of the party opposed him. One wonders what Nick Clegg privately thinks of the NHS reforms. It is possible, even likely, that he looks at increased competition and self-governing GP’s consortia, and thinks what nice liberal proposals they are.
Comment
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
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Comment Sub-Editor Ben Jackson
IS THE “KONY 2012” CAMPAIGN A FORCE FOR GOOD? Who’s Joseph Kony? If you’ve seen the video, you’ll know he’s a Ugandan warlord, reportedly employing thousands of young boys into
his army – the Lord’s Resistance Army – and turning young girls into sex slaves. The aim of Invisible Children, the charity that produced the video, is to raise global awareness with the endgame of capturing him. There’s been quite a bit of opposition, with supporters being labeled as Facebook warriors who claim righteousness for merely sharing a video. I dread to think of the counter-campaigns – ‘The Friends of Kony Alliance’ or ‘LEAVE KONY ALONE!’ are possible t-shirt slogans. On April 20th, everyone’s apparently going to take to the streets and do an all-nighter, putting posters up everywhere. It sounds like a nightmare, walking down the Strand the next morning, past clumsily placed posters covering the faces of our beloved alumni. I suppose the pavement being full of traffic Konys rather than the usual traffic cone variety would be a nice change. However, it remains yet to be seen whether even 1% of the charity’s supporters will turn up and join in on this night when everyone’s supposed to “save the world”. So tell me, is this online campaign of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ going to destabi-
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“KONY 2012” seems to be an example of the future of charity campaigning.
Olivia Selley Too happy, oversimplified, “15 years too late”, sensationalised, manipulated and exaggerated are some of the many criticisms leveled at “KONY 2012.” Indeed Invisible Children’s campaign has many flaws, perhaps none so disconcerting than the films general air of self-satisfaction and smugness and the focus on Russell’s son is obvious and unconvincing, but the film has been a huge success in respect to views with over 73 million on YouTube alone. “KONY 2012” seems to be an example of the future of charity campaigning. I’m sure people are familiar with adverts campaigning to end world hunger or to give access to clean water in deprived communities, images of wide eyed helpless children causing you too look at you un-drunk cup of tea with guilt. I think people have become desensitised to such passive campaigns and “KONY 2012” inspires outrage, shock and curiosity in a way in which other campaigns have not. It tracks and makes clear the progress that is made by the charity. Whether one agrees with the charity’s intentions and methods or not, at least clear progress is demonstrated. There has been contempt shown too for the action kit advertised, selling for US$30. You might not want this, or think it is too much to pay but it is preferable to consenting to a monthly direct debit, handing over your bank details to some stranger in the street with no knowledge or sense
YES that your money is doing anything productive. And even if the action kit is seen as a shallow gimmick, if it comes to be the tipping point deciding whether someone donates to a charity or not, then so be it – some people need “stuff’’. It may also be that the campaign video is an unreliable source of information: key facts are omitted and figures are apparently exaggerated. Further cause for doubt in Invisible Children is the comparatively low spending on the ground, the founders’ high salaries and their support of a questionable Ugandan army. But it is the curiosity that it generates. That is the point. I would condemn anyone who simply sees the campaign video and allows that to be the extent to his or her knowledge on the issue. The video should merely be a stimulus for everyone to go out and find out more about the situation should they care too. Ultimately the main message seems to be to make Kony famous. Whether it be 6 years since he was in Uganda, whether it be 3 or 30,000 people affected by his terrorising campaign, it is right that people should at the very least be aware of his existence. I agree with the statement that in a weeks time you’re likely to know a ‘hell of a lot more about it’ and if only for this reason “KONY 2012” can be seen as a force for good.
NO
Emily Nelson
“KONY 2012” seems to have taken over Facebook like a virus. Before the video went viral, Joseph Kony was practically unheard of and the Invisible Children movement less so, and then practically overnight the video is everywhere, with more than fifty million hits on YouTube in less than four days. Has any campaign ever managed to utilise the power of Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites as successfully? Not to my knowledge.
managed to assemble hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, and I am sure the number has now gone into multiple millions. This video is a success story of how social media can be used to make people care when usually they probably don’t, and however misleading it may be, the fact is that Joseph Kony is one of the worst criminals in the world, and that few people would be able to tell you anything about him before five days ago.
‘Misleading’ seems to be a term used very often. However, looking away from how incorrect or misleading the campaign might be for one moment, I think that “KONY 2012” is such a phenomenon for another, equally important reason.
The backlash gives rise to the other side of a currently one sided argument, but whether you buy into Invisible Children’s campaign or not, it is guaranteed that by next week you will know a hell of a lot more than you did last week.
According to the video, Invisible Children founder and narrator Jason Russell visited Uganda in 2003 and it is directly from his experiences, and the effect of the LRA on the communities and people that he met there that this whole campaign was brought into existence. One of the emotions that I felt whilst watching the video was awe; awe that one man can see something that is so inherently wrong, and yet seemingly unstoppable, and within ten years can raise awareness to the point that within five days their latest campaign is being covered by almost every national, and even global news channel, newspaper, and social media.
However, it is undoubtable that the video is very well made, in fact it seems almost too slick, using the cute kid as a contrast to what is happening to children all over Africa under Kony and the LRA. The directors have gone all out to make sure that this film appeals to every emotion: shock, sympathy, solidarity, and all of the facts seem to fit in so well that it is not surprising that there has been an outcry. After all, the world of right and wrong painted by “KONY 2012” seems incredibly one sided, omitting the fact that the Ugandan army they are so keen to support have also been accused of rape and looting whilst searching for Kony, or that Kony hasn’t been in Uganda since 2006.
He started with hundreds, and
If you have any issue that you are burning to debate e-mail Ben at comment@roarnews.co.uk
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The world of right and wrong painted by “KONY 2012” seems incredibly one sided
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lise a Ugandan warlord or is this another way for white middle class students to feel self-satisfied, as if they’ve “made a change”?
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Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Student Groups
Geeksoc: not just for nerds Jasmin Kirkbride There are very few societies at university which will actually change your life. Geek Soc is one of them. There’s a nasty association with the word ‘geek’ that makes most people think of a bunch of rather dull individuals sitting around throwing dice and arguing about Lord of the Rings. Well, we do throw dice - and we have been known to have an occasional rant about Tolkien - but we sure as hell aren’t dull! There’s something going on in Geek Soc almost every day of the week: there’s anime on Monday; Wednesday is the pub meet (yes, that’s right, we go to the pub just for the joy of going to the pub!); there’s the sci-fi and fantasy book club; once a month we have a board games day and we also have regular video game evenings with DDR, Smash Bros and much more. In addition to this, there are various RPGs going on constantly - literally every night! (For those of you who aren’t in the know, RPGs, or Roleplay Games, are like ‘let’s pretend’ with actual rules.) There are special events too, conventions trips and the Student Nationals, to which I am going with great and geeky pride! Geek Soc covers a whole host of interests: comics, manga, anime, sci-fi, fantasy, RPGs, video games, board games and so much more. But aside from all the events Geek Soc puts on, it’s also just an amazing bunch of people. The thing that makes Geek Soc really special is that there are always friends of members coming along, whether from other universities or other countries, and a lot of the alumni still hang out with us even though they have graduated. The thing is that you make friends for life in Geek Soc, not just friends for university. Everyone is so open and accepting that you end up meeting people who you otherwise might not have sat down and talked to and I cannot express how worthwhile that is! So don’t judge us by our dice and zombie apocalypse plans, come along and experience the society for yourself. Trust me, you won’t regret it!
NOMINATE NOW! THE KCLSU AWARDS 2012
The KCLSU Awards are presented every year at the end of term to those people who have made outstanding, exceptional and brilliant contributions to life at (and often beyond!) King’s. Any King’s student can be nominated for an award, or nominate someone else for an award, and the categories are very broad so you’ll probably know someone (or indeed some club or group!) who is eligible to enter.
Award Categories:
For any student: • KCLSU Honorary Life Membership • The Haris Ahmed Award • Laurel • Half Laurel
Students and KCLSU/King’s staff can nominate people they feel have done something to contribute to KCLSU and/or the King’s community that is worthy of recognition. The nominations are then reviewed by the awards committee, made up of students, and elected Officers, and the winners decided. The winners For Staff (at College or KCLSU): are then announced at a swanky awards ceremony, held this year on 29th May at Tutu’s. • President’s Wreath • KCLSU Student Staff Member of the Year For student groups & group members: • Vice President’s Shield (individual award) • President of the Year • Best New Society • Society of the Year • Campaigner of the Year • Campaign Group of the Year • Environmental Impact Award • Fundraiser of the Year • Fundraising Group of the Year
• • •
Student Media Contributor of the Year Volunteer of the Year Volunteering Group of the Year
For sport teams & team members: • Burt Brailsford Award (individual award for field sports, one male, one female) • Vice President’s Cup (individual award for non-field sports, one male, one female) • Sport person of the Year (one male, one female) • Club of the Year • Team of the Year (ie, team within a particular club) • Most Improved Club For representatives: Student Councillor of the Year Academic Rep / Course Rep of the Year Find full descriptions and info on how to nominate at www.kclsu.org/awards
Barnardo’s @ King’s ‘WE ARE GREEN!’ Valerie Crolley Barnardo’s @ King’s is on of KCLSU’s newest societies. We formed last year in order to raise funds and awareness of the plight of poor and vulnerable children in the UK, and since then the project has really taken off! Each year, Barnardo’s helps over 190,000 children and their families, and, due to the recession, this number is on the increase. This means that Barnardo’s needs more money, more donated goods and more volunteers to help with the increased demands on their services. Our society at King’s has raised over £10,000 in our first year of existence. We did this primarily by organising a large scale collection of unwanted clothing and other usable items from students and staff living in the Halls of Residences that would otherwise have ended up in landfill; and donating them to Barnardo’s. So not only do we help Barnardo’s, we also help King’s in its mission to become greener, reduce waste and recycle more. Our first collection included every hall at King’s, and we collected 246 large (bin-sized) bags of clothing and recyclable goods. We asked the residents to donate by placing their donations in the Barnardo’s bags that we provided as they were packing to move out: and one hall even donated a couple of washing machines! We later collected the bags and took them to the Barnardo’s collection depot. From there, they are distributed to the Barnardo’s shops. After the collection, the Assistant Director of Barnardo’s sent us a letter thanking us for the amount and quality of the donations, and she said that they would raise a substantial amount of money for the charity. If we conservatively estimate each large bag as having a resale value of £40, £9840 will have been raised from the first collections alone. Continuing these collections means that stock is provided for the Barnardo’s stores (that were in danger of closing), and in addition to running more collections, we have also held karaoke events, bucket collections, and provided support for the London Marathon. And now, in order to expand our “WE ARE GREEN” campaign to all of KCL, we have placed Charity Collection Bins in The Spit, Kinetic, and the Strand KCLSU areas. So, bring your unwanted (good quality) clothes into King’s and be a part of helping our fantastic cause so that we can raise more money for Bardardo’s than ever, and keep King’s greener too.
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Careers
Careers Section Georgia Rajah, Careers Editor
Mellow 9 Productions: An insight into Scriptwriting and Film tives in the industry, until by chance he managed to connect with Adrian on a group-networking site. Adrian claimed that he simply had a good feeling about Alexi, and that was how he was invited to become part of the Mellow 9 team.
The Careers department has recently had visits from students seeking advice on a career in scripwriting. Luckily they were pointed in the direction of the Mellow 9 Productions presentation, where representatives shared with students their journeys into scriptwriting and film. Mellow 9 Productions is a company that was founded in 2009 by scriptwriters Adrian Scott and Michael Kyei. Since then they have expanded their company to include filmmakers, researchers and producers, hoping to create stories that offer both an entertaining and an educative experience. The current team at Mellow 9 Productions encompasses a variety of characters. They seek to address the issues of “real people”. Their mission statement: “to create Audio visual production via the oldest form of communication known to mankind – storytelling”. From the onset of the presentation it seemed clear that the
representatives of the production company were both mellow by nature as well as by name. Adrian Scott and Alexi
Adrian began his career working for the BBC, having had a passion for writing since he was a child. He insisted that scriptwriting is possibly the most important aspect in creating film, claiming that the scriptwriter is the true ‘auteur’: everyone else involved
Mellow 9 Productions covers a variety of film genres, including documentary style sketches and short films with the Mellow 9 short film ‘Bare Polar’ winning the best film award at the Happy Soul Film Festival. Whatever the genre however, it seems that the most important aspect of film is the effect on the viewer.
Nunes were quick to create an easy rapport with students, both offering to share their experiences leading up to and including their time at Mellow 9 Productions. Alexi had taken individual film courses before seeking some form of work experience. He used every form of social networking available to get in touch with other representa-
in the filmmaking practice, he claimed, is simply an interpreter. Adrian warned that scriptwriting is a lonely profession but with a great team behind you it can be a great profession too. Adrian suggested that it’s best to work with a fellow scriptwriter, claiming that it is more productive to have someone’s honest opinion guiding your
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own writing efforts. The best advice he could give for any up and coming scriptwriters: “just write”.
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Successful applicants will have excellent first degrees in subjects such as history, politics, law or English literature, a commitment to journalism and demonstrable aptitude for the profession.
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“The point is a film will be loved and hated by everyone! But as long as it brings out emotion either passionate or venomous then I feel it has succeeded in making an impact good or bad!” To find out more about Mellow 9 go to www.mellow9productions.co.uk The BBC also welcomes unsolicited original scripts: Send yours in at http://www.bbc. co.uk/writersroom/send-ascript/.
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Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
FEATURES Edited by Matt Lever features@roarnews.co.uk
THE ROTTEN CORE OF STUDENT POLITICS? staff that were canvassing to promote the elections.
Ilk Ghavami The recent KCLSU elections showed a bizarre series of unfortunate events that highlighted the unfortunate lack of transparency from the Student Union’s hierarchy, the unnecessarily aggressive nature of campaigners and a selection of run-of-the-mill candidates. With regards to the SU hierarchy, I believe that if the SU positions truly mattered and effectively served to promote engagement from the student body, then the whole voting situation would have been handled with greater caution. If the SU cared about the positions, they would release the names of those guilty of wrongdoing, they would explain the cancellation and voting system better, and the second round of elections would have accommodated all the hopeful candidates’ wants and needs better. The fragmented voting allowed for the President eventually selected to lack a real mandate because, by the time the second voting had begun in a hurried fashion (without a proper explanation), the electorate had shrunk to those student that only paid close attention to the SU or were directly related to a certain club or organisation. Thus the election was determined by a committed minority of students; the candidates appealed to that minority and not the whole community. While the first round of voting could have lured voters, they were unfortunately cancelled. The second election ensured that only an individual that was bureaucratically indoctrinated could succeed. The only caveat to this rule were individuals related to popular sports team through which they could rally support, which was the case with some of the candidates who split votes in the Presidential election across a potent voting group. Now this aside, the institutional hurdles were plentiful for the entire election process. Emails lacked substance or information, so the only way a student could get updated on the situation was via a candidate, doing personal research using the biased and limited media outlets at KCL (KCL Radio/Roar!), or through SU
The unfortunate reality is that KCL media outlets lack broad support and therefore themselves support a thicket of bland institutional self serving sections of the candidates. The general media outlets had a natural bias towards a run-of-the-mill candidate whom they happen to support via personal links. So with a bizarre election procedure, personal links became the main game; a skinny latte of cronyism that put friends over others. The one further issue was that of SU infighting. The election drama brought current officers into passiveaggressive face-offs. Blame here rests on the SU, personal in-house rivalry based on character disagreements, and/or careerism. The whole situation puts cracks in the current governing body which will surely affect the day-to-day workings of the SU, especially given that one of the candidates holds a current position. A bitterly divided KCLSU means a weaker KCLSU. But the woes of this election are merely resprentative of a rotten core at the heart of all student politics. Call me a helpless romantic but I think careerism is an unfortunate ill which rivals the place of selfless passion in our student world. It shold be about passion, but the behaviour in run-up to the elections lacked that because it was marred with bullying, aggression, and underhandedness. We all witnessed strong careerist tendencies - an unfortunate existence in university politics - with students taking personal rivalries and competitions to be self-serving and not made to fight for a greater cause. Ugly competition is only able to be trumped by candidates that fought for a cause or higher calling to benefit the KCLSU community, not the position with its £22,000 paycheque or CV headliner to pre-empt your blossoming political career. KCLSU represents all students at the university, and thus it should never be a race to the bottom: we are supposed to engage everyone. In the revolving door of political office, somehow students fell for the themes of careerism, greed, waste, and all the dirty characteristics of politics.
Editor in Chief’s Note VPSME Fran Allfrey
Rather than edit the mistakes/ misunderstandings made in Ilk’s piece opposite, and therefore risk both accusations of censorship, and ‘missing the point’ (after all, sometimes what people believe to be true is as good as true, we know KCLSU have had some communication blunders), I think it is best to respond by tackling the problematic lines word for word, and I thank the Roar student editor, Zoe, for allowing me this response. Perhaps I should make clear too what I do and don’t know - like every other voter, I have no idea who was accused of, or was found guilty of election misconduct, or their punishments (if any). The Returning Officers which you might have heard so much about are external to KCLSU, appointed by our Trustees to ensure that the elections are run fairly, without influence from KCLSU in any decision making. “The recent KCLSU elections... highlighted the unfortunate lack of transparency from the Student Union’s hierarchy” I argue that in fact, what the elections revealed was that transparency simply wasn’t written into the election regulations. Therefore, the Returning Officers and the Election Disciplinary Committee (consisting of the ROs, and two students) had little guidance on what they could and could not make public. “I believe that if the SU positions truly mattered... then the whole voting situation would have been handled with greater caution, and adequate bye laws which protect both voters, candidates, and the Union would be in place.”
DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED Wan Shun Fan
At the beginning of March the Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Campus, was closed due to a ‘security incident’—at least that’s what the Public Relations team decided to call it. The building was evacuated between 8.30 and 9am and then part of Stamford Street was sealed off by police tape. Three hours later the tape was removed and both the road and building were opened for business.
The ‘security incident’ turned out to be a bomb scare but obviously/fortunately no bomb was ever found. My guess is that someone at the Waterloo campus had forgotten what they’d learned at any tube station, train station or airport. Do not leave baggage unattended. I cannot say for sure that someone did indeed report a suspicious package but it seems much more likely than a security guard finding a ticking black box strapped to a water pipe.
I like to imagine that a student approached a security guard telling them ‘A brown paper bag has been left on that bench over there. It’s leaking tuna and sweetcorn but it’s probably a bomb... possibly nuclear.’ I’m being silly but this is exactly what the Metropolitan Police has invited us to do. On a red A5-sized leaflet Londoners are reminded that terrorists ‘live amongst us’ and that we should ‘call the confidential anti-terrorist hotline’ if we note anything ‘suspicious’’. I
I totally agree here that we need better bye laws which protect everyone’s rights. However, it was not a case of the Union not caring about the elections. KCLSU have simply always taken the attitude of relying on the good nature of candidates. Less rigid elections rules were thought to simply encourage more innovative campaigning, and remove bureaucracy. “If the SU cared about the positions, they would release the names of those guilty of wrongdoing” This, as I hope is clear from above, is simply not in KCLSU’s power. The ROs and Disciplinary Committee alone have say on this. The insinuation that the media outlets at King’s are biased is completely unfounded. It is written into the election regulations that Roar! must give equal coverage to all candidates. Furthermore, I witnessed first hand how hard the KCL Radio team worked to ensure that they interviewed all candidates, and gave unbiased coverage. On a personal note: “The one further issue was that of SU infighting.” All the student officers at KCLSU are individuals, and are entiteld to individual opinions. I personally see my role as a representative as being to react to student demands: to help students achieve what they want. Which is why I chose to establish the petition against the Returning Officers’ decisions, and is why I will be working hard to ensure election regultaions get changed for the future. Please keep sending your election feedback to vote@kclsu.org
am not going to go as far as to say that there is a direct link here but isn’t it strange how only a few days after these leaflets were disseminated around South London the security scare happened? My first instinct on seeing this leaflet was to question how fruitful it is to ask members of the - untrained public to phone the hotline and report ‘suspicious activity’. After all, what is ‘suspicious activity’ exactly? The notice kindly gives us a little hint at what we should be looking for: someone who buys ‘large amounts of chemicals … for no obvious reason’ (!) In January 2012 the hotline received 1149 calls and this works out at around 37 calls per day. We might want to compare that to the 6000 or so calls that the Metropolitan Police 999 line receives everyday. I could not get information about how many of these daily 37 calls to the hotline turned out to be genuine emergencies where an act of terrorism was taking place or imminent, but my inkling says very, very, few. Some might say that it only takes one ‘good’ call to the hotline to foil a terrorist plot, save lives and render the hotline a great success. And of course I would agree. But isn’t the purpose of the leaflet to scare people? If you’re not scared enough about terrorism, you’re not going to make calls to the hotline. And if a seed of terror is not planted in your head then you
are going to be too consumed in your newspaper/mp3 player/ebook reader on the bus to even consider whether the person sitting next to you is carrying something ‘suspicious’. The word ‘terrorism’ carries enough political charge without me adding to it but I thought this was what terrorism was about—terror. Instilling terror into regular people until their daily lives are permeated with fear. I worry that the Metropolitan Police are adding to a culture of fear. I should stress that I do not take terrorism lightly and I do not underestimate the pain that it inflicts on its victims and their loved ones. I knew someone whose life was tragically cut short in 2001; he was a passenger on the hijacked United Airlines flight 93 that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania minutes after the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. With the Olympics only a matter of weeks away the question of terrorism will no doubt arise in the political arena and in the mind of Londoners and non-Londoners alike. In choosing to live in or visit London, or any metropolis for that matter, I think you choose to take a risk—even if that risk is tiny. However what I do not think is useful is creating an atmosphere of fear that will most definitely manifest in actual behaviour; be it intolerance or hysteria.
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
FEATURES
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Killer Heels Leonie Shinn-Morris
With the news last week that Lady Gaga has become the first ever Twitter user to have 20 million followers, ahead of Justin Bieber, Katie Perry and Shakira, she is clearly as popular as ever. And, as recent images show, her popularity seems to increase with the rising heights of her outlandish shoes. High heels are traditionally worn to push up and out the buttocks and make a woman move her hips. From the urban legend of Marilyn Monroe sanding down one of her heels to give her a sexy walk, to the image of the modern underwear model who seems, despite clearly not going outside, to require the addition of shoes; high heels have been associated with sexualising the female body for male attention.
Eric Fischl: Occupy This Steven Edmondson
Art is brilliant, I love art. And I’ve decided I love Eric Fischl. My newfound love stems from the audacity of an upcoming gallery-straddling exhibition courtesy of Mary Boone, which features Fischl’s sexy portraits of his rich, sexy friends. Mary Boone, I love you. When we look at art and when we catalogue art, we like to view it in terms of the zeitgeist. Bob Dylan captures that youthful 60s rebelliousness. Andy Warhol embodies 1980s celebritarianism. Mike Kelley was the Rembrandt of the post-Thatcher boom years (a boom that ultimately, much like his art, was based on absolutely nothing). In the ease with which these artists can be slotted in to broader cultural flows they put temporary lie to post-modernist antinarrative sentiment. Fischl then, in representing that hazy pre-recession zeitgeist of late 2005 in 2012, is finally trashing the narrative. In a time of Occupy whatever, of the proletarian renaissance, Fischl is boldly standing up for the working gentry. ‘Look’
he’s saying, ‘look at my sexy rich friends.’ And look we should.
granted the opportunity to stare into the void, and it’s not looking back.
It’s near impossible to really shock people in terms of textural aesthetics anymore. People either passively accept any level of abstraction, or just dismiss it. In a world post formaldehyde-sharks it’s appropriate that it’s in the stuffy mimeticism of Fischl’s portraiture that passions can once again be roused.
Centuries of art have been preoccupied with making it real, with emotional resonance, from Da Vinci’s efforts to house the divine on canvas to Jeff Koons’ shameless nostalgic appeals through cultural detritus. But in Fischer, probably not even intentionally, the total absence of any kind of emotional resonance, its total obliviousness to its cultural context, becomes in itself resonant. It’s a very post-modern kind of resonance. I enjoy it. And that’s without having even seen them. They’re all in New York.
At a glance, Fischl’s glossy, vacant depiction of vacuous art dealer Simone DePury straddled by a nude Anh Duong in a frissonless embrace is as profoundly abrasive and revolutionary now as Duchamp’s Fountain was in 1917. The rich are thoroughly out of fashion. The bankers and the real estate moguls that Fischl depicts are, far from the beloved artistic patrons of old, responsible for the world’s shit. It’s a gallery by the 1%, for the 1%, featuring pictures of, exclusively, that self-same 1%. To the 99% then, these portraits say precisely nothing. In Fischl’s portraits, we’re
Is Take Me Out Sexist? Keziah Keeler The revolution will not be televised. It will, however, be subtly pre-empted by a series of abstract televisual statements, beknownst only to a select few intellectually developed members of society. Take Me Out airs on ITV on Saturday nights; to the general public it is viewed as a sexy gameshow, but it’s possible that we could take a lot more from it. Indeed, a knee-jerk reaction might be fairly negative. It is
an Athenian-style arena, surrounded by a panel of perfectly preened female judges who are called upon to remark on the ‘date-ability’ of a male contestant. It seems like the show is basically a cruel process of objectification, cashing in on the popular dating industry in the UK. The show is riddled with sexist slurs and involves a very outdated polarisation of male and female psyches, portraying women and men as two opposite entities who struggle to get along in the real world and have to be
However, recent pictures of Lady Gaga show the infamous singer walking on the most impossible of Alexander McQueen shoes. Similar to ones she’s worm in the past, these heels are monstrously huge. They look more like alien invertebrate feelers than feet. They are not pretty in any sense and definitely do not seem to ask for the sexual attention of men. Rather, they are crafted pieces of artwork that push the boundaries of the ‘natural’ female shape by protruding from the woman’s private sphere of her body outwards into public space. Lady Gaga parodies so many cultural phenomena, from pop music to religion, but here I think we see her parody femininity itself. She pushes her sexuality to the extreme until it is no longer sexy, subverting the very item of clothing that could objectify her.
High heels give you height; something men tend to have over women both physically and metaphorically. The average man is 5 foot 9 inches, while the average female is 5 foot 3 1/5 inches. Men also have higher wages and higher positions. Despite making up over half of the world’s population, in 2010, women on average made up 12% of board members in the biggest publicly-listed companies across the EU. While only 3% were board chairs. Women perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the world’s food and yet own 1% of the world’s property. There are more millionaires than women in the current Cabinet and thanks to the equal pay gap, women effectively work for free from early November while men get paid until the end of the year. Germaine Greer once famously said that ‘if [a woman] never takes off her high-heeled shoes, how will she ever know how far she could walk or how fast she could run?’ But how about how high she could reach? Why must we become like men in order to be treated with the same respect? What about walking right past these male conceptions of women as either having to be like a man, or objectified by a man? I believe Lady Gaga and her shoes show a way of walking outside of these categories altogether, only dressing for your own artistic sense and not for a sexual gaze. She also presents a way of using one’s femininity as the very act of resistance itself. When it comes to women and heels, Lady Gaga shows that the sky’s the limit.
After art’s democratization, courtesy of Warhol’s promotion of tinned goods, and its digitization, courtesy of Murakami, where else is there to go but back up? Art, like beauty, came from above. Fischl is doing his best to cram it back up there. So congratulations then. Thank you Eric. We’ve arrived. It’s the end of history. mediated by matchmaker host Paddy McGuinness. This is a process that’s detrimental to the success of women as it plays into the “separate but equal” ideology, which essentially states that women and men are good at different things, and should be left to socialise and succeed in different circles. However, whilst introducing the show last week, McGuinness made an interesting observation: “men are from Mars, Women are from Venus... but this show is out of this world!” he declared with vigour over the end of the opening credits. Perhaps he is right. Maybe the show shouldn’t be perceived in terms of our regular
frameworks for dealing with sexism; maybe it is just too far removed from reality. It is also the surreal reversal of society’s constant objectification of women that leads me to believe that there is more to this show. Recently, after being casually sexually harassed in the street by a group of American Psycho-esque businessmen on their smoking break, I thought to myself, “what would be the best way to teach these men that what they’re doing is wrong?” The answer is simple: to show them. There is no feeling in the world identical to being spoken to in that way, especially when you are outnumbered and vulnerable.
I’m not saying that the show is good because it teaches men a lesson, but I would be quicker to argue that the show is not sexist; at least not towards men. It’s true that if we were to reverse the genders of this show, we would be presented with a lawsuit. But the reason it’s okay for it to be done this way around is that sexism is based on a history of oppression. Clearly this show is absurd in the extent to which it objectifies men, and I don’t think that’s a good thing, but because it’s absurd and bizarre, it makes people think about gender roles. A longer version of this article appears online at www.roarnews.co.uk
12
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Elections 2012
Meet Your New Student Officers... President
Name: Thomas Clayton
president@kclsu.org @TJHMClayton
Q: So, you won, how do you feel in less than 10 words?? A: So many manifesto pledges to implement, so little time.
Q: What’s the first thing you’re thinking of doing when you get into the office? A: The BUCS AGM will be coming up pretty fast, our students voted to keep our GKT sports teams separate so I’m determined that other unions won’t force us into merging. Q: What one thing can people expect to see a real change in next year? A: I want the union to be a decent campaigning voice again - not just a service provider, we shouldn’t be afraid to tell the college and the government when they’re wrong. Q: Do you have any new plans about welcoming new and returning students back to King’s in the summer? A: We need to encourage people to spend fresher’s week with the people they’re going to be socialising with for the rest of the year like their sports clubs, societies, academic departments and halls. There’s no point in just having random mixers where you meet people you’re never going to see again. We also need to have more events where alcohol isn’t the primary focus and encourage everyone to go to freshers’ fair and try out a society; not just first year undergraduates.
Curly fries or chips? Curly fries with cheese, well worth the extra 50p.
Q: If you can only achieve one of your manifesto points in the next year which one would it be? A: Bringing in a widening-participation programme run and staffed by students to make sure poorer pupils in London aren’t going to be put off by the fee increase. Students need to be running widening participation at this university, not college bureaucrats. If anyone wants to get involved then get in touch! Q: Free education or fair fees? A: Free Education. It’s businesses that benefits the most from the university education system in this country and they should be paying more to fund it. Some graduates will benefit financially from a university degree but we should be recuperating the costs of educating them through a progressive graduate tax instead of charging equal fees for teachers and investment bankers like we do at the moment. Q: The far right: ban them from campus or create academic debate? A: Personally I’ve always been of the opinion that we should give them enough rope to hang themselves with, we’re intelligent enough to counteract their arguments. However, the moment they go beyond academic debate and start to create an atmosphere of intimidation we need to step in to protect our members.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Name: Lucy Hayes Q: So, you won, how do you feel in less than 10 words? A: Really excited to be part of a great team. Q: What’s the first thing you’re thinking of doing when you get into the office? A: Getting out there and finding out what student’s really want from their educational experience at King’s 3. How students give feedback. At the end of the day, it’s their opinion that really matters. Q: What’s your leadership style? Will you be banner waving, or are you more of a talker behind closed doors? A: I’d say I’m a bit of both, sometimes the best way to get the job done is by sitting down and talking it through, but other times waving a banner (or wearing a sandwich board) has a bigger impact.
Helping students now or helping students in the future? Helping students now.
Q: If you can only achieve one of your manifesto points in the next year which one would it be? A: I’m really hoping I will be able to improve King’s e-learning facilities, I think doing that would really improve students overall learning experience. Q: Do you have any new plans about welcoming new and returning students back to King’s in the summer? A: I think it’s just really important to meet students personally so that they can put a face to a name. Q: Curly fries or chips? A: Curly fries. Q: Sports or societies? A: Sports.
vpaa@kclsu.org
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Elections 2012
13
Say ‘hello’ to the four people who are going to be highly important to your next year at King’s! Whilst they won’t take up office till July, they’ve provided answers to some key questions, a mugshot for your inspection, and contact details to tide you over! So if you’ve been wondering what the new Student Officers are actually going to do (and you somehow missed the election manifestos) read on. If the answers you’re looking for aren’t here, drop them a line yourselves! www.kclsu.org/yourrepresentatives
Vice President of Student Media and Engagement Name: Charlotte Richardson Q: So, you won, how do you feel in less than 10 words? A: Excited and ready to get down to work for KCLSU! Q: What one thing can people expect to see a real change in next year? A: Major changes to our website and better use of social media. Q: What’s your leadership style? Will you be banner waving, or are you more of a talker behind closed doors? A: I like to do my job quietly and efficiently, in the hope that the high standards I set for myself, will rub off on the people around me who are willing to give 100% to KCLSU. Q: Your favourite inspirational quote? A: Don’t ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back.
Gin or Snakebite? Snakebite. @Charlotte_R22
Q: If you can only achieve one of your manifesto points in the next year which one would it be? A: Introduce a YouTube channel for any student to upload videos they have made or come across to do with King’s College. Q: Helping students now or helping students of the future? A: Helping students now. Q: Sports or societies? A: Sports.
vpsme@kclsu.org
Vice President of Student Activities and Facilities Name: Kirsten ‘Kiki’ Johnson Q: So, you won, how do you feel in less than 10 words?? A: Humbled, and enamoured with sandwich boards. Q: What’s the first thing you’re thinking of doing when you get into the office? A: I’ll probably have to christen it by doing “the worm” down the straightest bit. Q: What one thing can people expect to see a real change in next year? A: Elections. The majority of the candidates wanted to make a change here and it’s something I know all four of us feel strongly about. Q: What’s your leadership style? Will you be banner waving, or are you more of a talker behind closed doors? A: Somewhere in between I think, in order to get people involved there needs to be a certain amount of “look at me, I have interesting news!” but equally in order to make the best decision in a given circumstance meetings with the appropriate people need to be held.
Your favourite inspirational quote? Carpe Diem. @HGDot
Q: If you can only achieve one of your manifesto points in the next year which one would it be? A: Definitely making RAG week huge. Having done jailbreak I know how great it is! It’s been incredible at Guy’s and I think we could get so many more people involved, getting creative and raising a lot of money for good causes! Q: Gin or snakebite? A: Snakebite (been ginned far too many times for a non-medic!) Q: Sports or societies? A: Societies; in my opinion sports clubs are a sub-set of societies, and both are equally good for King’s. Q: The far right: ban them from campus or create academic debate? A: If you ban something in many cases it only feeds it; how can you change opinions without some kind of discussion?
vpsaf@kclsu.org
14 Fashion & Lifestyle
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Edited by Coryn Brisbane fashion@roarnews.co.uk
D.I.Y. Fashion
Spice up your spring/summer wardrobe by customising your old clothes on a shoestring budget; whether it be an old pair of jeans getting a new lease of life or an unused jumper getting a face lift. Jessica Atkinson Do-it-yourself fashion may seem a term fairly alien to most people, but it is becoming an increasingly growing trend in the world of fashion blogging. Whether it be the revival of the 90s grunge look which is causing us to tear our jeans at the knees, bleaching them and finally studding them to our hearts’ content, or us wanting to revive our old wardrobe without spending out vast amounts of money, this trend is not merely for the artistic among us. I personally have been customising my own clothes for many years, but DIY fashion itself was only truly brought to my attention when I stumbled across ‘A Pair and a Spare’, about a year ago. Since opening my mind to the world of DIY fashion, I have become completely gripped, buying second-hand clothing with a view to altering them in some way. Not only does it save you save money, as it is much cheaper than buying several new items of clothing, but it is also thoroughly enjoyable. Geneva’s blog (A Pair and a Spare) is full of interesting ideas, which are all tried and tested. Other top DIY bloggers such as Studs and Pearls and Love Aesthetics, also have great ideas, which are equally as easy to re-produce. Designers from Christian Louboutin to Alexander McQueen have constantly created garments which are easily achievable through customising. Geneva’s blog aims, in the most part, to re-create designer clothes through easy, cheap and resourceful means. If there is a designer item out there, which you have forever longed for, why not DIY? After all, as students we all need to tighten those purse strings. For those who may not have the time or the creativity to start customising, DIY clothing has become something more widespread and easily attainable. The Ragged Priest, stocked by Topshop Flagship (Oxford St), sells anything from brightly dyed shirts and jumpers to studded shorts and jackets. Urban Outfitters also have a sister brand, UO Renewal, which sells altered vintage clothing, such as dresses from old shirts. Although saving you time and hassle, these brands do come at a price, most sell in the region of £50-£200. A Pair and A Spare: http://apair-andaspare.blogspot.com/ Studs and Pearls: http://www.studs-and-pearls.com/ Love Aesthetics: http://love-aesthetics.blogspot.com/search/label/DIY
Now try it yourself... DIY Glitter Heel Boot What you will need: • • • • • •
PVA Glue Sandpaper Fine Glitter Paint Brush Hairspray Pair of Heels
Firstly you’ll need to rub the heel you are planning on customising with sandpaper, this is so the glue and glitter will stick. Then in a bowl mix half the glitter with some glue (as shown below); mix it until it has a thick consistency and you can no longer see the glitter.
Then paint the heel of your boot with the glitter, glue mix, until none of heel is visible. Wait for the heel to dry and repeat this step. You can keep repeating this step until they dry and the wood underneath is completely covered, it took me 3 steps. Finally spray with hairspray to keep the glitter in place, and voila! Log onto roarnews.co.uk to for a step-to-step guide on how to customise your own Skeleton Tights.
Strange Things Happen at Bus Stops Christobel Hastings-Knowles
Strange things happen at bus stops. It only took a few minutes of musing in the drizzling rain the other day to realise what I’ve been missing from my life since I started university. I was standing on the Strand, watching a myriad of fashionistas materialise in time-honoured kaleidoscopically colourful style for London Fashion Week. I was always a difficult child. I can vividly recall my beleaguered mother driving me an hour every day to nursery, whereupon arrival I would put up a spectacular display of histrionics. Once, I was sick all over some power-crazed supervisor’s lap after being forced to watch Pingu. Mum said she would never forget the day when the nursery teacher fatalistically predicted that I would “never ever settle in at school”. In fact, all I really wanted was to sit at home watching my mum create her bespoke wedding dresses. I was her right-hand girl, and I used to smuggle little scraps of silk and cuttings from the Liberty print bolts into my sewing box, so I could whip up my own designs later on. Then I started school. Of course, good academic grades and school awards were just further embarrassing confirmation to my siblings of my eccentricity.
I was playfully branded as the “black sheep” in the midst of an artistic family. Not to say that I relinquished my arts subjects; I’ve always found that art perfectly counteracts essays. By the time A-levels dawned upon me bearing their academic burden, I can categorically say that I owe my sanity to Product Design, which allowed me to proliferate my creativity. I felt like I was betraying Mum, and myself in a way, when I decided not to pursue art. I remember in one university interview when the professor boorishly questioned the correlation between my A-levels. I replied simply that creativity is manifested in numerous ways. Recently, however, I’d lost sight of pursuing those avenues. I believe everyone has some degree of creativity. And those who staunchly deny it just haven’t discovered it yet. If we stop classifying our talents and start embracing new mediums of self-expression then it can only be a positive thing. I look at the “anything goes” fashion on the streets as a telling form of reinvention, and London is the ideal habitat to nurture that instinct. As for me, I realised I didn’t have to give up art. In fact, nothing catalyses the desire to eschew books and channel the urge to deface your insipid, yellow bedroom wall with a wacky mural like embarking on an English degree.
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Fashion & Lifestyle
15
Summer 2012: Your Definitive Guide
Struggling to see the light at the end of essay tunnel? Benjamin Rabinovich is here to help you plan you summer... TRENDING Charlotte Richardson - Roar’s very own Sport’s Editor will be next years VPSME. You lucky, lucky students! Prince Harry. That is all. The new series of The Apprentice. Our prediction to win is (don’t hold us to this later) : Ricky Martin. Rumours of Holly Willoughby taking the iconic Cilla Black role in a new series of Blind Date. Two dating shows in a one night could leave us with even less of an excuse to go out and meet someone.
Picture it. It’s the month of July. It’s hot and sunny. You just brought out your favourite pair of crocks, I’ll leave you to decide whether I’m being serious or not, and you are ready to go and rock the streets of London. BUT WAIT. You try to walk outside and there are an extra 150,000 people in the streets who came to see dozens of men and women in morph suits jumping up, down and across whilst throwing metal balls into the air and jumping over fences. That’s right, it’s the Olympics. Hooray Britain. Hooray London…in 2012…for two weeks. Last year it was predicted that this year Britain would welcome into its open arms 30.7 million tourists. Imagine how many of them will ask you where Trafalgar Circle is or the world famous King’s College London. I, personally, am horrendous with giving directions so I am performing the country a service by leaving it for those two awful/ really great weeks. A lot of my friends have been asking me what I’m doing over the summer because they also want to avoid London and go somewhere nice and fun, so I decided to compile a list of awesome things to do.
1.FESTIVALS:
2. BEACH HOLIDAYS:
3 .CITY BREAK
Festivals are awesome. The best way to relax with your mates and listen to music that you may never have heard before…in a field. Fortunately most British festivals are just after the Olympics so you can avoid those pesky London tourists by going to the likes of Reading and Leeds Festival who this year have acts including The Vaccines, Kasabian and Azealia Banks. Alternatively there is Bestival and Latitude providing a chilled out atmosphere with some of music’s bright young things; Ben Howard, Michael Kiwanuka and Gold Panda. Closer to home is Lovebox and Field Day, the line ups of which are incredible and you can sample some of the world’s next-big-things whilst chilling in the London sun. Yet Festivals don’t need to be all about cider, mud and face-paint; for more cultural and comedy inclined peeps there is the always fantastic Edinburgh Fringe Festival (3rd-27th August). There is also Film 4 at Somerset House for those of you who don’t want to travel too far and want to sit back and relax with some cult classics and new wonders.
The only running I want to be doing is to secure my sun-lounger. The only shooting I want to be doing is shots of Tequila. And the only swimming I want to be doing is in the sea. We’ll leave the real sports for the professionals…in London. If music isn’t your thing or you just want to chill by the beach for a week then definitely check out Split in Croatia. Renowned for its mad nightlife, history and amazing beaches it’s definitely the place to go. Whilst in Croatia why not go InterRailing? With a Croatian pass starting at £44 you can explore the crystal clear waters by day and party at night when stopping at Hvar. With InterRailing you don’t have to restrict yourself to one country but instead can fill your backpack, grab your SLR camera and head off around Eurpope in hopes of ‘discovering yourself’. But if you’re in the mood for a lad’s or girl’s holiday to partyland then Ibiza, Kos and Sunnybeach are the places to be. Be sure to pack a bag full of protection: I mean sun-screen. What did you think I was on about?
If you can’t swim and hate pumping house music then a city break is for you. Go to Paris and say how you wish they won the bid (only if you are sincere.) Eurostar have recently been offering very good deals. Go further and enjoy the culture of Amsterdam… Alternatively you can keep it in the UK and make the most of having a Young Person’s Rail Card; If you want a party break then go to Brighton or Cardiff, for some culture visit to Bath or York and for a shopping weekend go to Manchester or Birmingham.
4. AMERICA
The exact opposite of Europe. It has everything you could ever want. For people who like beaches mixed in with city breaks, welcome to the great state of California. For people who like Baseball, Hockey, Basketball, American Football and Woody Allen, welcome to New York!
5. HOME:
Stay in your house throughout the summer and watch TV.
Vogue Festival. The chance to meet Stella , Erdem and Roksanda is sending shivers down our spine. Take Me Out: Rumours that it’s all a fake. We’re heartbroken but we will still watch it. Everybody is ill on campus. Essays and exams are impending. We are supposed to be out sun-bathing not enduring all of this! Twitter hate. Just because you are faceless on the internet doesn’t give you licence to be be digusting. Starbuck’s asking for our names on cups. I think we should boycott and everyone give the same name just for laughs. ‘Tom’ , ‘Tom’, ‘Tom’... Olympic volunteer outfit. Come on, we can do better than that, surely?
TRAILING
Olympic Biscuits
Versatile Biscuits; for those who are feeling the Olympic spirit and those who…just want a nice biscuit. Kristina Freeman shows you how...
Biscuit Dough: 250g butter (softened) 140g caster sugar 1 egg yolk 2tsp Vanilla Extract 300g Plain Flour To decorate: 500g pack of variously coloured fondant icing Tubes of writing icing in corresponding colours If you’re not feeling the Olympic spirit: Icing of any colour Any decorations you fancy!
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees/ Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a baking tray. 2) Cream softened butter and caster sugar together until smooth and creamy. 3) Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix to combine. 4) Gradually sieve in the plain flour, mixing to combine after each addition. Use your hands to bring the mixture together into a dough. 5) Chill the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes. 6) For Olympic-themed biscuits (if you just want to make nice biscuits, go to step 10): To make the Olympic-ring design, cut circles out of the dough. Then use a smaller circular cutter to cut holes out of the rounds, to form rings. 7) Arrange 5 rings into the layout of the Olym-
pic rings, using a picture from Google images as inspiration; I made a single cut in the rings and threaded them through each other before rejoining the dough once again- fiddly but worth it! With excess dough, cut out more rings. 8) Bake the Olympic rings in the oven for 1015 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Allow to cool. 9) Dust some icing sugar onto a work surface and roll out each colour of fondant icing. Cut a ring, using the same technique as used in making the biscuits, and stick the icing on to the appropriate ring; I found it useful to cut out small sections of the icing rings to fit in with the way in which the biscuit rings overlap and interlink with each other. Repeat for all of the rings until all five rings are iced. Dust off excess icing sugar and allow to set. Ice the other biscuit rings with the remaining icing. 10) For simply nice biscuits: cut out shapes of your choice, bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and allow to cool. Using fondant icing or any icing you fancy (or any that is available in the baking aisle) ice your biscuits how you like and top with edible decorations and glitter. 11) Enjoy your biscuit, however it is iced, with a nice cup of tea or coffee.
Spring Fingers Delia Piccinini
Spring is here. Everybody has been saying it for months, but now it’s true: it’s finally time to get our light clothes out of the dark back of the closet and make our wardrobe a party of colours. A somewhat unexpected guest is joining the party: one quick look at any fashion magazine’s trend story and you’ll understand it’s time to toss our black nail polish in the bin, or put in the ‘save for winter’ pile, as pastel colours will rock our hands this season! Coral pink, violet, light jade, sky blue (and the list is far from over) are the perfect shades to finish up your look, but if you think it’s too boring you won’t be disappointed, the options keep on coming. The easiest – and my personal favourite – way to mix it up a little is to paint your ring finger in a shade that contrasts with the other, ala Kelly Rowland: if you use ocean blue on your hand, switch to pastel blue. It will give your manicure an extra touch, without the effort you might encounter when trying out another of the S/S’12 trends: reproducing this season’s tribal patterns on every single nail is not as easy as it might look when it’s done, and it surely requires a lot of patience. Yet, with a bit of patience and a nail pen the results are more than worth it. If however you cannot bring yourself to abandon black, try using a cracked nail lacquer: with some gold or silver polish as base, the effect will be the perfect nail outfit to go out and shine. If the crackle effect has worn a bit thin then there are alternatives such as Nail Inc.’s ‘Magnetic Effect Polish’ or their ‘Overglaze’ effect to transform any shade into something special.
16
Arts
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Edited by Theodora Wakeley arts@roarnews.co.uk
Thespians Unmasked
Medical Exploits Joe Ralley
When Max Pemberton isn’t spending his time checking pulses, saving lives and ask-
ing old men to cough while he cups their genitals, he’ll most likely be writing about checking pulses, saving lives and asking old men to cough while he cups their genitals. His new book, The Doctor Will See You Now, charts the latest part of his journey as a jobbing NHS Doc, following successful previous instalments Trust Me: I’m a Junior Doctor and Where Does It Hurt?
Kyveli Short There is something enthralling about catching a glimpse into the soul of an artist. Why else are television shows like MTV’s Cribs, which tours the homes of the rich and famous, so popular? But let’s be honest with ourselves - seeing what colour sofa Mariah Carey has in her New York penthouse isn’t going to shed significant light into her psyche. In fact, I was certain that nothing would let us get that close until I walked into the Idea Generation Gallery and saw Simon Annand’s photography exhibition, The Half. Showcasing work from his homonymous book published in 2008, as well as a series of new and unseen images, The Half comprises of a series of photographs that give us an unparalleled access to the secret backstage world of London’s West End. They are taken during the ‘final call’ which is the sacrosanct thirty minutes before the curtain rises when the actor is left in solitude to focus on the performance ahead of them. In fact, Annand has borne witness to some unique moments as he is the first photographer to ever be allowed into Keira Knightley’s dressing room.
His photographs are raw and emotional, capturing a moment when the actor is not wholly his or her actual self but has also not yet stepped out onto the stage to become his character. For Annand, ‘the performer is therefore very exposed and there is something endlessly romantic and heroic about it’. This transition can be as subtle as Cate Blanchett’s gorgeous yet brooding face as she holds onto a cigarette, or as visually striking as Benedict Cumberbatch’s transformation into the monster from the National Theatre’s 2011 production of Frankenstein.
As with his previous books, Pemberton shows us an NHS behind-the-scenes, at ground-zero, where the consequences of mass service shortage and cost-cutting are played out in the every day lives of real people in need of care. Just one example is the pensioner with dementia who was kept
Simon Annand:The Half is showing at the Idea Generation Gallery (11 Chance Street, E2 7JB) until 8th April. Free.
CircusFest at the Roundhouse, Camden
In just two weeks, Circus Fest; five weeks of the best contemporary circus from around the globe opens at the Roundhouse in March. The Roundhouse are offering £5 tickets for under 25’s with a limited availbility - horay! For more information take a look at their site here http://www.roundhouse. org.uk/circusfest or join the facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/ events/224857527586535/ Roar! will be reviewing the opening night of CircusFest, with the review going up on roarnews.co.uk on the 30th March. We’ll be tweeting from the night too, so follow #circusfest Roar! also recommend the Blackshaw Theatre Company’s adaption of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan. Catch it at the Actors’ Church, Covent Garden, 11-14 th April 2012, and Roar! will be at the show on the 11th – so check roarnews.co.uk for the review from that night!
There are, however, perhaps a few too many earnestly made topic analyses that fail to transcend folk opinion and reasoning. And there’s little of Dickens or Proust about Pemberton’s writing, which at times feels amateurish and pulpy. But considering his books are based entirely on real events he does well to render them into a drama, with strands of subplot weaving the highs and lows of household and hospital life together nicely. The USP of Pemberton’s books is the Doctor’s-eye-view they provide, and despite adding nothing new to the mix, The Doctor Will See You Now is very readable, funny and engaging. You have to ultimately admire Pemberton’s compassion and probity. While the NHS crumbles under the strain of the recession, it’s comforting to know we have people like him on the frontline, challenging the potentially harmful changes. The Doctor Will See You Now by Max Pemberton, Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99.
SCRUBBISH
Annand’s achievement lies in his ability to make visible the art of the thespian in that numinous moment that precedes the raising of the curtain, focusing his lens on faces that the public has come to know on stage or through some bland paparazzi pictures. The Half is undoubtedly a piece of theatre history, with Annand’s camera becoming witness to an actor’s private metamorphosis. As Dame Judi Dench says of Annand’s work, ‘the results speak for themselves’.
Around Town...
Titus Groan at the Actors’ Church
Now older and wiser, Dr Pemberton is no longer bottom of the hospital pecking order, and he’s faced with the fresh challenges of elderly care, dementia clinic, A&E and outpatients - not to mention new bosses, scandalous housemates and an authoritarian management that doesn’t like being challenged.
inappropriately sedated to save carers time for caring. Pemberton has a knack for spotting cases that depict pervasive cultural attitudes, particularly toward the elderly and mentally ill, and how they reveal themselves politically and socially.
Anissa Putois Having discovered the celebrated medical sitcom ‘Scrubs’ only last year, I was still reeling from the novelty of its smoothly surreal charms when I came across a poster for ‘All New People’, a play by and starring the series’ main and most loveable actor, Zach Braff. I rushed online to book a ticket, and a couple weeks later I sat at the sixth row, eagerly awaiting the magic to begin. The opening image is arresting. Braff’s thirty-something character balances precariously on a chair, smoking a cigarette, his head in an orange electrical-cord noose. Braff’s comedic acting enters the scene early as he unsteadily peers around for an ashtray to flick his cigarette into, but unfortunately this brief instance is the only humorous interlude in Braff’s otherwise sullen performance. A lavish New Jersey Beach house setting (complete with a winding staircase, a piece of odd African bead art, and a lonely box of Cheerios) hosts Braff’s unusual plot. On a dismal winter’s day, his character Charlie’s intent to put an end to his life is thwarted by a succession of uninvited guests. First comes Emma (Eve Myles), the hysterical English realtor in desperate need of a green card, followed by her friend Myron (Paul Hilton), the drug-dealing fire chief. Finally, Susanah Myles enters the scene as Kim, a $15,000-a-night
escort sent by Charlie’s rich banker friend to cheer him up. The implausible manner in which this four-hander comes to be could have been overlooked if it weren’t for the highly stereotyped and uncomfortably loud characters. The slightly sexist portrayal of the women, gabby and ditzy, is given as counter-part to the licentious nature of Myron the fireman. That being said the latter’s blend of amusing and insightful (being the only one who guesses at Charlie’s real back-story) results in him being the play’s most likeable character. Comically-gifted Braff leaves JD and his scrubs behind as he oddly assigns himself the role of the glum moody guy who alternates between yelling the F-word far too much and sitting morosely at the back of the stage while the best lines are given to the other three actors. Far from hogging the limelight, his character’s story (by far the most interesting one) is submerged by the other characters’ parallel fables of failure and guilt. Even though I wasn’t expecting the cast to jump up and start shaking it to Nena’s ’99 Luftballons’, or to ride a disco train as they do in ‘Scrubs’, I was nonetheless disappointed by the absence of JD-style comedy. Although Braff’s desire to reveal his acting talent by abandoning the cute-
ness of Scrubs and exploring an edge of darkness and despair is perfectly legitimate, this particular tale fails to impress. After a lively beginning, all that follows seems to be a series of pseudo-philosophical platitudes such as the particular one to which the play owes its name: ‘In a hundred years, there’ll be all new people’. In other words, cheer up Charlie, life is worth living after all. That isn’t to say there aren’t some laughs to be had. Braff’s comic talents are displayed through a number of lines, one of which is a description of love as ‘trying to build a house of cards on the back of a squirrel’. The play indeed spans the emotional spectrum, from enjoyable comedy to the overly-farcical and vulgar (Emma desperately trying to rescue Charlie from hanging while screaming shrilly ‘Your balls are in my face’), and from intriguing pathos to the excessively dramatic. It also flits from the socially awkward (Charlie and Emma’s clumsily long hugging which lasts for the final fifteen minutes of the play) to the impressively theatrical: the fireman’s talented recital of the ‘Hath not a Jew eyes?’ speech from The Merchant of Venice. Sadly this last one is followed by Myron’s reward, a very public one-minutelong fondling of the escort’s chest. Nonetheless the piece is enjoyable and playful, and the 90 minutes fly by swiftly. By the final curtain, I found myself caring about the characters and their futures, yet, like the pilot of an inferior sitcom, not really wanting to sit through the next episode. What saved the play in my experience was the thrill of finding myself a few metres away from the main actor of my second-favourite show (yes, even Justin, the imaginary unicorn, cannot dethrone ‘Friends’). Which leads me to wonder: would the play really hold its own without Zach Braff’s iconic name on the marquee? All New People is showing at Duke of York’s Theatre until 28 April, £15-49.50.
Arts
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
She Stoops To Conquer
this treat to another level. At the Olivier bar, the chuckling barman said, “It is absolutely hilarious - you will be in stitches”. His prediction was certainly right.
play to go beyond its eighteenth century context, making it hilarious. At this point I do not think there was an audience member who was not, as predicted by the barman, in stitches.
This 18th century comedy is complex in plot, yet trivial in subject matter. It sees country gentleman Hardcastle’s (Steve Pemberton) attempt to introduce his daughter to the wealthy Charles Marlow (Harry HaddenPaton) backfire when Marlow is led to believe their country house to be an inn. In turn, Hardcastle’s daughter Kate (Katherine Kelly) is mistaken for a barmaid, which she mischievously plays up after learning of Marlow’s error from a servant. Alongside all of this, Hardcastle’s wife (Sophie Thompson) trials accents in a bid to transcend her rustic roots. Mayhem commences.
My only criticism would be the musical chorus, which aided the scene changes. It did fit in with the 18th century tradition, but it was just a little too farcical and loud. Perhaps Jamie Lloyd was using it to persuade us that we were having a good time. But we were having a good time without needing to be told, and this repetitive interjection was jarring and superfluous. High praise is owed to Mark Thompson for his set, however. The oak panelling and convincing cozy fire was a delight for the audience, and his use of the Olivier’s revolving stage facilitated a swift scene change to the misty forest. By the end I am sure most of the audience had exercised facial muscles they had not used for a while. It left me almost March-blues free.
With February blues at their peak, an evening at the National Theatre becomes a much-needed treat. Jamie Lloyd’s feast-your-eyes production of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 play She Stoops To Conquer takes
I feared such a farcical play may be overacted, but this fear was soon dispelled. Sophie Thompson brought a real energy to the stage, tottering around and comically bickering with Hardcastle. Katherine Kelly’s performance was just as impressive because of its versatility: in one scene she was a demure Daddy’s girl, and in the next a barmaid, seducing Marlow and straddling a chaise longue. This dash of the risqué enabled the
Going...
...Dotty
Elizabeth Metcalfe
Nathan Olliverre
She Stoops to Conquer is showing at the National Theatre until 21 April, £12-47.
Want to be Arts Editor next year? Email editor@roarnews.co.uk with two published works of no more than 250 words + a CV + a 400 word statement on how you would improve the section by 31 March at 5pm. Good luck!
Seeing spots is not supposed to be a good thing and yet, from the mind of Yayoi Kusama, we get one of the most appealing exhibitions of 2012. Born in the late 1920s in very conservative Japan, becoming an artist, let alone a female artist, was a struggle. Kusama’s early works are brooding and slightly menacing, containing twisting flowers and insects with giant gaping mouths. She is still creating new pieces of work from her studio based in the mental institution where she has resided by choice for the past 35 years. After corresponding with Georgia O’Keefe she found means to get to America. Her sense of being an outsider was still prevalent yet having gained recognition from her homeland, along with being able to communicate with other likeminded individuals, Kusama started to develop her Infinity Net paintings. These take up a whole room of the retrospective. Looking like an amassing of swirling white blood cells they create a wall of small circles dancing on a sometimes white, sometimes off-white surface, each looking like a chaos of patter. In New York she created her first sculpture/installation work known as Accumulations. Consisting of chairs, cupboards and other
household items, each have been adorned with multi-sized stuffed white phalluses. On every available space fungi-penises grow; in one room a boat that Kusama found on the streets of New York has a phallus sticking out looking like a weird sprouting of dead coral. Once back in Japan, Kusama created some of her most imposing and inspiring work, having drenched a living room in a dark mauveish hue with polka dots in multiple colours that shine under UV light. The room is at once both beautiful and slightly unnerving as though all is not what it seems. At the end of the exhibit we find an idea that Kusama has returned to mirrored rooms. In what feels quite futuristic and bewildering, small LED lights hang from the ceiling, multiplied ad infinitum by the mirrored walls and watered floor, creating an immeasurable matrix of light changing colour and brightness. Kusama says that what she creates is what she has seen constantly throughout her life. For us then, this exhibition provides an energetic and sometimes mesmerising journey but is not somewhere you would want to live fulltime. Yayoi Kusama is showing at the Tate Modern until 5 June, Students £8.50.
When Art Mirrors Art Joe Prestwich There’s something special about the Courtauld Gallery. Tucked into a tiny corner of Somerset House, it feels like you’re walking around someone’s living room, admiring the art they ‘just happened to have picked up’ from somewhere exotic forty years previously. Nowhere is this feeling of intimacy better found than in the gallery’s (fairly) new exhibition ‘Mondrian , Nicholson in Parallel’. The two small, white-washed rooms present a wonderful collection of the abstract art of these two 1930s painters, in a way that allows the viewer to see for themselves the subtle differences and similarities that separate the two masters, without having to be told by pedantic side panels. Instead, we get informative pieces that contextualise the work and give an insight into how the works were formed. Surprisingly, we are also given letters, photos and even calendar entries that express with startling simplicity the connection
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Pimp My Plinth
Cameron Bray If you walk up The Strand to Trafalgar Square, you’ll see that the Fourth Plinth has a new resident. The latest installation, on what has become a new beacon of public art, is a giant bronze little boy on a rocking horse. The plinth was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV. It was to stand parallel to the equestrian statue of George IV, the King of King’s College. It has stood empty since it was built in 1841 but in recent years the plinth has seen frequent activity, ranging from a waxwork of David Beckham to a marble bust of pregnant artist Alison Lapper. The empty plinth has come to represent the blank canvas of human creativity and ingenuity. London has benefited from the campaign to find something to occupy it and the transient nature of each exhibit perfectly captures the city as an organism. The current installation, named ‘Powerless Structures, Fig. 101’, has used the original intention of the plinth to bring a new message to the citizens of London. The child rep
and intimacy of these two artists. As a person who tends to prefer art as a mimic of nature, to present something beautiful, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed; but these works do impress. The simplicity of shape, colour and lines subtly turns the mind from casual and calm indifference, to blind admiration. The blues, yellows, reds and thick black lines of Mondrian’s paintings become, somehow, mesmerising. Meanwhile, the white reliefs of Nicholson create a similar beauty in their use of depth and shadow that almost replace the necessity of lines that define Mon drian’s work. Moving through the rooms gives a real sense of the connection between the two artists and also between them and the viewer. It’s this feeling that makes the exhibition so enthralling and interesting. Considering it’s free, and next door, I would advise spending those two hours between lectures experiencing something new, beautiful and calming – the perfect antidote to a stressful day.
Mondrian // Nicholson: In Parallel is showing at the Courtauld Gallery until 20 May. Free.
resents a history that is yet to happen in a world that he doesn’t fully understand. On his rocking horse, the boy emulates the historical figures on plinths round the world; he is yet to accomplish anything but he exhibits ‘the heroism of growing up’. If we look a little deeper, the statue could be seen as a commentary on our time. Where William would have sat proudly alongside his brother, artist Michael Elmgreen says that the little boy looks away from George IV ‘because he is afraid of him’. George IV was a reckless monarch, his lavish habits leading him to be caricatured as an obese layabout who frittered away the country’s finances. He is probably best remembered today as Hugh Laurie’s character in Blackadder The Third, described in it as ‘a fat, flatulent git’. In a country currently facing financial problems and exhibiting anger towards those who caused them, the golden statue offers hope that the world could be changed for the better. The little boy could be looking away, not only afraid, but also ashamed, of those we choose to remember.
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Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Music Edited by Shivan Davis music@roarnews.co.uk
Want to be next years music editor? Email editor@roarnews.co.uk with two published works of no more than 250 words + a CV + a 400 word statement on how you would improve the section by 31 March at 5pm.
Review: The Magnetic Fields ‘Love At the Bottom of the Sea’ **** Shivan Davis
The first time that I encountered The Magnetic Fields was only last summer. My flatmate, flicking through his collection of CDs, came across one chunky enough to be a greatest hits collection. He pulled out one of the three discs and put it in the CD player. The speakers blared with a strange jangling guitar sound, followed by the deep, slightly off-key voice of Stephen Merritt. The song was ‘Abigail Belle of Kilronan’, a timeless ballad of a man leaving his sweetheart to go to war from their 1999 masterpiece “69 Love Songs”. The album, if you haven’t heard of it, is tremendous. And not really about love. Instead, it explores the genre of the love song and subverts the listeners expectations. If you’re looking for swooning “And I Will Always Love You’-esq numbers, you won’t find it here. There is a moodiness and sense of despair that lingers on each disc. But these are balance out by humorous songs about the fickle nature of falling in love. Some of the songs are melancholic lamentations about loneliness, others describe the joyous feeling of falling in love- to a man or a woman, heterosexual or gay. The consistancy of the song writing on the album is remarkable- very few of the 69 songs fall flat. It is perhaps unsurprising that everything the band has released since then- ‘Love At the Bottom of the Sea’ is their 4th album post-69 love songs, has been received as a nice addition to an already exemplary portfolio rather than as a challenger to 69 love songs crown. Such is the case with this latest release. The album is composed of 15 songs, each no more than three minutes long. It is, essentially, a model village like replica of ‘69 Love Songs’. The album begins with a tongue-in-cheek song about repressed love- “God Wants Us to Wait”a satirical retort to Merritt’s Catholic upbringing. Their is a heavier use of synthesisers, which is surprising for listeners used to the Magnetic Fields usual efforts. The second track, “Andrew in Drag” is a delightful song, amongst their best. It playfully addresses issues of love, gender and identity: “The only girl I’ve ever loved was Andrew in Drag”, Merritt joyously sings. Following on from “Andrew in Drag” the momentum dips slightly, and the other tracks, though enjoyable, are not so memorable. Download: “God Wants Us To Wait”, “Andrew in Drag”, “I’ll Go Anywhere with Hugh”.
Roar Playlist: 1.Gotye: “Somebody That You Use To Love 2. Jay Z and Kanye West: “Paris” 3. Coldplay: “Charlie Brown” 4. The Magnetic Fields: “I’ll Go Anywhere With Hugh” 5. The Magnetic Fields: “Andrew in Drag” 6.Alexandra Burke “Elephant” 7. El-P: “The Full Retard” 8. TV on the Radio: “DLZ” 9. Lambchop: “Mr.M” 10. Lotus Plaza: “Strangers”
Music
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
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The hunt is on for the best student band in the UK. In a nation wide Battle of the bands competition arranged by studentbeans.com The winning band will perform at Beach Break Live along side artists like Chase and Status, Dizzee Rascal and Friendly Fires. To enter check out http://www.studentbeans.com
What’s On at KCLSU? Roar’s picks... 7pm 30 March - “The Rubberbandits”: The Irish comedy rap duo come to Tutu’s, bringing their collection of surreal and silly songs. The critically aclaimed duo are best known for contributing to Channel 4’s “Comedy Blap’s” (Perhaps best not to judge them on these). Tickets are £15.70 and there will be special guests... 10:30pm 30 March - Welcome to Friday End of Term Blowout: Tutu’s the ultimate end of term party! 23rd April Comedy for Depression with 7 comdians - Tutu’s http://www.comedyfordepression.com/ 1st June - The KCLSU Graduation Ball - You asked for it at the AGM of 2011, and so KCLSU have delivered! We’re giving you all the notice we can as we think these tickets are going to sell out fast. The Ball will be held at the prestigious Waldorf Hotel on the Aldwych, and will be THE place to be seen for all finalists (and those that want to pretend their degree’s over too!) Get tickets to all of thse events and more at www.kclsutickets.com
The Band Perry @ KCLSU Chelsea Dickson Tuesday night Tutu’s got a little taste of American country music when The Band Perry performed. The group, composed of sister Kimberly and her two brothers Reid and Neil, have amassed a widespread following in America when their self-titled album hit stores in 2010 and they scooped up prestigious country music awards including ‘New Artist of the Year 2011’ and ‘Best Single of the Year 2011’. They successfully brought over their fun, sing in the car music on Tuesday. Their set consisted of the most popular songs from their album, including ‘If I Die Young’, ‘You Lie’, and ‘All Your Life’. They also covered some classics such as ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ from Queen and ‘Amazing Grace.’ The intimate atmosphere of Tutu’s allowed Kimberly to really connect with the audience as she spoke in between songs about how excited the band is to be in London (and overseas) for the first time. They also mentioned how much they miss home (Alabama) and how being on the road has left little time for music writing. The audience didn’t miss out though- they were treated to the one of the few new songs that The Band Perry has written since their album. It fell straight in line with their twangy, country music feel, similar to other stars such as Taylor Swift. The band had the audience captivated the whole time with their eager, playful attitude and excitement to just play their music in London. Afterwards, they allowed time for signings and pictures with the fans. It was the perfect ending to the cosy, informal environment they had created.
WIN!! Roar! are giving away 2 tickets to Beach Break Live. The amazing line up plays (hopefully) sunny Pemberly Country Park in South Wales on the weekend of the 14th of June: and tickets are worth over £200! So to be in with the chance to win an amazing weekend of great music and general fun times simply email your name, King’s ID and contact mobile number to music@roarnews.co.uk
Review: Phantogram @ Cargo Dan West Imagine, if you will, a dark, ill lit, sweaty cave burrowed into the side of a bridge just off of Old Street. Cargo is a hip-joint, as the kids say, and as a hip joint it’s only fitting that it receives the hippest of New York royalty – Phantogram. Phantogram comprises guitarist and vocalist Josh Carter and keyboardist and vocalist Sarah Barthel. Tim Oakley also joins them on drums when they tour (and he is a force to be reckoned with). They emerged in 2009 with their hit record Eyelid Movies which is a really interesting listen, and have been touring and putting out the odd EP ever since. What is there sound? Something between Massive Attack and The XX I reckon, their trippy and impeccable beats and odd sampling speaks to their New York scene groundings and the trippy guitar work and disjoint vocals give it a really interesting flavour. The opening act (who I cannot find the name of anywhere) are definitely worth a mention here, a three-piece who mirrored some of the stylings of Phantogram whilst taking a very strikingly different lead vocalist who’s incredibly articulated singing kept the sound very focussed but maintained a resonance all the same. The surprising cover of Hate by Cat Power was also a nice touch, adding a hollow gleam to the dark song. But what was very much a vocal lead performance turned quickly into a very instrumental performance by Phantogram. As the infinitely sexy Sarah took to the stage and the soon to be dripping wet Josh followed, the lights went out and the band geared up for their explosive opening, which featured the most innovative use of lasers I have ever seen, as the entire planes of laser light cut out planes of the smoke filled room, creating bisecting patterns in the air. Add to this the heavy synthesised beats, explosive drumming and the droning synth bass and you have what might be termed a sensory overload. They dipped in and out of classics like “When I’m Small” and “Don’t Move” and supplemented them with strong songs off Eyelid Movies like “Futuristic Casket” which deserves a special mention, they closed the encore with it and when Sarah was singing to the solitary guitar at the end it sounded fantastic after the auditory assault of the hour and a half set. Phantogram have a lot of fun and pack a great sound in, the only downside was the mixing - the levels were pretty shot sometimes. But other than that it was a really enjoyable night.
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Film
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Edited by Beth Cohon film@roarnews.co.uk
Review: 21 Jump Street Nathan Olliverre Based on a 1980s TV show – 21 Jump Street will mean little to most students, apart from ardent Johnny Depp fans. However, this film will be remembered as the crowning of a new comedic talent in the unlikely form of Channing Tatum. Yes, the model-turned-actor of Dear John and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra! Just like the original, the film revolves around two different cops: geeky, somewhat overweight Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and tall, good looking yet dim witted Jenko (Tatum), who happen to be best friends and are sent undercover to bust a high-school drug ring – meaning they have to pretend to be teenagers getting a chance to relive their school years. The comedy shifts between the absurdity and slapstick of an Apatow film to something approaching the self-awareness of The Muppets (think John Hughes meets John Landis doing a South Park episode and you’re there). The film does a nice job of focusing fairly heavily on laughs, with a frenetic frequency of jokes shot out so even if one fails to make you chuckle the chances are another will be along soon that will make you let out a chortle, if not a snigger.
Hill was the co-writer of the script along with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) and their portrayal of highschool is a great write-up to all the misanthropic and lazy depictions usually found in teen films of jocks, cheerleaders and nerds. Instead, the high schools of 2012 contain smart, caring teens who are planning for their future. Hill and Bacall also give us two great teachers in a sex deprived chemist, played by Ellie Kemper, and Rob Riggle as the slightly unhinged athletics coach. Whilst the comedic nature of the film helps to progress the narrative, at times it does seem like the plot gets lost underneath the laughter. And every so often you want to tell it, in the words of Ice Cube, who plays the angry captain, to “hurry the f$%k up.” This leads to an action-heavy final third that threatens to overflow and swamp the film, but draws back just in time for a well-timed cameo and for it to wrap up conveniently like any good TV cop procedural. 21 Jump Street should not work for many reasons but if you leave any preconceptions at the door and enjoy it for what it is, you’ll get an entertaining comedy that advertises the arrival of Channing Tatum, the comedian.
Cinema of the Month: Screen on the Green
KCL Cinemateque Want to see films for free, right here at King’s? Relax after a day of classes? The KCL Cinemateque offers free screenings for King’s students and staff every Monday and Tuesday! Screenings are in the Arthur and Paula Lucas Lecture Theatre at the Strand
Alice Lewis Screen on the Green is a cinema where you wouldn’t be ashamed to take a date. The lobby doesn’t smell stale, the seats aren’t sticky, and god forbid you’d find the debris from the previous movie crunching underfoot. No, this cinema brings going to the movies back to that special by-gone era of 1911, the year of its opening. The screen’s exterior brandishes huge neon letters advertising what’s on, which can range from Hollywood blockbusters, film Q&A’s, or screenings of cult classics where
audience participation is encouraged to the point where fauxreservoir dogs turn up with their kneecaps shot in. The cinema’s inside is also worth a mention; the in-house bar stretches across the back where you can buy swanky bar snacks or the obligatory popcorn, along with a bottle wine or a cocktail (the mojitos are amazing). The screen itself is a nice
place to ply yourself with drinks and sit back into the mini-leather sofas and discuss whatever filmrelated trivia pops into your mind, rather than shuffle around the usual irritable crowd drudging in with their oversized confectionary. Reminiscent of a high-brow bar, Screen on the Green is perfect for movie-goers who enjoy a touch of luxury.
Thursdays at Film Society
Mondays and Tuesdays at World Cinema and Repertory Night
In The Company of Men Neil Labute 22nd of March 6:30
The Limits of Control Jim Jarmusch 26th of March 5:15
The Ashes of Time Wong Kar Wai 29th of March 6:30
The Host Joon-Ho Bong 27th of March 5:15
Want to be next year’s film editor? Email editor@roarnews.co.uk with two published works of no more than 250 words + a CV + a 400 word statement on how you would improve the section by 31 March at 5pm. Good luck!
Film
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Sub Editor Maurice Loach
Love film? Up for watching just about anything? Roar Film gets press invites from everything from new blockbusters to the Hong Kong film festival. Get on the writers’ mailing list by emailing Beth at film @ roarnews.co.uk
The Euthanasia of the Cinema
Peter Flynn-Williams Think back to the first commercial presentation of film, in which members of the public paid and gathered in the Salon Indien Grand Café to exhibit an exciting new technology from Louis Lumière. Who’d have thought that over a century later, they wouldn’t have left. Okay, so maybe we’ve made a little progress, but as a commercial medium, film’s primary method of exhibition really hasn’t changed. We still pay for a ticket, sit in a designated space, and watch politely as a group. Even if a midnight showing of Marmaduke takes your fancy, you may be alone, but you’ll have come to a nice big room to sit before a nice big screen. It’s an odd position for film, as the simple composition of sight and sound makes it rather versatile when compared to other media. A play will always require you to be in the same room as the
artistes, most videogames will only work on a particular system with certain control schemes and hardware, but we could project a film on the surface of the moon if the feeling took us. So why is such an applicable medium stuck predominantly in the theatres? Put simply, it’s easy.
Every multiplex boasting the latest blockbuster on its opening weekend acts as a funnel, one that studios are very grateful for. The fact that, still, in the age of YouTube, TiVo, and Netflix, the quickest way to catch the latest hit is to go to your local theatre makes the general public very easy to sell to. No matter how hard we wish, those six titles up on the billing aren’t changing until the next big release. The mass market is at the mercy of a building that can only show a certain number of titles. It makes sense, doesn’t it? We physically can’t show all the films out there, so we’ll only put on those sure to
draw the crowds. The rest can always be seen in the art houses.
Even the home entertainment market is made up of films that have run their course in theatres, and there’s a reason why ‘straight to DVD’ has a pejorative air to it. It makes the theatre look authentic, legitimate, classy even. Would the millions really reject The Dark Knight to see the latest Olsen twins adventure? Anything will look good when the only competition is Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. And no matter how much we complain about sticky floors or aspect ratio, no matter what piracy figures say, the big titles will always be found in the theatre, because that’s all we have... almost. And yet, there are some signs of a change in exhibition demand. Case and point, Netflix. Founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, Netflix brought streamable media to the forefront of the pub-
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lic consciousness, and is pretty much the reason why any local Blockbuster is such a tragic sight. It’s still finding its feet with limited titles in the UK, but is already giving viewers what they want, blending cinema and television into a special brand of entertainment goop. But the multiplex stays strong, with titles on Netflix still having their obligatory run in theatres. Perhaps we should look to other media for examples of exhibition. Steam is a digital distribution software for Mac and PC, making a wide range of videogames available for purchase. Its online format makes it limitless, but more importantly, it means no title is rejected. Anything can be found, from blocky experiments compiled in bedrooms to the latest big name with a seven figure budget. Steam provides freedom, choice, and something known as customer solidarity in an industry even more commercially driven than film. Now just imagine if cinema embraced a system like
this in which new releases arrived immediately on a universally accessible scale. I can already hear claims that this would mean the ‘death of moviegoing,’ but lets not be silly: it’s more of a euthanasia, and those of you claiming that you don’t want to lose the magic of the cinema, congratulations! You’re now a valuable market that theatres will be oh-so-desperate to cater to with the very best service. If anything, the abandonment of the movie theatre as the primary form of film exhibition would mean the death of the multiplex, and the emergence of a commercial industry that excludes no one, and is truly spectator driven. Now, I’d best stop talking, due to the wobbling red dot that just appeared on my forehead courtesy of Odeon.
Monsters and Myths: Harryhausen in London Maurice Loach This April in London seems to be a convergence of Ray Harryhausen events, and I would urge anyone to make the most of it! On the 26th of April the Barbican is holding panel discussion with Nick Park, Mark Waring and Tony Dalton and screening the 1962 classic Jason and the Argonauts to mark the publication of Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook. You can also get your fix of Harryhausen with a visit to the exhibition, Ray Harryhausen Myths and Legends at the London Film Museum. His famous armatured creatures are on display, such the famous Medusa from Clash of the Titans. Admittedly few of the films Harryhausen worked on are worth remembering for much more than their pioneering stop-motion effects, and it is only the iconic skeleton fight scene from Jason
and the Argonauts that has entered pop culture as an iconic image of cinema and special effects. The scene took a record four months to make, and some days Harryhausen would produce less than a second of footage, as his process was so laborious. But the results paid off, and the effect he produced is still more convincing than most of those we see today. It is deeply ironic that the 2010 Clash of the Titans adaptation was largely criticised for its special effects and visuals. Admittedly though, great pleasure can be found in how Jason and the Argonauts has aged; the hair cuts, costumes and campy fun of the film are perhaps amongst its best qualities, but it is easily Harryhausen’s effects which will linger in one’s mind after a viewing of Jason and the Argonauts, as they have done for audiences since 1962.
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Sports
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
Edited by Charlotte Richardson sports@roarnews.co.uk
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Slam dunk!
Vieri Capretta and Luke Boneham tell us how King’s Women’s Basketball team have reached new heights this season. Never very advertised until now, the KCL Women’s Basketball Club is one to be proud of. Three titles won last season (2010/2011) put them amongst the best of KCL Sports teams. They are now title holders of the BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) South Eastern Conference 2B, the South Eastern Conference Cup and the ULU Premier Division. By any stretch of the imagination, this is no mean feat. This season’s aim was to improve from last year, and the results so far show the club’s strength and depth. KCL are currently second in both BUCS 1A (behind Brunel) and ULU Premier Division (behind LSE due to goal difference only). A great season so far, with a smashing victory over Imperial Medics, which ended 74-04, and a very close loss against Brunel in the BUCS for 49-41. Brunel are the only rivals between KCL Basketball and the BUCS 1A title. At the moment, Brunel lead, but KCL are still fierce contenders. Not forgetting another crucial part of the season: the ULU Challenge Cup, the whole of KCL, along with the club, are willing the team to make it to the end of the competition. The impressive consistency and regularity of results are matched only by everyone’s unflinching ambition. All players are important in the team, which is a mixture of experience and skill, accommodating players from all campuses and nationalities: Brazil, Poland, America, Canada and Romania. Ire9 or beginners are excluded from recreational matches. One of the club’s greatest successes sprang from KCL Women’s Basketball Club’s small social team, founded this year. With their winning formula of an inclusive approach, successful results and a committed team, it seems unlikely that KCL Women’s Basketball Club will maintain a low profile for much longer.
Overexposed:
Natasha Bloor
From all of the high profile sports advertising currently visible across London, at first glance you might think that 2012 marks a new and exciting benchmark for female athletes. High profile Olympic hopefuls such Jessica Ennis, Victoria Pendleton and Paula Radcliffe feature extensively in both big brand advertising and LOCOG material, as anyone who’s seen the latest, towering Nike posters on the IMAX can attest to. Nike’s Olympic slogan runs, ‘Bring your best. Then better it’. Sadly, it’s a motto which some university sportswomen seem dead-set on ignoring. For a rather insidious trend is flourishing on campuses across Britain, one which sees women (and sometimes men) stripping off for calendars, playing cards and posters in order to raise funds and/or the profile of their sports team. Rather than bringing our best, it appears we’re intent on bringing the very worst form of misogyny onto our pitches and courts, and sisters, we’re doing it to ourselves. From Warwick to Leeds, Middlesex to Hull, women’s sports teams are posing awkwardly in their smalls, smiling the rigid, frightened smiles of people trying desperately to look sexy and fun. “We’re so CRAZY!” they cry. “This is SO empowering!” But is it? As much as we’ve tried to persuade our ‘post-feminist’ selves that stripping, burlesque and posing nude are ways of reclaiming our sexuality, really we’re just aping the page 3 postures of male fantasies, eager for validation. An unofficial poll of my male friends resulted almost uniformly in comments on the perceived physical attractiveness of the student models. None of them remarked on how emancipated and powerful the women looked. Whilst you could arguably blame the real life OAP Calendar Girls for kick starting the trend back in 1999, at least their nudity actually was empowering. These were older women’s bodies, ones that the media resolutely ignored and decried as unattractive. In contrast, photos of athletic teens and twenty-something women serve purely to titillate, evidenced by the tabloid press’s salivating coverage of Bristol University netball team’s naked calendar. Of course, male students are also posing in the buff, but it would be lazy and inaccurate to suggest that pictures of naked men elicit the same responses as their female equivalents. Images of lads holding strategically placed rugby balls is predominately recognised as funny, rather than sexy, primarily because the male body is not habitually sexually objectified by society. Exposed lady bits are now inescapable, from film posters to music videos, fashion marketing to the sprawling, thrusting underworld of
The Rise of the Naked Team Calendar
internet pornography. This ‘pornified’ culture has meant that a woman’s value is predicated primarily on how she looks-- a problem that male students just aren’t facing when stripping down. I suppose the question remains: why are so many student sportswomen so intent on posing naked? I struggle to believe that it’s solely to raise money. It’s hardly the only available fundraising option open to students, especially when so many big businesses are so forthcoming with sponsorship. And call me optimistic, but I refuse to believe that university teams, in which the focus is firmly on being active whilst having fun with your mates, can be so singularly (and depressingly) fixated on mercenary gain that they feel the only resort is to get their kit off for money. And for those crying indignantly that they did it “for charity”, there are plenty of more valuable (and less ethically dubious) ways to contribute. If you’re feeling genuinely altruistic, why not volunteer some time during our lengthy summer holidays? After all, as Bono’s realised, it’s a lot easier to take someone’s cause seriously if they keep their clothes on when campaigning. Instead, it seems that naked calendars are on the rise because many female students still desperately covet male approval. It’s seemingly not enough to be a sportswoman and academic-- what some of us want most of all is for boys to think we’re fit. A 2009 study by the High Education Policy Institute reveals that women claim more places at top level Institutions than men, as well as outperforming them on almost every higher education indicator in most degree subjects. Yet it would seem that, despite having worked our way to the top of the academies, we’re eager to be recognised as little more than sex objects. “Have a sense of humour!” a friend of mine cried when I refused to buy her hockey team’s X-rated playing cards, “It’s just a bit of fun”. And hey, I’m all for fun. But with women significantly under-represented in Parliament, on FTSE 100 boards and in print and visual media, I’m struggling to laugh at intelligent women prancing about in their pants for money. Let’s not sell ourselves short. Let’s not contribute to a culture that values women purely as sex objects, and pays them on average 15.5% less than a man for doing exactly the same job. It’s time to take ourselves seriously. We’re smart individuals and capable athletes. But when I look at those girls in the calendars, all I see is a big bunch of tits.
GKT: WE ARE WHAT? ...ULU Cup Winners Abbie Morris The sun was shining in Elephant and Castle and KCLMS 1s were limbering up to face their opponents, Royal Hollaway, in the ULU Challenge Cup Final. After a very closely fought semi-final against UCL winning by just one goal, KCLMS were ready and raring to win. Captained by Katie Wickman, the team had a great opening first quarter showing great attacking play all the way down the court linked together beautifully by Lottie in the middle giving KCLMS a 10-3 lead. Keen to put up a fight, RHUL didn’t give up easily. Fortunately for KCLMS, the defence were strong and Nagle and Wickman dominated the circle with some great interceptions and with the added defence from Fabric, KCLMS had the attack on lockdown. Fresh legs brought on at half-time meant KCLMS continued to dominate the game with renewed energy and strength. And with Alice Ewer, the KCLMS GA, displaying some of the best attacking play and shooting that KCLMS netball has ever seen, the game was only ever going to end one way, with a final score of 36-20. It was a delight to watch KCLMS win the Challenge Cup and especially for Amy, Jesca and Millie who are in their final season with the club, to finally have the honour of lifting the cup. It was nice to hear the KCLMS support from the viewing gallery and the team were very grateful and would like to pass on their thanks. It’s an age old tradition at Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Netball Club, the BEST netball club in the world... and now that’s a fact (Well, in London at least...!) GS – Lucy ‘Clem’ Clements / Millie ‘Betty’ Williams GA – Alice ‘Big Al’ Ewer (Player of the match) WA – Jesca ‘Frantic squeal’ Boot C – Lottie ‘Sweatband’ Molyneaux / Issi ‘Tantrum’ Makin WD – Emma ‘Fabric’ Pearce Slade (VC) GD – Katie ‘Camel Toe’ Wickman (C) GK – Amy ‘No carbs before Marbs’ Nagle
Sports
Roar!, March 26th - May15th 2012
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What a month it has been for sport at King’s! Varsity, Tri-London Championships, UH Cup Finals, BUCS Championships; far too much for just one issue. Make sure you check out the sport section of www.roarnews.co.uk for more.
KCL Mountaineering Club “Trad Training Trip” 2012 Report Alastair Heggie The weekend of the 3rd and 4th of March was the 2012 KCL Mountaineering Club’s ‘trad training’ trip. The purpose of the trad training trip is to mould the green recruits of the club into hardy climbers who eschew drilled bolts and crash pads in favour of “trad” climbing, protected only by chocks and other removable devices you can fiddle into the rock on the way up. If you climb anything like me it’s slow, it’s a faff and generally ends in a route finding disaster. I don’t say this to put anyone off; on the contrary, becoming a grindingly mediocre trad climber is the most rewarding thing I have done at King’s. With this aim in mind, a squadron of cars loaded with keen climbers set off to North Wales. On arrival in Tremadog, we located the Bromsgrove and Reddich Mountaineering Club hut and made ready for the weekend’s climbing. On each day of the weekend four of the newer members of the club got to spend a day being taught the finer and the not so fine points of climbing by our mountain guide, Andy Teasdale. The rest of us climbed at Blwch y Moch, the most substantial of Tremadog’s excellent, easily accessible crags. For my part I co-opted Will Hamilton into seconding me on the classic route, “One Step In The Clouds”. At the top we found Joe and Kat finishing up the exhilaratingly exposed final arête of “Christmas Curry”. On day two I set off with Chris and Tom to practice their newly acquired skills. We settled on a route and they both led pitches in fine style and with confidence. In summary, the trip was an excellent weekend of climbing and general frivolity. Many thanks to KCLMC’s trip secretary Cat Johnson for organising the whole affair.
sity (or Darsity as some have come to know it as), with the two teams competing for the newly named trophy, in honour of the night’s special guest, South African professional darts player Devon Petersen.
BULLSEYE!
The stage was set, bright lights, big screen and plenty of Snakebites on show, as the teams entered to vastly different walk-on songs. The tone of the night was set through the opposition of UCL’s entrance to Cyndi Lauper’s slow-paced “Time After Time” and KCL’s uplifting, rousing walkon to Motorhead’s “King of Kings”. Surely, the winning mentality was already with King’s at this point.
With the rugby efforts in the past, the ULU Varsity between KCL and UCL refocused its attention to the true sport of kings, in the form of Darts at Tutu’s last Wednesday. After fantastic organisation from the KCL team and KCLSU staff, Tutu’s was ready to host the first annual Darts Var-
From there on in, Darts became the centre point of what was an enjoy able night for players and audi ence alike. In a close run first leg, KCL captain James Hendry led by example by landing a double twenty to put the King’s boys one leg to the good. The team legs that followed provided mixed fortunes, with a couple of wins and defeats that levelled the scores at the halfway stage. With the scores standing at 3-3 in a
John Henry
cemented the lead to 5-3, before substitute Jamie Cottam-Allen guaranteed a minimum of atie-breaker, without UCL being able to win outright at 6-3.
hotly contested battle, the KCL players had to step up to the plate and take on individual matches, in an atmo sphere that demanded the best and a need to hold your nerve on the
big stage. Quite frankly, the start to the singles couldn’t have been better, with Mike Walsh regaining the lead for KCL. Followed by a truly fantastic single leg from player of the night, Sean Francourt, King’s
Although pegged back by one leg, it was fitting that the winning dart came from KCL Darts President John Seager, which ensured The Devon Petersen Trophy would be staying at King’s for its first year. With the trophy lifted by a very happy and relieved Hendry, the captain praised his team’s efforts and hopes for many similar successes in the future in a sport gradually receiving recog nition throughout the University.