#28 · April-May 2009

parental guidance: bad words inside

Thank you for 43 years of service Sorry you’re leaving us It won’t be the same Without you

joe dempsie / ade edmondson / screen room dh lawrence: the naughty tram / nottingham events listings guide

LeftLion Magazine Issue 28 contents April - May 2009 editorial

On the afternoon of April 15, 1989, I was trapped in a lift at the Co-Op in Broadmarsh Centre. I had the worst Saturday job ever, which involved sitting in the goods lift and being made to take an endless stream of fat Mams who couldn’t The mighty beSelectadisc, arsed to use the stairs up to the top floor every thirty seconds. I was even more pissed off than usual that day, as one of the bestForest were playing Liverpool in the FA Cup and I couldn’t independentget record any kind ofshops reception off my Walkman radio. in the country,At about is nofive pastmore. three, the security guard who looked like Dennis Weaver (the bloke in Duel and McCloud) dropped Former employeeby. “Have Steve y‘eard? Game’s been stopped. Fookin’ Scaahsers McLay paysare tribute kicking offto again”. We both did that Nana-ish facial expression that all true Nottinghamians do to register Nottingham'sdisapproval favourite - tilt head back, raise eyebrows, form mouth like cat’s arsehole, tut - and I cracked open my book and shop... waited for the next fat Mam to summon me. And waited. And waited. And waited. 08 10 16 After thirty minutes, confused as to why no-one was mashing my button, I ventured onto the shop floor. The place 04 May Contain Notts 11 Live Ade 19 The Littlest Big Screen was deserted. And then I noticed the telly department, The news diary that licks mushy peas Adrian Edmondson on his new band, We take you inside the Screen Room with half of Broado crowded round it, watching 96 people . off your sister whilst dressed as Alvin his old mate, and a disturbingWhen a talecondition of is terminal,(but there’s only nothing twenty more of you daunting at a time, than the die on Grandstand in total silence. Everyone there knew at Stardust pork pie abuse inevitable. Usually in such cases,obviously) the sadness is offset slightly by the least one person at the ground. Nobody knew what was knowledge that any pain and suffering would at least cease. On 27 happening to them. February 2009, as I sat surfing the Nottingham Evening Post’s website, LeftEyeOn King Skins there was Joined-Up no such relief. Thinking And then, when Bob Wilson announced that it was 05 A delightful smattering of 12 Joe Dempsie phones home to talk 20 The return of Dot To Dot the Liverpool end who was involved, the weirdest Nottinghamian pictorial whatnot aboutThe Chris title alone Miles was enoughand Theto sink Damned my heart from its jovial Friday With a reputation that spread across the Atlantic, the customers were transformation; from unbearable tension to sheer relief to Unitedhigh to a sullen low; Selectadisc In Nottingham Is Set To Close. far more colourful than the ones in your local branch of Greggs. Metallers Comments on local forums, industry websites and blogs would chime Nottinghamwould hassle Simon Events Tilton, mums-with-listsListings would comically mispronounceoverwhelming sadness, all in the space of two seconds. with the phrases ‘credit crunch’ and ‘death to digital’ as people 21praised the names of angst-ridden bands, spectrum-coloured, middle-aged men would Hillsborough a 43-year-old legacy that started with a few books and records on a Eightcling weeks to the counter of stuff for conversation to do when and weekend you’re warriors wouldLater buy tickets that to day, the bus home drove past Forest supporters 06 The story of a national tragedy, Kestermarket stall. Aspden not workingthe latest Tribal or Gathering. sleeping All this set in a scene of poster-clad wallson where their Basil way back from Hillsborough. You couldn’t bring 14 beavered around with his clipboard, Jim marshalled everyone while clutching recounted from the other side of the As Themourners author came to oflay keyboard-typedthe most important wreaths to this ‘legendary another pile of obscure train journey DVDs, and Sue’s Barnsley cackleyourself broke to look them in the face, or imagine what they’d stadium independent’,book they you’ll spoke readof the rarities this they’d year uncovered, talks the bands they’d seen through even the deepest dub bassline. seen. hunched playing in front of the counter and the piles of vinyl they’d escorted from Write Lion the premises‘Yorkshire into their own. Noir’ People were mourning Selectadisc’s passing like26 the For those who cared to look - or those that already knew - the walls and pillars behind fall of an empire that had once threatened to invade the Market Square, before being The thelatest counter literary may have musings seemed littered with promo posters and stickersTwenty for albums years and later, we’ve talked to a few people who were A Canadian In New Basford pinned back for its last stand under the shadow of the Theatre Royal. gigs, but closer inspection would reveal an endless montage of images doctored with 08 drawn-on glasses, beards (for Bell), big noses (for James) and catchphrasesthere (regularsin an andattempt to piece together the Nottingham side Our Rob gets tret to a slap-up meal As when my DH Gran Lawrence died, it’ll take me the years Naughty to walk past Selectadisc, Engine like it did with staff alike). The wall of media from musicians advertising for like-mindedof the fellows story, might and that article – along with an interview with at top-notch sophisticated dining her 16 house, without A Tramtastic having my heart tale strings for snapped all the at, familylike the bass – asfrom a Reviewshave chronicled the history of the customers, but those till-side highlighted the endless Washington hardcore band resonating from the shop’s doors. Here was a place that28 An all-Nottscharacteristics selection and traits of peopleof the as crispiestmischievous as an Oasis-obsessedthe writerMoony or aof coiled a book about institutionalised racism and the experience, er, Hooters provided some oflong the most as enchanting,they don’t passionate, mind comical references and heart-warming to moments punk soul like Dickie. final word on the closing of Selectadisc – means that this that post-war Nottinghamvomit andhas hosted. public A two-way sexual theatre intercourse where the cast and punters cobs for your lyrical snap tin would interchange depending on what side of the counter they were stood and who was Even when you left, you never truly escaped the reaches of the Selectadiscissue family.is pretty Ten years heavy manners. And we make no apologies taking the spotlight. Having worked there, it was also the place that helped shape my life; after I worked there, I'd still receive invites to the Christmas party (my Dad even got invited once The Vinyl Salute my career as a journalist, the sounds on my stereo and some of the greatest friends I have. when Sue rang my parents' house) and I still to this day refer to it foras 'The that; Shop'. there’sSelectadisc wasno apoint relentlessly banging on about how 10 Why the demise of Selectadisc is Artist Profiles Nottsliving Trumps and breathing community, where friends would drop in to spontaneouslymint Notts organise is if you don’t highlight the shittier elements. One Saturday18 at the age of seventeen, I turned up on Market Street, rather fuzzily-eyed 30after a Plusafter-work Horrorscopes, pints, talk music, The talk Arthole football, swap and shit jokes and buy a few tunes while constantly such a blow to the city, by a former night of dancing awayJon at the Rouston, Marcus Garvey Debra Centre, Swann,for my first dayHarriet as a Saturday lad. Rather influencing (often subliminally) those that stepped within. Were it not for Selectadisc's existence, than, as I had hoped, being quizzed about Guided By Voices singles or Jeff Mills aliases I was LeftLionthere would Abroad be a completely different list of names in my phone, myBut personal fear career not, as a dear reader; we also take the time to have employee instead given three things; Startin a mop, and a shopping Sam listClift and a pile of CDs to put back in the racks. journalist might not have been so open-eared and eyed and my list of hangovers would doubtless After two weeks of burning the candle at both ends and exhibiting somewhat lethargic be a lot shorter. More so than school, college or anywhere else I’vea worked, natter the shop with was the Adrian biggest Edmondson (and were delighted to behaviour the next day I had earned the nickname ‘Lightning’. social influence of my life. Now, it’s gone. discover that our older readers might have scoffed a pork

I wasn’t the only one; Gary X-Ray, Tommy Teapot, Thrash, Matt Tatt, Nail, Bell, Urn, Tubs, Schmo, All good things don't have to come to an end, and there's hope thatpie Selectadisc made will by rise Vyvyan again, under out the Young Ones over a quarter of a Fish, Goose, Monkey, K-9, Panther, Waino, Detail, Metal Ed. . .even the innocuous-sounding Basil Jim's guidance, at a smaller location. And while the beat of the heart,century passion and ago), diverse have quality a will nose round the Screen Room, and send (so-called because of having a tendency for returning records for being ‘faulty’) all lent doubtless remain the same, there'll be elements that are lost forever (Little Ben's stomach-churning themselves to a bizarre list of aliases. Sure, it was a musical Mecca, but it took a triumphantly emissions that cleared the shop on more than one occasion will howeverour resident not be missed). CanAlien Rob off to Hooters. And please note calamitous mix of people to make it so, whether they be a mild-mannered hip-hop head (Rachel), that we’ve revamped our reviews section to give even more pogoing front man (Punish the Atom’s Joey), Brian Clough said not to bring him flowers when he was dead, but to bring them when he was globally-loved bass player (Mark Pitchshifter), giggling DJ (Dave Congreve) or aspirational alive. Those keen enough to feast on the cheap closing down sale Nottsmight've donebands well to aheed shine, and the fact that all the usual knick- promoter (Detonate’s James). these words earlier (myself in recent years included), but you can'tknacks blame Selectadisc's that makeclosure LeftLion so much better than the other solely on spending patterns, MP3s, credit crunches or anything else. The factors just If Selectadisc was a theatre, then Fergus was certainly the pantomime baddie. Owner of continued to stack. rammell are present and correct. Thanks for picking us up. credits the most scornful ‘Can I help you?’ in the Midlands and with a reputation for ‘bluntness’, he was renowned as the weekend retail version of Simon Cowell (if Regardless, we'll be left with a hole much bigger than that of a 12” and the community Cowell had specialised in drum ‘n’ bass and techno). After a few Saturday mornings will begin to disperse with no central focal point. Never again willWord you get suchto youra Nana, Editor Photographyof working the singlesEditor store I realised that not only was he a likeable “THE TRUTH:jumble of music-heads assembled in a Nottingham store. The beat goes on but Al Needham ([email protected]) Dominicchap, Henry but that having([email protected]) seventeen year-old bum-fluff kids demanding youSome play afans pickedthe heart pockets has stopped. of Ofvictims. all the rarities that people pillaged from there over the pile of happy hardcore records at 9am in the morning does not makeSome a bright fans urinatedyears, I acquired on the something brave that cops. will stay with me forever. A nickname.Al Needham outlook for the day. God bless you Selectadisc. Editor In Chief Theatre Editor Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life.” [email protected] Jared Wilson ([email protected]) Adrian Bhagat ([email protected]) The Sun, lying out of its arse, April 19 1989 Art Director Contributors MEET THE TEAM David Blenkey ([email protected]) Alison Emm Aly Stoneman If you would like to reach our readers by Tom Wingrove Designer Deputy Editors David Thompson advertising your company in these pages please Nathan Miller ([email protected]) Duncan Heath contact Ben on 07984 275453 or email [email protected] Workaholic. Designer. Installation Charlotte Kingsbury ([email protected]) Frances Ashton maker. Illustrator. Concept designer. Glen Parver Technical Director Rob Cutforth Art director. Cat enthusiast. Alan Gilby ([email protected]) Roger Mean LeftLion has an estimated readership of 40,000 in Filmmaker. Cider lover. Dance Steve McLay the city of Nottingham. LeftLion.co.uk received whore. Comic collector. Bread- Marketing and Sales Manager over 4 million page views in the last 12 months. maker. Friend-maker. Staring Ben Hacking ([email protected]) Illustrators champion. Music collector. Sci-fi Ging Inferior LeftLion is distributed to over 300 venues across freak. Time-waster. Hello. Designer 10 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28Rikki Marr Tom Wingrove ([email protected]) Rob White Nottingham. If your venue isn’t one of them, please contact Ben on 07984 275453 or email Frances Ashton Arts Editor Art Editor Photographers [email protected] Frances Ashton ([email protected]) Beccy Godridge A former Gallery Manager of Southwell Christina Barbian Artspace, Frances now works for the This magazine is printed on paper sourced from Literature Editor Lizzie Goodman Council’s Creative Room. When not James Walker ([email protected]) Toby Price sustainable forests. Our printers are ISO 14001 certified by the British Accreditation Bureau for checking out exhibitions and studios, she can be found on the dancefloor., Oh, and Music Editors Podcast Overlord their environmental management system. Natasha Chowdhury ([email protected]) Will Forrest she wants to learn snowboarding and Paul Klotschkow ([email protected]) become the Director of the Tate Gallery.

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 3 MAY CONTAIN Selectadone with Nottingham’s ‘Mr. Sex’, Al Needham I suspect the Selectadisc people would say that too many of us were already going to t’internet for our NOTTS music needs... iTunes does not, to my knowledge, have people working behind the counter who can February 2009-March 2009 help you discover something you’d not previously heard of. khongor February 9 True, but it’s a shame that the vinyl dept can’t ‘Smokey’, the city’s most prolific tagger, gets be saved at least. A move to smaller premises sent down for twenty weeks for, well, making in a cheaper part of town is plausible surely? tourists assume that we’re all mental about the Apparently Selectadisc started out as a mere rammell seventies band who did Living Next market stall. Perhaps a tactical retreat is in order? Door To Alice and looked like failed experiments Haych in trying to clone Rod Stewart. Oh, and if there are any taggers out there reading this, pack it in, The future of retailing recorded music is bleak because you’re shit. There is a world of difference whether in shops and online because, bottom line, between Seen and Shy 147 breaking into a train the customer doesn’t want to pay anymore. It’s depot in Style Wars and covering a carriage in very easy to get your music for free, and difficult to art, and you writing your stupid name that no- force people to pay. That affects Amazon and HMV as much as it does Selectadisc, and I can’t see that one can even read on the shutters of a cob shop changing. in Sherwood. Transmetropolitan February 10 Actually I do want to pay for some music. I gave David Cameron visits Nottingham for the day, my mate back a cdr of the last Roots Manuva album in order to give off the impression that he gives a as I want him to get the royalty. It goes like this: single, solitary monkey’s arse about us. are they alive? Are they minted? Are they Tories? If dead, were they nice or horrible to their kids? February 11 Floydy Two cars in Gedling collide with such force that one of their engines flies off and lands I’ve met and been friends with a couple of the staff in someone’s front garden, bringing back and they are very nice people, but something about horrifying memories of the time when that plane standing behind that counter seemed to give them with a full cargo of knackered old sofas crashed a holier-than-thou attitude that I really didn’t like. into that juggernaut full of fucked fridges in Still, sad times though. Sneinton. one get a mard-on and are scared that Japanese tourists might Mr BRJ turn down the chance to look across the Thames and have a goz at Primark instead. So they change it to the Wheel of Nottingham, I was afforded the best, most laconic put-down in February 12 Former Atomic Kitten Liz McClarnon comes to Nottingham to which is bob. Not only does it sound like something you’d find on the nineties, when I asked for Johnny Panic’s When the menu of a carvery, but it also implies that we’ve only got one. I Drink I Love You More. The shoe-gazer kid didn’t promote pork at Clarendon College. And now, after writing those Making us sound like, I dunno, Mansfield or summat. even look up from beneath his perfect indie fringe, lines, I want to sharpen two pencils, shove them up my nose, and pointed to one of his colleagues and flat-lined ‘He bash my face repeatedly against the table. does pop.’ Ouch. March 3 Basia Zamorska February 13 One of our local happy-go-lucky mentalists is given an ASBO A charity is set up to get Tales Of Robin Hood reopened. So if you banning him from being in certain parts of town, drinking in Me and the K absolutely battered their staff one get hassled in the street by a robot in tights that stinks of piss when public and touching cars. So what does that mean – if you ran him night at the music quiz at the Social. They got you’re on your dinner hour, now you know why. over, he’d get done for it? Selectadissed. Lord of the Nish February 14 March 4 A dark day for the Nottingham music scene, as an audition in The Mecca Bingo club in Beeston puts on a search for a bingo Carlton for a member of a Take That tribute band (not Robbie caller in Viccy Centre, but no-one volunteers. Speaking as a former or the fat lad – one of the other twats) attracts precisely no-one. bingo caller myself, I can tell you that it’s a fantastic job if you like Run! Giant Robin Hood statue full wearing extremely tight black Sta-Prest trousers and having your of restaurants is coming! “I am astonished. I thought there was supposed to be two million unemployed” says the band’s manager. “The lucky man will earn arse mauled by elderly women sporting home-made coathanger good money and travel the world. Doesn’t anyone want a taste of tattoos that read ‘DAVE’ and ‘BAY CITY ROLLERS’, who pull you onto their knees and screech “I’ve ‘ad bigger lads than yo’, duckeh” I personally fully support the idea of having a very the pop star life?” into your tab. tall building in Nottingham for the sake of tourism. However, the whole Robin Hood motif is a bit of a February 16 new angle. It’s going to take a good team of artists Cast, the bar at the Playhouse which had shut down the previous March 10 and architects to make that not be shit... month, re-opens. I’m now convinced that there actually isn’t a Snug gets its lapdancing licence application knocked back by Jared recession at all - bars in town are only saying they’re shutting down the Council (for the usual reasons – i.e. the fear that town would to get their names in May Contain Notts and make me look an idiot. be full of sex-crazed locals masturbating in the streets like bored They should have a giant Brian Clough as well with Hmph. monkeys in zoos), despite claiming that they would be offering a a massive bar in his head. ‘highbrow burlesque event’ (i.e. sucky middle-class girls pratting daley thompson February 18 about in their Nana’s knickers) and looking to book Dita Von Teese It is announced in Hollywood that Nottingham, that new film about - which is not unlike the Thurland trying to get a music licence by Great idea, will be shot down by people who hate saying they’re going to have a word with Prince and seeing if he’s progress. If not the council just won’t have the balls Robin Hood that’s been hanging about the pages of MCN like a pissy whiff in a Debenhams doorway on a Sunday morn, is now up for doing a turn. Nice try, chaps, but Dita Von Teese? You’ve got to say ‘yes’ to this project. Shame. more chance of getting Rita from Bees… Nottingham going to be called – wait for it – Robin Hood. Whoa. It must have took ‘em ages to come up with that. March 11 I don’t hate progress and I’m shooting it down. …ton. From a tiny biplane circling ‘round its head. February 23 New Jersey Manufacturer’s Insurance Co. Talking of which, a local businessman announces plans to build a bleddy enormous Robin Hood on the outskirts of town, the batchy March 12 Ironically if the Robin Hood statue was to actually bogger. The plans include – disturbingly – a restaurant somewhere After leaving the Golden Fleece with a young friend, May Contain happen, the most interesting part of skyline would below his belt. Hm, shall we have a romantic meal in Robin Hood’s Notts witnesses a chatty youth rip open the nub-end bin, be the thing you are viewing it from. ball-bag tonight, darling? rummage through it, and shout; “EE’YAR, CARL! AH’VE GORRUS Pete Spectrum SOME FAGS!” February 25 Nottingham businessman proposes giant statue Metallica play the Ice Arena, resulting in the greatest Evening Post March 18 of Robin Hood (again). Stupid, numpty, whiny, Heartwarming story of the bi-month: Pete Doherty, in town to opinionated, parochial, professional Midlander, pea forum quote ever, from ‘Brian of Grantham’; “the best 2 bands in the world r guns n roses and metallica and seein gnr at milton keynes play a gig at Rock City, spends the afternoon getting kaylide in brained, fat arse business idiot. With twats like the Old Angel, where he gets approached by two already battered him in the county why does he even wonder why in 93(with long hair)was possibly the best day of my life.....the 2nd best day was when i saw metallica at download 2006(again with members of mature punk band Certified (latest CD Piss In Your Face London gets everything? Answer: ‘cos they have out now, kids), who ask if they can play support. Pete, obviously in a all the clever business people. long hair)....i ve now had my hair cut off as i got it caught in a tractor good mood that the papers are now wondering when Jade is going myeviltwin last september” to snuff it instead of him, lets them. Next thing you know, they’re I feel that anything that would overshadow the February 27 on stage, bellowing at a venue full of twatty students. Who says iconic incinerator dominating the city’s southerly Selectadisc announces that it’s shutting down after 43 years, dreams don’t come true? aspect would be a tragic blow to our heritage. resulting in half the city bashing its hands against its head, even Albert Herring though most of them hadn’t been in there since Fear Of A Black March 19 Planet came out on import, this writer included. We’re all to blame A postmaster in Sneinton announces he has banned customers on this one, people. We should be ashamed of oursen. who can’t speak English properly from his post office. Yes, that’s right; Sneinton. He then gets nobbed off by the owner and kicked March 2 out by the party he serves as a councillor for, but claims that he The Nottingham Eye, midway through its second stint of showing will impose the ban in his new post office in Netherfield. Yes, that’s people what it would be like if they were the world’s tallest Emo, right; Netherfield. is forced to change its name after the people who run the London 4 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 LeftEyeOn ImagesWhat’s frombeen Our goin’ Style on Israand Legendary Notts, recentleh,the exhibition through of work the featured lenses ofin ourthis cameramag from folk... the last five years, at the Malt Cross…

Top left to bottom right

TopThe exhibition left to space. bottom right SHRUG Ladies perform on the opening night. The exhibition space. Alex Godwin with her untitled triptych.

SHRUGDavid Baird Ladies with his perform protrait of Deson Coleman.the opening night. Ed Bowness sits between two of his illustrations.

AlexSasha GodwinLeech stands with aside her his worksuntitled Street Repeat triptych.and Approaching Crowd.

A selection of the work from this exhibition is Davidnow showing Baird at with the Golden his protraitFleece, with of several Des Coleman.artworks for sale.

Ed Bowness sits between two of his illustrations.

Sasha Leech stands aside his works Street Repeat and Approaching Crowd.

A selection of the work from this exhibition is now showing at The Golden Fleece, with several artworks for sale.

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 5 3.30pm: The first tannoy announcement is made, David Revuetla: The first day back at work, my boss – a asking fans to clear the pitch. Forest fanatic - asked me about what I’d seen, and he said ‘They deserved all they got. They don’t like it when Mark Shardlow: …and our reaction was; where are they it happens to them.’ I lost all respect for him.

going to go? Back into the terrace? Nobody had thought to inform the fans of the situation, and it was clearly – In 1995, Brian Clough’s autobiography is published. In clearly - obvious by then that the game wasn’t going to it, he states that the drunkenness of certain Liverpool happen. supporters was to blame. He apologises in full in 2001. Nottingham Forest are about to play Stephen Lowe: The main thing I can remember is the Stephen Lowe: I wish he hadn’t said it. And I think at Liverpool in the semi-final of the FA silence. The conversation up the stand was like the the end of the day, he wished he hadn’t said it. What had Cup. Liverpool are on for the Double. quietest Chinese whisper. happened was much more complex than that. Liverpool fans find it very difficult to accept what he said. I know Forest are bidding to win three cups in a Phil Gilborn: Eventually, Dalglish and Clough came out. that when we toured Old Big ‘Ead, the Liverpool theatres season. It’s expected to be the match of They just stood there, as confused as everyone else. we approached were extremely quick to refuse to take it. the season. It turns into British 4.11pm: The first fatalities are announced. Eight The final death toll is ninety six. The Taylor Report reported dead. The gym beside the stadium is deduces that a failure of command amongst senior po- football’s darkest day. converted to a makeshift mortuary. lice officers was the main cause, and recommends the removal of fences and a move to all-seater stadia. Martin Goddard: As we left, Graham Kelly, secretary of Hillsborough was a national tragedy, the Football League, was being interviewed and fans of Stephen Lowe: There was no-one there checking the but it wasn’t our tragedy. Nevertheless, both teams were shouting ‘You greedy bastard, this is tickets. Obviously, they should not have started the your fault.’ game with so many people waiting to get in. The police there are thousands of people in decision was a tragic one, but I can understand it. I Nottingham who had to stand and 4.15pm: Finally, the match is officially abandoned. suspect from where I was standing, they couldn’t have guessed how deep and entrenched the tunnel was. And watch 96 people die. This is just a Phil Gilborn: Even when the game was called off, you you look back now and think of the fences, it was a still couldn’t take it in. A lot of people just stayed there, tragedy waiting to happen. fraction of their story. staring at the pitch. You couldn’t believe what you’d seen with your own eyes. Phil Gilborn: There were many times at Forest games Phil Gilborn, Spion Kop end: Forest-Liverpool games Martin Goddard, South stand: I remember driving up, on the goalmouth. A load of lads in t-shirts running about all Phil Gilborn: There was one lad with a bald head and no where you’d find yourself right up against the fences. It were always special in the eighties. We were the team a beautiful sunny day, thinking this was it; the missing over the place, and us assuming that they’re rioting. top on being carried from their end of the pitch to ours. Martin Goddard: We walked back to the car, in silence, was part of going to football, and you’d laugh about it that beat them in the League Cup final and knocked them piece in Cloughie’s trophy cabinet was about to be filled. And then more of them came over. We were dumbstruck. past queues and queues of people for the phoneboxes. afterwards. After Hillsborough, you’d think ‘That could out of Europe when they were at their peak. There was a 3.04pm: Peter Beardsley hits the crossbar for Liverpool. have happened to us.’ proper rivalry going. They were the best two teams in the Ed Collin: I went up on the early train with my mate and David Revuetla: The first people over the top still stand- Mark Shardlow: By the end of the programme, at six league at the time. his dad and brother, feeling nervous about the game and David Revuetla: And that was it. There was the ing – the first survivors, if you will – were lined up by the o’clock, we had announced thirty casualties. Mark Shardlow: My take on it is that football supporters being so close to the Liverpool supporters. inevitable crowd surge, more people started spilling onto police against the wall. And they had to be moved for as a whole had to take some responsibility for David Revuetla, South stand: The week before we’d won the pitch, and you thought ‘here we go’. their own protection. Forest supporters, not Martin Goddard: We heard on Grandstand that the Hillsborough. It wasn’t pleasant to watch football in the the League Cup final. Forest were really turning it on, David Revuetla: We got in quite early, around half one, comprehending what had happened, were giving them death toll was fifty two people. Which was like a eighties, and the fences went up because of the behav- playing some real exhibition football. I remember and straight away you could see the centre pens were 3.06pm: A policeman runs onto the pitch and consults some really vile abuse. hammer blow. iour of certain people. The police made tragic decisions, travelling back on an absolute high, thinking that it gets jam-packed, while the side pens weren’t. You could the referee. Radio Nottingham commentary: ‘Something but they had a mindset about football hooligans which no better than this. actually see the terracing, which was strange. quite sensational… the fans don’t agree with the referee Mark Shardlow: Remember, this is before mobile Stephen Lowe: On the train, everyone with radios was was promoted by the government. You can blame certain quite astonishingly, the teams have come off the pitch… is phones, so Forest supporters would have been in the trying to work out what had happened. It must have Liverpool supporters for drunkenness, but at Forest now Ed Collin, South stand: I was at the last year of primary 2.30pm. There is a huge build-up of Liverpool fans that in the interest of safety?’ dark if they didn’t have a radio. I suspect a lot of fans of a been weird for people passing through Sheffield to you see drunk fans, because that’s part of the culture of school, talking with my mates about how we were going outside the Leppings Lane stand. People inside are certain age would be thinking about 1974, when suddenly see all these people in red shirts getting on in football. And I’m sure the police had their reasons, but to go, and queuing up at the City Ground on a Sunday turned away from the two already full central pens David Revuetla: The ref blew the whistle, and we just Newcastle fans invaded the pitch and stopped an FA shock, looking as if they’d just walked out of a surely Liverpool should have got the bigger end. Rather morning. We got seats for the stand next to the Liverpool with no access to the side pens, creating a bottleneck. thought; ‘Bloody hell’. Absolute resentment towards the Cup game that Forest were winning. nightmare. than putting blame on one element, we should all take a end. Liverpool end. bit of responsibility. Stephen Lowe: We got there just before kick-off. It was Stephen Lowe: Everything suddenly seemed to go into David Revuetla: The journey back was horrendous. A Stephen Lowe, South stand: We had massive difficulty chaos. We got separated and I found myself in the Ed Collin: Liverpool fans were pouring over the fence, slow motion, where nothing seemed to happen. And never-ending funeral procession. No scarves and flags Ed Collin: Looking back on it, it feels part of a different getting tickets. It wasn’t until the morning of the game Leppings Lane end, surrounded by police horses. Beyond like a tsunami. I can still see the faces of kids pushed up then people were being laid out in front of us on the hanging out the window. We drove home, with the radio era. It’s really important that people remember that we got them, from someone in Brownes. So three of them, I could see God knows how many Liverpool against the bars. grass. And then a young Liverpudlian lad came over to on, in silence. And the death toll was going up, and up, Hillsborough, and the fact that ninety six people died us got the train up. supporters waving tickets. And then one of the stewards, us and said; ‘They’re dead. They’re dead. Dead people and up. Sixty. Seventy. It wouldn’t stop. unnecessarily, just because they wanted to see a game not looking at my ticket, waved me towards the tunnel. Mark Shardlow: When you see a police officer on the here.’ of football. Noon. Liverpool supporters travelling by car are held I could already see lots of people in there. I turned to a pitch to stop a game, you’re aware that something has Ed Collin: I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, we’ve been up by unannounced roadworks on the M62. young copper and said ‘I think I’m the wrong place’. He gone seriously wrong. And then, from about six minutes Martin Goddard: And then a single, solitary ambulance part of something horrible, oh my God, it could have Martin Goddard: It obviously doesn’t count for anything, - immediately, bless him – pushed me underneath one of past three, we’re describing people being lifted from the trundled onto the pitch. And we’re sitting there, almost been us. Oh my God, all those people have died. Oh my but you have to wonder what would have happened to Mark Shardlow, commentator, BBC Radio Nottingham: the horses. terracing onto the pitch. as if it were a film. Thinking ‘This can’t be real.’ But we God, we’ve got to play them again.’ Forest. If they’d beaten Liverpool, they probably would I’d spent the night in Leeds the night before, so I was still thought the game would restart. have won the FA Cup and Clough would probably have travelling with the Liverpool fans. It was a typical Martin Goddard: From the stand, it was very obvious 3.10pm. Radio Nottingham commentary: ‘There’s one Stephen Lowe: My wife was acting at Derby Playhouse, retired earlier. Who knows? But then you can’t help pre-match atmosphere; a lot of people out enjoying that there was a bunching of fans behind the goal at the spectator running across the pitch… while many of his 3.16pm. The only medical staff at the scene are a St so we got off at Chesterfield and stood outside the but think of the gentleman who lost two daughters at themselves, and a high-profile police presence. Liverpool end, and people were being pulled up to the Liverpool fellows are down being treated in the goal John’s ambulance crew. Forty four ambulances have station manager’s office, listening to his radio. And the Hillsborough, and what they would be doing now – But that was nothing out of the ordinary for the time; we top tier. The general reaction was ‘typical Scousers, at it area… TV cameras and press photographers taking been called to Hillsborough. Only one is allowed in by count went up. Eighty six…eighty eight…ninety… growing up, having kids, enjoying life. What a waste. were still in the hooliganism era. again’. pictures… and still, Liverpool supporters are trying to get the police. It has to turn back due to the overwhelming away from that area… about 300 policemen… people amount of people who need help. Martin Goddard: We met up with friends for drinks 3pm: The game kicks off without delay. The police, being stretchered away… ’ afterwards, and it seemed the whole city was absolutely Interviews: Al Needham fearing a crush outside the ground, order the exit gates Mark Shardlow: We still didn’t realise the severity of the stunned. It sounds callous now, but there was a craving to be opened. Phil Gilborn: The Kop end didn’t realise what was hap- situation. And of course, Mansfield and Notts County to do something normal. pening at all, so we started chanting and singing; were playing, and we had to break off from time to time Stephen Lowe: At that moment, all the horses were generally ‘Ah, come on, get on wi’ it’. The Liverpool fans to update on that. How trivial does that sound now? But Mark Shardlow: As soon as I got home, I had to go out. I pulled back to the side, and the Liverpool support ran thought we were taking the mick. as time went on, football became less and less didn’t want to, but it was my wife’s works outing, and all towards me in a massive wave. I managed to scramble important. I could see people who were really stricken I can remember is sitting in a pub, not talking to anyone, over the barrier, and watched this…wave…go up the Martin Goddard: Rumours were flying around that and people who were clearly seriously injured, but I looking into the distance. Everyone wanted to know tunnel. Liverpool fans had arrived late and charged the gates never thought ‘that’s a dead body’ while I was on air. what it was like, but I couldn’t speak. I just wanted to be without tickets. The police seemed to be paralysed. We And I’m constantly stressing ‘This is not the Forest end, at home, on my own. Martin Goddard: Both teams were really going at it. But were expecting the Liverpool fans to charge us. this is not football hooliganism, something has happened it was hard to drag your attention from the Liverpool end. here and it’s serious, but it’s not football hooliganism’. By the end of the day, ninety four people have died and You could tell that something wasn’t right. Mark Shardlow: People are ripping down the 766 are injured. The ninety fifth dies four days later. advertising hoardings to use as makeshift stretchers, and Ed Collin: I can see people on stretchers who are The FA reschedules the game for May 7, to be held at Phil Gilborn: The first indication we got was when Peter cutting the netting off the goals. And I find myself talking obviously dead. I can see people on the pitch who are a Old Trafford. Beardsley took a corner, stopped, and started looking about people being given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation weird colour. I can see Liverpool fans who are very, very around. And then they started coming over the fence. on the pitch. Realising that we’re now talking about a agitated. But I’m eleven at the time. It doesn’t really sink Mark Shardlow: I can’t even remember if I was there. major incident. in. But I must have been. It was my job to be there. I Radio Nottingham commentary: ‘There’s been just a remember the memorial service at St Mary’s church, and little bit of a disturbance at Hillsborough…the Liverpool Stephen Lowe: And then the stewards moved in very David Revuetla: Even when it was absolutely clear that being at the City Ground when they set up all the fans are just packed too tightly in the Leppings Lane quietly, and turned to face us and said; ‘Don’t move’. A lot this was a disaster, there were a handful of Forest sup- counselling, but I can’t remember the replay at all. end... about two or three hundred of them who have just of us asked ‘Can we do anything to help?’ But we were porters who were still smirking and gesturing. And I’ll spilled onto the pitch – some clutching their legs as if just told no, it was OK, everything was in hand. never comprehend that for as long as I’ll live. I can still Stephen Lowe: I remember going. I don’t remember they’ve been bruised… there’s just no room...’ see their faces. At one point it looked as if Forest fans anything about it but the fact that we lost. How weird. Ed Collin: Some Liverpool fans came over to the stand were going to turn on each other. I’ve never been able to face an away game since. Ed Collin: Someone shouted ‘Fucking hell, they’re invad- and told us that the police had fucked up, and pushed too ing the pitch!’ They were pouring over the fence and into many people through. The full version of this article is available at www.leftlion.uk/issue28 6 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 7

Rob Cutforth visits the only Hooters left in the UK, and discovers that the biggest tits are the people who dine there . . .

I’VE BEEN SURPRISED by many things since lanterns, order tickets moving to the kitchen I moved to Nottingham. The fact that most down tiny zip lines and bouncy waitresses are English people have full sets of teeth and that an absolute GBH on the senses. it was indeed possible to order a cold beer in a pub, to name a couple. I was also surprised Stifling the urge to lapse into an epileptic fit, (and a bit saddened) there weren’t more I look for someone to seat us. And wouldn’t bulldogs, bowler hats or chimney sweeps. you know it, but we’re greeted by the very girl who took my reservation. Her name, as However, I never in my wildest nightmares advertised by her strategically placed tag, is believed that a place like Hooters would stand Kimberley (or ‘Kimbles’ as she tells us later), a chance over here. I thought the Americans and she remembers our conversation on the had cornered the market on trashy when it phone. ‘How do you say your surname again?’ came to eating establishments. England is she asks. I tell her a third time and she shakes more cheeky than trashy. This is apparent by her head and giggles again. Goddamn, I’m the fact that you call curry an English dish, and hilarious. how you endlessly and unapologetically rip off KFC (I laugh every time I pass a Kansas Fried When she sits us down, right next to the Chicken or an SFC, complete with KFC font exposed kitchen, the first thought I have is - the laughing stops as soon as I tuck into any ‘Why on earth would they want their customers food that comes from those places, however). to see that?’ The sight of sweaty, pimple-faced teenagers, covered in batter, spooning baked Even though we’ve got hundreds of Hootii beans out of a vat into plastic containers back home, I’d never actually been inside literally makes me gag. Needless to say, when one. Obviously, I’d heard about the waitresses my bean cup arrives at the table, I give it a and even seen the get-up they were made to pass. wear, but it wasn’t until I read the employee handbook on The Smoking Gun website that We order our food, and Kimbles, wiping down I realised just how crazy the place is. It’s the table, says, ‘I do this all the time. I’m like amazing how specific the handbook gets in everybody’s mum.’ I’m not quite sure what relation to the uniform. Here’s my favourite she means by that, but now I’ve got a visual of excerpt; my mother in hot pants in my head. Thanks for that, Kimbles. She giggles again. It becomes ‘Hair is to be styled at all times. No ponytails apparent that smiling and giggling are part or pigtails are to be worn. The image to be of the job. Don’t get me wrong; Kimbles is projected is one of glamour. No bizarre haircuts, an attractive girl and I’m all for friendly and styles, or colors are acceptable. No hats or attentive staff, but being forced to smile headbands are to be worn. No large hair clips is downright disturbing. It feels as if I’ve or scrunchies.’ kidnapped her, and she’s being overly nice to gain my confidence just long enough for me to Glamour? The 80s roller-derby chick look turn my back so she can club me over the head exudes many things (outdated and cheap, for with a toilet tank cover. instance), but one thing it is not is glamorous. And what exactly constitutes a ‘bizarre Owen and I get our food, and to our surprise, haircut’? It takes a brave man to tell a woman it’s not bad for a burger joint. It’d taste what she can and can’t do with her hair. It’s even better if the kitchen was hidden away, probably second only to wrestling cobras naked but I haven’t had a decent Buffalo wing in with a dead mouse taped to your ballsack as ages, so I really have nothing to complain the most dangerous thing to do in the world about in that respect. However, this is small ever. On the other hand, how funny would a consolation considering I have to eat it whilst wrongful dismissal case due to ‘Improper Use of surrounded by loud, drunken twats and creepy, Scrunchie’ be? scrunchiless fembots. We eat quickly and get In fact, it would be fair to say I felt like a right I was ready to go with as open a mind as I the hell out of Dodge. scampering perv. I’m sure that Hooters is not going to be very could muster. However, when we get into busy - this is England we’re talking about, the cab, I make Owen (my buddy and fellow The UK was supposed to get thirty-six more The first thing that hits me when I get inside and surely these people know better (even Hooters virgin) tell the cabbie we were going Hooters, but they’ve met with pretty stiff (no Hooters is the smell. If you could deep-fry an Nottinghamians). I would find out later just to Hooters because I am too embarrassed. pun intended) opposition in practically every orangutan’s armpit, I imagine this is exactly how wrong I was. The girl on the other end Already, I realise that maybe this column won’t place they’ve tried. I realise the main reason it what it would smell like. The other (more of the phone tries to take my reservation, but be as balanced and objective as I was hoping. stays open is because it is close to two football worrying) fact is that the place is absolutely has difficulty with my surname. Even after pitches and is regularly filled with knuckle- rammed. There’s one guy doing pushups on spelling it a couple times, she still doesn’t get We arrive at Hooters and I find myself dragging hooligans, but that’s no excuse; even the table in one corner, one guy being cajoled it and hides the fact by giggling profusely. It’s scampering in so no-one will see me. I’m not bloody Sheffield successfully stopped Hooters into downing a pint by a pack of demented not long before I realise that girlish giggling really the scampering type, but I can’t help it. from opening in its town centre, which means Hooters girls banging pots with spoons, and constitutes an entire conversation with Hooters There are only two reasons I can think of for we are officially more sexist than Yorkshiremen. shouty townie blokes and stags everywhere. If staff. an adult male to scamper; scampering after a How is that even possible? you were to custom-design a hell just for me, train because you’re late, or scampering to your car after buying porn. This was more the latter. this would be it. The TVs on every wall, patio

TOM DOWN TETHER A FAR SUNSET MURDER AT THE KREMLIN 26th March - 11th April / Artist Talk: 1st April, 7pm 30th April - 17th May / Private View: 28th April, 6-8pm 29th May - 17th May / Private View: 29th May, 6-8pm*

*followed by The Art Crawl

The Wasp Room Gallery 17a Huntingdon St, Nottingham Opening times: Thu/Fri, 3-7pm; Sat/Sun, 12-5pm 07729124336 | [email protected]

8 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 Go Bananas Have your own page on LeftLion.co.uk

www.leftlion.co.uk/theapproach A dedicated page on LeftLion.co.uk with images and text All Bars and Pubs Cinema Galleries Health and Beauty Nightclubs Restaurants Shops and Shopping Studios Takeaways Theatres Tourism A dedicated LeftLion URL i.e. LeftLion.co.uk/theapproach THE APPROACH Upcoming events 22/03 - Just The Tonic THE APPROACH 23/03 - Bosh! Friar Lane A logo on all pages of our site with a direct link to your page 25/03 - Solode Nottingham 28/03 - Joe Strange 29/03 - Just The Tonic Map 30/03 - Bosh! A direct link to your website, giving our 20,000 + monthly unique 0115 9506149 01/04 - Solode users the chance to reach you Email Website Features Vouchers Freedom to edit your page with a username and password

Many more special features Description The Approach is a big bar in the city centre providing high quality live entertainment, sport, food and of course drink. If you are a club, bar, shop, gallery, restaurant, studio or any other type of company During the day there’s a comprehensive menu put together by award winning chefs without the wallet that could bene t from exposure on the busiest entertainments site in the East emptying prices, loads of seating, a decent wine list and, within reason, children are welcome. Midlands, we invite you to take advantage of the LeftLion directory. By night the approach plays host to the city’s most popular live acts such as Roy de Wired, Joe Strange, Richie Muir and Kris Ward At £60 for 6 months or £100 for a year, you'd be bananas not to. Sundays are the property of the legendary Just The Tonic Comedy club www.justthetonic.com that has run for nearly 15 years and played home to luminaries like Johnny Vegas, Noel Fielding, Daniel Kitson, Ed Byrne and hundreds of others. For more information and to sign up today visit www.leftlion.co.uk/bananas or email [email protected]. There’s also the added bonus of sky/itv sports on a big screen and several quality plasma screens, check the website for fixtures The mighty Selectadisc, one of the best independent record shops in the country, is no more. Former employee Steve McLay pays tribute to Nottingham's favourite shop...

. When a condition is terminal, there’s nothing more daunting than the inevitable. Usually in such cases, the sadness is offset slightly by the knowledge that any pain and suffering would at least cease. On 27 February 2009, as I sat surfing the Nottingham Evening Post’s website, there was no such relief.

The title alone was enough to sink my heart from its jovial Friday With a reputation that spread across the Atlantic, the customers were high to a sullen low; Selectadisc In Nottingham Is Set To Close. far more colourful than the ones in your local branch of Greggs. Metallers Comments on local forums, industry websites and blogs would chime would hassle Simon Tilton, mums-with-lists would comically mispronounce with the phrases ‘credit crunch’ and ‘death to digital’ as people praised the names of angst-ridden bands, spectrum-coloured, middle-aged men would a 43-year-old legacy that started with a few books and records on a cling to the counter for conversation and weekend warriors would buy tickets to market stall. the latest Tribal Gathering. All this set in a scene of poster-clad walls where Basil beavered around with his clipboard, Jim marshalled everyone while clutching As mourners came to lay keyboard-typed wreaths to this ‘legendary another pile of obscure train journey DVDs, and Sue’s Barnsley cackle broke independent’, they spoke of the rarities they’d uncovered, the bands they’d seen through even the deepest dub bassline. hunched playing in front of the counter and the piles of vinyl they’d escorted from the premises into their own. People were mourning Selectadisc’s passing like the For those who cared to look - or those that already knew - the walls and pillars behind fall of an empire that had once threatened to invade the Market Square, before being the counter may have seemed littered with promo posters and stickers for albums and pinned back for its last stand under the shadow of the Theatre Royal. gigs, but closer inspection would reveal an endless montage of images doctored with drawn-on glasses, beards (for Bell), big noses (for James) and catchphrases (regulars and As when my Gran died, it’ll take me years to walk past Selectadisc, like it did with staff alike). The wall of media from musicians advertising for like-minded fellows might her house, without having my heart strings snapped at, like the bass from a have chronicled the history of the customers, but those till-side highlighted the endless Washington hardcore band resonating from the shop’s doors. Here was a place that characteristics and traits of people as mischievous as an Oasis-obsessed Moony or a coiled provided some of the most enchanting, passionate, comical and heart-warming moments punk soul like Dickie. that post-war Nottingham has hosted. A two-way theatre where the cast and punters would interchange depending on what side of the counter they were stood and who was Even when you left, you never truly escaped the reaches of the Selectadisc family. Ten years taking the spotlight. Having worked there, it was also the place that helped shape my life; after I worked there, I'd still receive invites to the Christmas party (my Dad even got invited once my career as a journalist, the sounds on my stereo and some of the greatest friends I have. when Sue rang my parents' house) and I still to this day refer to it as 'The Shop'. Selectadisc was a living and breathing community, where friends would drop in to spontaneously organise One Saturday at the age of seventeen, I turned up on Market Street, rather fuzzily-eyed after a after-work pints, talk music, talk football, swap shit jokes and buy a few tunes while constantly night of dancing away at the Marcus Garvey Centre, for my first day as a Saturday lad. Rather influencing (often subliminally) those that stepped within. Were it not for Selectadisc's existence, than, as I had hoped, being quizzed about Guided By Voices singles or Jeff Mills aliases I was there would be a completely different list of names in my phone, my personal career as a instead given three things; a mop, a shopping list and a pile of CDs to put back in the racks. journalist might not have been so open-eared and eyed and my list of hangovers would doubtless After two weeks of burning the candle at both ends and exhibiting somewhat lethargic be a lot shorter. More so than school, college or anywhere else I’ve worked, the shop was the biggest behaviour the next day I had earned the nickname ‘Lightning’. social influence of my life. Now, it’s gone.

I wasn’t the only one; Gary X-Ray, Tommy Teapot, Thrash, Matt Tatt, Nail, Bell, Urn, Tubs, Schmo, All good things don't have to come to an end, and there's hope that Selectadisc will rise again, under Fish, Goose, Monkey, K-9, Panther, Waino, Detail, Metal Ed. . .even the innocuous-sounding Basil Jim's guidance, at a smaller location. And while the beat of the heart, passion and diverse quality will (so-called because of having a tendency for returning records for being ‘faulty’) all lent doubtless remain the same, there'll be elements that are lost forever (Little Ben's stomach-churning themselves to a bizarre list of aliases. Sure, it was a musical Mecca, but it took a triumphantly emissions that cleared the shop on more than one occasion will however not be missed). calamitous mix of people to make it so, whether they be a mild-mannered hip-hop head (Rachel), pogoing front man (Punish the Atom’s Joey), Brian Clough said not to bring him flowers when he was dead, but to bring them when he was globally-loved bass player (Mark Pitchshifter), giggling DJ (Dave Congreve) or aspirational alive. Those keen enough to feast on the cheap closing down sale might've done well to heed promoter (Detonate’s James). these words earlier (myself in recent years included), but you can't blame Selectadisc's closure solely on spending patterns, MP3s, credit crunches or anything else. The factors just If Selectadisc was a theatre, then Fergus was certainly the pantomime baddie. Owner of continued to stack. the most scornful ‘Can I help you?’ in the Midlands and with a reputation for ‘bluntness’, he was renowned as the weekend retail version of Simon Cowell (if Regardless, we'll be left with a hole much bigger than that of a 12” and the community Cowell had specialised in drum ‘n’ bass and techno). After a few Saturday mornings will begin to disperse with no central focal point. Never again will you get such a of working the singles store I realised that not only was he a likeable jumble of music-heads assembled in a Nottingham store. The beat goes on but chap, but that having seventeen year-old bum-fluff kids demanding you play a the heart has stopped. Of all the rarities that people pillaged from there over the pile of happy hardcore records at 9am in the morning does not make a bright years, I acquired something that will stay with me forever. A nickname. outlook for the day. God bless you Selectadisc.

10 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 LIVE ADE You’ll recognise him from his appearances on TV alongside long-term comic partner Rik Mayall in programmes like The Young Ones and Bottom. But did you also know that Adrian Edmondson is a published novelist, worked at Pork Farms in Notts and is a bad-ass punk mandolin player?

Tell us about The Bad Shepherds… Is it true that you We play punk songs on folk instruments, as we like used to live round the sound they make together. It’s not a gag; for here? example, Down In The Tube Station At Midnight by I did. When I was a The Jam is, in my view, a classic folk song. What student in Manchester I we offer is basically a good night out. In line with had a girlfriend from our Antichrist name we’ve rewritten some bits of Mapperley, and we used to The Bible - I’m quite keen on making people not go back to her parents’ house believe in God at all. It’s a bit of a hobby of mine, in the holidays. I used to work . especially to people who turn up at my door to at Pork Farms in the summer and preach. John Players in winter.

Pork Farms was a completely Did you always want to be in a band? disgusting place to work, but the jelly Yeah, but I suppose in a kind of half-hearted way. guns were always good fun – you can How’s Jennifer Saunders? When I was at school it was definitely what I shoot that quite a long way in a factory. She’s very well, thank you, as are our children. wanted to do, but other things got in the way. But We used to tear up bits of pastry, and if I’ve been a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah you had a good arm, you could get them Have you made a conscious decision not Band for about five years now. I also went on tour stuck to the ceiling – even in a very tall to be a ‘celebrity couple’? You don’t seem with Bad News (heavy metal spoof band who pre- building like that. You’d see how long they’d to have milked it as much as others we ceded Spinal Tap), and we had quite a large road stick there and when they fell down, you’d could mention… crew of musicians with us, including Jimmy Page put them back in the tray to go out to the No, but just because we’ve both been in the public and Brian May for one performance. So in many customers. For obvious reasons, I don’t eat a eye, it doesn’t mean that we have to be some kind ways it’s a dream I’d fulfilled, even before The Bad lot of pork pies these days... Shepherds. of celebrity couple. Some people like to live like that, but to me it’s just bollocks. We’re both quite Of course, you’ll be forever associated 'These days all bands private people who enjoy our lives and are proud with The Young Ones. Did you ever realise seem to do is talk about of each other’s work. what a hit it would be? When you make things, you don’t really try and themselves and all they ever seem to write about is What do your kids think to Bottom and second guess how successful it will be - you just do Absolutely Fabulous? it because you enjoy it. We were just amusing ‘love’. People don’t seem to be cross or angry about They’re all quite grown up now really, but I think they realise there is a strong body of work ourselves, really. We didn’t really give a stuff about anything at all.' Do you think you’ll ever work our ‘careers’ as such, we were just having a laugh. between us. The youngest is 18 and the middle together again? I’m pretty sure the same is true nowadays of What made you write The Gobbler? And one, who is 22, is now a comic in her own right. I reckon in about ten years - but probably not people like Ricky Gervais and The Mighty Boosh. why do you think it is that you, Alexei She works with a group of six girls called Lady until then. It’s not that we aren’t happy with what Garden. They had a good Edinburgh and have a Sayle and Ben Elton all went on to try The student lifestyle depicted by The we’ve done - we just got a bit bored and tired of radio show on the cards. Not that I understand your hand as novelists? doing it. But we’ve got an idea for something we Young Ones seems a million miles away any of this modern comedy at all, haha… I just started doing it as a hobby - therapy, if you might do, set in an old peoples home in ten years from the current one… will - and it eventually reached a certain number of or so. I imagine it’ll still be the Richie and I’ve had daughters go through University and I pages and people were interested in publishing it. I Eddie characters - there’s a lot of fun violence The Bad Shepherds play can see that it’s just a lot more comfortable. guess the reason that the likes of Ben, Alexei and I to be had with enemas and Zimmer frames … live at Seven on Students now live in nice flats, eat nice food and have all done books is because we’re all intelligent Saturday May 23. For wear nice clothes. For me, university life was people who can write. We’re all used to writing Why do you think Filthy Rich and Catflap tickets and information go about living in a situation that was just a bit shit. comedy and it’s not a big step to try your hand at never really succeeded, when Bottom and to www.sevenlive.co.uk But then again with the current recession, you a novel. never know - we might get back to that stage The Young Ones did? I think it was watched and enjoyed by enough within a year or so. What’s bizarre to me these people, but just got slammed by the critics. Critics www.thebadshepherds.com days is that there seem to be no real subcultures. I How is Rik these days? can be very weird people – a lot of them hated The don’t see any young people talking about politics. I don’t see him that often, to be honest. Obviously Young Ones when it first started, but eventually I don’t mean party politics, either. These days all we haven’t worked together for five or six years they jumped on the bandwagon. Then when Filthy Read the full version of this bands seem to do is talk about themselves, and all now, so I probably see him once every six months Rich and Catflap came out, all they could say was interview at they ever seem to write about is ‘love’. People don’t or so. We meet up, have a bite to eat and ‘Well, it’s not as good as The Young Ones…’ leftlion.co.uk/magazine seem to be cross or angry about anything at all. chew the fat.

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 11 j kingking skinsskinso While Dev Patel has recently become a household name after his performance in Slumdog Millionaire, dempsie another one of Channel Four’s Skins alumni might be about to follow. Nottingham’s Joe Dempsie has also featured in Doctor Who, Merlin and most recently as Duncan Mackenzie in The Damned United. We caught up with him for a verbal kickabout… Words: Jared Wilson

You’re in Los Angeles at the moment. What are you doing out there? It’s my first time out here for work. I’ve got an agent here and I’m really just auditioning and meeting casting directors – mainly as a way of letting them know that I’m about. Skins got a low-key airing on BBC America out here and, seeing as the industry is generally moving quite slowly back home right now, I thought it was a good time to come out. I’m having a great time! In a very freaky twist I bumped into Toby Kebbell randomly on Sunset Boulevard on my second day here, so we’ve been hanging out a fair bit. Two Notts boys in LA, eh?

Playing Chris in Skins must have been a dream job for a young actor… Absolutely! When I got the part, I had only recently been taken on by an agency and to be honest was pretty anxious to get a job of any kind – so I was really chuffed! That being said, even once we started filming none of us had any idea how successful the show would be... I think we still don’t fully grasp the scale of its popularity. On a personal level in terms of the character, it was a gift of a part. I felt that Chris was the one that had the most depth and variation; he was the most outgoing and gregarious member of the gang when with his friends, but he also had the most to deal with personally. There were two very distinct sides to Chris and as an actor it was great for me to get to show them. Do you still get people asking you about Chris in the street? Yeah it happens a fair bit, and I’m pretty shy about it when it happens! But I’m still amazed at how many people have seen the programme and who seem to have connected with Chris on some level. It’s great. The way the show dealt with his demise as well was pretty unflinching, which I think moved and disturbed people in equal measure.

You must have loads of good memories from those days... The whole thing was such a great experience and it came at a very good time for me. A lot of my friends had gone off to study and I was beginning to feel a bit left behind, so in a way Skins became my university. I got to move to a new city, live away from home, meet new people and take the first steps to achieving my ambitions. Something that sticks out was a running joke that we used to play on Dev when he was pissed, which involved one of us going out of the room and phoning him, pretending to be this completely made up guy called John, who was apparently out to get him. Dev is a pretty gullible drunk and to see him tell ‘John’ in no It must have been particularly cool as you’re a uncertain terms not to call again was always good value. big Forest fan. What are your best memories of watching the Reds? Does the Hollywood success of Dev in Slumdog Millionaire inspire you? To be honest there’s been far more heartache than joy. Weirdly Of course! Dev got that part when we were half way through the filming of series two and he enough, the season we got relegated to League One was great had no idea how big it was going to be. I was like 'well, you know Dev, this is a Danny Boyle fun as me and my mates went to nearly every game home and film - he’s a really well respected director so there will be interest in it', but even I couldn’t have away. Obviously getting promoted on the final day last season predicted all of this. It spurs me on, because even with the success of Skins the whole notion of was the best individual moment. As a Forest fan you almost the Oscars still seems a world away and Dev is a perfect example of how it only takes one great train your brain to expect the worst case scenario, but that day part to reach the pinnacle of this industry. it all went our way.

If you could get a part coming up, what would you pick? You did an episode of Doctor Who last year. What’s it like Easy. I’d take any part going in the impending Shane Meadows and Paddy working on something as established as that? Considine epic King of the Gypsies. It was pretty surreal. Although I’d never seen the show before working on it, I have uncles that have watched it religiously since the sixties. So I was pretty Tell us about filming The Damned United… popular with them for a while. Honestly, I just saw it as another job, but it’s such It was such a great job for me in terms of just watching, an institution that you can’t help but treat it with a lot of respect. learning and absorbing all I could from the rest of the actors. It was a really great cast with Michael Sheen playing Cloughie, Tim Spall as Peter Taylor, Jim Broadbent (Sam Longson), Stephen What’s your ideal night out when you’re back in Nottingham? Graham (Billy Bremner) and Colm Meany (Don Revie). The lads It’s weird that whilst Nottingham has this reputation for great nightlife, I think that were playing the featured footballers all got along really well half of the venues in the city are still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to too, so it was the perfect balance between work and play. I had music and particularly door policy. My ideal night would be a few drinks round a a great time. And Michael’s Clough is absolutely jaw-dropping, friend’s place before heading to The Old Angel, Bar Eleven or Brownes, then onto he’s a man that’s absolutely at the top of his game. the Market Bar or Stealth for the rest of the evening.

The Damned United is out now. A longer version of this interview is online at www.leftlion.co.uk/film www.thedamnedunited.co.uk 12 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 BANK HOLIDAY SUNDAY 3RD MAY 2009 8PM-6AM ROCK CITY ⁄ STEALTH ⁄ R.ROOMS OVER 50 ARTISTS PERFORMING ACROSS 7 ARENAS IN 3 VENUES! A-TRAK ⁄ ANDY C BENGA ⁄ BROOKES BROTHERS ⁄ CASPA CHASE & STATUS ⁄ DYNAMITE MC ED RUSH & OPTICAL ⁄ EKSMAN FAKE BLOOD ⁄ FLYING LOTUS FOREIGN BEGGARS ⁄ FRICTION HIGHNESS SOUNDSYSTEM INSTRA:MENTAL ⁄ JIMMY SCREECH Live LONE ⁄ LTJ BUKEM ⁄ LYNX & KEMO MARTYN ⁄ PETE JORDAN ⁄ QUEST & SILKIE RYE RYE Live ⁄ RIZ MC ⁄ RUSKO Live SAMIYAM ⁄ SCRATCH PERVERTS SHY FX ⁄ SKREAM ⁄ SPAM CHOP STAMINA MC ⁄ THE GASLAMP KILLER Warning! The last 2 Detonate TRG ⁄ TRANSIT MAFIA Indoor Festival’s sold out in advance – As did our Countdown 2008 event. Don’t leave it till the TROJAN SOUNDSYSTEM last minute to buy tickets. Text ‘ Detonate’ House Set to 82500 WILEY ⁄ YUKSEK ⁄ ZINC to get yours now!

Tickets available from... Online: www.detonate1.co.uk www.gigantic.com www.seetickets.com Credit Card Hotline: 08713100000 Nottingham: Rock City Box office, UNU Box office, Funky Monkey, Golden Fleece, Brownes, Bag O Nails Arenas hosts include: In May 1969 the body of David Oluwale, a rough sleeper with a criminal record and a history of mental illness, was pulled out of the River Aire in Leeds. A Nigerian refugee who came to this country with dreams of a new life instead ended up with a pauper’s grave and ‘wog’ written down as his nationality on a police charge sheet. His story, The Hounding of David Oluwale, has finally been made public by author Kester Aspden - who was rightly acknowledged in 2008 as the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Non-Fiction Dagger award – and the theatrical adaptation arrives at the Playhouse this month. We spoke to Aspden about ‘the most extreme case of institutionalised racism and police violence this country has seen’… When did you first become Do you believe justice has been aware of David Oluwale? served?

I first read about Oluwale in an old Leeds University Partly. Police officers were put on trial and convicted student newspaper from 1971. Why I was reading for some of the offences they were charged with. that is a dull story, but some time after I was in the But on the bigger manslaughter charge the jury had Public Record Office trying to find archival material the decision taken out of its hands by the judge. You on inter-war Soho, and I discovered the case files, might see this as an injustice, especially if you believe just released under the thirty year rule. I lucked that the evidence of their guilt was overwhelming. out. Straight away I knew this was a great story. I During the trial Oluwale was likened by the judge to turned over one of Oluwale’s police charge sheets an animal. To me, that was an injustice and I wanted and found that some officer had given his nationality to expose that. So the book and play are part of an as ‘wog’. What emerged, it seemed to me, was the on going process to secure justice for David Oluwale. most extreme case of institutionalised racism and police violence this country has seen. Were you involved in the Why do you think it’s important to adaptation of the play? remember him? I was quite involved in the early stages, advising on local Yorkshire detail and police procedure. But the He got such a terrible deal in this country, received playwright Oladipo Agboluaje was naturally in such brutal treatment and didn’t receive justice in control of his narrative and he made the crucial life. I wanted to understand the reasons why he decsions. became a disposable person. I don’t know whether

it will help prevent such things happening again, How do you find the play? though one can hope. I think intolerance is on the rise, with asylum seekers the new hate figures. Gripping, touching and surprisingly – though not if Oluwale warns us where prejudice and race hatred you know Oladipo’s previous work – humorous. It can lead. looks great as well; the set and the lighting add to and create the drama, the soundscape is amazing, the What difficulties are there in writing a cast are superb. I think the actual criminal factual account like this? investigation story has been told very clearly. Dawn Walton, the director, did a great job. In historical writing, you’re forever coming up against the limits of what can be known. You can The Playhouse has rated the play have a wonderful imagination, create beautiful narratives, but you’re not a novelist; you’re in their brochure as ‘18’, though tethered to the evidence. So when you can’t in their favour they say establish something it can be frustrating but that’s under-eighteens can still come. the nature of historical work. It’s really challenging Have other theatres done this? and rewarding to tackle such problems, working within the limits and pushing against them. ‘Fact’ is I can only talk about Leeds. A number of school something of a dirty word. Some people never want What angles frustrated you in your groups turned up to West Yorkshire Playhouse and to pick up a factual book. It reminds them of being research? Tracing the whereabouts of they loved the play. It engaged them with social at school. The challenge is then to write engaging foreign homeless men must be difficult.. issues which can sometimes seem ‘worthy’. So any narrative, to absorb your research and nothave it obstacles in the way of young people seeing this play announce itself over the page. You’re not wrong. So many hours spent trawling are bad. They are precisely the constituency which through the electoral roll! But it comes with the should be seeing this play. From the outside, the How do you deal with writing about territory. There is real joy when you do manage to Nottingham position seems confusing. Do they want such a depressing subject? discover the traces left by such an elusive character. under-eighteens to come or not? It makes them more real to you. There is something more depressing than writing Any last words for our readers? about a bleak subject and that’s being a writer Why do you think David kept without a subject - my current condition! It might coming back to Leeds? Please see the play. It’s one of the most important sound weird, but I really enjoyed writing the book you’ll see this year. Also, I would like Nottingham though the story revealed the worst in human pos- Partly because he had no choice, but mainly because Playhouse to actively encourage teenagers to see this sibilities. I interviewed so many interesting people, it was his home city and he wasn’t going to be play. Find out about the campaigning work of Inquest from lawyers to policemen to Oluwale’s Nigerian pushed out of it by a couple of thuggish policemen. and United Friends and Families and keep in touch

friends. I’d finally found the subject I’d been waiting He had this pride. It was the irresistible Leeds police with the death in custody issue through the Institute for, and had a chance to write creatively about a part force meets the immovable object. of Race Relations website – www.irr.org.uk. of history which had been hidden and yet had contemporary resonance.

After the interview, we asked Derek Graham, Communications Officer for the Playhouse, to comment on the age rating: ‘Kester’s right: this is a play that deserves to be seen by everyone, young or old. We do give productions rough age ratings, but this happens months before the play even goes into rehearsal on the basis of the subject alone and they are purely advisory: we don’t exclude anyone from buying tickets. Given the shocking true story the play tells, we anticipated a good deal of violence and so we went with eighteen in our brochure. We’ve since revised it online to fourteen, a much more suitable recommendation. The final production, while it certainly doesn’t flinch away from what was done to David Oluwale by his police tormentors, doesn’t dwell upon it graphically and after seeing the play ourselves we would heartily recommend it for anyone aged fourteen and up.’

The Hounding of David Oluwale is available for £7.99 from Vintage. You can see the play at the Nottingham Playhouse from 31 March – 4 April Words: James Walker James Words:

14 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27 . n i p s E y d n A y

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Nottingham City Council Nottingham proud A Spring Bank to present Holiday of Live Music & Dance throughout City the city centre Pulse Saturday 23 - Monday 25 May 2009 FREE // The Manfreds // The Neville Staples Band // Eddie Floyd // Todd Miller & the Joe Loss Orchestra // James Hunter ...... and more!

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CC-CPLLAd170309 ...William Booth ignored him. ‘DH Lawrence did knowingly act as a public conveyance for the most degrading and disgusting spectacle this fair city has seen...’

words: David R Thompson But William Booth had an announcement to make. ‘We have William Booth ignored him. ‘-DH Lawrence did knowingly act ‘Hear hear,’ said DH Lawrence. ‘Now can we wrap this up and (with apologies to the Rev W Awdry) some unfinished business to attend to first! Don’t you recall? We as a public conveyance for the most degrading and disgusting get on with our day?’ had all resolved to put DH Lawrence on trial at first light this spectacle this fair city has seen-’ illustrations: Ging Inferior morning!’ ‘Phoenix Park awaits our latest performance,’ Torvill & Dean ‘…since last Saturday night.’ Lord Byron put in. ‘Good God, man, complained. ‘There are hundreds of business park drones relying ‘Oh, not that again,’ DH Lawrence said, wearily. ‘Look, I’ve told just get over it, can’t you?’ on us to ferry them to their workstations!’ you before – it’s not my fault that those students were shagging on my back seat all the way to the Arboretum, is it? How can it Mary Potter swooned at the back of the depot with a despairing ‘The law’s an ass anyway,’ said Robin Hood. ‘You wouldn’t find be?’ cry. me bowing and scraping to that kind of authority.’

‘You should have stood your ground until they desisted. Such William Booth ignored the interruption. ‘And certainly a spectacle ‘I’ve tried to make you see the error of your ways, as God is my fornication and sinfulness cannot be tolerated in the eyes of that you would not want your wives or servants to witness!’ witness,’ said William Booth. ‘Resume your day as you wish. But God!’ William Booth replied solemnly. I tell you this: God shall judge you as he sees fit. And you shall DH Lawrence drew himself up to his full height, and sparks flew not know the day nor the hour!’ ‘Leave me out of this,’ said Brian Clough. from the boom above his head. ‘Look, I fail to see how this can be my responsibility. You might as well prosecute me for allowing my carriages to become a vomitorium every Friday. Or say it’s my fault that my poor conductor got spat at by some lowlife from Bulwell.’

‘Where’s the DNA evidence, young man, eh?’ Brain Clough wanted to know.

‘What you need to understand, William Booth,’ said Lord Byron, ‘is that none of these affairs are any of your fucking business. As long as no person suffers, the people of Nottingham should be permitted to do whatever they bloody well like. I myself have been known for my couplings with commuter trains from Mansfield. No-one can deny that I have a legendary attraction for those dear ladies. It’s almost as if they were drawn towards me on rails…’ he sighed wistfully.

‘For missing the target from there, you want bloody shooting!’ said Brian Clough.

‘Yes, well, I’d been at the WD40 a little too enthusiastically earlier that evening’, said Lord Byron apologetically. ‘You know damn well that we have automatic braking systems,’ DH Lawrence responded. ‘It’s not up to me to stop moving just ‘Enough!’ William Booth roared. ‘Such sinners offend the Lord because of a couple of amorous piss-heads.’ and bring damnation to us all! DH Lawrence clearly ran a ‘God’s a fucking bogey man,’ said Lord Byron. ‘Now take your tram of ill-repute!’ William Booth’s headlights flashed with self-righteous preaching and begone!’ ‘I’ll ask you not to curse in my presence, you filth-mongerer,’ indignation and fortitude and his little bell rang in his rage. ‘He William Booth answered angrily. was at fault! He was encouraging those foul youngsters to stain ‘You know that preaching is my department,’ said Brian themselves with their own transgressions.’ Clough. ‘And your fitter has already told you that it’s bad for your Torvill & Dean giggled. ‘Maybe it was their Kangaroo tickets, swerves.’ giving them ideas. Bounce, bounce, bounce.’ ‘Listen, it was my seats that got most of the staining, thank you very much,’ said DH Lawrence. Unable to find a retort, William Booth busied himself with his ‘Can’t we all just get on for once? Live in harmony together?’ schedule, and was gone, tutting into the fresh morning. His Robin Hood cried. ‘Live out in the woods and all just have a swerves ached. lovely time?’ ‘Thanks for that, Lord Byron,’ said DH Lawrence. ‘That William ‘It has been decreed. And the trial shall commence at once!’ said Booth is always getting at me,’ he sighed sadly. William Booth. Some of the other trams in the corner of the depot, including Mary Potter and Angela Alcock, intoned their support. ‘Oh, worry ye not about that blaggard!’ Lord Byron laughed. ‘Now go away and write me some more smut! I’ll no ‘Dratted do-gooders’ Lord Byron sighed. ‘I suppose I should take doubt have some more out-of-town roustabouts to attend to the mantle as Counsel for the Defence.’ later!’ T was early morning at Wilkinson Street Depot. The birds sang in the surrounding scrub and the sun climbed high over the New Basford skyline. It was going to be another wonderful day for the Nottingham trams. (Otherwise known as the ‘As you wish, Lord Byron. And I will bring the prosecution for Lord Byron glided away into the streets of Hyson Green, looking this most heinous crime,’ William Booth replied. forward to seeing what new people had been brought into Nottingham Express Transit units. Whatever.) the railway station for him to pick up at the other end of the ‘Let’s get this over with,’ said Brian Clough. ‘Something tells me line. Baiting William Booth always put him in a good mood. I’d get more entertainment watching County.’ Now you might be surprised to know that there are fifteen Robin Hood suddenly exclaimed, ‘But we’re electric, you - that’s all we’re fit for to you, is it? We are trams, you dolt, and Nottingham trams, and they all have names. Their names are fuckwit! Brian Clough! Help! I’m being interfered with!’ we are proud!’ ‘It is alleged,’ William Booth began, ‘that on the morning of taken from the great and the good throughout the history of the Sunday, the fifteenth ultimo, on the Lord’s day I might add-’ Lord Byron was having none of this. He took a deep breath great city of Nottingham, as well as some local bloke who was ‘Now then, young man,’ said Brian Clough, who awoke ‘The shame of it, the shame of it,’ intoned Robin Hood. and his transformers hummed with energy. ‘As Counsel for the a bare-knuckle fighter. There aren’t any trams called Paul Smith, pensively. ‘You’ll not be one of those graffiti artists, will ‘Saturday night, Sunday morning,’ Lord Byron interrupted. ‘How Defence, I put it you, members of the jury,’ Lord Byron announced, Su Pollard or Alan Sillitoe, but it must surely be only a matter of you? You’ll not be putting your tag on my friend Robin Hood if I ‘You wouldn’t mind if they were coming to score some dope, or appropriate.’ ‘that DH Lawrence was not at fault in this affair, could have done time. Maybe if Phase Two ever gets built. have anything to do with it.’ arrange an assignation with some syphilitic whore, Lord Byron, nothing to prevent the flowering of divine youth this night, and would you?’ DH Lawrence interrupted. moreover, that the said coupling was not itself a felony!’ The Nottingham trams have proven themselves to be Really ‘What will become of my beautiful Lincoln green and silver Useful Engines since they first started work in 2004, but that paintwork then?’ wailed Robin Hood. ‘That would be different,’ said Lord Byron. ‘But the citizens doesn’t mean that they can’t be cheeky and naughty too, of this glorious city can rarely think past their next retail oh no! And I think that it’s time to hear about some of their ‘No,’ said the fireman, who wasn’t a fireman. ‘I’m just therapy session. Standards are slipping with every passing adventures, don’t you? kidding. I’m actually from the corporate communications decade.’ Suddenly, he ran at the corporate communications man, department. I’ve got a new set of posters to put up. All about threatening to crush him under his wheels until the man ran It was on that sunny morning when a man crept into the Park & Ride.’ away in fright. ‘Be off with you, you dullard! Your proclamations depot. All of the trams were asleep so that they could be ready overheat my grey matter and put my dander up!’ And with that, ‘Phoenix Park awaits our latest performance,’ Torvill & Dean for another hard day’s work. Robin Hood woke up with a big Lord Byron came over to investigate. ‘How dare you!’ he the corporate communications man was gone. yawn, and suddenly saw the man right in front of him! ‘Hello, roared. ‘I know the cut of your jib, young fellow me lad! Mangling Robin Hood!’ said the man. ‘I’m the fireman! I’ve come to put the English language as if you owned it. Providing transport ‘Is it time to go on the turntable now?’ asked Torvill & complained. ‘There are hundreds of business park drones relying on you in steam for the day! Now just let me on your footplate, this solutions are we? Ferrying idiots from cars into the seething Dean. ‘We’re off to Phoenix Park for our first run today! We like won’t hurt a bit!’ cauldron of consumer spending that is Nottingham City Centre the turntable. It’s fun. Whee!’ us to ferry them to their workstations!’

16 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 17 Sam Clift www.samclift.com debra swann www.debraswann.co.uk

What kind of art do you What kind of art do you make? make? I am a visual artist working I make hybrid sculptural predominantly in sculpture and installations from sometimes photography. materials such as carpet and The installations I make relate to the paint, which explore space natural world and are informed by my and the local environment. interest in science. The objects I create are often specimens, trophies or adornments and are constructed from everyday materials. The What is the best thing transformation of the materials, and about being an artist? the point at which the objects Freedom of expression. collapse back into what they are made from, is an important aspect of the work, setting up a tension What is the hardest thing? between what we believe we are Balancing creating work with looking at and the everyday. making profit from the work you create. What is the best thing about being an artist? It allows me to enter into my own imagination and adopt personas, such What inspires and drives you? as the explorer or scientist. Development and progress within my practice. A new idea sparks new interest and keeps me focused; it's amazing how the most mundane happening can influence new direction in my work. Having artists around me to bounce ideas off is also really important; you can't always be your own critic. What is the hardest thing? Not having financial security; but I still have a passion to make my work and ultimately hope What are you up to at the moment? I recently curated my first exhibition at Surface Gallery. It took a lot of hard planning, but was a to get recognition for what I do. valuable learning experience. I’m in the process at the moment of constructing an interactive installation piece, which evaluates ideas and processes I’ve explored over the last year. Once What are you up to at the moment? finished, it shall be a centrepiece in my first solo exhibition this summer, at the 491 Gallery in I have recently completed an artist residency at London. The Wasp Room gallery at Tether studios. This was a great opportunity to develop new work in What are your career aspirations? response to a specific space and play with scale. In a few years I’d like to study an MA in Sculpture, and also build on my knowledge of curating, perhaps going freelance. Name an advantage to being an artist in Nottingham... Name an advantage to being an artist in Nottingham... Nottingham has a great art community and is There is such a strong network of artist-led studios and groups in Nottingham in comparison to other an exciting place to be at the moment. I have parts of the country. It’s really helped me draw focus and give meaning and direction to my practice been in Nottingham for two years now and since graduating from university last year, which I may not have received elsewhere. already know lots of people.

What are your career aspirations? In a few years I’d like to study an MA in Sculpture, and also build on my knowledge of curating, perhaps going freelance.

Harriet Startin Jon Rouston www.jonrouston.co.uk What kind of art do you make? What kind of art do you My work is largely concerned make? with reality and our Most of my work comes perception of it. I am from being a wedding and interested in our ability to portrait photographer but ignore what is fact and more broadly I like to tell create an almost nostalgic stories, using pictures. I like safe haven for ourselves in to create a body of work which we feel more that gives the viewer a comfortable, and the humour narrative and allows them of this. to connect with the people in the pictures. What inspires and drives you? What inspires and drives My driving force is the you? boredom I face when I am People, basically. In the not making work and the current Facebook/24 nagging feeling that I’m hour news/online society wasting time. My What is the best thing about being an artist? you could be fooled into What is the best thing about being an artist? inspiration comes from the The sense of satisfaction that I get from producing a body of work, thinking that everyone’s Being able to think creatively and the liberation natural world, which is showing it to the client and them liking it. Also the sense of personal life is displayed this gives you. central to my work. satisfaction I get when I produce something I really like. I’ve worked for all to see, but dig a little in a job before this where I toiled away for no apparent reason; this deeper and most people What is the hardest thing? is much more fun. have an interesting story Worrying about money, and knowing you may What is the hardest thing? to tell. always have a freezing cold house and a sole Never being 100% satisfied with my own work. It’s like a hill that you’re constantly climbing, you flapping off one of your shoes. can look back and see how far you’ve come, but I’ve realised that I’ll never make it to the top because the top keeps bloody moving! The more I know the more I have to learn. Or something. What are you up to at the moment? This year I am hoping to translate my work into What are you up to at the moment? site-specific pieces, integrating them into the I’d like to do some social documentary on the effect of alcohol on people’s lives. I tried to start this over environments I have portrayed in my past work. Christmas but failed miserably. There are so many aspects to this that I think would be good to explore. It’s also an area that’s heavily judged - binge drinking, old soaks, cheap supermarket booze What are your career aspirations? etc - but I’d like to approach it making as few judgements as possible. To retire. What are your career aspirations? Name an advantage to being an artist in To have more spare time! I’d love to be able to carry out a few personal projects like the one described Nottingham... above, a few a year and really broaden my horizons. For me it is the feeling of community within the Nottingham art scene. There is a huge level of Name an advantage to being an artist in Nottingham... involvement, there is no snobbery or resentment People think that Nottingham is just another city, but it’s much more important than that. If you between studio groups, it’s a very integrated scratch the surface and make it past the identikit shops, there’s lots of really cool independent stuff network. going on, LeftLion being a prime example. That’s what makes it interesting.

18 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 THE LITTLEST BIG SCREEN THEFeeling LITTLEST good about yourself because BIG you’ve SCREENgot a big plasma-screen telly? Pah! Steve Jones can easily top that – he’s got the keys to the world’s smallest cinema, The Screen Room - and not only does it specialise in the cream of independent cinema, you can even rent it out and book in whatever film you like. Just try not to ask for Dirty Dancing, though...

First things first: is this really the What’s the oddest film request you’ve had that’s made you go 'Oh my Do you think the recession will affect world’s smallest cinema? God, why?' people coming to the cinema? Yes. We’re quite lucky to have gotten in Erm, I don’t know. You have to choose the right film. 2001: A Space Odyssey is Not too much, because it’s a cheaper The Guinness Book of Records - only a a classic for some but on a Saturday night, at over two hours long, not a lot alternative to a lot of things, and people fraction of world records get put in and of people want to sit through it - even if they have got a drink. People come love films. It’s a funny business though; it’s usually the more bizarre ones. dressed up a lot; we had someone turn up as David Bowie for Labyrinth. We it’s not always easy to tell how you’re A small building’s not that bizarre, really. had Top Gun on recently and one guy's outfit was that he had two table doing. 90% of the reason that people come tennis bats with him. He stood at the front of the screen at the beginning, to the cinema is to see a particular film, not because they like the décor, so every There’s definitely an intimate, waving his arms about with the bats as if directing planes – probably one of week’s new film is like a relaxed feel here… the funniest outfits I’ve seen. refurbishment. People do have their Going to watch a film at the cinema is preferred cinemas but the driving force is an experience; you should be able to the film, it’s extremely important that we enjoy it. Customers here don’t think get the programming right. twice about chatting to each other before and after the films; you don’t Where do you think The Screen Room get that so much at other cinemas. You fits into Nottingham? wouldn’t go watch a film at Cineworld By the time word of mouth has gone and then chat to the cashier about it around about an arthouse or independent afterwards! film being good, people know they can come see it here even if they missed it at The second smallest cinema - in Broadway or other cinemas. We’ve Wales - shut down recently. Are you accidentally positioned ourselves in a worried? strong place. What’s amazing is that with Not really, I got the impression that it a lot of the smaller films that do really shut down because its audience just good business, there may only be three got older and older and could no longer prints of the film in the whole country go! I think Nottingham will always compared to the thousands of prints of have people of all ages that want to the larger films. come to the cinema. Nottingham has a film industry that So you get quite a lot of people is larger than that of most English through your doors? cities. Do you benefit from that? For a cinema with only twenty-one seats, Yeah, we get directors using The Screen yes! We have a lot of regular customers Room - we had the press screening for and considering the capacity it works This is England and the screen tests for out quite nicely. I think your standards Control. Samantha Morton has been are lowered from what you expect; we’ll making a film called The Unloved, and never get two thousand people through she has hired us several times with the doors in one week. A few people the crew to watch the rushes and for come in and say 'can I have a look?’, pop her boyfriend’s birthday. Filmmaking their head ‘round the door and go 'ooh, it Would you ever refuse to screen a film? is fascinating; it seems to take so long, is small!'. We’ve also seen a couple of No, I can’t be a censor. We have had a lot of hen dos here and generally they you wonder how they have the stamina people having their picture taken outside want to watch Dirty Dancing and, increasingly, Mamma Mia! They have a for such an arduous process. I have a - I don’t think you get that so much at singalong version which can get quite…loud.. I wouldn’t watch either of them lot of respect for filmmakers, they can other cinemas (laughs). out of choice, but I have no problem with what people want to watch. I think dedicate two years to a project and then it’s up to The Guardian or Empire This used to be an X-rated cinema, it’s a tricky decision for people to make to keep everyone happy and to suit the as to whether it gets three or five stars didn't it? occasion. I think you have to choose a classic - The Goonies, or Stand by Me. or whatever. I don’t know much about the history of the building, unfortunately, I only know Do you think that people still want the smaller cinema experience, or has Do you get one film that is requested from what people have told me. You can it had its heyday? over and over again that you’re sick of? guess peoples' ages when they come It’s true that a lot of small cinemas around the country have shut down. It’s A Wonderful Life gets requested a lot at in and say 'Ooh, this used to be a porn Nottingham’s lucky; we’re spoilt for choice. It’s a testament to the people of Christmas, but Dirty Dancing is still far in cinema’. Nottingham that there are enough film lovers to sustain so many cinemas. I don’t think, on the whole, that people will ever stop going to the cinema, there the lead. I’m spared though - I don’t have Words: Alison Emm will always be a place for it. Just because the microwave was invented, it to sit in here and watch it as it’s on one reel. I can just leave it to run... Pic: Dom Henry didn’t mean that no-one wanted to go to restaurants any more.

The Screen Room, 25b Broad Street, Hockley NG1 3AP www.screenroom.co.uk

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 19 LEFTLION featured listing LISTINGS APRIL-MAY 2009. JOINED-UP THINKING

Springtime is here, and even the non-smokers are tentatively clustering around beer gardens and hoping that we don’t have a third rubbish summer in a row. With the first bank holidays on the horizon, there is much activity about to be dropped upon you at a great height.

As always, allow your old chums at the ‘Lion to squire you through the next couple of months in our inimitable fashion, as we point out what’s worth spending your lovely cutter on and com- pletely ignoring the rammell. Whether you’re up for one of the massive bank holiday sessions, or are looking for first-date locations (what with Spring in the air, and all that bollocks), we know what’s what in Notts. TICKETS ON-LION Buying tickets for forthcoming events? Good., because it just so happens that you can now score tix for all the best Notts events through LeftLion.co.uk. Just click the ‘Buy Tickets’ link or logo in the event listing section of the site or through the event comment threads on our forum, and you’re sorted. You can see a full list of events we currently photo: Dom Henry have tickets available for by visiting... The fifth Dot To Dot Festival returns in May, bringing Nottingham www.leftlion.co.uk/tickets some of the hottest new music around. Paul Klotschkow breaks down one of the biggest all-dayers of the year… PG 22-24 ∙ GIGS If you know your Ladytron from your Ladyhawke, see What bands currently on the line-up are you most yourself as a bit of a scenester or wannabe hipster, or excited about bagging? Huge, huge, huge couple of months on the you just want to check out some of the finest new music gig-going front; The Prodigy, Rolo Tomassi, DJ of the moment, then you need to reach Dot To Dot on The Friendly Fires Nottingham connection is really Derek, Basement Jaxx, The Rakes, Levellers, Sunday 24 May. It takes place all day and night in various exciting; they used to go to Uni in Nottingham, and Spear of Destiny, Amusement Parks On Fire, venues around the city centre including Stealth, Rescue for them to come back and headline the whole event The Maccabees - they’re all coming to town. Rooms, The Social, and Nottingham Trent University. is absolutely wicked. Personally, I’ve been addicted to Ladyhawke’s album for a while now; she’s the first But the really big events are the returns of Past Dot To Dots have showcased some of the biggest artist we’ve ever booked two years running, which is the Detonate Indoor Festival, Dot To Dot, and bands just before they’ve broken through, with acts something we never do. We’re so excited to see her on Breakin’ Convention. Bluu kicks off its new such as Klaxons, Foals, Glasvegas, Kate Nash and The the bill again. acoustic night, too - full details overleaf... Cribs all doing their stuff in previous years. This year is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the gig calendar Why is Dot To Dot so important to Nottingham? with Ladyhawke, Friendly Fires and 65 Days of Static already announced. Plus, as usual, there are bound to be I think it really shows how cutting-edge Nottingham is PG 25 ∙ THEATRE, a host of local acts on the bill, making it one of the most for music. You won’t see anything like this anywhere else unmissable music events of the the last twelve months. in the country, apart from Bristol. Other cities will put COMEDY & ART on a conventional, corporate, council-operated festival True story, this; the last time Ross Noble The festival has reverted to being just one day (albeit a in the park, but there’s no-one else that puts so many was here, he ended up reading out the 14-hour one) as opposed to last year’s full weekender, underground acts on inside, in different venues. Canadian In New Basford piece about Tales with its sister leg in Bristol kicking off the day before. of Robin Hood, in its entirety, onstage. Fortunately for you, dear gig-goer, this means that you And are there still opportunities for local bands to get can get as wasted as you want and you don’t need to on the bill? It just so happens that he’s playing the worry about getting up the next day suffering from the Royal Centre on April 24, so if you’re read- comedown from hell to do it all over again. Seeing as We’ll be booking right up to the event, and we’re still ing this, Ross, please read out our contribu- next day is Monday, however, you may need to get that interested in hearing from bands. They can e-mail us tors list. It’s not as funny, but it’ll make our sickie request in early. on [email protected] before May 1, Mams dead proud. enclosing a link to their MySpace page. And telling us We spoke to DTD organiser Dan Ealam, just why they want to play Dot To Dot. (Oh, and if Ed Byrne, Derren Brown, the before he nipped off to the South by Southwest Shaolin Warriors or anyone else treading Acts confirmed at time of print: the boards across the Shire in April and festival in Texas... May want to big us up , they’re more than Friendly Fires, Ladyhawke, Patrick Wolf, Annie Mac, You seem to specialise in acts that are just about to welcome to) Cage The Elephant, 65 Days Of Static, Boys Noize, break. Is this a deliberate policy? Little Boots, Abe Vigoda, The Vivian Girls, Brondinski, A.C. Newman, Crystal Stilts, The Pains Of Being Pure Definitely. We’ve had bands like Get Cape, Wear Cape, At Heart, Chik Budo, Duchess Says, Official Secrets For even more listings, check our Fly and Mystery Jets in the past, and the two bands Act, The Big Pink, The Computers, Tommy Reilly, everyone was talking about at last year’s Dot To Dot regularly updated online section Shapeshifter, Colourmusic, The Soft Pack and Marina – Glasvegas and Santogold – were just about to blow up. at leftlion.co.uk/listings. And The Diamonds. More to follow - check website for The ethos we have is to catch bands when they’re on the details... verge of becoming really big, because that’s when they’re And if your event is still not in there, still exciting and cutting-edge. We’re already convinced Dot To Dot, multiple venues, Sunday May 24, £25 spread the word by aiming your the line-up this year is going to be our strongest ever. browser at leftlion.co.uk/add. www.dottodotfestival.co.uk

20 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 nottingham event listings... for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Wednesday 01/04 Friday 03/04

Indian Flute - Rupak Kulkarni Bluu Unplugged The New Art Exchange Free, 8pm £10, 7.30pm With The Herb Birds and The Mint Imperial

Rupak Kulkarni on flute, Gurprit Freskofunkerz. Imperial Daze: they’re gonna party like its 1989 Matharu on tabla Damn You! The Nottingham party scene twenty years ago: if you missed Go:Audio The Maze it, you should have been there. Thanks to a vanguard of clued- The Rescue Rooms £5, 8pm £8.32, 6.30pm NLF3, Souvaris and Gareth up DJs and venues willing to take a chance, Notts very quickly Hardwick. became one of the strongholds of Rave Culture. Seriously, we Tango Siempre - Subitango had coach parties from Manchester and London. And Mansfield. Lakeside Arts Centre James Morrison £12 / £15, 8pm Royal Centre Fast forward two decades, and a collective of veteran DJs gathered £21, 7pm around a warming dust mask full of Vicks at the Blah Blah Bar Thursday 02/04 Noise* (formerly The Imperial). They spawned the idea to recreate the Jamcafe atmosphere of the infamous Bank Holiday parties that took place Hands Of Hate Free, 7pm Seven back in the day and teamed up as the Imperial Daze soundsystem.

£tbc, 8pm David Blazye Plus Blindfolds Aside, Backline, Deux This years first event, Deck Collection, takes place on April 12 at Fenix Fire and The Devil’s Haircut £4, 9pm the Nags Head on Mansfield Road. Headlining the action will be Clubnight. Plus Bonsai Projects. an extended set from D2 (DIY) alongside impressive scratch master Fever and Nebula 2, followed by

Burt Progress the Imperial Daze first birthday party on May 3, featuring Kemet FMs Cas Roc and DJ Moulty. Expect a Muse Saturday 04/04 serious masterclass for the yout’ dem via a mix of rare and classic tracks. Oh, and they’re also looking for Free, 9pm new venues for future gigs, so if you’re interested, email [email protected]. DJs on rotation - Red Rack’em, Therapy Beane Noodler, Spamchop, Keaver The Market Bar and Brause and Lone. £4 / £5, 10pm - 4am Deck Collection, Sunday April 12, Imperial Daze First Birthday, Rhythm Rebels, Decktrofunk, Mark Sunday May 3, The Nags Head, 140 Mansfield Road, 7pm - 2am. £7Adv / £7 on the door before 9pm Dean Owens Mills, Steve Farr, Dale Bridge and The Maze Bruno. £10, 7.30pm Sunday 05/04 Thursday 09/04 Saturday 11/04 Log Jam and Curry Night Jupiter Monkeys The Loggerheads Mumford And Sons Club Smith and The Maybes The Prodigy Deux Free, 8pm - 1.30am The Bodega The Bodega Nottingham Arena Free, 9pm With Vava, Paul Walker, Faker £7, 7pm £6, 8pm £28.50, 7pm Plus March of Death Junior, Damon Downs and more. Plus special guest Dizzee Rascal Kris Drever and Heidi Talbot The Wave Pictures Saturday Night Knees Up! The Maze The Rescue Rooms The Rasmus and Backyard Friday 03/04 The Malt Cross £12, 7.30pm £7, 7.30pm Babies

£3 on door, 8pm - 1am The Rescue Rooms Dino Baptiste and Jen James With The Shakes. Dr. Comfort and the Lurid Jaya The Cat £15, 7.30pm The Approach Revelations The Maze Free, 7pm - 2am Sound of Guns (Live) Southbank Bar £5 / £6, 8pm Yipil Easter Party

Stealth Free, 8.30pm Plus Skints, Big Topp, Addictive The Loggerheads Eklectic £5, 10.15PM Cricketer Graham Swanns Band. Philosophy and A is for Ape. Free, 8pm - 1.30am Moog

Free, 9pm - 2am Cult DnB The Acme Jazz Band Scallywag Music presents Saturday Night Knees Up! With Arkeye, Still Motion, Paul Muse Deux Seven The Malt Cross Weaversmith, Beatmasta Bill, £4 / £6, 10pm - 2am Free, 7pm - 9pm £5 / £6, 7:30pm £3, 8pm - 1am Scampi Pete and VJ Thinkyman. With Imperial Leasure, Fat Lady With Djangology.

Basement Boogaloo Singh and Twenty Five Past The Working Nights The Maze Monday 06/04 Skank. Percussion Easter Party The Loggerheads £5, 11pm The Golden Fleece Free, 8pm - 1.30am Golden Silvers Richie Muir £tbc, 8pm – 3am Liam O’Kane and Damon Downs. Oxjam Gig 2 The Bodega Southbank Bar Runs until: 12/04

Deux £7, 7pm Free, 7pm Jon Allen £3 / £5 , 7.30pm Stak It Up The Bodega Southbank Bar £7.50, 7pm Wednesday 08/04 Friday 10/04 Free, 7pm

Sunday 05/04 Motion Electronic Pop Night Dr. Acula Rigbee Deep Seven The Hangover Club Presents... Seven Alley Cafe Sunday 12/04 £3, 8pm Seven £5, 7.30pm Free, 8.30pm - 1am Northern Kind, All Systems Fail, Free, 8pm With Minister Hill, Nowhere Out to Lunch Jazz dance session Izzue Voodoo, Wonderful Life and With Curtis Whitefinger and The Curtis Eller Common and Jah Bunndy. Snug Lost Controllers. Breakdowns. The Maze £3, 5pm - 9pm ish £9, 7.45pm Superstar Boudoir Killer Jim plus DJ Daddio. Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham £10 adv, 10pm - 4am Concert For Life With David Guetta. Rock City £10, 5pm Bluu Notes El Gecko with Blaze of Glory, Sam Beeton, The Robin Hood The Modfathers, Baggy Trousers The Lace Market takes steps to cut down its leccy bill Free, 9.30pm Imperial Daze We admit it; LeftLion is more Viccy Market than Lace Pop, Bubble, Rock! Nagshead Market, but when we do have a swank-about in the Seven £7 b4 9pm / adv, 7pm - 2am £5, 7.30pm D2, Dramatic and Db Audio. nicer area of town, we usually do it at Bluu. The reasons Templeton Pek, The Story So Far for this are manifold; one, it’s ace, two, it’s spread over and Kids Can’t Fly. two floors, and three, it’s put on some blinding club Tuesday 14/04 Bluu Unplugged - Richie Muir nights with people like Bugs In The Attic and Neon The Bookhouse Boys Heights. Free, 8pm The Bodega Boom Bap! £6, 8pm This Spring, however, Bluu is switching up its The Maze routine and bringing calming acoustic vibes for local £6, 8.30pm Girlfixer Furious P and Squigz, Lotus, C- The Maze residents whilst utilising their intimate basement £tbc, 8.30pm space to full effect. Bluu Unplugged is the name Mone and Cappo (tbc). Plus Dagobah and more. of the new weekly Friday night residency, and the Lemar opening sessions are set to feature such luminaries of the six-string as Tom Wardle (an established Royal Centre Wednesday 15/04 figure on Nottingham’s acoustic scene) and Richie Muir, whose guitar talents have seen him play £25, 7pm all over the world – but the whole shebang kicks off on April 3 with local faves The Herb Birds. Solode Garroson The Approach Deux This is just the start of an ongoing shake-up at Bluu: a significant refurb has just taken place, including Free, 7pm £4, 9pm Richie Muir and Salsa with Steve. the basement area being given its own entrance. Oh, and don’t forget Eclectic Ballroom, a rare funk DJ throwdown, on Saturday April 4. Saturday 11/04 You v Me Seven Bluu Unplugged, weekly from Friday April 3rd, Bluu, 5 Broadway, NG1 1PR 9.30pm – late. Free Entry. Sacred Mother Tongue £tbc, 7.30pm www.bluu.co.uk Seven Plus Vaarlets, Retrograde, Benno £tbc, 8pm Blum and Vava. Plus One Last Breath. leftlion.co.uk/issue28 21 event listings... for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Wednesday 15/04 Sunday 19/04

And You Will Know Us By The The Bishops Trail of Dead The Bodega Seven Rooms of Boom The Rescue Rooms £5, 8pm £10, 7.30pm Detonate Bank Holiday: say no more. Plus Middle Class Rut. Notts in a Nutshell The Maze One of the biggest events on the Nottingham calendar Casiotone For The Painfully £3, 8pm Alone With Nena Kubu, In Isolation and is back with a vengeance. After recently celebrating The Bodega more. ten years in the game, Detonate hold their annual £8, 7pm gargantuan all-nighter at Stealth, Rescue Rooms and Plus Concern. Establishment Rock City on the May Bank Holiday weekend. Southbank Bar Mindvox Battle of The Bands Free, 7pm You know the drill: for eight hours, the biggest talents in Semi Final 1 drum and bass, dubstep and general beatiness descend The Maze upon Notts to rampage over seven venues, while the £tbc, 8.30pm Tuesday 21/04 general populace go batchy. Seriously, spend time in Rock City on a Detonate night, and you’ll believe a building Cup of Tea Basement Jaxx can jump. No less an authority than Goldie has described Lee Rosy’s Tea Shop Rock City the Detonate bank holiday session as one of the best gigs in the UK. £4 / £5, 8.30pm £20, 7.30pm Revere and Alex Highton. Liars Club 6th Birthday This year’s highlights include Chase and Status (three-time winners at the recent Drum and Bass Awards), Andy C, Various Locations the Brookes Brothers, LTJ Bukem and Ed Rush and Optical on the DnB front, whilst the dubstep element is provided by Thursday 16/04 £7, 8pm Benga, Caspa, Rusko, Skream and the impressive Dutch producer Martyn. Warp Records’ Flying Lotus is guaranteed With Health, Banjo or Freakout and to provide a twisted audio massage, and local heroes Lone and Spamchop will be representing. Devil Sold His Soul DJs Allez Allez and Todd Hart. Seven This event has sold out in advance the last two years running, with queues of people who didn’t sort it early getting £6.50 Advance, 7pm Kerbface turned away last year. Don’t be that sucky youth left standing outside the gates, next to the bloke trying to get shot Plus Shaped By Fate, Zenith and The Maze of that box of plastic whistles from last year’s Goose Fair. Book now. Abandon Hope. £2.50, 8pm Plus No Skipping Fat Women, ASBO Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle Peepshow and more. Detonate Indoor Festival, Sunday May 3, 10pm - 6am. Tickets £16 adv / £26 on the door. The Rescue Rooms Except there probably won’t be any on the door. www.detonate1.co.uk £13.50, 7.30pm Wednesday 22/04 Tom Hingley Saturday 25/04 Friday 01/05 Sunday 03/05 The Maze BandSoc BOTB Heat C! £6, 8.30pm Seven Supersuckers and Nashville Spear of Destiny Detonate Indoor Festival £3 / £2 BandSoc Pussy Rock City Rock City Daylight Robbery With Ghost Cassette, Forever We The Rescue Rooms £12.50, 7pm £26, 9pm - 6am The Approach Stay Gold, Faces For Radio and £12.50, 7pm See box out for information. Free, 7pm Dreamers Lament. Romi Mayes Band Flux The Maze Imperial Daze Steve McGill N Dubz The Loggerheads £10, 7.45PM Nagshead Southbank Bar Rock City Free, 8pm £7 b4 9pm / adv, 7pm – 2am Free, 7pm £15, 7.30pm Alex Bett, Elliott Morris, Lee Rosie P Brothers and Jonathan Cas Roc, DJ Moulty plus guests. and The Tea Cosies, Vava, Nigel Muse Beck, Portland and Damon Downs. £3, 10pm - 3am Friday 17/04 Thursday 23/04 Wednesday 06/05

Saturday Night Knees Up! Dan Reed The Fakers 30something The Maccabees The Maze The Malt Cross Seven Seven £3, 8pm - 1am £10 / £12, 8pm The Rescue Rooms £5, 8.30pm £2, 8pm £10, 7pm With The Shakes. Plus The Jet Boys, The Noise* Establishment and The Turf. Radar with Live Guests: Otis Gibbs and Chris Mills Goldhawks Marcus Bonfanti and Lotte Mullan Jamcafe Deux Free, 7pm The Maze Rolo Tomassi The Bodega £10, 7.30pm £3, 10pm £5, 9pm The Bodega Rachel Harrington £7.50, 7pm Deux Plus Grammatics and Pulled Apart The Mighty Underdogs Sunday 26/04 Thursday 07/05 £7.50 / £10, 9.30pm By Horses. The Rescue Rooms Easy Star All Stars £12.50, 7.30pm Levellers The Rescue Rooms Depeche Mode Party Rock City Saturday 02/05 £15, 7.30pm The Rescue Rooms Daylight Robbery £19.50, 7.30pm

£5, 9pm - 3am Southbank Bar Plus Pama International, Hobo Fresh out of Death Evil Empire With DJs GW2m and Ricardo. Free, 7pm Jones and The Junkyard Dogs. The Market Bar The Maze £5, 10pm £tbc, 8pm Bluu Unplugged - Tee Dymond Notts in a Nutshell Plus Style of Eye. Friday 24/04 Plus RH Conspiracy. Bluu The Maze

Free, 8pm £3, 8pm Cancer Bats The Answer and Swanee River The Other Left With Knives, Cafe Racer and more. Rock City Rock City Seven LeftLion £8, 7pm £11, 7pm £4, 8pm Brownes Plus The Plight and SSS. Plus Isolation, The Villain And I and Free, 8pm - 1am Tuesday 28/04 Wire and Wool My Thai Bride. Saturday Night Knees Up! The Loggerheads Azriel The Rusty Trombones The Malt Cross Free, 8pm Seven Deux £3, 8pm - 1am Plus Martyr Defiled, Almost Home, Friday 08/05 Free, 9pm With Djangology. Bluu Unplugged - Tom Wardle Oribine and Scarlet Monastery. Free, 8pm Rigbee Deep Cult DnB The Rakes Alley Cafe Saturday 18/04 Fidget Muse Free, 8:30pm - 1am The Rescue Rooms The Maze £4 / £6, 10pm - 2am Plus Minister Hill, Nowhere The Sex Pistols Experience £11, 7.30pm £3, 8.30pm Common and Jah Bunndy. Seven Sky Larkin and Official Secrets Act. Jonny and The Raindrops £tbc, 8pm Roy De Wired and Tee Dymond The Maze The Curtis Whitefinger Ordeal Themselves The Approach £2.50, 3pm - 6pm The Robin Hood Saturday Night Knees Up! The Bodega Free, 7pm Then Basement Boogaloo, £5. Free, 9.30pm The Malt Cross £9, 8pm

With Wholesome Fish. Flipron Amusement Parks On Fire

Saturday 25/04 Deux The Bodega DJ Derek Wednesday 29/04 £5 / £7.50, 9pm £6, 7pm The Golden Fleece Ronnie Londons Groove Lounge BandSoc BOTB Heat D! Plus Electric Catfish. With support from Swimming. Free, 8pm-2am Grosvenor Seven £3 b4 11am, 8pm - 1am £3 / £2 BandSoc Bluu Unplugged With Mark James Smokescreen Sunday 03/05 With Pantheon, Numinous, Sable Free, 8pm The Maze Rigbee Deep Dawn and The Prevention. £5, 10pm House Event The Hubb Digital Corruption The Loggerheads Free, 8:30pm - 2am Nick Bowley Band The Maze Jason Heart Band Free, 8pm With Minister Hill, Nowhere The Maze £7 / £9, 9pm Southbank Bar Common and Jah Bunndy. £3, 8pm With Riding The Low, Satnam’s Free, 7pm Kimmie Rhodes Tash, Ruberlaris, Moring Glory and The Maze Fresh out of Death and DJ Mehdi Mathias Eick Quartet VJ Yogyog. Johnny Dempsey £10, 7.45pm The Market Bar Lakeside Arts Centre Deux Plus Sarah MacDougall. £5, 10pm £12 / £15, 8pm Doc Shellard and Friends Free, 9pm Buster Deux Nightmare Of You Eugene Robinson. £3, 9pm Rock City Jamcafe Southbank Bar Free, 7pm £7.50, 7pm Free, 7pm 22 leftlion.co.uk/issue28 nottingham event listings... for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

Saturday 09/05 Friday 15/05 Friday 22/05 Sunday 24/05 Friday 29/05

Nemhain and Spit Like This Demo Bluu Unplugged - Tom Wardle Boatyard Boogaloo Bluu Unplugged - Mark James Rock City The Maze Free, 8pm Canalhouse bar Free, 8pm £6.50, 7pm £tbc, 9pm - late £7 adv, 3pm - 3.30am Shivver With The Unabombers, Nick Shaw, Pop, Bubble, Rock! Saturday Night Knees Up! Rhoda Dakur The Maze Ed Cotton, Beane and Alex Byrom. Seven The Malt Cross Seven £5, 9pm £4, 9.30pm £3, 8pm - 1am £tbc, 8pm Dot To Dot Festival 2009 With Polar Bear Club, Crime In With The Shakes. The Gliteratti Various Locations Stereo and Defeater. Sew Your Genes Seven £25 +, All day The Pitty Patt Club – The Lizard Lounge £5 / £7, 8pm See featured listing on page 22. Detonate ‘Neo Burlesque-O-Theque’ £4 / £5, 9pm - 11pm Plus New Generation Superstars Stealth The Bodega See box out for more information. and Zen Motel. £10, 9pm - 4am £6, 8pm Tuesday 26/05 Artificial Intellegence, Plastician LeftLion Blackfuzz and more. Ghoul Garden Brownes Deux SIC The Maze Free, 8pm - 1am £3, 9pm The Maze £3 / £3.50, 9pm £3 / £4, 8pm Saturday 30/05 Plus Goddamn. Americana Night Saturday 16/05 Saturday 23/05 Ronnie Londons Groove Lounge Grosvenor Deux Wednesday 27/05 £3, 9pm Stratovarius and Plus Firewind Adrian Edmondson and The Bad £3 b4 11am, 8pm - 1am The Rescue Rooms Shepherds With Dixies Midnight Strummers. Lipstick and Guitar Tour £16.50, 7pm Seven Mr Hudson £15, 8pm The Maze Stealth Sunday 10/05 Maybeshewill £6, 7.30pm £8.50, 7pm Rock City Saturday Night Knees Up! With Nell Bryden, Kat Flint, Plus Mpho and Alan Pownall. Kris Ward £3, 10pm The Malt Cross Lizzyspit and Lana. The Robin Hood Plus And So I Watch You From Afar. £3, 8pm - 1am Saturday Night Knees Up! Free, 9.30pm With Wholesome Fish. Thursday 28/05 The Malt Cross Basement Sessions £3 on door, 8pm - 1am The Butterfly Effect Bluu City Pulse Festival Breed 77 With Reverend Ribble and The Rock City Free, 8pm Various Locations Rock City Ginger Nuts. £7.50, 7.30pm With The Freskofunkerz. Free, Various £10, 6.30pm Runs until: 25/05 with Susperia, Illuminatus, Circle I’m Not from London Chris Wood Shlomo’s Human Beatbox Vocal With The Manfreds, The Neville of One. Art Organisation The Maze Orchestra Staples Band, Eddie Floyd, Todd Free (NUS), 2pm - 10.30pm £10, 7.30pm Playhouse Miller and The Joe Loss Orchestra, Breed 77 end of tour party Runs until: 31/05 £8 / £12.50 / £14 , 7.30pm James Hunter and more. Seven You Slut, Love Ends Disaster, The Folk Sessions £2 / £3, 10pm O’Lovely Lie, Dom Keller, Wander Deux Mindvox Battle of The Bands Smokscreen With In The Absence of Light. Phantom and loads more. Free, 7pm - 9pm Final The Maze The open mic. The Maze £5, 10pm Richie Muir Sunday 31/05 £tbc, 7pm The Approach

Tuesday 12/05 Sunday 24/05 Free, 7pm We The Kings Acey Slade Seven Rock City Gallows Dealmaker Records Noise Ensemble £8, 7.30pm £tbc, 8pm Playhouse Rock City Plus Patchwork Grace and Eureka Moog £13, 7.30pm £3, 2pm - late £12.50 / £14.50, 7.30pm Holly Golightly and the Machines. Plus Every Time I Die and Hexes. Lone, Keaver, Brause Jahtari Brokeoffs Saturday Night Knees Up! Riddim Force, Disrupt and Tapes. Friday 29/05 The Rescue Rooms Charity Gig The Malt Cross £10, 7.30pm The Maze £3 on door, 8pm - 1am The Elementz Presents Junk Yard Presents Clive Henry Plus David Drake and Andi £3 donations, 8pm With Más Y Más. Muse The Market Bar Almqvist. Free, 10pm - 2am £5, 10pm - 4am Bonded By Blood Wonkville Launch Party with guest Notts in a Nutshell Seven Monday 18/05 DJs and Shoka. Wire and Wool The Maze £tbc, 8pm The Loggerheads £3, 8pm Fueled by Fire and White Hazzard. Liars Club and Late Of The Pier Bobby Melody Free, 8pm present Sausage Party 02 The Maze Roy De Wired Wednesday 13/05 Chameleon Arts Cafe £tbc, 9pm Sonic Boom 6 Southbank Bar £5, 8pm The Maze Free, 7pm With Casiokids plus guests. Establishment One Eskimo and All Thieves £8, 9pm Southbank Bar Plus Girlfixer and Dirty Revolution. I’m Not From London BBQ The Bodega Free, 7pm The Loggerheads £5, 7pm Wednesday 20/05 Free, 8pm

BandSoc House Party Cobra Starship Seven The Rescue Rooms £2 / £3 / £4, 9.30pm £10, 6.30pm

Richie Muir The Hours The Approach Stealth Free, 7pm £7, 7pm Sew Your Genes

Lúnasa Revolution Sounds Clubnight 501 reasons to give to charity at the Lizard Lounge Lakeside Arts Centre The Maze £12 / £15, 7.30pm £8 adv, 8pm Sew Your Genes is an arts and fashion exhibition put together by Star Fuckin Hipsters, Minus two students at Nottingham Trent University to raise money for Belleruche Society, Moral Dilemma, Total Brownes Bloody Chaos and Kerbface. Jeans for Genes - a national charity which raises money for the Free, 8pm care of children living with genetic disorders and their families. Not Plus Papa La Bas. Trigger The Bloodshed only will Sew Your Genes showcase work made from recycled Seven denim by a variety of designers and artists, but said work could Cup of Tea £6 / £8, 8pm be wrapped around your arse by the end of the night, as it’ll be Lee Rosy’s Tea Shop Plus Khalo and For Untold Reasons. £4 / £5, 8.30pm available to buy, as well as there being a raffle. Dana Wylie Band and Old Lost John. Richie Muir The Approach The designers involved are amongst the best Notts has to offer; Damn You! Free, 7pm Sir Tom Baker, Bantum Clothing, Jo Cope, Regenerate, Bo and Jamcafe Free, 7pm Jangles, Waste Yourself, John Simmons, Mark Hill, Sarah Alina With Machinefabriek. Thursday 21/05 Krohn, Simon Mitchell and Vintage Reclaimed. Music on the night will be an acoustic session from Mark James. Scott Matthews Thursday 14/05 The Rescue Rooms £12.50, 7.30pm If you’re a denim or fashion fanatic get down there to check out Ben’s Brother Plus James Summerfield. what some of the most innovative designers around do with the The Rescue Rooms brief and support a very worthy cause to boot. £12.50, 7.30pm Birobox Workshops The Malt Cross Luke Doucet and Melissa £4, 8pm Sew Your Genes, Friday May 15, the Lizard Lounge, 41-43 St. McClelland The Joy of Box and Origamibiro. Marys Gate, NG1 1PU 9pm-11pm. Dress code: one piece of denim The Maze £10, 7.45PM ButtonPusher Seven Classic of Love £tbc, 8pm Seven With Blakfish, Brontide, Hot Bone £7 / £8, 8pm and Rolo Tomassi DJ Set.

leftlion.co.uk/issue28 23 event listings... for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

WEEKLIES Wednesdays

Mondays Open Mic Night Jam Cafe Open Mic Night Free, 7pm Golden Fleece Free, 8pm LeftLion Pub Quiz Golden Fleece Neon Rocks £2 per team, 8pm Stealth Like booze? Like quizzes? Sorted. £3, 9pm - late Thursdays Fridays Fridays NTU student night. Pub Quiz Deux Chic Superstar Boudoir Fridays Motherfunker £various, 8pm Gatecrasher Gatecrasher Golden Fleece The Cookie Club £4 / £5, 10.30pm - 3am £10 / £12, 10pm - 4am Free, 8pm £1 before 11pm, 10.30pm - 3am Solode Four floors of music. A slice of action from the world’s Reggae, DnB, funk, hip hop and disco. Approach leading dance music brands. Bosh! Free, 8pm BedBug

Approach Plus guests. Eleven Atomic / Sabotage Saturdays Free, 7pm Free, 8pm - 3am The Cookie Club Deep Groove Free comedy from Just The Tonic. £2 b4 11pm, £4 after (NUS Thursdays Firefly and Product bring a Snug Lounge Club selection of quality DJs every discount), 10.30pm - 3am £5 (NUS), 10pm - 6 am Monday Mayhem Thursday. Maze Showcase Strictly Play £1 / £2, 8pm Loggerheads Chic Igloo Gatecrasher Free, 8pm Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham Various, 10pm - 4am £7 / £9, 10pm - 4am Propaganda £4adv / £5, 10.30pm - 3am

Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham Live Thursdays The Pop Confessional Freeman £3.50 / £4, 10pm - 3am Golden Fleece Open Decks and Open Caves Bodega Social Club Brownes Indie and alternative club night Free, 8.30pm Loggerheads £1 / £3 / £5, 11pm - 3am Free, 9pm - 1.30am with huge events in five cities Free, 5pm - 12am Classic POP tunes from all eras, across the UK. Club NME Bring some records or bring an and lots of fun and games. Distortion Stealth instrument. Rock City £2 / £4, 10pm - 2am Love Shack Tuesdays various, 10pm - 3am SPAM Rock City The Jupiter Monkeys Acoustic Ropewalk £4 - £5, 9.30pm - 2am MNSTR! Trollied Jamboree Free, 8pm Brownes Halo Deux Joe Strange Band Free, 9pm - 1.30am Free, 8pm £5 / £6 / more, 10pm - 4am Detonate, Spectrum and ClubFoot 4 Down 1 To Go Southbank Bar residents. Approach Free, 8pm Jam Cafe Free, 7pm Sundays Free, 8pm Acoustic Tuesdays Roy De Wired DJs on rotation playing funk, soul To Be Announced Approach Sunday Jam Sessions Malt Cross and broken beats. Free, 8pm Jamcafe Free, 7pm - 2am Loggerheads Free, 7pm - late Plus support and DJs. Free, 8pm A selection of local acts. Modern World The Cookie Club Music Quiz F*** Me It’s Friday Reggae Roast Live Jazz £1 / £3, 10.30pm - 2am Hand and Heart Robin Hood Halo Golden Fleece Free, 9pm Free with Flyer, 10pm - 4am Free entry, all day. Free, 8pm - late Tuned Rock City Santero Open Mic £1 - £5, 10pm - 3am Brownes Deux Free, 9pm - 1.30am Free, 9pm

24 leftlion.co.uk/issue28 nottingham event listings... for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings

COMEDY Sunday 10/05

Sunday 05/04 Just The Tonic - Phil Nichol The Baking of Pelham 1-2-3 Approach Just The Tonic £8 / £10, 7pm Approach Homemade: because Man can’t live by Cob alone £5.50 / £7.50, 7pm Jo Caulfield, Dan Nightingale and Monday 11/05 Charlie Baker. Opening its doors on Pelham Street in May 2005, Homemade Mark Thomas is a cosy, friendly, licensed cafe bar that puts honest home Tony Cowards Playhouse cooking of locally-sourced producers before, well, the usual Robin Hood £12 / £15, 8pm crap sandwiches you get from Tescos that end up falling

Free / £2, 7.30pm between the cracks of your keyboard at work. Plus Sam Brady, Sajeela Kershi, Tuesday 12/05 Alan Armstrong, Toby Blair and Compere Matt Turner. Funhouse Comedy The great thing about Homemade is that it spends the last Grove three days of the working week open right through to 10.30pm, Pieces £4 / £5, 8pm meaning that you can give that dodgy kebab shop the swerve Playhouse Zoe Lyones, Pierre Hollins, Richard if you don’t feel like it. The breakfasts are amongst the best in £5 / £8, 7.45pm King and Compere Spiky Mike. town, from the full english to smoked salmon and scrambled

Tuesday 07/04 eggs on toast. By dinnertime, the chalkboards are heaving Sunday 17/05 with savoury delights ranging from lasagne to jacket potatoes

Ed Byrne Just The Tonic to salads to soup to ciabatta rolls – with a sizeable vegetarian Playhouse Approach selection. £14 / £15, 8pm £5 / £7.50, 7pm Their evening delights offer proper teas a-plenty including Sunday 12/04 Tuesday 19/05 homemade burgers, pan-fried salmon, and wild mushroom and spinach pasta to name but a few. Licensed and fully stocked Just The Tonic Should I Stay or Should I Go? Approach with beers, wines and ciders, it’s the perfect launchpad for a night out and if the sun is shining then take Maze advantage of their outdoor seating area – it’s even available for private party bookings in the evenings. £6 / £8, 7pm £4 / £5, 8pm With Jim Tavare, Tony Law, Ginger and Black and Charlie Baker. Homemade, 20 Pelham Street, Nottingham, NG1 2EG Sunday 24/05 www.homemadecafe.com Sunday 19/04 Just The Tonic Approach Just The Tonic £6 / £8, 7pm Tuesday 14/04 Sunday 26/04 Thursday 09/04 Approach £5.50 / £7.50, 7pm RSC The Tempest Derren Brown Laxton: Farming in an open Wil Hogson, Mat Reed and guest. Sunday 31/05 Royal Centre Royal Centre field village £9.50 - £25, 7.30pm £22.50 / £26.50, 7.30pm Lakeside Arts Centre Just The Tonic Runs until: 18/04 Runs until: 27/04 Free, All day Monday 20/04 Approach Runs until: 16/08 £5 / £7.50, 7pm Robin Ince Monday 20/04 Monday 04/05 Lakeside Arts Centre Sunday 12/04 £12 / £15, 8pm THEATRE Little Shop of Horrors M. Butterfly Wednesday 01/04 Royal Centre Lace Market Theatre Chris Mattison: A Natural Friday 24/04 £12 - £29.50, 7.30pm £6 / £7 / £8 / £9, 7.30pm Selection Much Ado About Nothing Runs until: 25/04 Runs until: 09/05 Yard Gallery Ross Noble Lace Market Theatre Free, 11am - 4pm Runs until: 26/04 Royal Centre £7 / £8 / £9, 7.30pm Wednesday 22/04 Tuesday 05/05 £18 / £20 (NUS), 7.30pm Runs until: 04/04 Shaolin Warriors Brief Encounter Saturday 18/04 Sunday 26/04 Tuesday 05/05 Royal Centre Royal Centre £18 / £21, 7.30pm £10 / £24, 7.30pm Joy and Wolfgang Buttress Just The Tonic Hatch: One Runs until: 09/05 Lakeside Arts Centre Free, All day Approach The Ropewalk Thursday 23/04 Runs until: 24/05 £5.50 / £7.50, 7pm Free, 8pm - 1am Friday 08/05 With Rob Rouse, Ava Vidal and The newest travelling home for We’ll Meet Again Darrell Martin. performancy fun promises a night Royal Centre Breakin Convention Tuesday 21/04 of adventure. £9 / £11, 2.30pm Playhouse

Sunday 03/05 £15, 7.30pm Kate Waters Friday 10/04 The Visit Runs until: 09/05 Surface Gallery Just The Tonic Playhouse See box out. Free, All day Approach Circo de la Sombra £4 / £6, 8pm Runs until: 01/05 Runs until: 25/04 £6 / £8, 7pm Playhouse Monday 11/05 With Ian Cognito, Henning Wehn £7.50 / £12.50, 8pm Saturday 25/04 and guests. Runs until: 11/04 Evita Royal Centre Joan Fontcuberta - Datascapes £14 / £35, 7.30pm Lakeside Arts Centre Runs until: 23/05 Free, All day Runs until: 14/06

Thursday 14/05 Thursday 30/04 Uprock City Le Grand Cirque Royal Centre Back To Life: Jennifer Bell Breakin’ Convention invites you to spin on it £10 - £32.50, 7.30pm Yard Gallery Runs until: 17/05 Free, 11am - 4pm The UK’s leading festival of international hip-hop dance Runs until: 05/06 theatre is back in town, curated and hosted by the Friday 22/05 irrepressible Jonzi D. Breakin’ Convention 09 storms Saturday 02/05 Nottingham Playhouse on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May Wasteland with some of the world’s hottest poppers, lockers, B-boys Lakeside Arts Centre Slash / Slash and B-girls in the world backed up by the cream of the £9 / £12, 8pm Rescue Rooms Notts scene. It’s more than just a show; the venue will Free, 12pm - 6pm be transformed, with DJs providing the sounds and the opportunity to freestyle in the foyers. EXHIBITIONS Saturday 23/05 Wednesday 01/04

As always, BC is a demonstration of how something that Form Geoff Diego Litherland was dismissed as a fad in the early eighties has enveloped Loggerheads Lakeside Arts Centre the globe, with a stellar intercontinental line-up. From the Free, 8pm - 1.30am Free, All day US comes legendary pioneer Ken Swift – the epitome of B- Runs until: 12/04 Boying – making his UK debut with his crew VII Gems Rock Saturday 30/05 Dance Division. French phenomenon Salah – renowned as The American Scene ‘the Charlie Chaplin of hip-hop’ - throws mime and comedy into the mix. And from South Korea, probably the best B- Lakeside Arts Centre Laura Mccafferty Boying nation in the world, comes the astonishing group MyoSung. Free, All day Lakeside Arts Centre Runs until: 19/04 Free, All day Throw in a hefty dose of Notts representation in the shape of Freedom Movement, Quantum Matrix, SD Crew and Runs until: 02/07 Unique Perspective, and you have two unmissable nights. Tom Down - A Far Sunset The Wasp Room Breakin’ Convention, Nottingham Playhouse Friday May 8 and Saturday May 9, 6.30pm. Free, Thu/Fri, 3-7, Sat/Sun, 12-5 Tickets: £15 (concessions £13.50) Runs until: 11/04

leftlion.co.uk/issue28 25

Write Lion ‘Credit Crunch’, ‘quantitative easing’ - anyone would think the politicians are the only poets left in this country. But fear not, the Write Lion crew have a few things to say about the recession, amongst other things, and unlike the politicians, they tell it straight. If you would like to join them, please visit www.leftlion.co.uk/forum

What Darwin Didn’t Know Is Remains, Bric-a-Brac Ode to the Credit Crunch GB2009 by Mahatma By Gareth Durasow by Adam by Annie Moose

I’m no Priziest Horse either, but quarter moon like a Cheshire cat Excuse this stuff, My first impression, Wages £1019 and like girls with Little Hans. Freud, psychoanalyse that. the Womble in my fury. of the recent recession, Rent £420 My working class siblings ask; why I go to uni Great with pets & British is not one of doom, Council Tax £95 - I can’t let rich-kids be privileged to all the lunacy to the last I’ve been lighting a or gloom, Water £22 Plus no one has mis-educational immunity lizard’s cadaver for days or even depression. Gas £50 since the universe is a university its now I’m playing truant, see? whilst earthquakes cleave Electric £35 So never judge a human being by the cover of their book the coliseum in half It’s of joy and jubilation, Petrol £80 they could be publishing its antithesis and just studying up like a skull & as the folk of this nation Loan £100 My gene pool’s a puddle of mud, an erupting volcanic push, bubbling up Ezekiel sweats ecclesiastic might find cheaper, better hobbies Car insu £39 ‘cause the true thrust of What Darwin Didn’t Know is at the grindstone pulpit, instead of Wii and Playstation. Home insu £18 you can hide an entire pride of diplodocus inside a flying mist of locus treads stained glass & Credit card £5.81 min payment Humans are solar powered, life got hot in our time and space hum-drum Son et Lumières Food £170 so we’ve gone on and evolved long beyond Optimus Primates with potential to believe All the spines in her book case are Tabs £40 TRESemmé’s apothegms Ale £200 We’re chemical entities, we don’t need these coffees for highs black an apothecary Total Fucked but son, you’d moon the planet with a heavenly body like mine by Pete Littlewood I’m off, and goodnight. & unearths a sensible heaven: Equilibrium under the cemetery chaos, When we first met, Branson You charming sullen lovers there was an i-want-to-lick-you whole, by thesethingsinmyattic with Pixar menageries & where now hangs a charcoal hole. by Lord Biro records left out to dry I am going to come and get into bed with you. in ample time to clinch Maybe it was just me, The Man But I don’t want you to talk. the horticulture prize wearing her down with my tongue, The Movie I am going to come and get into bed with you. for enduring diorama. but she seemed to erode The Mayhem But I don’t want you to touch me. as her book case turned black. The Lost Luggage I don’t want you to pressure me into doing anything, The Late Trains I don’t meant like that. The Violent Passengers I mean that I just want you to be there. etc. But I don’t want you to do anything. Book Reviews

Instead Of A Card The Not Dead (Candlestick Press) Simon Armitage John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand £4.95 (Pomona) £6.99 Richard Reeves (Atlantic Books) £12.99 Feel like throttling your partner when they buy you a tacky Much has been written about the Great Wars. The volume and special occasion card with a cutesy bear on the cover? Fear nature of the deaths are so incomprehensible that it serves In this behemoth of a biography, Richard Reeves dissects the not, your days of insipid romantic gestures are over thanks as a brutal reminder to us all that this must never happen complex life of one of Britain’s greatest intellectual thinkers, to local publisher Candlestick Press. Retailing at £4.95, again. Modern warfare is less well served by the world of who, for example, had consumed Plato, Sophocles and Pope Instead of a Card offers quirky, themed poetry pamphlets publishing, perhaps because there isn’t the same certainty of before reaching double figures. And I thought I was clever that are the perfect size to slip into your lover’s bag when cause as the Great Wars or because we have simply grown for completing Mario 64. Written in the spirit of the man, they aren’t looking. Expertly produced and bound, they come emotionally apathetic to death due to observing it on TV from Reeves is not afraid to dispel myths, nor to criticise his subject with matching envelope and a blank bookmark – though this the comfort of our sofa. In this slim and beautiful eighty-page matter in this thorough and illuminating analysis. However, particular consumer couldn’t bring herself to deface such a collection, Simon Armitage departs from the norm by depicting this book should be required reading for the simple reason simple and lovely artefact. Now stocked at Waterstones and the aftermath of modern warfare in gut-wrenching prose that that our current notions of liberalism (anti-terror laws, CCTV Buy the Book in West Bridgford, and perfect for those of you reminds us that the mental wars are the ones that never end monitoring, etc) are making such a mockery of democracy that with a thoughtful imagination and a craving for beauty. and the ones which do the most harm. a drastic reappraisal is required before it is too late. Aly Stoneman James Walker James Walker

www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 27 Finally, a full page of all-Notts bands in our review section. We’d like to keep it that way, so if you’re local and you have new release, go to www.leftlion.co.uk/bands to find how you can get your stuff reviewed on this very page...

MUSIC Euler Jupiter Monkeys Keaver & Brause Songs for the Bailiff EP Drowning in the Gene Pool EP The Middle Way LP (Dealmaker Records)

Feel-good sounds from A while ago whilst having a Keaver & Brause may sound like Nottingham? It must be nearly typical drunk Friday night in the a law or accountancy firm, but summer, and Euler – who all local, my neighbour and I came thankfully their music is way more live in a house in Forest Fields, up with the musical genre of ‘Belt exciting than that. Tom Keaver and like most local bands do at some Rock’ - the type of music where Tom Brause are a likeminded duo point - have an EP to suit the you hook your thumbs in the in the studio - but as people they mood. Jumping straight in with loops of your stonewashed jeans, are certainly not without their the upbeat jangle of French Maid, and either get down to a good ‘ol differences. Keaver is a veteran the four of them immediately fling boogie by swivelling from your of the Ceder studio system and their cards on the table; pure hips, or by leaning back on the known for his work as a sound indie rock with a sixties guitar bar and enthusiastically tapping effects man. Whereas Brause, tinge that champions the fun- your right leg to the music (and twelve years his partner’s junior, is a folk and session musician loving end of that era over the melancholic dirginess of the if any of you feckers try and steal this term, you are dead). who turned his hand to production and is rather amusingly noughties. Just check the wide-eyed optimism of Amsterdam Jupiter Monkeys are Belt Rock, and Drowning in the Gene Pool described by the record company as looking like a baby. Between - string section and all. By the time the EP ends with the chirpy- is unashamed feel-good boogie rock; think the Black Crowes them they have given birth to a very well-produced album of as-you-like title track - all harmonicas and infectious chorus snorting up Jimmy Page’s leftover lines, whilst Lynyrd Skynyrd chilled beats, multi-layered samples and eerie melodies along – you start to wonder how the band will develop and mature recklessly pour whiskey over the whole sordid drug-ravaged the lines of other ambient electronic musicians like Boards of when they start off this catchy. Songs for the Bailiff is a well- orgy. This is music to have a good time to, and Jupiter Monkeys Canada, Lukid and their labelmate Lone (who we hear they produced debut, yet manages to retain a lovably ragged energy could have quite easily come from the sun-soaked South states might collaborate with soon). Standout tracks are Two Schools, - which probably means they’re a lot of fun to watch live. of America, opposed to the piss-stained streets of Nottingham. Bounce and Cleff Rechard. Jared Wilson Alison Emm Paul Klotschkow Available from www.dealmakerrecords.co.uk from 20 April. Hear the EP in full now on Euler’s MySpace page Out 1 May: listen in full on Jupiter Monkey’s MySpace page www.myspace.com/tbwmusic www.myspace.com/euleronline www.myspace.com/jmonkeys

The Money Pilgrim Fathers Lone A Secret Shared LP Dr Niall Bombast (black) & His Tight Minded Cluster Dreams EP (Dealmaker Records) Scope Trooper (dog) EP (Undergroove Records) First gig in November, first LP Hot on the heels of his startling four months later…this band that To pigeonhole the sound of and attention-grabbing Lemurian does not hang about. There’s Pilgrim Fathers is nigh on album, Matt Cutler reasserts his been a proper buzz around The impossible. An experimental already assured position in the Money (formed from Majik and rock band, based in Notts and vanguard of instrumentalism Left Of The Dealer) and much signed to London’s Undergroove with consummate ease. It opens is expected. Much is delivered. Records, they’ve received a fair with Sharpest View of the Sun, a Even more is promised. Feel Like bit of acclaim from the likes of wall of twinkling, trickling drops You Save Me and Rollin’ Of A Dice Kerrang and the Radio One Rock of aural fluid. Cluster Dreams are the standouts; the former Show, and recently they’ve been reminds me of sitting in my is possibly the most naggingly on tour supporting US legends bedroom playing on my Sega earwormy tune you’ll hear all Monster Magnet. If there were Megadrive back in the early nineties, and Fly Fire Rainbow year, while the latter is so instantly catchy that you’ll swear it’s such a thing as an ‘average’ Pilgrim Fathers tune, it would have could have easily have soundtracked one of the early stages on been around for ages. Hear Me Out and Start Again glisten with drummer Kev and guitarist Feg putting down some layered Sonic 2, with its swirling, jazzy piano riffs creating a dreamy shards of guitar and soaring harmonies and lend themselves to drum and guitar rhythms with singer Shelf maniacally shouting soundscape. A Ridge Between Mountains follows a similar the shoegazer era, but in an uplifting way – as if they’ve just philosophical and sometimes frightening lyrics over the top. pattern, but it’s as blissed-out as a Trustafarian in the Arbo on bought some adidas Italias and can’t stop checking them. If Then Dan Gardner (aka hip-hop artist Zero Theory) comes a sunny afternoon, and an outstanding remix of Midnight Feast you know their pedigree, you may be a tad disappointed that in with the sampler and sends it all into orbit. There are four aimed squarely at the come-down kids rounds off a small but they haven’t let rip with some more uptempo tracks, but no tracks on this EP, and they all display a vast range of style and perfectly formed package. Anyone who’s a fan of glisteningly matter; this is an extremely professional and mature debut that a willingness to collaborate. From the 13-minute title track and positive electronica or instrumental music in general should demands your attention, and I’m gagging to hear their next one. Black Sail Pass (which are both produced by Swimming’s John make this an essential purchase. Paul Klotschkow Which, by the way things are going, should be out next month. Sampson) to the binaural recording of The Unusual Woods (with Glen Parver audio enthusiast Dallas Simpson), it’s definitely rock music, but Lone plays Wigflex@Detonate at Stealth on 3 May not as we know it. Jared Wilson www.myspace.com/lonemusic Buy online at www.carterinternational.co.uk www.myspace.com/showmethemoneymusic Buy online at www.undergroove.co.uk www.myspace.com/thepilgrimfathers

Spaceships Are Cool The Smears Spaceships Are Cool EP Hell in High Heels EP The Swiines Spaceships Are Cool (led by Rob An all-girl trio (think Hole Dark Don’t Smile EP Maddison) are Nottingham’s without the male and less drugs), prime exponents of gorgeous The Smears have attitude in This is a supremely confident dollops of delightful indietronica abundance and know what makes first shot from a group already that is so irresistible and moreish, for a good song that you can jump muscling through the local they must have found a cheeky around to, and HIHH is an album pecking order in support to ‘name’ way of slipping MSG into the which would have pissed over bands. The hooky, quirky guitar music. This eponymous EP takes a number of punk acts in the of Hello may be horrorshow and all the best bits of artists like the seventies and eighties. Coming in moody, but strike the dreaded ‘E’ Flaming Lips, Beck, Dntel and at a wonderfully compact twenty word from your mind - this is one lashings of sixties psych-rock minutes of pure punk/grunge/rock band that isn’t hanging around to create a world where blips energy that grabs you straight out the Lions with its mates, flicking and bleeps collide head-on with occasional I Am The Walrus- with Deliverance, this album refuses to let go until it squeals to its overly long fringe out of its esque stream-of-consciousness lyrics, especially noticeable on a halt, just after telling you to pick up your knickers and asking hair and hinting that it wants to Gingerbread House. Let Things Go is full of clattering drums ‘who are you?’, with Wrath. The mid-point of the album is Party hit up Ice Nine for some nail polish. Rock-solid substance reigns and dark melodies that demonstrate just what a great talent is Song, a track that manages to capture the exact point when you throughout, but as Back of Your Mind proves, The Swiines aren’t on show here. This EP, along with a collaboration with Mr Bird realise you may have had a bit too much to drink and then snaps smiling out of determined professionalism rather than lifestyle entitled The Tokyo EP, is throughly recommended. you right back out of it so you can get on with the fun. With a choice. Vampires displays a distinctively haunting quality, with Paul Klotschkow healthy injection of Patti Smith influence, Hell in High Heels is a echoes of The Damned. My Plasticine Bowl rolls about with a long-overdue debut from one of Nottingham ’s most engaging chucking-out-time sneer, with the tune to back up the lip. The Available now on iTunes live acts. Alison Emm tone may be darker than a 4am coffee, but theysupplement it www.spaceshipsarecool.com with a roomy echo that tingles at the back of the neck. With Available soon from record shops and online panache and confidence, these boys are already going places. www.myspace.com/smearsuk Duncan Heath

The Swiines’ club night - Bang’d Up - May 9 at Seven. www.myspace.com/theswiines

28 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue28 presents T.B.A Reggae Funk Dub & Soul Thursdays from 7pm @ Nottinghams freshest Cafe Bar venue Live DJ’s, Evening menu, Beers & Spirits Aries (March 21 - April 20) When you sit down to eat your dinner tonight, try to think of it as potentially the last meal you may ever eat! After all you might die horribly in the night from a heart attack or a brain haemorrhage and so this could be the very last time your body is able to consume and process food and drink. Now… see how good that tastes?

Taurus (April 21 - May 21) Your home life is troubled at the moment and you’ve found yourself working longer hours just to avoid going back, as you usually only end up arguing. But although this is quite a complex situation and will take a fair bit of working through, there is one simple fact that should give you hope and guide you through the storm: you live alone!

Gemini (May 22 - June 22) You’ve been through a lot recently and to stand up and try again at something you failed before shows great character and further depths to your soul. If you don’t succeed this time then at least you’ve given it your best effort and there can be no doubt it’s time to start movin’ on up like M People never actually managed to do. LEFTLION ABROAD Cancer (June 23 - July 23) To get rid of the smell that hangs on your dog, instead of using expensive dog shampoos, use a tomato or tomato puree. This will rid your dog of its smell for about six months and they will love The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, USA. you for it! Then when you get bored of it chuck in a few peppers and mushrooms et voila – Dog Bolognese! The Golden Gate Bridge has been one of the most iconic landmarks in America ever since its completion in 1937. Nearby is the equally famous Alcatraz prison. The total Leo (July 24 - August 23) amount of wire used in its construction could go around the world 5.79 times, and For those of you that live near Derby - stop it! Move a bit nearer to Notts and expand your horizons a the bridge has an estimated 1,200,000 total rivets. And exactly one LeftLion sticker. little further than just sitting around with a can of cheap cider talking to sheep all day. Nottingham currently has lucrative opportunities on offer in the fields of law enforcement, judiciary and hairdressing. Join us and you can either cut crime, sentences or curly locks.

Virgo (August 24 - September 23) The subject of pets in clothes has caused something of a heated debate in my household recently. The missus thinks it’s totally unnecessary and a bit cruel. But my point of view is that a dog is man’s best friend and you wouldn’t expect your best friend to be by your side totally stark bollock naked all the time, would you? I also think they look kind of funny!

Libra (September 24 - October 23) You’re feeling the urge to hide today, but you almost certainly need to be out and about projecting a more sociable image. It might be hard, but it’s definitely worth it to you in the long run. So throw yourself into exciting new and ‘dangerous’ situations like salsa dancing classes, a good friend’s birthday party or a St Anns gang fight.

Scorpio (October 24 - November 22) Appearances can be deceptive and the pity you have for a friend may be unnecessary. When the ant first saw the chrysalis he felt great sorrow for her being trapped in a shell. But it was near her time of change and a day or two later she became a beautiful butterfly – much more beautiful than the ant would ever be. Ants are ugly twats, basically!

Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22) There are none so blind as those that will not see… except perhaps those who physically can not see anything at all. But anyway, try and open your eyes to what is going on around you. Sometimes it’s like you’re wearing sunglasses that shelter your eyes from the truth. And the...erm… sun.

Capricorn (December 23 - January 19) A wilful beast must go his own way. A horse was being driven along a high road, when he suddenly bolted and tried to throw himself over. His owner seized him by the tail, endeavouring to pull him back. When the ass persisted in his effort, the man let him go and said, ‘Conquer, but conquer to your cost.’

Aquarius (January 20 - February 19) To remove the bodies from your cellar boil them in bleach and leave them to disintegrate for several weeks. Eventually they will be gone and you will be left with a strange yet tasty human soup. To remove the smell of bleach from your hands (and that slimy feeling) pour a little vinegar or lemon A massive voluminous juice over them, then rinse. Redevelopment of Broadmarsh Centre piss up the wall Pisces (February 20 - March 20) In England we go fishing armed with a rod and some bait. In Vietnam they do it with dynamite. Our way leads to a relaxing day out and can help clear the mind. Their way leads to hundreds of half- baked fish rising to the surface and clearing the whole river. But which method is better, the most pleasant or the one with the best results?

Bleddy Hell! Reason why necessary: Because Leicester and Derby Because your bustin’, you Reason why necessary: can’t wait to get home, and the pubs are shut have nearly as many TK Maxxes as we do It’s nearly Summer! Inconvenience to public: Access to Crazy Frog knickers, Town funks like an incontinent Inconvenience to public: Nana’s gusset, splash-back on best trainers, etc Tupac mirrors and other rammell curtailed Time to complete: Put it this way; by the time it’s Two minutes – longer if someone Issue 29 of our Time to complete: you fancy or the police are in the vicinity finished, it’ll be full of Euro shops Total cost: Depends on how much four pints costs lovely magazine will be out Total cost: An estimated seven hundred million pounds in your pub on May 29. Cor!

30 www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27

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