unmasked photography Lelen Reute hiding in plain sight IDEAS, ART, MUSIC, CULTURE & YOUTH FROM ROCHDALE WITH GRANDMA EATERS, RING FIGHTERS, TV WATCHERS, SKIN WEARERS & SIGHT SEE-ERS You are reading unmasked, a zine from Rochdale. We bring you tales from precarious times. We are hidden in plain view. We are not enough and too much. We are unmasked. So venture outside your comfort zone. Read, absorb, engage, pass it on. This is issue two. If you’re interested in reading or even contributing to what comes next send us a message on unmasked@ fluxmagazine.com. We’ll be tuned in. photography Katherine Eggleston 2 WWW.UNMASKEDZINE.COM WWW.UNMASKEDZINE.COM 3 Unmasked asked our writers to tell us about their hopes & fears for the future.... #1 - Hopes & Fears by Hana Hussain ˈfjuːtʃə/ “a period of time following the moment of speaking or writing; time regarded as still to come.” at eight, the word was used as a spark for my imagination to be set ablaze. Flying cars, spaceships, holograms – all were to be included in my realm of impossible things. you would be able to mingle amongst robots and fly on top of clouds. There would be no war, no famine, no poverty, humanity had made it a thing of the past. Humanity had learned. at thirteen, the word caused my excitement to overflow. soon, i could lead life away from the prying eyes of my parents. soon, i could make my own choices and live my own adventures. Fuelled by wistful movies and story books i would mould my own version of the future as anything i wished it to be. The world was mine. at fifteen, the word would spring fear into my heart. suddenly, the future was used as a threat, something to hurt me with whenever i wouldn’t cooperate. it began to be ingrained in me that the future Get into was something to be feared. The beautiful mystery i had once seen it as, slowly became a deep fog that etting into the ‘Headz’ of the youth was to trap me. exams, college, career choices – all began clouding my future. seizing her, distorting of Liverpool, this is a collection of her and plastering her with fear. i was scared. Gstories seeking out the heart of urban now at seventeen, the word future still shakes me to my core. but a new feeling is embedded with the your life with a hard-hitting dose of real and powerful word. intertwined with the word future is an array of emotions. The innocence of my flying cars lies issues. It’s a performance full of secrets and stories just amongst my future. The excitement of a young teen ready to grow up lies amongst my future. above all, waiting to unravel. the beaming hope and ambition of an ordinary seventeen year old not only lies amongst, but decides If you want a historical reference for ‘Headz’, look to Alan my future. Headz Bennett breaking ground back in 1988 with his televised A reality monologues ‘Talking Heads’. Bennett’s tales gave us a privileged window into the inner thoughts of ordinary people often revealing check on what more about the subject than they might have intended. But whilst makes young Bennett’s stories focussed on the poignancy of middle age – a widow, #2 - Hopes & Fears by raaFe anjam minds tick, an actress, a vicar’s wife – these stories give us a window into the young and disaffected. one of my hopes for the future is that i turn out to be a brilliant actor as i want to achieve the best Headz gets to grades in drama and make being an actor my career. my second hope for the future is that i can support the heart of Theatre company, 20 Stories High, are behind this series of gritty my family and friends as i don’t want to leave them behind in my quest to become a good actor and i urban life. and humorous contemporary monologues. They are not pulling any also want to send them enough money to help them with the things that they need. my third hope for the punches. You’ve got ‘Black’ where Nikki watches the reaction of her future is that i can take part in a movie as i love movies and i want to appear in one as a main character Dad who is ‘not a racist’ to an African family over the road. Or ‘Home’ (or at least an extra!). where we see the reaction of kids to the bombshell of their parents’ separation. Or ‘Soft’ on moving a relationship past just a booty call. my first fear for the future is that i might be fired from the movie i was in. it would not look good on Developed from stories from real life, 20 Stories High present an my record and it would affect me as an actor and as a person. my second fear is that my family and intense look at modern life that’s a reality check on what makes friends may split up as they all want to pursue different dreams and goals and they may have to go their young people tick. different ways. my third fear is that i might have to move out and i may not be able to take all the things i want and need into my apartment and it’ll be hard settling as i’ll have to look after myself - something See Headz as part of Rochdale Literature & Idea Festival on 20 October i’m not that used to. at Heywood Sports Village. 4 WWW.UNMASKEDZINE.COM WWW.UNMASKEDZINE.COM 5 Here’s a little story about Jenny & Rosa and what they’ve been calling experimental sludge pop. Let’s Eat Grandma tarting out as old friends singing funny ditties other when the girls were 7, but they kept the to each other, their dueting led them to a connection and now at 17 they are as close as Scontract with indie label Transgressive. Let’s ever. Eat Grandma are my favourite band, and I just Rosa and Jenny never planned a career in music - wanted to tell you about Jenny Hollingworth their little ditties were invented just for fun - but & Rosa Walton and what they’ve been calling when musician Kiran Leonard heard what they experimental sludge pop. were up to he passed the teenager’s tapes to his When I first heard the name Let’s Eat Grandma manager who quickly became their manager too. I thought it was a reference to Little Red Riding Their debut album ‘I Gemini’ consists of 10 Hood, so I was surprised to find out it was absolutely unique songs including Deep Six actually taken from a punctuation joke about a Textbook, Eat Shittake Mushrooms and Sax In The missing comma - get it? I bet that surprises you City. It’s one of the weirdest, most unique and too. And that’s what Let’s Eat Grandma are all special albums I have listened to. about - the unpredictable. Instead of being inspired by other artists, the Jenny Hollingworth & Rosa Walton express girls prefer to take inspiration from news show every part of their personality in their music. talking about unusual types of fungus or murder They despise genres. In their world, they think documentaries. They’re not listening to Ariana that if you have to make a song in a certain style Grande, Little Mix, Megan Trainer or Justin Bieber; you cannot express yourself fully. Thoughtful and always thinking, they both claim that together they you’ll find them tuning in to Mozart and Debussy are misfits yet alone they are normal. which they pronouce DE Boosie. Often mistaken for sisters, the girls in fact share Let’s Eat Grandma are not your normal teenage an abnormal bond as friends that they’ve felt ever girls. The culture of their music shines along with since they first met in reception class when they their friendship and enlightens the whole music were 4 years old. Their friendship outshines other scene. Let’s Eat Grandma are quirky and unique. bands like a million dollars to one dollar, but their Though still at music college their music is like an unusual friendship is not exactly storybook. Rosa unusual sonic flower with strange colours and a and Jenny say they either hang out just the two beautiful shape. Have a listen and see what you of them, or absolutely separately. At childhood think of Let’s Eat Grandma. words Evie-May Taylor parties the duo would sit completely away from See Let’s Eat Grandma at Lost Village Festival, Lincs the other kids, content in their own world. (24/8); End of the Road Festival, Salisbury (31/8 to Rosa and Jenny’s families moved away from each 3/9) & at Manic Street Parade, Munich (27/10). 6 WWW.UNMASKEDZINE.COM WWW.UNMASKEDZINE.COM 7 Catching Sight From childish he four storey climb to Rachel Goodyear’s sketching studio through the corridors of Salford’s TIslington Mill has the nostalgic familiarity to mythology of a high school art department. Encouraged from books to Louise a young age to pick up pencils and paper by her school teacher parents, and inspired by leafing Bourgeois, Rachel through illustrated classical mythology books, Goodyear has Rachel tells me she’s always been interested in art. always been an A key moment for Goodyear was a Louise art fanatic. With Bourgeois exhibition at the Tate Liverpool. “It blew my mind,” she smiles, remembering the spark of her ‘Catching inspiration and the feeling of connection.