the magazine as a pdf

Transcription

Mushroom Season
LeftLion Magazine Issue 13
October-November 2006
Editor
Jared Wilson ([email protected])
Deputy Editors
Al Needham ([email protected])
Nathan Miller ([email protected])
Technical Director
Alan Gilby ([email protected])
Artistic Director
David Blenkey ([email protected])
Listings Editors
Florence Gohard ([email protected])
Tim Bates ([email protected])
Music Editor
Sadie Rees-Hales ([email protected])
Proofreaders
Charlotte Kingsbury ([email protected])
Natasha Chowdhury
Photography Editor
Dom Henry ([email protected])
Photographers
Kevin Lake ([email protected])
Matt Dalton
Jon Rouston
Illustrators
Rob White ([email protected])
Rikki Marr ([email protected])
Contributors
Amanda Young
Andy Clydesdale
Dannii Leivers
James Walker
Jennie Syson
Jenny Hill
Jesse Keene
Michelle Bayton
Paul Klotschkow
Roger Mean
Simon Hodge
Tom Hathaway
Magician In Residence
Jack Curtis
Marketing and Sales Manager
Ben Hacking ([email protected])
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
Hunter S. Thompson
LeftLion
349a Mansfield Road
Nottingham
NG5 2DA
0115 9123782
If you would like to reach our readers by advertising your
company in these pages please contact Ben on 07843 944910
or email [email protected]
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Notts The Nine O’Clock News
Go Out To Play
Totally Orson, Dude
Divine Inspiration
LeftLion Extravaganza
Sounds of the Streets
The Hooded Man
Bruce Almighty/Cool for Cats
Charitable Boy
John McGregor
Prepare for Lif Off
Spaced Out
Buzz Lightyears
Nottingham Zoo
Artists Profiles
Nottingham Zoo continued
NOW that’s what I call Art
Nottingham Events Listings
Transatlantic Operation
Cheese Lovers in Bohemia... Beware!
Nottsword/Quiz
Rocky Horrorscopes/Notts Trumps
First off, a welcome to all the students
arriving into Nottingham. This city is
geared towards going out and when the
universities close over summer everything
goes quiet. Club nights shut, pubs are
empty, shops close early and all the eye
candy goes south. So we’re glad you’re
back and hope you enjoy the place like we
do! We’ve even put together a Nottingham
Zoo centrespread, to guide you around
some of the species you may find in town.
Preparing this issue has been full of
ups and downs. Ghostface Killah of the
Wu Tang was going to be in here, but
unfortunately we found out too late that
his watch operates on ‘hiphop time’.
Instead you’ll probably see that interview
on LeftLion.co.uk soon (he plays Rock City
on 3 October). Jonas Armstrong (the new
BBC Robin Hood) was also going to chat
to us, but then someone nicked the master
tapes of the new series and he had to go
and refilm. Grrr!
But this is still our biggest issue ever!
Inside these 48 pages you’ll find
interviews with Badly Drawn Boy, The
Divine Comedy, Mr Lif, Sparklehorse and
Orson, as well as some proper skill acts
from the neighbourhood. It was nice to
get Rapunzel Map in here. She’s one
of the most underrated artists in Notts
and a good friend of the LeftLion crew.
Likewise with the bands on the October
Extravaganza line-up, we’ve chosen them
all because we really liked them when they
last played in front of our sticky banner.
So, come along and catch five of the best
bands in Notts for a fiver at the Rescue
Rooms!
Jon McGregor also features in here. He’s
one of the most respected young authors
in the country at the moment and has been
seen repping a Three LeftLion’s World Cup
T-shirt at some of our events. Big up!
We relaunched LeftLion.co.uk in
September and we’ll be adding more new
features over the coming months. Whether
you want to find out what’s going on
in town, natter with the forum crew or
listen to Nish and the K play some sweet
local vocals via mp3, there’s something
‘onlion’ for everyone. We’re always looking
for fresh talent too, so if you want to
contribute get in touch.
[email protected]
LeftLion magazine has an estimated readership of 40,000
in the city of Nottingham. In September 2006 LeftLion.co.uk
received over 450,000 page views.
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue13
3
nOTTs THE NINE
O’CLOCK NEWS
with Nottingham’s ‘Mr. Sex’ Al Needham
BBC Radio Nottingham
I listen to Karl Cooper’s show sometimes
when I’m getting ready for work. It’s fairly
inoffensive stuff. Occasionally amusing,
but in the sort of way that your nana would
laugh at it too.
Jared
If you were driving past Nottingham and
your radio locked on to any of the local
stations, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d
leaped back twenty years. Nottingham is
changing beyond all recognition but local
radio hasn’t kept up at all.
Lord of the Nish
The Beat is a good show during the last
hour and a half, they play a lot of local
bands. They also have a live session and
they’ve had some crackers on there as well.
Not just your usual NME shite.
richardsnow
Since the Sunday show with Dennis
McCarthy I ain’t tuned in....Code 5 Dennis!
Barnze
I like the afternoon phone-in show:
“Afternoon Doris from Bulwell. How can we
help?” “Alright duck, I’ve been looking for
a bowl to keep my fruit in, it’s got to be big
enough for my apples and preferably made
of glass…” Excellent stuff.
MegamanX
Didn’t Radio Nottingham do a big special
before Drop In The Ocean? Gotta give them
repect for that, I guess. Also, their folk
music programme makes me think of my
dad’s cooking.
The NJM 3000
What Have You
Learned Today?
If you drop a penny off the empire state
building it will not take a chunk out the
concrete at the bottom or slice anyone’s
head off who has the misfortune of standing
underneath.
jackcurtis
I learned how to properly use ‘affect’
and ‘effect’. Also the warning signs of
Alzheimer’s.
LadyBee
I do like Indian food, after all. I also learnt
what the best and worst things ever to
happen to my best friends are.
Family 1st
I learned that if it takes you two hours to
put your driving playlist together, you won’t
even be past the A’s before you arrive in
Manchester.
Nuclear Sis
I learned you can leave the coffee machine
on all night and it won’t necessarily burn
down the whole office, which was a bit of a
relief to be honest.
Pan Troglodytes
Today and last night I’ve learned that the
future looks bright. And that my Dad is the
bargain hunter king of second-hand shop
heaven!
Sara
1 August
The Post throws up its hand in horror at the news that an Arnold
bloke with an ASBO for kerb-crawling is still nobbing prostitutes.
Note to police; think about putting the tag somewhere else next
time…
2 August
Hero of the bi-month: Arnold shopkeeper Kuldeep Lalli responded to
a chav twat robbing his store by tracking him down to his flat and
pinning him down until the police arrived. Hopefully getting a few
knees to the head in while he waited.
3 August
Another crushing blow for the Off-Your-Face Market, as cocaine
(which as we all know is God’s way of letting men know how it
feels to queue up for a nightclub toilet) worth a hundred grand is
recovered by police on a train to Nottingham.
5 August
A Skysurfer (whatever the fuck that is) is removed from a park in
Bridgford because adults are coming out the pub and quite rightly
fancying a go on it. As someone who believes that the Council
should pull down the current Castle and replace it with a bouncy
one, I weep at the backwardness of this move.
8 August
Rock City dishes out their most expensive ticket ever, a whopping
£33, for the arrival of eighties hair-and-bulge act Whitesnake. Those
armadillos down the trousers don’t come cheap, y’know.
10 August
Nottingham East Midlands Airport reacts to recently-uncovered
terrorist plot by going on severe lockdown, banning hand luggage,
liquids and…oh, sorry about that. I stopped writing this half an
hour ago to see if there were any crumbs of weed on the carpet
somewhere and now I’ve lost me thread.
12 August
Notts get skanked by Leicestershire in the final of the Twenty20
Cup at Trent Bridge when the umpires fail to call an obvious no-ball
in the final over. Grr!
13 August
A 66 year-old former rowing club president from Chilwell gets four
months in the Naughty Room for lumping a woman on the head
with a wine bottle on a flight, after his defence that he knows
a former Tory MP falls flat. “If it happened on a bus or train an
apology would have sufficed. But it happened on a plane and in
these days of zero tolerance, situations escalate out of proportion”
says his missus. Political Correctness, eh?
16 August
An epochal day in Nottingham history, as Primark opens. Offices
all over the city centre are full of women gassing on about how
they bought an entire outfit for 75p and pulling out bits of cloth and
clucking at each other.
18 August
At long last. Broadway gets its drinks license back and the
city breathes a sigh of relief. All summer, film buffs have been
rampaging through the city, getting into fights over whether Ingmar
Bergman was a better auteur than Yukio Mishima and ramming
copies of Halliwell’s into each other’s faces.
Hardy and Hanson, the last Notts-owned brewery in the county,
is sold off to some yokels in Suffolk, ending hundreds of years of
tradition. Bah.
7 September
‘Lifestyle club brand’ (retch) Gatecrasher buys Media, with… and
please excuse me while I vomit on my keyboard… ‘an accent on
elegant clubbing’. On the upside, they intend to restore the Grade II
listed building to its former glory. On the downside, they’ve not said
owt about changing the crap name.
8 September
The Post go right into one at the news that Notts County Council
are ‘cancelling Christmas’ by imposing new Health and Safety
laws on outside decorations. About time…I’m sick of my estate
looking like a North Korean shopping centre for three months.
9 September
The Bar Humbug lapdancing saga drags on like a wounded
hedgehog, as the Council slap down a bid to keep it open until
4am. The owners’ plans to ensure an upmarket audience include
charging six quid a pint, proving that they’re the biggest tits
anyone has ever seen in that dump.
13 September
The Great Nottingham weed famine is in full effect.
17 September
Bouncers from Templars come to the aid of another stabbing victim
in town, administering first aid and alerting the authorities. Then
they told the poor sod he couldn’t come in because there was all
blood on his trainers. Alright, I made that last bit up.
18 September
The police announce that an officer has lost fifteen rounds of
ammunition somewhere in town, so do ‘em a favour and have a
look down the back of your sofa. Oh, and if there’s any spare buds
down there…
19 September
Notts County beat Middlesbrough in the second round of the
League Cup. Crikey!
20 September
Lower division footballers are seen weeping openly over the
selling-off of Geisha, one of those places where bell-ends go when
they get promoted up to Cheese Manager at Asda. The downside
is when they have to shoulder-barge the front door of their ponceboxes down in order to get past the mound of final demand notices
from Capital One... and then have a good roar about their utterly
vacuous life.
21 September
The Broad Marsh Centre, the red-headed stepchild of Nottingham
retail, reports a flasher on the premises. People are warned not to
approach him, mainly because you’d have to go in the Broado to do
that and its rubbish, isn’t it?
22 August
22 September
23 August
23 September
Accrington Stanley knock Forest out of the League Cup, or
whatever it’s called this year, sparking bad Scouse accents in the
black and white half of town. Meanwhile, Notts County beat Crystal
Palace.
The Turf Tavern, home of the most wonderfully chelpy landlady
in town, shuts down. Expect another faceless ponce bar to take its
place because, as you know, we really need another one of those
kind of bars.
Official ‘If you’ve still got England flags on your house it means
you’re a racist’ Day passes without incident.
5 September
A thong-eating dog from Stapleford needs an operation to have
a pink g-string removed from his intestines, after eating ten over
the course of a year. “We have to make sure that nobody leaves any
pants on the bathroom floor,” said his owner. “We put them in the
basket straight away otherwise he will surely have a pair.” Fact: my
Mam once pulled a bra out of a dog’s arse.
21 August
27 August
4
3 September
A new community sentencing project where people in St Anns
and Aspley get to decide how criminals are to be dealt with is
announced. The council had better think about getting some
gallows fitted in the new Square, then. Personally, I’d like to see the
Burberry Ape and his minging missus who nicked my phone in the
Social the other week be made to pick up broken glass with their
arse cheeks. Live on East Midlands Today.
A bogus doctor is discovered prowling around the QMC. Here’s an
idea... why not get him to work in the A&E at weekends and deal
with pissheads who have had a fight with their own reflection in
bus shelters?
Notts CCC, who were champions last season, get relegated from
the top flight of county cricket.
26 September
The season for thick twats letting off fireworks, even in the day
when you can’t see anything and it’s nowhere near bonfire night,
officially begins. It is scheduled to end on 13 March 13 2007.
words: Billy Hatcher
Computer gaming is officially the new rock and roll! As
sales of video games now outsell music CDs, characters
like Super Mario and Lara Croft are as recognisable among
the kids as the Beatles and David Bowie were to previous
generations.
The popularity of gaming as a whole, has been increasing
steadily ever since the mid 1980s and looks set to continue.
But the average age of the video UK game player is now
thirty, belying the long held myth that gaming is largely a
diversion for teenagers.
Video games have in fact, become the major cultural
phenomenon of the last generation… so it’s only right that
they should have their own festival to rival the likes of
Woodstock and Glastonbury, right?
GameCity is a new festival of interactive entertainment
which takes place in Nottingham city centre at the end of
October. Organisers describe it as a ‘street-level cultural
celebration of videogames and interactive entertainment’
and it’s open to everyone to come along and play.
The festival will be officially unveiled by Lord David
Puttnam of Queensgate on Wednesday 25 October, in a
special event in the Council House. Puttnam produced
classic movies like Bugsy Malone (1976), Midnight Express
(1978) and Chariots of Fire (1981) and in the eighties
became the first ever European-born boss of the Hollywood
Studio in Columbia. He commented;
’I’m delighted to be able to open this first GameCity festival
in Nottingham. Videogames are at the cutting edge of the
future of the creative industries in the UK and it’s an index
of the success of their journey into mainstream culture
that something like GameCity is able to happen at all. It’s
I’m absolutely dire at games that involve driving a car,
shooting something, playing sports (except maybe pong)
so things like old Lucasarts games have always been
favourites of mine. Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and
Monkey Island(s!) are all so much fun.
Kayonbee
Jet Set Willy on the Amstrad CPC6128 (my first ever
computer, a proper icon of the 80’s!), quite possibly the
most surreal and fantastic game ever, they don’t make ‘em
like that any more! Did anyone ever actually complete it? I
never came close and not without trying either.
Evilthumbs
James Pond = Mario/Sonic for kids whose parents
wanted them to have a proper computer.
Snooo
particularly appropriate that the event should be happening
in the East Midlands, one of the regions most noted for its
extraordinary successes in game development.’
Indeed, the region is on the up in terms of video game
creation. With the likes of Rockstar (creators of the Grand
Theft Auto series), Core (creators of Tomb Raider Lara
Croft), Free Radical Design, Circle, Eurocom, Monumental
and Strawdog making a national impact, we have some of
the brightest sparks in the UK industry on our doorstep.
Alongside these the festival will bring together some of the
old guard of gaming such as Sony and Electronic Arts, who
will be unveiling their latest creations to the Nottingham
public.
Events planned at the festival include:
The Arcade Trail : Play the Past
Fifteen shops and venues around the city will form a
heritage tour of arcade game history, each hosting a
different classic arcade game. You don’t even have to
remember to bring change!
When? 25-29 October all day
Into The Pixel
An exhibition exploring and celebrating video game
artwork. Curated by industry veterans and experts from
the art world, this will be the first ever showing outside of
LA and is presented in collaboration with the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art.
When? At the Council House from 25-29 October and then
moves on to A View From The Top (the gallery above the
Waterstones) until 5 November.
BAFTA and Lorne Lanning
With a background in Hollywood visual effects and having
Oh my god, James Pond was Amaaaaziiiiiing!!! Wow,
playing that game was one of the most sublime aspects of
my childhood/teendom! I loved bouncing on the jelly in the
sweety land. I’ve gotta play that again!
Nuclear Sis
Sensible Soccer. I used to work for a MegaDrive mag
in the early 90s and had access to every game on the
Drive and the SNES months before they came out,
and we always spent the last two hours of the day
around an Amiga. Even though we had a SFII cabinet
in the office
Lord of the Nish
In modern times San Andreas is about as good as it gets.
I remember as a kid talking about what the best computer
game ever would be and that’s pretty much what we came
sold over five million games and gained worldwide
recognition for his work in the video games industry, some
could argue that what Lorne Lanning doesn’t know about
movies and interactive entertainment isn’t worth knowing.
In an exclusive keynote speech supported by BAFTA,
videogames visionary Lanning will be sharing his
unique perspective on the future of videogames. He will
discuss the inspiration for his career in the industry and
the realities that inspired him to create the stories and
characters that ultimately became the multi-platinum
selling and critically acclaimed Oddworld series of games.
When? Saturday 28 October at the Broadway Cinema, New
College Nottingham and the Djanogly City Academy.
High Score
Acclaimed director, Jeremy Mack will be screening the
European premiere of his new documentary High Score. The
film follows die-hard gamer Bill Carlton as he attempts to
break the record for playing Atari classic Missile Command
over two days without sleep.
When? 6pm on Friday 27 October at the Broadway Cinema.
Music at Kudos
Narco and Idiot Joy are two Nottingham exponents of punk
funk (the latter featured on Bilboard posters in versions
of Grand Theft Auto for those who look carefully). They
have both joined forces with Free Radical’s Gong of Terror,
to give you your chance to deliver a two minute pitch for
an exclusive two-week internship with one of Europe’s
greatest videogame developers. So, loud music and the
possibility of a job at the end of it…
When? From 8pm on Friday 27 October at Kudos.
or more details about Game City call
0871 220 0260 or visit www.gamecity.org
up with, only the graphics are way ahead of anything we
could have imagined back then.
Alan
The way the music was used in old computer games was
brilliant, I’d find myself writing lyrics for the tunes in
my head as I played, avoiding ‘dying’ as much to stop
the music changing to the customary funereal dirge as to
continue the game.
Family 1st
As far as multiplayer games go, the best shoot ‘em ups
by far are Halo 2 and Goldeneye. These two games stand
out for the sheer quality of the gameplay. No matches ever
seemed the same with all the options you could set.
Johnnybulldog
5
Totally Orson, Dude
words: Michelle Bayton
Orson have quickly become the recognised face of
Californian bubble gum pop. Alongside shining
recommendations and a glistening debut single, their
Bright Idea album has seen them described as the missing
link between The Rolling Stones and The Scissor Sisters.
Not bad for a band who have been supporting the likes of
Robbie Williams and Duran Duran on tour!
The men who paid their own way from Hollywood to
England to get a record deal are Jason Pebworth (vocals
and piano), George Astasio (rhythm guitar), Kevin
Roentgen (guitar), Johnny Lonely (bass guitar) and Chris
Cano (drums). We hooked up for a chat with bass player
Johnny, who let us into the world of rock’s new wave
soldiers.
So what’s behind the name Orson?
Most bands find it hard to find a name. Like all of them
we kicked around with a couple of possibilities until one
sprung to us in a Hollywood café when we were all having
lunch. This cafe gave great historical names to sandwiches
and dishes like the Greta Garbo or the Clark Gable. We all
picked up on the Orson Wells sandwich and as we started
to think about who he was, we realised he was someone
who always went against the grain and not always to his
own benefit. We all felt we could relate to that because
we’re not about the jangly pop or the rock’n’roll scene of
the Strokes. In fact we’re more like Hall and Oates than the
Strokes… we just play what we want to play.
Just out of interest what was in the Orson Wells
Sandwich?
It was some kind of cheese and bacon with pickles
combination. None of us really fancied the actual sandwich
though.
How did you all meet and form as a band?
Well… originally Jason and George were together as a
band and were looking for a drummer. We were in a band
called Co and both Jason and George regularly came to see
us and became big fans. When Co eventually disbanded
we got together with Jason and George and after a few
sessions and gigs Orson was born.
6
You had to reschedule your June gig at Rock city. What
happened?
Ah man… we were crushed! Jason basically broke down for
a week. We have been travelling around loads and sleeping
very little. Our days off would be spent doing promo work,
so we never really had a break from it. Our management
truly work us to the bone and none of us ever realised it
would be this hard. It’s definitely not all the glamour and
richness you expect it to be. We were all basically burnt
out in June, especially Jason. We see our live play as our
release and reward for all this work and so to cancel our
Nottingham gig was really gutting. We were all really
mortified about cancelling and it took Jason about ten days
to feel better again.
Have you been to Nottingham before?
No, never. We’re looking forward to discovering it though.
Do you know anything about the city?
Just that there was some kind of Sheriff who chased a crazy
guy in tights with bow and arrow or something like that. Is
that right…?
Well that’ll do …his name was Robin Hood
Ahh yeah I know it… a good name for a band maybe?
Maybe. So what’s the inspiration behind Orson’s tunes?
We’re inspired by life… our music is more like a political
experience. We’re inspired by each other and each others
lives. Orson is about experience and happenings. It’s all
reality.
Deep…. isn’t that what all bands say?
Only the good ones... haha. No, seriously there’s no point
writing about anything else. We want people to relate to it.
You seem to be quite a spiritual person so do you carry a
philosophy for life?
Most definitely. Keep it simple and live one day at a time.
It’s short and sweet but also very true.
Is this what motivates you?
Yeah. That and playing live with the band. Personally and
collectively we all get motivation from playing live and it’s
the only reward we get from all the hard work. We certainly
aren’t rewarded by the money… we’re not making any yet!
So everyone who thinks that your life is full of glamour
and coin is wrong?
Yep. We’re certainly not living any life of glamour yet, just a
life of sleep deprivation and exhaustion! But the feeling of
playing our stuff live makes it all worth it!
Is there anything aside from the exhaustion that really
irritates you in the music industry?
Well I’m a Californian so I’m a real easy going character
but if I had to say one thing I don’t like it’s working with
liars. I can’t stand people who are so obviously full of shit
and make promises they can’t keep. Luckily we haven’t
experienced too much of that but it’s still an irritation.
What are you listening to at the moment?
My album of the year so far is We are Scientists’ With Love
and Squalor. It’s amazing and every song is brilliant! You
know when you listen to a record and you fall in love with
every song? Well that happened with this and I really love
what they do. My favourite band though has to be the
Flaming Lips. Those guys are genius!
You’re probably best known for your chart-topping single
Bright Idea. So what is Orson’s bright idea?
Our bright idea is to get out there and play our music to as
many people as possible! That’s our mission.
Have you got anything else you’d like to say to
LeftLion readers?
To all LeftLion readers in Nottingham and beyond. Give
Orson a chance and you won’t be disappointed!
Orson play at Rock City on Monday 16 October 2006. Their
debut album Bright Idea is available in shops now.
www.orsonband.com
Divine Inspiration…
Where have The Divine Comedy been over
the last few years? Ten years ago their
Casanova album catapulted them into the
mainstream with hits like Frog Princess and
Something For The Weekend. At the time it
served as the perfect antidote to a Britpop
scene dominated by the likes of Blur and
Oasis. Their next three albums, however,
didn’t quite bring the same level of success.
Now, with an impressive nine albums under
their belt they return with brand new album
Victory for the Comic Muse. Lead man (and
sole full-time member) Neil Hannon fills us
in on what’s been keeping him ticking over.
words: Michelle Bayton
What you been up to since releasing Absent Friends in 2004?
I’ve been doing lots of stuff for other people, writing and
composing for everyone and anyone. My song Home for
Jane Birkin’s album Fiction is the only one that’s been given
the light of day as yet though.
Do you prefer writing for yourself or others?
Well… writing for yourself is more satisfying yet more
terrifying. When I’m writing for others it’s almost a
challenge, trying to impose my own style on them, but I feel
that if people ask me to write for them they must want that
anyway. I think it’s probably easier to write for others but
you don’t get the same thrill or adrenaline rush as writing
and performing something for yourself. But it’s cool to be in
the background once in a while…
How do you feel that your Songs of Love theme for the
Father Ted TV Series has helped your career?
People see or hear your work and if they like it they’ll want
to use you I suppose. Father Ted was such a great sitcom
that anyone who worked with it would have boosted their
career in the way of becoming a recognised name, so of
course it’s helped. I composed the music for The IT Crowd
too, another sitcom for Graham Linehan. It’s something I
enjoy doing. Like I said, if people like what they hear then it
works in my favour.
Do you feel that your music has improved and evolved as
a result of working for others?
Yeah. I think I’m just a lot better at it and not just from
doing it for other people. You think differently and write
differently as you get older. I wouldn’t be able to write as
I did when I was 21 and I wouldn’t want to. I never want
to stay in the same place for too long and I think I have
achieved that through the years.
Is this shown in the new album?
Well yeah. I’m still writing with the same aim, to try and
amuse, move, or do something vaguely interesting. But like
with anything, the more you do it the closer you get to your
aim. With age comes wisdom.
Your first album was called Fanfare for the Comic Muse
and your new (now ninth) album Victory For The Comic
Muse. What’s with the titles?
Well I love the names and they’re perfect to confuse
journalists as much as they confuse me. Fanfare for the
Comic Muse was about starting out with a request and
Victory for the Comic Muse is a way of saying “Hooray
I’m still here!” The title is also an original quote from EM
Forsters Room With A View.
So does this suggest you’re surprised to still be here with
a ninth album?
I’m just glad … very glad.
You’re playing in Nottingham in November.
What do you think of the city?
It’s a beautiful place. I really love Nottingham.
Any interesting stories from past gigs here?
I remember a Radio One Roadshow we did in the Market
Square where we played with the great and long-lasting
pop band Let Loose. Remember them?
Are you going to heaven, hell or purgatory?
I’d like to think I’m going to heaven.
I try not to…..
Well that was cool, but I also remember our first show at
Rock City supporting Supergrass in 1995. It was a great
show, but I’ll always remember this one very aggressive
girl sticking her finger up at us all through the gig. She
really didn’t want to see us play.
Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?
Actually yeah … I want to say ta to you for being nice and
secondly don’t read the Portsmouth news.
It didn’t put you off then?
God no, it just made us more determined. Not everyone’s
going to like what you play, but it’s not nice if they make it
so blatantly obvious.
What are you listening to at the moment?
The Arctic Monkeys album… and I’m not just saying that
to be cool, I do really like them. Also I love the Flaming Lips
and Belle and Sebastian… the list could go on.
My favourite album so far this year is probably St
Elsewhere. I do really love Gnarls Barkley. I think their stuff
is mad! I love it and I don’t care if it’s overplayed on the
radio… you’ve just got to think past that!
Is music a source of motivation for you?
That and being alive generally. I don’t know why I’m here
but whilst I am I may as well do something good with my
time. That’s my motivation!
Why?
Because I’ve just had an interview with a woman from a
Portsmouth paper who kept trying to get me to diss other
bands and the music business in general and I’m just not
into it. I asked her if she was gonna ask me about the new
record and she said “No its not really my cup of tea.” I just
put the phone down on her. It proper pissed me off! I don’t
care if people don’t like my music… just don’t tell me you
don’t!
Feel better now?
Yeah. Thanks for allowing me the rant …and by the way
this interview has been a lot better, so thankyou.
The Divine Comedy play at Nottingham Trent University
Students Union on Sunday 5 November 2006. The new
album Victory for the Comic Muse is out now.
www.thedivinecomedy.com
7
words: Jared Wilson
The Atoms are a local pop-punk band
who seriously rock! Imagine a band
that combine elements of Green Day,
The Pixies and the Beach Boys with two
guys on guitars going for it alongside the
sweetest, most serene lady drummer in
Notts. We like them so much we invited
them to open our Extravaganza…
What have you all been up to since
LeftLion last spoke to you?
Tom: Releasing an album, doing some gigs,
buying a new bass guitar, having our photo
taken in a toilet. The usual stuff famous rock
stars get up to…
Jess: It’s been a pretty busy year for
me…I’m currently finishing my degree and
working full time in between playing gigs
and general other stuff…
Joe: Getting our album out on Stressed
Records, playing shows, getting into
trouble and getting drunk... the last two are
possibly linked.
What’s the best gig you’ve played in
Nottingham in 2006?
Jess: For me it was when we played with
Dragonflies Draw Flame for LeftLion
Presents at the Orange Tree. A bunch
of middle-aged lecturers turned up and
started dancing on the tables and singing
along. That really made my night.
Joe: We played with Copter. I’d never heard
of them but they were fucking grand and
they have their own comic too! I have no
recollection of playing that night but Jess
told me we did.
Did you make it to any festivals this
summer?
Jess: I went to Ponce in The Park in Derby.
Tom: I went to Pentrich rock and blues
festival with Whitesnake, Hanoi Rocks and
The Damned. Mmmm… classic rock!
Joe: I had a ticket to see Super Charger’s
reunion show in Rotterdam but couldn’t
afford the travel expenses, so I stayed at
home kicking walls. I did make it to Ponce
in the Park but I remember nothing apart
from my ugly mug ending up in the local
Telegraph.
What’s the best album you’ve bought
this year?
Jess: I haven’t bought it yet.
Tom: Teravolts’ Endless Summer. It didn’t
come out this year though.
Joe: Lillingtons’ Death by Television. It’s
a re-mastered version recorded by Mass
Georgini. They sing about Aliens and that’s
good enough for me.
Who are your favourite Notts bands apart
from yourselves?
Jess: My favourite Notts band was Chip
Johnson and The Unforgiven, but they’re
not together anymore. I also really like
Clambake, TV-OD and The Spazmatics.
Tom: Alice Rock
Joe: Alice Rock or Clam Bake. Can I have two?
Are you Forest or County fans?
Tom: Neither. I’m from Derbyshire anyway
but football’s not my thing.
Joe: I grew up next to the Forest Ground
before Stan the man beat his missus up.
Then I got disillusioned and now I like the
Nottingham Panthers instead.
Who is your favourite superhero?
Jess: Benny Ramone.
Tom: Tim Hen Man.
Joe: George Bush cos he punishes Terror.
I’ve never been a fan of Terror.
Anything else to declare..?
Joe: We have an album out so please go buy
it and make your CD collection much better.
Also, Derby is Surf City number one and
don’t stare into the sun.
Tom: Lets all learn to surf!
www.myspace.com/theatomsuk
Lo-Ego are growing up. Two of the members will be
married by the time you read this article and straight after
they play for LeftLion at the Rescue Rooms they head off to
Europe on tour with melancholic Swedish band Paatos. We
put a few questions to them before they go…
What have you all been up to since LeftLion last spoke
to you?
Mark: Writing, rehearsing, recording, getting married,
organising a European tour, the usual.
Simon: I’ve managed to knit an entire jersey out of my
belly-button fluff.
Martin: I have been setting up as many myspace sites for
myself as I possibly can. Don’t you just hate it when people
do that?
What’s the best gig you’ve seen in Nottingham in 2006?
Mark: The Deftones were pretty good at Rock City.
Simon: Laura Viers.
Paul: Went to see a friend’s band called Hopewood from
Sheffield...they always deliver!
Ste: The open mic night at Pit and Pendulum. I never
thought acoustic versions of Cradle of Filth could be so
poignant.
Paul: The last amazing gig I can remember was Mastodon
at All Tomorrows Parties last December and then two days
later at Rock City...
What’s the best gig you’ve played in Nottingham in 2006?
Martin: We try not to play Nottingham too often nowadays.
Trying to spread our wings and fly a bit. In fact Drop In The
Ocean would have been our last gig.
Ste: I’ve played some amazing shows in my bedroom on
webcast.
8
Paul: Looking into my crystal ball I can see that the Rescue
Rooms on 22 October is going to be the best!
Who are your favourite Notts bands apart from
yourselves?
Mark: The Dead City Presidents!! Love Ends Disaster,
Hellset Orchestra and Amusement Parks.
Simon: Love Ends Disaster and Black Vinyl Heart
Paul: Amusement Parks, The Union Station Massacre and
Love Ends Disaster
Ste: Love Ends Disaster and O Lovely Lie.
Mark: Me and Simon are really the only ones who follow
football. He supports Queen of The South and I support
Newcastle United. I go to a few Forest games with mates
though.
Simon: Queen of the South, through and through. I’m not
from round these parts, sorry.
It doesn’t look like the Market Square is going to be
finished in time for New Year. Any thoughts...?
Simon: Yes. All of them rude...
Martin: I heard a rumour that they are getting rid of the
lions and replacing them with ten ants on either side of the
council house. That would then mean this mag would have
to be called left ten ants.
Ste: I heard they are going to use real lions and feed them a
chav a day.
Mark: I hate it! I have to walk about five minutes out of
my way just to get to the other side and it has couped all
the goths in my way more than usual. I come out of there
stinking of Teenage Angst!
Paul: Give things a go...you don’t know where they
might lead.
Ste: Don’t listen to Paul... you don’t know where it may lead.
www.myspace.com/loeg
Grain are Rich (guitar and banjo), Dan
(bass), James (drums), Loz (Percussion) and
Ben (vocals, harmonica and guitar). Their
self styled brand of hillbilly kung-fu funk
rock has been attracting national attention,
with plays on XFM. They stormed a LeftLion
Unplugged set earlier in the year, so we’re
bringing them back for the Extravaganza…
What have you been up to since LeftLion
last spoke to you?
Loz: Writing new material mostly. We also
got played on XFM London last month and
we’ve had lots of gig offers rolling in from
around the country.
What’s the best gig you’ve seen in
Nottingham in 2006?
Rich: I really enjoyed The Dirty Backbeats
at the Maze.
Loz: I second the DBBs and also The
Legendary Shack Shakers at Rescue Rooms
Nottingham in 2006?
Ben: Global Village Peace Gathering and Drop
in the Ocean at Dogma. Playing naked with
just an apron on is highly recommended.
summer?
Rich: Didn’t make it to any biggies. Global
Village Peace Gathering was fantastic
though. Would have loved to have seen
Beck and Radiohead at V festival. Gutted!
Ben: Again Global Village. I also went to
the Green Man festival in Wales but it was
pretty rubbish… there’s only so much folk
music you can take.
What’s the best album you’ve bought this
year?
Rich: Dan’s copied me a load of Brian
Jonestown Massacre.
Ben: I honestly haven’t bought an album
this year!
Who are your favourite Notts bands apart
from yourselves?
Loz: Wholesome Fish and Old Basford.
Rich: Trickster.
Ben: Moon Buggy, Old Basford and Trickster.
What recording studio do you use?
Loz: The Boiler Room is good, we did our
last demo there. Lovely big men, fair price...
and a nice cup of tea and scones.
Rich: Neither.
Loz: Eh?
Ben: Bollocks.
Weeble are one of Nottingham’s most popular ska-punk
bands and have been together for the best part of a
decade. The line-up and the music have changed along
the way, but now they’ve got the fine art of making
music totally sorted.
Is there a serious side to Weeble? Or are you just in this
for the fun you have on stage?
Matt: Being in Weeble is serious fun!
Benjuth: We have to be organised because we are such a
large band. We have to remember to let everyone know
what’s going on and where we need to be.
Big Dave: It’s like having a second job. That’s why I’m not
at work right now.
Jody: Though the songs might sound really happy and
bouncy, some of the lyrics aren’t. We’ve written about some
very serious stuff.
You’ve released a couple of albums together. How do they
compare?
Ribsy: The addition of the brass section has really changed
how we sound.
Stef: They resemble how we are live and our current line up.
Jody: It shows how our time and use of facilities has
changed as well.
Do you work together when writing music and lyrics or
do you sometimes feel like pulling each others’ hair out?
Ribsy: Yes to both. We write stuff in many different ways
because there are so many of us in the band.
It doesn’t look like the Market Square is
going to be finished in time for New Year.
Any thoughts…?
Rich: Bit of a waste, I reckon.
Loz: I think it was better how it was
thousands of years ago, mud huts, witches,
trees and ogres.
Dan: Yes, ogres.
Ben: I think there should put a big bronze
statue of a group of hoodies put up.
Loz: Scuzzlebutt, a monster with a hand of
celery, leg of Patrick Duffy and a penchant
for weaving wicker baskets.
Rich: Gotta be Batman for me.
Ben: I don’t do favouritism with superheros.
Their egos are big enough.
Ben: I’m hungry and I need a cuddle.
www.myspace.com/grainuk
The Hellset Orchestra are like a rare
bird, swooping around the Notts music
scene. Attempts to describe their sound
always end in arguments. There are
elements of rock, classic, prog, gothic,
pop and maybe even a little bit of ska,
but in truth they are all and none of
these things… if you’ve never seen
them then you’ve never seen anything
like it. We put some questions to lead
man Michael Wetherburn.
Nottingham in 2006?
Definitely the Dot to Dot festival
upstairs at Rock City. It was a great
day, plus it’s not often the band get a
bit of room on stage to move about in.
Introduce the band to our readers…
My lords, ladies and gentlemen. We
give you the Hellset Orchestra.
What’s the best album you’ve
bought this year?
As in an album that came out this
year? I quite like Archie Bronson Outfit
at the minute. Yes Virginia by Dresden
Dolls is also fantastic. I’ve just bought
the new Mars Volta album but am yet
to listen to it all. I went through a big
Nick Cave phase, followed by a Tom
Waits phase earlier this year.
What have you been up to since
LeftLion last spoke to you?
Playing gigs and recording new songs
mostly. Then recording some more and
playing some more gigs. Now, we’re
doing some more recording. Then we
plan to do a few more gigs.
What’s the best gig you’ve seen in
Nottingham in 2006?
Nick Cave at the Concert Hall. I think
that was this year. Eels, also at the
Concert Hall, were great.
summer?
I made it to my own festival where I
was the only act and the only one there.
Who are your favourite Notts bands
apart from yourselves?
I like the soon-to-be-no-more Legion of
Doom and Lords are always top notch.
What recording studio do you use?
There is no clear thought really as we all have input.
Jody: The basis of the music is me and Ryan, but everyone
does help. Stef has started doing more writing too. People
bring in solid ideas and I’ve never done a song that hasn’t
been changed by the band. The input is so important,
because we want the songs to sound like they’ve been
created by us all.
Stef: They’ve been Weeble-ised.
Which local bands do you recommend?
Matt: Grain, Stupid Stupid and Steve.
Stef: Breakneck, Mr. Wolf.
Ribsy: Winning By Default.
Big Dave: Metallica, Def Leppard!!
Jody: We want to mention 7 Seconds of Love, even though
they’re not local.
We tend to do most things ourselves,
out of necessity really.
I’m a Middlesbrough FC fan, but
I prefer County to Forest. There’s
something endearing about the
underdog I reckon.
It doesn’t look like the Market
Square is going to be finished in
time for New Year. Any thoughts…?
It’ll make the Evening Post happy.
Mad Max.
Yes. I meant every single word.
www.thehellsetorchestra.co.uk
Do you ever feel like you would want to cover other
genres of music? Or is that why you’re in other bands
like Fat Lady Singh and Jimmy the Squirrel?
Jody: I think Weeble has its style, it’ll change and evolve
but it will always stay Weeble. But, yeah I mean if we did
any of our solo stuff in Weeble it’d be pretty mad! There’d
be guys doing acoustic stuff, electronica stuff, political
stuff... We’d sound like a right odd bag of bits n bobs
Do Weeble wobble but don’t fall down?
Jody: We rock and we do occasionally fall over. I almost fell
over last night, I tripped over a monitor, but I didn’t fall. So I
guess the answer could be yes.
www.myspace.com/weeble
.
LeftLion Extravaganza takes place at the Rescue Rooms on Sunday 22 October 2006
ts.
Tickets are £5 and available from www.LeftLion.co.uk/tickets as well as the usual outle
9
If you like to go out for a few
shandies on the weekend in town,
you will probably have heard
Rapunzel Map busking around
the left lion in the Market Square.
Whether you’ve just staggered out of
a club or are waiting for the chatty
night bus, you can guarantee that
somewhere along the way her soulful
late-night sounds will have featured
in your Saturday soundtrack. She’s
busked at Glastonbury, turned down
DJ Sammy remixing one of her songs
and gets given blokes pants when
playing at night. You go girl…
words: Sadie Rees Hales
For those who’ve never heard you before, can you
describe your music?
I think my subject matter is very individual. In Ultraviolet
Eyes, it’s about a beautiful female alien. It also is about my
interest in science and the ultraviolet spectrum. But I find it
easier to write my songs than trying to describe them. That
is hard!
When I make music, the only thing that limits me is what
instruments are available. However, I hope that people
can hear other sounds in the music. I guess my songs are
melodic pop, but it’s not genre specific. I don’t feel I’m
a good guitarist but I’m confident in my songs, they are
different and interesting.
How long have you been creating music as
Rapunzel Map?
Rapunzel Map became my acoustic name in 1999. It
separated me from the music, a certain element of
anonymity. I didn’t want a twee name, however, it’s relative
and also it’s connected visually.
Do you come from a musical background?
My Dad is very musical. He doesn’t write songs but he
has such great taste in music and is a very charismatic
performer. People have even booked him for their birthday
parties! To call him a pub singer would be almost insulting
to him. I was always tripping over guitars at my dad’s
house when I was younger. I’m self taught but I never
played in front of anyone until after university. My dad
introduced me to some great music. My brother is also an
amazing electric guitar player and is in a band called Stuck
In The Pie. They write fun songs with great melodies, but
don’t take themselves too seriously.
Got any amusing stories from late night busking sessions
by the left lion?
Every time I busk, something funny happens. A normal gig
can be a bit boring in comparison. I wish I’d kept a diary or
filmed it to see people’s reactions. Generally drunk people
are amusing. There are so many funny stories that I can’t
think of one in particular. People have put pants in my
guitar case though! Busking is always fun and different.
10
There’ve been quite a few characters busking around
Notts over the years. Ever felt any rivalry from others,
such as the Xylophone Man (R.I.P.)?
No! Most good buskers or just generally good people
have an awareness of each other. The buskers are almost
like a little club! You can’t be territorial and have to be
considerate of others.
You set your own record label Liquid Dust Records. Was
that to put out your own stuff or do you have any interest
in representing other artists?
I set it up with the help of the Prince’s Trust. What I like
about the label is that I have total control over my music
and it’s production. If money was no option, I would sign
loads of other bands like 1st Blood and Stuck In The Pie to
allow them to make music exactly how they want to, giving
them 100% creative control. However, business always
takes you away from the creative side. I’ve never done a
proper release as I’ve not had the financial resources, but I
do sell my own CDs on my website and at the shows.
What local artists do you have most respect for?
1st Blood are phenomenal. Three years ago I was given their
first CD and every song is catchy, well produced and has
great lyrics. The fact that they want to work with me too is
a real compliment. David Gow also makes beautiful stuff.
It’s rare that I actually like acoustic music but he’s magical.
Also Ben EG from Derby and then my brother. He’s not local
but he has gone out busking with me in Nottingham!
Do you prefer playing indoors or outdoors?
It really depends as the atmosphere is made by the people
who are there. I love having a diverse crowd when I’m
busking, they’re honest and less inhibited. Some people
have stayed watching me busk till 4am!
You’d had previous interest from DJ Sammy which
you, perhaps wisely, turned down. Had any commercial
interest since?
I’ve not put myself out there as much as I could. I’ve been
offered management deals but it’s not felt right as it’s such
a big decision. I had interest from American music lawyers
but because they’re abroad it makes it very difficult… the
setbacks can be very frustrating.
Would you still be called Rapunzel if you decided to get a
skinhead?
Yes because the story of me being called that is still there.
I’ve got the name but I’ve put my own stamp on it.
Instead of selling your soul on Pop Idol, what advice
would you give to people wanting to get into music?
The internet has made this so much easier. Find out about
music conferences and get involved in the local music
scene. Don’t just stay in your bedroom making music, put
it out there or you won’t be discovered. Be organised and
ready for when opportunities arise. Don’t dwell on lost
chances and realise that you need stamina… be prepared
for that!
Other than music what are you passionate about?
There’s not a lot that I’m not passionate about. That can be
your downfall though. I love new physics and spirituality,
people, psychology. It might be easier to tell you what I don’t
like… such as football. Although I did go to the World Cup!
I’m into visual arts and want to write and direct videos for
my music as I always have a concept for the video when
I write a song. I love studying life and then expressing it.
Also I love reading books and I spend way too much time
online. I’m a proper info junkie!
While the Market Square is being redone, where can we
find you?
I’m going to be doing more gigs in venues or at my new
spot by the Yorkshire Bank, by Pelham Street and Clumber
Street. I also live in cyberspace and can always be found
online.
Rapunzel MAP is playing LeftLion Unplugged at the
Malt Cross on Tuesday 21 November 2006.
www.rapunzelmap.com
www.myspace.com/rapunzelmap
te1.co.uk
a
n
o
t
e
.d
www
®
NOW presents
J Spaceman®
Acoustic mainlines
St Mary’s Church, Lace Market, Nottingham
Performing the music of Spiritualized, Spacemen 3 and others
Accompanied by strings and gospel choir
8.00pm Thurs 26th October 2006
£14.50 / £12 concs / £7.25 disabled
To book, contact The Royal Centre on 0115 989 5555
www.royalcentre-nottingham.co.uk
For more information check www.beherenow.org.uk
Strictly ticket only
Performi
The Hooded Man
The BBC is set to launch a new series of Robin Hood onto the Saturday night schedule this Autumn.
We take a look at those who have played the hooded man on the small screen… words: Al Needham
JASON CONNERY
(ROBIN OF SHERWOOD, 1986)
MARTIN POTTER
(THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD, 1975)
IN A NOTTSHELL: The less brooding, less
spiritual, more blonde Robin.
IN A NOTTSHELL: The forgotten Robin, with a 70’s
basin-cut-and’tache look reminiscent of an English
teacher Which is a shame, as some people would tell
you this is the best version of the story ever made.
THE SHOW: Instead of a Dr Who-style
transmogrification, Robin of Loxley was killed
off and Sean was drafted in as another servant
to that horned Irish thing, Robin of Huntington.
There was a bit of a plot about being the half
brother of nemesis Guy of Gisburne, but it was
business as usual.
THE SHOW: A bit gritty and dry, but a cult classic only
recently released on DVD. Quality cast with Diane Keen
(before doing the masturbatory hand-gesture Nescafe
adverts) did the Maid Marian thing, Paul Darrow played
the Sheriff (before playing Avon in Blakes 7), but the real
shocker is an early role for Ford Prefect himself, David
Dixon, who was born in Derby but lived in Notts as a kid.
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT? If you squinted
your eyes, he looked like a younger Stuart
Pearce.
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT? Seeing as Potter was
actually born in Nottingham, very.
MICHAEL PRAED
ROCKET ROBIN HOOD
(ROBIN OF SHERWOOD, 1984-1985)
(1966-1969, CANADA)
IN A NOTTSHELL: Raaaaabin! The Hooded Man! The
brooding, spiritual, sexy Robin, the only man in the mid-80s
to be able to carry off a mullet with any dignity and panache
whatsoever and the benchmark of modern-day Hoodiness.
THE SHOW: A radical shake-up of the format saw the
introduction of paganism, sympathetic Islamic characters
and Clannad, which only served to make Robin Of Sherwood
more realistic than its predecessors. Robin was the servant
of Herne the Hunter, a Celtic horned God and it became one
of the most successful ITV programmes of the decade.
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT? Filmed in Bristol, with an
Irish theme tune, a lead actor from Gloucestershire and Ray
Winstone as Will Scarlet? What do you think?
RICHARD GREENE
(ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, 1955-1960)
IN A NOTTSHELL: The shit-thick, yuppified, cowardly Robin in
the extremely right-on and too-good-for-kids programme Maid
Marian and Her Merry Men.
THE SHOW: Created by Tony Robinson (who also played the
Sheriff), Marian was the brains behind the outfit and Robin was
a right ponce. It even featured a Rasta Merry ‘Mon’ in the form of
Danny John-Jules, who also played Cat in Red Dwarf.
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT? Not only was it set in Worksop
(even though it was filmed in Somerset), but there was a
character called Clough.
JONAS ARMSTRONG
(ROBIN HOOD, 2006 - ?)
IN A NOTTSHELL: The latest in the line.
THE SHOW: Written by Dominic Minghella, starring Keith Allen as the
Sheriff of Nottingham and Lucy Griffiths as Maid Marian. The master
tapes got stolen, so much of it was filmed again over September in
time for the October premiere.
HOW NOTTINGHAM IS IT? It was filmed in Budapest, the launch
was in Lincoln and Jonas Armstrong looks about as ‘Nottingham’ as
jellied eels.
ROBIN HOOD NO DAIBOKEN
(1990-1992, JAPAN)
PATRICK TROUGHTON
(ROBIN HOOD, 1953)
THE SHOW: The first stab at Robin from
the BBC, it went out live as filmed, meaning
that all cock-ups stayed in. Including the
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT? Well, he lived on Sherwood Asteroid in
the galaxy of N.O.T.T. (National Outer-space Terrestrial Territories)…
(1989-1994)
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT? Not very. Aimed directly at the
American market (with a scriptwriting team who worked under
pseudonyms, due to them being blacklisted by Hollywood for their leftwing sympathies). It’s your bog-standard English countryside and RP
vocalisation here.
IN A NOTTSHELL: Robin the obscure. Only
one episode of this show still exists.
THE SHOW: Moderately
successful Canadian cartoon
series, although it was never
screened in the UK (as far as
we know). Set in the year 3000,
even though he had an electroquarterstaff and zoomed about under jet propulsion, he still kept it real
and dressed in green.
WAYNE MORRIS
IN A NOTTSHELL: The classic
fatherly middle-class Robin, but
not exempt from the traditional
jumping-on-logs-and-laughing-forno-particular-reason palaver. Film
historian Jeffrey Richards called him
‘Everyone’s favourite Uncle’ and even
compared him to a WW2 officer…
THE SHOW: Probably the most
popular TV Robin ever. One of the
first shows to be screened on the
brand-new ITV (and the first show
commissioned by the mighty Lew
Grade), it was a massive hit all over
the world and rammed to the gills
with future stars. Paul Eddington
(The Good Life, Yes Prime Minister)
played Will Scarlet, Donald Pleasence
was Prince John to a tee, and there
was even room for Macca’s future girlfriend Jane Asher and 70s sitcom
king Richard O’Sullivan. The theme tune (yeah, that one) was the one
Forest ran out to for decades.
IN A NOTTSHELL: The
futuristic, psychedelic one,
robbing the cyber-rich and
giving to the astro-poor.
backdrop of Sherwood Forest that was
inserted the wrong way, meaning the trees
stuck out horizontally.
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT?
Probably not at all.
IN A NOTTSHELL: The weird Anime one.
Massive eyes, badly animated mouths, that
sort of thing.
THE SHOW: Never screened in the UK (to our
knowledge), it was the usual Robin story…
just, you know, more Manga-y. The episode
titles are skill; A Great Disguise For An
Infiltration In Nottingham Castle, Sherwood
On Fire, Thunderstorm In Nottingham, An
Unexpected Arrival, Witchcraft In Sherwood
and our personal fave A Mad Run Towards
Nottingham!
HOW NOTTINGHAM WAS IT?
Come on now.
13
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
Student discount
on beer
with NUS CARD
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Bruce Myers is a familiar face on the
Nottingham live music scene. He runs
the Open Mic nights at the Golden
Fleece and also plays a bit himself.
We’ve invited him along for a set at
October’s LeftLion Unplugged at the
Malt Cross and caught up with him
for a bit of a chat...
So, tell us about Bruce Myers…
What do you want to know?
Well, where are you at musically right now?
I’m essentially a solo artist. Usually written up as a singer/
songwriter but I’m more of a song writer than a singer, in
the sense that that’s my biggest strength. My songs are the
most important thing.
Will you play the Malt Cross solo, or is anyone going to
join you?
Well depending on commitments I’m hoping to have
Paul Quadros from Fat Digester and Trickster on double
bass, Hattie on Flute and Richard from Trickster on banjo
and guitar. I should really get Nick from Trickster in to
play some fiddle as he seems to have played every other
LeftLion unplugged night in various bands!
What’s in your CD player right now?
Tom McRae. A couple of demos are lying around like The
Stoatz. I listen to a lot of stuff on myspace and the internet
generally. It’s a good way to check things out.
What age where you when you wrote a song that you
where proud of?
Twenty four. I moved from Bristol to Skegness and jammed
with a friend of mine called Andy who encouraged me to
write my own songs.
Those involved with the open mic circuit consider you
part of the furniture at The Golden Fleece. What do you
think to the place since it changed hands?
Initially everyone was thinking ‘what’s going to happen?’
particularly with the live music side to it, knowing that the
new owners came from a dance music background. They’ve
improved it vastly, kept the charm but smartened the place
up a bit, keeping the old crowd but also bringing in fresh
faces. I know it sounds biased but I think its one of the best
pubs in Nottingham.
You run what is regarded by many as the best open mic
in town. Who’s been your favourite act?
There’s so many. Before Nick Armstrong went off to support
Paul Weller he’d pop in and do a set. Beck Goldsmith, Jezz
Hall and David Blazye are all very good.
What can we expect from your appearance at the
Maltcross?
Mostly miserable songs but I’ll try and keep it upbeat, with
a hippy vibe.
Bruce Myers plays LeftLion Unplugged at
the Malt Cross on Tuesday 17 October.
www.myspace.com/brucemyers
Cool For Cats
words: Glen Parver
Clarky Cat are a relatively new
(and young) band who have earned
themselves something of a cult
following in the city. When separate
they are Mark, Jack, Arne and Gemma,
but when they come together they
form a strange musical beast that
answers only to a name inspired by a
Chris Morris sketch. Read on suckers…
Where did you all meet?
At a fancy dress party we coincidentally went as the four
different corresponding parts of an immense cat which
happened to fit together perfectly.
What inspired the name Clarky Cat?
Chris Morris and his seminal television programme
Brasseye.
What’s your favourite of your own tracks?
Clarky Cat does not have favourites. Clarky Cat argues
with itself regularly about which tracks to use.
What’s your favourite track of all time?
Anything by Prince.
16
What are your favourite venues to play in and out
of Notts?
In Nottingham Clarky Cat has liked playing Stealth and The
Rescue Rooms best so far. Outside of the city, Clarky Cat
has liked playing in gay clubs and warehouses best so far.
If you could get anyone in to play with you, who
would you choose?
Clarky Cat would choose The Kooks so that Clarky Cat
could beat them to death with cat faeces whilst they play.
They are bad men!
Who are the best upcoming bands in Notts we
should check out?
Clarky Cat thinks Late of the Pier are the best band in
Nottingham.
What can people expect from the show for LeftLion
at the Orange Tree?
A pulsating mess, resulting from Clarky Cat attempting to
make beautiful music with itself.
What was the last album that you bought?
Clarky Cat cannot remember. Probably a good electro-esque
one.
What was the last book you read?
Clarky Cat does not read. Clarky Cat listens to the audiobiography of Cilla Black over and over again.
What was the last thing that made you laugh?
The audio-biography of Cilla Black.
What was the last thing that made you cry?
Clarky Cat does not remember having ever cried. Clarky
Cat is a hard ass cat who does not succumb to primitive
emotions like you humans.
What is coming up for you over the next year?
More gigs, more songs and a music video.
Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?
No. If they have read this far they are already bored by now.
As is Clarky Cat. End of communication.
What do you listen to on the stereo at home?
Whatever is on the radio at the time. Unless Clarky Cat
does not like what is on at the time, then the stereo gets
turned off and spat at.
What are your favourite hangouts in Nottingham?
The ones that play good music and have a dancefloor large
enough to contain the cat. Clarky Cat can regularly be viewed
from afar in the Rescue Rooms, Stealth and The Social.
Clarky Cat play LeftLion Presents at the Orange Tree
with Electric Mouth on Saturday 4 November 2006.
www.myspace.com/clarkycat
Charitable
Boy
This September, Badly
Drawn Boy (aka Damon
Gough) played a gig at
the Rescue Rooms in
support of Oxjam. This is a
month-long series of gigs
and club nights that will
be rocking Nottingham
venues throughout October
(as well as the rest of
the country) all in aid
of charity. We managed
to grab a few words
with Damon, in between
soundchecks and phone
calls from the States…
words: Paul Klotschkow
At the gig you were donating a pound from every ticket
sold to Oxfam. How important do you think it is for
people to get involved in Oxjam?
I think what Oxfam has done over the years is excellent.
People have always got a bit of disposable cash and
they don’t always know where to put it, or whether it’s
trustworthy to give it to someone in the street shaking
a box. At least Oxfam historically has always been a
trustworthy charity that sets its goals and achieves them.
It’s all a very simple, basic premise, but it keeps people
alive. I think for at least that reason everyone can afford
to give a pound at a gig I put on, because they are always
going to spend twenty quid on beer. If people can be made
more aware of it being as simple and effective as that, that
is the reason why I’ve always been involved.
Your new album, Born In The UK, is out in mid-October.
Describe it to me in five words?
Hardest thing I’ve ever done!
What are your favourite songs off the new album?
The favourites keep fluctuating really, especially as you
start playing the songs live. You can never predict which
songs are going to feel good or sound good live, or what
the audience will react to, so that is when you start testing
them out. The first real single off the album, Nothing’s
Going To Change Your Mind, was always my favourite song
I wrote within this period of time. It was a pivotal song
in the making of the record, it just made me feel like we
were getting somewhere when we wrote it, it was a bit
of a breakthrough. I wrote so many songs for this album,
and the twelve that made the album I think make it a more
concise and rounded piece of work than I’ve done before.
It’s slightly more commercial in a sense that I think a
wider audience might understand it and enjoy it, without
alienating the people that already like what I do.
When you go to write a song, do you have a particular
subject in mind that you want to write about or do you
just see what comes to you?
On this album, I spent three months before Christmas in
a studio in Stockport just making up ideas. So most of the
songs were written in less than a day, apart from finishing
the lyrics, which I’m always slow at. I set myself the task
of writing a song in the morning, going into the studio
to record it and then having something to take home at
the end of the night, so they were always pretty quick to
write musically. The lyrics took months to finish but that is
always the case. I just sit playing guitar all of the time and
record stuff into my Dictaphone, but if we are in the studio
then I record decent demos. I started recording this album
properly in January with Nick Franglen from Lemon Jelly.
So we spent January to July recording and we recorded
about three times more stuff than we needed, but I always
tend to do that.
Do you have a favourite place to write songs?
It tends to be mainly my back yard or the kitchen, where
I like to watch TV at night. I sit at the kitchen table with
my guitar or have a fag in the back yard and just play my
guitar, so that tends to be my favourite spot.
How did winning The Mercury Music Prize in 2000
affect you?
I don’t know… I think it gave The Hour of Bewilderbeast
a certain kudos from people that may not have wanted to
embrace it at the time. The album was already doing quite
well because it came out in the summer, so had already
been around a few months. The Mercury just kind of
vindicated the interest that it had already created. It didn’t
feel like a massive ‘whoosh’, or that things changed over
night. I think times have changed in the last three or four
years, so that winning the Mercury Music Prize now does
potentially make a difference. Everybody has their opinion
about why give it to the Arctic Monkeys because they don’t
really need the leg up, so give it to someone else. I know
what everyone means by that but it’s not fair. I think what
the Mercury’s try to do is to genuinely try to pick out the
album that stood out that year. The Arctic Monkeys album
did because they did something different on their own
terms. I think it was a fair result.
Are you reading any good books at the moment?
I’m three quarters through about four or five books. I always
get to a certain point then get interrupted and struggle to
pick it up again, like with Bob Dylan’s, Chronicles.
I read that last year.
I got about three quarters in then I started a different book
by Bernard Shlick called The Reader, but yet again I only
got three quarters of the way through it. I like reading a lot
of factual stuff to be honest, rather then fiction. I get more
inspired reading them. I have various Springsteen books
that fans have given me, I like reading that kind of thing, as
it inspires me to believe in what I am doing.
Do you still uncover new things about The Boss?
There’s not much left for me to uncover about him. But I’m
just constantly inspired. Everyone seems so focused on
age in this industry, like you’ve got to be a young band to
get on. But all these old acts that are established have kept
their audiences interested.
When was the last time you went dancing?
I didn’t!
Oxjam festival is a series of gigs taking place across
Nottingham venues in October. See the listings section
for more details.
www.myspace.com/oxjamnottingham
www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam
17
“These things, the
way they happen.
These things, the
way they begin”
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002)
earned Jon McGregor numerous awards as
well as a Booker Prize nomination… quite
an achievement for a debut novelist based in
Nottingham! Through a poetic and absorbing
prose the novel magically transforms the
ordinary everyday lives of its characters into
something quite beautiful.
His second novel, So Many Ways To Begin,
examines what happens when our lives fail to
take the turns we expect through the eyes of
David, a museum curator, who finds out his
whole life has been constructed around a lie.
Like it’s predecessor it also made the longlist for
the Booker, putting McGregor at the forefront
of a new crop of British writers. We put some
questions to him about his new book and the
city he has adopted… words: James Walker
What brought you to Nottingham?
I first came to Nottingham because I was following a girl.
She came here to do a post-grad diploma and I just tagged
along. Obviously it was the right thing to do because we’re
married now.
How have you found living in the city?
There’s not that moany old London thing of expecting life to
be served up on a plate, which is refreshing. The pleasures
are harder to find than in some cities, but if you look closer
they’re there and I have to say LeftLion are doing a lot to
bring some of the more underground stuff to the surface.
Are you still living on a boat and what attracted you to
this particular abode? I myself once lived in a converted
garage for three years...
No, the boat thing was short-term. I was only ever planning on
passing through Nottingham but once it became clear we were
staying put it seemed daft to live in what was essentially a
very small and wobbly caravan. What was the garage like?
Like a very small but static caravan… Your first novel
was a tremendous success and certainly my book of the
year. How did you find the added attention?
The attention was fun and mercifully short-lived. You
could win the Nobel Prize for literature and still not get
recognised on the bus. Obviously it changed my life in that
I was able to quit the day-job, write full-time and develop a
massively over-inflated sense of my abilities.
I found If Nobody similar to Amélie. Both treat Princess
Diana’s death as peripheral within the narrative and
in doing so inverse societal norms by championing the
‘ordinary’ over celebrity. What are your feelings on this
comparison?
Hey that’s funny. I never really thought of that, but it’s a
neat (and flattering) comparison. I guess me and JeanPierre Jeunet had the same kind of idea; didn’t any other
sad stuff happen that day? But yes, I love that film and
anyone who accuses it of being over-sentimental has
a rusting tin can for a heart. Thinking about it actually,
I probably found that intricate attention to detail, the
following through of unforeseen consequences and
coincidences, the tiny moments which turn a life round
quite an inspiration on my own work.
What are your thoughts on celebrity culture?
There’s nothing much left to say is there? Other than that
the rotting decadence of late-stage capitalism is laid bare
every time some talentless nark steps out on a red carpet or
grimaces for the camera.
Given the themes in your books, can human beings ever
really fully connect?
Yes, but it’s hard though don’t you think? Sometimes it feels
like people aren’t trying so much to make those connections or
they can’t imagine how much sweeter life might be if they did.
Both books, despite the events that go on, seem to foster hope.
Would you describe yourself as a positive thirty-year-old?
I’ve always felt that when you’re in one of those moments
18
where life clicks into place, like sunrise, your first beer
garden pint of the year, cycling downhill or watching Peter
Crouch and his robot dance, then how can you be anything
but positive about the world? Mind you, when I’m not
being such a sunny optimist I’m usually engulfed by fury
and despair about the avoidable environmental catastrophe
which everyone seems to be doing their best not to avoid...
If Nobody… is set nowhere in particular whilst So Many…
is set across numerous cities. Was this change of setting
difficult to make?
It was difficult in that it forced me to make some fact or
fiction decisions I’d not had to make before, like just how
true to life should a fictional location be? If I’m inventing
characters who live in a real city, am I allowed to invent the
name of the street they live on? It was tricky to know when
to let the research stop and the creativity begin.
Two of the cities used in So Many… were Aberdeen
and Coventry which through their industrial and
manufacturing roots are quite similar. Does this
particular environment interest you?
I was definitely interested in their parallels (ship-building,
car-building and oil). I think a British novel set in the mid to
late twentieth century would find it hard to avoid at least
an allusion to industry and manufacturing. Britain was built
on industry and manufacturing, its urban culture developed
as a result and the painful social upheavals of the last thirty
years have been a direct consequence of the collapse of
the industrial economy. So yes, that kind of environment
interests me.
Truth is very important to David in the novel. How
important are your roots?
I left Bermuda at the heady age of five months. I did go
back there once, when I was nineteen and was surprised
by my emotional reaction. I felt it might have just been
projection though, it’s kind of cool to go and find your roots
somewhere, isn’t it?
The use of artefacts was a novel way of introducing
chapters. When did this idea come about? Very early on.
It seemed like a convenient way to structure the book and
obviously it fitted with the main character being a museum
curator; it also gave me a direction for the story, that he was
assembling this collection in order to take it to someone.
If you were to take an artefact to represent Nottingham,
what would you choose and why?
Hey, good question. Actually, I went to meet my Japanese
translator a couple of years ago, and since the Japanese
are big on gifts I thought I should take him something to
represent Nottingham. Rather pathetically the best I could
come up with was a lace placemat. Right now I think the
best thing would be a copy of LeftLion.
www.jameskwalker.co.uk
www.bloomsbury.com/jonmcgregor
How does it feel to be back in the UK?
It’s so amazing to be back here, I mentioned it a couple of
times at the show last night but I was really worried that
there weren’t going to be many people there. So I was
relieved when I got to the club and saw the energy when
Cool Calm Pete was on. I was like “wow I can’t wait to get
on stage.”
So have you been busy since you crossed the water?
Since I have been here it really has been just constant
interviews, It’s like I got here, took a nap, then went up
to XFM to meet with Dan Greenpeace and that was great.
Me and Cool Calm Pete did an interview with him and
we did a live performance up in the studio of a couple of
the exclusive tracks from the album. The next day was all
interviews until show time and today it’s more interviews
again. Tonight I’m meeting with my booking agent so that I
can tell him that I want to focus on the UK. Then after that
I’m off to record a track with Morcheeba!
So you’re over here to promote the new album. Enlighten
us a bit on the content of Mo Mega?
I really wanted to come back and go for what I know. I felt I
had done some deviations from what people expected from
me. It’s not that I want to always give people what they
expect, but I just wanted to go back to my foothold and
come with some of the rawest, hardest possible shit that I
could. I wanted to include some of the hardcore politics and
make some songs that are insightful, you know.
At the same time I put a few tracks into the mix, which
expand on what people think of me and let them know that
I can make more than just political songs. The first five
songs are real rugged. It starts off with Collapse which is a
real personal song to me. It’s about the process of making
a record and how heart wrenching that can be and also
an introspective view of how my career has gone. Then
it branches out into this political bloodbath, like dealing
with the hollowness of going to a big shopping centre and
walking out with something or nothing. I think the result is
pretty similar in both cases.
Politics plays a big part in your music…
Yes it does. The track Brothaz deals with the lower value
placed on people of colour by our governments worldwide
and how that affected the situation down in New Orleans
and Darfur (over two and a half million people driven from
their homes now face death from starvation and disease
as their Government and militias attempt to prevent
humanitarian aid from reaching them). Then it moves on to
tracks like The Fries using wild conspiracies theories about
food poisoning and McDonald’s, to the point of population
control. Then I flip the whole album on its head with Murs
Iz My Manager and changing the whole tone of the record
by having two humorous tracks together, as it’s back to
back with Washitup. I just thought that really what we’re
shooting for is to capture how the times sound and the
reality is. There are lots of people dancing and smiling if
you look at entertainment, especially in rap videos. A lot
people are saying nothing and looking shiny, but under the
surface the world is spinning out of control.
You’re not a fan of the Bush Administration…
For us in America we’ve realised we have no control over
the government. They do not work for the people in any
way. In fact the people are the last thing that they’re
thinking about, outside of getting the money that we owe
them for taxes. That’s why the record is abrasive and very
angry until the points where it gets happy.
You put a lot of time and effort into your gigs. How
important is live performance to you?
To me it’s like the bread and butter of the whole thing.
As an artist it’s your way of maintaining an existence
financially, but as an emcee you spend all this time writing
tracks, then time in the studio recording them. You get the
opportunity at a show to go out there and see how the
music affects people. For me this time round it has been
interesting because the album is not out yet, so it was
interesting to see the crowd’s reaction to songs that were
new to them. I feel that the interaction at a show should
be a celebration of music. People have got a lot of other
things that they could be doing with their money, they don’t
have to spend it on watching me hop around the stage. I
appreciate that they do and I try to give them my all…
Mr Lif plays Camouflage at the Rescue Rooms with
Sway, Braintax and more on Friday 20 October.
www.mrlif.com
19
Spaced Out
UrbanSpaceLab are a dubfunk-triphop band who have
been swinging their sounds
around Nottingham bars for
the last three years. Their
debut album Bossanova UK is
a rare treat which has led to
an appearance on a Chillout
compilation, as well as a
shortlisting for the Channel
4 Digital Music Unsigned
Award. They play LeftLion
Presents at the Orange Tree
in early October, so we caught
up with three of the four
members for a chinwag….
words: Amanda Young
photos: Dom Henry
How would you define the music you make?
Michael: Some of our stuff is drum and bass to dance to and
some of it is more sit down on a Sunday afternoon in the
sunshine and chill to. We occupy that middle ground.
Charlie: What we do is different. People say that’s a bit like
dub or reggae.
George: We’ll often write tunes through improvising.
Michael: Often a tune comes out in one hit. Some of the
most cohesive tunes are made out like that. Quite often a
tune takes five minutes to write and two years to perfect.
Who plays what in the band?
Charlie: I’m the singer, George is bassist, Michael drums
and John Paul (JP), who isn’t here, plays keys. He did the
studio mixing too.
Tell me how Urbanspacelab came together…
Charlie: I put an advert up in Screaming Carrot looking for a
bassist and drummer. Michael got in touch.
Michael: George and I also met through an advert on a wall.
I knew John Paul from a long time back.
Who is your biggest influence?
Charlie: Nina Simone, Portishead and Bjork. All powerful
women, who have been through a lot of grief and are
having a good shout about it.
George: Herbie Hancock.
Michael: Sly and Robbie are my number one. I’ve been to The
Gambia in West Africa and spent a lot of time drumming which
has shaped me. I’m just texting JP for his response to that…
JP (via text): Velvet Underground and Can.
What’s your favourite track on Bossanova UK?
Charlie: Picture Perfect, it’s got a lot of high energy and is
really cheerful.
George: I really like Bossanova.
Michael: I’m with George on that. It contains the high
energy that people get down and dance to which for me
as a drummer is what it is all about, but it also goes right
down low to jazz. It has proper highs and lows.
On your website I read that your music ‘creates its own
space and you are transported somewhere else.’ Where is
this somewhere else to you?
Michael: A reviewer wrote this. The gig he was reviewing
was in Bluu, which is sometimes quite towny. He was
suggesting that theplace was fundamentally shit, but the
music was really good. The music frees you from the chavs
around you.
20
What is your favourite venue to play in Nottingham?
Michael: Rock City, but it’s not a regular venue for us.
Nottingham struggles for venues. It is loaded with pubs
but we’re not a pub band. There are big places but were
probably not high profile enough to be playing at the
Rescue Rooms.
Charlie: We played at the Golden Fleece a couple of weeks
ago and every one seemed to love it… I had a wonderful
time!
Where else in the world would you like to play?
Charlie: Somewhere in Spain at some festival.
Michael: Yeah, outdoor stages. There is a lot of dub in our
music and you need that enormous bass sound which
is clear in an outdoor space. We are a bit trapped in
Nottingham but that is just where we are at.
George: Somewhere warmer.
Charlie: Somewhere in Japan if there is a link out there…?!
Michael: We have a link in Hawaii!
If you could get anyone to play with you, who would you
choose?
Charlie: Maybe a male rapper.
George: JS Bach.
Michael: I don’t think I have a specific artist in mind.
It is important that there is a lot of space in the music
that allows for people to go inside it. I could hear some
trumpets.
What makes you different from other bands?
George: We don’t have guitars, a stylist or choreographer.
Michael: What we make is totally live sound in a genre that
is normally computer controlled. We use drum and bass
rhythms and actually play it.
What can people expect from your live performances?
Michael: It is shaped by the energy of the audience - the
nuance is dependent upon how people take it
What has been your most memorable musical
experience?
Michael: We got to play at Glastonbury Jazz lounge in 2004.
Charlie: Being in this band. I’ve grown a huge amount.
What have you been listening to at home recently?
Charlie: Amy Winehouse’s album Frank. She is right sassy!
Michael: I’ve been listening to The Roots and Photek’s ‘98
Drum n Bass stuff.
George: The Cappo and Rukus CD.
What tea do you drink?
Charlie: Earl Grey and Chamomile.
George: I don’t like tea it tastes like leaves.
Michael: I’m not a big tea drinker I like coffee.
What is coming up for you for the rest of the year?
Charlie: We are out playing new tunes on 21 October at the
Malt Cross.
Michael: We’ve got a second album pretty much there out
next year. Hopefully we’ll be on the telly if we win the
Digital Music Award so get online and vote for us.
Vote for UrbanSpaceLab on Channel 4 Unsigned at:
www.channel4.com/music/mymusic/D/dmaunsigned.html
www.myspace.com/urbanspacelab
Buzz Lightyears
Mark Linkous is Sparklehorse,
the melancholic, thoughtprovoking and sometimes
just plain weird American
purveyor of lo-fi spookiness.
He might not be the most
recognisable name in the
music industry, but he’s
been honoured by working
with some of the best such
as Radiohead’s Thom Yorke,
PJ Harvey, The Flaming Lips,
Dangermouse and Tom Waits.
He hooked up with LeftLion
for an oddly serious
conversation about bears,
near-death experiences and
depression to promote his new
album Dreamt for Lightyears
in the Belly of a Mountain
and tour, which parks at
the Rescue Rooms in early
October. words: Dannii Levers
You’ve been quiet recently. What have you been up to?
For three years I think I just lost interest in recording. I like
singing, I like coming up with songs, playing and singing
them and having that just be the end of it. I don’t know why
but I lost interest in the actual recording of the songs.
What got you back in the swing of things?
I think not being able to pay my rent was the first thing.
I had to get a record out. But really I think people around
me were trying to help me by sending me music that they
thought I might find inspirational or from people I might
want to collaborate with. Someone sent me the Grey Album
from Dangermouse. I really liked that I’d been listening to
some later period Beatles stuff anyway and I liked some
of the slower sparser hip hop stuff so I got in touch and he
ended up being a Sparklehorse fan. He came to my studio
and we worked for a couple of weeks and I really liked
what came from that. I think when you dig yourself in a hole
mentally a little confidence can really go a long way. The
music that came out of the sessions is what brought me
back. Just believing that I could make what I considered
interesting music again.
Will you be guesting with Gnarls Barkley, then?
Maybe if I’m asked. I’m definitely going to work more
with Dangermouse. We’re going to start in a few months.
More of a collaboration, probably called DangerHorse or
something.
Some of your lyrics are strange. Where do you get these
ideas from? Are you a mentalist?
It’s easier for me to communicate metaphorically than to
have a dialogue. It also leaves it open for people to interpret
the lyrics themselves and apply them to themselves.
Through the years, people tell me that my records have
helped them through some bad times.
Some of them are influenced by dreams, some by facts that
I’ve read. For instance there’s a line in Babies on the Sun
which says ‘a ship full of horses was going down at sea.’
That line relates to a part of the ocean where captains of
ships had to throw horses overboard to lighten their load.
That’s a true fact. That part of the ocean is called Horse
Latitude because of that.
Some ideas come from nature and where I lived. I walked
out my front door one day and was trapped because there
was a bear in my truck going through the trash. Knowing
there’s a seven foot creature outside that could rip my head
off is exciting. I killed a rattlesnake the other day. I don’t
like rattlesnakes. I was going to get revenge and make a
belt out of it….
So what actually happened on the Radiohead tour
(reports are that he passed out in a London hotel room
for fourteen hours with his legs pinned under his body,
nearly crippling himself)?
I don’t remember it. It just ended up being a three-month
stay in a London hospital. I was in a wheelchair for about
six months after that and I had to wear braces on my legs
because they had to operate on them so many times. I’ll
always have to wear the braces now because the muscles
in my legs have gone… they had to take them out.
You worked with the Flaming Lips on a track called Go.
What was that like?
I had toured with them as a duo, with the drummer I used
to play with. We shared the same bus and played a little
mini set. They came up to where I was putting a record
together of Daniel Johnston songs. I was trying to get
bands to cover his songs for this album. Go has always
been one of my favourite Daniel Johnston songs and that
second verse I just imagined Wayne singing, because the
lyrics seemed like something he might like.
Kurt Cobain used to wear a T-shirt designed by you…
Yeah. I think it was the cover of Hi How Are You.
So what is a Sparklehorse then?
It came from not being able to think of a band name and
writing names on scraps of paper, putting them together
and trying to find something that you don’t hate.
What was it like working with Thom Yorke to cover Pink
Floyd’s Wish You Were Here?
I thought Thom would just know that song, by heart. I
always loved it, it’s my favourite Pink Floyd song. It was a
rock-radio staple here in the United States for a while. He’d
heard of it but he didn’t know it, or the lyrics. That was
kinda strange. I was honoured to have Thom appear on
anything that I did.
What about PJ Harvey?
I opened up for her and we became friends. I asked her if she’d
appear on my next album and she said yeah. I booked some
time in Spain, in Barcelona and we did a recording session there
with Polly (PJ) and Adrian from Portishead. I had this fantastic
band, me, my drummer, Polly, Adrian and John Parish,
…and Tom Waits. He doesn’t usually work with anyone.
How did you manage that?
I have no idea! Apparently he had my first album at his
house and his kids stole it. I never knew whether they
liked it or hated it but I sent him another copy and wrote
him a little note. Then the time came for me to call him on
the telephone and I was so nervous…. But thankfully he
wanted to do it.
Have you ever been to Nottingham before?
Yeah, I can’t remember a lot about it, but I’ll probably
recognise the venue.
Did you get on the drink while you were here?
Erm… no. I’ll make sure I do this time though.
You’d better. Have you heard of Robin Hood?
Sure have. Is Sherwood Forest a real place? Kevin Costner?
I haven’t seen his version but I love Errol Flynn.
Sparklehorse play The Rescue Rooms on Tuesday 3 October.
Dreamt for Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain is out now.
www.sparklehorse.com
21
Welcome to Nottingham. Or, as we say round here,
“What the fuck you looking at? Poncing around
as if you think you’re summat!”
words: Al Needham
illustrations: Rikki Marr
Whatever the reason for choosing to come here: grades not good enough for Oxbridge,
your crappy office job relocating, it’s not safe for you to be seen in Mansfield anymore, etc
- you’ll find very quickly that Nottingham is just like everywhere else in the country. Some
parts are dead nice, while others are rougher than East German toilet paper. Some of our
bars will make your wallet feel that you’re in the most exclusive parts of London, while
others may lack ambience, but more than make up for it in ambulance...
NOTTINGHAM A BRIEF HISTORY
Anglo-Saxon invaders move into caves and then some shops and pubs
got built.
NOTTINGHAM A LESS BRIEF HISTORY
Anglo-Saxon invaders move into caves. Robin Hood pisses about in
Sherwood. Forest win the European Cup. Then some shops and pubs got
built.
THE SHOPS
Oh, how we love our shops in Nottingham, so much so that our children
are only educated to the point where they can operate a till. Shops in
Nottingham include; all the chains you get everywhere else, with a
handful of interesting independents here and there. Obligatory ‘Paul
Smith’ mention here.
THE BARS
Whether you like chopping a line on a black marble toilet or having a
fight with broken glass over who played Benny in Crossroads, there’s a
bar to suit you. From the violence-holes of Upper Parliament Street to the
wanker-boxes of the Lace Market, Nottingham is encrusted with pubs. To
check which ones are right for you, have a flick through this mag and see
who’s advertised with us this month.
THE PEOPLE
Don’t panic; we’re all very friendly here, with our cheeky, salt-of-theearth provincial ways and incomprehensible accent. Just remembarr that
evreh wod endin’ in ‘y’ is pranaanced ‘eh’, consnunts that end a wod are
dragged aht, (az arr vaaals in the middle), while consnunts in middle of a
wod are took owt.
22
OUT&ABOUT
BARS/GYMS/RESTAURANTS/SHOPS
Muse
Of all the side streets in
Hockley, Broad Street has
over time taken on a life of its
own and become one of the
nicest places to drink in the
city centre. The new kid on
the strip is Muse, a welcome
addition to the proceedings
and a massive improvement
on its rather lacklustre
predecessor Synergy.
The vibe is cool and cosy, with
low leather sofas and sharp
design adorning the walls
(we like the man with speaker
head throughout). Muse is the kind of place that puts you at ease when you walk through
the door without feeling pretentious, like some of the bars just around the corner may do.
There are always quality sounds drifting through the speakers which suit the space well
and if you don’t like the music you can change it yourself during the daytime. By night the
venue opens up its funky upstairs space to feature a host of audio delights.
We particularly likes the sound of their free Thursday night hiphop sessions Word of Mouth
featuring a selection of local crews such as Dealmaker records, Son records and Cappo.
Friday night opens up the genres with a selection of live acts spanning funk/electro/
rock, whilst Saturday sees DJ Priceless working the decks. The Opus night on the third
Wednesday of each month is also a rare treat and a great chance for artists and musicians
to combine work.
Throw in a new range of over fifty cocktails (get ‘em cheap with the after work social deal
from 5-8pm daily), friendly table service and free internet/ wi-fi and you can definitely see
why Muse is becoming a firm favourite on the Notts drinking scene.
Open 3pm-late (closed Sundays)
9 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham,NG1.
0115 9241555
www.myspace.com/musenottingham
LeftLion whips out the credit card and wallows
in the retail wonderland that is Nottingham.
Our correspondents this time around were
Jenny Hill, Davina Daniels and Malcolm Mclaren
Nottingham Trent Students Union
Back in the day the Nottingham
Trent Student Union was a hive
of activity for music. In the late
eighties and early nineties the place
rocked to bands like Radiohead,
The Verve, Suede, PJ Harvey, The
Fall, Manic Street Preachers, The
Pretenders, The Smiths, Spaceman
3 and many more.
Then it all went quiet for way too
long. Over the past year, however,
the SU has been putting on gigs
at it’s popular night The Tone
Club (first and third Friday of each
month) featuring The Editors,
iForward Russia!, Dogs, Howling
Bells, Ladyfuzz and The Research
as well as the cream of Nottingham’s local talent.
Building on the success of this and with a new public license under its belt, NTSU are
embarking on a series of big gigs over the coming months at it’s venue on Shakespeare Street.
These include Detonate (featuring Pendulum), The Jim Beam Music Tour (with Little Man
Tate and The Battle), The NME Rock ‘n’ Roll Riot Tour (with The Fratellis, The Maccabees, The
Horrors and The Dykeenies), The Automatic, Seth Lakeman, The Brian Jonestown Massacre,
The Divine Comedy (interviewed on page 7) and singer songwriter Ben Kweller.
The collective capacity is 2000 over three rooms, with the main arena open to 1000. All the live
gigs are open to the public as are the Tone Club nights and the fortnightly rock night Assault.
Also look out for the monthly hiphop night Heavyweight, brought to you by 1Xtra DJ MistaJam,
which launches in November. If you’re a NUS card holder there’s also a range of events that are
only open to students.
So if you fancy supping bargain booze and watching a decent band at a venue that isn’t one of
your usual haunts then check it out and see what you’ve been missing.
Nottingham Trent Student Union, Byron House, Shakespeare Street, NG1
www.myspace.com/thetoneclub
www.trentstudents.org
The Golden Fleece
What do you get
when you cross
a traditional
watering hole
with a drum
and bass crew?
The answer
is the Golden
Fleece, a pub
taken over by
the people that
run Detonate
and given a
tasty makeover
in 2005. The
result is a place
that stands out
from the crowd
for these exact
reasons, as the venue strikes a discreet contrast between the old and new school and
gets it absolutely spot on!
The place has earned a good reputation since its reopening, due to its friendly
service and laid back clientele. It’s usually busy on the weekends and well worth a
visit midweek. Not just because of the LeftLion pub quiz (Wednesdays), but also for
their live bands (Thursdays) and open mic nights (Mondays) which are run by local
musician Bruce Myers, interviewed on page 16 of this issue.
Detonate are one of the most established club nights on the Notts scene and their
experience of booking the cream of hiphop of drum and bass is evident in their ability
to secure some top names behind the decks at their pub. Friday is a warm up night for
both Detonate and Spectrum whilst Saturday sees the likes of Highness Sounds (roots
reggae) and Basement Boogaloo (soul, funk and disco) take over.
If you fancy a bite to eat, the food is excellent, with everything from Thai red curries to
a hearty Sunday lunch. The new head chef trained at World Service, which is evident
in the traditional, yet experimental menu. The drink selection is also top notch with
some great beers on tap and a wide selection of spirits and occasional offers. All in all,
the Fleece is a well loved member of the Mansfield road drinking renaissance.
The Golden Fleece, 105 Mansfield Road, NG1 0115 9472843.
28
The Corner House
The magnificent glass building that is The Corner House has some excellent bars and
restaurants, not forgetting the cinema of course. Most of these are chains you see in every
city but there are a few distinctive venues amongst the norm too. Saltwater for example
is truly luxurious and, as well as having a fine range of food and drinks, houses probably
the best roof garden view in the city centre. Sausage is less swish and trendier, providing
comfortable hot dog shaped seating booths and a wide range of beverages. It looks like a
chain, but it’s actually independent.
On the right hand side of the main entrance to The Corner House is Forman Street, which
heaves with temptations for your taste buds. You know what you are getting with Slug and
Lettuce and their tasty sandwiches. The décor is elegant but hardly original. Lazy punters
should be aware that the toilets are a bit of a trek. The building next-door to Slug and Lettuce
now houses Nottingham’s newest Revolution vodka bar, so fruit flavoured spirits are ahoy!
Ride bar, which is not really in the Corner House complex, but is near enough, is a bit more
hip with a dress code that discriminates against certain types of Nike Air.
Look out for the Corner House card, which offers bargain deals on food and drink for those
who hold it. More details can be found inside.
Saltwater, The Corner House, NG1, 0115 9242664 www.saltwater-restaurant.com
Sausage, The Corner House, NG1, 0115 9476200 www.sausagebar.com
Slug and Lettuce, The Corner House, NG1, 0115 9474260 www.slugandlettuce.co.uk
Revolution, The Corner House, NG1, 0115 9598072 www.revolution-bar.co.uk
Ride bar, 11 Forman Street, NG1 0115 9504789
illustrations: Rikki Marr
Victoria Centre
Broadmarsh Centre
Victoria Centre is Broadmarsh’s slightly more upmarket
counterpart. It offers the usual high street chain stores. The
fountain as you enter the Centre is a valuable rendezvous spot
while the Market Square is being redeveloped. Unfortunately the
in-centre pub that adorned the place over a decade ago (and was
a favourite among weary husbands) has gone!
The recently renovated Topshop and Topman still lead the way
for both trendy and staple items. The only problem is someone you
know will always be sporting the same top as you. Viccy centre
also contains the biggest Boots in Nottingham, combining your
cosmetic needs with the pharmacy and good old meal deal. For
something a bit different try The Natural World. It has unusual
gifts for all price ranges.
Topshop, Victoria Centre, NG1, 0115 9483026 www.topshop.co.uk
Boots, Victoria Centre, NG1, 0845 1231000 www.boots.co.uk
The Natural World, Victoria Centre, NG1, 0115 9417569
www.thenaturalworld.com
Broadmarsh Centre may be devoid of high quality shops but it is a
great place to find a bargain. If you can cope with trawling through
piles of rubble to find your hidden gem, TK Maxx is good for fashion,
accessories, home wear and just about anything else. At the other
end of the Centre is Wilkinson, whose pick and mix of toiletries
and household stuff is legendary to anyone who grew up in Notts.
Wilkos is also useful for more grown up items and has many a cheap
deal on everyday products. To hide those legs for winter cover up
with something from the impressive selection at Silkys on the upper
mall. There are also a decent variety of cheap bookshops to keep you
entertained.
TK Maxx, Broadmarsh Centre NG1, 0115 9412317 www.tkmaxx.com
Wilkinson, Broadmarsh Centre NG1, 0115 9502288 www.wilko.co.uk
Silky, Broadmarsh Centre NG1, www.silky.co.uk
29
Mansfield Road
The experience of a drinking session on Mansfield Road can be enlightening for anyone who is usually
dubious of straying past the city centre. Most pubs offer an impressive selection of beverages and are
frequented by anyone from excitable students to ale-loving old men. The Golden Fleece gets this mix almost
perfect. Owned by the Detonate crew, it is the home of the Wednesday Leftlion pub quiz as well as a variety
of other music nights. Around the corner from Mansfield Road brings you to another of our favourite haunts.
The Orange Tree is an immensely popular pub, which offers a varied menu of food and drink to a crowd of
mainly students and young professionals. The strip is also a haven for real ale drinkers. If you want a night
of tasty bitters try The Lincolnshire Poacher which gives you several tasty pint sized options and a beer
garden for when the sun’s has got its hat on. Or if you fancy some live music and decent snap with your beer,
try The Forest Tavern and it’s sister nightclub The Maze. This recently got taken over by new management
and hasn’t looked back since.
Another great choice in this area is Fade: The Hard To Find Cafe. It serves unusual spirits as well as paint
stripper style vodka to cater your every mood. A non-smoking sofa lounge and faux jungle foliage create a
great interior. The Loft has a similar vibe but serves cocktails too, though we’re not exactly sure if and when
it will re-open.
The Golden Fleece, 105 Mansfield Road NG1, 0115 9472843
The Orange Tree, 38 Shakespeare Street NG1, 0115 9473239 www.orangetree.co.uk
The Lincolnshire Poacher, 161-163 Mansfield Road, NG1 0115 9411584
Fade, 171 Mansfield Road, NG1 0115 9104025
The Loft Bar, 217 Mansfield Road, NG1 0115 9240213
The Maze and Forest Tavern, 270 North Sherwood Street, NG1 0115 9475650
The Lace Market and Hockley
The Lace Market and Hockley are fantastic areas to spend an evening drinking. The labyrinth
of roads can make it difficult for sloshed newcomers to find their way but walking in circles
a few times is worth it to get to the right bar. Bluu is a valid hunt. Choose from an array of
gorgeous cocktails then sip and relax upstairs or groove in the basement. The nearby Pitcher
and Piano may seem blasphemous but this heavenly bar’s church setting has class and
ambiance. There is plenty of room in there for large groups too.
What Bar de Nada lacks in size it makes up in style. Tapas, around the world beers and
modern art all ensure you get some free culture with your tipple. On a parallel street lies the
Coco Lounge. The roaring fire makes this the cosiest place to be as the nights get colder. The
coolest new bar on the block is Muse. Situated exactly opposite the Broadway cinema, this
place is a haven for the late night drinker. Regular events there include Opus, an art-music
crossover event that takes place every third Wednesday of the month. Their selection of beers
and spirits is more than adequate for most tastes.
On the main road through Hockley are drinking havens
for those who refuse to stray from the beaten track.
Listen to rock and indie or succumb to cheesy
Guilty Pleasures at The Social. Look out for up
and coming bands making an appearance.
Also, love it or hate it, Lloyds is cheap as
chips and useful for when the overdraft is
straining but your thirst is quenching.
Bluu, 5 Broadway, Lace Market NG1, 0115
9505359 www.bluu.co.uk
The Unitarian Church, High Pavement NG1,
0115 9598046 www.pitcherandpiano.com
Bar de Nada, 43 Broad Street NG1, 0115
9881199 www.bardenada.co.uk
The Coco Lounge, 3 George Street,
Hockley NG1, 0115 9418555 www.
cocolongue.co.uk
The Social, 23 Pelham Street NG1,
0115 9505078, www.thesocial.com
Lloyds, 1 Carlton Street, Hockley NG1,
0115 9881660 www.lloydsno1.co.uk
30
Off the beaten track
The Alley Café is based in the city centre, but is not that easy to find for people
who haven’t visited regularly. It’s tucked away up Cannon Court, just off the
Market Square and serves a great range of vegetarian food as well as some nice
foreign beers. Moog is a funky little bar based near Canning Circus in Radford.
Recently taken over by new management, the music quality has increased, but
the range of food and beer on offer is as good as ever. The Loggerheads is a nice
little pub and live music venue, which also has a cave attached to it so you can
proper medieval with your raving. The atmosphere is good and the service is
always friendly.
The Alley Café, 1a Cannon Court, Long Row, NG1 www.alleycafe.co.uk
Moog, Newdigate Street, NG7 0115 9784500
Loggerheads, 59 Cliff Road, NG1 www.theloggerheads.co.uk 0115 9500086
Nottingham Gay Scene
According to a survey done by the University of Sussex,
Nottingham has the seventh highest gay population for
cities in England and Wales. So what is there for LGBT
people in Nottingham? It’s not all about pubs and clubs,
but here are some good ones:
@D2 is a mostly male, mostly young bar, with stylish
interior and shared loos. It can get loud, hot and sassy,
if that’s your thing. Late night DJs and drag nights form
part of the entertainment. Round the corner The Central
may have signage that looks like its come straight from
the London Underground, but the bar has lovely new shiny
deco and three rooms with a pool table and music. The
Lord Roberts on Broad Street, has a more traditional look
to it. It’s gay friendly and you won’t get deafened by the
music. The Newmarket Inn on the corner of Broad Street
and Lower Parliament Street, is not necessarily a ‘gay
pub’, but it is definitely friendly. It has a time-honoured
interior and a lovely little beer garden to hide in. The New
Foresters is very friendly and very comfy. It used to be
mainly ladies, but it now gets the boys in too. With a nice
beer garden, regular barbecues and drag entertainment.
The men-only night includes a stripper!
As for clubs, there’s no shortage here and hopefully a little
something for everyone. NG1 on Lower Parliament Street
is the big established gay club in the city. It has two dance
floors of cheesy pop and dancy trance and the tranquil Soba
bar attached. It’s open until 5am, with still a mainly boys
crowd. Oceana is a massive cheesy club in the city centre
that has a regular gay night called Location on the first
Thursday of each month. The Maze is a funky live music
club, which was known in the scene for the girls, but is
now a bit of everyone. Live music, safe venue and good
beer… what more could you ask? Pelhams on Pelham Road,
has a girls-only night every other Sunday. Boys are only
allowed in as guests! The café in the the Broadway Cinema
is not strictly speaking a gay location, but you will find an
a lot of gay and friendly people taking advantage of their
very wide selection of great food, excellent beers and cute
bar staff. Nottingham now also has Reflections, a gay-only
health spa and sauna on Crocus Street. The Rocky Horror
Show is on at the Theatre Royal in January, so don’t forget
your feather boa!
If you want extra support, the Lesbian and Gay Helpline
has a wealth of info (evenings 0115 9348484) and produces
the free Queer Bulletin newsletter. The Gai Project (Broad
Street 0115 9476868) provides condoms, lube, sexual
health advice, counselling and the all important Gai Guide.
Outburst (07940 761160) is a youth service offering LGBT
provision for up to 25year olds, with weekly meetings and
one-to-one support.
Students
NTU - www.ntupride.org.uk and 0115 8226164.
Nottingham University - www.uonlgbt.org and 0115
8468800.
Bars
@D2, 72 Lower Parliament Street, NG1 01159502727
The Central, Huntingdon Street, NG1 0115 9585883 www.
central-online.co.uk
The Lord Roberts, Broad Street, NG1 0115 9414886
The Newmarket Inn,
The New Foresters St Anns Street, NG1 0115 9580432
Broadway cinema, Broad Street, NG1
Clubs
NG1 76-80 Lower Parliament Street, NG1 0115 958 8440
The Maze, 270 North Sherwood Street, NG1,
Pelhams, 9 Pelham Street, NG1
Oceana, Lower Parliament Street, NG1 07956 357644
www.gaynottingham.com
31
Disco: Love It or Hate It?
For me it’s the soundtrack to a hedonistic
cultural revolution that defined the way we
party today. The disco challenge is on. Cast
your votes!
FaceTheMusic
Disco sucks. It was just house music waiting
for the drum machine to be invented.
Supine
Disco’s all good for me, baby. It’s probably one
form of music in today’s colourful spectrum of
genres that I think gets a bad press, mainly
due to cheese that got commercial success
years ago. Scratch beneath the surface and
there’s exciting music out there: I’m still
finding stuff in dusty second-hand record
shops that blows me away.
Beane
I think a lot of people across the UK play a
tame, safe retrospective of the tame, safe stuff
from yesteryear. Where’s the electro stuff, the
sleaze? It’s boring. Leave the smooth shit at
home please - get some crunchy stuff coming
out the speakers.
Red Rackem
NOW
that’s
what
I call art!
I love disco but for me it isn’t about Studio 54
and the Bee Gees, Its roots were from Motown
and funk but house in its outlook and feel,
with a mainly gay, black, Hispanic crowd,
untouched by the mainstream. The music and
parties like the Paradise Garage and the Loft
are still inspirational.
Larry the Lamb
So what if someone plays I Want Your Love?
It’s a great tune. DJing isn’t about playing the
most edgy, obscure records possible, it’s about
playing to and for a crowd. Just because a lot
of people like a record, it doesn’t make it bad.
peej
words: Amanda Young
Nottingham’s Shoe
Monster
It is me, or has anyone else noticed lots of
pairs of trainers dangling from overhead cables
around Nottingham? Could it be the Tripods?
Mrs Hood
I think it’s the way it’s always been, and
is definitely a fitting end for a good pair of
trainers. Before telephone wires I think they
used dinosaurs...
David
It’s what you call ‘smelly trainer syndrome’. In
some hostels for example, you often have the
aesthetic beauty of seeing trainers hanging
out of windows.
Sara
The rumour I’ve heard is that it was originally
done in the USA to mark territory/drug
availability or loss of a gang member. But on
Haydn Road Sherwood? It’s just kids pissing
about, probably because they’ve seen it in a
hip hop video.
Ash D
On Sneinton boulevard there used to be a pair but now there is a computer mouse! Maybe the
drug dealers have set up an online business.
LadyBee
32
Performance, VJing, film and music bless our souls in
an array of kooky venues as Nottingham’s celebration
of cutting-edge art presents its fine exponents of
creativity this autumn. Now and then a little pursuit
of hedonism should be indulged and so a mash-up of
art seems fine and dandy. So, get ya socks on and hit
town for some creative spice and tripe that is NOW
festival!
Addictive TV Visual Disk Jockeys are up again this year
too. This crew have performed their audio/visual shows
internationally, criss-crossing the art and club worlds in
London, Paris and Bangkok. The eye of the pilot performance
consists of a visual archive of a 1950’s French pilot on his
travels around San Francisco, Saigon and beyond. Scratched
up with the original soundtrack and audio of a fretless guitar,
we are offered a rare glimpse where a personal camera and
international travel are constant bedfellows.
In a fast car (Subaru Impreza WRX Sti) cruising around
Broxtowe estate artist Simon Poulter shot the documentary
This is England, in the height of the World Cup fever.
Interviews range from a Local MP, the head of the Child Poverty
Action Group, to academics and residents. Apparently, “this
film shows respect, community and aspiration in a supposedly
deprived area.” No supposing about it in my humble
experience. Go see for yourself at 25b Broad Street Hockley
3pm-7.15pm (half hour slots) and make your own mind up.
Brought up above a Donor Kebab shop ran by his folks, Turkish
Cypriot artist Mem Morrison invites you to Leftovers based in
a city centre café. As the audience you can mingle with staff
and regulars and enjoy a full English breakfast before sitting
down to the performance. Drawing on his personal history
and environment he brings up the complex issues of cultural
differences and culinary mix. In a city rich in diversity this not
to be missed show is thought provoking as we naturally find
roots in borrowed culture.
On the bill also is J Spaceman performing an acoustic set with
a string quartet and gospel choir on 26 October. St Mary’s
church hosts this rare gig where the frontman of Spiritualized
will present tracks from the forthcoming album, as well as
covers and back catalogue favorites from Spaceman 3. The new
album, due for release in early 2007, is described by Spaceman
as being “the work of the devil with a little guidance from me.”
We should also mention Konk Pack who are Tim Hodgkinson
on the lap steel guitar, electronics, clarinet; Thomas Lehn on
analogue synthesizer and Roger Turner playing drum sets
and percussion. Playing on 18 October you can expect to
have a bit of awkward ear exploration of the avant-garde sort
in an amazing Improv style. Delivering three albums on the
Grob record label and a European and American tour lead on
to a live broadcast for BBC Mixing It. This English-German
trio treats us to a one-off performance of their ingenious and
startling musical inventions at the Canalhouse bar. Described
as ‘one of the most exciting Improv groups in the world’ their
combination of acoustic and electronic sounds is a must for
adventurous music fans.
From the comfort of your homely hole you can experience the
digital realm of creativity as NOW have commissioned Sims
Sweatshop created by Johnny Norridge. It’s a game built
around the ideas and issues surrounding slave labor. Fitting
really as the retail outlets lining our streets namely Topshop
and Primark have been exposed as supporting such atrocities.
Visit beherenow.org.uk to play that or follow Shop Talk an
exploration of shops and people in Nottingham’s colorful and
diverse Hyson Green.
www.beherenow.org.uk
listings...
Sunday 1/10
Angel Arts Bistro launch
Venue:
Angel Arts Bistro
Price:
Free entry
Times:
2pm - late
All day launch party. Ten plus local
artists exhibiting in six galleries.
All day bar and tapas menu
(complimentary canapes), live
music from Will Jeffery and guests.
Runs Until: 15/10
Monday 9/10
Nottingham Inspired
Venue:
Lakeside Arts Centre
Price:
Free
Times:
11am - 5pm
A number of City schools have
been involved in projects
exploring the built environment of
Nottingham. They have produced
large scale artworks representing
buildings in the city.
Runs Until: 5/11
Thursday 12/10
Addictive TV - Now Festival
Venue:
Cineworld
Price:
Free
Times:
7pm
The Eye of the Pilot.
To book phone 0115 9158626
exhibitions / theatre / comedy / weeklies / music
Theatre
Wednesday 4/10
The Dumb Waiter
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£5 / £8
Times:
7.30pm
The Dumb Waiter is classic
Pinter – sparse, claustrophobic,
simultaneously menacing and
hilarious. With echoes of current
world events, the play raises
questions about power, politics,
class, friendship and betrayal.
Runs Until: 07/10
Saturday 7/10
Virgins
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
8pm
Virgins explores the minefield of
sexuality, both for teenagers and
their co-habitees - their parents!
Dance Express 2006
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£10
Entertainment from the Tracy
Quaife Theatre School.
Wednesday 18/10
Konk Pack - Now Festival
Venue:
Canalhouse bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm
Friday 20/10
This is England - Now Festival
Venue:
Screen Room
Price:
Free
Times:
3pm - 7.15pm
Ten people, one very fast car and
the Broxtowe estate. A film by
Simon Poulter.
Runs Until: 22/10
Monday 9/10
A Murder Is Announced
Venue:
Notts Arts Theatre
Price:
£7.50
Times:
7.30pm - 2.30pm
Runs Until: 14/10
Tuesday 10/10
Friday 27/10
Seeking Tacit Utopias
Venue:
Surface Gallery
Price:
free
Times:
11am - 5pm
A survey of contemporary painting
curated by Thomas M Wright.
Artists exhibiting are Andrew
Bracey, Matthew Brown, Ross
Chisholm, Katarina Forss, Andy
Jackson, Elena Kopenkova, Ryan
Mosley, Benet Spencer, Julian
Hughes Watts, Ian Whitfield and
James Wright.
Runs Until: 24/10
Saturday 28/10
From Victorian To Modern
Venue:
Times:
Various
The last generation of Victorians
had to face the emergence of
the modern when they were just
getting into their stride. The
question of modernity is seen as
‘men’s business’, even though
some of the women who belonged
to that generation are now
amongst the best-known female
artists.
Lectures: Admission £6 / £4.
Friday 27 October 6.30pm with
Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Tuesday 5
December 6.30pm with Neil Walker
giving a talk on the work of Laura
Knight.
Runs Until: 19/12
Nine Years - Now Festival
Venue:
Sandfield Theatre
Price:
£6 / £3
Times:
8pm
By Lone Twins.
Abba Mania
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£12 - £22.50
Celebrating Abba’s music and style.
Runs Until: 14/10
Marjorie’s World Unhinged
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
8pm
A new dance theatre work by
award winning choreographer
Maresa von Stockert. A world of
rivalry, blood, sweat and tears.
Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£7.50 plus
Times:
7.45pm
The King George’s regulars meet
to watch the World Cup qualifying
game. As the match is played out
on the big screen, other rivalries
come to the fore. Barry, the pub
team’s black star striker, may have
a Union Jack tattooed on his bum
and chant “Inger-land” along with
the rest but we soon realise that
he is a barely tolerated outsider.
Runs Until: 14/10
Tuesday 17/10
The Cathy Marston Project
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
8pm
A classical and contemporary
dance combining music, literature,
visual art and fashion.
Inspired by a trip to Cuba, the
World Premiere of Marston’s Arcana
draws on Afro-Cuban folklore
music. An upbeat and sensual
play on rhythm and movement.
Wednesday 18/10
There’s No Place Like A Home
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£8 - £19.50
They do what any self-respecting
company of once-were householdname entertainers do… devise a
plan, to kidnap a celebrity and
demand a ransom, that’s so
theatrical and entertaining that
they might just pull it off!
Runs Until: 04/11
Friday 3/11
Deadeye
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
8pm
Deema’s got a choice to make.
Take a job and leave home or stick
around and save what’s left of her
troubled family?
Runs Until: 04/11
Monday 6/11
The Three Musketeers
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£12 - £29
An ambitious young swordsman,
a corrupt and powerful Cardinal,
a beautiful but deadly spy. Kings,
Queens, adventure, friendship,
romance, intrigue and heroes.
Runs Until: 21/10
Monday 23/10
Me and My Girl
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£10 - £26.50
Times:
2.30pm, 7.30pm
Runs Until: 28/10
Roadmetal Sweetbread - Now
Festival
Venue:
Notts Arts Theatre
Price:
£6 / £4
Times:
7.30pm start
Occupying an alternative
world which bears an uncanny
resemblance to reality, a man and
a woman compete with their own
life-size video images for survival.
Every performance is unique, each
space viewed in a new light.
Runs Until: 24/10
Thursday 26/10
The Two Faces of
Mitchell and Webb
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£19.50
Times:
8pm
The Caretaker
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£7.50 plus
Times:
7.45pm
Davies is down and on his heels
until he’s taken in for the night by
the seemingly eccentric Aston. Lost
in a world of homelessness, his
identity papers in Sidcup, he soon
outstays his welcome until Aston’s
younger brother Mick shows up...
Runs Until: 11/11
Tuesday 31/10
The Lion, The Witch and The
Wardrobe
Venue:
Notts Arts Theatre
Price:
£7.50 / £9
Family Ticket - £30
Times:
7.30pm, Wed & Sat
Matinee at 2.30pm
‘Once there were four children
whose names were Peter, Susan,
Edmund and Lucy...’ This
adaptation of C.S. Lewis classic
story is seen through the eyes of
the four siblings who stumble into
a magical land of good and evil.
Runs Until: 11/11
Arsenic & Old Lace
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£8 - £19.50
Starring Louise Jameson, Wayne
Sleep & Sherrie Hewson. In
a quaint Brooklyn house two
sisters have been perfecting their
elderberry wine. Little do their
‘gentlemen callers’ suspect that
they will soon be heading off to
more exotic climes.
Runs Until: 11/11
Tuesday 7/11
Hard Times
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
7pm
At the heart of Dickens’ vision of
Victorian England is the polluted
and poverty-ridden Coketown.
Here callous businessmen Thomas
Gradgrind and Josiah Bounderby
have created a logical, heartless
world full of ‘facts’ and devoid of
‘fancy’.
Runs Until: 8/11
Thursday 9/11
The Gruffalo
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£6.50 - £9
Join Mouse on an adventurous
journey through the deep, dark
wood in this magical, musical
adaptation of the Blue Peter
award-winning picture book.
Runs Until: 12/11
Friday 10/11
WWE Raw
Venue:
Price:
Monday 16/10
Lord of the Dance
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£25 - £32.50
Runs Until: 15/01
Tuesday 31/10
Life Of A B’Boy
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
8pm
A ground breaking piece of hip
hop theatre that features three
of the best b’boys in the UK.
Mouse, Steady and Chimp Chilla.
Combining narrative, physical
theatre and dance alongside a live
score by DJ G Kut.
Nottingham Arena
£20 / £45
Monday 13/11
Griot Speak
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£7 / £5
Times:
7.45pm
A night of spoken word
performance poetry hosted by
OneNess of the Best Kept Secret
spoken word collective.
Wednesday 15/11
Magdala Opera Gala
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£12 / £15
Times:
7.30pm
An operatic and musical theatre
repertoire from Nottingham’s very
own Magdala Chorus. Professional
guest soloists join the chorus.
Friday 17/11
Dance The Show - Storybook
Venue:
Notts Arts Theatre
Price:
£8.50 / £9
Times:
7.30pm, Sun 4pm
A showcase of young dancers who
attend Summers In Time dance
classes.
Runs Until: 19/11
Stan Won’t Dance
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£12.50 / £16
Times:
7.45pm
How far would you go for the one
you love? In a secret world of
lust, lies and loss, text, dance,
visually stunning design and
daredevil aerial choreography are
combined as performers risk life,
limb and soul to demonstrate the
consequences of revealing their
darkest desires.
Tuesday 21/11
Follies
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£7.50 - £15
A large cast, dazzling costumes
and full orchestra.
Runs Until: 25/11
Friday 24/11
Cinderella
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
Various
Times:
Various
Doomed to drudgery by her
vicious stepsisters, Cinderella
can only dream of escape and
romance. Jeffrey Longmore and
John Elkington are ugly sister
act Bella and Donna, in Kenneth
Alan Taylor’s 23rd Playhouse
pantomime. Prepare for upbeat
songs, high energy dancing,
outrageous costumes and glitter
aplenty. Is it really that time of
year already?
Runs Until: 20/01
Monday 27/11
The Pirates of Penzance
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£11 - £23
Lock up your daughters, the
pirates are coming to town! Off
the rocky shores of Cornwall, a
band of orphaned pirates spy
the Major General’s daughters as
they paddle in the sea. Smitten
by these bathing beauties,
the rebellious but soft-centred
shipmates whip up a storm with
their brave advances. Love-struck
sweethearts and battles with
bungling policemen meet with
miraculous twists of fate in this
tale of love and camaraderie.
Runs Until: 02/12
Tuesday 28/11
St Petersburg Ballet Theatre Swan Lake and The Nutcracker
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£12 - £29.50
Runs Until: 02/12
“All we want is a good time…all the rest is propaganda.”
Buy Tickets Online:
www.leftlion.co.uk/tickets
Also available at:
OhMyGosh 01159 243 888
Selectadisc 01159 475 420
Rock City 08713 100 000
Find out about everything else going on in Hood Town…
New look LeftLion website is now online at www.LeftLion.co.uk
“Not content with running the most popular website, chat forum and printed magazine in the city,
LeftLion also put on regular nights…ever feel like you’ve been treated?”
Knowledge Magazine, September 2006
ALCOHOL
DELIVERY
UNTIL 6AM
MON - THURS & SUN
FRI & SAT
10PM - 4AM
10PM - 6AM
0115
9812203
www.thebeerbaron.co.uk
www.myspace.com/beerbazza
YOU MUST BY OVER 18 TO BUY ALCOHOL, IF YOU LOOK UNDER
21 YOU WILL BE ASKED FOR ID
PRICES AND OPENING TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE, DELIVERY FEE MAY VARY
listings...
Monday 02/10
The Caper Club
Venue:
Bunkers Hill Inn
Price:
£5 / £7 adv (NUS)
Times:
8pm start
Pete Firman, Dominic Woodward
and MC Anthony J Brown.
Thursday 05/10
Jongleurs
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£8 - £15
Mike Milligan, John Fothergill
and Paul Zerdin.
Runs Until: 07/10
Friday 06/10
Gina Yashere
Venue:
Price:
£15
She’s back with a brand new show
packed with jokes, wit and
razor-sharp observations.
Tuesday 10/10
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£3 / £4 (NUS)
Times:
8pm / 8.30pm start
Thursday 12/10
Jongleurs
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£8 - £15
Sean Percival, Susan Murray, Tony
Hendriks and Mark Walker.
Runs Until: 14/10
Saturday 14/10
Edinburgh & Beyond
Venue:
Price:
£15
Times:
7.30pm
Chris Addison, Russell Howard,
Marek Larwood and Steve Hall.
Sunday 15/10
Jeremy Hardy
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£13 / £15
Times:
7.30pm
Monday 16/10
Mark Thomas
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£10 / £14
Times:
7.30pm
Wednesday 18/10
Jeff Green
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Playhouse
£10 / £12
8pm
Thursday 19/10
Jongleurs
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£8 - £15
Runs Until: 21/10
exhibitions / theatre / comedy / weeklies / music
Friday 20/10
Grumpy Old Women Live
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£21.50
Are you a little bit hot and a
little bit hairy?
Runs Until: 21/10
Saturday 21/10
Robin Ince Isn’t Waving
Venue:
Price:
£15
Times:
8pm
Robin Ince previews his brand
new show - all about loving music,
cluttered minds, modern malaise,
fake scicnce, otters, The Daily Mail
and not being Hunter S Thompson
… oh and poo.
Monday 23/10
Howard Marks
Venue:
Arriba Club
Price:
£13.50
Times:
7.30pm
Tuesday 24/10
Puppetry of the Penis
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£14
Times:
7pm
Runs Until: 27/10
Thursday 26/10
Jongleurs
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£8 - £15
Times:
7pm
Quincy, Curtis Walker, Smug
Roberts and Markus Birdman.
Runs Until: 28/10
Friday 27/10
Joe Pasquale
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£14 - £16.50
Thursday 02/11
Jongleurs
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£8 - £15
Times:
7pm
Miles Crawford, Phil Walker, Steve
Gribbin and Mandy Knight.
Runs Until: 04/11
Sunday 05/11
Edutainers of Comedy
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£10 - £15
Times:
7.30pm
After last March’s UK sell out
Queens of Comedy, BBC’s Curtis
Walker headlines.
Monday 06/11
Roger McGough
Venue:
Playhouse
Poetry Please presenter Roger
McGough, ‘a trickster you can
trust’.
Tuesday 07/11
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4/£3 NUS
Times:
8pm start
Sunday 12/11
Aan Carr
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£15
Times:
7.30pm
Co-star of Channel 4’s Friday Night
Project.
Saturday 18/11
Marcus Brigstocke
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£12.50
Times:
8pm
Time Out comedy award winner
and star of BBC’s The Late Edition
and The Now Show.
Thursday 23/11
Jongleurs
Venue:
Jongleurs
Price:
£20 - £36
Times:
7pm
Runs Until: 25/11
Weeklies
Fridays
Nuts
Style:
Venue:
Times:
Indie, House
Media
10pm - 2am
Love Shack
Style:
Eighties, Nineties
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£4 / £5
Times:
9.30pm - 2am
Fridays
Style:
Breaks, House
Venue:
The Market Bar
Price:
£4 (NUS)
Times:
9pm - 3am
With Resident DJ Santero
Audio
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Snug
£5 (NUS)
10pm - 4am
Atomic
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Eighties, Nineties
The Cookie Club
£4 (NUS)
10.30pm - 3am
Salt
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Hiphop, House, Breaks
Dogma
Free
7pm - 2am
Pop.Your_Funk
Venue:
Bluu
Price:
Free
Times:
9pm - late
Sabotage
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Eighties, Nineties
The Cookie Club
£4 (NUS)
10.30pm - 3am
Saturdays
Rise and Shine / Funk U
Style:
Indie, Alternative,
Nineties
Venue:
The Cookie Club
Price:
£5 (NUS)
Times:
10.30pm - 3am
Uberism
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Stylus
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Media
£8 - £10
10pm - 2am
Snug
£6 (NUS)
10pm - 4am
Stealth V Rescued
Style:
House, Breaks, Indie
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£5
Times:
5pm - 4am
2 Clubs, 3 Bars, 2 Patios, 1 Cinema
- 1 Price! Bonza.
Essence
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Distortion
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
House, RnB
Mode
£5
10pm - late
Rock, Indie,
Alternative
Rock City
£5 (NUS)
9pm - 2.30am
Sundays
Jazz at the Bell
Style:
Jazz
Venue:
Bell Inn
Price:
Free
Times:
12.30pm - 3pm
The Underground Sessions
Venue:
Snug
Price:
Free
Times:
9pm - 4am
Out To Lunch
Style:
Jazz
Venue:
Dogma
Price:
Free
Times:
Afternoon
Moog is Sunday
Style:
Film
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
12pm - 12am
Mondays
Open Mic Night
Style:
Acoustic
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Come down at 8pm to secure a
15min slot.
Motherfunker
Venue:
The Cookie Club
Price:
£1 before 11pm
Times:
10.30pm - 2am
Overdrive
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock
Junktion 7
£2
8pm - 2am
Tuesdays
Crash
Style:
Indie, Alternative
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£3 (NUS)
Times:
9.30pm - 2am
Crash is Nottingham’s longest
running indie night.
Tuesdays
Style:
Disco, RnB
Venue:
The Market Bar
Price:
£4 (NUS)
Times:
9pm - 2.30am
With Matt Tolfrey and DJ Ellis
Wednesdays
WigFlex
Style:
Hiphop, DnB, Dubstep
Venue:
Stone
Price:
Free
Times:
9pm - late
Spam chop playing beats, breaks,
hiphop, tekee house and all sorts
else. With live breakdancers, free
N64 and visuals by Synoptics.
Electric Banana
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£2
Times:
10.30pm - 3am
The Big Wednesday
Style:
Alternative, Rock, Pop
Venue:
The Cookie Club
Price:
£2.50 (NUS)
Times:
10.30pm - 2am
Thursdays
Noodle
Venue:
Price:
The Spot
Free
Music Saves The Day
Venue:
Bluu
Times:
9pm - late
Tuned
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Indie, Alternative, Pop
Rock City
£3.50 - £4 (NUS)
8.30pm - 2am
Mirrorball
Venue:
Snug
Price:
£4 (NUS)
Times:
10pm - 4am
Club NME
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock, Indie
Stealth
£2 - £4 (NUS)
10pm - 2am
Live Thursdays
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Vice
Style:
Venue:
Times:
Pop, House, RnB
Media
10pm - 2am
Singer / Songwriters Night
Style:
Acoustic
Venue:
Raffles Art Cafe
Times:
8pm - 12am
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Funk, Hiphop
The Market Bar
£4
9pm - 2am
listings...
Sunday 1/10
Tina Dico
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£8 adv
8pm - 11pm
Melody Market
Venue:
Angel Arts Bistro
Will Jeffery and
Curtis Whitefinger.
Primal Scream DJ Set
Style:
Nineties, Indie
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£7 (NUS)
Times:
8.30pm - 2am
Mani, Goodshoes and Pigeon
Detectives.
Live Jazz and Latin Funk
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Monday 2/10
Juliette and The Licks
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10adv
Swound!
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£8
Times:
8pm - 12am
Swound!, The Kull and Trailer.
Pilgrim Fathers and
The Hellset Orchestra
Venue:
Malt Cross
Times:
7.30
Tuesday 3/10
Journey South
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£20
Sparklehorse
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£13.50 adv
Ghostface Killah
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£14 adv
Times:
9pm - 1am
Ghostface Killah and Theodore
Unit, Rodney P and Skitz, The
Elementz, Karizma, 45, Ninety,
DMC Finalist Furious P
and Squigley.
Pull Tiger Tail
Venue:
The Social
Times:
8pm - late
Pull Tiger Tail, Blah Blah Blah
and Kill Quicks.
Acoustic Tuesdays Present
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 11pm
exhibitions /theatre / comedy / weeklies / music
Thursday 05/10
Highness Sound System
Style:
Reggae, Roots
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - late
YandT
Venue:
Price:
Times:
With support
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Times:
8pm - 4am
Lowstar Presents: Lee Ramsay,
Instinct and Karizma.
The Boy Least Likely To
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£8 adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
Ladyfuzz
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£6 adv
8pm doors
St Petersburg Symphony
Orchestra
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£8 - £29
Dexter (The Avalanches)
Venue:
Dogma
Price:
Free
Times:
10pm - 2am
Fat Lady Singh
Venue:
Junktion 7
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Air Traffic
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£4 adv
7.30pm
Friday 6/10
Beyond the Barricade
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£11 - £16.50
Times:
7.30pm
The Arena Tour 2006
Venue:
Nottingham Arena
Price:
£37.50 adv
Eternal, Boyz II Men, Tunde (the
voice of the Lighthouse Family),
Dina Carroll, Mark Morrison,
En Vogue... amazing?!
Red Rack’em
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Urbanspacelab
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
9pm doors
A hybrid of dnb, jazz and dub
Guilty Pleasures
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£3 - £5
Times:
10.30pm - 2am
DJ Sean Rowley and Friends.
Disturbed
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£17.25
10pm doors
Kevin Montgomery Trio
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£12 adv
Times:
7.30pm doors
Guest Support Andrea Zonn
(James Taylor, Vince Gill)
Cerys Matthews
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£9 adv
Great Escape Presents
Venue:
Junktion 7
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Tashi Lhunpo Monastery Monks
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
7.30pm
Rock City
£16
6.30pm doors
from GPS.
Basement Boogaloo
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm
Moonboots
Kingsize Operator
Venue:
Old Angel (The)
Times:
8pm onwards
Pure Filth
Style:
Techno, DnB
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£6
Times:
10pm - late
Chris Liberator, Filth Residents, DJ
Smith, Suspect-One, Mr Fijjitt
and Paul Murphy.
Bullets and
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Octain
Rock City
£6
7.30pm doors
Soul:ution
Style:
DnB
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5 on the door
Times:
11pm - 3.30am
Marcus Intalex and MC DRS,
Transit Mafia, Ruthless and VTek
C/O/R/D
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£5
8pm - 10.30pm
Audio Massage - Acoustic
Spectacular
Venue:
Loggerheads
Times:
music from 8pm
LeftLion Presents...
Venue:
The Orange Tree
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Urbanspacelab and DJ.
Wildside
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£5
Times:
9pm - 2am
Imperial Vipers, Silverjet and
Ten Foot Dolls.
Bobo Stenson Trio
Venue:
Price:
£12
Sunday 8/10
Tall Poppies
Venue:
Maze
Wednesday 4/10
Saturday 7/10
Spectrum
Style:
Breaks, Electronica
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£12 (NUS)
Times:
10pm - 5am
Plump DJs, Vandal, Pete Jordan,
Hexadecimal, HooknSling, Tayo,
DJ Hal and Joe B, Rogue Element,
Mike Hogan, DJ Yoda, Kids in
Tracksuits, Joe B (Rebel Crew
USA), B Boy J, The Ground Hogs
and Frakah.
City Of Dog
Venue:
Loggerheads
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
Brazilian grooves and more from
Juliet and friends.
Demob
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Junktion 7
£6
8.30pm - 12am
Tokyo Deep
Venue:
The Market Bar
Price:
£5 before 11 £6 after
Times:
10pm - 4am
Mr C, James Alexander, Casiogrand
and Solbank.
The Rapture
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£11 adv
Inauguration Subordination
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£6 adv
Times:
8pm - 3am
Vincent Vincent and The Villains.
NME Freshers Tour
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£7 adv
Times:
7.30pm doors
Klaxons, Shit disco, Data rock.
With DJs Simian and mobile disco.
Monday 09/10
Sandi Thom
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10 adv
Goo Goo Dolls
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£17.50
Times:
7.30pm doors
IV Thieves
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£6.50
Times:
8pm - 12am
Tuesday 10/10
Afi
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£13.50
7.30pm
Acoustic Tuesdays open mic
with Nell Bryden
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Melody Market
Venue:
Angel Arts Bistro
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - late
Andy Whittle, Ed Bannard
and Will Jeffery.
The View
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£6
7pm - 10pm
Power Up
Venue:
Times:
The Social
10.30pm - 3am
BBC Radio Nottingham
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£13
Wednesday 11/10
Lacuna Coil
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£15
Times:
7.30pm
Style:
DnB, Hiphop
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£7 adv
Times:
9pm - 2am
DnB: Pendulum, TC, Transit Mafia,
DJ Strike, Chow, MC’s Verse,
Biggie, P-Fine. Hiphop: DJ Woody,
Santero and Detail.
Trick and The Heartstrings
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
7pm - 10pm
The Smugglers Inn
Venue:
Saltwater
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 1am
Slaid Cleaves
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£12 adv
Times:
7.30pm doors
The Gipsy Kings
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£36.50
Thursday 12/10
Susperia
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£8.50 adv
Times:
7pm
Susperia, Red Harvest and Grimfist.
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Deal Maker Presents: Full Fat.
Spectrum/Dogma present
Venue:
Dogma
Price:
Free
Times:
10pm - 2am
DJ MK and Jehst plus support.
The Green Bus Presents...
Venue:
Old Angel (The)
Price:
£3
Times:
8pm
Carpet, Llamedos and
Monkeys Of The High Seas.
Le Chunk
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Breaks, Electronica
Pelhams
£2.50 (NUS)
10pm - late
Dan Sartain
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£7
Times:
8pm - 11pm
Thursday 12/10
Ambush Launch Night
Venue:
The Social
Price:
Free (NUS)
Times:
9pm-3am
Vinyl [abort] - Live AV, JoolsMF,
Stinkin’ Rich, Kid Chameleon, Cut
Freqz, Casual Breakin, Chris CF
and Mister Benn.
Weeble
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£3
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Weeble, Milk 2 Sugars, A is for
Ape and Failure by Design.
Maresienne Consort
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
7.30pm
Friday 13/10
Hot Chip
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10 adv
With support from the Junior Boys.
The Tone Club
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£7
Times:
9pm - 2am
The Jim Beam Music tour with
Little Man Tate.
Ed Harcourt
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£12.50 adv
The Rubber Room DJ’s
Venue:
The Social
Times:
10.30pm - 3am
Audio Massage
Venue:
Maze
Price:
8pm
Times:
£3 - £4
Beyond This Point Are Monsters,
The Wow Scenario!, Marks Brother
and Wayne Zenith.
The Go-Go
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
King Kahlua, Daddy Bones plus
special guests.
Heavyweight Rocksteady 3
Style
Dubstep
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£5
Times:
9pm - 4am
Runs Until: 13/9
Horspower Productions (Benny
Ill), Geiom, Dj Klassic and
Aled Jones.
Drowned in Sound Clubnight
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£5 adv £6 otd
Times:
9pm - 2am
Sennen, The Telescopes, Televise
and Dan Cutts (ex-Lyca Sleep).
Lobotomy
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£7
Times:
9pm - late
Bong RA, Ebola, Floorclearer,
Shitmat, B, Dilk, Howl and
Partydress.
Halle
Venue:
Price:
Royal Centre
£8 - £29
Keep On Magazine
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Times:
8.30 - 12am
Saturday 14/10
Fightstar
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£12
7pm doors
My Milkman has AIDS
Style:
Pop, Hiphop, Cheese
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£5 (NUS)
Times:
10pm - 3am
listings...
Saturday 14/10
The Broken
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Monday 16/10
Orson
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£15
7.30pm
Howling Bells
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£7 Adv
Times:
7pm doors
The Cooper
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Temple Clause
The Rescue Rooms
£11.50 adv
7.30pm doors
Something Different....
Style:
Breaks, Electronica
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5 (NUS)
Times:
11pm - 4am
Dumb Blonde, Freeman and Andy
McAllister.
Dirt Club
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£2
Times:
8pm - 12am
Spotlight Kid, Black Vinyl Heart,
Elff and DJ’s.
The Mighty
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Hexford and
Family Band
The Social
£7 adv
7pm - 10pm
Funk Junction
Funk, World Music
Junktion 7
Free
9pm - 2am
Louie the Leg.
Nick Harper
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£10 adv
Times:
7.30pm doors
Long Blondes
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£7
Times:
7.30pm
Tuesday 17/10
Psycle
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£10
Times:
10pm - 6am
See www.Psycle.info for details
Road Block
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
DJ’s Daddio and Beane.
Serieux. (Oxjam)
Style:
Tech House, Techno
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£3
Times:
9pm - 3am
OrtzRoka (DSR/Turnmills) and
Residents: T.Driver and L.Court.
Patty Hurst
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Shifter
Maze
£8 adv
7pm doors
iLiKETRAiNS
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£6 adv
Times:
9pm - 2am
iLiKETRAiNS, Swimming, Grain
and The Garuda Commute.
KFR 3rd Birthday Bash
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5 before 11 £6 after
Times:
9pm - 3am
Kinda Funky Radio is 3!
Room 1 - DnB: Devize, Garry K,
The Force, Paul F, Maestro, Fury
and Iziah B2B Nessy, Room 2
- Jungle and Classic DnB: Neil
Badboy b2b Astro, Theory b2b
Lawson, Lowkey b2b Ben Force,
Wings b2b Calmboy b2b Strike,
Rotary b2b Redz, Zebedee b2b
Lukie, MC’s Devious, Koop and
Yons, Room 3 - Wigflex: Spam
Chop, Kid Chameleon, Extreme, G
Skratch, The Hizatron (Live) and
Kuiper Belt. Hosted By Shinobi.
The Cool Off
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Sunday 15/10
The Rifles
Venue:
Price:
The Rescue Rooms
£8 adv
Seth Lakeman
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£10 + bf
Times:
8pm - 12am
Reverend and The Makers
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£6
Times:
8pm - 11pm
LeftLion Unplugged
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Bruce Myers Band.
Saggy-pants Presents:
Venue:
Maze
New Generation Superstars and
Deny the Charge.
Guillemots
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£10.50 adv
Times:
7.30pm
Ruby Turner
Venue:
Playhouse
Price:
£15
Times:
8pm
Wednesday 18/10
Detonate - The Next Level 06
Style:
DnB, Hiphop
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£16 adv
Times:
8.30pm - 3.30am
With the Valve System (Loud!)
Drum and Bass: Ed Rush and
Optical Live, Jenna G (full live
band), DJ Marky and Dynamite
MC, Andy C and MC GQ, Dillinja
and Lemon D with MC Foxy and
Transit Mafia. Hiphop: Foreign
Beggars, People Under the Stairs,
Edan (live), Giant Panda, Santero
and Detail. Breaks: Aquasky,
Breakfastaz and Pete Jordan.
The Automatic
Venue:
NTU Union
Times:
8pm - 12am
Nottingham Unplugged
Venue:
Loggerheads
With Stege Pinnock and Guests. An
evening of acoustic music.
Abominable Iron Sloth (Will
Haven)
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£7 adv / £8 otd
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
With support from
The Legion of Doom.
Thursday 19/10
Salmonella Dub
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£12.50 adv
VNV Nation
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£12.50 adv
Times:
7.30pm
Thursday 19/10
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Camouflage Large opening
party. Dealmaker / Buttercuts
Records Presents: Illa man,
WyldeyeandOscar and Blumonkey.
Supernight
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
£3
Plan and Apologies
and Simon Haiku.
Futureproof
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£4
Times:
9m - 2am
Dubstep: Geiom, Jon Rust, Bracky
Fudge and Thomloo J. Electronica /
electro / techno: Line, The Crane,
Stone 3 and Aled Jones.
Flipron
Venue:
Price:
Times:
With support
Maze
£5
8pm
from Magic Car
Hyper
Venue:
Times:
Dogma
10pm - 2am
Censored
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£4
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Censored, The Fakers, The
Southern Electrics and The Rise.
Soundz Global
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Friday 20/10
The Bronx
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£8 adv
7pm doors
Get Spaced
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
with the Idjut Boys
Disco, Rock
Pelhams
£7
10pm - 5am
Well Swung! and
Oxjam Festival
Venue:
Loggerheads
TM Juke, Fran Green, Ligre,
Mike and Foe.
NME Rock ‘n’ Roll Riot Tour
feat. The Fratellis
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£11 + bf
Times:
8pm - 2am
Product
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Stealth
£7 - £10
10pm - 5am
Camera Obscura
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£7
Times:
None
Camera Obscura and
El Perro Del Mar.
Guilty Pleasures
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£3 - £5
Times:
10.30pm - 2am
DJ Sean Rowley and friends.
Camouflage
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10 (NUS)
Times:
9pm - 3am
Camouflage Large - 3 days of
underground hiphop and beats.
See flyer / web for more details.
Mr Lif, Metro and DJ Big Wiz,
Braintax and Mystro, DJ Kam
and live drummer, Sway and DJ
Turkish, Genesis Elijah, Lost Project
and T-Cutt. Host is Blugrass.
Saggy Pants present...
Venue:
Old Angel (The)
Price:
£3
Times:
8.30pm
Friday 20/10
Damn You! Presents
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£6 adv £7 otd
Times:
8.30pm
Carla Bozulich, Hrsta and Felix.
Hot Renault Traffic Club
Venue:
Junktion 7
Times:
9pm - 2am
Cult Propaganda...
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
DnB classics and old skool special
with Mouse, Houghmeister and
Timmy Hands.
Kombination Funk
Style:
DnB, Techno
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - late
Room 1 DnB: Silent Witness,
Ben Force, Mugga, Lowkey, MC’s
Menace and Anger. Room 2 Techno: Mark Jacobs, John Gilbert,
Ed George and Robin Marsden.
Room 3 - Electronica: Missaw,
Newtek and Dazzle.
Alex Wilson
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
8pm
Saturday 21/10
Pama International
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£9 adv
Times:
9pm
Moon Buggy and Dub Masters.
Shearwater
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£7 adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
All Nighter
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£6 adv
Times:
8.30pm - 6am
Main Hall, Skindred, Basement,
The Answer, Roadstar and Airbourne.
Angelic Upstarts
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£10 adv £12 otd
Times:
9pm - 2am
VinylJacks
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Sixties garage
The Rescue Rooms
£5
10.30pm - 3am
Sunday 22/10
LeftLion Extravaganza
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£5
Times:
7pm
The Hellset Orchestra, Grain,
Lo-Ego, Weeble, The Atoms.
Monday 23/10
Jamie T
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Rescue Rooms
£7.50 adv
7.30pm doors
The Raconteurs
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£17.50 adv
Times:
7.30pm
John Mayall / Chicken Shack
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£22.50 - £26.50
Tuesday 24/10
Razorlight
Venue:
Nottingham Arena
Price:
£21
Hundred Reasons
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£11
with Poppy Seed
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Melody Market
Venue:
Angel Arts Bistro
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - late
Liars Club
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
9pm - 3am
Bonde Do Role
Wednesday 25/10
Off the Wall
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£15 / £17
Times:
7.30pm
Martha Tilson Band
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£8 adv
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£11 + bf
Times:
8pm - 12am
Camouflage presents
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£8 adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
Bonobo (full live band)
Fields
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
7pm - 10pm
Fields and Good Books.
Samiam and The Draft
Venue:
The Boat Club
Price:
£7 adv £8 otd
Times:
7.30pm doors
With support from The Wireless
Stores and Milloy.
Eric Taylor
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£8 adv
Times:
7.30pm
The Highness Sound System
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - 3am
Well Swung
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
£3 (NUS)
Times:
10pm - 2am
Russ Porter, Capstone, Ligre and Foe.
Percussion
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5
Times:
9pm
Napalm Death
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£13 (NUS)
Times:
730pm - 2am
Sideshow
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Running Horse
£2
8pm
The Great Escape
Venue:
Junktion 7
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Epiphany
Venue:
Price:
Oceana
£8
Goodbooks and Fields
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£6 adv
Times:
7pm
Thursday 26/10
Lordi
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£10 adv
7pm doors
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Son Records Presents:
C-Mone and support.
listings...
Thursday 26/10
Ambush
Venue:
The Social
Price:
Free (NUS)
Times:
9pm - 3am
Poj Masta, Freeman, Ligre, Kid
Chameleon, Cut Freqz, Mister
Benn, Casual Breakin and Foe.
Rob Da Bank
Venue:
Dogma
Price:
Free
Times:
10pm - 2am
The Jamm
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Junktion 7
£7 adv £9 otd
8.30pm - 12am
Friday 27/10
Tom Jones
Venue:
Nottingham Arena
Detonate
Style:
DnB, Hiphop, Dubstep
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£10 adv £12 otd
Times:
10pm - 4am
Hospitality presents: DnB: London
Elektricity (DJ Set), Bailey,
Logistics, Transit Mafia, MC’s SP,
Ruthless and P-Fine. Hiphop: Kyza,
Professor Green, Santero and
Detail. Dubstep: Loefah (DMZ),
Aled Jones and Jon Rust.
Son Of Dave
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£7 adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
The Exploited
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£10
Times:
7pm doors
Ginger (Wildheart)
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£13
Times:
9pm
Assault Rock night
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£2 b4 11pm £3 after
Times:
9.30pm - 2am
Dollop
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£3 - £4
11pm - 3am
Audio Massage
Venue:
Templars Bar
Price:
£4 - £5
Times:
8pm
Gob $au$age plus Botnik, These
Monsters and more.
Dredzone and Highness
Sound System
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£13 (NUS)
Times:
7.30pm - 2am
Foncheros
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
8pm
Foncheros, Kuato, Kody and
Crimson Roadmap.
Poppycock
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Saturday 28/10
Vampires Rock
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£16.50 - £18.50
Bocajito
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Local Notts label night with
some of Nottingham’s busiest
DJ’s and producers: Bob Sadler
and Ron Basejam (Crazy P), Tom
Bailey and Cal Gibson (Neon
Heights).
Saturday 28/10
The Young
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Knives
The Rescue Rooms
£8 adv
7pm - 10pm
Sack Sabbath and Led Balloon,
Brit Boat Club
Venue:
The Boat Club
Price:
£7 otd
Times:
8.30pm
With support from Led Balloon.
B.E.A.T.S
Venue:
Price:
Times:
A Skillz and
The Social
£5
11pm - 4am
Pete Jordan.
Mufti Halloween Fancy
Dress Party
Venue:
Loggerheads
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
Audio Massage - Black and
White Night
Venue:
The Orange Tree
Price:
£5 adv £7 otd
Times:
8pm doors
Hellset Orchestra, Lupen Crook
and The Post War Years.
Liars Club
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - 4am
Man Man and The Chap.
Skinny Sumo
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£5
Times:
9pm
Skinny Sumo, BluMonkey, Mr Jones
and Delerium Funk.
Demo
Venue:
Price:
Times:
BluePrint
£5
7.30pm - late
Spectrum Boat Party
Venue:
Nottingham Princess
Price:
£15
Times:
7pm - 11.30pm
Halloween Fancy Dress Boat Party
with A Skillz, Pete Jordan, Freeman
and more.
Punksoc All-Dayer:
Stars in their Eyes 2
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£5
Times:
4pm - 2am
The King Blues (as Meatloaf),
Weeble (as Me First and the
Gimme Gimmes), The Atoms (as
The Ramones), Skatch (as MXPX),
The Crimson Roadmap (as Muse),
The Sellout Flaw (as The Misfits)
and Countermand (as The Pixies).
Tempest
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Alternative, Rock
Sugar
£3 (NUS)
9pm - 3am
Amanda Pitt and David Owen
Norris
Venue:
Price:
£12
Times:
7.30pm
My Alamo
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£4 adv
10.30pm
Sunday 29/10
Once in a Lifetime
Venue:
Nottingham Arena
Hockley Hustle
Venue:
Broadway
Price:
£5
Times:
All day
Sinister Sounds Presents
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£6
Times:
4pm - 12am
Midnight Configuration, Katscan,
Lauf Aus, Quek Junior, Avoidance
of Doubt, Artificial Darkness and
Forbidden Subject.
Monday 30/10
Wasp
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£17.50 adv
7.30pm
7:21s
Venue:
Price:
Rock City
£6.50
Damn You! Presents
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4 adv £5 otd
Times:
8.30pm
Talibam! and Exploits of Elane.
The Elvis Collection
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£13 - £15
Times:
7.30pm
Tuesday 31/10
headlined by Daisy B
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Avenged Sevenfold
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£15 adv
Times:
7pm
Wednesday 1/11
Ray Davies
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£26.50
Four Day Hombre
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5 adv
Times:
8pm - 10pm
Rooster
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£10
7pm doors
Drum and Bass Aid
Venue:
Snug
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - 4am
Transit Mafia, DJ Nessy, DJ Quakerr
and MC Yons.
Neil McAndrew
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£8
Times:
7.45pm doors
INME
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£10
7pm
Ray Davies
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£26.50
Times:
7.30pm
Friday 3/11
Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£16.50
Red Rack’em
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
The Tone Club
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£3 adv - £4.50 otd
Times:
9pm - 2am
Cosmic Rough Riders
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£7
Times:
8pm - 11pm
City Of Dog
Venue:
Loggerheads
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
Spectrum
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£10 adv £12 otd
Times:
10pm - 5am
Room One - Sound of Spectrum:
Stanton Warriors, Freestylers (DJ
Set), Dopamine and Pete Jordan.
Room Two – Live Spectrum
Electronics: TooB (Live), Delerium
Funk (Live) and Missaw? Room
Three – Spectrum Live: Crazy P
(live) and Dave Boultbee.
Bring me the Horizon
Venue:
Junktion 7
Price:
£7 adv
Times:
7.30pm - 12am
Bring me the Horizon, Rolo Tomassi
and Awoken by Moonlight.
Style:
Venue:
Times:
Techno, DnB
BluePrint
10pm - late
Trans Global
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30 - 12am
Saturday 4/11
The Illegal Eagles
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£16
We Are Scientists
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£12.50
Times:
6.30pm doors
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Weight Bench Presents: Cappo,
Midnight and Rukus Regardless.
The Hedrons
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5 adv
Times:
8pm doors
Daughters
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£6
7.30pm doors
Underground:Live
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£7 (NUS)
Times:
8.30pm - 2am
Exodus
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Junktion 7
£14 adv
7.30pm - 11.30pm
The Divine
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Comedy
NTU Union
£17.50 adv
8pm doors
Mojave 3
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£10
8pm - 11pm
Deathstars
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£8
Times:
7.30pm
Elaine Paige
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£29.50 - £32.50
Times:
7.30pm
Monday 6/11
The Paddingtons
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10 adv
Dirt Club
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£2
8pm - 12am
Jim and the Belivers
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£8
Times:
7.45pm doors
Tuesday 7/11
Opeth
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£15
7.30pm doors
Ugly Duckling
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£8 adv
Times:
Doors 8.30pm
Melody Market
Venue:
Angel Arts Bistro
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - late
Peter Grant
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£14.50 - £16.50
Times:
7.30pm
Wednesday 8/11
Mistys Big Adventure
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£7 adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
With support from Kate Goes.
Two Gallants
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£8adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
The Smugglers Inn
Style:
Hiphop, Dubstep
Venue:
Saltwater
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 1am
Geiom, Red Rack’em, Beane, Dave
Boultbee and Mike Greenwell.
Metalheadz LP Launch Party
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
11pm - 3.30am
Commix, Doc Scott and
Transit Mafia.
Willie Nile
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£8
Times:
7.45pm doors
Thursday 2/11
Highness Sound System
Style:
Reggae, Roots, Dub
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - late
Sunday 5/11
Basement Boogaloo
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£5 adv £6 otd
Times:
10pm - 3.30am
LeftLion Presents...
Venue:
The Orange Tree
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Clarky Cat and Electric Mouth.
I Love You
Darkness
Venue:
Price:
Times:
But I’ve Chosen
Stealth
£5
10.15pm
Basement Boogaloo Warmup
Party
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Thursday 9/11
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Whity, Dj Kaney King and
The Petebox.
Le Chunk
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Breaks, Tech House
Pelhams
£2.50 (NUS)
10pm - late
The Herb Birds
Venue:
Southbank Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
10pm
Ambush
Venue:
The Social
Price:
Free
Times:
10.30pm - 3am
Kid Chameleon, Cut Freqz, Mister
listings...
Thursday 09/11
Unabombers
Venue:
Dogma
Price:
Free
Times:
10pm - 2am
Audio Massage
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
8pm
Friday 10/11
Assault Rock night
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
Times:
9.30pm - 2am
The Go-Go
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
King Kahlua and guests playing
(proper) garage, go*go beat
and surf.
Trickster
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Maze
£4
10pm - 2am
Keep On Magazine
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Saturday 11/11
Pink
Venue:
Price:
Nottingham Arena
£26.50 + bf
My Milkman has AIDS
Style:
Pop, Hiphop, Cheese
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£5 (NUS)
Times:
10pm - 3am
Ron Sexsmith
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£15 adv
Times:
7pm - 10pm
Something Different
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
11pm - 4am
Atomic Hooligan and Freeman.
The Mighty
Style:
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Hexford and
Funk Junction
Funk, World Music
Junktion 7
Free
9pm - 2am
Louie the Leg.
Road Block
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
Daddio and Beane.
Detonation
Style:
DnB
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£15 adv
Times:
10pm - 6am
Grooverider and MC Rage, Mampi
Swift and MC IC3, Friction and
Eksman, Total Science and MC
Wrec, Bassline Smith and Biggie,
Break and Ruthless, Transit Mafia
and P-Fine.
The Cool Off
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm - 12am
Sunday 12/11
Scissor Sisters
Venue:
Nottingham Arena
Price:
£23.50
Luke Haines
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£8
Times:
8pm - 11pm
Rancid
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Rescue Rooms
£14
7.30pm
Monday 13/11
Robben Ford
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£15 adv
Rumble Strips
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£6 adv
Times:
8pm doors
Acoustic Tuesdays
headlined open mic
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Saggy Pants Presents...
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
8pm
Opera North
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£12 - £50
Runs Until: 18/11
Katherine Jenkins
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£20 - £35
Times:
7.30pm
Wednesday 15/11
Less Than Jake and
Dropkick Murphys
Venue:
Nottingham Arena
Price:
£17.50
Times:
7pm
All Of Me - Cambell Bass
Venue:
Notts Arts Theatre
Price:
£12
Times:
7.30pm
Damn You!
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£6 otd
Times:
7.30pm
Beverley Knight
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£21.50
Times:
7pm
Thursday 16/11
The Wonder Stuff
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£15 adv
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
Price:
£2
Dealmaker / Sit Tight Records
Presents: LG and Biscuit
and Lost Project.
The Feeling
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£13
Times:
7pm doors
Friday 17/11
Jools Holland
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£28
Times:
7.30pm
Motorhead
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£22
Times:
7pm doors
The Other Smiths
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10 adv
With support from The Other
Morrissey.
Nearly Dan
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£10 adv
Acid Mothers Temple
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£8 adv
Times:
8pm - 10pm
Fields Of The Nephilim
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£16.50
Times:
7pm doors
The Tone Club
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£3 adv £4.50 otd
Times:
9pm - 2am
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Stealth
£7 - £10
10pm - 5am
Well Swung
Venue:
Loggerheads
Price:
£3
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
Well Swung! and Stay Chuffed:
Hint (Tru Thoughts / Ninja Tune),
Parker and Moneyshot (4 deck
set - Solid Steel Radio), Detail
(Detonate) and Foe (Well Swung!).
Guilty Pleasures
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
10.30pm - 2am
DJ Sean Rowley and friends.
The Green Bus Presents...
Venue:
Old Angel (The)
Price:
£3
Times:
8pm
(Hooker), The Stoatz and Monkeys
Of The High Seas.
Kombination Funk
Style:
DnB, Techno
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5
Times:
10pm - late
Heavyweight Rocksteady
Style:
Dubstep
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
9pm - 3.30am
Cult Propaganda
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30 - 12am
Saturday 18/11
Razamajazical
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£10 / £15
Cult - Night of The Samurai
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Vaccine Live, Vinyl [abort], Mouse
and Houghmeister b2b Spamchop.
Supernight
Venue:
Price:
Times:
with Yunioshi
The Social
£3
8pm - late
Drum Attic
Lickin)
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Twins (Finger
Dogma
Free
10pm - 2am
Soundz Global
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Mozart - 250 Years of Sheer
Genius
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£15.50 - £21.50
Sunday 19/11
Hayseed Dixie
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£13
Times:
7pm doors
Clocks
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£5
7pm - 10pm
The Highness Sound System
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
11pm - 3am
Wildside Festival
Venue:
The Ballroom
Price:
£20
For more info on the festival visit
http://www.wildsidefestival.com
Lovers Bloc
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
10pm
Ben Kweller
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
£11.50 plus bf
Times:
8pm - 12.am
Tim Easton
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£8
Times:
7.45pm doors
Marcia Jones School of Dance
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£7.50 - £10.50
Times:
7.15pm
Monday 20/11
Taste of Chaos
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£20
Times:
6pm doors
Taking Back Sunday, Anti Flag,
Alexisonfire, Uneroath, Senses Fail
and Saosin.
Tuesday 21/11
LeftLion Unplugged
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Kubichek
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£6
8pm - 11pm
The Resentments
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£6
Times:
7.45pm doors
Soundz Global
Venue:
Golden Fleece
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Wednesday 22/11
The Bluetones
Venue:
The Rescue Rooms
Price:
£13.50 adv
Primal Scream
Venue:
Rock City
Price:
£20
Times:
7.30pm doors
The Aliens
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£8
7pm - 10pm
Chip Taylor
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£7 otd
Times:
7.45pm doors
Magic: A Kind of Queen
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£14.50
Times:
7.30pm
Thursday 23/11
Word Of Mouth
Venue:
Muse
CTRL>ALT>ELITE
Ambush
Venue:
The Social
Price:
Free
Times:
10.30pm - 3am
Kid Chameleon, Cut Freqz, Mister
Moshkitten Promotions
Venue:
Old Angel (The)
Price:
4.50
Times:
8pm
Moshkitten Promotions Proudly
Present: 10 O’clock Horses and
Satnams Tash.
Friday 24/11
Detonate
Style:
DnB, Hiphop, Dubstep
Venue:
Stealth
Price:
£10 adv
Times:
10pm - 4am
DnB: LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad
(2 hour set) and Transit Mafia.
Hiphop: Klashnekoff, Santero and
Detail. Dubstep: Skream.
Assault Rock night
Venue:
NTU Union
Price:
Times:
9.30pm - 2am
Dollop
Venue:
Price:
Times:
The Social
£3 - £4
11pm - 3am
Saggy Pants Presents...
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£4
Times:
8pm
Maximum Rhythm ‘n’ Blues
Venue:
Royal Centre
Price:
£17 - £21
Times:
7.30pm
The Manfreds and special guests
Chris Farlowe and Maggie Bell.
Poppycock
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Saturday 25/11
Bocajito
Venue:
Moog
Price:
Free
Times:
8pm - 12am
Local Notts label night with some
of Nottingham’s busiest DJ’s and
producers: Bob Sadler and Ron
Basejam (Crazy P), Tom Bailey
and Cal Gibson (Neon Heights).
B.E.A.T.S
Venue:
The Social
Price:
£5
Times:
11pm - 4am
Missill and Pete Jordan
Mufti Fancy Dress Party
Venue:
Loggerheads
Times:
8pm - 1.30am
Demo
Venue:
BluePrint
Price:
£5
Times:
7.30pm - late
‘Demo is about real music, good
beats and people. Creative
madness with an ethical vision.
Get involved, free Your feet.’
Monday 27/11
Last Tuesday Jazz Cafe
(on a monday)
Venue:
Maze
Price:
£3
Times:
8pm
Tuesday 28/11
UFO
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£16.50
7.30pm doors
Acoustic Tuesdays headlined
open mic
Venue:
Malt Cross Cafe Bar
Price:
Free
Times:
8.30pm
Wednesday 29/11
Levellers
Venue:
Price:
Times:
Rock City
£17 adv
7.30pm doors
Thursday 30/11
Nextmen featuring MC Wrec
Venue:
Dogma
Price:
Free
Times:
10pm - 2am
on tour
TRANSATLANTIC
OPERATION
words: Simon Hodge
Nottingham band Kingsize Operator went to Hollywood on tour in July and August
Kingsize Operator are Simon Hodge (Vocals), Dean
Barlow (Guitar), Ben James (Keys), Scott Barnes (Bass)
and Colin Ward (Drums).
We had been recommended by our LA Myspace friends
that The Rainbow was the place to be. Best described as
a dingy, badly lit, two storey wooden barn, laid out like
a rabbit warren with rooms everywhere. The place was
rammed with LA’s elite rock crowd. To be more precise the
outdoor area was full of people due to LA’s smoking ban.
Wide-eyed and very excitable we must have looked like
lambs to the slaughter.
The following morning we got up early, had the clichéd
American Breakfast at a diner next door and then headed
out for a busy day. Our first port of call was a meeting
with Carolyn Fox at KHZ Radio LA at 10am. We introduced
ourselves to this overly excitable lady, recorded an
interview. About an hour later we got back in the jeep and
headed off to get the gear. Five guys stuck in a jeep for four
hours in 100 degree heat is not recommended.
who could further their career. Kingsize Operator however
had a secret weapon The sales pitch began as follows:
“Hi, we’re English, we’re in a band called Kingsize
Operator and we are playing at… Would you like a free
CD?” This was followed closely by “Would you like to buy
a ticket?” The resulting response would almost always
be enthusiastic, though you wouldn’t believe how many
people actually thought Nottingham was in London.
That night Simon went into The Rainbow to use the
bathroom. On his way in he spotted Kiefer Sutherland
and with beer-fuelled confidence went straight over,
barged past his entourage and introduced himself with a
handful of CD’s. They proceeded to have a conversation
about music and film. Series six of 24 has just gone into
pre production. Just as Simon was wrapping up the
conversation Dean came bounding over like an enthusiastic
child and also shoving everyone out of the way proclaimed:
‘Mr Sutherland, I understand you have an amazing Gibson
guitar collection...’
The Gig, also in Hollywood, was on the way back so we
popped in. The talent booker was a lady called Marsha.
Things were going well until Simon asked Marsha what
equipment we needed to bring with us. To our horror we
were introduced to a major difference between gigging
in Notts and LA. Anyone who is in or has been in a band
will know that generally the headline act brings the drum
kit, bass amp and will usually allow the other bands to
run through their guitar amps. The logic for this is a quick
turnaround. In LA every single band brings every single
piece of equipment, plays their show then takes everything
down. We therefore had a serious problem. We had no way
of making any noise.
The look on Kiefer’s face was an absolute picture. Clearly
no-one had ever broken the ice with a statement like that
before. They shook hands with Kiefer, came back out to find
the rest of us, then proceeded to recount their story over
and over again like a couple of star struck excitable kids.
The following journey to the CD duplication company
seemed to take an age. Having a thousand professionally
printed CD’s with sleeves was an excellent mood improver.
We hit The Rainbow with bags full of CD’s and went on a
mission to spread the word of Kingsize Operator’s arrival
to an unsuspecting LA public. Everyone in LA is there for a
reason. Whether you are an aspiring actor, singer, dancer,
band, producer or just want to be famous, no-one dares be
rude to anyone in case they inadvertently insult someone
The following night we were at it again for our show at The
Gig. The feelings of excitement and adrenalin were intense.
Once again the stage was huge and about four feet from
normal floor level. The roar as we started was unbelievable.
The place was full and we just went for it.
Having finally sorted out the equipment crisis by throwing
money at it to hire drums and amps we were set for
our first gig at The Derby. The Americans pronounce it
deeeeerbi. Very annoying! The venue was amazing. The
stage was massive. We headlined to a packed house, went
down really well and came away from the gig with a lot of
confidence. The tour had officially started!
The gig at the world-famous Whisky a Go Go was intense.
The venue started getting really busy at about 7pm. For
its reputation the Whisky is not a massive place, about the
size of the Rescue Rooms. It is, however, steeped in history
and has an ambience that is almost mystical. The place
was heaving and once again we just went for it. For forty
minutes we played and performed our songs to a fired up
crowd of over 300 on the same stage where the Doors got
spotted forty years earlier. What an honour! What a night.
We couldn’t get out of the building with the amount of
people coming over after our show ended.
The gig at the Roxy Theatre came round very quickly.
Although it was not a full crowd the atmosphere was
superb, a load of guys from the rainbow showed up and
we had a lot of fun. As always, we hit The Rainbow after
the show. Steve-O from Jackass was on the table next to
us. Ben took serious dissuading from challenging him to
some crazy stunt. He still regrets that we talked him out of
making a fool of himself.
It was our last day and we had one show left. We got to
Universal City for our sound check at 5pm. We had sold our
quota of tickets for the show so we were looking to go out
with a bang. When we got to the venue we were told that
the Headline band Katcha Fire were stuck in Australia so
the concert was not going to be shown live on US National
TV. It was a real shame, because that would have been the
icing on the cake. We were a little deflated by the news.
However, as the venue started filling up it became clear
that this was going to be a good show. BB’s has a real
touch of class. It has three balconies running the entire
length of the stage, creating a real intimacy. We were the
first band on, starting our performance at about 8pm. We
played a half hour set, then two encores.
It was an emotional and drunken goodbye late on
Wednesday night. Two weeks of partying, intense gigging,
nearly a thousand CD’s handed out and relentless self
promotion had taken it out of us. Despite the stress of living
in each others’ pockets for two weeks, our desire to pursue
music had strengthened to a new level. If you get a chance
to play in LA, do it. It will change your life.
www.kingsizeoperator.co.uk
43
words: Shedfixman
illustration: Rob White
This contributor has recently acquired significant evidence
which suggests that alien life may have been living with
us side by side for decades or at least since the advent of
Cordon Bleu cookery!
It was almost exactly ten years ago, whilst visiting a
girlfriend in the Czech Republic that I was introduced to the
aromatic subtleties of Olomouc cheese (from the Moravian
town of the same name; pronounced Olla-moutz). She knew
I’d heard of its reputation for being a bit of a tabflapper, but
also that I had yet to try the stuff. With this in mind, she
had lovingly afforded a half kilo wedge from the local less
than an hour before my arrival and stuck it away on a plate
in a kitchen cupboard as a surprise in case I fancied a bit
straight away. Fnarhoooaaah!
Now. Some of you will already know that I’m a keen
devotee of haute cuisine. I’ll eat absolutely haute; but
when all the customary greetings were all done and she
announced her surprise and opened the cupboard door and
took out the plate, it was a resounding ‘Ooyahferk - fwooo!
whaaat the? Errr… No thanks, babe!’
I should here point out that, although it was on a plate, it
was also in its crust and wrapped in clingfilm and stuffed
in a tightly closed biscuit tin. Yep. It made Gorgo smell like
Dairylea. Rapid and successful duckout here.
I didn’t get to try the stuff again until a very recent visit
to Prague, this time with the wife. We’d just taken a break
from the tourist bustle and adjourned to a tiny backstreet
restaurant. Then I saw it. There. On the menyuuo. Deepfried
Olomouc cheezo on the go.
‘Yeah! Yer gotta try this, Chuck! It’s esoteric! It’s gitt! It’s
not what them Yorkies at the next table’ve bought. Plus, if
you get traditional Czech nosh, then they usually offer yer
an erperratiff!’ She seemed less than convinced, having
heard my previous tale.
Well, we went for it. The deepfried cheeso was promptly
served up on two plates of garden debris. Fine… until yer
chopped into these small brown breadcrumbed diskettes
with yer knives and the gloop came gushing out like you’d
just stomped on a tube of Bostic. The natural response was
to attempt get some of the flush on yer knife or fork before
it hit the salad or plate and immediately solidified. The pair
of us wrestled for at least five minutes to chip the fucker
off the plate with our forks and then off our forks with our
knives and then off our bloody teeth with both our tongues
and forks simultaneously.
During all of this, I made the boldest attempt to smile
warmly at the missus, who was throughout chucking me a
look which could have pulled up the Grand National from
the commentary box. In fact, we’d grappled so hard with
the bloody stuff that its humongous ming went almost
unnoticed (apart from at the Yorkie’s table, where the
odd shuffle of chairlegs went up) and we relaxed with a
couple of post traumatic beers, during which time a very
disturbing thought dawned on me. Let’s see. It jumped
out and glued itsen to the plate and then it glued itsen to
the fork and then it glued itsen to me choppers and then it
glued itsen to me tongue and back to the fork. Now. Why
then didn’t it glue itsen to the breadcrumbs in the first
place? How did it get out? No… how did it leap out? I want
to know exactly what them sinister crispy little bastards
know that the rest of us don’t!
Well; it’s now three twenty five I the morning. As I speak
to you here in my Lion King pyjamas, I have a pair of
nightlight binoculars trained on the remaining diskette
which I sneaked home and removed from the freezer half an
hour ago. No-one has ever thought of having a look at what
an unattended one does before. Hah! I’ll be ready for them
this time… hah!
The Temples of Angkor, Cambodia
words: Benji
Angkor represents one of mankind’s most enduring and
astonishing architectural achievements. Erected between
802 and 1432 AD, it is the sacred skeleton of a powerful
empire that stretched from Burma to Vietnam.
Built by a series of God, kings who strove to better their
ancestors achievements, the temples are dedicated to different gods depending on
the religious leanings of the king at the time.
Of over a hundred temples in the area, the jewel is Angkor Wat: the worlds largest
religious building. Walking down its causeway at sunrise is an experience so
haunting you are unlikely to make the return journey feeling like the same person.
Many believe Angkors geographical
position is based on planet spanning
sacred geography from ancient times.
The layout and iconographic nature
of its sculpture indicate the celestial
phenomenon of the procession of the
equinoxes, the slow transition of one
astrological age to another.
This is a place that everyone should
witness once in their lifetime.
44
This month’s Nottsword answers are all places in Nottingham
where you can get a late drink, jiggle your booty and get down to
some fine grooves in Nottingham city centre (but not necessarily
in that order). We didn’t get a winner last issue, because everyone
was too busy on their summer holidays to bother to enter. So this
month we have an extra special prize of a set of six chart CD’s and
a free mystery prize from LIDL.
Down
1. Cheesy bar that goes up and down (6, 4)
2. Stay at this club until the top of the morning (3, 5)
4. Indie nightclub that goes well with milk (6, 4)
5. Another cheesy club near the sea (6)
8. Minimalist late bar (3, 4)
10. Find freedom in Masonic place (6, 5)
11. Comfortable setting for reptiles (6, 5)
12. Where all the journalists go (5)
16. Popular with sailor types (4, 4)
17. Club that is likely to attack (7)
19. Don’t stand too close to this underground club (3, 4)
22. Methodical venue (4)
Across
1. Where the comedians hang out above Bar Risa (9)
3. Hard to find, yet on eponymous street (7)
6. The town of stone (4, 4)
7. Goddess of fertility, found out near the Showcase (4)
9. Where early 19th century activists keep spheres (6, 6, 8)
13. Cheesy club near the sea (5)
14. Warm and relaxed (4)
15. Traders are allowed in this Goose Gate bar (6, 3)
18. Club on the city centre outskirts, with an action plan (4, 5)
20. This late hangout is a peach (3, 8)
21. Where did Saturday and Sunday go? (4, 7)
22. Don’t get lost in Mansfield road’s late club (4)
23. Union venue where the lights always seem to be on (3, 3)
The LeftLion Pub Quiz has returned to it’s rightful home at the Golden Fleece on
Wednesday nights. Blessed be to all of those who take part in this most fiendish
and devilish of intellectual contests. Those brave souls compete to win a gallon
of beer or a meal for them and their friends in this gladiatorial battle of the minds
and beer bellies. Sample some of the weekly delights below...
NOTTINGHAMIA
6. The most expensive ticket ever sold at Rock City was for
a gig this summer. Who was playing?
7. Nottingham is playing host to a huge festival in October
for what kind of entertainment?
8. Which former Notts County manager was recently
implicated in a bungs scandal on Panorama?
9. Which high-profile poncy bar in town is being closed
down and sold off due to a 50% dip in profits?
10. ‘Bread and Lard Island’ is a derogatory term for which
part of Nottingham?
ANIMAL MAGIC
11. What animal killed Steve Irwin?
12. What animal is alleged to have killed Catherine the Great?
13. What animal killed Cleopatra?
ON 13 SEPTEMBER IN HISTORY
16. Who died ten years ago on the 13 September?
17. Which non-European country declared war on the
Nazis on this day in 1939?
18. On the 13 September 1899, Henry Bliss was the first
person in history to be killed by what?
19. The Conservative Party elected a new leader on this
day five years ago. Who was he?
20. On this day in 1922, a world record temperature of
136.4 °F was set. But on which continent?
BONUS QUESTION! Name the country.
TV CATCHPHRASES
Name the programmes these catchphrases are taken from.
21. “Take your time, listen to Tony”
22. “Be nice to each other”
23. “You dirty old man”
24. “YOU! BOY!”
25. “First rule of comedy, Spike”
BONUS QUESTION! The last catchphrase belonged to
which character?
THE MAVERICK ROUND: GOOSE FAIR
26. What Alan Sillitoe short story was named after a tale
from the Bible and a ride at Goosey?
27. Which film has its final scene at Goose Fair?
28. What did Gordon the Gnome used to give you when you
went to see him?
29. Scotland’s Tallest Man was a regular feature at Goose
Fair, and it was claimed that he was so tall that he could
step over which object?
30. Is Goose Fair worth the money?
ANSWERS:
1. Who recently, and controversially, quoted Emperor
Manuel II in a speech?
2. Who was the first Premiership manager to lose his job
this season?
3. According to pest control officers, rats in the city centre
are growing to the size of what other animal?
4. What political party held its annual conference in
Brighton?
5. Which country held this year’s Ryder Cup?
14. What animal killed the Greek playwright Aeschylus
when it was dropped on his head by an eagle?
15. What animal nearly killed the Queen Mother on several
occasions?
CURRENT AFFAIRS: 1. The Pope 2. Bryan Robson (West Brom)
3. Otters 4. The Lib Dems 5. Ireland
NOTTINGHAMIA 6. Whitesnake 7. Videogames (Game City) 8.
Sam Allardyce 9. Geisha 10. West Bridgford
ANIMAL MAGIC 11. A stingray 12. A horse 13. An asp 14. A
tortoise 15. A fish
ON THIS DAY: 16. Tupac Shakur 17. Canada 18. A car 19. Iain
Duncan Smith 20. Africa BONUS ANSWER! Libya
TV CATCHPHRASES: 21. Bullseye 22. Mr & Mrs 23. Steptoe and
Son 24. Grange Hill 25. Hi-De-Hi BONUS ANSWER! Ted Bovis
MAVERICK ROUND: 26. Noah’s Ark 27. Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning 28. Lucky Beans 29. A Mini 30. No.
CURRENT AFFAIRS
45
Aries (March 21 - April 20)
Libra (September 24 - October 23)
Relinquish control. The dice will decide your future from now on. Write six options on a
piece paper of what to do tomorrow. Then shake on it. Put your destiny is in the hands of
your six-sided friend.
Happy Birthday! You’re looking muchacha attractiva, so don’t let the passing years worry
ya sweet. You’re looking so dandy in fact that I want to get primeval and start mating here
and now. Let’s get some fruit and make like Bonobos!
Taurus (April 21 - May 21)
Scorpio (October 24 - November 22)
Seven bottles of bourbon in seven nights, you sill wouldn’t figure it out. Something queer is
going on around this place… and I’m not talking about that bloke who you know from the
yard. Look deeper and you will learn, but don’t stick your neck out.
When you’re at Goose Fair this year have a look around you. Why do the geese not come
anymore? In years gone by they used to flock to the place with their families and sell out.
Now they can’t stomach it at all. How things change hey…?
Gemini (May 22 - June 22)
Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22)
Bloodshed is a nasty business. Power tools offer a distinct advantage, but can be messy on
carpets and furnishings. When you make the journey to buy the hardware remember black
bags and sponges. You must clean before you are clear.
Have a good search around your house for booze. Anything stronger than wine is two
points per half pint glass. Drink as many of them as you can and it will bring good luck. If
you reach a dozen points then you’ll have nice dreams tonight.
Cancer (June 23 - July 23)
Capricorn (December 23 - January 19)
I’m a monkey’s uncle? That’s weird bro!! I blame the excessive amount of banana’s you fed
to the kids when they were younger. I told you to lay off, but you’d always want to poke
another ‘nana through the bars of their cage…
Rollerdiscos are go. Normal steppy-legs dance parties are out! If you ain’t got wheels then
you’re missing the essential style addition of the last century. Those rolly-rolly badboys are
your ticket to becoming a bona fide Hockley fashion icon.
Leo (July 24 - August 23)
Aquarius (January 20 - February 19)
You have a smile that could light up the world... or at least your living room. Particularly if
you gargle a pint of paraffin with a lit match between your teeth. Pyrotechnics will play a
big part in your future. Lighten up.
Gorillaman wants a word with you. He’s not happy about that bad batch of bananas and
he’s been told that you’re the person responsible. Now is the time to have a good think
about ways to satiate the hairy fella. Milkshakes perhaps?
Virgo (August 24 - September 23)
Pisces (February 20 - March 20)
Ancient wisdom says that calm comes before the storm. But what if it’s raining and you’re
already feeling calm? Some would say the only solution is to get angry. It’s fun and gets
you out of an awkward situation.
Looking up at the stars can leave you in a state of awe. They’re so big and you’re so small
that it can make your head spin like a planet in freefall. However, this is not the time to get
dizzy, but a time to assess your cosmos. Hair are your aerials man!
Merry M
Robin H en
oo
Ruckus d
ALAN A’DALE
30%
Hardness rating (%)
r Robin)
Kids bagsy order (afte
after
Streets in Notts named
them
after them
Bling rappers named
46
Appearances on TV shows
4
s
Appearances on TV show
LITTLE JOHN
FRIAR TUCK
3RD
0
0
Appearances on TV shows
Hardness rating (%)
Kids bagsy order (after Robin)
5
60%
LAST
Streets in Notts named after them
1
Bling rappers named after them
0
WILL SCARLET
MAID MARION
6
Hardness rating (%)
90%
Kids bagsy order (after Robin)
1ST
s
6
s
35%
Hardness rating (%)
r Robin)
Streets in Notts named after them
0
Bling rappers named after them
1
after them
Bling rappers named
after them
NEVER
3
Hardness rating (%)
65%
r Robin)
1
after
0
Bling rappers named
them
after them
2ND
0
0
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