the magazine as a pdf

contents
editorial
LeftLion Magazine Issue 27
February - March 2009
WELCOME to the first LeftLion Magazine of 2009. As our
regulars will know, there has been plenty of new stuff on
our website over the past few weeks to keep you happy,
but this is the first brand new mag we’ve put out this
year. Woo!
11
12
04
May Contain Notts
Nottingham’s Mr Sex brings you the
latest rundown of news in Notts and
probably a bit of Mansfield-bashing
too.
12
Hoods: The Gangs of Nottingham
An interview with author Carl
Fellstrom about his latest work
Hoods, which uncovers information
about gang crime in Nottingham.
05
LeftEyeOn
Some snaps from the last two
months of Nottingham Culture.
14
06
The Credit Crunch Special
You’re as bored as us of that term
by now, but you’ll probably be
interested to know more about how
the UK recession is hitting Notts
businesses.
Highs and Lowe
Stephen Lowe (the guy who wrote
that play about Brian Clough) is
back and this time he’s talking about
soft porn and stuff.
10
A Canadian In New Basford
Rob rocks out at a local karaoke
night.
11
Book Sayle
That bloke from The Young Ones and
Alexei Sayle’s Stuff is a fully grown
author these days you know?
15
16
18
Jam Hot
Radio One’s Mista Jam, aka Pete
Dalton, is in the house to talk about
Nottingham hiphop and more.
Super Sharp Shooter
You might not have seen these
photos before, but some of them will
seem strangely familiar.
Artist Profiles
This time around we look at some
members of local art collectives.
15
20
Geoff Diego Litherland
He has a geekish obsession with
paint and is inspired by music. You
can see his exhibition in Notts soon.
21
Nottingham Events Listings
Your non-stop guide to the next two
months, including interviews with
Papa La Bas and Red Shoe Diaries.
26
Write Lion
Creative writing from the LeftLion
Forum.
28
30
Reviews
This month includes new music from
Cappo and Alberto Veto and books
from Simon Armitage and Staple
Publishing.
The End Page
Psychic madness with Roger Mean,
LeftLion Abroad, The Arthole from
Rob White and Notts Trumps.
credits
Editor
Jared Wilson (jared@leftlion.co.uk)
Marketing and Sales Manager
Ben Hacking (ben@leftlion.co.uk)
Art Editor
Frances Ashton (frances@leftlion.co.uk)
Illustrators
Rob White
Literature Editor
James Walker (books@leftlion.co.uk)
Photographers
David Baird
Rebekah Downes
Al Greer
Lorna Griffiths
Bobby G
Dom Henry
My Linh Le
Stephen Wright
Sound Bloke
Mike Cheque
Deputy Editors
Nathan Miller (njm@leftlion.co.uk)
Charlotte Kingsbury (charlotte@leftlion.co.uk)
Technical Director
Alan Gilby (alan@leftlion.co.uk)
Music Editors
Natasha Chowdhury (natasha@leftlion.co.uk)
Paul Klotschkow (paulk@leftlion.co.uk)
Photography Editor
Dominic Henry (dom@leftlion.co.uk)
Theatre Editor
Adrian Bhagat (adrian@leftlion.co.uk)
Also for this magazine I met up with Carl Fellstrom, who
has written Hoods, a controversial book uncovering some
of the secrets of Nottingham crime. As a fellow journalist I
have massive respect for him for uncovering a fascinating,
but also sinister and nasty web of murder, drugs, crime and
corruption. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it…
Mista Jam is an old friend of LeftLion (indeed he and Joe
Buhdha wrote a feature for us a few years ago) and he
appears to be going from strength to strength right now.
Not only is he hosting an ace radio show on the BBC, but
he’s also appearing in a (admittedly quite patchy) sitcom
on BBC3. So we caught up with him for a natter.
Likewise we got in touch with Stephen Lowe, who we last
spoke to when he was writing a play about our beloved
Cloughie. This time his mind was more focused on blue
movies and the Kray twins.
We’d never heard of Stephen Wright until recently, but his
photos seem eerily familiar. That’s because he roams the
streets of Nottingham looking for interesting moments to
capture. Much of his work will probably be recognisable to
you too and that’s why we devoted the centrespread to him.
You’ll also find all the usual regular features you know and
love inside these pages. Don’t forget to check our website
for more than we can cram into here and remember to
check out our podcasts on leftlion.co.uk/audio if you’re up
for listening to us as well.
Finally we have a fair few events coming up over the next
few months, including a couple of gigs at Brownes and
our first exhibition of art from this magazine - more details
inside. Come and check them out!
Contributors
Michael Abbott
Rob Cutforth
Alison Emm
Beccy Godridge
Lizzie Goodman
Rebecca Gove-Humphries
Duncan Heath
Camillo Hortez
Aaron Juneau
Roger Mean
Al Needham
Dan Skurok
Aly Stoneman
Art Director
David Blenkey (reason@leftlion.co.uk)
‘Credit crunch’ has become something of a household
phrase across Britain over the last year or so. Everyone
from Gordon Brown to Ian Brown (both of whom I share a
birthday with incidentally) have been talking publicly about
it. Normally we wouldn’t be so bothered about covering
national issues in this magazine, but this one affects us
locally too. Plenty of independent businesses we know and
love are feeling the squeeze and we look at some of those
in this magazine. Admittedly there’s only so much money
to go around, but at times like this we’d implore you to
support the places you love and screw the copycat chains
- even though they might be a bit cheaper! In the world of
commerce your money is your vote.
“If you want to know what God thinks of money,
just look at the people he gave it to.”
jared@leftlion.co.uk
Dorothy Parker
If you would like to reach our readers by
advertising your company in these pages
please contact Ben on 07984 275453 or email
ben@leftlion.co.uk
LeftLion has an estimated readership of 40,000 in
the city of Nottingham. LeftLion.co.uk received
over 4 million page views in the last 12 months.
LeftLion is distributed to over 300 venues across
Nottingham. If your venue isn’t one of them,
please contact Ben on 07984 275453 or email
ben@leftlion.co.uk
This magazine is printed on paper sourced from
sustainable forests. Our printers are ISO 14001
certified by the British Accreditation Bureau for
their environmental management system.
MEET THE TEAM
Paul Klotschkow Music Editor
After inventing Tetris in the early 80s,
Paul went on the run from the KGB who
were determined to steal his idea and
turn it in to a money spinning hand held
game. They succeeded. Since being
in Nottingham he has written time
travelling Nicholas Lyndhurst vehicle
‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ for the BBC
and tried and failed to bring back Pogs.
Dom Henry Photo Editor
Dom’s been wielding cameras for the ‘Lion
since 2003. As well as sorting our photos,
Dom also writes for us, being well into
his theatre and music, especially jazz. A
marketing man by trade, Dom also works as
a freelance music and events photographer.
He makes a mean Gin and Tonic.
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
3
Teenager Liam Munn is stabbed to
death outside Halo nightclub
People just don’t seem to care about their actions.
That’s not just a boy’s life taken away - that’s
someone’s son, brother, boyfriend. A handful
of lives ruined for one stupid argument about
something that’s probably not even important.
Miss Caulton
Well done everyone physically involved, you
complete and utter morons. The human race
doesn’t need you.
myhouse_yourhouse
Would I be right in assuming that Halo used to be
Mode, which used to be McClusky’s, which used
to be Madisons? That building is the Doctor Who of
shit clubs, constantly regenerating into something
a bit different, but just as shit.
Lord of the Nish
You totally missed out Essance. That was pure
awesomeness.
theonelikethe
Walked past the site of this just now on me lunch
break. Loads of flowers there tied round a lamppost.
Quite a few mourners too. Really sad news.
Jared
Shit like this makes me never want to come back
to England. Despite living in a developing country
close to civil unrest/ revolution, I still feel safer
in Bangkok. I’ve not seen a single fight in eight
months and I go out twice a week at least.
Baron von Carlton
It’s a messed up culture of not fully understanding
what knives do to people, and macho bravado that
is sorely misplaced. As a kid we were lucky the
most we had was a scrap in the playground.
kidchameleon
Knives have always been around; the groups I
hung out with often carried knives and that was
back in the early eighties. If you go back in history,
I think you’ll definitely find there’s a youth culture
of carrying some sort of weapon.
Sara
Halo is not opening tonight as a mark of respect.
Laird of Kincavel
Hopefully they shall keep that mark of respect
going forever.
Ben_Cipher
I didn’t know it was someone from the Dollars shop.
They are nice guys in there. It’s very sad, so pointless.
Geoim
Coffee Intake
I’m currently drinking a lot of coffee, on a regular
basis. As a large proportion of a cup of coffee is
water and you’re recommended to drink at least
two litres a day, will I get caffeine poisoning before
reaching that hydration target?
MrGeesBigCircus
Caffeine is a mild diuretic so, unfortunately, coffee
drinking to achieve hydration could well be a catch
22 situation.
ShiftlessShuffle
I read a report that indicated a link between
reduced risk of diabetes and higher coffee, but
also that higher intake leads to ‘hallucinogenic
processes’, which is not something you want in the
office. So who knows?
Stillman
Keep going! I want to know how much you need
before the hallucinations kick in.
Metal Monkey
I stopped drinking it in September. The first two days
are weird, but after that you just feel fine. My main
reason for quitting was that I wanted to be calmer
and less easily distracted, which has worked.
Cheque
If you’re not seeing and hearing things that aren’t
really there, you aren’t really a ‘coffee drinker’, more
of an ingenue dabbling in the murky brown waters.
NJM
4
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
MAY CONTAIN
NOTTS
December 2008 with Nottingham’s
-January 2009 ‘Mr. Sex’, Al Needham
December 1
Forest announce that their new manager will be Billy Davies,
causing uproar amongst certain supporters. A former Derby boss
as the new gaffer? When has that ever worked, eh?
December 3
A story about a junior school in Sneinton cancelling its Christmas play
because the kids couldn’t learn their lines on time is mysteriously
reported by the Evening Post as Christmas being cancelled for
Eid, by Nu (which is spelled like that because it makes them
sound more sinister and New-World-Orderish) Labour in PoliticalCorrectness-Gone-Mad Broken Britanistan. Naturally, this results
in the BNP complaining to the school (!) and an avalanche of whining
from the sort of locals who regularly perform oral sex upon panes
of glass on the 89 to Rise Park. ‘well i think its bad i dont no what
the world is coming to . the english children go with out . and to all
the children that belive in santa will think hes cancelled. well i tell
you something if my kids went to that school they would not go on
that day i would keep they off. and i would tell them about our jesus
was born. i am so sicken about this . it just gose to show what can
off BRITTON WE LIVE IN TODAY? if i get the chance i will live this
place and move to spain or some were.this place we call britton as
gone down hill’ said a moron from Aspley.
December 4
‘This is a disgrace, and looks like a form of racism. The school seems
to favour muslims rather than others. We should not be celebrating a
religion that beleives in sacrifices, it smacks of black magic, after all
they did sacrifices. Things like this do not help racial harmony, it will
just cause more racism.’ Said another resident of Planet MouthyBreathe about Santagate, as he refused to aid the dying carcass of
racial harmony and caused more racism.
December 5
And again. ‘Jesus was English not packi or indian. If you dont like
our religion go back to where you come from’ Seriously, I could fill
this entire page with shit-thick racist wank from people who, if there
actually was a God, would be humanely slaughtered and made into
potted meat for Nanas in care homes. All because some bleeding kids
couldn’t learn the words to Frosty The Fucking Snowman in time.
December 6
Some stuck-up bell-end from The Spectator has a walk down
Goosegate on a bollock-freezingly cold night, doesn’t pull, so
writes another depressingly piss-poor article about Nottingham.
How wrong is it? He actually praises Clumber Street. Remember the
following, kids: If there was one shooting in Nottingham for every
time a London newspaper or magazine who didn’t know what the
fuck it was going on about brought up our reputation for gun crime,
there’d be almost as many shootings here as there are in London.
December 7
Carl Froch becomes WBC champion of the world. Come on,
Calzaghe, stop being a pissy-knickered YITNEH.
December 11
Bestwood retains its crown of setting fire to more cars than
anywhere else in Notts. Seriously, are they waiting for Eddie Kidd
to come out of retirement or summat?
December 12
Said bell-end from The Spectator goes on Radio Nottingham and
apologises for being a shit excuse for a journo, like the bitch he is.
December 19
An unknown genius sticks up fake signs from the Council across
town that allow you to piss up the walls after half past seven.
To quote the immortal Chris Needham; ‘I didn’t do it myself, but
whoever did it…I’d be proud to know them, I think’.
January 3
Forest only go and batter the richest club in the world 3-0 in the
FA Cup, don’t they?
January 4
The Conservative Party announce that the place with the biggest rise
in the teenage pregnancy rate in the UK is - drum roll - Rushcliffe.
How disgusting. They’re only doing it so they can get on the waiting
list for a four-bedroomed semi-detached with a gazebo, you know.
January 6
Nigel Clough becomes manager of Derby. How pleased I am that
he’s been given a chance to manager a bigger club. And how even
more pleased I am that it’s not Forest.
January 7
Punchinello’s, the oldest restaurant in Nottingham, closes down
- possibly because of poor trade and the recession, or possibly
because the health inspectors saw the owner leave a baby on top
of the microwave so he could repeatedly hit a crocodile in the face
with some sausages. My money’s on the latter.
January 9
Cast, the bar/restaurant (named after a rubbish indie band) that
was once properly known as the Playhouse Bar, closes down. It
used to be the perfect place to have your snap on a hot summer’s
day in Nottingham. Let’s hope it re-opens in time for the next one,
currently estimated by NASA as July 27, 2018.
January 11
According to another of those shit-stirring surveys, Nottingham - or
should I say, Nonceingham - has the second highest concentration
of sex offenders in the country, with one in every 748 of us
bumming livestock in the Market Square on Saturday afternoons
and God knows what else.
January 12
Oh Jesus Christ no, both of the Scruffys in Notts have shut down
an’all, and we’ll never have that recipe for the Dime Bar cheesecake
again. When people who live in the Lace Market and The Park
start cooking their own teas, then you know this country is in deep
financial shit.
January 14
Tales of Robin Hood, the tourist attraction that should have been
called Come And See Some Knackered-Up Robots That Stink Of Piss,
Stupid Fat-Arsed Americans, finally shuts down, sparking a debate
about how we don’t do enough for tourists. And thank God we
don’t, say I. Seriously, if Nottingham was twenty miles away from
London, we’d all be forced by the Council to wear green tights and
skip about like twats outside Ye Olde Pounde Shoppe for the benefit
of Bubba Buttfuck and his foul ilk. Fuck that.
January 15
Like a phoenix arising from the ashes, but in a Deicide t-shirt,
Junktion 7 returns as Seven. Don’t go looking for that door handle
shaped like a guitar when it opens, though - somebody teefed it.
January 16
John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole and a true defender of
Nottingham Culture, dies. Not only was he alleged to have been
part of the defence team for the Lady Chatterley trial in 1960, but he
also defended the Sex Pistols and the local Virgin Megastore in 1977
for having the word ‘Bollocks’ plastered in the shop window.
January 18
A 19-year-old lad is killed outside Halo. Utterly, utterly pointless.
January 21
A maintenance engineer from Pork Farms goes on trial for
emptying his nuts around the factory after they wouldn’t let
him have a nudey calendar up at work, and then being removed
from the premises, shouting that he ‘wanted locking up before he
murdered someone’. Damn, that man’s - shit, what’s that word for
someone who acts really batchy?
January 23
The Ninety Minutes Hate. Smashed-up train carriage. Sheep heads
thrown through pub windows (thank God we weren’t playing Wolves).
The police and Forest so terrified by the replay that the former refuse
to move the game to Wednesday for TV and the latter refuse to allow a
massive Derby banner. Oh, and the game? It was fucking horrible.
January 29
A councillor from Eastwood gets into trouble for having a calendar
of women’s tits on his office wall, as a stand against Political
Correctness. I too would like to join him in his cause against PC nannystate namby-pambyism by pointing out that he’s a sad old get.
LeftEyeOn
LeftEyeOn
What’s
What’s been
beengoin’
goin on raand
raand Notts
Nottsrecentleh,
recentleh,through
throughthe
thelenses
lensesofofour
ourcamera
camerafolk...
folk...
Left to right from the top
From
top left to bottom
right
Secret performances
were taking
place in the caves underneath
Nottingham on January 13, part of ‘undercover’ a night of
performance-y
art from Hatch
Secret
performances
were- hatchnottingham.co.uk
taking place in the caves
(Rebekah Downes)
underneath Nottingham on January 13, part of
Undercover,
a night
of performances
from Hatch.
Best tache in town?
problems
eating soup? Probably.
Send us in
hatchnottingham.co.uk
your impressive facial hair photos and we’ll see who’s best.
(Stephen Wright)
(Rebekah
Downes)
You get
some right
piss artists
in Nottingham...
One of the
eating soup?
Best
‘tache
in town?
Problems
‘Public Urination
signs
which appeared
round
Probably.
SendPermitted’
us in your
impressive
facial
hair
Nottingham before Christmas and made the national press.
photos
and
we’ll
see
who’s
best.
(questionmarc.co.uk)
(Stephen Wright)
Territory wars? Agressive behaviour? Fighting? it’s all going on
You
get
some
right piss artists
Nottingham...
in the
bushes
at Attenborough
Nature in
reserve.
One
ofGriffiths
the ‘Public
Urination
Permitted’ signs which
(Lorna
/ Flickr:
Angelicus73)
appeared ‘round Nottingham before Christmas and
Philadelphia
Hip Hop band
The Roots played Rock City on
made
the national
press.
December 1, featuring MC Black Thought heading up their Jazz
(questionmarc.co.uk)
influenced alternative sound.
(Al Greer)
wars? Aggressive behaviour? Fighting?
Territory
It’s all going on in the bushes at Attenborough
Nature reserve.
(Lorna Griffiths / Flickr: Angelicus73)
Philadelphia hiphop band The Roots played Rock
City on December 1, with MC Black Thought
heading up their jazz-influenced alternative sound.
(Al Greer)
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
5
Capital None
Eek! The Recession is here, the trough of credit has finally run dry, and Nottingham
hasn’t got a Pottingham to Pissingham. But are things really that grim? Time for
yet another in-depth feature on the Credit Crunch, but this time featuring people
you know, not talking rammell. Read two pages, get one free!
The May Contain Notts Guide
To The Credit Crunch
words: Al Needham
A brief history on how we all ended up as potless as Derby County’s trophy cabinet.
Step One
Step Seven
Margaret Thatcher is a hateful, boot-faced cow who thinks it
would be a great idea for the country to stop mekking things,
sell off all the nationalised industries we already owned, and
start sitting in offices trading imaginary bits of paper with
each other instead. The horrible, rotten, ignorant bitch.
Nottingham thinks it would be well jolleh to knock up loads of
executive flats in the Lace Market, and then realises that the
handful of executives that actually do live in Notts would rather
stay in The Park, thanks. So they go to nobheads who want to
pretend to be in Sex and the City who can’t really afford them
and students instead.
Step Two
The West says, ‘Hey, massive Communist countries, we’ll
teach you how to do Capitalism, so you can have a McDonalds
in Red Square and we can bang on about how we won the
Cold War’. Massive Communist countries say, ‘Yeah, go on then
- we can get our lot to do the shit jobs your lot can’t be arsed
with any more.’ The West says, ‘Oh, just one thing - you’ve got to
promise not to be shitbags any more.’ ‘Er, no mate,’ say Massive
Communist countries, ‘we’re going to carry on thinking we’re
rock, and in ten years time you’ll be hanging off our arseholes
like goldfish shit.’ ‘Ah, sod it,’ says the West. ‘Just keep sending
them DVDs and cheap clothes over and we’ll say no more about
it.’
Step Three
Loads of greedy twats in America have an insatiable need to
find houses big enough to get their fat arses and oversized
Stetsons into, and ponce money off lenders with stupid names
like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that they could never afford to
pay back even if they lived three lives.
Step Four
America thinks it would be a bit of a laugh to vote for George W.
Bush, in an experiment to see what would happen if the country
was run by a perpetually masturbating orangutan who has
been licking lead paint off a stick all day.
Step Five
Meanwhile, in the UK, Tony Blair is well into his mission to
impose middle-class values on people who can’t afford them,
with the assistance of eminently punchable smug twats on the
telly who present non-stop House Porn on Channel fucking Four,
a ludicrous rise in house prices, and lots of lovely, lovely credit.
Step Six
Some mad bastards crash a couple of planes into the World
Trade Center. President Bell-end vows to give the perpetrators
a right panning and spends over $600,000,000,000 in order to
make Osama bin Laden move cave a couple of times, the world
even more scarier, and buses to be evacuated because some
twat left an empty box of chicken on the top deck. Whoo! Mission
accomplished!
6
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
Step Eight
It slowly dawns upon people that while countries like China are
making things and selling things, us batchy boggers are only
buying things from them and selling ‘em to each other, because
what used to be your nearest factory is now a rapidly emptying
nest of ponce-boxes. Nice one, Maggie, please die soon.
Step Nine
It also slowly dawns upon people that bankers are being paid
a shitload of money for very little, and even more money when
they make a dog’s arse of things by way of a golden handshake.
Imagine if you were at work, and your boss gave you £50 every
time you shit yourself and smeared it all over your face at your
desk. That’s just what it’s like to be a banker.
Step Ten
It rapidly dawns upon the banks that vast amounts of the money
they loaned out to people has been spunked on overpriced
houses, £700 gold chains that are worn by bin-men in town
in order to impress ‘the Fanneh’, assorted worthless rammell,
duddoos, etc. And a lot of them can’t afford to pay it back.
Ooer.
Step Eleven
The banks shit theirsen.
Step Twelve
Governments shit theirsen.
Step Thirteen
We all shit oursen.
Step Twelve
You get laid off from your job, and rock and whine softly to
yourself in a house you can no longer afford, whilst some cock
on the news tells you that we all have to spend our way out of
recession.
You Don’t Know You’re Born, Part 1.
The Dirty Thirties:
ee, it wor grim
words: Michael Abbott (with help from
Gramma Rose and Grandad Bill)
ALTHOUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION of the twenties and
thirties didn’t hit Nottingham half as badly as it did the
North, it was still a massive blow. The lace empire had shrunk
considerably from its Victorian heyday, but other industries,
Raleigh in particular, managed to stick it out and come out the
other side stronger than before.
It was still relentlessly grim, though. There was an almost
Chaplinesque quality to the locals; clothes riddled with holes,
shoes with soles that flapped and kids’ shoes being encrusted
with big metal segs that shot out sparks when they broke into
a run. Even though huge swathes of the population were out
of work, there was a huge stigma about being unemployed at
first - the general opinion was that it was something to do with
laziness rather than an uncontrollable financial collapse.
Although there was a dole of sorts, it was a pittance compared
to the post-Welfare State unemployment benefit and after
you were on it for a while, it was reduced and supplemented
with food vouchers, as the government was terrified that a
rapidly-depressed chunk of the population would piss it away
on booze. People who worked at the Labour Exchange were
generally despised; people were convinced that they would
hold back jobs for their mates and were taking back-handers
left and right.
However, things weren’t as bad in the surrounding countryside,
as agriculture was still a dominant (and especially during those
times, absolutely crucial) force in the UK. During the summer,
farmers would draw on hired help from the city and the value
of livestock rocketed; one slaughtered pig would basically pay
the rent for the entire year.
Summing it all up, Nottingham just about managed to dodge
a bullet, thanks to its long-awaited expansion. Not only were
thousands of council houses built in new estates that sprang
up on the North side from the late twenties onwards, but the
Council House was opened in 1929 (even though it needed to
put a few shops on the ground floor to cover costs). By the
end of the thirties, the good news was that there was work
available for every able man. The bad news was that said
work mainly involved being in a massive war…
‘When one venue goes down, an entire section of local bands lose their base’
Julio Taylor was the booker for Junktion 7, which closed on New Year’s Eve, and will be performing the same role at the all-new Seven.
MUSIC VENUES have been feeling the pinch for some time
now, for various reasons; people go out less and when they do
they drink less. Music venues stand or fall on their bar take; if
you’re putting on a low-key gig, you’re not going to make much
on the door. If you’ve booked a higher-profile band, they’ll want at
least 80% of the ticket sales. A busy bar is crucial to any venue’s
success - that’s why we’re all keen on club nights, because you
don’t have to pay for a band or an engineer and people will come
out to get pissed.
The summer of 2007 was the turning point. The students came
back, but not in the numbers that they used to, and not with the
spending power they used to have. You didn’t get the feeling that
you were in Studentville any more. There was also a change in
the laws about three years ago which allowed any licensed bar to
put on live music - so any old pub with a PA could put bands on,
which led to a total flooding of the market and the number of good
local bands available to play went down. More music venues
doesn’t make for a better music scene, because there’s only so
many people who’ll go to live gigs. You can only slice the salami so
many times, and the scene gets diluted. We always championed
local bands, we have no regrets about that, and we know that we
were an extremely important part of the Notts music scene, but
local shows always suffer in a downturn.
It’s going to be a difficult period for local music venues, which
is a great shame because they all work so well together. Each
of them has found its own little niche, they know that niche
back to front, and it’s incredible that there are so many in such a
small area. Problem is that when one venue goes down, an entire
section of local bands lose their base. As a musician myself in
Illuminatus, I loved the venue. Our first gig was at a Battle of the
Bands there, we picked up and developed our audience thanks to
our association with the place, and we loved it. The owners made
us feel welcome and the audience were very receptive. Six years
later, I could see new bands walking in and feeling really proud
to be there.
This isn’t a criticism to any other venue in Notts, but all local
music venues are cliquey by their very nature - including my
old venue - and a lot of the bands who played there would have
found it extremely difficult to get a slot elsewhere had the place
just disappeared. It would have been a massive loss to the local
scene. Luckily, the venue has been bought out and we’re starting
again as Seven. The attitude, staff and ethos will be the same - the
ownership and brand name has changed. This time we’re going
to spend a lot more time in the community and on the internet,
and make sure the punters take full ownership of the venue. We’re
very open to new ideas at the moment, the policy is putting on
what works and what’s good.
Seven opens on Friday 13 February, with an official launch
featuring Zodiac Mindwarp on Saturday 14 February
www.sevenlive.co.uk
‘We’re at the end of an era, and it’s one that we’ll never see again’
Chris Stamp has been manager of Muse for over three years.
BUSINESS HAS BEEN VERY GOOD, ACTUALLY. The bar and
restaurant trade here had a very good Christmas. We’ve had
some surprisingly busy weeknights here since then, weekends
have been great…it’s not been the doom and gloom we expected.
Having said that, it’s obvious that people are cutting down on
their nights out, and they’re budgeting when they do. People
in Nottingham are never going to stop going out - they’ll just
be more selective of what, where, and how much they’ll drink.
They’re definitely turning towards other night-time activities;
Broadway’s box office have just had their most profitable
weekend ever.
This recession has been a long time coming, and it’s the bar trade
who suffered first. The government has been constantly jacking
up the duty on alcohol for bars, while allowing the supermarkets
to use alcohol as a loss leader, and we can’t compete. People are
stocking up on cheap booze, drinking at home, and coming out
later. That and the smoking ban meant that we took a hit earlier
than other retail outlets.
We’re all aware that there’s going to be some fallout in the pub
trade over the year. But that’s inevitable in Nottingham, as there
are so many licensed premises anyway. It’ll be survival of the
fittest, but also a necessary period of consolidation. If you look
after your customer base, continue what you do well and keep
your costs down, you’ll be able to come out the other side as a
better business.
I think we’re very well placed to cope over the next few years.
Being opposite Broadway helps, and the return of Brownes has
been a huge shot in the arm for Hockley; people are more inclined
to come to an area if there’s more than one similar type of bar
there, rather like they do on Mansfield Road.
The pubs who are going to suffer will be the ones with an older
clientele, without decent smoking facilities, who are dictated
to by breweries and can’t choose who to buy their beer from.
Certain pubs are taking desperate measures at the moment
without thinking it through, which is very risky; it devalues your
brand. Some are also starting to pander to students, which is a
false economy; you’re competing with so many other people with
years of experience and having to lay out for bands and DJs. We
offer students free rental of the upstairs bar for private parties
and we have after-work deals, but nothing that compromises
what we’ve spent years building up.
Like almost every other bar in town, we’re with PubWatch, who
have put a £1.50 cap on the lowest price of a drink. But a certain
chain - the supermarket equivalent of the bar world, if you will - are
doing pound-a-pint deals, which is a very bad idea; it’s narked the
police, it’s narked the other bars and it’s not at all responsible.
Whatever happens to the economy, it’s obvious that we’re at the
end of an era for the Notts pub trade, and it’s one that we’ll never
see again. The flash, gold credit-card, poncebox-renting thing
was a house of cards just waiting to be blown over and thank
God it’s gone. It wasn’t a particularly Nottingham thing in the
first place - just an empty, fake lifestyle, and good riddance to it.
www.musebar.co.uk
‘It’s an inevitability that some shops will go to the wall’
Robin Donaldson and Mo Ghofrani are the Menswear Menswear Manager and
Menswear Co-ordinator of Projects Design, which has been running for three years.
WE SAW THIS COMING last summer, when there was a huge
drop. Menswear is keeping us healthy at the moment - women
shop continually, but men shop in random bursts, and we’re
in a peak time for men. They went mental the week before
Christmas.
day, no need to re-fold any jumpers’. When that happens here,
you worry.
People’s shopping habits have definitely changed. Some of them
have become savvier and more selective. The really galling thing is
the fact that the most successful outlet at the moment is Primark the most unethical company on the face of the earth! Why do your
morals have to fly out of the window just because you’re earning
a bit less, for a £15 top that you’re going to love for a week and
then never wear again?
There’s been a dip, but not as much as we expected. We went on
sale very early and tried not to panic. Being a totally independent
shop helps; we’re just a phone call away from the owner, meaning
we can react on the fly to events. Your Top Shops have a chain of
command, more stock, and can only under or overreact long after
the event. That’s our one advantage.
There are still independents opening up, but they’re a dying breed
in Notts. The Council are really inflexible with the indies; they’ve
only just started to be decent with us because they’re struggling
too. Other cities encourage the growth of small businesses, but
the minute you can’t pay your rent here, you’re out. We pride
ourself on being a shopping Mecca - and it’s undeniable that there
are some amazing one-off shops here - but it’s not as good here
compared to, say, Leeds. Everything’s scattered from Canning
Circus to Mansfield Road, and the centre is dominated by chains.
It’s an inevitability that some shops will go to the wall. When
you hear about major retailers going down, it’s terrifying. It’s
a personal thing - there’s someone we know with a house and
commitments who is going to suffer if we close. If you work at
French Connection and there’s no trade, you think; ‘Great - easy
When will the recession end? When people stop using the Rword. It’ll be at least two years before we get back to normal.
Hopefully, there’ll be a renaissance in local independent shops and
a rejection of chain stores. We turn out so many fashion designers
and entrepreneurs here, but unless this town does something to
accommodate them, we’ll keep losing them to other cities and
other countries.
Projects Design, 32 Pelham Street, NG1 2EG
www.projectsclothing.com
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
7
You don’t know you’re born, Part 2.
The Hatey Eighties:
at least the football
was good
words: Michael Abbott
(with help from his mam)
UNLESS YOU LIVED in the south-east, the entire country got
kicked in the knackers in the early eighties. Nottingham took its
fair share of groin-ache; virtually every big industry in the city was
laying off left and right, and the concept of leaving school on a Friday
and starting in the factory the next Monday disappeared forever.
This particular recession - which was so all-consuming that it
didn’t even need a special name - affected everything. Apart from
a very convenient Falklands War that kept the most unpopular
government in history in power, the news reports relentlessly
kicked off for years with the latest unemployment figures. Unless
you were ‘lucky’ enough to get on a YTS (Youth Training Scheme
- twenty five whole pounds a week!), there was practically
no stigma about being young and on the dole; it was almost
mandatory. There was still free university education if you fancied
it and there was dossing about and having an extended childhood
if you didn’t.
Although the eighties is seen as the age of the Yuppie, they weren’t
exactly in abundance in Notts. The only people in the area who
cashed in at the time were private landlords who took advantage
of houses that were being repossessed all over the shop. However,
it wasn’t all doom and gloom; Nottingham took quite the step up
in the early eighties, especially in the field of entertainment; Rock
City and the Royal Concert Hall both opened and the Central
East Midlands studios were built in Lenton. As with the present
government, regeneration was seen as the way out; after Hyson
Green had a copycat riot in the wake of Brixton, the flats were
pulled down and work was created for the sake of it.
More importantly, the Thatcher regime’s ace in the hole for their
second election - facilitating the opportunity for private tenants to
buy their own properties - kicked off the first housing boom of the
modern era. Nice if you got in at the right time; not so nice if you
weren’t even born then and you’re currently working your tits off
to get on the ladder.
However, the defining moment of Nottingham in the eighties was
the miner’s strike, when the Notts branch of the NUM refused to
strike without a ballot and a huge chunk of them broke away and
continued to work, leading to the county becoming the focal point
of a virtual civil war. Defiant heroes against authority in the mould
of Robin Hood, Arthur Seaton and Brian Clough, or sell-outs who
turned the entire north against us and got used and spat out by
the foul Thatch? Let’s not go into that. And this is the decade we
have theme pubs and club nights devoted to?
‘We’re not fazed by it at all’
Rosa Brough is a second-year Broadcast Journalist student at Trent who works part-time at the
Golden Fleece, and presents Stupod, LeftLion’s student podcast.
Everyone assumes that students are going to be unaffected by
the recession, and I’d agree - to a certain extent. The majority of
people I know at Uni aren’t fazed by it at all - we’re not worried
about our mortgages or jobs, we have our loans, they cover our
tuition, rent and food, and we always find going-out money
when we need to.
Having said that, I am getting worried about the state of the job
market. We do this to land the career we always wanted to do
- and you definitely need a degree for that these days, as well
as the placements and the networking - but most of us take any
first job available to keep us going, and those jobs are looking
thin on the ground.
I’m not scared about the debt side of things at all. I see this as
an investment in my future life and I’ll worry about the cost later.
The interest rates are always going to be low, regardless of the
financial climate. I think the biggest worry for students right
now is the slowdown in the night-time economy, because a lot of
us work in bars and restaurants and the money from that is the
difference between scraping along and being able to properly
enjoy yourself.
I get the feeling that universities aren’t really stressed about the
recession. There’s always going to be a large amount of people
who want to do a degree, because it’s a way of getting out of the
real world and sponging off people for three more years. And if
it wasn’t for the two universities in Notts, the city would be in
bigger trouble. Building projects are slowing down all over the
country, but we’ve just had a new newsroom built on campus
and buildings are being converted all over the city for students.
The universities are keeping a lot of firms afloat now, and I don’t
think town would be half as buzzing as it is without us. Most
pubs would be shut in the week.
Stupod is available every month from
www.leftlion.co.uk/audio
POUND TOWN
Discount shops: a guilty pleasure then, pretty damn essential now. Here’s the top five in the city centre…
EVERYTHING 99p
POUNDLAND
Broadmarsh Centre, opposite Wimpy
Lister Gate, right next to Broadmarsh Centre. Are you
detecting a pattern here?
Once upon a time, this was the £2 Shop, and some of us
look back at those times as if they were an era of unfettered
decadence. Nowadays, this place does exactly what it says on
the tin (of Goblin hamburgers - perfect for your next LARPing
camping weekend). If you want to know what shopping in East
Germany circa 1978 was like, this is where you go - brand names
that time forgot (Playtex? Wright’s Coal Tar Soap? Toffifee?),
shabby knock-offs of licenced toys, and utter randomness
(leopardskin mop handles, anyone?). Cock your nose up at this
place at your peril, though - the food bargains are skill, with
proper brands for next to nuppence.
This place is obviously reaching for the high-end Poundocity
of Everything £1, but it doesn’t quite manage it. Absolutely no
reason to spurn it, though - it specialises in student food (Vesta
packet curries, noodles, etc), bathroom and cleaning products,
and - at the time of writing - slut pants, stocking, whips, and
bondage sets. Ooh la la!
If you’re lucky, you’ll find: Edible knickers. Sex up your snap tin
for a quid!
One for the ponces: Loads of girly bath-mank. Candles, fizzy
balls, whiffy gels, etc.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find: Church candles going for £8
elsewhere for 99p.
One for the ponces: Enough slabs of Green & Black’s - the
Bournville that thinks it’s summat - to retile your bathroom with
for a tenner.
Er, no mate: Loads of vaguely erotic ceramic ornaments that
used to terrify you (whilst making your groin go all tingly) when
you were nine.
EVERYTHING £1
Broadmarsh Centre, next to Argos
This place is the future of pound shops (except they’ll be called
€1.23 shops then). Loads of brands you know and trust (Lemsips
for £2.50 cheaper than in Boots!) jostle for attention with the mad
shit we’ve come to know and love. No chatty carpets or bingo
curtains here, it’s all shiny wooden floors, proper lighting and - as
a concession to the average Broado punter - aisles wide enough
to accommodate the widest Bulwell Mam-arse. The food selection
is exemplary, and they sell two pregnancy testing kits for a quid.
Which, for my money, is worth the steam off anyone’s piss.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find: Vicks Vapo-Rub, a dust mask and
foot-long glow-sticks. All your old-school raving requirements at
1992 prices!
One for the ponces: Those Feng Shui statuettes you paid 79 quid
more for a few years ago, you sucky bell-end.
8
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
Something useful we bought for a pound.
Er, no mate: Anthony’s 70s Disco Workout DVD, presented by
the minciest Big Brother contestant ever, which is saying a lot.
Er, no mate: A dozen plastic red roses for a quid. Instant
dumpage.
WILKOS
All over Notts. Including Broadmarsh Centre
If you don’t know what Wilkos is or does, put this paper down
now, scum.
POUND SAVER
Broadmarsh Centre, opposite Wilkos
Not a pound shop as such, but a veritable Aladdin’s Cave - if
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves had just pulled off a massively
successful sting on the Prize Bingo at Skegness, that is. This
place is a veritable discount gangsta’s paradise: you can pick
up no end of Playboy tat, a passport cover marked ‘PLAYER’,
a Scarface clock that looks like if was ripped off a 12 year-old’s
MySpace page for £7, and - best of all - an imitation AK-47 for
the kiddies for a fiver and an Airsoft sawn-off shotgun for Dad
retailing at a mere £12. Awr, bless, etc.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find: something of use.
One for the ponces: Er, nothing to see here, really.
IN MEMORIUM
Fords (The shop in Viccy Centre that had its own overpass
attached to it so you could go there with your Mam without
being seen by your mates and getting shamed down).
The Reject Shop.
The Scoop basement in the big Co-Op.
Car boot sales (before eBay).
Shops with bins full of cornflakes and pistachios.
Er, no mate: Official Chelsea FC chocolate, with twelve very
poor likenesses of Frank Lampard.
READ MORE AT LEFTLION.CO.UK/COMMUNITY
Rob Cutforth is surprised to discover that, beneath the surface, Nottingham is a bona fide Metal Muthaland…
1990 WAS A BIG YEAR FOR ME. I was fifteen,
in my first year of high school, my voice
(and my balls) had finally dropped and I was
introduced properly to hard rock. To say I was
a bit of a late bloomer would be like saying
Dawn French kinda likes cheese. I think most
people go through an awkward stage in their
lives, but for me it went a bit further than most.
Before my fifteenth birthday, my life was all
about three things: videogames, Dungeons and
Dragons and Duran Duran. That’s right, ladies.
There certainly wasn’t enough for a column;
I guessed I would have to find another
Nottingham institution to diss instead (by the
way, neither Jo and Twiggy’s break-up nor the
closing of the Tales of Robin Hood are my fault,
I swear). It was getting late, I was tired and I
was half in the bag so I figured we’d call it a
night. John wasn’t having any of it - he said
he was saving the best for last; Heavy Metal
Karaoke at the Ye Olde Salutation Inn.
There are few things I hate more than karaoke.
It’s not so much the bad songs, the cheesy DJ
or even the terrible singing that gets me down.
What I hate most about karaoke is karaoke
people. People who take it seriously. People who
(thanks to Pop Idol and X Factor) are convinced
that the only reason they’re not famous is
because they haven’t been discovered yet.
People who are too deaf and stupid to realise
that when they try to hit the high notes, it’s
like a cat is being castrated and set alight. I
personally think that the producers of X-Factor
should be publicly stoned to death for allowing
that Alexandra chick to release a karaoke
version of quite possibly the most beautiful song
ever written. It literally makes my ears bleed.
All that changed when my best friend lent me
his copy of Metallica’s ...And Justice for All
that spring. I had never heard or seen anything
like it before; the black guitars, the fuck-you
attitude, the ridiculous hair and the even more
ridiculous guitar solos. I loved it. In the years
that followed, I grew my hair long, traded the
neon shirts and turn-ups for denim cutoffs and
a leather jacket (I’m not sure which was worse),
and replaced my collection of Duran Duran and
Pet Shop Boys tapes with Pantera, Guns N’
Roses, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Nirvana and, of
course, Metallica. I had well and truly sold my
soul to the God of Rock forever.
Eighteen years later, when my buddy John
suggested we do a hard rock pub crawl of
Nottingham for my next column, I shrugged it
off. Nottingham didn’t really strike me as a rock
town; it’s full of cheesy clubs. Besides, what
could John possibly know about it? He certainly
doesn’t look like a rocker. He’s bald (not by
choice), he’s got a beard and a proper job in
Marketing. He doesn’t wear leather or spandex,
he showers regularly and I bet he’s never
even seen an apple bong. When he showed
up, he wasn’t wearing the usual shirt and tie I
normally see him in; in fact, to my surprise, he
was wearing a Metallica top. However, it was
a preppy little Metallica jumper that looked
like it had been designed by Tommy Hilfiger,
bought for him by his girlfriend. I didn’t really
expect much proper rocking out that evening,
but he was persistent and fun to drink with, so
I agreed.
The tour started with the usual suspects. I had
never drunk at the Pit and Pendulum, the Angel
or Foremans before and to be honest, they all
produced (mostly) predictable results. Being
surprised at finding goths in the Pit would be like
being surprised at finding a story blaming Princess
Di’s death on immigrants in the Daily Mail.
I suppose the same could be said about finding
a skinhead in a punk bar like Foremans, but it
still shocked me when I saw one. I’ve seen This
is England and have had someone try to explain
to me the concept that you can be a skinhead
in this country without being a racist, but I
still don’t get it. The skins I’ve seen back home
are more the curb-stomping American History
X types, and they scare the ever-loving piss
out of me. Trying not to make eye contact with
When we first arrived at the Sal, it was like I’d
stepped into my bedroom in 1990 again. It was
dirty, there were tatty Maiden shirts hanging
about and old Metal posters on the wall. One
thing that was never in my bedroom back then,
however, were the two (surprisingly attractive)
girls singing Mr Brownstone. There was only
ever one girl that ventured into my room
back then, and her name was a three letter
palindrome. This was much better.
him, my gaze wandered over the other things
Foremans has to offer. Like the Wall of the Dead
or the do-it-yourself graffiti wall in the bog.
It’s a weird little yellow place, but that’s what
is good about it. If there is one thing it isn’t
short of, it’s character; which is something that
is missing from most of the soulless hipsterwannabe chain bars across the street. Plus, the
music was very good.
All. I punched Blackened in and when it came
on, I almost jumped out of my chair. My head
was bobbing and I was about to throw the first
goat I’d thrown in fifteen years when, suddenly,
the bartender skipped it - laughing about it to
his mates. OK, I understand Metallica is about
as mainstream as you can get when it comes to
metal, but what are you taking the piss out of
me for? It’s your bloody jukebox, fella.
In the Angel, I found the scruffy old-school
rocker types I was looking for, and I was
starting to feel like it was 1990 again. John and
I headed for the jukebox and to my surprise, the
first album I saw staring straight back at me
was the one that started it all, ...And Justice for
We left the Angel and I had resigned myself to
the fact that although we’d had a decent time,
I still didn’t really feel like Nottingham was a
particularly hard rock town. Even Rock City
were doing an eighties dance night.
Most people that went on stage looked the
part. A skull tattoo here, a leather wristband
there - I even saw a pink boa. Even John, airguitaring and singing Seek and Destroy in his
Metallicardie, looked very Rock and Roll. But it
wasn’t until Motley Crue Guy went on stage that
I realised just how serious people in this town
take the rock. He had massive, jet-black hair,
bandanna, ripped Dr Feelgood t-shirt, leather
jacket, guy-liner and white jeans ripped at the
crotch exposing tiger-print tights. He went on
stage, screamed his face off and in an instant,
I was pulled straight back to my metal youth. I
had found Nottingham’s heart, and it was black.
It’s easy to mistake Nottingham for a clubber’s
town with its disco ball-laden nightclubs,
Friday nights of chavvy dudes in shirts and
shoes openly snogging drunken, sparkly
hussies and Saturday morning puke piles, but if
you yank up Nottingham’s mini-skirt, you’ll find
that it hides ripped fishnets and a big spiky
codpiece. Thank God for that.
Read more from Rob at
www.canuckistani.com
BOOK
SAYLE
words: Aly Stoneman
photo: John Falzon
‘It’s a bit weird standing under a triple image
of yourself! I look like some Greek peasant
who’s been arrested - Naxos, the sheep
interferer!’ quips Alexei Sayle, referring to the
three publicity mug-shots for his latest book
tour gurning mischievously on Broadway’s
cinema screen behind him. His eyebrow-raising
career change from bolshy stand-up comedian
to serious writer of literary fiction continues
with his fourth novel, Mister Roberts. Set in a
remote Spanish village, the plot combines robot
suits, aliens and ex-pats and is both an original
coming-of-age story and an unusual take on the
corrupting influence of power.
Has fame helped your writing success?
It helps you to get more attention in the first instance… you get
more critical attention of the ‘My God, it can write!’ variety. But I
feel like if I was someone else, my books would have been shortlisted for one of them prizes they give out by now, so it’s a mixed
blessing. Maybe that’s just deluded self-pity!
Stephen Fry writes in much the same way as he performs, but
you’ve made a big switch from your stand-up comic persona…
Stand-up is very black and white: ‘don’t you hate this, hate that.’
I wanted to be more complex about the world. When I was a
comic, I was one of the best comics in the world. Nottingham,
incidentally, always sold out first on the comedy tour. I want to
emulate that as an author. You can’t achieve that by writing a
mimsy spin-off. The game is much harder than that, takes a lot
more thought. I’m incredibly competitive. I want to be up there
with Philip Roth or Raymond Carver.
What makes you happiest?
As soon as you reflect on it, it goes, but when you write
something you think is really good, it’s an incomparable
experience. (Laughs) You can go for a long time without writing,
but there’s something still happening somewhere. Not writing is
part of writing, it’s part of the same process.
When did you start writing?
I’d written three movies, TV scripts, hundreds of columns, so
I’d already written a lot, but I’d never been able to write prose
fiction. I’d never had what they call an authorial voice. Barcelona
Plates was initially a movie idea, then I thought, ‘No, I’ll try it as
a short story’, and suddenly the voice was there. That was the
first short story I ever wrote.
Would you say that Mister Roberts is less bleak than your
previous novels?
Earlier drafts were very bleak, much nastier - I started wondering
was I doing this ‘cos it’s my trick or did it suit the story? I don’t
want to be bleak; I actually feel the need in my writing to be more
optimistic. My last desperate attempt to be popular! (Laughs)
Uncle Alexei - after all those years of shouting at people!
Do you see yourself as a provincial writer, coming from
Liverpool?
(Laughs) Not provincial, probably, but I try not to be metropolitan
either. I read two books recently short listed for the Orange prize
- and they both mentioned Swains Lane in Highgate, in London.
It’s a road in an area where writers live! I thought, find another
fucking road, you know? Like both these women couldn’t think of
another road except for Swains Lane, which is obviously where
they go (puts on posh voice) for their patisserie every day and
you just think, they can’t even be arsed moving out of north-west
wherever it is! I wouldn’t like to just write about metropolitan
concerns because the country is much bigger than that.
Is that why you set Mister Roberts in Spain?
I had thought of setting it on a housing estate in Britain, but the
remoteness was an essential part of the story and I’m not a great
one for research. I have a house in Spain as well….
“
I’m incredibly competitive.
I want to be up there with Philip
Roth or Raymond Carver.
”
When did you realise you were funny?
It wasn’t so much being funny, but knowing how it worked.
From an early age I could watch a comic dying on the telly but
think, ‘no, you’re funny’ and I could see someone else who was
getting big laughs, and say, ‘no, you’re no good’. It’s not about
being funny but instinctively knowing what comedy is, on a
professional level. Ultimately, my books aren’t comedies, they are
social satires.
Does humour run in the family?
My dad was a jolly sort of character but my mother’s got an
extraordinarily unsophisticated sense of humour. She doesn’t
think I’m funny at all. Funnily enough, I’ve been commissioned to
write an autobiography next about growing up in a mad hole of
believers and what that’s like.
Your infamous communist upbringing…
Communism means a system that fails. Somebody once asked
me who my favorite fictional character was, and I said the cat in
Animal Farm, because the cat never really believes it. The cat’s
never for a minute fooled and I just think that’s how I’d like to
think of myself really, because it made me ashamed of what me
and my family had supported.
Is class still important to you?
Certainly my stand up was all about class. People often recollect
me using foul language and I never did on television. It wasn’t
the language but the attitude which was unsettling them. It
was threatening because class is really an unmentionable topic.
I clearly don’t subscribe to the accepted modes of behaviour
for show business. I never did all that charity shit like Children
In Need. I was never nice! That’s why people think I used bad
language - which I didn’t - because my attitudes were clearly
subversive.
So politics is still important to you?
It fascinates me. The psychology of the people involved - the
psychology of the mass. You could see capitalism as not just
an economic system but as a psychological system, because
capitalism only works if we all believe in it. If people stopped
believing in the system you’d have a serious crisis, so there’s a
psychology. Bloody economists and their pseudo-science; they
try to say economics is a force of nature like mathematics, but
it’s not, it’s a human construct and therefore the only thing that
really governs it is psychology. Phew! Deep me! (Laughs)
Do you think you might have a future in politics?
Not in party politics, no, but I’d like to be a theoretician. I
have these grandiose ideas about the way politics works.
Occasionally you go on some TV show and you articulate them.
I think about being a bit more active, putting out a different kind
of voice. But there are a lot of dangers, going on Question Time
or Newsnight, you can just reduce yourself to a kind of gimmicky
person.
Barack Obama’s inauguration seems to offer hope…
I don’t really know how much freedom he’ll have. I’m certainly
glad the other one went, he was a nightmare. But Obama is an
intellectual, he seems thoughtful and charismatic. Whether these
are advantages in a politician, I don’t know. I feel sorry for him
that he is sailing into such troubled waters.
Plans for the future?
Take each day as it comes.
And then he took out his mobile - and phoned his mother.
You can find out more at www.alexeisayle.me
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
11
The Gangs of Nottingham
words and photos: Jared Wilson
Hoods uncovers a story which has fascinated many people over the last decade: organised
crime in Nottingham. It starts out in the fifties at the beginning of the modern-day drugs
trade and then moves on to the tabloid fodder of the well-renowned Gunn brothers and
‘Assassination City’, with our chief of police telling the rest of the county, ‘We can’t cope.’
We met up with the author Carl Fellstrom in a safe place and asked him a few questions…
Are you originally from Nottingham?
I’m not. I moved here in 1995. I’d worked at various papers in
Northamptonshire, Bedford and Yorkshire before. Around 2003 I
was doing a lot of crime stories for national newspapers. I was
frustrated because I could always write a lot more than they
would print. They were very London-centric and a story from the
provinces really had to be extraordinary to get in there. The book
came from that material.
Have you received any threats after writing this?
There have been a few. There’s nothing I would say I’m really
worried about, but I’m aware that there are a small minority of
people who I have to watch out for. In fact there’s even been
a Facebook site set up dedicated to getting people not to buy
the book. I think the one thing some people in the book don’t
like is their criminal reputations being tarnished. The fact that
they have been named as informants, for example. But generally
the reaction that I’ve had is quite positive. I know that it must
be hard for some of the families of the victims, bringing all the
memories back. But there are so many unsolved cases too and
it’s worth trying to raise their profile again. Take Tommy Lau for
instance, he’s a lovely chap, but he can’t walk again because he
got mistaken for someone else and shot. He still doesn’t know
why it happened and it’s hard for him to live with that.
Do you think Colin or David Gunn will have read it?
I received a letter from David and he has read it. He was upset,
didn’t like the fact that I wrote about Jamie Gunn and he was
fairly abusive. But I think he was mostly upset that I didn’t go to
him while I was writing it. There was a plan at one stage to do
that, but I felt that the closer I got to them, the more they might
expect me to give them some kind of a cloak of morality. For the
same reason I didn’t try to interview Colin Gunn.
They seem to want to play up the Robin Hood myth, but these
guys have done brutal things and there isn’t much room to
give them some kind of makeover. I don’t think they should
be allowed to rehabilitate themselves so quickly after what
they have done. I’m all for rehabilitation in the long term, but
I think out of respect for the families of the people who have
been murdered they should wait a while. They’re the real
Brief history of Gunn Crime
A brief overview of the criminal careers of Bestwood Cartel leaders
and ‘Godfathers’ of Nottingham gang crime, Colin and David Gunn
1960s
Colin and David (born in ‘67 and ‘65) are
children growing up on the Bestwood estate.
1970s
The duo quickly become feared by other pupils
at Henry Whipple Junior School and known as
bruisers in the playground.
1980s
Both are pupils at the now defunct Padstow
Comprehensive School. As teenagers they
appear in a local church magazine article,
which praises their crime-busting heroics after
they apprehend a street robber and hand a
woman her purse back. But behind the scenes
they are using friends and friends of friends to
build up a crime network that will later become
known as the Bestwood Cartel.
Early 1990s
In their mid-twenties at the start of the decade
and steadily clocking up minor convictions
for burglary, theft, handling stolen goods and
violence.
1997
The Bestwood Cartel are now running a largescale operation which spans money lending,
burglaries, extortion, robbery, drugs, car
ringing and fraud. Colin is known to enforce
his leadership with extreme violence. There are
stories of him nailing people’s hands to tables
and taking to knuckles with a hammer or baseball
bat. At the same time their PR in Bestwood is
exceptional and to this day residents still talk
about a firework show they organised one year
or the £100 they left in an old lady’s birthday card.
October 1998
Colin Gunn and a few friends are arrested
12
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
victims of this story, not Colin or David Gunn for any character
assassination.
Having read the book, I don’t think it really sensationalises
anything - it’s more focused on the evidence of the police files.
Although perhaps the cover and the title could be considered
slightly hyperbolic…
In terms of the cover image, I had no say in that and was as surprised
as anyone that they chose the image of Colin Gunn. The original cover
was going to be the one of men in balaclavas that can be found on my
internet sites. But the title is one I chose. I felt it summed up what I
needed to say as a lot of it centres around the Robin Hood myth and
Nottingham, with people trying to moralise about their own villainy.
But the story itself is sensational enough already. Only the other
day I heard that David Gunn is at Lowdham Grange prison with
Robert Briggs-Price, Jamie Neill and Donny Quinn (three other
well-known Nottingham criminals). Why on earth would you put
all those people in prison together? It’s ridiculous. The authorities
make it so easy for them to carry on doing what they’ve always
done and so hard for them to rehabilitate.
for brutally beating a guy senseless outside
the Astoria (now Ocean) near the back of
the Broadmarsh Centre. However, the CCTV
surveillance tapes mysteriously go missing.
The victim pursues GBH charges, but without
evidence Colin only gets a few hundred hours’
community service and, cheekily, gets an
imposter to complete it for him.
27 November 1998
David Gunn is imprisoned for grievous bodily
harm and threatening to kill Keith Copeland
after a fight in a pub. He is sent to prison for
four years and nine months.
2001
Colin Gunn is a reliable informant to Nottingham
police. His reputation as a provider of good
information is such that he is trailed by a police
officer with a National Crime Squad background
and begged to sign up on the official register.
But his links with police are self-serving as it
helps to bring down rivals and extend his patch.
He is also using lots of cocaine and steroids and
the two drugs together are like a timebomb.
30 August 2003
Marvyn Bradshaw is shot dead outside the
Sporting Chance pub in Bulwell. It is believed
the intended target of the attack was his best
friend Jamie Gunn (nephew of Colin and David),
who was in the back seat. Jamie is inconsolable.
You must have sifted through loads of information to write this.
Are there any particularly juicy bits that didn’t make the final cut?
I had to take out a lot of names and there was the odd thing that
didn’t make it in for legal reasons. There was one story about a
former Nottinghamshire police officer who was implicated in a
massive customs drug bust and yet walked free. I think there
was a bigger story to that, but I couldn’t print the details.
Another one must have been the figure you call The Taxman.
He’s only touched upon briefly in the book, but seems to be
the biggest criminal of the lot…
He was like Colin Gunn was maybe fifteen or twenty years ago.
He could be very brutal, but is now one of the most successful
businessmen in Nottinghamshire, if not in the whole country. He
has a lot of power and a huge amount of influence and recruits
former police officers to work for him so he has a great information
intelligence network. For legal reasons I had to take things out
that would have identified him a bit more easily. Though I think a
lot of people in Nottingham already have a good idea who he is.
Another interesting character involved in the book early on is
Dave Francis. Tell us about him…
He was a very enigmatic character from the Meadows gang in
the eighties and early nineties. They were responsible for lots
of armed robberies and later got into the drugs trade too. Dave
began to run his own drugs cartel and yet was still a leader for
the black community in a lot of ways. But what he did, which
was a stroke of criminal genius, was to get a job as manager of
the local drugs charity. That gave him access to a database of
“
In some ways the Gunns embody
the sense of community spirit in
Britain that has perhaps been lost
since the Thatcher days. However
perverted that became there were good
things about it. They cared about their
community and genuinely wanted to
do well by them, but the brutality of
what they did to get where they were
is quite shocking.
”
people using crack and heroin, enabling him to set up a miniempire, whilst garnering a lot of influence through politicians
like Alan Simpson MP and Sir Geoffery Errington, the chairman
of the drugs charity.
Francis became a political hot potato and a difficult fish to catch.
The police even left him alone for a while as it became so hard
for them to get to him. He was always playing the race card, but
in the end he got too arrogant. He’d built up a pyramid of people
working for him and they just took it out layer upon layer until he
became so isolated that he had to come out of the woodwork and
do bits himself and was caught as a huge load of heroin made
its way to Nottingham. He went to prison for some time, but is
out again now. He spends a lot of time in Jamaica these days
supposedly doing charity work, but I believe he does come back
to Nottingham quite often as he has a lot of family here.
There are so many stories about Nottingham gangsters flying
about. Was it hard to separate the truth from the bullshit?
Absolutely. I’m not sure I got as far as I wanted to with it either.
There will be mistakes in there, but I hope I’ve got as much right as
I could have. I tried to source everything three times over to be sure.
But Nottingham is a gossipy city and everyone is only really one
degree removed from everyone else. Lots of things have become
myths that aren’t true and some are. I’m sure that some of the
stories I was told have a whiff of colouration in them, but others I’m
absolutely certain were correct. For example I’m sure people were
involved in the murders I’ve mentioned them in connection with.
30
September
2003
Marian
Bates is shot
dead in her
jewellery
store in
front of her
husband and
daughter.
James Brodie
and Peter
Williams
had burst
in wearing
motorcycle
helmets and attempted to rob the place, but it
didn’t go as planned. Williams is later jailed for
22 years and Brodie has not been seen since.
According to accounts from informers, he was
shot and his head and hands were chopped off.
Rumour has it his body was fed to pigs on a farm
in north Nottinghamshire.
Researching this book must have been depressing as hell. Were
there any lighter moments, or times when you had to laugh?
I guess there were, but I can’t remember them. I got so caught
up in it that it was occupying my every thought. I was seeing
people who had been at the sharp end of it. There’s a lot of
pressure on you trying to keep those people secret and safe from
others finding out they’re talking to you. All these things take a
great toll over a length of time. It’s taken a long time for me to
get out of that headspace.
How well do you think this book will sell outside of Nottingham?
I’m not sure geographically, but it’s doing okay. The first print
run of 7000 sold out before Christmas. The second print run
was another 4000 and they’ve all gone. So we’re now looking
at our third print run and we’re looking at doing a paperback in
February. I think that’s great as paying £17 for a book is a luxury
and I’d like it to be available at a cheaper price.
Back in March 2005, when you did that ‘We Can’t Cope’
interview for The Telegraph with Nottinghamshire Police Chief
Steve Green, did you realise the stir it might cause?
His comments in the interview totally took us by surprise. I think
what happened was that we were so well-briefed that we got
him in a corner. He then thought in a wrong way that we were
going to blow him out of the water. So he gave us a really candid
interview to take the heat off the situation. We didn’t realise it
would be on the front page of The Telegraph, but it caught the
editor’s eye at the time. It was also election time and crime was
a hot potato. What was disappointing was that the next day
Green accused us of blackmailing him into the interview. Which
was extraordinary… Then years later he came to rely on the
interview to dig himself out of a hole, using it to save his job by
saying he’d pointed out the problems they were facing at the
time. Life has its ups and downs and I wouldn’t have wanted
to be in his situation at all. But he wasn’t the right man for the
job and at that point he had screwed up! Abandoning the drugs
squad was his decision and had a massive effect as they were
supplying primary intelligence to those investigating gun crime.
It was a massive blow to their investigations. The two went
hand in hand and it was naïve to think otherwise. Other things
like taking bobbies off the beat and sending them round in cars
also had a bad effect, sending out signals that the police were
too scared to be on the streets. There were things that he did
that had a huge influence on the ability of Nottingham police to
deal with their workload at the time.
Was Colin Gunn a criminal genius, or did the police really
fuck up?
He might not have been a genius in an intentional way, but he
was very good at what he did and there were definitely elements
of professionalism in that. But certainly I believe that the police
had a larger part to play in him becoming so successful. Their
collective mistakes really helped him on his way.
Why do you think he stayed living in Bestwood and Rise Park,
when he earned so much money he could move anywhere?
Couldn’t he have just moved abroad?
Colin’s wife Victoria tried to get him to move to Spain on
numerous occasions and they certainly talked about that. But
Bestwood was in his blood. He hated coming into town after a
while, after taking a couple of beatings and losing control of the
things happening outside of his estate. He was a big fish in a
small pond and when he came into the city it was different as
people no longer looked at him like he was the King. A lot of it
was about power. He could certainly have afforded to give up his
life of crime, but he probably liked and was used to the feeling of
reigning over the people of Bestwood.
Did your opinion of the Gunns change after you finished
the book?
I think that it helped to understand them as human beings. It’s
easy to think of people as cartoon-style gangsters, but it wasn’t
just criminals who looked up to them. I talked to many people
who are law-abiding citizens of Nottingham that only had good
things to say about them. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about
Nottingham as a city too. Not least that the connections between
people are so close. It’s like one big family.
12 July 2004
Michael O’Brien is jailed for life for the
murder of Marvyn Bradshaw. As the judge
read out the sentence, O’Brien threw water
and spat insults at Mr Bradshaw’s family
and taunted Colin Gunn, who was sat in the
gallery during the trial, shouting ‘There’s one
coming your way.’
2 August 2004
Jamie Gunn dies of pneumonia, after eleven
months of depression and drug use following
the death of Bradshaw. His funeral is attended
by thousands of mourners, including most of
Bestwood. Colin is inconsolable over the death
of his nephew.
8 August 2004
Joan and John Stirland are shot dead in their
bungalow on the Lincolnshire coast. Joan Stirland
was the mother of Michael O’Brien and many
believe it is a revenge attack by the Gunns.
January 2005
Police intelligence on the secret operations of
Is there anything the Gunn brothers did that you have an
admiration for, sneaking or otherwise?
In some ways they embody the sense of community spirit in
Britain that has perhaps been lost since the Thatcher days.
However perverted that became there were good things about
it, with people looking out for each other and particularly
those who needed help like the elderly. They cared about their
community and I think they genuinely wanted to do well by
them, but the brutality of what they did to get where they
were is quite shocking.
How valid do you think comparisons to the Krays are?
I think they’re entirely valid, though I didn’t touch on it much
in the book. There’s no doubt the metaphor works. Everything
I know about the Kray twins as a phenomenon is similar. On
the one hand they were compassionate towards their own, on
the other side they are business-like and brutal to anyone who
posed a threat to them. As brothers there is a bit there as well
in the sense that one was perhaps slightly unhinged and more
violent, with the other one being the slightly stronger character
in terms of getting things organised.
Has there been any interest in the book from film or TV
companies yet?
Just before the book came out there was some, but there hasn’t
been much since. Certainly I’ve talked about it with people and
I’d be interested in being involved with something based on a
similar way to how Shane Meadows gets people from the local
community involved. But so many things would have to be right,
the story itself and the people involved that it’s a massive job.
But it is something I’ve thought about, yeah…
“
The one thing some people in
the book don’t like is their
criminal reputations being
tarnished. The fact that they
have been named as informants,
for example.
”
Colin Gunn’s own biography is bound to come out soon. If he
asked you to write it with him, would you do it?
Hmmm. I’d definitely think about it, but I’m not sure they would ask
me. I think there is a lot of bubbling talk from the Gunn side about
publishing something for themselves. David is coming out soon and
I think he’d like to restore his reputation and go back to Bestwood
with his head held high. So there is definitely an interest in their
story, but whether I’d be involved in it or not is another matter.
What are you going to write next?
I’m working on a book in tandem with another writer, which is
the story of an undercover police officer. Believe it or not he went
undercover to infiltrate the miners during the strike. A lot of
people wouldn’t realise that the authorities in Nottingham would
use their own police officers to resolve what was a civil law
situation, but that’s Thatcher for you.
What would you say to people who are afraid to go out at
night in Nottingham?
Don’t be scared. The only way things can change and you can
reclaim it from the gangsters is by getting out there and making
it your own city. Try to impose your own character on the place
and cheer it up.
Hoods, published by Milo books, is reviewed on page 28
and available to buy online and in bookshops now.
the Bestwood Cartel goes missing from a car
and finds its way to Colin.
17 March 2005
Colin Gunn and several other men are arrested by
Nottinghamshire police on suspicion of murder.
30 Jun 2006
Colin Gunn, Michael ‘Tricky’ McNee and
John Russell are all jailed for life (35 years) for
conspiracy to murder Mr and Mrs Stirland.
1 July 2006
Gunn’s supporters riot in Bestwood, with
around thirty people setting fire to cars and
causing £10,000 worth of damage.
13 October 2006
David Gunn goes to prison on Amphetamine
possession and supply charges, after a trial at
Derby Crown Court.
www.milobooks.co.uk
it is said that he was recruited and placed into
the force as a ‘clean skin’. Alongside him fellow
former policeman Philip Parr is jailed for twelve
months for conspiracy to commit misconduct in
a public office.
4 November 2006
Several people are jailed for their part in the
Bestwood riots earlier in the year.
January 2007
O’Brien’s friend, Gary Salmon, is jailed for life
for his part in the Marvyn Bradshaw murder.
August 2007
Colin Gunn is convicted of encouraging police
corruption in the case of Charles Fletcher. He
is given another nine years which will run
concurrently with his life sentence.
April 2009
David Gunn is due for release from prison.
26 October 2006
Former trainee police detective Charles Fletcher
is jailed for seven years for corruption. In court
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
13
words: Adrian Bhagat
photo: Dom Henry
Stephen Lowe is a Sneinton-born playwright, actor, director and screenwriter, perhaps
best known for Old Big ‘Ead in The Spirit of the Man, his very successful play about
Brian Clough. We spoke to him about a new work, Glamour, which focuses on a sexually
frustrated young filmmaker and an encounter with the Kray brothers.
What is the story behind Glamour?
The story is largely autobiographical. I’d say that the weirder the
play gets the more likely it is to be true. It was 1966 and I was
a working class lad in grammar school. I was making a film of
my own which was supposed to be a Lawrentian breakthrough
movie about sexual relationships. I borrowed a wind-up camera
from my uncle and I bought the cheapest 8mm film you could get
which I developed myself in the bath. It was called Blue Movie
because the middle section was all about whether their sexual
relationship would work out or not. The first part was black-andwhite, grainy, like Nottingham in the sixties. The second part
was blue and the third part I wanted to make in Technicolor. I
was working at a fleapit cinema called Moulin Rouge. The owner
let me programme all these foreign films as long as they had
little bits of sex in them to keep the dirty raincoat brigade happy.
They were very cheap to get because no-one had ever heard
of people like Ingmar Bergman or Fellini. The owner was an
Eastender who said he could introduce me to film producers and
it turned out they were also friends with the Kray Brothers who
were trying to take over the protection racket in Nottingham.
They’d taken over Leicester a few days before, which was part
of their move out of London at that time. So, the Krays arrived in
town, kitted out with guns. I didn’t come face-to-face with them
but I was around them partly because I was moving between
the two or three places that they were involved in. There’s
nothing I have found in their autobiographies about Nottingham
except one line that claims that they came here and they didn’t
like it.
How did you come to write a play about it?
About ten years ago the film I’d made turned up in a cardboard
box and my wife Tanya [Myers] who’s in the play took it to a
shop to be transferred to video. When I went to collect it, the
staff kept me talking saying there was a problem with my credit
card until the police arrived. They thought I was some sort of
master pornographer and I had to explain that the young man in
the film was myself at a much younger age and I wasn’t really
naked - I was wearing white underpants stained in tea to look
flesh coloured! In the end, I didn’t get arrested. I kept telling
the story and people said it would make a great play about
innocence.
What was it like watching the film again?
I had to shut my eyes! It is a devastatingly awful piece, but it
was extraordinary to return to that film and see how curiously
14
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
innocent as well as pretentious it was. Looking at yourself at
eighteen is a bit of a shock anyway - I’d forgotten the acne.
I wondered whether this was the first work of a sixties Shane
Meadows? I showed it to Giles Croft (Artistic Director at the
Playhouse) and he said (affects a posh voice) ‘You probably
made the right career move!’.
“
They thought I was some sort of
master pornographer and I had to
explain that the young man in the
film was me at a much younger age
wearing white underpants stained
in tea to look flesh-coloured! In the
end, I didn’t get arrested.
”
What is the play about?
All my plays are about times the world changed. In 1966
Nottingham was ‘black-and-white’ but there was a feeling
that something was shifting, that there were waves of colour
arriving. This lad finds himself in different kinds of reality,
wandering through worlds of adult sexuality and passions and
betrayals in all innocence, trying to work out how to finish off
this movie. It’s a comedy of absolute chaos about the confusion
and difficulties of love. The play combines film and scenes
backstage in the cinema. They’ve remade my Blue Movie with
the two really brilliant young actors. The films have massive
significance to the characters. It’s an odd subject for a comedy
but it’s really about dreaming in difficult circumstances, about
how to keep hope going when everything’s closed down.
You have another play opening straight after this one...
Yes, Empty Bed Blues is about DH Lawrence in the last year
of his life. He was trying to get some money out of Lady
Chatterley’s Lover but it had been banned in England and
stolen in America. He was dying but went to Paris to see a
young socialite couple, Harry and Caresse Crosby. Harry was
a mad poet, into every kind of available drug, who wanted to
publish Lawrence. His wife was also extraordinary and beautiful.
They expected Lawrence to be wild like them but found him
morose and angry, trying to face the possibility of death and
what that meant to his writing, whilst also worried about his
wife’s relationship with the Italian gardener. So you actually
discover what was going on in his mind as he was writing Lady
Chatterley’s Lover. Again it’s a comedy but it’s also a real clash
of cultures and ideas. Sometimes as you get into comedies you
realise there’s a lot more going on than you think.
Is there anything else in the pipeline?
I wrote a second Brian Clough play for Derby Playhouse called
The Devil’s League. It’s yet another comedy with Robert
Maxwell, the Seven Dwarves, Ursula Andress, the Virgin Mary.
It gets a bit crazy. We were within a week of opening before the
theatre went bankrupt - which wasn’t my fault! There probably
won’t be a theatre in Derby for a long time so someone else will
have to do it.
Are you a football fan?
I am a Forest fan and I used to go to most of the away games with
Alan Dossor who directed Old Big ‘Ead. I went to the unveiling of
Brian Clough’s statue. Marcus Alton has done really well getting
that together. I think a statue of Brian is better than some general
who conquered India. It’s celebrating a working class hero.
Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?
Nottingham’s an incredibly cultural city. It has one of the great
nineteenth century poets in Byron, some of the great writers
of the twentieth century in Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe, painter
Dame Laura Knight and all the filmmakers now. Let’s celebrate
the richness of the town. Let’s put a statue of Torvill and Dean on
the other side of the square. We’ve stopped being the gun capital
and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like living in Nottingham.
Glamour plays at the Nottingham Playhouse
from 6-21 February.
Empty Bed Blues is at the Lakeside Arts Centre
from 6-21 March.
www.stephenlowe.co.uk
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
www.lakesidearts.org.uk
words: Paul Klotschkow
From humble beginnings buying his
first record in Arnold, to a decade at
The Television Workshop, promoting
one of UK hiphop’s premier events
and now being all over the BBC. It’s a
cliché, but MistaJam must be one of the
hardest working men in showbusiness.
If you name it he’s probably done it.
Starred in a TV soap? Check. DJed on
Radio One? Check. Had a TV sitcom
on the BBC? Check. Been interviewed
by LeftLion? Check.
What’s your relationship with Nottingham?
It’s my hometown and the place where I laid the foundations for
my career, as well as the place I retreated to when my acting
career went belly up! Capital One Sales RIP!
What do you get up to when you are back in the city?
I come back to Nottingham to either see my friends and family or
do a DJ gig which are both great reasons to come home. It’s been a
long time since I had a night out in Notts and everything seems to
have changed, even in the eighteen months since I moved away.
Any memorable nights out in Nottingham?
My most memorable nights were the events I was involved with
over the years. Whether it be UK Takeover, KRS One at Rock
City or DJ Premier at Stealth; they all have a special place in
my heart. That and the evening I managed to get thrown out of
World Service restaurant.
Nottingham has had some bad rep in the national press over
the past few years, what’s your view on this?
I think there isn’t enough happening there to work on the root
causes of the problems. Youth centres, youth projects and
alternative education projects are being starved of cash and are
not being allowed to do the jobs that they have already proven
that they can do. The huge Market Square refurbishment a
couple of years ago looks lovely, but a quarter of the money that
was spent on that could have funded many projects that would
have made a real difference to people’s lives.
Did you attend the workshop with anyone famous?
A good few people, because I was in the workshop from the age
of seven until I was pretty much kicked out when I got too old. My
paths crossed with Samantha Morton, James Hooton, the infamous
Shauna and Andrew Shim, and Toby Kebbell is a good friend, or at
least he was when I last spoke to him a couple of years ago!
You played Minty the chef in the second series of Crossroads. Do
you have any juicy gossip you can share about the cast members?
It was eight years ago now, so I can’t remember any of the
juiciest gossip! There were a good few nights out in Nottingham
and usually most of the cast would end up in Bar Schnapps way
past closing time making complete tits of themselves. However
I’ve never been a big drinker so I was the one in the corner
laughing at them all. There were a couple of inter-cast pregnancy
scares, but that’s all I’m saying.
You’ve done a bit of acting recently too…
I was in the BBC Three and now BBC Switch sitcom Trexx and
Flipside that was filmed early last year, but I’ve pretty much given
up acting for the foreseeable future. I really want to focus on my
broadcasting career but that doesn’t mean I’d never act again, as I
still want to do a film. I’ve pretty much done every other discipline:
TV drama, sitcom, soap, radio drama, serious theatre, a West End
musical... But I’m also probably the only member of my generation
of the workshop that hasn’t been in a Shane Meadows film!
What was it like DJing at The Bomb back in the day?
It was a really good experience. I’ve played in clubs around the
world but nowhere quite matches the atmosphere of The Bomb
as it was. From the temperature that could go from freezing to
boiling in thirty seconds, depending on how many people were
“
© BBC RADIO 1XTRA
How did the Television Workshop prepare you for your many
future careers?
The thing that Ian Smith, the workshop leader, really instilled
in us was the importance of keeping your feet on the ground
and that’s something that I carry round with me today. In the
entertainment industry, you’re always encountering over-inflated
egos and people who went to stage school when they were
young seem to have the biggest! You can always tell an exworkshopper because no matter what kind of success they have,
they’re always the most grounded people.
I’ve played in clubs around the world but nowhere quite matches the
atmosphere of The Bomb as it was. From the temperature that could
go from freezing to boiling in thirty seconds, depending on how many
people were in there, to the smell of the broken toilets and sewage from
downstairs… I wish I had enough money to bring the place back.
”
in there, to the smell of the broken toilets and sewage from
downstairs, right down to the amazing sound system. I wish I
had enough money to bring the place back!
How did you get to be a BBC Radio host?
I guess it was a mixture of hard work, perseverance, talent and a
huge amount of luck.
Which of the BBC DJs has the best moves on the dancefloor?
Annie Mac can handle herself. I’ve seen her dancing at a few
Radio 1 and 1Xtra Christmas parties.
How did the UK Takeover events start?
My good friend Joe Buhdha and I travelled to hiphop nights
across the UK and saw that the crowd was so divided. You’d
go to one place and it would be nothing but white kids, go to
another, nothing but black kids. But the music would be the
same. We wanted to do something that would bring the old
school ‘everyone’s welcome’ spirit back and also bring the
biggest names in the UK together under one roof.
Can we expect another UK Takeover?
We’re all really busy with other things now, so I don’t know. Until
they’ve done it, people have no idea how much hard work and
time it takes to put together an event like that.
You always seem to be working, how do you like to relax?
I like to do really boring things in my house like cleaning, reading
or watching crap on the internet or going to B&Q or Homebase.
I’m crap at DIY though. I once put up a shelf that proceeded to
fall and hit my fiancée on the head. I just like looking.
READ MORE INTERVIEWS AT LEFTLION.CO.UK/MUSIC
Do you have any music tips for 2009?
My big music tips for 2009 are Kid Cudi and Master Shortie,
who I think are coming with some really interesting and genredefying stuff. I also think this is the year for dubstep to dent the
national charts. From Nottingham, Ronika should hopefully do
well. I’m hearing what she’s cooking up in the studio with my
very good friend Joe Buhdha will surprise a lot of people. Also, if
Scorzayzee is reading this, the hiphop game needs you to come
correct in 2009!
What was the first record you bought?
I Can’t Wait by Nu Shooz in 1986 - when I was three! I remember
my mum taking me to WHSmith in Arnold to buy it. I’ve always
been into music.
What was the last record you bought?
Luther Vandross’ Better Love. Everyone needs a little Luther
in their life.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
I’d love to be able to speak every language. I’d be able to travel
the world and speak to people in their native tongue and even
speak to animals such as my puppy and tell him to stop pissing
on the floor. That would be great.
Anything else to say to LeftLion readers?
If you’re an artist or a band, send me music! I hardly get anything
from my Nottingham people and I know first hand how much talent
is there so reach out to me! Contact details are on my website.
www.mistajam.com
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
15
Street Surreal (main image)
This guy was sat in Starbucks
on his own, with what looked
like the weight of the world on
his shoulders. He had a distant
look in his eyes and on his face,
and seemed oblivious to the
hustle and bustle of the Market
Square before him. You had to
be on the outside looking in to
see the real world.
Hoody
I like this shot for its social
meaning. Hoodies are often
thought of as the trademark
of a social underclass, and the
Staffordshire Bull Terrier is seen
as a dealer’s dog. Both seem to
be trophies among the ne’er-dowells of society. This hoodied
Staffy seems the epitome of all
those things.
One For The Road
Since the rebirth of the Old
Market Square, there has been
a zero tolerance approach
to street drinking. I almost
admired this woman’s blatant
swagging of a bottle of sherry.
And love the fact that she’s sat
next to a rather respectable
lady. Talk about ‘different
strokes’. It also brings a smile
to my face that she couldn’t
have been that drunk, because
she caught me taking her
picture! She closed one eye
and daggered me, but never
stopped drinking.
Peek-A-Boo
I was strolling through Hockley
when I spotted this out of the
corner of my eye. I went down
on one knee to grab the shot,
and the guy clocked me, smiled
and put his thumb up! I also
think it holds some true ‘street’
value for the fact that it’s a
one-off; these repair men were
working on the cellar of the
now closed Dim T premises.
I’ve walked past since, and the
air vent has gone. A moment
caught. The photo won me a
prize from the Urban Britain
Photography competition, which
I was chuffed with.
Super Sharp Shooter
words: Dom Henry
photos: Stephen Wright
Welcome to Nottingham. At any one time in our densely packed city there are more amazing sights in just a couple of hundred
square yards than any human mind could comprehend. All those little sights and details, moments and dramas, each brimming
with different meaning and emotion as you look on and take it all in.
MEET STEPHEN WRIGHT, a man who has turned capturing moments
of Nottingham folk going about their daily lives into an art form. Out all
hours and in all weathers Stephen is on the streets documenting life as it
happens. We caught up with him to learn about his work and motivation.
Why Nottingham?
I’m a local lad, Nottingham born and bred. Came into the world in the old Children’s Hospital
and lived in Nottingham ever since. I love Nottingham and Nottingham people.
How long have you been doing street photography?
Since the early eighties really. I’ve always been taking pictures but things really kicked off
with the advent of digital cameras. No more expensive film! You can take loads of photos out
on the streets.
16
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
You must have quite a collection then.
Over 40,000 photos and counting! Covering over thirty years of life in Nottingham.
What’s the attraction?
I love doing it. I want to record it all, record Nottingham and the people as they are. Years from
now if just one of my photos is seen and people look back on how it was then I’ll be happy.
Of course you do get a kind of a buzz out of it I guess. An addiction of sorts! It’s a great feeling
when you know you’ve taken a good shot, it can make your day.
Do you have a favourite patch?
I don’t have a particular route, I’ll walk round town randomly for hours at a time. I just get
out there and see what happens. There are some spots which are good, like good points in a
stream for a fisherman. The Clumber Street traffic lights by the Viccy Centre crossing is a good
one - I can stay there for hours catching people as they flow past.
Where do you draw your inspiration?
A deep love for photography, Nottingham and the work of great street photographers such
as Bruce Gilden, Matt Stewart and Garry Winogrand. The thought of capturing something
special is what drives me to get out there and keep at it, despite mucky weather and the long
hours.
How do you find your shots?
I tend to spot subjects of interest at a distance - a piece of detail, a little something,
something which inspires - then get ready as I approach. It’s all about having an eye for a
scene you like and acting on it, and quickly, as it’ll be gone in an instant.
You must have to get very close to people?
It’s very ‘in yer face’! Get right in there with an 18mm lens. Of course I do use a zoom as well
from time to time but most of the stuff I take is with a wide lens right up close.
Artist Profiles
words: Aaron Juneau
Amelia Beavis-Harrison
Exit Here
What does the notion of ‘group’
mean to you?
Sharing an ambition, and bringing
together individual strengths to
achieve an end goal.
What advantages do you get
from being part of a group or
collective?
I find being able to bounce ideas
around, and talk through problems
is one of the most valuable things
working with another person can offer you. It also allows individuals to share different
perspectives and interpretations on an idea or problem, which can only strengthen your
awareness of the original concept.
Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own?
Exit Here are influenced by a variety of groups, projects and artists, but is often observations
of the worlds happenings that inspire Exit Here. Events such as the launch of the LHC at
CERN in Geneva last year, or the re-discovery of an archaic folk law in rural Derbyshire have
inspired areas of our project work.
What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to
remain?
Unlike many of the Nottingham groups Exit Here did not study in the city, but came to
Nottingham out of curiosity to experience a city with more contemporary art groups and
venues than the one we left. Exit Here are not exclusively Nottingham based, as our practice
does not root itself locally, despite being situated in the city.
What do you hope to achieve in 2009?
The development of Exit Here projects has often shadowed that of our own practices, this
year I want to reopen the dialogue with my own artistic practice more directly, without
this being of detriment to the collaboration. Meanwhile Exit Here are moving studios to the
North of the city, where we aim to establish a more dynamic working environment, whilst
developing other projects.
Curated on the theme of the artists’ ‘group’ or ‘collective’
- an historical tradition based on the bringing together of
artists sharing similar aesthetic, conceptual and ideological
concerns. Four artists from four different Nottingham-based
artists’ groups discuss the relevance of individualism,
collectivism and solidarity to their practices.
Ash Gallant
Backlit
What does the notion of ‘group’ mean to you?
A collective of individuals who are held together by a
common aim or obsession, which overrides individual
concerns.
What advantages do you get from being part of a group
or collective?
It gives you the support you need to carry on when it’s
tough and legitimises your actions in the eyes of others.
You build up a reputation which precedes that of all
individual members’ when creating new work.
Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations
for your own?
City Racing for just doing their thing and making something
of it, and of course Stand Assembly and Moot for being like
art big brothers to us.
What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to remain?
The strength and interdisciplinary nature of my university course made me come, the opportunity to
set up the studio and gallery in such a supportive environment made me stay; it’s rare for so many
from one year to stay behind and carry on practicing but it is becoming a yearly thing here. I have
itchy feet so I’m not sure if I will stay forever but I didn’t mean to stay after uni and I’m still here so
Notts has a certain hold.
Has not moving to London been detrimental, beneficial or of no consequence to your progress
within the context of a group and in your career as an artist?
I feel at this stage it has had no effect on my career - rather the opposite, the living costs in Nottingham
have allowed me to carry on creating work and set up the gallery and studios with my peers while we
all work low paying but freedom allowing jobs, moving to London would prohibit me from doing any
of these things. We also feel running a studio in Notts you are one of six or seven rather than one of
hundreds in London, so it’s easier to make connections in a smaller town and therefore gain attention
locally and nationally.
www.backlit.org.uk
www.exithere.co.uk
Hugh Dichmont
Tether
What does the notion of ‘group’
mean to you?
A support structure that helps
members benefit from working with
like-minded individuals.
What advantages do you get from
being part of a group or collective?
The ability to achieve ambitious
goals which as a lone artist would be
almost impossible to pursue without
a huge budget and paid staff.
Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own?
We always referred to Stand Assembly when we were in our formative stages. Indeed, at the
beginning we sought all kinds of advice from them and still do, to an extent.
What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to
remain?
I have lived in Nottingham since I was two. I stayed to study a BA in Fine Art, partly because
I messed up my interview with Chelsea College of Art and Design, and was already accepted
at NTU. But I wouldn’t swap my university experience for anything. The tutors were really
supportive and the freedom the course offered was ideal for me. I am still here because the
friends I made on the course showed a desire to stay and we were already working well with
each other on projects.
Has not moving to London been detrimental, beneficial or of no consequence to your progress
within the context of a group and in your career as an artist?
I can say for sure that being away from London has benefited both me as an individual and Tether
as a group, partly due to the support we have received from other local artists, in particular
Terry Shave of NTU. Nottingham is not big, and as a consequence everyone in the scene knows
each other and goes to each other’s events. In London there isn’t such an accessible and holistic
support structure, where undergraduates, recent graduates, experienced and successful artists
can all mingle on an equal footing. Many artist friends of mine who have visited our events have
said how jealous they are of our situation. In London you are just another drop in the ocean, but
elsewhere there is a real chance to make your name and gain valuable experience.
What do you hope to achieve in 2009?
I want to give more time to developing my own practice, which has taken a bit of a back seat in
the past year. Tether have a number of projects taking place in 2009, so I guess I hope these are
all as well received as we’d like them to be.
Tom Godfrey
Moot Gallery
What does the notion of ‘group’
mean to you?
A successful group is one that creates
an environment for its members
where the strength of the output
exceeds any one individual’s input.
What advantages do you get
from being part of a group or
collective?
I think advocacy for your ideas is
important and also working with
people who possess skills that you
don’t have, which makes it possible to accomplish more things than if you were on your own.
Which other groups have acted as models or inspirations for your own?
There’s City Racing which was a London-based artist-led gallery between 1988 and 1998; also
the Hoxton Distillery which opened just after, and individuals like Matthew Higgs who balance
making art with directing gallery spaces, curating independent shows, writing and publishing.
What is it about Nottingham that caused you to come, to stay and will cause you to remain?
I graduated from Trent about four years ago and it was initially the lack of reasons to stay that
prompted myself and a few others to create a stronger and more supportive environment. With
groups such as Tether, Exit Here and Backlit opening recently, Nottingham now has an art scene
that is run and directed by artists and independent curators and with the opening of Nottingham
Contemporary this year it will receive the ambitious critical grounding that it needs.
Has not moving to London been detrimental, beneficial or of no consequence to your progress
within the context of a group and in your career as an artist?
I don’t think it’s important to live in London to be an artist because you can make art or put on
shows anywhere; financially it’s a lot cheaper to live outside of London too. However I do think its
good to visit frequently and follow what’s happening there as it’s important sometimes to question
your artistic relevance within wider contexts, be it as an individual artist, a group, or as a city-wide
art community.
What do you hope to achieve in 2009?
Both Stand Assembly and Moot have a new building on Thoresby Street next to Biocity which,
for Moot, is vastly different from its previous space so it’s going to be exciting programming that.
Personally I am busy making new work and curating a couple of projects including a commissioning
programme in the foyer of our new building.
www.mootgallery.org
www.tether.org.uk
If you are a Nottingham-based artist and would like to be profiled in this section, please email frances@leftlion.co.uk
MORE ART REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS AT LEFTLION.CO.UK/ART
18
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
LEFTLION
LISTINGS
featured listing
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2009.
The February and March weather might
make you feel like just staying indoors,
but as the old saying goes all work and no
play makes jack a dull boy. Avoid cabin
fever by getting yoursen out into town
and watching a band or some comedy,
or some theatre or an exhibition. Trust
us… it’s good for your soul!
PG 21 ∙ GIGS
Traditionally this is a slow time for touring
bands - they usually wait until April or May
for their pre-festival tours. However Notts can
still boast performances from Metallica, Kaiser
Chiefs, The Killers, Il Divo, Glasvegas, Friendly
Fires, Shy FX, Soulfly, Neville Staple, Andy C,
Hot Chip, The Apples, The Robinson Band and
the Punksoc Festival 2009.
If you fancy something a bit more up and coming then why not check out some of LeftLion’s
local favourites like The Smears, Alright The
Captain, Mint Ive, JC Decaux, Roy De Wired,
King Kahlua and Wholesome Fish - all playing
and living somewhere near you.
Also worth a mention is the Detonate Weekender at Pontins in Prestatyn, North Wales.
Okay, so it might be several hundred miles
away, but it’s the tenth birthday of arguably
Nottingham’s most successful club night with
Goldie, Roni Size, Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Yoda
and loads more ready for the party. For more
info see the back cover. Happy birthday guys!
PG 22-23
LEFTLION LIVE
As always, we’ve tapped up some of our favourite local talent in HoodTown and will be
putting it on at our monthly night at Brownes. It
costs nothing to get in and we know know how
to throw a proper party! In February we have
Ulysses Storm (new project from the frontman
of Hellset Orchestra) and Red Shoe Diaries (see
their interview on p22). In March we have triphoppers Papa La Bas (p23) and Will Jeffery.
PG 25 ∙ THEATRE
& COMEDY
If you fancy something a bit funny then the
comedy schedule in Notts is packed as ever
with the likes of Al Murray, Russell Brand, Ross
Noble, Roger Monkhouse, Simon Day (The Fast
Show), Rhod Gilbert, John Shuttleworth, Josie
Long, Andy Parsons, Ivan Brackenbury and
more in the city over the next two months.
The original Notts comedy night Just The Tonic
is still going strong at The Approach, but there
has also been a rise in local comedy clubs as
Spiky Mike takes his Funhouse night around local pubs like The Robin Hood (Sherwood), The
Grove (Lenton) and The Maze (Mansfield Road).
For even more listings, check our
regularly updated online section
at leftlion.co.uk/listings.
And if your event is still not in there,
spread the word by aiming your
browser at leftlion.co.uk/add.
20
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
words: Frances Ashton
GEOFF DIEGO LITHERLAND,
FLYING SPAGHETTI GOD
I am trying to do is to create from a single image a multiplicity of ideologies,
“ What
viewpoints, beliefs, aesthetics and philosophies. It’s not about there being a right
or wrong. It’s about embracing the preposterousness of everything.
”
Can you tell me about your work, what drives you artistically
and what your influences are?
First there’s a geeky fascination with paint. I have always loved
paint, particularly oil paint. I love the idea of the unexpected, the
unknown and being in a state of limbo where you are trying to
control the material and something quite unexpected happens.
I suppose the only thing I could relate this experience to would
be the old notion of alchemy where someone spends a lot of time
just messing about without any clear scientific purpose other than
to explore the material. It’s something that my work has been
developing over the past four or five years.
Multiverses, my new body of work, has aspects of that but also
has a lightness, a bit more humour and rather than references to
modernist painting, you could call them ‘pop’ references. There’s a
lot of imagery and symbols of contemporary society in there and a
return to trying to conjure up a sense of narrative in my work.
In terms of painters and artists who influence me, I could talk
about people like Tapies and Rothko as modernist painters which is where I still see my background. And then contemporary
painters such as Jonathon Lasko and Fabio Marcaccio who
play with that dialogue and history of the medium and how the
medium has been constructed in terms of its materiality - you’ve
got the canvas, you’ve got the paint and how those concerns are
twisted around and abstracted.
And you’ve got the narrative element. I am reading all the time
so I’m always interested in how literature or stories can begin
to intertwine with the paintings. This whole series of work is
probably loosely based on my favourite author’s life’s work – Jorge
Luis Borges. He wrote lots and lots of short stories which are
completely and utterly bonkers. If anyone hasn’t read Borges
then I can thoroughly recommend him. Each story is between five
and ten pages long and presents a perfectly illogical yet succinct
universe where something completely out of the ordinary happens.
And if you read them as a whole it creates this incredible picture of
the world in all its bizarreness, sadness, and happiness. What I am
trying to do with this body of work is to create from a single image
a multiplicity of ideologies, view points, beliefs, aesthetics and
philosophies. It’s not about there being a right or wrong. It’s about
embracing the preposterousness of everything.
You and your work are quite heavily influenced by music. The
show you curated last year at Southwell Artspace was called
Gold Soundz after a piece of modern music. Can you talk a bit
about this musical influence?
One of the things that I like about Jonathon Lasko is the essay
he wrote where he decided to strip down the elements of his
paintings to three or four main layers or parts. He describes it as a
band: so you’d have the drums, a rhythmic section which could be
the grid that he starts off with, then you have the bass line which
could be the stripes and then the lead guitar which is often the
main abstract shapes in the painting. This has been something
I’ve always been interested in trying to explore and I think that
the new paintings I am doing are as close to achieving that as I
have been.
I have always listened to modern minimalist music, which I
sometime find a bit too scientific and cold. One of my favourite
bands is Television, who are a late seventies/early eighties punk
band. Their simplicity and lyricism is impeccable and their riffs
are quite repetitive. So the thing that has inspired me musically
for my recent body of work is that economy of musicianship
and the whole ‘less is more thing’ but without being cold and
mechanical with it.
The way that your work has developed over the last year,
reflecting the issues of nationality with your painting my flag
is better than yours and the use of the bright colours that come
from those flags, seems to be pulling on a much wider resource
of cultural influences.
When I moved to my new studios at Egerton, I was carrying on
the work I had been doing before but again it was very calculated,
I was quite removed from the process. I was just there as a tool
and not putting my own personality and experience into the work.
I can’t really explain how it’s happened, but I’m bringing in a lot
of the experiences I’ve had from the places I have lived, the place
I was born, the people I’ve met and the ideas that I hold. These
are coming into my work and creating clashes. You could be quite
obvious with it and say that the dull background colours are my
northern European heritage and the bright colours are this kitsch
Mexican side of me coming through.
What does it mean to you to be a Nottingham artist? How has it
shaped you and your practice?
I had always wanted not to go to London. I spent a couple of years
in Barcelona and got on quietly with work. I had a studio there
but was not involved with the wider community or arts scene. I
think that one of the most vital developments for me was working
as a technician in the Bonington Gallery. I met a lot of artists,
curators, writers, lecturers and students from Nottingham Trent
University. So I was very well positioned as an observer and now
through being involved in the Nottingham art scene. I have been
supported by a lot of people and I am now in the position to help
other people. It’s been great and I’ve been here now for five years.
Can you tell us a bit about what to expect from Multiverses?
There are going to be between eight and ten large paintings, all
one metre squared, all around the room. The Wallner space at
Lakeside is not huge but it’s a nice white cube. It’s basically all
the work I’ve done over the last year - one of which was exhibited
as part of the John Moores Painting Prize, others of which I have
exhibited at last year’s Castle Open.
Ah yes, congratulations for being the winner of the 2008
Nottingham Open Exhibition. What can we expect from your
forthcoming exhibition there?
That will be an opportunity to try something different; to try to
combine the sound work I have been doing with some of the video
animation work which I produced last year at the Goldfactory
space at Egerton Studios. I’d like to try out something a bit more
all-encompassing. An utter complete bombardment of the senses
when you actually walk into the space.
It all comes down I suppose to the layers, the sound and images
which are used to compose a song or painting or video. You talk to
most artists and they would say that the layering is key to creating
whether it’s translucency or a sense of depth. But also you can use
layers to juxtapose different ideas to create the disconcerting and
jarring images that I am trying to make at the moment.
Multiverses is at Lakeside Arts Centre
from February 26 to April 12
www.geofflitherland.info
nottingham event listings...
Sunday 01/02
Sunday 08/02
Performance
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
Sebastien Grainger
The Bodega Social Club
£6.50, 8pm
Plus The Mountains.
The Acme Jazz Band
Deux
Free, 7pm - 9pm
Thursday 05/02
Holly Jazz Lowe
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
Plus Luxury Stranger
Kid Blue
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Plus Pete Jordan.
The Matt and Joe Talent Show
Deux
Free, 9pm
With Anyhigh and Alex Townsend.
Friday 06/02
Chris Hull and The Instant Band
Deux
£3, 8.30pm
James McMurtry
The Maze
£13 adv, 7.30pm
Futurestar Boudoir
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£5, 10pm - late
With Touch, Retox and
Back To The Future.
MNSTR
Stealth
£8 / £10, 10pm - 4am
DJ Yoda, Shy FX , Surkin, Transit
Mafia, Pablo , D’Lex, MeMeMe,
Newmano, Moses Thoughtless
Hussies, Chow, MC Freestyle and
Ruthless
Working Nights
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm – 1:30am
DJs Matt, Alex, Neetin & friends.
Plus Nigel Beck and more tbc
Liars Club: Future Islands
The Chameleon Cafe Bar
£5, 8pm - 12am
Saturday 07/02
The Coast
The Bodega Social Club
£7, 7pm
Hidden Sessions
Moog
Free, 9pm
Stefen Housebuilder, Ben Summers
and guests.
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
Free, 8pm - 1am
With DJ Fluff.
Pure Filth - Last one ever
BluePrint
£6, 9pm - 5am
Jerome Hill, Spandex (live), Esther
Ofei and Resident Filth.
Punksoc Festival 2009
The Maze
£5 / £7, 4pm - 10pm
Basement Boogaloo
The Maze
£5, 11pm - 3am
Paul Hill
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£8 / £10, 10pm - 4am
Mongrel
Brownes
£tbc, 7pm - 1am
Monday 09/02
The Days
The Bodega Social Club
£5, 7pm
Soulfly
Rock City
£14, 7.30pm
Sharleen Spiteri
Royal Centre
£27.50, 7.30pm
Tuesday 10/02
for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings
Eton Trifles
The Jam Café is open for business
Recently opened in the Hockley area of the city, Jam
Cafe injects a dose of retro into Nottingham’s cafe scene.
Sited on the former premises of Brother 2 Brother, the
boutique clothes shop that sounded like a homoerotic
early 90s hip-hop duo, it’s now a haven of high ceilings,
orange leather sofas and massive prints.
In the daytime, Jam Café is all about the C&C; proper
coffee and a vast range of homemade cakes, including
a deliciously gooey carrot cake. Come night-time
(currently open Weds/Thurs and every other Friday
night), a fully licensed bar offering bottled beers, spirits
and wines is unleashed, alongside a new evening food
specials menu.
It’s right cultural here; - art, music and film happenings abound on a regular basis. Wednesday is open mic night,
allowing local musicians, artists and poets the chance to do their thing, while DJ sets blasting out broken beat, funk,
soul and breakbeat dominate Thursdays – along with the Oxjam regional support team who are currently meeting up
to thrash out the upcoming festival in March. Live jazz, blues and acoustic takes control on Fridays, and if you’re simply
feeling the visuals, you can sit back and enjoy cult movies on the flatscreen most days.
Unsigned Titan 09
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
In a year that has already seen too many foodie shutdowns, it’s nice to see something of quality stepping up. And no,
they don’t do trifles. Soz.
Jam Cafe,12 Heathcote street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AA.
Acoustic Tuesdays
The Malt Cross
Free, 9pm - 11am
Friday 13/02
Sunday 15/02
Thursday 19/02
Los
The Maze
£tbc, 8pm
Plus The Cusp and Talking Shapes.
Things Just Got Darker
The Rescue Rooms
£3, 8pm
Featuring: The Smears, JcDecaux,
We Rock Like Girls Don’t.
The Joy Formidable
The Bodega Social Club
£6, 8pm
Unsigned Titan 09
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
Roy De Wired
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
Utah Jazz
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Plus Transit Mafia.
Wednesday 11/02
Battle of The Bands Heat 1
The Maze
£tbc, 8pm
NME Awards Tour
Rock City
£15, 7pm
With Glasvegas, Friendly Fires,
White Lies and Florence and the
Machine.
Thursday 12/02
Unsigned Titan 09
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
SIBA Champions Beer Festival
Canalhouse bar
Free, 8.30pm - close
Runs until: 15/02
Nimming Ned, Steve Whittles Band
and Kellys Heroes.
Trevor Loveys
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Sunset Duo
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
0115 9483566, www.jamcafe.info
James Zabiela
Stealth
£8, 10pm
Plus Matt Tolfrey.
Party Time
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Eclipse
Igloo
£5 / £6, 9pm - late
Heist and MC Juiceman, Starby
and Lukie, Terraform, Waterfall,
Somethin Tec, MC’s Tecka, Sleepy
C, Sneaka, Phatlad and Blax.
Saturday 14/02
Valentines Day Massacre
The Running Horse
£4, 7pm - 3am
With Brutality Will Prevail, Hang
The Bastard and More Than Life.
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
£3, 8pm
With Reverend Ribble and The
Ginger Nuts.
Sticky Morales
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
Notts in a Nutshell
The Maze
£3, 8.30pm
Soul Cracker, The Reverb and
Wolftickets.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein
Concert
Royal Centre
£16.50 / £18.50, 7.30pm
Monday 16/02
Ra Ra Riot
The Bodega Social Club
£6.50, 8pm
Alright The Captain
The Maze
£4, 8pm
Plus Beyond This Point Are
Monsters, And So I Watch You
From Afar and La Faro.
Tuesday 17/02
Spectrum (band)
The Bodega Social Club
£8, 8pm
Featuring Sonic Boom.
Unsigned Titan 09
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
The Matt and Joe Talent Show
Deux
Free, 9pm
With Blackfuzz.
Psycle
BluePrint
£tbc, 10pm - late
Faslane Peace Camp Fundraiser
The Maze
£3, 8pm
Ghoul Garden!
The Maze
£3 / £3.50, 9pm
Mimi Soya
The Running Horse
£4, 7pm - 3am
Plus Go Vega and The Sketch
Friday 13/02
Hed Kandi
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£8 / £10 / £12, 10pm - 4am
Acoustic Tuesdays
The Malt Cross
Free, 9pm - 11am
Alkaline Trio
Rock City
£16, 6.30pm
Children of Bodom
Rock City
£16.50, 7pm
Plus Cannibal Corpse.
Light Night
Market Square
Free, 6pm - late
Poppycock
Moog
Free, 8pm - late
Chew Lips
Stealth
£5, 10.15pm
Rigbee Deep
Alley Cafe
Free, 8.30pm - 1am
Minister Hill, Nowhere Common
and Jah Bunndy.
The Log Jam and Curry Night
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
With The Bonsai Projects, Mark
Block, Adam S Kirkup and more.
Superstar Boudoir
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£5 adv, 10pm - 3am
Sabastian Ingrosso, Axwell,
Angello and Prydz.
Secret Machines
The Rescue Rooms
£10, 7pm
Plus Filthy Dukes.
Go Go v Mufti Valantine’s
Special
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Wildside: Zodiac Mindwarp
Seven
£tbc, 9pm
Wednesday 18/02
The Blow Monkeys
The Bodega Social Club
£12, 7pm
Battle of The Bands Heat 2
The Maze
£tbc, 8pm
Portico Quartet
The Malt Cross
£6 adv / £8 door, 7.30pm
Plus Red and The Natalie Duncan
Band.
Kris Ward
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
Ready, Steady, 60’s
The Maze
£3, 8.30pm
Friday 20/02
LeftLion
Brownes
Free, 8pm - 1am
Ulysses Storm and Red Show
Diaries (see interview on page 22).
Muzika!
The Maze
£5, 9pm - 2am
Superstar Boudoir
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£6 / £8 , 10pm - late
Chris Lake, Pete Jordan and Jimmy
Kennedy.
Wigflex
Stealth
£6 adv, 10pm - 6am
With Nathan Fake Live, Geiom,
Spam Chop, Russian Linesman,
Metaphi, Taylor, Hizatron, Harmonic
313 aka Marc Pritchard, Lazer
Sword, Dj Dials, Lone, Windows
78, Keaver and Brause.
Saturday 21/02
Das Pop
The Bodega Social Club
£8, 7pm
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
£3, 8pm With Más Y Más.
Martin Stephenson
Deux
£6 adv / £7.50, 8.30pm
Arboretum Records Launch
The Maze
£tbc, All day.
25 acts play all day.
leftlion.co.uk/issue27
21
event listings...
Saturday 21/02
Thursday 26/02
Paul Wilkins
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£8 / £10 / £12, 10pm - 4am
Chris Murray
The Maze
£5 / £6, 8pm
Plus Jimmy the Squirrel, Green For
Go, Squab and Toon Union.
Roadblock
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Sunday 22/02
Notts in a Nutshell
The Maze
£3, 8pm
Dark Horse, Hackenbush and Scars
on the Country.
Testament
The Rescue Rooms
£15, 7.30pm
Kaiser Chiefs
Nottingham Arena
£25.45, 7.30pm
Wednesday 25/02
Data.Select.Party
The Bodega Social Club
£6, 7pm
Plus The Colour.
Battle of The Bands Heat 3
The Maze
£tbc, 8pm
Iglu and Hartly
The Rescue Rooms
£9, 7pm
Moonlighters Big Band
Lakeside Arts Centre
Free, 5.30pm
Metallica
Nottingham Arena
£40, 7pm
Thursday 26/02
NY Alcoholic Anxiety Attack
The Loft
Free, 8pm
Plus The Amber Herd and more.
Jamie Fanatic
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Plus Pete Jordan.
Richie Muir
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
The Matt and Joe Talent Show
Deux
Free, 9pm
Beneath The Crimson Skyline
Seven
£tbc, 8pm
plus Blind Ignorance, A World
Defined and Go Team Go.
Friday 27/02
General Fiasco
The Bodega Social Club
£5, 7pm
Poppycock
Moog
Free, 8pm - late
Owen Harvey and Friends
Deux
£3, 8.30pm
Junk Yard
The Market Bar
£5, 10pm - 4am
With OK Corral, Junk Yard Rezzors,
Luke Black, Mark Cohen and Paul
Sekhri
Neville Staple
The Maze
£11 / £13, 9pm
Plus Indiana Fozz and Jimmy The
Squirrel.
Detonate
Stealth
£10 / £12, 10pm - 5am
Andy C (2hrs), Break (2hrs),
Transit Mafia (2hrs). MCs
Dynamite, Freestyle and Ruthless,
Skream and Casual P.
Yipil
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
illuminatus
Seven
Free , 8pm
Plus Pillowtalk and Special Guests.
Saturday 28/02
Genotype
Bunkers Hill Inn
£5, 9pm - 2am
Ronnnie Londons Groove Lounge
Grosvenor
8pm - 1am, 8-1am
for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings
Subism Live
It’s like Take Hart, with beats
If you think the words ‘underground urban
art’ are a catch-all term for Banksy-wank or
chatty youths tagging up ‘NG6 IS GHEETO’
on a subway, think again: there’s some
serious talent knocking about, and a sizable
chunk of it has been gathering under the
Subism banner – and they’re coming to Muse
this March for a very special event.
Having been in operation since last May,
Subism showcases artists from a ludicrously
wide range of backgrounds covering a venue
in blank canvas and then filling the place
in raw, unadulterated art. The collective
of artists in attendance include American
illustrator Julie West, Parisian stencil artists
C215, Two-Pence, Mr Penfold and Phill Blake,
to name a few.
Obviously, because it’s Saturday night and it’s set in one of the most kicky-arseyest bars in Notts (if you’ve not been
to Muse’s Cult and P Brothers nights, you’re not really doing Nottingham properly), they’re not doing this in silence,
oh no. Their own set of DJs – including Atjazz from Mantis Recordings – will be spattering sonic washes of hip-hop,
broken beats, electronica, funk and disco, with the assistance of his chums Clyde, Christo and Vuyani.
Best of all, however, is the fact that they’ll be laying on a selection of boards, sketchbooks and pens for anyone who
feels the urge to get creative, so make sure you roll up in your Dad’s old shirt turned back-to-front, or you’ll just have
to do it in your pants.
Subism Live. Saturday 7th March @ Muse . 9pm - 1am. Entry £3.
www.subism.co.uk
Saturday 28/02
Saturday 28/02
Wednesday 04/03
Noodle
Moog
Free, 8pm
Chris Finke, m0dularmatt, Jerofou,
Sugamouth, Dougie Jones, Shaving
Rolands Car, Puikegast, Tappeto
Grande, Matthew T Hinton and
Ally Reilly.
The Apples
The Maze
£7 adv, 9pm
Plus Fat Digester.
Peter Bruntnell Trio
The Maze
£10 adv, 7.30pm
Plus Hi and Lo.
The Lancashire Hotpots
The Rescue Rooms
£10, 7pm
Emiliana Torrini
The Rescue Rooms
£10, 7.30pm
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
£3, 8pm
With The Shakes and resident DJ.
Filthy Dukes
Stealth
£5, 10.15pm
Il Divo
Nottingham Arena
£30 - £60, 7.30pm
Flux
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Thursday 05/03
Jason Heart Band
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
The Robinson Band
Deux
£3, 8.30pm
Rigor Mortis
BluePrint
£10, 9pm - 6am
With Hellseeker, Little Terror Man,
Hatewire, Narkotik, D-Story, Crazy2nr, Pinhead, Smash, Noizy az
Fuck, Angry Badgers, Junkie Kut,
Kinsheeva and Hardman Sinden.
Red Shoe Diaries, Ulysses Storm and the Stiff Kittens play LeftLion at Brownes on Friday 20 February. Entrance is free.
Red Soe Diaries
generally depicting its heroines as
active, independent women who
satisfy idiosyncratic desires often
without recourse to the constraints of
monogomy.
Introduce the band to us…
We’ve been making music in different
forms since 2002, but we (Tom and
Ash) have known each other since we
were infants. We met Mike at college.
Officially
Nottingham’s
hardest
working drummer and probably the
most talented musician Nottingham
has ever produced. I used to work
with Nathan; when he left his last
band we snapped him up straight
away! Leanne was the final piece of
the puzzle, she has a beautiful voice.
Red Shoe Diaries have been making
quite an impact since they started
playing together last year. As well as
performing at plenty of venues around
town, they’ve also had a MySpace UK
single of the week and one of their
tunes was named in MySpace’s Top
20 for 2008. They’ve also had a bit
of label interest, but we’re sure they
won’t let it go to their heads. We put
some questions to frontmen Tom and What kind of people do you think
Ash before their gig for LeftLion at will be into your music?
Our songs are generally pretty poppy,
Brownes...
so we’re not going to endear ourselves
You’re named after a late night soft- to the purists. But anyone who likes
a chorus, the odd angular guitar solo
porn telly show, right?
I prefer the term ‘erotic drama series’, and thinks lyrics are important we
but yes. I’ve always really liked bands hope would enjoy our songs.
who reference pop-culture. Its also just
a pleasant sounding phrase. Besides, What have you been up to recently?
it’s erotica at its most ‘post-feminist’; Not long ago we recorded an EP
22
leftlion.co.uk/issue27
which is a lovely collection of songs,
and we’re releasing it ourselves. So
the best way to get your hands on one
is to come see us play.
Tell us about one of your songs and
what inspired you to write it…
We have a new song which is a
fictional imagining of that stage when
a couple feel they should move-in
together. It’s quite a pessimistic,
romanceless song, in which two lots
of unhappiness just become one big
lump of ugly, bitter reality.
What’s your ideal night out in
Nottingham?
The best nights out we’ve had in a
long time are Jumpers For Goalposts
at the Alley Cafe, or indeed anything
featuring Hello Thor and the Yeah I’ll
Play It Later DJ’s, those guys always
throw the best parties.
Anything else to tell LeftLion
readers?
Go and see Fists. Tell them we sent
you.
www.myspace.com/
redshoediariesmusic
The Pleasures
Seven
Sunday 01/03
The Fab 4
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
John Tams
The Maze
£10 adv, 8pm
Plus Barry Coope.
Unsigned Titan 09
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
C3C Beat Torrent
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Tee Dymond
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
The Matt and Joe Talent Show
Deux
Free, 9pm
Imelda May
The Rescue Rooms
£10, 7.30pm
John Boden Band
The Maze
£14 adv, 7.30pm
Monday 02/03
The Devils Haircut
Seven
£tbc, 8pm
Two Door Cinema Club
The Bodega Social Club
£5, 8pm
Tuesday 03/03
The Gaslight Anthem
Rock City
£10, 7.30pm
With Frank Turner and Polar Bear
Club.
The Bronx
The Rescue Rooms
£12, 7pm
Plus Fucked Up and Rolo Tomassi.
The Producers
Playhouse
£12.50 / £16.50, 7.15pm
Runs until: 7/3
The Killers
Nottingham Arena
£31.81, 7.30pm
Friday 06/03
Ruth and Friends
Deux
£3, 8.30pm
Smerins Anti-Social Club
The Maze
£tbc, 9pm
The Shapeshifters
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£8 / £10 adv, 10pm - late
Detonate 10th B’Day
Weekender
Pontins, Prestatyn Sands
£125, 8pm Friday to 2am Sunday
Runs until: 08/03
An absolutely massive line up,
check out the back page for a run
down of who’s playing. If you like,
Dnb, hiphop or dubstep then go
to this.
nottingham event listings...
for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings
Saturday 07/03
Friday 13/03
Friday 20/03
Mint Ive
The Bodega Social Club
£5, 7pm
Superstar Boudoir
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£8 / £10 adv, 10pm - late
With Dean Ramirez.
Sould
Deux
£3, 8.30pm
Green For Go
The Running Horse
£tbc, 8pm - 2am Plus The Rebel Soul Collective.
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
£3, 8pm With Djangology.
The Wickets
The Maze
£tbc, 7.30pm
Basement Boogaloo
The Maze
£5, 10pm
Protest the Hero
Rock City
£9, 7pm
Plus The Chariot and The Human
Abstract.
Wonky Pop Tour
The Rescue Rooms
£7, 7pm
With Dan Black and Boy Crisis.
My Toys Like Me
Stealth
£5, 10.15pm
Log Jam
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Sunday 08/03
Fight Like Apes
The Bodega Social Club
£6, 8pm
Pop Bubble, Rock! Launch Night
Seven
£tbc, 8pm
Saturday 14/03
Cult DnB
Muse
£4 / £6, 10pm - 3am
Brookes Brothers.
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
£3, 8pm With Wholesome Fish. Richie Muir
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
Ghoul Garden!
The Maze
£3 / £3.50, 10pm
Mr Hudson
Stealth
£8.50, 7pm
Go Go v Mufti Costumes
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
With King Kahlua and friends.
Sunday 15/03
Nottingham Folkus
The Maze
£4, 7.30pm
Wednesday 18/03
Firefly
Marcus Garvey Ballroom
£10 / £15 / MOTD, 10pm - 6am
Hot Chip, Loose Cannons, Kanio,
Thrash Jelly and Beat Repeaters.
Shivver
The Maze
£tbc, 8pm
Spectrum is 8
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£8 / £10 adv, 10pm - late
Plump DJs, Laidback Luke, Pete
Jordan and Hexadecimal.
Depraved
Igloo
£5 / £7, 10pm - late
Saturday Night Knees Up!
The Malt Cross
£3, 8pm Reverend Ribble and The Ginger
Nuts
Human Rights Day
Deux
£tbc, 8pm
Smokescreen
The Maze
£5, 10pm
Wednesday13
Rock City
£13, 6.30pm
Roadblock
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
DJ Daddio and friends.
Battle of The Bands Heat 5
The Maze
£tbc, 7.30pm
Nearly Dan
The Rescue Rooms
£10, 7.30pm
Peter Doherty
Rock City
£19, 7.30pm
Stiff Little Fingers
Rock City
£15, 7.30pm
Thursday 12/03
Thursday 19/03
Autohype
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
Plus Tax The Fat.
Automatic Zen
The Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
Animal Collective
The Rescue Rooms
£13, 7.30pm
Jennifer Batten
The Rescue Rooms
£13, 7.30pm
Red Priest: Pirates of The Baroque
Lakeside Arts Centre
£12 / £15, 7.30pm
Snow Patrol
Nottingham Arena
£29.36, 7.30pm
Friday 13/03
Pure Reason Revolution
The Bodega Social Club
£6, 7pm
Poppycock
Moog
Free, 8pm - late
Rigbee Deep
Alley Cafe
Free, 8:30pm - 1am
Plus Minister Hill, Nowhere
Common and Jah Bunndy.
John Marriott and Cookie
Deux
£3, 8.30pm
St Paddy’s Day Celebration
The Maze
£tbc, 8pm
Kelly’s Heroes and Whackin
Shillelaghs.
Norman Jay
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Birobox Workshops
The Malt Cross
£4 on door, 8pm
With Origamibiro and The Joy of
Box.
Steve McGill
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
The Matt and Joe Talent Show
Deux
Free, 9pm
Hidden Talents
The Maze
£5, 8pm
Womens only Cabaret.
Jeffree Star
The Rescue Rooms
£13, 7pm
The Amber Herd
Seven
£4, 8pm - 12am
Friday 20/03
The Boy Least Likely To
The Bodega Social Club
£6.50, 7pm
LeftLion
Brownes
Free, 8pm - 1am
Papa La Bas and Will Jeffery.
Pete Jordan plays at Brownes
‘Brownes
has
something
for
everybody, a venue for eighteen
to eighty year olds, be it for the
superb menu during the day, or the
welcoming friendly party atmosphere
at night. Truthfully though, it’s really
about great music; our resident
DJs (including Chow, Santero and
Freeman) and special live events
including Leftlion Presents offer a fun
entertainment offering that appeals
to the more discerning music lover,
whilst being delivered in such a way
that it’s all about the party’.
Brownes, 15-19 Goose Gate, Hockley
www.brownesnottingham.com, www.spectrum48k.com
Saturday 21/03
Performance
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
We Are The Union
The Maze
£5 / £6, 8pm
Plus Grown At Home, Girlfixer and
VFA.
Nottingham’s favourite musicians talk about their favourite venues
Monday 23/03
Thursday 26/03
Quantic
Dogma
Free, 9pm
Thursday 26/03
Saturday 28/03
The Matt and Joe Talent Show
Deux
Free, 9pm
Oxjam gig.
Ronnie Londons Groove Lounge
Grosvenor
£3 b4 11am, 8pm - 1am
Peepshow / Union X /
Drugdealer Cheerleader
Seven
£tbc, 8pm
The Electric Catfish
Deux
Free, 9pm
Oxjam gig.
Friday 27/03
Rubber Room
The Maze
£3, 10pm
Poppycock
Moog
Free, 8pm - late
Fromage Funk
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Junk Yard
The Market Bar
£5, 10pm - 4am
With Popof, Luke Black,Paul Sekhri
and Mark Cohen.
Rigbee Deep
The Hubb
Free, 8.30pm - 2am
Minister Hill, Nowhere Common
and Jah Bunndy.
Diana Jones
The Maze
£10 adv, 8pm
Plus support.
The Hellfire Club
Seven
£tbc, 8pm
Bands and Burlesque.
Detonate
Stealth
£10 / £12, 10pm - 5am
High Contrast, Logistics, Klute,
Transit Mafia, Youngsta, MCs
Stamina, Freestyle and Ruthless.
Yipil
The Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Monday 30/03
The Rifles
The Rescue Rooms
£12.50, 7pm
Plus New Education
Lionel Richie
Nottingham Arena
£35 - £75, 8pm
Papa La Bas, Will Jeffrey and The Stiff Kittens play LeftLion at Brownes on Friday 20 March, entrance is free.
Papa La Bas
Papa La Bas started as a project
between producer and beatmaker
Dwyz and singer songwriter Suzi
Ruthless. However, their live act
now encompasses session members
from bands like Old Basford and Non
Thespian, as well as a few other folk.
Their style is a mish mash of triphop, but with strings and beautiful
vocals laid over it. We think it’ll
go down rather well as part of our
residency at Brownes in March…
Introduce the band to us…
Papa La Bas are a two piece studio
act with me, Dwyz, on production
and beat duties and Suzi Ruthless on
songwriting and singing duties. We
were signed quite quickly and put
together a seven-piece live band to
recreate the studio sound with Andy
Ming on guitar, Chis on bass, Lee on
drums, Beth on occasional violin and
Duke01 on poetry and rap.
Where did you get the name from?
Suzi mentioned him in a mad diatribe
she often delves into, it was a true
light-bulb moment. I interpret him as
a voodoo god of Mischief, like Loki,
but way cooler.
What was the worst?
I guess supporting the Brand New
Heavies a few months ago. I’m
sure the gig was fine, but I ended
up in hospital four hours before
soundcheck.
What was the last CD you
bought?
Morcheeba’s Who Can You Trust.
Those guys completely passed
me by at the time as I was too
obsessed by hiphop to notice.
What kind of people do you think
will be into your music?
Cats and dogs wanting something a
little more cerebral.
Pick a superpower...
The ability to summon 1000 bees.
What have you been up to recently?
Well, we have our debut LP Anechoic
dropping in March so we’ve
concentrated on the build up to that.
What’s your ideal night out in
Nottingham?
Avant garde cinema, followed by
sushi and a long walk home.
Describe your style...
Voodoo Disco.
What’s coming up next?
A music video I reckon, but we’re still
trying to think up a decent concept.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever
done?
Definitely at the Broadway for
Hockley Hustle for me, just felt an
honour to play there, it was such a
nice atmosphere. We’re loving the
Fleece and Maze too.
Anything else to tell LeftLion
readers?
Nottingham has love for its local
scene, we’re very appreciative of
people’s time and energy. Big up
Notts!
www.myspace.com/papalabasuk
leftlion.co.uk/issue27
23
event listings...
WEEKLIES
Mondays
Open Mic Night
Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
Neon Rocks
Stealth
£3, 9pm - late
NTU student night.
Motherfunker
The Cookie Club
£1 before 11pm, 10.30pm - 3am
Bosh!
Approach
Free, 7pm
Free comedy from Just The Tonic.
Monday Mayhem
Maze
£1 / £2, 8pm
Propaganda
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£3.50 / £4, 10pm - 3am
Indie and alternative club night
with huge events in five cities
across the UK.
Tuesdays
MNSTR!
Brownes
Free, 9pm - 1.30am
Detonate, Spectrum and ClubFoot
residents.
Acoustic Tuesdays
Malt Cross
Free, 8pm
A selection of local acts.
Live Jazz
Hand and Heart
Free, 8pm - late
24
leftlion.co.uk/issue27
for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings
Wednesdays
Open Mic Night
Jam Cafe
Free, 7pm
LeftLion Pub Quiz
Golden Fleece
£2 per team, 8pm
Like booze? Like quizzes? Sorted.
Pub Quiz
Deux
£various, 8pm
Joe Strange Band
Approach
Free, 8pm
Plus guests.
Thursdays
Showcase
Loggerheads
Free, 8pm Live Thursdays
Golden Fleece
Free, 8.30pm
Club NME
Stealth
£2 / £4, 10pm - 2am Word Of Mouth
Muse
£various, 9pm
Jam Cafe
Free, 8pm
DJs on rotation playing funk, soul
and broken beats.
Thursdays
Fridays
Saturdays
Chic
Gatecrasher
£4 / £5, 10.30pm - 3am
Four floors of music.
Atomic / Sabotage
The Cookie Club
£2 b4 11pm, £4 after (NUS
discount), 10.30pm - 3am
BedBug
Eleven
Free, 8pm - 3am
Firefly and Product and bring a
selection of quality DJs every
Thursday.
Strictly
Igloo
Various, 10pm - 4am
Saturday Night Knees Up!
Malt Cross
£3, 8pm - late
Resident bands and special guests
every week.
Chic
Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham
£4adv / £5, 10.30pm - 3am
Open Decks and Open Caves
Loggerheads
Free, 5pm - 12am
Bring some records or bring an
instrument and come and set the
scene for the start of the weekend.
Your Disco
Bodega Social Club
Free, 8pm - late
Regulars and friends get a chance
to become the DJ.
Chow
Brownes
Free, 9pm - 1.30am
Modern World
The Cookie Club
£1 / £3, 10.30pm - 2am
Fridays
Tuned
Rock City
£1 - £5, 10pm - 3am
All the latest alternative music
alongside a healthy dose of pop.
Superstar Boudoir
Gatecrasher
£10 / £12, 10pm - 4am
A slice of action from the world’s
leading dance music brands.
The Pop Confessional
Bodega Social Club
£1 / £3 / £5, 11pm - 3am
Classic POP tunes from all eras,
and lots of fun and games.
Love Shack
Rock City
£4 - £5, 9.30pm - 2am
Joe Strange Band
Southbank Bar
Free, 8pm
Roy De’Wired
Approach
Free, 7pm - 2am
Plus support and DJs.
F*** Me It’s Friday
Halo
Free with Flyer, 10pm - 4am
Santero
Brownes
Free, 9pm - 1.30am
Fridays
Golden Fleece
Free, 8pm
Reggae, DnB, funk, hip hop and disco.
Play
Gatecrasher
£7 / £9, 10pm - 4am
Freeman
Brownes
Free, 9pm - 1.30am
Distortion
Rock City
various, 10pm - 3am
Trollied
Halo
£5 / £6 / more, 10pm - 4am
Sundays
Sunday Jam Sessions
Loggerheads
Free, 8pm Reggae Roast
Golden Fleece
Free entry, all day.
To get your events listed here get
them on our website, fill out the
form at www.leftlion.co.uk/add.
We try to ensure all events are
correct at time of print, but please
check with the venue or promoter
to avoid disappointment.
nottingham event listings...
COMEDY
Sunday 01/02
Comedy Night
Robin Hood
Free, 7.30pm
Marcus Ryan, Ben Davids, Steve
Dunne, Pete Teckman, Robin
Cousins, Ben Briggs and Matt Turner.
Just The Tonic
Approach
£5 / £7.50, 7pm
With Roger Monkhouse, Lewes
Schaffer, Danny McLoughlin and
Darrell Martin.
Tuesday 03/02
Funhouse Comedy
Grove
£4 / £5, 8pm
Stu Goldsmith, Andrew Bird, Crack
Town, Simon Gunnell, Alex Bennett
and Compere Spiky Mike.
Thursday 05/02
Simon Day
Lakeside Arts Centre
£12 / £15, 8pm
Saturday 07/02
John Shuttleworth
Lakeside Arts Centre
£12 / £15, 8pm
Sunday 08/02
Just The Tonic
Approach
£5 / £7.50, 7pm
Josie Long on Tour.
Sunday 15/02
Andy Parsons
Playhouse
£12 / £14, 7.30pm
Just The Tonic
Approach
£8 / £10, 7pm
Chris Addison, Carl Hutchinson and
Chris Ramsey.
Tuesday 17/02
Should I stay or should I go?
Maze
£4 / £5, 8pm
Just The Tonic
Approach
£5 / £7, 7pm
Shazia Mirza
Friday 20/02
Comedy Underground
Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Russell Brand
Nottingham Arena
£24.50, 8pm
Saturday 21/02
Russel Kane and Simon Brodkin
Lakeside Arts Centre
£12 / £15, 8pm
Sunday 22/02
Just The Tonic
Approach
£15, 7pm
Ross Noble
Monday 23/02
Al Murray
Royal Centre
£25, 8pm
Friday 27/02
Mark Watson
Playhouse
£15, 8pm
Sunday 01/03
Just The Tonic
Approach
£8 / £10, 7pm
Reg Hunter and Darrell Martin.
Tuesday 03/03
Funhouse Comedy
Grove
£4 / £5, 8pm
John Gordillo, Wes Zaharuk, Ruth
Cockburn, Gordon Smith and
compere Spiky Mike.
Sunday 15/03
Just The Tonic
Approach
£5 / £7.50, 7pm
Ivan Brackenbury, Andy White and
Darrell Martin.
Tuesday 17/03
Should I stay or should I go?
Maze
£4 / £5
Friday 20/03
Comedy Underground
Loggerheads
Free, 8pm - 1.30am
Sunday 22/03
Just The Tonic
Approach
£5 / £7.50, 7pm
Jo Caulfield, Dan Nightingale and
Charlie Baker.
Tuesday 24/03
Rhod Gilbert
Lakeside Arts Centre
£12 / £15, 8pm
Sunday 29/03
Just The Tonic
Approach
£5 / £7.50, 7pm
Jack Whitehall, Dan Atkinson,
Daniel Rigby and Darrell Martin.
Tuesday 31/03
Funhouse Comedy
Grove
£4 / £5, 8pm
Gareth Richards, Kevin Dewsbury,
Norman Cho, Pete Goddard, Steve
Dunne and compere Spiky Mike.
EXHIBITIONS
Sunday 01/02
Windows on War Soviet Posters
1943-1945
Lakeside Arts Centre
Free, All day
Runs until: 22/03
Lucinda Chua
Lakeside Arts Centre
Free, All day
Runs until: 22/02
Mark Langley: Drawn to Pencil
Yard Gallery (The)
Free, 11am - 4pm
Runs until: 08/03
Short Fall
Hand and Heart
Free, 12pm - 6pm
Runs until: 13/02
Curated by Jeffery Baker featuring
work by James Bowen,Corinne
Felgate, Rebecca Gove-Humphries,
Mark Selby, Edward Wakefield and
David Miller.
Coasting
Nottingham Castle
Normal Admission, All day
Runs until: 15/02
for more: leftlion.co.uk/listings
Our Style Is Legendary:
the art of LeftLion
In your hands you are holding issue 27 of LeftLion
magazine, over the last four and a half years we have
been lucky enough to work with some of Nottingham’s
most talented photographers, designers, illustrators
and visual artists. We decided it was time to put
together a collection of some of our favorite pieces
that we’ve published, give contributors the chance to
show new work and give other artists an opportunity
to submit their ideas to the exhibition.
A call for artists was sent out on the theme of meeting
people in Nottingham and the interactions and
experiences people have within the city.
The very first live music events we put on took place
at the Malt Cross and it seemed fitting to return there
for our first ever art exhibition. We’ll be having a big
opening night party on the 5th March, the exhibition
itself continues at the Malt Cross until the 14th of
March. At that point we’ll be taking a selection of work
from there to another of our favorite venues, The Golden
Fleece, where it will stay for further month.
LeftLion’s aim has always been to make culture
and art of all forms more accessible to the people of Nottingham and those visiting us from
elsewhere, we hope this show will do just that.
www.leftlion.co.uk
Opening night: 5 March, The Malt Cross, 7pm - 11pm
Sunday 01/02
Gemma Pardo and Roma Tearne
Nottingham Castle
Normal Admission, All day
Runs until: 15/02
Saturday 07/02
Particles
Surface Gallery
Free, All day
Runs until: 21/02
Thursday 26/02
Debra Swann - Trouble in
Paradise
The Wasp Room
Free, All day
Runs until: 15/03
Friday 27/02
Geoff Diego Litherland
Lakeside Arts Centre
Free, All day
Runs until: 12/04
Saturday 28/02
The American Scene
Lakeside Arts Centre
Free, All day
Runs until: 19/04
Thursday 05/03
LeftLion Exhibition
Malt Cross
Free, All day.
Runs until: 14/03 (then is moved
to the Golden Fleece)
Art from the last five years of
Leftlion magazine alongside newly
commisioned work specifically
for this exhibition on the theme
of ‘meeting people’. See feature
above for further information.
Saturday 07/03
Subism
Muse
Runs until: 08/03
Contemporary artists from around
the world, selling limited-edition
artwork, from street art and graffiti
to digital art and illustration.
THEATRE
Wednesday 04/02
The Graduate
Royal Centre
£8 - £19, 7.30pm
Runs until: 07/02
Vagina Monologues
Royal Centre
£12 - £23, 8pm
Runs until: 07/02
Friday 06/02
Glamour
Playhouse
£8 - £24.50, various
Runs until: 21/02
Monday 09/02
Lady Windermere’s Fan
Lace Market Theatre
£6 - £9, 7.30pm
Runs until: 14/02
Calendar Girls
Royal Centre
£13 - £27.50, 7.30pm
Runs until: 14/02
Thursday 12/02
60th Anniversary Gala
Playhouse
£60, various
Friday 13/02
Pit of Curiosities
Pit and Pendulum
£1, 8pm - late
Tuesday 17/02
Turandot, Aida and Carmen
Royal Centre
£16 - £33, 7.30pm
Runs until: 21/02
Tuesday 24/02
King Lear
Sandfield Theatre
£7 / £9, 7.15pm, 2pm
Runs until: 28/02
Thursday 26/02
Twelfth Floor
Playhouse
£8 - £16, 8pm
Wednesday 04/03
Albert / Bride or Groom / After
Magritte
Lace Market Theatre
£6 / £7, 7.30pm
Runs until: 07/03
Friday 06/03
Empty Bed Blues
Lakeside Arts Centre
£9 / £12, 8pm
Runs until: 21/03
Wednesday 11/03
The Price
Playhouse
£8 - £24.50, 7.45pm
Runs until: 28/03
Monday 16/03
A Pack of Lies
Royal Centre
£13 - £26, 7.30pm
Runs until: 21/03
Thursday 26/03
The Afridan Company Presents
Richard III
Lakeside Arts Centre
£9 / £12, 8pm
Runs until: 28/03
Friday 27/03
Hot Flush
Royal Centre
£23, 7.30pm
Tuesday 31/03
The Hounding of David Oluwale
Playhouse
£8 - £24.50, 7.45pm
Runs until: 04/04
West End Story
Royal Centre
£13 - £39.50, 7.30pm
Runs until: 11/04
leftlion.co.uk/issue27
25
Write Lion
It’s a new year and with that comes new inspiration. This issue we have contributions about
pet dogs, the next door neighbour’s sex life, missed parents, people’s quirks and a stream-ofconsciousness piece that we think could work equally well alongside a jazz or hiphop beat.
If you want others to read your work (and you want it to be considered for publication in here)
then log on to the Write Lion forum at leftlion.co.uk/forum.
Elemental Protection
Take me right back to the rock
Woke up this morning, time to eat so I sat at
the foot of my feet, to turn out a treat, who did
I meet but my mind in deceit, I was all over
the place, chaos etched in my face, looked
like the sound of a pet shop, well I peeked at
my plate, what a confused state, I’d buttered
my tea, scrambled my bacon and sugared the
damn eggs, well they say variety is the spice
of life, but I wasn’t so sure of that, better to
swap hats with a stranger or do things that
inject that fight/flight danger, so where is we,
where was we, Bing Crosby?, no that be later,
or before, I don’t know, different bag different
door, you know the score, one all to the team
in red, first out of bed wins toothpaste for a
year and gets to keep the teeth in their head,
yeah that’s what I said, you heard me, clear
as Swansea bay, never been?, never seen?,
go there, you’ll come straight back, but at
what cost?, I found a book, so took a look,
thumbed its ravaged round pages, it shed
paper, but that didn’t matter too much, in fact
it added to the mystery of the story, bound
for glory, that’s a book I might read, wonder
what seeds it will plant for me to feed on,
you can’t unsee what you’ve seen, you can’t
ungo where you’ve been, you drift from pillar
to post, get posted somewhere, drop back
out of the air, to a new land that sucks you
in like quick sand, most of the sand is slow
sand, bland sand, tanned sand, I want to find
a grain and uncover its journey, show me its
lineage, I’ve got oceans of time and a patient
ear, take me right back to the rock.
Owl
People
People are a funny bunch.
Well, some are funny
Some are cunts.
Some I despise
Others, I love
Some are beneath me
Others, above.
People are selfish,
Born and bred.
But people can change,
Till they’re dead.
People play at life to win
Fools lose all the same
For when a wanker loses life
They’d already lost the game
Warm, happy
Who let me be free.
A rock..
Is what you were to me
Solid and strong
In my times of misery.
All these things to me,
Were you,
They live in my memory
Strong and true.
The Earth
Is what you were to me
Nurturing, grounded
Judgment never clouded.
The sun
Is what you were to me
Sara
You can tell he’s having sex
You can tell he’s
having sex
when the radio comes on.
Either he
or the speakers
mumble something over a
restaurant violin
about how they can
hear
the love
when their hearts
beat
side by side
but what
this really means
is his naked chest on
her lovely
breasts.
Jack Twatt
There is
a brief intercession
as the dj enters
the bedroom
then the violins
kick in again
I think if I fucked
to this music
I’d be sick on her
though some women might
like that
maybe this explains
the songs’
airtime and long
overdue, shelf-life.
I hear a gasp and
the radio gets louder
keeping any voyeuristic
bats listening
deep in
the night sky.
My bed trembles to this
earthquake musical
he’s fucking in tune
to Manilow
“Coh pohCoh poh cabah nah”
Just as my neighbour’s
heat, starts to
warm my room
there’s a crash,
a groan and
he shouts:
“DAMN, RADIO’S FALLEN,
IT’S BROKE!”
In the dark
I grin
wider than the moon
Jaack
WEDNESDAY
12 HEAT
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STREE
NOTTIN T, HOCKLEY,
GHAM, N
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FROM
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NEW WEBS
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TEL. 0115
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OPEN MIC NIGHT - ANYTHING GOES
EVERY WEDNESDAY AT JAM CAFE
THURSDAY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH OXJAM
OPEN DECKS, SO BRING YOUR OWN TUNES
EVERY THURSDAY AT JAM CAFE
Time, once again, to clear through that pile of CDs,
books, mags, and all the other stuff we get sent. If you
have anything you want us to give the once-over, please
send it to natasha@leftlion.co.uk
MUSIC
Alberto Veto
Afraid of Thieves EP (Cabaret Beatings)
Cappo and Styly Cee
The H-Bomb EP (Son Records)
Those Dancing Days
In Our Space Hero Suits (Wichita Recordings)
Having formed in the summer
of 2007, Alberto Veto are mere
babies on the Nottingham music
scene but are already on their third
EP release. A trio of musicians
bringing a mature indie rock to the
people of the Midlands and more
recently, further afield in London
Town and Manchester. Afraid of
Thieves is a mellow yet bright EP,
with an almost Spanish feel to its
guitars. Avalanche draws you in
as it canters to a climax for the chorus while Through Her Teeth
and Tongue’s drum beats will have you tapping your feet along.
If this EP and their live performances are anything to go by,
their forthcoming album will be well worth a listen. Alison Emm
The new EP from a now established
collaboration in Notts hiphop puts
the production of Styly Cee (aka the
infamous rapping miner Pitman)
back in the limelight taking him
from behind the decks as Cappo’s
DJ and placing him back in front
of the mixing desk. Cappo’s
return to the label that first gave
him his break features big drums
throughout giving an assertive
energy to all three tracks. Tell Them
nicely combines a rolling break with a cheeky guitar sample,
whilst Time Will Tell uses a subtle Hendrix vocal to full effect.
The smasher of the EP has to be Unwritten Rule with robotic
vocals and haunting chords resulting in the most atmospheric
number of them all. As Cappo exhorts us to ‘remember what you
are aiming for’ we are reminded of his consistently conscious
and dominating flow. An impressive outing. Read interviews
with this dynamic duo at leftlion.co.uk/music. Camillo Hortez
American soul music has in the last
few years enjoyed a resurgence
through mainstream acts such as
Duffy and Amy Winehouse, so a
whole new generation of kids are
discovering the sounds of that era.
The pop debut from this Stockholm
all-girl group leans very much in
the direction of the likes of Dusty
Springfield. However, rather than
produce a cookie-cutter copy, they
add their own spin to the proceedings. Whilst they point back
to the age of Motown, the regimental race of the drums and
speedy jangle of the guitar work seems to hark more to the indie
pop of the nineties, making for an interesting and upbeat mix.
Tracks like Falling In Fall and Run Run gallop along yet never
seem to outstay their invariably three-minute welcome. This
differs from the track Hitten, which plays more towards new
wave sensibilities and radio-friendly eighties-like airplay. In all,
this makes for great feelgood listening. Plus, Duet Under Waters
features handclaps. Life always seems better with handclaps.
Duncan Heath
Buy this if you like: Elbow and fast-tempo acoustic rock.
www.albertoveto.co.uk
Available Now
Hungover Stuntmen
Blame The BBC (One Bounce)
These Geordie rockers have
been on the scene since 2003
and during their path to stardom
have supported bands such as
The Kooks and The Futureheads.
With endorsements from the
likes of Ocean Colour Scene’s
Steve Craddock and Duran
Duran’s Andy Taylor, Hungover
Stuntmen certainly have a lot to
live up to. Fortunately, listening
to their debut album shows that any concerns over their quality
and potential are unfounded. Blame The BBC is an emphatic
first attempt, with well-crafted beats and catchy guitar hooks.
There is a lot to enjoy in this forty minute offering. Andy Taylor’s
influence is clear with the album enjoying a polished finish which
is particularly noticeable on Love Is Suicide, a track destined to
be an indie disco hit. Other stand outs are Inside Out, a song
with great toe-tapping appeal and a fantastic intro/outro, and
She Knows which has a slight Kooks twang to it. The band are
certainly not scared to try something different from the more
usual indie stuff. Overall, there is a lot to like about this modish
indie outfit, they clearly live up to the hype and if they continue
on in this vein they will be destined for great things.
Dan Skurok
Buy this if you like: The Tunics, The Hot Air Balloons
www.hungoverstuntmen.co.uk
Available Now
BOOKS
STAPLE 69/70
The Publishing Issue
The latest issue of Sneinton-based
Staple Magazine is guest-edited
by Rebecca Swift (The Literary
Consultancy) and looks at the
writing industry. Its content ranges
from Ross Bradshaw reflecting
on the tribulations of running the
legendary Mushroom Bookshop in
Hockley during the eighties and
nineties (including Nazi attacks!) to
photographs by 2008 Nottingham
Creative Business Awards nominee
Julian Hughes. Terry Darlington
takes a narrow boat through the waterways of North Carolina,
Jenny Downham explores teenage relationships and Tim
Clare offers a revealing look at his own (and other writers’)
incompetence. At the centre of this 300 page edition are tributes
to Caribbean writer Archie Markham by Margaret Drabble and
others, including a moving sequence of poems, Afterward, by
Mimi Khalvati. All in all, a solid exposure of the business of
getting books into print. Subscription are £15 for 3 issues.
Aly Stoneman
Buy this if you like: The Meanest Flower by Mimi Khalvati,
Before I Die by Jenny Downham.
staplemagazine.wordpress.com
28
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
Buy this if you like: P Brothers, Pitman, Braintax and UK hiphop.
www.sonrecords.com
Available Now
Wired Desire
Barely Legal EP
Five new rockers from Glasgow are
behind this provocatively named
EP, and Wired Desire provide a
new, fresh higher level of energy
to the recently slightly stagnant
rock scene. With the hard edge of
AC/DC and the charisma of Guns
N’ Roses, Wired Desire are sure to
cause some commotion amongst
their fellow rockers. The sound of
accomplished retro rock serves to
make Wired Desire seem much
older and wiser than their time. The second track The Hard
Stuff, showcases Daly’s gruff, emotive voice perfectly, alongside
classic guitar solos which are essential for any decent rock group.
The third track Damn Hard is a power ballad, and suggests that
the group would be an interesting act to watch live. The dark,
mysterious music is the kind that would be perfect for an eighties
horror film, maybe something along the lines of The Lost Boys. I
reckon Wired Desire are sure to take the rock/metal music scene
by storm over the next few years. Lizzie Goodman
Buy this if you like: 1980s hair metal.
www.myspace.com/wireddesireband
Available Now
Hoods (Milo Books)
Carl Fellstrom
A book that covers the spate of gun
crime and gangs in Nottingham with
the face of Bestwood Cartel frontman
Colin Gunn on the cover? Not more
sensationalism to taint the reputation of
our beloved city I hear you cry… Well,
while passing glances at this book in
shops may perhaps add to the fear factor
surrounding Nottingham (which hasn’t
actually registered a death through
gun crime in over two years) if you pick
it up and give it a go it’s bloody good
read! Packed full of information from
police files and looking at the routes of gang crime from the fifties
onwards, it’s fascinating and very well researched. Answering
many questions that locals like you and I might have about how
people like Marian Bates and the Stirlands ended up dead and
on the cover of local and national press, it also makes you realise
how things managed to get so out of control during the nineties
and early 2000s under Police Chief Steve Green. You can tell this
book has been a gruelling project for Fellstrom, a news journalist
who has been covering the East Midlands for several years. In a
perverse sort of way it’s also clearly a labour of love for him. Well
worth a read if you want to know more about the stories behind
the news. Jared Wilson
Buy this if you like: The Krays, crime novels, knowing more
about why you live in ‘Assassination City’.
www.milobooks.co.uk
Buy this if you like: The idea of Duffy meeting The Smiths
www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays
Available Now
Euros Childs
Cheer Gone (Wichita Recordings)
Euros’ voice has amazing depth
to it on this album; this is folk
music with real soul. Hauntingly
hypnotic, Farm-Hand Murder is
particularly chilling following the
previous track about unrequited
love, Always Thinking of Her.
However, with the next track
Saving Up To Get Married the
romantic in me forgot about the
dark side and possibly fell a little
bit in love with Euros and his lilting Welsh accent. This is a
philosopher at work; themes of passing time, mortality and of
course love, of all kinds, run deep and there’s all the pretty poetic
melancholy you would expect from such stuff. But the cheer is
not gone; Euros is telling us what we hopefully already knew
and with the point hammered home with Sing Song Song that
music is food for the soul. He believes it and you know what?
He’s quite convincing. Beccy Godridge
Buy this if you like: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Rufus Wainwright
or Super Furry Animals.
www.myspace.com/euroschilds
Available Now
Cracking the Short Story Market
(Writers’ Bureau)
Iain Patterson
This 300 page book is the perfect
guide for the determined writer
who wants to see their work
in print rather than in a folder
entitled ‘stories’ on their laptop.
Offering a comprehensive insight
into the craft of writing, the book
also explains how the various
markets work, how to impress
judges and the dos and don’ts
of character. In this recently
updated edition the author
includes information on ezines
and new contacts as well as an
extended chapter on writing for
radio. If you don’t get published
after reading this then there was never any lead in your pencil
in the beginning. See the LeftLion creative writing forum at
leftlion.co.uk/forum for more creative writing tips. James Walker
Buy this if you like: The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook,
Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight
www.writersbureau.com
proud
Nottingham City Council
to present
Nottingham
Friday 13 February
Light Night
Full Programme
Nottingham City Centre
From 6pm ‘til late
Thursday 12 February
Light Night Tasters
From 6pm ‘til late
Call 08444 775 678 for event listings and offers or visit
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/lightnight
Pisces (February 20 - March 20)
Statistically speaking this is the most depressing time of the year, so it’s worth planning your
coping strategies in advance. When life seems grim and all hope seems but a distant memory, why
not try weeping uncontrollably in the shower? After all, it worked for your parents.
Aries (March 21 - April 20)
Somewhere someone is thinking of you. Someone is making you into a vision so beautiful that it can
only live in the mind. Someone is thinking of the way your breath escapes your lips when you are
touched. This person is using celestial colours to paint your image. Mainly brown.
Taurus (April 21 - May 21)
You can recycle most types of paper and card fairly easily these days through your local waste
collectors. But remember it’s still better to try to re-use these materials than recycle them. Old
telephone directories can make ideal personal address books. Simply cross out the names and
addresses of the people you don’t know.
LEFTLION ABROAD
Gemini (May 22 - June 22)
Kurt Cobain’s home, Seattle, USA
I ain’t got no fire, to light my cigarette. I’m just an ‘ol dog, looking for my midnight pet. She lays out
a matchstick and offers me the light. I take a drag and blow smoke right in her eyes. Your leash is a
short one, roll over and play dead. You’re my pretty doggie, I pat you on your head.
171 Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle, USA. A big house that made big news on 8 April 1994
when its owner Kurt Cobain, lead singer of nineties grunge phenomenon Nirvana, put his lips around
a shotgun and pulled the trigger. His body was discovered by an electrician who had arrived to install
a security system. Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain’s ear, the electrician
reported seeing no visible signs of trauma and initially believed that Cobain was asleep until he saw
the shotgun pointing at his chin. A suicide note was found that said, ‘I haven’t felt the excitement of
listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing... for too many years now’.
Cancer (June 23 - July 23)
Getting too old to go on an 18-30 holiday? Do not despair - there is an alternative! Simply get pissed,
lie in a pit in your garden and shag everyone who looks at you over the fence. For added evening
entertainment set off a car alarm and gyrate your body around it until the police arrive.
Leo (July 24 - August 23)
If you can get a photo of a LeftLion sticker or copy of the mag somewhere dead exotic, send it to
info@leftlion.co.uk.
Calling extra terrestrial fanatics: been hit by the credit crunch too? Do not fear! You can create
the effects of being abducted by aliens cheaply and easily by taking painkillers and drinking two
bottles of whisky. You’ll either go mysteriously missing ever after or you’ll wake up in a strange
place the next day, having had your memory eerily erased.
Virgo (August 24 - September 23)
My wife invited her vegetarian sister and her husband round to dinner. When we’ve been round
theirs they always go on about how tofu, Quorn and other meat substitutes taste ‘exactly like the
real thing’. So I figured they’d never know if I just cooked them up a nice bit of steak. They went
mental about it! Possibly due to the lack of protein in their diet?
Libra (September 24 - October 23)
Feeling the squeeze of the current financial crisis as banks tighten up on your loan repayments?
Don’t let it affect your quality of life! You can get a two for one offer on all items at Tesco and Asda
this month, simply by putting one into your shopping trolley and the other into your coat pocket.
Scorpio (October 24 - November 22)
There are worse things in the world than what is going to happen to you tomorrow and it will
become increasingly important for you to get some perspective. Someday you’ll be able to look back
on it all and laugh. Until then, however it’s going to take months of reconstructive surgery to get
you looking ‘normal’ again.
Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22)
A new year can bring a turn of tide, and a salty old sea dog like you can expect plenty of changes
over the next fortnight. A long-term, but usually covert, relationship with a married woman will
come to an end when she finally plucks up the courage to ask you for a divorce.
Capricorn (December 23 - January 19)
People say it’s a dog eat dog world out there, but I was still surprised at what happened when I
took Binky the Bandog Mastiff out to the park last Sunday. The owner of the West Highland Terrier
was rather upset. I eventually gave him most of the dog back, but he was crying uncontrollably by
that point.
Aquarius (January 20 - February 19)
Calling all bearded men! You too can obtain the appearance of an upper class North Pole explorer
by simply applying Tippex to your beard, painting your nose blue and, if you’re up for it, cutting off
a couple of toes. It never fails to impress the girls! Then lavish them with Kendal mint cake and go
on about how it’s all you’ve eaten for five months.
Nottingham twin cities run by mentalists
TEHRAN
HARARE
The next Issue of LeftLion
Magazine will be out at the
end of March, in plenty of
time for all April fools.
30
www.leftlion.co.uk/issue27
Country: Iran
madinejad
Leader: Mahmoud Ah
Mad as:
s
A biscuit tin full of frog
bullying, ill-tempered
Thinks Britain is: “A
er”
and expansionist pow
enjoys: Waving
When visiting Notts,
apon in Trent End
inflatable nuclear we
Country: Zimbabwe
Leader: Robert Mugab
e
Mad as: Fuck
Thinks Britain is: “A
country of
thieving colonialists”
When visiting Notts,
enjoys: Getting Paul Smi
th
to run up more shir ts
with his face on them
10th Birthday Weekender
Friday 6th March - Sunday 8th March 2009
Pontins, Prestatyn Sands, North Wales
Expect 3 days of non stop music across 3 arenas, with the biggest artists in their respective genres
touching down to contribute to what will be the biggest birthday celebration on the planet!
WILEY [LIVE] ⁄ RONI SIZE ⁄ DJ YODA ⁄ ANDY C
SCRATCH PERVERTS ⁄ HIGH CONTRAST ⁄ DJ MARKY
SKREAM ⁄ FRICTION ⁄ LONDON ELEKTRICITY ⁄ BEARDYMAN
BENGA ⁄ GOLDIE ⁄ FOREIGN BEGGARS [LIVE] ⁄ FABIO
DIGITAL MYSTIKZ ⁄ DJ ZINC [HISTORY OF DETONATE SET]
PEANUT BUTTER WOLF [AV SET] ⁄ NOISIA ⁄ PLASTICIAN
SHY FX ⁄ C2C BEAT TORRENT [AV SET] ⁄ JAMES PANTS [LIVE]
THE APPLES [LIVE] ⁄ ED RUSH ⁄ LOGISTICS ⁄ TAYO
TROJAN SOUNDSYSTEM ⁄ APPLEBLIM ⁄ D BRIDGE ⁄ BREAK
ICICLE ⁄ ZINC [HOUSE SET] ⁄ DAM-FUNK ⁄ COMMIX
JIMMY SCREECH [LIVE] ⁄ HIGHNESS SOUNDSYSTEM
BREAKAGE ⁄ KLUTE ⁄ 2562 ⁄ DJ DIE ⁄ CYANTIFIC
DJ DEREK ⁄ ALIX PEREZ ⁄ MAYER HAWTHORNE [LIVE P.A]
RANDOM MOVEMENT ⁄ TOMB CREW ⁄ LONE
TRANSIT MAFIA ⁄ PETE JORDAN ⁄ SPAM CHOP ⁄ METAPHI
MCs DYNAMITE ⁄ GQ ⁄ EKSMAN ⁄ STAMINA ⁄ LOWQUI
I.D ⁄ SP ⁄ WREC ⁄ RAGE ⁄ FREESTYLE ⁄ RUTHLESS
Arenas hosted by..
Book tickets now! Ticket price: £125 (+ £1.87 booking fee if paying via credit card)
This includes self catered chalet accommodation on the weekender site for 3 nights. It includes access to all of the weekender music arenas, and all the holiday parks facilities.
How to book tickets:
1. Decide who you want to share a chalet with – Chalets sleep groups of 4, 5, 6, or 7. You can upgrade your chalet to fit extra people in as long as the
larger chalets are still available. If there are less of you than 4, please e-mail info@detonate1.co.uk
2. Call the bookings hotline on Call 0844 576 5949 and quote the code DET1, or go to www.pontins.com/detonate.
Please note: groups of 4 or 5 need 1 bed apartments, 6 or 7 need 2 bed apartments as 2 of the bed spaces are on the sofa beds.
3. Make payment: You will be charged for the whole apartment (4 person = £500, 5 person = £625 and so on).
You can make the payment across several cards.
4. You will then receive a booking and registration form in the post. The balance paid voucher is sent out 7-10 days before the event.
Coaches: Detonate coaches can take you from Nottingham to the weekender and back for £20.
Tickets on sale now at: Selectadisc, Golden Fleece, Brownes, Ticket reps. For more info see www.detonate1.co.uk or e-mail info@detonate1.co.uk
Facebook: search groups for... Detonate Weekender, Detonate, Hospital Records
WWWeb: www.detonate1.co.uk
www.hospitalrecords.com