CUBISSUE 542

LONDONLondon Through The Eyes of...

ARTS

FILM

FEATURES

Always Read the Small Print The trouble with translated remakesHas Tim Burton Found His Spark? Gown Town Hollywood glitz and glamour hits the V&A

Reggae Reggae CUB celebrates fi fty years of Jamaican Inde-pendenceInterview: Jack KansasInterview: Rae Morris

MUSIC

TRAVELThe Au Pair

QUPIDCouple Two: Jack Francis and Steph Kelley

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TWITTER: @cubmagazineGET INVOLVED: editor@cubmagazine.co.uk

‘Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the

way we live, what is happening’- Coco Chanel

Want To Set Up Your Own Business? We chat to QMUL’s star student entrepreneursInternships: Are They Worth It? The Trouble With Social Networking

Arts Awards: The Turner PrizeArts Awards: The Man Booker PrizeFabricating Beauty A brief les-son in the Pre-Raphealite art movementThis Month in Arts...

‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ Looks like the nineties are returning to our wardrobesThe Cast of London Fashion Week The stereotypical char-acters we spotted at LFWCUB Creates Get spooky with your own glittered spider collar

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LONDON THROUGH THE EYES OF...

Photo by Bryony Orr

Photos by Edward Clibbens

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LAURA STAAB:

‘Some Sundays - lucky, lucky Sundays - you can actually rise from bed, before the moon. Yes, you may be a little hazy, but London is too. It is overcast as ever, but all the hustle and bustle is hushed. It is hushed into a market: a fl owery fi ve hundred me-tres by the name of Columbia Road. As you daydream past the pretty petals and pot-ted plants, you can still see all the aspects of our capital around, but in an easier, end-of-the-week way. The masculinity of the city is not suits and skyscrapers now, it is the stalls’ cockney wide-boys, who call, ‘ave a banana! Banana trees, a treat at a tenner!’ The town’s trend for dip-dying is not in ‘hipster’ hair, but in calla lilies; all the colours of strawberries and cream, not a gross neon green. Not a Starbucks to be seen, but a wooden-fronted café or two, with hatches that welcome wanderers, as if to a friend’s familiar kitchen. A bit of ban-ter with the cheeky chappies, a bunch of ‘dahlias for the darlin’ cradled in an arm, and a coffee from ‘that little place on the corner’: it will all, always warm whatever week I have had.’END.

ALEXANDER SARYCHKIN:

‘Buying alcohol after two o’clock in the morning in some parts of London can be a real bugger. You walk from shop to shop, staring through the windows, trying to discern whether the curtains over the refrigerators are just for show. You enter the shop, head down, more than likely al-ready very drunk, asking the man behind the counter, ‘Hey buddy, can I get a couple cans of Red Stripe, please?’ I’d say seven times out of ten the answer is an immedi-ate no. ‘We’re closed boss!’ Another three times in every ten, you ask again, they give a quick look to the left and to the right and then say ‘Okay, what do you want?’ You usually end up paying double what you normally would, but the night is starting to stagnate and at least that beer is going to keep you company, whether you end up going home, or you fi nd yourself by the Grand Union Canal at four a.m., sucking on a now warm can with this guy you just met at Power Lunches who swears on his Mother’s life that Refused shat all over an-ything Fugazi ever did. You can’t be both-ered to tell him that he’s wrong, and that while The Shape of Punk to Come is great, those Swedes never committed anything to tape as good as Red Medicine.’END.

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E The Turner Prize is a contemporary award that always manages to gener-ate controversy. The event recurrently angers artists, art critics, supporters and opponents of the art world alike. The reason for this response is that the Turner Prize nominations committee is tasked with the unenviable responsi-bility of condensing the work from an entire year of contemporary art into a short list of around four names. Brit-ain represents a nation of artists that are constantly trying to find their own way of challenging an idea or provok-

ing a response, so compiling four of the ‘best’ will present a task of immense difficulty, the end result inevitably be-ing one that will never be unanimously agreed upon.The 2012 shortlist does not fail in presenting a varied quartet of artists, in which distinctions can be made in terms of their chosen medium, the ideas themselves and popularity. True to previous years, there remains a rec-ognised formula in the selection of the candidates in regards to their poten-tial:

Photos courtesy of Tate Press Images

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THE EASILY FORGOTTEN: Luke Fowler

Fowler’s nominated exhibition All Divided Selves at Inverleith House, featured his al-most obsessive fi lm work exploring the life and work of Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Fowler’s video works aim to convey the atmos-phere of an era through the compilation of ex-isting footage and draw attention to the effect that time has on society and individuals, and All Divided Souls unquestioningly achieves this. In terms of the Turner Prize, however, Fowler’s biopic doesn’t make the grade in ex-citement. His work is good, it achieves what it set out to achieve, but it isn’t Turner Prize winning material. This said, previous years have seen completely unexpected winners - Steve McQueen outdoing Tracey Emin in 1999 for example - so who knows.

THE SAFE BET: Paul Noble

The odds on favourite, nominated for his solo exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery: a presen-tation of his fastidiously detailed drawings of the fi ctional city Nobson Newtown. Noble’s work twins the precise aesthetic of modernist architecture with a layer of dark and humor-ous narrative. Simply put, Nobson Newtown acts as a nexus of ideas. It satirically presents questions of society in an unusual manner,; ‘an exercise in self-portraiture via town plan-ning’. But where Nobson’s concept is unusual, interesting and popular with bookmakers, it is not original- Charles Avery has been doing the same thing for about a decade, and quite honestly, it is not as exciting as some of the other nominees’ work. Once the initial idea is grasped, something is lost from the concept, all that remains is drawings. Beautiful draw-ings, on a very impressive scale, but drawings nonetheless.

THE CRITICS’ CHOICE: Elizabeth Price

This exhibition of three video works was origi-

THE WILD CARD: Spartacus Chetwynd

The ‘absurdist theatre’ of Spartacus Chetwyn is known mainly for The Fall of Man, a puppet show based on The Book of Genesis, Paradise Lost, The German Ideology, and Hermitos Children, a fi lm summarised by critic Rich-ard Dorment as ‘The young woman who rode to her own death on the dildo see-saw at the Sugar-Tits Doom Club.’ This year Chetwynd is nominated for her Odd Man Out exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ, London, a show involving various performances revolving around the pros and cons of democracy. Features of the work include an oracle, an infl atable slide be-tween galleries, a puppet show of Jesus and Barbarus and a large monster inhabiting a sea of limbs and bin bags. In her own eclectic style, Chetwynd shows what is positive about a democratic framework whilst also highlights what it cannot achieve. It is obvious why some are quick to label Chetwynd and her work as insane. This said, the underlying message is poignant, and the piece houses something which may elevate it above the other nomi-nated exhibitions: the entertainment value is through the roof.

While it is always hard to predict a winner of the Turner Prize, the shortlist itself presents an opportunity for these select few artists to be praised, ridiculed and condemned, a plat-form on which to provoke a reaction much greater than they would have achieved oth-erwise. The Turner Prize will continue to face criticism, but that coverage is exactly what the contemporary art world needs, it is how it de-velops and expands. Whether or not you view it as ‘conceptual bulls***’, you hear about it, and that’s what matters. END.

words by Harry Thorne

nally revealed at Gateshead’s BATLIC Centre, and was described by a particularly eloquent critic as being ‘like David Lynch turned A Clockwork Orange’s cinema scene into a fi ne powder and did it up the nose.’ Price’s abstract revisions of original fi lm question society’s relationship with consumer culture in an extremely dark and emotive way. One of the videos, User Group Disco, is set in the ‘Hall of Sculptures’, a fi ctional institute free of any physical or mental matter. In front of this backdrop appears a progression of hallu-cinatory rotating silver objects overlaid with transitory text and an ominous narration. Vis-ually, aurally and mentally you become com-pletely engrossed in the work. It is this ability to completely immerse an audience that has seen Price nominated this year. Her work seems the most worthy of the Turner crown; it is original, well executed and poignant.

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The title of ‘Best Book of the Year’ is not one to be taken lightly. In fact even being longlisted for the Man Booker Prize can be enough to launch an author into the modern canon, as well as an obvious increase in sales and popularity (last year’s winner Julian Barnes’ A Sense of an Ending has now sold over 300,000 print copies in the UK alone). Although limited to authors from the UK, Commonwealth and Republic of Ireland, the quality of works surveyed is incredible. Previous winners include Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day. Now in its 44th year, the Man Booker Prize will be awarded to one of the six shortlisted authors on 16th October at London’s Guild-hall (televised by the BBC).

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Tan Twan Eng – The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidion Books)Set during the Japanese occupa-tion of Malaysia, Tan Twan Eng’s second novel has received mixed reviews from the British press. The novel follows Yun Ling Teoh, an anglo-Chinese law student who suffered horribly at the hands of the Japanese invaders, as she tries desperately to write her memoirs before the onset of dementia wash-es them away.

Deborah Levy – Swimming Home (and Other Stories Publising and Faber and Faber)Levy’s fi rst novel in almost 15 years has not only been an immediate critics’ favourite and serialised on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime, but is the fi rst of three of the shortlisted novels to be published by a small company and, since being longlist-ed, has been taken up by Faber & Faber. A tale of depression and the English abroad, Levy’s novel has already showed itself as a public and publisher favourite.

Alison Moore – The Lighthouse (Salt)The fi rst novel of short-story writer Moore, The Lighthouse has been tipped to be the dark horse of the competition. The story follows Futh, a middle-aged, newly-sep-arated scent manufacturer, who revisits the German destination of childhood holidays with his fa-ther after his mother walked out on them. A dark tale of circularity and grief, The Lighthouse travels through the life of its protagonist, exploring the issues of loss and re-jection in the build up to its brutal ending.

Will Self – Umbrella (Bloomsbury)A modernist masterpiece, Umbrel-la tells the story of Audrey Death, who falls foul of the encephalitis lethargica epidemic at the end of the First World War. She remains in a coma until briefl y reawoken in 1971 by the discovery of a powerful new drug. The novel represents a reinvention of Self’s usually ‘scato-logical jeux d’esprit’ (as described by The Independent) into an artis-tically conscious and linguistically beautiful gem.

Hilary Mantel – Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)Mantel won the Man Booker in 2009 for the fi rst in her Henry VIII trilogy Wolf Hall. Bringing up the Bodies, like its predecessor, is his-torical fi ction as its best, retelling the story of Anne Boleyn’s fi nal, bloody weeks as the wife of the King and chief Minister Thomas Cromwell’s mission to navigate a suitable end to the marriage that tore the kingdom apart.

words by Millie Jeffries

Jeet Thayil – Narcopolis (Faber and Faber)A stunning debut from Indian poet Jeet Thayil which resonates with his experiences of 20 years of opium addiction on the streets of Mumbai. The story resides in Rashid’s opium den where Hin-dus, Muslims and Christians can all happily slip into a drug-induced haze together whilst the country crumbles around them.

FABRICATING BEAUTY

Have you ever rolled your eyes in disbelief as you wander past another fl awless-faced, tiny-waisted image on the tube platform? Are you jaded by the aggressive marketing of ‘desirable’ technology that just happens to have a few more curves, and is slight-ly sleeker than the preceding model? If ‘yes’, then congratulations: you are going through the same crisis of sentiment that affl icted the Victorians during the advent of the ‘machine age’ which led to one of the most remarkable modern art movements in history.

The Pre-Raphaelites, subject of the latest blockbuster exhibition at the Tate Brit-ain, were a group of artists born from the ruptures of this society; their work incor-porated themes of technology, mythol-ogy, religion and, of course, beauty. The group was initially made up of three artists - John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Ros-setti and William Holman Hunt - but as the nineteenth century drew to a close, the group had inspired such greats as William Morris and the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, whose work represents a pivotal moment in the use of technology in creating an artistic image.

A key term that can be applied to the early Pre-Raphaelite works is ‘realism’. Hence, we fi nd paintings as unconventional as Rossetti’s The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, completed in 1849, depicting religious subjects quite literally - which proved fair-ly shocking to Victorian audiences.

However, what is most interesting in the development of the movement, which later paved the way for the artistic move-ment known as aestheticism, is the turn from realist modes of representation to experiments in picture-making and vivid expressions of beauty: ‘art for art’s sake’. Unsurprisingly, Pre-Raphaelite art fre-quently centred on the female form, and the artists famously worked with ‘models’

(or domestic servants/mistresses) such as Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris. Flame-haired (in the case of Fanny), noble of fea-ture, pale of skin and voluptuous of form, these were the archetypal ‘Pre-Raphaelite beauties’, gracing some of the groups’ most iconic works.

But, in a way, their physical characteristics were secondary to the artistic techniques used to represent them, which utilised vivid colours, soft, proto-Symbolist forms, and an incongruous mix of contemporary model in a classical setting or role, such as Fanny in Rossetti’s The Holy Grail.

The lesson to be learned from the origi-nal Pre-Rahphaelite Brotherhood is that, whilst technology can bring us one step closer in the quest for the ideal, whilst it is exciting to challenge and innovate, to explore and experiment, it is the process of creating art that gives it soul, and which truly reveals the mark of beauty. No one puts it better than William Morris who, by 1891, had revivifi ed interior, textile, and book design, when he asserted that ‘not only must the designer understand the medium and be true to its materials, but also derive pleasure from the labour of producing objects.’

The image for the sake of selling, and the use of beauty to instill desire for a prod-uct, cannot come near ‘Beauty’ as the PRB would defi ne it, no matter how revolution-ary the technology used to create it. END.

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde is at the Tate Britain from until 13th January 2013, student tickets priced

£12.20

words by Phoenix Alexander

Photos courtesy of Tate Press Images

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I AM BIC PENTAMETERAnd the award for the most depressing favorite poem on campus goes to… prob-ably me. My favourite poem is Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon. The poem tells the story of a young soldier who goes off to fi ght in the First World War, never to return. However, he is not killed in combat, instead he takes his own life in ‘winter trenches cold and glum’. The poem tells us of the unheard trag-edies of life at war and reminds the reader that they will never know ‘the hell where youth and laughter go’. It may not be light-hearted, but I fi nd something quite beautiful in the tragedy. Harrowing stuff.

THIS MONTH IN ARTS...

my favourite poem...

FREEZE FAIRBetween 11th and 14th October Regents Park will play host to Frieze magazine’s annual art fair, known as the biggest contemporary art event in the UK. The Art geek’s wet dream, the fair features presentations from over 100 interna-tional galleries as well as a programme of fi lms, talks and presentations to keep you occupied for the whole weekend.

up and coming...

A.LONEAnything by Wendy Cope. Perhaps my favourite is Loss, which, at only 4 lines constitutes the perfect poetic pick-me-up for a lonely night sat at home when the company of Ben & Jerry just won’t suf-fi ce. ‘The day he moved out was terrible – That evening she went through hell. His absence wasn’t a problem, But the cork-screw had gone as well.’ Cope also offers handy advice for when Love is getting you down in Two Cures for Love: 1. Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter. 2. The easy way: get to know him better.’ Any poet who begins a piece with ‘bloody men are like bloody buses’ is good in my book.

NEXT MONTH’S THEME : My Favourite cultural London destinationTO CONTRIBUTE: 100 words to arts@cubmagazine.co.uk

CASABLANCA: THE GIN CUT JOINTSo a comedic, 3-man reimagining of Cas-ablanca does not exactly sound like the greatest or most original of productions, but the Morag Fullarton’s fast-paced writ-ing has already received rave reviews for its runs in Scotland and at the 2011 Fringe. Running at the Pleasance Theatre until 21st October, Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut may set you back £15 but it is well worth it; a night of hilarity to distract you from the horrors of being back in university.

Photo by Ndecam

Hollywood remakes of foreign fi lms can be a very mixed bag. Generally speaking, an awful lot is lost in translation, for what appears to be the sake of lazy people not reading subtitles. In recent years, remakes of foreign fi lms are being made closer and closer to the date of the original and usu-ally with little added to them other than the English language and some dazzlingly white American teeth. With the recent announcement that Park Chan-Wook’s brutal South-Korean revenge classic Oldboy would be receiving the Hollywood treatment, I’ve decided to take a look at three of the best fi lms that have been dragged through the mud, overshadowed or just plain pointlessly repeated by their American remakes.

ALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINTALWAYS READ THE SMALL PRINT

Photo by Joelogon

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ORIGINAL: [REC], Spain, 2007

REMAKE: Quarantine, 2008

[REC] shows just how scary the ‘found footage’ genre can be. Television presenter An-gela (a real Spanish television presenter, for added authen-ticity) is documenting the noc-turnal lives of some of Barcelo-na’s fi remen for a T.V segment. Following them on a routine call-out to a generic apartment building, the fi lm shows its claws as they discover a rabid woman and are subsequently locked in the apartment, being vaguely told it’s a biological precaution. At just over eighty minutes long, the fi lm is held tightly and tensely together through believable characters reacting to an unbelievable horror. Remake Quarantine decides to swap believable hu-man beings for stereotypical caricatures and heavy handed foreshadowing. Even worse, instead of the initial ten min-utes looking like the making of a real documentary, we get some clumsy jokes and point-less fl irting. It comes across as a sad comment by direc-tor John Erick Dowdle that he doesn’t think an English speaking audience can handle even a quarter of an hour of adult conversation before the horror and action begin.

ORIGINAL:Funny Ganes, Austria, 1997

REMAKE: Funny Games, 2007

The original Funny Games took some serious risks on what could have been a pretty standard home-invasion hor-ror, namely it broke the fourth wall: one character chatting directly to the audience at multiple points in the fi lm was something quite original. The way in which the two in-vaders watch with pleasure as they torture provides an inter-esting comment on how and why we watch horror fi lms, highlighted by the contrasting of their unrealistic characters with the the realism of the family’s responses. The result is an uncomfortable affair for the audience while they sit as accomplices to multiple mur-ders. The American shot-for-shot remake, released ten years later, loses much of the force of the original simply due to tim-ing; the self-awareness is more awkward and less exciting, and it loses the orignal’s added bo-nus that, for an audience out-side of Austria and Germany, the stars of the original were unknown, making them all the more believable as an ordinary family, furthering the fi lms comments on violence, obser-vation, and an audience’s com-pliance with these.

ORIGINAL:Infernal Affairs, Hong Kong, 2002

REMAKE: The Departed, 2006

Fast-paced crime thriller In-fernal Affairs follows two du-elling undercover moles, each unaware of the other’s identity, working for both a notorious gang leader and Hong Kong’s police department. Martin Scorsese’s remake The De-parted differs from the other remakes in this article in that it’s actually a pretty good fi lm, the main problem here is how Scorsese was praised for The Departed which, essentially, is not his own work. Winning three Oscars seems somewhat high-praise for a fi lm which, although entertaining and in-teresting, is in no way origi-nal. Furthermore, as much as Scorsese’s version was con-sidered a departure (pun very much intended) from the ba-nality of recent crime fi lms, it nevertheless fell back on Hol-lywood tropes that were not in the original; a tidier moral resolution and an obvious love interest are thrown in. Also, gone is the subtle ques-tioning of identity, replaced by Matt Damon swearing in a thick Boston accent (on second thoughts though, Matt Damon swearing in a thick Boston ac-cent is pretty great- good work Scorsese).

words by Harry Foster

Photo by ikrichter

HAS TIM BURTON FOUND HIS SPARK?

For those who are quick enough, and willing to spend an extra few pounds, the London International Film Festival is an excellent op-portunity to catch a glimpse of those new films that the critics will love, and most of us will never see. Sad? Yes. True? Yes. In spite of this, it is nice to know that people from all over the world come together, if just for a short period of time, to eat, sleep and breathe film. Cheesy? Quite. Exciting? Very.This year’s festival kicked off on the 10th of October, with Tim Burton’s latest endeavour, Frankenweenie: a heart warming tale about a boy and his un-dead dog. Since Burton isn’t re-ally up and coming anymore but rather down and going, I was quite shocked to see that he was opening the 2012 festival. Neither critics nor fans seem to enjoy his films as much as they used to, so I find it difficult to understand why the BFI chose to put this particular film in the spotlight. Clare Steward, the head organizer of the festi-val describes Frankenweenie as a ‘gloriously crafted, stop-motion 3D animation’. And this new, childproof version of Frankenstein does look quite charming. There is, however, noth-ing new about the dark and quirky look, or the re-occurring performances from Burton-vet-erans such as Winona Ryder. On top of this, it is of course the ever so trustworthy Danny Elfman who has composed the score. It all sounds alarmingly familiar- all that is missing is Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, and I’m sure they are sneaking around behind the scenes. Don’t get ne wrong: some of Burton’s films, the likes of Edward Scissorhands and Big Fish belong to my favourites, but he has been slid-ing down a slippery slope for quite some time now. He has turned his back on his whimsical gems and is now spitting out blockbusters like Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows in-stead. Even though they are visually stunning, and by no means terrible (apart from Alice - that film was quite awful), they fall short in comparison to his past films. I mean Tim Bur-ton, the acclaimed ‘Prince of outsiders’, has managed to turn the wonderfully trippy tale of Alice in Wonderland into a substantially less wonderful Disney production. Gutsy films like Beetlejuice or Mars Attacks! aren’t part of his

repertoire any longer. The misfit has finally been invited to sit at the cool kids’ table, and he’s been left clinging to his spot for dear life. In all fairness, I haven’t even seen Franken-weenie yet and I’m already judging it. I am sure that there is some good and solid rea-soning behind the decision to give Burton the honour of opening this big event. Perhaps it is because this ‘gloriously crafted’ film was, in fact, gloriously crafted in our very own East London. And who knows, maybe he has re-discovered that spark which will breathe some life back into his films. Only time will tell. END.

words by Frida Runnkviist

Photo by citykane

Will Tim Burton’s latest endeavour drag him out of the increasingly Dark Shadow of his career?

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When you think of Sandy do you think of Olivia When you think of Sandy do you think of Olivia Newton John in squeaky clean attire, or do you Newton John in squeaky clean attire, or do you think of her badass head to toe black outfi t, so think of her badass head to toe black outfi t, so tight you can see what she had for breakfast? tight you can see what she had for breakfast? Films spawn iconic dress like no other medium, Films spawn iconic dress like no other medium, and there are few things more exciting than and there are few things more exciting than coming up with your outfi t for a fancy dress coming up with your outfi t for a fancy dress party; you put on a sharp black suit and dark party; you put on a sharp black suit and dark shades, you ARE Will Smith – everyone will shades, you ARE Will Smith – everyone will think you’re funny and cool. And if you turn up think you’re funny and cool. And if you turn up to a party dressed as a hooker, you’re Julia Rob-to a party dressed as a hooker, you’re Julia Rob-erts, so it’s all fi ne. erts, so it’s all fi ne. Costumes change actors and actresses into be-Costumes change actors and actresses into be-lievable characters. No amount of method act-lievable characters. No amount of method act-ing or Keith Richards impersonating could turn ing or Keith Richards impersonating could turn Johnny Depp into a pirate if he stood on screen Johnny Depp into a pirate if he stood on screen in jeans and a t-shirt. He needs the rank leather in jeans and a t-shirt. He needs the rank leather and bandana to become ye olde, drunken oddi-and bandana to become ye olde, drunken oddi-ty he so deftly portrays. A character’s essence is ty he so deftly portrays. A character’s essence is best depicted in what they wear; no doubt once best depicted in what they wear; no doubt once Darth Vader has his mask on, he feels 100 times Darth Vader has his mask on, he feels 100 times more evil and intimidating. Costume hides the more evil and intimidating. Costume hides the person beneath and reveals a new façade to an person beneath and reveals a new façade to an actor or actress who’s played countless roles actor or actress who’s played countless roles before. This month the V&A opens its This month the V&A opens its Hollywood Cos-tume exhibition, taking a look at the creative exhibition, taking a look at the creative process and character development that goes process and character development that goes into every costume we see at the cinema. The into every costume we see at the cinema. The exhibition will contain 100 years of fi lm his-exhibition will contain 100 years of fi lm his-tory, and will display outfi ts worn by Audrey tory, and will display outfi ts worn by Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and, for those less Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and, for those less obsessed with pretty gowns, Keanu Reeves. The obsessed with pretty gowns, Keanu Reeves. The covetable nature of costume and its ability to covetable nature of costume and its ability to create a lasting impression is what makes it so create a lasting impression is what makes it so crucial an element in getting a fi lm right. Fash-crucial an element in getting a fi lm right. Fash-ions change, but the wardrobe on set does not ions change, but the wardrobe on set does not have to adhere to the rules of the outside world. have to adhere to the rules of the outside world. Period dress can look fabulous any time of year, Period dress can look fabulous any time of year, as long as it’s on screen. Try breaking the rules as long as it’s on screen. Try breaking the rules and heading to your next party in a full- blown and heading to your next party in a full- blown hoop skirt, everyone will be inspiredhoop skirt, everyone will be inspired. END.

Showing from 20 October 2012 – 27 January 2013, Hollywood Costume at the V&A will be an exhibition most

likely to resemble a huge, untouchable dress up box.

Photo by Cia.

words by Rosie Lamb

WHO? Enrico Hernandez, 23, graduated from QMUL last year with a Business Management degree. Business partner Wilson Lam, also 23, graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Graphics Design.

BUSINESS? COCHI is a character based cloth-ing line. A lot of our designs are influenced by music, our appreciation of Far-Eastern cul-ture and our frequent getaways to Hong Kong, where the fashion scene is so diverse. The most important things for us as a brand are to keep close relationships with our customers, and to be involved in every stage of the pro-duction process, which is why we print most of the t-shirts ourselves. Keeping this hands on approach makes working on the brand fun, and it means we’re always learning something new. HOW? My old lecturers will probably have something to say about this, but we didn’t start with the traditional business plan! In-stead we kept it simple by opening a business bank account with our savings, research-ing the various types of t-shirts and printing methods we could use, and after a couple of months work we then released a promotional range to gauge feedback from the public. Af-ter listening to what people had to say, we went back to the drawing board full of ideas, tweaked a few things and here we are today with four different ranges! TIPS? Before splashing out, speak to as many people as you can in the industry with simi-lar businesses, and learn from their mistakes so you can avoid them yourself. Even if you disagree with what they have to say, it’s worth keeping an open mind to their suggestions.

WANT TO SET UP YOUR OWN BUSINESS?

WHO? Gauthier Van Malderen - Founder of Teenage Tourist while studying Economics at QMUL.

BUSINESS? Teenage Tourist is an open, community-powered website for teenagers who want to share experiences, ideas, tips, tricks and information with other young like minded travelers. As a teenager and an oc-casional tourist, I found that limited and ex-pensive resources such as travel agents and guidebooks (which are also often out of date) were the only options. The chances of getting balanced, up-to-date information about a holiday is pretty limited. We allow our users to add videos, music, pictures, descriptions and discuss their holidays. Teenage Tourist is a platform which integrates other social networks. This means you can share tips and tricks via Facebook, Twitter, and add your al-bums straight from Flickr.

HOW? The idea came to me after a few pain-ful hours searching for a helpful site which was specifically aimed at young people. Our starting goal was to create a website where young people could upload trips, share tips and tricks and search for new trips. After this, our intention was to make Teenage Tourist as user friendly as possible. Having found nothing, I decided to do something about it and got in touch with a friend who helped me to turn the dream into a reality. We applied for, and won, a QMUL entrepre-neurship award which gave us a grant that we used to pay for website hosting and other start-up costs.

TIPS? As soon as you have an idea go with it as you really never have anything to lose!

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WHO? Ashley Smith, 20, 3rd year student studying Environmental Science with Busi-ness Management.

BUSINESS? STAG Music provides world class musicians to the events industries including corporate events, weddings and parties. I have also recently launched STAG Events which creates exciting and innovating live music events involving the UK’s best young session musicians.

HOW? The company was born last October over a pint with my business partner Jack Stookes, who spoke to me about his idea and asked me to join STAG. Between October and March we prepared for our offi cial launch in April. We received a new business grant from QMUL providing us with the necessary seed investment to get things going. The company also won the prestigious National Student Enterprise 2012 award, beating entries from across the country. We have just done our 50th event and things are looking very posi-tive for the future! STAG Events launched in September, with the fi rst event ‘Welcome To Rehab’ at Concrete, Shoreditch. We managed to secure sponsorship from energy drink com-pany Relentless, and 200 people attended. It was a huge success and more than we could have hoped for. On 19th October we will host our second event; this time with a Beyoncé theme.

TIPS? My top tip for anyone who has an idea is to simply go for it! We have so much freedom at this age, so take advantage of it. Why bother working for someone else when you could be your own boss and make all the decisions?

WHO? Steph Pickerill, London Studies MA (part time) but set up while English and His-tory undergraduate.

BUSINESS? Jeenia Ltd, a digital marketing agency that outsources to students, graduates and freelancers.

HOW? I didn’t plan to become an ‘entrepre-neur’. The term still makes me a little uncom-fortable. I just had an opportunity to see if something worked and it did; the fi rst couple of months felt like one big experiment. I was lucky and had very little overhead to start with so didn’t need to seek funding. Working part time helped as I was meeting new contacts everyday. I think it helped me to start Jee-nia off as a side project until I’d worked out exactly where it was going. I seemed to have about a million ideas and it took a lot of trial and error.

TIPS? I’d defi nitely advise someone that a little fl exibility can be a good thing, being stuck on an idea can really slow you down and being prepared to go with it a bit, even if it’s not your original direction, can make a big difference.Being at uni is a really good place to start. The opportunities to show entrepreneurial ambi-tion is everywhere in that environment. Same for part time work - showing you’re a leader, you have ideas and can work in a team are typical examples. They also don’t lose their relevance after graduation. I’ve been shocked a few times by how interested professionals are in the stuff I did at uni.

I didn’t expect to be signing a contract for my dream job at nineteen. Who does? Okay, so not quite the dream, but an enor-mous step in the right direction. On the day the call came, my mum squealed, I threw my entire wardrobe onto my bed in search of the right outfi t, and my inter-viewer was mildly amused at my incoher-ent babble. And then I got the job. Oh.

Let me rewind six months. Whilst assist-ing at a rival magazine, I overheard a pan-icked production meeting in what is now my offi ce. The Editor had just lost her deputy to the pull of young children and, with no personal assistant, enough was enough. Days later, I knocked on her of-fi ce door and asked if I could help at all. As a freelancer, I had worked the build-ing well and had some spare hours, so she gladly took me up on my offer to ‘lend a hand’. I assumed I would be making tea, booking cars and collecting dry-cleaning. Only the latter proved to be accurate, that’s regular now, every Friday at four. Within a month of ‘lending a hand’, press break-fasts were no longer a prize for effi ciency, but a crucial part of my day. And then she asked me to stay. At Easter I was offered the dream placement at a rival glossy and I couldn’t turn it down. I sniffed goodbye to my offi ce and took it; it was emotional.

A few months later, I was interning at the pinnacle of my placement success and working twelve-hour days to fi le a copy on time, when ‘the email’ came. ‘Darling, can you work tomorrow?’ Well no, I couldn’t. I had responsibilities and deadlines at a publication that you don’t bail on, by any-one’s standards. We compromised, and by

that I mean we lunched. She paid, and let slip that a shortlist was being made for her new assistant position. It wasn’t going to be advertised, as they weren’t interested in looking outside their family of freelancers. A week later I was interviewed, a total for-mality, and two weeks after that I signed on the dotted line, an enormous knot forming in my throat.

I am now a second year student, but I work as many hours as possible in what is es-sentially, my dream fi rst job.

I have chosen and wrapped birthday pre-sents, travelled ten miles across London to get sushi, and worked fourteen-hour days on the September issue’s main fashion pages to make sure that everything was perfect. I have enviable references, but none of it is down to luck. I might have been in the right place at the right time, but someone has to be. If you want it, then do it. It only takes an email. END.

INTERNSHIPS: are they worth it?

words by Eleanor Doughty

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As an English student you fi nd yourself going through periods in which you are incredibly proactive in terms of working, applying for jobs and trawling the Internet for internships. However, due to the inevi-tably large number of occasions on which you receive no reply you are also led to pe-riods in which you give up on any attempts to improve your CV.

It was in one of these rare moments of enthusiasm midway through fi rst year that I settled down to e-mail a number of magazines and papers. One of the publi-cations that I got in touch with, Dazed and Confused magazine, replied after an unusually short period of time, enquiring about my qualifi cations, my previous work experience and a request for some of my writing. With a curious level of ease these initial e-mails led to my securing of a two-week internship during the summer, with the dates to be confi rmed at a later stage. Having received this news I think I went to Draper’s to celebrate – oh what an exciting life I lead.

However, everything was not as set in stone as I would have liked to believe. When the summer came I began to require the dates of my internship in order to plan the types of frivolous activities that enter-tain nineteen year old students nowadays. I decided to be proactive and politely sent an email to Dazed with the subject reading ‘Summer Internship’, in which I requested information about the month in which I would be interning. After two weeks and no reply I repeated this process, again af-ter four weeks, then six weeks, then eight. It was around this point that, with my

confi dence in whether my work placement would actually happen dwindling, I began to compose my fi nal e-mail.

I had grown so bored with that the subject now just read ‘Summer.’ I no longer pos-sessed the energy to add in the following word. It was this weary e-mail, however, that got a response. It turns out that due to the extreme amount of internship re-quests that Dazed and Confused are sub-ject to over the holiday period, they tend not to even glance anything sporting the word ‘Internship’ as the subject. Anyway, we picked up the conversation where we had left it in June time and after apologies and a bit of sorting out we confi rmed my two week slot for early September.

My period at the magazine was incredibly enjoyable, and probably more importantly it proved great experience, making avail-able to me contacts that I would have oth-erwise struggled to gain. I was invited to keep in touch with the editorial team at Dazed and am lucky enough to now be invited to contribute to the magazine and website in various ways. So the moral of this story is this: as a student you should make the most of those rare moments when you feel like taking the initiative, and if everything seems like it’s going to collapse around you then just be persis-tent to the point of being annoying, it will be worth it. END.

words by Harry Thorne

WORKING WORLD: Internships.

During society’s move onto the internet, there has been a great increase in the number of people who have profi les on at least one social network - including the introduction of more industry specifi c websites such as LinkedIn and Xing. As such, it was only a matter of time before there was another and perhaps less de-sirable use for the profi les individuals create on such sites. In the past few years there has been an increasing trend for employers (and, rumour has it) universities to look at the Face-book profi les of employees or applicants and use the personal information found to help them make decisions during application or promotion processes.

Occasionally the press get hold of stories like this and make an example of those involved in them. One such story involved a Queen Mary graduate who got into hot water when it was discovered that there were pictures of him dressed as Madeline McCann at a ‘bad taste’

party on his Facebook profi le. A recent study by media investigators Reppler found that 91 percent of employers admitted to looking at applicants’ social media profi les when consid-ering them for positions- almost 50 percent of these searches taking place before they were invited to interview. The information gath-ered from these social background trawls is also often used during the decision making process, with over a third of businesses ad-mitting to rejecting a candidate based upon what they had seen online including posting pictures of themselves drunk and complain-ing about previous jobs or employers. Whilst Facebook was the most common source of this information, other networks like Twitter and LinkedIn were not entirely unused.

As employment is a big issue for students, particularly third years who will be applying for graduate positions in the next year, and me being an incredibly nosey individual I felt

THE TROUBLE WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING

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All of this left me stuck, I had statistics that were telling me the majority of employers were using this technique but many of the big-gest organisations in Britain were claiming not to be one of them. So with a heavy heart and a suspicious mind I’m left to tell you that the only thing companies seem to dislike more than drunken profi le pictures is someone ask-ing questions about them and that, whilst businesses are happy to be honest when they can’t be identifi ed, they aren’t keen to own up to underhand techniques when asked straight out. END.

that I should investigate the prevalence of this behaviour in some of the biggest UK graduate schemes, including those run by the British Army, BT and John Lewis. Understandably many of these companies weren’t overly keen to tell me everything (or in a few cases, any-thing) about their recruitment process. Both BP and the Royal Bank of Scotland refused to acknowledge the question at all, whilst John Lewis evaded the real question and bounced me from department to department. Never-theless I ploughed on undeterred and kept calling people. BT claim point blank not to consider candidates’ online lives. The Brit-ish Army, who I had expected to be the most tight-lipped of anyone on my list, were genu-inely helpful and did a lot of the legwork and calling around various departments for me, but still came back with the answer that they too didn’t use the Facebook profi les of poten-tial employees.

words by Beth McAulay

WORKING WORLD: Social Networking.

illustration by Alice Harry

CUB celebrates fifty years of Jamaican independence by taking a look back at our favourite reggae anthems...

‘Pretty Girl’, single (1973)

Though not one of Delroy Wilson’s best known songs, ‘Pretty Girl’ is surely one of his finest. With a characteristically smooth sound, Wilson sings the praises of average looking females. Not one to play to your girlfriend but a hidden gem that’s well worth a listen.

‘Satisfy My Soul’, Kaya (1978)

Marley obviously has to be included and a whole host of his material could have been chosen as a classic reggae anthem. ‘Sat-isfy My Soul’ is a smooth, laidback track, which explores a couple’s relationship. With playful lyrics like ‘Oh, please don’t you rock my boat, ‘cause I don’t want my boat to be rockin’’ it’s difficult not to fall in love with this song.

BOB MARLEY

REGGAE REGGAE

Israelites, Israelites (1969)

‘Israelites’ was one of the first reggae songs to become an international hit and reached number one in the United Kingdom. The instrumental is incredibly distinctive and it’s a timeless anthem by ‘the King of Ska’. The lyrics have caused some confusion over the years and there are various interpretations as to what Dekker actually meant by the term, ‘Is-raelites’. It is believed that Dekker was either comparing the plight of Rasta-farians to that of the Jews in the Bible, or that Rastafarians are the true Isra-elites, descended from the Lost Tribes.

DESMOND DEKKER

‘You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)’, Killer Reggae (1994)

Penn originally recorded the track in the sixties but had to wait until the mid-nineties to enjoy mainstream publicity. Following a successful performance at a Studio One anniversary show in 1992, she released ‘You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)’ soon after. It reached number one in Jamaica and also entered music charts in the United Kingdom and United States. Its popularity led to it being sampled by the likes of Kano, Ghostface Killah and Rihan-na but none can match Penn’s effortless vocals and style.

DAWN PENN

DELROY WILSON

Photo by Ghetto Sounds

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IC‘Murder She Wrote’, Bam Bam It’s Mur-der (1992)

A nineties Dancehall classic from the DJ/singer duo Chaka Demus & Pliers, ‘Mur-der She Wrote’ is four minutes of the pair insulting a girl called Maxine – ‘di wick-edest kinda girl’. The song has a seriously upbeat vibe, is dangerously catchy and will have everyone dancing whether they like it or not. See the accompanying music video for appropriate moves.

CHAKA DEMUS AND PLIERS

‘Monkey Man’, Monkey Man (1970)

Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert and his band The Maytals claim to have given this gen-re its name with their 1968 single ‘Do The Reggay’ and are responsible for many of its most popular hits. ‘Monkey Man’ was written as an affectionate dig at the band’s producer Leslie Kong and has been cov-ered by Amy Winehouse, The Specials and even Kylie Minogue (a surreal, nightmar-ish kids TV performance complete with men in monkey suits). The original re-mains the best and is still performed today by a very old but very energetic Toots and The Maytals.

TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS

‘The Harder They Come’, The Harder They Come (1972)

In 1972, Cliff starred as Ivanhoe Martin in the reggae fi lm, The Harder They Come. The fi lm is considered to have been one of the most signifi cant fi lms to come out of Jamaica since independence and the ac-companying soundtrack is a classic reggae album. ‘The Harder They Come’ is a pow-erful message to fi ght against all forms of oppression with lyrics such as ‘I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave’.

JIMMY CLIFF

‘I Chase The Devil’, War Ina Babylon (1976)

One of countless reggae hits produced and composed by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, ‘I Chase The Devil’ combines the vocals of Max Romeo with backing by Perry’s band The Upsetters. The number of times this song has been sampled – most notably by The Prodigy in ‘Out Of Space’ – is testament to its timeless quality and appeal.

MAX ROMEO‘Money In My Pocket’, single (1972)

Dubbed ‘The Crown Prince of Reggae’ and ‘Boy Wonder of Jamaica’, Dennis Brown produced an astounding seventy-fi ve al-bums during his lifetime. ‘Money In My Pocket’ was the fi rst of his songs to fi nd success with a UK audience and has be-come a classic of the genre.

DENNIS BROWN

‘Uptown Top Ranking’, Uptown Top Ranking (1978)

In 1977, Althea Forrest and Donna Reid unexpectedly achieved a number one sin-gle in the United Kingdom with ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. In doing so they became the youngest female duo to achieve such a feat. ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ describes that the attitudes of modern women aren’t moving away from their Rastafarian back-ground but are still ‘strictly roots’ –loyal to their heritage. One hit wonders, but what a hit.

ALTHEA AND DONNA

words by Ryan Ramgobin and Charis Dishman

It’s been very rare in these last few years of sub par new bands that I’ve stopped and thought ‘s**t son, this lot are doing something right’. Equal-ly rare is a debut album that, despite being wildly under ap-preciated by the masses thus far, has seemingly received no negative reviews. To try and prove that there were no negative reviews, I trawled the Internet for literally minutes, and found none, thus scien-tifi cally making Damn Van-dals the best band to emerge from Britain this year. Their blend of surrealist imagery, post-punk dynamics and good old fashioned, balls-out rock ‘n’ roll is a wholly refresh-ing change from the infi nitely lightweight unoriginality of, not to name any names, The Vaccines, et al. In light of this fantastic album and even bet-ter live shows, I thought I had better ask the bloke who writes and sings the songs, Jack Kan-sas, a few questions; so I did.

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Having been interrupted in the up-stairs lounge of the Camden Barfl y, our interview eventually took place stand-ing in the kitchen of the venue in dark-ness. It took about twenty minutes before someone told us there was a light switch… albeit stupidly placed. Getting straight to the heart of the mat-ter, Jack talked me through the making of the record. ‘It took roughly two days a song, we worked fast… to get quite a live feel to the album.’ The moment the opening track of the record ‘Revolu-tion/Rehearsal’ kicks in you really get the sense of this no nonsense approach to recording- ‘Maybe that’s the nature of the music that’s asking for it, rather than something that has more niceties.’ This makes you wonder then, whether over-production and months of tweaking actu-ally make a record any more enjoyable. The focal points of both Damn Vandals’ recorded tracks and live performances are Jack’s vocals and lyrics. It’s refresh-ing to see a band other than Arctic Mon-keys make such a statement with these elements. Jack explains that his main infl uences are ‘idiosyncratic voices like Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan… that are different and interesting. Although vo-cals are affectations, after a few years they become natural.’ This is an interesting matter that is rarely highlighted, in that vocals often start out as trying to sound like something before they actually be-come second nature to the singer. This is fairly obvious when you compare Jack’s softly spoken nature off-stage to his Nick Cave-esque snarling as a performer. The same goes for his lyrics, ‘There’s a lot of storytelling… instead of writing songs about yourself and standard human emo-tions, it’s better to project those things onto characters’. You’d be wrong to argue with this logic. As with the great lyricists over the years- the likes of Dylan, Nick Cave, Mike Skinner and Alex Turner- their words take you on a journey with no need for overly repeated verses or phrases. In light of an apparently scientifi c discov-ery by Spanish science people stating that

pop music is becoming ‘louder and bland-er’, based on half a million popular songs from 1955 to 2010, it seemed sensible to seek Jack’s opinion on this- ‘Uhh, yeah, I think so. Even ten years ago there would be something good cropping up on Top Of The Pops. There’s always been crap, but there’s always been a few good things in the mainstream. There’s good stuff out there, you just have to look for it.’ It’s fair to say he hit the nail on the head with that one. Then to the big questions, does Jack Kansas off of Damn Vandals like guitar solos? ‘Yes, in the right place and right time. There’s always a traditional place in Damn Vandals songs for solos… But a big wanky solo, no one really likes those, do they? Then again, Hendrix could get away with it.’ Thus the next big ques-tion: Jimi- Hendrix or Page? ‘Well I was going to split the difference and take the fi rst name of one and the last of the oth-er, but obviously… I’d say Page recorded, Hendrix live, if I could see him live…’ And to fi nish, two questions to end all questions, The Questions as some might call them. Firstly does Jack Kansas of Damn Vandals like pie? ‘Like solos, at the right time and the right place.’ Which one though? ‘Probably steak and kid-ney, I wouldn’t go any fl ashier than that.’ Of course the right answer is ‘yes I ab-solutely love pies, they’re the best’, but we’ll let him off. Secondly and fi nally, does he think that beards have a posi-tive effect on musical output? ‘Well when Kings Of Leon had beards, they were cool, but then they shaved them off…’ This is one of the fi nest answers I’ve ever heard as it provides further evidence for one of my other great scientifi c theories. The theory that, much like Samson in The Bible, depleted levels of hirsuteness equates to the loss of power and thus why Kings Of Leon became so very below par. So there you have it. Top answers, top band and a top bloke (who some-how gets away with wearing all white. Impressive). If there’s one new band that you listen to this year, make it Damn Vandals… I implore you. END.

words and photos by Edward Clibbens

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interview : JACK KANSAS

What was the Music scene like growing up in

Blackpool? Has it changed over the years?The music scene in Blackpool is a bit of a tricky one, really, because there’s not much there. Growing up in Blackpool was fantastic and I love where I come from, but the music scene when I was starting out wasn’t fantas-tic. I had to go to the nearby cities like Preston and Manchester- I think there are a few open mic nights in Blackpool, but it’s desperate for a venue that is there for people who want to do support slots or who are starting out at a lower level. I’m hoping that one day we can sort that out for Blackpool because it would be great to have something like that. But yeah, it’s a cool place, it’s an interesting place and every time I’m home I feel like I see it in a different light.

What’s your opinion on the current state of British music?I think it’s incredible. Even before I did any touring at all I was always so inspired by it, because even just through gigging around the North West the talent that I came across in my local area I was always really inspired and astounded by. And now, obviously, I’ve been to all these different places as well seeing the local talent. There are so many inspiring characters and people doing different things in Britain who are undiscovered, and I think it’s a shame, but it’s great that they’re doing it, you know. Very inspiring.

So your EP- For You- has had a great reaction. Can you tell us how it came about, and how you recorded it with Charlie Fink?Well, I think I was just looking for the right person to produce the fi rst thing that I’ve done, because I’ve never really had any expe-

rience in the studio, so it was important that we found the right person to work with, and to make sure that he didn’t change me or do any-thing that I wasn’t comfortable with. So some-one suggested that maybe working with Char-lie would be a good idea and I think he wanted to do it too, so I don’t think we forced him into it- I hope not! (giggles) But it was fantastic- we did it in a week in a studio in London and it was the most amazing experience for me. I was working with another musician, so it was an inspiring thing rather than a chore; it was really genuinely inspiring so it was great. And Noah and the Whale are one of my favourite bands, so that was an added bonus!

In terms of how your music is progressing, you’ve gone from being on BBC introducing last year to now having your own tour- do you think this is the start of something big?Oh, I have no idea! Me and my family have this thing where we just take everything as it comes, one day at a time. I’m always scared to be one of those people that counts their chick-ens before the facts, so I’m very appreciative of everything that I’ve done, I can’t believe that I’ve been able to do the things that I’ve done over the last couple of years, but I’m not expecting too much! I just really really hope that I get to continue doing the things that I’m doing, that’s the biggest thing to me. I know that it’s diffi cult in the music world, but yeah, I hope there are big things to come. (laughs)

We all do too! I actually saw you supporting Bombay at Ally Pally, and I was just wondering how it was for you – were you nervous playing such a monumen-tal venue, or were you looking forward to it?Oh yeah, I was really really nervous. I’m

interview : RAE MORRISAt the tender age of 20, most young women at QMUL are struggling to balance their uni life and work, whilst trying to fi gure out what the hell they’re going to do with their lives once they graduate. Not Rae Morris; after play-ing the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds in 2011, the singer-song writer has toured the country and is about to start her debut album… not your average teenage life-style. CUB Editor Anna Matheson was lucky enough to have a chat with the woman her-self...

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ICnervous before every single gig though, even if it’s just a small one to like, 10 people. But playing Alexandra Palace was unbelievable, I don’t think I realised the sheer size of it until I stepped out at sound check onto the stage.

So this summer I know you’re playing Kendall Call-ing and a few other festivals- what are your favourite festivals in both a playing sense and attending as a fan?Well I actually only ever went to one festival as a fan, and that was Leeds festival in 2009- I went to celebrate doing my GCSEs, and then I went back to Leeds and Reading to play the BBC introducing last year. I think I’ve defi -nitely got a soft spot for Leeds festival, I’d love to do it again at some point- hopefully!

So what’s your favourite music venue in the UK out of the ones you’ve been playing at?There’s a place in Preston called The Mad fer-ret, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but I always think of it as my local close to home, close to my heart venue. I did all my fi rst excit-ing gigs there, and I’ve done a lot of gigs there, so I always think of that one very fondly.

Who are your biggest infl uences? If you could map out a dream career, what would it be like?I think a career like Kate Bush’s would be pretty ideal. I love that she’s never compro-mised herself and has always just done exactly what she’s wanted to do. For example her only doing one tour in her whole career – I think that’s pretty incredible that she’s got away with doing that! To have that control and con-trol over her own fortune and knowing herself that much, I’d love to be that wise one day.

In terms of your actual music, a lot of it is based on piano. How do you go about writing a song- do you sit down and write the lyrics fi rst, or is it the music that you come to fi rst?I usually sit down at the piano and do the mu-sic fi rst, because I’ve played the piano since I was a kid so I’ve always been more confi dent at that than anything else. So I start with the music and the melody, and then try and inter-twine the melody and the vocal, and the lyrics always come to me last. I think because I’ve had more time to think about what I want to say, I like to fi t the lyrics with the melody that way round.

Are your lyrics based on personal experiences?Yeah, they all are- I think I’m quite an emo-

tional person. (laughs) I struggled for quite a while trying to write music when I was 13/14. I knew that I wanted to do it but I never had anything to write about, and I think I did that whole ‘falling in love’ thing and it gave me something to write about, so they’re very per-sonal and very true to exactly how I’m feeling about that time.

Amazing- I guess the next question is what’s the plan now? I know here at CUB we’re eager to hear about an album release…Ah, yeah. I’ve not actually had to record an al-bum yet so that’s the next thing to do. But I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got this High-lands tour now, and then July and August I’ve got little gigs and festivals and stuff, and then the autumn time and leading up to Christmas is when I’m gonna be recording the album, so I think the album will be coming next year, which is really exciting for me. So I’ve got a lot of work to do but I’m really really looking forward to it.

Sounds amazing, we all wish you good luck with it… so who are you listening to at the moment? Is there anyone you can recommend to CUB read-ers?Yeah, I’ve just bought Patti Smith’s new al-bum, Banga, which is incredible. I’m going to see her at Hop Form so I’m really excited about that. And I’ve just bought an album called Mid Air, it’s by Paul Buchanan – you know the guy from the Blue Nile? I’m really enjoying that at the moment, it’s got beautiful piano and vocals.

I guess I’ve just got one more question for you then: what has been the highlight of it all so far, and what are you most looking forward to over the next few months? Well the highlight so far has been playing at the Blackpool Emperor’s Ballroom, when we supported Bombay we did the Blackpool date as well, it was the day before Ally Pally, and that gig was like the most incredible experi-ence for me because it was my home town. And I’ve always dreamt of playing at the Em-peror’s Ballroom, because I went to see all my fi rst bands there. So that’s defi nitely been the highlight of everything so far, and over the next for weeks and months I’m really look-ing forward to playing Hop Farm and Kend-all Calling and stuff. Yeah, it’s gonna be good. END.

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‘HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME’

Anne-Marie Curtis, fashion director of Elle magazine, once said that ‘if one has lived through a particular decade in fashion the fi rst time, attempting to repeat it when it comes back around is a terrible idea’. Whilst this may be true in some cases (no one wants to see their parents donning 80’s shoulder pads and platforms on a Friday night), luckily the majority of us were running around in school uniforms with grazed knees during the 90’s. Therefore, if the Spring/Summer 2013 collec-tions were anything to go by, it is time that we all started partying, or at least shopping, like it’s 1999.

When 2000 hit, the world decided to write off the 90’s. The music, the fashion and the dodgy soap operas were all dubbed as dread-ful, insignifi cant and essentially worth forget-ting. However, it seems that absence has in-deed made the heart grow fonder and come next summer minimal tailoring, crop tops and a healthy dose of tie-dye will be the look du jour. If any of you have spent much time in

East London or at least in Topshop over the past few months you will have noticed certain trends from that infamous decade creeping back in. But it’s one thing when an East Lon-don hipster with purple hair starts dressing à la MC Hammer. It’s another when Henry Hol-land, arguably the epitome of East London, starts putting elements of the 90s into his cat-walk show with Alexandra Shulman and Suzy Menkes seated front row.

Having been a resident of Dalston for the past 12 months, I thought nothing of throwing on my bleached denim jacket and a pair of col-ourful leggings to go to Sainsbury’s but I never would have dreamt of wearing my ‘ironic’ 90’s fashion to work or let alone to Fashion Week. It seems the tables have turned.

House of Holland showing a collection com-prised of tie-dyed silk dresses, spaghetti strap tops and bejewelled beanies accompanied by Shampoo’s ‘Uh Oh We’re in Trouble’ may not have been ground breaking. However, looking

Next summer’s trends now, and it looks like we’re going back in time...

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‘HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME’

at the collections of some of the bigger names at London Fashion Week it seems the street style of East London may have had a bigger impact than we thought.

Topshop Unique gave us minimal tailoring reminiscent of 90’s fashion favourite Helmut Lang. We saw the same vibes at J JS Lee, a designer who’s clean lines and muted colour palette would not have looked out of place 20 years ago. Jasper Conran gave patchwork and cowboy denim a revival and Mark Fast’s SS13 collection included Daisy Lowe strutting down the catwalk in a choker, hoop earrings and a perm.

Less established designers are also jumping on the 90s bandwagon. Marques’ Almeida, who showed their fi rst collection away from the Fashion East umbrella this season, pre-sented set of grungy, ripped denim looks Kurt Cobain would have been proud of. Some of the looks in the Daks show would have instantly made their checked way into Cher Horowitz’s

outfi t selecting wardrobe. Ashish managed to give the 90’s their most literal translation into SS13. Rather than the traditional 6 inch heels, all of the models made their way down the catwalk in, wait for it, Reebok Classics (re-member those?!). Pineapple hair do’s, rolled up denim and sequin vests made us feel ready to take a ton of illicit chemicals and head to a rave at a social club.

From street fashion to British Vogue, fashion has defi nitely decided to take a leaf out of the 90’s fashion textbook. Whether you deem it to be tacky or terrifi c I guarantee in 6 months time you will be embracing some element of that fantastic, fun fashion decade with a pinch of happy irony; apart from ‘Skechers’... they’re

never coming back. END.

words by Lucinda Turner

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STREET STYLE. BLOGGER. MODEL. EDITOR. PR.

Photographer: Flora BartlettModels:Rebecca Wyman and Ellie Austin-Williams

Stylist: Lucinda TurnerHair & Make-up: Sarah Harrison

Location: Somerset House

HALLOWEEN COLLARCUBCREATES

WHAT YOU NEED & HOW TO...

Fashion Editor Sarah Harrison gives us a step by step guide to a super spooky on-trend collar. It’s time to crack out the PVA glue, get creative and give your look a Halloween twist.

4 packs of sparkly spiders - £1 a pack from Asda, gold and red glitter, felt - £2 ebay, scissors, needle and thread, button or popper set, PVA glue.1. Mark out the collar template on felt and cut out

2. Apply glue across the felt collar cut out

3. Apply spiders onto PVA, 3. Apply spiders onto PVA, secure with thread

4. Add glitter and apply a top 4. Add glitter and apply a top coat of PVA glue to secure

5.Sew on button or popper to fi nish

THE AU PAIR

Last summer whilst I was short on money, I made the bold and slightly ridiculous decision to become an au pair. Having had very little experience of looking after small children and no experience whatsoever of speaking Italian; naturally my response was to sign up to an Italian au pair agency in Milan. My thoughts were that this was a great way to make money whilst doing relatively little. After a round of interviews, several emails in broken English about flight bookings, and a CRB check, I was ready to jet off to my new Italian family.

Being someone that struggled with languages at school, my draw to the job was mainly based on the fact that I wanted to get paid to travel. I quickly learnt that ‘travel’ wasn’t really part of the au pair job description. In fact, we did travel to the countryside outside of Milan, but there was very little movement for a week and a half after this first relocation. After the nov-elty of the Italian sun wore off and the kids gained confidence (renaming me Uncle Ted and ‘clown’) the strain of living in a foreign

country finally started to show. I was told that I would get three days off a week, however there was no physical way for me to leave the countryside in order to exercise my freedom. Further to this, because of my shaky (at best) grasp of Italian I wasn’t able to talk to anyone close to my age about good things to do in the countryside. I was confined to six hours of ba-bysitting a day and a lack of Internet, phone signal, or contact with the outside world.

My advice for anyone considering au pairing would be to make your first priority to agree the terms of your stay. Due to the sketchy hours I had agreed to do, and the differ-ent requirements the parents had laid out for each child, I probably worked more than had been agreed and wasn’t aware how much time I would be required to stay in the coun-tryside for. I would also advise investing in a couple of basic Italian classes or a good Ital-ian phrasebook. I was told by the agency that the parents of the children didn’t want me to be able to speak Italian so that their chil-

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destination: ITALY

dren could improve their English as much as possible, but in retrospect I defi nitely could have done with a lesson or two. Once back in Milan my stay improved. Due to the local knowledge of my au pair parents I was able to take days and evenings off exploring less-er-known restaurants and parts of the city.

Whilst I was there I attended Vogue’s Fash-ion Night Out – Milan’s celebration of the launch of the Autumn/Winter ranges. This is a great way to see the nightlife of the city and included free drinks, complementary makeup and the chance to meet Italian celebrities. I also visited the Museo Del Novecento for a lengthy tour of Italy’s contemporary art. If you’re keen on art I would advise budgeting a good chunk of time for this - the museum is huge, has an incredible view of the Duomo and it’s free for students. A third highlight of Milan was the roof of the Duomo. This offers a spectacular view of the city and a great look at the fourth largest cathedral in the world.

One thing about Milan that is disastrous for the student trying to save money is the shop-ping. My au pair wage was paid cash in hand, as was the money the family refunded me for fl ights. The prospect of being landed in Italy’s fashion capital with an entire month’s worth of money was daunting, and despite my restraint I ended up spending a lot of the money I had earned in one of the fash-ion outlet malls which scatter the outskirts of Milan. These offer designer brands at bar-gain prices and are usually a thrifty way to get factory samples and end of season deals.

Towards the end of my stay I managed to bar-gain a weekend off to visit Venice. I organised two nights in a cheap (and dirty) hostel and spent the weekend getting lost amongst the iconic canals. It was a great break from the normal day of teaching English, cooking for and looking after the three children. The fam-ily I was au pairing for paid for my train so I managed to save a lot of money on travel. I also managed to visit La Beinalle, an international art show, completely by accident and stum-bled across the Peggy Guggenheim museum.

My month and a half living in and around Milan was one I won’t forget in a hurry. My au pair wage managed to tide me over for my second year of university, I managed to see a side of Italy that is normally closed off to visi-tors, and I met a great family that I still keep in contact with. One of the most rewarding as-pects of the trip was the drastic improvement in the children’s English speaking abilities.

Having gone in head fi rst, not actually know-ing what was in store for me (apart from the pay and the location), I don’t know if I would take the risk again. The minimal Italian I have picked up and the pay (around £175 a week) is more than I would have accumulated as an unemployed student in England, how-ever you are potentially condemning yourself to a month without contact with the outside world and lack of friends in a foreign coun-try. I probably wouldn’t do it again, but it was defi nitely one of the more informative and culturally interesting months of my life. END.

QUPID‘She’s hottie with a body from Bristol, but without the embarrassing accent!’ (Rosemara Mather-Lup-ton)

‘He’s a liberal guy from Brighton who isn’t scared to try new things if you know what I mean, he’s chilled, he’s charming, and my word he’s up for a free meal!’ (Alistair Darwent).

Were you nervous?Were you nervous?J: Not really. Though the thought of having to sit there with dry conversation is enough to make any-one a bit on edge.S: No I wasn’t actually, I didn’t really have any ex-S: No I wasn’t actually, I didn’t really have any ex-pectations so there wasn’t anything to be nervous about.

Initial thoughts after fi rst setting eyes on your date?J: ‘Oh I’ve met you before!’ We’d had brief conversa-tions because we lived opposite each other in halls but never anything signifi cant.but never anything signifi cant.S: That I recognised him because we used to live op-posite each other in halls.

Best parts of the date?J: Just the general conversation really, we had a laugh and it never really felt forced. You know when you speak to someone and you just really kind of you speak to someone and you just really kind of get on.S: We shared quite a few horror stories about mice in our house which is always fun!

Second month in and a change of scene for this blind date - Fatcats, our regular home. This week I asked two people who I know are really up for a laugh so I wasn’t surprised that they had a fun night together!

COUPLE 2: STEPH KELLEY AND JACK FRANCIS

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…and worst?J: She had a lecture at nine so couldn’t come to the house party I was going to afterwards, presuming that wasn’t an excuse!S: When he slyly let slip that there was a T.V. screen behind me with the football on.behind me with the football on.

What did you talk about?What did you talk about?J: Because we lived opposite each other last year that started up a whole topic of conversation; a lot of love for Ifor Evans! Mice, festivals, our summers, of which mine was pretty rubbish and hers was pretty great.S: Ifor Evans stories, mice, food, and the issues of S: Ifor Evans stories, mice, food, and the issues of eating lunch too late when you’re going out for din-ner, you (Qupid), a bit about festivals, and his hor-rendous summer.

Any awkward moments?Any awkward moments?J: There wasn’t enough time for awkward moments!S: Nope, only when the restaurant staff told us to ‘have a good night’ while laughing and winking as we left.we left.

Any sexual tension?Any sexual tension?J: She was all over me, it was pretty embarrassing…ha only joking!S: We were going to create a story of getting chucked out of the restaurant for being overly touchy-feely out of the restaurant for being overly touchy-feely but it didn’t happen in the end!but it didn’t happen in the end!

Will you see each other again?Will you see each other again?J: Yeah! Hopefully. Unless I read CUB magazine and it turns out it went horrifi cally, in which case I’ll be swiftly deleting her from my phonebook.S: Yeah I think so, defi nitely, he only lives down the road so it would be silly not too!

Out of ten?J: For the date or her? For the date I’d give it a solid 9 and a half? For her, I’d defi nitely give her one!S: 9!

So another highly successful blinder! From both accounts they had a delightful evening, and I’m sure they’ll be seeing each other again very soon! For regular readers last editions couple Manon and Ashley are still in regular contact!Ashley are still in regular contact!

WANT TO BE THE NEXT QUPID COUPLE?

to get involved send an email to qupid@cubmagazine.co.uk

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Anna Matheson

SUB EDITORS: Emma Shone, Alice Harry & Jemima Chamberlain-Adams

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORS: Laura Blair & Eleanor Doughty

LONDON EDITORS: Bryony Hannah Orr & Lizzie Howis

FEATURES EDITORS: Lauren Cantillon & James Deacon

MUSIC EDITORS: Edward Clibbens & Ryan Ramgobin

ARTS EDITORS: Millie Jefferies & Phoenix Alexander

FASHION EDITORS: Lucinda Turner & Sarah Harrison

FILM EDITORS: Harry Foster & Catherine Bridgeman

TRAVEL EDITORS: Megan Morrison - Sloan & Tom Wyke

QUPID EDITOR: Rosemara Mather-Lupton

THOSE WHO HELPED PUT THIS ISSUE TOGETHER

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