college tribune entertainment supplement27.9.11

David O’Doherty on Vodafone, sharks and comedy

Robert Sheehan

Page 5

Paris Style

Page 11

Republicof Loose

Page 4

Men’s Style

Page 12

music@collegetribune.ie27.9.11

PLAYLIST:LISA GORRY

The Knux feat. Kid Cudi – ‘Run’

Most defi nitely a track to get you on your feet, “Run” combines a perfect blend of an indie intro with a fan-tastically repetitive chorus. While Cudi’s cameo is only brief, the genre-bending Knux Team wanted him on the track because “he’s re-ally deep and serious about music and one of the mod-ern guys who won’t com-promise. We like urban hood dudes who don’t get boxed in by stereotypes.” So do we.

Snow Patrol – ‘Called Out in the Dark’

With a track like this, it’ll be no surprise if the Bangor-based lads sell out their highly-anticipated January shows in Dublin and Bel-fast. With rockier roots than featured in previous recent tracks, Snow Patrol are set for top form on their new album Fallen Empires

Cobra Starship feat. Sabi - ‘You Make Me Feel’

With a simple beat and min-imal synth arrangement, this track leaves Cobra Star-ship with a potential club hit on their hands. Famous for their sassy numbers, such as ‘Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We’re Fa-mous’, ‘You Make Me Feel’ provides sass in a more conventional form. Singer/rapper Sabi provides an in-fectious “na na na na na”, just in case the song wasn’t catchy enough.

Lisa Hannigan feat. Ray Lamontagne – ‘O Sleep’

To be found on Youtube until the release of her much awaited second al-bum Passenger, this track sees Miss Hannigan on top form, in collaboration with the wonderful Ray Lamon-tagne. With enchanting lyr-ics and haunting harmonies abound, having this on her new album indicates we’re

in for a real delight.

GRAHAM LUBY

MUSIC2

Normally, we at Trib-une Towers use the Magnum Opus col-

umn to give exposure to classic albums, fl agship au-ral milestones that typifi ed genres. Past instalments have seen multi-platinum selling works getting the praise that they deserve, as well as opportunistic writers spit-shining their favour-ite dusty aural nuggets for a well-earned airing. Howev-er, when the much-coveted chance to write this column was entrusted to me this week, I decided to bend the rules and head down a road less travelled.

The year was 1998. John Frusciante had rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spice Girls’ death grip on the testicles of the Earth was beginning to slacken, and the Goo Goo Dolls had just unleashed Pandora’s box on daytime radio with that song. The foppish, pointy-toed glory of the indie rock movement was still a decade away, but in a tiny home stu-dio in Denver, Colorado, four unassuming young men were

already planting the seeds.Formed in suburban

Louisiana in the early 1990s as a bedroom project for fu-ture bandleader Jeff Mag-num, the Neutral Milk Hotel moniker fi rst gained recogni-tion with the 1996 full-length On Avery Island. The twelve songs garnered mixed reac-tions, but Magnum’s cryptic lyricism and oddball use of imagery stirred up enough public curiosity to warrant a proper follow-up. Magnum’s solo project soon became a fully-fl edged band with the addition of Scott Spillane (brass instruments), Julian Koster (wandering genie, singing saw, white noise) and Jeremy Barnes (percus-sion, winged instruments), and in the summer of 1997, the illustrious new line-up decamped to Denver to begin work on what was to become their magnum opus, In the Aeroplane over the Sea.

To label this an indie-rock album would be a lazy ap-proximation of the album’s content and background, an unjust comparison with the thousands of dire gui-tar bands that fl ood today’s market. While today’s “in-

day’s “indie” scene.When arranging the com-

positions for In the Aero-plane…, Magnum was con-tent not to deviate from the sound trademarked on On Avery Island. His percussive approach to the acoustic gui-tar melded beautifully with Spillane and Koster’s brass arrangements and musi-cal saw, lending the songs a kitsch marching-band feel that would be complimented by the album’s 19th century penny-arcade artwork. How-ever, the band’s nostalgic in-strumental setup did not suit their low-fi production val-ues. Even on the remastered version, the trademark fuzz bass and hissing cymbals still clash with the wandering trombones and singing saws, while Magnum’s voice crack-les in your speaker cones when he reaches for the high notes.

For anyone who ever re-corded themselves singing in the shower, congratulations for having a bigger budget than these guys.Upon release, In the Aero-plane over the Sea erased memories of a mediocre debut. The album achieved

die” acts tend to focus on the banal trivia of everyday life, In the Aeroplane… was des-tined to be a very different beast.

The album’s main lyrical theme centres around Mag-num’s helpless sense of grief after reading Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. Haunt-ed nightly by the ghosts of wartime Jewish families, of “pianos fi lled with fl ames” and of places where “…bod-ies once moved/ But don’t move anymore”, Magnum’s connection with a dead child from a different time formed a lyrical backbone that jarred with the album’s jubilant bagpipes and horn arrange-ments. “I would go to bed every night and have dreams about having a time ma-chine and somehow I’d have the ability to move through time and space freely, and save Anne Frank.”, Magnum confessed in a 1998 inter-view. “Do you think that’s embarrassing?” While his sentiments were not unfath-omable, Magnum’s heart-rending reaction book most people have to skim through in secondary school would destroy his credibility in to-

overwhelmingly positive feedback from all corners of the music press, but it has been with time that its true importance has become ap-parent. While not strictly an “indie” record as we would recognize it today, In the Aeroplane… has proved to be a lasting infl uence on many of the scene’s biggest contributors, from Franz Ferdinand to Arcade Fire. When I began this article, I mentioned my intention to deviate from Magnum Opus’ usual formula. As I have ex-plained, the records that get to feature in this column are nothing short of classics that defi ned the genres they rep-resent. Where In the Aero-plane over the Sea differs is that it cannot be pigeonholed into one genre; Thirteen years down the line, the folk-tinged noise-rock that typi-fi ed this record has thank-fully been left untouched by the millions of dismal bands it helped to spawn. Mumford and Sons also found success in rocking tweed and brass, but it is unlikely that their infl uence will outlast their fortunes. In the Aeroplane over the Sea may not have the honour of epitomizing a specifi c musical genre, but in a league of its own, I would argue that it is a truer Mag-num Opus than any other.

The Specialist

R.E.M., one of the semi-nal indie-rock bands of the past thirty

years, announced this week that they have broken up.Since their inception in 1980, the band released fi fteen stu-dio albums, beginning with 1983s Murmur, still consid-ered to be one of the most innovative and signifi cant releases of the era, and end-ing with last year’s mildly re-ceived Collapse Into Now. A signifi cant proportion of the albums released in between are considered to be classics of the genre, including their sophomore release, Reckon-ing, 1987’s Document, and 1992’s Automatic for the People.

Despite the fact that R.E.M.’s more recent output has generally not compared favourably to their ‘classic’ work of the ‘80s and ‘90s,

their break-up must still be seen as a signifi cant occur-rence in rock music.

During their thirty-year career, R.E.M. came to be seen by many as the defi ni-tive American ‘indie rock’ band, and are one of the most critically celebrated bands of all time.

Early in their career, after emerging from their native Athens, Georgia, they were amongst the frontrunners of the subgenre of ‘college rock,’ so-called after the style of music that featured most prominently on the emerging college radio circuit.

The band toured Southern America and recorded their debut single, ‘Radio Free Europe’, which provoked ecstatic reactions, despite their shoestring production budget.

They then released the Chronic Town EP, which also received great critical ac-claim. The Band went from

strength to strength, and had already built up a relatively large fan base by the release of Murmur.

Their tremendous early run of albums, also including 1985’s Fables of the Recon-struction, ‘86’s Life’s Rich Pageant, and 86’s Green, is inarguably one of the most infl uential collections of al-bums in modern musical his-tory.

1991’s Out of Time, broke R.E.M. to a larger audience, outside of their core indie fan-base, partially down to a more conventional style of production, as well as the success of lead single ‘Losing My Religion.’

Their rise to prominence continued with their next album, Automatic for the People. Automatic… in-cluded ‘Man on the Moon’ and ‘Everybody Hurts,’ two hugely successful singles that ensured R.E.M.’s place amongst the elite; they be-

came ‘stadium rock’ staples and one of the most success-ful bands in the world.

R.E.M.’s signifi cance in the pantheon of great rock bands is undoubted, but this does not do them jus-tice. Their induction into the conceptually awful ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ in 2007 continued an unfortu-nate trend in the band’s later years, seemingly consign-ing them to history, placing them as an institution with a worthy legacy rather than a great rock band. This left them fi ghting an uphill bat-tle throughout their fi nal decade, as it seemed impos-sible for their output to be taken at face value.

However, in the wake of their split, their work should be re-evaluated and celebrat-ed for its genuine worth.

R.E.M. were a bracingly vital, innovative, and intel-ligent band, that seemingly fi lled the void left after the decline of punk.

Their records had a sense of mystery and an elusive quality that along with lo-fi production and Michael Stipe’s cryptic and mumbled lyrics, elevated them above even the best of their peers. Even their eventual rise to

stadium-rock status was not due to a commercialisation of their music, but because of the recognition of attributes that had always been there and an increase in clarity as the band grew in stature.

The sense of real passion and meaning at the core of the songs gave them their anthemic, rousing quali-ties. The sense of longing and melancholy in R.E.M.’s songs beautifully refl ected the desolate landscapes of the American South that the band traversed during their early years, and sounded as natural and timeless as to have grown from the soil of such places.

Many would argue that their early run of albums remained unmatched, and that they had already passed their peak by the time they achieved worldwide popular-ity. However, their longevity and sustained creativity must be saluted. It seems diffi cult to imagine another genuinely ‘alternative’ band equalling R.E.M.’s impact over such a long period of time, and it remains to be seen how the void their absence will entail will be fi lled, what’s guaran-teed it that they’ll be sorely missed.

DANIEL NOLAN

Magnum Opus: Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane over the Sea

R.I.P R.E.M

music@collegetribune.ie

Wilco The Whole Love

Blink 182 Neighborhoods

8/10 3/10

MUSIC

Eight Full length al-bums in, Wilco have removed the surfac-

ing negative comments of doubters and naysayers. The Whole Love is Wilco’s critic silencer. After the turmoil of changing line ups, the six members have settled into a groove of sorts, and show no signs of losing their momen-tum.

New takes on country/folk with post-rock distor-tion bring the group into a new era, and their own sub-genre creation.

The album begins with the sublime 7 minute-long ode to Radiohead. The song sepa-rates into two parts, deceiv-ing those who believe it to be two separate songs. Glen Kotche’s drums have become as essential as Michael Jor-gensen’s keys and organs.

Just like a Mogwai epic, all instruments join together after being separately intro-duced, forming a collabora-tion of epic American Rock.

Songs such as “Black Moon” and “Sunloathe” ex-press imagery of love for the entities of the galaxy, or lack of that love. “I loathe the sun and sometimes I don’t know how to love anything”. Tweedy’s voice has been di-minishing in power since the late 2000’s. This has given him some kind of kinetic power to enhance his song writing skill. Striking imag-es of worrying yet beautiful thoughts complete all of the songs on this documentation of a troubled man.

The stand out song, “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)”, a 12 minute epic, combines

tantalizing acoustic guitar with typical Jorgensen. This is a song about what you have to leave behind. “Out-side I look lived in, like bones in a shrine”, sings one of the most prolifi c songwriters of recent times. A cynical man wrote this song, and who could blame the ex-paracet-amol addict as he whispers “I fell in love with the burden holding me down”.

Wilco draw upon their most beloved infl uences as usual. “Standing O”’s al-lows one to envisage The Clash’s Mick Jones. Pop-rock psychedelia kings The Doors are reborn on “I Might”, the fi rst single from ‘The Whole Love’.

After defying the odds and producing over 15 years of culture defying music, Wilco have once more succeeded in turning simple ideas into so-phisticated indie rock.

KEITH LEMATTI THOMAS CULLEN

Blink 182 fans have been waiting eight years for the release of

the much anticipated sixth studio album from the Cali-fornian pop-punk band.

When they took to the stage during the 51st Gram-my Awards in 2009 to an-nounce their reunion after a six year hiatus, many music fans cringed at the thought of having to listen to more cheesy pop-rock songs such as “All the small things” and “What’s my age again”.

However Blink 182 fans were delighted that the band had set their differences aside and reformed one of the most popular American bands of the late nineties.

Neighborhoods has many aspects that sound similar to previous work by Blink 182, particularly their self-titled

2003 album. It is easy to recognize the

bands trademark guitar riffs combined with synthesis-ers in the track ‘Ghost on the Dancefl oor’, which is a strong album opener that Blink fans can relate to.

However the problems start from here in. The sec-ond track on the album ‘Na-tives’ has the awful combina-tion of an upbeat tempo and terribly depressing lyrics. The lines “I’m just a b*****d child, don’t let it go to your head, I’m just a waste of your time, maybe I’m better off dead” are crooned out by lead singer Tom DeLonge as if they were cheerful and self-inspiring.

Another major problem with the album is that the tracks are considerably simi-lar to each other. For exam-

ple, by the time you have listened to the fi nal track on the album ‘Even if She Falls’ it will feel like you have just heard the same song four-teen times.

They all begin with a glitzy guitar intro, followed by Travis Barkers heavy drum-ming and some irritating synthesizers. Terrible lyrics pervade the album. They are meaningless, depressing and are completely unfi tted with the music that accompanies them.

This album will surely be snapped up by members of Blink 182’s massive fan base in America, and is al-most guaranteed commer-cial successful. However, for the common music fan, this record is one to avoid at all costs.

3

DJ Shadow The Less You Know the Better

MastodonThe Hunter

5/10 7/10

DAN COONEY

Following up 2006’s The Outsider, revered beatsmith DJ Shadow’s

latest offering The Less You Know the Better comprises of exactly what fans expect; heavily sampled material paired with distinct genre variation.

Shadows’ sampling style is familiar at this stage; guitars, piano, turntable scratches and vocal snippets are all put to use across the 17 tracks and while well re-spected rappers Talib Kweli and Posdnuos also feature, their presence is one of few indicators that Shadow has any ideas left to explore.

Having set his own stand-ards incredibly high with 1996’s groundbreaking Endtroducing, fans will be let down by the lack of emo-

“I saw the creature fall into the swamp from which he spawned/ I

heard them laugh and say they never liked him anyway”

In March of 2009, the re-lease of Mastodon’s fourth full-length Crack the Skye heralded a cheer from the metal community that shook Valhalla’s rafters.

The sprawling opus, partly centered around the suicide of drummer Brann Dailor’s sister, was a new departure for the Atlanta quartet; Hav-ing risen to the top of mod-ern metal for their mythical subject matter and fi lth-en-crusted riffs, the album was a change of direction that received exultant reviews but alienated many fans of the band’s older material.

If Crack the Skye was the

tional depth and a fl at out re-fusal to move with the pace of contemporary hip-hop.

‘Back to Front’ begins with a drone followed by a man saying ‘I’m back, I forgot my drum!’ then breaks into a classic DJ Shadow beat. The sense of continuous motion, voices and scratching brings ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ by The Avalanches to mind, how-ever, they are so vastly differ-ent in quality, it’s hard not to feel short changed by a tired formula.

‘Sad And Lonely’, as you might guess, is a melancholic song, albeit without making any meaningful connection with the listener; a lonely piano is paired with its old friend the violin while a wom-an who warns young women not to trust young men.

brooding, grown-up album, its follow up is the antithesis. On The Hunter, Messrs. Troy Sanders & Co. unleashed their inner children to run riot in the studio and stood back to see what happened. The result is an aural car-nival. Gone are the orches-tral, beard-stroking concept works of old, replaced by four-minute slabs with ti-tles like “The Octopus Has No Friends” and lyrics as outlandish as those quoted above.

Those swampy, distinctly Southern guitar lines that had been gradually disap-pearing since 2006’s Blood Mountain make a trium-phant return here. This al-bum practically needs to be scraped for resin before it can be played.

This is an unwelcome and uninspired DJ Shadow at work. ‘Warning Call’ sounds quite indie rock; it’s lively and contains some very catchy riffs, and provides a rare respite from unrepent-ant blandness. ‘Afrikan Boy’ develops into a grime sound, giving us a moment of recog-nition that Shadow may still have a hold of his thinking cap.

Lead single ‘I Gotta Rokk’ is a catchy piece that hosts some classic Shadow style sampling, but there’s little else to say about this record, it all seems to serve as a poor imitation of an inspired mu-sicians past brilliance.

If DJ Shadow is ever going to reclaim his lost position at the throne of instrumental hip–hop, this is an example of exactly how not to do it. A big disappointment.

As welcome as the sludge infl uences are, the album has more than brutality to offer, and intricate vocal arrange-ments and guitar harmonies reminiscent of Black Rose-era Thin Lizzy punctuate the neural assault. Tracks such as “The Sparrow” and the title track stand as testa-ment to just how far the band have progressed as musi-cians since their fi nest hour, 2004’s Leviathan.

Though it is certain that this album will have its de-tractors, who will argue that Mastodon have passed their creative peak, it is undeni-able that they are better mu-sically than they have ever been.

Mastodon have the tools and the potential to make the best record of their career, and here they came so close. If they can hone their song-writing skills to match their technical prowess, the world of heavy metal should start counting down to a follow-up now.

GRAHAM LUBY

27.9.11

music@collegetribune.ie

4

Juggling the recording of new material, entering the worldwide market

and playing UCD in Octo-ber to raise awareness about mental health problems, Re-public Of Loose’s Benjamin Loose took some time out of his busy schedule to share his thoughts on one of Ire-land’s biggest acts.

I asked him how the band fared when they played Elec-tric Picnic earlier this month, “Yeah, it was great. It was the fi rst time we’d played the Pic-nic as Loose and it was a nice day. It usually rains when we play outdoors.” How did that compare to playing Glaston-bury? “Every gig has its own different kind of vibe. At Glastonbury we did kind of smaller stages but it was nice to do the Main Stage for the Picnic. They’re very differ-ent kinds of gigs, you know. Every gig has its own charac-teristics, its own vibes.”

Moving on from that ex-perience, Republic of Loose are playing UCD on Octo-

“We’re trying to inject some new life back into rock n’ roll, trying to

make it relevant to the mod-ern day”.

For such a brazen state-ment of intent, Cormac Nee-son seems very laid-back. But with upwards of 300,000 re-cord sales under his belt, he has every right to be.

The above quote has been thrown around in some form or another for as long as rock music has existed. A genre whose appeal originally cen-tred on its tendency to push the boundaries, The Genre That Would Not Die has, by paradox, constantly had to reinvent itself to stay con-nected to its core values. However, sixty years into its lifespan, rock is reaching its very limits of creativity; it cannot conceivably get any heavier, faster or more re-bellious. In the ever-increas-ingly intense contest for at-tention in rock music, many bands rely on pushing those boundaries to gain notoriety.

The Answer, along with groups such as Airbourne and Black Stone Cherry, dif-fer by sticking to the blue-prints laid down in the 60s

ber 10th as part of the First Fortnight tour, which aims to promote mental health awareness. I wanted to know if there was a particular rea-son why they wanted to get on board with this cause.“They came to us”, he ex-plains, “and it just sounded

and 70s by old greats such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and AC/DC. In the contest for at-tention, The Answer receive no points for originality, but compensate with the sheer quality of their songs.

Neeson, one quarter of The Answer, has graciously sacrifi ced part of his after-noon to humour The Si-ren. The amicable vocalist is speaking from the band’s rehearsal space in Co. Down, where the Belfast quartet are limbering up for their up-coming UK headline dates in support of their third full-length Revival. The al-bum comes four months af-ter their 412 Days of Rock n’ Roll DVD (Documenting their support slots on AC/DC’s recent Black Ice tour), and the band intend to strike while the iron is hot.

“Since that world tour we’ve basically locked our-selves in our houses, writing and recording this album, and we’re delighted to be getting back out again”, Nee-son states enthusiastically. “I don’t think that rock n’ roll fans are very quick to forget.

It is a fair enough gap since [2009 album] Every-day Demons came out, and it’s about a year since we put together a tour like this one,

going to release for Ireland and we’re putting out a com-pilation of our fi rst three al-bums in France, Germany and the rest of Europe in the next couple of months, as our fi rst album.” They’ve had some limited airplay in Eu-rope before but Benjamin ex-plains that those songs “have never been properly released in Europe”.

What does the future hold for Loose after that? “Well, we’re going to release another single in January and then hopefully over to the States for Paddy’s Day. We’re hustling away; the hustle never really stops. We’re getting new music out there, we’re getting the older stuff to people who’ve never heard it before.”

I ask if they’ll be touring America or Europe in the near future and receive an optimistic answer. “The plan is to hit the States for Paddy’s Day next year and depending on how the release goes in Europe, hopefully some of it will take on the radio and then we’ll get over there and support that release.

The band has played with many high-profi le and infl u-

making the trip down to Aus-tralia as we’ve sold a good few records there as well.

We want to kind of evenly distribute our time in those different territories so that nobody is missing out!”

When they are off the road and need to rest up and plan their next raid, the band still choose to return home to County Down. “There’s no better place to go back to”, says Neeson of their decision not to decamp to London or

ential artists. I venture to ask who Benjamin’s favourite collaborator was, bearing in mind that Republic of Loose have recorded with art-ists as renowned as Sinéad O’Connor.

“Well, it was a huge hon-our working with her.”, he says of the famous singer-songwriter. That was amaz-ing because we actually got to be in a room with her re-cording and rehearsing and stuff. That was great.”

“Also Styles P, the rapper from New York. He’s one of the top ten rappers of all time. We’re huge hip-hop fans and that was a pretty immense experience for us getting to work with him as well. We’ve been very lucky in the people we’ve gotten to work with and obviously Sinéad is right up there as one of the highlights of our career so far.”

Republic of Loose play the Student Bar on October 10 as part of the First Fortnight Student Tour challenging mental health prejudice and discrimination. For more in-formation see fi rstfortnight.com.

LA, as originally advised- “In this touring bubble you get detached from the rest of the world, Northern Ireland keeps us grounded”.

Before they return to County Down again, the band will make a stop in Whelan’s on October 1st. If you man-age to miss it, they will get to you eventually- “Anywhere that wants to have The An-swer, The Answer will go and play!”

chest has got to be a good thing.”

Benjamin explains that they enjoy playing to student audiences. “There’s a lot of cynicism around about mu-sic but when you go to col-leges, that’s one of the places where that hasn’t impinged yet. Students are just up for having a good time and en-joying live music and it’s just great fun to play college gigs.”

It’s no surprise, then, that he enjoys playing the band’s most popular songs live. “Comeback Girl is great fun every time just because peo-ple love it. The Steady Song is something people know re-ally well so it’s great fun and then there’s other songs too.” He can’t pick a favourite though. “We’re doing a lot of the new album which is great to play live so it’s hard to pick one. They all have their own attractions when you’re play-ing them.”

He explains what the band are up to at the moment.“At the minute we’re in the studio. We’re fi nishing off a couple of singles that we’re

anybody.”While Neeson is obviously

having the time of his life on the road, it is clear that he treats the live circuit with the respect it deserves. A live band fi rst and foremost, The Answer have a professional attitude towards touring that comes from living off of music. “We have a decent following in the UK and Eu-rope, we’ve played a fair few of our own shows in North America, and we also plan on

like a good thing to be a part of. I mean, college shows are always good fun. It was good fun to do a bunch of col-lege shows together. It’s not a cause that I know a huge amount about but anything that lets people relate to oth-er people or get stuff off their

but we obviously have very high hopes to capitalize on the thousands upon thou-sands of people that we’ve played to [when supporting AC/DC].”

“It helped us reach such a wide audience”, agrees gui-tarist Paul Mahon of the AC/DC tour. “I think that we’re only benefi tting from that on Revival. The places we’ve been playing have held much bigger audiences. With the DVD, we’ve defi nitely picked up on that as well”.

That tour was also cru-cial in helping the band to hone their stage skills, as will be evident when they stop over at Whelan’s in October. Learning to win over arena crowds on a nightly basis de-veloped their ability to com-mand their own crowds. “It takes a couple of shows to get used to the arenas”, Neeson admits. “Not just the stage and size of the venue, but also to learn to win over a mass of people.

I remember when we headed to Chicago; we had played two shows with AC/DC at that point, and I re-member feeling very com-fortable by then… you have to be able to relax to do the music justice. If you stiffen up, that’s not going to help

CONOR MANNING

GRAHAM LUBY

27.9.11MUSIC

INTERVIEW: REPUBLIC OF LOOSE

The Answer Interview

music@collegetribune.ie

5

Rupert Grint, more famous perhaps for his role in the Harry Potter series, has often been described by his fellow cast members as likeable and Sheehan is quick to affi rm this: “Rupert is a sweet, gentle affable human being, which worked well

BAFTA award nominee Robert Sheehan has had a

busy year: fi nishing with Misfi ts, starring in Killing Bono and Season of the Witch with Academy award winner Nicholas Cage.

The Laois native has exploded onto the scene and looks set to make a bigger name for himself over the coming year. The cynical Nathan Young is a far cry from the nerdy Cormac MacNamara in the RTE production Foreign Exchange and emphasises the growth of Sheehan as an actor.

Sheehan made a name for himself early with small roles in big productions in RTE and in fi lm, he explains how it all started: “I fell it mostly by accident and not much design.

I fi rst acted in a small play in Primary School, which had the snappy title, ‘Oliver with a Twist’. I played Oliver, and the play was a series of random comedic sketches roughly following the narrative of Oliver the classic!” Sheehan’s big break came in 2003 when he was cast as O’Reilly in the fi lm adaptation of Patrick Galvin’s novel Song For a Raggy Boy: “I was successful in getting a small part in Song For a Raggy Boy after a succession of open castings when I was 14 years old.”

More recently Sheehan was cast in a supporting role to Rupert Grint in the drama fi lm Cherrybomb. This being Sheehan’s fi rst major role in the fi lm industry he describes his feelings on hearing of his casting: “It was one of great delight!

I went and partied in celebration with my brother and a few mates in Dublin that evening.”

as it contrasted my loud, show-offi sh nature that I had on that job!”

“Misfi ts was when the general recognition of my face started to occur on a far larger scale, but I have been doing stuff for years now so there has always been an odd and

occasional recognition,” explains Sheehan when questioned about his celebrity status. Despite this, he mentions that people at home haven’t changed their view of him much since his rise to prominence.

Sheehan remarks that

due to his hectic schedule it has been diffi cult to get home: “I don’t go back very frequently. I’ve been back only once this year for example. Usually Christmas time is when we all converge upon the homeplace.

I went back before starting rehearsals for Playboy of the Western World for a few days because I knew that, between rehearsals and the show itself, I wouldn’t get home until the end of the year.”

He is happy to get home however when he can to catch up with friends and family who are delighted with his success: “Thankfully when I go back I usually see lots of familiar faces that I grew up with, so there is only the typical reaction of seeing an old friend. A lot of people tend to be very complimenting and pleasant if they’ve enjoyed something I’ve been in.”

In Killing Bono, Sheehan starred as Ivan McCormick, the talented younger brother who is led astray by his sibling. Not a big supporter of U2 prior to the fi lm, Sheehan states, “I became more of a fan after getting involved with the project, because I went and researched Bono and U2 a bit, and watched lots of DVDs of them in concert, holding 160,000 people in the palm of their hand, they are incredibly powerful.”

Sheehan’s performance was complimented by a number of critics as being particularly notable.

Looking forward to this Christmas, Sheehan is set to star in the BBC fi lm The Borrowers. The fi lm will also play host to Aisling Loftus, Sharon Horgan and Stephen Fry. On fi lming, Sheehan states, “I had wonderful amounts of fun working with the gang from The Borrowers in South Africa recently, Aisling Loftus being an unending source of comedy.”

Robert Sheehan’s future is undoubtedly bright for the present and he is unashamed in sights he sets for himself: “The list of people I would like to work alongside is a mile long, I had the pleasure of meeting with Christopher Nolan for an hour a while back, he would be right up the top of that list, obviously.” Sheehan also states that he is interested in pursuing his career in the US.

In talking about the future, Sheehan lets slip: “Myself and a friend have decided to write a play together, and the subject matter is outrageous and strange, so something may come of that if we ever bother to put the effort in!” Sheehan’s acting talent and his keen desire to start writing have the potential to propel his career to bigger heights.

27.9.11

Next big thing?ARTS

Misfi t Robert Sheehan talks to Conor McKenna about Killing Bono, Irish life and hopes for the future

music@collegetribune.ie

6

The one joke he has written in the past few years: “Why don’t

Vodafone phones get mar-ried in my house? Cause the reception would be shit”

“World, you can mess with me once and you would probably get away with it. Mess with me twice and I probably won’t remember. But mess with me numer-ous times across a con-certed period in a similar way and think you’re going

27.9.11ARTS

David O’Dohertyto get away with. Well you are wrong! Cause I’m going to lampoon you, through a comedy song”

Within three sec-onds of speaking to David O’Doherty, I can’t help but laugh at his nonchalance. He sounds groggy, calls me

Richard, apologises for call-ing me Richard, blames his agent for calling me Richard and explains how he is still asleep in bed.

After asking did he enjoy the delights of Ireland’s larg-est publicity stunt in Arthurs Day, he replies with a swift,

“Arthur’s day! Fuck off,” and in reference to his play ‘Rory Sheridan’s Tales of The Antarctica’, he explains how he spent the last few days, “shouting in a room for a very long time”. After spending years trying to be-come the most famous David O’Doherty on Google and numerous appearances on television game shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI; he should have little cause for worry now, with such award-winning antics thrusting him into the lime-light, a new show coming soon to Vicar street and the publishing of his follow on from ‘100 Facts About Pan-das’ called ‘100 Facts About Sharks’.

David O’Doherty is a man who takes his music seri-ously. He tells tales of how he wanted to become a piano player taking after his father and his struggles in drag-ging a large Fender Rhodes keyboard around with him, before his father lowered his expectations in life with a “you can’t polish a turd” speech.

These struggles left him desiring something much smaller. O’Doherty is well-known for combining his comedic performance with tunes played on his minia-ture electronic keyboard, delivering both his sung and spoken jokes with an extremely dry sarcasm. This novelty is combined with songs containing bizarre ref-erences and topics such as an orange women and his sort-of duet with Shakira, which have made him stand out and has left many now rec-ognisable comedians in his wake.

In university, he intro-duced jazz concerts and rock gigs in which he stated “grew

longer and longer”, a whim-sical way to introduce your-self to the world of comedy.

He speaks of his indul-gence of comedy shows in Dublin at the time, and how he became deeply engrossed in the fad. He recalls his fi rst stand up gig, where he sup-ported Tommy Tiernan and how Dublin is holding pen of comedic integrity, even if such a small city.

Each August he carts his keyboards over on the fl ight from Dublin to the Edin-burgh to perform his low-budget, high-value routines about the perils of text mes-saging, his beefs and the ac-quisition of very mild super-powers.

When asked if he had ac-quired any new mild super-powers he claimed that he has “been staying In a lot of hotels recently, and having the gift of when there is a choice of lifts, being able to stand under the one that is going to open before the little light comes on.” These have been appreciated by ever in-creasing numbers since he swatted away Josie Long, Andy Zaltzman and Russell Howard to win the So You Think You’re Funny new comic crown in 1999.

In 2007, O’Doherty had ventured into other forms of media “basically it started as an idea of writing a show about recording an album in my apartment”. Broadcasted on RTE, he created a late-night, low-budget documen-tary TV series entitled The Modest Adventures of David O’Doherty, which struck a chord with Irish Audiences whilst leaving some people mystifi ed by episodes that would feature him cycling from Dublin to Galway in one day to do a gig or con-cocting bizarre schemes to pay his rent and attempting to have a minor hit single, which he rose to 27 in the Irish charts. The song enti-tled ‘Orange’, a song about

RYAN CULLEN

music@collegetribune.ie

7an ill-suited couple on a date (he worked in a photo-copy shop and made his own badges, she was a militant vegetarian whose fake tan went horribly wrong) went straight into the top 30 of the charts, “actually most of the people that come up and ask me about the song, are very orange themselves, meaning that they just don’t get the message at all”.

Sell-out crowds in Mel-bourne or the Edinburgh fringe festival don’t faze Da-vid as he mumbles that the most exciting gigs are the ones in which he delivers brand new material, whether they be in large crowds or on top on a beer crate upstairs in Anseo.

David’s career has taken him all over the world and back, and with adaptability being a possible problem for material he says that “peo-ple laugh at farts and people falling over, really you got to just fi gure out those univer-sal funny things.“ Following the success of the fi lm A Film With Me In It, in which Da-vid plays a brain damaged quadriplegic, he tells us of his struggles of “refraining to laugh” at Dylan Moran and his brother Mark Do-herty’s improv over scripted lines. Last November David became the “most least fa-mous person ever to present Nevermind the Buzzcocks”, a show that he previously en-joyed viewing at a younger age. “It was something that I’ve never done before, I don’t desire to be a televi-sion presenter and I’ve never done many panel shows, I’d only do shows that I like, shows that I watch”.

David O’ Dohertys journey has left him leave his mark on Irish. Thankfully the play Rory Sheridan’s Tales of The Antarctica is anything but a vanity project, and the genial Irishman has crafted a splen-did tale of tundra-based der-ring-do.

The play is set 1917 and Rory Sheridan is young man in love with an uptown girl, a relationship doomed for disaster unless he can im-press his beloved’s father by staging a hazardous and ill thought out publicity stunt and thus saving their family business.

This involves him trek-king to the Arctic Circle with a party of imbeciles who have invariably been selected not for their navigation or sail-ing skills but to get them out of harm’s way, hopefully for good. “It’s a show about a man who, rather than being very humble, is just a man

who should never have been there. A complete waste of time. Instead of a man who brings a sense of sensibility in an exciting era of brave explorers and sailors, to just someone who wants to im-press a girl and just has a ter-rible time.”

Next up for O’Doherty is a book entitled ‘100 Facts About Sharks’, which is his attempt to be a little bit like David Attenborough or one of his favourite shows Blue Planet, although he admits to being both ignorant and terrifi ed of most animals. In-stead, he concocts many hi-larious made up facts about sharks.

This isn’t David’s fi rst venture into publishing, as his prequel ‘100 Facts About Pandas’, gained internation-al recognition after giving us a satirical insight into the

world of panda life such as the weaving panda turns the fabric bullet-proof and that Shanghai police have been wearing these fur jackets for 20 years.

He again collaborates with Claudia O’Doherty and friend Mike Ahern in what promises to be a bestseller. For example, did you know that the shark hates Jazz mu-sic, and that the word shark actually looks quite like a shark?

With such a simple yet genius idea, must have come some back story, but as non-chalant as ever, we get a look into how David’s cogs work. “Whatever people feel about pandas, and people have strong feelings towards pan-das, sharks are the same. Cute but ferocious.

I obviously watch a lot of Blue Planet and Claudia and

27.9.11ARTS

I used to watch it without the sound on and make up new commentary and give the animals names. From there we began to write down these ridiculous facts, fi rst concen-trating on the panda, then the shark.” The book is set to be published in hardback by Square Peg on the 6th Octo-ber 2011.

O’Doherty has been deco-rated with numerous awards for his many achievements in comedy.

In 1999, he won Channel 4’s illustrious So You Think You’re Funny Comedy Com-petition at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and was also a fi nalist in the BBC New Com-edy Awards in the same year.

He has received the ac-colade of Hot Press Irish Comedian of the Year 2003 and in the year 2000, he

was nominated for Perrier Best Newcomer Award for his show; David O’Doherty: The Boy Who Saved Com-edy. 2006 saw a nomination for the if.comedy award for his show, ‘David O’Doherty is My Name’. He eventually won the if.comedy Award (formerly the Perrier Award) in 2008 for ‘Let’s Comedy’.

He was also nominated for the Barry Award at the Mel-bourne International Come-dy Festival in 2006. Recently David has raked in the pres-tigious Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner in 2008 and was voted Irish Comedian of the Year in 2010.

With a brand new show called ‘David O’Doherty is looking up’; he is set to in-crease his ever growing fan-base and worldwide recogni-tion. “It’s a show I wrote over the summer, a new stand up

show which I wrote over the course of this year and I feel that they are getting better as I go along. I’ve tried to do something a bit different to what I’ve done before, I’ve tried to talk about the reces-sion and our country”.

With what sounded like a yawn and a slurp, David goes on to explain how it will still be mostly really stupid jokes, and songs played on a tiny keyboard, but also some things that he feels are quite important in life.

‘David O’ Doherty is look-ing up’ shall be in Vicar Street in Dublin on the 1st of October in which promises to be a fantastic night of laugh-ter and mystery.

Interestingly, O’Doherty also enjoys artists who com-bine the ridiculous with the profound along with occa-sionally music, allying come-dians like Flight of the Con-chords (who he supported on their gig in Dublin’s Olympia theatre last year), Zach Gali-fi anakis and his favourite comedian of recent Tim Key. He feels that artists’ trying to mimic comedians off certain shows such as Live at the Apollo is the wrong way to get started into comedy, “you just have to say things that you fi nd funny, don’t watch the Apollo and go aspire to be exactly that, if there is a tiny thing that really, really makes you laugh, like chuck-le to yourself, that’s how you go about it. There is enough generic comedians at the moment”

When it comes to per-forming his whimsical wit, be they strange towns or cities, awkward audiences or unu-sual venues such as his own small apartment or upstairs in Anseo on beer crates, Da-vid’s style and character has left him as one of the more celebrated comedians in Ire-land in recent times. After all, a laugh is a laugh, and his own material takes so much from his own real life and the little things that make him laugh.

Whether it be his subtle acquisition of very mild su-perpowers, his beefs with life and his absurd fascination with pandas and sharks, Da-vid O’Doherty has the guile and mannerism to rank him-self amongst Irelands greats.

David O’Doherty performs at Vicar Street on the 1st of October. Tickets available at Ticketmaster.ie

“100 facts about sharks” will be released in hardback by Square Peg on the 6th Octo-ber 2011

fashion@collegetribune.ie

827.9.11

ARTS

There was a lot of ex-pectation resting on the shoulders of Swede

Tomas Alfredson when this fi lm was announced. Based not only on one of the most critically acclaimed espio-

and director usually get the most credit, like I said this is great fi lmmaking from top to bottom. The fi lm would not have the same impact if not for the grainy, sepia-tinged fi nish applied by cinematog-rapher Hoyte Van Hoytema to create 1970’s London or the subtle touch of the score composed by Alberto Igle-sias.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a classic whodunit thriller with a choking air of suspense that keeps the audience guessing until the stunning fi nal frame. Lose yourself in a labyrinth of double-agents, deception and damn fi ne acting from the year’s best British line up. The fi lm must be judged on its own merits, and whilst I am sure that this will not be to many mainstream movie-goers’ tastes, it is one for those who are looking for a fi lm of a different type, time and pace. Expect it to be up there when the Oscar’s are being handed out.

with an Oscar worthy turn as Smiley. Smiley is a reserved character that chooses his words carefully. What I real-ly enjoyed is how the charac-ters’ emotions are shown un-der the surface rather than hard hitting, which I think is more effective.

It is amazing how through Oldman’s incredibly expres-sive performance, we are able to understand exactly what Smiley is thinking just by his changing of posture or adjustment of his glasses. Alfredson is the most crucial component for this fi lm. He seems to really understand the characters and has an eye for every small, telling detail. He frames every shot with precision, overhearing conversations in darkened hallways or through walls as if we are the spies, gath-ering evidence about the character’s wrong doings. If evidence of his class was not seen after Let the Right One In (2008) it certainly is now. Even though the actors

The starting point was the screenplay by Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor which for the most part stays true, leaving Le Carré’s themes of class, cor-ruption and moral uncer-tainty intelligently intact. There are a number of in-credible performances from the predominantly British cast, but Oldman stands out

hand-to-hand combat or the chase scenes of its progres-sively superfi cial counter-parts.

It may lose some of its audience with its deliber-ately slow pace and chess match style of investigation. But that would be a shame because this is an incredible achievement in fi lmmaking from top to bottom.

nage novels of all time but also an already iconic 1979 BBC serialisation, it was a brave undertaking.

Set in Cold War-era 1973, the story revolves around the presence of a Soviet mole at the heart of the Cir-cus, codename in John Le Carré’s books for the British secret intelligence service. Agent Jim Prideaux’s (Mark Strong) mission in Budapest has gone horribly wrong, now as a result, the head of the Circus, John Hurt’s Con-trol has been pushed out as has loyal agent Smiley (Gary Oldman). But when the government gets wind of the possibility that a So-viet agent has infi ltrated the secret service, Smiley is re-called to root out the mole. Is it “Tinker” (Toby Jones), “Tailor” (Colin Firth), “Sol-dier” (Ciaran Hinds) or “Poor man” (David Dencik)?

This stylish spy thriller does not fi t in with its spy genre contemporaries. It does not have the violent

Interview - ‘Sluts’ ‘Sluts’, a new play by Cai-

triona Daly is returning to Dramsoc. After capturing

audiences in Dramsoc, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Kerry, ‘Sluts’ is coming back to UCD as the Dramsoc Flagship.

‘Sluts’ is a play about stu-pid bitches.

The setting of ‘Sluts’ is in an “unspecifi ed area of Dub-lin” where “stupid bitches” are getting ready before a night out.

‘Sluts’ plays on the ste-reotyped views of female friendships, relationships and jealousy. The play was nominated for Best Origi-nal Script at the I.S.D.A.’s in 2010 it’s “sharp and witty dialogue, cutting and aggressive put-downs and heart wrenching moments capturing the frail-ty and, at times superfi cial-ity, of love and loss.”

‘Sluts’ has made an im-pact to audiences both in Ire-

land and abroad. It is a play not to be missed.What made you come up with the idea for ‘Sluts’ as a play?

I knew I wanted to write a play that criticised ‘pret-ty woman’ the fi lm. I just thought the whole idea of it was actually ridiculous. So I wrote a speech which kick-started the rest of the play.

Were you confi dent when you were entering it into the ISDA’s?

Its impossible to be con-fi dent entering the ISDA’s and anyone who is, is a fool. There is no precedence with the judges as they change every year so its impossi-ble to tell what they’re into themselves.

It’s really a very subjec-tive thing so all you can hope for is that you perform your best on the night which we did and we came home with a few nominations which we are extremely proud of.

What was involved in getting ‘Sluts’ into the

Fringe Festival?

Getting into it wasn’t a problem all you need is a good script and some nice photos of your production and if they’re good the ven-ues seem happy enough to have you over.

It’s more the ‘getting there’ that’s tough because Edinburgh is hard to do on a budget.

What was the reaction of the Fringe Festival?

Fantastic! We had great crowds from all over the world that loved the show, which was fantastic as we were worried how some of the jokes would translate across the Irish Sea but it never seemed to be a prob-lem.

We had a woman walk out in the fi rst few minutes of one of the performances because of the topics being discussed but to be honest I don’t know why she was coming to see a play called ‘Sluts’ if she was sensitive to that sort of thing but its good to know your work provokes a reaction be

Review - Tinker Tailor Solider SpyDirected by

Tomas Alfredson.

Starring Mark Strong, David Dencik, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Kathy Burke, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones, Gary Oldman.

127 mins, Cert 15.

5/5DONAL LUCEY

CIARA MURPHY

Author

Caitriona Daly

it good or bad.

How do you want to pro-gress with ‘Sluts’ now?

We’re delighted to be the fl agship show for Dramsoc this year. It’ll be sad say-ing goodbye to the Dramsoc theatre as it’s the last show that I’ll be doing there but it’s nice to be going out with a bang.

We then have some tour dates for October and who knows after that.

What’s on the cards for ‘Sluts’ as far as Dramsoc is concerned?

The fl agship run will be the last time its performed in the Dramsoc theatre, but we’re remaining under the Dramsoc name when we tour in October.

Everything about this play has been created by Dramsoc members. It will always be a Dramsoc play to me anyway.

Sluts will be showing in Dramsoc from September 28th. Make sure not to miss out.

The Help

James Franco

fashion@collegetribune.ie

927.9.11

ARTSTitle: AnnieDates: 13th 24th SeptemberVenue: The Gaiety TheatreTickets: €27 - €42.50Director: Rodger Hannah

Author: Book by Thomas Meehan;Music by Charles Strouse; Lyrics by Martin Charnin.

Cast Includes: Su Pollard, David McAllister,Audrey LeBourne

Theatre Review: AnnieAMANDA BARTON

The story of Annie as a Broadway musical be-gan in 1977 and was

based on the popular comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray which followed the adventures of Annie, her dog Sandy and her ben-efactor Oliver “Daddy” War-bucks.

This classic tale of rags to riches is brought to life in

The Gaiety by the great per-formances of Su Pollard who plays the miserable matron Miss Hannigan and David McAlister as the billionaire Warbucks.

The production is directed by Roger Hannah with mu-sical supervision by Mark Crossland and design by Alan Miller Bunford.

We begin in The Muncipal Girls Orphanage at 3am, the lights gently turn up to reveal three plain, simple beds in a bare room with no trace of fi nery, which gradually we fi nd are packed full of still sleeping orphans.

The youngest orphan, Molly, is awoken by a night-mare and the remaining girls then wake up to hear the rit-ual of Annie comforting her with the note that her par-ents gave to her in 1922 when she was left on the steps of the orphanage.

Annie is now eleven years old and her parents still have not fulfi lled their promise to

come back and get her, and it is in the very fi rst song “Maybe” that we get the fi rst glimpse of her ever shining optimism.

This bleak setting is made suddenly so colourful by the fantastic harmonies of the orphans singing “Hard Knock Life” with buckets full of attitude.

The little Molly does an out-standing performance here and is, throughout the show, a little ray of sunshine on the stage.

The Acts run ever so smoothly into each other, and the set design is really spectacular with great atten-tion to detail.

In particular, the War-bucks mansion Christmas scene and the New York City night scene stand out for not only their production value but also for their impact.

Each of these scenes sparkle with the vocal per-formances of all the cast, in songs such as “NYC”, “I think

I’m Gonna Like it Here” and “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” Miss Han-nigan’s brother Rooster and his fl oozy girlfriend Lily are excellent villains consider-ing they have relatively small parts, and the only surprise for an audience over familiar with the fi lm adaptation may be how quickly everything gets resolved.

The actress who played Grace gives a graceful perfor-mance, as does the one and only Annie. The only down side to her performance is that her renowned mop of curly red hair is non-existent until the Christmas party.

The only other negative to this production would be that good old Sandy was a bit too old, and was quite notice-ably tired on stage. Although this did add humour, despite it being unintentional!

All that aside, a really excellent show, lively and heartfelt, and at times, awe inspiring.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Blu-RayDARRAGH O’ CONNOR

In August 14, 2010, George Lucas an-nounced that the Star

Wars saga would be re-leased as a Blu-Ray box set in 2011.

This announcement was met with a confl ict of emotions for long time fans of the saga. On one hand, there was excite-ment that all six Star Wars fi lms would be fi nal-ly together in one neat col-lection of Blu-Ray discs.

While on the other hand, some had the fears that Lucas would make a lot of changes, on top of

the multitude of changes that plagued the recep-tion of the late 90’s spe-cial edition and the DVD releases, to the original or ‘classic’ series.

A number of these changes were leaked pre-release on a number of websites, to the collective groan of the internet.

After much waiting the box set dropped earlier this month, entitled Star Wars: The Complete Saga. And yes, George Lucas has made more changes, a quick scan through the reaction of the internet two weeks after the latest re-release yields one over-arching thing: rage and a

lot of it. This venomous rage is aimed, as expect-ed, at the changes to the original trilogy which we will look at later but fi rst the prequels.

Episode I: The Phan-tom Menace to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, tell the story of the rise of the Galactic Empire head-ed by the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious and the fall of the Republic intertwined with the tale of Anakin Sky-walker and his personal descent into darkness.

These visual look out-standing, they are crisp and crystal clear. The CGI locations such as Corus-cant, Naboo and Kimono are beautifully rendered.

Throughout however a few small changes that help the ebb and fl ow of the three movies or add the story in a positive manner.

One of the changes that caused an aneurysm to the internet was the re-placement of the puppet Yoda with the CGI model used in the rest of the pre-quels.

I don’t understand why. It makes sense, the pre-quels are set in the gran-deur of the Old Republic, and as such everything

needs to look accordingly and consistent.

All three of these mov-ies have a uniform feel via their visual presenta-tion and techniques to enhance battles or the powers of the Jedi for ex-ample.

On other note, the de-leted scenes from these movies that are found on the bonus disc are very in-teresting indeed.

They explore the ex-panded universe of the prequels, and add the ‘depth’ that some have complained about in the prequels without turning the non-fan away.

The original trilogy composes the latter sec-tion of the set and it is this that had drawn most rage from fans of the series.

These tell the story of inter-Galactic Civil War and the journey of Luke Skywalker on his path to becoming a Jedi Knight. In Chasing Amy, these movies are referred to as “the holy trilogy’, indeed these movies have such a reputation.

So anything done to these movies would have drawn anger from fans.

The following are a few of the most discussed re-

cent changes: Obi-Wan’s Krayt Dragon call has once again been changed, the Han and Greedo scene has been shortened by several frames from the 2004 DVD version and they now shoot at nearly the same time, a random bunch of TIE Fighters ap-pear as the rebels attack on the second Death Star, the ewok Wicket now blinks and fi nally Darth Vader now says “No” while Luke is tortured by the Emperor. He then screams “Nooooo!” as he picks Palpatine up and

hurls him to his death.First and foremost,

there is only so much you can do with the original footage of these movies. In that regard, they look great and the conversion to Blu-Ray has been kind to them. Again, like the Blu-Ray prequels, they have a uniform and con-sistency in their presenta-tion.

Released on September 12, 2011 internationally and on September 16 in North America

fashion@collegetribune.ie

1027.9.11

FASHIONThe Beauty Spot: Urban Decay’s Naked PaletteWith an eye for beauty, brokenblush.blogspot.com’s Julie Kirwan reviews Urban Decay’s Naked Palette.

Let’s not kid our-selves, we could spend hours pon-

dering how blue eyeshad-ow enhances brown eyes and how peach compli-ments blue. In college and in most of life, packing on lime green eyeshadow in order to fl atter our fea-tures just isn’t practical, or in many cases, even nice.

Forget unwearable trends and instead focus on the colour that will suit everyone and won’t be of-fensive: the most impor-tant palette we need this month is a neutral one.

Now, we could indulge ourselves in the MAC counter; buying their 15

pan palette (€16.50) and adding the eleven euro eyeshadow pans little by little.

Or we could escape to Inglot and pay for a ten-pan eyeshadow palette for as little as fi fty-fi ve euro.

Or instead, we could zip down to Urban Decay and nab their Naked pal-ette (€36). After a year of it being sold out across Ireland and the UK, the mania has died down a lit-tle, meaning you’re little mitts can snap it up once again.

As the name suggests, it is perfect for an every-day muted look, or a dra-matic night-time one with

its mix of creams, taupes, deep purples and shim-mery dark browns.

While it could do with another matte colour or two thrown in, it is a twelve colour wonder

With an eye for beauty, brokenblush.blogspot.

See your name here! Write for The Siren’s fash-ion section! Con-tact fashion edi-tor Cathal O’Gara at fashion@col-legetribune.ie

Potion along with a trusty application brush.

Its perfect for travel, perfect for nights out; and contains enough product to last ages. Go forth, I command thee. A small

with a mixture of warm and cool toned shadows.

Using the brands most popular shades, it pre-sents itself to us in sleek felt packaging, and in-cludes the famous Primer

amount of Sin with a slick of Naked in the crease and your day-look is sorted.

But where it gets far more interesting is with the heavier looks – Buck and Darkhorse blended into the crease, with a smidge of Creep on the outer corners will create a smokey eye even Kim Kardashian would be jeal-ous of…Kinda.

legetribune.ieto last ages. Go forth, I command thee. A small

CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS STYLESTYLESTYLE

CAMPUS CAMPUS STYLESTYLESTYLE

Name: Paul Doody

Course: Masters in Philosophy

Listening to: Dolly Parton

Bar of choice: Doyles

Name: Heather Maher

Course: Masters in Irish Literature

Listening to: Yale’s Scholarcasts

Bar of Choice: Cafe en Seine

Name: Simone O’ Donavan

Course: Single Honors English

Listening to: Familjen

Bar of choice: C.U.N.T

CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS STYLESTYLESTYLE

CAMPUS CAMPUS STYLESTYLE

Masters in Philosophy

Heather Maher

Masters in Irish Literature

Yale’s Scholarcasts

Cafe en Seine

Simone O’ Donavan

Single Honors English

CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS CAMPUS STYLESTYLE

CAMPUS CAMPUS STYLE

Masters in Philosophy

Masters in Irish Literature

Yale’s Scholarcasts

Simone O’ Donavan

Single Honors English

arts@collegetribune.ie

1127.9.11

FASHIONChic

EEK

The hottest colour this season: buy it, wear it, live it.

Cobalt Blue

C U Next TuesdayClub night moved from Craw-daddy to The Lost Society on South William Street – bring glitter.

Thanks to Octavia Spencer, you will never eat pie again.

Copper Face Jacks

Glee

Just thinking about the place will make you want to shower in Dettol.

Move over Franco, you’ve had your seven minutes, and enter the less an-noying and hand-some Dave Franco.

The off-kilter comedy is back and with the exit-ing of a few favourites it’s going to be worse than ever.

Just thinking about the place will make you want

The hottest colour this season: buy it, wear it, live season: buy it, wear it, live

C U Next Tuesday

The driving mental-ity behind the fashion and stylistic choices

of the typical Parisienne are very different to that of the Dubliner. Here in Paris it seems that the people dress for their environment and their peers, more so than for themselves. Their attitude to dressing is almost national-istic, in the sense that they know that as a population they are thought of as styl-ish and elegant, and they feel that’s something they should embody and refl ect in the way they present themselves.

Parisians are surrounded by beauty on a daily basis; there are decorative elements in even the minutest archi-tectural details. I believe that for them, to dress badly, colourfully or dramatically, would be to let down their surroundings. It’s for this reason that ‘people watch-ing’ in Paris is so enjoyable. The French fi t so perfectly in their environment. Stand-ing on any Paris street and watching the locals wander

by with baguettes, little or no make-up and simple, well cut clothes makes you smile. Everyone and everything in this city, with the exception of tourists, just looks so won-derfully French.

The people and the build-ings here are so hugely ap-pealing to other nationali-ties because there is no need for idealisation, Paris is the ideal. The French make sure that each corner looks more perfect than the next, and that includes the people, and

their clothes. Parisian style can be eas-

ily summed up, it’s clas-sic, simple shapes, the easy looseness of materials used, and muted colour palette. There’s a lot of je ne sais quoi thrown in as well, but I think that goes past analysis I fi nd the most interesting groups, sartorially speaking, are the teenage girls. They march out of the collége wearing skinny jeans or tapered cig-arette pants, turned up to show a delicate ankle, with ballet fl ats or leather boots, vest tops, simple jackets and a slouchy bag. This in itself just isn’t an interesting uni-form, but the girls are so tall, tanned, slim, sexy and confi -dent that it looks incredible. They also all smoke, purely, I believe, because it completes their look.

Another interesting thing about the women of Paris is that they always wear their hair down, an outward ex-pression of the heightened sensuality of people here. French men and women just seem to look at each other

more than their Irish coun-terparts. The women enjoy being gazed at and whistled at, and while this does have an impact on how they dress, what it really affects is how they wear clothes. Parisians know exactly how to hold themselves, how to walk,talk and dress in order to seduce.

The French have the right idea in terms of shopping for clothes. If you are going to buy something, make it expensive, classic, and easy. Their’s no Gok Wan here, people don’t discuss per-sonal style, they have an in-trinsic awareness to keep it classic. People don’t try and stand out, there are no 80’s throwbacks, no emos, and no knackers. It may not be as fun as Grafton street, you can’t really laugh at anyone’s outfi ts, but its so much more beautiful. The people here add to the overall aesthetic of the city, and if possible make it even more appealing, which isn’t something you can say about many places, or perhaps any places except, of course, Paris.

French & Fierce: Paris Pavement Fashion

Country mouse to town mouse...Are you ready for the transition?Ciara Louise Murphy enlightens UCD freshers on how to shop when you’re skint and still look mint.

The fi rst day of a new year here in UCD consists of lectures,

seminars, the odd coffee run, endless queues for the copy print or computers and the complete and utter lack of seating during your precious hour off, but when you fi nally get the chance to look around you it often feels more like an advert for Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Top-man/Topshop.

Where does the country guy or gal fi t into this? Do they automatically have to spend all of their rent money investing in these overpriced brands just to simply feel ac-cepted with the norm of stu-dent life? Surely not.

Here we are going to ex-plore Dublin to fi nd out the best way to get a top rate closet without selling the whole room.

River Island, Top shop, New Look, A-wear and Ber-shka are well known for their devotion to keeping up with the new trends and al-

though one would fi nd the odd budget allowing item it isn’t feasible for most to buy their whole season wardrobe there.

This is where some re-search of your own comes into play, by keeping an eye on the style promoted by these shops you can get this seasons trends second hand or from reduced price outlets such as Pennys.

For example Pennies is a fantastic outlet for the basics of any outfi t, be it tights, plain skirts, plain t-shirts, block coloured tops and quirky patterns, American Apparel promotes a clean block col-our style which is very easy to repeat with items from Pennys so be crafty with your purchases look at the outfi ts dressed by professionals and chose replicas if this style is for you.

Much of the style seen to-day from the woollen jump-ers to the oversized shirts and plenty of the 50’s ori-entated accessories can be

This on trend jumper sold for just €8 at the vintage inspired store 9 Crow Street of Temple Bar

found in most second hand stores because let’s face it fashion is rarely original, in-stead it is always a tribute or throwback to a period in time idolising its role models.

Also if you are more in-terested in this vintage secre-tary look seen up and down the high street a second hand

shop is your best friend as they are stocked full of genuine golden oldies and a bargain price can usually be negotiated. So be smart with your hard earned stu-dent loan and go home to the country folk looking Dublin city chic!

Erasmus student Roisin Sweeney details the difference between the semi-dashing Dubliner and the perfectly preppy Parisian.

arts@collegetribune.ie

1227.9.11

FASHIONPapa’s got a brand new bagMen don’t often get the chance to accessorize. All the more reason, Cathal O’ Gara says, for you to get a man-bag.

While I, like you, should have been spending my week-

end studying, I instead found myself on a hunt for the per-fect man-bag after typically leaving my favourite tote on the Luas (I was preoccupied with striking my best blue-steel in hope of being up-loaded to luascrush).

Men are changing their views on carrying a man-bag, fi nally, and the days of over-fl owing pockets with every-thing from your wallet and keys to your blackberry and ipods has come to an end.

The direction in which men’s fashion has taken has led to a slimmer design in trousers all round and fi ts have become tighter – over-fl owing pockets have become illogical never mind unsight-ly.

The bag market is no long-er dominated by women, and the wide array of designs on

offer even enable the modern man to add an extra degree of masculinity and edge to your ensemble.

Nowadays a wardrobe without a bag is not a ward-robe at all, but a mere unful-fi lled wooden box crying out for your attention.

The general practicality of a bag is, of course, the main reason for purchasing one; a home to keep your books, phone, wallet, ipad, ipod and everything else you love to brag about.

A necessary accessory, if you wisely invest part of your maintenance cheque in a bag which is a classic colour, style and suits your image, then it will last you a lifetime and become a staple accessory of choice in your wardrobe.

While usually only suited to the spring and summer seasons, the tote bag is set to continue its popularity throughout the autumn and

winter seasons. This is owing to a massive

backing by designers, pair-ing the all-purpose accoutre-ment with everything from chunky knitwear to tailored suits. This is one trend that isn’t going to die.

Albeit when one initially thinks of a side-bag tones of femininity come to mind, however current designs say different – coming in leath-er, statement colours, rug-ged canvas and canvas with leather trimmings.

These designs are refi ned and sharp providing a classic and simple look which will last for years.

If you’re looking for some-thing more, there are cur-rently some suede and me-tallic designs which cater for all aspiring metrosexuals.

Bold colour and pat-terned totes work well in giving an extra kick to an outfi t; whether to break up a

Turtle PowerWith heritage and the seventies trends taking the runways by storm, Cathal O’ Gara answers the lifelong question: to turtleneck, or not to turtle-neck?

I have always been on the fence with regards to the touchy subject of turtle-

necks. The majority of indi-viduals avoid them like last night’s one-night-stand, but there is, surprisingly, a mi-nority that swear by this sev-enties-inspired academia-connoting jumper, and look good too.

The number of design-ers pushing the turtleneck this season is staggering; Hermes, Robert Cavalli, Cal-vin Klein and more are all implementing the turtleneck in the same way – layering it beneath smart tailoring and refi ned ensembles such as tweed, wool coats and trenches.

For those of you looking for something warmer (we

are expecting snow in Oc-tober), you could invest in one of the thick-knit designs available with pattern or ca-ble detailing.

Cheap Monday has a large collection of these which are available at Urban Outfi tters. These thick-knits should be used the same way in which you wear any jumper: let it become the focus of your outfi t and avoid overdress-ing; pair of American Appar-el chinos, a simple overcoat, and you’re good to go.

The key turtleneck trend you should be looking for is the fi ne-gauge lightweight knit in a slim fi t (think Steve Jobs and Dermot O’ Leary)

Turtlenecks are suitable for both casual and formal events. When worn under a

tailored suit jacket, a proper turtleneck can replace the conventional shirt and tie.

I wouldn’t advise wearing a turtleneck to weddings, but on an average day they can defi nitely upgrade your look. You can even remove your blazer after work and presto, you’re ready for an evening drink in Café en Seine.

Turtlenecks can also be combined with jeans and more casual trousers. Wear

bother of a necktie. The rules are simple.

When you are wearing a bold coloured blazer or coat, team it up with a neutral coloured turtleneck in or-der to anchor your outfi t. If you’re dressing in a neutral coloured coat or blazer, then enliven your outfi t with some extra colour like ox-blood or cobalt-blue.

you’re on tour in Eastern Europe with The Village Peo-ple. Then, and only then, is it acceptable (metallics would also be allowed in this in-stance).

Turtleneck sweaters have long been a staple for winter sportsmen, as well as an in-dispensable part of the beat-nik uniform.

The reasons for their pop-ularity are obvious: they look trim and they eliminate the

them under a leather jacket with a decent pair of chinos and you’ll look stand out as you paint the town red.

Turtlenecks essentially go with any article of clothing, except for metallics. Just re-member to keep your colour combinations simple if you want to avoid a fashion trav-esty.

Turtlenecks for men should always be long-sleeved, unless of course,

monochrome look or to com-pliment the other colours in your attire.

Satchels have to be one of the most popular choices be-cause of their functionality in

today’s hectic life.The over-the-shoulder

bag is perfect for college with its original purpose of carry-ing notebooks, as well as for the gym, the satchel is the

bag of choice for most high-street stores.

Easy to carry due to the one-shoulder strap, satchels are perfect for the morning and evening trek to and from U.C.D – navigating through those throngs of freshers has never been so easy (put away your cattle prods).

When it comes to the ma-terial of choice for your man-bag, leather satchels seem to go well with elegant and classic styles, whilst rugged canvas bags can be more ver-satile and easier to adapt to different trends.

Right on target with the heritage trend, Barbour’s waxed satchels are the per-fect accessory for quilted and tweed clothing.

Don’t be shy when decid-ing on your bag of choice. The right satchel can in-crease masculinity and com-plete your outfi t by breaking it up.

Remember: “It’s not a purse, it’s called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.”