News

Win Barclaycard Mercury Prize goodies

posted: 01/09/2010

To celebrate Manchester band I Am Kloot’s Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize nomination, we have some amazing gifts to give away. The overall winner of the 2010 Prize will be decided and announced at the Barclaycard Mercury Prize Awards Show, which will be broadcast live on BBC Two on 7 September.

1st Prize - Bose SoundDock Portable
The Bose® SoundDock™ Portable Digital Music System is designed to deliver a new standard of audio performance for Apple’s iPod® making it ideal for appreciating the quality of the 2010 Barclaycard Mercury Prize Albums of the Year.

2nd Prize - Bose In-Ear Headphones
Bose In-Ear Headphones produce high-quality audio from a comfortable in-ear design, delivering full, rich sound with distinct clarity and warmth. Hear your music with more range, realism and clarity than with most conventional ear buds, making them ideal for appreciating the quality of the 2010 Barclaycard Mercury Prize Albums of the Year.

Runner up Prizes - 5 x Mercury album samplers
This compilation features tracks from all the nominees.To win simply send your name, address and along with your answer to the following question to kevin.gopal@bigissuenorth.co.uk by 6 September. Mark your entry ‘Mercury comp’.What was the title of I Am Kloot’s debut album?

In The Swim

posted: 18/08/2010

Paralympic swimming champion Eleanor Simmonds tells Lianne Steinberg why she’s ready for more challenges and how she still finds time to be a teenager

At only 15 years old, paralympic swimmer Eleanor Simmonds has achieved more than most people do in their entire lifetime. After winning two gold medals in her first Paralympics in Beijing in 2008, the teenager was thrust into the spotlight and was crowned BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2009.

A motivational speaker in schools, the face of the Team GB Paralympian website and an ambassador for broadband company Plusnet, the young girl who was born in Walsall and now lives and trains in Swansea has a very different life.

“It’s really good having this relationship with Plusnet because I’m a teenager and I use Facebook and the internet loads and this is a highly recommended broadband provider,” she says, like a media veteran.

With her contractual ad-speak out of the way, she talks in a similarly professional way about her career so far.

“After Beijing going back home and getting all the interviews was really good because it built awareness of disability sport. I don’t think of myself as famous but it is really good to see my face on the website of Team GB and if it inspires people and inspires disabled people, that’s great. It’s also good for the Paralympics in 2012 because we need publicity and people cheering us on.”
Simmonds and her older sister were born with achondroplasia but they’ve never seen themselves as any different from their able-bodied friends. Such is her positive approach to life that she once auditioned for the role of a giant in a school play and got the role. However, swimming didn’t come naturally at first to the young athlete as she didn’t like backstroke or getting her face wet. But she began to show promise and was picked up by Team GB scouts after a meet in Sheffield where she qualified for the national development squad.

Moving the entire family from Walsall to Swansea was necessary to take advantage of the training facilities and involved a new school too, but being bright and friendly has made the transition much easier.

“When I’m not training I hang out with friends and we do normal teenager stuff like going shopping or going to the cinema. I need to relax a lot and I don’t have time to do any other sports. When it’s PE time at school, I go to the gym at my swimming pool. I’ve just done my GCSE mocks so it’s been a difficult balancing act between revising and swimming.”

With summer holidays now here, Simmonds isn’t having a complete break as she’s currently competing at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven. Expectations are high after she set a new world record for the 200m individual medley in May at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

“I felt really good there but I didn’t think I’d swim that well because we’d all been training for the world championships and this was more of a swim meet. So it was a great surprise and the pool was really good and the crowd was excellent,” she enthuses. “None of us expected to break any records but because we did it suggests that we can only get better.”

Just prior to Beijing, Simmonds had an operation to correct the bowing in her legs but her characteristic determination kept her motivated. “I was out of the water for a few months and I was in hospital for a week and a half – that was really bad,” she says, laughing, “I had to learn to walk again but having the focus to go to Beijing really helped. At the moment, touch wood, I don’t need any more operations.”

In fact, with a head start on most professional athletes, Simmonds hopes to compete for many years to come. “Hopefully I’ll compete until I’m 28 but there are plenty of younger swimmers who are coming through already so that keeps me on my toes. Because I’m so young, I progressed quite fast but the saying is it’s easier to get to the top than it is to stay at the top and that’s definitely true.”

Simmons is an ambassador for home and phone broadband company Plusnet (www.plus.net)

Letter to my younger self Kris Kristofferson

posted: 06/08/2010

What would you say to your 16-year-old self if you could go back in time?

At 16 I was beginning to have dreams of being a writer.
My big loves in life were American football and boxing, mainly football. I had a driver’s licence and I think in the first six months I had six accidents. I was in California then. I had been there a couple of years. We moved around a lot. My father’s civilian job was flying for Pan American and he was also in the military. But I always came back to Brownsville in Texas, which I felt was my real home. It was in my heart and it was very close to Mexico. I love Mexico.

Looking back, I’m kind of amazed at my audacity. I was too small and slow for American football but I was able make first string. I remember a coach told my parents in college that he plays by the will of Kristofferson, not by the will of God.

I’d tell my 16-year-old self he’d be amazed that everything he really loved he’d get to do. By the time I was in college, I wanted to be a writer and I won a prestigious short story writing competition in Atlantic Monthly. Things just started to go my way. My grades were better in college than in high school and the next thing I knew I had a Rhodes scholarship, which took me to Oxford. When I got to Oxford I boxed on the university team. The difference between the education in Oxford and the US was that it was specifically literature and English, not a bunch of other courses. I loved it. I started really reading Blake and Shakespeare.

I’d tell him how much freedom would matter to him – personal freedom. Some friends of mine in Nashville said if you take the words “freedom” and “sidewalks” out of your songs you’d be speechless. It definitely was and continues to be about freedom for me. Freedom to do what I wanted to do, not what was expected of me.

If I was to give my younger self one piece of advice it would be to follow your heart and your expression. The advice I was given by my family and professors was in a different direction. When I decided to go and be a songwriter it was regarded as a lightweight ambition for a guy with my academic background. My mother disowned me. I can remember when she wrote the letter telling me not to be an embarrassment to the family, she said Johnny Cash was “nothing but a drug addict”. That was back in ’65. That changed as well. I remember I was getting an honorary degree and John was there to give it to me. I can remember seeing my mother hugging Johnny Cash and I thought – how things had changed.

You know, that 16-year-old should also believe in himself. I find it amazing that I went against everything my parents were telling me to do. Even my brother Craig, who was my biggest champion at the time, after about two or three years when I hadn’t had any songs recorded said: “You know, you said you’d give this a year [I didn’t really try at it until I was about 29] and if it didn’t work out you’d go do something you can do.” I remember thinking, God, you don’t realise I’m doing the right thing. I was so in love with the whole process I couldn’t understand that anybody would think I wasn’t doing the right thing.

At 16, Hank Williams was my hero. A little later came Johnny Cash. The notion that we’d ever get to be friends – I couldn’t have dreamed that. The notion that I’d be right up there on stage right next to him as I was many times before and during our time in the Highwaymen [a supergroup with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings] would be mind-blowing.

Johnny Cash was never just life-sized – he was larger than life. Willie [Nelson] and I are best friends but John was something else. His face should be up there on Mount Rushmore. He was more like the father of our country.

When I was trying to make it as a songwriter in Nashville I worked as a janitor in the studio where Bob Dylan was recording Blonde On Blonde. Every songwriter in Nashville wanted to come to those sessions but nobody could get in – there were policemen at every door. Nobody could get in except me because I worked there. Dylan would go sit down at the piano behind these dark glasses and start writing. It was unheard of in Nashville not to do three songs in three-hour sessions. But he went the whole night without recording anything. The band was off playing ping-pong or cards and then in the morning he’d call them in and they’d cut a masterpiece. My memory is getting really crappy. When I try to think of the names of individual songs, I can’t, but when I think of the whole thing it was like being allowed to watch Michelangelo work. I got to meet his wife and kids and they were friendly but I never spoke to Bob. I was too scared. I met him later through Johnny Cash because they were really close. That was a real meeting of the giants.

I’d tell my younger self that some day Barack Obama would come. He’s the most hopeful thing in American politics since the Kennedys. He’s had nothing but one problem after another. The oil disaster is just one more thing that he has had to deal with. I used to work on a platform like that, flying helicopters to the rigs every other week – until John cut Sunday Morning Coming Down and I never had to work again. Obama is well on the way to changing America’s policy to the rest of the world. There’s no way we’d be in Iraq or Afghanistan had he been in charge. I think he’s trying to get us to use dialogue instead of military action.

Picking one song I’m most proud of is like asking me to pick between my children – I’ve got eight of them and they’re all beautiful. If I had to pick one it would be Me And Bobby McGee because Janis Joplin’s version meant so much to me. As soon as I say that I’d think of another.

I’d tell him he’ll enjoy it all – the wild days and the way things are now. I look back with most affection on my time with the Highwaymen. It was so funny. They were my heroes before they were my friends.

Interview: Paul McNamee

Entente cordiale in Dordogne

posted: 02/08/2010

There was a twinkle in her eye as our guide pressed us to see just one more wing of Chateau de Biron. It wasn’t just her pride in the restoration of this magnificent fortress, which has towered over the Lot-et-Garonne countryside since the 12th century. Nor the sculptures of Dietrich Klinge sensitively placed around the grounds. She also knew the football fans among us were keen to get out of the 35 degree heat and back to a bar in medieval Monpazier to watch the England-Germany World Cup game.

Anglo-French relations haven’t always been so playful in the Dordogne Perigord department. This week more than 800 people will take part in a re-enactment of the battle that brought the Hundred Years War, which started in 1337, to an end. There had been 16 years of extra time when the French finally kicked the English out of Aquitaine in the Battle of Castillon in 1453.
In the 20th century, the English returned not only as tourists but expats, often well to do but reluctant to integrate. But you don’t have to be a member of the gin and tonic classes to enjoy the remarkably well preserved history of the region, the food, the wine and, of course, the weather.

Monpazier itself, the best preserved of 300 bastides – fortified towns – in south west France, was established in 1284 by the English King Edward 1 as rival landowners sought to tame the feudal wilderness of the region and raise their taxes through trade rather than food production.

During the Hundred Years War, the story goes, the people of Monpazier set off to plunder nearby Villefranche-du-Perigord and were rewarded when they discovered the town surprisingly empty. Returning with their booty, they found their own town also ransacked – by the residents of Villefranche-du-Perigord, who had chosen the same night to launch a raid of their own. They swapped it all back.

Economic hardship produces pragmatic responses. We’re told more than once that the English expats in Dordogne-Perigord are changing. Photographer Rip Hopkins grew up in London but part of his family is French and he feels more French than English. His new book Another Country documents the British in France.
“The British in France are kind of in turmoil now,” he told the local English language paper, the Advertiser. “Up until recently there was little need to integrate. Britain was better off and people with work or investments in the UK could still get by.

“Now there is less work and money in Britain and people are having to assimilate into the French system to make a living. There are also Britons who want to move back but can’t return to Britain for financial reasons so are stuck here.”

Tasting the fine dessert wines of Monbazillac in the 16th century chateau of the same name, we weren’t too worried about getting stuck here. The French are fiercely proud of their local wine, and although the reds of Bergerac don’t compare with Bordeaux, the whites are fresh and the sweet wines can give more illustrious Sauternes a run for its money.

That pride obviously extends to local produce as well. Duck features heavily and foie gras is a speciality, while truffles and wild mushrooms are prized. Local walnuts have their own Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée label and the strawberries enjoy the European Union equivalent, the Protected Geographical Indication.

Pick of the restaurants we visited were La Taula in Perigueux, the Gallo-Roman capital of the region, and Le Chateau in the village of St Genies, where chef Pierre Morat is a protégé of the legendary Alain Ducasse.

With its magical courtyard dining area, extensive cellars and lovingly restored medieval bedrooms, Le Chateau is an ideal place to stay if the budget runs to it – rooms start at around 100 euros – and an alternative to touristy Sarlat.

From here, the Gallo-Roman museum Vesunna in Perigueux would be 50km away. In 1959 archaeologists found the remains of a great Roman dwelling built in the middle of 1AD. In the excavations that followed, a remarkable collection of sculpted stones, murals and other artefacts came to light. Rather than cart them off elsewhere, the authorities brought in famous architect Jean Nouvel, who simply built a cool glass and steel construction around the entire site. Don’t miss it.

Nor the caves of La Rouque St Christophe, carved into the sheer cliffs overhanging the Vezere river and for thousands of years a refuge from invaders. The oldest known human settlement on the site dates from around 28,000 years ago. Prehistoric man then left the caves before they were occupied once more in the Neolithic era, the pattern of settlement and abandonment being repeated all the way up to the Middle Ages.

More modern forms of warfare eventually meant the natural defences of the caves were no longer as effective and the caves lost their importance but the dwellings, temples, and animal shelters can still be seen, either in a seven hour guided tour that involves rope ladders, or in a more relaxed way.

Not far from La Rouque St Christophe are some even more famous caves: those of Lascaux. Discovered in 1940 by four teenagers and their dog, they contain some of the worl’s best-known Upper Paleolithic paintings, estimated to be 17,000 years old and largely depicting animals known to have existed in the area at the time.

Between 1948 and 1963, a million visitors disturbed the balance of the caves, leading to algae and bacteria, and they were closed. In 1979 Lascaux became a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Lascaux 11 was built 200 metres away, obviously a replica but created by an artist who spent six years using prehistoric techniques to recreate the paintings. The result, say officials, is accurate to the original within 5 per cent and allows the 23,000 visitors a year to wonder why the prehistoric artists, despite their skill, never depicted humans or reindeer, their staple for hunting. Superstition? Ancient religion?

Access to the original caves is limited to academics. Even the American ambassador to France failed when he tried to get in. In 2000 black and white mould patches appeared but the white ones have now gone, leading scientists to compare the caves’ state to a patient in remission.

Kevin Gopal

How to get there

Until 25 September Jet2.com flies twice a week from Leeds-Bradford Airport to Bergerac, with prices starting at £29.99 one way including taxes. See www.jet2.com

Talking about Wu

posted: 26/07/2010

A production error meant the last part of an interview with Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan is missing from page 16 of this week’s magazine. Here’s the article in full. Wu-Tang Clan play the Academy, Manchester on 3 August.

It should be a relatively easy task, but arranging an interview with a member of New York hip-hop crew the Wu-Tang Clan is proving to be the journalistic equivalent of herding cats. It’s a task that involves overcoming countless delays, postponements, cancellations, broken promises and, at one point, the superbly blunt putdown “He can’t talk right now. He’s in the john,” courtesy of a remarkably patient PR.

Honestly, if this is what you have to go through when trying to speak to just one member of the group, then what’s it like attempting to get all eight of them together to embark on a tour?

“I can’t even front, it be hard,” admits the refreshingly frank Raekwon when contact is finally made. “Being that we all have separate deals and solo deals it kind of takes everybody into their own personal direction and when it’s time to come back together there’s a lot of negotiation that’s got to be done. It’s got to all be dealt with correctly where we all feel at the end of the day that’s it’s going to be something that we can’t turn down.”

In this instance, the lure of a money-spinning three-date UK tour featuring all eight remaining original members, with the exception of Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB), who passed away in 2004, aged 35, was the catalyst for everyone to settle their well documented differences and hit the road.
Marking the first time in years that the classic Wu-Tang Clan line-up has played the North West, the band’s forthcoming Manchester show will see the group “dig out the best classics that we got,” and “have a good time”, says Raekwon, who was born Corey Woods in 1970 and helped found the group alongside Method Man, GZA/Genius, Ghostface, RZA, ODB, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck and U-God, in the New York borough of Staten Island in the early 1990s.

Joining them for the UK shows will be more recent additions to the Wu-Tang fold, Mathematics, Cappadonna and Streetlife – all accomplished MCs in their own right, but often held up as evidence of how the group has diluted its appeal by recruiting relative unknowns for live shows whenever a founder member is unavailable/incarcerated/in rehab (delete as appropriate).

Factor in a succession of second-rate solo albums (alongside some admittedly excellent ones such as ODB’s Chambers: The Dirty Version), RZA’s ubiquitous production work and the ever expanding monetisation of the Wu-Tang brand, which has grown to encompass books, comics, computer games, films and clothes (Wu-Wear), and it becomes easy to empathise with fans’ frustrations that the band has not so much sold out but practically held a fire sale.

“We always said that when we get to a certain mark we were going to do our own solo projects,” says the affable Raekwon in the group’s defence. “That was always the plan. We just try our best to work everything out and make sure everybody is comfortable with the situation.”
When it comes to past Wu-Tang live gigs where, to heavy criticism, only a handful of core members have appeared he does, however, strike an apologetic tone.

“Let me tell you something – I will be the first one to be disappointed when stuff like that happens,” he states. “Sometimes personal things might hit the table where you have to respect what it is. But for me, I don’t ever want to misguide the people or make them frustrated, so I just make sure that at the end of the day that I don’t mess anything up and that I’m prompt at doing what I got to do. But, yeah, it’s f**ked up to get in front of the people and have to deal with that s**t.”

Although his solo career might not have reached the commercial heights of GZA or Method Man, Raekwon can, nevertheless, lay claim to producing two of the best records to have spun out of the Wu-Tang empire with his 1995 Mafioso opus Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and the 2009 follow-up Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Part II. Asked whether a new Wu-Tang Clan album is on the cards any time soon, he states: “There’s definitely some projects that’s going to come out that will have us all collaborating with one another, but as far as a collective Wu-Tang Clan project, it’s too early to discuss that right now.”

When it comes to the band’s lasting appeal, which, despite dimming from their mid-1990s prime, stretches from 1993’s seminal Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers – still one of the best hip-hop albums of all time – to the present day, the veteran rapper is rather more succinct.
“I would just say loyalty to the game,” Raekwon states in his deep baritone. “We love hip-hop and we love our fans and at the end of the day that keeps that engine running in our hearts.”
And as for his recent proclamation that the Staten Island collective are hip-hop’s answer to the Beatles?

“Well, you know we’re the black Beatles,” he says chuckling. “That’s without a question. We are the best group in the world, in my eyes. You’re not going to get another Wu-Tang for probably another 100 years, so, yeah, definitely. You called it right, the black Beatles. No doubt.”

Wu-Tang Clan, 3 August, Academy, Manchester.