Issue 1247 - The Courier

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30.musicfeatures thecourieronline.co.uk/music c2.music@ncl.ac.uk Tuesday 6 March 2012 Th eCourier Live: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Metro Radio Arena, February 23rd Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds marked their first appearance in the North East with a date at the Metro Radio Arena as part of their current UK tour. After previously playing much smaller venues it was a test to see how Noel’s new project, on the back of their hugely successful self-titled debut, would translate on to arena stages. With ease, is the answer to that one. After a lacklustre opening act in the form of Newcastle locals The Smoking Barrels, Gallagher finally took to the stage and dived straight in to Oasis tunes ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free’ and ‘Mucky Live: The Wanted Metro Radio Arena, February 25th Fingers’. Noel and his Birds then launched into some of their own tracks, received as well with the crowd as the old Oasis ones, a particular highlight being the single ‘If I Had a Gun’. Noel’s trademark dry wit wasn’t missing either, even though the singer claimed to be ‘sweating champagne’ after a heavy night that ended at 5am, and with this, he did appear slightly more subdued than his usual self. However, this didn’t stop his banter with the Newcastle locals, his mocking of the renaming of St. James Park especially getting a big reaction from the crowd. Noel looked at home on the larger stage, accompanied by a 3-piece brass section and choir that added a surprisingly good new element to many of the songs. It was still the old Oasis favourites, such as ‘Half the World Away’ and Filthy cardboard signs, glass-shattering squeals and immaculately groomed pop stars: for Tom Nicholson, nothing quite spells terror like being a lone man in a crowd of screaming boy band fans. Armed with a pair of earplugs and a hefty dose of cynicism, he faces his fear. If you ever fancy a bit of a terrorbuzz, don’t bother with skydiving or bungee jumping; just try wandering through a crowd of 12,000 pubescent girls and getting to your seat without being put on any sort of register. With the nonce obstacle course successfully negotiated, support band Lawson began. Then, some time later, they finished. They were handsome and wore guitars. One of them had a hat, I think. The averageness of their plodding soft-rock made it quite hard to focus my eyes on them, though I was brought sharply back to Earth by the oestrogen-fuelled shrieks which punctuated their set. The Wanted themselves appeared after a short film set in a dystopian future, wherein ‘the lads’ had to find five numbers to put into a computer which will make the totalitarian government go away. Quite who built this supercomputer (which looked like a fax machine plus a tape player on trestle table in an underground car park) and why, is anyone’s guess. It doesn’t really matter anyway. With three corking singles in ‘All Time Low’, ‘War Zone’ and ‘Glad You Came’, and the kind of obsessive fans who bring homemade signs to gigs (tonight’s highlights: “I’M FOREVER BLOWING JAY’S BUBBLES”; “NATHAN & JAY FANCY A 3SUM?”; “THOMAS THE WANK ENGINE”), they couldn’t really fail. They were competent, and (shock horror) actually quite likeable. One song was introduced as, “…a song about love, and finding someone to share your life with…”, before the one that looks like a squashed Steve McManaman chirped up: “Yeah, this one’s called ‘Smack My Bitch Up’”. For that alone, the evening was worthwhile. ‘Talk Tonight’ that got the crowd going, the mature crowd (no hipster 14 year olds here) singing along with every word. Though this isn’t to take away from the new songs, ‘AKA… What a Life!’ proving a particular crowd favourite. The Birds wrapped up the show with an all- Oasis four song encore, including the treat of an acoustic version of ‘Whatever’ (a personal favourite) and of course Noel’s anthem to end, ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. The setlist barely differed from Noel’s last set of gigs, though it mattered little (by little… apologies), every song, new or old got the same huge reception from a massive crowd of true fans. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have cemented themselves as a brilliant live band capable of playing arena shows as easily as more intimate ones. Tim Sewell SceNE: Beth Jeans Houghton The North Eastern music scene is currently one of the most exciting and explosive in the UK - get to know your new favourite local acts. This week, Chris Haywood speaks to Beth Jeans Houghton - dubbed the North East’s Laura Marling, she’s been kicking up quite a storm with her band The Hooves of Destiny since she last performed in the toon last October, with debut album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose released in February. Who are Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves? There’s six of us in total: Rory on bass, Dav on drums, Ed on guitar and trumpet, Callum on keys, Fin on guitar and I sing and play guitar too. How do you all know each other? I met Rory and Dav about six years ago; it started out with just us. Then I met Fin at a party and I’ve known Ed since I was ten because he was my brother’s friend. What have you done with the band so far? We’ve done a lot of tours and a few festivals. We’ve travelled a lot, had a lot of fun. And we’ve made a record, which is the first step to making the next one. Summarise the band in five words Fun musical alchemists of sonic theatre. Who are your musical heroes? I don’t really listen to any new music; I’ve always listened to rock ’n’ roll from the ‘50s to the ‘70s before it started to become a parody of itself. So stuff like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and also The Lemon Pipers. What was the first album you ever bought? The first album I listened to on vinyl was Ladies of the Canyon by Joni Mitchell. What’s your favourite venue in Newcastle? I don’t see us as a Newcastle band; we never really cut our teeth as a band in Newcastle. In fact, on a few UK tours we’ve missed Newcastle altogether. So, I can’t really say. What’s next for the band? We’re touring Europe and then America; I love travelling and playing these songs, but I’m also really excited to get the ones that we have inside us right now out there. I want to get into the studio as soon as possible to be honest and I’d like to begin recording a new record by the end of the year. And then I also want to move out to L.A.; it looks like the land of my dreams. Where and when can we see you next in Newcastle? Not again on this tour; I always take the attitude that if we played once in every place, that’s fine. We can move on then for the time being.
Th eCourier Tuesday 6 March 2012 A smarter way to write Writing and revising written notes is undergoing a technological revolution, and the echo Smartpen is at the forefront of this. Technology Editor Shaun Butcher reviews the product. The pen is one of the fundamental tools of the student trade. Whether you use a biro, a fountain pen, or even a quill, we all need to write things down and then review them later. Problems can occur if you misplace your notes or you can’t remember why you wrote what you did; you might even have problems reading your own writing, especially if you go to your lectures after a heavy night! Well, that chore has just got whole lot easier thanks to the Livescribe Smartpen. To describe the Smartpen as an electronic pen does not do the gadget justice; it’s much more than that: it’s a computer disguised as a pen. I’m amazed at how easy it is to use, how aesthetically pleasing it is, and how much more there is discover. The Livescribe Smartpen consist of a microphone which records audio, a speaker which plays it back, and an OLED screen which acts as a display; a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro-USB connector, and a power button; a high-speed infrared camera capturing 70 images a second, 2-8GB of storage which allows 200-800 hours of recording time, and, last but Boredom Busters Looking for some cheap thrills, or maybe a bit of entertainment while we still have dark cold evenings? Well look no further, below are some console games we found for under £10! Most game stores around Newcastle will stock them so there’s no excuse not to crack out the Coca-Cola and Doritos and get some “friendly” competition going! Wii Our favourite for this console is Wii Play (£4.99). We like the Sandbox Tank mini level. It works great as a drinking game too (drink every time you hit an enemy or down your glass when you die, simple!). Wii Sports (also at £4.99) makes a great addition. It’s a great game to in no way least, a ball point ink pen. All this is crammed into a pen that is, although a little chunkier than a fountain pen, not uncomfortable to use. It makes the whole process of writing and revising lecture notes so much easier. You needn’t struggle in your attempt to scribble everything down - you can simply click a word that you wrote and the recording will playback what was said at the corresponding time you put pen to paper. You can create interactive PDF files which allow you to click and playback your lecture notes on the computer and you can sync them to the cloud allowing you to access your notes and audio anywhere! You can even download the Livescribe app allowing you access your documents on the move. What I find really amazing is that after you’ve plugged your pen into a laptop and transferred the data, your handwritten notes become searchable! This pen effectively indexes your notes. You don’t need to worry about your untidy handwriting either because it recognises different handwriting styles (I asked my housemates to write using the pen), and it even recognises symbols. You can save particular notes into particular folders and although you play with mates and if you don’t already have it, it will definitely fill that 30mins waiting for your chicken nuggets to cook. A cheaper option is Trauma Centre (£2.99 Pre-Owned at Game). You play as a doctor and perform cartoon-ised surgery. At first this may seem slightly macabre but it has an addicted quality that perfectionist will thrive on! Xbox 360 Although many 360 games hold their price above the £10 barrier, Mirrors Edge at £9.99 (Game) is an understated game if there ever was one. This unique game offers impressive sceneries, vivid colours and an engrossing story line that will keep you hooked. As one of the few free running based games this opens up a new areas in gaming that most people probably haven’t seen before. With the levels taking approximately 20 minutes to complete, you can fill might have to spend a little time configuring everything on first use, you can just drag and drop and it does the organisation for you (near enough). Apps are everywhere these days and the Smartpen even has an app store. The pen comes with a piano app, and a translator demo app. The piano works great but it is simply a gimmick designed, perhaps, to show off how responsive the pen actually is. If so, it does exactly that. The translator app is where the pen shines. As I was only able to test the demo, I could only translate a few words. Nonetheless, I simply chose a language (my choice was between Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and Swedish), wrote a word in English and the pen translated it – the pen spoke the word and displayed it on the screen. You can also buy an app that turns your handwritten notes into text! It is clear that this pen could be very useful. I am amazed. However, there are some drawbacks to using the pen. The price of the thing itself starts at around £80 for a 2GB pen, so it may be difficult to justify spending that much on an ‘electronic pen’. The pen uses ink and you therefore have the same issue you get with other pens: you will need to by replacement nibs. Furthermore, the pen relies on special dotted paper and the price of stocking up for a three year university course will not be cheap! You can print your own but you’ll need to have a high quality printer, a lot of ink, and you still need to buy paper! Having said that, when you consider how extremely useful this pen can become, you will be able to accept that this is a great piece of kit that will no doubt be beneficial to most students. I have to admit, after my initial test I started using the old fashioned pen and paper once again and stopped using the Smartpen, but after discovering more features, and how useful this will be when revision starts, I’ve used it during every lecture since. any spare time that you have! PS3 PS3 owners can pick up the following games from Game, Gamestation, or Granger Games. The price of Fifa 11 has been slashed to £4.99 and offers the usual standards of a football game. Alternatively Dead Nation (which can be found on the Playstation network) will fill any need for the zombie killing urges you may be feeling this time of year. However, if you’re willing to spend a little more money, we would recommend Limbo (£9.99). This dark and haunting game will have you glued to the screen for hours; it’s also great to play with friends! PC A little nostalgic gem for the PC gamer, without a doubt, is Theme Hospital. Build a hospital, hire or fire staff, expand and modernise nursing wards all in order to make a profit (oh, and cure the general public of course). This wacky game could have you engrossed all night if you let it. Jenni Butler technology.31 thecourieronline.co.uk/science c2.technology@ncl.ac.uk technology editor: Shaun Butcher Top 5 Ridiculous lying ideas Franz Reichelt’s Parachute-suit Austrian inventor Franz Reichelt caused a splash, or rather a crunch, when he demonstrated his “parachute-suit” by leaping from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower in 1912. Reichelt was attempting to develop a piece of clothing for aviators in the event of a plane failure. Despite failures with dummy drops, Franz decided to make the jump himself. This was, sadly, a fatal decision, and the whole gruesome event was captured on early film. Antonov A-40 The Antonov A-40 was an interesting construction. Tanks were obviously a huge part of warfare during World War Two but they were relatively difficult to transport and deploy. There are obvious benefits to aerial deployment and the Antonov A-40 was an attempt to exploit these benefits for tanks. While one prototype was built, it had little success. It seems that almost every major power made some attempt at flying tanks, the Antonov merely being one of the most ambitious. Focke-Wulf Triebflugel The Focke-Wulf Triebfluegel was a truly bizarre cross between a helicopter and a giant propeller. It was developed by the Nazis as an ambitious attempt to create a Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft and because, who knew it, they were crazy. Each of the blades had a ramjet mounted on the tip to spin it at incredible speeds. We will never know whether such an outlandish project could have succeeded as the test sites were taken by allied forces before prototypes could be constructed. Vought Disc-form Now a lot of early flying machines had pretty crazy designs but of all these early aerial oddities, the Vought Disc-form takes the prize. It was obviously an attempt to make some kind of flying saucer and looks to be an impressive and sturdy construction. There was only one major flaw: it was designed with no apparent aerodynamic principles and so would be completely unable to take off. Icarus Wings of wax were never going to work but all of these deranged people had a little bit of Icarus in them. Adam Bristow-Smith
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