Exeter student - Exeposé - University of Exeter

ExeposéPhoto: Henry
Monday March 7 2011 Issue 577 www.exepose.com
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£9,000
•Exeter first outside Russell Group to announce £9,000 fees
•Graduates to repay fees when earning over £21,000
•Guild pledges to ensure rise will benefit students
Charlie Marchant
News Editor
EXETER UNIVERSITY has announced
plans to charge students the
maximum tuition fee of £9,000 a year.
Exeter is the first university which
is not part of the Russell Group to declare
its fees plan, consequently causing
concerns over how many universities
will opt for the highest tuition fee.
The Government had claimed that
fees of £9,000 would be charged only
in exceptional circumstances. Ministers
warned that if average tuition fees rose
above £7,500 it would mean unaffordably
high costs in loans to students, and
subsequent pressure on funding could
mean a cut in university places.
Exeter University is, however, the
first of the research-intensive 1994 Group
to set its fee, which it plans to introduce
in time for the 2012 year of entry for all
undergraduate courses. This is despite
assertions from David Willetts, Universities
Minister, that costs of Arts and
Humanities courses could be covered
by £6,000 per year and £7,000 for laboratory-based
and medical courses.
David Allen, Registrar and Deputy
Chief Executive, wrote in an e-mail to
Exeter students: “We felt that it was important
to signal Exeter’s intent to charge
£9,000 as early as possible so that we
could begin planning for 2012 with certainty.
I am sure you will share our confidence
that Exeter should seek to be
in the same fee bracket as universities
such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial,
which have already signalled their
intent to charge the full amount.”
He added, “Future students will repay
the fee only when they have graduated
and are earning more than £21,000
a year. Above this amount, repayment
will be at 9 per cent of income and
debt will be forgiven after 30 years. It
is estimated that only 30 per cent nationally
will repay the whole fee.”
Continued on page 3

2
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and Rock’n’Roll.
Screen P 22
The Screen
Editors interview
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star of Machete
and the Spy
Kids trilogy.
Video Games P 31
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Epic Yarn,
Video Games
has all tastes
covered in the
latest reviews.
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News
Ellie Busby & Charlie Marchant - news@exepose.com
Aaron Porter fights for students
Students
campaign to
keep street
lights
Ben Tyson
DEVON County Council’s plans
to switch off much of Exeter’s city
street lighting late at night in a new cost
and energy-cutting drive which has met
significant opposition from students and
local communities.
The Council has proposed that up to
10,000 of the city’s 14,000 street lights
are turned off between the hours of
12.30am and 5.30am every night, in an
effort to save 4,000 tonnes of CO 2
and
an estimated £400,000, if the full system
is implemented across Devon.
However, the Students’ Guild,
through its Campaign Army, has opposed
these plans and set up an online
petition and campaign in an attempt to
make the student voices heard on this
matter.
Chris Hardy, VP Welfare and Community,
commented, “Whilst any efforts
to reduce carbon emissions should
be regarded as admirable, the absence
Demo Hub goes online
Tristan Barclay
Editor
DEMOCRACY in the Students’ Guild has
moved online as the Democracy Hub’s
Beta version was officially launched on
the Guild’s website last week.
The Hub replaces the General Meeting
as the main forum for Guild policy
making, allowing students to submit and
vote on motions remotely. It is hoped that
the Hub will encourage students to engage
with Guild issues as General Meetings
have traditionally suffered from poor attendance.
The last meeting, held in January,
lasted just half an hour and attracted
only 30 attendees.
Any student can submit petitions,
motions and referenda on the Hub. One
referendum has already been held, giving
students the chance to decide on whether
or not the Guild should support the University
College Union’s proposals for
of street lighting could serve to put
students’ welfare in serious jeopardy,
which would be an unacceptable cost.”
The online petition opposing this
motion already has over 200 signatures,
whilst a Facebook group has almost 500
members, indicating a relatively strong
level of student interest in the matter,
given that the campaign is still at an
early stage.
James Eales, Guild Campaigns Officer,
has stated the aim of the petition,
saying, “If we can ensure that all street
lighting is kept on, full stop, that would
be great, but we would be happier
knowing that the Council have listened
to student concerns and ensured that key
access routes in and out of student areas
keep a high percentage of their street
lighting.”
Rory Cunningham, Community
Liason Officer, stated, “We are awaiting
further information on the streetlighting
issue and understand that it will be discussed
at the next public PACT meeting
in St James.”
strike action on March 21.
The result of the referendum was not
acted upon, however, as only 23 voted on
the issue. Guild referenda need a 5 per
cent turnout to be binding.
The Guild emphasises that it is the
proposer’s responsibility to publicise a
referendum. Both the proposer and opposer
for a referendum receive a £10 budget
for publicity.
James Eales, Guild Campaigns Officer
and VP-elect Academic Affairs, said,
“The democracy hub moves the Guild
policy decision making process into the
21st century, making it more accessible
for the student body and hopefully increasing
student engagement.”
The news comes after Exeter’s 38 per
cent turnout in the 2011 Sabbatical Elections
set a national record for student elections.
Find the hub on www.exeterguild.org/
haveyoursay/democracyhub/
march 7 2011 Exeposé
Students are campaigning against Council proposals to turn off street lights.
Wanted: Exeter Graduates
Jess Leung
EXETER students have been ranked in
the Top 20 most desired for graduate recruitment
for the first time.
The study was conducted by High
Fliers Research, specialists in student research.
Over 16,000 final year students
from 30 leading universities, which accounted
for 15,563 jobs in 2010, were
surveyed. A list of the Top 100 graduate
employers was drawn from the results.
The list included jobs from a wide
variety of sectors ranging from banking
to the media. Amongst them were also
familiar brands such as Vodafone, the
NHS and the BBC.
This achievement follows closely
behind the University’s most successful
Autumn Careers and Placement Fair to
date.
Paul Blackmore, Head of Employability
& Graduate Development, said,
Photo: Henry White
“Myself and the rest of the team have
been completely focused on improving
the employability of our students in
preparation for when they leave university.”
“I’m delighted to say we’ve made
fantastic progress in both these areas
and our appearance in this ranking is a
testament to our success so far.”
Considering only 25 per cent of Arts
and Humanities students are expected
to land a graduate position, the news of
Exeter ranking so highly has been well
received.
Dominic McInerney, a second-year
History and Ancient History student,
commented, “It is great to see the value
of the Exeter brand increasing. I had no
doubts about the academic quality of
Exeter, but I had my doubts about employability.
To hear that Exeter is now
so highly thought of in the working
world is excellent news.”

Exeposé Week Twenty 3
News
Exeter
students
sleeping
rough
Simon Dewhurst
A SLEEPOUT organised by Exeter
University Amnesty International
Society (EUAI), which was attended
by Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, has been
branded a success.
On Thursday February 24, the
event was held to raise awareness of
poor and destitute asylum seekers who
are refused entry to the UK. The Exeter
event was part of a wider movement
“The event was a great
success. We presented
300 signatures to Ben
Bradshaw and played
our part in a national
week of sleepouts”
Charlotte Mathysse, EUAI President
by the organisation which encouraged
students across the country to stand up
for refugees’ rights.
On campus, around 30 students
MyExeter
on way up
Ellie Busby
News Editor
LUKE APPLETON, Exeter student and
creator of the MyExeterisdown website,
met with University Management on February
25 to discuss plans to improve Exeter’s
IT services.
After his open letter to the departmernt
appeared in the Week 18 Exeposé,
Appleton spoke with members of the IT
department, including Deborah Welland,
Head of IT Operations to discus plans for
switching to a new interface, ensuring Wifi
availability all over campus and giving
more support to lecturers using IT facilities.
Luke Appleton told Exeposé that
“they were very positive and keen to increase
student interaction with the IT Department.”
He encouraged students to “be
more vocal and keep pushing to improve
the facilities.”
Appleton plans to add complaint boxes
to MyExeterisdown.co.uk to allow students
to contact the IT department directly.
slept outside Streatham Court, with
music and games keeping them
entertained for the evening.
EUAI also collected 300
signatures, calling on the government
to allow asylum seekers the right to
work if they have been waiting for
their cases to be concluded for over
six months. It was argued that this
would enhance refugees’ human rights
Uni ups fees to £9,000
Continued from page 1
The University, along with Imperial
College, is awaiting approval from the
Office of Fair Access. Exeter has also
promised it will introduce a new package
of fee waivers and bursaries to encourage
more applications from less well off
students.
Allen said, “This will better enable
us to direct resources at widening participation,
fair access and improving the
student experience. It is important that
students can come and study at Exeter
“Universities believe
that the price they set
will be a sign of quality
- and they will charge
whatever they can”
Aaron Porter, NUS President
whatever their family background. We
are already working with our Students’
Guild to identify priorities for investing
in the student experience.”
Bertie Archer, VP Academic Affairs,
commented, “There’s not much surprise
whilst allowing them to contribute to
the economy.
Ben Bradshaw attended the event
and said that he “was very impressed
that such a big group of students
was prepared to sleep out on a cold
winter’s night to draw attention to an
issue that affects some of the most
vulnerable people in society.” He also
promised to take up their concerns
at the actual figure. It’s been expected
that the top institutions would go to
£9,000.”
Whilst the Guild still opposes the
principle of tuition fees, Archer added,
“The fees have got to be worth it, so the
guild has been working hard to ensure
that the university makes sure students
get the education they deserve for such
a large fee.”
The guild has set up a budget scrutiny
group that will meet with the University
to prioritise day-to-day spending
for students, and is currently pressing
for smaller class sizes and more contact
hours with lecturers.
However, students have expressed
their concerns over the affects the new
tuition fees will have on the university.
Harry Smith, a third year Business
student, said, “The fee increase will no
doubt essentially privatise education at
Exeter; there is already an almost 50:50
split between private school and comphrensive
school students, but this will
start to outprice those from middle class
backgrounds that don’t qualify for the
grants but also can’t afford the new fee
price.”
Photo: Thomas Page
30 Exeter students sleep outside on Streatham campus to raise awareness of asylum seekers who are refused entry to the UK.
with the government and his front
bench Labour colleagues.
Charlotte Mathysse, EUAI
President, said, “The event was a great
success. We presented 300 signatures
to Ben Bradshaw and played our part
in a national week of sleepouts in
which hundreds of students have been
raising awareness for destitute asylum
seekers.”
“The cuts in funding
mean we have to
replace these lost
revenues or face
a decline in the
standards of Higher
Education”
David Allen, Registrar, to Exeposé
Aaron Porter, NUS President, commented
on the fees situation saying, “The
government made promises to get the
tuition fees through the vote - but I don’t
believe they can deliver. They said that
£9,000 would only be charged in exceptional
circumstances, but I suspect that
50, 60 or 70 per cent are going to charge
£9,000.”
He continued, “From the conversations
I’ve had behind the scenes, universities
believe that the price they set will
be a sign of quality - and they will charge
whatever they can get away with.”
Read David Allen, Jonnie Beddall
and student comment on pages 8-9
M&S closure
after arson
A Marks & Spencer employee has
been accused of setting fire to the Exeter
store, which was substantially damaged in
the blaze on Saturday February 26.
Robin Woodard, of Beacon Lane, Exeter,
who appeared at Exeter Magistrates’
Court last week, has been accused of arson
and criminal damage to the shop.
In the early hours of Saturday February
26, Woodard is alleged to have used a key
to gain access to the Marks & Spencer store
and then set fire to garments in the lingerie
department on the first floor.
Damage is also alleged to have been
caused to goods in the store when the
sprinkler system came on, causing flooding,
which also affected the adjacent store,
H Samuel.
The store remains closed while staff
assess the damage to the contents of the
building. Around 260 workers have been
transferred to other M&S outlets during the
closure.
John Harvey, City Centre manager,
said, “Most people will still visit Exeter
over the coming weeks. Although clearly it
is a loss, it is not a loss that is going to completely
decimate our trading performance.”
Bill Douglas
Open Day
The Bill Douglas Centre of the History of
Cinema and Popular Culture held an open
day for families.
The centre, located on the Streatham
Campus, has one of the largest collections
of film-related material, tracking the development
of the moving image.
Families had the opportunity to create
shadow shows, make flick-books and
zoetropes.
Phil Wickham, Museum Curator, said,
“Visitors had the chance to take part in fun
activities based on the ideas in our collection
as well as to discover what an amazing
resource they have on their doorstep.”
He added, “There is nowhere else with
this depth and breadth of material on the
moving image in this country and events
like this give people the opportunity to experience
the museum.”
7 Research
Experts
SEVEN Exeter University professors
have been chosen as expert panel members
for the 2014 Research Excellence
Framework (REF).
The announcement was made by the
Higher Education Funding Council for
England (HEFCE) on Monday February
21.
The REF assesses the quality of research
in UK higher education institutions,
and has replaced the Research Assessment
Exercise (RAE).
The last RAE, in 2008, placed Exeter
amongst the country’s leading researchintensive
universities, with nearly 90 per
cent of its research recognised internationally.

4
News
National Student
News
Porter won’t
stand again
AARON PORTER, NUS President, will
not seek re-election next month.
Porter plans to stand down in April,
after facing hostility from within the
student protest movement.
The NUS leader has been at the centre
of the tuition fees protest throughout
his term in office. He saw an unprecedented
upsurge in student activism, with
campus occupations and protests.
Porter believes that the campaign
over fees is “moving into a different
landscape” and therefore a “fresh start”
is needed for leading the union.
He says he can step down with a
sense of pride after the impact of the
NUS tuition fees pledge campaign.
He said, “We’ve kick started a wave
of student action, brought the coalition
to its knees, and we’ve shaped the public
debate on education in an unprecedented
fashion.”
Sharp rise in
uni applicants
Record numbers of university applications
have been made by young people
attempting to gain university places
before fees increase.
The rise in fees has caused many
sixth-form students to opt to cancel
their gap years, making applications
even more competitive. To date more
than 600,000 people have applied
through the University and College Admissions
Service, however, places on
offer have been restricted to 487,000.
In 2010, 17 per cent of applicants
who achieved the right qualifications
for their place, failed to secure their
university spot (a 60 per cent rise from
2009). It is expected this number will
increase again in 2011.
TV in the oven
TWO Sheffield University students put
a TV in the oven and set fire to a chair
in their halls.
The pair received custodial sentences
after covering heat detectors and
smoke alarms with plastic bags and
running out when toxic fumes billowed
from the oven, leaving their other seven
flatmates asleep inside.
The students pleaded guilty to causing
criminal damage and recklessly endangering
life. As a result, Daniel Gyi,
21, was jailed and Joshua Hart, 20, sent
to a young offenders institution - both
for two years.
Elisabeth Martin, the prosecutor,
said Gyi had told police: “We just fancied
burning it for no reason.”
AQUATIC species have been returned
to Reed Pond following its renovation.
The pond, located near the junction
between Queen’s Drive and Streatham
Drive, was drained to clear algae and
weeds, which were both restricting oxygen
to fish and blocking the fountain
pipe work.
Prior to the renovation, a student
volunteer project was undertaken to
assess wildlife in the pond. A number
of different aquatic organisms were
found, including a colony of freshwater
mussels. All of the aquatic plants and
animals present were removed to a temporary
location over winter whilst the
work was carried out.
The project also led to suggestions
of new habitats that could be introduced
to increase biodiversity, including shallows
and inverted pipes, which were
added ahead of the refill.
During work on the pond, the island
in the centre was cleared of overgrown
brambles and weeds, and planting was
renovated both on the island and around
the pond. Species for replanting were
chosen to be inkeeping with the range
of plants that would have been available
for the original creation of the pond.
To avoid future problems with the
pumps, a new ‘sump’ and landscape
feature was created outside the pond to
house the submersible pumps and their
workings.
Iain Park, Director of Grounds at
THE fourth annual Adventure Ball took
place on Saturday February 19 and was
attended by 376 students.
The event was organised by the Exeter
University Canoe Club and made
a profit of £2,500, which will fund the
purchase of new support and safety
equipment.
The Adventure Ball was located at
Crealy Theme Park. Upon arrival, the
secret ride was revealed as the Maximus
Rollercoaster. The indoor Adventure
Zone was complete with drop slides,
rope swings, climbing nets and ball pits.
A hog roast and bar provided refreshment.
Lynne Medlock, Ball committee
member, spoke to Exeposé: “It’s a small
ball compared to some, but it’s all about
quality, not quantity. I’m really chuffed
with how the night went, Crealy is the
perfect venue for this ball and it all ran
smoothly. Everyone seemed to have a
great time so bring on next year - it can
only keep getting better.”
Josh Cleall, a third year Geography
student, remarked, “It makes me laugh
how so many people can have so much
fun in a kid’s Adventure Zone.”
Marie, a first year Human Bio-science
student, said, “Brilliant value for
money and I immensely enjoyed spending
the evening with friends acting like
a big kid! I would definitely recommend
it as a must-do before you leave University.”
XTV filmed throughout the evening
and a short video will soon be released.
march 7 2011 Exeposé
Reed Pond is renovatedPhoto: Hannah Walker
Hannah Sweet
Senior Reporter
Reed Pond has been renovated after a student volunteer project assessed wildlife in the pond.
Canoe club make £2.5k
Emily May
Photo: Sammie Buzzard
Exeter Canoe Club made a profit of £2,500 at their annual Adventure Ball in February.
the University, said, “The pond has
already had an influx of breeding amphibians
such as frogs and we hope the
refurbishment will be a significant improvement
for both wildlife and landscape
on campus.”
Oxfam Soc
live on a
£1 a day
Flora Busby
Senior Reporter
ON the week beginning February 14,
Exeter Oxfam Society undertook personal
challenges in order to raise awareness
for those living in poverty.
During ‘Poverty Week,’ members
of the society chose to alter the way they
lived for five days. Challenges included
living in a tent, giving up technology or
living on one pound a day.
Recording each day on the Oxfam
Society’s blog, those who took part
wrote how they felt and how it related to
the third world. As the UK government
has just announced proposed cuts to international
aid, the point was to show
that this is unacceptable.
The Oxfam society encouraged Ben
Bradshaw, local MP, to read and find out
about Poverty Week in the hopes that he
will take this issue to government.

The Exeter Award is an achievement award
for undergraduate and taught postgraduate
students. The Award is designed to enhance the
employability of students by providing offi cial
recognition and evidence of extra-curricular activities
and achievements. If you are a volunteer, or have
undertaken paid work experience, The Exeter
Award will help you get ahead of the 300,000
other graduates entering the job market each year.
The Exeter Award is sponsored by
exeter
universit y of
www.exeter.ac.uk/exeteraward

6
News
march 7 2011 Exeposé
University construction works on sch
Photo: Henry White
The Forum construction site, pictured above and below, is well underway, with the main ‘street’ clearly visible by the Library, which is well over halfway through its renovation and extension works.
Forum
Photo: Henry White
• 163,710 - The total
number of man hours
spent on the Forum.
• 30,906 - The total
number of man hours
in February alone.
• 17 - Average number of
deliveries per day.
• 60 - Hours a week of
crane activity.
• 35080 - Tonnage of
waste recovered offsite.
• 89 - Percentage of
waste diverted from
landfill.

Exeposé Week twenty 7
News
edule as buildings open to students
Photo: Henry White
Photo: Henry White
Business
School
& INTO
Centre
• The New Business
School opened on
Saturday February 5
with Chinese New Year
festivities.
• The Building is one of
the most environmentally
friendly on Campus.
It has full climate
control, ranging from
light sensitive lights,
that dim acording to
natural light levels, to
The INTO Centre, above, The New Business School, top right, and the new Duryard Music School called Kay House, below, have all been handed over to the university.
Duryard
• £2.3m - The amount
invested in the new
facilities.
• 2,000 - The number of
active musicians at the
University.
• A recital hall, a soundproofed
practice room,
a cabaret space etc.
• A chamber music room,
jazz bar and a sound
studio that can record
events taking place
around the building.
Photo: Henry White
windows that open and
close according to the
room temperature.
• The new INTO Centre
is a central campus hub
for all international
students.
• It has teaching facilities
for over 600 students including
a lecture theatre
and state-of-the-art IT
facilities throughout.
• It features numeorus
learning spaces and
academic facilities, including
PC clusters and
teaching spaces.

8
Comment
Tristan Barclay & Andrew Waller - editors@exepose.com
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March 7 2011 Exeposé
Exeposé
The Exeter Student Newspaper
Are we worth it
The University’s announcement that it that announce the £9,000 charge (which
will charge students £9,000 for a year’s they certainly will) are now playing catch
tuition from 2012 onwards should not up with Exeter; they won’t dare charge
come as a surprise to anyone. It is clear any less for fear of seeming inferior
that, to make up for the shortfall in
Exeter has shown considerable
Government funding, universities are business acumen in recent years, but one
going to have to charge at least £6,000 a can’t help but feel that universities’ advocacy
of a rise in tuition fees in the first
year. However, when the cap on fees was
raised in 2004, the few universities that place somehow legitimises the Government’s
cuts to HE funding. Universities
didn’t raise their prices to the full amount
soon regretted the decision. Exeter’s UK doesn’t want a cap on fees and so
charge to the top bracket this time around it seems no one in the higher echelons
was inevitable.
of university leadership wants you to
What may come as a surprise is the have a free education. The Government
timing of this announcement. The fact is only going to see this as a mandate to
that Exeter is the first university outside cut funding, safe in the knowledge that
the Golden Triangle of Oxbridge and students will pick up the bill.
London to make plans for the top fee As Jonnie Beddall points out in this
should be seen as a PR coup for the week’s issue, for the University to make
University management, rather than any up for the cuts, it has to charge future students
around £7,000 a year. If fees were
confirmation of Exeter’s reputation as a
posh institution. Exeter isn’t even part of to go to this level, students would only
the Russell Group of supposedly leading be entitled to expect the same standard of
institutions. The Government promised education that current students receive.
the £9,000 fee would only be charged in By going to the full amount, the University
must understand that it owes students
‘exceptional circumstances’ and, whilst
Exeter certainly is a credible academic real improvements. Exeposé continues to
institution, one must realise that a comparable
level of education can be found tion, but if we have lost the battle on fees,
be opposed to paying for higher educa-
elsewhere. This decision is Exeter staking we cannot afford to lose the battle on
its claim at the top. Any other institutions value for money.
So long Mr Porter
It has been a tough year to be NUS
President. Funding cuts and tuition fees
have divided opinion throughout the
Higher Education world, and the NUS
has been floundering in the past few
months as even those supposedly on the
same side of the debate have fallen out
with one another. Porter’s decision not to
stand for re-election at the NUS’s AGM
comes as his voice has been drowned out
by more militant students.
What one can say is that Porter has
been very public on the issue of HE funding.
He convinced students early on that
this was a cause worth fighting for and
mobilised thousands to march in London
last year. He has brought the debate into
the mainstream for students who will
graduate before the hike in fees comes
in. Initially, he presented a sensible and
visible face for the student argument.
However, recently things have been
falling apart for the NUS. Many of its
flagship initiatives have been entirely
ignored by the Government. Don’t forget
that the NUS made a great show of getting
Lib Dems to sign a pledge against
tuition fees, and that the Union’s idea for
a graduate tax has fallen on deaf ears. It
seems Porter has been the victim of the
dishonesty of politicians and the anger
that students directed at the Government
during the march on Millbank has
now turned, somewhat unfairly, on the
NUS President. Students certainly aren’t
apathetic on this issue anymore, but they
seem to have forgotten who the real
enemy is.
Thanks to all those who helped proof this issue:
Tom Payne, Joe Johnston, Sapphire Mason-Brown, James Crouch, Isabel Stoddart, Adam Koziol, James de Souza, Luke
Graham, Cyan Turan, Zoe Dickens, Fiona lally, Tom Nicoll, Jessica leung, Alice Gibson, Nick Gilbert, Sarah Holmes, Alex
Hawksworth-Brookes, Rebecca Lodder, Esther Privett, Rebecca Sutton, Emily Lunn, Hannnah Walker, Marie Notermans,
Sophie Alexander, Thomas Hobbes, Joshua Irwandi, Sammy Brook, Laura Stevens, Zoe Bulaitis, Tom Bond, Kate Gray,
Camilla Goodwin, Tori Brazier, Sam Lambert & members of the Exeposé editorial team
University justifies £9,000
David Allen
Deputy Chief
Executive
and Registrar
It is important to remember that the
new arrangements do not affect current
students, only new Home/EU undergraduate
students starting courses in
2012. Under the new arrangements
there will be no upfront cost for
students who repay the fee only when
they have graduated and are earning
more than £21,000 a year. Above this
amount repayment will be at 9 per cent
of income and debt will be forgiven
after 30 years. The Government will
lend any eligible student (including
part-time students for the first time) the
money to pay tuition costs irrespective
Jonnie
Beddall
Guild
President
Exeter will join Cambridge, Oxford
and Imperial by charging new students
£9,000 a year from 2012. Let me be
clear: as a Guild we have always, do and
will always continue to oppose university
cuts and higher tuition fees. This is
the position you voted for and we will
continue to fight for this position locally
and nationally.
We’ve been edging nearer this
point for months now and ever since the
Government first announced plans to gut
universities of state funding, this day has
loomed ever closer on the horizon. This
is a seismic change in the way students
access a university education, and the
implications for the university experience
will be wide-ranging and profound.
The situation we’re in couldn’t be
much worse. Starting with the latter, we
have two tasks: to ensure that access
to Exeter for poorer students improves
through a comprehensive package of
bursaries, outreach work and the use
of contextual data in admissions and,
secondly, for every penny of additional
revenue to be spent on improving the
quality of education and experience we
will be paying so much more for.
For this University to cover money
loss in government cuts, it had to charge
of family income. Maintenance grants
of up to £3,250 will be available to students
with family incomes of less than
£25,000. It is estimated that only 30
per cent nationally will repay the whole
fee, partly because of the increased
threshold for repayment.
Clearly, the whole issue of higher
fees attracts strong views on both sides
of the argument. In an ideal world
most staff and students would probably
prefer the status quo whereby the taxpayer
continues to provide a high level
of subsidy towards tuition fees. The
current fee for home students of £3,300
only covers half the cost of a classroom
based course and less than a third of a
laboratory based one. However, the dire
financial position of this country has
forced the government into some quite
drastic decisions, one of which is to remove
nearly all of the state subsidy for
at least about £7,200. So by charging
£9,000, we need to be bold and outspoken
in how we guide where that money
is spent. Whilst fighting these changes,
as a Guild we have to make sure future
students don’t lose any further.
That is why we’ve just set up a
budget scrutiny group with the Vice-
Chancellor, to fight for investment in the
areas that we need. But now, we need to
ask every single Exeter student in our
University-wide student consultation. In
many ways, the debate starts here.
Since the autumn we’ve consistently
fought against Government university
cuts and higher fees, a position Exeter
students voted for us to take. 350
students from Exeter and Cornwall
protested in London in November and
the same number demonstrated locally
in Exeter. Our lobbying campaign saw
thousands of letters written to our Members
of Parliament and students with Lib
Dem MPs personally lobbying them in
Parliament.
As Guild President I’m just sorry
that we’ve got to this point. The new fees
will be paid back at 9 per cent of annual
earnings above £21,000 (basically the
average wage) and after 30 years, any
outstanding debt will be wiped out.
It’s not a straightforward system so it’s
necessary to learn the details.
But there comes a point where I
just can’t move past the basic injustice
of these changes. My personal politics
aren’t governed by ideologies but by a
sense of pragmatism, what’s right and
teaching. The cuts in government funding
therefore mean we have to replace
these lost revenues or face a decline in
the standards of Higher Education.
We believe a fee of £9,000 is necessary
to enable us to replace lost income
and to be able to invest in the future. A
higher fee enables us to do much more
to support students from poorer backgrounds.
It also enables us to recruit
more lecturers and increase contact
hours. We are already working with the
Students’ Guild to identify priorities
for investing in the student experience
and have set up a new budget scrutiny
committee by which they will be able
to work with us to establish priorities
for investment. The proposal to charge
£9,000 is subject to the approval of
fair access and widening participation
arrangements by the Office for Fair
Access (OFFA).
Students must scrutinise
what’s not. Surely, after all we’ve been
through in recent times we’ve arrived
at a point where we can offer all young
people an education based on their ability
to learn, not to pay.
Whatever your views, left or right,
education really can be the passport to a
better life. This country is too often divided
by class, religion, race and politics.
60 years ago we lay the foundations of a
state supposedly blind to these divisions,
to afford each citizen the same access
to services regardless of their status in
society. To further entrench these divisions
at a time when family budgets are
starting to buckle under a combination
of inflated living costs and widespread
cuts to public services, is nothing short
of criminal.
On a final political point, to say
that cuts to universities are necessary to
reduce a grossly inflated national budget
is simply wrong. At under 2 per cent of
national expenditure and a key driver to
the kind of knowledge economy crucial
to British success in coming decades,
to suggest that university spending ever
contributed to our national debt carries
no weight at all.
Above all, I’m proud to be a part of
our community. Whether an acute awareness
of the issues, mature response to often
volatile events or a level of intelligent
debate that I’ve never seen at University,
I think we can all hold our heads high.
In short, thank you for being Exeter,
but our fight becomes harder and our
mission more important.

Exeposé Week twenty 9
Comment
Fees are up, are students down Your views
Rob Edwards
Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance
& Exeter Occupation
Uncut
David Allen, in his article published
in the 08.12.10 issue of The Express &
Echo on behalf of Exeter University
executive in support of raising the cap
on tuition fees, claims the “battle to
maintain public funding [for education
in its present form] is lost.” The seismic
movement of students nationwide and
their supporters in the broader trade
union and anti-cuts movement tells
otherwise; that the battle against attacks
to education spending, and cuts of all
kinds, is only just beginning.
The head of Universities UK,
Exeter University Vice Chancellor
Steve Smith, and the mandateless
Coalition government wish to carry out
an ideological move to privatise large
swathes of the education sector. One
only need look at the degenerating effect
of Private Finance Initiatives in the
National Health Service, the cost and
poor quality of private rail firms, among
many examples of the negative effects
of introducing market forces into vital
public services. Allen believes if these
market forces are “properly informed,
[they] will determine over time where
quality and value [of services] lies.”
The belief that private companies can
pick up the slack left by spending
cuts is short sighted, and driven by a
fetish for markets; the very instability
of which brought about the economic
recession.
Through their support of demonstrations,
the nine day occupation of
Newman A and the holding of public
meetings in the city, Exeter Anti-Cuts
Alliance and Exeter Occupation Uncut
argue that not only will the cutting of
state spending and the introduction of a
private business model deliver a poorer
standard of education, particularly for
the outrageous price charged, but will
create a two tier system.
Such a two tier system will result
in poorer students (despite Allan’s assurances
of favourable loan conditions
and bursaries) attending second rate
institutions, in a competitive bracket of
their own, while the well off enjoy the
first rate and therefore more expensive
institutions.
The Coalition says that cuts are
needed, that we need to “tighten our
belts”. They claim Sovereign Debt has
meant they have no alternative. However,
young people did not cause this
crisis, so why must they be forced to
pay for it Getting the education sector
to pay for it is exactly what Cameron,
Clegg, and VC Steve Smith are doing
– in massive cuts to budgets, privatisation,
fees, academy schools and cutting
EMA. There is no doubt that Britain is
a country in deficit. But what about the
£120 billion gap from tax evasion by
the super rich What about the ongoing
claiming of bonuses by bankers The
Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance and its sister
organizations around Devon and the UK
are building a broad united fight back to
defend education as well as jobs, pensions,
services and the public sector as
a whole. Even Allan claims, “Without
such severe cuts in teaching grant in
England it would have been politically
impossible to envisage the higher [fees]
cap.” Every axe fall must be challenged.
Alternatives to cuts exist, among
them a Robin Hood Tax of the bankers,
those who caused the crisis. Cuts to
education, jobs, pay, and benefits including
EMA will undermine spending
power essential to economic recovery.
Rather than cutting we should invest in
education and public services that have
long suffered chronic under funding.
The money saved by cutting will be
piecemeal and ultimately unnecessary
– serving only to attack the most vulnerable
in society. Through investment in
much needed housing, public transport,
renewable energy and the welfare state
we could create jobs – this would build
the economy. The neglect of these
alternatives by this cabinet of millionaires
and the Vice Chancellor’s caucus
is a sure sign of their commitment to the
free hand of the market in determining
the opportunities and standard of living
of a generation – a hand that will asset
strip, sell, and scrap the youth.
The widening social gap
Matt Palutikof
Pink Floyd once sang “We don’t
need no education!” Today’s announcement
that Exeter University will raise
their undergraduate fees to £9,000 may
mean young aspiring students across the
country have to sing a slightly different
version; “We can’t get no education!”
It is no overstatement that the issue of
university fees has been the chink in the
Government’s armour. Having seen a
new upper limit, a small group of English
universities have made it clear they
intend to go all the way. And our own
leafy green campus university is now a
member of this gang. It will not affect us
but I cannot help but feel for those students
in a few years time that will rack
up £27,000 worth of debt on academic
fees on Exeter. Now I knew Exeter was
good, but is this fair
The answer is not a straightforward
one; yes and no. It is fair because Exeter
is currently the 11th most academically
demanding university in the UK, it has
a clear commitment to a high standard
of teaching and research. Members of
the University have told the BBC that
charging £9,000 a year is a statement of
confidence; it signals that the government
cut backs on university spending
will not inhibit us from the pursuit of
excellence. Some universities will slip
down the league table as costs increase,
but not us, Exeter claims. Our other
£9,000 ‘buddies’ are Cambridge, Oxford
and Imperial; looks impressive, we are
swimming with the big fish now. A fairly
shrewd move from Exeter; through the
use of the issue of finance, the management
have placed us at the top table. So
when people think of ‘the best’ they will
now think of us, they have created an
even more prestigious academic image
for us.
But creating an image of success is
not what university education should
be purely about. This University does
not have a huge amount of social and
ethnic diversity as it is. In this day of
a widening social gap, the University
should be focused on helping bright
students from poor backgrounds to gain
a quality higher education. Now there
is of course the Office for Fair Access
who will impose a rule on Exeter that
means bursaries and fee waivers must
be given to those who are less well off.
However, a mountain of debt at £9k a
year is enough to put those from a low
income background off higher education;
it may act as a financial deterrent. If
this is the case we may witness the social
gap in the UK widening further. Added
to this, if Exeter, as a non member of the
Oxbridge or Russell Group raises fees,
will others follow Others may feel that
they have to show their commitment to
excellence, this could lead to a situation
where the majority of highly ranked
universities charge extortionate prices.
Exeter may have started a domino effect
that could squeeze those who are less
well off out of higher education.
There is no clear answer as to what
will happen, I do not have a crystal
ball and even though the government
sometimes acts like it does, it certainly
has no idea as to how this issue will pan
out. Just think yourself lucky that you
do not have to take out a small mortgage
to fund your University life and we are
certainly fortunate that we can sing: “We
can get our education!”
Ellie Bothwell
Music Editor
Exeter University’s decision
to charge the maximum tuition fees of
£9,000 is hardly a surprise - following in
the footsteps of Oxbridge and Imperial
it is likely that rather than being an
“exceptional circumstance” most if not
all of the top universities will decide to
charge the maximum amount. Ever since
Tony Blair decided that more people
should go to University there has been a
downward spiral - the more people who
go the more worthless getting a degree
becomes and the less the Government
can afford to fund it. However, although
I certainly don’t condone the rise in tuition
fees, this isn’t the issue that should
be discussed - we need to look to the
David Wood
In a very strangely worded email sent to
all students, the University execs seemed
almost proud of their announcement to
raise the fees of some courses at Exeter to
£9,000, stating that they are “sure” we will
share in the idea that we should be in the
same fee bracket as the other universities.
I am “sure” that we won’t.
It seems a moronic excuse to say that
Playing the
Stephen O’Nion
Video Games
Editor
Neither the rise in Exeter’s tuition fees
nor the reaction to it has been entirely surprising,
and yet the fee increase is likely
to positively affect current Exeter students
and recent alumni whilst better preparing
the university for the evermore rigorous
demands of future students.
Most obviously, the instant benefit
is the increased potential to weather the
greater financial demands felt by universities
across the country. These institutions
are businesses, and though the ethics of
that can be debated, a successful university
must fulfil its primary purpose in
order to survive: education. The only way
to ensure competitiveness in this area is
future.
Exeter University now desperately
needs to justify what it will do to make
studying here worth it. I think the Forum
Project is a step in the right direction to
improving the quality of student experience,
but it’s not enough. As a second
year English student the number of
contact hours I have are few and far between
(now the equivalent of an Exeter
student in 2012 paying £300 a week)
but I don’t want a rise in contact hours
to make £9,000 a year worth it. I want a
better library, and that doesn’t just mean
a bit more study space and a few more
computers - I want more books and better
quality resources. I also want better
teaching - I want a lower student-staff
ratio and I want to know that I am being
taught by some of the most knowledgeable
people in their field doing the most
up to date research. If Exeter University
are going to start charging £9,000 a year
is that really too much to ask
the reason for increasing fees is so Exeter
can be seen as equal to Oxbridge and Imperial.
Why should we follow their lead
Is it out of insecurities over our league
table performance Or do the Chancellors
really trust in their “extensive market
research”, which must obviously be suggesting
to them that students enjoy paying
more and are really very desperate to say
to their friends from other universities
that they’re going to a university which
charges the same as Oxbridge ‘darling’.
The problem now is that I’m not convinced
that as great as my course really is,
whether it really is worth £27,000 worth
of debt.
Devil’s Advocate
to advance. With ventures like the Forum
Project, Exeter has already shown the
ambition to do so; higher fees will grant
the capacity to continue.
Such ploughed-back finances can
only increase the prestige of the university,
and the funding will come from those
fully able to pay their way in the first
place. The demands in place for full fee
charging mean that significant help will
be, as it currently is, in place for those
with financial difficulties, giving everyone
qualified the chance to come here.
Charging the most does not equal
quality. Instead Exeter must now ensure
it justifies the fee raise and appeals to
prospective students in an ever more
competitive market; it’s an inevitable
transition for universities, and for Exeter
to have stated its intentions already shows
its intent to capitalise on both the greater
educational freedom, and the increased
demand for higher quality education.

10
Comment
Bye bye to the Powderham Ball
Antonia
Hawken
The fiercely large, imposing, red
“CANCELLED” which covered the
wonderfully symbolic, sun-setting
front page of Exeposé last week hardly
brought shock or mass disappointment,
probably due to the fact that most of
us hadn’t put forward £60 of our hard
earned monies to purchase a ticket. I
absolutely loved the idea of the ball
itself, and I’m sure most of the female
population of Exeter would agree that
the concept sounded promising. Who
doesn’t like an excuse to dress up and
frolic about the grounds of a castle in a
fancy dress
However, I resisted the temptation,
and although I’m all for supporting
charity in one way or another, the Powderham
Ball presented problems.
Firstly, timing. As glorious as
Exeter is, the weather is highly temperamental,
a fact proven by the ever
changing hot – cold – warm – windy
– wet – icy forecast we’ve experienced
over the last few weeks. Having an
outdoor ball in March pronounced
potential difficulties. No one wants
to be in a field or marquee suffering
from the elements. The Grad Ball at
Powderham in 2007 was cancelled due
to bad weather; warnings circulated
campus that there would be no refunds
should the same happen again. Clearly
not all publicity is good, though I must
congratulate the committee for their
imaginative attempts.
Secondly, being a student, money
is saved, scraped and delegated. With
most of us attending this year’s SSB
feeling slightly shortchanged by the
event, it’s no surprise that Powderham
failed to entice. If £38 for half naked
girls brought grumbles, £60 for the
fully clothed versions certainly wasn’t
going to bring in the numbers. Having
been in Birks last year and been
rewarded for resilience towards ongoing
building works, I’ve already been
to Powderham for a far cheaper price
through subsidisation, as have the other
460 who attended.
I’d have loved for the ball to
commence this year, to hear tales of a
fantastic night and how I’d missed out,
to maybe make me bite the bullet for
2012. Residing amongst rubble and
cranes creates need for frivolity, and
it’s a shame Powderham was denied an
opportunity to deliver.
Rosie Mann
Powderham
Committee
The biggest social event of the year
It’s back Perhaps not. As a member of
the Powderham committee I struggle to
put into words how disheartening it was
to learn that our efforts over the past
months had all gone to waste. Granted,
the controversial price of the tickets had
simply proved to be too much. A champagne
reception in the rose garden of a
medieval castle does not come cheap.
“Apparently we only get six free
drinks” was the first question I was
faced with on our launch night. Unsurprisingly
it became obvious that alcohol
was the clincher. After heated meetings
march 7 2011 Exeposé
with the Guild we learned that alcohol
sponsors were out of the question,
dispelling any hopes we’d had of an
open bar.
We bartered the prices of drinks,
haggled with the portaloo man and made
a great deal with the snazzy marquee
company. This is what goes on behind
the scenes. The ticket prices were as
such because this is simply what it costs
to make an event function.
Despite the cancellation, it was a
fantastic experience to organise the Ball.
I wonder if the concept will ever be successfully
re-launched, or if there is just
not the market for it here anymore. £60
seems high, but it would have bought
you so much more than at any other
Exeter event.
These events must start small and
grow popular. We ran before we could
walk, and we know this now. I want
to thank everyone who bought tickets.
Please do remember that essentially
the aim was to raise money for Cancer
Research UK, amongst others.
Exeter’s
unsustainable
growth
Cyan
Turan
I can’t be the only one who was left
distinctly underwhelmed by the news
that the University of Exeter is the 62 nd
fastest-growing business in Europe.
Our current investment programme is
one that only a small number of companies
could ever hope to devise, made
all the more unattainable by random
injections of cash donated by generous
alumni. But does this mean that
we occupy a fair place among these
rankings
I would say no. The rankings
are based on, among other things,
employment growth and investment,
both things which will cease to remain
at their current level once the Forum
Project is over here in Exeter. The current
level of growth is one that cannot
be sustained and for that reason, we
should not be sitting alongside companies
such as EuroAtlantic Airways,
Dreams plc and Data Connection Ltd.
These firms occupy a fair position because
they will continue to invest and
won’t be looking to make everyone
involved in their growth redundant
by the end of their current investment
programme; their growth has something
ours does not: longevity. We are
set to fall drastically from this plinth
of economic prestige and we must
be aware of the fact that were are an
anomalous statistic, set for decline
when the cuts make their move and
the money runs out. In addition, given
our unfortunate stance as the ‘lost
generation’ of Exeter students, we can
safely say that, during our time here,
the University has ingratiated itself as
a business far more than it has as an
institution for learning. Maybe we’re
the unlucky ones, but seeing corporate
suits grinning their way to the top of
the wrong kind of league table makes
me feel like we’ve been sorely misled
in our view of what a university should
be, and what, in reality, we’ve been
provided with.
Something is definitely amiss
when a university is proud of climbing
the ‘fastest-growing business’
rankings, whilst quietly hushing up
the fact that our employability and
staff/student ratio levels are ensuring
our decline in the higher education
league tables. I don’t wish to purport
a luddite-esque stance of ‘change is
bad’, but I do bemoan the fact that
our time spent here at Exeter has been
marred by a severe lack of balance.
What these statistics show is that the
fine line between investing in the
future and protecting the sanctity of
learning has not been struck.
Hopefully this trend will experience
a dramatic reversal when the
Forum Project has finished, for the
sake of the University’s future students
and the worth of our degrees.
Letters to the Editors - Send your letters to letters@exepose.com
RE: An open letter to Exeter’s IT
Department
Exeposé
We are always very pleased to get student
feedback about our service and we
recently met with Luke Appleton, author
of the article that appeared in Exeposé
Week 18. He had many constructive and
helpful comments to make.
Resilient, reliable systems are quite
rightly exactly what we all demand and
expect, and it is for this reason that all
of Exeter’s IT systems are constantly
monitored, tuned and developed.
Despite that, there will be occasional
downtimes but all such major
incidents are critically reviewed and
action taken to minimize a reoccurrence.
MyExeter portal is an example of where
we’ve had downtime recently. Following
this incident we undertook a review,
prioritised the technical work to improve
performance and reliability, and we
are now working through each of these
developments, this is as well as liaising
with Colleges to more smoothly manage
high usage times. In addition, we have
started the process to explore the next
generation of portal software to meet the
needs of our students.
We recognise the importance of
ResNet to students and this is another
area which we are exploring to see how
we can improve reliability and resilience.
We will shortly be releasing more
detailed information, but to let you
know about some recent good news on
IT provision, as part of the University’s
investment in IT, pervasive WiFi will be
installed in Queens and Amory over the
period July – September 2011. This will
be in addition to the installation of WiFi
hotspots in six other buildings, including
Hatherly, Physics and Geoffrey Pope.
We have listened to student concerns
about pc availability and have installed
over the Christmas break an additional
140 PCs into clusters across the Exeter
campuses. This takes our centrally managed
student cluster PCs up to 943.
We welcome feedback from students
and the new merged service of
Exeter IT will be meeting regularly with
the Guild and student focus groups to
better understand student requirements
and hot issues. In the meantime, any
student who wants to raise issues or
provide feedback can do so by emailing
helpdesk@exeter.ac.uk
Deborah Welland
Head of IT Operations
Student power
Exeposé
With all the protesting over the student
fee rises, it is clear to all but the most
unobservant that students are taking the
initiative in attempting to control their
own education. However, on a much
more day to day scale, this ‘right to
decide’ is becoming detrimental to the
education we are receiving.
Consider this situation that occurred
a few weeks ago on my own course.
In a maths lecture, our lecturer told us
that we were to have a midterm test this
semester instead of the usual coursework
assignments. Essentially, this was
due to students just copying each other’s
coursework and everyone getting 90%
plus – rendering the coursework useless
in determining what grade each student
deserves. There was a small debate at
this point but it was generally accepted
that this was a reasonable thing to do,
and a date was then set.
Next lecture: here is where the farce
begins.
The lecturer came out and announced
that a few students had approached
him and asked him to move
the test to a different date. The reason
They were going on holiday. If this were
right at the end of term it would appear
a fair request, however this was in week
six of the course. In the middle of term.
This proceeded to become a 20 minute
debate on whether or not the test suited
everyone, only to conclude the test
should be set on the original date, effectively
wasting half of the lecture. As
it turned out it was a measly 4 students
who had tried to get the date changed in
a lecture group of approaching 100!
What gives these ignorant few the
right to disrupt the education of the vast
majority, change how the course is run
and inconvenience a senior professor
just to run off and frolic in the sun A
select few students need to realise that
they have signed up to learn on this
course and have to adhere to the rules.
Just because they are slightly put out
does not mean they should have the
audacity to attempt to rework the entire
assessment for the course.
Jon Parkins

nominate: 7 – 17 march 2011
get your favourite lecturer recognised
e x e t e r g u i l d . c o m / t e a c h i n g a w a r d s

12
Features
Columba Achilleos-Sarll & Anna-Marie Linnell - features@exepose.com
march 7 2011 Exeposé
Love thy neighbour
Samuel Lambert poses the question: is English society really out of the homophobic closet
FLYERS recently appeared near
Shoreditch, East London, outside a
school and on a High Street. They
carried the message “Arise and warn.
Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe
in punishment.”
To take this statement at its face
value would be a mistake, there is no
evidence that any particular religious
group is behind this, and the deliberate
inclusion of “Allah” does little to
qualify this. Furthermore, tensions in
the East London community are not
restricted to religion and other motivations
should not be overlooked.
We must attempt as a society to
understand and prevent the cause of
such ill-feeling en masse. To focus too
closely on the tension between homosexuality
and religion would be neither
productive nor successful and ignorant
of the real worry here. What is the motivation
of such strong hatred and how
can society work with the necessary
authorities to prevent it taking hold
The decision to flyer outside a
school bears strong significance. During
school years an individual will be
at their most susceptible to influence;
the information they are given can potentially
ingrain beliefs that will follow
them through life. It is often assumed
that younger generations are becoming
more accepting, but society should not
become complacent and rest on its laurels.
To do so could lead to generations
where a significant number of people
are led into a way of thinking that is
derived more from propaganda than
individual judgment.
The recent BBC3 documentary
‘The World’s Worst Place to be Gay’,
presented by Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills,
was an exposé of rising homophobic
attitudes in Uganda. Much of the content
was shocking, as could be expected.
The most sobering part of the programme,
though, was Mills’ interview
with a group of youths. The young
Ugandans were entirely against homosexuality
in their country and saw it as
a by-product of Western influence, and
therefore outside their own culture. In
pushing members of their own society
into a different ‘culture’ they distance
themselves from them and avoid any
sense of guilt in the hatred in which
they participate.
Making the discriminated part of
an ‘other’ grouping unifies the suppressors
and is a method that was
evident in other sociological divides,
recent and past. When asked to justify
their views, the young Ugandans did
not hide their influence, from the people
they look up to, such as parents,
teachers and the church. They were
vague when identifying exactly what
tells them homosexuality is wrong, a
somewhat ironic uncertainty from a
crowd which is so fixated on one line
of argument.
These young Ugandan people have
been taught to believe views so strong
they do not even question their source.
If this interview could have been reasoned
as an insight into the future,
it is little wonder that Mills was left
frustrated and disappointed as a result
of the interview. It shows exactly the
complacency and expectation we must
not have in the upcoming generations.
In the London community affected
by the flyers, eight friends set out to
either destroy or deface them. They instead
left the messages “love” or “help
yourself to love” and have little interest
in pointing the blame to any particular
religious group. Their choice to
ignore the obvious direction from the
message is exactly the attitude which
prevents the hatred intended; they realise
they are unlikely to locate the
people responsible and do not make
broad assumptions of the groups responsible.
While their blameless attitude prevents
the sort of hatred these messages
try to ensure, their decision to retaliate
is not ideal. There are the necessary
bodies within the police, such as Gay
Liaison Officers, who communicate
with the community. The police should
be trusted to find those responsible and
deal with situations such as this flyer
posting. However, such a relationship
works only with mutual respect and
the community should, in turn, expect
the police to make clear how they are
dealing with incidents.
Sufficient channels of communication
exist today, with multi-media
platforms, which are essential to inform
societies and build trust between
departments of authority and the populace.
Once suspects are identified,
work can begin to understand their
motivation and, in turn, move towards
the prevention of future incidents.
Only then will we be able to continue
progress towards a stronger, more unified
society.
Short and all too sweet
James Crouch discusses the life, and death, of Aaron Porter’s leadership of the National Union of Students.
SUFFERING abuse and criticism from
all sides, leader of the National Union of
Students, Aaron Porter is standing down
from his position. He will leave behind a
legacy of controversy, along with one simple
question: was his leadership really the
failure that many now will assume it has
been
The reaction of many NUS members,
if not the vocal ones, to his departure
seems to be “good riddance.” Once the
fee increases were signed, it appears, so
was Aaron Porter’s death warrant. Many
now heckle him on sight. In their eyes, he
failed. Full stop.
Although I admit that Porter appears
to be greasier than one well-known metaphoric
pole, let’s not consign him to the
dustbin of political history yet. There’s actually
much to be said for him.
For a start, Porter was key to getting
the Liberal Democrats to sign a promise
to not raise tuition fees (back when Clegg
was still every student’s political pin up).
Yes, I know, what good did that do anyone
But every single shout of “traitors”
and “back-stabbers” now thrown at the
Lib Dems relies on this piece of paper for
justification. The written promise has been
an effective and deadly sledgehammer to
knock the Coalition sideways ever since
the fees issue was raised.
You could argue that Porter found
the rush of activism overwhelming and
that he became a backseat driver once the
large-scale campaign got under way. But
much of this criticism has more of a basis
in understandably frustration than in truth.
Some parts of the student protests were, to
say the least, unedifying, to say the worst:
horrifying. The violence and vandalism
were rightly condemned by the NUS leader.
Yet for the minority of students who
seemed to think that the ends of the protest
justified any means, Porter’s reluctance to
support violence was seen as a betrayal or
a lack of support for the cause. In short,
some of his critics appear to be trained in
the “you’re-either-with-us-or-against-us”
school of thought.
If Porter had suggested “Fine, let’s
smash up the Treasury building... the NUS
can deal with that later” the whole student
campaign could have been written
off by the Government as organised by
law breakers and vandals. The campaign
would not just have lost ‘the fight’, as it
has done, it would have lost the moral high
ground too! Instead, Porter did not let the
NUS become inextricably linked with violence
and so it remained a legitimate organization
in many peoples’ eyes.
Nevertheless, once the initial ‘fight’
was lost, and the fees increase was passed
through Parliament, the knives were truly
out. Porter is vilified now for the simple
fact he couldn’t stop the Government from
getting its legislation through. According
to some people, the Government’s success
was due to a lacklustre campaign by Porter.
But, short of invading the chamber and
marching the MPs down the right lobby,
what more could he have done His job
was to mobilise public opinion and that’s
what he did.
I think the NUS is now taking the right
steps by admitting that there is a new phase
in this fight – the fees might be here, but
universities have yet to deliver their side of
the bargain. I’m somewhat ambivalent to
the fees rise itself, as it won’t really affect
me. But, now this has been put in place,
I care that universities don’t just carry on
as normal while their students’ debt triples.
Being proactive and doing what they
actually can to deliver better services for
students is a far more sensible option than
just banging on about the fees rise that will
now come, whether we like it or not.
This appears to be Aaron Porter’s
view too, though he’ll take stick for it. One
thing is for certain: a new stage has come
for Higher Education and, to Porter’s credit,
he has recognised it. Despite my defence
of his actions, I’m not about to beg him to
stay. The past few months have been internally
traumatic for the NUS, and Porter
will always be linked with that. Hopefully
the anger and resentment within the student
body towards its own leadership will
go with him. Because this new fight for
higher standards will be lost as well if the
boil is not lanced and the National Union
of Students cannot get past this exciting, if
challenging, episode in its history.

Exeposé week twenty 13
Features
Media and the Middle East
Social networking tools have played a vital part in the political uprisings in the Middle East, Rob Sturgeon
analyses its success and its limits.
Iran’s 2009 election protests will be
remembered for one reason. Political
cartoons of the time portrayed the weapons
of war, the guns of violent revolution
and bloodshed, replaced with the
relatively recent inventions of mobile
phones, social networking and blogs.
When Iran’s leadership denied
journalists access to the country, Twitter
brought a flood of images from actual
Iranian citizens. The voices of the
people were not silenced. In fact they
could speak more than ever. We saw
protesters draped in that certain shade
of green, the symbol of freedom and
democracy that spread through the
crowds and rallied the people against
the established theocracy. This was a
‘Twitter Revolution’, perhaps one of
the world’s first, where the power of
technology could no longer be ignored.
The full term for Facebook, Twitter
and other such sites is really that of ‘social
networking tools’. This is perhaps
the most important way to recognise
their influence. When violence erupted
in Bahrain, I was able to witness the
atrocities on YouTube. I watched in
horror as a humble march against the
military was halted in a few seconds
of gunfire. When Mubarak’s ‘security’
forces ran through a crowd at 50mph
without slowing down, I was able
to see the human cost of democracy.
Through the tools of the social network,
we can gather information from
ground level, before the propaganda
of corrupt governments misleads us.
That is the power of technology today;
it can change our whole worldview.
Of course, it is easy to get carried
away. Social networking tools can distort
events, such as when a protest was
estimated at 700,000 strong on Twitter,
a number which later turned out to
be 7,000. But unlike mainstream news
organisations, the facts cannot always
be checked. When foreign journalists
are forbidden, Twitter can be our only
source. Where tyranny has all but extinguished
the free speech of its citizens,
blogs can be a solitary candle in the dark.
As the Middle East now bursts into a
far more widespread protest movement,
one which threatens to redefine the political
landscape of the future, people
power is at the heart of the internet news
cycle. Though countless newsreaders
and correspondents now tweet in varying
levels of formality, the real insight
still comes from that raw imagery.
Perhaps the most potent example
to my mind is the images from Egypt,
where Christian protesters protected
Muslims during their prayers. How
much more can we reflect the good nature
of these people than their mobilisation
for unity These powerful images
symbolise democracy from the ground
up, a mob that looks after its own without
overall authority. They come not
from journalists but from normal people.
The Egyptian people were the true
heroes of those protests, and the people
of Iran, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen,
Egypt and Libya are the true heroes of
today. These protests would never have
got off the ground without the power of
real-life activism. Without people taking
to the streets, rebelling against the
problems they saw, there never would
have been protests at all. This is why
it is important to study not just what
technology is being used but how it is
being used, what it is being used to convey,
and the human stories that drive it.
Though a Western blogger, I make
it the purpose of my blog to further
the voices of these people. Western
bloggers are obliged to raise awareness,
donate to relief funds and pledge
their support. They are not, however,
obliged to centre the discussion
on themselves or their technology.
I cannot know what it was like
in Benghazi, the day when 35 people
were killed in a hail of government
bullets. I can draw upon the troubled
emotions that it stirs in me and the
trusted sources of journalists and Middle
East experts, but I cannot speak
for the people themselves. Now that
they can speak, it is vital that we listen.
It is not social networking that
will win the battle for greater democratic
representation in Arab nations.
Only action, protest and global pressure
can bring down a government.
However, these tools can provide insights
into the experiences of victims,
the way these differ from their dictators’
frankly laughable cover stories.
Before the days of ‘Twitter Revolutions’,
we might have believed Colonel
Gaddafi’s insistence that his people were
united. The challenge is getting the right
balance. We in the West can tweet our
support, but until we’re raising money
to help radicals on the frontline, we are
but spectators. If we truly care we can
do more than tweet, we can mobilise.
Joshua Hughes looks at the importance of Al Jazeera and the changing face of reporting in the Middle East.
THE protests in the Middle East are turning
out to be significant for the Al Jazeera
news network. Although it played a crucial
role in reporting the crises to Arabic
populations when the state-run networks
failed to recognise any discontent, more
significantly Al Jazeera gained global
recognition for reporting their interpretation
of events.
The Al Jazeera news channel, meaning
‘the island’, was founded in 1996 by
the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa, in order to provide a reputable
source of news for Arabic speakers that
originated from the Middle East. The
channel proved highly influential in the
region because it was willing to discuss
issues that other state-run outlets or global
networks would not consider running.
As an organisation, it prides itself on
covering both sides of an event, which
is encompassed in its motto, “Opinion...
and the other opinion”. And yet some
states considered Al Jazeera to be a threat
to their own national security.
Following the terrorist attacks of
September 11 2001 people in the West
became aware of Al Jazeera. For some,
Al Jazeera was a manifestation of the
anti-Western sentiment felt in the Middle
East. They could not understand why
this channel was giving airtime to an
organisation orchestrating mass murder.
However, Al Jazeera argued that having
been given these recordings, they would
help the public understand the aims of Al
Qaeda and thus provide clarity.
Western sentiment felt against Al
Jazeera reached its peak during Operation
Iraqi Freedom in 2003. The reporting of
events and, in particular, the broadcasting
of images of dead British and American
soldiers shocked western governments
wary of negative public opinion. Their
reporting went beyond the established
norms which attracted comment from
other media outlets. Fox News, on organisation
not noted for its editorial impartiality,
was highly critical, and accused Al
Jazeera of paying for attacks on servicemen
in order to provide coverage. Such
scorn was not forgotten.
The expansion of the network culminated
in the establishment of an English
service, which began broadcasting in November
2006. Having an English channel
allowed them to re-define their image in
the West by providing high quality coverage
of international affairs, and by scrutinising
the very Western media outlets that
scrutinised them.
One show in particular, The Listening
Post analyses the Western media agenda
and is highly critical of Fox’s coverage
of foreign affairs, a battle which is constantly
evolving. Within the last week,
Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly accused
Al Jazeera of both creating anger within
the Middle East and making a living by
blaming most problems in the Middle
East on the United States of America and
Israel.
Anger among the Middle Eastern
public has probably been fuelled by Al
Jazeera, but what O’Reilly’s criticisms
ignore is that Al Jazeera has fuelled anger
because it was the only news organisation
to comprehensively cover the protests
from the offset in Tunisia. Other news
organisations failed to understand the
significance of the protests in light of the
media repression, unemployment and a
lack of political freedoms that aggravated
the young populations.
The omnipresence of a reputable
Arabic news broadcaster throughout the
protests is highly significant and something
that hasn’t been acknowledged by
Western media outlets. The increased use
of social media is of course important, but
does not help explain why Western governments
are standing at the periphery of
events. The presence of Al Jazeera meant
that Arab dictators could not blame outside
Western influences when their own
publics were watching a Qatari-funded
news channel.
President Mubarak realised the importance
of the network and accused
Qatar of trying to influence his country.
Colonel Gaddafi, however, has been unable
to find an explanation for protestors.
Initially he blamed ‘foreign dogs’, but
has since blamed Al Qaeda for feeding
narcotics to protestors. Al Jazeera has
matured as an organisation because it has
not only discussed changes in the Middle
East, but has become part of them.
Equally, Western audiences have
come to rely upon Al Jazeera for coverage
of the crises and in the process have
lost their views of the network conceived
after September 11 2001. But with an increasing
influence in global affairs, the
network is bound to come under greater
scrutiny.
Recent reports into torture in West Papua
and over-zealous legal punishments
in Saudi Arabia have been removed after
pressure from the Indonesian and Saudi
Arabian governments. Al Jazeera insists
they have editorial control but according
to a leaked US diplomatic cable from July
2009, the network still relies on funding
from the Qatari government.
Al Jazeera is allowed to be free and
open, however, it can prove to be a useful
diplomatic tool for Qatar, which poses a
dilemma for the Qatari leadership. If protests
do spread to Qatar, will the Government
prevent Al Jazeera covering events,
and therefore lose the integrity and diplomatic
leverage that Al Jazeera provides
the Qatari Government

14
Features
march 7 2011 Exeposé
Devastation strikes Christchurch, what next
Emily Lunn discusses the New Zealand Government’s shortcomings in dealing with the earthquake.
IT was only two months ago that I was
sitting in the sunshine outside a cafe
in Christchurch, talking to the waitress
about the regular aftershocks from the
September earthquake. She joked that
they had become a tourist attraction.
While some tourists cancelled their
trips to Christchurch, others were eager
to experience a (small) aftershock.
I must admit that despite the
“New Zealand is not
nicknamed ‘the shaky isles’
for nothing. The country
lies at the Southern end of
the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’,
and volcanic cones feature
in the scenery of the North
Island”
waitress’ jokes, I felt slightly uneasy.
The aftershocks, the scaffolding
around several unstable buildings,
and the damaged Cathedral window,
made me wonder if I would have an
unwanted holiday experience.
New Zealand is not nicknamed ‘the
Shakey Isles’ for nothing. The country
lies at the Southern end of the Pacific
‘Ring of Fire,’ and volcanic cones
feature in the scenery of the North
Island. The islands also lie above the
collision of two tectonic plates, the
Pacific and the Indo-Australian. As
the relaxed attitude of the waitress
suggested, small aftershocks are
common. There are more than 14,000
quakes a year, yet only about 20 have
a magnitude greater than 5.0 and most
are not even felt.
Before the September earthquake,
the council were considering a proposal
that would make all older buildings
fully earthquake proof in 30 years
time, and if they weren’t, the building
would face closure. This was priced at
NZ$500 million, and consequently was
unpopular. However, it seems small
compared to the huge costs the country
now faces in order to pay for both
quakes. The Government has to now
decide how to rebuild the city as safely
and affordably as possible. Even with
safety precautions, however, it seems
inevitable that the seismic activity that
provides a lot of New Zealand’s beauty
must also cause destruction.
It is clear that a sense of
vulnerability has returned to the
residents of Christchurch. How best
to protect New Zealanders from future
earthquakes is a complicated decision
that the authorities will now have to
face.
Christchurch has featured regularly
in the news since the earthquake on
September 4, which had a magnitude
of 7.0, and an epicentre 55km northwest
of Christchurch. Although
it caused widespread damage to
buildings and roads, there were no
fatalities and the city was in the
process of stabilising and demolishing
damaged buildings. Further damage
was caused by an aftershock of 4.9
Do something funny for money
Sophie Duncan discusses the celebrity-charity relationship that exists within the saga of Comic Relief.
which rattled the city on Boxing Day,
smashing window displays and calling
a halt to the post- Christmas sales. This
was much closer to the city than the
September earthquake, within 5km of
Christchurch and causing $3 billion
worth of damage.
The earthquake, however,
that struck on February 22 was
comparatively shallow. It was only 5km
deep, and 10km from Christchurch.
It had a magnitude of 6.3, with the
current death toll reaching 148, with
around 50 people still missing. The
City Mayor, Bob Parker, claims
that the spirits of the rescue workers
are “remarkably good,” despite the
aftershocks and deteriorating weather
that threatens their efforts.
Rescue workers from eight
different nations continue to work,
although the likelihood of anyone
being found alive seems increasingly
remote. The city is now beginning to
bury its dead. The first service was
held on Monday 28 for five-month-old
Baxtor Gowland, the youngest victim
so far.
However, amongst the devastation,
there are stories of resilience. I was
particularly touched by the story of
a young woman who was rescued
from her collapsed office block in
time to hobble up the aisle three
days later. New Zealanders appear
to be resilient people with a history
of rebuilding. When a powerful
earthquake obliterated the city of
Napier in 1931, the entire city was
rebuilt. It now attracts many tourists
as an embodiment of the Art Deco
movement. It has been estimated that
a third of the buildings at the centre
of Christchurch need demolishing.
As New Zealanders begin to mourn
their dead, there is no doubt that the
recovery of this city will be a long
and difficult process. Although the
Cathedral Spire lies crumbled in the
square, I have faith that Christchurch,
like Napier, will rise again.
THE celebrity-charity relationship is
admired by some, detested by others.
The Haitian earthquake is a key example
of this; the immediate aftermath saw
A-listers ‘doing their bit’ for those hit
hardest. This, many would argue, was
nothing but a publicity stunt, where
attention-seeking celebrities adopted an
appearance of concern, while thinking
nothing of the long term effects. These
often are: indefinite homelessness; a
shortage of resources and families torn
apart and left in disrepair. While the
surge of air-brushed compassion died
down in a matter of months, what about
the consequences that, over a year
after the earthquake struck, continue to
define life for Haitian citizens
March 18 is Red Nose Day.
Every other year, if we choose, we
tune in to an array of comic sketches
and performances. Those who have
ever done so will be familiar with
the temptation, when the comedy is
interrupted by sincerity in the form of
a short film about the people in need of
Comic Relief’s help, to nip to the loo
or put the kettle on. With this comes
the oh-so-simple text to the ‘number on
the screen’ in order to be able to say,
without guilt, “I’ve donated.” This is
due less to our lack of benevolence as
individuals than the fact that we have
become desensitised to images of
poverty and struggle. Televised appeals
of the ‘This is [insert name here]’ nature
blend into one, and instinct tells us that
it is enough to donate. It’s alright,
the money goes towards a good cause
even if we do pay minimal attention to
the story placed in front of us - is our
general mind set.
Comic Relief was launched from
a refugee camp in Sudan on Christmas
Day, 1985, live on BBC One. At
the time, there was a devastating
famine in Ethiopia. The idea was to
bring together much-loved British
comedians to raise money through
making the public laugh. Since then,
12 Red Nose Days have raised more
than £400 million, which has been
used to tackle the broader needs of the
poor and disadvantaged at home and
abroad through immediate aid, as well
as sustained education about HIV and
AIDS. Sport Relief was launched in
December 2001. Yet has the emphasis
of Red Nose Day shifted from charity
to celebrity
“The Comic Relief website
states, ‘Our mission is to drive
positive change through the
power of entertainment’ ”
The Comic Relief website states,
“Our mission is to drive positive change
through the power of entertainment.”
Past Red Nose Days have indeed
produced some comic gems, not least
Peter Kay’s reproduction of ‘Is this
the way to Amarillo’ In 2009, the bar
was raised by the successful climbing
of Mount Kilimanjaro by celebrities
including Gary Barlow, Fearne Cotton
and Chris Moyles. This year, Lorraine
Kelly and Dermot O’Leary were part
of a group to complete a desert trek of
100km in Kenya. The public were able
to follow the physical and emotional
strain the celebrities were put underentertainment
not unlike that of an ‘I’m
a Celebrity’-esque reality show.
However, credit where credit is
due as, when spoken to live on Radio
One as they came to the end of their
journey, talk focused on the half a
million pounds the celebrity trekkers
had raised. Comic Relief, therefore,
positions charitable motives at the
forefront of what is an entertainmentorientated
event, and admirably so.
While some celebrities’ dedication
is short-lived and limited to voiceovers
or one-off singles, there are those
whose commitment is unrelenting,
discrete and worthy. Elton John’s
tireless work through the Elton John
AIDS Foundation is a prime example
of devotion to a cause away from the
public eye.
Meanwhile, although Comic Relief
may have employed methods akin to
those of the most popular reality TV
shows, certain elements render these
two forms of the entertainment world
apart. Insect for breakfast becomes
far more appealing when assigned an
attractive wage. No such payment
exists for the celebrities who commit to
Comic Relief’s challenges.
Moreover, to climb Kilimanjaro
or to walk 100km across the desert
requires perseverance, self-motivation
and strength of mind. While modern
culture has led to charity, like so
many other things, revolving around
celebrities, you cannot argue with its
effectiveness, nor can you question- as
far as Comic Relief is concerned - the
fact that stars are stimulated by a desire
to make a difference to other people’s
lives as opposed to their own.

Exeposé week twenty 15
Features
Much ado about nothing or a right royal treat
Etty Eastwood on why Kate and Will are set for crowning glory and Natasha Gilborson on why it might all
be a right Royal let down.
WHEN thousands of people gathered
to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton
return to the University of St.
Andrews last Friday, it was obvious that
Royal Wedding fever had wholeheartedly
gripped the nation.
With the wedding only two months
away, the media hype surrounding the
couple is increasing, as more details are
released. Rumours are circulating about
the design of Kate’s dress, which celebrities
have been invited and where the
couple will honeymoon. Whatever the
outcome, I will definitely be amongst
one of those who will go all out to celebrate.
Royal Wedding street party anyone
Yes please!
Of course, it’s not just the glitz and
glamour that makes this such a momentous
event. The Royal Wedding is
something of which we, as a country,
should be proud. The British monarchy
originated in the ninth century and is
part of our national identity. As Prince
William is second in line to the throne,
Kate is potentially going to become a
future Queen, making this marriage an
important development in the history of
the Royal Family. And, without doubt,
the Royal couple are better role models
than some current celebrities.
For many, when the ceremony is
held at Westminster Abbey, it will bring
back memories of Princess Diana and
all she achieved for the country. All
around the world, people will be watching
Britain on April 29. The wedding
is a way of proving that Britain isn’t
just about underage drinking, sunburnt
tourists and processed junk food. We
need to preserve our nation’s reputation
and confirm that the monarchy is
still a significant part of our culture.
Prince William’s Private Secretary,
Mr. Lowther-Pinkerton, has
described the upcoming
occasion as, “a classic
example of what Britain
does best.”
So even though
the wedding will cost
the taxpayer money,
isn’t it worth it Surveys
from VisitBritain
have shown that the
event will vastly increase
the number of
tourists visiting Britain
this year, which
will somewhat boost
the economy. Either
way, if the excitement
is simply a bit much for
you, just ignore the papers and
don’t complain. After all, who
doesn’t want an extra bank
holiday
ETTY EASTWOOD
FOR the past few weeks, Prince William
and Kate Middleton’s wedding has been
on everyone’s minds. The Roald Dahl
style ‘Golden Tickets,’ which will invite
100 randomly chosen individuals
to the couple’s special day,
have even got the nation checking
their post every morning.
Yet the reams of magazine
articles, radio references and
TV news updates are starting
to drive me slightly crazy. The
date has become so
deeply engrained in my
mind that all of my upcoming
deadlines have
begun to all blur into
one big date: April 29.
My tutors may well get
a shock if I hand my essays
in six weeks late,
or turn up to sit my exams
quite so early!
The wedding,
which David Cameron
has claimed will be a
“happy and momentous
occasion for all,”
will ironically be like
all other celebrity weddings
and certainly isn’t
the ‘event of the year’
for me. I think that the
couple’s day should be
private and meaningful, but instead it
seems to have been consumed by colloquial
and meaningless chatter about
who will be attending and who will wear
what. There is doubt in my mind whether
this ‘spectacular wedding’ really will
be as great as its build up. The idea of
British-ness is no longer a sturdy concept
for most people. Our society seems
to be far more driven by pluralism and
celebrity culture now than by the monarchy.
It makes me wonder: should I even
be interested at all
Both parents will be sharing the
main costs but it is the taxpayer who will
pay the estimated £20 million security
price tag. It seems unfair that it is the ordinary
citizen who will pick up this bill.
Others argue that such an extravagant
ceremony should not take place in such
hard economic times at all; surely having
1,900 guests is a little extreme
Who knows, perhaps I am just jealous
- I would quite like 1,900 people
to turn up to a wedding of mine. Either
way, whether we’re for or against the
Royal Wedding, we all know that we’ll
keep the date free and flick on our television
sets. If a golden ticket actually
arrived through my door, I’m not saying
I wouldn’t go along.
NATASHA GILBORSON
Can’t cut this
Maxim Edwards reflects on the massive library cuts soon to sweep across Britain.
IT would be a pity, a great irony, even
a source of future regret were students
not to be at the forefront of an emerging
onslaught to protect that muchmaligned
and often ignored of public
institutions - the library.
Over the past two weeks library
cuts in Somerset and Gloucestershire
have been announced, whilst further
afield the Isle of Wight stands to lose
nine of its 11 public libraries. So far, little
has been heard from Exeter’s press
about possible library closures, but at
this point to expect the worst is probably
more realistic than cynical.
“Higher education is a right, not a
privilege.” This was one of the most
common slogans in the anti-cuts protests,
but I remain to be convinced that
students will be equally vocal when
it comes to defending education at a
grassroots level.
The Coalition has recently been
forced to make a humiliating policy U-
turn, after the public rallied to defend
the Forestry Commission from changes.
Equal pressure was probably exerted,
though, by Dave’s chums from the
Countryside Alliance around the dinner
party table. I fear that those who influence
the Coalition will not have quite
the same emotional attachment to those
libraries in deprived areas of cities,
such as London or Birmingham.
The motivation for library closures
cannot be wholly financial. Those who
stand to profit financially from what is
essentially a large scale commercialisation
of access to literature should, in
theory, be rubbing their hands together
in a pantomime of greed. So when even
former director of Waterstones, Tim
Coates, has opposed library closures,
you know the outrage is genuine.
In the mind of that vindictive
gnome of a man, Eric Pickles, it appears
that public libraries are more of
a financial drain than the millions of
pounds enjoyed in tax breaks for the
super-wealthy, like Arcadia Group
magnate Philip Green. But a smaller
state with smaller services will not necessarily
lead to a ‘bigger society’.
In order to replace one of the largest
public services in the country,
thousands of volunteers with no other
commitment, no work and no financial
burdens are going to be needed to invest
hours of their lives. But where exactly
are these legions of volunteers going to
come from As the author Philip Pullman
wrote in his passionate polemic on
the subject: “the Big Society [...] must
be big to contain so many volunteers.”
Not only is the assumption that new
volunteers will be able to do this deeply
insulting for the supposedly easy-to-replace
librarians, but it also fundamentally
misses the point of the societal
value of libraries. Libraries are often
found in deprived areas of cities with
pronounced financial and social problems,
where poorer families will never
be able to buy all the books they need to
satisfy an avid young reader. They also
serve to help recent immigrants attain
proficiency in English. Yet a third of
London’s libraries are threatened with
closure.
Libraries are where funding is
needed more than ever, so
that experienced professionals
can work to help those
unfortunates who are left
out of Britain’s ‘immense’
society. Cameron’s description
of a “broken
Britain” will become a
self-fulfilling prophecy if
the dismal message of library
closures tells those
in deprived areas that the
state has ceased to care
about their communities.
Interestingly, the scale of
planned major library cuts
in Cameron’s constituency
of Witney is fairly
modest, as once again -
you guessed it - we’re all
in this together!
The best way to defend
libraries is to use
them, to show that they
do have a revered place
and prove that the job of
a librarian is more than
simply a volunteer’s hobby.
When students took to the streets
last year against tuition fee rises it was
a perfect example of a genuine big society,
with people caring about the fate of
higher education in England. This issue
is above cheap political point scoring.
If university students such as us
remain indifferent in our luminous orange
library and have nothing
to say on an issue like this,
then these are sad times
indeed. Register for
a Devon library card and show that,
contrary to public opinion, students
don’t drop their placards and banners
when the issues stop affecting universities.
Gown does care about town.
At the very least, to defend access
to libraries could help the next generation
of young readers spell the word
‘apathy’ in the future. They might well
need it when they look back at 2011 in
ten or twenty years’ time.

16
Lifestyle
Laura Le Brocq & Clare Mullins - lifestyle@exepose.com
After a fashion - or decades of it
Alice Gibson casts an eye over the trends that are once more making a comeback this Spring/Summer.
AS I write, London Fashion Week
is already looking forward to next
winter, but let’s not get ahead of
ourselves, it is only March and
right now fashion is having
a decidedly nostalgic
moment. Spring/
Summer 2011 brings
with it a celebration of
trends that are synonymous
with the 50s, 60s, 70s and
beyond. It’s time for us to
choose a decade…
Flirty 50s
A mixture of
Audrey Hepburn elegance
with an offbeat preppy
twist makes the 50s trend a
hard one to beat. Go for nipped
in dresses, chintzy print blouses
teamed with wide legged trousers
and preppy blazers. Update your
bag collection with a portfolio
bag trimmed in a popping colour.
LOOK! High fashion on the High Street
Stephanie Marston reviews The Look Fashion Show as it forecasts the summer trends.
WHERE would you find Marina Diamandis,
Olivia Palermo, and Shayne
Ward in the same room At the LOOK
fashion show, of course! Whilst many
fashionistas were preparing for the designer
shows of the ever hectic London
Fashion Week, LOOK magazine unofficially
kicked off the week with a celebrity
filled fashion show dedicated entirely
to high-street spring/summer fashion.
The morning of Friday February 18
saw me boarding an early train to London
in order to make my way over to
Bloomsbury Square for the show. This
is only the third LOOK show after it began
last year, but it has become incredibly
popular and tickets are notoriously
hard to get hold of because they are only
For guys, a distinct nod to heritage
designs will act as a gentleman’s
response to a ladylike trend. Try Jack
Wills for preppy blazers and shirts to
wear with navy cotton chinos.
Swinging 60s
Embrace the 60s vibe with
bright, bold colours. Try Topshop’s
‘Bright Spark’ range for a
wonderful collection of stand out
from the crowd designs. The ‘It’
colour right now is what the
fashionistas are calling ‘tangerine’…
basically, orange. At
risk of resembling a citrus
fruit I would suggest using
this as an accent colour
perhaps with a bag or
pair of shoes.
Try using other eye
popping colours like hot
pink or turquoise to create
a colour explosion as we head towards
brighter days. If you dare,
distributed via competitions and giveaways.
It is easy to see why the show attracts
so many; guests are greeted with
an unlimited supply of complimentary
champagne and canapés (from Marks
and Spencer) and can mingle amongst
both celebrities and industry professionals.
There is also a photo booth where
you can dress up (always a bonus) and
have a snap taken for free.
The show opened its doors at 4pm
for guests to take their seats and inspect
their goody bags. The contents
included a bag from H&M, sunglasses
from Marks and Spencer, hair products
from Label M, a scarf from New Look,
and countless beauty products. I could
update your make-up bag with bright
lipstick and brash eye shadows…
guaranteed to get you noticed.
Boys can embrace the
brights too. Head to H&M
and Topman for a colour fix
that will rival the girls.
have gone home a very happy lady at
this point, but the day was only just getting
started. The catwalk was about to
host collections from Dorothy Perkins,
French Connection, H&M, Mango,
Marks and Spencer, Monsoon, New
Look, River Island, Uniqlo, and Warehouse.
New Look started the show with
a collection concentrating on vibrant
colour blocking, a key trend for spring/
summer 2011. There was an special focus
on hot pinks, oranges, and cerise
which also cropped up in the River Island
and H&M collections
Dorothy Perkins was next up with a
collection heavily influenced by bright
floral prints and dainty summer dresses
Spirited 70s
It’s time to embrace
your inner hippy with this
trend. Mix crisp whites and
blues with broderie anglaise
swing tops, cute pinafores and
floppy straw hats. Remember
with this era that floral
is your friend and you
won’t go wrong. To take
the 70s look to the next
level think gypsy rocker
(not gypsy bride) and wear
crocheted hot pants, fringing
and ponchos…perhaps not
all at once though!
Guys should imagine crawling
out of a tent at an old
style festival. Throw on
mismatched checks,
distressed denim and
this season’s essential
desert boots.
Looking on trend
has never been so
easy.
And Beyond
If looking
back isn’t your thing then opt for
futuristic simplicity; what Vogue is calling
‘clinical elegance’. Sports inspired
finishes and luxe high tech fabrics make
for a look that is stark, stylish and precise.
For the boys there is a new
denim innovation;
the strangely
named carrot
f i t
which are always popular in spring. River
Island also took this as inspiration but
created more vintage looking pieces.
After a couple of uninspiring collections
from Uniqlo and Monsoon, Marks
and Spencer had a surprisingly wearable
collection dominated by a minimalist
nude, coffee, and cream colour palette
which was also to be seen in the FCUK
collection; this minimalism is an ideal
alternative to the bright colour blocking
trend if it’s not your thing. Next up was
H&M whose collection was dominated
by pastel colours which are always synonymous
with spring.
Blouses were the next key feature in
the following collections by Mango and
Next which are ideal transitional pieces
march 7 2011 Exeposé
jeans. Available in Topman they are loose
on the hips and thighs but narrow on the
ankle.
Not only
are these the
perfect way
to stay ahead
style wise
but they’re
also much
more flattering
and easier to
pull off than
the standard
skinny
jeans.
From left: ASOS flower print dress, £52.
Topshop blue suede sandals, £75. Topshop
terracotta sports style holdall, £40.
River Island beige desert boots, £29.99.
Topshop fringed top, £20.
and another big trend this season.
The final brands to showcase their
collections were Warehouse, River Island,
and FCUK who all included the
jumpsuit as the final key trend for this
spring/summer 2011. It is the blue jumpsuit
in particular. There was time for a
post-catwalk bash after the show with
complimentary mojitos and wine being
offered at the bar, giving guests the opportunity
to discuss the collections.
The LOOK show was great for
showing the biggest trends this season -
bright colour blocking, florals, blouses,
and jumpsuits - and what is best is
that not only are these collections more
affordable for student budgets, but they
are ready to buy in stores now.
Hot Pink at the New Look show. Colour Blocking at River Island. Vintage inspired River Island. Summer blouses at Mango. French Connection’s jumpsuit.

Exeposé week twenty
“This week I’ve been stressing about...”
Lifestyle’s columnist, Zoe Dickens, writes
about work experience placements and the
difficult art of the interview.
Campus Style
OUR roving photographer and
Lifestyle team bring you the best
style on campus!
[Left]
Name: Anande Hytmiah
Studying: Law, 2nd year.
What do you think of the University
charging £9,000 a year
“I don’t mind that much as it won’t
affect me, but my brother will be
going to university soon so I’m
[Centre] still worried for him.”
Name:
Studying: [Centre, left]
What Name: she’s Luisa wearing: West
Studying: Spanish and Film Studies,
4th year.
Do you think your degree is
worth £9,000
“I don’t think anything’s worth
£9,000.”
IT seems that, after racking up nine
weeks’ worth of work experience at
local and national businesses, newspapers,
magazines and PR companies
I finally qualify for that level of work
experience placement that requires an
interview. After sending out a batch of
CVs in January (if you’re after anything
creative/media related the University
of the Arts website is a godsend),
I, much to my surprise, received
an unprecedented amount of interview
offers.
Of course, many of these I couldn’t
attend because, although I am expected
to have ‘communication and writing
skills to a very high standard’, it
seems that my potential employers
were unable to read the part of my
email which clearly stated I was only
available during the Easter and Summer
periods. Such is life.
Finally, two weeks ago, I was offered
an interview with a fashion publishing
company that I could actually
attend. However, as the initial excitement
wore off, it dawned on me what
this actually meant. An interview. I
don’t do interviews. In fact, I don’t
do any form of communication that
doesn’t involve a keyboard. Calling
my own grandmother scares me. I have
a severe phobia of awkward silences
and usually get myself so flustered
that my sentences become one tangled
mess of word vomit.
Whilst working at a PR company I
was forced to call (a lot of) journalists
to try and sell them stories – I emerged
from the office that day a nervous, gibbering
wreck and that was only making
phone calls. I can only take solace
in the fact that, as the frequent debate
that rages in my house over whose turn
it is to call Domino’s this time tells me,
I am not the only one.
I have had relatively little experience
with interviews and perhaps this
is where my fear comes from – not so
much fear of interviews as fear of the
unknown. This is also possibly the reason
why I have no trouble answering
the phone but hate making phone calls,
especially to strangers.
“I don’t do interviews.
In fact, I don’t
do any form of
communication that
doesn’t involve a
keyboard. Calling my
own grandmother
scares me ”
In my entire life I have only been
to four interviews. The first three - one
for a job I didn’t want, one for a job
that, on arriving, it seemed the manager
had already decided to give me and
one with my secondary school head
teacher where we were quite helpfully
given the questions beforehand – I
don’t think really count.
The fourth one was a ‘mock university
interview’ (not that I ever went
on to have a real one) with two teachers
from my secondary school. I gave
them my CV and told them I wanted
to be a journalist at which point they
promptly started laughing. They then
swung between telling me I wasn’t
aiming high enough (‘You should be
an editor not a journalist!’) and telling
me I would never make it in life.
So in a proactive attempt to, if not
master interviews then at least try and
prevent myself from breaking out in
cold sweats at the thought of them, I
went to one of the Interview Experience
sessions run by the University’s
Employability team.
The first hour was lovely. I sat
back and watched a video of four graduate
interviews. I learnt all the dos and
don’ts, the importance of corporate
and industry knowledge and began to
think maybe it wasn’t so hard after all.
Then it got hard.
We were split into groups and
taken into rooms with an interviewer
and an Employability officer where
we were interviewed – in front of each
other. To release the pressure a bit we
were all given bits of paper on which
to write down what was good and what
was bad about our peers’ interview
techniques. There really is nothing
I like better than being judged by a
group of strangers on something that
I didn’t want to be doing in the first
place.
In all honesty, it wasn’t that bad
and I did learn a lot. I’m still scared
of interviews but at least I know I can
do them when forced and I would definitely
recommend it to, well, anyone.
As for the interview with the fashion
publishing company I got the internship
– they want me to interview people
for their blog. Brilliant.
17
Lifestyle
Top class cuisine
Jess Leung eats lunch at Michael Caines’.
FINE dining can be a daunting experience
at times. After making sure your
skirt’s not tucked into your greying
pants and that your shoes are dry after
the last time you had to drink from
them, you begin to ask whether all of
the preparation is worth a pretentious,
albeit brilliant, meal. The triple figure
bill at the end is never well received either.
Having said that, everyone likes to
be pampered once in a while and, trust
me, Michael Caines’s restaurant is definitely
worth ironing your shirt for.
Michael Caines at Abode Exeter, is a
two Michelin star chef from Exeter who
has been voted UK’s Top Restauranteur
by The Sunday Times. Set in the lobby
of the Royal Clarence Hotel, the beautiful
exterior confirmed that perfection is
exactly what I would be experiencing.
We chose to have lunch there as it
was my birthday and I planned to spend
the evening in a less classy fashion.
Upon entering the restaurant, the server
quickly offered to take our coats before
showing us to our table – how sophisticated!
Set in the stunning Cathedral green,
the restaurant itself is not overly ‘posh.’
The clean decor and simple wooden
flooring made the place elegant without
being pretentious, which relieved my
worries about whether I was dressed appropriately
for such a place.
Michael Caines offers an à la carte
menu with mains starting at £23.50 but
luckily for us, we discovered the “Amazing
Graze Lunch” menu. It offers three
whole courses for £13.50, with additional
courses priced at £4.50 each.
There is also the option to have a specially
matched 100ml glass of wine with
each course, an offer I simply could not
refuse.
The Graze Lunch menu, which
changes approximately every fortnight,
has a wide selection of starters, mains
and desserts. As the menu is designed
for those wanting a light lunch, each dish
is actually a miniature version of something
from the à la carte menu. As the
saying goes, good things come in small
packages – Michael Caines is no exception.
I chose wild mushroom risotto to
start and it came in a cute espresso cup,
adorned with a parmesan crisp. This was
matched with a dry white wine – definitely
worth the money considering the
whole bottle would have been around
£80.
Next I chose to have a pork tenderloin
which was served with a sweet jus
and a potato cake. The presentation of
the dish was exceptional and it looked
almost too good to eat.
The pork was perfectly cooked and
the sauce complimented it well. To be
honest though, it was the potato cake that
made my dish – it was truly delicious.
This course was matched with a smooth
red wine which worked with the dish.
We settled for only three courses,
though it was very tempting to order everything
after perusing the dessert section.
I went for a lemon cheesecake with lemon
sorbet. This was a nice refreshing end
to the meal and the exceptional presentation
transformed this simple dish into a
work of art. Overall, it was a wonderful
meal which was just the right size for a
light lunch.
The ‘Amazing Graze Lunch’ is definitely
worth a try. It gets quite busy at
times so I advise you to book beforehand.
Although it may feel like an intimidating,
wallet-emptying place, the
set menu is a good way to sample beautiful
dishes at a more student friendly
price.
[Centre]
Name: Jess Fowler
Studying: Politics and Philosophy,
3rd year.
What do you think of the University
charging £9,000 a year
“I think it’s pretty funny that they
sent us an email this morning to
keep us in the know, when we’d
all seen it on the BBC website last
night.”
[Right]
Name: Gabrielle Allfrey
[Centre] Studying: International Relations
Name: and Spanish, 2nd year.
Studying:
What Do you she’s think wearing: your degree is
worth £9,000
“After the building works are finished
it might be. I suppose it depends
how good they are. I mean,
they might be phenomenal. I guess
we’ll see. According to The Guardian,
we’re only in the Top 20. That
isn’t worth £9,000.”

18
Lifestyle
The greatest show on Earth
Ginny Kingsley-Jones attends The Jeremy Kyle Show filming.
AS a regular and accomplished procrastinator,
I am also a frequent viewer of The
Jeremy Kyle Show, and was overjoyed to
be given the opportunity to watch two episodes
being filmed. I almost exploded with
excitement when I discovered that I was to
travel to the enigmatic and exotic North, to
Manchester, where the show is filmed in
ITV’s Granada Studios.
I am sure there will be many readers
who dislike the show, or who have never
seen it, and it is precisely for this reason
- we are not the target audience. The Jeremy
Kyle Show is broadcast during the
day, when most of us will be working or
on campus. It’s intended to reach out to
those people who are at home during the
daytime, whether out of choice or not, and
offer them a solution. They may be able to
relate to the guests in a way that I know
I certainly can’t, I who have been lucky
enough to have been born into a family
who did everything they could to make
sure that I was provided for and nurtured
and safe. Or they may see the show as a
way of getting help they were unable to
find elsewhere.
But do not think me naive, whilst sitting
in the audience you are, of course,
acutely aware that this particular aspect of
the show is designed as a spectacle to be
viewed and to entertain. Initially, this made
me decidedly uneasy due to the proximity
of the stage, not because of fear, but because
I felt uncomfortably judgemental
towards these very real people, with their
very real problems. However, as the show
progressed, I started to notice my unease
changing to genuine emotion and empathy
for the hardships that many of the guests
were experiencing, in a way that
doesn’t quite permeate the cameras
to your sitting room at home. However
bright and showbiz the atmosphere may
have been, the guests were fundamentally
humans asking for help, sometimes as a
last resort.
There is a reason that the show receives
in excess of 300 calls per day from
potential guests, and that is because of
the aftercare that the show provides once
the filming has been completed. You
get the impression that the show itself is
only the tip of the iceberg, and regardless
of whether Jeremy himself sees the individual
guests again afterwards, it must be
remembered that this is the only talk-show
that provides counselling and an attempt at
a genuine solution to the problems that are
encountered.
I’m sure that there will have been
many occasions when
the assistance
has not worked,
and that may
have been for
any number of
reasons. But
from talking
to Jeremy
himself, you get
the impression that
he feels that if he’s
helped even one
person
get their lives back on track, then that is an
achievement.
The host, Jeremy Kyle, is quite a character.
He is certainly a great entertainer,
amusing the audience before the cameras
roll with jovial banter and making them
feel at ease. His controversial and straight
talking style of hosting has earned him
plenty of criticism, and he seems deeply
aware of this; constantly reinforcing the
fact that he is no psychiatrist, and he has
made many of his own mistakes.
This article is not intended to be a starstruck
eulogy of The Jeremy Kyle Show,
nor of the man himself, but an explanation
for my own personal change of heart in regards
to a show that has received rather a
bad press at times. Purely because there is
precious little else to watch on television
during the day, I used to watch the show
for entertainment and I am embarrassed to
say, often in a derisive manner.
Having seen the show live though,
this initial derision has made me feel utterly
ashamed of myself, as I began to
realise that some people need the opportunities
the show offers in a way that
perhaps I’m too snobbish to understand.
So for those of you who watch the show
and regard it as exploitative and shameless,
I would say that
perhaps it is not
the show itself
but us,
the viewers,
who deserve
to be reprimanded
for ulterior
motives.
The gigantic gender gift divide
Lizzie Annett is in the midst of a panic about buying her boyfriend the perfect birthday present.
MY boyfriend and I have been seeing each
other for around six months now. We made
it through Christmas, Valentine’s Day and
my birthday all unscathed. Yet this month
brings one of the most terrifying days in
any girlfriend calendar: the boyfriend’s
birthday.
Now, I like to consider myself a reasonable
present buyer. However, this
may be because the only people I really
end up buying presents for are my family.
My mum is always happy with some
bubble bath, give my dad a toblerone and
he’ll forget all about the previous bad sock
birthdays. As for my brothers, well, it’s an
Xbox game or a CD and you’re laughing.
So maybe I’m not a reasonable present
buyer, I just know my family and they
know me. They’re the best brothers in the
world as long as there is a Topshop voucher
or a chick flick underneath that pink
wrapping paper.
20 years and I have finally learnt how
to please my family at Christmas and birthdays.
The problem is that I’ve only known
my boyfriend for six months. Christmas
was easy; he asked for a new bag, he got
a new bag. Then it got more difficult when
he got me an unbelievably thoughtful
birthday present. It was a leather bound
writing journal and a parker pen to encourage
me in my writing career. I loved it. It
is the pressure to live up to this amazingly
thoughtful and romantic present that has
landed me slap bang in the middle of girlfriend
freak out zone.
I am jealous of boys. When they don’t
know what to buy they can resort to the
classics: chocolates, flowers or jewellery.
I don’t want to conform entirely to stereotype,
but my friends and I went gooey
eyed when my housemate’s boyfriend sent
her a bunch of roses on Valentine’s Day.
It’s cheesy, it’s obvious and it’s conventional,
but we loved it. Yet if I resort to
sending my boyfriend a bunch of roses on
his birthday, I am sure he would be humiliated,
emasculated and blame me for having
to endure a whole year’s worth of male
banter.
So what are girlfriends to do In the
depths of despair I begged him for some
ideas. The only thing I got back was a request
for some comfortable headphones.
Practical, technological and being inserted
into his ear aren’t really the things I want
my boyfriend to associate me with. I don’t
think I can think of a less thoughtful or
romantic present, unless I resort to buying
him socks.
So I am back to racking my brain
to find even the slightest hint of what he
might like for a present. I remember on our
second date him saying that he really liked
the pictures of Jimi Hendrix that were up
in Amber Rooms. So I trawl the Internet
for hours trying to find this infamous poster
without success.
But then a thought hits me; does a
twenty-four year old male really want a big
picture of an ageing rock star hanging on
his wall I just don’t know! So I’m back to
square one and begin to seriously start considering
my housemate’s suggestion for a
voucher for an hours worth of Lizzie love.
Aftershave, a new shirt, some new
shoes, a DVD are all ideas swimming
around in my head. Yet his aftershave
is fifty quid and, well, I’m a student. He
knows I hate his shoes, if I buy him new
ones I’m insulting his fashion sense and
his manhood by attempting to change him.
A DVD, although a nice, cheap and easy
to wrap present, really doesn’t say “I love
you.”
The best present I can think of would
be an hours flying, he wants to be a pilot
and rarely gets opportunities to get up in
the sky, so I know this would make him
happy. Unfortunately I don’t have four
hundred quid lying around. That fifty quid
aftershave really doesn’t sound so bad anymore.
Talking to my boyfriend, and a few
other male friends, it seems that men just
don’t place as much emphasise on gifts as
march 7 2011 Exeposé
SEX-ON-THE-EXE
An Exeter student finds herself red faced.
THERE are lots of urban myths and sex
horror stories around of bloody bad experiences.
Some of Exeter’s most banterous
boys brag about putting ketchup on
their chips, bloodying their swords and
what is probably the most foul “delving
into the red sea. Win.”
Now before you start to panic, and
wonder where on earth I’m going with
this, and if that bowl of Tesco value tomato
soup in the microwave is still going
to be appealing after reading this article,
worry ye not. My gory story has nothing
to do with any of that. Well, not really
anyway.
After a few too many drinks last
week, I found myself stumbling back
with someone along one of Exeter’s student
streets at some ridiculous hour. Now,
in terms of my expectations, what happened
next was certainly not something I
would have ever imagined. Certainly not
something I had come prepared for.
“Whether it was an
accidental knocking of
noses or pure bad luck,
I’ll never know”
As a child, I have vivid memories
of bags of frozen peas being shoved in
my face, having tampons stuck up my
nostrils, or spending hours with my
head over the sink. Attractive, I know.
One holiday in Italy saw me empty an
entire swimming pool as a German boy
hummed the theme tune of Jaws as I tried
desperately to block the flow of blood
gushing out of my nose.
I thought that nosebleeds were a
distant memory, an excuse for me not to
play mixed lacrosse or get involved in
too many pillow fights. Little did I know
at the age of 20 they would still be giving
me grief.
We’ve all had that moment where
someone gets a little over excited in the
bedroom, whether it be short lived passion
(seven seconds was one poor boy’s
personal best) or the over excited jungle
roar that sent the concierge running
up to my flat, broom in hand ready to
take on whatever creature she believed
was attacking me - I thought I’d pretty
much had my fair share of over excited
partners and “don’t worry, it can happen
to anyone.” This was about to be a new
first.
Whether it was an accidental knocking
of noses, uncontrollable excitement
in the heat of the moment or pure bad
luck, I’ll never know. One thing was for
certain; I’m not the only one who suffers
from a sensitive septum. And that swimming
pool in Italy was by no means embarrassing
compared to this.
I’m not sure who it must have been
more of a shock for; me, lying there,
looking up at his gushing nose or him,
looking down at my blood splattered face
as I tried to wriggle out of the way.
Suffice to say it served as a bit of a
mood killer, even less of a turn on when
he then proceeded to dab at my face with
one hand whilst holding a wad of tissue
against his over excited nose. Not exactly
my idea of “top banter” all the same.
But I guess it was endearing, and the
laughter that ensued turned the whole
thing from awfully awkward to hysterically
hilarious. Top marks all round for
how he dealt with it. But my god, what a
bloody mess.
women do. Women want presents to show
we’ve made the right choice in the boyfriend
department, to give us some boasting
power and, most of all, (although we
probably don’t like to admit it), to make
our friends green with envy. But men don’t
want the fuss. My birthday was at the end
of January and I had been planning what
we were going to do since Boxing Day. My
boyfriend’s birthday is tomorrow and I’ve
only just found out his plans: go down the
pub for a few beers and eat pizza. I think
that as long as you’re there on his birthday,
with some form of present in hand then (if
he loves you) he’s always going to lie and
say he loves the present anyway.
It’s at this point, when I’ve basically
given up anyway, that the idea comes to
me. A remote control plane. It’s funny,
affordable and thoughtful. Coupled with
a nice little card stating that he can now
go flying whenever he wants, I think I will
be earning myself some definite girlfriend
brownie points.

Exeposé week twenty
Music
Ellie Bothwell & Ben Murphie - music@exepose.com
Upcoming
7/3 – Beat Roots
Acoustic, Mama Stone’s
9/3 – Sound of the Sirens
+ Morning Rush, Mama
Stone’s
9/3 – The Deep End
Submotion Orchestra,
Cavern Club
9/3 – Caitlin Rose,
Exeter Phoenix
10/3 – Devil’s Brigade +
Smoke ‘em Out, Cavern
Club
11/3 – Carnaval, Exeter
Phoenix
12/3 – The Believers,
Exeter Phoenix
12/3 – Ellie Williams,
Exeter Phoenix
17/3 – Glamour of the
Kill, Cavern Club
18/3 – Aeon Party with
Halsall & Singh, Cavern
Club
19/3 – Analogue to
Digital Music Expo,
Exeter Phoenix
19/3 – The Unthanks,
Exeter Phoenix
20/3 – Courtney Pine,
Exeter Phoenix
20/3 – Break Da Funk,
Exeter Phoenix
Book Now
25/3 – Example, Lemon
Grove
28/3 - Jesca Hoop, Exeter
Phoenix
29/3 - John Grant, Exeter
Phoenix
1/4 - Sub Focus DJ Set,
Lemon Grove
INTERVIEW
The Mark of Kane
Ellie Bothwell and Ben Murphie, Music Editors, chat to Miles Kane about
Lennon, Bond and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The wide-eyed indie hopeful who fronted
The Little Flames back in 2004 is a far cry
away from the swaggering rock star that
meets us today at The Fleece in Bristol.
Sauntering into the venue after a quick
stroll around the city, Miles Kane casually
offers us his hand. From the hem of his
grey overcoat to the Gallagher-esque crop
of his hair, Kane oozes Mod cool like it’s
going out of fashion.
After The Little Flames flickered and
died, Kane enjoyed brief, if limited, success
with the Rascals, going on to leave
the band in 2009. However, it’s The Last
Shadow Puppets, a project with Alex Turner
of Arctic Monkeys, that brought him to
the fore of everyone’s minds, with their album
The Age of the Understatement going
straight to #1 in the UK. “We’ll do another
record”, Kane confirms, “It will happen
when it happens but it will be great when it
does.” Yet it’s in his capacity as a solo artist
that we meet him today in the middle of his
first UK tour.
“I’m buzzing really and just glad to be
working”, Kane admits modestly. Having
been constructing his forthcoming album
Colour of the Trap for the past year it will
finally see the light of day in April. “I’m a
massive fan of Lennon, Lee Hazlewood,
Gainsbourg, you know, T-Rex, things like
that,” Kane tells us in his lilting Liverpudlian
brogue. “What I wanted to create was
all my favourite artists or bands. I wanted
to create a record that had all those different
sides and I think I’ve achieved that.”
“I love all that style”, he continues.
“There’s this guy I’ve got into recently
called Jacques Dutronc who is blowing my
mind. He’s late ’60s and is like Gainsbourg
but Mod! I don’t think there’s enough of it
around at the minute.”
Notably influenced by ’60s culture –
music, film, fashion – Kane says of the
album title, “It reminds me of a Bond film.
You could see it on a poster with a girl and
a gun.” This aesthetic approach is also
reflected in the song’s lyrics, ‘the colour
of the trap turned from black to blue’ - “I
don’t really know what it means but I just
loved those words together.” In a similar
vein, much of his album is cinematic in
tone: “There’s a couple that are almost like
a Tarantino film, like heavy surf guitar”,
Kane tells us, “one called ‘Telepathy’ and
one called ‘The King Crawler’.”
Citing The Beatles as one of his major
influences, both in style and sound, Kane
admits he had to safeguard the originality
of his work. “It was going very Lennon at
one point – I did have to de-Lennon a bit,
I’m not gonna lie.” Yet, Dan Carey’s modern
production helped maintain a balance
between old and new, typified most by
forthcoming single ‘Rearrange’. “It has got
this great guitar riff and a great chorus…
You know, Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Kane sought to approach the record
open-mindedly, experimenting with different
sounds and textures. New single ‘Come
Closer’ was originally demo-ed as a glam
rock song “because I’d been to see Kasabian
in Liverpool... but it just sounded like
a bit of Gary Glitter”, and instead the song
turned into something a lot more simple.
“On this first Lennon record Plastic Ono
Band was a tune called ‘I Found Out’ and I
basically robbed a beat off that which was
dead simple,” Kane reveals. “It just made
it a lot cooler rather than trying too hard.”
When it comes to performing live,
Kane prefers to keep things in the family.
“I’ve known Jay for a few years, I’ve
known Eugene for a couple, and my old
flatmate went to school with Phil, the bass
player, so he’d been round to the house
playing Fifa, and he knew Ben the keyboard
player.” It’s this close connection
that stop the pressures of the road from
getting too much and makes for such tight
performances. “I love being a solo artist,
I love doing the press and chatting and I
love doing the photos and the videos, but
19
when that’s taken away I need my mates
and need people around, otherwise you can
get lonely.” Having been in several bands,
Kane has experienced touring at its least
glamorous: “You’re in a f***ing splitter
van! You know, I’d rather look at their ugly
faces than strangers’ ugly faces!”, he quips.
From the shoulders he’s been rubbing
in anticipation of his forthcoming album,
things may be more glamorous than they
appear. Parisian beauty Clémence Poésy’s
dulcet tones are featured on ‘Happenstance’
and ‘elder statesman’ of British
Rock ‘n’ Roll Noel Gallagher provides
backing vocals on ‘My Fantasy’. Kane describes
the experience as “Quite surreal for
me. I’m very honoured.”
With his tour now finished, Kane
looks forward to supporting Arctic Monkeys,
alongside hyped indie hipsters The
Vaccines, in June. “They’re doing well
aren’t they”, Kane remarks. Of their selfproclaimed
brand of Rock ‘n’ Roll Kane
agrees confidently, “Rock ‘n’ Roll man, I’d
go along with that. I’m Rock ‘n’ Roll!”
The Colour of the Trap is out on April
25. ‘Come Closer’ is now available for
purchase and download on Columbia.
Records.

20
Music
INTERVIEW
The Witching Hour
Andrew Henley gets spooky with Esben and the Witch.
The Louisiana, the Bristol venue
for tonight’s performance, is a very
strange place. As you walk in, booked
to interview a cutting-edge and rapidly
rising band like Esben and the Witch,
you ask yourself whether Google Maps
has played some kind of electronic
trick on you – the place looks like a
carvery.
The band themselves are to be
found tucking into some pub grub, very
relaxed and looking for all the world
like a couple of students branching
out from their local Wetherspoons for
once. Comprising of Rachel on vocals,
with Dan and Thomas providing various
space-sounds through guitars or
bass, Esben and the Witch – recently
featured on the BBC’s Sound of 2011
poll – are clearly a very bright bunch,
inspired as much by literature as music.
Their name is drawn from a German
fairy tale, and compliments the unsettling,
spooky nature of their music fantastically.
A bit of a quiet bunch at first, the
band soon begin to converse freely,
particularly Dan, who sports an impressive
castaway-style beard. I ask
them what their favourite musical experience
to date has been, and they cite
their tour of the US with minimalist
indie heroes Foals as being key in their
development; the band are obviously
huge Foals fans and clearly enjoyed
sharing the stage with such an acclaimed
outfit.
Esben and the Witch are most readily
identifiable by the looming, multilayered
textures which Dan and Thomas
conjure, while a reverb-drenched
Rachel coldly prophesies over the top.
Such studio-created atmospheres, with
a plethora of disconcerting sound effects,
can be difficult to recreate in a
live environment, but the band don’t
necessarily see this as a problem. “I
wouldn’t personally enjoy it if a band
playing live sounded exactly as they
do on record,” says Thomas. “We enjoy
the challenge of not replicating,
but re-imagining tracks on stage.” Dan
agrees: “in the studio you can afford to
focus on the artistry of a song, but live
you need that aggression to get people
excited about it. It’s also nice for us
to play these songs live because it refreshes
them for us. It’s easy to get accustomed
or desensitized to a recorded
version, and playing it live can help to
reconnect with the heart of the track.”
I ask them what would be their
dream venue to play, expecting a fairly
regulation “Wembley” or “the O2” answer.
Instead the band fall into a coy
silence, grinning to one another. “We
have an idea,” smiles Dan. “but it’s a
secret. If it becomes obvious we won’t
make it, we’ll start telling everybody.
But until then, it’s a secret.” Intrigued,
I thank the band and let them go off
to start their pre-gig rituals. By now
the Louisiana is positively heaving
with Bristol’s indie elite, who begin to
flock upstairs to the gigging room itself.
Looking around, I began to notice
some of the names who have played
here before, immortalized with wallmounted
plaques. The list is, quite
frankly, ridiculous: The Strokes, Stereophonics,
Coldplay, Kings of Leon,
The White Stripes and Muse have all
played here before at an early stage in
their careers. Clearly there is more to
this place than meets the eye.
“I am left shaken,
disconcerted
and thoroughly
impressed”
I find myself in a compact but fantastically
cool room, surrounded by
about 70 people who look like they
March 7 2011 Exeposé
have been cut out of NME. Esben and
the Witch take the stage, devoid of any
of the polite smiliness earlier. They take
their places among a bewildering mess
of wires and pedals and launch into a
thoroughly chilling version of previous
single ‘Marching Song’. The combination
of the venue’s gloom, illuminated
only by a series of coldly smouldering
blue lamps on the stage, and the unsettling,
ethereal music, complete with
fantastically macabre lyrics (“Your
veins are my trenches / My gun is my
own”) create an amazing, otherworldly
atmosphere inside the room. A simplistic
way to describe the sound would be
to say the band sounds akin to an evil,
nightmarish version of Florence and
the Machine, but there are few catchy
choruses in this gig.
As the set draws to a close with
Dan, Thomas and Rachel smashing
away at a drum in the middle of the
stage while multi-layered musical
mayhem rolls like a lightning storm
around them I am left shaken, disconcerted
and thoroughly impressed. An
amazing show by an incredibly talented
trio, it is not difficult to see them
breaking through to wider audiences
on the strength of live shows like this.
Just be sure you don’t go alone.
FEATURE
Children of the Revolution (Per Minute)
Thomas Surr explores the vinyl revival.
There is a new music phenomenon
emerging in the UK. Or rather, an old
one is coming full circle. Vinyl records
have stormed back into fashion with a
new generation of music fans. Following
the digital music revolution, it was predicted
that vinyl records would become
obsolete and record stores would close
down in their masses. CDs and MP3s
are generally cheaper and more compact
than records. Yet, as Jaimie of Exeter’s
Rooster Records says, there has been “a
huge increase in the demand for vinyl
over the past five years.” Vinyl has been
welcomed as an alternative to the modernisation
that supposedly threatened it.
What is it about vinyl that means it can
hold its own in the digital age
For a start, vinyl simply sounds better.
Most analogue vinyl LPs and EPs are
recorded continuously which produces a
truer sound, augmented by the lovely authenticity
of the needle pops and crackles
as a record plays. Digital files are compressed
so they take up less memory, but
this weakens their audio quality considerably.
Records feel and look better too.
There is something inexplicably gratifying
about the physical act of holding and
playing a record. The artwork on the covers
and records gives joy before a note
has been played and the thought that time
and effort have gone into making each
individual record and that each is unique
through its little imperfections is charming.
Compare this to the rows of homogenous
CD cases in HMV and you will
hopefully begin to see what I’m talking
about. With downloaded music too, “all
you have are digits in your iPod; convenient
but not very exciting compared with
vinyl,” Jaimie believes.
“Records offer
a completely
different way of
listening to music”
Records are far more durable than
any digital alternative and can last for
years or even decades, depending on
how well they’re looked after. Digital
music players rarely survive a fraction
of this time. Music files can also be corrupted
or lost all too easily on a computer.
Furthermore, records can be viewed
as an investment since they tend to keep
or even increase in value over time, especially
rare and limited edition ones.
Moving beyond aesthetics and retro
charm, records offer a completely different
way of listening to music. When
was the last time you listened to an album
from start to finish I rarely have the
time or patience for this now that I can
cherry pick all my favourite tracks from
my iPod. But allowing a record to play
from start to finish and, more importantly,
allowing oneself the time to listen to
it from start to finish, is hugely enjoyable
and relaxing. You are also doing the artist
and their music justice in this respect
by listening to the tracks as the artist intended
them to be heard (musicians put
more consideration than you might think
into deciding the tracklisting order of an
album). This may even add a little something
to your enjoyment of the music and
appreciation for the artist that you didn’t
have before.
I’d be lying if I said I’m boycotting
digital music altogether, but I am giving
vinyl a fair shot. I have started my own
fledgling record collection and have set
up a record player in our front room. And
yes, I am starting to see what all the hype
is about.
Interested Exeter has some choice
record stores. For a wide selection of
genres, try Rooster Records and Martian
Records. For dubstep, dnb and breaks,
head to Reform Records. For cheaper
odds and ends, look in any charity shop.
ONE TO WATCH
Imogen Blake injects some interest
into First Aid Kit.
ARMED with only an acoustic guitar,
their own exquisite voices and a handheld
camera, sister duo First Aid Kit recorded
their cover of Fleet Foxes’ ‘Tiger
Mountain Peasant Song’ surrounded by
pine trees in the summer of 2008.
Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna
have mature and soulful voices, as well
as an ability to harmonise perfectly with
one another. These would be qualities
celebrated regardless of age but First Aid
Kit become something remarkable when
you consider they recorded their cover
version of the Fleet Foxes’ song when
Johanna was 18 and Klara only 15.
It was not until early 2009, with the
UK release of the folk duo’s first EP,
Drunken Trees, that they gained any recognition
in Britain. The EP is a strange
mix of unoriginal, insipid lyrics and
mature themes of adultery, mundane domestic
life, and tired marriages. Despite
its inconsistency, Klara and Johanna’s
hauntingly beautiful harmonies more
than make up for the uneven tone of
Drunken Trees.
A more sophisticated and focused offering
arrived in the form of their 2010
debut album, The Big Black and the Blue.
The 11-track disc opens with acappella
harmonies that are so carefully synchronised
that the cliché of sending shivers
down your spine becomes a reality. The
duo’s vocals are never overshadowed by
instrumentation and remain centre stage
for the entirety of the album, best exemplified
by standout track, ‘Ghost Town’,
which was released as a single in September
2010.
Despite releasing an internationally
acclaimed album, First Aid Kit are still
relatively unknown to mainstream UK
audiences, although they have gained
a large following in folk circles. After
admiring First Aid Kit’s music for over
a year, I was lucky enough to see them
play at Latitude festival in the summer
of 2010. Live, the duo often improvised
which added a light-hearted touch that
was missing from the album. The harmonies
were flawless and as the band made
its way through song after song, the sisters
didn’t compromise on quality and
gave a stunning live performance.
If the band can fine-tune their songwriting
skills, First Aid Kit will no doubt
match the successes of Fleet Foxes,
Mumford and Sons and Band of Horses
a few years down the line. After all, folk
is trendy at the moment.
First Aid Kit’s cover versions of ‘Universal
Soldier’ and ‘It Hurts Me Too’,
recorded as part of Third Man Records’
Blues Series, are now available on 7”
vinyl.

Exeposé week twenty
ALBUM REVIEWS
21
Music
King of Limbs
Radiohead
Radiohead fans awoke on February
18 to avid internet chat concerning
the early release of the long awaited
newest addition to Radiohead’s already
quite extensive back catalogue, King of
Limbs. Announced earlier in the week,
the eight-track album is the follow up
to the critically acclaimed In Rainbows,
and the second since the band’s less than
civil break with their previous label EMI.
Early impressions are that the band could
never have got away with this sort of
sound with record executives and representatives
breathing down their necks.
I started off worried that eight tracks
might not be enough, that it would feel
rushed or incomplete as a result, but the
opposite is true, the only odd thing about
its length is that it doesn’t actually feel
too short at all. The sound throughout is
progressive and stuttered, and gives the
“The beauty of it is
found in the way
that it intrigues you
and pushes you to
explore its various
landscapes of
sound”
illusion of electronic compositions even
though it’s not. The band lean heavily on
layered percussion throughout the early
tracks, specifically ‘Bloom’ and ‘Little
by Little’, which marks a break of direction
and can at first be interpreted as
somewhat disjointed and disorientating.
However, it is an album which invites
you to listen on, and to attempt to interpret
the sounds and layers as you wish.
A parallel can be drawn here with Radiohead’s
previous experimental albums,
Kid A and Amnesiac, albums which remain
available to admire and wonder at,
but exist a million miles away from the
older guitar sound in Pablo Honey and
The Bends. Put roughly, if that is the sort
of Radiohead you like, then avoid this
album.
The album moves on from the early
layered percussion into a more familiar
sound with the incredibly epic and heavily
bass driven anthem ‘Lotus Flower’, a
song which is perhaps the album’s only
clear radio-friendly single. It is a lesson
for the modern generations of hyped
alternative singer/songwriters, such as
James Blake, in how to properly compose
a song. From here on, the album
changes and a new sound develops which
would be familiar to those lucky enough
to see Thom Yorke’s live show, which is
as slow, melancholic and piano driven as
much of his solo material. The two slow
ballads (for use of a better description)
‘Codex’ and ‘Give up the Ghost’, are instances
where the band seems to take a
back seat, with Thom’s vocals taking full
prominence. I would put my money on
these two songs becoming the standout
tracks over time.
Overall King of Limbs is strange,
disorientating and perhaps at first an
off-putting album. But the beauty of it
is found in the way that it intrigues you
and pushes you to explore its various
landscapes of sound. This is where Radiohead
have resoundingly succeeded,
in maturely and successfully illustrating
how you can make an experimental album
without completely removing any
intrigue from it or alienating your followers.
It is a fantastic achievement, and
will only get better with time as more of
its corners and layers are revealed and
explored by listeners.
DAVID WOOD
Smart Flesh
The Low Anthem
The Low Anthem are a novel ensemble.
Their live performances feature,
among other things, the use of interference
from mobile phones during
an instrumental as well as the musical
saw. This facet is evident in the production
process behind Smart Flesh. Artists
choosing to record their albums in locations
other than studios is increasingly
common; Erland & the Carnival recorded
Nightingale at the bottom of a ship and
both Beach House’s Teen Dream and
Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible were recorded
in churches. The Low Anthem opted for
a cold abandoned pasta sauce factory in
Rhode Island.
Their previous album, Oh My God,
Charlie Darwin was the album that put
them on the map, so to speak. Filled
with tales of woe, mortality and Charles
Darwin, it was an impressive feat. The
question is, have the band managed to
continue creating music in the wonderful
manner for which they reached acclaim
With time, yes. Smart Flesh is an album
which requires repeat listening and
patience as initially many of the songs
sound very similar. From the outset, the
advantages of recording in their chosen
location can be heard. The slow opening
track ‘Ghost Woman Blues’ is wonderfully
atmospheric, however, there are
strong resemblances between this and
some of the later tracks. Ben Knox Miller
and Jocie Adam’s beautiful harmonies
resonate around the room, complimented
by a simple piano and bass accompaniment.
Jocie Adam’s clarinet solo toward
the end of the song binds it together and
recaptures the listener, preventing the
track from continuing as simply more of
the same. Adam’s impressive prowess is
fully illustrated by the instrumental track,
‘Wire’.
“The lyrical quality
of Smart Flesh is
sublime”
The album takes an energetic turn
with ‘Boeing 737’. The upbeat electric
guitar, flugelhorn, drums and electric bass
make this one of the closest things The
Low Anthem have to an anthem.
The lyrical quality of Smart Flesh is
sublime; time should be taken to savour
such lyrics as the somber, ‘Knowing in
the end you’ll be alone for death does
lonely death does creep / So hire yourself
a chimney maid and smoke yourself to
sleep’ in the album’s title track.
The term ‘folk’ describes Smart
Flesh with respect to more than it’s genre.
Many of the tracks on the album invoke
stories told around a campfire. This is
something that is enhanced by the somewhat
timeless lyrics which, when paired
with Miller’s voice and the band’s music
- which often sounds like the perfect
accompaniment to American Folklore -
bring to mind an era which has past.
Smart Flesh is an impressive feat and
is arguably the finest release to date from
this talented band.
SAPPHIRE MASON-BROWN
SINGLE REVIEWS
Rope
Foo Fighters
WHY does it start out sounding a little
like Kings of Leon Why does it turn
into a jittery, nervy hard rock version
of a game show theme Why is there
nothing remotely memorable about the
verse melody
Because it’s always like that with
a new Foos track, or at least for me.
I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a Foo
Fighters comeback single during the
first few listens, and this instantly
mediocre offering is no different – it
even includes a breakdown where everything
becomes even more stop-start
than before. Chris Shiflett is back on
shredding form guitar-wise, while
Taylor Hawkins’ drums are as skillfully
chaotic as usual. The only worry
is Dave Grohl’s voice, which doesn’t
sound particularly impassioned these
days.
Vocals aside, this spectacularly
mundane track means only one thing
to me: the next album will be incredible.
I hated ‘The Pretender’ and ‘Best
of You’ the first ten times I heard them,
but I grew to love them and considered
the albums that followed them absolute
classics. Not all of you will have the
same opinion - I know so many that
consider this a fantastic return - but I
like to think that, for anyone as disappointed
as myself, ‘Rope’ can only precede
some great work from what is still
just about the biggest rock group in the
world.
It’s hard to call, but on this evidence
the next Foos record could be
better than ever.
CALUM BAKER, SCREEN EDITOR
Under Cover of Darkness
The Strokes
Harking back to the glory days of
Is This It on their latest single, ‘Under
Cover of Darkness’, The Strokes
have effortlessly returned to what
made them originally so good. After
countless solo projects and alleged
disharmony, one of indie rock’s most
celebrated bands of the last decade
has re-emerged from its hiatus with a
majestic effort.
This energetic track delivers
with standard raspy vocals from Julian
Casablancas, furious pop hooks
and high-tempo, funky drum beats.
Bouncy guitar interplay between Albert
Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi
is delightfully familiar, as is the
former’s crunching solo. It appears
The Strokes are having fun again
with the same old song, but polished
for a new decade.
“The-energetic
track delivers
with standard
raspy vocals
from Julian
Casablancas,
furious pop
hooks and high
tempo, funky
drum beats”
The sense of disinterested cool
that marked Is This It is evident as
Casablancas jokingly observes, “I’ve
been all around this town and everybody’s
singing the same sound for ten
years.” Perhaps a nod to their scores
of imitators, it’s also a confident address
to critics who’ve questioned
the band’s relevance after 2006’s
disappointment, First Impressions of
Earth. The number, utilising the lofi
production of Is This It, points to
a return to form, epitomised by two
ridiculously catchy choruses. The anthem
shows how Casablancas and co.
have risen again and are in no rush to
slow down: ‘Get dressed, jump out of
bed, and do it best.’
Although there’s nothing experimental
in the sound, ‘Under Cover of
Darkness’ is a nostalgic reminder of
how good The Strokes used to be, and
it appears they’re poised to reclaim
their position as indie rock’s darlings.
OSCAR WARWICK-THOMPSON

22
Screen
Calum Baker & David Brake - screen@exepose.com
march 7 2011 Exeposé
NEWSREEL
WHERE to start this week The past
seven days have seen the greatest Hollywood
meltdown since Mel Gibson - and
Charlie Sheen’s inadvertent, mildly antisemitic
slips seem even funnier because
we know he doesn’t mean them. After a
spectacularly drugged-up TV interview,
Sheen became something of an internet
meme, joined Twitter and amassed
940,000+ followers within about 24
hours. Now THERE’S a story to watch!
We’ve got the biggest story of the
Oscars covered opposite, but equally
important were the Golden Raspberry
Awards for 2010’s worst films. The Last
Airbender and M. Night Shyamalan led
with 5 wins including Worst Film, Director,
Screenplay, Supporting Actor and
Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D. Sarah Jessica
Parker, meanwhile, became the first
actress to scoop two awards for the same
role in the same film: Worst Actress and
Worst Ensemble for Sex and the City 2.
Finally, we are lamenting the passing
of silver screen icon/sexpot Jane Russell,
who died February 28 aged 89. RIP.
COMPETITION
THIS week, we are again offering
THREE PAIRS of tickets for any film
at any time that you fancy at ODEON.
All you need to do is email us with the
subject line “I LOVE MACHETE”, and
you’ll get entered into the draw. It’s
easy, know what I mean
All entries should be sent to:
screen@exepose.com
Deadline is March 18.
Danny Trey-ho kay!
Calum Baker and
David Brake, Screen
Editors, chat to
Hollywood A-lister
Danny Trejo.
BEFORE conducting this interview, we
were setting out the very pages you read
now. To fill space, we stuck in a fake
account of our fictional meeting with
Danny Trejo (we actually spoke to him
over the phone), indulging ourselves
with our, and the public’s, image of the
man. Phrases such as ‘he leaps across
the table, foaming at the mouth’, were
bandied about to general amusement,
playing up to Trejo’s typecast role as a
hardcore killer. How wrong we were.
Trejo, one of the consummate ‘faces-without-names’
of Hollywood, cropping
up occasionally to eviscerate people
and whatnot, has steadily carved a
profitable career in some 85 films over
20 years, but 2011 is his biggest year
yet. Following his first starring role,
in the entertaining Grindhouse spinoff
Machete, Trejo has become the name
behind the face - and that’s quite a face
to live up to - and found himself in more
flicks than ever.
“I’ve just finished The Muppets. The
Muppets!” he says, a little bewilderedly,
before launching into a loud rendition of
the iconic ‘Phenomenon’ song amidst
genuinely crazed giggles. “I can’t get
that damn song out of my head! I have
a beautiful Range Rover, got 26 inch
tyres, and lowered, and all scaried up.
It’s got a huge sound system, and I’ve
been running around town bumping
the Muppets song!”
Is this the Danny Trejo we’ve
grown accustomed to Singing along
to childhood cacophonies Well, for-
Classic Films #16: Throne of Blood (1957)
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune,
Minoru Chiaki
(PG) 110mins
get what’s on his stereo and look again at
how he describes his vehicle. “It doesn’t
even look like a Range Rover!” possibly
sums it up. No matter how many puppets
he stars with, this man is a true action
nut.
“If you’re going to watch a drama
don’t invite me, ‘cos I’ll bother everybody.’
Action, I love action movies, action
characters who kill eight people in
the first five minutes and blow up two
buildings.” He could be describing his
own films. ‘You know like a lot of actors
will say no, you know, I don’t watch
myself [onscreen] - Hell YEAH! ... My
only problem is I ruin it for everybody:
“OH watch, look at it!’’’
In essence, this is Danny Trejo’s
entire ethos: he knows what he likes
and will rarely make anything different.
Quite the artist-spectator.
“I’m an action movie fan, and
people like Robert Rodriguez
- so is he. We’re big action
movie fans, so you know,
it’s just like ‘let’s do what
we like’, and what the
public like too, because
they’re fans,” says
Trejo. Being a man’s
man with little pretension
has clearly worked, now
bringing him up to $2 million
per film.
Trejo’s attitude
towards
o t h e r
AKIRA KUROSAWA is undoubtedly
one of history’s greatest film directors.
Not only are his works masterpieces in
their own right, but without them, western
cinema would be missing so many
of its own classics. George Lucas found
inspiration for Star Wars in The Hidden
Fortress, The Usual Suspects drew from
Rashomon, and without Kurosawa’s The
Seven Samurai and Yojimbo we wouldn’t
have The Magnificent Seven or A Fistful
of Dollars.
However, one of my favourite films
by this legendary Japanese auteur is his
1957 work Throne of Blood. This film,
rather than inspiring another, took its story
from one of western cultures most famous
plays – Macbeth. Kurosawa twice
adapted Shakespeare into historical Japanese
settings: Ran and a re-imagining of
King Lear being the other. Although the
magnificence of Shakespeare’s language
is lost in translation and adaptation, his
stories are nonetheless timeless classics.
However, the joy of Kurosawa’s interpretations
lies in his direction – artistic,
theatrical and atmospheric – and the
wonder of seeing the well-loved dramas
come alive in the Japanese settings, complete
with castles and palaces, and populated
by samurai, slaves, and geishas.
Toshiro Mifune, a frequent Kurosawa-collaborator,
is incredible as
the katana-wielding samurai Macbeth,
Washizu. As ever, he is a commanding
on-screen presence, bringing his usual
mix of ferocity and humour to the role,
while perfectly portraying the moral
actors is telling in this respect; his heroes
include Charles Bronson, and he’s
“been watching Clint Eastwood since he
was in Rawhide [late ‘50s TV series]...
those guys just bring a... a certain...
realism, you know what I mean Because
I’m sorry, but it’s really hard for
me to watch, like... Leonardo di Caprio
and George Clooney and Johnny
Depp play bad guys - you know, like,
they’re beautiful! It’s hard for me to say
‘I’d be scared of that guy!’ It seems all
Trejo wants to do is create films to be
watched, rather than think pieces. Remember:
“Dialogue sucks!”
It is perhaps, with attitudes such as
these, quite easy to label Trejo as some
sort of meathead, an action nut with no
real substance. But there’s something
about his friendliness and love for people
that’s infectious and proves to us
that, rather than anything else,
he just wants to keep us
entertained. He describes
Clooney et al. as “great
actors,” but points out: “I
love people who go to a
movie called Ma-CHETe,
and they say ‘there’s a
lot of blood!’, you know,
that’s like going to the
desert and saying ‘it’s hot!’’
A man who only wants to
keep us excited in the cinema
is simply... well, if we applied
the following
word to
an actor like
Clooney it
seems indulgent,
but here
it seems
apt: Trejo
is generous.
and mental disintegration the character
undergoes. His performance is complimented,
too, by Isuzu Yamada as the
scheming, kimono-clad, Lady Washizu.
The true star of the film, though, remains
Kurosawa’s visuals.
“Ambition is false
fame and will
fall, death will
reign, man falls in
vain”
Macbeth has never been more nightmarish;
much of the action takes place in
‘Spider Web Castle’ (the Japanese title of
the film), a sombre and haunting building
on the slopes of Mount Fuji, that is
revealed to us through swirling mist and
This generosity, the need to give
something back to people, extends further
than Trejo’s average audience however.
Having been a teenage crack addict,
and spending 11 years in and out of
penitentiaries for various petty crimes,
the 66-year-old has devoted a great deal
of his life to drug counselling and youth
programmes.
“When I got into this I was a drug
counsellor.” This comes as a surprise to
us, having asked if he would have done
counselling at all if he hadn’t moved into
movies. Perhaps the question should be
whether fame has diminished Trejo’s
sense of community Listen:
“I’m still a drug counsellor, and I
still go to juvenile halls, and penitentiaries...
this thing that the movies have
done for me is when I walk into a juvenile
hall, a prison, anything, I have
everybody’s attention - already!’ If
anything, then, fame has made the man
of the people even more humble, even
more willing to preach his admirable
message: ‘My lesson is ‘stay away from
drugs’, and ‘education is the key to anything
you wanna do.’ ’’
This is incredibly refreshing
amongst all the Clooney-types, whose
humanitarian work seems suspiciously
well-publicised and perhaps self-serving.
For Trejo, it appears, the most important
thing about working in Hollywood
is to keep the entertainment side
of your life as entertainment - good, fun,
spectacle - and to make any charity and
community work really count. Trejo actually
goes out, making a difference, and
it is arguably this, above all, that defeats
his knuckleheaded tough guy persona.
Ultimately, make what you will of
a person, but look up George Clooney’s
wonderfully self-congratulatory Oscar
acceptance speech and ask: who’s the
better man The Star or the Bad Ass
fog. However, when Washizu visits the
three ‘witches’, he enters a classically
creepy forest, similarly filled with thick
fog that funnels the character into a small
clearing where, amidst piles of skulls
and swords, three ghost-samurai appear
to taunt him with prophetic riddles.
Washizu’s demise, too, is wonderfully
erratic and visually arresting, involving
hundreds of (mainly real) arrows impaling
themselves in and around the frenzied
protagonist.
An oft-forgotten gem, Throne of
Blood is fascinating and superb for fans
of history, Shakespeare, Japanese culture,
and film-fans in general. It is a timeless
story retold in a refreshingly different
setting, with wonderfully creepy
visuals, exciting action, and complete
with mesmerising performances.
CHRIS DAVIES

Exeposé week twenty
23
Screen
Should The King’s Speech have won Best Picture
Maddie Soper asks:
just why not
PROBABLY the last thing anyone was
expecting was a crowned prince who
can’t get his words out, an Australian
with more nerve than Birmingham City
football club, and a de-cloaked, defrizzed
Helena Bonham Carter to create
such a recipe for success as The King’s
Speech has turned out to be. But after
establishing itself as the greatest thing
to emerge from British cinema since…
well, name something, clean up at the
Oscars you would expect The King’s
Speech to do, and indeed, clean up it did.
But the extent to which the floor was
wiped is surely quite the surprise – not
least since its contenders were of such
high calibre in themselves.
“They did manage
to at least get the Best
Picture one right this
year”
Don’t get me wrong, I am utterly
delighted The King’s Speech won Best
Picture and feel it was most deserved.
The acting was sublime; Colin Firth
and Geoffrey Rush gave the performances
of their careers, which ensure they
will not forever be remembered as “that
bloke in the wet shirt and that one what
wasn’t Johnny Depp,” and Helena Bonham
Carter was a pillar of strength in the
impossibly-supportive-loving-wife role.
The cinematography captured the tone
and style of inter-war London perfectly,
feeling pleasantly artistic, and yet never
fake. In short, the film was utterly believable
throughout, with a moving finale,
but also remaining acutely aware of its
slightly romanticised angle - which is a
very hard balance to achieve in any fictional
reimagining of real events.
But I remain more than slightly irritated
that The King’s Speech also claimed
the other most coveted award at the expense
of another cinematic triumph that
now feels overlooked. David Fincher’s
social commentary The Social Network
surely deserved to win Best Director.
Fincher’s unique and provocative style
translated beautifully to the content,
and he now appears, quite frankly,
robbed. Any other year, The Social
Network would have triumphed in
practically every area it graced, but in
the same year as The King’s Speech it
wasn’t to get a look in besides Adapted
Screenplay and Score, and consequentially
lost the enormous amount
of recognition it deserved.
Yet the long and short of it is (despite
what the Academy may like to
think) the Oscars are not the be-all and
end-all of the cinema experience. If you
think another film deserved that award,
then just because Oscar failed to give
them that golden statue that’s probably
made out of chocolate these days anyways,
it doesn’t detract from the triumph
that you think it was. Too much official
recognition all over the place can get tedious
after a while anyway (See Titanic:
all right, you think it’s a classic, we get
it). Even if they did manage to at least get
the Best Picture one right this year.
Christopher Preston
asks us to look closer
at Speech’s reputation.
BEFORE you read this, you should
know that I am a huge fan of The King’s
Speech. I pre-booked an advance screening
to see it, and then waxed lyrical about
its content to every man and his dog. I
made claims, bold claims; about how
Firth’s performance had actually surpassed
sliced bread, and how this film
had managed to rejuvenate a feeling of
national pride within me, despite
The Jeremy Kyle Show almost robbing
me of it just months before.
But, even after all these, none
of my claims were as bold as giving
The King’s Speech the muchcoveted
Best Picture award at the
Oscars. Did this movie really deserve
the highest honour film can
bestow The answer is, of course, no.
Don’t get me wrong, the film is
charming, the script is wonderful, and
the acting cast is stellar (kudos to the
criminally underrated Geoffrey Rush.)
I’ll even say that Tom Hooper handles
his direction well, and certainly translates
the material warmly onto the silver
screen (although certainly didn’t do
enough to earn his Best Director award.
We all feel your pain, Mr Fincher).
However, just for a moment, let’s
step away from the media hype. Let’s
divorce ourselves from the overwhelming
urge to fanboy Firth’s star turn. For
heaven’s sake, let’s forget, just for one
moment, that we are all British and this
is a British film and stop applying the
archaic, football-hooligan’s logic of ‘it’s
from our country, so we’ll support it despite
everything’ and just watch the film.
Yes, it’s wonderful but was I really
the only one who saw it for what it was
The King’s Speech was merely a Hollywood
take on a BBC drama. As much
as I enjoyed the story, and I really can’t
state enough that I did, I found myself
thinking of how well it would fit into
the Beeb’s Sunday night schedule – just
after Songs of Praise. Because of this, it
doesn’t quite boast the cinematic cojones
to have won Best Picture. The piece was
a warm, woolly jumper of a film – something
that was comfortable and nice,
rather than breathtaking, original or innovative.
“Let’s step away from
the media hype”
Something that was all three of these
things, and more, was the sublime The
Social Network – a film that, through a
wonderful story, and equally brilliant
script and acting performances, is a cinematic
checklist of what Best Picture
should be. It should have romped home
with the gold – and taken Best Director
for good measure.
If the award had been given to the
right film, this year’s ceremony might
have been a bit more memorable. The
‘jumping-on-the-bandwagon’ aftertaste,
however, merely consigns it to the ‘meh’
pile in history, and makes us hope for a
more impressive, and dare I say controversial,
year next year.
Roll on February 2012 (but well
done Firth, you DID deserve it…!)
Esther Privett defends
the British triumph
over America.
BEING British, The King’s Speech Best
Picture win could not be anything but
brilliant. It’s very hard to tell whether it
deserved to win; taste in film is such a
personal thing it seems almost silly to
say which is best, but I’m glad the voters
came to that conclusion.
There wasn’t a single moment in the
film where they lost me, excluding when
Firth first appeared and that’s only because
I’m passionately in love with him.
The whole production was one seamless
spectacle of exquisiteness. Each actor
performed extraordinarily well. It shows
a good film when the likes of Jennifer
Ehle (Pride and Prejudice) and Adrian
Scarborough (Gavin and Stacy) are on
screen for no more than four minutes.
Even Lionel Logue’s sons, who barely
had three lines between them, were complete
characters.
“There wasn’t a single
moment in the film
where they lost me”
But the real stars were Firth, Bonham
Carter, and Rush. The chemistry
between the three central performers
was astonishing. One could believe that
‘Bertie’ had befriended his speech therapist
without any trouble at all. The love
between husband and wife was there, but
not overtly. The nerves of the Queen as
she listened to her husband’s final speech
mirrored the nerves felt by the audience.
By the end of the film I had completely
invested all my emotional capacity into
the outcome of that final speech. To be
able to evoke that much emotion clearly
signals a good film.
Seeing as all three central actors
were nominated for an Oscar it does not
seem unreasonable that the film should
win Best Picture. Great performances
rarely come out of a shoddy production;
they need a good film to nourish them.
The costumes, the scenery, the set were
all perfect. The film had the complete
package. Tom Hooper’s Best Director
win sealed this. People have said it was
undeserved, but this simply raises the
question of what they think a director
actually does. Good actors don’t become
great actors without direction. It wasn’t
a coincidence that all three
leading actors got a nomination;
they were being instructed
by Hooper.
Yes, other films in the
Best Picture category
were also good but they
didn’t have the same appeal.
The King’s Speech
had spectacular actors, a
brilliant director, and the
necessary bit of je ne sais
quoi that made it that little
bit better than the rest.
Tori Brazier questions
the legacy of this year’s
Best Picture.
THE 2011 Oscar ceremony proved to
be pretty predictable. Natalie Portman
‘swanned’ off as Best Actress and Colin
Firth also completed his sweep of
the board by winning Best Actor. The
Best Picture winner, however, did prove
a slight surprise as The King’s Speech
prevailed in the face of stiff competition,
particularly amongst ten nominees
- surely a sign of the abundance of quality
pictures this year. The King’s Speech
is a good film, crowd-pleasing in every
aspect - but is it perhaps a little... well,
safe The plot trundles along pleasantly
and the acting is, with a cast of this calibre,
naturally admirable. With composer
Alexandre Desplat on board, the music
was Oscar nom’d too. Everything falls
into place for this solid four
star film, but this is also its
downfall.
There is nothing unexpected
in The King’s
Speech, nothing that
seems ground-breaking,
and it is this quality that
should perhaps feature in
a Best Picture; it is this
which arguably makes a
movie five stars and allows
words such as ‘outstanding’
and in years to come
- dare I say it -‘masterpiece’.
It may be too much to realistically
ask of filmmakers year on year;
I’m probably being idealistic and naïve
in hoping for a sensational clean-sweep
of the awards à la Ben-Hur; it would certainly
be more exciting.
Looking at the other films nominated,
there were the early favourites Inception
and 127 Hours and the even earlier
critics’ darling Winter’s Bone. There was
Toy Story 3 (also nominated for Best
Animated Feature and a deserved winner
there), The Kids Are Alright (but
when has the Academy ever liked such
“light-hearted” fare), and quieter but
no less laudable latecomers The Fighter
and True Grit who could have snatched
it away from likely winner, and the other
Film of 2010, The Social Network (but
would the Academy want to deify a film
about Facebook It might look a bit daft
in 10 years time). Then there was the
phenomenon of Black Swan, the film
everyone talked about but no one granted
rewards (except to Portman). My choice
for the Oscar - it is original, different,
and a full-on visual experience. It is not,
however, perfect - there are uncomfortable
moments and Vincent Cassel’s character
is hardly well-rounded. Choosing
the recipient of 2011’s award is in fact
pretty tricky.
The King’s Speech is a beautifully
British film, and its win is bittersweet
after the abolition of the UKFC. As it’s
a struggle to find the ‘perfect’ choice
amongst the other nominees, I guess for
the glory of Britain I can let it slide.

24
Screen
Howl
Dir: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey
Friedman
Cast: James Franco, Jon Hamm
(15) 84mins
HOWL is one of those films that is,
simply put, made for the fans of the
subject itself, and no one else.
Whilst Franco’s portrayal of a
young (still hair on the head) Ginsberg
is nothing short of brilliant, an average
audience can find the same breadth of
his acting ability in the far more accessible
127 Hours. However it is
not between a very literal rock
and a hard place that Franco
finds himself here, but around
the obscenity trial of 1957 that
almost saw the eponymous
American classic
lost forever to
the starry dynamo in
the machinery of the
night.
Sketched across four
vignettes
like the
p o e m
itself,
the film
bounces between a bright-eyed Ginsberg
writing and performing the poem
for the first time in
the company of
the beat-father
Jack Kerouac
and the secret
hero of these
poems Neal
Cassady, the
c o u r t r o o m
itself, and an
interview conducted with Ginsberg after
the whole sordid affair. The scenes
are tied together by haunting animated
sequences that portray an often very
literal, dream-like perception of the
imagery found within Howl which are
at their best reminiscent of those found
in Pink Floyd The Wall.
“I saw the best minds
of my generation... ”
To those not familiar with the
poet or the literature being produced
in 1950s America, this procession of
poetry and censorship-based politics
may be confusing and at some points
as incomprehensible as Howl itself. It
is, for those who are familiar, a triumphant
journey along the first steps
towards recognition, experienced by
one of America’s most cherished
poets. By no means perfect, the
film tells its story in a breathtakingly
beautiful array of verse and
imagery.
CHRIS GROSVENOR
Animal Kingdom
Dir: David Michôd
Cast: James Frecheville, Guy
Pearce, Jacki Weaver
(15) 113mins
WINNER of 2010’s Sundance Film
Festival Grand Jury Prize, Animal
Kingdom is a brilliant, stark, brutal
beast of a film that charts the decline
of the Codys, a notorious crime family
from Melbourne, Australia. After the
death of his mother, Joshua ‘J’ Cody
(James Frecheville in a stunning debut
performance) gets involved with his
crooked family and their exploits.
“The fact that you’re
talking to me, the fact
that you’ve been left to
deal with us... is all the
proof that you need”
With the Armed Robbery Squad
already closing in, the family’s previously
secure fortune disintegrates,
as does the resolve of each character
in differing ways. Like the children
march 7 2011 Exeposé
of King Lear, or indeed those of Don
Corleone, each son of the Cody family
has his own tragic flaw that undoes
him. Ben Mendelsohn deserves special
mention, terrifying as the increasingly
unhinged Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody.
Trying to stop the inevitable selfdestruction
is their mother, Janine
‘Smurf’ Cody (the Academy Awardnominated
Weaver), a woman of uncanny
resolve. She attempts to keep her
boys calm in times of worry, with hugs,
soothing words, and kisses that last a
second too long.
The crew is hunted by Detective
Nathan Leckie (Pearce), who midway
through the film tells J about their
Animal Kingdom. He tells him that the
weak only survive by being protected
by the strong. J is weak, and those
protecting him aren’t strong anymore.
He must adapt quickly if he wishes to
survive and thrive in his environment.
Replete with stellar performances, a
superb script and heart-wrenching set
pieces, Animal Kingdom rises above
the tag of ‘Great Australian Film’ to be
a great film in its own right.
TOM NICOLL
Drive Angry
Dir: Patrick Lussier
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Amber
Heard, William Fichtner
(18) 104mins
NICOLAS CAGE has been in some
pretty awful movies of late and Drive
Angry is no exception. The man is nothing
if not consistent I suppose.
This latest offering follows Milton
(Cage) who breaks out of Hell (yes,
Hell! And there’s no explanation of how
he did this either… adding to the mystery
of the character or simply just lazy
writing, you decide) so as to avenge
the murder of his daughter and save
his granddaughter from the clutches of
loony Devil worshipper and murderer
Jonah King. King (played with indifference
by fan of alliteration Billy Burke)
wants to sacrifice Milton’s granddaughter
to the Devil and bring about the apocalypse.
Along the way he meets Piper
The Adjustment Bureau
Dir: George Nolfi
Cast: Matt Damon, Emily
Blunt
(15) 124mins
IS it a bird Is it a plane No, it’s another
Matt Damon film! Over the past 12
months he’s been busier than an Italian
Prime Minister at a “bunga-bunga” party,
and he’s gracing our silver screens
once again with the action thriller The
Adjustment Bureau.
Admittedly they probably didn’t go
for the snappiest title ever, as it does
sound like a state department currently
suffering from a budget cut of £14,000,
but rest assured, the film includes violence,
swearing and plenty of lovely
running. It tells the tale of David Norris
(Damon), an edgy politician running
for the post of Senator of New York, and
how he unwittingly unearths a secret
about every decision we make in life.
By coming into contact with a woman
he was never “supposed” to meet, his
perception of reality is shattered and he
reveals a secretive and powerful organisation
who have the power to control
the fate of us all.
Praise has to be given for the boldness
of the idea this film is discussing,
one which tries to explain everything
from why we make menial decisions to
the evolution of society over the centuries.
Ultimately, while the concept is
completely alien to us, there is a serious
lack of detail and explanation surrounding
it, making it seem like a halfbaked
idea thought up on a 20-minute
car journey from Woking to Guildford.
Instead of allowing the viewer to fill in
bits of the film with their own thoughts,
it leaves gaping holes and expects them
to be understood and accepted. In some
ways it almost seems like a conspiracy
theory rather than an alternative reality.
Whilst similar to Inception in some areas,
Christopher Nolan spent 20 years
coming up with his idea, streamlining
it and writing a script, part of the reason
why it is such an enjoyable film,
because he has incorporated his concept
into real life so seamlessly that
it feels incredibly real - sadly this
film doesn’t.
The film can be credited with
some slick cinematography, Damon
and Blunt (listen for her
questionable accent at the
beginning) give solid
performances and it
builds and flows nicely
even if it does culminate
with a fairly anti-climatic ending.
Overall a perfectly entertaining film
at first sight, but at a second glance it
doesn’t quite cut it.
THOMAS JENKINSON
(Heard) who decides to join him on his
quest for no apparent reason whatsoever
and is relentlessly pursued by The Accountant
(Fichtner) who is tasked with
bringing Milton back to Hell.
What follows is an orgy of car chases,
explosions, people dying and people
being naked (and in fact there is indeed
a scene where Milton simultaneously
shags and shoots). And all this is in 3D;
a pointless gimmick which serves only
to give the viewer a headache - it is
without doubt the worse use of 3D I’ve
seen in a movie since Clash of the Titans.
Some have tried to defend this film
by saying its beauty lies in how bad it
is; a bit like the recent Machete. Except
the latter was funny and was so because
it knew it was silly; Drive Angry seems
to take itself too seriously. The film is
not without its good bits though; Fichtner
clearly relishes the role of Lucifer’s
right hand man, both psychotic and empathetic
when needed, he is responsible
for catching escaped prisoners.
That’s another thing; the idea of
Hell as a vast prison where the Devil
is simply the warden, a quiet man who
hates the idea that people sacrifice babies
to him is actually fairly original.
Heard also is a highlight simply because
amongst the grizzly Cage, gaunt Fichtner
and podgy cameo David Morse, she
provides some much needed eye-candy.
Overall though she and Fichtner can’t
save the film from the stupid mess it becomes.
They say you can judge a film
by how many people go and see it. In
this case, there were five people in the
theatre. Says it all really.
DAN ORTON
No Strings
Attached
Dir: Ivan Reitman
Cast: Natalie Portman, Ashton
Kutcher
(15) 108mins
AFTER starring in Zach Braff’s Garden
State, N.S.A. sees Portman slip into
his scrubs as a medical resident with no
time or desire for a proper relationship. A
chance encounter sees her reunited with
old acquaintance Kutcher and before
long, the two attempt to be friends-withbenefits
without falling for each other.
Sounds interesting... sigh.
Maybe Portman felt she needed a
break after her gruelling exploits in
Black Swan; a bizarre contrast reminiscent
of how Sandra Bullock came out
with The Blind Side and All About Steve
around this time a year ago.
N.S.A represents no radical change of
pace for Kutcher, in fact no change at all.
Simply blank his characters’ names and
you could describe all his films as one
painfully long series, with the exception
of The Butterfly Effect.
Thankfully Portman’s scenes are
enough to hold the film together. Nevertheless,
as expected, a generic formula
emerges in the eagerly awaited closing
stages - think James Franco in 127 Hours
levels of desperation. The storming crescendo
of Black Swan now followed
with the predictable splurging of clichés
as they inevitably start to feel something
more.
Whereas Aronofsky laughs at the
concept of a ‘Hollywood Ending,’ this
film conforms to it with sickening obedience;
funny at times and stifling at others,
N.S.A fails to distinguish itself within
its limited genre; at least the no-strings
policy means you can simply get up and
leave without guilt.
NICHOLAS GILBERT

e x e t e r g u i l d . c o m / f o r u m r e p s
nominations open until
friday 11 march 4pm
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saturday 12 march 9am
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friday 18 march 4pm
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r e p r e s e n t

26 March 7 2011 Exeposé
Books
James Henderson & Jacob Moffatt - books@exepose.com
The very best series you ever Red-wall
Stephen O’Nion ,
Video Games Editor,
remembers the work
of Brian Jacques, the
author who sadly
passed away earlier this
year.
2011’s Destruction of childhood
progresses with each month. Not only has
Dick King-Smith recently passed away,
but on February 5 of this year so too did
Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series.
All I need now is for R.L. Stine and
K.A. Applegate to shuffle off this mortal
coil and I’ll declare this year cursed.
The death of James Brian Jacques at
the age of 71 is something that prompted
me to reconsider his fiction with my
rose-tinted glasses firmly in place. As
a sprightly 11 year old I was enraptured
by stories about the animals of Redwall
Abbey and the surrounding Mossflower
Woods. Disney films and The Animals
of Farthing Wood may be the mainstays
of anthropomorphic based adventures,
but the Redwall series managed to take it
further, and lend a sense of originality to
stories that carried the essence of another
time.
Like many others, I started with the
first of Jacques’ offerings, Redwall. Under
attack from Cluny the Scourge, a oneeyed
rat warlord, the residents of Redwall
Abbey turn to a young mouse named
Matthias to take up arms and organise
defence of their small community. It was
fresh, it was cavalier, and it had battles
with inspiring speeches and heroic last
stands in equal measure. In short, it was
designed for my demographic and I loved
it for that. Whilst Redwall lacked the focus
of his following books, containing the
only references to humans and horses in
the entire series and a number of songs
that didn’t really interest me, it mattered
little. I was hooked.
Yet whilst he sold 20 million books
worldwide, I’ve found Jacques doesn’t
command the same nostalgia that some of
his contemporaries do. His stories, for all
the larger-than-life characters and regular
use of a female protagonist, carry the feel
of a boys’ own tale from Imperial Britain.
Valiant warriors, noble sacrifices, and an
adventurous troupe often forced to defend
a place of worship all combined to
form tales that could easily be serialized
in a scouting book at the beginning of the
20th century. Yet it is partly because of
this that Jacques’ tales did appeal to my
childhood so much. I would regularly finish
the books only to pass them onto my
father and friends knowing that what for
me was a ripping yarn full of swash and
buckle was also some great escapist fare
that didn’t patronise the range of young
readers devouring the descriptive prose
within.
From Redwall it was possible to turn
to nearly any other offering, as although
the series was bound in its own chronology
over the course of 21 books, each
had a unique flavour and shared mythology.
None of the books were content
with a simple plot of A to B, i n -
stead weaving plots throughout
and often, as in the case of
The Legend of Luke, justifying
a third of the book. Just
as Jacques’ imagination
was given free rein, so too
was mine.
Much like King-Smith,
Jacques only found his true vocation
later in life. However being published
at the age of 47 gave impetus to provide
a voice for the ideas he had picked up
in life. For example, his trademark descriptive
style had been formed through
writing for children at a school for the
blind whilst many of his most memorable
characters were based on those
he knew in life. Struck by
this, in the course of
a few months I went
about reading everything
that he
had had published
up until
2002, often
several times.
From Redwall’s publication,
Jacques produced a book
nearly every year, turning in such brilliant
instalments as Marlfox, The Long Patrol
and Lord Brocktree. I savoured them all.
It was in these books that I was
taught hares spoke like upper-class
Victorians whilst
moles had westcountry
accents;
that foxes
could fight mice and still lose; that
it was perfectly possible for otters
to operate slingshots and
longbows. Yet above all, what
Redwall did was what reading
should do at that age: entertain
and engage. The
quality of the series as
a whole stands above
its minor blemishes, and
so whilst Jacques also came
to publish Castaways of the
Flying Dutchman and Seven
Strange and Ghostly Tales,
it is Redwall for which I,
and countless others, will remember
him. The final book
in the series, The Rogue
Crew, is scheduled
for release May 3
of this year, and
much like the
first title, way
back in 1986,
it will focus
on a battle for
Redwall Abbey.
It’s a fitting way
to round off the series,
and even though I’m almost
twice the age that I
was upon first thumbing
through book number
one, I’ll read book number
22 cover to cover, songs
and all. Eulalia!

Exeposé week twenty
Thomas Payne
discusses the
experimental style
and varied forms
of James Baldwin,
preacher turned
writer.
He was a seventeen year old African-
American preacher, a closeted homosexual,
growing up in the oppressive
confines of New York’s Harlem district,
emerging into a world of fervent prejudice
against every aspect of his identity.
He was also one of the biggest literary
heavyweights of the mid-twentieth century,
a time steeped in violence and outrage,
a period governed by the past, fixed
in the present and uncertain of its future.
It’s time to rediscover James Baldwin.
But first, let us put things into perspective.
Right now, a song about as
camp as a row of tents is breaking
records across the globe. It’s called ‘Born
This Way’, and in it, a decidedly overwrought
chorus preaches the need for
sexual, social and racial equality. Its success
is testament to the sheer degree of
tolerance exercised in our contemporary
British society. The recent resurgence of
literature from more obscure corners of
the globe, the writings of Amy Tan and
V.S. Naipaul for instance, tells a different
story. Their prominence on the contemporary
literary scene only serves to
affirm my belief that some of the best fiction
comes from extreme social and psychological
tensions, by giving a ‘voice’
to those who have fallen victim to oppressive
social structures.
But the best literature is also the
hardest to understand. Baldwin’s second
novel, Giovanni’s Room, was published
in 1953 where it was met with stinging
controversy surrounding its homoerotic
content. It is in fact decidedly hard, even
for the most empathetic of readers, to
interpret and understand Baldwin’s language
and his message, without being
driven off course by our own inner prejudices,
however slight. There’s even a concern
that Baldwin himself never really
found the words to express his angst. He
dithered between prose, poem and play
writing, perhaps never really finding the
best vehicle for artistic expression. His
later works, the novels Another Country
and Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been
“Baldwin’s last retreat
was, in many respects,
a crushing blow to the
progression of the Civil
Rights movements”
Gone, were highly experimental, featuring
an ensemble of black and white
characters with a mixture of sexualities.
Notably, his earlier novels didn’t feature
a wide spectrum of diverse characterisation.
They were written in his early years
of exile in Paris, whilst Baldwin was still
trying to come to terms with his sexual
ambivalence, just starting to find a voice
that was not “merely that of a Negro; or,
even, merely a Negro writer”.
“Its success is testament
to the sheer degree of
tolerance exercised in
our contemporary British
society”
Baldwin succeeded in bringing to
the public’s consciousness a strand of
cultural discourse, not acutely associated
with issues of race, but more broadly
concerned with identity, the search for a
voice amid myriads of prejudice. Tragically,
his later works failed to reflect the
kind of social progression we’d expect.
His works in the ‘70s and ‘80s were
scuppered by the assassinations of black
leaders and further homophobic attacks.
He returned to southern France at the end
of his life, where he died in the winter of
1987. Baldwin’s last retreat was, in many
respects, a crushing blow to the progression
of the Civil Rights movements. But
it was also a move that stressed the pertinence
of his earlier works, a sure sign
that his writing, although at times unsure
of itself, remains relevant so long as prejudice
exists somewhere in the world.
Review
The Mermaids
Singing
Val McDermid
ISBN: 0006493580
‘You always remember the first time.
Isn’t that what they say about sex How
much more true it is of murder...’ This
chilling line immediately stirs a morbid
excitement that only increases as you
read this macabre page-turner. To most,
the title of this book may be unfamiliar,
unless you are up to date on your T.S.
Eliot poetry. But the author Val McDermid
is surely not. The Mermaids Singing
is the first book instalment of the series
that inspired the hit TV show Wire
27
Books
in the Blood, named after McDermid’s
second novel revolving around criminal
psychologist Dr Tony Hill (played by
Robson Green) and D.I. Carol Jordan
(Hermione Norris). Tony is presented
as a sexually inefficient, bumbling but
charming man who has the mind of a
genius. His thought processes are as
clinical and precise as Sherlock Holmes
but are swayed by a modern twist; the
criminals Tony Hill deals with are not
just disturbed but deeply twisted and
perverse. The horrifically mutilated
bodies of four men dumped in areas
popular with Bradfield’s gay community
are just another case for Doctor Hill.
But when he is forced from behind the
scenes where he safely instructs the police
in their search for the killer, Tony’s
life also becomes at risk. Through his
heart-warming relationship with D.I.
Jordan, we follow Tony as he struggles
to come to terms not only with his personal
life but that of the murderer whose
mind he must infiltrate. McDermid’s
psychological knowledge is limitless
to the effect that the reader is left reeling
as to whether they are reading fact
or fiction. Winner of the Gold Dagger
Award for the best crime novel of the
year 1994, The Mermaids Singing is a
fantastically shocking thriller that will
leave the reader in a state of such mental
upheaval that they will never go out
at night again.
Rebecca Lodder
Sarah Byrne, takes
a look back at the
lasting legacy of
Douglas Copeland’s
1991 debut novel
Generation X
Although not a recent release the
themes of Douglas Coupland’s debut
novel are beginning to reverberate today.
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated
Culture is a text that, upon its
initial release in 1991, literally helped to
define a generation. Through the seemingly
aimless ramblings of his three protagonists
Coupland captured the spirit of
a disaffected generation, unhappy with
their economically waning society, and
indifferent to ‘yuppie’ attempts to save
it. 20 years down the line Coupland’s
novel has gained new resonance. With
many of the issues discussed in the book
re-occurring in today’s society Generation
X could be experiencing a rebirth.
Framed by the mundane lives of the
three main characters, Andy, Dag and
Claire, Coupland’s novel personalises
the hopes and fears of a generation that
came of age in the late 1980s. The characters’
fierce suspicions about popular
culture and insecurities about their futures
leads each of them to find themselves
living somewhat communally in
the bubble of a Californian desert town.
Underemployed but overeducated the
characters discover they have too much
time on their hands and so fill the hours
of their self-inflicted humdrum lives by
telling each other stories. Episodic in
structure, the seemingly pointless storytelling
becomes the centralising element
of the narrative whereby each character
narrates a reputedly random story whilst
the others listen and often fall asleep
before its denouement. The tales tend to
deal with the personal politics of love,
friendship, and family life and therefore
it is through the stories the characters
tell each other, rather than the narrative
of the novel itself, that we uncover their
histories and secrets.
Chapter headings such as “Shopping
is not creating”, “Purchased experiences
don’t count” and “Why am I poor” set
up a premise that tells the reader a lot
about the attitude the characters have towards
the world. The episodic nature of
the narrative doesn’t seem to lead to any
real conclusion and could be described
as unsatisfying, but in its unsatisfying
nature Coupland is emulating the attitude
of the characters in the reader,
namely, that life is mediocre and there is
nothing we can do about it.
The most interesting part of the text
is the snippets that are not part of the
text at all. Coupland litters the novel
with intermittent text-bites that appear
at the bottom of almost every page. It
is through concepts such as “Conversational
Slumming” and “Voter’s Block”
and statements such as “You might not
count in the new order” and “Reinvent
the middle class” that Coupland truly
spelled out his definition of the concerns
of a generation. So popular were the
terms he coined that many of them were
used by the press to describe the generation
depicted.
What originally started out as a nonfiction
handbook to the post-baby boomer
generation evolved into a compelling
dissection of the lives and attitudes of
middle-class, American twenty-somethings
in the early 1990s. Coupland’s
exploration of the characters’ contemplations
on issues such as economic
and political instability, pollution, and
unemployment will certainly resonate
with today’s readers of a similar age and
causes us to ask, has Coupland’s vision
of Generation X come full circle
Clare Mullins,
Lifestyle Editor,
discusses
Roald Dahl’s
idiosyncratically
dark and humorous
foray into adult
short story writing.
Have you ever wondered whether
Roald Dahl would be good in bed I
once had a seminar tutor who led a
discussion on love sonnets with the
theory that he could tell which writers
would be good at sex just by reading
their work. A night with Dostoevsky,
he judged, would be miserable
and guilt ridden, one with Dickens
far too heavily plotted. A rendezvous
with Shakespeare, he announced to
the class, ‘now that would be a night
to remember’. I don’t know whether
it was to do with word choice or
metre, imagery or syntax but when
you’re reading, you can tell.
It was with a memory of this
slightly disturbing discussion that I
approached Switch Bitch, a collection
of Roald Dahl’s short stories, that a
friend had picked up for me on a trip
to Topsham’s second hand bookshop.
Dahl’s stories, even his children’s
classics, have always had a dark edge
and for a young reader, the macabre
undertones and sick twists of his stories
form part of their appeal. With
just enough sinister to excite, just
enough detail to titillate, Switch Bitch
shows that Dahl didn’t just dabble in
the perverse; he was a master of it.
The short stories are in equal
parts hilarious and disturbing with
Dahl’s unique style evident all the
way through. Still cheeky and irreverent,
each story in Switch Bitch is a
maliciously funny take on the erotic.
Every story is dark and twisted and
oozing with fantastic possibilities. As
with Roald Dahl’s children’s stories,
nothing is ever quite as simple as it
appears and you know that, with the
turn of the page, the entire tale could
be flipped on its back.
The four stories included in the
collection feature a range of activities
from the beastly to the bestial and a
host of characters with the ability to
make your toes curl and your balls
shrivel back into your body. Switch
Bitch features a large cast of sexual
miscreants: an aging Uncle Oswald,
whose numerous sexual adventures
would put Casanova to shame; a bed
swapping pair of husbands who lay a
dastardly plot to sleep with each others
wives; and a mad scientist bent
on reconnecting man with his animal
ancestry - and that’s just the men.
Sexually reawakened wives, a mother
and daughter team of temptresses and
as many ‘nympho-birds’ and ‘juicy
females’ as Dahl can conjure up. If
this all sounds a little bit sickening
then don’t panic, it’s served up with a
delicious slice of humour and Dahl’s
tongue is firmly in his cheek.
Within a few pages, the reader
is once again caught up in the rich
and marvellous world of Roald Dahl
and his ability to switch between the
mundane and the extraordinary is in
full force in Switch Bitch. He transports
the reader into his own bizarre
universe where the shaming of the
US president in a scent-induced,
television-broadcast, sexual rampage
makes total sense. In the grip
of Dahl’s narrative, the reader barely
has time to question the leaps of logic
and imagination and, frankly, why
would one want to I would love to
live in a world where eccentric millionaires
have romantic liaisons on
the top of pyramids (practical because,
unless 4 assailants try to catch
you at it, you always have one side
of the pyramid to escape down) or, if
not live in one, at least be entertained
by the possibilities.
Wickedly funny and astute, Dahl
litters his stories with observational
tips for the would-be seducer. Did
you know, for example, that spotting
a nymphomaniac is simply a matter
of body language A curved posture
is clearly, in Dahl’s mind, a sign of
frequent embraces. If it’s an insight
into a person’s sexual indulgences
you’re after, then play close attention
to their bottom lip. Eyes can lie
but an inadvertent lick of the lips, a
nibble, a pouting trembler; these can
provide the suitor with a much more
reliable source of information.
If you’re prepared to disturb any
future re-readings of old favourites
then pick up a copy and indulge.
You’ll never be able to read The Twits
again without wondering what they
got up to in the bedroom (with Dahl
involved you can be sure it involved
the beard, the stick and something
grisly) and you’ll wonder exactly
what kind of kicks the BFG was getting
peering through windows - don’t
even get me started on Willy Wonker.
Switch Bitch leaves you with
no doubt about whether Roald Dahl
would be good in the sack. A man
with such a wicked imagination could
never be anything but ‘marvellous’.

28
Arts
Rosie Scudder & Ellie Steafel - arts@exepose.com
March 7 2011 Exeposé
EXHIBITION review
Fashion draws on illustration
Cyan Turan considers
the art of fashion
illustration.
SKETCHING has been and always will
be a beautiful and essential part of the
design process, something that creative
minds take to naturally in order to make
their ideas come to life. But illustration
and its many mysteries don’t just have
a part to play in the evolution of the
garment. Once a dress has sashayed
down the runway, the fashion illustrators
come out to play.
Even in our increasingly
technological times, fashion illustration
still has a transcendental allure that eludes
many a photographer. It’s the art that has
undergone numerous reinventions and
portrays fashion faithfully by putting pen
to paper. And it’s an art that is still very
much alive.
Two marvellous exhibitions have
recently paid homage to the history,
present and future of fashion illustration.
Dior Illustrated at Somerset House
and Drawing Fashion at The Design
Museum have both captured the timeless
qualities of drawing clothes - despite how
oxymoronic a term ‘timeless fashion’
may seem.
Dior Illustrated took a detailed
look at the illustrator René Gruau’s
relationship with the house of Dior.
Christian Dior and Gruau met on the
fashion desk of the French newspaper
Le Figaro in 1936 and thus began one
of the most fruitful partnerships in
artistic history. John Galliano once
said that “to be inspired by Dior is
to be inspired by René Gruau”,
testament to their kindred
spirits and Gruau’s talent
for capturing that which
is elegant and youthful in
both men and women. The
exhibition predominantly
displays Gruau’s
illustrations
for the
D i o r
parfum advertisements. The gesture
and attitude in Gruau’s illustrations
from the 1950s to the 1970s reflects
his understanding of the spirit of the
age. There is something deliciously,
mischievously modern about the
liberated poses of the women in his
visions.
The loyalty between René Gruau
and Christian Dior translated into a
loyalty between the artist and the house
of Dior after the designer died in 1957.
The 1960s rise of photography solidified
the enduring relationship as Dior stayed
faithful to Gruau’s work. Gruau’s focus
on line and silhouette is highlighted by
the exhibition in many drawings for
both the Dior clothing and perfume
ranges. Each woman (and indeed man)
appears engaged and sophisticated; their
elongated limbs convey a poise which
is simultaneously graceful and assured.
When, in 1966, Gruau’s drawing of a
pair of hairy, male legs scaled a full page
of Le Figaro, it became clear that this
was a man who could not only capture
essence with startling accuracy, but
one who could reinvent and break with
tradition whilst still retaining his creative
integrity.
Whilst Dior Illustrated chose to
concentrate on Gruau’s influence at
Dior, Drawing Fashion spans a century
of fashion illustration, and casts a
provocative glance into the future of
the art. Georges Lepape’s Chapeau de
Poiret, drawn in 1912, and his 1920s
drawings and covers for Vogue began
the exhibition which strikingly fused
fashion and art. The Design Museum’s
space was starkly lit, and led its observer
around a pathway through time
which impressed, if anything,
the astounding amount of work
that was produced by fashion
illustrators in the first half of the
twentieth century. One could not
help but be taken aback by
the sheer craftsmanship
and the scale of the
achievements
of artists such
as Romain
de Tirtoff
(known as
Erté), Paul
Iribe and
Pierre Brissaud, who
worked with materials
including charcoal,
watercolour and ink.
Moving through the century,
past an extensive space devoted to
Gruau, you reach the 1970s and 80s, and
what can only be described as a shock of
colour upon encountering the tribute to
Antonio Lopez, or ‘Antonio’, as was his
signature. Fashion exercised its greatest
influence through magazines, as is
still the norm today, but in these cases,
that influence was conveyed through
drawings. Even now, it is not difficult
to see why the drawings of Antonio
were a resounding success. His reach,
as an illustrator, was prevalent and he
captured the excitement of youth and
the movement of the clothes through his
vast array of work. Many of his pieces
are resonant of Andy Warhol, and he was
a master of drawing the attitude of the
garments.
“Even in our
increasingly
technological times,
fashion illustration still
has a transcendental
allure”
So where is fashion illustration now,
and what does its future hold Well,
illustrators like Mats Gustafson, Francois
Berthoud and Aurore de la Morinire
refuse to be crowded out by technology.
The methods have moved on, and artists
are now using monotype and collage to
bring couture to life. This is a serious
art, which, despite its depleted influence
and lessened notoriety, is still very much
alive. The current fashion illustrations
are clean-cut and subtle, with a return to
simplicity, perhaps a mark of our austere
times. They are popular among Chinese
and Japanese fashion magazines,
where they are admired for their edgy
rawness. There is a sense of mystery
that compliments the anonymous nature
of ‘the drawing’ as opposed to ‘the
photograph’ and to many enhances the
continuing allure of this particular art.
What these exhibitions capture is
our desire for the real, the visceral and
the ‘imperfection’ of the past. The more
we immerse ourselves in technology and
the more our lives become web-based,
the greater our yearning for human art
becomes. Retrospective glances toward
what has seemingly passed make us
nostalgic, because you don’t know what
you’ve lost until you think it’s gone.
Thankfully for us, fashion illustrators
and their beautiful depictions aren’t
going anywhere.
Photo: Drawing Fashion, Design Museum

Exeposé week twenty 29
Arts
theatre review
Frankenstein
@ National Theatre
February 18
POIGNANT, humane and brilliantly
staged, Danny Boyle’s recent directorial
return to the stage with an adaptation of
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein
is stage adaptation at its best.
Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s
Sherlock) and Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting)
alternate between the roles of
the Creature and Victor Frankenstein in
a casting decision aimed at highlighting
the connection between creator
and creation. It was Cumberbatch who
took the role of the Creature the night
I saw the production, starting off the
performance wearing nothing but intricate
and grotesque body make-up (the
product of four hours of make-up application)
in what is one of the most striking
opening sequences I have seen in
modern theatre. Cumberbatch’s acting
was superb, but it was Mark Tildesley’s
breath-taking set that made this opening
scene so iconic: a ceiling piece of 3000
light bulbs, each individually wired to
allow for endless combinations of light
sequences, providing a mesmerising
visual display under which the Creature
comes into being.
The actor/character combinations
used in Frankenstein have been discussed
profusely by reviewers, with the
general conclusion that it is the Cumberbatch/Frankenstein,
Miller/Creature
combination which is better. For me,
Cumberbatch’s presentation of a logical
and highly intellectual Creature whose
revenge on his master was more extreme
than in Shelley’s original text was
better than Miller’s extremely egotistical
Frankenstein, swinging between fascination
of his achievements and abhorrence
at what his scientific abilities have
led him to create. In the novel, Frankenstein
becomes increasingly psychologically
detached from humanity, plagued
with guilt and terror, but that aspect is
lost in this production and the character
seems slightly under-developed as
a result. However, this may be because
Boyle has decided to cut Frankenstein
out almost entirely from the first hour of
performance in order to focus closely on
the decline of the Creature’s morality.
Despite this, the relationship between
the two actors is brilliant, allowing for
some much-needed comedy to lighten
the intense atmosphere.
For those not able to see the production
in London themselves, there is the
opportunity to see both combinations on
March 17 and 24 via satellite screening
at both the Vue and Picturehouse here
in Exeter. For those wanting to make
the trip to see Frankenstein live, tickets
are hard to come by with the show
having sold out in its current booking
period. However, on March 10 booking
re-opens and I would urge you to beg,
steal or borrow a ticket to this imaginative
and absorbing show.
LUCY CRYLE
Photo: Anish Kapoor Sculpture Trail, Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens
Photo: Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee-Miller, Frankenstein, National Theatre
SCULPTURE review
Turning the World
Upside Down
@ The Serpentine
Gallery, Kensington
Gardens. London.
THE possibility of seeing the work of
a Turner Prize winning artist against a
fantastic London backdrop is rare. The
Serpentine Gallery, in London’s Kensington
Gardens is well worth a visit,
especially to see the sculpture trail by
the renowned artist Anish Kapoor. The
sculptures convey a unique vision of the
place that has been home to some of his
most famous pieces.
The large sculptures are dotted
around the park making the trail a great
thing to do during this fantastic spring
weather we are enjoying. The sculptures
are formed from curved panes of
PREVIEW
The Gondoliers, Exeter
University Gilbert and
Sullivan Society
@ Northcott Theatre
March 8-12
EXETER University’s Gilbert and
stainless steel, which create shiny reflective
surfaces mirroring images of the
park. The trail itself is named Turning
the World Upside Down, with the mirrored
surfaces flipping the words 180
degrees. The aim is “creating new vistas
in this famous and much-loved setting”.
The pieces certainly succeed in challenging
the perception of a renowned
location. They are at once a massive
contrast and a compliment to the natural
environment.
The placement of the four sculptures
increases their impact. They reflect the
sky, the water of The Round Pond and
the garden’s Longwater, alongside the
trees and wildlife. I saw it on a rainy
day when the water obscured the views
but on a bright day the perfect mirrors
would be even more stunning.
ZOE BULAITIS
Sullivan Society are putting on their annual
show at the Northcott this week.
Promising to be a funny and energetic
production, the plot follows two Gondoliers
whose world is turned upside down
after a shocking revelation and the arrival
of a mysterious heiress. The society is
known for its sparkling take on operetta
full of singing and dancing and this show
is set to be no exception.
1.
2.
4.
6.
7.
8.
Editors’
Top 10
The Gondoliers
G&S Play
March 8-12
Northcott Theatre
Waiting for Lefty
Play
March 8-26
BikeShed Theatre
3. Jongleurs
Comedy Roadshow
March 11
Barnfield Theatre
5.
Bassett
Play
March 13-15
BikeShed Theatre
Simply the Jest
Student Comedy
March 14-15
Phoenix Centre
The Haunting
Play
March 14-19
Theatre Royal,
Plymouth
Lilies on the
Land
Play
March 15-19
Northcott Theatre
Memory Lane
2011
Musical Show
March 17
Barnfield Theatre
9. Totally Tom
Comedy
March 20
BikeShed Theatre
10. Journey’s End
Play
March 21-26
Theatre Royal,
Plymouth

30 march 7 2011 Exeposé
Feature
Calum Baker, Screen
Editor, delves into
the world of bargain
franchises.
I’M gonna go out on a limb and state:
the Robot Wars PS2 game is far more
inscrutable than Joyce’s Ulysses and the
entire filmography of Jean-luc Godard
combined.
The bargain bin to end all bargain
bins, the world of the cheap video game
is a beautiful wasteland of shoddy entertainment
to rival a night with a poledancing
leper. I ask you: why don’t more
people know about classic racer Star
Wars: Super Bombad Racing A super
deformed Darth Maul losing a race to
Boss Nass is one of the more creative
additions to a canon I’ve been finding
increasingly stale. Spongebob: Lights,
Camera, Pants!, meanwhile, proved
prophetic: one mini-game sees you playing
a rudimentary Guitar Hero with our
favourite characters rockin’ out big time.
Seminal games indeed.
Naturally, I’d implore anyone trawling
the wasteland to keep an eye out for
brands they recognise – Star Wars and
Spongebob are obvious franchises, but
look closely and you may discover tieins
approaching the calibre of Smarties
Meltdown, where Smarties eat other
Smarties. Or are they collecting them
Perhaps the game, far from being a disgusting
indictment of our culture’s dregs,
is actually an exploration of consumer
culture and its comparisons with canniba-
OK, it’s a game where you play as
Smarties.
It seems perfectly natural, though,
for certain developers to cash in on
already-successful ideas – think of the
money they rake in with every movie
tie-in. It’s just making a living, right I
remember well, in 2002, the world clamouring
for an Antz game, and an Antz racing
game no less (Antz Extreme Racing).
God delivered. Frankly, the exploration
of bargain games is a lesson in business
tactics – this, kids, is exactly how to cater
for a mass market.
Above all, it’s wonderful to see the
level of detail that’s gone into these
games. For just a couple of quid you
can purchase Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction,
a work nearly rivalling Proust
in its meticulous density. It’s nigh on
impossible to build a robot and progress
onto any sort of battle, which may have
turned some players off but which I see
as a wonderful exercise in multi-layered
intellectualism. The loving care put into
the game’s complex structure is incredible
considering the price it’s at now.
Let this be a final… warning’s not
the word… encouragement for everyone
reading this to go out, grab a cheap game,
and ask yourself: why isn’t this the biggest
gaming franchise on Earth Why do
so few people appreciate the innovative
inscrutability of these wonderful, insane
titles
NEwsbyTES
Gamers! Want to get your hands on
every ZeniMax/Bethesda game past,
present and future For free! Well,
all you need is one child and
one complete lack
of parenting ability.
Simply have a
child born on
11/11/11, call
it Dovahkiin,
and the prize
is yours!
Additional
loot is also
promised, but
we’ll have to
wait for other
c o m p a n i e s
to pick up on
this kind of offer.
I fear for
children everywhere
when
a new Monkey
Island game requires
an easy
promotion.
On the subject
of children, the Wii
has again confirmed
Nintendo’s reliance
on the non-gamer market
with We Dare. This
PG-rated game features
spanking, stripping and
hardcore face-nuzzling action
to complete its challenges,
and is sure to bring a family closer
together. Fortunately, a budding artist
has created the technology to do just
that. Hye Yeon Nam has created a new
bowling game controlled by passionate
French kissing. Ultimately confirming
the future has arrived, gamers need only
strap on a magnet and sensor, and away
they go!
If you thought of pirating such a
game, you may soon be in luck. Ubisoft
has announced plans to abandon DRM
for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on
the PC, and hints that this may be a continuing
feature in releases. No longer
will players have to be connected to
the internet in order to play single
player, and the
life of amateur
pirates worldwide
has just been made
easier.
Finally, returning to
our age-old tradition of trumpeting
Valve, we’ve received a
press release that Valve are looking to
introduce a ‘big picture’ mode for a
television version of Steam. With over
30 million accounts, Steam looks like it
may be expanding to the console market,
and destroying all who stand before
it. We love you Valve. FYI.
Video Games
Stephen O’Nion & Alice Scoble-Rees - games@exepose.com
Choice is nothing
new in video
games. Text-based
titles such as Oregon
Trail made up of many
people’s fond/rage-filled
memories. Yet in 2011,
Dragon Age 2, L.A. Noire,
and Mass Effect 3 are all
set to be unleashed upon
an adoring public, likely
without the option of dying
from dysentry. Previously,
Bioware managed to
make Mass Effect
and Dragon Age two
of the most involving
games yet released,
whilst Rockstar’s Red
Dead defined a real sense of
reputation in a virtual
world. The application
of specific dialoguerelated
consequences was more
than a simple gimmick, it became
a method to relate to
the world around you, and
feel significant within it.
With these fairly open games I often
reach the point where I question what
exactly my time is dedicated to. Whether
it’s after spending an afternoon building
the tallest possible lava-fortress in Minecraft
or having spent all my bottlecaps
in New Vegas in Fallout, I’ll eventually
pause and question where the hours have
gone. What leads me to this point in the
first place, is the sheer extent of choice
on offer.
Whenever I’d watch friends play
Knights of the Old Republic or Fallout,
the destruction they gleefully left in their
wake would leave me feeling slightly
queasy. I’d largely play as I imagine
I would in real life. Of course, most of
my time in a real post-apocalyptic world
would involve finding a secure building,
plenty of tinned food, and likely
an open-world video
game to while
Read this. Or don’t.
The pitfalls of
choice examined by
Stephen O’Nion,
Video Games Editor
the hours away but let’s say I was forced
to track down whoever tried to kill me;
it’s then I can adapt my normal actions to
this new world.
The avenues of choice therefore
present me with a certain dilemma each
time I play. I shape the world around me,
and I feel the consequences. Mass Effect,
Fallout, Dragon Age; these are games
that respond to the decisions made within
them. This is choice at its most detailed.
You thieve; you’ll get bad karma, or people
feeling worse towards you, and that
in turn affects how you have to complete
levels, how you have to navigate the rest
of the game. If you do good deeds, on the
other hand, you might get a reward like
a house or some roasted iguana - thanks
token Fallout villager! But just as there
is good choice, there’s also bad choice.
There’s a reason Fable 3 was as derided
as it was praised; when choice is scaled
back to good and bad, it is reduced to
black and white, rather than the scale of
grey that really engrosses.
When contrasted against an offering
such as Mafia 2, the highly trumpeted,
and subsequently rather disappointing
mob ‘em up that offered
gamers a chance to engage in fierce
box unloading action at the docks before
choosing to toss it all in for a life of
crime. This veneer of choice is nothing
but a lazy add-on. Why are my choices
between crime or box-based activities
My choice is to do or to not do, and
this is pretty much no choice at all. The
same largely applies to Fable 3 or Bioshock
2 where choices are clear-cut yes
or no, or kill or spare.
These games lose so much of their
appeal when the player can’t submit to
the world. Choice has not become
a tool to engender an attachment,
but instead heighten
its lack of depth. It’s
telling then, that by
contrast, it’s completely
possible
to be absorbed by a linear game, just
look at the most successful franchises of
all time; Mario, Zelda, Halo etc. I don’t
doubt the extent to which Bioware’s and
Rockstar’s offerings will absorb all manner
of player, but it’s when these options
are exhausted that the real problem arises.
How can anyone commit to a standard,
linear game when it looks like there’s a
whole world out there, and people within
it just waiting to be encountered How
can an open-world game keep the player
involved unless choices are meaningful
and relevant. A choice has to be made; is
the game to be played as a story or as an
adventure In my case, games like Mass
Effect 2 haven’t ruined gaming, but it’s
kind of reaffirmed the point that ignorance
is bliss.

Exeposé week Twenty 31
Bulletstorm: People
Can Fly / Epic Games:
EA; PS3/360/PC.
February 25 2011
Referred to by Fox News as ‘the
worst video game in the world’, Bulletstorm
was already causing controversy
before hitting the shelves, and with
good reason; this is possibly one of the
most crass, violent and profane games
I have played in a long time. However,
despite Fox’s immense outrage, such
immeasurably mature content doesn’t
mean that Bulletstorm is a bad game. If
anything, the relentless obscenity and
bravado are one of the game’s strong
points – the obnoxious and often foul
humour is oddly charming and gives
the game plenty of character, even if
that character is foul mouthed, misogynistic
and armed to the teeth.
Bulletstorm follows the story of
Grayson Hunt, the epitome of the familiar
‘badass mercenary’ character type.
After being shipwrecked on a hostile
alien world, Grayson must track down
his old adversary, General Sorano.
Pretty standard stuff thus far; the story
is good enough to provide some context
to the action, but serves little purpose
beyond that. The characters are nicely
fleshed out but never really step beyond
the realm of action movie clichés. If
you were looking for a deep, meaningful
story that brims with metaphor then
Bulletstorm isn’t for you. However, if
you’re bored with the standard thoughtless
gameplay that permeates many
recent shooters, it’s worth giving this
game a chance, because of how it sets
itself apart from other shooters.
“The obnoxious
and often foul
humour is oddly
charming”
It does this with the idea of ‘killing
with skill’: early in the game Grayson
acquires a weapon called a Leash,
which allows him to pull enemies and
objects into the air. The Leash also
evaluates the player’s combat performance,
awarding skill points for specific
actions: killing an enemy in a highly
elaborate way results in a higher reward
than simply shooting them.
Points earned in combat can
then be redeemed for
upgrades and ammo
at supply stations
scattered throughout
levels. Bulletstorm
encourages
the player to
constantly try new
things by revealing
new combos
and combat situations
as the game
p r o g r e s s e s ;
spikes are
Lesson one of future
warfare: Choreographed
standing.
conveniently placed
for impalements
and explosive
containers
are liberally
placed along
c o r r i d o r s
and pathways.
The game’s adult
humour extends to
the combos, many
of which are (not
so subtly) laced
with innuendo;
some of the more
PG names include
‘drilldo’, for impaling
enemies
with a drill-gun,
and ‘ejeculated’, rewarded
for ejecting
opponents from an
airlock. From start to
finish, Bulletstorm encourages
the player to
think creatively and
experiment with the
way they play.
Bulletstorm is
also a very good
looking game; crumbling
cities and carnivorous
jungles are
high in detail, and give the
illusion of an expansive world
beyond the linear path that the player
is guided down. Even more magnificent
are the giant set piece moments,
such as tearing through an amusement
arcade with a robotic dinosaur in tow,
or watching half a city tumble down.
The sense of scale is impressive, giving
Bulletstorm plenty of memorable
moments.
However, there are negatives too:
despite being a paltry eight hours long,
Bulletstorm began to become repetitive
towards the finale, which occurred prematurely
in an obvious attempt to set
up a sequel. To me, this was more offensive
than the entirety of the game’s
violence, language and toilet humour.
I was bemused by the lack of a co-op
mode (especially as the player always
has at least one AI character with them)
and the multiplayer modes are easily
forgotten. Despite these shortcomings,
I couldn’t help but like Bulletstorm for
its imaginative gameplay and gutsy
content. So if you’re not easily offended,
I would definitely
recommend
that you try ‘the
worst videogame in
the world’ – you might just
love it.
7/10
Alex
HawkswortH-Brooks
Kirby’s Epic Yarn:
Good-Feel/HAL,
Nintendo; Wii
February 18 2011
Kirby’s Epic Yarn, developed by
Good-Feel and HAL Laboratory, a name
which makes me think of a groping killer
robot, was released in Japan and America
last October, and I’ve waited months for
this game.
It was worth the wait. Many will recognise
Kirby from the Smash Bros series,
as this is his first console game in eleven
years! Why isn’t Kirby used more often
He’s cuter then a dozen kittens!
Anyway, Kirby, a small… blob…
thing is transported by an evil sorcerer
called Yin Yarn (who was hiding in some
bushes like a flasher) to Patch
Land, a world made entirely
from string, fabric
and, of course, yarn.
Kirby, transformed
into a ball of yarn,
teams up with the local
monarch, Prince
Fluff, to stitch Patch
Land back together!
The story is effectively
told. The narration
sounds like someone reading
a bed time story and the style
and humour reminded me of kid’s shows
like The Clangers and Button Moon. It
leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a platformer,
similar in design to Super Mario Bros
and the recent Donkey Kong Country
Returns. You collect beads and furniture
to earn medals and buy more furniture,
in order to decorate your flat. It’s a stupid
gimmick, but the interior design
mechanic is actually relaxing, and collecting
all the items in each level adds
challenge. Furniture also unlocks minigames
that offer more replay value. This
game might be hell for OCD gamers like
RETRO
Devil May Cry 3:
Dante’s Awakening:
Capcom, Ubisoft;
PS2/PC. March 24
2005
C h r o n o -
l o g i c a l ly
Devil May Cry
3 serves as a prequel
to the first game, returning
to the main protagonist’s
origins.
The story revolves
around Dante,
and his rivalry
with his
twin brother
Vergil as
he tries to
unleash hell
on Earth. Understandably
opposed
to the idea,
Dante goes
to confront
myself, who need to collect everything,
because there is so much to collect.
The best features of the game are the
music and level design. Everything is
made of yarn, stitches, zips, thread, etc,
and the imagination is astounding. Each
level offers a new design or gameplay
feature allowing you to interact with the
world, such as a music level with dozens
of playable instruments. Visually this
game is fantastic and ridiculously cute!.
At one point, you find a crying teddy
bear who you help by repairing the tear
in his foot. I think it’s the cutest moment
of gameplay I’ve experienced all year.
Each level ends with Kirby transforming
into something cool in order to
complete a challenge, such as a tank or,
my favourite, a fire truck. The difficulty
is low, as Kirby can’t die, he just loses
beads whenever he’s hit and, honestly,
collecting beads is unnecessary. But you
won’t care because its so much fun. Two
player co-op is great and simple to set
up using a drop-in system, so it’s a great
way to play with a partner or to introduce
a reluctant house-mate to gaming.
Despite how awesome
the levels
are, how fun
the game is
to play and
how cool
the bosses
are, the
game has
some dist
u r b i n g
t h e m e s .
Kirby is
h e l p i n g
Prince Fluff
take the land
back from
Yin-Yarn,
essentially
replacing
one tyrant
with another,
his brother. The story is told through
over the top cut scenes throughout
the game with entertaining dialogue,
gratuitous violence and a blatant disregard
for the laws of physics.
DMC3 is a third person hack and
slash game where skill is rewarded.
Players get the use of ten crazy
weapons; each weapon has a number
of combos to unlock for an alarming
variation in possible attacks. Alongside
the standard sword and pistols,
you unlock more weapons as you
progress through the game including
a guitar that emits bats and lightning
at the same time!
“The developers
put a lot of detail
into this game”
Part of what makes DMC3 such
a joy to play is its large variety of
distinct enemies requiring the player
to think of crazy strategies just to
survive the onslaught. At the end of
most levels are some of the most interesting
bosses to appear in video
games, each requiring the player to
find and exploit a weak point. There
may be a lot of bosses but each one
Video Games
rather then introducing democracy or
anything. It’s practically a metaphor for
Iraq or something. Prince Fluff’s assistant,
Dom Woole, is a capitalist more interested
in acquiring tenants for his block
of flats, which he gets you to pay for. Kirby’s
mode of attack is to whip enemies
Indiana Jones style, using fabric from his
body. His own body. That’s like strangling
someone with your own intestine.
Worst is the morality behind fighting.
You can’t be hurt, and enemies can
be avoided and disarmed, so actually
destroying enemies is unnecessary. For
instance, you come across two sleeping
Waddle Dees, with beads in the shape
of a love heart floating above them. It’s
very cute, but you have the option of
hopping over them or whipping them
out of existence. Either choice is without
consequence. You soon realise Kirby is a
remorseless killer.
Despite that haunting note, the game
leaves you with a smile on your face and
can be summed up in two words: so cute.
“The difficulty
won’t allow
everyone to
experience
the game in its
entirety”
9/10
Luke Graham
A woollen Kirby
tank: The cutest
form of
destruction
imaginable
feels different to the last and there is
very little repetition.
When DMC3 was released it was
a beautiful looking game and it still
holds up today. Its eerie gothic aesthetics,
juxtaposed with a modern
electro pop sound track, make for a
unique atmosphere. The developers
put a lot of detail into every facet
of this game, which makes it hard to
fault, even six years after its initial
release. If there is a negative it is that
the difficulty won’t allow everyone
to experience the game in its entirety.
In my nostalgia-filled mind, Devil
May Cry 3 stands at the pinnacle
of gaming on the PS2, right up there
with the God of War and Grand Theft
Auto games.
Athanasios Skarlatos

exeterguild.com/podcast

Exeposé week Twenty 33
Sport
EUBC Head-ing in the right direction
Rowing
Duncan Head
EUBC
Exeter University Boat Club put
in a strong showing at BUCS Head in
Peterborough last weekend. The event
saw 45 universities from all over the
country compete in the pouring rain
and freezing temperatures. This year
saw a significant rise in the number of
entries, resulting in greater competition
for the Exeter boats.
In the beginner’s section, Exeter
was represented by two women’s
eights, two men’s eights and a men’s
four - beginners classified as those
whom only started rowing at university.
The course for beginners ran over
2500 metres on the River Nene, with
the Novice women coming in 15 th and
Swimming
Claire Griffiths & Lucy Hampson
EUSC
Over the past couple of weeks, the
swim team have been racing their
pool-shaped hearts out. When there are
only two official university swimming
competitions a term, apparently it makes
perfect sense to put them within seven
days of each other.
The fortnight of racing started the
weekend of February 11-13, with a seven
hour coach journey to the exotic location
of Ponds Forge, Sheffield. The girls were
first off the podium for the 4x 100 metre
women’s relay and landed a first reserve
place for the B Team Final. Although
the men’s team was not at full strength,
31 st place. The Novice men’s eights,
who medalled in this event last year,
came 11 th and 28 th out of 42 entries.
The Novice men’s coxed four put in a
strong showing, coming 5 th out of 38
narrowly beating Imperial, Durham
and Edinburgh and only missing out on
a first BUCS medal by 8.3 seconds.
In the senior events on the Sunday,
Exeter put in a very consistent
performance, with ten top-10 finishes.
The Exeter men’s first eight came
in a highly respectable 10 th in the
Championship division, showcasing
Exeter’s ability to hold their own with
the best rowing Universities in the
country - such as Cambridge, Imperial
and Newcastle. In the smaller boats, the
men’s first coxless four came 8 th and the
men’s lightweight coxless fours came
4 th in their division, unlucky to lose
the boys put in a great effort, with Jon
Congdon swimming a particularly strong
race leg.
Sturdy swims kept coming
throughout the weekend, particularly
from Ilya Skliarov in the 50 metres and
100 metres freestyle and Meg Davis in
the 100 metres backstroke and freestyle
events. A special mention must also go
to sports scholar Becki Warner, who
came back after illness for a stonking
performance and landed a fifth place
swim in the final of the 50 metres
butterfly
The final long course ended on a high
with a gutsy 400 metres freestyle from
ladies’ captain Kim Paginton. But the
very next weekend, the swimmers were
at it again for the Team Championships
on February 20-21. Team Champs were
out on a medal to UWE by just half a
second. The Women’s lightweight
coxless fours were another highlight,
with a bronze medal in their division.
Overall it was a good weekend
for EUBC, with results pointing to an
exciting regatta season, culminating
in Henley in July. EUBC are currently
in the process of fund-raising in order
to aid performance through improved
training resources and equipment, and
to ultimately achieve better results in
the coming years to establish Exeter
as a big name in University rowing.
A highlight of this fundraising effort
will be a 127 hour sponsored row in
the lead up to the 2011 Boat Race,
which will take place in the centre of
Streatham Campus and is sure to be a
great event for both the Boat Club and
the University.
Exeter’s BUCS coming along
swimmingly
on February 6.
Forgotten about by the coach
company this time, it was a shaky start
just getting to the BUCS Team Champs
at the University of Surrey. The team
arrived just minutes before the warm
up, but both the first and second teams
put in an impressive effort to retain their
division rankings against tough (and
warmed up) competition.
Again it was a medley relay to kick
off proceedings and both teams made a
strong start to the gala. Lara Langston
swam the leading backstroke leg for
Exeter 2 nd s, whilst Kim Paignton stepped
up to swim the unpopular third leg of the
race for the 1 st s put-out a smashing swim.
Despite some delays due to
problems with timing equipment,
EUSC maintained their competitive
BUCS Squash Update
Squash
Holly Gotlieb
Exeter University Squash Club
Last weekend, seven members of
the Exeter squash team headed up the
country to Birmingham to compete
in the BUCS Individuals Squash
Championships.
First to play was Jonny “the antiflair”
Machin, who won his first
match nice and easy 3-1 in the banter
D Division. His second match of the
day was against Plymouth’s number
two, Sam Barham, known for his epic
flair. Unfortunately the draw showed
a complete disregard for seedings,
the match being worthy of a final and
Machin losing 3-1 despite showcasing
his best squash this season.
Callum Wrench, the seed below
Jonny in the team, was placed in
the higher C draw and was also out
by Friday night having lost his plate
match during which he made a short
but fiery comeback, smacking down
his opponent 11-1 in one game. The
result was probably not helped by the
fact that Wrench had developed an
addiction for the insanely good value
meals at Roosters, Birmingham’s
answer to battery farming.
Steph Belinger put up a good fight
in her plate match and managed to
hold off her opponent until the fifth
game.
Canoeing
Exeter University Canoe Club
The Canoe Club have never done slalom,
there is not a decent course in the South
West to train on, and the slalom boat is
older than most of the paddlers in the club.
Still, when there’s a BUCS event to go
to, the team makes sure that they go. EUCC
were confident at first; they had a team of
good paddlers, the boat actually floated
and Wikipedia had told them which colour
gates were downstream or upstream. But
it became clear when the team turned
up and found the GB Team van and lots
performance throughout the 100m
events. Mae Dalgarno and Ilya Skiarov
placed well for the 1 st s in the 100 metre
events. Stuart Bartlett also clocked his
best time yet this season, in the longest
event of the Championships, the 200
metres freestyle, whilst Rachel Laurence
swam a solid race for the 2 nd s.
After a quick recess the
Championships were resumed for the 50
metre events. Highlights of the second
session included a nifty 50 metres
Butterfly from Parco Lau and a fantastic
freestyle 50 metres from Business School
student Ella Mutch.
For the closing events, the Men’s
Firsts (Nye Levett, Ilya Skiarov, Stuart
Bartlett and Parco Lau) and Ladies’
Seconds (Ella Mutch, Daphne Li, Claire
Griffiths and Megan Davis) closely
fought their respective 4x50m Freestyle
Relays.
Other notable swims were the 100
metres IM from Danielle ‘Bridget’
Raymond, the 100 metres breaststroke
from Dave Chesterman and the 100
Sophie Williams, Exeter’s number
one, seeded (9/16) in the Women’s B
Draw, whipped her Loughborough
player 3-0 in the first round before
a tough match against Manchester,
which also saw her out of the
competition Friday night.
Simon Livett couldn’t handle
the grind in his first match and went
through to the plate. Considering the
5am start we had that morning, Livett
was pretty livid about a 10pm match.
The anger paid off and he ground his
opponent into the floor. Feeling pretty
fresh on Saturday morning Livett
took the lead 2-0 in his next round,
however due to a crippling injury he
succumbed to the result of 3-2.
Jo Larsson, Exeter’s token Swede,
was placed in the A draw alongside
the guys’ ultimate man-crush UWE’s
Mohammed El Shorbagy, ranked
number nine in the world. Claimed
and proven. After an epic win on
Friday, Larsson battled with the grind
of Birmingham’s Nick Hornby and
was brutally punished by the marker,
eventually losing 11-9 in the 5 th game
after a momentous battle of the grind.
Although not making the final
stages of the tournament, the whole
team played some outstanding squash,
with a much better performance than
last year.
Eddy-fying performance
of shiny smart boats that they weren’t
destined for the medals. Still, EUCC don’t
like to give up and gave it their best shot,
finishing 11 th out of 24 teams. One of the
K1 men made it into 21 st position out of
131 paddlers, beating several ‘real’ slalom
boaters who train regularly on that course,
and the K1 female paddler made it to 15 th
place out of 39. It was a surprisingly good
result considering it was EUCC’s first ever
time slalom racing, in a 4m long ancient
boat “with the turning circle of jupiter,”
and has left EUCC wondering what they
could achieve if they built a whitewater
course on the Exe.
metres freestyle from Lucy Hampson.
Charlie Weaver and Matt Jones swam
well for the 2 nd s, despite being asked to
compete in events they don’t normally
train for.
Men’s Captain Dave Chesterman
commented, “The teams were up
against some tough competition in both
divisions but it was good to see the guys
go out there and put in some big swims
to challenge the top teams.”
By the end of the weekend, the
Exeter 1 st s held their position in the top
division of the Southern Championships
whilst the 2 nd s narrowly missed out on
promotion.
Although that’s it for BUCS
swimming competitions this year, EUSC
are now starting preparation for the
annual Swimming Varsity on March
12. The event looks set to be a great
day for swimmers and spectators, with
Bath, Portsmouth and Southampton
Universities coming to compete and the
Water Polo team getting involved. All
money raised will go to Diabetes UK .

34
Sport
EUMHC enjoy the spoils of victory
Hockey
Samuel Burret
EUMHC Club Captain
IT is in a philosophical mood and with
an enormous sense of pride that I sit
down to write this article. I believe I
was fortunate enough to take part in one
of the most unique and special sporting
fixtures to occur in the confines of
the University Sports Park for many
years (I am aware my position in the
EUMHC 2 nd XI colours this view ever
so slightly).
To the best of my knowledge it
is unprecedented that two sides from
the same Club should find themselves
competing against each other for a place
in the final of a BUCS Championship.
Yet this was the path that fate laid in
front of the EUMHC 2 nd and 3 rd XI
following their defeats of Gloucester 1 st
XI and Bristol 1 st XI in their respective
quarter finals.
“The psychological
nuances of this internal
encounter made for a
fascinating study”
The psychological nuances of this
internal encounter made for fascinating
study. The proud 2 nd s, twice defending
BUCS Trophy Champions, were aiming
to make it three Gold medals in a row.
They unsurprisingly were the bookies’
choice! The newly promoted and highly
talented 3 rd s had come close in their two
previous pool games against the 2 nd s
and could be quietly confident that an
upset was a distinct possibility.
The most intriguing aspect was
undoubtedly the on and off-field
relationships that came to a head when
match day arrived; fellow EUMHC
members stood opposite each other,
friends were now foe and as both teams
completed their identical warm-ups on
the day, it was evident that each side
would be entirely aware of the others
game. It was the green and white of the
2 nd XI versus the white and green of the
3 rd XI.
Combat commenced at 2pm on
Wednesday March 2 at their neutral
home venue on the summit of St.
David’s Hill. Chances were sparse
and although the 2 nd s had the lion’s
share of possession they were unable
Ladies Football
Clare March
EULFC
EULFC are through to the semi-finals
of their respective BUCS cup after
beating Southampton Uni 1-0 in their
quarter final. A great goal by Hannah
“Ginger” Barton secured the win, after
Rose “Crackers” Glendinning missed a
penalty.
Due to a waterlogged pitch, the
game was moved to the rubber crumb.
This changed the dynamic of the game,
however, the team successfully adapted.
to regularly penetrate the 3 rd s resolute
defense. Shot-corners seemed the order
of the day. Charlie Rookes, the 2 nd s
most prolific scorer, screamed his first
drag-flick into the right hand roof of the
net early in the second half to nullify
Luke Owen’s superb first half flick
that had given the 3 rd s the advantage.
Rookes scored again from the top with
twenty minutes to go and the status of
the 2 nd s looked to be affirmed.
Yet the 3 rd XI revealed a belligerence
and unerring self-belief that fuelled
their legs and the two hundred strong
crowd. A collected reverse stick finish
from Tom Walter, the 3 rd XI captain,
deservedly returned the game to parity
with time diminishing rapidly. A
breathless seventy minutes of normal
time finished two goals apiece.
The crowd reveled in the prospect
of fifteen minutes of golden goal
entertainment whilst the players
desperately sucked in the crisp March air
and prepared their lactic-laden muscles
for a final push. Form and reputation
were now removed. The victors would
be defined by resilience and bottle!
Tom Walter spurred on the 3 rd s with
a request for more of the same. The
2 nd s captain, Simon Hare, granted his
players a few inspirational expletives
with which to settle their minds and
fire their bellies. And so it continued in
much the same vein until, with seven
minutes remaining on the clock, there
came the chance of the game; an open
goal, the 3 rd s all but in the Final, a
floored striker, innocence proclaimed
by the defence, uproar from the crowd,
a penalty stroke controversy...defensive
hit awarded to the 2 nd s by the Umpire.
They had survived and undertook to
reverse their fortunes. The final five
minutes saw Samuel Little, the 3 rd s
goalkeeper, and his defense repel five
short corners in an act of remarkable
defiance. The emotionally shattered
crowd roared as the second final whistle
blew signifying that this epic was to be
decided by penalty flicks.
“With seven minutes
remaining on the clock,
there came the chance of
the game... ”
Five of the bravest from each
side put their hands up. This was to
After the game, first team captain Toddy
said, “Our squad is coming together at
the crucial time of the season which
is allowing us to gain the results we
deserve. Hopefully, we will be able
to reach the final and be rewarded for
all the hard work we have put in this
season.”
EULFC are also doing well in their
BUCS league, currently five points
behind leaders Bournemouth Uni. The
team remain hopeful for promotion
after winning four of their last five
matches.
With three games to go, one being
against Bournemouth, all EULFC can
be a competition marked not by the
errors of the stroke-takers, but by the
brilliance of the goalkeepers. Samuel
Little lunged low to his right early on
to parry the 3 rd s into a winning position
only to see Andrew Miller make a sharp
save to his left for the 2 nd s the very next
flick. Eighty-five minutes played, four
flicks taken and not even the badges
on their shirts could separate the sides.
Spectators and players looked on with
wide eyes and chewed nails as this
momentous battle drew to a conclusion.
The fifth flick for the 2 nd s seemed
destined for all the glory of the net, but
once more Samuel Little refused to be
beaten and a stiff left arm halted the
ball firmly mid-flight. It was fitting that
Tom Walter found himself in front of
the goal to endeavor to claim the spoils
of victory for the 3 rd s. Characteristic of
his leadership throughout the season
the ball sailed confidently into the
side netting and the 3 rd XI captain,
affectionately named ‘Disney’, raised
his arms aloft as he absorbed the impact
of fifteen extremely sweaty, but elated
players.
“It is fitting that Tom
Walter found himself
in front of the goal to
endeavour to claim the
spoils of victory”
It was a pleasure to witness both
the magnanimity of the Exeter crowd as
they fought with the unusual paradox of
having to congratulate and commiserate
their Exeter comrades alike, as well as
the behavior of competitors themselves
who in their joy and desperation, won
and lost with an extremely respectful
grace. Chris McInroy, Director of
Hockey, was ‘delighted’ by the
performance of his players. All in all
this was a day in which Exeter Hockey
was resoundingly victorious.
The 3 rd XI will now compete
against Manchester 1 st XI in Sheffield
on Thursday March 17 for the coveted
BUCS Championship Trophy. They
will sadly not be joined by the 1 st XI
who narrowly missed an opportunity to
defend their BUCS Championship Gold
after a 2-1 defeat to Loughborough
University.
EULFC hopeful for promotion
do is work hard, play well and grind out
the needed results to gain promotion.
1 st team coach Rich said “We made
hard work of the quarter final (against
Southampton), but showed great
character to pull through in a difficult
situation. Although being promoted
isn’t in our control, I feel confident that
we can close the gap as I believe we
have the strongest team in the league,
with several players fighting to play in
the 1 st team. The freshers have settled
in and are playing well, the future can
only look bright for EULFC.” 2 nd in the
league and in the semi finals, things are
definately looking bright for EULFC.
Rugby League
Jennifer Manby
Senior Sports Reporter
THE arrival of March basked Devon
in surprisingly warm sunshine,
and with it came a hoard of BUCS
Quarter final matches, with Exeter
University Rugby League first team
taking on Edge Hill University.
With Edge Hill placing 3 rd in
the Super 8 League, the league
above an obviously tense Exeter,
it was set to be an exciting match.
The first 10 minutes saw both
teams playing hard and fast, which in
many cases led to sloppy mistakes and
poor ball handling. Despite this, the
first try of the day came from Exeter’s
Angus Gardiner settling the teams
into the match and bringing the score
to 4-0. A quickly paced 10 minutes
later, Exeter’s Cormac Healy widened
March 7 2011 Exeposé
EURL smash through to
Exeter Rugby League cruise though to the BUCS semi finals after a comprehensive 38-8
the lead with a hard fought try, which
was then converted with ease by Nico
Flanaghan to bring the score to 10-0.
Edge Hill were quick to retaliate to
the growing lead, putting pressure on
Exeter, who displayed handling errors
similar to those seen at the beginning of
the match, which led to a penalty given
to Edge Hill. Edge Hill made the most of
this advantage and scored an effortless
try bumping their score up to 10-4.
“Cormac Healy widened
the lead with a hard
fought try”
Exeter’s Hugo Fraser regained
possession from a badly placed Edge
Hill kick which led to a spectacular 70m
sprint past many opposition defenders
along the left sideline to touch
down with a dive that Chris Ashton
himself would have been proud of.

Exeposé week Twenty 35
Sport
the Quarter Finals
Crossword Week 20 by Clare Mullins
Across
1. State in which the Declaration of
Independence was signed (12)
6. Chocolate bar containing hazelnuts,
nougat and caramel (5)
8. Modern day Mesopotamia (4)
9. Element, atomic number 6 (6)
10. Libya’s second city (8)
12. Twenty-fourth letter of the Greek
Alphabet (5)
13. Young swan (6)
16. Brother of Menelaus (9)
18. Successor to the League of Nations
(2)
19. Famous for her visions of the
Virgin Mary (2, 10)
Down
1. Followers of a famous Greek
mathematician and philosopher (12)
2. Pharrell Williams – Roman God of
the Sea (7)
3. Female demon – CAUSCUB [anag]
(7)
4. Home to Mr Tumnus (6)
5. A facebook friend (12)
7. Song by Alanis Morissette (6)
8. Volcanic moon of Jupiter (2)
11. … Knows Best (5)
14. What mutton likes to dress as (4)
15. A benevolent woodland creature (4)
17. Most powerful lobbying
organisation in the USA (3)
Solutions to No. 18
Across - 1. Gumption; 5. Cat; 8. Racketeer; 9. Ti; 10. Reddish; 12. Bern; 14. Fox; 15. Tub; 17. Elide; 19. Tacit; 20. Sin; 21.
Emma; 22. Sunny; 23. Badger.
Down - 1. Gertrude; 2. Macedonia; 3. Temesis; 4. Obe; 6. After; 7. Grub; 11. Hood; 13. Enticing; 16. Beth; 18. Elegy; 19.
Tata; 20. Sas.
Pub Quiz
1. What country is known as modern
day Persia
in British history at 112 years and 296
days
victory over Edge Hill University.
2. What was the capital of West
Germany
5. Who claimed to be Samuel
Johnson’s patron
With their growing frustration clear,
Edge Hill piled the pressure on Exeter,
leading them to close the first half with a
try, bringing the score at half time to 14-8.
Exeter came back on fighting form,
which saw the second half starting just
as excitingly as the first, with a try from
Nico Flanaghan following rapid passes
from Cormac Healy and Josh Webb.
With the score at 18-8 to Exeter
it was not a great time for Edge Hill’s
Centre to be yellow carded and sent
to the sin bin for 10 minutes after an
illegally high tackle. Exeter grabbed this
advantage straight away with Josh Webb
touching down from a penalty to bring
Exeter into an impressive lead of 22, to
Edge Hill’s 8. Edge Hill’s frustration
grew further as they gave away a
series of penalties; Nico Flanaghan
took advantage of this and crossed the
line to score his second try of the day.
Following an explosive tackle,
play was stopped for an extensive
period of time due to one of Edge Hill’s
players sustaining a nasty dislocated
shoulder, which saw him leave the
pitch to a resounding roar of clapping.
The game restarted fuelled with the
same drive and determination as before,
which saw a lot of pressure from Exeter.
Josh Jones scored his first try of the
match after gaining the ball from a ruck
5m off Edge Hill’s try-line, which was
neatly converted by Nico Flanaghan.
“The game restarted
with the same drive and
determination”
The game was brought to a close by
Josh Jones’ second try of the match again
from a ruck just off Edge Hill’s try line.
This was again confidently converted
by Nico Flanaghan, bringing the final
score to 38-8 to an elated Exeter. It was
a confident win which sees the boys pull
through the first round of knockouts to
play Loughborough in the semi finals.
Well done to both teams; it was
an exciting and hard fought match,
and we wish the boys the best of
luck in the semi-finals next week.
Rugby League Varsity
Exeter v Gloucester
Mens and Womens matches
March 30
Prince of Wales Stadium
Cheltenham
3. What are people now using in Japan
in order to combat hay fever
4. What is the name of the British man
officially recognised as the oldest man
Sudoku
Easy
6. Which controversial ice-cream
flavour was recently banned
7. Which Best Picture Oscar nominee
for 2011 grossed the least
Hard
Answers: 1. Iran 2. Bonn 3. Pollen detecting robots 4. Henry Allingham 5. Lord
Chesterfield 6. Human Breast Milk, aka ‘Baby Gaga’ 7. Winter’s Bone

36 March 7 2011
Sport
Alexander Cook & Andy Williams - sport@exepose.com
Lacrosse Green Machine roll on
Lacrosse
Tom Glover & Jamie King
EULC
The Mens 1 st X kicked off their season
with home openers against the Universities
of Bristol and Brighton, welcoming a
number of new faces to a side off the back
of a rigorous pre-season schedule and
tuition from new North American coach
Daniel Aas. The team fought hard against
the old West-Country foes with the match
ending 6-6 and a feeling that the game
could, and should, have been won. A man
of the match performance from fresher
goalie Nima Barzin did however provide
confidence in the ability of the side’s
debutants.
A 7-3 win against new opponents
Brighton led to arguably the hardest
fixture of the season away at Oxford
University. Exeter hung in contention
until the second half before a combination
of a lack of defensive discipline and
the talent of Oxford’s exciting North
American contingent meant that Exeter
began to fall behind. The match finished
a disappointing 16-8 to Oxford.
A week later the overnight trip to
Brighton beckoned and, despite poor
conditions, it provided a fantastic bonding
opportunity for the team, which was
highlighted in their stunning performance
on the pitch. Exeter dominated the game,
coming out 10-2 winners. Notable
performances came from Nick Kempster,
who dominated the face-off, and men of
the match Tom Loake, Jamie King and
Captain Tom Podd. The Bristol away
match the following week was a closer
affair but some scorching outside shots
provided by midfielders James Please and
Alex Wilby meant that Exeter ran out 7-5
winners.
This meant the 1 st X went into the
Christmas break sitting at the top of the
BUCS Southern Premiership. Not content
with resting on their laurels, the team
started 2011 with the Oxford return fixture.
Although Oxford seemed to be lacking
some of their North American talent that
proved so lethal in the first game, Exeter
put out a fantastic performance finishing
the match 8-2 winners. The fixture also
drew interest from the local BBC news
crew who covered the story of Exeter’s
rise, which can be seen on the BBC
website.
The last two fixtures in the league
required Exeter to face Warwick, a
side with a formidable reputation in the
Premiership, who were responsible for
the conclusion of Exeter’s 09/10 season.
The first match was close, Exeter went
into the second half 7-2 down but after
some adjustments to both the attack and
defence Exeter conceded no goals in the
entire second half but could only put
away two more of their own. It finished
7-4 to Warwick. The deciding fixture
of the BUCS Southern Premiership
Exeter Men’s Lacrosse Team have had a winning 2010/11 season, with all the team playing exceptionally throughout.
brought an enthusiastic home crowd with
Exeter needing to win by four or more
goals to secure the title. From the start
the team looked focused and composed,
going into half time 4-1 up after a solid
defensive effort. As the second half
progressed, confidence rose and the team
scored a number of impressive goals.
The game finished 7-2 with notable
performances from Joe Almond, Nick
Kempster and Jens Halling, who scored
a superb hat-trick. Exeter were crowned
Champions at their first attempt.
Fresh off the back of winning the
BUCS Southern Premiership title,
the first team faced the University of
Plymouth in the first stages of BUCS
Knockout. Plymouth travelled to Exeter
with confidence and the will to win but
Exeter started the game, putting away
two early goals. They dominated the rest
of the game and won 12-0 after some
very classy goals, with Club Captain
Alex Wilby scoring five. The boys
went on to face Sheffield Hallam in the
quarter-finals filled with confidence
and keen to progress even further.
Unfortunately Hallam put in a solid
effort in the first half before pulling away
in the second half and winning 10-2.
The team were naturally devastated but
proud nonetheless, having put in a good
performance against a better team who
now face Durham in the Final.
Frustrating cancellations due to
inclement weather and opposition
teams being unable to field a side
means that progress in SEMLA has
been slow. The freshers, having started
learning Lacrosse five months ago, have
progressed extremely quickly. Recently
Exeter hosted, and won, a tournament
for all beginners’ teams in the South-
West. If they can continue to progress
at this rate then hopes are high for next
year! Nevertheless, the season isn’t quite
over yet as Exeter are in a good position
to win SEMLA South West 2 and the
Minor Flags tournament, not to mention
the mixed tour to Dublin where Exeter
look to retain their crown.
Exeter
Demons
feel Bath
sting
American Football
Will Budge
EUAFC Publicity Officer
Exeter’s trip to Bath on Sunday
February 20 promised to be a
tight encounter with great playoff
consequences, and it very much lived
up to both of these expectations. Both
teams entered the game with just one
“Exeter and Bath
were evenly matched
with neither team
able to assert
themselves over the
other”
defeat and subsequently the potential to
make the post season.
While the game’s score line shows
how close the game was, the excitement
factor was low due to the conditions
of the Bath pitch, in some places
looking more like a swimming pool
than an American football pitch. The
treacherous conditions underfoot made
it very hard for both teams to get any
purchase on the ground so progress was
slow throughout the game.
While both being handicapped by
the pitch, Exeter and Bath were evenly
matched, with neither team able to assert
themselves over the other. However,
Exeter did manage to drive the ball up
the field on a couple of occasions, but
one fumble and several penalties let
them down.
The stalemate was finally broken
in the third quarter as Bath completed
a fifteen yard pass for the touchdown.
The extra point not being converted still
left Exeter in the game and a long fourth
quarter drive orchestrated by Fin Brown
and Will Budge (offensive MVP for the
second week running) gave Exeter hope
but ultimately came up fruitless handing
Bath the narrow victory.
Entering into the last game of the
season, Exeter needs to beat current
SWAC leaders UWE Bullets on March
6 if they hope to advance to the post
season. Regardless of whether they
do or not, Exeter’s unprecedented
success this season has been laudable,
with much of the credit lying with a
committed and talented coaching staff
and the strength and determination of
the whole team.