Photographer Jasmin Bell went down to the BASE festival on July 18 to snap everyone enjoying the sunshine and immersing themselves in all the artistic wonderment of the day.
‘Youth is wasted on the young’, so the old saying goes. Too true – when your AU correspondent was a nipper his folks tried to introduce him to karate, mini-rugby, swimming, piano, French lessons and any number of other potentially life-enriching pastimes. Sadly, all AU wanted to do as a child was lie on the settee and watch cartoons. The result? The grown-up AU is now an expert at precisely nothing. Except cartoons. If only we’d shown a bit of gumption and followed the example of these dedicated youngsters, maybe we too could’ve been a contender. Of course, the main difference is that these kids actually have talent. The little bastards.
GRACE IS THE WORD
Here’s fresh-faced Christian vocal group Daves Highway (consisting of three chirpy American siblings) performing gospel standard ‘Amazing Grace’, and pretty impressive it is too. Not only is their sweet harmonising enough to almost bring a tear to the eye of a grown man, but they’re unfailingly polite as well, thanking everyone at the outset for watching their videos. It’s also an interesting incongruity watching the angelic trio deliver the line about saving “a wretch like me”. Great stuff, then – but could they do ‘Raining Blood’ by Slayer? Not bloody likely.
THE BOY CAN PLAY
Have you ever actually watched a children’s football match? Well AU unfortunately has and it’s not entertaining. The ball’s always too big for them, for one thing, they get knackered easily and they have frankly no understanding of the offside law whatsoever. But, crikey, check this kid out – a six-year-old French lad with quite unbelievable skills. It’s actually quite amusing to watch, as the pint-sized Pele’s opponents literally cannot get the ball off him. Step-overs, drag-backs, outrageous flicks – this youngster makes Cristiano Ronaldo look like Carlton Palmer.
WOKE UP THIS MORNIN’… HAD TO GO TO SCHOOL
“When he’s up on stage, he’s anything but a normal kid.” So says the father of Tallan Latz, who at eight years old is a phenomenal blues guitarist. Check out the amazing footage of the young fella playing in clubs with proper blues outfits, and more than holding his own. Pretty unbelievable, and endearing too as an animated Tallan excitedly describes what the guitar means to him and his plans for the future. Of course what Tallan doesn’t realise is that by the time he’s of age to earn a crust, all music will be made by robots and piped directly into our brains via a specially-implanted microchip, thus rendering all musicians superfluous. Sorry to crush your dreams, sonny.
Words by Neill Dougan
This track by Dublin band Solar Bears is damn special, and when you add some sinister kids TV footage it makes for a pretty arresting 3 minutes of youtube wonderment. Think Black Moth Super Rainbow locked in a Cbeebies limbo. The band’s new album ‘She Was Coloured In’ is out in September on Planet Mu.
AU photographer Will Neill packed his camera and headed off to Killyleagh on Saturday to check out some good bands and all round fun family entertainment. Check out the full days line-up here – http://www.willowstonefestival.com/
Bangor boys Two Door Cinema Club continue to add dates to their mad-busy schedule – including being supported by Delphic in Hong Kong! – but that hasn’t stopped them making another eye-catching video. And nor have they left it up to a director to make the whole thing alone, either. No, the three lads are yet again centre stage, this time in some kind of bewildering, nouvelle vague style mystery short, all split screens and split personalities. The track, ‘Come Back Home’ is taken from their debut album Tourist History, and the single is out on July 12.
The unmistakable legend that is Slash rocked his way to the Mandela Hall, Belfast last night. The former Guns N’ Roses/Slash’s Snakepit/Velvet Revolver guitarist has branched out in his own right, taking his trademark style with him. AU’s Ramsey Cardy went along to catch the guitar hero in action.
Animal Collective have once again been less than active in the launch of their new video by surreptitiously putting it up on myanimalhome.net without a word to anyone. Much like ‘Brothersport’, Animal Collective fans are expected to have the website as their homepage and constantly refresh just in case something new is posted. You don’t? Well you obviously don’t understand the Collective’s ethos. Maybe watching this will enlighten you to the band’s summer vibe. Grainy goodness.
WATER WAY TO HAVE FUN
You know how this feature is called ‘Weirdwideweb’, yeah? Well AU must confess that occasionally we fret that some of the monthly entries aren’t quite ‘weird’ enough. No fear of that with this website, the functionally-named Selleckwaterfallsandwich.com. Basically, it’s loads of pictures of waterfalls, with photos and animations of a) random sandwiches, and b) magnificently-moustachioed Three Men & A Baby star Tom Selleck photoshopped into the foreground. People have actually spent their free time knocking these up. Utterly, utterly baffling.
WWW.SELLECKWATERFALLSANDWICH.TUMBLR.COM
SEARCH ME
You know how, when you do a Google search, it uses your first few words to start throwing up some predictions about what phrase you might be searching for? Some of the suggestions are pretty wacky, eh? And, as if to prove the point, here’s Searchenginesuggestions.com with a collection of the more bizarre Google prompts. Among AU’s favourite phrases thrown up by the power of Google are “A girlfriend is a sister you choose” and the plaintive “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” Childish and puerile, indubitably, but highly entertaining nonetheless.
WWW.SEARCHENGINESUGGESTIONS.COM
ARC’ AT HIM
Talk about selfless. Here’s a fella (modestly remaining anonymous) with a large collection of old copies of Melody Maker and the NME from 1987 to 1996 – the golden age of the British music press, in other words, encompassing the tail end of Eighties indie, the house music explosion, Madchester and the rise of Britpop, right up to the point it turned a bit crap. Finding these old back issues in his attic, does this guy simply bin them as most of us would? Not a bit of it: instead, he scans the best articles, features, reviews and cover shots onto this website for your nostalgic delectation. What a bloody good bloke.
WWW.ARCHIVEDMUSICPRESS.WORDPRESS.COM
Last week, Leeds-based noisy bastards Pulled Apart By Horses did an instore gig at London’s Rough Trade East. AU was there with camera in hand, and below you can check out a rip-roaring performance of ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’ from their mighty fine debut album.
Click here to check out our recent interview feature, too.
Pulled Apart by Horses – I Punched a Lion in the Throat from AU magazine on Vimeo.
Graffiti on a boarded-up, burnt-out head shop in Temple Bar, Dublin, Spring 2010
“Imagine, for the sake of argument, you own a sandwich shop,” says head shop employee Pat Monaghan. “One day, sandwiches become a little controversial. After all, sandwiches aren’t the most healthy of foods, but you’re selling them legally and you’re paying a lot of tax, so you don’t expect any short-term problems. Then, almost overnight, the government makes sandwiches illegal. They instruct the local Gardaí to storm your shop, shut you down and confiscate your entire stock. Then they do the same to your warehouses. Your stock could have been sold abroad, but now you’re hundreds of thousands out of pocket, your employees are out of work and you’ve been threatened with a long stretch in prison should you try to offload your valuable sandwiches.”
Monaghan’s analogy might be a touch silly, but he makes a good point: the recent head shop debacle in the Republic has criminalised a lot of previously legitimate, profitable and tax-paying businesses. Shut down at a moment’s notice and forbidden from re-distributing their stock (abroad, for example) by strict enforcement, Fianna Fáil’s dramatic move to close the long-derided – and equally strongly defended – businesses probably did more damage to the owners than the mini-spree of vicious arson attacks that preceded it. In Monaghan’s eyes, it was equally unnecessary.
Given the number of head shop-related deaths and a propensity for underage use, it was clear before the law change that the outlets were becoming an issue that needed looking at. Galway West TD Frank Fahey (Fianna Fáil) summed up detractors’ concerns with his pre-ban comments. “It is very possible that use of these so-called ‘legal highs’ can irreparably damage a person’s mental health and this is not something that we can or should ignore,” Fahey argued. “We cannot let this issue drift. People using these products may very well suffer health problems in the long term and they will then be adding to the demand on our health services.”
It was clear from the bustling queues outside Dublin head shops that the issue was quickly becoming prominent, and health issues were, by all accounts, rising. Equally, though, Ireland has passed up a chance to examine the issue properly, rushing through laws when a temporary solution pending a thorough examination would have made far more sense. Instead, the government has ushered in a blanket ban that goes so far as to allow police to confiscate anything that they consider to be a mind-altering substance. As far as we can work out, that not only includes alcohol (which, according to the wording of the ban, is borderline illegal in Ireland these days) but could technically apply to Pritt Stick, too.
Putting aside those that will go straight to the shady dealers instead – and no-one knows quite how many fall into that category – we can certainly see the point of protecting former head shop users. We can’t help asking ourselves, though, where are the analogies of individual substances? Where is the effort to make a law that avoids giving unnecessary power to a police force that many already see as excessively draconian? Where is the basic common sense in not allowing businesses that – until just a few weeks ago – were entirely legitimate, to close down in a sensible way?
Whatever your feelings on the head shops themselves, amongst the arson attacks, deaths and debates, the government’s rushed final action – one that has given Fianna Fáil’s detractors yet another chance to accuse them of popularist band-wagon hopping – was arguably the least logical of all. James Hendicott
This article was first published in AU66, June 2010.
The new Not Squares single can be found in all its air-punching glory below. Being released as a 12 inch single come August, it’s an eight minute reminder of how ruddy excited everyone should be about their album due for September release on Richter Collective. Move everything breakable out of your way before you hit play.