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For example, on May 10th 1994 Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as Prime Minister of South Africa. Some of you may choose to mention that this was the culmination of a war of attrition that had taken years, but that is neither here nor there. Suffice it to say that history affords every day its mention and May 10th 2011 is one such occasion.

I have requested a front row seat at the Apollo on this date, May 10th 2011, as history is due to be made. The Hammersmith Apollo has somehow collected Mos Def, Talib Kawli, De La Soul, and Rakim into one show. For those of you scratching your heads in confusion, asking why I’ve spouted a bunch of tongue twisting names, stop reading now. For those hip hop heads out there however, you can blink now but don’t let that breath go. The universe has answered your call. Hip hop (real hip hop) is on its way.

Now get ready to release that breath you’re holding because the universe isn’t done. No, not by a long shot. Wu Tang Clan just announced their next UK tour dates. Come 11th until the 14th June the cities of London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh will get a serious taste of cream. Not since I’ve been old enough to go outside by myself have I been this excited. If you’re as excited as I am I expect to see you there, nodding your head as history makes itself heard.

Ben Borrows

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A friend of mine suggested going to Creamfields in conversation and I passed it off by nodding but not really committing to anything. He knew I was something of a music festival fan, and also the obnoxious know-it-all kind so he left me to it. However, like most new things that someone you to, it seems to pop up everywhere. TV, conversations and radio I couldn’t escape it so I gave in searched for it. The first names I read on the line up were David Guetta and Deadmau5. I didn’t need to read any further. I had attended a Deadmau5 concert earlier in the year and it ranks easily in the top ten performances I’ve ever seen.

The music is a bubbly mishmash of trance and electro-house that seems to tap into that primal urge to dance. The accompanying laser light show is no slacker either, providing an experience I was eager to repeat. David Guetta is the bigger name out of the two, providing some of the most iconic main stream house beats of the time, creating catchy duets with Akon and Kelly Rolland. Armed with the anticipation of seeing these two and a plethora of other acts I proceeded to leverage my savings against a loan from the “rents” so I could purchase that golden ticket.

This year is slightly different; last year I wanted to go a fraction of how much I want to go this year. Shy FX, Paul Van Dyk, Calvin Harris and Chemical Brothers; these guys have been on repeat on my iTunes since the line-up was released, they’ve been dominating the most played list for years.

Ellie Harris
Photos by: Creamfields

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The scene, which took in Bob Dylan, Simon, and Garfunkel and a young troubadour from New York, Jackson Carey Frank. Those idyllic days of the early 60s were to be the kindest to a man whose whole life reverberated with tragedy and despair. For a man who has only ever released one album, ‘Jackson C Frank’, Frank was still covered by folk luminaries such as Sandy Denny, with whom he had a relationship, and even Simon and Garfunkel. Yet, to this day he is a lost gem, underappreciated in the annuals of folk. I first heard about him when Laura Marling covered his Blues Run the Game, which instantly evoked images of an itinerant singer, trying in vain to find sanctuary from the “blues”.

The whole album is punctuated by a forlorn intricacy where the mellow, careful plucking of the solitary guitar floats around a fragile, mellifluous voice that sings from the roots of a tragic despair. The root of that despair comes from an incident when Jackson was only eleven. In school, a furnace blew up which killed fifteen of his classmates and left him severely burned. The trauma of this event would haunt him his whole life. Even so, the album is a light, delicate affair with subject matter ranging from relationships to the life of carnival and circus folk.

Frank was first introduced to playing music when he was recovering from the fire; his teacher brought him a guitar to lift his spirits. From that stage onwards, music became his foremost love and he played in some local clubs in Buffalo. At the age of 21, he received an insurance check of $110,500 for the school incident, and caught a boat to London and became immersed in the folk scene, finding both love and a place where his talents as a songwriter were highly appreciated.

Paul Simon heard his songs and instantly offered to record them. Overwhelmed, Jackson took him up but was so shy in the recording process that he had a screen put between him and the producers, producers that included Al Stewart and Art Garfunkel. Although initially the album fared well in the UK, due to its extremely poor reception in the US and a burgeoning depression that Frank claimed derived from his childhood trauma, his savings were much depleted and he went back to America for two years.

When he arrived back in London he seemed a different person. His depression had swelled and no new musical offerings were forthcoming, apart from a new thrashing sound that was at odds with his original style. Due to the fire his health and voice was deteriorating, a side effect being a thyroid problem that made him gain rapid weight. In this state, he moved to Woodstock, got married – but tragedy was never far away.

He lost a son to cystic fibrosis and had a mental breakdown leading to him being institutionalised. Begging help from his friends, an article was published on him and the 1965 album was re-released. In 1984, whilst his mother was in hospital for open heart surgery, Jackson went to New York frantically in search of Paul Simon. Not finding him, he had to rough it and was frequently moved in and out of mental institutions.

Fortunately a young folk-lover, Jim Abbott, heard about Frank’s woeful tale and managed to contact him, securing him accommodation in Woodstock. On meeting Frank, Abbott was shocked by his condition, commenting on the indecency of a fifty year-old man having no possessions but for a battered suitcase and a pair of broken glasses.

Whilst Frank was waiting for a bus from New York to Woodstock he was shot in the eye by some kids messing around with a pellet gun, which subsequently blinded him. Frank spent the rest of his years living and playing in Woodstock, trying to gather enough songs for a second album, a feat he never achieved. He died in 1999, aged 56. When he left his mother in 1984 she found no note from him, believing he had died. If he was to leave a note it could easily have been plucked from one of his lyrics; Death gives no reason. So why should I?

Tom Procter

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Literally, it is a music festival; however to those blessed with wisdom enough to attend it is so much more. It is the alternative music festival; what’s more it is equally renounced for its artistic, theatrical, film celebrations as well fair grounds and activities. All situated within the colourful fan fair surroundings with a lake to boot. Latitude festival attempts to do what other festivals can’t or won’t do, in that they go out of their way to create an ambiance and experience that is individual.

This is evident in everything they do, from the idiosyncratic designs (coloured sheep and a daisy chain arch are my favourites) to its extensive music acts. Previous headlining acts include, Jarvis Cocker, Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, Elbow, Pet Shop Boys, Gaslight Anthem, Nick cave and Bad Seed’s Thom York, Florence and Machine and Vampire Weekend.

Now, if you haven’t taken a breath, do so now because the line ups are always fantastic and this year is looking bright too. This year the wonderful stages of Latitude will be graced by My Morning Jacket (immortalised in an awesome episode of American Dad), Seasick Steve, Glasvegas, Suede, Bright Eyes, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Foals and many more.

What more, the famous Latitude festivities don’t end there, this year the comedy arena line-up includes Alan Carr, Angelos Epithemiou and Mark Watson, all headlining acts in their own rights. With theatre, poetry and art to boot, Latitude stands unparalleled as the bohemian paradise found, a secret you would be better off for sharing.

Steve Fawkes
Photos by: Latitude

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The fingerprints of Bob Marley are everywhere and the issues of race are prevalent in popular music. Across the pond something amazing has happened, out of the embers of the New York ghettos a sound is born. Much like the music scene in New York, DJ’s from the Caribbean’s played Reggae, Ska and Calypso in the UK and out of these were born the modern MC’s. Figures like Tippa Irie dominated the scene bridging the gap between Jamaica and the UK with spoken word poems with a Reggae feel. It was as if someone had switched a light on the urban landscape and music plants that had been starved of sustenance had suddenly bloomed.

The influences of earlier genres were immediately apparent in remix culture of the UK hip hop scene. Its earliest MCs derived most of their linguistic forms from their American counterpart but still kept their Ska beats to form their own sound. Artists like Rodney P and REBEL MC led the way inspiring more young writers and artist to contribute their own work to the increasingly original UK hip hop scene. The end of the eighties saw the advent and subsequent explosion of acid house music; it was the age of the rave. A new generation tired of the slow music revelled in this new electronic music scene.

Much like Ska it was easy to produce and the early rave scene was full of armature and aspiring DJ’s. With the exception of a few shining examples like Prodigy and the Raga Twins most of these faded out of existence as acid house evolved into jungle. Much like Ali G suggests jungle was ‘massive’, however like most drug-fuelled music its hedonism would lead to its demise as rave became more dangerous the jungle scene lost some of its core fan base. By the mid-nineties the garage music from the US had hit our shores, and once again UK acts began adapting it and putting their own finger prints on the genre till speed garage was born.

UK garage introduced a unique aspect into house, which usually has four by four beat. They produced as well as four by four, two by two beats known as two steps. The genre utilised the underground pirate radio stations, to add an element of the streets to the music. Its biggest proponents were So Solid Crew. Famous for their antics and criminal activities appealed to the rising gang culture in inner city urban areas. Garage much like grime was noted for violence at raves.

2001 grime is born. No bells, no whistles, just a lively music scene in East London evolving the two-step break beats to create a unique gritty sound. But grime birth saw something of a unique development in the criminalisation of a music genre, with its popularity and relationship with street running counter intuitive with its survival.

Grime concerts remain to date one of the most difficult to organise, which has seen some of its biggest proponents softening their styles to alleviate some of the stigmatism placed on the genre. An act that has been seen by some as euphonising the platform they rode in on.

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Hullfire: What is your involvement with the End of Year Ball ?

AOB: I am in charge of organising the whole event.

HF: The end of year ball is a major undertaking, how fast in advance do you have to start arranging things?

AOB: I start planning the Ball a week after the last ball has finished. We book all the boring stuff in, like fencing, stages etcetera, a year in advance and I start contacting bands and DJs in November (8 months advance).

HF: What considerations need to be made when booking artists?

AOB: Are they going to get the crowd going and trying to book a variety of artists are my main two priorities.

HF: You are booking artists for three different stages how do you prioritise this.

AOB: There are thousands of students that come to the University of Hull from all over the country and the world. Booking a line-up that appeals to everyone is near on impossible so I try book a variety of acts from commercial bands and groups down to underground Dubstep and D’n’B DJs.

HF: This year The Wombats cancelled at short notice. How long did you have to find a replacement act and what prompted you to go for The Streets?

AOB: This was obviously a massive pain for me as the line-up had been fully confirmed and finding a band big enough to headline the event at such short notice takes a lot of hard work. I booked The Streets because I am personally a big fan of their work and they have a huge back catalogue of ‘sing along’ songs that people know and love. Also, this is one of their last ever shows they will play so it was a great look for the Union.

HF: How important do you view things such as Crystal Clears involvement in the End of year ball ?

AOB: Most Union’s around the country don’t entertain the idea of working with students on their larger events. I think that as Crystal Clear DJ the backroom at Brassick every week they should be given a reward and be allowed to play on the same stage as the like of Benga, Danny Byrd, Toddla T and Dillinja.

HF: Alongside that how important do you view the alternative room ?

AOB: People who know me will know my love for alternative dance music. Over the past few years Drum and Bass and Dubstep have really taken off which has seen nights like Shinobi do really well. Creating a room at the Ball which specialised in this style of music was a natural progression for the event.

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HF: You’re about to start your first headline UK tour. You excited?
Ross: Yes and yes!
Sam: I’ve got a cold though! I am excited though. I tried to tell Ross earlier that I wasn’t feeling well and he told me to shut up. It’s cool to be back though playing headline shows – we’ve not done it for about a year or so. We’ve played Hull before – first time we played in Hull was with Biffy Clyro at the University and we played Lamp as well.

HF: Is there anywhere you’re looking forward to playing most?
Sam: Not really, we kinda’ treat everywhere the same.

HF: What about Glasgow, your home town?
Sam: We’re not playing Glasgow on this tour. You know what? Everyone’s hometown is kinda’ special for them. It’s a different type of nerves because your family, friends and girlfriends are there. It’s different for us because our hometown shows are different for us because they’re a bigger occasion which makes it even more scary because we’re not used to that. Glasgow’s not the most fun but it’s the most scary. It’s probably the most productive. I like the smaller gigs best because they’re either so bad that they’re so memorable or just… mental.

HF: Your new single ‘Edit Me’ which was out on February the 14th – why did you choose this track to be released as the first one from the new album out in May?
Sam: We thought it would get on the radio!
Ross: That’s not the real reason….
Sam: Nah it’s not. It’s a short, punchy introduction to the album. The balance has shifted from the way in which we write our songs. I get nervous saying that we’re grown up because then people will think ‘oh you’ve matured and you’re boring now’ or something. We’re just looking at things from a slightly different angle. We thought ‘Edit Me’ was a really good reflection of things to come.

HF: The music video is quite interesting, what was going on with the paint?
Sam: Honestly on the video we was just fucking about, man. We kinda’ fell out of love with the whole idea of music videos. From experiences we’ve had before we felt like instead of trying to please everyone with a shiny video we’d just make one. We had fun making and we can look back on in 20 years and have memories.

HF: Where was it filmed?
Sam: We filmed it in Santa Monica, where were we were recording. We were in California recording because our label has a studio there.

HF: What’s the differences between this album and the last album?
Ross: We’ve worked on it for a year and a half – you grow up a lot in a year and a half.
Sam: Some of the songs from the last album was from 3 and a half years ago – it was an accumulation, because a bands first real attempt at a release is usually the first three of four years of their song writing, so there’s bits and pieces of stuff that’s a little bit dated and stuff for us because you grow up a lot between the ages of 18 and 20.

HF: What track are you most proud of on your new album?
Sam: Good question!
Ross: I honestly don’t know…I have no idea! Maybe ‘The Ghost of Eddie’.
Sam: Eddie…it’s named after the dog of Frasier.

HF: Is it really?
Sam: No, I just made that up but you could of run with it but it’s not. We’re just fans in general of music and we tried our hand at making an instrumental song. It’s called ‘Serious Underground Dance Vibes’. We thought the guitar parts were good enough to hold the song but I suppose we’ll let everyone else be the judge of that.

HF: Have any bands influenced your new record?
Sam: Yeah, it’s probably different for Ross though but for me it’s probably Weezer, Nirvana and Foo Fighters – bands like that are song writers who use really good imagery.

HF: There are videos on YouTube of you guys getting tattoos when you recorded your last album– have you got any recently while making this one?
Ross: I got a stag on my arm that’s pretty new.

HF: Any reason behind it? You like stags?
Ross: I like stags…
Sam: He’s an animal lover man, he’s all about animal rights.
Ross: I got it the day the biggest wild deer was shot down by poachers.

HF: Is that a true story?
Ross: Yeah.

HF: I can never tell when you guys are joking or not.
Sam: Sorry, we’re fucking sarcastic idiots.

HF: Haha, right well – who has been your favourite person to tour with because you’ve toured with a lot of amazing bands?
Sam: Yeah we’ve been really lucky.
Ross: I think everyone has taught us a lot of things about being in a band.
Sam: It’s hard to answer because we kinda’ sit in a place of our own as to how we sound as a rock band and I think that’s why we’ve toured with so many different types of bands but we get on with different bands for different reasons, probably The Fall of Troy, that sadly don’t play shows any more. Either them or Enter Shikari we get on really well with them guys. It’s hard to answer because everyone so nice to us. It’s weird because we always used to really try to put our name out there, like get on tours, but it seemed as soon as we stopped trying then people started asking us to do stuff.
Ross: I think The Fall of Troy taught us to take things less seriously which I think is the best lesson ever.
Sam: Their probably the biggest influence on our new record – they made us kinda’ wake the f**k up a little bit about being a band.

HF: What do you think is the best and worst thing about being in Twin Atlantic?
Sam: The best thing I would like to think is the music we make together and then get to go out, go on tour and just meet your heroes from when you were 13 and fuck about and pretend you’ve got a real job, like this is our job. I think it’s got to a stage now where this is our full time job – it’s probably the most fun thing you could ever do. Just being in the band in general is the biggest plus.

HF: And the worst?
Sam: The worst thing is probably doing interviews!

HF: I knew you’d say that!
Sam: Nah, it’s not….it’s not! I like doing interviews but I’m a weirdo though. You know what’s been the worst thing for me is the fact that realising that everything you make you can look back on – if you look back at like a song you’ve recorded or a photograph that’s been taken of you, if you care as much about your music as a band as we do you look back on stuff and try to learn from your mistakes and you’re kind of always looking back and that’s a head fuck – like people reviewing you. Even people telling you you’re good that fucks me up as well. Never mind people telling me we’re bad. All the aspect of the press kind of things kinda’ fucks with my head a little bit.
Kim: So if they say you’re really good you have to live up to that?
Ross: Yeah or if they say you’re really bad it’s like ‘give us a chance’.
Sam: It’s peoples’ opinions, good or bad, that kind of make you start to think differently from when you first wanted to be in a band. You put yourself out there so we can’t really moan about it at the end of the day.

HF: If you could have written a song that another artist has written – what would you have loved to have put your name to?
Sam: I’ve got two that I can’t decide between – Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen or Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. If I could merge those two songs together.

HF: That’s everything, thank you very much. Your single was out 14th February.
Ross: For all the lovers!
Sam: Just steal it. Download it if you can’t afford it.

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 Here’s my Canadian Spotify playlist. Have a gander if you get time.
1.Weakerthans – Civil Twilight
2.Shad – Rose Garden
3.Tegan and Sara – The Con
4.Bedouin Soundclash – 12:59 Lullaby
5.The Be Good Tanya’s – Waiting Around to Die
6.The New Pornographers – Moves
7.Feist – Limit to Your Love
8.Broken Social Scene – World Sick
9.Tokyo Police Club – Bambi
10. City and Colour – The Girl
11. Caribou – Odessa

Just give them a listen.

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Jonny Rotten now has a butter advert that was more convincing. He had the whole wholesome do-gooder vibe that just makes you think of milk maids and organic free range cows. It seems, Johnny, that the long lived fascist regime managed to win you over to the land of milk and… well just milk really. Selling out seems to be all the rage now-a-days, even the so called “Father of Punk” is endorsing Swift Cover, an online insurance company. That’s right punk is endorsing an insurance company, yeah stick it to the man!

Sometimes the betrayal in selling out works backwards, for example take Gary Glitter’s advert “things people would do to hold onto their young rail card”, ominous now but harmless at the time. Or JLS producing condoms that will never get used, which seems like the opposite of what’s happening to them. Just Love Safe condoms are for me fascinating, I want to know which one of them represents which size of penis, if they’re based on height or they all compared in a group shower.

But like I stated before, there are sales in selling out and in these times who can blame these musicians for making their money, after all what’s the use of being famous if you can’t be rich.

Ben Borrows

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