Make some… Boys Noize!

Pressure’s 11th Birthday @ The Arches, Glasgow – Friday 27th November 2009 – REVIEW

Images used with permission from tilllate.com – many thanks!

Slam and Soma Record’s long running techno night Pressure celebrated its 11^th birthday in style with the enviable line-up of Slam themselves with Boys Noize, Carl Craig, Ben Sims, Nathan Fake, Cassy, Housemeister, Sunday Circus and Edit Select.

The sell-out event was hosted in the iconic Arches, whose underground ambience fits Pressure’s vibe perfectly. Pressure has seen the likes of techno legends Laurent Garnier, Luciano and Dave Clarke over the years, and Boys Noize were back after last year’s slamming birthday event, this time to headline the night.

Upon arrival, the club was already packed with the eager crowd more than up for it. The atmosphere was charged as every room was filled to the brim with voracious clubbers, excited for the massive line-up ahead.

Pressure @ The Arches

Heading to the back arch to check out Slam’s set; we were treated to the perfect warm-up to their night’s birthday as they set the scene with heavy house and techno bass lines.

In the playroom Cassy’s deeper house sounds was an inviting break to the main room madness while Nathan Fake’s tech-house set beckoned from the front arch. Housemeister played a mean mix of techno with electronic beats in the back arch, warming up for his fellow German counterparts.

Pressure @ The Arches

The night belonged to Boys Noize and as soon as Alex Ridha took to the decks the crowd lunged forward going crazy. He dropped a few tracks from his current album Power tweaking them with beats and breaks for his live set which the rapturous crowd went wild for, with a mass of hands in the air. From start to finish his tight techno rifts were filled with his trademark heavy, electronic, loud bass lines.

The 5am licence was the piece de resistance, putting Pressure and The Arches up there with the best of the London clubs. After this impressive birthday event, Pressure continues to prove its Glasgow’s finest unrivalled techno night.

Check out this review and more in January’s issue of tilllate magazine – out end of December!

Su-bo smashes world record

By Gemma Haigh & Narelle McGowan for Edinburgh Napier News

Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent

Scottish Singing Sensation Susan Boyle has broken a world record with the best-selling album in British history.

The Britain’s Got Talent runner up’s first album I Dreamed a Dream hit the number one slot yesterday selling 410,000 copies.

‘Su-bo’ appeared on The X Factor last Sunday singing her first single Wild Horses.

Simon Cowell told BBC News: “In Britain’s Got Talent she opened her mouth and the world fell in love with her, which is why her album has been the fastest selling of any woman making her debut.”

Edinburgh Napier News caught up with one of Susan’s oldest friends, Suzanne Clifford, from her hometown Blackburn.

Suzanne says of Susan’s singing: “I didn’t know that she could sing until she got up and sang in the pub one night and it was just absolutely amazing.”

Suzanne worked in the local pub where Susan would wow the punters singing songs from her favourite musicals every week on the karaoke.

Susan also toured with the pub band and entered competitions, so it was of no surprise to the people of Blackburn when Susan finally got her big break on Britain’s Got Talent.

Suzanne recalls the whole town getting behind Susan when she was on the talent show: “It was amazing because all the pubs and houses had banners and posters up everywhere saying ‘Go Susan’ and ‘Vote for Susan’.”

Watch the interview in full below:

The sound of Wonderland

Wonderland @ Ministry of Sound, London – Saturday 24th October 2009 – REVIEW

Images used with permission from Ministry of Sound – many thanks!

When Pete Tong announced he was taking his brand new Ibiza night Wonderland to Eden back in 2008 there were gasps of horror at the thought of the top DJ abandoning swish superclub Pacha in favour of San Antonio’s less swanky offering. But the move proved to be extremely fruitful (not only for Eden) with the Wonderland brand growing massively and now featuring all over the world at festivals and clubs.

Wonderland dancer @ MoS

On my first trip back to the buzzing capital city of London, this time as a proper grown-up, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to hit some of the biggest clubs in the country and of course there was no competition on discovering Pete Tong’s Wonderland night was on – Ministry of Sound it was!

I’d heard the area the club was in wasn’t the best but jumping out the taxi on arrival and being greeted with a thumping bass line and huge quirky Ministry of Sound posters, the dark industrial setting only made the club ooze with even more coolness.

A huge courtyard fills the outdoor space where smokers can listen to funky house beats while dabbling in their guilty pleasure but preferring to spend the chilly October evening in the warmth we headed inside up a long corridor and stood for a moment to take in our surroundings.

Wonderland @ MoS

You could mistake the Main Bar for the main room it’s so huge, plus the great electro tunes coming from We’re Not Cool in the DJ box signalled main room carnage. It was only upon realising it was Chris Lake who should be warming up the decks for Pete Tong we noticed the stream of people weaving their way through the crowd towards a sign labelled Box so we followed.

Entering the Box we were suitably impressed – this was what main room action was all about. A bespoke sound system ensured the bass lines were of the finest quality as Chris Lake warmed up the decks for Wonderland’s main man. Throwing some of our best dance moves amongst the eager crowd we were treated to an audio-visual display surrounded by Wonderland themed décor and it wasn’t long before Pete Tong himself took over the decks and treated the animated crowd to a seamless set of expertly blended house and techno.

Wonderland @ MoS

Having missed Wonderland in Ibiza it was exciting getting to see what all the fuss was about and it definitely wasn’t without reason. Pete Tong knows how to put on a show and Ministry of Sound is the perfect setting – the fact it’s open till 7am is an added perk – only in London!

Check out this review and more in December’s issue of tilllate magazine – out end of November!

No redundancy pay for off-licence staff

EXCLUSIVE by Gemma Haigh & Narelle McGowan for Edinburgh Napier News

Staff at eight Edinburgh First Quench off-licences face redundancy without pay, leaving them with the prospect of a long fight to claim their money.

Edinburgh Napier News has learned that some of the staff, many of whom have worked for the company for up to 20 years, will not get the redundancy payments they are entitled to.

One worker said that many staff are devastated by the news and feel it is unfair they are not getting a redundancy package.

Administrators KPMG were brought in to try to save the business, but now they are planning to close dozens of branches across the country.

A First Quench spokeswoman refused to confirm that staff will be left without pay.

First Quench, who own Wine Rack, Thresher, Haddows, Bottoms Up, The Local and Victoria Wine have 219 stores across Scotland, 53 of which face closure and of the 1,300 stores in the UK they are closing 373.

During the recession, increased competition from supermarkets as well as stock problems earlier this year added to First Quench’s problems.

The eight Edinburgh stores confirmed to be closing by a First Quench spokesperson are:

1. Haddows, Gorgie Road
2. Haddows, Ferry Road
3. Thresher, Ferry Road
4. Victoria Wine, Leith Walk
5. Victoria Wine, Haymarket Terrace
6. Victoria Wine, Easter Road
7. Victoria Wine, Newington Road
8. Victoria Wine, Davidson Mains

The X Factor Xposed!

Ever been sitting in the comfort of your living room watching The X Factor and thinking ‘wow, I wish I was there’ ? Well I was lucky enough to be sat in the audience for last Saturday night’s show during big band week, and it was pretty amazing.

I won the tickets after being subjected to watch Hole in the Wall being filmed at the BBC Studios in Glasgow during the summer – I was looking forward to that until it turned out Anton du Beke off Strictly was the new host, replacing Dale Winton and he was extremely irritating. Anyway, they had a competition to win tickets to one of  The X Factor live shows and another annoying celebrity Abi Titmuss picked my name out a hat to win! But I still don’t like her.

So some weeks later myself and my friend Lisa were eagerly awaiting in the queue outside the Fountain Studios in Wembley, London. We were in the priority queue, which was just as well as the main queue went on for miles filled with fans on camping chairs with bottles of wine and McDonald’s, you could tell they had obviously been there for hours – maybe even days!

Outside The X Factor studios

Our queue was moved to the inside of the studio gates and a ripple of excitement could be felt. On the instructions of the security guard we nipped to the loo inside the studios as it could be the last time we’d get to go till after the show and we were greeted with one half of Jedward and Lloyd walking past, we waved and giggled liked silly school girls.

On returning to the queue, there was an important looking man with a clipboard speaking to the girl behind us asking her if Holly Willoughby could ask her a question on The Xtra Factor on ITV2 after the main show.  I quite fancied being on ITV2 so I offered my services to the bemused looking man who said he’d think about it but left.

Ten minutes later he came back and told me that since I was ’so chatty’ I could pre-record a question during the last ad break for the contestants which Holly would then play later on while she was interviewing them. Lisa and I fell about laughing and proceeded to text our entire phonebook to tell them the news.

Finally it was time to enter the studios and for the show to begin. Once inside it was surprising to see how small it is in real life and the stage is tiny in comparison to how it looks on the telly. Since we were important members of the audience, what with being on The Xtra Factor, we got sat pretty close to the front and very near to the side of the judges, in particular Simon Cowell, so we had a great view.

Simon Cowell

A guy jumped up onto the stage and welcomed us all to the studios, he told us when to clap (pretty much all the time), when to boo (when Simon was Mr Nasty), when to stand up (during each of the contestant’s performances), when to sit down (when the judges began to give their critique), when to sway (during a slow song) and when to dance (during a fast song).

Shortly after the show began and we watched the credits and opening clip play on the big screens on the stage and Lisa and I were almost wetting ourselves with excitement. ‘We’re at the X Factor!’ we whispered to each other every thirty seconds. And soon Dermot strolled out and the crowd went wild, but not as wild as when the judges came out. Cheryl and Dannii looked utterly fabulous and Louis was back – yay!

Dannii & Cheryl

Olly was up first and he was even fitter in real life. Two girls sat beside us had made a huge banner for him and made us help them hold it up as it was so big, until the people behind us made us take it down because they couldn’t see, I was glad though, I didn’t really want to hold up the banner. We were also forced to listen to a screaming Londoner a few seats down who loved every contestant that was on.

Every one of the contestants gave an amazing performance but Olly and Miss Frank stood out the most, they were my favourites. Jedward are really bad singers but it was still hilarious to watch them and they couldn’t even dance in time!

Olly

Miss Frank

Jedward

It was exciting watching the judges when the cameras were off them, Cheryl looked at Simon all the time and it was great to watch Simon’s face when the contestants were on, he looked seriously fed up when Jedward performed. Ever wondered what they get up to during the ad breaks? During the first one they all left and the host told us Simon and Cheryl were off for a sneaky ciggy, they stayed for the next couple and chatted amongst themselves while Simon’s make-up artist was always out touching up his bronzer.

Finally it was time for my five minutes of fame! Lisa and I had come up with a really good question, we were going to ask Miss Frank: ‘You’ve had quite a hard time from the judges over the last few weeks, how did it feel to get such good comments and what are you going to do to keep it that way?’ Of course, they were the act that left the next day, hopefully my question didn’t jinx them!

A few runners came over during the last ad break to pre-record my question, one shoved a microphone in my hand the other shone a light on me and the last positioned his camera right in front of my face, and as if on cue everyone’s eyes in the audience were upon me. I wasn’t nervous at all until that exact moment but I didn’t want to mess up as I knew all my family and friends and some of Britain would be watching, but I don’t think I did too bad…!

Me asking my question on The Xtra Factor

We got to stay for some of The Xtra Factor after the main show and Holly was lovely – I think I may even like her more than Dermot! Soon it was time to go and we were ushered out onto the cold streets of Wembley and our star-studded X Factor experience was over.

It was all very exciting as I am a massive X Factor fan and have been since the show began so getting to see the show in real life was a pretty big highlight and as cheesy as it sounds it was everything I’d expected and more. Getting on The Xtra Factor just made it all the more exciting… I just wish I could go every Saturday night!

Retro treats sweeter than ever

By Gemma Haigh, Fiona Gardner & Lauren Redpath for Edinburgh Napier News

Everyone remembers their favourite sweet from their childhood and it was revealed today that retro sweet shops are making a comeback.  With more and more vintage sweet shops springing up on little cobbled streets, it’s becoming easier for people to take a trip down memory lane and let their taste buds take them back to their younger years.

And it seems the economic downturn is causing more people to turn to comfort foods to give them that much-needed lift and retailers have been left shocked at the sudden demand for sugary treats.

Traditional sweets such as soor plooms, chocolate limes, chelsea whoppers and rhubarb and custards are returning and are proving a hit with everyone with a sweet tooth.

Lickety Splits, a vintage confectionary shop on Jeffery Street, has been in business since July and owner Jude Ross says it is surprising how many adults come through the door to feed their sugary addiction.

With business booming, Lickety Splits is hitting the high street, with House of Fraser in talks with them about supplying retro delights to be sold alongside their fashion collections.

Edinburgh Napier News went to see what the all the fuss was about.

According to TimesOnline, market research analyst, Mintel are predicting a 9% rise in sweets sales within the next five years.

Speaking to these people on the streets of Edinburgh it seems the desire for sweets hasn’t turned sour.

Here’s a trip down memory lane!  Remember these sugary treats?

• foiled ice cups
• sweet tobacco
• cola cubes
• pear drops
• floral gums
• aniseed twists
• gob-stoppers
• coltsfoot rock
• parma violets

Poppy scotland supports Afghan heroes

By Gemma Haigh & Frances Allan for Edinburgh Napier News

Poppy Scotland helps soldiers, veterans and their families

This year’s Scottish Poppy Appeal has just launched and will be raising money for World War One and Two Veterans as well as soldiers returning from Afghanistan.

The two-week television and radio appeal begins today, and on 7 November Poppys will be available to buy on the streets of Edinburgh.

Last year, the Scottish Poppy Appeal raised £2,041,202. The organisers have set a bigger target this year because of the increasing number of soldiers returning from Afghanistan needing the charity’s assistance.

The charity gives financial help to individuals as well as providing them with information, advice and specialist support.

The appeal takes place every year in the weeks leading up to Remberance Sunday on 11 November, and many people continue to support the cause year after year. Edinburgh Napier News took to the streets to see what people thought about the appeal.

Listen here:

Listen here:

SAAS – student support?

OK, so I applied for my tuition fees and bursary a little late… as in a week before we started back at uni. So I was expecting to get my award notice around the beginning of October and when that little brown envelope dropped through my letterbox on that cold autumn Friday morning I was delighted – until I opened it.

It stated that before they could assess how much of a bursary I was entitled to, they needed proof of my parent’s divorce. Hmmm, I thought, this could be difficult as they have never been married. Added to the fact I hadn’t had any problems for the past three years, why now all of a sudden did they want a copy of a divorce decree that didn’t even exist?

So I picked up the phone and after twenty minutes on hold I was finally put through to someone who could help  – unfortunately their systems were down, of course, so they couldn’t look into my details and I had to read the letter over the phone. They were as puzzled as me and said all I’d need to do was get my mum to write a letter explaining my circumstances and it’d be sorted but it would take some time to be processed again – obviously, this is SAAS we’re talking about – it took them five weeks to write a few paragraphs about needing my parent’s divorce so I didn’t want to think about how long this next step would take.

I decided the best plan of action was to go in person, so on Monday morning first thing my mum and I went down to the office to be greeted by a rude receptionist. She informed us indeed the letter had been sent to me in error and she’d process my application now. On enquiring when I should expect to receive my money she threw us a look of disgust and advised she was doing us a favour by processing it and she was doing all she could. Nice – customer service for ya! We replied by explaining that it was in fact their mistake and that she was in fact not doing us a favour, to which she advised me it would be around three working days till I received my bursary. Hurray!

So here we are five days later, still no bursary. It was too good to be true. On phoning them to ask where was this bursary I should have received last week I was told that – wait for it, you could not make this up – my application had been ‘randomly selected for quality testing’. Seriously. I asked him was he joking, that after what happened last week why on earth were they holding my application up again, and he confirmed he was not joking and that it was random testing therefore they had no control over what applications were chosen.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry – Monday the 19th is direct debit day and with a serious lack of funds it was not looking good. I only get paid weekly from my work and did not have enough money to cover it. So they told me it would be seven days till I got it to which I replied that no, I could not wait seven days and they would have to do something. Due to the emotional stress they put me through I admit I shed a few tears and I was then put onto a more superior member of SAAS who after some gentle persuasion (‘You HAVE to do something, you HAVE to!!!’) told me they could in fact do a next working day transaction!

So he processed this for me but unfortunately, just my luck, it was one minute after twelve therefore the next working day would be Tuesday. Great! Before I ended the call I asked him why did they not offer to do this when I had first called at 11.30am, then the transaction would have been done before 12pm, and I would have had it in time for Monday. His reply – ‘It wasn’t me you were talking to then though was it.’ Oh right, OK then fair enough.

Well I’m just glad this is my last year at uni and the last time I ever have to deal with SAAS. All in all it’s taken six weeks since I first applied, two mistakes, numerous phone calls and I’m still yet to receive my bursary – fingers crossed for Tuesday!

Scotland swayed by Cameron’s speech?

By Gemma Haigh & Narelle McGowan for Edinburgh Napier News

David Cameron: Keynote Speech

In Conservative Leader, David Cameron’s key note speech on Thursday he spoke of his passion for the Union, but did he do enough to get the Scots on side?

Known for their anti-Tory stance Scottish people appear to have had a shift in opinion and are open to hearing what Cameron has to say.

From public opinion the following Conservative main points seem have hit home with the Scottish people.

-          Getting the troops home from Afghanistan

-          Help the poor by ‘Getting Britain Working’

-          Give the NHS back to the people

-          Ensure the Union remains in tact

-          Break the state monopoly on the provision of education

-          Get rid of ID cards and Labour’s ‘surveillance state’

-          New technologies to fight climate change

The decision of the Scottish Sun to fail to follow suit and back the Conservative Party in Scotland was of no surprise to the Scottish people: claiming that the Conservative’s are out of touch with Scotland.

However after Cameron’s speech there is a mixed reaction on the streets of Edinburgh as to whether they would consider voting Conservative.

Listen here: