Wednesday 9th July 2025
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Barbarism begins: Meat is Murder at thirty

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Rewind to 1985. The rich are making their first calls upon excessively large “mobile” phones, Oxford are busy refusing Maggie Thatcher a doctorate, whilst the BBC are engineering the downfall of evening television by launching Eastenders. Meanwhile, back up north, Morrissey, Marr and co are busy releasing their own kitchen-sink drama in The Smiths’ second album – Meat is Murder.
 
30 years later, and it is still easy to see how the album became The Smiths’ highest charting release, topping the album charts. Opener ‘The Headmaster Ritual’ still blasts unrelentingly a remarkably relaxed tale of schoolboy abuse. Ever cryptic, who knows if any of the tale is autobiographical to the lyricist. But who really cares?
 
Thematically, what’s a Smiths album without a literary muse? Their debut snipped up the playbooks of Sheila Delaney, gleefully sneaking quotes amidst their track listing. But Meat is Murder relies on the cult classic Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. You need only read the title to understand why the work appealed to Morrissey. It doesn’t take too much to picture him lying down and weeping by Manchester station, scrawling quotes for ‘What She Said’ and ‘Well I Wonder’ into a large notebook entitled ‘Feels’.
 
‘Well I Wonder’ is a song of immense beauty. The work is a musical interpretation of the heart-breaking final lines of By Grand Central Station, “My dear, my darling, do you hear me where you sleep?” Critics were always so quick to shallowly condemn Morrissey’s use of literary sources as plagiarism. But, as always, he does not merely lift quotes – he gives them new life. A sentence upon a page now meanders atop the sorrowful plodding of Joyce’s bass and Marr’s soft acoustic. The sound of rain begins to filter into the arrangement as the song reaches a close. The arrangement is perfect, and it is clear why the band chose never to play the song live. It belongs to an isolated moment in time, one that is so overwhelmed with pathos that it could never be recreated live.
 
Melancholy aside, the album is also humorous – whatever Morrissey will
proclaim in ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’. ‘Nowhere Fast’ marks Morrissey’s first foray into monarchy bashing. 30 years on, and the image of him dropping “his trousers to the queen” is only funnier. Similarly, the narrative of young love and contemplated suicide at the fair in ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ is somehow made very amusing. There is so much glee taken in the pain of young lovers. If someone “scratch[ed] my name on your arm with a fountain pen” in their arm, that’s as good as a marriage proposal, isn’t it?
 
But then there is the album’s title track – the closer, ‘Meat is Murder’. The song is a perfected dramatic performance. Sampled bone-saws and animals cries serve as a harrowing prologue and epilogue, introducing the main text of Morrissey’s vegetarian mantra. It’s a struggle to find a better and more affective opening line than “Heifer whines could be human cries” when uttered
in a grave-like whisper. There is something disturbing about how Morrissey’s voice remains so delicate while documenting such harrowing sights. Who knows how many people have been converted to vegetarianism since having their blood chilled by the track. And for a band so passionate about their views, who could ask for a better legacy than to still be affecting the dietary choices of their listeners 30 years down the line?

Preview: The Dumb Waiter

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Harold Pinter’s claustrophobic two-man play The Dumb Waiter operates on two levels – what is spoken and what underlies this dialogue. The first scene I was shown was one of inane football conversation; however, what initially appeared as a debate about whether Villa will be playing home or away was interspersed with disproportional tension.

Tom White, the director, explains, “This is a classic instance of the random conversations that have a sinister resonance.” Indeed, I’m told they also argue about such controversial topics as sour milk, eccles cakes and boiled eggs.

The BT appears to be the perfect space for such a tense, closed-in thriller. They even plan to make the stage feel smaller (it’s hard to believe it’s possible) with strategic lighting creating dark spaces.

Tom Marshall, who plays Ben, says the aim is for them to be in “in each other’s hair”. White continues, “The BT is the perfect space as it is an enclosed underground stage.” Not only will it allow for an atmosphere of claustrophobia but it will also amplify moments of suspense and horror.

Ambiguity is the key factor to this play’s success. White talks about the importance it plays in creating tension – he even cut a line, concerned that it would be too suggestive of a certain interpretation.

Having spoken to Marshall and White, I’ve spoken to two-thirds of the production. There are only three of them: two actors and the director. Yet this is far from a disadvantage. Marshall raves about how “it was nice to be so small, it wasn’t overcrowded and allowed a space for us to develop.”

It also allowed, from what I have seen, the relationship between the two leads to develop. The play hinges on their interactions and the power play between them. This is evident in a scene from later in the play where Ben delivers the instructions of the hit to Gus; each line bounces back between them, quickly but in perfect sync. “We tried to instil scenes with deliberate symmetry,” White tells me. This looks like a clever production of a tense and interesting play focusing on the place of power, questioning authority and the limits of human patience. Definitely not to be missed.

The Dumb Waiter is on at The Burton Taylor Studio from 27th– 31st January.

Review: Belle and Sebastian-Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance

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★★☆☆☆
Two Stars
 
Nine albums in, have Belle and Sebastian finally used up the last dregs of that ever potent miserabilia that has kept fans coming back for more for the last nineteen years? I desperately hoped not as I started listening to their latest offering, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.
 
The first thing to note is the album’s persistent political overtone. The band have put away their Arab straps, left Sukie well behind in her graveyard and focused their lyrics on the current political landscape. Just listen to opener
‘Nobody’s Empire’. Underneath a catchy riff, the lyrics document the bleak conformity of modern life. Although, when sung in the ever enticing Glaswegian drawl of Stuart Murdoch, it’s still delightful – even humorous. “Now I look at you, you’re a mother of two/You’re a quiet revolution,” he sarcastically coos in the midst of this wonderfully dark critique.
 
True, their dark humour remains as virile as ever. However, the album is more disco than the indie rock sound the band are famed for. If you’re searching for the classic Belle and Sebastian sound, give ‘Ever Had a Little Faith?’ and ‘The Cat with the Cream’ a listen.
 
The latter reeks of the band’s earlier hit ‘This Is Just A Modern Rock Song’. Its minimal guitar arrangement even comes with their trademark Pulp-esque voyeurism. Who doesn’t love lyrics featuring a grown daughter listening out for her mum having sex? Likewise, ‘Enter Sylvia Plath’ has the bands identity stamped all over it. You can practically see the young fangirls swooning whilst reading the title, nursing a copy of The Bell Jar and If You’re Feeling Sinister on vinyl. However, they will quickly be disappointed. The synth-heavy track sounds more like a Pet Shop Boys song – and a dull one at that. The album is certainly experimental in sound, but their alchemy is not always successful. Often, the resultant product is more iron pyrite than precious metals. Not offensive to the senses, but neither greatly satisfying.
 
Yet, the album’s lead single ‘Party Line’ is a nugget of pure gold. The funk guitar riff is delicious, prompting you to dance to “the beat of the party line” and become one of the conformists the song warns you about.
 
It’s great to hear an established band play with their trademark sound, and be successful. It’d just be great if this could be said about more than one-third of the album.
 

Review: Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

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★★★☆☆
Three Stars
 
Noah Lennox, better known as Panda Bear, co-founder of the psychedelic group Animal Collective, returns with his fifth solo album after a three-year hiatus. The LP mostly follows on from its predecessor Tomboy, with a preference for synth loops and whirring sound effects. But perhaps the most notable moment is the ethereal ballad ‘Tropic of Cancer’, an especially poignant moment reflecting on the effects of disease on loved ones. A timely reminder of his impeccable voice, backed by a looped sample from The Nutcracker, this is the best song here by some margin.
 
For much of Grim Reaper, Lennox’s expressive tenor is shrouded by his favourite production tools and indeed ‘Tropic of Cancer’ is one of precious few moments where Panda Bear departs from his modus operandi. Rather, he sticks with what he does best: simple, repetitive psychedelic pop tunes, and the call-and-response vocal hook of ‘Boys Latin’ is a highlight. Unfortunately, though, atmosphere is far too often prioritised over coherent songwriting, an interesting bass squelch or melody left undeveloped, and several tracks do little to justify their run times.
 
There is certainly enough material here to make this an enjoyable listen, but Lennox could have achieved something closer to his best work had he stepped out of his comfort zone a little more often on this record.
 

Review: Death Grips – Fashion Week

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★★★☆☆
Three Stars
 
From a band who used the image of cult hero and drummer Zach Hill’s erect penis for the cover of NO LOVE DEEP WEB, Death Grips’ latest surprise album perhaps shouldn’t surprise us. The track list, when read together spells out ‘J-E-N-N-Y D-E-A-T-H W-H-E-N’, presumably a reference to the upcoming release of the second part of their double album The Powers that b. Unsurprisingly, this loud and messy aesthetic very much encapsulates the sounds of Fashion Week.
 
Despite the fact that this is an instrumental album, the boot-to-the-face drumming of Zach Hill and the deranged metallic synth-driven beats ensure that this remains a balls-out Death Grips release, although the lack of MC Ride’s bare-chested howling does detract from the record. Yet, this does highlight certain aspects of the bands sound that otherwise might be cloaked in MC Ride’s shadow, as well as indicating a number of directions the band could take with Jenny Death.
 
The first ‘Runway H’, comes across like classic Death Grips noise-vomit, but filtered through the sludgy synth work of Trent Reznor and more recently The Haxan Cloak. ‘Runway Y’’s use of clanking, industrial-tinged bass and clean, cold synthesizer is reminiscent of some of the more experimental Grime instrumentals from producers like Murlo and Dark0. Most refreshing, however, are the truly unexpected tracks. The first ‘Runway N’ is perhaps the most light-hearted track Death Grips has ever produced, with pitched-up shouts and lazer synths underpinning a J Dilla-esque organ-led hip hop beat. The most unusual track, ‘Runway Y’, is also the most exciting. Like Fashion Week as a whole, it’s fucking nuts, wears its significant flaws on its sleeve but ultimately remains in keeping with Death Grips “nothing sacred, nothing serious” sonic manifesto.
 

Oxford Nexus Email System Disrupted

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Students, tutors, staff and university organisations were faced with a problem on Sunday when they tried to access Oxford’s Nexus email on their browsers.

Users trying to access the Oxford Nexus email website via web browsers were informed by an automatic message that the site’s security certificate was not to be trusted.

The message gave users the choice of pro- ceeding, warning that security of the Nexus site could not be guaranteed, or returning “back to safety.”

Though the message was alarming, no data was stolen and the site had not been compromised.

A University spokesperson told Cherwell, “Due to an oversight the security certificate for the Nexus website expired without being automatically renewed.”

As a result, the security certificate for the Nexus webpage was temporarily invalid, prompting online security systems to respond by sending out an automatically generated message to all users attempting to access the Nexus login on Sunday warning that the site was untrustworthy.

The University spokesperson apologised for the incident, saying, “Though no part of the university website or its users’ data was compromised and there was no security risk, the University apologises for the inconvenience it may have caused to users and has put mea- sures in place to ensure such a lapse doesn’t happen again.”

Most students were indifferent to the incident, with few reporting any major disruption. The majority responded by saying that they either disregarded the warning and proceeded anyway or used other email accounts.

A second-year English student Ellen Brews- ter said, “To be honest it didn’t bother me that much, because I ignored the security warnings and just proceeded through the advanced settings. I know that some people were quite anxious to know if everything was all right, but as I don’t tend to use my Nexus account for anything that’s personal and not university or college related, I wasn’t too fussed really.”

Advertised by Oxford’s IT services as “the major communication medium in Oxford”, Nexus is vital in the business of the university – each student is automatically registered upon joining the University, and the service is used daily for correspondence between students, tutors, staff and campus organisations.

Run by the Oxford University IT services department, Nexus has been in use as a central- ised system by the University for several years with few incidents. The service is generally reliable, although there have been some minor issues with sending attachments via Google Chrome.

Emails from Nexus can also be forwarded to inboxes on mobile devices, a service which was unaffected by the incident on Sunday.

Staff at the IT services department reacted quickly to the incident, renewing the SSL security certificate by midnight on Sunday. Normal service was resumed on Monday morning with no further issues. 

OULC launch #2015hours campaign for upcoming election

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The Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) have kick-started this General Election year with a pledge to put in 2015 campaigning hours on the doorstep.

On Monday night, about fifty OULC members gathered in Corpus Christi for a drinks event to mark the start of the campaign. In attendance were Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Work and Pension Secretary, as well as Victoria Groulef, the Labour candidate in the party’s target seat of Reading West.

OULC announced they would be out in Oxford East every Sunday this term, as well as travelling three times to Reading West. Campaigning would include leafleting, canvassing, and doorstep encounters with voters.

In a speech at the gathering, Andrew Smith MP lambasted the Coalition government for bringing about “food bank Britain”, introducing “the wicked bedroom tax” and implementing ‘“cuts to council support”.

He urged assembled members to campaign with “purpose, principle and passion”.

Speaking to Cherwell he stressed, “There’s everything to campaign for, and OULC have a vital role to play. The more people we talk to the more people will vote for us.”

The MP reminded OULC campaigners, “Never take a vote for granted”, but emphasised their record of speaking to between 30,000 and 40,000 voters a year as exemplary.

Hannah Lovell, co-Chair of OULC, told Cherwell, ‘‘OULC are really excited to announce our #2015hours campaign. The election coming up is one of the most important in a generation, and only a Labour government can protect and support students and young people.’’

Lovell encouraged students to register to vote at the event, reminding OULC members it was only “15 weeks and counting”.

Groulef also spoke at the event, thanking OULC for their support over the past two and a half years. She commended Andrew Smith as “the best campaigning MP in the country” but argued this will be an essentially local election, fought over local issues.

Given that the national Labour Students group aims to deliver 10,000 campaigning hours, OULC’s campaigning would constitute over a fifth of its doorstep activities.

The OULC termcard shows that former Chancellor and Chair of the Better Together campaign Alistair Darling will be visiting the club on Saturday as part of the election campaign pledge.

Members of both the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) and the Oxford University Liberal Democrats (OULD) have responded to the news.

“We’ve a full campaigning termcard in place for Hilary. This does not frighten us,” an OULD member remarked.

One member of OUCA suggested OULC’s pledge would be dwarfed by the Conservatives’ Team2015 campaign. Conservative campaign leaders said, “Team2015 volunteers are working together to win a Conservative majority at the next election.”

Reportedly, students consumed alcohol at this drinks event. 

Cambridge better for housing and transport

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DATA PUBLISHED IN THE ECONOMIST has exposed disparities between Oxford and Cambridge as places to live, with residents of Cambridge enjoying more affordable housing and better transport links.

A City Council commissioned study from URS consultancy firm revealed that Oxford built just 60 new houses in 2014, compared to Cambridge’s 1,020.

This lack of building has led to a severe housing shortage in Oxford, with the average house price at 11.3 times the average local earnings; making it the most unaffordable place to live in Britain.

Leader of Oxford City Council Bob Price told The Economist that Cambridge is at least 20 years ahead of Oxford.

However, he did note that this has begun to change during the tenure of the current Vice-Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, after it was claimed that Oxford University has previously been historically less forward thinking than Cambridge and failed to engage with the local community.

Nonetheless, Oxford University commented, “While Oxford’s geography can present challenges, the University and its local partners in government and business are successfully overcoming these barriers to create new enterprises, skills and jobs for the benefit of the entire region.

“The University has also created more spin-out companies than any other university over the last 25 years, many of which are still Oxford-based employers. One example, the digital games company NaturalMotion, started by a zoology graduate student, was sold for $527m last January.”

The article attributes the disparity in part to a few visionary Cambridge academics who decided the University should “convert its boffinary into wider regional prosperity”.

This led to numerous projects, including the Cambridge Science Park and St John’s Innovation Centre, forming a link between between the University and local business.

Cambridge MP Julian Huppert put their growth down to “its relatively small population, which means people are more likely to know each other than in larger cities”.

Many Oxford students were dismayed with the findings, with some expressing concern about the unaffordability of local housing, while others took a more jovial attitude.

One New College PPEist noted that, “Oxford’s failure lies totally in the name. Cambridge is like actually a bridge over the Cam but I don’t see any Oxen. Maybe we should get some oxen?”

Predictably, Cambridge students were more upbeat in their response. One Law fresher noted, “I always knew we were academically superior but it’s gratifying to know that our urban environment is also better.”

Another second year suggested, “For all the good-natured joking and one-upmanship it is nice to put a definitive end to our little squabble: Cambridge has won.”

The revelation follows a visit last October to Cambridge by 40 Oxford councillors and business leaders, who visited the town to see how Cambridge deals with its urban problems. 

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Gender gap in graduate employment

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Female graduates are notably less likely to get a graduate level job than their male peers, a study by Oxford University’s Careers Service has revealed. The research showed that new female graduates earn on average £4,000 a year less than new male graduates.

The study, which involved 17,000 students from seven different universities, found that 90 per cent of men are employed in a graduate level job six months after graduation, with an average starting salary of £25,000. By contrast, just 81 per cent of women were in a graduate level job after six months, with an average salary of £21,000.

The study took into account several possible factors before concluding that gender had the biggest impact, as Jonathan Black, director of Oxford’s Careers Service, explained, “We set out to explore the possible drivers of securing a graduate-level job, and considered gender, ethnicity, social background, degree class, subject, and disability.

“We were pleased to find that social background appears to have no significant effect on securing a graduate-level job: a finding that we should celebrate. Indeed, of all the factors we explored, gender has the biggest effect, with a statistically significant lower proportion of women than men achieving a graduate level job within six months.”

In addition to the statistical analysis, the Careers Service also conducted interviews with hundreds of Oxford students regarding their attitudes towards careers. This research found that men tended to think about and make career choices earlier in their university degrees than women, who were more focused on academic work and extracurricular activities. Men were also found to be more confident in approaching the recruitment process.

In terms of career priorities, women had a greater focus on job security and getting a job they considered to be helping a worthwhile cause compared to their male colleagues. These attitudes also appear to be prevalent among sixth form girls, whose views were revealed in a separate Oxford Careers Service survey of around 3,200 male and female students across 42 independent and state schools.

Oxford is involved in a number of projects that aim to close the graduate gender gap. Oxford pioneered the Springboard career development programme for female undergraduates. This project is now running at several other universities.

An Oxford University spokesperson told Cherwell, “Oxford University’s Careers Service has been a leader among UK universities in its efforts to support female graduates in their career choices – which is why it undertook the research to see what factors affect graduate destinations and salary.

“While a disappointing graduate pay gender gap persists, Oxford is in an excellent position to address some of the attitudes and concerns that affect female students’ career destinations thanks to programmes like its Springboard assertiveness and self-confidence training.”

Ex-student criticises institutional homophobia of Eton

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ST JOHN’S COLLEGE STUDENT Jamie Jackson has written an open letter to fellow Old Etonian Piers Torday, currently head of the alumni association Dragonflies for gay Old Etonians, highlighting the homophobic atmosphere of
his former school.

Torday, who attended Eton College in the 1980s, publicly spoke out about his experiences of being the only openly gay student in the school at the time. He described his experiences of attitudes towards LGBTQ students at Eton, saying, “There was some sniggering, but there was certainly no upsetting or traumatic bullying.”

His summative comment concluded, “By and large, what I’ve always thought about Eton is that people were very supportive, given that it was the late 80s, early 90s and the papers were full of headlines about people battling to block the age of consent and AIDS.” 

Jackson wrote the letter in response to these remarks. In the letter, Jackson claimed, “The idea that Eton does not have a problem with homophobia allows the school to ignore these issues, rather than tackling them head on.”

Jackson continued by listing several instances of latent homophobia within the school environment, observing, “There was never any attempt to provide sex education that was not purely targeted at heterosexual students.

“Whilst some teachers did pick boys up on using the word ‘gay’ as an insult, many ignored it, and few even used it themselves as the punchline to ‘jokes’, and, worse, as an insult.

“I am not aware of the school’s policies on teachers attempting to use inclusive language, but there seemed to be no effort to try and use
such language.

“There were never any specific campaigns against homophobic bullying.”

When questioned on his motivations behind writing the letter, Jackson told Cherwell, “Piers Torday’s comments had somewhat been taken out of context, and he had been commenting on his personal experience which was then attached to his role as head of the OE [Old Etonian] Dragonflies.

Nevertheless, I recognised the attitude that homophobia is not really an issue
at Eton from statements by friends and other OEs and it is an attitude that is both incorrect and deeply frustrating to anyone that has witnessed it first-hand.”

The letter was published in PinkNews on January 18th, and has since garnered much attention and support. Jackson explained, “I wrote the letter much as anyone writes a frustrated status on Facebook: as an avenue for my anger
without expectation of satisfaction. 

“I have received around 50 replies from current Etonians, Old Etonians, and staff members at the school. The stories they relayed are often deeply personal and affecting. I feel undeserving, if grateful, that I have sparked such responses.

I am determined to use such experience as a catalyst for change at the school.”

Jackson continued, “Oxford is, as universities tend to be when compared to school, a lot less bad for overt homophobia. Oxford is no liberal paradise, however; most gay or bi students I know are still reluctant to hold hands with
others of the same gender after dark.”