Monday 18th August 2025
Blog Page 409

You’ll See Him

Anna Stephen
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You’ll See Him

Rain cracks its whip

Against the windows. The wielder: autumn.

From the cottage in the cleft of the foothills

You can see a flickering light, just out of sight

And it stains the blackest night.

Crossroads covered with leaves, mourning the absence of 

Sleeping drunken youths.

They’re all sleeping by the fire in their blankets

Because it’s already dark.

Autumn’s fingers splattered with paint

From his fiery palette. He thinks he’s an artist, but in fact 

He’s chasing a dying year, a year rolling onto its back

Exhausted, too weary to perform any longer.

The fire will fall away into the skeleton.

Dawn and dusk are draped with mist

Rain every night, daggery sunbeams

Every morning.

Clouds stacked in the sky like a log fire –

These things go unnoticed in turmoil.

There’s a soft humming, a pulse that throbs underfoot

Long swallowed by the shriek of blurry Now.

It’s the same autumn

As watched by nobles in red silk

Surrounding their virgin queen;

The same autumn through which 

The horses of the light brigade thundered to inferno,

And flat-capped men dragged the motorcar

As they wrenched it into life.

It’s the same autumn, a fickle painter but

Not a forsaker.

You’ll see him every year.

Light the lamps. It will be so dark today, it will be so dark

It will feel like dusk all day.

Artwork by Charlotte Bunney.

The American Story Part 2: An unfinished Civil War

Josh Self
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The American Story Part 2: An unfinished Civil War

In 1861, 11 southern states seceded from the Union, marking the beginning of the US Civil War. They
did so to prolong and expand the institution of slavery, which had long been in retreat across the
world. It was not uncommon for contemporaries to consider the conflict apocalyptically; indeed,
many Americans began to reevaluate their nations’ long-promised permanence. The historians
among us are nonetheless aware of America’s continued existence. But do we really know how it
still exists? After four years of bloody fighting over the existence of slavery, how did a nation pick
itself up and just—well—continue? Here, I posit that the notion of ‘the end of the American civil
war’ is problematic. When arms were laid down at Appomattox in 1865, the rhetoric and violence of
war hardly ceased. Next came a battle over history, the consequences of which were just as
destructive as the civil war itself.

Following the Civil War’s conclusion in 1865 and the abolition of slavery nationwide, polemicists
rushed to record the rights and wrongs of the previous 4 years. Almost immediately, Edward Pollard
published The Lost Cause (1866). Pollard’s ‘Lost Cause’ theory argued that the war was caused not
by slavery but by an overbearing Union government; that southern armies were never defeated, but
instead overwhelmed by brute force; that the enslaved were happy and loyal to their masters; and
that the southern soldier was brave and virtuous. The ‘Confederacy’ (with its identity as a
slaveocracy diminished) was entered into the annals of American history with these themes attached.
In the years surrounding the Civil War, a bitterly fought tug-of-war over the American historical
memory took place. Opposite sides insisted that their mission was the true expression of the
founding fathers’ hopes and intentions. The Confederacy was said to have fought for the principles
of the constitution, not against them; indeed, George Washington was the centre of the seal adopted
by the Confederacy in 1861. Similarly, in 1896, the Confederate presidential mansion was
dedicated as a museum on George Washington’s birthday; one speaker labelled Washington the
‘first rebel president’. This deployment of America’s usable past provided Confederate Lost
Causism with crucial historical legitimacy.

The Confederates and their ancestors even created their own ‘Washington’, the leading Confederate
military General, Robert E. Lee. A ‘Lee cult’ evolved immediately after the general’s death in 1870
and from this beginning, Lee became the patron saint of the Lost Cause. As a paragon of manly
virtue and duty, Lee soared above politics and became a symbol for the ‘southern way of life’. Lee
henceforth evoked a Southern sense of pride; a soldierly honour; and, above all, a new sense of
racial mastery.

The South saw little challenge to their agenda, the national narrative was that of overwhelming,
exceptional reunion. One Northern paper wrote in 1913 of the ‘peculiar … feeling of reconciliation,
the spirit of nationality, which has developed since the close of hostilities’. Integral to these 3
feelings of reconciliation was Northern acceptance of Lost Cause ideology. For Lost Cause
advocates, therefore, a narrative of defeat had become a narrative of triumph. If it is true that history
can only be written by winners, then it was the white South who won the American civil-war. Lost
Cause ideology henceforth found its home in textbooks, literature and movies—the legacy of which
America is still struggling to escape.

What is important here, however, is not what was remembered, but what was forgotten.
Increasingly, the idea that slavery caused the war became an impediment to the goal of
reconciliation. The African-American presence before, during, and after the war was hence
deemphasised to the point that it was destroyed. As The Christian Recorder observed in 1890, ‘The
poetry of the “Blue and the Gray” [Union and Confederate] is much more acceptable than the song
of the black and the white’. Underneath the celebrated feelings of reconciliation, therefore, existed
the preservation of a new ‘post-slavery’ white-supremacy. Southern states were free to pass a series
of ‘Black Codes’ that made African-Americans, as W.E.B Du Bois put it, “slaves in everything but
name.” Following Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, his vice-president and the man who succeeded
him as president, Andrew Johnson, wrote to the Missouri Governor that “this is a country for white
men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.“


Slavery was banished from the war’s causation and written out of American memory. The 1913
reunion at Gettysburg—50 years after the famous battle—provides an appropriate summary. At the
racially segregated event, which also happened to be held on ‘Independence Day’, President
Woodrow Wilson announced: “We have found one another again as brothers and comrades, in arms,
enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that
we shall not forget the splendid valour, the manly devotion of the men then arrayed against one
another, now grasping hands and smiling into each other’s eyes.” Perhaps this was moment the
American Civil War really ended—with handshakes, smiles and segregation. Once the 1913 reunion
was over the African-American run paper Washington Bee pointedly asked of the organisers, ‘A
reunion of whom?’. Such a question demonstrates how fundamentally at odds black memories
were with the national reunion.

As America entered the 20th century, with white-supremacy reimagined as ‘Jim Crow’ politics, the
African-American community faced decisions over just how to compete for its place in America’s
collective memory. In 1963, James Baldwin optimistically wrote that ‘the American Negro has the
great advantage of having never believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling’.
But to deny America’s historical myths is to deny America itself. How should African-Americans,
therefore, approach history? Should they remember their past or America’s invented ones? Should
they simply not look back?

Robert Penn Warren in his Legacy of the Civil War (1961) wrote, ‘somewhere in their bones’, most
Americans have a storehouse of ‘lessons’ drawn from the Civil War. Exactly what those lessons
are, and who determines them, was shaped directly by the decisions made in the decades following
the conflict. In America today the myth of Robert E. Lee is still immensely appealing to both
northerners and southerners; ten U.S. Army bases are still named in honour of Confederate generals;
the Confederate battle flag still flies across America, including in official capacities; statues of
Confederates still litter the American landscape; and 48% of Americans believe Edward Pollard’s
lie that the Confederacy was concerned with ‘states rights’ not slavery. Lost Cause ideology
retains a powerful grip on American popular imagination.

Although African-Americans have ‘the great advantage’ of having never believed these myths, they
have the great disadvantage of being their victim. The attempts to preserve and perpetuate
Confederate culture help explain how America has struggled to disengage itself from its culture
of segregation. Given this, we must extend our understanding of how historical memories are made
and how the dual forces of forgetting and misremembering provide the basis for nationalist
histories. The fight against injustice may or may not involve tearing down statues, but it certainly
involves tearing down what those statues represent—the romanticisation and reverence of distant
men and unknown pasts. In this task, I am reminded of Langston Hughes:


O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The US Supreme Court: a broken cycle

Jasper Evans
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The US Supreme Court: a broken cycle

Joe Biden is President, and it feels like this feverous nightmare is dimming into a more normal temperature nightmare. As the debris is cleared, and the final lawsuits dismissed, it has become time to start considering what exactly the new administration can do. And the answer, right now, is very little.

The Democrats remain with their slim majority in the House of Representatives, and with a good run in, Georgia could do the same in the Senate, yet across all positivity lies the shadow of one institution: the Supreme Court. Its nine gowned members hold in their hands the ability to limit legislation, and nothing is beyond their reach. The Affordable Healthcare Act, abortion rights, even voting rights, all seem threatened by the new 6-3 conservative majority.

This forces questions at the very heart of liberal democracy. Should this unelected institution be allowed to strike down laws that are supported by the population, and thoroughly supported at that? What gives them the right, what gives them legitimacy, to overrule the majority of the nation?

‘Now hold on there!’ gasps the centrist, clutching their pearls and PPE degree, ‘we can’t just start politicising the courts! The first thing even the most casual dictator will do is pack the supreme court, and besides, if we do it, so can the opposition when they’re next in power.’ Institutions must be respected, norms followed, and the virtuous cycle continued. 

And yet that virtuous cycle is not being continued – it is a cycle that wasn’t properly locked up and has had its front wheel stolen. Republicans have time and time again shown no regard for norms or institutions. They stopped Obama nominating a supreme court justice as a lame duck president, only to have a change of heart when it was Trump’s turn. They have used the filibuster to stop nomination proceedings, leading to the ‘nuclear option’ rendering it a useless tool. They ask vote-counters to throw out certain sets of ballots, while decrying the risk of voter fraud. Without serious reforms, there will be no end.

The Supreme Court has always been a political institution. It is only in recent years that some veneer of ‘apoliticallity’ has emerged. It has almost always been the case that judges were admitted as much for their political leanings as their judicial abilities. The best decider for whether a judge would be admitted was not their skill with a gavel, but whether the Senate matched up with the President. The lack of separation has even been such that a president, Taft, following his presidency, went on to become Chief Justice. The court holds immense power, and politics is the operation of power – of course it would be political.

This is not to say that the court should be packed. The virtuous cycle is a real phenomenon, and a return to it would be ideal. But we must accept that right now, the court is not so much an independent legal body, but an upper-upper house, representing not the nation, but ability of old judges to hang on until the next president of their leaning comes along. Reform is needed, and it is needed soon. It is easy enough to say that if we vote against them in enough elections, Republicans will change their tune. But for those who risk death if they lose their healthcare, or are forced into terrible decisions as their right to choose is ripped away, time is of the essence. For the life of its democracy, and the lives of its citizens, America must reform its Supreme Court.

Investigation: Toxic Chemical in University Hand Sanitisers

Rachel Muir and Stephan Nitu
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Investigation: Toxic Chemical in University Hand Sanitisers

Relisan hand sanitiser, purchased by Oxford University for use in its facilities, has been found to contain a synthetic fragrance called butylphenyl methylpropional, also known as lilial, which has been banned by the EU.

The European Chemical Agency states that lilial “is harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects, is suspected of damaging fertility or the unborn child, causes skin irritation and may cause an allergic skin reaction.” Lilial is also under assessment as endocrine disrupting. This means that it is suspected of negatively interfering with hormonal systems and triggering developmental consequences for humans and animals.

In June 2019, the European Chemicals Agency reclassified lilial’s reproductive toxicity from Category 2 to Category 1B, meaning that lilial must now carry a label saying that it “may damage fertility and is suspected of damaging the unborn child”, and in August 2020 the EU formally banned lilial, meaning that all manufacturers must remove it from their formulae by March 2022.

The EU decision states: “Article 15 of the EU Cosmetic Products Regulation (CPR) prohibits substances classified as Carcinogenic, Mutagenic or Reprotoxic (CMR) under the CLP Regulation from being used in cosmetic products, unless a specific exemption is granted.” It goes on to add that butylphenyl methylpropional, which is classified as Reprotoxic, “does not meet the criteria for exemption”.

Whilst it might be the case that the UK does not choose to comply with this law under a free trade agreement, a special government report in 2019 on Toxic Chemicals in Everyday Life recommended that the UK government should “set targets for the elimination of endocrine disrupting chemicals from consumer products”. The government pledged its commitment to uphold the EU legislation on restricted chemicals, stating: “The preparations that have been made for our exit from the EU ensure that equivalent levels of protection will be replicated under an independent UK chemicals regime, UK REACH.”

The recent EU ban highlights the dangers of continued use of this chemical, and with the increased precautions students and staff are having to take when entering University buildings as a result of the pandemic, many could be exposing themselves to it on a daily basis.

A spokesperson from the University said: “The University reviewed the safety data sheets for all the hand sanitisers it procured centrally to ensure compliance with current legislation and safety standards. These data sheets did not reveal the presence of butylphenyl methylpropional in Relisan as a substance hazardous to health. In compliance with current legislation suppliers are only required to highlight within their safety data sheets if any chemical in the product exceeds any prescribed levels for substances hazardous to health.”

However, the presence of butylphenyl methylpropional in Relisan is evident from the ingredient list on the bottles of sanitiser themselves, despite it not appearing on the data sheets. Moreover, there is no EU-determined level of safe exposure for lilial in cosmetics. The Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety in May 2019 stated that while “on an individual product basis” butylphenyl methylpropional with alpha tocopherol at 200ppm, “can be considered safe when used as fragrance ingredient in different cosmetic leave-on and rinse-off type products”, when considering the “first-tier deterministic aggregate exposure, arising from the use of different product types together, butylphenyl methylpropional at the proposed concentrations cannot be considered as safe.”

A spokesperson for Reliance Medical Ltd., the manufacturer of Relisan, told Cherwell: “Our fragrance supplier is already working on the alternative formulation, so the BMHCA will be removed from our products by the 1st of March 2022. At this moment the level of this chemical in the gel is 0.025%”. They did not comment on why butylphenyl methylpropional did not appear on the product’s data sheets.

The University spokesperson added: “The University periodically reviews the products it procures to support its operations and there are currently no plans for further purchases of Relisan. As part of its normal due diligence processes the University will continue to review the safety data sheets provided for all products it procures centrally to support its operations.” However, they did not comment on how widespread the use of this brand of hand sanitiser already is throughout the University.

Companies are therefore still able to get away with not listing lilial on their data sheets, and the removal of this chemical is not required in cosmetic products until 2022, but it is still clear that Oxford University should reconsider their decision to distribute a hand sanitiser containing a chemical with proven adverse effects. To top it off, Relisan hand sanitiser also contains Propylene Glycol, which was granted the dubious honour of being named the American Contact Dermatitis Society’s Allergen of the Year for 2018.

While the University is clearly not breaking any laws by purchasing this brand of sanitiser, it is also not putting enough consideration into the health and safety of its staff and students when making decisions about which products to buy for its facilities.

Soil: On Digging a Hole

Rachel Jung
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Soil: On Digging a Hole

The crunch as my trowel bites the soil is Heaney-esque.

I stoop low, hands buried in cool dirt

and the sky blooms blue

like an eggshell washed in old paint water.

I sink my knees into the clay and bend over like a cat

amongst the daffodils with their heads tipped up like tiny crowns

under a bush spread out like a huge green hand.

The yellow plastic of my raincoat crinkles.

A worm has beaten me to the hole I’m digging;

when I pull apart the soil, I find

a slender punctuation mark in the mud.

Its pink body threads through the dark clay.

Sometimes it is hard to dig a hole,

to look at what is not and replace it with what will be,

when the earth opens up, only to reveal

that something is already there.

I stay in the garden digging holes only to fill them up

until the lingering birthday-candle smell of a 

bonfire blows in from next door

and the sun, a waxy flare, sets in the butter-white sky.

Artwork by Rachel Jung.

Roble elected Oxford Union president, CREATE slate wins all major positions

Maya Misra
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Roble elected Oxford Union president, CREATE slate wins all major positions

Adam Roble has been elected president of the Oxford Union, winning with 646 first preference votes. He will serve in Trinity 2021.

The runner-up was Geneva Roy. In total, 1230 votes were cast for president. The other elected officers are:

Librarian: Molly Mantle, St Hugh’s College, CREATE, 705 first preferences

Treasurer: Viren Shetty, Christ Church, CREATE, 678 first preferences

Secretary: Adi Kesaia Toganivalu, Magdalen College, CREATE, 613 first preferences

This marks a victory for the CREATE slate, which ran on access-related promises like Diversity Drinks and Dinners, a means-tested presidential hardship fund, and reduced membership fees. Other proposals  centred around adapting to terms with coronavirus restrictions; the slate suggested Treasurer’s Treats (discounts in shops around Oxford) in an online format and socially distanced silent discos. 

REBUILD promised first and foremost to ban hack messages in order to place more focus on slates’ campaign promises and manifestos. They also pledged an audit of membership fees, happy hour pints for £1, and improved opportunities to get involved in debating for Said Business School students and other graduate students. 

The Union held elections online for the second term. Following a hacking in Trinity, no problems appeared to arise during this term’s election. 

Beatrice Barr, current President of the Union, said to Cherwell: “I’m very pleased that we’ve got the results of hotly contested and successfully run election, and wish the best of luck to all the elected candidates!”

Adam Roble has been contacted for comment.

Article updated 11:09 Nov 27 to include comment from the Union.

BREAKING: Oxford will enter Tier 2 after lockdown

Abigail Howe
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BREAKING: Oxford will enter Tier 2 after lockdown

It was announced on Thursday that Oxfordshire will be placed into Tier 2 after the end of lockdown on 2 December 2020. 

Under this tier, household mixing indoors is not allowed. The ‘rule of six’ applies for outdoor meetings. Pubs and bars must not serve drinks unless accompanying ‘substantial meals’, and venues must stop taking orders by 10pm and close at 11pm.

In all tiers, many more businesses and venues will be allowed to remain open than under the most recent lockdown. This includes:

  • essential and non-essential retail services
  • gyms, swimming pools and sports courts (although indoor group activities and classes should not take place in Tier 3)
  • personal care and close contact services like hairdressers, barbers, tattoo parlours
  • public buildings such as libraries, community centres and halls
  • places of worship – subject to relevant social contact rules in each tier.

This tiered system is uniform and applies nationally, without any negotiations with regional governments. This means that additional measures cannot be imposed upon particular regions, which occurred in the first tiered system. The allocation of tiers will be dependent on a range of factors, including pressure on the local NHS services, each area’s case numbers (and, in particular, the number of people over sixty who are testing positive), and the reproduction rate. Tier allocations will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis and this regional approach is expected to last until March.

Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said: “It’s the right move for Oxfordshire to go into Tier 2 after lockdown. The county’s numbers are looking good compared to surrounding areas thanks to superb teamworking of our local experts and leaders, under a county-wide systems approach.

“But we need to keep this trend going downwards, which is why it’s vital that we all follow the Tier 2 restrictions, so we don’t see a new uptick in cases in December and January.
“We must be careful for Christmas. And there are still serious questions to ask over the tiers system, which for many areas didn’t work last time. So today I called on Matt Hancock to listen to our local systems and give them the chance to lead, so we can be more flexible than before and take precautionary action where needed.”

Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council, told the Oxford Mail: “I want to thank everyone in Oxford for sticking to the lockdown rules and helping bring the infection rate down in the city. This has been a whole community effort and the way you all have responded – businesses, residents and students – means Oxford’s case numbers started to come down last week. This is great news, but we are not out of the woods yet and we will all need to continue to take precautions to make sure the decrease in cases in the city continues.

“We are exiting into Tier 2, which means we can enjoy a bit more normality and social life, and it will give a welcome boost to our local businesses. Please do enjoy the run up to Christmas by using local shops and hospitality safely, but remember, the rule of six only applies outside and indoors you must stay in your household or bubble. Continue to take sensible precautions and don’t break the rules.  What we each do now will make a real difference to keeping safe over the Christmas break.”

Ansaf Azhar, the county council’s Director for Public Health, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who has adhered to the national restrictions during November. As the recent fall in COVID cases shows, by people playing their part and sticking to the rules, we can stem the spread of the virus in Oxfordshire.

“However, I must caution that this is just one week’s data and the situation could easily reverse. We can’t afford to be complacent. National lockdown may be lifting next Wednesday, but we are still in the middle of a pandemic. It’s critically important that we stick to the new local restrictions.

“With the festive season approaching, many of us will want to go out to see our friends or to hit the shops. If we do, it’s really important that we follow the guidance about keeping your distance, wearing a face covering and washing your hands regularly – it all still applies.”

Initially addressing tweaks to the tiered systems, Boris Johnson claimed that the tiers have been made “tougher”. However, he did also offer hope in his address to the House of Commons: “For the first time since this wretched virus took hold we can see a route out of the pandemic. The breakthroughs in treatment, testing, and vaccines mean the scientific cavalry is in sight and we know in our hearts, next year we will have success.

“By the spring these advances should reduce the need for the restrictions we have seen in 2020, and make the concept of a COVID lockdown redundant.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the government’s return to the regional system as “risky… because the previous three-tier system didn’t work”.

He added that decisions on which areas will belong to each tier must be taken without delay – “I just can’t emphasise how important it is that these decisions are taken very quickly and very clearly so everybody can plan.

“That is obviously particularly important for the millions who were in restrictions before the national lockdown, because the message to them today seems to be ‘you will almost certainly be back where you were before the national lockdown – probably in even stricter restrictions’.”

However, many were initially concerned that no areas would be placed under Tier 1. Speaking about the new measures on BBC Radio 4 prior to the latest announcement, Grant Shapps said half the country could be placed under the strictest level of restrictions. He said: “I think it is the case that we do need to be a bit tighter on the tiers – Tier 3 in more places is a strong possibility – but there’s still a difference between that and what we’re doing now. For example, in terms of the number of people that can meet outside in a public place, and a number of other things. We’ve been living through this nightmare for a long time now, we all know the only way to defeat this virus is, I’m afraid, to keep people apart and separate from the most natural thing, which is human contact. You can only breach that in a certain number of places and I think we’ve made our decisions as a country that that has to be for things like education and work whilst we get through this winter.” Ultimately, only three areas have been placed into Tier 1 and The Telegraph has estimated that 98% of the country is under Tier 2 or 3.

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said strengthening the tiers was a sensible approach, especially as it would reduce pressure on local healthcare services: “That is one of the key points of it, to make sure the healthcare is accessible both in terms of infection control and beds for Covid patients, and to ensure healthcare services are free for non-Covid patients as well, so that we don’t see cancer wards and stroke services and mental health services closed because staff are off sick or isolating because of Covid,” he said.

The British Medical Association has supported the idea of a tiered restriction, with tightened restrictions for more impacted areas. Their report regarding coming out of lockdown safely states: “Upon exiting lockdown, should there be local outbreaks or surges of infection, there should be a revised tiered system of local lockdowns, with clear “triggers” for when areas move up or down a tier; greater clarity and guidance to the public and clinically extremely vulnerable groups what the different tiers mean for them; and, crucially, stricter rules within the system, including greater restrictions on social mixing and travel between tiers. However, the report also stresses the need for a range of other improvements, including practical and financial support for vulnerable individuals, improvements to the NHS Covid-19 app and properly functioning testing and contact-tracing systems.

Under the previous tiered system, Oxford city moved into Tier 2 on Saturday 31 October, introducing the following measures:

  • People cannot meet “socially” with anybody outside their household or support bubble indoors, including at home or in public places such as restaurants and bars. 
  • People should try to reduce the number of journeys they are making, and if they need to travel should avoid public transport where possible. 

This news follows the announcement that a relaxation of coronavirus restrictions will take place from the 23rd to the 27th December for the Christmas period. Households will be allowed to travel to form a Christmas ‘bubble’ of up to three households. However, bubbles should not be changed throughout the period and should be exclusive in order to minimise potential infection. Other measures are also included in an attempt to limit risk – for example, between 23 and 27 December, people will not be allowed to meet friends and family in private homes unless they are part of the same Christmas ‘bubble’. The government guidelines stated that a “fixed bubble is a sensible and proportionate way to balance the desire to spend time with others over the Christmas period, while limiting the risk of spreading infection… You should consider ways to celebrate Christmas in other ways, such as the use of technology and meeting outdoors, without bringing households together or travelling between different parts of the country”.

The Prime Minister said: “I can’t say that Christmas will be normal this year, but in a period of adversity time spent with loved ones is even more precious for people of all faiths and none… We all want some kind of Christmas; we need it; we certainly feel we deserve it… but this virus obviously is not going to grant a Christmas truce… and families will need to make a careful judgement about the risks of visiting elderly relatives.” He continued “’Tis the season to be jolly but ‘tis also the season to be jolly careful”, adding that the virus “doesn’t know it’s Christmas”.

Professor Brendan Wren at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine urged caution, arguing that: “The best Christmas present ever is the promise of a new effective Covid-19 vaccine for everyone. It would be foolish to spoil this by relaxing measures too far and causing unnecessary deaths”. A poll for the Observer found that most of the public would rather have a locked-down Christmas than one with more relaxed measures which triggered a new lockdown in January. This was voted for by a margin of 54% to 33%, with older voters in particular preferring to avoid a January lockdown, even if the cost was Christmas.

Review: Gorillaz’ ‘Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez’

Connor Connolly
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Review: Gorillaz’ ‘Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez’

2020 sees the release of the third Gorillaz album in four years. With previous efforts Humanz and The Now Now being somewhat lacklustre affairs, all hope is pinned on Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett to pull a banger out the bag. So does Strange Timez deliver?

First of all, the approach to the album’s structure is novel, even for a cartoon band. Perhaps intending to right the wrongs of their previous albums, the group have made sure that every song has the quality of a single. Cleverly, they’ve assured this by releasing every song individually, with a music video to boot. While this is manna to the band’s animation obsessed fans, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee back to back belters. So let’s get into the tracks.

The album starts off strong with the opening salvo of pseudo-title track ‘Strange Timez’. The song serves as a manifesto of sorts for the album: featuring a guest vocalist (in this case, Robert Smith, wailing like it’s 1982) who predominates while Damon Albarn/2-D takes a back seat. All of the songs have featured vocalists, most of them taking centre stage like Smith, with some even pushing the boat out with two. This makes for a somewhat wide variety of styles included on the album, although many of the songs fall into the usual Gorillaz binary of alt rock//hip hop. Some of the tracks take after their featured artists, with ‘Strange Timez’ sounding like a first rate Pornography-era song from The Cure. Second track ‘The Valley Of The Pagans’, featuring Beck, resembles the‘90s output that brought him to fame, with a danceable synth funk beat complemented nicely by some falsetto vocals from Albarn, as well as surreal lyrics from Beck: “She’s a plastic Cleopatra on a thorn of ice, she’s a haemophiliac with a dying battery life” is a standout. ‘Aries’ too, with Peter Hook’s instantly recognisable bass playing, sounds like a lost New Order track, with Bernard Sumner’s signature lifeless drone being replaced by Albarn’s slightly more vigorous drawl – it’s notable that he’s the only vocalist on this cut, with the other featured artist, Georgia, contributing drums and percussion. This provides a refreshing change of pace, despite the slightly languid delivery from Albarn, all in all making for a slice of art pop sliced gold.

Other songs have more exotic features, with the most notable being ‘The Pink Phantom’, a slower paced ballad-type song featuring, of all people, 6lack and Elton John. Somehow, 6lack’s auto-tuned vocals work remarkably well with Elton’s melodramatic delivery, especially towards the end of the track when the two singers finally cross paths. Another track that benefits greatly from the interplay between the band and featured artists is ‘Momentary Bliss’, the closing number and first single from the album. Featuring punk duo Slaves and rapper Slowthai, the track sees singer Isaac Holman’s usual hardcore delivery being considerably smoothed out in favour of a mockney introduction not unlike Albarn’s own in ‘Parklife’ all those years ago. The subtle interpolation of The Beatles’ ‘Lovely Rita’is a nice touch too. Slowthai handles the bulk of the song, adopting a more aggressive style than the punks, with the two artists coming together in the two-tone ska style chorus and coda to deliver a stone cold banger, which manages to successfully integrate the styles of all the artists involved. Even the more conventional tracks, such as ‘PacMan’, manage to deliver. In a way, it echoes the band’s 2005 mega-hit ‘Feel Good Inc’, with a dirty bassline and a feature from rapper ScHoolboy Q that occupies the back end of the track.

All in all, despite the somewhat disjointed nature of the record that is an inevitable side effect of its style of composition, it seems that the wide range of collaborations that the band has undertaken has breathed new life into the Gorillaz project, with the group producing their best album since 2010’s Plastic Beach.

Image via WikiCommons

Sunday Boat Ride Funk

Raphael Zyss
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Sunday Boat Ride Funk

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In conversation with Normal People Director, Lenny Abrahamson

Laura Plumley
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In conversation with Normal People Director, Lenny Abrahamson

Normal People is not something we commonly see in mainstream TV. It’s one of those rare phenomenon which manages to hook its audience from the start yet doesn’t rely on gimmicks and bravado to achieve this. In a day and age where there’s so much TV to consume, generally series that do well are glossy, dramatic and heightened in style, where the viewer’s attention is grabbed and held. By contrast, Normal People’s subtle, quiet approach to storytelling remains faithful to the stark prose of Sally Rooney’s book. This is perhaps unsurprising since Rooney had a large role in adapting the book into the 12 part series. This was an intense and lengthy process in which director and executive producer Lenny Abrahamson tells me he played a large part.

Even at this early stage, the creative team knew that the truest way to tell this story was to maintain the simplicity. “I had thought that we would be much more playful with timeline, that we would flash back,” Abrahamson tells me, “But the more we laid things out, we started to see, and therefore trust, that the straightforward telling of the story would hold you.” This idea of trust is one that permeates our conversation – both trust in his own creative choices and in his audience. Fortunately the BBC trusted the team and gave the project the green light immediately. The only stipulation was that the whole book needed to be done in one series – everything else was left to the creative team.

Set in Ireland, the series follows the lives of Marianne and Connell as they move from school in a sleepy regional town to university in Dublin, and studies the progression of their relationship throughout this period. Irish culture and concepts are a key part of creating an authentic setting and one which Abrahamson was anxious not to soften or internationalise. He was concerned that American broadcasters would push them to change fundamental elements, like a softening of accent or change in vocabulary, to make the series more easily accessible to a broader audience. But no one did. Broadcasters in the States had the same trust in Abrahamson, his vision and Rooney’s story as the BBC, testament to how simplicity in storytelling is often the most powerful tool.

Exposing the essence of a story seems to be a hallmark of Abrahamson’s work. Normal People bears his mark in its stark, paired back dialogue and low key action, allowing him to explore character and relationships. While there’s the challenge of ensuring that the silences don’t become one dimensional, lack of conversation or action provides an opportunity to allow events to unfold gradually and naturally. The audience works out issues for themselves, instead of being told what to think. Naturally Abrahamson and his fellow director Hettie Macdonald navigated this challenge with great skill. “It’s about trusting the capacity of the actors,” he tells me, “but also the ability that human beings have to read each other. We do it all the time, we put together very strong pictures of how people are from very little.” 

His seemingly innate understanding of the human condition and his profound skill in his craft allow Abrahamson to take these calculated risks, knowing that they will pay off. This is beautifully demonstrated in the handling of the sex scenes. While onscreen intimacy is no longer taboo on TV, the way Abrahamson directs the scenes in Normal People allows us to see into the very souls of Marianne and Connell.  There is no holding back in these scenes but their honesty develops the story and the characters. The framing and camerawork in these scenes are beautifully artistic, with Marianne and Connell at times looking as though they’ve been pulled out of a Titian or Rubens painting.

The skill needed to infuse these scenes with added nuance is especially evident in Episode 5, for which Abrahamson is deservedly nominated for an Emmy. Despite previously separating, and dating other people, Marianne and Connell seem bound to return to one another. There are generous stretches of silence towards the end of the episode as Marianne is driven home by Connell, after agreeing it would be unwise “if one of us kept trying to sleep with the other one”. These allow for the quiet, inevitable progression of events leading up to and culminating in them sleeping together. The sex scene which ends the episode solidifies the fact that they have to be together. The choice to add Ane Brun’s delicate cover of “Make You Feel My Love”, as they lie together in bed and as the end credits roll, layers the scene with deeper meaning and allows the viewer to understand the care and mutual respect within their relationship more clearly.

The double act that propels the story forward is spectacularly cast by Louise Kiely (Emmy nominated here for best casting). The energy and understanding between Paul Mescal (who’s also Emmy nominated for his performance) and Daisy Edgar-Jones is palpable from their first scene together. Yet there was always the worry that the perfect pair of actors wouldn’t be found. “You’re just hoping that people will come through with that quality that mesmerises. With Marianne it was really difficult, there has to be that vulnerability. You realise that Marianne is described through other people’s eyes in terms that 18-year-old school kids would use. What would that person really be like if you as an adult walked into the room and saw them? That made Marianne a much softer character but in a way where you could see how other people would read her in a different way. So when Daisy came we were so happy.” It was immediately clear to Abrahamson that this pair of actors would work perfectly together. “We got them together and there was that incredible chemistry. People think chemistry means attraction and it doesn’t, it means a creative connection.” It’s this creative energy between Mescal and Edgar-Jones which ensures their completely truthful presentations of the characters and relationships. 

Normal People is a truly refreshing dramatisation of young relationships, which are so often treated in a crude, heavy handed and simplified manner on screen. Abrahamson’s incredible insight and skill as a director delicately sets the tone in the first six episodes, which Hettie Macdonald beautifully develops to finish the series. Everything about this project is subtle yet truthful and comes from the heart. It delves into your soul and leaves you questioning whether this pair, who seem made for each other, will be able to weather the difficulties of their imminent long-distance relationship.

Image: Element Pictures / Edna Bowe

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