Tuesday 28th April 2026
Blog Page 839

Accused don declared fit for prison

Amelia Stewart
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Accused don declared fit for prison

Oxford University professor Tariq Ramadan has been declared medically fit for prison despite reports of his suffering from multiple sclerosis and another “severe chronic illness”.

The academic was hospitalised last week after 12 days in a Paris jail.

His family claims on their site ‘Free Tariq Ramadan’ that the medical report which found him fit for prison is “going against science”.

Ramadan’s wife, Iman said: “I’m not sure right now that he’s receiving a fair and just treatment.”

The site claims that “his health continues to worsen every day” and they have heard that in prison he is “unable to feel his legs”.

The 55 year old Islamic scholar, charged with rape and rape of a vulnerable person, is awaiting trial in France.

There have also been allegations in the Swiss media of sexual misconduct against teenage girls in the 1980s and 1990s.

A court ordered Ramandan’s detention earlier this month ahead of the trial on the grounds that he was a possible flight risk.

He was denied bail four days into his custody in France.

Ramadan’s case is one of the most prolific in France to come out of the “Me Too” and “Balance Ton Porc” (“squeal on your pig”) campaigns.

Henda Ayari, a feminist activist, first described an alleged rape in Paris two years ago, in her book I Chose to Be Free. However, she did not explicitly accuse Ramadan until October last year.

She has since been placed under police protection following death threats.

A few days after Ayari went public, a disabled Muslim woman, going by the alias Christelle, brought forward her claim that Ramadan raped and beat her in the French city of Lyon in 2009.

After receiving Ramadan’s advice for months online, the woman arranged to meet him in the hotel bar where his confer- ence was being held.

Ramadan, a Swiss national and grandson of the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, categorically denies all claims made against him and says he is the victim of a smear campaign.

Ramadan agreed to take a leave of absence from the University of Oxford in November soon after the charges became public, following backlash from students.

At the time he said: “I have taken leave of absence upon mutual agreement with Oxford University, which will permit me to devote my energies to my defence while respecting students’ need for a calm academic environment.”

A statement from the University said: “An agreed leave of absence implies no presumption or acceptance of guilt.”

Recipe corner: batch cooking

Hannah O'Byrne
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Recipe corner: batch cooking

Batch cooking is one of the easiest ways to eat well whilst saving yourself time, money, and effort during a busy week. Though it’s been done for years, students are only just starting to fully appreciate the method.

If you can find a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon then you can prep meals for a week, so you’ll have to spend no more than ten minutes getting dinner ready each day.

I think a huge batch of bolognese is ideal for meal prep: mince is one of the cheapest ways to buy meat; you can chuck in as many veggies as you want to add to the nutritional value; and once all of the ingredients are in the pot you just have to leave it alone, making it easy for newbies in the kitchen.

Start by browning 500g of minced beef with olive oil in a large saucepan on high heat; use a wooden spoon to break it up into small pieces.

Add two onions, two carrots and two celery sticks (all diced) and cook for about ten minutes, before adding three cloves of (crushed) garlic.

Now add two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes, two tablespoons of tomato puree, some oregano and a glass of red wine.

Season with salt and pepper and leave everything on a simmer for an hour.

Keep this in the fridge in an airtight container, and when ready to eat just boil some spaghetti and top with cheese.

The great thing about making bolognese in bulk is that with the addition of only a couple of things it can be turned into a delicious chilli con carne, which will stop you from getting bored of your dinners.

All you have to do is add ground cumin, ground paprika, red kidney beans, and chilli powder if you like some heat.

Serve this with rice and cheese for another speedy, delicious dinner!

Trinity Dean fines second years and bans sconcing

Fred Dimbleby
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Trinity Dean fines second years and bans sconcing

Trinity second years will be forced to pay for damage after ‘unacceptable’ behaviour at their halfway hall.

‘Sconcing’ has also been banned from all events taking place in the college’s hall and students have been asked to buy a gift for catering staff.

Cherwell reported last week that students engaged in debauched behaviour at the halfway hall, including breaking glasses and damaging property.

In an email sent to second years, seen by Cherwell, Trinity Dean James McDougall said: “Those of you involved might still think that this was nothing to make a fuss about. It is also apparent that some of you do not yet appreciate that what happened on this occasion really was unacceptable.

“The collective responsibility to be taken is a reflection of the College’s concern to communicate to all concerned that this is in fact the case.”

According to the email, the Dean had allowed time for guilty students to come forward.

However, he said that only one student had admitted guilt and they were not an “instigator.”

The email also banned ‘sconcing’ in hall.

The Dean said: “it is not normal, or acceptable, in hall, and some Junior Members’ perceptions of when a social event becomes an antisocial one in this regard may need to change to accommodate this fact.”

The Dean has not imposed a fine upon students but says that they are expected to provide a gift for hall staff.

A charge will be added to all attendees battels “to meet the cost of breakages and additional work and inconvenience that some students’ behaviour imposed on staff.”

Last week, the Dean accused students of being “entitled” after glasses were broken at the event and property damaged. One member of the hall staff, who had been working at Trinity for nine years, reportedly said that she had never seen behaviour like that demonstrated at the halfway hall.

Trinity did not respond to Cherwell’s request for comment.

Vice-Chancellor opposes pay regulation

Oscar Baker
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Vice-Chancellor opposes pay regulation

Oxford’s vice chancellor, Louise Richardson, has insisted that the the regulation of senior university staff pay should not be regulated.

Richardson spoke to MPs at the Commons Education Committee on Wednesday morning. She stressed that the focus of pay reform should be the process of deciding salaries, rather than regulation of wage levels.

She has insisted that her £350,000 salary is less than the vice chancellor received five years ago.

Professor Richardson argued that universities are operating in a ‘global marketplace’ when it comes to hiring higher education bosses.

Speaking to MPs, she said: “I don’t agree that regulation is appropriate.”

“I think it’s reasonable to have an interest in the process, but I think it should be ensuring the process is transparent and fair.

“We are emphatically in a global competition. Cambridge, King’s, Imperial and Edinburgh just recently hired from overseas.

“Two best known universities in Australia, Melbourne and Sydney, just hired British academics.”

She said: “I think the reduction of the complex, nuanced education we provide to starting salaries, or salaries at any point is a mistake.

“It’s to miss much of the most important things we do, which is to provide an education.”

Financial statements showed that in 2016/17, Prof. Richardson received a salary of £354,000 plus bene ts of £12,000 and pension contributions of £64,000.

Richardson noted that she trusted the process for deciding salaries at Oxford, saying the seven-member panel is “a model for the sector.”

She told MPs: “I’ve never attended the meeting or any part of it, I’ve never met with the group.”

Professor Richardson, when asked whether it was immoral that she was paid more than the Prime Minister, responded: “I actually don’t agree, because the Prime Minister is paid entirely by taxpayers.

“The amount the taxpayer contributes to the £2.2bn annual operating budget of Oxford for teaching is 9%.”

Multiple university leaders appeared on the panel to give evidence to the inquiry into university value
for money.

Peter Horrocks, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, told MPs: “We have to acknowledge that this is a significant public issue and it’s something that potentially undermines the value of universities in this country, so it’s something we absolutely need to address.”

Vice Chancellor Richardson declined to offer further comment.

Motion to ban Bullingdon members from OUCA defeated

Ethan Croft
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Motion to ban Bullingdon members from OUCA defeated

A proposal to ban members of the Bullingdon Club from the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) committee has been defeated.

The motion, raised at Thursday’s OUCA council, proposed to ban known members of the infamous drinking society from running in Association elections, or holding senior office.

It comes in the wake of national press coverage of drunken behaviour at OUCA’s Port and Policy events.

Last week, prominent members of the Association resigned and were suspended following reports of disorderly conduct.

A majority of OUCA members voted the motion down at Thursday evening’s council meeting. Bullingdon Club members will continue to be eligible for Association elections.

OUCA President Timothy Doyle told Cherwell: “I supported the proposed amendment to our Standing Orders. I believe others feared it would lead to maliciously-targeted proscriptions of student societies to prevent individual members’ holding office.

“The Association does not tolerate raucous behaviour, and is quite capable of punishing those guilty of it without proscribing societies which it allegedly characterizes.”

The co-chairs of Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) told Cherwell: “This is a further damning exposition of OUCA’s unwillingness to address the toxic culture that pervades their society.

“The Bullingdon Club stands for what is worst about Oxford, and OUCA’s willingness to allow its members into their Club should deter any reasonable person from involvement.”

Rhodes scholarship expanded worldwide

Daniel Hall
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Rhodes scholarship expanded worldwide

The Rhodes Scholarship will be made available to candidates from anywhere in the world, the Rhodes Trust has announced.

Rhodes Scholarships are currently only available to applicants from a list of more than 60 specified countries.

Recognised as one of the oldest and most prestigious international graduate awards, the majority of scholarships are reserved for residents of just three countries: the US, South Africa, and Canada.

From April 2018, for the first time in the history of the 115-year-old programme, applicants from the rest of the world will be able to apply for the scholarship.

The first two successful Global Rhodes Scholars will arrive in Oxford in October 2019.

In a statement, the Rhodes Trust said: “Opening up the Scholarship programme to powerful minds from all around the world demonstrates the Rhodes Trust’s commitment to be a truly global organisation that re ects the world’s diversity.

“[The expansion] marks a historic moment for the Rhodes Trust, and further strengthens the reach of the Scholarship around the world.”

The expansion of the programme will be seen as a move to modernise the Rhodes Trust, and move it away from the controversial legacy of its founder, the imperialist Cecil Rhodes.

The CEO of the Rhodes Trust, Charles Conn, emphasised the increasing global diversity of the scheme, while also recognising that the programme would mean that for the first time in its history, the Rhodes Scholarship would be available to students from the UK.

Conn said: “As an organisation based in Oxford, we are very excited to be able to now offer the opportunity to British students to join the Rhodes community for the first time since the Scholarship programme was launched in 1903. Students from regions such as Latin America and elsewhere who did not previously have access to a route to a Rhodes Scholarship can now also join our international network.”

The University reacted positively to the introduction of the new scholarships.

A spokesperson told Cherwell: “The Rhodes Scholarships have been important to the University of Oxford since they started in 1903. They have led to many international postgraduate students being able to study here, and we are delighted that the new Global Scholarships allow for their reach to be even greater in terms of where Scholars can come from around the world.”

Previous notable holders of the historic award include the former US President Bill Clinton, current Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and feminist author Naomi Wolf.

#Ending the Silence review – ‘there is nothing quite like it’

Joel Stanley
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#Ending the Silence review – ‘there is nothing quite like it’

#EndingTheSilence is a tripartite production that builds on the previous work performed by Unlock the Chains Collective. The first part of this performance, #BlackLivesMatter premiered in March 2017 in the Pegasus Theatre. Capitalising on its success, the collective have built on it, developing two following parts, called “Walking on Eggshells” and “Rise Up”.

For Unlock the Chains Collective, theatre and performance is a fundamentally holistic and immersive experience that doesn’t begin merely when the curtain rises. Walking into the Old Fire Station a little before the performance, I was greeted by a drumming set performed by Natty Mark-Samuels, Francis Boua, and Batwen Tavaziva, which wonderfully hinted towards the rhythm and the energy yet to come in the second part of the performance. In much the same way, the music played in the intervals was always thematically in-keeping with the antecedent content, and the attention to detail in providing African and Caribbean food during the breaks again made the world constructed by the Collective inescapable for the duration of the performance. In this way, the company blurs the lines between reality and performance, enabling the audience to relate parts of their experiences in some way to the performance. Based only on the ingenuity of the entire theatrical experience, #EndingTheSilence is unmissable – there is nothing quite like it.

The mimicking of idiosyncrasies of race relations is a particular strength of the first part of the performance. To pull apart the ideologies of those indifferent on the subject of race, and of armchair activists, to demonstrate logical inconsistencies of political ideas, and then to follow this with a proposed alternative, a solution, is what one might expect of an essay rather than an energetic and engaging performance. The Collective’s ability to deliver all this with passion and directed energy through a combination of spoken word, dance, and song mixed seamlessly together creates a show that is evidently brimming with talent. Amantha Edmead’s superb dramatic skill fused poignancy with humour – often beginning a presentation of a character with a look at traits which appear comedic before smoothly developing these in such a way that they became the precise traits I ultimately ended up thoughtfully reflecting upon later.

Euton Daley’s writing and direction confronts the audience with a range of black experiences, ranging from the emotionally charged opening spoken word poem depicting a man caught up in the middle of violence stuck holding a gun in a complete sense of terrified inertia, to an empowered and optimistic exploration of what it means to ‘hope’ performed by Griot Chinyere at the close of the show. This is abley accompanied by Bawren Tavaziva’s fluid and often understated yet effective choreography, performed primarily by the incredibly gifted Luke Crook and Nicola Moses with support from the entire cast.

Whilst the energy of the performance was continually appropriate and welcomed by the audience, given some of the themes the Collective dealt with, notably those such as protest and slavery, a fine line was trodden between outraged passion and a slightly pugnacious ‘shock-factor’ attitude which may have detracted from the performance. An extended sequence where a slave is led out of a cage and then beaten was certainly arresting and poignant, yet was not sufficiently and explicitly developed as the show progressed, and thus began to feel retrospectively out of place. In a similar vein, whilst the use of projection onto the back wall of the stage was an incredibly useful device, giving the audience crucial information than enabled us to ground the performance and understand the structure internal to each part, the projection of Klu Klux Klansmen at one point seemed to me unwarranted and one of the very few times the Collective included something to inspire visceral shock rather than deliver a message.

This is not to say that message was lacking – it was pervasive. Ehi Obhiozele’s stand-out spoken word performance on black identity, autonomy, and self-determination in the third part of the show was as arresting as it was genuine. Obhiozele’s naturalism and dextertiy in imitating various modes of speech and attitudes lended his performance the air of a spontaneous discussion with both the audience and the collective, who looked on, interjected at times, and provided a the perfect atmosphere for this performance.

Spontaneity is what Daley’s writing and direction capitalises on. Despite being politically charged and possibly uncomfortable viewing at moments, it wonderfully avoids didacticism. The members of the collective appear to derive their own conclusions throughout the performance, as does the audience. The multiple vignettes into the emotional turmoil of black men provided by Stephen Macaulay are often relatable and always appear instinctive. This spontaneity is enabled in part by Nomi Everall’s inventive set-design, with four large hashtag signs over the course of the performance acting as a cage, a ship, and even a post-modern version of the cross, a symbol of redemption and of the future. The possible configurations of the hashtags, just like the possible conclusions of the Collective, are infinite. Hashtags, and by extension words, may trap us and imprison us, yet they may liberate us and become instrumental in constructing a better future.

During one of the two intervals that took place during this performance, I by chance overheard another audience member discussing how rare it is to see a truly collaborate and collective effort in theatre, with directors of collectives often refusing to engage with the ideas of other members of the group. #EndingTheSilence is a wonderful and welcome exception to this rule: talent is pervasive, but most importantly, individual character shines through. It is precisely this relinquishing of uniformity, and a consequent acceptance of variation and independent identity within the black community that rendered the performance captivating and inspiring, and what fundamentally delivered such an impactful message.

Down with my Demons review – ‘tensions rise as secrets spill’

Hannah Patient
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Down with my Demons review – ‘tensions rise as secrets spill’

Down With My Demons is centred around five alcoholics in the dead-end South Carolina town of West Sicuta. Despite the fact that they are all attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, it soon becomes apparent that everyone knows everyone else’s past. When a storm sees them trapped in the building, tensions rise as secrets spill and the characters come closer to learning what happened on a fateful fishing trip ten years ago.

The theatrical experience was immersive from the off. Upon entering the BT, every audience member was handed a ‘service sheet’ with a list of ‘today’s hymns’, which also doubled up as a programme. They were then ushered into their seats by Pastor Matthew Talbot (Benjamin Ashton), who bustled around the altar anxiously until the play began. The set was cleverly designed, with seating on three sides of the studio making the audience an extended part of the circle of alcoholics. With the gentle breeze from the air-con, the strains of ‘Here I am, Lord’ and the fluttering of the American flag in the background, I felt as if I really could have been in a Baptist church in South Carolina. During the thunderstorm scene, as the studio was plunged into pitch darkness, being lost in the dark along with the characters and hearing only their panicked voices led a real sense of immediacy to the performance.

The standard of acting was excellent, and I was particularly impressed by Arthur Wotton and Benjamin Ashton’s ability to get under the skin of ostensibly unlikeable characters (an intolerant white fisherman and a self-righteous pastor) and make them sympathetic and believable. The varying dynamics between the characters were consistently well-observed. Even the way they sat in their chairs revealed something about their personalities: Jael (Anushka Shah), the respectable pillar of the community, was composed and upright, while Delilah (Serena Pennant), a downtrodden single mother, slumped in her seat and showed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the pastor’s suggestions.

The cast generally sustained convincing, albeit geographically disparate, southern American accents (they ranged from yokel to Southern belle to Texan cowboy). In some places the script was rather predictable; characters took it in turns to deliver monologues about their deepest secrets as the lighting shifted from warm to cold, and (surprise surprise) Samson and Delilah were sleeping together. Though I think we were supposed to see things from the perspective of Vincent (Robbie Fraser), the half-Mexican teacher who had always felt like an outsider in the community, I began to find his continual preaching and refusal to get along with the other characters annoying. However, I think this was rather the fault of the script than the actor.

Overall, the play was engaging throughout, and certainly explored some interesting themes, with the low reliance on technology lending it an almost timeless quality. Thanks to the unusually intimate staging and in-depth characterisation, I felt as if I had almost become a part of this close-knit American community, so different from our own, for a small time. It was an enjoyable – if not exactly uplifting – break from the Oxford bubble.

In Conversation with the Team Behind #Ending the Silence

John Livesey
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In Conversation with the Team Behind #Ending the Silence

The old Oxford Carnival used to snake up Cowley Road and find itself in the center of town. This is something I’m told mid-way through my conversation with two of the creative voices behind #Ending The Silence, director, performer and writer Euton Daley and actress Amantha Edmead. It’s funny to think of the floats and steel-pans following the exact route I took to meet the pair, past the Magdalen roundabout and down the Highstreet. As we discuss, it so often feels like there are two Oxfords, symbolized in the divide between the dreaming spires of the 38 colleges and the long stretches of East Oxford into Hillingdon. In its time, the Carnival was something which bridged the two, bringing different groups of people together in a celebration of afro-Caribbean culture.

Hearing about #Ending the Silence, it seems to approximate a carnival in itself. In both its form and content, it is focused on a composite, hybridized form of storytelling. The performance is divided into three individual 30 minute sections. The first investigates the tradition of black protest, the second the experiences of race in the everyday and the third is a look to the future of Afro-Caribbean culture in Britain, and the world. In each of these vignettes, a variety of different mediums is drawn on. As Daley tells me, the show employs ‘song, dance, and visual aspects’ and Edmead adds that ‘poetry becomes the musical score’. According to Daley, ‘the western concept of theatre is very much about putting things in categories and boxes… a piece that’s physical theatre, a piece that’s dance, a piece that’s something else’.

However, #Ending the Silence fights against that. In fact, so drastically defiant is it towards conventional forms that the show will be preceded by drumming in the foyer of the Old Firesation and then proceeded by a DJ set. The production seeps out of any boundaries one might wish to put it in, transcending labels and ensuring that its themes spin on and on beyond the confines of the auditorium

For Daley, the show also represents something personal. He talks about the dreams his parents once had of returning home after moving to England 50 years ago. Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, Daley’s vision forms part of a far wider discussion about what it means to be a member of the black diaspora: an experience that stretches across generations and is informed by the clash of different cultures and heritages. He also speaks about his passion for performance poetry which, during his tenure as artistic director of the Pegasus Theatre, he never found time to explore properly. This show fulfils a private promise to bring the spoken-word to the stage as part of a full theatrical spectacle.  First performed as a twenty minute piece as part of an evening showcase of work, his initial idea has expanded in length and size, with double the cast and a far longer running time. It certainly looks set to impress and provoke.

Neither Daley or Edmead shy away from the political aspects of the work either. Asked about representation within theatre they argue that even the slow improvements in diversity among professional companies mask wider structural issues. After all, where are the black writers and directors? ‘The stories are still the same’, Daley tells me, ‘the form is still the same’. What we have now is ‘just black people doing Shakespeare’.

The argument he makes is that we need new work that authentically addresses the reality of race, something this show does in bucket loads. According to Edmead, ‘Theatre gives you a space to show many different perspectives’ and so it certainly doesn’t make sense that it is not used more often to challenge the consensus and shift the debate. Perhaps part of the trouble is that ‘people drumming and doing spoken word is seen as lesser’. When the western norms of performance are so institutionalized, it becomes even harder to rewrite the narrative.

With the recent establishment of BAME drama in Oxford and a number of shows specifically designed to highlighted minority voices and stories, it seems there may be new things happening in student drama itself. When I tell the pair about this, Edmead offers a piece of advice and vote of confidence she was once given by Daley himself: ‘Just do it! Just get on and just do it!’. This play offers an exciting new space which involves its audience in a questioning of the status quo of society, storytelling and theatrical form. I left the Firestation invigorated by my discussions with these two creatives and hope that, should anyone miss out on what is going to be an incredible show, there will be many more like it to come.

The vintage sound of The Vaccines

Susannah Goldsbrough
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The vintage sound of The Vaccines

“It’s hard for rock music at the moment” muses Justin Young, front man of The Vaccines. “It’s always been on the front foot culturally. But hip-hop is the exciting form of music right now. Where that leaves bands that are making rock music today, I don’t know. Will we be heralded as…as…”

“The Armageddon?”, chips in Freddie Cowan, lead guitarist, and the darker, quieter, unjustifiably chiselled foil to Young’s floppy-haired, high-energy eloquence. His line may have been a comic throwaway, but it captured a wider theme running through the pair’s conversation at the Union earlier this week. Weeks away from the launch of their fourth album, the west London based indie rock group are now some years beyond the first unsteady flush of fame, the thrill of a euphoric review in Clash and sellout shows at North London pubs.

They’re far from done with music making, but their thoughts seem to be turning towards what they’ll leave behind, to legacy, and the state of rock seems to be weighing on their minds. For an indie-rock band, the pair seem fairly uninspired by the genre at the moment. “Rock follows too many of its own rules”, says Young, “it’s like jazz 50 years ago, in that it operates within quite stringent four walls.” Cowan agrees. “If you’re a four-man band you’re still operating in the wake of The Beatles and The Stones, and you will be until someone can reinvent rock in a way that breaks new ground.”

Speaking to me a few days later, Young makes no attempt to present his music as the radical edge of pop. “I probably wouldn’t start a band that sounded like The Vaccines today, but it’s the path we’re on now. When a song comes on the radio, I kind of love the idea that people will go ‘Oh, this is The Vaccines’.”

I wonder what it’s like to have a self-conscious public image of being old fashioned, in an industry so often fuelled by a desire to transgress and to make change. Young is unconvinced that all artists are genuine innovators. “If you look at glam rock, on the one hand it was very much on the front foot and original, but equally everyone was doing exactly the same thing. It was all a result of the obsession with space age, and dressing like David Bowie. “First and foremost when it comes to art or entertainment, you have to feel fulfilled and to do what makes you happy. You’ll find solace in a certain world or genre, and you’ll make songs you like for people like you. For us, playing rock ‘n roll comes naturally.”

Anachronistic is not the only image problem the band has faced over the years. When they first found fame, they received a certain amount of ridicule from the press for their so-called privileged backgrounds – an old broadsheet article surfaced detailing the four-bedroom South Kensington apartment Cowan’s mother had apparently gifted him as ‘a party flat’. I ask Young if he’s with the implications that his background excludes him from being a true indie rocker, but he doesn’t seem to be in any kind of identity crisis. “Art has always been a pursuit of the privileged, particularly rock ‘n roll. Some of the most hedonistic characters from rock and roll folklore came from privilege, most recently The Strokes. It’s funny that we’re considered posh and privileged but they were considered glamorous because they were New Yorkers.”

The band’s preoccupation with the image they will leave on the eyes and ears of the world probably owes something to their awareness that rock bands don’t have an unlimited shelf life. Young is brutally honest about the toll live performances can take. “It’s really hard when you have an adrenaline shot on a daily basis and then you’re starved of it. I think that’s why so many people in bands end up in an early grave and turn to such unhealthy habits, because there really is nothing quite like it.

“I come back from tour and I’m like, what the fuck do I do now? We haven’t really been performing solidly for 18 months now, and I’m still finding it hard to just sit at home on a week night and accept that that’s what people do. They turn on the TV and make some food and just relax. And I’m still working that one out.” Cowan agrees. “It’s an unbelievable transition to go from playing to the dressing room where your tour manager is just fiddling with the printer.”

It’s hardly surprising that they struggle to adjust to ordinary life – big festival gigs can draw crowds of 30 thousand. Young describes his own desire to put musicians on a pedestal, to view his favourite pop stars as higher beings “beamed from space”. You can spot the effects of fame in the pair’s casual comparisons to their idols, in how easily they move from themselves to Radiohead or The Stones in the same sentence, but neither Young nor Cowan is your typical spoilt pop star. “When you play to a crowd of 30 thousand people, you’ve got to assume 20 thousand have been dragged along by their friends. Not everyone worships at the Church of The Vaccines…”

The time for sitting on the sofa and pretending to be normal won’t last much longer for The Vaccines, soon off on tour with their new album, Combat Sports. Press releases frame it as a return to their original sound, after the experimentation of their last album, English Graffiti. With heavy guitar riffs, bitter-sweet lyrical turns and what Young calls “the primal, urgent, energetic sound”, we’re certainly back in the world of anthems like ‘Post Break-Up Sex’ (still my go-to break up song). My favourite track of the new album, ‘Your Love is My Favourite Band’, takes a witty, self-referential approach to the musical cliché of ‘the love song’. Young likes to tell people that he’s only interested in writing about love and sex, so I wonder how he keeps two themes with light years of cultural baggage fresh. “Love is impossible to describe in words, so I find it funny that we spend so much our time trying to do so.” But that impossibility is the point, as Young says, “it’s just very hard to define so I think people will always continue to try.”

The sound may be a return to the band’s early years, but some fundamental things have changed. With the departure of drummer Pete Robinson, the band has absorbed two new members in recent months, in the form of Tim Lanham and Yoann Intonti. Such a major personnel shake-up could easily have heralded the end of the group’s successes, but in fact they seem re-energised by the changes. Which is not to say it hasn’t been a difficult few months. “It was a real shock when Pete first said he wanted to leave” Young tells me. “We talked about continuing as a three piece but it really felt like we’d lost something. Like we were an animal that had lost a leg. But we sat down and we were sure we wanted to keep doing it and to make another record.”

Lanham and Intoni had already toured with The Vaccines, but in becoming full members they brought something new. “All of a sudden, 40 per cent of the band were over the moon to be there and bringing fresh energy into every room we walked into. We had a fresh perspective, which stops you making the same record over and over again. It’s funny but I wonder if we’d be sat here talking now if that hadn’t happened.”

I wonder how his positivity about the future of the band, its new members and old sounds, sits alongside the toughness of the lifestyle he makes no attempt to hide. How much longer can they really keep doing this? Young is optimistic. “I don’t think the lifestyle is sustainable – sleep is one of the most important things for a long life and you don’t get any of that when you’re in the band – but we still massively enjoy making music. It’s a very strange life, but as we get older I think we’re refining it. We’re getting better at keeping ourselves alive.”

That’s a pretty sombre sentiment from a guy who’ll spend the next few months hearing thousand-strong audiences singing his lyrics back to him. But as we’ve established, it’s a tough time to be in rock ‘n roll, especially when the adrenaline recedes and you’re back to sitting on the sofa on a week night, wondering how to be ordinary.

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