9Catch ‘em all overagainWhy you’re never too old toplay Pokémon.

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university

Opinion

The solution toyour housing

worries

Culture

The ‘video nasties’they didn’t want

you to see

Lifestyle

Risking the loan aswe look at

gambling students

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February 2011 Year 4, Issue 2

Fully bookedHaving trouble finding somewhere to live? The Universityof Lincoln has booked half of the student rooms in the city

– but told the companies not to say they were short onspace to avoid panic.

Paid for their pole-dancingIs the world of lap and poledancing as seedy as many think?

Continued on page 5

THE LINC2

Editor’s Letter

News in Brief

EditorCharlotte Reid

Deputy EditorJonathan Cresswell

News EditorVacant

Sports EditorBradley King

Deputy Sports EditorCalum Fuller

Culture EditorLuke Morton

Deputy Culture EditorSamantha Viner

Style EditorNatalie Littlewood

Lifestyle EditorStephanie Bolton

Pictures EditorAnneka James

Readers’ EditorSamantha Pidoux

Advertising EditorNatalie Ditchfield

Contributors Shane CroucherJoel MurrayEmma GreatorexRebecca CarolineMartin HarrisonSophie CardSteven LawrenceCarly NortonMarcell GrantTim LongJosh ClarkAlex Blackburne

Rachael Connelly

Special ThanksProfessor Richard KeebleProfessor John TullochBarry TurnerGary StevensDebbie Wilson

The Linc was printed byMortons Print Limited,Hornastle, Lincolnshirewww.mortonsprint.com

The views and opin-ions expressed in thispaper are not neces-sarily the views of theUniversity of Lincoln,the University of Lin-coln Students' Unionor the Lincoln Schoolof Journalism.

All rights in the design,text, graphics and othermaterial in this paper andthe selection or arrange-ment thereof is copyrightof The Linc or other thirdparty, unless otherwisestated.Any unauthoriseduse of materials is prohib-ited, if you require per-mission please contacteditor@thelinc.co.uk

We appreciate whenreaders or people quotedin articles point out anyerrors of fact or emphasis,and we will investigate allcases. These should besent via email to correc-tions@thelinc.co.uk.

The Linc tries to abideto the NUJ’s code of con-duct and the PCC.

The news that the person writingthis isn’t Shane Croucher may bea bit of a shock to some, particu-larly as I did not make a big com-motion about my new title,plumping to just get on with it.

With Shane’s decision to stepdown from the top job and focuson the last push for his degree,The Linc has fallen to me, andfirstly I want to say good luck tohim even though he is still con-tributing.

Already there have been sometough decisions to make, and onebeing that no matter how hardyou shake this publication, unfor-tunately The Linc Magazine willnot fall out. Currently everyone is

making cutbacks and that meansus as well.

We have decided to stick to ourroots and remain as a newspaperbut we have taken this opportu-nity to make the paper as pretty aspossible with a bit of a redesign.

When I first started writing forThe Linc in 2009 it was during atwo– week trial to see if we couldpublish stories daily on our web-site and since then we have grownever more technologically ad-vanced. Not really thanks to me asI am the main audience for those“Technology for Dummies” books.

Now we are gaining recognitionfor this with a nomination for aBBC innovation award for our

coverage of the General Electionsin 2010, where we had video in-terviews, blogs, and of course livecoverage of the night.

But we haven’t stopped there aswe are proud to announce that wehave a mobile phone app as well.And if you ask nicely then we maydevelop an app on other types ofphones too!

So we may have lost a magazinebut we are still working hard tokeep you up to date, informed andentertained – and hopefully thisissue will be an example of what isto come.

- Charlotte Reidcharlotte.reid@thelinc.co.uk

Get The Linc on your phone withthe new mobile appYou can now get the latest updates fromThe Linc straight to your phone with ournew mobile app.

Read the latest stories in full, get storiesquickly with automatic updating and sharethem on Twitter and Facebook.

Right now it supports most phones thatrun on the Android operating system.

For more information on the app, visithttp://www.thelinc.co.uk/mobileapps

To download the app,just search for “TheLinc” on the AndroidMarket or scan thisQR code with a bar-code scanner app orusing Google Goggles.

Be part of The Linc

If you’d like to get involved with Lincoln’s premier student publication, and fancy seeing your work onour website, in the next print editon or on ourweekly podcasts on Siren 107.3FM, then please letus know.

We’re always looking for new people who are in-terested, in writing, photography or contributing inany way.

Just email contact@thelinc.co.uk or get intouch with the relevent section editor.

Karl McCartney, Lincoln’s Conservative MP, was invited by the pol-itics society to be a guest speaker at the University of Lincoln onWednesday, January 19th.

The audience were enthusiastic to grill McCartney on questions about therise in tuition fees to a possible £9,000, which he voted in favour of back inDecember 2010.

There was also a variety of questions on his stance on the EU, tax avoidanceand bankers’ bonuses.

The Lincoln MP also recommended that a “credible” student candidateshould stand in the City of Lincoln Council elections in order to get more rep-resentation.

Professor Simon Barker has become the University of Lincoln’s newHead of the School of Humanities.

Professor Barker had previously visited the university before in 2006 andwas “impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff and students, and by the uni-versity that was being constructed around them as they worked”.

Since then he has been keeping a look out on recent news to do with thedevelopments at the university such as the work by the humanities sectionsbut also developments such as the School of Engineering.

Semester B’s “Journalists speak out on Journalism” guest lectureseries has been announced bringing in names such as BridgetKendall, BBC diplomatic correspondent, and Angus Stickler, newseditor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who will both talkabout Wikileaks.

The BAFTA nominated film producer, Chris Atkins, behind the film “Star-suckers” will be discussing “False news – and how to foil the media”. His teamfooled various newspapers in to printing fake celebrity gossip.

Several of the talks, which will be presented by Professor Richard Keeble,will be filmed by The Linc and will be available on our website.

The University of Lincoln’s library defended the decision to canceltheir annual Ebrary subscription claiming it was not cost effective.

The library was criticised for not giving students enough warning before theservice was cancelled.

The annual subscription to the service was around £20,000 and an analysisof usage found that although students had access to 30,000 books only around400 were being used significantly.

Instead the library made the decision to spend the budget outright on bookwith Ian Snowley, the university librarian, saying: “We realised it costs aboutthe same to buy those 400 titles for forever.”

3www.TheLinc.co.uk

News

Following the opening of the Faculty of Law and Busi-ness in January, the School of Engineering is now thefocus of construction efforts as the University of Lin-coln’s multi-million pound investment continues.

The School of Engineering is the first to be estab-lished within the UK for over 20 years, and is currentlyin phase one of construction, with completion antici-pated during the summer of 2013.

The first phase is expected to be completed in July2011, despite a two week delay in December due topoor weather conditions, which is when the engineer-ing programmes will be relocated to the new building.

Phase two is scheduled to begin in the summermonths of 2012 and will take approximately 12 monthsto complete.

The skills shortage in engineering is something the£37 million School of Engineering aims to redress,whilst forging links with the industry. The EngineeringSchool currently focuses on mechanical engineering,but the new building will allow the university to diver-sify the number of courses available to include elec-tronic and electrical engineering. The School isoptimistic that the expansion will continue afterthe completion of the building.

Professor Paul Stewart, founding head of the Schoolof Engineering at the University of Lincoln, says: “Thebuilding is a hub from which we can interact with theindustry, providing industry ready, highly employablegraduates, and addressing the research and develop-ment needs of companies from one-man-bands tomultinationals like Siemens.”

The School of Engineering is part of the governmentScience Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM)scheme. Under government proposals, university fund-ing will not be cut in these areas.

The development of the School of Engineering is ex-pected to have a positive impact on both the Universityof Lincoln and the industry, and help the university toprogress. Professor Stewart says: “Engineering is oneof the pillars of a top university, so the building as awhole is an important part of the development of theuniversity, and in particular it’s aspirations to top 50university status.”

Noodle Stewart, a three-year-old Labradoodle, is theschool’s mascot, and a “core member of our ‘Dogs intoEngineering’ scheme,” according to Professor Stewart.

About his appointment as school mascot Noodlesaid: “I’m proud to be part of this significant develop-ment at the University of Lincoln, but am disappointedat the lack of dedicated kennel facilities in the newbuilding.” The School of Engineering is currently theonly department to have a dog for a mascot.

Constructing a newEngineering school

A University of Lincoln student has beengiven an opportunity to go to Delhi to lookfurther into the world of rag pickers.

Sven Schiltz, a research student, trav-elled to Delhi on January 24th to startworking with Chintan Environmental Re-search and Action Group, a non-govern-mental organisation based in India whoworks for a sustainable environment.

Schiltz has started his thesis on globalcities, which originally was looking intobig cities such as London, New York andTokyo.

Looking into the development of citiessuch as Delhi, Schiltz became fascinatedwith “rag pickers” who make a livelihoodand a life for themselves by collectingother people’s waste.

However, after a lot of academic re-search Schiltz changed his focus for histhesis to be “far more related to the realworld”. On top of that he said that he hasalways wanted to travel and rather excit-edly exclaimed: “I get to go to India.”

Schiltz explained what role rag pickersplay in society: “What they do is much ap-preciated by the environment as obviouslythey collect waste from the streets andeven from the official waste lorries andalso on garbage slums as well.

“That means there is not as much wastethat ends on up on landfills and most im-portantly all the waste they collect is recy-cled because that’s how they get theirmoney.

“Because actually, even though it seemslike it is worthless, as people get rid of it,it doesn’t seem like there is any more valuethere but actually there is the value of thematerial. So they send that onto tradersand it is recycled which obviously makes abig impact on the environment.

“So here there are people living in themargins of society, they just survive day byday by collecting waste that is all theyhave.”

Schiltz has set up a blog which has cre-ated some interest because of the topicand his passionate voice. The blog also-helps him keep notes for his thesis.

But Schiltz admits that writing his bloghas a much more “selfish” reasoning as hecan keep in touch with home easily: “It ismainly for my friends because I won’t havetime to write many emails. So instead ofwriting like five, ten best friends an emailI might as well just put it on a blog andthey can look at it.”

He does say that when he talks to hisfriends about his internship that “theysmile and they nod, but let’s face it, theydon’t have a clue what I am talking about”.

Although he was certainly excited he hasentered the internship open minded: “Ihaven’t got any expectations. I have neverbeen to a developing country… I hope Iwill just get a different perspective. I don’twant to say ‘I am going to go find myself’and I think it will help put my own prob-lems in perspective.

“Most importantly I want to see how itworks, it’s all good reading but you canonly get a certain idea of what it is like.”

To read his blog, go to http://ragpickers.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

Rag picking an unsualinternship... in Delhi

Noodle Stewart is themascot of the engineering school.Photo: Paul Stewart

by Charlotte Reid

by Carly Norton

Rag picking communities live off whatthey can find, like this one in Delhi.Photo: Sven Schiltz

THE LINC4

The recently retired Bishop John Saxbee felt “overwhelmed bypeople’s kindness” and likened his retirement to “a reversepregnancy” as he needed to give nine months notice so it feltas if it took him “nine months for me not to be born but togradually fade away”.

Reminiscing about his nine years as the Bishop of Lincolnhe called his job a “kaleidoscope of brief encounters” varyingfrom when the Archbishop of Canterbury came to visit the cityto receiving unexpected gratitude for writing to members ofhis diocese. That in a sense adds up to a highlight composedof a myriad of other highlights.

In December 2010, the campaigning students found a some-what unlikely associate as he stood up in the House of Lordsto challenge the rise in tuition fees.

He said he felt “obliged to stand up and roundly condemnthe implication that educating a young generation of peopleonly benefits those young people so they should pay”

Comparing the usual “sober, very gentlemanly and verycourteous” atmosphere of the House of Lords more like theHouse of Commons, the discussion that day justified to Saxbeewhy bishops are in the House of Lords “because we can speaknot out of our party political outform not out of a financial im-perative we speak on moral grounds”.

When he was being considered for the role, thanks to the

mysterious process of choosing a bishop, he was “getting onwith my other job”. It was not until he received a letter fromthe then Prime Minister Tony Blair, “telling me more than ask-ing me, I think, to become the next Bishop of Lincoln” did heknow that the position was even vacant.

For a man who grew up in the West Country and had spenthis time serving in Bristol, Shropshire and Devon he “wouldhave struggled to have located it [Lincoln] on the map”.

Even though it was a huge change Saxbee is appreciativethat he got to discover an area of England that was new to him.

But on a serious note he says that when he was appointed in2001 that Lincoln had become a bit of a by word for bad news:“In the 1990s there was quite a lot of bad feeling in Lincoln,for all kinds of reasons involving the Cathedral and the dioceseand the Dean.

“I think they said: ‘Why not appoint someone who has noknowledge of any of it at all who can begin again and just takethe diocese forward on a new path’... and to the enormouscredit to the people of Lincolnshire they have risen to that andsaid ‘We want to go forward not on the basis of the past butwith a new kind of future beckoning’.”

After causing a stir the former bishop is looking forward toretirement – where he will be exploring another part of thecountry west Wales. There he plans to relax and “give a bit oftime to my wife who has given an awful lot of herself to my job– now it is my job to give myself to her”.

Lincoln’s retiring bishop on defending students over fees rise

Blackboard’s not perfect - but it is here to stay

The University of Lincoln’s educationsystem Blackboard may be unpopularamongst some students with calls of itbeing “unreliable” and “inconsistent”but it appears to be here to stay.

There are “no other competitors in themarket”, says Professor Howard Steven-son, the deputy director for the Centrefor Educational Research and Develop-ment (CERD). There is one other systemcalled Moodle which the university de-cided was not the product for them as itis lacking in technical support.

Preliminary results from the Students’Union Big Conversation survey showsthat students do use Blackboard regu-larly but have expectations that staff willuse it more as well.

Dan Derricott, the Students’ Union

vice-president for Academic Affairs whohas started making conversation withthe university over the current use ofBlackboard, says that there needs to bea “culture change” and the SU are keento “push a positive reinforcement cam-paign, good practice campaign, showingwhat is possible so technology can en-hance learning”.

As Blackboard has only been usedacross the University of Lincoln as awhole since the academic year 2008/09it has taken a while for people to adjustto it, with Steveson saying people have“certainly become comfortable with it”.

Derricott is planning for some im-provements this semester but it will notbe a quick change.

There have been concerns about whatstudents should do when Blackboardgoes down, particularly after the system

could not be accessed for several periodsover January just before deadlines.

Currently there is no policy for whenthe system is down and work needs to besubmitted but it would need to be dealtwith by individual tutors. But theamount of downtime does not seem tobe of concern as it is mostly overnight,but Stevenson says no student would getpenalised if they were unable to submitwork thanks to Blackboard.

As the university has only been work-ing with the system for three yearsStevenson says that we are “maturing asan institution with Blackboard” as thereis a push towards encouraging staff andstudents to not just use the system forstoring lecture slides but for submittingwork as well, with plans to upgrade toBlackboard version nine sometime inthe near future.

Former Lincoln vice-chancellor returns toopen new building

Ordinarily you may think a man who has a fascination forbuildings is odd. But when you see the results of ProfessorDavid Chiddick’s “unholy desire” for an old newspaper build-ing, you can’t help joining in.

“It was terrible really... I was almost coveting it. I used towalk around [the building] in the morning and imagine whatit could be,” says Professor Chiddick, who retired in 2009 afternine years as vice-chancellor of the University of Lincoln.

Urban regeneration and recycling buildings is his passion,which is why when the old Lincolnshire Echo building becameof no use to the newspaper, he saw his opportunity to turn itin to what has become the newly opened Business and Lawbuilding, which has been renamed after him.

“In fact, while we were buying it and in the negotiations Iactually used the print room to stage a final year exhibition foran architecture project I was involved in.

“It's better than I imagined it, and I did imagine it plenty oftimes.”

The building is right next to the Brayford Campus whichProfessor Chiddick finds “fantastic” because “it connects theuniversity to the city”.

His belief in the re-use of old buildings for new purposes isevident by a number of hallmarks he left behind at the univer-sity after his era.

The Engine Shed, a 137-year-old listed building burstingwith Lincoln’s railway heritage, was a vast, dilapidated shed.Now it’s the biggest music venue in the region, a nightclub, of-fices, and a bar.

The Great Central Warehouse was once an industrial hub inLincoln – but now it’s the university’s library and from the out-side it’s a mix of striking and domineering black, metal walls,with modern glass extensions protruding from the sides. Onthe inside there are subtle nods to its former industrial glory,with the original brickwork intact and iron girders runningthrough the building.

Similarly, the David Chiddick Building has acknowledge-ments to its past - ink stains from the splatter printing pressescan still be seen inside the building’s atrium. There’s also ametal winch, high up in the ceiling, which was once used toput ink in the printers and lift newspapers out.

Despite the tough climate for higher education, ProfessorChiddick has confidence in his replacement, Professor MaryStuart, and believes that Lincoln is well equipped to cope inthe future: “I do think Lincoln is in a very strong position – ac-ademically, financially, and in Lincoln. It's got great staff, it'sgot tremendous students, and it's now reached the positionwhere it can really fly, even in these difficult circumstances.”

Professor Chiddick admits that it was hard to let go saying:“I think probably I thought that I had let go in the first threemonths, and at the end of the six months I realised I hadn'tproperly.”

“It's like a bishop really, you should get out of town whenyou've been vice-chancellor, and you shouldn't hang around.”

Bishop John Saxbee with his cards frommany well-wishers. Photo: Charlotte Reid

by Charlotte Reid

by Shane Croucher

Professor Chiddick stands withthe plaque commemorating thenew building. Photo: UoL PO

by Charlotte Reid

5www.TheLinc.co.uk

Opinion: Shoved out of your home? Make your own.

Welcome back to Lincoln – it’s time for abright new term of opportunities, creativityand promise. Oh, by the way... you’ve gotnowhere to live.

There, that brought you back to the grimheartless reality we live in. Many studentsare outraged that they’re being forced out oftheir beds because the providers got in bedwith the university.

The plan was to stop panic by not sayingthat places were limited, but somehow revealing that they’re all full on the same dayis supposed to be better? The attitude is likesaying: “Well we didn’t want to scare youabout AIDS by telling you to use a con-dom,”,which isn’t particularly good advice.

Things aren’t as bad for the incoming

freshers, but when 60% of them aren’t in theuniversity’s own accommodation it’s clearthings haven’t been thought through well.Or at all.

As the university has an obsession of expansion with new buildings, forgetting tobuild anywhere for the students who usethem to actually live is a bit of an oversight.

Then again, avoiding Courts is possibly ablessing in disguise as they consider heatingand hot water an optional extra – subject toavailability.

The relationship between the universityand the company that manages Courts, Santuary, feels more like the Chuckle Brothers as responsibility can get passed tome, to you, to me, to you...

But if rooms weren’t put aside, returningstudents would be fine but then people newto Lincoln would have nowhere to go. It’slike a game of “Deal or No Deal” wheresomebody has to get shafted.

With all the rooms in private halls taken,many students are now forced to get a housewith a company like Lighthouse, and thosesorts of houses can be described at best as...nope, they can’t be.

If you’re still looking for a home then youcould try a more inventive solution – occupya room at the university! The beanbag roomin the Main Admin Building has been welltested, so you get nice furniture, warmth andmore reliable facilities than most places thatcharge. It’s a brilliant idea, as you can

simultaneously protest against the lack ofrooms and be part of the solution!

If that doesn’t take your fancy, why nottake some inspiration from everybody’sfavourite television show of the moment,“Big Fat Gypsy Weddings”. There’s plenty ofgreen space in front of the Architecturebuilding that the University of Lincolnhasn’t yet managed to stick a new buildingon, which is perfect for a little caravan congregation. It’s surrounded by a bunch ofshops so you’re never too far from everything you need.

And if all else fails, just budge up betweenthe turkey ducks and set up camp alongsidethe Brayford – and students can truly all bein this together.

There’s no place like home.But there’s no places left.

Finding a house in Lincoln is normally difficult but there have been more problemsthis year as the University of Lincoln hasbooked half of the rooms in privately ownedstudent halls in the city.

Most housing was made available on January 26th, the day of the Students’ Union’sHousing Fayre - but within hours the majoraccommodation providers in Lincoln had noplaces left as they were reserved for the expected increase of new students in Septem-ber, without warning that spaces were tight.

A University of Lincoln spokesman explained: “Including the Courts, there areapproximately 4,000 student rooms in thevarious university-approved developments inLincoln.

“In addition to all of the rooms in the university Courts, approximately 50% of the3,000 rooms in private sector developmentshave been reserved.”

This means that around 60% of the 2,500new students who need housing will not beliving in university-owned rooms - but with1,500 rooms booked many existing residentsof private halls have been unable to rebook.

Approximately 700 rooms have been reserved in the Ruston Way based accommo-dation Pavilions, leaving many students unable to rebook where they currently live forthe next year - and 200 people are on thecompany’s waiting list.

Residents used the official Pavilions pageon Facebook to vent their concerns, with somestudents explaining how despite reserving aroom, as they did not get the tenancy agreement signed with guarantors in asquickly as required, their room had been sold.

A Facebook group titled “Pavs Stole MyHome” also contained many complaints,particularly due to the complete lack of noticethat the company gave.

Digs, the company that owns Pavilions, responded in a statement saying that they “decided, in line with the university's policy,to not cause panic by telling our current residents that spaces within The Pavilionswere limited”.

Instead, in December they started promot-ing their standard re-booking scheme, saying:“We did carry out plenty of promotion on a

variety of platforms to advise you to bookearly.

“We were informed by the AccommodationOffice at the university that most students donot consider their accommodation optionuntil the January Housing Fayre that tookplace on the 26th, so we felt that we had in-formed our re-bookers with plenty of time.”

The situation is similar with the other accommodation providers that the universityworks in partnership with. All rooms at Brayford Quays went within seven hours, andJunxion is also full after the university booked

180 rooms – although originally requested260 rooms – but only around 10 people are ontheir waiting list.

Park Courts have had 180 rooms reservedby the university for incoming students leav-ing 99 rooms available for those re-booking.

Hayes Wharf could not confirm to The Lincwhether they were full before this editionwent to print.

In previous years, the University of Lincolnapproached the partnership providers later inthe year to reserve rooms for first years afterreturning students have had a chance to book

places. The number of rooms booked by theuniversity fluctuates each year according tothe number of expected applicants.

The University of Lincoln has said that theyare making plans to improve what they describe as the “well publicised” pressure onaccommodation in the city.

“The university is currently reviewing itsstudent accommodation strategy to ensurethat the availability of high quality student ac-commodation continues to be in line with ourambitious plans.” However, no details weregiven as to what the plans involve.

by Maken Eetup

by Jonathan Cresswellwith contributions from The Linc news team Many accomodation providers are turning people away

due to block-booked rooms. Photo: Jonathan Cresswell

THE LINC6

Lifestyle

Betting on sport is the most popularform of gambling in Britain today,closely followed by casino games suchas poker, roulette and blackjack. Asidefrom the millions of people who playthe lottery, the most prolific gamblersare the ones visiting gambling stationsor websites in order to place a bet.

James, a second year student at the Univer-sity of Lincoln, has been gambling since hewas 16-years-old. He would visit betting sta-tions with older friends, and as long as hewasn't asked for proof of age, he was morethan happy to place a bet.

James says that his games of choice arecasino favourites, with a preference forroulette and blackjack. He says that he enjoysthe game pace and the skill required to be suc-cessful, despite the fact they are both veryhigh risk games, where luck outweighs skill.

The UK Gambling Commission has releasedreports detailing the social groups most likelyto develop problems through gambling:“Problem gambling is more prevalent amongmen and younger age groups; and signifi-cantly associated with being Asian/AsianBritish, Black/Black British, separated/di-vorced or having fewer educational qualifica-tions,” it states.

James fits three parts of the demographicsthat the Gambling Commission set out.

Years of experience has allowed James todevelop a game-play style, which has createda system of favourite numbers and mathemat-ical strategies that he believes work in hisfavour: “[In roulette] there are certain num-bers that come up more frequently than oth-ers, so if you keep betting on that number, you

are bound to win eventually,” he says.This trial and error approach to gambling

has cost James throughout his gambling ca-reer. At one point he had amassed £3,200 inone sitting but he would not comment onwhether or not he won the total amount over-all. James says that in the past he has wonthousands, and subsequently celebrated bytaking his girlfriend on a romantic weekendaway, complete with a shopping spree.

Gambling for James is not a source of in-come. The thrilling nature of winning driveshim therefore his casual approach to the valueof money results inspending any win-nings in celebration,rather than saving forfuture gambling. Jamesis fully aware that hisprofit margin is greatlyout-shadowed by hisloss margin, but stilldoesn't show anysigns of regret or stop-ping.

In terms of gamblingaddiction, James saysthat he is in control.However, there have been instances in thepast where he admits to have put gamblingfirst, highlighting the addictive qualities andbehaviours of a gambling life.

Government research differentiates differ-ent forms of gambling and concludes that“problem gambling” is gambling to a degreethat compromises, disrupts or damages fam-ily, personal or recreational pursuits.

Though he states that he is fully in control,gambling addiction is sometimes referred toas the “hidden illness” because there are noobvious physical signs or symptoms like there

are in drug or alcohol addiction. Problemgamblers typically deny or minimise the prob-lem. They also go to great lengths to hide theirgambling.

Callum*, a law student at the university, isa professional blackjack player who got intogambling by accident. “I started playing at acasino locally and after about a year got sup-port from other people.”

Now Callum often plays on team bankrolls:“You share information with each other,places where to go and you can travel withpeople and split costs and expenses,” he ex-

plains.What makes Callum’s

gambling different tothose who play onlinepoker, and take chanceson roulette tables atcasinos is that he doescard counting.

It’s a legal practice butone that, if the player isgood enough, can meanthat they beat the casinoevery time they play. It’sfor this reason that casi-nos ban players found to

be card counting, and because of this, Callumhas been banned from playing in housesowned by a large casino group.

Despite the practice being frowned upon,card counting is a skill that Callum hasworked hard to develop: “I think most peoplewould fail at it. It took me a long time to getthe hang of it... It’s not complicated maths,you just need patience.”

It may be this hard work and thoroughknowledge of the game that makes Callum re-alistic about his chances of winning as he says:“You lose 45% of the time, your wins tend to

be as big as your losses. You have to turnovera lot to make a little.”

The hard work has paid off though. Callumnow travels around Europe playing in casinos,but he is hesitant to say the most he’s everwon, just that it’s in the ball park of universitytuition fees, confessing that “I’m now so farahead that I’ll never be down again.”

But Callum would not classify himself as ad-dicted saying that it is not “the right word”.“Once you’re playing and winning a game,you’re in the mind-set of card counting whereyou’re trying to beat the house. The knowl-edge is there. A gambler couldn’t play black-jack; you have to be a certain type of person,”he says.

But he has seen the effects of gambling onpeople who frequent the same casinos andhave become addicted. However, he says thatthe casinos don’t care; they just want theirmoney.

Callum decided against becoming a profes-sional blackjack player full time saying: “Youwake up once you start to get banned fromplaces and you can’t get games forever.”

James has advice for all gambling beginnersthat in order to be successful in the high riskworld you have “to be willing to be bold andbrave and bet big and be prepared to lose ifyou want to win.”

Both gamblers know that the risks they takeare high, and James knows only too well whatcan happen when those risks don’t pay off.What can start as a low bet on one game canbe the beginning of a serious addiction, wherefriends and family, as well as money, are lost

For help and advice with gambling addic-tion, visit www.gambleaware.co.uk

* Real name has been changed

Playing your cards rightby Martin Harrison with contributions

from Sophie Card and Stephanie Bolton

Are many students gambling their tightfunds away? Photo: Anneka James

“

”

Once you’re playing andwinning a game, you’re in themind-set of card countingwhere you’re trying to beatthe house. The knowledge isthere. A gambler couldn’tplay blackjack; you have to bea certain type of person.

7www.TheLinc.co.uk

Walking up to the bar, it looksjust like any other club. Musicis blaring from the speakers,there’s sophisticated lightingand large mirrors. But this isno ordinary club. This is one ofover a hundred lap- and pole-dancing clubs in the UK thatare now seen as part of the sexindustry.

Beyond the bar, a girl in a tightblack dress and thong begins totwist and twirl herself around thepole. This is 19-year-old Pixie* andthis is the first of many dances she’lldo tonight.

Pole-dancing’s popularity has be-come more socially acceptable as itis seen as a great form of exercise,but lap-dancing still has a very neg-ative stereotype. There is a commonassumption that girls have to bedesperate for money to take on thiswork.

But even though the girls all citemoney as the main reason for start-ing work here, they weren’t desper-ate – Pixie says she just wantedmoney for a social life.

It’s easy to see why money is thebiggest incentive. Unlike otherclubs, the dancers aren’t required topay a ‘floor fee’ for working here,and so they take home 70% of every-thing they earn - and they can earna lot.

Private dances cost from £10 for athree-minute strip tease, to £200for an hour, but the girls’ earningsvary from one night to the next.

For 25-year-old Layla, who alsoworks full-time, 30 dances is a goodnight. Pixie tells me she did 34dances last week but by midnighttonight she’s only done three.

Aside from the money, the girlshave more personal reasons forworking here.

One of the girls, a 21-year-old whohas been dancing for over a year,says dancing was an opportunity forher to rebuild her confidencearound men as well as earn much-needed cash.

Past relationships left her withlow self-esteem and she didn’t likethe way she looked which, she ad-mits, makes lap-dancing seem anodd choice. But rather than learn todevelop her confidence from oneguy, “Why not learn it from a hun-dred?” she asks.

Working the floor in a bright pinkbra and matching G-string, withpieces of material barely coveringher mid-drift and lower body, it ap-pears that dancing has made hermuch more confident.

All the girls agree that working asa dancer is a great confidence-booster: “I used to have mega bodyissues but [now] I just don’t hatemyself as much body-wise and geton with it,” says Kitty.

She also finds lap-dancing em-powering for women: “You come toa club like this and men are payingmoney just for a bit of female atten-tion,” she says.

Most male customers don’t see itthat way, though. Sam, who works

at one of these clubs, says that menoften come into the club and thinkthat they are the ones in control, butthat couldn’t be further than thetruth: “They come in and they feellike they have the power becausethey’re going ‘you, dance’…but thegirls always have the choice,” hesays.

Kitty admits that she has refuseddances in the past, but that she al-ways has a reason: “They’ve eitherspoken to me like I’m a piece ofmeat and I’ve turned round andgone ‘no, speak to me properly’, orthey’ve been too drunk,” she says.

Some guys can be nice: “I had thisguy come in and it was his birthdayand he asked me to go home andhave a meal with him and hisMum,” says Pixie.

Despite having the alter-ego of astage name, Sam says that new girlsare warned that they need a thickskin because of the negativity facingthem and the industry they work in.

Safety firstWhilst money and empowermentare main reasons for lap-dancing,the dancers stress how safe they feelwhen working.

Those wanting a private dance aretaken upstairs, through silk drapesto a room lined with mirrors on oneside and booths on the other.

Another set of drapes leadsthrough to the champagne loungewhere clients sit and talk to a girl forup to an hour. Despite the £200cost, it’s popular.

Both areas, like the rest of theclub, are closely monitored withcameras placed to ensure that theno touching rule stays strictly inplace. It’s this rule that makes theclub legal. Sam explains: “A clubthat allows touching is a club that’sallowing extras. Touching is illegal.If the girls here accidentally touch acustomer, they all know [to] stepback, hands up, wave to the cameraand carry on.”

This rule is just one reason whythe dancers feel safe.

From health and safety to risk as-sessments, all regulations are heav-ily focused on the girls, and somealso have to be adapted due to thenature of the job.

Fire drills are difficult because“the girls can’t just run out” saysSam, so an exception is made forthem.

“We’ve got a letter from the firebrigade saying that we can performa fire drill to the front door but thenno further, because obviously thegirls can’t just run out,” says Sam.

“Our risk assessments include thegirls being escorted to their cars,going on the pole, being upsidedown,” he adds.

Last year, the introduction of thenew sex industries licence meantthat lap dancing clubs are now seenas part of the sex industry which,despite it being expensive, Sam wel-comes: “We’ve now made the indus-try safer for girls and for door staffand better for customers and a bet-ter experience and we take our hats

off to the council.”Layla says that the safety of the

club is why her Mum is happy forher to dance here, but for most ofthe girls, their job is a closelyguarded secret. Tonight, one of thegirls has told her family that she’sworking extra hours at her otherjob. But for another girl, her wholefamily know and are fully support-ive.

There’s a strict no-boyfriends ruleat the club which goes for all of thestaff, and for the girls’ partners, it’shard to be supportive.

“I was with someone when I firststarted and I told him and he wasn’timpressed, because people have gottheir own opinion of what goes on,”says Layla.

Sam’s fiancé was a pole dancer,although it wasn’t how they met,and he admits that such situationscan be difficult: “You go throughsome serious emotional roller coast-ers,” he says.

The girls all agree that ‘squaddies’are the most common customer, butthe demographic is varied, from stu-dents in university sports societiesto men on stag nights and even girls.

Pixie says that she thinks girls arejust appreciative of the female body,but Kitty says that they’re curious, too:“Women generally are intrigued,they want to see ‘Does my body looklike that?’, ‘am I normal?’ ‘What’s itlike’,” she says.

Watching one of the girls hangupside down from the pole, the ef-

fort and hard work this job requiresis evident. These girls work fromnine at night until four in the morn-ing, where they dance on the pole,do private dances and talk to thecustomers. Due to the hard work,they are encouraged to work nomore than three shifts a week.

The negative assumptions aboutgentlemen’s clubs may be wide-spread, but there are many posi-tives. From the women feelingempowered through what they do,to feeling safe and in control, noteveryone can say that their jobmakes them feel good about them-selves.

*All names are the girls’ stagenames.

Lap-dancing uncoveredby Stephanie Bolton

Is it just for the money? There are manyreasons why women start pole- or lap-

dancing. Photo: Alex Thompson

During the ‘70s, punk was it its peak. Everyone wanted to piercetheir face, put on some tartan and form a band. There weregroups popping up all over the place, all waiting for their bigbreak, that one moment that takes you from the corner of a dirtypub to stadiums across the world. The Undertones had thatbreak, thanks to John Peel latching on to their smash hit“Teenage Kicks”.

“If John Peel didn't get behind that song I wouldn't be talkingto you,” laughs Undertones guitarist Damian O'Neill. “At thetime when we recorded the EP we were breaking up all the time,I think we'd broken up a couple of weeks before we recorded.

“It was our last stand it was like ‘Ah well, here's our testamentto prove we existed. We'll put this out on [record label] Good Vi-brations and maybe in years to come people will think 'Oh thatwas a good little song wasn't it?’ We never expected anythingwould happen. All that was due to John Peel loving it and play-ing it on his radio show,” Damian admits.

Despite being best known for “Teenage Kicks”, the band havereleased six studio albums and are gearing up to re-release “TrueConfessions: A's + B's” in April. As well as the greatest hits pack-age, the band are also going on tour and performing their debutalbum, “The Undetones”, in its entirety.

“We've decided to do the first album in its entirety live becausethere are some songs we haven't done since way back in ‘79. It'skind of a celebration of that really.”

The re-release and mini-tour also coincides with The Under-tones’ 35th anniversary of playing live. “The first ever show Ithink was hilarious,” recalls Damian. “We played some littleScout hut to a bunch of Scouts aged from seven to 12. At thattime Fergal [Sharkey] was assistant Scout leader or somethinglike that of a Catholic Boy Scout group in Derry. That was ourvery first performance in this tiny little Scout hut. I definitelydidn't think we'd be doing this 35 years later.”

The band are also eager to meet with the members of their for-mer fan club, the Rocking Humdingers Club. “We were thinkingof ways to make it more interesting, and I think it was Mickey[Bradley, the bassist] who said ‘maybe we should contact thepeople from the fan club days?’ and we thought it was a goodidea.

“We're curious to see if people would still want to come andsee us, and if they do we'll get them in for free.”

Thirty-five years is impressive for any band, especially one ofthe 70s punk batch. However, Damian believes it is the punkmovement that means his band are still here today. “That wholekind of punk ethos, anyone can do it; ‘Here's three chords nowform a band’”, Damian laughingly admits. That really appealedto us because we weren't at that time very good musicians andwe didn’t want to be good musicians back in the olden days. Es-pecially in the late ‘70s the music was crap, it was awful, it was

THE LINC8

Culture

The Under

Royal or student: why get married?Back in October whilst on holiday in Kenya, Prince Williamproposed to his long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton with thering of his late mother, Princess Diana. After practising for 10years, the couple are expected to become the Duke andDuchess of Sussex on the eve of their wedding in WestminsterAbbey, which takes place on April 29th.

Although security for the day will be paid by the tax-payer,‘Wills’ and Kate’s family will be footing the bill for the actualwedding, which is believed to be in excess of £50m.

With Britain enjoying a Bank Holiday to celebrate the nup-tials, it will be one of the most widely covered Royal eventswith live, online broadcasts going out around the world.

However, it’s not the only wedding of 2011. Although thenumber of weddings in Britain are going down, figures from2008 show that there were still over 200,000 of them a year.It’s the way many British people live today and, it might notbe the typical choice for young people, but even students arechoosing it as their lifestyle.

“After over four years together, it seems that marriage is themost natural step for us as a young Christian couple in love,”says Bethan Murray, soon-to-be Mrs Anness, a third yearcriminology student.

She will marry her fiancé Karl, this summer back home inNorfolk, but she insists that it will not get in the way of her lastyear at university: “It hasn’t been stressful so far, in fact it’staken my mind off studies in the ‘down-time’ away from es-saying and revising,” she says.

The average cost for a British wedding is reported to be over£20,000 today, including such things as a honeymoonwardrobe, pre-wedding gym memberships and the infamousstag and hen nights.

Despite the high costs, Bethan says that the day can be af-forded by a student who works hard with supportive parents:“Karl’s got a full-time job, I've got a part-time job and both setsof parents are very generously contributing to the costs.”

Working hard in order to raise the money for the special dayseems a popular choice, as Sarah Warren, a third year psychol-

ogy student, explains: “My fiancé works full-time in the RAFand I will also have a year of work to help pay for it. Our par-ents are both wonderful in their help – whether it is time,money or both.”

In the 21st century it’s unusual for couples to get married soearly in life. In fact, studies show that the average bride is now30, delaying the big day by pursuing a career, wanting to savemoney – or waiting for ‘Mr Perfect’ instead.

A third year, media production student, Darren Mitchellagrees with waiting to exchange vows in order to save money.He and his finance, Gemma, “plan on getting married whenwe can both afford it... not until we’re settled down and havean income and a place of our own”.

However, Bethan says that there’s no such thing as too early:“I don’t think you can put limits either way and it’s no differentto an older person leaving it ‘too late’.”

According to a study by Bradford University’s Simon Dun-can, in the past, the three main reasons for marriage were sex,co-habitation and children, but that is not the case anymore.His study revealed that it is now “a way of publicly showingyour commitment and social success”.

This may be true for the Royal couple, who even match theaverage age of marriage, being 28 and 29. For Darren andGemma, age didn’t come into it. Darren’s reason for a proposalat university? “Because I love my girlfriend,” he says.

The Royal Family look set to make around £44 million onmerchandise to help with the upkeep of the Queen’s Royal Col-lection, including a new £5 coin, the standard china collectionand even a set of toys for the Early Learning Centre. Some ofthe memorabilia made, such as T-shirts and aprons were allrejected as ‘poor taste’, but the Royals did change their mindon tea cloths.

The wedding is also sure to gain support for the Royal Fam-ily not only in Britain but globally; there have even been ordersfor commemorative mugs from as far as Japan.

There are many reasons why people get married and it’s alifestyle that many people choose to follow, both Royal andstudent. Although without the money available from mer-chandice it might be much more of a struggle for students.

by Joel Murray

by Luke Morton

The first Pokémon gam of characters who wou faces to a generation. P

Despite the costs of a student lifestyle,some are still keen to have their bigday. Photo: Anneka James

stale. You had to be a fantastic musicians to get noticed.”Not only did the band get noticed, they have been a staple part

of any punk fan's music collection for over three decades. Butcan they keep going?

“Ten years ago when we reformed it was only meant to be fora few shows and we're still doing it. I don't see why not? For theforeseeable future anyway.

“It’s really good live, I think we're value for money. It's notcorny either, it's not just a bunch of old blokes having a bit offun. We really still feel passionate about playing these songs.‘Teenage Kicks’, I'm nearly 50 now so it's kind of ironic, but I

still have the same passion playing.“There's really good chemistry between all of us when we play.

I just love playing with my brother John, we kind of sharerhythm and lead, I love it. It works so well with John, it's great.”

Over the band’s illustrious career, Damian has experiencedmany highlights. One of which was performing “Teenage Kicks”on “Top Of The Pops”.

But he admits that one of the other high points in his careerwas going to America with punk legends The Clash in 1979, justas they'd recorded “London Calling”. However, this tour also ledto one of Damian's biggest regrets.

“Mick Jones and Joe Strummer wanted to come on stage andjam ‘Teenage Kicks’ with us because it was the last date of thetour. I really wanted them to do it but Mickey had this thingabout bands jamming together, it was the sort of thing heavybands used to do in the past, he refused so it didn't happen.

“I always always regretted that. I could have shared a stagewith Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, even if just for three min-utes, it would have been good.”

The Undertones will embark on a 10 date tour in April acrossthe UK.

9www.TheLinc.co.uk

At university, the phrase “gotta catch‘em all” is the unofficial slogan forFreshers’ Week and tends to be the un-fortunate result of incidents behind theback of nightclubs.

But count back 11 years to a more in-nocent time and the “Pokémon” catch-phrase was engraved in to the minds ofmost eight-year-olds – and with newversions of “Pokémon Black” and “Poké-mon White” set to hit the Nintendo DSin March, growing up just simply isn’tan excuse to ignore them.

The world of “Pokémon” beautifullycaptured the imagination of many youngpeople – providing them with a vibrantworld to explore, a challenging adven-ture and importantly the chance to dis-cover over a hundred fascinating creatures

to love and train, before making theirbeloved pets fight to the brink of deathin battles that were like a socially accept-able form of dog fighting.

With the amount of merchandisewhich comes in the forms of T-shirts,toys, CDs, movies, and of course, thecard game it might as well have been-called the Early Learning Centre’s “MyFirst Consumerist Brainwash”.

The influence of the franchise is unde-niable. The closing song of the TV show,“The Pokérap”, is said to have inspireda generation of musicians. Who can for-get such major artists of the last decadelike the Black Eyed Butterfrees, JayDrowzee and Cee-Lo Goldeen?

There have been rumours that thecard game could actually be played com-petitively and even had rules beyondneedlessly swapping pieces of paper

with fictional worth, but this has yet tobe confirmed.

It might sound like nothing’s changedsince the early days of Pokémon in Redand Blue, but that isn’t a problem. Be-sides, “Football Manager” and “Call ofDuty” are just the same game releasedeach year and people still buy those –and this series is actually good.

The last two games in the series,“HeartGold” and “SoulSilver”, includeda “Pokéwalker” pedometer that allowedyou to train your team by walkingaround – meaning you could pretend toyourself that playing games is good foryou. Although regular trips to McDon-alds can undermine this.

With a university work load it mightnot feel like the place to pick up some-thing that’s so easy to sink hundreds ofhours of practice into it, but you can eas-

ily apply the same skills to a game of“Pokémon” as you can a dissertation.

Both of them take an extremely longtime with seemingly impossible task ifyou want to collect everything – with649 creatures in total there’s too muchto consider getting bored. Both willcause you to spend hours staring at ascreen, so you might as well make it fun.There’s an MA available in The Beatles,so why can’t you have an encyclopaedicknowledge of which Pokémon can onlybe caught at night?

For what’s commonly perceived as akid’s game, there’s an astonishingamount of complexity and mathematicsbehind it ready to be discovered andused... or do what most people do andjust copy everything from Wikipedia.

It might seem Farfetch’d, but there’snothing to Fearow by trying it again.

Never too cool for the Pokéball

rtones: Success from a Scout hut

by Jonathan Cresswell

Still young enough for the “Teenage Kicks”?The Undertones celebrate their 35th anniversary this year. Photo: Pomona PR

mes introduced a range uld become familiar

Photo: Nintendo

THE LINC10

There is nothing like the anticipation of waiting forcurtain up at the theatre. Being there, in the momentwith the characters, is an amazing feeling that is cer-tainly difficult to beat.

Over the past few years, screenings of theatre per-formances, both live and pre-recorded, have beenshown at cinemas across the country. It’s now normalto walk into your local cinema and see adverts for thelatest theatre productions straight from the West Endon a screen near you.

But does seeing a theatre performance at the cin-ema take anything away from being there?

Michael Billington, professional theatre critic forThe Guardian argues that it doesn’t: “What’s not tolike about this revolutionary way of making workavailable to a larger audience?”

Cinema performances of theatre productions doeshelp to bring in a bigger audience and solves theproblem of works being sold out at the actual venuedue to famous actors performing.

As it is in their local cinema it encourages those whowould not usually buy theatre tickets to give it a tryand at a cheaper price. This is a key aspect, as it is gets

more young people engaged with the arts and keepspeople interested in an underappreciated genre.

Billington even went so far as to say that sometimescinema showings are better than the real thing: “TheNational Theatre’s showing of ‘Phedre’ succeeded be-yond everyone’s expectations. I even thought the pro-duction looked better on the screen than it did onstage.”

This goes to show that in this ever changing worldeven the oldest traditions must adapt, and althoughtheatre will be with us for a long time this is the nextstage, as it were, for getting productions more acces-sible and to appeal to the masses.

“Few people can get to see [Derek] Jacobi in ‘KingLear’ at the Donmar Theatre, London. But it will beshown on screens up and down the land in early Feb-ruary. The same goes for all the Metropolitan Operatransmissions from New York,” Billington enthused.

This shows that the reach of this new approach hasno limits and will enable tens of thousands of peopleto experience a once in a lifetime spectacle.

It seems that this phenomenon is going to do noth-ing but grow over the coming years, and many peoplecannot wait for new performances to be shown in amuch more accessible way.

Theatre in the cinema: the curtains open on the silver screen

Over the past decade it appears that pop music has becomemore manufactured. Artists and bands have been tacticallyplaced together with arranged songs, beguiling in heartbreakand love in conjunction with choreography and stylists.

But when Mumford & Sons had their debut album “Sigh NoMore” elevated to platinum status in March last year, somesaw it as a reaction against the lack of authenticity in musictoday, as ‘New Folk’ continues to increase in popularity.

Popular folk music is not a new phenomenon. Many of thegreat heroes of modern music hail from this genre such as BobDylan and Nick Drake – known for the simple poetic natureof their lyricism, accompanied by few musical instruments andare able to convey many musical messages.

The great troubadours of folk music have had a profound in-fluence on the popular folk artists that have cropped up duringthe late noughties.

Many of these musicians met at the Notting Hill Arts Clubin London, created by Winston Marshall from Mumford &Sons. A number of artists exchanged ideas and indulged inmaking music with one another. This led to Ben Lovett fromMumford & Sons, Kevin Jones and producer Ian Grimble es-tablishing Communion Records.

One band that has come from Communion Records isMatthew and the Atlas, who have recently released a new EPtitled “Kingdom of Your Own”. Vocalist Matthew Hegarty said:“It’s nice to release something new. We are currently writingfor an album.”

Hegarty explained how his sound developed: “The processreally changed for me when I got a 12 track, I’d just been writ-ing simple guitar songs, the recorder allowed me to layermore vocals and I started trying different instruments on mysongs like piano and banjo. This really helped me develop myideas and sound.”

Although American influence is deep-seated in folk con-sciousness, many of Britain’s ‘New Folk’ pioneers are some-thing of a community. Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn, Mumford& Sons, and Noah and the Whale not only feature upon eachother’s records but also rose out of their own communion.

Perhaps the rising popularity of ‘New Folk’ is more of an aes-thetic than a belief; but whatever it is it has definitely struck achord. People look to be a part of a ‘communion’ of people astimes are tough as they look for more authenticity.

Hegarty said: “A lot of music is manufactured for a massmarket and when there is too much of one thing, I guess peo-ple start looking for something else, I suppose ‘New Folk’ is analternative to that.” Although Matthew and the Atlas are fairlynew and have a lot to thank Mumford & Sons for; hopefullythey can break away from the shadow of their predecessorsand be acknowledged for their own brilliance.

Despite still being quite a way from Bob Dylan and NickDrake, ‘New Folk’ is clearly something special and as morepeople become attracted by these acts, it continues to rise.

Dancing may have been part of Britishculture for many years, but it is now be-coming more prominent as it dominatesthe television schedules with shows suchas “So You Think You Can Dance” and“Pineapple Dance Studios” showcasingjust some of the the UK’s talent.

Although you’re more likely to see theCha cha cha or the quickstep across aballroom floor, ballet dancing is set tobreak out and become the new trend.

You’d be forgiven for assuming thatthe audience at the theatre shows aremainly upper-class people, but this mis-conception has recently been dispelled.With ticket prices ranging from £10 towell over £100, The Royal Opera Househas seen thousands more people comingthrough its doors than ever before.

Mara Galeazzi, one of the principledancers from The Royal Opera House,has noticed this trend: “I’ve definitelyseen more people coming to the balletand they even come and see the moremodern works. Shows like Wayne Mc-Gregor's new pieces for The Royal Balletseem to bring in a younger audience.

“At the moment, we are preparing anew production of ‘Alice's Adventures inWonderland’ by Christopher Wheeldon,and I think that will bring a lot of newpeople as well,” she says.

Ballet has also branched out into filmswith “Black Swan”, Darren Aronofsky’scritically acclaimed film based around aproduction of “Swan Lake” and stars Na-talie Portman as a veteran ballerina.

“At the moment everyone is talkingabout the new film, ‘Black Swan’,” saidGaleazzi, who believes that this is justone of the reasons that more people arenow interested in the dance.

It’s one of few films focused aroundthe dance form with others includingStephen Daldry’s “Billy Elliot” andThomas Carter’s “Save The Last Dance”.

As for the music industry, Pixie Lott isperforming ballet in her video for “CryMe Out” and American rock band Shine-down have a plot about a ballerina run-ning away from home in their video“Second Chance”.

The Pet Shop Boys have an ambitiousplan as the ‘80s electronic dance duoaim to produce their own ballet called“The Most Incredible Thing” set to in-

clude electronics and strings and will beperformed at Sadler’s Wells Theatre inLondon later this year.

The piece will be based on a HansChristian Anderson story and the popduo will be helped by the Venezuelanchoreographer Javier De Frutos.

Performers from the Royal Ballet willbe performing their own version ofShakespeare’s classic “Romeo andJuliet” to a crowd of over 13,000 peoplein June as ballet stars join a host ofnames who have previously performedat the prestigious O2 arena in London.

“It will be the first time The Royal Bal-let will be performing at the O2 whichwill hopefully bring a lot of people to theballet who have never been before. It'sgoing to be great opportunity for every-body,” said Galeazzi.

With it only being the start of the year,there is still time for plenty more oppor-tunities to arise and there is no doubtthat they will.

Mara Galeazzi will be dancing in“Giselle” at the Royal Opera House andalso in “Romeo and Juliet” at The O2.For more information, see online atwww.roh.org.uk

The rise and riseof ‘New Folk’

Bringing ballet to bumpkins

by Emma Kay

by Rebecca Caroline

by Steven Lawrence

Mara Galeazzi performing in “Giselle”.Photo: Bill Cooper

More and more theatre productions are being brought toto the big screen. Photo: Rudi Riet

11www.TheLinc.co.uk

Q&A: Steve Williams

Something dark was brewing in videorental shops of the UK during the mid-1980s. Something controversial, roughand, some argue dangerous enough tocause uproar in Thatcher's Britain. Thatsomething was the ‘video nasty’.

Almost anybody with an interest inhorror films will at some point eitherhave watched or have heard about a‘video nasty’. They were films that wereconsidered too violent or disturbing thatthey were banned from public consump-tion upon release.

A selection of the banned titles in-cludes “The Evil Dead”, “Driller Killer”and “Cannibal Holocaust”.

While many of these films could beconsidered almost comic by today’sstandards in terms of their poor acting,awful dialogue and laughable special ef-fects – they were considered lethal to the'upstanding' members of the public.

Rewind to the 1980s and you’ll findthere wasn’t much to laugh about. Lifewas pretty miserable for the average dis-illusioned Brit, with the country in thegrip of extended violence from the Falk-lands war, unemployment figures toppedthree million and the miners' strikescausing masses of problems.

Amidst all this misery, video technol-ogy was gradually finding its way intohomes. As the popularity of the VCRbegan to grow, so did the number ofrental shops in the country.

They stocked every type of film from

romance to horror and unlike today,where we have a rating system for filmsran by the British Board of Film Classi-fication, there were no ratings. This al-lowed gory, low-budget flicks to spreadacross the country, leaving the youngand old offended, outraged and enter-tained.

In an attempt to pull back public sup-port, Thatcher’s government led a moralcrusade against these newly emergingvideotapes that had already offendedvarious religious groups across the coun-try. Regulation agencies were establishedand over 70 films were placed on thenow-legendary 'video nasty' list andbanned from rental shops.

Shortly after the films were namedand shamed in Fleet Street as paperssuch as the Daily Mail printed stories onan almost weekly basis that blamedeverything from minor thefts to the risein childhood violence on these video-taped horror fests.

What Thatcher and the Daily Maildidn’t anticipate, however, was the boostin popularity the 'video nasty' list wouldgive to small budget films. In most cases,a film classified as a ‘video nasty’ was in-dependently released and had almost noadvertising budget. The list only helpedto create an aura of danger and mystiquearound the films, which led to manydedicated movie buffs searching forcopies of the tapes to see what was caus-ing all the crazy controversy.

The producers of “Cannibal Holo-caust” even wrote a fake letter of outrage

to the National Viewers' and Listeners'Association, famously led by MaryWhitehouse, in an attempt to promptdebate and ultimately increase sales.

Fast forward to today and the ‘videonasty’ has outlived the controversial erawith almost every film on the list beingre-released on DVD, completely uncut.

Audiences are now able to see forthemselves what made these movies so‘dangerous’. Notorious films such as“Last House on the Left” and “The TexasChainsaw Massacre” have even beentreated to the Hollywood remake treat-ment all thanks to the vast amount of in-terest the originals have generatedamongst film fans.

At one point, they were consideredone of the biggest threats to Britain’syouth; but now the collection of oncebanned films are seen as classics. Twentyyears later the films are now applauded fortheir low budget, DIY aesthetic and for tryingto do something interesting with the horrortemplate.

In the modern era of big budget spe-cial effects and cookie cutter plotlines,watching a film from this ‘dangerous’genre gives the audience a chance to seehow horror was once about genuinelyscaring people, challenging their bound-aries and, in the case of “Cannibal Holo-caust”, making them vomit.

Even if you aren’t a horror fan thenthese tapes are still entertainment for allthe family as you can at least laugh athow bad some of the acting was in someof these films.

The dark age of the‘video nasty’

Welsh comedian Steve Williams has written for “RussellHoward’s Good News” and after appearing on “MichaelMcIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow” he’s about to head out onhis debut tour. Questions by Samantha Viner.

How did you get into the comedy business?I was watching a friend performing at a club and he was sobad that I thought: “Wow, I think I can do that.” So I gotup and that’s how it all started. Obviously, I don’t name myfriend by name but he was pretty bad.

What advice do you have for hopeful stand-ups?Just go for it. You live life once. We’re all going in theground, we’re all going to be worm food so just go for it. It’sa form of expression in the same way painting or swearingor theatre is. Maybe not swearing as much as theatre orpainting, probably less artistic of the three examples, butjust go for it.

Do you think there are any boundaries that should-n’t be crossed in comedy?I think comedy is probably about flirting with rules. I thinkthat certainly for me, I think people have their own codesdon’t they? I certainly steer clear of anything racist defi-nitely. People flirt with sexism much more so now than theyever did. I mean I also don’t like people who bully peopleyou know so there are definitely boundaries.

You seem to have a much more family friendly ap-proach to comedy than say, Frankie Boyle.Certainly, but then you know, that’s why there’s whole dif-ferent colours, different people, different colours, differentparts of the spectrum you know? Frankie Boyle – he’s awonderful comedian. Just because I’m not like him is prob-ably because what he does so excellently I go do my ownthing you know. He has his own code, things he says he’shappy to live with, so good on him.

What’s been the best moment in your career?Probably doing “Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow”or writing “Russell Howard’s Good News”. That was just areally cool thing and had a really good laugh writing that. Iremember the last week before he finished series threeRussell threw a dart in the radiator, by accident obviously,which coincided with the coldest December on record. Itwas funny man, this radiator was just leaking all over thewriting room, snowflakes were hitting the tarmac outsideand we were shivering trying to finalise the last episode.

What’re you looking forward to on your debut tour?Just enjoying going out and performing to people all overthe country really. Where else do you do a job where youget to go to Swansea, Manchester and Glasgow and thesehuge cities and have a laugh with such wonderful people?Not that Swansea needs entertaining, they’ve got enoughgoing on in their own High Street, I’m surprised they evenuse comedians in South Wales.

Do you find it a bit daunting knowing that you’vegot to go and do all these dates?I find it exhilarating it’s exciting. These are things that youwant to do when you’re a comedian, you want to go andperform in front of people. I mean, have you ever triedmaking furniture laugh? It’s impossible, so these are thethings you want to do, it’s exciting.

What does the future hold for you?I know definitely this year Russell’s got two more series of“Good News” so that’s the immediate future. Beyond thathopefully I’ll get to tour again next year around the country,and then beyond that hopefully I’ll write, do a sitcom that’llmake people smile in their living rooms. Whether it hap-pens or not – probably the reality is I’ll end up being like adrug dealer in an alley way somewhere.

by Ryan Peters

The older, rawer horror films pavedthe way for modern gorefests today.Photo: Bill Hicks / Jonathan Cresswell

THE LINC12

Style

‘70sshow

this

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Floaty cape blouse - Topshop - £33

Vintage floral bouse -New Look - £25Tan suedette Shorts -Miss Selfridge - £32Headband - Model’s own

13www.TheLinc.co.uk

Spring 2011 is the season of the ‘70s. For a flair of1970s Bohemia or glamour think wide leg trousers,maxi dresses, midi skirts and blouses. Fall for flowingfabrics, headscarves and flares, and refresh winter'scamel colours with colour-block brights. Take inspiration from the decade gone by and tap into spring's oldest new trend.

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Photoshoot by:Natalie LittlewoodKirsty O’ConnellRachael ConnellyAnna Edwards - hairLaura Brandon - modelAnneka James - photographyPenny Britcliffe - makeup

Sheer pocket chiffon shirt -New Look - £22

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Brown lasercut shoes - Primark - £16

THE LINC14

Sport

In the dog-eat-dog world of lower leaguefootball, club owners are often found delvingunder their sofas to find a few coppers to put to-wards a new striker.

Late last year, Lincoln City announced a lossof £200,000 in the previous twelve months. Incomparison to similar clubs it might be a smallamount, but is still a burden as City try to at-tract the talent.

Since 2009, the ‘12th Man’ have been gener-ating finance for Lincoln City through variousfundraising events and all donations to the club,however small, are gratefully received.

Julian Burley, co-founder of the 12th Mansaid: “In our first year, after an up and downstart, we managed to raise over £2,000, whichis a figure we hope to smash in our secondyear.”

Indeed, that target looks to be more thanachievable. Within the first few weeks of 2011,more than £1,000 had already been donated byImps supporters, eager to hand over their left-over Christmas cash to the club they adore.

Andrew Helgesen, who founded the 12th Manwith Burley, thinks that, despite tough economictimes, fans have been no less generous withtheir cash.

Instead, he believes donations are linked tohow well Steve Tilson’s team are doing on thepitch: “I believe if the team are doing well, andwe are getting more supporters in, people wouldbe more willing to donate their money, so it’smore results based than anything.”

The 12th Man team do not lack ambition.Their ultimate aim is to sponsor the home shirt– which is likely to cost around £50,000.

Burley continued: “A lot of the time I will bejust sat there and an idea will come into myhead, and if I think it’s a good idea, I will contactAndrew [Helgesen] straight away.”

In the short term though, 12th Man arelooking to raise enough money to purchase anadvertising board at Sincil Bank, which willearn the club around £1,500. The next targetwill be sponsoring the GoCar stand before even-tually attempting to raise the £50,000 neces-sary for the shirt sponsorship.

The 12th Man also raises money by othermeans. Supporters can visit websites such asAmazon through the 12th Man website, with theteam receiving a fee for referring the customers.

Imps supporter Billy Jarish also managed toraise over £300 by cycling to City’s Johnstone’sPaint Trophy match in Rotherham.

The team have recruited their newest mem-ber in Gary Hutchinson, a training advisor inthe construction industry – or, as Lincoln fansmay know him, City mascot ‘Poacher the Imp’.

Hutchinson says: “I’ve been an Imps fan forover 24 years now and I’ve been performing therole of ‘Poacher the Imp’ for over 12 years. Theideas process [at 12th Man] is ongoing and thework done before I joined has been superb. Allideas and input are welcome from all corners.”

If any Lincoln fans wish to join the 12th Man,they are encouraged to contact through thewebsite, or speak to one of the team on matchdays at Sincil Bank.

With the 12th man an ever-growing outfit,maybe it won’t be too long until they raiseenough money to purchase the sponsorship ofthe Lincoln home shirt. City fans, get rummag-ing behind your sofas.

For more information on the 12th Man, visitwww.the12thman.blogspot.com.

12th man in ‘help yourclub’ pleaby Bradley King

For some football clubs, it is often a merepipedream to become a professional – theyfind themselves a million miles away fromthe Manchester Uniteds, Chelseas and Arsenals of this world, and wallow in theachievements of their neighbours.

For one Lincoln based club, even sharingtheir city with a League Two side is oftentougher than it might seem.

Lincoln United, the city’s ‘second team’behind professionals at Lincoln City, play inthe Northern Premier League First DivisionSouth, four leagues below their fellow cityco-habitants and on level eight of the foot-ball pyramid.

“I think you have to start with a mind-setthat you’re never going to pass LincolnCity,” John Wilkinson, the Whites manager,admits.

“You’ve got to assume that, right orwrong. People say, ‘You’ve got to be moreambitious than that,’ but you’ve got to berealistic as well. You can’t expect to oustthem. All you can aspire to is to be as goodas you possibly can.”

Wilkinson who could be described as “MrLincoln United” after occupying one role oranother at the club for 16 of the last 20 sea-sons. He’s been at the helm in his current

spell at Ashby Avenue since November2009.

Without the luxury of television rightsand high-profile advertising that profes-sional clubs can boast, Wilkinson explainedhow it’s becoming increasingly difficult fora club like Lincoln United to stay afloat:“The one thing that is a big thing for clubslike this is pre-season friendlies becausethey put a lot of funds in your bank… and itmakes a heck of a difference.

“Obviously FA Cup prize money can helpand hopefully you get the odd lucky drawwhere you’re away to Northwich Victoria inthe FA Trophy [United took Northwich to areplay in this season’s competition].

“Other than that, it’s a wing and a prayerreally. We sell programme adverts and theusual things, but it’s harder and harder sea-son on season.”

The club’s financial woes do not helpwhen it comes to bringing in new, experi-enced players either.

“One of the hardest things for this clubattracting ex-professionals is finance,”Wilkinson says. “When you tell most ofthem what you can afford to pay them, theyfall through the floor.”

Three ex-pros who luckily didn’t fallthrough the floor, though, are Terry Flem-ing, Steve Melton and Stuart Reddington.

At 37-years-old, Fleming is the oldest ofthe three, but carries with him bags of expe-rience, having made over 400 appearancesfor a whole host of Football League clubs.He even spent five years at rivals LincolnCity, notching up nearly 200 games for theImps.

Sadly for Whites fans, a Manchester City-style takeover is not on the cards, as itbecomes progressively more challenging tofinance a football club in any league.

“I really think that this club can comfort-ably achieve the next level,” Wilkinson says.

“After that, we’d have to have Elton Johnor somebody invest, and I’m not sure that’sgood anyway because it’s very much a tem-porary thing.

“If you get a private individual who takesyou two divisions up, when he leaves, you’reback probably four down.”

This isn’t to say they don’t take footballseriously at Ashby Avenue. Everyone in-volved at Lincoln United will strive for suc-cess at the club, from the tea ladies to theground staff, and none more so thanWilkinson himself.

Sometimes being realistic is not onlyencouraging, but refreshing as well. In thenot-too-distant future United and City, butnot of the Manchester variety, might just getto face each other on equal terms.

Living in the shadow oftheir city rivalsby Alex Blackburne

Playing in the same city as the Imps, Lincoln Unitedfind they are often ignored. Photo: Lincoln United FC

15www.TheLinc.co.uk

The University of Lincoln basketballteam, the Lincoln Lakers, are com-peting for the first time in the Lin-colnshire Basketball Association(LBBA) handicap tournament, aim-ing to match the best teams inLincolnshire.

The competition sees teams fromall across the county competing witha handicap, meaning they beginevery game on a certain number ofpoints according to their ability.

The Lakers have started the tour-nament with a zero handicap, whichled to a defeat to the Spalding Devils48-38 in the opening round, asSpalding started with a 30 pointhead start.

Lakers captain, Matty Barwell,was proud of the team’s perform-ance but not surprised by the result.

“All the players performed reallywell. We kept our heads, got on withthe task as best we could and playeda lot of really good basketball, both

on offence and defence. Most bas-ketball games finish with just a fewpoints difference, so to have to makeup a 30 point margin was going tobe a near impossible task.”

While the defeat means the Lak-ers miss out on the LBBA Cup, theformat of the competition meansthat they move into the quarter-finalof another cup – the LBBA Plate –with a chance of winning it in April.

Barwell says the Lakers wanted toplay more and test themselvesagainst new opposition: “A lot of theplayers are a fair bit older so I thinkwe have the edge on most teamswhen it comes to physical fitness.

“On the other hand, their agemakes them a lot more experiencedso they tend not to make many mis-takes or bad decisions like youngerplayers can. It’s a different challengebut the aim is the same as anythingwe enter – to win.”

Barwell has mixed emotions onthe Lakers being awarded a zerohandicap, saying: “In one way it’s

nice because it indicates that we’reone of the most respected teams inthe tournament. But, the way thehandicap system has been organisedit was always going to make thingsvery difficult for us.”

The Lakers are due to play theGrimsby Gators who were unable toovercome a massive 60 point hand-icap deficit at the start of their firstround game.

The Gators also have a zero hand-icap meaning their game will start0-0 and Barwell is eager to get backto a level playing field: “It will cer-tainly be a relief after the last game.Hopefully it will make for a muchmore entertaining game of basket-ball.

“I’m really confident about thegame. We’ve been playing some fan-tastic basketball recently and thewhole team has gelled really well.We’ve become a very solid basket-ball unit with great strength indepth too – we have several goodplayers for every position now.”

Lakers look to net LBBA Plate

Over the last few months, the University ofLincoln’s rugby union team have beencompeting tirelessly for their ultimate goal.Halfway through the season, Lincoln sit top ofthe league table with only six games betweenthem and a dream promotion.

Lincoln’s performances this year have beenextremely impressive, and the captain, JacobDobson, is pleased with his side’s form.

Dobson says: “The team has performed atan extremely high level. We are still currentlyunbeaten in the league which is something Ihaven’t experienced here during my threeyears playing.

“We have been blessed with a large intakeof freshers this year, and they’ve really

stepped up to the plate. We’ve had some ex-tremely impressive performances from someof the senior boys too.”

With all this hard work and success, ambi-tions must be high and goals must be set. Lastyear, Lincoln missed out on promotion by asingle point. Dobson says that this year theyhope to go one better: “This year we hope towin the league and gain promotion. [Not win-ning promotion] has, particularly amongst thesenior boys, provided a work ethic throughoutthe club to make sure the team gains theaccolades they deserve”

Currently top of the British Universities andColleges Sport (BUCS) Rugby Union Mid-lands Conference Men's 2A group, Lincoln’starget of promotion is well on course.

Dobson, who has taken over the captaincy

in his final year, continued: “We know as ateam that we have the skill and the players togain promotion this season. It is entirely inour power to do so.

“We just need to make sure that we keepproducing the results. The league this seasonhas proven very competitive, and each teamposes a real threat. To put it simply we needto take each week in turn and not get carriedaway by our own hype.”

Every team needs a leader who is expectedto act as the man who unites the team andleads by example. Dobson describes his roleof captain as the “greatest honour”.

He says: “I enjoy the responsibility of lead-ing the team on field and the interaction withevery single member of the society.”

For the club and society to function though

characters other than Dobson are needed. Assuch, he has highlighted how he is not a lonefigure in running the successful team.

“I must say that I am blessed with the assis-tance of my president Louis Mann who, alongwith being a great player, pretty much runsthe club, allowing me to take charge of theboys on the field.”

Dobson is also quick to praise the “broth-erly” atmosphere of the Lincoln rugby team:“It [the team] creates a brotherhood amongstthe boys where your teammates are also yourbest mates.

“When this is put in place you get a teamthat lives and breathes the shirt, and is willingto put their bodies on the line for their fellowplayers. It has been the greatest experience ofmy life.”

Rugby team on course for promotionby Josh Clark

by Tim Long

The Lincoln Lakers are playing inthe LBBA handicap tournamentfor the first time. Photo: Leila Fitt

The University of Lincoln rugby team have hada great success this season. Photo: Josh Clark

LINC SPORT

When Steve Tilson took over atLincoln City in mid-October, theImps sat in 20th position in LeagueTwo and were staring non-leaguefootball in the face.

Previous manager Chris Sutton’sreign ended sourly after just one winand three goals in seven matches—leaving City the lowest scoring teamin English professional football.

Tilson’s arrival sparked of opti-mism at Sincil Bank but just overthree months later City still remainin danger of losing their league sta-tus: “It’s been a tough first half ofthe season, no doubt about it. It wasalways going to be a tough job. Idon’t think that has been any differ-ent but I wouldn’t have got the job ifthings were going well.”

Before arriving at Lincoln, Tilsonhad a successful stint at SouthendUnited, gracing the Championshipfor two years and famously knock-ing Manchester United out of theLeague Cup in 2006.

In July last year, after a seven-year spell as Shrimpers boss, Tilsonwas placed on gardening leave.

Despite being the fans’ choice totake the hot seat at City, a few on-lookers raised eyebrows at the facthe had barely managed or playedoutside of Essex in his 22-year foot-ball career: “Obviously, I played atSouthend for 10 years and I’d beenin the area all my life. I probably hada couple of opportunities to go else-where as a manager and didn’t takethat opportunity. Now I’ve comehere and I’ve loved it. I love the area,and the people are really nice. I’mreally enjoying it.”

Tilson’s appointment might nothave improved the Imps’ league po-sition yet— but there is the Decem-ber weather wipeout to consider.However, he has ended Lincoln’sgoal drought as the once misfiringfront line has scored 13 goals in Jan-uary alone.

The goals have been flying in atboth ends in City’s recent matches,but Tilson thinks the fans can play avital role in inspiring defensive re-silience.

“We’ve been a little bit nervous athome and our home form hasn’tbeen fantastic.The more negativethe fans are, the more negative theplayers are. Our message would beto get behind the players rather than

be negative.”Tilson admitted he has yet to fully

assess much of the young talent atSincil Bank, but reserved specialpraise for talented forward AndyHutchinson, saying that he “is agood lad. He has a great attitudeand he wants to do well”.

Hutchinson is currently out onloan: “Giving him experience at afirst-team level which I think theyoung lads need. He’s one thatwants to do well for Lincoln.

“As for the younger lads, we haveto keep monitoring them until theend of the season. I haven’t seenloads of them. We haven’t had toomany reserve games, so we’ll keepour eye on them and see how theyprogress.”

At his first press conference asLincoln City boss, Tilson announcedthat the “sky was the limit” for Lin-coln City, comparing their modestbudget with those of Blackpool,Scunthorpe and his former clubSouthend.

Tilson confesses, though, thatchairman Bob Dorrian has allowedhim to exceed the budget given tohim, saying: “The chairman hasbeen excellent. I know they’ve goneover budget. As we are, in an idealworld we’d like one or two players togo out on loan or permanently justto try and balance the money up.

“That’s not been the case, and thechairman’s still backing me and letme get loan players in, which hasbeen a big help for us. Realistically,

we’re not going to able to sign them,but they’ve come in and done a re-ally good job and shown a fantasticattitude.”

Regardless of his mixed fortunessince taking over, Tilson remainspositive: “After the last couple of re-sults, it breeds a bit of confidenceand hopefully we can press on. A bitmore belief and spirit in the sideand we won’t be far off.”

Whilst the current Imps side areclose to what Tilson is looking to es-tablish, he warned that the loanplayers that have made such a dif-ference are likely to return to theirparent clubs by the end of the sea-son, leaving him to rebuild over thesummer.

“If I could keep this side until the

end of the season and have it nextyear, I’d probably be only two orthree positions away, but I knowthat next year, they’ll all be back. Wewon’t be able to sign them. It’ll be aclean slate and we’ll start again.”

Despite that stumbling block, theformer Southend chief sees no rea-son why the Imps should not aimhigh: “I think continuity is a massivething right through from players tothe management. If you keep chop-ping and changing, it costs the clubmoney. If you’re trying to build ateam, you need time.

“It’s not going to happenovernight, but I think in time,there’s no reason why we can’t bepushing for promotion to LeagueOne and go from there.”

Positive Tilson says ‘sky is the limit’by Bradley King andCalum Fuller

After a series of losses Steve Tilson hasmanaged to start turning Lincoln Cityaround. Photo: Leila Fitt

16

Match previews and reports at thelinc.co.uk