Home Exclusives Features Opinion Communications Podcasts Radio Contact

Features

Explore a selection of feature, culture, and social writings

Birmingham Live •

Rina Sawayama at O2 Academy Birmingham reviewed - pure pop and full of fun

“Maybe shed a tear or two,” cries out Rina Sawayama, the British-Japanese artist to her fans ahead of her Hold The Girl tour. She’s a popstar with a nod to 00s London - where two-step and nu-metal were in vogue.

And her tour follows 90 minutes of alt-pop packed with vivacious grooves. industrial-rock bangers, and even a few country ballads. It’s a show that sends Rina’s music into the stratosphere, far beyond the confines of the small stage of O2 Academy Birmingham.
Birmingham Live •

I went to Dua Lipa's postponed tour in Birmingham - it was worth the wait

“I performed at Sunflower Lounge six years ago and now I’m here!”, said Dua Lipa to an adoring crowd on Easter Sunday - as she took to the stage for the Birmingham leg of her Future Nostalgia tour.

Released just as lockdown hit, the popstar's second album was just what we all needed when we were stuck at home - thick dance-floor pop bangers with flickers of tunes acknowledging disco’s glory.
The Guardian •

Introducing ‘their worship’, the world’s first non-binary mayor

When Owen Hurcum, a part-time archaeology master’s student at Bangor University, climbed to the stage to accept their position as the newly appointed mayor of Bangor, they felt “hugely humbled” to represent their community.

What is even more unique about Hurcum, 23, is who they are: non-binary, queer and agender. They made history in this year’s local and mayoral election by becoming the first openly non-binary mayor of any city in the world.

“It wasn’t as much a shock or surprise to become ma
The Guardian •

Hearts, pebbles, flags: handmade tributes mourn nation’s lost lives

It began with simple hearts painted on a wall by the Thames. Now people across the UK are constructing their own Covid memorials, from rainbow-painted lawns to hundreds of flags on a Welsh mountainside.

Although Boris Johnson has pledged to create a permanent national memorial, and set up a commission on Covid commemoration, no further details have been made public.

So communities are creating their own tributes. Gardens are a popular choice, with members of the public and community groups sta
The Guardian •

Flower power: how one company is beautifying the wind turbine

Tulips and flowers could help harness the power of the wind, after a green energy company came up with its own spin on wind power in an “eco-art” design.

Flower Turbines, based in the US and the Netherlands, has installations across Rotterdam, Amsterdam, parts of Germany, Israel and Colombia. The company aims to democratise green energy for everyone and make small windfarms a leading player in the green energy industry.

The turbines pose no danger to birds and other wildlife, particularly in u
The Guardian •

'Like a mission to Mars': making David Attenborough's A Perfect Planet

‘We would go days without seeing another living thing’

Ed Charles, producer, Weather and Oceans

We were really lucky on this series in that we had finished our filming and were in the edit when coronavirus hit, so it was something that we could do remotely. I’ve been working on this project since 2016 so it has been a long time in the making.

We filmed a wild camel sequence in Mongolia, in the Gobi desert. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve ever been on planet Earth. It feels more like you’re on a mis
The Guardian •

The Avalanches' teenage obsessions: 'I cried hearing Strawberry Fields Forever'

When I went to high school we had one free term of extracurricular activities – I chose guitar. I wouldn’t say it was like a Harry Potter moment with his wand, but I just found playing guitar really enjoyable. I remember looking at all the other kids struggling with the timing of learning songs or fingering chords, and thinking: “I understand this really easily!”

The first thing I learned to play was House of the Rising Sun; I still to this day play that song if I have to tune my guitar by ear
The Guardian •

'It's those invisible lines': Midlands film-makers on lack of diversity

The Birmingham-based film-maker Abdul Rahman remembers an event that he says sums up one of the biggest problems in the Midlands film industry. After a Q&A with a director, Rahman, who is known as AR Ugas, took a moment to survey the room.

“I was standing with my friends who are black film-makers, then on the other side were the more upper-class white people who had all the connections,” he said. “It’s those invisible lines that nobody wanted to cross.”

The Midlands is one of the most diverse
The Guardian •

'A glorious, pandemic-free bubble': how I’m a Celebrity is bringing levity to lockdown

As the days draw in and the dark of winter approaches, it may seem odd to suggest that the best place to find intimacy and joy on TV is a reality contest that has been on air since 2002. Yet, this series of I’m a Celebrity is providing its viewers with exactly that, proving a surprise ratings hit.


This year, the show’s location is a Grade I-listed, 19th-century country house in north Wales, rather than the Australian jungle of previous years, but the format is much the same. The stomach-churn
The Guardian •

Emeli Sandé’s teenage obsessions: ‘I spent hours in the Yahoo karaoke chatroom’

The first time I went to see it I think I had just turned 11 [Titanic had a 12 certificate]. I remember sneaking into the cinema for my birthday and my dad telling me and my friends how to act in front of the staff. He said: “If they ask you your birth date, you have to pretend it’s this day.” We watched the whole film and everybody was crying. My dad always tells the story of having these five 11-year-olds sobbing next to him. Really, it was my first emotional reaction to a romantic story.

Fro
The Guardian •

From Scream Queens to Spaced's zombie battle: our favourite TV spine-chillers

Amazon Prime Video (£)

A decade after the director Wes Craven sent up his own slasher subgenre with Scream (1996), Ryan Murphy made this exquisitely accessorised entrance to the postmodern horror party. Scream Queens blended the aesthetics of Murphy’s previous hits, American Horror Story and Glee, then slathered on layers of horror homage, cartoonish violence and campy dialogue to create a tart, but moreish confection.

Like many of the 80s films it references, Scream Queens concerns a serial k
The Guardian •

'They're going grey in the face': how Covid-19 restrictions are affecting UK inmates

Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, Alison – a nurse at a prison in Wales – has watched the health of the inmates she looks after deteriorate. “You can see it physically,” she said. “They’re going grey in the face and are constantly tired and worn out. They haven’t had any sunlight.”

In March, when the rest of the country went into lockdown, so did prisons, with inmates confined to their cells for 23 hours a day and curbs placed on exercise and showering. As measures were eased for muc
The Guardian •

'We have £52 left': the dire future for England's small arts organisations

Of course it was disappointing not to be successful in this round of the cultural recovery fund (CRF). How could it not be? My venue is a small operation but has been utterly decimated by the impact of coronavirus.

Our club has £52 left in our business account for the future. I had sought help from other places before applying to Arts Council England, and found no help from the local council or the Music Venue Trust. It’s not that they didn’t want to help – because we are classified as a non-de
The Guardian •

'The risk is enormous': UK live music still in crisis after reopening

For singer-songwriter Frank Turner, an audience singalong is one of the most affecting parts of his live show. For his return to the stage on the day the UK government allowed venues to reopen last weekend, though, he had to try a different tack. “The audience were not supposed to sing along,” he says, because of the danger of coronavirus being spread. “If the crowd started to kick off I had to politely tell them to calm down, which really goes against my performance instincts. I even tried to g