The Wrestler

I was always more of a wrestling fan than a boxing fan. I knew it was choreographed but that didn’t deter me, in fact, it was one of the main reasons I liked it; it was like a soap opera but where every storyline ended with a fight. Whereas boxing fans had Raging Bull, Cinderella Man, Ali, Million Dollar Baby and countless others to fawn upon, wrestling fans, like me, had been limited to the dreadful David Arquette film Ready to Rumble and Jack Black’s Nacho Libre – both using the wrestling industry as comedy fodder, leaving disappointed and unfulfilled grappling fans to explore gritty real-life documentaries. When Aronofsky announced The Wrestler, I was understandably dubious, but as Mickey Rourke replaced Nicolas Cage, I started to believe…could this be it? Is this my Rocky?
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The View are on fire

I admit it: I was a little nervous about chatting to The View.  OK, maybe more than a little.  After news of their shambolic appearance in Nottingham just days earlier (several hazy hours in a nearby pub later, frontman Kyle Falconer conceded to alcohol fuelled defeat and walked off stage prematurely, angering hoards of fans), I have no idea what to expect.  A band almost as famous for their after-party activities as they are their music, my mind is awash with that irritatingly infectious ‘Same Jeans’ track and the stuff of nightmares; this is the band who found themselves banned from every Travelodge in the country after inflicting £7000 worth of damage, after all. Read more

Cello… It’s nice to meet you

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a an internationally renowned collective of top class musician who play a repertoire that would outstretch the length of the entire REM back catalogue. Yet for its members the present success is lacking an important ingredient; the young. Read more

A new brand of outrage

The resignation of Russell Brand and three-month suspension of Jonathan Ross for something that happened thirteen days earlier is verification of the moral panic that print and online media (initially, and most notably, the Daily Mail) can instil on the public. It is a story that has ballooned from two complaints (out of the two million people that actually listened to the show) to reportedly 27000 as I write this. However, the likelihood is that out of his 27000, 26998 have probably not heard what actually happened and have been influenced with what national newspapers have put on their front page.  Read more

Peggy Sue and the interview

When The Badger caught up with Peggy Sue’s Katy Klaw, she wasn’t being self consciously rock ‘n roll, smoking a goat hide and declaring herself the beginning middle and end of music. Instead, she was ‘going out for a meal’. This is typical for member of a Brighton band whose connections to Sussex have kept their feet firmly on the ground. ‘I deferred a year as I’m doing American Studies. I just sent off my forms to study at Berkeley’. Read more

Discipline and Punish

‘Discipline and Punish’, SUDS’ Edinburgh Fringe 2008 play, is in essence very minimalistic.

The ominous and oppressive staging consists only of one desk, two chairs and the all-important sign, which reads: ‘You must not talk. You must not leave. Deviants must be punished. Wait for the bells’. Read more

Moran tells it like it is

Last weekend saw the return of actor and comedian Dylan Moran to the Brighton stage. This two night stop of his latest tour, “What it is” sold out months in advance, and The Dome was buzzing with feverish anticipation by the time he graced the stage. Moran did not have to work very hard to win the affection of his audience as he was clearly preaching to the converted, but nonetheless delivered a wonderfully entertaining and intensely funny show. Read more

Out of the shadows: Sia wows Concorde2

Masked by relative obscurity at an undersold Concorde 2 venue, Sia Furler is perhaps best known for vocal contributions for the melodious Zero 7 – despite the recent release of her third solo album, Some People Have Real Problems. But as tonight’s gig amply demonstrated, Sia is a wonderful artist in her own right. Read more

All hail Yo! Majesty

Female, Christian and homosexual, Yo! Majesty manage to tick almost all of the unlikely-to-be-in-a-rap-group boxes. But loud and proud, the dauntless duo of Shunda K and Jwl B are producing some of the freshest and most vibrant hip-hop of the moment. Read more

Bright Sparks

Flash fiction is the literary equivalent of hotpants: there are short shorts, and then there are short shorts, and that is the best way to sum up flash fiction.

The works are usually 1,000 words or less, but most still have a beginning, middle and an end, a protagonist, a setting and so on. The most famous example is Ernest Hemingway’s six word flash: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’. Read more

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