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April 21, 2016

BREVIEW: Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16

Words by Olly MacNamee / Pics by Michelle Martin

If anyone was still wondering how we can break boundaries and encourage people from all walks of life to embrace classical music, then Hans Zimmer’s concert at The Barclaycard Arena provided the answer. Hoodies and Hooray Henries, and all stratum of society in-between, were in attendance.

All were there to lap up the soundtrack of our lives, the original scores and complex compositions of Zimmer and his impressively large entourage of musicians. Musical numbers that date back through three thrilling decades of orchestral originality evoked some fond memories over an immense two and a half hours.

Starting promptly at 8pm on the dot, Zimmer introduced each track with humorous anecdotes – as we were transported through an autobiographical autobahn of his back catalogue.

The last time he’d played Birmingham, over thirty years ago, Hans Zimmer travelled in a Ford Transit van and played to a crowd of three in a pub. Humble beginnings indeed, but as I watched him command the stage, his love for music, for what he does, became apparent. It struck me that here is a man who, even if he were busking at New Street Station, would be equally as happy.

Surrounding yourself with friends and long-term collaborators helps too, especially if you’re on the road as much as he is over the coming months. The energy on stage was palatable and infectious. We were won over almost instantaneously as we witnessed the man behind the majestic, soaring music he has penned.

The first half was dominated by past achievements, the score to Crimson Tide kicking off the set before segueing into the original score for the film Angels and Demons – reminding the audience that sometimes, Zimmer’s music is the most memorable part of a film.

Playing through scores from Gladiator (both haunting and bombastic in equal amounts) there was also room for the much more elegant, subtle sound of The Da Vinci Code. Music from The Lion King was thrown into the mix, and proved to be an instant crowd-pleaser, immediately recognisable from the opening bars alone.

With many tracks lasting epic lengths of time, the first hour was over in the blink of an eye. We had been enthralled and entertained. A man who showed he could be both a musical maestro as well as a humorous raconteur. And, just like the Man City match on the same night, this was a show of two halves, with a second half that had a superhero and sci-fi theme.

Focusing on his more recent work with Christopher Nolan and the like, Zimmer – swapping instruments as he went along – brought the electricity to the Electro Suite from The Amazing Spider-man 2 and the darkness to The Dark Knight. His heavier, gothic music grabbed you around the throat, hanging you threateningly over the edge of a precipice. Just like Batman himself would.

He informed us that after hearing of Heath Ledger’s tragic death, he was tempted to change the score, but rightly decided that it should stand as a tribute to the chaos and anarchy Ledger brought to his Oscar winning (albeit, posthumously) performance.

For me, this tight, brutal Dark Knight medley was the highlight of the evening, accompanied as it was by stark lights and visuals, blinking black and white, black and white in ever quicker succession and drowning the stage with appropriate Expressionist aesthetics not too far removed from the director Franz Lang (Metropolis); a fellow German émigré.

With an encore focused firmly on his music for Inception, Zimmer played out the night, as one by one, each musician and the spotlight receded to leave him on stage, bathed in light. Zimmer is a composer and performer who has made a career out of what he loves and it showed, through every minute. Truly an enjoyable, exuberant evening for all in attendance.

Just don’t leave it another 30 years to return, hey Hans.

For more on Hans Zimmer, visit http://www.hans-zimmer.com/

For more from the Barclaycard Arena, visit http://www.barclaycardarena.co.uk/

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016

BPREVIEW: Drink and Draw @ Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (Edwardian Tea Rooms) 22.04.16

Words by Olly MacNamee

Simon Myers and Nigel Hopkins’ doodliscious Drink and Draw returns to the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) on Friday 22^nd April – in conjunction with the wider Birmingham Comics Festival, which runs throughout April.

And, as such, it will be taking on a superhero theme that asks attendants (nearly 500 pencil-wielding patrons last time) to imagine they’re superheroes and to depict how they received their powers. A great idea with the potential for both serious and stoopid secret origin stories to spill forth onto the page.

Oh, and as always, it’s free.

Pencils and paper are provided in large amounts – at an event that encourages all and everyone, no matter how limited an artist you may be, to get involved, get merry and get sketching.

I attended the last one (somewhat more squiffy than initially planned) and couldn’t help noticing a wide section of Birmingham’s art communities were in attendance, from comic book artists to graffiti greats.

Indeed, both Drink and Draw organisers are artists in their own rights, with Simon Myers having recently created some great album cover parodies for several Dr Who comics. Some of Myers’ work is still available from Nostalgia & Comics and Birmingham’s own branch of Forbidden Planet.

Drink and Draw starts at 6.30pm and runs through to 10pm, with snacks and drinks available from the Edwardian Tea Room – the part of BMAG where the event is being hosted. And judging from last time, I’d get there early to find a seat.

And if you’re still stuck for an idea, following the event’s superhero theme, soak in Birmingham Review’s handy guide to secret origin stories:

Step One: Have your hero lose a loved one (or two)
The loss of a loved one is a solid backstory for many a superhero. Spidey lost Uncle Ben to an ungrateful thief, the Hulk’s mother was killed by his father, whilst Superman was even more unlucky – losing both his Kryptonian parents and his adoptive parents, the Kents. And yet, Supes never went all mean and moody. Unlike Bruce Wayne, who only lost one set of parents but was scarred for life. If only he’d had the child therapy he so clearly needed.

Step Two: The costume
The costume should reflect your character’s powers. Whether it’s the wings on Flash’s mask, reminiscent of the winged helmet of Hermes – the messenger of the gods, or the funky webbing of Spider-man’s outfit; let the bad guys know what they’re up against.

Step Three: The arch-enemy
The arch-enemy is usually, in some ways, the dual opposite of the hero, as best summed up in the weird, twisted relationship Batman and The Joker have always had. Two mad men in suits, with at least one of them recognising their madness. But then, as a billionaire, who would dare tell Batman that he’s, well, bat-shit crazy.

Step Four: Anything is possible
Let your imagination (and a few beers) take the driving seat and have fun with your ideas. The history of comics has shown us that even the daftest of ideas can be long lasting. Look at superhero names such as Bouncing Boy (who can inflate his body up to beach ball proportions), Matter Eating Lad (who can eat all matter) and Sun Boy – all members of the goofiest super team I’ve even had the privilege of reading, The Legion of Super-Heroes.

Drink and Draw takes place at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (Edwardian Tea Rooms) on 22^nd April, between 6.30pm-10pm. Entry to the event is free.

For direct information, visit http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/edwardian-tea-rooms-late-drink-and-draw

For more from Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, visit http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag

April 17, 2016

INTERVIEW: The Destroyers – Leighton Hargreaves

Words by Ed King

It’s Friday afternoon and I’m in the pub. Swingamajig comes back to Birmingham in a few weeks time, taking over The Rainbow Venues on 1^st May, and I am interviewing The Destroyers – one of the festival’s headline acts this year. Our chosen middle ground is The Prince of Wales in Moseley. Some days are simply better than others.

“The pub can be quiet on Monday’s and Tuesdays,” explains Leighton Hargreaves – fiddle player/room booker/diary hound for the ‘anarchic orchestra of blazing passion’, “so the owners let us have this room to rehearse.” The Destroyers are, at last count, a thirteen piece ensemble of brass, string, wind, percussion and gong; as I look around a room smaller than an executive parking space my mind does mathematical somersaults. From rehearsal rooms to stage space, I smell a Krypton Factor challenge.

“It’s a nightmare,” admits Leighton, “but the difficult thing at the moment is finding a day when everyone’s free. We book rehearsals out several months in advance but everyone’s got families and kids and it’s hard to make it work.” Do you scare off promoters? “We have seven backing vocal mics and so on. But we include a proviso that we can work with less stuff and fit on comparably smaller stages. But yes, the first thing some venues will ask is what stage space we need and whether their stage will be big enough for us.”

Swingamajig doesn’t seem perturbed though, with The Destroyers sharing the festival’s headline bill alongside Balkan Beat Box – the Tomer Yosef fronted three piece and off shoot of Gogol Bordello. And it’s the en masse energy, in part, that makes The Destroyers’ set so electric – as classically trained fervor meets a raw homage to ‘bands like Taraf De Haidouks and Besh o druM’. It’s quite a thing. But how do ‘Birmingham’s leading Mega Folk act’ – an adopted pigeonhole courtesy of a Swiss busking festival promoter, plan to tackle a well dressed flapper & dapper Electro Swing crowd?

“We’ve got one track that has a slightly swing like groove to it,” explains Leighton – as I quiz him on the band’s ‘approach’, “so we could either play that over and over for the whole hour. Or we could do what we normally do. But since our set is after midnight our approach is not to have too many artistic, audience stand-around-listening bits – we’ll just, bang bang, one danceable track after another all the way through to keep the energy up.” A small flicker of anarchy and joy escapes into the room. “…then ramp it up right towards the end; we’ll keep it a storming set. By after midnight that’s what people want.”

And that’s no doubt what the Swingamajig crowd will get, desire and by 12midnight probably deserve. Birmingham Review was shamelessly late to this particular party, breaking our cherry at Swingamajig 2015, but was won over by the embraced mayhem and mature debauchery that we witnessed 12 months ago. And it’s not really an Electro Swing event either, with enough genre bending sets to furnish moves from lindy hop to break dance. My biggest mistake was not dressing up.

But life on the festival circuit is arguably more business as usual for The Destroyers, as the klezmer jazz/gypsy folk (…Bern promoters be damned) who have “never been further east than Warsaw” are more likely to find space on a larger bill.

“We’ve been to Ireland, we’ve been to Italy, we’ve been to Switzerland, but we haven’t toured widely in Europe,” explains Leighton, “most of our gigs are in the UK. We’ve tried to tour Europe but the thing that makes it difficult is the sheer cost of it. Firstly you’ve got to fly us all there, and then we’d have to have hotels paid for on top of our fee – unless it’s a city council sponsored event it would become prohibitively expensive. When private promoters and festivals put us on in the UK we can slum it a bit; sleep on peoples floors and make it economical that way.”

I imagine it’s a concern; suddenly a bowl of red M&Ms doesn’t seem too much to manage. Our interview today was set up by Tom Hyland from Electro Swing Circus, and the man on everyone’s call sheet for Swingamajig. But honestly, I was fearful of my expense account not knowing how many destroyers would be waiting for me in Moseley. Mercifully Leighton was the only one and our conversation could be surmised in a pint.

But a band member in the pub is worth two in the bush, or words to that effect. And The Destroyers’ “current recording plan is to release two EPs” – following last May’s The Vortex with Licence to Sing, scheduled for release in June this year. Then it’s time for album No3, with a working title of The Massive Gong in the pipeline for 2017.

The Vortex Cannon – The Destroyers

“All of our recordings are named after one of the songs,” explains Leighton, as I fumble around a childish faux par, “and we’ve got a song called ‘The Massive Gong’. It’s easier to name something after a song than an instrumental. But the full album will feature some material from the two EPs alongside some new material. Then after we release our album the next thing we might do are collaborations – Katy Rose Bennett sang on or second album; maybe we’ll do some collaborations with more singers.”

Sounds good, with additional vocalists adding to the already ferocious thirteen strong ensemble. But does the logistical challenge ever become too much to get out of bed for? Thirteen is not a number known for being lucky. “It’s gone up and down over the years,” explains Leighton, “with the most we’ve had being fifteen. When we first started out we were inspired by these Balkan folks groups like Taraf De Haidouks and it’s quite common, with those sorts of bands, for there to be more than ten players so I guess we just adopted that mindset.”

I can’t comfortably write prose with anyone else in the room. Have the changing numbers ever become a potential blue touch paper? “Sam Wooster sang the lead vocals on ‘The Vortex Cannon’, that we recorded last year, then moved to Australia before we’d had a chance to make the video. We’re keeping a space in the band open for Sam – we got a small child to mime singing his words.” Problem solved. Any greater disturbances to the force?

“When Louis (Robinson, founding father) left we had to decide whether to carry on or not – that’s the big change over the last couple of years. But the rest of us collectively took up the reigns so we decided to give it a go and take it from there.” And how is life after Louis? “We’re in the middle of a new recording project since then; we’ve been writing new material. It’s taken us a while to work out what we’ll do and how we’ll make it work, but it’s on a good trajectory right now.”

And Birmingham breathes a sigh of relief. But seriously, a band of thirteen playing between twenty and forty gigs a year – is that not a little… brave? Even foolhardy?

“Foolhardy… what’s the right word? It’s what we do and we’re happy with what we do. But there’s no question it’s impractical. Rather than starting out with something that would be financially viable, we just thought we’d go for something that’s a great fun carnival.”

The Destroyers headline Swingamajig 2016, on Sunday 1^st May – held across The Rainbow Venues from 2pm to 6am.

For more on The Destroyers, visit http://thedestroyers.co.uk/

_______

For more on Swingamajig, visit http://swingamajig.co.uk/

For more from the Rainbow Venues, visit http://therainbowvenues.co.uk/

April 16, 2016

INTERVIEW: Mike Carey / M R Carey

Words by Olly MacNamee / Pic of Mike Carey @ Charlie Hopkinson

Warning: This interview contains some spoilers for M R Carey’s book The Girl With All The Gifts.

With an impressive writing career in comics, as well as a growing sideline as a novelist and screenwriter, Birmingham Review caught up with Mike Carey at Waterstone’s in Birmingham City Centre – talking about his new novel, Fellside, his previous novel and soon-to-be film, The Girl With All The Gifts, his comics, heaven, hell, and how ‘we think we live in the real world’.

Olly MacNamee (OM): I like the multiple perspectives you present in The Girl With All The Gifts. Is this a narrative technique you adopt in your new novel, Fellside?

Mike Carey (MC): It is, although in the first draft it was a single point of view.

OM: Was that Jess, the prisoner at Fellside?

MC: No. Actually it was Sylvia Stark, a very minor character in the novel; an evil, obsessive nurse who tries to kill Jess right from the outset. I chose her because she’s tangential to the story, someone who is looking onto the tragedy that unfolds and a tragedy she doesn’t understand, or her own part in it. But it didn’t really work because it forced me to talk around certain things, and delay certain reveals, so I recast it with multiple points of view. Yes, it’s the same kind of storytelling device as The Girl With All The Gifts, but it isn’t in the present tense, like Girl.

I was very concerned not to do a follow up to Girl; the same kind of flavour, the same kind of storytelling. I wanted to branch out a bit and it is a very, very different book. Fellside is a ghost story and, as such, the balance between the real world elements and the fantastical elements is different in Fellside. If you take away Alex, the ghost, Fellside is a prison narrative – in some ways reflective of other classic prison based narratives, with familiar character types such as Harriet Grace, the woman who runs all the rackets in the prison, and Dennis Devlin, the corrupt warder… What I wanted to do, also, was to say something about the present state of British prisons.

Private prisons, sadly, are the future because they are so cheap compared to the public alternative; it takes it off the government’s books and places it into the hands of corporations who pick up the tab. The cost of such as system is that you then get the perverse incentives of Capitalism kicking in. You are talking about companies whose product are prisoners, and so they can only increase their profit if they either have more prisoners or if they keep their prisoners for longer. So these companies will be lobbying the government to change the law, to put more people in prison and for longer time too.

OM: Were you aware of these issues before researching for Fellside?

MC: It’s part of the reason why I chose a prison setting, although there were lots of other reasons too. For example, claustrophobic settings, I love them. I love settings where a small cast of characters are forced to interact with each other. The military base in The Girl With All The Gifts is another such place, Fellside even more so. From a dramatic point of view it’s irresistible.

OM: Fellside is a thought-provoking novel. Is this something we could do with more of in comics? After all, your work on the Vertigo comic Lucifer looked at the notions of free will, whilt your other Vertigo comics’ series, The Unwritten, looked at the very nature of reality itself.

MC: Well, when I come up with an idea, it’s always characters and a setting first, and then I build the story. I’ve learnt the hard way over thirty years, for me it’s the only way that works. If you start with the story you end up with two-dimensional characters, you build the story around the characters. So I’m never consciously thinking of themes that my story will address.

Having said that, I don’t think you can write without it coming from your perspective, from how you look at the world around you. In The Unwritten that is an exception, as we definitely set out to write a story about stories and the extent to which stories are the only things that really matter. Ambrosio says in the first issue that stories are the only thing worth dying for. We have a more radical position even than that: stories are the only thing there is. We think we live in a real world, we don’t. We live in stories about ourselves in the story of the real world. There is a lot of psychological research to suggest that the self, our sense of self, is a narrative.

OM: Of course, our first lessons in morality come from fairy tales and folklore when we’re just toddlers. Your Lucifer is based on concepts explored by Milton in his epic narrative poem, Paradise Lost. And whether William Blake wanted to create a hero out of the Devil in his book, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he did. What is it about character of Lucifer that draws writers to him?

MC: I think Lucifer is powerful figure because he’s got such a wide range of possible meanings. I think that all myths that survive do so because you can apply them in so many different ways to life and your own life.

Lucifer starts off as the adversary to God, the embodiment of the darker impulses in our nature. The moment you do embody him the more he becomes attractive and glamorous. You are thinking, ‘actually, he’s pretty cool.’ Milton does not set out to make a hero out of Lucifer in Paradise Lost. He’s supposed to be the bad guy but he’s the most interesting character in the story. In Books 6 and 7, the War in Heaven, it’s basically heroic fantasy with Lucifer the big guy holding the biggest sword, like Conan. You end up rooting for him.

OM: Finally, it was announced recently that the TV series of Lucifer will be renewed for a second season. You’ve written the screenplay for the film adaption of your novel, The Girl With All The Gifts – would you be interested to write the odd episode of Lucifer?

MC: Damn straight. I would totally do that and do my damndest to sneak in a story from the comic book series. I think American networks will go with known American writers with proven track records, but you never know.

M R Carey’s Fellside is available now in hardback, whilst his previous novel, The Girl With All The Gifts is available in paperback. Mike Carey’s comic book work is also available as trade paperbacks.

For more on Mike Carey / M R Carey, visit http://mikeandpeter.com

April 11, 2016

BPREVIEW: Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16

Words by Olly MacNamee

On Tuesday 12 April, Hans Zimmer performs at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham – as promoted by Harvey Goldsmith. At the time of writing tickets for this event have sold out, but for direct information from The Ticket Factory, click here.

There’s no doubting Hans Zimmer’s credentials as one of Hollywood’s major composers, with a career spanning over 150 films including The Lion King (for which he won an Oscar in 1994), Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and the recently released Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. To the modern movie-goer he’s arguably best known for his work scoring the films of Christopher Nolan, including Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Interstellar.

Having spent his childhood fixated on music, Zimmer played keyboard with a number of bands in the ‘70s, including Trevor Horn’s The Buggles, even making a brief appearance in the video of The Buggles’ 1979 hit ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. Zimmer worked his way across Europe as a jobbing musician, before eventually washing up in Hollywood. Hell, he’s even worked with The Damned.

Even in childhood, with his father an engineer, the Frankfurt born Zimmer would experiment with music and musical instruments, fixing odds and ends onto his piano to achieve a different, experimental sound. His noodling with electronic music still continues to this day and it will certainly be interesting to see how this translates on stage when Zimmer, along with his 70+ travelling minstrels, comes to Birmingham with over four decades of back catalogue to borrow from.

Performing with the likes of Lebo M (from the aforementioned Lion King), Mike Einziger from Incubus, as well as a possible appearance Johnny Marr (whom Zimmer has previously worked with on Inception and The Amazing Spider-man 2) it would seem that those fortunate enough to be going will be witness to a rather eclectic, diverse set.

Given that this is one of few UK dates on Zimmer’s first ever tour, many have already grabbed the opportunity to catch one of Hollywood’s most renowned contemporary composers – with the concert selling out.

But to keep track of updates & info direct from The Ticket Factory, Barclaycard Arena’s official online outlet, click here.

For more on Hans Zimmer, visit http://www.hans-zimmer.com/

For more from the Barclaycard Arena, visit http://www.barclaycardarena.co.uk/