A student newspaper

1. QUAYSNEWS.NET @QUAYSNEWS ON TV: QUAYS NEWS 5PM
Friday 12th December, 2014 SALFORD’S NEWEST LOCAL NEWSPAPER
BIG MATCH: Manchester United VS Liverpool
Sa ve the next
Olivia
Mum backs move to put defibrillators in Salford schools after daughter’s death
SHOCKING FIGURES: Olivia is just 1 of the 12 youngsters who die every week of cardiac arrest
ASALFORD mum who lost her 14-year-old
daughter to a sudden heart attack has wel-comed
the city’s move to put defibrillators
in all schools in the area.
Tracey Raby’s daughter Olivia tragically passed
away at St. Ambrose Barlow School after collaps-ing
during a game of rounders in 2008. Her life
could have been saved if a defibrillator was avail-able.
Ms Raby is pleased to see that Salford has now
By Becca Frankland
become the first city in the country to have the
life-saving machines in every school.
She said: “If it helps any further families from
going through the heartache of losing a precious
child then it is brilliant, as it is the worst pain ever
and never goes away.”
FANS QUEUE
FOR NEW
HOBBIT
FILM
SEE PAGE 10
CHRISTMAS
JUMPER FEVER
AT MEDIACITY SEE PAGE 9
CONTINUES ON PAGE 8 >>

2. 2 Quays Mail Friday, December 12th, 2014 Hope for Emily
CHILD OF COURAGE: Emily James who suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome featured on a Channel 5 documentary earlier this week
By Dan McLaughlin
A16-YEAR-OLD Ehlers Danlos
Syndrome (EDS) sufferer from
Eccles featured in a Channel 5
documentary on Wednesday night.
‘Kids’ Hospital at Christmas’ followed
staff and patients at the Royal Children’s
Hospital in Manchester, where EDS suf-ferer
Emily James was treated for the life-threatening
disease.
The episode showed her mum and dad
learning CPR, and introduced her consult-ant
Dr Malcolm Lewis.
Emily has undergone 17 operations in
12 months as the incurable condition
causes severe dislocation and chronic
pain.
Her family are hoping to raise £2,500 for
private treatment as Emily has been told
nothing else can be done on the NHS.
Wendy Marshall, Emily’s auntie, said
that she has been “overwhelmed” with the
messages the family have received since
the broadcast.
She said:
“We watched the documentary and cried
our eyes out.
“Emily is such a strong girl, but when
people saw her on the television crying,
they were touched.
“We are so proud of Emily and just ab-solutely
lost for words.”
The first episode of the three-part series
shows Emily being allowed home for
Christmas after she was admitted into hos-pital
overnight for treatment, and ended up
staying for 12 months.
“Christmas is so special in the James
household and it broke our hearts at the
prospect of Emily missing Christmas.
“It has been so special this year, and the
family have been celebrating since the end
of October!
“They are just loving it this year, being
together at a special time.”
Emily’s mum Karen and her husband act
as carers for all four James children who
suffer from EDS.
Emily was nominated for the Tower FM’s
‘Child of Courage Award’ by her auntie
Wendy. As a prize, she received a person-alised
congratulatory video from Olly Murs,
her favourite singer.
Wendy said: “She was so shocked to be
a winner – she is just fanatical about Olly
Murs.
“She was supposed to see him in con-cert
last year but she was too poorly.
“She gave the ticket away to another
child at the hospital who was going home.”
In preparation for the broadcast, Emily
featured on the covers of Satellite and Dig-ital
TV and TV Times, with the latter send-ing
her a surprise present for being “so
cooperative” to open on Christmas day.
The GoFundMe fundraising page has so
far raised £360 with support locally from
Essence Takeaway in Swinton who are do-nating
20p from every festive burger sold.
The Halloween turned Christmas House in
Swinton is also collecting donations.
Wendy added: “The amount of mes-sages
we have received has been out-standing.
“I cannot believe the support.
“It’s nice to see the family smiling – there
are good days and bad days, but they are
still smiling.”
Check out the fundraising page to
donate: gofundme.com/hiy2lk.
Manchester set to miss air pollution targets by 10 years
A GOVERNMENT report published on
Tuesday confirmed that Greater Manches-ter
is one of several areas in the UK set to
miss its EU targets for air pollution.
The report split the UK into 43 testing
zones and 38 of these have failed to stay
on track.
It is projected that Greater Manchester
will achieve the objective, set for 2015, by
as late as 2025.
It was also named as being amongst the
16 worst places for air pollution in the UK.
The UK has regularly been threatened
with a £300 million fine by the EU for con-stantly
failing to achieve pollution targets.
The report identified transport as the
biggest offender, being responsible for the
majority of all air pollution in Manchester;
traffic on the roads was the worst of this as
it caused 45% of Manchester based pollu-tion.
The problems to health are so severe that
a new Government initiative is being
drafted that will require hospitals, schools
and care homes to be built outside of cities
and away from major roads.
Roads, especially main junctions, are
considered far too polluted for the sick,
young and old to be constantly exposed to.
It is also considered unsafe to build new
houses that are directly adjacent
to main roads.
However, the pro-posals
to construct
schools, hospi-tals
and
homes out-side
cities
comes
with a
distinct
draw-back
as this
may
only
serve
to cre-ate
new
high
population
areas that
require signifi-cant
road infra-structure
and
expose others to pol-lution
and cause further
problems.
Estimates show that air pollution is re-sponsible
for 28,969 deaths in the UK per
year; the previous Government re-port
on air pollution had this
figure at 5.3% of
deaths.
One proposed
solution is the
establish-ment
of
“Low
Emis-sions
Zones”
in cen-tres
of
high
popu-lation;
coun-cils
al-ready
have the
power to
set these up
but have
never done so
for fear of public
backlash.
Establishing a Low Emis-sions
Zone would require exclud-ing
vehicles that are not low emission
vehicles, this is impractical as it would
mean a ban on diesels, HGVs and heavier
vehicles such as buses.
The report condemned this approach,
calling it the “politically easy way out” and
argued that it would only serve to incon-venience
the public by depriving them of
public transport and supply vehicles.
A diesel scrappage scheme had previ-ously
been proposed by Mayor of London,
Boris Johnson but has been quickly de-feated
in both 2009 and 2014 when the
motion was raised.
Manchester is unfortunate to have many
houses built facing onto main junctions
while the M60 and M62 have been identi-fied
as major sources of air pollution in the
area.
This report contrasts with the Coalition’s
goal of becoming “the greenest Govern-ment
ever” as the situation has not been
improving enough in accordance with EU
guidelines.
Mike Kane, MP for Wythenshawe and
Sale East was part of the Environmental
Audit Committee at the time of the reports
publication, however he has since left the
committee in recent weeks and his repre-sentatives
declined to comment on the
matter.
By Joe Harker

3. Friday, December 12th, 2014 Quays Mail 3 Investigation after
Withington fire
Teenager
in Ritz
Accident
A TEENAGER was left in a critical
condition after falling from the balcony
inside the Ritz nightclub.
The 18-year-old old male from Walk-den
in Salford fell 12ft onto the con-crete
floor during a club night
‘LightBoxx.’
Emergency services were called to
the scene at around 2:40am on Sun-day
morning and the injured reveller
was immediately taken to Salford
Royal Hospital to undergo surgery for
a fractured skull.
A spokesman from the GMP an-nounced
that he has now been moved
out of intensive care and is in a ‘stable
condition’.
Police are investigating reports that
the clubber was taking part in a drink-ing
game with friends at the time of the
incident, and the GMP are not looking
for anyone else relating to the fall.
Quays News contacted the Ritz for a
statement, but bosses have declined
to comment. However, they did say
that their ‘thoughts are with the
teenager and his family during this or-deal.’
Questions are now being raised as to
whether correct safety precautions are
in place at the Ritz, and whether there
is anything the club can do to prevent
this accident from happening in the fu-ture.
DESTROYED DAYCENTRE: The fire in Withington is said to have happened ‘intentionally,’ made worse by strong winds
By Adam Stevenson
F irefighters have said that the Withing-ton
daycare centre which set ablaze
on Wednesday night is ‘destroyed’.
Over 35 fighters worked into the night
tackling the ‘serious blaze’ which began at
around 9pm.
Manchester fire said that the fire was as-sisted
by the strong winds currently affect-ing
the Greater Manchester area.
According to Councillor Paul Andrews,
Executive Member for Adults Health and
Well-being for Manchester City Council, the
reasons for the fire starting are yet to be
discovered.
"There was a fire started at 9 'o clock on
Wednesday and obviously it's gone straight
through the building and destroyed it. With
a great deal of luck nobody was injured but
the building has actually been devastated."
The full building was ridden with flames
requiring four fire crews and an aerial plat-form
to put it out.
The Councillor is yet to find out whether
the building can be salvaged or if it must be
demolished.
Many of the streets surrounding the area
are still covered in hoses with the building
still smoking the following morning.
He said "It's heartbreaking. It's a well-loved
resource which is now gone. As far as
the service is concerned we've got a similar
facility in the North of the city called Heath-fields
and one in the south of the city on
Hall lane.
“We're trying to look in the local commu-nity
for a suitable building in the interim to
enable the people who can't travel to actu-ally
stay within this local area.”
Police officers have been going door to
door asking locals to keep windows closed
but have not evacuated any residents.
He said "Hopefully at some point we'll be
told actually how the fire started."
Marie Thomas, a resident from the area
who lives opposite the centre, explained
that she was shocked to see the fire having
not heard or seen anything for some time.
"About 8.30 I came to put the bin out and I
saw the fire engine. I wondered why it was
here and something caught my eye and
then I saw the blaze. I wondered how long it
had been going on, I didn't hear a siren I
heard nothing."
"Well I got told last night that they thought
it was kids. Where the entrance is to the
building that's actually a bus stop as well
and apparently they think that kids have
rammed the bench up against the doors
and that's where they think the fire started."
Due to the severity of the blaze it is a
possibility that the fire happened intention-ally.
She added "Most municipals buildings
want burning down but that particular one
worked."
Greater Manchester Police are continuing
to investigate the circumstances of how the
fire began.
For more on this story visit our website
at quaysnews.net.
Uni meets with police for security measures
By Emily Paterson
MANCHESTER Metropolitan University
and University of Manchester met this week
to discuss a demand in increased security
measures in Fallowfield after two suspected
rape incidents that happened last week.
Sarah Beth, Manchester Metropolitan com-munity
officer met with Greater Manchester
Police to discuss the ongoing issues sur-rounding
student safety in Fallowfield.
Manchester Metropolitan University want
to tackle the areas of ‘black spots’ where
low-lit streets are a high risk for students
walking back from university alone.
Fallowfield is one of the most popular
areas for students to live in Manchester but
they are now living in fear and are scared to
leave their homes alone.
Mike Palmer, President Ambassador of
Manchester Metropolitan University, has
asked students to tweet photos of areas that
are low lit in an attempt to reassure them
that the University are working on improving
their safety.
He said, “We personally think there is a big
issue in Fallowfield with black spots where
lights are out and there are dark corridors.
We decided to set up a twitter campaign
getting students to tweet us a picture of any-thing
they see. It could be an overhanging
trees or a bulb that’s out. We can then send
it to the council so they can sort it.”
Manchester Metropolitan have general ad-vice
centres that offer students support and
guidance on how to keep safe including free
rape alarms for girls walking home.
Joanna Horton, 20, moved to Fallowfield
this year and presumed it was safe. She has
been scared of leaving her house alone to
do simple tasks like food shopping and
going to her lectures and thinks police need
to do more in her area to keep girls safe.
She said, “I assumed moving to a predomi-nantly
student area living together in a com-munity
would be safe but I couldn’t be more
wrong. I think police need to do more be-cause
no patrols are evident and girls are
still being attacked.”
A student petition has been launched as a
result of young women in the surrounding
areas of Fallowfield feeling unsafe and is
calling on Greater Manchester Police to step
up the mark in patrolling Fallowfield.
Joanna continues, “I have signed the peti-tion
because I believe this is the only way it
will push change to happen.”
However, Greater Manchester Police said
they want to reassure students that they are
doing everything they can to keep students
safe. They said, “We have increased patrols
in the area to provide reassurance in the
community.”
Manchester Metropolitan and University of
Manchester will work closely with Greater
Manchester Police and the council to find
ways of keeping areas of Fallowfield safe for
students. Until then, students are urged
when walking in the dark, to do so with com-pany
and stick to well-lit areas that they
know.
Girls out
loud
YEAR nine girls from Albion Academy
in Salford attended a graduation after-noon
that took place on Wednesday at
MediaCityUK to celebrate the end of a
twelve month programme set up by
‘Girls out Loud.’
Successful businesswoman and
founder of the scheme, Jane Kenyon,
set up Girls out Loud in an attempt to
help the most disadvantaged girls by
guiding them through the challenges of
growing up.
The scheme is made up of women
who refer themselves as ‘Role mod-els’,
targeting schools around the UK,
in particular Oldham and Salford.
A group of 20 year nine girls were
selected to join the ‘Big Sister’ Pro-gramme
earlier this year. The girls
were allocated a big sister to report to
with any problems they had over the
12 months.
The graduation marked the end of a
twelve-month journey where the girls
received t-shirts and certificates for
being part of the programme. The af-ternoon
was filled with emotional
speeches and reflection on their expe-riences
as a group.
Jane said: “They will no doubt stay in
touch with their big sister but not in the
formal way they have done in the past
twelve months. It was a very emotional
graduation event.”
Jane and the role-models dedicate
their time into providing support and
awareness to help raise the aspira-tions
of young girls. She said, “My
main aim is to reassure them that they
can have whatever life they desire, no
matter how different that might look for
each individual.”
Jane hopes she can expand the
scheme by targeting girl’s right up to
university age, eventually making the
scheme more wide spread throughout
the country.

4. 4 Quays Mail Friday, December 12th, 2014 Campaign urges public
re-think on sexual abuse
CAMPAIGN warns “in the midst of all of
the intoxicated commotion, some things,
which no human being should ever ex-perience,
happen.”
Student Unions all around the Greater
Manchester area are participating in a joint
campaign called No Consent No Sex. This
scheme is endorsed by the Greater Man-chester
Police (GMP) and is to tackle the is-sues
of sexual assault on campus.
The campaign came about due to a NUS
report revealing that at least 68% of women
go through sexual abuse during their
higher education and the doubling (from
15-30) of sexual abuse reports that have
come through to the GMP from August
through October, 2014.
As a result of these consequences,
the initiative to prevent sexual abuse
has been undertaken by students’
unions. The Salford Students’ Union
(SSU) is also participating in this effort. It
launched the No Consent No Sex cam-paign
three weeks ago. Vice
President for
Health and
Social
Care,
Jasmine
Pokuaa,
is the
leader of the
effort.
“The cam-paign’s
pur-pose
is to
make stu-dents
under-stand
and
think about
what they are
doing before
they actually
do it,” re-marks
Pokuaa.
“Students should never use alcohol as an
excuse, because that is just silly.”
The Salford No Consent No Sex cam-paign’s
main target audience are perpetra-tors.
“We believe that it is important to highlight
the message that this is not the victims’
fault,” mentions Pokuaa.
“Most of the time people don’t realize that
they have been sexually assaulted or
raped, because the perpetrators aren’t the
usual suspects waiting in a
dark alleyway.
These could be your
friends or flatmates with
whom you have had too
much to drink with.”
Apart from involving
students by creating
events and evoking stu-dents’
interest by posters,
the SSU has adopted a
zero tolerance policy to-wards
sexual abuse. It will
be renounced when ‘there is
no more sexual abuse in Sal-ford
or in
Manchester or
even in the
whole world,’
revealed
Pokuaa,
who has
taken a
personal
stand
towards
the
sub-ject.
“This
cam-paign
has
opened my eyes to a whole new world. As
representative of all Salford students,
I wouldn’t want anyone to feel like they
are hindered in their progress because
somebody has sexually assaulted them. I
would like them to get support. I would like
them to get help from whoever they can.
And I would like them to feel like it’s not
their fault because a lot of the time they feel
like it is their fault.
“In some cases, victims say: ‘I didn’t drink
too much this wouldn’t have happened. If I
didn’t wear a short dress it wouldn’t have
happened. If I wasn’t wearing a low cut
dress it wouldn’t have happened.’
“This isn’t true. I just don’t want sexual
assault to happen anymore,” adds Pokuaa.
Follow the campaign on social media
with the #noconsentnosex .
Pervert Savile driver jailed
‘’MANIPULATIVE and dangerous’ former
DJ Ray Teret has been sentenced to 25
years in jail on Thursday after a string of
historical sex offences on girls as young
as 12.
The public gallery cheered and clapped
when ’monster’ Teret, was found guilty by
a jury at Manchester Minshull Street
Crown Court today for seven counts of
rape and 11 counts of indecent assaults
on teenage girls.
The 73-year-old is said to have used
his celebrity status to prey on his vulnera-ble
victims, aged 12 to 15, in night clubs
and youth organised discos throughout
the 1960 and 1970s.
Detective Chief Inspector Graham
Brook said; “After decades of hiding be-hind
the veneer of being a distinguished
radio presenter, Ray Teret has finally been
exposed as the manipulative and danger-ous
sexual predator that he is.”
Victims present at the court and
erupted with cheers and applauds while
the verdict was read with one branding
him a ‘monster'.
The ex-Picadilly Radio presenter from
Altrincham will face imprisonment for sex
offences against 11 women after he de-nied
18 rapes, one attempted rape, two
serious sexual assaults, 12 indecent as-saults
and one count of indecency with a
child.
Also known as ‘Ugli Ray’, he was a
close friend and former colleague of
Jimmy Savile and was cleared of the other
charges after a 10 day deliberation by the
jury.
The court heard that Teret was de-scribed
as following Savile around “like a
shadow”. Teret was charged of raping a
15-year-old girl in his flat however there is
no proof that Savile was present.
Victims of Teret came forward following
the public accusations around peadophile
Savile in October 2012 leading to Teret’s
arrest a month later.
Greater Manchester Police are now in-vestigating
more abuse accusations from
four women who have come forward in
wake of the trail.
TAMESIDE Hospital has confirmed
that it was forced to close its A&E last
night following the release of a noxious
substance.
At around 3am Friday morning a 46
year old man was taken to A&E by the
police following an arrest for allegedly
being found on enclosed premises. After
being placed into a police van the man
intentionally banged his head and subse-quently
injured himself. When the police
took the man to Tameside, he released a
noxious gas with notably similar effects
to CS gas.
GMP Chief Superintendent Rob Potts,
said "While it is too early to say exactly
what happened, it is clear we have failed
to sufficiently search the man prior to put-ting
him in the van."
The man discharged the substance from
what the police say looked like a cigarette
lighter, which left the A&E department
closed for approximately one hour. Though
some people did suffer minor effects from
the gas, nobody became seriously ill as a
result.
"We arrest many people every single
day and in the vast majority of cases they
are searched and brought into custody
without issue. Unfortunately on this occa-sion
this has not happened. This
matter is being referred to our Profes-sional
Standards Branch for review.
By Tamsin Dyson By Adam Stevenson
THICK AS THIEVES: DJ Ray Teret
‘Gas attack’ closes Tameside
By Reny Mihaylova
Exclusive events happening this
month at the Salford Students’
Union:
 Next Thursday, Salford’s debating society
will be discussing the main issues which affect
women through their upper education;
 The Student Union and the Salford Dancing
Society will be collaborating to create a flash
mob conveying: ‘No Consent, No Sex’ motto;
 Students will be designing 3-D handprint
models as a reminder of the campaign’s main
messages. These will be permanently in-stalled
around the main university buildings.
Campaigner Jasmine Pokuaa holds up #NoConsentNoSex poster
Jamine and Marina Hristova
OVERNIGHT ATTACK: The alleged CS Gas attack took place at around 3am

5. Friday, December 12th, 2014 Quays Mail 5 Women protest
about service cuts
Better by
cycle?
TRANSPORT for Greater Man-chester
has revealed plans for 37
miles of new cycle lanes in areas
such as Prestwich, Cheetham Hill,
Wilmslow Road and Manchester
Airport, with more routes planned
for Salford, Stockport, Ashton
canals and the Bridgewater.
The scheme, dubbed ‘Better by
Cycle’ is part of a 20 million-pound
investment which aims to create
improved cycle paths which, in
places will lead through infre-quently-
used green spaces and in
other places create enhanced and
safer paths for cyclists through
busy city-centre traffic.
Some key changes will be made
to Oxford Road as part of the
Wilmslow Road renovation.
The changes include a complete
closure of several sections of the
road between daylight hours to
general traffic, more than four kilo-metres
of segregated bus lanes as
well as ‘Dutch-style’ segregated
cycle lanes.
Graeme Sherriff from the Love
Your Bike campaign told the Man-chester
Evening News that some
of the planned route does not meet
the design criteria set out in their
manifesto, which includes being
safe, coherent and future-proof.
22-year-old Gareth Clake is the
President of the University of Man-chester’s
cycling club – “The plans
aren’t perfect but having the sepa-rate
cycle lane is a big improve-ment,
and getting rid of some of
the traffic from Oxford Road will
make it safer and easier to use”.
The closing date for comments
on the Cheetham Hill Road and
Wilmslow Road cycleways is Janu-ary
the second.
Lowry xmas
donations
Cuts to women’s services left group Safety 4 Sisters outraged
Protesters took to the streets of Man-chester
yesterday to demand an end
to cuts in services supporting vulner-able
women.
The demonstration was organised by
Safety4Sisters, a charity that specialise in
protection, safety and support for women
who have experienced gender violence and
who have no recourse to public funds.
Angry protesters filled St Peter’s Square
in the city centre with banners and whistles
to demonstrate against the cuts.
Manchester City Council recently an-nounced
that they will be cutting a further
£60 million pounds and will be cutting into
the women’s services.
Kate Cook, a founder of Saftey4Sisters,
commented, “Safety4Sisters is a supporting
campaigning group for women who don’t
have any access to services and who stay
in abusive relationships because they don’t
have the right to go in a refugee.”
“We are demonstrating today against the
cuts in services. This means Women’s Aid
can’t provide children’s services and women
can’t get into refugees to leave abusive
men. Lots of independent services around
Manchester that support women have had
cuts already and cannot survive through the
cuts.”
Women’s Aid is a national charity set up
to protect women and child from domestic
abuse. It is one of the largest domestic
abuse charities in Manchester and has
many services such as food and clothes
banks and support for women in domestic
situations.
Gail Health, chief officer at Women’s Aid,
said “Women’s refugees provide a safe en-vironment
for women who have nowhere
else to go. The question I want to ask is
who should pay for the financial mess we
have got ourselves in? It should not be vic-tims
of violent sexual and domestic abuse. “
Many students joined the protest including
the University of Manchester Student Union.
Full time Women's Officer at the Union,
Jess Lishak, said, “I organised a group of
students to go along to the protest.It was re-ally
good to see women's services like
Women's Aid, Rape Crisis, The Pankhurst
Centre, Refuges, Legal aid and Refugee
Services coming together to say that these
cuts that central government have im-posed
on the council are horrendous and
have to stop. “
The demonstration came as part of
Human Rights Day which is used to raise
awareness of issues which affect many of
us around the world. The day also marks
the end of the 16 days of action associ-ated
with UN International Day to Elimi-nate
Violence against Women.
In 2012, more than 14 independent
Women’s Aid services were cut with do-mestic
and sexual health services being
the most affected. This saw an estimation
27,000 women turned away because the
lack of spaces available.
Domestic violence has been reported to
have risen by 17% in past year. More than
£1.9 million pounds has been cut in
refuges and domestic violence services in
London alone.
If you would like to find out more in-formation
about Safety4Sisters, you
can follow them at @Safety4Sisters
By Ellie Bryan
Manchester Ambulance Service urge
Christmas party-goers to plan ahead
Manchester ambulance services have
urged the public to “plan ahead” in order to
lower the risk of ending up in casualty this
Christmas.
The Christmas period has ambulance
personnel at their busiest, and Manches-ter’s
ambulance services are no exception.
Last year the North West Ambulance
Service saw a reduction in the number of
emergency calls it took over the Christmas
period and this year it aims to do exactly
the same.
Director of operations Derek Cartwright
has urged people to take more care to
make sure that their Christmas period
doesn’t involve calling out an ambulance.
Mr Cartwright said “So we can best re-spond
to those with life-threatening or po-tentially
life-threatening conditions, we
need the help of the public to keep our
ambulances free”.
Cartwright also stated that getting dehy-drated
in stuffy, overcrowded shopping
centres in the Christmas period can be
avoided by drinking plenty of water, and
taking regular breaks.
Many of the recommendations made by
Mr Cartwright were related to alcohol in-take:
“many people end up in hospital after
a night out, rather than safely at home”.
He said: “we don’t want to stop people
having fun” but also pointed out that “in the
majority of cases, the incident can be eas-ily
avoided”.
As well as obvious warnings not to drink
and drive, the director of operations also
informed that: “alcohol lowers your body
temperature so wear a coat when going
out”.
Other advice included: keeping an eye
on elderly relatives or neighbours, making
your own way to hospital unless it’s an
emergency, and picking up any prescrip-tions
that are needed in advance of Christ-mas,
due to the four-day weekend which
GP’s will have from Christmas day on-wards.
By Declan Fisher
SALFORD’S Lowry Theatre is
raising funds and awareness for a
very special cause this Christmas-for
Salfordian children and young
people with Autistic Spectrum Con-ditions.
The arts and entertainment centre
kicked off the fundraising last night
at its 2014 Salford debut of Slava’s
Snowshow and will be hosting
weekly creative workshops for chil-dren
with Autism from local schools.
Children with Autism from Spring-wood
Primary School in Swinton
and teenagers at New Park High
School in Eccles were treated to
practical workshops when profes-sional
dancers, artists and writers.
The older pupils will then get the op-portunity
to watch The Curious Inci-dent
of the Dog in the Night Time at
The Lowry.
Meanwhile, fundraising will con-tinue
through bucket collections at
all four of the Theatre’s Christmas
shows: Peter Pan Goes Wrong,
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,
Slava’s Show and The Curious Inci-dent
of the Dog in the Night Time,
from December 9 to the January 10.
Four festive plays will be on at
The Lowry, with each show involving
characters who see the world differ-ently,
as people on the Autism spec-trum
often do.
Follow @The_Lowry and visit
www.thelowry.com/xmasappeal
for more updates.

6. 6 Quays Mail Friday, December 12th, 2014
At a time of year when many people
are debating the size of turkey and
how many sprouts they’ll need for
Christmas dinner, there are thousands more
that are struggling to eat at all.
There has been a sudden, rapid growth iin
the number of foodbanks and supermarket
‘food collection points’. You could be for-given
for thinking that food poverty is a new
problem. The truth is rather different; food,
or rather a lack of it, has been a growing
issue since the nineties, when the first
Trussell Trust foodbank was founded by a
couple in Sal-isbury
oper-ating
out of a
shed at the
end of their
garden.
It would
seem that
whilst bring-ing
the prob-lem
to people
who were
previously
unaware of
the poverty
crisis hap-pening
around them,
the appear-ance
of both foodbanks and strategically
placed food collection points suggests a
‘normalisation’ of food aid for the future, ac-cording
to Manchester expert, Dr Kingsley
Purdam.
Dr Purdam, along with two colleagues at
the University of Manchester, has written an
in-depth report entitled ‘Hungry Food
Stigma’; it makes both interesting and worry-ing
reading to say the least.
The research, conducted in the North
West, took into consideration evidence from
a survey, case studies of foodbanks in the
area and interviews with foodbank users. In
this one city alone there are seven Trussell
Trust food-banks,
and a
further thirty
other ‘free
food providers’
in the area.
The Trussell
Trust are
opening food-banks
at a rate
of two a week.
Their figures
reveal that the
number of
people they
gave emer-gency
food to
rose from al-most
350,000
in 2012/13 to
over double at 900,000 in 20013/14. If this is
the tip of the iceberg, as both the figures and
Dr Purdam’s research support, then we
have a huge problem and it is only going to
get worse – it’s estimated that 4.7million
people in the UK live in food poverty and the
Trussell Trust predict there will be more than
one million people using their foodbanks in
2014 alone.
This is without taking into consideration the
many independent foodbanks and other in-formal
sources of food aid that often go un-documented
and rely heavily on both
community support and donations.
The reasons people turn to foodbanks
varies massively and, contrary to what some
public figures would have you believe, it’s
not because ‘poor people don’t know how to
cook.’
While Baroness Jenkin has apologised for
her comment, putting it down to ‘stupidly
speaking unscripted’, she is not the first to
make such a sweeping generalisation – for-mer
Conservative Government Health Minis-ter
Edwina Currie seemed to blame
foodbank users themselves, stating that
“they never learn to cook…the moment
they’ve got a bit of spare cash they’re off
getting another tattoo.”
Katie Hopkins has also jumped on the
blame train, comparing foodbank users to
‘cancer patients’ in a recent outspoken rant
on social media while Rachel Johnson, sis-ter
of the Mayor of London reportedly com-pared
them to animals, saying “Apart from
the telly and the cigarettes, they are living
like animals.”
The language used to describe foodbank
users seems located in a discourse of blame
when in reality most people turn to them as
a last resort and not as a way to ‘save a few
quid’.
Linda from Sale, Manchester was forced to
use her local foodbank after being sanc-tioned
by the job centre, having her benefits
suspended for several weeks. She says, “I
don’t know what I would have done without
the foodbank. When the job centre stopped
my money for missing an appointment be-cause
my daughter was ill I had nowhere
else to turn to get food for me and the kids.
They were really friendly but the food they
gave us was supposed to last for three days
but I was sanctioned for three weeks. With-out
the food from them and other friends we
would have starved.”
Dr Purdam’s research found that in one
North West city there were seven Trussell
Trust foodbanks and one being set up, with
thirty other food aid providers. It’s clear from
this that any estimate of food aid use based
on Trussell Trust data is likely to be a huge
underestimation.
The study also shows that, contrary to pub-lic
perception, the most common reason
given for visiting a foodbank was benefit
sanctions, followed by delays in benefit pay-ments
– it seems that this underlying issue
is a major cause for concern and must be
addressed as part of the food crisis debate.
Many of the people Dr Purdam’s research
team spoke to described a sense of desper-ation
and need that led to them going to a
foodbank, one female visitior said that she
“felt like she was begging whilst waiting for
her pension credit” and another said she
was “willing to turn to prostitution if she did
not get help from the foodbank.”
For many people using foodbanks the im-pact
of changes
in benefits and
entitlement had
created a family
crisis, this in-cluded
the Spare
Room Supple-ment
or so-called
bedroom
tax introduced in
2013. Other
foodbank users
highlighted how
recent difficulties
and relationship
breakdown had
contributed to
their financial dif-ficulties.
What-ever
the case it’s clear to see that food
poverty is a growing problem in both Man-chester
and further afield.
A key policy debate resulting from Dr Pur-dam’s
research relates to the role of the
state, the voluntary sector and commercial
organisations in addressing food poverty in
the UK, and the role citizens can have in en-suring
their own welfare.
Perhaps there is some inevitability about
the scale of food insecurity in the UK, given
the impact of the eco nomic recession and
present welfare reforms but whilst the local
uthority has
provided some funding, food aid is still pre-dominantly
re-liant
on
volunteers and
donations.
This, along
with the ‘nor-malisation’
of
food aid with
foodbanks on
the high street
and food col-lection
points
common in
supermark ets,
are issues that
cannot be ig-nored
any
longer and will
require us all to
pull together to
make a difference.
Now is also a good time to consider how
food waste and reuse is regulated in the UK,
compared with other countries – in the UK
it’s estimated that 15 million tonnes of food
are wasted each year.
With some planning and communication
there’s no doubt that some of this waste
could be avoided and the government needs
to step up and ensure access to adequate
food for all. What can be termed as ‘the lo-calization
of food welfare’ is actually nothing
more than a way of brushing it under the
carpet or passing the buck.
Food poverty is an issue that affects us all
and needs addressing urgently although
sadly it’s clear that the financial vulnerability
of certain populations is embedded far be-yond
the temporary fix of a food parcel
Gang
member
wins
murder
appeal
A man who was convicted for the
murder of a teenager has had his
conviction thrown out at the Court of
Appeal.
Ex-gang member Dwaine George
spent 12 years in prison for the
killing of Daniel Dale in Harpurhey,
Manchester in 2001.
Sir Brian Leveson, presiding over
the appeal, said today that his con-viction
was ‘no longer safe.’
The appeal hearing was called
after new scientific evidence came
to light relating to gunshot residue,
which had initially being used by the
prosecution to convict George.
The case was prepared by law
students at Cardiff University using
its Innocence Project which was set
up to consider miscarriages of jus-tice
in criminal cases.
The Innocence Project was set up
in 2005 as a way to help students
cover real-life legal scenarios. Work-ing
under the provision of practising
solicitors and barristers, they shape
the defence for long-term prisoners
who maintain their innocence, as
George has always done.
They have submitted over six
cases to the Criminal Cases Review
Commission in total.
George, 30, was initially released
in 2013 on a life licence.
“Foodbank demand i
Manchester expert By Taaliah Nazar
Xmas carol
concert
THE Ceremonial Mayor of Salford
City Council, Christine Hudson,
hosted a Christmas Carol concert at
the Salford Cathedral last night.
There were readings from Father
Michael Jones, the Dean of the
cathedral, the Chief Inspector of the
GMP, Steve Howard and the City Di-rector
of Salford Council, Jim Taylor.
Music was played throughout by
the BBC Philharmonic and The
GMP band.
Performances included a quintet
from The Swinton High School, a
nativity play by The Cathedral
School of St Peter and St John RC
Primary and choirs from St Ed-munds
RC Primary and Salford City
Council’s staff.
The offertory collection will be
split between The Ceremonial
Mayor’s Charity Appeal, Salford
Young Carers Service and the Sal-fordian
Trust.
Ian Stewart, the City Mayor
thanked the performers and wished
the congregation “a very merry
Christmas and the best possible
New Year”.

7. Friday, December 12th, 2014 Quays Mail 7
is underestimated” says
Staff at Oldham foodbank have been helping to battle poverty
.
The Labour Party pledge for extra cancer funding
THE Labour party have released a state-ment
outlining their aims to pledge £330
million in Cancer treatment funding.
The announcement comes in preparation
for the ending of the Cancer Drugs Fund
established by David Cameron during the
2010 general elections which is set to end
in 2016.
Should Labour establish a win during the
elections, their plan would be introduced as
a replacement and as part of their health
reforms to the NHS.
The majority of Cancer treatments prove
incredibly costly to the government, with
one of the most expensive treatments
(Kadcyla) costing a minimum of £90,000
per course, but promises to extend lives by
an average of up to six months.
Previous Labour proposals regarding can-cer
treatments have included a £2.5 billion
funding pledge which was aimed on provid-ing
a total of 36,000 more nurses, doctors,
and midwives, whilst simultaneously cutting
the long treatment waiting times for cancer
tests so that it would be detectable from an
earlier stage, in hope of providing faster
treatment.
Having previously said that he was aiming
to cut Cancer treatment waiting times, Ed
Miliband has continued to take his plan a
couple of steps further with the new an-nouncements.
During a recent interview
with the BBC, Party Leader, Ed Miliband,
said he believed early diagnosis of cancer
is critical and that it could save up to
10,000 lives per year.
Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has also
released a statement to the press estab-lishing
that helping more people beat can-cer
is a priority for the Government, and
that they are well on track of meeting their
goal to save an extra 5,000 lives.
The development has also come within a
good time for reforms to cancer treatments,
with the new £28.5 million Manchester
Cancer Research Centre set to open its
doors in early 2015, providing medical ex-perts
from around the world with a base for
joint research into cancer treatments and
their effectiveness alike.
The Christie have also recently an-nounced
a breakthrough approach in treat-ing
patients with neck cancer through a
series of tests to identify whether or not
they require unconventional treatment.
The proposal itself includes a plan to es-tablish
a £330m cancer treatments fund in
hopes of improving access to life saving
treatments such as the latest drug based
treatments and surgery, with a primary
focus on radiotherapy – all of which Labour
are planning to put into place should they
succeed in the next general elections to be
held in October 2015.
For more on this story visit our web-site
at quaysnews.net.
By Freya Budd

8. 8 Quays Mail Friday, December 12th, 2014
Market
attacker
sentenced
A MARKET worker from Manches-ter
was sentenced for attacking a
rival marketer for selling similar
goods to his stall.
The 34-year-old caused multiple in-juries
to the victim including a 2cm
cut on his face, a 3cm cut on his arm
and back injuries.
The defendant was handed a two
year suspended sentence, 180
hours community service and will be
under a 7pm to 7am curfew moni-tored
by an ankle tag for 16 weeks
along with having to pay £850 com-pensation
and £725 prosecution
costs in £100 a month instalments.
“You can’t put a price
on a child’s life”
Homeless film festival
ON Wednesday night, derelict mansion
turned alternative music venue, Antwerp
Mansion, played host to the Homeless Film
Festival. Kicking off at 9pm, the venue in
Rusholme welcomed the public to a non-profit
night of live music and DJ’s, with an
added art exhibition highlighting local talent.
The Homeless Film Festival is a UK wide
project dedicated to confronting and pre-senting
the issue of homelessness in soci-ety
today. The registered charity mainly
focuses on screening high-end films from
across the globe in independent cinemas
and unique locations, all of which have
homeless issues as their main theme or are
films that are made by homeless people
themselves in a range of different genres.
The night at Antwerp Mansion was the or-ganisation’s
bi-yearly music event whose
sole aim was to fundraise for the touring
festival so they are able to continue to raise
money for homelessness in a creative man-ner.
Shockingly, 90,000 people are ex-pected
to wake up homeless this
Christmas, and with Manchester alone see-ing
a 10% rise in homelessness in recent
years, the need for support is constant. The
Homeless Film Festival directly donates all
money raised from their events to helping
those sleeping rough across Britain.
“We do creative projects throughout the
year as well as a touring film festival.”
states Dean Brocklehurst, co-director of the
Homeless Film Festival.
“The creative projects incorporate short
and long term film making and animation
sessions, so we invite people to support us
on those events. People can help and vol-unteer
on the general day today running of
the charity, or help us on skilled sessions
where people deliver or support the work-shops
we run.
“Every year throughout the first two weeks
of November, we have a touring film festival
so this year we toured in 12 locations
around the country, screening homeless re-lated
content in cinemas and special loca-tions.
We don’t just screen issue based
films, we screen really good films which
may have already had international distribu-tion,
like ‘The Fisher King’ or ‘Cathy Come
Home’.
“We screen these films to the audience to
raise awareness of the wider issues of
homelessness, so not just street homeless-ness
but also children in the care system,
or refugees and asylum seekers, people
that might have had a relationship or expe-rienced
bereavement and have become
homeless.”
The Antwerp Mansion fundraiser itself
consisted of a number of local ska and pop
bands. Performing on the night were
Mancheska, Skinny Living, The Uplifters
and Liberation UK. Band Skinny Living sup-ported
Jake Bugg on tour, and are con-firmed
to play at The Isle of Wight Festival
in 2015.
Whereas Mancheska are a horn-fronted
eight piece band, who play up-beat tunes
and a mixture of Jamaican classics.
There were also two DJ’s who took to the
stage after the bands had performed – Josh
Sowa and Ranny Kundi – who were dedi-cated
to supplying hits until 3am. They each
played a wide range of music differentiating
between the likes of house, garage, jazz
and classic hits.
Rosemary Booth was one local artist who
had her work displayed in the exhibition on
the top floor of Antwerp Mansion. Winner of
the Manchester Metropolitan Graduate
Award, Rosemary’s displayed artwork con-sisted
of intricate patterns which were
hand-drawn and lit-up with light sources in
order to accentuate the complex detail.
Many other artists also had their work on
display including textile artist Rachael
Herbest, painter Naomi Litvack and land-scape
artist Raymond Martin. Some of the
pieces were also available to be purchased,
with all funds raised going straight to the
Homeless Film Festival.
The fundraiser is about creating aware-ness
and bringing to light issues that people
mahy not be addressing Clare Cummings,
volunteer at the Homeless Film Festival, or-ganised
the event herself after joining the
charity only two months ago.
Sax in the
city
By Grace Evans
Trans sex
service
thrives in
Salford
SALFORDIANS have expressed
their concerns over the number of
transgender and transvestite es-corts
operating in the area.
Those working in and around Sal-ford
Quays are worried that the
services are denting Media City’s
‘cosmopolitan’ reputation.
Over the last few months, the
trans-community has been more
openly socialising in the proximity of
the Quays. Despite this being
hugely welcomed by bars and
restaurants in the area, some are
worried that this increase is down to
transvestite and transsexual escorts
who are using the area for busi-ness.
Some of these services charge up
to £120 an hour.
Gemma Worthington works at
Media City. She has become aware
of the concerns about the escorting
services.
“Although I don’t agree with escort
services I’m definitely open to the
idea of trans-people feeling more
comfortable in a mainstream envi-ronment.
There are plenty of hetero-sexual
people who escort in the
area I’m sure of it.”
This topic continues to be contro-versial
but without proper evidence
it is wrong to assume that escorting
is as widely accepted in the area as
some believe.
A MYSTERY man has been spot-ted
blowing his horn near the Man-cunian
Way, dressed in an
eye-catching fluorescent yellow
jacket and black knee-high socks.
The saxophone-playing cyclist was
spotted by Manchester city centre
councilor Kevin Peel.
It is unclear as to why the young
cyclist felt the need to play his instru-ment
in the rain, but some have sug-gested
that the beauty of the scene
may have overcome him as he cy-cled
past the River Medlock.
Do you know the horn-blowing
cyclist? Contact Quays News on
news@quaysnews.net.
THE Salford-based charity Hand on
Heart and Salford City Council have come
together to ensure that all 97 schools in the
area are equipped with defibrillators.
Defibrillators deliver a therapeutic dose of
electrical energy to the heart and can rap-idly
improve the condition of the patient.
Having a defibrillator on site can make the
crucial difference between someone recov-ering
from the cardiac arrest or dying.
Ms Raby added: “It’s so important to
raise awareness as before Liv died I had
never heard about the condition, however
since her death so many young people
have died in a similar way.
“Around 12 young people die every week
from cardiac arrest, that’s 12 more than
there should be.”
Hand on Heart also offers training for
teachers and pupils on the machines and
other life support skills, including CPR.
Once a school receives life-saving equip-ment
and training is completed, they are
then given Heart Safe status.
The automated external defibrillators
which have been supplied to Salford
schools are portable and include simple
audio and visual commands. The machines
also diagnose the cardiac problem and
treat it through electrical therapy.
Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart backs the
campaign and has helped the charity
achieve its goals. He said: “Once again Sal-ford
people have blazed a trail that I hope
every other school in the country will be
able to copy.”
Ms Raby also has the same dream: ““I
am hopeful that one day every school in the
country will have defibrillators, as you can’t
put a price on a child’s life.”
Over 400 fully and partially funded defib-rillator
packages have been issued to
schools by Hand on Heart since the charity
began back in 2010. Its aim is to success-fully
make every school in the UK Heart
Safe in the near future.
In just over a year £140,000 has been
raised through public donations and grants
to provide schools with the machines.
Research shows that if a defibrillator is
used within the first three minutes that
someone is in cardiac arrest, their chances
of survival increases by 74%. For every
minute which goes by without treatment,
the victim’s chances plummet by 10%.
Lesley Groome, from Hand on Heart, ex-plained:
“We want to raise awareness of
sudden cardiac arrest out there in the
schools, raise funds and put defibrillators
into the schools and teach staff how to use
them and teach children a life skill, CPR,
how to call 999 and recognise the signs of
having a heart attack or sudden cardiac ar-rest.”
The charity has had funding help from or-ganisations
including Armitage Residents’
Group, City West Housing Trust and Oak-land’s
Hospital Group.
To find out more about funding defib-rillators
in schools and Hand on Heart
visit their website at
www.handonheart.org.
By Becca Frankland

9. Salford Uni
backtracks
on beard
statue
LAST Saturday, the media erupted
with the breaking news of Salford
University’s future asset. A five-metre-
tall sculpture of Friedrich En-gels’
infamous beard is to be built
next to Salford Crescent, off Univer-sity
Road.
This project is to entice visitors by
enabling them to conquer the histori-cal
figure’s Bush Ranger and thus
see Salford through a whole new per-spective.
Unfortunately at the time, Salford
University and arts production com-pany,
‘Engine,’ are still in the process
of signing contracts to create this
great masterpiece.
‘Engine’s’ Jai Redman stated: “We
are still in the process of commission-ing
the project, but we will be able to
comment more on it on Wednesday
of next week.”
And yet, the first item which ap-pears
on Engine’s website is news of
Engels’ beard model. The arts pro-duction
company note that their inspi-ration
for this display comes from
former Haçienda DJ’ Dave Haslam’s
book (entitled ‘Manchester, Eng-land’).
Engels’ beard is supposed to
be a symbol of ‘wisdom and learning.’
WHO IS FRIEDRICH ENGELS?
Friedrich Engels originated from
Manchester. He was most popular in
the 1980s as one of the founding fa-thers
of communism.
NOW HOW ABOUT THAT BEARD
The trademark of Engels is his
drooping, bushy, manly beard. En-gles’
facial hair is so famous that it
even has a social media following.
On Facebook, THE BEARD has a
page with 135 likes. On Twitter, it is
subject to a hashtag and there is
even a user with such a name.
This Christmas help
Save the Children By Freya Budd
Reporter
ONE of the world's leading independent
children's charities, Save the Children, has
announced that ahead of their Christmas
Jumper Day tomorrow, sales have hit an
all time high as millions of festive themed
jumpers have been sold around the UK.
The Christmas Jumper Day itself is tak-ing
place nation-wide, and will see millions
of participants rummaging through their
wardrobes in hope of finding their most
embarrassingly festive knits or making
franticly making a dash to Primark.
Popular retail stores such as The White
Company will also be taking part, with their
staff members replacing their usual uni-form
for a jumper until Monday, and donat-ing
£1 for each day they take part, bringing
a wider awareness to the cause. Other re-tail
giants such as Primark have taken the
event a step further, and are donating £2
to the charity for every jumper sold in
store.
Having already raised £48,042, the
event is expected to be a big success in
achieving the charity's aim to make the
world 'better with a sweater.'
In true fit with embracing the festive pe-riod,
Salford University's own Quays TV
presenters are all going to be wearing their
own Christmas jumpers during the day to
participate in donating to the charity.
Fashion and beauty blogger, Kim Stew-art,
offered advice on how to stop yourself
from looking like an overly decorated
Christmas tree by “going for the typical
colours like red and green and steering
away from anything too flashy like tinsel or
lights,” and said that the best way to pull
CHARITY: Quays reporter Chloe Nebbard with blogger Kim Stewart
off the look is to “keep it simple.”
Whether or not you are a Grinch or
Buddy the elf by nature, Stewart believes
that the event is “brilliant, fun, and a less
serious way for people to get involved.”
If you – like us – are feeling festive and
in the Christmas spirit, you can opt wear a
jumper and you can also donate £2 to the
cause by texting 'WOOLY' to the number
70050.
Friend of Geldof
launches Manchester
novel in city centre
By Jayna Patel
Features Editor
acoustic medley of au-thentic
songs and strum-ming
with true northern
feel, performing Man-chester
themed songs,
Northern Faith and Part
Time Human. Golden
Apple, a duo that Mike is
one half of, engaged with
the crowd, with their
catchy folk song When
Will I Be King?
Karl reckons most writ-ing
is autobiographical
and his experiences of living in Manches-ter
largely inspired the book. Karl said: “If
you find you’re writing about a scene and
there are elements of the scene that you
don’t fully understand then you have to re-search
it, but in the main, no I don’t really
feel the need for research. I think you write
from what’s inside you. Life is research.”
Having found success touring with Bob
Geldof in the ‘90s amongst other artists
with his band, To Hell with Burgundy, Karl
formed the four piece, The Visitors and set
up Earliest Records in Manchester. He
also performed at the book launch and is
very supportive of Bob Geldof’s annual
Band Aid project, despite the controversy
surrounding Do They Know It’s Christ-mas?,
with the lyrics being changed to re-flect
Africa’s Ebola crisis.
“I think it’s wrong to criticise something
that’s so well intentioned in these difficult
times. You know, I’m a big fan of Bob
Geldof and I think the good that he does
outweighs any harm that’s done.”
On why the single sells so many copies
each year he added: “I think it taps into a
desire to do good in people. I think people
are generally well meaning and want the
best for each other and the Band Aid phe-nomenon
gives the opportunity to send the
money in the right direction.” With plans
for a movie of The Rat King in the pipeline,
a promotional short animation produced by
Andrew Feely was screened at the launch,
juxtaposing dark, gritty scenes with a
rhyming script penned by Karl.
au-thor
It seems that no matter where the ’s creative projects take him in future,
Manchester in-spiring
will always play a part in them with Karl fondly saying: “I
think that Manchester is the centre of the
world and I think that the Northern Quarter
is the hottest part of Manchester at the
moment.
lit-tle
“So I think the Whisky Jar is the best bar in the Northern Quarter. They have
a fantastic open mic night and I was at-tracted
to that part of it, so it seemed like
the natural place to launch the book.”
The Rat King is available to buy in hard
copy from Amazon or available to order
from other book retailers.
DIVERSELY talented Karl Walsh, who
toured with Bob Geldof in the ‘90s,
launched his Manchester based book,
‘The Rat King,’ in true Mancunian style last
night, with an exclusive animation and live
music.
Karl, who played at Salford Music Festi-val
in September, was on hand to sign
copies of his new novel, a thrilling
dystopian horror about a plague in 2015
Manchester, laced with crime and corrup-tion
at Northern Quarter’s Whisky Jar.
The writer then treated fans to an exclu-sive
reading of a part of his book, which he
believes will resonate with Manchester
residents: “My plan is to start with people
in Manchester because of the local refer-ences
and if you start to read the book
you’re going to read about places you
know about and there are lots of iconic
venues in it. “I mention the Bridge Water
Hall, Oxford Street, the John Ryland’s Li-brary,
and of course the Victorian Arches,
which are really famous now for being the
site of where people used to hide from the
blitz.”
Meanwhile, local acoustic duo, Finch
and the Moon, set the tone for the night
soothing audience’s ears, with their gentle
mix of covers and original songs having a
sleepy charm.
After an intriguing read through of the
second part of the book, that was brim-ming
with compelling description and sen-sory
language, singer, Mike Crook kept the
Manchester theme alive delivering an
HAIRY: Engel’s famous beard
Friday, December 12, 2014 Quays Mail 9
LAUNCHED: Karl Walsh reading from his book

10. 10 Quays Mail Friday, December 12, 2014
The Hobbit: the final tale
JOURNEY: The Hobbits’ journey comes to an end as fans queue up from midnight for the final episode of the adventure
THE THIRD instalment of The Hobbit
‘Battle of the Five Armies’, which
was shown in Manchester for the
first time at midnight on Thursday, is tipped
to be the biggest film of the Christmas pe-riod.
Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage)
and the dwarves engage in a war on sev-eral
fronts in a battle to stop Smaug and
prevent the obliteration of Middle-Earth in
the final of the highly anticipated Hobbit
trilogy.
When Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman)
was disturbed by Gandalf (Ian McKellen)
and the army of dwarves in ‘The Hobbit –
An Unexpected Journey,’ he wasn’t to
know he’d be confronting a fire-breathing
dragon.
But after re-claiming the lonely mountain
from Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) the
small hobbit and his dwarf friends must
now keep the beast away and a battle to
save Middle-Earth has erupted on several
fronts.
The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin was less
than impressed, claiming the latest film
was ‘something not to be watched so
much as ploughed through for closure’s
sake.’
He claimed Peter Jackson had ‘mud-dled’
the perspective of how The Hobbit
story should be told and the most recent
addition to the trilogy has further muddled
that perspective. Bilbo’s child-like view of
Middle-Earth wasn’t displayed according
to Collin.
However, Sam Taylor, a resident in Sal-ford,
went to see the premiere showing of
the new film at the AMC Cinema on
Deansgate in Manchester and thought the
final block-buster was possibly the best of
the three and deserved great credit.
“It was amazing! It deserved an ovation
at the end and the final instalment of Peter
Jackson’s epic saga was a truly fitting
round off.”
”In keeping with the Hobbit’s light heart-edness,
‘The Battle of Five Armies’ not
only thrilled, but amused greatly, with
tongue firmly in cheek throughout.”
“It was a highly satisfying end to the tril-ogy.”
Sam wasn’t the only one who enjoyed
The Hobbit and it seems that Peter Jack-son’s
‘Lord of the Rings’ fans were very
keen to support his latest trilogy.
Rebecca Sime, a resident from Bolton
who studies in Manchester, also went to
the AMC but watched all three Hobbit films
through-out the afternoon as the cinema
showed the entire trilogy in the lead up to
the new film.
She commented, “I knew it would be
good. I’m a fan of all the ‘Lord of the Rings’
films and I enjoyed the first two Hobbit
films so the final one was not going to be
any different.”
“I was excited all day to go and watch it
and when we got to the cinema the queue
was starting to get really long. I’m glad we
got there earlier as we had good seats.”
“I could go back tonight and watch it
again it was that good! Even if you’re not a
fan, I’d recommend watching it. It’s funny,
exciting, un-expected and of course, full of
twists. It’s the best film I’ve watched this
year - better than The Hunger Games and
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
Cinema times: www.amc.co.uk
Entertainment & Culture
New film The Imitation Game and its link with Manchester
By Reny Mihaylova
AS ‘The Imitation Game’ reaches international fandom, it is worth know-ing
that Alan Turing, whom the movie is based on, has a permanent
statue close to Manchester’s famous Canal Street.
That statue, now linked to the movie, joins the hundreds of films which
have based themselves within Manchester.
Just a few weeks ago Nicole Kidman was filming in a Manchester street
which doubled up as a Manhattan one.
But what else has been filmed here?
ALAN TURING MEMORIAL
“The Imitation Game”, starring heartthrob Benedict Cumberbatch and the
infamous beauty Keira Knightley came out on 14 November 2014. The American-historical
thriller has won 22 awards and recalls the life of Alan Turing.
STORY: Alan Turing, a Manchester pioneering computer scientist and cryptologist, solved
(during WWII) “Germany’s Enigma Code” and thus saved millions of lives. Unfortunately,
the UK government later prosecuted him for gross indecency.
OTHER MANCHESTER MOVIE LOCATIONS...
MANCHESTER TOWN HALL
“The Iron Lady” (2011), which portrays the story of Margaret Thatcher and stars
two times Oscar winning actress, Meryl Streep, was filmed here to recreate the Westmin-ster
location.
“Sherlock Holmes” (2009) saw director Guy Richie shoot some of the scenes at this Man-chester
destination, instead of the House of Commons.
By Emma Sanders
News Editor
CREDIT: CREATIVE COMMONS

11. Friday, December 12, 2014 Quays Mail 11
City centre’s hidden gem:
The Grill on the Alley
George
Lucas yet to
see new
Star Wars
trailer
STAR Wars fans the world over
were treated to the first sneak peak
of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force
Awakens two weeks ago. As excited
mania and parodies ensued it came
to light that creator George Lucas
has yet to see the trailer - despite
being listed as a Creative Consultant
on the project.
He told the New York Post “it’s not
in the movie theatre, I like going to
the movies and watching the whole
thing there. I plan to see it when it’s
released."
Lucas sold his company (George
Lucas Films) to The Walt Disney
Company in 2012 for $4 billion, evi-dently
breathing fresh air into the
franchise. The new film is directed
by JJ Abrams, the director behind
the new Star Trek franchise. Star
Wars: The Force Awakens is due for
release in December 2015. Only
time will tell if this new Star Wars
journey will prove as successful as
JJ Abrams previous endeavours.
TRIED AND TESTED: The Grill On The Alley serves up a meal to Helen Vaudrey what was the verdict
pote with rustic croutes.
Unfortunately, the cheese was not cooked
sufficiently and was lukewarm at the time
of serving.
The texture was gloopy and lumpy and
resembled more of a liquid than cheese
and quite deterred from the other elements
of the dish that were prepared and pre-sented
to a good standard.
No sooner did I place down my knife and
fork did I find that my dish was taken away
by the waiter and replaced within two min-utes
by the main course. Nothing gives a
more unprofessional impression in a fine
dining restaurant than food being rushed
out at such high speed. In the Grill on the
Alley the main courses are priced on aver-age
around eighteen to twenty pounds per
head. At this price range you would expect
a little more effort being put in to the
preparation of the dish you ordered, even
a relatively simple dish like steak, or at the
very least that it would be cooked the way
you requested.
I requested the ribeye to be cooked rare,
something the chef was apparently unfa-miliar
with and it instead arrived seared
and cooked straight through with a side
order of soggy chunky chips presented in
one of those annoying mini fryers that
chains like the Yates’s utilise. Yet at
£19.75, I genuinely think the Yates’s round
the corner would have provided better
value for money.
For desert: sticky toffee pudding. I was
tempted to opt for a cheeseboard, but was
astonished to see that at ten pound, the
menu only offered a ‘selection’ of three
cheeses – yes you read that right – three.
Compare this to the Damson restaurant
which is one place behind the Grill on the
Alley on Manchester’s top restaurant list
and the price really does take the biscuit,
or the cracker in this case.
Damson offers a choice of seven cheeses
at the exact same price as the Grill, and
offers a full board selection for an extra
five pound.
In short, if you’re looking for the solid sim-ple
food that is quoted on the Grill’s web-site,
then this restaurant will certainly not
let you down. However, if you actually
have compassion for your taste buds and
your purse strings, then I strongly advise
you take your carnivorous appetite to an-other
steak house and steer well clear of
this alley.
By Helen Vaudrey
Features Editor
LIGHT: Manchester Art Gallery lights up for a new Picadilly Gardens art festival this December
Light up the night at Picadilly Gardens
By Rebecca Bretherton
Entertainment Editor
THE Grill on the Alley describes itself as a
restaurant serving “solid, honest, simple,
proper food - job done.” Solid? Why yes,
the food seemed solid enough, especially
their signature ribeye steak that I re-quested
to be cooked rare but instead
proved tougher to hack in to than if it were
still attached to the back of a live cow.
Honest, simple and proper? Again, I can’t
argue with their mantra on this either, the
simplicity of which each dish that was pre-sented
to me quite frankly blew me away.
And finally, Was the job done? Let’s say
that towards the end of the evening I was
actually considering taking the steak knife
to myself to avoid tasting the pudding.
Surprisingly, the Grill on the Alley is
widely professed to be one of the best
restaurants in Manchester and lists num-ber
three in the Mancunian’s guide to top
restaurants in the city.
Naturally, I was inclined to find out for
myself. Tucked away on Ridgefield Street
on the most affluent ‘alley’ I have ever
walked in to, the restaurant boasts a wel-coming
and warming decor which features
open brick walls and low hanging bulbs
dangling two metres down from a high
ceiling. However, much to my surprise I
found myself being led, much like a cow to
the slaughterhouse, down a flight of stairs
and into the far less appealing basement
of the restaurant.
Deciding that I didn’t really care about my
waistband anyway, I decided on the deep
fried brie to start. The brie was accompa-nied
by sweet beetroot and red onion com-
By Rebecca Bretherton
Entertainment Editor
THIS week a new light festival debuted in
Manchester. The event, Enlighten Man-chester
will bring artists from across the
word to the city. It’s a pilot launch with
plans for a much bigger festival due to
take place in December 2015, which will
coincide with the UNESCO International
Year of Light.
Running for just four days from the 11th
to the 14th of December it showcases a
small number of art exhibits using light and
sound in Manchester’s famous Piccadilly
Gardens.
Enlighten Manchester is the brain child
of art agency Curated Place and is work-ing
in partnership with Manchester City
Council, Heart of Manchester BID, Man-chester
Art Gallery and the Manchester
School of Art.
I visited the festival on its opening night
and though it appeared the organisers
were struggling somewhat with the dismal
wet and windy weather I was impressed.
There were lights set up to mimic the
sound and look of raindrops, whilst a sin-gle
spotlight named ‘Catch Me Now’
caught the attention of passers-by as it
moved randomly across the floor.
One of the more intriguing was a set of
different coloured lights, the show titled
‘LYS*ARP’ and is described as a series of
lanterns used to transform Piccadilly Pavil-ion
into a playable instrument, something
the passer-by I spotted seemed to be hav-ing
fun with as he walked under the
lanterns path.
Then there is one of the more under-stated
exhibits, a projection on a concrete
wall, the letters situated on the ground are
reflected up on to it reading, ‘A Solid Wish
Scatters.’
With interesting ideas, despite struggling
with the weather as it appeared not all of
the exhibits were up and running on time.
It’s an exciting taster of things to come this
time next year.
For more information regarding the ex-hibits
and times visit: www.enlightenman-chester.
co.uk

12. CHRISTMAS: Manchester Christmas markets return bigger and better than ever as KEY 103 colaborate with Manchest
Salford born singer-songwriter brings
some Christmas cheer to Manchester
By Josh Nicholl
Music reporter
IN 2011 Ren Harvieu was told she may
never walk again after breaking her back
in a freak accident.
Following a miraculous recovery, the Sal-ford
songstress appeared on Later With
Jools Holland, got nominated for the
BBC’s Sounds of 2012 poll and released
her debut album. Through The Night on Is-land
Records, entering the charts at num-ber
five.
Bringing her annual Christmas show to
The Ruby Lounge, the theatrical singer-songwriter
performed to a packed venue in
her hometown of Manchester.
The soul artist walked out onstage glam-orously
clad, complete with a Santa Claus
hat. Opening with a traditional number,
The Train Song, which she famously re-leased
back in 2012 with Jack White’s ex-
Ren Harvieu set the bar for the forth-coming
year of expected new material
from the musician, gearing up to the re-lease
of her new album in the New Year; a
thoroughly entertaining, and at times emo-tional
set from Salford’s own star.
wife, the Oldham born model and singer-songwriter,
Karen Elson.
Throughout the night she took the crowd
through a number of Christmas songs as
well as her own material, ranging from her
own anthemic single, Open Up Your Arms
to Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The
Christmas Tree.
Having played the majority of her set
with her new band, the singer performed
three emotional tracks with her key-boardist
and vocalist, ending with a tearful
rendition of Joni Mitchell’s River, to which
she apologised for struggling to finish the
piano ballad.
Ending the set with her full band per-forming
The Pogues’ Fairytale of New
York, the crowd joined in with the singing,
ending the night with the most fitting track
for this time of year and the most appropri-ate
ending to encourage audience partici-pation,
which didn’t need to be forced.
Christmas
Markets
not jolly for
business
MANY local bar and restaurant own-ers
in the areas surrounding the
Christmas Market sites have com-plained
in regards to an increase of
litter on the streets and decline in
sales in their businesses.
This year, the opening weekend of
the annual Christmas Markets
hosted record-breaking crowds of
over half a million visitors who spent
an estimated £2 million over the 300
stalls.
The markets are not all candy
canes and jingle bells for the sur-rounding
businesses and in some
cases the restaurant and bar staffs
have suffered a great deal in the
past few weeks.
Mike Edge who owns The Splen-did
Sausage Company, a restaurant
which opened on John Dalton Street
in April located just below Albert
Square, says the markets have
caused nothing but hassle for his
weekday business.
“We have noticed a decline in
weekly lunch time business and a lot
of rubbish dumped right outside of
our shop. We pay for that bin to be
collected and emptied each week
and our bin people won’t collect it
because the rubbish is next to the
bin not in it. It seems to be more
from the market traders than the ac-tual
public.”
Mike’s wife Emily who also works
at the restaurant added: “our deliv-ery
drivers are finding it really diffi-cult
because there is a big flower
truck that parks right in front of our
shop for hours on end, so our driv-ers
are going round and round trying
to find some where convenient to
pull up, this pushes back all of our
preparation time.”
Though Manchester City Council
is proud to host the markets each
year, business owners claim less is
done by them to take into considera-tion
such matters as rubbish and
traffic congestion.
Manchester City Council was un-available
to comment on this issue.
Christmas spirit des
CHRISTMAS time in Manchester has al-ways
been an unique experience for its
visitors. The phenomenal Manchester
Christmas Markets, families all-time
favourite ice rink and the magnificent
Christmas Lights switch-on event has al-ready
got everyone into the festive spirit.
The Christmas Lights switch-on event or-ganised
by Manchester City Council in col-laboration
of Key 103 kicked off the
Christmas celebrations in Manchester.
A breathtaking firework display to end
the Christmas Light Switch-On in Albert
Square was the biggest indicator to over
25,000 attendees that Christmas is com-ing.
Currently holding the reputation of ac-commodating
the UK’s biggest Christmas
Markets, with a ground breaking 300 stalls
spreading across nine different locations,
the Manchester Christmas Markets will be
bringing the best of festival food and gifts
to all of its guests until 21 December.
Saraya Gallagher, frequent visitor of the
Christmas Markets said: “I come here
every year, and every year it gets better
and better. This year’s Christmas Markets
are absolutely massive if I were to com-pare
it to previous years. All the stalls,
buildings, decorations are amazing but I’ve
got to admit that my favourites are still the
mulled wine and the ice rink.”
Ms Gallagher added; “I was gutted that I
couldn’t be here for the Christmas Lights
switch-on, I’ve heard it was spectacular.
However I am so glad that the ice rink is
open in the New Year, I am certainly going
to be visiting the ice rink again.”
The Spinningfields Ice rink has been wel-coming
visitors since the 6 November and
will be hosting its guests until 4 January
2015.
Ryan Giggs’
hangover
cure
RYAN Giggs’ restaurant claims to
have created the ultimate recovery
cocktail, tried and tested by
the former footballer himself.
Coming just in time for the festive
drinking season “Snap Out Of It”
promises to cure partygoers of their
hangovers by giving them a much
needed health-kick.
“Snap Out Of It” is similar to the
traditional Bloody Mary but
George’s Dining Room & Bar’s
mixologist John Adeyemi takes a
twist by replacing vodka with Giggs’
favourite spirit, gin.
One of George’s other owners,
Kelvin Gregory said: “Customers
are going mad for the new
cocktail already, I think Christmas
may have started early for us here
in North Manchester!.”
By Koray Erol
Pictures Editor
@renharvieu on Twitter
12 Quays Mail Friday, December 12, 2014

13. Friday, December 12, 2014 Quays Mail 13
scends on the community
ter Council for the light switch on (inset) The ice rink at spinning fields (below) just one of many this year as the public embraces the spirit of the season
CHRISTMAS SING-SONG AT THE RUBY LOUNGE
Salford born singer Ren Harvieu, who was told she may never walk again, sang a range of songs at The Ruby Lounge last night to a crowd of hundreds

14. 14 Quays Mail Friday, December 12, 2014
Timeless fashion
Review :
Black Sea
FEDORA FASHION: Transversing both the young and old generations of the British public with its timeless boho-chic look
REVIEW: Subtitled dramas
newest hit: The Legacy
SOPHISTICATED, intriguing and full of Review: Horrible Bosses 2
fantastically written dialogue, the breadth
and popularity of subtitled dramas has
JASON Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and
risen sharply in the last few years.
Charlie Day return in the hotly antici-pated
One country which the UK has fallen in
sequel to the 2011 smash-hit
love with primarily because of its TV is
Denmark. In fact, we’ve become some-what
comedy, Horrible Bosses.
This time around the gang have quit
their jobs and it’s their turn to be the
(horrible) bosses. Nick (Bateman),
Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day) are try-ing
to start their own business with a
new self-cleaning product called “The
Shower Buddy.”
To get their new business venture off
the ground they attempt to get an in-vestment
from Burt Hanson (Acad-emy-
Award winner Christoph Waltz)
who robs them of the rights of their in-vention.
The guys decide to get even
and kidnap Bert’s son, Rex (Star Trek
star, Chris Pine) and hold him for ran-som.
However, when the plot doesn’t go
exactly to plan, Rex decides to help
the guys out as a way to get back at
his dad. As the film progresses it gets
tougher to tell who is in charge and
how it will all end.
Jennifer Aniston also returns as sex-crazed
dentist Julia Harris, who brings
the same crude humour delivered in
another perfectly, shocking perform-ance
that only she can give. You will
all anticipate the scenes Aniston stars
in, whether it is with excitement or
dread at what she will say or do next.
Other returning characters include
gangster Dean “M.F” Jones (Jamie
Foxx) and Nick’s former boss, Dave
Harkin (Kevin Spacey) who is now in-carcerated.
Even though the scenes
to feature these original characters do
provide some good jokes and a cou-ple
of laugh-out-loud moments, I feel
that these two were brought back be-cause
of popular demand and not be-cause
they were featured in the initial
script for the sequel. The scenes with
M.F Jones in the same old bar seem
to feel a little repetitive from the origi-nal.
Overall, a nice sequel with enough
comedy and laughs to entertain you
for two hours, but after the shocks
and hilarity Horrible Bosses offers,
Horrible Bosses 2 needs a little work
promotion to be on the originals level.
seduced by the Danish language
because of their dramas, ranging from
The Killing, to Borgen and now, the
newest, and most family-driven yet – The
Legacy.
Much like many British dramas which
have struck gold over the decades, The
Legacy is based on family strife and ten-sions,
as opposed to the past Danish hits
focusing on dark crime and political ruc-tions.
With a cast as big as Downton Abbey’s,
The Legacy asks viewers to consider the
aftermath of a loved one from a harsh and
industrial light – what happens to the
money that is so often left behind. With
that, comes moral questionability about
just how much should be fought over.
This tale focuses on rich and grand
family, at the helm Veronika Gronnegaard,
a well-known artist who has hidden her
terminal illness. Not only that, she has
hidden another child which
is a shock to her other children – not least
because there is now another person to
fight over when ‘the legacy’ is discussed.
The programme has hit heights of nearly
two million viewers on Danish TV, a num-ber
which is eye-opening considering its
population is only just over 5 million.
Whilst ‘The Legacy’, which is shown on
the niche channel Sky Arts, might not hit
those numbers here, it is still sure to be a
drama which is fawned over by the new-found
lovers of the phenomenon that is
subtitled drama.
IF you’ve seen the classic working
class drama ‘Brassed Off’ and believe
that’s how all redundancies end up,
then you really need to see this film.
Broken, depressed, plucky, confident
and scheming; (Jude Law) Robinson
is down on his luck with a plan to fight
back.
Sacked from his job as a submarine
pilot at multi-national salvage corpo-ration
Agora. Over a pint, a former
colleague divulges word of £40 mil-lion
worth of gold in a sunken Nazi
sub at the bottom of the Black Sea.
Robinson plots a method to get the
gold and assembles a motley crew of
former comrades and foreign bandits
including Ben Mendelsohn (Place Be-yond
The Pines) as Fraser, with over
a century of experience combined.
The crew are promised an equal
share of the booty, question is: can
they locate it and get out without
being detected by the Russian navy?
Law’s Robinson is the film’s lynchpin,
grabbing the audience by the scruff of
the neck and hurling them straight in
at the deep end of the claustrophobic,
intense, thrilling action. The notion of
less bodies equating to more booty
for the rest overcomes several mem-bers
of the crew.
There’s a resonant and gritty authen-ticity
as the crew strives to better their
lives.
Kevin Macdonald’s direction – his
best since The Last King of Scotland
- keeps the action tight inside the an-cient
vessel, using Dennis Kelly’s in-telligently
paced and wrought
screenplay as his base. Little to no
CGI affirms the realism – retaining
the tension of impending doom.
This is Law’s film, in a career-best
role, sporting a surprisingly convinc-ing
Scottish accent. His gritty,
unflinching conviction and dry brutal
honesty grips the audience in his iron
fisted commanding hand.
With truly heart-stopping set pieces
and moments of breathless danger –
the film immerses the audience in
claustrophobia, reminiscent of Al-fonso
Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’. A gripping,
unflinching and brutal thriller.
AS the winter days turn colder and shorter,
fashion become more limited to woolly
wraps and chunky knits. But this year, a
trendy item of the past is being brought
back to life- the Fedora.
During this winter season, you will see it
all around: decorating the window displays
of retail shops; bobbing up and down the
busy streets of Manchester; travelling on
the train to distant locations and even
shopping at your local Tesco.
But apart from being a great and popular
accessory, the Fedora has great historic
value.
Behind every great fashion masterpiece
stands a French mastermind. The Fedora
makes no exception to this rule. It was first
introduced in Victorien Sardou’s 1882 play,
Fedora. Sardou’s play portrayed the story
of Princess Fedora Romanoff and starred
the most promiscuous sex-symbol of the
late 19th century, Sarah Bernhardt. Bern-hardt
was the living portrayal of scandal:
she constantly wore men’s clothing and
usually played male roles (e.g. Hamlet,
Judas Iscariot). She was the first actress
to wear the centre-creased soft brimmed
hat.
During the 1920’s, the fedora took on new
heights. It consequently became a symbol
of liberalism and equality for the Women’s
Rights Movement. It was associated with
New York City gangsters (who have in-spired
Al Pacino’s Scarface and Marlon
Brando’s Godfather) and it was the coolest
accessory at the hidden speakeasies of
the Prohibition period. Many film noirs
clichéd this accessory with the likes of
Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. It was
also an inseparable part of Jazz musician
Frank Sinatra’s stage attire.
Despite falling off the fashion radars in the
1950s, the fedora made its comeback into
popular culture. It became the attire of the
lead character in George Lucas’ 1982 film,
Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark.
It danced the moonwalk with Michael
Jackson. A wide brim, white fedora was
the essential accessory for the creator of
Discworld, Terry Pratchett.
Finally, it brought sexy back with Justin
Timberlake.
Nowadays, the felt hat is restoring a clas-sic
timeless boho-chic essence to the
streets of Manchester.
LIAM Neeson is back as ex-CIA opera-tive
Bryan Mills for the third and final
instalment in the Taken movie fran-chise.
Six years ago, we were first in-troduced
to Mills and his family for
Taken (2008), as he ventured to Paris
to rescue his kidnapped daughter.
Four years later, Taken 2 (2012)
moved to Istanbul, where his wife was
instead taken hostage as a revenge
ploy.
Now, in 2014, you might be wonder-ing
what on earth can happen next.
This time, an innocent Mills is accused
of a ruthless murder and is tracked
and pursued by the government. I
guess this had to be the case, really,
since there were no more family
members to kidnap. Neeson himself
said he’d only return for the third film
if no-one was taken. Alongside the re-turning
Neeson, both Maggie Grace
and Famke Janssen also reprise their
roles. Forest Whitaker joins the cast
as Inspector Franck Dotzler.
The first film was a big-hit, taking al-most
$25 million on its opening week-end.
The sequal almost doubled
those opening weekend figures in the
USA.
The film’s director Oliver Megaton,
who also directed the second film, will
be hoping for a similar haul. The film
hits the big-screen across the UK on
8 January.
By Reny Mihaylova
Reporter
In cinemas soon - Taken 3
By Joshua Tindall
Editor
Sky Arts 1 , Wednesdays 10pm

15. Friday, December 12, 2014 Quays Mail 15
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The stage awaits for compère, Phil Ellis and headline comedians, Gary Delaney and Alun Cochrane
Frog and Bucket spreads festive
spirit with Christmas comedy
WITH the festive season in full swing,
Manchester’s Frog and Bucket comedy
club launched the first of their exciting an-nual
Christmas shows on Thursday
evening.
The compère for the night was Frog and
Bucket stalwart Phil Ellis, who faced the
difficult task of warming up a crowd who
were attending for a party rather than the
comedy. Some were far from responsive in
his attempts at audience interaction, but
he managed to win over the majority of the
crowd after creating an imaginary feud be-tween
two software companies who were
embarking on their Christmas night out.
With the audience finally focused on the
comedy, Ellis introduced Mock the Week
regular, Gary Delaney. Delaney’s act is
simple; there are no personal stories, or
funny anecdotes about his time on the
road, just razor sharp, quick one-liners
from start to finish.
He may be a regular on TV, but it is live
stand-up where Delaney really excels.
There are no restrictions on the topics of
his gags. They vary from childish to com-pletely
unacceptable throughout and the
quality is just as high as the quantity. De-laney
relishes in testing the morality of the
audience, often stating that those who
laugh at his risqué jokes are just as much
in the wrong as he is for telling them.
But despite his indecent material, De-laney
remains a likable character; often
putting himself at the butt of the joke. His
jokes are eminently quotable, perfect for
those on an office outing to tell around the
water-cooler the next day.
After a short break, Ellis returned to in-troduce
the second and final act of the
night, circuit veteran, Alun Cochrane. His
observational material and laid-back deliv-ery
provided the perfect contrast to De-laney’s
onslaught of punchlines.
With stories about the difficulties of own-ing
a dog, to his usage of ‘Marks and
Spencer’ carrier bags, Cochrane’s relat-able
material kept the audience in excel-lent
spirits throughout and ensured the
night’s comedy show ended on a high.
By Robert Bhamber
Entertainment Editor
FILM REVIEW:
Get Santa
COMEDY MAESTRO Jim Broadbent
takes centre stage as Santa Claus
for this gritty yet warming tale of
one boy and his father’s efforts to
save Christmas.
Ex-con Steve (Rafe Spall) leaves
jail with plans to make up for his ab-sence
with his nine year-old lad Tom
(newcomer Kit Connor), but his
scheme is soiled when Tom discov-ers
Santa in his garden shed.
With a crashed sleigh and rein-deers
let loose around town, Santa
needs the help of these two unlikely
heroes, but with a stint in prison on
the cards for St. Nic, can they get
him back to Lapland in time for
Christmas?
This festive treat comes courtesy
of horror tastemaker Christopher
Smith, renowned for his lo-fi movies
including Triangle and Black Death.
Testing the water of another genre
surprisingly pays off for Smith, and
with Ridley Scott’s production com-pany
on board the film is executed
with a wonderfully British flare.
Get Santa sits without the tinsel-infused,
sickly-sweet approach usu-ally
taken to modern Christmas
movies; it isn’t sugar-coated with
fairy-tale tosh. With the dysfunc-tional
family unit paving the way for
some elements of the story to de-velop,
the film has a welcome layer
of social realism.
Some immature humour stems
from the reindeer flatulence commu-nication
system and the occasional
slapstick injury. It ticks all the boxes
for a giggle-athon from the younger
viewers, whilst some jokes would go
right over their head and straight
onto the adult’s lap.
Some of the film’s funniest scenes
come from Broadbent’s time in jail.
He gets a lesson from the hard man,
Barber (Stephen Graham, from This
Is England) in how to fit in while
locked up; cue Santa with corn rows
and a swag walk. The other inmates,
Knuckles (Nonso Anozie) and Sally
(Warwick Davis) need a little more
convincing, but of course they even-tually
take a shine to him.
Spall’s ordinary guy persona as
Steve makes him a relatable, charm-ing
protagonist. The relationship be-tween
him and his son Tom delivers
some of the usual, valuable life les-sons
needed for a Christmas film:
family is important and everyone de-serves
a second chance. You know
the drill.
The casting is perfect. It seems as
if the role of Santa was made for Jim
Broadbent. His kookiness and like-ability
become one of the standout
aspects of the movie. The real rein-deers
are a superb touch and add a
little extra ‘aww’ to every scene they
appear in.
The gloomy visuals brighten as
the film progresses and magical ef-fects
replace it. The cockles of even
the coldest hearts would have
warmed up by the end of this flick.
Despite the quality acting, it just
falls short of curating that ‘hairs
stand up on the back of your neck’
moment that we strive for while
watching a festive film. It might not
go down as an all-time classic, but it
puts a smile on your face and after
all, isn’t that what Christmas is all
about?
IT is the hotly anticipated fourth book in
the Crossfire series by New York Times
Bestselling author, Sylvia Day. The series
was originally intended as a trilogy, with
the author informing readers that there
was still more of the story to tell and sub-sequently
announcing two extra books.
The problem? By the end of this book, it
felt like the story had moved nowhere; we
were right back to where we started.
The book starts pretty much where the
previous one finishes. Gideon and Eva
have married in secret and as far as
everyone else is aware they are just en-gaged.
By the end of the book, Cary (Eva’s best
friend) has found out they’re married but
nothing else has really changed. It’s a
sorry case of rinse and repeat; Gideon and
Eva argue, she can’t trust him but they’re
back together in the end, they’re still get-ting
married and they’re still with a moun-tain
of problems ahead of them.
In reality it would seem the only reason
a fourth book, and soon a fifth, will be in
existence is because the books sell and
they have even been optioned for a TV se-ries
by Lionsgate.
So what actually happens in this book?
Megumi returns and it turns out her
boyfriend has been hurting her, but it’s
mentioned briefly and is dealt with off
page. Brett Kline, Eva’s ex-boyfriend, re-turns
and she spends most of the book
battling her ‘feelings’ towards him and if
that’s the way this author wants to go it
will, in my opinion, ruin the series. Love tri-angles
are an overused plot device that
only infuriate the reader or bore them.
Considering the not-so-stable relationship
between Gideon and Eva, I really don’t
see how this would benefit the story.
Corinne, one of Gideon’s ex’s, returns and
she wants to write a tell-all book to remind
Gideon of how good they were together.
Honestly, I really don’t care about this
character and it seems the author is just
trying to create unnecessary drama to
stretch the story.
The one element that may be notewor-thy
is Gideon’s stepfather’s discovery of
what happened to Gideon as a child and
the fact he actually believes him - but we
didn’t really need to see this. The way the
third book ended, suggested that they
would continue to work through their prob-lems
together. A sunshine and rainbows
happy ending was a long way off for this
literary couple but this wasn’t necessary
as it was implied and any reader worth
their salt could read between the lines and
see that.
Long story cut short, I was disappointed
but I wasn’t surprised. I didn’t expect this
book to be very good and none of the se-quels
have lived up to the first. So if you’re
a fan of the series, finish with book three.
You don’t need to read the drama of this
instalment when Gideon and Eva had a
perfectly ‘happy ending’ to begin with.
Rating: 1/5
BOOK REVIEW:
Captivated by
You - Sylvia Day
By Rebecca Bretherton
Entertainment Editor
By Rebecca Frankland