bluedot Festival 2016 – Out of this World!
The Jodrell Bank observatory has been home to some serious musical happenings over the years, from Flaming Lips to Sigur Rós. But with the inaugural Bluedot festival, the stunning location hit its musical stride in emotional style. The boutique festival's three days...
Meadows in the Mountains – Small festival, big impact
I’m stumbling up a mountain path, following Craig Charles’ son to witness a traditional Bulgarian peasant song. Girls dressed in pagan furs and animal masks twist and twirl around us; my photographer, dressed in an Uzbeki kaftan, is demanding I roll him a cigarette;...
Black Roe Mayfair – Hawaiian food is finally here
Black Roe Mayfair review by Chris Zacharia It’s hard to resist the exotic. Especially when it comes to food. We all flirt with the idea that by eating something from far away a part of us will, momentarily at least, be transported too. So we slave away over...
Paris is undergoing a face lift – but not everyone is happy
The "Gare du Nord is such a dump compared to St Pancras” insult has stung Parisians ever since the Queen opened London’s magnificent Victorian Gothic Eurostar terminal in 2007. Not to be upstaged by its cross-channel rival, in 2014 the SNCF launched "Plan Botox", a...
Sid and Nancy film – A tale of self destruction
Sid and Nancy film - A story of self destruction restored for a new generation - words Paul Risker 2016 marks the 40th Anniversary of an historic moment in music history. On June 4th 1976, at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall The Sex Pistols performed a gig that...
Micko Westmoreland on shoplifting & his song Schmescos
Micko Westmoreland's latest track 'Schmescos' is a riotous post-punk celebration, an investigation of the adrenaline-soaked thrills of supermarket shoplifting. As Micko acknowledges in this article explaining his motivation for writing the song, it's a subject that...
The Hard Stop docufilm – The riots that followed a killing
The Hard Stop docufilm - The riots that followed a killing - words Paul Risker The fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham in 2011 sparked widespread riots as the country witnessed the tumultuous consequences of division that lay beneath its surface. “In...
Meet Obicà, Britain’s first mozzarella bar
As restaurant titles go, ‘mozzarella bar’ is up there with ‘taqueria’ and ‘noodle joint’. It sounds frivolous, niche, unforgivably extravagant. If the night starts at a mozzarella bar, where on earth does it end? [gallery royalslider="1"...
Welcome to Shuang Shuang, the restaurant where you cook your own lobster
The words “Lobster Tom Yum” were on a board outside a nondescript concrete building, which looked like no other in Chinatown. There was no comfortingly gaudy, red and gold façade, no monster plastic-fronted menu with pictures of what was on offer and there wasn’t a...
Interview with Director Rebecca Miller on her film Maggie’s Plan
Interview with Director Rebecca Miller by Paul Risker A decade on since her directorial debut feature, filmmaker Rebecca Miller has just sent her fifth feature Maggie’s Plan out into the world. Miller is a filmmaker who does not treat the filmmaking process with...
Bubbledogs – Hot dogs and champagne anyone?
Bermondsey's once-derelict railway arches are now home to some of London’s best food suppliers and markets. If you haven't wandered through Maltby or Druid St Market sipping a delicious coffee, craft beer or locally distilled gin whilst nibbling on tasty snacks then,...
Director Ciro Guerra on his Embrace of the Serpent film
Director Ciro Guerra on Embrace of the Serpent film - words Tom Smalley There is a moment in Director Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent in which, following 90 minutes of captivating black and white cinematography, a tiny, almost unperceivable trace of green...
Holiday in South Africa – visiting South African wine regions
Holidays to South Africa - visiting the celebrated wine regions - words Alan Woods With a huge amount of culture, vibrant attractions and sightseeing opportunities, you should not forget the country's wine regions that offer an amazing option for holidays to South...
Croatian Music Festivals – Is this the most exciting out there?
Croatian Music Festivals - Is this the most exciting one out there? - words Amy Woolley We’ve all been there: the long, shameful trudge back home from a music festival. Dishevelled, exhausted and broken, cake in mud and in genuine fear of trenchfoot, your...
The Colony film – A dark tale based on real events in Chile
The Colony film released - A dark tale based on real events in Chile - Interview by Paul Risker With The Colony, German writer/director Florian Gallenberger peers into Chilean history to offer a view of life within the Colonia Dignidad, a place of religious and...