Motocross is a sport that’s very much out of sight, and out of mind in Scotland. Growing up, the only mentions of it seemed to be driving past an old quarry, the sport mentioned in explanation of why there were so many cars, trailers and cordura-clad people tinkering with motorbikes in the muddy ditch that served as a guerilla car park. These days, the sport is a million miles away from this image – inclusion in events such as the X-Games (both Summer and Winter), huge sponsorship deals, all in addition to major race series across the world mean it’s a sport that now registers on the public conscious, and has a staunch following amongst enthusiasts. That said – MX, in any form, is still far from the mainstream.

To capture the imagination of the general public, you need spectacle, and freestyle motocross (FMX) has it in spades. The epic nature of the sport means a knowledge of the discipline is in no way a pre-requisite to enjoying what’s on offer, but the problem, as with any sport that finds itself in this situation, is how to attract these new spectators in the first place – the answer in the case of FMX, and specifically in the case of Red Bull, is to bring FMX to the fans … even if they don’t know they are yet.

Red Bull has a serious penchant for events that are more than a little inventive, ranging from the Rampage, a huge freeride mountain bike event, where riders pull huge tricks off equally enormous geological features in the middle of the desert, to Flugtag, where teams compete to build and fly the craziest flying machines, to the Air Race series, where the pilots and their craft are a considerably more suited to the job. Amongst these many different gatherings, one thing is common – the spectator (and in some cases, the participant too) is left in no doubt that they’re witnessing something special, and of course, that it’s Red Bull behind it all.

Their approach to FMX is little different, as a cursory glance at the event’s website will tell you: five countries, five cities, a dozen riders, huge jumps, and bigger tricks. With the UK leg of the tour, the organisers have chosen the old Battersea Power Station as the venue, and are aiming at an appropriately epic crowd of 17,000 people to gather there to see the culmination of the series, and the crowning of the tour champion. Throw into the mix Cambridge’s very own Chris Birtch – one of the riders shredding the Square in Glasgow – and it’s bound to be an astonishing event.

For Glasgow, the tour’s demo riders were in full swing, with the solitary jump proving to be a launch platform for some unashamedly impressive style. Huge backflips, seat grabs and cliff hangers littered the two sets, winding up passing shoppers with a baptism of FMX fire, and drawing them in to see the rest of the demonstration, and to hang around afterwards for photographs, t-shirt signings and of course, the obligatory free Red Bull. As a taster of the possibilities of the main London show – which on the basis of the display seem virtually limitless – you could do little better.

All Photos – James Porteous – Click HERE for more

Photo - James Porteous

James Porteous

When talking to friends and colleagues about Blue Man Group, there is a vague knowledge that they exist, and that they are very well known in general, but also an odd confusion over what they actually get up to on stage. Admittedly, the name does give a clue to their appearance, but they still attract a strange sense of mystery for such a massive live act.

Housed in the SECC’s Clyde Auditorium, the Glasgow stop of the ‘How to be a Megastar’ tour is best described as a huge piece of performance art. The show is based around the premise of an infomercial-purchased DVD guiding the three Blue Men through the process of becoming rock stars, with the audience being dragged along for the ride. While it might sound corny, the narrative is carried off flawlessly, and actually helps to break up show, keeping it from simply becoming a great big gig.

What surprises the most is that the Blue Men are frequently a small part of a much bigger band on stage – the ten or so backing musicians accompany the famous percussion stylings on most tracks, and add serious depth to the pipe-playing, piano-smashing shennanigans of the group’s frontmen. The overriding impression is that of a small rock orchestra, playing incredibly complex, catchy music – a far cry from the pre-conceptions that watching the Men’s appearance on old Intel adverts would give you – some of their covers of famous tracks is especially impressive.

Photo - James Porteous

The only criticism of the show stems from the venue and the audience themselves. The bizarre layout of the Clyde Auditorium divides the crowd in two, and makes the number of people watching seem tiny, failing to capture the enthusiasm of the performers at all well – this show seems like it would work remarkably well with the audience standing, and to have everyone sitting on a flat floor felt like it was sucking the life out of the evening. At times, it felt like those on stage were going to have to physically drag everyone from their seats (not an entirely unfeasible option, given the energy of the show).

Of course, it is the Blue Men that are the undoubtedly stars of the evening – their performance of mute intrigue in the world around them (and their apparent ambition to become rock stars) draws the crowd in, and when combined with some exceptionally clever physical comedy and circus-style set pieces, it’s clear that they are much more than simply a trio of painted percussionists.

Photo - James Porteous

Photo - James Porteous

When you leave a gig singing the chorus to a support act’s song, you would think something had gone terribly wrong for the headliners. But despite bouncing out of the O2 Academy on a wet Glasgow Friday evening reciting ‘Go baby go baby go, don’t upset the rhythm!’, the Noisettes did not, thankfully, manage to upset Maxïmo Park’s rhythm.

Marking the launch of their third studio album, Maxïmo Park took the stage at the O2 Academy to an air of expectation. It is a venue that undoubtedly suits the sounds of their fringe-of-indie-rock originality, but with mixed reviews on ‘Quicken the Heart’, it would seem they still had something to prove; that said, the four-piece never fail to deliver an energetic live performance.

Their new tracks may have experimented with the synth-guitar balance successfully, but on this performance the older tracks still appear to provide more bite. Delivering some old favourites brought an exciting entrance; Paul Smith – with his awkwardly cool moves – owns the stage and provides the obligatory cue for the crowd to dance along. The relentless attack of ‘Our Velocity’ and ‘Books from Boxes’ kept the crowd on its toes and the floorboards straining under the pressure. Pause for breath guys? No thanks.

Recent release ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ proved to be a little more subdued but nonetheless created an atmosphere which kept the audience in the palm of their hands. Coupled with their true Northern honesty, a band like Maxïmo Park can only continue to grow – they do the job, and they do it well.

Photo - James Porteous

All photos - James Porteous

James Porteous

Hearing the interior of the SECC described as anything other than a monstrous collection of ironwork is a fairly uncommon event. Yet the man sitting beside me, Sean McKeown, Artistic Coordinator of Quidam, has just been overwhelmingly complementary about the place. Bizarre, considering the reputation for beauty and spectacle that Cirque du Soleil carries, but what’s even more peculiar is that looking at what’s in front of me, I agree with him entirely.

This revelation came as we sat watching the technical staff of the production working on the stage to be used throughout Quidam’s seven show run at Glasgow’s SECC. Using the word stage hardly does it justice – the forty square metre platform conceals all manner of trapdoors and revolving sections, and sits beneath the magnificent ‘Telepherique,’ a massive 37.6m rail structure that sits snugly between the eaves of the exhibition hall.  At its peak, it’s the height of three double-decker buses off the floor – Cirque du Soleil say that it took them over three years to figure out how to transfer the show from the big top to an arena, and it’s easy to see why.

Following on from performances at the likes of Dublin’s Point Theatre, and London’s Royal Albert Hall, the current tour represents the first time Quidam (meaning “anonymous passerby” in Latin) has ventured out of the traditional circus big top and into the wildly different surroundings of arenas and concert halls. Rather than traditional shows at these big venues, the custom stage means the audience surround the performers, offering a much more involved view.

The show itself is the second time Cirque du Soleil has been in Scotland, as McKeown confirms: ” We did come here once before with a show called Delirium. Actually, I saw Delirium in this same space, but it’s a very different format show – it’s very much a montage of different acts from different shows, whereas what we’re presenting now is a full Cirque du Soleil show for the first time.”

Quidam, like every show the French-Canadian group has created, has a rich narrative that serves to enhance the individual acts themselves – rather than a collection of acrobatics, the show tells the audience a story, albeit in a visually abstract manner. In essence, it can be more directly compared to an opera or ballet than a traditional circus performance with a ringmaster, and all the other associated accoutrements.

“The theme … people always ask me that!” laughs McKeown when quizzed on the current show. “The great thing about our shows is that people can come and make up their own theme.

“There is a story – of course there is one – and the story of this show is about anonymity and about people re-connecting, and recognizing all of our similarities and all of our differences.”

The Quidam veteran’s response seems purposefully enticing in its ambiguity, and gives nothing away about what to expect from the show itself. Even the official Cirque du Soleil description of the performance is delightfully mysterious, leaving as much as possible to the imagination of those coming to the shows.

This mystery makes an invitation to the warm-up for the first of the Glasgow shows all the more appealing. As the technicians continue work, and another of the show’s acrobatic performers practices high above the arena floor, flipping and swinging on a rope that dangles beneath the vast metal Telepherique, McKeown talks about the show’s relation to conventional circus. “It’s tough, there’s always room for tradition. This show has toured the world, we’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of traditional theatre and shows along the way, and there’s still a really nice place for traditional circuses.“

With a cast of 52 performers, Quidam certainly rivals the size of a regular circus, albeit without the element that has led other circus groups to controversy in the past – the use of animals in shows.

For Cirque du Soleil, the attraction lies in the abilities of their human performers, as McKeown confirms: “What we did, was create something different. We set out to re-invent the circus, in a way and that’s why we’ve just stuck to having people.

“We were originally just a group of eight street performers, who set out to do amazing things as people. So we continue to focus on what we could do with people, and how far we can push the physical boundaries.”

In the cast, the show certainly makes the most of the best the world has to offer, with representatives from 14 countries filling the various roles in the complex performance. Of these, only one is British – Julie Cameron, who is in fact from the West of Scotland. The young sports acrobat became involved in the show after sending a recording of her performance to producers in Canada, and being picked up for a position in Quidam.

Her role as an Albino (above picture) sees her dressed entirely in white, with her starring moment coming as part of the Banquine phase of the show – Cameron and the other members of the act work through a routine of staggering acrobatic agility, launching into the air and across the stage like bottle rockets.

In talking about the show, Cameron does not come across as someone who performs to pay the bills. There is a dreamy enthusiasm to her answers when asked about her opinion of the show – references to magic, and comparisons to the feeling of reading a captivating novel for the first time give the impression of someone who is as much caught up in the enchantment of the show as you’d expect from an audience member. It’s an aura that surrounds everyone that’s involved in the production, be they performer or publicist, and it’s infectious.

Come the evening, and the show itself, there is a feeling that the time spent in conversation with the Cirque du Soleil team has only heightened anticipation over what to expect from the performers. With clowns toying with members of the audience as they try to pick their way to the seats, the show begins immediately upon entering the arena, and continues onwards relentlessly until the house lights come up.

Simply put, Quidam is utterly captivating. The various extraordinary performances within each of the multitude of physical feats are complemented with sublime musical backing, and playfully interspersed with audience interaction and physical humour. The pacing is perfect, with each section building to its own finale in such seamless succession that the length of the show becomes imperceptible; it is an astounding, beautiful piece of performance art.

With the show having now finished its run in Europe, and heading off to South America for a year, the performers and crew have the chance to take five weeks off. “Not long, but enough … We’ll be ready,” muses McKeown. “You don’t want to rest too long, or you lose shape,” he chuckles. From the time spent watching over the day, a loss of form does not seem an issue that’s likely to arise for Quidam.

Photo - James Porteous

James Porteous

Large crowds gathered at Garscube last weekend to attend the University of Glasgow’s largest annual fundraising event, the Vet Rodeo.

Now in its 49th year, the Rodeo plays host to numerous attractions for children and adults alike, with all profits from the event being given to nominated charities.

This year, money was being raised for a number of organisations, including the Scottish SPCA, Boxer Welfare Scotland, and Riding for the Disabled. In addition to these charities, money was also being directed to the new Small Animal Hospital at the Garscube Estate, which has been under construction since late 2007. The state-of-the-art hospital is scheduled to open later this year.

Visitors were able to enjoy a number of stalls, displays and competitions across the Rodeo site. Younger guests made the most of the funfair, face painting and bouncy castles, while dog owners were given the chance to test their pet’s obedience and agility on a tricky assault course.

Of course, certain attractions proved popular with visitors of all ages – ferret racing in particular drew a formidable crowd around the plastic pipe racetrack.

The main arena hosted the majority of the key events during the day. Early in the afternoon, Husky teams gave a demonstration of sled and scooter pulling, with the dogs romping around the arena, handlers in tow.

Later, large numbers of visitors gathered for a falconry display, where crowds watched as small falcons dived into the arena over their heads, and several members of the audience were invited in to hold large vultures.
Rachael Forgie and Susanna Spence, heads of this year’s Rodeo, explained how they felt the event was going.

Forgie told Guardian: “We think it’s going pretty well, there seems to be a good turnout. We’ve had a few mishaps with the riding arena, and things pulling out last minute, but it doesn’t seem to have affected anything, and the weather’s been good, so pretty good!”

Spence also gave her thoughts on the best attractions at the rodeo itself, touting an unusual form of carpentry as a hidden gem at the event.

She said: “We’ve got a chainsaw carver at the top of the campus, and he’s so good, he makes these amazing sculptures.”

Last year, the event got off to a damp start, with miserable weather on the morning of the Rodeo affecting the money raised for charities.

Talking to Guardian after the show, Spence spoke positively about the funds raised by the 2009 event.

She said: “This year’s Rodeo was a great success, bringing in over £14,000 on the day. We are hoping to give our selected charities £3,500 each.

Organising the Rodeo takes a lot of hard work, but when the time comes to hand over cheques to very worthy charities, you know it is all worth it.”

President Gavin Lee made the comment in response to the SNP’s plans to implement minimum retail pricing on alcoholic drinks.

The plan, developed to help curb Scotland’s reputation for alcohol abuse, makes a number of recommendations on reducing alcohol consumption, through measures such as the restriction of off-license promotions, and a total ban on the sale of alcohol as a loss-leader.

Lee stated that although the SRC supported the idea of action on alcohol abuse, it did not agree with minimum pricing as method of curbing excessive drinking.

He said: “The SRC applauds the government for attempting to tackle the binge drinking problem in Scotland. However, there is no evidence that the rise in the price of alcohol prevents alcohol abuse: our mainland European counterparts do not have a problem with binge drinking, despite comparatively low prices.

Lee went on to call for further research into the other causes of abuse.
He said: “An alcohol abuse culture is maintained through a variety of different factors; the Government needs to investigate the root causes of the problem, not simply increase prices”.

These views follow criticism levelled by those involved in the production and retail of alcohol, who have expressed concern over proposals involving minimum pricing.

Scottish & Newcastle, producer of brands such as Strongbow and Fosters, stated their opposition to minimum pricing in a response to the Government’s discussion paper on Scotland’s relationship with alcohol.

They said: “Setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol is a blunt instrument which will have a disproportionate affect on responsible and law abiding drinkers.

“Those who abuse alcohol will find an alternative source, risking a rise in demand for cheap or even illicit alcohol.

“We do not believe this proposal will tackle harmful drinking patterns, nor do we believe it is the role of Government to set prices for consumers. On those grounds, we oppose this proposal.”

Retail giant TESCO has aired similar views, and like the SRC President, points to Europe as an example that pricing is not a key issue in the drive to reduce binge-drinking.

Executive Director for Corporate and Legal Affairs for the company, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, stated: “Binge drinking and other alcohol-related social problems are a serious concern to us all, but it is far too simplistic to apportion responsibility for this on price alone.”

“If low-cost alcohol were the only factor then countries such as France and Spain, where prices are much lower than in the UK, would have similar problems and countries like Finland, where alcohol is expensive and its availability restricted, would not.”

James Porteous

The news that Daily Record and Sunday Mail workers are taking further strike action, in response to the threat to jobs at the newspapers, is a worrying continuation of a more prolonged employment issue in the media.

With recent circulation figures suggesting that fewer papers than ever are being sold in Scotland, and job cuts worldwide in many sections of the press, it certainly feels like a bleak time to be pursuing a career anywhere within the media.

Whilst this issue is felt hardest at publications and organisations where people are working for a living, it is also felt at student publications like ours, where the financial downturn has had a serious affect on the newspaper and its staff.

As many of Guardian’s staff join the paper as a starting point to go on to work in the mainstream press in one manner or another, constant news of strikes, redundancies and cost-cutting makes it feels very much like a door is closing on the accessibility of the press as a career path – a major issue at a time when graduate recruitment is at such a low level across the board.

This trickle-down effect could perceivably see a reduction in the participation in student media, should the situation not improve, which could subsequently impact on the quality of future quality in the mainstream media itself.

At present, it is difficult to see how the industry can haul itself back to past levels of prosperity – all publications, be they staffed by employees or volunteers, must work out how to embrace new media, and idea which seems remarkably difficult for print publications to master in a purposeful manner, given their reliance on traditional advertising.

The key question is how can newspapers make money out of online content, a medium people expect, from experience, to be free?

Whatever the solution, student journalists across the world can only hope that their potential employers can at least begin to resolve the current climate of employment turmoil, before the time comes to leave university.

James Porteous

The number of unopposed and vacant positions, in all but one of the current student elections, is a damning indictment of the level of student participation at Glasgow University, and the entire electoral process that serves to fill the numerous positions.

As a result of various technical and apathetic reasons, two of the four Presidential positions open for election will most likely not be filled by a candidate who has won more votes than a competitor. Additionally, several positions, including that of the SRC sabbatical officer who oversees Glasgow University’s media, have nobody running at all.

Beyond this, the way in which numerous contenders for GUU positions have essentially been wiped off the ballot paper, due to frankly insignificant clerical issues, smacks of an over-zealous electoral process that is sacrificing voter choice, in order to conform to traditional rules and regulations. Are these rules actually protecting the integrity of the elections, or are they irrelevant bureaucracy that is preventing a larger number of nominees competing for the positions at the Union?

The fact is, apathy has strangled student politics. The issue was reported last year in this paper and the problem has only worsened in the interim, with fewer people than ever getting involved in the majority of the main student elections at Glasgow University. If this process is to repeat continually, then the student body faces a situation where they will no longer be represented by traditionally elected individuals, but simply those who can string together enough friends to propose them to the position of their choosing.

It must also be mentioned that this is not criticism of those that are running in these elections, or indeed the manner in which they would conduct themselves in the role. Rather, it is a criticism of the failings of the system that they pass through on their way to office, and those that choose to ignore their right to contribute to their education in a manner beyond turning up to lectures and exams. Instead of repeatedly coming up short, student organisations must identify new methods of attracting these students to the empty positions.

Important roles, such as the President of the GUU or SRC, should not be a position of virtual default. They should be fought for in the strongest possible terms, between several determined individuals, fighting on the basis of opposing manifestos, and elected on the basis of these. As such, and where possible, students must vote to re-open nominations in any case where an individual is running unopposed.

After a notable break from having an online presence, Guardian is back on the web, offering you the chance to comment on the paper, the articles, and the opinions that we print every issue. Please have a snoop around and see what we have to offer – you can catch up on all of this year’s stories in our online back-catalogue, download copies, and fire back your thoughts on what we put online.

Our current issue (which you can read online, now) will be appearing around campus early this week, in the usual news-stands that can be found in the unions, library, John McIntyre building, and the Stevenson Building, as well as appearing in some of the West End’s watering holes.

Of course, we’d rather you wrote for us than to us, so if you’d like to see your work in print, then get in touch, and pitch us your article ideas. Ink-based immortality awaits…

Next issue (out in March), we’ll have a special feature direct from our correspondent in Israel, alongside the top-quality news, sports, and entertainment coverage that you’ve come to expect from Guardian. Get it online, or in print, from March 2nd.

James Porteous

The actions of wildcat strikers, in reaction to the employment of foreign workers at Lindsey Refinery, are at best absurd, and at worst a shameful indication that flagrant xenophobia is acceptable in Britain today.

Although at first glance it is hard to see why a French-owned refinery in the UK would choose to import Italian labour, rather than employing from the area local to the refinery, the reality of the situation is extremely simple. The creation of the positions was done so by an Italian company, working for the refinery as a sub-contractor; why should they be forced to take on staff from another country, if those in the UK are so vehemently against the idea? For such a vocally determined group of protesters, those on strike are remarkably hypocritical.

To put it another way, it’s very easy to pull up an example of an entire UK industry that makes the most of the Common Market in the very way that strikers are objecting to. British tour operators export UK staff to foreign countries every year; entire resorts are filled with staff who are alien to the region (I should know, I was one before university). It creates fantastic job opportunities abroad, and thanks to the EC, there’s no need to worry about visas or work permits. Narrow-minded nationals here are complaining about similar business practices occurring in Britain – a good way to start picking at the threads of an established method of doing business that works, and has done so for a number of years.

Worryingly, the figurehead of the cry ‘British jobs for British workers’ is the man leading our country. His bizarre pledge in 2007 has adorned placards all across the UK, with sympathy strikes sharing the same bizarre notion that a Brit has more right to a job than anyone else. Quite what possessed Brown to utter these words is anyone’s guess – they read more like a BNP pamphlet than the speech notes of the Prime Minister – but the result has been the encouragement of a truly backwards frame of mind, in relation to those who are legitimately allowed to work and live in the UK.

Essentially, the actions of those involved are selfish, childish, and embarrassing; jobs should be for the best workers, not those who happen to be nearby. It should bring out the best in people, by trying to better others, not the worst, by trying to exclude them from competing. In the current financial climate, Britain needs to be less of an island off the coast of the EU proper; with attitudes like those of the Lindsey Refinery strikers making headlines, we are in danger of being branded an economic leper colony.