THE PERFECT BUS STORM

Posted on November 9 2017 | Comments Off on THE PERFECT BUS STORM

Your travel correspondent has had little to excite him of late. Journeys to and from work have provided little in the way of amusement. Until the middle of half-term week, one late morning. The single decker bus arrives and the awaiting crowd steps back to allow an older man with a wheeled walking frame to board the bus. He is followed by two mums with a pushchair each – one a giant ‘state-of-the art’ thing that looks as though it would be good for ‘off-roading’. The driver is obviously under the illusion that the bus is some form of Stagecoach Tardis which will expand to accommodate any number of passengers – more and more people clamber on. The student passengers all seem to have massive over-sized handbags or completely stuffed backpacks. More and more people get on and we set off (illegally) on our journey. By this time your correspondent (comfortably ensconced in his window side seat) was intrigued how this would all pan out. This was made all the more interesting by the willingness of the driver to stop at the Infirmary and stuff more folk on the bus, including a young woman with a child in a baby-wrap. She had bags of shopping and a polystyrene cup of coffee which causes a frisson of nervousness to ripple through the bus. Incredibly some passengers managed to get a hand free and attempt to use their mobile phones. More entertainment was provided by the bus having to stop at almost every stop on the way to the University to let some passengers get off. This all meant an extended journey time to work but was a price worth paying for an entertaining people-watching experience.

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LANCASTER LIT UP

Posted on November 9 2017 | Comments Off on LANCASTER LIT UP

Phantasmagorical. Brilliant. Captivating. Light Up Lancaster was a delight – two evenings of illumination, art, music, projection and performance in the city centre. Beg, borrow or hire a small child and witness the look of wonder on their faces. This year the theme was the natural world and the city was packed with lots of smiling faces thoroughly enjoying the winking, blinking light and colour accompanied by a cacophony of sound. The city was alive with rivers of people snaking their way around the street and lanes to find their favoured spot to ooh and aah at the whizzes and bangs. Friday night ended with a glass of mulled cider in the Printroom café and bar in the Storey. A truly memorable event topped by a splendid firework spectacular launched from the grounds of the castle on Saturday night. We were too late to get our wristbands to allow access to St George’s Quay Meadow or Giant Axe so we walked up from town to join hundreds of folk enjoying the stunning view from Williamson Park. Magical stuff.

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QUEEN ALBERT

Posted on November 9 2017 | Comments Off on QUEEN ALBERT

Your cultural correspondent squeezed into a packed Dukes on Monday (6th November) to watch a screening of ‘The Death of Stalin’ – a brilliant film, a creative mixture of grim and laugh out loud funny. This was followed by a question and answer session with one of the screenwriters on the film. Ian Martin is an English Emmy award-winning comedy writer who has lived in Lancaster since 1988. This was a fascinating and insightful window into the movie world. It was also an incredibly swear filled event. Ian was a writer for the BAFTA winning BBC series ‘The Thick of It’ and was famously hired as ‘swearing consultant’ by the show’s creator, Armando Iannucci. You could see why. The film itself was rich with some fruity language and the Q & A followed suit. This did not detract from what was a very interesting discussion. Your correspondent was reminded of an experience at a Mark Thomas gig at the Dukes 2/3 years ago. A few minutes into the show Mark made a derogatory remark about Hemel Hempstead. A woman in one of the front rows got up and walked out in front of the stage to the exit. Mark asked as she was leaving, ‘are you from Hemel Hempstead?’ ‘No’ the woman replied, ‘I abhor your filthy language’. About half an hour later another woman got up and walked out in front of the stage. Mark asked if there was anything wrong. ‘Yes’, the woman replied quick as a flash, ‘you’re not fucking swearing enough – I am off to the loo’.

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MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘HE PULLS NO PUNCHES, AND TELLS IT LIKE IT IS’

Posted on November 9 2017 | Comments Off on MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘HE PULLS NO PUNCHES, AND TELLS IT LIKE IT IS’

Review: Scarlatti and Cage in the Great Hall

Domenico Scarlatti (born Naples in 1685, and so an exact contemporary of J S Bach) wrote over 500 sonatas for harpsichord, nearly all of them short and in just one movement of simple AABB form – two halves, each of them repeated. John Cage (1912-1992) also wrote short keyboard sonatas, also nearly all of AABB form, but only sixteen of them. They were all intended to be played on a ‘prepared’ piano, which entails placing screws and bolts between the strings, together with rubber rings, plastic strips and an eraser, all of whose positions are precisely specified. This produces some strange sonorities – in some cases a thud rather than a musical sound.

In the Great Hall on Thursday 26 October, the American pianist David Greilsammer performed an interesting programme in which eight Scarlatti sonatas were alternated with seven sonatas by Cage. The University’s two concert grand pianos were placed end to end on the Great Hall stage, with Greilsammer sitting on the piano stool between the two keyboards, so that when he had finished playing one sonata, he could swivel quickly round to the opposite keyboard and begin on the next sonata, by the other composer. The programme of fifteen sonatas was played without a break or an interval.

Scarlatti spent much of his active life in Portugal, where he was employed as the harpsichord teacher of Princess Maria Barbara. In spite of, or more likely because of, his musical isolation, his sonatas are fascinatingly quirky and distinctive. They would of course have been played on the harpsichord – the piano had not yet been invented. When Greilsammer entered and positioned himself on the stool, the lights were dimmed to the point where it was impossible to read the programme, which rather defeated the object of having it.

He opened the first Scarlatti sonata playing ppp – so quietly that some of the notes barely spoke at all. Then he suddenly switched to playing extremely loudly. What was the point of these extreme contrasts? It was unclear, but they were very unsettling. Of course, if the Scarlatti sonatas had been played on a harpsichord, in which the strings are plucked rather than struck by hammers as in a piano, such contrasts would not have been possible. This would have been more appropriate. It would also have been impossible to open so very quietly.

The Cage sonatas were a complete contrast. Although completely written out, they sounded quite free, and of course their genre is totally different from the sonatas by Scarlatti. Greilsammer seemed more at home in this modern American music than in the Scarlatti sonatas, where his idiosyncratic performance seemed to this critic too self-indulgent.

Having said this, it was an interesting recital, no doubt introducing many members of the audience to Cage’s music.

Contributed by Martin Widden.

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LETTERS

Posted on November 9 2017 | Comments Off on LETTERS

Dear subtext,

I suspect I’m not alone in asking if you’ve seen our latest signage but if not I suggest you pop ‘down south’ for a look. At first it all appeared very corporate and professional, a smart look with clear white on black text (though some colleagues feel the text is too small). However as of this week we’ve had a very odd black monolith appear at the south end of the spine with a map so small you’ll need to be issued with a magnifying glass to view, and a step ladder if you’re under 6ft tall. To cap it all Charles Carter has gained purple, black and white signage and the ISS building itself has a nice place for students or staff to rest their pint glasses, empty bottles and ashtrays on. The funny thing about the ISS building is you’d have to walk right up to the door to even read the sign!

Also has anyone commented on the removal of the location grid from the maps, replaced by some sort of numbering scheme? Patently the designer of the map has never had to use one to find anything! Nah let’s just get rid of the grid lines, we don’t like boxes, we’re not a box university! You can just imagine the meeting.

Name supplied

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Dear subtext,

The new UA92 campus will educate 6500 new students – a 50% increase on Lancaster’s current numbers. This is being imposed on a town in Manchester which has a settled, established community of 30000. Many residents are very worried about the impact of such a high influx of students on our infrastructure and existing community. Part of the plan is to build a 20 storey tower on a very small site in the heart of Stretford which will house 1700 students. In a ‘masterplan’ consultation, our local council has shared vague information about how it will all work, hiding the most alarming plans within very long documents. It feels like our concerns are going unheard. We have yet to have any direct input from UA92, or from Lancaster. We would really like to hear evidence that all parties involved are considering the local community – perhaps some commitments to widening participation schemes and other outreach locally. But there is nothing, and we feel like our town is just being used to make more money for people who already have lots.

A Stretford resident (name supplied)

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Dear subtext,

Your concerns over posters on campus advertising a public meeting on the centenary of the Balfour declaration (HOW NOT TO PROMOTE A POLITICAL MEETING, 26 Oct. 2017) seem to me misplaced. subtext objects to the ‘alarm’ likely to be caused among members of the University community by discussion of ‘Jewish opposition to Zionism’. There will doubtless be those that that disagree with speaker Robert Cohen’s views on Zionism, but is there really any reason to be alarmed at this subject being discussed?

subtext also objects to part of the poster’s blurb which states: ‘most Jewish communities around the world will be celebrating the anniversary’ of the Balfour declaration. This is actually the first half of a sentence, which in full reads: ‘While most Jewish communities around the world will be celebrating the anniversary, Palestinians see it as an historic betrayal of their rights, the implications of which are still being played out today’. Again, it is hard to see what is objectionable about this statement.

The piece goes on to cite a survey recording that ‘93% of British Jews feel that Israel is important to their identity’. The argument that seems to follow is that a similar number of British Jews regard the Balfour declaration as ‘on the whole, probably a good thing’ and would therefore not feel welcome at the advertised event. It seems a stretch to interpret British Jews seeing Israel as ‘important’ to their identity to represent any value judgement about the modern state of Israel, let alone a statement by a British Foreign Secretary made 100 years ago – even one as important as the Balfour declaration. More worrying is the inference that because a certain group holds something to be central to their identity, critical debate of this subject should be discouraged for fear of offending members of that group.

In a week when Chris Heaton-Harris MP seemingly united academia in defending freedom of political expression on university campuses it is disappointing to see subtext (usually a staunch defender of these values) objecting to a poster advertising discussion of a controversial topic – even if it is in a silly font.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Mills

********

Dear subtext,

Have you seen the promotional video for the UA UA92? https://www.ua92.ac.uk/about-ua92. It is wrong on so many levels! Coming from a University that used to pride itself on its Centre for Women’s Studies we now seem to have slid into a very ‘iffy’ area of marketing. Entire thesis could be written about this representation of women in this presentation (the funding should be easy to achieve in the current Weinstein climate). It is so inappropriate that it would take an entire edition of subtext to discuss. Am I the only person who feels this presents Lancaster University in a very bad light? Sorry but on this one I feel Lancaster is way off trend.

Name supplied

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subtext 167 – ‘accelerate… but remember speed kills’

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on subtext 167 – ‘accelerate… but remember speed kills’

Fortnightly during term time.

Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk

In this issue: editorial, swastikas, criminology, plug, parkarking, crooked, air raid sirens, uain’t 92, idiotic leninism, rock, rock2, Israel, ucu, shart attack, music festival review, concert review, letters

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EDITORIAL

subtext was created for many reasons – to be a forum for discussion, to encourage a sense of community, to propagate a culture of speaking out. But above all else, we are a source of news, and we at subtext are at our most self-congratulatory when we know we’ve broken a story.

The celebration of our scoops on the Gary Neville University and the University Court in the last issue was one such nauseating affair, and we braced ourselves for a warehouse awash with letters the following day. We were awash with letters, comments, and questions on these matters, but what garnered the most attention was our revelation that some office doors had been defaced with Nazi symbols.

Shortly after subtext 166’s release, a number of understandably concerned individuals contacted us directly for more information. We are in agreement that we missed the potential impact and significance of this story. The appearance of swastikas on university campuses is a worrying sign, perhaps, of the increasingly common stench of Fascism that has emerged in Western nations. As such we were not all adequately briefed to provide more information to the affected parties. Given the seriousness of hate-speech on our campus, we should have been. To that end, we have produced a more detailed report in this issue of subtext, and we understand that the University has now taken a direct interest in these

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UPON FÜHRER INVESTIGATION

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on UPON FÜHRER INVESTIGATION

As promised in the editorial, here is everything we know regarding the defacing of posters with Nazi graffiti. The story that we published in subtext 166 refers to three separate incidents in the Sociology Department over the summer. We understand that all of the incidents took place in the evening after lockdown, suggesting it was someone with access to the department. Nobody knows who did this and there appears to be no connection between the three incidents. Security were informed and there were no further incidents. Those whose doors were targeted were postgraduate students, two of whom have subsequently left Lancaster (upon completing their studies, not as far as we know owing to the graffiti).

We understand that there have been incidents of posters being defaced with Nazi nasties for quite a while – certainly more than just this summer.

It was in April when the first incidence of hate-fuelled graffiti were brought to the Sociology Department’s attention by a couple of PhD students. A few posters with references to terrorism were taken down, after being graffitied with comments like ‘Bomb them all’.

After raising this matter with the Head of Sociology and the doctoral directors it was agreed to take it ‘higher’. A meeting took place with two Bowland Assistant Deans, who suggested that little could be done. This may in part be because College Deaneries are not responsible for academic departments, so it is not clear why they were contacted in the first place. University House was contacted and asked for a public notice regarding the policies on hate speech to go out but, as far as we know, this wasn’t done. This starkly contrasts with the actions of other universities such as Exeter and Cambridge, whose VCs or spokespeople issued public statements condemning such behaviour after similar incidents earlier this year.

It is frustrating that there has been no broad denouncement at Lancaster of this sort of behaviour. Tensions are running high on an international scale, and even if it is sadly no longer surprising to see growing support for fascistic ideals, we must treat each incident with equal rejection.

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LESSONS IN HOW NOT TO DO THINGS

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on LESSONS IN HOW NOT TO DO THINGS

Not long after the messy introduction of a divisive plan to close down a department in LUMS (see subtext 165), subtext learns of some rather odd and worrying developments in the Law Department. The Head of Department, Professor Alisdair Gillespie, held a ‘secret’ strategic review to determine the future of the various Criminology degrees at Lancaster. It is not clear who was in attendance at the review meeting but no staff were involved. Then, lo and behold, a meeting was announced. All staff were to attend including those on annual leave and sabbatical. No agenda was circulated and no details given as to what the meeting was to be about. Staff gathered in the lecture theatre, somewhat perplexed and obviously worried about what this was all about. Professor Gillespie then proceeded to embarrass and humiliate the people who deliver the Criminology programmes in front of the entire staff group. Recruitment is apparently not good enough and if things do not improve he threatens to cease all Criminology teaching in the department, and staff will have to leave. He does concede that he may not have the full facts or the correct data, but apparently he is passing on the thoughts of Andrew Atherton. He also alluded to the fact that HR have known about this proposal for some time.

Criminology at Lancaster is rated No. 1 in The Times University Guide.

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YOOF TINGZ

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on YOOF TINGZ

Our Facebook page has enjoyed a health influx of attention since we announced its launch in the last issue. As part of our ongoing synergised cross-platform interdiscursivity initiative, we’d like to draw your attention to it again and ask you to like / share / follow / thingamajig us on www.facebook.com/LUsubtext

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VALUED MEMBERS OF STAFF

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on VALUED MEMBERS OF STAFF

In the last edition of subtext we reported on the problems of staff on termly contracts and their inability to get a staff bus pass. subtext has learnt of similar problems concerning hourly paid teaching staff who drive to work, and although we have historically avoided publishing stories about parking, we felt this one needed some further discussion on the grounds that a group of staff who are already marginalised and on insecure contracts were being treated unfairly.

Teaching staff attending the security building to renew their staff parking permit for the academic year were somewhat shocked to be told that unlike last year, they are no longer eligible for a staff permit. No prior warning, no correspondence informing them of this change in policy. Despite offering to pay the same amount as they had paid last year – and perhaps more importantly, the same amount as other staff still pay (!) – they were told that they are not eligible for a staff permit and would have to park ‘at the bottom end of the campus’.

The fact Lancaster University is situated on a hill is coincidental but this is highly symbolic; those ‘at the top’ (i.e. ‘proper’ staff) were deemed to be worthier in that they are given the ‘right’ to park in a more convenient location, over those ‘at the bottom’. For those staff, the issue with parking ‘at the bottom’ is not related to laziness but is more about feelings of inequality and the apparent power imbalance.

Why is it that these staff are no longer eligible? Is it because they are not ‘full-time’ members of staff. No. So it must be because they are ‘part-time’ members of staff. Well, no. Apparently the explanation given is that due to a lack of parking and over-subscription for permits, a review (which was not communicated to those concerned) had concluded that restrictions needed to be made and teaching staff who are also undertaking a PhD were the group to be targeted for cut backs. Staff-students have been discriminated against over both full-time and part-time staff who are not studying alongside their teaching. Essential teaching staff are vital for our Part I delivery and are apparently valued members of the research community when we tell stories during our strategic reviews and in our REF narratives. Welcome to the inclusive academic community.

Oh, and for those members of staff (regardless of status) who don’t have a permit at all, it seems there has been another price hike. The car park by the tennis courts has tripled in price from £1 per day to £3 per day. Thus endeth our gripe about parking.

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NEVILLE MIND

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on NEVILLE MIND

Phil Neville is the somewhat less famous of the two brothers in the Class of 92, our new partners in UA92. In recent years he has become better known for a brief and inglorious career as manager of Valencia FC (owner, Peter Lim) and for his narcolepsy-inducing football commentaries for Sky Sports. This has not deterred him from seeking to branch out into the world of political punditry. The recent appearances of Hillary Clinton on TV to promote her new book prompted him to tweet: ‘Hillary Clinton on the One Show’ along with a laughing-face emoji, followed by: ‘Hillary you lost move on’. Nice.

This was not Phil’s only foray into the maelstrom of American politics. After the Presidential election result was confirmed, Phil announced via twitter: ‘I knew Trump would win’. This prompted a certain degree of scepticism among his many followers, several of whom responded along the lines of: ‘Yeah, sure you did, mystic Phil’. But others were grateful for this enlightenment, with one remarking: ‘Thank God you let us know. I was only asking the lads earlier: I wonder what Phil Neville thinks of it all. Delighted I know now’.

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BOOM, SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE THE SEMINAR ROOM

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on BOOM, SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE THE SEMINAR ROOM

The ‘bomb shelter experience’ currently being enjoyed by the unlucky souls studying in Fylde lecture theatres reminded us of the recent experience involving a high-altitude glass walkway high in the East Taihang Mountains near Handan City in China. Glass-bottom bridges are the latest tourist craze in China. This particular bridge hangs over 3,800 feet in the air, affixed to the mountainside, and has as its newest feature sensor technology which creates the illusion that the bridge is going to shatter under the weight of those walking on it. To enhance this effect, bits of actual broken glass were placed under the sturdy glass floor, and video screens displayed fake cracks in the glass as people pass over it. This is all done without any warning. Not surprisingly this has created a social media storm, with thousands posting negative comments accusing the organisers of being cruel and even dangerous, with the possibility that it might give someone a heart attack. Whilst not on the same level, bangs and crashes loud enough to make students ‘jump’ and squeal will undoubtedly generate negative comment in the NSS and PTES later this year.

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I GOT 92 PROBLEMS BUT A PITCH AIN’T ONE

Posted on October 26 2017 | 2 comments

Faced with UA92, the new higher education venture fronted by ex-manchester united players , one must confess to a certain confusion. One’s immediate reaction was, frankly, hilarity. This was then tempered by a realisation that this project was a rare example of sportsmen putting their (considerable) money where their (also considerable) mouths were. Then one realised that the project is, however well-intentioned, primarily a money-making venture, and one starts to feel uneasy.

Anyway, cleaving close to the subtext mission statement to carp and criticise, it is perfectly possible to think that this project is a jolly commendable idea in many ways while also thinking that it is not necessarily something that Lancaster University (yes, that’s uppercase) should necessarily be hitching its wagon to. Of course, we don’t know the fine details of the deal, but we’re sure larger and better-informed minds than ours have no doubt thought long and hard about how it will work, and what our commitment and investment should be. However, a number of questions persist, most of them under the umbrella of ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ University teaching is described in the publicity as the third leg of a triad, along with sport and business. Even allowing for the VC’s recent comments on building links with business, this goes beyond links and into partnership. That’s a sea-change. Maybe a good one, but it’ll be difficult to distance ourselves if this all goes wrong, and it might. UA92, it seems, aims to fill a gap somewhere between HE and FE, mixed up with a kind of Matthew Arnold-esque emphasis on mens sana in corpore sano, building character and quadriceps with equal enthusiasm, maximising self-reliance and oxygen uptake in the same programme. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, our name is all over it.

Which is odd, because you can go through the UA92 website for a long time without discovering what Lancaster University will actually do for these lucky students. You will discover that ‘Universities have traditionally placed academic learning at the core of the curriculum, supported by character development for the world of work’. By comparison, UA92 will deliver ‘a curriculum with employability and character development at the core wrapped around by academic development.’ Um, ok, well, that doesn’t sound so much like a vision, more a change of emphasis at most. And are we happy to be the afterthought in this arrangement?

We learn further that the ‘Target Talent Curriculum’ (harrumph) seeks ‘to put personal development at the core of the learning experience’, and that it will focus on providing students with ten attributes: academic learning, life skills, work experience, how to survive in demanding workplace situations, leadership skills, peer group analysis, participative learning, fitness, and presentation and financial skills. Leaving aside the Blair-esque meaninglessness of a phrase like ‘Target Talent Curriculum’, we note that of the ten desirable attributes, academic learning is just one. Not their priority, then. Is this to be like the Associate College scheme, where students come here for a top-up degree in their third year? If so, will these students, however bursting with peer-group analysis skills they may be, find the academic playing field to be level? Or will the field be re-marked to fit them, in which case how will their degrees compare to those students who have been here for three years, pale of skin and character, and short on resilience and the ability to survive in demanding workplace situations, but nevertheless well-trained in passing exams?

But harken we to the words of the VC. ‘This is a good time to test the appetite for a venture of this nature for two reasons. Firstly, the government wishes to open up the Higher Education marketplace to new and innovative ways of delivery. Secondly, businesses are becoming increasingly interested in how Higher Education can prepare students for working life. This project is designed to address both of those ideas head on.’ So that’s all right then.

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THE THIRD RED SCARE

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on THE THIRD RED SCARE

Regular readers of one of subtext’s minor competitors, The Guardian, may have come across an article early on Tuesday morning about a letter sent by Tory whip Chris Heaton-Harris to University Vice-Chancellors demanding to know who was teaching students about Brexit, and what the content of their courses was as well as links to online lectures (http://tinyurl.com/yd7e5xqe). It is true that subtext’s coverage of VCs does not always consist of glowing praise, given pay differentials, inaction on pension theft, vanity building projects, and a litany of other charges. But it seems that at least one VC, Worcester top dog David Green, comes off as something of a hero in this tale, by more or less intimating that he intended to tell the MP to chuff off. Whether our VC had a similar response in mind has yet to be established – D floor has not yet responded to subtext’s request for a comment – though according to the Guardian (the local paper, that is, not the national one – keep up!) it was being treated under the University’s Freedom of Information procedures. This, of course, could amount to the same thing.

Meanwhile, back to Heaton-Harris’s shenanigans, around Tuesday lunchtime, by a report that Downing Street had issued a statement saying Heaton-Harris had been acting not as a Government whip, but in a personal capacity as an MP (http://tinyurl.com/ycdgf4vk). That man must have some interesting conversations with himself. In future, he might take the time to have a good chat with himself about who actually teaches at university, as his letter asked for details of ‘professors’ teaching in the area – presumably unaware of the fact that in the UK, professors mostly do what they can to avoid teaching, which is largely carried out by more junior staff. Or perhaps he thinks anyone who is not a professor can’t be taken seriously? Given the leave campaigners’ attitudes towards ‘experts’, we rather doubt the latter could be the case. Heaton-Harris has been the recipient of failed Tory leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom’s full support, so it can only be a matter of time before he is sacked.

A number of other newspapers have jumped on Heaton-Harris-bashing bandwagon since Tuesday, while some of their… less salubrious fellow publications have jumped to his defence, with hand-wringing articles mentioning ‘remainer universities’ and ‘fears students are being brainwashed by remain-supporting lecturers’. You’d almost think universities had some vested interest in EU membership, such as depending on millions pounds of EU project funding, partnerships with other European universities for inbound and outgoing exchange programmes, and being able to recruit thousands of highly qualified staff from other EU countries.

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WHEN ROCK WENT TO COLLEGE

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on WHEN ROCK WENT TO COLLEGE

Staff, students, and alumni of the university will have recently received an invitation to the launch of ‘When Rock Went to College’ – a comprehensive book detailing the bands that played the Great Hall by Paul Tomlinson and Barry Lucas. subtext has twice reported on this work; once to encourage anybody with any information / photos to contact the authors, and once to announce a release date… of Spring 2016.

We’ve no idea what the delay was, but it’s a delight to see that it wasn’t a (too!) long one. It is well remembered, but little known today, that the Great Hall formerly was a regular stop on the live music circuit. We played host to U2, Elvis Costello, The Who, Sparks, and many others. The launch takes place tomorrow in the Great Hall at 7:30PM. Your correspondent was fortunate enough to see the reams of research, photos, and trinkets that co-author Paul Tomlinson had compiled back when the project was in its infancy. That alone is enough for us to recommend the book, which can be purchased here: www.tinyurl.com/ycmoc7ld

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WHEN ROCK PLAYED TRUANT

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on WHEN ROCK PLAYED TRUANT

Further to our little plug for Paul Tomlinson and Barry Lucas’s compendium of the bands that played Lancaster, the sheer magnitude of the acts we played host to does raise the question: why don’t we do this anymore? The Great Hall is laid out like most live music venues across the UK, has an entire audience on its doorstep, and a vast heritage. While we’re sure the official explanation of fire regulations has some basis in fact, we welcome suggestions for more creative theories from our readers!

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HOW NOT TO PROMOTE A POLITICAL MEETING

Posted on October 26 2017 | Comments Off on HOW NOT TO PROMOTE A POLITICAL MEETING

Posters appeared on campus yesterday advertising an event at the Cornerstone Methodist Cafe at 7pm on Wednesday 15 November, titled ‘Balfour, May and the ‘Wrong Kind of Jews”. subtext’s first impressions were not positive. First, because many in our community will have been alarmed to see a poster which brashly promises to discuss ‘the prospect of Jewish opposition to Zionism today’ and mentions dismissively, almost in passing, that ‘most Jewish communities around the world will be celebrating the anniversary’ of the Balfour declaration. Yes, they will – according to an Ipsos MORI survey for Yachad in 2015, 93% of British Jews feel that Israel is important to their identity. One gets the impression that those who view the Balfour declaration as, on the whole, probably a good thing, are unlikely to feel welcome. Second, because faced with a subject matter which cries out for authority and reassurance, the designer has opted to typeset it in Comic Sans. Oh lordy. Not that we at subtext can talk, given our choice of font.

Further investigation reduces our concerns. The speaker is Robert Cohen, a writer of note on modern Jewish identity, who explains his provocative choice of talk title in a recent Patheos article (http://tinyurl.com/yc9dswxh). The organisers include the Lancaster Methodist Church and the Catholic Diocese of Lancaster’s Faith & Justice Commission, although there don’t seem to be any local Jewish bodies involved (were they invited, we wonder?). Nevertheless, this could be a thoughtful contribution to the debate on Balfour, and subtext hopes to send an observer.

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