For our second exploration of the Concrete Archive, we’re going back to 23rd October 2007, when the front page article reported on how the Circus Society had been banned from conducting displays using fire on campus, written by Arts Editor Jack Clark. UEA’s Head of Security explained that the ban was because of the safety risk to bystanders and a fear that the flaming paraffin would damage the surrounding concrete, although when the Safety Services Director was asked about the safety risks of Circus Soc, he told Concrete that he’d “never heard of them.”
Inside was a story by Tom Hunt on how two noisy geese had been causing disruption to residents of Suffolk Terrace! Tom described how “the geese waddle from room-to-room as early as a quarter to eight in the morning… stand a metre from the window, honk for several minutes in a manner suggestive of laughter and repeat the process for each room,” although rather unhelpfully they didn’t return to provide a wakeup call on a Monday morning when it may have been more welcome!
This issue also included an interview with the latest Radio 1 DJ, Greg James, only the year after he had served as Station Manager of Livewire! He told Jack Clark that “Working at Radio 1 is a dream for me” and that “I frequently wake up and just laugh about it all because it has happened so quickly and it’s all a bit ridiculous.” He also told Jack that his top picks to end an LCR night included Mr Brightside by The Killers, the Foo Fighters’ All My Life and Set You Free by N-Trance, whilst the first single he ever bought was a rather different style of song – the Mr Blobby Theme Tune! Finally, on his experience with Livewire, he said that “It took over most of my university life but it was great fun.”
Finally, this issue included a satire section, ‘The UEA Enquirer’, which featured comical suggestions of how the BBC might make cost savings, including filming Doctor Who in Milton Keynes, testing out remote-control cars on Top Gear and renaming Look East to ‘Glance East’! For their Saturday night schedule meanwhile, it was suggested the programmes could be combined so that (and see how many shows you can recognise here), “BBC viewers will enjoy watching Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly as they present the popular dancing show from Sherwood Forest, whilst Dale Winton, using the machine Guinevere and ball number four, attempts to resuscitate a small boy who has been run over by a truck in Holby.”
Editor: Marcus Jones
Click here to view Issue 207 in full!
Leave a Reply