And so begins another year, rummaging away in the Concrete archive! To open this new exploration, I’ve chosen to take a look at October 2004. This might seem an odd choice, but with Concrete not publishing in August, I was obviously forced to select a paper solely on the merit of the front page. As there have been no other issues of Concrete where the logo has been partially obscured with a rather unappetising photo of a pork pie, I knew that I had found the issue that would whet my appetite for all things slightly bizarre in our publication.  

‘It’s official,’ Features Editor Matt Shoesmith claims, ‘Norwich is the pie-eating capital of the country. The pastry-prone population of Norwich consumed a staggering 1.8 million pies between January and September of this year’. The article goes on to cover the health, social and even geographical (!) influences of pie-eating. Either it was a slow fortnight for News or the Concrete editorial team was particularly infused by savoury pastries as the paper goes on to mention pies once again in yet another article dedicated to the food. However, it seems as if not all of Norwich was celebrating their new accolade, with the Sportspark actively refusing to give a comment on the subject. 

On a more serious note, the issue is superb in detailing the build-up to the 2004 US Presidential Election, with a two-page spread being used not only to give a highly informative account of Bush and Kerry, but to describe the history of the Republican and Democrat parties, provide information on how US elections work, as well as giving a complete analysis of the events to that date. Although published just under 20 years prior to the election this November, some sections remained informative, as well as incredibly interesting in their being able to give an insight into US political history. 

Undoubtedly, one of my favourite parts of this issue lies in its creativity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a mock front page of the made-up newspaper ‘The Enquirer’ that was published at the centre of Concrete. Within this front page is a pseudo Agony Aunt collum where students supposedly wrote in to ‘Prof. Rodders’.  

‘Dear Professor,  

Adjusting to student life is hard enough, but my new neighbour in halls keeps me awake at night. If it’s not music or drunken revelry, it’s a new girl every night. I am so tired and exhausted. What can I do?’ 

Prof. Rodders responds to this question by addressing the student as ‘Dear Repressed’ and subsequently begins to give him maths equations to solve ‘disturbance’. It truly is a wacky idea for the paper, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get a laugh out of me.  

Looking over this issue, it is amazing to see the distinct change from the 2003 paper. Although it is undeniably still very zany, there is a clear increase in articles about more staid topics, such as the climate crisis, fox hunting and union politics. Whether this was simply brought about by a new Editor-In-Chief, or UEA students were starting to look for something different from their news outlets, it’s difficult to tell. However, what has remained the same is the evident time and effort that has been put into each step of the process. With every available space filled, every article and photo beautifully layed-up, it truly is awe-inspiring (and a little intimidating!) for a current EiC.  

Photo Credits: Fiona Hill