Interview

Tings to Help You at Festivals

Meet the soundtrack to your summer. Who says? Well, us at Student Direct. Along with the NME, Radio 1 and every other open minded music fan who can’t help but fall for their hybrid indie-dance-poparama sound that is equally at home in a sweaty club, on the Main Stage at a festival or roaring out of your car stereo. Meet The Ting Tings, a couple…

Levellers Interview

Levellers have just completed a 20th anniversary tour and for an ageing band they can still pack an energetic punch live, so much so that they’re packing again to jet off for some summer festivals. Bassist Jeremy spoke to Luke Dennis at their Manchester Apollo gig about kids, the press and dodgy knees.

Interview: Opeth

Opeth took a while to get going. They didn’t tour until their second album, Morningrise. But now, thirteen years on, they are signed to Roadrunner records, headlining Metal Hammer Defenders of the Faith tour with Arch Enemy, and are on the bill for Bloodstock 2008. Has Roadrunner affected the band’s fifteen minute songs?

Interview: Anne Desmet

Artist Anne Desmet is questioned by Thalia Allington-Wood about her work, ideas and inspirations. Anne’s exhibition, Urban Evolution, is currently on at The Whitworth Gallery until 3rd August 2008.

Interview: Chris Corner of IAMX

Chris Corner, formerly of the Sneaker Pimps, now records as a solo artist under the pseudonym IAMX, turning out lyrically terse, melodically effortless tunes that are piercingly emotive. It is effusively 80s art-house electro with a warmer, less clinical sound than that term normally denotes.

Meet Joe Stretch

Such hype and praise for such a young and multi-talented man also brings with it an instant dislike from a minority of people, but Stretch doesn’t mind that...

Willie Sees the Funny Side

William Hague tells Hannah Flynn that you can have fourteen pints and 30 lovers…but not at the same time

Interview: Long Blondes

Screetch Louder, drummer and general curly haired extraordinaire in Sheffield’s the Long Blondes, has a cough. Unfortunately, so do I, meaning our entire conversation is punctuated with sudden coughing attacks on both our parts. Then he asks us to give him a minute because, “my cat’s just jumping on my back.”

Think Global, Be Local

What do you get when you cross a director from Iceland, a theatre company from Manchester, a television actor and the serious issue of sex trafficking? An exciting new play which spreads the message of ‘think global, be local’ and is on at the Contact Theatre this week.

Interview: Radio Slave

Matt Edwards goes by a lot of names, Matthew E, Rekid, Quiet Village, Sea Devil but its as Radio Slave he has produced some of the most recognisable white label remixes of recent times, re-editing artists from Kylie and The White Stripes to Paul McCartney.

Interview: Van Der Graaf Generator

Meeting Peter Hammill, renowned for his lyrical doom and gloom, I half expected a pasty, pale-skinned figure with fangs and a dark overcoat with exaggerated edges. Needless to say, this wasn’t the case.

Finding Kate's Foundations

Are you a nerd? “Yeah. I was a total geek at school.”

Interview: Metronomy

In the midst of a UK tour and with a forthcoming release of their second album, Metronomy are attracting increasing attention for their melodic, catchy electropop. Catching up with the band before their gig at the Roadhouse, they are relaxed yet forceful, clearly passionate about the band’s music and eager to reject the ‘electro’ tag which has been the albatross for so many bands.

Interview: Friction

Pete Tong once called him the “big dog” of drum n bass, and rightly so considering the man I was about to chat to has not only had year on year success as a DJ/producer since the tender age of 15, but has built from scratch and ran for the past four years the drum n bass empire that is the Shogun Audio Label.

Interview: Hot Chip

Chatting with two members of Hot Chip, Student Direct can reveal that the creators are quite like the created – quirky, intelligent and individual.

Huhne's Second Leadership Bid

As an Oxford student in the 70's Chris Huhne attracted controversy when he published an article condoning opium usage during his stint as Editor of Isis magazine. Most recently he got into trouble over claims that the Speaker in the House of Commons had fallen asleep during a speech by Gordon Brown last month. Not particularly appropriate when he is running for the position of leader of the Liberal Democrat party - for the second time in two years.

Interview

Cacti Burning and the March of Clegg

THREE UNIVERSITY degrees, fluent in five different languages and the front-runner for the leadership of the country’s third largest Party.

Interview

Exploring the Planet

Rosie Scammell interviews Fayette Fox, Assistant Commissioning Editor of Lonely Planet Guides in London, on the wonderful world of travel.

Sam & Amanda: “We Love Manchester”

Rob Cooper talks exclusively to Big Brother stars and ex-Manchester students Sam and Amanda.

Interview

Interview: Anton Corjbin

If you're at University in Manchester then the chances are it’s due to Joy Division. The group’s alliance with the homegrown Factory Records provided both the financial and artistic impetus for a city-wide renaissance.