Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Tag: music

Introducing: Lesedi
Culture & Literature, Music

Introducing: Lesedi

So perhaps we can start with you guys introducing yourselves. Who are you, what do you play and what do you study? E: I'm Eve! I play sax, flute, and sing, and I study music along with Dan and Tom. D: I’m Dan, I’m going into my second year studying music and I play keys for the band. T: I'm Tom, I'm also going into second year and I'm the drummer!   Awesome! Did you all meet on the music course at Royal Holloway? D: Yes we did! It didn’t take us long to realise we were all interested in similar things, and Eve approached Tom and I and asked us to start a band with her! T: We mainly play funk music, which ranges from covers to originals but we also cover rock, pop and plenty of genres in-between.   An interesting mix then! Who are your greatest influence...
A Truly Amazing Night At The Theatre
Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

A Truly Amazing Night At The Theatre

Ever imagined, even in your wildest dreams, seeing Morticia Addams, Dorian Gray, and Romeo and Juliet all in the same place, at the same time? No? What if they were accompanied by wild dancing performances, amazing musical numbers and sketches that make you laugh so much that your stomach hurts? Then apparently, you have never been to A Night at the Theatre (ANATT). If you have never even heard of ANATT (where have you been all this time?!), it is an event that features performances by more or less all the creative societies at Royal Holloway, varying from dance, drama, musical theatre, fashion, pole dancing and the works of some independent artists. It is an excellent way to spend an evening, leaving all your worries behind, while watching your fellow students  express their creativity...
Interview with: AbHarm
Sports & Socs

Interview with: AbHarm

What does a day-in-the-life of an Absolute Harmony member look like?  So on a typical Monday we’ll have a rehearsal with our main choir and Hardcore Harmony together; this always starts the week off on a high note!’  (Pardon the pun!). The choir is genuinely so close that friends are always made. At rehearsal, the choir learns an amazing arrangement which one of our two brilliant Musical Directors will have arranged! As you walk in, the song selected for the arrangement will be playing and you automatically feel the buzz of excitement! Rehearsals always start together as a whole choir with our fun warm-ups. After, each vocal part goes off into different sections and rehearse their part with their teacher (someone selected from the choir). Once we’ve learnt our individual parts, we all c...
Top 5 Reasons To Join Insanity Radio
Sports & Socs

Top 5 Reasons To Join Insanity Radio

Starting university means you have to make a lot of decisions. Which halls you want to live in, what course you want to study - the list goes on. Equally as important a decision is, out of the huge range of them, what sports club, society, or media outlet you choose to join. With so many options out there, from improvised comedy to trampolining, it can be hard to decide, so as Insanity Radio's Head of Music, I'm here with the Top Five Reasons why you should seriously consider joining Royal Holloway's very own radio station, Insanity Radio. 1 - If you like music, you're in the right place.  As Head of Music, I'm in charge of the weekly playlists that go out across the station - but if you're into a particularly niche genre or period of music, or feel, like me, that punk music from 197...
Are we Running out of Music?
Culture & Literature, Music

Are we Running out of Music?

Recently, Lana Del Rey announced that she was being sued for breach of copyright by Radiohead. The English band are claiming that her 2017 song “Get Free” bares significant resemblance to their iconic 1992 hit “Creep”. This is not the first music copyright dispute that “Creep” has been caught up in. Upon its release, Radiohead were sued by the Hollies for having similarities to their song “The Air That I Breathe” released in 1972. Music copyright claims are, clearly, nothing new. Ed Sheeran was sued in 2017 for his platinum single “Photograph”, Mark Ronson was forced to add a number of additional song writing credits to his number 1 hit “Uptown Funk”, and even the Ghostbusters theme song was involved in a copyright dispute that was eventually settled out of court. Are these just all ...
What Can the Royal Opera House Do For You?
Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

What Can the Royal Opera House Do For You?

  Situated in Covent Garden, the current Royal Opera House is the third building to stand in the area after the two previous theatres burned down in a fire. The second re-opening kicked off with the royal seal of approval and a new name ‘the Royal Italian Opera House’. After hosting composers such as Handel and Michael Costa, the Royal Opera House was growing in both audience and repertoire. It was renamed once again to what we know now as ‘the Royal Opera House’ after it sadly burned down for the second time. However this has not affected its popularity as it now covers over two acres – from main stage to rehearsal studio… But over the years  words such as ‘Elitist’, ‘snobby’ and ‘highbrow’ have been used to describe ballet, opera and other art forms on display at the Royal Ope...
The Art of Doing Nothing
Lifestyle

The Art of Doing Nothing

As someone who requires constant stimulation, be it from books, Netflix or a conversation, ‘doing nothing’ isn't something that comes easily to me. I have, however, come to appreciate the moments of quiet, where I can just close the door and breathe. At university, where there is always a person down the hall, a lecture to attend and a deadline looming, quiet (and solitude) is exactly what we need sometimes. When I talk about ‘doing nothing’, I don’t necessarily mean that you must sit watching grass grow. It is merely an easy turn of phrase to explain the idea of relaxing and taking some time for yourself, rather than continuing to be at the mercy of your seminar leaders, flatmates or society members. Once, my housemate burst into my room and tried to make me go to gym with her. I vehem...
RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row
Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row

Ethereal Theatre Company held auditions at Royal Holloway months ago, choosing the best of the best to go with them to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to perform the cult classic ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’. As the other audience members and I stood in line to enter The Grand Theatre at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh for their last performance, two of the show’s crew greeted us in hazmat suits and stamped us all with Skid Row barcode ‘tattoos’, a key component of the direction in which the production has gone in. Director Mahmoud Zayat took Howard Ashman’s script and incorporated dystopic themes of “control”, “surveillance” and “innovate science”. This production thus has Skid Row under surveillance, as they are an experiment in determining a person’s level of greed. For those who don’t know,...
‘Warning Explicit Content’: Is Censorship Needed in the Music Industry?
Opinion

‘Warning Explicit Content’: Is Censorship Needed in the Music Industry?

Censorship is a hotly contested issue and one with a long history of misuse and authoritarian control, but does it still have a place in a 21st century society? Izzy Swanson and Natasha Phillips debate the need for censorship in music. Izzy: against censorship  A quarter of the current top 40 singles on the official UK music chart contain explicit language. As a result, these songs are censored when played on the radio. According to Ofcom, the government-approved regulatory body for broadcasting, the reason for this censorship is to ensure that “under-eighteens are protected” from being exposed to “offensive and harmful material”. While the majority of listeners would argue that skipping out or replacing swear words is warranted on the radio, in a wider context, music censorship can ...
Coffee House Sessions: Sonia Stein
Culture & Literature, Music

Coffee House Sessions: Sonia Stein

The Orbital’s Arts Editor, Joanne Archer, reviews Sonia Stein’s performance at Coffee House sessions. If you are still unfamiliar with Coffee House sessions, you need to rock up at Tommy’s at 5pm on a Monday, order yourself a burger, sit back and enjoy. Each week, a new, up-and-coming artist sets up their makeshift stage on the staircase in the SU. You may not know these artists now, but with most signed to major record labels, they are bound to get big. The brand that organises the intimate gigs, Coffee House Sessions, promise to serve up “a fix of #newmusic ones to watch, & live acoustic tours”. To give you an idea of what this means in the industry, the likes of Izzy Bizu began their careers by touring universities with Coffee House Sessions. This month, Sonia Stein graced...