The 4th of May was a very busy day for Leeds politically, no less than three different groups of people were out demonstrating! The first and probably the largest being the annual May Day celebrations to mark the passing of International Worker’s Day, technically on May 1st. About 300 people attended this march through the city centre of Leeds. A strong outing, though tiny when ranked against other celebrations worldwide such as Havana, Cuba, where hundreds of thousands took part. In total there are over 80 countries that celebrate Worker’s Day as a national holiday, many more like the UK take part unofficially and the spirit of this demonstration is very much one of solidarity. It’s about working class unity at home and across the globe. This working class attitude of global solidarity has a long history, the communist manifesto, published as far back as 1848, called for ‘workers of the world’ to ‘unite’ and its seems clear a large proportion of those who came out to celebrate feel they belong to a global class of workers, rather than to any nationality or flag. The [...]
Emmanuel Bicharri better known as Essence B is a London based artist who is sending shock waves through the underground scene with his collection of Afrobeat club hits such as “Ghost money, Superwhine and Talk am” under independent London based Nigerian record label ‘Lodafriq Entertainment’. His first taste of the spotlight came at a school concert when he performed P.Diddy’s smash hit single “I’ll be missing you at St. Paul’s Way Community School in Bow, East London. After graduating from the University of East London with a Media and Communications BSc and working in the retail banking sector for a period of time, he returned to his love for the arts. The journey towards becoming an established underground artist saw Essence B spend time in events management and club promotions whilst developing himself as an artist in the genre of Hip Hop and R&B working with talented producers Supreme of the Arts and Omari Neosoul. Essence B first performance as an aspiring artist saw him perform at CARGO in Shorditch, hosted by REWIND Magazine. After a lot of moving around [...]
Leeds Met SU is pleased to announce that the ACS is back and better than ever! The African Caribbean Society aims to embrace African and Caribbean culture with anyone who is interested. We want to stress that it is not down to colour, class or creed, but instead the idea of community and socialising. It’s a great way to meet new people and find out about different cultures. Everyone is more than welcome! We have spoken to the people and heard your voice, there will be more emphasis placed on our wide range of beautiful cultures and we will aim to showcase that to the best of our ability. Another key aspect we feel is important to provide to the members of the ACS is making the most of your education and employability skills and of course making sure you enjoying yourselves. As the term is coming to an end we will hold a meet and greet shortly, providing you a chance to unwind after the stress of the academic year and give you all a sendoff ready for [...]
Nowadays no one uses a phone to simply ring someone, even in the early 2000’s when the nokia 3410 was the most technical phone available games like snake were constantly running down our phone batteries. As technology has advanced and we have waved goodbye to the polyphonic ringtone, the creation of an App store now holds endless possibilities for a phone to turn into just about anything we want, or anything we don’t necessarily want. Here is a list of the 12 most weird and wonderful apps that almost any smart phone user can have at the click of a button. In some cases, it might be better if it was a little trickier to access some of these apps. Make sure you click on the titles for a direct link to the iTunes app store. Run and Pee Browsing through the hundreds of thousands of apps available a staggering amount are toilet related. My guess is that the target market is boys and judging by my boyfriend’s reactions to the toilet apps, I think [...]
At 9:05pm on Tuesday 16th April the gathered crowd in Leeds’ O2 Academy were treated to a stunning and electrifying (sorry for the cliché) performance by Fun (stylised as ‘fun.’). Originating from New York City in 2008, the current roster features lead vocalist Nate Ruess, drummer Jack Antonoff and all-around music guru Andrew Dost. The trio, joined by their support members on stage, lit up the stage and got the audience screaming louder than I had ever heard a crowd scream before. Beforehand, Miniature Tigers took to the stage and like any great prelude or buildup, they absolutely rocked it. Having several albums and EP’s behind them is asignificant benefit for a support act and the band played through their material with aplomb – verbally guiding the audience through their history and journeying across different musical moods. They even managed to pull a band member of Fun onstage to perform with them, although it became quickly obvious it was less of a given honour and more of a collaboration with a good friend. Miniature Tigers came out [...]
Last Saturday over 1000 people marched in Leeds, waving banners and pickets, chanting down megaphones and demanding that the policy of the Conservative government known as the bedroom tax, is not implemented. This new tax came into effect on April 1st and is actually part of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, the term ‘bedroom tax’ is a colloquialism that has stuck, much the same as Margaret Thatcher’s ‘poll tax’. There are two expressed intentions of the tax. The first is to force people living in houses too large to downsize, however this is clearly not a practical goal, for starters there are not enough one bedroom properties available for people to move to. According to left-wing writer Owen Jones there are 180,000 social tenants ‘under-occupying’ two bedroom homes, but less than 70,000 one bedroom social houses available. The second stated aim is to reduce the amount the government spends on housing benefits, but the policy has been criticized as potentially costing more than it saves, this is because evicting tenants costs money and forces them out of [...]
Malevolence were up first. Every show the bands have picked a more local band to open up first and the Sheffield group were a really good choice. If you remember, I saw the band at The Well back in December (See Here) and I remember a lot of the same faces from before. The crowd were definitely into it and it got the show off to a really good energetic start with a lot of moshing and stage dives. Silent Screams were up next. I haven’t really listened to them so I did not know what to expect. Hearing from other people they are apparently a good band, to which I definitely agree although there is nothing greatly defining about them. Definitely let down by the lack of any fan reaction – the band still put everything they had into their performance although you could tell there was some frustration with lack of movement. Heart of a Coward are a band that only released their debut album “Hope and Hinderance” last year but have made waves in the music scene. The album features heavy [...]
Whilst Nintendo report losses of $189m and upwards Sony and Microsoft are building upon the strength of their brands and preparing to launch new hardware. Can the Japanese veteran keep up or is this the end? Since launch last year the Wii U has only seen sales of 3.45m, and while Nintendo spokesfolk pass this off as it only having been available for less time than I’ve been waiting for the new Animal Crossing game, it’s clear they are sweating it behind closed doors. Where the Wii U fails is the lack of a stellar line up at launch, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 arrived at the same time as Call of Duty titles, apart from a weak contribution from the Italian plumber and ZombiU there was nothing for fans, not even a new Zelda game (sulk). Fans don’t see the point in buying a console with just the ‘TBA’ release date promise for the games they want. Asda also recently cut their price for the Wii U by around £50 depending on [...]
Students love freebies! A lot of students love chicken! Tomorrow (May 7th), KFC are giving you a free piece of chicken! It’s all part of their new advertising campaign to reassure us that its chicken is A grade quality. The managing director for KFC in the UK and Ireland is Martin Shuker. He explains to us in a short promotional video how their chicken carries the Red Tractor (link) symbol. If you want to watch the video, see the link below. If you want FREE CHICKEN. Simply ‘click here’. It’s only valid on the 7th May. Enjoy. KFC – How we freshly prepare our chicken: http://youtu.be/YkvlhepnABo Tweet
Live at Leeds is fast approaching, and if you’re anything like me, the inevitable question of “Oh god, what do I wear?!” has probably started creeping into your head. Well, we at The Met Online saw this as the perfect excuse to continue our fashion in music feature. We asked four mega babes from different aspects of the Leeds music scene to show us their favourite festival looks, and provide us with some much needed inspiration! Forget the typical festival staples of mud coated wellies, floaty dresses and sunglasses – think dramatic pieces that will take you from day to night, and shoes that look less than sensible, but won’t leave hobbling off home before it gets dark. Take a peek at the super fun outfits that our girls put together as we chatted to them in the Brudenell Social Club about which bands they are most excited to see come Saturday! Louisa Osborn is one half of Witch Hunt – a sparkly Leeds based band with a sinister edge. This is the first year [...]
I’m sure a lot of us are guilty of avoiding eye contact with the ‘beggar’ obstructing our path in the street, either throwing what change we have at them or possibly just walking on by because ‘they only use that money on drugs and alcohol anyway’. However, homelessness in the UK is becoming a real problem with government statistics in 2012 showing that 2,309 are sleeping rough – an increase of 31% on 2010. The short definition of being homeless is ‘is without a home, therefore typically living on the streets’ however, this explanation doesn’t encompass the variety of reasons why an individual may have become homeless, when in fact, a recent survey showed there are around 15 factors which contribute to homelessness. The common thought is that many beggars have faced economic problems due to alcohol or drug misuse, although in reality, many often suffer with an acute lack of self-esteem, have a serve mental health issue or could even be unable to support themselves after leaving an abusive relationship or family problems. Therefore, many homeless people [...]
For those who aren’t aware of what The Met Ball is exactly, it’s the annual ball that celebrates the opening of the fashion exhibit at the costume institute that takes place in the infamous museum “The Met”. The red carpet event takes place in none other than the museum itself which is located in New York City and is hosted by Vogue who also creates the guest list. A whole host of fabulously dressed celebrities attend the annual event which includes a cocktail hour and a formal dinner. All attendees are dressed to the 10’ns and this year was no exception. Each year the event has a dress code theme. Previous years have included “Super Heroes, Fashion and Fantasy” “The house of Chanel” and “Goddess: the classical mode”, this year the theme was “Punk, Chaos to Couture”, and the celebrities definitely didn’t disappoint. Below are a few of my favourite outfits from 2013. Both fabulous and the crazy! What punk rocker goes out without some serious studs? 2013’s new “IT” girl, Cara Delevingne looked fantastic whilst rocking [...]
