Flett-cetera

Jackalope are a three-piece blues rock band consisting of Jonah Stead on vocals and guitar, Alasdair Gauld on keys and Alistair Harrison on drums. First emerging as a concept in a charity fundraising concert in the Academy, they went on to perform at Orkney Live Aid in Matchmakers for the Philippines earthquake disaster appeal where they were talent-spotted and booked to perform in the county’s first exclusively “rock” festival in the Kirkwall Sailing Club. There, the trio upped the energy and took on a more aggressive style, which suited the event with a significant proportion of metal-heads in witness. Most recently, the lads played the Blues Festival, where they gained yet more connections in their most successful gigs to date playing in venues across Stromness including The Royal, the Stromness Hotel and the Ferry Inn.

The name Jackalope is that of the Native American mythical creature – a magical rabbit with deer antlers attributed with benevolent and dangerous qualities depending on the myth’s interpretation. The band prides itself with playing mostly original material and their own unique spin on classic blues standards. They hope to release their debut E.P imminently.

Jonah is the band’s frontman and principal songwriter. Following the break-up of the fast but bright-burning MCTB he embarked on a solo career where he honed his composition and technical skills, performing primarily for an internet audience on the audio-sharing site Soundcloud where he gained a small but dedicated following. His influences include Jack White, the Doors and classic blues artists. His guitar playing style is forceful and peppered with signature flourishes and motifs, while at the same time incorporating delicate picking, finger-work and interesting jazzy chords.

Alasdair, the piano man, keeps it cool in the back, casually keeping it all together in the absence of a bassist. He makes use of the entire range of his 88 keys in spiralling solos. Classical influences can clearly be heard amongst all the jazzy noodling, which gives a dimension of grandeur to the three-piece outfit. Sometimes he switches to organ, which is always nice to hear, given the keyboard’s capability of producing an adequate drawbar sound. A personal highlight is the flange effect, adding a sci-fi feel to particular songs.

Harrison is the latest addition to the band, joining to complete the group’s current line up at the Orkney Rock Festival, where the additional dynamic was required. He provides drive and extra energy to an already highly enthusiastic group. The addition of a drummer really elevates the sound, particularly in the newer, heavier songs – effectively increasing the contrast and the extremes of crescendo and diminuendo.

alasdair-from-jackalope-interview

http://https://soundcloud.com/alasdair-flett/jonah-harrison-from-jackalope-interview

P.S If you’d like to read more of this and other similar articles then visit StromNext’s Facebook or Twitter page and order a Stromnessian for only £5!

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Amy Golder, aged thirteen, won six gold medals at the 2014 Kickboxing World Championship. I asked her what it’s like to be the world’s top kickboxer.

How did you discover you had a talent for kickboxing?

Well when I was in primary three Ryan Raffel came to the school and did a trial session with us and I really enjoyed it. Just as Mum and Dad were phoning to ask about me starting kickboxing, Ryan Raffel was phoning them because he had spotted my talent.

Can you briefly explain what is involved in a kickboxing match?

There are an awful lot of different types. In semi-contact you can hit half as hard. You use a lot of techniques and score only one point at a time. If you hit with a move then that is one point and you go back to your places. Rounds last a minute and a half or two minutes. There are three or four rounds per fight.

I do point fighting and light continuous. Light continuous involves punching and kicking continuously. You only stop if you or your competitor turns around turn around the other player or if they touch down on the ground or fall over. Those are the two types I do.

Kick light, another category, is nearly full combat and you have to wear shorts. It is like continuous but you can only kick to the legs. I tried it for the first time ever competitively in Prague and became the world champion.

What is your training like?

I do an awful lot of training. This consists of Tuesdays and Thursdays for up to four hours. On Friday I do fighting training for an hour. On Saturday I do an hour of fighting and exercise specific to me as a one- to-one session and then two hours with fight team members; mainly high intensity stuff. At the end of this we do a burnout exercise of perhaps 400 push-ups, 300 sit-ups, 500 tricep-dips or maybe even 800. We do loads of crazy burnout exercises.

Where has the sport taken you, in terms of competitions?

In competitions when I was younger I did sword sparring. You get given headgear and use a sponge sword and shield. You can do that until about my age although I stopped when I was seven. I then went to Scottish and British championships. In 2012 and 2013 I started winning Scottish and British competitions. I then went on to come second in the World Championship and won the European Championship. In 2014 I’ve won everything I’ve entered.

In terms of places I’ve been to Italy, Greece, Germany, France and the Czech Republic. I’ve been everywhere in England and a few places in Scotland. I’m hoping to go to Germany again next year.

What does it feel like to compete against people older than you?

I’m quite used to it because I train with people who are older than me. Most people start when they are young and quit when they get older. Others start in their twenties. I started when I was young. I only know three people who started at my age and have carried it on right through.

What are your plans for the future, do you have any specific ambitions?

When I’m older I’d like to travel the world and do loads of kickboxing seminars. I’d like to teach kickboxing and start my own club. I’d like to get fifth dan black-belt. At the moment I’m a first dan first star black-belt.

What is your proudest achievement?

The Prague World Championship, also the Athens Challenge where I won the continuous section.

Would you recommend people give kickboxing a try? How can they get involved?

You can get involved by going to places where you can do kickboxing. In Orkney that’s in George Street. There are a lot of leaflets around with information in them. It’s a good thing to do if your friends do it and there are always trial sessions to go to. The first class is free and discounts are available if you pay for several sessions.

Mid-November came around again and with it a certain custard-coloured bear and the barrage of frivolous fancy-dressers who conga in his wake. The longstanding tradition of three days antics in the name of Pudsey was retained with the all the zeal of previous years and moneys requisitioned nobly for the cause.
Wednesday
Wednesday saw the tables bedecked with assorted baked goods, turning the traditional lunch/break queuing area into a thronging marketplace – where the custom could indulge in guilt-free gluttony. The buzz and bustle was interwoven with the folky textures of a busking Ceilidh band, giving spring to the step of passers-by and in some cases, the excuse to link arms and fling each other about in joyous abandon. Despite this some still found the time to launch their coppers in the buckets set before the zealous musicians.
However, no silence rivalled the tense unspoken edginess to the start of the “Bid for a Butler” proceedings. It was an auction for the services of certain plucky sixth years who had offered themselves bravely to be ascribed a value by the public and to assist the highest bidder for a full day’s labour on the culminating Friday in tasks great and small for the sake of Children in Need. Who would yield the highest total? Was the estimated value enough to win? Would there be any bids at all?
Alongside this, there was a “Beat the Goalie” competition against staff goalkeepers at lunchtime– a tournament widely spectated and much enjoyed by all who looked on. Chemistry teacher, Mr Barber showed particular aptitude in saving penalties and his colleague, Mr Blance, could not resist the chance to try and beat him – putting boot to ball in his attempt.
Thursday
It was the turn of the school cooks to deliver on the confectionary front on Thursday with Pudsey-inspired creations being produced and sold in the canteen. Again the uplifting lilt of spritely folk music was heard in the foyer to the delight of all who passed through, punctuated by the incessant clamour of monetary shrapnel resounding in the collection buckets circulating continuously throughout the day. The lecture theatre became a fairground of stalls with all the usual favourites including a lucky dip, sweeties in the jar and nail in the bale. A round robin dodgeball tournament was held in the games hall, with teams comprised of teachers, S6s, Young Ambassadors along with a Rest-of-the-School entry. All of this of course, was conducted in fancy dress with all manner of participating caricatures from robbers to Hawaiians and jocks to winter-wanderers.
Friday
Friday, as always, was a fancy dress affair. Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine crew split up to look for clues around the school. A Harry Potter posse cast their charms and Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man skipped along the yellow brick road to every class. Butlers did their service and many dressed for the part, serving gentlemen with long watch chains and walking canes.
At interval a solitary Tin-man stood and led the school into spontaneous dance. The dining hall was filled with revellers throwing shapes with varying degrees of synchronicity to the soundtrack of the Macarena. The flashmob was filmed and made it on to national television in the BBC’s evening programme.
The main event was a distinctly Orcadian take on the popular TV show “Take Me Out”, this time taking on the moniker “Tak Me Oot.” Much hilarity ensued as the vanity-stricken Mr Walker, with his luxuriant greasy locks, hooked up with Mrs Stead; the hopeful Mr Troxler (outfitted in the regalia of the covenant) was rejected by all the single ladies and the energetic Mr Beasley was bestowed with the suspiciously familiar-looking Miss Carmichael.
Watch the flashmob here:

I’ve been helping artists make a giant seal. It’s a selkie, to be more accurate; a costume for three singers to project their hopes and fears.

Playing croquet too, in the evening sun, putting on a lawn commissioned cut; although I promised not to go on in great detail.

Yes, I’ve been away for quite some time but not sat idle. There’s a project brewing, undisclosed other than existence and that it’s on the cusp of completion.
I’m in my final year at school (though these are the holidays) and doing AH English & History along with highers in Physics (after a year’s gap) and Biology (crash) that is if all goes to plan in August. I am interested in language, having studied German at higher last year, and English as well, though I’m yet to pinpoint a career or course.
Am I going away this summer? I’ve been. On a school trip to Switzerland…let me tell you about it…

Two days on a bus: not much fun. Though I witnessed the magic of Disney’s Frozen on the inbuilt cinema system along with the wonders of dazed midnight service station expeditions. Trashy chickflicks abound alas; though I had Atwood with me should I wish to block the whiny irksome voices.

On the Pia-Pia P&O Ferry I bought a headphone splitter. I gazed upon the choppy wake of our two-hour passage and watched as those most fabled chalky cliffs faded away. So my travelling companion and I shared in Talking Heads, Blondie and Arctic Monkeys until we arrived in Ghent where Belgian flags festooned the high rise flats.

I saw a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from the abysmal bus journey. Literally, it was gorge. Every corner turned unearthed a whole new trove of exquisite architecture and character. People cruised by on the canal, which ran right through the centre. It was a pedestrianized Utopia; though most used bikes (somehow all quaint and vintage) in truth. We ate warm waffles with sweet strawberries and cream; they stuck to their cardboard base but otherwise were divine. I tried a snail – wasn’t convinced.

We arrived in Switzerland the following evening. Les Mosses, specifically: La Sapiniere, a ski resort depopulated in the summer months. On the slope of a stunning U-shaped valley up a winding road with manifold hairpin bends.

Our holiday got going with a visit to La Fromagerie or “the cheesery” an alpine dairy farm opposite us. It had its charm but it wasn’t really my thing. However, you probably know this as cheese is not a subject I blog frequently about.

Anyway, after this we ascended the “Glacier 3000” by cable car. It was rather misty so there was not a great deal to be seen above a certain height. We dangled from a ski lift, which disconcertingly stopped jerkily every so often when we were just a little too high off the ground for comfort. I purchased a postcard from the German-speaking shop. Well, I assume they were German-speaking as my request was met when I spoke to them in the aforementioned tongue – I seemed to be blanked for all my efforts (perhaps I tried too hard.)

Next we were a couple of days early for the Monteux jazz festival where fences sang and a cat crept from the bushes. Against the serene background of Lake Geneva we snapped selfies with the statue of Freddie Mercury in the main square.

The day drew on the temperature rose to a sweltering 34 degrees Celsius. We arrived at the United Nations HQ in Geneva and were taken on a brisk tour where we espied the vibrant stalagmitic roof of the Human Rights assembly room and the Art Deco League of Nations era wing. Painted on the ceiling of the League of Nations chamber was a truly epic mural depicting the steps of civilisation. I wanted to buy all the books in the gift shop, consequently this left me with no choice but to leave with none.

In Chamonix we stepped into the void. There I ordered “un chocolat chaud” to more response than the language that I’d studied which equally delighted and dismayed me. We then took the funicular to yet another glacier; this time we got to go inside it. It was reminiscent, for me at least, of “The Wall” in Game of Thrones with ice all around, illuminated in an ever evolving spectrum. We climbed a long stair to access it which is made more a descent with each year as the glacier retreats and melts away.

The final day we set off to Aosta on the Italian border with Switzerland. We sampled its fine wares; the best ice cream I’ve ever had and for only two euros and of course, the pizza. By now a multilingual citizen of the world I had decided that Italian was simply a mix of French and Spanish, both languages I’d mastered (I got to level 5 Espanol on the “Duolingo” app during exam leave) and so the tongue of the city was mine to manipulate. Walking down the promenade, we were the four musketeers: the Aryan with the telescopic lens; a turquoise tangle in monochrome vertical stripes; a vision in cobalt blue and I, the American ambassador. In the quiet of a secluded alleyway the sweet song of clarinet filtered through a first floor window, practiced and performed, unaware of its own audience – a blissful moment. Not to mention someone zoomed past on a Segway!!!

And so I lie upon this bedroom’s carpet

Littered with fluff, dust, O, snapchat from Harpiic

Received at sev’n p.m, what does it say

I wonder? Ever ‘tis I do proclaim

Shall not I be inclined to soon reply.

This end of week have I so named empty

For want of songs of ice and fire aplenty

Clasped in my hand, my eyes will drink, I’ll sing

My mind a vessel for their tuneful ring

Reverberating round. My gaze is bent

To dancing, sodden fields and merriment

Enjoyed by others, none less so than she,

Who welcomes one who shares such song I bleat,

Into mine own home for with me to meet.

He’ll sing and dance as they do, like a slave

A puppet to desire. My look, grave

Enthralled to this script and form and verse

With scarce room as in a fat man’s hearse.

But who is left to blame but I alone?

I made my choice and you made yours I know

‘tis I who writes and lies on fluffy debris

Whilst you twirl, O not so steadily

And while I scribble, the guises put on

And shed, achieve a certain end, common

Ground, which is to blunt the edge and make norm

Which you do with liquid, and I with form

And so we veil the vulgar in the vague

And from ourselves and others truths do save