The talk of the toon this year is, as always, the night life...Newcastle upon Tyne has been voted the 8th ‘Top City for Night Life’... in the world! You can see why, with its’ vast array of vibrant and exciting bars restaurants and clubs. This multicultural, energetic and luminous city comes to life at night. With 40,000 lively students plus tens of thousands of other young people, if you want to party come to Newcastle!
Get the party started
Let me paint you a picture...its Friday night, you and your flat mates are off to the pub and you want somewhere cheap with good booze and great music to get warmed up. You head to The Goose in the heart of town and after a couple of drinks you walk down the road to Popolos for cocktails, funky beats and pretty people...things are looking up! The party is getting started and you fancy strutting your stuff, so you mosey on down to Digital for a night of award winning DJs at Wax-on. After a few hours it’s murder on the dance floor and suddenly you have a craving for pizza/kebab/chips so before heading back to halls you drop in at Munchies, open ‘til 4am! The perfect end to a perfect night...you just know that’s going to hurt tomorrow!!
Well, perhaps that wasn’t the picture you wanted but that’s alright, because with a huge selection of bars and clubs you are bound to find something that tickles your fancy.
Newcastle is your oyster
For your fill of cheesy tunes and ‘pop-tastic’ melodies why not try Mood at the Gate, Wiggle at Northumbria Student’s Union, Blu Bambu (at the Bigg Market) or Boom 90s! Alternatively visit upstairs in Mood, Tiger Tiger, Sinners or Sam Jacks for an R&B overload Fri-Mon.
If that’s not your bag baby then maybe you’d like to check out the indie sounds of Bulletproof (Carling Academy). This night is packed full of like-minded dudes with one goal...to have fun, for more of the same visit Digital (Times Square) on Thursday nights for Foundation, The Cooperage on Mondays or The Cosmic Ballroom in China Town.
If you’re still not convinced perhaps I can lure you to the Jazz Cafe on Pink Lane for some live music from some of the most talented musicians in the North East! This cosy and old-fashioned living room is a hidden little beauty in Newcastle. If live music is your thing then you might like to check out The Head of Steam at Central Station, The Cluny in Byker, Mr Lynch at Jesmond Metro, Metro Radio Arena or Newcastle Carling Academy.
The beauty of Newcastle is that there is something to do every night of the week and it is always student friendly! For something a bit quirky why not check out the Hyena Comedy club on Leazes Lane; this joint holds a cheap Thursday night comedy session with award-winning comedians and top nosh.
Geordie cuisine
Speaking of food...Newcastle’s multi-cultural city is so diverse that you can expect to find an abundance of world-wide delicacies. Based on Stowell Street, China Town has a lot to offer and is ideal if you’re on a budget. The vast array of oriental buffets at low prices is impossible to resist!
If you prefer a good curry then you will not be disappointed Newcastle is home to some incredible Indian cuisine starting with Spice Cube at the Gate. This little gem is hot stuff; a chic and modern twist on the traditional Indian restaurant leaves you wanting more!!
Newcastle is also host to a beautiful selection of Italian restaurants. My favourite has to be Uno’s on the Quayside; a quaint, warm, romantic little getaway from the bustle of the city. With pizza and pasta from just five pounds you can’t go wrong! For more Italian food drop by Osborne Rd during happy hour and maybe go for a few drinks afterwards and ‘push the button’ for your chance of a free round.
A shopaholic’s paradise
Newcastle is riddled with shops, from rare boutiques to high street fashion retailers. Northumberland Street will be your retreat after a dull lecture, with shops on offer such as Oasis, Topshop, Miss Selfridge, H&M, USC, Schuh, Lush and department stores like Fenwicks and John Lewis. If that’s not enough you can escape to the MetroCentre, the largest shopping and leisure centre in Europe.
Pride of the Toon Army
If you’re fan of the ‘footie’ you will not be disappointed in Newcastle. St James’ Park houses 52387 supporters and is the envy of most clubs in Europe. Here you can also find Shearer’s Bar which won the award for ‘Best Overall Bar’ in a trade event called Safe Newcastle and is the Toon’s biggest watering hole.
So that’s great bars, great restaurants, great clubs,live music and fantastic shops at your fingertips. When you’re choosing a city to study in, choose Newcastle upon Tyne. 40,000 students can’t be wrong!
For more information visit:
http://www.visitnewcastlegateshead.co.uk/
http://www.thecrackmagazine.com/
11 February 2008
22 January 2008
Men drink twice as much as women
Britain’s reputation for drinking may be on the up this week as official figures reveal the worst culprits and overall trends.
According to the Office for National Statistics men drink twice as much as women, exactly 18.7 units a week compared to just 9 units for women.
The report also found that men drink more often than women with one in five men drinking on five out of seven days.
Despite stereotypes about Scotland’s drinking habits, the ONS report says that England and Wales consume larger amounts of alcohol. Figures come in at 13.7 and 13.5 units a week, on average, respectively, compared with 11.6 units in Scotland.
The report on drinking is based on data collated from its 2006 General Household Survey of around 16,500 households across Britain.
An ONS Omnibus survey called Drinking: adults’ behaviour and knowledge in 2007 explores pub-goers’ response to the bans on smoking in public places and involved 2,229 adults aged 16 and above.
This found that four-fifths of drinkers who said they visited pubs said that the ban on smoking in public places would not affect, or had not affected how often went.
The ONS report uses a new assessment method that considers the affect of bigger measures and stronger drinks.
Due to the change of method it is not possible to compare these figures with those of previous years however estimates from the last ten years suggest that the trend in drinking may be decreasing.
According to the Office for National Statistics men drink twice as much as women, exactly 18.7 units a week compared to just 9 units for women.
The report also found that men drink more often than women with one in five men drinking on five out of seven days.
Despite stereotypes about Scotland’s drinking habits, the ONS report says that England and Wales consume larger amounts of alcohol. Figures come in at 13.7 and 13.5 units a week, on average, respectively, compared with 11.6 units in Scotland.
The report on drinking is based on data collated from its 2006 General Household Survey of around 16,500 households across Britain.
An ONS Omnibus survey called Drinking: adults’ behaviour and knowledge in 2007 explores pub-goers’ response to the bans on smoking in public places and involved 2,229 adults aged 16 and above.
This found that four-fifths of drinkers who said they visited pubs said that the ban on smoking in public places would not affect, or had not affected how often went.
The ONS report uses a new assessment method that considers the affect of bigger measures and stronger drinks.
Due to the change of method it is not possible to compare these figures with those of previous years however estimates from the last ten years suggest that the trend in drinking may be decreasing.
23 December 2007
UK versus USA: the battle of the young entrepreneurs
The government wants to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. If this is to happen, students and graduates are going to play a big part. As Brown looks across the pond to the ‘enterprise culture’ of the USA, where Larry Page created Google almost from his dorm room, and Facebook, the brainchild of Harvard graduate Mark Zuckerberg, has just been valued at £15bn, he must be wondering if the UK will start to see similar graduate success stories from our own universities.
The signs are looking good. According to the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), 11% of students are currently engaged in ‘enterprise and entrepreneurship related activities’, a steady increase from ten years ago. But this is still compared to 50% of US students. So what’s causing the difference?
Entrepreneurialism in the UK is getting more publicity than ever before. TV programmes The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den have both made a huge impact in the way in which is entrepreneurialism is regarded by the public. Traditionally, becoming an entrepreneur was seen as a respectable career in the US, but it did not have the same status in the UK. Strange as it may seem, Alan Sugar and Peter Jones have arguably done more to change this than the PM’s initiatives ever could.
And budding entrepreneurs are now able to access a plethora of information about starting and funding a business venture. Websites such as www.businessweek.co.uk, www.growingbusiness.com, www.enterpriseweek.co.uk, www.startups.co.uk and www.berr.gov.uk offer help for young hopefuls who need advice about anything from funding to legal issues.
Anne Haswell, International Business student at Northumbria University, believes that her generation has seen an increase in support for enterprise-minded students:
“There is so much advice and help out there now, that the opportunities are boundless for young entrepreneurs. Unfortunately that does mean that competition is now higher than ever before and it has become increasingly difficult to come up with something ‘original’ – but that’s just the nature of the beast!”
Government initiatives and high-profile entrepreneurs are also concentrating on spreading the entrepreneurial word among the young. For example serial entrepreneur Oli Barrett launched the Make Your Mark with a Tenner Challenge, an initiative in which 10,000 students were given £10 and just one month to generate as much profit and social impact as they could. Says Matt Thomas, editor of Startups: “Credit must go to the government's Enterprise Insight projects such as Make Your Mark, What If!, and the Social Enterprise Coalition for channelling enterprise funding and support to young people of diverse backgrounds.”
And institutions such as banks are also getting involved in the new wave of entrepreneurialism: in 2008 we will see the results of the HSBC Unipreneurs Awards – which aim to discover and encourage a new generation of university educated entrepreneurs.
The number and profile of young entrepreneurs is consequently rising. Fraser Doherty, for example, is only 18 and is currently managing director of Eat Super Ltd, which produces a range of no added sugar ‘super fruit’ spreads - SuperJams. He was hailed the 2007 Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the NatWest Startups Awards and his product is gracing the shelves in leading supermarkets. “He’s evidence of entrepreneurial potential now being fulfilled at an early age and not lost inside large organisations that seldom recognise the value of young talented people,” says Thomas.
Similarly, Growing Business Magazine’s Young Guns Awards unveiled a profusion of talented entrepreneurs under 30 including Tom Allason who, along with university friend Jay Bregman, founded online courier service eCourier in 2002.
Alex Tew’s business idea was even inspired by the prospect of going to university – daunted by the idea of student debt, he decided to try and make $1m, and came up with the Million Dollar Homepage, selling pixels to advertisers. The idea was so successful that his university career became an unfortunate victim to his entrepreneurial ventures.
And Ben Way, 27, is the founder of The Rainmakers, Brightstation Ventures, ViaPost and The Horsesmouth, and was on the Sunday Times Rich List at the age of just 19.
Another development making entrepreneurship accessible to young people is of course technology. The new Web 2.0 generation has opened the door to a ‘Global Village’ which neither America nor Britain can monopolise. The internet, says Matt Thomas, ‘has shattered the barriers to entry that previously held people back; enabling budding entrepreneurs of any age to instinctively act on and commercialise their ideas’.
Fantastically successful Web 2.0 enterprises such as Last.fm and Where Are You Now? (WAYN), both set up by young entrepreneurs, are testament to this.
As a result, though the UK lags behind the US in terms of entrepreneurial activity, there’s a palpable sense of things changing. With increasing support from the government, more inspiration, high-profile role models, and advances in technology, entrepreneurs of any age are looking at greater chances of success.
There’s something missing in this mix though, and it’s this that the NCGE identified: The role of universities. Fewer than 50% of universities have ‘enterprise characteristics’, according to the NCGE, something it says has to change. Though the enterprise culture may be in existence in schools, on TV and through a plethora of government-sponsored initiatives and events, it still is not there in the echelons of higher education.
Says Ian Robertson, NCGE chief executive:
“We would like to see all universities displaying entrepreneurial characteristics and all students exposed to innovative enterprise and entrepreneurship learning opportunities. Current levels of engagement and provision are unacceptable and damaging to our economic and social prospects.
“The government has spent a lot of money on this over the past ten years, but universities are still not enterprise-friendly, by and large.”
Says Matt Thomas: "More of UK's young people are rightly considering starting a business as a viable career option when leaving school, college or university - or alternatively as a way of funding their studies.” This is encouraging, but the fact that 50% of students in America are involved in entrepreneurial activity still seems staggering to us. Perhaps if the enterprise culture manages to infiltrate its way into higher education, in the way it’s taught and promoted, it won’t seem so for much longer. And it will be the students and the graduates who make the UK the best place in the world to set up a business.
The signs are looking good. According to the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), 11% of students are currently engaged in ‘enterprise and entrepreneurship related activities’, a steady increase from ten years ago. But this is still compared to 50% of US students. So what’s causing the difference?
Entrepreneurialism in the UK is getting more publicity than ever before. TV programmes The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den have both made a huge impact in the way in which is entrepreneurialism is regarded by the public. Traditionally, becoming an entrepreneur was seen as a respectable career in the US, but it did not have the same status in the UK. Strange as it may seem, Alan Sugar and Peter Jones have arguably done more to change this than the PM’s initiatives ever could.
And budding entrepreneurs are now able to access a plethora of information about starting and funding a business venture. Websites such as www.businessweek.co.uk, www.growingbusiness.com, www.enterpriseweek.co.uk, www.startups.co.uk and www.berr.gov.uk offer help for young hopefuls who need advice about anything from funding to legal issues.
Anne Haswell, International Business student at Northumbria University, believes that her generation has seen an increase in support for enterprise-minded students:
“There is so much advice and help out there now, that the opportunities are boundless for young entrepreneurs. Unfortunately that does mean that competition is now higher than ever before and it has become increasingly difficult to come up with something ‘original’ – but that’s just the nature of the beast!”
Government initiatives and high-profile entrepreneurs are also concentrating on spreading the entrepreneurial word among the young. For example serial entrepreneur Oli Barrett launched the Make Your Mark with a Tenner Challenge, an initiative in which 10,000 students were given £10 and just one month to generate as much profit and social impact as they could. Says Matt Thomas, editor of Startups: “Credit must go to the government's Enterprise Insight projects such as Make Your Mark, What If!, and the Social Enterprise Coalition for channelling enterprise funding and support to young people of diverse backgrounds.”
And institutions such as banks are also getting involved in the new wave of entrepreneurialism: in 2008 we will see the results of the HSBC Unipreneurs Awards – which aim to discover and encourage a new generation of university educated entrepreneurs.
The number and profile of young entrepreneurs is consequently rising. Fraser Doherty, for example, is only 18 and is currently managing director of Eat Super Ltd, which produces a range of no added sugar ‘super fruit’ spreads - SuperJams. He was hailed the 2007 Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the NatWest Startups Awards and his product is gracing the shelves in leading supermarkets. “He’s evidence of entrepreneurial potential now being fulfilled at an early age and not lost inside large organisations that seldom recognise the value of young talented people,” says Thomas.
Similarly, Growing Business Magazine’s Young Guns Awards unveiled a profusion of talented entrepreneurs under 30 including Tom Allason who, along with university friend Jay Bregman, founded online courier service eCourier in 2002.
Alex Tew’s business idea was even inspired by the prospect of going to university – daunted by the idea of student debt, he decided to try and make $1m, and came up with the Million Dollar Homepage, selling pixels to advertisers. The idea was so successful that his university career became an unfortunate victim to his entrepreneurial ventures.
And Ben Way, 27, is the founder of The Rainmakers, Brightstation Ventures, ViaPost and The Horsesmouth, and was on the Sunday Times Rich List at the age of just 19.
Another development making entrepreneurship accessible to young people is of course technology. The new Web 2.0 generation has opened the door to a ‘Global Village’ which neither America nor Britain can monopolise. The internet, says Matt Thomas, ‘has shattered the barriers to entry that previously held people back; enabling budding entrepreneurs of any age to instinctively act on and commercialise their ideas’.
Fantastically successful Web 2.0 enterprises such as Last.fm and Where Are You Now? (WAYN), both set up by young entrepreneurs, are testament to this.
As a result, though the UK lags behind the US in terms of entrepreneurial activity, there’s a palpable sense of things changing. With increasing support from the government, more inspiration, high-profile role models, and advances in technology, entrepreneurs of any age are looking at greater chances of success.
There’s something missing in this mix though, and it’s this that the NCGE identified: The role of universities. Fewer than 50% of universities have ‘enterprise characteristics’, according to the NCGE, something it says has to change. Though the enterprise culture may be in existence in schools, on TV and through a plethora of government-sponsored initiatives and events, it still is not there in the echelons of higher education.
Says Ian Robertson, NCGE chief executive:
“We would like to see all universities displaying entrepreneurial characteristics and all students exposed to innovative enterprise and entrepreneurship learning opportunities. Current levels of engagement and provision are unacceptable and damaging to our economic and social prospects.
“The government has spent a lot of money on this over the past ten years, but universities are still not enterprise-friendly, by and large.”
Says Matt Thomas: "More of UK's young people are rightly considering starting a business as a viable career option when leaving school, college or university - or alternatively as a way of funding their studies.” This is encouraging, but the fact that 50% of students in America are involved in entrepreneurial activity still seems staggering to us. Perhaps if the enterprise culture manages to infiltrate its way into higher education, in the way it’s taught and promoted, it won’t seem so for much longer. And it will be the students and the graduates who make the UK the best place in the world to set up a business.
20 November 2007
CD Review - Newton Faulkner
Hand Built by Robots An old soul with a handmade guitar, husky voice and dreadlocks - now widely known for his unique version of Massive Attack’s Teardrop Newton Faulkner is here to stay. This 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Surrey has recently been voted Best Male for 2007 by high street retailer USC and is now on a sold out nationwide tour! Newton has managed to stun music lovers the world over with the release of his album Hand built by robots in July 07 reaching Number One on iTunes and Number Three in the UK album chart. He has supported James Morrison and Paulo Nutini on their sell-out tours and has been compared to the likes of Willy Mason, Amy MacDonald and Scott Mathews. Now he is in a genre of his own with his distinctive acoustic guitar playing techniques and self-effacing young voice.
It’s hard not to smile when you listen to Faulkner with his use of upbeat chords and innovative riffs and tones. The album immediately grabs your attention with an intro that can only be described as a plethora of talent rolled up into a neat little ball set to explode. The slow intro gradually reaches climax with fast beats and unique riffs that build up to the fantastic and enthralling To the Light. Now you know you are in for something special…
The entire album seems to reflect Newton’s personality and offers listeners a real insight to the genius that created it. He is able to manipulate emotional and sad songs and craft a beautiful and happy tone that contradicts the lyrics to the song. He almost tries to make light of the sad nature of the song and put it in perspective. I need something is a perfect example of this as he delicately picks the strings of his guitar and builds up to a faster beat and chords creating a positive tune that just makes you smile. He is almost trying to identify with the listener and form a bond of universal acknowledgment about issues in life that frustrate us all. In particular my favourite line is: “I’m sick and tired of getting nowhere” – evident of Newton’s old soul and honest nature that first attracts us to him.
Dream catch me is so soft and gentle and reveals something quite charming about Newton – his modesty. The song culminates in a series of enchanting chords and his husky voice just walks us through what seems like the journey of his life up to now. His songs continue to woo us as they unveil his vulnerability and endearing character.
The jewel of this album has got to be Teardrop for its incredible sense of anticipation that Newton builds with a slow start that reaches its pinnacle in the chorus. This track simply demonstrates his sheer range of skills as he creates dark almost sinister moments that capture and enthrall you and then brings you crashing down as he reveals sublime emotional flashes. Remarkable.
By this stage in the album Newton has won you over and convinced you of his talents. There is almost a sense of relief then when we reach Uncomfortably slow as Newton seems to relax and just let his gift shine through. This is such a personal song that seems to expose Newton’s character. For once he doesn’t try to transform a sad song into something upbeat and cheerful with a series of clever chord formations. This track seems to let the listener in and reinforces that bond between us and him as human beings trying to get through life.
As if that wasn’t enough Newton then completely takes you by surprise with U.F.O a clever, happy, upbeat and bizarre track. He has so many sides to his personality, that it seems impossible to think that anybody couldn’t relate to him and find him enjoyable to listen to.
Newton Faulkner is performing at Leeds University 29 February 2008 where he kicks off his UK tour. For tickets and information on other tour dates and venues please visit www.newtonfaulkner.com.
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