Blossoms @ The Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh

Yesterday I was at one of the most enjoyable gigs of my life so far, Blossoms, a band that have been growing rapidly on the UK indie music scene.

The gig was at the Liquid Rooms, one of Scotland's most well-known intimate venues. I'd never been before, and although knowing that it was only an 800 capacity venue, I was surprised to see how small it was inside, but I think this added to the atmosphere of the gig.

After the venue played music from Viola Beach, the support band came on, an energetic group of five lads from Liverpool. Their set was excellent, and I highly recommend you give them a listen.

After what probably wasn't but seemed like a long wait, Blossoms themselves came onstage, breaking into their song Cut me and I'll bleed. The atmosphere in the venue was phenomenal throughout the entire gig.

They then played the energetic At most a kiss which got the crowd bouncing and moshing. They also played Smoke, Polka Dot Bones, Across the Moor, My favourite room, Blown Rose and You pulled a gun on me.

A really good moment was when Charlemagne came on, and the entire venue was on it's feet. My friend and I were lucky enough to be at barrier, right in front of lead singer Tom Ogden.

The finale of this amazing gig was the song Blow, and at one point the entire crowd was singing the words without the band having to anything, which was absolutely amazing!

Overall, it was one of the best gigs I'd ever been too, and I can't wait for Blossoms to tour again with their album that should be out later this year!

After the gig, I had the privilege of meeting Tom, Myles, Charlie and Joe outside the venue. They were really nice and down to earth to chat to, and they signed my setlist. I also managed to get a few selfies (apologies for my face, I look like an egg)

Why America have it all wrong about Hillary

America are currently preparing for their party elections to decide the main candidate from each party for President. As things stand in the Democrat Party, Hillary Clinton is currently in the lead on the polls with an estimate of 51.6% of the votes, whilst Bernie Sanders stands at 37.2%.

If you ask anyone in this country, they likely won't have heard of Mr Sanders. Could this reflect America's view of Sanders? I hope not.

The thing is, Bernie Sanders is the good guy. He wants to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure, combat global warming, have a fair tax reform, protect vulnerable Americans, make healthcare free, tackle the dominance of wall street, make college affordable, raise the minimum wage and bring in equal pay. I could go on, but those are some of the main reasons why Sanders should be the Democrat candidate.

Clinton on the other hand, proves awfully hazy on many key policy areas. She hasn't given her voters as clear plans as Sanders has. This is an awfully important thing to bear in mind when voting, because any politician can easily say they'll commit to something. We have no idea if they have a clear plan for it or not. In Clinton case, many of her possible voters just don't know.

Clinton has also proved to be one of those 'bandwagon' politicians; meaning she will jump to support a cause when it becomes popular to. For example, compared to Sanders, her campaign efforts for same sex marriage were rather poor. But when the law came into effect, she quickly got her team to create a range of LGBT+ products (e.g; t-shirts with her logo in rainbow lettering). If that isn't the epitome of corporate capitalism then I don't know what is!

'But how come Clinton is top of the polls then?' I hear you ask. Because her voters just haven't simply been informed. I'm not here to slander the American population, because many of the most respectable political figures have been American. And I hardly blame the population. It's not everyone's cup of tea to go and deliberately research political candidates in their spare time, and that's okay! It should be up to the media to provide equal coverage of each candidate, and make sure the voters have a clear understanding of who they're voting for. But the media haven't done this. This cartoon may shed some light as to why Clinton has fared so well this time.

The popular media of the US are on Clinton's side. Obviously they're not always blatantly stating "Hillary should win! I love Hillary!" but they are showing support to her by refusing to show Sanders' views and policies clearly.

Many people like Clinton because she's a woman. It would be wonderful to have a female president, and gender representation in politics is an extremely important thing. However, if we overlook this, is Clinton really the better candidate?

The media are horribly selective when it comes to showing politics. They'll pick a candidate they find the most 'socially acceptable' to support and report on their good stories. On the other hand, they'll report on incredibly controversial candidates to sell a story. If I was a US citizen, I'd much rather hear about Sanders' plans to make healthcare free than what Trump has been saying.

The thing that the media take for granted is that, generally, people believe them. If they news say it's good, the public say it's good. This is why the media shouldn't be scared to provide more coverage on an outsider like Sanders. 

Aside from her media support, Clinton has received massive donations. A politician with the most money will create the most impressive (policies aside) campaign. They'll be able to get support from large business and famous people, book to speak at well-known venues and produce the most leaflets and billboards. Clinton has received most of her monetary support from big businesses and banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase & Co. This really shows how much of a massive influence big businesses play in political results, and that's exactly what Sanders has been campaigning against.

Sanders' main donations have come from trade unions. Does this show that he is more of a people's person than Clinton? I think it does.

It shouldn't be up to the media or big businesses to decide who the president should be. It's up to the people. 

So that should show you that America is wrong with Clinton. I'm not saying, definitely don't vote for her, because she has many many genuinely informed supporters. I'm just saying take your time to read about the other candidates, and don't be afraid to support an outsider like Sanders.

Theresa May's new immigration laws and why they are wrong

As of April this year, any migrant worker in the UK will face deportation if they don't earn £35,000 or more.

This is wrong. Wrong on so many levels.

What Theresa May and her party are failing to see, is that the average Brit doesn't even earn that. In fact, the average UK salary is £26,500. But I'm hardly surprised that Theresa May has thought like that, since she's from a party who expect everyone to somehow have hoards of money lying around.

To many, £35,000 is a dream salary, whilst it is looked down upon by others. May's new law will cause the break up migrant families, a loss of confidence amongst them and absolutely no economic relief whatsoever.

That's right. This plan will save the UK no money. Don't be afraid to admit it, that this is merely a plan hatched by May to rid the country of 'foreign blood'.

In fact, the plan will if anything damage the UK. Having a diverse country is an asset. It opens up new opportunities for learning languages and making political friendships.

But here's matter more important. The plan will create massive staff shortages in many professions that are crucial to us. Here are a few of these jobs that pay lower than £35,000

• Teachers (Between £18,000 and £36,000)
• NHS Nurse (£21,692 rising to £28,180)
• Cashier (using Tesco as an example: £12,000)
• Waiter/waitress (£5,660)
• Janitor in a school (£5,490 - £14,338)

The NHS have released that this plan will actually cost them MILLION. Can we really afford this?

I think not. This plan will affect all of us too, as we'll have less people in important professions. Whilst avoiding any stereotypes, it's statistically common to find migrant workers taking up menial jobs that us Brits don't want to do. Is this not a good thing Theresa May? After all, these migrant workers are improving their lives by finding work, and improving our economy at the same time.

So if I had one thing to say to Mrs May and her friends, it would be this. Abolish this plan. And instead, why don't you focus your attention on a more urgent matter, such as the NHS.

If you feel strongly about this, there are plenty of petitions that you can sign. This is one that I signed today - 38degrees

Star Wars: The Force Awakens REVIEW

This has been probably the most long awaited film that was released in 2015, setting fans' hearts racing the moment the trailer was released - and even before that. And so when the film was released, cinemas around the world were packed full of Star Wars fans and those new to the franchise. Kids dressed up as storm-troopers and even adults dressed up as Han Solo queued up for tickets, before sitting down, hardly able to contain their excitement, as we watched the most epic film of 2015.

Before you continue reading, have you seen the film? If not, don't read on! There are going to be several spoilers in this review so don't ruin the film for yourself! Because this is my first film review, I'm going to focus on the things I loved about the film instead of going into huge detail. 

The characters and casting

The new characters (Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren and BB-8) bring a freshness to the film and are all extremely well written. The casters of the film have been praised for having a very diverse leading cast. Many of you are probably thinking, why does it matter what race or gender the characters are? It does matter, and that is something called representation.

Finn
Finn, who begins in the film as a human male storm-trooper, deserts the First Order and helps captured pilot Poe Dameron escape from his captors; also the First Order. This sends Finn plummeting into the action. Finn is played by John Boyega, a very talented black British actor. It is quite sadly rare to find minority groups, particularly black people, represented positively in films. Usually, they are usually stereotyped or the entire gimmick of the movie is that every character is black. But this film was different. Whilst scrolling through Twitter the other day, I came across a picture of a a little black boy, probably about eight years old. He was wearing a storm-trooper outfit, similar to that of Finn's in the film. The next photo was a screenshot of a Facebook post that his mother had posted about how happy we was to see someone who 'looked like him' in his favourite film franchise. Aside from this, Finn is a great character, who bravely risks his life for his friends by taking on Kylo Ren himself.

Rey

Rey is the main character of the film, and a pretty badass character. She shows bravery and confidence but also compassion and love to those closest to her. Rey starts off as a measly scavanger from Jakku, before meeting a lost droid named BB-8. Soon she comes across Finn and this sends both of them plummeting into a galaxy-spanning conflict. Rey also provides a great role model for young female fans of the film, as she is the one to beat Kylo Ren in the end of the film. Another aspect I like is how the film doesn't include any romance between Finn and herself, which focuses the film more on the action and the main plot. 

BB-8

Could we call a robot adorable? Well with BB-8 we can. BB-8 is a skittish but loyal droid belonging to resistance fighter Poe Dameron. When storm-troopers attack, BB-8 is forced to leave Poe and escape to another part of Jakku where it befriends Rey and then Finn. BB-8 acts as a mascot to the film. You can actually buy your own BB-8 for about £130 which you can control from your smart phone!

Kylo Ren
I thought that Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) was a very unique and un-stereotypical type of villain, and I loved this. One of my favourite scenes was when Kylo removed his mask for the first time and the first thing I thought was that he looks good. He has a fresh face, a kind face almost, which created a great contrast. Darth Vader, who Kylo seems to look up to, wore a mask because he had to. But Kylo wore one to hide his face, because he didn't look like a villain without it.

Bringing in characters from the original films such as Han Solo, Chewbacca and Leia to the story would satisfy older fans and these new characters would help keep the franchise fresh and attract new fans. So well done to the writers and casting crew!

The story

There were absolutely no clues on what the story would be about and it was incredibly gripping when I watched it. I thought that the story moved ahead at exactly the right pace. A bad film would have conversational scenes all the way through until the very last scene, which would be the climatic action scene. However this film had a mixture of conversational and action scenes throughout the whole film which kept you on the edge of your cinema seat.

There was one small thing that got me though. The end scene, when Rey finds the island that Luke is supposed to on. She sees a cloaked figure, which we assume is Luke. I would've ended the film there, before the figure turned around. This would've created an even more effective cliff hanger.

Apart from that, I thought the story was amazing and there wasn't a boring scene at all!


So in conclusion, the film was probably the best film I saw in 2015 and words cannot describe how excited I am for the next one in the series!

Fracking, and why we should ban it

Imagine this. You come in from school and you go to your sink to pour a glass of water. It tastes a little funny, but you ignore it. Then, a few days later you are admitted to hospital, as you are constantly vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. This is because your water supply has been contaminated by dangerous chemicals. Your parents or carers now have to fork out for bottled water – an expensive alternative. This is something that shouldn’t happen to anyone. And what can cause this? Fracking.

We'll have all heard of fracking, it's been a huge topic of discussion amongst British politicians over the recent years. Today, MPs in the house of commons voted in favour of fracking under national parks. And this is a serious problem.

(Source: BBC News)

What is Fracking exactly? Fracking, or Hydraulic Fracturing is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale rocks and release natural gas found inside, and this gas is used as an energy source.

Fracking may create instant energy to power houses across the UK, but it won’t last, and it has terrible long term negative effects. And I strongly believe that we should ban it from taking off in Britain.

Fracking requires and wastes our money and resources. It costs roughly £3 million per fracking job, and each fracking well can only be fracked 18 times. So if you do the maths for that, each fracking will use up £54 million. For one fracking well.  It takes up to 8 million gallons of water to complete each fracking job.  The water is mixed with sand and chemicals. Approx. 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used each time. Currently, the United States has 500,000 fracking wells in use, so if you do the maths here too it amounts to  72 trillion gallons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals to run the US’ current fracking wells. So we can clearly see that fracking wastes our money and resources to a huge extent.

Up to 600 different chemicals are used in the process. For example, it uses Lead, Uranium, Mercury, Radium, Methanol and Hydrochloric acid, all very dangerous to the human system. During the process, methane gas and these toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater, letting these chemicals get into your system. Mercury can have a negative effect on your brain and nervous system if you consume it, whilst Lead is devastating to the human body, inhibiting oxygen and calcium transport and altering nerve transmission in the brain.

Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells and there have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water. The waste fluid is left in open air pits to evaporate, releasing harmful VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone. So we can clearly see that Fracking is dangerous to the environment and can negatively affect the water we drink.

As shown by the number of MPs who voted in favour of fracking, it's shockingly clear that too many of our politicians are pro-fracking. David Cameron and George Osborne have both shown support to the idea of fracking over the years, and it is highly likely that they voted in favour. Even more ironically, our own environment minister Liz Truss is pro-fracking. 

      

      Politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn, Andy Burnham and Tim Farron have all shown that they're against fracking.

      Public opinion also swings this way. This survey carried out by the Guardian shows that in 2015, the number of anti-frackers overtook the number of pro-frackers. Maybe our representatives can listen to the public for once.

There are many other and cleaner alternatives to this process such as wind power, wave and sea power and poo-power (yes you read that right), and our politicians should be committing to finding more ways to power our country, rather than using the unsafe, inefficient and unsustainable process of fracking.

10 reasons why you should HATE Donald Trump

We've all heard about Donald Trump. The man appears almost everywhere; on the News, on social media and in newspapers. And there really is only one word to describe him - an idiot.

Trump isn't even a politician. He's a rich snob who made of his money through investing and inheriting. And he was somehow advised to run for president, probably by his own minuscule brain.
 Trump has been called a modern day Hitler and has come out with some of the most stupid, racist, and often laughable things. So why exactly should you hate this man?

10. He raped his wife. Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana Trump reported on several occasions that during their marriage, Trump forced her into sex without her consent. The most disgusting this about this, is that Trump never got in trouble for it.

9. On the theme of sexual assault, he said that Mexican immigrants were 'rapists'.

8. Also on this theme, he tweeted this. "26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?"

7. He wants to stop immigration into the US even though his family were technically immigrants.

6. He is against gay marriage and says he wants to keep marriage more traditional. Except, Trump doesn't really know how to hold down one, as he has had more than one wife in his lifetime.

5. He wants to Muslims to carry ID around in public to show that they're Muslims. Does that seem a bit familiar? Think Germany 1938.

4. If he can't control his hair, how can he control a country?

3. He wants to take money from America's already crumbling economy and build a wall around the Mexican border, instead of investing in education and healthcare.

2. He made fun of a disabled news reporter during a public speech.

1. He wants to ban Muslims from entering the US

Blossoms Charlemagne Review

Hello! Today I'm going to be talking one of my favourite bands at the moment, Blossoms, and their latest EP; Charlemagne!

First of all, I'd like to apologise for not writing for such a long time - I had mock exams at school and I was completely embedded in stress & work. But I'm back now, and should be writing more posts.

I've written about this band before which you can find somewhere on my blog, but Blossoms are definitely one of the best new acts around. 

The EP has been released on iTunes & Google Play and the band made signed copies of their vinyl EP available but these have sold out. The Vinyl will be released for the 18th of December.

The EP consist of four songs, and opens with the energetic 'Charlemagne'. With rich distinctive vocals & a brilliant bassline throughout the song, this song is definitely the perfect opener to any EP or album. The guitar parts make the song very compelling, and it makes you feel energetic listening to it.

The next song is the very upbeat & buoyant 'Across the moor'. The keyboards are crisp and snappy, and the vocals are sleek. I felt very chilled out when I first listened to the song. The song is simple, but simply excellent.

Then we have 'Polka Dot Bones'. Lead singer Tom Ogden's rich vocals are enticing &  draw you into the song. The guitar is dynamic & gives the song a very determined feel. This is definitely the most rock-like song the band have released, and is probably my favourite song on the EP.

The last song is called 'For Evelyn'. The dominant instrument here is the piano, the beautiful stunning magnificent piano. Tom's vocals are beautiful and almost tear inducing, but I'm not complaining at all. This is definitely Blossoms' most emotional song, with passionate and beautifully written lyrics.

Overall, this EP is one of my favourite four song records I've ever had the privilege of listening to. It makes me really excited to see them live in Edinburgh in March & for their debut album.

You can follow the band on Instagram & Twitter, or like them on Facebook. But definitely, definitely buy this amazing EP from itunes/google play, because you will fall in love with it!