The most nostalgiatastic pages from the Teletext/Ceefax golden age
Internet, you killed a wonderful thing.
Bamboozle!
Bamber Boozler and family ask themed quiz questions, which you answer by pressing one of four colours on your remote control. If it sounds simple, you underrate the fiendish devilry of the Boozler mind. Hours of fun.
Now and Next
Simply go to 606 on the BBC, or 120 on the commercial channels, and be transported to a world where you are not only able to watch the programme being currently transmitted, but also to know the programme coming up next. It felt pretty cool at the time. How young we were.
Football rumours
Traditionally 312 on Ceefax, although needless tinkering in the later years somewhat diluted this iconic number brand. A football fan’s five minutes of heaven…will page 5/5 bring news of a daring swoop for your club’s much-needed new striker? Will it heck.
Dr Nick
Channel 4’s Teletext, at it’s peak, was comparable to some of the great print magazines of the era. Bamboozle!, Mega-zine, Digitiser, Planet Sound, and good old Dr Nick, whose sage advice soothed the mind of many a worry-addled suburban teen.
On this Day
Oft overlooked, tucked away on Ceefax page 143. But what juicy nuggets it provided, what nourishment to the factually undernourished brain. I can get a hundred of these each day in my Twitter feed now. That’s progress, I suppose.
23 May 2011
Brainlove Festival 2011: Meursault
With spine-tingling vocals, stuttering electronic beats and unforgettable melodies, Scottish ensemble Meursault will headline Brainlove Festival on Saturday. Get tickets here.
1. Hello! We’re really happy you’re playing Brainlove Festival. Could you introduce yourself?
I/we are a person/band called Meursault. We have existed in various guises since Spring 1936. We play a blend of rock, folk, electronic, country and more or less anything else we take an interest in at any given time.
2. Tell us a bit about the song you’ve given us.
William Henry Miller died in 1848, at the age of 60, after a short illness at his estate at Craigentinny. He was not buried until six weeks after his death and this resulted in speculation about the method of his internment. Events were reported in the newspapers under the heading ‘Singular Internment’. It was reported that eighty laborers had been hired to excavate a stone lined pit 40 feet deep as his grave and that a large stone slab was positioned at the bottom of the grave to secure the coffin.
Rumours soon developed around the reason for the elaborate burial arrangements. It was said that Miller was ‘notable for his spare figure, thin treble voice and total absence of beard’, and it was suggested that Miller, who had never married, had been an adopted female orphan who had masqueraded as a man all his life.
Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt2 by snipelondon
3. Do you have a favourite festival performance? Both from a festival you’ve played, and a show by another artist…
Our favourite was an acoustic performance in the Hew Scott Hall in Anstruther, at the Fence Collective’s Homegame festival a few years ago. There was a piano.
The best performance we’ve seen at a festival will be Josh T. Pearson at Homegame next week.
4. How about a few words for curious readers wondering what to expect from your performance at BRNLV Festival this year?
Loud guitars, banjos, beepy things, drums, some highly questionable facial hair, and fun.
23 May 2011
London agenda for Monday 23 May
1. FINALLY! Learn how to build a geodesic dome at Diesel Island [Le Cool]
2. Shortcut through time and space, at the Book Club, with Chin Keeler and Emma Torner [Run Riot]
3. Solve the problems of the world by using the lessons of Northern Ireland [Ian Visits]
4. Learn about the Order of St John [Tired of London]
23 May 2011
Brainlove Festival 2011: Special Guest Revealed
Brainlove Festival’s special guest will be David Thomas Broughton, coming fresh from a UK tour, a sold out show at Kings Place, and an four star review in NME, who said his forthcoming album Outbreeding “bleeds excellence from every pore”. Get tickets here.
1. Hello! We’re really happy you’re playing Brainlove Festival. Could you introduce yourself?
Hi, I’m David Thomas Broughton. I make sounds and sing over them.
2. Tell us a bit about the song you’ve given us.
I gave you a song, I don’t remember agreeing to that. If it is my song then it must be about being awkward, annoying and a bad boyfriend. Unless it is Ain’t Got No Sole, which is about being awkward, annoying and a bad person in general… or perhaps losing a shoe in the river.
David Thomas Broughton – Ain’t Got No Sole by brainlove
3. Do you have a favourite festival performance? Both from a festival you’ve played, and a show by another artist…
I saw Geese recently at Homegame in cosy little Anstruther, and it was probably the best thing I saw at the festival. I also played that festival but I think the show I did at SXSW was better, had Josh T Pearson and the rest of the audience join in as my chorus.
4. How about a few words for curious readers wondering what to expect from your performance at BRNLV Festival this year?
Expect predictable indie rock like I’m doing a kind of Britpop circa 1997 and you’ll be blown away. Expect harsh noise like you just stepped into a basement in Tokyo and you’ll be disappointed. Expect fleeting joy and a tinge of sadness and the feeling that you’re being hit by an invisible fist then you are my kind of audience.
21 May 2011
Hoop Dreams - XCPR
The debut 7” release from Virginia’s Hoop Dreams, appears, on first listen, to be an enjoyably electrifying homage to British post-punk (Orange Juice, The Cure), though one can’t escape the feeling that there’s a considerably wider musical palette at work here – surf, 60s psych-pop, new wave. Web-wise there’s not an awful lot to go on; according to The Stool Pigeon, XCPR comes out in June via Brooklyn label Captured Tracks, home to Wild Nothing and Beach Fossils.
20 May 2011
London agenda for Friday 20 May
1. Hear the heartbreak harmonies of the Smoke Fairies [Le Cool]
2. Be very very overwhelmed with a movie double bill, burlesque, costumes, live performance, wire hangers, photo booths, drinks promotions and DJs at Whatever happened to Mommy Dearest? [Run Riot]
3. Have a wee dram of pop-up puffery [Flavorpill]
4. Figure out the odds of seeing Fight Club in a caravan in Bethnal Green [Time Out]
5. Travel forward in time, to 6:30pm, and ponder Why science fiction speaks to us all [Ian Visits]
6. Walk in ‘billionaire’s row’ [Tired of London]
20 May 2011
Our cover artist: Anika in London
London photographer, illustrator and animator Anika created this month’s beautiful Snipe cover. Even better, she has a book of her cartoon and illustrations out.
19 May 2011
London agenda for Thursday 19 May
1. Really, Stag & Dagger is going to pretty much overpower everything else this week [Le Cool]
2. See a preview screening of Julia’s Eyes followed by a Q&A with director Guillem Morales [Run Riot]
3. What did people do in their parlours before TV? This, apparently. [Flavorpill]
4. Kill the beast at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre inaugural play of the year, Lord of the Flies [Time Out]
5. Bat walk in a cemetery [Ian Visits]
6. Explore the roof gardens at the Southbank Centre [Tired of London]
7. Check out the Serpentine for the new exhibition conceived by Mark Leckey, See, We Assemble [Lauren Down]
8. Visit Mohsin Hamid, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, poet Shane Solanki and the talented 16 year-old singer-songwriter Misty Miller at Book Slam [Jon Davis]
19 May 2011
Walthamstow cinema fans see off church plans - for now
There will be a few sore heads around E17 this morning after Waltham Forest Council rejected plans to turn Walthamstow’s only cinema into a church.
About 200 protesters gathered outside Walthamstow Assembly Rooms last night in a noisy, but largely good-natured demonstration of support for plans to restore the old cinema, which has been closed since 2003, and pressing councillors to reject proposals to turn it into a base for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
In the end, the seven councillors unanimously threw out UCKG’s plans, prompting delirium from those gathered outside – and anger from the church’s followers, who packed out the public gallery, leaving many who were due to speak to the planning board stuck outside.
But the campaign to reopen the cinema, a listed building which has also played host to concerts by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, still has a long way to go. The church owns the building, and its followers insist they are determined to see it become a place of worship.
After the meeting, police separated the two groups, with protesters – who claimed UCKG had bussed in followers from as far away as Birmingham – chanting “7-0 to the Walthamstow”.
UCKG’s followers chanted back “we won’t sell”, with one making a “loadsamoney” gesture at protesters, declaring: “It’s ours.”
“It’s our borough,” a protester responded.
The bad feeling towards UCKG was echoed inside the council chamber, with local councillor Clare Coghill telling the council none of her 10,000 High Street constituents had written to her in support of the proposals. In addition, she added, she had tried to speak to UCKG four times but without success.
“There’s a word for that, and that word is contempt,” the Labour representative told the committee.
Councillors were serenaded from outside the hall by bagpipers, while a tiny social club in the town hall grounds found itself doing a roaring trade. One woman dressed up as an usherette, handing out sweets.
Campaigners hope the newly-formed Waltham Forest Cinema Trust can acquire the building – currently covered in scaffolding – and keep it in community use.
But while film fans were celebrating into the night, they will wake up this morning knowing that while UCKG still owns the cinema, this particular saga still has a long way to go.
11.30am update: The Waltham Forest Guardian reports that UCKG will appeal against the committee’s decision.
19 May 2011
Brainlove Festival 2011: Pagan Wanderer Lu
1. Hello! We’re really happy you’re playing Brainlove Festival. Could you introduce yourself?
Hi I’m Andy. I’ve been Pagan Wanderer Lu for over ten years. Five of which I’ve been involved with Brainlove Records. I like to think I have very good brand awareness amongst Brainlove Festival consumers, who associate my product with freshness, empowerment, and misanthropy. I’ll be launching my next album and am hoping to get some strong tie-ins with footwear companies, soft drinks manufacturers, and out of town fitness facilities off the back of this appearance. Hopefully Dora the Explorer will be there.
2. Tell us a bit about the song you’ve given us.
The song is ‘Even the Cacti’ which was the b-side to a single I released last year. It’s become a bit of a live favourite and it missed being on the album by a hair’s breadth. Napoleon IIIrd says it’s my ‘Ibiza Anthem’. It’s about doing a deal with adulthood so you get to keep the bits of you that like being young and stupid. Sadly the victims of this deal are your luckless houseplants who die from neglect. :(
Pagan Wanderer Lu – Even The Cacti by snipelondon
3. Do you have a favourite festival performance? Both from a festival you’ve played, and a show by another artist…
Hands down my favourite festival show I did was at Iceland Airwaves last year. I’d warmed up over a few fringe shows in hostels and other places and then just went all out with a set of my ‘hits’. The atmosphere was just incredible as the place was full of friends and friendly Icelanders, including a guy who started doing the Rasputin dance. It was just great.
By someone else… Pavement at Primavera last year was pretty ace. ‘Gold Soundz’ in the spanish sunshine, bliss… Sadly it meant I missed Brainlove Festival due to downright stupid double booking on my part. I was so tempted to go this year and see Pulp, but that would’ve involved missing it again.
4. How about a few words for curious readers wondering what to expect from your performance at BRNLV Festival this year?
Well it’ll be mostly new songs from the new record which I’ve just finished literally days ago. Only a handful of people have heard any of it so that’s quite exciting and daunting at the same time. It’s the usual mix of electronic and indie/pop elements in various combinations. I’ve not reinvented the wheel. I’ve just made a really good new wheel which people will hopefully admire as it spins elegantly on its axis, rather than laughing as it digs itself deep into the dirt, flinging mud into the audience’s faces as they attempt to push me offstage.
If all else fails I’ll play some requests.
Tickets for Brainlove Festival: Musicglue.
18 May 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
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