When We Are Apart: Magistrates Talk of Their Comeback

Press the rewind button back to 2009 and  Magistrates were everywhere you turned. Their fun, contagious tracks such as 'Colour Coordination' and 'Goldlover' secured them a vast, loyal fan base and the accolade of the music press.Having been featured on the Samsung NME Radar Tour and supporting Blur twice on their historical comeback, the future seemed limitless for the Essex quartet.

Despite their position, Magistrates removed themselves from the public eye for four years. As 2013 drew to a close however, fans were treated with the news of a mini-gig to debut the release of two new singles 'When We Are Apart', which was recently awarded NME's 'Track Of The Week' and 'B.T.P.A'. They were back again! So what had happened between then and now? 'I don’t like to say 'back' as to be honest we never really went away.' Paul Usher tells me. 'In terms of shows and releases, yes we disappeared from the light, but Magistrates has always been constant and making music. It is just right now we feel we have something that we want to share. Always new ideas to the very large table we own however, it has always been like that, natural progression.'  One of the new ideas they have shared with us so far has been the hilarious video to 'When We Are Apart'.  making use of retro footage from 1980s  'Lonely Hearts' ads and clever lip syncing. So is the tongue-in-cheek video a sign of the direction they'll be heading in? 'It is a great video that was created by VH/YES. I don’t really see it as tongue in cheek, it is just a colour that represent a colour of the record. Nothing can stay the same colour all the time and it is important always see things through a spectrum. The album has many colours and I know that the videos will represent those.' 

With this comeback there seems to be much anticipation, will there be an album? What about a tour? 'I couldn't give you a date to be honest just yet.' In regards to album ' It is in the almost finished stage, expect a lot of hours and love and honesty put onto a record.' As for a tour 'I hope so. We are currently sorting all of that business out at the moment. Very keen to get back over to our European neighbours. To be honest we have always been a band that have a motto of, if you’ll have us, we’ll be there.'

Finally, did musical legend Damon Albarn share any of his wisdom for the band when they had toured together? 'I can’t say he did on those shows. We spent time in his studio a few months before those shows and learnt a lot about space in music and melody. It was a great to play with Blur as they are such a talented iconic band'

You can follow the magistrates on Twitter and Facebook. Catch them play at The Lexington, London on the 28th Feb Get your tickets here

Sexism in Music Videos: It's Not Just Me!

In a world dominated by mainstream media, wherever you go these days there will be the harsh lights of a television screen, somewhere, blaring out the latest chart hits. This means that you could be sitting in a Takeaway waiting for your food to be cooked, having a few drinks with your friends in a bar or even just flicking through the channels in the comfort of your home. However wherever you are located there seems to be no escape from half-naked women writhing and dry humping the ego of a rapper (who isn't even that good looking, may I point out!) or even a baby faced young girl performing a sex act on a sledgehammer.

You can't tell me that music videos do not have an impact on the young, or even the argument of 'if you don't like it switch it off'. Music videos such as these deemed my early teenage years awkward and uncomfortable. I will never forget the teacher switching on MTV in the school gym and as the unrealistically toned, yet curvy in the right places, female backup dancers started gyrating, my peers turned on me.
'You're a skinny white girl, you could never dance like that.' (I didn't particularly want to anyway)
'Ha! You don't have any boobs like them Nicky' (I was 12 you idiots, what do you expect?)
And so the comments continued against me, given that I was the awkward, skinny white girl who you would least expect to see draped over a motorbike in a hip-hop video. Looking back on it, I am horrified that my peers, who were just children themselves, felt that they had to sexualise themselves in order to mimic what they were seeing on TV in order to gain respect. It was exactly like that scene from Mean Girls where Regina George's baby sister is copying the MTV babes.

I always felt as though I was alone in these thoughts, feeling disgusted and offended every time a fully clothed male had about 20 naked women dancing around him. However hope came to me in the form of http://www.rewindreframe.org/ an organisation and website set up to provide a platform for those who are victimized by the state of today's music industry. Rewind & Reframe encourages us to speak out about the rampant racism and sexism in the charts and provides us with a template to teach the younger generation about it.  Therefore I decided this week to carry out a poll to see how certain figures across society felt on such an issue and asked them to tell me which music video they felt was worst for sexism and why.

Here are the results:

Drew Athans - Author of 'Black Book: The Live History of Blur'  Father, Husband and Musician.
'Much as I love Blur, Country House video is lousy. In both those ways (sexist and seedy) too. 

Hannah Rose Thomson - LSE Graduate and Feminist.
'50 Cents 'Candy Shop' Women used as interchangeable, ego stroking accessories....bleurgh! I haven't watched that video in nearly seven years...that impression has stuck with me. In fact that video made me find Feminism.' 

Annie Heath - Feminist.
'Videophone' Gaga and Beyonce: cos my little boy said 'those ladies are just wearing pants and guns?' (who run the world?) 

Alice Shipton - Teenage Feminist
Eric Prydz 'Call on Me' - 'I don't know what to say about it, I just don't like it'

Becky Ferris - Modern History Graduate. Fashion PR and Blogger.
'I hate that one by Benni Benassi, it's called 'Satisfaction'. Not only is the song awful, it actually makes me feel sick. It's a bunch of greasy 'sexy' (not actually sexy) girls doing 'building' with tools but all they are doing is making out to be sex, that's all it is about is just sex, sex, sex. Which okay, sex isn't bad but the way the women are portrayed in the video is that we all look like that and the only thing we can do is sex and look 'sexy', etc. I use the sexy in inverted commas as those girls are the opposite, they are yucky.' 

Jonny Edwards, writer for PUNK GLOBE magazine and singer/guitarist for DIRTY PSYCHO also had this to say on the issue 'I don't think you need to show everything in a video, the music should be the focus. Sexism is a disease that needs to be stopped.'  

 As you can see, music videos are not just an issue which feminists can get on their high horse about. The reason why I compiled a few thoughts and examples on sexism in music videos is that is has to be stopped, not one day but as soon as possible. How can women ever be taken seriously in the real world when we are being plagued with these images of us as being nothing more than eye candy? Even women artists are portraying their own selves in such a way. (although I have always maintained that Rihanna has little choice but to appear semi-naked as she certainly can't sing- sorry, catty remark right there!) If David Cameron wants to protect children from pornographic images than he needs to turn his attention to one of the most influential industries and push through the censorship laws of music videos by giving movie style age ratings. If you feel as strongly as I do than I suggest you drop an email to your local MP or sign the petition set up by Rewind & Reframe.
Sign Here