Innholdsfortegnelse for 24-04-2017 i The Big Issue

Welcome to The Big Issue’s music special and festivals guide. A music special is appropriate for me because music changed my life. I heard something on the radio once that made me stop and listen – it was a slow and gentle piece of classical music and it sounded so calming. I’ve had depression in the past and classical music has been one of the things that helped me through it. As Max Richter points out on page 28, music has a deep emotional impact. As a homeless man, there are a few things I’d like to say to our politicians this week as they start campaigning for the election in June. You need to give more chances to people like me; opportunities for accommodation and work. The single most…

Having been told recently by an adviser at my job centre that my being realistic about my job prospects was merely me putting up “barriers”, I was told today, by a different advisor, that having applied for a job vacancy outside of my usual applications was nothing more than me not making the most of my job search time, as well as wasting employers’ time. It seems that while I am expected to apply for practically everything available, I must also not apply for anything the job centre alone deems to be unrealistic for me. Having exhausted every avenue in my jobs criteria, any ambition I might have for something better and different, which may require nothing more than a little training, is negatively and unfairly being seen as me…

On the face of it, John Legend has a lot of positives in his life right now. A preternaturally talented musician, he released his sixth LP Darkness and Light before Christmas and is preparing to take its winning blend of off-kilter, jazz-infused, soulful pop out on the road. Legend’s involvement with two of the biggest films of recent times – La La Land, in which he co-starred as jazz-popper Keith (not the biggest leap in imagination, casting-wise) and provided the hit song Start a Fire, plus Beauty and the Beast, for which his title track duet with Ariana Grande has been a global smash – was an unqualified success. They follow on the heels of his Oscar in 2015 for Best Original Song for Glory, from the film Selma. And…

Novelist, poet and spoken-word artist Kate Tempest is enlisting an army of homeless poets to shine some light on the world around us. As guest director of the 2017 Brighton Festival, she is mobilising a Storytelling Army to take part in pop-up performances. She tells The Big Issue how the arts bring us closer to the truth about our lives. The Big Issue: Why was it important to you to include different voices in your programme and open the arts up to a wider audience? Kate Tempest: I suppose that in my personal experience of being a poet, a storyteller and someone who works publicly with narrative, I have come to realise that there are equal roles within that exchange – that is the person who is telling…

Once upon a time fairytales were about princesses being rescued by princes and living happily ever after. Not any more. A new book, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, tells the tales of 100 extraordinary women – from Cleopatra to Malala Yousafzai – in fairytale style with illustrations by 60 international artists. The authors, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, struggled to get the book published before turning to crowdfunding. Their idea caught fire and it raised more money than any other original crowdfunded title. As Amelia Earhart (pictured) wrote before her doomed final voyage: “If [women] fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.” Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (Particular Books, £17.99) is out now…

The shocking finale of Broadchurch rocked viewers to their core – and established it as a TV phenomenon. From acclaimed writer Chris Chibnall (Torchwood), the third and final series sees David Tennant (Doctor Who) and Olivia Colman (The Night Manager) reprise their roles as DI Alec Hardy and DS Ellie Miller, called in to investigate a new case – the brutal sexual assault of local woman, Trish Winterman (Julie Hesmondhalgh). Three years have passed since the events of the last series, in a town that will never forget – but times change. The local newspaper is facing closure, while Hardy and Miller take on a case that reopens old wounds. What dark secrets still lie buried in a town so closely examined? How will unresolved issues around the death of…

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout... Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. WE BELIEVE in trade, not aid… Which is why we ask you to ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine. Our sellers are working and need your custom. WE BELIEVE poverty is indiscriminate… Which is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. WE BELIEVE in the right to citizenship… Which is why The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. WE BELIEVE in prevention… Which is why Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

Within hours of the General Election being called, The Big Issue social channels were buzzing. There was one story dominating. Dogs. This is not a thinly veiled Trump-inspired attack on the political class. Rather, it’s because a story about dogs went viral on bigissue.com. A charity in London is offering veterinary and canine behavioural services for the pets of homeless people. And Big Issue readers love it (story across the page). Dogs can, of course, offer more responses than politics. You can’t throw a ball in a park and ask a manifesto promise on a pension triple lock to bring it back. Regardless of how good the biscuit offered. It doesn’t follow, though, that Big Issue readers are removed from reality, more keen on canine capers than the key questions…

One in five adults have suffered mental health problems due to housing pressures in the last five years, according to a new Shelter report. The ComRes survey found that 48 per cent of people suffered depression, 30 per cent experienced panic attacks, 64 per cent experienced stress, while 60 per cent suffered anxiety. Shelter estimates that one million people have sought help from their GP for housing-related mental health problems. These statistics show that housing is a health issue – that is just one reason why The Big Issue backs early intervention and prevention.…

A few days before Theresa May announced her snap election to give herself a mandate I was in a theme park called Victorian Town. Not the usual series of exhibits and rides but where you start at Lloyds Bank; there we turned our £10 into two shilling and tuppence in old money. You pay a few pennies for a ride on a horse, a ploughman’s lunch, or a printed newspaper etc. The small money goes a long way and is in itself a brilliant way of educating children into the change that has hit the world of money in just over 100 years. So in these few days before May’s announcement I could forget contemporary Britain down at the enormously meaningful working museum world around Ironbridge and Telford, with us…

On March 29 he surprised passengers at St Pancras station with an impromptu performance… … but he keeps it real by sharing pictures of food that he eats, like everyone else on social media His wife, model Chrissy Teigen, and one-year-old daughter Luna Luna looks like she has some of her father’s musical talent (plus, check out those trophy shelves) Starring in Oscar-winning La La Land opposite Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone A true legend – backing The Big Issue’s literacy campaign…

The Storytelling Army are a collective of diverse voices, people from all walks of life that will pop up all over Brighton during the festival – be it in the local supermarket, the pub or on the top deck of a bus – and tell their stories which celebrate the theme of Everyday Epic. The idea really came from looking at Kate Tempest’s philosophy of making the arts less exclusive and more social. We started talking about what happens if you have someone just walk in to a pub and start telling a story but you don’t realise they’re actually telling a story. How would that work? Could you just be sat at the bar with someone and then they start delivering a poem or telling a story? That was…

“The loss of such iconic species is a high price to pay for supermarket shelves stocked with cheap meat” I have always been around animals. As a child, my mother and I kept bantam chickens and homing pigeons in the backyard. Even back then, I was fascinated with birds, their power of flight and sense of freedom. I loved watching them, seeing them flap their wings, peck at the ground – just doing what comes naturally. Soon, every spare moment was taken up with my thirst for knowledge about birds and other wildlife. The moment that opened my eyes to the realities of intensive farming was when a speaker from Compassion in World Farming came to my school to do a talk. I remember seeing pictures of hens in battery…

Not lost for words I have received today my copy of a Chambers Dictionary, prize for Crossword number 1243 [February 13-19]. It is a truly magnificent dictionary: I have never had such a splendid dictionary before, nor indeed a Chambers Dictionary. I am sure that I will find it very useful, and I send you my sincere thanks. I purchase my Big Issue from Cristina Dalmata, an Italian lady, who is based with her big dog, Max, at the entrance to Euston Square tube station in London. Cristina always seems happy, whatever the weather. She has the aspiration to be a writer, and I hope that she will be able to make her dream come true. Peter Iveson, email Sold down the river Reading the Comment of the Week [April…

Reading Council is building prefab homes – which famously provided housing for soldiers returning to bomb-ruined Britain after the war – to cut costs of emergency accommodation for families caught in the homelessness crisis. The speedy, assembly-line approach is appealing to a growing number of local authorities, and last week work started on 28 temporary prefab properties for homeless families in Reading, on the site of a former mobile home park. Each prefab has two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room, with a bike shed, kids’ play area and small car park on the development.…

A new circus show is hitting the West End, bringing the music and characters of Soho to acrobatic life. And The Big Issue is taking centre stage. Why? Because the creators of SOHO were looking for symbols of London’s iconic cultural centre, including Madame Jojo’s nightclub, Chinatown, swinging 1960s sounds, punks, market traders and, of course, The Big Issue – a constant presence in the heart of London for the past quarter of a century. Director Abigail Yeates says: “Soho has always been a magnet for a rich variety of people, and we want our show to reflect that. We want audiences to connect with the characters at the heart of the show – whether that is the market traders, artists, baristas, shoppers, lost souls or homeless people. All of…

STEVIE WONDER “Stevie Wonder is my favorite artist of all time. I guess you can see an influence. Obviously it’s debatable but I don’t know that there is a more successful or important solo artist in music history. We’ve had some great bands like The Rolling Stones. You could say Michael Jackson maybe. Prince maybe. But Stevie Wonder, for me, is the best when it comes to critical acclaim and commercial success – best album awards and longevity. Innervisions, Talking Book. Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Music of My Mind, Songs in the Key of Life – that whole era from the late 1960s through the mid-’70s was probably the most important creative period of any artist that we’ve ever seen.” BARACK OBAMA “I’ve read about Doctor King more than any other…

Just a couple of years ago, in terms of music celebrities, Max Richter was not on the A-list. Lauded by specialist music fans and movie soundtrack aficionados, the cruel truth is that the German-born composer wasn’t even top of the rather short list of popular post-minimalists (that honour went to the regularly name-dropped Arvo Pärt). Ahead-of-the-loop types like Mogwai and Tilda Swindon collaborated with him, and cool, informed folk like Jarvis Cocker and fellow BBC 6 Music presenter Mary Anne Hobbs sang his praises, but it’s fair to say he wasn’t the most fought-over guest on Classic FM. Then came Arrival. It’s hard to think of a single piece of soundtrack in the last decade which, post-viewing, provides such a powerful Proustian rush of feeling as Richter’s sublime On the…

1. THE CAMPER’S HANDBOOK Thomas Hiram Holding When this practical and informative book about the joys of getting out under canvas was first published in 1908, that meant you first had to make your own tent. It imparts skills that are still relevant to today’s kids. 2. COOL CAMPING BRITAIN Jonathan Knight, Paul Marsden and Andy Stothert This book is full of tips to make family camping holidays really special, with superb photography that makes you want to set off to explore. 3. BETWEEN THE SUNSET AND THE SEA Simon Ingram Ingram presents a range of information about 16 British mountains – such as weather, geology, and myths and legends – along with his own experiences of hiking. 4. WILD NIGHTS Phoebe Smith This book will inspire you to explore…

After topping the chart on both sides of the Atlantic with his previous album To Pimp a Butterfly, not to mention dominating 2015’s end of year lists, sweeping five Grammy Awards and attracting the venom of right-wing US news networks with his lyrics attacking police violence, it’s fair to say that Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar owns a significant corner of popular culture right now. While it may be markedly different to its epochal predecessor, it’s also fair to say that his hugely-anticipated fourth album DAMN won’t be seeing him relinquish that position any time soon. “So I was taking a walk the other day...” begins opening spoken-word scene-setter Blood, before it’s eventually interrupted by the crack of a gunshot and a sample of a Fox News item wagging a patronising…