Interviews

A trail of musical moments – throughout city shops!

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More live music treats in store for Sheffield!

This Saturday, 10 August, a host of amazing home-grown talent and high-profile bands will be scattered around Sheffield’s city centre playing acoustic sets in unusual, pop-up buskers’ spots.

The free “City Centre Sessions” event starts at noon at Devonshire Street Market and takes place around a circuit of city centre shops, with bands appearing in sequence around the circuit, finishing back at Devonshire Market’s outdoor stage five hours later.

It features The Crookes, Nat Johnson, Laurel Canyons (Monkey Swallows The Universe), Stuart Faulkner (Pink Grease, The Barnacles) and the BeVox flash mob choir – with more bands coming on board too.

Venture into town and be surprised and amazed at what and who is lurking around each clothes rail and shoe rack. Stop off to browse and indulge yourself in many of the city’s best independent food makers and artisan retailers too.

City Centre Sessions is part of Sheffield’s Summer Saturday’s Programme.

Confirmed locations for City Centre Sessions this Saturday include Devonshire Markets’ outdoor stage on Devonshire Green, Orchard Square, John Lewis, Birds Yard, A New Shop and Costa.

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Bowie Jane interview

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Bowie Jane and Andy Cooper [Photo: Jamie Veitch]

Bowie Jane & Andy Cooper (photo: Jamie Veitch)

Singer / songwriter Bowie Jane joined us in the Sheffield Live! studio last week for an interview with Communities Live! presenter Andy Cooper.

The London-based Australian musician has been living a double life: by day, a “mild-mannered” criminal lawyer, but by night a musician performing live 5 or 6 evenings per week and developing a successful musical career.

Bowie Jane’s secret double life captured the world’s interest earlier this year with TV, radio and press attention leading to more than 10,000 hits a day on her YouTube site.

Her lyrics tell the story of real-life situations with honest grit and candor, but with a sharper edge:  “I write about things that aren’t normally talked about, looking at things from the perspective that you’d probably ‘think’ about, but wouldn’t feel confident to ‘voice’.”

The interview coincides with the release of Bowie Jane’s new single, “Bad Boy” which “points the finger at celebrity bad boys with a reputation.”

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International Women’s Day exclusive: Interview with Tawakkol Karman

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Tawakkol KarmanTawakkol Karman is a journalist in the Yemen. She came to international prominence during the Yemen uprisings in 2011 and was one of three women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.

Tawakkol visited Sheffield recently and gave an exclusive interview to Sheffield Live! We are broadcasting the interview today to mark International Women’s Day, 8 March 2012

Listen to Tawakkol Karmen interview

– Interview by Paul Gregory, produced by Sangita Basudev –

High Noon

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High noon on Saturday 6 August and there is only one place to be that’s listening to Slam Dunk Cinema on Sheffield Live! 93.2 FM.  Slam Dunk Cinema is our new film show featuring interviews with local people involved in the film industry, reviews and previews, UK top ten and a glimpse of the latest DVD releases.  Join Van Connor and Dave Walker for the first airing of their weekly show on Sheffield Live! 93.2 FM or www.sheffieldlive.org.  You can follow their twitter account on @slamdunkcinema or e-mail Van and Dave at slamdunkcinema@sheffieldlive.org

Local talent goes weekly

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Tune in at 16:00 hrs on Fridays to hear a showcase of Sheffield’s music scene on Sheffield Live! 93.2 fm.

The popular Local Talent show goes weekly with producer Natalie Beard at the helm.  The show will include interviews and live performances from local artists, bands and songwriters with all the up to date information on what’s on where.  To find out more you can tune in on Friday at 16:00 hrs to Sheffield Live! 93.2 FM or on www.sheffieldlive.org.  e mail localtalent@sheffieldlive.org

Digital switchover – All your questions Answered

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Sheffield Live! 93.2 fm has an interview with Jeremy Buxton at 15:30 on the 8 July 2011 all about the Digital Switchover.  The Switchover date for Sheffield is 10 August and other parts of the country are going to be following soon.  So why not listen in to Sheffield Live! 93.2 fm or on www.sheffieldlive.org.  If you know all about the digital switchover maybe you can give someone a helping hand.  Find out how by either visiting our website or listening in tomorrow at 15:30.

EMA: Futures at stake

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

By Amna Kaleem

Policies on education have been amongst the most unpopular initiatives taken by the coalition government. A look at the tuition fee protests all over the country is enough to gauge the anger of students. While most of the protests were focused on rise in tuition fees, almost every protest had a group of students from sixth form colleges and schools who were out to protest the scrapping of Education Maintenance Allowance.

The EMA is a weekly allowance of £10, £20 and £30 paid to students who are 16 to 18 years old. The amount paid varies according to the student’s family income, those living below £20,817 qualify for £30, those between £20,818 and £25,521 are eligible for £20 and the students whose family income is between £25,522 and £30,810 get £10 per week. The money is paid directly into the students’ bank accounts and is stopped if they fail to be punctual or attend their classes regularly.

The fund which was set up by the Labour government in 2004 is now being scrapped, which means from next academic year around 647,000 students across the country cannot claim their EMA. In Sheffield alone, there are little over 6,000 students who benefit from EMA. There has been a lot of debate on the subject, some feel students spend the money on iTunes and PS3 games, a claim which may not be completely unfounded as some students who qualify for EMA do not need it to support their education. However, there are also students who would not be able to pursue education if this small weekly payment is withdrawn.

At Longley Park Sixth Form College around 75% of students receive EMA. Here is an interview with college students Abby Thompson and Shanice Wright and their teacher James Finlayson:

EMA stories

One of the success stories of EMA is James Mills who used the programme to pursue further education and was able to go to university. James now works as a parliamentary researcher and has started the Save EMA campaign. James talks about how EMA helped him and how the campaign to save this fund is gaining momentum, nationally:

James Mills

For more information on the campaign, visit http://saveema.co.uk/

The report was aired on Communities Live on December 17, 2010.

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New term, new building, new President…

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Emma Wass speaks to Joshua Forstenzer, president of the University of Sheffield Students’ Union.

Josh Fostenzer speaks to Emma Wass

As a non-British PhD student, Josh talks about how he hopes to bring something different to the role. He speaks passionately about the Students’ Union’s involvement with the local community and discusses the Gold Award, which was granted by the Student Union Evaluation Initiative to the union.

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The end of Bullfighting in Spain?

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Bullfighting ban in Catalonia

Spain has been famous for its somewhat controversial tradition of bullfighting, which is still a big part of the country’s fiesta culture. As a spectator sport, it is still widely popular, with several thousand Spaniards attending each week.

Despite this, in July the parliament of Catalonia voted to ban bullfighting after a petition was brought against it. The petition was signed by 180,000 people who believe this tradition to be barbaric and outdated. In the vote held on July 28, 68 voted in favour of the ban, 55 voted against and nine abstained.

Communities Live reporters Carlota Calderón and Emma Wass interviewed three Spaniards to ask for their opinion regarding this new legislation, which will take effect in January 2012.

Carlota is a Spanish native from the northern city of Pamplona, where San Fermines, the “running of the bulls” festival is held every summer. Emma spent a few months in the same region, Navarra, so has also experienced the fiesta culture first hand.

The interviewees are Hisham Melara from Granada, Andalucía, Oscar Floristán from Navarra, and Nacho Vázquez from Zaragoza.

The report discusses the moral issue regarding bullfighting i.e. animal welfare and the political issues behind the ban which relate to Catalonia’s fight for independence from the rest of Spain.

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Mind your language(s)

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Emma Wass with Annika Vale (left), Katherine Smith and Cllr Mike Reynolds

Audio – GCSE languages

GCSE results in August showed the percentage of students leaving school with a decent grasp of foreign languages at a record low. The number of students taking a language at GCSE has dropped by a third since the government made it optional in 2004.

Communities Live presenter Emma Wass spoke to Cllr Mike Reynolds from Languages Sheffield, Katherine Smith from the IBC programme and Annika Vale from local translation company TransAction Translators, to discuss this issue.

The panel discussed the coalition’s proposal to reintroduce a compulsory language at GCSE, which languages children should be studying, and why it is important to have knowledge of a foreign language.

The report was aired on Communities Live.