He describes a lifetime of disappointment and being let down by friends, and he has problems with relationships and socialising. He admits that he gets overwhelmed by crowds. “The main problem for me has always been socialising. I’m OK with a few people but get overwhelmed with five or six in a room.”

He was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome last year.

What do you know about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDS)? Chances are that unless you know someone with an ASD, not a lot.

Though ASDs can take many forms and it is difficult to generalise, people with an IQ of 70 or more are described as high functioning and those with an IQ of below 70 are said to be low functioning. Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means that it varies in severity. Some sufferers are able to lead a fully independent life, others may need specialist care. It is a lifelong disability for which there is no cure, but it can be controlled with drugs or therapies.

Autism is a developmental disorder. The characteristics of autism vary from person to person, but people with autism tend to have difficulty with socail communication, social interaction and social imagination.

They may develop obsessive behaviour or routines, or become resistant to change. They may have problems in communication and understanding social situations, repeat words or phrases,have problems with movement and coordination, display a lack of imagination, body language or eye contact and may prefer to spend time alone. They may be reluctant to spend time with others as they find it hard to ‘read’ social situations and know how to respond appropriately. They might find it hard to understand body language. Often people with autism have additional problems such as learning difficulties or epilepsy.

Aspergers Syndrome is slightly different. Sufferers tend to be more mildly affected than those with autism, though they may share similar symptoms, particularly with regard to forming relationships with others and communication.

“Getting diagnosed was extremely difficult and a very long story. I saw my GP and he said I had anxiety and social phobia,” says David, 44, who was diagnosed after a breakdown while signing on. “I told him I thought I had Asperger Syndrome, having seen several documentaries and reading some articles. Eventually after a year or so I got to see a specialist on the NHS and was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome.”

But for people like David with ASDs, there is often little help available and they are finding themselves excluded from society.

Education is one area where people with ASDs are being sidelined. Emma Thompson also has Aspergers Syndrome and believes schools are failing to provide enough support. “There’s support available but it’s hard to access. The child normally needs a special needs statement to access any support. I don’t think that there is enough support overall for the average child affected by autism. It’s not accessed without a lot of hassle.”

This does seem to be the case. In a recent survey by the National Autistic Society, 64% of respondents said that they only received satisfactory provision for their child by fighting hard for it. Recent findings also show that a third of high-functioning children do not receive a statement of special educational needs. These children often do not get the support they need in school because their needs are not recognised.

Even for those who do have access to support, it is not always sufficient. Teachers and schools struggle to deal with the pressures of teaching students with ASDs. One in five children with an ASD has been excluded form school at some point because the school cannot cope.

Greg Pasco, a research associate at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, sees this as a problem. “Whilst the principle of meeting every student’s needs, regardless of disability, is laudable, mainstream education cannot possibly provide for all children with autism. In some cases ‘inclusion’ means that a child is physically present in the school.”

Eileen Hopkins, Director of International Development at Autism Speaks, believes that teachers need to be better educated about autism. “Certainly, teachers are better informed but they are still not routinely trained. In some cases we see teachers funding their own training. It should be readily available and accessible.”

Not all institutions are failing their pupils. Lucy Childs is a disability coordinator for students with Aspergers Syndrome and related conditions at the University of Leeds. Students can approach her or their designated mentors for help with personal issues, form filling and advice on a range of issues. “For students with Aspergers, we have a Transitions Learning Contract which is handed to their department with guidelines as to what the student will need to support them,” says Lucy. “We can also assist in getting special arrangements for exams.”

What about employment? Most find entering work daunting. Currently only 14% of people with ASDs are in employment, of which just 6% are in full time paid work.

“Employment is difficult because they do not have the confidence to apply for jobs. Employers need to have an understanding of autism and how it will affect the individual person,” says Machita Denny, who runs the Jigsaw support group in Staffordshire for those affected by autism. “They are often very dedicated, committed employees, as whatever they do has to be precise and completed properly. Many have difficulty getting interviews because if they declare their disability, prospective employers will not consider them suitable for the job, even if they have all the qualifications.”

So what can be done? “HR and diversity departments need to be more inclusive of disability issues. Because AS is such a complex condition and everyone is so different, it’s hard to have a ‘one size fits all’ approach.”

The cost of autism is calculated to be around £28 billion a year, with the largest expenditure being health and social care, followed by lost productivity. But Judith Kerem, project manager of the Autism Education Trust, decided to set up the Transitions project to help those with autism get into employment.

“I felt this was an important transitional period for students and there was little to ‘bridge the gap’ from education to employment. These students and graduates can contribute to the workforce and economy and it’s a wasted opportunity to educate them and then not support them to develop their knowledge and skills further.”

Statistics state that 59% of parents of an autistic child feel that their son or daughter is excluded from society. Bullying is also a big problem. As Greg Pasco explains, “They find it difficult to understand the unwritten codes of behaviour that enable other children to fit in. Typically children with autism may be socially isolated and have few friends, which are factors that make them vulnerable to bullying.”

Despite this seemingly gloomy picture, things are improving. Teachers are more aware of students’ needs and increased media coverage has raised awareness and tolerance, along with prominent sufferers such as autistic savant Daniel Tammet backing support groups and raising the profile of the condition.

The sufferers themselves remain optimistic. As Emma Thompson says, “Society has punished me so much because of things they don’t understand. It make take time for society to come to terms with ASDs but I’m sure that one day, maybe in 30 years’ time, it will happen.”

Kay Weston

Ever since the Columbine school shooting on 20th April 1999, heavy metal music has been at the centre of a raging debate about whether it has driven young people to kill. Is it possible that music can influence a person to take lives? The media certainly seem to think so…

Take the case of Robert Steinhauser, the 19 year old who opened fire on students and teachers at the Johann Gutenberg school in Erfurt, East Germany in 2002. Thirteen students, two teachers and a police officer were killed before Steinhauser committed suicide. Steinhauser had been expelled from the school the year before, but rumours soon began to spread that the killing spree had been triggered by his taste in music.

The German tabloid newspaper Bild ran a story claiming that a song called School Wars by the band Slipknot was to blame. The song allegedly contained lyrics encouraging listeners to take a gun into their school and kill all their teachers. However, the band later released a statement insisting that they had never recorded the song, and that no such song had ever existed. Slipknot have always maintained that their music is a form of escapism, and have never encouraged violence.

It is not the first time that metal has been blamed for school shootings. The news of the aforementioned Columbine school shooting shocked America when two students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, murdered 13 people before shooting themselves in a bloodbath at the school in Colorado. When it was discovered that the pair listened to bands such as Slipknot and Rammstein, there was an immediate backlash against them.

In response, the German band Rammstein issued a statement saying that they wanted to make it clear that their lyrics were in no way connected to the school shootings in Colorado. They explained that they had children of their own, in whom they instilled non-violent values. Other bands were also quick to distance themselves from the events at Columbine, expressing their sympathy to the families of the victims and stressing that they did not condone violence.

Following Columbine, the finger was increasingly pointed in the direction of glam rocker Marilyn Manson. Though Manson initially kept quiet about the allegations, he wrote a response to the claims in Rolling Stone magazine a month later in an article titled Columbine: Whose fault is it?

Manson wrote, “I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn’t want it to. I’m a controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people’s ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I’ve always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us.”

So, what drives young people to take the words of a song so literally that they pick up a gun, walk into a school and shoot? Some scientists believe that it’s down to subliminal messages; secret messages hidden in songs. Judas Priest found themselves subject to civil proceedings after two young men formed a suicide pact and shot themselves after listening to the band’s ‘Stained Class’ album.

It was claimed that the songs allegedly contained hidden phrases such as ‘Try suicide’ and ‘Do it, do it’, which encouraged Raymond Belknapp, 18, and James Vance, 20, to shoot themselves in 1985. However, it could not be concretely proven by audio experts that such messages existed.

A similar case was brought to court after John McCullom shot himself while listening to the song ‘Suicide Solution’ by Ozzy Osbourne. Though the case was later abandoned, it raised questions about how influential music could be.

One of the most horrific cases in recent history was that of Luke Mitchell, the teenager jailed for the murder of his girlfriend Jodi Jones. She was just 14 when she was stabbed to death in a forest near her home in Dalkeith, Scotland, in 2003. Mitchell admitted idolising Marilyn Manson, and had an obsession with the occult and Satan. Both Jodi and Mitchell were fans of heavy metal music. The police suspected that Mitchell took drugs, was depressed and, above all, was probably genetically predisposed to violence, but his taste in music came under intense scrutiny in the media.

Worryingly, we are hearing more and more cases of such murders. In the past year alone, there have been another two high profile killing sprees linked to heavy metal.

In spring of last year, Seung-Hui Cho, a student from South Korea at the Virginia Tech school in America, shot 32 people, including himself. The only peculiarity that the media could find was that Cho had downloaded heavy metal music onto his computer and had written some song lyrics on his Facebook profile. Similar lyrics had been sprayed onto a wall and Cho was assumed to be the perpetrator. The papers made much of this, and once again the usual suspects were held accountable; Manson, Slipknot, Rammstein.

Then came the big one. The world was just beginning to recover from the news of Virginia Tech when Pekka-Eric Auvinen walked into his school in Tuulsa, Finland, and shot dead nine fellow classmates before killing himself. Prior to the shooting, he uploaded a video onto Youtube in which he posed with a gun and described what he planned to do, as ‘Stray Bullet’ by the German rock band KMFDM played in the background.

Heavy metal in general is regarded to be the cause of many school shootings and some murders. But how can these bands, irrespective of how brutal their lyrics are or how extreme their music may be, be responsible for such violence? It’s not the bands who pick up a pistol and decide to shoot their classmates and lecturers. It’s the person themself. If that was genuinely the reality, then every fan of Slipknot- and there are thousands of them- would be out there killing their parents, friends or teachers.

Contrary to popular opinion, these bands are harmless. They express their feelings through their songs, in the same way that young people themselves do, in that they listen to their music as a form of escapism from real life. They can identify with the lyrics and use them as an outlet for their feelings, rather than committing violent crimes, raping or murdering.

Without an obvious motive, the finger will always be pointed in the direction of the bands that a person listens to. But the lyrical content of a song is far from a justification for violence. People are always looking for someone to blame, because it makes it easier to deal with tragedy. Instead of trying to find an adequate solution, people just want a scapegoat. It isn’t the bands who are the problem; it’s the unstable young kids who kill.

The warning signs are there. When Pekka-Eric Auvinen stuck that video on Youtube for millions of people across the globe to watch, it was a cry for help. Maybe if someone had stepped in, he could have been saved, along with the eight people who died simply because he was mad at the world.

The reason that so many kill themselves afterwards is because they know what they have done is wrong. They just can’t see any way out other than death. They are suffering, and want other people to suffer too. Luke Mitchell’s teachers have said that they were concerned about his state of mind after he covered his books in Satanic scrawls. Rather than ignoring it, they could’ve got Mitchell the help he so badly needed, and Jodi Jones would still be alive.

After the shooting in Finland, a comment was published in the national newspaper Aamulehti saying, “Nobody here could have dreamt that something like the Columbine massacre would also be possible in Finland.” Why not? There are unhinged kids everywhere, all over the world. And until we know how to deal with them, you can expect to keep reading about massacres in the media, and how metal is responsible. After all, it’s easier to pin the blame on a band than it is to admit to our own failings.

Marilyn Manson hit the nail on the head with his concluding comment in Rolling Stone. “Don’t expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue- it’s been happening every day for a long time.” Because it has.

 Kay Weston

Wednesday 2nd - 08:40(GMT) - Tallinn, Estonia

“Went out for a few drinks and some food last night in Tallinn (Sarah had garlic fries!!!), it’s quarter to 11 now we’re treating ourselves to a late start. Going to take our bags over to tonight’s hotel and then wander. Tallinn is incredibly beautiful from what we’ve seen of it so far ”


Tuesday 1st - 19:52 - Tallinn, Estonia

“Hip hip horray! We made it. Wasn’t expecting an Estonian sun tan, but looks like we’l get one. Here in time for the man utd game too! ”


Tuesday 1st April - 10:37 - Riga, Latvia

“We’re in Riga! We’re going to make it! And whaddya know, it’s warm & sunny…”


Monday 31st - 16:42 - a petrol station just inside Lithuania

“We’ve survived the possibility of being gassed, robbed and/or eaten by wolves & got to Kaunas hitching. No more: bus/train all the way!”


Monday 31st - 12:21 - Suwalki, Poland

“Picked up almost instantly (bad luck to the bummiters who’ve been there 24 hrs!), on way to a petrol station just inside Lithuania.”


Monday 31st - 05:18 - Warsaw, Poland

“Longest 5 hours of our lives! Less than 30 mins sleep, now getting train to Suwalki with plan of hitching again. BRING IT ON!”


Sunday 30th - 20:05 - Gdansk, Poland

“Turns out gdansk was a bad choice, so we’re getting the midnight train to Warsaw. Don’t care about budget anymore, just want to be in Tallinn! ”


Sunday 30th - 15:26 - on the train to Gdansk, Poland

“Train. Tom’s phone is dead, don’t worry mum! We saw a cat suckling on a dog this morning - an omen of strange things to come?”


Sunday 30th - 10:26 - Poland

“Stayed with the lovely Emilia & her mum last night who bought us a meal & chocolate! Helped us get money & trains - £7 to Gdansk by this evening”


Saturday 29th - 20:41 - near the Polish border

“Poland: mission accomplished! In the back of a van with a lovely lady and a kid. Many thanks to our friends in the border polizei ”


Saturday 29th - 18:13 - somewhere in Germany

“Finally got out of berlin, and into germany’s quietest town. Great. ”


Saturday 29th - 17:19 - Berlin, Germany

“‘Tallin beckons, Sarah & search for the lost Jewell’ are fine & dandy but cant connect to the ‘call in’ number. Going to schwedt oder on the German border.”


Saturday 29th - 11:15 - Berlin, Germany

“VERY hungover + tired, but free train to Berlin makes it all better sight-seeing time now, then into Poland! (maybe..)”


Saturday 29th - 09:11 - Leipzig, Germany

“Starting trying to leave Leipzig after a mental night out, hoping to blag train to Berlin. Would rather eat each other than another bloody cheese roll…”


Thursday 27th - 19:12 - Leipzig, Germany

“We’ve arrived at the meet-up point! We’re 24 hours early for the ‘half way party’ - food, beer + party time. (Off to the zoo tomorrow, then the taxidermy museum!) ”


Thursday 27th - 16:46 - on a train near Erfurt, Germany

“The amazing train manager has spoken to his mate and has let us continue onto Leipzig! It’s been a free train day. Also.. Frankfurters in Frankfurt!!”


Thursday 27th - 10:37 - on a train bound for Frankfurt, Germany

“Blagged a train to Frankfurt, piece of cake! Will eat here & then on to Leipzig. Sarah reckons she can’t handle 33cm of sausage??”


Wednesday 26th - Day 2

Postcard from Köln “It’s against the Bummit rules, but we were desperate…“ Find out why by clicking here and reading on.

Wednesday 26th - 18:47 - Köln, Germany

“No speed limit!! Survived the rain, Autobahn and the driver’s stereo to arrive in Köln! Now time for Big german beer & sausages. ”


Wednesday 26th - 18:11

“After two incredibly easy hitches (one couple off to buy a new puppy in Germany) went through Holland and we’re now off to Köln for the night!”


Wednesday 26th - 16:15 - outside Antwerp, Belgium

“Left Antwerp with a crazy flemish speaking, Metallica listening lady. Just having an Irish coffee, next stop Germany (hopefully).. ”


Wednesday 26th - 12:59 - Antwerp, Belgium

“Having a beer in Antwerp having had the easiest hitch ever. Fun and games fellow bummiters! x”


Wednesday 26th - 11:13 - in the back of a lorry nr. Gent, Belgium

“We arrived here in a fridge and had croissants for breakfast; Hitching has such highs & lows, emotional rollercoaster! Target today: Germany”


Wednesday 26th - 08:30 - Nr. Dunkerque in Northern France

“Why do people not understand that if the sign says brussels then just outside brussels is fine!?!”


Day 1: reflexion:

“We made it across the channel with a Welsh couple in a camper van and stayed between Calais and Dunkerque. We hope to get to Germany tonight. We’ve only spent £3 so far!”


Tuesday 25th - 23:38 - Nr. Dunkerque in Northern France

“Given choice between glass bus shelter w bench in middle of empty french village & reasonably priced room, made right decision…”


Tuesday 25th - 17:39 - Canterbury, Kent, UK

“So close to dover yet so far!” Well, there’s still a fair few miles to Dover yet. Will Sarah leave the UK before the end of the day?


Tuesday 25th - 15:32 - M25 near St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK


Tuesday 25th - 09:36 - Sheffield, UK


“Hoping to get on a national express coach to London. Train station manager already told all train drivers not to take us!”


Monday 24th - 22:39 - Sheffield, UK


“T minus 8 and a half hours. It’s half ten at night and I’m considering going to bed - this doesn’t happen much. Yesterday I was starting to get cold feet, perhaps my mum’s paranoia was starting to rub off on me. But now I’m in Sheffield with my team I’m feeling a lot more confident, but still very apprehensive. We don’t have much more of a plan than ‘walk to a petrol station’, but hopefully it’ll be enough.

“We’re anticipating getting out of England to be the hardest part of the journey, although we may be taking that back before long! I’m off to have a shower - my last for god knows how long; and sleep in a comfy double bed - my last for god knows how long. But kitted out in my shiny new snowboarding jacket, and with enough layers to put a wedding cake company to shame, hopefully I’ll make it there in one non-frost-bite-afflicted piece!“

When I turned up to uni in freshers week, I was expecting to be plunged straight into an exciting world of investigative reporting, exposing wrongdoers and making lots of important contacts. Two years on, it appears to have gone pear-shaped somewhere down the line. So I’ve decided to trample all over your dreams and tell you what being a journalist is really like.

As features editor of this section, I often have to arrange interviews with bands and other well-known people. This means I have to deal with PRs, who handle all their press. For the most part, these people are very nice, helpful people who can see the mutual benefit in giving me an interview; after all, their client gets publicity. Usually, with bands, they agree to do the interview if you put advance notice of their show on the site. So everyone is, theoretically at least, a winner.

I had an interesting experience last week when I arranged an interview with a band playing a gig. Their PR arranged to put me on the guestlist, and their tour manager told me that I had a slot to interview them after they’d finished their performance and he said he would call to take me up to their dressing room. No backstage pass for me; I didn’t even get a VIP lanyard. Any illusions I had of being whisked backstage to hang out with rock stars and steal from their rider was swiftly crushed. 

I watched the band play their set, then wandered out into the corridor to wait for my call, which was to be at 8.30pm. By 9.00pm there was still no call, so I text their manager to check everything was OK. I still hadn’t had a reply fifteen minutes later. Because I was waiting for him to contact me, I had to stand in the corridor, freezing cold, because that was the only place in the venue that I could receive signal. I decided to ring him. He told me that they were a bit behind schedule and that he’d ring me when they were done. Fair enough.

So imagine my surprise when, straight after I hung up, paramedics emerged, holding up an extremely drunk bass player. The bass player from the band I was meant to be interviewing. To be fair, the poor girl looked really ill and I did feel sorry for her. She was taken outside, and when she returned to the venue after a few minutes, I naively thought that the show would be back on the road. After all, I could always interview the other members if she wasn’t up to it.

But no. Still no word from the tour manager, and I was still in the corridor. The main act had begun to play and, thanks to Vodafone, I couldn’t even watch them. I was feeling like a bit of a loser as I could see people wondering why I was sitting on a windowledge for the duration of a concert. In fact, a photographer from another magazine came up to me and asked me that exact question. When I explained, he told me that some of the photographers hadn’t been able to get access either and said there had been an ‘incident’ backstage. He recommended I go and knock on their tour bus door and generally make a nuisance of myself until they relented and gave me an interview.

I was considering doing this when I saw several of the band members wandering around the venue. The band members meant to be caught up in interviews. Or more specifically, my interview. I was going to go up to them, but by this time it was now after ten 0’clock- even if they agreed to an interview, I wouldn’t have time to do it because I had to be on the last train back to Sheffield.

So, after two hours of waiting, I finally decided to throw in the towel. I left the venue and went in search of a taxi back to the station. As I was on my way there, the tour manager text me, apologising and saying they ran out of time. I told him it was no problem, and that these things happen. As a journalist, this kind of thing is surprisingly- or maybe unsurprisingly- common. Two hours is nothing. I had paid to travel to a gig, which I spent most of in the corridor. But I know of worse situations.

Student media doesn’t figure highly on most big band’s lists of priorties and precedence is given to bigger publications. You have to be nice even when things don’t go your way. Throwing diva strops is not a good way to go. You never know when you may need that person again in a professional capacity. It’s never a good idea to make an enemy out of a PR. If you do, you can guarantee you will have difficulty trying to get stories or interviews out of them. They won’t make life easy for you. So, no matter how much you want to scream in frustration or turn the air blue with obscenities- don’t. And if you do, journalism may not be for you. And at least when I start my placement on a magazine in Germany in October, I’ll come prepared…

Now. Don’t get me wrong. I love my nana infinitely, she’s my role model and my favourite person in the whole world. The thing that annoys me is her ability to cope.

With anything.

I truly believe that her house could burn to the ground and she’d just make a cup of tea, or perhaps a gin and tonic, and be laughing stoically about it within a few hours. Whenever I have something to moan about, it’s my nana I go to, and you can guarantee that she’ll hand me a couple of ‘handbag mints’ and sit and listen to me whine, before persuading me, to the point I actually believe her, that nothing is worth my tears.

Perhaps it’s the fact that she’s lived through a war, Winston Churchill being the prime minister at the time, and promoting the typically British stiff upper-lip, take-it-on-the chin mentality.

Whatever it is, I’m jealous of it and I want to get some for myself. I appreciate that in this day and age when everyone ‘needs’ therapy, it seems important to talk about things and bottling things up is not the done thing.

But really, what did happen to bottling things up? There’s a lot to be bloody well said about it!

The thing is, everybody needs to talk these days. Let’s talk it over, let’s have a little chat, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Is it really, now?! A problem shared is a problem for two people.

The biggest mistake I’ve made recently was “sharing”, with my boyfriend of all people. I should have known better really.

If you think honesty is going to cause problems, it probably will. It is not necessarily the best policy.

It’s one thing to tell your best friend that yes, actually her arse does look rather large in those new skinny jeans. It’s another altogether tio open up your heart and expect it not to get trampled on.

So sharing your feelings isn’t going to make a lot of difference, is it? It’s just going to leave you with an emotional hangover  and a bigger problem than you had to start with.

The only person who can solve your problems is you. There’s no point whining about it, crying on someone else’s shoulder that life is so unfair. You’re just delaying the inevitable- having to actually deal with the thing.

Just by typing “find a therapist UK” into Google, 284,000 results will come up. Is Britain really that desperate to talk?

I’m now trying to learn a lesson from Good Old Nana Pat (less of the old, she would of course admonish- but since she’s hardly embraced technology, I don’t think there’s any danger of her reading this).

Don’t moan about it. Fix it. Have a cup of tea, or something stronger if you’d prefer, and take it on the chin. If it can be dealt with, deal with it. If not, I’d strongly recommend suppressing all emotion until you can’t feel feelings anymore anyway. It’s what Churchill would have wanted, and it’s what nana would do.

Hannah Leyland

-How did the band come about?

Jon: Well the band took a while to fully form, finding the right people, finding our sound and direction all took time. I’d say we’ve been going properly for about two and a half years. I have been in one band or another with Si (Jackson, guitar) for ages, then when we needed a bassist we found the right one easily as I used to go out with Kitty (Brooks) and she’d just left her previous band DNA Doll. We had a drummer called Mike who was with us then, but he decided about a year ago to do his own thing and we found Ben wondering around Salisbury aimlessly. Since then it’s been non-stop Plastic Toys every day.

-You were originally signed to Dreamcatcher but decided to release through your own label. Why was this?

Jon: Well the Dreamcatcher deal was with my old band Karmic Jera, but it was lessons I learned there that prompted a self-release this time around. We got offered a pretty huge deal, but after negotiating a contract for a year, and the company changing the goal posts all the time, you just get pissed off and wanna play. Our only goal was to have an album out we were proud of and to tour it, so it made sense to self-produce it and self-release it. This way no ‘industry experts’ could sign us then try and change who we are and release an album we no longer liked! In my old band I learned that you have to trust your instincts and play what feels right for you, have promo photos the way you like them and do everything on your own terms. Any other way and I just can’t sleep at night.

-The band’s been compared to Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, but what would you say your influences were?

Jon: NIN are a huge influence on me. I’m really into bands where there is one real vision behind the music and an independent, ‘going it alone’ vibe. Trent Reznor doesn’t seem to give a f**k what other people think and I admire that. Everyone has different influences in the band, but for me I can’t get enough NIN, White Zombie, Rob Dougan, White Stripes, Dandy Warhols, T-Rex and Black Sabbath. But everyday I hear little things that get my imagination going.

- What do you think makes Plastic Toys different to the other bands out there?

Jon: I have no idea…if there was some magic formula then I’d have used it years ago! We just play the music we love and try not to let anyone who isn’t involved directly with us interfere in the creative process. Plus we’ve been out there gigging, paying our dues and it makes you more humble and a more authentic band.

-Do you have a personal favourite song from the album?

Jon: Probably ‘The Tragedy’, it just felt so easy to write and turned out better than I’d hoped. I love playing it live and it’s one of the few from the CD I’ve not heard so many times I’m sick of it!

- How much input did you have in the recording process?

Jon: We had total control. I have a really small home studio where we did everything except the drums. So it was self produced in it’s entirety. I mixed 90% of it then a friend of ours, Andy Gray, who has supported us from day one, mixed a couple of songs too. Again this whole decision was taken because we’re yet to meet a producer who really gets what we’re trying to do, so until that day comes we’ll just do it ourselves.

-How was the tour with My Ruin and Die So Fluid?

Ben: Amazing. We had a really good time getting to know the other bands and playing decent venues to decent crowds every night. It was a great experience as well as being a lot of fun. And we’ve had consistent great feedback from lots of new fans, which is great too.

-You also supported Trashlight Vision, who split in November. You’re quite similar musically and image-wise; do you see yourselves filling the void TLV left behind?

Jon: Well TLV were a great band and there are similarities, but I don’t think we’re close enough to just step into their shoes. They had a balls-to-the-wall rock thing going whereas we’re more electronic and have a lot more mellow moments, but that said a lot of their fans do seem into us.

-Is it all sex, drugs and rock and roll now you’re rock stars?!

Ben: Hahaha not quite! If you call sitting in the back of a van for hours and hours, living out of service stations and being skint all the time the ‘rock and roll’ lifestyle, then yes, we are definitely living it up!

-You’re doing a lot of touring to promote the album. What would you say were the best and worst things about life on the road?

Ben: You get to see places you wouldn’t have got to see otherwise. It’s really good exploring England- people seem to see the country as being boring, and that you need to go abroad to really travel. But there’s some really nice places here, right on our doorstep. Touring lets you see it. It’s also great playing gigs every night, doing what we love and meeting new people. On the downside, you’re constantly living out of a suitcase, eating crap and sleeping on people’s floors. But it’s the price you pay, and it’s all part of it.

-Do you have plans to play gigs in Sheffield soon?

Jon: At the moment we have no dates booked, but we’re trying. We plan to play Sheffield a lot more times and we’ll let you know as soon as we have something sorted!

-What are you hoping to achieve in 2008?

Jon: To tour with some great bands all year. Write the second album and sell enough of the first that we can keep on rolling. We don’t have illusions of grandeur, we just want that chance to prove ourselves.

For more information on Plastic Toys visit their website; www.plastictoys.co.uk

Or check out their Myspace profile: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=9608294

I don’t hate the principle of it. Just because I myself am a smoker, who can give you cancer just by looking at you, I’m still a rational human being. I understand that not everybody wants to be followed around by a cloud of nicotine and tar, having to go home stinking after every night out. That’s absolutely fair enough.It’s the ridiculous overreaching scale of the thing that gets to me.

I went outside a coach station the other day to have a cigarette. Big mistake. Instantly, a nicotine Nazi was upon me, explaining heatedly that I was still on National Express premises and I needed to move further out. I’m not exaggerating; he moved me about three feet, my smoke still billowing back to the place where I had just been standing.

Far be it from a second class citizen like me to point out that the only reason I was still in his precious coach station was because the coach was an hour late. However, that’s not the point. It now transpires that you can be fined £75- seventy five pounds!- for dropping a cigarette end on the floor, because councils are trying to crack down on littering. Again, I suppose it’s fair enough in principle, of course we want to “Keep Britain Tidy”, but there seems to be nowhere for smokers to go anymore. I, for one, feel like a criminal whenever I light up. Evil looks from old ladies are the least of it.

I’m a lawful citizen and a decent person, I like to think. I don’t even smoke in my own home because I’m not allowed to. I’ve chosen to smoke, and so I wish I could be left alone to get on with it. It’s me I’m damaging, not society.

Last week, a friend of mine was sent a letter demanding £75 from her for dropping her cigarette end out of her car window. I mean, they’d actually got the registration plate and followed it up. Is the crime level that low that cigarette ends take such a top priority?! On top of that, it’s only a £50 fine if you light up in the pub, so if there are no ashtrays outside, you may as well smoke where you are- it’s cheaper. There are a few that are going to extreme lengths to combat the smoking ban. Nick Hogan, a pub landlord, has always been against the smoking ban and allowed people to have cheeky fags in his pub. He appeared in court on January 28th, facing five charges of failing to prevent smoking on his premises and four of obstruction. Poor fellow.

If I was at all brave enough, maybe I’d make a stand like Mr Hogan. But as it is, I think I’ll stick to trying to avoid the glares of the elderly, and covert glances to check for police or community support officers before dropping my cigarette ends!

Hannah Leyland

I found myself presented with a problem the night before I even started the experiment. I’d rung around my friends and family to warn them in advance that I would be unreachable for a week, and if I wasn’t replying to their texts or voicemail, it wasn’t because anything had happened to me (though being a student, they’re fairly used to me disappearing off the face of the earth for a few days after a big weekend) but because I was doing some research for a feature. Again, me doing strange things in the name of journalism is no surprise, though they were concerned about how I was going to stay safe without a mobile phone.

But the night before, I had a more pressing question about my mobile phone- how I would get up the next day, as I use my phone alarm. As this was obviously now out of the question, I had to hunt around for an alarm clock. I finally managed to borrow a tiny, barely audible clock and set it for 7am.

The next morning, I was surprised to find I woke up before the alarm went off. When I checked the clock, it read 6.50am. Feeling pleased with myself, I got out of bed and thought it seemed unusually light for that time in a morning. I could also hear my housemates, which was odd as usually I’m the first up. When I went to the kitchen, I glanced up at the clock and was horrified to discover it was ten to nine. The alarm clock must have stopped in the night. I raced to get ready as I had to meet a friend at court to report a trial, but no sooner had I thrown on my jacket, than I realised I couldn’t find my keys. When they still hadn’t turned up after ten minutes of frantic searching, I gave in and rang my friend to apologise and tell her to go without me. Needless to say, she was less than impressed.  My housemates had left by that time, so there was nobody to lock the door and as the house next door had got burgled the weekend before, I definitely wasn’t going to leave it open. So far, not so good.

The next challenge presented itself the day after, when my friend was due to come up to stay with me. She had told me her train was due to arrive at 6.12pm, so I went to the station and crossed my fingers that she hadn’t missed the train as I would have no way of knowing, and the idea of spending hours waiting in a cold train station was less than appealing. Luckily, she arrived on time. But when we went out that night, I managed to lose sight of her in a club. Though we had agreed a meeting point in advance, I was worried about leaving her in a place she wasn’t familiar with and spent the best part of half an hour searching for her, only to find her happily chatting to a group of people.

Throughout the week, I found giving up modern technology was a big inconvenience. I had to plan outfits days in advance, as I couldn’t use the washing machine. When I realised the dress I wanted to wear on a night out was lying in a crumpled heap on my bedroom floor, I had to handwash it in the sink and pray that it would be dry in time. I was forced to resort to hanging the wet dress on a hanger and hooking it over the shower rail to dry flat, as ironing was not an option. I ended up having to wear a slightly damp dress with a few suspicious creases, but I figured that in a dark club, nobody would notice.  My friends thought I was mad but I was determined to prove that I could give up technology.

By the end of the week, I was desperate to return to my technology-filled lifestyle. When I logged into my email account, I had 13 emails in my personal email account, over 60 messages in my university inbox and my work email had a staggering 93 emails to wade through. My mobile began bleeping almost immediately after I switched it on.  There were eight voicemails, three of which were from a magazine editor frustrated at not being able to contact me about a story I was writing, another was from my boss asking me to cover a shift and the others were from friends wanting to know why they couldn’t get hold of me. I also fell behind with work as all the resources are online, and lecturers communicate with us via email. I had to rely on my friends to inform me of any changes to lecture venues or deadlines.

After spending an entire day ringing around apologising and trying to appease some annoyed editors and disgruntled friends, I had got the message. Technology is essential. As a freelance writer and student, there was no way I could function without my email and phone.  The week had bordered on torturous. Technology has become such an integral part of our lives, it is almost incomprehensible to live without it. And yet I had (almost) managed to do just that. It made me wonder whether our lives had been simpler before technology, or whether they are simpler now because of technology. One thing is for sure; there’s no going back. Technology has transformed our lives, whether it’s for better or worse.

Kay Weston

As a man who describes his life as “a series of embarrassing incidents, strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents”, you’d really think Russell Brand would have more humility. I’m the one that’s embarrassed now, after finally meeting my all-time favourite celebrity. I’m ashamed to tell this sorry little tale, but I think it goes someway to highlighting the hypocrisy and superficiality of today’s celebrity culture.Forty-eight hours ago, I loved Russell Brand. Seriously, I thought he was intelligent, witty, sexy, and he seemed like such a nice man! I was even prepared to overlook his womanising (very good of me, I know) because I was such a fan.

The representative committees of the USUS
DDSF, Black Students Committee, LGBT Committee