Freelance creative writer with a decade of experience in music promotion, ghostwriting and social media communication.

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Rotem Sivan Trio. Sounds Jazz Club. 20/04/24

Je me suis remis à la clarinette, c’est ce qui rapproche le plus de l’anglais – Raymond Devos

The undercurrent of the mighty Zenne runs through your veins, Brussels. Sins spread like wildfire, especially on a wild and wet Saturday night, when NYC’s finest grace us with their presence.

Backed by Miguel Russel, a Bronx rhythm machine who swings like Krupa, and Hamish Smith, a negroni sipping, no-look slapping seventh wonder of the bull fiddle, Rotem Sivan effortlessly switches between gears and genres, crowning himself the king of tone. Regardless of the virtuosity displayed, it’s the almost childlike joy he finds in sharing his work that transforms this great musician into a real artist.

Sounds might be relocating soon, but they will never get the smell out of those curtains. Talkin’ bout STANK! 

The Game That Makes A Nation
01/11/15

Twenty years ago Ellis Park hosted the Rugby World Cup final. While the teams aligned for the national anthems, Nelson Mandela walked on to the field. He was wearing a Springbok jersey. The sight of South Africa's first black president, proudly wearing one of the symbols of the Apartheid regime, consolidated the Rainbow Nation. 

It was not the first time rugby served as a political instrument. In the twenties, rugby union was a niche sport in northern Italy. But in '27, that quickly changed: Mussolini's fascist regime began to use it as a vehicle for its ideology – both domestically and internationally. The propaganda committee rebranded rugby union as 'palla ovale', an evolution of the Roman game 'haspatum'. Due to the immense success of the Italian football team (World Champions in '34 and '38) and the rugby community's resistance towards authority, Il Duce dropped rugby as the flagship of the Fascist Party. 

Apart from the physicality, it was the amateur philosophy of the game that appealed to the Fascists, as The Times noted in '29; 'the promoters of rugby, signor Giorgio Vaccaro and signor Turati (secretaries of the Fascist Party), have realised that the game must be strictly confined, as in Great Britain, to amateurs who can be trusted to play it in the right spirit of sportsmanship'. 

The Great Schism

In 1995, the Wind of Change was blowing through the world of rugby. The Springboks' resurgence on the international stage - they had been effectively banned from test rugby ('81-'92) after years of boycotts and worldwide criticism - coincided with the birth of the professional era. A hundred years after 'The Great Schism', rugby union broke free from the chains of amateurism. 

On Thursday, August 29, 1895, representatives of twelve clubs decided to break all links with the RFU (Rugby Football Union) and form the NRFU (Northern Rugby Football Union). In the industrial North of England, most rugby players were working class. The loss of income by playing rugby on Saturday was considerable – so the clubs began to make 'broken time' payments as compensation, which was strongly opposed by the RFU. Over the next fifteen years, the NRFU made significant changes to the rules: 13 players per team, no more line-outs, 'play the ball' instead of rucks... Rugby League was born. 

'They didn't tell us about Rugby League at school. We were middle class, lived in the South and played Rugby Union. So we never knew that far off in the North, men took money for playing a very different rugger.' Roger Mills' brilliant documentary 'The Game That Got Away' (1969) perfectly captures the sentiment of the RFU towards Rugby League. 'Rugby Union officials at Twickenham would allow neither themselves, nor their members to be filmed, for even to appear on the same roll of celluloid as the blackballed League sends a shudder through the Union. The Union prefers to nurse a private grudge towards its prodigal son. As one official said: 'We think we are right. But in the democratic world we live in, our view may not be understood.' 

Shamateurism

By 1995, advertising and television coverage generated so much money that the amateur statute became untenable. Many of the top Union players were getting their share by underhand dealings, which became known as 'shamateurism'. 99 years and 364 days after the 1895 schism, the IRB (International Rugby Board) took the historic decision to allow professionalism in the Union game. 

The schism between rugby codes was rooted in class division. Rugby was originally a middle class invention, taught at private schools and played by 'gentlemen'. The amateur philosophy inadvertently led to the exclusion of blue collar workers, who couldn't afford to miss work for rugby. Rather than finding a solution, the Union officials chose to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards professionalism. By doing so, they not only excluded the working class in the North of England: sticking to the principle of amateurism meant jeopardising the globalisation of the game. Exclusivity and expansion rarely go hand in hand. 

And let's face it: in 2015, rugby is far from a global game. The sport is dominated by a country with three times less inhabitants than Northern England. Since the professional era, they have won 202 out of 242 test matches. That's a win percentage of 83,4 per cent. 

Go All Blacks.