 "FOXXY LADY" Poledancing is the new way to get fit, and it’s taking the South by storm. We talk pole, posing and potatoes with the brains behind ‘Poleminx.’  Most people's perception of poledancing is that it's seedy. Prove them wrong? Pole dancing today, as practiced by loads of everyday women (and some guys) is totally different from its origins in clubs. Remove the striptease part (and the dodgy blokes being persuaded to part with their cash) and what you are left with is something which will bring a ton of physical benefits including increased muscle tone, strength, stamina, flexibility. Not to mention the confidence-boost and sense of achievement often felt at being able to pull off some really impressive feats on a metal pole. So most pole dancing classes are all about teaching the techniques and artistry of pole. This may involve performing a pirouette or dangling from 10 feet by the back of your knee. These days, it's known more for its fitness benefits and as a real specialist skill. How did you get into pole, and how long have you been doing it?? I fell into pole dancing by accident in Dec 2002 while I was looking online for a fencing class (damn Google?!?!?). Back then there were about two pole dancing courses, both up in Central London. Neither were that well organised but one glass of wine and a swing around their pole and I was totally hooked. When the course finished, one thing led to another ... It has since completely taken over my life! Now I teach full time and also perform at gigs with my pole partner. Explain the idea behind Poleminx…. I started Poleminx in 2005 to bring a toned-down non-intimidating version of traditional club pole dancing to everyday people who wanted to learn and keep fit, and who didn't want to shlep up to expensive lessons up in Central London. (It was the first to bring pole to the 'burbs, starting in Richmond, Kingston and Guildford in Surrey). If I'm honest, I loathe the gym, and loved the way pole was a creative and vaguely taboo way of staying in shape and burning off energy. There is no stripping in the classes but still a bit of (tastefully) saucy stuff along with the spectacular tricks and dance moves. I'm also into the artistic aspect, which means emphasising the way each move can be part of a longer flowing dance routine. Above all, having experienced the positive benefits of pole dancing myself, I wanted to provide lessons accessible to all everyday women, whatever their background, age, shape, size or experience. Tell us about the different courses available with Poleminx… There are Taster classes where people can dip their big toe into the world of pole. Then the popular structured courses catering for complete and utter beginners through to those who are now performing advanced inverted aerial manouevres (flash things upside-down). There are also occasional Refresher Workshops for practice and future plans for choreographed workshops. Also, people can have private lessons at home or one off pole parties with their mates. Got any hints and tips for budding poledancers? 1) Relax and have a laugh. 2) Be prepared for some obstacles at first, such as bruises, or a spin just not happenning, but these will reduce the further you progress. Actually, bruises are the secret sign of a pole dancer, flash em about proudly. 3) Never give up (ever). 4) Be prepared for some random drunk girl pole envy if you're out and about doing some moves in a club with a pole. Even after 3 weeks of pole training you will easily knock their efforts into the shade. 5) Never think you look silly. You. Just. Don't! 6) Always engage your abdominal muscles it really helps your technique. 7) Totally wear what you like, you don't have to look a certain way. 8) Having said this, bare legs really do help your technique as well. 9) If it's something you've always wanted to try ... do it, you'll love it and everyone else will think you're awesome. 10) Check my Blog for further pearls of pole wisdom! http://poledancinginpictures.blogspot.com/ If you were stuck inside a potato with only a rubicks cube and a blusher brush, how would you get out? I would swap all the green and orange squares of the rubiks cube for shiny metallic ones that reflected the sunlight, then burn the blusher brush in a mini campfire so it cooked the inside of the potato, then add a bit of salt, milk and butter to make mash and EAT my way out. I LOVE MASH! We want to do it. How do we book a course? (include contact info, website, any myspace and facebook group info) Courses are six weeks long and run continuously. Places in the next round starting in mid-Feb can be booked online at http://www.poleminx.co.uk 'Book a Place' page. I can be contacted at elaine [at] poleminx [dot] co [dot] uk or on 07719 483305, or I'm on Facebook and YouTube To book a one or two-girl pole show for a gig / private function, please contact me as above. |
  DROP ZONE @ The Pav Tav, Brighton. You’ve all heard of Drop Zone in Reading. It ran for three and a half years and became a solid rock on the ever changing shores of alternative clubbing. Since it’s moved to The Pav Tav in Brighton, it’s lost none of its reliability or fun factor. Considered the most wide ranging alternative club this side of London, Drop Zone has everything…whether you’ve got ‘a face full of metal, or a face full of glitter’ as one clever clubber put it. But then variety is inevitable when you take a three room club down to a one room event- everything gets mulched together, like an ‘alternative purée’. 
The root cause of this ‘mulching’ effect is the plethora of Dj’s; from the club classics of Dj Rex, to the new sounds of xDEACONx and SinSmithy, plus the influential mix of songs provided by The Lowlife Dj’s (former Dj’s of the former Brighton industrial goth club, and members of the band ‘SWARF’) there’s a broad mix of styles and tastes. The music is very similar to the Scottish weather. If you don’t like it, give it a few minutes and it’ll be completely different. Prepare to experience the very best of industrial, techno, punk, glam, goth, 80’s, house, rock and metal. You can find out more about Drop Zone at: www.turbulentsoundscape.com or at the Facebook group: id=37264183141 |
  ‘WE LIKE FIRE, WE’RE BOYS.’ In the words of Blind Date, 'Who are ya, and where do you come from?' I am Matt and I come from Flame to Fire. We hear the members of Flame To Fire are from all corners of the world, and all walks of life. How does that affect the music? As a three piece we all handle different parts of running the band. We're releasing the album through our own label which is great for the music as we have complete control over it. On a day to day basis it means that I can be mixing tracks whilst Steve is finishing vocals on other songs and G is arranging strings so it makes us fairly productive. Why are you called Flame to Fire? Do you particularly like fire? If you listen to the lyrical content of our songs I'd like to think there's enough in there to make people think and to take those ideas and run with them. I wouldn't refer to us as an actively political band but you can definitely make out a few of our frustrations and outlook on certain topics. And yes we like fire, we're boys. Word on the street is you guys are off on tour soon. That's gonna be expensive in the current economic climate. Any credit crunch busting tips? If people are getting fed up with current state of affairs then what better than music to take your mind of it. It may be making life difficult but you still have to enjoy yourself else it's pointless.  Describe your sound. Mad guitar, gnarly bass and hard hitting drums (I've never seen a drummer hit his kit like G). Daddy or chips? Let me think about it... Where can we get your music from? We're putting the finishing touches to our album right now. It will be available on all the major download sites including iTunes and we're doing a limited run of albums which will be available from the tours. We are going to take our time to find the right people to work with, with regards to distribution etc but have a few in mind already. So what next for Flame To Fire? We'll be doing the first video for "Succumb" which we have available as a free download from our Reverb Nation page. We have Jamie from Reuben on board to direct the video and we're just sorting out the details at the moment. After that we plan on touring the UK, followed by some dates in Europe. Any upcoming gigs you want to tell us about? We have been doing a few acoustic shows for fun whilst we finish the album. The next one is at the Boileroom in Guildford on Feb 6 with Spotlight Cannibal.  GEMMA BUNNY @ ELECTRIK INK, GUILDFORD 
Hi Gem. We know you're an apprentice at Electrik Ink; how did you get involved with the shop? Hey! Well basically I had wanted to get into piercing or tattooing since I left school, but it's really hard to get into, so ended up settling for everyday jobs that I wasn't that happy with. I was working at a pub in Guildford when I heard Electrik Ink was opening just round the corner. The guys from the shop just happened to come up to the pub I was working in at the time for drinks and stuff while they were working on getting the shop set up....and it went from there really! It was kinda like fate, ‘cause I was starting to feel really unfulfilled career wise! What's involved in a tattoo apprenticeship...how long does it take to complete? It's hard to say how long tattoo apprenticeships go on for...as a lot of the time it depends on the person/how much they practise/how many people they can find to tattoo when they're starting out! It averages about 2-3 years....but I've heard of people doing it for a lot longer. So it really depends on a lot of different things. Usually the tattooist training you will wait awhile before they let you start tattooing, as there's a LOT of technical stuff you need to know before you even pick up the tattoo machine. Tell us about your workmates. Well I work with two guys, Lee, the piercer...and Lee, the tattooist! So there can be a bit of confusion there! It’s cool though, we have a really good time at the shop and work together really well! What are your plans for your future in tattooing? My plans for the future.....well ultimately I would like to work my ass off and be the best I can be, I'm building up my portfolio right now so just collecting photos of tattoos I've done. Then hopefully one day move over to Vegas or somewhere and work in Vince Neil ink!! Haha, or maybe one day open my own shop....have myself tattooing, a piercer, someone doing hair extensions...just employ a bunch of my friends, maybe have a shop of girls! But that’s in the very distant future right now, I have a lot to learn still! 
What are the good things about working in a tattoo shop? There are so many good things about working in a tattoo shop, it’s really nice finally having a job where I feel like I'm really doing something I wanna do, where I can progress and really push myself. It's a lifestyle as well, I get to meet so many interesting people, make a lot of great friends and hopefully one day get to travel around! It's just generally really exciting learning new things and being able to spend all day drawing designs & coming up with different ideas for/with people. What are the bad things about it? There are a few bad things about the job! Mainly the having to make tea all the time! That really sucks, I don't even drink tea so after I've finished my apprenticeship, I really don't wanna see a teabag again! Cleaning the toilet sucks as well....as you can imagine! Stuff like that! Obviously there is a LOT of cleaning involved and hygiene standards to keep up, so I’m always kept busy doing that...but someone's gotta do it I guess! How much does it cost to get a tattoo with you? Where can we book an appointment? Prices in the shop really vary, we get so many people phoning up/emailing and asking the price of a tattoo this big. It’s really hard to say, as we need to see the design, how much detail it has etc... so we always ask people to come into the shop so we can have a proper chat about it and sort out a price. We have MySpace and Facebook now, so you can check out some of Lee's work at www.myspace.com/electrikink. We won't book anything in unless it’s face to face, customers need to actually come into the shop to book anything in. What's your favourite type of tattoo to do? As I'm still learning I haven't really established my favourite style to tattoo yet....I really love colourful designs and love doing girlie stuff like bows, flowers...that kinda thing! I'm not really into doing tribal only because it just gets really boring! Drawing-wise I'm really, really into script style writing right now and am constantly writing different words in script fonts, it’s addictive! I'm also really into drawing Japanese designs, mainly dragons as there is so much you can do with them. Contact Lee, Lee or Gemma at the shop on 01483 531294 - Health Registered - New needles for every client - Hospital standard sterilisation - State of the art studio - Friendly atmosphere |
 Click here for Essex club listings LONDON! Click here for London club listings SURREY & BERKS! Click here for Surrey/Berkshire club listings  THE ROBIN HOOD GUILDFORD FRIDAY 6TH FEBRUARY, 9PM HELLFIRE FESTIVAL FEATURING EXODUS, SABBAT, GAMA BOMB, ALESTORM, OVERKILL, TRIGGER THE BLODSHED, FIREWIND and many more! 02 ACADEMY ISLINGTON FRIDAY 20TH FEBRUARY, 6PM KENELIS THE LIVE AND LOUD BAR GUILDFORD SATURDAY 21ST FEBRUARY, 7PM QUAKE ROCKS FEATURING BLOODLOSS, SINUISM, ARKHAM, NERVOUS ENDINGS QUAKE NIGHTCLUB, WOKING SATURDAY 14TH MARCH, 7PM |