Westminster’s Finest

You’ve just heard Marianne Bouchart talking about creative talent at Westminster on the news show. With so much musical talent buzzing around the Harrow campus, could the next big thing be right on our doorstep? We’ve handpicked four of the best for you to enjoy…

Abi Thommes

If you have ever spent an evening drinking in The Undercroft, and let’s face it who hasn’t, you will probably have been served by the smiley blonde behind the bar known as Abi Thommes.

Always accompanied by her guitar or keyboard when performing, Abi has a beautifully sweet voice that makes her tales of teenage love all the more convincing. Check out the video below of Abi performing ‘One.’

Fall From Eden

Formed on the Commercial Music course, Fall From Eden are our very own answer to Paramore. Their punk rock sound is probably slightly heavier than their American counterparts, but they also manage to pull off acoustic performances with confidence.

Due to release their debut EP this summer, check out this acoustic performance of what will be their first single below.

Alex Lipinski

Alex is one of the biggest success stories to come out of the university in recent years. A regular performer across London and even America, his music takes inspiration from the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Just like Dylan, Lipinski makes full use of the harmonica in his music!

Signed to Blue Chameleon records, Alex is set to release his first album ‘Lonesome Train’ on May 24th. Here’s one of our favourite tracks, ‘Goodbye Lullaby,’ live from the Borderline in London.

Dudezilla

If you like The White Stripes but think they should ‘rock’ up their sound – take a listen to Dudezilla.

With song titles such as ‘Satan’s Pig’ don’t be put off by the weird and wacky names, these guys know how to, quite literally, rock your socks off. They have plenty of gigs coming up around London and Wales so if you like what you see below, go and check them out.

You can check out these and loads more Westminster talent on your student radio station – Smoke Radio. If you want your band heard on the radio, get in touch!

Westminster news: 3 pm broadcast

The Westminster University TV broadcast team are busy preparing the 3pm news bulletin. What can we expect?

Inside the studio

Kieran Hill interview.

This is the full copy of an interview held with ‘Winkball.com‘ employee and University of Westminster student, Kieran Hill. I discussed his latest piece with him which was on the subject of the TFL’s motorcycle safety campaign, simply press ‘continue reading’ to view the interesting, insightful and visionary interview.

Unable to make your mark

With the election results dawning on us and many successful voters eager to find out the results, is this news being overshadowed by claims of unfairness at the polling station by those of us who were unable to vote? Yes, turning up late at the polling station is rather silly, but being turned away when you arrived on time is quite unfair. The solution seems to be to use other methods of voting, but do they always work?

One shock of the May 2010 elections has been the number of people turned away at closing polling stations that spent hours queuing for their chance to make their mark in British politics and were unable to. The Times has reported, “Thousands of people were denied the right to vote” as last night, polling stations were either forced to shut their doors or stay open later than the 10pm deadline. Some protests had to be cleared by police.

What now?

Most of the election results are in now. The Conservatives have the lead, but not the majority. With some constituencies still to declare, the result is a hung Parliament. What is going on and what is going to happen with the government now?

The Liberal Democrats suffered a humiliating defeat. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, made a short speech earlier this morning about the state of the government. He is calling for the party that has the most votes to work with the other parties to sort out the country and economics, as he says, they are the most important things. Not one party getting one up on the others.

Gordon Brown has returned to Downing Street. And there is speculation that he will enlist the Lib Dems to form a coalition, but even if they both get the seats predicted, they still won’t have enough for an absolute majority. Gordon Brown wants to wait until all the votes are in before anything is decided.

And the Conservatives are wanting the party with the most votes and seats to have the right to govern first. At the moment it is them who are in the lead. But if they don’t gain an absolute majority then it is the current government who has the right, and power to decide what happens.

David Cameron is due to give a speech at 2.30pm, and all the votes are expected to be in by 3.30pm. He is expected to outline plans for a stronger government that will work more towards national interest. But we will have to wait until later on to find out what is really going to happen.

Westminster News Live Radio Broadcast 1pm

The Team at Westminster News Radio
- Photography by Max Smolaks

Coming up in Westminster News Radio, on the 1pm broadcast, our top stories:

• The big election story as it happens.
• Fascist March: An anti-islamic film causes far right marches outside of Westminster, striking out the BNP vote as clashes occure outside of parliament.
• Uganda moves to implement a law making homosexuality punishable by death.

This weekend, in Sport.

The weekend is fast approaching and with the weekend comes the inevitable flood of sporting action from around the globe. We have a live radio broadcast coming up at 3pm to tell you all about what is going to be happening, but for now, Murray Crundwell, part of the Westminster News Online sports team, is going to give you an overview of Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s sporting events.