A place in the Sun: Marc Deanie

By Nicola Hamilton


AFTER one outstanding year on Cardonald College Glasgow’s NCTJ accredited journalism course, Marc
Deanie landed his dream job – as a feature writer on best-selling tabloid newspaper, the Scottish Sun.


Marc, 23, was voted Student Journalist of the Year 2009 at the prestigious Write Stuff awards in May 2009 and managed to secure himself the opportunity of a life-time, when he caught the attention of The Sun’s chief feature writer, Matt Bendoris.

Matt, who had previously met Marc on a visit to the college, was impressed by his enthusiasm and inquisitive personality and offered Marc a one-week work placement at the Sun. Having demonstrated obvious
journalistic potential, Marc was then offered full time shifts on the features desk at the tabloid title.

On working at the Sun, Marc said: “It’s very scary, the thing about it is that you could be sitting at 5 o’clock
and get a page lead story to do, and you just have to get it done and make sure you are being accurate at the same time.

“The people I work with are brilliant, they help me out, giving me tips on how to approach stories and get interviews. I’ve learned so much working on the job and a lot of things I learned at college I put to use every day.

“The course and the lecturers gave me a lot of confidence during my year at Cardonald.”

Already Marc has been mixing with famous faces such as singer songwriter Calvin Harris, and one of his own
heroes, Dragon’s Den tycoon Duncan Bannatyne.

However, Marc has his own ways of staying cool and collected: “ I tend not to go into interviews with any previous expectations, otherwise they could end up being a let down. I still get nervous before doing any interview but I find it’s best to be listening to what the person is saying rather than thinking too much about your next question. ”

Like a true professional, Marc realises how tough it can be for journalists trying to break into the industry and knows you have to learn to deal with heavy criticism.

He said: “If you’ve got an idea, be prepared for it to be chopped in half. I learned quickly not to take it personally. You could suggest 10 stories to the editor and only one will make it into the paper so you’ve got to keep coming up with new material on a daily basis.”

Although tabloid newspapers such as The Sun are always coming under criticism for being sensationalist, Marc believes they do their job to keep the public talking. He said: “You don’t tend to hear someone saying ‘Oh, did you read that story in the Guardian?’ It’s papers like The Sun and the News of the World that get remembered for what they print.”

Big laughs at 'Skegyy' weekend

Quite possibly the UK’s biggest winter festival, club 18-30 know how to party hard and that is exactly what happened from the 27th-29th November down at good old Skegness.


After a gruelling 7 hour bus journey accompanied by a few sly swigs of vodka mixer and tons upon tons of Sensations we were prepared for a weekend of no sleep and constant raving. When we finally arrived there was no time to wait around out so out came the bev and we were on route to Rocky-oke at the bar Jaks hosted by club Trinity.

What can you say about Rocky-oke? Well it’s better than classic Karaoke with a live rock band accompaniment who know how to belt out some cords. It was a bit of a shame that everyone was so good especially when you’re waiting for that ‘cringe factor’ moment.

Thankfully there were other cheap thrills available in the form of ‘shooters’- a range of cheap shots which looked like brightly coloured test tubes. Getting in 3 for £5 was exactly what we needed and they were just that bit stronger than the usual Sourz stuff.

One thing to bear in mind about the Big Reunion is that the party stops for no one at no point, heading back to the room to get changed into our night time gear meant we kept the boozing going, adding a few more photos to the camera and off we went again back to the main arena, this time to see chart topping Tinchy Stryder.

The atmosphere inside the main arena was electric; people dressed how they wanted no matter how eccentric, (though for the guy in the jock straps, we really didn’t need to see your ‘party trick’). The crowd got warmed up with some club classics before Tincy himself greeted the stage with hits like ‘Number one’ and ‘You’re not alone’.

Much of the same was on the cards for Sunday, this time with a silent disco to kick off the afternoon. Possibly the highlight of my weekend was when the DJ played my request of ‘Barbie Girl’ for the boy girl dance/sing off, just fantastic.

Our night kept getting better with appearances from Tia Cruz and the Wombats taking the crowd into the early hours. The whole place was glow stick central with some indie tunes kicking in toward the end of the night.

The Big Reunion is a perfect way to spend what would have been just another November weekend and the chance to meet those people who made your holiday memorable, be aware the sun makes people look better, so beer goggles are essential at this event!

Best Bits? The silent disco, free swimming (tip- the bubble pool is a great hangover cure) the general party attitude of everyone you meet.

Bad bits? The accommodation is just for sleeping, I’ll say no more. The fact it’s in the middle of nowhere and that a bottle of WKD Core cider was £4, talk about daylight robbery!

Glasgow's going wild for netball

Glasgow Wild Cats




In their second season playing in the elite Co-operative Netball Superleague, the Glasgow Wildcats are certainly building momentum among their Scottish fans and looking towards success in the upcoming 2014 Common Wealth games.
Wowing viewers in their dazzling pink kits, the Wildcats have been training extremely hard this season having officially been made into a franchise thanks to help from a sporting partnership with Glasgow City Council, Culture and Sport Glasgow, Glasgow University and Glasgow Netball Association.
The franchise has provided the team the opportunity to play in the Netball Superleague which is the leading UK domestic netball competition. It includes 9 regional sides taking part, comprising seven English teams, a team from Wales and the Glasgow Wildcats.

Competing in the Super league has also had other benefits for the team as Sky are in agreement to televise the games, allowing further media interest for Netball and its players.

Anne Ward, Chief Executive Officer for Netball Scotland believes this move can bring both direct benefits to the team and also health benefits to the country. She said: “With the Co-Operative Netball Superleague televised, the enhanced media exposure for Scottish netball and for our national players – who make up the majority of the Glasgow Wildcats Team – is immense. This exposure will help to develop our top players as role models who can inspire girls and women up and down the country not only to stay involved in the sport – as players, coaches, umpires and volunteers – but also to choose netball for the first time.

“Young people in particular are inspired by sporting heroes – but until now, sporting heroines have been relatively few and far between in comparison. And with the huge focus on obesity, poor fitness and low uptake of sport amongst girls in particular - netball with its 95% female profile, is well placed to address this.”

Showing these cats means business; the team implemented Scottish National Coach Denise Holland as their head coach and are working on their skills to a new level of sporting professionalism.

The Wildcats remain training toward improving Scotland’s place in the Netball World ranking, which is currently 17th, and developing the skills of elite players who will represent the city in the 2014 games.

Not only are the Wildcats looking to galvanise at a national level, they are gearing up for a project which will give Glasgow youngsters the chance to appreciate the fine game. All 170 primary and 21 secondary schools within the city will be involved in an extensive participation programme leading up to and beyond the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The programme will aim to increase the number of after schools clubs and also the number of teams involved in the Glasgow Schools Netball League/Festival Programme.


For more information on the team visit www.glasgowwildcats.co.uk

Backbeat- the word on the street

Generations of us have been captured by their sound, spellbound by their beat and mesmerised by their style, but how many of us are familiar with the 5th member of the legendary Beatles – Stuart Sutcliffe?


In the theatre adaption of Iain Softley’s 1994 film Backbeat, brought to the Citizens Theatre Glasgow for its world premier, we see the true meaning of music come alive as the lights come on while telling the tragic story of the greatly talented Stuart Sutcliffe, a man who had to choose between his best friend, the woman he loved and the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band the world has ever seen.

Backbeat surrounds ‘the Hamburg Years’, of what was to become the most successful band in modern times , though this story provides a fascinating look into the triangular relationship between Stu Sutcliffe, the band’s original bassist, John Lennon, his best friend, and Astrid Kircherr, the stunning German photographer who Sutcliffe fell passionately in love with.



It was Sutcliffe’s struggle between Lennon and music, and Astrid and art, which makes the troubled focus of Backbeat. The imminent death of Stu following a brain haemorrhage aged just 22 in the year before ‘Beatle Mania’ took hold, adds to the emotion of this remarkable and vivid portrait of the 1960’s.



Director of both the film and theatre piece Iain Softley was very excited at finally seeing his work brought to the stage, he said: “When I was making the film, I was also visualising a theatre production of Backbeat, where Stu’s dramatic paintings and Astrid’s stunning photography could be woven into the narrative along with great live music. I am so delighted that, after all these years, we can bring Backbeat to the theatre, and to debut in Scotland where Stu was born.”



Backbeat emerges as a hugely entertaining show, featuring fine performances from Isabella Calthorpe as Astrid, Alex Robertson as an eerily lookalike Sutcliffe, Andrew Knott as Lennon, and Jamie Blackley and Daniel Healy as Harrison and McCartney. There's a superbly effective set designed by Christopher Oram that perfectly captures the early-1960s atmosphere. The music itself gives off a remarkably edgy guitar-pop sound with the cast having been turned into ‘Twist and Shout’ sensations.

Young or old, music fans of all genres will appreciate this little piece of instrumental history.