Sidders

The image link doesn't appear to work, Graw. The album's privacy must be set to "Friends only".

The spider-thing looks to me like some futuristic form of a broad-casting tower. From the diagrams it looks to have a lot of satellite dishes and TV screens at the big spherical centre thing, so perhaps whilst in The Ministry of Joy they send out inaudible radio waves to change people's ways of thinking, ultimately hypnotising them.

Hi Emma, Fright Nights, as you're aware, will see a surcharge of £5 for AP holders to simply get in the gate. On top of this, there is an extra £3 online charge if your pre-order tickets for The Passing (Fastrack only).This new maze will probably charge even higher if you don't buy your ticket in advance (figure about £5 on-the-door). As far as I am aware, there is no extra fee for entry into The Curse, The Asylum or Experiment 10. But obviously, Fastrack tickets will still cost you extra on top of what you pay to get in.

Enthusiasts hate Storm Surge? Looks what your overbearing love for a **** ride has done Marc!

Though few will have heard of their music, or even their stage name, Stefan Storm and Oskar Gullstrand (yes, this makes them Swedish) are very good at making a very special, very rare denomination of dream-pop; the very kind of music which is capable of conjuring up long-forgotten memories and of giving you the building blocks for new ones as you soar through your own imagination into a distant galaxy. It's the kind of music that turns timid souls into brave ones that dare to tread the unknown and engage in fantastical adventures to recreate to wide-eyed wonder of simply being a child again. You may remember me saying at some point or other that the best pop music is that which doesn't look like it's trying to hard. This music is the embodiment of that. The crux of it being that there's traces everywhere throughout the duo's 2011 début album 'Voyage' that immense care sand attention is paid to every verse, every chorus, every line and every musical interlude that can be found on the album. It was a stunning accomplishment for today's music industry, despite passing under the radar completely, even in Sweden. Only few acts can really be placed into the same sort niche as them. I suppose the closest high-profile reference I can give you is that if you like Underworld's 'Caliban's Dream' and M83's 'Midnight City', then you should be listening to The Sound of Arrows. This following clip is the trailer for 'Voyage', and introduces their world with far more accuracy and celebratory warmth than my words ever could. It's not easy to carry the immense gravity of such beautifully complex music, but their whole world is perfectly encapsulated here. Songs featured: 'Lost City' and 'There Is Still Hope', my personal favourite. Taking their name from a single line in a little-known Swedish poem by a little-known Swedish poet, the dream-pop duo's small-time attributes end there. They may be modest in their approach to publicity and commercial attention, but their approach to music suggests a determination to create and explore enormous, gorgeous landscapes with vibrant colours, textures and emotions with the wild fervour and creative carelessness of a fearless childhood. On top of that, the stunning Utopian visuals they give their videos transcends their lowly-funded membership as part of the music industry, mocking big-budget videos and soaring into a near palpable new reality. In a time where music videos achieve their 'avant-garde' qualities by diving headlong into monochromatic moodiness, obscure hi-culture symbolism and cheap sex, bleached of colour and traceable emotion, it's a warming thing to see something so simple like this: Still trying to fathom VEVO logic. Not even I can make an explicit link between The Sound of Arrows and One Direction. Having listened to 'Magic', you'd only be seconds into the song before comparisons to Pet Shop Boys are made. Perhaps now I should dispute the common links made between the few who have heard of the Arrows and the frequent comparisons they often get to Pet Shop Boys. Whilst it's no comparison to sniff at, Pet Shop Boys prided themselves (before they strayed into the MOR wilderness) for their sneering satire of Thatcherism and society in general ('Opportunities', 'West End Girls', 'Love, etc.') and Neil Tennant typically spoke-sang with an un-emotive tone, mimicking the objectivity of their social critiques; their music was a commentary on the flaws of human nature and then-modern culture. The Sound of Arrows are far more optimistic than this - perhaps even naive. Would Pet Shop Boys use a children's choir? Would Tennant sing the lyrics "Seize the chance, follow your dreams/Be yourself, don't plan and scheme"? The Arrows' musical inventory may be the same but viewed through a noughties lens, but the result of their toil produces music that sings of hope, promise, love, and alluringly manifests itself within the relentless energy of youth. 'Magic' is merely the tip of a very deep iceberg. Swapping poppy melodies for billowing silk layers and sedate, reflective vulnerability on songs like 'Ruins of Rome' and 'Longest Ever Dream', it's hard to imagine such polished productions and carefully augmented sounds can be produced on such a small budget. The overtones of triumphing-over-adversary you get from the the red velvet synths of 'Conquest' or the mighty ode to love, loss and longing, 'Wonders', vibrate with a sparkling richness rarely ever seen or heard from such a small-scale duo. Their single 'Nova' combines chart pop know-how and a glorious fervour for the love of someone else, even if it involved treading blindly into the vast unknown - "Though I fear what is to come, I'm a soldier running; try to see/At the end of the world, someone holds out for me". It's a full-scale event held at the distant reaches of the farthest galaxy, and everyone's invited. Masterfully crafting layer upon layer into full-bodied walls of sound and imagination, in many ways it's quite hard to picture listening the Arrows' without seeing at least one of their accompanying cinematic triumphs - it's part of the promise of The Sound of Arrows and magnifies their ability to invigorate the unconscious with metallic, pastel-coloured melodies like on 'Into The Clouds'; the video for which is a spectroscopic world of pure optimism, hope, and the carefree frivolity of simply being a child again. Second album track, 'Wonders', is one of their best. Instead of stringently connecting itself to collective memories of bygones and childhood abandon, 'Wonders' forms new memories that promise us we can still revive such days whilst indulging in our present, with it’s pulse-raising, spacious longing and heavily-breathing journey into the introspective. There are darker sides to the Arrows' work, and when the tangible highs run low we see them mourn the injustices of this reality. Their shortest song, 'Hurting All The Way', doesn't suffer it's length. In the brief two-and-a-half-minute song, the removal of the adventurous wonder that illuminates the rest of the album sees a moving tale with a gentle crescendo that speaks of the emotional and social confines of homosexuality. It's not a massive departure of sound, but the themes and tones are far darker and Storm's vocals take on a lamenting vulnerability. Following hot on the heals of 'Hurting All The Way' though, is the tempestuous 'Conquest'. It doesn't take much thought to propose that it was strategically placed after 'Hurting All The Way' on Voyage's tracklisting due to it's message of determination to discover and achieve the impossible, a perfect partner to the tender pathos of the previous track. Warning: Video contains horses, boobies and floating pyramids. Cynics may snigger at the dreamy naivety of The Sound of Arrows. Some may critique them for compromising their chart appeal by not being 'pop' enough to bother the Top 40 and never leaning too far into the left of field to drum up alternative interest. Some may even retort at their attempts to hide themselves away from the trials and tribulations of this reality in order to thrive in their own, but for me they take listeners on a journey you don't want to come back from. Grimace if you will, but in the words of Stefan Storm himself: "I may be dreaming but I think I believe/I might be seeing things that aren't quite real/But right now, I don't care if I do".

I wouldn't complain if this ended up at Legoland or hell, even Chessington. New ride is a new ride, right? Besides, they did it with Eclipse in 2004.

Fixed.

From the feeds I have access to, pluk, I don't see any name other than your current one. I can say much further as I don't have access and wouldn't be responsible for any automated mail system, so maybe if you give Ian or Marc a bell they'll be able to help you out.

Love it. Let the mantras cry out and the mindless worship from hateful hypnotic states begin! Hope this logo is plastered everywhere inside the station/X-Sector. Looks very sinister indeed. I prefer the sterile glint of the silvery one more than the spray painted one though.

Oh, so they finally noticed Colossus's sinking support?

It all depends on what Thorpe's main intentions are. If they intend to keep Samurai which, going by the sign saying "returning for the 2013 season", they do, then they'll go for the most financially viable option, regardless of the difficulty and ultimate pointlessness of it. Merlin are not known for their future sight. If they intend to keep Samurai open as an attraction it may be worth buying a new Top-Scan for that purpose only. Even if they run it at the same setting it is now, at least, for them, they'll have the attraction open and if Slammer's anything to go by (though arguably Slammer is more temperamental piece of kit) Thorpe won't want a quick-fix maintenance solution they'll kick themselves about in six months. If buying a new Top-Scan pays off, regardless of the new model will be run in 2013, Thorpe will do just that. If refurbishing the current model is easier/cheaper, then they'll do that.

Exactly that Dan. Well said - gotta love Matt Murphy. Rediscovering LCD Soundsystem of late and remembering what a stonking good album 'Sound of Silver' is.

Inferno's queue is just great isn't it? I haven't been to the park of late so I don't know about the situation with Saw, but last time I went I felt exactly what you described. Despite the station looking suitably run-down, there was an almost clinically 'clean' feel about the surrounding area/plaza, and the views across to the car park and the obvious transition from Lost City to Saw's Island did somewhat detract from the continuity of the theme.

For someone who puts so much effort into her 'art' (sounding familiar already, this bit, isn't it?), Natalia Kills gets quite a lot of stick from quite a lot of the microscopic portion of the public that know of her. Why is this though? It's not like it's the ruinous result of overexposure e.g. Rihanna, and on that topic - what exactly is it that's prevented the record-buying public warming up to Miss. Natalia Keery-Fisher? Once known as Verbalicious in 2005, she quickly dropped the more urban look and sound in favour of a fence-sitting combination of promiscuous femme fatale meets seductive lady-droid once she'd decided she was going to give pop music a good bash. Now, "pop" is an easy word to spell and an even easier word to say, but it's not an easy thing to master, let alone infiltrate the elusive "pop culture". Just how do you go about convincing people to warm to you and your music when you deliberately set yourself away from them, opting to be an object of admiration and fantasy, rather than something capable of actual emotion? For those not in the know, here is Natalia Kills talking about Natalia 'Kills' and Perez Hilton "the journalist". She is from Bradford, West Yorkshire in the UK. This is important to remember when listening to Natalia Kills speak. Skip to 1:17 for the best part. Exciting stuff, but beyond the gold smiley-face glasses, the ridiculous hair and the casually uninterested-in-you-but-please-listen-to-me body language, why again had she failed to take off? She first appeared in on the music industry radar as Natalia Kills in 2010, and drew immediate comparisons to Lady GaGa who was an unstoppable force at the time. Many people believed that Madonna copied GaGa and all manner of forum-related bitchiness broke out about the fallacy of Natalia Kills and her endeavours to invest deep artistic value into things she'd nicked from GaGa. You can imagine the virtual bloodshed. All the while Lady GaGa was setting fire to her Russian pimps and name-checking herself in her own songs, Natalia Kills upped the hypocrisy to an 11, kindly asking fans and onlookers not to draw comparisons between her and the biggest popstar in the world - or anyone else, for that matter - all the while producing music like 'Mirrors'. The first single from her début album 'Perfectionist', she describes it as a song that "explores this obsessive, adulterant vanity, this desire for control, and how much fun you can have with it". If you're thinking now that this is why radio and TV neglected her music, click below. It's not that bad. In fact, on a scale from 1 to bondage basement BDSM, 'Mirrors' is more like a used but empty condom left on the floor of a messy student apartment, under a pile of dirty clothes and study material for a horticulture course. At first you might think - but this is exactly the kind of music that was selling in 2010? Produced by Akon, raved about by Perez Hilton, signed to will.I.am's own recording label, why was 'Mirrors' not a hit given the grotesquely high-profile promotion? Why indeed. Pretentious video and overbearing auto-tune aside, there's not a bad hook there in 'Mirrors', hiding away under months of computer-assisted twiddling and impenetrable middle-distance darkness gazing. But don't expect to find much to salvage from 'Zombie', 'Kill My Boyfriend' or 'Love is a Suicide'. 'Free' is a would-be solid pop nugget. It comes so very close to mediocrity only to fall flat on it's face that I now think it's the epitome of Natalia. It's got everything a pop song should have, except for one thing it shouldn't have - will.I.am. Without him, we might have had a glimpse of a by-numbers pop hit (which is what everyone wants, right?). With him, it sounds just like every other (and there are many) cameo he's shat out all over the industry in the last five years. Her music is often described as "aggressive", and a "dark electro-goth" re-imagining of 80's inspired sounds, but there's also nods to her more urban past in some of it. However, said music also leaves little to the imagination, making the perfect recipe for someone who offers very little and bluntly refuses any alternative to those not entirely satisfied with an album full of haughtily self-affirming and barely-abstract metaphors alluring to some godly inertia of unquestioning self-confidence. In this self-imposed arrogance of her own "perfection", she alienated her audience before she even hit the radio. That isn't to say she's not popular in her own little crowd - people who command attention and respect from mindless drones like Natalia does rarely aren't. She does have some fans dedicated to her fatuous portrayal of sexual demi-god status and tormented, cold aloofness, but re-evaluating these, her only trademark features, it's hard to understand why. It seems that, given the success of Lady GaGa, Interscope wanted to make the most of the new fandango pop weirdo niche and plucked the most willing of participants from a production line of back-burner artists, flogged her to will.I.am, and agreed to fund the distribution of her music if she could shroud basic melodies in enough affectation posing as "fierceness" and "aggression" to pass it off as something remotely original. So, similar to what GaGa does only, Natalia fails to produce the same winking inauthenticity GaGa had at the time (the latter has, of course, dissolved her fanbase to only the most staunchly loyal fans in recent months). My main issue with Natalia Kills is she's the textbook case of style over substance. Like many things in life - theme park rides, books, Avatar... There's a lot of energy dissipated on the context and the foundations and a neglect for the real thing we came for: in this case the music. It's uninspired, unoriginal and obvious. She reminds me of a perverse Pixie Lott. When said ingénue of bubblegum pop music turned to electropop for her second album, she was rendered a bland, shapeless silhouette against a backdrop and blinding pop personalities. The same happens to Natalia only, she puts herself in the pitch-black and doesn't appear to even understand her own stuff. It sounds like someone speaking for her while she sits behind some silly glasses and tries to remember what to say and when. With Natalia it's all about fantasy - the same as many an artist (GaGa, Del Rey) - but there's an awful lot of darkness in her "twisted" (read: bubbling up to nearly-controversial) fantasy, which makes it a far easier option to simply turn on the lights and tell her as she looks at you, blinking, from inside a blood-smeared, smashed glass box to go home and stop trying so hard. There's no point of creating a pop fantasy no-one wants to be part of.

Sound so Orwellian. Let's hope they put some real though into recreating the intense paranoia and backwards totalitarianism of Oceania as in Nineteen Eighty-Four, with lots of cameras, scanners, audio-devices and 'telescreens'. I think also, Oryx after Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake sounds like an awesome name, but the link to biochemically engineered apocalypse and the character of Oryx might be a bit too harrowing for a theme park like Alton. Plus, that'd mean an IP so thinking about it, maybe not.

Surely that information can't be true? Considering Thorpe are charging an obligatory £5 entry fee on top of Fright Nights tickets prices just to get in the gate (something Alton doesn't do), meaning tickets are somewhere near £48-£50 for people without APs/MAPs/PAPs, I would doubt they would also charge for individual maze attractions because it always seemed to me the £5 extra charge was to cover that, as a variation of the system Alton Towers uses (where you do have to pay for individual maze attractions, but there is no gate ticket surcharge).

Swarm looks ace here.

And on that note... Locked.

See the similarity?

Thanks for doing that Stokesyboy, the video is great! PortAventura sure is a stunning park to look at. It's a shame to hear so much bad reviews of the park's queuing system though. Is it really as bad as everyone says?

Not to mention The Swarm will only be two years old by then. Colossus in that pic is at least seven. Comparison irrelevant.

Intamin?!

GREAT SCOTT I NEVER NYOO

Hey James! We've spoken a bit earlier in Chat but I'm just posting here to welcome you officially in the official thread of official introductions. Officially. Hope you enjoy your stay!

And that, ladies and gents, is going on the wall.