Welcome to The REAL Issue
What is real, anyway? We are, dear readers, perhaps in the age of the unreal. We date through apps. We chat mostly through text boxes. Robots write our emails. We lose sleep watching videos of nonsense that we know do us harm, yet feel no desire to switch off. A decade ago, we worried about fake news ruining our brains, but the enforced proliferation of AI slop into almost every aspect of our lives makes that era feel almost quaint.
I do not know you, but I know you need to get off your phone. I know this because I do, too. We all do. We often talk of “real life”, yet we have all willingly migrated to a digital realm full of online friends, notifications and distractions. Digital life may be the default, but it doesn’t have to be. Being in the real world now takes effort. It takes time. It can feel unnatural, like a chore. But there are few things in life that are worthwhile that don’t ask for a bit of discomfort.
Unknowingly, by reading this, you’ve already made the first step back to reality. Flick through this issue right now. Feel the tangible pages, the texture of the paper. See the kaleidoscope of artwork, witness the result of hours of writing, proofreading, and behind-the-scenes arguments about spelling. Flick through the pages and witness the work of several dozen humans with thoughts, feelings, heartaches, dreams, and lives entirely of their own. This is the product of people, not a programme. Magazines have never been more important – they are an antidote to the ragebaiting, lingo-stuffed “content” that screams and claws for our attention.
In this issue you’ll find dispatches from community cinemas, interviews with punk bands, low-league football clubs, ways to get back into the analogue world and spotlights on the people who are already there. Read it. Spill your tea on it. Give it to a stranger. This is not drivel churned out by ChatGPT, it’s real.
George Francis Lee
aAh! Magazine Editorial Assistant
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Welcome to The REAL Issue What is real, anyway? We are, dear readers, perhaps in the age of the unreal. We date through apps. We chat mostly through text boxes. Robots write our emails. We lose sleep watching videos of nonsense that we know do us harm, yet feel no desire to switch off. A…
Featured image and gallery: Zak Pinchin At the iconic O2 Ritz in Manchester, this was no ordinary Tuesday night – anticipation didn’t so much simmer as surge before the wildly topical metal newcomers PRESIDENT even touched the stage. Opening act TheBoyShadow set the tone with a blistering, genre‑bending performance that pulled the early crowd straight…
Featured image and gallery: Sam Holmes From Mirfield to Manchester, this Yorkshire-born four-piece bring their funk-interwoven indie rock to a sold-out Gorilla for their biggest headline show to date. Fresh off the back of their new single ‘Watch Life Burn’ and signing their first record deal with This Feeling/ LAB Records, there is already a…
Featured image and photography: Aaron Parsons / Press Haiden Henderson isn’t a name known to many in Manchester, but the Californian rockstar certainly made sure to leave a lasting impression. With sensual and sexy songs, Henderson really knows how to heat up a crowd in more ways than one. Unreleased track ‘Freak For You’ sets a…
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