Notes From Editors Past

Alex Macpherson: Editor (2003-4)

When I was asked to write this editorial, my only briefing was to write it in the style of the ones I used to write when I was editor of Quench. Sadly, as I type this it’s not midday on a Friday, the magazine hasn’t got to go to press in 20 minutes, and I haven’t been awake for 30 hours, most of which were spent cursing out the office computers. The editorials were always the last thing to be done, so without fail each fortnight the students of Cardiff would be subjected to the semi-coherent ramblings of a coffee-addled brain on whatever subject sprang to mind first (usually Christina Aguilera, as I remember). Now, though, I’m older and wiser, and instead of killing myself trying to meet deadlines, I merely miss them instead. Sorry Perri!

It’s now been nearly four years since I founded Quench. This was a process which mainly involved sunbathing on the office balcony during the summer of 2003 while scribbling notes on scrap paper, and the success of the magazine in its first year was a real testament to the skill of making things up as we went along – I’m proud to see what it’s since become. I can honestly say that editing it was a pleasure, mostly because my brain seems to have filtered out all the times when I thought I was going to physically expire from exhaustion (or indeed the noxious fumes of Domino’s pizzas, which to this day make me nauseous); possibly the greatest lesson learnt is that anything can be turned into an amusing anecdote, with time.

Tristan Thomas: Executive Editor (2003-4)

Part of me likes to think that I can still perform many of the skills required of the stereotypical student. A keen eye for a drinks offer, legs that won’t ever let me walk past an open takeaway, a tendency to claim that I’m busy without thinking (a 1500 word essay? In six weeks? You poor souls). Yet while university folklore is cluttered with tales of lazy days and messy nights, the most vivid and grimly rewarding memories I take from my four years at Cardiff were those spent toiling through the night, churning out pages for early editions of the magazine you hold in your hands. For a bored journalism student struggling to justify why his course was described as ‘full-time’, gair rhydd provided a satisfying blend of red-brick worthiness and barely-legal pissing about. One week we’d be picking up awards in London, the next we were launching well-drilled snowball attacks on rival newspaper sections. Sadly, two keyboards were lost in the Great Battle for the Editor’s Office. The GR office seems to cultivate both the sublime – many of its alumni are scattered throughout the national media – to the ridiculous; I’m reminded of the South Wales Echo headline ‘Simon Weston blast at student paper’. It’s even possible to take some perverse pleasure from gair rhydd’s recent national notoriety. Many a former contributor exchanged bemused text messages 12 months ago. Of my friends who have left university in the last few years – and I’m aware this may sound glib and a little patronising – the ones who talk about Cardiff the most are those who ‘got involved’. Watching Neighbours twice a day may be a noble student pasttime, but it isn’t nearly as fun as working for the UK’s leading student media publications.

Will Dean: Editor (2005-6)

When I first started to write for Quench and gair rhydd, I was under the impression that everyone on the paper was pretty professional, one step away from Alan Rusbridger or Conor McNicholas. When I was given an editorial position I quickly realised this couldn’t be the case. And it’s not. It’s easy for others to sneer at student journalists, be they professionals or just other students, but, without any professional training, writers and editors at Quench have managed to make the magazine the best student publication in Great Britain. I did some stupid things, but where better place to learn? I may have told comedian Mark Thomas that I was from Derby for no other reason than to make small talk. I may have dressed up as a television and degraded myself to get the editor’s position. I may also have colluded in the publication of a controversial cartoon that was making headlines around the world and not even realised what we were doing. But I did it and I’m glad I did all these. Working at Quench – even if it’s nothing like a professional environment- gave me the motivation and confidence needed to be a journalist, and if it does that for just half the people who work on the magazine, then the university should be proud. I certainly am. My favourite Quench memory:

Either seeing my name in a Quench byline for the first time after reviewing a Chikinki/Kasabian gig at Welsh Clwb in 2004 (there were ten people there and Chikinki blew Kasabian off the stage – go figure) or writing my first editorial in the summer of 2005. England were winning the Ashes, I was about to go to Canada and some idiots had let me take charge of a bloody magazine. Ace.