Friday, March 20, 2015 Follow us on Twitter @Argus_The Guide ANDYHOWELLS talks to RobotWars technical director John Findlay


Thrills and spills as Robot Wars returns


Two acts make for top evening


SESSION: Y Pencadlys


SHERMAN Theatre’s free mu- sic event, the Foyer Sessions, returns on March 21 with two talented electronic Welsh art- ists,YPencadlys andHORSES. Performing in the Sherman Theatre foyer, audiences can come in for a pint, enjoy a bit of grub from Foxy’s Kitchen and enjoy listening to free live music from some of the fresh- faced talent emerging from Wales. Y Pencadlys (The Headquar-


THIS weekend Robot Wars is back in Newport as the its 2015 tour launches at New- port Centre. Earlier this week, Robot


Wars technical director John Findlay spoke to Andy Howells about the live show. John’s association with Ro-


bot Wars goes back some 16 years when he began build- ing and competing robots in the popular television series. He progressed to become


the driver of TV house ro- bot Ripper before building Major Damage for the live shows.


How did you get involved with Robot Wars TV Se- ries? It’s my dads fault! Actually


I was at university training to be a car designer and he watched the show. He phoned me up one Sun-


day morning and said ‘Have you seen Robot Wars? You could do that!’ That’s how it evolved. I had a go at build- ing my first robot which to be honest wasn’t very good. You’re under the illusion


when you go there for the first time that the robots aren’t very powerful. So I tookmyremote control


car apart, the wheels off my mums wheelie bin and went down to the filming. Obviously when I came


back my robot was all de- stroyed and burned and I had to explain to my mother why her wheelie bin wheels were molten rubber. When you do it once, meet


(the TV presenters) Craig Charles and Philippa For- ester and get the adrenaline


Robot Wars


rush been in the arena with your creation I left there with my bin bag going ‘you know what? I’m going to go back and get my revenge on those nasty house robots!’ I’ve been all over the world


with it – it’s the best job in the world.


And you got involved in making it a live show? I was on the TV show with


a robot called Ripper for the last four series and it was 12 years ago when the show was last on. When the TV show finished I started a company to keep it going as a live show.We’ve been doing it for 12 to 13 years now.


Has Robot Wars popular- ity endured? It had peaked off a little


bit and then they showed the repeats on Dave and now there’s a whole new genera- tion of kids that have grown up watching the repeats. We do a lot of work in schools using the robots to promote engineering, so at the moment we’re getting busier and busier and also on course to getting a new TV series commissioned, then hopefully it will be the next phenomenon again.


The current star of the shows is the house robot Major Damage; can you tell us a bit more about it? Damage is signed to Robot


Wars so when the new TV series comes along it will be the new robot in the show. It


was built in 2007 and is now known as the ‘Big Daddy of the Arena’ because it’s the star of the show. It’s got its cushion jaw, a flame thrower and everything you need to defeat the opponent. Many have had a go to try and kill it but haven’t succeeded yet.


Can you tell Robot Wars fans anything about this weekends show in New- port? We’ve got the moulds from


the BBC to replicate a brand new Matildawhich launches at this show. Another new feature for this year is we are going to try and get the presenters to build a robot during the show and put them in with the feather- weights. We’ve also got a new house robot called Ollie who s going to fire paintballs at the other robots and that’s going to splat the hell out of them and just destroy them.


How much are robots part of your life now? It’s taken over; I get told


off for having robot parts all over the house! We’ve actu- ally got the R2D2 who’s in the show in the din- ing room sat at the


dinner table at the moment. We had it for Christmas dinner as a bit of a giggle when the family came and we decorated him with tin- sel but we have to get him ready for Newport. R2D2 has proved a big hit


with the kids and adds an ex- tra element.


And you’re remaining hopeful to get Robot Wars back on television? It just takes the right pro- duction company with the right budget and hopefully we’ll be away and getting it back on TV. It keeps coming back and then phases out again. Dave showed a series just before Christmas which has helped our lives consid- erably, Iwasinaschool today and we showed the children a video of Robot Wars and I asked them ‘Who remem- bers Robot Wars?’ You’ve got five and six-year-olds who’ve seen it over Christmas and they are like ‘this is great, we want our parents to take us to see it!’ It’s funny be- cause there hasn’t been a series in 12 years and it can still entertain the kids and they can still get hooked on it. And they still love it.


Robot Wars takes place at Newport Centre tomorrow at 5pm and Sunday at 1pm.


For


ticket infor- mation visit seetickets. com


ter) is the artistic output of WH Hughes, the latest in a long line of great Welsh anti- pop heroes. Formerly a mem- ber of electronic mavericks Land of Bingo and Seindorff, Hughes is currently gain- ing cult-like status due to his


memorably intense gigs, cre- ating music full of electronic pulses, femme fatale melodies, operatic menace and eastern bloc non-conformity. Peski released Merched Mewn Ecstasi: Detholiad Y Pencadlys 06-09 at the end of last year which was an EP of tracks recorded by Y Pen- cadlys between 2006 and 2009. Following Y Pencadlys, will


be Peski label mates, HORSES who employ a dark-hearted electronic take on the Gloom Wave genre. The HORSES duo incorpo-


rate mournful vocals escorted gently by cold beats and balmy synths to evoke a brutalist im- age of Berlin.


Big PitAmgueddfaLofaol Cymru Big PitNational Coal Museum


3 Entertainment


FREE ENTRY!


Dewch iddarganfod treftadaeth lofaol gyfoethog ein gwlad mewn amgueddfa ryngweithiol anhygoel ofri, sy’n cynnwys taith danddaearol.


Ar agor bob dydd: 9.30am-5pm. Teithiau cyson danddaear: 10am-3.30pm.


Llywio âlloeren ,teipiwch Blaenafon (Blaenavon) neu NP4 9RL adilynwch yr arwyddion twristiaeth brown ar ôl ichi gyrraedd ydref.


DiscoverWales’s rich mining heritage in this amazing, award-winning interactive museum completewith underground tour.


Open daily: 9.30am-5pm. Underground tours run frequently: 10am-3.30pm.


ForSatelliteNavigation enter Blaenafon (Blaenavon) town or NP4 9RL and followthe brown tourism signs once arriving at the town.


Diwrnod bendigedig


yn Big Pit!


A big day out at Big Pit!


www.museumwales.ac.uk


@BigPitMuseum


bigpitmuseum


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8