Hate Crime: Mother welcomes film

THE MOTHER of Sophie Lancaster, Sylvia who lives in Haslingden, Lancashire, has welcomed a new film on hate crime stimulated by her daughter Sophie's ghastly murdered in Bacup's Stubbylee Park.  Sophie was killed by a vicious gang alienated because of her Goth clothing, as she heroically defended her boy friend Robert Maltby on the 11^th, August 2007.  The film 'And She Cried' is a fictional adaptation by Leaky Shed Films that is inspired by the events surrounding Sophie's death.   

In the Spring of 2012, Northern Voices' interviewed Sylvia Lancaster some months before a play Black Roses by Simon Armitage about Sophie's murder was staged at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester staring  Julie Hesmondhalgh (CORONATION STREET).  This play was a great success, and this year another radio play 'Porcelain - The Trial For The Killing Of Sophie Lancaster' was performed about the trial of Sophie's teenage killers, two had been jailed for murder, the other three were sent on lesser offences.  

In 2012, Sylvia told us at that time that being a 'Goth' for Sophie 'was not just a fashion to her, I think she was challenging convention.'   She told NV No.13 in the Spring issue of 2012: 

'She  was definitely different!  From an early age she always had empathy with harmless people.  So much so, at times, she would sometimes sleep in a bedding box rather than a bed...  After about the age of three she'd just wear whatever she wanted such as a grey tee-shirt and black sweat pants.'   

Last week, the new film was premiered at the Odeon in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.  The film was put together without a budget and with £100,000's worth of gear provided by major cinematic companies.  A whip-round at the film's showing raised £200 for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. 

Last Saturday's Rochdale Observer reported that at the opening of the film:
'All eyes were on a glamorous group of people at Rochdale’s Odeon cinema when they arrived to be given the red carpet treatment.   They hadn’t gone to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transcendence or Pompeii, but 150 of them dressed to impress went to watch the world premiere of Rochdale-made And She Cried.  The audience of cast, crew and friends, including the Mayor Councillor Peter Rush, packed into Screen 9 for the special All Across the Arts premiere of the Rochdale-based Leaky Shed Filmsproduction of the movie inspired by the hate-crime killing of Sophie Lancaster.'

Anyone who has followed the story of Sophie Lancaster as we have, and having read the book 'Weirdo, Mosher, Freak: the murder of sophie lancaster' of the background to Sophie's death by the Bacup journalist Catherine Smyth, might welcome all this 'glamorous group' attention, while at the same time wondering about how, given Sophie was a ' "Punk Goth" like... Adam Ant's "New Romantics",' she herself would have taken to this kind of 'glamorous' backdrop. 


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NORTHERN VOICES 13 - the printed / physical version of N.V. - deals with some of the issues that the others on the so-called British left won't touch. Starting with an interview with Sylvia Lancaster, mum of the murdered 'Goth Girl' / 'New Romantic' Sophie Lancaster, who was kicked to death up Bacup, in Lancashire, in August 2007.  How do you feel about a new 'Hate Crime' on the statute book? Previously, Northern Voices has given you 'The Gangs of Manchester' dating back to an early 20th Century, but that was about lad's gangs: does the merciless killing of our sublime Sophie represent a step into a darker age?  To be up-to-date and understand the way Northern Voices thinks and is different from other publications you should read the real and physical N.V.



The printed version of NORTHERN VOICES 13, with all sorts of stuff others won't touch and may be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included)
Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at
c/o 52, Todmorden Road,
Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
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