URBAN LIFE WAVE 01 2010 HIGHLIGHTS

New tenants at No.10?

4 in 10 of you claim the ongoing MP expenses scandal will affect whether or not you vote in the general election this year.  20% claim to be more likely to vote due to the scandal and 15% less likely.  So overall it is unlikely to have a big effect on the numbers voting. 

30% of you are planning on voting Conservative.  Labour is currently sitting on 20% of your projected votes.  For the last 9 months the party has been peddling fast and is regaining some of your support at the expense of the Conservatives.  No change for Lib Dems and the Greens. 

This is likely to be changing by the week, so keep up to date on which way you are swinging via the Opinion Playground

Green Party supporters are the most fervent in their support.  Interestingly, 10% of you who are planning on voting Conservative in the next election claim you don’t support the Conservatives at all (whereas only 2% of Green supporters said the same)!  Could some of these be protest votes for the Conservatives – anything better than the current government? 

Do you wish it could be Christmas every day?

We asked you about your last Christmas whilst you could still remember it…

94% of you bought Christmas presents last year.  3% of you don’t celebrate Christmas and the remaining 3% celebrate it but didn’t buy any presents.  Those of you in the latter group mainly put it down to a lack of pennies, or feeling that Christmas has become too commercialised. 

£328 was the average spend on Christmas presents (amongst those of you who bought any.)  Average spend was the same in London as it was outside of London, even though Londoners typically receive higher salaries. 

You’re getting the hang of this online shopping thing too – over 40% of the Christmas presents you bought were purchased online.

Is green the new black?

You’re a responsible bunch of Urban Lifers, with 74% of you recycling all/most of your recyclable household waste.  84% of you use energy saving light bulbs, 59% have double glazed windows, 37% have fitted insulation in your homes and 25% even grow your own fruit/vegetables – tasty!

Nearly 2 in 3 of you are prepared to pay more for products/services which come from ethical/environmentally friendly companies.  

Oodles of the white stuff and the coldest winter in decades.  It’s not hard to see why 14% of you don’t believe the climate is changing (i.e. getting hotter).  The majority (74%) of you do believe in climate change however, and the remaining 12% are undecided.  Even so, nearly 2 in 10 of you who believe in climate change are not concerned about it, and 3 in 10 are not concerned by the hole in the ozone layer.

Only 1% of you own hybrid cars and less than 1% own electric cars.  A perception that there are few charge points is probably a key thing putting most of you off.   Many of you also think the choice of electric and hybrid cars is limited.  That said, a minority 10% of you would consider buying an electric car the next time you buy a car and 19% would consider buying a hybrid car.  

Music to my ears

91% of you are interested in music, with 27% of you going as far as to say you’re passionate about it. 

Pop, Rock and Indie are what really float your boat.  Here are your top 10 music genres:

Your top 5 radio stations are:

URBAN LIFERS IN LONDON:

URBAN LIFERS OUTSIDE LONDON:

You mainly discover new bands/artist on the radio and through recommendations from people you know. BBC Radio 1, XFM, Capital FM, BBC Radio 6 Music and Absolute Radio are the top stations you turn to overall for new music.  Surely bitter sweet news for 6 Music, which the BBC is set to close.          

Roll on the summer…70% are planning on going to a gig/music concert this year and 32% of you are planning on going to a music festival.  The festival with the best line-up is the one we’re most likely to find you partying at.  Ticket prices, which festivals your friends are going to and location are heavy influencers too.    

You seem to have gone all gaga about Gaga…if you could see anyone in concert this year it would be the mad-as-a-hatter Lady Gaga.  Other artists/bands you’d really like to see are Kings of Leon, The Killers, Florence and the machine and Muse.  

Cinema

Cinema hit the headlines recently when the Odeon chain refused to show Disney’s new 3D film ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ This move came in protest at Disney’s plans to release the film on DVD 5 weeks earlier than the standard 17 weeks after cinema release.  We asked you what effect you think earlier DVD releases would have on your likelihood of going to the cinema.  If DVDs were released only 2 months after the cinema release, 41% think you’d go to the cinema less often.  This rises to 56% if there was only 1 month in between and 64% if they were released at exactly the same time. 

Speaking of 3D films, the majority (65%) of you have seen a film in 3D.  So if you haven’t yet then get with the program!  You were divided over whether or not the extra cost of 3D films is worth it, although there were more of you saying yes than no. 

The festival season is fast approaching.  We asked you about your best and worst festivals and boy did you tell us…

Best festival experiences

“Bestival 2007 - Dressed as a parrot with of flock of 8 others – Brilliant”

“Download 2006.  Glorious sunshine all weekend and top quality ROCK!!”

“Glasto - just chilling with a beer and not a care in the world.  Sun shining and just wandering around to whatever we fancy!”

“The field of lost Vagueness at 4am, stood next to the cockpit of an old plane chatting to some fella in a dress.”

“Dancing to The Whip at Standon Calling 2009, whilst 6 of us were dressed as Clangers.”

“Scottish tropical sunshine, carnival atmosphere, good crowd of people - all ages and cultures and the beat went on all week - West End Festival.”

“Watching Manu Chao at Exit in Serbia, raving to Roni Size till 8am again in Serbia, while watching the sunrise over the festival site!”

“I can't go into details but it involved an ex-girlfriend of mine and baggy shorts!”

“Every Glastonbury I have been to over the last 19 years. It improves with age!”

Worst festival experiences

“Having my wallet nicked at Glastonbury one year. Having my entire bag (including tent) nicked at Glastonbury another year. Having my sleeping bag nicked at Glastonbury another year.”

“My friend, who I was sharing a tent with, drinking too much rum and vomiting in my tent. It was disgusting, and smelled strangely of Christmas pudding.”

“Being confronted by a naked, aged hippy, tripping out of his skull on something at the Reading Festival in 1989.”

“Full scale riot on the last night at Leeds festival 10 years. 100 porta loos set on fire and knocked over.”

“Horrible horrible toilets.  Seeing people covered in S**t when the toilets got pushed over. Disgusting!”

“Our tent falling to bits and leaking during heavy rain at V98, then lost a shoe in the mud, then fainted in a portaloo.  Nice.”

“T in the park.  I was bitten to death by midges and the coach caught fire on the motorway on the way home.”

“Rain rain rain mud mud rain mud.”

A whopping 87% of you were correct in telling us that Seahorses are the only male creature that can give birth.

4 in 5 of you knew that the 3D film Avator was based in Pandora.  Surprisingly no-one thought it was Pinkywinky… funny that! 

Chinese New Year was not so long ago.  The majority of you (65%) knew that it was the year of the Tiger.  12% had no idea, however, and the remainder guessed it was the year of the Ox, Dragon or Pig.