Wise words...

"It is political commitment and political belief that can make a man think that his opponent's views are so obnoxious that he will abstain from playing any game with him as a protest against what the other man believes," he said. "Any man's political commitment, if it is deep enough, is his very personal philosophy and it governs his whole way of life, it governs his belief, and it certainly governs the people with whom he is prepared to mix."

John Arlott - Cricket commentator, poet, wine connoisseur and anti-apartheid activist.
25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991

To Whom It May Concern Remix

by Adrian Mitchell

Come all ye -
wartbrain psychics
with astroid sidekicks
prostate agents
and plastic Cajuns

royal doggerellas
cluster bombsellers
alternative surgeons
torturesport virgins

heavy vivisectionists
columnists, Golumnists,
priests of the beast
who are secretly policed
by highranker bankers
playing pranks with tankers

ghost advisers
death advertisers
vampire preachers
sucked-dry teachers
beheaded dead bodies
of blank-hearted squaddies

billionaire beauticians
fishing for positions
from poison politicians
with obliteration missions –
I'm alone, I'm afraid
And I need your aid
can't you see – can't you see – can't you see?

I was run over by the truth one day
Ever since the accident I've walked this way
So stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam

Heard the alarm clock screaming with pain
Couldn't find myself, so I went back to sleep again
So fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam

Every time I shut my eyes, all I see is flames
I made a marble phone-book, and I carved all the names
So coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam

I smell something burning, hope it's just my brains
They're only dropping peppermints and daisy-chains
So stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam

Where were you at the time of the crime?
Down by the Cenotaph, drinking slime
So chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam

You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out
You take the human being, and you twist it all about
So scrub my skin with women
So chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about –
Iraq
Burma
Afghanistan
BAE Systems
Israel
Iran

Tell me lies Mr Bush
Tell me lies Mr Blairbrowncameron

Tell me lies about Vietnam

Poll results - Countries ripe for regime change

1 - United Kingdom
2 - Syria
3 - Israel
4 - South Korea
5 - USA
6 - Iran
6 - Russia
8 - Australia
9 - North Korea
10 - Zanzibar

Revolution #1 - The Show Trial

Back in the day, when regime change was far more of a gentlemanly pursuit, the show trial held sway as the most appropriate way of denouncing the previously untouchable leader. Nowadays regime's blunder on (in some cases for over 60 years) clinging to the last vestiges of power or are found hiding in a hole in the ground and summarily executed by a rampaging mob.

Take for example the demise of the Ceaușescu's. How much more elaborate and petty it seems compared to simply stringing them up from the nearest lamp post!

Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were condemned to death in a Stalinist-style show trial, wherein even their forcefully assigned lawyers began accusing them of having committed capital crimes, instead of defending them.There were absolutely no proofs offered for their alleged crimes, just mentions of the name of the crimes they would have had committed in the opinion of the prosecutors and of press reports about their alleged crimes. E.g., the accusation of genocide remains unproven to this day. They were also accused of saving USD 1 billion in foreign accounts, and even today there is no proof of such secret accounts. The judges' verdict offered the possibility of making appeal to a higher court, but the condemned were killed five minutes after the court reached the verdict.One of their lawyers has motivated before the execution that since the condemned do not recognize the court, there is no way left for making appeal to the verdict, and therefore the verdict should become final. Romanian law prohibited carrying out death penalties in less than ten days since the verdict remained final and irrevocable.After their execution, death penalty was abolished in Romania.

Nicolae Ceaușescu said that he did not recognize the court, and lawfully seen he seems to have been correct about that. The person signing the decree for organizing the court (Ion Iliescu) lacked any credentials for doing it, except that of being one of the leaders of the coup. The decree was apparently handwritten in a toilet of the Romanian Department of Defense. Later, the leaders of the coup said the decision to kill the Ceaușescus was necessary in order to stop the terrorists from attacking the new authorities, but it seems that there were no terrorists active. Initially, Iliescu did not agree with having the couple executed, but general Victor Stănculescu offered the support of the army only in exchange for having the couple executed.After few hours of debating this option, Iliescu agreed with Stănculescu.

Before the execution Nicolae said: "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!" However, the Masquerade is what it is all about. Just ask Richard Jobson of The Skids "Arrange new attacks, Demand a new decree, Listen to the ploys, Destroy them as they flee. Holy to the high masquerade masquerade. Fanfares in the sky masquerade masquerade"

Poll Results - Band you wish you had been in

1 - Modern Jazz Quartet
2 - The Smiths
3 - The Temptations
4 - The Clash
5 - The Wailers
6 - The Special AKA
7 - Alternative TV

Poetry (in Ocean)

And now the Shipping Forecast, issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at 06.00 hrs GMT today.

Viking
North Utsire
South Utsire
Forties
Cromarty
Forth
Tyne
Dogger
Fisher
German Bight
Humber
Thames
Dover
Wight
Portland
Plymouth
Biscay
Trafalgar
FitzRoy (formerly Finisterre)
Sole
Lundy
Fastnet
Irish Sea
Shannon
Rockall
Malin
Hebrides
Bailey
Fair Isle
Faeroes
Southeast Iceland

Names for golf clubs

"I think I'll take my Cleek here Parkinson"

I'll be honest I'm a bit of a patchy golfer (dazzling and abysmal within the space of two strokes). However, a brief conversation last night reminded me of one of the things I love about golf. The old-fashioned musty fuddy-duddyness of it all, especially epitomised by the old names for clubs...

Woods:
Play Club: Driver
Brassie: 2-Wood
Spoon: Higher-Lofted Wood
Baffing Spoon: Approach Wood

Irons:
Cleek: 2 Iron
Mid Mashie: 3 Iron
Mashie Iron: 4 Iron
Mashie: 5 Iron
Spade Mashie: 6 Iron
Mashie Niblick: 7 Iron
Pitching Niblick: 8 Iron
Niblick: 9 Iron
Jigger: Very low lofted iron, shortened shaft
The Mashie Niblick was not a wedge.

The traditional set of irons was invented by Archibald Barrie and were used from 1903 up until about the 1940s. The introduction of the standardized numbered iron set produced by the Spalding Sporting Goods Company in the early 1930s caused the traditional set of irons to gradually give way to numbered convention more's the pity.

The traditional irons varied greatly in loft (+/- 5 degrees). The shape of the head determined some of the playing characteristics of the club; most traditional heads were roughly egg-shaped.

Heathen Golf on a Sunday
Sunday or Sabbath sticks were the golf enthusiasts' answer to the Church of Scotland's discouraging golfing on Sundays. Clubs were disguised as walking sticks, the club head comfortably fitting in the palm of the golfer's hand, until feeling unobserved, the stick was reversed and a few strokes were played.

Strings of Desire #3 (Revisited)

It plays as good as it looks!

Bands I wish I'd been in #4 - The Hip Troop

Hey, hang on a minute...

I think the time is getting closer. One night only?

Poll Results - How much longer will people...

1. Talk about Anarchy
2. Dye their Hair

Bands I wish I'd been in #3 - The Temptations (Circa Psychedelic Shack)

"Psychedelic Shack, that's where it's at!"

How good would it have been to be in The Temptations during their psychedelic period of the late 1960s/early 1970s. The addition of Dennis Edwards to the Temptations coincided with the adoption of a new sound for the group by producer Norman Whitfield, and in the autumn of 1968, Whitfield began producing psychedelic-based material for the Temptations, derived primarily from the sound of funk band Sly & the Family Stone. This new style, which debuted with the Top 10 hit single "Cloud Nine"[14] in October 1968, was a marked departure from the David Ruffin-era ballads, leading the group to a new and higher plateau. The instrumentation was funkier, the beat was hard-driving, and all five Temptations traded lead vocals, similar to Sly & the Family Stone. "Cloud Nine", the centerpiece of the group's landmark Cloud Nine LP, was a Top 10 hit and won Motown its first Grammy Award, for Best R&B Vocal Group Performance of 1969.

The blending of the Motown sound and psychedelic rock sound resulted in a new subgenre of music called "psychedelic soul", also evident in the work of Diana Ross and the Supremes ("Reflections", "Love Child"), Marvin Gaye's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", and the music of The 5th Dimension, The Undisputed Truth and The Friends of Distinction. More Temptations psychedelic soul singles would follow in 1969 and 1970, among them "Runaway Child, Running Wild" (a number-one R&B hit), "I Can't Get Next to You" (a number-one pop hit), "Psychedelic Shack" and "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)". The group's other important albums from this period include Puzzle People (1969) and Psychedelic Shack (1970), which includes the original version of "War". Oh to have been let loose on the wah pedal then...

Current Members
Otis Williams
Ron Tyson
Terry Weeks
Joe Herndon
Bruce Williamson

Past members
Elbridge "Al" Bryant
Melvin Franklin
Eddie Kendricks
Paul Williams
David Ruffin
Dennis Edwards
Ricky Owens
Richard Street
Damon Harris
Glenn Leonard
Louis Price
Ali-Ollie Woodson
Theo Peoples
Ray Davis
Harry McGilberry
Barrington "Bo" Henderson
G. C. Cameron

Bands I wish I'd been in #2 - The Special AKA (1978-1981)

"Bernie Rhodes knows don't argue!"

Formed in 1977 by Jerry Dammers, Lynval Golding, Silverton Hutchinson and Horace Panter (also known as Sir Horace Gentleman), the band was first called The Automatics, then The Coventry Automatics. Terry Hall and Roddy Byers (also known as Roddy Radiation) joined the band the following year (along with me!), and the band changed its name to The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, and then to The Special AKA. Comrade Joe Strummer of The Clash had attended one of their concerts, and invited The Special AKA to open for his band in their On Parole UK Tour. This performance gave The Special AKA a new level of national exposure, and they briefly shared The Clash's management. A dalliance which culminated in their joint manager Bernie Rhodes getting a fairly robust character assassination in their first single 'Gangsters'.

The Specials began at the same time as Rock Against Racism which first gathered in 1978. According to Dammers, anti-racism was intrinsic to the formation of The Specials, in that the band was formed with the goal of integrating black and white people. Many years later Dammers stated, "Music gets political when there are new ideas in music, ...punk was innovative, so was ska, and that was why bands such as The Specials and The Clash could be political."

In 1979 shortly after drummer Hutchinson left the band to be replaced by John Bradbury, Dammers formed the 2 Tone Records label and released the band's aformenetioned debut single "Gangsters", a reworking of Prince Buster's "Al Capone". The record became a Top 10 hit that summer. The band had begun wearing mod/rude boy/skinhead-style two-tone tonic suits, along with other elements of late 1960s teen fashions. Changing their name to The Specials, they recorded their debut LP Specials in 1979, produced by Elvis Costello. The album lead off with Dandy Livingstone's "Rudy, A Message to You" (slightly altering the title to "A Message To You, Rudy") and also had covers of Prince Buster and Toots & the Maytals songs from the late 1960s. In 1980, the EP Too Much Too Young (credited to The Special AKA) was a number one hit in the UK Singles Chart, despite controversy over the song's lyrics, which reference teen pregnancy and promote contraception.

Reverting once again to the moniker The Specials, the band's second album, More Specials was not as commercially successful and was recorded at a time when, according to Terry Hall, conflicts had developed in the band (Although being a teenager in Eastbourne I was blissfully unaware of such tensions - despite my being in the band?!).Female backing vocalists on The Specials first two studio albums included: Chrissie Hynde, Rhoda Dakar (then of The Bodysnatchers and later of The Special AKA), Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey (of The Go-Go's). In the first few months of 1981 the band took a break from recording and touring, and then released "Ghost Town", a non-LP Specials single, which hit number one in 1981. However, shortly afterwards, Staple, Golding and Hall left the band to form Fun Boy Three.I also left at the same time to do my summer job in the Swan Laundry.

Dammers then drastically revised the line-up of the band, adding vocalists Stan Campbell and Rhoda Dakar, and began working again under the group name The Special AKA. The resulting album from the new line-up, In the Studio, was less successful, although the song "Free Nelson Mandela" was a #9 UK hit.The latter contributed to making Mandela a cause célèbre in the United Kingdom, and became popular with anti-Apartheid activists in South Africa. Dammers then dissolved the band and pursued political activism.

The rest of the band with the exception of Jerry & I reformed a couple of years ago. Jerry has been doing his Sun Ra inspired project The Spatial AKA and I, well I've been doing this blog amongst other things...

Poll Results - Best Bristol Band

1 - The Pop Group
2 - Rip Rig & Panic
3 - Massive Attack
4 - Portishead

Bands I wish I'd been in #1 - Alternative TV (1976-1977)

How much Longer? Action Time Vision?

Do I need any more reasons? Oh, ok then.

Alternative TV were formed by Mark Perry, the founding editor of Sniffin' Glue punk fanzine, with Perry and Alex Fergusson.Early rehearsals took place at Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records studio with Genesis P-Orridge on drums.

The band's debut on record was "Love Lies Limp", a free flexi disc issued with the final edition of Perry's Sniffin' Glue fanzine. On this single Perry and Fergusson were accompanied by John Towe (ex Generation X) and Tyrone Thomas. Towe left to join the Rage and was replaced by Chris Bennett. This line-up was the most straight-forwardly "punk" version of ATV and the version I wanted to be in, although they combined short fast songs with extended pieces such as "Alternatives To NATO", in which Perry read an anarchist political text and envisaged the possibility of a Soviet invasion of Britain. Shortly afterwards they released the "How Much Longer" / "You Bastard" 7" in December 1977. The A-side was a pointed critique of punk style: "How much longer will people wear/Nazi armbands and dye their hair?"

At the end of 1977, Perry sacked his chief collaborator and co-writer Fergusson (and I suspect he'd have axed me then too!). The latter went on to form the short-lived Cash Pussies and, a few years later, Psychic TV along with Genesis P-Orridge. He was replaced in ATV by Dennis Burns.

A dub influenced single, "Life after Life," was released as well as a debut album, The Image Has Cracked. The band's second album, Vibing Up the Senile Man, saw the band take a more explicitly experimental direction however, which alienated the music press and me. Around the same time, a live LP, split with commune-dwelling hippy band Here and Now was released (a document of their tour together), marking the band's movement further away from the ever more very predictable punk/new wave scene. Alternative TV soon evolved into the avant-garde project, The Good Missionaries (taking the name from a track on the 'Vibing' album), releasing one album, "Fire From Heaven" in 1979.

I on the other hand carried on to get two O-levels before joining The Specials (in my mind...)