AA v RAC

When I was younger, so much younger than today.... Yellow badge v Blue Badge. What were the differences? I always assumed that the RAC was for Toffs and AA for Oiks.

Having just typed in 'RAC salute', I have found a rather clearer differentiation. 

Poll Result - Best British Pop Lyricist

BEST BRITISH POP LYRICIST

 What? No Ray Davies? Are you sure?

HNY from AF in HK

Happy New Year & best wishes for 2013.

Andy

2012 - That was the year that was...

Good

1. Chelsea winning the Champions League
2. England winning Test series in India
3. Bradley Wiggins winning TDF
4. The Olympic Games
5. Blur at Hyde Park
6. Skyfall
7. Ryder Cup
8. Rediscovering Absinthe
9. The sun setting over the Sussex downs
10. Having a significant birthday and loving it

Bad

1. The sacking of Roberto Di Matteo
2. The continued selfishness of the banking world
3. The death of Tony Greig, Fontella Bass, Adam Yauch & Dave Brubek
4. Losing to South Africa in home test series
5. The global obsession with reality TV
6. Queen's Diamond Jubilee nonsense
7. Mayan Doomsday Conspiracy
8. Poor availability of Marmite in Australia
9. Likewise a decent pair of shoes
10. The lack of follow up from the Occupy Movement

Snow in Sun - Scritti Politti

Correspondence or coherence
I am calling, I am calling you.

I was getting me down, took a train into town
And the sun was shining brightly
Though the snow was falling lightly too.
Made me think of brave you are 
and how come I have strayed so far
and why everything came apart
in my head and heart now love
You will never be without me
You will never need to doubt me
There'll be something good about me soon
Like sun in the city snow
Like snow in the city sun

I was watching you sleep
I've been watching you dream
Should we be beset with trouble?
I would never let you come to harm

Looks like maybe we'll lose our home
Out of pocket and all alone
I should have worked and I should have known,
Seen the dark clouds coming in
But you will never be without me
I'm beside you never doubt me
There'll be something good about me soon
Like sun on the London snow
Like snow in the London sun

Undetermined, inessential
I am calling, I am calling you.
You...

Lyrics - Green Gartside

Poll Results - The Best English batsman of all time

Despite the new evidence and the very poor turnout...

Wally Hammond	(66%)
Jack Hobbs	(33%)
Geoff Boycott	(0%)
Sir Len Hutton	(0%)
Alastair Cook	(0%)
Kevin Pietersen	(0%)

Poll Results - Who would have made the best James Bond?

No contest!

1. Roy Kinnear - 100%
2. Bob Latchford - 0%
2. Steve Peregrine-Took - 0%
2. Ivor Cutler - 0%

The name is Bond... etc

The audience applauded and cheered when the DB5 appeared.

Marvellous!

Going to see James Bond "at the pictures"

Skyfall hasn't quite made it over here to Australia (but then neither has Marmite, broad racial tolerance & an abundance of good dress sense but hey-ho!).

However, I'm going to see the film on Saturday and it reminds me of the anticipation I had back in the day before heading off to see a double-header of Thunderball & Doctor No at the Classic Cinema along Seaside.

The whole Bond experience from the false beginning, exotic theme scene through to the very last frame which announced...

James Bond will be returning in On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The whole thing was magical and as for the time when James Bond assumed the pseudonym Peter Franks (my fathers and my middle name) the whole picture was complete. It was inevitable, one day I would become Agent 007.

And the great thing is, I still believe it is only a matter of time!

Poll Results - Who do you think you are kidding?

1 = Mr Hitler
1=  Rupert Murdoch
1=  George Osborne
1=  David Cameron

Martello Melancholy...

On a Sunday night on the other side of the world, six years into exile. A 10 second news report on a local station and I'm gone... lost. 

I miss you.

Walmington-On-Sea

It just so happens that I've spent the last month watching daily repeats of the exploits of Captain Mainwaring and the 1st Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard. From the bumptious Captain via the Laconic Sgt Wilson (who reminds me of my Grandfather), Walker (who didn't), Fraser, Jones & Pike through to the wonderful Mr Godfrey. 

Ironically, apart from thoroughly enjoying the actually rather good ensemble acting, I was thinking how good it was that Clive Dunn was still hanging on in there and then the news wires filled with news of his passing.  

Inevitable, I know. But sad all the same!

Things I miss fact: I went to the same school as Captain Mainwaring!

Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Ka Boom!

Silence

When the buses stop running,
the waves cease pounding,
the rain stops pouring and
the wind stops wrapping itself
around the legs of the pier

we take a short breath and hold it
whilst all around us
the silence of our memories
continues to bury themselves
into the foundations of our future...

The rise of the Golden City

I have been very fortunate over the past few years to be present at a number of great events: Chelsea winning the Champions League, the last ever gig by The Jam, Sussex winning the County Championship for the first time in their history, Slim Gaillard at the Wag Club, the Two-Tone tour, England bowling Australia out for 98 at the Boxing Day Test 2010 and the time when Barry at The Old Coffee House undercharged me.

However, the two and a bit weeks that London hosted the Olympics most probably go down as the most enjoyable fortnight I've most probably ever had. The cynics had left town, the whingers had shut up and everyone else was just up for it.

London was everything we've always known it could be! It was perfect!

Blur - Hyde Park

 It was a glorious night & I was bloody there!

Highlights: Beetlebum, Tracey Jacks, Under the Westway and The Universal 

+

Massed Mobot, the kiss, Tea Lady, Phil D

 Lowlights: The thought that this really was going to be the last time...

It just does not get much better than this...

Comeback #1 - The Stone Roses

They sort of passed me by actually, which is funny considering they include the following; Jingly-jangly sixties guitars, a very vaguely moddy look (pre-Uberbaggy) and occasional references to the Paris 68 riots. All of which would normally score quite highly in my book. I'd given up on guitar bands by the mid 80's. Jazz & funk were decidedly where it was at. The Smiths were gone, Orange Juice too and there was nothing to do but subsume myself in Blue Note.

By the time I woke up to the fact that it was possible to like both Jazz and guitar pop The Stone Roses were mid 5 year sabbatical, the Happy Mondays were sorting themselves out with decent habits and Blur were just about to remind me that Modern life was (indeed) rubbish.

I'd missed Spike Island and the full-on Madchester nonsense and was not in any way attracted to the possibility of The Roses coming back with a Jimmy Page influenced second album. I'd heard Mani with the Primals but avoided Ian Brown's solo stuff and The Seahorses. It was only in about 2002 that I listened to their first album in full and found myself quite wrapped up in their MancScally Pop. I'd always known that 'Fools Gold' was a nailed on cracker but the rest of their set was a mystery. Their second album was as plodding and as leaden I'd feared but the first album was great.

So I plonked them in the cracking debut basket and thought no more of them until they announced (oh the surprise) that they were about to reform. It'll be interesting to see what they do, not least whether they'll manage to complete all their tour dates without killing each other. For their hardcore fans it must be brilliant. I certainly don't begrudge any of them making a complete bundle out of the whole exercise.

As for the prospect of them recording new material. Well, this is where I stop and ponder. One great album and one plodder. Do they really want to risk ruining the memory of the former by producing another latter? I'd like to think they'll stick to the story as written (with maybe a live DVD to show us how well they've aged!?) but I get the distinct feeling that they'll want to write another chapter and that is where we could question whether being the resurrection is actually a good thing after all!

Where have all the new posts gone?

Sorry for the delay in anything new. I had to buy a new computer to enable me to use the new version of Blogger. Well, as good as.... Fear not new stuff on the way.

Poll Results - England Manager

1 - Harry Redknapp
2 - ...The Rest

Funnily enough this poll took place before a decision had been made by the FA. However, we are only able to release the results now as an injunction was in place. The fact that Harry Redknapp is now unemployed has no bearing on the timing of this announcement!

Home of the HIts - 10,000+

And to think that when I started this blog back in 1886 the internet was barely a flicker in the imagination of two deranged Finnish Merchant Sailors. Thank you very much! PS. Plenty more where this came from. I just need to stop circumnavigating the world!

England Manager - Here we go, Here we go, Here we go... again!

Ladies & Gentlemen of the press, please rise for England's new coach - Roy Manager

Poll Results - Best view in London

1 - Primrose Hill 2- Alexandra Palace 3 - Crystal Palace 4 - London Eye

“and the view's so nice’ - Primrose Hill

When watching TV from the other side of the world I am constantly on the lookout for English landmarks as and when they crop up. The one place that appears more than most is my beloved Primrose Hill (Spooks couldn’t exist without it), which stands a barely breathless 256 feet walk on the north side of Regent's Park in London. The hill has a clear view of central London to the south-east, as well as Belsize Park and Hampstead to the north. It is an ideal vantage point from which to watch capital days blossom, chug along and fade.

Like Regent's Park, Primrose Hill was once part of a great chase appropriated by Henry VIII (which he had called Marylebone Park), having previously been a part of Middlesex Forest. Later, in 1841, it became Crown property, and, in 1842, an Act of Parliament secured the land as public open space.

It has always been a beacon for poets, writers & musicians not least the following:

Poems and Prophecies by William Blake
'The fields from Islington to Marybone,
To Primrose Hill and Saint John's Wood,
Were builded over with pillars of gold,
And there Jerusalem's pillars stood.
Her Little-ones ran on the fields,
The Lamb of God among them seen...
The Jew's-harp-house & the Green Man,
The Ponds where Boys to bathe delight,
The fields of Cows by Willan's farm,
Shine in Jerusalem's pleasant sight.'

Apparently The Jew's Harp inn was a popular rendezvous in Marylebone Park. It stood next to Willan's Farm, where Leigh Hunt remembered having eaten 'creams and other country messes' in the days before 'the dear old fields' were redeveloped as Regent's Park.
Blake's most famous verse, 'And did those feet in ancient time', will not be found in this poem, whose subject is the fallen condition of Man and the forces that will redeem him. London is imagined as the historical Jerusalem.

According to John Black ,Henry Crabb Robinson, in his Diaries, Reminiscences and Correspondence recalls Blake telling him, 'I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill. He said, "Do you take me for the Greek Apollo? – "No", I said, "that (pointing to the sky) is the Greek Apollo. He is Satan"'

However, it waasn’t just English visionaries that recognized the beauty of Primrose Hill.

Guru from Selected Poems 1947-1995 by Allen Ginsberg
'It is the moon who disappears
It is the stars that hide not I
It's the City that vanishes, I stay
with my forgotten shoes,
my invisible stocking
It is the call of a bell
Primrose Hill, May 1965'

In the summer of 1965 the author had made a trip to England with several other Beat writers, and had given a reading at the Albert Hall. In a note to the poem he says that it was 'occasioned by a nap at dusk on the site of Druid mysteries, the grassy crest of London's Primrose Hill, overlooking London's towery skyline'

For Tomorrow - BLUR
'...Then Susan comes into the room,
She's a naughty girl with a lovely smile,
Says let's take a drive to Primrose Hill,
It's windy there and the view's so nice,
London ice can freeze your toes
Like anyone I suppose
I'm
Holding on for tomorrow.



On this point, check out the lovely film on the Blur website about the graffiti on Primrose Hill “and the view's so nice’.

Upfield - BRAGG, BILLY
'I'm going upfield, way up on the hillside
I'm going higher than I've ever been before
That's where you'll find me, over the horizon
Wading in the river, reaching for that other shore
I dreamed I saw a tree full of angels, up on Primrose Hill
And I flew with them over the Great Wen till I had seen my fill
Of such poverty and misery sure to tear my soul apart
I've got a socialism of the heart, I've got a socialism of the heart...'

In an article in The Observer, 22nd October 2000, the singer/songwriter said, 'My song Upfield was inspired partly by [William] Blake; I borrowed events from his life for the song's narrator, such as putting him on Primrose Hill seeing angels. It's about moving from an ideological argument for a better society to a more humanitarian vision; a socialism of the heart, the kind of compassion I find in Blake'. The story of Blake as a child seeing 'a tree full of angels' on Peckham Rye common is well known, however apparently his only mystical experience on Primrose Hill was a vision of the 'spiritual Sun'.

Primrose Hill - MADNESS
'A man opened his window and stared up Primrose Hill
Out there enjoying themselves I've seen them from this sill
Green splashed with white and red going brown
Children baiting animals running up and down
I stare out of this window
See the world go past...
Deliveries every day newspapers and food
Never had to venture out the phone has been removed
Open up the window and stare up Primrose Hill
Sitting here it's dark outside and everything is still...'

Recorded in the 1980's when North London's finest were at its first creative peak, the album had a photo of Primrose Hill on the cover. In an interview in Q Magazine, April 2001, singer and frontman and all round geezer Suggs said, 'Primrose Hill was somewhere that had featured in most of the band's lives. We all came from the surrounding area so we'd always had good memories of the place. Primrose Hill was somewhere you could play football or, in the winter, go tobogganing, so it'd always been a place of fun and frolics.'

Camden Town from the album The Lone Ranger - SUGGS
'...Tramps stare in the window
Of the local butcher's shop
Like a pack of wild dogs
They'd run off with the lot
In Primrose Hill an angry man
His hair standing on end
Shouts and rants in the ear
Of his imaginary friend...'

Primrose Hill - John and Beverley Martyn
'We went to see the sun go down on Primrose Hill
The Sunday evening sun go down on Primrose Hill
Never could be anything else
Never should be anything else
'Cos I like that kind of life
I like that kind of life
Never thinking too far ahead
Hanging high I fall to bed
That's the only kind of life I've led...'

And on that note, I think it is high time to head back to London and head up the footsteps to heaven to the bench on top of Primrose Hill! Bring a bottle and bring a friend.

With thanks and acknowledgment to the late John Black whose excellent website that delves deeper into Primrose Hill & Regents Park can be found here: http://www.regentsparklit.org.uk/index.htm

Poll Results - The worst band/act in the world!

1 - U2 (runaway winners in the end)
2 - Keane
3 - Coldplay

Bands I wish I'd been in - The Buff Medways

Home of the Hits - 9000...

What happened?

I turned my back for two seconds and we blast through the 9000 hits mark! Thank you!!

Poll Results - What the world needs now is...

1 - Love sweet love
2 - A damn good tidy up
3 - A good talking to
4 - Time to reflect on what it thinks it is doing with its life.


*Please note that this poll was carried out with UN observers in place and no signs of inappropriate voting were recorded. (Although it should be noted that a man with a very big bag of sweets was whistling Burt Bacharach tunes all day long outside the polling booth).

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...)

Home of the hits

8000 and climbing... Thank you!

The 13 best albums of all time - #3

Y - The Pop Group

When Y by The Pop Group was released in 1979, the (music) world split in two. On one side stood the punk traditionalists/neo-reactionaries, prog lovers, HM Greboes and Children of the Top of the Pops Generation on the other stood a small group of fresh faced punk-funkateers armed with nothing but a couple Ornette Coleman LP’s, a healthy dose of dub sensibility, the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and a burning rage at the creeping darkness of consumer fascism. Despite originally not featuring the truly mind numbingly good 1st single ‘She is Beyond Good & Evil’, the album never fails to stir the heart, mind, body & soul.

From the opening attack of Thief of Fire the original album blew all the cobwebs, dust and inertia that had gathered in the dimly lit corridors of the new pop orthodoxy, clean away). A truly astonishing production job by Dennis Bovell give a completely new depth to the overall sound. The aspects of dub separation and gallons of reverb that had been liberally poured over the tracks gave the listener the sense of listening to Chic backing a ranter at Speakers Corner from the bottom of a mine shaft. Piano tinkle, tumble and echo around fluid funky basslines and Gareth Sager’s distinctive funky Rickenbacker riffs vie with Mark Stewarts howls of anguish and whispers of despair. If you haven’t heard Y before, you lucky thing because the pleasure that awaits you cannot be understated. If you’ve already heard Y before, you lucky thing because you know what an astonishing debut album it is...

Track listing
1. "She Is Beyond Good and Evil" – 3:23 (CD only: not on original '79 vinyl LP)
2. "Thief of Fire" – 4:35
3. "Snow Girl" – 3:21
4. "Blood Money" – 2:57
5. "We Are Time" – 6:29
6. "Savage Sea" – 3:02
7. "Words Disobey Me" – 3:26
8. "Don't Call Me Pain" – 5:35
9. "The Boys from Brazil" – 4:16
10. "Don't Sell Your Dreams" – 6:40
11. "3:38" - 3:42 (CD only: not on original '79 vinyl LP)

(© Spirit of a 1979 Fanzine Writer)

Poll Results - George Orwell Novels

1 - 1984
2 - Homage to Catalonia
3 - Coming up for air
4 - Down and out in Paris & London

A brief snapshot of why George Orwell is brilliant.

" If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. "

" Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting. "

" Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act. "

" The great enemy of clear language is insincerity "

" For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity. "

" Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. "

" The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. "

" An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. "

" Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. "

" Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent. "

" At age 50, every man has the face he deserves. "

" On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time. "

" Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. "

" Liberal: a power worshipper without power. "

" Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. "

" War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "

Oh and one final cheery thought...

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever.

Poll Results - 2012 v 2011

1. Better
2. Worse

2011 - 2012

Goodbye & Hello!

Poll Results - Top Crooner

1. Frank
2. Tony Christie
3. Tony Bennett
4. Paul Quinn
5. Tom Jones

Odd Songs that mean the world and yet... #1

Avenues and Alleyways

"Avenues and Alleyways" is a 1972 single recorded by Tony Christie as the theme song for the television series The Protectors. It was written and produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who were also responsible for Christie's "Las Vegas" and "I Did What I Did For Maria".

Following the chart-topping success of the re-release of "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" in 2005, this song was also re-released and peaked at #26 on the UK Singles Chart. On its original release, it had only reached #37.

It is included in the soundtrack of the 2000 film Love, Honour and Obey, starring Ray Winstone and Jude Law and that is where it first really seeped into my soul. A disarming melody combined with almost oddly poetic lyrics = my no.1 Karaoke tune, all thanks to Ray of course - Geezer!


Sleep like a baby,
my little lady,
Dream till the sunrise
creeps into your eyes
Dream till the sunrise
Turns on the day.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
while you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Able and his brother, fighting one another
in and out of every dive
The Avenues and Alleyways
where the strong and the quick alone can survive
Look around the jungle
see the rough and tumble
Listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later
in the morning paper
Read about the way he died.

Wake up my pretty
Go to the city
Stay through the daytime
safe in the sunshine
stay till the daytime
turns into night.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
Where a mans gotta work out which side he's on
any way he chooses
chances are he loses
no one gets to live too long
the avenues and alleyways
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy
everybody's wheeling
everybody's steeling
all the low are living high
Every city's got em
can we ever stop em
some of us are gonna try.

Lyrics taken from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tony_christie/#share

Poll Results - Favourite Protest

1 = Occupy St Pauls
1 = Poll Tax Riots
1 = Paris 68
1 = Greenham Common

And all the others...

Poll Results - Best British DJ

1 - John Peel

Well, what did you expect? Chris Moyles? Are you mad?

John Peel

(30 August 1939 - 25th October 2004)

Poll Results - Best British Guitarist

1 = Bert Jansch
1 = Davy Graham
1 = Johnny Marr
1 = Graham Coxon
1 = Pete Townsend
1 = John Martyn
1 = Nick Drake

Strings of Desire - #6

The six strings that drew blood - Rowland S. Howard's Jaguar.

Guitar thug blew into town
His eyes like wheels spinnin' round
Jerkin-off at every sound
Layin' all his crosses down
O yeah
He got Six Strings
The Six Strings that drew blood
The bar is full of Holy-Joes
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Around the neck of our consumptive rose
Is the root of all his sorrows
O yeah
He got Six Strings
Six Strings that drew blood
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Six Strings that drew blood
In the bathroom under cover
He turns on one tap to discover
He's smashed his teeth out on the other
Well he look in the mirror and say
Don't fuck me brother
Cause I got Six Strings
Six Strings that drew blood
Numbin' the runt of reputation they call rat fame
Top-E as a tourniquet
A low tune whistles across his grave
Forever the master and the slave of his Six Strings
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Six Strings that drew blood.

(c) Nick Cave/The Birthday Party

Home of the Hits (cont...)

4999 and rising!!

Strings of Desire - #5

George Harrison 12 String Rickenbacker 360/v12

Quite simply one of the most stylish of guitars ever. Brought to notice by 'The Quiet One' (GH not I.D.S.) the 360 was at the forefront of the west coast sound epitomised by The Byrds. It's chiming jingly-jangly sound made it one of the most loved and sort after guitars of that (and indeed every) decade, since.
Cue song...

It's been a hard day's night,
and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night,
I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright...

Strings of Desire - #4

Guild M-20 Acoustic

Good enough for Nick Drake, good enough for us all!

Don’t you have a word
to show what may be done
Have you never heard
a way to find the sun
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won’t you come and say
If you know the way to blue

Have you seen the land living by the breeze
Can you understand a light among the trees
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today
If you know the way to blue?

Look through time and find your rhyme
Tell us what you find
We will wait
At your gate
Hoping like the blind

Can you now recall all that you have known
Will you never fall
When the light has flown
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won’t you come and say
If you know the way to blue?

Bert Jansch (1943-2011) RIP

It is with great sadness that I heard today of the passing of Bert Jansch, a leading figure in the British folk revival of the 60s and one of the most respected musicians of his generation, he died of cancer aged 67.

Bert was a founding member of Pentangle, he also renowned as a guitar virtuoso and was sometimes hailed as a British Bob Dylan.

Neil Young said: "With deep regret Pegi and I acknowledge the passing of Bert Jansch. Pegi and I were lucky to play with him on all of our shows for the last couple of years. He is a hero of mine, one of my greatest influences. Bert was one of the all-time great acoustic guitarists and singer songwriters. Our sincerest sympathies to his soul mate Loren. We love you Bert."

Born in Glasgow on 3 November 1943, Jansch released 23 solo albums, the last of which, The Black Swan (2006), featured collaborations with Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart.

He was the recipient of two lifetime achievement prizes at the BBC Folk awards – one for his solo achievements in 2001 and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle. The band reformed in 2008.

In June 2009, he discovered he had a golf ball-size tumour on one of his lungs following what was at first a routine visit to the dentist. Following treatment, he went on to co-headline a US tour with Young. Jansch had recently been forced to cancel a live show in Edinburgh due to ill health and was living in a hospice in north London at the time of his death.

Those he influenced included Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Donovan, Bernard Butler and Paul Simon. According to fellow guitarist Johnny Marr: "He completely reinvented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today … without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 60s and 70s would have been very different."

Jansch told The Guardian last year: "I'm not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out."

He was a true virtuoso, a major influence on my more recent musical tastes and will be greatly missed.

Strings of Desire - #3

Johnny Marr's White on white Fender Jaguar

I could have chosen almost any one of Johnny Marr's guitars from his first album Rickenbacker, his 'The Queen is Dead' green Telecaster or his 'How Soon is Now' Epiphone Casino. However, in the end I couldn't resist his current axe du jour, the fantastic white on white Jaguar that he used as his main guitar with The Cribs.

Having been fortunate enough to see him in action up close with the Jarman boys on their last tour of 'Straya. I was blown away by the tone, feel and of course style of the Jaguar. Fender are due to produce a Johnny Marr signature Jag in January 2012, which if their attention to detail matches Johnny's will be an absolute must for any self respecting guitar stylist!

Strings of Desire - #2

Rickenbacker 330

Despite not being able to play it when I bought it, this is the first proper guitar I ever owned. The classic Rickenbacker 330, made famous by Messrs Weller, Marr, Townsend et al.

If you want a trebly jangly feedback enducing experience, then look no further. especially when twinned with the VOX AC30.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you the perfect Zap! Wham! Kerpow! Mod guitar!!!

1,2,3,4...

Strings of Desire - #1

The Graham Coxon Fender Telecaster

Exhilerating, innovative and very talented. Graham Coxon is one of the best guitarists to come out of Britain.

His solo work and Blur back catalogue are testimony to his ear for a vibrant mix of melody and discord. The majority of his finest work has been written on a Fender Telecaster. And for that reason alone...


...I want one!

The inevitable demise of Capitalism (part two)

Extracts from 'A day in the bear pit' by Jonathon Glenister

"The thing, the thing is. Our position is unassailable. All the while they take to the streets, we can sit back and relax. They'll never win by protesting. The only chance they have is rejecting the very mechanisms which sustain them.

Society is broken. Community is non existent.

But they cling to the weakest of positions through fear. Whilst they continue to trust their high street bank and the lure of their credit card driven lifestyle, they are hooked, they are hooked!

And we shall remain untouchable and unopposed!"

Poll Results - What do you get when you fall in love?

1- All of the below
2= Pneumonia
2= Lies & pain & sorrow
2= A pin to burst your bubble

'A Day in the Bear Pit' by Jonathon Glenister

Jonathon 'Tubs' Glenister is a leading right-wing financier who actively whipped up panic around the time of the first GFC. He then hedged his position in light of the impending crash and increased his personnel fortune to the tune of $1.3bn (US).

He is most probably one of the singularly most obnoxious people on the planet. His latest book 'A day in the bear pit' is due to be published in November. In it he predicts the date of the next Global Financial Crisis and predicts that on that day he will treble his own personal fortune.

He must be stopped.

The inevitable demise of Capitalism (part one)

(Extracts from 'A day in the bear pit' by Jonathon Glenister)

"Sitting at my desk, shares up, shares down. Best thing is I can make even more when the market crashes!

Politicians! Politicians? A bunch of bed-wetting arrivistes who haven't got the cojones to get stuck in! Losers, every single one of them out there - that window there. Losers!

Sympathy! Sympathy? Who for? All those weaklings who haven't got the 'kin nerve? Nah, they can all eat it as far as I'm concerned.

Cowards! Cowards, the lot of them!"

Poll Results - Who do you blame?

1 = Thatcher
1 = Cameron
1 = Blair
1 = Clegg
1 = Johnson
1 = Bush
1 = Them all !

The Comic Strip presents...

Five go mad in Dorset

"Blah blah blah, stolen plans, blah blah blah, missing scientists. Blah blah blah, Kidnap boy. Blah blah blah, everything ties up. Blah blah Submarine. Blah blah leave it out!"

Not forgetting "ham and turkey sandwiches, bags of lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, heaps of tomato, and lashings of ginger beer!"

The day Tiger went to the world cup

Originally published elsewhere, a while ago.

Lunchtime in Frankfurt, leaning gently into a second bottle of crispy white. The old town streets full of Mexican families lapping up the sun, Paraguayan supporters demolishing the biggest pile of chips that you ever did see and English fans scurrying from bar to bar determined to drink another German city dry.

This is the World Cup Semi-Final day and 8 hours from kick-off and the tension is starting to build. Guido, the Italian waiter mutters "Forza Italia" under his breath at every opportunity, whilst Hans his boss urges us to support the hosts. Tiger feigns impartiality with the dreaded words "We are just fans of World football mate!". Both seem happy as Tiger discharges the remnants of the last glass of the third bottle of a cheeky little Chablis and head back. In the car bets are taken.

At the Hotel one of our party is missing, confined to his bed with little more than a wet flannel to save him from a raging fever. Sympathy abounds, our taxi awaits and with Mehmet (Turkeys first ever GP driver) at the wheel, we're off! Dortmund here we come!!

Ten minutes later, allowing for a couple of wrong turns (Mehmet's Co-pilot was not the smartest of chaps), we arrive. The Co-pilot pays the man and then spends four hours haggling over where to meet after the match. Whilst this great meeting of minds takes place, Tiger takes in the moment. The stadium surrounds are awash with thousands of home fans enveloped in newly liberated Bundesflagge. Pockets of Azzurri survey the scene like a fox outside the chicken run. A smattering of delightfully trollied sons of Albion weave their way through the crowds like Peter Crouch through a Brazilian defence (i.e. barging straight through, falling over and being stared at in utter disbelief).

It has to be said that Tiger is not a complete stranger to the world of corporate entertainment. However, even Tiger was staggered at the oppulence of the FIFA corporate village (more like a futuristic space settlement). Is a jacuzzi really necessary? Does every discerning footie fan really need a casino on site? As for full scale flight simulators, well we ask you? Despite all of this frippery, they did serve a fine array of food and more essentially the WW oppoprtunities were plentiful.

After a swift replenishment. Into the impressively long-named stadium and to our seats, which we proceed to stand on for the whole 120 minutes. From kick-off to final whistle the quality of the football is astounding. No aimless hoofing to the 'big fella up front', no misplaced passes or bad first touches. Just quality control, intelligent running and beautifully finessed passing and probing attacks. All at extreme pace. It was a display of real verve and style by both sides and the referee was even better! Ballack (supposedly unfit and slated by the press) gliding between his own defence and the Italian back four prompting the Germans forward. Whilst in response the Azzurri were driven on by the gutsy Gattuso and the peerless priceless Pirlo (Gawd bless ya Mr Keating!).

Penalties looming and a frenzied Italian surge leading to the sublime moment. Lehmann (of the big hands, big head and big ego) kept his team in it until the moment that silences the length and breadth of Deutschland. Fabio Grosso curled a wonderful shot around the outstretched grasp of the despairing Gooner. Cue large scale in-take of breath in the stadium and a small scale explosion of delight in block 2, row 7 seat 136. The true blue colours of the Crouch End Ultra exploded in delirium. "You're not singing anymore...", "I'm going home in a German ambulance", "Come on you Blues" all muttered underneath the breath a la Guido. The Routemaster goal (i.e. wait ages and two come at once - I refuse to call it The BendyBus goal) is driven home by Del Piero. The Italians go wild, the Germans go home and Tiger goes back to the bar .

Following much post match analysis, the handing over of many Euros to the Ultra and a smattering of crispies. We depart to find Mehmet (who is fresh from breaking the Frankfurt-Dortmund land speed record). Despite the fine endeavours of the Co-Pilot, Mehmet is missing, presumably negotiating his next Indy 500 drive. Tiger retires to a Budweiser sponsors party - Well, to tell the truth, Tiger distracted two of the surly bouncer chappies, diverted attention as the team plunged into the midst of the wake. After a couple of Budweisers the need for an alcoholic drink came on strong. Fortunately, Mehmet arrived and before we'd done our seatbelts up we are back in the relative safety of our hotel bar. One more for the Strasse and then off to bed.

Tomorrow has already begun. The sun is already starting to peer round the corners of the curtains in the spartan bedroom. Sitting on the bed Tiger nurses a gentle Italian whilst trying to work out how to get BBC 24 on the tv. All these subtitles are ruining the plot. What a day, what a night, what a match. Now the only thing that needs resolving is what on earth are we going to do with the dead body in room 512?

The starlings fly north this winter

Code blue
section 14
stand down

raven has left the tower

await further instructions

Something to put a smile on your face

ICC TEST RANKINGS

1. England
2. South Africa
3. India
4. Australia
5. Sri Lanka
6. Pakistan
7. West Indies
8. New Zealand
9. Bangladesh