Twenty Two

Eliza is twenty two today. The picture above was a school photo taken in about 2008 at a guess, so quite some time ago. Eliza came home from university a year ago and got herself a job straight away, working at the day care centre that Isaac used to go to, working with adults with a variety of special needs and disabilities. It's not a job everyone can do. In March she handed her notice and booked herself flights to and from Bali, travelling solo, spending nearly four weeks backpacking. Since she came home she's been looking for work, applying for various jobs with all the hassle and frustrations that job hunting involves. She's stuck at it, been penniless for the last few weeks, and has recently found a job at an SEND school. Her resourcefulness is a good quality and she gets stuff done. Happy birthday Eliza. Enjoy it. 

Twenty two is a funny age. Eliza joked (half- joked maybe) that she was having a quarter life crisis. I remember being twenty two and being a little adrift, university behind me and now being, as far as the world was concerned, an adult- but not really sure what I wanted to do or what the future might hold, feeling too young to start a professional career job, not having much money, living in a series of short term rented flats/ house shares. It's a tricky age I think. 

In 1969 Iggy acknowledged twenty two's difficult status on the opening song of The Stooges's debut album, a song that sets out perfectly the band's modus operandi. Noise, distorted wah wah, sludgy riffs, primitive thumping drums and this- 'Last year I was twenty one/ Didn't have a lot of fun/ Now I'm gonna be twenty two/ Oh my and boo hoo'.

1969

It's 1969. America is burning. Iggy's bored and sarcastic. 

Ten years later Neil Young and Crazy Horse recorded one of their epics, Neil slipping back into the past to deliver a song about war, family, death and youth. I always assumed it was set in the time of the American Revolution, the 'red means run son' a reference to the British army and their red coats. The narrator's family have all fallen by the way, Daddy's gone, Neil's brother's out hunting in the mountains, Big John's been drinking since the river took Emmy Lou. There's just Neil, his Daddy's rifle in his arms and just turned twenty two, wondering what to do...

Powderfinger

There are several other twenty two songs- Taylor Swift's 22, Lily Allen's 22 (same title, different tone), The Flaming Lips' When Yer Twenty Two and Bright Eyes' Land Locked Blues that contains the line, 'The world's got me dizzy again/ You'd think after twenty two years I'd be used to the spin'. Not really mate- twenty two is still ridiculously young. We'll finish with Billy Bragg and his 1985 calling card- 'I was twenty one years when I wrote this song/ I'm twenty two now but I won't be for long'. 

A New England

The opening line is a borrow/ steal from Simon and Garfunkel's Leaves That Are Green, a 1966 song about lost love. Billy places A New England in the early 80s, Thatcher's Britain with youth unemployment, the bomb, the miner's strike and the Falklands War as his backdrop. Among all of that he doesn't even want to find a new England, he's just looking for another girl. 

'I saw two shooting stars last night/ I wished on them/ But they were only satellites/ it's wrong to wish on space hardware/ I wish I wish I wish you cared'. 

I'm not sure there are many better lines in popular music than that. 

Thirty Five Minutes Of England Mix

I’m really not a very patriotic person at all, it being as Oscar Wilde said, 'the last refuge of the scoundrel'. The markers of patriotism have always felt like nonsense to me- the flag (either of them, the cross of St. George and the Union flag), the national anthem, the monarchy, the Little England attitudes, the English exceptionalism, all of it does nothing for me. It makes no sense at all that someone who was born in Carlisle, Dover or Chester is in some way better than someone born a few miles away in Wrexham, Calais or Dumfries. Pride in one's country and it's achievements is I suppose OK to an extent but that pride often tips over into nationalism and exceptionalism and has a habit of hiding or ignoring some parts of a nation's history too. 

Supporting the England football team has always been tainted with all of the nonsense too. It's not necessarily the team's fault, they're partly just the vehicle for it. Tabloid controversies about whether the players are singing the national anthem with enough ‘passion’. Songs about winning two world wars, ten German bombers and no surrender to the I.R.A. Grown men dressed as crusader knights. The England band (thankfully now missing). Car flags and cheap red cross on white background bunting sagging in the summer rain. The booing by their own fans of players taking the knee to protest against racism. The deluge of racist messages that Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho received after missing their penalties in the 2021 Euro final. This was almost the last straw as far as I was concerned, ‘fans’ who would have been dancing in the streets if the penalty kicks had been a few inches one way or the other, taking to social media to racially abuse the young men who were taking part in a game was sickening and reflective of the wider culture- of Reform and UKIP, of Tory Little England politics, of the immigration narrative that Farage and Johnson and others fuelled by the tabloid press have spewed into British politics and English culture, of the nationalist nonsense that is only ever a sentence away from racism and the 'I'm not racist but...' brigade. 

The football team have dragged me back in over the last four weeks. I've tried to remain a bit arm's length from it, not get too invested. I boycotted the Qatar World Cup, hardly saw any of it, so it passed me by completely. But there was a sweet pleasure in watching the England penalties against Switzerland last Saturday, as five black and mixed race young men calmly slotted home their penalty kicks, the first and second generation descendants of immigrants putting England into a Euro semi- final. Where, as someone asked on social media after the match, are the racists now? Another of those children of immigrants, Ollie Watkins, scored the winner on Wednesday night, in the last second of the last minute of normal time.  

Tonight, England play Spain in the final of Euro ’24 in Berlin. This is a major achievement, the second consecutive Euros final. Those of us who grew up watching England in the 80s and 90s have seen little but failure from England teams. Sometimes they have been truly awful- the Euros in ’88, ’92 and 2016, the World Cup in 2014. Sometimes they’ve been massively overinflated and departed meekly beaten by clearly better sides- tournaments in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2012. Sometimes they’ve been engulfed by (in)glorious failure with a sense of injustice- Mexico ’86, France ’98. Sometimes they’ve not even qualified for tournaments- 1994, 2008. Very occasionally they’ve pulled it together and almost but not quite got to the final- 1990 and 1996. But on the whole, even if you can ignore the nationalist bluster that surrounds them, they've been not very good. 

Recently they’ve been better and if nothing else Gareth Southgate has changed the story around the England team, blocked out ‘the noise’ as he puts it. I’ve learned to limit my expectations of England. Reaching Euro finals twice in three years is something no other England manager or team has done. Hopefully, maybe, they can go one step further tonight and put to bed the endless burden of 1966 and all that. 

This is a thirty five minute mix of songs about England with a couple of England football songs. I'm sure some of you won't go anywhere near it but I like to think of it as the antithesis of Three Lions.

Thirty Five Minutes Of England For Euro 24

• Billy Bragg: A New England
• The Clash: Something About England
• The Clash: This Is England
• Care: Sad Day For England
• Black Grape: England's Irie
• Shuttleworth ft. Mark E. Smith: England's Heartbeat (Brazilian Ambush)
• The Vermin Poets: England's Poets
• Big Audio Dynamite: Union, Jack
• New Order: World In Motion (Call The Carabinieri Mix)

Billy Bragg's A New England is his 1983 calling card, a song about being twenty two and looking for a new girl, wishing on space hardware, and life in the early 80s. I probably should have included Kirsty McColl's cover which in some ways is the definitive version. In 2002 Billy addressed a load of the flag, nationalism, immigration, tabloid press, racism and England football shirts in his song Half- English- this only occurred to me while writing this part of the post. 

Something About England is from The Clash's 1980 album Sandinista!, a song that opens with the more resonant than ever lines, 'They say the immigrants steal the hub caps of respected gentlemen/ They say it would be wine and roses/ if England were for Englishmen again...' It's a truly great song, one where ick and Joe sing in character, Mick a young man leaving a bar and Joe an old man huddled in rags in a shop doorway. They then give us a history of the 20th century, war, depression, class struggle, disaster, all set to Clash punk/ music hall. 'Old England was all alone', they conclude.

A few years later, Mick and Topper both sacked, Joe recorded the final Clash album, Cut The Crap. The only song you really need from it is This Is England, the last great Clash song, Joe giving a state of the nation address, five years into Thatcher's government, economic depression and unemployment, with drum machines, guitars and chanting football crowds.  

Care was Paul Simpson (who will be back at this blog soon) and Ian Broudie. In 1983 Paul formed Care after The Wild Swans split for the first time. Sad Day For England was the B-side to the 12" My Boyish Days, one of only a handful of releases by the pair before they split in 1985. 

Black Grape's England's Irie was an unofficial Euro '96 song, a song that brought together Shaun Ryder, bez and Kermit with Keith Allen and Joe Strummer (and Strummer's only Top Of The Pops appearance). Shaun delivers several memorable lines, not least 'I'm spectating my wife's lactating/ It's a football thing'. I'm not sure it's aged particularly well but I thought I should include it. 

Shuttleworth were a one off band of Mark E. Smith, Ed Blaney and Jenny Shuttleworth who recorded this song for England's adventures at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Apparently the FA approached him to do it (!) but then decided against having an official song so Mark put it out anyway. Mark wrote a few football related songs- Theme For Sparta FC is a classic- and on one occasion read the full time results on the BBC. 

In the 2010 World Cup England were dreadful in the group stage, finishing second behind the USA. They lost the next game in the knock out round to Germany, 4- 1. 

The Vermin Poets were one of Billy Childish's many, many groups. Their album, Poets Of England, came out in 2010, garage rock/ psyche pop. I don't think it's among Billy's best work but anything by Billy is worth paying at least some attention to. 

Union, Jack was on Big Audio Dynamite's 1989 album Megatop Phoenix, their fourth album and the last made by the original line up. 'Make a stand/ Before you fall/ You country needs you/ To play football', Mick sings, slipping in lines the empire, pints of beer, a green and pleasant land, and all for one. A Mick Jones late 80s football song that tries to re- imagine the football song after some terrible 80s ones sung by England squads with perms, mullets and in leisure wear. Mick would find himself trumped a year later though...

World In Motion needs no introduction really- New Order, Keith Allen, John Barnes, the summer of 1990, Italia 90, a dire group stage, wins against Belgium and Cameroon and then ultimately disappointment, penalties and Germany. This version is an Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley remix from the remix 12" that came out a week after the main one. New Order had wanted to reflect the zeitgeist of 1990 by calling the song E For England, a step too far for the FA. They had to settle for the chorus, 'love's got the world in motion'. The FA wanted it changed to 'we've got the world in motion' but New Order stood their ground and love it was. 

Today's The Day

Today’s the day.

Fourth Of July

Fourteen years of the worst government and worst leaders/ politicians this country has known since the extension of the franchise will come to an end today. For a party that prides itself as the natural party of government, the nature of the five Conservative Prime Ministers and their policies and actions since 2010 has been staggering, an unending run of incompetence, lies, cuts, cruelty, corruption and criminality and a ceaseless (until today) shower of men and women who represent the most overpromoted cabinet minsters we’ve ever suffered. For anyone who suffers from imposter syndrome at their work, something we all do from time to time I’m sure, just a glance at some of the people who’ve held high ranking cabinet posts in this country since 2010 should cure you of that- Liz Truss, Jacob Rees- Mogg, Dominic Rabb, Matt Hancock, Oliver Dowden, Therese Coffey, Andrea Leadsom, James Cleverly, Kwasi Kwarteng, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braveman, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, on and on it goes. Many of these people would think twice about being able to run a medium sized outlet at a retail park. The Tory Party put them in charge of the country.

Let’s run through their legacy briefly.

David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak; between them they have made the country and its people poorer in every way, from austerity to Brexit and beyond. They have diminished us all, made the nation smaller, meaner, grimmer and inward looking. There is little hope or optimism, no sense as there was in 1997 that things can get better. We have become a small, narrow minded, poverty stricken, regressive nation on the north west edge of Europe cut adrift by the Tories. 

Between them, the five Tory PMs have cut funding to councils by up to 50% with the inevitable cutting of vital local services. Axed genuinely beneficial services for young people like Sure Start and Connexions. Introduced the two child cap on child benefit plunging families into poverty. Capped local housing allowance that has pushed people out of renting and into homelessness. Cut the educational maintenance allowance for 16- 19 year olds from poorer backgrounds. Tripled university tuition fees. Axed grants for low income students. Cut the budgets of all government budgets leading to underfunded schools and hospitals, threadbare public services, and violently overcrowded prisons. Overseen a vast recruitment and retention crisis in teaching. Scrapped the Green Deal. BREXIT. Labelled the judiciary as ‘enemies of the will of the people’. Windrush. Prison ships to hold refugees and migrants. The illegal proroguing of parliament. Restrictions to the right to protest. The Rwanda scheme. A housing crisis. The crashing of the entire UK economy in 49 days in 2022. Stagnated wages. Falling living standards. An increase in poverty. Approximately 3.6 million children are defined as living in poverty. Widespread use of food banks. A 74% increase in rough sleeping. Hospital waiting lists longer than ever. Ambulance waiting times longer than ever. A crisis in GP services and dentistry. The state of childrens' teeth is worse than at any point since the introduction of the NHS in 1948. The awarding of PPE contracts to friends during Covid. The breaking of the laws they made to protect all of us and the refusal to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with this. A sense nationally that in living memory things have never been worse, are still getting worse and that they can’t see a way they’ll get better.

Whatever happens today, these people must be defeated. Not just defeated- electorally obliterated, ground into the dust, humiliated, chased out of constituency after constituency, rejected so comprehensively that the Tory Party is for a generation (at least) associated with the stink of their failure, their policies and their defeat. They must tear themselves apart in response to this, shrink even further into right wing factions and strange regressive, nostalgic cults who get teary eyed over the sound of Spitfires and the words free trade. 

I think for that reason that voting tactically is the correct thing to do- we must vote to defeat the Tories. It’s that simple. If that means Labour, vote Labour. If that means Liberal Democrat, vote Liberal Democrat. If that means SNP, vote SNP. If that means Reform, vote... actually, don’t bother, go back home.

Reform have been canvassing in south Manchester, a handful of local volunteers setting up in suburban town centres under their racist gazebos and talking to passersby, trying to convince them to entertain Reform’s outsider narrative. It’s no surprise that the last few weeks have seen various Reform candidates come to light as cranks, conspiracy theorists and racists. They may not all be racist, conspiracy theorists but there will be plenty of them- far right grievance politics attracts them. I think there’s an argument that the concerns of the 12% or so of the population who’ve been polled and say they're voting Reform during the last few weeks need addressing, their disaffection needs to be engaged with. But Farage himself is a chancer and a grifter, a posh, privately educated former merchant banker who has portrayed himself as a man of the people. ‘He speaks the truth, he says what the others don’t say, he tells it like it is’ is a common fallback, fuelling the view that all of Westminster is ‘the same’, everyone tarred with the same brush as the list of Tories who have lied and shlepped their way through parliament since 2010. I see this at school where Farage’s message is cutting through with some of the youth, 14- 15 year old boys who aren’t old enough to vote yet- but will be next time. Farage is the pub bore writ large. Disruption for laughs. Stirs up division, then goes home. I hope the people of Clacton send him packing.

Clampdown

'They put up a poster saying we earn more than you
When we're working for the clampdown

We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers

The judge said five to ten but I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown'

Farage’s politics are the politics of division, the othering those who are ‘not like us’. In May this year he said British Muslims 'do not subscribe to British values', a comment that labels all British Muslims as them. He peddles the far right politics of resentment and grievance. None of the main parties have tried properly to counter his narrative- that migration has a net benefit for the UK, that our economy and services won’t work without it, that illegal migration actually accounts for less than 5% of all migration annually, that other countries have taken many more refugees than the UK has. This has been the main success of Farage and the right wing press that amplify him – to make immigration undiscussable in rational terms and to shift all the main parties into anti- migration territory. The far right playbook is a massive concern- look at France and the US – and Farage pulls pages from it all the time, being careful not to ay anything explicitly racist while fanning the flames of racism. The prospect of Farage and a handful of Reform MPs in parliament is grim but it says something about where we are as a nation that it’s a possibility. Far right parties gaining the respectability that comes from being elected representatives has a long tail, and history warns us that it doesn’t end well. Labour and any/ all progressive politicians have to make the case against them and keep at it. The voxpop narrative, fuelled by Farage for his own benefit, that ‘they’re all the same, none of them can fix it’, is a cosy excuse for voting for Reform. What's more, I don’t think it’s true-  there are many people who go into politics because they want to improve things, they want to make people’s lives better. I don’t think many if any of the Tories who have been in power since 2010 have had this as a motivation. I think, at the very least, Starmer probably does.

What about Labour? I have struggled to find much to be that excited about. Kier Starmer is not exciting, he doesn’t set the pulse racing or inspire. That could be a good thing- maybe a period of dull but competent government is exactly what we need. He will have an enormous mess to deal with from tomorrow (assuming he becomes PM) and the manifesto has made some vague commitments to progressive policies (house building for instance) without really challenging the economic and political orthodoxies that have been in place for decades and are partly the reason why we are where we are- services that are underfunded and don’t work, industries sold into private hands and run for shareholders rather than the public, people who want the paradox of a low tax and low wage economy with a well funded NHS. Starmer’s stance over some things has been downright difficult to defend but I guess the bottom line is that five years ago no one would have believed Labour could overturn a Johnson majority of 80 seats and here we are, on what looks like the verge of victory. At the least, and it’s a low bar admittedly, a Starmer led Labour government will at least not have the outright performative cruelty of the post- 2010 Tory ones- the sheer cruelty and barbarism of the Rwanda policy for example. I hope he and they find something to give us some cheer, that there are some fixes for the mess we're in and that they can give us some hope. 

 Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards (Live in 2019)

In the constituency in South Manchester where I live, we can play our part in kicking the Tories out today. Since becoming aware of politics in the early 80s there’s only been one occasion where I’ve been able to celebrate a Tory electoral defeat- 1997. I’m hoping, praying and expecting that today is number two, that we can watch the results come into tonight with a growing Labour majority, Tory after Tory ejected and rejected, their legacy the long bitter taste of defeat, laughing our way through the night as they get their comeuppance. And that tomorrow we wake up to something better.

Today's the day. Fuck the Tories. 

Take A Drag Or Two

More Velvet Underground following yesterday's Sunray/ Sonic Boom/ Ocean post. Today's post has The Velvets via Liverpool and Barking. The photo above is of Eric's in Liverpool, not the original Eric's- that closed a long time ago, 1980- but a live venue on Mathew Street under the same name and logo. Since The Vinyl Villain's guest post here a few weeks ago I've been vaguely obsessed with one of the performances in his post- Echo And The Bunnymen, a group firmly connected to Eric's, playing live with Billy Bragg, covering The Velvets' Run, Run, Run on OGWT in 1985. 

Will and Billy have the Velvet twin guitar drone/ wired lead line nailed with Pete's thumping backbeat covering the Mo Tucker thump. Ian McCulloch gives it the full big hair, big coat, alternative rock star frontman, kicking off with 'show me the way to go home' and squealing/ crooning/ grunting as required. 

In 1985 The Bunnymen set out for a tour of Scandinavia, a tour Ian has referred to as 'the last great Bunnymen tour'. They played support act to themselves, playing a set of covers every night, then going off for a break before returning to play their own songs. Many of the covers were chosen by Will Sergeant- Action Woman and She Cracked- along with Bunnymen favourites by Dylan, Television, The Doors and The Velvets. This take of Run, Run, Run was recorded onstage in Gothenburg by Swedish radio.

Run, Run, Run (Live in Gothenburg)

Will has also spoken of his enjoyment of the Scandinavian tour, playing the support set of covers through practice amps in small halls with no stage, staying at the promotor's house and having breakfast with them. 'I think', Will said, 'it was the last time we were a band really. The next tour we played was stadiums. I hated that. Playing places like Wembley... was everything the Bunnymen wasn't about'.

Run, Run, Run was on The Velvet Underground's debut, the banana album/ The Velvet Underground And Nico. Lou Reed wrote in on the back of an envelope while on the way to a gig at Cafe Bizarre. It's a belter of a song, with those speed freak guitars, rumbling rhythms and lo- fi, reverb production. Lou''s cast of characters- Teenage Mary, Margarita Passion, Seasick Sarah, Beardless Harry- are all on the streets of New York looking for a fix and/ or to be saved, drugs and religion mixed up. Lou's guitar solo is unlike other guitar solos from 1967, a trebly, wired, atonal freak out. 

Run, Run, Run

More Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be: A Vinyl Villain Guest Edition

I spent last Thursday evening in the company of JC, the man behind the long running, standard setting blog The Vinyl Villain. He'd travelled down from Glasgow overnight and we met for a few drinks and a catch up taking in two legendary Manchester pubs- The Briton's Protection (grade II listed, serving beer since 1806- the year not the time- with a mural of the Peterloo Massacre down one wall) and The City Arms (a pre- Hacienda haunt for many back in the day, situated just across the road from Fac51). Earlier this week JC sent this to me. A few weeks ago I started an irregular series of Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be including Echo And The Bunnymen on Wogan, Prefab Sprout at Alton Towers, Ice T on The Late Show and Aztec Camera on Pebble Mill. I've got a few ideas lined up for further editions in the series but in the meantime JC has stepped in with a Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be Scottish Edition. Without further ado, then, over to JC...

I was quite tickled by Adam’s previous posts in which he dug out some classic video clips of performances or appearances in the most unlikely of places.  So much so, that I’ve come up with a few more, all of which feature singers/bands from Scotland.

First up are Aztec Camera and a rendition of Walk Out ToWinter that was broadcast on Switch, a series aired on Channel 4 between March and September 1983.  It basically took over the Friday evening slot that had been occupied by The Tube, starting one week after the end of the first series and ending one week before the second series began.

Look closely and you’ll see that the normally immaculate Roddy Frame and his bandmates are wearing identical and hideous tracksuits.  That’s because the footage was from the afternoon rehearsals when they did their bit to help the camera operators and lighting technicians do their thing, returning later on for the actual performance that was broadcast.  Only thing is, the band decided not to perform the new single and thus leaving the record label a tad upset. Which is why, no doubt after much pleading with the producers of Switch, this footage was shown a few weeks later. 

Back in the days when the BBC actually were half-decent at putting out music shows, they came up with the idea of a 24-hour broadcast across BBC 2 and Radio 1, which was given the imaginary title of Rock Around The Clock.  I think there may actually have been a couple of these, with the shows being a blend of live performances from concert venues, studio performances, interviews, videos and specially commissioned film clips.   It also saw musicians dropping in for chats, as was the case when Edwyn Collins, Paul Quinn and Zeke Manyika were interviewed, from recollection around 1am, and it’s fair to say they were up for having a bit of fun.

I’ll divert for a few minutes, as the same show also had Billy Bragg and Echo & The Bunnymen in the studio at an even later hour.  They teamed up for an unforgettable cover of a Velvet Underground number.

Turning now to the first band ever to play at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, the cavernous venue on the banks of the River Clyde to which all the big names would flock after the legendary Glasgow Apollo was closed down and demolished.  History records that UB40 were the first to play in what became known as Hall 4 in 1985, but the truth of the matter is that a little-known local act called Snakes of Shake were the first as evidenced by this clip which went out on The Tube in 1984:-

OK….the building was still under construction, but let’s not split hairs.

That clip was part of a special on Scottish music that was broadcast by The Tube.  You’ll have to bear with me on the next one as I can’t find a segment where it’s just the song.  

It’s a seven-minute piece of film, in which presenter Leslie Ash turns up on a very wintry day in Dundee for a chat down in the dockside area with Billy Mackenzie.  The interview takes place on what appears to be a tug boat, while Billy then mimes outrageously to the Associates song ‘Waiting For The Loveboat’ on board the HMS Unicorn, a 200-year old frigate that operates as a museum/visitor attraction in Dundee.  The music begins around 4 mins and 24 seconds in.

You’ll have spotted by now that many of these clips are courtesy of the hard work of an individual who goes by the name of ScottishTeeVe who has taken hundreds of hours to take his VHS etc recordings and put them up on YouTube for our enjoyment.  All the clips thus far, I also have on dozens of different videotapes that are in boxes in a cupboard beneath the stairs, but I just don’t know how to now put them in places where they can be shared and enjoyed more widely.

I’ll finish off with a cheat.

It’s a clip that doesn’t feature anyone from Scotland, but it was filmed in Glasgow on 3 June 1990.

The location is Custom House Quay on the banks of the Clyde. It was part of ‘The Big Day’,  one of the centrepiece events in a year-long set of festivities to celebrate Glasgow being designated as the European City of Culture.  An all-day music festival that was free of charge across various locations, with the big-name acts performing on stages at the main civic square or in the largest of our inner-city parks.  Some more niche acts were put on at Custom House Quay, one of whom was Billy Bragg.  He didn’t let on that he was going to be joined for part of his set by some friends from America:-

You can see that the location is full to capacity, with maybe a couple of hundred folk sitting down and maybe as many again standing up at street level.  No mobile phones, so no way of letting anyone know that Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant were singing their hearts out.  I don’t have this clip on video, for the simple reason that I was out on the streets that day, among what was estimated to be a crowd of 250,000.  Nor did I see it on the day…..I was half-a-mile away enjoying the one stage where the music was quite eclectic, watching the likes of Aswad, Nanci Griffith and Les Negresses Vertes put on great shows.  It wasn’t until the next day, reading the newspapers, did I learn about the Custom House Quay happening.  The performance has become the Glasgow equivalent of the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1976 with thousands claiming to have been there.

Massive thanks to JC for this time capsule, a hugely enjoyable post. 

This Is England, This Is How We Feel

The last few days have shown the worst of this country and the best too- the sadly predictable response by knuckle dragging racists to three young men missing penalties for England at Wembley on Sunday night, not to mention the behaviour of some of the fans in and around the stadium and central London, is profoundly depressing and enraging. 

The response by people in Withington, the part of South Manchester where I grew up, has been moving and uplifting, with heartfelt messages of thanks and inspiration left on the mural of Marcus Rashford which had been defaced by scumbags at some point on Sunday night. Marcus Rashford spent some of his childhood in Withington living close to Copson Street where the mural is (the picture below shows our visit last year). 

Marcus Rashford's own statement in response to events was powerful and moving, a statement of apology for missing a penalty (as if that were needed) and a defiant note against racism and intolerance. Teammate Tyrone Mings responded to Pritti Patel's shamelessness (denouncing racism this week, condemning the players for taking a stance against racism three weeks earlier), calling out her hypocrisy. It's easy to find events and the state of modern England dispiriting but the eloquence and defiance of the youth, both professional footballers and ordinary people interviewed on the news in Withington and elsewhere, is enough to make me hope for better in the future. One day the likes of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Pritti Patel will be gone and the upcoming generation will I think make a better job of things than ours is. 

Back in 1985 as The Clash spluttered to a conclusion Joe Strummer wrote a state of the nation address, the last great Clash song, This Is England. Joe looks around and sees the collapse of industry and loss of jobs, war in the South Atlantic, jingoism, police brutality, violence and racism. 'This is England/  This is how we feel', he laments.  

This Is England

Kirsty MacColl and Billy Bragg both claimed not to be looking for a new England, just another girl. But I think we all know they wanted both. Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? Nope, whatever it takes I reckon.

A New England (Extended Version)

Billy Bragg Writes

Billy Bragg posted this on Sunday, a powerful and fantastically well written piece about Morrissey and his dangerous association with the far right, white supremacist propaganda and racist ideology (also taking in Stormzy, Brandon Flowers, Johnny Marr, Donald Trump, Rita Tusingham, The Smiths and culture generally). I can't find anything in it to disagree with.

'Last Sunday, while much of the British media were lauding Stormzy’s Glastonbury headline show as epoch defining, Morrissey posted a white supremacist video on his website, accompanied by the comment ‘Nothing But Blue Skies for Stormzy...The Gallows for Morrissey’. The nine minute clip lifted footage from the grime star’s Pyramid Stage performance while arguing that the British establishment are using him to promote multiculturalism at the expense of white culture.

The YouTube channel of the video’s author contains other clips expressing , among other things, homophobia, racism and misogyny - left wing women of colour are a favourite target for his ire. There are also clips expounding the Great Replacement Theory, a far right conspiracy trope which holds that there is a plot of obliterate the white populations of Europe and North America through mass immigration and cultural warfare.

My first thought was to wonder what kind of websites Morrissey must be trawling in order to be able to find and repost this clip on the same day that it appeared online? I came home from Glastonbury expecting to see some angry responses to his endorsement of white supremacism. Instead, the NME published an interview with Brandon Flowers in which the Killers lead singer proclaimed that Morrissey was still “a king”, despite being in what Flowers recognised was “hot water” over his bigoted comments.

As the week progressed, I kept waiting for some reaction to the white supremacist video, yet none was forthcoming. Every time I googled Morrissey, up would pop another article from a music website echoing the NME’s original headline: ‘The Killers Brandon Flowers on Morrissey: ‘He’s Still A King’. I’m well aware from personal experience how easy it is for an artist to find something you’ve said in the context of a longer discourse turned into an inflammatory headline that doesn’t reflect your genuine views on the subject at hand, but I have to wonder if Flowers really understands the ramifications of Morrissey’s expressions of support for the far right For Britain Party?

As the writer of the powerful Killers song ‘Land of the Free’, does he know that For Britain wants to build the kind of barriers to immigration that Flowers condemns in that lyric? Party leader Anne Marie Walters maintains ties with Generation Identity, the group who both inspired and received funds from the gunman who murdered 50 worshippers at a Christchurch mosque. How does that sit with the condemnation of mass murder by lone gunman in ‘Land of the Free’?

As an explicitly anti-Muslim party, For Britain opposes the religious slaughter of animals without the use of a stun gun, a policy that has given Morrissey a fig leaf of respectability, allowing him to claim he supports them on animal welfare grounds. Yet if that is his primary concern, why does he not support the UK’s Animal Welfare Party, which stood candidates in the recent European elections?

Among their policies, the AWF also aim to prohibit non-stun slaughter. If his only interest was to end this practice, he could have achieved this without the taint of Islamophobia by endorsing them. They are a tiny party, but Morrissey’s vocal support would have given the animal rights movement a huge boost of publicity ahead of the polls.

Instead, he expresses support for anti-Muslim provocateurs, posts white supremacist videos and, when challenged, clutches his pearls and cries “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me”. His recent claim that “as a so-called entertainer, I have no rights” is a ridiculous position made all the more troubling by the fact that it is a common trope among right-wing reactionaries.

The notion that certain individuals are not allowed to say certain things is spurious, not least because it is most often invoked after they’ve made their offensive comments. Look closely at their claims and you’ll find that what they are actually complaining about is the fact that they have been challenged.

The concept of freedom pushed by the new generation of free speech warriors maintains that the individual has the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, to whoever they want, with no comeback. If that is the definition of freedom, then one need look no further than Donald Trump’s Twitter feed as our generation’s beacon of liberty. Perhaps Lady Liberty should be replaced in New York Harbour with a colossal sculpture of the Donald, wearing a toga, holding a gaslight.

Worryingly, Morrissey’s reaction to being challenged over his support of For Britain, his willingness to double down rather than apologise for any offence caused, suggests a commitment to a bigotry that tarnishes his persona as the champion of the outsider. Where once he offered solace to the victims of a cruel and unjust world, he now seems to have joined the bullies waiting outside the school gates.

As an activist, I’m appalled by this transformation, but as a Smiths fan, I’m heartbroken.

It was Johnny Marr’s amazing guitar that drew me to the band, but I grasped that Morrissey was an exceptional lyricist when I heard ‘Reel Around the Fountain’. Ironically, it was a line that he had stolen that won my affections. “I dreamt about you last night and I fell out of bed twice” is spoken by Jimmy, the black sailor, to his white teenage lover, Jo, in Sheila Delaney’s play ‘A Taste of Honey’

The 1961 movie, starring Rita Tushingham was an early example of a post-war British society that would embrace multi-racial relationships (and homosexuality too). By pilfering that particular line for the song, Morrissey was placing the Smiths in the great tradition of northern working class culture that may have been in the gutter, but was looking at the stars. Yet, by posting a white supremacist video in which he is quoted as saying “Everyone prefers their own race”, Morrissey undermines that line, erasing Jo and Jimmy and all those misfit lovers to whom the Smiths once gave so much encouragement.

A week has passed since the video appeared on Morrissey’s website and nothing has been written in the media to challenge his position. Today it was reported that research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a UK based anti-extremist organisation, reveals that the Great Replacement Theory is being promoted so effectively by the far right that it is entering mainstream political discourse.

That Morrissey is helping to spread this idea - which inspired the Christchurch mosque murderer - is beyond doubt. Those who claim that this has no relevance to his stature as an artist should ask themselves if, by demanding that we separate the singer from the song, they too are helping to propagate this racist creed'.

Johnny Marr's set at Glastonbury seemed to be, at least partly, an artist and a crowd revelling in reclaiming those songs from the damage the lyricist has done to their memory, a celebration of outside culture and what The Smiths meant- Bigmouth Strikes Again, There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out- and what they can still mean. But still, with every sentence Billy writes above, the songs are tarnished further. 

This re-edit of How Soon Is Now by Maceo Plex will probably annoy the purists but would I imagine sound pretty great chucked into the midst of a DJ set, possibly pitched down a tad. Can't imagine Morrissey's a fan.

Worker's Playtime

May Day is a worker's holiday, first established in the UK in 1978. In 1988 Billy Bragg gave us his most perfect song, Waiting For The Great Leap Forward, a song written from personal experience of an 80s vision of revolution, benefit gigs, fanzines, activism and t-shirts. Billy is a wordsmith but words can be easily missed if the music isn't good enough. Thankfully Waiting... has a tune good enough to complement the lyrics. I could try to pick the bones out of the lyrics and give some analysis but they're best presented as you hear them, as a rush of Billy's thoughts, scribbled on the back of a beer mat...

'It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel Castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathize with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the Third World is just around the corner  

In the Soviet Union a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That Dr. Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle
In the Cheese Pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer

Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the great leap forwards

Jumble sales are organised
And pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the great leap forwards 
One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it

It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From Top of the Pops to drawing the dole
If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room
So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a tee shirt away
Waiting for the great leap forwards'

Have a good bank holiday everyone.  

Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards

There's A Lot Of Nice Places To See Out There

Stepping backwards in time from yesterday's Balearic Charlatans remix to a song from Liverpool in 1986 that found its way into DJ Alfredo's record box in Ibiza and the terrace at the Cafe del Mar with his guiding philosophy of 'if it sounds good, play it'. Driving Away From Home (Jim's Tune) was a single from It's Immaterial, a Liverpool band with a Mancunian at the helm (John Campbell) and Henry Priestman of The Christians involved on keyboards. The song is perfect mid-80s synth-pop with acoustic guitars and a semi- spoken vocal, not a million miles from the Pet Shop Boys. Driving Away From Home was a UK hit (number 18) and popped up on adverts and compilations and TV shows but don't let that take anything away from it.

One of my favourite aspects of the song is the attempt to write a British road trip song, something that on the face of it is an American thing. 'Why don't we cross the city limit, and head on down the M62, it's only thirty nine miles and forty five minutes to Manchester' John says, and goes on to tell the driver 'all you've got to do is put your foot hard down to the floor, we can call on people I know in Newcastle or maybe in Glasgow'. See also Billy Bragg's A13 (Trunk Road To The Sea).

Driving Away From Home (Wicked Weather For Walking)

It's Wrong To Wish On Space Hardware

Billy Bragg's A New England, thirty years old right now, is one of the great lyrics of the latter part of the Twentieth Century. I know, a ridiculous claim, but there you go. The first verse has that almost nonsensical opening couplet about being 21 when he wrote the song but 22 now and the girls he knew at school who have already outpaced him age-wise and growing up-wise followed by the one half-rhyming pedestal and the pill. After the chorus 'I don't want to change the world, I'm not looking for a new England, just looking for another girl'- there's the brilliant verse combining the Cold War space race, shooting stars, wishing and unrequited love which is pure post-punk poetry...

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care

The sparseness of Billy's rapidly strummed electric guitar adds to the early 80s lonesomeness. It may not be his best song but I don't think he's ever written a better lyric. He may have matched it but he's not bettered it.



Kirsty MacColl's cover version, below, is different- not better, not worse, different. Fuller, with a biggish pop production by husband Steve Lillywhite and two additional verses written for her by Billy. Number 7 in the pop charts in 1984.

A New England

There Will Be A Reckoning

Billy Bragg's album of this year (Tooth And Nail) has some good songs on it- this is one of them- and has some of the political bite and ire of his former work.

There Will Be A Reckoning

There's something about the album as a whole that doesn't quite work for me- a bit too one paced, a bit too samey. Maybe that's just down to me and a lack of concentration over full albums nowadays, especially ones that don't have too much sonic variety. But then not every lp can or should have dub, krautrock and free jazz spilling into it's grooves can it?

Every Time I Switched On The Radio There Was Somebody Else Singing A Song About The Two Of Us

I think Billy Bragg has noted this himself and most Bragg fans too but his back catalogue contains more love songs than political songs, but still he is labelled as a political artist. This song, Walk Away Renee from the mid 80s, is one of his best loved love songs- originally by 60s group The Left Banke, Bragg cajoled tour mate Johnny Marr into playing the guitar and then wrote new lyrics for it, and performed them spoken word style. And what a set of lyrics they are, skewering the rush of  young love and the turmoil of break up.

'She said it was just a figment of speech
And I said 'No, you mean figure'
And she said 'No, figment'
Because she could never imagine it happening
But it did'

Then we get Billy playing the shy boy, which works in terms of getting her attention, but when she speaks to him the first time he gets a nosebleed and 'she guessed the rest'. The pair go out, get the ferry and when no one collects their fares Billy knows this will be something special- a free ride signifying the blossoming of love and then the radio keeps playing songs about him and her. Like it does. He compares the start of a love affair to a fairground ride, scary and a rush and wanting it to never stop- which is a cliche, and we know it's a cliche and Billy knows it as well. One of those cliches people falling in love use. Meanwhile Johnny picks away gently and unobtrusively.

Of course it goes wrong as these often things do- she starts seeing someone else. He sees her in the car park with Mr Potato Head (pre-Toy Story this). Car parks -ordinary, prosaic places where nothing happens and where things go wrong in people's lives. Potato Head puts his coat around her shoulders. Later that night Billy can't get them out of his head...

'...I thought about the two of them together
Until the bathwater went cold around me
I thought about her eyes and the curve of her breasts
And about the point where their bodies meet.'

Torment in a rented flat. Head going round and round. Stupid Mr Potato Head and his coat, and them... at it. Sometime later he confronts her- it doesn't go well, and Billy chucks in another great one liner about being the most 'illegible batchelor in town' and she laughs at him and we laugh with him. And then suddenly, as the loss of love builds and jealousy and heartbreak are about to consume him, everything changes, love and infatuation die; Billy plays his trump card lyrically, and the fire burning in him is doused by a massive bucket of cold water...

'And then one day it happened
She cut her hair and I stopped loving her'

Truly top stuff. I heard it again recently out of nowhere and it was as good as the first time even though I knew what was coming.

Walk Away Renee

Mother Russia

To Pussy Riot from Billy Bragg

!No Pasaran!

I started May by wittering on about a Spanish Civil War themed mix tape and which songs might go onto it. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions about other songs- Drew, Davy H, Helen and Suggestedformaturereaders. Thus, I can start June with a better, more expansive Spanish Civil War mixtape.

Durutti Column- Sketch For Summer
Manic Street Preachers- If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next
The Clash- Spanish Bombs
The Pogues- Lorca's Noveno
Billy Bragg- Jarama Valley (available here from The International Brigades website)
Leonard Cohen- Take This Waltz (based on Lorca's words)
O'Luge and Kornertrone Allstars- Spanish Bombs (cover of The Clash song)
Christy Moore- Viva La Quinta Brigada
The Stone Roses- Guernica
Maxine Peake and Urban Roots- speech by Dolores Ibarruri (aka La Pasionaria, from the Billy Bragg cd linked above)

Can we make a case for Jonathan Richman's Pablo Picasso on the grounds that Picasso painted Guernica? Reckon so.

Viva La Quinta Brigada

The photo of the militiawoman in heels with a pistol was taken by Gerda Taro, Robert Capo's partner. Between them they covered the war and helped invent photo journalism. Gerda was killed during the war, run over by a tank accidentally. Stunning picture isn't?

The Poor Take Courage, You Rich Take Care

I was using this song the other day in a work-based capacity (yep, I played it to some twelve and thirteen year olds)- Billy Bragg's The World Turned Upside Down (sometimes known as The Digger's Song). The lyrics were written by Leon Rosselson and Billy released it in 1985. The music alone is stirring enough, Billy's palm muted guitar punctuated by urgent, staccato, metallic stabs. The Diggers were a radical 17th century group, the first Communists arguably, who claimed the earth as 'a common treasury', pressed for economic equality and led by Gerrard Winstanley put their money where their mouths were and began to cultivate common land. The Diggers made the point that the common people of England had been robbed of their birthrights since the Norman Conquest and exploited by the ruling class. The government and local landowners between them, back up by the threat and use of the army, crushed them and by 1651 most Digger colonies had vanished.

In 1649 to St. George's Hill

A ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the peoples' will

They defied the landlords They defied the laws

They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs

We come in peace they said to dig and sow

We come to work the lands in common and to make the waste grounds grow

This Earth divided we will make whole so it will be a common treasury for all

The sin of property we do disdain

No man has any right to buy and sell the Earth for private gain

By theft and murder they took the land

Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command

They make the laws to chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell

We will not worship the God they serve

The God of greed who feed the rich while poor men starve

We work we eat together, we need no swords

We will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the lords

We are free men, though we are poor

You Diggers all stand up for glory stand up now

From the men of property the orders came

They sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out the Diggers claim

Tear down their cottages, destroy their corn

They were dispersed but still the vision lingers on

You poor take courage you rich take care

This Earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share

All things in common, all people one

We come in peace the orders came to cut them down

All of which seems to strike quite a few chords at the moment, what with the Occupy protests, rightful disgust at our banking system and successive governments failure to control or regulate it, student protests, kettling and pepper spraying policemen and so on. On top of this, I and millions of others, are on strike today. I'm not saying it's the same to argue that withdrawing our labour for a day in protest at changes to our pensions is the same as what The Diggers were trying to achieve or that we are 'the disposed reclaiming what is ours' but... these things are all in the ether at the moment. There are people at my place of work who are going in to work, under the guise of 'I can't afford to lose a day's pay' or to impress management. Wrong headed I think. I may even go on a march. ET's always wanted to go on a demo and as her school's closed we may as well. See you down the front. Must remember to take a lemon with me.

The World Turned Upside Down

One Out, All Out

Today, I shall mostly be on strike. And attending a cochlear implant appointment.

There Is Power In A Union

Election Special Number 1

Billy Bragg's bitter sweet tale Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards seems like it's from another time. Peppered with mid-to-late 80s references- The Soviet Union, activism, jumble sales and pamphlets, blacklists, Top Of The Pops and fanzines writers- and earlier political touchstones (Jack and Jacqueline's Camelot, Robert Oppenheimer, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro). It still holds up despite it's quaintness and antiquaintedness. After a gig someone's stacking chairs and mopping up spilt beer while the van waits outside, and at the end 'the revolution's only a t-shirt away'. And here we are, 2010, 3 successive terms of Labour governments, on-going foreign policy disasters, poor policy decisions in education and elsewhere, and dodgy accounts and dodgy MPs (from all the parties). Now it's the Liberals who are the plucky, media friendly underdogs, and the Tories who are the supposed common-touch, government-in-waiting. God help us all. None of them will say anything about immigration other than 'we want it capped'. Howabout someone announcing that immigration is actually a good thing, and listing the ways this country has benefitted from immigration, and other cultures?

Like Drew over at Across The Kitchen Table, I campaigned for Labour in the late 80s and early 90s. I handed out leaflets, knocked on doors, went on the marches. At 4 a.m. on election night in May 1997 I danced in the car-park of The Conservative Club. And it still seems like we're still waiting for the great leap forward but I suspect that on Thursday I'll put my X next to the Labour candidates name. The Liberals don't carry much weight, either round here or in their manifesto, and they're right to demand reforming the electoral system, but I'll still end up voting Labour 'with a peg on my nose'. I can't see that there's any other choice. 'In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune' says Billy in this song, 'But this is reality so give me some room, Waiting for the great leap forward'. See? Still rings true.


20 Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards.wma