Captain Beefheart Dies.

The BBC World Service just told me of the sad death of Mr Don Van Vliet alias Captain Beefheart. He was one of those wonderful musicians who was introduced to me by the equally very wonderful DJ John Peel. I have to hold my hands up and admit that the first few times i heard Beefheart and the Magic Band, i didn't really know what the hell was going on but suddenly one sunny afternoon in my bedroom at my mothers house with an old friend and the aid of a small joint of rather nice Mexican Marijuana, everything fell into place. The seeming cacophony resolved itself into a series of tour des force journeys into the unknown, or at least unknown to me and the majority of the members of the world of Rock and Roll which was already getting bogged down into12 bar heavy metal repettition and seemingly headed for early oblivion.

The Good Captain, aided by one of the most skillful and inventive stage or studio bands i have ever heard even to this day prevented this however. Mixing Blues and African melodies and rhythms, Strange meandering melodies and polyrhythms to die for, many of them worked out on two fingers by the Captain at an old piano and interspersed by concrete and free form verse he saved me from death by mainstream obscurity and awakened me to new possibilities. The result was that i learned an entirely new way of listening and was thus ready to absorb Reggae, Folk, Dub and all kinds of World and classical Music when they eventually evolved.

I saw him play three times, twice with his magic band and once when he paired up with the equally disturbing Frank Zappa. Three of the most stimulating evenings of musicl culture i ever experienced. After ,my first taste of the live sound of the Magic Band, my musicl blood brother Joseph Seaberg turned to me, his eyes shining and said, "now do you see why they are called the Magic Band. ?" Indeed i did, Joeseph,, and indeed i still do.

I first heard a couple of tracks on John Peels legendary Perfumed Garden Show in the late sixties when Peel said, there goes a man who knows how to walk the fine line between Genius and Madness. Surely an essential skill in the late 20th Century. My faveorite moment happened in his first gig in Manchester at the Free Trade Hall, a fine classical venue but not blessed with accoustics suitable for strongly amplified music. Because of this and the strongly folky audience which attended virtually any famous act who ventured into Cottonopolis, the FTH could be a tough room as the comics say. At the end of two barely recognisable tunes, distorted by white noise and standing waves from the PA system, the Captain paused looked around and up into the high vaulted ceiling and said. I would like to apologise for the sound quality, everything seems to be going right up there, as he gestured a large arc over head. Bob Dylan should have learned this lesson from the Captain and he would have avoided being called Judas. He was right of course but so was the other old time freak at the back of the hall who shouted an immediate response " In that case, take us all up there Captain. Cued only by the fall of the drummers monocle, the ensemble launched into a truly rousing rendition of Big Eyed Beans From Venus.

Dont let anything come between us Captain, not even Death!

AMAZON COWARDS AND HIPOCRITS

The News that Amazon is refusing to carry Wikileaks is very disappointing but probably not that surprising. Wikileams has even been referred to as a Terrorist Organisation by a total nut case in the the US Government but so far no missiles have been fired by Al Wiki and no planes have been flown into buildings.

It may be a bit of an embarassment to the US Gov and indeed any other Government including the UK who have been telling Porkies as a matter of course over maany years. Clearly if they dont want to be exposed as liars or hipocrits, they need to stop telling lies.

I have always hated laws like our Official Secrets Act because its usually used like a sledghammer to crack a nut. It stifles the so called Free Press which is only an illusion anyway. I know from personal experience that our oh so brave news papers will not print factual news if their bosses in the Government tell them not to.

So all i can say is, Well Done Wikileaks. Keep up the excellent work in telling us what we had already either guessed or at least strongly suspected. The only thing really at risk in all this is the reputations of the cronies, exaggerators, liars and hipocrits. If they told the truth and did not spend so much time covering up for their puppet masters, they and us, would probably have much less to fear. In the meantime i suggest that Amazon just goes and fucks off.

PENNINE TOURS

My friend Jonathan and I spent a pleasant afternoon in the hills yesterday (Sunday)
Years ago in the 70s, I happened on a place in South Yorkshire called Slaithwait. Local prounounciation is of course Slowitt and there hangs a tail.

Many years ago i had a silly job between gigs delivering not coal to Newcastle but rather, Steel to Sheffield also Barnsley, Doncaster, Hull, Lancaster and even Carlisle. I had one delivery to make in this place called Slaithwaite which was somewhere between Stocksbridge and Barnsley but could i find it? could I buggery. I narrowed it down to somewhere near Goldthorpe but no matter how often i drove back and forth there was no sign of the place.

I stopped people two or three times and asked them for Slaithwaite but all I got was head shakes and shrugs. No one it appears had heard of the place. Finally I gave it one last shot and stopped again to ask a retired miner sat on a bench, sucking his pipe and watching the world go by. He was in fact the only person for miles around or so it seems. He was just about to repeat the never heard of it mantra when he grabbed the delivery note and scanned the address. Suddenly he laughed and said, "Oh you mean Slowitt, your here now, its just down that lane at the big mill by the canal." I followed his gaze and spotted a stone build mill at the bottom of a valley. Of course he was right it was slowitt. but who would have thought that a lancashire lad who regularly met up with people from all across the UK and who had friends in France, Germany etc etc could have been caught out so thoroughly by a local Yorkshire dialect prounounciation.

I quickly found the old mill but Already running late I had little time to explore the delights of Slowitt but swore that one day I would complete my admittedly hazy knowledge of South Yorkshire and add Slowwitt to my tour guide. and yesterday, i did just that. Jonathan my friend from Leeds, supplied the wheels and fortunately shared my intrest in far away places with strange sounding names.

After a wet or even very wet week we were blessed with a dry and calm day on Sunday so we had a pleasant walk round the town. And, i have to say it was well worth the effort. Plenty of walkers were taking advantage of the day and the four cafes i found, were well used and welcoming. and after a nice cup of tea and a piece of banana cake, we took in the impressive delights of the Globe Worsted Mill, the old canal, re excavated in the 50s, the Free School and the very pleasant setting. It appears that the folks thereabouts, had taken more care of their home than had the burgers of Pendle for example, who had covered or ripped up all their cobblestones, bulldozed the ancient shops, built really tacky 60s and 70s ugliness in their place and allowed road planning and one way systems to run riot to the benefit of cars and trucks and little else.

The 17th,18th and 19th century architecture formed an attractive mix and there was much evidence that old trees had been spared the axe and softened the pennine stone.

BIGGEST LEAK IN US HISTORY

Governments and the Military are the people putting peoples lives in danger and not just the military but many civilians as well. (sticks head out of window an listens for drones. )

Daniel Elsberg famouse for his leaking of Watergate but a mere 7000 pages which he carefully xeroxed. He says he is jealous of the 400,000 documents leaked this time over Iraq and Afghanistan. You can watch Mr Elsberg on democracy now on video via the wikileaks web site. I agree when Elsberg says leaking these documents is not the big deal that American and British sources claim.

As a person who has always hated official secrets I am glad to see that AP reports that no one has been injured or killed as a result of the wikileams releases. and as usual they are leaning on the leakers and threatening them with the espionage act. Obama may promise a more open and transparent government but so far there are few signs that he will actually really attempt this. Guantanamo is still open and there are no obvious plans to turn over US bases to Iraqis or Afghanis. A president who lies like nixon or Bush or Clinton is always going to more of a liar than he is a president.

Perhaps if there are even more leaks and of course a wide variety of whistle blowers and whistles to blow they can play tunes on them, Suggestions for such tunes and a playlist are of course always welcome on this blog. Meanwhile, if you see a presidents lips moving, you can be fairly sure that he is llieing. If you want to make a difference and join the army then of course neither I nor wikileams can prevent you but if you do, please try to avoid killing or injuring yourself or anyone who isnt in uniform. This doesnt include medical staff and emergency staff who are generally believed to be trying to save lives. As a friend of mine known as chip used to often say satirically in the 60s whenever a low flying jet roared by in the middle east "Is that a Mirage in the Sky or just an Illusion passing by.

TAX OFFICER -- ACCUSED OF WORRYING ARROGANCE.

When the issue is one of tax and revenue debt, as in Council Tax, PAYE, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Sickness Benefits, Pensions etc. If the authorities makmistake, a clerical error, a computer failure or an out right blunder, it is always our fault and never theirs as i know from bitter experience. I am still paying off council tax debt which in truth i should never have been forced to pay. And if you get totally cheesed off with this because you are ill, totally broke or the victim of outrageous circumstance or all three, Tough luck my friend, you should have started a career in banking.

People like him should be elected and not appointed every year so that should they prove worrying arrogant, we can get rid of them. Thes people are not appointed by God but more often by the Buggins Turn principle. and ultimately paid for by we the general public... the taxpayers. Normally Isolated from public Gaze Dave Harkness

DIGITAL RADIO HAS A NASTY SMELL

When I was still only a kid i loved to listen to the radio. Even at the tender age of seven there was a little brown Bakelite valve radio by my bed, which i used to listen to avidly. I loved the smooth warm Bakelite that never needed polishing, the comforting low hum which my mum could hear from downstairs when she used to call upstairs and tell me to turn it off and go to sleep. But i always turned it back on again, and slowly and carefully spun the dial through the Long, Medium and Short wave bands lit in red green and white with lines of exotic station names such as Athlone, Moscow, Dublin. and of course Luxembourg. We had no FM at that time, but at least there was the Light Program from the BBC and of course the Home Service.

I loved it all, especially the early Rock and Roll tunes from Luxembourg and the American Forces Network which were the only sources of such music in those grey British prim and proper, post war days. Even when there was no interesting music there was always the proto psychedelic sounds of the short waves, fading in and out of the BBC World Service in a couple of dozen unknown languages. motors and generators, overhead power lines, the piping and whistling of morse code and the ever present ionosphere as the solar waves ebbed and flowed. and this even stimulated an early interest into electronic and ambient music. Yes, from the earliest days i loved my radio.

Later i discovered, Presley, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, and Carol KIng and in the sixties, the globally successful sound of local bands from Liverpool and Manchester "making it big" For me, motorcycles, football, gangs and tribes were of little or no interest. I had my music and my radio. As the Pirate stations, Radio London, Caroline, et al arrived round our coasts, the Beatles and the Stones ruled the world. FM's clear and interference free tones made it possible to be much more discerning and selective. I even built my own stereo and found popularity because of the music I collected and the clear stereo that made it so much more accessible. I discovered Reel tape machines and made my own recordings, copied illegally of course all my favourite tunes and then made my own music with my friends who were also addicts. The invention of the cassette tape machine made it all much easier and We recorded and listened to blues and R n B when our schoolmates were listening to Billy J Kramer and Adam Faith, I became knowledgeable in folk and blues music, (even supplying music for Northern TV documentaries) and later Jazz, I went to clubs met wonderful artists and musicians, and eventually ran a couple of clubs myself which were excellent although not really hard nosed enough to become a regular source of income. But that was never really my reason.

When Progressive rock turned into hard rock and heavy metal with screaming guitars and feedback, i made my excuses and left and found the much more mellifluous land of West Coast Country Rock, and collected, Country Joe, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, The Doors Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, etc and all this from FM radio and the specialist programs which emerged from the deeper end of the musical gene pool. I hung with poets, musicians, philosophers, smoked some of the best dope in the world. I worked as a DJ, a sound engineer and a broadcaster. I watched rather amused as some of my closest friends became famous singers, musicians and bands in their own right, found my specialist love of black music in its many forms and to this day give thanks and praise to the Lord for giving me the BBC and FM Radio. I couldn't have done it, whatever it was, without that eclectic and ambient soundtrack that kept me sane and brought me and my friends such joy.

And why this long preamble you may ask? Well now after digitising, recording studios, film and TV they have finally got round to planning the digitising of our radio networks and local stations and for me this is quite simply, a bridge too far. FM radio may not be quite as bright as a CD or a high quality tape recording, but both vinyl and CDs sound pretty good in stereo FM. If they hadnt how would our heroes such as legendary DJ John Peel or Andy Gillett have become such a vital part of our Radio experience. OK maybe there was a little interference on FM when there was a thunder storm or some idiot was using an un suppressed power tool but for the most part FM was crystal clear with a good stereo image. Then along came Digital radio and its handful of inferior sounding stations.

There was no clamour from the public for this because most people were quite happy with FM. It worked at home and passably well in the car with the cassette player or CD. The clamour seemed as usually is the case from business interests. No doubt the recording companies thought it would help them cut down the amount of illegal copying or downloading. Ditto the manufacturers of radios which often worked for decades with no problem other than a bent ariel or a lose volume control. But now we had to have new Digital radios, which always sounded rather dead and certainly not vibrant. All they had done was digitally suppress the hiss and compressed the rest using a codec which made everything sound like it was coming through a pipe of insufficient diameter. In the process resonance was lost, harmonics were lost and consequently some of the art was lost. Of course idiotic government ministers, probably with too close a connection with the manufacturers got behind this Gadareen stampede to make more shedloads of money and full digitising of radio with abandonment of FM by 2015 became the goal. They just don't get it do they ? Digital radios just have no charisma, they look and sound crude, ugly and cheap like many of the digital programs which were spawned early in the scramble. Not surprisingly several of these stations quickly disappeared from the air waves, or should that be chunks and packets.

As I am writing this I hear with some relief that the Governments proposal to switch off FM and lose hundreds of stations has been relaxed and possibly (or hopefully ) abandoned. The BBC was in on the research early on but the Codec of compression they decided on was crude and gave up much sound quality. This is not just my own crackpot idea, its one shared by many professionals in the recording and broadcasting industry. This is always the problem with early adopters. Being first is not usually the best in audio technology, its just being the first and becoming legendary. As the truly legendary music producer Adrian Sherwood of On-U- Soundz said to me, its usually much more profitable to be second rather than first. Possibly more research can lead to much improved sound quality with the minimum loss of bandwidth space but of course this kind of research is better placed on the net where it seems much happier. Until such time however the government should abandon silly ideas of making redundant tens of millions of FM radios and replacing them with energy munching, second rate sounding audio, and plans to dump these older radios on the third world as usual and start listening to the public or the electorate if they prefer that word.

All government decisions whether they concern banking, the economy, trade and employment and especially the Arts and Music should be guided by the public, by artists and in some cases by scientists and they must listen to these people who know what they are talking about and plan accordingly. Just because you are in a governmental or merely a leading position does not automatically give you the key to the cupboard holding the Holy Grail it gives you the responsibility to consult those who know things, not just about personal profit and loss but about real progress and quality and only then should they attempt to make changes. If they continue with the Nanny Knows Best philosophy, they will find it increasingly difficult to get re-elected or to be listened to. Government and leadership should be actually more about consultation and co-operation and most of all, Service. That is what they sre elected to do. People are tired of seeing everything dumbed down. So my message to the newly elected Coilition Government is simplle. I dont claim to have the key to the cupboard with the Holy Grail in it, but i certainly can recognise the box containing the dead rat. so please take your inferior, money grubbing, art strangling Digital Radio with all its waste and loss of choice and quality and stick it where the sun dont shine. Innit!

JOHNNY PRESCOT AND THE GARDEN GRABBERS

No sooner had I mentioned Labour MP and well known class traitor than up he pops again doing his bit to further impoverish the natural environment. He emerged from his pit only this morning in order to justify destroying gardens by defending the building of houses in Urban Gardens.

Garden grabbing is very bad for the environment, gardens are a truly vital source of habitat for a very wide range of birds and mammals as well as plants and shrubs. Blustering Prescott has never understood the value of the natural environment. Its no use protecting all the so called green spaces when industrial farming techniques have virtually destroyed farmland and rendered it actually hostile to wildlife. Although a life long socialist (an endangered species) I am with Zack Goldsmith on this issue. If we wish to protect the fast declining song bird population our gardens are literally the front line.

PS. We should also not over react to the recent Fox row, such incidents are rare and its fare to say if we are stupid enough to leave our doors wide open we put our families at risk from dogs and cats, foxes, rats and mice and any other oppportunist scavenger. There is a vocal minority in this country who hate all wildlife, not just foxes and badgers and they will go to considerable lengths to increase the opportunity for blood sports.

Good Riddance John Prescot, you certainly wont be missed.

Try as i might, i find it impossible to come up with anything remotely complimentary about the former Deputy PM. When New Labour came to power, Blair rewarded the buffoon with a vast Whitehall Department. Environment, Transport and the Regions. any of those would have taxed the abilities of the most able of politicians but Prescot was certainly not one of those so he chose the path of least resistence. ie; he did bugger all.

NATIVES OF WINEWALL ARE RESTLESS AGAIN.

NEW THREATS FROM THE COUNTY HIGHWAYS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN SAY VILLAGERS.

　Its nearly 20 years since the residents of Winewall together with many others from Colne succeeded after many years of struggle and much expense, in ending the threat of the M65 which would have rampaged through the South Valley of Colne and the villages of Winewall, Cotton Tree and Laneshawbridge. As soon as the Motorway threat ended, it took another struggle to also end the blighted line of the motorway and best of all to introduce Conservation Area Status to first Winewall and Cottone Tree and then later, the whole of Trawden.

The main motorway threat was believed for many years to be the work of the Government which had long favoured major road building and cars over Rail travel since the era of the late unlamented Doctor Beeching who trashed the Rail system in the UK and made motorways and car transport inevitable. It turned out that the real threat to Winewall was actually from Lancashire County Council which had plans for the extension of the M65 in its bottom drawer and all it ever needed was a government which was gullible enough to fall for it AND FUND IT. Fortunately for all of us and our environment, time and money ran out before this nightmare could be made a reality.

Now a new threat has appeared and of course as usual, its the Highways Department in County Hall, and the Planning Department in Pendle Council, or at the very least their contractors. The expectation in the village was for some re surfacing work but what we actually got was the worst excesses of heavy handed local and regional Government. large cobblestones dating back at least a couple of hundred years were dug up using machines, cobblestones which were not just part of Winewalls Heritage for 2 or three hundred years but which also helped stabilise the road its self and the footpaths. The deep drain at the field boundary on Winewall lane was not so much improved as destroyed and replaced by a large plastic drain and horrible plastic bollards.

The current arrangement would look horrible and out of place in most locations even in an Urban area, but here we must remember that this is a Conservation area and theoretically at least, building and renovation work within and adjacent to the conservation area should use traditional materials and styles. Replacing ancient cobblestones with concrete slabs and plastic bollards which serve no useful purpose whatever and only make the steep and narrow lane even more dangerous. Incidentally much of this work will be designated as work to improve Health and Safety. Even doors and windows, slates, extensions etc should all be built in keeping and replaced like for like. Sadly it seems that the Highways department are unaware of this and as usual are literally steamrolling the environment to fit their plans, and plans I should add which the previous government secured as unreachable by the public who are paying for it all.

　

　

We wish to know how much is budgeted for the work in Winewall and Cottontree.

Who drew up the current proposals and who granted permission.

Who in their right minds would be prepared to spend tens of thousands on doing unnecessary road works, clearly altering the look of the Conservation area when what was needed was merely a re setting of some cobblestones and relaying a few paving slabs. The lane itself needed only a layer of tar and gravel and repainting of white lines and warnings. TBC

ARE THE TIMES REALLY CHANGING ?

So Rupert "Dirty Digger" Murdoch is putting his online papers behind a "Paywall" is he? Well tough titty Rupie, I have never yet seen any of your news paper or publishing acquisitions actually improve although they do dive downmarket and swing to the right with great zeal. I have never actually bought a copy of The Bum although her indoors once bought one at Christmas to find out what was on the Telly over the holidays. It did have the TV schedules in it so all was not lost.

The Times was once the worlds premier and most reveered Newspaper but now its not so much The Thunderer as the Grumbler. and as for the Sun, how much cheap cheese can one really swallow without having nightmarees. I remember one commentator describing the Digger not as a publisher but as a Right Wing politician with interests in publishing. and though he would no doubt deny interfering in the editorial independence of his various organs his intentions are clearly known by his editors and staff who dont even need to be told but willingly apply self censorship to echo His Masters Voice.

MY WISH FOR A HUNG PARLIAMENT COULD SOON BE GRANTED

Since my last posting, aided by the TV debate it would appear that my wish for a Hung or Balanced Parliament has caught on with the electorate. They are tired of being lied too or being kept in the dark and fed on crap like mushrooms. They also appear to be tired of the consensus of silence about the true scale of the economic crisis which many think we are only just entering. The politicians however are afraid of straight talking because they probably realise that whoever wins, will probably be held responsible by the electorate, the press and of course History.

Like it or not, the truth will of course eventually out so someone has to be blamed. A Hung Parliament with a tiny majority that only a feeler gauge can fit between is probably the best we can hope for. In this way we can all share the blame and all share in the cost when the economy comes back from the repair shop. It lays open the option for either the best bit of political co-operation we have seen since World War 2 or the worst riots since 1982 as the extremist literally go head to head to apportion blame.

I woulds suggest that the former is the best course of action. Just as politicians will be blamed for the current cock up. (After all it was Thatcher and her Stock Exchange Big Bang back in the early eighties who freed up the banking and exchange profiteering and removed many of the checks and balances which let the banks off the lead). So it will be politicians who will also be blamed if they cock up the repair job. If they fight and argue, the ones that fight the most will probably be blamed the most, the ones who co-operate will not give the various pundits.

So with all of the above in mind lets now assume that there will be no outright majority for any of the main parties, and they will have to co-operate, and instead of arguing the toss about whose fault the credit crunch is, why not agree genuine political reform and initiate Proportional Representation as soon as poss. Who cares that it might slow down debate a bit, there will be no quick fix for the predicament we are now in so better arrive at a sensible decision than a hurried credit crunch dangerous dogs act which will only further delay the inevitable. It works OK in most of Europe and it can work OK here too. Don't be afraid of minorities. welcome them, they deserve to be represented as much as does any other political colour. Lets say good bye to massive majorities of power maniacs elected by a minority of voters and replace it with lots of minorities which genuinely represent people rather than just themselves or a Party Hierarchy. As a Sage once said, "In the work of a Master, no material is too poor. !

GENERAL ELECTION 2010

BUSINESS AS USUAL DESPITE ALTERCATIONS


Well here we are in the first week of the General Election campaign and its just like old times. Gone is the cross party co-operation which was never much in evidence anyway but now the only time its mentioned is when they confront the distinct possibility of a Hung Parliament.

Bring it on I say. A hung parliement destroys the dreams of the megalomaniacs because it weakens the party structure and reduces the need for adversorial shananigins and forces the major parties actually co-operation and discuss and debate the issues. For example if Thatcher had had only a small majority do you think she would have got away with shutting all the coal mines in the 80s and virtually closing down the North of England. I very much doubt it.

Similarly do you think Blair would have been able to lead the UK into two Wars at the behest of the Madman Bush and his cronies. ? I doubt that two. Ironically the current crisis in the finances is now spreading to the employment arena, both public and private and as its going to get mighty tough no matter who wins this election, its pretty certain that no on party will have adequate power to pass laws unless its receives help from the opposition or the minor parties.

I can see why the Tory and Labour Party hate this prospect so much but i have absolutely no sympathy for them. and if the Greens or the LibDems have a little more say in what happens in the next decade, then good show i say, this is more democracy, not less and lets have more of it. And if environmental pressure groups etc have a little more say, then even better.

ONLINE MUSIC, ANOTHER GOOD REASON NOT TO VOTE LABOUR

THE DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL


Today in Parliament they will be discussing the latest piece of nasty repressive legislation. Not content with Government meddling with Biometric Passports, ID Cards etc, they are now sticking their big, and ill-informed noses into our freedoms on the Internet. Their latest piece of meddling is supposedly to stop illegal file sharing and copyright infringement on the Net. This despite the fact that those people who download music actually spend much more on it than anyone else.


People will no longer shell out £12 or £14 for a CD on which there are a couple of tracks worth keeping and prefer to listen first and even then only want the tracks they like, not the whole package of formulaic tosh dished out by the big music Moguls. Nanny Brown and his out of touch bunch of neredowells hasbeens and never will be's has a solution to this. Not for the benefit of artists or songwriters or the consumers of course, just the already rich and powerful music publishers and recording companies.


They are hurriedly forcing new legislation through the house which will force the ISPs who supply internet services, such as BT. Talk Talk, Virgin et al, to keep records of what people download and from where, and those who download free music will find themselves disconnected and facing lengthy and very expensive appearances in Court. There is unlikely to be any system of appeal of course, that would spoil the greedy governments fun, and fun is not what New Labour is about.


Because of the General Election which was announced today there will be little time for any proper debate and the whole farce will be hurried through the house. I smell another Dangerous Dogs Act, ie a badly thought out piece of rubbish which far from improving the situation, will in fact make it much worse and eventually prove unworkable. There are many ways of disguising ones details and locations online and to track file sharers, and other scum down will mean lots of complicated data base stuffing from BT etc. They wont be paid for doing this of course and the end result will be loss of revenue as the ISPs have to disconnect their own customers.


Wifi Hot Spots will probably shrink as these can mask so-called illegal file sharers and the overall trend will be to shrink the Digital market and further damage music. Sometimes i think this Government really does want to wreck our society and economy: i doubt they could make more of a mess if they intended to. This will not particularly damage new artists who are Net Savvy and who tend to promote and sell their songs and tunes via My Space and who cut out the whole EMI, Sony, Warner Music circus entirely. These formerly big players are not falling on hard times, not really because of file sharers but simply because their new products are just repetitive crap and nor worth buying and thus they are forced back upon their oldies and re-issues as people replace worn out vinyl or badly made and scratched CDs and a few young people who have newly discovered some Old Wave artists.

Sadly for the Record Company Giants and the old Dinosaur Rock Bands this trade even if everyone paid for every tune, is simply not big enough to keep them in the way they seem to think they have a right to continue living in till the end of time. Its pretty safe to say therefore that no matter what Boy Browns Banana Bunch do about all this is only going to make matters worse.


Its not as though the Universal audio standard on the net the MP3 is a high quality product. It can be of course but to save space on drives, Ipods etc and facilitate quick downloads on Broadband networks which are often slow and clunky the compression rates are often very poor and certainly not up to the HIFI which discerning musos prefer. Indeed an old friend of mine and professional MUSO who has owned several record labels and managed top line Rock Bands described some of the downloads he had tried (professional legal ones) as simply a waste of time and frankly appalling. I can but agree.


Its hardly surprising that young people are not interested in voting at local or National elections when all they seem to get is meddling, Miss Whiplash type Nannies who seem hell bent on ruining anything which has the nasty smell of freedom or democracy. Unless of course they are busy elsewhere preening themselves in front of the TV Cameras or finding yet another way of fiddling their expenses claims. But... and its a big one, Please don't use this as an excuse to not vote, because if you don't vote the biggest Turd gets elected. You just have to be more choosy and you mustn't be afraid to collar them in the street or on the door step or via phone or email and ask them what appalling legislation they are going to vote for, and if you don't like what they tell you, tell them you will be looking elsewhere for someone who you feel you might not be wasting your time voting for.

CHARLIE GILLETT DIES AFTER HEART ATTACK

All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival) 7-9 May 2010.

As they said in New York in the 80's " If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. !" In the musical sense, this has always been my natural habitat. I tired of rock and roll when it degenerated into heavy metal or became pretentious and masqueraded under the nake of Fusion Jazz etc.

My First real love had been blues and folk music and yes, i must confess, it had to be authentic although i always found the finger in the ear squad a little tiresome. In recent years as the era of classic Reggae and Dub came to an end (Jamaican Folk Music of course) and Blood and Fire Records more or less completed its Jamaican catalogue. I rediscovered folk music but this time under the guise of World Music and in particular i love what they are now calling "Freak Folk" exemplified by a duo of sisters known as CocoRosie.

As it says in Wikipedia, (so it must be right ! Right?) "CocoRosie is a musical group formed in 2003 by sisters Bianca "Coco" and Sierra "Rosie" Casady. The sisters were born and raised in the United States, but formed the band in Paris after meeting for the first time in many years. Their music has been called "freak folk", and incorporates elements of pop, blues, opera, electronica, and hip hop."

I find them eerily wonderful when at their best and discovered them not on Late Junction but whilst wading through a lost world of Ambient dub. They can be haunting and amusing at the same time. Whilst one of the sisters sings with a pure and possibly trained voice whilst accompanying herself on guitar, the other sister sings like a cross between Billy Holiday and Marc Bolam. Although they have toured in some interesting places, the UK does not seem to have been one of them. Which brings me to the good news.

In the Spring they will apparently be appearing at the All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival) amongst a very eclectic and diverse bunch of musicians and performers put together by none other than Mat Groenig. The Line up so far is .....

Iggy & The Stooges, Joanna Newsom, Spiritualized performing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, The xx, CocoRosie, Built To Spill, She & Him, James Chance And The Contortions, Liars, Boredoms performing 9 Drummer Boadrum, The Raincoats, Toumani Diabate, Danielson, Anni Rossi, James Blackshaw, Viv Albertine's Limerence, Panda Bear, Daniel Johnston, The Residents, Deerhunter, Broadcast, Shonen Knife, Ruins (Solo), Amadou & Mariam, Ponytail, Konono No1, Thee Oh Sees, Juana Molina, Lightning Dust, Hope Sandoval, The Tiger Lillies, Hello Saferide, The Soft And Onlys, Cold Cave and Trash Kit.

TERRORIST THREAT LEVEL RAISED

The British Government today raised the Terrorist Threat Level in the UK to only one step away from total paranoia. Up until yesterday the threat level stood at Level 3 Bricking It but as of midnight last night it was raised to Level 2 - Totally Bricking It. Security at Government Buildings will therefore be tightened up even further although to the ordinary person there will not be much in the way of obvious changes. Phones will continue to ring unanswered and large queues will form at Ports and Airports as usual.

THE FUNERAL OF DAVID ROSE, A SIMPLE AND TOUCHING OCCASION

It rained heavily on the morning of last Friday the 15th January but this did not deter an impressively large group of friends and loved ones from attending Davids funeral. My friend Jamie kindly provided me with transport to Rathmell and luckily we got there in plenty of time. Even the weather seemed to recognise the importance of the occasion and the rain obligeingly stopped before the ceremony took place and the viscious freeze turned to slow thaw.

As we waited for the courtege to arrive the small crowd swelled to international proportions and i recognised people many of them mutual friends i had not seen for 25 years or more, some of them from the other side of the world. Not unnaturally there was a strong Green presence with members of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Earth First, organic growers, and a wide group of community campaigners. artists, musicians and writers. Even David would have been impressed.

To the very end, Davids environmental credentials were impeccable. The coffin was bio-degradable, the grave was shallow but the setting of Brocklands burial site was truly magnificent. In the meeting room it was standing room only and many of us spoke of our meetings and deeds with David or read from his favourite verses or stories whilst holding his walking cane. We were all clearly moved by this shared experience. As we followed the coffin to the graveside, The fells which surrounded us were still covered in deep snow and even with the low clouds and patches of mist the vistas were stunning. On a clear summers day, the Three Peaks are visible from there and i for one will be going back to visit his last resting place....

JONATHAN WAS

At last some good news. Jonathan Ross is to leave the BBC and not before time if you asked me. I know he is popular with some folks but surprise surprise, i am not one of them. I think its sad when the chief quality by which he will be remembered is probably his minor speech impediment whether its intentional or not. I find it very difficult to remember anything else he has done which has given me any pleasure going all the way back to his early TV appearances.
His trivial and often mindless questions, frequently left his guests looking bemused and probably wondering whatever had happened to the once respected BBC.

Sadly he was much worse than that, his arsing about with the other plonker Russell Brand and obscene phone calls to blameless Andrew Sachs were literally the ultimate in childish posturiing and barrel scraping. Even more sadly some misguided elements amongst Thatcher children seemd to think it all rather funny. Presumably these these are the type of audience who would find an Ant and Dec tour of Auswich highly amusing as well. Fortunately i am not one of t hem and have no wish to be.

The damage to its reputation and the financial costs to the BBC are the Plonker Bros lasting legacy. All radio programs now have to have a couple of producers to sign off programs and once cheap and cheerful local radio programs now have a burden of extra staff and lots of paperwork. Dont get me wrong, i dont have a problem with occasional swearing or obscenity on radio or TV but out of any context and reason it just becomes boring and plays into the hands of jungle media predators like Murdoch and his ilk who snap at any chance to knock the BBC and thereby gather power and influence for their own brand of cheap tack.

I must presume that Ross and Co will eventually wash up on the Fox Network or some other equally tacky place if such exists, after all this must be the natural home of smut and smirk TV and the high tide mark round the media bath tub. How wonderful that such dross is now deemed deserving of an OBE demonstrating as it does the depths of dumbing down that is now the yardstick for others to follow. Andrew Sachs was a fine actor and comic and still makes me laugh. Ross however just makes me want to puke. Good Bye Mr Woss and please dont come back.

DAVID ROSE DIES

"It is with very great sadness that I have to announce the death of my friend and co-campaigner Mr David Rose, of Colne in Lancashire. He was founder and Chairman of the Millennium Green Trust. a long term member of Friends of the Earth at both the National and Local Group levels, and A tireless campaigner against pollution in its many forms, for wildlife habitats, and against planning outrages, and the red tape which often protected polluters. When FoE and local groups and residents halted the building of the M65 extension through Colne, it was his idea and hard work which led to the transformation of motorway-blighted land into the Colne Millennium Green. I and many others will miss his creative energy, his wit and his companionship and we send all our condolences and blessings to his wife and his daughter.
BRIAN JACKSON
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH