Man in the Corner Shop

As I stated earlier I will be providing an ongoing commentary on the brilliance of The Jam.  In the opinion of Ghost of a Ne'er do Well one of their most prescient and enduring songs is Man in the Corner Shop.  It is a slice of British Life which exposes the Class Divided nature of our declining island in a very succinct form.


See Below:

Puts up the closed sign does the man in the corner shop
Serves his last then he says goodbye to him
He knows it is a hard life
But its nice to be your own boss really

Walks off home does the last customer
He is jealous of the man in the corner shop
He is sick of working at the factory
Says it must be nice to be your own boss (really)

Sells cigars to the boss from the factory
He is jealous is the man in the corner shop
He is sick of struggling so hard
Says it must be nice to own a factory

Go to church do the people from the area
All shapes and classes sit and pray together
For here they are all one
For God created all men equal

 To hear this wonderful song -
See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPdFQc1w5Ys

N.B.  This post is dedicated to my wonderful friend Annie Sands.

Interview with Paul Mattick Jnr

I was teased by Paul's statement about what were once referred to as 'Developing Nations' now being generally referred to as 'Developing Markets'.  Not only that, his analysis of post WW2 Capitalism is absolutely correct in my view.

See here: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/06/express/the-economic-crisis-in-fact-and-fictionpaul-mattick-with-john-clegg-and-aaron-benanav

And if you care to discuss I'd be delighted to hear from you!

Nuts in May

Do You Sing, Ray?

Well Done Ray!

I am no expert a la Dr Mark Kermode as a film critic and like most people I have my own singular tastes.  Nuts in May being one of my favourite films.  This Mike Leigh classic has much to recommend it and more will follow upon this subject as Ghost of a Ne'er do Well develops its' film criticism.

For a taster see here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daEocG2dKCU

And enjoy!

Fork Handles?

The genius of the Two Ronnies meets the quiet desperation of the Labourer and the Petit Bourgeois Shop Keeper. 

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2-ukrd2VQ

Lieutenant Colonel Kojak Slaphead the Third

The Bald Brummies Against the Bigfoot Conspiracy Party appear on a political discussion panel during Partridge Over Britain.  Fascinating tactics!

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdZOGEU1qw

Child Poverty - Who Cares?

In the UK, 3.8 million children live in poverty, defined as a family surviving on less than 60% of the average household income  - that's one in three under-16s in the UK.  

Meanwhile, 1.6 million youngsters live in severe poverty, defined as surviving on less than 50% of the average UK household income.  The charity Save the Children says more than one in five children now lives in severe poverty in 29 areas of the country.  The highest proportion – 27% – is in Manchester and the London borough of Tower Hamlets. More than 20% of children experience severe poverty in Birmingham and Liverpool.

An eight-year-old from the north of the UK explains... 

"I won't be doing swimming or having any Ice-cream. We don't go to the Seaside.  About this credit crunchy thing. It's stopped all the money and we've got no food."   A quick check of the fridge reveals two small bottles of medicine and a two-litre jug of milk. "We had to have tea at, like, almost 12 o'clock at night… and we've got no cereal, nowt, and I could go, like, another week with no food, but I'll at least have to have a biscuit or something. My mum says… she's gonna try and fill the cupboard up as much as she can, and that she's gonna put some money away,"

Sally Copley, Save the Children's head of UK policy, said ... "Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning. No child should be born without a chance. It is a national scandal that 1.6 million children are growing up in severe poverty."

 

Ghost of a Ne'er do Well  has heard it all before - ad nauseum. When will these well-meaning, sincere but deluded critics of poverty begin to understand the cause and the cure and start demanding real solutions and stop the needless suffering of children and young people?  That's the real scandal !

The Capitalist Mode of Production

Karl Marx gives us a useful description of the capitalist mode of production.

“Capitalist production rests on the fact that the productive worker sells
his own labour-power as a commodity to the capitalist, in whose hands it
then functions simply as an element of his productive capital. This
transaction (the sale and purchase of labour-power) does not just
introduce the production process, but implicitly determines its specific character.

The production of a use-value, and even of a commodity
(something that can also be undertaken by independent productive workers)
is here only a means for the production of absolute and relative
surplus-value for the capitalist.

In analyzing the production process, therefore, we saw how the production of absolute and relative surplus-value determines  the duration of the daily labour process, and
the whole social and technical shape of capitalist production. It is within this process that the distinction emerges between the mere maintenance of value (of the constant capital value), the actual reproduction of value advanced (the equivalent for labour-power), and the production of surplus-value, i.e. of value for which the capitalist neither advanced a previous equivalent, nor advances one after the event.

The appropriation of surplus-value (of value over and above the equivalent
of the value advanced by the capitalist), even though it is introduced by
the purchase and sale of labour-power, is an act performed within the
production process itself, and forms an essential moment of the latter."

.”

(Capital Volume II, p461 – Penguin Classics edition)

Managing Decline

Feel-Good Factor?

The Conservative-Liberal Coalition government in Britain appears to be very adroit and fleet of foot at one thing only.  That is in managing the process of the gradual decline of British capitalism and the influence of the British state in world affairs.  This post-world war 2 process started in 1951 when the Egyptian government announced its’ intention to eject Britain from the Suez Canal Zone and take control of Sudan.  And many more historical moments have taken place since then that have intensified the now almost complete process of imperial decline.  Ghost of a Ne’er do Well will be alighting upon some of those events in due course.

Right now, the coalitions' attempts at instilling a feel-good factor into the general population have been courtesy of a visit from il Papa from the Church of Rome, a new baby for the rosy cheeked posh boy Prime Minister Cameron, the recent Royal Wedding of William Wales and Kate Middleton – and to trump it all a state visit by President Obama of the USA.  But none of it has worked. 

People in general are thoroughly pissed off with the status quo.  And the general sense of ill ease and discombobulation is palpable across British Society. As I have argued earlier we face a thorough going crisis of ruling class legitimacy.  

How much longer can this malaise continue?

Only as long as we want it to!  There is a solution.  And it is to be found in a rejeuvenated working class solidarity which rejects reforms and palliatives in order to keep us a bit sweeter in the short term.  It also resides in a genuine desire to learn and to educate ourselves about the potential we have within us.  We need not sell our bodies and mental capacities to mendacious capitalists.  We can make the world for the majority and no longer be slaves to the wages system of production.  Our common endeavour can create a democratic world society in which production will be based upon need and not elitist profit, we can abolish money and utilise the resources of the earth for the benefit of all, no matter how disempowered some of our fellow world citizens may seem to be today.

Rather than being acquiescent in a ruling class project which will only see us sink further into the gutter, let us look up at the stars and aspire to a new form of society in which hope trumps desperation and the World Socialist future is the only way forward for all of us.

Morning Coffee with The Men They Couldn't Hang


The original line-up of Stefan Cush (Vocals, Guitar), Paul Simmonds (Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Keyboards), Philip "Swill" Odgers (Vocals, Guitar, Tin Whistle, Melodica), Jon Odgers (Drums, Percussion) and Shanne Bradley (Bass Guitar) formed The Men They Coudn't Hang in 1983. 

Since the release of their acclaimed first single The Green Fields of France in 1984 to their latest studio album Devil on the Wind  they have made some of the most vital and socially relevant music of the last 30 years.  The core of the band, Cush, Simmonds and Swill remains intact and as exciting as ever both on record and in their amazing live performances.  Having been introduced to the band as a teen by the legendary DJ John Peel I have seen them live 26 times since 1985.  It is a truism that they are the only band who have ever inspired me to take off my shirt and jump upon the shoulders of a big sweaty bequiffed stranger.

The clip below from the 25th Anniversary DVD of The Men They Couldn't Hang says much more than I ever could - See Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMWTAzi7drg&feature=related

Notwithstanding the above, Ghost of a Ne'er do Well was delighted to catch up recently for Morning Coffee with Chief Songwriter Paul Simmonds. 

I have admired your music for a long time as you know Paul.  But I’m interested to find out what really got you started and inspired?

I was a late starter in music though my brother and uncle both played from an early age. From about age 14 I wanted to be a writer and I’d started about 3 novels by the time i was 16 - all of them about death and sex!

I turned 18 in 1977 which was a pretty good year to turn 18. I got into punk and met Swill and we formed a band straight away (Catch 22), learning how to play as we went along.  We saw all the bands except the Sex Pistols but we were mad on The Clash – followed them everywhere, sleeping out at train stations and all the rest.

A couple of years later we were supporting them on the 16 Tons Tour – it was like a dream.  At that point I knew what I wanted to do – write songs and play guitar. It was just about waiting for the timing to be right.  It took a few more years but eventually we nailed the style I had been looking for.



From left: Shanne, Paul, Swill, Cush (front) Jon (back)

By the time 1983 arrived the British scene was quite plastic – Thompson Twins and Flock of Seagulls et al – and I was living in a 2 bedroom flat with 8 other people.  Cush (Vocals and Guitar) was one of the local pirates; shoplifting and selling weed etc.  He loved early Rock n Roll and Gaelic laments; we still loved hot punk records but also folk and early raw country.  And we just put it all together and added other passions like history, storytelling and a bit of a fuck you attitude.  We were just plain anti-authority really and still are. Childish perhaps but there it is, that’s The Men They Couldn’t Hang!

The classic second TMTCH 7"single Ironmasters can be heard here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfBcU-tycaM&feature=fvsr

How did you set about dealing with ‘The Music Industry’?


Paul Simmonds



Our unconscious tactic was to walk into every punch, kick, trick, stab in the back and keep on walking through the pain!  The Jake la Motta option. It was only after they had left us for dead that we picked ourselves up and began to get cuter. Now we do everything ourselves. We are still going while most of those labels and publishers  are at death’s door.  Not that I’m bitter but it gives me a real kick to watch the music industry flounder.

When they junked vinyl and brought in CD’s they could only see the cash from recycling back catalogues. I don’t think they understood that by getting into digital they were committing suicide. Now they whine about piracy. Not that I think any artist’s music should be free, but I have found that if you have an audience that cares about your output they are not only happy to pay for it, but insist on doing so. They understand that’s how artists keep themselves going.

You’ve had to work with and deal with some challenging people over the years – has it been a joy?




The Men They Couldn't Hang 
No Followers No Leaders

In fact the most challenging relationships are within the band itself. We are all strong characters in our own way. There are no followers and no leaders; we work things out through mutual respect. Our live work is hard – we don’t tour in luxury.

Most of the time we’ll drive back from anywhere as far north as Newcastle in order to save money. It’s not a lot of fun at 4 a.m. in an uncomfortable seat toiling down the M1 after a show. And we do that night after night.  We have had to be mentally, physically and emotionally very tough. 

We all have day jobs too – I drive a van. There are times when you think you are going to crack under the sheer grim slog you go through for that hour and a half on stage – all the relationships you’ve ruined, the not sleeping, the not washing, the drinking and the drugs and all the stupid madness. It takes its toll but fortunately we are a hard and relentless band.

Swill Odgers

Your music is infused with passion and ideas about social justice – is that what inspires you?

Cush performing with TMTCH at Tolpuddle 2007

I'm not really a political philosopher; I’m not even an activist like
Billy Bragg.  I'm a songwriter and a story teller.  But I have a strong
emotional reaction to bullying - and our economic and political
culture is epic bullying of the weakest.  So there is a part of me
that, in a Billy Liar way, is motivated by loathing and revenge
towards classic British self righteous pomposity and the vain self
interest of the bureaucratic class.

It revolts me how access to money always determines outcomes in our
society.  Whenever I see the media refer to malcontents and rabble
rousers i think - well, that's me. Take all the posh kids in the music
world now - Coldplay, Florence, Lily Allen, Mumford and Son, la Roux,
the list is endless. 

It's as if working class kids aren't allowed to make music anymore because they haven't got the connections or money to sit back and plot for 2 years. This posh music stinks of privilege and indulgence.  I do like a rant but i'm just as happy writing songs about pirates or the Quakers on the Mayflower to be honest.  Robert Louis Stevenson is as much of an icon to me as Thomas Paine.

Latest Studio Album

What is the Future?

The future will be what we don’t expect. I think the greatest achievement is to live with a clear conscience. Personally I am proud to be the chief songwriter of The Men They Couldn’t Hang and I hope to go on adding to our huge portrait of Britain until I fall over in exhaustion!  But that's a long way off.



Many thanks to Paul for his interesting and honest insights into an incredible career spanning more than a generation.  It would require a book or academic study to document and do justice to the career of The Men They Couldn't Hang and all their individual and spin off projects.  The best place to start in the meantime is the official band website at:  www.tmtch.net

There will be more on TMTCH from Ghost of a Ne'er do Well in the future!









Why Marx was Right!

It may not have escaped some readers attention that Ghost of a Ne'er do Well has more than a passing interest in the politics of Human Emancipation and in particular the contribution made by a long deceased German Jew called Karl Marx towards that ultimate Humanist project.  I discovered this interesting article by Professor Terry Eagleton from The Chronicle of Higher Education here:

 http://chronicle.com/article/In-Praise-of-Marx/127027/

Maybe, over a couple of beers I'd like to challenge the esteemed Professor on one or two points of detail, in particular his use of the word 'Communist' to describe undemocratic State Capitalist Leninists in the 1920's. And his tacit acceptance of borders, the need for money and a lack of analysis of the nation state as one of the most fundamental tenets of capitalist society.

Nevertheless, any Socialist worth their salt should enjoy this piece of low-level academic Marxist rhetoric.

For information about Real Socialism start here: http://www.spgb.org.uk/

JBs

JB's Dudley, usually known simply as JB's, was a legendary nightclub and live music venue located on Castle Hill near the centre of the underated town of Dudley, West Midlands. Originally opened on a different site in 1969, it claimed to be the longest-running live music venue in the United Kingdom and it hosted early performances by now legendary acts such as Dire Straits,  U2 and The Cudgels.
 

JBs - The Hallowed Entrance at King Street

The club was owned throughout its existence by former motorcycle speedway racing star Sam Jukes, who started JBs with two friends in 1969 after his sporting career was ended by injury. Jukes states that he named the club after John Bryant, a popular local DJ.   It began operation as a disco night held in the social club at the former home stadium of Dudley Town Football Club and was intended to raise extra funds for the cash-strapped club.  It quickly outgrew these premises and relocated to a 250-capacity venue behind a menswear shop on King Street, Dudley, in the early 1970s.  This was the real home of JBs.

Ghost of a Ne'er do Well at JBs in 1990

The club then moved to a new location on Castle Hill in 1994, which afforded a capacity of 1000.  For some of the faithful, the new site lacked the atmosphere of the King Street venue.

JBs at Castle Hill 2000

In 2008, rumours circulated that the site might be subject to a compulsory purchase order and closed down as part of a multi-million pound redevelopment scheme for the town centre. A spokesman for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council stated, however, that this was not part of the plan at that time, although the redevelopment might extend to include Castle Hill at a future date.

U2 at JBs in 1979

Over the years JBs hosted performances by U2, UB40, Wreckless Eric, Judas Priest, The Milkshakes, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Elvis Costello, The Wonderstuff, Skunk Anansie, The Stone Roses and The Honey Turtles. 

 In 2000, the venue celebrated its 30th anniversary by hosting a two-day music festival at nearby Dudley Castle.

Robert Plant at JBs 2010 

Unfortunately, JBs went into administration during 2010, yet it was hoped that a buyer would be found and JB's would continue but this was not to be and it  finally closed the doors on January 6th 2011. The end of an era and a sad loss for Dudley.

Typically, on the last night of JBs Ghost of a Ne'er do Well rose to the occasion and gave a short yet moving speech in tribute to all the great times JBs has afforded so many people.  And lest we forget many young people owe Sam Jukes and all his team a great debt of gratitude.  JBs was a creative laboratory for so many of us.  Long Live JBs!

Fairly Secret Army

Fairly Secret Army, made by Channel 4 in 1984 was a weird and wonderful indirect spin-off from the BBC's The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin.

See Here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ-9R6NCZ0A&NR=1.  

But this thought provoking comedy series failed to gel with viewers in the same manner and never became a mainstream success.

Ghost of a Ne’er do Well enjoyed the series as a teenager as it seemed to be a reaction to Secret Army which was an earnest balls ache of a television drama made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT (now VRT).  


 Secret Army chronicled the history of a Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the Luftwaffe, to their home country. The series was made in the United Kingdom and Belgium and broadcast on BBC1 for three series from 1977 to 1979.

Its antidote, Fairly Secret Army, shot on film and without an audience, stands apart from other sitcoms of the era and the fact that it is character rather than plot driven means that it will not be to everybody's tastes.

It does have considerable appeal however, as Geoffrey Palmer gives a typically superb performance in the lead role. There are also several memorable supporting characters and writer David Nobbs concocted many novel and amusing situations. The main character's idiosyncratic and absurd use of the English language is also a joy to listen to and these factors combine to make a show which is certainly worth seeing for anybody who likes their comedy to be slightly out of the ordinary.

Geoffrey Palmer as Truscott

The chief protagonist, the former soldier Major Harry Kitchener Wellington Truscott, who desired to protect Britain from forces of anarchy and the threat of a local Marxist cell is the most interesting aspect of Fairly Secret Army.  

Fairly Secret Army is now generally forgotten by most viewers and is not currently commercially available. The small cult following that the series has is leading to calls for a DVD release but this has yet to occur as, according to Nobbs, there would not be enough interest to make it financially worthwhile. Awkward coves, the British public, most especially in respect of the continued support for the profit system of capitalism which exploits us to the core of of our Humanity. 

Ghost of a Ne’er do Well regards Fairly Secret Army as a situation comedy ahead of its time.

Alternative Vote or Alternative Society?

Pick a card, any card... as the debate in advance of the 'Alternative Vote' referendum warms up, at least in the corridors of Westminster and the Capitalist media if nowhere else.  I'd like to share a different viewpoint in order to restore some sanity to the public discussion.

When a magician offers you a choice of cards, it doesn't matter how you decide to pick one, you'll always get the card they want you to.  It's the same with any joker who thinks that capitalism can be made to serve us all. Government is there to make sure that the unequal relations of capitalism are maintained.  Not because of some conspiracy but because any party in power finds itself confronted by the might of the tiny minority of people who own our society. It ends up ruling in their interests, rather than the vast majority who work for a living and provide them with their profit.

That's why in the financial crisis as profits decline we're being made to pay with lost jobs and wage cuts.  And you're simply being asked to choose a new way of electing governments that will continue to attack you. It's something that matters a lot to politicians, because it decides how many of them and their mates get the good jobs - the ones with real power and palm greasing possibility.

What matters more is what we use our vote for...

If we vote for more rulers and the continued ownership of the world by a handful of people then it doesn't really matter how politicians share the spoils. But if the workers of the world used the vote to positively reject false choices we will be further on the road towards a truly democratic society.

If we vote to make the wealth of the world common property in which we all have an equal say, then we can finally have what Ghost of a Ne'er do Well calls Socialism - on a world scale. We can put an end to minority rule, and we can organise our common affairs in our own interest.

That's why the real choice before you this May isn't AV or First Past the Post, but choosing to reject class based society root and branch.

To find out more have a look here:  http://www.spgb.org.uk/

The Austerity Show or a Real Alternative?

We're All in it Together?

British families are on average £910 worse off than they were two years ago. Rising food, clothing and energy prices mean the average British family will have £910 less to spend this year than they did in 2009.The squeeze - which is considered the worst in peacetime for 90 years - is set to continue with a two per cent fall in household disposable income this year. The fall in disposable income is comparable with the savage post-World War One recession which lasted between 1919 and 1921, as a result of a collapse in manufacturing and international trade. The fall in household disposable income is sharper than in the 1930s depression.



David Kynaston's Work on Post WW2 Austerity

Employment Rights? Forget It!

Employment lawyers have predicted that older workers and pregnant women will be hit by a fresh wave of job cuts. Paul Griffin, head of employment at DBS Law, said: "The growth of discrimination claims from older workers and pregnant women suggests that employers are now targeting their more expensive staff, despite them being in protected groups. Obviously mistakes are being made in companies as accounts departments win out against human resources."  

Make no mistake, the wealth of the ruling capitalist elite is founded upon extracting surplus value from the labour of waged or salaried workers, so it should be no surprise the Financial Directors call the shots.

Meanwhile the UK coalition government, under the auspices of Business Secretary Vince Cable is quickly preparing  legislation to prevent workers having any legal rights if ruthless employers sack them unfairly within the first two years of employment.

Edvard Munch - The Scream

Economic, Political and Social Crisis

Presently, the savage public sector cutbacks include sacking front line workers which the State previously tacitly pretended were there to support working people through Capitalism's unpredictable twists and turns.  These include nursing, ambulance, elderly, youth and children's workers, Job Centre Plus and CAB debt advice staff to name but a few. 

The Capitalist state has never provided these services out of  kindliness - contrary to received wisdom - it has, for example NEVER been OUR NHS or Welfare State.  It was created out of the necessity of maintaining social order, and patching up and maintaining a cheap and productive supply of  wage slave labour in the mid 20th Century after the Second World War. But the Post WW2 settlement with the official Labour Movement is now long over.  The Historic role of the British Labour Party as a mediating factor between Capital and the British Working Class is finished.  Long Dead.  Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair saw to that.  And no bad thing as the Labour Party has been a brake upon any meaningful aspiration for the Working Class for over a Century. 

Social Breakdown

What comes next is difficult to predict as the sense of crisis and capitalist malaise deepens within the ruling elite.  Capitalist political parties of all stripes have no more wriggle room within what is now a moribund system tested to destruction.  Quick credit fuelled booms followed by long slumps seem to be the prevailing trend.
All around us the infrastructure of communities are breaking down further and the inevitable social division and personal misery caused by the requirements of Capitalism to restore profitability for a minority of wealthy elitists is necessarily despoiling the lives of all the generations caught up in this economic, political and social failure.  Just take a look around any town centre on a weekday.  Boarded up shops, pubs, and dole queues are there for all to see - but that doesn't tell the full story. 

The Malaise within the Elite

The real crisis is within the world ruling elite.  They know their system has failed - and they have no answers.  Far from Thatcher's 'There is No Alternative' (TINA) of yore, now apparently, 'We're All in This Together', according to UK Prime Minister - the Millionaire minor aristocrat Dave Cameron who is married to a multi-millionheiress. 

Until the Next Crisis?

And when, inevitably, the profit system undergoes a recovery of sorts, however slowly and sluggishly, despite what may occur in the interim, we will all be expected to carry on and continue creating value from our labour for the ruling elite.  Until the next crisis. And the next one after that. 

There is an Alternative

And it has never been tried before. It is founded firstly in an understanding of the basis of our insecurity and exploitation, which is the world system of production for profit.  That is the Capitalist Mode of Production.  We must think and discuss this fundamental fetter upon Humanity constantly in a spirit of openness, and keep in close touch with what other people are thinking. 

Capitalism Can be Beaten

Capitalism can be beaten once everyone decides it can be beaten.  And then we can set about organising a higher and more Human form of society in a completely new way.  We can collectively build upon the positive achievements of Capitalism, and they are many, to create a new and truly democratic world society in which production is for need and not for profit, in which people co-operate rather than compete to produce the necessities of life. 

Ghost of a Ne'er do Well stands for a world society in which Human ingenuity and creativity will be placed at the secular altar of majority Human need and not the pyre of minority Capitalist expropriation.  It is not about trying to reform or regulate a social system which has reached its useful objective limits, it is about creating a new world society.  It is impossible to be neutral in this debate.

Brighton Rock

Brighton Rock is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1938, and later made into a classic 1947 film starring a young Richard Attenborough.

For Ghost of a Ne'er do Well who first read the book as a teenager 25 years ago it remains one of the best examples of the novel as a multi-layered art form during the 20^th Century.

A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton.  Seventeen-year-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man.

'Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him'. This powerful and sinister sentence is the opening line of Brighton Rock and the start of a gripping thriller.

Believing he can escape retribution, Pinkie is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold, the demimondaine with whom Hale spent his last hours.  Greene’s novel exposes a world of loneliness and fear, of life lived within a doctrine outlined by his hero Robert Browning’s fictional Bishop Blougram:

‘Our interest is in the the dangerous edge of things,

The honest thief, the tender murderer,

The superstitious Atheist....’

It is quickly apparent that the novel is not just a murder mystery but also addresses metaphysical issues of Good versus Evil and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.  The two opposing characters in the 'Good versus Evil' struggle are Pinkie and Ida. A third important factor is Rose, the young Waitress who could spoil Pinkie’s alibi.  He buys loyalty first by marrying Rose and then by luring her into an apparent suicide pact.  This is a novel without a Hero, other than the life affirming spirit of Ida in seeking truth and justice for Hale and desperately attempting to save Rose from Pinkie in the here and now, the only world we ever really have. 

J.S. Bach

The Brandenburg Concertos

 

The Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach  are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque, or any musical era.  They are, without question, Ghost of a Ne’er do Well’s most revered classical music offering.  I love them.

Bach suggested the works are Concerts avec plusieurs instruments (Concertos with several instruments) and he used the widest spectrum of orchestral instruments in daring combinations.  I could, as is my want, quite happily riddle my readers with boredom on this subject.  My discovery of this towering artistic masterpiece came by a very circuitous route involving antiquarian bookshops in Halesowen and record dealers in Harborne, trips to Munster in Germany and some best forgotten nefarious nights in the company of women with quite ill reputations.

Brandenburg Concerto Number 4 is performed by the wonderful Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z78PlBGw6yo

and Number 5 is here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49IOKnhX0Sk&feature=related

Enjoy!



The Battle of Cable Street

OCTOBER 4, 1936

Eastenders Defeat the British Union of Fascists 



Sir Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts

The BUF was formed in 1932 by the aristocratic political adventurer Sir Oswald Mosley who publicly stated:  "Our object is no less than the winning of power for Fascism, which we believe is the only salvation for our country. The BUF made a definite impact, with its full-time blackshirted Defence Force, its aristocratic and Tory sympathisers, and, for a period, the backing of Lord Rothermere and his Daily Mail.



Daily Mail Founder Lord Rothemere (Harold Harmsworth) and Adolf Hitler



Its meetings – notably the Olympia rally in June 1934 – were ruthlessly stewarded, and it spread the fascist message through provocative demonstrations and a range of publications. The police treated the fascists with the utmost leniency.

Eastenders

The East End of London offered the fascists definite possibilities. Although the 350,000 Jews in Britain were only 0.7 per cent of the total population in 1936, nearly half lived in the East End – 60,000 in Stepney alone. Then, as now, it had some of the worst living conditions in Britain.  It had also been a seedbed of anti-semitism and racist propaganda in general.

The British Brothers’ League, founded by ex-army officers in 1900, claimed 45,000 members in the East End. Organised on a semi-military footing, it campaigned against "alien" and especially Jewish immigration from eastern Europe, influencing the passing of the Aliens Restriction Act in 1905.





No Pasaran! They Shall Not Pass!



Mosley’s East London campaign began in earnest in the summer of 1936 with a big rally in Victoria Park in June. Through endless street-corner meetings, fire-bombing and smashing the windows of Jewish shops, racist abuse and physical attacks, the fascists worked overtime to create an atmosphere of siege.

The Police Supported the Fascists

In late September 1936 the BUF announced its intention to mount a show of strength on the afternoon of Sunday October 4, designed to intimidate the organised working class and in particular the local Jewish community. Uniformed fascists were to gather in military formation at Royal Mint Street, where they would be reviewed by their führer, before marching in separate contingents to four meetings in East London.

Cowardly Leninist-Stalinists

Typically cowardly, the local leadership of the reactionary, state-Capitalist, Moscow-line Leninist-Stalinist Communist Party ordered their cadre out of the area in advance of the march. And so, whilst exercising their perfectly reasonable democratic right to march in the name of free speech Moseley and his lackeys were subsequently given a bloody good hidin' as the massed ranks of the Working Class had their say too, and the fascists had to escape in very short order.  And since that day organised elite sponsored fascism has never dared to raise its' preposterous head in these islands.  

For myself, these events are way before my time.  But I will never forget meeting an old lady in London in the late 1990's - she was very frail and sat in a wheelchair and I offered to push her to a meeting on Marxism and Democracy, which we agreed are indivisible doctrines.  She told me in passing she had knocked a policeman's helmet off his head at Cable Street.  She said she was only six at the time and was sat on her Daddy's shoulders.  I'll never forget her. 

Some friends of mine - The Men They Couldn't Hang - wrote a song called The Ghosts of Cable Street:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzKv5gjOzTA 
and someone put it to film.  It is worth a look and listen.



The Jam



A Beat Concerto 

If ever I had to appear on BBC Mastermind my first specialist subject would be The Jam.  The Woking Wonders have worked their magic for me since their first 7 inch single 'In the City' in 1977:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ipGhzrIi3seased

but as an 11 year old this was where I first clapped my eyes on The Jam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5gkJ424GE

All Around the World!

Introduced by my then Pop hero Marc Bolan on his brilliant TV show.

And not to forget Roger Taylor - the friendly tall lad who was a good footballer from the Birmingham Road in Great Barr who taped the In the City and This is the Modern World albums for us.  And my bro' Stevie getting All Mod Cons for Christmas in 1978.  Quite how he got into The Jam so young I'll never know.  And then he got Setting Sons,  Sound Affects and The Gift as his subsequent annual presents at yuletide. While I had to make do with The Boomtown Rats and Secret Affair.  Father Christmas can be a Bastard!

A Masterpiece

The Jam probably reached their peak in 1980 with the studied 'Going Underground':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE1ct5yEuVY

Meanwhile, I'll tuck this gem away in the tradition of great Jam B sides:

Ghosts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enhOMPFxRcA&feature=related

Even though it never was a B side.

Having read 100s of interviews and several books on the subject over the years no doubt I will return to the exploits of the Sheerwater Shouters in due course.