Saturday 26 March 2011

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:



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



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 SonsSound 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':


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

Ghosts:

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.


 

Monday 21 March 2011

LIBYA

An Insane War
The unfolding aggression against the independent North African state of Libya is a fundamental confirmation of the absolute illegitimacy of the International ruling class. 


Prime Minister Tony Blair (L) meets with Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi on May 29, 2007 in Sirte, Libya. Mr Blair is on a five day visit to meet with African leaders as he prepares to stand down as Britain's Prime Minister on June 27, 2007.
Their Morals - Not Ours:
United Nations Middle East 'Peace Envoy' Blair on a Trade Mission to Libya
As two-bob dictators across the Middle East are running out of post World War 2 political gas founded upon local fear and Western patronage, the increasingly impotent rulers of Britain, United States and France find it convenient to kick at an open door in the oil rich state of Libya.  It is interesting to note that all of the UN abstainers in the overnight vote on military action now have expanding economies.  The opposite is the case for the 'Coalition of the Willing' who are so suddenly in favour of toppling Colonel Gadaffi from power, in the name of Humanitarian Intervention.  But ultimately, this conflict is all about geopolitical positioning in an era of great uncertainty for the international ruling class.

The ONLY people who can liberate Libya are Libyans:
They are fighting for Sovereign Democratic rights




Cameron's British State Arming the Saudi Elite
A matter of days ago the same political actors looked the other way when the ruling family in Bahrain called upon their ruling class cousins in Saudi Arabia to brutally squash a popular public insurrection by abject military force.  And as things look increasingly uncertain for the know-nothing Capitalist Clowns who run our daily AUSTERITY SHOW at home, they have found an ideal excuse to divert popular attention away from their own illegitimacy as they attempt to puff their plumes on the world stage as pretend statesmen. 

Never mind that British Prime Minister David Cameron's failed trip to the Middle East most recently had him introducing arms dealers to military 'interim leaders' and Saudi princes, or the fact that the Israeli ruling class branded him a bumbling diplomatic 'Amateur'

President Sarkozy and Colonel Gadaffi
Meanwhile, cheerleading Militarist French President Nicholas Sarkozy is predicted to come in THIRD place in his own forthcoming national election.

There will be much verbiage and hyperbole generated by the Laptop Bombardiers and IPAD Imperialists of the Liberal commentariat upon these matters. 

But let Ghost of a Ne'er do Well be absolutely clear:





Wednesday 16 March 2011

POGUE MAHONE!


Pogue Mahone 1983





















This is an updated version of an item I wrote in 2003 for a website run by my  Rockin' Boppin' Lunatic friend Macrua here: http://shane-macgowan.co.cc/ about my life long love affair with The Pogues.  And as it is an entirely personal account I would implore my readers to have a look at http://www.pogues.com/
to find out more about the wider trajectory of what I regard as an incredible Rock 'n' Roll institution. 

As a teenage fan of The Jam I got interested in a London based band called The Nips, because Paul Weller produced their brilliant single Happy Song


and Jam Leader Weller was a keen advocate not only of the band but also of their leading light, a mercurial genius called Shane MacGowan.  So, there was I, a budding young Nips fan living in suburban North Birmingham at the time, following their story via the pages of the rock inkies, pop mags and BBC Radio 1 John Peel Show.

The Legendary John Peel
And I can remember vividly being in my cousin Noel's Bromsgrove bedroom in 1980 when I read the piece about the NIPS splitting up in his copy of SOUNDS.


Then a bit later in the early 1980's I gradually got more interested in folk and country music, courtesy of the Johnny Cash, Clancy Brothers and Dubliners records owned by my Irish parents. And one night in mid-1984 I heard John Peel again mention Shane and The NIPS and he immediately played a new record called Dark Streets of London (listen to the demo version here: ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvhyyPqDxNM) by a new band called POGUE MAHONE.  That moment changed my life!


Andrew, James, Jem, Caitlin, Spider, Shane


The beautiful ballad 'KITTY' can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUXpwfGX06w
I was now 18 and could get to gigs of The Pogues. I saw The Pogues 53 times in two years and also saw The Men They Coudn't Hang (more on them later) 26 times during the same period.  The first Pogues gig I went to was at the Birmingham Digbeth Civic Hall on December 6th 1984.  I stood at the front of the stage in my long overcoat and befriended Julie Walsh (who I fancied, but quickly realised was going out with Shane at the time) and Julie Pritchard who was going out with Darryl Hunt who was then the 'Roadie'. 

After the gig, the Julies invited me and my mates Mick Cahill and Don O'Rourke upstairs to the bar where the band were allowed to have a drink after hours.  I was a fairly naive 18 year old, but I liked a drink and still do.  All the Pogues were in the bar with their new manager, Frank Murray, who Cait 'Rocky' O'Riordan, the Pogues fearsome original Bassist accused of looking like Bono's Dad!

Caitlin O'Riordan

Shane then walked into the bar and was immediately harangued by Julie Pritchard and Cait, both of whom accused him of being an ugly, toothless bastard who they were going to 'sort out'.  Shane responded by advising them to FUCK OFF and buy us all a drink! 

Shane MacGowan
Welcome to the crazy world of Shane and the Pogues!  Subsequently, Shane, Cait, the Julies, Andy P. Davies and his pals spent the entire night and early morning getting completely bladdered and increasingly absorbed in conversation about the merits of the recently disbanded Buzzccocks, Redskins and Dexys Midnight Runners.  We eventually walked Shane and Julie Walsh to New Street Railway Station - Shane had borrowed Daryl's Donkey Jacket. 

Paddy on the Railway:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGL4ZtvDN0o&feature=related

And after getting home at 3.00 am in the morning via the West Midland Travel (WMT) Number 51 Night Service Bus I dutifully (for a non-believer), but somehow happily, went to 10.30am Mass with my Mum and Dad at The Holy Name in Great Barr. 

The Holy Name R.C. Church

Saturday 12 March 2011

The World Socialist Movement




Socialist Party of Great Britain
 
The Socialist Party of Great Britain
The Socialist Party of Great Britan (SPGB) is the oldest avowedly Socialist, and possibly most unique political organisation ever founded in the British Isles, having ploughed its' own quite distinctive 'Impossibilist' furrow since 1904.  The combative monthly journal 'The Socialist Standard' has been published without interruption since the inception of the party and has carefully analysed and responded to major world events from an entirely World Socialist perspective, without any favour for reformist approaches to the realities of the Capitalist system of society.  It is a democratic revolutionary organisation of equals.  No leader and no followers.  For the establishment of Socialism and nothing less. 
The Socialist Standard is available online at:

http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/index.html

and is also available in print by mail order for a small subscription.  The Socialist Party has several companion parties across the world all of whom adhere to the original Declaration of Principles agreed by the founding members in 1904.

The Socialist Party and the World Socialist Movement stand for a democratic, stateless, moneyless, world society in which the mode of production will be predicated upon human needs and not upon the motive of private profit.  That is REAL SOCIALISM.

N.B.  Davies the Pipe Jnr is a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

Friday 11 March 2011

The Good News Guardian

The Left Leaning Liberals' Bible
The ridiculous British newspaper The Guardian, which can justifibly boast the most neurotic readership in the world has just launched a 'Good News' section.  It is all in an ideal lineage with the craven SUN newspaper and their failed 'Happy Page'.
 
If you don't believe me look here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/good-news-guardian?INTCMP=ILCSPRTXT3576

In the meantime I will be reading something else.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

TRAFFIC


No Face No Name No Number

I could say so much about this band and no doubt will do in my own turn.  Suffice to say that in my view they were probably the best British group of all time. Apart from The Small Faces and The Kinks.

And this is possibly their most magical song - Click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXSbfI19RUw

And they were from Birmingham!


N.B.  Please note Ghost of a Nee'er do Well can be hyperbolic at times - Editor.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

The Sea Urchins

Cover from the brilliant 'Solace'/'Please Rain Fall' single on Sarah Records.

Their first record release, the fabulous PRISTINE CHRISTINE is here:


The Sea Urchins Onstage
In concommitance with their unalloyed brilliance The Sea Urchins could be surly, arrogant, puffed chested little peacocks.  And my band, The Cudgels, were keenly jealous rivals, having schooled with them from a young age.  Which is part of what made them, and us, so good.  And also the reason I told their Guitarist Robert Cooksey where to go when he requested to borrow my VOX AC 30 amplifier as we prepared to share a stage with them one night at The COD Club in Birmingham sometime during 1987.  My attitude made him sulk, and he subsequently suggested my excellent piece of equipment was 'SHIT'. 


Meanwhile, back in our dressing room I recall my RICKENBACKER bass playing brother Stevie confiding quietly he'd be willing to use his fists upon the recalcitrant '60's throwback guitar noodler.  But I thought that was beneath us.   And consequently we blew them off the stage.  I ended up snogging a willowy blonde for ten minutes before our Dad picked us up in his royal blue Morris Marina. And we laughed at the Sea Urchins as they waited for the bus.

N.B. Robert Cooksey ended up as a Conjourers' Assistant. 

N.B.B.  The Sea Urchins made much better records than The Cudgels ever did.

Manufactured Scarcity

The Capitalist System requires shortages of the necessities of life to maintain profitability.   

This is my review of an interesting book on the GREENWASHING of Capitalism.

Green Capitalism
. Manufacturing Scarcity in an Age of Abundance.

By James Heartfield.
www.heartfield.org .2008. £7.50

James Heartfield is associated with the former Trotskyist (British) Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) which used to publish Living Marxism (LM) and has moved on considerably since “the collapse of Communism” at the end of the 1980's and the dissolution of the formal RCP organisation in 1997. These days the so-called “LM network” produces the edgy http://www.spiked-online.com/ website and organises debates and events under the auspices of the Institute of Ideas and a myriad of propaganda campaigns expedited largely through a robust, sometimes entertaining, and not ineffective style of media entryism.

One area this current has been particularly interested in over the last two decades is in promoting a full-on critique of the reactionary imperatives of the politics of “Environmentalism”. In Green Capitalism James Heartfield reminds us that the profit system is essentially a system of rationing, which is now, in certain circles and in a variety of ways, being dressed up as “greenwashing” by Big Business and Governments – as the contemporary ruling elites reinvent scarcity in an age of abundance.










Arkwrights Mill at Cromford, Derbyshire

Heartfield rightly presents the capitalist mode of production as an epoch in which the force of human ingenuity has sought to ameliorate the most extreme exigencies of life through technical breakthrough with the result that relative material happiness is the condition for most of us in Western societies. I do, however, take issue with the notion that one out of any of the 300 workers at the Lombe silk works on the Derwent in 1721 or the 5000 wage slaves at Arkwright's Mill in Cromford in 1771 woke up for work every day with a sense of unmitigated joy. Whilst those long deceased exploited workers are no longer “variable Capital”, my modern-day neighbours don't seem to enthuse much about the conditions of their means of living whilst having a sup on a Friday night in the local pub, either. Nevertheless, the material gains we have made in the interim between the first factories and 21st century capitalism are impressive.
In a summation of capitalist economics Heartfield tackles the neo-classical economists and suggests they were in effect “Rationers by Trade“ (my phrase not his) but you get the point. Notwithstanding that, the book opens with a great sense of optimism and opines succinctly upon the gains made by the working class under capitalism. The author explains carefully the concommitant progressive and destructive forces at play within the profit system and hints at transcending towards a more rational form of society founded upon technological progress.

This work sets out to show how modern Environmentalism came about as a consequence of ruling elites ideas about scarcity. Heartfield‘s argument is that, in Western society, the myth of the “fragile” planet emerged as a consequence of the retreat from production in the original heartlands of industrial capitalism.

The Fragile Planet?

A Bang and a Whimper?

Much of Green Capitalism provides an excellent exposition of The Fools' Errand of Environmentalism and the levers of power behind that aspect of the moribund profit system. Meanwhile, at times the prose is poor and plodding, and some of the referencing is both points-scoring and unnecessary to make the more essential issue clear. Do we really need to be lectured about Trotsky's ideas on production? Some of this stuff would leave the general reader all at sea in very short order. Whilst a final extraordinary point is clearly made: the world population grew from 791 million in 1750 to 5.9 billion in 1999, as a consequence of advances in agriculture, transport, sanitation, industry. Many of that number exist at the level of subsistence – and it should not be that way!
So, from an editorial perspective the narrative simply peters out – a bang and a whimper!

The Modern-Day Misanthropes
Charles Windsor
Notwithstanding that, this book has much to recommend it, not least for cocking a timely snook at both the modern-day misanthropes who see mankind as a plague upon the planet and the long-dead 'dismal scientists' of neo-classical economics who could not comprehend a theory of productive growth through collective endeavour. Heartfield puts a well aimed, populist boot into the modern-day Green Capitalist Millionaires – Richard Branson, Zac Goldsmith, Prince Charles, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Lord Melchett, and makes reasoned argument that Western Capitalism has got to go Green for the sake of exploiting new sources of profit.

We need to take on the Green catastrophists and promote technology and real democracy to face down the spectre of Austerity Capitalism in the 21st Century - in order to kill this pernicious and dastardly system once and for all.

Confounding Catastrophism


Find a link here:

to a talk I gave at the Socialist Party of Great Britain Summer School in July 2010.


You might learn something!

Monday 7 March 2011

The Field Mice

I was going to write a long and exhaustive piece upon the cultural and musical significance of The Field Mice.Then I thought better of it because it dawned upon me that you only need to click here:


- for a thorough going exposition of what that cracking little act from Mitcham was all about.


I will always love them.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Interview with Please Rain Fall

From Left:
 Noel, Steve, Andy
Lucas Children's Christmas Party
(1980)
I've written and performed a song or two in my time but I don't like to analyse it too much.  I was persuaded by Stephen at Please Rain Fall to bare my soul and reflect upon my musical career.

You can read the interview by following the link below:

http://pleaserainfall.blogspot.com/2009/11/this-is-last-time-that-ill-ever-sing.html

Saturday 5 March 2011

Keep Your Sunny Side Up?

My critique of the popular print media from the November 2008 edition of The Socialist Standard is even more relevant today... See Below!

                                         The Happy Page
The Sun newspaper should be no more abhorrent than any other capitalist propaganda rag. In a spirit of enquiring equanimity I occasionally take the wretched organ along with more sober rags of the ruling elite in order to gainsay and refute the views of supporters of the profit system.


Now, as the world capitalist system moves inexorably towards another catastrophic slump it behoves the class traitor scribblers of the “popular press” to divert our attention from the problems facing us as a consequence of capitalism’s irresolvable internal contradictions.

But don’t worry!
The Sun says...
“The pound crumbles, the economy tumbles and Gordon Brown finally rumbles that we are heading for the big recession.
So to take your mind off the sad economic tidings there are plenty of cheery stories scattered throughout The Sun.
And for uninterrupted fun turn to Page 20 our new Happy Page.
If you have any stories or photos that will raise British spirits why not send them to us and do your bit in the War against Gloom effort.”
(Sun, 23 October 2008)

Ghost of a Ne'er do Well has long understood the function of the reactionary media in the intellectual conditioning of capitalist society. The workers of the world are bombarded by propaganda on a myriad of fronts. In the last 30 years The Sun has cornered the market in combining “politics“, gambling, tits 'n' arses with criminal and celebrity witch hunts.

I won’t elucidate upon the contents of Page 20 of the first Happy Page The Sun published on Thursday, October 23, 2008. It certainly did not make me “Happy” and I have no compunction to promote the contents of such a craven publication on this blog.

This item is intended no more as an attack upon The Sun newspaper as it is upon the more apparently “learned” daily journals such as the Guardian, Independent or Telegraph. The point I wish to make is more general. Whilst the world working class is entering a period in which there will be a sustained, angry and possibly violent attack upon our meagre living standards and individual rights by the Ruling Class, we must challenge the “official” media at every turn.

At this time the fanciful notion that “taxpayers money” is being used to stave off Capitalist crisis is being promulgated by the mainstream media. Whilst, in reality the capitalist class is using State Funds generated on the backs of the labour of ordinary workers to salvage the remnants of the profit system and to provide them with a surplus. Right now the capitalist media are wresting all their capacity in support of the New Austerity project of the ruling elite.

As the “Real Economy” goes into recession and people lose their jobs, homes and belief in the future of their communities we are exhorted by The Sun to turn to page 20 and have a chortle as workers’ lives under capitalism crumble around our ears.

The reasons for the failings of capitalism, and the potential to resolve the problems caused to people under the grip of the system are often very near to the grasp of workers’ thinking, both individually and collectively.

My trajectory towards Socialist consciousness began as a very young man witnessing the “shaking out” of staff at R.M. Douglas Construction Ltd of Birmingham in 1992. I saw proud middle-aged, “company” men, some with over 25 years service, cry openly as they were told they were surplus to requirements for the firm.
So, as the reality of Capitalist recession imposes itself once more on the already beleaguered working class the last thing we need to do is to read “Happy News” on Page 20 of The Sun newspaper.

What is required is an unremitting critique of the capitalist system that divides, exploits and marginalises us from our collective Humanity.

In due course such an outlook will lay the basis for a new form of society in which such monstrosities as The Sun newspaper’s “Happy Page” will be recorded for posterity in the popular imagination as one of the ruling class toe-rag’s refuges of last resort.

Andy P. Davies
N.B.  The Sun discontinued 'The Happy Page' after two editions in 2008.
N.B.B.  The Guardian has just launched 'Good News Guardian'. (10/3/2011)

The Cudgels

In a previous incarnation Ghost of a Ne'er do Well strutted across the stages of some of the best arts venues in the British Isles with The Cudgels.  We were an odd assortment of coves, proud of Black Country roots and our status as the best literary pop band in Tipton, though singular and single-minded all the same.
From left: Stevie, Tracey, Andy, Gavin,  Josef.



You can hear us here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aAFErSIeQ8


This link to one of our most infamous songs BIG PINK will give you the idea.  I wrote it over several months in 1989.  One of the lines in the song inspired the name for my blog.

Capitalism and the Crisis of Legitimacy

Towards the end of last year I wrote a piece on what I percieve as being the declining tendency of the ruling elites to maintain their authority over people.  It was published in the February 2011 issue of the Socialist Standard.

Capitalism’s current crisis is not just economic and financial.

The recent worldwide recession has led not only to an economic crisis, but also a crisis of political legitimacy for the global system of capitalism. In Britain the ruling elite and in particular the coalition government are attempting to side-step this fact by claiming that “we’re all in it together.” Of course in some ways we are, the impending state spending cuts and inevitable redundancies and reduction in public services to vulnerable people being imposed by these hard-boiled public schoolboys will obviously affect those of us in the working class far more than the small minority of capitalists. The narrative from central government is that swingeing cuts in borrowing and public spending need to be enacted, in order to restore profitability to UK Capitalism plc.


And so in this allegedly different political landscape, we hear new terminology and concepts such as 'The Big Society', 'The New Localism', an increased role for ‘Civil Society’, 'Ethical Consumerism' and of capitalism’s concern for the 'The Environment'.

Are these recent, reformist style trends evidence of the state's attempt to mask the realities of a class-divided society? Over the next few years, what other coping strategies will the capitalist class use to try to find some stability for their system? How can individuals and the working class as a whole respond to this in a way which will best reflect our interests? What sort of future do we want to see?

Possibly the most profound trend that is now emerging and rapidly advancing is not necessarily the recent decline in profitability of the wages system of production, but a decline rather in the confidence of the ruling class to convince us of the validity of their system. It seems the legitimisation crisis transcends the sphere of domestic capitalist politics and extends to the spheres of religion, nationhood and the state, liberal democracy and the most basic tenets of human liberty.

Thatcher’s Mantras

When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in the 1980s she endlessly repeated the slogan “There is no alternative” (shortened as TINA). In economics, politics and political economy, it came to mean that there was no alternative to the status quo of their economic system and economic liberalism. It is still the main slogan of economic liberalism, arguing that free markets, free trade, and capitalist globalisation are the only way in which modern societies can go, as any deviation from their doctrine is certain to lead to disaster. Thatcher's affinity for the phrase led to the author Claire Berlinski choosing it as the title for her biography of the former Prime Minister.

In the early nineties, Francis Fukuyama wrote a book named The End of History and the Last Man, which in a similar strain argued that liberal democracy had triumphed over so-called communism, actually authoritarian state capitalism, and the historical struggle between competing political systems within capitalism was over, though apparently there could still be future events. This trend dovetailed into a political fashion for “Rugged Individualism”. Indeed, Thatcher in her third term of office regularly claimed “There is no such thing as society.”

Change of Rhetoric

Today, far from Thatcher’s ‘There is No Alternative’ rhetoric, we now get an apologetic, “We’re All in this Together” from our so-called leaders.

We now have an offer from the state for us to be part of the “Big Society”. At first sight this apparently bold initiative at rolling back the state may seem appealing. But strip it to its core and one suspects other motives.

In a speech in Liverpool on 19 July 2010 to re-launch what critics say is a vague idea, the still newish Con-Dem Coalition Prime Minister David Cameron insisted that what he terms “the Big Society” is at the heart of his policy agenda:

Pretending to Listen - But Never Caring
“We need to create communities with oomph! Neighbourhoods who are in charge of their own destiny, who feel if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them.”


And with one eye on the detailed government spending cuts that were to be announced in October, Cameron insisted his attempt to revive community action was driven by “great passion” rather than the need to save money:

“It is not a cover for anything. This would be a great agenda whether we were having to cut public spending or whether we were increasing public spending.

“This is not about trying to save money, it is about trying to have a bigger, better society.”


I wonder how many people really believe him.

And while all that and far more is going on, we as apparently individual, and certainly individuated, citizens are micro-managed keenly by armies of state officials in terms of our health, personal habits, children and domestic waste disposal. We are implored to consume ethically and to be mindful of our Environmental Impact and Carbon Footprints.

It seems capitalism in the coming decade is likely to be a miserabilist, reactionary affair in which personal responsibility and self-reliance is propounded as the dominant ethos within society. Is this the future we want?

This scenario could be so very different. How can we reach for the sort of world many people long to see, a world in which poverty, hunger, war and ruination of the quality of life for the majority of people can be abolished? That means going beyond capitalism to a society in which things like money, nation states, official government and production for profit are abolished.


Capitalism is only unbeatable as long as everybody thinks it is!

As soon as everybody thinks the profit system of exploited waged labour is finished, then it will be finished. We therefore need to keep in touch with what other people are really thinking. And we need to think about, tirelessly, where the only viable future for the Human race lies – in that post-capitalist society of common ownership of the world. It is impossible to be neutral in this struggle.


ANDY P DAVIES

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Me, Myself, Yours Truly!