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.

 

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. 




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:



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

The World Socialist Movement



Socialist Party of Great Britain

 

The Socialist Party of Great Britain

http://www.spgb.org.uk/

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.

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.

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.

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:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-FEbk0kHmw

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.