Sunday 25 April 2010

Allan Sillitoe RIP

Author Alan Sillitoe dies in London aged 82

Alan Sillitoe was still working up until his death

The author Alan Sillitoe has died aged 82 at Charing Cross Hospital in London, his family has said.

The Nottingham-born novelist emerged in the 1950s as one of the "Angry Young Men" of British fiction.
His son David said he hoped his father would be remembered for his contribution to literature.
His novels included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, both of which were made into films.
The two books are regarded as classic examples of kitchen sink dramas reflecting life in the mid 20th century Britain.
Mr Sillitoe left school at 14 to work in the Raleigh bicycle factory in his hometown before joining the Royal Air Force (RAF) four years later.
He worked as a wireless operator in Malaya but while in the RAF, he contracted tuberculosis and spent 16 months in hospital where he began to write novels.
The award-winning writer was married to the poet Ruth Fainlight, with whom he had two children, David and Susan.
As well as numerous novels he published several volumes of poetry, children's books and was the author of a number of stage and screen plays.
In 1995, his autobiography Life Without Armour was well received.
Last year, he appeared on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, where he said if he was castaway, his ideal companions would be a record of Le Ca Ira sung by Edith Piaf, a copy of the RAF navigation manual, The Air Publication 1234, and a communications receiver - but for receiving only.

@'BBC'

The lonliness of the long distance runner indeed and somewhat ironically on the same day as the London marathon was held!

Andrew Sullivan: You really are a complete fugn idiot!

"As a Whiggish Tory, there is nothing I'd rather see than the demise of the Labour party, the architect of the socialist state and the culture of class-hatred that I grew up in and that Thatcher alone helped partially dismantle..."

Thatcher partially dismantled class-hatred?

You have got to be fugn kidding or living in a different universe to one that we lived in under her rule.

Caveat: I did leave the UK in 1983 after putting up with that woman's divisive politics for 4 years!

HA! - The best bar graph ever from Mr. Khan

Roots Manoeuvre: What happened when reggae and punk went head to head in the UK

It's late autumn 1977, and the Stranglers are headlining a show in the Midlands. The support comes from the roots reggae band Steel Pulse. They know what to expect from a punk crowd: gobbing, cans being thrown. Steel Pulse are barely into their first number when a huge wad of phlegm shoots from the audience and lands on the hand of bassist Ron "Stepper" McQueen. The band's nickname for McQueen was "Psycho" and they fully expected him to live up to his name. "We all stared at Ronnie and we stopped playing," remembers Steel Pulse's singer, Mykaell Riley. "So there's this silence onstage, then eventually 4,000 punks went silent." McQueen didn't react, however. Instead, Stranglers bassist, Jean-Jacques Burnel, stepped out of the wings, waded into the crowd, identified the culprit, and knocked him out cold. Then he turned to face the crowd.

"He just went, 'You fucking wankers. You love reggae,'" laughs Riley.

If 1977 was the year of the punk rock explosion, it also saw the rise of another musical movement, intimately entwined with punk - a massive eruption in British reggae, which became the black counterpart to the white heat of punk. The Clash played reggae covers and Joe Strummer recounted his experience of reggae all-nighters in White Man in Hammersmith Palais. Rastafarian DJ Don Letts played reggae discs between punk bands at the Roxy. Even Bob Marley - who was living in London at the time - recognised the developments with his 1977 song Punky Reggae Party. But while the Clash and Marley have come to symbolise the link between reggae and punk, the huge growth in homegrown reggae in the wake of punk has become one of the era's lost treasures.

White kids had listened to reggae since the original 1960s skinhead movement embraced the music, but 1977 saw a common bond spring up between the punks and the rastas. Dub producer Adrian Sherwood - a white kid from Slough who fell in love with the "crazy intros" of the records played by his black mate's sister - remembers going round to Johnny Rotten's house and hearing reggae, not Generation X. Sherwood also remembers that the path to reggae enlightenment wasn't necessarily weed: "My Mum, bless her, wasn't the best cook on earth. I'd go round my mates and have fried fish, beans and rice. It was unbelievable." More important, though, was the sense of shared purpose the fans had.

Although punk was fast and guitar-based and reggae slow and bass-heavy, the punk look (spiky hair, leather jackets and combat trousers) wasn't much different to Rastafarian chic (dreadlocks, leather jackets and combat gear). Visually and otherwise, punk and reggae audiences were seen as outcasts.

"The bond was very simple," explains Peter Harris, a British reggae guitarist who played on Punky Reggae Party. "Blacks were getting marginalised." British Irish kids - like Rotten - and black youths were forced together because of signs on pub doorways that read "No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs", which became the title of Rotten's autobiography. "The punks were the same," Harris argues. "They were seen as dregs of society. We were all anti-establishment, so there was a natural synergy between us."

Harris's father Dennis ran reggae labels with Matumbi's Dennis Bovell, a massively influential Ladbroke Grove-based Barbadian who - after inventing Lover's Rock - gave punk musicians a new sound when he produced the Slits and the Pop Group, helping them experiment with dub. Harris Jr remembers growing up in the Grove, where the Clash's Mick Jones ate breakfast at Bites cafe alongside rastas. Further bonding took place at gigs and in blues clubs like Notting Hill's House of Dread. But the punk-reggae bond went national - and attracted the interest of the big labels - when John Peel started championing both musics on the radio, playing entire sides of albums by Misty in Roots and Adrian Sherwood's Creation Rebel.

"He was great, John Peel," says Sherwood, whose reggae fandom led to him first importing Jamaican reggae records and then operating the mixing desk for innumerable reggae greats. He remembers sitting in a car in Ladbroke Grove with the Jamaican legend Prince Far-I when Peel played the first three tracks of Creation Rebel's record: "The next day I had all those wankers like [Rough Trade's] Geoff Travis ringing me going 'I love it, man.' I said 'I played it to you three weeks ago and you turned it down.'"

But suddenly Rough Trade was far from the biggest label with an interest in reggae. The majors were signing reggae bands almost as fast as punk groups. Ladbroke Grove's Aswad and Birmingham's Steel Pulse signed to Island; Virgin put out the Short Circuit compilation, which saw Steel Pulse share vinyl grooves with Penetration and Buzzcocks. But for young black people, the music went deeper than fashion.

British reggae established its own identity, independent of Jamaican reggae, when the bands started singing about their own experiences. Tunes like Tabby Cat Kelly's sublimely mournful Don't Call Us Immigrants offered the feelings of the first British-born generation of black kids: "What's a joke to you is death to me ... I'll respect your colour if you respect mine." Misty in Roots' singer Poko - who dropped his given name, Walford Tyson - remembers a shared "struggle in the music" with punk but particularly remembers the impact of reggae music on young black audiences: "It was pure emotion." Like Steel Pulse, Misty were young and angry. Poko, who was born in St Kitts, says British acts "no longer wanted to sing about love and women. We wanted to do progressive protest music." There was a lot to protest about, and top of the list was police oppression. Punks were picked on but black youths had it much, much harder. Gaylene Martin, a New Zealander who worked with reggae acts on Virgin Records, remembers attending a Peter Tosh gig at the Rainbow theatre in London with Jamaican friends: their car was followed and only the black occupants were questioned.

"I was threatened with arrest so many times it became a joke," says Peter Harris, who opened a shop in Portobello Road and was arrested entering his own premises because the police assumed he was a burglar. He ended up crashing through the showroom fighting with three policemen. "My wife said 'What are you doing with my husband? He owns the shop!'"

The excuse the police needed to target black youths was marijuana, and they used the Sus law to stop and search. The crackdown saw reggae clubs closed, and the key figures in the scene facing prosecution. Dennis Bovell was jailed for drugs offences after police raided a soundclash - where reggae sound systems would compete with exclusive mixes in front of fans, who followed sound systems like football teams. The sentence was quashed on appeal six months later.

Harris - a non-toker - admits there were times when bands were lucky not to attract the law's attention: "I was in a car once and it was so full of smoke, the driver couldn't see through the windscreen." But increasingly, long-simmering and deep-rooted tensions erupted in violence.

Harris was in Notting Hill when the area erupted in the riots of 1976, which inspired the Clash to sing that they wanted "a riot of their own" in White Riot. He remembers "an amazing sunny day. I saw policemen holding dustbins. The police got a right kicking. There were thousands of angry people who were fed up being treated like dirt." Over the next few years rioting spread across the country (Steel Pulse sang of civil unrest in Handsworth Revolution in 1978, the riots following in 1981). "There was all this going on across the country and reggae was the soundtrack," Harris says.

Punk was, too. Southall punk band the Ruts wrote their reggae-based song Jah War, which told how Misty manager Clarence Baker was knocked to the ground by the police's Special Patrol Group during anti-National Front protests in 1979 that saw a schoolteacher, Blair Peach, die as a result of police brutality. Baker was luckier, but it was close. "They coshed him," remembers Poko. "Nearly killed him, man." Jah War documented a growing sense of outrage over such events - and also repaid mates Misty for issuing the Ruts' first single In a Rut on their People Unite label, another way in which punk and reggae united. It was a confused time and Mykaell Riley remembers black skinheads, white skinheads who weren't racist and others who would say: "We like your music, it's black people we don't like." But increasingly, people realised that music itself could fuel change.

Steel Pulse wrote a song called Ku Klux Klan about the racist movement. The radio shunned it because it was provocative but the black band had an enormous impact when they donned the KKK hoods onstage. Even though the KKK was an American phenomenon, British audiences recognised the power of the imagery and would often fall silent. "It was us saying 'We're in control now and we're not afraid of you'," remembers Riley. "In terms of our punk audience that was a powerful statement."

When a group of musicians and activists started putting punk and reggae bands on together and called the gigs Rock Against Racism, "RAR" became a national movement. Bands as diverse as XTC, Aswad, Generation X, Tribesman, the Slits, Joy Division and Misty came together to oppose the rising National Front. The biggest gig, headlined by the Clash and Steel Pulse in east London's Victoria Park in 1978, was attended by 80,000 people. "The British public - certainly the youth - totally came out against the NF," says Riley. "They were turning up in massive numbers and telling them they could not make headway with this stance."

Almost three decades on, sitting in Southall's community centre - where Misty used to play before the council introduced noise restrictions - Poko laments the Southall of his youth, which resisted the NF. "We had such strength," he says. "We felt we could do anything." But he shouldn't be downhearted, because as a result of the anti-racist campaigners' efforts, the Front were finished as a mass political force and police racism was exposed.

But did reggae change perceptions of black music? In the 80s, black acts were still told to water down their sound to get hit singles, but reggae crossed over into pop with the Police and Culture Club. A more direct legacy of punk and reggae's fusion came in multiracial acts such as UB40, and the chart dominance of bands such as Madness and the Specials in the early 80s - acts now regarded not as reggae or ska bands, but great British pop groups. Of the original pioneers, only Aswad - who scored a No 1 in 1988 with Don't Turn Around - became British household names, but Misty and Steel Pulse still tour and are renowned worldwide. However, their music resonates everywhere: the sound systems laid down the roots of remix culture and the rhythms gave birth to drum'n'bass. And 1970s British reggae still sounds great today.

"The question was always: 'Is your reggae authentic?' says Mykaell Riley, who is now a lecturer at the University of Westminster. "But it was a cumulative experience of growing up in the UK in a different skin. That's what made what we did different."

Misty in Roots: Live at the Counter Eurovision (People Unite)

One of John Peel's favourite records of all time: sublime 1979 conscious reggae with a keyboard-heavy twist.

Various: Don't Call Us Immigrants (Pressure Sounds)

Superior Brit reggae compilation featuring the likes of Tabby Cat Kelly and Reggae Regular.

Linton Kwesi Johnson: Dread Beat an' Blood (Virgin)

Brutally brilliant 1978 opus in which Dennis Bovell's dub beats back the reggae poet's uncompromising raps, such as Inglan Is a Bitch.

Steel Pulse: Handsworth Revolution (Island)

The Brummies' seminal 1978 debut: heavy bass and hard-hitting lyrics.

Aswad: Aswad (Island)

Headed by one-time Double Deckers star (and now 6Music DJ) Brinsley Forde, Aswad's 1976 debut memorably documents the British black experience.

Dave Simpson @'The Guardian'

Sally Seltmann - Harmony to My Heartbeat

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot At London's Barbican (Update)

(Thanx Michael!)

Stephen Colbert On Arizona's New Police State: "No Problemo"

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - No Problemo

www.colbertnation.com

Foreign Office apologises for Pope 'condom' memo

The Foreign Office has apologised for a "foolish" document which suggested the Pope's UK visit could be marked by the launch of "Benedict-branded" condoms.

Called "The ideal visit would see...", the paper suggested the Pope be invited to open an abortion clinic and bless a gay marriage during September's visit.
The Foreign Office stressed the paper, which resulted from a "brainstorm" on the visit, did not reflect its views.
The junior civil servant responsible had been put on other duties, it said.
Details of the document emerged after it was obtained by the Sunday Telegraph.
'Song with Queen'
The UK's ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, has met senior officials of the Holy See to express regret on behalf of the government.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband is said to have been "appalled" by its contents.

ANALYSIS

Robert Pigott, BBC religious affairs correspondent

It's clear that what the Foreign Office has called "this foolish document" did not reflect government policy. Its tone is clearly frivolous, and it came from junior officials.
But it has, nevertheless, the potential to cause considerable damage. Whether fairly or not, it will leave some Catholics with the impression of a culture within official circles in which their Church's teaching is not taken seriously.
Some will suspect prejudice against faith groups. Perhaps most damaging of all, it could leave an impression that the Pope might be regarded as a figure of fun less than five months before his visit to Britain.
Apart from the pressure on the papal visit from public feeling about sex abuse, and the threat of demonstrations against the Pope, the government needs the Vatican's help in a global diplomatic effort to curb climate change and fight poverty.
How serious and far-reaching the effect of the document is depends partly on how the Church itself responds.

The paper was attached as one of three "background documents" to a memo dated 5 March 2010 inviting officials in Whitehall and Downing Street to attend a meeting to discuss themes for the papal visit.
It suggested Benedict XVI could show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by "sacking dodgy bishops" and launching a helpline for abused children.
It went on to propose the Pope could apologise for the Spanish Armada or sing a song with the Queen for charity.
It listed "positive" public figures who could be made part of the Pope's visit, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair and 2009 Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, and those considered "negative", such as Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins.
The civil servant responsible said in a cover note: "Please protect; these should not be shared externally. The 'ideal visit' paper in particular was the product of a brainstorm which took into account even the most far-fetched of ideas."
An investigation was launched after some recipients of the memo, said to have been circulated to a restricted list, objected to its tone.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the department was "deeply sorry" for any offence the document had caused.
"This is clearly a foolish document that does not in any way reflect UK government or Foreign Office policy or views. Many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful," he said.
"The text was not cleared or shown to ministers or senior officials before circulation. As soon as senior officials became aware of the document, it was withdrawn from circulation.
"The individual responsible has been transferred to other duties. He has been told orally and in writing that this was a serious error of judgement and has accepted this view."
'Blue-skies thinking'
The Foreign Office said the memo had resulted from discussions by a group of three or four junior staff in a team working on early planning for the papal visit.
A source told the BBC News website the individual who has since been moved to other duties had called the group together for "some blue-skies creative thinking about how to make the visit a success", but their discussions had become "a joke that has gone too far".
Earlier this year the Pope announced 2010 would see the first papal visit to the UK since John Paul II's visit in 1982.
Pope Benedict XVI's visit will take place from 16 to 19 September, during which time he is expected to visit Birmingham, as part of the planned beatification of Cardinal John Newman, and Scotland.
The visit will come in the autumn of what is proving to be a difficult year for the Pope with a wave of allegations that Church authorities in Europe and North and South America failed to deal properly with priests accused of paedophilia.
The Pope himself has been accused of being part of a culture of secrecy and of not taking strong enough steps against paedophiles when he had that responsibility as a cardinal in Rome.
However, his supporters say he has been the most pro-active pope yet in confronting abuse.

@'BBC'

This is a creative brief

(Click to enlarge)

Well it didn't quite come together for the hits album but I still have my real zip copy of 'Exile On ~~Moan~~ Main Street!

@'Possibly Awesome'

Gorillaz - Superfast Jellyfish (SBTRKT Remix Instrumental)

Armando Iannucci: Here in Spin Alley, objectivity has elected to go on holiday

For the past couple of weeks I've been lucky enough to attend the leaders' debates courtesy of Sky News, who've plonked me in front of Adam Boulton as a quirky alternative to politicians saying that their leader proved himself better than Cicero in putting points across.

This life as an election pundit sounds glamorous, but is in fact possibly only one step up from being a sex slave. No slur on the Sky News people, who are professional and have never struck me as part of the propaganda arm of the Murdoch/ Cameron machine, but more a reflection of the experience that awaits when you step into Spin Alley, the heaving ballroom of fluster and reportage that houses a hundred journalists, a lot of body odour, and a legion of political spokespeople all calmly yet desperately trying to persuade you that "our guy may not have won, technically, but, given the level of expectation stacked against him, along with the frankly disgraceful series of inaccurate remarks made by the other two, to have then seemed not to have won such a low level of debate is so different from being last in a high-level debate, that it is, indeed, the very opposite, which is why it's a worthy achievement tantamount to victory itself".

In Spin Alley, objectivity is on holiday, and out to play come a kindergarten of political operatives spinning away. All journalists gravitate towards them, so suddenly a well-ordered room arranged in neat rows turns into a miasma of mess and three distinct clumps of suits and cameras surrounding the three spinners. This is how galaxies form in space, and the spinners are black holes of information at the centre, drawing all minds towards them and crushing them into infinitesimally thin particles devoid of form and intelligence

The forces of spin in the room are so convulsive that they generate their own satellite spinners; last week, the shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling was heard spinning that, in the practice debates where he was pretending to be Gordon Brown, he outclassed the real David Cameron. This week, a Labour sub-spinner spun that David Miliband would be replacing Peter Mandelson as the spinner for Gordon Brown, therefore reflecting the fact they were placing less emphasis on spin. If Dr Seuss ever wrote a stage play, it would look and sound like this.

Meantime, all the broadcast networks set up little pens inside which their reporters try to unspin what's been spun in front of them and for the benefit of live TV cameras. Walking down the row, listening to the collective chirruping, it's hard not to think that is what it would be like being locked inside a battery farm for the night.

As a "commentator", though, I have professional obligations to enter the pen, and that's when the slave auction starts. Once you make your face and voice available for anyone who's interested, you realise that a whole army of programme-makers are assessing just how interesting they think you actually are at any given moment. And so last week, seconds away from being about to speak in front of someone's live TV camera, I was pulled back and replaced by Alastair Campbell, who happened to be in the area and was clearly a more interesting catch. Having only a few seconds to compose myself I caught Campbell muttering: "If it isn't the bloke who's been making a living out of me for the past 10 years."

This is now the most dangerous moment for me. I'm standing alone in a room where everyone else has someone to talk to. It's the worst party you've ever been to, yet even worse, because there are live TV cameras happening to film you in the back of their shot as you stand through several gradations of loneliness. And then, salvation. Someone runs up and says, "Quickly, there's George Osborne. He's doing BBC. If he then walks right he's going to someone else, so that means you go left and you're on." We watch Osborne, he turns right. I dash up the stairs to the left. Meantime, Osborne does a U-turn, goes left too, we wedge each other on the stairs, his minder gives him a push, and he's on and I'm now in the back of shot desperately trying to look popular.

So what does it all mean? Have I managed to get a sense of the convulsive shifts taking place in British politics and a more intimate reading of the mind-sets of the three parties? Well, after a fashion, yes. Being a professional watcher of the debates does force you into analysing every verbal tic. Sometimes, this gets too detailed. Did David Cameron really say "I was with some of our forces in Afghanistan and I was really blown away", did Gordon Brown really refer to "guys and girls" and say "I was speaking to young people only yesterday", and did Nick Clegg actually argue that, if only we came together, we could do something different this time about the Pope?

But underneath it all, I can detect a sense in the room of where this is all heading. For me, these debates so far have been about the increasingly large question mark over David Cameron's head. Cameron is having an existential crisis. This is partly because Cameron himself has no single identity but is a composite of other people's; a bit of Blair here, a bit of Thatcher there. His "big society" idea resembles Lyndon Johnson's "great society" pitch of the early 1960s, while his "the great ignored" phrase is a reworking of Richard Nixon's "silent majority". Going into the debates as "the other bloke" seemed a good idea, but falls apart when there is indeed another bloke there too.

Nick Clegg has become the David Cameron it's actually OK to like, and David Cameron, who always thought he was the most likeable David Cameron because he was the only one, doesn't quite know how to respond. This week, his way out of the identity theft was to thieve one back and his best moments came when he tried to be the most Nick Clegg of the three. He stared down the camera, but also distanced himself from Brown and Clegg and, at one point, reworked Clegg's pitch from last week by pointing to the other two politicians squabbling and telling everyone he was the only man to do something different.

And so in Spin Alley, I could see relieved Labour spinners, happy Clegg ones, and pretty thorough but not ecstatic Cameronians. They are sitting on top of the polls, but not by much, they are possibly on course to be the biggest party, but not with a majority, and they've hit a brick wall of indifference from a lot of people. They're not despondent, but I can honestly say I haven't spoken to a Tory politico or a pro-Conservative journalist in the past week who has anything other than a settled, mildly annoyed look of forbearance behind their eyes.

They're in a place at the moment which they know is just not good enough, but which may well have to do. I came away from these debates with nothing more striking than the reflection that all the young hopefuls in the Conservative Party ranks look like first-time home-owners who've just bought a house they kind of like, but only because the previous day they excitedly rang the estate agents to be told the house they fell in love with has already gone.

@'The Independent'

Factory Floor live - Lying @ Offset Festival '09

Factory Floor Live: Beyond The Industrial Production Line

Another one bites the dust...

Nazi corporal Schaefer dies in Chile prison

Keith “Guru” Elam Tribute Mix by DJ Premier

OR
DOWNLOAD Mix

Tracklist:

Gang Starr – Betrayal (Feat. Scarface)
Gang Starr – Intro (The First Step)
Gang Starr – Execution Of A Chump (No More Mr. Nice Guy Pt. 2)
Gang Starr – Name Tag (Premier & The Guru)
Gang Starr – Speak Ya Clout (Feat. Jeru the Damaja & Lil Dap)
Gang Starr – Peace Of Mine
Gang Starr – Eulogy
Gang Starr – Royalty (Feat. K-Ci & JoJo)
Gang Starr – Daily Operation (Intro)
Gang Starr – In This Life… (Feat. Snoop Dogg & Uncle Reo)
Gang Starr – Above The Clouds (Feat. Inspectah Deck)
Gang Starr – The Planet
Gang Starr – Daily Operation (Intro)
Gang Starr – Next Time
Gang Starr – 93 Interlude (Unreleased Moment Of Truth Interlude)
Gang Starr – The Militia II (Feat. Rakim & WC)
Gang Starr – Intro (HQ, Goo, Panch)
Heavy D. – A Buncha Niggas (Feat. The Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, Guru, Rob-O & Third Eye)
M.O.P. – Salute Part II (Feat. Guru)
D&D Allstars – Hot Shit (Feat. Big Daddy Kane, Sadat X, Guru & Greg Nice)
Gang Starr – PLAYTAWIN
Gang Starr – Soliloquy Of Chaos
Group Home – The Legacy (Feat. Guru)
Gang Starr – Conspiracy
Gang Starr – Stay Tuned
Gang Starr – Zonin’

LETS CELEBRATE HIS LEGACY!! PEACE!!!!!!

Meanwhile back in the real world (London, Ontario division)

Next week (we can't say what day exactly), in a courthouse near here (we can't say where exactly), a judge (we can't say which one) will hear testimony from a person or persons (we can't say whom) involved in a high-profile crime (we can't say what) that occurred recently (we can't say when exactly).

We can't say because one or more parties to the case are trying to impose a "publication ban and sealing order," which The London Free Press, Sun Media and QMI Agency are opposing, along with other news organizations.

Not only is there an attempt to put a publication ban on the proceedings next week, there is also an attempt to put a ban on writing about the attempt to put a ban on the proceedings next week.

So, for the moment at least, we can't tell you anything, about anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Such is the transparency of the modern justice system, at least in this case.

Publication bans are often requested to protect the carriage of justice and to ensure everyone receives a fair trial. They are well-intentioned and may well be necessary, but the world is changing faster than the justice system, for better or worse.

It is almost inevitable in this case, at this particular time in history, that all the relevant information will "leak" out of the courtroom within moments of it being heard and immediately arrive unedited on the Internet, for all to see, via Twitter, Facebook or an endless number of blogs and other modes of electronic informational transport, yet we won't be able to publish it.

This is what has happened in the past.

So the only place you won't be able to learn about this is from large and respectable news organizations -- newspapers, TV, radio -- the very institutions that have been following the rules and reporting on the administration of justice in this country for more than a century, and for the most part doing it responsibly.

It's true, the courts tend to be conservative, and just because some people can get around an order doesn't necessarily mean it shouldn't be made. The courts would no doubt argue that we'll make the order now and deal with those who ignore it later.

At any rate, when our lawyers oppose the ban, they will not be arguing that anyway. They'll be arguing the parties seeking the ban must demonstrate the apparent harm done by publishing an account of the proceedings will outweigh the public's interest in knowing what is going on in our courtrooms.

But sooner or later, isn't it time we have a debate about laws that are unenforceable in a modern world?

If we do not, it makes the institutions issuing them look not just conservative, but old, archaic, out-of-touch, inflexible and increasingly irrelevant.

Paul Berton is Editor-in-Chief of The London Free Press. He can be reached at 519-667-4514, e-mail paul.berton@sunmedia.ca or read Paul's blog..

@'London Free Press'

'On-U' Crew - Dubs from 'Be Tough' (1996)

I got a file years ago that was called Tackhead 'Boys' but I have just discovered what it actually is.

From an album released by Echo Beach in Germany in a limited edition of 3333 copies, the file only contained the dubs from the Anne Marie album. Featuring Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald & Doug Wimbish, the session was engineered by Andy Montgomery at On-U Sound HQ.

You can get it

HERE

(If anyone does have the vocal versions please get in touch)

Saturday 24 April 2010

Yabby Yabby Youth (For Humera)

Yabby You & The Ralph Brothers - Conquering Lion

Yabby You & Big Youth - Yabby Youth

Big Youth - Lightning Flash (Weak Heart Drop)

Yabby You, Tommy McCook & Don D. Junior - Fisherman Special

Yabby You - Conquering Lion (Groove Corporation Remix)

HERE

(It IS a dread zone...)

Breaking news:

Showing cleavage in California banned- fear of future tremors and eathquakes

Take a look at Wayne Roo-knee

IT'S one thing seeing the face of Jesus in a frying pan – but a football worshipper from Horbury got the shock of his life when his hero Wayne Rooney appeared on his knee.

Joiner Rich Rigby, of Green Lane, hurt his leg when he came off his motorbike while off-roading near his home.

Thankfully, the dad-of-two escaped the accident with just a hurt knee, which swelled to an unusual shape due to titanium plates he had in his leg following a football injury in 2001.

It was only when he hobbled to the pub, that friends started saying they could see the face of his favourite footballer Wayne Rooney.

The 31-year-old Manchester United fan said: "I was having a drink with friends and when I showed them my knee we realised it looked like Rooney, so our lass took a photo.

"Everyone was laughing about it. It beggared belief – he is a legend and I never thought he would appear on my knee.

"All his facial features were there, you could see his small ears, nose and he even had a beard like the real Rooney."

Rich's fiancee Stacey Jones, 25, who works in catering for schools, and kids Connor, seven, and Mason, five, were bemused by the bizarre swelling which only lasted a day.

Mr Rigby said he hoped the bizarre swelling was a sign that Manchester United would win the Premier League and that Rooney would have a cracking World Cup for England.

He added: "I hoped it might make me play better too but it hasn't. I don't play competitively, but I do like to have a kick around with the kids.
"I don't mind an injury to my knee, as long as Rooney doesn't get injured we should be okay."

@'Wakefield Express'

How YouGov made Cameron win the poll

Yougov say their internet poll on the debate last night was conducted between 9.27pm and 9.31pm.

This may explain why Yougov gave David Cameron a better rating than the other post-debate polls did last night. For Nick Clegg ended the debate with a very powerful closing speech, probably the best of the evening.

According to the BBC video system Clegg didn't start speaking until 9:29:18 and finished at 9:30:47‬‪.

So many of those polled by Yougov last night must have voted without seeing his final speech.

Michael Crick @'BBC'
In all honesty what can you say?

God speaks directly to Glenn Beck

During yesterday's Glenn Beck radio show, Beck delivered a 10-minute monologue in which he hit all of his phony-baloney touchstones -- some of them, as I've been writing for the last several weeks, are dangerous and some are simply ridiculous. But primarily, Beck was in full televangelist mode about God and something about a "plan" and, in the process, he dovetailed into a little McCarthyism and, as usual, a little historical revisionism. He even shrunk into a defensive bit refuting the accusations that he's a faker who's conning his audience.

Now, before you listen to this epic clip courtesy of Media Matters, I should warn you to turn down your speakers, because the over-the-top levels of audio compression and EQ on Beck's voice (say nothing of the half-dozen or so Beck sound-alikes who also occupy his studio) will absolutely blow out your speakers.

Most radio stations employ some sort of digital processing to make the host or disc jockey sound more resonant, but I've never heard a talk show with this much compression. Clearly, the BOOM! is there to enhance Beck's voice in a way that augments his level of psychological persuasion -- the deeper, diaphragm-vibrating low end increases the physical connection between Beck and his audience. A more subconscious aspect of his scam.

The overarching theme of this monologue is that God is speaking directly to Glenn Beck and giving him the plan. It's classic televangelism, which is commonly seen as nothing more than an exploitation of religious naiveté with the goal of making the televangelist rich. Listen to me. I have the answers. Because God is speaking to me. So give generously if you want to hear what God's plan is...

Continue reading

Bob Ceska @'HuffPo'

Miles Davis Live Denmark1969

(Thanx Stan!)

Is it true?

Is there going to be a major scandal erupt or is he in the process of getting an injunction?

I guess we will have to look at the News of The Screws tomorrow...

Shuggie Otis - Strawberry Letter 23

Strawberry Letter 23*

Science Fiction and Gnosticism

Leningrad Cowboys & Red Army Choir - Sweet Home Alabama

exilestreet
@yakawow "When the #yakawow hits you feel no pain" 2 minutes ago via web
exilestreet @yakawow "Should I stay or should I #yakawow?" less than 5 seconds ago via web

Letter from Jack Kerouac to Lucien Carr 1957 ("Burrough's has gone insane")

(Click to enlarge)

Transcript:

Dear Lucien & Cessa — Writing to you by candlelight from the mysterious Casbah — have a magnificent room overlooking the beach & the bay & the sea & can see Gibraltar — patio to sun on, room maid, $20 a month — feel great but Burroughs has gone insane e as, — he keeps saying he’s going to erupt into some unspeakable atrocity such as waving his dingdong at an Embassy part & such or slaughtering an Arab boy to see what his beautiful insides look like — Naturally I feel lonesome with this old familiar lunatic but lonesomer than ever with him as he’ll also mumble, or splurt, most of his conversation, in some kind of endless new British lord imitation, it all keeps pouring out of him in an absolutely brilliant horde of words & in fact his new book is best thing of its kind in the world (Genet, Celine, Miller, etc.) & we might call it WORD HOARD…he, Burroughs, (not “Lee” any more) unleashes his word hoard, or horde, on the world which has been awaiting the Only Prophet, Burroughs — His message is all scatalogical homosexual super-violent madness, — his manuscript is all that has been saved from the original vast number of written pages of WORD HOARD which he’d left in all the boy’s privies of the world — and so on, — I sit with him in elegant French restaurant & he spits out his bones like My. Hyde and keeps yelling obscene words to be heard by the continental clienteles — (like he done in Rome, yelling FART at a big palazzio party) — I’ll be glad when Allen gets here. — Meanwhile I explores the Casbah, high on opium or hasheesh or any drink or drug I want, & dig the Arabs. — The Slovenija was a delightful ship, I ate every day at one long white tablecloth with that one Yugoslavian woman spy. — We hit a horrendous tempest 2 days out, nothing like I ever seen, — that big steel ship was lost in mountains of hissing water, awful. — I cuddled up with TWO TICKETS TO TANGIER and got my laughs, I read every word, Cess, really a riot. — Also read Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling which you should read, it’s down on your corner. — Right now I’m high on 3 Sympatinas, Spanish bennies of a sort, mild. — Happy pills galore. — The gal situation here is worse than the boy situation, nothing but male whores all over, & their supplementary queens. — Met an actual contraband sailing ship adventurer with a mustache. Etc. More anon. Miss you & hope you’re well. Jack.

“Autograph letter signed, Jack Kerouac to Lucien Carr,” in CU Libraries Exhibitions , Item #1032

@'The End of Being'

Disobey

Richard Hell Interview

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
-Leonardo DaVinci

"Time and time again I knew what I was doing
And time and time again I just made things worse."
-Richard Hell, "Time"

Painters are allowed to endlessly touch-up their canvases, novelists can update and revise their writing in subsequent editions and classical composers often issued numerous versions of their works as they tinkered with and refined them. Popular music, for whatever reason, is often the exception. When the record button is released and the tape goes in the can, save for overdubs and mastering, the final document is just that -- final. Many artists have taken a second crack at an early song, often trying in vain to improve something ragged with ill-conceived polish. But an attempt to completely re-do a completed album? That is an extremely rare exercise.

Richard Hell not only took on the challenge, he succeeded. I'm the rare fan who prefers his sophomore album, Destiny Street, to his debut, Blank Generation. That initial shot is bracing, with high points unequaled in the rest of his brief catalog, but Destiny Street is the more complete package, an album with more consistently good songs and a more mature focus. That said, it is a flawed album, though the flaws were not necessarily discernible until Hell decided to "repair" the songs.

"At the time of the original recording I was so debilitated by despair and drug-need that I was useless," he has said. "The record ended up being a high-pitched sludge of guitar noise. It was a shame because the songs were clean, simple, and well-constructed, but those values were sabotaged by the inappropriate arrangements and production.” He acquired rights to the album in 2004, then let it go out of print. In 2006, he came across a two-track tape of the original rhythm parts and decided to use that as the basis for a re-recording. “I couldn’t resist trying to use them to fill and patch up the sinking feeling that the thought of the record had always produced in me,” he added.

"Only time can write a song that's really really real
The most a man can do is say the way its playing feels
And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals."
-Richard Hell, "Time"

What time has revealed is a Hell that is, if anything, more well-suited for this music than the Hell that originally wrote it. The music is, to borrow his description, cleaner, simpler and better-constructed on the new Destiny Street Repaired. Hell recorded new vocals and enlisted the help of guitarists Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and original Voidoid Ivan Julian (who did not play on the original release) to redo the guitars. The original guitar work by Robert Quine and Naux is at times spectacular, but it does, as Hell says, tend to get lost in the overall sludge of the recording. In contrast, the lines of Ribot, Frisell and Julian positively crackle, giving these already propulsive songs additional lift. And Hell's vocals, though he is singing lyrics now nearly 30 years old, seem more simpatico; where he sang the lyrics in 1982 as if he was trying at times to convince himself of their veracity, here he puts them over as a sage imparting wisdom. The result is a clutch of songs that are at once immediate and lived in.

Destiny Street Repaired was clearly a risky experiment. Had Hell simply found a way to remaster the original album and reissue it, he would have been guaranteed coverage and hosannas from critics. Instead, he decided to attempt the nearly unheard of feat of rebuilding a structure on its foundation (occasionally knocking out a closet or staircase in the process), and offering it as the new-and-improved version to supplant the original. That it worked, creating what is to these ears the essential long-playing Hell document, is testament to his talent and vision.

The new version of the album is available from Insound.com in a deluxe vinyl package for $29.99 with a poster and a CD with the 10 original tracks and two never before released tracks: "Smitten" and "Funhunt." These are in a signed, numbered edition of 1,000. A CD-only version for $16 also will be available that lacks the two extra tracks. Hell has both editions for sale on his excellent web site as well.

In what I believe is the longest interview Hell has granted about the project, he talks here about the process of repairing the album,
TIRBD: Your answer is likely summarized in your chosen title for this release, but how do you see Destiny Street Repaired? Is it a completely new, separate album, DS 2.0 or something in between?

RH: I've been surprised to see how the new version's impact keeps morphing for me since its release, and so does its relationship to the original Destiny Street keep changing. I shouldn't have been surprised because I've seen over and over how works always keep transforming in meaning and quality over time. One of the specific surprises was that it gave me a new respect for the original album.

My original plan was to release the two albums together in one package, but I realized that that would encourage the cheapest shots from writers. (I'd hoped writers and listeners would treat the new record as distinct, on its own merits, without perpetually comparing it to the old one.) There are a few ironies about how reviewers reacted to the new record, but the biggest one is that until I did this hardly anyone gave any respect to Destiny Street (the original). Whenever I was written about I was treated as essentially a one-album guy: Blank Generation. I've always thought that Destiny Street was a better collection of songs than Blank Generation. But when I brought out this new version so many writers acted all outraged that I'd tampered with the sacred Destiny Street. Where were they when Destiny Street could have used some respect? Most of the objectors are just inane and irresponsible.

So, to answer your question, my original purpose when I decided to do this was to replace the original version, because I had problems with the original for all the reasons that I've stated over and over in the record's press releases and in interviews, though I intended to keep the original available. Now I see the two versions more as complementary, a chance to get an unusually multi-dimensional take on a release. Though, as I said, in my opinion the new version succeeds in being a better presentation of the material, overall.

I feel kind of stupid giving all this dry attention to the thing here. I've moved on since the new album came out. I guess that's part of the reason this is dry -- it's just intellectual, not something I get all worked up about. I'm just analyzing because you asked...

You took some heat from some fans when you announced you would be erasing Robert Quine's work on Destiny Street. Given where your relationship was with Quine when he died, would you have sought him out for this project? Would he have agreed? Have the catcalls abated now that people have heard the finished product?

Yeah, you are misrepresenting this. I didn't "erase" Quine. I wish that the original multitrack tapes with Quine on them had been available to re-mix and mess with. But they were lost by the same guy who had been illegally offering territories around the world licensing "rights" to the original record. It's because he was doing that illegally that I was able to sic lawyers on him and get myself full ownership of the performances. I'd always hoped I could do something to improve the original record, but without the original multitracks I had no raw material. I couldn't even do a proper "re-master" since all we got from Marty Thau ("Red Star" Records) was a copy of the CD itself -- not even a flat two-track tape. I spent a year or two searching for the studio twenty-four track that had been Thau's responsibility to preserve but couldn't find it.

Then I found the tapes I ended up using as the basis for Repaired. There's something I didn't reveal about those rhythm tracks I used on the Repair versions. I didn't reveal it because I knew that it would lead reviewers (or listeners in general) to find much more fault with the new versions than if I kept it to myself. (The same way I knew they'd take advantage of knowing that the songs are resung by the 59-year-old me -- and they did take advantage. But the re-singing was too big a change to try to hide (though maybe I should have tried)). Reviewers/interviewers who somehow missed the info that I'd resung the songs invariably commented on how well the singing worked. They thought it was just different takes or mixes from 1982! But half of the others, who'd read the press release carefully so knew I'd redone vocals, got really sarcastic and sneery about the geezer's pathetic attempt to match his punk youth, as I expected. Nobody at all, not one person, complained about the inferior production of the bass/drums/rhythm-guitars, though I guarantee you a large number would have been offended and mocking if they knew they came from an unproduced direct live two track cassette that'd stretched out of tune in the 27 years it'd been in the bottom of a bag in a closet.)

So, what I'm getting to is that the core rhythm tracks I used for Repaired were NOT the original rhythm tracks. Some of them were the same takes that went on the record, some were not, but more to the point, the rhythm-tracks tapes I found were raw un-"produced" cassette tapes run off in the studio while we played live (bass, drums, two rhythm guitars). The playing went right to cassette just for my reference, for me to take home and listen to overnight and judge where to go next. The tapes had no post-production and no mixing, they were run directly to cassette without any trouble taken with them except to assure that every part was audible and on the correct channel(s) (as I recall--drums and bass in the middle and a guitar on each side). That's what I had to work with last year. The instrument tracks could not be altered individually at all: they were already mixed onto the two cassette tape channels. I couldn't isolate a snare or a bass drum for instance to beef it up, or change the relative volumes of the rhythm guitars. Furthermore the tapes had stretched in the intervening years, so that the pitch (and speed) of everything had slightly changed. Ribot, et al, had to change the tuning on their guitars to play with the tapes (and I had to do my best as a singer to be in the vicinity of the pitch even though I'd had the songs in their original rock-solid keys in my head forever).

So that's what I had to work with to make the new version. I loved that the tapes existed and that they made possible this fun plan, but they had their limitations too. Anyway I did talk to Quine about it. I assumed from the beginning that Bob would do all the new soloing and when I asked he committed to it without hesitation. He often thought some of my ideas were eccentric but he always trusted me and always agreed to do any studio playing I asked him to. And he agreed to do this. But then he offed himself. (Ed: Quine committed suicide in 2004)

What are your thoughts about this now being the only version of the album available? Would you ever consider releasing the original for an exercise in compare/contrast to bolster your stand that this version is superior?

As I wrote above, my original plan was to release the two versions together as a double album. But since my personal concept and intention in making Repaired was to improve on the original by keeping it clean and clear and doing some editing, I realized it would be a bad idea to bring them out together. It would just have encouraged people to compare the two versions rather than take the new one on its own merits, as if it was a simple re-release, which is how I conceived it and hoped it would be received. (Also it would have been a bit pretentious and self-important, wouldn't it? Two versions of one album as a single release? The present plan is more natural and self-consistent--bring out Repaired as the equivalent of a re-release-with-bonus-material, and eventually return the original package to print for anyone who's interested.)

As I said above, while I do regard the new version as having successfully achieved a better representation of the songs, altogether, the whole experience of doing this has given me a greater respect for the original. There are definitely two or four cuts out of the ten that are better on the original than on Repaired. In fact I knew that going in--I originally planned to keep the original versions of the first two songs ("Replaceable" and "Gotta Move") and only work on the remaining eight. But it was clear pretty quickly that that wouldn't work--there would be such a schism in the sound that it would ruin the whole effect of the record. That schism was created by the difference in the production of the original and the Repaired. That difference being what I described above--the original is actually produced, with a strong snappy and booming drum sound, and care taken with the vocals in an excellent recording environment, whereas I was working with plain, direct, unproduced rhythm tracks from a 27-year-old cassette, so that it was impossible to work on their sound at all, and my new singing was in a different off-center pitch and recorded in a closet-sized digital studio really meant only for computer-mixing.

It's true, too, that Quine's solos are treasure and matchless in the original, even though they're often bobbing in and out of a morass of overdubs, and they appear in badly constructed songs. On the new version, one song is greatly improved by radical editing ("Downtown at Dawn") and another gets an ineffable extended outro that was curtailed on the original ("Destiny Street").

Anyway, I intend, as I did from the beginning, to get a handsome new release of the original album arranged to come out once the first strong demand for the new one fades, in a year or so.

You have been writing your memoirs. Have you had any realizations about this time that were revealed to you by the process of reworking this album?

I'm not really writing memoirs -- it's an autobiography, a straight autobiography. The story of my life from childhood in Kentucky through about age 34, when I left music. And, nah, working on the album didn't really play into the book at all. The book is just about finished. I feel pretty good about it.

You've said about the recording of Destiny Street that "I was so debilitated by despair and drug-need that I was useless." Does that only apply to your performance? You didn't change the song structures or the lyrics in any discernible way, so you must be happy with them -- why weren't those faculties as compromised by your state as your ability to perform?

But, as I said above I did change the song structures. The worst mess was "Downtown at Dawn." I consistently cut out measures from every go-round of the verses. The new version is way streamlined and concise compare to the original. The original ran 5:55, the new one 4:28. A minute and a half has been cut and that's all editing of the structure, not paring the outro or anything. Also the new "Destiny Street" song is 7:13, which is about two and a half minutes longer than the orig (4:42). I love the extended moronic-guitar duel between Marc and Ivan on the new one. If it had been possible I would have written some bridges for the songs on the new one too, but there would have been no way to match the rhythm track sounds.

Another way in which I altered the recordings, improving on the neglectful originals, was to add some backup harmonies, namely on "Lowest Common Dominator" and "Staring in Her Eyes."

But as I've said over and over, the main defect, that came from my 1982 laziness and inattention, is the way the overall production is an undifferentiated muck of piercing guitar layers. Rather than attend to giving the songs their due in appropriately thought-through kick-ass guitar arrangement, I just had the players throw in the kitchen sink. It's like a diversionary tactic. Or Woody Allen leaping around like he knows king fu. Well, not that bad. Those guys could play, but all the backwards guitar and multi-effects from strings of boxes, in dub on top of screeching dub, sabotage these songs.

It's the playing of the new soloists that really knits the release together. I didn't bring this up with them, but I know that they all knew the album well, and had all played with Quine, and admired and fully appreciated him -- and I think that in a way their playing is a kind of salute to Bob. In spots I think they refer to him. But it didn't even have to be conscious, and it is most certainly not imitation -- they play differently than Bob -- but they have similar values. Bob respected and appreciated all three of them too. Anyway their playing is great and everything I had any right to hope for. It's the consistency of their fluent and perceptive participation in the songs that makes the album into what I hoped it would be.

In doing this, you were singing lyrics written nearly 30 years before. This is different from live performance, where it is acknowledged that the artist has aged and grown. In this case, you are recreating something from another time. Did any of the lyrics strike you differently in this context? Did you consider any changes or updates?

I didn't think of it as recreating something from another time. The songs, and their performances as caught on the rhythm-section tapes I used, were good and the performances were faithful to the songs. I never thought twice about singing them last year. It didn't require any conceptual leap or any unusual mental framework -- I just sang them as well as I could, just as I'd played them and music-directed them as well as I could on the 1982 tapes. I neither tried to imitate the 1982 vocals, nor to deliberately depart from them. I just tried to be true to the songs. No contortions were required whatsoever. It was a pleasure to do.

You said before the release of Destiny Street Repaired that "there are a few qualities of the original that this version couldn't better." What are those and why wasn't it possible to improve upon them?

Quine's and Naux's guitar solos of course. I truly believe Quine is the best soloist in the history of rock & roll. Unfortunately, he's not given his best presentation on Destiny Street. I could have made an amazing Repaired, though, rearranging the mixes to highlight his playing, and having him add new solos is other spots. But Marty Thau lost the original multitrack (and the original two-track mix!), and Quine killed himself before we could go back into the studio.

Then there's the matter of the impossibility of getting a professional production on the rhythm tracks because they came from a raw live performance on cassette (as detailed above). The subtleties of mix variations and the basic competence of the production as in getting a strong drum sound were unavailable to me on the new version (though as I said no one noticed!)

Also, I did have a more flexible wider-ranged voice with more depth at the age of 31-32 than I did last year at 59. As said above, the recording conditions were also better in 1982. Though I believe I managed well enough to compensate with other qualities in the singing on Repaired, so that overall the new vocals -- all or nothing -- are better.

But I still have no doubts whatsoever that I was justified in making Repaired and that the record is a success, accomplishing what I intended. The two versions don't mix, and taken as stand-alone albums, as song suites, as sequences of material on disk, the new version is superior to the old.

You have focused more on writing in the past several years. Did this process reignite any desire to make music on a more regular basis? If so, what form will that take?

I've always loved making albums and that hasn't changed. Unfortunately that wasn't and isn't enough to justify the expense of rehearsing and paying salaries and for recording time and for the manufacture and distribution of records. If it were possible for me to take off six months (or even two months) every two or three years to write and rehearse and record an album's worth of material, and then return to writing books or whatever, I'd love it. But each time that would cost $150,000 and who's going to pay for it? Especially now when listeners just steal music rather than pay the musicians anyway.

What is the status of the memoir and your other writing projects?

The autobiography will be a big book, well over 300 closely-packed pages, and I'm on the last chapter. I'll start showing it to publishers by the summer I expect. I would think it'd be published in 2011.

Let me add one last thing to this ponderous (sorry!) interview. Namely that I'm really gratified by the reception of Destiny Street Repaired altogether. It might have sounded like I was being pretty cutting about the reviewers, but actually I feel great about the record's reception. The proportion of positive to negative has been about 50/50 or maybe 60/40 in favor, but, seriously, the positive reviews have been so much more intelligent and accurate than the negative ones (I mean in obvious ways!), that it ends up feeling more like 85/15, since most of the negative ones are just mean-spirited and had obviously made up their minds before they listened. Ultimately, I got a better reception with this than I expected. And regardless of any of that it's been a great experience.