Soundtrack to a Strike

Very much a work in progress this. I was trying to think of stuff that should be on an OST for the day. This is what I ended up with:

The Workers - Let's Work Together
The Specials - Ghost Town (h/t Perrin124)
Rage Against the Machine - Maggie's Farm
Captain Ska - Liar Liar
Billy Bragg - There is Power in a Union
Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will be Next
Manic Street Preachers - Natwestbarclaysmidlandslloyds
The Enemy Within - Strike (cheers again to Perrin)
Luke Haines - Never Work
Radiohead - Electioneering
NxtGen - The Andrew Lansley Rap
Marxism 2008 Closing Rally - The Internationale

Any further suggestions welcome - we'll use it on the next one. Solidarity, comrades.

Things you notice about incidental music

Our school's assembly was xmas-themed this week, and a bit of Charlie Brown's Christmas was shown. Peanuts is one of those things you know about because it seems to be a formative part of most Americans' childhood experiences, rather than something I know much about myself, so I'd never seen it.

So hey, maybe you are a big Peanuts fan and already know this. WELL GOOD FOR YOU. But I didn't, so there.

Listen to the background music here!



THE RED FLAG! Is it me, or is that a weird choice for an American cartoon? I used to read the strip in my Nan's Daily Fail, for the gods' sake!

PS more cartoon strip to follow soon, if you like that sort of thing.

UPDATE: Thanks to Roobin (see comments), I have learned that in fact The Red Flag is usually sung to the tune of a German Christmas carol called O Tenenbaum, which in English is rendered as O Christmas Tree. Therefore it is just a coincidence that it appears in Charlie Brown Christmas at a point where Charlie is railing against consumerism. You Learn Something New Every Day.

Leeds 2010 Roundup

"I'm sorry for quoting U2 in a place where poetry has been performed"

- Eddie Argos

It was a good festival this year, despite the fairly weak lineup. It was definitely a personal best in terms of number of bands seen and some really stood out - Foals in particular, but also Klaxons, Los Campesinos!, Phoenix, Egyptian Hip-Hop, Minus the Bear, Chapel Club and a few others. Futureheads were as fun as ever - you never get bored of the Bouncy Bounce or the Futureheads Singing Game, after all.

Because I was working on the Main Stage bar again this year, this did unfortunately mean I had to see Guns 'n' Roses, the only interest here being of course how late Axl would show up, assuming he turned up at all. In the end even that was boring - only about half an hour late, which in Axl's world is actually on time. He's the man for whom the phrase 'wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff' was invented. It's like the Libertines, if they just turn up and play their rubbish pop songs, no one will give a fuck.

Funny thing though, we'd been saying all weekend how they were 'just a covers band these days' and when they turned up they played Knocking on Heaven's Door, The Pink Panther, and Another Brick in the Wall. For fucking hours.

Total highlight of the festival for me was Eddie Argos's turn with Art Brut's guitarist and Everybody Was in the French Resistance ... Now!'s keyboardist. He was funny, had some kick-ass pop songs and the best engagement with the crowd of anyone I saw. he managed to get everyone in the comedy tent on their feet and up at the stage, which is a fair achievement really. Plus he played Emily Kane in front and with the assistance of his girlfriend (the aforementioned keyboardist, lovely Dyan Valdes) which is if nothing else somewhat ballsy.

Also the M.C. went 'who wants to see Guns 'n' Roses tonight?' and most of the tent went 'Meh.' Slightly taken aback, he said 'Who's not bothered about Guns 'n' Roses?' which got a deafening cheer. 'Oh, that's not the reaction I was expecting, to be honest' he said, looking genuinely confused.

This leads me onto my mini-rant for the day. Comedians at Leeds: don't ditch your material just 'cos you're at a festival. Andrew Lawrence did OK, but Jason Byrne disappeared into misogynist, misandrist wankiness after an amazing start. Every comedian seems to think shouting 'This is much better than Reading, isn't it?' and swearing a lot is what the audience want, but the truth is no one gives a fuck about Leeds/Reading rivalry and if you're in a comedy tent there's a chance that you're there to see some comedians do their actual material. For the love of gods!

Rant over. Pics may follow, or may not. Anyway, that's my reason for not having anything to say about the other major event of this weekend.

Farewell to All This

I'm changing location. I'm leaving my beloved North East behind and going to the midlands. Obviously there are a lot of problems with this, chief among them being that I won't be in the North East, with its vibrant music and political scenes, cool buildings and sea view.

Instead I will be in a miserable, accent-less limbo that for reasons best known to themselves, quite large numbers of people have chosen not to leave. So I thought I'd mark my leaving with some photos of my last weekend on Tyneside, which it has to be said was as close to perfection as you can get. Dear reader, I know you're fascinated, so I will tell the story in stages.

SATURDAY



Saturday kicked off with the anti-EDL demo, which was the largest and most confident that I've ever been on in Newcastle - and one where we outnumbered the racist scumbags. This is a good thing, obviously. Also they were effectively contained by the rozzers and there was no violence, at least during the day. Certainly though their boasts of getting 2,000 hooligans to the Toon were idle ones. It's hard to estimate numbers accurately but when I and a comrade left our demo to have a quick snoop it looked like there were 4-500 tops. Still a lot, but considering how big they've been trying to make this, not as bad as it could have been. I'd say there were about a third as many again of us on the UAF demo, and there were another couple of hundred or more up at Monument where the TUC were doing their event. So all in all a successful day, and hopefully the twats won't be coming back.

After that, on to the Doctor Who exhibit at Centre for Life. This was ace. You must go. YOU MUST GO.

Following which, Evolution Emerging was on - a load of free gigs down the Ouseburn. Got to see the amazing Let's Buy Happiness again and the even more amazing Mammal Club, followed by the lovely Soundtracks for a B-Movie, who once their technical problems were sorted out turned out to be purveyors of beautiful instrumental music.

SUNDAY
On Sunday the weather was manky but Evolution proper had started, and luckily I'd got my grubby mitts on one of these...
Which meant I could actually see and hear the Futureheads, unlike people who were inside the venue...

MONDAY
Then Monday, it was Slow Club, Brilliant Mind, Mammal Club again and De La Soul. Fucking ace.

So, although I'll deeply miss Tyneside and all those who've been kind enough to put up with me at various points over the last decade, seriously: what a way to go.

Luke Haines! LUKE HAINES!!

Seems to be doing a bit of a tour at the mo. To anyone who's missed this and is actually Tyneside resident, don't get wrecked at home, Christ, come see the best artist and be starstruck. How could I be wrong?

[/coat]

He's at the Cluny anyway. Friday 6th November. Tickets £7.

He's also got a brand new double album coming out - I'm genuinely, seat-squirmingly excited.*

*But I have to write it like I'm being sarcastic so I don't ruin my dead-cool image. Phew, that was close.

Thinky Thunk Mittens Need to be Compulsory

As I'm sure you know, everyone's favourite Stone Roses cover band split over the weekend. Just check out this story about it on the Beeb though. Christ.*

MattGriffin added: "This is the worst day ever."

Is it really though, Matt? Is it REALLY? Reeeeaaaaaaalllllllly? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy? Rrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Is it? Are you sure? Are you sure it's the worst day ever? Are you? Have you really thought about it? Given it a good little ponder have you? Considered some alternatives? Sure?

No, OK, that's fine. Just checking.

Thinky. Thunk. Mittens.

*And my tolerance levels are quite high, given that I had to listen to Kings of Leon and their dimwitted singer last night. At one point he actually said 'I knew this gig was either going to be amazing, or, not amazing.' Idiot.

On the Benefits of Matey Bubble Bath

Leeds was nice, since you asked. Got quite lucky this year, as the bar I was working on was one of the ones in the main arena, so I got to see the headliners three nights in a row, with a good view and no one filling up a cup with piss next to me. And the way the shifts worked out I was off for both Bloc Party and Radiohead, who were both ace.

In a moment of reflection on the way that my life and opportunities don't quite match up to my childhood dreams, I realised that although Kelly from Bloc Party got to say 'cue Radiohead' to 10,000 fans, I'm probably never going to be in that position. The 'head were awesome though. Never seen them live before, so I was always jealous of my ex, who'd seen them do their Big Top tour years ago.

Anyway, Matey bubble bath. The staff showers were bloody awful this year you see, alternating between 'water hot, but coming out so slowly it might well evaporate before you can catch it' and 'water pressure fine, but temperature so cold it's like that scene from If...'.* So somewhere to fulfil the three vital functions of sitting down, getting clean and making little houses out of giant clouds of bubbles has been very welcome. Thank you Matey, you cheeky little plastic sailor you.

*No, not that one. The one where Malcom McDowell has to take a very cold shower. Actually, although there were lots of things that were well organised, there were enough gripes this year to make me feel almost as low down the food chain as the actual paying customers. Urgh.

'He'll die in his bed on a summer's night with his hands on his adequate bride.'

I've been listening to Future of the Left's new album pretty well non-stop for the last three days now.

It's really good. There's a good interview with Falco here, although my favourite was in Art Rocker a while ago. Sample quote: 'I'm not the best Christian in the world. I'm not even a Christian.'

Anyway, this is just a plug for them really. Couldn't find anything on Last.fm unfortunately, but here's a poorly recorded version of album opener 'Arming Eritrea'



As you were.

Edit: oh, they're so old skool they have a MySpace! There's some music on there. Check out 'lapsed catholics' and 'drink nike' particularly, but it's all good.

The Tragedy of Michael Jackson

is that it took until today's Charlie Brooker column before I found out that Swells is dead. Man, that sucks. He was the reason I used to buy NME - when he stopped writing for them, the magazine lost its last trace of interest.

I swear, if it wasn't for Jacko I might have spent the last few days actually paying attention to some news.

Bye Swells. You would have loathed me and everything I love, but you would've been witty about it.

Boring News Roundup

Unemployment seems to be having a dulling effect on my brainmeats. All the stuff that's grabbed my attention recently has been, on closer reflection, uninteresting.

Michael Jackson's dead? All the jokes about him are to do with child molestation and heart failure isn't a very funny way to go, so there's nothing to interest me here. (Well, actually, this is quite funny.)

Tories are right-wing, not terribly bright and extremely punchable? Already knew that, thanks. Yawn. (Although it is quite funny that they've realised they come across so badly that they've got the vid pulled from YouTube. Fuckknuckles.)

MPs are going to raise personal pension contributions for themselves rather than try to sort out the mess that is private sector pensions? Quelle surprise. Although it is amusing that someone on Radio Fourgeois this morning was quoted saying that they thought this might be the grand gesture that would win back the public trust. Yeah, I'd expect turnout to be 90%+ now...

Even Charlie lost his powers for me this week - I only got a couple of paragraphs in to his piece. I think I've spent more time on Time Splitters 3 than reading the news, and I finished that game about 2 years ago (did finally get gold on the subway challenge though).

Oh well, I'll do a paper sale tomorrow, see how that goes. Apparently there was a really successful solidarity picketing of a wildcat strike yesterday so activism's up in the area, which can only be a good thing. Tsk, SNAP OUT OF IT, CHRISTIE!

Still, Power Without Responsibility is very good, I'd recommend it. The political economy of the mass media since the 18th Century, explaining how it came to be the strange beast it is today.

P.S. In case you were wondering where my trenchant griping about Iran is, the answer is: I don't know enough about Iran to have a coherent, let alone accurate take on events there. Generally speaking I'm on the side of people who are being fired at, but for the time being I'm just trying to learn about the place before I go off on one. So it's dead pop stars and other trivia at the moment...

Warm Moving Bodies

A comrade recently sent me this, and it's great. Here ye gan.

My Awesome Life

Also from Saturday's Graun, this:

I'm thinking of holding a new poll based on 'things I haven't done', as clearly this is public interest journalism*. You know, 'my year without doing handstands on the moon'; 'my month without a blood-soaked proletarian revolution'. Suggestions welcome.

And finally, Adam Curtis has got a new project coming out, which you have to catch upwith if at all possible. Adam Curtis. You know, Adam Curtis. You haven't seen The Power of Nightmares? Or The Trap? or Century of the Self? Go away and watch them. Now.

Right, now that you've done that, go and get Future of the Left's new album. It's OUT NOW.
Future of the Left. You know, Future of the Left. You weren't that into Mclusky? Godsdamnit, go here, listen to this, go get more.

*This has nothing to do with my own sex life of course. How dare you. How very dare you.

Oh Well, Cheer Up

Never mind though eh? Here's a song about a mouse.

Lowkey Rather Good

A while ago I had a grand day out in central London. It was just me, some placards, some chants, quite a bit of snow and about 100,000 comrades.

Anyway at the time I remarked on a particularly good rapper who had done a piece without any backing track and got the crowd to shout Free Free Gaza at the end of every verse.

Thanks to a Complex System of Pipes I can post Lowkey's vid of that song here, for me to find again later for you to enjoy.