Ringo was a fascist too.

the artist enters The Trades by the fire escape........[photo via /https://www.flickr.com/photos/rogerodoherty/]

I was part of about 21people+ drums +VAT who picketed this gig .

Including

about 6 people who  had brought big noisy drums to the protest and were hammering away as Martha's fans  walked in.

At  one point ,one young drummer near me got most irate."that bloke just said 'you drummers are all fascists!'How can drumming be fascist??.That's not TRUE.Drumming isnt fascist is it...." (being most putout about how the two could possibly be equated) .

I said to him,wanting to console ,"Never mind,Ringo was probably a facist too"

.He gave me a strange look.turned away,and resumed  his drumming ........

No doubt the subtilty was lost in the excitement .

What on Earth am I banging on about this week.............

Now,to be fair, I am told many artists leave & enter via The Fire Escape (its where the stage is).But its an arresting image,non?
For whatever reason Canadian singer Martha Wainwright did not want to engage the pickets on Wednesday night in Hebden Bridge
.Neither has she (as far as I know) talked about her position during her current troubled tour of the Britiah Isles . She can talk to Jerusalem Post but not The Hebden Bridge Times. Those drums kind of fill the silence she left behind her.................
.

Well [here] is some background.
The Canadian singer Martha Wainwright was playing Hebden Bridge's Trades Club.Us locals were restless because of her very recent support for Israel.
Bad Vibes @ Hippy Central because of this gig.
The Hebden Bridge Trades Club has always been a strong supporter & fund raiser on behalf of Palestine. It was embarrassing for both the club & the community as a whole.
It has caused a lot of debate among folk.Some wanted her banned & a raising of funds to buy out her contract.Others won the day with the compromise i outline below.
Personally I think it was about right.
Martha was allowed to sing.I was allowed to protest her visit to Israel.The Trades raised some more money for a good cause.

She was booked in good faith by the club before all the anger started about her Israeli visit. Had they cancelled, issues about "Breach of Contract" would have arisen,
As a compromise, The printed these leaflets,hung a giant Palistinan flag above the front door and they promised to  donate all  profits to   Medical Aid for Palestine.
In the end the figures broke down as followed: 20 protesters & Me & Drums +VAT outside
20 tickets returned prior to the gig.
The original standing capacity of 190 was changed to a seating plan of 150 + 20 standing.
5 nutcase Zionists who travelled over especially from Manchester to just shout at me for wear a Pro-Palestine Badge
 & a special mention to my West Indian friend Richard from Halifax.He's a boxer & a fighter who wandered along with his new partner .......he was oblivious to what was going on ,but he unknowingly  saved me from any further earbashing from the Zionists.They kinda took one look at him and found some others to abuse..........

 A strange personal twist for me was the fact that in 1978 i took this photo in Liverpool of her late Mum Kate McGarrigle. So I have always previously been aware of-and liked-her dynasty...

n.

there is no flamenco tonight

Me & Cath went to hear the Great American novelist James Ellroy give a talk in Manchester's Dancehouse Theatre'
Earlier the same day (5th Nov) we visited The Sensory War  at Manchester Art Gallery......
 This post's title refers to a notice that was  blue-tac'd onto the front door of the Dance Theater, telling the evenings students that (because James was in town)'flamenco' was off the menu for the night.......!
I was surprised how many people turned up.500+ souls on a wet  cold neon -lit evening....And the art nouveau-noirish decor of the Dancehouse  compounded  the effect  of it all........

(one of several audio clips i recorded in manchester)

 

Me & Martin & Ken & Bob & Noj & Jim #1 & Jim #2 & John & Tony T. went to Eastern Spice in Hebden Bridge for a meal 6th Nov .(see photos) 

James Ellroy interview: LA Confidential author on promoting books and settling scores {INDEPENDENT}

The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense.

Somewhere further on down the line,Me & Cath see Simone Felice at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club on the 19th November.[as i write this 2nd Nov you may still be able to pick up a few tickets for the gig here ?]
this is justabout near perfect... I went into Manchester today with Martin,Jim & Tony T.

 Here are some photos
In the photos below,you may glimpse on several occassions, a couple dancing .
They are not quite as old as the elderly singers.but are they .rehearsing or anticipating?
they danced so beautifully i was spell bound.....
Most of these photos were shot in The Hare& Hounds pub on Shude Hill in Manchester.
(Me & Cath had met Don & Margaret there a few months ago briefly before going onto a gig.It intrigued me then).
I remembered the elderly singers & suggested to the lads we might visit tonight. We had intended only a swift drink then onto the trendy Northern Quarter.....But ,instead we stayed all night.Something quite magical about sitting with these 80 year olds having a ball! We stayed the rest of the night.....

brian wilson singing buddy holly's 'listen to me'.

The next few weeks are quite busy in ebenchshire........
I went up to see Phil the X-Fireman at his house in Siddal.(i see him most weeks)
 He is ok.He has  of course lost a lot of weight (maybe cos he hasnt been drinking for 8 weeks?!)
His 7 week Chemo & Radiotheraphy course in Leeds is now over (no 'results' for a while yet,he reckons) He Sends Everybody His Love.
He drives down to Hebden Bridge on Wednesday 12 Nov to meet me to see  the film 1971
.Its about a British Squaddie in Northern Ireland in 1971, the same year Phil himself was fighting there.It will be interesting to gather  what he thinks about it.
This coming  Wednesday,Me & Cathy go to Manchester's Dancehouse Theatre to watch/listen to a talk from James Ellory (LA CONFIDENTIAL etc).Expect some images & audio?
The day after that , me ,Comrade Ken,Bob,Nodje,Jim#2 ,John.Jim#1 ,Martin & Phil #2 meet for a curry at Eastern Spice in Hebden Bridge.

On The Roman Road

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Carlisle is a fine fine border city.

Did you know?The Romans never got to Scotland,only as far as Carlisle.Beyond there lies monsters (even makes UKIP scared!)

 Cath & me today moved like Romans.

We took a train journey on the beautiful Settle~Carlisle Line & spent 5 hours in this border city .
We had a Turkish Bath:a Meal:A Museum & A Castle ! Much Joy. Dig my photographs here.....

Because I lived & worked in the East End of London,I have always had a soft spot for the place.
I look at sepia photographs of the Old East End &  feel exiled twofold. Once by 'place':(i now live in The North of England) And once by 'time' .
The 50s& 60s are gone forever i guess?
This week, I first saw these 17 sepia photos ,any one would have fitted the bill.Here is just one example at random. click here to view the rest of David Hoffman's extraordinary exhibition of the Sepia Roman Road 
Enjoy!
( This week's prompt asks for " Street traders, roadside artisans, menders, cobblers, tools-of-the-trade...")

Hey Kids!Click ,put on your headphones & listen to some classic Sepia Audio!

Go On ! You know you want to!

Here is Phil Ochs Live in New York; December 15, 1965.Singing "Joe Hill"
its funny,the copyright police have finally found me! They would not let me put a direct link here.!You will have to leave this page to listen to this illegal Phil Ochs recording.It may be "sepia", but its still dangerous!Hurray!

living legends..forever!

Jeff Buckley:Live ; October 11, 1992: Corpus Christi Carol (acapella) (Benjamin Britten) The carol was written in 1504
"One recent interpretation is that it was composed about the execution of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, whose badge was a falcon...."{wikipedia}
[n.b. the footbally-challenged might need to know that  West Ham's ground in London's East End is known as "The Boleyn Ground" because ,in those wacky olden-days,she used to go a-hunting there......]


This image was taken in Manchester this week at The National Football Museum   
A Get-Well Present from me to Phil the x-fireman.
Phil is in his 6th week of Chemo & radiotheraphy for throat cancer.
Like me,Phil is a massive West Ham United fan.
On the mug are illustrated Martin Peters,Geof Hurst & Bobby Moore.It reads "Living Legends:Forever"
Phil's mouth is always very dry.He is always wanting fluids.This is practical.
 Phil finishes his treatment in a week's time.I'm hoping eventually he might want/be able to visit the Museum with me once he has more spare time (his NHS treatment takes up 5 full days a week at the moment)The mueum is right next door to Victoria Railway station.Not a long walk for him.
 Phil said last week that all he seems to do at the moment is "sleep & take drugs".I cheered him up (i think) by telling him he was turning into Ken  Before my very eyes........
Dexy's Midnight Runners:Live at Haarlem, The Netherlands; October 27, 1982.

June 18th in Hebden Bridge.Phil,Me,Ken .taken just prior to Phil's news..........

did i see you planting seeds in the forest?

The 4th October is the date in 1941 that Norman Rockwell launched a series of Saturday Evening Post covers depicting Willie Gillis. Rockwell described Gillis as “an inoffensive ordinary little guy thrown into the chaos of war”. Willie made his debut carrying a food parcel and suddenly everyone wanted to be his friend.

This is a sepia saturday post.

I remember hearing on the radio recently about the birth of the movies.When the first "film story" was made. It was about how they never imagined that "Stars" could never possibly be  created.
Quite the reverse infact.It was thought that the audience would never accept the same actor in a different role/movie ever again...Once seen in one context,an actor would never be able to appear again the another film.
 Part of me (the part that thinks about Jennifer Aniston ) regrets this didn't happen.....
 I was thinking about the prompt image to this week's topic. I am going for "facial expression". I wonder when the first photographic smile was.?Not an in situ smile :but a "say cheese "smile. The first time someone realized that this smile would stay fixed forever.The first time someone realized they could be surrounded by shit,but lie about it!
 All very existential really.The first time we smiled at an unknown stranger...
 A possible  problem of course is how to  stop it once you've started.
Look at those tragic celebrities and politicians we see around us today.[The false existential smile that stays fixed forever...I am thinking here about Batman's Joker.....]
So here then dear sepians  is a nice (and relatively rare?) example of a group of people fair oblivious to the camera.
Yes.They know the reason they are there is to be photographed.But they dismiss the camera and  smile at each other instead.We are dismissed!

SILVER RAVEN:Gene Clark - guitar, vocals Michael Clarke - drums Richard Manuel - piano, vocals Rick Danko - bass, vocals Blondie Chaplin - guitar, vocals Evansville, IN; May 15, 1985
(.try to listen towards the end of the audio .Nice to hear both Gene's speaking voice & his mention of Rick Danko......).
Meanwhile...today.....In the Scottish Free State ,lives a rather fine band called Young Fathers.I am really pleased they have been nominated for this year's MERCURY.
 No doubt the winners will turn out to be a group of public schoolboys from Surrey.But never mind ,its brought Young Fathers some richly deserved attention.Remember,I've been blathering on about them for over a year here .They are rather special. (although the american interviewer in this video is a bit of a tit...)

we followed Rosencrantz to the chippy on Exchange Street.

See all my photos today [here] .

By the way Capo Martin,we went to The Scuttlers Bar off Shude Hill ....../opposite the station & tram stop.Worth a visit sometime?

a fine photo Cath took of the gentle author in The Scuttlers Bar.

  Me and Cathy went to see Maxine Peake's new production of Hamlet at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre.
It opened late last week.
We went to today's matinee performance[.3 hefty bum-numbing hours.]
Straight after the performance ,as we left the theatre, Rosencrantz (a chick) still dressed in her stage costume of punk leathers,short skirt & tattoos, ran passed us along Exchange Street to the nearby chippy
.The cast would only have a couple of hours before the evening show would start.
Her hunger & urgency was fair enough.
 So far ,the play has only had moderate reviews (3 out of 5 in both The Telegraph & The Guardian although a 5/5 from The Times)
I found it fine myself .
Maybe its the gender thing they had difficulty with?Not only are Hamlet & Rosencrantz chicks..but Polonius and the gravediggers too! I loved those fucking gravedigging babes! Broad Scouse accents & (at the end of the play) one of them breaks into Frank Sinatra's MY WAY!
Generally,to be fair, Maxine is pretty loyal to the story + the Set Design was pretty groovy ! Dr Who sprang to mind!
All in all , a great bouncy play.
 A young lad in the audience sported a Bob Dylan teeshirt..& i must admit ,His Bobness does have something of The Prince of Denmark about him.
 Have I ever told you, in 1972 i went on a Youth Hostel holiday to Denmark & visited Helsinor Castle! Which is more than Shakespeare ever did.........