Season's Greetings From A Flooded Hebden Bridge.( & our amazing fucking curtains)

John Lennon: 1974 studio outtakes :  

2015: my best photos.

https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Photos-2015/

Manchester German Markets

click * here * to see images from  the Rochdale hamam's visit to Manchester's German Market.

one last singer in the land.....

December 19th marks the 75th  Birthday of Phil Och.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Ochs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill

PHIL OCHS: Live at Salle Claude Champagne, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada; October 22, 1966. This song is from a show long been rumored to have been recorded by the FBI!
 Phil Ochs was one the greatest political (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and distinctive voice.
He wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and ’70s and released eight albums.
 The FBI kept Phil Ochs under active surveillance for 13 years.
 The introduction of The Freedom of Information Act revealed pages and pages of information on Phil with the FBI labelling him a “communist” with “un-American thoughts”.
Despite the hundreds of pages in his FBI file, the FBI never found that Ochs ever committed any federal crimes. He continued to be under investigation until his death by suicide in 1976.
 Ochs performed at many political events during the 1960s counterculture era, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career, in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City’s Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.
Politically, Ochs described himself as a “left social democrat” who became an “early revolutionary” after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to a police riot, which had a profound effect on his state of mind.
 After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs’s mental stability declined in the 1970s. He eventually succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and took his own life in 1976.

drinks in Halifax

Jeux sans frontières

"One in ten deaths during the Blitz was a child. Because of a fear that the Germans would use poisoned gas in their bombs people were given gas masks. Children were given brightly coloured gas masks to make them more appealing and fun......."http://www.thekidswindow.co.uk/news/ww2
Hey!  http://www.viewfromthisside.com/about/  is an important site for us sepians.Well  worth checking out. All my photos this week  are from this charmant website.
This is a   Sepia Saturday  post.  "think of caps, or children, or playground games or any of the hundreds of things Sepians like to think of....."

Practically .Visit this site to help children play in Gaza.     http://www.hopeandplay.org/

Try and get there before the Israeli's do..........

LOU REED, JOHN CALE & NICO
Live at Le Bataclan, Paris, France; January 29, 1972. Very good soundboard.

A one-legged -beggar in Liverpool.Today shook my hand......

Me & Cath went back to Liverpool today.
(We were there a couple of weeks ago.)  Got me a mess of  discount tickets from Northern Rail which 'need using. ......
Although we both had the start of Colds (& I had toothache) If not used today....,they would be  lost .
So,....... we  went to the Bluecoat Museum.
[Not been there since 1976 when i saw a film there with His Drayness .]
 It pissed down. Beggars sat in puddles. England's shame.
 Outside Job Centre Plus+ a man with one-leg was begging.I gave him(after much searching) a 50p coin. I told him it was all the change I had on me .
 He shook my hand. I could have cried as i left him.....a proud man ,who stands taller than i ever will........
This country is a mess......

other photos here.........https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Other/LIVERPOOL5th-November-2015/

By marble slabs and in fields of stone

other nice pictures from the night.....
https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Other/Halifax-29th-October-2015/

Ron Sexsmith :Hebden Bridge Trades Club.

Me and Sue Trigg went to Skool in the Olden Days!

https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/G-i-g-s/Ron-Sexsmith-Hebden-Bridge/

don't touch the third rail

  

Me and Cathy went for the day to Liverpool.

photos here..................

https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Dropbox/LIVERPOOL-15th-October-2015/

Me in  the Walker  Gallery ,Liverpool ,Yesterday.
I studied and lived in Liverpool between 1976-1980.
(Teacher Training Certificate  & B.Ed(hons) from Lancaster Uniy& C.F. Mott,Huyton.)
My life in Liverpool was an in-between time for me. 
Many memories.Mostly good, tho i never loved the place the way i loved East London where I moved onto afterwards.......
Saying that ,Liverpool was,and is ,a Spirited Republic.
I wish it well in these dismal times in Dear Old Blighty.
God.England is shit at the moment.
A type of  purgatory.Non?

"The Dinner Party" [1980] by Sam Walsh. 

He was a Liverpool lecturer who painted this in the last years of his life.
 The sitters , who would never meet all at the same time, are people who from periods in his life. They include neighbours, solicitor, ex-wife, partner, bank manager & friends.

Simone Felice:8th October 2015:St.Michael's Church, Ancoats,Manchester.

Me & Cathy went with Capo Martin to St.Michael's de-consecrated church in Ancoats.
It was the first ever gig in a place that the Roman Jesus had  just vacated.........
(On the night, I think we all struggled with what  the correct ceremony for such an  occasion might be......?)
All i can say is that the acoustics in the place  are superb.Its clean,it's light & it has a good vibe.
A lovely sweet venue (tho the Bar charges Old Trafford prices!)
Simone was his usual Spiritual Self........a most underrated soul.
He had flown in from  New York that morning.He had been detained in a small room alone for 4 hours at Gatwick because of passport irregularities
 He seemed unimpressed with UK Border Control.......

[click to see all my photos]

a video i took:

The People's Assemby: Manchester March.

click  for all my Photos=  https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Dropbox/The-Peoples-AssemblyMarch-4th/

flags & bunting from some grimy republic

I am nearly 65. Yorkshire Born & Bred! I was brought up in Halifax in the 50/60/70's . I always throught it "a grimy republic" . I love the place, but i still think it dark.......

UPDATE 28 feb 2018:   http://everton.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/looks-like-some-cunt-from-cheshire.html

(n.b. all photos below are NOT B.H.'s )

Halifax.(origin unknown)

Although ,a case in point, clickthis Martin Parr photograph of Old Halifaxto see a photo  very similar to some of B.H.'s photos. Now Martin Parr    is probably my favourite English photographer. Remember ,me & Cath went to his curated exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery recently.I beg to suggest that several of B.H. 's unseen photos stand comparison with Parr's?
n.b. I wrote  this very brief overview
of Martin's work.  
This is a Sepia Saturday post.

My previous post here reports of my visit last Sunday night to Hope Baptist Church in Hebden Bridge .
I heard the political commentator & journalist Owen Jones speak.
 He talked about how we English are becoming disenfranchised from the  politics in our life.We  start  to believe poverty ,hunger& unemployment etc are all'Acts of God' .Inevitable ...just like the rain outside......
 As it happens, the BBC are filming a new series of Happy Valley at the moment ,in Hebden Bridge.
Two nights ago, on the street that I work, they were filming this scene.
Given the nature of Yorkshire weather,dig the irony.It wasn't raining,so they had to use artificial rain!

As a Halifax child of the 50's, I remember during our Wakes Week some people , not themselves away on holiday, would climb to the top of Beacon Hill to admire the view.
 We live in a beautiful place.During Wakes Wake all the factories shutdown spewing smoke,so it was the only time you could  see the beauty!
The photos I share here show plenty of washing-lines.All those white clothes! How did they keep'em clean within the smoke & rain?
To me,the clean washing look not like white flags of surrender ,but  defiance .
 I believe we see the same defiance in the works today of Jeremy Corbyn & that fine American Bernie Sanders.( a tad strained link....but there you go!)
Incidentally,Mr Sanders name was respectfully mentioned several times at the  church on Sunday

Halifax

I must admit,i cringed a little when i saw this on the telly live.('seemed a little bit too "Bono" for my taste ) But I agree with the sentiment , and it does make for a cracking end to this post.....
. Although!This is a Beautiful Englishman singing the song to its best
.Everytime i hear Robert Wyatt's voice ,i sort of roll myself  into a ball & weep gently...it's so beautiful in my humble opinion.

The Annual Peterloo Massacre Remembrance in Manchester

Look Close! You Can See Me In The Crowd.

Me ,Cath & Martin Thorpe went to the annual Peterloo Massacre Memorial in Manchester today.

Approx 600 souls attended. A Choir;a folk band and actors Maxine Peake:Christopher Ecclestone (eg Dr Who):John Thompson (eg Fast Show);John Henshaw (eg Early Doors) gave readings.
A minutes silence was observed to respect those who were murdered.

For my American friends, Peterloo (1819) was England's Tiananmen Square(1989): England's Sharpville (1960): England's Kent State (1970 ) Peterloo was the subject of Shelly's poem The Masque of Anarchy

Maxine Peake: Fundraiser for The Morning Star newspaper: Hebden Bridge Trades Club:Saturday 8th August 2015

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Peake

Maxine read Shelley's Masque of Anarchy.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_Anarchy    i took a wee video clip of her reading some of it  tonight......(Shelly on a Saturday night!)  which i will add here soon.A splendid night.A full house.