A silver lining in a very black cloud

Today was one of the darkest days in my living memory. Within hours not only has the countries fate been given over to David Cameron’s army of Tory’s thanks to the treacherous Liberal Democrats, but one of our finest sanctuary’s was forced to cancel due to rising cost’s forced by local money grabbing police. A stark reminder that our civil liberties have no sign of letting up when it comes to them being stripped from us without argument and that money is still the main evil preventing us from having a good time. Now I know next to fuck all about politics, so this isn’t going to be a politically based blog (I was only 7 when the Tories last had the ruling of the UK anyway) and I only ever went to 2 Glade’s so this isn’t going to be one on the history of my time there (Fantastic them 2 festivals were though). But there’s one thing would say I know a lot about and that is the history of music and film and its surrounding cultures, but again most of the stuff I’m going to document hasn’t come from my own personal experiences due to me being full of youth. But I feel that in my time I’ve been able to gather enough research from an addiction to IMDB and questions of curiosity when it comes to meeting people from that particular era as well as obsessing over music from that period. One of the main positives that can be taken from the new Tory government is a possible return to quality guitar music. Brit pop ended in allegedly ended in 1997, partly because of the New Labour government and something to do with Princess Diana generally putting a dampener on things as well, but from what I can see from 1979 to 1997 music, especially British music, was at its peek. Factory Records was a year in and starting to make some noise by 1979 and Thatchers call to power, Joy Division had released their first E.P and shit seemed like it was properly kicking off. Factory records then went on to sign many more influential bands and hold host to many at the notorious Hacienda. By the mid 80’s we had such class Indie music like The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Fall, James, The Happy Mondays and so on, back when the term ‘Indie’ actually had proper meaning and the bands didn’t all sound the same. The Hacienda can also be credited with the rise of Acid house, ecstasy culture and the rise of raving. Hosting 808 State in 1989 and having reports of some people “crawling through the air vents just to see them” (according to Wikipedia), with this came the birth of free parties, which then led to ‘the law against rave’ also known as the “Criminal Justice and Public Disorder act 1994” which was bought in by John Majors Tory government mainly because of the infamous Castlemorten festival in 1992, where approximately 30,000 people descended on the tiny village for a week! The mighty rave was dealt its first major blow, not helped by the closing down of the Hacienda (although eye witness reports say the club had been truly dead for several years anyway). I’d like to at this point intervene the history lesson to note that the reason I give this period much praise is because of its lack of motivation for profit. Free parties lived up to their name, and got it’s meaning from “being free from the restrictions of legal club nights”, and Tony Wilson with Factory records famously made many calamities when it came to running a club night and a record company by spending more then they was taking. They released L.P’s that cost more to make then they was actually charging for, and literally rinsed all of New Orders profits from their biggest ever-selling Blue Monday single by putting it straight back into the Hacienda. Why? Because they loved music and felt this is how it should be, and from it we was given quality music from many quality bands. Now at this point you’re probably wondering what this has to do with Glade’s cancelation and a new Tory government, but I’ll be getting to that in a minute…. Anyway 1994 marked the first death of Rave (although I’m sure many still went on for a long time afterwards for arguments sake we’ll call the 1994 law the first death). 1994 also bought along a new band, again another Manchester based band 2 lads and a couple of mates who in 2 years went from the dole cue to performing to having the fastest selling debut album of the time and now one of the biggest selling British albums ever and to then performing to 250,000 people at Knebworth. The absolute Rock n Roll dream despite what anyone’s recent opinions of them are there is no doubting that Oasis were a revelation to Rock n Roll and proved that if you wanted to be the best at something all you had to do was rip off what you’ve heard before. There are many aspects to Brit Pop that I love; The Blur V Oasis war, the rise of Glastonbury, the peak of British Rock n Roll, Jarvis Cocker, I even like that an artist like Damien Hurst could be called a genius, literature such as American Psycho coming in from the states and Irvine Welsh writing his tales of decrepit Scotland and Film makers such as Danny Boyle making films like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. A time when Britain seemed like it actually had some proper balls. Until of course like I mentioned earlier it all came to a bit of an abrupt end with the New Labour government, death of the peoples princess and the release of Oasis highly anticipated, and somewhat disappointing 3rd album, ‘Be Here Now’ from then on nothing happened. Music started to decline, a new Millennium was rung in and bands like Travis, The Darkness and Coldplay, even Robbie Williams was being praised for his excuse for music, Blur and Pulp put themselves on permanent hiatuses and everything else Brit Pop had was almost forgotten about, Glastonbury was then restricted by a massive fence, and television shows such as Pop Idol and then the X-Factor showed that mainstream music was just a tool for a bunch of gormless cunts to produce another production line fad of a performer, tricking the innocent public to come on and lose all their dignity or sell their soul on live television. This has been allowed to continue ever since, despite the brief rise of a new look of Indie music (which was very brief) and being saved by the reformation of a few bands from the old days. Popular music got so shit that I decided to abandon it and find new avenues in Folk and Electronic music with great results. Although the music was fairly bad we have now been given an amazing opportunity through the internet, an opportunity where any of us with a musical note and a lyric can produce a song and put it out to the world via the internet. Yea I know most of it’s shit but that’s not the point, musicians are back to promoting their music and giving it away for free and being more in touch with fans then they’ve ever been.
I think its now time I got to my point well here it is... I like to believe in omens and signs, and I find it more then coincidence that on this black of all days, a community’s legal festival has been stripped from it and the very government that tried to destroy it before is back, I find this more of a coincidence as music, just like the weather or may I be so bold to say the economy, change with every generation and I think a new Tory generation will be just what we need for our muscians, film makers, writers and artists to start giving a shit again and turn Britain back into the super power it once was. The previous Tory government might of stolen your milk, banned you from drinking on the terraces of a football stadium, forced you or a parent out of work due to privatization, and even tried to force a new pointless tax on you. But shit there wasn’t there some great music made under their reign? A Labour government was probably a bit easy on us, we got a minimum wage, tuition fee’s for higher education which could have been paid off by an easy little student loan, as well as a shit load of increased benefits and allowances which will probably now be cut. Now I'm not saying that the past 13 years will be known as the glory years of Britain. Don't get me wrong any government that goes to War illegally, bans the civil liberty of smoking and draws alliance with the dangerous, war mongering, bully Americans is not a good one in my view, but we are working class people and a change over from Red to Blue is against an unwritten social code, which is also why I think so many people voted for the Liberal Democrats this time round... So I ask that on this black of all days you try and have a little hope that beyond the inevitable lower standard of living, us working classes who enjoy our drink, cigarettes, music, films, drugs and parties can look forward to an increase of quality in the arts. It’s been a long time coming and it’s a new decade anyway so its bound to happen, lets use this time not to morn or moan, but to stand up against the new law of the land. I’ve already seen a Facebook group asking for support for a free Glade festival, and with the catalyst of the glorious Internet I’m almost certain that guitar music will return in this of all dark times. The Tories will moan, and living will probably only get worse, my main concern that the greatest institution left in this country, I am of course referring to the mighty BBC, will be allowed to be sold off to the evil Rupert Murdoch, that however is a blog I shall write if the situation arises, but fuck it lets go take in a film, get wasted and then listen to some tunes.
Thanks for reading; Sorry if my Wikipedia based research was all bull shit,
RIP Glade. 2004-2009
Lahm

Venturing into the far right

It’s a wet bank holiday in May so I can think of nothing better to do then to update my blog, surprisingly my last bit of doodling created a bit of success and everyone who I would chat too would usually start the conversation with “I read your blog by the way”. So it’s good to see that some people actually like to have a read of this thing.
I thought today I would talk about the time when I had a look to see what right wing politics was like. It was around about this time last year and I was now legally registered to vote, but of course who would I vote for? I weren’t going to vote for the Labour party, they banned smoking, went to war and bunged on loads taxes on the things I love the most. Didn’t quite fancy Conservative because I hate yuppies and bankers and the Liberal Democrats just seemed like a bit of a protest vote. But if I wanted to make a protest vote why not make a proper one, so at around April of last year I went to a BNP meeting at the local Chelsea supporters bar.
Now before I go on I will tell you about the story behind my interest into getting involved with the most evil people in the world ever. I live in Morden; the last town of south London, if you haven’t been there you’re not missing much. But about 4 or 5 years ago there was a bit of debate over what the local bottle factory should be turned into. It was agreed by the council at that time it was going to be turned into a multiplex cinema, filled with restraints, shops, a bowling alley, arcade and all that jazz. Wicked! Finally something to do around town and something to put Morden on the map, more jobs, more money being pumped in. But at the last minute someone changed their mind and it was then turned into the largest Mosque in all of London at the time, people were obviously quite concerned… Then the flyers started coming through the door. Being quite young at the time I didn’t really care for politics so I never really had much interest in what the BNP did or were I was however pummelled with information on how they was evil and had no right to be a political party, along with a few policies in the manifesto as to why this was. But like I said I didn’t care for politics at the time but I was starting to notice a lot about social identity, especially race. This was probably to do with going to a massive multi-cultured school. A 1200 pupil high school which was split to about 60% black, 30% white and the rest Asian, now I’m not one to care about the colour of someone’s skin as an important factor of their personality, but at school I didn’t have any black or Asian friends, neither did any of my friends, or anyone else I knew at that school, same with the Asian kids also. The playground would pretty much be segregated, us white kids would play football, why the others would play basketball. We would however have the odd black’s v white’s football match which would usually end in violence. This was my first experience with racial tension and I can’t say I really learnt much from it, but it did sort of give me an idea of what the BNP were trying to get at, although I didn’t know exactly what their goals were.
A few years passed, then there was a terrorist attack and more flyers came through the door, then my neighbour (an open member of the BNP) lent me a book by controversial American politician and “racial realist” David Duke called “My Awakening”. He told me that you couldn’t buy the book in England due to its content and that no matter how hard some parts may be to read, I must read it all. The fact that it was banned in the UK had already sold me, even though it was nearly a thousand pages long. I didn’t know who David Duke was nor had I even heard of what he done or what he represented, but despite what your view may be he wrote a damn good book. He explains in great detail about the differences in race, referencing over 200 different scientific experiments and studies, with an index of forward reading, he then explained all his political views of which some I quite agreed with, the main one being full racial equality which was basically no more forced integration, no more race laws, no more forced employments for minorities. This always seemed to make sense to me, surely people shouldn’t be forced to integrate and be told to get along they should just do it. Surely the only way to stop actual racism is to ignore the fact that we are different by the colour of our skins and accept that we are human beings, and surley its stupid that someone should be forced to employ someone from a minority just because the law states they should, people should be employed by their skill and not by their race.
Needless to say the first 250 pages of the book were incredibly interesting; the second part however was a bit long winded and hard. It was all basically anti Semitic studies about the holocaust and the Jewish influence on the western world, which has never really interested me anyway as its too much of an American subject, and as for the holocaust even if it is exaggerated, people still died and that’s all that matters really. The 3rd part of the book was a bit of a biography on how he rose to be a senator and all that American political Jazz, and how at one point he was the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the KKK, which was a bit of a modernisation of the old Klan. Still basically just as racist, but with less lynching’s, and he did eventually change the white robes to suits, but I digress.
I can’t explain every aspect of the book because it is bloody long and there is a lot in there, some of which I can’t really remember. But reading that book did open me up to another view, some of which made a lot of sense, some I didn’t agree with. But from then on I started to give the right a bit of a chance. The BNP however was a peaceful party, and I’ve always said whether you’re an Islamic extremist or a right wing politician you have the right to say whatever you like, which is why I couldn’t understand that when Abu Hamser was at large he was getting away with inciting actual killings on the streets of London and Nick Griffin was being arrest for a bit of a rant in a pub.
Over the months after reading the book, I was given more information on what the BNP did and some of their policies, which did again open me up to how the media perceive them. Many of their policies would be blown out of proportion, I remember the Sun reporting that the BNP believed that EVERYONE in Britain should have the right to own a gun, when really the actual policy was for people who had served in the army for over 25 years could have the right to own a gun. The main one is that the BNP would deport everyone who wasn’t white and British from the country. There isn’t actually anything like that written in the manifesto last time I checked, but even if it was surely that would expensive and impossible and of no benefit to anyone. There is however a policy that states only residents of the common wealth could immigrate to Britain and that the immigration gates should be closed.
Then one week last April I was invited to go to a meeting, so I went. The meeting as you can imagine was filled with predominately white, working class males, very similar clientele to what would usually occupy the pub on a match day. I don’t remember much of what was said in the meeting, but I must confess I did get a sense of racism in the crowd, but only from a minority of people, the rest of the people I spoke to were normal blokes that I probably usually talk to when the football was on, this media perception of the BNP being filled with skin head yobs looking to go on a bit of a paki bash was mostly bollocks. But I secretly already knew that. But it is the minority that did let it down for the majority and I left not being converted as a BNP member. I was still undecided on my political views, mainly due to one of their policies being that if you are not white you can not become a member of the party because you are not “indigenous” which is bollocks because I have black mates who are more British then myself. I also didn’t really like Nick Griffin; he’s not a great speaker and has a smug sense of greatness over everyone else that seemed to be there, and I got the impression that he seemed to be holding the party back from being an ideal nationalist socialist party, and his second in command Mark Collet has been proved a prick by both a junkie Russell Brand and a shit Channel 4 documentary which just made him look like a lost, gay, Nazi looking for someone to accept him in life. I am however very fond of British tradition and have no problem at all admitting to being a nationalist, and I think that even though at the moment the BNP is failing horribly at being a believable political party I do see this potential of it restoring those little things I love about Britain. Working classes taking refuge in pubs and free houses, old people smoking roll ups, the language of the market stool trader, football on a Saturday afternoon, greasy spoon café’s, binge drinking, secret love of art and culture, sex, drugs and on the dull lifestyle and all those other little pleasantries that I love about this country.
I have also had a few run ins with people from militant left wing organisations such as “searchlight” an organisation that attacks BNP meetings and in some cases their members as well. I have met some people from the organisation that actually take pride in the fact that they went to prison for attacking what could of well been a peaceful family man who just happened to be a member.
I can understand why people are so strongly against the party and I can understand why people would think it was racist and fascist and all that palaver but some of these people haven’t properly had a look in and met the people that follow it. There’s always going to be a minority that ruin it for everyone else but I think there is a racist shadow that follows the party and at the moment I wouldn’t vote for them, but with a bit of a makeover and a few policy changes I cant see any reason why they wouldn’t be seen as a proper working class party, but I think for now I’ll just stick to my guns and wait for a new party that hasn’t been invented yet that will tend to my needs without the risk of being battered by a bunch lefty fanatics.