In response to the present euro crisis a German official was recently quoted as saying it’s “A terrible mistake, we have invented a machine from hell we cannot turn off.” Sounds pretty much like what Karl Marx said in 1872 about Bourgeois capitalist society being like “A sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world, whom he has called up by his spells.” Lessons from history get forgotten. In the present we need to look to the past and remember the future!

MUSIC IS REVOLUTION!

But in the hands of politicians it's PROPAGANDA!

Michael Davis - R.I.P

Sad news; Michael Davis MC5 Bassist has died aged 68. Here was a man who believed in the power of music as a force and means for social change.

MUSIC IS REVOLUTION!

THE ONLY ONES - XFM Session 28/5/07

The Only Ones; a band who back in the day were too hippy for the punks and too punk for the hippies. Their torch burnt bright in the eyes of the critics and their cult following. The Only Ones blazed their own Rock’n’Roll trail before drug and record company problems saw the band fall apart in the early 80’s. Their influence however was to last for a lot longer; spanning the post punk, Brit pop and grunge years, to the present day. The band reformed in 2007 this session is from May that year, nothing new, just 3 Only Ones classics: The Whole Of The Law, The Big Sleep and Another Girl Another Planet, a song which has kept Peter Perrett in supplies over the years. Time has not lost what the Only Ones had, they’ve still got it. Enjoy! If yer an Only Ones ‘fan’ then when you’ve finished downloading this, you’d be a fool if you didn’t take a trip to Noise Addiction blogspot where you’ll find a brilliant live soundboard recording from 1979 in Minneapolis USA, and an audience recording from Oscars in Liverpool UK from the same years, I’m sure there’s also a compilation of Peter Perrett and The One Radio Sessions there as well.

Rock'n'Roll and Football!

The following post is the basis of something I’m writing for a blog called Journeyman & Co. which specialises in writings about the beautiful game. The finished and expanded article should be posted there in a few days time, or whenever I get my arse in gear to complete it.

Rock’n’Roll and football, two escapes from the working class ghetto of day in day out dead end mundane jobs. The terraces or the dancehall.
The decline of English football since managers stopped wearing sheep skin jackets.
Where are the Rock’n’Roll footballers?
Without wanting to sound like some ‘football fascist’ Has the influx of players from across the world had e detrimental effect on the English game? It’s made a lot of money, but costs a lot of money, just ask Glasgow Rangers.
Big business SkyTV Football has sold out, and it’s the fans that pay the price, and they do pay a price £30 tickets, merchandise; with ever changing team strips etc What do they get in return….players whose team loyalty is based on the size of their transfer fee.
Hard for up and coming English players to play for top flight teams. Are there many English players playing football abroad? Home grown talent goes unnoticed in a global market, so when it comes to the International Squad England has a small pool of experienced players to pick from, as many young players don’t get the chance to gain the experience at club level because teams are made up of the highly paid new celebrity signining, interestingly England’s 2010 World Cup squad was the oldest ever, with the average age being 28.something.
Racism in football has come a long way since the days of Ku-Klux-Kan hoods on the terraces of Millwall in the 1970’s to banana skins being thrown at John Barnes in the 80’s, but it’s still got a way to go. Now it seems to be the players with their racist rants, what a shinning example to the yoof John Terry is, he should have stepped down as captain as soon as he was charged, and as to his guilt or innocence, well live TV can’t lie, or can it?
Stuart Pearce for England captain, he’s got good musical taste, likes The Clash. Talking of music lets not forget some of those great or not so great football songs; Chas and Dave and Tottenham Hotspurs, New Order and The England Squad. Hoddle and Waddle anyone, Kevin Keegan, Cockney Rejects.

Taken for a ride.

Travelling on the bus down Selfish Street, on the way to Intolerance Road. The person in the seat behind me is eating loudly….crunch, crunch, crunch. Someone a few seats down has stunk the bus out with a BigKac Meal. There’s someone coughing and spluttering and clearing their throat out, and the person next to me, well their personal music machine is pretty unpersonable buzzing away loudly, someone else is having a mobile phone conversation, and I’m sitting here ready to explode……..FOR FUCKS SAKE! What’s up with people, they’ve no time for anything, breakfast, lunch everything on the go, everything needs to be done instantly, no one seems to stop and think about anything, or anyone other then themselves, no one has anytime to just be….it’s all do, do! Time to ring the bell and stop the bus, I’m getting off!

The 2012 London Olympics....What a joke! but it's no laughing matter!!

Olympic Track and Field sports….Disc us. Shot putt, what a lot of balls, and Javelin, whats the point?
Just injecting a bit of humour for the people of East London, who if you believe surveys and statistics are the unhappiest people in Britain, as it’s the unhappiest place to live in. How can that be….with The Olympics being held in their manor, mind you, I’m not happy about the Olympics, and I don‘t live in East London. London 2012; a waste of Tax payers money, dodgy tickets to corporate sponsors while locals can’t afford a ticket even if they could find one to buy, secrecy behind how many tickets are actually available for ’the people’ then there’s the legacy of the athletes village being an affordable housing development of luxury flats, then there’s the thousands of people descending on the streets of East London for two weeks, and that’s just the security.

MC5 - Live @ Radio Bremen TV Studios 1972 (MP3)

I watched a program on BBC4 the other week, it was about the British invasion of the USA by Rock bands in the late 60’s and early 70’s, bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull. At one point it was mentioned that the reason these bands were so successful in the US, was because there was nothing to compare to these bands in America….wait up I thought, yes there was and they were called the MC5, and the majority of kids in America were never really given the chance to appreciate them. Despite releasing three major label albums, it was only after their demise that the MC5 were truly recognised for their greatness, ironically it was the British and European kids that took ‘em to their hearts.
With their reactionary and revolutionary stance the kids of the 60’s underground counter culture couldn’t get enough of their explosive mix of Blues, Soul and Rock’n’Roll. When the announced they wanted to “Kick out the jams mutha fuckers” the last couple of words shook the foundations of Americas music biz, and as for their allegiance to manager John Sinclair’s White Panther party, well that was never gonna win the hearts of the mainstream music moguls and the mass market, neither were songs about fire bombs exploding all around. They’d rather kids were listening to songs about stairways to heaven and other corporate cock sucking rock and southern boogie which filled stadiums and shifted the dollars. Lack of sales saw the band dropped by record labels, hard drug use began to take its toll, and things began to fall apart in the MC5 camp. By 1970 the underground had been buried and turned into commodity, with hippies and freaks for sale in San Francisco, where flowers were replaced by needles in your hair. The powers that be saw the power that could be and killed it. Music was revolution and that’s what scared the man.
By early 1972, when this was recorded, the MC5 had become the MC4, with Steve Moorhouse replacing original Bassist Michael Davis, who left the band because of ‘Drug problems’ the main problem being Michael had got busted at the airport before leaving America, customs found his ’works’ and detained him, which meant he missed the flight and subsequently an important gig in London. By the end of 1972 the 5 had become 2 with just Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith flying the flag.
(See previous MC5 Kick Copenhagen post.) Anyway here’s a blast of the MC5 recorded in Feb/March 1972 at Radio Bremens TV studio in Germany. I dunno if this is a complete recording as unfortunately the final number Black To Comm falls apart and fades out, Kick Out The Jams, Ramblin’ Rose, Motor City Is Burning and Tonite are all complete, as a little bonus I’ve included an alternate version of Kick Out The Jams from the same session.
I watched a bit of MTV the other day, and was struck that after forty years one of the MC5 slogans appeared to have come true as several videos appeared to show that there is “Dope, Guns and fucking in the streets” How times have changed mutha fuckers!

Black and Blue with an Orange hue.
A new day dawns and a grey mist hangs over barren skyline.
There’s no more industrial production and that’s just fine
For a culture that’s consumed the land, where the people don’t understand
They worship celebrity, it’s all that they see.
Snowflakes fall from the sky.
Settling slowly, chaos comes quickly phones ring loudly, no need for a sickie.
The post industrial country comes to a standstill as it turns into one big land fill.
People look no deeper than what their eyes see, in all the bleakness there’s a natural beauty.
No social construction that brings destruction.
The annihilation of a distant nation.
A pursuit for power brings freedoms final hour.
Total control over the proles 24 Hour system overload.
Total technology stuck in traffic on a snow covered road.
The network goes down no one knows just what to do.
The mobile’s come to a standstill, as we slide deeper into the landfill.

I Will Never Love You

I woke up today to hear about the “Sad”, “Tragic” death of an“Iconic superstar”
….Move along, there’s nothing to see here, cos Whitney Houston meant nothing to me. So I’m gonna turn off the radio and listen to some Johnny Thunders! “Too much junkie business, I don’t wanna hang around with you.”

THE CLASH - Lost Treasures

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything by The Clash, time to change that with this mighty fine
collection of ….Lost Treasures i.e. various re-mixes, alternate versions and rarities by the greatest Rock’n’Roll band ever, a band that weren’t afraid to explore new musical landscapes and experiment with different sounds and vibes, with Mikey Dread and Futura 2000, or just be themselves, helping out their friend and music writer Kris Needs and his band Vice Creams, by providing the musical accompaniment on the single Danger Love, giving Rock Against Racism an alternative version of White Man In Hammersmith Palais to put on a RAR compilation album Then there’s the time they backed infamous vice queen Janie Jones as The Lash. This collection contains all those and more, it shows just how on top and ahead of the game they were. Some of their experimentations may have pissed of the punk purists and made them wanna puke, but if punk was about pushing the boundaries then The Clash were true punks from the start to the finish. The only band that mattered! and in the age of bands that say nothing and do even less they still do!! ENJOY!

Some Sunday Shit!

Searching for meanings and understanding. Looking for answers to questions that haven’t been asked, and ignoring ones that have.

Religion says there is a god. Science says there is no god; but enables people to play at being god. Religion causes wars and science builds the weapons to fight the wars.
Economics keep the world going round, and Politics is the fight by leaders of nations to control the people.
IMHO Psychology and Sociology provide a better understanding of how and why the world is the way it is, after all the world is a collection of people living in different societies, we need to embrace the difference and not fight against it. We need to be coming together, but the politicians are intent on driving people apart, and the economists want it to be all about the money, money! These attitudes have shaped and moulded peoples minds and the societies they live in.

Science prolongs existence with life support machines that ultimately end in death, that’s if you live in a country that can afford such equipment.
Science keeps people staring at the screens of mobile phones, laptops and TV’s . Religion gives guidelines on what to do to reach the afterlife, when there is no afterlife, just an afterbirth and slow death.
The cure for cancer, now that would be something to benefit the common good, but no….It all comes down to cash and who can afford the life prolonging drugs, some health authorities can afford treatment for patients and others can’t. The life or death lottery. Its either Buy, Buy, or Bye, Bye.

Science, the new Rock’n’Roll. You can stare at the stars, but there are no aliens waiting to land. If there were I’m sure they’d be looking down thinking….What the Fuck! With so much knowledge in the world why are people so stupid, to blindly follow what the politicians, economists, scientists and religious leaders tell them. It’s all a big lie wrapped up in pages of theories and thesis that mean nothing to the person in the street, keep the people stoopid and they wont ask questions that need to be asked, like why is half the world starving while the half live in luxury, politics and economics is the answer to that one. If knowledge is power and there’s so much knowledge out there, then why do people feel powerless? Once again the politicians and economists can answer that! It’s in their interest to keep us dumb and dumfounded, it justifies their existence. Religion proclaims to offer comfort and protection to the hopeless and powerless, all it provides are dogmas and ‘good books’ to follow. It’s all a distraction, different ways of looking at the world that change nothing.

Evolution is no longer a natural process, Science, Economics and Politics have corrupted it and now control the process, and call it Progress!
People are unable to think for themselves without consulting Google first, and then confirming their opinion with that of their Facebook friends.

We are insular and insincere with our self importance.
The motor car once a symbol of freedom now stands still for hours confined in a traffic jam on the M25, because another driver thought they were the only road user that mattered and crashed their car because they were taking no notice of other motorists. Still at least science can save their life, or is it worth saving, I mean would the world miss another selfish bastard.

The Scienceisation of Society.
Professor Brian Cox is the devil; with his scientific sermons. A smiley, smiley Satan, smug with the satisfaction and knowledge that he’s selling ideas that a few years ago no-one would have bought into. Another market has been created a world of telescopes, microscopes and gadgets, all available in your local Tesco’s Express.
I heard on some TV program people talking about the science of music….For fuck sake! I don’t want or need to know how or why the brain responds the way it does to beats and rhythms. Then there’s cooking, Heston Bloomingtwat doesn’t just cook, he uses science to create new methods; I mean who wants to use an oven when you can use a blow torch and dry ice.

No one gets out of here alive and there’s nowhere left to run.

A Sunday Snap!

A sparrow in the snow.

POWER OF THE PENDULUM - Demo Tape (1989)

Today’s musical offering might have limited appeal, as you won’t find the name POWER OF THE PENDULUM in you book of musical who’s who, but so fuckin’ what! Hopefully some of you good people will take a chance on this, I mean there’s always the delete command if it aint your bag. So then, what are you gonna get for yer time and effort. Well this five track demo is what can only be described as stoner goth’n’roll, this is drug music an acid trip of a listen that lyrically and musically takes you to places deeper and darker than the pubs and bong smoke filed bedrooms of Stevenage in the year of 1989. To describe The Pendulum as sounding like The Fields of The Nephilim or The Sisters of Mercy would be lazy and also not a 100% true, yeah there is a flavour of gothic gloom amongst the pumping pounding bass and haunting spine tingling rock riff licking guitars, but then there’s even a hint of Pink Floyd and AC/DC in the mix. Why back in the day the music biz didn’t pick up on these guys is not just beyond me, but also an act of cultural criminality, by denying music lovers a chance to hear something pure, unadulterated and beautiful. Anyway hear what all the fuss wasn’t, but should have been about here!
A footnote, and a bit of trivia: Jem The Pendulums bass player is the brother of Paul and Nod from The Nephilim, and Rory guitarist and vocalist played in The Last Rites with Nod after The Nephilim had broken up.

The Stop Online Piracy Act has shut down Megaupload, one of the many filesharing sites used by people to share music and films, illegal downloading they call it. The US film industry hasn’t been happy for a long time about piracy, and shutting mega upload looks like the first salvo in a fight that’s gonna continue, I’m wondering whose gonna be next Rapidshare, 4 Shared? Who knows. My view on ‘illegal downloads’ well if it’s a big label, company that loses out, it’s just a case of wealth distribution, So Hollywood can go fuck itself in glorious surround sound 3D high definition. I found it quite funny that the Megaupload founders were living luxury filmstar lifestyles; big houses, big cars, obviously funded by their ‘ill gotten gains’ or like I said….wealth that has been redistributed. My heart goes out to those bloggers who used Megaupload to host their files, especially those specialising in live recordings/bootlegs and out of print stuff, innocent victims in someone elses battle. As for the sites that put up new releases and stuff that’s still available, well….I’d be lying if I said I have never downloaded anything that could be seen as being illegal, but then I’ve also gone out and bought stuff after previously getting it for free, anything I haven’t well that’s because it’s been shit. Who’s faults that? Not mine, perhapes if record and film companies didn’t produce and release so much shit that people don’t need and can’t afford then not so much stuff would be downloaded for free. It’s all about the money and not the art!

I imposed a news blackout recently. Got fed up of hearing/reading about the global economic problems that are being wrapped in flags of red, white and blue Olympic patriotism. We’ll see just how free and democratic Britain really is in six months time, when even before the start of the games and the Queens diamond jubilee celebrations the authorities are already arresting ’potential trouble makers’
Don’t wear a hoodie if yer going to the games, if you do don’t put it up. Don’t take a rucksack, if you do, don’t try and take anything out of it, or their fear and paranoia will have you on CCTV as a potential terrorist or trouble maker.

A Saudi Prince invests money in social network site Twitter, then within a week Twitter agree to remove tweets if a country requests it. Lets remember how important twitter was with spreading the word with last years Arab Uprisings. The Chinese move their finances to the City of London. The only human right is to make money in a world where freedom is easily bought, and everything is up for sale. The cost; dead and injured soldiers, rich greedy bankers, politicians on the take, media intrusion, racism and terrorism, where failure is financially rewarded A world with no real justice or fairness, just illusion, and delusion. A world with the haves and have nots, from nation states to their citizens. The Eurozone has collapsed because some of the smaller economies such as Greece haven’t been able to compete in the market, now it’s their people that are made to suffer. In Britain people are living in poverty because they can’t compete with the better educated in the job market, their ignorance is fed and fuelled by trash talking celebrity culture and the freedom to consume.

So Nick Clegg wants to Increase the income of the poor; so that they can spend more. Like flies round shit, as the swarm to the churches of consumption , spend our way out of a recession which we spent our way into; Instant Credit! Endless Debt! That’s life in the red, white, and blue. Green and pleasant lands of Ukplc. Still at least the Olympic Games and The Royal celebrations will Unite the Kingdom, well no….but that’s what the powers we let be are gonna try a do with these events, and show the world how Great we are.

CHELSEA - Live @ The Acklam Hall, London 1980

Todays post is another pilfered performance from a torrent site somewhere, sometime. Respect to the original uploader for putting this little artefact out there. This recording captures CHELSEA live underneath The Westway in Ladbroke Grove London at The Acklam Hall in November 1980, at a matinee gig with The Dark and Infa Riot (I think) It’s only a short set that was besieged by technical problems, I’ve left it all as it was, so it is what it is, which is a great slice of punk rock history. Word on the streets is that there’s a new Chelsea album planned for this year. In the mean time here's a blast from 30 years ago. Enjoy!

More crap from the cutting room floor.

Here are some more scribbling that haven’t progressed any further than what’s written below.

After 18 years we finally see justice for Stephen Lawrence, but lets not fool ourselves that the stain of racism in our society has been scrubbed out, we only need to look at the recent behaviour of a couple of footballers, and a minority of fans. These may have been isolated incidents, but nothing is born in isolation.

So it’s aright to play god when it comes to cosmetic surgery and fertility treatment, but when it comes to assisted suicide it’s not alright. What a load of bollocks! Now I hear news that ‘our government’ recommend that people take a couple of days off a week from drinking, what a caring bunch of cunts they are. The nanny state needs its arse smacking. Looks like the elderly know the pain in store for them in the future and have decided to drink themselves to death, as over the last 10 years the biggest increase, if we believe the(ir) figures, in alcohol related illness is in the 65+ age group, either that or it’s all the champagne socialists who got themselves rich quick over the last 10 years drinking to their success.

KILL THE ELDERLY! Survival of the fittest, or the richest. How much do we care? Millions are spent on keeping people alive, many of whom would rather be dead, but they are denied that choice by a society that cares about their pain yet prolongs it.

TITS OUT! Well it all depends on who fitted the faulty industrial strength silicon implants that have been in the news recently.
I have little sympathy for those had enlargements/reductions in an act of vanity for cosmetic purposes, you paid yer money you took yer chances, don’t expect the NHS to clean up the mess left by private medical firms. They breast get it sorted, no way should the tax payer pay for someone else’s mistakes. Who’s responsible? Ultimately PIP, who were the manufacturer of the faulty product, but what about the consumer? Supply and demand and all that. If people accepted imperfection then there would be no market for breast implants, other than for those having reconstructive surgery. If the NHS have used the product, then they share responsibility for purchasing the product, and need to put right the damage. Then there’s the authority that licensed it and said it was safe for the market. Aaaah! The beauty of Capitalism, when it all goes tits up it’s always the consumer that suffers!

As they build hope for the future they forget about the decay and despair in the present!
I mean look at this proposed High Speed Rail link, the present network isn’t exactly running smoothly, so they’re gonna carve up more countryside to build a new route that promises to be faster and better, until reality bites and it ends up becoming like the rest of the network; overcrowded with delays and cancellations. Road widening schemes do not reduce congestion, they just make more space for more congestion. Do we really need to spend millions just to get somewhere half an hour quicker? All this job creation it’s good for the economy rhetoric is just a case of the emperors new clothes. Isn’t it great isn’t it good….No it’s shit, just like the Millennium Dome was and what the Olympic legacy will turn out to be. The country’s skint and they’re spending our money on shit we don’t need.

I Got The Dead Pussy Blues.

R.I.P Dodgy. 1992 - 2012

Named after ‘Brit Pop’ band Dodgy. He’d been with me for 20 years, through thick and thin, mostly thin. He had a good innings, and a good life, and now he’s gone!

THE VIBRATORS - Live and Energized in 2004.

Today’s musical offering was recorded at the legendary CBGB’S in New York sometime in 2004, and was ripped by someone from the live Energized DVD. I came across it somewhere on the net a while back when looking for any live Vibrators recordings, which are few and far between. Energized is an understatement the twenty two tracks here are fast, furious, frantic and on fire! All the old and new favourites are there. Pure Vibrators Mania?….Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! If you are into The Vibrators I recommend a trip to Noise Addiction Blogspot, were the wondrous Bat29 has four….yep that’s right four Vibrators live gigs up for grabs. There’s a couple from 1984 in France and Sweden, and a couple of more recent ones from Germany and Austria in 2009, but before you go….Get Energized here!

FIRST POST........of 2012!

History’s clock ticks over into 2012 another year over another begins, the past becomes the future when nothing is learned from the lessons of History. The world revolves but things stay the same. The only progress is scientific and technological, and that’s debatable when for example human thinking is left to a device such as a sat nav, we are surrendering our power of independent free thinking to social networks where every human action and interaction is related to a world of followers whose Blackberry/I Phone obsession is closer to an addiction.

I’ve never had a junkie walk right into me because they were to busy trying to shoot up! But I’ve lost count of the number of times people have banged into me when walking and texting, then there’s the mobile phone junkies I’ve walked into because they’ve suddenly stopped in front of me to answer a call. People seem to have no time to spare, everything needs to be instant, and done instantly.

Science fiction has become science fact! But where are the jet packs that Look and Learn magazine promised us? who needs a jet pack when you’ve got an I-Phone that you can talk to…..and that talks back!!!! This aint progress this is madness. I mean a few years ago If someone was jumping around waving their arms in front of a TV screen questions would have been asked about their sanity, but no, in the 21st Century this is entertainment courtesy of something called the Nintendo Wii, an aptly named product, cos they’re just taking the piss. If people wanna play tennis or dance why don’t they going and actually do it, rather than virtually doing it, why the need for a machine to facilitate such games and pass times.

In his 1891 essay The Soul Of Man Under Socialism Oscar Wilde believed that Machines would free humankind by doing the mundane jobs, now it seems to me that people have become slaves to machines, and are doing mundane jobs in order to pay for the latest must have all singing all dancing gadget to keep them entertained and enslaved. No one has forced people into their captivity, they have chosen their chains and paid for them. Capitalism needs technological progress in order to grow and expand into new markets, but does society really need all that science serves up? Wilde also thought machines would free up peoples time, giving them more scope for leisure time. In the noughties peoples leisure time is increasingly dominated and controlled by machines.

From The Industrial Revolution to the white heat of technology in the 1970’s progress has improved the quality of life in some areas, in others it hasn’t, it has just taken us down a road were it is acceptable to be watched over 24/7 by security cameras, were tracking devices are fitted to mobile phones and every electronic communication can be traced even when we thought they were erased. Technology drops remote controlled laser guided missiles on innocent civilians.

Fuck their future! The only way forwards is to go backwards. You might not be able to rewind history but if there’s gonna be a future, it needs to be OURSTORY!