I rarely feel low. Today I do. I've not really felt like this for a while. There are several reasons. Probably the biggest is the fact that I damaged my shoulder a month ago and it is not improving. My physio told me last week to ice it four times a day and lift nothing heavy for three weeks (difficult with my job). Although at times it doesn't hurt at all, when I turn over in my sleep, it is rather painful and wakes me up.
The second reason is I had a PSA test yesterday and I always get anxious as I wait to see whether or not I am still free of prostate cancer. I really am not in the mood for more treatment. I've no reason to feel negative, but it always plays on my mind. Add that to the bad shoulder and it is not great.
Then there is the terribly sad news that Pat Collier, bassplayer in seminal punk band The Vibrators passed away. The news broke yesterday. Normally I'd have put a little memorial page together, but I was feeling too down to bother. Pat Collier was, like me, an ex pupil of Orange Hill, a musician, a studio owner and a music producer. If you don't know his work from The Vibrators, you will probably be familiar with Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and The Waves which was produced by Pat. He was best mates with my old Geography teacher at Orange Hill, Dave Harman, who was also an old boy. Many people assume I must have known Pat, but our paths never really crossed. He owned Alaska Studios in Waterloo and I had little reason to go there as I had my own. I recommended him to a few people over the years as a producer as I knew he was good and our drummer Gray Ramsey and our producer Boz Boorer knew him well. He did once ring me up, say thanks and said he'd buy me a beer when I recommended someone to him, but it never happened. I regret that now. When we opened our own recording facilities in 1998, we stopped sending people down to him. Puremania by The Vibrators, which Pat appeared on was the first punk album I bought. Pat wrote and sang a few of the songs. It is a go to cheer me up album, so his passing has really hit me.
And finally, yesterday we had a statement form Rachel Reeve, the new chancellor. I have been ambivalent about Labour under Sir Keir Starmer. I had no doubt they would be an improvement on the Tories under Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, but I was worried that they would waste the massive opportunity they have, with a massive majority, to sort this country out. Yesterday, that changed to dejection. It is now clear to me that Reeve is a cowardly individual, who is totally unprepared to grap the nettle that needs to be grabbed to sort the country out. The headline news from her statement is that she's going to give not very well off pensioners a kicking by taking away their winter fuel allowance and she's cancelling a whole bunch of much needed infrastructure projects. I get that Boris Johnson's scheme to build 40 new hospitals was hare brained and ill thought out, but the hospitals are needed and she had an excellent chance to sort the plan out and properly fund it.As to scrapping road and rail projects, this is an act of national self harm. We need these to get us and keep us moving. You may say "Well where will the cash come from? The magic money tree?". The answer is quite simple "No, it should come from clamping down on multi national companies tax avoidance schemes". Companies set up massively complicated schemes to ensure they pay minimal tax on profits made in the UK. I am all for companies making profits, but those profits should be taxed in the UK, so that we can all benefit from the cash. The chancellor has clearly decided that she wants to stay in with the rich vested interests in the City, rather than the people who vote in their millions for Labour. I see nothing at all wrong when those with the deepest pockets pay a bit more. The multi national companies that spirit cash out of the UK to offshore tax havens deserve no sympathy. I'd personally like to see countries across the planet cooperate to clamp down on avoidance, but we should start here. I'd also like to see additional Council Tax bands introduced, so people in mansions pay a bit more for the privilege. That would give local authorities more cash, something they desperately need. They should also be massively taxing water companies that pollute and dump sewage into our rivers and streams. It seems to me that Reeve is scared of upsetting big business.
I totally get that the Tories have left a massive mess to sort out. I get that actually passing laws to get corporations to pay tax on UK profits in the UK is not simple and it is far easier to clobber pensioners, but it is quite wrong. I don't qualify for a fuel allowance as I won't be old enough for a few years, but it is plain wrong.
All in all, I feel rather dispirited and disappointed. Anyway, RIP Pat Collier, here is the rather good Petrol from Puremania, that Pat wrote and sung
I was curious. What was I thinking about ten years ago today? Some people have a diary, I write a blog. I looked back to the 28th July 2014. The blog of the day was about how to be successful running your own business. I was intrigued. Would I write the same thing today? I had a read. One of the quirks of the way my brain works, is that as soon as I write a blog, I instantly forget it. I don't mean the detail. I store the facts, but I tend to 'fire and forget'. What struck me was that I'd probably write exactly the same thing today. There was one sentence which really caught my eye.
The reason most of us don't succeed, I believe is down to the fact that we allow ourselves to be distracted by all of the things which don't matter, to the extent that we don't see the things that do.
I was writing this in the context of running a business, but with the distance of ten years, I realise that it is probably true across everything that is important to us. It is especially true in the context of relationships. It took me a very long time to recognise this simple fact. I don't mean this disrespectfully, but there is no one who annoys and irritates me as much as my wife. There are countless small things that she does that annoy me to distraction, However this is a very small part of our relationship and learning to not get annoyed at such things and to recognise that this is just part of the package is perhaps the most important thing in a relationship. What is far more important is to recognise the positives and to deal with the negatives. I am sure that she feels exactly the same about me and probably thinks I am the most annoying person on the planet. It is a difficult truth of relationships that the more time we spend together, the more we see things in our partners that irritate us. When we first meet, usually we are rather blinded by attraction. As the relationship develops, most of us try a little less hard to impress partners and we let slip the mask so they see our annoying traits. Relationships fail when we decide the irritating, unreasonable and unpleasant things start to outweigh the positives. Sometimes we persist, even though the negatives outweigh the positives. But this is another manifestation of not seeing the things that matter. In abusive relationships, people persist because the glaringly obvious downside is weighed less heavily than other aspects (which sometimes include threats). When people finally escape such situations, they will often ask why they didn't do it earlier. Sometimes it is because we think people will change, when we know they won't. Sometimes it is fear of the unknown. Of course staying in abusive relationships is an extreme case, but often we persist with doing small things that hold us back, which over the course of a lifetime hold us back and leave us with regrets. It often takes us far too long to do things that help as get where we want to go. It may be staying in a job long after you should have moved on, belonging to a political party or other organisation long after you realised that your values no longer matched theirs, or something silly and trivial such as following a musician or artists long after they stopped doing work you like.
When I reread my blog of ten years ago, I realised that of late I've fallen into the trap I decried in my blog. Ever since I started my business, I have always regularly reviewed the way we do things. We've always had a plan for the next six months, two years and five years. We decide where we want to be in five years, then we work out what we need to be in two years and then we look at where we are in six months. We then work out a plan to get us to each of these objectives. I realised that we stopped when covid hit. We've been in survivial mode and we've not moved on at all. When you have no plan you go nowhere. In business as in life, when you don't go forward, you fall back. The last few years have been difficult for me. A pandemic and cancer have derailed my plans. I've lost focus of where I want to be, in business and in life. This hasn't all been bad, musically I've been prolific but without any real plan, it's all just been fun. I'm 62, I've hopefully got ten or fifteen years where I can do stuff, before the sands of time overwhelm me. If I am to enjoy it (and that should be something we all aspire to with our lives), I need to get the ducks in a line. One of the best things about writing this series of blogs is I sometimes realise the glaringly obvious. Today was one such occasion. This slot replaced "The tweets of the week". When I started the Tweets of the week, it was brilliant, but it became a chore and I realised that Twitter had morphed into X and the less time I spent on it, the happier I was, so I didn't want to promote such a place. Last November I made the decision to change tack on a Sunday. Whilst the Tweets of the Week was a really popular feature and brought a lot of views to the the blog, I am far happier with this series. It may surprise you to know that I never wrote a blog to garner popularity and at times the popularity of the blog has mystified me, but I am grateful that people seem to still enjoy it.
The truth is that if you want to succeed, the first thing to do is make sure that you do what is right for yourself. To do this it is necessary to have a clear idea of what really matters. Once you can do this, everything else becomes a lot easier. And never forget to appreciate the good things!
Arrendene in the sun. Beautiful. A reminder that we are lucky to live in Mill Hill pic.twitter.com/29LfZaKKjA
I'll finish with a little bit of music. I enjoy making music, I hope you enjoy listening to it. If you've not listened to The False Dots before, check it out. A little song about nostalgia.
Earlier this week, I posted a blog detailing my loathing of gunge filled sandwiches. It occurred to me that I've not done a favourite sandwich list. I reaslised as I wrote the blog that this needs to be addressed! So here it is. My favourite sandwiches.
1. Bacon Sandwich. This is the to me the absolute Emperor of sandwiches. All you need is good quality bacon, as sold bt proper butchers such as Gerard on Daws Lane, good bread and proper butter. I am not a fan of the BLT. Why would you want to put lettuce in a bacon sarnie? It is insanity. Whoever ate a bacon butty and thought "This could really use some lettuce". The bacon should be cooked until it is everso slightly crispy.
2. Cheese sarnie. Now there are more cheeses than there are pigeons in Trafalger square, so lets be specific. It has to be the strongest, extra mature cheddar. Thirty years ago, I'd have put Branston pickle on it, but I think they've changed the recipe and it tastes wrong. It is slightly too sweet and the acidity is wrong.
3. Sardine Sarnie/ Now this is the one sarnie that I do modify. I love to remove the bones (the dogs love em, it is a treat so all are happy), mash them up, add sarsons malt vinegar and a bit of good butter. Can't beat it. I prefer sardines to Tuna, which to me is dry and bland when tinned.
4. Cheese and Ham sandwich. If you can get hold of proper deli ham, it is excellent with a good cheese in a sarnie. This stuff that you buy in supermarkets, dripping with water and slimey are disgusting. It has to be proper ham.
5. Hungarian salami. I love salami and hungarian salami is far and away the best. It is harder to get hold of but worth the effort.
6. Fish finger sandwich. This is a proper treat. We have this most weekends. Fish fingers are much underrated. I don't mind a dab of tartare sauce on this. The one time gunge is acceptable.
7. The classic sausage sarnie. Proper bangers. I used to love HP sauce on them, but I have to say, like Branston pickle, the taste of it has changed and it is horrible now.
I have to laugh at some of the rubbish I see on social media platforms, particularly X and Facebook. There is one local looney who has completely lost the plot. I think the poor chap lost his marbles being locked up during covid in his smelly flat above the pound shop. It has taken a toll. He posts dozens, if not hundreds of tweets a day, all full of rage and torment, aimed at everyone else who I suspect he blames for the fact that his life hasn't quite worked out the way he wanted. It is all the usual targets, who are all to blame for his predicament. He seems to have a strong empathy for Lucy Letby, claiming there has been a massive cover up and a miscarriage of justice (given what I know but can't publish about him, I can't say I'm surprised at the empathy with her).
What is instructive is how many people are looking at his tweet. The average views is less than 30 and generally the only engagement he gets is when he retweets someome and they like it, please to find someone to share their blatherings. To try and give himself some sort of credibility a few years back, he engaged in a programme of getting spam followers, so he could claim to be the 'biggest account in Mill Hill' and his profile boasts of the millions of people who read his tosh.
Occasionally, people will ask me what is going on. I tell them, best gnored, poor chap has lost his marbles. He is one of an army of keyboard warriors, merrily bashing nonsense out. As we all know, Twitter has over a third of billion users. I had a look at the most followed people on it.
I was rather surprised at some of these. It is interesting to see that Barack Obama has nearly twice as many followers as Donald Trump. The Indian president Narendra Modi is there and Twitter owner Elon Musk tops the list. I don't know whether to be surprised that Cristiano Ronaldo is third and the rest are a bevvy of pop stars. I suspect that to some extent, the likes of Justin Bieber being in there is because Twitter is last years thing. Justin Bieber who is fourth has not posted since 2022. Katy Perry's last tweet got 277K views and 6.8K likes. Elon Musk got 2.1 million views and 19k likes. Of course these were justs snapshots. The last tweet from Barack Obama got 30 million views and 438K likes. Then again it was one of him endorsing Kamala Harris which was big news.
The point is that even for massive world figures, often a tiny percentage of their followers actually see the tweets and even less bother to interact. If just over 1% of Elon Musks fans actually see his tweets, then what hope is there for the bedroom nutter keyboard warrior types. I am sure they fantasise about starting revolutions and that there are an army out their being rallied by their blatherings, but there isn't. There are just a few other bedroom warriors, cooped up in bedrooms above the chicken shop, basshing their keyboards. My own tweets generally get between 50 and 200 views. Occasionally, they get some traction. One I posted last week got 7.8K views. To be quite honest, I am not too bothered. It is nice when people like your work, read your blogs, listen to your music, but the truth is that Twitter has become a bit of an echo chamber where you never change anyones mind, because they only follow you if they like the stuff you post. So next time you see a dodgy post on Twitter, don't be too concerned. It is making some sad individual sitting in his bedroom, inhaling the fumes from the chip shop happy.
And as it's friday, here's this weeks joke. Feeling rather cultured this week
I was having a chat about 'what if's' with a mate of mine recently. He's a bit of a Tory, but as we like beer and football we enjoy a good chinwag. He said to me "You know I think whoever had been in charge of the UK during the pandemic was on a hiding to nothing, as it devastated the UK economy". I actually think that is a decent point. For a second though, imagine a scenario where Jeremy Corbyn had won the general election in 2019, rather than Boris Johnson. By the time the pandemic struck, he'd have been in power for four months. No time at all to pass any new laws or materially change anything. Maybe John McDonell would have passed an emergency budget in January or maybe he'd have waited until May, as Chancellors usually do. There are many what if's. But lets assume for a second that Corbyn had done nothing by early March when the pandemic struck. Lets just suppose that he was having bills drawn up to enact the various things in the 2019 Labour manifesto. And then, the world would have descended into lockdown. Lets assume for a moment that, just as Rishi Sunak did, he asked the civil service to draw up plans to keep the UK population safe and the UK economy afloat. What would they have come up with? Probably something rather like the schemes that Boris and the Tories did. In fact, right wing commentators of the day were suggesting that the Furlough scheme was Marxist and Corbynite, so it is not too unlikely to think that exactly the same things would have happened. Maybe, Corbyn would have locked down earlier and eased restrictions later, who knows. Lets assume he wouldn't and we had similar economic policies and similar death rates. All big what if's. My Labour readers will probably think Corbyn would have done far better, whilst the Tories would think Corbyn would done far worse. So for arguments sake, lets assume that the civil service gave both the same advice and their policies were the same. What would the press have said? What would the Tory opposition have said?
Well first of all, the country ran up massive debts. They would have said "Labour has bankrupted Britain". What about the death rate? They would have said Corbyn murdered a quarter of a million people. They would have said he was too slow to lock down and too fast to lift restrictions. They would have said that the Furlough was a disaster that had bankrupted the country. We'd be hearing about this for decades. How can I say that? Think of the credit crunch in 2008/9. It nearly wiped out the worlds banking system. By all accounts of economists I know, Gordon Brown played a blinder, but when the tab had to be picked up, he was crucified for it. Had the Tories have won in 2005 and done exactly the same thing, they would have been hailed for their sensible policies, saving the UK banks, the one area of business we do well. Rishi Sunak became PM on the basis that the Furlough saved the country's economy. Had John McDonnell splashed the cash in the same way, there is no way that Boris and Rishi would have praised his common sense.
I have no idea whether Corbyn would have handled the pandemic better or worse than Boris. My suspicion is that he'd have done a better job saving lives, there would have been no corruption and partys at No 10. He wouldn't' have reignited the pandemic with eat out to help out, before there was a vaccine. I think Boris was far more gung ho than Corbyn would have been rolling the vaccine out early and so we'd have had longer lockdowns and more economic damage as a result. But all of that is supposition. What I can say for certain is that I 100% believe that whoever was the PM when the virus hit was on a hiding to nothing. It seems to me that Sir Keir Starmer is the luckiest politician around. The obvious Labour PM's in waiting, David Milliband and Andy Burnham departed Westminster, Boris imploded, Rishi was useless. I am almost tempted to put a fiver on Donald Trump winning, as I suspect that it will give Starmer a unique opportunity to assume a far more important role on the world stage than if Harris wins. My Tory mate said "Trump would be a disaster for Starmer". I beg to differ. Starmer is a lawyer and he's used to dealing with such people. I suspect that many Europeans will seek to use Starmer as a conduit as they find Trump unfathomable.
Me? I love a good sarnie. When I was a teenager, there was nothing I liked better than a bacon butty at The Travellers Fare cafe at Kings Cross Station on my way to St Pancras for the train home. British Rail catering was often derided, but I used to rather like the unfussy approach. The choices were such delights as cheese and tomato, ham and tomato, bacon, sausage or egg. You'd get two slices of white bread, margarine and a filling. All washed down with a cup of builders strength tea. The whole idea was that it was cheap and cheerful. In 1976 a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich would set you back 36p.
I can't exactly recall when things started to go wrong, but in 1991 I recall, when working in Pall Mall, a new cafe opened up. I wasn't eating meat at the time. They did a hot cheese and mushroom croissant. I'd never had anything so delicious in my life. The cafe was called Pret. A couple of weeks later, they introduced a new sandwich. It was rocket and crayfish sandwich, with delicious mayo on it. It was amazing. I told all my friends to try this new cafe. They were all amazed at the tasty delights on offer. For about six months, I'd go to Pret every day for lunch. Despite the fact that everything was twice as much as the other cafe's the food was just too good to miss out on.
Then I changed jobs and was based in Aldgate. Here we had Sidoli's cafe. It was back to the cheese rolls and tuna sarnies. I longed for Pret. Over the course of time, it seemed like there was a Pret everywhere. However they no longer did the cheese and mushroom croissants. I excitedly sought out the crayfish and rocket sarnie. To my horror, it was pretty average. Over the next few weeks, I tried a few different Pret sandwiches. What had seemed delicious a few years before now just seemed like a mush topped with gunge. I realised that every single item had mayonaise on. Not only that, but to me, the mayo tasted of nothing and made my mouth taste greasy. Worse than that, it seemed that all of the supermarkets etc had followed suite. No sandwich tasted of anything and everything came with that gunge that was called mayo.
I realised that the sarnies and rolls made in Sidoli's were far superior and gunge wasn't mandatory. But the trouble is, if you get a train or plane, the little cafe's like Sidoli's are nowhere to be found. Whereas you used to be able to get a freshly prepared bacon roll in a BR buffet on a train, now, if you are lucky, you get something in a box, that they may microwave if they feel like it and costs a small fortune. Whilst the snobs that write newspapers and gossip columns used to laugh at the plain fare of British Rail, the truth is that it was decent food at a reasonable cost. The small cafe's that are rapidly disappearing from our high streets, providing wholesome food at a reasonable cost are being replaced with shiny chains, that produce tasteless food, covered in gunge in factories, to be sold en masse in their outlets.
There are some things you can be sure of. The cheese in the sandwiches tastes of nothing. Buy some decent mature cheddar from a proper shop and make yourself a sandwich and compare the taste with the gunge bomb that you'll buy in a ready made box. I do love an egg on toast, but try and get that in any chain and you'll be rather disappointed. Sure you'll get a chopped up egg drowned in mayo, but I certainly know what I'd rather have.
I'm starting the campaign to end gunge filled sandwiches. There was a time when small business owners were just happy running a cafe. Now it seems that unless you have a desire to 'start a franchise' you lack ambition. The world is going mad before our eyes. I don't know who decided that if you want a cheese sarnie, you need a bucket of gunge on it, but it has to stop! I may return to this theme on a Saturday in the very near future!
I am not in the least surprised that Joe Biden has stepped down, I was amazed he ran for a second term. Over the course of his Presidency, he's looked increasingly infirm and it has been quite upsetting to see. It is beyond me as to why it took until now for his friends and colleagues to persuade him to step aside. Back at the start of the year, I predicted that time would catch up with both Biden and Trump and I have to say that when I see Donald Trump, I do not see a man who looks in full command of his mind. A few years ago, a much loved person in my life developed dementia. I learned much about the condition. He would be quite able to read, to have a lucid conversation and at times he seemed perfectly with it. On occasion though, he'd start rambling, repeating himself and worst of all, getting angry (often for no reason). When I watch Trump speak, I see echoes of such behaviour. The worst aspect of this was how he would start ranting about random people. I have a friend who is a doctor and I discussed this. In laymans terms, he explained that as the brain realises it cannot process information correctly, it becomes agitated and this is directed at whatever is perceived as a threat or an irritant at that time. I'm not an American, I have no skin in that election, but every citizen of this planet runs the risk of being affected by irrational behaviour of the most powerful man on the planet. I was watching Trump speaking about Kamala Harris. There were two things that worried me. The first is the total lack of diplomatic language in Trumps words. The second was the almost irrational anger. I get that Trump is not a fan of the Vice President, but it used to be the case that we expected a modicum of decorum from Politicians.
So what do I think of Kamala Harris's chances? It is almost impossible to tell at this point. The demographic shift in the USA since Trump won in 2016 should favour Harris. She is clearly completely sound mentally, so any democrats who were waivering due to Bidens failings, should be back on board. We've not seen her up against Trump. I am sure that will be an interesting debate. I doubt she'll make Biden style gaffes. Trump will try and portray her as a left winger who will drag America's economy down the pan whilst opening the borders. Harris will have to have a decent strategy to counter this. On the plus side though, the issue has moved to Trumps mental capacity and ability to complete a full term. Being almost the same age as Biden, Trump may well set a trap for himself. The Democrats will be keeping a beady eye for any signs of dementia or any other infirmity.
Sadly, it seems to me that this election will be more about who is fit to run the country, than about setting an agenda to take America forward. Trump was undone by the pandemic. The USA's response was appalling. Have Americans really forgotten?
My concern for Harris is that she seems to be very low key. My gut feeling is that to beat Trump, the democrats need a charismatic candidate who can give people some hope. I suspect that Harris will do very well with liberal Americans, who don't want restrictions on abortion, who want affordable healthcare and who do not like attacks on immigrant communities. On the other hand, there are few areas where Trump is strong that she will make a dent in. The hard core of blue collar white men who love Trump will never vote for Harris. The issue is that elections are not won in these areas. They are won on the margins. It is too early to know whether Harris will make inroads here. I suspect that if she does, Trump will lack the capacity to claw back people who are won over by calm debate rather than insults and bluster. I expect that we'll soon see the Crooked Kamala jibes come out. Trump will reprise his greatest hits, the ones he believes served him well. It is anyones guess how they will go down against a confident woman who has spent her whole life ignoring barbs and insults.
It seems to me that Europeans have a lot of difficulty getting their head around why so many Americans seem to like Donald Trump. There have been comparisons with Boris Johnson. To me, such comparisons are wide of the mark. Johnson was around the political landscape for a very long time befoe he became PM. He was a popular Mayor of London and was seen as a 'bit of a laugh' by many. Trump wasn't involved in politics at all before he won in 2016. My view was that I thought many Americans thought Trump would be a good leader because he was seen as a strong leader through his TV appearences on The Apprentice. They felt that Trump was straight talking and would simply sack people who were not up to it. As a lot of Americans thought the politcal system was broken, they felt someone who would sack half of Congress was a great man. Trump failed miserably when he had his first term, but his supporters fell for his "We was robbed" rhetoric. In some ways, Trump losing and claiming he was robbed was something that disaffected Americans could buy into. The thing that interests me is how many Americans are disaffected with the political system and are attracted to this. It seems to me that they are not traditional Republicans. There is a certain lack of coherence in claiming to be a patriot to the flag, whilst wanting to tear down all of the traditional structures of government and follow someone who promoted insurgency. An American friend who is what might be called a 'sensible Republican' told me a month ago that Trump Biden was an impossible choice. I asked about Kamala Harris and his view was that the Democrats would be mad to pick her, but could win with a better candidate ( probably a white, middle class male). His view was that Harris would make him more, not less likely to vote Trump, but he also felt Harris may drag over constituencies that were turned off by Biden (the pro abortion lobby). I suspect when it comes down to it that the truth is that for many Republicans, Trump is the worst possible candidate, apart from whoever the Democrats pick. I have no idea who else in the Democrats would be better than Harris, I don't really follow their politics, but one thing is clear. Americans have a very clear choice if Harris stands.
You may wonder why I've not mentioned the possibility of a different democrat candidate. I am not ruling it out, but if they are to do it, they will have to get a move on and there is no evidence that they have an appetite for another candidate.
Sunday is the day when I like to write a long, rambling blog about subjects that interest me. Today I look at the subject of Wisdom! When I was a very small boy, one of the biggest treats of all was when my Dad took me down to his workshop at his care repair business Mac Metals. It was full of cars being repaired and tools. It smelled of oil, filler and paint. His staff were mostly blokes from Burnt Oak, with names like Ken, Ted, Bill and Dennis. They would bash cars with hammers and swear a lot. Ken would sing the latest songs in the charts at the top of the his voice whilst bashing them. They all wore blue overalls, my Dad wore a white coat, because he was the boss. His pockets were full of keys and coins. At every tea break, the men would play three card brag and cash would change hands, as tea was drunk. Occasionally customers would turn up and if they were deemed 'OK' they would be invited to play cards as well. At the back of Bunns Lane Works, where the Flower Lane Industrial Estate was, an overland bus company operated. The drivers would fix up their buses, in anticipation of their next journey from Totteridge to New Delhi. The boss was Emil and the drivers had names like Ernie, Rod and John. They were a rather tough old bunch. Ernie was the son of a bare knuckle boxer. Rod had run a garage in the East End and used to mend motors for The Krays. He told us once that he'd found someone's nose on the back seat. He mentioned it to Reggie Kray, who said "Chuck it in the bin, he won't need it where he is now". They would disappear for six months, then return armed with a whole bunch of new stories. There was also a coffee roasting company on site. The warehouseman was another Burnt Oak boy called Cyril. Cyril was a big lover of Ska music and would always have it blasting out from his cassette player.
I was in awe of everyone who worked there. You could best describe the people at the card table as 'proper geezers'. I didn't realise it at the time, but that was probably the best education anyone could ever have. Three card brag is perhaps the best way to learn about the unfairness of life. I recall my Dad one day winning a lot of money off Cyril in a game on day, after he'd been paid. Cyril had a very strong hand. Dad was a good bluffer and as the stakes rose, Cyril threw his hand in. He then said to Dad, what have you got? Dad said "If you wanted to see that you have to pay". Dad put his cards down and Cyril picked them up, a bad breach of Brag etiquette. To his horror, he saw that Dad had five high, the worst possible hand. He stormed off and never played again. He took real umbrage as he realised that Dad had correctly guessed he could out bluff him. Dad was furious with him for 'breaking the rules'. Such things were important. That's the thing about Brag. It is not fair. Neither is life. Once you accept that, most challenges can be addressed. Don't cry over the last hand, play the next one a bit better.
None of the people around that card table had a degree, I doubt too many, if any, had done A Levels. But there was a huge amount of wisdom imparted. The sort that cannot be taught in a text book. I learned that the cars that looked the best were not always the best to own, for a whole host of reasons. It is a great metaphor for life. Dad would tell me that you could tell a customers personality by his car and his shoes. As I got older, Dad would get me cleaning and valeting cars before they were released to the customers. You would find all sorts of things under the seats. Usually a few coins, but I also found soft and hard drugs, pornographic magazines, wallets, letters and often things too horrible to mention here. It seemed to me that the more expensive the car, the more outlandish the detritus that was left under the seats. Under the seat of one E Type Jag, I found an airline ticket to New York. Dad laughed and said "Blimey, he left the car here when he went on holiday to be repaired, I hope he got on the plane". I couldn't understand how anyone could leave a plane ticket under a seat ( I do now!).
The guys who worked for Dad all had different jobs, fitters, sprayers, panel beaters and the bloke who swept up. All were masters of their own trade, but it seemed that there was no crossover at all. If a sprayer was off ill, the fitters would never pick up the spray gun. I realised that people can be very good at one thing and not much use at anything else. Different people had different concerns and interests. What my Dad was exceptionally good at was keeping everyone happy and keeping it all running. I often suspected that he ran the whole business so he could play cards. My mother ran the office. At one stage, she had two other ladies working with her. I hadn't realised until very recently that this massive over staffing was set up when she had cancer. She was making sure that people were up to speed to keep the business running after she passed away. No one had computers, so there was a lot of manual work, doing wages, invoices, billing etc. She would constantly be horrified at my Fathers business practices. He once took on a fitter, without noticing that he only had one arm. As it happened, he was no less productive than the other fitters. I suspected my Dad employed him as a he was an interesting character and a mine of stories.
Which brings us to the concept of wisdom. I have started with this rather lengthy preamble, so that you can understand the context. My Father was raised in the outback of Australia and only had two years formal education. I've never quite understood how he managed to become an officer in the RAF and pass the exams required with such a start, but he was undoubtedly a very bright man. But more than that he was wise. Wisdom is very different to being clever. At one stage the company employed around 20 people and had it's own football team. The men who worked for him were a volatile bunch. The customers could also be very difficult. Some were very dishonest. Dad had a bit of a reputation as a hard nut. To the best of my knowledge, the only incident of violence at the business, was when a local gangster attempted to hustle some cash for protection and my father threw him in the company incinerator. Tales of that reached far and wide and I guess it discouraged people from bothering to try and fight with him. Whenever I'd go down, he'd explain the stories of the day and what I should learn from them. Often, he'd explain how something had unfolded and someone had got it completely wrong.
When I was very young, there used to be a little confectioner who operated from a shed on Bunns Lane Bridge. Before and whilst the M1 was being built, buses from Burnt Oak to Mill Hill would terminate at Bunns Lane, outside the Labour Exchange, notably the 140 and 52 bus. The confectioner had a brisk business selling sweets and tobacco to the travellers making their way to the Broadway. Dad would take me into this shop. He knew the owner. He'd buy himself three packets of Capstan Medium cigarettes (he smoked 60 a day) and let me buy some sweets. I loved it. Then one day, some local herberts burned it to the ground. It was gone. I was devastated. I said to Dad "How could anyone burn down such a nice shop?". Dad imparted some wisdom that I will never forget "The nicer something is, the more someone, somewhere will want to destroy it". I couldn't understand this at all. He explained "There are some people who delight in ruining things for everyone. They are people you want to avoid like the plague".
A couple of weeks later, he came home from work and he was really agitated. Mum asked him what was the matter. He said that one of his boys was nicking stuff. Mum was also cross. Dad said "I know who it is and I'm going to catch them". A couple of days later, a Sunday, He asked me if I wanted to come out for a drive. This wasn't unusual, we'd often go for a drive. Usually this was out to the woods, or to Burnt Oak for an Ice cream. This time, was to somewhere I'd not been before. All of a sudden, he pulled up and said "Stay in the car". I recognised one of the blokes who worked for him. He was working on a car at the side of the road. The back of his van was open. Dad snuck up on him and some very sharp words were exchanged. They then went to the back of the van. Dad then came back and we drove off. I asked him what it was all about. He said "His van was full of paint and tools he'd nicked from MacMetals. I put some labels on the bottom of all the paint tins saying Property of MacMetals and I'd engraved MM on the tools". I asked him why he'd left the tools there. He said "I told him he had to bring them all back tomorrow and if he didn't the next visit wouldn't be so friendly. I said the only reason I hadn't thumped him was because you were in the car and I didn't want to upset you". I didn't really think much of it. I realised that Dad had given the guy a way out. I asked why he hadn't called the Police, if the bloke had been nicking stuff. He said "These things are best resolved without the police". Years later I asked about what happened. He told me that he was sending a message to everyone that if they nicked stuff off him, he'd catch them and they could expect a visit. He said that the guy had probably thought he was lucky that I was in the car, but Dad hadn't wanted to thump him. He just wanted him to know that it was a distinct possibility. He said that the message got through and for the pilfering stopped. He said that if the Police had been involved, there'd have been a load of hassle for him, days off work at court and the bloke would probably have got a fine.
We were having a chat, towards the end of his life and I recalled the shed that burned down. He said "You know what real wisdom is? It is learning to appreciate things before they are gone" He'd bought his ciggies at the shed as they were cheap, he liked a chat with the owner and it was convenient. IT wasn't a big thing, but it was nice to have it and, like me, he missed it. He said "I hear so many people moan about their wives. As soon as they lose them, they realise how lucky they were". The more I think about it, the truer it is. If we appreciate the good things when they are here, maybe they will be here a little bit longer. And when they go, maybe we'll have fewer regrets. I honestly don't know whether I am what you could call a wise person, but I do my best to appreciate the good things in my life, whilst they are still here. I am lucky that I had the start I did. All of those characters gave me a wonderful perspective on life. One thing I really owe my Dad for was the fact that he educated me in the arts of getting by in a difficult world.
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I often reminisce. Here's a number I wrote about the long lost art of enjoying lazy Sundays, when all the shops were shut and there was cricket on the TV!
As regular readers will know, music is my big passion in life. I am not really a fan of mega gigs, big festivals and massive events. My sort of music is grassroots, small venues. I've always preferred shows where you can see the band, rather than where you see them on a massive screen and they are a dot a mile away on a stage. I don't know how many gigs I've seen in my life. If it's one a week for 45 years, then it's well over 2,000. London's Grassroots venues are going through a difficult time at the moment. Despite the fact that it is by far the best way to see music, and that all of the worlds best artists have started in such venues, they simply don't get the love they deserve.
I put up a post on Twitter to try and ascertain which grassroots venues are best loved. Following a retweet by BBC Radio London DJ Gary Crowley, it got over 7,500 views.
What do you think is London's best grassroots music venue? I think it has to be The @DublinCastle in Parkway, #CamdenTown - my band even wrote a song about how much we love it!https://t.co/DvTnLFHZix
We also got some great responses. So here is what we got and my thoughts on the venue, with some details if you are inspired to get out and see some music. I think everyone should, at least once a year, visit a venue they've not been to before and see an artist they've never seen before. Take a chance. Check their listings.
1. The Dublin Castle - This is my favourite small venue in London. Where Madness and Amy Winehouse made their name, featured in the recent Disney Channel documentary. It is worth a visit, just to have a pint and to soak up the atmosphere. There is some great memorabilia, that you'd pay to see in some museums. It is unique! My band recorded a song and made a video celebrating the venue, which gives a little flavour of what you are missing if you've not visited. Check forthcoming gigs here -thedublincastle.com - I'd recommend Toots and The Skamen tonight, if you love a bit of Ska! Also Palm Plive of the Slits next Sunday in conversation looks amazing
2. The Water Rats. Where the Pogues played their first gig in 1984 (when it was still the Pindar of Wakefied) and Bob Dyla made his UK debut in the 1960's . A wonderful venue. I've played there twice over the years. Once in the early 1980's when it was the Pindar of Wakefield (Pulp were also on the bill, long before Jarvis and the boys were famous) and again in 2010 when Connie Abbe was in the band. In August they are hosting a some tasty looking Camden Comedy fringe gigs
3. The Slaughtered Lamb. A tiny venue in Farringdon, in the basement of a rather decent pub. I've seen a few great gigs here recently. Tends to specialise in solo acts, duo's etc. A very nice place to spend an evening. The food in the pub is good if you want to eat first.
4. The George in E1. Great little venue in the East End. Was under threat. The Save London Music Campaign made a video there to explain why we need it. Well worth checking out
6. The Moth Club. Great little venue in Hackney, not had the pleasure of going there, but deffo on the list. I tend not to get over to East London for gigs much, which is a shame as there are some great music pubs in the area. As most of the up and coming bands I see are North London based and use Mill Hill Music Complex, it is a bit off my personal radar, but the bands who have played there are big fans
7. The Half Moon, Putney. One of London's proper suburban pub rock boozers. Live music every night. Tends to be new bands during the week and tribute bands at the weekend. Back in the 70's and 80's, this was a staple of the pub rock circuit. Worth a trip down.
9. The Victoria, Dalston. I'd not heard of this Dalston venue before the comment was left. I checked the listings and this gig absolutely fascinated me. I may well make the trip!
10. The Sebright Arms - Yet another Hackney music pub. Got to be honest, looked through the listings and didn't recognise anything up and coming, which is exactly as it should be, as it means they are putting up and coming bands on.
11. The Social - And finally, Gary Crowley's suggestion. I've been here a few times and it is great, most recently to see Wine Mom, who supported The False Dots at The Dublin Castle. Well worth a visit.
A couple of people suggested closed venues, including the Moonlight Club and the Sausage Club in West Hampstead. Both great clubs and much missed.
I'll end with a little plug for the next False Dots gig in the diary. Our album launch at The Dublin Castle on the 17th November. It's a way off, but why not book a ticket and put it in the diary/ This is what the Dublin Castle say about the gig in the blurb!
Falsedots– Dublin Castle stalwarts, and then some, play their matinee malarkey album launch party for you today, that album being there saucily titled ‘A Finger In The Sun’. They go back to the Seventies but they have a youthful spirit for sure. Expect that new album to be a party platter reflecting their lovely live joie de vivre, encompassing the emanations of louche, loquacious and lascivious (la di da) Londoners like Ian Dury, Madness and Mark ‘Alternative TV’ Perry, with a healthy loft punk pop element and a devil may care spirit much to be admired, sure to be a beezer afternoon.
The Nice Men– post punk shoulda bins with a fine balance of artsy angst and pithy pop in their musical armoury. It may no longer be 1979 but these reformed roustabouts will put that first forkful of Pot Noodle whilst hearing The Teardrop Explodes for the first time ever back in your mind. I think Pot Noodles came out in 1979…Julian Cope certainly did. I mean …you know what I mean.
Whelligan– bit of a Copey influence here to perchance. From Merseyside via the Holloway Road and a fistful of acid pop pearls.
After all the excitement of England over the last six weeks, normal service has resumed. Our local team, Hadley FC are at home to Potters Bar FC tomorrow at Brickfield Lane. It is a friendly so is free. There is a bar before the game and at half time, so why not come along. The Gate Pub is over the road, so if you need a pie and a pint afterwards, it is very well situated.
We return to pre-season friendlies on Saturday when we host Potters Bar Town, 1pm kick off at Brickfield Lane (free entry) https://t.co/1e9SgpqWBq
