It would be so much easier just to go with the flow and say nothing when people are bang out of order

 Do you ever wish you had a different personality? I do. I genuinely wish I was the type of person who didn't feel it was morally wrong to stand by and watch people bully, lie, gaslight and generally abuse whatever position of minor power they may have. I am comfortably off and I am at a stage in my life where I could do without the hassle. Sadly for me, I was raised to believe that God had blessed me with many gifts in life and that it was my duty to show my appreciation for this by not taking the easy path and saying "it's someone else's problem" when I see people behaving in an appalling manner. It is bad enough to see people behave in an appalling manner, but when I then see them being dishonest to try and get away with it, it gets my goat. Much as I would love to walk on by, I can't. I am sure that one day it will be the death of me. However, I've had the best life and I would rather go to my grave early with my dignity and self respect than let people act in a way that is horrible. I've never been afraid to go out on a limb, shout back at a howling mob, if they are wrong.

Life is short and at some point, I believe we all have a reckoning. I am not perfect, I've made terrible mistakes in the past and I will again. I've let people down, I've looked the other way at times when I shouldn't. What life has taught me is that when you do this, the shame is a heavy burden. There are several stories in the news today that have demonstrated a terrible cost associated with not doing the right thing.

I have learned that life is a bit like a game of chess. Sometimes you have to make a sacrifice to get what you need to succeed. But you have to have a clear strategy. I am so often shocked at the fact that people who take a different path so rarely have thought through the consequences of their actions, beyond what they can see at the end of their nose. When you don't treat people with dignity, when you demonise them for their mistakes, when you want remedies that are disproportionate, you enter a very dangerous place. 

I apply three principles to life. The first is that we all make mistakes, so mistakes should be treated with understanding, if the person who made them acknowledges them. Secondly, If you make a mistake, you should do everything in your power to rectify it as soon as you recognise it. If you don't then you have not learned and no one should have any faith that you will not make a similar mistake again. The third principle and one that is perhaps hardest for us to get our heads around is that we are not being true friends if we don't tell our friends the truth and put them right when they have behaved badly. We have to balance that against ensuring that they know we will help them get through difficult times, but when we know they are in the wrong, we should support their efforts to put things right, not reinforce and mistaken belief they may have that if they tell enough lies, they might get away with it. As friends, when we support atrocious behaviour, we become co-conspirators and culpable. 

My memory always brings me back to a certain Barnet Tory councillor, who continually behaved in the most atrocious manner. His party chums went along with his appalling behaviour, although several privately told me they were appalled. Instead of learning from past misdemeanours, his behaviour deteriorated, until the point where he assaulted a woman on the High Street and ended up with a criminal record. When the CCTV showed the assault, he exclaimed "That is not how I remember it". 

I realised that he convinced himself that an alternative reality was true and despite hard evidence to the contrary, many of his local Tory chums fell into line behind him. For some reason, weak, pathetic bullies generally prefer picking on women, unless they have a baying mob supporting them. 

Over the years, I have seen so many examples, in work, in local politics, in social settings and clubs that I belong to, where unpleasant individuals pick on people they believe are not in a position to fight back. In every case there is one constant. They refuse to admit they are wrong and have extreme reluctance to apologise to those they have wronged. I am 64 soon and I am thoroughly sick of such people. Their unpleasantness is so deeply engrained that they see it as not only perfectly normal, but they genuinely enjoy the upset that they cause their victims. The one thing you never hear from them is that they have any sense of regret for the upset that they caused their victims, unless it is part of a strategy to get themselves off the hook.

If I wasn't in a great band and surrounded by nice people, I think I would find it very hard to navigate waters inhabited by such individuals. As it is I seem them for what they are and it reminds me why I never want to be in their camp. But I will leave you with this thought. It is not the man who pulls the trigger who is the most dangerous individual. It is the man who hid the gun for him, so he got away and did it again. It took me a while to understand. 

So you want to be a Rock and Roll star?

 It's funny isn't it. I was away at the weekend with a bunch of lads for a Stag do, most of whom were in their 20's and early thirties (+ my mate Gary who is my age sort of at just over 60 and is the Dad of the groom). I haven't been on such a riotous adventure for a good few years. Weekends away with my male mates are a lot more sedate these days. It was a bit of a jolt to the system. They are a lovely bunch of lads and I was generally surprised at how well behaved they are. I was also surprised at how much more civilised the English have become on such occasions. It reminded me of when I was that sort of age. We were terrible if I am honest. We were into rock and roll and the rock and roll lifestyle and at times it seemed like a constant game of pushing everything to the limit. I am not quite sure how old I was when I finally started to be a bit more sensible, probably some time around when I was 33, when I had my first daughter. 

I was managing a band ten years younger and I was constantly surprised at how different they were to the False Dots in our prime. We were a very naughty bunch. Naughty Naughty tra la la. I am sure that they felt they were a naughty bunch of boys, and they did a few things, but for us it was constant mayhem. I can recall when Paul Marvin joined the band. His Dad was Hank Marvin, perhaps the first ever British guitar legend. He asked me if I wanted to be a Rock and Roll star. I said yes. He gave me some brilliant advice. He said "Rock and Roll is not playing in an orchestra, it is about putting yourself out there. You have to look better than the other bands and have a trademark. You don't have to be the greatest player, but you have to have some trademark licks and always wear great shoes". 

As the band started to gig, I realised that all of the best gigs I'd seen were at smaller venues. Gigs like The Damned's reunion gig at The Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, Johnny Thunders at Dingwalls, The Dickies at The Marquee and Crass at The Hope and Anchor are some that spring to mind. I realised that the biggest venue I liked was The Roundhouse, any bigger and it did not seem to me to be a proper gig. The more I played the more I loved it and I have always loved writing songs, rehearsing with a band and recording. But I had no great ambition to be on Top of The Pops or play massive venues. That just didn't seem like fun. I liked having a beer with the audience afterwards. I don't know if the fact I'd been on telly a lot when I did acting as a kid fed into that. 

I wasn't too bothered about the money side. In fact, when we first started, it was relatively lucrative, Venues would pay us a decent amount and we'd put on our own gigs as well. About half of this was invested back in the band, and half in alcohol etc. The second time we were asked "So you want to be a Rock Star?" was when we went to see an A&R man at GEM records. We bumped into the UK Subs, as we were hanging around. I will save that story for another day. It was not a satisfactory experience. We got hassled by the drug squad on the way their and got nicked on the way back, as I was on the back of Pete Conways motorbike and he only had a provisional license. The copper who nicked us was a very two faced liar, who we exposed in court for his misdemeanours and porkies, which spared me a fine, but not an endorsement on a driving license I didn't have as I had pleaded guilty! As Pete was called after me, he got let off completely, as he said "I am pleading innocent, the officer has told a stack of lies". The Magistrate dismissed the case. I must be the only person to be an illegal passenger, when the driver got let off. The copper was fuming, but he made up a whole cock and bull story, rather than give proper evidence. I simply told the truth. He had said I'd asked Pete to give me a lift as I was late for work. I told the magistrate this was a complete fabrication, as Pete had bought the bike that day and he'd suggested going for a spin as he was chuffed with it. It was probably worse, but it was true. I then challen ed the magistrate to ask the policeman to explain why he had told porkies and made stuff up. He couldn't explain. As we left, he told me he was going to 'sort me out next time he saw me". I told him that he should be ashamed of himself for telling lies. The Police were not keen on people in bands back then. In truth, I'd done a silly thing and was quite happy to take the medicine until he started his story. 

As for the actual interview with the A&R man. That went as badly as it possibly could. He took one look at Pete & I and decided we were ne'er do well idiots. He played the first song on the tape and and said it was 'the wrong sort of music'. I looked at the offices with all of the pictures of Samson (their current stars) up and said "And that is the right sort of music", to which he sneered "They sell records, thats what the indusstry does". We'd chosen the label to try as they had the UK Subs, so we were very disappointed. The A&R bloke did give us some good advice. He said "If you play a song to an A&R man, you get about ten seconds. Your drummer used that with is extra long count in." Pete retorted "Most people do a four count in so we thought we'd be different", to which he replied "When different is rubbish, it isn't clever". I can't say that endeared the industry to me, but he wasn't wrong. When he asked "Do you want to be rock and roll stars?" We both replied "Yes". He said "Well go away and make something people will buy". It wasn't actually bad advice, but we took it as a huge insult. I daresay he said that to dozens if not hundreds of wannabees. Back in 1980, no one cared if they crushed you and your dreams. 

I think myself and Pete took it in different ways. He departed the band and I carried on for 47 years. The next installment will take place on Sunday. Why not come along (click the image for details). I hope the lads I was out with on Sunday are still following their dreams when they get to my age!

The False Dots next Gig

The Sunday Reflection #95 - Pubs, Pubs, Pubs - and what you can learn from visiting nine of them in one night!

 Last night, I visited nine pubs and had a drink in each one. We were on one of my best friends sons stag night. A group of fifteen of us dressed up as characters from the Super Mario game and went on a pub crawl organised by his other son. You may think that this is a strange topic for a Sunday Reflection, but I learned quite a lot and I really wanted to share it. We were on Brighton. We emerged from our Airbnb at 7pm and headed to the first of the pubs. We were on a tight schedule. The first pub we passed was not on our itinery. It was the Golden Cannon. It's in the heart of LGBTQ+ district, but is a proper old style pun , which wouldn't seem out of place in Burnt Oak. The locals saw us and and rushed out and invited us in, amused by our outfits. Given the warm welcome, we had to oblige. The scheduled beer for the first stop was a pint of Guinness. As I rather like Guinness, this went well. A local put One Step Beyond by Madness on and we all did the conga around the pub and down the road. The guvnor then gave us a round of Baby Guinness shots. It was a brilliant start. We then moved on. As we made our way down the street, people were stopping us to have their picture taken with a group of fourteen blokes, all dressed as in silly attire.

Now I am not going to bore you with the details of the other pubs and drinks, but I will share a few things.  Three of the venues we visited were not on the list we had planned. They saw us and invited us in because the saw we were good natured and having fun. We went in and I guess we spent £200 in each. We also had a great crack with all of the locals. All of these pubs were independent. We went in one pub, which we didn't feel especially welcome in. It wasn't a party atmosphere and I guess if you want a quiet pub, you don't want 14 blokes being silly. They did serve us, but it wasn't the vibe for either us or them. O'Neils refused to let us come in. It was pretty clear that they had decided that we were 'too large a group' to let in, despite the fact that it was clear that we were good natured and having a laugh. The other large chain we went to was Wetherspoons. Although they let us in, there was a scowling member of security standing by us for the entire duration of our visit. I found it quite antagonising really. I rarely drink on Wetherspoons, and it sort of confirmed my prejudices that Wetherspoons lacks atmosphere and is not really much fun. 

Another one of the highlights was an impromptu stop at The Little Havana bar for some impromptu Karaoke. As the night was warm and dry and we were having a good crack, quite a few revellers joined in. The bar owner got into the vibe as well. 

It was a brilliant night. I go to a lot of pubs and clubs, not usually so many on one night and I don't normally drink as much in one sitting, but such occasions are to be savoured. It confirmed my views of the large pub chains, which are run by people who don't drink in them. Soulless and dull. I also love quirky pubs, community pubs and best of all, bars with a bit of music on. I get that students etc, on a low budget, love a 'spoons' but to me they are horrible. 

What I found interesting was the different attitudes of the door staff. The big chains had aggressive door staff that were keen to assert their authority. The smaller pubs had doormen who saw we were up for a crack and got into the spirit with us. I get that the big chains have 'policies' but anyone who has spent any time around pubs at all can see straight away who is going to be a problem and who isn't. I believe that a visit to the pub should be good for the soul. If all it does is suck the energy out of you, then it is a bit self defeating. 

The bottom line for me was that we stopped by for drinks in nine different places and seven of them were a great crack. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that all had their own vibe. All were unique, apart from the 'Spoons' which just felt like you were in a 'Spoons', which is great if you like that sort of pub. I don't. I realised that I don't actually go to the pub to drink. I go to the pub to have a crack. Pubs that don't really want people having fun are not really for me. 

Friday Fun and Local Music Roundup

The Friday Joke - I love this one from our Twitter friend Mr Robert Wilkinson

Neil Diamond's favourite smoothie?

Swede, carob, lime.

Sing along everyone.

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) August 12, 2026

Watch Amy Winehouse skanking with #thefalsedots outside her favourite studio at @Mill Hill Music Complex to the banging new #ska track Crows from the bands new album #wedontliveinamerica

See the band live at @dublincastle and n Sun 23 Aug

https://wegottickets.com/f/22613/

Other local music this week

Friday 14th

Butchers Arms 9pm – 12.30am - Bear Pit Band (pop/rock covers)

East Barnet RB Legion 8pm – midnight £5 on door - Bop Street

Barrington Bar 8.30 pm - midnight = Karaoke with Neil

The Cavalier 7.30pm – late = Karaoke disco with Iain H

Ye Olde Monken Holt 9pm – 11.50pm = DJ The Real Slim Sadie (Disco)

Saturday 15th

East Barnet RB Legion 8.30pm - midnight £2 non members - Alan Carvell - The Human Jukebox 

Butchers Arms 9pm – 11.30pm - The Beatin Heart (Covers)

Toolans 9pm – 11.30pm = Billy Heneghan 

Joiners Arms - Leon Knight (Covers 50s – present)

Sunday 16th

The Kings Head 2pm- 4pm - Harmonica Lewinsky (Pop/ Rock)

Ye Olde Monken Holt 7pm – 9pm -  Brian Connell and Keith Haggis

Butchers 8.30 – 11.30pm -  Butchers Arms Jam Electric/Blues/Rock (Full backline available

Toolans 8.30pm – 11.30pm- Two in Accords

Monday 17th

Ye Olde Mitre Inn, High Street 8pm – 11pm (stables room) - Barnet Acoustics Session

Tuesday 18th

The Bull Theatre £5

Acapella & Accoustic Speakeasy 14+ (3rd Tuesday) 

Wednesday 19th

Toolans 5pm – 8pm

Declan Gaynor - Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 11pm Open Mic Night

Thursday 20th

Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 10.30pm - Irish Session

Malt & Hops 7.30pm - Open Mic Night (3rd Thursday of month)

Friday 21st

Butchers Arms 9pm – 11.45 - The Bluesbrokers (blues/rock)

Barrington Bar 8.30 pm - midnight - Karaoke with Neil

Chipping Barnet SC 33 High Street 7pm – Late - The Dream Mansion with Matt Backer

Ye Olde Monken Holt 9pm – 11.50pm - DJ The Real Slim Sadie (Disco)

Rock and Roll Stories #72 - You are never too old to Rock and Roll

 When I started the band, I started a scrapbook to document the meteoric rise of the False Dots to the top of the charts and world domination of music. We genuinely believed that we would become the biggest band on the planet. We couldn't play, the songs were crap, our instruments were the cheapest rubbish we could afford. What could possibly go right? Well nothing at all. The scrapbook is a litany of the many failures of various line ups of the band between 1979 and 1990 to be successful, it is laced with bitterness and acrimony. I wrote it for myself and in some ways it is the first example of my style as a blogger, although the targets were ex band members rather than politicians. Then it stops until 2000. This is the first entry of the new century.

I restarted  the band for a specific purpose. To record some of the old songs for my own personal pleasure, as I had my own recording studio. I had no plans to gig, no plans to release music, no plans to take the band seriously. Then fate intervened. My best mate and business partner, Ernie Ferebee died, we decided to do a benefit gig for his family and the bug bit again. That was 26 years ago and the band has been active ever since. I was 37 years old then and considered myself past it, so it seemed pointless persuing the Rock and Roll dream. However, it was a total blast and great fun, so I saw no reason not to do it. We settled into a pattern of doing one or two gigs a year, at local venues and usually for cancer charities and local festivals. It sort of scratched the itch. In 2010-11 we had a brief period when Connie Abbe joined as singer, were we returned to Camden Town and recorded some material seriously, with a view to getting Connie a deal. Connie left to join Emmanual Jal on a world tour and Allen Ashley rejoined. We settled back into 3-4 gigs a year. 

Allen departed during Covid. I returned to singing duties for the first time since 1982 and we started writing new material. A gig at the Mill Hill Music Festival followed by a gig at the Dublin Castle in 2022 confirmed something that had been bothering me probably since Connie was in the band. The music industry has always been focussed on new young bands. Of course it is right to make the primary focus on upcoming talent and new ideas. However, there are so many great bands and solo artists who are not teenagers/young musicians who are making great music. The industry is not at all intersted in artists once they no longer look like teenagers, unless they are megastars with billions of fans. The artists who have the biggest income streams are generally not teenagers, they are established bands, like Madonna and The Rolling Stones, who have an audience of an age where there is plenty of disposable cash. But the industry completely lacks the wit and intelligence to see that there is a huge market for new music for this age group.

Bands like The False Dots, playing a genre that is not in vogue such as North London style Ska music still get a great reception live. We have nuerous radio plays on specialist online Ska stations. Everyone tells us our music is great. People like the fact that we break all the rules of Rock and Roll, and we don't give a $h1t but the gatekeepers of the mainstream sneer at us. Online, our Youtube channel has had just shy of 100,000 views. One of our songs, Put me in the Spotlight, was used by Manchester City FC as the theme tune for their Goal of the Month show in 2012. It was played 47 million times. Our gigs are a blast. It is enough for me. But it is 100% clear to me that a wider audience is being failed by the gatekeepers. I don't say this because we are not on Telly. I am saying this because over the last five years, we've played dozens of gigs, with other amazing bands on the bill, making mindblowing music and none get a look in. 

One of the things that the False Dots have started to do regularly is matinee gigs at the Dublin Castle. For many of our audience, this works well. Many have moved out of London, so there is no stress of getting the last train home etc. They can come and see us, have a few beers with mates, maybe a bite to eat after and still be tucked up in bed at 9pm with the cocoa (or whatever their tipple of choice is). I have realised that bands like ours have to adapt the way we do things. I still love playing headline shows finishing at 11pm and we get many younger fans who are also up for this. However I realised that we were missing a trick when many of our fans said "We prefer it when you do support slots so we can get home". 

Any band that wants to have an audience needs to stay in touch with its fanbase. So we've tried to gear our programme around making sure that anyone who may like our music gets a chance to see us when it suits them. You are never too old to Rock and Roll, but Rock and Roll needs to make damn sure that it gives everyone a chance to join in the fun, be it as a musican, a punter or both! The current stage of the  journey started in 2000 and I still feel we are only half way to Paradise! I hope that there are a few more chapters of Rock and Roll Stories to tell!

And if you've not heard the music of The False Dots, CLICK HERE and if you want to come and see us, in a Matinee Show click on the picture for full details of our album launch and my birthday show, on 23rd August at The Dublin Castle

So does AI agree with The Barnet Eye's assessment of the risk level of an AI Doomsday apocalype - The results may shock you!

 Yesterday, I posted a blog detailing the risks of an AI doomsday apocalypse scenario, based on my 37 years working in IT, developing and supporting major banking payments networks. After I posted the blog, I asked Google's Gemini AI tool whether I was right. You may find AI's view of the risk shocking. Here is what it had to say

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Evaluating the realism of the scenarios raised in the blog post requires breaking them down into realistic near-term risks, plausible worst-case events, and unrealistic extrapolations.

1. Highly Realistic: Minor Errors Causing Major System Failures

• Realism Level: 10/10 (Already Happening)

• Why it's realistic: The blog's anecdotes about payment system glitches creating tailbacks or test scripts flooding emergency services reflect how fragile complex, interconnected IT infrastructure is.

• Real-World Evidence:

  • The CrowdStrike / Windows outage (July 2024) proved that a single corrupted software update can instantly paralyze global air travel, emergency services, banking networks, and healthcare systems without any cyberattack occurring.

  • The 2023 NATS air traffic control failure in the UK was triggered by a single improperly formatted flight plan that caused the main and backup systems to enter a safety shutdown, grounding thousands of flights.

2. Highly Realistic: AI-Accelerated Cyberattacks on Infrastructure

• Realism Level: 9/10 (Active Threat)

• Why it's realistic: Criminal syndicates and hostile state actors do not need "sentient AI" to cause devastation; they only need AI tools that automate code analysis, scan legacy operational technology (OT) for vulnerabilities, and execute zero-day exploits at superhuman speed.

• Real-World Evidence:

  • National security advisories confirm that nation-state actors are deploying AI tools to map out power grid networks, water management SCADA systems, and transport infrastructure for potential sabotage during geopolitical crises.

3. Plausible: Human Deskilling & Loss of Fallback Control

• Realism Level: 7/10 (Plausible Over Time)

• Why it's plausible: The blog highlights the risk of losing the human workforce capable of manually managing systems when AI fails. This phenomenon—known in safety engineering as deskilling or the Paradox of Automation—is a recognized vulnerability.

• Where the realism holds: If organizations prematurely lay off experienced technical support staff or fail to train a new generation in manual troubleshooting, an extended AI or IT failure becomes much harder to recover from quickly.

• Why it isn't an immediate total collapse: Major utilities and nuclear facilities are bound by regulatory frameworks requiring physical air-gaps, analog manual overrides, and human operator sign-offs.

4. Unrealistic: Permanent "Apocalyptic" Fall of Society

• Realism Level: 2/10 (Highly Unlikely)

• Why it's unrealistic: The blog's dramatic conclusion—that a single AI malfunction or cyberattack could trap humanity in a permanent, unrecoverable "post-apocalypse" where no one can keep the lights or water on—overstates system fragility and understates resilience engineering.

• What would actually happen: In a major systemic breakdown, societies experience acute, severe disruption (rolling blackouts, temporary supply chain freezes, economic loss) lasting days or weeks. However, engineering protocols mandate physical isolation switches and emergency manual procedures to restore basic utilities at a local level.

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What interests me most is the fact that the only one of the four scenarios that it stated was highly unlikely was one that I didn't actually predict, which perhaps gives an interesting insight into the way AI itself works. I never stated that society would end as a result of an AI apocalypse. I assume that the AI misunderstood my use of language. What I meant by the term was that it would be an apocalypse for AI systems in terms of society trusting and relying on them. When we see a major disaster, with loss of life, and massive society impact, financial impoverishment, major loss of savings, property, etc, civil unrest usually follows. Of course society adjusts and some degree of normality eventually returns, boy our faith in technology may be permanently undermined. What I said the in fnal paragraph of the blog was this. I do not believe Gemini AI's analysis properly represented this

"But that is not what interests me most. I believe that we will see a major catastrophy, with loss of life caused by one of these scenarios. And when this happens, we will see a massive re-assessment of our relationship with AI. The thing is, that may happen after the point where we can put the genie in the box. If all the people who AI replaced no longer are around or have the skill sets to clean up the mess, we are in an apocalyptic situation, where we have to keep software running that we cannot trust, to do the basic things our society needs, like keeping the lights on in winter and the water flowing. It will be bad enough if the problems are just down to glitches or hardware problems. If they are down to a malicious actor gaining control of the systems that run our lives, using AI systems that we cannot circumvent, who knows what will happen?"

Is AI smart enough to understate the risks it poses to society? Perhaps we can conclude that.