A personal message to Nick Walkley, ceo of Barnet Council

Dear Mr Walkley,

Following your email, displaying your lack of knowledge of the local music scene, I thought it only fair to educate you in such important matters. As a northerner, you are probably unaware of the punk rock musical connections of Mill Hill and the surrounding enclaves. Chris Bashford, drummer of iconic punk band Chelsea is a Mill Hill resident. The Damned have enjoyed many a happy hour rehearsing at Mill Hill Music Complex over the years. David K of Sisters of Mercy has recorded several albums at Mill Hill Music Complex, being a Barnet Resident. Malcolm MacClaren was an ex pupil of Orange Hill Senior High School (my old school) as was Pat Collier and John Ellis of the Vibrators and Matthew Ashman of the original Adam and the Ants line up as has Boz Boorer who has regularly played with the Ants. Of more recent bands of note, such as Knuckledust have emerged from the Mill Hill Music Complex.

As well as these bands, members of the Ruts, The Exploited, The Radio Stars, to name but a few have regularly rehearsed at the studios. I believe it is most disappointing that a CEO of Barnet is so unaware of the musical pedigree of Mill Hill and the surrounding areas.

Oh and I forgot to mention my own little band, formed in  1979, the False Dots. Please get your facts right in future before making such outrageous claims and statements, a bit more attention to detail would be most welcome.

Many regards

Roger Tichborne

Barnet Council - Open Day 2011

On Friday Barnet Council is having a Open Day for the Private Sector to come down to NLBP to hear about the £750million contract on offer. 

So if you run a local business and you want your slice of £750 million, get on down. Strangely, despite having supplied services to Barnet Council in the past, I'm still to receive my invite.


Odd that?

Barnet Council Cover up : Proof they are burying Metpro

Click this link - http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/meetings/meetingdetail.asp?meetingid=6824

Then download Item 6 Safeguarding_combined

See if there is any reference to Metpro. See if there is any mention of "lessons learned"

Do the same for item 8 Workprogramme combined

If you've been following the Metpro scandal in the London Borough of Barnet, where private security contractors were engaged to work at places where vulnerable people were in attendance, without any verification of SIA status or CRB checks, tell me if you think Barnet are taking Metpro seriously or are trying to sweep it under the carpet. Andrew Dismore was told by the district Auditor that he wouldn't investigate it because Barnet are "dealing with it". Well Mr Hughes - District Auditor. Pray tell me, where does it say in this document, which is clearly fundamental to the issues raised by Metpro that this is happening? Or did one of your mates in the council tell you it was all in hand? This report cannot ignore the Metpro issues and be treated with any credibility.

I call on Nick Walkley to explain to us how he can justify such a whitewash

Singalong with the Smurfs of Barnet !!!!

I was given a huge commission by the Trades Unions of Barnet  (John Burgess said he'd buy me a pint) if I could come up with a National Anthem for Barnet. As  Mill Hill is represented by a bunch of true  blue, 100 year old Tories (well almost 100 year old), I thought there could only be one place to go for Inspiration. Who does this sound like?

The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Sloppy Smurf, and so on. All smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old.

Anyway here's the first couple of verses of the new anthem, with suitable pictures and subtitles :-

What do you think, will it catch on?

Barnet Council Metpro Scandal - Andrew Dismore reponse

Here is Labour GLA Candidate Andrew Dismore's response to the District Auditor, following his refusal to hold an inquiry into the Metpro Scandal :-

Dear Mr Hughes,
Thank you for your letter of 30th June.

You do not wish to conduct a public interest inquiry because you say, in summary:

1. The council is taking action
2. It might undermine confidence in the council
3. The council is implementing the recommendations
4. The council is doing further investigations, and
5. The issue is already in the public domain

The obvious response in relation to points 1, 3 and 4, is that we have heard this from Barnet many times before but nothing seems to improve, as I expand below.

As far as point 2 is concerned, nothing could further undermine public confidence in Barnet’s administration, which is now at rock bottom as any objective resident would confirm and as evidenced by the Council’s own satisfaction surveying.

As far as point 5 is concerned, some of the issue of contract letting and compliance may be in the public domain, but only as specific horror stories individually come to light. The Metpro fiasco is just the latest. My request for the public interest inquiry was not just in the context of Metpro, but more generally into Barnet’s contract letting and monitoring processes and checks.

Only this week, the Hendon Times has carried on its front page yet another example, this time in the contracting (or lack of it) for care services, where failings at the social care centre with whom the Council failed to follow proper procedures and checks and to agree a formal contract actually led to the death of a resident with learning difficulties.

Barnet are serial offenders presiding over a catalogue of procurement disasters. “Taking action” involves actually cutting nine posts in the Corporate Procurement Team. How will cutting posts help deliver an "effective and responsive" procurement service when the council are about to embark on complex privatisations? I suspect this decision has more to do with saving money than sorting out the service.

See:
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/meetings/meetingdetail.asp?meetingid=6747


Moreover, the council met only half (51.5%) of their service improvement targets last year ( for the second year in a row, although this has been a running theme for five or six years despite the picture they would have you believe of a high performing council).

Targets missed include two targets under “effective contract management”:

· % of contracts held by the Council that have been reviewed – target missed by 26.6%,

· % of contracts deemed to require renegotiation that have commenced renegotiation –target missed by 57.8%).

This suggests that while the MetPro scandal hit the press and caught the public imagination, there appear to be more deep seated problems with procurement and contracts that throw real doubt about the council's capacity to take on the highly risky "easyCouncil" service outsourcing.

In the circumstances, I would invite you to reconsider your decision.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Dismore

1960 and all that - a Tour of Mill Hill.

Let me let you into a little secret. I'm a Time Lord and I have a Tardis. I'm going to take you back in time to Mill Hill in 1960. Now shut your eyes and imagine this scenario (assuming you can shut your eyes and read at the same time). You are sitting in my garden, which backs onto the M1. There is a constant rumble of traffic noise. It's Sunday morning. If I fancy sushi and a mango smoothie for lunch, I need go no further than Marks and Spencers at the bottom of the road in Mill Hill Broadway. But, as I'm a Time Lord, I fancy a rather different lunch today. I want Sunday lunch with all my family. Yup, with my dearly departed and much missed Mum and Dad. So I'm going to nip down to the end of the garden and enter my Tardis, which is cunningly disguised as a shed. Now as you can't meet yourself, if you are a Time traveller, without serious consequences, I'll set the time to 1960. I've won't be conceived for another 18 months. You may wonder if my Dad will be shocked at the age of 43 to meet his 48 year old son? Of course not, he's a Time Lord as well, he understands these things !

Anyway, in we go. I turn the dial to 1960 and hey presto, we're in the back garden in 1960. As I emerge, it seems rather odd. What is it? It's rather quiet. There is no M1 motorway. Where the fence which demarks my garden is today, there is a public footpath to the railway goods yard for Mill Hill, on which the motorway was built. A few rusty rail wagons are idly sitting around. Suddenly we have a right racket. A steam engine hurtles through towards London, polished green with red coaches. The air becomes acrid with the smell of coal. My garden is also rather different. A ditch runs down the middle, with some tadpoles in a large pool. The large apple tree and pear tree, chopped down in 1970 are resplendent and full of small fruit. A few runner beans are growing. But where are the family? It's 11am? Of course, back then, Mass (we are Roman Catholics)  at the Sacred Heart was at 11am. They are all at Church. I look at my house, no extension (added in 1970 by my parents), the old shed and full coal bunker (removed for the extension) are present. No side gate (added by me in 1988 when I bought the house from mum).  No loft conversion. I walk out into the street. I'm shocked at what I see. Virtually no cars. Every house has a well manicured hedge. All of the doors and window in every house seem to be painted green. Almost no houses have driveways. Mr Grover and his wife are attending to plants in the garden, they give a friendly nod. I walk down the road. I see a Humber Hawk parked in the street, shiny black with a leather interior. There is a brand spanking new Ford Anglia up the street.

The front gardens are all tidy and well tended. There are no wheelie bins and no litter whatsoever. I walk down to the Broadway. Barclays Bank is still there. Costa Coffee is the Electricity showroom. There is not a soul around. Costcutters is J. S. Sainsburys, not an electric till in site, just rows of cans and other produce. Where Marks and Spencers is, we have Callis and Maxwells Art shop, a small rundown bike shop. The 140 bus is parked in Station Road, no motorway flyover yet. As I turn left up the Broadway, I see many long gone shops. We have Walton, Hassle and Port grocers. On the other side of the road, we have the Kentfields toy shop. There is the gas showroom. There are no bins outside shops, no gaudy signs. The pavements are spotless. The bus shelters have no perspex. There are red phoneboxes. The streetlights are sturdy looking items. The post office is in the slot where Hee's is now. The slot it occupies today is The North Thames Gas showroom. There are three greengrocers. Mayers is next to Smiths (one of the very few surviving shops). On the other side of the road, we have The National Provincial Bank, where Bairstow Eves is today. It looks forboding. There are no pelican crossings.

I walk up to the Scared Heart. It is still the old church. It hasn't even had the old social Centre build yet, there is a glorified hut next to it. I walk in. I see my family half way up. The church is packed. One thing I notice instantly is the fact that everyone in the congregation is white. The women have covered heads. The church smells of incense. There is a team of boys on the alter, immaculately turned out. The organ plays, the parishioners in the pew join in. Then as I listen, I realise the whole mass is in Latin "Credo in unum deo...."

Wheras the church today is open and welcoming, the service is mainly conducted by a priest with his back to the congregation. There are alter rails, to demark the boundary between "the sanctuary" and the mob (us). The priest has the air of aloof majesty. All of the children are completely silent. Another interesting thing I notice is the size of the Catholic Families. There's the  Fannings (my cousins) with seven children and another on the way. My lot have five (we were a small family!). Every family group has a seemingly unending group. Now who is that cute little two year old girl there in a pink dress, sucking her thumb, with her big brother? Why that is none other than Mrs Angry, the Broken Barnet Blogger - my word, if only her mum knew !

As mass draws to a close, the congregation drift out. I see my Dad, he nods in recognition. "How you doin slim" he asks in his thick Aussie accent. "Piling on the pounds a bit". I reply "Behave Dad". A couple of the parishioners come up "Who's this Laurie? Is it your brother?" They ask (we look a bit alike), "Nah, it's my son, he's visiting us from 2011". They laugh.

Anyway, the rest of the story is family business, but if ever you wanted to know the secret of my Dad's success at the bookies, now you know. I hope you enjoyed the little tour with me.

Mill Hill Music Festival - Final day

So it's 9am in the morning on Sunday. I finally got to bed at 4.30am. The last gig, Recollection, Alan Warner & Candy, Freeway and the Amnesiacs finished at about 1am, with the place boogieing on down. We also had the BBC Symphony players at St Pauls Church. I didn't go to St Pauls, but Clare was at that and she reported that it was a resounding success. The packed house heard some of the finest players in the country in a truly beautiful surrounding. I'd have loved to have attended, but you can only be in one place !

Every event had over 100 people in attendence and most sold out on the night. My estimate is that over 1,500 attended all of the events. Every event was well received.

I had a long day yesterday, arriving at the Sports club at 2.45pm. Thanks to Gordon, Brian and Bob who helped us lug the PA up the stairs and rig it up. It was rigged by 4pm and the bands started arriving at 5pm for soundchecks. These went on until around 7pm, when the punters started arriving. First up were the Amnesiacs. A local band performing their first gig. They had a great singer, Olivia Carbine performing with them, a talent to watch for the future. Next up, Recollection did the first of their 3 sets. The band are an excellent covers band, playing numbers such pretty woman, knock on wood, etc. They are great for parties, functions and music festivals. Their singer Sean is one of the few people who can really do such songs justice. The guitarist, Gerry Keane, is a festival organiser and a friend of mine since 1966, when we were in the same class at St Vincents. Although Gerry is a totally different style of guitarist to myself, strangely we both play blond stratocasters! Must be something about being born in 1962. Gerry and myself have run all the PA's (ably assisted by a team of helpers). He's a delight to work with. We have quite different approaches to problems, which is great and very complimentary. It gets things done ! Gerry pays attention to the details that I am sometimes too engrossed to miss. It shows why you need people in a team with a range of skills.

At the end of their first set, we had Freeway. They are a great local band. They have been playing recently at the Bald Faced Stagg in Burnt Oak, so if you are in that neck of the woods, check them out. Gordon the drummer is another long time friend and a great asset. A man with a van who will do anything for anyone. The band do songs such as Maggie May by "That great Scotsman from London, Rodney McStewart" amongst others.

Next up, we had Alan Warner & Paul Myerson making their second festival appearance. They were ably joined by Candy, who gave a superb rendition of "Take a little piece of my heart". Al took the lead vocals for the Foundations hit "Build me up, Buttercup". By this time, the audience were on their feet.

Recollection took the stage again for the final hour and I should imagine there are some tired legs and sore throats after the dancing and singing.

When the band finishes, there is another task for the sound guys. We have to break the PA down. It was 2.45am by the time this task was finished. Gerry ran me up to the Mill Hill kebab shop, by the Railway pub. They stay open till 3am. If you are in a band and do late shows, these guys are a Godsend. Kebabs are sometimes derided as "junk food", but a chicken shishe kebab is actually one of the most healthy meals you can have. It is low fat, and with a generous portion of salad, gives you three of your five a day. It is a festival tradition that Gerry and I always have a kebab on the closing night. I got home at 3am, still buzzing. I made a cup of tea, ate the kebab, watched the news, fell asleep and woke up at 4.30am, at which point I stumbled up to bed. The 2011 music festival has been a great success. This blog will now return to it's normal self, although I will post a few more piccies and videos as I edit them.

Thanks for all your support.

The (Late) Friday joke

Sorry for the lack of a Friday joke yesterday, too busy festivalling. So here's a couple, on a musical theme.

Q : What's the diffence between a drummer and a drum box?
A : You only have to punch the tune into a drum box once

Q : If you want to borrow a fiver from a band member, who do you ask?
A : The guitarist, they don't know how to turn anything down

Have fun and don't forget there are still tickets for the two Mill Hill Music Festival gigs tonight

Party night at the Mill Hill Sports club

BBC Symphony orchestra players at St Pauls Church, The Ridgeway

Mill Hill Music Festival Day 7 - Jacqui Dankworth at the RAF museum

So tonight we had the penultimate night of the festival and our keynote show. It featured the beautiful voice of Jacqui Dankworth at the iconic Royal Air Force museum. This was the first time we've used the venue and although it's not strictly in Mill Hill it worked extremely well. The show was sold out, we could have sold another 100 tickets. We were graced by the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Lisa Rutter and the Leader of Barnet Council Richard Cornelius. We always appreciate the support of promenent local figures and both said they enjoyed the show. For me, the show was not without challenges. We'd hired in a lighting rig and found that it wasn't working properly. We spent an hour and a half trying to analyse the fault, eventually identifying a shorting wire in the plug. That set us back, as we were time limited.

Fortunately the band were in fine fettle and both sets were well received. Many of the audience came up to us after and congratulated us on a fine show. As we approach the last night of the festival, we are pleased to say that this is probably the most succesfull festival ever in terms of numbers and possibly in terms of the shows. Every one has been well received. It was especially pleasing to chat with one lady who came down last Saturday for my band, then on Sunday for the Salvation army and the single reeds, followed by Jacqui's gig tonight. I commented that she'd chosen an interesting set of gigs. She replied "I love all types of music". If you are reading this, so do I  that's why I do it and I'm having a blast. The festival is about bringing people together to enjoy music. I think we've done pretty well so far.

Mill Hill Music festival day 6 - The Wizard of Oz & Shir

Is it day six of the festival already? My how time flies. Today I had to assist with 2 PA systems at 2 locations.

St Vincents School staged a production of the Wizard of Oz. It was a full house, the kids were superb and the audience went wild. Of course I'm biased, because my son played the wizard, but it was a great show with excellent singing, quality acting and some superb dancing. The sets were terrific and the use of the multi media setup with scenes from the original film as well as interactive use of recorded clips in the play was imaganitive and well executed. The event was sold out. For many of the year 6 kids, it is the last school play and at the end they let their hair down. I'd love to see more schools participate in the Festival. It gives the kids a sense that they are not "just doing another play for mums and dads" and gives the wider community a chance to get to know about their local schools. It also gives ex-pupils and parents a chance to revisit somewhere which played a massive role in their lives.


Having finished clearing up, I hot footed it down to Mill Hill East Free Church for the scond half of the show by Shir, who play Klezmer (traditional Jewish) music. The bad are front by two old friends of mine. Ivor Goldberg, who plays guitar and sings is a long time business associate, running the Rock United music course at our studios. Ivor is an absolute diamond, great with the kids, bring out all sorts of hidden musical talents and inspiring the young people to take music seriously as well as have fun. Maurice, who plays clarinet has been a studio customer for years and his sons visit us most weeks for a jam. He's also a really nice guy and a superb musician. He's also a damn fine sound engineer and was our first paying customer when we set up the recording operation many moons ago. As for the band Shir. They were superb. I will post some clips up, but they had fun, the audience lapped it up and as a sound guy, it was great to work with them. They also appreciated playing to the festival audience, which is a markedly different audience to the one they usually attract. Again we had a great turnout. Perhaps the most satisfying thing (especially for the band) was the number of people who bought CD's of the band. This showed that people loved the music.

With three days to go, the festival has now attracted well over 1,000 people to the various events. I was asked tonight if I was starting to feel tired or jaded by it. Nope, I love it. I'd do it every night of my life if I possibly could, that's why it's midnight and I'm writing this blog, rather than getting tucked up in bed.