Blimey, I never thought I'd write those words. But if you can't be honest, what are you? This morning, I read an article in the Guardian, which explored the claims that as a a teenager, Nigel Farage flirted with full blown fascism and admired the Hitler youth. I read the article and was fascinated reading the memories of teachers and fellow pupils of Nigel Farage. Some of them were, shall we say, worrying. Here is one of the worse “Yet another colleague described how, at a [combined cadet force] camp organised by the college, Farage and others had marched through a quiet Sussex village very late at night shouting Hitler Youth songs"
Farage is a couple of years younger than me, so we were at school in the same era. My Dad was a former RAF pilot and despised Nazi's and I would have been battered half to death, had I even squeaked such a thing. It was drummed into me that Nazisim and Fascism was despicable. We had a Jewish family living over the road from us. I was in and out of their house all of the time. To this day, the older of the boys, Frank is a mate and lives up the road still. Through such people, I knew the real price of Fascism, so reading the article, I was horrified. Then I got to Farage's explanation.
“Let’s get one thing straight, I joined the Conservative party in 1978 and thought all of the far-right parties/movements to be ludicrous/barmy/dangerous. There were some hard left class-of-1968 masters [who] joined the college and several of us thoroughly enjoyed winding them up. Terms of abuse thrown around between 15-year-olds were limitless; there were no boundaries. I think red-haired boys fared especially badly.”
Now reading this, I found myself having a bit of a moral dilemma and feeling sorry for Farage. I recall being a schoolboy at Finchley Catholic High School in 1978. Political correctness had not been invented. The school banter was racist, sexist, homophobic and by todays standards completely unacceptible. I absolutely recognise Farage's sentiments about winding up teachers. For a moment, I felt myself to be a complete hypocrite for judging Farage. It is quite reasonable for him to point out that the standards of the time were very different. No one enjoyed winding up teachers more than I did.
But then I thought, hang on a second. Lets read his statement again. When I think of my behaviour I am horrified now. I do think that being a fifteen year old in 1978, clearly without a Dad like mine who instilled a sense of right and wrong in the way my Dad did, is a perfectly reasonable excuse. If Nigel Farage was now the Archbishop of Canterbury and there was another paragraph, explaining how life had taght him the error of his ways, I would be the first in the line defending him.
But Farage is not the Achbishop of Canterbury. He is the leader of a hard right party, which wants to deport perfectly law abiding citizens, who have spent their working lives in the UK, contributing to the UK with indefinite right to remain. People like the bassplayer in my band, for the last 25 years, who also happens to be the chief recording engineer at my studio. Farage is a man who wants to withdraw the UK from the European Court of Human rights. He doesn't want to reform the organisation, he wants to remove the protection of the court for all of us. The court is far from perfect, but once you remove legal protection for people from human rights abuses, we are all game. Just suppose Reform got a big majority, it all went wrong and then, rather than a Labour government, the UK electorate chose a hard left government. Farage and all his hard right fans would find themselves fair game. If Reform ever were to win a majority, I would expect the UK's politics to descend into chaos, which would open up an opportunity for a leftist government. Farage has a unique talent for falling out with people who agree with him, such as Rupert Lowe. God help the rest of us who don't. If a Reform government collapsed, then a hard leftist party could make a reasonable argument that Tories, Labour and Reform don't work, so they would become the new hope for the dissaffected millions of voters, who always get let down.
As I said, for a moment I felt sorry for Nigel Farage. It is clear, though, that he thinks his behaviour as a schoolboy was just fine. It is clear that he is on the hard right of British politics. It is clear that millions of hard working people would have their lives upeneded if he was elected and enacted his policies. I doubt that Farage is a Nazi, who would send Jews to gas chambers. I doubt he's a fascist, who would shoot train drivers when the trains ran late. But I have no doubt at all that he is a beast of the Hard Right, a man who despises immigrants and doesn't conceal this.
The Guardian article was a follow up to David Lammy's charge that Farage was a man who admired the Hitler youth. I really think that Lammy showed extreme naivity in this attack. He even made me feel sorry for Farage for a millisecond. If you are going to mount an effective attack on Farage and the polices that Reform spout, you have all the material you need in what he is saying right now. I am sure my former Headmaster at FCHS would have been more than happy to slag me off, if he were still alive and I was the leader of a party. There was plenty of material in my school file, which demonstrated that when I was 15 I was not fit to run a whelk stall, let alone a country. I would hope that anyone who judges me, does so on the basis of what I do now, not as a schoolboy. Likewise, I judge Farage on his statements now, not then. Sadly for Nigel, I think any reasonable person will conclude he's a racist and a charaltan.
Have you ever wondered why tech zillionaires set up new IT services, AI search engines, mega databases? The answer is very simple. They want to earn zillions more. When Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it to X, he did so to make money. He has announced that he is launching a competitor to wikipedia called Grokopedia (with a slightly bizarre and disturbing text).
Join @xAI and help build Grokipedia, an open source knowledge repository that is vastly better than Wikipedia!
I have no particular allegiance to Wikipedia, it is a uselful resource and has been very useful as a blogger. Whilst it provides the information I require, I will continue to use it. Mr Musk appears to be suggesting that his Grok alternative will be 'vastly better'. This is quite an interesting proposition. Wikipedia is maintained by its users. They manage and correct it. It is free to use. Will an AI with a similar functionality be better as Musk claims? Well the first thing an AI does is trawl the web. So I suspect that it's first stop will be to see what Wikipedia has to say, and then trawl the web to find extra information. So on that basis, he might have a point. If you assume that everything you read on the net is true, it would certainly be so. The problem is that it is only as good as the source information. The people who write wikipedia entries, generally are experts on the given subject and work hard to ensure it is accurate. They are not always right, but when they are wrong, it gets corrected. Musk's alternative will simply trawl the internet and try and use algorythms to effectively 'improve' on the output of wikipedia.
The big question here is how effective will this be? The way AI works, it improves over time. If it gets things wrong and people challenge its output, it will add new rules to its processing algorythms and improve. My view is that, at least in the short term, I would not use it as a primary source and I'd check anything that diverges from information on wikipedia and other sites. By its very nature, Wikipedia has its limitations and these are a strength as much as a weakness. I am not entirely sure that Elon Musk gets this. It is not interactive. It is based on constant peer review. The people who update it are invested in it and generally want to ensure it is correct. My assumption is that Musk's tool will be fully interactive. Let me give an example. Just suppose I want to write a blog about West Coast Rock legend Steve Miller. I will usually start by reading the entire wikipedia page, then the discography. Wikipedia lists its sources, I will then look at a few of these. I will then sketch out a blog and add my own observations and opinions. As I've seen the band a few times in both the UK and USA, I will also source in my recollections. This should ensure that the blog is factually correct, but also contains a unique slant. The fact that I thought Gerald Johnsons bass solo on Macho city, when I saw them at Hammersmith Odeon in 1983, was the best bass solo I've ever seen is an opinion you probably won't read anywhere else.
However. When Mr Musk's new Grokipedia comes into operation and my mate Pete decides to write his own blog on the Steve Miller Band a year later, if we assume for a second that no one else anywhere on the planet has written anything else about the band. and Pete asks Grokipedia about Steve Miller, it will not only see the information I saw on wikipedia. It may well see my blog. It may well tell him that the performance at the Hammersmith Odeon included the best bass solo in the history of the world. It may or may not give him the source of the information. But my blog will be recycled. The only thing that made it better than wikipedia, was itr ead my blog and added my content. Mr Musk, if he has his business plan correct, will make money because his interactive AI wiki product read my blog.
And what do I get for helping him? Nothing. Now just suppose for a second, in two years time, I am to be interviewed on the BBC Local news about the result of the general election in Barnet. The researcher wants to give the reporter a briefing paper on my views. What will they do? Will they read my blogs? Most likely, if Mr Musks AI works, they will simply say "what is the position of Roger Tichborne on issues in the constituency of Hendon". My guess is that they will subscribe for cash to Musks system, so that he can tell them what I think. Now without the content I've written, his service has no value, but with it, it is a valuable resource for the reporter. In short, my efforts are lining Musks pocket.
And then, I am a musician. I write and release songs. I've spent tens of thousands of hours honing my talents, practicing, composing, writing songs. Now AI tools are generating music. A big user of this music is TV and Radio. Actual composers like me are losing work and cash. Let me suggest a scenario. A friend of mine, Laurence Lynch wrote a brilliant play called Burnt Oak, that had two runs at the Leicester Square theatre. Just suppose a Hollywood director wisely decides to make a blockbuster movie based on the script. He needs a theme tune. What does he do? Historically, he'd hire a composer to write a score. Just suppose, he wants to save a few quid and so he asks AI to write him a song about Burnt Oak, which captures the essence of Burnt Oak. The AI goes off and does a trawl. It comes across The False Dots song "The Burnt Oak Boogie", which was a minor hits a couple of years ago. We wrote this to sum up the demographics of the area, using a Ska beat (as Ska was the theme tune of Burnt Oak boot boys in the 1960's and 1970's), we then overlayed an afrobeat style guitar riff over the top, as the area has a large afro-carribean community, so we felt it also reflected the vibes of Burnt Oak now. My lyrics are based on my own experiences of the growing up and going to school in the area. The AI would, presumably, do a trawl of songs with Burnt Oak references as a basis. If the AI is any good, this would be a primary source. It will then come up with a piece of music with a similar vibe and style.
In short, it will plaigerise my song and I won't get a penny. I think AI is an amazing concept. It can spot cancers, develop drugs, cut the time new medicines take to come to market, help people like me write blogs, clean up the sound on ancient cassettes, making them suitable for release (a massive boon for people like me with old music featuring dead friends). However, I have a massive objection to the fact that the only financial beneficiaries will be tech billionaires. Content creators of source material should get a BIG slice of the profit. Now in my case, if an AI trawls my blog and comes up with an answer about a hyper local Barnet issue for a bloke in Finchley, I don't expect a million pounds. But Mr Musk has earned a tangible amount of money, if his system is used. Lets assume he earns 1/1,000 of a penny every time his apps use someone elses work. I would contend that a proportion, Lets say 75% should go to the people who actually answered the query with the source data. I would suggest that creators have accounts set up, which they can claim. When there is more than £30 in the account, they can claim it. Cash unclaimed after two years, should be donated to educational charities, not linked to the platform owners.
Now, for me personally, given my blog stats, I'd estimate, I'd earn between £20-£100 per year. It wouldn't change my life but may cover the cost of being connected to the internet for a month or two. For Mr Musk. If he's going to earn a billion dollars from his new platform, but only owns a quarter of that, it won't ruin his life or pauperise him. What might make a massive difference though, would be if the unclaimed money helping to address the issues of poor education and digital exclusion.
I've never written a blog to make money. It was never part of the equation, however I do not see why the richest man in the world should make even more from my efforts, whilst I don't get a penny. There are plenty of creators who do it far better than I do and who should get proper renumeration. When people say "Grok answered a question" it didn't. Someone who has had no recognition has had their work plaigerised. Historically Google gave links, so you'd see who did teh work. Now you get an 'AI Summary' and no one knows. If you've ever wondered why the likes of Musk try and snuggle up to the likes of Donald Trump, the reason is pretty obvious. They want to ensure they keep all the csh for themselves.
I suppose I had to end this blog with this song, don't I?
Why did I start this food feature? Let me tell you a little story. Back in January 1987, my Dad passed away suddenly. The family was in bits. My Mum was devastated. They had been married for 43 years and it had never really occurred to my mother that she'd be alone. Years later she told me she'd believed they'd both die in a horrific car crash, as the result of my Dad's maniacally reckless driving. Neither did.
Later that year, I bought the family home from my mum. She had a small flat up the road. In 1989, she was still in a very depressed and down state. The Easter weather looked fine. I decided to do something to try and 'snap her out of it'. She had chronic back problems caused by osteoperosis and was in constant pain. She was angry with me for all sorts of reasons, none of which I thought were particularly rational. I'd nip in to see her and have a Guinness and it would always end up in an massive argument. I now see that we were quite similar and not particularly good at conceding ground in arguments. But I realised that something had to change. So I came up with a cunning plan. Have an Easter barbeque in the garden and ask all of the family. I told Mum and she was not impressed "I don't like barbeques". I said "Well come down and just have a Guinness, all of the family are coming". She said "I'll see how I feel". I took this to be a no. My plan was to despatch my sisters on the day and drag her down. The next time I saw her, she said "Who is coming to the barbeque?". I told her I'd just asked family, brothers, sisters and their kids, and they'd all said they were coming, even my sister Val, who lived in Florida. She snarled, well I suppose I'll have to make an appearance. For the next week, she didn;t mention it. The Thursday, two days before, to my surprise, she said "I am looking forward to the barbeque, what shall I bring?". I was gobsmacked. I said "Surprise me, bring something nice". She said "What about a salad?". I said "A salad would be lovely".
On the appointed day, she appeared, proudly clutching a bean salad. I've never eaten anything, before or since with so much garlic. To my amazement, she was on sparkling form, was the last to go, scoffing down sausages and burgers and getting rather bladdered. Everyone complimented her on her bean salad, which we all agreed was the highlight. After that, she made a bean salad for every barbeque. It made me realise the power of communal eating. It is no coincidence that the central point of christian worship, is a ceremonial meal of bread and wine. Sharing a meal is a great way to build bridges.
Mum passed away in 2008. About six months ago, I was discussing Mum's bean salad with my sister Caroline. She said "Oh, you mean Rabbi Blue's bean salad. Mum got the recipe from The Universe". For those of you who don't know it, the Universe is a Roman Catholic weekly publication. I've never read it. I always assumed it was full of ecclesiastical appointments and nuns visiting the Pope. Not the sort of stuff that interests me. I was surprised it had a cooking column. I assumed that they simply syndicated a column to fill space, as a sop to all of the old Irish ladies who read it out of religious duty. But I wanted to get hold of the recipe for Mums bean salad, so I googled Rabbi Blue.
I found one of his cookery books on Amazon and bought it. Ironically, it didn't have the recipe in it. In the forward, I was shocked to read this line after his lsy of thanks "I have to put my friend Rowanne at the head of the list because it was she who 'discovered' me. When Rowanne came to The Universe she asked me to fill in for the family page for a couple of weeks. Well I've been filling in for years now."
I started reading the book. It is a recipe book with a difference. Every recipe has a story and a little bit of a reflection that, if you bother to read it, will impart a deeper wisdom. As I found with the barbeque, food brings us together. In one chapter, Rabbi Blue asks "How do you learn to love? You can't take an evening course in lovong or get a BSc in tolerance. It is something which has to grow in you like a seed and tact is a good way to begin." This is part of the pre-amble to a recipe for vegetarian Yorkshire pudding!
Some thoughts from Rabbi Blue
Rabbi Blue passed away years ago. Had it not been for that chance conversation, I wouldn't have even known of him. His book is brilliant and I am already starting to use and adapt some of his recipes and ideas. Reading his book has solidified a feeling that I've had for a long time that most cookery programmes fail to miss the central point of food. Up until my generation was born, food was something that families shared. The dining table was a place where we got together, ate, drank and shared our lives. Now we get a plate of slop and sit in front of the telly, too distracted to enjoy the flavours and the tastes or even to listen to those with us. It is no surprise that so many of us have mental health issues. Rabbi Blue, in a quiet, gentle way showed us the path. It may seem odd that a Rabbi was the star cookery writer of a Roman Catholic publication. In truth, it shows a deeper more important truth. Food is something that can bring us together. When I used to volunteer at The Passage day centre for homeless people, I'd often share a cup of tea and a chat with one of the clients, often over a bacon sandwich, in our short break. When you share a meal and a conversation with someone, you develop a bond, often only for that short moment, but you are both doing something essential to the human existence.
I do not believe we can medicate ourselves out of the mental health crisis that faces us. I do not believe that we can fix it through therapy. I believe that the seeds of the answer is to communicate with each other and this is best done over a shared meal. I bought Rabbi Blue's book to find out how to make a bean salad. I didn't find that, but I think I may well have stumbled on a deeper truth. And the good news is that delicious food is at the heart of it. It reminds me that we are long overdue a family barbeque as well. If you have Rabbi Blue's recipe for Bean Salad, please let me know!
What is the difference between opinions and facts? My mate's Dad used to say "If you don't like pickled onions, you have not been brought up properly". For years, I believed that this was the absolute truth. If someone didn't like pickled onions, then I simply thought "the poor soul has not been brought up properly". I was disabused of this, when I started going out with a certain ex girlfriend. She hated pickled onions, but she clearly had been brought up properly. I realised that this was an opinion. I had believed it to be a fact, because I had implicitly trusted my mates Dad. By the time I was 21, I realised that he was more often than not wrong about everything. He shared such information as "Marc Bolan has fleas", "the Archbishop of Canturbury is going to hell because he is not a Roman Catholic" and some other things that were too racist to evn mention in 2025. All he held to be absolute facts. As I was a child and knew no better, I was impressed by this man, because unlike many adults, he was more than happy to share his opinions with us, rather than telling us to play in the other room and not disturb him.
The more I see of Donald Trump, the more I am reminded of him. I listen to Donald Trump speak and his manner is in many ways similar. He speaks as if he is writing the Gospel and his 'wisdom' is handed straight to him from God. In the 1960's and early 1970's, people like me, who were having a Catholic upbringing were taught absolutes. We were taught that subjects such as contraception and abortion were not up for discussion, because the Pope had decreed they were wrong and the Pope is infallible. The problem with claiming infallability is like people who deny the existence of aliens, you only have to be wrong once and you are wrong. When I read about the position of the Catholic Church in relation to Galileo, I realised that the church was being silly claiming the Pope was infallible.
Which brings us to the claims of Donald Trump, such as that he's personally stopped seven wars. These things are things that it is easy to verify. Trump hasn't. Now it may well be that Trump has spoken to leaders in countries where there are tensions and border disputes. It may well even be that the leaders of the countries, on hearing Trumps claims, have gone along with his idiocy, to curry favour with a man who can wreak huge damage on their economy on a whim. But it doesn't make it right. Until I met my ex girlfriend, who was well brought up and disliked pickled onions, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable 'fact', but once I realised it was complete nonsense, the scales fell from my eyes and I started to assume that everything else he ever told us was just his opinion, and more often than not, it was ignorant and ill informed. As he was a mates Dad, I had believed that he was deserving of respect. I liked pickled onions and I liked to think I was well brought up and I was taught to respect my "elders and betters". Then I realised that racist, sexist, misogynists are not my betters. They are blinkered fools.
Which brings us back to Donald Trump. When I watched him berating the United Nations, I couldn't help thinking this is a man who's dating advice was "grab them by the pussy". This is a man who said John McCain wasn't much of a war hero, as proper war hero's don't get captured. Here is a man who has a string of convictions for crimes which in normal times would see him become a pariah. Here is a man who has countless pictures with a former friend who was a sex trafficker and a paedophile. Here is a man who has had multiple businesses go bankrupt, which means that he's left people who trusted him out of pocket.
It is my opinion that Donald Trump is not fit to be President of the United States of America. It is just an opinion, but is based upon the facts I stated in the last paragraph. All of which are verifyable. Whether or not you like pickled onions, facts are facts.
Life often deals us a curveball. We see life in the context of our own experiences. Sometimes things seem inexplicable, cruel, just strange, only for it to all become clear years later. Let me give you a random example. When I was just a wee nipper, all of my mates joined a local youth organisation. With this, they did all manner of exciting activities. They even went away camping. I desperately wanted to join, but my Dad said no and made it clear it wasn't up for discussion. With my Dad, the one thing I learned was no was no. Decades later, long after Dad had passed, the leader of the group was arrested. It came out that he'd been up to all sorts of despicable things. I never got the chance to ask Dad if he had an inkling of what was going on or a it was a more general distrust of such group. I suspect my Dad just had a general dislike of the leader of the group. He often took seemingly irrational dislikes to people, who invariably turn out to be wrong uns.
Dad had several tests of a mans character. He never trusted anyone who didn't drink too much on occasion. He always reckoned they had something to hide. He never trusted anyone who spoke ill of their wife. He figured that if your wife wasn't your best friend, then you were an idiot and if you did speak ill of your best friend, you were a fool and you shouldn't go around slagging her off to the world. He disliked people who didn't stand their round in the pub, people who sat on committees, spouted opinions on everything but were always busy when their was work to be done. I recall on one occasion, a member of one charity committee Dad was on made a disparaging comment about my aunties husband, who was also on the committee, but didn't have a fancy job. Dad said "Well at least he gets off his backside and actually does some work, rather than just telling the rest of us what we are doing wrong". Dad found the indignation of the said chap hilarious. Dad recounted the story. After he said it, he added "I can't stand these pompous types, you can just imagine how they treat the people who work for them". Explained that such people were highly untrustworthy, as they thought they were better than everyone else and so felt a God given right to take liberties with people.
I have always born these tests in mind when dealing with people. What I didn't realise at the time, was that my Father was as much telling me the sort of behaviours I should not exhibit, as telling me how to be cautious with other people. If I am in a large round and we all go home before it gets to me, I feel guilty. If I get cross with the guys who work for me and express my displeasure, I feel bad. But I see other people doing these things and thinking they are clever and it really puts me off them. My wife is far less judging of people and often castigates me for not liking people for what she considers the most trivial of reasons (not buying their round being the main one). When I am proven right, as almost invariably happens with such shady characters, she will inform me that she never liked them either.
Sadly though, some people pass all the tests and still turn out to be snakes. I have concluded that they are crafty enough to have figured out how to beat the snake test. There is one character who was a friend for many years, only to show his true character in the most upsetting of fashion. The most horrifying thing was that the signs were there all along and I'd just missed them. The one that is easiest to miss is the way that people treat the people that they don't have to treat nicely, such as employees, waiters, etc.
Another thing Dad said to me is that "the more stones you lift, the more snakes you find". Dodgy characters lurk everywhere. The worst people are those that glory in having power over other people and use the opportunity to make the people who rely on them miserable. Why am I writing this blog today? Well actually there is a good reason. Today is the first day of the first Labour party conference since they won power last year. We look at the party leaders. Labour - Sir Keir Starmer. Conservatives - Kemi Badenoch, Lib Dems - Sir Ed Davey and Reform Nigel Farage. Would you trust any of them? What do you think they would be like as your boss? Do you think they'd stand their round in the pub? How do they treat and do they respect their wives/husbands/partners. Do they actually get stuck in and do work, or do they just spout opinions?
Here are a few facts about each. Draw your own conclusions.
Sir Keir Starmer worked as a lawyer. He is married. He supports Arsenal. He's a pescitarian, who doesn't eat meat. In the 1980's he edited a Trotskyite magazine called Socialist Alternatives and he ownes a cat.
Kemi Badenoch, worked in Software for Logica and RBS before becoming involved in politics (I used to work for SPL who viewed Logica as the opposition, so I have an irrational dislike of her). I couldn't find out a football team who she supports. She was born in Wimbledon of Nigerian heritage, but has given up her Nigerian passport and claims she no longer identifies as Nigerian. Wikipedia claims she doesn't like people from the North of Nigeria. She is married.
Sir Ed Davey. Supports Notts County. Worked as an anylist and researcher before becoming an MP, married to his wife since 2005, has two kids, one of whom who is severely disabled and who Davey acts as a carer for.
Nigel Farage has been married twice, once to an Irishwoman and once to a German. He worked as a commodities trader, and
Farage eas a commodities trader, a former Tory member as well as a Green voter. likes cricket and supports Crystal Palace. He claims to be both a Christian and a lapsed member of the Church of England. He claims to be a big beer fan, but I once saw him dining at the Rising Sun pub in Mill Hill and he seemed keener on expensive red wines from what I saw. He also, if my eyes were not deceiving me, did not pay the bill. Having said that, we've all had mates buy us expensive dinners haven't we?
In my life I've worked in music, IT and also been active in politics locally. The most alarming thing I've learned is that politics is full of snakes. A PhD in backstabbing and shafting your mates seems to be a pre-requistite. If I was choosing a politician based on character, I'd choose Ed Davey. If I was choosing a politician to lead the country and do trade deals with the likes of Donald Trump, or negotiate peace deals with the likes of Putin, etc, I'd choose Sir Keir Starmer every day. His former job as a lawyer, involved dealing with criminals, shady characters, murderers and not getting too upset about their behaviour. The world is full of snakes. If I want to get to heaven, I ask the vicar what to do. If I find an adder in the garden I ask a snake specialist what to do. Of the four, Starmer seems to me to be the only one who is a career snake charmer.
I actually have a theory about Nigel Farage. I think he is an establishment stooge, who's job was to shaft the far right. His brief is to spout the most ridiculous rubbish to attract the most fringe members of the right to him, so that when his career crashes and burns, which will inevitably happen before the next election, he will take down the dreams of his supporters with them. The more I see of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson), the more I think he is another one. Never underestimate the ability of the British Establishment to some up with cunning plans to maintain its supremecy.
The next episode in this feature will be list #500. It has taken nearly fourteen years to compile. At this rate, should I make it to episode 1,000, I will be 77 years old in 2039. A daunting thought, if ever there was one!
Next week, the list will be all 500 episodes listed with the odd sardonic comment. But this week, I thought I'd post a list of the principles by which I live my life. Until I was around 50 years old, I had no real core beliefs or principles. I was not a bad person, but I just drifted. I would see things that were wrong and react, this blog started as a reaction to bad things. I did not however, have a philosphy or set of values which I felt I had to conform to. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, I did a stocktake of my life and I realised that although I was doing a lot, there was no focus or purpose to much of it. It was just existing for the sake of existing. There is nothing at all wrong with that, but I realised that there are things I do want to do and if I was to do them, I had to have goals, values aims and a purpose in life. I spent an indecently long period of time mulling over this. Eventually I realised that I was on a journey. I had boarded the train, but not bothered to ask where it was going. I was just sitting there looking out of the window, enjying the ride.
If I ever wanted to reach the places I wanted to get to I had to know what I wanted when I got there. The trouble was, I didn't really know what I wanted in life. I had labelled myself as many things. We all do. Some of these things, I was happy with. Some less so. So I thought "If I want to find out where I want to go in life, I need to start by defining my ten core beliefs" and then frame my plan around them. If I had a plan and things I wanted to do, I had to be happy in how I got there. So here are my ten core beliefs.
1. God made the universe because being lonely is the very worst thing imaginable, whatever you are. The cruellest thing anyone can do, be it a government, a carer, a family member, is to isolate people and force them to be lonely and cut off from love.
2. No possessession is worth hurting someone to acquire. Probably 95% of the woes of the world are caused by people getting just a little greedy and breaking this rule. We all sometimes want stuff we can't afford, land we are not entitled to, partners who are not available to us and plaudits we haven't earned. When we start hurting other people get it, we become the problem
3. All life is sacred and we should treat it as such. As individuals, we need to survive, which requires food, but we should never cause unneccessary pain and hurt to anything in the process of filling our bellies. I didn't eat meat for fourteen years, but I came to realise that it is perfectly natural for humans to eat meat and for some of us very beneficial to our health. We can however make the choice to avoid foods that are produced in a cruel manner. That, to me is the right thing to do. If you eat meat, but struggle with your conscience about it, eat less meat and when you do, eat good meat that is humanely produced. Generally it is higher quality and tastes better. Of all the points on the list, this is perhaps the one which has caused me most angst.
4. I only know what is going through my own mind, I have not lived your experience, so I have no idea why you have made the choices you have made, whether I agree with them or not. I do not have your perspective, and I have no right to judge you. However I do have the right, if necessary to defend myself and the people I love if you pose a threat to any of us. I will always try and choose a non violent route, but when this is not possible I will do what I have to do.
5. As a musician, my role on planet earth is to try and make people's life just a little bit better and make them just a little bit happier, if only for a short time. When people see my band I want them to leave feeling better and happier than when the arrived. It is a little known fact that when you sing, you acquire more oxygen in your lungs than you would normally have and this gives you a feeling of mild euphoria, which is why we try and get the audience to join in (if ever you see a band, give yourself permission to have fun). Aside from my family and personal life, I realised that this was where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life. I am enjoying my music more than ever at the moment. Life has taught me that the wind can change direction very suddenly, but as a musician and as a band, the wind is in our sails and I am loving it.
6. God put the people in my life I need at the time I need them. Some are only in my life for far too short a time, so I try and appreciate them and make time for them.
7. Some people are evil and wish you ill intent. Sometimes you don't recognise this until it is too late. Always watch how people treat other people. If they are rude or aggressive towards people who are not in a position to respond in kind, they are probably not good people to be around. That is usually the first warning sign.
8. Winter follows summer, summer follows winter. Enjoy the Sun when it shines, play in the snow when it snows. When it rains and the wind blows, always remind yourself that this, like everything else will pass.
9. You will lose people you love in life and the hurt will be too much at times. Just tell yourself that the reason it hurts so much, is because you were lucky to have their friendship and love. They would not want tou to mourn, they would want you to celebrate the good times.
10. None of us can see the future and none of us can change the past. Whether we believe in God or not, whether we are evil or virtuous, we will all end up the same way. Whatever contributions we make are transient. Even the pyramids will disappear in the blink of an eyelid in the grander timescale of the universe. The universe is 14 billion years old. Civilisation is around 4-5,000 years old. Only our generation has had the ability to see friends on the other side of the world on our phones and chat to them. How amazing is that. Appreciate the fact that we live in a time where we can do such things, where we don't have to worry about smallpox, where every day new treatments for diseases emerge and new technology that makes life easier is developed. Be grateful and celebrate this and next time you are moaning because you can't get a phone signal, just remember,that wasn't even an option for every other generation of humanity. We are lucky. It's just a shame that we find it so hard to realise it and share the spoils of it with our brothers and sisters in the world who are less well off. We are where we are on the timeline of the Universe and we are the luckiest generation, unless we are stupid enough to spoil it!
I will share a little secret with you. When I first wrote this blog, I only included the first sentence of points 1-10. I then thought about point four and realised that as you haven't got a clue what is going through my head, it will probably seem meaningless. I thought this illustrates the point quite well. Here is the raw list
1. God made the universe because being lonely is the very worst thing imaginable, whatever you are.
2. No possessession is worth hurting someone to acquire.
3. All life is sacred and we should treat it as such.
4. I only know what is going through my own mind.
5. As a musician, my role on planet earth is to try and make people's life just a little bit better.
6. God put the people in my life I need at the time I need them.
7. Some people are evil and wish you ill intent.
8. Winter follows summer, summer follows winter.
9. You will lose people you love in life and the hurt will be too much at times.
10. None of us can see the future and none of us can change the past.
The Ten Commandments, it ain't, but it serves me well. And as per point five, I will leave you with a tune from The False Dots to put a smile on your face. There is an old saying "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die".
In future, we will be starting this feature with the Local gig guide, provided by Mill Hill Music Complex. A full list of local gigs can also be found at the Barnet Music facebook page.
Radio is how many of us first hear music. When I was a small child, my elder sisters listened to the Pirate stations, which broadcast Pop music that the BBC wouldn't play, from boats and rigs on the North Sea. I can remember the jingles. I can remember the final broadcast of the Pirate Station Radio London. It was in April 1967 and I would have been four. It was closed down by Harold Wilson's Labour government. He got the BBC to set up Radio 1 in response. My sisters view was that it was not a patch on the Pirates. I next became interested in Radio in 1974/5. Kenny Everett was what one may called a Madcap DJ and presented the morning show. In truth, I wasn't interested in the music he played. I just loved the anarchic lunacy. Everett was my radio hero. In June 1977, I discovered punk rock. Two things happened. The first was I discovered the John Peel show on Radio one. Peel played punk rock, with almost no filter. I loved Peel. Most of the bands I now love, I first heard on his show. The second was that Kenny Everett said he was going to play some punk rock. He played "Oh Bondage Up Yours" by X-Ray Spex. I was delighted. It was proof that he was a kindred spirit. After around 30 seconds, he stopped the record and said it was rubbish. That was the end of my admiration for Everett. He was a charlatan in my view. On his TV show, he had a character called 'Sid Snot', supposedly a punk. It was a poor, stereotype and it confirmed my view that Everett was not what I thought. When he came out as a Margaret Thatcher supporting Tory, I felt completely vindicated.
I have come to realise that there were two types of radio DJ. There are the loud mouthed show offs, who enjoy saying "look at me", and there are the ones who love music, genuinely want to see new artists develop and care about their audience and the artists they put before them. As Kenny Everett proved beyond doubt, the look at me DJ's can be highly entertaining and a good listen, but it is the ones such as John Peel, Robert Elms and Gary Crowley who actually leave a legacy, in the artists they put before us. I genuinely don't think the bosses at the BBC, who hire and fire DJ's and set the show briefs understand this. As I result, I think they are managing themselves out of existence. The BBC only exists to enhance the cultural life of the UK. When it fails to do that, it has no purpose at all.
Like every band in the UK, I wanted The False Dots music played on the John Peel show. I sent cassettes of all our early demos. I never got an acknowledgement or reply. I am sure he got thousands and never held it against him. By about 1980, I'd lost interest in his show. He'd moved on from Punk. There were other shows playing interesting music. Dave Rodigan playing Reggae and Charlie Gillet playing what he felt like on Capital. Sadly, no one seemed to be playing the sort of music The False Dots were making when we were at our best in our first incarnation (1983-84).
By the 1990's, Indie had come along and The False Dots had gone into a ten year hibernation. I started managing a band called The Sway. There was a new radio station in London called GLR and it had a great DJ called Gary Crowley, who played indie bands who were unknown. Gary played both of The Sway's first two singles and was complimentary. He helped break bands such as Suede, Oasis and Blur. He's still on Radio London and always worth a listen. IMHO he is criminally underused and should have a nightly evening show. The Sway split up after two singles. Robert Elms started presenting a show, also on BBC Radio London. As he went to the same school as me, Orange Hill, I made a point of listening. especially when he started playing one of my studio customers, Amy Winehouse. Elms had a show Monday to Friday and would have regular guests in the studio doing sessions. As well as Amy, he had established artists I loved, such as Richie Havens and Dr John. For reasons I will never fathom, after Covid, BBC bosses decided to cut down his hours, which left little time for new music.
For me, this is a tragic dereliction of duty. The BBC is a publicly funded corporation, they should support London arts. I don't think I've listened to Radio one since Peel left. I am not in their demographic, so they don't care. As someone who runs a studio where up and coming artists build their careers, it is devastating to hear the way great musicians are ignored. The BBC has a service called 'BBC Introducing', where you can upload music and it might, if you are lucky, get a play on a graveyard shift show. It almost never gets played on daytime radio (Robert Elms does a slot on his show). It breaks my heart, as radio is probably the best way to get your music known. It used to be that the BBC had dozens of shows on local radio playing new music. The shows producers had free reign. Budget cuts have put paid to this (The Sway were BBC West Midlands artist of the week and did a session at Pebble Mill studios back in the 1990's).
Over the last couple of years, I've become more aware of a new, less regimented outlet for recording artists, who are not getting played. I am talking about online radio stations. These are run for the love of music, by people who feel specific genre's and subgenres of music are neglected. If you like a specific musical genre, you will find that there are plenty of online stations playing it. They may not have the pull of the BBC, but their listeners sit in the demographic of the music they play, so it is a great way to connect with real people who like the music artists produce.
Next Monday, I will be on RockRadioUK with my mate Griff Griffiths. He does a drivetime show and we will be doing a regular feature, where we play new music by London bands. To start the series, I have selected ten tracks from various artists who have a strong association with Mill Hill Music Complex and talked about the history of the studio. It has long been a bugbear of mine that the 'mainstream radio stations' do nothing to support up and coming artists. Having tried my hardest to push for some sort of support, I decided to take a different path and I now believe the future for up and coming artists to get a foot on the ladder is through online, niche radio stations. They have nowhere near the reach of the BBC or the big commercial stations, but they are amenable to up and coming artists and IMHO much of their content is far more interesting than most of what the mainstream stations are playing. As Griff says, he plays what he wants!
So make sure you listen on Monday, by clicking the link above. The show is on between 5pm and 7pm.
I was on his show back in August and we had a blast! If you can't wait, have a listen!
I literally couldn't believe what I was listening to when I watched the news last night. Nigel Farage has declared war on LEGAL migrants. He clearly stated that it his intention to revoke the right to remain for non UK citizens. On top of that, non UK citizens will not be able to claim benefits. Now, I guess that if you don't like foreigners, that is a wonderful policy. But the effects of this will be catastrophic for millions of people in the UK. Lets get this right, people who came here perfectly legally, worked for years, or decades and have paid taxes are at risk of being kicked out. I know dozens of people who this may affect. People who have a right to remain but are not British citizens. All contribute huge amounts to the UK economy. But there is one person particularly, who it concerns me. That person is the bassplayer in my band, he has been in the band since 1998. Not only that, he has worked for me at the studio for 30 years. I know he pays taxes, because I do the payroll. He has three children, all born in the UK. He came over when the UK was part of the EU and got a right to remain after Brexit.
Under Farage's rules, if he got ill and incapacitated, he'd get no benefits, despiter over three decades of contributions to the system. As a percentage of his income, I suspect he's actually paid more tax than Farage has. I suspect he's also contributed more to the UK economy than Farage, who was the architect of Brexit, which has cost the UK billions (even Brexit supporting James Dyson has admitted that).
Joseph Stalin once said "If you kill one person it is a tragedy, if you kill a million, its a statistic". Farage is clearly interested in making headlines with statistics. He is not in the least bit interested in the tragedies he will cause. For my band, our bassplayer is irreplaceable. For me, he is a friend. For my business, he is a key member of staff. If he is kicked out, what his son will be uprooted from the life he was born into. If he gets ill and needs to claim benefits, he will get nothing in return for the tax he's paid. Most people I know are not concerned about people who have spent decades obeying the law, living legally, working and paying taxes.
With his statement, Nigel Farage has caused everyone affected stress and upset. For me personally, he has declared war on my band. I am not the only musician in this position. Us creative types collaborate with people with diverse influences. I am simply not prepared to let a two bit fascist like Farage give my friends, my band and the economy of our nation a beating without fighting back. Farage has drawn a line and millions of decent, law abiding citiziens, who pay taxes and contribute are on the wrong side of it. I am still fully processing my response to Farage. Should I write a song, make a band video, or something else? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that now is the time for Rock Against Racism to be revived.
Here is a clip of our band in action. This is what Nigel Farage wants to destroy
My first proper job? I started back in 1983, working for one of the UK's leading software companies. They were called SPL International. The supplied all manner of computer software for the worlds top blue chip companies. The client list includied, the Swiss Bank Corporation, Nedlloyd shipping, Svenska Handlesbanken, Pan Am, Saudi Arabian Airways, The National Commercial Bank of Jeddah and Barclays, to name a few. All of the systems ran on Tandem Computers, who were at the time the leading edge of computer technology, Tandem were a start up firm from Cupertino in California, before being a an IT start up was fashionable.
How did I end up working for SPL? I left school in 1981 and had spent two years trying to make a living in music, working as a building labourer and painter and decorator to top up my earnings. By Easter 1983, I was in debt and had a girlfriend I wanted to move in with. I needed a proper job, until the band got a deal and we became millionaires (I am still waiting). So I signed up for the government TOPS scheme and did a ten week computer operators course. They then tried to fix me up with a job. I was interviewed by a lovely chap at SPL called Peter Sutherby, who looked and sounded like King George V. I was convinced that I'd blown the interview. I spent 40 minutes talking to him about travelling and 0 minutes talking about my aptitude with computers (probably just as well). To my astonishment, Peter offered me a job, so at the start of October 1983, I walked into SPL International and was sat at a desk with three colleagues called Nick, Kevin and Chris. All three wore glasses and had degrees. My role was to "look after the in house Tandem computer". They were all programmers. At lunchtime, they all announced that they were going for a beer and a curry and asked me if I'd like to join them. I returned, with them at 4pm. We'd sunk two beer with the curry, then gone to the pub for three more. We returned for an hour, then went back to the pub. When I eventually met my girlfriend, at around 9pm, I was a bit worse for wear. She was not happy.
Like most of the staff in the office, Kevin would smoke at his desk. Nick didn't. As for Chris, he disappeared to Switzerland to do a job the day after and I didn't see him for six months. Our phone extension was no 233. I soon realised that as well as "looking after the Tandem", my job was doing whatever task Peter, the boss, wanted. This included loading in computer paper, feeding the company parrot, getting booze from the wine shop and running dodgy errands. One of these, to his, and the firms delight, I was that I was able to assist in repatriating funds paid in Naira in Nigeria, from a project with BP, to the UK. I knew a coffee dealer, who could facilitate such things, for a fee.
The ultimate boss had a company Rolls Royce. It had the reg plate SPL 99. The office, on Windmill St, had a garage in the basement and the Rolls was kept there. After I'd been at the firm three months, my boss entrusted me with the keys to the office. I often had to do work at weekends. My then girlfirend, informed me that one of her fantasies was to make love on the back seat of a Rolls Roycewhen I told her about it. A week later, we'd been at a gig in Town and I suggested we made a detour via the office, as I had the keys to both the Office and the Rolls. When you are young, such things seem a good idea. As we snuck in, I heard noises in the room where we had our desks. A light was on. I thought I'd better check what was going on. Another of the Bosses, a chap called Larry, who had a more than passing resemblance to Polish Union Leader Lech Walensa, was sharing a bottle of whisky with another colleague who was in floods of tears. Both were smoking like chimneys. It was around 11.45pm. Larry invited myself and my girlfriend to join them. It turned out that they'd been in the pub and my colleague had told Larry about the break up of his relationship. He was almost suicidal with grief. Larry had taken him back to the office for some private personal advice. Larry suggested that my girfriend could also offer some advice. We sat around boozing until 4am, when Larry ordered us a cab home on the firm. He never asked why we were in the office.
A couple of weeks later, the distraught colleague had a new girlfriend and thanked me for my girlfriends advice, which was to get a new girlfriend and not to be sad. She said "You've got a good job and you are not ugly, most girls would love a bloke like you". Larry always kept a drinks cabinet that was well stocked with various spirits, for just such occasions. To me, he was the perfect boss. He actually cared and was happy to misuse company resources if staff were having a bad time. In return, we were fiercely loyal. Boozing was a massive part of the culture. Tandem Computers also had a boozing culture. They had a tradition that on a Friday afternoon, they'd have a 'beer bust' in all of their offices. Basically the company had a fridge full of beer and staff could help themselves. It set Tandem apart from other, more stuffy companies. Staff from customers were often invited. I knew most of their engineers and spent many a happy Friday boozing at their Buckingham Gate office.
The UK software industry was awash with smoking and drinking in the 1980's. It was also massively innovative and staff were happy. We sometimes worked ridiculously long hours to get projects in, but no one ever seemed to suffer from stress. I am still sort of keep in contact with the guys I shared a desk with. Kevin lives in the states now, so its just an Xmas card. It turned out that Nick, like me loved comics and the Monochrome Set, and we occasionally ping each other. I used to see Chris on the train back from the CIty for many years. We spent far too many hours in the pub together. It turned out Larry was a jazz drummer and I still occasionally see him at Jazz gigs in Watford. As for Peter, he passed away many years ago. His son got in touch after he died, to let me know. To my amazement, he told me that his Dad really admired me.
When I joined, Peter said that I'd probably stay with the firm two years, I should work hard and learn to programme computers and the get a job as an IT contractor. When another firm calle Systems Designers bought SPL, Peter was 'let go'. His replacement was one of those bland sort of people who now run the industry, with no sense of humour and no personality. I hadn't realised how lucky I was. Peter had given me a company credit card. That was rescinded the day he left. Six months later, I was informed I was being 'managed out' as I didn't have a degree. I got a job earning three times more and never looked back. It was for BT. There was no drinking culture and the bosses did not have anything to do with staff. It was horrible but well paid.
I look back on that evening when Larry invited us to join him and support our colleage, with Scotch and ciggies in the office. I suspect that Larry had an inkling of my plan, but the upshot was that we managed to pull a colleague out of a very dark place indeed. I often wonder what lunatic decided that boozing and smoking in the office was a bad thing. Whether or not it means anyone actually lives longer I don't know, but I do know that it certainly seems like it and life is not so much fun!
