Strikes

I know that some of you will think that this will probably be a musical blog, but the truth is that whilst music is, more or less, what I do, I also find Politics and Political things overwhelmingly interesting. I'm pretty much hooked on live News in the car, have downloaded an 'app' by a well known left-leaning newspaper, and try and read and discuss things as they come up. This interest was formed, I think, by my parents who would happily discuss all things political, obviously with a Socialist bias (which I still hold). Please don't think me, however, one of those people who just grabs their parent's ideas and runs with them - I've spent a great deal more time on it than that would warrant me for. Moreover, I think it's deeply unfashionable to be a left-leaner just now. It's also quite tricky. I find consumerism deeply troubling, yet let me loose on a high street and it's all over. I dislike capitalism's urge to bring image and aesthetic to the foreground, yet love buying 'male beauty products' and clothes. These are problems, I know, and I choose to regard them in much the same way as those with a religion that have to be picky with the bits they stick to. We live in this society, so to a certain extent we must abide by it - until we have the ability to change it.

Which brings me around to the current theme of strikes and striking. It appears to me that at the moment, we need people to show their discontent more than ever. We are facing massive cuts in every area of our society, and much though this coalition government will try and convince us to the contrary, there are other ways of dealing with it. We must spend something to encourage growth. We must get people into work. Lessons of Roosevelt's New Deal and Atlee's post 1945 Government must be learnt - even in times when there is a huge structural deficit (and we only finished paying off our post war loan a couple of years ago), the way to deal with it is not to 'cut cut cut' but to spend some too. This isn't the economics of the household - and those who try to illustrate it in this way are wrong. It is more complex than this. It is a household with a huge staff, who must defend their household, give it healthcare, provide food.. you get the picture.

Strikes are never wanted by those who take this action. Think about it: you don't get paid. You get portrayed as miserable, money sucking leaches by most of the press. You must constantly defend yourself against these attacks, but also now, it seems, you must defend yourselves against most of the public. People seem to have been pushed by the Thatcherite consensus and then the Blairite ideology into truly believing that all striking is bad, that public service workers have wonderful, money filled lives, and are always out for themselves. Surely this couldn't be further from the truth? They are paid, on average, around £21,000. Hardly a fortune. Yes, their pension schemes are often better than for those in the private sector but here's what I don't get: why don't those in the private sector ask for better? Why don't they strike, and ask for more? It seems to me that the attitude is this: 'I'm badly paid and poorly treated and I don't complain - so why should they?'. This seems to me to be utterly mixed up. If you are badly paid, have no pension (or a very unstable idea of one), and any other number of things which make your working life miserable, then why don't you MAKE IT BETTER? Rather than just saying 'This is how it is, how dare you complain' why don't you complain more? Raise a fuss?

It seems to me that if you were a manager, an executive director, a head of HR, you wouldn't want your staff making a fuss. You'd want them to be nice and quiet, not ask for too much. You'd want to pay them as little as possible - maximise your profits, and don't let them have a share. That way, you get more. What makes me really sad is that rather than the staff looking at this objectively and saying 'there is clearly something wrong here', they've got into the habit, through years of being kicked into it, of saying 'don't moan, don't complain, keep your head down'. More than this, they now seem to be saying 'if anyone does moan or complain, phone up Radio 5 live and complain about them'. It seems to me, utterly bizarre that rather than supporting our fellow low paid worker (public or private) in his/her request for a bit more money, people out there are saying 'This is ridiculous! we don't get paid anything - why should you!'.

Public opinion about the strikes in France, the Firefighter's Strike, the Tube strikes and any other number of industrial disputes bears this out. Surely our starting point should be 'These people are not getting paid whilst they are on strike, surely they must have a grievance worth airing'. At the very least we should think 'Let's investigate the position of management and staff before reaching a decision'. Instead, it seems like the execs have us where they want us - our starting point is now 'Greedy firemen/postmen/tube workers. Why do they want to get paid more? All the do is rescue us from fires/deliver our post/drive our tube trains. They certainly don't deserve it'.

Ok, so I declared my position at the start of this post, you know where I stand. But why can't we just expect a little better for all of us? Let's follow France's example and take to the streets. As those who keep arguing against strikers keep saying 'We're all in this together'. So let's be in it - accept fighting, not lying back and letting this wash over us.

Bob Dylan and the rest

Every other day I see or read: 'This stunning new songwriter is the new Bob Dylan'. Or 'With resonances of Bob Dylan' written in a review. More often than not this stands with me as a great reason to go away and check out the mentioned album or artist, and always with the hope that the above statement will be true. There is nothing I can imagine that would be more exciting than a new 'poet laureate' of rock and roll, a new game changer. A confounding lyricist, completely original, consistently changing styles, tacts and bands. No one wants to hear this person more than me.

I have not yet found this to be true of anyone I've listened to. Dylan's performance at Hop Farm Festival last Saturday night only proved further to me that, fantastic though so many of the current crop of singer-songwriters are, none of them has the potential that must have been there in the 23 year old of 1962. They probably hate the comparison themselves (unless they happen to be Johnny Borell from the unsurprisingly now vanished Razorlight). What could be worse than have that level of expectation heaped upon your shoulders? I swear, I'm not being overtly cynical here - I know plenty of people don't like Dylan for a number of reasons, and would probably prefer to listen to Laura Marling, Josh Ritter, Pete Docherty, or Mumford and Sons. So long as they just say: 'You know, I don't really enjoy his songs/singing/music', that's fine (and incidentally I've heard the surely defunct 'He can't sing' argument so many times it makes my teeth fall out. Of course he can sing. He chooses to sing in a number of different ways. It's allowed, if you're capable.) But when they say - 'You know, Ray Lamontagne is the new Bob Dylan', ask yourself these questions:

1. Have they/are the likely to release at least five genre changing, epoch defining albums, about which debate will range for decades?

2. Have they/are they likely to have five decades of reasonably continuous live performance, over the world?

3. Have they/are they likely to have a public persona that is at least as or more important than their recorded work (if so, it's not good, incidentally).

4. Will people continue to record their songs now, and for the forseeable future?

5. Do people love or hate their music, and not inbetween? (I've never heard 'Bob Dylan - he's alright, I guess..' but would lose count of the amount of times people have spat vitriol or proclaimed love to him.)

The Beatles fit into the above description, and just about no one else. I really hope someone does, that in the future, do all these things - I want music to evolve, and would embrace a new Bobby D from the bottom of my heart - me and the new Bob, together through life.

I saw him on Saturday, and his relevance was absolute. I'm 26, and he's the most important artist I know of. To see him sing his songs is a priveledge - and he interprets them far better than any cover version. I've heard 'Like a Rolling Stone' thousands of times on record and three times live, and every time, it's been a revelation. How does it feel? My sister is 20, and she was awestruck. Kids of 14 and 15 knew they were seeing something they would treasure, and people of 40, 50, 60 and 70 stood, as these songs explode down the years.

He's an enigma, and that troubles some people - 'Who does he think he is?' Truly, he is an artist who's music does the work, and his private life doesn't matter - I don't care where he lives, what he wears, or how he eats. A lesson for the Kerry Katona generation, who believe that celebrity and money come first and art is second. This will not last. Bob Dylan, does.

Just so you know, I'm not gushing about all his work. His 'Saved' period was awful. 'Self Portrait' is terrible. There are slapdash songs kicking about all over the place. But this is heavily outweighed by a huge degree by the quality of the majority of his work. I sing 'Shooting Star' from 'Oh Mercy' live. A little known song, but what a powerful work - audiences love it, I love it.

I hope we get a new Bob. Because if not, it's a sad shout for this generation and the next. But whilst he's still here, I'll see and listen to him whenever possible.

May

So, it's May.

As I write, the Summer seems to have started, which couldn't be better news, to be honest. I left my house in Newcastle this morning at 6:30am, and the sun was streaming through the sky - and it almost felt ok to be up at such an hour. Truly, it was actually wonderful and I can't wait for a bit more of the same.

It was particuarly tough to be up early this morning given the Furrow launch was last night. Myself, Emily Portman and Christi Andropolis played together and seperately to a great, appreciative audience in the Sage Gateshead. Although the label has been running for a while now, it was great to see it publicly off the ground. Aside from a broken string, the replacement for which I'd somehow neglected to bring on stage, I had a great time playing my set. It's not too often of late I get to play a set of just my material, and though I feel strangely exposed by it, I actually really enjoy it. I was accompanied by Christi Andropolis on piano, fiddle and voice, and loved it. I also loved playing a few songs with Emily and on Christi's set and the encore of 'Bright Lights Tonight', complete with Lucy Farell's note perfect harmonies (anyone would think she's a Richard Thompson fan) made a good ending for the night.

From here, onwards. Last weekend I was in Cornwall all too briefly with Tom, where we played a beautiful gig near Liskeard - a fantastic amphitheatre. It was a lovely atmosphere, with a great PA operated by Ollie from Blue Sky Sound in Plymouth. I can't recommend him and his crew highly enough. The sound at gigs is sooo variable, and it was so refreshing to have someone who really cared, worked hard, and achieved great results.

This weekend coming I've a gig with Christi on Friday night, Saturday in Suffolk with Tom and in between recording an album with Spinndrift, a great young folk band from Newcastle. I'm taking the engineers chair for it, and it's shaping up beautifully.

So much music, so little time.

It'll take such a long, long time..

Well, my utmost apologies. It has been really too long since I've written on here. I could make all kinds of excuses I guess but probably better just to say 'sorry', and that I'll be better at keeping it updated from here on in.

All kinds of interesting things going on here. Firstly, the record company which I've helped set up, Furrow Records, has released Emily Portman's album, 'The Glamoury' to huge acclaim. It's a beautiful album and deserves every bit of it's praise. The three of us will be doing a Furrow launch gig at The Sage Gateshead on May 17th - please come along and say hi. Myself, Emily and Christi Andropolis will all be playing seperately and maybe find something to do together. It would be lovely to see you there.

Huge amount of gigs with the McConville and bass player Phil Murray throughout Feb and March, all of which were great fun. I'm now trying to start running again, due to the 4000% increase in curry intake over this period. Particular highlights were Otley Jewel in the Crown (I think is what it was called) and a one around the corner from the Forest Arts Centre, New Milton. Was particuarly lovely to do this gig, as it's old home turf for me (kind of - I'm from Fareham), and friends and family were present. Drove through all the ponies on the way down, got there early, and went to the beach. Fantastic.

Currently addicted to listening to all the election coverage, polls, and trends. For what it's worth I actually found GB more interesting and human when he made his gaffe yesterday - he's clearly so uncomfortable with the grinning he's been told to do, I wish he'd just come out, grumpy, and say 'look, this is me'. I still don't know if I'd vote for him, but I might have a little more respect. Anyone who heard the BNP leader on Radio 4 this morning (French and Irish can stay, everyone else out), knows how awful the prospect of them having an MP is. However, this spin, gleam and falseness is surely driving people towards these other parties, left and right. For my money, Gordon Brown yesterday reacted to something he clearly finds troubling - that it's too easy to say 'there are too many Polish people here'. I would certainly react in a similar way to someone who echoed those sentiments - and I think his only mistake was to try and have that awful, embarassing comedown rather than saying 'I'm uncomfortable with these innaccurate sentiments'. Chances are at this stage he will lose anyway - why not show his true colours (whatever they are).

Anyway, enough of me rambling on - thanks for listening, and please respond in the negative, the affirmative, or however you wish.

All the best

Dave