Its Society, but not as we know it

We've been promised a new society by politicians for all my voting days and beyond, but Covid-19 has presented us with no option.

It has no slogan but it literally is change behaviour or people die. Every time I say that I hear Jim Carroll's song, re-titled as the Care home cull. What astonishes me is we haven't mandated contact and traceability in a care home.

I'll come onto Education,music, theatre and sport like football later, but our society is transforming.

The first thing in any crisis is recognising what the crisis is. If it is a big meteor, if it is a tsunami, you identify it and search through your well rehearsed plans, just as we're seeing in Germany. The Germans are so public spirited they will soon be helping out the rest of Europe as they get their own society working again. They remind me of the "fit your own mask before then fitting your child", advice on the plane.

I'm pro Europe and I'm hoping our Brexit stance wont stop the Germans helping us, although they'll probably push at easier doors. In a crisis people who want to help just need to be shown which tools to pick up or supply, they dont need a sit down meeting to discuss it.

Its clearly going to be trying times but the easiest way is to start at the end and work back. A lot of people make the mistake of taking 4 steps until they find they've just headed down a cul-de-sac.

In Education we want the educators to have educated the population needing it. From nursery to university. Quite simply the measuring systems of exams are up for examination. Continuous assessment started a long time ago and nowadays most employers want to know that a certificate of education means that the person is educated.

So when pupils and schools worry about this years highers and whether they'll get results that get them into University, while the clearing system tries to work out what to do, just say, "Hoi! stop ra bus, draw breath, save lives and what's the worst that might happen, you have a gap year, we use prelims or personal recommendation, statements and interviews." We've boxed ourselves in because we've undermined trust in our schooling system, turning them into exam factories, while our universities have slowly been turned into business selling degrees.

Covid-19 offers us the chance to give education back to the educators, the committed frontline people who want to teach and will be far better at doing it when we get behind them and support their efforts. Like many of the front line staff, who help people in our society, they are drawn to help because of their commitment to the cause, its certainly not the cash. So we need to find a way to help them help us. Here's an idea, teachers, please talk amongst yourselves and propose a plan.

Dont sit down with politicians, just put the plan together and tell the politicians, this is the plan. If it involves friday is home schooling day, if it says a national plan is to let every school decide locally, whatever it says, its your future and its our future, I've always found you'll know more than any politician. Politicians on the other hand hate coming up with a plan and its always given over to someone else to draw it up, so thats why you tell them just as the NHS is trying to do at the moment. Along with the Care workers, police, postal workers, firemen, and all the key staff.

With so few actually being exposed to Covid 19 during lockdown the sad fact is that it is the Care workers who are being left naked, but also being the unwitting carriers of the virus. The only people who are not allowed to Social Distance are those in the care community, NHS  & Care Workers. The Care workers are being put in an impossible position as they travel from house to house or home to home, doing shifts often on minimum wage and zero hours contracts. They cant be shielded by being furloughed as they're needed to work. Once the virus is gone in 14 months time many will be sent to a detention centre to be repatriated by a home office ticking boxes. It'll be disgusting and it needs to be sorted now.

Whats frightening is that they are part of the controlled explosion of this biological bomb. Their job of care also involves slowly spreading the virus among the care community. They cant take 2 weeks off to self isolate if they feel symptoms coming on. Their bosses aren't always as keen about care as they are about costs and contract fulfilment. Unscrupulous care homes are routine reality shows as they are cheap to make and fairly plentiful. They exist, they're disgusting and they turn the stomach. This government far from shielding old people is quite simply complicit in an act of genocide. That might seem quite a bold statement but I believe it is true and the word I'd use applies to us all, we are all complicit. Its not just in the UK, in Spain, in the States, stories of care homes and bodies abandoned or hidden in makeshift morgues are only the surface. Throughout the world old people will have been quietly culled like cattle during foot and mouth.

I have asked myself many times about working in a care home after the first patient dies with a high temperature, coughing and other covid symptoms. Would I get man flu and not turn up for work or would I offer to do double shifts. IF I got ill doing double shifts would I cry off and sensibly self isolate or soldier on. If I was "stepping up to the plate" if that's my psyche, then I'd work through man flu considering it essential to help. Its an insidious position for the staff to be put in when they know and love the residents they care for.

Death rates from Covid-19 will never be accurately reported as in death, there is overlap. I'd like to see stats where people were alive if covid-19 hadn't appeared, not stats that say, covid 19 may have been the trigger but it was blah blah blah as when people tragically die there is often a multiple of ailments.

I know little about the regulation, the Care Inspectorate and control of care homes, I only know that having visited a few for my Mum 4 years ago, I saw that there was a different level of care. I didn't think there were homes that looked awful but I did see homes that were filled with people living their lives with carers who knew their residents and cared for their needs. A simple pre-requisite one would think but its also a very easy way to make money so its no suprise that many gangsters operate care homes. We chose a home for my Mum that was superb for her for 3 years. Care homes can be fantastic but we need to recognise the range of homes out there and the relative lack of regulation. Does anyone have a job to ensure all staff are checked healthy to work, or is the zero hours a clue as to whether or not you're obliged to work ill or not. Hmmm, let me think.

So, yes, the government are in complicit unless there's a procedure at every care home to at the bare minimum, for all staff to have their temperature taken. We've watched so many pictures involving people being tested coming out of tube stations etc.

This leads naturally into music festivals or football matches. Turning it on its head should we try and work out what is good about large crowds? I figure there's loads of opportunity to test people, like getting onto tubes or buses, surely we can take people's temperature and screen them. Crowd control is one of our strengths in the UK. We love a queue. Obviously those with a high temperature are in for a test, but that's where we hit our first cul-de-sac moment, we dont have these tests! We are looking at this rolling for 8 months.

So lets start at the end and work our way back. For Football that means we are writing off 2020/21 season and should just about be able to finis this season. European football is governed by UEFA and they are in crowd cuckoo land. Normally you'd say cloud cuckoo land but I couldn't resist it. They have television contracts and their raison-d'etre is to make money, protect the powerful brand at any cost, and that includes the tragic residents of Bergamo, who make me well up every time I think about how decimated their city has been  through the virus, caused by one UEFA Champions league football match. Will we ever know what Cheltenham did for our country?

If we start at the end we need clarify whether the Euro's should just be abandoned or whether the leagues use June 2021. To do this we need to work out as a society what role entertainment to play going forward. This is from live music, theatre and sport to the cinematic versions watched in your home.

I cant describe the joy I felt in catching up with Patrik Fitzgerald and the 1980 documentary. There's so much content out there, and the technology directs you to it. Will we look back with hindsight and say that 2020 was when we finally saw the technology vision. I dont know but there is a time in the future when historians will say thats the date when homo sapien handed over the keys to society, or will it be the time when society staged a quiet revolution. Considering how badly the failed democracies of the UK and USA have done in choosing their leaders lately it seems technology has already taken over.

Anxiety levels in the UK have risen with social media often cited as the reason. The level of pressure to keep up means that the lack of hours in each day lead to collapse. So here's the deal, this period of lockdown has given many people the time to catch up and see 'keeping up' for what it is. People like me who take two days to write a wee blog post like this have no chance of competing in that dynamic high paced world, but enough, back to the entertainment industry.

As a Hibs supporter, who goes to the odd gig or play what is the end game, and what revolution will unfold.

I'll finish this later but we have to carry the spirit of past calamities into making our world better for the experience.

If the players cant take the stage to entertain then perhaps we need to find a new stage or take the whole thing on tour.

Get the teachers to ask the football clubs, the pop bands the RSC what they want to engage their school and university populations. They cant fill stadiums but perhaps we could have a marathon run at social distancing, perhaps we have everyone playing a tune as we set a world record for the longest marching band.

Hi Leanne Dempster, how about we try a midsummer social distancing performance of Sunshine on Leith, with everyone playing whatever instrument they want, accordion players every 20 people, singers every second person. Logistically a nightmare, but what a community spirit!

Grubby Stories - March 1979 Patrik Fitzgerald

Like Lou Reed's "Growing up in Public" I never got sent a promo of Patrik's LP but my brother did buy one so I got to listen to it, especially when he went out.

Just as I said Lou in 1980 defined my life, Patrik did in 1979.

I didn't need a safety pin in my heart but I loved the song. I love little fishes swimming in a rising tide. I totally got "Ugly as You", I really didnt want to grow up that UGLY! I wanted my folks to have another 10 people living in our house and ironically, 40 years on, even less people live in it. Where I thought it was disgusting that people had spare rooms or sofas while there were homeless people on the streets, nowadays, we have spare flats, second and third homes and there's homeless villages created every time a motorway creates an underpass..

But I digress, this is about the poet Patrik. He inspired me to write short songs, sometimes really short. "why did our dreams fall oh so flat, all of the life we showed in those early days" is a straight rip off from Patrik. "All the years of trying" is also the title to a very good documentary on Patrik. He write that song pretty early on, having already worked out that the business was indeed a business. IT was not about art, it was about selling art, and the sales force would determine what art sold. Marketing was everything, and they wanted the public only to have a couple of winners.

I know how many people saw the Clash at La Sorbonne, in Edinburgh, the night they didnt get to play, I was there. The whole of Edinburgh saw them busking outside the St James' centre, but I wasn't there!

I was there at Holyrood on stage in the drama theatre while Mike played guitar and I sang, or should I say barfed out in an Edinburgh twang, "When I get famous" another classic Patrik song.

"Little Fishes" still just bite me on the feet. Its a bonding song as we'd say nowadays. We're all in this together, you and me, we're like, little fishes in a rising tide, small fry!

So much comedy, tragedy and delivered with frank authority, pathos and fuck you its great.

Those of you suffering withdrawal from football can comfort yourself in "No fun Football" anymore!

Groubby Stories doesn't waste your time so if there is a track you dont appreicate, dont worry, it'' be gone and the next is on its way.

I sang Suicidal Wreck for many years until my girlfriend talked to me about her brother Alan committing suicide at 24. I shut up and never had that thought again. It was a great song but all I remember now is "I'm a suicidal wreck, self destruct in my head, I'm in pain, why cant they see, they're not the ones, who feel, the pain, in my brain...." or at least that's how i remember Fionna Norris' lyrics.

Before "People who died" was written, Patrik wrote "all my friends are dead now", a precursor to many a rap and clearly influencing songs like "down in the tube station" and countless other songs like Jim Carroll's. Its really hard and brutal. Knife crime was all the rage in the 70's too, it was also very brutal and sad. Hopefully if theres one thing the virus has helped is keeping knives in their drawers.

To me, Patrik's style wasn't really to over complicate the lyrics. There it is pal, take it or leave it. I took it big style and here I am 40+ years on reliving it. I never got to review Patrik in Deadbeat, but I have now, job done, that's what Fanzines are for, talking up the good stuff.

Tomorrow's chip paper?

People used to think the newspaper was tomorrow's chip paper while other thought it was the first draft of history. 

As the 21st century arrived neither has much traction. Chippies have declined and the fall in circulation of newspapers has ensured the ambition of journalism declined, with it the likelihood of its claim to history.

With covid-19 we have seen a resurgence in journalism as papers hungry for stories have asked their journalists to write some. For many in the trade this must be a joy. 

"Just give me copy!" 

The papers are now full of stories that nobody else is covering because the journalists are just writing copy. With the decline in fast food outlets being open many of these articles are becoming the first draft of history again and don't need to fret about becoming insulation for a black pudding supper.

The 21st century brought blogger after blogger, with their self appointment as experts, our culture has changed. When Caprice advises the chief medical officer on covid-19, and people listen to her, we know it's gone too far.

I can't remember if it was Joey Essex or Jade Goodie who had trouble spelling coronovirus But it does worry me that our society has been so easily divided by technology, or it's applications.

In our day we listened to Joe Strummer, Annie Lennox, Roddy Frame, Tracey Thorn or earlier eras had their maestros and the cult of celebrity has long been with us, but we could draw a line and think for ourselves.

The daily bombarding via social media means the current generation are recipients to the populist voice. The current round of what's app videos would keep most people busy all day, time they should be spending trying to retreat from the social media barricades and recover some perspective.

I of course write this shite, in the firm believer that I will not promote it so nobody will actually read it.

Self fulfilling and q big pay on the back from me, ha ha, enjoy!

Fighting Alcohol

I have had a fight with alcohol all my life and usually I've won it. I've always earned enough money to be able to find my next pint.

More recently alcohol has decided to change the battlefront. When I was a kid I just needed to save up enough money to get blotto. When I was working I had to wait until I was finished to get blotto.

But now the rules have changed and I am a fat bloater. 

Alcohol is reallysneaky this way in that you start out just needing cash for your habit then all of a sudden it's all about running for a bus.

My latest battle is being fought out against the background of lockdown for covid 19.

I'm not really a hoarder of drink so there are no tins of tennent's in my house or even in my mother's house or my fathers house or my wife's house. There's not even tins of tennent's in the shops!

When I started doing caminos I became a big fan again of the vino tinto. I guess it's a bit lower calorie as I always lost weight on wine.

We entered the phase of social distancing on 18 stone and 10 days later I find myself on 17 three.

Quite simply I have gone without tennent's lager or without 40 pints of tennents lager and this has produced the corresponding reaction to my liver, belly and weight.

We haven't reached April yet but at the current rate I may fall below 17 stone for April the 1st. Ha ha!

So what I hear you cry. 

Well for me this is very important self isolation has ensured that I don't feel compelled to go to the pub, watch some shit on Sky sports and slaver shite to my comrades in arms.

An epiphany indeed.

What always interests me is the opportunity we get to gaze into the near future. Unlike the cold war where there was no let up until the perestroika and the Berlin wall came a tumbling down, the departure of Covid-19 for new shores will be in the summer months and the impact is being scripted already as the end of a war.

The whole rollercoaster of fear, oppression, despondency, death, despair and sheer jubilation when society eventually settles on a new normal. This will be a new normal. Football players and professional sports people have already started calling it. The entertainment industry realises the gulf its found itself in between food bank reality and make belief. The treatment of employees from Restaurants & Pubs, football clubs to Britain's Got Talent highlight a mixed message that those guilty of abuse in the court of public opinion will find themselves recovering a lot slower than others.

Some brands will go forever. Britains Got Talent could well be one while, restaurant, pub and sportswear chains similarly disgusting attitude to employees may see the brand tarnished permanently. Many of these businesses are highly geared and need very little to push them into the hands of the receiver.

As soon as the pubs opened I will of course return to type because I am a product of my environment. 

When I return from caminos when I have lost weight and feel very positive, I possess a new zest for life, a joie de vie. 

I then find in my nature a requirement to return to my habitat. My nature sucks me back into that environment. It's why I've always returned to this city and always found my way to the Southside, I'm rooted here  and it's what I call home.

I now live 100 yards from the aunt's house that I grew up visiting when I was 8 and 9. I'd cycle over 2-3 times a week and have my tea with them, away from the 4 siblings. Tranquility itself and you always got sweets!

I feel life's journey is complete but with the tennents free zone extending to April I would imagine that obesity in Scotland is taking a tumble and I might see 16 stone before the month is out.

Last year I went gluten free owing to an intolerance and got down to 16/4. It also involved giving up tennents as part of a gluten free diet. The golf club introduced many gluten free drinks and Estrella was very good!

As soon as the green light came on I was back on the tennents. The social experiment saw me reach 18/4 before the current situation.

This needs a lot more work to make it funny, but there's a joke somewhere!

I'd forgotten about my tinitus

Ha ha how I laugh. I've got a gig going on in my head and the worst aspect is seems to be quadraphonic.....

The sound is largely symbols but it's got a nice eacey rhythm 

I'm hearing the Proclaimers song ...the words for which are on the edge of my tongue ....it's sorts of high and goes low and says,.  Well I've seen all kinds of rituals, and I'm fucked right out my brain, but you keep coming home ...again.....oh yes I fucked myself right up, cause I'm clearly a fucked up bairn,,...and I will be so grateful if you...could set me right again ....

That's drink anyway ZoO are soooo good you have to see them and SALT are already tipped to enjoy greater audiences - don't pay £150 for a ticket when the real deal is £10!

Happy Family issue 6

KB and I never agreed on a few albums which was great as he got Abba and I got the Happy Family

I don't think either of wanted the Anusia song imagination. It's of it's time and was probably not the best example of synth pop.

1982 line teasers

Great lines or minging?

You decide my only clue is

I'm not Familiar with all of Abba's lyrics....

Issue 6

Issue 6

I knew KB was a big fan of Bucks Fizz, but putting Jay on page 3 was a wonderful ironic gesture for 1982.

Issue 6 like all the early issues involved the Royal Mail quite a lot as Keith put the Deadbeats together in Edinburgh while I partied in Dundee or St Andrews.

Number 6

Number 6

On this day in1974

I like this one - apparently I beat Bruce H at chess but much more importantly to my 10 year old self was that I didn't have this diary last year when I WON the chess tournament, oh how we laugh at the thought of this little 9 year old not having a diary to write it in. 

Much more importantly NUPE gave us the heads up in 1979 that an industrial dispute would see us without Jannies and Cooks! We took to the streets to support them. Nobody crossed the Holy Rood pocket line, let's hear it for the Jannies and the Cooks, 41 years on, I hope you won more than a chess tournament!

On this day in 1980

Hibs beat Morton 3-2 and I read the Hobbit.

It all makes sense.....

It certainly makes a change from 1979 where I stood watching a queue of people building for Thin Lizzy tickets. Who would queue for tickets I laughed.

Nowadays of course, we all queue in the comfort of our own phone, hitting refresh refresh refresh. Back then it was carry outs and sleeping bags!

Who knew three years later in 1982 we'd  be queuing for the Higsons and an interview for issue 10.

Oh such grand memories.

Growing up in Public - April 1980 - Lou Reed

40 years ago today....

Insert album cover (!)





This was my Lou Reed album. It was 1980 I was 17 and this was me, Growing up in Public, with my hands tied. This was Lou speaking to me. This was Lou speaking in a language that made so much sense to me.

We all had our teenage rebellion that resulted in both life and death. Some died, some were having kids, some of us skived school, some were being assaulted by teachers. My rebellion was much more middle class. It was a linguistic war that I fought across the kitchen table as I mashed my tatties. The discussion was usually about what kind of education I was getting. I'd been telling my Mum that there were no "t's" in butter at Holy Rood. If you wanted to make it through school, it was buh'er. If you wanted a pagger, it was 'butter', Growing up in Public, you learned to choose your fights and asking for butter wasn't one of them. I dont think she ever understood the trouble I had explaining we didn't live in a 'boat hoose'. I remember my linguistic education more than most, my wonderful autistic ways make me smile as I continually protested, 'no we dont live in a boat hoose, my mum and dad own it, they bought it.....'

For many who were born too late and missed the Velvets, Berlin, Transformer, Street Hassle, Sally Cant Dance and countless other albums this was the seminal album, for those born in 65 I'm sure theBlue Mask, etc...

I was in love with the Specials, Peter Perrett's lyrics, with Patrik Fitzgerald or Paul Weller spitting them out but Lou just said it as it was.

Nothing over or understated, "smiles", so funny 40 years on. Simple rock n roll, simple messages, read, sing and let your mind take over. The book is often described as the most democratic genre as each reader interprets each word, but for me, the blanker the canvas, the better journey. Simple messages open the mind.

There's not a track on that album that doesn't make me smile. It takes me straight back to where I was "So Alone". I'd tried to get moved to another school, or as I said, a school. I fucked off to university instead at the end of 5th year, and Lou was a helpful step on the journey.

I went along to the April pre-uni school weekend at St Andrews as the album came out and I thought, time to move on and learn something. I didn't know how to apply as I hadn't even sat my highers but the seed had been sown. The grass didn't look greener, it was the fact there was some grass. Holy Rood sadly for me was just a concrete jungle. One of my brothers, the one who also went to Holy Rood, used "Berlin" in 6th year as he sat his English Higher again, allegedly to improve the mark. Instead it was just to allow him another year doing a subject he'd already done. He had music to play....

"The power of positive drinking.." is just the perfect song for someone who is only a couple of years into a lifetime habit, but its a wonderful song. I dont think it led many people to sobriety but then I'm sure "Caroline Says II" cant be laid at the door of abusers. Shining lights is what good art does for me and Lou's music was an inspiration to do much of what followed.

There's no doubt, Lou spoke loudly to adolescent boys, and learning 'how to speak to angel', from an LP wasn't always recommended, but once I'd done the positive drinking, I tried 'Hello!', and surprisingly enough it did work.....once!

I'm not sure if it was when our daughter was 16 or 17 that I suddenly realised everyone was on the outside looking in. I'd spent my life on the touchlines, but then as I looked back recently, clearly I was inside the ropes. I'd written the rules and I'd even taken my ball home in those petulant moments.

When you listen to "My old Man" or "Keep away", you get all the fun of Ian Dury and Lou's playful creative lyrics come firing out from every corner of the house, from every nook and cranny, rhyming couplets that dance you around a collapsing relationship. Dividing up the family jewels is what every divorcing couple should do, but what a lot of shite was in every corner of this house. "....here's Shakespeare's Measure by Measure...", "Here's a yardstick you can measure me by...." and this was just as he was getting ready to divorce drugs and marry again!

Lou has a wonderful musical legacy and so many words are written about the guy and his life. He was never gonna be a Cliff Richard and his death was just a traditional Rock'n'Roll suicide, where he clearly took people out long the way. There's the quick sixties suicide or the longer version where you wait to see how much your body can take. He clearly gave up the bevvy a smidgeon later than intended but late enough that he got through the 80's and out the other side to reach his own 60's. By that time many more records and falling outs had come and gone. I quite like his work with Robert Quine on the Blue Mask. I also like so many of his collaborations, not least Bowie, there's a cracking you tube clip of Lou in 1984 as Jim Carroll performs "People Who Died". I dont think you need to beat up people to write "Caroline say II", and nowadays you'd be rightly jailed for it. I've no idea what the guy was like but I'm glad he wrote the song whether its a form of atonement is for others.

I've slid off the path of "smiles". The truth is they all smile on tv, and if he didn't smile, it wasn't just because his mum told him not to, but his music still makes me smile. Interestingly, I never heard him perform any of this album and its clearly not one he was that fond of, but he always had a big back catalogue to choose from so I'll forgive him and be happy he made it.

Music is about memories, sharing them is fun, but closing my eyes and getting back to the album is even better, so raise a glass, choose your year, close your eyes and listen to one of your favourite albums from when you were 16/17......thats what Covid-19 is all about!

I guarantee you'll pass a day in no time!

Next up Strawberry Tarts....Walking in a straight line.....

ZoO fundraiser plus S.A.L.T. Edinburgh February 28th 2020 - 7pm - 1am

Rolling over into February 29th this year at the King Khalid Rooms, 10 Hill Place near Surgeons Hall.

Both bands have been whipping up a storm on the local scene not least at the Leith Depot last year.

Svengali Paul 'Glenny' Glenwright came back from Cyprus for the gig but as usual didn't read the notice.

The date was in the small print!

Doors open 7pm and you can dance through to the early hours of our leap year.

With Life Support band members on display, Deadbeat dug into the archives to find these pictures.

Simon from S.A.L.T. clearly bulking up to hide drummer Ross from ZoO back in 1986 at Baxter Park in Dundee.

ZoO's Ross is a bit clearer in this image with Simon out of the way, but Tucker stays hidden in the bar.

See ticketor.com for details and see you all on the night!

For those of you who like a bit of nostalgic nonsense the Life Support tab provides that.

Deadbeat's 2020 hindsight will be catching up on all the bands of yesterday as they pop up today.

Some of the more famous bands stood the test of time, but what about the rest?

Did they stay in music, did the record deal arrive, did the band hit one of those joyous meltdowns?

Who burnt the candle at both ends or did it just slowly burn out?

What drugs do you take now and what was the best party, after gig experience?

Cars,  Motorbikes or VW Camper?

For those who enjoyed the band days did the performance roll into your roll making skills at the Picnic Basket or any Sandwich bar? Did you chef skills lead you to cook on tour?

In 40 years plenty will have happened, children, or coming out the closet, what was your favourite moment since those 5 minutes of fame and was it Hampden for a gig or a football match?

Many questions to ask and we'll be asking them over the coming months as we put the finishing touches to Deadbeat, Scotland's fanzine.

We plan to interview all of those we interviewed back then and laugh at the years in between. Its a lot of drinking, but I'm up for it, starting on February 28th!

Thank you SWIM

I'm never done being frustrated by how our generation of teenagers felt we'd done really well, in my case along with Hilary, Keith, Lynne, Kath, Karen, Roy Terre, Graeme, Francis and the many other contributors, we put out Deadbeat and never thought about it, we just did it.

We never made any conscious diversity decisions we just felt we represented who we bumped into in the local or national music scene. An unconscious choice.

I looked back at the covers in the light of so much setting back of the clock and I hold my hands up, especially towards the end.

We had Siouxsie (3 -6) on the cover twice, Annie Lennox (11),  Tracie Young,(14) strawberry switchblade (16), Kate Garner (22), only 6.

Of the bands we had Aztec Camera,(5) fun boy 3,(12),   (15), twisted nerve (17 &28) passionate friends (20) Cocteau twins (21), pop wallpaper (25) Wild Indians (27) Plastic Surgery (32) and the Alarm (33). Of the 11 bands only 3 contained women.

Paul McLaughlin (2), Kid Creole (4), Edwyn Collins (7), Adam Ant (8) Ian McCulloch (9) Switch Higson aka  (10),  Stuart Adamson (13) Kirk Brandon (19), Malcolm Ross (23), Morrissey (24),  Lloyd Cole (29) and the Crucial Xylophone front man (31) 12 covers in toyal. Or double the women on the covers.

I'm suitably chastised by myself for not being a wee bit more mindful, not least as the Rutkowski sisters sweet singing surely deserved to see Sunset Gun on the cover of 17, our first birthday flexi issue, but Deadbeat history will declare it was twisted nerve, a decision probably made at 2am in La Sorbonne when I'd been bribed by a few drinks.

What really frustrates me now, (almost 40 years later) is to look at the line ups for music festivals in Scotland. I'm absolutely baffled as to why the organisers can have all male lineups. 

It is truly ridiculous and for that I apologise unreservedly for not having done more when we were growing up, doing deadbeat although judging by the last 5 covers probably wise we did stop.

We are victims nowadays of being spoon-fed through the acquisition of our data by Facebook Google etc. As any statistician will tell you this is a race to the very bottom and expectations are suitably set.

Organisations like SWIM seek to redress the current imbalance but their job can't be easy. Diversity is an issue our society has booted into the political correctness bin. We all know what we need to do and celebrating all of the human race isn't a bad start.

This rant was provoked by a list of the performers at a Scottish festival this summer. I'm not saying boycott it but I am grateful radio Scotland were broadcasting today at 3:30pm!

Motherwell - Deborah Orr

Reading a posthumous memoir covering a period of time that you knew someone often results in enlightenment.

That was certainly the case for me Reading Deborah's memoir. Deb's had done the make up for the band in St Andrews and was far too sophisticated and bohemian for any of us to hang out regularly. 

As she ably recounts Scottish students were outnumbered at St Andrews and those who were Scots often disguised themselves with accents from a wee bit further south.

The band were all comprehensive kids, well except the northern Irish boy, but his accent was just fine for covering the Undertones!

We had grown up listening to music that often saw us taking sides eg Mods or punks etc. Very few could do leonard skynrds free bird followed by London's Burning or Pretty Vacant. We were all a bit tribal and when it came to the yahs in St Andrews, much merriment was had.

What comes out loud and clear in "motherwell" is just how much some of our generation never felt we belonged anywhere, and we were very articulate about not fitting in. This phenomenon is a well trodden path of youth but finding yourself isn't really very easy and it's anxiety strewn. It's no surprise that suicide is so high and in our day at the University there were enough sad examples documented during stressful and lonely periods.

The person Deborah describes is not someone I remember but then having looked at my own diaries it's clear I don't remember much. It's always assumed when someone comes over as very confident and sassy that they are and as Deborah articulates the truth is often very different.

We all put a front on and in the early 80's everyone was choosing a gang with whom to hang. I'd have described her gang as the hippy goths and as the pictures show elsewhere on the life support page, she done us up like kippers! 

We looked like extras from a bela Lugosi film. It was all part of the fun and  there was plenty in amongst the angst.

I'm sure I sold Debs copies of Deadbeat but surprised I never got her into writing for it, especially as our paths occasionally crossed after uni in Edinburgh. I guess there was such a diverse music scene it was easy to hang with the same gang at the same venues. She might've been more sneaky Pete's while I was next door in La Sorbonne.

Either way it's hats off to Motherwell and so sad she's not around to receive the plaudits.

BBC to be privatised?

Not a surprise to Deadbeat readers but it's on it way.

Many thought Boris bought his way with promises of share options as he dodged bullets and watched them being fired at everyone else.

Never mind the MPs or xabinet ministers, Auntie Beeb had correspondents who seemed to be guilty of electoral fraud as they just joked their way through the whole analysis of postal voting papers.

Selling the BBC off in one big bulk sale could generate a significant one of bonus for the treasury as it's a big media company. Other options include parcelling up sections and selling it quietly off to a friendly fox or hound.

Surely the law will ensure the independence and any tinkering with their charter will be met with fierce resistance.

Oh aye, here's mud in yer eye!

None of it's likely to be held up by red tape, not with the blagger in Chief willing to grease palms with those valuable share options.

Let's face it, once it's out of public ownership the equal pay issues become someone else's problems.

I can't help thinking about all the programmes that won't be made, or worse still the ones that will be commissioned.

Is it convenient that the head for 7 years has stepped down, I'm sure in the words of that famous Life Support song "Time will tell".

Deadbeat's first Christmas annual 2020

Yes the interviews begin this year for the great retrospective!

Over the course of the year we will be interviewing some of our favourite Fanzine covers 40 years on.

There are many questions to ask of these stars from the 1980's not least the fundamental one for hibs fans.

When all's said and done, back in 1982 if we had given you two choices before you hit 60 would you have liked a number one single or see Hibs lift the Scottish Cup- which would yours have been!

We've got a number of interviews lined up with people who continued on music, who drifted out and back in and some legends that have grown over the years.

2020 hindsight is going to be fun for sure and at the end of the year I'll be looking to publish the hard back with Deadbeat's 1,2 & 3 from 1980's as well as a new compilation of bands from today.

Enjoy!

40 years before 1979

40 years before 1979 Neville Chamberlain was clutching a piece of paper.

40 years after 1979 I feel I'm clutching at straws.

As we head towards the winter solstice in the longest night it seems quite apt that we should be facing the Armageddon that is a head of us.

Allegedly in aristocratic circles that it takes many generations to make a fortune and only one to blow it.

The UK is equipped with better commentators than I but we are heading into shark infested waters and I'm not sure we have the skills to navigate them. It's alright lying to get somebody to support you but if you don't have the skills to deliver in any job you get found out eventually, unfortunately usually after a lot of damage has been done.

On May 3rd 1979 my brother was away so I took his polling card down and bloated and I'm pleased to say on May 4th the Tory was removed. I also received £12 in wages and went to the pub.

I thought voting was quite easy I thought you voted and you got the answer you were hoping for little did I know so how country has this ridiculous tactical voting requirement. It's basically like playing poker
 You have to guess what's in the other hand and then NZ act accordingly. It's possibly more like bridge where you bid 3 trumps or four trumps or no trumps, I know what I prefer.

How are we supposed to guess how to tactically vote when the parties don't know and stupidly put up candidates to confuse us.

In Scotland we are very lucky in so far as we usually have a broad left wing to choose from, failing which the SNP are   a fairly left of centre coalition.

It isn't quite so easy in England so they make it simpler in message terms. This usually involves lying, politicians throughout the ages have always excelled at lying. Some people think that lying is bad and yet history shows us it's a prerequisite of politicians.

The problem we have with the politicians nowadays is they are lying to get a position of power with no idea what to do with that power, the game is only to acquire it, the thrill of The Chase. As we know The Chase is now on a break from our tv tv screens but will return.

There used to be a bedrock of values driving them, guiding principles, but that's long gone. It's what has made socialist Scotland slide more towards the SNP. We genuinely do want to educate our young, look after our sick and protect our elderly.

We are happy to work hard, pay taxes and enjoy our lives.

Well that's my take on it.

On this day in 1983

I had my hands full with the Deadbeat tape, a compilation of 8 bands, all unsigned and as we thought, surely on their way to greater audiences. Rough demo tapes sometimes just live but a raw taste of ingredients that would get polished in a studio.

It was well received in all the local record shops throughout Scotland and less so the A & R guys in London.

It was my 21st birthday and someone had thrown away the key!

36 years on and I'm walking in Spain with the sound of Burlesque "long Shadows" or the powerful strawberry tarts "walking in a straight line" exceptionally good for getting you up hills. There's a straight line from Sparks through the Jeremy Thomas classic jaw jutting guitar to Franz Ferdinand and it always makes me chuckle when I listen to the strawberry tarts tracks.

The first tape and the third one are loaded or have links on the site and well worth a listen.

At 21 my life felt over, while at 57 I'm still making new memories to chuckle over.

I still listen to all the Deadbeat tapes and they bring back great memories of the bands and that thing we all just called the scene.

Getting ready for a gig whether you were playing or watching, reviewing or interviewing after. The craic was the two hours before as well as the six hours after. Chuntering about adding or ditching the keyboards, the sax. Stripping back the sound, building more depth.

It was a blank canvas and that's what life is. One of our songs "the penny drops...as the mushroom rises" was always viewed as a CND apocolyptic anti war song, but it's really just a love song with a nuclear bomb back drop.

You listen to the words and it's all about how the penny drops as the mushroom rises.

A euphemism for you have really fucked it big time fat boy!

There is no bettere way to describe teenage angst and unrequited love than to put it in a song.

Master Craftsman Roddy Frame was for me, the champion songwriter of our day, "just like June, the curtains are closed"....

I still don't know why "walk out to Winter" went out in May. When did Slade release merry Xmas?

Just as we learnt loads of stuff doing the fanzine, tapes and the single, we also learned most people aren't as creative as you feel they should be in the industry.

It's quite simply a numbers game and the beautifully naive "need control over the whole creative process" is why many of the Deadbeat bands never "made it" to larger audiences.

The industry insists on it and it gets what it wants. Bands like fanzines would box themselves into a corner. For us we refused to move from 10p as if we were ripping people off to charge 25p. We were really lucky with Regular Music and Dance Factory, who took ads out which were listings we would have done anyway.

I love watching dramas where the art versus commercial get played out. We all know great artists that died penniless but does it really have to be that way.

In Deadbeat's case there is clearly competency in the music produced by the bands but my drawers for 1984 are full of good even great bands, so perhaps handing over their baby to the studio masters always caused  them needless concern.

With so many excellent bands about the public only has enough cash to support a few, but why Kajagoogoo!

The north south divide was at it's height when the two pairs of twins so comically divided a nation. Deadbeat had taken a career break.

In London, driving a car that I kicked, as it nearly ran me down outside dirty dicks, were Bros, quite simply vomit.

In Edinburgh, the Proclaimers, quite simply Hibees!

Highspeedcapital

Forget HS2, lets talk High Speed Capital. Let's talk crowdfunding. Let's talk kick starting an economy. Let's talk banks tied up in knots. Lets talk baby boomers pension pots. Let's talk returns on investments. Let's talk about risk. Let's talk about experienced fund managers

Let's talk less and let the money move quicker. Its simple economics.

I spend so others can spend. 

I give so others can give. 

If its stuck, money doesn't make the world go round.

While the politicians continue to convince us its about their ineptitude, past performance is not always a guide to future returns, but Brexit or not, we can, quite simply stare at the canvas they piss, shit and vomit on, or look at the canvasses people are creating despite them.

I worked, for a while, in a stockbrokers. It never ceased to amaze me how long it would take regulators to catch up with bad practice until in the words of Life Support, "The Penny Drops as the Mushroom Rises". The big mushroom cloud of armageddon that must've hovered over the financial world so many times during my working life and yet nobody seemed to get injured by the blast. See the film, "The Big Short", its all true. I witnessed small and large errors, frauds and the usual defence was 'it wis'nae me, big boy done it and run away'. Actually it was just ignorance, immaturity, arrogance or greed.

In 1987 I wandered down to help out our colleagues in London who had just been merged with County Nat West. While there I heard about a backlog. "40 people working on it", that's why I was helping out on the day to day. I dug a bit deeper and found they'd lost £600m. It took me a month to explain successfully to someone senior how counterparty risk worked and to show how the main bank had transferred this money into the failing firm to prop it up, the money was misplaced at best, but it had left the building. When the Nick Leeson incident occurred later on in the 1990's everyone was aghast. "Hello?" I shouted. The crash around then was blamed on many things but corruption and a lack of control was critically blamed. I blamed self reliance and integrity. If you have a chance to steal you dont steal, that's how I viewed it. That's not how the city viewed it. Big Bang had ushered in a mindset that Thatcher's government had endorsed. If you can take it, take it. Some people to this day view buying a council house at a overly discounted price, theft and view the privatisations during the 1980's as nothing short of bribery. That's not the question here, as I've always tried to say you deal the hand you're dealt, but please play with integrity.

What I loved back then and now is that the only thing that doesn't lie is the numbers only the people arranging them. When I looked for rational conversation in the press I turned to the FT. They could see that the numbers didn't add up sometimes and therefore certain strategic aims must be political as they're not economic. Labour isn't working screamed the poster displaying 1m UB40 holders, Thatcher's neat economic policies got it to 3m within a couple of years the revolution that caused the permanent schism in the UK. The oil revenues were used in a different way in Norway where they underwent their cultural revolution. 

The Nick Leeson case was quite simply a case of Barings being greedy. Every time he declared he'd made more money, but needed to borrow more surely somebody raised an eyebrow. They didn't. The only people who learned were the corporate bankers who would later appear in the film the Big Short. They knew that as long as they kept saying the numbers were good, they were good.

Many people wonder about the expression the "Emperors new clothes" but its frightening to me that such basic education hasn't taken place. The difference between right and wrong. The spotting of what is glaringly incorrect. A guy coming towards you with a knife is not looking to help you cut the butter in your shopping bag.

The banking crisis occupied my head during the camino recently, skip below, my diatribe from Estella - Lizarra.

The Basque railway closed in 1967, butchers everywhere in Europe it seems thought buses were the way forward.

All that's left is the station, which now doubles as a bus station, and the Greenway to Vitoria.

I remember getting politicians in during my Stocktrade days. I encountered 2 in as many days. I asked Alistair Darling to come in and see our operation while he was still in opposition and a few days later I would give Angela Knight's script writers a lambasting at the Mansion house during the inauguration of CREST.

I tried to explain to Mr Darling that we had been christened the Socialist republic of Stocktrade by our sister firms and it was a name we liked in the city. We reduced the cost for employees to sell their shares from over a £100 to £15 and we got them a better price per share. The price like in any market depended on whether you wanted to try to harder. The whole concept of using a stockbroker was exactly that they would earn their money by getting you a price but too many regarded it as a closed shop, control of access to the market. They regarded their tariffs as access controls that prevented (aka protected) the public from sharp practice. It was of course very sharp practice and while the doyen of deregulation is held in high esteem it was also the death knell for many established brokers as the pound shops or execution only brokers entered the fray. 

We wanted to target the workers who had been getting shafted by charlatans ripping them off. We were very lucky that we understood that someone working in a bottling plant would want their shares sold at the best price for the lowest commission. We were lucky because those companies had management who agreed, not all did and many  preserved the status quo.

Working as staff is something we did together, and this is why I wanted to speak to Mr Darling and also Ms Knight.

We thought that workers should own their company and if they couldn't own it all, we wanted to increase their ownership. This wasn't for everyone and certainly not for Mr Darling who was quite candid that version of Marxism wasn't part of new labour citing Maxwell's pension collapse. I argued a modest amount of eggs in basket education shouldn't prevent it. I was a tad disappointed as I never got to explain how SAYE and matching shares diluted companies in favour of their employees, whilst often representing less than 0.1% of the equity. What it did mean however was someone working in a bottling plant would get £12,000 after 5 years saving and if the shares underperformance meant they were valueless then it was effectively just an interest only saving scheme. 

There was a real jarring moment about that meeting especially as we were in a fast growing period that saw our staff rise five fold from 50 to 250 over the subsequent 3 years. It was the only assistance we ever asked for and it was fitting that this party of the people were against it while seemingly proclaiming to be into Thatcher's version of wider share ownership. My interpretation was that they couldn't understand that workers couldn't buy privatisations but they could save £30 a month towards an SAYE. If the government gave that SAYE greater security and privileges there genuinely would've been some wealth trickle down, to this day I feel I let my generation down by not pushing harder for this.

Later that week at the Mansion house in London I attended the inauguration of CREST with industry peers as well as listening to keynote speeches from Eddie George who was excellent and Treasury Minister Angela Knight, whose  script writers were well off message. The UK had far too many bungling mistakes made public by Barings, but far more prevalent than many would believe. If as many kegs went missing as share certificates and dividends breweries would be out of business, and we all know how much some brewery workers drank.

Counterparty Risk was a major headache for financial firms and the industry needed to move to real time settlement. CREST replaced the old system of paper handling through to talisman an electronic system run by the London stock exchange. Stock and cash would move as seamlessly as a bus ticket does now with a tap of a card.

It put London back ahead in the global security industry and was fantastic news for our large financial institutions. Our place in the world markets was assured and whilst initially we would not deal and settle immediately the infrastructure was there to do just that.

What it wasn't good for was the private investor, the very people the scriptwriters concentrated on. I spoke to Ms Knight afterwards and explained her speech was well delivered but her scriptwriters needed sacked. They were miles off the brief. She was somewhat astonished, asked my name and firm. I replied including my offer to discuss broadening SAYE which I said was superb and offered greater opportunity for widening share ownership which I knew was no longer a Marxist theory but a conservative one!

Oh how we laugh as we look back.

The rich most certainly got richer under Tony Blair and the gap between rich and poor grew after the Marxist Major and never looked back.

The film the Big Short for me is the best black comedy of all time and it is 100% in line with my experience. I'd like to have seen a '24 hour' version including Alan Greenspan's exuberance.

If anything I feel the cutting room floor probably had so many stories left untold. Blue Arrow, Barings, Dot Com disasters and all the market 'corrections'.

All the time these people have skimmed 1-5% along the way. We've sat by and let it happen and now the poor have kicked back will we have brexit.

I think not - I still believe we could exchnge our valueless pound, join the Euro in 2022 and get welcomed back with tail between legs. 

Markets have changed a lot since 1967 just like the railways!

Back to Crowdfunding

The model has a long way to run and doubtless many exciting twists and turns along the way, but crowdfunding platform providers have been slowly transforming the capital markets and with it the hand people are dealt. Democracy might be creeping back into the game as more and more individuals tap into this market via ISA or SIPP specific investments. From my experience the crowdfunding model is game changing at a time when the over 55's are sitting with piles of cash while their fund managers are finding it difficult to get returns. With the industry turning their back on seasoned pros like Mr Woodford, what they've done is shoot their own funds in the foot. Why would you trust someone in the city to be better at picking out investments just because its their full time job. The dot com crash in 2000 and then the banking crash in 2008 demonstrated people were paid to perpetuate a myth not protect performance.

The self interest of the city barriers come crashing down slowly, the rise of AJ Bell shows how long it can take but now, the critical path is how quickly it aligns with the baby boomers pension pots, and judging by the AJ Bell flotation last year, that is now. Its been a huge success and Mr Bell will push on now with his model, driven by successful technology and low cost innovation. 2020 will be known for more than just hindsight as the availability of capital becomes the new superhighway. When I first put my SIPP money with AJ Bell I did so because my investments were always going to be fairly small, £10,000-£20,000 max. Being with AJ Bell I wanted access to new issues and over time like HL they are good brokers to go to, where investors meet companies, its called the marketplace.

The money game moves on though and unlike the talk of the train and our northern powerhouse the capital markets are moving fast. Forget HS2, its HSC. High Speed Capital, continues to grow and will be arriving in the markets in size during 2020. Quite simply, the clearer the risk picture, the less compliance constraints there are. That comes from good software design as well as due diligence. The pure beauty of transparency and making sure people are aware how risky an investment might prove, is the less work to protect against that risk. With a Patient Capital investment trust you are advised to be patient but at no stage did they market to the investors Neil Woodford thought he had the Midas touch, they left that to the press. At least with crowdfunding you know the level of risk is higher, but by balancing out the portfolio as well as clearer evaluation of the risks, paradoxically the returns look more secure. The banks are now tied up in knots and their speculative lending has all but dried up. Peer to Peer lenders are rasiing money at an unprecedented rate. Crowdfunding will soon enter board rooms and just be known as a placing via a crowdfunding platform. Energy companies will try to fight with their corporate brokers and registrars over fees but it will be the shareholders and the media who will drive them to the less expensive solutions.

Investors can put the capital back into Capitalism and not see 7% top sliced by corporate brokers, registrars, accountants and industry yellow book enthusiasts who feel rewarded by going through a due diligence that is designed to clog up the arteries of its beating heart. Think Mr Creosote, please. Capitalism is a busted flush for a number of reasons, but first among them is that the money just doesn't flow anymore.

Marketing became the scourge of Capitalism during the 1970's when style won the battle over substance. Most board rooms over the last 50 years became populated with those media savvy types rather than manufacturers. Elegance won over engineering and closing communities in favour of colonial cousins where our wage rules didn't apply.

I've written so many times on bad laws passed, but the minimum wage has seen more jobs exported across the seas than any other piece of legislation. Quite simply anyone closing a factory here to open it overseas should pay their workers the minimum wage or have tariffs put on their products. The crass act of finding a way around a law is like people buying "off-road" vehicles to drive in town so the speed bumps dont impinge their road performance.

I've gone off message again though, so I say this, to the crowffunding generation, welcome to the party. I have Pension and ISA's and I can party. I have the cash to coarse through the creative veins of our country. I can fund the next POSTCARD or DEADBEAT records, I can help fund a venue, like the ODEON in Edinburgh, my friends can support a theatre run, we ccan fund the next vaccine trial, we can build houses for the homeless, brew bottled beers for the bams, build allotments and cafes, solar and wind farms and we can build the new industries. We did it before, that's why we've got so much in our SIPPs. We were doctors, and nurses, teachers, office workers, shop workers, plumbers and programmers, plasterers and professional darts players, hairdressers, oil workers and all of us saved.

Now its our time to spend.

Our cash is coming to a business near you.

Crowdfunding be ready for us, your first £1bn funding is just around the corner, welcome!

E-sports and entertainment

Since we gathered around juke boxes and pinball machines, since players threw darts or dominoes, our species has had a curiosity that watches contests, fair or otherwise, so why the surprise at the huge crowds gathering to watch two people twiddle their thumbs.

What possibly might surprise many is the level of support the professionals in the E-sports have. These gamers, like chess players have nutritionists, physical trainers and mental coaches.

These players need to be as fit as formula one drivers to cope under the pressure of the lights, the crowd and their opponents.

I remember playing space invaders in the Students Union and the only crowd that gathered was tuite simply because they knew the wouldn't have to wait long to get on, as they knew how quickly I'd be losing. Not so some of the other players. You'd marvel at how some of the experts could make 10p last 2 hours as they sought a new all time high score. So much so they'd draw a crowd with comments like 'great shot'. 

As we all know with all technology, its also apparent in the way our language even evolved. Expressions that have long since become extinct suddenly appeared commonplace. Its been so long I've forgotten them but I do remember being stoned one night and wondering why these space ships had names. Why did we talk PACMAN'ese. Every munchie expression bringing a giggle or two.

So why did we not bring E-sports into the colosseum ?

Why did it take so long for Scrabble to become a spectator sport when Bridge, Chess and Bowls clearly were?

We'll never know but we are sold what we buy and whether we want or need it, we often just buy it, so when E-sports arrives and does so as a respond to demand, it just shows that its not about the marketing but actually because people do want it.

Sport used to be about keeping healthy to live longer without needing a doctor, its maybe about time we recognised that most people take the car to the gym, or sports club. The idea of walking or jogging to the gym, clearly defeats the purpose.

Liverpool v Man City fans trivia question

As the General election brings our dis-United Kingdom into focus today's match at Anfield offers us a glimpse into the world of the wage gap from rich to poor. #hungerdoesntwearteamcolours

The 22 players on the pitch will be watched by 50,000 fans. There'll be a few thousand corporate boxes so we'll ignore them.

There are 2 simple trivia questions

Who earns more, the 22 players or the 50,000 fans watching them?

The second question is who pays more taxes?

The nurses, sparks, zero hour workers, plumbers, doctors, teachers, police, ambulance drivers, taxi drivers etc or the 22 who run, kick, and header a ball. Its a tough question and one that every primary 2 teacher should take to their class on Monday morning.

Ok its no great surprise is it, the more you earn the better you can pay accountants to hide your earnings, so the 2nd question is a no brainer, but the first is extremely tight.

If you throw in the squad players you'll probably weigh the scales one way, likewise if you add in the winners bonuses. Note the winners get a bonus, that's like if you flip veggie burgers on a zero hour contract you get paid for turning up and then an additional amount if you actually flip a burger. That would be a much better deal! I can just imagine Harry in my local, your agent's just got you a new contract, that's minimum wage for opening the bar and standing there, you also get a winners bonus every time you serve a pint.

During the minutes silence we'll be ask to remember the dead from conflicts and if you take all the dead from WWI & WWII and you take their wages and in death pensions, you'll still not get to the figure that will be paid to the players this afternoon.

So does that mean the players are overpaid or are the fans just underpaid?

That's why we have general elections I guess.

Oh and when we leave the European Union and the limited protection the employment laws give those workers, it may get a wee tad worse.

The American style labour laws are designed to make the richer richer. Like the Uber rich need more money, or have the nous how to spend it or give it away. What saddens me is there seems such an appetite to encourage more food banks as if that's the way forward. I can see football grounds in 2 years times being the biggest food banks in the country, as if that's a solution!

It'll be the most ironic statement our society could make. 50,000 fans leaving the ground with tins of beans, tuna and other assorted goodies, gifted by some embarrassed player who got subbed in the first half and had a dressing room fine to pay of buying 50,000 tins of tuna.

I had a simple dream as a child, to pay £1million in tax. We have a duty to pay taxes to help develop our society and we have elections to make sure the tax is spent correctly and not on tax cuts for the wealthiest. If the money is earned on the fields of stanley park, it should be collected there.

Scotland will probably vote to leave the UK, England will probably vote to make the rich richer. Wales and Northern Ireland will do their own thing.

I ask only one thing?

Should 22 football players earn more than 50,000 fans?


"Should 22" is released by Deadbeat music in 2020, published by hindsight.

Deadbeat #10

It was the Higsons cover which got Deadbeat sold in Norwich - was it Backs records?

Tapes