So the story rolls on and it seems we are not going to have posters all over town, we wont be inundated with Dubrovnik style crowds, and key workers will be able to get to their work this August.
Deadbeat first started commenting on the festival nearly 40 years ago and back then it was so exciting. We were all loving the pop up atmosphere and it seemed we were an oasis in the meltdown of Thatcher's experimental economy, or how to treble unemployment in as many years nightmare. Yes from 1979 to 1982 we managed to go from 1m to 3m unemployed, "just like that", as Tommy Cooper said.
Its so ironic with the mad doctor Johnson experiment, that we are now paying people to be unemployed rather than let the free market dictate, how the Tories have changed in 40 years. They now believe that keeping people employed and paying taxes is preferable to putting them out of work, yes, I read that three or four times.
So what absolutely confuses me is over the years as the maxim you cant have enough of a good thing proves our infrastructure cant cope with the various festivals and fringe we hear the expression about bail outs.
Never have any of these voices ever assisted the performers, or considered the employees or the city in the past. Its a bit glib but the anti social behaviour associated with August, which Edinburgh citizens pick up the tab for, which starts with the odd discarded flyer wafting in the meadows air and the concludes with an environmental disgrace as the full carbon emissions are quietly ignored.
I met the Director /Producer of a Canadian show last year where she was the only person associated with the show who came over to Edinburgh. The 'virtual show' was a '2020 hindsight' precursor to this year's festival and the more I think about it the more I love it. It was highlighting CO2 emissions and therefore used people who were already in Edinburgh to read and ad lib from various media. The content of the show changed every night with the performers and conceptually was very clever, if not always hitting the mark the Company had aimed for. I think it would've been much better this year for the 2019 experience.
Which leads me back to my experience of the Fringe in particular and where a lot of it goes wrong. Whether its the 80's, 90's or early 2000's prices just seem to defy the inflationary model and the costs for performers went through the roof, the ticket buyers paying £5 seemed a milestone, then suddenly in the blink of an eye it went to £10, then more recently £20+ from this buyer's seat seemed a bit bizarre.
If you view a basket of goods like price of a bottle of Guinness in 1980 38p, price for a draught pint now £3.50- £4.00. I drank on the Southside, same pubs, different owners, but 10 times the price.
We've all noticed that entertainment prices have rocketed. IF you want to see your mates bands with a disco, expect to pay £10, back in the day it might have been £3 to see the Undertones, but you'll get change off £30 if you want to see them now, so less than 10 times!
So why when we used to go to Potterrow for a drink in the Fringe bar in 2019 do we find the prices 20 times.
Why do all the pop ups charge so much, is it because their pitch costs that much?
How much has a cinema ticket gone up by, how much has a season ticket at Easter Road or Tynecastle gone up by?
There are a lot of questions to be asked and 2020 offers us the chance to do exactly that.
The point of the festival used to be to give performers a stage, writers and production crew experience and visitors an opportunity to support their efforts and perhaps to see some original and exciting new material, performances, hear phrases that would resonate for years to come.
"....If you can say, clearly enough to make it pay......", 40 years on now sounds quite prophetic, although I'm sure this wasn't the first time these words had been uttered....
So when we look at how the Festivals have evolved we realise that we bring in a lot of money into the city and it leaves immediately. We bring rigs and gear from across the country as just like PPE, you'll pay 4 times the normal cost for a microphone stand in Edinburgh during August, never mind the cost of water, beer, gin and a cup of herbal tea.
If shortages such as that exist within what should be a first world economy, then clearly we are operating like a third world one.
We bring specialist labour in too, to build the pop ups and provide the lighting rigs and anyone involved in staging will be able to provide another 20 pages of stuff.
What really frustrated me last year was I'd been on a premises fire inspection the day before I saw a show in the Pleasance. I couldn't understand why health and safety seemed to go out the window for the month of August. It could be that many of the rules dont apply to pop ups and only to permanent structures, but the wee nooks and crannies of the best venues are really dangerous. I'm not suggesting to any wannabee firestarter that they should go and get their career off to a roaring start but flyers with old wooden floors work well on November 5th!
I've gone off piste as usual but what we need to do is strike the balance like Dubrovnik. We dont want to kill the golden goose and this year allows us to build an infrastructure that works. Pop ups that are extensions of what we do well are superb, those that are maximising revenue dont belong and those that are dangerous, ie queuing on a main road......
Thankfully the staff at the A & E will tell you the festival brings a better class of drunken injury but its a hot spot for these frontline workers who have had it hard for a long time, please listen to them when they advise how events should be run.
My interest in this is that we arrive at a better solution and not that we talk about businesses that are under pressure owing to the collapse of the "FREE MONEY" that has poured into Edinburgh for so long. Those of us who have a day out usually come back £200 poorer for it but having had a great time. I think its right the taxi drivers get a wee boost but what's the point as its a marketing coup for private hire, while the uber-parent snatches 25% off the top pays no tax and sneaks it out of the country never mind Edinburgh.
Lots of people fund shows with the crowdfunding, ticket buying and large donations. THey'd be disgusted to know that most of the money goes on accomodation and over priced venue hire. Especially when you have to hire the venue's equipment and staff as an additional extra.
I must complete this
Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Friday, 22 May 2020
lockdown #88
I've been watching so much retro TV I was starting to wonder if Deadbeat was written in the 80's.
Aids has been completely written out of the folklore and its really fucked me off.
I just dont understand how such an earth shattering pandemic can be conveniently written out of the popular history books.
Ok, I get that it wasn't popular in a happy way, but it was moving up the charts in the national statistics reasons for death.
It was popular in the number of cases being presented to our NHS staff who were powerless to deal with the pandemic as there was no hint of a lockdown or care for those exposed back then.
I remember signing off "Take Care Vinny", as I finished writing my usual shite.....
Out of the blue, I'm watching BBC4 and a programme starting about 1986 comes on and hello, it suddenly reminds me it did happen. Its mostly the rave scene but it does strike a chord.
Marches about clause 28, and everything I remember about the 80's seems to have happened, even if the results were more short lived than we felt they were.
Frankie did go to Hollywood, the Tube was an entertaining groundbreaking show or at least I think they did as the show seems to have moved onto the 90's and take that.
The presenter looks like they're 45, so I'm a few years adrift, our overlap was 15 minutes ago, but its Prodigy 1993, they're all giving it licks......and the strobe is setting off a migraine, ha ha!
Aids has been completely written out of the folklore and its really fucked me off.
I just dont understand how such an earth shattering pandemic can be conveniently written out of the popular history books.
Ok, I get that it wasn't popular in a happy way, but it was moving up the charts in the national statistics reasons for death.
It was popular in the number of cases being presented to our NHS staff who were powerless to deal with the pandemic as there was no hint of a lockdown or care for those exposed back then.
I remember signing off "Take Care Vinny", as I finished writing my usual shite.....
Out of the blue, I'm watching BBC4 and a programme starting about 1986 comes on and hello, it suddenly reminds me it did happen. Its mostly the rave scene but it does strike a chord.
Marches about clause 28, and everything I remember about the 80's seems to have happened, even if the results were more short lived than we felt they were.
Frankie did go to Hollywood, the Tube was an entertaining groundbreaking show or at least I think they did as the show seems to have moved onto the 90's and take that.
The presenter looks like they're 45, so I'm a few years adrift, our overlap was 15 minutes ago, but its Prodigy 1993, they're all giving it licks......and the strobe is setting off a migraine, ha ha!
Wednesday, 20 May 2020
Care home cull enquiry
Its over a month ago I first mentioned the care home cull and while its good that its now being picked up and the blame is being thrown around, let's just stop and concentrate on the virus first.
The problem lies with care being a business. These are quite simply incompatible if businesses are allowed to fold when they cant meet the care standards. They shouldn't be allowed to open if they dont have deep enough pockets to get into the game.
The care game is like insurance. There is unlikely to be a pandemic more than every X years, but when there is one all the profits from years gone, by need to go against the huge losses faced this year.
I dont think that will happen, they'll just close down, cut therir losses and move their debt mountain/capital on to a shell company of their choosing.
Legally when the enquiry happens in 2021 lots of time will be spent chasing this money, the investors and yet those who profited during the good years have already banked and spent that money, the cash reserves are no longer within many of these organisations which is why they will fail.
I think we need to look at it differently.
We should start not at the care homes where the deaths occurred but at the care homes where they were prepared.
Instead of giving care homes 5 stars, we should ask them why they were prepared.
We should ask if they started buying PPE when news of the pandemic broke in China or if they routinely carry large quantities of stock.
We should ask what measures they had in place for their staff and was it those measures that ensured they kept their staff and residents safe.
We should ask when did they go into lockdown, was it before France and Spain or if they waited along with the government. The care industry had no reason to wait as I see it, so telling visitors it was for the safety of all residents was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
We should ask all the questions we like, but then we should ask them what we should be asking of government, of other care home providers and how the sector should be governed. This government (UK or Scotland) believes in self government and whether its breaking from Brussels or London, the best care homes should be telling us how the care industry should be run, not politicians who have no chance of understanding such complicated issues without any idea of the technical and logistical constraints.
That's what I hope for in 2021, but the best care homes will probably just want to get on with being the best and that means looking after their staff and caring for their residents.
The problem lies with care being a business. These are quite simply incompatible if businesses are allowed to fold when they cant meet the care standards. They shouldn't be allowed to open if they dont have deep enough pockets to get into the game.
The care game is like insurance. There is unlikely to be a pandemic more than every X years, but when there is one all the profits from years gone, by need to go against the huge losses faced this year.
I dont think that will happen, they'll just close down, cut therir losses and move their debt mountain/capital on to a shell company of their choosing.
Legally when the enquiry happens in 2021 lots of time will be spent chasing this money, the investors and yet those who profited during the good years have already banked and spent that money, the cash reserves are no longer within many of these organisations which is why they will fail.
I think we need to look at it differently.
We should start not at the care homes where the deaths occurred but at the care homes where they were prepared.
Instead of giving care homes 5 stars, we should ask them why they were prepared.
We should ask if they started buying PPE when news of the pandemic broke in China or if they routinely carry large quantities of stock.
We should ask what measures they had in place for their staff and was it those measures that ensured they kept their staff and residents safe.
We should ask when did they go into lockdown, was it before France and Spain or if they waited along with the government. The care industry had no reason to wait as I see it, so telling visitors it was for the safety of all residents was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
We should ask all the questions we like, but then we should ask them what we should be asking of government, of other care home providers and how the sector should be governed. This government (UK or Scotland) believes in self government and whether its breaking from Brussels or London, the best care homes should be telling us how the care industry should be run, not politicians who have no chance of understanding such complicated issues without any idea of the technical and logistical constraints.
That's what I hope for in 2021, but the best care homes will probably just want to get on with being the best and that means looking after their staff and caring for their residents.
Wednesday, 13 May 2020
care home cull part 3
I was gutted to see my concerns from 3 weeks ago starting to come to fruition as care homes close and staff and remaining residents get bumped as occupancy plummets.
I fear this sector will continue to get little support as the government looks at them as key workers not needing financial supports, despite the fact most of them are paying through the nose for PPE as they try their best to look after their staff and residents.
The residents have a broad mix of reasons for going into care, like the staff the residents shouldn't be abandoned.
Quite simply its just not fair and any pressure we can bring to help the sector, whether its offering help at your local care home or hitting your local politicians we should try.
I thought by Christmas the sector would be decimated and I'm now thinking this is going to happen so much quicker.
I fear this sector will continue to get little support as the government looks at them as key workers not needing financial supports, despite the fact most of them are paying through the nose for PPE as they try their best to look after their staff and residents.
The residents have a broad mix of reasons for going into care, like the staff the residents shouldn't be abandoned.
Quite simply its just not fair and any pressure we can bring to help the sector, whether its offering help at your local care home or hitting your local politicians we should try.
I thought by Christmas the sector would be decimated and I'm now thinking this is going to happen so much quicker.
Wednesday, 6 May 2020
Paris 1981 - The Beat, The Selector & The Clash
I was reminded recently of this gig which my mate Alan never likes to remember, he left, just after "Washington Bullets", and as some of you know, that was about the 4th song.
I was mad for the gig but had no idea how to get tickets.
I'd bored Reidy most of the day we arrived in the city and he kept saying "its a sell out, forget it".
We had a good day, up to Montmartre, then down along the ChampsElysees and up the Eiffel Tour, making a Fat Al stop on the way for a bag of fun sized Mars Bars.
As luck would have it, as we scaled the heights, then sat surveying the skyline, a guy looked over enviously at me munching my 4th mars bar. I threw one over and we got chatting.
He was English, London, good guy, I gave him another mars bar and asked if he'd heard of the Clash.
He said he was the tour manager.
I laughed.
He said he was.
I said I'd tried to buy tickets.
He said "I'll get you backstage passes."
I said "Ya Beauty! thank you!"
He said "write your names down"
I said "there you go"
What an encounter, I was to be honest sceptical, but I really liked the guy and if it was a wind up so be it, a couple of fun sized mars bars and a lovely thought for a few hours.
We turned up 4 hours later and said "oui, liste de guest"
I stil dont know what guest list is in french but we gave our names and they were there.
"Merci", and 2 backstage passes were handed to us.
I was blagged into oblivion. What the fuck. We've got into a gig nobody can get tickets for fuck fuck fuck what is going on......selector, Pauline Black ya dancer, how good is she, on ma radio, then the Beat mirror in the bathroom, rankin, oh how good is this.....then the Clash.....
I'm just heading off, not a big fan of the Clash....says Reidy......ya what!!!!!!!!!!!
As I got older I realised he was more EWF, yes Earth Wind and Fire, the band, not the game....
I danced for joy, shouted till i was hoarse and then went back stage and ate like a wee fat boy, well I'd finished the mars bars 4 hours earlier.....
I went back stage, and I said "hmmm, yeah, sorry my mate had to go home he felt ill....thanks again brilliant tickets, great gig and the buffet's no bad!
There's 4 members of the Clash, our man with the Mars Bar, another guy, 2 girls, me & platters of food. These guys dont look like they've eaten in weeks and I'm thinking another day's Bobby Sands' wont do them no trouble....
I'm Fat Al please enjoy the Buffet!
I was mad for the gig but had no idea how to get tickets.
I'd bored Reidy most of the day we arrived in the city and he kept saying "its a sell out, forget it".
We had a good day, up to Montmartre, then down along the ChampsElysees and up the Eiffel Tour, making a Fat Al stop on the way for a bag of fun sized Mars Bars.
As luck would have it, as we scaled the heights, then sat surveying the skyline, a guy looked over enviously at me munching my 4th mars bar. I threw one over and we got chatting.
He was English, London, good guy, I gave him another mars bar and asked if he'd heard of the Clash.
He said he was the tour manager.
I laughed.
He said he was.
I said I'd tried to buy tickets.
He said "I'll get you backstage passes."
I said "Ya Beauty! thank you!"
He said "write your names down"
I said "there you go"
What an encounter, I was to be honest sceptical, but I really liked the guy and if it was a wind up so be it, a couple of fun sized mars bars and a lovely thought for a few hours.
We turned up 4 hours later and said "oui, liste de guest"
I stil dont know what guest list is in french but we gave our names and they were there.
"Merci", and 2 backstage passes were handed to us.
I was blagged into oblivion. What the fuck. We've got into a gig nobody can get tickets for fuck fuck fuck what is going on......selector, Pauline Black ya dancer, how good is she, on ma radio, then the Beat mirror in the bathroom, rankin, oh how good is this.....then the Clash.....
I'm just heading off, not a big fan of the Clash....says Reidy......ya what!!!!!!!!!!!
As I got older I realised he was more EWF, yes Earth Wind and Fire, the band, not the game....
I danced for joy, shouted till i was hoarse and then went back stage and ate like a wee fat boy, well I'd finished the mars bars 4 hours earlier.....
I went back stage, and I said "hmmm, yeah, sorry my mate had to go home he felt ill....thanks again brilliant tickets, great gig and the buffet's no bad!
There's 4 members of the Clash, our man with the Mars Bar, another guy, 2 girls, me & platters of food. These guys dont look like they've eaten in weeks and I'm thinking another day's Bobby Sands' wont do them no trouble....
I'm Fat Al please enjoy the Buffet!
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
Deadbeat #25 - Pop Wallpaper & the hot May of 1984
As we head into May 36 years ago I'm reminded of one of my best fuck ups as I apologised for an entry in Deadbeat #24 commenting on the release of "Love" by Alone Again Or, the band got in touch to saw "naw", I re-read the press release and announced the band Love have got a single out on WEA called "Alone Again Or".
Good name for a band, I thought....as I reminded our readers to never believe what they see in the media....oh and their demo
Hilary interviewed Swansway & Gene Loves Jezebel in Dundee, Guy Dadge talked about Random Rhythms Music Workshop in Stirling while Jill & Rose gave us their guide to good living in Glasgow and Keith interviewed Fiction Factory.
Yes, #25 felt like heaven.....with our 2nd anniversary approaching a 24 page issue.In our first anniversary issue, #17, we'd put out a flexi single with Pop Wallpaper/Wild Indians.
Yes, its time to put a real Deadbeat single out.
Every day that went by we made it up, blagged records, into shows, interviews, asked bands to send us demo.
Who the fuck did we think we were trying to press a record.
It was that 'ready fire aim' mentality.
The counter-culture to 'you need to aim high'. Naw, you just need to set it on fire!
If only we'd bumped into fast forward....
Jock Edwards gave us an update on the 10th Meadows Festival in Edinburgh, a fascinating insight into how easy it was to select bands to play and hats off to Wilf for donation of the sound.
The polis, wanted the bands not to have much of a following, so there wouldn't be a big crowd.
Brilliant, Edinburgh, 1984, that's all but guaranteed I laughed.
The early 80's were a tough period. The 1983 election polarised our music scene into stadium bands and those who just wanted to enjoy it. Some had turned rebellion into money but as you read the interviews the joke about artistic control comes through strongly. Success wasn't to be measured at any price. Some with deals quietly rolled a big fat one and slept through 1984.
For me the buzz, was simply living, writing, gigging. Underground for many was happy to philosophically, be underground.
The release of the 2nd Deadbeat Tape was heralded with a random set of bands from around the country. You wouldn't hear them on the radio and listening now, proves that music was alive and well. Aberdeen's Alone again Or didn't quite make the cut but along with Glasgow's Wee Cherubs they made the cut for Scottish Korner. As with other tapes I'd send them on to some of the A & R guys in London while theyd send me copies of the music they wanted to sell. Ha Ha, the music industry's maestro had won the election, and it was time for extravagance, nous demandons la Roi de soleil!
I think Scottish music at the time was more Montmartre than Versailles, the penny drops as the mushroom rises!
I'm looking forward to asking that question as we approach all the interviewees 36 years on for a 2020 perspective!
For a full copy click on the page #25
care home cull part 2
I'm really worried about the decimation of the care home sector. First we put them to the back of the queue for PPE and testing, then we talk up the planned end of lockdown.
For many in the care sector this means the exposure just rises and their lives are threatened.
Lets be absolutely clear, any end to lockdown is the precursor to the next lockdown.
Compared to the HIV/Aids Pandemic when the public were steered by the media into the global health pandemic being a gay plague and a cull on junkies, what will the press story be this time.
What disgusting message is going to be contrived to explain why 100,000 vulnerable people could not be cared for. They are hiding behind the fact that if we dont test care home vistims then the death certificate wont say Covid-19 was a factor. Hello! The normal number of deaths in care homes during April, May, June & July will be higher. Whether it says Covid-19 on the death certifcate or not. If GPs are doing these remotely, of course they cant mention Covid-19, but it doesn't matter, the care home resident, is dead.
I'm absolutely convinced by the end of this year that will be the magnitude, and I wont be surprised to see the figure much higher. The UK simply hasn't got the testing and tracing infrastructure in place and seem in no hurry to do so, foolishly thinking that its a cute way to doctor the stats or more cynically they're quite happy with the £billions they will save.
I look at Slovakia and what they did to protect their citizens. They acted early and reacted well to the evidence. Tracing is essential and we know we can do it but unlike Germany we seemed to have dismantled a lot of our infrastructure but more importantly dont seem that keen to get it started again.
Freedom of movement means the virus is free to move. We dont know if 6% of the population have had exposure to it or if the UK lockdown arriving later increased that figure, what we do know is you cant control this virus easily and I wont feel confident until 60% have been exposed to it.
I hope I'm proved wrong and that the virus just vanishes but I just cant see it.
The lead time between being infectious and showing symptoms is what alarms me. The lack of social distancing being demonstrated while under lockdown makes me extremely nervous as we prepare to exit it.
There are statisticians who analyse data for a living and many of them have access to the real data. What we need is the politicians to accept the statistics and be clear what conclusions they seek, not try to spin the results.
Death is inevitable and flattening the curve has been about reducing the level of death by ensuring that when people get the virus and need hospital treatment, the hospitals are indeed open and not overrun.
A good outcome of 20,000 deaths was described and most of the public are still unsure whether we need to get this virus and move on or hide until a vaccine is available.
Dementia is recognised as a leading cause of death in the UK and 'tick tock' I'm just waiting until the headline reads in 2021 that 2020 deaths from Dementia were up 400% due to our ageing population and the impact of the pandemic, not the honest response of our complete failure to protect them.
There were 120,000 people died between April - June 2019, 118848 the national office for statistics tells us. I dont know what the figure will be this year but my pin goes into the graph at 200,000+, if it shows 300,000 then we have a fair idea what kind of impact Covid-19 will have had.
There are many people nationwide making very good positive choices to help curb this virus so hopefully its less than 200,000. Additionally the daily updates from the politicians and public servants seem to fall into good stuff or pish. The ones still watching their report card instead of taking positive action to contain this virus will doubtless be judged by history....unlike those who advocated drinking dettol...keep safe, socialise in safe hammocks or pods, if you dont live in a field, stay a safe distance and keep washing those hands.
For many in the care sector this means the exposure just rises and their lives are threatened.
Lets be absolutely clear, any end to lockdown is the precursor to the next lockdown.
Compared to the HIV/Aids Pandemic when the public were steered by the media into the global health pandemic being a gay plague and a cull on junkies, what will the press story be this time.
What disgusting message is going to be contrived to explain why 100,000 vulnerable people could not be cared for. They are hiding behind the fact that if we dont test care home vistims then the death certificate wont say Covid-19 was a factor. Hello! The normal number of deaths in care homes during April, May, June & July will be higher. Whether it says Covid-19 on the death certifcate or not. If GPs are doing these remotely, of course they cant mention Covid-19, but it doesn't matter, the care home resident, is dead.
I'm absolutely convinced by the end of this year that will be the magnitude, and I wont be surprised to see the figure much higher. The UK simply hasn't got the testing and tracing infrastructure in place and seem in no hurry to do so, foolishly thinking that its a cute way to doctor the stats or more cynically they're quite happy with the £billions they will save.
I look at Slovakia and what they did to protect their citizens. They acted early and reacted well to the evidence. Tracing is essential and we know we can do it but unlike Germany we seemed to have dismantled a lot of our infrastructure but more importantly dont seem that keen to get it started again.
Freedom of movement means the virus is free to move. We dont know if 6% of the population have had exposure to it or if the UK lockdown arriving later increased that figure, what we do know is you cant control this virus easily and I wont feel confident until 60% have been exposed to it.
I hope I'm proved wrong and that the virus just vanishes but I just cant see it.
The lead time between being infectious and showing symptoms is what alarms me. The lack of social distancing being demonstrated while under lockdown makes me extremely nervous as we prepare to exit it.
There are statisticians who analyse data for a living and many of them have access to the real data. What we need is the politicians to accept the statistics and be clear what conclusions they seek, not try to spin the results.
Death is inevitable and flattening the curve has been about reducing the level of death by ensuring that when people get the virus and need hospital treatment, the hospitals are indeed open and not overrun.
A good outcome of 20,000 deaths was described and most of the public are still unsure whether we need to get this virus and move on or hide until a vaccine is available.
Dementia is recognised as a leading cause of death in the UK and 'tick tock' I'm just waiting until the headline reads in 2021 that 2020 deaths from Dementia were up 400% due to our ageing population and the impact of the pandemic, not the honest response of our complete failure to protect them.
There were 120,000 people died between April - June 2019, 118848 the national office for statistics tells us. I dont know what the figure will be this year but my pin goes into the graph at 200,000+, if it shows 300,000 then we have a fair idea what kind of impact Covid-19 will have had.
There are many people nationwide making very good positive choices to help curb this virus so hopefully its less than 200,000. Additionally the daily updates from the politicians and public servants seem to fall into good stuff or pish. The ones still watching their report card instead of taking positive action to contain this virus will doubtless be judged by history....unlike those who advocated drinking dettol...keep safe, socialise in safe hammocks or pods, if you dont live in a field, stay a safe distance and keep washing those hands.
Thursday, 30 April 2020
lockdown #57
Yes, its time for the BEANS!
#57 is all about when society realises that funny is more important than money.
As the Clash famously sang.......rebellion....money....
Being in lockdown, we've all had the chance to look in the mirror, not in a 1982, Dollar, Mirror Mirror way, but in a '....my budget is 50% alcohol and 50% food....' way.
So how will Covid-19 affect the economy. There's all this debt mountain doom but in every crisis there's winners and losers.
Pubs are going to be hit harder than ever and the economic meltdown that ensues will be where fixed costs are high, inevitably the high street. If your fixed cost based is largely property, its a sore one.
Online retailers have been inching towards success but Covid-19 has been the virus to end all computer viruses as online shopping takes a quantum leap. Online retailers are huge winners. The over 40's have learnt just how much can be bought online.
I'll write up somewhere else the terror of the 2nd peak after the first lockdown loosens its grip, but this will become the scariest time for care health workers as the great unwashed (us) start to socialise and spread the virus. June and July will take the current care home cull to new and terrifying levels, but this is an economic post, although I am going on for longer than usual.
Care homes, like other building centric businesses, eg hotels, I view as infrastructure businesses. Golf Clubs have buildings that they could easily sell and fund their golf courses, if members were happy to operate out of the boot of their car, but club members largely choose not do to so. They aspire to have changing facilities, bars and restaurants. What Golf Clubs know is that there is a lot of infrastructure costs associated with buildings. In this crisis its quite ironic that the costs, of running a loss making building, decline, so it actually makes the golf club more profitable that it doesn't have to staff the building. The variable costs (staff & stock) are rarely covered by the variable income (sales). There may still be costs associated with insurance, utilities but there's no cleaning, no bar staff and no phones needing answered. For a Golf Club, compared to a Waterstones or a Wetherspoons, therefore closing the doors is a good thing. This is because the club own the clubhouse and in the high street retail world properties are often rented, leased or have mortgages. If they are owned then there must be a suitable return on capital to cover the mortgage or the business would just sell the property.
The banks in the UK, from 1987 onwards, decided that they could get huge prices for asset stripping, so they closed branches and sold the properties to pub groups like Wetherspoons, amongst others to make a turn from them by running them as pubs.
Pub groups rely on turnover to generate the profit to pay the mortgage. Ha Ha, I hear you laugh, some names we'll be glad to see leave our High Streets, but sadly they wont be alone. Volume businesses like Greggs should be fine because their floorspace generates much more revenue than say a Waterstones or WH Smiths. Good news for the independent book sellers whose passion so often goes unrewarded. They will prosper in the post lockdown world, if they can get through the hard months ahead.
Shop fitters will be in decline as I just cant see who will fill the retail space, except tesco metro and other pop up supermarket stores who can max out the low rents that'll have to be offered. All of this leads me full circle to what I wanted to discuss, REITs.
Real Estate Investment Trusts have been a great funding vehicle for capital projects, unfortunately though there will be a lot of bad investments about as smart REITs "sell on" big shopping complexes at what appears to be a huge discount. They'll be largely given away, or at least that's what the buying REITs will feel. These parcels though will be potentially toxic so REIT buyers beware.
I'm looking at Care Homes too. An independent care home owner told me recently how they had managed to keep occupancy at 93% and as such had paid off the building costs in a little over 9 years. A truly rags to riches story of taking a £1m mortgage and then selling the business debt free 10 years on for £2m.
Now take the current owner, who has just seen occupancy fall to 75% and is still trying to service the £2m debt they took on for buying it. The Care Home cull I described 2 weeks ago is going to massively affect them. Occupancy rates could fall to 20% if Covid-19 wreaks havoc on the home. That effectively puts the new owner into administration because all care homes are likely to have low occupancy and new residents will be at a trickle.
The care home sector is therefore doubly battered. First they have to cope with the trauma of the virus and then many of the staff will fall victim to redundancy.
I'm really angry that this stuff is just not getting exposure as smarter people could start working on a transformation.
There needs to be a lot of help put into the care sector, I'm not suggesting it needs nationalised but we do need a national plan. Care should not be left to financial markets to decide the future of its industry.
Airlines are clearly starting to act because they know that the mortgage on their planes is huge.
Back to these big asset companies my next tip for tough times is copy shops.
Photocopy shops survive on copying. If they dont then the copier leases cant be paid. If you want posters made up for a party, a gig, you use them. If there's no public gatherings, demand for these one off ventures dries up. In Edinburgh if there's no Edinburgh festival, no flyers, ouch!
This leads nicely to the impact on the economy by region. Hotels, Air BnB throughout the and have been hammered, Edinburgh hotels in particular are going to see occupancy plummet as the cancellation of the festival rps through the city. Some of these seasonal jobs are taken by the visitors to the city so the citizens of Edinburgh may not feel it as much, but those kids who move home to rent their flat, or those businesses who rely on exhorbitant August rentals to cover the mortgage for the rest of the year will find their business model under pressure.
This all leads me back to what industries will win. Drugs will win. Drugs are a safe home when there is carnage all about. Drug companies are dipping their toe into the online home delivery. These are regular sales so breaking into this space will see pharmacists doing very well. Like opticians with the online delivery of lenses, if the over 60's start to receive all their medication to their door, they will be very loyal customers for years.
Consumable products and the grey pound make for a very good business case. Remember its not just the odd aspirin, nowadays we have drugs for many an ailment.
To be continued
#57 is all about when society realises that funny is more important than money.
As the Clash famously sang.......rebellion....money....
Being in lockdown, we've all had the chance to look in the mirror, not in a 1982, Dollar, Mirror Mirror way, but in a '....my budget is 50% alcohol and 50% food....' way.
So how will Covid-19 affect the economy. There's all this debt mountain doom but in every crisis there's winners and losers.
Pubs are going to be hit harder than ever and the economic meltdown that ensues will be where fixed costs are high, inevitably the high street. If your fixed cost based is largely property, its a sore one.
Online retailers have been inching towards success but Covid-19 has been the virus to end all computer viruses as online shopping takes a quantum leap. Online retailers are huge winners. The over 40's have learnt just how much can be bought online.
I'll write up somewhere else the terror of the 2nd peak after the first lockdown loosens its grip, but this will become the scariest time for care health workers as the great unwashed (us) start to socialise and spread the virus. June and July will take the current care home cull to new and terrifying levels, but this is an economic post, although I am going on for longer than usual.
Care homes, like other building centric businesses, eg hotels, I view as infrastructure businesses. Golf Clubs have buildings that they could easily sell and fund their golf courses, if members were happy to operate out of the boot of their car, but club members largely choose not do to so. They aspire to have changing facilities, bars and restaurants. What Golf Clubs know is that there is a lot of infrastructure costs associated with buildings. In this crisis its quite ironic that the costs, of running a loss making building, decline, so it actually makes the golf club more profitable that it doesn't have to staff the building. The variable costs (staff & stock) are rarely covered by the variable income (sales). There may still be costs associated with insurance, utilities but there's no cleaning, no bar staff and no phones needing answered. For a Golf Club, compared to a Waterstones or a Wetherspoons, therefore closing the doors is a good thing. This is because the club own the clubhouse and in the high street retail world properties are often rented, leased or have mortgages. If they are owned then there must be a suitable return on capital to cover the mortgage or the business would just sell the property.
The banks in the UK, from 1987 onwards, decided that they could get huge prices for asset stripping, so they closed branches and sold the properties to pub groups like Wetherspoons, amongst others to make a turn from them by running them as pubs.
Pub groups rely on turnover to generate the profit to pay the mortgage. Ha Ha, I hear you laugh, some names we'll be glad to see leave our High Streets, but sadly they wont be alone. Volume businesses like Greggs should be fine because their floorspace generates much more revenue than say a Waterstones or WH Smiths. Good news for the independent book sellers whose passion so often goes unrewarded. They will prosper in the post lockdown world, if they can get through the hard months ahead.
Shop fitters will be in decline as I just cant see who will fill the retail space, except tesco metro and other pop up supermarket stores who can max out the low rents that'll have to be offered. All of this leads me full circle to what I wanted to discuss, REITs.
Real Estate Investment Trusts have been a great funding vehicle for capital projects, unfortunately though there will be a lot of bad investments about as smart REITs "sell on" big shopping complexes at what appears to be a huge discount. They'll be largely given away, or at least that's what the buying REITs will feel. These parcels though will be potentially toxic so REIT buyers beware.
I'm looking at Care Homes too. An independent care home owner told me recently how they had managed to keep occupancy at 93% and as such had paid off the building costs in a little over 9 years. A truly rags to riches story of taking a £1m mortgage and then selling the business debt free 10 years on for £2m.
Now take the current owner, who has just seen occupancy fall to 75% and is still trying to service the £2m debt they took on for buying it. The Care Home cull I described 2 weeks ago is going to massively affect them. Occupancy rates could fall to 20% if Covid-19 wreaks havoc on the home. That effectively puts the new owner into administration because all care homes are likely to have low occupancy and new residents will be at a trickle.
The care home sector is therefore doubly battered. First they have to cope with the trauma of the virus and then many of the staff will fall victim to redundancy.
I'm really angry that this stuff is just not getting exposure as smarter people could start working on a transformation.
There needs to be a lot of help put into the care sector, I'm not suggesting it needs nationalised but we do need a national plan. Care should not be left to financial markets to decide the future of its industry.
Airlines are clearly starting to act because they know that the mortgage on their planes is huge.
Back to these big asset companies my next tip for tough times is copy shops.
Photocopy shops survive on copying. If they dont then the copier leases cant be paid. If you want posters made up for a party, a gig, you use them. If there's no public gatherings, demand for these one off ventures dries up. In Edinburgh if there's no Edinburgh festival, no flyers, ouch!
This leads nicely to the impact on the economy by region. Hotels, Air BnB throughout the and have been hammered, Edinburgh hotels in particular are going to see occupancy plummet as the cancellation of the festival rps through the city. Some of these seasonal jobs are taken by the visitors to the city so the citizens of Edinburgh may not feel it as much, but those kids who move home to rent their flat, or those businesses who rely on exhorbitant August rentals to cover the mortgage for the rest of the year will find their business model under pressure.
This all leads me back to what industries will win. Drugs will win. Drugs are a safe home when there is carnage all about. Drug companies are dipping their toe into the online home delivery. These are regular sales so breaking into this space will see pharmacists doing very well. Like opticians with the online delivery of lenses, if the over 60's start to receive all their medication to their door, they will be very loyal customers for years.
Consumable products and the grey pound make for a very good business case. Remember its not just the odd aspirin, nowadays we have drugs for many an ailment.
To be continued
lockdown benefit #27
Yes, I'm up to #27, and its the social media spring clean!
Who to listen to and more importantly who to finally stop listening to.
Self censorship has seen millions of us finally take ownership of our devices and learn how to mute people, how to un-follow those that we 'only followed because...' and generally find time in our life for the things in our life we want to find time for.
Sometimes that's fresh air, not oxygen, but the epiphany of the moment that you enjoy reading, writing, singing, playing drums, touching your toes, chipping a golf ball in your hall. or plan your next camino.
So many of us who were under pressure, largely all related to that concept time, have like Salvador Dali, seen it melt right before their eyes. Each of Dali's timepieces is another part of your life and as you get mesmerised by each one, you feel the hypnotic power transform you.
When you come too you've got a dozen friends and colleagues, none of whom put ridiculous demands on you!
Job done...
I used to love smoking, 50g of tobacco some days, and in the end I had to stop, which I did cold turkey using the mantra, "I'll not be told by the tobacco companies when to have my next rollie, I will have one, when I want one."
Its one of the few times when I felt I exercised choice as opposed to having been guided 'Devs' like down a pre-ordained path. I often thought I was choosing, but most of the time it was not a real choice. When I've had a real choice like writing the diaries of Prof Hackenabush, or the story of the Car Turner, I usually get lost in the dream of the story and cant write it down. I close my eyes and have a good dream. I love the stories and prefer just to tell them when I walk the camino.
It's when the characters come alive, where Jose Archer lives. She's probably not even aware of the lockdown as there's no lockdown in your imagination. The world according to Jose is liberated, and her story the Egg Hatcher, is quite prophetic of this current scenario, especially as she wrote her book more than 50 years ago.
I had a boss who said dont do tomorrow what you can finish today, which unfortunately I can only do in a work context, preferring the standard approach of manana...
I must get in touch with Josephine.....soon!
Who to listen to and more importantly who to finally stop listening to.
Self censorship has seen millions of us finally take ownership of our devices and learn how to mute people, how to un-follow those that we 'only followed because...' and generally find time in our life for the things in our life we want to find time for.
Sometimes that's fresh air, not oxygen, but the epiphany of the moment that you enjoy reading, writing, singing, playing drums, touching your toes, chipping a golf ball in your hall. or plan your next camino.
So many of us who were under pressure, largely all related to that concept time, have like Salvador Dali, seen it melt right before their eyes. Each of Dali's timepieces is another part of your life and as you get mesmerised by each one, you feel the hypnotic power transform you.
When you come too you've got a dozen friends and colleagues, none of whom put ridiculous demands on you!
Job done...
I used to love smoking, 50g of tobacco some days, and in the end I had to stop, which I did cold turkey using the mantra, "I'll not be told by the tobacco companies when to have my next rollie, I will have one, when I want one."
Its one of the few times when I felt I exercised choice as opposed to having been guided 'Devs' like down a pre-ordained path. I often thought I was choosing, but most of the time it was not a real choice. When I've had a real choice like writing the diaries of Prof Hackenabush, or the story of the Car Turner, I usually get lost in the dream of the story and cant write it down. I close my eyes and have a good dream. I love the stories and prefer just to tell them when I walk the camino.
It's when the characters come alive, where Jose Archer lives. She's probably not even aware of the lockdown as there's no lockdown in your imagination. The world according to Jose is liberated, and her story the Egg Hatcher, is quite prophetic of this current scenario, especially as she wrote her book more than 50 years ago.
I had a boss who said dont do tomorrow what you can finish today, which unfortunately I can only do in a work context, preferring the standard approach of manana...
I must get in touch with Josephine.....soon!
Wednesday, 29 April 2020
On your Own - Life support
1985 recording - with thanks to Gordon Tucker - just failing to upload!!
Yep - shit for brains here, I'll do them as videos instead, May 21 is the target date, yes, May 2021....here's the first one, inspired by watching Normal People the other day
I was very impressed with Normal People, took me back to the 1980's, the band being a student. I think I was more Marianne when I arrived at Uni, but quickly identified with the fella, until he started passing exams....anyway Mark wrote the song and he was always trying to get Nikki on his own! Today Mark with the kids grown up and the grand children arriving, you've finally got her on your own!
Yep - shit for brains here, I'll do them as videos instead, May 21 is the target date, yes, May 2021....here's the first one, inspired by watching Normal People the other day
I was very impressed with Normal People, took me back to the 1980's, the band being a student. I think I was more Marianne when I arrived at Uni, but quickly identified with the fella, until he started passing exams....anyway Mark wrote the song and he was always trying to get Nikki on his own! Today Mark with the kids grown up and the grand children arriving, you've finally got her on your own!
Monday, 27 April 2020
On this day
April 28
1974 - wrote a letter to my nana and auntie Helen about auntie Mamie dying
1979 - went to Joyce Francoise party and then to the Cubs concert at the Pollock halls with Dirty Reds (aka fire engines)
April 29
1978 - Too wet for golf again. Worked in Brydons and took a large number of sweets home with me
1979 - 2am, help Gordon take the Cubs gear home
April 30
1978 Graham Mavor and I talked with Davie Nicol. Went to Hibs v Celtic, Paddy Stanton testimonial. We won 2-1. Donnie was recovering from being hit by a brick at yesterday's game v Aberdeen, he had a few stitches.
1979 - sat English higher, difficult, think I've passed. Stu started at WM.
May 1
1978 - played golf with D Nicol (9 handicap)
1979 - did some maths revision. After 4 hours work went to Queen's Arms. Did some revision when I got home, O'grade tomorrow.
May 2
1978 did paper round then Mum drove me to Holyrood. Lucy got day off for by-elections and went to Asda with Mum. I played golf with Graham and Dee Dee.
1980
I got up and sat maths higher. An exam of two papers. I - 85% II - 55% as I went up to Boroughmuir to meet the guys for drinks. Had 8 Guinness, a Cointreau and a whisky, but who's counting!
May 3
1974
I got up and went to school. We went to the JFK center for a concert.i took some photographs. After we got back we had lunch.
1979
It was the general election and I voted using Gordon's vote. I went to work as usual after a difficult french O'grade.
1980
I got up and went to junior golf coaching. I played golf and started back home 4433, -1! In the evening I went to Alan Reid's house and watched TV.
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
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!
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!
Sunday, 19 April 2020
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.
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.
Saturday, 4 April 2020
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!
Friday, 27 March 2020
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.
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!
Friday, 28 February 2020
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!
Friday, 21 February 2020
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.
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
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.
Thursday, 13 February 2020
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!
Sunday, 9 February 2020
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.
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.
Saturday, 8 February 2020
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!
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!
Monday, 3 February 2020
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.
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.
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.
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!
Saturday, 25 January 2020
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.
Monday, 20 January 2020
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".
Sunday, 5 January 2020
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!
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!
Friday, 13 December 2019
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.
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.
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
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!
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!
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