Circle of Rage

Sat 27th February 2016, Trafalgar Sq. CND march.

a small yet not insignificant win for the anti-fracking ones amongst us. The government have agreed, under pressure of course, to close 13 loopholes in the legislation.

There has been an outright ban on fracking in all national parks and areas of natural beauty. This however begs the question, why is it banned from these specific places but not from everywhere else? If your house is in an area of natural ugliness then prepare to be fracked over, under and all asunder.

Other changes to the legislation include; the prevention of drilling in areas where drinking water collects (so the ground then), and the removal of a clause that allowed 'any substance' to be injected into the ground!!!

i know, sometimes i just can't believe it.

Professor Robert Lanza from North Carolina, believes the theory of biocentrism teaches death as we know it is an illusion, and space and time are just 'tools of our minds'.

get tickets here

saw this little article and felt the need to share it as pretty much everyone i know enjoys at least one of these brands on a regular basis.

http://foodbabe.com/2013/07/17/the-shocking-ingredients-in-beer/

now i'm no alcohol fascist, live and let live, that's me. we all enjoy things, some may call them vices, that we know have a dark side but if you like alcohol and enjoy a beverage of this kind - BREW YOUR OWN! the fermentation process is age-old and can be done even by accident. buy drinks from small independent public houses which stock home brewed and locally sourced alcoholic beverages. Yes they taste better and prob don't contain half the amount of chemicals and GM products.

some days i can forgo my anger and disappointment of aspects of our world, but there are inevitably days where my tolerance is truly tested. put it this way, when i do occasionally find myself flicking through a newspaper nowadays, there seems to be a total of 2 possible outcomes to such an activity.

1. i read something within it that makes me angry but i'm able to just verbalise my disdain toward the inanimate wood fibres and basically become a temporarily crazed person who is arguing with a newspaper.

or

2. i read something within it that makes me angry and the offending article becomes the victim of a vicious attack courtesy of my fair hands and finds a new home in the bin.

now no.2 doesn't happen often, despite what you may think now, i do have a modicum of self control. however i read a small article the other day which taunted my self control no end.

it concerned the pop singer from girls aloud, sarah harding appearing at the houses of parliament. now don't get me wrong, i don't for one second believe that ANYONE should be excluded from such opportunities and my animosity is not directed at sarah herself but more the whole system situation. regardless, allow me to put my viewpoint into context;

has anyone heard of Mark McGowan? this artist, who i've been following online for a couple of years now, is a man who in my mind should be speaking in parliament on a regular basis. sure, he can be crude and can swear with the best of them but what he stands for needs to be heard. you may also know him by his moniker 'the artist taxi driver'. his name is self explanatory. he uploads videos constantly which consistently feature him ranting into his camera from his car about a wealth of social issues and corrupt systems of power. i find his pieces wholly refreshing in a sea of stagnant media and yellow mainstream journalism. there is an air of discontent in the world and mark's videos are a small slice of the reaction of a downtrodden and exploited population. his passion is commendable, and it's a passion that most people have never witnessed from political stock today. when parliament no longers speaks for you, what can you do?

well, this man recently took it upon himself to push a toy pig with his nose, on his hands and knees, over 4 miles from Kings College Hospital in Camberwell,(where he is currently receiving treatment for cancer), to number 10 Downing Street, in protest against privatisation of the NHS.

when he arrived at the darkest street in london. a street that is alledgedly supposed to represent democracy yet has 10ft black, iron gates guarded by what they call police officers with guns, he was informed that whilst he could deliver his petition directly to the mouth of sauron, he would not be allowed to take the toy pig with him beyond the gate. i am jack's total lack of surprise.

all i could think of, whilst reading that sarah harding was invited to speak at the HoP as ambassador for the 'coming home' charity for wounded soldiers, was mark's cause, and how, unless an issue has a face or a name attached to it that people recognise, it's not seen as important. now i have nothing against sarah, hell i don't even know her, only her terrible music, and fighting for the unfortunate among us is wholly commendable but how many times have i seen her decrying illegal warfare PUBLICLY? you know, using that status she has built, to reach people with REAL issues? how many protest videos has she made outlining her dissent at the destruction of a health system that should be able to help these people? how many anti-cuts protests has she attended? how many times have i seen her appear on tv informing her public of these important issues? when will she begin to tell the millions that bought her cd's about how public money and services are being stolen EVERY DAY? surely she owes them that much...?

the only place she chooses to be vocal about these issues is in the halls of a place where, paradoxically, voices expressing concern seem to just get lost and become mere echoes. she instead chooses to give a speech to the men responsible for the situation that has given rise to the neglect of injured soldiers in the first place.

why choose her as ambassador for this charity anyway....? is it just because of her apparent fame? do the heads of this charity feel that, if they have a pop singer with mass sexual appeal amongst young men, more will use their wrists to better effect? ie writing cheques.

a human being like mark fits all the criteria of an ambassador to me. his energy is spent trying to help others. but what the hell IS an ambassador for a charity anyway? someone who just stands there, waves and poses for pictures outside important places? the article said she apparently gave a speech to MPs that day, which sounds impressive but from a woman who sang;

"...We wanna party but we got no soul We wanna start it, blow our senses out of control We wanna make it but we got no way We're gonna hate it but we might just fake it today."

nothing will change until we stop mistaking style for substance.

mark - keep on fighting!

sarah- start fighting!

wear this next time you visit parliament sarah - make them listen;

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!!!

so now we must be wary of 21st century terrorists and their somewhat cartoon-like skill of turning everyday household items into explosive devices.

" modern terrorism turns routine items into bombs so everyone becomes a source of suspicion. This poses a greater threat to open society than the Soviet red army." (Thomas L Friedman)

...excuse me for a second.....hahahahahahahahaha.

sorry about that, but this could have been written by Tony Blair himself, or should i say Alistair Campbell...?

how can a bomb made out of a fuckin pressure cooker compare in devastation and potential threat to a soviet, (or any country's), average machine tool? just stop and look at the weapons that are being used to create havoc on the ground in the middle east every day. bombs made by Glaxo, Harriman, Monsanto, SERCO and countless others are packaged and shipped day in, day out, costing us trillions per year, and causing devastation 100 times worse than in Boston, to limited/muted cries of opposition from our sanctimonius media machine.

modern warfare is colder, (if that's even possible), and so far removed from the battles of old. it's all about drones, laser guided missiles, automatic weapons and now pressure cookers it seems.

we've gone full circle on the media circus train. if at first you don't trepidate, sensationalize some more. will we ever become more than sponges to these falsely revered scribes.

'so last month The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town declared that it is to become the latest iconic music venue to close its doors to the public.'

for over 30 years the pub has hosted gigs by thousands of acts including a maniacal Arnocorps show last summer (2012), which we were fortunate enough to be playing as main support and we also won a battle of the bands comp there back in 2008.

sad to see it go indeed - support your venues is the lesson we must heed!

and we direct that, not just to gig goers and members of the live music loving public, but to councils, governments and communities. if we show that these places hold worth then the business heads will see it too. granted their willingness to participate will be financed based over passion but it's a start.

the lack of overall support for the creative industries in our country today is clearly apparent, in particular the live muscic circuit. in continental europe, even support acts at tiny venues can expect to be paid by venue and/or promoter to play, not so in the UK.

venues and people in general today are weighed down by spiralling costs and business rates. couple this with a near complete lack of support from entities WITH all the money and it seems clear that a cliff is rapidly approaching.

we wish to extend our gratitude, as a perorming band ourselves, to any and all who struggle every day in this unfairly named 'toilet scene'. be you a band, a venue owner/worker, a passionate promoter/agent or a limping independent label, please know you are the ONLY reason the live grassroots music scene is still alive today. We believe wholeheartedly that there should be some form of subsidisation and support from our government for the backbone of this industry.

after all, without a backbone, we fall.

this a call to the larger venues out there. your brixton academy's, your O2 arena's etc. it is down to the more prosperous of you to recognise the importance of the smaller pub/club and the instrumental role they play in feeding your own establishments with more and more acts year upon year. the relationship between the two should be symbiotic rather than ultra competetive. in all honesty the smaller venues are under no illusion as to their status, they thrive more on passion and heart as they nuture the unsigned musicians and bands. it's pretty much guaranteed that your favourite rockstar band would have played a pub at least once in their careers.

without recognising how the large and the small can help each other, how else are the next generation of artists able to develop and be able to sell tickets to their shows in the future.

let's ask ourselves; is there nothing that money cannot destroy?

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