Monday 6 February 2012

Ranting into February / CDs / Great stuff to come


So the big news of the week is of course, the weather!

Once again disruption rules the land, planes cancelled, sporting fixtures cancelled, Bands unable to get to Gigs!, let alone audiences prepared to prise themselves from the warmth and comfort of their living rooms, or beds.

The good news is of course it’s here today (Sunday) and will be gone tomorrow (Monday). 
Well at least it has given the Coalition Spin Doctors a weekend off, for they have been busy folks poking Argentina, filling our screens with pictures of the Falkland’s, slowly cranking the rhetoric up against Iran and Syria in fact talking about anything except all the aggro in Parliament with the House of Lords or the real effects of the Bills that Government Whips are chasing through the Commons.  

Of course they have been helped on the way by Harry Redknapp’s argument in Court, a Government Minister feeling the full wrath of a woman scorned and of course a certain footballer was being stood down as England Captain.  

Despite all these important and critical distractions we should not lose sight of the new restrictions being put on the poor by what is being called Welfare Reform.   I understand the attraction of “capping” Benefits, but if we are to this then we must ensure that weakest in our Society are protected, and I don’t just mean sickest and most disabled, I also mean those who cannot speak for themselves, because they simply do not understand how the system works. 

What would of course be real reform is for the Welfare system to be simplified, some of the forms are just so complicated one needs a University Education to work out what information is being asked for!! And I’m still confused……. Lol     The last time I was sick all I did was send off a sick note and that was it, now, when you’re feeling at your lowest you are awarded with a form the thickness of a Bible to work through.   

And what’s all this business about not trusting a Doctors sick note anymore?  No!  if you’re off sick over an extended period off you have to go for someone else to diagnose what you already knew……  talk about doubling the cost of illness.  

OK, we all point the finger at people we suspect of playing the system, I suspect we all know one or two folks who have mystery illness that only seems to inflict them when called for medicals etc.  made worse when you see them climbing on roofs or doing heavy digging in the garden, or  sprinting for a bus, but I’m sure that a simplified system would find the “hook swingers” out faster and more effectively than  the current madness. 
Just a personal point of view. 

And while we are all debating as to whether we can all survive on £26K or not, remember what lies behind it, a whole raft of new regulations and systems designed to reduce expenditure, do not be fooled!! Or distracted. 

As to the NHS Bill.  Quite simply this needs to be stopped in it’s tracks immediately.  It’s total madness.   Why every Government thinks that giving Consultation and Management Companies Billions of NHS pounds to introduce new systems and ways of working is cost effective I really don’t know.  

Of course we’d all prefer the Government to concentrate on the one thing that really matters, which of course is getting the National Economy going and helping as best as we can to get our Trading Partners in Europe back on track.  

There were some other distracting stories this week.  I was struck by the Report that suggested we on the left are more intelligent than our friends on the right of politics.  But then we already knew we were more intelligent, and any actions or words from the Left that suggest that the Report might be wrong are obviously minor slips in the main scheme of things.  Didn’t see the Report go HERE  

And as if to prove it the Tory MP for Guilford decided to entertain us with her stereo typed image of the North, heavy drinking, chain smoking and spending all our time in bed breeding.  A bit frightening to think that this view of the North is still held firm by some who spend their lives South of the Watford Gap.  Of course I’ve tried to point out that we can no longer afford to drink or smoke, and the reason we’re in bed is to stay warm, thanks mainly to her idiot friends in the City and her Comrades in Government.  Check for the story HERE   

Interestingly both stories from the Daily Mail!!

And this is not a Party Political Broadcast for the Labour Party.  None of our Political Parties seem to have any answers, mainly because they are not prepared to think outside of the market and Capitalist Box.  All our major Parties are keen to tell us what they can’t do, rather than what they will do.

Well’ it’s been sometime since my last political rant. 

And of course a Political Rant is my own smokescreen to cover up the fact that it’s been a strange and quiet week.

I say quiet, Friday was a bit of a nightmare.  I turned the computer on to discover that the jmucreate.com Web Site had been suspended!!  It took a few hours to get hold of someone at the Host, but we got there in the end.  

I was not best pleased to discover that the site had been reported for carrying inappropriate content, and given the current sensitive atmosphere around Web issues and content my Host has a policy of act first then find out.   Not helpful, but I can see why.

It turned out that the complainant, Mr Anony Mous, was being directed to certain mainline Genre that made the Web so famous, and found this hurt their sensibilities.  The problem for me was that none of my links, as far as I know, will take the viewer to such exotic content.  

The solution turns out to be a reminder to all of us to make sure that we have all the correct Protection in place.  The complainant had picked up a germ that had corrupted his / her Browser.  

There are a lot of such viruses etc. out there so please make sure that you use a well-recognised Anti-Virus Programme and that you only download updates and new versions of standard programmes from the Official Web Sites.  

For the Acoustic Rotherham Web Site it’s all well that ends well. 

This week on the Web Site we’ve added two new poems to Poets Corner HERE from two of Rotherham’s finest, Carol and Christine.  I’ve also been finding more Festivals to add to the Festival page HERE and Diary listings HERE.  

It’s been a week when all the spies have reported being cold, hence I don’t think they’ve been out much.

Roy Blackman has not enjoyed the best Winter as far as his health is concerned, and for a change has been behaving himself by enclosing himself in the warm.  This means that I have not yet been able to get Roy to Masher Towers to sign the CDs.  We are due to meet today (Monday) so fingers crossed.  It’s also meant that many of you who have been attending Roy events will have missed him and thus not been able to get your hands on a copy of the CD yet.   Orders can be taken on the Web Site HERE or you can simply wait until a member of the Committee or Roy himself hits your event / Club / Festival.
The CDs for the Press have been prepared and you should start to hear more about the CD in the media over the next couple of weeks. 

The Official launch Party date I’m hoping to sort with Roy later along with his programme of visits to Clubs.  I’ll publish all of Roy’s dates, health permitting, on his Reverbnation page HERE  I’ll also import the information to his Acoustic Rotherham page HERE

For media folks who may be reading this, Roy is available for personal appearances / interviews etc  please contact Richard at acousticrotherham@jmucreate.com in the first instance.  Thank you. 

While we’re talking about the Bard of Rotherham, I thought some might be interested in a vacancy to work with School Children for a poet who works with the Yorkshire dialect.  You can find all the details HERE 

Despite the weather I’m told that the first outing of the Davenport Family has gone extremely well at the weekend as they warmed up (in more ways than one) for the Cheltenham Folk Festival next weekend.  Liz says “it’s rather loud” so if they have to use a PA my sympathies goes out to the engineer who has to balance it all up.  It’s brilliant that our local talent hitting Festivals out of the County you can find the link to the Festival on the Diary page HERE Gig listings and samples of their great sound can be found on Liz and Pauls Web Site HERE , and if I may be so bold, there is something very reminiscent of some of the early Copper Family tracks, but I need to hear more.  You can also find details of the CiarĂ¡n Boyle CD “Bright Flame”  on the excellent Web Site Hallamshire Traditions.   
 
Further North the latest edition of the Fool’s Gold News Blog is out and about packed with the usual great range of information HERE 

Those who can remember back to the dark days of 1973 / 74 might remember the imprisonment of 24 Trade Unionists who became known collectively as the Shrewsbury 24.  Amongst them was Ricky Tomlinson who later became more famous for his acting and comedy.  

Nearly forty years after the events Legal Appeals against the convictions of these men are to be mounted.  To help finance this a CD has been launched “Who’s Conspiracy”, containing eighteen tracks of political songs.  There’s also intro from Ken Loach and an outro from Ricky Tomlinson.  Tracks from all the top political song writers.  Full details HERE  along with details of other ways in which you can help the Campaign for Justice.

So to the week ahead.  Well you’ve probably guessed from the above that it’s been a bit quiet on the immediate local scene this past week, that’s not to say that there has been a lot of beavering going on under the surface.  I might have more news of that later this week.  However, this week is jammed packed again with good things, starting of course with Tuesday night’s  gathering at the Red Lion in Braithwell.  This looks as if it is building into a major night out, with many a fine musician in attendance plus a special guest spot from Masher guitar Teacher, Mark Hearne, who is always a treat to listen to.  Who knows, the Masher himself might even break free from his walls of confinement for an evening.  The Roy Blackman CD will be available.  

On Friday we have ROMP in the House at the Bridge in Rotherham, a fantastic night of Open Mic Poetry, and if you’ve not been along to sample one of these evenings, WHY NOT??   And the Roy Blackman CD will be available at this event, so bring thy cash!!
All the usual Clubs / Sessions etc  and you can find it all HERE

So with that and the feeling I have forgotten something important we’ll leave it for another week.  

Whatever you are doing this week have fun, support the local music scene and KEEP IT LIVE

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