“One of the biggest requests made by people is ‘What should I read?’ It may be topical: What should I read to find out about council communism? It may be a question of how best to grasp something over time: What order should I read these things in? What people frequently fail to ask is …
Stewart Home – Down and Out in Shoreditch and Hoxton (The Do-Not Press) Great – much more immediate than “69 Uses”. He’s got the drift from pulp into art crit, into “literature” locked down. Some laugh out loud moments for me, including the appearance of the International Communist Current in the middle of a long …
Most annoying paragraph so far in Michael de Koningh & Marc Griffiths – Tighten Up – The History of Reggae in the UK (Sanctuary, 2004) “In 1958 a bout of unemployment hit the UK, affecting 2% of the workforce (half a million people). There was a bitterness at the perceived removal of job opportunities by …
Str8 Dancehall Reggae Culture Str8 Dancehall Reggae Culture, the new kid on the block, will be presented as a bi-monthly magazine packed full of anything relating to Dancehall Reggae. Areas covered will include the music, the slang, the fashion and of course with the recent phenomenon of a new dance almost weekly, a guide to …
The Whinger – Irregular Journal of Hysterical Madterialism issue 4, May 2004 I picked this up while I was at the Use Your Loaf occupied social centre for Neil’s pamphlet launch. It’s by Paul Petard, whose cartoons I ripped off in this entry about community politics and suchlike. Anyway, it’s great – not least because …
The pamphlet launch was great – Use Your Loaf is a really good space, much more approachable for people not immersed in the counter culture than many occupied social centres I’ve visited. Nice bunch of local trouble makers, anarchos, young ‘uns in bands and random hangers on like myself and Danny. Neil did a nice …
Paul Morley – Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City (Bloomsbury 2003) Joe Jacobs – Out of the Ghetto: My Youth in the East End Communism and Facism, 1913-1939 (J Simon 1977 – later republished by Phoenix Press 1991) Danny always reckoned you should have at least two books …
Vox and Roll is a free monthly event at which authors read their work and play a few of their favourite tunes. It is in the tiny Minibar at the Garage and well worth checking, even if (like me) the thought of attending a literary event makes you cringe. Tonights show featured two authors who …