old guitar and "evening over rooftops x 2"

my 1962 fender 

Last week two people came from Buckinghamshire County Museum to collect my 1962 Fender Stratocaster. It is to be part of an exhibition at the museum around the wonderful history of Friars in Aylesbury.

This is the guitar I wrote about in an earlier post. It is the guitar Eric Clapton played at a jam after Implosion at The Roundhouse Chalk Farm and Syd Barrett played when he had a little jam with The Pink Floyd at All Saints  in Nottinghill Gate. 

Friars was one of THE clubs to play back when were in the early days of the Edgar Broughton Band's career. There were about four or five clubs in the whole of the UK that were top venues and many of the others were cracking gigs to play but, some stood out from the crowd just like we did. We loved playing at Friars. Back in 2009 the EBB played the Friars Aylesbury 40th Anniversary and we rocked it. The band was presented with one of the Friars heroes awards. It was a great evening and brought back very happy if slightly blurry memories.

yours truly at Friars 1969 with the beast 62 strat

So if you are in the Aylesbury area and want to drool in front of the beast and get to see some thing of rock n roll history at Friars then I am sure the exhibition will be your thing. The exhibition runs from March 1st to July 5th.                           

Evening Over Rooftops x 2 is the title given to my upcoming shows next week at THE DRUGSTORE in Athens by Spilios the club owner. Last years shows were an absolute delight for me on many levels and I had the pleasure to play for one of the most knowledgable and appreciative audiences ever. I played all kinds of bits and pieces old and new that I have never played before or since. So I am working on how to top that second time around. It should be fun.

I was sitting relaxing with a guitar last night after finishing the lyric to a new song called On The News. I started messing around with a bluesy groove and slowly a blues song I call I HATE THE GOLDEN DAWN emerged. It is a work in progress but it will be right on the nail, on the night.  

The Golden Dawn is a very dangerous fascist community in Greece. Unfortunately they have grown tentacles through all levels of Greek society. They have been curtailed to some extent after they murdered immigrants in the street and murdered a well known Greek musician who had publicly opposed them. Their list of crimes is long.

I hate The Golden Dawn

If I was a cleaning lady working for my bread

I would see what has been lost

I would see what lies ahead

I would see my flag is torn

and I would hate

I would hate

I hate 

The Golden Dawn

If I was a roaming gypsy looking for a home

I would see what has been spoiled

I'd see it cut me to the bone

I would see my flag is torn

and I would hate

I would hate

I hate

The Golden Dawn

If I was a man of colour trying to be safe

I would see what has been broken

I'd see what cannot be replaced

I would see my flag is torn

and I would hate

I would hate

I hate

The Golden Dawn 

peace

money no object and other things

Anglesey

Hi folks. The above processed pic is my take on the mood of the weather out there. Although this was shot on a glorious warm day, I think it harbours some of the brooding elements of an imminent storm. Hopefully it is a stretch of coast I will re-visit with a bag of lures and my bass spinning rod on a fine day.

So to the business of noise. The new song, In The Noise, I was supposed to release a week or so ago as a free gift to you lovely people has been very delayed. This is partly due to me setting out with big ideas only to find, for the umpteenth time, it takes a very long time to actualise some things. 
Oh well! It is sounding good and they say all good things come to those who wait. I don't suppose any one is hanging on, with bated breath, waiting but I am sorry for not delivering on time. Any way the good news is that it is sounding cool so as soon as it is finished I'll let you know.

Back on the subject of weather, I feel sorry for those who have been flooded in their homes but Cameron's "Money no object" promise seems extra ordinary by any standards. This is the man responsible for reducing the staff at the Environment Agency by thousands. This is the man who ignored pleas from the people in flood areas such as the Somerset Levels. Early in the Somerset flooding I tweeted, some thing along the lines, that if we can't care for the young mentally ill in the UK, who are often detained in police cells due to no available place of safety, why should we give a f=+k about the farmers in the Somerset Levels? Of course I was only really making a point rather than dismissing the needs of those who are flooded. 

If we continue to ignore Global warming on a global scale the sea will reclaim land and the coastlines will change massively. It might be necessary for some of us to relocate unless the real issues are addressed. Where flooded agricultural / reclaimed land is concerned the Dutch know what to do so why doesn't the government get them on board. The Sikh invasion of the Levels was a fabulous example of fellow Brits mucking in. I heard them on the radio talking about how they felt duty bound to help their fellow Brits. For so many of them to turn up to help, with out being asked, was marvellous and what a lovely bunch they were! Also it was good, though perhaps still a little surprising, to see the princes hefting sand bags in Berkshire. Top blokes! 

I hope the government does get their forward planning going in the Somerset Levels and other places but I think people will remember how long it took for any one from government to take any real interest in the plight of people flooded out and how quickly government made a "money no object" pledge when the floods hit the Thames Valley. I think the too little, too late response from government to the whole problem will cost Cameron and the coalition dearly in the next election. This crisis is a long way from over for him.

I was a bit concerned to see that 38 Degrees launched an appeal to raise money for flood relief. I think they should stick to campaigning and leave the cash relief to David Cameron to find though I feel sure, others will disagree. 
I don't expect he will deliver on his "money no object" promise. This is the man who has done has done nothing to ease the hardship of those penalised by new welfare policies and he continues to cut vital services. There will be more punitive ongoing cuts in the public sector that will continue to affect vulnerable people. It will be devastating to the people least able to cope and least responsible for the national deficit. 

There is real concern that sanctions against job seekers who do not meet the criteria for numbers of jobs applied for are being applied carelessly and with out proper consideration. A man made redundant, through no fault of his own, was asked to apply for ten jobs a week. This was increased to twenty. The man did his best but fell short of the total by two applications. He was sanctioned meaning he lost his benefit for four weeks. The man tried to take his life but was found by his brother and survived. When did any banker or Westminster member of parliament ever have to deal with any thing like that? 
The Etonian plunderers have no idea of the havoc they are wreaking out here in the real world and unfortunately the silent masses are still in hibernation and seem to be disconnected from any possibility for relevant and effective protest. Thatchers self centric philosophy is still very much alive and well.

Work wise I am still writing new songs at a rapid rate (for me). I am also rehearsing some old songs for the Athens shows at THE DRUGSTORE next month 

and it looks like there will be two Norwegian dates in May. I have had a couple of interesting offers to record with new folk so that could be fun. The shape of a new ensemble and vehicle for yours truly's louder side is taking shape and I can say it is not what I thought it would be. The criteria has changed a lot over time passed and I think I can say a final line up of personnel will be some thing of a surprise.

My new Austrian writer friend Walter Kohl has sent me his ideas for our book and I am looking forward to this collaboration with high expectations. Walter is a widely published author and a fascinating guy with great ideas that are very much in the same vein as some of my own. 

The weather has not been supportive of my video experiments but I have spent some of the indoor time getting to know the new camera and shooting random abstract clips. I have to admit the weather has adversely affected my mood, along with other small blips and so I am looking forward to sunnier days and maybe a day out fishing some where, when some of the water levels have dropped. 

On a totally positive note LFC is where it should be in the Premier League after a long time out of things. 
The Brit kids are doing great in the Winter Olympics which thankfully, have experienced none of the threatened disruption so far. 

The rainbow campaign at the Winter Olympics has been quite subdued and no where near as effective as we were lead to believe it might be. 
It should be said that Russia is not the only country that should be under close scrutiny and criticism on this issue. Unfortunately some of the homophobic practises of the Russian state are far from rare in the so called democratic free world, whether they are official policy or not. For example Canada's border guards have proved themselves to be anything but inclusive. Earlier this week the British comedian Avery Edison, who is trans gender, travelled to Toronto to visit her girlfriend and was found to have overstayed a previous student visa. After hours of invasive questioning she was sent to a men's prison. 

After US ARMY whistle blower Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years for leaking classified military documents, she declared herself to be female. It will be interesting to see how the US authorities will respond to this situation as the campaign to free her grows. Heroine or villain? Well you can guess what I think. Bless her and all of the other whistle blowers who have paid the price for showing us truth that governments and other vested interests tried to suppress.



peace.

p.s. On Tweeting I must say that I don't follow any one so please don't be offended if I don't follow you. I use Twitter to say small things from time to time. I don't want to know what any one had for breakfast nor do I want to join a community of so called on line "friends". My real friends know who they are. I will try to respond to a request for info or similar.