holiday, holiday, first gig of the year

photo by steve bubble

horsemouth is back from his first gig of the year - stick in the wheel, nancy wallace all up at what’s cooking in leytonstone. gig wise this was a bit a meeting of the tribes with horsemouth bringing andrew and martin from his block and john bringing steve from the stonehenge expedition. by dint of asking nicely they got seats down the front (mostly) - andrew couldn’t stay for the full thing (it being a work night) and it may not (entirely) have been martin’s cup of tea (he seemed to ditch out at some point).

stick in the wheel were their current gig hardened selves everything boiled down to its most perfect expression. nancy wallace was suffering with a case of irresponsible fingers that seemed determined to sabotage any song no sooner than it was announced. notes were blued, choruses delayed and replayed - sods law was well and truly in operation. still her voice and the songs were great. she’s moved (‘escaped’) to montreal for half the year - horsemouth wishes her luck. he’s visited there in winter and in summer - its a great town.

horsemouth will have to check out what andy and martin made of it all. (he’s checked - they liked it).

tuesday horsemouth went out on the housing demo and indeed participated in a wander round the outside of the ministry of defence.

the changes the new bill brings in are momentous - the effective end of ‘social housing’ - the farming of a much higher proportion of the workers incomes by means of rent going direct to private landlords. paradoxically the numbers of poor people in the seaside towns may increase - as more people are driven down into poverty and because the poor in multiple occupation can outpay the poor in single occupation (of course it will not always be so) - the city as youth culture ghetto, as adventure theme park and then rinsed out to the edges, the destruction and removal of any settled working class communities (again).

and of course in proportion to the task the size of the demo was tiny. lots of ‘old faces’ many looking even older, look there’s the most evil man in britain on his waking stick. they have of course won wheras we have been defeated. what are you doing going off marching don’t you know I’m coming out to speak to you in a bit gestured diane abbot from the members entrance. the same old banners and slogans - well ok the banners are obviously new and expensively printed. truth be told horsemouth went because he was bored, because ayesha reminded him of his political duty, because he thought others might go.