Where I lived very many people had already discovered the equivalent to skinny white boys via Rock Steady, Ska, Motown, Stax, Muscle Shoals and so on, but perhaps that was unique

To be honest his only impact on me was that I disliked most of the things he played on. Allied to his failings as a person, I am not really that bothered one way or another.

Yes because no classical music , for example, has soul, does it?

Boycott’s knighthood doesn’t make a lot of sense whichever way you look at, unless it is now legitimate for someone to bestow awards on their favourite player. Prior to Cook, the only English players to be […]

I think I am right in saying that vinyl accounts for something like 4% of sales by with annual growth of 12 %, at least in the US. Those figures suggest it won’t be off-setting the drop in CD sales anytime soon. […]

Whether or not the Scottish and Southern Irish would be prepared to fund Wales and Norhten Ireland is a moot point.

Or any folk festival. Or folk gig, for that matter.

I thought Luton came out of it pretty reasonably, all things considered, with a mix of white characters ranging from the nakedly racist to the very supportive. Sort of how I found the town to be at the time for […]

Depends what you want. A Labour /Lib Dem alliance might make it into a second term. A Labour /SNP alliance, however, is the one thing that could lead to a remarkable recovery in Tory fortunes as both […]

Of course, they won’t, but a Labour government that has to rely on the SNP is almost the one thing that might bring the Tory Party back to life in double quick time, as both right wingers and ‘traditional’ Labour […]

When it comes to any balance of power, it’s likely to end up with the SNP, which puts labor in a particularly difficult position as the sight of Nicola S. pushing a wheelbarrowfull of cash through impoverished […]

De-selection ahoy !

Corbyn can be as shifty as the rest when it suits him, as when asked about IRA murders.

Quite, the points made about the folly of the UK jeopardizing its trade with Europe apply even more to Scotland, given that 60% of its exports go to the rest of the UK.

Mitch Murray also got an award mention. I don’t think he got a mention on the news, although ironically, the bulk of the population probably know more of his songs.

As someone involved in delivering diversity training all round England and Wales throughout the 1990s, I would have to disagree with the notion of the 70s being when anything changed. And from my earlier direct […]

Alternatively, famously described as ” thick as mince and lazy as a toad” by Dominic Cummings, in which case the lost two years might be more a case of indolence than cunning.

I am not sure it is entirely surprising if a site with its roots in a UK magazine remains Anglocentric.

It’s not the narrative that will be presented, but it also suggests that there is a clear majority against a Hard and/or No Deal Brexit. Something like 60% plus in favour of parties along the spectrum of the May […]

Quite possibly not. The government, unlike local councils, traditionally never insured any of the buildings it owned. The annual premiums were judged likely to be greater than the cost of replacing the occasional casualty.