Me on The Politics Show

As Jack mentioned on Saturday, I was invited to speak on The Politics Show this Sunday about the controversial Form 696. The form relates to live music and the Metropolitan Police's ability to request sensitive and discriminatory information from promoters, performers and patrons so as to assess the "Potential risk" of that event. Feargal Sharkey wrote a fairly explicit letter to the Met asking for the form, which while officially voluntary has become mandatory in many London boroughs, to be reviewed, an "Official review" has been announced and it's hoped will see the form repealed. While the main focus of the outrage has been a racial one, there are far reaching implications for the creative community as a whole. By filling in Form 696 we are effectively allowing The Police to decide that if they don't agree with my message and who I'm delivering it to, then they can shut me down. Throughout history music has been a great communicative tool in times of struggle and hardship, the idea that I can no longer use the gift I feel I've been given to communicate a message to my people, because The Police don't want me to, scares me to my soul. The Police State doesn't get much realer than that. In Chile, in South Africa, in Afghanistan, songs were used to inspire, to teach, to relay messages of hope and determination against fascist regimes. In London, 2009 we have to ask for permission. You can watch the show on the BBC iPlayer HERE. The Form 696 section kicks in at about 31 minutes. If anybody could rip the 696 section so I can put it on Youtube I'd appreciate it. I downloaded the whole thing through the iPlayer software but the BBC appear to have it coded like clever internet people.


While in the Green Room waiting to go on I managed to grab a quick chat with Peter Tatchell about Form 696 which was pretty great. Peter Tatchell's one of the bravest men in the country, he doesn't give a fuck, a real fighter for the downtrodden. I don't always agree with him but it takes a lot of balls to be that guy.

There's been a lot of people very outspoken on the Form 696 issue including DJ Semtex, DJ MK, Bashy and Tinchy Stryder whose blogging helped me when doing last minute research on Saturday night so I thank you all. Also thanks to Akira for sending the BBC in my direction. I'm gonna tear down Dawn of the Don on Friday. Yiggity!

Tory MEP is internet sensation?

So Daniel Hannan [a Tory MEP] stood up and told Gordon Brown about himself the other day and his speech has become a Youtube sensation. So much so that American TV picked up the footage. But all of this was achieved without any acknowledgment from the BBC or any other British media outlet. It's incredible to think that Gordon Brown can be humiliated like this in public and nobody choose to run it as a story; but I believe it highlights one of the main problems with the democratic process in this country. I don't actually believe there are many real journalists working for the major news outlets. Important things are overlooked in favour of ratings and profile, MPs get away with defrauding the tax payer for decades before it becomes a hot topic and suddenly they're all exposed. Banks and government policy dig us into a crippling recession and they know about it later than anybody. I think the politicised nature of the BBC and the left and right leaning newspapers learned too much from Tony Blair and his government and are actually prepared to dance in front of the problem rather than actually show us what's going on behind the bullshit if it supports their angle. Maybe that's always been the way. I'm not sure, but it stinks of rotting corpses from where I'm standing. Show us the bodies Guardian. Show us the bodies Daily Mail. Fuck you if you think we don't understand. Respect our capacity to process important information. Or are you just that lazy?

LINK: BBC News talks about Daniel Hannan's speech with left and right leaning bloggers. [how "New Labour" did that Labour List guy come off though? Seriously? What a patronising cunt].

More Asian women 'use hard drugs'

This article on BBC.co.uk is crazy. More Asian women 'use hard drugs'. I remember talking to a...person...about who were the rising purchasers of...products...a year or so back and he said it was Asian men and women. Which interested me. Knowing what I know, it probably shouldn't have though.

R.I.P Grange Hill by the way

I heard a lot of people talking about why it got canceled, saying it's harder to relate to kids lives these days, that you can't get away with real issues at 5:30, the kids are watching Nickelodeon etc. The reason Grange Hill got canceled is because everybody grew to hate it. The reason everybody grew to hate it is because it grew to suck. It sucked on whole new levels. To the point that they actually thought they'd burn the school down and relocate it to some imaginary place in the North so kids around the country wouldn't feel excluded from the show. Are you serious? I heard on the radio that in 1990 Grange Hill was pulling in 8million viewers. Coronation Street aside, nothing gets 8million viewers now. 1990 was about my era, through to maybe 1993-4, they were running stories about racism, gang violence, homelessness, teenage pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, drink driving, underage sex, all things I was faced with as a youth. I remember they did the same thing with Byker Grove, The Grove used to have some of the realest story lines on TV, everybody was going through something. PJ was blinded by a paintball, why are kids not allowed to see PJ get blinded by a paintball now? Are they that sissified? (word to Mr T) Or has the nanny state dictated what is and what isn't acceptable for kids to watch? The public service broadcaster that carried these two amazing shows destroyed realistic children's television from within, gentrified them to all hell and canceled them based on the ratings. It actually makes me angry to see the twee middle class bullshit they peddle (with a few exceptions) to kids in that slot now.

R.I.P kids with a grasp on reality.

Setanta doesn't owe you s***!

Editorial by Tego.

As a football fan (possibly the biggest and greatest football fan on the planet but that's neither here nor there) I feel I have a responsibility to stand up for Setanta Sports; the channel that (thanks to the EU) managed to break the stranglehold BSkyB had on British football for well over 10 years. When the EU announced that BSkyB had a monopoly over Premier League football it ruled that another network must be allowed to screen a percentage of yearly games. Setanta stood up and paid almost £400Million for the right to televise Premier League football over 10 years. Their charge for fans would be £10 a month on a non-contract basis. On top of Premier League football Setanta subscribers would receive live German League football, live Scottish League football, live French league football, coverage from all the other major European leagues (apart from Spain) and a host of other sports including Boxing, UFC, Cricket (they carried the controversial IPL), Rugby League, Golf and Aussie Rules football. After a steady period of declining interest in the English national team, Setanta forked out £5Million per game for England's away World Cup Qualifiers with Andorra and last night's amazing game with Croatia. BBC and ITV attempted to purchase highlight packages from Setanta to screen later in the evening. Baring in mind that England have been booed off the pitch in their last 3 games and that viewing figures have been on the wane for 5 years Setanta didn't feel they had to offer a cut price package for either terrestrial broadcaster as it would impact their own viewing figures (no offence BBC but they actually rely on those), Setanta actually ended up unlocking their subscription channel on Freeview for all Ditigal viewers to see the highlights for free later on in the evening.

"It is perhaps a little unfortunate that large numbers of people were not able to see the match live,"

Gormless Brown declared today "And that is something that I think a lot of supporters will want to have answers to." well you can talk to the courts Mr Brown. Setanta bought a product outright. They have the right to do with it what they wish. The people who may have wanted to watch the game and not visit a pub or subscribe themselves (1 million less viewers on Setanta than similar games on the BBC last season, a drop in the ocean to be frank) have a right to complain of course but that's where it stops. We're talking about a national team that failed to qualify for the European Championships over the summer, we're talking about a viewing package that was made available to every broadcaster and Setanta forked out the finance. The Evening Standard have a two page spread today announcing "The most loathed TV sports channel", the article itself does very little other than speculate as to the financial wellbeing of the company through rumours and conjecture. I think it's appalling that such an issue is being made of this. As a child I was unable to watch any live football. Any. Sky had a complete monopoly. My family couldn't commit to £35 a month for a minimum 12 months. Very few families could. Setanta offer a non-contract subscription service at an affordable price and goes out of its way to satisfy its customers by spending big on football. In an especially competitive industry such as football, to have the Prime Minister and a respected daily newspaper challenge the enterprise of a small broadcaster for perfectly legal and legitimate practice is despicable. It stinks of the Labour classist agenda to me.

Bad Meaning Good- Tim Westwood BBC Documentary from 1987

Shout outs to Karl in the comments section of the last Westwood post. He directed me to this video. It's amazing. 1987 London, a beautiful thing to behold. Trevor Nelson's cameo is quality too. This was an Open Space Film for the BBC.

Switch

I turned on BBC2 this afternoon and noticed an old friend of mine from my Adelphi Theatre days Jeff Leach with his own TV show. I've done a few gigs for Jeff in the last couple of years. Totally random. He's a good guy, very ambitious. I hear he's a pretty great DJ too. The show is called 'The Surgery' and it's part of BBC2's Switch thing they've got going on which I think is intended to be competition for T4.

Example Stand-up

I knew he was a funny guy but I did not know he had this in him. If I saw this on TV and didn't know who he was I would probably call myself a fan.