I Predict A Riot

 

This is the second post of 2024

"Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie is excellent, moving slowly across the north and reaching Leeds and a lot about Tony Wilson. The Kaiser Chiefs "I Predict A Riot" has become an anthem for the north.

Two hundred and twenyt pages in I will probably be finished by the end of March

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "I Predict A Riot" by The Kaiser Chiefs.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer and this is her Instagram

Dreams and Sleep - #Oktoberfest #11 - Everything Stops For Tea - Long John Baldry

Yesterday I was on an "away day" in Leeds and on the journeys to and from I watched a few excellent TED talks one of which (included below) by Matt Walker informed me that it's not a good idea to pull all nighters. Ideally you should have a consistent routine with around eight hours sleep as this actually helps the body recover by promoting the growth of !assassin cells" that eliminate lots of bad stuff in our bodies, while not sleeping does exactly the opposite. It last twenty minutes but is very interesting and worth taking your time over.

Because I am actually run down I went to bed about nine o'clock and slept though til 5:45 when the alarm went off and think I feel better for that, but it is always good to get a good nights sleep. There's a few snippets of the dream left including my boss asking what she was doing doing wrong , the answer being just sleep, there was a new locked SUV who's seats were covered with snow, and footprints leading to a brick wall where I was sure there was a door , and finally twenty pound notes had been taken out of circulation and ten pound notes had been replaced by eleven pound notes. I know it doesn't make sense but that's the nature of dreams.

The last item just reminded me of the imperial currency system. 12 pennies made a shilling , two shillings were a florin , five were a crown , for crowns made a pound but 21 shillings made a guinea and the guinea was often used for pricing although the guinea was like 5% more expensive than a pound so a 20 guinea item was a £21 item. Simple wasn't it.

So #Oktoberfest is continuing non alcoholic which Long John Baldry's odd take on Jack Buchanan's "Everything Stops For Tea". The album was produced by Rod Stewart and Elton John. Rod had been a member of Steampacket with Long John Baldry along with Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll.

It's Friday morning so time for work.

Trains and Peel

Yesterday was spent on Trans Pennine trains to an from Leeds and while they look nice, the seats are not the most comfortable, and though they run from Liverpool to Newcastle there are only three carraiges so they do get fairly packed , though I managed to get a seat there and back so that was a plus. Coming back from Leeds, which is an awful design of a station there was meant to be an Aberdeen train on platform 9D which never appeared, must have been a ghost train.

yesterday I didn't hit my rough daily walking target but I'm still on target to hit 340K for November, though looking out of the window cars are frozen up, so although it's not raining or snowing (yet) it may be a very cold walk in to work, though I may end up taking the bus, we shall see.

Peel It

The other morning I was listing to the first Velvet Undergound album (well actually the first disc of the "Peel Slowly And See" box set , named after the peelable banana skin cover designed by Andy Warhol) . The album didn't sell that well but reputedly caused more bands to be formed than any other album. Of course now it sells by the barrowload and in varies from the siophisticated influence and drone of John Cale "Venus In Furs" , to the garage band / drug mentality of Lou Reed "Run Run Run"/ "Heroin" with the Germanic influence of Nico "Chelsea Girls" / "All Tomorrows Parties"with descents into pure noise "European Son" / "Black Angel's Death Song".




One thing really hit me is the monster drum sound on "All Tomorrows Parties" which combined with Nico's vocals and the manic piano is an awesome sounding song today. So to kick of Friday, that's the song I will leave to enjoy.

Have a good one.

Give Me £50 - And I'll Let You Advertise My Product!

I have a problem , a good friend of mine bought me a £30 Fenwicks Voucher and I want to buy a denim jacket . Denim jackets are nowhere to be be seen , lots of winter jackets , Belstaff making a big comeback , but I just want a light jacket I can wear when its warm , then thought I maight get a paitr of jeans with G-STAR plastered all over them - £110!!

So I pay £110 and look like a human version of one of these taxis with Claims-4-U palstered all over them! In the sixties my uncled reckoned no on would be idiotic enough to wear T-Shirts advertising a product or brand. Now it seems it's almost mandatory!! Nike , Reebok , Levis , Paul Smith , Superdry , Tommy Hilfiger.

Everyone expressing their individuality by following like sheep , and paying for the privilege. In the mid seventies Don Revie  and Admiral sportswearcame up with the idea of squeezing more money out of Leeds fans by marketing replica shirts , now the biggest Premiership teams often have four kits a season , thats £200 if you want to keep up.

Personally I go for retro shirts , whicj means you buy what you want when you want , but it must be hell for parents keeping up with the kids wants.

It seems almost all we wear today has a brand that marks you out as a potential sales hoarding for the latest Nike , Prada ,Aramani or whatever. So I'm off to town to buy something , I wonder what!!

A Bad Week

I assume this week finishes today , Saturday. It's been a bad week. The Tories get in , but don't get enough seats to form a government. This means that Proportional Representation rears it's head as that's the price the Lib Dems will want for a coalition. The BNP polled almost 2% of the national vote , under proprtional repesentation that would translate into about 12 Parliamentary seats , would it be worth it?

Oh , and to cap the week off , Leeds got promotion. Remember this is a club that refuses to disclose who owns it and has been through god knows how many administrations. Then again with Ken Bates involved what can you expect. Still maybe watching the video below of "The Damned United" will make things better:



Though next week things start looking up with gigs by Alabama 3 :



And then the most expensive tribute band in the world, The Australian Pink Floyd Show , worthe every penny and they have a giant inflatable Pink Kangaroo!!