The world's gone mad...

The world seems to be in serious economic turmoil,and it's getting worse.

As a teacher, one of the things I do with classes, particularly if they have a double period, is to give them a general knoweldge and current affairs quiz to see what they know.

Sometimes it is nothing short of depressing to find out how little they know about the world they live in. Families no longer seem to buy newspapers, and whilst the know what Peter and Jordan are up to, there's seemingly very little awareness of their own history or what's going on in the world. 'What's this got to do with me?' The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist...

Whilst my parents and I haven't always agreed on politics, at least they encouraged me to take an interest in the world around me and to get involved.

As a teacher in Scotland, two days have been given up to striking by Unison, whose workers not unreasonably want a decent wage. Living where we do, the impact of HBOS being bought out is still waiting to be felt.

I don't put my political views down my students' throats, it isn't on, though I will rip shreds off kids who make racist remarks (the Polish are getting a lot of stick around where I teach), but it depresses me to think that people think that politics cannot change the world, or that it has nothing to do with them.

So, in support of the workers and those who are really struggling at the moment, these are for you:

Billy Bragg -'There Is Power In A union.' mp3

These are two different versions of the Angelic Upstarts' track 'Solidarity. First the video...



...and a different recording of the song

Angelic Upstarts -'Solidarity.' mp3

Peel Festive Fifty Favourites

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days, there have been other, non-blog related matters to attend to.

Anyway, here are ten more tracks from John Peel's Festive Fifty. As my bandwith has been exceeded on two Fileden accounts (glad people are enjoying sampling the music which I hope they will buy, but it would be nice if a few more of you left comments) these are via Mediafire.

Eggs -'Government Administrator.' mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.10)

New Order -'Fine Time.' mp3 (1988 Festive Fifty no.44)

The Flatmates -'I Could Be In Heaven.' mp3 (1986 Festive Fifty no.42)

Cocteau Twins -'Pearly Dewdrops' Drops.' mp3 (1984 Festive Fifty no.2)

McCarthy -'Should the Bible Be Banned?' mp3 (1988 Festive Fifty no.38)

Sleeper -'Delicious.' mp3 (1994 Festive fifty no.20)

Camera Obscura -'Eighties Fan.' mp3 (2001 Festive Fifty no.8)

Pastels -'Truck Train Tractor.' mp3 (1986 Festive fifty no.23)

Billy Bragg -'Levi Stubbs' Tears.' mp3 (1986 Festive Fifty no.24)

Wedding Present -'Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft.' mp3 (1987 Festive Fifty no.3)

Whilst here, I should mention that Teenage Kicks, a John Peel-related blog that is so essential I check it every day has done a couple of excellent posts (as usual but even more essential) relating to the Men That Couldn't Hang and also folk music from 1977. Yes, 1977 the year of punk. Go check them out here.

Keeping it Peel

Looking thorugh the John Peel-related posts on the BBC's website, particularly relating to the Festive Fifties, it's kinda interesting to see what gets thrown up, in terms of the bands you rediscover, never heard, or are surprised to see in there. It's good to see stuff that comes round again...or should. Today's post is actually quite heavy on 1993, a time when I listened to John Peel's show pretty regularly, taping it (no podcasts then!) and trying to stay awake until 2AM on Friday and Saturday nights, something that I didn't manage very often. It's also interesting to note just how much good stuff there was, and looking back, thanks to John Peel, the NME and Melody Maker, the local library and Radio 1 finally moving forward, just how much aware I was of quite a few of these at the time.

What was it about his show? Oh heck...his enthusiasm for music, the sheer diversity of the music, the fact that he knew so much about music, you felt he was teaching you just as much as your own teachers were. He was cool to me, not in a silly way, but just managing to have his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Or something. When John Peel died in 2004, my mother and another friend were very quick to ring up and see how I was. It's fair to say no other DJ could make people act this way.

Anyway, on with the music...

Laura Cantrell was a favourite of John Peel and no fewer than three songs from her album Not The Tremblin' Kind made the Festive Fifty in 2000. These definitely tend towards 'Country' rather than 'Americana.' This is my favourite of those three:

Laura Cantrell -Two Seconds.' mp3 (2000 Festive Fifty no.27)

Of course, there were some very angry Americans on there too, perhaps typified by the Dead Kennedys twenty years previous to Laura Cantrell;

Dead Kennedys -'Holiday In Cambodia.' mp3 (1980 Festive Fifty no.6, 1981 Festive Fifty no.9, 1982 all-time chart no.14, Millennium all-time chart no.14 )

And it wasn't all singing either:

Pigbag -'Pap's got a Brand New Pigbag.' mp3 (1981 Festive Fifty no.39,)

I wish I could claim that the first time I ever heard Billy Bragg was on John Peel's show, as a very clued-up, cool ten year old. That would be a lie, however. I actually first heard this on Now That's What I Call Music Volume 8 (also featuring the Pet Shop Boys, Run DMC, Cameo...and Nick Berry). Oh well.

Billy Bragg -'Greetings To The New Brunette.' mp3 (1986 Festive Fifty no.41)

The first time I ever heard PJ Harvey was thanks to a free cassette (this was 1992, free CDs started appearing a year or so later in the UK),on which was her Peel session version of Water, on a compilation free with a magazine called VOX (a nineties magazine largely written by NME writers), called Radio Daze. A year later Peel played the corrosive and scary 50FT Queenie (including when he hosted a lunchtime show for a couple of weeks), and then one night in early 1995 'Down By The Water.'

PJ Harvey -'Sheela-Na-Gig.' mp3 (1992 Festive Fifty no. 2)

PJ wasn't quite a riot grrl (sic) per se but pre-Britpop, there was a lot of angry, politicised music, and no lack of things to get worked up about, and there were a lot of bands leading the way. I remember scrawling Cornershop on my school-bag, much to the complete disdain of my school mates. Bet they all brought 'Brimful Of Asha' especially for that line about bosoms. Hmm. Anyway, five great tracks from the 1993 Festive Fifty:

Chumbawumba and Credit To the Nation-'Enough Is Enough.' mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.1)

Madder Rose - 'Swim.' mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.2)

Voodoo Queens -'Supermodel Superficial.' mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.6)

Senser - 'Eject.' mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.21)

Credit To the Nation -'Call It What You Want.' mp3 (Festive Fifty no.24)

Six For Friday

Ah...it's Friday. Rather braindead, but thought I would share half a dozen good songs with you:

Melys -Chinese Whispers.' mp3

Panda Bear -'Comfy In Nautica.' mp3

Billy Bragg -'Greetings To The New Brunette.' mp3

Luke Haines -'Going Off My Rocker At The Art school Bop.' mp3

iLIKETRAINS -'Spencer Perceval.' mp3

Woody Guthrie -'This Land Is Your Land.' mp3

Hope you have a good weekend...and cheers to the lovely Mrs. 17 seconds, as we have now been together for three years!