Sky Arts - Anarchy In Manchester - ignorant or misleading?

Near the beginning of Sky Arts' programme Anarchy in Manchester, the presenter John Cooper Clarke emotes:
"The summer of 1976 was hot and bothered as the British economy declined, its cities decayed..."
At the mention of the British economy declining, the VT shows Margaret Thatcher.

So did the programme makers not know that in 1976 Britain's economy was suffering under a Labour government, lead first by Prime Minister Harold Wilson and then James 'Jim' Callaghan. Or maybe did the programme makers think that this would be just another way of denigrating Margaret Thatcher, for as all Arts graduates know everything bad that happened in the 1970s and 1980s was the fault of the Tories, especially Margaret Thatcher.

No one is innocent?

And certainly not Ronnie Biggs who is being released from prison on compassionate grounds. How much compassion did Ronnie Biggs show Jack Mills? According to Ronnie Biggs son in a radio interview the other day, his father is dying and cannot speak and is all but immobile; time will tell. His lawyers have said that he has recently suffered two strokes and has facial paralysis, which means he cannot speak or eat.

But who is Jack Mills? Jack Mills was the driver of the Travelling Post Office that was robbed. Jack Mills was hit on the head with an iron bar (not by Ronnie Biggs), causing a black eye and facial bruising; he had constant trauma headaches the rest of his life. So how did Ronnie Biggs show his remorse for the beating of Jack Mills? He recorded a song or two with the post Johnny Rotten Sex Pistols; The delightfully entitled "Belsen Was a Gas" and the rather more pertinent "No One is Innocent" aka "The Biggest Blow (A Punk Prayer)". The original title of the song was to have been "Cosh the Driver" but that was too much even for Virgin Records.

So whilst the BBC have as their lead story the heart-warming tale that "Train robber Biggs wins freedom" accompanied by a photo of a frail and elderly Ronnie Biggs, I choose to remember him slightly differently, singing:

"Ronnie Biggs was doing time until he done a bunk
Now he says he's seen the light and he sold his soul to punk
...
God save Martin Boorman and nazis on the run
They wasn't being wicked God that was their idea of fun
God save Myra Hindley God save Ian Brady
Even though he's horrible and she ain't what you call a lady
...
God save politicians God save our friends the pigs
God save Idi Amin and god save Ronald Biggs
God save all us sinners God save your blackest sheep
God save the good samaritan and god save the worthless creep"

and posing for a cover photo thus:


"Do I regret anything that's happened? No not a single thing I've ever done"

"Seething Wells" is dead

This may mean nothing to 99.99% of my readership but it's my blog and it means something to me!

Seething Weels aka Steven Wells (formerly aka Susan Wells) has died. I learnt this news from The Register which was odd in itself.

Seething Wells was a journalist but "back in the day" he was a Punk Poet of some renown, appearing alongside my favourite of the era Attila the Stockbroker and, amongst others, Porky the Poet who was to become/return to being Phil Jupitus at a later date.




The only piece of vinyl I still have of Seething Wells is his 1982 joint EP "Rough, Raw and Ranting EP/Ranting Verse at Wandsworth" - half his own work and half that of Attila the Stockbroker. Seething Wells' contributions were: Godzilla v The Tetley Bittermen, Police Dog, Cadillacs In Bradford, Agro-Britain and Ha Ha Ha. I must say that I did prefer Attila's contributions: A Bang And A Wimpy, Pap Music For Wreck People, Andy Is A Corportist, I Don't Talk To Popstars, Foyer Bar, They Must Be Russians and Russians In The D.H.S.S.


As I write this it is incredible how many of these tracks I remember some 27 years later. Here is the only one of those tracks that I could find on line and it's a much later recording of Attila the Stockbroker's Russians in the D.H.S.S.

Once again I question why I, a right-winger even in 1981/2, loved the music and poetry of such renowned leftists. And once again I suppose it is because as with Paul Weller, Gil Scott Heron, The Housemartins and Billy Bragg, the left does have the best tunes, if not the best policies.

According to a comment under the Register's story:

"He is on record as having asked for an open coffin in which he is sitting upright, with a mechanised arm moving his hand up and down gripping his artificially engorged deceased todger. I really, really hope he gets this."

What finer memorial could there be?



Update:
From Guido Fawkes's site, where I mentioned the death of Seething Wells in the comments re Michael jackson, this comment caught my eye:

"E J Thribb (17.5) says:

So

Farewell then
Seething Wells
Poet of punk
I thought you were
A village in Dorset
Keith’s Mum says you were
Big in the 80s
But now you are about to become
Much smaller"

Here's some Attila the Stockbroker