Playlouder - Music is the Network

Morrissey showed class in saving the event. And maybe now the NME will finally take the hint, and drop the adolescent posturing and attempts at witch-burning.

I can't really see them printing an issue with Blood & Honour on the front cover just yet, however...

Skrewdriver memorial isusue?

why would anyone want nme to stop stirring up trouble?? life should not be a centre parks brochure

ironically enough music mags including the nme have been running a few stories on geoffrey oi!cott, an oi! revivalist band. not sure about their personal politics but they got a very much traditional skin ead look and like their union jacks quite a bit...

garry bushell is on their top friends list too

Ah - but should a Centre Parks brochure BE LIFE?

Considering how racist everyone is, racism remains surprisingly unfashionable

Funnily enough, I was going to suggest that they get Garry Bushell in as guest editor if they make that mooted lurch to the right...

...As for the NME stirring up trouble: when it involves doing a hatchet-job on someone in order to sell a few more copies, often at the expense of the said artist's career, how is that ever a good thing? Their chickens well and truly came home to roost when Morrissey had the guts to take them to court.

Symptomatic of how the so-called freedom of the press is often at the expense of individual freedom of speech, in fact.

my mother is fairly morrissey obsessed and said she sort of agreed with what he said last year, though she does have the defense of being half asian

also that quote of the guy saying 'that's racism dealt with then' is pretty good

I don't remember exaclty what morrissey said - something about the floodgates being open (yes - ages ago) and having to say goodbye to the england you knew. I didn't disagree with anything he said, nor was any of it explicitly racist. I'd say anyone who read the same article as me and came out of it thinking Morrissey's a bigot should really take a look in the mirror. Running around verbally expressing how racist you're not does not have much bearing on anything except your own insecurity

BNP qualify sentences with "we're not racist..." and "of any creed, colour, race..." ALL the time

to bastardise a Propagandhi lyric "potential racists all are we"

I find the whole question of what constitutes racism and who qualifies as racist far from straightforward, to say the least; this is large part of why I take issue with the NME using the topic to try to squeeze out a few more sales.

As for Morrissey's comments, the one thing I remember with some clarity was his impression that London nowadays could be a city anywhere in the world. To warm to the Center Parcs metaphor, too many people who come here treat it like a bloody theme park, rather than having any respect for it as somewhere where at least some of the inhabitants have a long-term stake in the place.

Corporate-everything is ripping the very soul out of our capital (and indeed our country) and the more people who live here who don't share the British sense of humour, for example, or don't understand the delightful quirks of our culture, the easier the job is for the multinationals.

People are invited to treat it like a theme park - that's how it makes so much money. Incidentally, I don't believe The Olympics could possibly be a good thing for the city in thelong term.

And The British sense of humour is overrated.

I meet few poeple who have what I would consider to be a very good sense of humour, and I meet few non-British people.

I fail to see any relationship between a compromised sense of humour and the dominance of capitalism.

Svenhunter, if you can't see the relationship between humour and the dominance of multinationals, try imagining a Britain which was incapable of producing Fawlty Towers and where Friends was both the benchmark and blueprint for all sitcoms.

And when you say that tourists are 'invited' to treat London like a theme park - by whom? Not by the majority of people who live here!

I can't imagine the French putting up with corporate assaults on their culture with the complancancy

...in as complacent a manner as the British do. Even when we DO manage to recognise some unique and special aspect of our culture, its defence is usually fought as a rearguard action.

And are you aware of the trend for formally public spaces to be ringfenced for private ownership, often with the general public being kept in the dark about what's going on?

French people don't have much of a sense of humour though. Everybody knows that.

Tourists are invited by the tourist board, and the industry, which contains people. Naturally everbody hates them, but they are essential for the economy.

Oxford is very English and you're not allowed in any of it unless your part of that great English Institution, Oxford University. I'm unaware of formerly public places being given over to private ownership on a large scale, presumably due to being kept in the dark.

I still fail to see any relationship between a compromised sense of humour and the dominance of capitalism.

Sounds like Freakonomics to me.

The Tourist Board may be doing the inviting, but who's inviting said tourists to treat major cities like THEME PARKS???

If you're not aware of the passing of public space into private ownership, maybe you should have a look at the Space Hijackers website:

Or maybe should have read the article in the Guardian about this happening in the centre of Liverpool and in London's Chinatown, and how this is slowly being replicated elsewhere.

Presumably, the French aren't aware that they have no sense of humour!

...'though I've watched some very funny French films, so maybe it's time to abandon that xenophobic stance.

If using the British sense of humour as an example isn't working for you, maybe we should explore this broad topic via one of my favourite subject areas: pubs and beer!

On the one hand, the main reason that the beer styles native to the UK continue to be brewed and served in an unfiltered, unpasteurised form is that a certain well-known consumer pressure group has been campaigning to preserve them for the last 30-odd years, in the face of a largely hostile media and national / multi-national brewers who have tried various ruses to restrict competition and consumer choice during that period. Can you imagine the French allowing large corporations to 'dumb down' their wines, or their having to be made aware that they exist at all in the first place?

On the other, how many truly independent pubs do you know of nowadays? Due to the overheads involved (including the punitive business rates levied by some greedy local authorities) and the high cost of real estate, the licenced trade is increasingly an arena in which only the big PubCo groups can compete. Goodbye British pub; hello 'British Pub Experience'.

There's more of a marekt for French wines abroad (despite their lack of a sense of humour), nobody wants to drink British beer so that's going to make thingws difficult. Does this fantastic French sense of humour facillitate the multi-national campanies' ravaging of our country or not? I'm utterly confused now.

Still, I applaud your numerous observations of the obvious re: pubs.

But you can't enforce taste on people. If people will happily populate the Wetherspoons because of their cheap prices, obnoxious service and poorly-kept pumps, then so be it.

The public wants what the public gets

Which applies to music, too, obviously

Most people are happy to have their hobbies chosen for them

Embrace the adverts

that'sa tag joke

riaa is in jurassic park. roaming around mumbling to itself as it hunts drmasaurus

thats a joke

a terrible one too.

as any good joke should be! why are we inside when its so nice out?

"There's more of a marekt [sic] for French wines abroad...nobody wants to drink British beer". Utter bollocks! Why do you imagine microbreweries have been springing up in various parts of the USA since the eighties, brewing variations on British beers styles? Or why the trend has been spreading more recently in various European countries and elsewhere in the world? The reason there doesn't appear (on the surface) to be a demand for our beer abroad is because almost NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT THEM!!! If marketing British beer was regarded as a national duty in the way that the French regard the promotion of their wine, as opposed to something only fit to be carried out by a marginalised volunteer organisation, the picture might be a little different.

Maybe you imagine there's something really clever in taking a nihilistic stance re the way in which various things which we used to be able to enjoy directly are now only available through a layer of mediation, at inflated prices; personally, I find it a sad comment on the times in which we live.

A world in which all music is basically U2; all beer is Budweiser; all sitcoms are Friends...

...All towns are like Milton Keynes.

I find nothing about the situation you describe to be palletable and obviously share your tastes and/or opinions, however, I'm not sure that I want to make it my own personal mission to inflict what I perceive to be my 'good taste' on people.

Nobody knows about them, indeed. Like nobody knows about Chrome Hoof. This is because more MONEY can be made out of, for example, THE KOOKS.

The problem with everything is that intelligence does not necessarily correlate with success, happiness or the urge to do good.

Civilisation has such potential - particularly in prosperous areas such as we are so fortunate to inhabit.

However, this poetential will never, NEVER be realised. Because of c***s. C***s everywhere.

Always.

I'm not a nihilist by the way. No more than I'm a Buddhist.

We must never stop our search for the beach under the street! Yes we are weak and we fail, but we can only try to live our lives as best we see fit.

palletable is a good word

are you a freightist?

Would I know if I was?

It's trademarked, right? So I guess I'm not.

Svenhunter, happy to get a sincere reaction out of you; I thought you were probably being disingenuous, but you were starting to get me a little worried...

As for FORCING opinions or notions of 'good taste' onto people: no, I wouldn't be in favour of that either, but I am in favour of making sure that everyone gets a genuine choice / the opportunity to make informed decisions.

I'll demonstrate by using my cup of tea analogy...

Pouring unsugared tea for everyone, but giving them the option of adding their own sugar is offering them a choice.

Sugaring everyone's tea because that's how you like it and you therefore think that's 'right' is forcing your point of view on everyone else.

Seems like I've just stated the obvious, but I can think of lots of real-life situations which are hardly more complex where large numbers of people can't appreciate the difference between the two actions...

...Then again, someone may want coffee.

I've found myself doing the equivalent of gagging on a cup of sugared tea in many, many situations.

Thought it was about time to bring Volvos, Starbucks and i-Pods into the equation...

...'Though perhaps the Premiership may be more relevant: Man U as football's WalMart.

Apparently Gene Simmons gathers "darkness" to please him and commands me to kneel. So stay tuned!