1901 Blood Brothers in Richmond, Lunch in Kingston

After an excellent journey to the capital, an unexpectedly treat of a day on Monday visiting the town where my first purchased home is located, seeing Shutter Island at Kingston and La Boheme at Wimbledon, taking the tram for almost length of its track, a family meal and lots of chat, deciding what to do with my third full day and something which would add to the experience posed a problem. My pre journey intention had been to visit the new Renaissance exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and /or the Henry Moore retrospective at the Tate but if the weather as good then I fancied a trip to Richmond, taking the bus from Kingston, and passing Ham and Petersham, alighting at the Thames riverside and going on to the Green, one of the most picturesque in all the British Islands, lunching, having a walk around, taking a river bus trip, assuming their continuing operation, perhaps then continuing on the sixty five to Ealing where I had worked between 1967 and 1970, not that I remembered the number of the bus when considering the options.

All this seemed unlikely when I opened the curtains of the room Croydon and looked towards the Nestle building and the main road passed the Fairfield Halls, towards the Local authority buildings where I had worked for the Finance department in late 950’s and noticed the grey skies which looked full of rain. I decided that I would nevertheless take the bus to Kingston and if weather had not improved take the train from there to Waterloo.

I arrived at the bus stop in good time and was able to take a raised seat midway in the bus, able to pay greater attention to the other passengers and the places passed, remembering previous associations. A retired couple behind me provided a running commentary and at the Fairfield Halls reminisced at a past era. Passing between Beddington and Park and Wallington Green and I remembered the where a Liberal parliamentary Candidate lived whose children attended the same school and church and where we had gone Carol singing one Christmas as teenagers. In those days he lost his deposit gaining only a few votes whereas today the Sutton Council has a Liberal Democrat majority and a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament. After Carshalton pond we passed the former music store, now selling clocks where another former pupil lived above with his family.

At the station stop in Kingston I alighted in front of a Wetherspoons pub offering their three sausages and chips with beans for £3.99. This was irresistible. This is a giant of a Wetherspoons with two large seating areas and a horde of young staff who appeared to be enjoying their working day. The meal came surprisingly quickly given the number of people in the pub restaurant and someone came to check that I was satisfied with the food soon after it had been delivered. It was noon and I realised that Prime Minister’s Question Time was showing with sub titles. I was too lazy to move. However on going to the gents before making my way, I noticed that the House remained full and Chancellor of the Exchequer William Darling was on his feet. It was budget day.

After making myself comfortable I found a table close to a screen and watched the rest of his speech. In total he said nothing other than remind of the Government‘s performance and previously stated policies and decisions to do nothing to lessen the impact of the recession, to protect jobs as much a possible and to stimulate the economy in the best possible of ways. He explained the plans to reduce the national deficit with the forecast reduced by some 11 billions from 178 to 167 because improvements in employment, reductions in benefit payments and other measures. The only new announcement was to double the price of a property to a quarter of a million before stamp duty has to be paid and this will be offset by charging an additional 5% on properties worth more than £1 million. The speech will have placed the Conservatives in a difficult situation because their only accurate from of criticism would be to criticise the failure to cut public expenditure and not raising more taxes, both of which would have been electorally disastrous alienating the centre and their own core supporters. They therefore concentrated on criticising the government leadership and its personalities

I then went in search of the bus station and the bus to Richmond having remembered, so I thought, the way through the town centre having passed the bus station earlier. I was wrong and soon found myself close to the Kingston College and a one way system back into the centre of town where in a side street were not one but two 65 buses to Richmond and Ealing parked on their turnaround and with a small queue of people waiting at the bus stop for the first of these buses to recommence their journey. This had been a great stroke of luck because the bus then filled with standing room only accommodation at the next two stops through the town centre

After leaving the town centre where the traffic is always heavy because of the Thames and the one bridge crossing we moved quickly into the pleasant suburbs and then to a stretch of still magical England with the green at Ham surrounded by fine houses and cottages. Ham is across the way from Teddington Lock at the end of the long Teddington High Street which I had walked its length on the Monday.

It is possible to walk the whole stretch of the river thanes on this side of the River to Ham, Petersham and Richmond, whereas mention on the other side private housing and private roads restrict and discourage entry to the river bank. There is a pond to one side of the Common and a short walk on the other side of the road and one is in the vast acres of Richmond Park. Unless one is a good walker then a car is required for Richmond Park where there is an excellent refreshment facility at its centre in the former home of the first Earl Russell, Pembroke Lodge where I took my birth and care mothers and aunt to tea during their last years together having parked at the Richmond Green beforehand. I had also attended a Home Office Children’ s department arranged course at Strawberry Hill on the other side of the Park over three and half square miles and three times the size of New York’s Central Park. The Royal ballet school is within the park as is the Metropolitan police command centre for all the Royal parks.

A little further along this pleasant road of twists and turns is Petersham with its meadow land under Richmond Hill from which here are impressive view across this part of the Thames valley. There is a gatehouse road into the Park. The bus then continue on a road with the river to one side and the lower slopes of Richmond Hill on the other and this where I alighted rather than continue to the town centre. The sun was shining again and it was pleasantly warm. I unbuttoned my coat. I debated continue down a path to the river bank but thought I would do this later and enquire if there was a river bus back to Kingston. I have with the past five years taken the river boat from Hampton Court to Richmond. I was once interviewed for a senior post with the London Borough of Richmond but political background was not suited. I also recalled making a special journey to the Curzon Cinema and Water Lane to see a film about the Spanish Civil War.

Instead of going down to the river I walked up a steep bank into the Richmond Hill road of art galleries, antique shops and restaurants before retracing steps down to one of the two Odeon Cinema across from the Richmond Bridge which goes to Twickenham and Teddington. Someone has written that in 200 years the only things that have changed is the emergence of the International Rugby Union stadium at Twickenham and the constant flying of planes landing or taking off at Heathrow, although there was not much evidence of this on the day. I needed another visit to the loo and headed for John Lewis and had great difficulty in locating the toilets which are unmarked in the far corner of the second floor, obviously aimed at preventing steady stream of visitors like me. I was able to assist two middle aged women who were on a similar search.

Comfortable once more it was time to make for the wonderful Richmond Green and I thought I would look out the mansion which I had noted for sale in Saville’s. Later on line I learned that the asking price is £6.5 million for this four story property with its own pleasant gardens but overlooking the Green and with very spacious drawing rooms, many bedrooms rooms, and a guest flat or one for staff as garden flat, similar in fact to the situation at my former home in Teddington, There is a double garage and off street parking for five vehicles including access to Old Palace Yard. Located within walking of the Riverside and Parkland it is a dream location in a small town full of antique and art shops and good food restaurants. Oh to win the European Lottery for a win of £20million would be needed to look after the extended family, to purchase and adapted property for my project and arrange and endowment to secure its future from the tax man. I entered the Green by the famous Cricketers Pub and it is on this Green that the first Cricket match between Middlesex and Surrey was played in 1730 although here is reference to cricket being played here in 1666. Croydon also played Chertsey in 1736 thus combining links however loose ones which have drawn me to the town. Most of the benches around the Green were occupied but saw one on the far side and making my way I then stopped having noticed a lot of people outside the Richmond Theatre which is one side of an extension to the Green. Wednesday, Matinee time and it was 2.15.
Then the Gods looked down on me, beaming. There was a performance of the Willie Russell masterpiece Blood Brothers, undertaking its 25th anniversary tour. I could have a seat in the second row at the. I was able to sit with vacant seats on either side and a clear view between the pair of seats in front. I was in wonderland. The rest of the large theatre was full. I has a double chocolate ice cream at the Interval.

The Richmond Theatre on Little Green was built in 1899 and is the outstanding example of a Frank Matchem Theatre with a tradition interior of stalls, dress and upper circle full of gilt and plush red fabric. The Theatre has been used many film and TV productions such as Evita, Neverland and Jonathan Creek and remains capable of productions prior to the West end as well as professional Touring companies. It echoes back to the great era of the musical hall and pantomime

Blood Brothers is one of the longest running West end production in musical history with a tragic moving story, great music and a clever concept imaginatively presented. It features a Catholic Merseyside woman with five children whose husband runs off with a younger Marilyn Munroe lookalike, leaving her to fend on the dole, ordering more goods than she can ever afford from the catalogues. She gets a job cleaning for a middle class housewife with no children and finding herself having twins reluctantly agrees to give one of the two to the childless employer. The woman cannot cope with the situation and having agreed that the mother would be able to see her other so grow up through he continuing work, she persuades her husband to agree to their moving away after the two boys become close friend and make themselves into blood brothers.

When the mother and her six children are rehoused to a new estate on the outskirts of Liverpool they two boys, now young men encounter and re-establish their friendship together with a young girl who adores the working class half who is unable to express his affection while the middle class lad also adores the girl but recognises the prior claim of the other as well as the girl’s preference. When the middle class lad goes away to university, the couple are required to get wed and no sooner does the lad settle down living with their mother he is made redundant and then persuaded to participate in an armed robbery by his elder brother. in which someone is shot and the younger man is sent to prison for seven years, destroyed emotionally by the experience he returns to his family dependent on pills. In desperation his wife turns to his still unknown to them twin brother, now a councillor, for help to get a job and their own council home. The working class lad misinterprets the relationships and enter the Council premises with a gun. He is warmed by an armed police response team.

As a prologue we witness this last scene in which the brothers have been killed and we are told it was part of a curse a warning that should the two ever find out their relationship they would die. In order to prevent the middle class son killing the other, their mother reveals the truth and one shoots the other, with the police shooting the remaining twin.

The musical play demonstrates the strength of my dictum that what we do and say remains with us throughout our lives and with those involved. The main message of the play is one of class and when the two lads get into trouble with the police, one is given a final warning and other advice to keep away from the working class district. There are six principles in the cast. The Mother - Mrs Johnston and her twin son Mickey, Mrs Lyon and the other twin son Edward, the girl Linda and the narrator/chorus /conscience/prophet. Among those who have features as Mrs Johnston are Stephanie Lawrence, Clodagh Rogers, Kiki Dee and four of the Nolan Sisters, with Spice girl Mel among the latest. Russell Crow appeared as Mickey in the Australian production. Petula Clark made her Broadway debut in the work with the Cassidy brothers playing the twins. There has been a Japanese production and boot leg productions in many languages as well as official tours around the world.

Adults play the children and then the adolescents with considerable insight and naturalness and it is this aspect which has made the musical an essential introduction to the theatre for many young people, often brought to schools by the groups of actors. On Wednesday there was a party of fifth or sixth formers who enjoyed the show immensely , some moved to tears at the end. especially the girls who reacted to the jokes and aside about adolescent sexual and emotional fumblings of the boys. Despite knowing from the outset what the end will be there was still a strong emotional outburst from the audience followed by prolonged applause and a standing ovation, something which the show has experienced over the past 25 years everywhere everytime.

I made my way, joyously, back by bus to Kingston, then by train to Wimbledon and Tram to Croydon getting in after seven. I made by way from the Theatre and to where I thought there might be a bus stop in the one way system discovering a mini bus station down a side street and where a 65 bus arrived within seconds.

There was just time for the lady waiting on the seat next tome to hand me a tract from the Bible. She must have been clairvoyant for I was having a brief erotic memory Over forty years ago I was without my car and I had taken the 65 at Ealing to Kingston and then got a bus to my home in Teddington. This was in the late 1960‘s when girls were wearing the shortest of skirts for the first time. Unable to get a seat I had to go upstairs and look up had been startled by the rear of an attractive girl who had turned round and look back at me smiling. She went further inside the bus and I took a seat at the front for the different form of view.

I then made a mess of using the Oyster card for the first time. Again I arrived at Kingston station to find a train being announced so I rushed hoping that I had correct used the Oyster Card to gain entry, but I think I had the card in the holder the wrong way round. At Wimbledon I went straight to the Platform for the tram but the card did not register and I was told to seek help. Being rush hour the attendant was very busy but he eventually helped taking the correct amount from the card for the journey from Kingston. However I was not sure the card registered for tram trip. I thought the card had an initial deposit of £3 showing plus the £5, When I checked the following day there was only £1.10 in credit so a great mystery. However it had been another great day.

1404 Riot at the Customs House South Shields

With a need to purchase fruit and to post the income tax return for the financial year 2007 2008 I went out mid morning and decided to purchase a ticket for the performance of Riot at the Customs House. On arrival I discovered a matinee and opted for that. I bought some cherries, strawberries and grapes on the way.

Over 100 tear ago the thriving port of South Shields invited seamen from Somalia, India, Malaysia and Africa and especially from the Yemen to undertake jobs on ships such as stokers and firemen. The ship owners could pay them inferior wages must as a whole range of employers today are delighted to employ labour from the poorer countries of Europe because of their willingness to reliably work long hours without complaint, During the first world war the seamen became invaluable as British born men were drafted into the Royal Navy. It is estimated that approximately 2000 were living around the docks at Mill Dam at this time, forming the fist significant Muslin community to settle in Britain.

South Shields was a coal mining town as well as dockyards and where ships were built a little further up the river at Jarrow., at Hebburn and across the river where a pedestrian tunnel connected the banks as well a passenger ferries. South Shields was hard working class town where the middle class lived in small areas, where I live was one, and in the neighbouring countryside. The nature of the life and the rigid class distinctions have been accurate portrayed in the novels of Catherine Cookson and The TV films and serials which followed publication and the international success of the writer. It was inevitable that British born seamen were demobilised and the economic depression developed there was resentment against those from other lands, skin colours, cultures and religion. As with what happened to the Town of Jarrow with the decline in shipping, the Labour Party, some Trade Unions, the established Churches, and town's administrators did not cover themselves with glory, with some individuals being more concerned about the protection and advancement of their personal position than the welfare of the people in general.
The local newspaper, one of the oldest in the land published letters and editorials which if they did so to-day would lead to the prosecution and imprisonment of the owners and editorial staff for the blatant fuelling of racial tensions.

My understanding that there is evidence for the impression given in the play by Peter Mortimer the principal culprits was the local leader of the seaman's union who caved in too readily to the positions taken up by the shop owners especially then a rota system was slanted against the migrant workers. The Communists Party and other socialist interests stepped in to create the Minority Movement, left wing challenge to the National Union of Seamen and the Shipping Federation and which comprised migrant workers and white Seamen. This was not a sort lived situation as it lasted throughout the 1920's coming to ahead first in April 1930 when 13 Somalis were taken to North Tyneside from South Shields to work on ships leaving from there. The situation exploded into rioting on August 2nd 1930 when fuelled by baseless rumour a large mob of white seamen roamed the waterfront hunting for Arabs and foreigners, There was a counter demonstration arranged by the Minority Movement and eventually the two sides clashed. The police then attempted to keep the peace drawing truncheons and charging and several Arabs drew knives and four policemen were stabbed. 26 men were arrested 20 Arabs and six white. The Arabs were subsequently convicted and given sentences from three to sixteen months with hard labour after which they were deported. The white organisers were given eight months. However the real scandal was the behaviour of the civic authorities towards the rest of the Muslim seamen when over 100 who had nothing to do with the riots were also deported as a consequence of seeking assistance through the workhouse.

In this respect one has to place the situation in the wider perspective of local authority control over Workhouses, Asylums and the activities of the police. I have studied some of the local poor law records and right up until the 1948 National Assistance Act one could find decisions which would rightly be condemned to day including local up single parents mothers and taking away their children. I have seen orders signed by leading trade unionists and labour Councillors.

During the Second World War a significant number of non white seamen were among the 3000 who died but little recognition was given to them When there was the development of local business often opening cafes and restaurants in the 1950's the police were used in various ways to inhibit trade with false accusations of drugs and prostitution. In the sixties South Shields did become a centre for Heroin after addicts were driven out of London and settled in the town. At one stage half those in the regional rehabilitation until came from the town. There were all British born white, as were the prostitutes who frequented the pubs and clubs close to the docklands.

The Play was first produced at the Custom's House in 2005 and this new production has been created with the help of the Trade Union Unison with performance in Liverpool as part of the Arabic Arts Festival and the European Capital of Culture Celebrations. The performance company comes from Tyneside and the Director of the work lives in South Shields.

I was therefore very interested to see what kind of audience there was for a June Matinee afternoon when the town is thronged with shoppers for the greater part of the day and then going home to tea and in preparation for the evening entertainment. At least three quarters of the auditorium was filled with a wide range of ages although many young people created a responsive atmosphere to the humour as well as seriousness of the work. As far as I could see there was only one person present who was not evidently white.

Later at home I watched a remarkable "extra" on the Bobby DVD where five people who were present at the Ambassador Hotel spoke at some length about their experience, including one who suffered superficial wounds in the head, one who was a civil right worker with the campaign who had been on voter registration in the deep South and who had then become involved in monitoring White Supremacist organisations, and one remarkable lady who been the key figure in organising the Latino struggle of basic rights in the sixties which Bobby had also taken up and had been responsible for the voter registration of some 140000 into the campaign. I saw the best hearts of that generation broken that night to misquote and misuse the opening words of Howl

1207 The Tube programme and all that All this and Heaven too

This writing marks the completion of the second series of 101 Myspace writing, or as I now wish the work to be known as 101.75, a total of 1074 pieces if added to those on AOL, within 2 years. It commenced on May 24 2006, with 19 pieces that month, and then in June 151, July 76, August 76, September 99, October 96, November 76 December 87, January 2007 62, February 69, March 61. My objective is to complete a further set of 100.75 by the anniversary of my first year on Myspace on February 17th.

I commenced to write this piece while listening to a commentary of Newcastle at home to Portsmouth. Within nine minutes the score was Newcastle 0 Portsmouth 1, a minute later it was Newcastle 0. Portsmouth 2 and then Newcastle 0 Portsmouth after 10 minutes, with two mistakes. A scrambled own goal via Michael Owen made it 1-3 and from horror disaster the fifty thousand crowd sensed all was not lost.

There are many advantages to living in the North East and one of these the absence of traffic jams. When I travelled, usually by car, once a month to London, for a decade, I dreaded the last fifty odd miles where the choice was the M 25 stuck in a slow moving end less four and three lane chain of cars for miles from the area approaching London Airport through to Purley, or into central London, past Lords, across Oxford Street, to Victoria, with an option of routes through South London, with slow moving traffic and dozen upon dozen of traffic lights. Such was the nightmare of this apart of the journey that after several years I commenced to break up the journey, with a leisurely start, a visit to the cinema or to a country house, an overnight stay at a Travel Lodge paying as little as £5 a night, £10 or £15 and never more than around £25. And then after breakfast facing a morning drive in traffic, traffic, traffic.

Several years before this I learnt the reality of London traffic when serving on a sub committee of a committee organised by the Home Office which offered a car parking space for meetings which commenced at 10.30 am. I remember the first occasion well in that unsure of what the traffic would be like I set off after 8 am probably nearer 8.30 thinking the ten to twelve miles would take a hour to an hour and half which would give me timer to go through the papers once more and get ready any contribution, or chat with other colleagues as they arrived. I had anticipated some traffic congestion as I approached inner London, having in the later 1960's travelled for three years from Teddington to Ealing in West London a journey of a similar distance. I just had not anticipated the growth in traffic out into the suburbs in a decade and a half and arrived just as the meeting commenced. The alternative was a walk to the station, a forty minute train ride usually standing, and a crushed underground ride of one station from Victoria to St James, on a walk. I thought of these experiences as for the first time in years I encountered major congestion last night in the City of Newcastle.

For the second time in a week I miscalculated the time required to journey from my home, on this occasion to the Sage Concert Halls for a curious event to celebrate 25 years since the birth of The Tube, the Iconic contemporary music show produced by Tyne Tees Television for Channel Four in Newcastle from 1982 to 1987, 121 episodes and 10 specials. Given the previous experience I should have set off at 6.30 but it was after seven. I had planned to travel by car to Hewarth, then take the Metro to Gateshead and a special bus service to the entrance of the Sage. I decided not to risk a late arrival and took a taxi although I could have kept to the original plan as it was well after eight before the evening commenced. It was after 11pm when I I decided to take the first special bus which first went to the Baltic, then to the Quayside in central Newcastle and the City station, rather than wait the nine minutes for a bus which would have taken the short distance from the Sage to Gateshead interchange station.

From the moment the bus crossed over the swing bridge onto the Newcastle Quayside the traffic was solid and slow moving, from those leaving after a night out at the theatre, cinema, or concert hall or music gig and those arriving for the night clubs. The streets were pulsating with mainly young people, mostly in single sex groups, although as previously observed there was an age range down by the Quayside. One of the venues, a bar, which might also serve food, has been renamed Rumpole's, after the fictitious barrister created by John Mortimer who frequented a bar called Pomeroy's, popular with members of the legal profession. One group of young men, whop engaged in conversation with a single young man with the appearance of a bouncer, explained that they had stayed in Newcastle after work, doing the pubs and bars looking for lasses, and without success were heading for the night clubs in Shields, where they also had lodgings. I was right about the bouncer as he explained that he guarded the entrance to the restricted area of one of the clubs.

And the event? Was a little disappointing. There were six individuals on the platform but no presenter although Jules Holland did a good interview in which he described how he was appointed and the significance of the show as the creator of a culture in which musicians and comedians would come up to Newcastle, often staying over for the party atmosphere although BA reorganised its Friday flight schedule to bring up those who wished to travel from London for the day or return after the evening performance.

The most rewarding aspect of the evening was the account as to how the show got off the ground, including a meeting in a Newcastle fish and chip restaurant in which Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the founder and chief executive of Chanel allegedly told the commissioning director and programme directors, Don't' f…k up. The use of descriptive expletives was a feature of the Tube, with Jules Holland having to resign after he unintentionally swore on a live programme which went out early evening tea time and was watched by school age children. The programme also gained notoriety because of the outlandish appearance and behaviour of its main presenter with Jools Holland, the later Paula Yates, the former wife of Sir Bob Geldorf. Paul had responsibility for the first 45 mins of the programme which concentrated on interviews, fashion items and comedy, with Paula conducting her interviews on a bed and one on occasion persuading Sting to remove his trousers.

It was the second 45 minutes of live music performances which made the show essential viewing for popular music promoters, managers and record producers and who in some instances snapped up a new artist to make them instant successes, with the Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood giving their raunchy performance of Relax. They immediately appeared on Top of the Tops and Relax shot to number 1 although he video was banned by the BBC and MTV which had just started.
For young people to day there are over 20 music dedicated stations providing 24 hour entertainment as well a similar number of radio stations with the number exponentially increasing through the use of the internet, there are hundred of music live music gigs and an area such as Tyne and Wear but back in in the early ages, when I was middle aged, until MTV there was only Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test was coming to an end and the Tube was a significant break through with its midsummer special programmes lasting five hours.

Looking at the footage of the first programmes in black and white I was struck by the audience, unsophisticated , also church like in their wonderment at the experience unfolding around them and how different from the lively crowds in the Quayside and Bigg Market after the show, many looking as if they had come from on were going to appear on Top of the Pops during its sexual hey day of up short skirt close ups and Pans People. Some of those young original young people were in the audience at the Sage from a hand sup request. There was also a gathering of insiders with many of the crew and production team. My taxi driver said that there had been a feature on the show on regional news before he came out to work for the evening.

The disappointing aspect was the absence of an appearance on the night or a film tribute collation from a major performer. Heaven 17 was a Sheffield based band which appeared on the first show and lead singer was part of the platform team and because he had agreed to participate whereas I suspect many others invited had not, an inordinate amount of attention was given to his work with two numbers from the original show and then a ten minute film, which was out of proportion to what the Tube came to stand for. I very much enjoyed the first part of the show but the second was something of anti climax, rushed because of over running with some clips cuts.

This was an interesting project something of an experiment for the Sage and there was no doubting the enthusiasm of its organiser who acted as chair of the panel and the best were the reminisces of panel members who I thought they were less convincing when they attempted to evaluate the show or comment on whether a similar kind of rough at the edges spontaneous show was required as an antidote to the polished scripted professional music channels and videos and orchestrated live music and dance performances of today.

This is an appropriate moment to mention that New astle eventually lost 1-4 at home indicating what I anticipated as a failure of Sam Alladyce I only know how to play one way with also ran players. Sunderland are at Man City who lost heavily at Chelsea last week so theatre is no expectation of a match which is live on Monday night TV. The following week it is Sunderland laying Newcastle at home with both teams wish to give their loyal fans something to shout about for the rest of the season, or at least the return Derby game.

Earlier in the day I saw the beginning and the end of a melodrama with a young Bette Davis showing the talent which made her I to one of the finest Actors of Hollywood. There were sugary children and one sided characterisations and dodgy script. All this and Heaven too. In past years when it came to a choice between the X Factor singing and the dancing with celebrities there was no context, and last year was exceptional with the amazing Leone and several others destined for a career in 'the business.' This year there are several weak finalists and no one world class uniquely outstanding, and the youngest was booted out when it emerged she had put on phone record a violent outburst involving a former friend. However there is a former school teacher from Luton who has a great voice and the right kind of image and personality. The programme also manufactured two groups one of five, originally six young men and one of six young women, who have talent and are learning presentational skills quickly. There is also one odd looking young man with a powerful stage voice and polished entertaining presentation. But the dancers took the honours.

My chess playing skills matches by lack of concentration and application since the monster work effort a week ago and having reached 50 and 40 runs of wins on level 2 I have not failed to progress into double figures several time in succession but suffered several checkmates. I know what the problem is but the mood and inclination is against making the required changes. So I shall watch the first 15 mins of the Newcastle horror show, the masochist that I am and then start the final episodes of the Great War to mark the third series of 101.75 writing.

1201 Casanova a play

Last night, as I was saying, I left the theatre at the interval. The work was called Casanova although if this is a male name the play ought to have been called Casanove although traditionally the converse would have been batter. I was attracted to a play about the life of Casanova. I have seen nothing better since the 1971 BBC TV series written by Dennis Potter with Frank Finlay in the starring role, but I also liked the 1976 Fellini Film with Donald Sutherland and I have a Men of Destiny volume on his life, a work by Chevalier de Seingalt, translated by Bonamy Debree. I ought to have known that this was an experimental concept work for two three reasons. Casanova in this work is played by a young female actress whereas in most other works it is about an old man reflecting back, now where I have heard that approach before? Secondly it was billed as a comedy, and I usually avoid anything which sets out to attract an audience as a comedy. Thirdly the company attempted to get bums on seats by displaying the part of the naked bum of the lead actress although she admitted on local radio that this was a stand in. The radio show was about he fact that it was alleged people had been stealing posters of the play, no doubt to put on their student room walls, and certainly the theatre was more than a quarter full of students, mainly young women, given that it was about half full overall. Anyway I sat there for the first half saying I am not enjoying this, I am not amused, intellectually challenged or emotionally engaged. This is adding nothing to my life and I could be making better use of my time. I blamed myself for not taking more care before making the investment.

I was unsure that I had made the right decision when I attempted to book a ticket for a performances at the Sage next month, w eek Friday in fact. This a celebration of the Tube, a Newcastle music programme twenty five years ago presented by Jools Holland, Paula Yates and Murial Gray for Channel 4. The show" will include a production commentary on the first show, plus exclusively screenings special guest When I appeared to fail to complete a booking twice on the internet I gave up only to receive two tickets in the posy, one of which has been returned. The indications are that the performance is not well supported as the tickets were for rows two and three. Among the long list of performers who emerged through the five years of the show were , the Boomtown Rats, Big Country, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Elvis Costello, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Human League, Iggy Pop, Madonna, Meat Loaf, Paul Young, REM, Simply Red, Siouxie and the Banshees, the Jam, The Pretenders, Thin Lizzy, U2, Ultravox, the Smiths and on and on and on.

However while tempted to get a half season at Newcastle, given the progress being made in results, but not in the quality of the football, and at Durham given their progress, the latter at a fraction of the costs of the football, there is the question of allocated the time if I am to undertake a major work project which could move me into a new dimension for the last phase of my life, winning the lottery or a major premium bond prize being unlikely. Such a win will be necessary to buy a home in the new Ocean Village complex built out of a former industrial shipyard area which was already underway when I last visited in 2004. This is an upmarket residential and leisure development for those with lots of dosh. The Gibraltar radio news hour featured the development today together with the extraordinary development that GB airlines, operated by BA at Gatwick and been sold to Easy Jet for over £100. What this means in terms of flights from other airports and on price remains to be seen. It is such commercial enterprises that has driven the political changes between Gibraltar GB and Spain, and will in due course alter the sovereignty question and the composition of resident voting population changes. The thought of all this is very dissatisfying so I wills top and do something else.

1184 Our Friends in the North

Tomorrow (yesterday I went) I go to a theatrical performance of Our Friends in the North, a TV series which I saw when first broadcast and again subsequently. Although this is a fictional drama it expressed the political and social history of a North East which was very evident when I first arrived in the mid 1970's. It has now changed beyond recognition, I believe!

I missed the conference speech of Ming Campbell, and was very impressed by that of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He had the middle England Scotland Wales and Ireland gravitas which Blair lacked and the power base he established at the Treasury over central and local government departments through budget control will have provided him with the mechanism for at least having some prospect of translating political decisions into effect, although whether the outcome will bear any resemblance to the political aspiration is another matter. Yesterday, as it is now tomorrow, I listened with growing concern about much of what David Cameron had to say. It was clever and will have great appeal to his own supporters but not without reservations from his right wing, however there was much about delegating power to school heads for example or the abolition of ring fencing in local government that would be disastrous and dangerous given my experience and which hopefully should outweigh his main bribe, that of the abolition of the inheritance tax on properties worth under £1 million with those who it will affect most in the outer London suburbs and which are marginal seats.

Overall I thought his approach was likely to have greater appeal than Labour's presently, because of the ten years of government and the attraction of a new group, despite their lack of experience in Government. However if as in the past this was to be an election of Gordon versus David there is no competition. David was the right match for Blair but wrong for Gordon. I am still of the opinion that there is no need for an election unless things about the economy, about terrorism or other nasty's are known and are likely to have great electoral impact, or if he knows that internal division will open up once legislation is put to the Parliamentary test. The one potential nasty which I should have mentioned is the Diana Inquest which has opened and where information has been disclosed which begins to show a different light on previous official investigations. I mention this because one major theme of Our Friends in the North is cover up

This is the second opening of a season's major production of the Playhouse Directed by Chief Executive Erica Wymark that I have experienced. I was not taken with the Potter play Son of Man because I was still full of the experience of Mel Gibson's The Passion and I did not think using the double stage worked. Although this is a long production of a play with approaching a two hour opening act and then approaching a one and half hour second act 19.00 to 22.45 performance I thought it was terrific and having a sequence of dramatic endings which were more effective than the TV series and which enabled the three level structure of the play to be understood as an integrated whole.

Our Friends in the North is fiction but because of the deaths of a number of individuals the programme has a Timeline of real life events which covers in the North East the significant moments in the political life of Newcastle City Boss T Dan Smith, and his subsequent imprisonment for six years for corruption. I worked in local government in the North East just after the prison sentences commenced so I knew politicians and senior officials who knew the man and who did then not look the other way. Without exception they spoke of a dedicated man with a vision and a determination to make the City Newcastle a significantly better place for the majority of all its people. I met Dan when after his release he obtain work for an prison after care organisation, at his request, in an official capacity to discuss the role of a social service department when individuals are prison and afterwards, especially on the impact of partners and children. Having been the only local authority chief officer appointed who had been prison beforehand he expected me to have taken a greater personal interest than I did, but my responsibility was for the policies and services of my authority in general and for the Social Services Department in particular, so I identified the specialist staff in the department who coordinated our work with the Criminal Justice system and its agencies and had no subsequent contact.

While the first level of the play concerns the working of politics in the North East1958-1982, when the play was first performed, starting with the covering up of a accident between a car and bicycle as the driver was a member of the Police Committee and ends where one of the victims considers executing the culprit, much of the play is about a second real life situation when it was found that the a significant group of Metropolitan CID officers were receiving substantial amounts of money to effectively protect the Porn and sex club industry in Soho London from prosecution. Detective Chief Inspector George Fenwick was jailed for 10 years as the chief Architect. As previously mentioned I had spent several years of my youth around Soho because of my interest in Jazz and activist politics and I was aware of street life and the clubs, and subsequently I learnt something of the problems at that time at being a straight cop from someone who had worked for the Met CID.

The third level in the play does not suggest an obvious immediate connection, the time in Northern Rhodesia when in 1965 the Harold Wilson led British Government imposed sanctions on a white minority led independence and where it was subsequently alleged that a British oil supply company found a way through the technicalities to maintain the flow using agents and oil from other countries, just as arms manufacturers are always able to find ways of supply any and every side or interest that wishes to buy their wares. The Timeline also makes reference to the unusual choice of honours in Prime Minister Wilson's resignation list and to one in particular where one individual, the son of a close personal supporter of the former Prime Minister, committed suicide a year later during investigation for fraud. It was established that a former senior Conservative Cabinet Minister was an adviser to one of the companies of this man. The former Minister had resigned as Home Secretary four years earlier because it emerged that he held a directorship in the architectural firm of John Poulson who had also gone to prison for five years for corruption along with T Dan Smith
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The individual who links what happened in Northern Rhodesia before it became Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, with Porn police corruption in Soho, London, and the building of dangerous and unliveable flats on Tyneside is Geordie, was one of the young men who witness the bike accident and cover up. When his loses the love of his life to his best fiend, he decides to make his fortune in London and by accident becomes involved with London porn and club life as personal security and bag man for the man bribing the police at their request. When things hot up Geordie is the fall guy who goes to prison, although in the play the police escape because of the way the enquiry is fixed by those with the most to lose. When Geordie is released is seeks revenge first on the minor villain who has scarred his drug taking soliciting female friend because she has advised that Geordie would know who the bribe taking police were, and then on the boss who betrayed him. He then goes as a mercenary to Northern Rhodesian hired by South Africans to help their friends in the North and in the least credible segment of the play is spared by a ruthless black rebel commander who has recently murdered his former farm master and his wife. It on his return and the funeral of the former Labour and life long socialist activist parent of the third friend in the bike incident that the play comes to an end when Geordie confronts the corrupt politician. A second link through the play is that the young constable who expected the corrupt politician to be prosecuted for the bike incident becomes the Assistant Chief Constable appointed to advise the Met on the allegation of corruption involving the Soho porn world. I was reminded that Get Carter also centred on the connections between criminal gangs in London and Tyneside was the catalyst a funeral, and where as in most films about the US Mafia, bootlegging, dealing in girls and porn and thefts from business is considered to be acceptable but switching to illegal drugs and child pornography involving is not and often leads to dispute and power battle between the older time criminals and the upstarts who take their place.

Because it is a good but long play which could have done without the African oil dimension, no doubt included now because of Iraq, it would be wrong to quibble too much about where fiction leaves reality someway behind. In the world North East Politics that I know a senior politician would not have pretended non involvement in an accident involving the loss of a bicycle and he would have settled it on the spot replacing the bicycle with a couple of quid for the trouble or it had to be officially reported because the rider of the bicycle had been hurt, then any offence would have been dealt with quietly minimising publicity by inducements to enable the aggrieved party to settle with the minimum of fuss. I also believe that the whole situation regarding the building and subsequent state of the flats in the North East would not have led to a prosecution had not the 1968 Ronan Point disaster occurred when a gas explosion affected a load bearing wall in a 23 storey Tower Block at Newham, site of the 2012 Olympics and new high speed train stop via the Channel Tunnel.

Unfortunately because the servicing of my car was not completed until today. I could not stay for the after show discussion at which the author Peter Flannery was to be attendance. It is probably just as well because I would not have been able top resist asking him the question, Do you think anything has changed given the ending of a four year enquiry into allegations of fraud involving the leadership of a North East local authority in the early 1990's came to nothing and that a similar level of allegations involving child abuse rings involving the police and local and health authority and other big wigs also came to naught? Perhaps that is material for a new play?

1080 Annie Besant and Gandhi

Last night I went to theatre where only five tickets were sold beforehand and the total when the production commenced was nine. This was very sad because it was a well constructed, sometimes intellectual, sometimes, emotional, sometimes factual work, a little humour, but always interesting work about the life of Annie Besant, during in her time in India, the extraordinary writer of over 100 books about Theosophy and other religions, who had commenced her adult life as the wife of a clergyman, and then progressed into a Marxist, a socialist, trade union activist and fighter for Indian self government, although she believed progressed should be made through democratic constitutional means, opposed to Gandhi's use of non violent civil disobedience protest, because it would lead to confrontation and a holocaust. Having said that according to the play when her approach failed she was said to have swung in favour of Gandhi.

I went to the play because of my interest in Gandhi an non violence protest having acquired one of only 2000 first edition translations of Satyagraha in 1960 and the UNESCO work about his life and thoughts, All Men are Brothers purchased on December 1st 1959 and where I wrote on the frontispiece, "this day shall be remembered annually when the way became clear. May the light always shine and may you (I) always have the courage, strength and humility to serve until the end." I was twenty years of age This book helped understand that means to an end are everything and it was three years later that I acquired Huxley's work on the subject. Having gone to the play with one interest and quickly realising it was not about non violence as a means of action to achieve major political and social changes, I had to dig deep to try and remember what I could remember about the principal subject.

What I was reminded in the play and later from the internet was her Marxist, Fabian Socialist, Trade union activist background after breaking from the confines of being the chattel of Clergyman's wife and losing her children to him

Although brought up in a middle class environment by her widowed mother, her mother had no income except which she created from running a boarding house, and it is of considerable interest to me how and why she, having been given a conventional education and upbringing as a young woman expected to marry and raise children, but have no major influence or role in political and social development matters, she rebelled, went to what was then regarded as extremes, and found herself prosecuted over publishing a work promoting birth control and which dared to suggest that working class families would be happier if they could control they number of children they wanted and could afford to raise. She lost her children and became involved with Irish Home Rule, and interest which she maintained after her life became centred on India. She had a relationship with George Bernard Shaw when he was a young man and others and was inclined to change her politics and her views accordingly, Marxism (Edward Aveling), Socialism (William Morris) and Theosophy, where she subsequently took over the leadership from Charles Webster Leadbeater who also achieved international notoriety through his advice for young boys to masturbate as a prelude to an otherwise celibate spiritual life.

The play is written through the eyes of a young India female searcher for the truth, Sidra, (Ruby Sahota) who approaches Annie at the commencement of the play to become a pupil and stayed closely with her "guru" until her death. The play was written by Rukhsana a writer and adaptor of plays, with a first novel and short stories to her credit, and she devised the idea of having an another actor, perform the role of the Sidra, telling the story of her experience, sitting to one side of the stage for each half of the play. This role is played the artistic director of company Dr Vayu Naidu, whose company bears her name and working with the Guildford Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.

The play is also about the relationship between Annie and one of her adopted sons Krishamurti who she had hoped would become an internationally recognised spiritual leader under her direct influence. The plays, I have yet to establish if it is historically accurate, suggest that he was sought out by a visiting seer and warned that he had to find his own truth. This he did after being educated at Oxford and becoming part of the European social scene, announces his approached to an audience which included his shocked mother.

Again I have to disclose my ignorance of his writings until now, but will be something quickly remedied taking precedence over everything else. In the play his statement of belief is its high point and fortunately the programme notes amplify this further. "Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organisation, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any creed, through any philosophical knowledge, or psychological technique."

For years I have beaten myself up because although I believed I understood the nature of being and how to live and not to do so, I failed in my efforts to integrate into my being all great writings and teachings of philosophy, psychology and spirituality, in so far as I was able to understand, and which has always been limited. I could not justify what I knew to be right or wrong, as a consequence, and here was someone who in 1929, was saying that's Ok, you wont get there by that route alone, the path is a different one. You have to look into yourself and understand your own soul and observe everything in the world around you and then are. You may if driven to do so explain yourself to others if they are interested, but your message must be, do not follow me, accept what I say to you, but find your own solution, this is how I came to be as I am, hopefully something of my experience may of help to you." I now need to find out if this actually what be believed and promoted.

This is not to reject scientific and philosophical knowledge and investigation, for in order to reach an effective and sustaining level of understanding which will enable one to function in different political and social systems, to have satisfying relationships with others and face the possibility of self conscious life ending within a moment, or in prolonged agony of mind and body, one has to acquire and develop abilities to their maximum potential, and this includes removing or quarantining obstacles to making progress,

It is in nature of being that having worked out a truth, the assumption is made that this is the only perspective on truth, that it will not change through further thought and meaningful relationship interactions, and that it will not be different for others. It is not the false prophets without that should be of constant concern, but that of within.

Another stunning piece of writing....Colin have you ever considered being published? Posted by ANGELICLYNORTE on 12:05 - 12:51

1072 Gormenghast

Yesterday I wrote about my often repeated views on the question, who am I? I also suggested the value of talking over the answer with your ancestors. Last night I appeared to be the only Goth at an incredible physical performance of what is regarded as one of the great written works of imagination on the concept of a Gothland created in the twentieth century, Gormenghast, recreated by the David Glass Ensemble at the Newcastle Playhouse. Twice a character asks, what does it all mean? My answer is what you know and what you believe.

This was not a planned visit, although when the season programme arrived, I had made a mental note of this as one of the performances not to be missed. Then MySpace and other matters took over, so it was only on Wednesday that I decided to see what was on at the Playhouse this week, and only then discovered that while there had been a performance that night, there was to be an after performance presentation by the company, on Thursday. I rang at .ten am, when the box office opened, and obtained a seat four rows from the front in a central location.

Usually I undertake research on the company and the play before attending a performance, but because of other commitments, I arrived having only the vaguest recollection of the BBC adaptation and of failing to read the trilogy. For my recent research on the Black and the Goth dimension I had come across countless Myspace sites where I speculated on the depth of commitment of individuals to the cause. On Sunday the majority of the fifty bikers who had gathered on the sea front looked over 30, with a number approaching their sixties. Where are the aging Goths? During the interval, over a cup of strong almost black coffee, I determined to write to 101 Myspace Goths to enquire of if they had read the trilogy of Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus alone. This it will be appreciated as Gothic cheek because I am yet to do so. During the earlier post show chat, where at one point I thought that the audience was going to be outnumbered by the entire ensemble company, an actor commented that there had been occasions when they encountered a row of Goths at the front whose make up was better than theirs, and I wondered if the local tribes would attend Friday or Saturday nights, and if he had spotted that I was dressed in my black sleeveless jacket, black shirt, black trousers and back socks and shoes, or as Benny Hill might say "the oldest Goth in town" although as previously admitted the black hides my overweight and the make up is my natural aging!

I was unprepared for the physicality of this production with its black empty stage, apart from a hidden platform area at the back, and a darkened auditorium so it was impossible to read the programme. You are instantly transported in your imagination to the ginormous Gothic city building of endless corroders, of mystery and gloom and doom. For those like me who had forgotten the story, the first act was primarily an abstract performance art fusion of intense voice, movement, lighting and a visceral sound, live and pre-created, composed by John Escott and Musical Direction by Jonathan Cooper. It was only after one became part of the Mervyn Peake dimension that the story unfolded, and what is in many respects, is a traditional tale, of a situation where the young heir to the throne rebels against the requirements of maintaining the dynasty, imposed by his formidable mother following the disappearance, presumed dead, of his father, and a written constitution of ritual imposed at different times throughout his growing up, coming into conflict with the malevolent designs of a young outsider. Is this really a battle of two opposites, or the struggle within each of us? Is this what our lives are all about?
The characters of the young rebel against his destiny, Titus, is made consistently believable by James Woodbridge, who also plays his father, Sepulchrave, and the bad to his core Steerpike by an equally believable Adam Sunderland, but no one outshines another, except when each is given centre stage, and the others provide support. One way in which Titus rebels is to be drawn to the deliciously ethereal, 'the thing' Played by Elizabeth Collier, whose training as a dancer enabled her to float, while Gertrude Countess of Groan, Sally Mortemore, was convincing, as my mother, in dictating the life of her son, and the protection of the family inheritance, and as one of the damaged identical twin aunts. Elisa de Grey was also convincing as the vulnerable sister Fuchsia who cries out to be savaged by a predator and who switched amazingly into the other identical sister. However she is undone in switching by Eric MacLennan as the grotesque Swelter and the eccentric sympathetic Dr Prunesquallor, and where it was only afterwards I realised it was the same actor. For me the lasting memory will be of Phillip Pellew who as Flay walked the endless corridors in his inimitable and disturbing manner, and who was also the hunchback Master of Ritual, Barguetine, the agent for the rebellion of Titus an also his protector, as is the situation oft in real life. Do not the young always rebel against those with their best intentions at heart? I have mentioned all the cast and by name because of how they fitted into the Ensemble production teams democratic structure, but which only works as well as this when the structure is predetermined by an individual with a singular vision of the script adaptation by John Constable and the overall direction of David Glass. Because I always have found that most live theatre outlives most film experience, and I have spent a lifetime watching most films of substance in the English Language, I am probably being unfair to the BBC drama production, in saying that I suspect this production came closer to communicating the language and intent of the original work. I say this admitting as I have that I am yet to read the text, but will immediately purchase and add to the list of things I need to do before I die.

I read the programme notes when the lights went up for the after show discussion, and rarely, if ever, have I read notes which precisely and comprehensively described the experience I had participated in. Of the ten on stage there was also Associate Director Luke Kernaghan. Others who may have been there but should be mentioned anyway are Rae Smith the designer who drew on the stylised opera of China and Kabuki, Lieustke Visser for the memorable costumes, Spike Mosley for the Original Lighting Direction and Steve Taylor who presumably carried the conception out, Matt Spencer for the technical tricks and Tom Cotterall in addition to holding everything together, along with Marie White made the props, which included a playful monkey whose death caused the young child in the audience to cry out, other parents beware.

I now I turn to the uncanny aspect of this experience. My main reason for always wanting to read the trilogy and also the work on his father by Sebastian Peake, is that as a young man, full of having read the official accounts of the Nuremburg War Crimes trials but before I entered fully into Direct Action and the Committee of 100, I had joined the Local United Nations Associations Association, and was convinced that I had visited the home of Mervyn Peake, in my childhood town of Wallington, when his wife had opened their house for a charity art show. Did I get my idea for ArtmansArthouse then? I had been envious of a full set of drums which I think was in the entrance Hall. I also recollected that the brothers, Sebastian and Fabian went to the St John Fisher School, although I had no recollection of ever having met them.
Before commencing to write these notes as I have done for every theatrical, cinema and entertainment experience since becoming Artman, I did the homework I should done before the performance and on the official Peake family site (see below), I noted that Sebastian had given an e mail address so in the early hours I explained my memory and enquired if could have been accurate. Yesterday I explained that through MySpace I was able to write to departed souls such as Lord Russell and Freda Kathlo, and it was a little scary when they wrote back. This morning only a few hours after sending the e mail, I received an email from Sebastian who confirmed my recollection and asked if he could mention my experience in a work about our mutual childhood town. Now aren't that something and a clue to what it all means?

http://www.mervynpeake.org/gormenghast/
http://www.davidglassensemble.com/