PNUK CROK - A Calendar by Cardinal Cox

September 26 Goya: The Disparates  

Watched ‘The Dreamers’ by Bertolucci, which is set during the uprising in Paris of 1968. One of the central characters is a Maoist so the Situationist input is somewhat overshadowed. You do get to see the slogan ‘Beneath the pavements, the beaches’ so not totally forgotten. (www.peterboroughartscinema.co.uk)  

I’ve just read ‘Go Now’ by Richard Hell. I wonder how autobiographical it might be as it is about a punk musician with a drug habit in 1980.  

Listening to ‘Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown’ by Don Letts.

Had pieces in Data Dump (reviewing the great-grandfather of British punk Mick Farren) and Monomyth Supplement on Punk Comics.  

Sunday 26 I went to an exhibition of prints by Goya, produced in the time of social unrest that followed the Napoleonic War. These were on show at the Babylon Gallery in Ely (www.babylongallery.co.uk) The name comes from the are of the city of Ely near to the river was always known as Babylon. Goya (1746-1828) is an interesting artist. He was a royal painter who was not above drawing the low-life’s and poor of Spain. He witnessed the horrors of the Napoleonic war in Spain and then the re-introduction of the Inquisition to his country. He has been an inspiration to many artists including the Chapman brothers.  

October 8 Stiff Little Fingers  

Had a selection of my old music reviews put on-line at www.the-borderland.co.uk  

On the previous Wednesday I went to the Jimi Hendrix at the Marquee exhibition in London (www.cooperowen.com). We sometimes forget how radical The Jimi Hendrix Experience was at the time. Here was a black musician supported by two white guys, and Jimi was an ex-soldier who spoke of peace at a time of the Vietnam War and riots in America.  

Unfortunately I couldn’t get to the John Cooper Clarke gig in Wisbech on Thursday, darn. 

Support for the gig was 4ft Fingers who came on around 10 to 8 and went off forty minutes later. They’ve played a good number of gigs in the city previously. The bass player in the S.L.F. (whose name comes from a track by the Vibrators, not directly the Invaders TV show) is now Bruce Foxton, ex of The Jam. Now my brother once almost got into a fight with Bruce Foxton’s sister over a Mohair jumper, (back in 197-something or other). Not the most macho of punk rock tales, I’ll grant you. Early in the SLF set a woman jumped on stage wearing only her knickers. Jack’s response was “that’s a surprise, usually we’re the big tits”.   (www.slf.com)  

November 7 Hugh Cornwell  

Received a contact/pen-pal newsletter from the folks at Anti-Media (richard.westerman@talk21.com) which meant I could post off some more flyers for PNUK to some hopefully interested people.

Reading ‘Granny made me an Anarchist’ by Stuart Christie. Very frank, sometimes funny, account of how he became involved in a plot to assassinate General Franco and then later was tried in Britain as part of The Angry Brigade. Interesting alternative view of ‘sixties and early-‘seventies political life. Published by Scribner www.simonsays.co.uk.

Tuesday 26 October and John Peel has died. Never met the guy so I don’t have any big stories to tell but back in the mid-‘eighties when I lived in Bedford I used to listen to his show and send poetry off to fanzines that he might review. What always struck me was his honesty, he only played music he cared about and so the best monument to him would be if they got rid of the playlist for evening shows and employed DJ’s who knew that the most important thing was to play records, not promote themselves.

Thursday 28 I was part of the entertainment at the General Council Meeting of Peterborough Racial Equality Council; they were also launching a mouse-mat. My poem Goat Curry certainly got some appreciation from parts of the audience. One West-Indian Grandmother wanted me to write a poem for the Pride in Positive Images awards at the end of November. Don’t know if I’m a positive image for the ethnic communities, or if I’m the threat of what happens if the kids don’t study hard at school.

Friday 29 I read four poems as part of a work’s Variety Night, raising money for some charitable cause. As I said on the stage, I was glad to be listed as ‘Cardinal Cox in person’ on the programme, as there are some tribute acts out there. We’ve all heard of the Australian marionette act, Puppetry of the Cox… After the Goat Curry poem I wondered if it would be good if WeightWatchers did Hash Cakes? Wouldn’t help you slim, but make you feel lighter…While in the queue for the buffet, one colleague complemented me on the reading and said that his uncle had been a poet. I gave the usual non-committal reply. He then added that the uncle’s plaque in Westminster Abbey is down near the floor and had been a World War 1 poet. Wiped the blank look off my face pretty quick.

Saturday 30 I read some poetry at Barnwell Country Park, near to Oundle in Northamptonshire, as part of a Halloween event organised by a local Druid/Pagan circle. I had wanted to use the fact that ‘Barnwell Ague’ was a seventeenth century slang term for the pox, but as children were present thought better of it. The Druids then let me attend the ritual coming up to midnight. (www.albaneiler.co.uk). The next morning I discovered that the Radio mast at Morbourn had mysteriously burnt down during the night.

Tuesday 2 November USA, what can I say? They need to work over their political system from the roots up. With bugger all difference between the candidates, please can’t someone start locally, in the cities, move up through the states until they get Presidential potential in a few years time? Favourite report on the run-up to the election was on the Situationist activities of The Yes Men.

Wednesday 3 I attended a reading by the poet Dannie Abse. During the talk he mentioned that one of his early influences was a collection of poetry written for the Spanish Civil War, introduced to him by his brother Leo, who later was a Labour MP.

Friday 5 I was on the picket line, protesting against the threatened cuts and redundancies.

Sunday 7 Hugh Cornwell with his current group Three Piece Sweet, supported by David R. Black (from Manchester, they’ve also supported Living Colour) played the Club with no Name at the Park. (www.clubwithnoname.com). Amongst the old Stranglers songs that Hugh played were Nice & Sleazy, Hanging Around, Duchess (“I am the Duchess”, said Hugh), Always the Sun and No More Heroes. Amongst the encores were Peaches and Goodbye Toulouse. He had been featured in the Sunday Express magazine that day (reporter sounded like an idiot) and mentioned that he wanted to perhaps write a science fiction novel in the future. I’d have liked to ask about a single I’ve got by Celia and the Mutations, supposed to be by the Stranglers with a female singer, who I’d always thought to be Hazel O’Connor but turns out (after reading ‘A Multitude of Sins’) not to have been. (www.hughcornwell.com)

December 16 Poet for Peterborough final

Watched Jon Ronson’s new series on TV, Crazy Rulers of the World. The tie-in book, The Men who stare at Goats, (published by Picador www.picador.com) is even better as it goes into greater depth about the insanity of the American (and presumably the rest of the Western nations by association) Intelligence organisations. From Black-Op Psychic experiments in the ‘seventies and ‘eighties, to torture in Iraq now and back to MK-ULTRA and Artichoke in the ‘fifties, how much of this is straight misinformation or double-bubbles (like, as I suspect, those British torture photographs) we’ll probably never know.

Watched film from Afghanistan, ‘Osama’. Made me think of the Iranian film ‘Kandahar’ with its’ view of the ruined land that has lost everything but pain.

Had piece on Revolutionary Comics in Monomyth Supplement.

Thursday 19 saw a bunch of bands at The Met Lounge (www.metlounge.org.uk). Didn’t catch the name of first band, who were ok, second band Tern (www.tern.com) did an excellent version of Rockin’ in the Free World by Neil Young. Next band Ariel-x (www.ariel-x.com) had just released album ‘Bi-Polar’ on Undergroove Records. Singer was so thin I couldn’t work out if he was really gaunt or some stage make-up. Headliners Rachel Stamp (www.rachelstamp.com) had a trash/glam groove which reminded me of an edgier Placebo or dirtier/sexier Muse.

Widespread unrest in Ukraine following elections, it took until the New Year to settle down. Interesting that in one of the news reports one of the leaders of the youth movement let slip about how much funding they were receiving from European organisations.

Saturday 27 saw couple of bands at The Park. First up were local group Opaque who I’ve seen a couple of times before. Interval disco done by Simon - Danz Punx (People Of Good Order or is that Good Ordure?). (http://sistabler.moonfruit.com) Headline act Ezio (www.ezio.co.uk), the main guy himself was rhythm guitarist in a friend’s band twenty years ago. Paul (music/producer from my one time Sonic Energy Authority project) and I standing to one side and Ezio is standing behind us, we nod and he returns same, not really recognising. So I say to Paul, “Told you I should have brought the rubber chicken”. Suddenly light comes on and he’s all “hell guys, didn’t recognise you. How are you? Etc.”

Can’t remember if it was that line up of the friend’s band, but one always used to end on Band Aid’s ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’. (Back in chart with third line up). Hat would go round and the money always went to feed the starving. The band usually got Chinese take-away out of it.

On one of the advertising hordings around town there has been a big poster for some mortgage firm that has the logo of the thumbs-up fist. Except that the numbers on the back of the individual sheets must have been wrong as this poster had a thumbs-down fist at one end. Unless, of course, the sticker had just been turned down…

Thursday 16 December was the final of the Poet for Peterborough competition that I won in 2002 and so I was one of the panel of judges this time. The winner was Chris Todd who I’ve known vaguely for some time, as he is the brother of a woman who works with me. Had hoped to go see local band Black Maria afterwards at The Club with no Name but I was just too tired

Dispatches from the Invincible Army (part 1)

Few years back there were a number of straight edge gigs organised for the city. Local press got their knickers in a twist about the politics of this end of the musical spectrum and managed to get a quote from someone at the Cathedral. This was along the lines of - Political protest? This isn’t what punk is supposed to be about.

January 5 Writers in Peterborough

Saturday 18 December I went to Ely and visited the museum there. Amongst the pieces on local history there is one on Oliver Cromwell (a revolutionary who became a tyrant) and the Littleport Riots of 1816. Five men were hung and seven more transported for the unrest which followed protest against the low wages.

Amongst the presents I got for Christmas was a copy of ‘The Saga of Hawkwind’ by Carol Clerk, published by Omnibus Press. Amongst the general space rock shenanigans and law suits inevitably entwined about any long running band, it also details how they played numerous free festivals and benefit concerts, (favourite quote there, "We saved four-and-a half Rhinos"). Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks gets a name check as well as quotes from Penny Rimbaud (Crass), JJ Burnel (Stranglers) and John Lydon (Sex Pistols). Later, it is outlined as to how important they were for the Rave scene and there is also a brief history of the Battle of the Beanfield and the collapse of the Traveller movement from pressures both without and within.

Without a doubt, the Indian Ocean Tsunami was a terrible event. However I can’t help but wonder why we heard nothing of Diego Garcia and the American air base there.

A managed to miss a couple of films that I’d been looking forward to over the Christmas period. ‘Odd Man Out’, starring James Mason, (1946) is all about a terrorist leader (presumably IRA - though never stated) who is abandoned after hold-up. ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’, starring Tom Courtenay (1962) and adapted from John Sillitoe’s excellent short story, about a struggle for freedom in the Borstal system.

New Year’s Eve and probably the most political thing on television all season was on. The Vicar of Dibbly, and I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised as Richard Curtis is one of the heads of Comic Relief. A local band I vaguely know the front guy for, Ron Singh of Kissmet, are playing the celebrations in Cardiff to around 15,000 to 20,000 people. They deserve to become so big with their East/West Bhangra/Rock material.

Wednesday 5 January 2005 and Writers in Peterborough host its’ annual local writers night. I read the story ‘All under the Willow Tree’ which I had published last year in Mausoleum in America. Two of the most interesting pieces that the other people read were two biographical pieces. One was by a woman who was brought up in Scotland in the ‘thirties and then moved to Uganda to teach in the 'sixties. The other piece was read by a man and was from his father’s journal when he was stationed in Iraq in 1917.

February 24 The Motorcycle Diaries

I had my review of the two books by Hugh Cornwell printed in Data Dump.

Been reading ‘Punk’ by Stephen Colgrave and Chris Sullivan, published by Cassell Illustrated. Good retrospective of the roots, the era and the legacy of the mid-‘seventies. Loads of photographs and loads of quotes from interviews with the people who were either there or who know what they’re talking about.

Handful of programs on television about global warming and global dimming. Well, looks like atomic power stations are about the only way forward. Yes, we must invest in wind and wave generation, but unless we either want to have a pre-industrial society (with associated infant mortality death during labour rates) or become extinct, nuclear power stations will have to replace carbon-based power stations.

There were also a bunch of programs on television to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Prince Harry of course chose to mark this in a rather individual way. Peterborough Museum just had an exhibition that included two road signs from Auschwitz.

Friday 28 January I caught a few songs by long time local Ska band The Gangsters at a pub in town. Amongst the audience I noticed one old Skinhead - got to be in his fifties at least - with Wermar Eagle tattoo on his head showing through the grey hair.

Wednesday 9 February and I went to the Press Show of the exhibition Africa Remix (www.africaremix.org.uk) at the Hayward Gallery (www.hayward.org.uk). The show was then moving, first to Paris and then Tokyo. At the opening talk the curator mentioned how the recent G7 summit had ‘discovered’ Africa. With such a variety of artists on show it was little wonder that some of them would have a political edge to them. The following are a selection of those.

Mohamed El Baz (Morocco): Compulsive DIY F**k Death/Love Supreme. This included various photographs with flames superimposed, including one of the line up of staff (including Chrissie Hynde and Jordan) at the shop ‘Sex’ with the flames on Vivienne Westwood’s head. There was also a large map of the world upon which targets had been painted and paint (ball?) splodges.
Goncalo Mabunda (Mozambique): Chair. This is a throne created from weapons and evoked echoes of the current decommissioning disputes in Northern Ireland.
Paulo Capela (Angola): Che Guevara. This was a shrine created from a mix of images with Guevara central and flanked by Prof. Agostinho Neto and Eduardo Dos Santos.
Cheri Samba (Democratic Republic of Congo): Vomiting World. A painting of the Earth throwing up North & South America into space.
Ingrid Mwangi (Kenya): Down by the River. An installation of a projected film and writing on the floor in Kenyan soil. The words repeated were “their blood has been poured down the river”.
Zineb Sedira (Algeria): Mother, Father and I. A video of interviews with her parents about their memories of the struggle in Algeria against French rule and the experiences of the back-lash in France. Made me wonder if similar films will be made in forty years time with regards Iraq.
Hassan Musa (Sudan): Great American Nude. A version of the American flag with motorcycles replacing the stars, upon which Osama bin Laden is lying as naked as a glamour model.
Willie Bester (South Africa): For those left behind. A rotting policeman and his dog created from recycled military and hospital metal.
Fernando Alvin (Angola): In God we trust. Just a collection of dollar bills with those words in bronze lettering.

Monday 21 February we heard that Hunter S. Thompson had committed suicide. He was a legend - and justifiably so - for his writing. I read ‘Hells Angels’ years ago and later ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. Don’t know if I’d have liked him as a person (rumours now come out of him being a racist, homophobe and a wife beater), but I have to respect his wish to live the American Dream. When they covered his obituaries on the TV program ‘What the Papers Say’; they used Elvis singing ‘Viva Las Vegas’ over the end credits. Interesting then to also hear this week that the White House is employing supposedly independent journalists to promote their views.

Thursday 24 February and I went to see ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ at the Peterborough Film Society (www.peterboroughartscinema.co.uk). Also today a local shop got raided for drugs. I’ve known the owner for years, wouldn’t claim to be his best mate, but he always struck me as one of the true upright fellows. Recently he’d been having trouble with yobs around where he lived. As a result of this he’d had to complain about lack of police presence in his village. Plus the site of his shop is wanted for redevelopment. I’d suggest that the best defence would be that any drugs found were for personal but that as they rotted memory he’d just kept forgetting where he put them. Back to the film, and I thought it was very good. Just the right mix of humour and social comment, and when Alberto and Ernest reach the leper colony, their refusal to ware the rubber gloves reminded me, strangely, of Princess Di embracing Aids patients.


March 25 - 28 Eastercon

Reading ‘Vive La Revolution’ by Mark Steel published by Scribner (www.simonsays.co.uk). A history of the French Revolution written by a stand-up comedian. I had heard some of his lectures on Radio 4 a few years back, but here he can go into greater depth with the causes and characters of one of the most turbulent periods in history. With a couple of gags every page, it’s like those ‘Horrible Histories’ books, but for grown-ups.

Getting very silly in the run-up for Charles Windsor’s marriage, (though I always wondered why the children had their mum’s name and not their dad’s…). Favourite story, regardless of the “is it legal” arguments, was that soldiers and sailors at near-by barracks were on stand-by to make up the numbers at the Registry Office to keep out hoi-palloi.

Received flyers from a bunch doing CDs, videos and information of the festival scene (www.realfestivalmusic.co.uk). The flyer included an advert for Kissmet who I mentioned above.

Tuesday 1 March and at the meeting of Poets United - the Peterborough and Fenland Performance Poetry Group - I penned the following: -

Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, slip,
I’d pogo more if it weren’t for my hip.

Wednesday 23 March and I don’t have to be on strike. The threat of around a million people walking out has made the Government return to negotiations with the unions. Cynically, I expect them to last until just after the election.

Friday 25 - Monday 28 March and I’m at the Eastercon, (www.paragon2.org.uk) the National SF Convention, this year held in Hinckley in Leicestershire. Amongst the guests, as well as my old chum Robert Rankin there’s SF author Ken MacLeod to whom I am introduced on the Saturday as we might be on the same panel at the Worldcon in August. I’d much rather be in the audience and let others who know more about Edwin Morgan (the subject of the proposed panel) sit up front. The guests were all given John Lewis Laser Tag sets. Never knowingly under killed, I suggest. Good time is had by all, I can safely say.

May 5 General Election

Been reading ‘Burning Britain’ by Ian Glasper, published by Cherry Red Books (www.cherryred.co.uk). Some of the bands I’d already heard about, having been at school/just left during the period. A cousin of mine was a roadie for ‘Disorder’ apparently. Good bits on local bands ‘Destructors’ and ‘English Dogs’, including interviews with guitarist Gizz, who I nod to when our paths cross in pubs around town or wherever.

Charles’ wedding just gets more bizarre as the Pope died and now they have to change the date. I heard a story that the Washington Post had to apologise for an article which suggested that Father Dougal was a front-runner for the post of Pope.

Election season kicks off with a court case about vote rigging in the Midlands. The Labour Councillors had a little postal vote factory set up on an industrial estate. Then in Devon a Conservative candidate doctored photographs to change them from supporting a family likely to be deported to showing him holding placards supporting Tory immigration policy. Favourite piece of local graffiti was over a post outside the Conservative Club. “No Leaders, No Borders”. Can’t argue much with that.

Wednesday 30 March and I go to London for the launch of the Robert Crumb exhibition. During the day I visited the Kuba installation featuring filmed interviews with the residents of the Istanbul shanty town/squat Kuba (www.kuba.org.uk). The Robert Crumb launch is fun if a bit disorganised as the exhibition is still being set up. He was a major illustrator for the underground comics from the mid-‘sixties through to the late-‘seventies. Now he’s recognised for the fine artist that he is. Somehow I got my photograph taken by a couple of agency guys during the evening, guess I just looked the most comic book fan there. When I got back from London I had to run the quiz at Boggarts as Mark Turnbull was away on holiday. For the team-name prize, I asked, if Boggarts’ was a political party, which would it be? Winner of that pint went to the Commu-pist Party. For the connections round the questions were: -
1) Which central character from Friends has got a spin-off series? (Yes, I know Phoebe’s twin-sister Ophelia had her own series, but she’s not a central character)
2) Which actor, later President of America, starred in Bedtime for Bonzo?
3) Which Stephen King book features a place to take departed household animals? (Apparently the island on which they buried Princess Diana had been the last resting-place of some of the family’s dogs).
4) What nonsense words started the chant in Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks?
5) And what is the connection?

Thursday 5 May and the General Election. In the evening I went to see the so-so comedy film The Honeymooners. Half a dozen songs in the sound track from Ash. In 2002 Ash played a free gig in the city, in 2004 Busted played an expensive gig in the city. And people think things are getting better. The Ash gig was in the Virgin store a filmed for ITV’s Saturday morning show. It was also the drummer’s birthday (I think). However, what I also remember was snotty skater brats trying to demolish the store’s signs with their ‘boards. No wonder they never had a major (ish) band there again.

Dispatches from the Invincible Army (part 2)

Few years back a local guy was sent to prison for demanding money with menaces. Apparently he’d faxed bomb threats to the local radio station and somewhere else. The police only realised after the second one that his ‘phone number was still on the top of the sheet of paper; he’d not suppressed this. Oops. Still, it did take them until the second threat to notice this.

May 28 Large in Derby

I just read ‘A Girl among the Anarchists’ by Isabel Meredith (actually Helen and Olivia Rossetti). First thing that struck me was that it starts with an account of an explosion in a park that killed the person carrying the bomb, which is at the heart of Conrad’s ‘The Secret Agent’ and made me wonder if this then was partially intended as a follow-on. Until I checked the dates. ‘Girl…’ was published in 1903 while ‘Secret Agent’ was serialised in 1906. Both draw their inspiration for a bomb blast in Greenwich Park in 1894.

Made and sent off to Bristol loads of book-marks, intended to promote PNUK, to be given away at some art festivals in Germany and exhibited in Cyprus and America. (www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bkmks3)

Amongst the fall-out from the election, the local paper had a photograph of ex-MP Helen Brinton and the headline “Slap in the Face”. At first I wondered if it was a request or an order. Allegedly she was thinking about joining the Conservative Party, so much for being one of Blair’s babes then.

Couple of interesting things on TV post-election. One was a documentary on two guys who were trying to motivate the Moslem vote in a couple of constituencies. They weren’t specifically pro any particular party, just wanted to highlight how bad Labour had been. Jack Straw, (one of their targets), labelled them as well-funded fanatics when they came over more as shambolic characters from a Goodness, Gracious Me sketch. Good luck to the guys at MPAC-UK though in their desire to make members of their community ask questions.

Did like to see George Galloway in Washington to defend himself against American accusations. His line, “I met Saddam Hussein as many times as Donald Rumsfeld did. The difference being Donald was selling him weapons and giving him photographs of where to aim them while I was trying to stop war” was priceless.

Sunday 8 May and I was helping out on a friends’ bookstall at the Fantasy Fair in Bretton. I’d helped to organise the first (back in 1992) and then carried on until I was co-running it. Stepped down in 2000 to allow the rest of the SF Club to run, which they didn’t. Now taken over by another group and I wish them all the best.

Thursday 19 and the local Film Society/Arts Cinema (www.peterboroughartscinema.co.uk) showed Richard Jobson’s movie ‘16 Years of Alcohol’. Jobson was ex of The Skids and his own (short-lived) band The Armoury Show and so I was curious to see if the film focused on any part of the Scottish punk/new wave scene. Instead it dwelt on the pre-punk skinhead culture. On the whole, the film was trying to be cleverer than it needed to be, a film made by a film critic. Before the film I ran a short quiz, just for a bit of fun, really. One of the questions was which of the following starred in ‘Withnail and I’: a) Cary Grant b) Richard E. Grant c) a student grant?

Saturday 28 and a day was held in Derby to celebrate Robert Rankin. I only turned up for the evening, missing the quiz but some illusionists were doing their stuff when we arrived. Then some local poets (from the Living Dead Poets) read some of their work followed by Robert reciting one of Aleister Crowley’s. I was then asked to read a couple and I did have some in my pocket, as I wasn’t sure if I’d agreed to or not. So I read four poems including Trouble at Lamb and Lion. My girlfriend now says she’ll have to frisk me before we go out.

June 28 Poetry Night

Been reading the translation of the Chinese legends that were also adapted to make the Japanese TV series ‘The Water Margin’.

Watched a news report on a member of the American government “sexing-down” a paper on global warming. The expert interviewed included a reference to “Thatcher’s War on Coal” as being part of the West’s pro-active response to Carbon emissions. You see, I never realised that closing the mines in the ‘eighties was part of a longer plan to save the world, I just thought it was about buying cheep coal from Poland and bugger the Northern communities, plus sticking the boot in to some uppity unions along the way. How foolish of me.

At one point we got chatting down the pub about the band ‘A Sudden Sway’, that had some local connections. ‘Eighties post-punk electro-johnnies, their first single was ‘Jane’s Third Party’ that came out in 1980. I’ve got one of their Peel sessions (but not the one where they performed recipes, or am I mis-remembering this) plus their second album ‘76 Kids Forever’ (1988 - featuring the song ‘Never in Netherton’) and the third album ‘Ko-Opera’ (1989).

In the run-up to ‘Live 8’, when tickets were on sale on e-bay, Bob Geldof invited hackers every where to bring them down. Tickets quickly withdrawn from sale.

I didn’t get time to see the Julian Yewdall exhibition of photographs at the Exposure Gallery in London. It included pictures of The Slits, the Clash and other punk bands.

Saturday 4 June I went to the Strawberry Fair in Cambridge and didn’t enjoy it. Only seemed to be three different stalls, endlessly repeated. At least the Norwich Anarchists and Brighton’s SchNEWS (www.schnews.org.uk) were doing some different stuff. The rest was so damn Chav. In the film tent though I saw a couple of good short films, ‘Over Time’ (I think) about a dead puppeteer, and ‘The Man with no Head’ was delightfully weird.

Monday 6 I received my contributor’s copy of ‘War is a Dangerous Place’. Atlantean Press from Essex publishes this collection (www.geocities.com/dj_tyrer/atlantean_pub.html) My poem is Goat for the Tigers.

Friday 24 and I had a copy of Focus (www.bsfa.co.uk) come through. This included one of my poems and in the accompanying blurb we plugged PNUK.

Sunday 26 and as part of an arts event I read poetry in a graveyard in the city. This was part of the summer Peterborough Arts Festival and as well as myself, handful of other poets, plus musicians and sculpture in the graveyard. I think it went well.

Tuesday 28 and, continuing the Peterborough Festival, Poets United held its’ evening in the John Clare Theatre at the Central Library. I read eight or nine poems, including the ubiquitous Lamb and Lion and Goat Curry. Bored with static-ness of the other poets I ended up running up and down the aisles during Lamb and Lion. Earlier in the day I feared I was going to be arrested for wasting Police time. One of my wheely bins went missing after the days’ rubbish collection, (probably down the street at someone else’s house), so when I rang up the council to get a replacement, they refused to do anything until I got a crime incident number. So then I had to ring up the police to report my wheely bin missing. Is there a rash of wheely bin thefts, with them being broken up for parts? I worried in case they wanted a description. Answers to Gerald, bit of squeak in the right wheel…

August 4 - 8 Worldcon

So I read (or re-read, not sure) Joseph Conrad’s ‘The Secret Agent’ as some of the events of the subsequent weeks made me suspicious of what was actually going on. Of course, you, dear reader, from your vantagepoint in the future know more than I do here in the past.

Recently saw some adverts for jobs in the ISS (Intelligence and Security Secretariat, one of those spook shows, this one is supposed to check on the “robustness” of past judgements from the JIC - Joint Intelligence Committee). Amongst the “specialist skills/qualifications and/or/experience” (sic). Well, what would you expect from these, foreign languages? Look good in a trench coat? Nope, “some economics training would be desirable”.

Saturday 2 July I toddled over to Stamford for the Riverside Festival (www.riversidefestival.co.uk) to see what was going on. Caught the insane beer fight that was the ‘March to the Grave’ set. Celebrating 25 years of gigging, they had tee shirts for sale celebrating their contribution to a recent town parade. (www.marchtothegrave.co.uk) I then went into the acoustic tent just to check it out before going. There were three people playing a fruit bowl. With acts drawn from across the country, as well as Sweden and Russia, this is becoming a good little festival.

Of course, Bob Geldof had made the mistake of choosing this weekend to try and organise something else in competition. Foolish bloke. What I saw of the Live-8 gubbins, seemed like the most interesting stuff was on at the WOMAD organised Eden Project show in Cornwall. One of the things that we wondered was if any old bands would join new bands on stage. For instance ‘New Kids on the Block’ could have joined ‘N’Sync’ to form ‘Blocked Sync’. We also watched Pink Floyd (and here it should be remembered that tribute band Think Floyd had been advertised as headlining the Stamford Festival for some months, who’s copying who, Bob?). When they started to play the introduction to ‘Money’, wouldn’t it have been better if they had then played the theme tune to 'Are You Being Served?’ And then, wouldn’t it have just put the icing on the cake if Nelson Mandela had come out and said, “I’m free!”

Wednesday 6 and the news is full of the successful Olympic bid for 2012, or some such year at the end of the Aztec calendar. Of course, all the British Athletes taking part in those future games will be those that they are currently so worried about as being obese. Is it my imagination but was anyone worried about obese children before schools started selling off their playing fields to buy pencils with?

Thursday 7 and what happened in London was a tragedy that I can’t condone in any way. However, I did not take part in the two-minute silence a week later because I’m not sure if silence is the right response. Would two minutes of enforced discussion about the factors that turned the four into suicide bombers have not done more good? People don’t wake up one morning and think, “you know, think I’ll blow myself up”. Let’s talk about the disproportionate unemployment amongst young Muslims. Let’s talk about Israeli policy for the last sixty years. Let’s talk about the tenth anniversary of the massacre in the former Yugoslavia when the UN stood by and did nothing. Let’s talk about America encouraging Islamic fundamentalism as a perceived riposte to Communist aspirations in the Middle East. Terrorist acts are not formed in a vacuum but rather from desperation at the lack of any alternative. Or perhaps I’m wrong, but until we talk about these things, will we find out?

Saturday 16 and again I went over to Helpston for the John Clare day. Didn’t do much beyond watching Morris Dancers outside one pub, while we had a pint, went round the church, visited second pub, bought some cake in the village hall and then came home.

Tuesday 19 and the news mentions (in passing) the passing of John Tyndall. One time chair of the National Front and later the British National Party, he at last became that most elusive of things, a good fascist, by becoming a dead fascist. One of the photographs used of him was from the ‘sixties, in Nazi regalia, in front of a swastika and with a picture of Adolph Hitler.

Thursday 21 and apparent second attack in London but none of the bombs went off. All of them failed? Following on from the very quick statement by an Egyptian minister that an arrested Chemist, linked to the last attack, was innocent makes me a little suspicious. In the evening there were two good programs on Radio 4, first one about how women had been affected by the miner’s strike of twenty years ago and what had happened in the communities since. The second was about a history of jihad and how it has changed during the last half of the twentieth century. On Friday the police shot a man in what to me anyway suggests suspicious circumstances. Perhaps it’s just me. A documentary about the war in Chechnya on Channel 4 on Monday included sequences with one of the rebel leaders and a white cat and I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help thinking about those James Bond villains.

Thursday 28 and statement from IRA about ending the armed struggle. Nothing about handing over those involved in recent criminal activity like the bank raid or the death of the guy in the pub. Still, it has to be a good thing, though I’ve no doubt that splinter groups (after all, the Provisional IRA was a splinter group of the earlier Marxist IRA, or so I believe) will continue activity.

Thursday 4 August - Monday 8 and a bunch of us went to Interaction, held in Glasgow, (www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk) both the Eurocon and the 63rd Worldcon. With over four thousand people at the event from all across the world a wide variety of ideas were being discussed. So there were talks by scientists, panels of authors, silly games, a film premier, three rooms for the video programme, couple of rooms for filk (the vaguely folk-esque music inspired by SF and Fantasy, to varying degrees), couple of rooms for gamers, and more. I described it, to someone who’d been to a couple of conventions before, as three conventions shoved together, followed immediately by three more. Amongst the seemingly endless awards presented were the Libertarian Futurist Society’s that went to Neal Stephenson’s ‘The System of the World’ and A.E. van Vogt’s ‘The Weapon Shops of Isher’ (Prometheus Hall of Fame Award).

Other panels looked at whether America’s ‘Empire’ was on the verge of collapse (including Patrick Nielsen Hayden), comparing Europe to Byzantium (including Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Harry Turtledove) and why the Left like military SF (with Joe Haldeman and Harry Harrison). The one I went to though was Anarchy vs. Technology (with Ken MacLeod and Liz Williams). This was interesting and thought provoking but no one suggested that Fandom is a working free-association Anarchy. We give money to support those projects, conventions or fanzines, say, that we agree with and accept the temporary committees and leadership that these have. We also have our individual freedoms within Fandom balanced with our acceptance of personal responsibility.

Must also mention the great parties, though I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get to enough of these. A bunch of Russian fans were selling off various badges and such-like and a KGB hip flask took my fancy. Didn’t realise until I got back to my room that it was filled with some beverage. Thanks guys.

August 26 - 28 Dimension Jump XII

Reading a big, thick book set during the early days of the Reformation, ‘Q’ by Luther Blissett. Though not actually by the Watford footballer of the ‘seventies, but supposedly by four Italian Anarchists who liked the name. Go to www.lutherblissett.net for more about them and their actions, as well as the actions of others that use the same name.

Heard that old ‘Seventies new wave band from Peterborough The Now have released an album - ‘Fuzztone Fizzadelic’ - on the Damaged Goods label. Used to have their single from 1979 ‘Development Corporations’ but my brother took it back to America with him. (All together now, “Development Corporations/Another excuse for dictations”). (www.the-now.com)

Tuesday 9 and we were travelling home on the day of the anniversary of the battle of Hadrianopolis, when a rag-tag army of Visigoths and allies bested the Roman Army in 378.

Tuesday 16 and BBC2 had an interesting program about what the allies did in Germany after World War 2. You could easily draw parallels with Iraq, except in Germany they had a plan, whereas in Iraq the American’s simply sold contracts to the cronies of the Government and, hey, have any of those companies completed any of their schemes?

Friday 19 I received a letter from the Centre for Fine Print Research to whom I had supplied a hundred PNUK bookmarks for an art project they were organising, (as mentioned above). These were to be distributed in UK, Germany, Poland, Cyprus, and The Netherlands and across the USA. If you are one of the people who picked one up, “Hello!” Go to www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bkmks3 for details and examples of the contributions. I still wonder however if I haven’t changed the definition of “Fine Print” in some way.

Tuesday 23 - Friday 26 and I’m at the Peterborough Bear Festival doing my bit to support the independent British brewing industry. (www.beer-fest.org.uk) On the Tuesday night I hear that I have been appointed the Poet-in-Residence at a local cemetery, to start in October. Thursday night and the support band are local punk nutters March to the Grave. (www.marchtothegrave.co.uk) Chatting with Spike before the gig she was expressing some concerns as the guitarist was coming by bus (so he could drink) and the replacement drummer had had his first rehearsal the previous Sunday. And I think they did one of their best sets that I’ve seen. For sale (so I had to buy one) was a triple CD of the best (or perhaps all) songs they’ve recorded over the twenty-five years they’ve been putting out the good stuff.

Friday 26 - Saturday 27 and I’m at a Red Dwarf convention (Dimension Jump XII), purely because it was being held in Peterborough. Sure, I used to watch Red Dwarf years ago, we even went to watch one episode being filmed back in the early-‘90’s, but I’m not the biggest of fans. While I was there Danny John-Jules and Chris Barrie both spoke and I saw Norman Lovett hanging around the pool table. The talk by the special effects guys was good. Met a woman, (who was a friend of a friend) who, as a job, repairs the dummies that they practise medical techniques on. Bit like the resuscitation dolls we all kissed in the Scouts but more complicated and, apparently, more anatomically correct.

So, that is the end of this half-arsed tour. Hope you’ve enjoyed the journey and I hope you’ll be able to join me soon for another wander around weirdness.

© All work copyright of Cardinal Cox.