uncarved.org blog

KEEP PLASTIC PEOPLE ALIVE Petition.

If you have ever been there, you will want to sign this.

Our fearsome Security Kitty patrols Woofah HQ

I’ve been neglecting the blog recently, but updates have been appearing regularly in the sidebar cos of my new twitter feed. Apologies to all the people who’ve left comments here, especially NagHammadiEye, for my lack of responses…

My suspicion is that short updates and links will appear there from now on and bigger pieces will be blogged. I have mixed feelings about this but it seems like the easiest option with not much time available…

So the new issue of Woofah is being warmly received. All contributor copies have been mailed out now and tonight I will tackle the backlog of orders. London shops will get copies after work tomorrow.

As many of you will know, Woofah was conceived on the dancefloor of BASH – the reggae/grime/dubstep club run by The Bug and Loefah at Plastic People. Plastic People is an awesome venue probably best known for its regular FWD nights – FWD is to dubstep what Metalheadz at the Blue Note was to drum ‘n’ bass I suppose.

Plastic People’s soundsystem and its selection of promotions has made it legendary. I first went there for some nights run by the Manasseh crew which included Sugar Minott and the late Junior Delgado toasting over records selected by folks like Dave Hendley and Manasseh themselves. It was an incredible experience being literally feet away from some reggae legends with the full weight of PP’s soundsystem.

The club is now under threat as its licencing regime is challenged by the Metropolitan Police and reviewed by Hackney Council.

More news on that soon (and the campaign to keep it open), but it should go without saying that I would be gutted if it closed.

As History Is Made At Night has pointed out, this has to be seen in the context of the wider gentrification of the south of Hackney – the City moving slowly north.

Hackney Heckler No 2 now available for pdf download | Hackney Solidarity Network.

Check it out folks! All yer news and views from London’s most exciting borough.

Including: Top Ten Hackney Novels centrespread!

Issue 2 of Hackney’s best (and only?) radical lefty rabble rousing free-sheet is out now.

This time it includes:

• Top Ten Hackney novels
• Hackney’s unemployed standing up against the job centre
• Plus a load of smaller news pieces and a roundup of upcoming events.
• And a whole lot more!

Copies will be available in various places around the borough over the next few weeks. I’ve got some as well, so let me know if you want a copy (or a small bundle for mates/co-workers/neighbours).

Blood and Property.

Interesting Hackney news and politics blog found via twitter. Worth a look!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/31/grime-2009-dizzee-rascal-tynchy-stryder

Five No 1 singles, record label feeding frenzies, influencing the US charts – no one imagined grime would get this big. Dan Hancox explains how Dizzee Rascal and Tynchy Stryder set the world alight.

Nice overview from Dan with some great links at the end that show grime’s real talent away from the Top 40. And some good jabs at the Met also.

Blog closed until further notice… « Mister Trippy.

An interesting review of Stewart Home’s latest blogging incarnation and some comment on blogging in general.

I don’t look at my webstats too often, not least because the number of people who drop by here terrifies me slightly (um, hello!).

The search stats are usually quite a depressing array of dysfunctionality (more of that below). But now we have a clear winner, which whilst depressing does suggest that a lot of people out there aren’t afraid to research the more unsettling aspects of London history.

I guess most of these are self explanatory, but here goes a whirlwind (but not very festive) tour of the hidden parts of uncarved.org

Looks like some of these put me in the premier league of google searches…

Police corruption stoke newington 1980s (speaks for itself really)

Amputee Sex (a booklet by Stewart Home which I have for sale)

anarcho punk (a genre of music which is roundly criticised here, but uncarved.org still provides hordes of forum posters and myspacers with logos to put in their profiles like people used to have on the backs of their leather jackets) Number 3 on google!

Frieda Powell (A victim of a particularly gory murder – all text but NSFW) Number 2 on google!

Nicky Crane (a gay nazi skinhead who exerts an ominous sexual hold over some people – from beyond the grave!) Number 2 on google!

Inna Gadda Da Vida meaning (the hidden story of Brion Gysin and Vidal Sassoon’s influence on this sixties anthem) Number 1 on google!

The Bug (yes! some sanity at last!) Number 4 on google!

Donkey Show (a Disco theatre performance which seems to share its name with some dodgy pron)

Skin head (“Born to fight / Born to win / We were all born to be Skins / Born with martens on our feet / Face the truth there’s no retreat” authentic working class subculture now adopted by retro-pseuds everywhere)

Babylon (the film)

Previously, on “the first 23 gigs I can remember going to”

14. Alien Sex Fiend, Psychic TV, Steven Wells. Hackney Empire, 30 September 1987.

Doing our bit for Biafra. Jello Biafra.

This was a benefit for the Dead Kennedys’ No More Censorship Defence Fund – the group were being done for “distribution of harmful matter to minors” when someone’s Mum had called the police after seeing some HR Giger artwork they had used. There was a fair bit of coverage about the trial in the UK media if you knew where to look. I recall the NME’s “Censorship” issue being especially good and to give them fair due they ran regular news updates about the case as well. I assume that this was largely down to the insistence of my favourite ranter Steven Wells, aided and abetted by Stuart Cosgrove (see what happened to him in a previous entry).

Rehberg struck up a conversation with Paula P-Orridge by the merchandise stall. She seemed fantastically nice, but I just lurked about in the background. Grinning like a moron.

I probably picked up a shit load more live LPs and other merchandise.

The crowd was a motley punky/crusty collection – more dyed hair than my previous time at the Empire when PTV were headlining, but actually less diverse. Swells was compering and was characteristically in our faces from the off. He dispatched some hecklers with aplomb, correctly identifying them as being try-hard punks with hilariously fake cockernee accents.

There was a small bunch of us down the front for PTV, who launched into a rendition of “My Old Man’s A Dustman” and complained about Alien Sex Fiend demanding a sack of cash for expenses. It ended up being a nice intimate set in a venue which was slightly too big. I was still fascinated by Psychic TV fans at this point.

We watched about five minutes of Alien Sex Fiend and fucked off back home in Peter’s car. I could just about tolerate their electro-crusty-gothness, but this was all a complete no-go zone for my designated driver. To give Alien Sex Fiend their due, it looks like they did a two night stint at the Empire. I have developed a soft spot for their drongo-disco anthem “Smells Like Shit” over the years.

After my exam failure I was trying to stay in my parents’ good books. They were very pleased to see me back so early. After all, I had work the next day…

Duke Vin

Off to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham last Monday for the showing of this film. The event was organised by the RMT Union’s Black and Ethnic Minority Members Advisory Committee. The introduction was by General Secretary, Bob Crowe.

So! A righteous trinity of black culture, Bernie “The youths around here believe the police were to blame for what happened on Sunday and what they got was a bloody good hiding” Grant, and Bob Crowe – an unreconstructed old school socialist. The sort of thing to have Daily Mail readers fuming with rage.

Bob referred to us all as “comrades”, which I liked. The ultra-leftist in me writes him off as a highly paid union bureaucrat, but to give him his due he seems solidly unbothered by spin and PR which is quite refreshing these days. Plus he has blatantly got a good deal for RMT members, so fair play. Comrade Bob set the scene about immigration to the UK and the role that black people played in working on the railways, tubes and buses. as well as the part that trade unions have played in combating racism.

The film itself was much better than I expected – it told the history of Ska, but focused mainly on the early soundsystems in London from the 1950s onwards. I’ve touched on some of this in my article for the forthcoming issue of Datacide, but it was great to hear the story first hand for a change. Vin, Suckle and Vego were all in fine voice (especially Vego with his rockstone tones). They told their stories of coming to London and slowly building up their sounds so that people could have somewhere to come and socialise and dance.

Daddy Vego aka Vgo

The recollections of blues dances and early clubs like the Roaring Twenties in Carnaby Street (first reggae night in the West End, attended by all the celebs of the day!) were a joy. Context was provided by Don (yawn) Letts and Jerry Dammers amongst others. There was even a fleeting cameo appearance from Spirit…

Duke Vin and The Birth of Ska is a nice counterpart to the Story of Lovers Rock – it’s great to see some quality documentation of the hidden recesses of bass culture. Hopefully someone will take them up for distribution so that they get the audiences they deserve.