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Community Arts and How PO! began

I love Community Arts.  It used to be a kind of yogurt-weaving joke; the idea that rough kids from inner city estates would do a bit of circus skills, parachute co-operation games and muck about with old lorry tyres and somehow get civilised. I still think it works. I still think that it's better than doing nothing. http://can.uk.com/ There are half-dead men in their 40s, who grew up in affluent suburbs and never experienced Community Arts. If you grow up with financial stability and success as a default, it must seem weird that anyone would ever want to do those things -  how can making a giant elephant out of old pallets be useful for young people who should be training for jobs? I guess there's always been bad parenting; there are selfish ones and immature ones and ones that just aren't around enough. But when I was younger, Community Arts filled that gap. There were dens and adventure playgrounds and youth centres, and arts wo

Politics, The Musicians' Union and Me

I didn't grow up in an overtly political family. As a young child, Mike Yarwood was my route into politics; through his impressions, I knew many politicians of the time. I did think that Women's Lib had their own party, which seemed a good idea, but then I found out that Lib meant Liberals. When I was 11, I asked my mum which way she would vote. I wasn't surprised when she told me she was a Liberal, like her friend, Councillor Kate Neil, in Clevedon. I was shocked, when she said my dad would vote Labour. Until then, the media had given me the idea that Labour were the party of smelly factories and nasty aggressive men. My clean, mild-mannered schoolteacher dad did not fit that image at all, but I think that got me interested in finding out what the parties stood for.  Me, Snow Brian Clough, Mum, Front Brother Peter Subsequently, my dad often claimed to have 'given up' on politics. He used to say something like 'I gave up on religion in 1959,  

Songs by Ruth Miller

Looks like it could be the Royal Mail, Leicester? Today I am in the mood for lists, so here it is: A list of 80 songs written by Ruth Miller A Lovely Letter A New Grandma A Page a Day Albert Stole My Heart Appleseed Alley Better Bigger Wall Bus Shelter  Confidence Danny's Girl Early Hours of Summertime Elephant Chains Empty Vessels Engineering Ever Been Had Failed Inventor Farmyard Fay First Foot George Orwell's on the Trail Ghost of the Green Grass Glamour Glass King Good Behaviour Good Boy Jacob Haunt You Higher Than Your Smile I took my Head on a Date I Won't Stay In a Mermaid Tail in My Dream In the Rain Ipswich Jacqueline's House Jennifer Television Kitchen Sink Drama Northampton Labour Club Last Bus Home Leopard Lips That Are Not Mine Loneliness Look for the Holes Lying on my Side Milksop My Head's on Fire No Flowers Northern Wonder One Last Thrill Plastic Charity Girl Poor Old John Pop Stars Wives

Too old for indie-pop? Is all this nostalgia A Good Thing?

I resent being too early for stuff, and it seems to have happened all the way along. I was born too early for skateboards, and I would have been a fantastic skate girl... or BMX stunt rider... or any of that. I ran a super wee record label in the 1980s and 1990s, using a computer only for typing and printing out my newsletters and tape inlays on a dot matrix printer. I bought those massive sheets of stamps from the post office and even had a PO Box, where I would go to get an elastic-band stodge of letters most days.  It was truly fun, but how great it must be to make music nowadays with a World Wide Web! Where you can tweet to fans worldwide, and facebook-invite them to secret gigs. That would have been good back in my day. But, like a 19 year old girl trying to learn skateboard for the first time, would it be an embarrassing spectacle to do it all again on YouTube or at some festival, when you are comfortably middle-aged? The first album 1989 - Little Stones as yet not re-rele

How to Write a Song Part One (1969 - 1984)

Sorry serendipitous finders - this is not really a manual for how anyone can write a song; I thought the title 'How to Write a Song' might Google well. Instead this is a biography of my songwriting development, bearing in mind I had little formal music training. However, it's always worth considering how other people's songs come about and trying some different techniques. Me and little brother in Sunday best, ready for a trip in the Renault 4 to Avebury Age 7 I used to make up songs whilst in the car. We lived in Wiltshire, England and my parents thought it good practice to take the children out in the Renault 4 every weekend; usually to a white horse or a hill fort.  I can't remember whether my parents had any input into the songs or not - on reflection, maybe they were based on army or girl guide tunes - but once each had evolved, the whole family would join in. With no car radio, CD player etc,  I suppose we made our own entertainment, because it t

The Soviets Era 1983-85

Dress made from an old bed sheet; coat and jumper - mum's from the 1960s.  Hanging out in Newark Cemetery. After my three years 1979 - 1982 in Sheffield, where I was only in bedroom-style bands, I moved to Leicester. The reason was to do a PhD in the Communication of Science using new Information Technology. In fact, with a colleague, I published the first ever academic paper on data downloading. It was a mystery subject back then in 1981 and my research found that hardly anyone downloaded anything, let alone knew what the word meant. http://jis.sagepub.com/content/8/1/7.abstract The Soviets: Simon, Richard, Ruth, Andy I lived in a succession of bedsits, and was desperate to join a band. Before too long, I met other postgraduate students who shared my musical tastes and politics. Andy, Simon and I formed The Soviets - an overtly left wing political combo. We did have different bass players: Martin and Neil but they were less involved with the group ideology. The

The Chaos Biscuits

For 3 years after leaving The Devices and going to Sheffield Polytechnic in 1979, I did not play any gigs. Mind you, I went to plenty. It was a great time to be in Sheffield; my first few weeks included going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark, the Dead Kennedys, and The Human League at Doncaster Rotters club. I had chosen Sheffield for its music; my aim was to see Cabaret Voltaire, which I did - at the fantastic Psalter Lane Art School - supported by Clock DVA. My three years as a student were a rich musical banquet. I revelled in the fact that you could go out to the Limit Club and see Martyn Fry of ABC or Phil Oakey of the Human League out having a good time, and sometimes they'd say 'hi' to you. Pulp's Jarvis Cocker was a well-known guy around town; often to be seen in the pub which had hundreds of tea pots around the ceiling. Does that still exist? After a night out, the 2.30am late bus to Totley (7 miles) wa