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
Songwriter and musician with Po! and Ruth's Refrigerator; owner of Rutland Records; co-writer of punkgirldiaries.com. Now recording, filming, writing for new company unglamorous music.