Harry’s Place

Dear Reader,
I will get to the “but” presently. Indulge me for a few paragraphs…
The growing popularity of blogging and so-called “citizen journalism” was once seen as a challenge to the traditional media. As news sources, blogs could sometimes dramatically scoop print and broadcast media, but I don’t think any serious media commentator honestly ever thought […]

Dead at 79.
Lots of great stuff on YouTube, but check this out.

Talk about a different era.
I also like The Animals’ musical recollection of his visit to Newcastle, “our hometown.”

Is the taboo about lefties sending their kids to public schools now totally ended?
Here is 50-year-old Paul Weller, he of ‘Eton Rifles’ fame:
When I ask what he spends his money on he rolls his eyes. ‘School fees…’ He had qualms about it at first, but all his children have been educated at private schools. Where […]

The Scottish composer James Macmillan comes from a solidly working class background and used to be a member of the Young Communist League: but he hates being tarred with the contemporary liberal leftist brush.
He explains here why he believes the cultural mores of what passes for the modern left are diametrically opposed to what he […]

Morrissey walked off stage after 3 songs on Friday with a sore throat. Saturday and Sunday were cancelled.
I’m both gutted and elevated. An essential rite of passage in the life of any Moz fan, is the gig which he cancels. The best cancellation ever was when Morrissey discovered that the venue he was about to […]

Union City, the email newsletter of Metro Washington (DC) Labor Council, AFL-CIO, reminds me that last Friday was the 30th anniversary of Johnny Paycheck’s great song “Take This Job and Shove It” reaching number one on the Billboard charts.

Via Morrissey-Solo.com, the Indie is reporting that Morrissey will play the Middle East. Says his manager:

“One way or another we will tour the Middle East – in terms of places like Jerusalem and Beirut. And we hope to play Iran.”
This is excellent news. Morrissey has a strong following in both Israel and Turkey. I expect […]

The hubby and I had a fun weekend in Liverpool last weekend chasing down Beatles landmarks. Anyhow, this past week, I’ve been filled with enthusiasm for all things Beatle, so now is good time to give a punt to a fund-raising project for Amnesty International’s Darfur campaign.
Yoko Ono has donated the royalties from John Lennon’s […]

I recently discovered ‘Deb’, by the Algerian singer Souad Massi, in Tower Records in Jerusalem, of all places. Souad won the BBC World Music Awards Middle East category in 2006.
She is astonishingly talented, possessed of a gorgeous voice, and her music fuses Arab, Berber and Andalucian influences. Rather pretty too. It really doesn’t get […]

Seemingly everybody’s favourite Beatles album was released four decades ago on June 1st 1967. The newspapers are full of reminiscences by those who either remembered the event or discovered the record in the years that followed.
But those who actually played on the record are less caught up in Pepper-mania. Here’s drummer Ringo Starr:
“It served its […]