lemon revolution

I always thought Oasis sounded better live. When I first started listening to them, roughly 8 years ago, what took me was the sheer power of Liam's live voice on YouTube (see Maine Road, Knebworth, Chicago performances), raging and scaling upward upon that unmistakable roar of stomping, swamping guitars. Rockin' Star, here performed in Bournemouth in 1995, is a perfect example of this. Liam absolutely tears into the song with every inch of his throat, lungs and gut, a bruised wail, and one which delivers the following opening lines with the sense of sadness and burning release that they deserve: I'm older than I wish to be This town holds no more for me All my life I've tried to find another way

there was little else to say now, little to ask or to try for the bullet bitten the bottle drained the fire closed tears fell in choked rhythms i saw the edges fade to a silent shade and watched as men tried to fix the wound stirred in the crunching gravel, whirled in the smoke and pondered on the silent marsh roots stirred and foraged into the deep trembling roots splintered among the nuts of clay and earthly stew splintered one two three four ways written in horror blinded searing white by war explosions and drowning screams stone death silence stirring against the burning roar time eaten mad by the tank’s high turret nations chewed and thrashed in fury carcass broken and sliced saw black horror and pain rumble a monstrous tremor in the roll of a tear shrieks through the rings of time earth crashing and laughing, crumbling beneath the feet bene

Saw this group at Truck Festival last weekend. An absolutely riproaring set, and the best I saw all weekend. Had the feel of a group who wanted nothing more than to be on stage, losing themselves in the overwhelming intensity of their own music. Good to see a modern-day group writing music with an eye to the world around them as well.

the faceless men stood and drew lined fences on the cobbled roads and windy beaches and round the steeples and those golden fields but this land was made, for you and me

A great speech by Corbyn in the Commons, post-Chilcot. A speech far more incisive and historically aware than Hillary Benn's all those months ago: a speech steeped in respect for the will of not only the British people, but also the Iraqi people and the troops who fought on behalf of the allied coalition. Labour backbenchers can be heard wailing and moaning as Corbyn delivers. It sums up the state of utter idiocy which currently plagues this faction of the party: out of place, out of touch and, so long as they can steal the power of leadership, completely remorseless.

but democracy has been walking wounded for a long time now. many have gained from its leaking blood and danced ahead of its drunken crawl, profiteering, scripting its broken charade. and now we watch as forces of darkness emerge and unravel, drowning out the sinking glimpse of the sun.

Lots being said on this. Purely through my own eyes on social media and through talking to people, the following generalisations seem to ring true: 1) Well-educated young people, jobs living in cities with actual career, professional jobs, have voted IN 2) People living outside of cities and without a university education, whether rich or poor, young or old, have voted OUT 3) Bigotry being unleashed from group 1 to group 2 is sickening and symptomatic of pretty much everything wrong and awry with Brit politics

This tweet The construction of the English subject is inseparable from the destruction of the lives and humanity of racialized people. Arguments of this kind take a dead-corpse view of national identity: that these things are too stewed in oppression and blood-letting to be of any use in creating a truly progressive society. I'm unsure where I stand on this precisely. In one sense, I have no issue with people proclaiming to be English, to be proud of standing by the flag, of supporting their football team. Each of these three examples could be analysed independently, with different arguments being pulled together to argue against each one. Yet this behaviour does, in my experience, tend towards the creation of an 'other': something considered external to being English, and something which can inspire feelings of anger and hatred. I've seen the reaction of English people to meeting people (also considered English) who don't support the English football team.