Nick Harper – Brilliant gig at St Nicholas Church in Beverley

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It was so good to see Nick back on the road again, his same positive self, full of wit, wisdom and invective delivered in his unique style. The voice and guitar were spot on.

I wasn’t quite sure about the venue. Nick in a church didn’t seem right and at times I felt he felt constricted by the setting and that the vacuous nature of the building and formal, rather distantly spaced arrangement of the pews did not create the closeness the performance warranted.

Nick is always one for being creative. He is never prepared to sit back on his laurels. Over the course of the past decade, he has assumed many different variations of his art, extending it to many new dimensions. I have seen him perform acoustic sets of the full range of his material, then exciting, highly political sets with the electrified Wilderness Kids, a set of cover songs for all of the great acoustic guitar giants that visited his (Roy’s) flat in Fordwych road, an elongated performance of his Wiltshire poem, an acoustic act laced with comedy, a surround sound experimental performance, and a wonderfully intimate performance in a small pub in Leeds where the whole audience spontaneously accompanied him on every song (far from the standard singalong). You never quite know what to expect. The range of skills and abilities is wide and immense.

This concert was no exception. He brought something completely different. It was a concert of two halves.

The first half of the show was an electric presentation full of complex tape loops and electronic backing which highlighted the profoundly intimate story of his love for his partner Jackie complete with mystical elements from the album Phantastes. It was brought to life with some amazing electric guitar and Nick’s LNG explanatory introductions. Here, I felt the setting worked in his favour to create an intense atmospheric ambience that suited the fantasy nature of the songs and stories. Nick was in costume with his mad hatter’s hat indicative of the Phantastes fairy-tale nature of the set.

The second half of the show featured Nick at his rambunctious best with his trusty acoustic guitar delivering his songs with gusto. Here, I think the venue was not so conducive. Nick was a little more dislocated from the audience and the vacuousness of the venue worked against him but he none-the-less prevailed and the audience was ecstatic!

If you get the chance to catch him on this minitour don’t miss out! It’s unique! He’ll probably never do it again!

https://harperspace.com/live

https://www.songkick.com/artists/425544-nick-harper

Today’s Music to keep me SsssSaaaannnnNee – Roy Harper – Flat Baroque and Berserk

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One of my favourite albums of all time – and one that I was privileged to see recorded at Abbey Road studio.

Once

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Once

Once grasshopper jumped with every step

And ponds were full of frogs.

Once there were stag beetles

That lived in rotten logs.

Once there were huge flocks of swallows

Wheeling through the sky.

Now they are all gone

And we’re left to wonder why.

Once great forests covered every hill

Bears and wolves hunted the deer.

Once people lived in harmony with nature

And the seasons of the year.

Once there was a balance

Full of bounty for the gleaning.

We lived a natural life;

An existence full of meaning.

Opher – 23.1.2021

We live in the Anthropocene, in a landscape designed by man. The wilderness has gone. Nature is tamed.

All that lives only does so through our benevolence; vestiges of what once was.

The forests have given way to green fields of crops, sprayed with death.

Now we life an artificial life and search for meaning.

Fair Taxation

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Fair Taxation

Close the loopholes, don’t be lax
Graduate the income tax
The economy will have a bounce
Just from taxing the off-shore accounts

Fair taxation! Fair taxation!

The heart of any civilised nation!

Everyone should be aware
Ensure fat cats pay their share
For fairness in the economy
We need greater equality.

Fair taxation! Fair taxation!

The heart of any civilised nation!

So politicians do what’s right

Graduate the tax tonight.

The whole country will cheer

If those loopholes disappear!

Fair taxation! Fair taxation!

The heart of any civilised nation!

Opher & Bumba 17.1.2017

With A/I creating greater and greater inequality the world is either going to move into a situation where there is no employment and most of humanity is in hopelessly languishing in desperate misery while a small elite have more money than they can possibly deal with, or we find a way forward.

Without fair taxation there is a future of mass migration, war and hate.

There will be violent revolution.

It’s already happening.

Tories BRAG about GETTING ALL THE BIG CALLS right!!

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BLOODY HELL!! They are rewriting history!!

So far they’ve got nearly all the big calls wrong!!

They negotiated an appalling Brexit deal that is costing us a fortune!!

They dithered and dithered on Covid and chucked infected people into Care Homes – killing tens of thousands unnecessarily!

They wasted tens of billions on useless apps, T&T, and useless PPE.

They handed out billions to their chums.

They have illegally screwed money out of donors for various promises.

They have been courting Putin’s money and even putting Russians into Parliament!

Then we have the illegal lobbying, Partygate, second jobs, sex scandals, cash for secret meetings, Russian Tennis…….

IF THIS IS WHAT IS MEANT BY GETTING ALL THE BIG CALLS RIGHT then I’m a warthog!!

When questioned they have no answers. They avoid all scrutiny and hide in fridges. They hide away so that they are not accountable for all the crimes and incompetence.

The one big call they could get right is to resign!!!

SUE GRAY and TOXIC PHOTOS of BORIS JOHNSON PARTYING!

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When a Prime Minister lies to the public and lies to the House of Parliament it is a big thing!

A Prime Minister who lies is in no position to lead a country!

We have been given the full treatment by the Tory Party. They have tried to trivialise it as only a bit of birthday cake. It was not only a bit of cake! There were 21 parties with booze, quizzes and party hats. Johnson was at a number of them. This was a culture of breaking the law at a time when draconian rules were imposed on all of us. They behaved as if they were above the very laws they had imposed on us!

It is not trivial!

They have tried to make out that these 21 parties were the same as Starmer’s beer and curry. They weren’t! Starmer WAS at a work event. He did not hold quizzes or smuggle in booze in shopping trollies. He wasn’t wearing a party hat and he had not issued invites saying ‘BRING A BOTTLE’.

It is not comparable in any sense.

The Tories have tried to suggest that it was a hard-working team battling covid letting off steam at the office. It wasn’t! These were organised parties!!

They broke the law!! There were big gatherings and no social distancing. They knew. They were laughing about their law-breaking as we saw from Allegra Stratton’s practise press conference. They were taking us for mugs.

They tell us that it is time to move on, that there are more important things to deal with – Ukraine and the Cost-of-living. The truth is that there are enormous problems – and most of them have been caused by this incompetent twat of a greedy, selfish clown and his equally self-serving government.

Lying, incompetence and corruption are not things to move on from! The guilty people should all be sacked and replaced with honest, competent people we can trust – people who will work for us and not themselves!!

The MET have shown themselves to be corrupt. They have largely punished the minions and excused the leaders and organisers. SHAME ON THEM!!!!

Now we wait for SUE GRAY to set the record straight!!

We have already heard about the SECRET MEETING!!! What pressure has been brought to bear???

I put nothing past this craven bunch of fascists!! They are taking over the BBC, dismantling Channel 4 and trying to silence any opposition.

Are we any different to RUSSIA???

What a terrible journey this has been!!

More from the Suez Canal!!

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Interesting structures and sights!

The Last Days of Donny

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The Last Days of Donny

The last days of Donny –

In the Alamo, under siege,

Still tweeting conspiracies

To those he would deceive.

In the fantasyland of Donny

The election was stolen.

He ranted and raved

And the seas of hate were swollen.

Now Donny calls on the militia

To storm the seats of power.

While muttering in his bunker,

Influence ebbing by the hour.

Now Donny’s hitting out –

Putting prisoners to death.

Locking more kids in cages.

More threats with every breath.

They are impeaching Donny now –

Shoving him out of office.

For the crime of insurrection

Impeachment won’t suffice.

They’re going to check his tax returns

And every dodgy deal.

Without the immunity of the presidency

The heat is getting real.

He owes seven hundred million bucks

And the banks are closing in.

Donny’s going to pay the price

For his lifetime of sin.

No more grabbing pussy

Or hanging out with Epstein.

The truth about his exploits

Have yet to be seen.

In the last days of Donny

The lizards are back in charge.

The Deep State has won.

Donny has been fired.

Opher – 14.1.2021

It all looks dire for Donny. They’re coming for him. His authority is melting away and his friends are jumping ship.

He’s split the Republican Party and brought shame on the USA. Now he’s going to pay.

The irony is that all those terrible jibes he made to Hilary were really about himself. He’s the crook who needs locking up!

He is the tax evader, the mafia connected crook, the sex offending playboy who hung around with paedophiles.

This conman pulled the wool over millions. He pretended to be the champion of the poor. He pretended to be a successful businessman.

We’ll see!!

Covid Blues

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Covid Blues

The great ape skulks within his home

Talking to friends on his telephone

All alone.

His cousins live among the trees

Grooming each other as they please

Life at ease.

The Businessman is very pleased

Massive profits from PPEs

Life’s a breeze

The politician disagrees

He’s brought the country to its knees

Brain freeze.

Opher – 9.1.2021

I was out on my daily walk thinking about how Covid-19 has exacerbated the social situations of modern life. Isolation has shown how much we need people, the touch and physical presence. It has exposed how greedy and selfish some people are – willing to exploit the misery of others. It has shown the incompetence of populist, male, macho politicians as compared to their female counterparts.

Basically we’re just apes living in a concrete jungle, isolated and living on social media.

This isolation is sapping my energy.

Partygate – the way the propaganda works.

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The Tory Party decided that Boris Johnson, despite everything, was still the best chance they had of hanging on to power. Power is all that matters. Power means status and wealth. It’s highly addictive. They launch ‘Operation Save The Big Dog’.

The media were deployed to tell the cretins what to think.

The law-breaking and lies of Partygate were played down. It was a trivial bit of birthday cake – there are far bigger issues with Ukraine and the Cost of Living.

The police were pressured to muddy the waters by investigating Starmer. This was built up to appear as if Starmer’s beer and curry at a working by-election meeting were the same as a series of planned parties with quizzes, party hats, booze in shopping trolleys and bring a bottle in Johnson’s house and back garden.

The police were pressured not to prosecute Johnson.

There was a secret meeting with Sue Gray to tailor the report.

The fact that Johnson had repeatedly lied about parties he had attended to the public and in the House was glossed over. It was just a bit of birthday cake. Starmer had done the same. He’d said sorry. Move on.

Lying to the House was downplayed as trivia.

They tried to big-up Johnson’s wonderful Ukraine contribution – lots of photo ops.

They hid from scrutiny as much as possible.

The Press kept up a stream of anti-Starmer, pro-Johnson propaganda.

The heat died down. Johnson is still there.

Meanwhile, they are stifling all opposition and removing all scrutiny – taking over the BBC and Channel 4, banning protest and pouring out propaganda through the Daily Express, The Daily Mail, the Telegraph, Sun and Times.

They want a world without scrutiny or accountability so that the population can be controlled and manipulated.

The media will run scare stories about the opposition. The failures and corruption of the Tories will be glossed over.

People will forget the law-breaking, nepotism, huge handouts to their chums, illegal donors, Russian connections, second salaries, Partygate, Lies, Brexit failure, Covid corruption, cash for secret meetings, cash for peerages, tens of thousands dead, tax rises, broken promises, Care lies, VAT hikes, benefit cuts, food banks, homelessness, cost of living crisis ………………………..

The Tories will be blameless.

Johnson, the most corrupt, sleazy, lying, incompetent Prime Minister we have ever had will tighten his grip.

It is becoming a lot like Russia.