The Unorthodox Website Blog

I had so many hopes and dreams as a young man. Dreams of a better world, a world without nuclear weapons, a fairer world where nobody would be exploited, no one would die of hunger or be homeless, a world where everything would be shared out fairly. It was all hopelessly idealistic, but it brings tears to my eyes still to see those dreams of my youth lie shattered as an old man.

I started off so full of hope in February 1961 watching and listening to Bertrand Russell in Trafalgar Square on the first Committee of 100 demonstration against nuclear weapons, then he led a march down Whitehall, pinned a notice to the Ministry of Defense (then facing Green Park) and they staged a sit-down outside it.

Seven months later I too sat down in Trafalgar Square with about 10,000 others on the biggest civil disobedience demonstration ever seen in this country, and it seemed nothing could stop us – we would ban the bomb and get rid of the threat that hung over us all.

(Click on maps/pictures/diagrams below to enlarge them.)

1 Cyprus was an independent country till Turkey invaded the North in 1974.

In actual fact it was Greece who first invaded the whole island in July 1974. The Greek military junta in Athens organized a coup against President Makarios with the objective of annexing the island to Greece. However Makarios survived, went to the UN in New York and pleaded for help because ‘Greece has invaded Cyprus’. His pleas were ignored, especially by Britain which was a guarantor of Cypriot independence with thousands of troops stationed permanently on the island. Turkey also appealed to Britain to intervene, and only took unilateral action to protect the Turkish-Cypriot population from extermination/ethnic cleansing when Britain refused to help. The whole thing stinks of a NATO plot between USA, UK, Greece and Turkey against what they considered a pro-Soviet Makarios.

The present-day TRNC  is colored yellow, the British occupied areas (sovereign bases) are shaded gray and white, the remainder comes under the Greek-Cypriot administration.

2  The Berlin Wall sealed off East Berlin.

I’m quoting Alexander the meerkat, who probably has more sense than a lot of politicians. How on Earth did we get into the kind of economic mess we’re in at the moment, with banks having to be rescued from collapsing by the taxpayer and cuts in public services to try to pay off the national debt?

Capitalist greed is the short answer, and it would also apply of course to former Socialist countries where the ruling bureaucratic clique creamed off too much for themselves.

The basic rule of thumb is that you don’t get anything for nothing. If you try, you’re in deep trouble sooner or later, and the more people trying to get something for nothing, the greater the problems they create.

The simple fact is every able bodied adult of working age needs to earn their living, and if there aren’t enough jobs around then they have to be created because there is actually plenty of community work needing to be done in charities, hospitals, helping our aging population, the disabled, etc..

His latest CD

He’s been called many things, some nice, some not so nice. ‘The Killer’ is the most usual pseudonym, which apparently came about when he was still at school – he called people Killer (and still does), and they called him Killer, so the name stuck. The Press like to hint that he may be responsible for the deaths of two wives, and he did shoot his bass player once (accidentally) but the guy survived, though was fired from his band as he couldn’t play guitar properly!

The two wives, Jaren and Shawn, died in the 1980s. Jaren drowned in a swimming-pool, but was already separated from Jerry who was miles away. Shawn had only been married to Jerry for a few months when she was found dead in bed beside him. She died from a methadone overdose, though Jerry admits they’d had a row the night before.

Chelsea Harbor from the air

I was born late on March 20th. It was wartime, and they had something called ‘Double British Summertime’ which had already started that year, according to my mother, so it’s confusing as to what time I was really born – sometime between 8.30 and 10.30 pm I think depending on whether you go by GMT or DBST.

At any rate, I was born ‘on the cusp of two star signs’ as the astrologers say, Pisces the fishes and Aries the ram.  Now I’ve never been into astrology – astronomy yes, the exploration of the Solar System and the Universe, but astrology always seemed too way out for me. Certainly the horoscopes printed in newspapers and magazines are a load of nonsense – and I find it hard to believe that everyone born under the same star sign will have similar things happening on the same day.

However, there may be something in it.

It never used to be like this, but now the area where I live is getting like the Deep South of the USA in the 1950s, or apartheid South Africa.

You can draw a line along York Road and to the north of that along the River Thames are the very affluent white areas, with affluent white Chelsea across on the other bank of the River. Walk along the riverside walk on either side of the River and you’ll hardly see a black/ethnic face. Luxury millionaires apartments, the Heliport for rich executives, and little Fred Wells Gardens where you see relatively few black/ethnic faces.

Cross York Road and it’s another world. Vast council estates where the Tory council has concentrated most of the Labour voters, selling off a lot of other council estates to those most likely to vote Tory. Council housing is now reserved for the poorest with many single mothers and low-income families.

As expected this was a great Weekender, with the bonus of some nice sunshine. Only thing was the hot weather made it very uncomfortable wearing Teddy-boy suits, and some had three-piece outfits with waistcoats. Despite fans and air-conditioning, the main ballroom got rather hot. I chickened out and stuck to jeans and t-shirts, not wearing the one drape jacket I’d brought with me (I usually bring three).

Some great acts over the weekend like American rockabilly Sonny Burgess with his 1950s piano player Kern Kennedy and a drummer who also goes way back. British pop singer from the late 1950s/early 1960s Marty Wilde made his first appearance at the Weekender, and was very well received doing a mixture of his pop hits and some rock’n'roll standards. He was visibly bowled over by the reaction, and by the vintage cars he saw at the camp, including one the same model (but different color) to one he had way back in the 1950s/early 1960s.

The first weekend in July always means two things: Gay Pride events in London, and the Wildest Cats Weekender in Pakefield, Lowestoft.

I’m a gay man, but also a rock’n'roll fan and so always choose the Wildest Cats Weekender over Pride, which holds no attraction for me whatsoever.

I absolutely detest the fashions, music and behavior of many gay people at the various Pride events, and can’t even see the reason for it any more.

Why do they just assume just because someone is gay they like the same fashions, music, and like to be exhibitionists? It all started back in the 1970s to win gay rights, but now we have won most of these the events would only be laudable if they sought to win respect for the gay community from the general public.

My partner and I (he died in 1991) went on  two gay marches in the USA – in Washington DC and in New York City.

Rumored to be written above the gates of Hell: ‘Abandon all hope ye who enter here’. Was this the greeting heralding in the 3rd milennium? I just hope not, but sometimes it seems that way.

Go back to the mid-20th Century, in the years following the Second World War. A third of the world seemed to be marching triumphantly towards a Communist utopia after much of it was liberated from Fascism, in Britain and other countries we had our own version of Socialism and a better world ahead with the new Welfare State and nationalized industries to serve the public not private profit, the economy was improving, nuclear energy promised an almost unlimited source of power, technology leaping ahead with new labor-saving devices, the Soviet Sputnik heralded the new Space Age with journeys to other planets, campaigns started up to get rid of nuclear weapons and were supported by hundreds of thousands if not millions around the world, the European Coal and Steel Community developed into the European Common Market – making war between European states, which twice developed into World Wars, very unlikely.

Click on picture to enlarge

I attended my first Rockabilly Rave at Pontins Holiday Center, Camber Sands, East Sussex last weekend. I had to be persuaded to go as, while I love first rate rockabilly from the American greats like Carl Perkins, Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess, Warren Smith, Johnny Burnette Trio, etc. I’m not so keen on neo-rockabilly and obscure 1950s rockabilly from equally obscure artists.

I decided to go because I wanted to see the great Sleepy La Beef and Jack Scott once again. In fact I enjoyed much more than these two, though they were superb.

Sleepy La Beef went well over his allotted 45 minutes playing for an hour 20 or 25 minutes. Not for nothing is he called ‘the human jukebox’ as he treated us to a mixture of rock’n'roll, rockabilly and Country music, some complete songs, some medleys.