Author Archives: purplejaguar

Having your own book released is an exciting experience and also eye opening to the world of academic or non academic publishing. How can you break the mould from the ceiling of releasing your £85 hardback book. Joy turns to anguish as friends, family and interested readers realise they can’t afford your in-depth dedicated masterpiece.

Working with Intellect books was an open experience meaning any ideas for expanding reach and reducing the cover price was keenly supported. For the Punk Scholars Network this is an exciting DIY opportunity that perfectly matches our ethos. In recognition of this both Marie Arleth Skov and I have created playlists to support our book releases.

The perfect way to enjoy both books is to soundtrack your reading for pleasure and/or research with these punk, post punk and new wave lists. Enjoy.

So the Metaverse have sprung a spoke into Twitter’s ever deterioating Musk scented world with their new social media platform Threads. It looks like a mash between Instagram and Twitter with a fresh feel and rays of hope from expectant threaders. What can it actually add to our worlds though? Creatives try and expand their own personal orbits through social media platforms but is there really any point? Not in Twitter, except for expressing opinions into an empty chamber. Not in Facebook, to your groups of friends. Not in Instagram as its really a casul, beautiful visual experience. Not in Tik Tok which is super scary unless you break through the barriers of the alogrhythm to develop your own feeds. Not in You Tube, unlss you have the time and budget for cinema class productions.

So maybe Threads will open up new unforseen worlds. Or maybe I’ll just pop down to my local park and catch up with some mates, play games, read, laugh together, play music, go for a swim, head to the gym, find a country pub, lie back in a wild flower meadow and think of England (pre Brexit).

Anyway lets see what happens – check out my Threads profile @purplejaguar23

Glastonbury is a very white festival. The music obviously originates from multi cultural roots but the audience are mono cultural in the extreme. It almost felt like a christian thing. A middle class white religion. Noticeable at the 2023 version was the impact of the audience, where at stage after stage the crowds were singing almost ore than the audience. Lewis Capaldi bravely fighting through his Tourettes nerves on a wave of vocal support from supportive fans. Debbie Harry hoping that the audience can help mask her flagging vocal delivery, which is not surprising at the age of 77 and what a life she has led. Lana Del Ray sounding amazing, but having to sing her finale a cappella, sans sound system, as she was too busy doing her hair. Jacob Collier, whose performance on the West Holts stage involved conducting the audience into multi harmony ecstasy. Billy Nomates innovative and excellent performance was attacked online because she only sang with backing tracks; her stage name is Billy Nomates!! Performing with a full band is also very expensive and unsustainable unless you are Elton John of course, crooning away and bashing his Steinway as what must have been the largest audience ever at the festival waved him goodbye down the yellow brick road, off to see the wizard. Chris of the Queens went topless; Lizzo didn’t, quite. Both produced amazingly creative shows. Rina Sawayama was practically naked while breaking Kiki Dee’s heart. Elton’s bunch of old guys plodded on, austerely dressed. How far have we come? Naked women, all male headline bands, white audience. Glastonbury can feel like a beacon of hope but geez there’s still a long way to go. Highlights: Los Bitchos, Jockstrap, Warpaint, Leftfield, Sparks with Cate Blanchett etc… all on the Park Stage. Billy Nomates too, surrounded by her friends.

Billy Nomates performed an amazing set on the Park stage at Glasto last night. Single performer holding a crowd. She was innovative, eclectic, creative and original. Tor received horrific online abuse afterwards, so much so that she is considering quitting music and has requested the footage to be deleted. It’s scary, awful and disgusting. Then you watch the Artic Monkeys sleep walk through their all male set. The Foo Fighters just about bothering to stay awake in their male glory. The standout acts were Warpaint, Kelis, and Fever Ray, like The Knife through butter, were better. Watching all male groups is generally so dull, so Emily Eavis and crew, sort out your headliners and protect female artists

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/billy-nomates-glastonbury-set-abuse-b2363451.html

That is the question. I always get pangs of longing for the Somerset levels and the wonderful feeling of being central to the universe for a few days in late June (almost) every year. I have played Glastonbury probably about 15 times over the years, starting in 1983 and the acoustic stage. The 1990s saw some experimental offerings amongst the Green Fields, where armed with a mini disc player, tablas and random musicians we used to play pop up gigs across the festival. Obviously we sometimes jumped or burrowed under the fence. I remember paying £10 for a hand stamp on year. Late 1990s it rained lots, tents floating off, mud up to the waist in the Greenpeace tent. 1999 was crazy and great, but very dangerous with people camping up in the trees. I served purple haze scrambled eggs in the teepee field. Over the 2000s I joined Mo funk, Orchestra Montpelier and Baila la Cumbia. Playing for the opening event with Michael (Eavis) and the litter pickers; being the sound check band for the jazz/world stage; playing so many gigs so you could get all 12 of your band members in.

I’m getting the usual pangs as 50 miles up the road the Glasto experience is happening. Should i try and get in for Elton and his last ever performance. Bump into old friends. Let me know if anyone reading this has a spare couple of tickets. You forget that it is not always great, that sometimes you might even feel lonely, or tired of trudging around the piss stinking fields. But you are central to everything. The band lineup seems unusually average this year, but it was never about the bug groups. It was about discovering new things, reaffirming old ideas, being an activist, going feral, dropping out, solidifying friendships and making new ones. I guess you could call this the blues..