I've only just heard about the very, very sad news regarding WCR 1350 Radio - Wolverhampton presenter Phil Cort collapsing and passing away suddenly on 13th February.
Corty as I always called him (him always calling me 'Tipun') was a great laugh - a natural on radio...in fact when you hear most of the mealy mouthed tossers we have on local radio in the West Midlands - he was bloody great. He cared too much about what he presented to be bothered with all the 'wanna be a celebrity' style crap we get now. He was a Black Country lad and loved the area.
I presented a show at WCR from around 2000 to 2002 and Phil was a real laugh around the station - always in good spirits. I always remember the night I did a documentary /special on the late great Steve Marriott. Phil was a big fan of Steves and I'd got a live link up with Steves old manager Laurie O'Leary throughout the show. Phil helped me present it along with Steve Morris and I still get requests to hear the show- I've got it on CD - in fact the two guys who wrote the autobiography on Steve Marriott - celebrated writer Paolo Hewitt and Small Faces historian John Hellier had copies of it and loved it. The show was a great success and Phil was excellent on it. One memory of the show was Phil opening up a pack of cheese and onion sandwiches he'd made himself to snack on through the show. The onion was so strong it took your breath away - honestly - we were gasping for air - ha ha. See you have to smile when you think about Corty - he made you laugh.
My sincere condolences to all his family and friends and colleagues at WCR - Christ he was part of the furniture there. Really sad news.
God Bless ya' Corty ...and your Noddy Holder hairstyle.
Gary O'Dea - X
PS - there's a message board been placed on the WCR web site for messages of condolence. This will be presented to his family - here's the link
http://server.com/WebApps/db-view.cgi?id=122175
Okay...it's soap box time I'm afraid folks.
For me as someone raised through my Grandads strong Labour Party/Socialist & Trade Union principles as a lad - it grieves me to have to say that this Labour government has become a total embarrassment to the principles of Socialism. I mean what has happened to that...Socialism...has the Labour party got rid of it totally from its records - it's disappeared faster than
Saddams Weapons Of Mass Destruction. My Grandad would turn in his grave.
They started off so well 10 years ago after 18 years of Tory 'Iron Rule' and sleaze. I mean - for example the developments in Northern Ireland's political landscape would never have come about with a Tory government because of them being 'in-bed' well and truly with Unionist Parties, but I have to say that it's a terrible feeling to have very similar thoughts now about the quality of politics, politicians and personnel in this Labour government as I did towards the scumbags that made up Thatcher and Majors governments.
I see no real reason for any of us to vote - there's no real alternative, Politicians are all the same, they pander to the same values - just wrap it in a different ribbon. New Labour courts the same bourgeoisie fat cats that the Tory's pandered to. It's the same political pattern...for example Wars!
We had wars under Thatcher (Falklands) and Major (the first Iraq conflict) - but Blair has equaled their lies and deceit as regards taking us to war and his disdain towards us as the general public and our views matches how the Tories treated us in the past.
Example 2 - The
NHS is in total crisis - it's frightening that after 10 years of a Labour government (a party I truly believed would sort out a better society instead of the 'I'm alright Jack - fuck you' mentality of the Tory dogma), we still have situations where IT and Administration/Red Tape etc, etc, - introduced by the tory's by the way - bleeds the
NHS dry while Nurses and Doctors are under funded. We've got cases of recently graduated Nurses actually working for nothing just to keep their aquired skills to a level of service for patient care. Yet - what are Labour ploughing money into? A new Nuclear armaments upgrade!!! WHY? - I mean that to me is a Tory action - its ridiculous.
Labour are riddled with sleaze, lies and deception and if it wasn't for the fact that the demise of the Conservative Party was so overloaded with that - that even with this Labour government being so piss poor the
Torys cannot make ground because we remember what 18 years of that lot was about...basically greed ruled and god help those that couldn't help themselves.
Some of the Labour party ministers and members over this decade have make my skin crawl and blood boil just as much as the scheming unscrupulous bastards that lined up under the Tory regime. I'll never forget Tory personnel like the ferret faced Malcolm
Rifkin, slimy John Redwood (I could smack his face as look at the twat), Neil Hamilton (what an upstanding character he was)!!! -
Tebbit (on your bike ya' bastard), Cecil (The Lothario) Parkinson,
Portillo, Edwina Curry - what a lovable character she was - John Major thought so!!!
Heseltine (tosser)and then of course
Cruella DeVille herself...Thatcher - oh how I cried tears of joy when she was forced out...by her own lot. The misery they caused so many - for the benefit of so few...the appalling Poll Tax...the country should have stood up and fought the implementation of the Council Tax as well - that from a party that was supposed to free us up from the burden of taxation!!!
I detested Margaret Thatcher and all she stood for (I still do) - in the end she became too extreme even for her own party. Then we had Major and the deterioration of the Conservatives into greed and sleaze and total disregard for any 'principled' Politics and real concern for a caring society. His cabinet basically shagged one another and fiddled their bloody way into 'consultant' positions once they'd been outed from political life because of their actions...oh and they fucked us good and proper as well!
A New Labour party comes to power...the country rejoices...for a while, but then 'meet the new boss (very nearly) the same as the old boss'. Lies and sleaze - will they never learn. The whole world of politics in this country has lost what little integrity and credibility it ever had...and they have the cheek to call themselves 'the right honourable' - they're disgusting the whole lot of them. Blair has totally screwed up - we have been a puppet of bloody George Bush and that's criminal. He's given government positions to personnel such as Geoff
Hoon (a bloody disgrace who should have resigned),
Mandelson - well - what the fuck was that
weasel faced git all about, Alastair Campbell - 'spin doctor' - a twee name for a
fuckin' liar!
So - what we 'The People' need is a good demo to shake these parasites that 'think' they are the almighty' up - and put the bastards into their place - which is representing us, and working for what we want - not what they tell us we'll have to make do with.
So - Sat 24
th Feb in London
see's The Stop The War demo
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/. Buses are leaving from towns and cities all over the country - check this link
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/_Current/24Feb07Demo.htm#COACHES to find out where you can get your local bus from and get on board (A Bus To
Betterville).
Let's make a statement to these
politicians that we all know that this war was and is wrong and that we hold them responsible for it.
Also - sign up to these other petitions against proposed ' fiddles' by the government.
PROPOSED 'ROAD PRICING TAX'.
This really is another tax increase through the back door. You pay tax on the fuel - so you're already 'paying as you go'! There are only 8 days left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax - which closes to petitions on the 20
th February 2007.
The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at this time only 671,354 people have signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them
introducing it. Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.
Democracy in action?The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.
If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on Number 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible."
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/Lastly - as a musician...please help us...Tony 'Guitar Man' Blair is killing us - please read on...
LIVE MUSIC THREATENED IF NEW LAWS GO THROUGH
New government licensing laws are threatening the livelihood of
every British artist and the venues which employ them, and a petition on the government website has already been signed by almost 12,000 people opposed to the new laws. In the next few weeks, the Live Music Forum will present its recommendations for improvement of the Licensing Act to ministers. Some key points about the new law include the fact that anyone staging private shows for charity will need a license, likewise School performances.To access the petition and find out more click on the following link
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/Please click on and sign it.
Lets get active again...KNOW YOUR RIGHTS...
I wanna' riot - riot of my own!The Thoughts of Chairman Gaz
